Thursday, June 30, 2016

SMS Campaigns: 5 Success Stories and Why They are Useful for Your Mobile Strategy

SMS campaigns are a strategic tool for your mobile strategy. If you think this is an outdated means of communication, then we’ll give you some data to consider: 100% of mobile devices can receive and send text messages. Over 350 billion text messages are sent across the world every month, despite the growth of apps such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. Even companies like Coca-Cola still invest 70% of their mobile budget in SMS campaigns. Perhaps you should consider doing this as well.

Why invest in SMS campaigns?
There are many reasons why SMS will continue to work:
– SMS is created for mobile, so it has the same characteristics that people expect on this device: immediacy, simplicity, and speed.
– Mobile phones have a built-in SMS function so there’s no need to convince users to download anything, unlike apps.
– SMS has a higher open rate than any other marketing tool. Over 90% of SMS messages are read within 3 minutes, compared to 22% for e-mails, 20% for tweets and 12% for Facebook posts.
– 65% of smartphone owners are open to receiving SMS offers on their phones.

Another interesting fact is that this means of communication – apparently simple and lacking of expressive possibilities – offers many creative opportunities to promote your brand. Still not convinced? Follow us as we unfold 5 stories of successful SMS campaigns, which achieved great results with simple but effective strategies.

How to create an SMS campaign: 5 success stories

#1 Aer Lingus and SMS campaigns for customer care

The airline, Aer Lingus, had to find a system to inform its passengers about delays or cancelled flights. Which system could be better than a text message? The SMS implementation was tested for the first time when the company encountered a problem with a flight from Malaga: due to some technical problems, passengers had to be informed to get to the airport 90 minutes earlier. By sending timely SMS, 75% of the passengers managed to arrive on time, thus avoiding refunding a large number of people and also increasing customers’ perception of the company’s reliability.
This is an example of how the immediacy of SMS can be positively used for customer care: every time your brand has something urgent to communicate, SMS is an inexpensive way to do this. It will instantly reach a large number of people, with the certainty of being read within a few minutes.

#2 Pepsimax and the perfect call-to-action

Pepsi launched an SMS campaign inviting consumers to send a message with the text “PEPSIMAX” and a numerical code in order to win tickets to a baseball match. The campaign had great success, not only because the prize was enticing, but also because the call-to-action (the code to type) was clear and customers knew exactly what to do with it. The creativity of this campaign focused on the means that was being used: the SMS.

Here’s what you can learn from this story: if your SMS campaign is based on a code, prioritize it by putting it under the spotlight. The immediacy of the CTA is the key to boosting your campaign results.

#3 Carl’s Jr. and limited time promotions

This fast-food chain, with over 1,300 restaurants around the world, is specialized in quick service. To promote its specialties and defeat the competition time wise, it needed a tool that could meet the customers’ need for immediacy. They inevitably chose SMS. The campaign consisted in sending to its customers’ smartphones a limited time offer of a burger combo at half price. The result was instantaneous: 20% of people who received the text message redeemed their coupon in one of the restaurants a few hours later. For every dollar spent in the SMS campaign, Carl’s Jr. generated $14 in new sales. Try to create something like this for your brand. Think of a limited time promotion and choose SMS to inform your customers. A further advantage is the fact that, unlike traditional campaigns, the results can be measured right away: if a queue is forming a few hours after sending the SMS, you hit the target.

#4 Kiehl’s and SMS integrated communication

The dermo-cosmetics brand, Kiehl’s, created a campaign which integrated e-mails and SMS. Subscribers to its newsletter received an e-mail which invited them to try the new SMS service to receive discounts and promotions. For a six-month period, customers who activated the service by sending a text message with the keyword “Kiehls”, received up to 3 specific offers a month based on their geographical location. The results: over 73% of people who signed up for this service made a purchase after receiving an SMS. And 81% completed a survey with useful suggestions to improve the campaign. In this case, the winning idea was that of integrating the use of SMS with other communication tools such as e-mails. In addition to increasing the visibility of your promotion, you can grow your contact database. Start from the e-mail addresses or phone numbers that you already have and invite people to fill in the missing data in exchange for a discount.

#5 BMW and the right time

The automaker, BMW, created a multimedia campaign to remind people of the importance of changing their tires during winter. This campaign focused on those who bought a car between March and September, considering that they might need winter tires. 1,200 customers received a series of MMS with a product proposal, and they were invited to contact the nearest authorized BMW tire retailer. Over 30% of the customers who received the message bought winter tires and this campaign had bumped up the company’s revenue by over 110,000 pounds.

There are two lessons to be drawn from this case. Firstly, target analysis and campaign segmentation: if you have a very large database or a very specific promotion, do not waste resources. Identify your target and send the promotion only to them. Secondly, the strategic use of time: make good use of the SMS’ immediacy to send your promotion at the appropriate time.

Are you ready to create your SMS campaign?
Did the stories above give you some interesting ideas for your mobile strategy? Once you’ve come up with an idea for your SMS campaign, you have to rely on a good system to send your messages. There are many interesting alternatives on the web, such as systems to create mobile sites and apps online with a built-in SMS sending tool. In this way, you can go mobile with just a single tool and carry out your campaigns on the same platform, via SMS and other means.

This year 100 billion dollars will be spent on mobile advertising. If you’re currently not investing on any SMS campaigns, it’s not too late. You still have time to catch up and take an action. If you’re already doing this, what results have you achieved so far? Can you run your SMS campaigns more effectively?

Silvio Porcellana is the CEO and Founder of mob.is.it the online tool over 1,000 agencies and professionals use to build mobile websites and native apps for customers worldwide. From his retreat in the Monferrato Hills in North West Italy, he bootstraps companies, writes about web and mobile marketing, and helps customers succeed online. Read more from Silvio at mob.is.it blog.

Wanna learn how to make more money with your website? Check the Online Profits training program!



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Learn From Struggling Brands: Insights From the Marketing Trenches

Learn-From-Struggling-Brands

“I like the energy.” That’s how a friend recently described the e-newsletter written by CMI Chief Strategy Officer Robert Rose. Content Strategy for Marketers started in January 2015. Week after week, Robert gives us peeks into his consultations with clients who are slogging it out every day in the trenches of marketing.

One thing I like about Robert’s tales is their immediacy. We read his “just-the-other-day” conversations that touch on struggles shared by many marketers. At the same time, he connects his stories to universal truths. He waxes philosophical, posing questions and suggesting possibilities that may help his readers look at their struggles from a new perspective or may help them prepare to face struggles they’ve yet to encounter. 

At the end of 2015, I shared some highlights from the newsletter’s first year. This year, I could not wait until December. I already have too many favorites to fit into one post. Here are a few of them.

Plan for what follows success

When CMI announced that it had been acquired by UBM, Robert contemplated that moment of celebration. “OK. We win,” he wrote. “Now what?” He explored the importance of planning not only for success but also — as CMI had been doing for months — for what follows that success.

Robert’s tale

“I recently worked with a nonprofit that had a brilliant content plan to achieve a legislative victory. The team worked tirelessly on the activist and government personas that would drive toward that success despite the efforts of a small but vigorous minority opposed to this cause. A funny thing happened. The nonprofit won. The content plan succeeded. The organization crossed its finish line.

“Then things turned. The opposition came out with materials and content aimed at undoing the victory. The nonprofit had no plan, no content, no method of dealing with the backlash. This ‘successful’ team found itself in constant triage mode, having neglected to answer one simple question.

“‘What if we win?’”

The insight

In our own marketing projects, we all have some version of the finish line of success. Businesses languish without goals. At the same time, Robert says, we must think beyond our next goal and envision what comes after we achieve it.


We must think beyond our next goal & envision what comes after we achieve it via @robert_rose
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Don’t ‘fix’ your fastest car

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” one of the newsletters begins. No one would argue with that logic. Yet businesspeople have been known to get so excited about things that are working — things that are creating value for the organization — that they push to wring more value from them, only to break them in the process.

Robert’s tale

“I recently came across this kind of ill-advised fixing at a client advisory with a B2C product company. The 2-year-old content team was telling me about a recent failure of epic proportions. They had created an owned media content platform for customers of their product. If you were a customer, you had access to events, resources, and lifestyle-oriented content that gave you a reason to stay loyal to the brand. It was working. Within nine months of this platform’s launch, they had 250,000 subscribers. Growth was in line with projections, and, by all measures, the business was deriving value from this content strategy. The team had created a thriving customers-only content hub.

“One day, the brand and merchandising teams decided to fix the content hub. Instead of launching a new hub for prospective customers, they opened the existing hub to everyone, customers and noncustomers alike. It would be a win-win, they believed. Everyone would see how wonderful the community was and would thus be encouraged to become part of it by becoming a customer.

“Now, perhaps on paper (or the digital equivalent) this looked like a good idea. But in practice it was a mistake. The editorial strategy changed, the exclusivity of membership disappeared, and subscribership plummeted. Traffic to the site did increase, but every other measure of an active, engaged community slowed.

“The company essentially fixed the fastest race car on the track by making it also haul cargo.”

The insight

We marketers are wise to think carefully before we “improve” things that are going well. As Robert says, “Fixing the fastest car in ways it doesn’t need to be fixed is one sure way to lose the race.”

Look for what your customers have in common

How many personas does your organization need? Maybe not as many as you think. Robert urges marketers to resist the temptation to overly differentiate.

Robert’s tale

“During a client meeting last week … it came out that this team had a blog that was aimed — in their minds — at 10 personas. In fact, you can’t deliver consistent value to more than one persona on a single platform. Trying to do so is a recipe for failure.


You can’t deliver consistent value to more than one persona on a single platform via @robert_rose
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“‘Why not think about this differently?’ I said. When we develop personas, I told them, we easily fall into the trap of looking at differences rather than commonalities. It’s a natural tendency for marketers because we spend so much time thinking about differentiation. We find differences everywhere. And make no mistake, they are there. But, I pointed out, you might (ironically) differentiate your content more effectively by seeking out the commonalities among all 10 personas and developing an editorial strategy that focuses on those commonalities.”

The insight

Overemphasizing distinctions between our customers is counterproductive. “When we develop personas, we often look at all our customers simultaneously and pick apart the differences. When we look for differences, we find them,” Robert says. Focus on the important things that unite our customers.

Just say no to creating content that doesn’t support your strategy

Do you and your team create content strategically, or do you just create content? To answer that question, answer this one: Do all of your content creators know what kind of content not to bother creating?

Robert’s tale

“I was having this discussion at a client advisory this week. The practitioners in the business were frustrated because they were constantly behind the proverbial eight ball when it came to getting their content out to various channels. The content team told me, ‘It’s hard for us to maintain a strategic editorial calendar because we’re bombarded with content from every product group. Everybody wants their stuff out on all the channels we’re managing.’

“Here’s the thing: If we keep creating the same amount of crap and just dam it up in front of a workflow that filters the best to the channels, we haven’t solved the quantity vs. quality challenge. Well, to be fair, we may have solved some of the demand side — assuming that some of what gets published is remarkable.

“More importantly, we shouldn’t have created most of it to begin with. Solving the content quality vs. quantity challenge isn’t about choosing which content to publish — it’s choosing which content to create. More accurately, it’s about choosing which content NOT to create in the first place.”


Solving the content quality vs. quantity challenge is about choosing which #content to create via @robert_rose
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HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:
Content Marketing: Forget About the 5%

The insight

A sound strategy includes guidelines on what content not to create. Set boundaries for your content creators so that they avoid wasting their efforts.

Consider new models for organizing content teams

The way content teams are organized affects the usefulness of that content.

Robert’s tale

“The BBC did something revolutionary for a 93-year-old media company. It dropped its channel-based television and radio divisions and reorganized itself around ‘content and audience-led divisions.’ Basically, it will have two main divisions — BBC Entertain and BBC Inform — which themselves will be made up of new divisions, such as BBC Youth and other audience-focused groups.

“Now, does this mean that you won’t be able to watch BBC on that thing that is connected to the coaxial cable on your wall? Or does this mean that you won’t be able to listen to the BBC on that box that connects to radio waves? Or course not. The BBC is simply recognizing that the lines between device and service are blurring more substantially than ever.

“Before digital, of course, the lines were so clear that no one even considered the possibility of them blurring …

“TV teams created TV experiences. Radio teams created radio experiences.

“Today’s devices and experiences have come unhooked from delivery methods … The BBC has recognized something that’s becoming increasingly important for all businesses to wake up to. We content professionals must stop organizing ourselves around channels, platforms, and outputs as we’ve done for the last decade. We have to stop matching new digital channels stride for stride, one team on this channel, another on that. We can’t keep piling on new output-based teams: tech docs and brand and PR and customer service and social and social CRM and web and blog and email and and and.

“This realization hit me full-on two weeks ago when I was helping a large retail company construct a content marketing approach. They were struggling with which channels the content marketing team should own. I suggested that they change their mindset and construct teams around audiences rather than around products, channels, or technology platforms. As we sketched out this approach on the white board, the pieces just fit. Suddenly, content became cross-functional, cross-product, and cross-channel. The goal of repurposing their content and communicating it across all these silos fell into place.”

The insight

For many businesses, the traditional structure of content teams no longer makes sense and may not even be sustainable. Consider reorganizing your content teams in radically new ways — around audiences, for example, instead of around platforms.


Consider reorganizing your #content teams in radically new ways says @robert_rose
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Conclusion

These tales, and many others from Robert’s newsletters, leave me feeling wiser, braver, and more open-minded. Even more energized, as my friend says. I’d love to hear from others of you who read these newsletters in the context of your own marketing trenches. Which stories stand out? Which insights have prompted you to change your approach to something or take an action that you might not otherwise have taken? Please let us know in a comment.

Want to learn from Robert and other content marketing experts this summer? Today’s the last day to register for the summer session of Content Marketing University. Use promo code FINAL100 to receive $100 off tuition.

Want to keep up with Robert’s tales to come? Sign up for his Content Strategy for Marketers weekly email newsletter today.

Cover image by mconnors, Morguefile.com, via pixabay.com

The post Learn From Struggling Brands: Insights From the Marketing Trenches appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Keyword Research: Best Practice You Never Used

Business owners, if you’re making money online sure as fate you know how crucial competitor research is. Beating your competitors while ranking higher for the right keywords is what you want.

When we’re doing keyword research we take data from analyzing SERP’s top sites from our niche. This ensures we’re targeting the right keywords.

Simple. But only in theory. In reality, even if giants like Amazon, eBay, Wikipedia aren’t your competitors, they almost certainly will rank higher for “your” keywords because of the enormous sizes of their keyword pools.

Here’s one top technique how even a small business can take on giants.

Page Vs. Page Keyword Analysis

Some tools can perform back to back comparison of domains. This can be used to see which keywords competing sites have in common. But what if there’ a smarter way benefiting from your competitors that requires considerably less time?

If you focus on pushing your single pages to the top, you’ll see great results far quicker than putting tremendous efforts in general site’s promotion.

Getting a list of keywords a single page has is not a new thing, but identifying competing pages for your target page is something we’ve never seen before. Why? Because there simply hasn’t been a tool for that.

Serpstat’s Page vs. Page analysis is a new feature that allows you to define which pages from the top of search are ranked for your targeted keywords but what’s really great about it is that you don’t even have to open the pages to analyze their keywords and get the most out of them; Serpstat does that for you by matching keywords from your page with keywords from pages that you’re competing with and gives you a list of missing keywords.

serpstat

Missing keywords are a goldmine for those who want to expand their keyword pools, it’s a list of keywords that you don’t use, but your competitors use on pages similar to yours.

Because websites are getting bigger and SERPs are getting more competitive, it’s about time we started treating pages like websites. If you want to promote a page, you have to analyze that page as well as the pages it’s competing with.

Wanna learn how to make more money with your website? Check the Online Profits training program!



This post is courtesy of: http://www.dailyblogtips.com

LinkedIn Purchase Will Spark Brands into Buying Media Companies

linkedin-brands-buying-media-companiesIn December 2013, CMI released its annual content marketing predictions report (as we do every December). That year, my first prediction was as follows:

Microsoft will buy one, maybe two, media companies in certain industries. The outcome of these moves will pave the way for further media purchases throughout the year by non-media companies.

So, I was a mere 30 months early with that prediction. Correct, but two years early.

Microsoft acquires LinkedIn

A few weeks back, Microsoft agreed to acquire LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in cash. LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner talked about the synergies between the two companies, from scaling MS Office to online training to redefining social selling. Other media outlets discussed how LinkedIn is THE key tool in the professional workspace, and combining LinkedIn’s 433 million members with Microsoft’s 1.2 billion Office users is a powerful combination. The acquisition could also be seen as a defensive move by Microsoft to keep Google and Facebook out of the B2B workspace.

Still others believe the move was a data play, while even more have no idea why Microsoft would buy LinkedIn. And the conversation continues …

Microsoft bought a media company

As Robert Rose and I discussed quite extensively on our This Old Marketing podcast, we were amazed at what was NOT being discussed by others. Whatever you think of LinkedIn (a job board, a B2B social network, a training company, etc.), at its core, it is a B2B media company.

If you look at this list of media companies by revenue from Business Insider, LinkedIn would be a top 30 worldwide media company by revenue at $2.99 billion USD, making it larger than Time Inc. and Gannett (owner of USA Today).

From an audience standpoint, LinkedIn is the 13th most-visited digital property in the United States (according to ComScore), making it larger than Time, Hearst, Conde Nast, BuzzFeed, ESPN, and The New York Times.

ComScore-LinkedIn

Did you notice that combining Microsoft and LinkedIn numbers puts Microsoft at the No. 1 overall spot, ahead of Google and Facebook?

And the revenues are media-company-esque as well. In 2015, LinkedIn saw $589 million USD in sponsored updates (native advertising), $532 million in member subscription revenue, and $107 million from learning subscriptions. LinkedIn creates mass amounts of content, mostly from its community, it attracts an audience to that content, and then it monetizes that audience through subscriptions and advertising. It’s a textbook media company.

Microsoft just purchased a media company for $26.2 billion. To be more specific, Microsoft paid around $60 per subscriber for LinkedIn and, looking at nothing else, believes it can dramatically increase the value per subscriber by adding Microsoft products and services.

Get ready for the media-buying spree

Now let’s go back to my little prediction in 2013. It’s the second part of this prediction that I believe it critical to understand:

The outcome of these moves will pave the way for further media purchases throughout the year by non-media companies.

The Microsoft-LinkedIn deal will go down as the bellwether event that spurs a series of brands buying media companies. And you may not be looking, but the movement has already started.

Just a week before the LinkedIn announcement, Arrow Electronics, a global electronics, design, and supply-chain company that’s No. 119 on the Fortune 500 list, agreed to purchase a portfolio of technical and electronic media properties from UBM (parent company of Content Marketing Institute). Overnight, Arrow Electronics has become the leading media company for electronics technical decision-makers.

Matt Anderson, chief digital officer of Arrow Electronics, stated that “(Arrow’s) internet media is guiding innovation forward by making technical decision-making easier for designers, R&D groups, and engineers. This is a step forward in our digital transformation, positioning Arrow as the preeminent, unbiased technology internet media, design, and e-commerce option for companies, from those on Indiegogo all the way to Fortune 500 global leaders.”

Sounds like a media company executive, right? Right!

Why now is the time

I’ve been in the media industry for almost 20 years now, and I’ve never seen quite such a perfect storm for brands to buy media companies.

Buy versus build

Before launching a new media property, smart media companies analyze the market to see if there is anything worth buying. As any CMI reader knows, it takes time to build a loyal audience through content. That means buying an existing content platform may make more sense than starting from zero. We’ve seen this before with L’Oreal with Makeup.com, as well as Johnson & Johnson and BabyCenter.

Build-content-assets-makeupcom

It’s been two years since I sat down with one of the largest consumer-packaged goods (CPG) companies in the world to discuss a plan for it to buy a series of media companies in its markets. After that point, the conversation died. But in the last month, we’ve had three such conversations with larger brands. Chief marketing officers are now serious about speeding up their content marketing approaches to buy their way into markets.

In the last few weeks, both Pepsi and Mondelez proclaimed their intentions of creating a media company arm in their organizations. Don’t be surprised if that ends up looking like a combination of organic launches and strategic purchases. Why? Because that’s how media companies grow, through new, internal launches where existing and newly hired talent is leveraged, as well as by acquisitions of outside properties.

Availability of cash

Corporate balance sheets are flush with cash. For example, Apple has over $200 billion in cash and securities sitting on the sidelines. As I’ve said before, Apple could buy The New York Times 60 times over and still have plenty of money to take over the world.

The same situation exists at Cisco Systems ($63 billion), Oracle ($50 billion), and many, many others. At some point, these organizations need to put that money to work. With money-market rates and bonds near all-time lows, and the stock market in a constant state of uncertainty, you can expect that money to go elsewhere.

At the same time, if cash is needed, borrowing money is still at its lowest levels since … well, forever.

Better use of advertising dollars

In 2015, the top 10 advertisers in the world spent a combined $30 billion on advertising. At some point, these smart brands are going to realize that some of that money should be spent building audience assets instead of interrupting the audience, which is almost impossible to measure (speaking of television advertising). Look for companies to take a serious look at strategically purchasing media properties instead of spending $100 million plus on an advertising program. Will they continue to rent or would they like the option to own?

Whatever the individual reasons for brands to make these moves, they are going to happen, and that right soon. I believe right now presents an amazing opportunity for your company to purchase either media assets, or the assets from blogs or influencer sites in your core markets.

But if you don’t get around to it, that’s OK … I’m sure your key competition will be glad to take the first step in becoming the leading informational expert in your key markets.

Want to hear Joe share his wisdom in person along with other leading content marketing experts? Register today for Content Marketing World Sept. 6-9. Use code BLOG100 to save $100.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post LinkedIn Purchase Will Spark Brands into Buying Media Companies appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Infographic: PayPal vs. Stripe

If you sell stuff online, you probably already used PayPal at some point. It was one of the first online payment solutions that worked across the globe and was easy enough to integrate with any type of website.

Despite being really easy to integrate, PayPal is not that flexible, which irritates some webmasters.

Over the last few years many competing solutions poped in the market, and Stripe is probably the most popular one.

Now if you are in doubt regarding which would be better for your site, the guys from HostingFacts.com created the infographic below to facilitate your comparisson. Enjoy.

paypal-stripe-comparison

Wanna learn how to make more money with your website? Check the Online Profits training program!



This post is courtesy of: http://www.dailyblogtips.com

Inside the Mind of a Journalist in the Business of Content Marketing

mind-journalist-content-marketingCameron Conaway straddles two worlds. He’s an award-winning freelance investigative reporter focused on human rights. He’s also the content marketing manager for Flow, a task-management solution. Cameron believes journalists’ ethos can inspire marketing teams, and he entreats marketers to take bigger risks with content.

CCO: Few marketers hire journalists to create content even though the topic gets lots of play. Give us your pitch. Why hire journalists as opposed to any number of talented writers?

Cameron: The tides are turning. More and more people are looking to bring trained journalists on board. And more and more journalists are actually looking to get out of their industry and move into roles with brands.

At the heart of it, journalism is an act of public service. And everything I’ve learned about content marketing has been about providing quality, valuable content. Journalists already have that in their DNA. In addition, they have mastered the fundamentals of writing. They know how to hook a reader. They know how to work on deadlines. They’re used to the pressure of either the beat or a newsroom, and they know how to produce quality content day in and day out.

CCO: You straddle two worlds: you’re a highly regarded journalist and you work on the brand side producing content marketing. What motivates you to do both?

Cameron:  I actually didn’t begin my career in journalism. I studied poetry in graduate school, and the economy was by all accounts collapsing when I graduated in 2009 with a poetry degree. [Laughing] I started teaching Shakespeare and then teaching basic writing classes at colleges.

At the end of 2010, because we were already burnt out as educators and ready for something radically new, my wife and I moved to Thailand. We had been there a few months and I saw a 60-second video from CNN about boys being trafficked for sex in Chiang Mai, a northern part of the country. I felt like that 60-second clip didn’t do the story justice, and poetry wouldn’t create the immediate impact the story deserved, so I went to Chiang Mai and wrote a long-form piece about sex trafficking. That was the start of my journalism career. Most of my work thereafter had to do with modern slavery.

The deeper I got into the journalism industry as a freelancer, however, the more I realized many of the stories I enjoyed most were from brands. At the same time, I was struggling to track down payments from media companies. I would write a story and then I’d have to follow up every week for six months about getting paid. And when my story would finally go live, there was zero marketing effort from the publishing company to help promote it. The system seemed broken on a variety of levels but especially for those actually creating the content.

On the other hand, brands seemed to be doing the opposite; they were paying writers on time and had the marketing side figured out in a way the industry I worked for simply didn’t.

So without intentionally doing it, I was trying to learn what I could from both industries. I saw an opening at Flow and applied to be their content marketing manager. It’s been the best team I’ve ever worked for. At Flow, we’re trying to chart what the future of work will look like, so I’m interviewing people and telling stories just as I do in journalism.

CCO: How do marketers find great journalists – both those who publish excellent work and those who can succeed as content marketers?

Cameron: Find freelancers who have written articles you admire, because chances are they’re looking for work. Four years ago, I didn’t aim to be a content marketing manager. To be honest, it happened initially because I was desperate. I was an adjunct professor being paid an unlivable wage, and I was trying to hold down a journalism career but was always chasing down payments for stories. Most freelance journalists aren’t aware that opportunities exist with brands, and most brands aren’t equipped to know how to look for and then onboard journalists.


Find freelancers who have written articles you admire b/c they’re looking for work via @CameronConaway
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A lot of marketing companies I’ve talked to are trying to pitch long-time journalists from The New York Times or The Boston Globe — many of whom are full-time journalists dedicated to their media company. That’s a failed approach. They need to connect with independent journalists.

CCO: To make the relationship work, what type of setting do brands need to provide?

Cameron: There has to be a level of creative freedom built into the workplace culture. By this I mean that colleagues are always sharing interesting stories with each other, have the curiosity and listening skills to field new ideas that may grate against their preconceived notions, and are ultimately willing to take some risks with content. Many brands want to play it safe with their content, and this often leads to them embracing the easy default — turning on the generic content machine. We’re still learning as we go at The Modern Team (the blog Conaway authors for Flow), but the difficult discussions we had before launch about why our potential readers deserve bold, valuable content (and how we could do it) continue to shape our direction.

Some degree of remote work is important as well; most journalists want to get out into their communities rather than sit at their desk from 9 to 5.

CCO: To what extent do you think universities are preparing journalists for the potential of working on the brand side?

Cameron: Not at all.

I’ve taught in academia for years, and many journalism classes are still led by traditional journalists who either aren’t aware of or haven’t had to learn about the way the industry has changed over the past five or 10 years. Measuring content analytics, developing social media campaigns, creating a method to promote content once it’s published … these aren’t yet part of the discussion, and in some circles they’re even frowned upon. While journalism schools are focusing on the ethics of conducting interviews, and on creating true and engaging narratives, content marketers are learning how to get eyes on that content, and then how to turn those eyes into consistent and loyal readers. Content marketers and journalists have so much to teach each other.


#Content marketers & journalists have so much to teach each other says @CameronConaway
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CCO: You write rigorously researched, beautifully crafted long-form stories about modern slavery and environmental issues, including your recent piece for Newsweek about the Ganges River. Is there a place for ambitious long-form content published by brands?

Cameron: Absolutely. I joined Flow, in part, because I saw members of its team had published thoughtful, opinionated pieces that were as long as they needed to be. In Mark Nichols, the editorial director, I saw a terrific copywriter who studied journalism in college and wasn’t afraid to take risks in his writing. In Cyrus Molavi, our current product manager, I saw a data-driven researcher with a deep interest in storytelling. And in Flow’s founder, Andrew Wilkinson (who also founded MetaLab, the design firm that made Slack), I saw an exceptional thinker and creative writer who had amassed quite a following for his ability to challenge the status quo. I interviewed with a bunch of companies, but Flow was the only one that had storytelling in its blood.

In fact, they were the only company I interviewed with that didn’t say “quality content,” the industry term so watered down it’s come to mean, at best, “a long piece that has been edited.” They talked about the role of empathy in storytelling, and they were actually more interested in my process for creating stories than in how many bylines I’d racked up.

Every content marketer wants to create content that stands out, and there’s a ton of disposable advice out there about how to do it. But the how jumps the gun. Start with why you want to do it. If your first thought about why is because you want to collect leads or drive traffic to the company website, I don’t believe you’re ready for how.

CCO: You’ve published five books, and achieved success in poetry, journalism, and mixed martial arts. You show a level of hustle that’s really unusual. Where does that come from?

Cameron: The doggedness learned through (mixed martial arts) fighting set the foundation for my writing career. As a smaller fighter, I didn’t have the luxury to throw jabs from the outside. I had to enter into the pocket, step into where the pain happens in order to understand it, and transform it. That’s been the torch lighting the way for whatever success I’ve had as a writer.

This article originally appeared in the June issue of Chief Content Officer. Sign up to receive your free subscription to our bimonthly print magazine.

Connect with Cameron Conaway for CMI’s Twitter Chat at 12 p.m. U.S. EDT Wednesday, July 5. Follow #CMWorld.

Hear Cameron speak at Content Marketing World 2016. Register today and use code BLOG100 to save $100.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post Inside the Mind of a Journalist in the Business of Content Marketing appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

Monday, June 27, 2016

4 Tips to Improve Your Google Indexing

As you probably know, if people can’t find your website on Google it might as well not exist! Google is by far the largest search engine, and getting organic traffic from it is paramount to make any website popular, be it a blog, an eCommerce or a web application.

The problem is that getting Google to index your site correctly and efficiently is not a simple task. Below you’ll find 4 tips that can help you with that.

1. Let Google Know You Exist

Google has a submission form that you can use to inform it about your new site. Don’t!

The best way to get Google to discover and index your site is to get a backlink from a reputable website. This is more efficient than the tool because any spammer can use the tool, and they do!

If you want more information on this topic, check out this article from Neil Patel detailing how to get Google to crawl your site.

2. Optimize on-site factors

You need to make sure that your on-site factors are optimized if you want Google to crawl your site correctly and to index all your pages and posts. This includes:

– Correct HTML code
– Correct permalink structure
– Efficient internal linking
– Sitemap

Here’s an SEO checklist you can use for this purpose.

3. More authority links

Good search rankings and organic traffic comes from two main factors: quality content and quality links. Lots of quality content and lots of quality links.

Focus on getting links from related websites, and preferably from authoritative ones. A link from an authoritative website inside your niche is worth 1000 non-relevant links from smaller sites.

4. Monitor your rankings

You can’t improve what you can’t measure. If you want to improve your indexing and search rankings over time, you need to measure your performance over time. You could do it manually, but it would very time consuming.

A better way to do it is to use a tool and automate the process. This post from Cyfe explains how to accomplish that.

Wanna learn how to make more money with your website? Check the Online Profits training program!



This post is courtesy of: http://www.dailyblogtips.com

Top 5 Lead-Generating Ideas for Your Content Marketing

lead-generating-ideas-content-marketingDo you feel lost when you try to think of ways to generate leads for your business?

In the wake of Google’s Panda and Penguin updates, which, as you’re aware, dealt a disastrous blow to many websites, the search engine giant has not been coy about its desire to see more fresh, relevant, and original content on websites.

You know the drill. “Content is king” has been the mantra on many marketers’ minds for more than a few years. In my experience, content marketing has proven to be very effective when done right.

But you probably already know all that. What you most likely really want to learn is how to better use content marketing for lead generation. What types of content yields results, and which don’t? More importantly, how do you use specific types of content to capture leads?

Here are some of the best methods that I’ve tried, tested, and observed to produce outstanding results.

1. Produce an e-book

According to an industry forecast by PricewaterhouseCoopers, total revenue from e-book sales are expected to hit nearly $8.7 billion in 2018, an increase of over 3,000% since 2008. What’s more, the United States is expected to reach 112 million e-book readers by 2020.


Total revenue from e-book sales are expected to hit $8.7B in 2018 & 112M readers by 2020 via @PwC_LLP
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All of that represents a huge market just waiting to be tapped, which is why creating and releasing an e-book is a strategy that has proven to be highly effective at capturing leads.

Obviously, you don’t need to charge for your e-book. As a free resource, it provides value up front, increasing the likelihood of introducing leads into your funnel. I like e-books because they let me do three important things cleanly and efficiently:

  • Educate potential leads
  • Let me show what I know
  • Capture leads in the sales funnel

Let me walk through each of those points.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:
22 Ways to Promote Your E-Book

Educate potential leads

A well-written e-book should offer something of real value to readers who can walk away with specific answers to questions that urged them to read the material.

The e-book usually is the first contact point between you and the reader, so it’s absolutely critical that you deliver the information you promised in your landing page or email, otherwise you’ll end up killing your reputation and any relationship you might have had with your audience.

Show what you know

Do you want to show people what you know about a certain subject or industry? Then write it down in an e-book. Unlike blog posts — even long ones — an e-book really lets you discuss a subject in an in-depth manner. The deeper you go into a topic, the more information readers will get from you. This, in turn, will increase your e-book’s value.

People will see you and your e-book as rich sources of information, and will expect to get more valuable information from you in the future.

Capture leads in the sales funnel

Perhaps the most overlooked aspect of making an e-book is that it allows you to collect your readers’ email addresses, effectively putting them in your sales funnel. The success of this phase, however, ultimately depends on your landing page, which is where you let readers know what information is in your e-book, why it’s worth their time, and why it’s fair to ask for their email address in exchange.

HubSpot-Free-Ebook

When creating a landing page for your e-book, I like to refer to a summary of the basic elements of a great landing page, similar to the example by Wishpond.

The image above shows a screenshot of HubSpot’s landing page for its e-book, Learning SEO. It includes the seven main elements:

  • Headline
  • Subheading
  • Description
  • Features
  • E-book picture
  • Lead form
  • Call to action

You can also use Unbounce’s e-book landing page template to save time.

2. Host a webinar

I’ve been blown away by the sheer power of webinars to produce an avalanche of warm, targeted customers. Like e-books, the success of a webinar will depend on whether it offers anything of real value to people.

Only when a webinar is considered to offer value will people happily give you their contact details and information. Of course, in exchange, you have to provide real hands-on training, examples of real-life applications, and real expertise — all while they sit in the comfort of their homes or offices.

If you’re looking to host a webinar to generate leads, I strongly recommend asking qualifying questions on the webinar sign-up page to see what your participants want from the activity. You can ask questions to gauge their interest in your products or services, or questions about where they are in the sales cycle.

As for hosting the webinar itself, I recommend including these elements.

Topic

Your topic has to be relevant to your audience and presented in such a way that it sparks interest. In other words, you want to sell it to your audience, whose first instinct will be to think, “What’s in it for me?” Where should you start? Think of an inviting title, provide assets relevant to the subject, and keep your presentation streamlined and on-topic.

My webinars generally walk people through a specific set of topics. I tell my audience the topic, but I don’t give away the farm. I want them to attend to learn all the secrets.

Topic-Relevance

You also can set aside a few minutes of webinar time solely for a Q&A session, giving your attendees an opportunity to participate and you an idea of what information they’re looking for.

Speaker

The speaker is perhaps the most important component of a webinar. Anything less than a stellar presenter will cause your attendees to multitask or take a break from the session.

As such, it’s important to work with someone who’s an expert in your topic, someone who has charisma and the ability to command people’s attention through a computer screen.

Recording

Recording the webinar lets you evaluate what went right during the presentation and what didn’t. More importantly, recording the webinar allows you to provide a video copy to your attendees or to provide a content offer to registrants who were unable to join the webinar. You can even post it on your website at a later date.

Survey

You should consider getting feedback from your attendees. Ask what they liked about the topic, presentation, and speaker, and whether they have any suggestions for future webinars. Use this feedback for your future content marketing efforts.

3. Host real-life events

Industry events play a key role in any content marketing strategy. I like to think of them as a way to bridge the gap between the online world and the offline one. They let you interact and learn about potential leads in a way that’s just not possible — at least in my experience — through email blasts and social media comments.


Industry events bridge the gap between the online world and offline one says @neilpatel #contentmarketing
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It may seem odd to introduce real-life events in an article about content marketing, but hear me out. Content is what drives the event’s success, and contributes to its ongoing role in your marketing funnel. Here’s how to use content to prepare for, improve, and follow up on your live event.

Before

  • Talk to your event’s speakers and notable guests through chat/SMS or video, uploading this content on your website and social media pages to generate interest. You should also encourage guests and speakers to share their interview for additional visibility. 
  • Create an event hashtag when promoting your event. Not only will this help spur the event to go viral, it also allows you to measure mentions and the spread of your content.

During

  • Live blog or tweet the event (don’t forget to use your hashtag) and encourage attendees to do the same. You can perhaps offer prizes to lucky participants who upload event pictures on Facebook or Instagram — make sure you repost their posts as well.

After

  • Upload photos and videos of the event on Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, or some other photo and video-sharing site.
  • Consolidate all content related to the event — articles, photos, videos, and other postings mentioning your event. You can then share your curated content on your official blog, Tumblr, or Storify.
  • Review your event, not just for your sake but for your audience as well. Compare the results of the event with your goals. Were they met? Did the event have any shortcomings? Upload your thoughts to a blog, a vlog, or podcast.

Great events are an incredibly effective lead-generation tool, doubling as an opportunity to build your brand and image.

4. Create white papers and guides

Yes, I know: White papers are about as old-school as they come, but they’re still around for a good reason — they work.

I agree with Roanne Neuwirth who wrote, “White papers still matter.” You don’t have to call them “white papers,” which smacks of old-school corporate boredom. You can call them whatever you want. The point is this: White paperish (I made that word up) content will generate leads.


White papers still matter and will generate leads says @RoanneNeuwirth #contentmarketing
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What should your white paper have for it to be effective at generating leads? Let’s not complicate this. Here is a simple and straightforward four-point process. Credit to Nick Cavalancia for distilling it in such a simple way:

  • Title – Catch the reader’s attention right away, all while conveying the paper’s subject matter.
  • Content – Expound on the title, zeroing in on a particular aspect of the customer’s purchase journey (something you’ll have to decide on). Whatever the case, the content has to be helpful even if the reader won’t buy your product or service.
  • Promotional plan – Distribute copies of the white paper to your sales team and run through its content. Include the white paper in your social media outreach campaign, email marketing campaign, or external advertising efforts.
  • Lead strategy – Instead of following up with a “buy now” call to action, you can respond to the lead in the most benign manner possible: offering more information. Perhaps send an email asking if the reader wants to download another white paper, sign up for the next webinar, or join a future event.

5. Write consumer case studies

Case studies can tell stories — good stories. It can be a success story of a product or service, or a solution (or solutions) to a particular problem encountered by customers, complete with the steps to fix the issue.

Although many marketers have an aversion to case studies because they’re often boring and uninspiring, they are invaluable in turning plain readers into buying customers. Research indicates that case studies are the third-most effective B2B content marketing tactic.


Case studies are the 3rd-most effective B2B #contentmarketing tactic via @cmicontent #research
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Effectiveness-B2B-Tactics

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I don’t know about you, but I’m seeing serious leads.

You can refer to this guide on how to write a case study, which can be broken down into the following:

  • Abstract or summary – Begin your case study with a summary of the problem and a preview of the solution or steps taken to solve it.
  • Real people – Genuine interviews are what really make great case studies stand out. A case study needs to tell a story, and that narrative is most effective when it’s told from the customer’s perspective.
  • Photos and videos – Multimedia assets make case studies more engaging, appealing to both oral and visual learners. Charts are especially useful, providing additional background to your case study’s points and making comparisons between products or experiences more effective.
  • Solution – When talking about the solution, keep your broader audience in mind and walk the reader through the steps you took to fix the problem in a clear manner.

Conclusion

As you may have guessed, there are many ways to use content to generate leads. However, it’s also important to remember that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to content marketing and lead generation. Depending on the nature and industry of your business, one method may be more effective than the other.

In addition, you should consider how you’re going to measure your content marketing strategies. A 2015 report by Ascend2 found that conversion rates are the most commonly used metric for measuring content marketing performance, followed by lead quality, and website traffic.


Conversion rates: Most commonly used metric for measuring #contentmarketing performance via @Ascend2research
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2015-Ascend2-Report

Source

Simply put, before you set out on any lead-generation campaign using content marketing, you need to determine what benchmarks to use to measure its success.

In any case, what matters most is that your content drives action and movement. Without it, your content isn’t doing any marketing on your behalf, defeating the purpose of the entire endeavor.

What content marketing methods have you found to yield the most benefits?

Want to learn more about how content marketing can help build sales leads? Make plans to attend Content Marketing World 2016 Sept. 6-9 in Cleveland, Ohio. Register today and use code BLOG100 to save $100.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post Top 5 Lead-Generating Ideas for Your Content Marketing appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

Sunday, June 26, 2016

7 Essential Content Marketing Lessons from Rand Fishkin’s Whiteboard Fridays

content-marketing-lessons-rand-fishkin

As a marketer, SEO can seem overwhelming, but you know it’s critical for your content marketing. A lot of changes are taking place in that industry, and it can be challenging to stay up to date.

Lucky for us, we have Rand Fishkin and his popular Whiteboard Friday on Moz. If you aren’t familiar with the Whiteboard Friday series, I highly suggest you check out these gems. Not only will you learn a lot, but these are a fantastic example of how consistent, exceptional content can build an audience.

Regardless of whether you are new to this series or a regular, here are my favorite Whiteboard Friday moments for content marketers.

How can I create content that will rise above the noise?

Rand has a name for that exceptional content we all want to publish: “10x content.”

“What is 10x content?” Rand explains:

We can’t just say, ‘Hey, I want to be as good as the top 10 people in the search results for this particular keyword term or phrase.’ We have to say, ‘How can I create something 10 times better than what any of these folks are currently doing?’ That’s how we stand out.

Luckily, Rand offers many solid ideas in How to Create 10x Content. He first explains the criteria for 10x content — and how it should make the reader feel — then offers four steps to create it.

rand-fishkin-10x-content

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Even if you cover a widely discussed topic, don’t give up hope. Find your unique way to cover it — to offer something no one else has.

How do I create a metrics dashboard?

What you measure is what you’re able to improve.


What you measure is what you’re able to improve says @randfish #contentmarketing #roi
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I love that quote from Rand from his Whiteboard Friday, How to Build The Right Traffic Metrics Dashboard.

We all know that we should only collect data that we plan to take action on, but are we systematic about this? Or are various teams collecting different data — or even the same data?

Every team can benefit from creating a metrics dashboard to get everyone on the same page and stop redundant reporting.

rand-fishkin-traffic-metrics-board

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As Rand explains, this dashboard needs to be customized for your needs, but it is a great framework if you are struggling with what metrics to collect.

  • Awareness
    • Social mentions, followers, and fans
    • Press and brand mentions
    • Referring links
  • First visits
  • Returning visits

What old-school SEO techniques should I no longer use?

If you are like many marketers I know, you understand the basics of SEO and have some general practices you adhere to in an effort to appease the search engine gods. Yes, you know you should write for humans instead of search engines, but what else should you do, specifically?

In this popular Whiteboard Friday, 8 Old School SEO Practices that Are No Longer Effective, Rand walks through some things you may still be doing that don’t serve you well.

rand-fishkin-old-school-seo-practices

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For instance:

  • Write your meta descriptions so they appeal to readers — and draw them in — instead of stuffing the descriptions with keywords.
  • Use one page to target several related keywords.
  • Have one robust domain that covers various, related topics instead of several that each cover one niche.

Write meta descriptions so they appeal to readers instead of keyword stuffing says @randfish #SEO
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This one is definitely worth a listen if you want to give your SEO practices a spring cleaning and get more from your efforts.


Have 1 domain that covers various, related topics instead of several that each cover one says @randfish #SEO
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HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:
Excel at SEO With This 15-Point Plan

What should you do when the wrong page ranks for a keyword?

This is a challenge we have faced at CMI, and apparently it’s something that is crazy common.

It goes a bit like this: You are thrilled that your site comes up in search results … but the page isn’t ideal (let’s just say it doesn’t put your best foot forward or it isn’t as relevant for that search as you would like it to be).

Rand’s Whiteboard Friday, What to Do When the Wrong Page Ranks for Your Keyword(s), walks you through the four steps to take:

  1. Figure out why you are having the issue.
  2. Create a relevant page or make a relevant page even more relevant.
  3. Degrade the page that is ranking and redirect internal pages to the relevant page.
  4. Consider a 301 redirect (if the page is not essential for other search terms).

rand-fishkin-wrong-page-ranks

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What should I do to optimize each of my pages?

Not surprisingly, there is not a simple answer — and no simple checklist to follow — but Rand shares eight principles in this Whiteboard Friday, On-Page SEO in 2016: The 8 Principles for Success.

rand-fishkin-on-page-seo

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This Whiteboard Friday is an essential read for anyone working on your blog or website. As Rand explains, not only are you trying to get the page to rank, but you are also trying to get the user to stay once they are there to signal it as high-quality content. He reviews essentials such as:

How many internal and external links should I have?

Do you want to include links to other things on your website but wonder how many you should have? Should you include just a few more links to the page to drive people deeper into your website?

Rand explains:

Internal links that tend to perform the best . . . tend to be the ones that drive real traffic, and they sort of continue a visitor’s journey.


Internal links that perform the best & drive traffic continue a visitor’s journey says @randfishkin #SEO
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rand-fishkin-linking

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Should I focus on keywords or topics?

This is a conversation our editorial team has had: Should we optimize for keyword or topic? Rand handles this question in Can SEOs Stop Worrying About Keywords and Just Focus on Topics?

The classic mode of thinking is to create a list of keywords and then create pages to address them. However, the issue is that similar words (think: content curation vs. content curator) would need the same information, so some people create different pages for each keyword even though the intent is the same.

A newer approach is to focus on broader concepts and topics instead of the keywords. You see this all the time with the proliferation of ultimate guides that set out to answer all of the questions you may have on a topic. While there may not appear to be a downside to this — and this super-awesome piece of content may be widely shared — chances are that it won’t rank well because it covers so many topics.

What is a marketer to do?

Rand suggests a hybrid approach that uses a combination of keywords and topics.

rand-fishkin-abandon-keyword-research

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Back over to you. What are your favorite Whiteboard Fridays?

Don’t miss Rand Fishkin, the Wizard of Moz, when he shares his great insight and practical tips at Content Marketing World Sept. 6-9. Register today and use code BLOG100 to save $100.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post 7 Essential Content Marketing Lessons from Rand Fishkin’s Whiteboard Fridays appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.