The Content Marketing Hurricane: Using Proven Content Marketing Principles to Blow Your Competition Away! by Justin P. Lambert - HTML preview

32 PREPARING FOR LANDFALL

When you finally reach the Hurricane stage, your content marketing strategy is operating like a well-oiled machine.

You're spinning through the Instant Expert and Killer Content cycles quickly and efficiently, constantly improving, building strength and power as you go.

You've definitely made a name for yourself at this point, and absolutely everyone (who matters) has taken notice. And a lot of them are already starting to take action!

The eye of the storm

One important benefit you should be experiencing as you enter this stage of your Hurricane's development is the fact that you have work coming in. You're starting to profit from all that hard work you've put in.

As a real hurricane progresses from a tropical depression to a tropical cyclone, the eye – a relatively calm circle in the center of that chaotic storm – grows to potentially miles across.

As the storm passes over land and water, the calm at the eye of the storm provides an incredible contrast to the fury of the storm surrounding that eye.

In Content Marketing Hurricane terms, that central eye is where you do your work.

You see, all the furious effort you've put into building your Content Marketing Hurricane has combined to create a powerful marketing machine that is constantly out there in the world spreading your name and your message near and far, sucking in prospects and leads, and building your reputation for you.

Meanwhile, in the calm at the center of that storm, you're closing deals and getting paid.

If it's done right, it's truly a beautiful thing.

Time for advanced basics

Now that your strategy is transitioning into a full-fledged Hurricane, it's time to head out and take another glance at the big picture.

You're not just working on one piece of content at a time any more, and you're not just experimenting with publication.

Instead, you're turning into a media mogul in charge of Brand You, and that means you need to take some time to think about what you've really been building here.

To that end, let's go over some things I like to call “advanced basics”. In other words, this is stuff you probably know, but  that's easy to forget in the day-to-day fury of keeping the storm spinning.

Remember, you're heading for landfall here. There are a lot of members of your target audience living on the coast, and they're watching your Hurricane heading right for them.

It would be a real shame to let it all fall apart just before you get there because you forgot what you were really doing.

What is content marketing?

Content marketing means different things to different people, because out of necessity, it has to be customized to each individual, organization or industry that uses it.

But, for the sake of our discussion, I'm going to go with the following general definition:

Content marketing is the consistent, strategic production of valuable information, through media your current or potential customers enjoy consuming, in order to help them know, like and trust you, viewing you as a valued source of help at the right time.

A few points that I underlined in the above definition bear some quick elaboration:

• Valuable – Content marketing is not about throwing together a few paragraphs of meaningless junk, stuffed full of keywords for the Google robots and telling people something they already know. That's called wasting time. The kind of content we're talking about here is information you could easily sell, but choose instead to share freely. Information your customer values.
• Enjoyable – To have true value, your customer needs to enjoy taking in your content. This means a few things: first, you need to understand your customer and figure out what type of message she'll get the most out of. But also, since everyone learns and engages with information differently, this dictates the variety of different types of content you're going to need to consider creating if you want to reach your target audience effectively.
• Timely – One of the most difficult, but rewarding, aspects of good content marketing is its consistency. Producing high-quality content on a consistent basis isn't easy. Distributing it effectively and working to engage your audience wherever your content goes isn't easy either. But it's a blast! And it's how you're going to manage to strike the right chord with the right person at the right time, bringing the reward back to you.

Keep this definition in mind at all times.

Print it out and post it above your desk. Repeat it five times every morning.

If you forget what you're doing when you're marketing with content, your powerful Content Marketing Hurricane will end up more like a pile of manure hitting a fan.

Why is it so important?

Marketing has changed dramatically in the last few decades.

At this point, businesses are going to sink or swim based on their ability to successfully implement a good content marketing strategy.

Small or independent businesses, traditionally the backbone of most free market economies, are in the very best position to leverage of the power of content marketing to further level the playing field in their industries.

Here are a few huge benefits your small business can experience if you're doing content marketing right:

• Search Engine Ranking – By consistently adding quality content to your web presence, whether it be in the form of blog posts, landing pages, social media conversation, online video or podcasts, you're creating two things Google absolutely loves: relevant information their audience will appreciate, and links that connect your content to other sources of relevant information their audience will appreciate. But, it has to be written correctly and distributed properly to accomplish this vital purpose.
• Expert Status – Loads of free, valuable content, distributed widely and ranking high in the search engines, creates a certain aura about you. Your name becomes synonymous with quality information about your subjects of choice, so you become the go-to-person or company in peoples' minds. Soon, your audience will be seeking you out when they have questions or concerns about your subject, and that's where the tires meet the road.
• Inbound Marketing – Well-planned and strategic content marketing is a huge part of an inbound marketing plan. Unlike old-style interruptive marketing (such as telemarketing calls at dinner time, pop-up windows on websites or TV ads) inbound marketing relies on broadcasting information that your target audience (your hottest prospects) want to consume and share with other like-minded people. This way, when you're ready to offer something for sale to your prospects, they don't need to get over the initial “who is this and why are they trying to sell me” phase that always accompanies a telemarketing call or advertisement.

Always remember the inherent value of content marketing, especially when you're crunched for time and have to choose between polishing up that next blog post or going to bed early.

It's simply the way of the world these days. If you're not marketing with content, you're falling behind.

So it pays to do it, and it pays (even better) to do it right.

How much? How soon? How often?

The short answer is... it depends.

Every strategy is different as it fills different needs and targets different people.

But the bottom line fact is, it's not quick and it's not necessarily easy. To be truly effective, it's going to take a lot of content, distributed far and wide as often as possible. So you're best off starting as soon as you possibly can.

This entire book has been about creating the foundation for a successful content marketing strategy, but if I had to sum up the “next steps” you'll need to take after successfully implementing all the suggestions in this book, I'd say this:

“Create as much quality content as you possibly can and spread it as far as you possibly can, right now!”

Because the Internet is just getting bigger while your audience's attention span gets smaller. You have no time to lose.

How do you get started?

The more research you do online about the subject of content marketing, the more conflicting information you'll find. I'm not going to sit here and tell you my methods are the only way to succeed, or even the right way for you.

As I said at the beginning of the book, I'm not promising you anything, because this industry changes on a dime.

But, since it's worked well for me so far, I'll let you know how I would do it if I were starting from scratch tomorrow.

Brainstorming

Here are a few questions I'd ask myself:

• Who is my target audience?
• What do they want and need to know about my area of expertise?
• How far can I narrow down my subject while still having plenty to say?
• What valuable information would people likely be willing to pay for?
• And how can I best offer it to them free?

The answers to these questions should give me a starting point for brainstorming content ideas. I would sit down for an hour or two and generate a minimum of 100 ideas that would appeal to my target audience, and can be communicated in ways my target audience will appreciate.

For each of the ideas I come up with, I'd try to quickly outline two or three main points I want to cover under that topic.

Then, I'd think about which content format might be most appropriate for each subject I've written down.

Many will work well as textual blog posts. Others may do better as videos, or presentations. Some may include audio, such as interviews with other experts.  Many will be able to be re-purposed in multiple formats, which works even better.

Editorial Calendar

Next, I'd need to be brutally honest with myself:

• What schedule can I commit to for creating content regularly?
• What can I commit to doing to distribute and promote my content?
• How long can I realistically keep up the schedule I'm arranging?

These were tough questions to answer truthfully, especially when I was just starting out. But now I'm not surprised at the amount of time it takes to make this happen.

Of course, it could be different for you.

Reading this book and completing the 25 exercises it contains helped, I hope.

But, unless words flow fast and smooth from your mind to your fingertips, and you know social media like the back of your hand, you're probably going to find the entire blogging/syndicating/retweeting thing a bit overwhelming.

Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, many would-be success stories have never occurred because the hopeful content marketers got caught up in one thing or another and found they were unable or unwilling to stick to their content creation schedule.

I'll stress again, it's not easy. But it's so worth it.

Once I had a realistic idea in mind and in writing as to how much content I could produce and how often, I'd set up an official editorial calendar.

You can do this on any paper or on-screen calendar program you like, as long as it's something you plan to keep in front of you at all times.

This becomes your Bible, where you look for guidance when times get hard.

I'd insert my 100 or more ideas for blog posts, videos, podcasts, etc. into the calendar on the days I want to publish them over the course of the next several months, making sure to build in time for plenty of research and rewriting.

Then, I'd buckle down and start pounding out the content using the Instant Expert and Killer Content cycles we went over in Sections Two and Three.

Strategy

This whole book has been about strategy to some extent, but of course I've barely scratched the surface when it comes to the more advanced strategy details you'll eventually want to know.

A lot of those details will come to you through experience, but for more inspiration and information on the subject than I could ever provide you, I've included a Recommended Reading section at the back of the book that includes some great books on strategy.

But, before we wrap this thing up, here are a few items to consider as you begin working your way through your editorial calendar:

• Although each individual piece of content is valuable in itself, “the hurricane” can't build up speed and intensity unless each piece builds on the last. That doesn't mean each piece needs to directly connect like an ongoing series but rather that each piece needs to work together with a cohesive theme and recognizable voice so people can start putting things together in their minds.
• Different kinds of messages lend themselves to different kinds of media. So, although a particular topic may work very well in a 750-word blog post, if you're going to re-purpose that content to make a video, reading the blog post into the camera is NOT going to work. Experiment with the different methods and media until you find the right mix that works well for you and your audience, then focus on what works.
• Always keep your goals in mind. If you are using content marketing to eventually sell a product or service to a group of people who have shown themselves to be hot prospects for that sale, make sure your content production is heading toward that goal. It would be foolish to try to sell them on every piece of content. As a matter of fact, that would be disastrous to your content marketing strategy. But at the same time, it's possible to get so caught up in the production of valuable content that you never get around to a call-to-action. Remember that you're not looking for readers, you're looking for customers.
• Social Media (such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+) is a fantastic tool for getting your content out there in front of your audience, sharing what you're doing and starting conversations about it. But, it's also a huge time waster if you're not careful. You absolutely MUST take advantage of this technology to quickly and economically distribute your content and build relationships with your audience. But don't get so caught up in it your content creation or the other work your content is intended to market begins to suffer.
• Finally, remember that your strategy is fluid and will need to change as circumstances change and feedback comes in. Don't stubbornly stick to a plan that's not working. Test, test, test. And change as needed to take advantage of the information you receive.

Above all, have fun.

I know I've said it before, but it's worth repeating:  If you're not having fun, your audience can tell, and they're not going to have much fun either.

Now let's wrap things up with the last two short chapters: a lesson in what NOT to do, and what TO do.