The Found Gen

Marketing That Works.

Robyn Saunders

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4 Tips for Developing an Effective Content Marketing Strategy

  1. Think of crafting high-quality content as a long-term marketing investment. When you’re just starting out in the content marketing arena, you might be tempted to take a short-term approach to getting blog posts up and sending out formulaic emails. But an effective Content Marketing strategy is a long-term strategy.

Long-term content strategies focus on developing quality content that makes readers think and will last for years. (Yes, this does include news-related topics.) With a long-term perspective, marketers can better bond with their audiences, build a voice, and provide content of genuine value to readers. Plus, it enables your site to gradually increase its search rank in an authentic and sustainable way and contributes to your library of valuable evergreen content.

  1. But even the best content needs a promotion strategy. Unfortunately, producing the most provoking or valuable content for your target audience does not guarantee that it will reach millions of readers. The Internet is awash with content, and it takes time, strategy, and sometimes even a small miracle just for your company’s message to be heard above the noise.

Once you’ve decided to build an effective content marketing strategy, you need a promotion strategy beyond clicking “publish.” Leverage social media platforms to gain followers and slowly build up email subscribers through on- and off-line efforts. It takes time to make an impact and cultivate a loyal following. Be deliberate and dogged, and you will get there.

  1. Thinly veiled product promotion does not attract readers. Perhaps one of the toughest beginner behaviors to overcome is thinking of your content marketing efforts as direct extensions of your sales and advertising efforts. This content will be unlike any other form of information you have traded in until this point.

Push beyond your product and its uses to really drill down and understand what sort of information your existing and potential customers want to spend time reading. What problems can you solve for them? What challenges do they face in day-to-day life? What valuable news and insider perspective can you provide?

Let’s say you’re company is in the financial business. Instead of writing a post on the reasons people should consult a professional advisor, consider the questions that they can’t get answered elsewhere—How do I know if I’m saving enough for retirement? Can I count on my mutual fund? When is a micro-loan a smart move? Should I up my 401K contributions?—cover both the basics and be specific.

  1. Don’t ignore SEO. Search engine optimization is a fast-changing science—but when done correctly, it does deliver results. (According to a June 2015 poll conducted by Ascend2, 89 percent of marketers worldwide rated SEO successful at achieving objectives of improved search rankings, website traffic and lead generation.) The problem is, it’s not an area you can just dip your toes into occasionally and expect to master with any success.

Unless you have someone on staff who is already proficient and up-to-date with the latest SEO strategies, this is one place where it makes sense to spend money. SEO, blogging, email marketing and social media are necessary for an effective content marketing strategy, so call in the experts and get direction on the most important tactics for your company and its specific goals.

At the Found Gen, we help our clients develop content marketing strategies that prioritize their goals and make the best use of their content marketing budget. It’s an investment that continues to deliver returns, year after year. Contact us to learn more.

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Social Media Update: The Scoop on Instagram Stories

Earlier this year, Instagram introduced its latest feature: Instagram Stories. The move added storytelling to the massive photo-sharing platform’s capabilities—allowing users to share moments throughout their day by creating visual narratives out of photos, videos, and text. Stories are posted to a user’s account for 24 hours, after which they disappear.

The basic concept was widely recognized as an imitation of the Stories feature within the Snapchat app, which has dominated social media use among Millennials and Generation Z since its debut. In fact, Instagram cofounder and CEO Kevin Systrom directly addressed the idea that his company did in fact capitalize on the innovation that Snapchat brought to social storytelling, saying in an interview with The Verge, “Just like when Facebook invented the [News] Feed, and every social product was like, ‘That’s an innovation, how do we adapt that to our network?’ You’re going to see stories pop up in other networks over time, because it’s one of the best ways to show visual information in chronological order.”

Insta Stories vs. Snapchat Stories

But Instagram Stories does differ from Snapchat in several key ways, and those distinctions are important for brands looking to reach audiences through social media. Here we quickly break down the basics of how Instagram Stories could potentially be a smart addition to your content marketing mix.

  1. Instagram has a much bigger reach. While Snapchat is the hot up-and-comer, its global footprint is nowhere near as big as Instagram’s. According to the Verge, more than 300 million users log in to Instagram every day.
  2. Instagram has a personalized Explore feature. At the end of August, Instagram announced that it would start rolling out recommended Stories at the top of the app’s existing Explore tab. These suggestions will be based on a user’s Instagram activity, including whom they follow and the topics they’re interested in. The algorithm-based personalization feature makes it easier for users to discover to accounts to follow and content of interest—a critical tool for marketers looking to make connections.
  3. The Instagram interface is more user-friendly. One of the reasons Instagram continues to enjoy such widespread adoption is its intuitive, simple interface. This makes it accessible to a broad segment of the population, which is important for brands looking to reach age groups other than the young.
  4. Instagram is better suited to brands. On the whole, Instagram is more welcoming to brands, with searchability and other tools that encourage companies to build followings. Plus, when it comes down to basic concepts, and how users interact within each app, Instagram is a follower-based platform while Snapchat is a platform for messaging and private jokes among friends.

If the statistics about Snapchat user engagement can be, to some extent, replicated among Instagram users following the introduction of Stories, it’s a powerful argument for brands and marketers to get involved: In May 2016, Snapchat reported that its worldwide daily active users (which amount to roughly 100 million) spend an average of 25 to 30 minutes a day on Snapchat. But the truly remarkable figure is that 60 percent of those who use it every day are not just voyeurs; they are actively engaging with the app—chatting with friends and creating new content.

At The Found Gen, we base much of our content marketing strategy around the power of storytelling—we believe it’s that essential to modern communication and decision making. And all signs point to a collective need for ever-increasing instantaneity and personalization in our storytelling delivery and consumption, both qualities that Instagram Stories delivers.

As Social Media Week so nicely posited: “Now that Instagram will allow their users to create content in a more fun, easy, and recognizable way, it means that Instagram, as a marketing platform, immediately becomes a more important part of your overall social media strategy.”

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How To Make Your Blog Stand Out

Let’s face it: the Internet is saturated with brands speaking to potential and current customers. And with so many voices droning on in marketing efforts, many people tune out rather than pay attention.

So, what’s the key to a successful business blog where your brand’s voice rises above the din? Authentic engagement is what matters.  You not only want to reach the people who will most likely buy your product or service, but you want to build relationships with them. That’s how you win more business.

The good news is that you don’t have to develop a complicated blog with all sorts of bells and whistles, in order to develop authentic relationships with your readers. You merely need to know who they are, and speak to who they are.  Instead of investing time in building a “fancy” blog, spend that time truly understanding your readers/customers.

If you want to create a successful business blog that will help you win more readers, fans, and clients, ask yourself these five questions:

  1. Who are you speaking to?

Though you might have hundreds or thousands of readers, when you write your blog, act as though you are writing for one person—perhaps your number one fan. When you write for one reader, your blog instantly becomes more engaging, personal, and persuasive. Go beyond demographics to visualize your fan—understand your reader’s dreams and struggles, empathize with them and inspire them. Your ideal reader—your one fan—can be your favorite customer, an imaginary person, or a composite of various people you know.

  1. What makes your prospects want to read your blog?

You know what purpose your blog serves for your business, but have you thought about what’s in it for the fan you are writing for? Your blog reader isn’t interested in your company objectives and doesn’t want to hear your promotional messages or sales pitches. In order to make a successful business blog, to make sure it becomes a must-read resource in your niche, try to think about how you can take away your reader’s problems, make them happier or more successful. The purpose of each of your blog articles define how you help your readers and keeps you focused on engaging and inspiring them.

  1. Does each blog post help your fan?

Stop creating content for the sake of creating content. If you want to engage your readers and win business, you must write about the topics that your readers crave. Try creating a running list of blog topics that you know are relevant to your readers—something that you can update as you learn more about your customer’s needs, values, and aspirations, and something you can refer back to when you’re ready to write a new blog post.

To generate ideas, ask yourself about your reader: What are her dreams? What are her struggles? Which hot industry topics does she follow? Which buying decisions does she need to make? Which resources could educate her? What questions does she have?

If you address these questions with your blog topics, your authority and following will increase organically and effortlessly—and so will your sales. Have any questions about creating a successful business blog? Drop us a line.

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Rethinking Thought Leadership

The concept of thought leadership has dominated the content marketing conversation for the last several years: Everyone from IBM to Whole Foods was buying in to the theory that if you demonstrate subject matter expertise in your field, consumers will become invested in your brand and sold in as future customers. And many of the predicted effects of thought-leader campaigns have proven true: They foster trust among consumers. They build affinity for the brand, which strengthens the customer relationship from early on.

But brands encounter a major problem when thought leadership-focused content marketing doesn’t translate to an increase in business. They might be tempted to think the model is broken, but chances are, they didn’t have the model right from the get-go. Let’s examine a couple ways thought leadership strategies commonly fall short.

Problems to Avoid

They prioritize expertise over insight. The big push toward thought leadership stemmed, in part, from several studies (one from ITSMA in particular echoed throughout the industry) reporting that consumers wanted thought leadership from the companies they buy from. This was interpreted to mean that brands should focus on educating the public instead of explaining how their products or services make consumers’ lives better, easier, cheaper, etc.

But providing free information is not a way to increase revenue in and of itself. In order for consumers to take action that involves a purchase, they need to be convinced to change their current behavior in some way—the information they receive needs to compel them toward a decision. The way the marketing field categorizes this type of information is called “disruptive insight.”

Recent CEB research, which involved more than 5,000 B2B purchase participants across 12 industries, found that merely presenting a “smart or expert perspective” does very little to impact customers’ decision-making process. It revealed that only content that teaches customers something new about their business and provides a compelling reason to change their behavior has the power to affect how the decision making plays out. And CEB’s definition of insight goes like this: “Insight is designed to disrupt the customer’s view of their business. It juxtaposes the cost of current behavior against the potential of an alternate action. This breaks the customer’s frame of mind.”

How does this play out in the real world? Take, for instance, a web development company that specializes in mobile solutions. If a certain new platform on the market is causing problems, the company could take to its blog and broadcast the issue. Maybe it even offers “insight” into why the problems are happening. This information is all useful to consumers. But it doesn’t prompt anyone to call the company and contract its services.

The firm needs to give consumers a compelling reason. So instead, it takes to the blog, reports the news, and then explains how it can remedy the problem for any businesses that rely on that platform. It could share a case study about how it migrated a client to a new platform quickly and easily to eliminate disruptions. The second approach still emphasizes leadership, but it’s leadership through action.

 

They never make the ask. While it’s an elegant idea—to believe you can preach your company’s wisdom from a podium and inquisitive, information-hungry consumers will gratefully take the initiative to buy from you in return—it’s a model that works only for maybe a handful of the most prestigious, luxury companies in the world.

At the end of the day, if you are in the business of selling, you need to ask for the sale, whether this happens via a “Click to Buy” button on your website or at the end of an email or at the end of a phone call. If you are publishing blog posts to demonstrate thought leadership, always circle back to your solutions, your products, your services. Always include the call to action. Otherwise, you’ll permanently end up in the business of giving away knowledge for free.

Want to talk about your current content marketing strategy? Get in touch today.

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The Value of Evergreen Content to Your Website

One of the problems of the internet is how disposable it makes everything feel. A tweet is old news 45 minutes after it’s posted; every article is breaking news. It feels as if everything is antiquated almost immediately. But it’s not true; in fact, one of the keys to a great digital marketing strategy is to create evergreen content — content that patiently waits for just the right search terms to call it up and put it to good use.

Evergreen content is information with extreme longevity in its relevance and usefulness to your target consumer base. It won’t become out of date or inaccurate within a short time frame, and it provides a renewable platform for linking to new, related content and can be promoted over and over again for its lasting value and appeal.

Some examples include the “Support” or “Mac Basics” sections of the various Apple websites; the recipes and food guide sections of the Whole Foods site; or the “Things to Do” areas of a tourism website like Arizona’s or Maryland’s (or any state, city, or town, for that matter). It’s important to remember that evergreen content doesn’t necessarily mean you can post it and forget it; but it does imply content that can endure with very little upkeep and occasional sprucing.

The Value of Evergreen Content

But how does it add value to your site? We’re glad you asked:

  • It’s endlessly linkable. Any time a relevant news item, event, or public interest topic begins trending, you can write a quick post to your blog and/or social media channels that connects back to the original article. Plus, you can build a base of essentials for your visitors and refer back to them from all new, more targeted articles. Same content, new relevance.
  • You can update it as necessary. In the print world, a guide to a far-flung destination or a review of the latest word processing software is only as lasting as the accuracy of its content—once a featured resort closes or the software releases a new version, it’s value shrinks. But online, you can constantly amend and update a story to keep it current and relevant.
  • It can foster dialogue. When users are truly engaged with content, they are more likely to post comments and ask questions. Posts that cover valuable how-tos, trouble-shooting, or product-use recommendations might provoke further questions from readers; use this as an opportunity to engage and convert.

Great Examples of Evergreen Content

So what are some stellar examples of content that stands the test of time?

  • How-To Guides Chances are, you have at some point in your life begun an online search with the phrase “how to…” Insert essentially anything after (“recycle batteries,” “clean an oven,” “calm a crying baby,” “make sangria”) and you are bound to find at least one solution. People turn online for answers and ideas, so capturing your company’s expertise in the form of simple-to-follow, useful information is a sure formula for content that keeps delivering.
  • Interviews This post category provides great flexibility (you get to choose the questions, so pick according to your customers’ interests), and the content will always be engaging to some segment of the population. Interviews offer the added bonus of double the promotional power—it’s likely your subject will want to spread the link around his or her circles as much as your company will.
  • Tips and tricks People love lists; it’s a basic truth. Share your company’s expertise in its field with content that helps people be happier, more efficient, more effective, more informed—more anything!
  • Resources Gone is the heyday of the hulking phonebook as the go-to resource for finding a professional or company to do just about anything under the sun. Today people look online for service, product, restaurant, hotel, brand, and store recommendations, so share your knowledge on the subject. The more local your focus, often, the better. Say your business is home remodeling. Some great evergreen content would be to compile a list of your go-to stores for interior lighting, high-quality furniture, carpets and rugs, paint supplies, hardware and plumbing, and remember to include keywords targeted to your location (for example, the best lighting supplier in Montclair, New Jersey).
  • Recipes This falls under the “How-To” category, but food-related content is such a surefire traffic driver, it warrants its own item. If your company has any direct or indirect association with cooking, sharing recipes is a worthwhile investment. With the popularity of Pinterest, your content could end up taking on a second life within the virtual recipe boxes of thousands of users.

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CAN-SPAM: the Meat of the Matter

With the relatively recent enactment of the CAN-SPAM law, many have felt a bit befuddled by what the law actually signifies and what it means for email marketing strategies. The idea of spam is one that is inherently unappetizing and confusing (and yes, we can’t help ourselves but smirk at how beautifully named the Can o’Spam…rather the CAN-SPAM Act is, but allow us to continue in all seriousness).

Some of the confusion around the law is simply derived from its title—most people think it serves to can spam (as in put a lid on). However, it actually means is that businesses are free to spam as long as they are following the rules of the CAN-SPAM law. While it might seem a little weird that a law is passed merely to state that, yes, in fact, you can spam people, but in essence that is exactly what it states.

So, let’s try to cut through the confusion.

CAN-SPAM: The Main Points

  1. Deceptive subject lines are prohibited
  2. Misleading or outright false header information is banned
  3. Commercial emails require explicit identification as an advertisement and must include the sender’s valid physical postal address
  4. Recipients must be given an opt-out method

It’s been proven that most companies or individuals who spam are deliberately trying to deceive recipients, can’t provide legitimate physical mailing addresses and don’t honor unsubscribe requests. In fact, there have already been prosecutions under the law.

Though theoretically as long as you let people unsubscribe, have a physical address of some sort, and don’t use deceptive information, under the CAN-SPAM law you could buy a list, harvest email addresses, steal email addresses from others, or do whatever shady dealings you need to do in order to collect email addresses. However, simply complying with CAN-SPAM laws can’t protect you from having your company’s credibility shot by being labeled as spammer, your website shutdown by your provider, or getting black listed by major search engines.

So how do you go about building your email list ethically while also complying with federal law? Simply by using good sense and focusing on the integrity of your company’s messaging and content is always the surest way to stay on track and gain a healthy following. Be sure to provide an easy way for visitors to subscribe directly from your website, provide great content so people will refer your email marketing messages to others, and exchange business cards via networking. When networking, always make sure to ask for a business card when you meet someone. Most people have their email address on their card. If they give you their business card, it’s an invitation to contact them as long as you comply with CAN-SPAM.

And that sounds pretty appetizing after all!

DISCLAIMER: We here at The Found Gen are not lawyers so this post should not be considered legal advice. Refer to the links in this post for more thorough information on the CAN-SPAM laws.