Content Marketing Today

Marketing ourselves often takes a backseat to actually providing the services we ought to be marketing.

Therefore, it's essential to find a way to keep the most important elements of your marketing strategy right in front of your face all the time.

In her latest article in the Mindjet user newsletter, Stephanie Diamond simplifies at least one critical component: how to create a mailing list building system that self perpetuates.

We all need systems. The simpler the better.This use of a visual mind map simplifies what might otherwise be a bit daunting. Here's how it works.

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If you aren't delivering a regular eNewsletter to build your business, you should ask yourself why. You are probably missing the biggest and best opportunity to communicate in a consistent and meaningful way with your customers. Of course, you need to generate regular content that brings value to your customers. But, with that basic proviso, an eNewsletter should become an integral part of your content marketing arsenal. Here's why: Read More

Learn some valuable techniques that I should have been using from the get-go. 

So you've launched an eNewsletter. That suggests that you know that it can build your brand, develop trust among your potential customers, and ultimately generate more business. To make that happen, you must keep expanding its reach. Adriana Iordan, Web Marketing Manager at Avangate shares secrets to doing just that in two related posts. Read More

Dramatic and tangible return delivered on relatively small content marketing investment

If you thought all British law firms were stodgy and old-fashioned, you haven't yet encountered Pinsent Masons.  Their name might be old-fashioned but their marketing sure isn't. In fact, they have been doing online and print content marketing for eight years.  And, it has paid off measurably.

Their content rich website, Out-Law.com, provides a wealth of timely and useful content for its current and prospective clients. In addition, they produce a semi annual print publication also called Out-Law.  Neither information product is the kind of very traditional marketing you would expect from a venerable global law firm. But that's because they understood from the beginning that great content was fundamental to building a great brand.

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Solopreneur Mitch York reaches out with relevant business content.

Although Mitch spent many years in the corporate world, he's now happily ensconced as an entrepreneur.  He has two separate but somewhat interrelated businesses.  We have already written about the great blog he does for one of them, Maui Wowi. He has recently launched a newsletter for his other executive coaching business, Better Way Coaching.

Because it's new, Mitch has relatively few tangible results to point to in terms of its success.  So we will follow it with interest in the months and years to come. Even as a new product, however, I believe it's an excellent example of what an eNewsletter should be.

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If you get it right, your buyers will read and respond. If you get it wrong, your target customers will dump your e-mails.

In a great series of e-mail related posts on his Conversion Rate blog, Brett Gilbertson reminds us that unless we pay attention to design details, we may be wasting the money we're spending on our e-mail campaigns.

As with so many aspects of life and of business, it's often the little things that make a big difference. So it is with making sure that your e-mail preview pane does not dissuade your recipients from opening your e-mail.  Conversely, if you get it right, you can will persuade them to open your e-mail and pay attention to what you have to say. 

I was holding my breath until I saw that Brett selected our eNewsletter on the right as one of the good guys.

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Here's a website from Bolen Partners that really walks the walk when it comes to content marketing.

One of the things I love about the web is discovering great websites that are built by very small companies. I get really excited when they embrace key concepts of content marketing. Bob Leonard's BolenComm.com is a perfect example. In the upper right hand corner of the site he says how his company will help you succeed: "Bolen partners with you to enable your sales force. We help your sales stars shine." In this and so many other ways, Bob's site really makes it easier for visitors and prospects to buy from him. That's what content marketing is all about. Read More

Online content and design reinforces the dramatic changes at this Madison, Wisconsin stalwart.

Shopping malls, like the rest of us, are getting older.  As they age, they often lose the charm and appeal that drew millions of visitors to them over decades.  In the case of the Hilldale Mall, they have been able to transform their shopping venue from a relatively small and visibly aging property into a much trendier youth magnet.

Their new website is a terrific example of how an online presence can enhance other marketing efforts--all aimed at transforming the Hilldale Mall from tired to trendy.

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Yes, you can also learn from marketers who get it wrong. Let them make the mistakes so you don't have to. Here are 5 standout examples of content marketing that went awry. The sad irony is that in each case we are dealing with companies with solid products and services who may well do a good job in terms of their traditional marketing. But in the all important arena of content marketing, but they are almost completely ineffective. Learn what not to do by avoiding what they have done.

1. Who Cares If Grant Thornton is Passionate about the Business of Accounting?

They registered a slogan that’s all about them. It has nothing to do with how they benefit their clients.

If you watch any business-oriented TV, you’ve probably seen the Grant Thornton commercials. They’ve spent millions to tell the world that they have ‘a passion for the business of accounting.’ Are they suggesting that their fellow accounting firms lack a passion for the business of accounting? That seems unlikely. In fact, their slogan has essentially no customer value because it’s all about Grant Thornton. Apparently, they aren’t passionate about content marketing. Couldn’t They Have Been Passionate about the Success of their Clients? Click here to learn from their mistakes. Read More

For small to medium-sized businesses, it's essential to provide great content before wandering onto  social mediopolis venues like FaceBook and Twitter

A powerfully pithy post on the Conversion Rate blog alerted me to some must-read content by web usability guru, Jacob Nielsen. 

According blogger, Brett Gilbertson, online marketing success is all about mastering the basics of providing relevant and accessible content. Done right that will lead to great conversion rates and growing sales. He quotes Nielsen,

“Instead of adding Facebook-like features that let users “bite” other users and turn them into zombies, the B2B site would get more sales by offering clear prices, good product photos, detailed specs, convincing whitepapers, an easily navigable information architecture, and an email newsletter.”

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