If your content marketing efforts are not producing the results you desire, it’s time to take a good, long look at the type of content you are creating.

Recently I read an article written by Joe Pulizzi of the Content Marketing Institute on branded content versus content marketing and was intrigued by his stance. He was very passionate about making sure we recognized the difference between branded content – which is about positioning the product and/or brand – versus content marketing – which is focused on providing benefit to the reader. It made me think about all the times I’ve had clients become frustrated with their content marketing efforts because they “weren’t working.” The truth is they were not focused on the right things.

The 5 W’s of Content Marketing

If you feel like your content marketing is not working, then it’s time to take a deep dive into the W’s – who, what, when, where and why. These often apply to journalism, but for content marketing they break down like this:

1. Who – obvious, yes. Who is your target?

And not just folks in a certain industry, but everyone who has input into the buying decision. For B2C, it is typically one to two people. For B2B, however, that can be anywhere from three on up. You need to know them all and then create solid personas to reflect their personalities.

2. What – what is the benefit to the target.

Not why your product or service is the best, but what is in it for the target audience. This requires understanding the pain points and your differentiators.

3. When – when do you say “what” you need to say?

In other words, what is the right sequence to walk your target through the benefits of your product or solution to come up as the clear choice to solve their problem?

4. Where – this is distribution. Where is your target audience?

Are you placing content that resonates with them on that platform? Or are you placing the same content on all social media channels and then wondering why it does not resonate?

5. Why – the most important question. Why does my target audience care?

When you read a blog post or review a video, have you answered why? If you have to force the why to fit into your idea of what they want, you have missed the point. Why means they should care what you have to say because it resonates with them, not because you had to explain that new product feature.

If your content is solely focused on your brand, your product, your service or why you are the best, then you have missed the major point of content. It’s about educating and improving the lives of the target audience so they see you as an authority. Your product or service should be the best solution to their issue.

#Content #Marketing 101: Back To the Drawing Board? by @LauraArmbruster #RocksDigital #SmallBiz
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Is it time to refocus your content efforts? Is it back to the drawing board for you?

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It’s interesting to me that for as long as we have been producing content, there is still a question of how long a blog should be, or how many words should be written. I find it interesting simply because the answer seems to be a matter of opinion, or what your target audience supposedly wants. But is that true?

In this visually oriented world we live in, where video seemingly rules, how can there possible be a place for long-form content? After all, people have increasingly shortened attention spans and frankly no time to read. At least, that’s what we keep hearing.

The truth is that your target audience will make time for anything that solves a problem, fills a need or, frankly, is of interest. That equates to content of all shapes and sizes. So how do you decide what to do and how to do it?

5 Easy Tips for Content Length

1. Your Target Audience Decides

If you know that your target wants lots of short, easy to use tips – problem solved. However, if your target is a bunch of research-oriented people, then be prepared to provide robust content.

2. Visually Appealing Always Works

Regardless of the length of content, make it visually appealing. Add white space for ease of reading; add images that are interesting – and relevant, and embed short videos when it makes sense.

3. Remember the Emotions of Buying

People will do a ton of research before buying anything from you, including reading your articles, blogs, watching videos, and reading reviews (very important). Make sure your content fulfills a need, solves a problem and makes your target understand you’re the right choice when they decide to buy.

4. Mash Up for Interest

You don’t have to choose one type of media – use them all. Create a video and put that on your blog. Write a white paper and make sure you have a blog that leads to it. Put together an infographic or other interesting visual. Keep it interesting.

5. Remember It’s Relative

Not as in your cousin, but as in the opinion of your target. This is the most important tip to understand. Would you write the same style content for a very busy, sleep deprived mom that you would for a university physics professor? Probably not. The length of content for your target audience is basically what they think is appropriate. And the only way you will know is to test, and test some more.

The way people research online ensures a place for all types, styles and length of content. The more complex the purchase, the more research they will perform. For example, if someone wants to purchase a book for $7.00, which may not require much research. However, someone researching a major purchase for their organization will be more fastidious in their research and probably will take the time to read a longer form of content.

So stop worrying about the “right” length for your blog or article, and start creating the perfect mix for your target audience to make you their choice when they purchase!

Reading…Great Content Comes in All Sizes! by @LauraArmbruster #RocksDigital #Content #Marketing
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What type or length of content have you found your target audience prefers?

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C.J. Cherryh, author of more than 60 books since the mid-1970’s, summed it up best when she said “It’s perfectly okay to write garbage, as long as you edit brilliantly.”

The craft of writing, particularly online, is always in danger of becoming extinct. Whether it’s lack of attention from readers, who apparently, according to some studies, now have a 9-second attention span, or the power of visuals, the written word seems to no longer be in vogue.

So how do you convey what needs to be said in written format and still hold the audience’s attention? After all, there are times where that dialog is important. The simple truth is you must learn to be a great editor.

Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short. 
~ Henry David Thoreau

Editing is mostly science; brilliant editing is an art. Editing so that the piece left has a beautiful rhythm and resonates with the audience is key. Otherwise, you are hacking out words for no reason.

Good editing first requires an understanding of the target audience. Why are we writing this piece? Why do they care? Then you must keep in mind how to draw them in. For me, that is the rhythm of a piece. It’s like music – it should have a flow that keeps you engaged. You want to “feel” the emotion from the page.

I can’t write five words but that I change seven. ~ Dorothy Parker

Brilliant editing is a system, not just a once-over of a piece to look for typos.

5 Powerful Editing Tips

1. Read it in its entirety. If you do not know what the entire piece says, you cannot edit the beginning to fit the end.
2. Create a knock-out first paragraph. People skim and scan, so make those first few words really count.
3. Make it easy to scan. Scan the entire piece to see if you can understand the meaning without reading every word.
4. Look for flow. Does it flow from one paragraph to the next and from one idea to the next? Transitions are often a weak point in written pieces.
5. Read it out loud. And time yourself. If you stumble over word choices, change them. If you start to feel bored, shorten it. If it takes you too long to read it, make it two pieces.

Writing is not dead; it’s just in need of an adjustment to fit the needs of a very busy, overwhelmed audience. Make the length appropriate for the audience desire and then, make sure you edit brilliantly.

Learning & Applying These 5 Editing Tips! Thanks @LauraArmbruster #RocksDigital #Writing
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What are the steps you take to ensure your writing and editing is top notch?

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Whether you are starting a new marketing campaign, improving an existing one or trying to figure out what has gone wrong with an old campaign, one place to start is your target audience. In spite of all that we know about communicating and creating great content, one area that often needs improvement is the fine-tuning of our target audience. And the best way to do that is to create a persona for every important target audience member.

Personas are semi-fictional representations of the goals and behaviors of your target audience. The trick to creating a really great persona, however, is to have a thorough understanding of your target audience.

How To Build Personas Of Your Target Audience

1. Facts You Have Gathered

Using any information you have gathered during your own marketing and sales process, put together pertinent facts about your target. Keep in mind things like:

• What motivated him or her to buy?
• What type of content did the best with your target?
• Did you find that there was a time frame that they were more motivated to buy?

2. Names Are Important

It may seem silly, but ensuring your persona has a name that is in alignment with the age and demographic of your target audience is important. The name also ensures that the persona becomes “alive,” making it more tangible and real.

3. Demographics

Age, socioeconomic background, where they live, where they work, what kind of car do they drive…all of these questions must be answered and in detail. Don’t just say he drives a sedan or she drives a sports car. Make it real. He drives a Mercedes S-Class or she drives a Lamborghini Diablo. Write down the amount of money they make, disposable income, married, single, kids, no kids and even pets. Make sure to include the number and type (dog, cat, poodle, lab…whatever you think this person would have).

4. Pscyhographics

Describe the persona’s lifestyle, again in great detail. Do they have hobbies? What are their interests? Do they work out? Attend church? Religious preference? Political leanings? Psychographics explain why someone behaves a certain way. It’s the reason someone might choose your product over the competition.

5. Purchase Triggers

This information is easily obtained from customer service departments or sales teams.

• What is it that makes someone want to buy?
• What is the pain?
• Do you solve that pain?
• How?

While this is a little outside the norm for a persona, having this information will ensure you create better content and a better experience for your potential customers.

Personas are not new, and yet we do not use them frequently enough. Without this level of detail it is difficult to really understand your target. Furthermore, you are unable to make any appropriate tweaks or changes to content and future campaigns if you do not have a baseline persona that guides your actions.

Finally, putting this much detail into a target audience profile makes that person come alive for you and your team. This will only improve any marketing and content efforts going forward and keep your target audience in the center of your decision-making process.

Reading how to create personas by @LauraArmbruster #RocksDigital #Marketing #Website
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Have you created a persona before? How did it help your marketing efforts?

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Whether your focus on mobile comes from the recent Google update, sometimes referred to as Mobilegeddon, or simply the knowledge and acceptance that more people access content online from a mobile device, the bottom line is mobile must be considered when creating a content strategy.  With the trend of people wanting longer, richer content you need to know how to create mobile content that is engaging, easy to read and interesting. Let’s explore how to balance the needs of mobile platforms and the reader.

How to Create Mobile Content

1. Use White Space for Good
Content, particularly longer content, requires a solid use of white space. Remember to keep sentences concise, create shorter paragraphs, and sprinkle in bullets to break up the monotony. Also, not every bit of space must be filled, so the use of bold font and headlines can pull a reader in without having to overburden the page or overwhelm the reader.

2. Keep It Interesting
People are simply more interested in something visually stimulating, which is why you must include images and even videos in your content. There are many different types of content you can integrate within your website. When considering how they look on mobile, ensure that you are using simple images that are easy to see on every size screen (and that they will resize automatically based on screen size). Avoid long quotes inside colorful boxes with busy graphics or you risk losing the point you wish to make.

3. Call Out Important Details
Speaking of images, pulling out important details in a quote format, or even a special visual, helps drive the point home while keeping it friendly for mobile consumption. Just make sure it is simple, clean and easy to read.

4. You Have to See It to Believe It
Once a piece is completed, with graphics and images loaded and ready to be seen by the world, take a moment to look at it on every mobile device you have. Ask co-workers and friends to do the same. Answer these questions:

• Is it easy to read?
• Can you scan it and see everything?
• Are the images lined up correctly?
• Is it easy to move between paragraphs and major segments such as headings?
• Is the font correct throughout?
• Is the spacing and alignment correct?

The smaller the screen, the harder it can be to read, so make sure you test it on more than one type of mobile device and more than one brand just to be thorough.

5. Begin with the End in Mind
Starting with a longer piece that works beautifully on your laptop or larger screen will make it difficult to scale down, particularly if all your images are already chosen and loaded. So think about the mobile side first. What will it look like on the smaller screen? Do you need to reconsider the format? Are the images easy to see? Can you navigate easily? If it’s a longer piece, should you consider extra formatting such as navigation to help guide the reader? iPhone screens are pretty small, so thinking about whether your target reader is using that device versus a larger tablet is important since the physical screen size is limited.

Bonus Tip

The most important aspect of developing content for mobile is to understand how your target audience wishes to consume the information. Perhaps writing is not the way to go. If your target audience is visual and loves their tablets, maybe video is the way to go. Perhaps your target audience is truly on the go and constantly moving, then podcasts may be a better choice.

The beautiful thing about content creation is you can choose whatever media you want to house the content and, even better,  you can choose more than one! Just choose the ones that your target audience wants and you’ll have a true, content on the go solution!

Learn How to Create #Mobile #Content by @LauraArmbruster #RocksDigital #Website
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We are all familiar with the infamous leads funnel. You know the one – it starts with getting folks aware of your brand with some basic content and brand awareness strategies, and then guiding them through the funnel to a sale, right? Not really.

You often find that folks talk about the sales funnel as if it stands alone (which it doesn’t) and that people just miraculous trickle to the bottom if you provide them with enough content via social media or drip, or both. However, there is a lot more to it than that.

Moving Through the Sales Funnel to Buyers

First, it takes a lot more information to create awareness, then for them to like what you have to offer and then trust you enough to buy from you. Second, the information must be delivered in the way the person wishes to consume it, rather than how the brand wants it consumed. Third, the information needs to show up at the right time, which is contextual content. Frankly, this can be a tall order, particularly in a highly competitive market.

So what is the “trick” to getting your content in front of your target audience? Frankly, there is no magic trick, but through a series of well-thought-out pieces of content; you can make some solid headway toward that goal. The thing to remember is that the target audience must want to purchase from you, which means your content and information must put them in a buying state.

A buying state is exactly what it sounds like– the emotional and intellectual parameters aligning so that the person is ready to purchase. This can be a pain, a want, a need or a strong desire, but it must be there. Otherwise, while your content may be amazing, it won’t have the desired result – a conversion.

Get Them In the Mood to Buy

When you consider your next campaign or content series, written or visual, remember to include these 5 tips to help get the target audience in more of the buying state.

1. What Keeps Him Up at Night?
   Getting to the root of their pain is an important part of helping a potential buyer know you have considered his issue, and have his best interest in mind.
2. Authoritative Information
   Over 85% of purchasers research an item before they buy, even if it is a small one. Having some strong, authoritative content on the subject will position you as an authority and help differentiate you from the competition.
3. Get Those Testimonials
   Other people will sell your product or service better than you. The third-party expert is key to helping your target audience feel comfortable in purchasing from you.
4. Mix Up the Content
   They want to see, hear, read and experience your brand, so remember that as they are being guided down the funnel, the type of content needs to change, as well as the channel. Short videos, how-to guides, case studies – all of these go hand-in-hand in creating a journey for someone to feel confident in purchasing from you.
5. Show Trust with Guarantees
   One of the quickest ways to eliminate barriers to purchase and get folks in a state to purchase is to provide some type of good guarantee. Minimize the risk, maximize the sale!

The last thing to remember is that it takes consistency (not redundancy) so make sure you are ready to repurpose content, utilizing every last drop to get the word out. The more you are seen, and the more others will provide positive feedback, the faster you can get a potential purchaser into a buying state.

Moving from the #Sales Funnel to the Buying State by @LauraArmbruster #RocksDigital #BizTip
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Is your content converting readers into buyers? Let’s discuss.

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