Educating The Customer: Why Content Marketing is the New Trend

Educating the Customer: Why Content Marketing is the New Trend by Sarah Mitchell www.globalcopywriting.com

Goals for today
Explain the shift in consumer spending habits
Define content marketing and describe it’s components
Provide recommendations for a content marketing strategy

Definition Content Marketing: is the art of understanding exactly what your customers need to know and delivering it to them in a relevant and compelling way. CONTENT MARKETING = EDUCATION

What Changed?
Old advertising models are DEAD
Consumer behaviour has changed

Content Marketing Outbound vs. Inbound
Shouting for attention
Push Oriented

Outbound Marketing Techniques
Interruption-based, offline:
TV
Radio
Newspaper
Yellow Pages
Direct Mail
Cold Calling
SPAM email

Why Outbound Marketing No Longer Works
Advances in Technology
The traditional “funnel” sales cycle model is no longer effective
Consumers are doing their own research

Advances in Technology
TiVo
Satellite Radio
RSS Feeds
Privacy Rights
Caller ID
SPAM filters

Sales Funnel no longer effective
Phone Calls
Meetings
Presentations
Evaluation
Sale

July 2009 PQMedia study:
Word of Mouth (WoM) spending expected to grow 10.2% during worst economic recession in 70 years.
Advertising and marketing decline for first time since 1930s
$1.54 billion spent on WoM marketing in 2008
Bridge Ratings Survey
“ Strangers with Experience” trumps:
Teachers
Newspaper/Magazines
TV News Reports
Traditional Advertising

Online Publishers – Internet Activity Index
Monthly “Time Spent” in Internet Activity Table Category 2003 Avg. Time (h:mm) 2009 Avg. Time (h:mm) %Change Content 3:42 6:58 +88% Communications 5:20 4:54 -8% Commerce 2:07 2:40 +26% Community N/A 3.01 N/A Search 0:27 0:57 +111%

Inbound Marketing Permission based, online techniques that are used to draw people to you

Benefits of Content Marketing
Establishes you as an authority
Tailored to your business
Targets key prospects
Contributes to lead nurturing
Positions your solution over your competitors
Asset-based investment you own

3 Components of Inbound Marketing
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Content
Social Media

SEO
25% is on your web page and within your control – KEYWORDS
75% is off your web page and outside your control
Inbound links
External links
Search engine recommendations

Content
People are seeking their own information
The days of self-serving, self-promoting “ blah blah blah ” are over.
Marketing = Publishing

Social Media
Not about tools
“ Conversation without content is mere networking. Content without conversation is just dead content. ” Tipping Point Labs

Content Marketing Strategy
Discover what your prospects want
Find the intersection between your solution and your customer’s information needs
Develop content to address deficiency
Make yourself findable
Give you content legs

Discovery
What are the pains and where are they struggling?
Listening posts
Your personal networks
Twitter searches
Twendz
Twitrrater
Tweetfeel

Develop Your Content
Forget features – make it benefit oriented
Think like a publisher
Support each product or service you offer
Target each type of customer
Consider vertical markets
Use multiple content types
If needed, hire writers

Examples of Original Content
White papers
Case studies
News letters
E-newsletters
Website copy
Ebook
Articles
Blogs
Podcast
Video
Photos
Slide presentations
Glossaries
Buyer’s checklists
Surveys
Brochures
FAQs

Where are you?
Key words, key words, key words
Make it easy for the search engines to find you

Give Your Content Legs
Don’t “post and hope”.
Use social media tools to drive traffic to your website.

Don’t Pay for Attention BUY attention: Advertising BEG for attention: Public Relations BUG people: Sales “ EARN attention online by creating great information that your buyers want to consume such as YouTube videos, blogs, Twitter feeds, photographs, charts, graphs, and ebooks—and it is all free .” David Meerman Scott, Web Ink Now

Always Keep in Mind.... With content marketing you pull them in with your expertise. Don’t push your prospects away by shouting at them. “ You shouldn’t be thinking so much about what to say, but rather what your audience needs to hear. ” – Joe Pulizzi,

Educating The Customer: Why Content Marketing is the New Trend

by Global Copywriting on Mar 29, 2010

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Educating The Customer: Why Content Marketing is the New Trend — Presentation Transcript