Brand Success: How To Have a Killer Content Strategy

By now, if you haven’t heard the term “content strategy” then you should step out of the shadows and into the light. Loosely defined, content strategy refers to planning, developing, and managing content. Simple right?

I can’t stress enough how important a killer content strategy will be for your marketing outreach. Not only will it help you become more efficient as a business, but it will also help you to define your brand story.

A quick Google search will pull up endless tools and advice to sift through. The reality is, content planning will be different for everyone because we all think differently. The trick is finding what works well for you and sticking to it. Regular audits of your strategy will tell you if you need to tweak something that’s not getting you the results you want.

Here are a few tips to get you to great when it comes to your content strategy:

1. Take the time to develop your brand: How will you know what to say if you don’t know who you are as a brand? Whether you are an expert building your profile within social media and traditional media, or you are a large corporation, you need to be careful what messaging you put out there.
2. Identify your goals: Before forging ahead, you need to know what you want to achieve. This will help you in the planning and development of content. Don’t just talk about them; write them down. This way you can revisit them to make sure you are on track.
3. It’s all about your audience: By now I sound like a broken record saying this. Working with clients on a daily basis, this is always our first point of reference. What’s the point of creating content to put out there if no one will care to read it? Find out what your audience needs/wants before embarking on the content journey.
4. Integrate all channels into your strategy: This is all about developing content that can be shared across multiple channels, but it’s also about ensuring your content marketing is all linked, whether it’s by theme, message, visuals, etc. For example, if you have a blog, a newsletter, and multiple social media channels, then you would need to make sure all of your great content is being leveraged across channels, but not necessarily duplicated. Your audiences one different channels may have different needs. Also give them incentive to follow you on multiple channels.
5. Content strategy is the basis for social media outreach: Let’s get real for a second. Think of all the times when you said something where you “put your foot in your mouth…” Long list? Short list? Well, regardless, generally when people say things they regret, or that make them look foolish, they are not well-thought out – you winged it and it didn’t come out like you thought it would. Either that, or maybe there have been times where you really don’t know what to say. Flying by the seat of your pants on social media is just as bad. It becomes really easy to go off the rails. Planning first, then execution. Social media is a tool to help you get your message out faster.

How To Avoid Cookie-Cutter Marketing & PR Strategies

We’ve all been blown away by a marketing/PR campaign at some point or another. Whether it’s an amazing string of ads, a hashtag that went viral, or a story that tugged on heartstrings. In such a crowded marketplace – for all industries – and with the increasing popularity of digital in campaigns, consumers are bombarded with hundreds of campaigns on a daily basis.

The challenge for brands is to deliver rapid results to hit all the targets set out in the campaign strategy. How are you going to do that if you are copying someone else’s strategy? Or, another brand’s creative ideas? In order to stand out among the crowd, you need to be different. A cookie-cutter strategy isn’t going to work for you because you aren’t the same as your competitors.

Unfortunately, marketing has been around for a long time, and this means that a lot of ideas have been trying and tested, proving to deliver strong results. It’s like jazz or blues music. You can sample from another artist in a solo, but you have to give it your own sound, otherwise you are just copying. What are you bringing to the table?

Here are things to look out for when you are trying to inject your own brand personality into your campaign.

1. Don’t be distracted by the competition: They’re not going anywhere anytime soon, but dwelling on what they’re doing for their own campaigns will put you off the path you need to be on to discover your own successes.
2. Define your brand messaging: This can mean taking a step back to define your industry. Are you a locksmith, or a freedom expert? Your brand messaging is the basis for your brand story. You should be able to jot down 5 to 10 key sentences about your brand and what it is that you do.
3. Appeal to your ideal audience: You don’t need to be all things to all people. If you pick a niche in your industry, chances are you will be able to make a splash and then expand from there. Using a blanket technique to see how many people you can cover won’t necessarily give you the best return on your efforts.
4. Tell your own story: Once you have your messaging in place and you know who you want to tell it to, think of different narratives that will exemplify what you want your audience to think of when they hear your brand name. This has everything to do with your content strategy. The content you develop should be different than other brands because you should have an opinion or an approach that is unique to your business.
5. Determine your language style: How are you telling your story? Your brand is like a person, with a personality and language all its own. If you are a young, fresh brand, you wouldn’t use as much “industry-speak” and try to out-smart your customers (actually not a great idea in any case), but you might use a lot of colloquial and slang language. Pretend that your brand is speaking to someone else and write that way.
6. Empower your team: whether they are senior management or entry-level employees, empower them to live your brand and enjoy what it is you stand for. There is nothing more unique than a team of individuals bringing their own perspectives.

Bonus Tip: There are marketing/PR agencies out there who use a cookie-cutter template when they put together campaigns as a cost-cutting measure on their end. If you are working with an agency, be sure to ask a lot of questions and get to know their previous campaigns to make sure that you are getting something that is unique for you.

Media Relations: What to do if you can’t get coverage

Before the holidays we talked about why the media may not be interested in your story. Maybe your story really is great, and you’re doing everything you should be doing down to the right timing and media targeting. If you look at it from the perspective of the journalist, they receive sometimes hundreds of pitches every day. Despite how hard you try, your email or Twitter pitch may get lost in the shuffle.

An accomplished and well-respected journalist once told me that sometimes you need to find ways around the media, especially if we look at how much things have shifted to social and online. This is exactly how you would handle this situation.

Here are a few ways to get your story out there when you just can’t get through to the media.

Amp up your content strategy.

I’m not living under a rock. I realize that content strategy and content marketing are buzzwords… However, they are practical buzzwords that you really can’t get away from. In business, cash is king, but in marketing, content is king.

Take a look at all of your content across channels. What kind of content are you putting out there? Is your great story laid out across all of your platforms? Do you have a blog? If you have a story that is so amazing, you likely have something to say. When was the last time you reviewed your e-Newsletter strategy, or your direct mail campaign?

It’s important to both keep your content fresh as well as put out a steady stream of content so you stay in view of your audience. If you do this for long enough, someone is bound to take notice. I have a client that got a call from a radio station because of an article he put out. If you have something to say, make sure you are capitalizing on all opportunities to say it!

Guest blog posts/bylined article placements.

Not ready for a full-fledged blog strategy for your business (you should really re-consider), or perhaps you have a strategy in place, but you just want to branch out? Try connecting with publications and key blogs of interest to see if it’s possible for you to write a guest post. This is a great way for you to get your name out there to reach a broader community. If you are afraid to reach out to editors or other blogs, consider LinkedIn publisher as a great place to start.

For more thoughts on this, check out this article!

Grow your social media community and empower your customers to share your story.

Photograph by George Marks

I know. This can be easier said than done. Here is where you have marketing managers and business owners saying that they want to run a viral marketing campaign. EVERYONE wants to run a viral marketing campaign. The stars aren’t always aligned for your campaign to take off on the internet, however, you can focus on reaching your immediate audience. If they feel connected to you as a brand, they will feel good about sharing your story for you. This will grow your audience through word of mouth (or stroke of key, tap of screen… you get it).

Your audience is your most valuable asset when it comes to marketing. If they like it, then you are doing something right!

Public stunt to increase impact.

Want to go big? You could plan a public stunt to get attention. Careful with this one though. It’s easy to run off the rails with budget on this if you are trying to compete with the big guys. That’s not to say it can’t be done. There are creative ways to think outside of the box but inside of the budget. It’s a matter of finding what will work best for you in terms of brand awareness and fit. I feel a blog coming on about public stunts, so check in next week to find out more!

Final thoughts.

The key is you need to think creatively when it comes to your strategy. If you start to look at your marketing efforts (including PR!) as a bigger picture rather than in silos, you can use multiple tactics to get your brand story out there.

5 Reasons To Use #Hashtags For Business (Sparingly)

By now, we have all seen this hilarious (and eerily spot on) sketch by Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake (and subsequent similar ones).

I am also sure you all have at least one friend or colleague who is overly fond of the hashtag, putting so many in their social media content that it #sometimes#becomes#hardto#decipher#what#itsabout. Both the comedy sketch and your friend demonstrate too much of a good thing.

And no, hashtags are NOT ruining the English language… When used properly.

If we take one step back, those who aren’t familiar, here is the hashtag formula:

Hashtag = “#” symbol + relevant keyword or phrase

You should be using hashtags strategically in all of your social content. Here is why:

#1 Find information and follow trends

Now more than ever it’s important to stay on top of things when it comes to running your business. With enhanced connectivity online and information at everyone’s fingertips, why not tap into the information using hashtags? Call up a search for something specific. Maybe you are trying to find information on #EmployeeEngagement. You will be surprised at how many tips and tricks you will find through articles that have been put out there through social media.

#2 Generate discussion and make connections

Source: freedigitalphotos.net

Hashtags are an amazing tool that can be used to start up and join discussions that are relevant to your brand interests, your product, or your industry. For example, if you wanted to see who was talking about entrepreneurship, and what they are saying, you can search for #Entrepreneurship and a list will pop up. From here, you can reach out to specific people and comment on discussions.

Another thing it is useful for is to follow discussions about your own brand. Why not track what people are saying about you? It is a great way to track your online reputation. First, you should try to establish some sort of online presence. It can build into a really effective customer service tool when you are able to interact with your customers.

#3 Promotions and Contests

This is a great way to encourage user-generated content. For example, if you were going to organize a photo contest, you would have people tweet or post photos using a specific hashtag like the #Jackspatio contest that was run by Jack Astor’s this summer. You and everyone else can easily follow along with all of the entries. This generates more traffic for you and users will have fun interacting with your brand.

#4 Targeting specific audiences

Just like you may be joining in conversations, you can also target your information towards people who you think would be potential new business prospects. For example, if you sell jewelery and your target market is for weddings, maybe you should be posting images of your work using #Wedding or #WeddingWednesday.

#5 Real time interaction

There are so many opportunities online for hosting chats, or perhaps you are hosting a webinar. If you provide a hashtag for people to use, participants can participate by asking questions and sharing content. A great example is #SMTLive. They Social Media Today regularly puts on webinars rich in content, and you can follow along with the webinar through twitter. Even if someone couldn’t attend, they still benefit from the information and it establishes your brand as an expert in the industry.

I realize that with small business and start-ups time is short, but capitalizing on efficiencies is what is going to make your strategies more achievable. Hashtags take a little getting used to, but once you get the hang of using them in your content, you will find that you have made your social strategy more effective.