Online Marketing Blog

Content Marketing Matrix

This recent infographic from First 10 and Smart Insights provides recommendations for different content types depending on the stage of the buying cycle that your customers are in.  Some of the content types include:

• Reviews
• Events
• Demo Videos

Search Undervalued, Critical to Brand Campaigns
Search helps companies build strong bands by bettering their brand-health metrics.  While the majority of B2C marketers now believe that search affects brand building, digital executives sometimes still find it thought to prove that search is a critical ingredient in branding.   Via eMarketer.

40% of Top Brands Are on Instagram 
In early 2012 Instagram had 15 million users and was only availabile on the iPhone.  Now there are nearly 80 million users, and Instagram is also available on Android.  Looking for a glimpse into how the top brands are fairing on Instagram?  Read more to find out.  Via Mashable.

If you were to see a publication date on this post older than 90 days, would you still read it?  If you saw more than 2,500 words sprawled in front of you – would your eyes be enthralled or glazed?  And perhaps just as importantly, would you still consider this post useful if you had to dig deep through search and social results to find it?

All questions above, of course, can be taken as subjective – adding another wrinkle entirely to the subject of content marketing to other online marketers.  Speaking as an online marketer, what I look for in content may not match exactly what you are seeking in terms of length, format, tone or design.  That said, my experience working with numerous clients that are themselves, online marketers, within this space has led me to believe that there are at least five constants that should be adhered to in order to successfully attract and engage:

Summer in Minnesota is my favorite. Warm weather, green grass and puffy, white clouds flittering across the sky; it’s fabulous.

In particular I’m excited for the month of August because there are 2 great events happening in Minnesota.

Event #1 – Explore Minneapolis August 16-17, where digital and social media marketers are gathering to explore the latest in online marketing and I’m presenting on Optimizing for B2B Audiences.

Event #2 – The “Great Minnesota Get Together”, where mini-doughnuts, Sweet Martha’s Cookies, and Corn on the Cob are must-have’s on the list.

What do these 2 events have in common? It might seem like nothing, but let me explain: One of the key challenges most B2B Marketers face is selling a product or service where multiple end-users and decision makers are involved.

When it comes to your marketing, the options are limitless.

Have you ever caught yourself saying, “If only we’d had more time/money/resources we could have knocked that project out of the park!”?

Some marketers are great at brainstorming great ideas and have trouble implementing, while others are more task oriented and have a hard time seeing the big picture.  Whether you relate to one of the two types mentioned above or fall somewhere in the middle there is always an opportunity for growth and discovery.

Often we can find ourselves getting caught up in the day-to-day minutiae of completing tasks related to our structured marketing programs. While creating an executable and realistic content plan is an essential part of implementing a successful marketing strategy, I think there is another very important and often overlooked option as well.

Whether Google and social media sites like Twitter exist as platforms for discovery or not, links are votes that can create awareness and send traffic to whatever it is that you’re promoting online: website, blog, YouTube Channel, Facebook Fan Page or Pinterest Board. The internet is made of such connections and with the social web, even more so.

One of the core principles of optimization is to make the connection between your brand’s content and a particular destination or audience, easier. Creating, optimizing and promoting content and media that inspires people to share does exactly that.

But what are the best tactics for link building? Isn’t Google Penguin putting the hammer down on many SEO focused link building schemes? Do links even matter anymore, now that social shares are being debated as the new electricity of the web?

OTL: Twitter Olympics

The broadcasting of this years Olympics has been nothing short of disasterous.  NBC is not reporting the Olympic games in real time and part of the reason is to protect the interest of advertisors and sponsors.  The term #NBCFAIL has even begun trending on Twitter.  Social media is riddled with the mistakes and blunders made by the company in the past weeks. There are now discussions to place restrictions placed on Olympian’s tweets – to avoid the “cat getting out of the bag” before the news is broadcasted.

Top Online News of the Week

Company Says 80% of Their Facebook Ad Clicks Were From Bots
After becoming frustrated with Facebook advertising Limited Run has decided to ditch their Facebook page altogether.  Limited Run found that they could only verify about 20% of the clicks that were supposedly being converted to users showing up on it’s website.  Via Cnet.

As one of the original and largest conferences with a focus on search engine marketing, SES content runs the gamut of strategies and tactics to help marketers improve their performance. This isn’t an easy task in a world where platforms like Google and Facebook can change the rules from one minute to the next.

SES may have had it’s roots in search marketing, but like the “best of the best” search engine marketers, SES has adapted to the changing marketplace and evolved content offerings including: mobile, social, content marketing and big trends like Big Data.

The notion of optimization is increasingly viewed as a holistic approach that can impact discovery of content to anyone that is looking.  That bigger picture view of marketing performance optimization is something you’ll find in the tracks, presentations and tactics at SES San Francisco. It’s a real 360 degree view of what it means to optimize digital marketing to achieve any kind of marketing goal with any audience on any platform.

Most forms of online B2B marketing and advertising focus on attracting and engaging business customers through a sales cycle to create awareness and interest, through consideration and ultimately to purchase. That’s reasonable since there’s a clear investment and return.

While a lot of social media-savvy business to business companies are leveraging social channels to engage with communities and for customer service, most implementations of corporate social media marketing are no different than any other sales-focused marketing effort. Expectations are high to influence a social return on investment (ROI).

In fact, a recent survey by PulsePoint Group and The Economist Intelligence unit reports that, “Executives who said their companies had established an extensive social media presence reported a return on investment that was more than four times that of companies with little or no social network engagement activity.”