In Content Marketing 2013 Part One we looked at some of the background and some futures of content marketing. In Content Marketing 2013 Part Two we are going to provide some practical steps that your business can take to make sure content marketing works for you. Businesses looking at content marketing as a means towards increased online credibility should put on a publisher’s hat. You need to create roles such as ‘chief content officer’ or ‘content strategist’. This function will work with your sales, solutions and marketing team to understand what your customers want and how you can make your content stand out.

Look at ways to:

Create an editorial calendar and prepare a strategy to update your content regularly

Integrate your strategy across all content dissemination mediums including print, digital, and social media

Create an inventory, identify and close gaps, and prepare a plan to reuse relevant content

Prepare a strategy to improve your reach across social media channels. The larger your network, the more likely it is that your content will reach the intended recipients.

Measure and analyze the impact of your content. Understand which content is driving the highest levels of engagement with your prospects and customers, and then plan to optimize in this direction.

Integrate SEO, Social, PPC and other Digital Tactics

Develop a consistent message across all your content assets. Use social media to promote your content across multiple channels. Leverage its growing importance in search engine optimization (SEO). Visually express ideas and populate your LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pinterest, Facebook, Google+, and Instagram accounts.

Convert your text content into interesting presentations that can be uploaded on SlideShare and other similar sites. Then share the link through your social media channels and blogs. Integrate social sharing across all your online marketing assets.

Content is the Lifeblood of Online Marketing

Readers will only visit your blog, website or video channel if you post fresh and compelling content on a regular basis. Reuse your content across all channels. Convert multiple blogs into an ebook or vice versa. Articles and white papers can be converted into multiple blogs. And all of these artifacts can be re-purposed into an audio-visual format or a podcast or webinar. This will help you reach various types of audiences and increase your online visibility.

How can I ensure that my content is interesting and valuable to my target audience?

Whether your content is on a web page, a video, a blog, a Facebook update, in a tweet, always write your content with strategic intent.

The 3 top rules that will help make your content sizzle with your readers

1 . Be genuine! As in any other relationship, sincerity is important. And your marketing efforts are exactly that: the goal of creating a mutually beneficial relationship. Being honest is generally a good rule of thumb to follow, and it should always be your intent to earn your readers’ trust! Be conscious of your voice, your message, and your corporate brand.

2. Be relevant! The information you’re sending out needs to be interesting to your readers, so make it relevant. Know what you’re writing and understand what is useful to your readers.

3. Educate. Teach your readers something they did not already know or write about something that resonates with them. Offering your reader something new and providing value will make your company a worthwhile source.

Content Marketing Expertise from WSI Digital Marketing

In the two content marketing blog posts we have covered the main aspects of planning and executing a content marketing plan for your business.  

We know that most business owners are busy running their business and it is all to easy to ignore or implement a content marketing strategy in an inconsistent way. If you need help with your content planning then get in touch with us via our Contact WSI page for the right advice and assistance in planning your content marketing strategy.

This post was written by Anthony Burke. Anthony is an experienced digital marketing professional passionate about technology and social media. He is an expert at using Internet technology to implement compelling digital marketing solutions to connect, convert, retain and develop customers in multi-channel environments. 

This is the first of two posts on content marketing. We witnessed an increased focus on content marketing in 2012. There was a marked rise in the number of small and medium businesses adopting integrated content marketing strategies to engage with current customers and potential prospects. We also saw increased adoption of trends such as responsive Web design, geo-tagging, targeted content distribution, propensity for visual content and emergence of integrated content marketing tools and techniques.

We [predict that in 2013, we are likely to see these trends gain even more traction. The increase in the number of customer touch-points has introduced several new complexities for marketers. Content strategies will need to accommodate the multi-device ecosystem that consumers are using to access content. Irrespective of the device used, marketers need to develop content structures that enable an optimal viewing experience to content consumers. HTML5 is still a year away from its official launch. In the meanwhile, website design needs to be more responsive to the viewer’s screen size. 

Stay Updated on Content Marketing

All things web, including content marketing, are moving at a huge pace and we are likely to see some major initiatives that your business needs to keep in mind.

Increasing demand for audio visual content: The demand for audio-visual content is increasing and the easy availability of devices that enable anytime access to video content will make it necessary to invest in this content format.

Pinterest: The increasing popularity of Pinterest among consumers is an opportunity to repurpose your existing as well as new content as a visual medium.

Instagram: Look at ways to utilize Instagram and make your consumers your content generators and gain maximum marketing mileage.

Marketing Automation: Advances in marketing automation systems, its integration with social media platforms, and complexity of measurement tools give us a better ability to understand content effectiveness. This has made it possible to make your content marketing strategy more targeted.

Marketing Integration: Integrating content marketing mechanisms with your CRM system can provide insights that will enable you to develop contextual content. This can enable greater interaction with potential as well as existing customers. 

Keep Up-to-date with Google – Driving the Conquest for Content

Google is undoubtedly steering the content marketing ship, as it has done in past years. The latest Panda updates give a glimpse into what we can expect in this direction. Not only has it clearly indicated that only quality content will work but it has also highlighted the growing prominence of social media in the larger scheme of things. Search experience optimization (SXO) is the new SEO. Ensure you stay updated about developments in the Google world to stay abreast of the latest trends in the content marketing space.

Google is also your best friend if you want to know what your competitors are publishing or to be alerted about newsworthy events in your industry. You can use these as idea sources for your own content development.

Expansion of an Application Driven Web (HTML5) and Video Marketing

HTML5 is predicted to be the future of the Internet and may prove to be a game changer. The growing preference for the audio-visual medium is likely to receive a surge with HTML5’s built-in video support capabilities. The ease with which HTML5 enables content sharing will only give a fillip to this growing trend.

Content Marketing Expertise from WSI Digital Marketing

In Part One of this content marketing blog post we have covered some of the basics of content marketing and some recommendations that we make to get you started. If you want to undertake some more complex content marketing, then we are happy to advise or help you out.

The demand for more visual content is definitely a key factor now and all the major social media, social networking sites are moving to accommodate this content sharing approach in 2013 and beyond.

We are operate a “pay as you go” model to you can take as little or as much from us as you think you want. Get in touch and we can have a chat.

 This post was written by Anthony Burke. Anthony is an experienced digital marketing professional passionate about technology and social media. He is an expert at using Internet technology to implement compelling digital marketing solutions to connect, convert, retain and develop customers in multi-channel environments. 

We discussed the digital landscape in Part One of this blog post. Digital media has emerged as a reality that is continuously challenging marketers. Adopting and promoting an appropriate digital strategy is easier said than done. It requires a shift in the way marketing departments approach digital media and is a great way for your business to get the message out there, build your brand, drive more sales and communicate better with current customers and future prospects.

We are sure that you have a business to run so here are some guidelines to help you successfully navigate the digital landscape:

• Clearly define your business goal – is your focus brand building or lead generation or both?
• Identify the channels that will help you achieve your goals
• Define your target audience
• Set the right expectations with stakeholders about what a digital strategy can achieve
• Integrate your offline and online strategy
• Provide engaging and consistently valuable content
• Engage with the right agency that can tailor digital solutions to suit your customers’ needs
• It is okay to start small!
• Implement the right analytics and automation tools to understand your target audience behavior
• Review your plans over a defined period to measure progress and results

Digital Landscape Backup Plan

Things don’t always to to plan and people can change their minds so have a backup plan. On the one hand, digital marketing and digital media can massively increase your brand visibility but can also act against your business. Your customers can be your brand ambassadors, but on the other they can damage it irreversibly. Ensure that you have a backup plan or team to respond to digital crisis situations so that you can manage your online brand and reputation in case something goes wrong – and it sometimes does through no fault of your own.

Digital Landscape Expertise from WSI Digital Marketing

Since the digital landscape is vast, your business success lies in having a consumer focused strategy and clear business goals. An effective integration of both with an overall digital marketing strategy can help your business reap the benefits and develop strong relationships with the customers and prospects.

This is where WSI Digital Marketing can help your business. Get in touch with us vis our Contact WSI page to develop an integrated marketing campaign that leverages the best this digital landscape has to offer for your business. 

This post was written by Anthony Burke. Anthony is an experienced digital marketing professional passionate about technology and social media. He is an expert at using Internet technology to implement compelling digital marketing solutions to connect, convert, retain and develop customers in multi-channel environments. 

Landscape gardening is a term that most people understand.  Talk about digital marketing and the digital landscape and that is not always clear. What is the so called Digital Landscape? What does it mean to you? We describe the digital landscape as comprising of a mix of different technologies, platforms and channels. These include social networks, websites, email, mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets, videos, widgets, kiosks, and gaming consoles. These mediums help marketers to build relationships with consumers, publicise their brand, sell their products or services and communicate better with current clients and prospects.

The Digital Landscape Evolution

Digital marketing arrived on the scene more than 15 years ago but has evolved rapidly in the last couple of years. Social media has significantly transformed consumer behaviour. It has facilitated sharing of information with prospective buyers like never before through online ads, videos, blogs, tweets and much more. The digital space has clearly caught the fancy of savvy marketers thanks to factors such as its:

• Huge impact on brand reputation
• Potential to quickly launch online campaigns
• Interesting mix of marketing technologies
• Ability to engage prospects in dynamic exchanges that influence buying decisions
• Measurability and cost-efficiency
• Creative potential of platforms such as rich media, gaming, and mobile applications 

Let’s take a deeper look at how digital marketing has evolved over the years and how understanding it can help you influence buyer behaviour. 

Digital Landscape is a Convergence Story 

Digital media has progressed rapidly due to the convergence of technology and the easy availability of consumer technologies. This has paved the way for interactive mediums that engage the audience, something that traditional media did not provide. 

It started with advances in Internet technology that led to the launch of thousands of websites. This was still a passive communication medium since sites were not interactive. Then came email, the first dynamic medium that enabled direct communication between consumers and businesses in a cost-effective and meaningful manner. The revolution finally took off when ‘search’ became a part of the user experience.  However, it was the arrival of social media that made the digital landscape ‘interactive’ forever. 

The success of social media sites such as Facebook, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Twitter indicate how well connected today’s users are across multiple geographies. The digital experience has switched the role of users from a passive receiver to an active participant, circulating relevant, useful information and influencing buying decisions. 

The convergence of mobile technologies with location-based services and smart devices has now made real-time interactions a reality. Consumers are spending more time and money on these devices for their personal and business consumption. This means an increased opportunity for sellers to create interesting mobile applications that engage users. 

How Marketers can use the Digital Landscape

Marketers can now gain insight into the nature of information being accessed and shared. Since consumers are interacting through various digital channels, they play a critical role in building or demolishing a brand’s reputation. This makes it imperative to identify the most relevant consumers and understand their behaviour in order to target the right audience and deliver the intended message.

WSI Onlinebiz Digital Marketing can help you navigate the maze of the digital landscape so give us a call on 01580 819529 or use the Contact WSI page to get in touch and have a chat with us to see how we can help your business.

This post was written by Anthony Burke. Anthony is an experienced digital marketing professional passionate about technology and social media. He is an expert at using Internet technology to implement compelling digital marketing solutions to connect, convert, retain and develop customers in multi-channel environments. 

It is the little things that you do on Twitter that can help increase engagement with your personal twitter profile or a company brand profile. Many of these things are not given enough serious consideration. However, such things as as how many hashtags you use and where you place them are important. Studies show that if you use too many you reduce engagement.  Think about how long your tweets are. Make them too long and they can’t be re-tweeted easily. Asking for a “Retweet” with a please RT  actually works to increase engagement for your Twitter campaign.

Useful Twitter Cheat Sheet

Look at this handy Twitter Cheat Sheet Infographic. This infographic can serve as a guide to help increase Twitter interactions such as Retweets, CTR, and overall engagement. Hope it works for you.

Twitter Cheat Sheet , an infographic by Linchpin Infographic Design

This post was written by Anthony Burke. Anthony is an experienced digital marketing professional passionate about technology and social media. He is an expert at using Internet technology to implement compelling digital marketing solutions to connect, convert, retain and develop customers in multi-channel environments. 

So the year 2012 is now well and truly over and hopefully most of you have completed the final touches to your marketing plans for 2013 and are now in execution mode. The scope of what you can do is almost endless but if there are four things you should be focusing your time, effort and budget on, then this list will help you:

• content marketing
• social media
• mobile
• search

Content Marketing for Your Business

Is “Content King?” It certainly is and content marketing is the glue for all your social media, mobile and search plans. If you have 20 minutes spare over the next couple of weeks then I highly recommend that you watch Coca Cola’s two-part Content 2020 whiteboard video series. Content 2020 is Coca Cola’s  mission statement on how to move their organisation from “creative excellence” to “content excellence“.  

This video series is a great watch and here is Part One of the Two Part Video Series

At almost every networking and marketing event we go to, content marketing sessions are standing-room only. Marketing professionals are hungry for any way that they can continue their content marketing journey and attract and retain customers with compelling content. This two part series from Coca Cola is an informative view on how they see content and content marketing going forward for their organisation.

Here is Part Two of the Video Series

Content Marketing Services in Sussex from WSI

We have a base in Sussex but WSI is a global marketing consulting and services company. We excel at content marketing for business of all shapes and sizes. I think both these videos do a very good job talking about storytelling and the  relationship to selling products and services. It appears that this is the strategy that Coca Cola will follow. If your business is struggling to integrate content marketing into your business plans or you are now behind the curve then use our Contact WSI page to get in touch and we will be very happy to talk to you and help your business put in place an effective content marketing strategy and plan.  We can help you execute the plan or we can train you to do it and maintain a watching brief.

By Anthony Burke

You can find Part One of this blog on how to leverage social media for SEO on the post we published last week. Using social media offers several SEO advantages to your business. Increasing the number of views, shares, +1s, likes, and tweets will get you noticed by search engines.

Social signals currently account for more than 10% of organic search algorithms.  Consumers are discussing your brand online and those conversations are influencing their buying decisions. Your business or brand needs to be part of these conversations and engage your target audience to create a positive influence. 

Every business is different and all businesses have different business situations, local competition, global competition, different business model so there is no “one size fits all approach”  However, some quick actions you can take:

• Create a Google+ business page
• Add social sharing buttons across all your communications
• Build networks on various social media platforms
• Create communities and engage people in discussions about your brand
• Enable geo-tagging
• Earn reviews and rating on social sites

How to Use Social Media to Improve Rankings

For good SEO ranking you need to ensure that you have an optimal number of authoritative followers on the main social media platforms. If your social media activity decelerates then your ranking is likely to take a hit. Put in place a strategy to maintain consistency. Here are some of the basics that you can do:

Share high quality content: Google’s key objective behind the Panda Updates was to penalize websites hosting low quality content. 

Build natural relationships: Identify social media communities where people interested in your products or services usually congregate, and engage in mutually beneficial discussion. 

Identify the right social media channels: Not all social media channels are likely to prove equally beneficial. If your focus is B2B, a Facebook page might not work for you. You need to identify the ones that fit your business objectives. 

Employ tactics that will improve SEO: Due to privacy policies, social media channels place technical restrictions on the data that can be presented in results. Get an expert to guide you on how to use these channels for SEO. 

Apply keyword strategy: Your web strategy can no longer be executed in isolation. Leverage your keyword strategy on social media channels. 

Social Media will Increase Visibility and Create New Opportunities

Social media optimisation is complex and requires a well thought out integrated strategy, dedicated resources, and consistent execution. It can work wonders for your business in the following ways: 

• You will see more qualified visitors flocking to your website
• Likes, shares, and tweets will get your brand noticed
• Geo-tagging could win the business of non-locals
• Your responses on online communities can position you as a solutions expert
• Disseminating content through social platforms can generate high quality backlinks
• Your social network can become a loyal customer base 

If you don’t have the time or resources, that is where our social media experts can help. You can gain from our experience and also shorten the social media learning curve.  Use our Contact WSI page and our expert consultants can help you to incorporate social media planning and execution into your SEO strategy and improve your brand’s reputation and visibility, help drive more leads to your business and help you communicate better with clients and prospect.

 By Anthony Burke

Since it was first rolled out, Google Panda has undergone several refreshes and much more to come.  Expect at least daily updates to the Google algorithm. Now that the dust raised by the initial upheaval has settled down, the Google Panda updates have actually proved to be a boon to companies offering customer-centric content.

First and foremost, it serves as an effective filter in weeding out poor quality content. More importantly, it negates the need for businesses to engage in expensive and, as defined by Google, unethical SEO practices to stay on top of the ranking index. This levels the playing field and makes value offered by your content the key criterion for SEO success. 

So how does all this fit with your social media marketing plans? Let’s look at how you can assimilate the various measures under Google’s Panda updates to reap rich dividends for your business.

Search Engines Are Increasingly Aware Of Social Media Signals 

Google is omnipresent on social media through the ownership of channels such as YouTube, Picasa, Orkut, Google+, and BlogSpot. The introduction of the +1 application was the first visible indicator of how this is going to impact their search engine strategy. The more the number of +1s a particular content piece receives, the higher the chances of it being positioned further up the content ranking value chain. 

This trend of combining social media and search is not limited to Google alone. Even Microsoft and Yahoo announced an alliance with Twitter that will provide Bing and Yahoo greater access to the content listed on Twitter. This increases the likelihood of relevant tweets being presented as search results. 

Key areas that you need to explore to improve your search engine rankings include: 

 Twitter Links: Twitter’s Firehose technology provides its partners the option of real-time search for relevant content. As a result, links that you post on Twitter will get picked up by these partners thereby increasing the traffic for your site. 

Public pages on Facebook: A business page on Facebook can positively influence your search engine rankings and provide a boost to your SEO program, especially if you have an integrated digital marketing strategy and knowledge of the right keywords.   

Google Social Search: The search engine giant’s ‘Search plus Your World’ feature is an attempt to leverage the social media and social networking Google+ to rank information on the basis of what your network recommends or creates. 

Video channels: The world is going video crazy! Create a YouTube channel and upload interesting videos that will get you shares and likes.

Incorporating Social Media Into Your SEO Strategy

Social Media and social networking are key aspects for you to consider when planning your marketing campaigns. Like mist business owners, you have a business to run. If you don’t have the time or resources to plan and deliver an engaging social media campaign, then that is where we come in as experts. You can gain from our experience and also shorten your learning curve. Get in touch via our Contact WSI page and we will show you how to incorporate social media into your SEO strategy and improve your brand’s visibility.

By Anthony Burke

Mobile Website Design and Build

Mobile devices like smartphones and tablet computers are changing the way we access the Internet. As they become more and more powerful the world becomes less reliant on the traditional PC for day to day tasks like communicating, browsing the web and shopping online. People are increasingly using smartphones to surf the web and the amount of time and money people are spending on mobile devices is growing rapidly and yet many businesses don’t have a mobile website that is specifically optimised for mobile. What is the cost to your business if customers and potential prospects cannot access your business on the device of their choice?  

Mobile Traffic Numbers

Looking at the numbers below means you should be seriously considering a mobile website version of your business website. 

• In September 2009, 0.02% of web traffic came from mobile devices
• Today it is well over 10% and 20% – depending on what numbers you look at
• According to Google, it is still increasingly rapidly
• 28% of people in the UK have purchased something using a mobile phone
• Google will favour mobile sites in its search results from a mobile device 

Users have different requirements from a mobile site. The mobile website has to be readable on the much smaller screen of a smartphone. The mobile website needs clear, basic information that is easy to read and access on a mobile device. A mobile site needs clear contact details. This means that a mobile website need not (and should not) be as complicated as a normal website. 

Here are some more numbers from Gartner. Mobile traffic currently makes up 10% of global Internet traffic, as shown in the chart below, and next year more people will use mobile phones than PCs to get online, according to Gartner. Purchases made on mobile devices amounted to $6.7 billion in the U.S. last year, or about 8% of total online sales, and are expected to nearly double to $11.6 billion this year.  The same report highlights that by 2015, U.S. mobile sales are forecast to reach $31 billion. 

Many businesses have still not yet optimised a mobile website

This can frustrate visitors with difficult navigation and slow loading times. Having a mobile website will ensure that your market is larger and that you do not lose those valuable mobile visitors. Hopefully this post has  provided you with some food for thought and that you consider embarking on a new mobile site design project and that is where we can help. WSI Onlinebiz  have a range of stand alone, integrated and e-commerce mobile website packages that we can build for your business.

Still need convincing?  Be sure to leave any other tips you find useful when designing for the mobile web in the comments below. Off you go!

Anthony Burke, Chief Technology Marketing Officer, at WSI Onlinebiz Digital Marketing has been invited to speak as guest speaker at the next Finance – IT – Net-Work (FITN) meeting at the Novotel Tower Hill Hotel in London.

The FITN network was established in 2007 and is the youngest sibling of four related networks – The Net-Work, The Investment Network, The Pensions Network and the Women-in-Insurance Network. FITN Members come from the worlds of academia, consulting, insurance, IT and retail banking and share a passion in how technology can drive or encourage change in the world of financial services. The FITN meets regularly and hosts a series of seminars and social networking events for finance, consulting,insurance and academic professionals.

Anthony Burke Bio

Readers of this blog will be aware of Anthony Burke‘s Bio but is summarised here - Anthony Burke‘s main focus is to work with small and medium sized businesses to help them develop their online brand, generate more leads and improve the way they communicate with future prospects and existing customers.

He enjoys working with local clients, running IT and Internet Marketing educational sessions, presenting at conferences and seminars and keeping abreast of the rapidly changing Tech and Digital Marketing landscape. He has over two decades of experience in business and IT at the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, American Express, Guardian Royal Exchange, AXA, Chubb Insurance, QBE Insurance, Xchanging, Hewitt Associates and WSI in the UK and worldwide. He is bilingual English and Spanish.

Venue for FITN Meeting with Anthony Burke

Anthony Burke will be presenting at the Novotel London Tower Bridge hotel is located in the city, close to the Tower Bridge and St Paul’s Cathedral. The presentation topic is “In B2B, Brand is Everything – and the Internet is forever” Anthony Burke’s presentation will cover topics such as the importance of brand for B2B companies, the buying process from B2B companies, the impact of the Internet on branding for B2B companies and how B2B companies can best go about building their brand reputation and visibility online by making best use of their potential digital influence.