Content Marketing Today

Kathy Saenz of Neighborhood America Shares What It Takes to Make Video an Effective Content Marketing Tool

Even a micro business can use video effectively to communicate with its customers online. But, as we amateur carpenters know, you can wind up with a mess instead of a masterpiece unless you understand how to use a potentially powerful tool well.   In that spirit we’re happy to can share with you six terrific tips for using video successfully from talented Southwest Florida professional, Kathy Saenz. We recently caught up with Kathy, who is Neighborhood America's corporate communications manager, for a brief interview on the best ways to communicate with video. Kathy's unique background as a university trained former TV producer and reporter taught her what it takes to tell great stories in our short attention span world.  She has been able to help Neighborhood America add  video communications to their core marketing capabilities. When it comes to using video effectively, Kathy and her company really get it.

Here Are Kathy's 6 Secrets to Video Success for Small Business:

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Inspiration from ‘Visual Blogger’ Mark Smiciklas of Intersection Marketing

It's hard to make things easy. And, it's even harder to be amusing at the same time.

But the very best visuals take a complex idea or series of connected ideas and make them instantly understandable. Just the right visuals make those ideas even more memorable when they are funny as well. In the case of the Intersection Marketing blog from Mark Smiciklas, he manages to do both consistently. Read More

How to go from clueless to compelling to transform prospects into buyers

In 2007, the mention of content marketing brought as many blank stares from small business owners as the mention of a website did 10 years before. In fact, in 1997 when we started our small business magazine in Southwest Florida, few owners had websites, let alone an online marketing strategy. In 2009, most small businesses do have websites and the term, ‘content marketing,' has gone from obscure to fashionable. When I say fashionable, I mean that the usage of the phrase has skyrocketed in the past two years. For example, the number of visitors to our website who arrived because they had done a search for 'content marketing,' has increased by a factor of 10. I'm delighted that content marketing has come out of the shadows and into the spotlight. Even so, for most small businesses, developing a content marketing mindset and a strategy to follow just does not come naturally. Fortunately, the fundamentals of a successful small business content marketing strategy are much more commonsensical than you might think.  In fact, they build on what have long been best marketing practices.  Even those content marketing elements that require a new mindset have a simple and compelling logic that even the smallest business can grasp and adopt.

Here are the six steps that can put you on the path to an effective content marketing strategy:

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Use Free Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft Directories to Bring Your Business Front and Center on Local Web Searches

(Guest post by WordPress fanatic and small business web consultant Don Campbell)

If your business is an "offline" business with a physical storefront, the most effective way to improve your search rankings in Google is to list your business in the free local business directories from Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. Once you are listed in these directories, you have a chance to get listed in the "Google 10-Pack" - which is an invaluable way to get the word out about your business when people type in search terms in your local area. In fact, if you don't claim your Google Local Business Center profile, in some cases it can be scooped up by others who want to capitalize on the listings! 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:

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Great MindMap from the Mindjet Folks Simplifies Twitter and Proves Power of Mindmapping

On the most basic level, it's easy to explain Twitter in a few bullet points:

• Twitter is a micro-blogging service that you can use from anywhere you can get an Internet connection.
• You sign up and give yourself an identity that lives on Twitter, such as mine--Twitter.com/newtbarrett.
• You can then post 140 character text messages which may include hyperlinks.
• You can choose to follow fellow members whose ' tweets ' will show up automatically on your Twitter page.
• Other members can choose to follow you to see what you have to say.
• The heavy hitters on Twitter may have thousands of followers and may post dozens of tweets per day.
• Every Twitter member can pass on or ' retweet' other messages so that the reach of what you have to say is potentially huge and global.
• All of this happens in real time

At this point, you may be thinking, "Okay, I understand that, but what's the point?  Why would I want to do any of that stuff?  That's where this great mindmap created by Mindjet's Michael Deutch comes into play. It illustrates why you need to care about Twitter for your business--and how to get smart about using it. Read More

It is so hard, but so important to explain what it is that you do and how it will benefit the person to whom you are communicating. Not at length.  But so concisely that it can be communicated in less time than it takes an elevator to go up a few floors. And, so compellingly that your listener will remember and repeat it to others. Actually, Nick Morgan is even more precise than this.  He says your elevator speech must be a single sentence. I have just begun to read his wonderful book, Give Your Speech, Change the World. It is absolutely must reading, even if the only speeches you give are internal presentations within your organization. Nick is the founder of Public Words, a communications coaching company. So he gives speeches--and teaches people how to give speeches--for a living. It's obvious from reading his book that he is a very, very good at it. Listen to what he has to say about that all-important elevator speech. Read More

You have plenty of screen real estate. So, use it. Use all of it.

In the early days of the Internet, online news pioneers such as the New York Times were constrained by the average size of a computer screen. Thus, they built very small homepages.  That was okay back then.  It's all wrong now. The New York Times changed its design completely to take advantage of bigger and better screens and of changed reader behavior--in which scrolling down the page to scan all the content is the norm. Effective content marketing depends not only on what you write but by how accessible you make it for those prospective customers who visit your home page. Envision your website as a great publication that will draw in readers just as the New York Times does every day. Read More

First, use it to understand your buyers and their needs. Then use the results to prove your credibility in the market.

Content marketers realize that understanding what is most important to your current and prospective customers is vital to your success as an organization.  You cannot possibly connect with your customers without that understanding. Just 10 to 20 years ago, the research necessary to develop that understanding was difficult, complex, time-consuming, and expensive to conduct and to share. All those reasons may well have provided small to medium-size companies with an understandable excuse to avoid their own primary research. Today, there are no more excuses.  It is fast, easy, and inexpensive to conduct high-quality research and to share it with the world. Here are some basics to get you started: Read More

Crank up your communications now.  Don't dial back your efforts.

The knee-jerk reaction for most companies when faced with the recession is to reduce their marketing efforts. However, decades of research show that those who maintain or increase their marketing will blow past their peers once the recession is over. If you accept this reality, you still may be faced with a shortage of spare cash to invest in marketing--particularly in traditional advertising.  What to do? You can and should focus on a content marketing strategy that will require a whole lot of thought and effort, but will not require a lot of money. Read More