Content Marketing Today

Great Advice from Singapore Blogger and Coach Celestine Chua on Kick Starting Your Business

We all tend to go overboard with any important trend. We get so excited about what's brand-new that we forget about the tried and true. So it is with inbound marketing vs. outbound marketing.

Celestine reminds us that outbound marketing done right, particularly in the form of smart public relations can make a measurable and almost immediate positive difference. 

The concept behind inbound marketing is that you engage in a lot of information creation activities that will pull in folks who are interested in what you have to say. Business blogs and participation in social media such as Twitter and Facebook enable you to offer content that prospects volunteer to consume.

Obviously, I believe in that. Witness the existence of Content Marketing Today and the blog post you’re currently reading. But, as Celestine emphasizes, that's only the first part of the equation that should also include smart outbound marketing.

Read More

Influence them with information well before they are ready to buy from you.

I have written before about the many differences between a traditional website and a blog.

Your website typically provides timeless information, while your blog provides timely information. Moreover, your blog becomes more important as you keep adding more and more content that is relevant to your prospective customers.

But a case study about a consulting company, De Novo Strategy, from Bernie Borges' new book, Marketing 2.0, suggested a new nuanced but critical reason for the power of a business blog.  It boils down to the fundamental difference between the purpose of your website and of your blog.

Your website must necessarily be designed so that when your customers are ready to research the purchase of products and services, they will find everything they need to know to make a positive buying decision on your site.

Your blog has the opportunity to reach those prospective customers earlier in the process. The best blogs provide a continuous stream of information about topics, issues, and problems that are specific to a well defined market niche. This would apply equally to content marketing or a segment of the banking industry.

As we begin an initial search for information in a particular niche, we probably have no intention of buying anything from anybody. At that moment in time, we simply want to become better informed in areas that matter to us, either professionally or personally. We are looking for information. We are not looking for a vendor.

A banking market website without a blog--loser. With a blog--winner.

Read More

How I Discovered This Video Offers Another Proof of the Power of Social Media

SW Florida online marketing maven and real estate professional, Chris Griffith, clued me into this cool and compelling video which does a terrific job of dispelling doubts about the power and impact of social media. So, it's only natural to share it on my blog.

But, there’s more. As I was about to simply post the video, I realized that the Facebook alert from Chris was a metaphor for the fast growing impact of social media to connect people, businesses, and concepts.

Here's what I mean:

Read More

Content Marketing Pioneer, Tim Berry of Palo Alto Software Tells You How to Build Your Business Before He Charges You a Nickel

In 1994, I read the first edition of Tim Berry's wonderful book, Hurdle: The Book on Business Planning without realizing that it was a perfect example of content marketing. Of course, back then, nobody was calling what he did content marketing. Essentially, Tim's book gave away all of the information you needed to build your own successful business plan. This might seem odd since his real business then and now is selling software that automates the process of building business plans and marketing plans. Why would we want to buy his software after we've read his book? I believe there are two reasons: Read More

That's the key word from veteran SEO expert Heather Lloyd-Martin

SEO is not about creating a website sausage overstuffed with key words and phrases. It’s all about creating relevant and compelling content that transforms you into a thought leader who can become a trusted provider That is ultimately how you convert visitors into buyers Of course, this is gospel for me and many content marketers. But, it is still poorly understood by many marketers and SEO practitioners who swear that cramming a ton of “search engine friendly” words and phrases deemed into every nook and cranny of your website will place you high on the results page. So, I was both encouraged and inspired by Heather Lloyd-Martin's recent post. She has been helping clients get great search results for more than a decade. Since Heather does search engine optimization for a living, it's wonderful to hear her say that it's ultimately all about the content. Read More

You may be wondering why something as seemingly simple as Twitter causes so much confusion and consternation among business people. Perhaps, it best likened to a tool like a hammer which is simultaneously simple and powerful.  After all, a hammer can be used to put up a basic bookshelf or to build an entire home that will house a family for a lifetime. Everything depends on whether you wield that hammer in an awkward, solitary way or use it skillfully and cooperatively with a team of other like-minded folks.  So too with Twitter.   Used poorly, you may do little more than smash your virtual thumb.  But, if you use it well, you can make a measurable difference in your content marketing strategy.  Happily, some terrific tools make the effective use of Twitter almost as easy as hammering in a nail. (If you are brand new to Twitter, you may want to read our earlier post, Twitter for Business Made Easy , before continuing)

Here are six easy ways for Twitter to strengthen your content marketing efforts:

Read More

Powerful Trend Reinforces Need for Effective Content Marketing Strategies

Word of mouth marketing has carried marketing messages since the time of cavemen. Back then, it didn't get your message more than a few cave doors down. Thanks to the impact of the Internet, changes in buyer behavior, and the power of blogging and social media, it will be among the most important ways to market your content and your company. That makes the creation of relevant and compelling content even more important than ever as buyers and prospects spread the word about you and your organization.  Intuitively, we know this to be true.  Solid research now reinforces that intuition. New research from the Word-Of-Mouth Marketing Association(WOMMA) indicates that expenditures for this powerful brand of spreading the word will grow tenfold from 2003 to 2013. According to the research, conducted by PQ Media, spending on word-of-mouth (WoM) marketing rose 14.2% to $1.54 billion in 2008, despite the worst economic recession in 70 years, accentuated by secular and structural trends battering traditional advertising and marketing media. While year-over-year growth is expected to slow in 2009, WoM spending is on pace to grow another 10.2% this year, placing it among the fastest growing advertising and marketing segments. This contrasts with the dramatic decline in the US and global economies. Read More

The best small business solution is to eliminate a separate blog and website.

Unfortunately, typical small companies often misunderstand the power of a business blog--and cannot envision how it can and should be the driving force behind your online presence.  Your best bet is to leverage the power of blogging software to create an online presence which is, at once, timeless and timely.

Most of us began with a website that contains static content that was never intended to change much over time. Your static website will be an essential source of product, service, and company data to the majority of buyers that now relying on the Internet as their primary repository of information for potential purchases. Your static website is a vital beginning.  But, it's only a beginning. 

To compete for the attention of both search engines and buyers, you will need to add more and more dynamic content over time.  That's where a business blog comes into play.  If you already have a blog--or are considering one--you probably think of it as a completely separate entity with limited functionality.  That may be true for large organizations.  But, for a small business, your blog should be the engine behind a full fledged website that delivers much more clout than your old-fashioned static version.

Read More

Proving again that our readers like to dig into a variety of topics under the broad content marketing umbrella.

While you’re enjoying the beach or a barbecue this 4th of July weekend, take a few minutes to ponder how effective content marketing can make you independent of the old-fashioned way of doing things.

Here’s the tasty topics menu from which to choose:

• how to create effective elevator speech to drive your content marketing
• using content marketing to survive the recession
• low cost research as killer weapon
• making an eBook a core component of your content marketing strategy
• become your customers’ online content concierge
• why your blog is your most important social media tool

Read on to see the 6 most popular articles that your fellow content marketers voted for with their visits.

Read More

When your customers have an important need, they need to know the kind of company you are and why they can trust you

I recently had the pleasure of speaking to a combined group of wedding planners from Southwest Florida, the Wedding and Party Planners of Naples and the local National Association of Wedding Planners chapter. 

As I was preparing for the talk, the importance of content marketing in general--and of blogging in particular--really hit home.

Because a wedding is so important in so many ways to women of every age and circumstance, each bride needs to feel absolutely confident that it will come off as perfectly as humanly possible.

The current Sprint commercial that imagines a world in which weddings are run by movie crews captures this feeling beautifully.

Read More