blogging and content marketing for business | fort wayne social media summit

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Blogging and Content Marketing for BusinessGreater Fort Wayne, Inc.Social Media Summit – August 14, 2013

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http://www.cirrusabs.com/

http://www.facebook.com/cirrusabs


http://www.twitter.com/cirrusabs

http://www.youtube.com/user/cirrusabs

http://www.linkedin.com/companies/cirrus-abs

Why am I here?

I love online marketing!

I love solving problems!

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Why your business should be blogging?

How can you convince your boss you should be blogging?

How am I supposed to blog?

Why are You Here?

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You Want More Customers

You Want Existing Customers to Use You More Often to Solve Problems

You Want to Extract More Value from Your Existing Effort

You Want Former Customers to Come Back

What are Typical Your Business Challenges?

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It’s How Your Customers Look for Answers

• As far back as 2010 the Yellow Pages’ own research showed that search engines were the primary method customers used to find local businesses (eMarketer.com).

• We had a local customer who did their own research using phone number tracking and found that website-generated local leads outstripped their Yellow Pages-generated leads by 80% (Cirrus ABS blog).

Why Should You Be Blogging?

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It’s How Your Customers Look for Answers

• 81% of U.S. online consumers trust information and advice from blogs. (Source: BlogHer “Women and Social Media Study”)• eMarketer.com projected by 2013 that 128 million people in the US (over 1/3 of total population) will be blog readers. (Source:MyMarketingDept. “B2B Smalll Business Blogging”)


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It’s How You Engage Existing Customers

What does “Field of Dreams” have to do with content marketing?

“People will come, Ray.” Terrance Man told Ray people will give you money without thinking about it – it ‘s never as easy as the movies, but if you produce quality content on a regular basis, traffic will most certainly show up.


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Business who blogged 16-20 times per month received over 2x more traffic than those who blogged four or less times per month. Business who blogged over 20 times per month received 5x more traffic than those who blogged four or less times per month. (Source: HubSpot “Lead Generation Lessons from 4,000 Businesses”)


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When eConsultancy asked about what consumer would consider the ultimate customer experience they found:• 97% of those surveyed said an online experience w/ product or brand influenced a purchasing decision• 65% said that an online experience changed their perception of the product/brand


• 58% were more likely to tell a friend about a relevant online customer experience• 73% were willing to consider purchasing product/brand again• 89% were ready to switch to a competitor after a negative experience (Source: eConsultancy)

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It’s a Flexible Platform for Promoting Your Knowledge

When investing time and effort into developing content, you need to effectively leverage what you produce to maximize your investment!

Companies that blog have 97% more inbound links (Source: HubSpot “The State of Inbound Marketing 2010”)


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It’s How to Drive Former

Prospects to New Offerings

Any prospect requires multiple touch points to convert a sale, past customers require focused, individualized attention.

Ongoing content marketing provides former customs a path back in to stay apprised of your solutions to the challenges they still experience.


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Are They Willing to be Wrong?

Data is the single point of failure of all marketing campaigns. PERIODIs your boss willing to accept that he might be wrong when presented with data?

Are You Willing to be Wrong?We are making a number of assumptions today – you need to do your own research.If you aren’t willing to stand behind your recommendations, why should your boss?

How Do I Convince My Boss I Should Be Blogging?

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Ready-made MetricsWhat your analytics package can tell you about what you’re trying to do:Attract new customers• New visitors vs. returning customers• Traffic sourceEngage existing customers• New visitors vs. returning visitorsLeverage your resources• Landing page to track source of direct traffic• Time of Day on Site

How Do I Convince My Boss I Should Be Blogging?

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What are the Pros Doing?

A good place to start is to see what others are doing. As a student journalist we were taught imitation is the highest form of flattery.

How Should You Be Blogging?

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Boeing - www.boeingblogs.com/randy/

Who is blogging?

What are they blogging about?

What perspective do they give you?


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Target Corporation – pulse.target.com

Who is blogging?


How does this help them?


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Google – googleblog.blogspot.com

What platform are they using?

What do they blog about?

Do they get across the message?


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Vera Bradley - www.verabradley.com/blog

Who is doing the blogging?


Who are they speaking to?


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Visit Fort Wayne - www.visitfortwaye.com/blog/

Who is doing the blogging?


How does this help them?


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Some Quick Tips to Get Started

Have a strategyI could say, “Go forth and blog plentifully” but it’s not clear that’s going to help you. Even organizations that blog on a wide variety of topics have a strategy driving that tactic.

Figure out your strategy and connect it to your marketing plan before you start writing with abandon – it will provide you more value over the long run.


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Make it mobile-friendlyInternet users are consuming information on the go more than ever before, and blogs are no exception. Get ahead of the curve rather than try to catch up later and start with a blog that can be read on mobile devices.

Mobile device usage growth 26% of all organic searches from mobile devices in Q2 2013 (Source: RKG).


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Fill in the blanksThere are many small things you MUST do when adding pages to a blog to maximize the time you spend there. Don’t publish a page unless you have:

Page TitleMETA DescriptionH1ALT text for images (did you forget an image?)


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Types of ContentThere are many different ways to classify content, I went with something simple – keep in mind a blog post may be more than one of these types!

• Brand identity/awareness• Lure/Trigger• Sales Path (Product Awareness/Testimonial)• Action• Retention


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Types of ContentBrand identity/awarenessThis type of content is important no matter who you are trying to address but will be most popular with those you are trying to maximize. They like your brand and the more good feelings you send their way the more opportunities you give them to talk about you to their friends.


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Types of ContentLure/triggerSimply put, you have something they want so they’re going to give you something for it. Infographics, webinars, any sort of knowledge capital or technology you’ve condensed into a consumable format can fall under the lure.

This type of content is a great way to attract prospects and catch the eye of those who used to do business with you.


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Types of ContentSales PathAnyone investigating an opportunity to do business with you is going to do some research. Sales path content helps that prospect learn more about what you do, how you do it, and why you do it that way.

This type of content is focused primarily on attracting new customers.


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Types of ContentActionFollow us on Twitter! / Like us on Facebook!Add us to your Circle! / Sign up for our Newsletter!

These are usually incorporated into a call to action, but it’s not a bad idea to call out other ways people can process your content, especially if there is something compelling about what you do on that channel!


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Types of ContentRetentionThis content is for the fanboi, those people who love your brand and you’re hoping to keep around. It can be about the latest features, the newest toys, the greatest tour.

Whatever it is that you do that people love you for, retention content gives the addicts a taste to keep them coming back for more.


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cirrusabs.comfacebook.com/cirrusabstwitter.com/cirrusabsyoutube.com/user/cirrusabslinkedin.com/companies/cirrus-abs

A strategic approach to consistent content generation will make a positive impact on your bottom line.

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derekpillie.comfacebook.com/dpillietwitter.com/dpillieyoutube.com/dpillielinkedin.com/in/dpillie

Thank you for your time!

You can find me blogging at…

www.cirrusabs.com/blog

www.hoosieraccess.com/

Your blog?#fwsms










blogging and content marketing for business | fort wayne social media summit

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