Content Marketing: How Businesses Can Grow With Content

Do you have a content marketing strategy for your business?

Would you like to discover how to create and distribute content that will drive sales for your company?

To learn how to grow your business with content marketing, native advertising and more, I interview Robert Rose.

More About This Show

The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It’s designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.

In this episode I interview Robert Rose, the co-author of the book, Managing Content Marketing: The Real-World Guide for Creating Passionate Subscribers to Your Brand. He’s the chief strategist at the Content Marketing Institute. He’s also the co-host of the podcast, This Old Marketing.

Robert explores content marketing, native advertising and what all of it means for your business.

You’ll discover how to develop a content marketing strategy that grows your business, take advantage of the marketing opportunities offered through native advertising and learn new ways to distribute your content to the right influencers.

Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below.

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Here are some of the things you’ll discover in this show:

Content Marketing

What is content marketing? 

The Content Marketing Institute views content marketing as the approach businesses use to create, curate, distribute and promote the types of content their customers will find valuable. The goal of content marketing is to drive sales and move your business forward.

What is content marketing? Source: Content Marketing Institute

Done well, content marketing offers a value that’s separate and discrete from the products or services you sell. It’s about providing content-driven experiences that are educational, entertaining or useful to your audience, but ultimately drive engagement, awareness and sales for your brand.

Social media gives you the power to aggregate your own audiences and be your own media company. The tools needed to publish the type of content that establishes you as a thought leader in your industry and draws customers to your brand are readily available and easy to use.

Listen to the show to discover how content marketing can go beyond written articles and encompass things like videos, app development, games and more.

Examples of businesses that do content marketing well

You’ll hear Robert explore how big companies like Chipotle Mexican Grill, LEGO andCoca-Cola leverage content marketing in creative and innovative ways such as movies, TV series and magazines.

Compared to what large companies might spend on traditional mass media or big sponsorships, their content marketing expenditures are just a drop in the bucket, according to Robert—yet it has such a big impact from a branding standpoint.

Even if your small business doesn’t have the budget for national TV spots and large print campaigns, you can get a lot of bang for your buck through content marketing. It’s easy and inexpensive to publish, distribute and promote your own content through blogging, social media and podcasting.

Robert uses Marcus Sheridan’s business blog to illustrate this point. He used his site to answer every question asked about pools and became an expert in the very small niche he was already passionate about. This propelled his business, River Pools and Spas, to huge success and top Google rankings.

Marcus Sheridan’s pool business blog propelled his company to huge success.

Listen to the show to find out how the Content Marketing Institute leverages its blog, workshops, classes and podcast to drive attendance to their annual show, Content Marketing World. 

Research on the effectiveness of content marketing

Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs recently released two new studies: B2B Content Marketing 2015: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends — North America and B2C Content Marketing 2015: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America. They are also set to release a version of these studies focused on non-profits and another on European companies.

According to these recent studies, 86% of businesses are involved in some form of content marketing, but only 34% feel that they are effective at it.

Two things separate businesses that perceive success at content marketing from those that don’t: a documented content marketing strategy and a codified process for it.

Most marketers (83%) have a content marketing strategy, but only 35% have documented it.

According to Robert, marketers are generally eager to jump in at the execution level of content marketing, but they don’t always approach it with the right questions.

Before you start to use content marketing for your business, ask why your company wants to do it and what its goals are for it. The next step is to document your content marketing strategy. Refer to it frequently and get your entire team aligned with it.

Listen to the show to learn how publishing research can set your business apart from your competitors and establish you as an expert. 

Native advertising and how it differs from content marketing

Recently there has been a lot of buzz about native advertising. There are big debates over the ethics of using it and how it should be integrated into a business’s content marketing strategy.

This is especially the case for social media sites where sponsored or paid posts are part of the typical business model most platforms now follow.

Native advertising is purchased and meant to flow seamlessly among the typical content on a site.

Very simply, native advertising is a form of branded marketing content that you pay to have published where you’d normally see a post, article or social update. Examples of this are a suggested post on Facebook or sponsored content on blogs.

More publications are seeing the opportunity to leverage native advertising to drive revenue. Some have even opened a section of their publication or devoted online space to it. You’ll hear Robert make a distinction on where native advertising is well-received and where it’s not.

The New York Times offers space on their site where advertisers can publish paid content.

Native advertising is intended to flow seamlessly with the editorial content or updates organically found on a site. Unlike advertorials in print publications of the past, digital publishing makes it more difficult for a reader to make a distinction between the native advertising and editorial content.

Robert encourages marketers to take advantage of native advertising opportunities to promote their product or service. However, he cautions site owners and publishers to be careful and considered when it comes to including it on your own sites.

Listen to the show to discover how you can use native advertising to enhance your content marketing strategy as a marketer and avoid its pitfalls as a publisher. 

How marketers can best distribute content marketing

You’ll hear Robert share a number of opportunities for distributing your content through both paid and earned media channels. He explores the benefits of contributing guest posts to sites like Content Marketing Institute or Social Media Examiner or using content syndication services like Taboola or Outbrain to gain morevisibility for your own site.

Taboola is a paid service that syndicates your blog content as ads on popular third-party sites.

When you write the stories that you want covered and people want to read, you can draw new traffic to your site and grow your own audience. You have the ability to target the right influencers in a meaningful, one-on-one, qualitative way and get them to talk about your story. You just have to know how to reach them.

Listen to the show to learn creative ways you can use press releases and wire services to distribute and promote your content to influencers.

Discovery of the Week

Do you ever have issues with your website not operating properly? When this happens, do you find yourself reaching out to people in remote locations to ask if they’re seeing the same thing too?

Have you heard about GeoPeeker? GeoPeeker is web developer tool that makes it possible to load any website or URL and view how it’s loading or being viewed from multiple locations around the globe. The locations GeoPeeker uses are: San Jose, Ashburn, Sydney, São Paulo, Ireland and Singapore.

GeoPeeker allows you to see how your site is loading in different locations around the world.

GeoPeeker shows you how the rest of the world is seeing your website and lets you very quickly spot what the issue might be.

Listen to the show to learn more and let us know how GeoPeeker works for you.

Listen to the show!

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11 Foolproof Ways to Grow Your Small-Business Facebook Following

Your business may have a solid marketing strategy, but are you an effective Facebook marketer?

Facebook estimates that it is home to more than 30 million active small-business pages. How will yours get noticed? How do you turn one fan into 1,000? Here are 11 creative (and perfectly legal!) methods to generate a Facebook following that convert likes to sales fluidly:

1. Make your Facebook page home.

Once you have set up a comprehensive business page, request a personalized web address, such as www.facebook.com/ENTMagazine. Promote your new hub of business across your other social media profiles (LinkedIn, Twitter etc.) and on printed marketing collateral including business cards, highlighting: We're on Facebook!

2. Analyze your advertising efforts.

Through the admin panel of your page, or the Adverts Create Tool, you can orchestrate simultaneous marketing campaigns on your budget. The benefit of Facebook advertising initiatives is that it tracks your customers' responses in real figures. Examine what works and engineer your efforts according to that response.

3. Use Facebook Graph search (it’s your secret weapon).

Imagine one of your fans at the center of a spider web. Graph Search enables you to learn more about them through the other pages they have liked. This information leads you to pools of like-minded individuals to target. It’s a cheeky, albeit ingenious, way to extend your web -- your online reach.

4. Add a Facebook "Like" button -- wherever possible.

You don’t need to be a coding wiz to embed a button on your website. Chances are, the person visiting your website is one of the 864 million who are already logged into Facebook that day, and may be inclined to click a like button, earning you a fuss-free fan.

5. Unite your channels.

Keep all of your social-media accounts on the same digital page by enabling integration, allowing you to post an image on Instagram that will automatically publish through your Twitter account. Save effort and promote your Facebook page concurrently.

6. Give the VIP treatment.

Pave the way for "Likes" with real incentives. A Mexican eatery chain revealed the locations of their free burrito giveaways only through Facebook status updates, driving traffic to their business page. Who can pass up a free lunch?

7. Partner up.

Find businesses with complimentary offerings to yours -- for example, a dog walker could form an alliance with a grooming service. Find businesses with the same amount of likes and approach them with an offer to cross promote your businesses, whether it be a joint offer, a competition or a mention. It’s the easiest way to double your following.

8. Create an app.

More than 19 million people routinely access Facebook through mobile devices and apps are growing in popularity. Small businesses are now able to customize their own app online for a small fee, or outsource it.

9. Talk the talk.

Facebook enables you to connect with your customers above and beyond an Instagram shot or a 140-character tweet. Pages are designed for businesses to engage in detailed discussions with their target audience, which generates word-of-mouth advertising.

10. Be a source.

Content marketing is experiencing a boom, with 86 percent of business-to-business marketers adopting it to promote businesses. Publishing factual and engaging articles via your Facebook Page will position your brand as a source of information, securing a following. Experts suggest posting content five times a day, so you’re “top of mind” of your fans.

11. Link to your personal profile.

We all know the feeling of dread when a friend requests a "Like" for their new business venture (which seldom yields a good response). Instead, every employee should link your business page to their personal profile under the "Work and Education" section. Repost content from your page on your wall to attract likes.

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The No. 1 Facebook Post Mistake Every Brand Should Avoid

People check Facebook to see pictures of their friends and family, laugh at the latest memes and learn about breaking news.

The last thing they want—or expect—to see in their news feed is a blatant sales pitch from your brand.

Posts that scream “buy me, buy me” are jarring . . . especially when you’ve just enjoyed watching a video of your niece’s hockey game or the latest Grumpy Cat complaint.

For brands, the way to get the most value from Facebook is to view it as a social setting (which it obviously is) and behave in manner that will make you popular.

Consider the last networking event you attended. Who was the most interesting person you met? In all likelihood, it was someone who showed an interest in you by asking you questions about yourself, then shared some relevant information about your niche.

The most annoying were the ones who dominated the conversation, talked only about themselves and pushed their services on you without taking the time to understand if you were a fit.

Don’t be the most annoying brand on Facebook. Take the time to understand your customers and then provide them with useful information related to your business.

Engagement is key on Facebook

When people encounter overly promotional content in their news feeds, they quickly scroll right past it. No likes, no comments, no shares – no engagement whatsoever.

This kind of post doesn’t even register, so how can you expect it to help sell your product or service?

Even worse, it will actually hurt your brand over time. That’s because the less people engage with your posts, the less likely Facebook is to show your content in its news feed.

Many marketers and business owners still don’t understand this very important aspect of Facebook.

The platform doesn’t show all your posts to everyone who’s liked your page. Rather, it uses an algorithm based on user engagement to decide who sees what. The more someone interacts with your page by liking a post, sharing it or leaving a comment, the greater the chance he or she will see content from your brand in the future.

And the larger the number of people who actively see your brand and engage with it, the more frequently Facebook will share your posts with others, leading to even wider brand exposure. That’s why engagement is so important on Facebook (and other social media platforms, too).

So instead of using Facebook as a one-way broadcast mechanism to push your sales message, don’t make the #1Facebook post mistake many brands are making. Instead think about Facebook as a social environment and look for ways to start a quality conversation.

What should you post?

I admit it can be tough to engage on Facebook and your approach really depends on your brand and your prospective customers. Some brands fit more naturally with Facebook than others.

Consider an exotic tourist destination such as Australia. Its Facebook page attracts attention effortlessly through quality images of white sand beaches, cuddly koala bears and colourful larakeets. At present, the page has more than 6 million “likes,” and it’s not uncommon for hundreds of thousands of people to engage with individual posts.

But if you’re a digital marketing company selling to small businesses, your job on Facebook is a lot tougher.

Practical, business-oriented brands must work harder to make themselves appear inviting and generate engagement. You also need to strike a balance between being likeable and talking about your business.

As well, keep in mind that the cohttp://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/no-1-facebook-post-mistake-every-brand-should-avoidntent you share can’t just be your own. It’s important to include information from other sources, such as blogs and online news outlets. This content should relate to your brand and be of interest to your audience.

Look at your news feed as a customer would

If you plan to use a Facebook page to promote your brand, it’s essential to spend time on the platform familiarizing yourself with how people use it. Be sure to look at your news feed through your customers’ eyes. How interesting is it? When are you most likely to “like” something or leave a comment? What posts do you click on?

Then take that learning and start writing more interesting posts that aren’t all about you and your 2-for-1 sale.

Photo Credit: Facebook Mistakes/shutterstock

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