PR 20/20 Blog

Driven by Content Part 5: Giving Your Content Legs [VIDEO]

By Christina Capadona-Schmitz | Posted Aug 6, 2010 | 0 Comment(s) | Filed in: Content Marketing
Once you understand how social media, SEO, brand and PR impact content marketing, it’s time to get started on your strategy, develop the content that will be shared and found by your target audiences, and solidify a leadership position in your industry.

In Part 5 of Driven by Content, Christy Barksdale, PR 20/20 content services manager, talks about planning your publishing strategy, giving your content legs on the web and the benefits of content curation.

Part 5 - Giving Your Content Legs & Content Curation

Getting Started

Developing a content marketing strategy includes taking the proper steps to manage the workload. It starts with the establishment of an editorial calendar that outlines the types of pieces you plan to create, and the relevant topic ideas.

Also, develop a publishing schedule that identifies which pieces will be created, when they will be posted, and who is assigned the responsibility for creating and managing the individual projects. These tools, whether tracked in an online project management center, wiki or shareable document, help give you the big picture of your strategy and stay on target with your efforts.

Giving Your Content Legs

In order for your content strategy to be successful, your content pieces must be found and consumed by the target audiences you intend to reach. Here are few ways to give your content legs on the web:
- Ensure your content resonates with your audience by writing for your buyer personas. Write for their needs and pain points.
- Optimize for search engines by incorporating important keywords to ensure searchers can find your content. Activate a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign if needed for short-term impact.
- Share your content with target audiences on social networks. Include links to your blog and social profiles in your email signature.
- Repurpose existing content in new mediums. Update old content with new information, and rework existing content for the vertical markets you serve.
The Role of Content Curation

Content curation is a newer concept in the content marketing space, and involves finding, grouping, organizing and sharing the best and most relevant information online.

With the overwhelming amount of content available on the Internet today, it is difficult for professionals to efficiently manage their daily reading on news and trends, as well as separate the useful, quality content from the flood of information on the web.

Organizations can add value to their audiences, and build brand authority and thought leadership, by identifying and sharing the best resources in their industries. Now, organizations are not only a source of original content, but also the authority in selecting the best content from other industry resources. A blog can be a great place to compile and share the most relevant articles in your industry, from the sources you deem as authorities for your audiences.

Activate Your Content Marketing Strategy

It starts with understanding how content marketing fits into an integrated, inbound marketing campaign, followed by building your content marketing strategy and assembling your content creation team.

Once you start producing content, it doesn’t stop there. It’s a lifelong commitment to sharing and building relationships with audiences, listening and measuring, and adjusting your strategy as you go.

Through the combination of content and community, content marketing has helped put small businesses on the map and helped large businesses connect on a personal level with customers and employees like never before.

Content marketing allows infinite opportunities to create and connect, as well as repurpose information across different mediums, making it a valuable tool in your marketing mix. In the sea of content clutter, your messages have to be clear, and you must continue to deliver value and innovate to maintain the leadership position you are working to build.

The key is to stay hungry, support your brand and push yourself to continue sharing the stories that matter.

With a marketing plan driven by great content, and fueled by the passion for your organization and industry, you’re sure to build leads and loyalty for years to come.

You can contact Christy direct at christy@pr2020.com, or connect with her on Twitter at @ChristyBarks.

Resources:

PR 20/20 Blog Posts: Giving Your Content Legs & Content Curation: Bringing Order to Information Overload

HiveFire Content Curation eBook Download: Taming the Flood in B2B Social Media

Navigating the Driven by Content Series

Part 1: PR 20/20 Assistant Vice President Christina Capadona-Schmitz covers “What is Content Marketing?” and why it matters to today’s organizations (3:44).

Part 2: PR 20/20 Inbound Marketing Manager Laurel Miltner discusses online publishing and the idea of content & community, the role of social media in content marketing (8:55).

Part 3: Keith Moehring, who leads PR 20/20's search engine optimization efforts, talks about websites, content management systems, online publishing tools and how SEO can impact content marketing (8:42).

Part 4: PR 20/20 President Paul Roetzer shares the importance of your brand in content marketing, how content marketing is connected to PR and who you should trust to tell your story through content (7:06).

Part 5: PR 20/20 Content Services Manager Christy Barksdale ties it together, in planning your publishing strategy, giving your content legs on the web and furthering your leadership position through content curation (5:43).

Christy Barksdale is content services manager and consultant for PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. She can be found on Twitter at @ChristyBarks.

Stay updated: Subscribe to the PR 20/20 blog, check us out on Facebook or follow the team on Twitter.
How to Improve Customer Loyalty Through Content and Community

By Christy Barksdale | Posted Jul 22, 2010 | 0 Comment(s) | Filed in: Brand Marketing, Content Marketing, Social Media
Many B2B companies put a strong focus on generating leads. Marketers and sales teams are challenged to keep the lead pipeline full and close new business. But, what about your current customers? Are you putting enough focus on those that have already committed to your company, to ensure they don’t turn to the competition?

While companies should certainly expand their customer bases to help meet business growth goals, they must also capitalize on the opportunities that exist with current customers. According to Managing the Professional Service Firm by David H. Maister, existing clients make attractive business opportunities because you have already earned their trust and confidence. Plus, there are less financial and time resources needed to retain existing business, versus securing new clients.

Here are several ways to help build customer loyalty:

1. Differentiate your business from the competition

It is important to remember that a customer’s commitment to your company cannot be assumed or taken for granted, and the competition will always be there with another offer or a lower price. You can nurture client relationships and build loyalty through content marketing – providing valuable, relevant information to customers to help them solve their problems and improve their businesses.

Your content must work to differentiate your brand and consistently communicate your leadership position in the industry.

2. Provide value beyond products and services

Customers want you to make their lives easier. So, after they’ve purchased your product or service, consider what you can do to go the extra mile. You can do this by offering resources that help customers run their businesses more efficiently. For example:
- Develop a how-to eBook relevant to your industry. Repurpose for each vertical market you serve.
- Create an online portal with curated industry articles and resources.
- Offer a web tool or mobile app.
By adding value through content, your company can become a trusted industry expert and a valued partner that customers just can’t part with.

3. Stay in touch and be proactive

Stay top of mind with customers by proactively communicating on a regular basis. For example:
- Distribute an enewsletter with original articles, important updates on products, recent blog posts, etc.
- Create a blog dedicated to each buyer persona. Contribute new content at least weekly.
- Send personal communications to customers when you have published or found a content piece you know they will be particularly interested in.
- Have regular conversations with customers about their industry’s hot topics to tap into customers’ changing needs and identify opportunities to develop new content.
4. Connect and engage

While providing great products and services is the foundation of your business, customers also like to develop a personal connection and build a trusted, mutually beneficial relationship with their business partners.
- Connect through social media to stay in touch with what is going on in your customers’ businesses and personal lives.
- Showcase exclusive premium content and product offers online and in social networks.
- Create a community around your business on social networks, such as a LinkedIn group, to foster discussions and encourage new peer connections.
It’s always about taking care of your customers first. Your current customers can be your organization’s biggest advocates, and present your greatest opportunities to generate more business. Sell your value every day.

We invite you to share ideas and strategies that have helped your business succeed at customer retention. Please leave your thoughts in the comments.

Related Resources
Christy Barksdale is content services manager and consultant for PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow her on Twitter: @ChristyBarks.

Subscribe to receive the PR 20/20 blog by email or RSS feed.
Enewsletter Programs: Tips and Best Practices

By Christy Barksdale | Posted Jun 30, 2010 | 2 Comment(s) | Filed in: Content Marketing
(This is part two in a two-part series on enewsletter programs.)

Yesterday we discussed some key considerations and benefits of enewsletter programs. For companies looking to effectively reach customers, leads and opt-in subscribers with high-quality content, enewsletters can be a highly effective ongoing touchpoint.

When preparing to launch an enewsletter program, keep the following tips and best practices in mind:
1. Develop and organize your lists. It’s important to keep in mind that anyone you distribute your email newsletter to should have previously requested information from your company. This means they have opted in via a newsletter sign up, they are existing customers or they are qualified leads. Also, organize your lists in a logical way, perhaps by product segment or vertical market, allowing you to easily develop and distribute content targeted specifically for each group.
2. Activate an email system account. Email marketing platforms, such as Constant Contact or Mail Chimp, have systems in place to help organizations abide by applicable email laws (see #3), allow for better rendering of HTML and effectively track performance.
3. Take privacy seriously. The Federal Trade Commission developed the CAN/SPAM Act in order to establish rules and requirements for commercial emailing, including promoting content on commercial websites. Review the requirements and take them seriously to avoid hefty fines. Also, be sure to link to your company’s own privacy policy and include a link to opt-out of the enewsletter.
4. Establish a publishing calendar and stick to it. Over time, your customers will expect to receive your enewsletter according to schedule. Plan your production process ahead of time by establishing a distribution schedule and internal deadlines for content development, design and review. Also, be sure to post your publishing frequency and a description of your newsletter's content when subscribers opt in, so they know exactly what to expect.
5. Offer something fresh. While existing blog posts and other content should be featured in your enewsletters, be sure to include at least one new article in order to provide clear value, entice readers and give them a reason to keep opening your messages. This content should be hosted in a designated area of your site (blog, industry articles, etc.), and should go live just prior to sending your enewsletter.
6. Keep the design simple and scannable. All text should be short and to the point by including only a headline, abstract and URL that links to the full-text article. Include images to help break up copy and make the issue pleasing to the eye.
7. Attract readers with a catchy subject line. Use a descriptive, editorial-focused subject line that tells recipients what’s inside. Avoid using general subject lines, such as “PR Agency Enewsletter, Issue 2.”
8. Include a “Forward to a Friend” option. By giving readers the opportunity to forward your enewsletter to their peers, you can build your subscriber list over time, and have the potential to generate new leads.
9. Analyze and adjust. Use the analytics software in your email system, as well as your website’s analytics program, to gauge what people are reading, and what they are not. If your customers are consistently reading articles related to a particular topic, offer more content on that subject. Avoid repeating topics that are not of interest to your readership.
If your marketing tactics aren’t producing the results you desire, or you’re seeking a new way to more regularly communicate, perhaps an enewsletter program is a good fit for your company as part of your content strategy. The regular touchpoints achieved with enewsletters nurture relationships, both new and established, and help to keep your company top of mind with two important audiences – your customers and leads.

Does your company have an enewsletter program? Tell us your enewsletter success story.

Read part one: Enewsletter Programs: Five Key Benefits

Christy Barksdale is content services manager and consultant for PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow her on Twitter: @ChristyBarks.

Subscribe to receive the PR 20/20 blog by email or RSS feed.
Enewsletter Programs: Five Key Benefits

By Christy Barksdale | Posted Jun 29, 2010 | 2 Comment(s) | Filed in: Content Marketing
(This is part one in a two-part series on enewsletter programs.)

Enewsletters enable organizations to reach the right people with the content they are interested in receiving.

By using your company’s self-published content to stay in front of opt-in subscribers, customers and qualified leads that have requested to receive information from your company, you can demonstrate value beyond products and services, and become a trusted partner.

Further, by segmenting your lists by the type of subscriber, or perhaps by your company’s product sections or vertical markets, you can distribute content specifically targeted to each audience segment.

According to Junta42’s 2010 Content Marketing Spending Report, 63% of marketers are currently using enewsletters to engage audiences (see chart above at right).

Thinking about getting started with an enewsletter program? Here are five key benefits to consider:
1. Enewsletters provide a regular customer touchpoint. Regardless of your industry, it is important for your company to stay top of mind with current and potential customers. Enewsletters provide great content directly to customers on a regular basis, thus nurturing client relationships and establishing your company as a valuable resource.
2. Enewsletters drive website traffic. Because enewsletter content frequently links to content hosted on your company’s website, you can have a direct impact on website visitors. If your customers like what they read, they may be encouraged to browse the rest of your site for new product and service information.
3. Enewsletters build thought leadership. Like all content marketing initiatives, by offering valuable, buyer-persona-focused content in your enewsletter, you can establish your company as an industry leader. Most importantly, you help to solidify your expertise with customers, reducing the chance that they’ll look for an alternate provider.
4. Enewsletters are cost effective. Generally, enewsletters require minimal upfront costs to create and fit into most marketing budgets. Print newsletters and other direct mail pieces require graphic design, printing and postage costs, which can add up quickly. Most email services are available for a minimal monthly fee based on the number of emails in your list, and offer a variety of customizable templates.
5. Enewsletters are fully measurable. Unlike traditional print newsletters and direct mail, enewsletters can be tracked and analyzed using your email system’s reporting software and your website analytics. Data such as open rates, bounces and click-throughs are readily available, allowing you to gauge what content resonates with your readers, and giving further understanding of your current and potential buyers’ needs so you can reach them more effectively.
Part two: Enewsletter Programs: Tips and Best Practices

Christy Barksdale is content services manager and consultant for PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow her on Twitter: @ChristyBarks.

Subscribe to receive the PR 20/20 blog by email or RSS feed.

Photo credit: Junta42
4 Tips for Giving Your Content Legs

By Christy Barksdale | Posted May 13, 2010 | 2 Comment(s) | Filed in: Content Marketing
Content marketing has become a hot topic for marketing professionals across many industries. A core component of an inbound marketing strategy, content marketing can help level the playing field for many businesses — no matter their size — and is the driving force behind generating leads and building loyalty.

However, content alone cannot deliver results. It is the powerful marriage of content and community that really has the potential to impact a company’s positioning as a thought leader, and influence buying decisions. As my colleague Christina Capadona-Schmitz stated in her “What is Content Marketing?” blog post,

“While many understand the benefits of investing in the production of captivating content pieces, without community building activities, established distribution channels, and the internal commitment to a long-term strategy, the content will not travel far beyond the place it is published on the Web.”

Here are four tips for enhancing your content footprint:

1) Know Your Audience and Their Needs

Before content is shared, it has to be consumed by people who find it interesting and/or useful. In order for your content to appeal to your target audiences (thus enhancing its sharing potential), you must know the purpose of your marketing efforts.

Understanding your buyer personas is crucial before any content marketing strategy can be developed. You must ask:
- Whom am I trying to reach?
- What are their needs?
- What are their pain points?
- What is important to them?
- How do they best consume information?
- What can I develop that will be of use to them?
- How can I leverage my expertise to alleviate these concerns?
2) Optimize for Searchers

Optimizing your content to get found is crucial. Buyers today use Internet searches to make informed purchasing decisions, and while product and price are obvious factors, by offering valuable resources (free of sales pitches) your company builds trust and influence, and has a better shot at earning the sale.

Make sure your content is easy for customers and prospects to find by incorporating targeted keywords in both on-page and off-page optimization. Use buyer persona research to determine keywords that will most likely be used by your audience; don’t get caught up in industry jargon.

Here are some useful resources for optimizing a few specific types of content:
- Blog Posts: SEO’s Magic Bullet
- Videos: How to Use Video SEO to Jump to the Top of Google Search Results
- PDFs (i.e. eBooks, white papers, case studies): What You Don’t Know About Optimizing PDFs Can Hurt You
For short-term impact, consider activating a targeted pay-per-click (PPC) campaign to help jumpstart content consumption.

3) Get Social

One of the greatest satisfactions of creating content is the opportunity to share it with your community and see your ideas spread. To achieve this, here are some tactics to consider:
- If you’re launching a new ongoing program, such as a blog or eNewsletter, notify your audience ahead of time through established means of communication.
- If you already have a blog up and running, use it to announce new content pieces. Invite readers to browse, view or download the content, and encourage them to share it with others.
- Share on social networks, which provide great platforms for promoting your content and engaging in conversations about the topic at hand. Also, be sure to include sharing buttons alongside your content, to encourage others to share it as well.
- Include links to your content in your email signature. By making content a part of your daily communications, you help to keep it top-of-mind for your customers and prospects.
Remember: community is also about supporting your peers. Be sure to share useful resources from others in your industry, not just your own content. By supporting each other, you can develop a great community with mutually beneficial relationships.

4) Repurpose Existing Content

Bring new life and context to “old” information, extend its reach and provide valuable content in formats that appeal most to your varied audience preferences. For example:
- Package a series of blog posts or presentations on a particular topic into an eBook.
- On the flip side, break apart an eBook into a series of blog posts.
- For more technical pieces, such as white papers, develop an educational webinar (or vice versa).
- Customize an eBook or podcast for specific vertical markets.
- Use recently developed content to help populate and supplement original content in your monthly eNewsletter.
When considering new mediums for existing content, remember how your buyer personas prefer to consume information, and use formats they are comfortable with.

Savvy B2B Marketing offers some great insight on the dos and don’ts of repurposing content. Also check out Ardath Albee’s “The Rule of 5 for B2B Content Development.”

Putting It All Together

Ensuring that your content gets found, consumed and shared can be a daunting task for many marketers. But, by understanding your buyer personas, optimizing your content, embracing community and offering information in multiple formats, your chances of success are much greater.

Don’t forget that content marketing strategies are never perfect from the start – keep track of what content is resonating well with your personas and what is not, and be willing to adapt your strategy accordingly.

So, what’s your company’s secret to giving your content legs?

Christy Barksdale is content services manager and consultant for PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow her on Twitter: @ChristyBarks.

Subscribe to receive the PR 20/20 blog by email or RSS feed.
Content Curation: Bringing Order to Information Overload

By Christy Barksdale | Posted Apr 8, 2010 | 8 Comment(s) | Filed in: Content Marketing
Content marketing, the publishing of relevant, link-worthy content, has been all the rage for marketing professionals for several years. A recent survey conducted by content marketing authority Junta42 shows that companies, especially small businesses, are continuing to spend more on content marketing each year because it is more effective than traditional marketing for differentiation in the marketplace. Leads, sales and client retention are better achieved when companies are resources for their customers and help solve their pain points.

Now, the new wave of content marketing has arrived: content curation.

What is content curation?

Rohit Bhargava defines a content curator as someone who continually finds, groups, organizes and shares the best and most relevant content on a specific issue online.

The term “content curation” stems from traditional museum curation: museum curators collect art and artifacts and identify the most relevant or important to be displayed in an exhibit for the public. Museum curators are subject-matter experts with higher levels of education that guide an organization’s overall art collection. Curation has also, historically, referred to overseeing the care and preservation of precious collectibles.

With the overwhelming amount of content available on the Internet today, it is difficult for professionals to efficiently manage their daily reading activities, as well as separate useful and accurate content from poor content. This is where content curation comes in, allowing individuals or businesses to provide a valuable service to their audiences by addressing their need for quality content and the lack of available time to find it.

Further, by sharing the most relevant, thought-provoking online content, curation can establish individuals and companies as authorities and thought leaders. Content curation can enable individuals and companies to stand out in the marketplace and influence buyer behavior during a time when everyone is fighting for recognition.

The content curation debate

Content curation has received increased attention recently from marketers and journalists, as well as traditional museum curators. In fact, Pete Cashmore, CEO of Mashable, believes that content curation is one of the top 10 Web trends for 2010. Other thought-leadership pieces that have fueled the curation discussion include:
- Robert Scoble (@Scobleizer ): The Seven Needs of Real-Time Curators
- Rohit Bhargava (@rohitbhargava ): Manifesto for the Content Curator
- Steve Rubel (@steverubel): The Digital Curator in Your Future
- HiveFire* (@hivefire): Content Curation eBook
- Steve Rosenbaum (@magnify ): Can ‘Curation’ Save Media?
There is a mix of acceptance and reluctance surrounding content curation, and much of the debate revolves around the value of a content curator.

Curation: The purists vs. the realists

There is a certain level of “intellectual snobbery” in existence from the point of view of traditional museum curators (the “purists”). Many museum curators have PhDs in their area of expertise, and believe that it is only with the highest level of education, and many years of research and experience, that one can be a true curator.

With the term “curator” evolving into the online space, digital content curators (the “realists”) believe that content curation is a legitimate practice and that its value is evident.

Museum curators argue that, when applied to digital content, the term curation is a bit of a stretch, and that content curators are simply filters of information. Marketing influentials disagree and believe that, using a high level of industry expertise, content curators can provide the same value as a museum curator to their own industries.

Social sharing: Aggregation vs. curation

Sharing dynamic content over social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook has become a common practice. However, many people, even in the digital world, believe that merely sharing information over social networks is not curation; that without applying high-level expert analysis when selecting content, sharing information is actually filtering or aggregating information, not curating.

Online influencers who actively participate in curation defend their positions as curators, given their extensive industry knowledge and experience.

On the flip side, for some people, curation has become a fancy way of describing simple aggregation and filtering. Also, many people are using aggregation and curation interchangeably to describe curation as the concept really catches on.

Content curation in journalism: The traditionalists vs. the futurists

There is no question that the traditional news outlet has suffered with the emergence of the Internet, as has the ability of journalists to continue making a living writing. The futurists in the journalism world believe that journalists must evolve with technology and audience behavior, and that content curation is one way that they can do so.

Jeff Jarvis, a journalism professor and author of What Would Google Do?, has talked at length about the journalist as a curator on his blog BuzzMachine. He believes that curation is a way in which journalists can provide additional value to their audiences.

To support this, Paul Gillin, veteran journalist and author of The New Influencers and Secrets of Social Media Marketing, suggests that journalists must learn to curate because their audiences are no longer looking for more content, but for ways to manage existing content. Curation can help journalists stay relevant.

Further, the emergence of online news powerhouses such as The Huffington Post and Newser have approached the need for quality information by curating the best news articles from major outlets across the Web. Traditionalist Rupert Murdoch has fought hard against search engines and aggregation as a means of protecting the traditional news outlet. Newser’s Michael Wolff argues that online news curators are signs of changing audience behavior, and that traditionalists such as Murdoch will lose out in the end.

Automated content curation

Robert’s Scoble article, “The Seven Needs of Real-Time Curators,” recently brought the challenges associated with curation to the forefront. While curation is a fantastic way to bring value to your audience and establish yourself or your company as a thought leader, curation can be time consuming and inefficient.

Many people collect industry information by monitoring Twitter and Facebook, or subscribing to RSS feeds or news alerts, which aggregate content according to keywords. For the busy marketing professional, who is often on the road or attending to clients, the task of curating great content from a flood of aggregated content on a daily basis just isn’t a viable option.

Companies such as HiveFire* have addressed the need for curation automation by creating content curation platforms that automatically aggregate and prioritize content, allowing the marketer to focus on curation rather than sorting through high volumes of disorganized content. This functionality enables marketers to effectively and efficiently curate, and makes content curation a viable marketing option.

Curated searching

The need to more efficiently sort through information has become so important that search engines are starting to organize search results in more intuitive ways.

Bing recently announced that it will roll out and test several new features this spring. One of the updates allows Bing to essentially “curate” search results by refining them into categorized topics that it anticipates users are most likely looking for, and listing the most relevant content at the top of the page.

For example, let’s say I’m planning a vacation to Maui. When I search for “Maui,” in the left column I retrieve relevant categories, or “Quick Tabs,” which include topics such as news, hotels, airports and real estate. Bing has assumed that I am likely a traveler, or a resident looking for news or possibly real estate opportunities, and has anticipated the intent of my search by providing me with information it believes will be most beneficial.

Bing may not be hand-selecting articles for users as content curators do; however, like companies aim to influence buyer behavior through content curation, Bing is trying to help users make informed decisions with minimal effort. This change in methodology demonstrates a major shift in audience needs and a new approach to searcher intent. People want access to great information without a lot of time and effort.

What is the future of content curation?

While content curation is in its early stages and there is a lot of debate surrounding the concept, it has clearly been established as a trend worth talking about. Curation will continue to gain momentum as more marketers start incorporating curation into their content marketing strategies and major Web outlets enhance their features to address changing user needs. Online influencers that believe content curation is here to stay will stand behind it and continue to advocate for its value.

What are your thoughts on content curation? Does it provide value and help individuals and companies establish thought leadership? Are you currently implementing content curation as part of your content marketing strategy? The debate continues here, so let us know your thoughts.

Christy Barksdale is content services manager and consultant for PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow her on Twitter: @ChristyBarks.

Subscribe to receive the PR 20/20 blog by email or RSS feed.

* Disclosure: HiveFire is a PR 20/20 client.