Start Something, Columbia! took on content marketing as a topic for May 15th. Here are the show notes:
Introductions:
Kasie Whitener, Clemson Road Consulting and Larry Jennings, Capsure Studios
Agenda review:
What we’re going to do today:
Today we’ve got music from Ben Campbell, Freeway Music instructor and member of Bull Moose Party.
This week’s 1MC features Denean the Coffee Queen, our new coffee vendor and a long-time community member, Denean Ambersley.
Our topic of the week is "Content Marketing Basics" and we have a great caller, Fiona Martin of FGM Internet Marketing who will offer us some insight in the second half of the show.
Segment 1:
Content Marketing -- what is it? How does it work?
Creation and sharing of valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a specific audience.
Examples: Blog writing, videos, workshops and presentations
Another article by Neil Patel: a step-by-step guide because there’s a ton of content marketing out there describing how to do content marketing and yes, we marketers get the irony:
“Content marketing is a long-term strategy that focuses on building a strong relationshipwith your target audience by giving them high-quality content that is very relevant to them on a consistent basis.”
And this one from kissmetrics.com: 22 Tips for Creating Great Content When You Don’t Have a Clue
Top tips: Let a guest write, Case studies on “best” and “worst” versions of a solution, review something (like a book), present a story about your own failure (a challenge)
What type of content should you be producing?
Blogging -- establishes credibility, thought leadership, etc.
Longform content -- 5,000 to 15,000 words, in-depth analysis, instructions or knowledge sharing
Case studies -- these are the 1) problem, 2) solution, and 3) results explanations of work you’ve done
White papers -- are like case studies in that they address a specific problem and detail the solution, but they’re not reporting results -- meaning they’re not about a certain client or experience; they can be ideal conditions and theoretical solutions
eBooks -- between 5 and 50 pages, add value in some way by outlining a process for achieving results or enacting some kind of change
Infographics -- diagrams or visual representations of your ideas; can go viral
Templates & checklists -- downloadable blank pages, tools your readers can use to put your work into practice
Video -- so many types and kinds and a spectrum of quality
Segment 2:
This week at 1 MC -- Denean the Coffee Queen, coffee concierge service, Business-to-Business sales model in the catering and food service sector. (Calling in at 9:20)
Denean is a FastTrac grad, so she can also speak to the value of that program at MTC.
Segment 3:
Back to Content Marketing and the most important question which is “How do you produce value-added content?” There’s a lot of content out there that’s just taking up space. If you’re going to do this, be sure you’re providing value to your readers, your followers, your potential customers.
Fiona Martin of FGM Internet Marketing calling in at 9:40. Fiona's business can be found here.
The type of content you decide to produce should be determined by what you plan to share. So how do you decide what to share? (see this article on Entrepreneur.com)
Chad Barr and Alan Weiss suggest:
Read books and relevant publications and summarize your reading and document your ideas.
Brainstorm with others. Engage a team of trusted advisors. Being a part of a powerful mastermind group and trusted advisors is a great way to improve your ideas and creativity.
Invest in self-development. A Japanese proverb says: "I will master something, then the creativity will come."
Question basic assumptions. This applies not just to your own assumptions, but also to those of your advisers and clients. You gain new insights to arrive at the proper solution.
Take a contrarian view. Discuss a concept's pros and cons. Clients hire us not necessarily to agree with them, but to question their views and basic premises in order to improve their business.
Create a story. Using a story to convey a particular concept forces us to develop ideas to make it more effective.
Interview others. This is a terrific way to learn, gain new ideas and leverage effective marketing while developing new audio and video content for your website and that of the person you are interviewing.
Social networking. When joining effective and smart online communities, you may quickly gain knowledge of what is being asked and discussed, and how you may be of help to others.
Two ideas (from Angelique Rewers):
You’re solving problems for your customers and those problems should be:
S.U.P.E.R. problems: specific, urgent, pervasive & persistent, expensive, and recognizable.
So your content should focus on those aspects of the problems. What is specific about it? What is urgent about it? When you answer those questions, you’ll have blog ideas.
Create the right gap between what they’ve already done to solve the problem and what they should be doing to solve the problem (i.e. your solution).
I also heard at Content Marketing World 2016 from the content marketing director at Monster.com that they took a “How, Wow, Now,” approach. She described a pie chart and said your content should fit into certain-sized slices of How, Wow, or Now.
For example, in Monster.com’s case, they’re a jobs website. So a good bit of their content is “How” -- like how to write a resume, how to interview, how to get a recruiter’s attention. But they have a share of “Now” content, too, in things like Annual Jobs Reports and economic indicators -- when the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases reports, Monster.com is going to respond with content -- that fits the “Now” piece of the pie.
Segment 4:
Next week, we’ll do some basic assessments like “Should you be Content Marketing?” and “Is your content marketing working?”
Events for this week:
1MC Denean the Coffee Queen @ 9 a.m. at Richland Library on Assembly Street
Find the Point -- every Thursday Shane Sweeney and me meeting up for happy hour and to meet Point listeners. This week it’s at Columbia College for the ribbon cutting on the Women’s Business Center of South Carolina, hosted by the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce and Columbia College’s McNair Center for Entrepreneurship.
Come support Ben Campbell of Bull Moose Party, in the Main Street Music concert series at Main St Public House from 7-9 PM, in the heart of downtown. Get some food, drinks, support and enjoy an amazing evening of music!
Q&A -- be sure to promote the phone number 799-8255; let people call in, tweet us, email them, collect them at 1MC, create a list of questions and answers
Final Sign Offs: Next week we’ll hear from Chris Wellington of Fooseye and also Derek Walker of Brown and Browner Advertising to continue our discussion around content marketing.
Wondering how you can be part of Start Something, Columbia! ?
Email kasie@clemsonroad.com