Monthly Archives: November 2014

Need convinced about content marketing? Read this.

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I came across a great blog post today from @captora with some really powerful stats on the rise of content marketing in recent years.

There is no doubt that the stats are convincing – content marketing is here to stay and I don’t think you’ll get much of an argument from any modern marketers.

So here’s my problem – if my hypothesis is correct and there is an acceptance that content marketing needs to be central to any marketing strategy there must be something else that is stopping people from getting involved.

I think there is a general fear of content marketing – largely driven by the fact that it is often accompanied by the word ‘strategy’. This immediately conjures up visions of 100 page documents and puts people right off.

So, to try and dispel this fear I’ve taken two of the key stats from the @captora post and asked 2 important questions:

  1. What does this mean for your company?
  2. What can you do about it?

Here we go:

Stat #1:
There are 27 million pieces of content shared each day online

What does this mean for your company?

This is one hell of a big number – you need to understand how much of this content relates to your industry, to the products you are selling. This will vary hugely depending on whether you’re involved in a mass market consumer product or a niche engineering application for example.

What can you do about it?

  1. Understand what your goal is – what does success look like? Sales, website visitors, video views, increased followers, more enquiries?
  2. Two ears, one mouth – use them in that proportion.
  3. Search online for content relating to your industry (Google Alerts are a great way to do this).
  4. Search Twitter to see who in your industry is doing this stuff well – and understand why.
  5. Once you’ve done this initial research you will better understand what content you can produce that is suitable for sharing, likely to get a response and will ultimately lead to more sales leads (or whatever your overall goal is).
  6. Start recording these ideas in an editorial calendar and hey presto – your content marketing strategy is underway.

Stat #2:
The number of web searches for ‘content marketing’ is up 400% since January 2011

What does this mean for your company?

Take comfort in the fact that this suggests to me that there are a lot of people out there who don’t understand how to make the most of this opportunity.

The opening line of the @captora post says “Content marketing has become a buzzword in modern marketing”.

Content Marketing is simply the latest way to describe what marketers have always done – produce good content. It’s nothing particularly revolutionary. Your tone might have to change and adapt to the social media channels that you are using in order to get the best results but otherwise – keep on keeping on.

What can you do about it?

Once you’ve developed the first run at your editorial calendar then select the channels that are right for you and just get started.

I’m reminded of a quote from Thomas Edison that is relevant to this discussion:

“I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.”

Hopefully you’ll get the hang of it well before the 10,000 mark – but the only way you’ll really find out what works and what doesn’t is to get started. Set yourself some small objectives at the start that you think will help you achieve your overall goal – increased sales, donations to your charitable cause, views of your Youtube videos.

There are a number of other interesting stats in the @captora post and I’ll return to these at a later date.

Hope you found this post useful – if you did please remember to share with your network.

You can follow me on twitter @petracmarketing

And if you want some help developing your content marketing strategy then get in touch.

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Your new website – for you or your customers?

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website design and planning

Your website is stage 1 in your sales process

So you’re embarking on a new website project?

It might be over simplifying it but when it comes to developing a website you’ve got 2 choices.

Option 1:
Develop a website that is designed to tell your customers everything that you want them to know.

Option 2:
Develop a website that answers the questions that your customers want answered and shows them how you can help them solve whatever problem it is that they currently have.

When does a bad project start to go off track?

Right at the very start. People start selecting the images they’d like to use and writing thousands of words under the generic menu headings:

  • About us
  • Our team
  • Products / services
  • Contact us
  • Recruitment

All of this work usually begins without a single question being asked about who it is that visits your website and what they want when they get there.

There could be multiple different visitor types. No – there are multiple different visitor types.

  • Existing customers
  • Potential customers
  • Job seekers
  • The bank you’ve just applied for a loan from
  • Funding bodies
  • Suppliers
  • Potential suppliers

Before a word of copy is written, a line of code is created, a minute of design is spent you need to

  1. Understand who it is that is visiting your site
  2. Prioritise your visitors – who is most important to you?
  3. Understand what they’re trying to achieve when they get there
  4. Know what message you want to give them
  5. Know what you want the end result of their visit to be – what’s a conversion?

Once you’ve done all of this you’ll be in a far better position to

  1. Create the engaging content that gives them what they’re looking for
  2. Understand what navigation options suit best
  3. Start the design process with objective research as the driving force rather than subjective views on images, button sizes and design schemes

All of this combines to maximise the potential for you to convert your website visitors into qualified sales leads.

You wouldn’t forgive a salesman for selling nothing on the basis that he looked the part.

Treat your website the same way – yes, it needs to look professional and reflect the culture of your company but it’s far more important than that.

It’s step 1 in your sales process.

If you’re looking for some help with your new website project then get in touch and we’ll put the plan into action.

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Web Sites – Seven Tips for Creating Credibility for a Marketable Website

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If you’re thinking of embarking on a new website project then a recent article on the Marketing Profs website is worth a read.

There are 7 very simple tips from the author, Daniel Cochran on how to make sure your website is credible.

The 7 tips he gives are summarised below with a link to the full article at the bottom of this post:

1 – Choose a design scheme that says it’s a modern website

2 – Analytics: Make sure you monitor progress by keeping an eye on the figures. Visitors and enquiries are the 2 most important ones (in most cases) but Google analytics is free and will provide you with a wealth of information

3 – No matter how good it looks any car still needs an engine: You won’t see it but the back end stuff is vital to the success of your website. Make sure it’s easy to update with a simple content management system.

4 – The move to mobile: There are such a huge range of access options for people – mobile phones with a whole variety of screen sizes, tablets of all sizes and desktop PC’s and laptops. Responsive design is a must – this will adjust the appearance of your site to take account of the size of the screen on which the user is looking at your website.

5 – Useful, informative an engaging content: Know who you are trying to attract to your website and what you want them to do when they get there. Walk in the shoes of your visitors and understand what questions they want answered. Then build your content to deliver this.

6 – Social media is your friend: Google will take a while to index your site so make sure you share your content with your social media network to ensure your message is spread as widely as possible.

7 – Conversions are important but not the entire game: The real measure of success comes from the enquiries you generate that you then convert into new business. But this will take a while to happen so make sure you know what success looks like until this happens – more social followers, better search engine results, getting great feedback on how your can improve your site.

Here’s the original article on the Marketing Profs website – it’s worth subscribing for regular updates across the whole range of marketing activity.

Web Sites – Seven Tips for Creating Credibility for a Marketable Website : MarketingProfs Article.

If you’re embarking on a website project get in touch and we can talk about how I can help you with all of these tips.

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So much promise, so little forethought

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Over the last decade Belfast and Northern Ireland have been transformed.

The Titanic building was a stroke of genius and is something that everyone in Northern Ireland should be proud of. People travel from all over the world to see what is on offer at Titanic.

Belfast as a City has come on leaps and bounds in the last decade – restaurants, bars, pubs, clubs, concert venues, theatres. Something for everyone. The next time you’re walking around the City Centre pay attention to just how many tourists are now visiting our country.

And it’s not just Belfast getting the benefit – let’s face it, it’s not a very big place. Anyone visiting for any length of time is going to do a tour taking in the Giants Causeway, Marble Arch Caves, Ulster American Folk Park, the Peace Bridge in Derry City.

We had the Giro D’Italia last year, the Irish Open returns to Northern Ireland next year, Radio 1 hosted their big weekend in Derry / Londonderry.

Everything is going in the right direction…

And then we hear of the cuts to the budget for the Department of Culture, Arts & Leisure – the upshot of which will be our museums will host fewer exhibitions and events, funding will be withdrawn for the very events that attract the visitors in the first place. There can be no doubt that this will also lead to people losing their jobs.

Most frustrating of all is the often peddled argument – the return on investment on the arts doesn’t add up. I hope those peddling this falsehood remember their words when the Northern Ireland Tourist Board inevitably reports on a drop in visitor numbers as a result of these cuts. People won’t come here if there is nothing to come here for.

The events that receive funding from the Department of Culture, Arts & Leisure are an investment in our infrastructure that helps to support the positioning of Northern Ireland as an attractive destination for tourists.

Simply seeing it as a cost is a blinkered view that needs to stop if we are to continue to build on recent successes.

A simple conversation

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talk to your customers

Talking to your customers will reveal much more than you think

How many case studies have you written where you’ve put words into your customers’ mouth and sent them the draft for them to approve before you publish it?

It’s time to stop  and let your customers do the talking for you. If you spend half an hour talking to your customer about that great project you delivered you’ll get some little gold nuggets that will make the story much more interesting, believable and likely to help you sell more of your stuff.

We think we know why people by our stuff – and for the most part we’re not far wrong. But every now and again a little surprise turns up – and this has benefits outside of the marketing project that spurred the conversation in the first place.

It reveals another USP, a new industry sector you could target, a new country where there is demand for what you do. It’s only one on one conversations that will reveal these little gems – so get talking.

Get in touch and we can talk about how we can work together on your project case studies.

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Do it – pull the pin !!

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pull the pin and see what heppens

Sometimes to get noticed you need to be a bit controversial

We’re all drowning in the sea of bland, corporate copy that most communications departments peddle.

With the editorial departments at newspapers and in the trade media now reduced to a one or two person department most press releases are simply getting copied and pasted into position with no editorial control.

This isn’t as good as it sounds – it all sounds the same. What happens next? People stop reading it. Your customers stop reading it.

So how do you get noticed among all of this?

Just be a bit controversial – it sounds simple but most communications departments are restricted by copy guidelines and the fear of senior management that any deviation from the standard press release template will result in you being seen as ‘unprofessional’.

Have a chat with magazine and newspaper editors and ask what they want. I have – and what they’re after is someone – anyone – with an opinion.

Don’t hide behind the corporate mask – put a face to the release. Speak like a real person. And tell people what you think.

Go on – try it. I guarantee you’ll see your coverage explode.

Fill in your details below and we can work together to maximise your coverage

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Digital DNA – time for a rethink?

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Digital DNA Belfast

Digital DNA is a business conference in Belfast

The 2nd Digital DNA Conference was held in Titanic Belfast this week with a series of events running across 4 days. I was lucky enough to be asked to deliver a presentation on the work that we had done at CDE Global to maximise the impact of digital technologies.

I’ve long been a believer that we shouldn’t be putting ‘digital’ in a silo – it needs to be integrated with the rest of our business strategy. Digital is simply one of the mechanisms we use to deliver the company strategy.

Actually, it’s the single most important consideration in how businesses will deliver their strategy. For far too long ‘digital’ has been the reserve of the marketing and IT teams. If the Digital DNA conference taught me anything this week it is that there are thousands of companies missing out on fantastic insights because of a mistaken belief that digital isn’t relevant for them.

We all need to embrace the opportunity that digital presents. For those who do the future is very bright. For those who don’t the end is nigh.

Congratulations to Gareth Quinn for organising a great event this week. It was fantastic to get the opportunity to speak at the conference and I’m already looking forward to Version 3.0 in 2015.

If you’re based anywhere in Ireland and you’re involved in any sort of business and you haven’t been at Digital DNA in Belfast – It’s time for a rethink.