Content marketing – Gabriel Catalano®

Inbound marketing enamora a los “marketeros”, pero no logran sacarle todo su jugo – vía @MkDirecto

Esta es la táctica de marketing inbound más eficaz pero también la más difícil según una encuesta de profesionales de marketing B2B y B2C de todo el mundo, realizada en septiembre de 2013 por Ascend2 y Research Underwriters.

La automatización del marketing es una técnica para hacer las tácticas de marketing entrantes más estratégicas y complementarias, así como reducir la cantidad de las conjeturas de marketing inbound, pero la encuesta encontró que pocos emplearon la automatización de marketing. Sólo el 16% de B2C y el 14% de B2B informaron mediante la automatización de marketing para gestionar su marketing inbound. A pesar de esto, más del 40% de ambos tipos de empresas emplean la automatización de marketing de forma limitada, lo que indica que el consumo podría aumentar en un futuro próximo.

El 45% de los marketeros calificaron su estrategia de marketing inbound como un gran éxito frente a sólo el 9% de los marketeros con un fracasado marketing entrante.

El estudio encontró también que la integración es un factor clave que distingue el éxito del fracaso. De hecho, el 67% de las empresas que lograron buenos resultados de marketing inbound habían integrado el programa de marketing inbound, frente al 9% de los exitosos que no lo había integrado.

Digital Marketing Roadmaps – Vía @intersection1

Are you a fan of those BIG strategic reports? You know… the ones that never get read, gather cobwebs at the back of your filing cabinet or get used to keep the door to your office propped open.

You will be happy to know that your Intersection Digital Marketing Road Map will be presented in a visual, concise and easy to read format.

You will receive a straightforward, no-nonsense plan that includes sets of strategies, tactics and objectives for your organization to work through over a six to twelve month period.

The following areas make up the framework that’s used to design your digital road map:

Research
Planning
Implementation
Management
Measurement

The end result is a manageable plan that is customized to your specific marketing and communication needs – and takes into account the capacity of your organization.

Content marketing deserves a prominent place in your business operations

We know how important it is for small businesses to create killer content. For many small business owners, however, the idea of content creation is a daunting one. And why not? Blogging isn’t always easy, especially if you don’t have the manpower or in-house talent to help craft your content. When times are tough for small businesses and money is tight, allocating resources to content creation doesn’t necessarily seem like the smartest move, does it?

BY: BRENT BARNHART | chamberofcommerce.com

With this sort of mentality, it’s easy to let content marketing slide on your list of priorities. It may be more appropriate to think of a business’ content as an entity that does most of its work “behind the scenes.” While an article or two every few months won’t rake in the dough for the average small business, a steady stream of blogs and articles will develop a flux of new visitors and increased web traffic; such traffic ultimately leads to, well, leads.

Still, many skeptics continue to see the benefits of content marketing as somewhat of a fairytale. Where’s the proof? What’s the point? Where are the numbers?

The numbers do indeed exist, and here are some points for starters:

91% of business-to-business marketers are now using content marketing.
Businesses that blog actively generate 67% more leads per month versus those that don’t.
79% of businesses are using content marketing for brand awareness, 74% for customer acquisition and 71% for lead generation.

What can we take away from such statistics?

Nearly every business today is taking part in some form of business blogging or content creation.
The more a business blogs, the more likely they are to create new leads.
Businesses are creating content for multiple purposes, not just to draw in leads or sell a product.

In short, most businesses are blogging and they’re seeing results. If your business isn’t blogging, chances are that you’re part of the minority. Furthermore, there’s a good chance that your competitors are creating content and therefore leaving your business a step behind.

There’s plenty we can take away from 2012 in terms of content marketing that will put small businesses on the right foot heading into 2013. Whether your business has already developed a content marketing strategy or you’re just getting started, take the following four tips into consideration. The marketing world is one which changes rapidly; staying ahead of the curve will help maximize your returns in terms of content creation.

Diversify Your Content

Continuar leyendo

Is Content King? Thomson Reuters Editor And Taboola CEO Say — «Maybe»

See on Scoop.it – Gabriel Catalano human being | #INperfeccion® a way to find new insight & perspectives

Imagine you knew you could write the best article of your life, but no one would ever read it. Would you bother?I asked Dan Colarusso, Global Head of Programming of Thomson Reuters, this question over breakfast in New York’s West Village a week ago. If there’s anyone who understands content, it’s Dan – given his background in infusing content with passion for a host of companies including Bloomberg, New York Post, and Condé Nast’s Portfolio.com, the place where his content vision first came together.

Like most meetings that involve an editor sitting down with someone who lives and dies by RPM and PageViews, we took turns constructively challenging one another: Content or Distribution? Quality or Quantity? Desktop or Mobile? Demo-targeting or intent-based content marketing? Continuar leyendo «Is Content King? Thomson Reuters Editor And Taboola CEO Say — «Maybe»»

How To Kick-Start Blog Content

>>>>Related Articles

Whether you’re still planning to start a blog or want to revive an old blog, you need a kick-start to help you get on the winning path. The most important element of your blog is your content. To kick-start blog content, you just need to read on and apply the tips that will be mentioned in this article. It’s now time to get started.

Research

Research is the most critical part if you want to kick-start blog content and create effective blog posts that will attract a lot of traffic. You basically need to know everything that’s going on in your niche along with what kind of audience you want to reach.

Also, you need to see the kind of competition you have and look at the most popular blogs in your niche. Take stock of current trends, news and events. Also, look at what readers are sharing and linking. Determine the most common concerns of your audience. Once you have done your research, you will be able to know what kind of content you need to create.

Determine the Most Common Questions from Readers

After the first step, you probably already have an idea of the topics readers are trying to learn about. The next step is determining the exact questions that most of these readers are asking. You need to find specific questions that most of your audience is asking.

A little online research can get you on the right track. Look at online forums and discussions regarding your niche and you will know what kind of questions are the most common. To kick-start blog contenteffectively, you need to know what kind of questions you should be answering.

Answer Those Questions Continuar leyendo «How To Kick-Start Blog Content»

Active vs. Passive Content Marketing | ioninteractive.com

BY SCOTT BRINKER

According to the latest research from the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, 91% of B2B marketers have embraced content marketing. In fact, on average, B2B marketers are now allocating 1/3 of their budget for content marketing initiatives.

Marketers are making a big bet that content marketing tactics will deliver the outcomes they need: brand awareness, customer acquisition, and lead generation. These are their top organizational goals:

Brand awareness is important, but hard to quantify. However, customer acquisition and lead generation can be quantitatively measured. And indeed, more and more organizations are now tying these metrics directly to their content marketing initiatives. The top 5 measurement criteria for B2B content marketing success — with the customer acquisition and lead generation metrics emphasized — are:

Web traffic (60%)
Sales lead quality (51%)
Social media sharing (45%)
Sales lead quantity (43%)
Direct sales (41%)

So how well are marketers doing at achieving their goals with content marketing? Unfortunately, not as well as they would like. Only 36% of B2B marketers believe they are effective at content marketing — down from 40% last year.

Part of the challenge is creating great content. But great content is only the starting point.

To harness that content for customer acquisition and lead generation, marketers have two other responsibilities: distribution and value capture. Much has been written about how to distribute content with social, search, and paid campaigns. But ways of effectively capturing value with content marketing have received less attention. I’m only half-joking when I say that content marketing plans sometimes look like this:

Create amazing content.
???
Get more leads and sales.

When you author terrific content and successfully deliver it to the right audience, you have accomplished value creation. You have given your prospects and customers something of value. Depending on how it’s presented — do the people consuming the content clearly associate your company with the value delivered? — this achieves the first goal of building brand awareness.

But in the crowded and noisy digital marketplace, and in the busy lives of most prospects, that brand moment is fleeting. The question for marketers — and frankly, many prospects — is: what happens next?

Active vs. Passive Content Marketing >>> Continuar leyendo «Active vs. Passive Content Marketing | ioninteractive.com»

How a New “Influencer” App Could be Your Most Powerful Content Marketing Weapon

By JOE CHERNOV
Content Marketing Institute

Last week, a member of a private Facebook group comprised of social media professionals asked if anyone could supply a list of influential event marketers. So far, only two names have been suggested. Yet in the past 90 seconds, I identified 297. Or, more accurately, Little Bird, a newly launched start-up founded by former ReadWriteWeb editor Marshall Kirkpatrick, did.

Little Bird is essentially a search engine for influencers, but unlike services such as Klout that assign a “reputation score” to people, Kirkpatrick’s tool starts with a topic and, based on Byzantine connections throughout the social graph surrounding the issue, works backward to the “insiders” who are most influential about that particular subject.

Take “content marketing,” for example. Little Bird tells me Content Marketing Institute’s Joe Pulizzi tops the list of influencers, followed by Michael Brenner, Lee Odden, C.C. Chapman and myself. Of course, naming the “known” people is the easy part. After all, Pulizzi runs this blog, Brenner and I were up for content marketer of the year, and Odden and Chapman have both written books on the subject. But Little Bird’s algorithm does more than surface the obvious. For example, it tells me that since making a move to OpenView Labs, Kevin Cain has begun making a name for himself in content marketing; that Deana Goldasich and Robert Rose have risen to prominence by listening to the right voices; and that nearly everything Cheryl Burgess tweets gets shared broadly.

In other words, Little Bird might just become a content marketer’s most powerful weapon, because it addresses the practitioner’s three most pressing needs: more content, better content, and wider distribution.

Better content (full story)

Why Your Content Must Spring Legs and Walk Around The World

See on Scoop.it – Gabriel Catalano the name of the game

This piece is from Convince&Convert, I selected it because it addresses a challenge that those of us who create or curate content face on a daily basis – how do we make our content socialable?

Here’s an excerpt:

We know how difficult it can be to find balance between intrigue and usefulness. We understand that it is much easier to talk about or simply develop a tool than it is to create a talkable tool.

Meanwhile, there is a realization that we need to develop a hybrid content marketing solution – one that is social and has substance.

Socialable content has to invite discussion, create a call to action, while informing people.

Here are some highlights:

Give your content youtility:

**Answer common questions. Does your website have a FAQ section?
**Why not translate that into useful, shareable content?
**Ask your consumer base what they need. What better way to find out what appeals to your customers than simply asking them.

Make Your Content Talkable:

**Make your content human. Sometimes utilities can fall flat if we don’t offer a way to show how they can and have impacted others
**Provide testimonials and attach real stories to your utilities so your audience can identify with their purpose.
**Add bits of entertainment, humor, fun. Is your content just boring?
**Give it elements that people would actually want to share and talk about. Simply add the ability to share. Creating something useful is more than half the battle. Often times, we just forget to let our audience spread the word. Continuar leyendo «Why Your Content Must Spring Legs and Walk Around The World»

Content Marketing Zen: The 5-Step Process to Creating Remarkable Content

socialmouths.com

Kick-ass social media advice for the real entrepreneur.

This is a guest post by Gregory Ciotti, founder of Sparring Mind.

It likely comes as no surprise to you that content marketing is on the rise.

From getting more exposure to your business to creating a ‘cult of personality’ that later serves to drive an entire business, creating remarkable content is the surest road to generating brand exposure and creating goodwill among prospective customers.

The question is then, just how does one go about creating content that is “worthy of remark“?

Most of us know great content when we see it, and can even create some ourselves from time to time, but it can be tough to envision what our “process” really looks like if we haven’t though about it.

Today I’m happy to introduce you to what I call the “Content Marketing Zen” process of creating remarkable content.

I’d like to think this 5-step process cuts out the fluff and time-wasting stages of creating great content, and gets down the essentials of researching, positioning, forming, creating, and promoting of the kind of content that builds businesses.

So let’s get into it!

Visualizing the Content Marketing Zen Process

I love it when information (of any variety) gives me a breakdown of what I’m about to learn.

This introduction prepares me for key points and keeps me interested, when I’m faced with a wall of text, I quickly lose focus and interest (as I’m sure that you do).

That’s why I wanted to start off this post with a pretty little infographic that gives a great outline of the 5-step process of creating great content and prepares you for what you’re about to learn.

Feel free to share it on your own site by using the embed code below the graphic.

The 5-Step Process to Creating Remarkable Content

1.) Researching Your Content

“If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?”

— Albert Einstein

If you want to provide comprehensive, fresh, and unique content, you’re going to need to start with step 1: research.

Research typically entails gathering data for your post that you can present in a way that either generates new insight or compliments tactics that you are about to go over.

For instance, on my post covering how bloggers can use YouTube, I gave information on the growth of the YouTube userbase over the years.

In addition to this more “standard” form of research, I also sought out a variety of YouTube tactics from across the full spectrum of YouTube users, from large YouTube partners to companies using YouTube to even other blogger’s uses of the platform.

I did this research because although I had a fair amount of information to share about YouTube, I wanted to make sure I was covering things in a fresh perspective and that I was offering a complete picture for how to effectively use the platform.

Francisco himself offers us a great example of doing good “research” in his latest post onFacebook for WordPress.

I say “research” because I don’t want folks thinking that they have to dive into academic papers (like I sometimes do) or slog through a huge slew of boring statistical charts just to come up with new content.

Research simply means that you are taking the time out to be informed before posting.

In Francisco’s example, he gives a step by step analysis of all of the new features of the Facebook plugin for WordPress, goes over installation and even gives his final thoughts on its usefulness.

If you are going to create content that has massive amounts of utility (read: provides value), you must do your own due diligence to make sure the information you are about to publish is up to snuff.

2.) Positioning Your Content

When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion.

— Dale Carnegie Continuar leyendo «Content Marketing Zen: The 5-Step Process to Creating Remarkable Content»

The New Alchemy: 3 Tips that Can Turn PowerPoint into Content Gold | Parte (3)

The basics: Make your slides viewable or downloadable online, using SlideShare or Acrobat formats

The easiest and most basic way to use presentations in content marketing is to place a downloadable PDF (Acrobat) file in an article or post, or to use a public slide sharing service to embed the slides into your web pages or posts.

PDF. Most presentation programs now offer a “Save as PDF” option that will produce a ready-to-view file that will work with just about any desktop or mobile device. When saving a file for viewers to look at, use this option rather than uploading the PowerPoint presentation itself, since Acrobat Reader is a much more universal viewing application than PowerPoint.

By MICHAEL KOLOWICH | contentmarketinginstitute.com

For many centuries and across cultures — long before chemistry was a science — alchemists pursued a famous quest: to turn common lead into gold. This ancient challenge piqued the interest of luminaries as notable as Leonardo da Vinci, Sir Isaac Newton, Albertus Magnus, and countless others. But except for the brief experiments of a Nobel laureate in the 1950s, the goal of making common materials into precious metals has proven elusive.

Marketers: Searching for nuggets

Today’s marketers are pursuing a different kind of gold: the educated and ready-to-buy prospect. Much has been written here about the critical importance of fresh, original content to attract potential buyers, make them smarter, and move them closer to a choice that favors our products or services. Continuar leyendo «The New Alchemy: 3 Tips that Can Turn PowerPoint into Content Gold | Parte (3)»

4 Ways to Tell if You’re Getting the Right Visitors to Your Business Blog

You’re not done studying your site analytics, yet. Next, take a look at the search terms that are driving traffic to your site.

If you sell sofa-beds, but are posting about — and getting search hits for — your dog rescue efforts, you’re probably not using your blog effectively as a marketing tool. Rescuing pets is certainly commendable, but the people visiting your site to read about how you saved Shadow aren’t likely to shell out for a sleeper sofa.

If many of your most popular website search terms are for terms that are only tangentially (or not at all) related to your core business, it’s time to start thinking more strategically about creating content that relates to your business goals. Start a secondary blog for the side project or hobby that’s bringing in keyword traffic, and focus your main site on content based around keywords that your target consumers are likely to be searching for.

By KATHRYN HAWKINS | contentmarketinginstitute.com

When you’re looking at your business blog metrics, it’s always nice to see high traffic. But the number of visitors your site receives is just a small part of the picture. What’s even more important? Finding out whether your visitors are truly engaging with your content — and, even more importantly, if your site visitors are viable sales prospects.

Try these strategies for assessing whether your content marketing efforts are reaching the right audiences.

Analyze your referral traffic sources

Most business sites receive traffic from a mix of referring sources, which might include social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter; social bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon, Digg, or Reddit; and links from websites on similar topics.

Social bookmarking sites often send the most traffic — in fact, StumbleUpon accounts for more than half of all U.S.-based social media traffic, according to a recent report. But, even when the numbers are high, you may not be reaching the audience you’re seeking.

Consider the common audience demographics of your referral traffic sources: If you run a business-to-business site, does traffic from individual-focused sites like StumbleUpon and Digg fit your mission, or should you focus your promotional efforts on business networking sites like LinkedIn? Continuar leyendo «4 Ways to Tell if You’re Getting the Right Visitors to Your Business Blog»

4 Post Headlines that are Guaranteed to Get Readers Excited

This is a guest post by Gregory Ciotti.

So, your content marketing and blogging efforts are falling flat on their face, are they? Your posts must be terrible. They aren’t getting shared or read by anyone, so they must be garbage…

Or maybe you just don’t know how to catch people’s attention.

When it comes to creating highly popular, viral posts for marketing and blog promotion purposes, we all know that the cornerstone is amazing content and excellent information. We also all know the importance of getting traffic to our blogs in order to convert people over to subscribers and potential customers. That’s nothing new.

Image copyright Andres Rodriguez – Fotolia.com

But did you know that there are four ways to change your posts on-site to further fuel the viral fire?
Most likely, you are already writing awesome posts, and the only reason that they aren’t getting read is because nobody is enticed enough to click through.

Without a single additional guest post or traffic generating method, you can increase the virility of your blogs posts and content marketing efforts with the simplest of changes: what you name them.

http://www.problogger.net

This is a guest post by Gregory Ciotti.

So, your content marketing and blogging efforts are falling flat on their face, are they? Your posts must be terrible. They aren’t getting shared or read by anyone, so they must be garbage…

Or maybe you just don’t know how to catch people’s attention.

Image copyright Andres Rodriguez – Fotolia.com

But did you know that there are four ways to change your posts on-site to further fuel the viral fire?Most likely, you are already writing awesome posts, and the only reason that they aren’t getting read is because nobody is enticed enough to click through.

Without a single additional guest post or traffic generating method, you can increase the virility of your blogs posts and content marketing efforts with the simplest of changes: what you name them.

Creating headlines that nobody can resist

The biggest change you can make on-site to get your posts to go viral is to make sure people are actually clicking on them.

That sounds basic, but so few bloggers and content marketers pay close attention to post titles when, in reality, it can be the most important part of the post … at least when it comes to getting people to read it.

Your headline is your first impression, and if you don’t get it right, people are going to pass over even the most excellent of content—all because you lost them at the start. As a blogger or an entrepreneur, it is time for you to stop letting that happen.

So what are the four best ways to structure your titles to ensure your posts go viral?

1. The “intrigue” style headline

This is the headline that makes people do a double take when they read it. That makes them wonder, “What is this guy/gal talking about? How can that even be possible?”

Intrigue is one of the most effective ways of creating a viral post.

Imagine this… Continuar leyendo «4 Post Headlines that are Guaranteed to Get Readers Excited»

5 Tips to Better Optimize Your PPC Budget

Whether you are trying to acquire new customers, generate more leads, or simply sell the product, paid advertising can come to your rescue. The advantage of paid advertising is that people are alreadysearching for your product/service. As opposed to conventional marketing, a paid search audience already has the intent to buy or learn more about your product.

Apart from the benefit of having qualified traffic, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising has many other positives. First off, it is easy to start. Setting up your account is simple; you can start off with a budget that you are comfortable spending. Secondly, PPC offers flexibility. You can test out different versions of ad copy, headlines, and call-to-actions. Lastly, paid ads are great way for increasing brand awareness. Even if people don’t click on your ad, just showing up in the search results for your key terms builds trust factor and brand recognition.

However, there are challenges involved in paid advertising. With more marketers turning to PPC advertising, the paid search space is becoming competitive.

http://451heat.com

However, there are challenges involved in paid advertising. With more marketers turning to PPC advertising, the paid search space is becoming competitive. Continuar leyendo «5 Tips to Better Optimize Your PPC Budget»

5 Lessons from Coca Cola’s New Content Marketing Strategy

Coca Cola has been part of popular culture for over 100 years and has been called a “Vision Brand“.

Its marketing and communication is purposeful and connects with its audience in a way that makes it stand out from its competitors.

Its mission is not about selling products but to create significant positive change in the world that makes the world a better place.

Coca Cola’s mission statement

To refresh the world
To inspire moments of optimism and happiness
To create value and make a difference
Recently they have realised that their marketing strategy that has worked well for them for decades needed to evolve and as such they are moving from “Creative Excellence” to “Content Excellence”

Creative excellence has always been at the heart of Coca Cola’s advertising and they have decided that content is now the key to marketing in the 21st century on a social web.

Content for Coca Cola is is now the “Matter” and “Substance” of “Brand Engagement”

So what can we learn from Coca Cola’s new marketing strategy?

Written by Jeff Bullas
http://www.jeffbullas.com/2012/01/30/5-lessons-from-coca-colas-new-content-marketing-strategy/

-.-

Coca Cola has been part of popular culture for over 100 years and has been called a “Vision Brand“.

Its marketing and communication is purposeful and connects with its audience in a way that makes it stand out from its competitors.

Its mission is not about selling products but to create significant positive change in the world that makes the world a better place.

Coca Cola’s mission statement

To refresh the world
To inspire moments of optimism and happiness
To create value and make a difference

Recently they have realised that their marketing strategy that has worked well for them for decades needed to evolve and as such they are moving from “Creative Excellence” to “Content Excellence”

Creative excellence has always been at the heart of Coca Cola’s advertising and they have decided that content is now the key to marketing in the 21st century on a social web.

Content for Coca Cola is is now the “Matter” and “Substance” of “Brand Engagement”

So what can we learn from Coca Cola’s new marketing strategy?

Lesson 1: Create Liquid Content

The purpose of content excellence is to create “Ideas” so contagious that they cannot be controlled this is what is called “liquid content”.

On a social web people can easily share ideas, videos and photos on social networks such Facebook.

So create content that begs to be shared whether that be an image, a video or an article.

Lesson 2: Ensure your Content is Linked… Continuar leyendo «5 Lessons from Coca Cola’s New Content Marketing Strategy»

Social Rabbit here with your guide to the world of social media.

You may have noticed a theme this week in the blog posts…. they are all on the theme of posting. The reason? Today is the launch of my new ebook – 365 ways to grow your Facebook page. And you have guessed it, it is all about the posting.

Then today I found this awesome chart….
content marketing problems

content marketing problems
Proving to me that yes producing the right content that engages is a challenge for 41% of people, and then producing enough content is a challenge for 20% of people.

So for 61% of you guys reading this my new ebook will help you 🙂

http://www.socialrabbit.net

Then today I found this awesome chart….

content marketing problems
Proving to me that yes producing the right content that engages is a challenge for 41% of people, and then producing enough content is a challenge for 20% of people.

So for 61% of you guys reading this my new ebook will help you 🙂 Continuar leyendo «Social Rabbit here with your guide to the world of social media.»