Tag: tips

Content marketing best practices

According to the 2016 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America study of 3700 companies, 88% of organizations are using content marketing. And 76% expect to increase the amount of content they are producing over the prior year. With so much emphasis on content marketing, what can firms do to help make their initiatives as successful as possible?

1. Document your content marketing strategy. The CMI study emphasized that “B2B marketers who have a documented content marketing strategy get better results from their content marketing tactics, social media platforms, and paid methods of content distribution compared to those without a written strategy.” A documented strategy keeps you focused on what you want to achieve and helps you design a plan for how to get there.

2. Create buyer personas. One of the keys to successful content marketing is understanding your target audience or buyer. Develop a profile (buyer persona) of that ideal buyer, client, or referral source, including their key demographics and behaviors. The more you know about your buyer’s needs, the better you can tailor the substance of your message as well as how you promote it to them.

3. Choose a well-defined niche. We’re all suffering from information overload and there is so much content available that it’s overwhelming to look at it all. One of the ways to stand out is to promote a narrow expertise.

You may find yourself with fewer leads, but better quality ones because you better match what the prospect is looking for and there are fewer obvious competitors.

4. Develop an editorial calendar. An editorial calendar helps you create and manage your content workflow. Use it to plan out content topics or themes in advance, establish deadlines and assign responsibilities for each step in the process. Think about the format for your content, your message and audience, where and how will it be marketed and distributed and what resources are needed.

5. Reuse content. Coming up with new content on a regular basis is challenging so look for ways to repurpose your existing content. For example, create longer and shorter versions of everything you do as well as think of different formats such as writing, audio, video, and presentations. Content curation is another method of reusing content, but you are selecting and sharing useful information created by others. Ideally add some of your own thoughts and commentary when sharing other people’s content.

6. Track results using appropriate metrics. The end game for any marketing is to bring in revenue, but there are other goals to keep in mind, such as; lead generation, lead nurturing, brand awareness, customer retention, and engagement.

Determining the appropriate metrics depends on your specific goals. However, some of the more common ones include: website/blog traffic and engagement metrics (unique and repeat visitors, page views, time spent on site, etc.); social media interest (followers, connections, sharing, etc.); quality and quantity of leads generated; and other ones.

Once you have established your metrics, start testing your tactics and revise and hone your strategies accordingly.

7. Start small and scale up. You don’t have to do everything at once. Instead start with a pilot project that you can scale up over time. You can focus on 1 or 2 priorities or tactics. Or look at how your existing content marketing can be improved keeping in mind some of the best practices mentioned in this article. Consider what you are already doing as well as how adding resources could improve your results.

Once you start to see successes, you can build on them.

Content marketing is a great investment when done right. Hopefully these  best practices will help make your initiatives more successful.

Need help with your marketing? Contact us for a free consultation.

How to create an effective marketing plan

A marketing plan is essential to successful marketing. You set goals, define your audience, determine priorities and look at where and how you should focus your resources for the most impact. As part of the planning process you also analyze your business and financial situation so you can make informed decisions about your needs and resources.

Without a plan, you run the risk of spending time and money on an assortment of different tactics without a clearly defined purpose. Maybe some of those efforts will work. But what about the things that don’t work, or more likely, you’re not really sure what is working or could be working better. When you act without a marketing plan, you’re more likely to engage in random acts of marketing, which wastes precious resources.

An effective marketing plan needs all of these

1. Define your strategy(ies) first. Successful marketing requires that you have a strategy and a plan. The strategy defines your goals – what do you want to achieve and why. The plan is about how you’re going to do it – what steps do you need to take to implement your strategy.

2. Put it in writing. According to the 2016 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America study of 3700 companies, “B2B marketers who have a documented content marketing strategy get better results from their content marketing tactics, social media platforms, and paid methods of content distribution compared to those without a written strategy.” The study focused on content marketing, but its good business practice to put your plans in writing.

3. Allocate appropriate resources. Once you know what you want to accomplish and what you need to do to get there, you have to put aside enough time, money and bodies. The Ascend 2016 State of Digital Marketing Survey found that the most significant barrier to success in digital marketing was an inadequate marketing budget. Lack of internal skills/training was number 2 on the list. Think about who can handle what tasks, both in terms of time and ability. Outsource if necessary. If you don’t have the funds or the staff to do everything you want to do, then start with a small, simple project. Be realistic about your needs and resources otherwise your plan will go nowhere fast.

4. Measure results. The metrics you choose will vary depending on your goals. Think in terms of short-, mid- and long-term goals. The ultimate goal for firms is usually to grow revenue, but that takes a long time. You want some interim measurements in order to gauge your progress. For example, new business starts with new leads, which may start with increasing visibility. If you’re looking at website metrics, do you want to measure growth in new visitors to your website or look at repeat visits or how much time someone spent on the site? Make sure your metrics are appropriate and you use them properly. Marketing is a process of testing, measuring and revising.

5. Revisit your plan regularly. It’s a good practice to look at your plan annually or more often if your business has changed in some way. Consider your financial and competitive situation as well as your results to date.

Invest in creating a solid marketing plan for your business. It will be worth it.

For help in creating your marketing plan, contact us for a consultation.

 

8 marketing musts for your firm

Everyone wants tips to help market themselves. We’re all hoping to hear the one thing that we can do to magically bring in business. Unfortunately there is no one thing, but there are lots of little things that can help. I work a lot with lawyers and was recently on a radio show to talk about Marketing Tips for Attorneys. To prepare, the host, Ken Landau, asked me to come in with 30 tips. I’m not sure how many we actually got to, but here’s a sampling to get you started whether you are a lawyer or other kind of professional:

1. Have a strong LinkedIn profile. When someone googles your name, your LinkedIn bio is usually one of the top results. What do you want people to see there? It’s your opportunity to impress them and stand out from the competition. Don’t waste it. And don’t rely on people going to your website to read your bio there. Some may only look at your LinkedIn profile.

2. Share content regularly on social media– both your content and other people’s. Social media is like networking. You have to be out there consistently, get involved, follow up with people you meet and stay in touch. Every time you share something on social media your network will see it. Post your own stuff, but also like and comment on other people’s posts, ask questions, and start a discussion. It will build your credibility and a lot of people will reciprocate, which will expand your reach to everyone in their network. And remember to join and share posts within groups. That gets you in front of members of the group even if they aren’t part of your direct network.

3. Focus on a niche. Stop trying to be everything to everyone. Focus on a specific area, type of client, business model, etc. It’s better to focus limited marketing resources on a niche area rather than spreading them all over multiple areas. Ultimately it will bring you better leads and more money. (Check out Inc.’s, How to Narrow your Target Market for more tips.)

4. Position yourself as an expert. This goes along with focusing on a niche. Identify a topic, issue, specialty, etc. where you have experience and you can speak with authority. Get known for that by speaking and writing about that area consistently. Make sure your marketing message highlights that expertise. Again focusing on a narrow area brings better results than saying that you can help anyone with any problem.

5. Blog regularly. In determining how to rank a website, search engines look for sites with high-quality relevant information. They also look for websites that are updated frequently and have lots of pages. Blogging helps with all of these. It boosts a firm’s organic search results when prospects are searching online. And it also makes firms more credible (because they have lots of great content) for prospects who are now on the website and evaluating their services.

6. Involve employees. A recurring problem professionals have is coming up with good topics to write and speak about. Employees can help you create content that is interesting to your readers since they are often dealing with day to day issues with your clients. You want your blog posts, newsletters, presentations, etc. to address the real questions that your prospects have about their problems. Employees can also help promote your content by sharing it via their own social media channels.

7. Seek out relationships with other experts, organizations, and media. Get to know others who speak to the same market you are targeting and are well-known. They can help you build your own credibility and spread your message. But remember you have to help them first.

8. Have a marketing plan. Random acts of marketing are not effective. Create a written plan outlining who you want to specifically target with your marketing and how you’re going to do it. Then make sure you allocate resources (time and money) to getting it done.

For more tips, listen to the radio program.

Social media tips for professional service firms

Are you taking advantage of social media marketing? There are lots of benefits, but it also takes time. Like all marketing, social media is a process of taking lots of small steps to build your presence and reputation. A recent Legal Marketing Association webinar offered some great tips for firms to help them make the most of their social media efforts.

1. Have a plan. Don’t rush into a social media campaign. Determine your priorities and goals. Build a strategy. Be clear about your message. What do you want to say? How do you want to be seen by others? Who are you targeting?

2. Do your homework. Look at what your competitors and clients are doing on social media. What kind of conversations and industry trends do you see? What are others saying about you online? Use this information to help determine your own strategy. Remember too that social media is a great tool for researching the needs and interests of your clients and prospects. It can help you be more proactive in your practice instead of waiting for them to come to you.

3. Build consensus internally. If you’re within a firm, not everyone will be equally supportive, but it won’t work if there isn’t some consensus. There needs to be advocates for social media within the firm to keep it going.

4. Focus on quality, not quantity. Yes it’s very important to be constantly visible on social media. Consistently sharing information is a key component in getting noticed and staying top of mind. However, quality matters a lot too. Better to produce really good material less often, than lots of mediocre stuff.

5. Measure results quantitatively and anecdotally. It takes time to see results. In developing your strategy, you need to decide what kind of results you are looking for (more new visitors to your site, time spent on your website, followers, likes/shares of your content, etc.). Then you need to make sure you measure those results over time. The numbers are important, but anecdotal results are also key. It may be great that your web traffic has increased by 20%, but it feels pretty good too when someone calls you to say they liked your article. Those personal stories can be great motivators and confidence boosters.

6. Provide training. Make sure you and others at the firm get appropriate training.

7. Help rising stars. The strongest benefits from social media may be seen by professionals who aren’t as well-established. Those who already have strong networks and reputations should still use it to market themselves. But social media provides an opportunity to new and lesser known professionals to develop their reputation as experts and grow their network.

For more tips on using social media, see Do’s and Don’ts of Using Social Media to Grow Your Business.

If you need help with your social media, contact us.

Top strategies for marketing your speaking event

Do you speak at seminars? It’s a great way to market yourself, but too many professionals just focus on the event itself and forget about how it can be leveraged both before and afterwards to gain more visibility and attract clients. Whether you are presenting at your own event or one given by a third-party, use these tactics to get the most attention for yourself and the event:

Pre-event:

1. Publish teasers. Use your email newsletter, blogs and social media to talk about the issues that will be discussed in your presentation. You want to do more than send out marketing copy describing the event. Give people something educational – information they can use, like quick tips, questions to think about, etc. Your goal is to generate interest in the event and in you. Ideally people will want to register, but if not, it still highlights your expertise and credibility in a memorable way.

2. Conduct a survey. Ask your contacts their opinion about issues relevant to the presentation. Surveys are a great way to promote the event and also will make your presentation that much better because your audience told you some of the things they are interested in hearing about. But keep it simple – only a few questions. You can promote the survey to your contacts and social media network, but also ask the organizer of the event if they can also send out or promote the survey link. By the way, Survey Monkey is a great tool for creating surveys and gathering responses online.

3. Partner with others. If it’s your own event, look to bring in other speakers or sponsors who can add value to the presentation as well as help to promote the event.

4. Leverage the marketing done by the organizer and other participants. If you are working with a third party, it’s great to pass along or “like” the marketing pieces they are putting out.

During the event:

5. Record the event (audio or video). There is so much you can do with this post-event (see below). First check with organizers to make sure you can record it, or if they are recording the event, find out whether you will be able to get a copy and how you can use it. Hire a good videographer who can create a high-quality video and edit afterwards.

6. Take pictures. Post photos to your website and social media.

7. Tweet. Have someone tweet during the event.

8. Take notes. Designate someone to take notes during the event about what questions were asked or interesting points made. This is less important if you are getting the presentation recorded.

9. Interview panelists and attendees. Ask others about their challenges, their highlights from the event, etc. It will make good fodder for follow up content about the event (see below). Remember to get their contact information so you send them your draft if you’re quoting them and links to the final version. Panelists in particular may be very happy to promote your article/post if you’ve mentioned them.

10. Ask people to sign up to get your presentation or other information. You can collect business cards or have people sign up via text message (Constant Contact and other email providers have a way to do this).

Post-event:

11. Repurpose the recording. The event can be made available on your website as an on-demand webinar. It can also be edited into shorter clips for your site, YouTube or other social media.

12. Post and distribute the PowerPoint. The PowerPoint can be edited and posted on your site as well as on SlideShare, LinkedIn profiles and other social media channels. If you are concerned about giving too much away, just post an abridged version. Also send your PowerPoint to attendees.

13. Create related articles, white papers and blog posts. Provide takeaways and recaps, talk about the questions that came up, comments from panelists and attendees, etc. Promote these via email and social media. Remember each piece of content provides another marketing opportunity.

Make the most of your presentation with these marketing tips.

Need help marketing your speaking engagements? Contact us for a free consultation.

5 things not to do if you want people to read your content

Do you feel like no one is reading your content? Why bother blogging, sending newsletters and creating other content if everyone is too busy to read it. Giving your clients and prospects valuable information is a proven way to market yourself. But how can you make your content interesting so people will want to read it? There are plenty of dos and don’ts to get you started. We covered some of the do’s previously, here are some don’ts:

1. Don’t just report the news or new developments. There are lots of sources for news. Yes there is value in passing along items you think might interest your audience, but you want to take the extra step. The real difference you want to provide is to talk about how the new development impacts the client’s situation. Offer insights and practical advice. That’s what will help you stand out from your competition.

2. Don’t be self-promotional. It is okay to talk about your activities and awards to demonstrate credibility. However, keep it to a minimum. Think of the 80-20 rule – 80% useful content; 20% promotional content.

3. Don’t use canned content. There are lots of sources of canned content. Even though the content can be well-written, it’s also very basic, generic and boring. It doesn’t focus on the specific issues of your audience, won’t be enticing to read, and doesn’t showcase your unique value proposition. It’s also “duplicate content,” – that is, content that appears on lots of websites. Google will penalize you for that and it will hurt you in search engine rankings.

4. Don’t worry about perfect grammar and syntax. Just recently I read a blog post from Top Rank Marketing that reminded me how we get caught up in writing like it’s a term paper. Write in a way that’s comfortable for a real person to read and also shows your personality. You can still be a professional and not have your writing feel like a treatise.

5. Don’t forget about headlines. A great headline entices people to read more. A lot of lawyers, accountants and other professionals write very dense factual headlines. Give your audience a reason to read on. Even if you can’t find a way to be clever or funny, make sure you’re clear about why they need to know something; how it’s helpful; and what’s the benefit or risk of not knowing.

It’s hard to create compelling content. Keep these tips in mind to help make sure your information gets read.

Do you need help producing great content that will attract clients? Contact me for a free consultation.

5 dos to help you create content that your audience wants to read

Is your content boring? Giving clients and prospects interesting and helpful information is a great way to attract attention and build trust. The problem is how to create the kind of content that gets read. This week I have a few Dos to help you get started developing engaging content.

1. Do answer real questions. I am consistently asked by clients and prospects – what should I write about? Among the best sources for content are the frequently asked questions you get from your own audience. Put together a list of them and start answering them. Don’t worry about giving away too much information for free. You don’t have to go into minutia with your response, but you do want to be genuinely helpful. Highlight what they should know about their problem and possible solutions so they see you know what you’re talking about and can solve their problems.

2. Do listen to your audience and talk about the issues they are following. Where do your clients and prospects turn for information on their problems? As a start you can ask your own clients, but then go deeper. Identify and subscribe to publications your clients read, set up google alerts to monitor areas of interest to them and use social media to “listen” to what topics they care about.

3. Do use stories. This is a great way to demonstrate how you help people solve their problems. Provide case studies and examples to let your audience see that you are dealing with others like them. They also personalize your work as well as your content. It’s more interesting to read a story, than a bunch of facts. And don’t worry; you can omit confidential/identifying facts without sacrificing the value of your story.

4. Do use the same terminology as your target audience. Speak to them in their own language. You shouldn’t talk to potential clients the way you would talk to your colleagues or referral sources. Using the right tone and wording not only will make your content more readable and interesting, but you will be showing that you can relate to your audience.

5. Do keep it concise. Sadly people’s attention span keeps getting shorter. According to Microsoft we’re now at 8 seconds. Think about format. Lists, headings, visuals, and other strategies can help you organize and relate your content in a more readable and compelling way.

Next time I’ll cover the Don’ts – 5 things not to do if you want to create compelling content.

Do you need help producing great content that will attract clients? Contact me for a free consultation.

No time for content marketing? 7 tips for successfully repurposing your content-Part 2

It’s hard to find time to market your firm. Writing and speaking are wonderful tools to showcase your expertise and help you build your credibility, but they are time-consuming. So you want to get the maximum value out of everything you do. Repurposing your content is the key to success. For every piece of content you create ask yourself – What else can I do with this? How could it be repackaged? In our last post, we covered the first 4 tips. Here are 3 more ideas to ensure you save time and money marketing yourself.

5. Convert written formats to spoken and spoken to written. Informally record yourself speaking about a topic you’ve written about. Then turn it into webinars or short video/audio clips. Or develop it into a seminar that you can present to a group of people. On the other hand, if you’ve spoken on a topic but don’t have it in written form, get it recorded, then transcribe the recordings to turn into articles and blog posts.

6. Change the tone. Content that was written for a particular audience can be revised for a new audience by changing the tone. For example, professionals typically communicate differently to other professionals than they do to their clients. You want to have a more conversational tone with clients. You also want to use the same terminology that your audience uses so you may need to change or explain things when you are speaking to a different group.

7. Simplify or enhance. This is related to tip #6. If you have content that was written for a peer and is very technical, you should simplify it if you want to direct it to an audience that lacks that level of expertise or isn’t interested in those issues. Similarly you may want to take a basic overview of a topic and provide a more sophisticated or in-depth treatment to match your audience. Even among potential clients, different groups have different levels of understanding – for example, CFO vs general counsel vs HR manager. You should also think about a simplified version as a way to help you draw people in. It’s the teaser and those who are more interested in the topic, can be directed to the enhanced version.

Creating content that showcases your expertise and successfully attracts clients is hard work. Hopefully these tips will help you to repurpose all of your content and get the most value out of your investment of time and money.

Do you need help with your own content marketing? Contact us for a free consultation.

No time for content marketing? 7 tips for successfully repurposing your content-Part 1

Content marketing is a proven way to attract and retain clients, but it’s also time-consuming. Fortunately, there are tactics that can help you make the most of every piece of content you create. You can repurpose and repackage your information in myriad ways in order to get more value from it. And best of all, not only will these methods save you time (and money), but they will help you expand your reach and better promote your firm.

The first step is to gather all the content you already have – old presentations, articles, newsletters, blog posts, internal and client memos, research, etc. Then use the tips below to help you revise your existing content to create new material. And going forward, remember to do the same thing with each new piece you create. You should always be thinking – What else can I do with this material? Here are 4 tips to get your started:

1. Slice and dice. Break up your content so that it is easier to read and also more engaging when it’s distributed via social media and email. For example, a longer article can be turned into several blog posts. Edit an audio or video recording into a series of short clips. Take the written portion of a presentation (ex. PowerPoint) and post (in whole or part) on your website as well as share it via social media channels such as LinkedIn and SlideShare.

2. Expand and combine. It is a lot faster to create short pieces of content. But eventually, you should look at merging them into a more in-depth piece. Several related blog posts can be turned into an article, white paper, eBook or presentation giving you a whole new marketing opportunity.

3. Update and revise. Is your older content still current? How much updating does it need? Is the information still helpful to an audience you want to attract? Previously published content can be updated with new developments, citations to more recent sources, case studies, examples, and other commentary to create something new and compelling without having to start from scratch.

4. Create visuals. Develop charts, graphs, images, infographics and video. You can add these components to written content to add impact to the text. However, they can also be used alone to attract interest on your website, social media and emails. A great visual can tell a story in a more engaging way than text and it’s also a way to entice people to want to read more. One study found that articles containing relevant images got 94% more total views than articles without them.

In our next post, we’ll cover 3 more tips to help you get more value out of your content.

Do you need help with your own content marketing? Contact us for a free consultation.