5 Content Marketing Lessons You Don’t Want to Learn the Hard Way. Content marketing isn’t rocket science, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy either. Like anything, it takes continuous trial and error and making a fair number of mistakes along the way before you start getting things right. The good news is that there’s value in analyzing those missteps — regardless of whether they’re your own or someone else’s — because it can help you avoid them yourself. What follows is a collection of content marketing lessons that I’ve either learned the hard way through the mistakes I’ve made, or lessons I’ve gleaned from others after hearing about the challenges they’ve faced. Hopefully reiterating those lessons here, along with some sound advice, helps to save you some time and frustration. Lesson #1: You need at least one dedicated resource. A lot of companies, particularly small ones, think that they can tack content marketing on to their existing marketing team’s responsibilities without adding any headcount.
Lesson #2: You need a strategy. What about you? How to Create a Content Matrix | Kevin Cain. A content matrix is one of the most fundamental and important tools that a content marketer needs to have when developing a content strategy. Although it’s a basic resource (let’s be honest, it’s really just a grid where you compile valuable information), it takes time, effort, and discipline to put together something that’s really useful.
Once you do, however, you will find that you have a solid framework in place to align, prioritize, and fuel a successful content strategy. This guide outlines the steps that you will need to follow to create your own content matrix and start putting it to use. Creating a content matrix is an exercise that forces you to think about four of the most fundamental components of any comprehensive content strategy and how to get organized around them. Those components are: Before we can create a content matrix, we need to take a closer look at each one of these components. Your audience’s contextual situation If You’re Targeting B2B Buyers Who are your buyers? 6 Simple Ways to Use Content to Shorten the Sales Cycle.
I had a great conversation the other day with a B2B client in the medical space that was happily telling me how his company’s sales department was blown away with the impact their content marketing efforts were having on shortening the sales cycle. Specifically, he related a story where they recently closed a deal (in the millions) that only took 4 months to wrap-up. Although you may be thinking 4 months is a long time, it’s nothing when you compare it to their average sales cycle, which is 18 months. From 18 to 4 months—all because of the power of content. It’s a classic case of: Great teaching + Helpful Information= Trust When you take away all the fluff found in the content marketing space, that little equation is what all of this stuff comes down to, and its importance cannot be overstated. The fact is, there is no better sales and trust-building tool in the world right now than great content. 6 Ways to Use Content Marketing to Shorten the Sales Cycle 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Your Turn. Businesswomen Bloggers. Content re-framing: A digital disruption survival kit | βiRDS on a W!RE. New challenges are upon us content people. The era of digital disruption requires adaptation at many levels by anyone involved with content, whatever its form or shape. As content crusaders, we want to point the road to travel with 10 imperatives. “Old school” and cutting-edge content organizations and professionals all face the same challenge of inventing and discovering mechanisms, rules and principles of unknown territories for content application. With this manifesto, we intend to reduce the friction in our collective journey of credible, useful, and relevant content for the digital era. Besides structure and form, all stuff in the digital domain flourishes through connectivity and computation. With its boundless space and the ultimate connectivity afforded by just one click, tap, or swipe away, connections between people, organizations, and topics are made instantly in the digital network.
The oxygen of any healthy organization is financial revenue. Content is a lot like finance. Why B2B Brands Need to Create Long-Form Content. 5 Ways To Get Readers To Give A Damn About Your Blog. The dirty little secret of blogging is that your prospects and readers don’t give a damn about your blog. They care about their needs, getting answers to their questions quickly and easily, and being entertained.
As long as your blog does this, they’ll keep reading it. So what can bloggers to do to get readers to care about their blog? At its core, a blog must provide value for its readers or they’re gone. Jay Baer calls this the Youtility that’s at the heart of every blog readers love. Baer defines youtility as marketing customers want and seek. Unlike utility, youtility offers value as well as a human face because it’s grounded in the core values of social media and content marketing. Here are five key ways your blog can provide value to your prospects and readers. 1.
Offer information that your potential readers seek. Answer customer questions. 2. The goal is to make your blog easy-to-consume. Use magnetic headlines. 3. Make your information findable. 4. 5. Reply to comments. 7 company blogs that build community. Company blogs aren’t usually considered supreme ROI generators. Some see them as simply a necessity for SEO; others hire writers because everyone else is doing it.
A good blog is a community builder, a resource that users, friends, and partners turn to when they’re looking for information, advice, or even just a smile. A great blog is one that people talk about with their friends, read on a regular basis, and wait with bated breath for the next post. [RELATED: Master the can't-ignore social media tools after Mark Ragan's one day social media boot camp.] A blog is not only an opportunity to show off your authority, but it also helps keep your business top of mind. The goal? With that in mind, let’s look at seven company blogs that do it right, along with some practical tips for getting the same success with your blog. 1.
Mint doesn’t offer a glamorous service — the platform helps users manage their budgets by categorizing their transactions. Two reasons this works: 1. 2. The best part? 4. 5. 7 company blogs that build community.