10 Ways To Boost Your Content Marketing

www.tribalcafe.co.ukhttp://www.facebook.com/thetribalcafe

10 WAYSTO BOOST

YOURCONTENT

MARKETING

http://www.tribalcafe.co.uk/

http://www.facebook.com/thetribalcafe



Gary Fox is an internet marketing consultant and founder of TribalCafe.

He focuses on helping businesses, non-profits and government harness social media and web technology to achieve their online goals.

Personal twitter@somebrainfuel- ask away!

Gary Fox

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http://www.twitter.com/somebrainfuel

http://www.twitter.com/somebrainfuel


The Trends In Content Marketing….……….….…4Key Trends………………………………………………………..………..5Why Is Content Marketing Important……..……………………..6Content Marketing By the numbers……………………..………..810 Ways To Boost Your Content…..……………………………..12Set Goals and Objectives….………………………………..……...14Use Marketing Personas……………………………………..………16Audit Your Content….………………………………………..……….19Map Content To Buying Cycle..…………………………..……….20Create Editorial Calendar……………………………..…….……...21Produce Amazing Content……………………………………….….23Tell Compelling Stories……………………………………………….26Harness Social Media…………………………………..…..………..28Create Clear Call To Actions……………………………..…….…..32Measure and Improve……………………………………..…………35About TribalCafe.……….….…………………………36

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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CHAPTER 1THE BIG TREND - CONTENTMARKETING

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10 WAYS TO BOOST YOURCONTENT MARKETING

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THE TREND

90% of respondents believe that content marketing will become more important over the next 12 months 73% of digital marketers agree that ‘brands are becoming publishers’.

64% agree that content marketing ‘is becoming its own discipline’.




www.tribalcafe.co.ukhttp://www.facebook.com/thetribalcafe // Page 6


WHY IS CONTENT MARKETING IMPORTANT?

Content marketing: A way of creating and sharing content to promote an idea, engage an audience and spur them to action. It’s an integrated, targeted approach to marketing with quality content at its heart.

Content Marketing Definition

Content demonstrates expertise

Content improves visibility

Content boosts word-of-mouth

Content gives you a wider (and stronger) reach

Content improves your SEO

Content Marketing Benefits





If Google thinks your site is relevant, it will rank it more highly


SEO

PAID

SOCIAL

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)Getting found on search engines is vital to generating traffic to your website.Content improves your SEO.

Paid Advertising increases your exposure to your target audience. Telling people now has given way to solving problems.Content improves ad engagement.

If people find good quality content they will share it with others who they think will also enjoy it. Quality counts.Content builds brand reach

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CHAPTER 2CONTENTMARKETINGBY THE NUMBERS

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BENEFITS79% use content marketing for brand awareness, 74% for customer acquisition and 71% for lead generation.Source: Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs

80% of business decision makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus an advertisement.Source: Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs

90% of consumers find custom content useful, and 78% believe that organizations providing custom content are interested in building good relationships with them.Source: Engage

90% of consumers find custom content useful, and 78% believe that organizations providing custom content are interested in building good relationships with them.Source: Content Marketing Association

77% of people understand that an organization’s goal for custom content is to sell them something, but are OK with it as long as it provides valueSource: Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs






BENEFITSMarketers, on average, spend over 25% of their marketing budget on content marketing. Source: B2B Marketing Insider

Interesting content is a top 3 reason people follow brands on social media. Source: Content+

Blogs give websites 434% more indexed pages and 97% more indexed links. Source: Content+

The average cost to generate a lead through inbound marketing ($143) is about half the average for outbound marketing ($373). Source: Hubspot

B2B companies with blogs generate 67% more leads per month on average than non-blogging firms. Source: Social Media B2B






BENEFITS

Cost per Acquisition

Website traffic





CHAPTER 310 WAYSTO BOOST YOUR CONTENT

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Set GoalsandObjectives

DevelopCustomerPersona(s)

AuditYourContent

MapContentTo BuyingCycle

CreateEditorialCalendar

ProduceYourContent

TellCompellingStories

HarnessYour SocialMedia

Use CallTo ActionsFor Leads

MeasureAndImprove

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80% of marketers incorrectly begin with tactics instead of goals

SET GOALS ANDOBJECTIVES

Every business or organisation has objectives. They are simply a matter of deciding where you want to be and when you want to get there.

Strategies are the things you need to do to accomplish your objectives. If your objective is where you want your company to be, the strategy is the route you need to take to get there.

OBJECTIVE STRATEGY TACTICS

For example: if the purpose of your marketing plan to launch a new product.

If so your objective might read:

“Achieve £500k of sales first month.”

For example: if the objective is to achieve £500k first month your strategies might be one or more of the following:

• Develop promotional offer to existing customer base

• Promote through top ten resellers

• Develop Paid advertising campaigns though Facebook & Google

Whereas strategies establish a broad outline of how you want to achieve your objectives, tactics are specific actions.

For example: If you strategy is to develop a paid advertising campaign through Facebook:

Develop a tab on a Facebook page called “Special Offer For Fans” Set A/B multivariate ads targeted at 32-40 year old mums.





Brand reach – the numbers

Leads – the numbers

Conversion ratio

Average sales/profit

Total sales and profit

Total sales and profit

Total sales/profit by channel

Total sales by month

Number of customers

Number of leads

KNOW YOUR NUMBERSBrand exposure

SET GOALS ANDOBJECTIVES

Taking time at this stage will help you in the long run. Once you have produced an initial plan go back over it and make sure it is realistic and achievable.

Use your peers and others to ask questions about your plan – this can be a good litmus test as to how well it work. If you can answer all the questions and the numbers stack up then you are ready.

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• What are their biggest concerns, needs, and interests?

• Where can you reach them – on search engines, social media, or blogs?

• What kinds of content do they prefer?

These questions will help you develop buyer personas.

Download a marketing persona template here

Develop a detailed picture of your target audience in order to create optimal content for them. Who are your ideal prospects?

Got To Download Page

USE MARKETING PERSONAS




http://www.tribalcafe.co.uk/download-free-marketing-persona-template/


Develop a detailed picture of your target audience in order to create optimal content for them. Who are your ideal prospects?


CREATE YOURPERSONAS

DEFINE YOURSEGMENTS

RESEARCH • What are the biggest problems they are trying to solve?

• What does he or she need most?• What information are they typically

searching for?• What trends are influencing their

business or• personal success?

Developing your marketing personas should be aligned to how you segment your customers base e.g. you might sell in different market sectors and so need to develop marketing personas based on these sectors.

Key Action: Keep It Simple To Start With – If you make it too complicated people in your business will get lost and not buy-in to using them. Get traction and focus on what will make a difference.






Use it to produce

content that helps them

Analyse the customer path to buying

Analysing the path that prospects take on the journey to becoming a customer is a great way to get insights about the needs and challenges of your target audience.

Produce powerful targeted marketing communication that speak directly to your target audiences needs, values, interests and needs you can increase your engagement.

People like to know that you understand them. A good marketing communication should speak to your target customer in a way that they understand.

These two marketing methods help you use the right content at each point of the customer buying process.





CONDUCT A CONTENT AUDIT

Once you have constructed buyer personas and developed a better understanding of your audience, it is time to stock of what you currently have and use.

Video

eBook

Blog Posts

Whitepapers

Examine the content you’ve created in the past year or more – everything from blog posts, ebooks, videos and whitepapers.

Create a spreadsheet that lists all these items by their title and label them using the headings below.

ContentType

Topic(tag)

FrequencyProduced

Traffic Shares Leads

CONDUCT A FORMALCONTENT AUDIT

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MAP THE JOURNEY

Define thepersona’smotivation ateach stage.

I need to get more done, faster and easier.

I want to see what other options there are to improve workflow

I want to know the pros and cons.

want to make sure this is a good idea and is easy to implement

I want this product because it ___

What questionsis your personaasking ateach stage?

Is there some way to improve workflow and make things easier and integrated?

What does thisproduct do?

How is this productdifferent from what I do today?

How hard will this be for me to use? How much learning is involved and what help is available?

How do I get training and support?

Define thekey messagesand valuepropositions

There are bettertools than whatyou’re using today, so you can do moreand save time and money.

Here’s how easy itis to use, faster to use, all datain one place, keepeveryone updatedautomatically inreal time.

Feature comparisons,detailed how-todemos.

Migrating is easier,training is free.

N/A

What do theyrespond to?

Short simple online demos & case studies

Short videos showing key usages with tool.Webinar taught byProfessional.

Offer matrixcomparing thefeatures.

Free trainingon use. Knowingimport of datais automated.Process/how-toguides.

Little to noinvolvement.Provide feedback/inputon likely adoption.

MAP THE JOURNEY

Your content will play an important part of how a customer makes a decision about your business. By providing helpful and educational information you can reduce the ‘friction’ to buy. Consider your buyer personas and study the results of your past marketing efforts to identify the key stages that a prospect goes through before becoming a customer.

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CREATE A CONTENT CALENDAR

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An editorial calendar is your roadmap for content creation, showing you what kind of content to create, what topics to cover, which personas to target, and how often to publish to best support your strategy. It also helps to keep you focused.





CREATE A CONTENT CALENDAR

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Producing great content needn’t be as hard as you think. In your organisation there will probably be people who have knowledge and expertise you can tap into. Use interviews to draw out useful information and also make sure you give credit to those people in your article, blog or podcast.

Follow industry reports and events these are a great resource for spotting latest news, impact of market changes, mergers and acquisitions, new ideas as well as factors impacting your market e.g. environmental considerations.

Listen through social media channels to spot trends and make sure you use these to make you own point and piggy back on them.Use social media to conduct surveys, polls and these can turn into multiple posts.





PRODUCE AMAZING CONTENT

Produce relevant, helpfuland fun content.

TYPES OF CONTENTNot all content is the same. Some pieces of content take longer to produce or are simply more expensive to commission if you outsource it. Typically videos and whitepapers involving research are examples where they demand a lot more preparation and resources.

Start to think about how you can repurpose your content. For example a piece of research could be turned into several blog posts and be a great topic for interviews.

There is a big trend towards visual content – make sure you consider this and don’t purely use text.






TYPES OF CONTENT

Newsletter

Article

Video Podcast

Webinar Pictures

Whitepaper

eBook

Blog Interview

Infographic

Lists





Blog Ideas

1. Write a how-to articles2. Weekly round-ups3. Use lists:

i. Pull together key facts around your market or sector

ii. Produce a list of key peopleiii. Trends to watch

4. Step by step guides5. Industry changes and what they mean

to your customers6. Share thoughts on industry reports7. Share excerpts from webinar8. Conduct a poll and use it to make a

point9. Use excerpts from interviews10.Point out common mistakes people

make and how they can avoid them11.Produce a blog series for large topics

that guide people12.Do some customer research13.Post about events and feedback from

people attending14.Use breaking industry to news to put

forward suggestions for change15.Ask others for ideas in your industry


Think like a publisher

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www.tribalcafe.co.ukhttp://www.facebook.com/thetribalcafe// Page 26

TELL COMPELLINGSTORIES

We are hard wired to listen to stories. They are interwoven into every part of our lives and how we communicate.

It’s no surprise then that being good at telling a story translates into content that gets shared. Telling a story is a great way to stand out from the crowd and connect with people at a human level.

WHAT IS A STORY? At its simplest, a story is an accounting of an incident or event but it can be much more. A story can help people make sense of the world, be inspired and remind people of the human elements to your business.

By being able to tell a story, you’re able to bring some real personality to what it is you do, and at the same time, convince people that you know what you are doing.

OnceUpon

A Time

The key to a good story is in the planning. Don’t rush it. Look for stories that will connect with your audience. Stories should be about people, preferably your customers – they are your heroes!





Our modern world can be seen as a return to tribalism in which people gather around shared interests.

Message Conflict

PlotCharacter

s

WHAT MAKES A GREAT STORY

TELL COMPELLINGSTORIES

1. Define your message - what are you trying to achieve, not profit or more sales, this is about defining a human goal e.g. Nike used to use Just Do It – their mission is to help people achieve more by innovating in sport.

When we craft stories to resonate deeply with one tribe, we are more likely to turn that tribe’s members into evangelists.

Use emotion Make It Unique Find Your Heroes

2. Identify a conflict - what are the problems that force you to act? How do you restore harmony? Example: write about a customer: in their business what challenges they had to overcome – situations, inner conflict e.g. had to overcome fear of selling, social e.g. not done before…

3. Use Personas – be clear on your characters and how they also relate to your brand. Identify what makes your hero: leader, ruler, caregiver, rebel…4. Plot the plot – keep it simple and easy to understand. Think about the stories that you remember best or those you recall the longest. Most of them can be boiled down to just a few sentences or a key lesson. Be as creative as you can when thinking about the approach you want to take for telling your story.

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HARNESS YOURSOCIAL MEDIA

ALIGN SOCIAL MEDIA TOYOUR BUSINESS GOALS

• Build brand awareness.• Protect brand reputation• Learn more about your target audience• Increase customers or warm leads• Enhance revenue generation.• Extend customer service. • Create brand advocates.

Focus on the long term goals and benefits of building a community

The quality of your content will determine how much it gets shared. To make sure your making the most of your content make sure you marry up your SEO keywords with your content online.

Secondly you need to think about using tactics like hashtags - #. Hashtags are often used to aggregate content and people frequently use them for searching on topics. Research what hashtags are used in your sector and use when and where relevant when tweeting.






Make sure all your content is available in a digital format. This allows people to share it spontaneously with their friends through social networks and e-mails.

Next to that, make sure that you connect 'share' buttons to all your content pieces. The philosophy is simple: create easy opportunities for your target audience to follow and share everything you say.

CREATE KILLER HEADLINESWant to write great headlines and even better content?Start with the headline first. You’ll of course have a basic idea for the subject matter of your blog post, article, free report, or sales letter. Then, simply take that basic idea and craft a killer headline before you write a single word of the body content.

Why? Because that is what people see in Tweets, Facebook posts and it is one of the first impact on your blog. Five tips for your headlines

1. Provide a clear benefit to your target market2. Use a sense of urgency – e.g. 10 quick ways to win at

content3. Deliver on the promise – make sure your content

matches4. Is short and to the point – quick and snappy5. Uses your keywords – important for SEO

MAKE THE CONTENT EASY TO SHARE?






Take a number.

Teach me

Ask a question

Are you talking to me?

Just say no.

Take advantage of stars and/or popular trends.

Make an unusual association.

Be a contrarian.

SOME TITLE FORMULAS TO HELP YOU

10 Free Tips To Boost Blog Engagement

The Ultimate How To Content Marketing Book

What makes people click a headline?

Are you getting the best out of your content marketing?

Content Marketing Is Doomed To Fail

How Beyonce Uses Content Marketing To Stay Famous

Content Marketing and The Three Little Pigs

Don’t make these common Content Marketing mistakes

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KNOW YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE


Try to keep them enthralled. The average classroom presentation by a student contains 2.5 statistics each minute, but only one in ten attempts to tell a story. Yet if you ask the students in the audience what they remember from all these presentations, 63% say that they remember the stories, whereas just 5% remember the statistics.

By listening on social media for the keywords and topics your customers use, you can build up a profile of what they read and where.

Listening to social media is how you can understand not only what their problems are but what interests them. This should shape your content and help with ideas.

Posting content to different social networks and enabling others to share it is vital. Invite others in to comment on your content,m review it and participate. Always make sure you recognise and acknowledge people that share your content

REMEMBER THE STORY

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USE CALLTO ACTIONS

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To break through and efficiently maximize response on social media platforms, a contextually relevant, optimized call-to-action is needed. At its core, a social media call-to-action is a hook to entice prospects and reel them in to take the next step in your process.

WHAT IS A CALL TO ACTION?

A call-to-action is an integral and often overlooked element of an effective social media strategy. Social media gets prospects, customers and the public primed to want to find out more about your offering or to engage with you further but you must lead them to the next step in your sales or other conversion process. Here are three reasons to use a social media call-to-action.While a call-to-action seems like a small item, it can be the difference between getting your readers to actively engage with you or your brand.





USE CALLTO ACTIONS

CHECKLIST TO OPTIMISE CALLS-TO-ACTIONMake your request clear.Don’t confuse people with too much text or an unclear message.

Incorporate visual cues and colour to make your offer stand out. Employ a bright or contrasting colour to draw attention to your call-to-action.

What Is The Value?Think as if you were a customer and ask yourself “What’s in it for me?” and make sure it is clear what you want them to do.

Create a sense of urgency. You must provide potential buyers with a reason to act now because once they leave your social media venue, they may not return.

Remove the risk.Reduce people’s anxiety with a money back guarantee or equivalent offer for non-purchases.

Include social proof.Show that other people have taken advantage of this offer.Make It VisibleIf readers need to scroll down on your content or landing page, you’ve reduced the chance that they’ll respond to your offer. Remember out-of-sight is out-of-mind.

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MEASURE AND IMPROVE

HOW TO MEASURE AND IMPROVEBy working through this eBook you should have set your objectives and audited your content.

You can use the measures from your content audit to evaluate your content performance. Success will depend upon what objectives you are trying to achieve. Listed below are some typical content marketing measures you can use.

The key to measuring performance is to link each part of your sales process and ensuring that your measures link together.

Content marketing success takes time. Just because you develop a couple of really great articles or blog posts or videos doesn’t mean you’ll convert a lead to a sales opportunity tomorrow. Give it enough time to make a difference.

For example, if your sales cycle is typically 9 months, deploying a content marketing pilot across one quarter will not demonstrate the results the program can achieve. Content marketing is not a campaign with a start and stop date.

Be Consistent Build It With SEO Optimise Social





Want to grow your brand online – why not let us help you put the pieces together and improve how you get more leads, customers and sales.

Want to Integrate Social Media Into Your

Marketing?

Improve The Results You Get From Your Marketing Spend?

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10 Ways To Boost Your Content Marketing