How to Go The Distance with Your Content Marketing

February 16, 2015 by

How to Go the Distance with Your Content Marketing

Artists know you have to persevere to create your best art. It’s much more than a great idea; you also have to do the work.

The same holds true in athletics. You may be gifted with talent and train hard, but it always comes down to your performance in a competitive event.

Artists and athletes go the distance because stopping just a little short is enough to compromise the result – winning versus losing.

In the world of marketing, the winners are the ones that not only create outstanding content, but then find new outlets for going the distance with it.

Take Your Content Up, Down and Sideways

If you listen to podcasts, and I hope you do, you may have noticed more short, daily podcast shows popping up. One reason for this trend is that many people prefer bite­sized content on a more frequent basis than a longer format.

Here’s the good news: For the most part these shows are using content that already exists within books, blogs, and videos. They are simply taking what has proved successful and giving it a ride with another medium.

This job of content marketing starts with an idea to then create something useful from it. It’s the hard part. Once that is accomplished, the smart move is taking it a step further by going up, down, or sideways.

Up

  • Blog posts become chapters in a book, training programs or keynote presentations
  • Images inspire any longer form content
  • Conversations with clients spark ideas for blog posts

Down

  • Book and blog post excerpts become short podcasts
  • Images from blog posts are featured in Pinterest, Instagram, etc.
  • Excerpts from long form podcasts are recorded as short YouTube videos

Sideways

  • Book or blog excerpts become long form podcasts
  • Previously successful blog posts are updated and retitled
  • Newsletter content is retitled and published verbatim as blog posts

Are you getting the idea?

This is what the pros do. ESPN first covers an event by reporting the highlights and statistics. Then they dig in further to profile players, coaches, or controversial circumstances. In the mix will be excerpted video highlights matched up with the previously published content. USA Today does the same thing.

Refine the Workflow and Build Your System

The key to successful content marketing is building, refining, and following a process. Create lists of workflow steps and refine them over time. Do the same with templates.

Once you have your system refined, you are equipped to delegate parts of the process or hire it out. If you hire a media agency without building and refining your process, you will be relegated to adopting their system, whether it fits your organization or not.

Everybody is going all in on content marketing. So, to be noticed yours has to be targeted, high ­quality content and market the right way, you can outsource marketing from marketing Ottawa. A surefire way to hit that mark is to go the distance with your original ideas by taking them as far as you can.

That’s what will build your audience.

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 mainstream businesses adapt their traditional growth practices to a digital world. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+

Social Media is Still Uncharted Waters

May 10, 2013 by

2013.5.10 Uncharted Waters

When you are embarking on a journey whose destination is uncertain, you have to get comfortable with uncertainty.

When it comes to social media, uncertainty has been, and for the foreseeable future, will necessarily be part of its use in your marketing equation.

These are uncharted waters. Everyone is still learning.

So, small businesses simply need to first get their feet wet, after which they will find their way if they follow a proven process, such as the one outlined in Built-In Social.

What I’m Hearing

Now that social media hype is beginning to fizzle, the truth is coming out from many social media agencies and practitioners – this is just getting started.

So, if you are still challenged with getting results from your social media marketing, take comfort in the fact that you are not alone.

What is interesting is the practice of content marketing is beginning to go mainstream.

While they may not necessarily use the term content marketing, even regular small businesses are becoming aware that social media is fairly useless without well-planned content marketing driving it.

Of course, content marketing has been around a long time in the form of advertorials and the like, it has just taken awhile for it to be linked to effective social marketing.

The challenge, of course, is actually doing the work to put it into practice.

What Is The One Thing to Do?

Last week I worked with a small business – a very small one at that. However, the owner possesses both the technical and creative skills to make this work, he has simply not yet put rubber to the road.

So, his obvious question was what is the one thing he should be doing now.

Every business is unique, so it requires some study to determine if a blog, email newsletter, or a specific social network would be the best place to initially focus. Yes, I consider all of these to be “social media” because being digital, they all have the ability to integrate with social media (and each other) in some way.

More important than the channel, is the practice:

1. Create relevant content to be attractive

Experienced businesses, and even those with just a few years of experience, know what their customers want. It’s really a matter of learning what the pain points are and solving those problems.

Content that solves problems will always be attractive, which means your business has to get into the answers business to do the same.

2. Use consistency to establish expectations

When it comes to marketing, and really anything else in business, those doing one or two things well lead their industries, or at least they do in their local communities.

3. Learn better practices and trends

In addition to studying the better practices in your industry, you should be learning how to adapt to what is working in others.

Trends often surface first in other industries, and you will look like a genius by simply being the first to adapt it to yours. This is especially true when it comes to social media.

When the waters are uncharted and the future is uncertain, it is a risky strategy to be the first or the best, because you just don’t know what is around the corner that will bring it all down.

Instead, take a disciplined approach to establish your course to build relationships and earn the trust of your customers.  If you do that, the uncertainties you may encounter are easily managed.

How about you? How are you positioning your business for the uncertain future of social media marketing?

About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, helps mainstream small businesses create exceptional customer experiences that accelerate business growth. Get more from Jeff on LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+.

Jeff is also the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business – Just Released April 2013 (Wiley)

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