sunisup - Tumblr blog

[sunisup]

Developing a Content Marketing Strategy

Perfect content marketing is a hefty promise.

However, if you understand how content fits into your whole digital marketing plan, it is achievable.

When done correctly, content marketing will not only attract prospects, but will also move them through a marketing funnel, resulting in more sales and growth for your company.

This chapter covers the fundamentals of a successful content marketing program, such as methodologies and KPIs, the business roles that should own your content marketing, and the terminology you'll use to discuss it.

Methods of Effective Content Marketing

Let us begin with a clear knowledge of what we mean by content.

Most organizations, you see, miss out on a lot of chances because their content marketing perspective is too narrow.

As a consequence, they are producing material but not seeing fantastic returns. And here's why: content alone does not drive visitors or sales.

Your material should be "excellent."

What exactly do we mean by that?

Perfect content isn't about you, your company, or your goals. It's all about giving your prospects the appropriate information at the right time in the customer journey.

For the software business Freshbooks, for example, this web page is ideal content marketing for a prospect who need price information to make an informed purchasing choice.

The most common misperception is that content marketing is synonymous with blogging.

While blogs are an important part of content marketing, they are only one piece of the puzzle. In truth, a blog is not always the most profitable type of content marketing.

But we'll get to that later.

First, let's define the six qualities of ideal content marketing and why you should get started.

(NOTE: At the end of this chapter, you'll be able to access a tool that we utilize to make excellent content planning a snap.)

1. Full Funnel Content Marketing is Ideal

I realize this is Marketing 101 material, but bear with me for a while before we get into the more complex content marketing strategies we'll be discussing.

An ice-cold prospect must go through three steps before becoming a customer:

The three steps that all prospects go through before becoming customers.

Awareness - The prospect must first recognize that there is an issue and that YOU or your business can solve it. (This is where your blog excels.) Evaluation - Those who have progressed through the Awareness Stage must now examine the many options open to them, including your competitor's solutions and, of course, doing nothing to remedy the problem. Conversion - Those who have progressed through the Evaluation Stage have arrived at the decisive moment—purchase. At this level, our aim at DigitalMarketer is to turn leads into frequent and high-ticket buyers.

Conversion - Those who have progressed through the Evaluation Stage have arrived at the decisive moment—purchase. At this level, our aim at DigitalMarketer is to turn leads into frequent and high-ticket buyers. A cold prospect will not be able to evaluate your solution unless they are aware of the problem and your answer. And conversion is difficult until the prospect has analyzed the various options.

To move a prospect through a marketing funnel, you must provide them with material that is tailored to their needs at each of the three stages.

To put it another way...

They require top-of-the-funnel (TOFU) material that promotes awareness. They require material in the middle of the funnel (MOFU) to aid in assessment. They require bottom-of-the-funnel (BOFU) material that encourages conversion. Does that make sense?

Blogs are excellent at raising awareness, but they fall short when it comes to facilitating evaluation and conversion. And, at the risk of repeating myself, assessment and conversion are crucial to your business.

Other sorts of material will be required to move prospects through the middle (MOFU) and bottom of the funnel (BOFU).

This is how it seems...

Let's take a look at each level of the funnel and the material required at each stage...

Content Marketing at the Top of the Funnel (TOFU)

Prospects entering your funnel at the top are absolutely oblivious of your solution and, in many cases, utterly unaware of their problem.

As a result, you need material with a low barrier to entry, because they have little to no desire to put skin in the game at this point (such as giving your contact information or money).

At the top of the funnel (TOFU), you need freely available material that...

entertains, teaches, or inspires

Is it necessary to have all of these content kinds at the top of the funnel?

No way.

Most organizations will publish material to a blog as well as social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Once you've mastered these two sorts of content, you'll want to incorporate more top-of-funnel material, such as a podcast or a print newsletter.

Remember, at the top of the funnel, the main aim is to make prospects "issue aware" and "solution aware."

Take a look at how Whole Foods uses their Whole Story blog to promote awareness for a sea scallop promotion while also offering excellent material (recipes and cooking instructions):

We achieve this at DigitalMarketer by delivering instructional content that our prospects are interested in, and then leveraging that information to build awareness of our training products and services.

(Don't tell anybody, but this chapter is teaching you the approach and strategies covered in our Content Marketing Mastery Certification.)

And the good news is that it works in any sector and for every product.

Take note of how this kitchen renovation firm makes prospective "issue aware" and "solution aware" by using images of refurbished kitchens:

Content Marketing in the Middle of the Funnel (MOFU)

In the center of the funnel, the main aim is to convert "issue aware" and "solution aware" prospects into leads.

In this case, we leverage free material to get prospects to provide their contact information and opt in to future marketing.

This form of material is known as a Lead Magnet.

Lead Magnets can be used to...

Educational Materials (Case Study, White Paper, etc.) Resources of Use (Swipe File, Checklist, etc.) Downloads of software Discount/Coupon Organizations Quizzes/Surveys Webinars/Events This is a Lead Magnet that learnb2bmarketing utilizes to create leads for our Facebook advertising products.

[sunisup]

What Is Content Marketing IN social media?

What Exactly Is Content Marketing? Content marketing is a sort of marketing that entails generating, releasing, and promoting content strategically (including blog posts, emails, videos and podcasts). Content marketing is commonly used to raise brand recognition and engagement, entice visitors or users, generate sales leads, or drive purchases and income.

What Is the Importance of Content Marketing? Simply simply, content marketing provides a high ROI when done correctly.

Moreover, unlike other kinds of digital marketing (such as PPC or PR), content marketing may continue to provide for your company in the long run.

Content, unlike a Facebook ad or a press release, can generate traffic, brand recognition, and leads for years.

Best Practices Help You Define Your Audience Identifying your target demographic is the first step in any content marketing effort.

In reality, I've seen many people struggle with content marketing because they don't define their target audience precisely. Instead, they get immediately into keyword research and blog article writing.

For example, when I first launched Backlinko, I characterized my target group as "professional marketers seeking greater ranks and increased traffic."

And it influenced EVERYTHING I wrote.

Because my audience was mostly professionals, I preferred to address more sophisticated SEO issues.

There were moments when I sought to simplify things in order to appeal to newcomers. But I knew this would not appeal to my intended audience.

As a result, I skipped explanations.

Your target audience determines not just the topics you'll cover, but also the content styles you'll use.

For example, I discovered a few years ago that an increasing number of my target audience was learning about marketing through YouTube. So I decided to start a YouTube account to get my material in front of more people.

Make Content That Your Audience Will Enjoy Now that you know who your target audience is, it's time to develop content for them.

In my perspective, the easiest approach to accomplish this is to identify your audience's pain areas. And generate information that will assist them in resolving those issues.

For example, practically all of my material is "how-to" content that teaches users how to improve their website.

[sunisup]

What is Content Marketing? [Definition + Examples]

Learn how to use content marketing to increase traffic, leads, and sales. There has been a shift in the way purchasers investigate and acquire products and services since search engines made a plethora of information available with the click of a mouse. Buyers are not just researching their purchases online, but they are also bored of traditional outbound marketing routes that disrupt their daily lives, such as sponsored commercials, billboards, and cold calls.

In fact, approximately half of buyers employ ad-blocking technologies to avoid your advertising in the first place, and 80% prefer to analyze their alternatives on their own rather than dealing with a sales staff during the initial phases of the buyer's journey.

What should you do when the majority of your consumers go to considerable measures to avoid you and prefer to make smart purchasing decisions on their own?

Enter content marketing, which is currently one of the most successful methods to position your company as the industry's leading voice and develop trust with your customers. When you develop content for your company, it helps you appear where your buyers are looking for information.

Maybe you've tried to publish material previously, but it didn't provide the desired results. While content marketing may appear to be a simple notion, it may be challenging to execute properly. It should assist you in developing a solid relationship with buyers and fostering a real connection. These outcomes need a significant amount of time and effort, and they do not usually occur instantly.

Here, we'll discuss the fundamental ideas of content marketing as well as introduce you to some of the key components of a powerful framework and strategy to content marketing that has worked for hundreds of our clients called They Ask, You Answer.

The definition of content marketing

Content marketing is a strategy that employs blog posts, videos, tutorials, and other forms of media to attract consumers, develop confidence in your brand, reduce sales cycles, and eventually assist people in purchasing your products and services.

It's what we teach every day at IMPACT, whether it's in the daily training we offer our clients, the material we develop, or when people educate themselves at their own speed utilizing our IMPACT+ learning platform.

Especially when it comes to developing content that fosters strong business-customer connections — where your customers are so pleased that they not only buy from you again and again, but also become brand advocates.

The advantages of content marketing for your company While content marketing might require a lot of labor across several platforms (think blog pieces, videos, guidebooks, ebooks, podcasts, case studies, and more), it is well worth the effort.

Content marketing benefits your business in the following ways when done correctly:

Improved search engine rankings and more organic traffic

When you can tap into the questions your consumers are asking, content marketing may help your website rank better in search engines for the keywords and phrases they use during their research process. As a result, your website receives more organic traffic and more quality leads.

The strongest content marketing techniques, as detailed in Marcus Sheridan's book They Ask, You Answer, obsess over addressing every question your consumers ask - even the difficult ones. We recommend starting with The Big 5, and then refining your content based on specific keyword research (from Semrush, Surfer, or other keyword tools).

Increased conversions (more leads) When you develop high-quality, unstructured content like articles and pillar pages that answer your readers' queries and help them solve their issues, you establish trust with them and get them closer to becoming customers.

This is because customers will perceive your company as a helpful resource rather than a brand trying to take their money. This makes it easier for customers to fill out forms on your website (which means more conversions).

increased participation Effective content marketing not only generates more clicks and views, but also keeps users reading and clicking to explore other pages. In other words, better content keeps prospects on your website and engaged with your business for a longer period of time.

Great content not only helps to strengthen customer connections, but search engines take note and factor it into your ranking.

[sunisup]

The Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing Strategy

While content marketing is becoming increasingly popular, merely publishing blogs and social media postings is insufficient to have an influence on the bottom line.

To be successful in content marketing, you must develop a thorough and all-encompassing approach. Finally, it will enable you to attract and engage a precisely defined audience, resulting in valuable customer action.

Following the detailed guidance below, you will sketch out the major actions required to establish a strong content marketing plan for your company.

What Exactly Is Content Marketing Strategy? A strategy is a plan for getting to your destination. So, just what is a content marketing strategy? Let's differentiate it from a few other industrial terms:

Strategy for content marketing: This high-level strategy is concerned with the planning, implementation, and distribution of your brand's content marketing assets. Plan of Content: This is frequently referred to as a "content calendar." A content strategy can assist you in organizing your material implementation in a clear and logical manner. What Is the Purpose of a Content Marketing Strategy? We discovered that 40% of organizations do not yet have a written plan. But why is it necessary to plan and record your content marketing strategy?

The 5 Components of an Effective Content Marketing Strategy To be successful, a Content Marketing strategy should have the following five basic elements: audience personas, brand positioning, owned media value proposition, business case, and action plan. Let's look at why these aspects are important and how you may begin adopting them.

1. Personas of the Audience You can't truly communicate your brand's narrative if you don't know who you're talking it to. As a result, your first step will be to determine the audience you want to reach with your content. There are several ways to accomplish this:

Survey your current customers Look into industry trends. Understand who you are not attempting to target. Keep an eye on who your competitors are targeting. Once you've determined your target demographic, you can use our free Personas tool to flesh them out.

You'll want to be able to express who your target audience is to all stakeholders and anybody involved in brand messaging in a clear and concise manner.

Begin by looking over these persona samples for ideas.

2. Brand and Story Positioning A well-defined brand and product positioning can assist you in providing a consistent experience for your audience and building the proper image across all of your content marketing channels.

These questions can help you brainstorm your market positioning:

Who are my current and future clients, and what are their objectives? Who are my main competitors, and how do they promote their products? What is the distinct value of my brand? What issues does my product assist in resolving? What distinguishes it from my competitors? Use this data to help you shape the primary pillars of your brand's story.

A brand narrative is a synopsis of your organization's history, mission, purpose, and values. It may assist you in determining the best route for your content marketing strategy, as well as choosing the correct themes and subjects to translate with your content.

Pay attention to the following aspects:

The protagonist of your tale (your customer), as well as their aims and problems The personality of your brand Your brand's mission and core brand values The ways in which your product and content may serve to reinforce all of the above and empower your hero

To complete this step and document your efforts, download this free brand storytelling template. This stage is especially useful for small firms and startups that may capitalize on their distinct origins and identities.

3. Owned Media Value Proposition and Content Marketing Mission Statement Define your owned media value proposition to build your brand as a trustworthy content provider. It will assist you in finding a point of distinction in your content strategy and competing more successfully. Answer the following questions to do so:

What distinct value do you bring to your audience through your content? How do you distinguish yourself from other content creators? Why should people subscribe to your content channels? Your content marketing mission statement is another critical component of your approach. It should highlight why you are providing content and explain who will benefit from it.

Make certain that your content marketing mission statement has the following components:

The audience for whom you are providing content and how your content will assist them reach their goals

For example, 'Our content is where digital marketing managers can obtain multimedia knowledge on SEO and content marketing to help their businesses expand organically.'

4. Content Marketing Objectives and Business Case A great content strategy includes providing value to your audience. However, content marketing should propel your company ahead in addition to gaining new readers and followers.

Determine what business goals your organization needs to reach and how content marketing can help you get there. How many resources will you need to invest in your content strategy, and what outcomes do you hope to achieve?

A written business case can assist you in better understanding the benefits, costs, and risks of establishing a content marketing strategy in your firm and convincing decision-makers of its worth.

5. Plan of Action Finally, you will identify your major content marketing initiatives and projects for the year and include them into your content strategy. Consider how they will meet the content marketing objectives you've already defined for your company.

This will help you to think through each phase of your content strategy. Make certain you include the following details:

You wish to concentrate on certain content forms. Campaigns and high-level content themes Content delivery and marketing channels You'll need to look at your previous content performance and further evaluate your audience to decide on your ideal content formats and channels, which we'll go over later.

We've outlined the key components of your content strategy. Let's take a look at how you may design it and create great content step by step.

[sunisup]

Content Marketing: A Complete Guide

What exactly is content marketing? Content marketing is the practice of generating valuable, relevant content for the following purposes:

Bring in new consumers

Obtain their custom

pique their curiosity

But it's not that simple in a noisy, busy digital environment.

Buyers and customers are bombarded with more marketing communications than ever before - more than 2,900 every day, according to current estimates. This creates an atmosphere of scarcity of attention, making it difficult for marketers to develop interesting content that breaks through the static.

A well-crafted content marketing plan positions your company as a thought leader, increasing brand preference while informing and educating customers. Providing useful and interesting content may help your business and customers build a strong link that grows and strengthens over time.

Traditional advertising vs. content marketing Marketers have traditionally had to "rent attention" from other people's media by using traditional advertising strategies such as:

Website advertisements Trade fair booths and marketing events Emails sent to third-party distribution lists When a business spends millions of dollars on a Super Bowl ad, they are renting the attention that the TV networks have established.

Content marketing, on the other hand, uses content to direct people to your website, products, and services. Whereas TV commercials and trade exhibitions are examples of push marketing, content marketing is an example of pull marketing. It literally draws people to your brand.

You become a publisher by cultivating your own audiences and drawing your own attention using a content marketing plan.

Marketers boost brand recognition and preference by generating and sharing valuable content that customers find useful as they progress through the sales funnel.

Furthermore, corporations believe that content marketing is less expensive than other techniques. It may, however, begin slowly as your content collection expands and reaches a broader audience.

The customer journey and content marketing

Customer experience is everything nowadays. According to 73% of customers, doing it correctly can affect their purchasing choice. Personalization and the customer journey are crucial to the customer experience, yet many organizations fail to create individualized content for each point of the purchasing cycle.

Personalized marketing is more than just targeting based on demographic or firmographic factors. It also entails creating material that is appropriate for each step of the buyer's journey.

When they are shown individualized content, 80 percent of individuals are more inclined to buy a product or service. One method is to determine the stage of the customer's purchasing experience and then give them appropriate material based on it.

Consider the following scenario from the eyes of a TV manufacturer:

Awareness. They come on your post about 8K TV when searching Google for "what is 8K TV?" They enjoy reading because it helps them comprehend. Consideration. Your article has assisted them in understanding what they require. A link to a product-focused blog is included on the website. Decision. They read the blog, which provides an overview of your different 8K TV models. They choose whatever one they want and either buy it right away or save it for later. This form of material demonstrates to customers that you recognize and appreciate their abilities to assess and make decisions.

[sunisup]

Content Marketing: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide

You can increase revenue, draw in more leads, and expand your business with the aid of content marketing.

It may also assist you from the perspective of search engine optimization by increasing the quantity of pages on your website that target particular keywords.

However, it goes beyond simply producing endless amounts of optimized material, blogging daily, podcasting, etc.

You must understand the fundamentals of content marketing as well as the finest techniques that will help you stand out from the crowd.

You must comprehend how content marketing works.

Your target audience must be clearly identified so that you can provide content that speaks directly to that persona.

You should read this tutorial whether you're just starting started or are currently having trouble with your content marketing efforts. Every digital marketer trying to implement or enhance their content marketing efforts will find something useful here.

You'll discover the most recent content marketing guidance within, which will undoubtedly assist you in creating a fruitful content marketing plan for your business.

Content Marketing: The Fundamentals Learn how content marketing operates by reading this tutorial, plus:

a key role for content marketing. Real content marketing: What is it? Why is it worthwhile for companies and enterprises to invest in developing quality content? What kind of outcomes might you possible expect from content marketing to persuade the boss to join in?

Why your brand requires a style manual. How developing a set of rules may maintain the scalability and consistency of the content development process What changes have been made to content marketing throughout time. Discover the century-old basics of content marketing that are still applicable today in addition to the newest developments.

Guidelines for producing material that has a purpose. Knowing how to set goals for each piece of content you produce can help you decide where to position it in your funnel.

Which content you can produce. Reaching a bigger audience may be accomplished by producing material in a number of formats. We provided samples for The 12 Best Types of Content Marketing for Startups and Large Businesses

Examples of businesses that are effective at learnb2bmarketing. How well-run content marketing strategies are producing far greater returns for successful businesses. Tools for successful content marketing. Discover some of the top and most effective tools for analytics, SEO, and content collaboration. Where to distribute your work and market it. Learn how to expand the audience for your material. Find out 20 additional locations where you may and should post your content to get more views, likes, and comments. the interaction between SEO and content marketing. Learn how to produce content that has the highest possibility of attracting quality, long-lasting, and sustainable organic visitors. How to use an editorial calendar to coordinate your content marketing initiatives. Learn how to effortlessly put up your first editorial using this five-step procedure.

[sunisup]

Content Marketing: A Modern Guide

What's content marketing? Content marketing is the process of distributing informative content that's relevant, interesting and useful to your target audience.

There are four types of content:

Written word Audio Video Images Since we mainly talk about writing, audio, and video here on Copyblogger, we'll go over the different types of content later in this post.

The most important thing to remember is that your job is to be useful. There's no point in creating content if your audience isn't going to get value from it.

Your goal is to help them improve the quality of their lives and establish yourself as a thought leader - someone they can trust to guide them through the challenges they face when it comes to your area of expertise.

Content marketing is one of the best ways to do that.

If you're looking for content marketing and SEO services, check out Copyblogger's content marketing agency Digital Commerce Partners. We specialize in driving targeted organic traffic for growing digital

1. determine who is your customer. It all starts with who your customer is.

What do they want? What are they struggling with? What do they look like?

Before you can begin, you need to understand exactly how your customer thinks. You need to speak their language.

Your first step is to create an imaginary version of your ideal customer.

This character or avatar should generally represent the person you want to reach with your content. Based on this model, you should make proactive content decisions .

2. figure out what information they need Now put yourself in the customer's shoes and walk through their customer journey.

What steps do they need to take to do business with you? What do they need to know before they buy from you, and in what order? Finally, how will you write your version of the best sales letter ever?

This is your content roadmap - your first content. Create content that evolves with each step of the custom

printed text The most common and well-liked type of content marketing is written material.

Even if the amount of textual material in the world is essentially infinite, you shouldn't disregard it in favor of other, more advanced, fanciful types of content.

Let's discuss how writing functions as content marketing as it is more important than ever nowadays.

Blogging Blogging is the tried-and-true method of leveraging writing as a platform for content marketing.

Simply said, blogging is the practice of consistently writing about subjects that are important to your audience in your capacity as a thought leader or subject-matter expert. There are many different configurations for blogs, and no two are alike. A person can own one.

SEO The technique of improving your content for search engines is known as search engine optimization.

Here, I'm not referring to gaming the system. These "black hat" techniques were once effective, but as search engines have advanced, they are now all but extinct.

Now, working with the search engine is much more effective, but to do so, you must first comprehend how search engines operate and their goals.

A search engine's objective is to provide you the most pertinent information for each statement, question, or query you enter.

[sunisup]

What Is linkedin content marketing strategy?

You just heard someone mention "content marketing" and you think you should already know what it is, but you are too embarrassed to ask anyone. Congratulations, this post is for you.

The Content Marketing Institute, an online resource for information on all things content marketing, defines content marketing as follows:

Content marketing is a marketing technique that involves creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and engage a clearly defined audience - with the goal of triggering profitable customer actions.

The key word here is "valuable." It distinguishes this definition from one that could describe almost any form of advertising or marketing. You can tell if a piece of content could be part of a content marketing campaign by the fact that people seek it out, want to consume it, rather than avoid it. So was VW's 2014 "Game Day" commercial, which at the time of writing this post has been viewed nearly 18 million times on YouTube, an advertisement or content marketing? The answer is that it is both, depending on how it is received by each individual who comes into contact with it. The same goes for any content marketing you create, depending on whether or not the recipient gets value from it. Of course, the goal is to provide value from your content marketing to as many of your target audiences as possible. Despite this definition and explanation, you are probably still wondering now what exactly content marketing is. We can provide more clarity by looking at some examples.

ADVERTISING

iStock_000034791886_XXXLarge-smartphone-1024

Five examples of content marketing

There are as many types of content marketing as there are types of content- far too many to cover here. My intent is to give you an introduction to content marketing and get you thinking like a content marketer so you can see the opportunities available to you. Pretty soon, you'll be coming up with 50 content marketing ideas every day. You will not be able to stop seeing content creation opportunities. Here are five examples to get you thinking.

Infographics. These are usually long, vertical graphics that contain statistics, charts, graphs and other information. If you need some examples, here are 197 infographics on content marketing, compiled by Michael Schmitz, head of the Content Lab at Publicis in Munich. Infographics can be effective in that, if they are good, they can be shared on social media and published on websites for years to come. You can get a professionally designed infographic by hiring a contractor on a site like oDesk, or if you want to eliminate the risk, you can go with a company like Visua.ly. A decent infographic usually costs at least $1,000, but can cost several thousand dollars if you hire a contractor or agency to handle strategy and planning, research, copywriting, and design. You'll also need to promote the infographic to bloggers and the media. You could also set up a board on Pinterest and create infographics on a topic related to your business. This is also a form of content marketing and costs nothing but your time. Hey, it worked for Michael. Websites. What's the difference between a regular website and a content marketing website? Consider The Beginner's Guide to SEO from Moz, a provider of SEO-related tools and resources. This resource, offered for free, has been accessed millions of times and has brought in countless clients who otherwise might never have come across Moz and the services they offer. Or take a look at a case study from design firm Teehan+Lax. Most case studies are boring. Their case studies are fascinating. That's the difference between simply posting content on your website and content marketing. Podcasts. Michael Hyatt, author of the best-selling Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World, practices what he preaches. His "This is Your Life" podcast is downloaded 250,000 times each month. In his blog post, 4 Reasons You Should Consider Launching Your Own Podcast, Hyatt explains, "A podcast gives you visibility in a completely different world - especially iTunes. Many new people have told me they had never heard of me until they came across me on iTunes. Hyatt gives valuable information and advice in his podcast- all for free. But this podcast leads to more sales of his books, registrations for his classes, and requests for him to speak. Videos. Gary Vaynerchuk is a master of content marketing with online videos, just look at his YouTube channel. He started out creating videos to promote his family's wine business, and eventually built it into a $45 million empire through those videos and other online marketing. Videos and podcasts are a largely untapped form of content marketing because people think they are expensive and difficult. However, with the decreasing cost of professional equipment, it's easier than ever to create high-quality video and audio content. Amateur Video Con

The #1 secret of content marketing

Add value. That's the secret. It's actually not a secret at all. We've talked about it before in this post. But when you look at some of the marketing companies do, you wonder if they're intentionally avoiding the obvious. We avoid advertising when it provides little or no benefit. If you want to learn about advertising that doesn't get skipped, find a skateboarder and ask him if you can watch him flip through a skateboarding magazine. You'll find he spends as much time looking at the ads as he does the articles and photos. Or visit the website of The Berrics. A lot of the content is ads, but skaters don't skip those videos, they watch them as much as the other videos because they get the value they want- good skating. As a skater, I'd like to say that skateboard companies pioneered content marketing decades ago, but I know they were just doing what came to mind, and selling more product was secondary to having fun making videos and magazines. If you want to add someone to your marketing team who intuitively understands content marketing, hiring a skateboarder mightn't be a bad move.

If you're not sure how to add value through content marketing, ask your existing customers what kind of content you can produce that would be helpful to them now or that would have been helpful to them when they were looking for your product or service. They'll tell you.

How can I learn more?

Read the excellent book Epic Content Marketing by Joe Pulizzi. I started reading it after I wrote this post, and it confirmed and expanded on what I already knew about content marketing with much more detail than I could ever go into here. Something Pulizzi highlighted that I'd originally left out was the importance of focusing on producing mobile-friendly content, since smartphones are the dominant way most of our customers access content. Also, read Michael Hyatt's platform mentioned above. Visit sites like those of Content Marketing Institute, Ragan, Copyblogger, Michael Hyatt and Gary Vaynerchuk and sign up for their email newsletters. It won't take long for you to not only become knowledgeable about content marketing, but to become an expert.

Most companies don't do true content marketing... yet. That's why you'll have an advantage if you get involved. Let me know how it goes.

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website or some of my other work here.

[sunisup]

Content Marketing Made Simple: A Step-by-Step Guide

This, my friend, is one of the best examples of content marketing ever.

I bet when you hear "content marketing" you think of blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and viral YouTube videos.

But content marketing has been around much longer than the Internet.

And why?

Because content marketing is about storytelling, and people have been telling stories since they could talk. Our attention will always be on those who tell great stories.

When Hasbro and Marvel launched their comic book series "G.I. Joe - A Real American Hero"together in 1982, their marketing strategy was simple.

They wanted to create what Kenner Toy Company's Star Wars action figures already had: an extensive backstory for their action figures.

Within two months of the first comic's release, about 20% of the target audience, boys ages five to twelve, owned two or more G.I. Joe toys. And at that point, the comic book contained only two stories.

Seven years later, the series was one of Marvel's strongest titles, and two out of three boys in the same age group owned at least one G.I. Joe action figure.

What about using content to market a product?

A lot has changed since then, and what worked in the '80s doesn't necessarily work today. But with new marketing channels like social media popping up almost daily, there are new opportunities.

So let's take a look at what content marketing means today in my content marketing guide. If there's a topic that particularly interests you, feel free to keep scrolling:

Definition Overview Strategy History Why Content Marketing? Content mapping based on the customer journey Content for the Awareness Stage Content for the consideration stage Content for the decision stage Additional forms of content marketing Social media Live video Paid advertising A few additional tips and tricks Offline Online Hybrid Definition of Content Marketing The Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as:

... a strategic marketing approach that focuses on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and engage a clearly defined audience - and ultimately drive profitable customer actions.

This definition is solid, in my opinion. But it could use a little more clarity.

It says that content marketing is a long-term strategy that aims to build a strong relationship with your target audience by regularly delivering high-quality content that's relevant to them.

When customers finally make a purchase decision, their loyalty to you is already solidified. They'll buy your product and choose it over your competitors' offerings.

Unlike one-off advertising, content marketing shows that you actually care about your customers.

Today, more than ever, people want to feel like you care about them. The world is louder and noisier than ever before, and attention is our most valuable resource.

Keep that in mind as we look at some of the different types of content marketing.

Overview of Content Marketing When Joe Pulizzi founded the Content Marketing Institute in 2010, he probably didn't know exactly how accurate he'd be, let alone how successful the CMI would become.

The CMI is one of the best sources when it comes to content marketing statistics. And they've created a great video overview of the evolution of content marketing:

Since the foundation of content marketing is simply high-quality content and storytelling, you can already see that this activity has been around longer than the term itself.

There's still a lot to learn from the first offline content marketing activities, which predated the Internet, social media, and the like.

However, a successful content marketing campaign today can hardly ignore the online part.

As storytelling has changed over the years, people's attention spans more places than just a few years ago, and marketers need to make sure they're telling stories in the year we're actually living.

There are three main categories you can divide your content marketing efforts into these days: Online, Offline and Hybrid.

The best way to learn how to be a great content marketer is by example.

That's why I'm going to show you 15 great examples of content marketing across all categories. Then you can mimic them, tweak them, and apply them to your own business.

First, though, I'll show you how to create a content marketing strategy. Then you can use the examples at the end for inspiration.

Strategy Nowadays, there are countless different content marketing strategies.

In the early days of content marketing, that wasn't the case. Back then, marketers had few options. They essentially only had bandit signs, magazines and newspaper ads.

But even then, there were a variety of options they could use.

They could play with the words in their ads, the image shown, the placement, and the CTA.

In other words, even though there were only a few content marketing methods, the possibilities were remarkably extensive.

[sunisup]

What Is Content Marketing?

Useful content should be at the heart of your marketing Traditional marketing is becoming less effective by the minute; as a forward-thinking marketer, you know there has to be a better way.

That's content marketing.

Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach that focuses on creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and engage a clearly defined audience - and ultimately drive profitable customer actions.

Instead of pitching your products or services, provide your prospects and customers with truly relevant and useful content to help them solve their problems.

Content marketing is used by leading brands Our annual research shows that the vast majority of marketers are using content marketing. In fact, it's used by many well-known companies around the world, including P&G, Microsoft, Cisco Systems and John Deere. But it's also being developed and executed by small businesses and one-man operations around the globe. And why? Because it works.

Here is just one example of content marketing in action:

Looking for definitions of key content marketing terms? You'll find them in our glossary on content marketing. Content marketing is good for your bottom line - and for your customers. There are four important reasons - and benefits - for companies to use content marketing:

Increased sales Cost savings Better customers with higher loyalty Content as a profit center Content is the present - and the future - of marketing Go back and read the definition of content marketing again, but this time cross out " relevant" and "valuable." That's the difference between content marketing and the other informational junk you get from companies trying to sell you "stuff." Companies send us information all the time - it's just that it's usually not very relevant or valuable (can you say spam?). That's exactly what makes content marketing so interesting in today's world, where thousands of advertising messages per person arrive every day.

Marketing is impossible without great content Regardless of what type of marketing tactic you use, content marketing should be a part of your process, not something separate. Quality content is part of all forms of marketing:

Social media marketing: content marketing strategy comes before your social media strategy. SEO: Search engines reward companies that publish high-quality, consistent content. PR: Successful PR strategies should address topics readers care about, not their company. PPC: For PPC to work, you need good content. Inbound marketing: content is key to increasing inbound traffic and leads. Content strategy: content strategy is part of most content marketing strategies. Content marketing vs. inbound marketing

A documented content marketing strategy is essential for effective content marketing. Download our 16-page guide to learn what questions to ask and how to develop your strategy. What if your customers looked forward to your advertising? What if they spent 15, 30, 45 minutes on it when they received it, whether in print, email, or through the website? What if they looked forward to it and shared it with others?

If you are curious and ready to learn more, we can help. Here are a few popular ways to find out:

Are you new to content marketing? Check out our guide to getting started, where you'll learn the definition of content marketing and the basic steps to creating a content marketing plan. Need a content strategy? Read CMI's Content Marketing Framework, which outlines the essential building blocks for a successful content marketing program. Looking for examples of content marketing? Download this e-book: 40 Content Marketing Examples. Are you in marketing leadership? Subscribe to our free Chief Content Officer magazine to stay up to date on the latest industry trends. Need advice specific to your business? Contact our advisory group, led by strategist Robert Rose, to find out how they can help you tackle your content marketing challenges.

[sunisup]

Content Marketing

Content marketing is a marketing strategy that aims to attract, engage and retain an audience by creating and distributing relevant articles, videos, podcasts and other media. This approach provides expertise, builds brand awareness, and keeps your company top of mind when it's time to buy what you're selling.

Start your content marketing game Mailchimp has the tools and resources to attract, engage and retain the right customers for your business.

Sign up for free What's content marketing? Content marketing is the development and distribution of relevant, useful content - blogs, newsletters, white papers, social media posts, emails, videos, etc. - for current and potential customers. Done right, this content conveys expertise and makes it clear that a company values the people it sells to.

Consistent use of content marketing builds and maintains relationships with your potential and existing customers. If your audience views your company as a partner interested in their success and a valuable source of advice and guidance, they're more likely to choose you when it's time to make a purchase.

Why it's so important Content marketing is a proven tactic that's been proven to work. It also provides a competitive advantage. Take a look at what the data says about content marketing:

Companies with blogs get 67% more leads than other companies. Forty-seven percent of buyers look at 3 to 5 pieces of content before contacting a sales representative. Companies that use content marketing experience about 30% higher growth rates than those that don't. Seventy-two percent of B2B marketers say content marketing increases engagement and the number of leads generated. How content marketing works Your business can use content marketing to attract leads, recommend your product or service when someone is looking to buy, and close sales.

To use it effectively, you need to provide the right content at every stage of the sales cycle - from awareness to consideration to purchase. If that sounds complicated, don't worry: doing it this way will actually simplify the process.

Here's how companies use content marketing at every stage of the sales cycle to attract and sell customers.

Awareness stage In the first stage of the sales process, your content should focus on the most important concerns of your target audience. Writing about their problems, challenges, and questions will give you the best chance of engaging in a conversation with them. Content in the awareness phase should be educational and offer tips. Save the selling for the consideration and conclusion phases.

Best content for this phase: articles, blog posts, e-books, videos, newsletters.

Examples:

A restaurant writes a blog post about how to plan a menu for a graduation party in the spring. A bike tour operator creates a short video on "3 Ways to Choose the Right Bike Trip." An architecture firm creates an e-book titled "Questions to Ask Before Hiring an Architect." Consideration Phase In the consideration phase, content should provide a mix of helpful information and marketing. You should educate the reader on what features or functions they should look for and how the different features meet their needs. Of course, your content should be aligned with what your company offers.

The best content for this stage: case studies, how-to articles, how-to videos, checklists/worksheets.

Examples:

A company that provides cloud-based phone systems creates a checklist titled "8 Ways to Improve Your Phone Customer Service" that lists the features and functions that enable great customer service. A landscaping company creates case studies on "The Biggest Mistakes Most People Make When Hiring a Landscaper." A catering company presents case studies of successful events, focusing on the benefits they offer, such as "How to consider food allergies at your next event" or "How to ensure your caterer uses sustainable practices." Closing Content marketing plays an important role when a prospect is close to making a purchase. At this stage, you can focus on the sale as long as you continue to make it clear why you're the best choice, not just how great your services or products are.

Your central message here should be your expertise, knowledge, and the particular benefits of your offering.

Best content for this stage: case studies, user-generated content, buyer's guide, product video, research report.

Examples:

A consulting firm creates a research report that proves that companies that use strategic planning, outside assessments, and other services-depending on the services they provide-have higher growth. A design agency creates short videos showing the diversity of their work in different industries to demonstrate their diverse expertise. An orthodontic practice encourages their patients to write testimonials about their state-of-the-art equipment and top-notch service. How to get started with content marketing Content marketing

[sunisup]

How to Measure Social Media Marketing ROI [with Expert Advice]

 When it concerns building effective social media marketing ad campaigns, the most significant inquiry isn't "just how much should I invest?"

Simply put, it's all about return on investment (ROI). How are ad spending and customer conversion connected? Comprehending this connection makes it lesser just how much you invest and instead allows you to focus on the effect of your social advertisements. In this piece, we measure advertising and marketing ROI for social media sites and look at eight tools to improve the procedure.

What is Social Media ROI?

Social media ROI is an action of the advantages supplied by social media site marketing projects compared to the total financial investment on these projects-- including cash, time, and effort.

ROI is a step of spend versus worth: If I spend "X" quantity, just how much do I return? The best-case scenario is an ROI of more than one, where companies produce more than they invested in an investment.

Consider a manufacturing firm purchasing a new item of production line devices that costs $10,000 yet brings in $20,000 well worth of earnings every year. The result is a favourable ROI and a worthwhile financial investment. While gauging social networks' ROI isn't as straightforward since businesses need to represent the reach and impact of specific ad campaigns, the underlying concept is the same: In time, the objective is to come back more than you spend.

While particular dimension timelines and media metrics will vary, the function of ROI stays the same.

Exactly How to Measure Social Media Advertising ROI

Pay marketing is one of the most preferred and data-driven methods to measure social networks' advertising ROI. The trouble emerges, however, when there isn't a sound strategy to yield a favourable return on investment.

Exactly how does this occur? Social media site marketing experts typically construct an AdWords project to rate essential search terms. The campaign drives clicks, traffic, and leads, but eventually, the advertisement investment outweighs the impact of the ads that misbehave news for ROI.

These marketing experts wind up learning a pricey lesson, one that can be easily protected against by complying with these basic actions:

1. Establish a Budget.

Ads aren't suitable for everybody. Some sectors have very high competition with astronomical CPCs, and some products have typical low prices for the business economics to function.

To determine if advertisements are worth your time, start by developing a budget plan. This isn't a straightforward job, explicitly thinking about the hit many advertising budget plans have taken control of in the past 2 years. According to Tequila Burt, Editor in Chief of the LinkedIn Advertising And Marketing Solutions Blog site, market expertise is critical to this process. "As marketing leaders evaluate their budgets and also arrange their plans for the year in advance," she states, "a little bit of context, as well as clearness, can provide useful structure."

Think about that 76% of a business plan to improve investing throughout locations such as well-known influencer web content, advertisements in social media tales and also ads in a social network feeds. Recognizing where and when this cost makes the most feeling is essential to drive ROI.

2. Consistently Examine Advertisement Performance.

Try not to take a look at ads as a shortcut. It's feasible to reach a location with advertisements where they end up being a recurring resource of profit, but usually, that's not just how things begin.

Do not be amazed when your ads aren't producing tons of revenue a week after your project launches. "Around 80% of services online feel that they deliver great support via social media sites, yet just 8 per cent of their consumers agreed," says John Kopanakis, Company Intelligence teacher at Hellenic Mediterranean University. "Regardless of the place in many initiatives, many online marketers barely reach their targeted sales, and it is because they battle to measure the impact of their social media sites efforts on their sales."

Consequently, step-by-step enhancements in clickthrough rates and also conversion rates can have a significant impact on profit. Utilize the advertisements calculator to check out the influence these changes might have. View your advertisements like a hawk for the first month, and you'll stay clear of significant mistakes.

3. Make Sure You're Enhancing the Right Message

Ads imitate a megaphone to intensify your marketing campaigns and also content. The more total and vital your projects are, the better your advertisements will certainly execute.

As kept in mind by Samuel Bu, Marketing Supervisor at FortuneNote Chinese Service Magazine, in a current LinkedIn Pulse post, it's additionally vital to discover the right channel for your organization. While he highlights LinkedIn as an excellent method to generate leads and calls out Facebook's massive influence on the social market, he also highlights challenges with systems such as Instagram. Why? But claims, "More than likely, Instagram disappoints generating solid ROI due to its more abstract metrics-- such as brand recognition, online reputation, commitment, and consumer interaction."

Think about it: Which ads do you believe to carry out better? Are those advertising your homepage or those promoting a remarkable piece of web content that assists a person?

Bingo. Those are promoting excellent content.

Campaigns that utilize advertisements need to be dealt with like various other campaigns. Establish your objectives first, develop great content, concentrate your message and maximize your landing pages; then, determine how advertisements can help amplify your message. Taking this combined approach and only using ads as a tactical component of your advertising and marketing campaigns will certainly settle.

How Much Should You Spend on Ads?

Thinking you've run the numbers and now recognize what you can anticipate in terms of profit and ROI, it's time to launch a project. To do this, you'll have to make 2 budget choices, no matter where you are advertising:

Overall campaign spending plan or period: Just how much do you prepare to spend in total amount? The length of time will the ads run for? Understand that if you do not set a limit, there will be no optimum or end of the day.

Daily budget: How much do you want to spend a day?

There are two means most marketers make use of ads, temporary and lasting.  ...

Temporary advertisements. Spending plan = a minimum of a couple hundred dollars over a month.

When online marketers use advertisements for a temporary objective, they usually jump-start a campaign or increase material that requires a bump. These ad spends are generally smaller and much shorter, but they can be considerable.

If you have a few hundred bucks, spend it this way. Create a social article that promotes a piece of content and afterwards utilize your ads to increase the message. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn all have reasonable solutions for this. Ensure you use the social media network that provides you with the best targeting for your persona and returns the most beneficial leads. The procedure this by evaluating the high quality of the information created after the campaign.

Lasting advertisements. Budget = at least a couple of thousand bucks over a quarter.

Ads can be an excellent remedy in a pinch; however, if you genuinely wish to use advertisements purposefully, build them into your total advertising technique. This means even more constant quarterly ad investments.

Please take into consideration exactly how prospective consumers make acquisition decisions and also make use of ads to affect them. This may indicate always depending on search advertisements or retargeting to make sure potential customers locate you when they prepare to purchase. You're more likely to gather far bet by using this technique, which allows you to get much more advmaximising to maximize your ad investment.

Given the quickly-changing nature of social media site platforms and messages, it deserves to think about social networks' ROI devices to help stay on top of investment and earnings measurements. Below's a check out 8 beautiful alternatives.

8 Ideal Social Network ROI Measurement Tools

HubSpot

Hootsuite

Grow Social

Cyfe

Google Analytics

Barrier

Keyhole

Social Mention

1. HubSpot

The HubSpot Advertising ROI Calculator makes it easy to narrow down when and where it's worth investing in social ads.

Begin by inputting your projected monthly budget plan; after that, your expected cost-per-click (CPC), target conversion price, typical sale price, and lead-to-consumer price to obtain an essential suggestion of your ROI on marketing investment. Please use the calculator frequently to review your campaigns and ensure they provide critical metrics.

2. Hootsuite

Hootsuite additionally provides a cost-free Social ROI Calculator that lets you input advertisement investment information to establish possible ROI. While it uses various metrics and has a different setup than the HubSpot version, the essential feature coincides: Input your information to see where it makes sense to invest in advertisements and where the return may not warrant the investment.

While both use a solid beginning factor for ROI, we're generally prejudiced toward the HubSpot variation.

3. Grow Social

Successive is Sprout Social. Unlike HubSpot and Hootsuite, you'll need to register for a free trial to access Sprout Social's ROI calculator. After one month, it's $99 monthly if you intend to maintain utilizing the device.

Regardless of your current ad campaign and ROI goals, the cost might be worth it. Sprout's tool supplies message-level insights to see which blog posts are verifying their worth, along with a fan, interaction, and keyword analytics covering the whole publishing process from draft to queue to posting.

4. Cyfe

Cyfe provides a set of all-in-one business control panels that offer understanding across vital social platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Quickly check what advertisements are being uploaded, just how they're executing, and exactly how users interact with your project efforts.

Cyfe comes with a 14-day complimentary trial. After that, it's $19 monthly for 2 dashboards and one user.

5. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is familiar, complementary, and functional. While it doesn't have the very same laser-focus on social networks as a few other offerings on our list, it includes the advantage of accessibility to massive information sets and also helps educate social advertising SEO, which is vital to any efficient project.

Log right into your Google Analytics control panel to see exactly how your social advertisements are doing at a high level. From there, pick Procurement, after that All Traffic, then Networks. This will undoubtedly raise a listing of your website traffic resources, consisting of those from social websites, helping you obtain a general feeling of how social advertisements are working to drive income.

6. Buffer

The Barrier is an all-in-one social media marketing and ROI tool designed to simplify the procedure of measuring and handling advertisements. The device streamlines the development of social advertising and allows you to gauge impact in a couple of clicks to see what's working and what needs to be enhanced.

If you're starting with social media ads, Barrier has a complimentary strategy that allows you to manage up to three networks with fundamental tools. From there, plans begin at $5 monthly for "Essentials", $10 per month for "Team", as well as $100 each month for "Company".

7. Keyhole

Keyhole lets you accomplish 2 vital jobs: Listen to what people are saying regarding your brand in real-time and monitor the effectiveness of your influencer advertising campaigns.

The first is essential because client sentiment is a solid bellwether concerning ad performance. If the variety of people talking about your brand name is increasing-- as well as if a lot of what they need to state declares, you get on the ideal track.

Influencer advertising reports, on the other hand, help maintain tabs on influencer companions who exist outside your service environment but offer possible benefits for your brand name, as long as they're regularly uploading and in line with your messaging.

8. Social Reference

The most specific device on our checklist, Social Reference, allows you to browse any keyword or crucial phrase for recent social points.

In the method, companies can use Social Mention to see what's currently trending and also what opportunities exist to target particular key phrases, as well as follow up after ads have gone real-time to see just how campaigns are performing.

Obtaining the Greatest Social Impact for Your Spend

Bottom line? There's no single method to invest your social advertising and marketing budget. Some businesses may choose to maintain reduced spending and manage the majority of their ads with free platforms and word of mouth, while others want to spend the top buck for on-demand results.

Whatever spending plan you select and whichever approach you take, there's a usual guideline: Ask great deals of inquiries regarding your ad investment, and ensure ads are carried out as planned.

Why? Because even targeting the best marketing with the correct method makes it very easy to shed cash quickly. Protect yourself by knowing what to expect, having clear expectations, and utilizing the proper devices to gauge social ad ROI.

Editor's note: This message was initially published in July 2016 and also has been updated for comprehensiveness.

[sunisup]

What Is Clickbait and Is It Good or Unhealthy?

Clickbait feels like an attractive content marketing strategy, as a result of it’s meant to hook a consumer to go to your hyperlink. You need website traffic and extra viewers after all of the exhausting work you poured into creating content material!