4 Tips for Creating a Great Content Marketing Strategy

4 Tips for Creating a Great Content Marketing Strategy

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 Posted on Thursday, August 21st, 2014.

   Written by Justin Fishaw

Your content is the most important element of your website.

Without the right content marketing strategy, your website will never reach its full potential. You’ll never get the full traffic you could have, and you’ll never get the exposure you could have.

Creating a successful content marketing strategy isn’t easy. The right plan includes the right content designed for the right audience and marketed in the right way.

Here are a few things you need to do to create a great content marketing strategy for your site:

Create Personas to Target

It’s not enough to identify a broad audience. You need to narrow it down by creatingpersonas. For example, you can’t just write a “mom” blog. There are millions of moms in the world, and they are not all the same. They don’t have the same experiences, they don’t have the same views of the world, and they don’t have the same beliefs about parenting. If you don’t create specific personas, you can’t hone your message and reach your true audience. For example, one persona you may want to target is the mom who is under 35, listens to popular indie music, might have a few tattoos, and believes in breastfeeding and co-sleeping.

You should create a few personas for the type of audience you are trying to reach with your content. You can then create a list of article ideas that someone with that persona would enjoy reading. You’ll create content that is more engaging for your target audience, which will help you to attract more visitors, to retain more readers, and to increase conversions.

Develop a Distinct Brand

Unless you’re in a very niche field, you likely have a lot of competitors. While you should keep an eye on the kind of content that your competitors are publishing, you should not view their content as a signal of what you should be publishing. Your readers don’t want another clone in the field. They want content that is unique and valuable.

Don’t focus on creating content that is simply “better.” Create content that is unique in order to develop a distinct brand. Consider the example of Darek Halpern. There were hundreds of blogs being published about online marketing when he startedSocial Triggers. Yet he found immediate success by finding a way to set himself apart. Instead of writing about the same online marketing topics, he used psychological studies and real cases to provide actionable advise for online business owners.

Do the same with your brand. What can you do to make your content unique?

Explore Multiple Types of Content

Variety in content can help you reach more of your target audience and give them more useful information to keep them coming back again and again. Brainstorm topics to create as much variety as you can. You can start mining topic ideas by looking at the e-mails you get from customers and seeing what questions or concerns they mention the most. Write blog posts that answer them. Other ideas for content include infographics, interviews with your company leaders or other industry experts, customer stories and case studies.

The more variety you have, the more interesting and unique your blog will be and the more readers you will reach.

End with a Call to Action

Don’t overlook the call to action in your posts. It is what will convince readers to sign up for your e-mail list, to browse through your catalog or to call you for an estimate. This is an often overlooked aspect of content writing, but it is one of the most important. Make sure you end each and every post with a good call to action.

Make sure there is variety in your call to action. If you end every post the same, your readers will start to overlook it. Use different strategies, and make different asks. As with your content, the more variety you have, the more successful you will be.
Creating a great content marketing strategy requires a lot of research, a lot of skill and a lot of luck. These tips can help you create a content marketing strategy that gets results and helps take your site to the next level.

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State Law Forces Google to Add Steering Wheels to Self-Drive Cars

By SPN Staff Writers in Google Technology

Google’s self-driving cars will not be completely steered by technology after all — at least, not yet.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles has made it mandatory for drivers to gain “immediate physical control” of a vehicle, necessitating the addition of a steering wheel and gas and brake pedals to its fleet of self-driving cars.

Google’s driverless car

The technology firm has said it will obey the new regulation set to go into effect in mid-September.

“During our testing we are equipping the vehicles with manual controls such as a steering wheel, brake pedal, and accelerator pedal,” a Google spokesperson told CNet. “With these additions, our safety drivers can test the self-driving features while having the ability to take control of the vehicle if necessary.”

Google has said the car can detect hundreds of objects — pedestrians, stop signs in the hands of a crossing guard and obstacles on the road — simultaneously. The vehicle not only senses such obstacles but, unlike a human driver, does not become irritated or tired while traveling.

An added bonus, wrote project director Chris Urmson in a blog post, is while humans can be distracted and unable to predict what lies ahead while driving, the Google vehicle has shown it can.

“As it turns out, what looks chaotic and random on a city street to the human eye is actually fairly predictable to a computer,” he wrote. “As we’ve encountered thousands of different situations, we’ve built software models of what to expect, from the likely (a car stopping at a red light) to the unlikely (blowing through it).”

Urmson said, however, there remains much work to do on the new technology.

Google has not said how long it might be before the cars, realistically, will be ready to take to the road without at least some human help.

How to Create and Leverage Twitter Lists to Improve Your Engagement via Impact Branding

I don't know about you, but I love making lists.

Whether it's a grocery list in the notes app on my phone, a blog topic list on Trello, or a to-do list on a sticky note, sometimes it helps to separate your thoughts from the noise and visualize them. 

I'll be the first to admit that my Twitter feed, like my brain, gets a little noisy at times too. 

The solution?

Enter Twitter lists.

Essentially Twitter lists provide your business with the ability to separate specified groups of users from your noisy stream, making it easier to monitor and engage. 

Below we've detailed a step-by-step tutorial to help you get started with Twitter lists for your business, as well as a few suggestions on how to use them to improve your social engagements. 

How to create a Twitter list:

Sign into Twitter and click the 'Me' tab at the top of the screen to view your profile. Select the 'More' option next to 'Favorites' and select 'Lists':

Select 'Create New List' on the right side of the screen.

Name the list, create a description, and adjust the privacy settings accordingly.

Once the list is created, search by username, first/last name, or business/brand to add people.

How to leverage Twitter lists:

Monitor the competition

When are they tweeting? Determining the time frame and frequency in which your competitors are tweeting is great insight to have. 

If you notice that they're tweeting later into the evening than you are, look into the engagement they're getting at those times. If their late night tweets are performing really well, perhaps it would be beneficial for your business to adjust the frequency of your posts.

Keep in mind that this doesn't mean staying up all night to post content. Asocial media publishing tool like HubSpot's or HootSuite's makes it easy to craft compelling messages and schedule them for a later date. 

Aside from frequency, check out how your competitor's are handling customer service. Are they responding to questions and comments? 

If they're leaving questions unanswered, they're leaving opportunities on the table for you to take advantage of.

Stay in-tune with industry influencers

Looking for interesting, relevant content to share with your audience? Creating a list of industry influencer is a great way to stay on top of the latest trends and changes going on in your industry. 

Not only does this list serves as the perfect reference when you're looking for inspiration, but it also serves as a way to easily pull the people who you should be engaging with into the forefront.

When you share and engage with their content, you're effectively getting your business on their radar. Once they know you're there, it's easier to initiate a connect which could lead to valuable co-marketing opportunities. 

Initiate and maintain customer relationships

Creating a list of your customers, both existing and potential, is a great way to initiate and maintain customer relationships.

With a segmented list of these people in your tool belt, it's easy for your business to check in and monitor conversations surrounding your product or service. 

When you see a question arise, answer it. If you happen upon a complaint, resolve it. If they're looking for clarification, provide a resource. 

Participate in event-based conversations 

Last year, HubSpot created a public Twitter list for their INBOUND 2013 attendees. Users who followed the list were able to easily filter through the noise in their feed and extract just the conversations going on about the conference.

This made it simple for attendees to exchange thoughts and ideas, network, and stay in tune with anything they missed. 

If you're hosting or attending an event, consider creating an event-specific Twitter list in order to keep up in a similar fashion.

What the Ice Bucket Challenge Can Teach Us About Engagement

If you've paid attention to social media at all in the past several weeks, chances are you've seen video of everyone from Bill Gates to Oprah dumping buckets of ice water over their heads all in the name of a good cause. The "Ice Bucket Challenge" has been the viral event of the summer, just as bizarre as planking or the cinnamon challenge, but this time, the fad is for a good cause.

The Ice Bucket Challenge began in Boston in honor of Pete Frates, the 29-year-old former captain of Boston College's baseball team who was diagnosed with ALS (or Lou Gehrig's disease) two years ago. The rules are simple; if challenged, participants have a choice: either douse themselves with a bucket of freezing water or donate $100 to an ALS charity.

President Obama chose the latter; however, most participants are choosing to do both. The results of the grassroots viral campaign have been astounding. The ALS Association reported $31.5 million in donations between July 29 and August 20 from both participants in the Ice Bucket Challenge and those who simply enjoyed the videos, a significant increase from just $1.9 million in donations during the same time period last year.

While the ALS Association has certainly benefited from the Ice Bucket Challenge, they didn't launch it. The challenge is completely user-driven; however, social media marketers as well as fundraisers can take away a valuable lesson in grassroots marketing from the hottest campaign of the summer.

According to Gene Lewis, partner and chief creative officer of Digital Pulp, the secret to the Ice Bucket Challenge's success is the fact that its call to action is nearly impossible to avoid.

"Like so many things that are simple and successful, the Ice Bucket Challenge now seems inevitable; it makes us all wonder why we didn't think about trying something like it sooner," he says. "It has the perfect mix of elements to make it viral: it's fun (and funny), it's personal and broadly relevant, it's for kids and adults, it's intensely shareable, and most critically, it includes a dare. And not just a simple text dare. When you're challenged, you're called out, on video, for the world to see. It's not just a small status update that will soon pass - it's a personal challenge that must be addressed."

According to Bob Cargill, director of social media at Overdrive Interactive, another crucial aspect to the success of the Ice Bucket Challenge is its social nature. "What both social media marketers and fundraisers alike can learn from the success of this campaign is to realize that in the era of the selfie, more people than ever are glad to show off their support for a cause or passion for a brand, especially if they have something to gain in the process," he says. The gain for the user, in this case, is to see him or herself as a part of the cause, namely "the personal satisfaction that comes from any philanthropic effort and the public acclaim they receive from their friends."

And finally, a major aspect of the challenge's impact stems from its brevity, explains Rob Moritz, managing editor of the social newsroom at Innocean USA. He says, "The key from a social media marketing perspective is the fact it only takes a few seconds to do — or watch — and generates consistently entertaining, super-short-form content that's as easy to replicate as it is to share."

Of course, the viral success of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was completely unanticipated. And while social media marketers should surely note the psychology behind its success, they should also be wary of creating content with the intention of going viral, because the expectation all too often results in customer backlash. A safer solution is to focus on consistent production of brand-specific, quality content.

What Is Missing from the Immigration Debate

What Is Missing from the Immigration Debate

By Thomas LaGreca

            On March 22, 1775, Edmund Burke, an Englishman, described the American colonies in the following way:

In this character of the Americans, a love of freedom is the predominating feature which marks and distinguishes the whole . . . .  This fierce spirit of liberty is stronger in the English colonies probably than in any other people of the earth; and this from a great variety of powerful causes . . . .  (Speech on Conciliation with the Colonies.)

Benjamin Franklin viewed the cause for independence as almost a necessity, seeing the colonists as a new breed of person, far different from the English or Europeans in general, a rougher breed, fiercely independent and hardened by having to tame a new world.  So, in the words of Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, “it became necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature’s God entitle them.”

            Since that time, group after group after group of people who have come to this country have embodied the same spirit of fierce independence described by our founders and even the English who opposed them. Whether we are discussing European, Asian, or Latin American immigrants this has been true.  Even African-Americans and Native-Americans, whose stories are vastly different from the traditional immigrant, embody this spirit.  The American story is not simply the story of the greatest engine for economic prosperity the world has ever known, it is the story of people, hardened by difficulty and fiercely independent, fleeing where they were from and finding a welcome environment for their hard work, ingenuity, and perseverance to prosper.  

            A great deal of news today centers on illegal immigration. The political left accuses the right of wanting to deport or keep out all illegal immigrants, because the right emphasizes border security and control.  The political right accuses the left of wanting simply to grant amnesty to these immigrants so that the left can obtain millions of additional Democratic voters, because, according to the right, the left does not care enough about securing the border.  As with any political debate, the accusations of bad intentions, as well as predictions of dire consequences if the other side wins, go on and on and on.  Meanwhile, over 10 million people are here illegally and participating only in the underground economy, and our border, in the post-911 terrorism era, apparently is not very effective at keeping that number at even a reasonably low level. 

What is missing from all of this partisan wrangling is a recognition that the spirit of those who have come to America in the latest waves of immigration, albeit illegally, embody the same spirit of fierce independence and rugged individualism that has always been at the heart of America’s greatness.  Sure, occasionally, one of our politicians will make the statement, “We are a nation of immigrants!”  This is just self-serving and meaningless.  First, it is simply not true.  Doesn’t that statement deny the relevance of African Americans and Native Americans to the American story, since they could hardly be called “immigrants,” or are they to be excluded from the American story because they were in large part its victims?  And even if it were true, does that tell us anything?  All countries are nations of immigrants—it all depends on how far back in time you want to search.  All nations are a result of migrations of people, from Africa and Asia in the earliest days, and from Europe in later days.  The phrase, “We are a nation of immigrants,” says nothing about America.

What has always made America great and what will continue to make America great is its influx of new people who embrace that same spirit of fierce independence that existed in those who came before them.  It began with the Puritans and Pilgrims, fleeing, in one form or another, religious persecution in Europe, braving death and disease for their religious freedom.  It continued with Irish and German, and later Italian immigrants, fleeing poverty and starvation, and craving a place where their labors would be appreciated and rewarded.  Later still it continued with Asian, Cuban and Eastern Europeans, fleeing the stifling effects of socialist and communist economic oppression.  Jewish immigrants came fleeing anti-Semitism. Arab-Americans joined our rich heritage, escaping from Middle Eastern dictatorships, whether secular, military or theocratic.  These immigration stories are not without difficulty and distress, but always it was those individuals, through family, friends, community and religion, who pulled themselves and each other through the hardship.  Independence and self-reliance were the means toward the end of a better and more rewarding life than they could ever achieve before.

African Americans and Native Americans too are part of America’s story, and not simply as its victims.  The spirit of Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, as well as all those who risked their lives freeing themselves and others from the bonds of slavery, are part of this story of fierce independence.  So too are their successors in the Civil Rights movement, risking all to achieve the economic and political freedom denied them even after slavery was abolished by a terrible and bloody civil war.  The legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. is the legacy of rugged individualism when he calls upon us to judge each other by the “content of our character.”  This is a call for the freedom to pursue goals, to work hard and persevere, to reap the rewards of economic achievement, the same freedom that the founders had in mind, and for which generations of immigrants came to our shores.  African Americans have been invited to the party, but only as of late, and their achievements in the arts and entertainment, athletics and business, have been extraordinary, even though they have only just begun.

The same holds true of Native Americans, the first “immigrants.”  It was their forebears who crossed the Bering Strait from what is now Russia, and traveled ever eastward, conquering a wild and dangerous landscape, always seeking the place that would be theirs, a place to live on their terms, under rules they set. The spirits of Crazy Horse and Geronimo, warriors in the cause of fierce independence, are also part of the American story, and the heritage of American greatness.  They too symbolize the rugged individualism and self-reliance that has been the reason for American greatness. Unfortunately, the Native Americans too have been invited only of late to the celebration of America. 

The latest wave of immigrants might be illegal, but they are the same rugged individuals, the same fiercely independent spirits our previous waves of immigrants were.  Is the spirit that crosses a scorching desert, unsure of whether or not they will make it, to a destination that will likely be unfriendly or even hostile, where you might or might not know someone, or might not have a job or place to live, not really knowing what is in store for you—is that spirit any different from the spirit of those who crossed the ocean in disease-ridden ships 300 or 200 or 100 years ago, or ran through the woods chased by white men with rifles and dogs, or squeezed themselves into makeshift boats from China or southeast Asia or Cuba or Haiti to arrive on these shores?  America’s greatness does not lie in immigrants per se, but in the spirit that drove them here in the first place and that continues to drive them here, the same spirit that drove slaves to freedom and equality and the American Indians to fight ferociously for the heritage of freedom that was their own legacy.

Immigrants come to America because, in the words of Ronald Reagan, it is the “shining city upon a hill.”  We do not have an immigration problem because immigrants are here and want to continue to come here.  We will have an immigration problem when they stop wanting to come here.

           

            

Three tips for attorneys to get more speaking engagements:

We came across a great article from lawmarketing.com and had to share these great tips!

Here are three tips to finding speaking engagements:

1.  Tell Everyone You Want To Speak!

Let your staff know, your referral partners, your clients, your colleagues and family, that you would like to speak at events.   Ask them if they know of any organizations or upcoming events that may relate to your practice area.  If these people know you want to speak at events, they may be able to refer to their own colleagues and business associates or perhaps invite you to speak at organizations that they participate in.  If they don’t know you’re interested, they may not think to approach you.

Telling everyone includes updating your website to include information on how to contact you as a speaker.  Also include details in your ezine or newsletter.

2.  Consider Free and Paid Opportunities

Small local organizations often host/sponsor educational events but typically they do not pay their speakers.  Would you still consider this opportunity to build your name and reputation and get in front of a small group of people who may be interested in hiring or referring you?

Free opportunities can provide you with extensive ROI if done right (plus they let you practice for that big stage in the future).  Make sure that you are prepared with opportunities for your attendees to connect with you.

3.  Stay Informed. 

Set aside some time each week to research upcoming events and opportunities. Google Alerts is a great tool to use here – simply enter your search terms and Google will let you know when various events are coming up and when event speaking proposals are being accepted.

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