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...As you work to develop a content strategy, keep in mind that your content should aim to do a number of things. These include: - Serve the needs of your customers and prospects - Support your brand’s value proposition - Show the “human” side of your brand - Complement your SEO efforts - Lead to conversions
Notice what sits at the top of that list? Not content that touts your capabilities and success stories, but content that serves the needs of your customers and prospects. If you take away nothing else from this post, let it be that. Here are some tips to help you along the way:
Via Jeff Domansky
Hitorically, financial services companies have not been on the frontier of innovation. On the contrary, in the current era of digitization, too many companies think they have enough time to adapt to this new environment. In many boardrooms ‘digital’ is still associated with selling products over the Internet or cost-cutting. But this is only half the story. Digital transformation impacts the entire enterprise. It is about the way a company assesses risk or how it automates its service functions. It is how sales are supported digitally by tablets, for example.
A recent Mckinsey report stated that for the simple financial products, digital channel use in Europe will rise to an average of 35%. Moreover, the total cost reduction could run up to 20% percent when the benefits from digital transformation are factored into the equation. That is why it is important that financial services companies start assessing what digital transformation could do for them....
Via Jeff Domansky
The crowdfunding industry is largely hidden from the public eye. To the uninitiated, a crowdfunding project looks like one person’s lonely slog through sleepless nights and white-knuckle days. The truth is that, while it may be sleepless and white-knuckled, it is rarely lonely.
Kickstarter alone has helped projects raise $789 million since it was founded in 2009. Together with Indiegogo, Crowdtilt, and numerous other platforms, crowdfunding could raise almost that much again just in 2013, according to Deloitte. Except for a few startups’ thin margins, all of that money will go to the marketing, manufacture and delivery of the products that crowdfunding backers support. If you are a marketer, manufacturer or shipper, that’s good news....
Via Jeff Domansky
As 2013 draws to a close, and the Social Media Insider unleashes below the first in a two-part series of predictions, what strikes me about social media is how established it is. It certainly doesn’t feel new anymore. Maybe a better word for how it feels is -- embedded.
The distinction I’m making is that it’s so much a part of digital life that it seems unfathomable to imagine a world in which you couldn’t tweet out a story you thought other people might enjoy, or check out someone’s c.v. on LinkedIn, or share a picture or anecdote on Facebook, or get a quick laugh out of a video on YouTube. Or destroy your career in the time it takes to tap out 140 characters. It’s hard to remember the Internet pre-social.... What this means for the prediction business in social is that 2014, while not exactly being same old, same old, will be iterative. The revolution, people, is over, even as new platforms emerge and the Internet of Everything may mean it’s possible for your refrigerator to tweet.
With that, here are 2014 predictions for five well-known social platforms, particularly for their ad models....
Via Jeff Domansky
FA primer on location-based marketing on mobile.Location-based marketing blurs the line between the digital and physical world. To drive foot traffic and sales at bricks-and-mortar stores, marketers target shoppers on their devices. To do that though, marketers need to effectively identify and utilize consumers' locations. New services are giving people a much better incentive to share where they are, while new technologies are emerging to make location-based marketing a more exact science. In a new report from BI Intelligence, we look at the three of the primary types of location-based marketing approaches: geofencing, geoconquesting, and geoaudiencing, each of which uses location somewhat differently. We also look at some the latest and most effective location-based apps that are giving consumers' good reason to share their location....
Via Jeff Domansky
We’ve heard it time and time again: according to the Corporate Executive Board (CEB) almost 60% of the buyer journey is complete before prospects reach out to vendors.
And according to Harvard Business Review, “Solution Selling is Dead” because talking about our products and our solutions are no longer good enough. It may even hurt us in the buying process.
Why? Because our buyers are too smart. They see right through these self-serving tactics. They are looking for brands that put buyers first.
They are looking for brands that know how to connect on a human and emotional scale. In fact, the Corporate Executive Board’s latest report shows that “emotion beats promotion” by a factor of 2 to 1....
Via Jeff Domansky
LivePerson, a provider of digital engagement solutions, today announced the results of its second annual Connecting with Customers research, a comprehensive global study examining trends in online behavior and consumer expectations. The survey revealed that 69% of consumers are more likely to be loyal to a brand that provides live, human assistance at critical moments, and 82% indicate their perception of a brand improves when live chat is available.
Most significantly, the research shows the window to win or lose brand loyalty is a mere 76 seconds. Consumers expect access to real-time help within 76 seconds, and if they don't get it, they choose the slower, more frustrating option of email or abandon the site entirely, according to the research....
Via Jeff Domansky
By their nature, best practices tend to be generalizations. Typically, they don’t specifically address your unique situation, opportunities and challenges.
In the world of social media and content marketing, we spend a fair deal of time talking about best practices. We write blog posts about best practices to help others, and we updated our social streams with endless amounts of content to do with best practices.
This is great. It’s awesome to have such an amazing collection of content on social media best practices. If you’re unsure about how to tackle a certain challenge, conducting a quick search for best practices in that area can be a lifesaver. If you want to validate your thinking, benchmarking against best practices can provide a great deal of relief and help you proceed with confidence.Best practices can be supremely helpful to study, understand and follow...
Via Jeff Domansky
According to a study from Adobe, in 2012 repeat shoppers made up just 8% of all site visitors in the US yet they accounted for nearly 41% of total online sales.So bearing in mind the fact that it’s also cheaper to keep a customer than it is to attract a new one, businesses need to be working hard to keep shoppers satisfied and give them a reason to return.With this in mind, I’ve rounded up 11 ways in which ecommerce retailers can improve customer retention....
Via Jeff Domansky
We’ve searched high and low to bring you the first annual list of FORBES 100 Best Websites For Entrepreneurs. Whether you’re seeking advice on raising capital, scaling your business or looking for general industry insight, these sites are worth reading.
The picks here are arranged in no specific order. Selected unscientifically, they have been chosen for their ability to address a range of topics of interest to entrepreneurs. Frequent posts and content quality helps get a nod. The list is a combination of practical tools – sites to crowdsource funding like Rock The Post or AngelList, or sites with educational resources, like Stanford’s eCorner – and inspirational advice from bloggers like Seth Godin and Steve Blank....
Via Jeff Domansky
A Call to Action (CTA) is content that motivates you to do something. Using CTAs are essential for a successful marketing campaign and driving traffic to landing pages.
...You need to have a compelling reason for your call-to-action. Otherwise, there’s not much point. When brainstorming ideas for a CTA, start by asking yourself why you want one. What do you want to accomplish with your campaign?
Obviously, you want to make money, but how will you do so? Think of the call-to-action as the means to your end. If you want to sell more products, how will you accomplish that goal? Perhaps the aim of your CTA will be to increase traffic to your website, or build awareness of a specific product....
Via Jeff Domansky
Although some marketers claim to use a single platform to grow their business, these successes are, quite honestly, the exception rather than the rule. For the rest of us, success is achieved by sharing the right messages with the right people across a range of platforms. The best marketing mix is the combination of the most effective tactics and platforms to showcase your products and/or services, to tell your story, and to provide to the right people the information they need in order to make the decision to buy from you....
Via Jeff Domansky
Social media is daunting, that much is blindingly apparent. With every day that passes, it seems like more and more social networks crop up. Sure, the big names in the business are obvious: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Google Plus. There are also plenty of alternatives that are just as popular like Pinterest, Tumblr, StumbleUpon, Reddit, MySpace (yes it’s still around), Orkut and more.
The question sticks out like a sore thumb; as a small business, how you could possible maximize your exposure while trying to manage so many networks at once?
The answer is actually pretty simple. You need to draw up a complete social media strategy. No matter what kind of business you have, or what your long term goals are you need to approach social media as you would any other project.
There are several defining factors that will directly affect how well your social media campaign works. Defining a proper strategy allows you to visualize all of those elements and address them as necessary..?
Via Jeff Domansky
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You may love it, you may hate it, but there’s no ignoring it. It's called social media. Here is some of the worst social media marketing advice to look out for.
…True to human nature, those who’ve tried social media marketing are always willing to part with valuable advice on what to do and what not to do. How much of what they say is based on sound logic is questionable, but when people gather these ‘pearls of wisdom’ and string together a social media marketing strategy that isn’t very productive, we have trouble on our hands.
In this article, I make the attempt to go over a few common practices that may appear harmless but have the potential of sabotaging your social media campaign in the long run. Sounds scary, doesn’t it? If you don’t want that happening to you, stay hooked all the way to the end of the article. It promises to be educational....
Via Jeff Domansky
Recently, Burger King Norway purged its Facebook fanbase. They reduced it from 38,000 fans to 8,000...on purpose. Their stated goal was to encourage fickle deal-hunters to exit their addressable fan base leaving those who really cared and preferred Burger King (over McDonalds).
For a quick service restaurant (QSR) or a fast moving consumer goods company (FMCG) this is a radical move. Brand loyalty isn’t what it used to be and many of us are happy enough to ask for Pepsi as Coke. Can a Burger King fan also be a McDonald’s fan? Chances are there is quite a bit of overlap. Still, the move to be more intentional about who is in your Facebook fanbase and your Twitter follower-base is right minded....
Via Jeff Domansky
The Nearby feature from Twitter uses proactive location to increase geographic relevancy. Is this positive or a negative? Jay Baer weighs in on The Baer FactsFacts.
In this edition of The Baer Facts, I talk with Kyle Lacy of ExactTarget about Twitter’s new Nearby feature that will give users the option of seeing tweets from other users in the vicinity.
Is This a Feature or a Freak-Out? Note that users can opt-out of this feature (which is still in the testing phase), the same way that Twitter members can choose to not pass geographic data along with their tweets. But is Nearby a plus or a minus? I see two scenarios where Twitter Nearby could be useful....
Via Jeff Domansky
The 4Ps is a concept originally coined in the 1960s by E.J. McCarthy. In short, if you have the right Product, in the right Place, at the right Price, supported by the right Promotion, you will likely have the right marketing mix in place to be successful. It’s an idea that is still taught in many marketing classes and continues to have traction in certain marketing circles. However, in the Age of Now this model seems out of touch with the expectations of empowered consumers. In turn, we are seeing the traditional 4Ps give way to a new set: Purpose, Passion, Participation, and Profit...
Via Jeff Domansky
What is big content? Big content doesn’t just have to come in the form of an ebook. Big content can be an epic blog post. Big content can be a blog post series. An ecourse. An infographic. It can be a series of emails. A video. A series of videos.According to Peter J. Meyers, big content takes effort, breaks molds and has longevity. It drives ideas.These 10 “big content” pieces do just that. And they are some of the best online marketing content resources produced in 2013. In some cases, you may have to surrender your email, but in my opinion they’re worth it....
Via Jeff Domansky
The complete guide to all the social media branding graphic sizes and formats. Text descriptions, graphics and infographics for all social dimensions.
Social media branding is important in order to distinguish your accounts from the many millions of others and enable followers to instantly recognise and relate to your profile. With so many social platforms, it can be hard to remember all the dimensions and sizing of each banner or background image.
Are you searching through Google every time you want to design or upload new social media branding? Then luckily, the complete list for social media branding has been assembled here for you....
Via Jeff Domansky
Technology is utterly changing the way that companies spend money on marketing....I recently posted the 15 Greatest Marketing Innovations of All Time, so this is probably a good time for me to write about where marketing is headed. The four trends below are based on an unpublished chapter of "The End of Sales as We Know It," which I coauthored with Howard Stevens....
Via Jeff Domansky
There is an under appreciated difference between a story and an idea.A story is captivating and memorable. It entertains and often stays with you for longer than you thought it would. An idea, in contrast, is a spark. It happens in a moment and then it’s gone. And if you missed it or if you never acted on it … then you lose it.
Recently I’ve been to several storytelling events. One gathered together a dozen innovators to share their stories on human behavior. Another curated every form of storytelling you could imagine – from stop motion Vine video creators to street opera singers. Each offered an amazing collection of stories that entertained and inspired. And I remember those stories....
Via Jeff Domansky
According to a 2012 study by AOL and Nielsen, 27,000,000 pieces of content are shared every day. By now, the mantra of “content is king” has been relentlessly drilled into our collective heads – but more isn’t always necessarily better.
Quality is important – but how do you know if you’re really producing content that’s engaging your audience? Perhaps even more importantly, how are you measuring the results?
If you write and share it – will they come?
Let’s take a look at several new findings made as a result of a joint study between the Content Marketing Institute, MarketingProfs and Brightcove and what they could mean for next year’s content marketing trends...
Via Jeff Domansky
I'm in Turkey this week to speak at Brand Week Istanbul. I always love seeing how things are merchandized, marketed, and sold in different countries.
... It struck me how the bazaar is a metaphor for marketing in general. Every brand is trying to capture consumer’s attention in a world as cluttered as the Grand Bazaar. Marketers sometimes act as if shouting is the only way to get a message across. When every brand shouts, it can seem like the only solution is to shout louder.
Seth Godin coined this model as “Interruption Marketing” in the late 90s (and wrote the book “Permission Marketing” as an antidote). I stumbled across a classic Seth Godin interview in Fast Company from 1998: “Marketing is a contest for people’s attention. Thirty years ago, people gave you their attention if you simply asked for it. You’d interrupt their TV program, and they’d listen to what you had to say. You’d put a billboard on the highway, and they’d look at it. That’s not true anymore. This year, the average consumer will see or hear 1 million marketing messages – that’s almost 3,000 per day. No human being can pay attention to 3,000 messages every day....
Via Jeff Domansky
Get answers to the questions you were too embarrassed to ask about using LinkedIn.
A lot of great questions came up during the webinar that we didn't have time to answer, and it turns out, a lot of you had the exact same questions. So, we compiled them all and, well, that's why you're reading this blog post.
All those weird questions you had about LinkedIn are about to be answered -- and please, share any other questions you have about the platform in the comments....
Via Jeff Domansky
20 amazing examples of content marketing coming straight from Joe Pulizzi's book, Epic Content Marketing. Examples include John Deere, Google, Adobe, LEGO, Coca-Cola, Red Bull, Copyblogger, more...
Via Jeff Domansky
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Shelly Kramer shares useful business blogging tips. Great collection and curation of other content marketing stories like this @Spundge http://www.spundge.com/@/saved_item/322079/