7 Classic Content Marketing Mistakes

Content marketing has really taken off. According to the ContentMarketing Institute 9 out of 10 organizations employ some kind of content marketing strategy. The most popular plan is to produce articles and blogs related to your business and engage with existing and potential customers through social media. It doesn’t work for everyone and that’s mainly because a lot of people don’t really understand the idea behind content marketing in the first place. So what can go wrong?

Listen To My Sales Pitch

The idea of marketing is to increase sales…right? All marketing must have a call to action or how will I ever convert…right? Wrong! Forget about focussing on what you get out of it and focus on what the potential customer gets out of it. The idea behind content marketing is that you offer the potential customer something useful - something that solves a problem for them. How often do you read lengthy sales pitches? Do you enjoy self-referential advertorial pieces that are clearly designed to persuade you to buy? No, and neither does anyone else.

The American Marketing Association defines marketing like this -

“Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”

The word you need to pick out of that sentence is value. If you don’t offer some value then your content marketing efforts will fail.

We Don’t Need Professional Writers

Everyone can write can’t they? Why should we spend money on a professional when we can get the intern to do it? Well the truth is – you get what you pay for. A well briefed, professional copy writer will produce quality content that will serve you for months or even years. A badly written, awkward, or even grammatically incorrect article, will turn people away, discourage trust and harm your brand.

If you were going to redesign your reception area, or create a new look for your website you wouldn’t ask your existing staff to do it - you would hire a professional. The same thing applies to your content.

I Can’t Be Bothered This Week

If you want to show off great knowledge of your industry then a regular blog is a fantastic way to highlight that. You can display your company’s thought leadership, enhance your reputation and encourage people to visit regularly.

The main problem with company blogs is that they don’t have a proper editorial calendar. As soon as the office is busy the first thing that gets ditched is the company blog (especially if you assign it to staff – see above). To get value from your blogging efforts you need to do it regularly and you need to maintain a high standard. You should also understand that it takes time to gain traction through content marketing. It’s not something that will work over night.

Quantity Over Quality

Sometimes the problem isn’t a lack of content - it’s an overabundance of content. You don’t want three separate blogs a day (one on the coffee machine, one on what you saw on the way to work and just one about your actual business), along with an infographic, a podcast and a new white paper. You want to produce quality content, leverage that content and promote it properly. Give it room to breathe and find an audience, and then rinse and repeat.

SEO, SEO and SEO

We have optimized the hell out of this copy. Our target keywords are scattered optimally, the headers are perfect and we’re ranking high in the search results. Why isn’t it resulting in more sales?

There’s no denying that SERP rankings are important. You want to rank as high as possible in the search engines for search terms that relate to your product. You also want to ensure that the people who land on your page actually get what they came for. Fluff content, keyword stuffing and a lack of engaging or useful information is never going to please customers. Even if you can “game” search engines to get them there in the first place they will leave pretty quickly and they won’t come back.

Search engines are getting better and better at spotting hollow content and people are wise to SEO over substance. Don’t forget about SEO in your content marketing but remember it is only part of the picture. Quality content is the most important thing.

How Does It Relate?

We’ve already discussed why SEO isn’t enough but it’s also worth mentioning that great content isn’t enough. You could write the best analysis of mortgage types or the greatest review of that movie you watched last night but if your business sells suitcases then it won’t do you any good. It might pull in loads of traffic but if it doesn’t relate to your business in some way then how is it going to boost your business? That traffic will never convert to sales and it won’t hang around to read the rest of your content.

The idea with content marketing is to offer value in your business area. Establish your credentials, build some trust in potential customers that you know what you’re talking about and the idea that your service or product is worth a look will naturally follow.

Relying On Social Media

The idea that social media is the golden ticket to every marketer’s dream – a steady supply of free leads – may be flawed. You could have 20,000 followers on Twitter but how many of them click the links you post and read the content? You might be sucking in 10,000 unique visitors a day from Stumble Upon but how does that traffic convert?

The truth is that social media is a commitment and if you don’t invest properly then you won’t get anything back. There are a lot of ways to build a following on Twitter and you can submit your content to Digg, Stumble Upon, Reddit and everyone else, but if you want targeted traffic you need a strategy. You don’t need to pull in thousands of people every day – you need to pull in the people who are actually seeking your services or product and are ready to buy. Don’t be fooled by big numbers – focus on the traffic that is actually converting.

Plan Your Content Marketing Strategy and Then Execute

These are just seven classic content marketing mistakes that many businesses make. The truth is there are many more ways you can go wrong. There also isn’t a definite recipe for success. Every business is different. That’s why you need to take time to analyse your business and plan a content marketing strategy that will work for you. Focus on what you expect it to achieve and then plan it carefully before you actually begin.

Got any other content marketing mistakes in mind? Post a comment and share.

Want to Share Netflix Favorites? There’s an App for That! Well, Maybe Not!

In our thirst for social media, we are constantly sharing. We share links and shout out intimate details on Facebook and we love to exchange stuff we “Stumble Upon” and “Digg.” Adventurous folks are sharing their ideas via TED Talks and for those clever with 140 characters or less, there’s Twitter. And, let’s not forget about the emergence of Google+.

Enter the Netflix App geared towards even more sharing via Facebook pages. Want to share that old television series Sea Hunt with your friends? What about a great movie you just watched? Who wouldn’t want to share it with their BFFs? There’s a grand idea behind the Netflix App but if you live in the United States, forget about it — the app apparently is illegal — allowing others to see what you’re watching on Netflix is breaking the law!

One post on CNNMoney, “Why Netflix’s App Would Be Illegal” by Julianne Pepitone explained what’s behind the legalities of using a Netflix App in America: The 1980s Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA).

According to Pepitone, VPPA came about after a “Washington City Paper talked to a video store clerk into giving him (Robert) Bork’s rental history.” In 1987, Robert Bork, a very conservative Supreme Court nominee lost the nomination and although one could find many reasons why Bork didn’t get the top judge job, VPPA ensured it would be illegal for anyone to obtain another’s video rental history for privacy purposes.

How Private Are We?

In a blog post by Netflix Director of Government Relations, Michael Drobac, he said of the Facebook app sharing: “We’ll continue to look at these issues and find ways to bring you the easy, convenient and quality experiences you have come to expect, including ways to automatically share with your friends on Facebook.” Hmm?

I predict the sides on whether to amend or get rid of VPPA will be fierce in my opinion and I’ll explain why?

For one, if you look at the comments on the Netflix blog post you’re sure to get a chuckle or two. Many are still angry about the Netflix price increase. The whole mess angered Netflix users even after an apology and then a separation of church and state, so to speak — a Netflix user could choose either the DVD delivery or online streaming. Thankfully, Netflix also allowed users to have both rentals and streaming but at a price increase. I chose the streaming.

The comments on the blog post are indeed angry ones. Why? Netflix is urging users to contact Congress via an email link to help reform VPPA and most are saying “What? You want us to help you after you increased our prices?” Forget about it!

Secondly, I’d expect Facebook users to protest against this Netflix sharing app. I for one wouldn’t want anyone to know my video history by peeking into my queue or looking at recent rentals. Sure, I’m embarrassed I watched The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh like five or six times! I’d also pop fun at some of my family members who are adults yet are compelled to watch cartoon-type movies over and over again even though they have no actual kids at home. Heck my one sister would fall into this category—she sort of whispered to me over the phone she went and saw Puss n’ Boots with Antonio Banderas. Imagine what her Facebook friends would say!

But I digress. Facebook has invaded my life enough and I’m not fond of the timeline—I don’t wish to see a timeline going back to 1959! I also don’t want to share every tidbit of my life including the Netflix movies I download and stream through my Apple TV.

If I were single and some Facebook user thought I’d be great to take out on a date, they’d probably think I was in my 80s since I love Bette Davis and Cary Grant movies. I’d be judged by the movies and television shows I watch. If you’re reading this do you even remember the TV show Sea Hunt?

And, currently my profile pic is my favorite dog Cosmo — not named after the Seinfeld character! Usually during the NFL season I put up a pic of me wearing a Pittsburgh Steeler’s throwback helmet and only then would my possible date to be know I’m not in my 80s and actually much younger.

I hope VPPA isn’t overturned. I’d like to see Netflix sting a little — I’m sure many will agree with me — at least those leaving Netflix blog comments do!

Well, enough on the VPPA and Netflix’s attempt at app sharing on Facebook. You’ll either be for it or against it I suppose.

Time to run, I think I’ll watch Gunsmoke on Netflix and after that I may even watch an episode or two of Little House on the Prairie, maybe an episode of The Waltons too; but that my friends is just between me and you. Tootles!

Image Credits:

Netflix Logo / Netflix / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain

Facebook Logo /  Facebook / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain

If You Build It, Will They Come?

So you have a new website? Whether it is based on a great new idea, dedicated to covering an underserved niche, or aiming to promote your products or services, you have your work cut out getting it noticed. According to Royal Pingdom there are over 550 million websites in the world today and 300 million of them were added in 2011. Of course the truth is that many of them are inactive and attract little or no traffic.

You may be surprised at how many websites there are out there that receive no traffic. If you build it, they won’t necessarily come - you really need to give them a good reason. Using Alexa (which isn’t amazingly accurate but can give us a rough idea) we can get a ranking number for websites which is based on how many visits a website received over the last three months. The website with the most visits is number one and surprise, surprise – it’s Google.

What’s more revealing is taking a look at some low traffic websites. My own Scottish history website, Angry Pict, which I set up a few years ago has a modest amount of content and is very rarely updated. On average it gets around 230 unique visits per day (over the last three months) and that equates to an Alexa rank of 4,447,473. That ranking isn’t perfectly accurate but it does give you an idea of how little traffic the majority of websites out there must be getting.

How do you get traffic? It’s simple – you create content that people want, content that people are searching for, content that people want to share. The reason Angry Pict still gets traffic despite being updated only once in the last couple of years is that it has some content on subjects that people are searching for. If your website has no content then don’t expect any organic traffic. This is ultimately why content marketing is such a good idea.

If you create some content related to your business then:

• you show off your expertise,
• you are giving your potential customers something useful,
• you are building brand awareness,
• you are improving your business website’s ranking in the search engines,
• you are encouraging people to share your content and spread your brand for free,
• you are building potential leads.

Compare that with paying out a large sum to get someone to click on an ad and visit your site. They have no reason to stick around, no reason to share the website and no reason to come back. They also visit one time and they are gone. If you create content then it can pull in traffic indefinitely depending on the topic. Content marketing doesn’t just work; it is also more cost effective than traditional advertising.

So forget about fancy animations and expensive graphic design. If you really want people to visit your website give them a reason. Content is king and that’s never going to change.

Pinterest Responds to User Concerns by Updating Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy

Despite being one of the fastest growing social media sites on the Internet, Pinterest has been under heavy scrutiny for the past several weeks due to a clause in its Terms of Service that granted Pinterest the right to sell any content posted on the site. On top of that, many photographers, illustrators and other creative personalities have been less than pleased with the lack of concern that Pinterest seems to show when it comes to protecting intellectual property rights.

So, what does Pinterest have to say about all these concerns? Ben Silbermann, co-founder and CEO of Pinterest, seems not only to be listening to these concerns, but also taking active measures in response.

On March 23, a post was made on the official Pinterest blog to notify users that an updated Terms of Service, Acceptable Use Policy, and Privacy Policy will go into effect on April 6. This same post was sent out in an email to all Pinterest users, with a link to the updated terms. The first point noted in this communication should please all users:

Our original Terms stated that by posting content to Pinterest you grant Pinterest the right for to sell your content. Selling content was never our intention and we removed this from our updated Terms.

Very nice. I love the fact that Pinterest didn't try to just tweak its policy on this matter, but instead, removed it altogether.

But what about the concerns of copyright holders? That's a more complicated situation -- and to be quite honest, Pinterest's response could greatly affect how other sharing sites deal with the same types of issues. For the most part, Pinterest seems to be following the same path as other social media platforms by making a general statement in its Acceptable Use Policy that pinners are not allowed to post anything that "infringes any third party's Intellectual Property Rights, privacy rights, publicity rights, or other personal or proprietary rights" and then following up by checking out any content that has been flagged as being in violation of this agreement.

However, unlike many other leading social media sites, Pinterest does appear committed to taking this issue more seriously. For instance, last month Pinterest introduced a No Pin Tool that site owners could use to block people from pinning content from their sites. While many have pointed out that there are still lots of ways to get around this type of blocking, it's definitely a major step in the right direction -- and a step that shows Pinterest is genuinely interested in finding innovative solutions to a problem that is plaguing freelancers and independent content creators.

Awesome start, Pinterest. I love the Pinterest concept, but I've been very hesitant about pinning any items or getting involved in the user community because of the "selling content" and IP concerns. Now, I look forward to pinning away when April 6 rolls around and the new TOS goes into effect.

Image Credit: PhotoSpin/MonkeyBusiness Images

Forget the Future, Online News is the Here and Now

I can’t remember the last time I bought a physical newspaper. I rarely watch the news on TV. I now rely on the internet for my daily news fix and I consume more news than I ever did through traditional outlets. Whether it’s a newspaper website, an aggregator for hot news stories or a recommendation on Facebook or Twitter, the vast majority of the news I consume is online. Since I can access news wherever I happen to be with my smartphone I read more of it.

According to research from Pew Research Center I am not alone. More and more people are turning to the internet for their news. In fact the audience for online news has gone up 17.2% in the last year. Interestingly the audiences for network, local, audio and cable news have all grown as well. The big losers are magazines and newspapers. The newspaper industry has declined by a whopping 43% since the year 2000.

Around a quarter of the population now consume news on mobile devices. Smartphones and tablets are becoming more popular and the mobility factor is key. They aren’t actually replacing desktop computers or laptops, they are providing additional outlets. Many people are actually consuming more news now than they ever did before.

One widely reported finding was that, despite the increase in the popularity of social media, most people are not using it to find news. Only 10% of digital news consumers said they followed links from Facebook or Twitter “very often”. Despite the fact that 54% of U.S. citizens now have a Facebook account they are still accessing news directly through websites or apps.

As people move online for their news many outlets have to follow suit or risk extinction. Digital subscription models are expected to grow this year. Particularly with the growth of the tablet market, magazines have found a suitable alternative outlet and some publications are reporting success with digital subscriptions.

One year on, since launching a digital subscription model, the New York Times is reporting over 450,000 paying subscribers who shell out $15 to $35 per month for articles. They are so confident that they are reducing the number of free articles they offer readers from 20 per month to just 10.

It looks like online news is no longer the future, it’s the present. What do you think? Do you turn to the internet for news?

Copyright Math: Another Reason Why People Don’t Respect IP Rights

It may not always seem this way, but in general, most people respect laws – except when they feel those laws are unjust. So, why do so many choose to ignore copyright laws? The hard fact is that a sizable portion of the population seems to believe that copyright laws exist merely for the benefit of large corporations who want to stick their greedy little hands deeper into your wallet and overcharge you for music, movies and other media.

What’s often forgotten is that the Internet – the same tool that makes it so easy for us to illegally distribute and attain copyrighted material – is also the instrument that allows creative personalities to bypass the big media outlets and self-publish their material. And, copyright laws are there to protect these startups and independents just as much as the big brands.

If people really want to fight back against the multi-billion dollar corporations, then they should be thinking about how they can help support these indie producers. Respecting the intellectual property rights of these producers would go a long way toward providing that support.

Still, this message just doesn’t seem to be getting out. Why? Well, the big media brands are just so loud, their voices are the only ones being heard. With some of the things they say and do, it’s no wonder that people are frustrated and looking for ways to fight back.

For example, lawyers and lobbyists from the entertainment industry like to throw out numbers about how much money and how many jobs are being lost due to copyright violations, but they don’t really tell us how they came up with these numbers or present them in a way that’s meaningful to the average Joe. As a result, people look at these numbers and figure they’re just a bunch of fiction created by slippery accountants. That just makes people even more bitter. So, in a very real sense, these types of analyses are having the exact opposite of their intended effects.

Rob Reid gave a brilliant TED talk related to this very subject and coined a new term: Copyright Math. Here’s the video of that talk – take a look and let us know what you think! Fair warning: sarcasm ahead.

3 Reasons Why KDP Select May Be An Author's New Best Friend

When you publish your eBook using Kindle’s Direct Publishing service, you can opt to include it in Amazon’s KDP Select option, which means your eBook becomes part of the Kindle owner’s lending library.

Like most things involving publishing, there is a lively controversy raging over whether granting Amazon exclusive rights to distribute one’s digital book for 90 days is a good or bad thing. Since I love a good debate, I’m jumping right into the middle of this one to share my (limited) experience as a KDP Select author and my opinion on the subject.

Exclusivity

Let me relate this to the topic of my latest book: real estate. When you list your house with an agent, you grant them an exclusive right to market your property for a specified period. Your reason for giving them that exclusivity is your belief they will sell your property for the best price in the shortest amount of time.  Granting a mega-giant like Amazon exclusive rights to distribute your intellectual property is a good idea for the same reason: maximizing your sales potential in relation to your time and efforts. 

Win-Win

Whether someone buys or borrows your book from the Kindle owner’s lending library, you collect a royalty as long as you have abided by the terms of the program. While I’m grateful that my local libraries are supporting my work by purchasing copies of my book, I’m definitely not getting paid royalties when someone borrows it. However, according to the article "KDP Select Results After 3 Months," each time someone borrows a book from the Kindle lending library, the author earns an average of $1.75. What’s not to like about that scenario?

Marketing and Promotion

Borrowed books help you rank for position just the same as sold books. For instance, our Kindle version of Buying Your First Home? Insider Secrets You Must Know went live on March 9, 2012. At the time of this writing, we are already ranking #16 in Real Estate for the 100 Top Paid Best Sellers and #3 in the top 100 Hot Releases. As first-time authors, my co-author and I could hardly have expected to rank that well just based on our own marketing and promotional efforts! 

We expect to gain new readers because of the massive exposure our eBook has to Amazon Prime members and Kindle owners. Because we are part of the KDP Select program, we have access to other free promotional tools from Amazon. 

While the jury is still out on this program as it is relatively new and comprehensive data is not yet available, I believe that, at least for newer authors like myself who are establishing their brand and readership, the Kindle owner’s lending library could be a crucial element of your success or failure in the world of indie publishing.

References:

McLaren, Gary "KDP Select Results After 3 Months," Publish Your Own Ebooks, http://www.publishyourownebooks.com/kdp-select-results-after-3-months/