inbound & content marketing - metavallon
TRANSCRIPT
How to “blow the lid off” your startup with Content and Inbound Marketing
DIMITRIS AXIOTIS – FIWARE STARTUP BOOTCAMP, BERLIN, MAY 2015
According to Content Marketing Institute
Content Marketing is “a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action”.
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In fact, it is all about storytelling.
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Unknowingly, the average person
receives an average of 360 commercial
messages on a daily basis. We don’t
appreciate advertising any more. We
appreciate organizations that tell nice
stories.
Why content marketing is useful for startups
Startups produce a wealth of useful and valuable information on a day-to-day basis. Publishing this material allows them to:
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Build an active online community and
generate ORGANIC LEADS
Establish brand + product/service
awareness
Create a trustworthy profile
Become opinion leaders
Engage with prospects
“Listen” to their market through their social media
and make a product or service more competitive
A lot cheaper than native advertising
Basis for inbound marketing and
leads generation
Allows modern customer service
operations
Helps companies increase customer
loyalty
Allows access to global
markets from point 0
Is the most efficient way to build a proper
community
In general, the major benefits of content marketing are:
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Example: How they get Customers at MOZ?
~18% of signups come via paid channels (in blue); the rest are via inbound channels
Paid Channels
Inbound
Visitors you can buy. Customers and partners you can never buy.
The “secret” is to educate, inform, entertain people. Oh yes, and make
people feel good.
YOU EARN THEM
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Only quality and informative content will take prospects from top to the bottom of the funnelWhy? Because it is
the most effective way of 1. Creating
prospects and leads
2. Maintaining their interest in your business
3. Making them trust and appreciate you
4. Making them “buy” again or recommend you further.
What “mediums” can be used?
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The core platforms for organizations to implement a content marketing strategy are the blog (+website) and of course the social media channels.
Startups can publish: Blogposts, social media specific posts (comments, images etc), eBooks, Newsletters, infographics, White Papers, interviews, Press Releases, Videos, Surveys, Webinars, Podcasts.
What startups can talk about?
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- “How To’s” for their product or service - Talk about the way they work-Talk about their team - Express opinion on industry trends- Hijack the news by adding extra value and
info.- Answer customer questions- Raise new industry issues- Explain future plans- Provide useful product or industry insights- Give their partners a voice (i.e through guest blogging)
Tools for content & inbound marketing
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For easy email marketing practices
MailChimp
Hootsuite is ideal for enhancing social media
efforts
Visual.ly and Infogram allow users to create infographics
Storify Collects social media
mentions on a chosen topic,
trend, or event
SEOmoz – Enables users to monitor social media, manage SEO campaigns, and more
There are thousands of tools like these on the market. These are proven, very useful and good to start with.
It all starts with having a company blog, well organized social media profiles and a search engine optimized website. A CRM and/or a marketing automation system is important when leads start to multiply quickly.
R
Blogs + Blogging
Comment Marketing
News/Media/PRSEO
Social Networks
Word of Mouth
Q+A Sites
Forums
Online Video
Podcasting
Webinars
Research/White Papers
Infographics
Social Bookmarking
INBOUND MARKETING!(AKA all the “free” traffic sources)
Direct/Referring Links
Type-In Traffic
Local Portals
Every One of These Marketing Tactics
Helps Every Other One
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Lead generation tricks (on websites and social media)
1. Pin messages based on the element of scarcity or the Bandwagon effect.
2. Use CTA’s that rock. Eye-catching and persuasive. Avoid usual wording. Try to trigger people’s senses and feelings.
3. Create landing pages that convert. 4. Use majestic headlines everywhere. 5. Remember that less is more.6. Always encourage social sharing.7. Use progressive profiling when collecting emails.8. Make everything clickable. Even your contact
number!9. Create and send email campaigns with huge value
for your community.
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Go mobile!!!!!!!
Social & Mobile: Why you need to get mobile*
• 78% of Facebook users access via mobile at least once a month
• 60% of Twitter users access via mobile at least once a month
• 67% of users are more likely to purchase a product or service from a mobile-friendly site
• 78% of users want to be able to find what they’re looking for on a mobile site in just one or two clicks • Brand mentions on mobile increased 14.2× from 2012 to 2014, whereas web-based brand mentions
were only up 4× in the same period(*source: Hubspot)
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Your behavior on social media
Audience acquisition is a Marathon. Not a sprint. When it comes to seeing success with social, you need
to develop your available audience with:
• Shareable content
• Excellent social customer care, and
• Visibility-building promotions
However, it’s important not to put too much emphasis on self-promotion or on going ‘viral’.
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Your behavior on social media
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Myths and truths about digital marketing
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Myths about content & inbound marketing
• Content and Inbound Marketing is just a project for growth.
• There is a predefined recipe for success on the social media and some people know it.
• ROI is certain.
• It is only digital nowadays.
• Google+ is useless and a real ghost town.
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More myths…
• Outsourcing inbound marketing will get you from 0 to exactly where you want to go.
• If your whole team is busy with product development, then stick with it.
• Inbound & Content marketing are direct sales techniques.
• A strategy can be made for all different buyer personas.
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Truths….
• Quality content is the only way to make Google love you. Panda algorithm rewards quality, easy to read and digest content on blogs and web pages.
• In collaboration with Penguin algorithm they can ditch your site if content is poor, replicated etc.
• Facebook ditches posts from company pages that never advertise.
• Mobile is the most popular platform. Content should
be optimized accordingly.
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Don’t ignore mainstream media• You have to give them news and staff that interests
their audience.
• Make things easy for them.
• Once you set up a few useful contacts, keep them engaged with valuable material.
• Give them info, stories. Make them feel that you chose them and you give hot insights only to them.
• A simple media outreach strategy may include (1 PR/month, 2 personal emails with plain gossiping, introducing them to selected partners).
How small and big companies use content & inbound marketing
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•Startups to look at:
Prezi Infogram
•Giants to look at::
CISCO Coca Cola
IBM
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THANK YOU!
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