content marketing: what, why and how to kick butt at it, by shelly kramer
DESCRIPTION
Shelly Kramer Y'all Connect Presented by Alabama Power July 23, 2013 Birmingham, Alabama Content marketing is one of the most powerful forms of marketing your business, and today, brands and companies of all sizes are laser-focused on content. But quite often, they either don’t know where to start, they don’t know how to do it or they don’t have the internal resources or budget to make it happen. Creating great Web content that delivers results doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a process and it takes time, effort and energy. But as part of your overall integrated marketing strategy, it’s a powerful, powerful thing. This session will not only empower you to immediately begin creating killer content for your website or corporate blog, it’s quite possible you’ll be so psyched about it that you can’t wait to get started. You’ll come away from this session prepared to begin developing and creating stellar content that will not only serve your customers and prospects, but also help generate leads and sales. Takeaways: • How to understand and define your audience and develop a content marketing strategy. • How to write for the Web (which is completely different than any other kind of writing). • How to understand the basics of well-optimized content in easy-to-understand (and even easier-to-implement) language. • How to effectively distribute your content across the web. • How to measure the impact of your results using your analytics, some awesome tools and smart reporting.TRANSCRIPT
Content MarketingWhat, Why and How to
Kick Butt at It
Shelly Kramer, @shellykramer
© 2013 V3 Integrated Marketing
What is Inbound Marketing?
How to Start Your Initiatives by Gathering and Using Data
Why Social, SEO + Content are Key
Where to Start
How to Write Effective Content
Some things we’ll cover include:
How to Distribute Content Across the Web
The Importance of Tracking and Reporting
Marketing Today? Complicadio.
What We’re Used ToTraditional Marketing = Push Messaging
Display Ads
Direct Mail
TV + Radio
Yellow Pages
Cold Calling
Email Blast
Trade Shows
Traditional Marketing is Interruption
Old Way: Money x Media = Business
New Way: Time x Media = Business
The Formula Has Changed
What is Content Marketing?BloggingWebinars
Video + PodcastingCase Studies, White Papers
Email MarketingFlickr, Instagram
Social (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn)Tumblr, Scoop.It, Paper.li, Storify, etc.
And all of this is part of Content Marketing. And collectively, using these tactics is called “Inbound Marketing”
Inbound Marketing Drives Business
But you have to feed the inbound marketing machine. Great content
is how you do that.
Great Content is Like Breadcrumbs (super delicioso breadcrumbs)
Inbound marketing is the process of creating and spreading breadcrumbs on the Internet and hoping people will pick
them up. Those breadcrumbs are designed to lead them “home” -- to your website, blog, landing page, Facebook
page, etc. – wherever it is you want them to end up.
Inbound = Bees to Honey
Engaging in Social Channels = Marketing
Technique Effectiveness Rating
High Growth vs. Average Firms
What Do High Growth Companies Find Most Effective?
SEOCreating Content (Blogging)
Focus on DataEmail Marketing
Creating More Content (whitepapers, eBooks, newsletters, case studies)
Social Media Channels
Why Inbound?
Inbound marketing generates more leads for longer periods of time than traditional marketing.
Example:
Display ad in local business journal
runs once, exposure to people reading the paper
that week
Blog Post, White Paper, Case
StudyThese marketing resources live on your website and, properly optimized and marketed, can attract leads for a
long time to come.
Blog + Social + SEO Deliver Lower Cost Per Lead
You don’t start with social or with content. If you do, you will lose.
Start with data.Information is power.
Start With Competitive Analysis
What are we doing?What are our competitors doing?What kind of content are they
creating?Where do we have opportunities?Where do we suck?What can we realistically handle?
Our Prospects + Social
Who are our prospects?What are they doing?
Where do they hang out?
What do they talk about?What language do they use?
What do they need?How can we serve them?
What Does Your Data Show?
How many web visits per day/wk/mo?What % of traffic is unique vs. return?What keywords bring them to your site?What content brings them to your site?What are they doing there?
What sites refer them to your site?
Let Strategy Drive Tactics
• Personas. Who are our customers?• What problems do they have that we
can solve?• What products or services do they
need?• How do they talk about them?• Where are they online? When are they
online?
Let Strategy Drive Tactics
• How can we most effectively reach our target audience?
• What will our strategy be--what can we deliver of value?
• How can we capture leads?• What does success look like?• How will we measure our
progress?
Let’s Talk About Writing.Effective content is powerful.
Understand How SEO Works
To Write Effectively for the Web, Know This ….
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization
Or, the art of helping Google figure out what you’re talking about.
The Key to Good SEO?
People.
Ask yourself just one question: Is it good for people?
If it is, it’s good for SEO.
Why Do Keywords Matter?
Keywords are bite-sized
chunks of information that tell the search engines what your content is about.
Links Are Internet Gold
Links help search engines determine the trust and
authority your domain has due to the quality of incoming
links.
The more incoming links your site has, the more valuable it
is in Google’s eyes.
Why Is This?
It’s Simple.What people say about you is
more important (and viewed as more credible) than what
you say about yourself.
• That’s kind of a no-brainer, right?
Context is Critical
Google Has Wised Up
SEO wizards have been manipulating links to impact search results. Google’s latest algorithm changes focus less on
links and more on context.
Translated: relevant content will rule.
Let’s Get Really Geeky
Behavior on site, behavior off site. What they do matters. What that means about the relevancy of your
content. What that tells search engines. Freaky!
Why Link Out When Writing
Linking is the Fundamental Basis of the Web
Search engines want to know you’re “connected” and linking
out is as important as incoming links, from a credibility standpoint.
How to Link Out• Link out to relevant content early in the body copy
• Link to relevant pages approximately every 120 words of content
• Link under phrases, not single words• Link to relevant interior pages of your site or other sites
• Link with naturally relevant anchor text
• The key? Again, it’s simple. It’s all about people. Focus on the fundamentals of what search engines are looking for – serving
up relevant results to those searchers, who are people.
How Do We Get Links?
The Power of Social ChannelsSharing great content on a regular basis gets you noticed. You become regarded
as an authority. People then create other content and link to your content …
that’s the magic of relevant link building.
How to Write Great Content
Step 1: Remove
How to Write Great Blog Content
Ditch corporate speak
Use contractions
Write like people talk
Dumb it down
Don’t be cute, Don’t be mean
Write for the audience
Make it scannable
Minimum of 300 words
Maximum of 600 words
Writing for the Web is Different
(But ridiculously easy, too)
Be interesting, helpful, relevant,
timely or funny
Use keywords that make sense
Write a great headline, using the
right keywords
Sell it in the first paragraph
Post Titles
Keep your title under 60 characters.
This ensures the full title is visible in a search, increasing the likelihood of a
click-thru.
8:10 vs. 2:10
Meta Descriptions
Tell Search Engines What Your Post is About
Keep your Meta description under 165 characters so the full description is
visible as a search result
But Wait, I’m a Purist
Don’t want to SEO your posts because you’re writing for your readers?
<GMAB>
Using smart SEO makes it easier for them and gives you better odds that
they’ll read your content.
Titles and Meta Descriptions
Ramble vs. SEO Focus
I Am Unorganized
Ramble, ramble ramble, ramble, ramble for 300 more words (and they’re already
gone) then get to the point of the post
Productivity Tools for Small Businesses
The best productivity tools for small businesses make life easier. Our
favorites include PaySimple, Freshbooks and Kapost.
Don’t Dance Around, Sell It
Be Smart, Repurpose ContentCreate video, upload to YouTube
Write blog post, embed video
Feature guest blog, republished with attribution
Guest blog somewhere else, Google Authorship
Create a presentation
Presentation uploaded to SlideShare
Write blog post, embed SlideShare preso
Write for your corporate blog or
nag your company to start a blog and contribute to it)
Engaging in Social Media Channels = Marketing
How These Channels Drive Business
Reporting is critical.
Install Analytics, Then LOOK at Them
Try Tynt, It’s Pretty Awesome
Know Where Your Stuff Goes
WordPress? All-in-One SEO Pack
Blogging Drives Traffic
Data Drives Strategy
Blogging Drives Traffic
Be Strategic About Where and How You Share Content
A Good Editorial Calendar Will Save Your Sanity
Build relationships
before you need them.
Remember
WRITING great content is the easy part. Getting people to read it is the hard part. And getting them to share it (or
to do something else for you) is equally as difficult. Unless you invest
in making friends. First.
Ways to Measure Success
Shares of Blog Content/Blog SubscribersGrowing Friend/Follower Base Across Channels
Most Popular Blog Posts/TweetsBlog Comments/Action on Blog for Branded Campaign
Website Traffic, Facebook InsightsLinkedIn Company Followers/Connection Requests
G+ Followers + CirclesSuccess Stories + Testimonials
Truth: Your Analytics Are Your Roadmap. Use them to help drive your brand strategy in content +
social efforts.
Other Ways to Measure Success
Ability to Drive Social ConversionsGetting Your Readers and Site Visitors to DO Something
Improved Brand ReputationGreater “Share of Voice”
More Leads + Opportunities/Increased Revenue
The Web changes everything about business. And when you understand how to create
great content, you’ve got an edge.
Stalk Me, Anytime
LinkedInShelly DeMotte Kramertwitter.com/shellykramer facebook.com/shellykramer
www.v3im.com