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Ten Ways to Turn Your Staff into Brand Amabassdors

0 Comments/in Strategic Marketing /by Linked Media Group

Every business needs to stand up and out in today’s content drenched world.

Social media economies of scale starts with your staff.

Whether your five or five hundred strong, look around the office or review the org chart.

Recruit, motivate and aggregate your talent: talk to your staff, understand the delicate dance of what’s required (P&L responsibility) and where/how you can motivate them to share content via the right social channel in some unified manner.

Start out with social focus: where are your customers congregating online? If consumer facing brand, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest are low hanging fruit. For businesses marketing to other businesses think about LinkedIn or Twitter. The right channel strategy determines everything.

Forget all about video unless your targeting consumers and your staff are tech savvy fashionistas with Martin Scorsese like attitudes and skills.

Get a Handle on the Social Media Aptitude of your Staff

Understand how savvy your staff is about social media and think about at least rudimentary training for the appropriate social platform(s). Bring in an agency or consultant to backfill core competency.

Blogging/Writing Skills
LinkedIn Profile Development
Twitter expertise (content curation)
Facebook (Profile, how to use Lists, being algorithmic aware)
Pinterest (again curating content & Pin and Board Setup)

Note: as earlier, training and even sharing templates or images of accounts that are good examples of “what to do” including competitors can help your team to get off on the right foot.

Put a line in the sand on what’s shareable and what isn’t: selfies on Instagram with clothing missing is not cool for the business: sharing pictures of clients at lunch is a good thing on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook.

Whether your team is five or fifty know and remember the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Expect some faux pas along the way and manage accordingly. Gentle guidance goes a long way. You want arrows from the front not the back right?

Don’t forget your homesteading on social media and rent can and will be advertising at some point to get significant traction. But, get out there now/when/where you can to drive competitive advantage downstream.

No brainer activities for your staff: standing up profiles on the right social platforms, sharing great content in their own words (it’s authentic), not PR stuff marketing is shoving down their throats, images from the road, tradeshows, etc. with no more than 15% brand promotions in the content mix.

Success is Really about Content Marketing

You should be sharing promotional content with a rinse and repeat cycle: original blogs 2-4 times per account per day, twice a week for the first 90 day’s thereafter then 3-5 times per quarter. Remember, these people are distracted (see: smartphones in hand). Repetition is needed.

Social media content evaporates quickly. If you have a savvy, educated staff that can and wants to write sterling content then use an Editorial Calendar (that’s a link to an open download) for scheduling and organization of content marketing activities.

Great content trumps all forms of media: social, advertising, viral videos, staff selfies, ESPN replays, etc. Go to market with incremental content via your staff and syndicate and publish the hell out of it. That’s where and how economies of scale tip in your favor.

Nothing Wrong with Starting Ugly - Blow Back from your Staff, Whose on First Issues & Why are We Doing this Again?

Don’t over manage this process. Start “ugly” and build out from there. That’s not to say if your a public company you can go all in on social media and ignore the lawyers. Don’t do that.

Start slow (our mantra is iteration) for a month or two then dig into your analytics and understand if the lights are coming on via some of the staff’s hard work.

If nothings working then call an all hands (real world or virtual if need be) and have someone take notes and then distill this shared strategy and start over.

Coyotes are Born Survivors for Good Reasons: they pick their battles carefully (you should too)

Social media platforms are all moving to “pay to play” models. See: publicly held or “talking to investment bankers.”

Nothing wrong with their generating revenue. But, know your channel selection(s) are very important and the digital infrastructure under you will change moving forward.

Be mindful of these caveats below and adjust your marketing strategy moving accordingly.

Be a moving target. Nimble brands do much better than static organizations.

Rule #1: “you gotta feed the beast” – yesterday’s content is in the rear view mirror and disappearing at warp speed.
Social traffic is not all about “hard” data ROI measurement via analytics or other data driven tools. Consumer sharing and recommendations can drive significant brand value too.
You don’t own your content on social platforms: you’re homesteading. But, “rent” is cheap if you are doing a great job right? (Traction, shares, comments, traffic, incremental revenue.)
Expect the lines to get more blurred for “paid” vs. organic content costs moving forward.
Understand what your competitors are doing right and wrong and adjust your marketing strategy accordingly. Don’t mirror them; many are lost in the desert.
If you are not publishing content across the social web aggressively you are not going to get heard.

Cool Apps & Tools that will Save Time and Money

Bit.Ly is the defacto best link shortener on the market: it’s an “all hands” tool that will show you relevant rough stats immediately
Download and use the ShareThis browser plugin
Use Buffer or HootSuite Pro help you leverage content economies of scale.
Buzz Sumo is a content competitive advantage Swiss Army Knife for busy brands
Twitter without Tweetdeck is know way to go (it’s free works great)

Great Content typically has these Hallmarks - Should Be Informative and Engaging

A great blog post is between 700-1,500 words, has three images, with a conclusion section, integrates calls to action to drive a desired action leading, uses lots of “white space” and font size is from 10-12 points.

Mobile usage is driving 30-50% of content “consumption, “brand stories” may drive significantly more engagement: mix and match the size of your content (long or short form).

Content syndication is critical in today’s “technology drenched’ world: use rinse and repeat cycles to reach today’s distracted consumer and professional. (Note: embedded link will take you to a post with a list of the top 25 platforms & more).

Personalty still drives content engagement for both B2B and B2C brands and it’s becoming increasingly more important to use imagery that gets attention in the marketplace.

Content Measurement is Critical: have a finite grasp of these ROI drivers: Unique Visitors, Page Views, Return Visits, Time on Site, Bounce Rate, Engagement, Virality: (ReTweets, Shares, Likes, Comments, Revenue or Lead Generation.

Mix and match “snackable” short form content (images, video, infographics) with “evergreen” high value content to drive brand engagement, incremental traffic and revenue.

Build in cross platform marketing on all top tier platforms: Tumblr, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook using plugin like Snap to automatically “push” content to other platforms or pure play content syndication cloud based services.

Critical Takeaways

Brand ambassadors are hard to find, even on your own staff and creativity via social media is inherently not a rote process.

Again, expect to mentor and train your staff early on.

Sell, Motivate and Measure Your Team’s Social Activities

A heavy handed “we want to see everyone on Facebook” email blast will probably not be a good thing for your staff.

Most of them are working an ungodly amount of hours and you may be adding to the workload.

Analyze your inbound traffic with Google and adjust your strategy based on traffic, bounce rates and conversions.

Thriving on the borders can be a good thing.

Build a Movement not a Brand

0 Comments/in Strategic Marketing /by Linked Media Group

Crowds are never a good thing for business unless it’s outside your front door.

How do you stand out in today’s tech drenched smartphone in hand world full of noisy content?

Most of you have a muddled go to market strategy blending/borrowing from competitors, what your exec staff, BOD, marketing & agency geeks thinks, etc., etc.

Your not shouting fire in crowded theater?

Your trying to make a business stand out from the herd.

It’s about the Truth. Ignore the “too much information” syndrome.

Huddle the team and have someone write this stuff down.

How does our product make the customer’s life easier.

What are the key attributes of your products or service List everything.

Stuck? Get a customer in the room or on a conf call and ask them why they bought from you.

Who doesn’t love dogs? (other than cats) Use this as a branding strategy.

Be of service to your customers.

Next: How do you Differentiate Your Business?

You need to think about four key metrics.

What’s unique about your products/services?
What differentiates you from the herd. (No, no, no, you all have competitors!)
What’s common in your marketplace (pricing, feature sets, what’s out there on the radar screen)?
Are you relevant and credible in the market you are targeting.

As you work through these elements try to overlay three functional marketing maxims: core value proposition (why should anyone buy from you), competitive strategy and differentiation (see Michael Porter), the profile persona of your customer.

Three brands that just rocked positioning and branding: Patagonia (they own: ‘bulletproof” products), Nordstroms (single-handedly created unquestioned customer service) and Target (stuff you can wear shopping at Whole Foods or Safeway with abandon).

Third: Remember Ideas are Cheap and Tactical Execution is Not

Don’t fall in love with all your ideas. Test them with customers, not the husband, BOD members or your staff.

Get out of your own way: remember, you have to scale the business with iteration and crystal clear marketing. Many execs stumble when they fail to listen to others: see: ego.

It’s all about User Experience today: build it right and they will come. Don’t scrimp on any aspect of design that defines your brand: web, images, pictures, logos, infographics.

Growing the business is going to take time, money or some combination of the two. See: it’s noisy out there.

Tie everything back into conversion metrics that drive revenue. Traffic via social media (or any other source) that does not convert is water in the desert. Change your tactics and marketing platforms accordingly.

Don’t forget about building a persona profile: create and image with key bullet-points and hang them around the office. Make this “person” real in the minds of your staff.

Fourth: How do we market this baby and find customers?

Where are your customers congregating: (“connected consumers”): think communities: real world, social, water cooler, wherever you can leverage one to many marketing.
The competitiveness of the social platform where you think you need to be? Can you afford to play in this market? Social media marketing is not free.
Regional, Local or Global focus?
Where and how are your competitors creating and sharing content.? Do some finite analysis and measurement: Buzz Sumo is a great tool.
What Digital Metrics are Being Used? You won’t know how you are doing without some formal ROI metrics.

If you read this far then grok this: every brand lives or dies based on the content they create.

Remember, your building a movement not a brand!

Tactical Stuff: Content Pain Points Every Business has to Come to Grips with

What’s the right budget for content development and marketing?

Use 20-30% of your overall marketing budget as a line item for content marketing initiatives and test the back end ROI for all content.

How do you make content that the visitor wants to share? Key attributes: useful, emotion laden, factual, practical, newsjacks (events, moments in time, stuff that relates to your biz).

Is your content distributed and published? A blog is not enough: you gotta do more.

Content created in-house or outsourcing; or some combination of the two. Your probably better off with the latter initially.

What content marketing platforms should you use for syndication?

Where do you find visuals to insert with your content? They are on your web site, embedded in your social channels and/or part of the visual story every employee tells with their profiles across the web.

What’s an SEO strategy and how do we implement one? Start with the basics:. use a keyword in your title and repeat it maybe once or twice on page of 300-700 words. Google understands more than you will ever know BTW.

Don’t bog down in SEO hell - Google is constantly tacking back and forth. Just create stellar content.

A Boring Mundane List is At the Heart of Every Great Content Marketing Inititive

Your readers have an attention span of a gnat.
Lists facilitate content re-purposing via other content forms (email, other blog posts, social content). See: the growth of platforms like Evernote.
Every good blog post starts with a list for many content marketers: those scatter-shot ideas can then be fleshed out into topics or on page content elements.
Millennials thrive on real time updates and lists are part of the picture and “secret sauce” to reach them according to Twitter and others.
Brands can be creative with lists: use them as a shorthand way to poll your staff, customers, partners, BOD members and any other stakeholders for company, product, customer wins and content marketing topics.
See texting as a way of life for many today. These people “live” on lists (stretching the metaphor a bit)- so, map your content accordingly.

It’s a “Visual Age” kinda like the Victorian Age but with Selfies

Your building authenticity with your community: visual’s impact drives relevance.
As technology “takes over our lives” visual strikes a chord within others. Sensory currency is “real” to the visitor.
Visuals drive cultural relevancy that engages the visitor in ways that text cannot equate with.
“Archetypes” have been around since the days of ancient cave man paintings and visuals are a powerful storytelling tools that feature “heroines” and “heroes” embedded in brand storytelling.
Visuals cut through the clutter and chatter that’s “smartphone” driven for many consumers and professionals.

Condensed Words

The buzzword du jour back in the .com era was all about “dog years” and how everything was compressed with this 7-1 ratio.

Well, it’s probably a term that’s in vogue more today than then.

Your business is fighting headwinds, competing with frothy markets full of billion dollar babies, marketing to distracted prosumers and technology is taking over our lives.

Find a way to passionately serve your customers, create and syndicate content that garners mindshare, measure what’s happening, build for speed and relevance and look up from your phone once and a while and talk to people.

Reach out if we can help you. #livedigital

Content Marketing Killers are Everywhere

0 Comments/in Content /by Linked Media Group

How to beat that blank page anxiety syndrome (it’s worse than your first date), how to hit em over the head with cool visual content and why lists aren’t as boring as toast.

Great Content Marketing Starts Here

Give up on the introduction and start at the middle or the end.

Even a crude outline can get you started: napkin, match book covers, menus - wherever inspiration hits.

Write a story: setting, players, tone, conflict, “Romeo and Juliet” elements.

Whip out your phone and start talking for playback in front of the page.

Read more: it’s going to inspire you to be a better writer.

Write in increments: give yourself a timed period to create content and review the results later. But, this may crank up the anxiety and limit the content. Test it.

Use a different medium: pen, paper, video or audio (as above0 to get started or as a platform to share content.

Forget writing content - visual may be the best way to tell your brand story.

Your building authenticity with your community: visual’s impact drives relevance.
As technology “takes over our lives” visual strikes a chord within others. Sensory currency is “real” to the visitor.
Visuals drive cultural relevancy that engages the visitor in ways that text cannot equate with.
“Archetypes” have been around since the days of ancient cave man paintings and visuals are a powerful storytelling tools that feature “heroines” and “heroes” embedded in brand storytelling.
Visuals cut through the clutter and chatter that’s “smartphone” driven for many consumers and professionals.

Content Pain Points Every Business has to Come to Grips with

What in God’s name is your budget? It’s a moving target; start small, test the content ROI (is is getting read?), talk to your customers, monitor your conversion metrics, start with 20-30% of your overall budget.

How do you make content that the visitor wants to share? Key attributes: useful, emotion laden, factual, practical, newsjacks (events, moments in time, stuff that relates to your biz).

Is your content distributed and published? A blog is not enough: you gotta do more.

In-house or outsourcing; or some combination of the two. Your probably better off with the latter.

What is SEO and how do we optimize our content. Use a keyword in your title and repeat it maybe once or twice on page of 300-700 words. Google understands more than you will ever know BTW.

How to Use Lists to Drive Your Content Marketing

Your readers have an attention span of a gnat. So lists help to pull them into the content.
Lists work well with as images and videos as we sampled below.
Lists are easy to write. You can fact load them and newsjack the topics to your heart’s content.
Your readers, visitors are preconditioned to engaging with content that uses lists: the proliferation of lists embedded in content is everywhere.
Lists drive immediate engagement and move visitors into a sales funnel.
People want evidence, perspective and answers in your content and lists help to convey both, especially via blog with baked in frequency updates each month.
Lists facilitate updates – there is no shame in cutting and pasting updated content via a list. Is this “content laziness?” No: it’s smart, content should be updated
You can brand jack your biz into a list. Is this self-serving. Yes, but done frequently.
Lists facilitate content re-purposing via other content forms (email, other blog posts, social content) which is a fundamental “tool” in any content marketer’s toolbox.
Every good blog post starts with a list for many content marketers: those scatter-shot ideas can then be fleshed or “listed” out, no pun intended.
Millennials thrive on real time updates and lists are part of the picture and “secret sauce” to reach them according to Twitter and others.
Brands can be creative with lists: use them as a shorthand way to poll your staff, customers, partners, BOD members and any other stakeholders for company, product, customer wins and content marketing topics.
See texting as a way of life for many today. These people “live” on lists (stretching the metaphor a bit)- so, map your content accordingly.

Boring Stuff Your Competitors are Proably Doing You Don’t want to Do!

Interviewing the CEO for a blog post. Been done too many times.

Hyping their Product or Service in every piece of content.

Embedding the Company brand ad nauseum (logos, images, pictures, etc.)

Writing boring content with no soul or emotional component (kinda like “kissing your brother or sister” not that we are against it!)

Using Social Media to Blab about whatever the hell the exec staff thinks is important in the last “content review meeting” (see: “a camel is a horse designed by a committee”)

Flogging the brand repeatedly via all content. (Remember, it’s not always about you, it’s about your customers and users.)

Thinking and marketing like they are the next SalesForce or BMW (not that we don’t love German beer or engineering). Most don’t have the right budget or personnel.

Stellar Content Has these Hallmarks

Mobile usage is driving 30-50% of content “consumption” (be mobile savvy) but “brand stories” may drive significantly more engagement: mix and match the size of your content (long or short form).

Personalty still drives content engagement for both B2B and B2C brands and it’s becoming increasingly more important to use imagery that gets attention in the marketplace.

Mix and match “snackable” short form content (images, video, infographics) with “evergreen” high value content to drive brand engagement, incremental traffic and revenue.

Great content is a mythic beast embedded within your business DNA

It “lives” within each of you and in the DNA of your company. Dig deep and look for it.

Just remember, great content requires creativity and lots of trial and error, coupled with “listening” to your conversion metrics (newsletter sign ups, lead inquiries and/or revenue metrics).

Iterate your way to success: look for patterns of engagement using analytics and social engagement and adjust your content marketing initiatives accordingly.

Be patient, content marketing is a marathon, not a sprint.

For a deeper dive sign up for our newsletter or jack in to our Twitter account for 140 character bon mots.

Great Marketing Strategy Always Has a Price - How to Find Yours

0 Comments/in Strategic Marketing /by Linked Media Group

“Every point of refuge has its price…” Don Henley & Glenn Frey

We live in a tech drenched, always on world – noise levels are unprecedented and it’s another “gold rush” era across all markets.

Your crossing a “Darwinian Digital Divide,” necessitating driving your biz with embedded technology attributes, recognizing social has a price for fame and fortune, standing up and publishing content that dazzles your audience.

If Your Brand is not Tech Savvy your Toast: Scott Brinker has been advocating the importance of technological sophistication via his Chief Martec blog for six plus years. During this period of time he’s kept track of the growth in marketing platforms, from a few hundred to over 2K today. Staggering!

And it’s much more than marketing platforms coming at your business at warp speed, it’s the interdependence of applications, processes and services.

It’s rapidly becoming a two screen multidimensional world. Tech is everywhere.

Technical competence in your organization is a must. Recruit or outsource accordingly.

How to Stay Sane & Not Get Run Over by Tech

Make good decisions as you set up your Infrastructure: Hosting, Web Site Platform, Integrated Apps & Services - your better off going with a Dedicated Server as providers cram huge numbers of sites onto shared servers.
Build your business in an iterative manner. Don’t go all in or whole hog with technology: start small and move in iterative phases until you are 100% bulletproof with your environment.
Expect apps and services not to work “as advertised” and have your own agency or IT department carefully test what you are going to use.
Hire for technical sophistication for key positions. They don’t need to write code; but updating Facebook or Twitter on a smartphone is not going to cut the proverbial mustard.

Social Media Marketing is not a Panacea: fortunes have been and will continue to be made as social sirens call out to you with the wonders of social media marketing.

The days of just standing up a presence on social channels and waiting for the masses to roll in is nothing more than a false line on the horizon.

Social media staying power requires sophisticated content curation, stellar community management and hard work.

Andy Warhol may have been More Prescient than we thought

You may get your fifteen minutes; but, thriving and growing your brand across the social web now requires excellence in tactical execution on an ongoing basis.

Social Media Gotchas You Need to Grasp Going In

Rule #1: “you gotta feed the beast” – yesterday’s content is in the rear view mirror.
You don’t own your content on social platforms: you’re homesteading and don’t forget this.
Where and how will the chairs be filled once the music stops? Everything is subject to change in this M&A driven world.
Expect the lines to get more blurred on social for “paid” vs. organic content.
Every social channel you select and utilize requires integration with your back end analytics and CRM apps.
Expect the continued media “celebrification” cycle of social media to increase moving forward.
If you are not publishing content across the social web aggressively you are not going to get heard.

Content has always been the coin of the Realm: there’s a reason why Breaking Bad moved AMC from a wannabee to “player” status. As much as we all like Brian Cranston, Vince Gilliam and his team of writers should be pulling up to the bank in a tractor-trailer.

Forget the fancy reference points and one of the best reasons to binge watch a great show on a rainy day.

Great content can be defined by a few words; does it engage, inform and resonate with your audience?

How to Grab Your own Emmy in Today’s Content Drenched World

Start slow: content marketing is a marathon
Establish benchmark measurements at the outset.
Keep moving forward: don’t get bogged down in the proverbial trenches.
Align content marketing with other strategies.
Involve your entire organization whether it’s five or fifty people: great content ideas come in all shapes and sizes: sales, customer service and/or exec staff.
Great content marketers “newsjack” and “borrow” from others.
Mix and match “snackable” short form (images, under 300 word blog post, videos) with long-form “evergreen” high value content.
Content marketing is expensive “chunk” and repurpose content to leverage your costs.
Recognize algorithms determine success or failure on some platforms.
Your blog is not enough: it’s a publish or perish world.

Content Writing Tips from Battle Hardened Content Marketers

Listening fuels all content development.
Lists are a good thing: make em (30-50 questions your customers want to read about).
Try to address all questions and forget search engines. Chasing search algorithms can drive you insane. Write for humans.
Be findable: meaning, stick in keywords and think about long tail phrases. Our title for this post is a long tail keyword phrase with.
Try to be honest with your content.
Not all competitors are created equally and some times you need to write about them. Example: hire us vs. a big agency, we build a digital infrastructure around your biz.
Try to be as clear and concise as possible. It’s a click and go world. Be succinct and use bullets.
Don’t stop the creative process and keep the juices flowing any way you can. Tequila may not be a good idea though.
Remember “silence sells” - white space, images and pauses help to sell your customers as much as great content.
Critical to evaluate your content ROI.
Make content a regular focus for someone on your staff.

Marketing success in today’s digital eco system will be determined by being a tech savvy business (embrace tech when/where it makes sense) and creating, sharing and publishing great content across the social web.

Social Strategy is the Oxygen you Need to Live Digital

0 Comments/in Strategic Marketing /by Linked Media Group

Where, when, how and who you share content with in today’s always on, cluttered social media drenched world defines your brand.

Digital has wiped traditional marketing off the map.

And, the right or wrong social media channel defines your digital footprint.

There is no one size fits all blueprint for your business.

Social media marketing is not going to deliver significant marketing ROI by itself!

You need to create great content and share it across multiple platforms. The more the better.

Big Picture Monthly Usage Stats for the Top Tier Social Networks

Facebook: 1.3B
Twitter: 270M
Instagram: 220M
LinkedIn: 225M
Google+: 530M
Pinterest: 40M
YouTube: 1B

Finite Choices

All, which is no decision.
None *as above
Several Platforms
We Recommend 1-3 Platforms for most businesses

Variables to Weigh

Where are your customers congregating socially? (“connected consumers”)
The competitiveness of the social platform?
Your demographic “fit” with the platform?
Regional, Local or Global focus?
Where are Your Competitors?
What Type(s) of Content are You Creating?
What Digital Metrics are Being Used
Will Community Management be done internally or outsourced?
Marketing budget and staffing.

How Top Tier Networks are Being Used

Critical Metrics to Review & What we Recommend

Whether your business to business or consumer focused, any social media channel selection should be built on a Persona Profile Analysis.

Blogs still rock: don’t think about embracing social until or unless you have 30-50 blog posts to share. Blogging is still one of the best ways to generate web site traffic, SEO and connectivity with “prosumers.”

Facebook is a must for consumer facing brands. But, it’s crowded, competitive and many of these consumers have the attention span of gnats. So, create stellar content and be prepared to advertise to generate ROI.

Twitter is best B2B platform along with LinkedIn. It’s a tech savvy, geeky water cooler great for brands marketing to other businesses.

LinkedIn is great for biz focused brands (company and profile pages for all staff): it’s getting crowded and publishing content is now a must to stand out.

Google+ is starting to get traction; best place to share content and drive SEO results (it’s Google). Gorgeous interface that makes it easy to share content and interact with others.

Pinterest rocks for any brand targeting consumers and the female demographics are stellar. Like other social channels, its morphing to a full blown eCommerce platform and with broader (mainstream and male) demographics.

Instagram is getting waylaid by SnapChat and other apps/services that appeal to younger more fickle demographic; but, it’s “fighting back” with an increase in functionality. Great for targeting millennials, boomers, not so much.

As this graphic above via Pew Research indicates, demographics trump everything else.

Social Platforms by Company Size - Our Template for Success

Startup to $5M targeting B2B: Blog, LinkedIn & Twitter, move to G+ in one to two quarters
Startup to $5M targeting consumers: Blog & Facebook (with advertising); Pinterest after traction with Blog & Facebook
$5-10M: Blog, G+,Twitter and LinkedIn, YouTube Channel
$10-20M: Blog, Twitter, G+, LinkedIn & Facebook (2-3 updates per day & advertising), YouTube dedicated channel
Wild Cards for Consumer “facing” Biz: Tumblr, Instagram, Vine and SnapChat (test one for 90 days and review conversion analytics)

Social Platforms by Industry

Local Services (Restaurant, Realtor, Retailer) “Localized Blog Content” with topics/keywords mapping to your customer’s needs and/or local market: Blog & Facebook, with Pinterest & Instagram 1-2 quarters later.

National or Global Focused Services: “Topical Blog Content” address needs of your market segment: Twitter & LinkedIn (profiles for all staff & company page updated regularly) primary platforms & SlideShare within 90-180 days.

National or Global Product Company: “Product or Solutions Centric Blog Content” that speaks to your consumers, Facebook organic status updates and Ads & Pinterest, YouTube, with Instagram or Vine presence after first 120 days.

Best Practices for Marketing Content Across Your Social Channels

Start slow: content marketing is a marathon
Establish benchmark measurements at the outset.
Keep moving forward: don’t get bogged down in the proverbial trenches.
Align content marketing with other strategies.
Involve your entire organization whether it’s five or fifty people: great content ideas come in all shapes and sizes: sales, customer service and/or exec staff.
Great content marketers “newsjack” and “borrow” from others.
Mix and match snackable short form (images, under 300 word blog post, videos) with long-form “evergreen” high value content.
Content marketing is expensive “chunk” and repurpose content to leverage your costs.
Recognizing standing out on some of these platforms will be determined by algorithms and tactical marketing is critical.

What you need to Know to Stand Out in Today’s Noisy Social Media World!

50% or more of your customer engagement will be on smartphones in next 12 months #bemobile
The “Google Effect” determines how consumers find you via smartphone, device or web search.
Nothing is new forever: product life cycles are shorter and more compressed.
We are seeing a shift to self educated buyers; this goes for consumer focused brands and B2B.
Content is everywhere and anything: your brand voice gets heard via content creation and syndication.
It’s a 6-8 second click of death competitive world. Image trumps content early in the sell cycle.
Technology is embedded in every marketing activity. Tech savvy brands are winning in the marketplace.
It’s an iterative virtual global economy and don’t be the proverbial frog in the water.

Social Media Gotchas You Need to Grasp Going In

You don’t own your content on social platforms: you’re homesteading and don’t forget this.
These are one to many platforms and standing out is challenging: your competing with celebrities, thought leaders and your direct competitors.
These are public companies, with a vested interest to drive their own business.
You will reach maybe 1-3% of your connections on average.
Where and how will the chairs be filled once the music stops. Everything is subject to change.
Expect the lines to get more blurred on social for “paid” vs. organic content.
Every social channel you select and utilize requires integration with your back end analytics and CRM apps.
Expect the continued “celebrification” of social media to increase moving forward. See: Andy Warhol was right.
If you are not publishing content across the social web aggressively you may not get heard.

One of the biggest issue we can make you aware of as you contemplate selecting and optimizing social media channels is grasping how quickly these platforms are morphing feature sets and the importance of technical expertise embedded in your organization.

Or, outsourcing some of these skills with a trusted partner.

Success comes down to sourcing and sharing great targeted content across multiple channels, engaging with the community with enough frequency to stand out but not “drown” the audience, coupled with integrated conversion/call to action elements and analytics measurement.

Deeper Dive Links

LinkedIn Best Practices

Twitter is the Coolest Ever Water Cooler

Pinterest Content Marketing for Brand Managers

Basic Facebook Marketing for B2B Brands

Top Twenty Five Content Marketing Platforms Listed

Image Credits: Pinterest, Inc, Leverage New Age Media, Statista, Pew Research,

Why Most Startups Suck at Marketing

0 Comments/in Strategic Marketing /by Linked Media Group

Every start-up has the same marketing challenge. Finding customers.

God knows why the failure rate is an abysmal 90% for startups.

Here is my truncated perspective based on years of work with startups.

30K Foot Perspective

Too smart for your own good and can’t get the hell out of the way when you hire an agency or consultant.

It’s a weed problem: too many execs get lost in the weeds working through the strategy and tactics.

Great marketing is about simplicity.

Or see: “lead, follow or get the hell out of the way….”

Can’t keep the investors or BOD members out of the marketing strategy. See: committees create snafus.

Once investors and other stakeholders are involved, wives, husbands, friends, relatives and maybe somebody at Starbucks start to “comment” on the marketing strategy.

Hiring a PR firm too early and/or letting them drive the strategy when/if no clue about digital media: design, technology, social and/or content marketing.

Thinking Cisco, SAP or Intel have everything figured out and then mapping a strategy around their brand positioning.

You are a start-up right? You don’t have the firepower, marketing budget or the type of team to execute this kind of strategy.

Have too much money. When is too much too much you ask?

When it gets in the way of tactical execution: see endless tacking back and forth.

Get to market and listen.

Copying competitors and thinking this is marketing strategy nirvana.

Some of them may be copying you and then where does this leave your business?

Or, worse, they have no clue about marketing and your cooping them. Not a good idea.

Falling in love with technology or worse, afraid to test new technology.

Moore’s Law has bit the dust - marketing is in real time now and sell cycles can be viciously long.

Your customers are on smartphones and they are distracted.

You gotta get their attention with content in context drenched in tech’s repeat loops.

Look No Further for Easy Answers

You read this far, so here’s my formula for success: find a customer, ask them why they bought and then build your marketing strategy around this message.

I don’t portend to have all the answers. It’s in the data.

(But, rave on: you are driving this economy and deserve cheers, accolades and the billions some of you are making.)

#livedigital

Redefining Marketing Strategy in Real Time

0 Comments/in Strategic Marketing /by Linked Media Group

“There’s many a slip twixt cup and the lip” is erroneously attributed to Shakespeare throughout history.

The origins can be traced back to Greek mythology and culturally juxtaposed by Emelio Estevez in the flick, “Young Guns” from the late 80′s.

Regardless of the cultural reference points, this quote should be a powerful reminder for any business as it builds out or redefines its marketing strategy.

Tech Does Not Work as Advertised & Merger and Acquisitions are Shifting the Landscapes

We’ve used HostGator for over ten years; but it’s a great example of how the entrepreneurial hosting biz has gone mainstream: it’s not really HostGator, it’s owned by Endurance International Group, which was bought out in 2011 by Accel-KKR, Warburg Pincus and GS Capital Partners (Goldman Sachs).
The intent is not to single out HostGator - Go Daddy is in the same boat; they bought Media Temple (who we host with) but never even moved customer service functions over to the parent corp and doubt if they upgraded the Network Operations Center or Servers either.
Critical takeaway for you as you select a hosting provider: if your not going with a dedicated Server provided by the market leader, RackSpace expect to be on a crowded server with thousands (or ten of thousands) of other web sites. Meaning, you site’s load times and access can be poor to nonexistent at times, which in turn impacts your Google Search Rankings.
We recommend WordPress as a development platform. Out of the box (download) it functions beautifully; but, as apps are services are integrated and upgrades occur, you’re going to see and experience hiccups: forms don’t work, pages load improperly, apps and inter dependencies don’t work, etc. Plan accordingly.
Of the top tier social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest) only LInkedIn has accessible customer service. Your on your own with the rest. We have an active presence on Pinterest with over 4K pins and 2.5K followers and we love the platform. but, their customer service for any small to medium sized business is virtually non-existent. It’s an irritant to see the valuations of these platforms; but, there is no attempt made to scale customer service on par with usage. So, be aware, FAQs, blogs and the kindness of strangers is what you have to rely on with most.

How to Stay Sane & Not Get Run Over by Tech

Make good decisions as you set up your Infrastructure: Hosting, Web Site Platform, Integrated Apps & Services and your probably better off going with a Dedicated Server and these costs are dropping rapidly as the “cloud” accelerates.
Build your business in an iterative manner. Don’t go all in or whole hog with technology: start small and phase in other apps and services once your environment is stable. Know you are building a digital eco system around your business.
Expect apps and services not to work “as advertised” and have your own agency or IT department carefully test what you are going to use.
You must be somewhat technical to survive and/or grow your business. Every aspect of marketing is steeped in technology. You don’t need to write code BTW; but using Facebook on a smartphone as an example, is not sufficient technical competency in today’s complex world.

Today’s Web Sites are Not Static

It’s brand suicide to think you can build a web site and not have it updated organically as your business grows.

We tell our clients, do a wholesale makeover every 12-18 months at a minimum, update images and text on a monthly and quarterly basis and a blog should be updated weekly at a minimum.

Great web site design is really about speed and minimizing load blindness - kill the design committee at the outset, you want no more than 2-3 members of your company involved in a design process.

Web Site Design Prerequisites

What’s the product or service going to sell for and how to you communicate this to the visitor?
Are content marketing initiatives (blog, PR, images, infographics, videos, virality) integrated with your design?
How do analytics and sales funnel metrics tie into the web site?
What’s your lead generation strategy or desired outcome for a visitor, other than perusing the site?
Is a content marketing strategy defined and do you have an Editorial Calendar in place for organizing: content updates, topics, keywords timeline and more?
Do you have social media integration in place: social logins, sharing options and plugins, engagement drivers to generate virality and social sharing?
Is legacy content and information mapping in place and how will this be archived in a meaningful way to continue to drive traffic?
A real grasp of your targeted market demographic or persona, with dedicated time and resources defining who the customer is?
Are you leveraging Cloud integration: apps, third party services, appropriate server and/or hosting vendors to lower costs & accelerate time to market?
Visitors “read” web site content in F Shaped Patterns; is this baked into your content strategy and User Interface?
How is your site going to be updated moving forward and who is responsible for this?
Are trust signals in place on the site to drive conversions?

How to Partner with your Agency or Provider on a Design Project

By “partner” I mean get the hell out of your own way and listen to the people you are paying good money to help you move your business forward.

We work with so many clients with budgets from $10-50K who waste a great deal of time and resources by listening to non stakeholders in the design process ranging from spouses to BOD members.

Avoid this at all costs. If not, you’ll be adding “feature creep” endlessly and a functional design project will go from 60 days to 3-4 months.

This will “stress” your team, the design agency and your budget, resulting in a convoluted design process that may work for no one.

Great Content Not Heard is Content Not Written

So much is written about how to write great content, self included. Yes indeed, if the content is funky it’s not going to get traction. But, if it’s never seen, your losing the battle.

Syndicate and publish your content. Once it’s been uploaded to your own site and indexed (attributed to your brand) by Google then syndicate the hell out of it, with rinse and repeat cycles.

Best tools for content syndication:

Buffer
HootSuite
OutBrain
IFTTT & Zapier (think of these as content feed & connectivity apps & more)
SproutSocial
OneSpot
ShareThis (browser based)
SNAP WordPress “autoposter” plugin for WordPress

The absolute best tool to use for any content marketing or syndication is BuzzSumo - understand what content is driving engagement and with who across the social web.

“Be a publisher” means: identify top tier thought leaders in your industry or vertical, then build a Twitter list comprising these execs and then understand what publications they are featured in or sharing.

Extract this list of publications and then reach out to the editors and pitch them on writing content that will resonated with their “readers.”

I don’t want to make this sound too easy; it may not be. You may have to contact multiple editors via contact us page, @messages on Twitter, identifying other authors writing for them and then asking them for a referral, etc.

But, publishing your content is a powerful way to augment content syndication. Don’t forget about making sure your RSS feed is working properly; some publishers will want this functionality.

Don’t Follow Big Brand Marketing - Forge a Path that Maps to the Size of Your Business

SalesForce, Cisco, Intel (not to pick on them) are great companies and they have clearly kicked butt and taken names when it comes to pioneering and leveraging marketing strategy and tactics.

But, most small businesses don’t have the budget, staffing and/or “bandwidth” (separating the wheat from the digital chaff) to effectively leverage the marketing plans of these larger companies.

I’m not telling you to ignore these bigger brands. My recommendation is to “borrow” and “scale” your marketing strategy based on the size of your business and budget.

I see an endless stream of “marketing advice” and content about how XXXYY startup went from 0-1M followers, downloads, deals, etc. (whatever) all over the social web.

Take this with a grain of salt too. The devil is in the details and don’t forget 90% of most startups fail and a lot of them are throwing marketing dollars for testing that most small businesses don’t have.

Also, don’t believe every statistic you read online. This recent Venture Beat article underscores the validity of some of the “facts” you see quoted and by reputable sources.

All Great Marketing Comes Down to these Precepts

Alignment: who is your customer and how do you market the right product or service to them?
Attraction and Attention: once you understand who the target market is then you can begin tactical marketing?
Engagement: which should be cyclical in nature for most businesses; B2B brands will need multiple touch points to drive conversions.

So, overlay some of what you read and hear that is applicable and “doable” for your business along with customer focus and listening and you’ll have a solid marketing foundation to work from.

Social Media Marketing is Awesome but it’s not a Panacea for your Business

But, it’s consistent with how some brands create their own Shakespearean tragedy with the wrong marketing strategy.

Social Media Marketing should be in place after these marketing attributes are good to go.

You have a mobile friendly web site organically updated on a regular basis.
A blog is in place on your site. with a minimum of 30 posts done, comments and social sharing is working and someone is monitoring comments.
You’ve done a persona profile analysis and your brand and marketing processes are in alignment.
You either: a) have a community manager on staff who understands good community management skills: sharing and understands what curated content, “paying it forward” with the community, being response to customer service issues, is not just “broadcasting” & is a great brand advocate; or b) your working with an agency that will “let you drive” at times and who has done a deep dive with your staff and customers so they can build an effective social media marketing strategy.
Your prepared to spend 3-6 months on the right social media channel and your starting with just one right?
Have an understanding of the importance of sharing images across any/all social media channels and are cross-promoting images used via your blog and/or Pinterest accounts to leverage costs.
Content syndication is in place and working properly, with the degree of sophistication determined by

Finite Takeaways

Critical issues to be aware of as you scale your marketing processes: infrastructure provider assessment and set up is critical, technology can do some unexpected things and it does not work as advertised, content must be syndicated to get “heard” and social media should be an add on marketing tactic, not a front end go to market strategy.

In today’s crowded markets, less is more, iteration works much better when your dealing with complex technology and stellar community and customer service (read: engagement) are the cornerstones of effective social media marketing. #timetakestime

Future Proofing Your Brand Strategy

0 Comments/in Strategic Marketing /by Linked Media Group

“The future has already arrived. It’s just not evenly distributed yet.” William Gibson

Future proofing your brand strategy is a constantly moving target.

Visual Communications Drive Engagement like not other content, especially in today’s smartphone drenched world.

Be discriminating with all images used across your digital footprint.
Content in context is vital: an image has to work with your content marketing strategy.
You get what you pay for with images: licensed or developed. Bill Gates bought Getty Images for a reason.
Photoshop and related tools are cool but some times polishing is gilding the proverbial lilly.
Committees kill great design, graphics, photos or web sites. No more than three stakeholders needed.
Curate great content with these tools: Feedly, Scoop.It, Newsle (curated social content) - I don’t use or recommend HootSuite’s built in content sourcing, not enough uniqueness.

Today real world authenticity drives value and cuts through the noise.

Robert Scoble is the “poster child” for how to build and co-mingle an authentic personal and professional brand.

Robert works for Rackspace but you rarely here him mention Rackspace, he’s too busy educating his audience. His brand DNA is all about authenticity, not pitching a brand he works for!

This video below is a deep dive (just over an hour) into using Facebook filters and originally broadcast live via G+ - it’s not “canned,” it’s real time and casual. But, it works.

Relevancy is the coin of the realm for most brands. Try to share information with your buyers that are going to make a significant difference.

A killer content marketing strategy doesn’t exist. It’s going to take time.
Your customers want a great user experience across all platforms.
A lot of what you read across top tier platforms like Forbes, Inc, Fortune and/or the Economist have little if any relevance in a marketing context to most businesses under $50M.

You don’t have the “woman power” or marketing budget of a big company or a VC backed start-up; so, understand your marketing model should be different.

Be provocative with your content messaging: au contrair can be a good thing.

I got fed up reading endless blog posts about the wonders of social media marketing and conveyed what I think is a more realistic perspective on Huff Po.

Most businesses shouldn’t think about social media unless their web site is flawless, you have something to talk about via a blog and you understand good community management is an essential skill for your company.

It didn’t get me on the Huff Po front page but felt these topics should be part of the dialogue - used “snake oil” salesman to convey tonuge in cheek humor.

Be forward thinking with your messaging. Marsha Collier is a featured speaker and a successful author who has sold millions of books.

Marsha’s consistently rated a top tier social media expert by Forbes and many others, for good reason: she shares valuable information via her blog and social accounts, she’s humble, down to earth and personifies “pay it forward” in “me too world.”.

She “owns” the #custserv hashtag and each week she’s hosting one of the most popular chats on Twitter about customer service.

She picked customer service as core message, not flogging how wonderful Facebook is for brands like many of her peers. See: forward thinking.

Try to be distinctive with your brand messaging and design attributes.

Look at a the publishing brand Medium, which I have installed on my iPhone. I love the awesome “one of a kind” original content shared on this site; it even “tells” me how long I should expect to read it and the design is minimalist in every sense of the word.

Can most of you as a small business use this kind of a design? Probably not.

But, there are elements that should resonate with you: minimalist look and feel, menus don’t burden the visitor, integrated commenting (although social shares are non-existent), much of the writing “speaks” to you with a “human to human” voice, graphics are clean, sharp and attractive.

Be inspirational when you can. Journalism is getting it’s butt kicked by digital but there is a new breed of journalists emerging like Tom Foremski.

He’s competing with TechCrucch, Forbes, Re/code, The Verge; i.e. much bigger “media properties” loaded with newly minted refugees from the WSJ, Time and the NY Times seeking fame and fortune in the San Francisco Bay Area and elsewhere.

But, he stands out, even in this crowded field.

Tom’s passionate, well written content cuts through the clutter - there is no mistaking his position and he’s well schooled in the “cut the crap and get to the story” like David Carr.

Change the conversation to fit your brand. UnderArmour is best known today for their “machoesque” ads featuring athletes best known for their brawn and possibly beefcake attractiveness for a certain demographic.

Their most recent ad features ballerina Misty Copeland with a bit of an “in your face” (subtle and in tune with her personal brand) message that changes the conversation about Under Armour’s brand.

Be independent and broaden your brand and terms of services. GQ is embracing a mashup of print ads and digital.

The Ad Spend on print ads are in a nosedive, declining 4% to $12.8 billion this year and heading south to $9.3 billion by 2018 according to PricewaterhouseCoopers report.

GQ’s parent company, Conde Nast publishing is offering access to and a joint promotion with a group of “GQ57″ readers across multiple digital footprints for advertisers spending over $100K.

Advertisers will get “reach” into influencers like Blake Scott across web sites, Instagram sites, a special print insert and personal blogs.

What’s Cool About this Strategy & Challenging

There is an elitist component to the advertising. But, moving forward, expect to see more and more campaigns like this.

It’s hot because it blends print ads across a broader digital landscape, giving advertisers incremental reach.

Conversion tracking may be a headache for advertisers and a there are a lot of moving parts; i.e. building out an ad campaign across so many properties.

Native or not? Will these “ads” via other sites be clearly labeled as ads; or, will they blur the lines between ads and content further? And, possibly dilute Cone Nast’s brand cachet?

Stand out from the herd with ads with strong visual appeal.

This ad from AliancaFrancesca for learning French cuts through the clutter.

It’s targeted visually for the right demographic; younger millennials who are traveling more frequently, with disposable income and who accept piercings as pretty commonplace.

We are now in a multi-screen world - more and more “prosumers” are consuming content across multiple screens. Stand out or get lost in the crowd.

Source shareable content with these six finite attributes to drive incremental brand engagement with your business.

Research and curate industry pain points your customers are facing.
Address customer questions that are problematic.
What are trending industry topics?
What’s the story in your industry with data? This can be used to create topical informative content.
Identify and talk about your brand’s story. See: HP started in the garage, Michael Dell selling dorm room to dorm room, Sara Blakely spending years prototyping her product.
What’s going on outside your industry that is relevant to it? Makes for thought-provoking content.

Scaling your brand requires a blend of marketing activities. Data is exploding at an unprecedented rate and you need to be aware of these six key marketing metrics to help you stand out.

Strategy is implicit across all marketing channels and processes: goals, brand engagement, clickthriough revenue generation, content development creation and syndication, measurement.
Tools and marketing platforms are one of the most important aspects of scaling a brand for sourcing content, social media sharing and posting and measuring your marketing activities.
Content marketing is ground zero for all marketing initiatives and it’s much more important than just about any marketing activity you undertake. Your brand has to create and share great content with a target market segment and a blog is the best place to start. It may sound mundane but it’s the voice of your business.
Interacting is one of the most misunderstood aspects of social media. Probably 75% of the brands I look at have little of any social media engagement of any meaningful type. Success with social requires more than just broadcasting content. Engage!
Brand consistency is also an integral part of your key marketing initiatives. Your customers and social followers are constantly reviewing the content you are sharing across the social web. If your a retail manufacturer your customers want to source content from you that helps to make their lives easier, with a dash of good humor now and then. Sex, drugs, rock and roll images via an Instagram account are probably not a good idea. Images that show how/why your customers are using your products or related products are great to share.
Measurement is the component that brings all of your activities together, it should dovetail with you strategy, encompassing basic Google Analytics Goals to real time measurement services like Crazy Egg or MixPanel (two of our favorites). Measure the right things, too many brands focus on the wrong metrics: impressions, views, clicks, likes, shares which really have minimal correlation with actual business results. Measure the incremental steps in your sales funnel that will lead to revenue generation.

Brand sustainability comes down to creating value for your customers. All the marketing strategy in the world won’t do squat if you’re not educating customers.

Write, share and be social accordingly and you’ll thrive.

Ten Rules for Mythic Content Marketing

0 Comments/in Content /by Linked Media Group

Got lonely content and don’t know what to do?

Ten Rules for Content Brands in Search of Crowds

Rule #1 -blog with the best content you can produce, don’t waste time or resources on social media until your business has 30-50 blog posts completed.

“Best content” - informs, shares perspective, customer targeted, mix/match content with 20-30% short form (300-500 words), 30-50% long form (over 1,500 words), integrated calls to action.

Try irregularity with images: juxtaposed with your content, irreverent or irresistible. Your “readers” are on smartphones: attention span distracted and possibly distraught.

You have about ten seconds to garner a visitor’s attention with your content and images.

Rule #2 - Brake Boredom’s hold on your brand. Great content comes down to structure, story and presentation. Rule #3 - Jettison jargon when/where you find it. You know the stuff that makes your viewers’ turn away and embrace the dark force, otherwise known as the click of death in marketing jargon speak. God knows we marketers struggle with this problem. You are not alone!

Tips for jargon free content & related bon motes

Read everything David Ogilvy ever wrote.
Be plainspoken: Will Rogers knew what he was talking about.
“Write different” - we stole this phrase. But, all marketing is “creative plagiarism.”
Put yourself in your customer’s shoes.
Tell a story when/where you can. That’s easier said than done. Learn how GoPro tells a great story and builds brand.
As you write, have a real person in mind.
Behind every good writer is a stellar editor.
Try not to turn every blog post into a commercial for your brand.

Rule #4 - leave your local brand accent at home: write for a global audience. It’s the web right?

If you’re a pizza shop in Brooklyn then go ahead and butcher the English language as you see fit. If not, see header above. (We love Brooklyn too and we don’t mean “Decker.”)
Write for a global audience; it’s not “miles” its kilometers BTW.
You may want to leave the metaphors at home or better yet, that’s what a personal Twitter account is for.
Don’t write in geekease - geeks think they rule the world but they don’t, consumers do. Write accordingly.

Rule #5 - write with your ears

Social is really an endless feedback loop. See: Twiter. Be a content whisperer and pay attention to what’s being said about your content.
Every blog should have comments working and someone should be paying attention to them.
Ask and you shall receive. Throw up a blog or Tweet and ask others what they want to hear.
Great content is still about conversation. Build one around your brand.
#BTW Twitter lists put your “ears” on steroids. Use them.

Rule #6 - be a mythic brand: serve customers, tell a good story and be passionate

Ralph Lauren isn’t selling clothes and BMW aren’t selling cars. Admittedly, if your small biz selling linen supplies online you aren’t going to be another Ralph Lauren. But, look for ways to be mythic with your customers.
Breaking Bad wasn’t a story it was a human car wreck in slow motion over multiple seasons.
The world cup wasn’t about football - it was a modern tale about risk and reward.
Apple rose from the ashes of failure by making great products with a good story, told by a master storyteller.

Rule #7 - be credible with your words when/if you can! Your writing has to stand on its own without endless facts and figures.

Some times boring facts and figures are just that: boring. Don’t fall in love with data.
Credibility in spite of what marketers tell you is built up over times in many cases. See: NY Times or Der Spiegel.
Content flow helps to drive the reader onto the page.

Rule #8 - give em the good with the bad. We all get sick of content with no grounding in reality whatsoever: “How I Made a Billion Working Ten Minutes a Day” Credible content, especially when targeting other businesses converts well when the on page content makes it clear you may not have all the answers. “We turn clients into mythic brands; but along the way you can expect some bumps and bruises.” Makes for compelling content that draws the visitor in. Medium (founded by Biz Stone) has made a name for itself as a publisher rapidly in a market crowed with many other publishing platforms. The content is open, truthful, honest and with a minimal number of images. The minimalist design complements the content. Rule #8 - we are moving into a 2+2 world for smart content marketing. Readers want to know how your products and services work and add value to their business. Decisions are fraught with anxiety for many other biz execs who are weighing whether or not to use your services. So, tell them how you can help in measurable ways. This is a Sales Force landing page below. Note the embedded facts and figures give you a sense for how they help businesses generate revenue using their products. The content is lean and mean with a 2+2 component. Rule #9 - embed calls to action in every piece of content that you write and share.

Many conversion experts like Neil Patel think embedding calls to action “above the fold” is a myth & these should be embedded in the copy after the visitor has read it!
Use different colors for your Calls to Action vs. the Page’s background color.
Use bold contrasting colors.
Use actionable copy conveying the value of the offer being made.
Don’t oversell and under perform (“make billions working ten minutes a day”).
Set expectations properly: “get our 30 page ebook on cooking skills with 20 recipes.”
Embed calls to action (“CTAs”) in every piece of content you create: web, newsletter, social media and even your contact and “thank you” pages.

Rule #10 - there are no hard and fast rules to ensure success with your content. Share content, measure engagement and modify based on what content resonates with your visitors. But, integrate these rules of the road and you’ll have a good foundation.

Make your content relevant to your market niche.
Add value by addressing questions your potential customers want to hear about.
Don’t shout “buy, buy, buy” endlessly - there is a customer journey implicit with all good content for B2B brands.
Embed some data; but, don’t go overboard.
Make sure your content is aligned with your business objectives and ongoing marketing objectives

Quick Summary for Smartphone Readers

In our work with clients just creating content is only part of the equation.

Promote the hell out of your content (and brand) with paid ads, guest posts, comments, share requests with rinse/repeat cycles.

Great content is a mythic beast. It “lives” within each of you and the DNA of your company.

Just remember, great content requires creativity and lots of trial and error, coupled with “listening” to your conversion metrics (newsletter sign ups, lead inquiries and/or revenue metrics).

Adjust accordingly and look for patterns of engagement across all your content marketing initiatives.

Reach out if you have questions and sign up for our newsletter; you’ll get a 50+ page digital strategy overview ebook covering content, social media marketing, cloud integration and more.

How to Select a Marketing Platform for Content Syndication

0 Comments/in Strategic Marketing /by Linked Media Group

Are you producing and sharing content to make your business stand out from the digital herd but not getting traction?

Your not alone, although that may not be reassuring - 70% of marketers today struggle with creating a coherent marketing strategy.

Getting Heard in Today’s Tech Drenched World

We are rapidly moving into a content drenched world. Content, Ads, Images, Mashups and Video are everywhere and on multiple devices and “prosumers” now trust experts more than they trust your brand.

Marketing platforms are increasingly more important for brands big and small, helping you get your message in front of the right individual on a targeted social channel.

I am mapping out some of issues many of you are facing for selecting a marketing platform and how to offset these with a digital review process. Formality on the latter will probably be determined by budget, staffing and how deep you want to dive into the migration process.

Marketing Platforms Proliferation

Scott Brinker was on of the first thought leaders to really identify the marketing platform landscape and proliferation. In the last three years your potential selections of marketing platforms has ballooned form around hundred to just over a thousand. We use Scott’s image in our latest ebook; but, truth be told we are scared at times to show it to clients. It’s intimidating and for good reason.

Growth in this sector has been mind boggling. And, we live in an age when too many choices may mean no choice or provoke high anxiety for the selection process.

Before you think about a marketing platform I would recommend just doing a basic review process of digital assets, infrastructure, customer focus, staffing and related issues.

We have a two page Digital Analysis doc we use in our work with clients that you can also download via our Dropbox account.

Please know this outline and our processes are always changing; but, this doc will give you a good road-map to work from. I pulled three sections that should be helpful, with “light” introductory comments.

Big Picture Structure-start here

The size of your company and IT infrastructure (if any) has a big impact on selecting a marketing platform.

What are existing digital assets and how are they managed: Web, email, social, IT or Intranet?
Who is responsible for managing digital assets & who do they report to?
Do IT and Marketing share “custody” of key digital assets?
Are digital assets optimized and integrated with cloud technology?
What content is being created and shared across the social web, if at all?

How Formal is Your Customer Focus?

We talk with clients about a customer profile at the front end of just about every strategic engagement.

If your a small biz, don’t let your eyes glaze over with some of these items mapped out below.

But, regardless, this is a good exercise to go through and it will help you improved your overall marketing strategy, whether you setup a marketing platform or not.

Has a dedicated customer profile exercise been done?
How has the customer journey been mapped? Where and how do potential customers interact with your business and are you tracking this: web site, landing page(s), newsletter, social media engagment?
Who tests usability issues within the company? That’s fancy marketing speak somewhat for how visitor engage with your web site design or user interface.
Who owns the customer experience: is one department or multiple departments: marketing, customer service, IT, Sales and who is following through with what’s working and what isn’t? You got “x” traffic and “y” leads via these sources and “45%” didn’t stay on the site more than a few seconds.
Who responds and/or addresses questions from customers via social media?
Is a CRM technology or platform being utilized?
Do you have an internal FAQ and external that addressed common customer issues and questions?
How do you ensure a consistent high quality experience for the customer across all digital touch points (web site, social, newsletter, YouTube/videos)?

What is the Digital Mindset in Your Company

In our work with clients we experience radical disparities in how a management team looks at and understands digital assets.

Mentioning “digital assets” on a call with some execs does not always trigger recognition in a meaningful way.

But, for many of you, digital assets are increasingly more important in today’s smartphone driven social consumer world.

Does the exec staff understand how to use and leverage digital? Meaning: have some in-depth perspective on analytics, ROI metrics, how to measure engagement with your brand and more.
What are digital updates via social channels? News, lists, announcements, webinars, tradeshows, videos, etc.
Is existing web site used as an organic asset? How frequently is is updated and integrated with other marketing initiatives?
Budget allocation for digital vs. traditional marketing?
Is digital owned by one department like marketing or one or a group of individuals. Is critical information in a silo with one department or is it shared?

Digital Infrastructure Issues to Address

Your sophistication when it comes to being aware of and managing your infrastructure is somewhat of an enabling issue for using a marketing platform.

Is there any internal comprehensive oversight of digital activities? Content is shared and measured “this way” and we review our Google Analytics once a week across all departments or stakeholders responsible for digital.
Who manages digital project development?
How is brand consistency addressed via all digital assets?
What are policies and procedures (if any) for managing content via site & social channels?
How is social media managed? In house or outsourced or hybrid?
What are primaryKPIs for the company and how are they integrated with digital?
How is technical infrastructure created and managed? In-house, with outsourcing partners, using cloud services or apps, server location (shared or dedicated)?

How to Select and use a Marketing Platform

Once you’ve done some reviews of digital assets and infrastructure, customer and related issues you should have a better sense of critical background issues.

Now you can tackle and start to review what types marketing platform you want to use.

Remember a platform is only as good as the content you develop and share. Your better off putting more budget into developing quality content vs. a marketing platform.

Baseline operational issues should be addressed: who’s going to manage the platform, budget, timeline, review of existing tech infrastructure, marketing goals.
Start small: that may be just using basic content marketing application or WordPress plugin or something like Buffer. We have a list of over 25 top tier content marketing platforms here.
What’s your social channel strategy today and where are you headed in the future?
Where are you in a moment in time right now: IT management, email vendor, server and web site technology, apps being used, CRM tools or services, cloud usage (or not).
The right decision may be no decision: if head count is not in place or insufficient budget then look at other ways to leverage technology using the cloud. Or, focus on creating more and better content.
Understand interoperability via apps and services can be challenging - we find inconsistencies with published specifications and functionality frequently which in turn create problems once you mesh apps and services.

Creating Content to Stand out in Today’s Tech Drenched World

Quality content goes hand in hand with a marketing platform. Don’t consider the latter without creating the former! Here are few points that should provide background on key metrics for creating “shareable” content.

Less is more may be better: focus.
Embrace technology as an integral part of content marketing.
Don’t start content marketing until a Persona Profile is done.
Design is baked in to ever marketing initiative: If they can’t use the web site all the content in the world is meaningless.
If your a $20M a year company then your content marketing should map to your size. Don’t try to mirror Cisco or SalesForce.
Throw out dated SEO tactics: people are not searching on keywords as much as in years past.
I repeatedly hammer home themes about the importance of content syndication and using an editorial calendar but, this may not be enough. Publish everywhere you can. My posts on Huffinton Post generate 50-100X times the ROI of my blog. This may not be relevant for your business at all. Where do your “customers live?” Local or national? Understand where/how your competitors are publishing, target these publications, editors and/or journalists accordingly.

Think like a publisher and not a business. Once Google sources and maps your content to your web site then make it freely available to others. Look at any major portal today including Huffington Post, probably 40-50% of the content is sourced elsewhere.
I don’t think this bon motte is a brilliant marketing strategy on par with David Ogilvy; but, share content via social channels with a built in rinse and repeat cycle using a marketing platform for content syndication.
Hire a great writer, editor or thought leader in your industry and put them to work creating content. Creating great content is expensive but, will pay for itself over time. It’s one of the best investments your business can make.
Give prosumers two plus two, not four: standing out from the crowd: is about sharing original images, writing kick ass copy, sharing it everywhere you can possibly come up with and asking friend, neighbors, customers to comment and re-share.
Getting traction with content takes time and effort. Don’t expect your content to perform miracles over night.
B2B brands some times forget emotion is a critical aspect of your content marketing. Look for contextual clues from your customers that identify areas where they need help. Twitter’s built in direct response functionality is used by bigger brands for identifying customers having problems with direct competitors.
Test headlines and gear the latter for your audience and platform. Some times attention grabbing headlines “What I Learned About Social Media via Andy Warhol” do not get as much traction a a more mundane title: “5 Myths of Modern Advertising ( @digiday). But, platform, customer focus, type of content (short or evergreen type) will have a big impact on the engagement with your headline.
Over half a billion comments are made on sites across the web each month. Don’t forget about commenting, especially heavily trafficked sites, even with an approval process.

Smartphone Summary for Busy Execs

As you think about selecting a marketing platform be mindful of your team’s ability to use one and do a review of your digital assets.

Remember your migrating your marketing process, technology and probably updating the competency of your staff along the way.

Make sure you get buy in from all stakeholders: exec staff, customer support, marketing and IT teams and even your sales team.

As I shared at the outset of this post, this process is fraught with peril and anxiety for most management teams. For good reason, your changing the outbound marketing structure of your company and you want to move in an iterative manner. Iteration drives success in our experience.

Risk and reward live together - it’s important to move your strategic and tactical marketing processes forward, as competitive forces around your business are dynamic.

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