Brand and Capture

How a Well-Written Inbound Marketing Blog Post is like a Latte

Few things improve my day more than a great vanilla latte. I was thinking, while drinking my latte this morning, what makes it so great and how can I capture this feeling in our inbound marketing blog posts? Here are some ideas about what makes both a good latte and a good blog post turn in to great ones.

1. It's gotta go down smooth
   Like any well-made latte, your blog post has to go down smooth – meaning it has to read coherently. Stick to one topic, one metaphor, and really make it work for you. Not everyone will get it each time of course, but if it is easy to “digest” then people will continue reading it.
2. Everyone likes it hot
   No one likes a day-old latte. Keep your posts current with the trends. With the ability of real-time search, any news that happened more than a few hours ago tends to be old. Stay fresh, stay present.
3. Make room for a little art.
   Think of the latte art as your blogs accessories. A fun photo (in the upper right hand corner) is not essential to the blog post itself – but it gives it a bit of flare. A well-chosen photo can go a long way in capturing the attention of your audience.
4. Did you let it sit long enough?
   One of the best parts of a great latte is the foam. To get the best foam you have to steam the milk and let it sit for a bit. Now, you shouldn't sacrifice staying current for proofreading, but if you sit on a blog post for less than a half hour – you'll still be in the cutting-edge arena. Write your post and walk away for a moment. Come back to it and read it through once more before pressing publish.
5. If it's delicious, share it with others
   Nothing makes a great latte even better than telling your friends how good it was – sometimes they'll even go with you to get another one! The same holds true for a blog post. When I read something really well-written and interesting I make sure to share it with everyone.

And, if your blog post is great – people might tweet it a latte (sorry for the pun, I had to do it)!

Looking for more details about making your inbound marketing blog post more readable?

When the Growing Gets Tough, The Tough Get Creative

Unless you are consistently feeding your inbound marketing machine with good, creative content, chances are you've seen a slow-down in traffic, search engine results and leads. Why? Because getting found online is about competing for peoples' attention and consistently delivering the goods. There are very few one-hit wonders surviving on the Internet these days. Let's do a brief reality check, then work on our content creation strategy.

How many blog posts or videos can you remember within the past 30 days? A handful? Out of the hundreds you probably read or viewed, most of them have either disappeared into the ether or you've tucked them away in a bookmarking site, never to read them again. How many tweets grab your attention? Most of us probably ignore 99.9% and retweet the rest, never to be seen again. Why are we so fickle online? As Emily Yoffe writes in a Slate article,

"...we actually resemble nothing so much as those legendary lab rats that endlessly pressed a lever to give themselves a little electrical jolt to the brain. While we tap, tap away at our search engines, it appears we are stimulating the same system in our brains that scientists accidentally discovered more than 50 years ago when probing rat skulls."

So we're fighting this instinct we all have to just tap, tap, tap looking for visual or auditory stimulation. When we find something interesting, we usually scan it, then throw it away. How do we overcome these zombie-like impulses and grab someone's attention? Even if we get the hallowed click-through, how do we keep them in their seats? What about videos? Aren't they the key to viral marketing? According to TubeMogul, "ten seconds into a video clip a little over 10% of viewers have abandoned it, rising to over half at 60 seconds or more." So, content must not only attract your eye, it must also have the power to interrupt what you're doing and keep you transfixed. To most of us this is a huge challenge. Here's my content marketing strategy.

1. Figure out who you are trying to attract. Chief Marketing Officers? Soccer Mom's? First-time homebuyers?
2. Figure out what makes these folks tick. Go to their social media sites and blogs and see what they're talking about. Socialize with them by commenting and asking questions. Become a regular.
3. Create blogs, videos and webinars that address your target market's concerns. Do this as often as you can, ideally three or more times per week.
4. Ask for comments by asking questions, and respond to the comments you receive. Ask for your readers' involvement. What would you guys like to see in my blog? This engages and rewards your readers and gives them an incentive to follow you.
5. Mix it up. Your content should not be monotonous. Alternate serious with fun, helpful with commentary, research with reviews. Use creative titles, images and short video clips.
6. Be your own worst critic. If you're getting stale, change the subject. Find some new way to communicate your ideas. Expand your own thinking, and you will expand theirs. If content creation becomes a chore, it will read that way. Step away from the keyboard and brainstorm some new ideas.

Remember, you have a few seconds to get someone's attention, and getting there is only half the battle. You must reward their attention with good, creative content that keeps them engaged. It's a tough nut to crack, but if you're reading this post, you're no doubt up for the challenge.

What are your content marketing strategies and experiences?

Inbound Marketing Myths and Urban Legends

Say something clever often enough and it becomes a buzzword. Make people believe it, and your idea becomes a myth or urban legend. People tend to believe myths until they are debunked. Inbound marketing is no stranger to myths. Why? Because it's trendy, it's hot and it's all over the Internet. Everybody's got a spin, and there are way too many how-to's, top-10's and best practices out there. Let's take a breather for a second, review some of the headlines and apply the BS meter to the more common myths and urban legends.

Myth #1 - Create Great Content, and You Will Get Leads

Really? That's it? I think I hear the Aflac duck quacking in the background. Certainly great content beats lousy content, but who's to say which is which? The audience, that's who. And what if you don't have an audience to quack to? Hmmm, oh yeah, there is that. You need a big audience first.

Myth #2 -You Can Be a Thought Leader By Participating in Social Media

Well, maybe, but what kind of participation and with whom? The truth is, leaders are leaders.  You can retweet lots of great blogs, but of course, everyone else is doing that. How is that leadership? You can write thought provoking, controversal blogs, but in view of Myth #1, who cares? Thought leaders are recognized for the work that they do, not the amount of stuff they put out there. Thought leaders come up with new ideas and approaches, they don't regurgitate.

Myth #3 - Inbound Marketing is Cheaper Than Outbound Marketing

Really? So all you need is a website, blog and presence on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn? Let's see how you do. Truth is, it takes effort and lots of it. We're talking manpower, and not just human grunt cycles. You need creative manpower, leadership, and all that good stuff. Cha-ching! Have you looked at salaries for creative types lately?

Myth #4 -You Can Achieve Positive ROI in a few Months

Wow, that one's pretty strong. Truth is, it can take months just to figure out your brand, come up with great offers that will capture leads and create a compelling website, blogs and landing pages. Once you're there, you still have to deal with Myth #1. If your tree falls in the woods, will anyone hear it? Does anyone give a rats $%^&@ who you are and what you're selling? No, they don't. You have to earn that. Sure there are exceptions, but are you one of them?

I'm just sayin'... What are your myths and urban legends?

Twitter Call to Action - Participate!

On Twitter, 10% of the users contribute over 90% of the content, according to a Harvard Business School survey of over 300,000 participants. Compare that to other social networks, where on average the top 10% contribute only 30% of the content. What's up with Twitter? Why the exclusive club of Tweeters? Isn't Twitter supposed to be a social network, not an advertising medium? I guess I'll weigh in, as usual.

Twitter is a different beast in a lot of ways. It's much faster, more dynamic than the other networks. Unless you filter your streams, groups and lists down to a few trusted people, the flow of information can be overwhelming. I suspect that many people are intimidated by this waterfall of data and find it hard to participate in a meaningful way. It's true that certain users (who shall remain nameless of course) dominate the flow by tweeting constantly. Many of these folks are making a living at this, under the theory that if you talk often enough, eventually someone will listen. Personally, I find this practice annoying, so I tend to remove these folks from the groups and lists I follow closely.

On the other hand, Twitter is fantastic at providing up-to-the-minute, useful information if you follow people who routinely provide informative tweets. I have learned almost everything I know about social media and inbound marketing from reading posts by experts that I saw on Twitter. I am certain that valuable resources can be found in every industry or subject area. Granted, much of the flow is useless junk. That's where careful filtering, grouping and listing come in. Build channels of trusted Tweeters, monitor them and you will learn a ton.

That brings me back to my original question. Why are there so few reliable sources on Twitter? Surely there are real experts, or at least people with informed opinions, out there who are just sitting on the sidelines because they are intimidated or unsure of what to say. My advice (and request) - jump in! Let's hear from you. Join the party. You really will enjoy it once you start some dialogs and get some real feedback. Your presence is desired, and if you have something to say that would benefit others, let's hear it. Don't be afraid of the speed and the volume - you'll get used to it. And don't worry about the fact that you don't have thousands of followers. People are listening. Hopefully they will participate too.

 

Social Media - New iPod Nano w/video: so much for the Flip!

While I was writing about the merits of a Flip pocket camcorder for social media and Inbound Marketing audience engagement yesterday, Apple announced that the new iPod Nano’s, that were rumored to include cameras, actually have video!

Like most, it was love at first use with my Flip Mino.  Now, I might as well sell it on eBay, since I won’t need it anymore with the new multi-tasking iPod Nano.  Aside from the music player and various useful apps such as a built-in pedometer and FM tuner, let’s compare the video features according to the product websites:

	iPod Nano (16G)	Flip Mino (2G)
Price	$199.99	$149.99
Size	3.6” x 1.5” x 0.24”	3.94" x 1.97" x 0.63"
Weight	1.28 ounces	3.3 ounces
Video Size	640 x 480 pixels	640 x 480 pixels
Video Playback	Up to 5 hours	Up to 4 hours
Display	2.2 in. diagonal	1.5 in. diagonal
Video Capacity	Up to 16 hours	1 hour
Orientation	Portrait or landscape	Landscape only

 

Q: Why would a business or organization need a pocket camcorder, anyway?  
A: To give your customers/supporters quality content that they can not only read, but can view.

1. Record a quick quote or testimonial from a client for dictation later
2. Capture video for blogs, news articles, product demonstrations for web
3. Improve recording spontaneity with the small size and multi-functional portability
4. Record something that you would like to further explore at a later time
5. Use as a crisis management PR tool for quick communication to the media

Another myth was that the iPod Nano would be discontinued, with the popularity of the iPod Touch, and the iPod functionality that comes along with iPhones.  But there are still a lot of us that appreciate the good old-fashioned click-wheel on the running trail.  The newer iPod's have “shake” technology, but if you leave it enabled while working out, the song changes every time your feet hit the ground.

The only thing more exciting will be the inevitable future development of iPhones with phone, camera, video, and iPod all in one.  However, raising the bar on the amount of grief you will experience if you lose or damage your “phone".

Ghost Blogging and Free Speech - A Two Way Mirror

The recent $15 million dollar lawsuit filed against Google has sparked much debate about whether you have the right to write whatever you want and be able to remain anonymous. Should a ghost blogger have no expectation of being revealed or being held accountable for content they put on the internet? In this case, Rosemary Port, an anonymous blogger who called Vogue model Liskula Cohena “skank” among other things, is launching a $15 million lawsuit against Google for disclosing her identity.

It’s interesting to point out that for a long time public opinions (editorials), whether right or wrong have been published in printed newspapers.   It’s not often that you hear about these papers getting sued for revealing the identity of the authors.  Why?  Because it doesn’t usually happen due to the fact the authors' names are included in the articles. 

It you want to be critical, or in some cases like this, just mean, you may think that you can hide your identity.  But you can't beat the power of the public internet.  It will find out about you and you’ll probably get what you deserve.  Rosemary Port already claims that all the publicity is taking away from her personal privacy.   It's hard to feel sorry for someone who puts out this type of negative content to the public and thinks there will be no accountability.  And when she is unhappy with the results, what does she do - file a lawsuit.

 This case brings more attention to a topic that is certainly not going to go away.  Overall it should help educate anyone who adds content to the internet to take pride in what they say and remember that the internet is open to the public and it’s a two-way mirror.  The more aware of this everyone gets the better the content and experience of using the internet will be.

Inbound Marketing Transformers

Six months ago we started on a journey into Inbound Marketing and blogged about it in our Inbound Marketing Journal. We discovered that Inbound Marketing not only helped us sell our own services, but it came up time after time in discussions with our clients. Everyone wanted to know how they could transform their web sites into sales and marketing machines that powered their businesses. We knew the answer was Inbound Marketing, with its unique blend of content creation (blogs, videos, webinars...), social media engagement and web analytics. Every client was interested and no one had a clue how to get started.

The next step for us, transforming ourselves into an Inbound Marketing Agency, was an easy decision but difficult to do in practice. There's a lot to think about and much to prepare. We first became proficient ourselves in content marketing and social media promotion. We put our experiences and advice for small businesses into a free whitepaper download called Inbound Marketer's Handbook, which became an instant hit and helped us work with our clients. Much thought went into developing an Inbound Marketing Strategy and figuring out how to deliver services such as blog writing, social media engagement and measurement of results. There were many technologies available, but few of them seemed to work together in an easy way.

Our services offering began to gel when we took the Hubspot 7 day trial for prospective partners. We liked Hubspot for all of the services we now provide, and learned how to use it through their Hubspot Partner program and by transforming our own website into a Hubspot-powered site. Now we are putting all we have learned into practice with our clients and looking forward to reporting many success stories down the road. We are looking forward to those transformations as well.