How to Create a Social Media Content Calendar

If you’re a social media manager, you need to plan out your entire month of posts. Never leave it to the last minute, trying to come up with new and exciting post ideas day by day.

By creating a social media content calendar, you ensure that all of your posts adhere to your content strategy.

But creating a social media content calendar takes skill and know-how. You need to understand what a social media calendar is, why it’s useful, and how you can go about making one.

What is a Social Media Content Calendar?

If you’re a social media content manager, the first thing that you need to know about your content calendar is that it is an incredibly helpful tool that will let you plan out your social postings on a monthly basis.

Here’s an example of a social media content calendar:

If you’re not already using a social media management tool, then a social media content calendar is usually an excel file, with various tabs assigned to different social platforms. Remember, the posting requirements differ based on the platform you’re using. Facebook has different restrictions than Twitter. Twitter restrictions will be different from Instagram, and so on.

One of the best features of a social media content calendar is that it can help you keep track of themed days of the month.

That can mean two different things.

You can create your own themed days, like Inspirational Mondays or Workspace Wednesdays. It’s a great idea to have these days because you can create a hashtag around them and see if they catch fire.

The other meaning behind themed days of the month is national days. Every day of the year is “National (Something) Day.” There’s everything from National Bunny Day to National Bread Day. Creating social media content based around these holidays can generate interest. Keeping track of them in your content calendar is a great way to plan around them.

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The social media content calendar helps you plan out your content and schedule ahead of time using a system. It can also help you keep track of the images you’re going to share, organizing them week by week and day by day.

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Why Should You Use a Social Media Content Calendar?

Every business that wants to maximize their social media presence should be using a social media content calendar. There’s a reason that 92% of content marketing professionals use social calendars.

A social media content calendar can help you address the challenge of declining organic social media reach in two primary ways.

If you’ve tried to create a social media presence for your business, there’s one thing you probably noticed straight away…

Social media sites are crowded.

Every business is trying to get a piece of the social media pie. That’s because social media is the ideal marketing hunting ground. Practically every demographic has some kind of social media presence, from teens to senior citizens and everyone in between.

Because of this, the social media platforms themselves have seen dollar signs where business marketing is concerned. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t make any money if your organic post goes viral. Facebook and other social media giants want you to pay to boost your posts and purchase ads. That’s how they make their money.

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This was confirmed by Zuckerberg himself in 2018, when he publicly stated that Facebook users would be seeing fewer organic posts from businesses and brands.

One of the only ways to get noticed with organic posting is to approach your social media strategy with a plan.

And a content calendar helps you keep track of that plan.

The social media calendar will help you keep to schedule, a crucial element if you’re looking to make a splash in the social media world. Remember, the more consistently you post, the better your exposure will be. Customers get used to regular postings, and will seek you out in time.

But in order to establish that routine, you have to post on a regular basis.

And you need to plan out your content platform by platform.

You need to keep track of what you are posting and where. The calendar represents an easy record that you can go back and look through.

This record also helps you figure out how you’re doing in terms of social content. If you have a huge influx of comments and follows, you’ll want to remember what you did in order to duplicate your results.

The calendar can help you determine where these spikes occurred and what content was going on each platform.

It’s also important to keep track of the time that you’re posting, and check your results. Remember, different platforms experience high traffic at different times. That means all of your posts should not go out at the same time across every channel.

Finally, another great benefit of a social media content calendar is that it can be easily shared with team members for convenient collaboration.

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Creating a Social Media Content Calendar

Creating a social media content calendar takes a lot of effort. There are a number of steps you’ll have to take before you write the first line of content. There’s a massive amount of work that goes into creating the perfect social media strategy. Your calendar is just one part of that overall project.

Let’s look at the steps needed to make a social media content calendar one at a time and see where to begin.

Step 1: Information Gathering

You could consider the information-gathering stage of your social media content strategy to be an audit of your current social media needs.

In order to improve, you first have to figure out where you are, where you’ve been, and what’s preventing you from getting to where you want to be.

The first step to a good social media audit is determining which platforms you’re currently using and what level of success you’re seeing for all of them. You should take the time to review your results for at least the last six months and use them to rank all of your social media platforms in terms of success.

When you see all of this laid out before you, there’s a decision to be made. Moving forward, you need to decide if you’re going to eliminate anything from your lineup. For example, if you’re seeing no movement from Google+ whatsoever, try to figure out why that is. Are you not posting enough? Are you posting the wrong content? Are you posting at the wrong times?

Or is your audience not on that platform in large numbers?

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If you find that no matter what you do, Google+ just isn’t going to deliver, then it might be time to shut down your Google+ account, or at least put less effort into it.

It’s important to feed the strong, so if you’re getting a lot of interaction on Instagram, that’s where more of your effort (and by extension, marketing budget) should be going.

When you look at all of your social media accounts side by side, you should be contrasting and comparing them to one another.

Are these accounts uniform in terms of branding?

You need to present a united front when it comes to marketing. If your Twitter account looks wildly different from your Facebook, particularly your profile and header images, that could be jarring for potential customers. You want all of your branding to blend. That includes your social media sites and your website.

Do you have access to every account?

Sometimes when an account is neglected for a long period of time, an organization could misplace the login information. It’s important that you don’t have any duplicate pages sitting out there with outdated information. If customers were to search for your business and find that page, it makes you look bad.

When auditing your social media, you also need to figure out what kind of audience you’re reaching (if any) and what kind of audience you want to reach.

You should have a good handle on your ideal customer. Are you creating content specifically with them in mind?

Information on your demographic should be included in the social media content calendar. You can set that up as a static reminder in the heading of your document. That way you never forget who you’re speaking to when creating content.

Step 2: Demographic Study

When creating social media content to go in your calendar, there are a few key questions that you need to ask.

Who are your customers?

What do they want?

Once you understand the demographics you serve, you’ll be able to create better content that is geared specifically toward their interests. Once you’ve done that, it should be a simple matter to get them to participate in discussions.

Does your existing demo differ platform by platform? You need to figure out where the eyes of your audience are. Once you know that, put more effort into placing your content there. Don’t expect your customers to come to you. You have to go to them.

All of the content in your calendar should be tailored to each platform that you’re posting on. This is not a one size fits all approach. Content created for Twitter will differ from content created for Facebook.

Once you know what your audience is looking for and where they are looking, you can create tabs in your calendar file for each specific social media site.

Step 3: Create a regular schedule

The purpose of your social media calendar is to keep your posting to a schedule. Before you can start filling out content, you first have to decide what that schedule is.

How often are you going to post? That’s a question that can only be answered by understanding your audience. You don’t want to annoy them by popping up in their feed too often.

What time will you post?

As we mentioned above, this should differ on each platform, but (in general) here’s a good place to start:

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Step 4: Decide on Your Content Voice

What kind of content do you want to share? Should it be serious? Silly? Both? If you’re going to create both, what is the ratio you’re going for?

You also need to decide if you’re going to be creating posts that are designed more for engagement, and how often you are going to “shill” your products or services, if ever.

If your demographic seems open to creating user-generated content, you should invite that. Set up themed days for them to participate in. Try something like “Furry Friend Fridays,” where your Fans or Followers can post pictures of their pets.

Step 5: Create a Database of Content

Collect a library of useful articles, images, and concepts to share with your audience. Keep them in a folder and be ready to pop them into the calendar at a moment’s notice.

When you list this content, make sure that you mark any time-specific information. You don’t want to sit on a good article only to have so much time pass that it’s no longer relevant.

Step 6: Add the Content

Once you know when to post and what you’re going to post, it’s time to input all of that information into your calendar. You should have a set time where you do this every month.

For example, you could take the last week of the month to create a calendar for the next month. This ensures that you won’t forget to create the content and have to scramble to be ready for the month ahead.

Consistency is important in your preparation as well as your posting.

Step 8: Share Your Calendar

Make sure that you’re sharing your calendar with your supervisors and colleagues. That presents an opportunity to get feedback from the rest of your team.

Make adjustments to your content strategy based on calendar feedback. Sometimes it’s hard to critique yourself, and the people you work with might see things from a different perspective. Ask the sales team for advice. They speak with your audience on a more frequent basis and should have a good handle on what they’re looking for.

Helpful Tools

If you need a helping hand in getting started with your social media calendar, there are a number of online tools that you can turn to that will help you get moving in the right direction.

You’re going to want to use a pre-made template for your first calendar.

Here is a list of four templates that could help you get started.

• Hubspot Template
• com Template
• SmartSheet Templates
• Small Biz Trends Template

In Conclusion

All up and coming social media content managers need to develop a system.

And the most effective and widely-used system in play is a social media content calendar.

By inputting all of your social information ahead of time and keeping it organized, you’ll start seeing increased engagement and higher levels of brand awareness in no time.

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Why Content Marketing is More Important Than Ever for B2B Brands

In his recently published eBook, Corona Marketing, Joe Pulizzi recounts how he and his wife launched the website Content Marketing Institute in 2007 at the exact time as a devastating financial crisis was beginning to unfold in the United States.  “At the time, we believed things couldn’t have been bleaker,” Pulizzi writes. “Looking back though, this was absolutely the best time for my wife and I to start a business.” Why is that? Because their commitment to providing useful, helpful and relevant content – even at a time where it was difficult to drive direct revenue with that content – paid major dividends as the market recovered.  “When we were starting to come out of the recession in 2010, Content Marketing Institute quickly became the leading resource for content marketing education, not because we had some secret sauce, but simply because we invested in our audience for two years when everyone else went silent (or went out of business).” Even when times are difficult, professional audiences still look to people and brands they trust for guidance, information, and entertainment; in fact, one might argue especially when times are difficult. And as we're said on this blog before, that continued search for solutions means the work of marketing doesn't stop.  The challenges our world now faces with the coronavirus pandemic and social justice movement create a unique opportunity for B2B content marketing to make an impact, even relative to other recessions and crises we’ve faced in the past. Here’s why.

The Vital Role of B2B Content Marketing Right Now

In an increasingly customer-centric business sphere, content marketing has become a virtually omnipresent tactic for two primary reasons:

1. It’s cost-effective at a time where budgets and ROI equations everywhere are closely reviewed and scrutinized.
2. It’s non-pushy at a time where customers are increasingly resistant to interruptive, promotional messaging.

Both of these underlying drivers are magnified in the current environment. Budgets are broadly down – both for marketers and their customers – so business purchases (particularly discretionary ones) are being delayed and dialed back. As such, ads and content that aim for direct conversions can miss the mark. In fact, the perception that a brand is attempting to opportunistically profit during a crisis can be outright damaging. But content that is aimed at building brand trust, affinity and loyalty? It has the ability to make a bigger positive impact than ever. This is NOT the time to remain silent. As Sarah Tourville writes in a recent piece at Forbes, “Silence does not convey the look of a healthy brand, and perception is paramount during these trying times.” By stepping up and asserting our values, reinforcing our purpose, and delivering contextually useful insights, B2B companies can leave a lasting impression that profoundly strengthens our long-term outlooks. Your audience is receptive. Digital content consumption and engagement rates are way up. Are you ready to deliver?  Here are three examples of B2B brands that have impressed me with the way they’ve risen to the challenge.

3 Examples of Exceptional B2B Content Marketing During the Crisis

Content Marketing Institute: COVID-19 Resource Hub Since we mentioned Mr. Pulizzi and CMI earlier, they’re a fitting example to start with. The COVID-19 Content Marketing Resources page on CMI’s site is full of free, neatly organized, and continually updated resources for brands and practitioners.  Not only does CMI’s staff curate these articles and assets on their own, but they invite their community to contribute findings as well – while being crystal clear on the submission form about the purpose of these resources: “educational, inspirational, and freely accessible for all.” American Express: Stand for Small Stand for Small is another example of an excellent resource hub directed at a distinct subset of professionals. In this case, American Express partnered with numerous other organizations to compile helpful information and guidance for small businesses, which are feeling the brunt of COVID-19 and its economic impact as much as anyone. American Express’ branding is minimal throughout the site. With tons of other big-name brands participating, this is an impressively collaborative effort.  Stand for Small’s homepage states that “when small businesses thrive, our communities do too.” Unstated is that when small businesses thrive, American Express does too. But there’s nothing cynical about that because both things can be true. When content is able to find purpose in something that’s beneficial for your company AND beneficial for society in a deeper way, you’re doing it right. Citigroup: Executive Thought Leadership While there is a time and place for brands to speak as entities, it’s usually more powerful for leaders within the company to speak up, putting a human face and heart behind the sentiments. One example is a post on Citigroup’s blog from Chief Financial Officer Mark Mason, which opens with a haunting reference to George Floyd’s last words, and closes with an urge for others to join the fight against racial injustice. This was a hard-hitting message, and one that will stick with me when I think about Citi’s brand in the future. Importantly, the comments section was left open on the post, enabling (mostly respectful and grateful) dialogue.  Even more so than pandemic-related topics, this represents precarious ground for B2B brands, with political activism being a controversial subject. But there’s the thing: Mark’s post isn’t political. There’s nothing inherently political about condemning George Floyd’s murder, or calling attention to the systemic issue it reflects, or saying “Black Lives Matter.” The more we can normalize these messages through corporate-backed statements like this one, the more we can stop acting like advocating for social justice is political, or hazardous for brands with prominent voices and an ability to effect change. 

Invest in Your Audience

In many ways, content marketing was built for moments like this. It’s about developing relationships without treating the sale as a be-all, end-all. It’s about establishing what your brand stands for beyond the products or services it offers. It’s about investing in your audience rather than simply expecting your audience to invest in you. I’ll close this out by circling back to another quote from Mr. Pulizzi, this one a bit older – drawn from an interview he did with our own Ashley Zeckman five years ago – but as relevant as ever: 

“I don’t like the idea that marketers only sell and don’t make positive change happen.  That’s why I love content marketing. You can increase the bottom line while, at the same time, help your customers live better lives or get better jobs. Content marketing is the only kind of marketing that provides ongoing value, whether you purchase the product or not.” 

Provide ongoing value, prop up your brand values, and eventually you’ll see plenty of value in return. For more inspiration, check out these five examples of effective B2B content marketing in times of crisis.

The post Why Content Marketing is More Important Than Ever for B2B Brands appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Article Source: http://bathseoexpert.blogspot.com/2020/06/why-content-marketing-is-more-important.html

Three B2B Marketing Tactics That Will Outlast the COVID19 Pandemic

Without question, the COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on the B2B world with companies generally reducing marketing budgets. At the same time, many B2B companies are maintaining or increasing marketing spend as we've seen with most of our clients at TopRank Marketing. While there has generally been a shift from explicit sales/push marketing content to brand messaging that is more aligned with the times and empathetic to customers, sales expectations still exist for B2B brands during the COVID-19 pandemic. The challenge many B2B marketers are facing is to understand how to navigate both the short term changes in what works for customers in the current environment as as well as in the long term, post-crisis. According to research from McKinsey, one of the biggest changes that has happened is the boost in importance of B2B digital over traditional means of engaging customers - 200% more than before COVID-19. This move to digital means higher expectations by B2B customers of self service as well as B2B ecommerce experiences. With those changes in expectations come changes in marketing, short and long term. Not only do B2B companies need to mitigate sales losses because of the uncertainty during the pandemic but those who want to continue being the best solution and top of mind for customers when purchasing behavior comes back need to look at what pandemic-era tactics will stick after the crisis has subsided. For a great overview of how to measure marketing goals in a crisis, be sure to check out Birdie's post here.  How buyers feel about B2B brands short and long term will directly contribute to which brands are the most relevant as budgets open up and business solutions investments experience substantial growth. Some of the long term metrics include branding goals measured by share of voice for social, share of search and earned media. So, can B2B marketers do to optimize and measure their pandemic era marketing? Content is the kingdom. Providing customers with information and resources for surviving and thriving during the pandemic that are useful from the customer's perspective is a good starting point. Demonstrating how the B2B brand's solution provides value in the current environment is also essential for creating relevance and utility with customers. Of course, useful information isn't all there is. The shift towards digital, B2B brands need to make sure the digital experiences they provide are 100%: Information is easy to find, the inquiry or ordering process is easy and fast, there are zero glitches in using online systems. Search is even more relevant. As mentioned in the research from McKinsey, self service is an increasing expectations amongst B2B buyers. One way buyers are performing self serve marketing  is through the use of search engines. An emphasis on search also helps B2B brands reach sales goals without being "salesly”.  This trend has been picked up on by savvy B2B marketers with 63% of marketers saying it will be most important during the pandemic according to a survey by Conductor. This confidence is also exemplified from data reported by G2 Crowd showing B2B tech categories having a 200-600% increase in organic search traffic during the pandemic. Of course to make search work, B2B brands need content and SEO best practices in place to ensure optimized visibility for what customers are looking for. We've seen many B2B brands emphasize SEO during the pandemic which enables buyers who are no longer attending trade shows and engaging in experiential or field marketing activities to use search engines for finding useful information and solutions on their own terms. Findability works best with credibility.  Customers are as skeptical of brand marketing as ever and are tiring of the "in these uncertain times, we're here for you" ads and messaging. While bypassing that with search engine optimization and advertising works well for connecting with customers, optimized content that has added 3rd party credibility can work even better. In our own research in the 2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report, 77% of B2B marketers say their prospects rely on influencers for information. Confidence in influencer marketing is on the rise for B2B marketers. 63% of survey respondents believe they would have better marketing results with an influencer marketing program. So, crisis era marketing that emphasizes SEO to help buyers pull themselves to brand content that also includes credibility inspiring content from industry experts is what can really create trust and the confidence for buyers to make the connection. This is why SEO and influence are essential partners for any B2B marketing effort during and after the pandemic. Measuring the impact of B2B content marketing that is optimized and influencer activated means understanding the search phrases and topics of influence that are most relevant for customers and then tracking the brand's relevance, engagement and conversion for those topics. For  search marketing, key measures include:

• Topic visibility reporting & share of search for those topics
• Referred traffic to content optimized for the target topics
• Conversions from target topic content

Influencer marketing, metrics to track include:

• Share of voice on topics of include
• Growth of brand affinity with influencers
• Reach of topic content amongst influencer networks
• Engagement and conversion performance of topic content shared by influencers
• Growth in affinity of topics and brand in social
• Growth of organic brand advocacy by influencers and their networks

Uncertainty is a dangerous state for businesses and making no decision is often worse than making the wrong decision or failing fast. Understanding the shifts in buyer behavior can help B2B brands gain confidence in the role content marketing will play in the short and long term. Relevant content that is both findable for increasingly self-serve buyers and credible through industry expert contributions can give the competitive advantage needed to perform both short term and post-pandemic.

The post Three B2B Marketing Tactics That Will Outlast the COVID19 Pandemic appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Article Source: http://bathseoexpert.blogspot.com/2020/06/three-b2b-marketing-tactics-that-will.html

B2B Marketing News: 3 New B2B Marketing Studies, Twitter’s Audio Tweets, Google’s Pinterest-like Keen Project, & Gen Z Digital Consumption Habits

The 10 Traits B2B Buyers and Managers Value Most in Salespeople 42 percent of B2B buyers value active listening when it comes to interacting with salespeople, according to recently-released survey data from LinkedIn (client), while 38 percent value problem solving, 38 percent confidence, and 34 percent who said that they value relationship building skills. MarketingProfs Addressing the B2B void between product data and online sales [Survey] 52.8 percent of B2B professionals expect to add voice-controlled search technology to their customer experience (CX) program within the next 12 months, according to newly-released report data, while 44.8 percent plan to add live chat, and 39 percent expect to install new augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technology. Digital Commerce 360 The Biggest Challenges to Aligning B2B Marketing and Sales Teams Half of marketing and sales professionals primarily at B2B firms find that their biggest challenge to aligning sales and marketing is a lack of complete or accurate data about target accounts and prospects, according to recently-released survey data, while some 47 percent said that communication was the top alignment challenge. MarketingProfs New Report Looks at How COVID-19 Consumption Behaviors will Influence Gen Z Activity Moving Forward Younger consumers in the Gen Z and millennial demographics have shifted their digital habits more quickly during the pandemic, and are more likely to stick to the new patterns in the future, according to newly-released Snapchat survey data using predictive technology. Social Media Today Advertisers continue to defer ad spend due to COVID-19: report Major multinational firms have maintained holding off on a return to pre-pandemic advertising spending, with 40 percent expecting to defer ad spend by six months, according to recently-released World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) data of interest to digital marketers. Mobile Marketing Twitter starts rolling out audio tweets on iOS Twitter has given some of the platform's iOS users the ability to record and include audio in tweets, opening an array of new marketing options for digital advertisers, the firm recently announced. The current test — which is not yet available to Android device users — allows audio recordings of up to 140 seconds with the ability to roll longer audio into multiple tweets, Twitter noted. The Verge Google's latest experiment is Keen, an automated, machine-learning based version of Pinterest Google has launched a pin-board image-based content curation service test called Keen, that utilizes both machine learning along with human collaboration techniques to form automated Pinterest-like collections, the firm has announced. TechCrunch LinkedIn Publishes New Guide on Using Its Events and Live-Streaming Tools LinkedIn (client) has published an expanded new guide to help brands use both LinkedIn Live and Events with their Pages, along with announcing forthcoming features for capturing event registrations and retargeting event attendees, the Microsoft-owned platform announced. Social Media Today Google pushes “text fragment links” with new Chrome extension Google has rolled out its own deep-link capable extension that allows Chrome users to cite any portion of a webpage even if it hasn't been set up as anchor text on the hosting website, the search giant recently announced. Will the move lead to marketers increasing their use of citation-specific linking? Ars Technica What Support Do B2B Marketers Offer Sales? 52 percent of B2B marketers utilize case studies as their top choice for providing information to sales, according to recently-released survey data, while 51 percent use product or service collateral, 48 percent use primary research, 45 percent commercial insights, and 43 percent video material. MarketingCharts ON THE LIGHTER SIDE: A lighthearted look at “strategic options in a recession” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist IBM Condemns Use Of Facial Recognition Software For Anything Other Than Matching People With Their Celebrity Doppelganger — The Onion TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:

• TopRank Marketing / Prophix — 8 Interactive eBook Examples to Inspire Your B2B Content Marketing — DivvyHQ
• Lee Odden — Virtual Summer School: Making the Most of New Digital Opportunities — IABC Minnesota / Eventbrite
• TopRank Marketing / Prophix / LinkedIn — LinkedIn Marketing: The Definitive Guide [2020] — Loomly
• Lane R. Ellis / TopRank Marketing — Der SEO-Wochenrückblick KW 25/20 [In German] — artaxo GmbH
• Nick Nelson — 10 Tips to Help Small Businesses Create Better Customer Experiences — Small Business Trends
• Lee Odden / TopRank Marketing — Directivos en redes sociales ¿Qué tan sociales deben ser? [3 tips] [In Spanish] — Luismaram

Have you found your own top B2B content marketing or digital advertising stories from the past week of news? Please let us know in the comments below. Thank you for taking the time to join us, and we hope you'll come back next Friday for another collection of the most relevant B2B and digital marketing industry news. In the meantime, you can follow us at @toprank on Twitter for even more timely daily news. Also, don't miss the full video summary on our TopRank Marketing TV YouTube Channel.

The post B2B Marketing News: 3 New B2B Marketing Studies, Twitter’s Audio Tweets, Google’s Pinterest-like Keen Project, & Gen Z Digital Consumption Habits appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Article Source: http://bathseoexpert.blogspot.com/2020/06/b2b-marketing-news-3-new-b2b-marketing.html

Break Free Marketing Season 2 Wrap Up: Reinventing B2B Marketing

Season two of TopRank Marketing’s video podcast series, “Break Free B2B,” has come to a close. We had the opportunity to interview some of the smartest B2B marketers in the industry, to find out how they’re breaking the mold and reinventing the role and function of the marketing department in B2B organizations. The series covered three key themes:

1. Reinvigorating Scalable, Global ABM
2. Creating Online and Offline Experiences that Inspire
3. Reinventing B2B Marketing and How Success is Measured

One consistent message among all ten interviews is that it's time to shake things up. B2B marketing doesn't need more of the same. These experts are well aware of that fact. Simply repeating tactics that have 'always been done' and are considered industry standards is no longer enough. It's time to push the envelope, find a way to scale your ABM program, inspire your prospects with experiences, and continue to evolve how you approach marketing and measurement. One way to break free and improve upon traditional tactics is to work with — and learn from — folks who are influential in your industry. Incorporating influencers into your ongoing marketing strategy can enable you to break free from tradition and create something that reaches and inspires your audience. As our CEO, Lee Odden, says "Focusing on accounts with the biggest revenue potential requires every competitive advantage. But ABM alone is not enough to break through to distracted and distrustful decision makers. To connect with accounts more effectively, B2B marketers are increasingly adopting influencer marketing to build trust, reach and engagement." To help you break free, we've pulled out some of the top highlights from this season, but you can see the full series on YouTube or on the season two page of the TopRank Marketing blog.

Reinvigorating Scalable, Global ABM

Employing a scalable, customer centric ABM program is a top priority for many of the B2B organizations we work with. B2B marketers need to reach the right audience, grow their key accounts, and continually prove the success of those efforts. To find out how to achieve these goals, we looked to Gary Gerber of Folloze, Kelvin Gee of Oracle*, and Danny Nail of SAP* for advice.

Scaling ABM Without Losing Focus

Gary Gerber Head of Product Marketing, Folloze @Gary_Gerber | LinkedIn [bctt tweet="“A hammer is one of the most useful tools in your toolkit, but you wouldn’t use it to repair a watch.” @Gary_Gerber of @Folloze on the need for more precision in #ABM. #BreakFreeB2B" username="toprank"] “You have to focus away from blunt instrument tools,” he says. “I’m not bashing blunt instruments, by the way, because a hammer is one of the most useful tools in your toolkit, but you wouldn’t use it to repair a watch. So you need to migrate to tools that let you [achieve] that kind of precision, because that’s the only way you’re going to build trust with your customers.” Watch Gary’s full interview.

Winning with Enterprise ABM

Kelvin Gee Senior Director, Modern Marketing Business Transformation, Oracle @kgee | LinkedIn [bctt tweet="“Standardize, Evangelize, Train, Enable,” @kgee’s model for implementing #ABM at scale in large organizations like @oracle. #BreakFreeB2B. — Kelvin Gee" username="toprank"] “Companies do need to be more customer-centric, deliver a better customer experience, personalize the content, align with sales, and measure themselves differently,” he observes. “I call account-based a strategic glue that pulls all that stuff together.” Watch Kelvin’s full interview.

Creating a Global ABM Platform

Danny Nail Head of Global Account Based Marketing, SAP @DannyNail | LinkedIn [bctt tweet="“You have to let go of templatized old ideas...and start really digging into how you can change what you're doing and make it more efficient, more effective, and be creative about that.” @DannyNail, @SAP" username="toprank"] “You have to let go of templatized, old ideas. You have to break free of thinking about things the way we’ve always thought about them, and start really digging into how you can change what you’re doing and make it more efficient, more effective, but be creative about that. Because the platform didn’t exist, but now it does. And that’s because we got creative about how we could scale ABM, as opposed to adding people to scale or adding money to scale.” Watch Danny’s full interview.

Creating Online and Offline Experiences that Inspire

There is an active perception in the market that B2B marketing content isn’t exactly inspiring. This may be true in some cases, but not all. B2B marketers know that breaking free from the boring, the expected, is how you set yourself apart from the competition and carve out your niche in the market. And that includes bringing online and offline experiences together, as well as using online content to create a personal bond between your brand and your customers. We looked to marketing experience experts for their take on how to create inspiring experiences through content and interactive experiences. Sruthi Kumar of Sendoso, Mark Bornstein of ON24 and Sofia O’Malley of Dell Outlet* shared their experiences and advice.

Creating Memorable Experiences

Sruthi Kumar Senior Marketing Manager, Sendoso @sruthikkumar | LinkedIn [bctt tweet="“It’s about bringing all the channels together to create that seamless experience for the end user, that person who you want to book a meeting with or have a signed contract with.” @sruthikkumar" username="toprank"] “What we’re trying to do is really bridge that online and offline experience. So not to say that digital marketing does not work. I’m a marketer. I run our field marketing team, we use digital heavily, but it’s just about bringing all the channels together to create that seamless experience for the end user, and that person that you want to book a meeting with or have a signed contract with or whatever else you need from them.” Watch Sruthi’s full interview.

Dialing In Digital Experiences

Mark Bornstein VP of Marketing and Chief Webinerd, ON24 @4markb | LinkedIn [bctt tweet="“Companies that are trying to own thought leadership, they’re not going to do that through giving a webinar that’s a slide presentation. They're doing it by building experiences.” — @4markb on #BreakFreeB2B #DigitalExperiences" username="toprank"] “So in the world of webinars, if you think about what a webinar was even a few years ago — and maybe in some cases still now — the webinar was a talking PowerPoint. Just a headless voice, you didn’t see anybody. You just heard somebody going through the slides in a droll way and it wasn’t branded and it was just boring. And maybe a lot of webinars still are kind of boring. But the fact of the matter is, what we see companies doing now is they’re creating serialized programming. They’re creating these really cool almost TV-like viewing experiences, where it’s a show and there’s hosts and the formats are changing. There’s panel discussions and coffee talks and chat shows and new style formats. So companies that are trying to own thought leadership, to establish a voice, to be the company that people go to — they’re not going to do that through giving a webinar on, you know, here’s our content. Here’s our slide presentation. They’re doing it by building experiences. And I think a really great experience has a few of the following qualities: It should be completely branded. It should be interactive.” Watch Mark’s full interview.

Creating a Global B2B & B2C Marketing Team

Sofia O’Malley Global Marketing Director, Dell Outlet @sofiaomalley | LinkedIn [bctt tweet="“You have to be cognizant of what is unique to each market. What’s the consumer behavior? What’s the consumer expectation or appetite for a type of execution?” @sofiaomalley of @DellOutlet on global #CX" username="toprank"] “I think the key is to have a consistent strategy. I think that needs to be scalable. And then where we start to see a little bit more difference is on the tactics. So when you think about implementation of go to market, I think you really have to be cognizant of what is unique to each market. What’s the consumer behavior? Or what’s the consumer expectation within a given market or appetite for a type of execution.”

Reinventing B2B Marketing and How Success is Measured

The way we measure success in marketing - from our KPIs to ROI - has always been a bit of a moving target, especially for B2B. It’s no question that B2B marketers have a lot on their mind, and even more to prove. We’re accountable for driving pipeline and passing MQLs to the sales team, all while also building brand awareness and thought leadership. But, what if we could reinvent how we measure marketing success and how we work with other departments and functions? And what if we did so in a way that works for sales, marketing and leadership? We talked to some experts in measurement and alignment to find out how to do it: Sean Crowley of Dun & Bradstreet, Lisa Sharapata and Latane Conant of 6sense and Julie Brown of Johnson Controls.

Cracking the Alignment Code

Sean Crowley Leader, Integrated Marketing - Sales and Marketing Solutions, Dun & Bradstreet @seantcrowley | LinkedIn [bctt tweet="“It takes a coordinated approach, so we felt that the tiger team is a valuable way for us to manage that complexity, to create alignments, and to ensure that as we go to market, we’re doing it as a team.” @seantcrowley on #BreakFreeB2B" username="toprank"] “I lead a tiger team of marketers within the sales and marketing line of business because the integrated marketing role sits at that nexus of sales, product, content marketing, demand generation, social media and all of those things coming together. So when we’re releasing and launching campaigns, we want to make sure that we’re bringing in the perspectives and the expertise of each of those functional areas so that they’re well represented, that they’re well integrated, and then when we go to market, we can execute in an omni-channel environment.” Watch Sean’s full interview.

The End of the MQL

Lisa Sharapata VP of Demand Generation and Content Strategy, 6sense @lisasharapata | LinkedIn [bctt tweet="“When we say, ‘we're going to give you this amount of pipeline, we're going to generate this amount of revenue,’ and we can actually see it coming and help deliver it in a predictable way, they are never going to want to go back to a #MQL…”" username="toprank"] “If you talk to most sales execs and you ask them “How valuable do you think the MQL’s really are?” and “How often do they turn into an SQL?” and “When marketing says they’re going to give you this many MQL’s, how meaningful is that truly to you?” Most of the time they’re like “Yeah, marketing is going to throw these scans from their event over the fence and tell us to work on them.” And they don’t really put a lot of value in them. But when we say we’re going to give you this amount of pipeline, we’re going to generate this amount of revenue, and we can start to show that predictability, in saying this is what of your accounts are in market right now, that is worth this amount of pipeline to you and we can actually see it coming and help deliver it in a predictable way.. I’ll tell you what, they are never going to want to go back to a MQL again.” Watch Lisa’s full interview.

Reinventing the CMO Role

Latané Conant Chief Market Officer, 6sense @LataneConant | LinkedIn [bctt tweet="“If I am engaging accounts more effectively than my competition, I will generate more pipeline, I'll win more often, I'll have bigger deals, and I will set my relationship off with those customers better.” #B2BMarketing @LataneConant" username="toprank"] “I actually just changed my title to Chief Market Officer. And it’s an important distinction that a lady who was actually on our board — who’s amazing, her name is Christine Heckard, made. And she’s been a CMO. Now she’s the CEO. And she’s talked a lot about the role of the CMO. We have gotten ourselves really mired down in ‘ing.’ “I did a blog, I did webinars, look at all these MQLs I pass to sales, here’s my funnel, here’s my tech stack.” That is all ing ing ing. Her challenge to CMOs is to redefine that. We are the seat at the table that needs to understand the market. That is customers today and customers tomorrow. That’s why this audience-first approach and understanding the market, then you can apply the ing.” Watch Latané’s full interview.

Proving the EBT of Your Marketing

Julie Brown Institutional Market Leader, Johnson Controls LinkedIn [bctt tweet="“It's EBIT, operational ROI, revenue, & earnings per share. When marketing can say, if you give me this much within this period of time, I'll deliver this much back.” — Julie Brown of @johnsoncontrols" username="toprank"] “[Marketing] figured out how to start talking about what they did in financial terms that the CFO understands. And on the flip side, every company is looking to grow. A lot of companies don’t look to marketing because they don’t trust and respect marketing enough to deliver that. It’s financial terms, it’s EBIT, it’s operational ROI, it’s revenue, it’s earnings per share. Those are the things that they understand and when marketing can say, listen, if you give me this much within this period of time, I’ll deliver this much back.”

Break Free from ‘The Way It Has Always Been Done’ in B2B Marketing

If there is one common thread among these ten interviews, it’s that successful B2B marketing doesn’t follow ‘the way it has always been done’. Pushing boundaries, finding creative ways to set and measure goals, and focusing on creating inspiring experiences are just a few of the ways B2B marketers are breaking free. If you’re craving more ways to break free, check out our Season 1 recap, or watch the on-demand webinar with Lee Odden, “Break Free from Boring B2B With B2B Influencers and Experiences that Inspire”. *Oracle, SAP, and Dell Outlet are TopRank Marketing clients  

The post Break Free Marketing Season 2 Wrap Up: Reinventing B2B Marketing appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Article Source: http://bathseoexpert.blogspot.com/2020/06/break-free-marketing-season-2-wrap-up.html

Always-On Influence: Why B2B Needs Brand Research & 11 Must-Ask Questions For Marketers

What is brand research and why is it an important step in building a successful always-on  B2B influencer marketing program? What are the key facts you need to learn about a brand that will lead to the creation of a strong ongoing influencer program? Doing brand research right is crucial for always-on B2B influencer marketing success, but where do you start, especially with the increased importance of brand empathy and authenticity? Don’t worry, as in the third part of our ongoing #AlwaysOnInfluence series — following on the heels of “Always On Influence: Short Term vs. Long Term for Success During a Crisis” — we’ll take the time to show why brand research is key to building a B2B influencer marketing program that features the most relevant influencers. As a refresher, always-on influencer marketing is the practice of ongoing relationship-building, engagement and activation of a specified group of influencers to build community, content and brand advocacy. Always-on marketing is a key facet of successful and award-winning campaigns according to new research from Cannes Lions and WARC, which have featured campaign duration as an important element in their new "Effectiveness Code" white paper research examining 5,000 award entrants and winners from 2011 through 2019. "Even at low budgets, campaigns with longer durations and more media channels are more effective," the Cannes Lions report notes. "Overall, tactical campaigns with very short durations and small budgets tend to do poorly when judged on effectiveness. Just 51 percent of those campaigns converted to effectiveness award wins when entered," the report added. "As campaigns increase their spend, duration and number of media channels used, they become more effective. An optimum split of marketing investment is 60 percent for long-term brand building and 40 percent for short-term activation," the report concluded, highlighting the effectiveness of always-on efforts.

Brand Research For Always-On B2B Influencer Marketing

B2B marketers have varying levels of experience with influencer marketing, from initial forays and testing the waters, to much more seasoned and mature approaches developed over many years of refinement. A sophisticated B2B influencer marketing approach is based on a maturity model that includes conducting preliminary research about a brand to learn its needs, strengths, and weaknesses as it relates to the next steps of finding and connecting with potential influencers. Let’s take a closer look at why brand research is important to successful always-on B2B influencer marketing programs, and at some of the methods a savvy brand-research strategy should include. [bctt tweet="A sophisticated B2B influencer marketing approach is based on a maturity model that includes conducting preliminary research about a brand to learn its needs, strengths, and weaknesses.” — Lane R. Ellis @lanerellis" username="toprank"]

Why Brand Research is Key to Successful Always-On B2B Influencer Marketing Programs

Smart brand research adds a needed dose of the insight needed for building an always-on influencer marketing program that will feature the type of well-matched industry expert collaborations that achieve supreme relevance. By building a robust understanding of a brand’s values, you’ll gain a significant advantage over those who charge straight ahead into beginning the process of gathering a list of potential influencers to work with a brand — another feature that sets continuing marketing programs apart from one-off campaigns. Learning more about a brand is beneficial to all parties involved. You’ll be able to make more informed decisions when it comes time to seek out influencers, while those industry experts will benefit from the knowledge you’ve already gained about their potential brand client, and the brand itself will also be setting itself up for long-term ongoing B2B influencer marketing success. Our CEO Lee Odden is a pioneer in the B2B influencer marketing field, and he recently explored the varying influencer maturity models at play in the industry, in “5 Ways To Build A Smarter B2B Influencer Marketing Strategy.” “When you are more sophisticated and have more experience with this, you can hit the ground running and do certain things to help a business — such as doing a pilot — and you’ll start to see some of those metrics that will get attention from executive sponsorship, and win you more budget to roll out that program in a much more significant way,” Lee explained recently on a topic he has also explored in greater detail in “Trust in Marketing: How to Build Influence with the C-Suite and on the Street with Customers.”

Turning Brand Research Data Into Always-On Influence Success

With smart brand influencer research data in hand, moving on to the process of seeking the most relevant potential influencers packs an especially powerful wallop when you understand a brand’s shared objectives, intrinsic values, and its nuanced peculiarities. As Lee has often noted, trust is a two-way street of multidimensional elements when it comes to influencer marketing, and as B2B marketers it’s important to recognize this during research and communication with both brands and potential influencers. “If the brand is empathizing with the influencer, they’re not only finding out if they’re topically relevant for the thing they want to collaborate on, but also they understand the influencer’s motivations, their needs, their wants, their pain points, and the return on investment (ROI) to which a collaboration with a brand will help solve those things,” Lee observed. Truly legitimate brand-influencer collaboration also ultimately leads to stronger customer and buyer trust, as a mature B2B influencer marketing initiative recognizes the importance of first identifying and defining what marketing problem a brand is trying to solve. Here are 11 key questions to answer during your brand research, to help solve a brand’s key marketing problem and inform a robust and mature always-on B2B influencer marketing program:

1 — What about a brand is unique with what it stands for?

Learn what makes a brand unique with what it stands for, through outreach to key team-members the the brand, examining mission statements and any history documents the organization has made available, recent press mentions, and through customer sentiment investigations via various social channels.

2 — What about a brand is compelling — why does the brand matter?

What makes a brand compelling and why should people care about it? Finding information that helps answer these important questions will go a long way in defining an always-on B2B influencer marketing program for the brand, especially when it comes time to find industry experts who match the brand’s story, vision, and organizational outlook.

3 — What is the state of the brand's overall awareness — where does it fit in among its intended audience?

Just as brands have varying levels of influencer marketing maturity, each organization also holds a unique spot in the eyes of its intended audience, and learning as much as you can about the brand’s overall level of audience awareness will help bolster your always-on influencer marketing efforts. [bctt tweet="Each brand holds a unique spot in the eyes of its intended audience, and learning as much as you can about the brand’s overall level of audience awareness will help bolster your always-on influencer marketing efforts.” @lanerellis" username="toprank"]

4 — How is the brand perceived among its various stakeholders?

Not only the eyes of potential customers need to be taken into consideration when it comes to overall brand perception. Buyers, fans, and a variety of both internal and external stakeholders all have views on the brand that you can learn a great deal from by taking the time to research sentiment from each type of stakeholder. This brand perception information then becomes useful throughout the influencer marketing strategy timeline.

5 — Where does the brand sit in its competitive landscape compared to those offering similar services or products?

Learning about a brand for an always-on influencer marketing program not only involves researching the organization, but examining its relevant competitive landscape. A brand sitting atop its industry niche will have both advantages and disadvantages to consider, while a recently-launched startup can count on battling a different set of concerns — and seeing its own array of influencer marketing advantages. Having this data from early on in an always-on influencer marketing program will place your efforts ahead of those of others who take a pass on answering these important questions.

6 — How has the brand been performing both historically and recently?

Is a brand on an upswing, such as online collaboration platforms and their skyrocketing usage increases seen during the ongoing global health crisis, or has the pandemic brought it newfound struggles to overcome? Examining brand performance trend data can provide helpful insights for shaping a robust always-on influencer marketing program tailored specifically to the needs of the brand.

7 — Who are the brand's stakeholders?

In addition to knowing how stakeholders perceive a brand, compiling a basic list of who its stakeholders are can fast-track potential influencer outreach and vetting activities when the time arrives. As with many of these brand-research questions, asking a variety of people throughout an organization — and not only marketers or corporate executives — can provide a more wide-ranging and realistic look at a brand.

8 — What are the brand's plans and vision for the future?

Wherever possible seek out information related to a brand’s future plans, whether it’s through a short-term or long-term timeline of goals. Understanding a brand’s vision for the future — especially if they involve major planned shifts in focus — can make finding and lining up appropriate industry experts to meet a brand’s changing directions all the more efficient.

9 — What are the primary and secondary topics that represent solutions to a brand’s foremost marketing problem?

It’s important to identify and define what marketing problem a brand is trying to solve, and to then use this information to compile a list of primary and secondary topics that represent solutions. Such a topic solutions list can then be consulted when researching potential industry experts to collaborate with for a brand’s always-on influencer marketing program.

10 — How is the brand marketing its solutions, and how do buyers and potential customers find the solutions they’re looking for?

If the two aren’t aligned, the information you’ve gathered from following the previous steps we’ve gone over can help harmonize the solutions the brand offers with those that buyers and potential customers are seeking. A brand’s potential customers and buyers may be primarily looking for answers and solutions on LinkedIn* or another platform, or through search engines, while the brand might be offering its key solutions on its website in white paper or case study form. Armed with the types of information about a brand we’ve explored, bringing the brand’s solutions to the places its existing and potential customers are actively looking for answers is a much more streamlined proposition, and one where always-on influencer marketing can thrive.

11 — What are the terms, phrases and topics most accurately associated with a brand’s problem and its solutions?

Finally, compiling a list of the keywords, terms, phrases, topics, and questions that are most relevant to a brand’s primary marketing problem and the solutions it offers will help power a smart always-on influencer marketing program. Once you’ve used brand research to answer these 11 questions and identify a brand's topics of influence, you’ll have a much clearer signal for finding experts who are influential about those topics, and when it then comes time to facilitate content co-creation between a brand and influencers, your earlier efforts will pay off. These questions are only a starting point for learning more about a brand, however, and we encourage you to expand on them as needed.

With Smart Brand Influencer Research In Hand, It’s Time To Find The Best Influencers

Brand research for always-on influencer marketing offers B2B brands a great value when done right, in a process that is of an ongoing nature and not a one-and-done single campaign. “Brands leading in influencer marketing are making increasingly longer collaborations a big component of their influencer marketing strategy,” Neil Waller, CEO and co-founder of Whalar recently told AdWeek. “It allows the influencer to best understand the brand’s values and marketing needs, enabling the development of a thoughtful strategy to deliver that to their audience over time,” Waller added. Always-on influence involves co-creating the kind of authoritative content that earns, grows, and keeps audience trust, and by asking the 11 questions we’ve explored here, B2B marketers will be well-equipped to tackle the next phases of an always-on influencer program. Stay tuned, as we’ll be exploring each step of the always-on B2B influencer marketing journey in upcoming posts, and explaining why each portion of a continuing program is vital for ongoing success. In case you missed the previous three guides in our ongoing series of always-on B2B influencer marketing, you’ll find them here as a helpful reference:

• Always On Influence: Definition and Why B2B Brands Need it to Succeed
• Always-On Influence: 5 Examples of Ongoing B2B Influencer Marketing In Action
• Always On Influence: Short Term vs. Long Term for Success During a Crisis

* LinkedIn is a TopRank Marketing client.

The post Always-On Influence: Why B2B Needs Brand Research & 11 Must-Ask Questions For Marketers appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Article Source: http://bathseoexpert.blogspot.com/2020/06/always-on-influence-why-b2b-needs-brand.html

Manufacturing Runs: 9 Summer Content Marketing Tips Drawn from the Diamond

Baseball and content marketing are two of my greatest passions. When I think about it, there are some intrinsic similarities between the two that aren't hard to see. Much like content marketing, baseball is rhythmic and methodical by design. Sure, there are the flashy home runs (and it helps when your favorite team *ahem* set the all-time record a year ago), but at its core, baseball is about strategy, patience, and sequencing: Accept the inevitability of failure and learn from it. Take good at-bats, call the right plays, string together base runners, manufacture runs. via GIPHY Sadly there is no baseball season right now, but if there was, it'd be inching toward "the dog days of summer" – a term given to those stretches in July and August where the relentless heat and daily grind start to wear on ball players as they battle their way through a marathon 162-game schedule. In content marketing, we don't typically face such seasonal stresses in the summer months, but this year is a different story. Never before in my career has the state of the world been such a significant factor in every day's conversations and decision-making. Entire business plans are shifting on a dime. Rightfully so. All the while, external distractions tug at each of us human beings in different ways. The coronavirus pandemic isn't going away. Personally, I feel deeply affected by the pattern of systemic racial injustice exemplified by George Floyd's murder, about a mile from where I grew up and 20 minutes from the TopRank Marketing office. My mind drifts constantly. I know I'm far from alone. These are hard times. But the work goes on. Dog days of summer, indeed. via GIPHY To help my fellow marketers bring their A-game, and power through to better days ahead, I present my playbook for content marketing in the summer of 2020, aided by expert insights. And in honor of my beloved baseball – in its continuing absence – I'll correlate these tips with the intricate art of manufacturing a win over the course of nine innings.

9 Tips for B2B Content Marketing in the Summer of 2020

#1: Keep knocking out those blog posts Fun fact: On July 30th, 2010, the Colorado Rockies set a major-league record by stringing together 11 consecutive hits against the Chicago Cubs. One after another, batters came to the plate and got it done. Singles, doubles, homers, a triple ... each successive hit did its part in pushing across 12 runs in a single inning. Not each of your blog posts will be a home run, but even a base hit – a brisk and worthwhile read that sticks in the mind of your audience – will contribute to the ultimate goal. As your traffic and engagement numbers increase, it’s the equivalent of raising your batting average — eventually leading to more scoring, and bigger results when you hit the home run. #2: Aim to entertain (and inform) your audience Baseball isn’t the only cherished form of entertainment amiss this summer. Attending big concerts, or checking out the latest Hollywood blockbuster in a theater, are among customary staples of the season now absent. People still want enjoyable diversions, maybe now more than ever, and content marketers can help fill that need. “A lot of people are looking to fill in the time that they’re not spending commuting,” noted TopRank Marketing CEO Lee Odden in a recent episode of Live with Search Engine Land. “There might be ‘infotaining’ content that your brand could put out — it’s still contextually relevant to your business, but at the same time, it’s entertaining in some way.” via GIPHY #3: Cover the emotional bases with your content When marketers talk about communicating with emotion in times like these, they’re often talking about striking empathetic tones at a time where many are feeling down. That certainly has its place as no one wants to appear tone-deaf. But don’t be averse to lightening the mood. Your audience could probably use a laugh, or a light-hearted read. As Syed Balkhi writes at AdAge in explaining why you should add humor to your content marketing, “The way to connect with your audience is to create an emotional spark when they view your content. And humor can act as the flint that fires up more engagement.” On that note: Why are baseball games often played at night? … Because bats sleep during the day. (Womp, womp.) #4: Team up with influencers One thing I love about baseball is its cooperative nature. Teamwork rules the day in a sport where nine players are in the lineup and on the field for each club. No one can do it alone. To exemplify, neither Barry Bonds nor Mike Trout — the two greatest players of the past 50 years if not ever, have won a World Series. In content marketing, teamwork also pays major dividends — both internally and externally. We talk often on this blog about the value of influencer partnerships, and it’s only magnified right now. At a time where misinformation runs rampant and people are gravitating toward sources they know, trust, and like, credible influencers are powerful allies. “In the current environment, a B2B brand with strong connections to influencers with a known voice for equality have an opportunity to co-create content for customers in search of answers,” Lee wrote in a blog post about always-on influence. “Of course, companies looking at their influencers and not finding many or any people of color should seriously think about diversity and their influencer program.” #5: Bring diversity to your content marketing lineup Lee’s final point in the quote above broaches another essential focus: highlighting and elevating diversity in your brand’s content mix. Activism taking place in our country, and world, underscores more than ever the vital need for more voices be heard and understood. It’s an uncomfortable truth for those of us who fall into the demographic, but also an undeniable one: As I look around today’s digital marketing landscape, I see a disproportionate number of white men. I think every marketing department, agency, and brand can use this moment as an impetus for diversifying the collection of people speaking for them, or collaborating with them. This has also been an ongoing emphasis for the game of baseball, which was criticized by the New York Times not so long ago for its “unbearable whiteness,” illustrating that there is still work to be done nearly 75 years after Jackie Robinson broke MLB’s color barrier. via GIPHY In marketing, increasing diversity isn’t solely about race; aim to represent different ethnicities, genders, sexualities, and worldviews. #6: Invest in SEO with an eye on the end game This is a perfect time to invest budget and effort into bolstering your SEO strategy, through optimizing existing content and creating new content informed by thoughtful keyword research. It’s a cost-efficient activity with short-term and long-term benefits. As Conductor CEO Seth Besmertnik puts it in a recent article on LinkedIn Pulse: “If you invest today, you’ll immediately start getting value. You’ll also be in the best position to capture buying activity when we emerge from this crisis.” [bctt tweet="“This is a perfect time to invest budget and effort into bolstering your SEO strategy, through optimizing existing content and creating new content informed by thoughtful keyword research.” @NickNelsonMN" username="toprank"] #7: Ungate your best assets The sacrifice bunt is often viewed as one of baseball’s most pure and charming plays. The selflessness of a batter giving himself up to advance a base runner and give them a better chance to score is the essence of team play. Ungating your content assets, which may have previously sat behind a form-fill, is a good way to replicate this dynamic in your own strategy. Sure, that eBook or whitepaper might lose its opportunity to convert someone single-handedly, but it can contribute to building relationships and developing brand affinity that will pay dividends down the line. At a time where purchase activity is down but content consumption is up, this pivot simply makes sense. #8: Stay flexible and adaptive Late in a baseball game, a manager will sometimes call upon a pinch-hitter to substitute for someone in their lineup. That’s because the replacement is viewed as a more suitable option based on the situation. Content marketers, too, must be ready to react and change direction quickly at a time where the circumstances around us are constantly in flux. Consider holding daily (virtual) stand-ups with your team to reassess the plan, and to ensure everything you’re doing still makes sense and aligns with your audience’s mindset and needs. Always be prepared for a curveball. via GIPHY #9: Swing for the fences with experiential content I wrote here last month (in another baseball-themed post, naturally) that experiential content represents a home run for marketers. When you deliver a virtual experience that is infotaining, interactive, collaborative, and impactful for your business, you can really score a win-win for your company and your audience, at a time when many beloved real-life experiences of the summer aren’t available to folks. [bctt tweet="“When you deliver a virtual experience that is infotaining, interactive, collaborative, and impactful for your business, you can really score a win-win for your company and your audience.” @NickNelsonMN" username="toprank"]

Every Hit Counts

Singles and walks in baseball aren’t flashy, but if you compile enough of them you’re going to fill up the bases and eventually put plenty of runs on the board. Content marketing follows this same principle. It’s not about instant gratification — a single quality blog post won’t usually convert a customer on its own — but it all adds up, and now’s an ideal time to recenter on those fundamentals that contribute to a sustainably successful marketing strategy. This summer, content marketers should be playing the long game. For more guidance on how marketers can rise to this challenging occasion, I encourage you to read Lee’s inspiring post on how we can do better than words with action during turbulent times for society.

The post Manufacturing Runs: 9 Summer Content Marketing Tips Drawn from the Diamond appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Article Source: http://bathseoexpert.blogspot.com/2020/06/manufacturing-runs-9-summer-content.html