If you’re a TV watcher, you know great stories — ones that hook us from the start and keep us watching until one, two, or (oops) five episodes have gone by without even noticing. Did you know that brand storytelling can have the same effect? When brands use content marketing to tell compelling stories, they can make us forget that it’s marketing at all.
Instead, what we see and feel is the meaning and mission behind what brands do. This helps to build connection and trust — and ultimately, loyal customer relationships.
And what better place to get brand storytelling inspiration than from the binge-worthy shows we just can’t stop talking about? In this article, I’ll cover five real marketing lessons we can learn from the likes of White Lotus, Outer Banks, and other current TV favorites.
Quick Takeaways
Empathetic marketing shows customers you understand and care about their needs.
Consumers want to buy from brands whose values align with their own.
Brand authenticity matters, and brand storytelling can help you communicate new and innovative ideas to your audience.
Marketers should go with their gut — when something doesn’t feel right, it’s worth acknowledging and addressing.
Customers care about more than just purchase transactions. They want to have real connections with brands.
Content is a powerful way for brands to tell stories that convey the meaning behind what they do.
Empathy Always Wins
Image Source: TedCommunity on Twitter
When Ted Lasso arrived from the States to take over English football team AFC Richmond, he was met with a whole lot of skepticism from the press, players, and even the people who hired him (if you’re a Lasso fan, you know they were secretly hoping he’d fail). But as the show progressed, Ted won the hearts of everyone around him, viewers included.
Why? Because of empathy. Ted didn’t have the experience or on-paper credentials to help AFC Richmond win, but what he did have was genuine respect and care for others. He looked for the best in his players, and he helped them see it for themselves. Before judging any person, he tried to see things from their perspective.
Before long, Ted was beloved.
Businesses can accomplish the same with empathetic content and brand storytelling. In today’s digital marketing world, this is harder than you might think. Technology drives so much of what we do as marketers that it’s easy to look at your customers like data points rather than human beings — but buyers are looking for brands who take time to do just that.
In fact, 84% of consumers say that brands treating them like a person, not a number, is “very important” to winning their business.
When it comes to brand storytelling, this means communicating through stories that you know and care about your customer’s needs. One of the most compelling examples of this is Cleveland Clinic’s now decade-old (but timeless) commercial on the importance of the human connection in patient care.
Your Morals and Values Matter (A Lot)
Image Source: Thrillist
HBO’s White Lotus hotel (and every guest who stays there) is the picture of luxury — on the surface, things look perfect. But behind all the glitz and glam is a whole lot of debauchery and dysfunction. The entire show is a good reminder that even the best facades can’t hide the problems that lie underneath.
And trust us when we say: Today’s consumers are looking underneath. They care more than ever about the true morals and values of brands they engage with. A Harris Poll found that 82% of consumers want a brand’s values to align with their own, and 75% said they would part ways with a brand if they didn’t.
Your brand storytelling content is one of the most powerful channels through which you can tell your audience what you value and stand for. When you talk about what you do from a product and service perspective, weave your values into the story, too. Patagonia took a bold approach to this strategy with their “Don’t Buy This Jacket” ad, which quite literally told their customers not to buy the Patagonia jacket pictured.
Instead, it encouraged their customers to buy only what they really needed, let Patagonia help them fix jackets that needed repair, and donate or recycle jackets they were getting rid of. The copy tells a real story about how Patagonia and their customers can work together to achieve a common goal. The ad highlighted Patagonia’s authentic commitment to sustainability — and went viral, to boot.
Image Source: Patagonia
Be Unapologetically Authentic
Image Source: Pop Sugar
Despite her best efforts, Netflix’s Wednesday is nothing but likable. That’s because no matter who or what she’s dealing with, she’s unapologetically herself — a true individual. Even in a school of “outcasts,” Wednesday stands out from the crowd, and in a good way. She’s smart and confident, she’s resourceful, and she isn’t afraid to stand up for what she believes in.
There are a few things brands can take away from Wednesday’s natural instinct for individuality.
First is that even when the status quo is perfectly fine (she goes to school with plenty of talented and motivated classmates), there’s always room for something new and different in the world.
The second thing is that people won’t always understand your version of new and different, but that doesn’t mean it’s not needed. In fact, many of the brands we now consider central to life as we know it — think Google, AirBnB, Uber, Facebook — were considered “stupid” at one point.
When you know you’ve got something meaningful to offer, use these brand storytelling steps to make others see it too. Don’t sell yourself short by giving up because of a few detractors. Keep building your brand with the support of those who see your vision — and make great content to get the word out to customers who need it.
When Something Feels Off, It Probably Is
Image Source: Entertainment Tonight
The premise of Apple TV’s eerie (but totally addictive) Severance is that its main characters signed a contract allowing their memories to be altered — when they enter their company’s building, they can’t remember anything about their lives outside it. When they leave, they forget everything that happens at work.
Eventually, they begin to get a sneaking suspicion that something’s not quite right with the plan — and without giving too much away, they were right.
As marketers, it makes us think of some of the now-notorious brand faux-pas, for which brands got bad PR (or worse, “cancelled”) for their bad marketing decisions. The video below is an example from Pepsi, who was accused of appropriating a national social movement with their ad featuring Kendall Jenner handing a Pepsi to a police officer.
Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr., even spoke out in a sarcastic tweet.
Image Source: Wordstream
Yikes.
We can’t help but think that someone in the room had the same nagging feeling as Severance’s Mark and Helly as they watched the Pepsi campaign be developed.
The takeaway: If something really doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t. Speak up and talk through the problems you see with a brand story. Work with your team to fix it before you make it public.
Relationships Matter
Image Source: Netflix
The Outer Banks premiered in 2020 during the initial weeks of the pandemic, taking the world by storm as people hunkered down and binged the first season of adventure from John B. and the “Pogues.”
Since then, Netflix has released two equally popular seasons, and if there’s one thing to take away from the show, it’s that relationships matter. No matter what kind of trouble or hardship you find yourself in, if you’ve got the right support system, you can make it through.
In many ways, this is what customers are looking for from brands. They don’t want detached service providers or perfunctory transactions. Instead, they want to work with brands who care about their relationships with customers and want to operate as partners to tackle their goals and challenges.
And it turns out those early weeks of the pandemic, fraught with uncertainty, were one of the most important times for brands to emphasize that connection with customers.
The Big Brand Storytelling Takeaway
There’s a reason certain TV shows grab our attention and get us hooked — their stories. It’s stories that make us love characters, settings, and shows so much we just keep watching (even when we should flip it off and go to bed!).
When you tell stories, you tell customers there’s more to your brand than just another product or service. You show them that there’s real meaning behind what you do.
At Marketing Insider Group, we make it our mission to help brands tell their stories through great content. If you’re looking for support launching a content marketing strategy or creating content that resonates with your target audience, we can help.
Our team of expert writers and SEO specialists can deliver you optimized, ready-to-publish content every week for a year (or more). Check out our SEO Blog Writing Service to learn more or schedule a free consultation to get started.
The post Brand Storytelling Lessons from The Most Binge-worthy Shows appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.
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We hate to complain, but there’s just too many blog posts we’re tired of seeing in 2023. As content marketing experts, we know what kind of articles drive traffic to and from your website. It breaks our hearts to see your marketing efforts go to waste with content that isn’t optimized for conversion.
If you’re taking time or spending money to create content, you might as well make it worth your while. That’s why we’re sharing a list of content marketing mistakes that are turning readers away from your articles. Stop writing these 8 blog posts we’re tired of seeing, and trust me – you’ll thank us later.
Quick Takeaways
Use statistics, case studies, and customer testimonials to support your claims
73% of readers skim blog posts, so you need to post clear & concise content to keep site visitors on your page
Images, videos, and other visual aids increase engagement
Blog posts have to offer value and answer readers’ questions to perform well on SERPs
We’re tired of seeing your marketing efforts wasted on poorly structured blog posts. Stop making these 8 mistakes and start capturing more conversions.
8 Blog Posts We’re Tired of Seeing
Did you know that 77% of internet users read blog posts? That means if you’re not posting high quality content, you’re missing out on a major opportunity to convert leads.
We want your content to drive traffic just as much as you do. Here’s 8 blog posts we’re tired of seeing, and how you can start creating content that converts.
1. Dense Text
There’s nothing worse than when you’re searching for a simple answer and you open an article with a dense paragraph of text. Back to the drawing board!
Image Source: Giphy
If you want to keep visitors on your site, you need to give them what they want – and fast. About 73% of readers skim blog posts, so if site visitors feel like they have to work for an answer, they’re going to search for a better article.
At MIG, we keep paragraphs to a 4-line maximum and write at an 8th-grade reading level. This way, our readers are more likely to find what they’re looking for with minimal effort.
2. No Subheadings or Bullet Points
Similar to dense text, a blog post without subheadings or bullet points is hard for skimmers to read quickly. Not only that, but it’s also bad for SEO.
Section off your high quality content with headings and subheadings (we use H2s and H3s) as much as possible. Utilize bullet points when you can to help readers navigate complex ideas.
By organizing your content into small chunks of easy-to-understand information, it will be better received by both search engines and visitors, and ultimately deliver more value.
3. Boring Headlines
I don’t know about you, but we’re scrolling past headlines that don’t peak our interest. It doesn’t matter if you’re posting high quality content if no one is interested in reading it. Intriguing your readers means serving up some click-worthy headlines.
Some of our favorite tricks for creating great headlines are using:
Clarity
Numbers
Emotional language (i.e. new, free)
Negative language (i.e. stop, never)
Dashes and colons
Questions
Keep in mind, your headlines still need to be relevant to your topic. In the complex world of SEO, it’s frowned upon to sacrifice relevance for a boosted click-rate.
4. No Proof
Anyone can post anything on the internet – so when it comes to trusting information, your readers need some cold hard facts to back it up.
Image Source: Giphy
Including statistics in your blog posts not only builds trust with your readers, but also gives them a better understanding of your topic. For example, saying that “there are more than 600 million blogs on the internet” offers more value than saying “blogging is very popular.”
But statistics aren’t the only way you can establish trust and value with your readers. You can also:
Publish case studies
Share customer reviews
Work with industry influencers and thought leaders
The key to converting leads is showing them you can be trusted, and doing so is much easier when you have proof to back up your claims.
5. No Videos, Images, or Graphs
Today’s consumers are all about the visuals. Not only do videos and images keep your readers entertained, but they also help break up text. Without them, site visitors are going to get bored quickly and look elsewhere for more engaging content.
Take advantage of:
Video content
Infographics
Gifs
Graphs
Including a few visuals throughout your blog post will make your content shareable and heighten your chances of capturing conversions.
6. No Clear CTA
This one really hurts. Without a clear call-to-action (CTA), how is your content to convert site visitors?
Image Source: Giphy
Guide your readers towards making a purchase by including a relevant form to fill out. Offer a free download, urge readers to subscribe to your newsletter, provide a discount code, etc. Anything is better than nothing!
Not only will your readers feel engaged, but you’ll also have access to their information for future contact. We recommend placing CTAs at the end of your blog posts as a clear next-step.
7. Irrelevant Information
Three words:
Waste
Of
Time
Image Source: Giphy
Sharing information that’s unrelated to your headline is going to turn away readers – and search engines aren’t going to like it, either. According to Google’s latest Helpful Content Update, top-ranking content is:
High-quality, valuable content
Content written to help humans
Content that uses SEO best practices
Including unhelpful information for the sake of length or quantity is a major no-no. Instead, address the questions and concerns of your readers and optimize keyword research. That will get you much closer to your target audience.
8. No Linking
A blog post without internal links is weak in terms of optimization. You may have gotten someone to click on your article, but if you want to keep them engaged, internal links are essential.
Including navigation links and anchor text not only keep visitors on your site, but they also help improve your site’s ranking. By planting links to other blog posts and opportunities for conversion, you can improve engagement and enhance the user experience.
Learn more about internal links by reading our article on The Why and How of Internal Link Building for SEO.
See what I did there?
Update Your Blog Posts We’re Tired of Seeing
Phew! We’re feeling relieved after sharing the blog posts we’re tired of seeing in 2023. By steering clear of mistakes that drive readers away from your content, you’re guaranteed to see some positive results.
You know what you need to do. It’s time to start creating high quality content that delivers traffic and conversions. Get started today by checking out our weekly blog content service, or schedule a free consultation now to learn more!
The post Blog Posts We’re Tired of Seeing in 2023 appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.
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AI and content marketing — if you’ve logged into Twitter in the past year, you know it’s all the digital marketing world can talk about. Every day, thread after thread is tweeted to tell us why ChatGPT is the future of content and how it’s going to replace the human writer altogether.
So I did what I normally do when it seems like the world has gone a little crazy. I allow my sarcasm to take a little walk:
But seriously folks! Yes, artificial intelligence is here to stay, and there are definitely ways it can be used to make your content strategy better. But replacing your human writers? Executing your entire content strategy for you? Nope.
The only people making money from AI are the people making content about how to make money with AI
— Noah Kagan (@noahkagan) March 19, 2023
AI is not taking over content marketing any time soon (and probably not ever) — no matter how much the social media buzz suggests otherwise. Let’s talk about why.
Quick Takeaways
AI content marketing technologies are powerful support tools, but they can’t replace human creators.
Because ChatGPT (and similar tools) can only create content based on what already exists, they can’t form original opinions for thought leadership content.
AI can’t replicate emotional content marketing elements like humor and empathy.
Brand storytelling is unique to each individual company. There is no way for an AI tool to understand a company’s story the same way its leaders and content creators do.
Google recognizes AI-generated content as spam and downvotes it as such.
Why People Think AI Is Taking Over?
ChatGPT and other AI content marketing tools do indeed have capabilities impossible for us measly humans to accomplish on our own — they can mine existing data from across the web in seconds and produce narrative content about it that mimics human writing.
Source: Mark Williams-Cook
With every version that’s released, OpenAI says the tool is getting smarter and more capable of handling nuanced instructions. The company’s President, Greg Brockman, says that ChatGPT 4 (the newest version) can even calculate tax returns — a task I think we can all agree we’d be glad to offload.
Ways that writers are using ChatGPT include:
Understanding the larger conversation about a topic
Creating outlines for blog articles
Generating new ideas for blog topics and headlines
Writing blog intros as a way to get started
Breaking down complex ideas a writer is researching
And yes — writing complete articles and press releases (although, as you’ve likely gathered, we don’t think that’s the best idea).
All of that is to say we are not suggesting ChatGPT is bad or irrelevant. In fact, the opposite is true. But AI in content marketing is a tool — not a replacement — for human writers and brands that create high-quality content.
The simple fact is that you risk running a major penalty from the search engines if you use any mechanism to game search rankings. This includes the use of any type of AI to fully write and publish content. Here is one example shared at SMX Munich earlier this year.
Let’s look at four important reasons why AI falls short of taking over our content strategies.
The Human Element: What AI Can’t Do for Content Marketers
Original Opinions
Everything an AI-powered content marketing tool produces is the result of something else that already exists. No matter how massive the datasets AI can mine and analyze, nothing they come up with is truly original.
And customers? They look for brands to provide original and authentic thought leadership.
It’s one of the most important ways brands connect with their audiences — 76% say they use thought leadership directly to engage customers and clients, and other stakeholders they also list include employees, investors, media, and the public at large.
Image Source: Marketing Charts
Your people are what build your brand’s stances on topics, events, trends, social issues and more, and when you lose the face — and the real, human brain — behind the opinion, there’s an inevitable loss of connection with your audience that no brand wants to risk.
One of my favorite Marketing Insider Group blogs is one we wrote about why most of the buyer personas that agencies help you make, well — suck. They’re arbitrary, and they aren’t based on any kind of real motivation or action.
But buyer personas are a huge buzzword in the content world. I can’t imagine ChatGPT spitting out this opinion if I asked them what to write about them.
Image Source: Marketing Insider Group
Humor
Okay, here’s the thing: ChatGPT can be funny. But most of the time, it’s unintentional.
As many examples have proven (including the one below — “It’s important to not blindly follow advice, even if they are a wizard.”), AI mostly misses the mark when it comes to humor.
Image Source: Uproxx
Despite its undeniably growing sophistication — AI can really only process human language at a surface level, based on parameters humans tell it to use. And if it’s not able to handle humor in general, it definitely won’t understand the nuances of industry-specific sarcasm and humor that make business content fun to consume.
Brand Storytelling
Brand storytelling allows us to connect with our customers by telling stories about what we do (and why it matters). It’s a type of marketing that’s totally unique to every brand that does it — having your own individual story is what makes you stand out from your competition.
But ChatGPT can only understand what others say about your brand — not the way you want to present it to the world. There’s no way an AI tool can represent that message the same way that your founders, leaders, and human employees do.
Stories are emotional. They’re told to evoke some sort of feeling in the people who watch or read them. AI-generated content may have all the informative potential in the world, but it can’t have a human experience, and it definitely can’t share one firsthand.
Content that’s made to share your mission, tell client success stories, provide background on your team and expertise, and generally share that intangible “this is what we’re all about” kind of message just can’t be generated with a ChatGPT query.
Check out this video Chevy produced about how, like a best friend — in this case, a woman’s dog — Chevy vehicles are designed to stick by you for life. If you don’t feel something watching this, you might be a robot yourself.
Can you imagine a machine posing this concept or writing this script?
Empathy
I have talked about the Paradox of AI: the more we use AI, the more we will expect to interact with real people. This is true in life and maybe even more so in written content.
Empathy in content marketing means seeing things through the eyes of your customer. It’s one of the key elements of emotional intelligence — something valued now in brands more than ever before. In fact, nearly three-quarters of buyers say they choose brands who are best able to demonstrate understanding of their company-specific needs.
Image Source: Demand Base
Further, a global study on brand emotional intelligence (EQ) found that the brands that show the highest EQ not only connect with customers more easily, but earn more revenue and grow more quickly.
In other words: emotionally intelligent marketing doesn’t only impact your connections with your content audience — it plays a role in your overall business performance.
No matter how “smart” AI content marketing tools become, they won’t be able to feel human emotion or use it to connect with their customers. ChatGPT itself will tell you “I don’t have feelings or emotions like humans do.” When it comes to showing empathy and evoking emotion with content, stick to human creators who can feel it too.
What Google Says (and Why it Matters)
Nothing’s more important for content marketers than what Google thinks about a trend. Why? Because organic search accounts for the overwhelming majority of web traffic and Google owns 90% of the search engine market.
If your content doesn’t show up in Google rankings, it’s basically invisible to your audience.
It’s a huge deal if Google cares to recognize AI-generated content and rank it differently than the human-created version — which they do. In fact, Google’s Senior Webmaster Analyst John Meuller said that Google sees AI-generated content basically the same way as spam, and that it violates their guidelines.
His exact words in a recent Google hangout on the topic were:
“We still see [AI-generated content] as automatically-generated content . . . it’s all against the Webmaster Guidelines. So from our point of view, if we were to run across something like that, if the web spam team were to see it, they would see it as spam.”
And spam? It gets demoted or removed from Google’s index. Check out the most recent formal guidance from Google here:
When it comes to automatically generated content, our guidance has been consistent for years. Using automation—including AI—to generate content with the primary purpose of manipulating ranking in search results is a violation of our spam policies.
The guidance goes on to say that using automation to create lists and things like sports scores and weather is fine. So my takeaway is this: use AI to automate the research. Use humans to write the content!
The Takeaway: AI Content Marketing is Valuable, But It’s Not Everything
If you’ve followed any of the social media debate raging about ChatGPT and AI in content marketing, you’ve seen that most people are taking an either-or stance — it’s good or it’s bad, and there’s no in between.
But there is an in between: Using ChatGPT for the powerful tool it is, while still recognizing the absolute need for human-created, empathetic, customer-centered content. Brands that can perfect this balance are likely the ones whose content strategies will stand the test of time for the foreseeable future.
Publish High-Value Content for Your Audience Every Week
One of the many reasons ChatGPT feels attractive as a total content alternative is because it saves time — time you might feel like you’re losing trying to keep up with the demand for more and better content.
This is one of the primary reasons more than 70% of companies outsource content creation. At Marketing Insider Group, our team of expert writers and SEO specialists can deliver you optimized, ready-to-publish content every single week for a year (or more). Check out our SEO Blog Writing Service or schedule a free consultation with me to learn more.
The post Why AI is Not Taking Over Content Marketing appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.
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Ah, the ‘90s. The last decade before everyone began to have a cell phone in hand. A time just before technology really took over. Life was a little slower (and some would argue less stressful) without social media feeds to scroll every time we were just a little bit bored.
And in the absence of new tweets and TikTok trends to keep up with all the time, we turned elsewhere for entertainment. Namely, we turned to the many hilarious and heartwarming 90s sitcoms that were on every week.
Not only did the likes of Uncle Jesse (have mercy!), George Costanza, Ross and Rachel (and their Friends), and Zack Morris (among many others) keep us laughing, they also taught us some valuable life lessons that—if you were like me growing up at that time—you took as full-fledged advice for how to navigate life’s tougher moments.
A quarter of a century (say what?!) later, I’m here to tell you how some of those lessons can be applied directly to content marketing. Believe me, there’s a thing (or several) that you can really take away from some of our favorite memorable episodes.
So, without further ado: 6 content marketing lessons I learned from watching 90s TV.
Quick Takeaways
Content marketing is always evolving. Marketers must be willing to embrace change and step out of their comfort zones to keep up.
Timing matters — failing to make a plan and stick to it can lead to lost opportunities.
Resourceful tactics like repurposing old content boosts the ROI you earn on content assets.
Outsourcing to an agency can help you execute your content strategy with more confidence while you focus on other strategic priorities.
Content Marketing Lessons We Learned from 90s Sitcoms
Sometimes It’s Good to Do the Opposite
Image Source: GetYarn
When you’re not getting the results you want from your content strategy, take a little advice from George Costanza and do the opposite. In this episode of Seinfeld, George laments that the decisions he’s made thus far in life have all been wrong, and Jerry sagely advises him:
“If every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right.”
Now I’m not suggesting your decisions have all been as wrong as George’s, or that you flip your entire content strategy on its head to do the exact opposite of what you’re doing now. The takeaway as I see it is about not simply digging your heels in and sticking to the plan, even when it’s not working.
Be willing to be like George and admit when something’s not going as expected, then figure out how to adjust. Content best practices evolve and change like any other part of business, and there’s a lot to get right when it comes to making Google’s algorithms happy, engaging the right target audience, and creating content that actually converts.
Undoubtedly, there will be times when you don’t get it right the first time, and need to do some trial and error to get back on course.
The content marketing lesson: Keep trying. Keep improving. Do the opposite of what your instincts tell you when your instinct isn’t working. Do your research and adjust your strategy until it succeeds.
Change is Hard (But You’ve Got to Embrace It)
Image Source: Looper
Uncle Jesse moving out of the house. Mr. Feeney dismissing his students after the last day of school. Will Smith standing in an empty house after his family leaves for the final time. If there’s one thing we know from 90s sitcoms, it’s that change is inevitable and it feels tough.
As a content marketer trying to keep up with the latest content trends and best practices, it’s a feeling you’re probably familiar with yourself.
For example: There once was a time when all you had to do to get content ranking on Google was stuff it full of your target keyword and press publish. But Google (and its users) got smarter, and today the algorithm’s expectations for content quality are much more sophisticated.
It was a change met with resistance and even resentment as marketers realized they’d need to do more to create competitive content. But the brands that won are those that embraced the change to get ahead.
Here’s the lesson: Content marketing is fast-changing. New tools and technologies come out, trends come and go, and user expectations evolve. Embrace it all. Keep up with it. It keeps your content fresh, relevant, and engaging for your audience.
Great One-Liners Grab Attention
Image Source: Tenor
When you watched an episode of Family Matters and things went inevitably wrong on screen, you could count on Steve Urkel to turn around and ask with an aloof smile, “Did I do that?” Inevitably, when Friends’ Joey Tribiani saw an attractive woman, you waited expectantly for his “How you doin?”
When someone didn’t give Stephanie Tanner her way on Full House? You knew you’d hear an exasperated “How rude!” Blossom heartthrob Joey Russo stole hearts with a single “Whoa!”
Many of our favorite 90s TV characters became so beloved because of the familiarity behind their signature taglines. If our attention veered for a moment, you could count on these lines to grab it back to see what was happening.
And while brand taglines might be more relevant to direct advertising, there are important lessons we can take away for content marketing too. Namely, that a single line — a blog headline, email subject line, etc. — is what grabs your audience’s attention and makes them decide to stick around.
Consider this: 8 of 10 people will read your blog headline, but only 2 out of 10 will read your full blog. About a third of email recipients decide whether or not to read an email based solely on the subject line. No matter how great your actual content is, you’ve got to get the headline right if you want them to actually read it.
Sometimes You’ve Got to Be Resourceful
Image Source: Full House Fandom
When Uncle Jesse, Stephanie, and Michelle got locked in a mechanic’s garage on the morning of Michelle’s birthday party, they could have thrown their hands up and called it quits. After all, they planned and purchased for the party happening at the house, and now all they had to work with was the equipment locked in the garage with them.
So what did they do? They got resourceful. They looked internally for things they could use to recreate a birthday party. What resulted (at least for kids like me watching from the couch) was just about the best party a girl could want.
As content marketers, we often end up in situations where our budget doesn’t stretch as far as we want it to or we just don’t have the bandwidth to get everything done that we planned for a given time period. But you still have to publish. You still have to engage your audience.
Just like Stephanie and Jesse used auto equipment to turn the garage into a circus, you can look right inside your own library of content for ways to keep your strategy active.
Repurposing or reusing content is a powerful way to keep web traffic flowing to your site. In fact, HubSpot found they earned 76% of their blog views from old articles they updated.
The takeaway: Don’t feel like you have to reinvent the content wheel every time—especially when you’re feeling stretched too thin.
Look at your current content library for ways to boost activity. Repurpose content on other platforms. Give older articles a refresh and repost. Rather than stressing about what you can’t do, look to maximize ROI on what you already have.
Timing is Everything
Image Source: Insider
There were two types of people in the 90s: those that thought Ross and Rachel were on a break, and those who thought they weren’t. The will-they-won’t-they storyline between these two Friends characters was a staple of 90s pop culture, and if you tuned in, you know timing never seemed to be on the couple’s side.
Take the scene pictured above, when Rachel finally decides to tell Ross how he feels, only to be unexpectedly introduced to his new girlfriend. Ross loved Rachel, but she waited too long. To put it in content marketers’ terms, she lost her guy to a competitor.
Timing is debatable in the content marketing industry — the best day and time to publish your blogs or send an email or publish a new social media post largely depends on your audience and your industry (although there are general best practices to follow).
We’re thinking of timing here more holistically. It’s essential to plan your strategy ahead of time so you can keep things consistent, build traffic reliably over time, and capitalize on opportunities like seasonal demand or new product launches.
Using a content calendar to plan your timing and stick to your plan is one of the smartest ways to put this important lesson into practice.
Otherwise? Your brand might end up like Rachel at the airport, watching potential customers (even those who may have loved your brand) more go with other brands who got to them first.
It’s Okay to Ask For Help
Image Source: TV Insider
Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor was notorious for trying to do everything himself — as he often liked to proclaim: “A real man doesn’t need a manual.” He even shrugged off the help of his loyal assistant, Al Borland, which led to many a home improvement disaster when things inevitably got out of his control.
While Tim’s stubbornness may have been a shtick, it offers a valuable lesson for founders and marketing leaders: Content marketing can’t be a one-man show, and trying to do it all on your own will likely lead to wasted effort and poor results.
It’s understandable, especially for startups and growing small businesses, to want to save on costs by executing your content strategy in-house, even when you don’t have the resources to do it. The problem is that you end up with lower ROI and less time to focus on what matters most to your business — serving your customers.
The lesson here is that it’s okay (and smart) to ask for content marketing help when you need it.
Outsourcing content is an alternative that’s proven effective for most companies (84% outsource content in some way) and can offer you convenient bundled services, access to key tools and expertise, and easier scalability than is possible when you hire an in-house team.
Over to You
If you’re ready to take your content strategy to the next level, Marketing Insider Group is here to help. We’re a top-ranked content marketing agency helping companies like yours to reach, engage and convert quality leads. Check out our SEO Blog Writing Service to learn more, or schedule a quick consultation to get started!
The post 6 Content Marketing Lessons from Classic 90s Sitcoms appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.
There’s nothing like one of the best content marketing TED talks to inspire a new perspective.
At Marketing Insider Group, we love learning from the industry’s thought leaders to keep our own marketing efforts both innovative and effective. A
nd what better way to inspire our readers to do the same than to share some of the best content marketing TED talks ever given?
Whether you’re in a content marketing rut or just looking to learn something new, you’re in the right place. Here’s 11 of our favorite content marketing TED talks to help shed light on how you can take your own marketing efforts to the next level.
Quick Takeaways
To create viral content, you need to be a trendsetter, have a creative community, and be unpredictable
Keep your content interesting and well-designed connect with your audience and keep them engaged
Effective content marketing makes an emotional connection with its audience
Creating a buzz-worthy headline is great, but only when our content is sharing trustworthy information and valuable insight
Learning from content marketing TED talks is one of the best ways to keep your knowledge up to date and ideas inspired by industry thought leaders.
11 TED Talks Every Content Marketer Needs To Watch
Sometimes, all you need is an impressive TED talk to reignite your love for content marketing. With some of our favorite content marketing TED talks right at your fingertips, we’re hoping they do just that.
1. The Tribes We Lead
By Seth Godin
Video Source: TED
In this content marketing TED talk, Seth Godin, American entrepreneur and computer scientist, suggests that the internet has reintroduced the concept of “tribes” into today’s society. Forget about mass marketing – Seth Godin recommends that you focus on the idea of tribes instead to hone in on an audience that feels passionately about your brand.
2. The Greatest TED Talk Ever Sold
By Morgan Spurlock
Video Source: TED-Ed
Morgan Spurlock, documentary filmmaker and TV producer, guides us through the thought process behind his documentary about advertising and branding, called “The Greatest Film Ever Sold.” In this video, Spurlock shares his experience with marketing agencies, finding funding for the film, and his results.
3. How Physics Helps Me In Marketing
By Dan Cobley
Video Source: TED
In this TED talk, Dan Cobley, former Chief Marketing Officer at Google, argues that physics and marketing have a lot in common. In fact, he shares that Newton’s 2nd law, Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, and thermodynamics are the key to understanding the fundamentals of effective brand marketing.
4. How Videos Go Viral
By Kevin Allocca
Video Source: TED
With TikTok as today’s most popular social media app, everyone wants their video content to go viral. In Kevin Allocca’s TED talk, he sheds light on how you can make that dream come true: be a trendsetter, have a community, and be unpredictable. As a content marketer, you can use the same recipe for success to create content that makes an impact.
5. Life Lessons From Advertising Man
By Rory Sutherland
Video Source: TED
As an expert content marketer, you already know that advertising goes beyond product design and performance– and you also know the importance of making an emotional connection with your audience. In Rory Sutherland’s TED talk, he discusses how you can influence consumer behavior with emotional marketing and the effect it has on the perception of a product.
6. What Are You Willing to Give Up to Change the Way We Work?
By Martin Danoesastro
Video Source: TED
Marketing transformation expert, Martin Danoesastro, shares his own insight on how companies can better structure their management system and provide employees with the tools and skills they need for effective decision making. In this video, Danoesastro emphasizes that as the world becomes more complex, we must continue to find innovative ways to empower the people around us.
7. 404 Page Not Found History
By Renny Gleason
Video Source: TED
Renny Gleason, leader of interactive strategy at an advertising agency, began his career as a game developer. In his content marketing TED talk, Gleason emphasizes the importance of surprise and entertainment if you want your brand to stand out from the competition. Keeping your content interesting and well-designed will not only connect you with your audience, but also keep them engaged.
8. 8 Lessons for Building A Company People Enjoy Working For
By Patty McChord
Video Source: TED
Patty McChord has had her hand in product culture creation for the past 14 years. As former Chief Talent Officer at Netflix, she shares her own expertise on how to build trust with employees, curate productive teams, and initiate positive change within your own organization.
9. The Technology of Storytelling
By Joe Sabia
Video Source: TED
In this content marketing TED talk, developer of Elle magazine’s most viral video series, Joe Sabia, emphasizes the importance of visual storytelling. From the 1800s until now, Sabia takes us through the timeline of the science behind telling a story to connect with an audience.
10. How Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Google Control Our Emotions
By Scott Galloway
Video Source: TED
Scott Galloway, expert in brand strategy and digital marketing, touches on the importance of targeting consumer instincts. In fact, he explains that it’s impossible to build a successful, multi-billion dollar company without first identifying consumer habits and building a strategy around them.
11. Beware of Neuro-Bunk
By Molly Crockett
Video Source: TED
American neuroscientist, Molly Crockett, discusses the buzz around attention-grabbing headlines and why, as content marketers, we need to get the story straight. Creating a buzz-worthy headline is great, but only when our content is sharing accurate, trustworthy information and providing value to its audience.
Make The Most Of Your Marketing Efforts Today
Now that you’ve learned from some of the best thought leaders and their content marketing TED talks, it’s time to put your knowledge to the test. Kickstarting your content marketing game could be the key to achieving your business goals.
Make the most of your marketing efforts today with the help of the Marketing Insider Group. Our team of experts knows what it takes for your company to maximize its marketing efforts. Get started today by checking out our weekly blog content service, or schedule a free consultation now to learn more!
The post 11 TED Talks Every Content Marketer Needs to Watch appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.
Guess what B2C marketers? Content marketing is for you, too. And no I’m not just talking about dreating content. Marketing with content and Content Marketing are NOT the same thing!
Most of the time, the industry sticks to talking about B2B content marketing; however, a buyer is a buyer. Today’s consumer is savvy, discerning, and cares about a brand’s story just as much as the product.
In response, many B2C brands are launching content marketing strategies as traditional outbound marketing tactics become less attractive. If you want to learn how to sell B2C products with content marketing, then you’ll want to keep reading!
Quick Takeaways
Today’s consumers digitally research products before they buy them, making the need for content even greater.
B2C brands can leverage content marketing to build brand awareness, educate customers, and foster trust.
Challenges remain in B2C content marketing, namely, developing an effective concrete strategy.
With the right strategies, B2C brands can leverage content marketing to drive revenue and growth.
B2C Marketers Find Success with Content Marketing
If you haven’t adopted content marketing or are only experimenting with it, you probably have concerns about its viability. Content marketing is a long game, and results aren’t necessarily instant. However, according to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI)’s B2C Content Marketing: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends report, B2C brands are succeeding. In rating their success compared to the year prior, 84% say it’s more successful.
The same study shows the maturation of the discipline as well.
10% rate it as sophisticated.
29% rate it as mature.
Challenges and Opportunities for B2C Brands
B2C marketers meet challenges and opportunities in all facets of marketing. So, what are they?
Lack of a Content Strategy
One significant gap in B2C brands’ content marketing is a content strategy. The CMI study found that only 33 percent documented it. A larger chunk—38%—say they have one, but it’s not official.
This is a major miss for organizations. A content strategy is your blueprint for how efforts will translate to profits. Without a documented plan, lots of challenges can arise. It’s like baking a cake with no recipe. You know you want a moist, delicious cake but have no clear vision to get there. If you want to take one step right now to sell B2C products with content marketing, then define a strategy!
Content Marketing Works When You Know Your Customer
B2C companies often have a diverse buyer pool, but customers likely have similarities. Understanding your customer’s problems and needs translates to trust. Content marketing offers you a vehicle to tap into this with emotional marketing. You already know that customers make buying decisions more with their heart than their head, so leverage that in the content you produce.
Driving authentic connections translates to loyal customers. A basic premise to keep in mind to be customer-focused in content is thinking in a problem-solution model. Your customers have a problem; your product is the solution.
Framing this in content, whether it’s videos, social media posts, email, or blogs, matters to the concept of “getting” your customers. However, not all companies are embracing this, as only 60% said they prioritize audience needs over sales and promotional messaging.
This data point shows there’s room to grow in putting customer needs first. If you do that, you don’t have to use salesy language or tactics to hook them. It’s also a way to further differentiate your brand from competitors that may continue to lean on traditional advertising methods to attract customers.
B2C Buyers Are Changing
A consumer base is always evolving. There are many areas to consider, and these changes will impact your content.
Generational Considerations
As the population ages, so does your buyer demographic. There are lots of differences between Baby Boomers and millennials. If your product targets women under 40, most of those buyers are millennials now. They grew up online and have different opinions and experiences than older generations. You should always keep this in mind in creating content to influence buyers.
COVID-19’s Impact on Buyer Behavior
The pandemic affected every type of buyer. McKinsey looked at consumer sentiment in the COVID economy with surprising insights. Their study revealed that 40 percent of consumers intend to keep spending more online post-COVID. This aligns with the “homebody” economy, as 64 percent of U.S. consumers are not yet resuming their normal out-of-home activities.
Image: McKinsey
Your business has no doubt experienced eCommerce spikes. You’ve likely also made curbside pickup or BOPIS (buy online pick up in-store) easier and more accessible to fit changing buyer needs. This sentiment study affirms that buyer behaviors are going to remain after the pandemic ends.
As more people move to digital channels, there are many opportunities to deliver digital content that delights, informs, and persuades. Let’s look at some brands doing it well for inspiration.
B2C Content Marketing Examples
NerdWallet
NerdWallet is a consumer financial website that features lots of great content that’s friendly and not intimidating. Economic issues are very personal to consumers, and many struggle with understanding concepts. NerdWallet breaks down that barrier with sections on top picks, guides and tips, and calculators. It makes a scary topic more consumable and conversational.
Image: NerdWallet
Dove
Consumer products often take the road of producing product-centric content. The spotlight is there, rather than on the customer. Dove began using content marketing years ago to change that paradigm. They have consistently produced content about women loving and owning their skin and bodies, which is a challenge in this society.
The change in campaign direction came from their own research, illustrating that only 2 percent of women considered themselves beautiful. Dove wanted to reshape the idea of beauty, focusing content on real women and their challenges. Their real beauty campaign won over many new customers, resulting in a jump from $2.5 to $4 billion in sales in 10 years.
Lowe’s
Home improvement stores are embracing content marketing, primarily through video. Lowe’s does cater to businesses that need materials and tools; however, much of the time, their target is homeowners and those that love to DIY.
Their YouTube channel has over one million subscribers and boasts an impressive compilation. From room transformations to organization ideas to how-to guides on tiling and more, this content is rich in education and inspiration. They often partner with home improvement influencers or personalities, which gives their videos more character. Check out an example from their channel below:
Fundamental Best Practices to Sell B2C Products with Content Marketing
The tactics B2C brands use to create meaningful content are similar to B2B brands. These best practices apply across the board:
Make your customer the star of the content, not your brand.
Avoid trying to sell to everybody. Your buyer base may be broad, but it’s important to personalize as much as possible in your content.
Lead with education in your content, not sales. An educated consumer is a better customer that will appreciate learning.
Publish content consistently and often to build authority and keep your brand top of mind.
Engage as much as possible on social media channels. Consumers look to these platforms for recommendations and help, so make sure you have a strong presence and build a community. It’s the number one distribution channel and type of content produced by B2C brands. Doing this well, however, isn’t always easy.
Deliver value to inboxes, not spam. Email marketing is a key channel for B2C content marketers, with 74 percent using newsletters. Inboxes are noisy and crowded. If you want to leverage this channel, you must be creative and offer something meaningful. Otherwise, they’ll just ignore it.
Seek out user-generated content (UGC). If your real customers share their stories of how your product changed their life, it will be incredibly impactful. You can request this from your audience on social media, via email, or on your website. Their words and testimony will enrich your content’s credibility.
Leverage SEO strategies to win the ranking game. Most consumers start with a search when they have a problem. That means you need your content to rank well organically on Google. To do this, optimize your content for relevant keywords. Optimization includes on-page and off-page tactics.
Link new content with content already performing well. This strategy is all about keeping customers engaged. At the end of one video or post, you can insert recommendations (e.g., if you like this, then check out this).
Sell B2C Products with Content Marketing and Get a Little Help from Experts
B2C companies, large and small, are investing in content marketing. By creating a strong strategy, understanding your customers, and navigating challenges, you can find success. Your main concern may be how to do it at scale. Outsourcing to a content strategy agency is a favorable model, with 55% of B2C organizations using this approach, mostly for the creation aspect.
We can help! If you are ready to get more traffic to your site with quality content published consistently, check out our Content Builder Service.
Set up a quick consultation, and I’ll send you a free PDF version of my books. Get started today and generate more traffic and leads for your business.
The post How to Sell B2C Products with Content Marketing appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.
https://www.sydneysocialmediaservices.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Screen-Shot-2022-11-03-at-10.34.08-AM.png5661106exposurehttps://www.sydneysocialmediaservices.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/sydney-social-media-services-white.pngexposure2023-03-21 04:35:422023-03-21 04:35:42How to Sell B2C Products with Content Marketing
In spirit of 2023’s Oscar Awards, we’re naming 10 small businesses that we believe deserve recognition for the best content marketing.
Every great business owner knows that committing to the best content marketing practices can take your profits to the next level. But what exactly are the best content marketing practices? And how can you apply them to your own business to maximize your ROI?
We have proven that the key to great content marketing is to prioritize consistency and expertise. Sharing meaningful newsletters, blog posts, and social media updates, can make a serious impact on the success of your business.
Not convinced? We have proof! Below, we’re recognizing 10 small businesses that deserve content marketing awards for not only their commitment, but also their impressive results. And, we’re featuring the cold hard facts to prove it.
3…2…1…Action!
Quick Takeaways
Oberer Homes saw a 26% rise in organic search and 110+ top ranking keywords on Google by committing to consistency
Contract Logix increased search visibility from 11.55% to 12.17% by outsourcing content creation
Nutanix gained organic readership of almost 35% by sharing engaging, authentic content via their newsletter, The Forecast
RevBoss built a research-based SEO strategy to publish 100+ blog posts and rank for 120+ keywords
When companies are dedicated to the best content marketing practices, they’re guaranteed to see growth and better ROI.
10 Small Businesses With The Best Content Marketing
Without further ado, here’s 10 examples of small businesses that deserve content marketing awards.
1. Most Consistent: Oberer Homes
Oberer Homes, one of Ohio’s best real-estate companies and semi-custom home builders, takes the cake when it comes to consistency.
After realizing their content marketing strategy lacked regularity and data-based research, Oberer partnered with Marketing Insider Group to develop a plan that promised results. After an initial assessment, keyword research, strategy meetings, and a few months of publishing high-quality content, Oberer saw:
26% rise in organic search compared to 2021
17% increase in number of web visitors compared to 2021
6/10 top ranking landing pages are blog posts
110+ top ranking keywords on Google
Significant jumps in visibility, traffic, and ranking position
Not only did Oberer’s traffic increase, but so did their confidence. By posting content consistently that resonated with their audience, Oberer saw serious results that boosted their performance.
[From: How Oberer Homes Earned More Traffic, Rankings, and Leads with Our Content Marketing Service]
Check out: 5 House Construction Mistakes to Avoid When Building a Home in Dayton, OH
2. Most Meaningful: Televerde
While consistency and high-volume are major players in content marketing, success is hard to come by without posting meaningful content. Sales and marketing experts, Televerde, saw a 4x increase in ranking keywords after prioritizing the connection their content made with their audience.
Between September 2020 and May 2021, Televerde saw a significant increase in website users (28%), new users (23%), and total sessions (42%). Not to mention, the conversions from their “Contact Us” page also saw an impressive 65% jump.
Televerde found success by shifting their focus and sharing content that offered value to their audience. After they committed to delivering high quality content, they saw the best content marketing practices increase both engagement and conversions.
[From: How Televerde Gained Double-Digit Increases in Traffic and Leads with Our Content Marketing Service]
Check out: 6 Most Socially Conscious Companies in Business Today
3. Most Resourceful: Contract Logix
Contract Logix, a B2B SAS company, needed an effective way to teach potential clients about their contract management software. After learning about the power of best content marketing practices, they committed to a strategy that prioritized informative, persuasive content. There was just one problem: they didn’t have the bandwidth to create new content consistently.
That’s where Marketing Insider Group comes in. Contract Logix decided that outsourcing content creation made the most sense for their team, and within 18 months of working together, MIG and Contract Logix:
Ideated 150 keywords
Approved 136 headlines
Delivered 85 1000-word articles
As a result, Contract Logix gained a huge amount of traffic from blog posts, qualified leads, and conversions:
Search visibility increased from 11.55% to 12.17%
Traffic increased from 13.34% to 13.89%
Average position increased from 49.75% to 50.32%
By August 2022, Contract Logix had almost 100 keyword rankings in Google’s top 100. Who knew that outsourcing content creation could be the key to success?
[From: How MIG Helped Contract Logix Supercharge Its Content Marketing Strategy]
Check out: What Is Contract Management Software?
4. Best Growth: Nutanix
In 2019, Nutanix created The Forecast, a newsletter that covers the latest trends in cloud computing, technology, and their impact on business.
By sharing engaging, authentic content via The Forecast, Nutanix has grown their audience with organic SEO, social distribution, paid media, and free subscriptions. Their numbers say it all:
Almost 200,000 unique visitors
365,000+ page views (137% YoY)
1,100+ newsletter subscribers (332% YoY)
Organic readership of almost 35%
By coupling their high quality content with paid promotions, Nutanix has seen exponential growth in organic search traffic.
All of their efforts earned them the title of “2020 Content Award Finalist” for Best Overall Editorial, Best B2B Branded Content, and Best New Digital Publication. Nutanix’s rapid growth from smart content marketing proves that it’s all worth the effort.
Check out: Step-By-Step Guide to Building a Private Cloud
5. Most Innovative: DivvyHQ
By combining thought leadership with a quirky, conversational voice, DivvyHQ, a B2B SaaS company, found an innovative way to cater to the needs of their audience. Ever since they applied this approach to their blog-focused content, they saw a 450% increase in organic traffic.
Their engaging approach to high-quality content earned them:
A few hundred email subscribers
Dozens of trials and leads
2.4x as many keyword rankings
Revenue earned exceeds costs by 7x
DivvyHQ learned that keeping their content engine running is key to success. Now they publish 4-5 new blog articles per week and have an effective content marketing strategy that delivers ROI.
[How Content Marketing Drives Traffic and Growth for B2B SaaS Companies]
Check out: Content Calendar Examples from Brands that are Killing It in Content Marketing
6. Best SEO: RevBoss
RevBoss knows how to find unique, personalized solutions to not only their client’s problems, but also their own. They also understand the importance of a solid strategy, and it shows in their consistent content marketing efforts.
After working with MIG to build a research-based SEO strategy, develop a list of keywords and blog topics, and publish high-quality blog posts to their site, RevBoss surpassed their competitors with flying colors.
With 100+ blog posts and 120+ top ranking keywords, RevBoss has not only proven the power of an SEO-based content marketing strategy, but also reaped its benefits.
[How RevBoss Earned 120+ Ranking Keywords and Surpassed Their Top Competitors on Google]
Check out: Outbound Marketing for Saas: What No One Is Telling You
7. Best Strategy: Intermedia
Intermedia, a unified communications company, has been hard at the marketing game for 4 years, and it shows in their results. When it comes to the best content marketing practices, Intermedia checks all the boxes:
Updated annual strategy based on their business
2 new weekly blog posts
Link building through guest posts
Sales and executive team webinars and interview-based articles
3rd-party PR Placements
Zemanta content promotion
Because of Intermedia’s long-term commitment to great content marketing, they compete with the strongest competition in the market. While it looks like some of their competitors have much bigger paid marketing budgets, Intermedia is outperforming them on SEO in many important topical areas because their strategy and consistency is paying off.
By sticking to a solid long-term plan, Intermedia has made a major positive impact on both their business and audience.
Check out: Unified Communications Explained – Everything You Need to Know to Get Started
8. Best Link-Building: Orbit Media
Orbit Media, a web design agency from Chicago, ranks competitively despite being a small business. How, you ask? Strategic link building.
Orbit Media developed a content marketing strategy that focuses on creating:
High-quality content
Meaningful relationships with content marketing influencers
These two aspects work together to attract links back to Orbit Media’s website, allowing their content to rank high and generate qualified leads.
Each of Orbit Media’s blog posts are well designed, optimized for SEO, and feature influencer quotes. When industry influencers are featured in Orbit Media’s content, they often return the favor and send backlinks to Orbit Media’s website. With more backlinks and domain authority, Orbit Media’s content reigns supreme on SERPs.
Check out: Homepage Best Practices: 20 Things to Add to Your Homepage Design (and 5 things to remove)
9. Most Creative: ConvertKit
As an email marketing platform, ConvertKit knows a thing or two about making connections. By focusing on the interests of their target audience, they created a content marketing strategy that made a huge impact.
To connect with their ideal customer, ConvertKit developed a series of “Creator Stories” to share the challenges, breakthroughs, and successes of online content creators.
Image Source: ConvertKit
For a content marketing strategy to be great, it needs to add valuable insight to the lives of its customers. ConvertKit combined creativity and value to develop the best content marketing strategy for their business.
Check out: How to set yourself up for avoiding burnout in 2023
One of Marketing Insider Group’s clients (sorry we can’t reveal their name), a tech media agency, knew that it took marketing expertise to generate quality leads. Within less than one year of working with MIG, this client:
Earned 200+ ranking keywords (100+ in Google’s top 20)
Out-ranked 4 of their biggest competitors in search visibility
Gained 3x the amount of inbound leads (from blog posts)
After seeing an influx of inbound leads, this client quickly realized the power of sharing high-quality blog articles. By consistently posting content optimized for conversion, this tech media company turned product-page-visitors into first-time buyers.
[From: How a Tech Media Agency Earned 2-3X the Inbound Leads with MIG’s Content Services]
11. Best Overall? Marketing Insider Group
We’ll leave that decision up to you. We are content marketing experts, after all.
At MIG, we know our recommended approach to content marketing works because we walk the walk. It’s hard to generate traffic and rank without spending, but with years of trial and error, we’ve developed a plan that generates results. We see nearly a million visitors every year and all our leads comes directly from the organic search results our content delivers.
The key to creating the best content marketing strategy is building your high-quality content arsenal. Success doesn’t happen overnight, but by consistently creating content that offers value to your audience, it’s only a matter of time before the rankings start rolling in.
Source: Google
When you answer the questions of your readers via content, like blog posts, you can compete with big-budget competitors, even if you don’t have one yourself. Here’s the numbers:
MIG ranks in the top 100 search results for 23,305 keywords
We rank in the top 3 for 577 keywords
We rank in the top 10 for 1,451 keywords
When your content ranks, your organic search traffic grows and generates qualified leads. Our keyword rankings grew our search traffic by 6x in just 3 years, and earned us about 100,000 site-visitors per month. I’d say those numbers deserve a content marketing award!
[From: Taking Our Own Medicine: Our Strategic Approach to Generating More Organic Traffic]
Check out: The Ultimate Content Marketing Strategy Template
Do You Want To Win Best Content Marketing?
The best content marketing strategies focus on sharing a high volume of meaningful content consistently. When you commit to content marketing best practices long-term, you’re guaranteed to see results.
Not sure where to start? Marketing Insider Group can help. Our team of experts knows what it takes for your company to win best content marketing. Get started today by checking out our weekly blog content service, or schedule a free consultation now to learn more!
The post And the Oscar Goes to… Our 2023 Content Marketing Awards appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.
When you start a business, there’s a lot on your mind: how to fund all the equipment you’ll need, how to keep track of revenue and expenses, how to produce your goods and services economically enough to make a profit, and how to get the word out about what you offer. A content marketing strategy? Give me a break, you say.
Well, you could spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on some fancy ad agency to run ads no one will see since you can’t afford prime-time slots… You’re a startup.
Unless you’re independently wealthy, you’re going to need some way to market your business. The best way to do that – and statistics back it up – is content marketing.
Over 82% of companies today utilize content marketing, and for good reason. 86% of people searching on Google ignore paid ads. 70% of links clicked are organic. Content is where the people are!
That’s the power of a robust content marketing strategy. Here’s how you can put it to use for your new company.
Quick Takeaways:
Content marketing is the most cost-effective way to get the word out about your startup.
Build your new content marketing strategy one month at a time so you’re not overwhelmed.
Keep the focus on your customers and their needs, not your company.
Review your content strategy regularly to make sure you’re reaching the right audience with the right message.
January: Customer Focus Is the Secret of a Powerful Content Marketing Strategy
Content marketing doesn’t take a king’s ransom to work its magic. It only takes a little time, commitment, some imagination, and the secret sauce: customer-centric content that solves frustrating problems your target customers face. The whole point of content marketing is to position yourself as a trusted authority in your field by helping people conquer their challenges, whether in business or life.
To effectively write customer focused content, start with doing a little research on your target customers. Who is most likely to buy your products and services? What keeps them up at night? Do you have the expertise to slay any of those 3 a.m. worry monsters? My favorite question: what is their biggest challenge?
Establishing a buyer persona is important to do early on in your content creation journey. This information helps dictate your every move. Once you know who your target audience is, you can develop your brand voice based on what will reach them best.
Jot all of this down as it comes to you. This should spur the content idea that will soon turn into a full-blown content plan.
February: Choose Your Content Production Tools and Start Posting
The great part about content marketing is that it is incredibly economical. Although you can engage the services of a content marketing agency like ours for the content, there are a wealth of free or budget-friendly content marketing tools to help make that content work for you.
Here are a few we’ve found handy, especially for startups on a budget:
Google Docs: You don’t need to spend money on a word processor when you can get Google Docs simply by having a Gmail account. It shares many of the same features as paid word processors, and it has one advantage none of those have: you can collaborate in real time with members of your team whose input you want.
Google Keyword Planner: This free tool allows you to find the right words to focus your content around. Simply plug in your products and services, and the tool will spit back a long list of related words, along with the number of searches for those words.
WordPress: To start with, you can begin your blog with one of WordPress’s free website domains. As you gain traction and customers, you can migrate your content to their hosted paid version with a custom URL with your own brand stamped on it.
Google Analytics: Learn all about your blog or website’s audiences and the actions they take while they’re on your site. The more you know about your audience, the better you can tailor content to them.
Your smartphone and/or camera: Although it’s not exactly free, you probably already have one. Use it to create how-to videos and photos that showcase your products or services.
MailChimp: Use this helpful tool to send targeted emails and newsletters to various customer segments, as well as serious prospects. Keep informed about new posts, as well as exclusive offers, such as e-books or white papers, that you offer only to subscribers.
DivvyHQ: Divvy is a content planning and workflow collaboration platform we use with our clients to manage our annual content plans, collaborate across our team, and get content published and shared to the right social platforms.
Social media sites: Create a profile and use them to promote your blog posts, podcasts, or videos. Make sure you use your chosen keywords to get more eyes on your posts.
Grammarly: Never worry again about your fourth-grade English teacher reading your posts. Even the free version of this grammar and spelling checker finds most of your errors.
March: Dive Into Research and Create a Content Calendar
Now that you’ve published a few articles, videos, or photos, create a content calendar that can help you plan the rest of the year’s content. You have your personas identified and your platforms in order. Now is the time to start doing some more research.
Keyword and topic research can sound scary, but it doesn’t have to be. You’re a start-up, so chance are you don’t have the money to throw at expensive research tools that you don’t really know how to use, and luckily, that really isn’t necessary!
Google holds all of the answers you need. Start by looking at your competitors, what are they writing about? Begin making a list of topics you see people talking about in your industry most often. And then, put your own twist on things. How does your product or service apply in these instances? How can it help?
Don’t feel like you need to do this all in one sitting either. Come up with 10-15 topics and spread them out however works best for you. Then revisit your research in a few weeks when your list begins to dwindle. There will be plenty more inspiration by that time.
Once you have some ideas, plan to post them when they make sense seasonally. For instance, if you sell fitness equipment, you might want to plan to post an article or video that tells potential customers how to get their body in shape for the coming summer later this month or early April. Save your exercise-bike-as-holiday-gift post for say, late October or November.
Don’t forget to use your content calendar to repurpose older content for a growing new audience. If you posted an article about getting ready for tax season back in January, repurpose some of it for an early summer refresher video about tax breaks.
April: Give Them an “Easter Egg” They Can Use All Year Long
It’s springtime, and kids all over are looking forward to the annual neighborhood Easter egg hunt. No need to limit the goodies to kids. Give your email subscribers and loyal customers a resource they can use the entire year.
Whether it’s an e-book that provides details about key industry suppliers for your B2B customers or a guide on how to write a memoir for your book self-publishing business, giving away a resource they can use during the coming months will help build goodwill among your target customers.
Plus, once you create this resource, you can use it as a form of gated content on your website. Gated content is the good stuff that is only accessible by completing some kind of form. Create a landing page for your ebook so visitors have to sign up for your newsletter to gain access.
May: Publish a Case Study or Two
What your products and services have done for other customers can help drive purchases by others in a similar situation. In fact, 92% of consumer trust reviews over traditional advertisements.
Case studies are short, to-the-point stories that tell how your products or services have helped your customers solve some of their most challenging problems. Publishing them, along with a link to the customer’s website in case a potential customer wants to confirm your claims, is a great way to get potential customers to consider purchasing your product or service.
June: Take a Good, Hard Look at Your Analytics
Mid-year is a great time to assess what you’ve done so far. Look at your social media analytic tools and see how blog posts have performed with Google Analytics. Those with the most clicks to your website, the most conversions, and the most sales generated deserve an encore.
Measuring your digital marketing results throughout the year is good practice. Promote your best performers and tweak those that lag behind.
Create content similar to your best performers or repurpose them in a new context to gain a new audience.
Diversification is key in an online environment where marketers are using dozens of different forms of content to get their message out. For example, if your best performer was a video on how to change the oil in a car, create a step-by-step set of instructions on the same topic to post on your blog. Link back to the video for even more traction.
July: Adjust Your Strategy As Needed
While your head is already in the numbers, look to see whether there are any new potential customer segments that look promising – and to revisit your current ones for new insights.
Look at their demographics and where they hang out on social media. If they’re mostly on Pinterest but your main focus has been Facebook, you need to pour more effort into optimizing your Pinterest posts.
If you see keen interest in your content from a distinctly new group, find ways to target content to them. For instance, let’s say you have an automotive repair business. You’ve been targeting mostly younger males that read magazines like Car and Driver and Motor Trend.
However, the numbers show that some of your videos on DIY how-tos you’ve posted on Pinterest and YouTube have gained a wide female audience. Grab onto that new segment with new material aimed solely at them. Perhaps a YouTube live event, such as a “DIY Car Repair 101 for Women,” or a new Pinterest board with a similar title will help you gain more traction with this group.
August: Back-to-School Time!
I can hear the groans now. No, we’re not asking for you to enroll in an MBA course or anything remotely like that. However, taking advantage of seasonal changes to find new content angles is always a good bet.
Can you think of a way to tie what your business does to tie it back to whatever the season holds? Let’s look again at our fictional car repair company for an example of how you can adapt this tip for your use.
Could the owner, do you think, find ways to post content that appeals to students and their parents? Perhaps a “Car Repair 101 for Students” – or “Students: Learn How Not to Get Ripped Off by Shady Auto Repair Companies.” To sweeten the deal, you could offer an e-book or even a 20% coupon on an oil change or tune-up before students set off for school.
Utilize this approach year round for the best results. These on-theme topics help show your audience that you’re active online and paying attention to their everyday lives.
September: Create Long-Form Content
We tricked you! Now that the kids are back in school, it’s time for you, too, to put your nose to the content grindstone and create a longer piece of content like this 4500-word beast I wrote this year on how content marketing delivers ROI .
You could also turn that long form content into a white paper, a webinar, or a longer, more detailed video.
But don’t despair. Unlike when you were in school yourself, if you don’t have time to work on such a large undertaking, you can always outsource content creation to one of the many companies that specialize in that task.
A good way to tell whether outsourcing will give you more bang for the buck is to calculate how much your business earns you per hour. Now, estimate how many hours you would have to spend to create that content. If it would cost your business more to create that content than to outsource, choose outsourcing.
October: Don’t Be a Scaredy-Cat: Reach Out to Influencers and Start Guest Posting
October might be the season that sends shivers up your spine, but don’t let fear stop you from finding industry movers and shakers that can help give your content a wider audience. Influencers don’t have to be celebrities. They just need to be prominent people that your audience respects.
For instance, let’s say you manufacture equestrian equipment for show riders. You won’t get much mileage out of a Lady Gaga endorsement – even if she’s one of the world’s top celebrities. What will help you stand out among the crowd is the endorsement of a top Olympic rider.
Just don’t be afraid of the “no.” If your products and services are as top-flight as you think, you’ll eventually find an influencer or two who will be happy to point out how your products and services have helped them solve a vexing problem or two.
Reach out to prominent platforms that your audience reads and see if they’ll consider you to be a guest poster. This way you don’t have to trust someone else to tell your story, you’re still in control of what gets said and you get to reach a larger audience.
November: Review Your Reviews – And Be Thankful for Constructive Criticism
You’ve had your content marketing strategy up and running for over ten months now. It’s time to look at all the reviews you’ve received over those ten months.
First of all, be thankful for those reviews that point out areas in which you can improve. After all, it’s almost Thanksgiving!
Unless those negative reviews come from “trolls” whose complaints are only cries for attention, shore up any areas of weakness. Thank those who provide glowing reviews, and let those whose reviews are less stellar know you’re working on improving those areas.
Next, publish content that tells how you’ve improved your products and services. In that content, point out how those improvements have solved problems for your customers.
Finally, make it a point to read and respond to serious reviews during the year so your customers know you’re holding a two-way conversation, not a monologue. Customers want to do business with companies that listen to their concerns.
December: Time to Set Your Content Strategy for Next Year
Review what content performed best and plan to include more similar content during the coming year.
Sketch out content ideas for each month. If you have employees or contract workers, get their input. Often, employees with specific expertise can provide the kind of detail and technical knowledge that convinces customers to trust your company.
Set the key performance indicators that bring in the most business and plan to check them often. These numbers can help you tweak your content to bring an even greater return on your investment during the coming year.
Write your content strategy down and use it to create a content calendar for the next year. Create achievable, measurable goals and make it your New Year’s resolution to keep track of your progress toward them.
With a consistent, targeted content strategy, your startup will soon take its place among the leaders in your niche.
If you are ready to get more traffic to your site with quality content that’s consistently published, consider outsourcing and check out our Content Builder Service. Set up a quick consultation, and I’ll send you a free PDF version of my books. Get started today and generate more traffic and leads for your business.
The post The 12-Month Content Marketing Strategy for Startups appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.
As content marketers, we are always on the hunt for interesting data to grab reader attention and support our claims. It’s a beautiful thing when our employer is the data source. If you work at a SaaS company, you might hit the content jackpot by turning customer usage data into an annual report that attracts media coverage and leads, for example, Zuora’s Subscription Economy Index or Marketing Insider Group’s blog post frequency research.
But what if your company can’t be a source, for whatever reason? “That’s easy,” you say, “The internet is chock full of statistics.”
Maybe you were never burned by using the first number you found, only to discover it’s from a blog post that points to an article published three years ago, which in turn links to a white paper from 2012, which referenced the original statistic in a 1998 university study. (This is exactly what happened in the infamous “humans have less attention span than a goldfish” debacle of 2015.)
This practice is just wrong. The journalistic protocol is to cite an original, authoritative source that is transparent about its methodology (like the description on page 41 in CMI’s annual B2C Content Marketing Report.) It’s also wise to use only data your industry considers fresh. For instance, given the changes in digital media consumption in the past three years, data collected before 2020 is irrelevant at this point.
Here then, is a list of nine reputable sources to find data backed by professional and rigorous methodologies. Some of organizations provide information at no charge but do check their citation policies.
Management consulting firms
As early as the late 19th century, these firms helped businesses solve complex problems and improve performance. Many of these global firms specialize in certain industries or processes, while others will tackle any kind of business challenge. As part of their work, management consulting firms conduct research to help executives understand business trends.
Examples:
McKinsey & Company
BCG (Boston Consulting Group)
Source: McKinsey
Technology consulting firms
These firms focus on technology, helping providers and users understand it and what it means for industry and society. If you’re content marketing strategy involves writing about data, software, hardware, cloud computing, or artificial intelligence, you’re bound to find timely and comprehensive research from technology consulting firms.
Examples:
Accenture
TCS (Tata Consultancy Services)
Social Media Platforms Expected to Reach $1.2 Trillion Globally by 2025, New Accenture Study Finds | Accenture” width=”616″ height=”343″ />Source: Accenture
Market research and analysis companies
Market research firms come in all sizes and shapes. Some focus on specific industries or technologies, while others try to cover them all. Due to the nature of their business, market research companies have a reputation for generating accurate, reliable data. Their business model is based on selling data and insights, and they may also offer advisory services to help executives understand what the data means. You’ll find these firms quoted often in the press.
Examples:
Aberdeen Group
Frost & Sullivan
Source: Aberdeen
Consumer research and analysis companies
These firms study the attitudes, behaviors, preferences, and opinions of individual consumers. Consumer research companies make money by selling data and advice to companies that market goods and services, such as clothing, electronics, and household goods, to consumers. Consumer-centered companies invest in trusted research to help them understand and engage shoppers.
Examples:
Ipsos
Pew Research
Social Media and Technology 2022 | Pew Research Center” />
Premium business media
Public relations professionals seek coverage in business magazines that have long-standing reputations as authoritative news sources executives turn to. The most prestigious names are available only by paid subscription and have expanded in recent years to offer custom research, content creation services, and native advertising sponsorships for brands who want to get in front of business leaders.
Examples:
Forbes
The Economist
Government agencies
In any major county, state, country, and continent, government workers study all manner of concerns and often are required to release the findings publicly. You can find data on anything from natural resources to traffic patterns to commercial development. It’s hard to pick even a few examples from such a long agency list, so check out this handy site from The Journalist’s Resource. Though it was published in 2014, it’s still a great starting point for government research data in the US.
Trade associations and standards bodies
Every industry has at least one trade association to support its members and advance the profession. They bring large communities of professionals together to share knowledge, update certifications, and develop standards of practice, among other activities. Associations are reliant on membership fees and maintaining credibility in the industry, so they follow rigorous data collection protocols to ensure accuracy. Plus, they can often access proprietary data that makes their research more attractive as a source.
Examples
American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As)
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Academic journals and university presses
Educational institutions might be the OG of research, trusted by students and journalists alike. They are historically recognized as credible sources due to their rigorous peer-review process and scholarly standards. Expert editors enforce standards so that published research is reliable, accurate, and helps to advance knowledge in the field. You can find a list of academic journals at Jstor.org.
Examples
Oxford University Press
MIT Press
Non-profit associations and charities
These institutions depend on accurate data to support their work and demonstrate their impact to stakeholders. Many of them partner with academic institutions, government agencies, and other research organizations to ensure meticulous data collection and analysis and objective reporting. Also, most non-profits and charities are frequently audited by outside watchdogs to ensure integrity and transparency.
Examples
United Way
Habitat for Humanity
The next time you’re in search of an eye-popping statistic that will get your readers talking or will prove your point, start with one of these trusted organizations. Don’t forget to follow their citation policies and give credit where credit is due.
The post 9 Places to Source Authoritative Stats for Your Content Marketing appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.
https://www.sydneysocialmediaservices.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Screenshot-2023-03-07-at-12.43.38-PM.png5671010exposurehttps://www.sydneysocialmediaservices.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/sydney-social-media-services-white.pngexposure2023-03-10 00:16:052023-03-10 00:16:059 Places to Source Authoritative Stats for Your Content Marketing
SEO. Social media. Websites. Blogs. Developing an effective content marketing strategy can feel daunting with so many options and strategies available. Earlier this week, we shared the results of our approach to developing content. Here in this post, I am sharing how we do it for brands like yours.
We speak with brands on all points of the content marketing journey. From those who are still learning what content marketing is and why it’s important to those who are implementing their campaigns and need guidance, we help brands develop processes that allow them to effectively reach their customers.
Quick Takeaways:
The use of content marketing continues to grow. Over 80% of marketers are intently focused on creating content that builds brand loyalty.
Content marketers should focus on solving their target audience’s problems.
Connect with your audience on platforms where they hang out. Create content in formats that they prefer to consume.
Brands need to recognize that employees are their most powerful marketing resource and figure out how to activate them.
An effective content strategy involves data, brainstorming, alignment with the consumer journey, and constant monitoring of key metrics.
As many brands have figured out, content marketing is critical to a brand’s survival in today’s economy. Content Marketing Institute’s 2022 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends announced that 43% of marketers report their organization’s content marketing budget has grown since 2020..
74% percent of marketers say their campaigns were more successful compared to one year ago with 66% expecting their content marketing budgets to continue to increase. Respondents indicated that the more their content marketing matures, the more likely it is to succeed.
One thing is clear: content marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. We are here to help you and your brand get to the finish line with loyal customers whose needs have been met.
Here is how we do it:
1. Content Marketing Objectives
How we think about and approach marketing has shifted in the past decade. Buyers are now completely in control of their purchasing journey. It’s up to brands to fulfill the consumers’ needs with a seamless, quality experience. However, one thing has not changed: defining the objective of a content marketing campaign.
This step requires an analysis of five areas within a brand:
current audience insights
business case
current state
mission statement
budget
In short, where is the brand now? What is our mission statement? Who are our current customers? How much budget do we have to spend?
2. Defining the Target Audience
Since the buyer is now completely in control of their experience and has high expectations of the brands they’re willing to build relationships with, understanding the buyers is critical.
It goes far beyond the traditional basic data like age, gender, race, income level and location.
In content marketing workshops with clients, we always consider various other factors that may contribute to a person’s decision to buy a product. Are they happy in their lives, both personally and professionally? What frustrations are they currently experiencing? Where do they get their information? What are they curious about?
The list of possible questions is extensive but it helps us begin to build the framework for a successful content marketing campaign.
3. Publishing Content
Defining where and how your target audience consumes information frames where you will be publishing content.
We’ve noticed some confusion when it comes to platforms. We don’t blame you! There are at least a dozen social platforms that millions of people frequent. Add to that the scores of content management systems that you could build your hub with. It’s easy to get lost.
However, we place the most value in the location where a brand can own their content – just look at what the best in content marketing are doing. While they are a great place for content distribution, the constant flux in social media algorithms and user agreements make them an unreliable platform to build a content marketing strategy.
Next, we identify the best way we can work with you and your brand. This process includes defining how we will ideate, approve, create and publish your content marketing campaign. For some clients, this is a relatively simple process. Others have required additional steps set by law or previously defined internal procedures.
5. Editorial Strategy
Once we have a good understanding of a brand’s goals, who their target audiences are and what platforms to reach them on, we can start defining the editorial strategy. This includes figuring out content themes, topics, and types. For example, at Marketing Insider Group, we identified four key themes:
content marketing workshops
content strategy agency
employee activation
content marketing for events
Then we built out topics around these themes, such as tools to use or how to use video in your content marketing strategy. How these articles are actually written depends on the topic but the content may include general articles, lists, how-to articles, infographics and why posts.
6. Brainstorming
Part of building an effective content strategy includes brainstorming. We collaborate with our clients to explore the various ways we can reach your target audience. It can be (and in my opinion, should be) one of the most fun parts of the process.
We implement tactics such as design thinking where each individual comes up with a list of ideas and then the group categorizes them.
Don’t worry, analytical types. We use data-driven tactics to brainstorm.
Google is one of the first places we start. It provides suggestions based on the volume of searches done for a topic.
AnswerThePublic is another great resource to categorize the most frequently asked questions around a keyword.
BuzzSumo helps us identify content that has performed well in a specific time span. We are able to look at our own content as well as what competitors have done that’s worked. The platform also enables us to find high performing content by topic.
7. Consumer Journey: Where Does the Content Fit?
The journey to reach a consumer who has never heard of your brand is going to vary from the consumer who follows you on social media. We work with brands to determine what demographics should fall into the three stages: early, middle, and late.
This stage also determines the frequency in which we create or repurpose content and how we reach the consumer (blog posts, email, social). One thing we always have in mind: buyers are not searching for product specifically. They are looking to solve a problem.
8. Content Distribution
Your content marketing campaign has multiple platforms to choose from: website, social, podcast, video, paid advertising, and harnessing employee activation. It’s here that we work with our clients to help determine which tactics will best help reach their goals.
We encourage the brands we work with to look within when deciding the best way to promote their digital content as their strongest marketing tactic exists on the payroll: employees. When employees share their employer’s content, it can generate up to 8 times more engagement and increase 14 times more brand awareness than brand-only content.
9. Content Marketing Measurement
Research indicates that for every one buyer, there are 100 pieces of content produced. This statistic makes measurement a key component of a content marketing strategy and is also most likely where your CEO will be most interested.
Early in the process we help brands determine what metrics need to be monitored depending on their goal(s) and buyer stage and provide them with a dashboard to help keep track. Our reporting schedule varies but is optimized to ensure a brand has a successful content marketing campaign.
Let Your Content Differentiate Your Brand
Good content marketing is imperative for distinguishing your brand and positioning yourself as a thought leader in your industry. It can be hard to keep your ideas fresh all the time, especially because your competitors are going to be turning out content as well.
Not only that, but every time you come up with something new and exciting, you can bet that your competition will be following behind shortly. Here are some tips for differentiating your brand using content marketing.
1. Position Yourself Strategically
It’s important to differentiate yourself from the competition by using your content to show your unique perspective.
Before you can get your brand into a good position, you need to get to know your target market, key content marketing trends in your industry and some research on what your competitors are getting up to.
Find out what sort of creative direction the competition is pursuing. Look at the kind of tone and aesthetics they favor. Some good places to get a sense of this are their logo, mascots, and even the colors they select.
What sort of themes are they working with?
What is their message?
What kinds of campaigns are they running?
If you want to stand out, you need to know what you’re trying to stand out from. Make your brand unique so it can fill a niche. Take what your competitors are doing and do it better, or put a fresh spin on it.
2. Focus on Customer Experience
“Customer experience can be an excellent way for you to differentiate your brand. Instead of approaching this with the mindset of there being one ideal customer experience, try and find out what your customers are looking for. Different customers use different brands because they enjoy the unique experience that brand provides,” writes Jerry Estes, content marketer at Revieweal.
The experience should align with your positioning; it should suit your brand’s personality and also include variety.
3. Create Quality Content
There are a lot of good ways to create quality content your customers will love. One good way to start is figuring where your niche will be. Think about an area that is underserved and therefore hungry for content that appeals directly to them. You can amass a loyal following of people if you are able to appeal to a niche that has not been receiving much attention from other brands.
Another good direction is to make your primary focus educating and informing people. Find out what your customers’ most common questions are and create content that addresses those questions. Use forums and blogs to find out which topics are most popular when people search for your brand or industry, then create content based on that information.
4. Pursue a Long Term Growth Strategy
Fads will come and go, but they should not determine how you lay out your strategy. Your strategy should be based on long term growth, and not the flavor of the month.
The internet has a very short attention span, and a rapid turn-around cycle. If you start trying to work this week’s sensation into your strategy, your brand will end up looking out of touch very quickly.
“Think long term and also see how far your boundaries extend. Look for new areas, that lie within your sphere, where you can expand and continue on with sustained growth. Just remember that you should make sure that when you do expand, you don’t contradict your brand’s positioning or message,” recommends Doris Tanguay, ecommerce content writer at Essay Services.
5. Use Online Resources to Improve Your Content Writing Skills
A lot of people have great content ideas but struggle with writing good copy. The good news is there are many resources available online that can teach you how to write like an expert.
Here are some good ones to get started with:
Studydemic / Academadvisor
Use these resources to get your grammar knowledge up to speed. You can really discredit yourself and your brand if you’re publishing content with bad grammar.
Assignment Writing Service / Essayroo
These online proofreading tools will give you content copy that is flawless. Just a single typo is all it takes to make you look like an amateur.
StudentWritingServices
Writing is so much easier when you’re using a guide. This writing guide will walk you through the process from start to finish.
UKWritings / BoomEssays
Editing can be tedious, and not a lot of people enjoy doing it, but these resources will make the process easier and faster.
6. Segment and Distribute
A lot of brands struggle with segmenting based on the wants and needs of the different segments of their audience. When you’re segmenting your audience, it’s smart to be thinking about where each group lies in their journey, in terms of awareness, engagement, conversion, and loyalty.
Segment your content based on pricing, customer care, product lines, and services. It’s also important to factor in geographical location and relevance to your segmentation.
Differentiation affects both your short term profits and the long term viability of your brand. If you’re just a less interesting version of someone else, why would anyone bother with your brand? It’s important to position yourself well, and keep up with what other similar brands are doing, so that you can find a unique angle to work on.
Best Examples of Brands with a Great Content Strategy
Thanks to the explosion and the proven value of content marketing, it seems like every brand these days has its own publishing house and an elaborate content marketing strategy to boot. They’re creating content on dedicated websites to target their demographic, convert visitors, increase their exposure, and establish themselves as voices of authority within their industries.
However, like much of the content out there on the internet, most branded content is not exceptional. Some brands just don’t get their customer base, while others recycle articles, photos, and videos instead of producing original pieces and are too pushy trying to sell their products.
If you’re gearing up to start your own branded content website, and want to get the most content marketing ROI, you should research what the best-of-the-best brands are doing. We spoke to five of them — IBM, Casper, GE, Barneys, and Williams-Sonoma — about how they built their sites and consistently put out excellent content.
These content creators discuss about their content marketing strategies, their methodologies, and their goals when it comes to building a branded content site.
IBM: Creating a real-time content desk
Tami Cannizzaro, who designed a real-time content desk for IBM way back in 2014 has this to say about branded content or messaging: “I don’t think I’ll get too many opinions to the contrary when I suggest that effective marketing is getting harder every day. Consumers seem to have developed an allergic reaction to anything that smacks of selling. Banner ads are essentially wallpaper with a dismal .1% conversion rate. Television ads have been all but eradicated by the DVR. Text ads are brand destroyers unless they’re pushed at point of sale while the discounted coffee is still piping hot. I could go on.”
So what can you do to insert your brand into a welcome conversation? Successful marketing is all about building relevance and utility for your brand. A social network is often the beginning of the conversation and should extend into the entire brand experience. Here’s what Tami and her team did about it at IBM: They built a real-time content desk. It’s a system that changes the way we build and disseminate branded content.
There are essentially five stages—here’s how you can build one for yourself:
Monday – The Beat Box: Ask what’s happening in the world that’s relevant to your customers and find the hot conversations. Social listening tools can help to identify the latest topics. An agency like Sparks & Honey can help you tap into significant cultural trends. They run a daily report on relevant world events, consumer trends and general cultural shifts. Build themes that align to the identified areas of interest in the marketplace.
Tuesday – Editorial Sync: Figure out what content you want your audience to consume and how. This is best done by a seasoned PR expert working with your marketing team to provide guidance and direction. Examples might include the fact that election season is coming up and you want to show how your software can help to identify the right candidate, or it’s Valentine’s Day and you’re selling overpriced gifts for lovers.
Wednesday – The Angle: Brainstorm on what content will be produced. Our agency, Ogilvy & Mather, supports the desk with a creative team and content strategist to develop a mix of short, consumable content as well as longer-form content. A fact-filled SlideShare, a report that ties in to an upcoming holiday, a short video series—all great content candidates.
Thursday – The Deadline: Determine how you will deploy the content across branded properties. Lay out a strategy for how content will be amplified through paid, owned, and earned media. Adding technologies like retargeting can help to bring consumers down the funnel.
Friday – The Analytics: Perform a weekly assessment of winners and losers. What types of content are consumers engaging with and sharing? Understanding which content types and themes are successful is critical to increasing brand engagement.
The real-time content desk helped IBM become experts at creating content that resonates. The nirvana for this type of desk is “news jacking” in conversations, like pushing a SlideShare into a competitors’ conference stream or being the top tweet that goes viral during a popular world event.
As consumers, we hate being sold. As marketers, we know we need to sell. In order to be heard by consumers today, brands need to align with how people experience the world and find a meaningful, relevant way to make the right connection. A content engine like IBM’s is a great way of driving that engagement.
Casper: Focusing on awareness, not conversion
Casper is a startup that provides “outrageously comfortable” mattresses sold directly to consumers — eliminating commission driven, inflated prices.
Since its launch in April 2014, the brand has grown rapidly, generating $30 million in revenue over a 10-month period and expanding its team from five to hundreds of people.
While Casper has always powered an on-brand, on-domain blog, the brand made a surprising move in June 2015, announcing its launch of Van Winkle’s, an off-brand, independent editorial venture.
Quality Journalism Exploring All Aspects of Sleep
Per Casper’s announcement on its branded blog, Van Winkle’s is an “independent editorial venture, staffed by an award-winning team of journalists. Van Winkle’s’ original features and stories explore all aspects of sleep, from science to pop culture.”
Luke Sherwin, Casper’s Co-founder, explains the editorial strategy further, saying the site will publish “weekly in-depth features, hard-hitting investigative pieces, columns, explainers, and relevant product reviews.” Reporting will also cover cultural topics and issues “through a lens grounded in rest and wakefulness, like the societal implications of Benzodiazepine, experimental interrogation techniques, or the limitations of quantification.”
The brand is clearly putting the mission of providing quality content at the forefront of its strategy, staffing experienced journalists from Maxim, Travel + Leisure, Salon, Mic, Gawker Media and Men’s Journal. The team will be led by Elizabeth Spiers, a former editor in chief of the New York Observer and a founding editor of Gawker.
An Independent Venture
While we’ve seen unbranded content marketing endeavors before (i.e., L’Oreal’s Makeup.com), it’s typically a move done by brands that a) are trying to disassociate from a negative brand perception, b) are trying to repair trust issues with customers, or c) have a house of brands rolling up into the same parent company. Casper fits none of these cases.
Instead, it seems the reason for the site was simply to fulfill a journalistic gap for an area of existing interest. As Sherwin describes it, Casper sees itself not just as a seller of mattresses but as a lifestyle brand at a time when people are concerned about work-life balance and are wearing fitness bands to track not just their activity but how much sleep they are actually getting. It seemed that if it wasn’t up to Casper to fill this void, then who?
While the site is funded by Casper, Van Winkle’s maintains its independence in terms of its branding, online identity and budget. The site is not designed to be a marketing vehicle or to drive traffic to the Casper site. It isn’t even part of Casper’s marketing budget. Van Winkle’s has no indication of its association with Casper, with the exception of a small “Published by Casper” disclaimer at the footer of the site.
Van Winkle’s online identity is also separate with independent social accounts and an unassociated URL (vanwinkles.com instead of something like casper.com/vanwinkles). Finally, it’s interesting to note that the goal of the site is to be “as self-sustaining and independent as possible. There will not be any shoppable links or e-commerce.” Most brands that choose an un-branded strategy will typically still include shoppable links sparsely throughout their content.
While still in its infancy, the site has already drummed up buzz and been covered by Wall Street Journal and the New York Business Journal. At a time when content is the “in vogue” marketing strategy of the moment, Van Winkle’s is an exciting experiment that will interesting to watch and sure to influence other brands’ content marketing strategies.
The Strategy
Van Winkle’s editor-in-chief Jeff Koyen does not consider himself to be a marketer. Instead, he’s a journalist who manages other freelance journalists. Like traditional reporters, they strive to tell good stories and raise awareness about certain issues. For Koyen, that issue is sleep.
“We are not converting people to Casper.com, which is what makes Van Winkle’s unique,” he said. “We are not measured by conversions or mattress sales.”
The goal is to invent a new vertical, sleep, and try to have “more eyeballs on Van Winkle’s. If we do create the sleep category, ultimately, Casper will benefit from it. They will get people to say ‘Gee, we need a better mattress.’ It’s my job to create cultural awareness. My competitors may benefit from it too, but it’s ultimately up to Casper to position themselves in a way that they will be there when customers want to make a purchase.”
So, what has Koyen found that his readers are most interested in when it comes to sleep? “Not surprisingly, posts about boners perform well,” he says. “I did one on morning erections. Another one is about how to wash your sheets. Those two posts had a far reach on social.”
Koyen’s advice for other brands hoping to start their branded content websites is this: Don’t be too cautious. “It takes bravery to let an editorial entity launch and run on its own,” he says. “When most people get to launch day, they think someone on the brand side will blink and say, ‘I don’t know if this story is on message for the brand. They may overthink it to death. If you want something that’s publishable, you need to be brave and trust your editor. If you just want to convert eyeballs or sell Red Bull then don’t do this. To do higher level real journalism, you have to find the right editors and make sure they answer to themselves.”
Why It Works
Undoubtedly there will be many skeptics and naysayers of this seemingly risky endeavor, but there are several factors in this site’s strategy that have set it up for a successful future. First, the site is powered by an experienced team of journalists who know how to create compelling content. Regardless of the topics they write about, they’re staffed to be able to meet the high-quality expectations they’ve set for themselves.
Second, the site’s broad topic of “sleep” influences all aspects of life. Since sleep can be woven into just about anything, they’ve given themselves the flexibility to be able to write about topics that will be genuinely interesting. Six months from now, they won’t find themselves writing a stale story just because it’s the only thing left that fits in the site’s overarching theme.
Third, the unbranded strategy fits perfectly with Casper’s mission. Casper’s direct-to-consumer business model eliminates inflated prices and benefits consumers. Any business that is built on benefitting the end consumer has a leg up on an honest and trustworthy brand perception. Launching an unbranded editorial site, filled with amazing content, with no direct strategy to drive e-commerce enhances that positive perception even more.
Finally, the executive team’s expectations are realistic, open and prepared for adaptation. Sherwin does not expect the site to be a destination that readers will check every morning. Instead, the objective is to provide interesting, valuable content that will spread itself.
Sherwin explains, “We live in a world where being a destination site is not necessarily the primary goal of all content sites. The quality of the content still has value.” Casper’s CEO, Philip Krim, is also aware of the risk and prepared to alter strategy if need be. He explains, “If it isn’t well received we’ll have to reevaluate, but if we do succeed in creating some awesome content then I think we’ll have an interesting standalone business here.”
Barneys: Provide exclusive content
Your brand has a unique perspective and access to individuals and information that other brands don’t. On The Window, which is the branded content site for Barneys, the staff knows this.
The content that does the best on the site, according to editorial director Marissa Rosenblum, is interviews with Barneys’ designers and “things you could only get from visiting The Window,” she says. “This is because of the access we have at Barneys. You can’t read about the exclusive collaborations we’re doing elsewhere.”
The Window has a plethora of this kind of original content, from written pieces about their designers, to pictures from Barneys’ photo shoots, and videos of their runway shows.
If brands want to succeed, they need to stick to the old advice and write what they know, says Rosenblum. “Tell the stories you’re an expert on, and people will care about your brand’s point of view. They’re interested in what we have to say about emerging designers, fashion, and style. We’re still trying to sell them something, but it doesn’t change the fact that our point of view is well respected and regarded.”
Williams-Sonoma: Aim for return visitors
You cannot define success simply by how many visitors your branded content site. Don’t forget that loyal, returning customers are crucial to your brand.
Merritt Watts, the senior manager of content at Williams-Sonoma, says that with their website, Williams-Sonoma Taste, they want to keep people coming back for more content. “A return visitor means we’re truly connecting with our customers. They may not be purchasing every time they visit the blog, but when they do they’ll come to a trusted place — a place that’s already successfully shown them cooking techniques, offered inspiration for hosting a memorable holiday brunch, and recommended some restaurants to visit on their trip to Austin. That’s the kind of long-term success we are after.”
To encourage customers to return, Watts and her team of in-house and freelance writers produce content that adds value to their customers’ lives. “Our main target is the home cook,” she says. “They don’t have to know how to sous-vide or be able to whip up a soufflé without a recipe (though we have a hunch that plenty of our customers do!) (editors note: Seamless?!) but they are people who want to be inspired, who love getting their kitchens a little messy, and setting a table for friends and family with a meal they’re excited to serve.”
Some recent pieces for their demographic cover planning a spicy cookout, how to construct ice cream sandwiches, and making homemade pasta by hand.
GE Reports: Find the scoop
In creating GE Reports, Managing Editor Tomas Kellner (read a full interview with him here) says that the brand wanted to tell their own stories and appeal to a B2B audience. They also hoped influencers would see them as more than just an appliance company.
To do this, they report on innovations in technology. They find out the latest on topics like 3D printing, medicine and science, and information technology, and then aspire to have it distributed by other publishers like Gizmodo and Fortune, which have large readerships.
“With one of our stories on 3D printed jet engines, we got hundreds of thousands of views on the site, and it got picked up by other sites, which generated another large universe of impressions,” says Kellner. “Ultimately, the impression is more important than the traffic you bring back to the site.”
Since GE produces technology, Kellner has access to these stories in innovation. He looks inward at what stories he thinks would be a hit among his readers, and then he assigns them. “If I just try to sell to my readers, they’re just going to walk away,” he says. “You have to be authentic and tell the truth, but also be informative, newsy, and useful.”
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