Promise Marketing Blog

Posts Tagged ‘content marketing’

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

Your solution is boring

Wednesday, March 13, 2013 —

We work with a lot of businesses (accountants, lawyers, financial consultants, banks, etc.) that take great pride in the quality of their services. And they should. Unfortunately, they also often take great pride in the level of boredom generated by the description of their services. They shouldn’t.

No matter what you do for a living, there is a way to make it interesting. The easiest solution is to tell a story. Stories are about people and people are interesting. The easiest way to develop these stories is to interview clients and develop case studies. You can add these case studies to your website, use them during sales presentations, tweet them, put them on Facebook, and incorporate them into conversations. You can create written formats (like PDFs) that can be emailed, turn them into text-based or interview-style videos, or create powerpoint presentations. There are so many possibilities! The key is to find ways to make them interesting. Try adding small facts about your client’s business that may not be relevant to your case study but bring the situation to life. Can you use humor? Or an interesting photo? Or provide a statistic that shows the volume of work (1 million pages of documents generated, etc.) There are many ways to help people relate to your story.

If someone is interested in what you have to say, they will ask questions. Whether or not you like it, what you say will be interesting to them because they answer their questions. So take pride in what you do. Realize that it may not really be boring after all. Don’t apologize for yourself. Your solution may be boring, but you don’t have to be.

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: Business development, Communication, content marketing, Promise Marketing, Public Relations

Five ways to measure Facebook page influence

Thursday, November 29, 2012 —

Measuring the impact of your social media effort was all the talk @prsmsummit this past October. If Facebook is an important and indispensable part of your social media strategy, which I’m sure it is, you should be measuring its influence with Facebook Insights, the analytics system tied to every Facebook page.

Facebook Insights make measuring your page’s engagement relatively easy. Here are five important metrics you can look at when tracking Facebook traffic. If you’re interested, you can learn more about the basics of this tool by checking out this KISSmetics blog post.

1. Demographics. The overall number of “likes” or fans on your page is easy to track, but it’s what’s underneath that number where you’ll uncover some great nuggets of useful marketing information. Is your page dominated by a female presence? What age groups tend to follow your page? These numbers are important when planning content.

2. Geography. Where are your fans from? Of course, your page will be “liked” by some people not affiliated with you or your industry, but if too many of your fans are from France or Australia, for example, (or for many Clear Verve clients, are out-of-state) your page is likely not hitting its geographic target.

3. Reach. Facebook measures anyone who has seen content associated with your page. This means your page can be seen by friends of fans and that it has a reach much bigger than you’d expect. You can discover how many unique people have seen content from your page. I bet you’ll be surprised at the size of the number.

4. Talking About Your Page. Facebook tracks people who have created a “story” about your page. A “story” includes liking your page, posting to your wall, commenting or liking a post, sharing a post, answering a question, etc. This is how your page continues to grow and become known. You want people to talk about your page!

5. Content. Of course you can regularly repurpose content from your website for use on your Facebook page but it’s better to develop a strategic content plan. This becomes easier to do when you know what content appeals to your audience. You can find this out by measuring your content. What are the most popular types of posts? Photos? Videos? Maybe it’s individual posts about a certain topic. Whatever it is, watch them carefully and use Facebook Insights to see how they perform. Some marketers are now paying to promote the kinds of posts that elicit the most response.

As marketing professionals, it’s important for us to measure the results of our work. Google offers its metrics mechanisms and with Insights, so does Facebook. You should use these tools to evaluate your efforts and explain why your investment in social media is important for building awareness of your brand.

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: content marketing, Facebook, metrics, Social Media

Delivering controversial news

Monday, October 1, 2012 —

When I visited Alterra the other day, I noticed this sign outside the door.

This is a great illustration of one way to handle a politically charged, sensitive, emotional issue. Of course, it won’t work for every sensitive subject. But Alterra found a way to be legally compliant, funny, and inoffensive WHILE maintaining their branding. Great job!

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: Branding, Communication, content marketing, Customer experience, Great ideas, Public Relations

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.

Tags: Communication, content marketing, Public Relations

Take your online marketing seriously

Monday, July 23, 2012 —

Recently, my family took a vacation to Florida. During the six days we were at Disney World, tropical storm Debby was brewing up in the Gulf of Mexico. While it didn’t affect most of our time at Disney, by the middle of our six day stay it became apparent that some serious rain was on its way for the days following our departure from the land of Mickey Mouse.

After our Disney stay, we were planning to head over to Port Canaveral, but with the rain coming, I decided to make a last minute change in plans. I hopped online and managed to find a great resort in South Carolina. The website popped up to the top of my search, it had great pictures, and I could make reservations online. It looked perfect, so I booked a stay at the Wild Dunes Resort and instead of being stuck in a beachside hotel in Port Canaveral looking at the pouring rain on the beach, we spent two days enjoying the Atlantic Ocean in Charleston.

While I’m sure there are many other wonderful places to stay in Charleston, we ended up at the Wild Dunes because the resort took their internet marketing seriously. Gone are the days where we book hotels sight unseen or spend hours searching for the perfect destination. Today’s customers want to find what they want right away, want to see what they’re getting, and want to be able to make their purchase quickly and easily. If your online presence isn’t reflecting the best of your business, maybe it’s time to take a look at what you are doing and find ways to improve. People judge things they can’t or don’t understand based upon things they can understand, even if those things are not directly related to the service your business provides. If your website content is out of date, people will think your services are too. If you spell something wrong, people will think you don’t perform your work carefully. Never mind that your website probably wasn’t created by your employees. It’s the only thing your prospects can base their opinions upon, so you’d better make sure it’s good.

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, online marketing, website

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

Promise Marketing Blog

Posts Tagged ‘content marketing’

Your solution is boring

Delivering controversial news

Pew research ah-ha gives way to marketing tips

Take your online marketing seriously

The ROI of content marketing

Three tips for more effective writing

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