FW: How To Make Content Marketing Work For You

Hi Stefanie,

 

Thank you so much for all your insight you shared yesterday, and for your time and interest in helping me with my business. More on that later.

 

You'll see in another email that I sent to Metrolist and copied you that I'm seeking an answer to your question.

 

In case you didn't see this in the Denver Business Journal this morning, I thought you would be interested in this article. It sounds like what you described as what you do for businesses. What do you think of his article?

 

Thanks again,

 

Rudy

 

 

 

Nov 19, 2013, 6:00am MST UPDATED: Nov 19, 2013, 6:43am MST

Strategies: How to make content marketing work for you

Jeff Kear

When it comes to misunderstood and misused "new" marketing tactics, content marketing is probably a close second to social media.

In and of itself, the rationale behind content marketing is solid: create compelling, informative content for your target market that establishes you as a thought leader and provides more opportunities for your prospects to encounter your brand.

 

But just browse through the thousands of online article sites and you will encounter millions of poorly written, banal articles stuffed with keywords and anchor-text-optimized links (which search engines are now pretty much ignoring).

 

Why do so many people get it so wrong? Because content marketing, when done well, isn't easy. It takes time to research and coherently write an article that is unique. The returns aren't immediate, in that you may need to create compelling content for months in order to get the momentum rolling. And there's also all the online noise you have to break through.

 

That said, content marketing has become a vital part of many companies' marketing and advertising efforts, mainly because it:

• Positions them as a problem solver that has deep industry knowledge and answers to pressing questions.

• Makes them look approachable and easy to work with.

• Improves recall and recognition, which increases the chances a prospect will remember them when a need for their product/service arises.

 

What may surprise you is that it doesn't necessarily take lots of time and resources to run your own content marketing program. Here are a few tips to get you started.

 

1.      Implement a realistic strategy

Start simple and set achievable goals. For instance, try to produce one original, insightful article every month, and create an editorial calendar for topics you want to cover each month. If you don't have the time to devote to it, find a co-worker who has the time and the passion for this responsibility. If writing isn't a strength of yours, rough out a first draft and then farm it out to a freelance writer for polishing.

2.      Learn what's relevant to your audience

Creating content is very similar to developing a product: find out what your audience wants and supply that demand. The best way to do this is to talk with your customers and prospects to learn what issues and challenges they are facing; what industry topics interest them the most; and where they see the industry heading.

In addition, you can read industry trade publications and browse relevant websites to brush up on current hot-button topics and even create Google Alerts so you are notified when specific topic keywords pop up online.

 

3.      Focus on quality, not quantity

 

Many people think they have to blog every day and post on social media constantly in order to run a successful content marketing campaign. In fact, it's often more effective to limit your number of articles and use your time to create something original and valuable instead of hammering your audience daily with rehashed news or ideas.

Here are just a few angles you can take in creating unique content:

• Collect and report on your own data or survey results (or write an article where you research and summarize data generated by others in your industry).

• Give your expert opinion of industry developments and news.

• Provide a comprehensive look at a pressing issue.

• Write a thorough "how-to" article.

• Offer tricks-of-the-trade and strategic insights into creating efficiencies.

• Interview an expert on a subject matter or an industry luminary.

• Break down a complicated idea into easy-to-understand chunks.

• Pen a "problem solved" article that details how you or another company overcame a challenge.

• Provide FAQs for recurring questions that trip up people in your industry.

• Cover common mistakes or blunders people in your industry make and how they can be avoided.

Note: Besides writing articles, you can also create video content using these guidelines, as many people prefer watching a video to reading an article.

4.      Develop your delivery channels

 

Once you create your content, you need readers, and the best method of distributing your content is through your own in-house customer and marketing lists. These are people who already have a relationship with you, have opted-in and are more receptive to your message. You should also place signup forms on your website for visitors who want to receive your content-related emails and e-newsletters; this is a great tactic for growing your list.

 

Publishing content on your blog and then posting it to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter as well as on LinkedIn Groups is also a reasonably effective way to distribute your message. And you should also compile a list of industry influencers and media sources and send them any content that is newsworthy.

Finally, it's important that you are consistent in creating and distributing your content, because it does take time to develop a following and build your delivery channels.

Jeff Kear, owner and lead strategist at Kear Stevens, a Denver-based branding and marketing firm, can be reached at 303-321-3451 or jeffk@kearstevens.com.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/blog/broadway_17th/2013/11/strategies-how-to-make-content.html?ana=e_den_rdup&s=newsletter&ed=2013-11-19

 

Rudy Antle, CRS, SRES Broker/Owner

Antle Properties / Metro Brokers

Direct: 303-284-3609

Cell: 303-548-6353

Email: rudyantle@msn.com

Website: www.antleproperties.net

The Case for the Moral Superiority of Freedom Over Dependency

Americans are beginning to wake up to the failure of decades of a morally declining culture--a culture that not only has become enslaved to drugs, alcohol, sex, and violence, but is becoming enslaved to ever-growing government handouts.


In Powerlineblog.com John Hinderaker wrote this, introducing Jeff Sessions' speech from Saturday.
Posted on March 10, 2013 by John Hinderaker in Barack Obama, Education

Making the Case for the Moral Superiority of Freedom

Jeff Sessions, the Senate’s indispensable man, delivered the Republicans’ radio address yesterday. In it, he focused on one of his favorite themes: it is conservative policies, not liberal ones, that are compassionate toward the poor, the disadvantaged, the downtrodden. Sessions argues that conservatives need to push back harder against the smug assurance of liberals that their policies are good for people, even as they keep people dependent, deprive them of opportunities for employment and wage growth, and steal away, on every front, the independence that lends dignity to every human life, no matter how seemingly ordinary. Here is Sessions’ radio address in its entirety:

Read the entire article and Jeff Sessons' speech here:

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2013/03/making-the-case-for-the-moral-superiority-of-freedom.php

Sessions starts with: "Hello. I’m Jeff Sessions from Alabama, Ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee. It’s my privilege to speak with you today before the Senate considers a budget plan next week. Congress has an obligation to adopt a budget that does the most good for the most people."

After describing the failure of the policies that have brought us to our current dependent state and then listing some steps that can be taken, Sessions says, "These steps will empower Americans—not the government. They will promote family—not bureaucracy. And they will help create a future in which the central bonds in our lives are not government rules but the love and loyalty we have for one another."

Do you agree with Jeff Sessions? Write something here or on your own page. Do you disagree? Still you should write and state your own opinion. This is a debate that we must engage if our country is to endure as we have known it.