Content marketing is beneficial but if you’ve never considered it before you may have a tough time figuring out the different types of content you can use. Even if you’ve tried your hand at content marketing you may be stuck on how to truly get the most out of your content. It always helps to have a list of the different types of content.
Here is a list of that content as wel as an explanation of the types of businesses that could benefit most from it.
1.
Blog Posts
Blogging has become a popular way for businesses to communicate with customers and potential customers. This type of content marketing allows you to create a voice for your business. It also offers the flexibility of sharing other types of content within the blog. Posts can be text based, image based, video based or a combination of the three. The thing to remember about blog posts is that you have to create them with a level of consistency to keep people coming back to read your blog posts. You don’t have to post everyday but you do have to post regularly.
Businesses that could benefit: Blog posts can work for a variety of businesses because it lets you share the type of 14
information that works best for your audience. It’s most ideal for businesses that are information or news heavy. If you have a lot that can be shared and discussed in your blog, you won’t be at a loss for content.
2.
Guest blog posts
If you aren’t interested in hosting your own blog, you can create content for other blogs. This requires you to do some research and identify blogs that are well aligned with your brand with an engaged and active following. You also have to be prepared to pitch your posts to the blog owner. In this instance you should prepare some blog post topics and possibly have some of those topics expanded into posts ready to be published. The best way to ensure that your posts are accepted and published is to take some time and familiarize yourself with the blog voice. You want to make sure your posts fit in with the blog you’re submitting them to otherwise your posts won’t be shared.
Businesses that could benefit: As with a blog that you create yourself, guest blog posts can also work for a variety of businesses. As long as there is an active blog, you can submit guest posts to it.
3.
Cartoons or comics
There was a time when cartoons and comics were reserved for younger audiences but they also provide some value to businesses interested in sharing information in a more 15
whimsical way. Cartoons and comics can be used to explain topics that may be tough to understand or not particularly interesting overall but need to appeal to a wide audience. This is one of the forms of content being used to explain some tech products that would benefit a non-tech savvy audience.
Creating a cartoon or comic can be done a few ways. You can hire a professional who can design or create a comic. You can also use a tool that wil allow you to create your own cartoon.
These are some websites that make it easy for you by offering a menu of characters and scenes.
a. Go Animate - http://goanimate.com/
b. Moovly - http://www.moovly.com/
c. Wideo - http://wideo.co/
Businesses that could benefit : If your organization is targeting children or parents of children, this type of content would work wel . It’s also great for creating videos about tech products, sanitation products, health products and any other kind of product that could benefit from the whimsical nature of animation.
4.
EBooks
EBooks are electronic books written to be shared online or through eReaders. They can be as short as 10 pages or as long as 150 pages. An eBook is a long form of content that is used to provide information. Sometimes there is a call to action in the book but other times it’s used as a piece of col ateral to 16
build an email list. These pieces of collateral take an extended amount of time and should be created with a plan for how it’s going to be used. An eBook can be used to discuss a topic, educate an audience or tell a story. It can also be used to do all three. You can also create how-to guides in eBook format.
Businesses that could benefit: If your company is related to internet marketing or other business oriented industries, it could benefit from this type of content. It also works well for health and fitness organizations as well as any specialized niche industry. Any time you’re dealing with an audience base that appreciates information, you could benefit from creating and distributing an eBook.
5.
Infographics
Infographic is short for information graphic. It’s when a long, often complex series of statistics and information is put into an easy to read graphic format. If you create a research heavy report or document and want to share the information to a broad audience, this is an ideal way to do it.
Businesses that could benefit: If your business is very statistics oriented or involves making use of complicated information, an infographic is a great way to communicate.
6.
Video
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The great thing about video is that it can be used by any type of organization. If you’re going to use video, it has to be well planned and executed. You don’t have to go out and spends tens of thousands of dollars but if you don’t have a huge budget, it’s important that you make sure your video is good quality. It’s also important to make sure your video isn’t too long. You don’t want people to feel like they have to sit through a long video when they visit your website.
Make it short and punchy while asking them to take action in some way. When it comes to video length you do have some wiggle room but not much. Ideal y, your video shouldn’t be much more than 1-3 minutes. However, if you are providing valuable information, it could go up to 5-7 minutes. There are some companies that can make videos that run for as long as half an hour or longer. Don’t do that unless you’re absolutely sure your audience wil tune in. Educational companies may share videos of workshops that provide instruction of some kind. In this instance, a longer video may be accepted.
Businesses that could benefit: Any type of business can use video. The thing to keep in mind is to make the video valuable and not too long. If you find yourself creating a video that’s going to run for several minutes, look for ways to break it into chunks and create a series. This is a great way to have people coming back to your website consistently to gain access to all of the information you’re providing in the series.
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7.
Testimonials
Sometimes the best way to encourage people to become new customers is by letting your current customers sing your praises. Testimonials can be very powerful for showing the value of the product or service you are providing. The best testimonials are ones that sound and feel authentic and include specifics about your business. For example, I was in desperate need of a plumber and Jamie was wil ing to come to my home on a Saturday and fix my bathroom sink. Without his help, my apartment would have surely flooded! Thanks so much.
As you can see that testimonial mentions a specific service and employee as well as how it was beneficial. This feels much more authentic than, I really love working with your company.
You guys are the best! While both are great to share, the first one presents a very specific reason why your customer was pleased with your business. It tells potential customers why they should work with you. When you are working stand out from the competition, showing why your business is better than others is a great way to do that.
Businesses that could benefit: If your business offers a specific product or service, it could benefit from this type of content. It’s best to make sure your testimonials reference specific benefits that were gained from using your products or 19
services. You want them to sell your business, not just tell people how cool you are.
8.
Livestream Video
This type of video content is different from other video because it is usually centered on a specific event or occasion. There is some planning that must be done, but it usually involves simply setting up a camera to record while other things are going on around it. You do want to make sure whatever you’re live streaming wil provide value to your audience, but it’s usually expected that this wil be long form video.
You have to ensure that your video is good quality as well as your internet connection to ensure that the stream isn’t broken while the video is airing. The best way to take the most advantage of this type of video is to stream it and capture it to be used at a later date. You can repurpose the streamed video and share snippets of it on your website after the event is over.
This video serves two purposes. It brings an audience to your website while the video is being live streamed and provides an opportunity for additional page views if you decide to share the video after the event.
Businesses that could benefit: If your organization hosts workshops, seminars, panel discussions or other educational presentations, it could benefit from livestreaming those events.
This is a great way for conferences to expose a portion of the 20
event to people who couldn’t attend to encourage them to attend the next time it takes place. It also helps with securing speakers and presenters. If they know their talk may be featured on the web, they may be more willing to be a part of your event for free or at a reduced cost.
9.
Podcast
If you don’t have the budget to create a video or aren’t comfortable being on camera, you can put together a podcast.
This is an audio only form of content that you can use to educate, inform or entertain your audience. You can make it a one-time occurrence or an ongoing podcast series. When it comes to length of podcasts, it’s much more liberal than video.
People tend to treat podcasts like radio shows which can run for several hours at a time. While you shouldn’t create podcasts that run for several hours, you can do them for anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes.
Depending on how compel ing your discussion is people wil gladly tune in to a 90 minute podcast. Creating podcasts are a bit easier than creating video but it stil takes an element of planning and an investment in a good quality recording system.
You need a good microphone, the ability to capture audio and an audio editing program. You can host the podcast on your own web server or use a service. It’s best to use one of the services that make it possible for you to make your podcast 21
available to a larger audience while featuring it on your website as well.
a. iTunes -
b. Podomatic .
c. Podbean -
d. Podcast Garden
Those are just a few of the tools available that make it possible for you to host your podcast through a service. You should definitely take some time and research to find the one that best serves your needs.
Businesses that could benefit: Niche oriented businesses with a specialized focus would benefit most from a podcast.
Your audience has to have a strong interest in whatever topic you’re discussing to tune in for 30 minutes or more.
Entertainment and pop culture based companies could also benefit from a podcast.
10.
Case studies
These are a little different from testimonials because they’re written in a more official context and format. This is a great way to highlight how your business executed a solution to a problem from start to finish. It can demonstrate the layers that come with operating a business and successfully working with clients.
Case studies are best when they’re no more than a page and a 22
half long. You should keep it brief, and focus on the who, what, why, when, and how of the situation for your clients. You want to show your potential clients what they can expect when working with you.
Businesses that could benefit: Case studies are great for new businesses with a service focus. It allows you to present your methodologies and work process while marketing your business. One of the hesitations customers may have with trying a new business may be knowing whether it is worth the investment. Case studies can help you demonstrate your worth using a practical example.
11.
User Generated Content
This is content that you invite your customers to create and share on your behalf. This is a great way to engage your customers and turn them into marketing representatives for your company. You can invite them to create product demonstrations, reviews or posts about how much they love your product or service. It may require an extra level of management to ensure that this type of content reflects your brand properly. In some cases, it’s not a good idea to try to regulate user-generated content too much because that will discourage people from creating it. You should really consider your audience before actively encouraging this type of content.
Make sure they wil make content that you’ll want to have representing your brand.
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Businesses that could benefit: This type of content is great for any type of product or customer service heavy business. For example, if you have a tech product, you could invite users to create how to guides or product demonstrations. You could also benefit from this type of content if you have a sporting product that you’re selling. Inviting users to create videos showing cool ways they use your product can real y help with sales. Any type of product that has a specialized use can benefit from user-generated content.
That’s a pretty comprehensive list of the different types of content you could use in a content marketing campaign. However, it’s always a good idea to keep an eye out for other forms of content. The thing that makes content marketing valuable is that it’s only limited by your own imagination.
As long as you don’t let your creativity overshadow your product or service, you can explore as many options as you want.
Although there are some businesses that would benefit most from certain pieces of content, you shouldn’t limit yourself. If you see a form of content that you want to use for your business, do it. The key is to ensure that you commit to the process of creating the piece of content and keep the quality as high as possible.
If you are a new business and want to livestream a nontraditional event like a new product unveiling or the opening of a new office, go for it. As long as you have a plan for how the content will help your business, you should do 24
it. With content marketing, your ultimate goal is to increase sales for your business. However, you have the ability to be creative about how you reach that goal.
Now that you have some insight into the different types of content you can create, you have to make sure that your content has a clear objective. Yes your overall objective is to increase sales but how you do that must be decided in advance. There are four objectives you should choose from when creating content.
1. Content that entertains
Do you want your content to be entertaining? If so, you need to look for a creative way to accomplish that objective. This is the type of content that you create to be shared. It can be funny or just very interesting. Since what’s considered entertaining can be subjective, it’s best to commit to your concept to ensure that it comes across effectively.
2. Content that persuades
Do you want to convince your audience of something? Using your content to persuade is a great way to let it work for you long after it’s been created and shared. You should make sure your persuasive message is consistent throughout the content.
3. Content that educates
Do you want to provide value to your audience by educating them?
People often appreciate it when you enlighten them about something 25
and help them increase their level of knowledge on a topic.
Educational content can always be valuable well after it’s been created and shared initially. Do your best to make sure the educational information you provide is as timeless as possible. You want to be able to use your content for as much time as possible.
4. Content to sell or convert
There is some content you create solely for the purpose of turning potential customers into actual customers. It’s perfectly fine to use content solely for this purpose but if you do, it must include a clear call to action.
While there are four distinct objectives, it’s entirely possible to combine them when you’re creating content. However, it’s important that you have a clear purpose with the content. You don’t want to create content with a muddled objective. This is why it’s important to plan your content before it’s created and shared. This allows you to ensure that your objective is clear and that the content does its job effectively.
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Chapter 4: Curating vs. Creating Content
Sometimes business owners stress themselves out about creating the content to use for marketing that the process becomes overly laborious and challenging. You don’t actually have to create every piece of content you use. There is so much information out there that you can stil provide value by wading through it and sharing the most beneficial nuggets of knowledge with your audience.
This is called curating content. It still allows you to display your expertise because you are highlighting information that is the most valuable, accurate and beneficial to your customers. It’s important that you keep in mind that curating content also involves time and effort and can take just as much time as creating content when you’re new to it.
There are pros and cons to both curating and creating content. Both work wel and can help increase sales and exposure for your business. However, it’s necessary to weigh the options before making a choice.
Curating Content
The root of curating content involves taking pieces of media created by someone else and sharing it with your audience. This can be very beneficial when done properly. The main thing to make sure you do is give proper credit to the original creator of the content you’re sharing. If you 27
don’t do that, you wil be plagiarizing the content, not curating it. Think of curating content like gathering information for a research paper. You present the ideas that have been shared by someone else but you give them credit through footnotes, endnotes or a bibliography.
Pros
• You can provide valuable information to your audience When you share wel -curated content, it is still very beneficial to your audience. You are the expert and you know what information wil have the most impact. You are also identifying the information that is most important.
• You can save money on creation costs
Curated content has already been created. You are simply finding the information that’s available and plucking out what you want to use. This can help when you don’t have a budget to create content.
• You can save time
Creating content takes time. If you are using curated content, you save the creation time and can use that time to do something else.
• You can position yourself or your company as a tastemaker When people begin to rely on you to share valuable information with them, they begin to consider you a tastemaker. You showcase your expertise by becoming known for identifying what information is important and should be read and or used. This can 28
real y help if you want to position yourself as an expert in a specific industry.
There is a lot of value in curating content but I caution you to not lean on it too heavily or not take the time to find content that is truly beneficial and will support the branding efforts of your business. There are content curation specialists who wil tout the benefits of it without mentioning the challenges.
Don’t dive into the content curating arena without taking time to consider al sides of it.
Cons
• You have to be careful to verify the information you share You can’t assume that the content you’re sharing is accurate. Remember that whatever content you curate is a reflection of your brand once you share it. Even if you give proper credit to the original creator of the content (which should always happen); you stil take responsibility for sharing the information. If one of your customers complains or finds fault in content that you’ve shared, you wil have to answer for it. You have to be aware of this and make sure you are confident in the accuracy of the information you’re sharing.
• It takes time to curate content well
While it may not take as much time to curate content as it does to create it, you can’t do it haphazardly or in a hurry.
You are using this content as a way to benefit your brand 29
and that must be remembered at all times. This means you have to take the time to really research the content you’l be sharing. Even if you didn’t create it yourself, you should be able to share it with same level of confidence.
• You are providing a platform for whoever created the content By sharing content created by someone else, you are effectively providing that person or organization with a platform. This can benefit you but it can also send your customers to another organization which could be a potential competitor. You have to choose the source of your content carefully to make sure it’s a brand you don’t mind promoting and isn’t a direct competitor.
Curating content can be very valuable and a great way to provide information without having to create it yourself. The keys to good content curation are research, moderation and insight.
1. Research
It’s imperative that you research the content you want to share before you share it. Don’t just read it over and make your decision from that point. Take the time to check the sources given and research the creator of the piece of content. Make sure you aren’t unknowingly supporting a company that isn’t aligned with your branding.
2. Moderation
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There should be a balance in the amount of curated content you share. Don’t become a content curation factory, only known for sharing information created by other organizations. When you do that, you become more of an aggregator and less a curator. You should look for ways to create your own content as wel . It’s important that you create your unique voice while you’re sharing the insights of others.
3. Insight
While you are curating content and sharing it, you also need to include your own perspective. It’s never a good idea to simply share a link to a piece of content. Include your thoughts about the content and why you are sharing it. Doing this shows that you’ve taken the time to real y read and digest the information you’re sharing. This also helps you to include your own voice while demonstrating why this piece of content supports your brand.
If you’re going to incorporate curated content into your content marketing strategy, you must treat it as an extension of your brand just like you would content that you’ve created in house. That may seem like an easier route to go once you consider the pros and cons of curating content. However, there are also pros and cons to creating content.
Creating Content
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When you want to share content, you may decide that you’d rather create it yourself. This is definitely a viable way to go but there are considerations that must be made before you move forward.
Pros
• You have control over the content
When you create your own content, you have creative control over what it looks like and how the information is conveyed. This ensures that the finished product is exactly what you want and a proper reflection of your brand.
• You are the source and the content will best reflect your knowledge and insight
When you create your own content you know that it’s a true reflection of your own level of knowledge and experience.
You can speak confidently about it when asked. You can also comfortably defend it if anyone has questions about it.
• You own the exclusive rights to your content Any content you create is wholly owned by you and your company. You have the ability to repurpose it anyway you see fit. You don’t have to ask permission or make it a point to give credit to someone else. If a piece of content that you create goes viral, you can take full credit for it and reap all of the benefits.
• You can specifically tailor your content to your audience 32
When you curate content, you don’t have the ability to tailor it to your specific audience. You have to represent it as is.
When you create your own content, you have the flexibility to make it speak most effectively to your target demographic.
This is important because you may have multiple audiences and need to alter your message accordingly.
There are some great benefits to creating your own content which is why so many businesses do it. But there are also some cons which must be considered and weighed before beginning to create your own content.
Cons
• Creating content can be very time consuming When you want to create and share content as a reflection of your business, you should be prepared to put the time into doing it the best way possible. This means you could end up taking a lot of time to make sure your content looks the way you want and communicates your message in the way that best supports your brand.
• Creating content can cost money
Depending on the type of content you want to create, you could end up having to make a financial investment to do it wel . Since any content you create is a direct reflection of your brand, you don’t want to skimp on the quality.
Sometimes that quality costs money.
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• You may be pressured to create content consistently Once you’ve created a piece of content, you may feel pressured to do it again. Some forms of content lend themselves very well to being one off creations that you can use consistently. Other forms of content can put you in a position where you’l want to create more once you’ve done it successfully. This can lead to an added layer of expectation on top of the other expectations you’re working to meet.
• Your piece of content may only reflect one aspect of your business
Most businesses are multifaceted with different layers and insights that make up one brand. Effective content should be singularly focused which means you have to choose one aspect of your brand to highlight with it. This means that your content may create the perception that your brand is one sided.
Creating content is a very viable piece of a strong content marketing strategy. The keys to creating good content are preparation, authenticity and thinking conservatively.
1. Preparation
The best way to avoid unnecessary costs is to prepare before you begin creating content. It’s necessary to determine the overall scope and vision of your piece of content to see where you may encounter 34
costs or roadblocks. In these instances, it may be best to create a different type of content that wil serve the same purpose but for a smaller investment of time, money or both.
2. Authenticity
The point of creating content is to share your knowledge and voice with your audience. You have to do this authentically in order for it to be beneficial. You don’t want your content to come across as too sales-y or disingenuous. Find your authentic voice before you begin creating content and work to make sure that it’s a common thread in all of your marketing strategies.
3. Thinking conservatively
Some business owners end up spending a lot of time and money creating content because their ideas are really lofty. Sometimes rockets and rainbows are the only way to go but other times you can scale it down some to still get your message across. If you are a big thinker, it’s often important to run your idea past a more conservative thinker to see if there are ways you can make your idea more realistic. That doesn’t mean you have to make your content less effective, but you should be open to making it less showy. While people are impressed by bells and whistles, they stick around for value. Focus on providing value.
When you are creating a content marketing campaign, it’s important to consider all of your options and that includes how you get your content. As with any other element of business, there are pros and cons to deciding 35
whether you want to curate content or create it yourself. It’s best to educate yourself then make an informed decision.
It’s ultimately up to you to decide what will work best. A mix of curated and created content can be most beneficial. It allows you to benefit from both without worrying about the pressure that comes with properly maintaining either. This is yet another reason why taking the time to plan and prepare your content marketing strategy is necessary.
You can sit down and create a map for how you plan to introduce and implement your content. You can decide the best mix of curated and created content and how you wil share it for maximum effectiveness. You may want to start with more curated content while you work up to having the time to create your own good, solid content.
Taking the time to research and read through the different type of content wil not only provide you with information to share it wil also show you the different types of content that already exists. It could give you some inspiration for types of content you can make and the ability to see what works and what doesn’t. While this planning does take time initially, it will save you time in the long run.
One of the reasons business owners spend a lot of time on content and run the risk of becoming overwhelmed or underwhelmed about the benefits, is because they jump in with both feet without preparing in advance. Don’t do that. Even if you don’t think you have the time to stop and focus on crafting a new strategy, it’s worth it if you take the time.
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You’ll get much more benefit from content marketing if you prepare accordingly.
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Chapter 5: Use Content to Get Leads
You may be wondering how content marketing can directly support your bottom line. There are a variety of ways but this chapter wil specifically discuss how you can use it to get leads. Yes, it is entirely possible to take any of the forms of content and use one of them to generate a list of warm leads.
This is one of the content marketing avenues. In fact, if you’re new to content marketing this is one way to become acclimated to it. You have a clear goal from the beginning and you are creating a strategy to support that goal. Here’s how you do it.
1. Determine how many leads you’d like to get over the course of this content marketing campaign and how long it will last.
It’s important that you begin with the end in mind. You should know what you’re working towards and how long you’ll be doing it.
Sometimes business owners can launch great ideas and begin campaigns designed to improve business but if there is no clear end game, the idea can eventually falter and the campaign can go on forever. You need a clear ending to give you a deadline to work towards. Don’t worry. You can tweak the number of leads if your research cal s for it but you can’t tweak the length of the campaign.
2. Decide how you wil capture the emails to build your email list 38
There are email marketing tools you can use that wil help you build your email list. Before you start your campaign or create your content, you need to know where the information will go. Don’t try to facilitate this whole process yourself. Trying to keep track of emails can become overwhelming and tedious. Take advantage of the tools out there to make it easy for you. Some of them have a free plan or a free trial while others cost a monthly fee. Take the time to do some research to choose the tool that wil work best for your business. Here are some of the more popular tools to get you started: a. Aweber – http://aweber.com
b. MailChimp – http://mailchimp.com
c. GetResponse – http://getresponse.com
d. Constant Contact – http://constantcontact.com
These are some you can look into to get an idea of how they work. All of these sources wil help you gather emails, manage your email list and communicate with your list. If you’re not sure which one to go with, try talking to other business owners in your industry to see which one works for them. Don’t make your final decision based solely on price. Take some time and make sure it has the specific features you need to support your business.
3. Set up your email marketing tool
Don’t dive into this process without setting up your email marketing funnel first. This is the value in using a tool over trying to do it yourself. Most tools have the process set up for you. All you have to 39
do is go in and create the messages you want to send to your customers when they enter your sales funnel. Take advantage of the tutorials and other how to guides available showing you how to make the most of the tool. Go through and familiarize yourself with how it works. You should also make it a point to see how it handles the distribution of files via email. If you can’t find this information on the website, send a message to customer service. This will come in handy later on in this process so check on this now.
4. Create a piece of content that you are wil ing to give away for free While it’s completely understandable that you want to benefit from any piece of content you create, it’s not always a good idea to charge for it. Sometimes a valuable piece of content can be used to build up your sales funnel which will turn into income down the line. It doesn’t have to be a huge piece of content that takes a lot of time to create.
As long as it has a high perceived value, it wil be well received by your audience. Here are some types of content you can use to give away.
a. eBook
A short but informative eBook is a great piece of content to give away. It shouldn’t be more than 25 pages long or less than 10.
You want it to have a high perceived value and if it’s too short, that value won’t be there. If it’s too long, you’ll be less inclined to give it away because you will have taken a lot of time and effort to create it. Keep it relatively short but informative without giving away too much information.
b. Coupon
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You could offer a coupon for a discount on any products and services you sell. It has to be a coupon with a high perceived value so it can’t be 10% off of your least expensive product/service. People have to want to get the coupon and be wil ing to provide some information in exchange for it. But the coupon shouldn’t be so good that you feel ripped off when it’s redeemed. Look for balance.
c. Free product
If you have a product that you can easily give away in bulk, that’s a great thing to give away for free. Yes an eBook is a type of product but you may have others that you can easily use.
d. Free consulting session
If you offer consulting services, you could give away a free session in return for joining your email list. Look for ways to keep the session manageable. You can do it electronically and offer to answer specific questions or you can make it a short session. The key is to make sure you aren’t giving too much of your time with the free session so that it becomes a burden.
Make it doable.
The point is for you to not put yourself in debt or in a state of struggle to do this. However, you should definitely have something you can give people in exchange for them sharing their email address. You also want to offer something they wil find interesting. If the piece of content is of enough value, you wil find people that are truly interested in what your company has to offer.
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5. Make your content available
Now you have to promote the free piece of content that you have.
You should create a sign up form on your website that people have to input their email address into gain access to the giveaway. This form should be prominently featured on your website with a clear call to action directing people to share their email addresses. You’ll also have to do some promotion across other networks. This is a great time to make use of social media advertising. You can either create an advertising campaign through Facebook or Google Ads. The purpose of the campaign is to let people know about the giveaway.
You have to do something to make your special deal easy to be discovered. If you already have a presence on social media, use that profile or page to share your special as well.
Once you’ve made your special deal available, you can start keeping track of how many email addresses you get. Since this campaign should have a clear end date, you can start the clock once you’ve made your offer available to the public. This should give you a concentrated period of time to let your campaign run while you measure the results.
Aim for at least three months. If this is your first content marketing campaign, three months wil give you some time to see how things go without committing you to something longer. This wil give you the ability to assess what worked and what didn’t. You also gain great insight into your ability to execute a campaign when you actually do it.
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If you’ve done a campaign in the past and are comfortable with them, you may want to let it run longer than three months but it shouldn’t last more than six months total. You don’t want your campaign to go on so long that it’s virtually never ending. You need time to see how well it works so you can make any necessary adjustments. In fact, it may be best to stick with the three month time frame and run the campaign several times, making adjustments along the way.
While you are collecting the email addresses, create a plan for how you will move those leads through the sales funnel. You need to have an idea of how often you plan to communicate with them and what you’re going to share. It’s important to make sure you don’t inundate their email inboxes with information. But it’s just as important that you don’t disappear once you have their information.
These are warm leads that you can target for potential customers. Make sure you deliver the free content right away and create a schedule for when you will contact them and how often. It’s best that all of your communications not be sales solicitations. The same way that you garnered their interest is the same way you can keep them in your sales funnel.
Provide value while asking for the sale and people won’t automatically unsubscribe from your email list. You can use this form of content marketing to consistently build your sales funnel. You can also use it as a way to become more comfortable with content marketing overal . Once you’ve done it a few times you can start expanding your use of content.
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Chapter 6: Content Marketing and Social
Social media and content marketing can work really well together, especially for small business owners and entrepreneurs with limited resources. Once you’ve created a piece of content that you’d like to use for marketing and set up a functioning email list, you can use social media to look for leads.
There are four social networking websites that all business owners should be aware of. While you shouldn’t try to maintain a profile on all of them, you need to know they exist. Here is a short description of each of those websites as a refresher.
This is currently the largest social networking website in the world. It has been said to have over a bil ion users. In fact, some people would say that the number of Facebook users makes it the size of a country. The billion users are on the website for a variety of reasons but they’re largely social.
People use Facebook as a tool for keeping in touch with friends, family, classmates, business associates and anyone else they want to connect with.
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Because there are so many people using Facebook, it’s very valuable for businesses. There are about 15 mil ion businesses using Facebook as a marketing and community building tool. One of the reasons that number is so high is because it’s free to have a Facebook account whether you’re a business or an individual. Another reason that number is so high is because being on Facebook gives you direct access to a lot of people in one central place.
Not only does Facebook have a free option for reaching your audience, it also has a paid service called Facebook Ads. This allows you to run ads on Facebook targeting a very specific demographic. You can also do it while working with any sized budget. You choose the keywords, audience and region you want to target and set the budget then run your campaign.
You pay a set amount for each person that clicks on your ad. Once your budget runs out, your ad stops running. Then you can go in and review the statistics and see how effective your ad was at getting leads.
With these two different ways to engage and interact with the Facebook community, it makes sense that about 15 mil ion businesses would have a presence on the website.
This is one of the largest social networking websites with a focus on micro blogging. Twitter users communicate through short 140 character posts.
There are about half a mil ion users on Twitter and over four mil ion 45
businesses on it. It’s free for a business to create a profile and start using Twitter. Many businesses use Twitter to communicate with their audience.
Some of them use it to feature giveaways and share special offers while others use it as a customer service tool.
Twitter provides a lot of value to businesses because it makes it possible for them to have conversations with their audience. It also makes it possible for them to tune in to the conversations being had and gain some insight into what people really want. Some brands have found very creative ways to leverage their Twitter community and experience a lot of benefit from it.
In addition to the free profile that every business can create, Twitter has a new advertising feature. You can either promote your specific Twitter account or promote specific tweets. It works two different ways.
Promoted Account
If you want to get more Twitter followers overall, you would create a campaign to promote your account. You choose your budget and are charged only when someone follows you. Once your budget is exhausted, your campaign wil stop running.
Promoted Tweets
If you want to highlight a specific tweet, you would create a campaign to promote that tweet. You choose your budget and are charged when someone interacts with your tweet in some way. This means that any time someone retweets, favorites or replies to your tweet you 46
wil be charged. Once your budget is exhausted, your tweet will stop being promoted.
Twitter is a very active community and the new advertising option makes it very valuable for businesses to reach a large audience at once. It’s even more valuable because you don’t pay until your tweet garners some kind of interaction or response.
With over 250 million users, LinkedIn is a social media community with a strong business to business audience. It’s largely used by companies as a recruiting tool and by people seeking job opportunities. The format of the profile is like an interactive resume and the groups are all centered on a type of professional development. People can only request connections from others that they have some kind of relationship with or have been referred to by someone else.
LinkedIn is the top business focused social media network. It’s free for businesses to create a page as long as there is a personal profile created by the person setting it up. There are different safeguards in place to ensure that LinkedIn remains a valuable network for the business community. LinkedIn has a focus on networking which is why users can’t randomly send requests to anyone. It also has different communities set up for individuals with similar professional interests can come together.
Those safeguards have worked pretty well so far which is why there are about three mil ion businesses using the network. You can rest assured 47
that the people following your business are doing it because they’re interested in your company specifically.
As a business user, you can share information about your company, including the website. You can also share company updates. In fact, the best way to make your LinkedIn page valuable is to actively share updates and information on a regular basis.
As with the other social networking websites, LinkedIn has a feature that allows you to purchase sponsored updates. You choose your target audience and how you’d like to pay and set your bid. Your post wil be visible to that audience until your budget is exhausted then your update will stop being featured. The same goes for any ads you’d like to run.
You can run ads whether you have a business account or not but if you want to establish your brand on LinkedIn, it’s best to create a company page.
It started out as an online scrapbooking website but now Pinterest is one of the largest social media communities. It has over 70 million users. Initially the audience on Pinterest was largely made up of women who would share pictures of recipes, weddings, fashion and other women oriented lifestyle images.
It has since exploded with a growing and broadening audience and businesses began to see the benefit in joining the Pinterest community. It’s 48
free for business to join Pinterest and there isn’t an official advertising feature just yet. Pinterest is experimenting with having promoted pins but there’s no definitive program currently in place.
Using Pinterest gives you access to the community of 70 mil ion users that enjoy interacting with images and videos. You can use Pinterest’s visual focus to create an image that supports your brand.
Even though you can’t run ads on Pinterest, you can share pins that link back to your website and encourage people to make a purchase. Some businesses have experienced success with creating pin boards around a specific type of product and encouraging users to click through to purchase that product.
While these are four of the more popular social media websites, it’s not necessary for you to create a profile for your business on all of them. In fact, you should choose the one that works best for you and focus on that one. It takes time to really take advantage of any social media website even if you incorporate an advertising campaign into your use of it.
However, many business owners aren’t sure how to best benefit from the use of social media. Here’s an example of how you can use Facebook to build a community and sales leads.
Facebook for Sales Leads
You have to create a Facebook profile before you can do anything business oriented on Facebook. Once your profile is set up with a decent amount of information, you can create a Facebook Page for your business.
Put your personal picture on your page and include a description with a link to your website. Now you’re ready to start using Facebook to build your business.
1. Invite your personal friends to like your Facebook page.
This is why you should have an active account before you set up a page. It helps to jump start your likes with your own personal friends.
By having your personal photo on the page, you increase the odds that your friends will like your page out of support for you.
2. Jazz up your page with your company logo and an interesting cover photo.
Find an interesting image to represent your company. This should be your cover photo. Then change your main picture to your company logo. Use a cover photo that incorporates you and your company logo. You want to find a way to prominently feature your face so your friends will be more likely to like the page. Make these changes after you’ve sent out the initial invites and some of your friends have liked your page. By doing it this way, any updates you make will show up in your feed and theirs giving you additional exposure.
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3. Start sharing posts on your page.
This is a great place to start sharing curated content. Look for interesting articles, videos and pictures you can share with your new community. Keep an eye out for ways to engage them wherever possible.
4. Create an advertising campaign using Facebook Ads to get more likes to your page.
Get more likes for your page by doing a small budget advertising campaign. Don’t spend more than $50 for the campaign. You shouldn’t break the bank with this campaign. You just want to get a few more followers. Plus this is a great way for you to familiarize yourself with the way Facebook Ads works.
5. Continue to engage your growing community using content.
You want to keep finding ways to engage with your audience.
Experiment with different forms of content and observe how your audience interacts with it. This wil give you some great insight into the types of content that is most effective with your audience.
6. Create a content marketing campaign.
Create a campaign where you giveaway a piece of content in exchange for emails using an email marketing service. Make sure you put the campaign on your website and look for ways to promote it.
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7. Create an advertising campaign on Facebook to get more emails added to your list.
Once you’ve created the campaign and featured it prominently on your website you should run an ad on Facebook. You can keep the budget modest with the idea of running it a few times while you’re doing the campaign.
8. Invite members of your growing Facebook community to join your email list.
You can invite your Facebook community to join your email list and get a free download of the piece of content you’ve created.
You have now officially launched and executed a Facebook marketing campaign using content. If you keep engaging your growing audience while running short, budget friendly advertising campaigns, you wil experience some measurable results. Yes you wil have had to make some financial investment but it won’t be expensive and you will have an active presence on the largest social networking website in the world.
This is just an example of how you can use Facebook in conjunction with your content marketing campaign to get more sales leads. It’s fairly simplistic and if you take the time to map it out in advance, you can hand it off to a qualified assistant so you can focus on other business building activities.
It’s not hard to benefit from social media. All it takes is an understanding of the outlet you want to use and a plan to make the most of it. The plan is 52
necessary to ensure that you are getting the most benefits out of your social profile. It’s also necessary so you can use it again in the future.
The great thing about social media business profiles is that people expect a level of marketing when they join your community. As long as you balance that marketing with engagement and look for ways to provide value as often as possible, you’l be able to really benefit from your use of social media.
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