Editorial Guidelines: How to Publish Content that Builds an Audience

February 6, 2016 by

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Editorial Guidelines: How to Publish Content that Builds an Audience

This is Episode 62 of This Old New Business weekly business podcast with Jeff Korhan.

In this, our first 2016 episode of This Old New Business we discuss why breaking your publishing schedule is not a good thing to do, but it’s better than publishing content that does not merit the attention of your audience. Maybe you could capture their attention by printing some personal merchandise to sell or give out, you could do that by contacting Ricoh Printers to see what printing services they have available for you.

In addition to recommitting to this show, we are starting a new podcast show for landscaping, lawn care and other green industry professionals that want to discover relevant resources, tools and training on all aspects of digital marketing.

You can sign up to be notified about the launch at Landscape Digital Institute.

Build a Professional Digital Marketing Plan

Many small businesses understand and use an editorial calendar to plan the consistent publishing of content. In addition to consistent publishing, it is also vital to have guidelines for assuring that content meets the expectation of its targeted audience.

#1 – Business Objectives

Whether the priority is attracting leads, retaining customers or increasing a particular type of revenue, those objectives will shape the strategy for achieving them.

#2 – Content Mission

The content mission or purpose must define the target audience and specifically address how it is going to deliver value and achieve desired outcomes for that audience.

#3 – Content Goals

The cure for mediocre content is clarity that comes from measuring progress against strategic goals. These may include growing email subscribers, nurturing relationships with current customers or documenting and refining the brand story.

#4 – Audience Persona(s)

Descriptive audience personas help to create content that addresses the right needs and wants at the most important touchpoints throughout the customer experience.

#5 – Business Distinction

The value your business brings to an audience becomes the collective brand story that distinguishes the business from every other for the audience it was meant to serve.

#6 – Editorial Calendar

The editorial calendar is more than a schedule of activities. It considers the content goals, audience needs and resources available. Additionally, it should help to streamline the content workflow to create content with greater impact. The editorial calendar should also establish who owns the content from ideation to publication and promotion.

#7 – Publishing Guidelines

The content voice and tone are just a couple of important publishing guidelines. Article length, headline style and image size are all essential for creating content with a consistent look and feel that resonates with the target audience. If you happen to use outside contributors, these guidelines will make it much easier to maintain consistency.

#8 – Channel Plan

The channels your business uses to publish and promote content should be intentional. There should be a logical sequence to when and where content is first published, republished and promoted. This workflow sequence saves time and makes the most of your content ideas.

#9 – Tools

There are numberless tools for creating, curating and sharing content. Smart businesses tend to settle in on a few and use them well.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on editorial guidelines. Meet me over on Twitter to take the conversation further.

Key Take-Aways

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About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business and host of This Old New Business podcast.

He helps organizations use media to create exceptional customer experiences that drive business growth in a digital, social and global world. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+

Inbound vs Content Marketing: Keeping the Dogs in The House

November 30, 2015 by

Inbound vs Content Marketing: Keeping the Dogs in The House

The distinction between inbound and content marketing is an important one because they are too often considered to be one and the same.

While both disciplines are often misunderstood, the word inbound clearly describes the primary purpose of inbound marketing: Attracting leads.

In other words, the focus of inbound marketing is filling the funnel.

What then is content marketing? According to the Content Marketing Institute:

“Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

How to Keep the Dogs in The House

As a young salesperson fresh out of college, I could relate to an expression my sales manager often used. He said, “It’s not easy keeping all of the dogs in the house.”

He meant converting leads into buyers and then retaining them as customers is an ongoing challenge. We all know this to be true because prospects and customers will always act in their best interests. For those actions to be mutually beneficial, relationships must be nurtured.

One of the reasons inbound and content marketing are often considered the same is they both use similar tactics at the visible lead attraction stage. What happens after that often sets the two apart.

If you doubt this, simply subscribe to any site that offers an ebook or free report and observe. What happens next should feel right, like a sense of belonging that supports your decision to sign up.

Inbound marketing can feel like traditional marketing after the lead attraction phase because there is often a noticeable shift to conversion. The messaging may indeed contain valuable content, but its value is progressively diluted by the seemingly endless interruptions.

As a result, the dogs get angry and leave the house (unsubscribe).

In contrast, content marketing seeks to add value to every single stage of the buyer’s journey, with the better content marketers understanding the duration of that journey is buyer dependent.

If attracting leads is important to your small business, both inbound and content marketing can help. Yet, without a strategic content marketing plan, only a fraction of those inbound leads will become longstanding customers.

Instead of ramping up the automation sequence to increase conversions, a better approach is strategically feeding the dogs. Focus on providing more valuable content where it is needed most, and that is throughout the buyer’s journey, and the customer experience that follows.

That’s content marketing.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on inbound vs content marketing. Meet me over on Twitter to take the conversation further.

About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business and host of This Old New Business podcast.

He helps organizations use media to create exceptional customer experiences that drive business growth in a digital, social and global world. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+