BarnRaisers

For any business seeking to attract and gather an audience, relevant content is an essential requirement.

But the creation of that content can understandably seem like a daunting task. Where do you start? What do you create? How much time does it take? Who do you bring to the table?

Content marketers use the phrase, “content curation,” to describe the development of content and and sharing of it in different forms such as articles, videos, pictures, tweets, songs or other pieces of digital content. A more relatable expression might be ”Thanksgiving leftovers.”

With a Thanksgiving celebration, you take the time to prepare a great meal and gather those you care about; then, the leftovers extend the specialness of the day for some time thereafter. Content marketing works in a similar way.

Many consider a blog a main dish of a content marketing program. Here are 21 ways blogs feed content marketing efforts.

1. BLOG POSTS: Are rich with content, serve as outreach for new consumers and are great for capturing the attention of search engines through keywords and regular updates that the search engines value. Relative to a Thanksgiving celebration, a blog is a main dish in any content marketing program. If your business blogs regularly, you WILL BE effective at content marketing if you WANT TO. Here’s how.
2. EMAILS: Can be a slight adaption of a blog post, perhaps with a different call to action, that goes to an predetermined list of consumers. It has the advantage of tracking exactly who reads your content.  (You have their e-mail addresses).
3. NEWLETTERS Are pretty versatile adaptations.  They can be print or digital.  You can distribute by mailing, handing out or e-mailing them.  You can have monthly, quarterly, or even yearly newsletters.  They can be 1 page, 5 pages or 10 pages long.  And finally, you can include all different types of articles – from how-tos, company news, and business trends to customer stories, FAQ’s or new product information.
4. EBOOK: Is an extension of your blog. Take that blog content, edit it, repurpose it, add value to it. String it together in a logical and coherent manner. Dress it up with pretty pictures and formatting. Lo and behold, you’ve got yourself an eBook.
5. WHITE PAPER: With a simple change in tone of your blog post to to educate readers and help people make decisions, you’re on your way to creating a white paper from your blog.
6. IMAGES: Used in any of items mentioned so far are indexed with the search engines. The more you use, the more they make your content more interesting and help your raise search rank.
7. INFOGRAPHICS: Are growing in popularity for companies hoping to build effective linking strategies as well as execute on viral campaigns because infographics are frequently downloaded and passed around for their visual impact and content.
8. VIDEO: In and outside a blog is a powerful tool for corporate content marketing strategies of any size. They are are boom for internally produced video projects and consumer-generated video alike.
9. LINKS: Everyone wants to know when someone is talking about them. So it is with content marketing. When people link to your site or blog, you can find out through tools like WordPress and Alexa, you can check out who linked to you and form good relationships and can links in return. The end result is you turn into an “authority” in your industry, one of the search engine’s most important criteria.
10. COMMENTS:  Getting noticed by industry bloggers and establishing a relationship with them over time can be beneficial to your business and your marketing efforts. The relationship can work both ways. Leaving comments that add to the conversation helps boost value of their blog post. Comments also establish links.
11. EVENTS: 56% or companies with content marketing programs use events to build face-to-face relationships (source: PulsePoint Group). And 74% and use social media. How’s how blogs help.
12. FACEBOOK: Distribute content from the blog, email or newsletter to your Facebook page and those who “Like” you and extend your influence among fans.
13. TWITTER: Tweet your content and Re-Tweet the content of others whose content you admire and you have one of the most powerful and cost effective outreach vehicle any company could want for content marketing. In fact, Twitter is defined as a micro-blogging platform.
14. LINKEDIN:  LinkedIn has 120 million-plus registered users. It couldn’t be easier to share an update with connections that links to your blog. Of those who use it, over two-thirds access it multiple times a week and is fast gaining in terms of share freqency with Facebook and Twitter.
15. GOOGLE+: Although still trailing behind Facebook and Twitter, every marketer will need a Google+ strategy. Through Google+, you see a photo of yourself in search and pull in metadata you’ve chosen for my Google+ profile.
16. PINTEREST: Is the fastest growing social network since Facebook, you can pin your images and interest to pinboards  (which also link to your Facebook page). If women are your target who make the purchase decision for 90% of all products, Pinterest is 70% female.
17. PODCASTS: Are an easy way to generate guest content and a quick-turnaround format, podcast can also transcribed to generated rich, written content.
18. WEBINARS: 46% of companies use webinars and 70% believe they are an effective marketing program. A way to make the most of them is to use your images and videos and make the content as interesting as possible (source: Content Marketing Institute_
19. SURVEYS: Use online surveys at the end of your blog to get to know your prospects, create a dialogue and lead them to your product or service.
20. CASE STUDIES: Take examples from your content to build case studies to show customers what in it for them. On this blog, we have over 100 case studies of the ROI of Social Media, Social commerce , Social CRM and SEO
21. USER GENERATED CONTENT: The best advocates for any business are customers themselves. Encourage user-generated content and video. It’s a boon for marketing purposes, particularly if you request submissions that fit into your overall content marketing strategy.

A first rule of blogging is to be helpful.  A second rule is if you need help ask for it.  Hopefully, in this blog, I can accomplish both.

A friend of mine has done very well in life. He has an important job, loving family and lives in a great town.  His daughter has a rare disease called Rasmussen’s Encephalitis.

Rasmussen’s Encephalitis is a rare, chronic inflammatory disease that affects one hemisphere of the brain.  It occurs in children under the age of 15 and is characterized by frequent and severe seizures, loss of motor skills and speech, paralysis on one side of the body and mental deterioration.  After the the first 8 to 12 months, most individuals with Rasmussen’s Encephalitis enter a phase of permanent, but stable, neurological deficits.

While this could tear anyone apart, in my friend’s case, it made him stronger.   He’s dedicated his life to a solution by founding the RE Children’s Project to increase awareness of Rasmussen’s Encephalitis (RE) and to support scientific research for a cure. The organization supports research toward the recovery process following hemisphrectomy surgery, a life altering surgery that is the only known “cure” for the disease.

I’ve offered to do what I can to raise awareness through social media.

I know first hand how powerful social media is in health care.  For conditions like Multiple Sclerosis and Epilepsy, patient communities on Facebook and Twitter offer support to one another with member numbering in the 10′s of thousands.  Studies in countries around the world have proven social support from patients with similar health conditions actually results in better health outcomes.

But for rare disease like Rasmussen’s Encephalitis, community creation is more difficult because there are less people to rely on for support.  There are valuable videos on YouTube.  One (below), less than 2 minutes, is factual and hopeful.

So I thought what if the blogging community and Twitter, the micro-blogging community, could help out.  What if, when you read this blog, you just re-tweet it.  In your re-tweet, you ask the next reader to re-tweet it.  If one person did this and so did the next person and so on, pretty soon, we would generate greater awareness of Rasmussen’s Encephalitis and the chances of finding a cure would be that much more likely.

What do you say?  The re-tweet button is at the top of the blog.  After all, it’s called social media for a reason.

What are net promoters? Consumers who rate products on the internet?  Mommy Bloggers? People who Tweets about brands on Twitter? Fans on Facebook? Hold that thought.

For students of relationship marketing and CRM, net promoters are the driving force of Fred Reichheld’s book, The Ultimate Question. Fred studied and surveyed the customers of 100′s of companies and came to a singular conclusion: The most admired and profitable companies are the ones with the greatest percentage of net promoters – people who enthusiastically answer in the affirmative the question, ”How likely is it that you would recommend this company to a friend or colleague?”

Fred developed the Net Promoter Score (NPS).  The NPS is the percentage of people who are “promoters” of a company minus the   “passives” and “detractors” (NPS = P – D).  Reichheld’s work is known for its statistical significance and high correlation with business success.  In 2006, the companies with the highest NPS were:

• USAA (82%)
• HomeBanc (81%)
• Harley-Davidson (81%)
• Costco (79%)
• Amazon.com (73%)
• Chick-fil-A (72%)
• eBay (71%)

By 2008, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, in Groundswell, delivered research showing 80% of people rate and review products favorably on the internet and their social networks. If companies with an NPS of 80% rank among the highest in Reichheld’s work, Li and Bernoff’s research is particularly good news for businesses and brands.

It means companies that use interactive ratings are reviews are likely to have a higher NPS, be more admired and have greater profitability. Li and Bernoff’s research also showed:

• 76% of customers use online reviews to make purchases
• 96% of sites that have them say they are an effective merchandising tactic
• Only 25% of e-commerce sites have them now

So, from Reichheld’s, Li’s and Bernoff’s viewpoints, we’re in the “net promoters era.”  If your company isn’t taking advantage of it, shouldn’t it be?

Two of my favorite business books are Blue Ocean Strategy and Groundswell. The first is my recommendation for best book on opening up new markets and the second is the definitive primer on how social media and online communities work to build business.

Taken together, they are a roadmap for brand vitality where the highway is a well crafted business strategy.

In Blue Ocean Strategy, W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne advise companies to stop competing in the bloody, market share stealing ”red ocean” and find uncontested market space in the “blue ocean.”  Like Cirque du Soleil.  They eliminated  costly to maintain circus animals, marque names and expensive arena rentals and created their own portable show; one that was fun, family entertainment in the consideration set with dinner and a movie or a night out; instead of a once a year major event.

Recently, I gave a friend a copy to help him rise above his red ocean.  He owned a bike store in town.  For over 20 years, his shop was known for superior service and customer involvement.  This year bike sales slowed, competitors cut prices and his landlord raised his rent forcing him to close up shop.

He saw uncontested space going direct to customers with two well-branded vans.  This took advantage of the reputation he built for personal service.  He generated more awareness from referrals and vans travelling around towns than a stationery store and his operating cost dropped.  Now, he’s back in the black with a reinvented business.

Groundswell by Forrester analysts Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff explains the effectiveness of everything social from wikis, blogs, social networks to brand communities.  They present compelling case studies; all beginning with a company’s unmet business need, social media tactics that meet the business objective and return on investment is well detailed.

Take Blendtec blenders.  They’ve sold exclusively to the commercial market since 1978.  Starbucks uses them.  In 2007, they decided to sell to consumers directly with videos from owner, Tom Dickson.  With an investment of less than $1,000 for videos that ran on YouTube, company sales increased +500%…plus the cost of an iPhone.