Quick content marketing fixes
If your content marketing efforts are falling short of your goals, don’t head back to the drawing board just yet. Chances are a simple tweak may, in fact, be all you need.
The case for case studies
A lot of content marketing is based on the old adage “show, don’t tell”. People don’t want to hear about why you’re great at what you do—they want you to prove it. And there’s no better way to do this than with a case study.
Is your writing a victim of marketing speak?
The next time you have a free moment, take your latest piece of written content and cover up your company name. Without it, can you still tell that the material is written about your company? Or could it apply to any one of your competitors?
Simple ways to add value to your writing
Information becomes content when it adds value to the customer experience. The best way to do this? Show – don’t tell. As a leader in your field, the best way to create valuable content is to showcase your talents, proprietary knowledge or expertise. Here are a few ways to do that:
1) Offer insight
Sure, that report laden with raw data makes sense to you, but chances are it’s just a bunch of numbers to your clients. Offering context, and explaining why the data is important to your clients’ business, is a great way to illustrate the value of your expertise.
2) Boil it down
Sometimes the most valuable content is that which breaks down a complicated topic into laymen’s terms. We’re not talking about “dumbing it down” – we’re talking about writing for your audience. Not only does this help your clients better understand the topic at hand, but it shows that you’re approachable and you know what you’re talking about.
3) Pick a side
If you have an opinion about an industry-related topic, don’t be afraid to share it with your audience. The most share-worthy content is that which evokes some sort of emotion. If clients (or potential clients) agree with you, they’ll appreciate an article that articulates their thoughts. If they disagree, they might be motivated to leave a comment and start a discussion. Basically, as long as your opinion is factually based, you really can’t lose.
Want to learn more content-generating tips? Download our free report, Feeding the Content Beast.
You’ve already found your next blog post
When it comes to generating new content, many businesses tend to reinvent the wheel rather than work with what they already have. Chances are, if you’ve been writing content for a while, your next blog post is already written. Here are a few places you can find it:
1. Old content
The best place to find new content is by reading through content you’ve already written. Particularly popular posts are a good place to start. Try exploring a different angle or updating outdated information.
2. Larger materials
A whitepaper doesn’t only have one purpose. Break it down into smaller chunks, pull out some interesting statistics, grab a quote or two and you have enough blog posts, newsletter articles, tweets and Facebook updates to last you for a while. An added bonus? All that material can link back to the original whitepaper.
3. The stockpile
If you have time to sit down to write a blog post, try to write a second one with a longer shelf life. Building a content reserve can come in handy – and save you when you just can’t find a decent story idea. If you’re not that organized, however, the comments of previous blog posts are also a great place to find ideas.
Want to find out more? Download our free report, Feeding the Content Beast.
Tweets, Facebook Posts and Headlines – Is There an Ideal Length?
According to a recent article in Fast Company Magazine, there are , in fact, optimal lengths for our various missives on social media networks. The article also provide some backup research.
Here are the highlights:
• Perfect tweet length was right around 100 characters, resulting in a spike of re-tweets
• Facebook posts of 40 characters or less receive 86% higher engagement
• Six word headlines increase the chances that the entire headline will be read (Yes, the research showed that our attention spans have decreased to the point where we not only scan the body of an article or post but the headline as well).
For more fun facts, read the full article here. Once you do, let me if your own experience backs the research up and how you are addressing it in your own marketing campaigns.
Your Company’s Social Data – Do you have a Clue?
In an informative piece in Social Media Today, Ben Harper discusses how social data must be a core component of your content strategy. He also points to three tools you can use to gather insights in-house. These include:
– Followerwonk: Followerwonk allows you to analyze any Twitter audience by age, location, and bio word clouds to give you a flavour of your audience. Combine this with the most influential followers and see who they are and what you do to give yourself a headstart
– Unmetric: Unmetric allows you to track your competitors’ social media content and get alerted when there are spikes in engagement levels, allowing you to react or use historical data to plan future activity
– Twtrland: this tool allows you to delve into the Twitter data of any profile to see their most influential tweets, top followers, and basic demographics
Are you tracking your company social data? If so, what tools are you using?
10 Surprising Metrics That Will Make You Rethink Your Social Strategy
In a well-written piece in Fast Company, Belle Beth Cooper shares some eye opening metrics that all marketers should to take into consideration as they continue to shape corporate social media strategies. Read more