What is content?
In my mind, the term 'content' self-evidently represents delicious, customer-relevant, valued, talk-worthy information. Except that I was recently asked what I meant by 'content' when I referred to it...
My friend Ann Handley - pictured here with Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business co-author CC Chapman - defines content as "a broad term that refers to anything created and uploaded to a web site: the words, images, tools, or other things that reside there."
Content attracts, engages, informs and educates. It tells your story and connects customers to you. It enables you to address the questions and concerns that potential customers have by offering solutions. With content you build relationships and solve customers problems, you build trust and establish credibility and pave the way for converting visitors to leads and eventually buyers.
Given my marketing experience with non-high-tech categories, I like to stretch the definition of content to include non-digital assets. For example, the merchandise in a store, carpet samples in a showroom, print-based brochures. And, then, I like to figure out how to translate those analog assets into digital content assets and extend the marketing viability of those tools considerably online.
What is content marketing?
Content marketing focuses on publishing delicious, relevant, valuable content online to attract and eduate customers and build longterm relationships with them. It tells engaging stories about you and what you offer customers. Content marketing helps you get found online.
Here's how Robert Rose describes content marketing in What Content Marketing is Really About from the Content Marketing Institute.
Creating content to market
I love 'uncovering' content ideas! Every company and person I've encountered have stories to tell and, yet, most haven't - for lack of the right opportunities and tools. Given the online focus on fresh, relevant and engaging content, there's never been a better time to create content for marketing one's business online. Start by translating offline materials into online ones and sharing the voices and stories of your organization. Here are content ideas worth exploring: How Do I Create Content?
You might also enjoy How To Think Like a Content Marketer.
That's my take on content and content marketing. What is content from your perspective? What about content marketing? What types of content do you use to tell your stories? Which have been most effective?
I'd love to hear.
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Image Credit: Content Rules originally uploaded by teamstickergiant on Flickr.
Just today, I was discussing managing online reputation with friend, colleague, and Bathroom Blogfest [which is coming up at the end of October] co-conspirator Susan Abbott.
[Also check out Susan's deliciously thoughtful blog Customer Experience Crossroads about creating branded consumer experiences.]
From what I've observed, if you can't be found online, you don't exist! As harsh as that may sound, it isn't too far from the truth especially when you consider the effects of ZMOT. Do you agree?
As Susan shared with me the premise for her upcoming presentation for the QRCA's 2011 annual conference, I thought back on the presentations I've given this year about managing your reputation in a social world:
and the article I wrote for Content Marketing Institute titled
How To Manage Your Online Reputation.
What I love most about the unprecedented times in which we live is how we have access, for ourselves and our businesses, to amazing digital tools for building an online reputation and getting found online. Think about it: LinkedIn, Google Places, Google for visibility, websites, blogs, social networks and more! The options are exciting, empowering, but also perhaps intimidating.
What do you think?
Are you participating via these tools?
Are you monitoring what comes up for your name and your company name via Google alerts, Board Tracker and Twitter search?
How do you go about listening intensely to your communities? [I use eCairn Conversation.] Are you interacting in the conversations?
Have you examined your existing online presence and assessed how effective it is?
Have you established social media guidelines for your interactions online including for Facebook Fan pages and LinkedIn groups?
What are you finding most effective?
Let me know in the comments.
Gary Vaynerchuk, author of The Thank You Economy, and Guy Kawasaki, author of Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions, fundamentally exhort us in their recent books to focus on connecting with customers!
In the case of Enchantment, it's about developing a mutually beneficial and voluntary relationship based on three pillars of Likeability, Trustworthiness and Perfect Product/Service.
In the case of the Thank You Economy, it's about leveraging a world of caring for customers who demand "authenticity, originality, creativity, honesty, and good intent" from the companies they do business with. [See Brand Marketing Evolution: Unscripted and Human.]
Two sides of the same coin, no?
I didn't originally intend to discuss Guy and Gary in one post. However, after seeing Guy Kawasaki Speak at Inbound Marketing Summit and hearing Gary Vaynerchuk on MarketingProfs, I kept mashing the two in my brain... given how both focus intensely on connecting with customers.
In his presentation Kawasaki made interesting points about [enchanting] trustworthiness.
1. To achieve trustworthiness, the order in which trust occurs matter. You must trust others first [e.g., Zappos, Amazon and Nordstrom exemplify this].
2. We must strive to be bakers [those who believe that all will benefit from a rising tide] rather than eaters [i.e., a zero sum game].
3. He urged us to default to a 'yes' attitude.
Vaynerchuk said to use "good intent to set everything in motion" and empower people [i.e., open a "give a crap" department]. The focus is on quality not quantity, on intense caring, engagement and followup, and on using the tools of social media for genuine social interaction.
Both authors have plenty more to say, in person and in their books, and I encourage you to learn more.
However, as it relates to connecting with customers and the Gary/Guy observations, what have you noticed? How are you going about enchanting your customers? How do you default to yes? How successful is your 'give a crap' deparment? How are you using the tools of social media to connect and interact?
Let me know in the comments!
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Other few other resources for you:
You need to get found online. Customers are online as never before, and that's where they are starting the purchase process. If they can't find you online, you don't exist.
If you need proof, check out Inbound Marketing and ZMOT: Perfect Together?
In my mind, the best means of dealing with how to get found online is through inbound marketing. In case you have any doubts, I'd like to share with you 10 visual reasons for pursuing inbound marketing.
1. Blog articles influence purchases.
This goes hand-in-hand with the ZMOT research. We start the buying process online and much of the content we encounter online is published on blogs.
2. Companies that blog have 55% more website visitors.
Blogs create dynamic web content, so no surprise that a blog associated with a website domain will generate more website visitors assuming you publish regularly and consistently on your blog.
3. Companies that blog have 434% more indexed pages.
In a way, this is the flip side of the previous point. Not only does a blog create dynamic - or consistently fresh - content on your website, but every individual blog article you publish represents an unique web page waiting to get indexed!
4. Companies that blog have 97% more inbound links.
If you are truly committed to creating and publishing remarkable, delicious, noteworthy and relevant content, then others will link to it. As Marcus Sheridan aka The Sales Lion remarked last week during the Hubspot HUGS if you focus on serving your customers and answering their questions via your blog, you will have content that others consider valuable and link to.
5. Companies with more indexed web pages get way more leads!
The more your web pages that get indexed by search engines, the more likely your business is to get found by potential customers. The greater the opportunity you have to get found, the more visitors to your site will become leads.
6. B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads per month than those that don't.
By blogging, you create more web pages, which get indexed, which generate more web traffic to your site. The greater your web traffic, the greater the likelihood that visitors will become leads... and eventually customers!
7. Companies with more than 51 blog articles experience a 77% lift in median monthly sales.
I love this chart and have noticed consistently with every blog I have launched that ~ 50 is the magic point when blog articles truly start to generate momentum.
The lesson? The sooner you get started with blogging and inbound marketing, the sooner you'll get to the point when results happen!
8. The number of blog articles published affect the number of monthly leads.
This chart supports the previous one. The more [delicious, relevant and remarkable] blog articles you publish, the more you will notice an effect on the leads you generate.
9. Web Pages and Traffic: the more content you create, the more traffic and leads your business will see.
And, the more content you create on your website and via your blog, the more you will notice web traffic increase as well as leads.
10. Web Pages and Leads: Businesses with websites that have 401 to 1,000 webpages have 6 times more leads than those with 51 to 100.
Here's proof! The more webpages, the more leads.
What's your reaction to these visual reasons for pursuing inbound marketing? What have you observed in your online activities? What patterns are emerging? I'd love to hear.
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Charts credit:
Hubspot 100 Awesome Marketing Stats, Charts and Graphs - May 2011
[Added 9/17/2012: check out 200+ Case Studies: Social Media and Content Marketing Examples for more examples and case studies!]
I love coming across examples and case studies of companies using social media in their marketing. In fact, I've been including links to articles about such brands and companies in my weekly #PracticalMktr Twitter roundupblogpost and have 100+ examples to share with you.
I realize that there's more here than anyone can digest in one sitting. At the same, there's nothing more frustrating than trying to find examples and case studies of social media marketing being used successfully and coming up empty handed. Consider this, then, a resource or reference for ideas about brands being practical with social media -- to which I will periodically post updates. Note that I've organized the references into categories...
Associations Using Social Media
National Sleep Foundation research via social media http://bit.ly/95potd
National Wildlife Federation @starfocus on using social media http://ow.ly/3NMJg
National Assn of Realtors used social media to take convention to bigger audience http://ow.ly/68uO3
Harnessing the communication power of new media from the Red Cross after Haiti http://bit.ly/aeYRcP
Salvation Army took bell ringing online this holiday http://ow.ly/3x6Lp
Consumer Brands and Social Media
Aunt Jemima embraces social media & using employees http://ow.ly/42ltc
CocaCola's social media project includes local angles fr AdAge http://ow.ly/3xt8x
FastCo Design: Best Buy, Ford, CBS, Pepsi, P&G/Old Spice social media is Real, legitimate, where peeps R http://ow.ly/4tVps
How Conagra's brands build online communities http://ow.ly/5WXgw
Evenflo taps into breastfeeding social passion http://bit.ly/9sNF8w
Advice from Graco on how to use social media during a product recall http://bit.ly/b5Vd7r
Mrs. Meyer's cleaning products "unify, simplify, amplify" - http://ow.ly/5fhBM
How Golfsmith measures social ROI/hard, soft impact http://bit.ly/a9Ecc2
Tupperware to increase its social media presence per NYT: http://ow.ly/4WoFG
Learnings from Kodak on H2 apply social media to B2B based on B2C experience http://ow.ly/48VFr; Insights fr @BethLaPierre Kodak Chief Listening Officer http://ow.ly/3U1kS
Imagine the power of constraints on yr biz. How LEGO revived its brand http://bit.ly/ap50gX; How LEGO supports growing network of fans: http://bit.ly/dxJrC4; Details on LEGO: fr toy company to multi-media brand http://ow.ly/4Caof
Social media marketing success story fr @lionbrandyarn via @JasonFalls http://bit.ly/bfSbas
Ravelry, the social network for knitters -Note what makes it successful http://ow.ly/5M33a
Orabrush on YouTube http://ow.ly/400HL Per WSJ, social media = reason for stardom http://ow.ly/400IX
Colgate Smile campaign combines user generated media via facebook photos, outdoor advertising http://ow.ly/5ALS4
Mattel: Ken is turning 50 and doing social media: http://ow.ly/4aweF
Recruit and raise awareness; Reckitt Benckiser's new branded social game. http://bit.ly/cdVikF
From Silly Bandz to Crocs, neat insights re: prolonging shelf life of fads fr Wharton http://bit.ly/9rtAD0
A marketing product success story: the vuvuzela "novelty, simplicity and local ingenuity" http://bit.ly/9bTGlX
Social Media in Education
Social media finds place in classroom [and in NJ no less :-)] http://ow.ly/62zOT
Entertainment Brands and Social Media
Cirque du Soleil connects with fans via social media http://zd.net/cmV3yl
Conan O'Brien totally reinvented via Social Media http://bit.ly/9XY5SR
12 ways to keep creating like Coldplay - insights http://ow.ly/3MVwE
Brilliant use of user-generated content to strengthen Disney brand and magic http://bit.ly/a3Zpqf
Power of Twitter: making 400 year old theater come alive C Moliere Goes Twitter http://bit.ly/goTqrv
Financial Services and Social Media
How to integrate social media from First Direct - a Bank! http://ow.ly/5WXQM
How H&R Block use social media to help customers thru tax season stress http://ow.ly/5qCcr
Advice fr TurboTax's chelsea marti re: using Twitter, becoming service all-star http://bit.ly/cW4KzR
Morgan Stanley testing social media interaction with clients http://ow.ly/5ffJn
Here's how Northwestern Mutual is using Social Media 2 'provide financial security over a lifetime" http://ow.ly/3pKYE
I'm excited about having Square set up: http://ow.ly/52hZt
Government and Social Media
Social media & government: tapping quora for eDemocracy experiment http://ow.ly/42lij
NASA and social media. Wow! http://bit.ly/aj2Whm
Social media = key way for IRS to reach taxpayer audience http://ow.ly/5GrTI
Social media used in Newark, NJ during blizzard emergency fr @CoryBooker: http://ow.ly/3vXFJ
Obama & Foursquare: http://ow.ly/68vbQ Coming election will be very interesting for continued social media evolution
Everything begins with listening! Fr @FastCompany - Social Democracy: White House Learns to Listen http://ow.ly/5ukcw
Interesting use of blogs for internal Army Corps of Engineers communications http://ow.ly/4HHYa
US Army social media handbook 2011 http://ow.ly/5jQBU
Healthcare and Social Media
QR codes used to access fresh content related to #AORN2011 congress: http://ow.ly/4hvxS
Advice on making QR codes useful. Example: hospitals http://ow.ly/4xc55
Social media applies to healthcare. Interview w @DanaMLewis http://ow.ly/4zR5y
Social Media and Home, Building Related Products
Benjamin Moore Experts Exchange Facebook app? http://bit.ly/bgO9eF
BuildDirect's @RobertBanks on being included in Mashable's how 12 CEOs & Founders use web video http://bit.ly/acBdyY
Hospitality and Social Media
Fascinating glimpse into how Roger Smith hotel uses social media to engage with visitors http://bit.ly/ciqnE2
Social Media Skiing: Vail Combines Facebook, Gowalla, Nike+ 4 Better Experience http://tinyurl.com/3yppyo7
Legal Brands and Social Media
Wow! Social media tweaks defense strategy in Casey Anthony trial http://ow.ly/5M3IP
Museums, Libraries and Social Media
Ck out Monterey Bay Aquarium integrated ad campaign "Share the Love" http://ow.ly/5KxOG refers to Call To Axn
How social media adds dimension to the museum experience http://ow.ly/4tYQs
5 ways museums R reaching digital audiences http://ow.ly/62VxO
Using social media to design a library under short deadlines: http://ow.ly/622ct
Pharmaceuticals Brands Do Social Media
Big Pharma becomes immersed socially, successfully! Eli Lilly & Lilypad blog http://ow.ly/5ReZF [Note: you need access to Ragan to read entire article.]
Publishing and Social Media
The New Rules for Branding your biz online fr Inc. Mag: http://ow.ly/3MVO3
Practical QR code wisdom fr #CMI http://ow.ly/5RjKB
Publishing model turned upside down? Twitter helps unfinished book hit #1 fr WSJ http://ow.ly/5IDVT
Can hyperlocal news make money? Patch and NYT's The Local as examples http://ow.ly/48T4T
Publishing without publishers aka the Magalog fr NYT http://ow.ly/3Ix5u
How the White Pages are harnessing hyperlocal and mobile: http://ow.ly/5F1gx
4 Social Media lessons fr book publishing http://ow.ly/4tVbk
Real Estate Brands and Social Media
Enjoyed this interview w @Century 21 Bev Thorne re: using social media to connect with home buyers http://ow.ly/48Wwn
Advice in Social Real Estate Goes To Stars w/Katrina Campins http://bit.ly/b584P6
Religion and Social Media
Bishops urged to embrace social media to evangelize effectively http://bit.ly/buUm0k
Interesting discussion online/offline RT @David_Rogers: Pastor: Don't Give Up #SocialMedia For Lent [NPR] http://n.pr/eCdtPy
Retail Brands Using Social Media
Best Buy plans to expand Twelforce beyond Twitter to Facebook where more people hang out http://bit.ly/cc6bf8; Charlene Li cites Best Buy as example of company thoughtfully using social media http://bit.ly/9Hdlwr
Amazon, Best Buy, Dell among top social brands + 4 phases of social commerce development fr Altimeter http://bit.ly/aL9vFl
FastCo Design: Best Buy, Ford, CBS, Pepsi, P&G/Old Spice social media is Real, legitimate, where peeps R http://ow.ly/4tVps
How 1-800 Flowers uses Facebook to engage w customers http://ow.ly/44tMy
How restaurants use Twitter including Chipotle! http://bit.ly/a0ZTBT
Example of @sandy_carter Social Business: Domino's. Uses social media to reinvent company http://ow.ly/5FlaZ; Intense @Ramon_Deleon from Domino's Twitter axn in: http://slidesha.re/b5sE4t & Tulsa social media info fr @partyaficionado Listen, interact, B real
MacDonald's is engaging employees around globe socially http://bit.ly/dynsaU
Betsey Johnson debuts Facebook Places campaign http://bit.ly/9NdleP
How @OscarPRGirl engages via Twitter for Oscar de la Renta. http://bit.ly/brS9wb
Check out @MissMisc post on Boutique Point G & how they they used social media to build their biz. http://bit.ly/a0Ysif
Eileen Fisher interview. Love the simplicity of vision and execution http://bit.ly/dvS4tc
What's yr take on TwitterFashionweek site http://fashionweek.twitter.com/ ? For b/ground: http://bit.ly/b3F7U3
How Home Depot is integrating social media with social sales rep. Brilliant! http://ow.ly/55ZfK
Fascinating blow-by-blow report on Home Depot v. Jetblue engaging customers on FB http://bit.ly/anFufx
Elf alert! Macy's unleashes 10k elves around country. Find 1; remake it. Daily clues on Facebook, Twitter http://ow.ly/62en2
How Radio Shack uses Foursquare: http://ow.ly/4GLSm
@WholeFoods Marla Erwin is wonderfully wise: 6 ways to avoid social media catastrophe http://ow.ly/4pZR1; Whole Foods and social media: to educate, interact, keep brand, culture fresh: http://ow.ly/68nvR
Social Activism
How Greenpeace uses social media to promote rainforest agenda with Mattel: http://ow.ly/5qmJe
The Plastiki Project - cross-platform social media with a purpose http://bit.ly/cnIn53 Analyzing the Plastiki Project: using social tools to build global audience http://bit.ly/9tNU4E
Citizen scientists + social media to help prevent frog extinction http://ow.ly/5jQZ9
Social Media and Sports Brands
Way cool! Rules of engagement from NBA social media war room http://ow.ly/5cCFf
5Qs with NHL's Michael Lorenzo http://bit.ly/a8Rqhk
How blackberry used video to engage NHL sports loving young men http://ow.ly/4lZnq
Technology and Social Media
How blackberry used video to engage NHL sports loving young men http://ow.ly/4lZnq
Interview w/ Joe Fernandez about Klout influence scores http://ow.ly/4kn8h
Skype launches @skype4business http://bit.ly/9T97eM
"Build social DNA into every employee" Interview with SAP’s social media director http://bit.ly/cr5tlK
Learn fr Intel's wise @Ekaterina who shares what small businesses can learn from social media http://ow.ly/5LIMw; Inside Intel's FB attack strategy. Wisdom from @ekaterina during SxSW panel http://ow.ly/4LJZg
20 min video re: how HP created its social media center of excellence http://ow.ly/50i4v
Perspective on IBM, social business & future: http://ow.ly/5LJ0Y
Google project oxygen on h2 become a better manager http://ow.ly/4ekEe [note reg may b requ'd]; Geolocation is getting interesting! Google unveils Hotpot, reco engine for Google Places http://on.mash.to/cEiNVJ
Why we have too few women leaders @TEDWomen talk w Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg http://ow.ly/3t7yS
Facebook case study "Officer Ludwig" http://bit.ly/9QSGhu
LinkedIn continues to evolve per FastCo. http://ow.ly/4x5LS Becoming mo like Facebook?
Interesting use of Twitter: to pinpoint dropped calls & improve service for phone cos http://bit.ly/dxN2cG
Who Knew re Yahoo's web series? Fascinating blip-vert like summaries: http://ow.ly/5ReRA
Transportation Brands and Social Media
Real world example: how Delta connected social media and customer service http://ow.ly/5qCZ5
Delta monitors Twitter to address customer complaints http://bit.ly/cEcoH4
Blow-by-blow report on Home Depot v. Jetblue engaging customers on FB http://bit.ly/anFufx #practicalmktr
H2 hail a London cabbie using @tweetalondoncab http://bit.ly/cspCyi
Using social media to humanize your brand http://bit.ly/bXiez1 #practicalmktr advice from Boeing
Conversation w yr car or TV show w/ 'the' HOF? Toyota & salesforce.com make it real... http://ow.ly/55YX8
How Ford blends digital with branded content - interview w Scott Kelly http://ow.ly/4ipfd
Interview w/ Fords @ScottMonty http://bit.ly/bfpwg4
FastCo Design: Best Buy, Ford, CBS, Pepsi, P&G/Old Spice social media is Real, legitimate, where peeps R http://ow.ly/4tVps
TV Programs and Social Media
How to meld TV program w social media: Anthony Bourdain @NoReservation http://ow.ly/4n6eS
AMC Talks Mad Men Marketing = fascinating observations http://bit.ly/9GZKHB; Don Draper inspires career tips http://bit.ly/a2uNs5
Lessons from Iron Chef [a favorite :-)]. Here for PR: http://ow.ly/4x58u
5 Social Media learnings inspired by 'Jersey Shore' http://bit.ly/bCOQ9R
Marvelous descptn of 5 lessons marketers can learn from Mr. Rogers by @Sam_Ford http://bit.ly/bZpaJz
Bravo @sesamestreet! This is truly engaging content #CMI - smart, relevant, talkworthy http://bit.ly/byYTZc
What's your reaction to all of these examples? How might you use them in your conversations about social media marketing? I'd love to hear.
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Image credit: Great British Brands - Bird's Custard on Flickr.
Have you thought about the evolution of brand marketing? Two recent articles had me considering and appreciating that brand marketing has become deliciously unscripted and human.
Fast Company's For Brands, Being Human Is The New Black explains that "more and more, brands are gaining traction by embracing qualities like honesty, kindness, and simply having a sense of humor about themselves."
Have you noticed?
The notion of becoming more human and acknowledging wanting to be better - as Patagonia does - is compelling, engaging and believable.
It also reminded me of Jonathan Salem Baskin's 10 Ideas To Refocus Branding... and made me appreciate once again how Zappos has redefined its brand and marketing with its focus on being real, human and unscripted [in fact, customer service calls are unscripted!]. These blog posts were inspired by a visit to Zappos headquarters and capture a very human and unscripted brand experience.
On the other hand, the New York Times published Bloggers Don't Follow the Script, to ConAgra's Chagrin which describes a ConAgra publicity stunt which could - in my humble opinion - have been so much more successful and engaging has the brand (and the PR Firm, Ketchum) been more honest, open and even humorous about their food event.
[In contrast to Domino's Pizza's Radical Authenticity - see BRITE Conference 2011: Highlights.]
Who wants to be duped? Do you? How would you have responded?
As you consider the evolution of brand marketing, what is your reaction to brands becoming human and unscripted? How do you incorporate that into your business planning and interaction with customers?
Let me know in the comments.
For Immediate Release: September 12, 2011
Business Growth Summit Experts Describe How To Increase Profits, September 12 through 23, 2011
Whittemore Addresses ‘Getting Found Online’
Kinnelon, NJ – Business Growth Summit, a free online event featuring leading business strategy experts, takes place September 12 through 23, 2011. Christine B. Whittemore, chief simplifier of Simple Marketing Now, addresses ‘getting found online’.
The online event is geared toward small business owners, entrepreneurs, and professionals looking to learn about and apply strategies for increasing business profitability. The format consists of five to fifteen minute video presentations during which Business Growth Summit presenters share tips and strategies on how to grow a business, leverage opportunities and increase profits.
“These video presentations give entrepreneurs and small business owners an opportunity to learn from the brightest business strategists today in an ideal setting: online and on-demand over a ten day timeframe,” says Whittemore whose presentation addresses how to get found online.
About her presentation, Whittemore says, “no matter our business, we’ve rapidly evolved to an online and mobile world, where potential customers start the purchase process at a search engine window. Businesses that can’t be found online, don’t exist. That means businesses must make getting found online a priority to increase profits.”
Whittemore joins leading business experts such as Mitch Joel, Guy Kawasaki, Chris Brogan, Peter Kim, Natalie MacNeil, Dan Schawbel, Mike Stelzner, Neal Schaffer, Rick Liebling and others.
To register for the Business Growth Summit and view videos online and on-demand from September 12 through 23, 2011 at no charge, visit the Business Growth Summit website.
For more information about Simple Marketing Now LLC, contact chief simplifier Whittemore at CBWhittemore@SimpleMarketingNow.com or visit the Simple Marketing Now website.
# # #
About Simple Marketing Now LLC
Simple Marketing Now, a marketing communications consultancy, helps organizations improve the effectiveness of their marketing with social media and content marketing so they can get found by customers
For more information, visit http://SimpleMarketingNow.com.
After reading ZMOT and Inbound Marketing: Perfect Together?, you should have no doubts about the criticality of getting found online.
[If you do, we need to talk!]
The next step, then, is focusing on how to get found online - also know as 'inbound marketing 101'.
The 3 principles of 'inbound marketing 101' for getting found online
If you're serious about figuring out how to get your business found online by potential customers, you'll want to focus on these three inbound marketing principles:
1. Create glorious, delicious, memorable and relevant content on your website and on your blog. This includes in-depth or advanced content [what Mike Stelzner refers to as 'rocket fuel' in his book Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition] as well as blog articles and website page content. Your content needs to be meaningful to potential customers.
2. Make your content easy to find online. In other words, optimize it for search engines by associating web pages with unique titles and descriptions that truly make sense based on what's on page; focus each page of your website on just a few related keywords; write your content so human beings can read it and appreciate that what you've published actually matches up with what they were searching for. Make your content so delicious that others will link to it from their websites. Be consistent in how you refer to your business and website in the profiles you create online on other platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or Google Places.
3. Promote your amazing content in your email communications, on your social platforms, in your email signature, on business cards that you hand out at trade shows, on newsletters and in offline and online advertisements.
Inbound Marketing 101 Resources
Here are several blog articles I've written about getting found online. They provide more perspective on the three principles of inbound marketing 101 mentioned above.
1. Create Content
2. Make Your Content Easy to Find Online
3. Promote Your Amazing Content
Inbound Marketing 101 Big Picture
I've detailed three areas to focus on to get found online. Before you go and put Create Content, Optimize Content and Promote Content into practice, here are three last articles that offer a big picture perspective on why it's critical to get found online.
How are you getting found online? What have you found works best?
Thanks for reading!
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Photo Credit: A spider trapped in amber, this photo's taken looking through a magnifying glass about the size of a 10p coin on Flickr.
I'm very pleased to share with you the latest issue of Simple Marketing Now's eNewsletter "Simple News and Insights" for September 2011.
[Particularly so since Irene caused us major connectivity challenges!]
This issue includes the latest happenings relating to Simple Marketing Now as well as an offer you may find worth exploring: two free guides offering simple social media guidance!
Check out the September 2011 issue of Simple News and Insights by clicking on this link.
Let me know in the comments what you think, and please feel free to share it with others.
Thank you!
C.B.
Have you heard talk yet of "ZMOT"? It stands for 'zero moment of truth' and represents the moment between purchase stimulus and purchase decision [aka first moment of truth as identified by P&G] when buyers go through extensive research and learning about the purchase they are about to make. To me, ZMOT goes hand-in-hand with inbound marketing.
It also dovetails with what I've observed about the retail experience and needing to connect with (women) consumers sooner in the shopping process, with B2B businesses needing to build trust online with customers before they will agree to becoming clients, and with all of this happening online via distinctly relevant [aka remarkable] content on websites, blogs, and social media networks.
Google's ZMOT
ZMOT comes from Google. The book ZMOT: Winning the Zero Moment of Truth, by Jim Lecinski, is free and includes research from Shopper Sciences of 5000 shoppers across 12 categories. I suggest downloading it.
After reading ZMOT, let me know what you've observed about your behavior as well as that of your customers. Aren't you finding that regardless of whether it's a B2B solution or a consumer ones, we're all are buying differently, using the web to conduct extensive research?
The Connection to Inbound Marketing
Here's how I see ZMOT supporting inbound marketing [I love this post by Jason Falls about inbound marketing] as opposed to traditional outbound or 'shout' marketing.
Inbound marketing focuses on creating content that speaks to your audiences in words that make sense to them, answering the questions they have about your product or service. It addresses your (potential) customers' ZMOT concerns.
This highly relevant, delicious, memorable content appears in search results, helping you get found, because you've taken the time to optimize it and share it via the social networks you appear in.
ZMOT represents gold for businesses. Since it happens online, we can 'listen' and mine data for insights to further refine and improve the relevance of our online content. How better to strengthen our marketing conversations.
An interesting observation about ZMOT: it's affected by the "moments of truth" of others further along in the purchase process, as you can see in the visual titled "The new mental model".
One thought came to mind as I read ZMOT. I remember conversation ~ 5-10 years ago around how many stores consumers shopped before making a purchase decision. This varied from category to category, but remained relatively steady. When price became more of a factor, the number of stores shopped would increase. When last I heard reference to this number, it had decreased.
Based on ZMOT, that decrease is not cause for celebration. Rather fewer businesses are 'physically' shopped and contacted because shoppers [both B2B and consumer] are doing their research online and eliminating options before businesses even have the opportunity to build a relationship, let alone interact.
Consider the implications for your business.
Knowledge at Wharton published
Google's Jim Lecinski on What the 'Zero Moment of Truth' Means for Marketerson August 5, 2011. I found these comments particularly relevant:
Wind: The ZMOT concept is not a change for consumers. The changes are with respect to corporations, as Jim mentioned, in terms of the need for marketers to try to [understand] the changes in consumer behavior.
Knowledge@Wharton: Jim, do you think ZMOT changes the buying decision?
Lecinski: No, ZMOT was an attempt to catalogue, characterize and give a sticky name to the behaviors that we are seeing from consumers. What is new on a consumer-behavior front is that consumers who used to use this Zero Moment research model to inform their buying decisions only around high-ticket or so-called high-involvement products -- white goods, cars or travel -- are now so comfortable with and reliant on that behavior that they are now applying it to what you would call everyday items.
ZMOT, then, applies to all purchase decisions; it takes place primarily online. If your business can't be found online, do you exist?
What is your reaction to Zero Moment of Truth or ZMOT? How are you seeing it affect your business? How are you integrating that into your online marketing or your inbound marketing?
Let me know in the comments.
Additional ZMOT Resources