If we claimed that our content marketing campaigns always went smoothly for our clients, we would be lying. There have been some wrong turns, but over time we have accumulated a great deal of experience making it work for our clients. We believe we’ve learned enough to piece together an actionable content marketing guide to help other agencies get their act in gear.
e2msolutions.com http://www.e2msolutions.com/blog/content-marketing-is-not-rocket-science-the-ultimate-guide/ Content Marketing is not Rocket Science – Here is the Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing for Agencies!!! In the era of Panda and Peng uin, content marketing has become one of the most promising roads forward. A successful internet marketing strateg y rests on th e quality of your content. We have arrived at the point where content marketing is the best way of reaching your consumers. Of course, content marketing was important even before Panda and Peng uin made th eir appearance on the scene. Astute agencies were already h arnessing the power of th is strategy to expand their client’s reach. Still, most agencies saw content marketing as a top-tier marketing technique. It wasn’t someth in g th at they con sidered a prerequisite, and many of th em just ig nored it completely. Why adopt a content driven promotional strateg y, after all, when there were easier, cut and dried, and replicable meth odologies already in place? The problem with this sort of thinking was that wh en ‘content marketing ’ actually took its rig htful place in the world of intern et marketing, many ag encies had no clue how to make it work successfully. The “how” and “why” of content marketing still escapes many of these companies, and we have encountered several that are still murky about the whole process. If we claimed th at our content marketing campaig ns always went smooth ly for our clients, we would be lying . There h ave been some wrong turns, but over time we have accumulated a g reat deal of experience making it work for our clients. We believe we’ve learned enoug h to piece tog ether an actionable content marketing g uide to help oth er agencies g et their act in g ear. So, from one ag ency to another, here’s a detailed look at the content marketing process. What is Content Marketing? To put it simply, content marketing is all about creating ‘g reat’ content, and promoting it throug h the appropriate channels. Obviously, the difficulty agencies face is determining what ‘g reat’ content is. Yes, it should be well-written. Yes it should have no g rammatical errors. Yes it sh ould targ et a specific audience. Yes it should be orig inal, and yes, it should be factual and well researched. That’s a lot of “yeses,” but it’s only the tip of the iceberg wh en it comes to ‘g reat’ content. What it really needs to be able to do is add value. It must not only attract prospects, but also convert them into customers; and not just single time customers, but repeat buyers. It must also be shareable content: the kind of content th at can g o viral. Here’s our process for building valuable content. First we understand wh at the client wants, as any g ood ag ency does. But then we g o deep into th e needs and wants of the client’s target audience, which is often ignored. We create content th at is related to th e product or messag e in question, but our core focus is on creating the kind of content that th e audience wants. If th ere is a solution th at they want, we g ive it to them. If they are looking for facts, that’s what we offer. If they are looking for stats, th en stats it is. Great content is always audience defined; th is is wh at h elps build trust between our clients and th eir targ et audience. The rule of thumb that we follow is: “Give the audience what they want, not what you think they want.” This is what great content is all about, and what allows it g o viral…wh ich brings us to our next topic. How to develop great content that goes viral Now that we’re clear on wh at g reat content actually is, let’s take th ings to th e next level and make it go viral. Th ere is no doubt that creating viral content is the single most importan t step of content marketing. Let’s take a look at how to make it happen. What ar e the types of content that can g o vir al? Speaking from experience, it’s real time content th at h as the most potential to g o viral. Our focus is always on news stories, case studies, experiences (both g ood and bad), controversies, strateg ies, solutions to common problems, actionable industry insig hts, facts and fig ures, contests, free tools and widgets, g iveaways, open products reviews (wh ich are in hig h demand), and anything and everything that your client’s customers are currently most interested in reading about. Nobody likes feeling out of the loop, especially when it comes to subjects that they care about. The big g est influencers in your industry are going to care far more about brand new information th an old news, even if it is trusted and established in formation. Let’s take SEO as an example. In this niche, the most viral content will be about recent updates to th e alg orithm, fresh strateg ies th at people haven’t seen before, and so on. This is what SEO enthusiasts want to read and sh are. Remember, if someth ing is n ew, interesting, and surprising , it gets shared. This bring s us to our next question: How do you develop such content? Two words: “Your Client.” Get your client involved in th e content development process. Nobody knows more about th e niche th an th ey do. True, there will be circumstances wh ere you understand th e online market better than your client, but th ey are still th e ultimate authority on th e subject matter and what people in th at industry care about. Sit with your client, have long strateg izing sessions, and make your clien t a part of the process. Remember: they have the most stake in the campaig n. Help th em understand that novel information , which is often proprietary, is by far th e most likely to g o viral. It’s often difficult for SEOs to gain access to this information, so make sure they understand why it’s so importan t. Here are some of th e questions that you can ask your clients, which will help th em open up about th eir business: What are the problems their customers face while using their products/services? What’s their USP (Unique Selling Proposition)? This is crucial. What is their customer feedback while using their products/services? What are the latest updates in their industry? Where are the top blogs in their industry? Content that provides solutions almost always works best. To solve problems for the targ et audience and influencers in the niche, you’ll need to understand your client’s business strategies. How to accomplish this will be different from client to client, and it is a skill that can only come from experience. We recently used this kind of strategy when we put tog eth er our Post-Panda/Penguin Era Link Acquisition Strateg ies for SearchEng ineJournal. We recog nized th at th ere are many SEOs looking for strateg ies with sustainable results in this new era of optimization. We offered the post as a solution to th at problem. In the process, we shared some of our own personal strateg ies openly with SEJ readers. It’s the kind of content th at is perfectly suited to g oing viral, and, according to our standards, it did. Identifying the Right Content Distribution Channel Creating the rig ht content is a must, but you also need to zero in on a distribution channel for th e content. You want to reach your audience th roug h a channel that they already access h abitually. Here, again, the client enters th e picture. Where does the client go to find solutions to their problems? Where do their customers g o? Where do people wh o would care about their products and services g o to solve th eir problems? Once you have a list of viable content distribution channels, share it with your clients and talk to th em about it. Then consider a format for the content, such as: Whitepapers Presentations Ebooks Blog posts Videos Email newsletters Pdf Doc Webinars Tutorials Guides Mobile/tablet apps micro sites landing pages Offline – mag azines, newspapers etc. Choosing the Right Distribution Channel, and Developing Content for It Once you identify the most promising channels, you need to choose which one to actually use. Consider th e following : Is th e choice of channel sustain able, can you keep at it for th e long term? Will a majority of your targ et audience be able to access th e channel? Is it an “all-purpose” distribution channel, th at you can keep using despite chang ing audience expectations, aspirations, and the emerg ence of new distribution channels? Are you th inking lon g term or short term? Are you looking at a single channel or multi-channel distribution? What we usually like to do is diversify our distribution channels, rath er th an stick to just one or two. Th e choice of the channel depends on the market, the competition, and the client’s personal preferences. Think according ly. Suppose th at you have chosen video as your medium of choice. In that case, you need to understand what kinds of videos are most successful, and what will be most helpful to the targ et audience. Successful videos g enerally showcase something remarkable, amazing , or funny. For it to be helpful to your client, it also needs to be related to th eir products and services. As an example, if your client was an idea-g eneration firm, a video of a real-life brainstorming session would be a g ood choice. Such a video would be helpful for viewers, since it would en lig hten th em about the creative process. It would also build trust and reputation for your client by demonstrating h ow th ey do th eir work and th eir willingness to share it openly. The video sh ould endorse the company’s commitment to offering clients the best services, and this sh ould be showcased in a manner that is really interesting, not “salesy.” In th e case of videos, it’s about establishing an immediate personal connection with the audience. Every distribution channel h as its own specific content development requiremen ts. Your content must live up to th em in order to succeed. Developing a Big Audience Outreach Plan Once you have g reat con tent and the perfect distribution channel, it’s time to reach out to your audience with it. Audience outreach is an integ ral part of content marketing . Here’s h ow you can develop a plan to accomplish th is: Know your customers Know wh ere th ey g o to find solutions to problems like those solved by your client Try to reach out to th e targ et customer th rough their preferred channel. Only then will they be able to find your content and consider it valuable Plan for the present, but future proof your plan as well Track your results; th is is importan t since it allows you to fine tune your outreach plan Use of Content Marketing Tools Thing s g et a whole lot easier if you use th e plethora of content marketing tools available. Th ere is something for everybody. The choice of tools depends on th e kind of content you have chosen and th e distribution ch annel, among other thing s. Let’s take a look at some of th ese tools. We have divided th ese tools into th ree categ ories, namely content strategy, content production, and con tent promotion: Content Strategy T ools: Tools like the Content Strateg y Generator from SEOGadget can help you do thing s like: Pull data from Goog le Insights for information about trends in your industry Use data from FollowerWonk and Topsy to locate promising content placement opportunities Find outreach opportunities Content Production T ools: Content production tools help you put tog ether content more quickly so that you can expand your reach more effectively. This slide sh ow does a g ood job of introducing some of these tools. They can help you: Set up easy to follow workflows Do outreach, content production, and social sharing in one place Get in touch with journalists Gain insig ht into what your targ et audience is readin g Simplify blog ging if you work with several writers, and more Here are few of th ese tools. Feel free to mention more in the comments: Contently: This tool allows you to choose your team of writers from the Contently network with respect to th eir specialization, what they have worked on and wh o th ey have worked for; you can manag e your team and your content work flow in th e cloud. Go!Animate: Some ideas translate well into animated videos, and th is is wh ere th is tool can h elp you out. You can create interesting animated videos, without sweating it. YouT ube Video Editor: Polish your raw footag e; trim clips, add music, insert transitions, rotate clips and do a whole lot more. [...]... platform wh ich allows you to recruit writers, create con ten t, promote your con ten t socially, an d lastly, measure its performan ce All of th is can be accomplish ed with min imal effort Follower Wonk: More th an a con ten t production platform, th is allows you to do some solid keyword research , search for topics th at are makin g waves in your n ich e, an d fin d in fluen cers Produce top n... th is is a g reat platform to fin d blog g ers, en g ag e with th em, or pitch your campaig n to th em Zemanta: Th is on e is a lin k distribution platform an d wh at it does is very simple Wh ile you are writin g your blog posts, it will an alyze th em an d make sug g estion s for th e addition of lin ks an d relevan t ph otos It also acts as a con ten t promotion platform for relevan t lin k buildin... oth ers out th ere A bit of research in to th e tools, th eir use, ben efits, an d efficien cy will g ive you a g ood idea of wh at to use, wh en to use th em, an d h ow to make th e most of th e various con ten t marketin g tools And Finally……Go Viral! Now th at you h ave a con ten t marketin g strateg y in place, all th at remain s to be don e is g ettin g it to g o viral Take advan tag e of social... kn ow will cater to your n ich e Content Pr omotion T ools: Th ese tools h elp you g et th e word out so you can reach as broad an audien ce as possible Ch eck out th is Mash able post to learn more about th em if you like: Smashwor ds: A g ood pick if you h ave ch osen to distribute con ten t usin g eBooks It can h elp you laun ch your eBook for free One Load: Th is is a g reat platform if you are... con ten t th at relates to your previous work, an d th en cite th ose posts in th e n ew work Email marketin g is on e of th e more tradition al ways of reach in g out to customers an d lettin g people kn ow about th e con ten t th at you h ave publish ed Start an outreach plan to g et in touch with your targ et audien ce th roug h emails Th ese are just some of th e approach es to h elp take your con... social n etworks, an d fin d th ose fig ures th at are g oin g to in fluen ce your targ et audien ce on Facebook, Twitter, Goog le+, an d Pin terest You n eed to en g ag e with th em an d en courag e th em to sh are your con ten t on th eir blog s Wh at you are essen tially doin g is tryin g to leverag e th eir respectability in th eir n ich e to promote your con ten t; someth in g th at will h elp it... social n etwork is th e perfect place to con n ect with your audien ce on a on e-on -on e level, so tell th em about your n ewly publish ed con ten t h ere Press Releases can work very well A press release is, in itself, a con ten t distribution ch an n el However, you can also use a press release to promote a piece of con ten t For example, you can really take your video to th e n ext level if you supplemen... is to improve your clien t’s reputation usin g con ten t th at g ets sh ared an d propag ates on its own Th is mean s you n eed to meet th e n eeds of your clien t as well as th ose of th eir poten tial customers Excessively commercial con ten t rarely g oes viral, wh ile th e type of con ten t th at is most viral rarely h as commercial appeal On e of th e most importan t th in g s you will do for. .. Load: Th is is a g reat platform if you are ch oosin g video distribution Th is platform doesn ’t just allow you deploy your videos across differen t video sh arin g sites an d social n etworkin g sites etc, but it also h elp you keep an eye on th em StumbleUpon: If you are lookin g for an in expen sive, pay-per impression form of con ten t distribution , th is will be a g ood ch oice Blog dash: If g... , outreach an d so If your con ten t h its th e mark, it sh ould start propag atin g on its own Let’s take a look at wh at you can do to take your con ten t to th e viral stag e: Use Social Media: but don ’t just use social media, use it strateg ically First, search for th e social in fluen cers in your n ich e: th ose auth ority fig ures th at are looked upon with respect, an d wh ose sug g estion . e2msolutions. com http://www .e2msolutions. com/blog /content -marketing- is- not- rocket- science- the- ultimate- guide/ Content Marketing is not Rocket Science. – Here is the Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing for Agencies! !! In the era of Panda and Peng uin, content marketing has become one of the most promising