Promise Marketing Blog

Archive for the ‘content marketing’ Category

Writing for the Green Bay Packers & Content Marketing

Monday, May 20, 2013 —

I recently had the chance to hear Bob McGinn speak. Bob is a reporter who has been covering the Green Bay Packers for nearly 30 years. Now, if you’re like most people in Wisconsin, you probably think this was a great opportunity. I however had no idea who Bob was. For me, the sports section is that part of the newspaper that makes it more difficult for me to get to the business section. Let’s just say I was not exactly excited to hear Bob speak. I thought he’d just spout statistics and I’d feel like he was delivering a lecture in Greek or something.

Boy, was I wrong! Sure Bob shared some statistics. And rattled off the names of a bunch of football players I’m supposed to have heard of. But he also pointed out how his approach to writing about the Packers is exactly like what a good content marketer does.

Bob tries to be original. There are lots of reporters covering the Packers and they’re all covering the same game. He tries to find a new approach to what he has to say so that his column is a little different and therefore, worth reading. How do you work to make your approach to sharing information different from your competitors?

He works at learning about the game. Bob admits he watches a lot of tape. He asks a ton of questions. While Bob may not actually play the game, he feels that he is doing a disservice to his readers if he isn’t well informed. So he works at understanding what’s going on both on and off the field. Do you keep up with your industry? How many blogs, articles, or books do you read? Do you attend seminars? Are you open to new ideas?

He works with experts. Bob is not a football player (see above), a coach, or a scout. He knows that there are some things he just can’t understand because he’s not part of the team. So he enlists the help of others to make sure he’s got his facts straight and that he’s sharing good information. It’s okay to admit you don’t know everything. You don’t have to know everything, you just have to figure out who to ask.

Whether you’re writing about sports, accounting, or a nonprofit cause, you can learn from Bob’s approach. Content marketing is the most important strategy you can implement in today’s digital age. But your content must be good to work. If you work at being original, understanding your industry, and aren’t afraid to bring in an expert or two, you too can succeed at content marketing.

Christina Steder is the President of Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns. Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve.

Tags: Communication, content marketing, Green Bay Packers, Marketing, Promise Marketing, Public Relations, Social Media

Playing with Vines

Friday, April 26, 2013 —

Have you heard of Vine? It’s a fun new app that you can use to make the equivalent of a video “tweet.” You use your smartphone to make a six-second video, which you can then post to Facebook or Twitter. Once your video is posted, you can get an embed code that will allow you embed the video anywhere.

Now I know you’re probably thinking, “How great can a six-second video be anyway?” Well, they can be pretty great! In fact, the Tribeca Film Festival invited people to submit Vines for judging and got some amazing super short videos. Check them out here.

So, what can you do with a vine? Lots! Obviously, vine isn’t great for explaining complicated topics or if you need to impress someone with a high quality video, but it can be used to create a fun, simple message. Check out two we quickly made at Clear Verve.

Tags: Buzz marketing, Clear Verve, content marketing, Great ideas, Marketing, Public Relations, Social Media, Twitter

2013 is the year of content marketing

Monday, April 1, 2013 —

According to a recent survey, 79 percent of marketers are now reporting that their companies are shifting into branded content either at a moderate or aggressive pace. The portion of the marketing budget dedicated to creating content is up 13 percent over the past two years.

Content marketing is using the creation of content as a marketing tool. It can take the form of blogs, social media, or website content. It can be video or email. It also includes traditional forms of content such as books, printed newsletters, or whitepapers. Anything your organization does to inform and educate your audience, with the exception of advertising, can be considered content marketing.

In the professional services world, content marketing is something that has always been done. Most accounting firms, insurance companies, health care organizations, and law firms have been producing newsletters for years. However, the number of mediums for distribution and the speed at which content must now be created is new. This poses a challenge for many organizations, as evidenced by the fact that 56 percent of brands are now outsourcing content creation. It is a necessity, but is outside the skill set of many professionals. If your organization can afford to outsource content, it provides many advantages. Content is created consistently and is of higher quality. However, if you can’t afford outside help, you can still participate. Here’s how:

Set realistic goals. You don’t have to blog every day. Shoot for once a week or twice a month. Just be consistent.
Produce the best content you can. Better to produce a smaller amount of high quality content than hundreds of gobbledygook posts nobody will read.
Remember, it’s not advertising. Inform, don’t sell. Your goal is not to make a sale, it is to educate your audience and demonstrate your knowledge.

Get multiple people at your organization involved. If everyone only needs to write one or two articles per year, it can get done.

Christina Steder is the President of Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns. Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve.

Tags: blogging, Business development, content marketing, Marketing, Promise Marketing, Public Relations, Service marketing, Social Media, Twitter, YouTube

Pew research ah-ha gives way to marketing tips

Tuesday, September 18, 2012 —

I recently read about a research project for the Pew Research Center that found 56 percent of adult internet users are either creators of content or curators of it and that 32 percent of internet users are both.

In a nutshell according to the study, 46 percent of adults on the internet are creators, which means they post their own photos and videos online while 41 percent of adults are curators, basically those who post to sites like Pinterest or Facebook to share other people’s photos and videos.

Drilling deeper into the research is where I found the demographic information that really becomes useful to marketers.

Research finding: Instagram users are mostly young adults, with 27 percent of all internet users between the ages of 18 and 29 using the mobile photo sharing service.
Key takeaway point: If you have a lot of young customers, perhaps you could start an account and a hashtag for your organization or company. If you don’t, Instagram might not be worth your time.

Research finding: Almost a fifth of women online (19 percent) use Pinterest to curate photos, videos and links to other online content.
Key takeaway point: Maybe it’s time to use the social network Pinterest to reach your target audience.

If you haven’t seen it, Pinterest is an image-based platform where users share their interests, likes, favorites, inspirations, and more on pages or boards they create. It’s one of the top ten most-visited social networks and its popularity is growing, especially among women.

So, yes. It’s time to make this marketing tool work for you — or at least consider taking advantage of it to show you are in touch with what’s going on in marketing and the social media game. Here are just three pinboards you can create to help market your organization:

In the News
Instead of clipping articles from the local newspaper, take advantage of the electronic version and pin it. Pin the links to your television news stories or any other online media for that matter. You can also pin JPEG files as well. Create a visual, easy to look at digital clipping room on your Pinterest page to keep track of your media coverage.

Resources/Tips/Advocacy
Be helpful to your customers, constituents or clients. Add value for them by pinning resourceful articles and blogs that you find online. Also, it seems that now more than ever, those who work in the nonprofit sector need to curate content and advocate for themselves at every turn. Create an advocacy board on your Pinterest site and pin articles that support or inform about new legislation, funding, testing, research or more.

Employee Showcase
You can post pictures of your staff members and write brief bios on each. (Some of you already do this on your website, so you might as well repurpose the information and share it this way as well.) Be sure to include something fun about them or touch on what makes them stand out. You can feature a unique experience they’ve had, a hobby or skill or tell about any community service involvement. Humanize your team members by telling brief stories about them and pinning the stories to a staff showcase board on your Pinterest page.

The possibilities with Pinterest are plentiful. Play away and take advantage of what’s popular and interesting.

Jackie Costa, the director of content marketing at Clear Verve, works with clients to create and distribute smarter, better marketing communications materials. Listen for her on Twitter @JackieMCosta.

Tags: Communication, content marketing, Public Relations

Three A+ marketing tips for back-to-school

Wednesday, August 15, 2012 —

If you’re a parent of a school-ager, chances are you’ve had at least one rotten experience with your kiddo’s school. We all have. And it’s such a shame.

While some schools simply forget how important community relations and marketing communications are, there are others that flat-out lack marketing communications know-how. As a parent, I just want to be informed. A school is a brand; I’m buying what it’s selling, which is mostly trust (more about that in a minute). Just make it easy for me … like maybe pre-fill registration forms with last year’s information and let me edit if needed, for example.

So parents, here are three things you may impart upon your school principal or PTA president on how to kick off the 2012-13 school year with high marks.

1. First and most importantly, communicate. Schools sell trust – trust that it offers a safe environment, trust that good teachers work there, trust that all students get the opportunity to succeed and achieve, trust that money is spent wisely. Parents will buy this as long as they are engaged in open, honest two-way communication that educates and informs. Encourage the faculty and staff to communicate with parents, and give us time to react.

We’ve got email and voice mail. We’re on Twitter. We’re on Facebook, well about 149 million of us anyway. According to Nielsen, social media accounts for 25 percent of all the time we spend online. Schools should use any of these social media options to let us know what’s going on: tell us your good stories, share official statements and polices; introduce ideas and plans, control rumors, gain support garner insight, build awareness for a cause or issue. If we parents are confident you’ll share info with us, we’ll join you’re your online community as soon as you begin the conversation.

Also make sure your branding is consistent across all media channels: email, website and in print. Ensure staff use their school (branded) email address when communicating with us. Also, use your website to tell your story. Make your site the primary marketing outreach tool. Promote it, keep it fresh and train us parents to visit it often.

One more thing, we’re all busy. More than half of the parents of the students in your building work. So, take a note from business. Make your communications clear and concise. Cut to the chase, use bullet points and spell things correctly. Beware of using jargon in your communications. Sometimes it’s necessary, but it can usually be avoided.

2. Customer service and training. Make sure faculty and staff are up to date on school policies and procedures—especially where interactions with parents are involved. It’s critical that everybody in your building be on the same page with this information and is able to clarify the goals and objectives for the new school year.

3. Work to maintain mutually beneficial relationships. Every school has its own way of making this happen, but the common element is to have plan. A well-thought-out public relations plan will help ensure that a school carries out its mission and meets its goals with the support of its staff and community. Schools just like corporations can follow a four-step process for developing a plan.

Research – up front analysis on where the school stands in regard to all publics it wishes to reach.
Action plan – developing public relations goals, objectives and strategies that go hand-in-hand with the district’s overall mission and goals.
Communicate/Implement – carrying out the tactics necessary to meet the objectives and goals.
Evaluate – looking back at actions taken to determine their effectiveness and what changes are needed in the future.

Lastly, you are not going to be able to please everyone, but everyone will see that you’re aiming to please and that’s about all we ask for. When you do this for us, we’re happy to volunteer and partner with you for the good of the students.

Tags: Branding, Communication, Customer experience, Public Relations

What does your content sound like?

Tuesday, July 10, 2012 —

If anyone has ever told you to write like you talk, do so with care. On the surface, it’s a good idea and is an easy way to start a draft. It is not, however, the way you want your final work to appear. Written grammar and spoken grammar are pretty different. While slang and shortcuts are common in speech and in email, such looseness with written language can create bad impressions with clients, ruin marketing materials and cause communications errors.

This isn’t just a generational issue. It’s a skills issue. Just because so many of us are accustomed to texting and social networking doesn’t mean it’s OK to toss grammar and syntax to the wind. It’s important for your corporate communications to be spot on when it comes to grammar and style. Professional correspondence should never have a typo or grammar gaffe. While corporate brochures should be solid examples of clear business writing, websites don’t have to be quite as formal. Still, website content should not be written as if you were speaking to a friend. You can, of course, have a little fun, use a certain dialect and write at a different level. But no matter which style you choose, it must me correct.

Language is evolving and though it seems like the rules of usage are eroding, you mustn’t skip proofreading. Read over what you’ve written for mistakes and then read it again out loud; take a listen to it before publishing. If you don’t, you’ll end up with disorganized, repetitive pieces that lack inflection and tone. Spoken language has an inherent rhythm that’s brought about by a variation of sentence length. If you imitate it, your writing will achieve an air of naturalness. So instead of just throwing out your thoughts, strive for the rhythm of speech, not the actual words.

Force yourself to vary the length of sentences. Try it. Write and rewrite; delete and backspace all you want. Generally short, sharp sentences give emphasis while long, involved sentences add depth and color. Together with the medium-length sentences, your writing will achieve tone and rhythm. You’ll soon see it’s easier than you think to cut a sentence down, add on to one, join two together or split a long one in half. Gradually, you’ll find your own voice and discover a cadence for your writing.

In today’s world you’ll succeed if you can write well for print plus be able to text, tweet and communicate on Facebook. Unless you’re at the dinner table with your father or out for coffee with your English teacher, your words are not likely to get corrected. But your published copy always will. Inescapably in print, you and your company will be judged by your language and grammar. Your audience, readers and customers will notice your mistakes and form an opinion. Do what you can to make it a good one.

Jackie Costa is the director of content marketing at Clear Verve and works with clients to create and distribute smarter, better marketing communications materials. Listen for her on Twitter @JackieMCosta.

Tags: Branding, Business development, Communication, Public Relations, What Matters Now

The ROI of content marketing

Saturday, July 7, 2012 —

According to a recent study by Kapost and Eloqua, content marketing generates three times more leads per dollar than paid search. Consumers are suffering from ad overload and are increasingly tuning out all forms of advertising, including paid search. Marketers are increasingly turning to content marketing to break through the clutter and develop relationships with consumers. Even giant companies like Coke are betting the farm on content marketing and investing millions of dollars to generate content that will make connections with their customers.

Here are some interesting statistics from the study:

The major cost of content marketing is the dedicated staff. This can be good or bad, depending on how you look at it. If a company decides to implement a content marketing strategy with existing staff, it can be seen as a no or low cost strategy. However, when a marketing strategy is seen as no cost or low cost, it is often seen as less important or expendable. It is important for businesses to realize that content marketing is an investment and rather than buying ad space, they are buying time and ideas.

Content marketing efforts need time to grow. One chart in the study showed that on average, it takes over a year for an audience to build.

In the first five months, costs per lead drop 80 percent. Like the fact above, businesses need to remember that content marketing takes time. The cost per lead will drop, but not in the first five weeks. According to the study, that takes an average of five months. It may take even longer for you, depending on your business.

For small businesses, after 24 months, content marketing costs 31 percent less than paid search. Enough said.

The study’s authors acknowledge that content marketing is a commitment. For our promise marketing clients, it is a natural extension of what they’ve always done, share knowledge. But even for professional service providers and nonprofits, content marketing takes time and effort. It’s a commitment, but it’s well worth it.

Christina Steder is the President of Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns. Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve.

Tags: content marketing, Marketing, paid search, Service marketing

Three tips for more effective writing

Thursday, July 5, 2012 —

Emma Coats, Story Artist at Pixar Animation Studios, recently posted 22 ideas for effective story writing she’s picked up while working at Pixar. Although not all of these ideas are applicable to writing about professional services, here are a few that are, along with my comments:

Keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer. They can be very different. – Often, business owners try to focus on what they want to sell, not the problem the reader wants to solve. Don’t do that. Set your needs aside.

Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You’ll feel like you’re losing valuable stuff but it sets you free. – Remember, you’re not trying to teach the reader how to build a watch, just how to tell time. They only need to know enough to understand why they should talk to you to learn more.

Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you’ll never share it with anyone. – Writers often get hung up because they can’t craft the perfect first sentence. Just write, then go back and fix it. It’s much easier to edit than write, so just get it down on paper.

Writing well is hard, but gets easier with practice.

Christina Steder is the President of Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns. Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve.

Tags: Communication, content marketing, creative writing, writing

Five reasons your organization should be blogging

Tuesday, June 19, 2012 —

I read recently that fewer than half of all Fortune 100 companies use blogs as a communications tool, and that smaller to midsize organizations are only a little more engaged in blogging than their Fortune 100 counterparts.

That’s a cryin’ shame. Having a blog is well worth the time and effort. It provides great benefits and ultimately, can be your most highly effective, powerful, low-cost marketing tool. You should take advantage of this medium. Use this tactic and make it the key component of your social media and content marketing efforts. Here’s why:

Blogs bring new business or new donations. It’s important for your prospective customers, clients or donors to find you online. Blogs make it easier for them to do that and initiate contact with you when they are ready to engage. You become part of their mental furniture and when they’re ready to rearrange some things, you’ll be the knowledgeable, helpful organization that’s top of mind.

Blogs provide prominence and show leadership. A blog can become the gateway to your organization and provide a reason to visit it often. If your website is your online brochure, your blog is your sales call. In addition, blogging enriches you professionally; it keeps you in the loop, which thought leader usually are. As you read more about your industry you’ll be excited to share and comment on it. You’ll be up to date with the freshest thinking and be acquainted with the newest trends — all good things for the people you serve. Blogging positions you in their minds as a trusted expert. However, you have to be a little careful. As soon as you start to sell your organization or crow a little bit too loudly about your credentials, accomplishments or awards, you’ll lose your street cred and your audience. Stick with writing rich, helpful content about people, things and activities that make life a little better … or funnier.

Blogs help you build trust and allow you to practice what you preach. If you volunteer at a nonprofit, you can blog for them about the people who’ve met and helped. If you sell vegetables, you can blog about how to use them in recipes. If you work at a marketing company that recommends blogging, you better be doing it. Plus, blogs offer lots of flexibility. Posts can be long or short, visual or not, and incorporate just about any type of media. Videos, photos, infographics, even presentations can all be embedded into your organization’s blog. With a blog, you own the content, control the platform and decide on the format. Say what you want to say. Be the authority.

Blogs are always fresh. By its very nature, a blog is one of the best ways to continually produce fresh content for your website, and search engines love fresh content. A steady stream of new information will attract new visitors to your site and keep your fans coming back too. Additionally, blog content can be repurposed on websites and reposted on other social media sites.

Blogs boost your search engine rankings. Unless your company or product line is very large, blogging is the most practical and valuable way to expand your website content. By creating more content through blog articles, you create more opportunities to rank in search engines. Because of a much higher number of keywords, blog posts can organically attract diverse high-quality links, which are far more likely to be shared in social media than standard website content; just make sure your blog is hosted on your company domain (e.g. blog.yourcompany.com or yourcompany.com/blog).

Blogging isn’t free, but it is a bargain. Setup and hosting fees plus the time you or an employee invest in writing are minimal compared to the amount you’d spend calling and traveling to meet people at their offices or networking at a tradeshow. What’s invaluable though is the traffic and trust you’ll build by simply adding content.

Tags: Blog, blogging, Communication, content marketing

5 tips to improve your writing

Thursday, June 7, 2012 —

People often tell me that my job seems really hard or that they struggle with writing. While it is true that everyone has their own “thing,” there are some steps you can take to improve your writing if it does not come easily.

1. Just start writing. Most people try to write the title for their article first. Then they get stuck and can’t move on. Or, they write a title that limits the subject of the article. Next time, try skipping the title and write the article first. It will be easier to title your article when you know what your article is actually about.

2. Write it when you think it. I carry a small notebook in my purse and in my car, so I can record thoughts at stoplights. (Don’t worry, I know better than to write when I’m driving!) You never know when inspiration will strike and if you don’t write your thoughts down, they will be lost. Alternately, you could use the voice recorder in your phone to grab your thoughts for later.

3. Don’t be afraid to skip around. If you get stuck on one thought and another one that isn’t related to what you’re writing pops into your head, just move further down the page and record your thought. You can go back later and connect your two thoughts or delete one and expand upon the other.

4. Write backwards. Most of us were taught to write by introducing the setting, explaining the situation, and building to a conclusion. However, effective business writing begins at the end. I call this writing backwards, because the conclusion is at the beginning and everything you write afterwards supports that idea. That’s how newspapers are written. The headline tells you what happened and the story explained the circumstances that led up to the final event. If you’re not in the habit of writing this way, just write the way you normally do and then go back and edit your work. Your main idea is probably the first sentence of the second paragraph.

5. Take a break. When you feel like you’re done, pause and walk away. An hour or more away from your writing will give you fresh eyes and make you a better editor.

Christina Steder is the President of Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns. Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve.

Tags: blogging, content marketing, creative writing, Promise Marketing, Social Media

Promise Marketing Blog

Archive for the ‘content marketing’ Category

Pew research ah-ha gives way to marketing tips

Three A+ marketing tips for back-to-school

What does your content sound like?

The ROI of content marketing

Three tips for more effective writing

Five reasons your organization should be blogging

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