Business & Marketing Strategy
Here's how I'm going to spend the next few weeks:
I suggest you do the same (apart from maybe the music bit.)
If you've got last minute questions before the end of the year drop me an email and let's chat. Otherwise, have a fabulous Christmas and New year and I'll see you all in 2014.
America's a big place - like - really big - you could lose my small island from the north sea inside a single state - a few times!
Big used to be good but then, things changed.
Image by Linh Nguyen - click for larger version - it's pretty awesome!
When the internet arrived, size became less advantageous than speed, flexibility, accessibility and hell even relateability (if that's even a word!) The playing field got leveled a little and small business owners started punching well above their weight.
The last decade saw an explosion in promotional material as everyone competed for attention in a massively distributed and always connected world. Smart hucksters gamed the algorithm, marketing became untrustworthy, Spam became a verb and everyone struggled to get their message out in compelling bite size pieces.
We're still there - the frequency model is still the primary traffic driver, particularly if you're starting out, however, there's a shift taking place and as with everything in life it involves the pendulum swinging back the other way.
There's a school of thought (and some data) that posits that if you tracked the efficacy of one big piece of content against multiple small pieces of content - produced from the same human being in the same amount of time, the big content will convert better than the multiple pieces of small content. What do you think about that?
I think people are looking for quality, they're looking for value, they're looking for something that doesn't waste their time and that rewards their attention. I think it's really hard to produce good quality short form content over time and that most small business owners are too busy running their operations to be able to devote their time and attention to this kind of marketing.
I think there's a need for frequency marketing and I think it can be outsourced and managed just like any aspect of your business - we've proved this in a number of clients.
I think the production of longer form or "Big" content, call it an eBook, a white paper, a slideshow, an info-graphic, a video, whatever the form, that is produced with your full attention and focus, that has real value and actually helps your customers and clients, is going to become an essential part of your marketing.
Get in touch here and lets chat.
Image Credit: Linh Nguyen
Written while listening to this:
Hunting down some serious content strategy!
You're a hunter (think Africa, tall grass, khakis!) it's nighttime, you're in the back of the truck, rifle cocked staring into the veld. Suddenly there's movement, your eye locks on, something's out there but you don't know what - yet!
In our little analogy up there it wasn't an animal, the prey, that caught your attention - it was the movement, the change in the environment that grabbed you.
When you first start out with a content strategy, the most noticeable thing is when you publish. That's when you appear in my inbox, my RSS or Twitter feed, my Facebook wall, wherever. The more frequently you publish, the more likely it is that I will notice you and then actually look at what you posted.
The bread and butter blog post nowadays tends to look like this newsletter:
It's like this because it reflects a balance between the need to publish, the time it takes to produce something of worth, the length of time someone is prepared to spend reading your content and the SEO benefits from things like meta titles and tags.
When you work with me, it's one of the first things you'll learn how to do.
There's this thing called "Big Content" that's going to become more and more important and might just suit some of you better. In essence it's about producing something that's much "meatier," that takes longer to produce but that has a longer shelf life. More on this next week.
Got questions? Contact me here and let's chat.
Written while listening to: SAmi's Theme | Music to Create Flow - 31 views
Image Credit: Freddy Hutton Bush Trip Kenya 1938 The white hunter - Robin Hutton - Flickr
...if you do the work!
Mobile, Location - Mobile, Location - Mobile, Location - Mobile, Location - Mobile, Location -
See the three kids above? I want you to imagine that they're spinning round singing, possessed by some unseen force and the words coming out of their mouths with unstoppable repetition...
"Mobile, Location - Mobile, Location - Mobile, Location - ..." (repeat ad infinitum)
There - that should nail the message home!
Go write a blog post about where your office is, tell people how to get there - the address, the cross streets and especially the neighborhood and zip code. For extra points talk about why you chose the neighborhood, how long you've been there - what you like about it, the parking, the restaurants etc.
Take some photos of your office from the outside and publish them with the blog post, if you're using Squarespace, geotag the post, at the very least write the image alt description to include the location.
If you have no idea what that last bit means - get in touch, you could use some help.
Happy Halloween!
Written while listening to: Sunhat - For SAmi - Music to Create Flow 29 views
Image Credit: Three Girls Dance - Dread Pirate Jeff - Flickr
I have to write - it's part of my job. Explaining content strategy through text and imagery is how I get people to give me their money.
You however are probably too busy buying, selling, mentoring, managing, cooking, training, lawyering, whatever it is you do that people give you money for- to sit down and write the kind of quality copy needed for good marketing content.
So - what do you do to fill your digital footprint with awesomeness?
1/ Interviews
Have someone interview you about different aspects of your business. Super easy content - you don't need to get all creative, you just answer questions - hell you could even turn it into a series and include other staff members.
2/ Get someone else to write for you
You'll likely need a budget for this one but if you have that kind of resource there are plenty of experts out there who can write knowledgeably and interestingly about your business
3/ Re-purpose existing content
Got a business manual, a brochure, existing PR stuff you've had printed for years? Have them re-written in web and customer friendly language.
Takeaway
The point is - you're going to have to push something into your digital footprint in order for people to connect with you. Just because you don't have time or don't enjoy writing marketing copy doesn't mean that it can't be done.
If you're stuck for content ideas or would just like to get your marketing rolling again - get in touch and let's chat.
Written while listening to: Essay Writing Music - Music to Create Flow - 32 views
Image Credit: Music to Write to - music2work2
I just ran an awareness campaign on Facebook for a client and here are the takeaways:
Having said that - we're now close to 7,000 likes in a couple of months and the whole thing has been a resounding success.
If you've got the time and resource to invest in growing your Facebook business page and then maintaining it - you can have a much deeper and immediate relationship with your customers than you will on any other network.
However - it's really time and money intensive and you'll be building a community inside Facebook's walled garden. My experience is that for smaller businesses it's better to build around your website and grow your email list than it is to feed the Facebook beast. When you've got enough marketing resource to throw a couple of hundred bucks at Facebook a week (in ads and talent) then it becomes viable.
Have you done something interesting with Facebook or seen something that resonated with you? Reply to this email and let me know - I'd be interested to hear other people's experiences. As ever, if you'd like to look into building a campaign for your business, get in touch and we'll have a chat.
Written while listening to: Revising - Music to Write to - Create Flow
Image Credit: Facebook Meh Button - Sam Michel
