Hi there!
In this month’s TPM’s Takes we’ll be talking about ways to become the leader of the pack and make your voice heard above all the others. After all, the world of digital marketing can be very crowded and noisy and we wouldn’t want your unique voice (and product) to get lost. Let’s find better ways for you to reach, educate and entertain your audience.
7 Hard Truths About Content Marketing That Will Make You Smarter in 2017
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/287231
Promotion and consistency in your online marketing efforts are key to your success. But how to accomplish that when you’re trying to sell the cloud or hosting services and manage a business can be challenging. These ideas will help.
TPM’s Take
Where and How to Promote Your Content
- Send an email to your subscribers letting them know of new content. Let them know what pain point you’re addressing and tease them about your solution. Include a call to action with a link to the blog, or video or whatever. (Learn how to get more email subscribers here)
- Facebook has more than 1.79 billion users and will create more and more opportunities for businesses to profit from their platform, particularly with Facebook Messenger Chat Bots that let you automate your customer conversations and your ability to direct your followers to your content, ask what they think, and interact with them.
- LinkedIn has more than 467 million professionals, and IT and Services is the most represented industry. Sure, not all are in a position to make purchases for their companies, but many can influence those who are. Build out your company page to establish more connections, update your status when you post new content, post a new blog there along with a relevant photo, or use the chat feature to connect prospects to your content.
- Google has more than a 77% market share of the global search market and the advertising tools you need to create ads for targeted audiences who’d be interested in your content. Use Google ads to enhance your reach and build brand visibility.
Why Consistency in Publishing Content Matters
Publishing content is easy. Creating worthwhile content that attracts prospects and retains clients is hard. But it’s absolutely essential. If you website has fresh content on a regular basis:
- Your visitors, prospects, leads, and customers will view you as more reliable, credible, and authoritative.
- You’ll create more opportunity for engagement with people commenting on your postings — and you responding — which makes those potential sales feel they’re listened to.
- Your site will be indexed more often and if the algorithms used determine that your content has value, you could help you search engine ranking.
And consistency matters in social media as well. Whether you post many times a day, daily, or weekly, people learn to expect you’ll continue to do it. That adds to your credibility and can build more followers.
There are additional hard truths you need to accept in order to get your marketing plan on track. Read 7 Hard Truths About Content Marketing That Will Make You Smarter in 2017 to discover why you must identify a pain point and solve it for you readers, why it’s essential to keep your product and services at the core of the content you create, and more.
Seven Ways To Evaluate Your Online Reach Beyond Direct Conversions
We get it. Marketing your business is a multiple-choice, many-moving-parts exercise in launch, manage, measure and move forward. The good news is the abundance of robust tools, and highly-trained marketing and digital experts means you can see what’s working, and what’s not, fairly quickly.
Except, fine print alert, for one somewhat measurable but largely intangible marketing holy grail: thought leadership.
Thought leadership is the science and art of blending marketing, social and public relations to go beyond classic product benefits discussions to the educational, inspiring and credibility-building realm of insight, opinion and information.
TPM’s Take
The CEO of a cloud-based enterprise may jumpstart a thought leadership campaign with a contributed article addressing the ability of cloud to drive entrepreneurial performance, or educational access. Thought leadership inspires and builds both awareness and relationships, but it’s not a three-click-and-convert part of immediate marketing funnel. Yet, it’s an important part of the assisted conversion process.
First Stop: Google Analytics
GA doesn’t tell the whole story, but it does provide you an immediate, an ongoing look at what an editorial piece is delivering in terms of traffic, bounce rates, backlinks and assisted conversions. The key is remember that earned media coverage lives on the web forever, so small short-term gains will be supplemented by long-horizon value in search, ranking and traffic.
Conversation: Social Media
Shared thought leadership often earns a robust second chapter in the social realm. Shares, likes and comments means target market communities have stopped and engaged with your content. This helps tremendously in positioning your brand as an active voice, and a desirable company to interact with.
The Long Game
Selfishly, we’ve saved the best for last: earned media coverage is a long game. That well-written article will live on digitally for potentially years, and it may well serve as a valuable reinforcement agent for that prospect to engage via a call, email or social contact. Also, credible coverage often drives opportunity engagement. A classic example is a great article from the CEO of a cloud company, which gets published, and earns a return invitation from an editor. That second article is a door opener for yet another article, which might then inspire a conference organizer to extend a speaking invitation – because they see the CEO’s credentials and thinking in the article. Put together speaking engagements, articles and media coverage, and don’t be surprised if award invitations, prospect calls or partner dialogue follows.
The key is not to expect a direct line from publication to digital conversion – but rather a pathway to market visibility and credibility that can yield long term results while supporting your ongoing marketing and digital sales strategy.
Seven Ways To Evaluate Your Online Reach Beyond Direct Conversions shares valuable insight on measuring your online reach as a thought leader. Read the full article to discover the metrics that seven communications executives from Forbes Communications Council use to measure their online reach.
The Power of Direct Mail in the Digital Age
https://blog.kissmetrics.com/direct-mail-in-the-digital-age/
The digital landscape we live in is filled with noise. We are exposed to thousands of advertisements per day, our email inboxes are overflowing with spam and as marketers capturing the attention of our target audience is tough.
This article highlights real examples of how companies have used direct mail to convert their prospects into paying customers. According to KissMetrics, “Marketing is about effective, persuasive communication, and direct mail is no exception. Success is based on a fundamental rule: Reach the right prospects, at the right time, with the right offer.”
TPM’s Take
MSPs should be thinking outside their current MSP marketing plan to leverage traditional mediums. Good marketing today is really about finding a way to break through the noise and creative direct mail campaigns can do exactly that. It all starts with knowing your audience and what makes them tick.
When building your marketing strategy, think about your unique selling proposition and how you can best tell your brand story to your prospects through both online and offline channels. Even though TPM is a digital agency, we pride ourselves in helping our clients succeed no matter how. Which means, understanding what tactics will help our clients reach their goals, and sometimes that means executing direct mail campaigns. We love getting the opportunity to think differently and find creative solutions for our unique clients.
Read The Power of Direct Mail in the Digital Age to learn how you can overcome the challenges of marketing in today’s digital world by utilizing clever direct mail campaigns.
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