Think Like a News Editor for Content Marketing Success

Blogging and social media offer marketers the opportunity to publish their own content to attract customer attention, as well as pitch the media.

This strategy requires a balance of content that provides fresh news while also covering ‘evergreen’ topics.

For best results, think like a news editor. Create a regular mix of current events, original research and timely commentary for all-round reader engagement.

Here are three key elements you need.

Monitor and anticipate trends

Use social media to participate in larger conversations beyond just pushing out your company news. The more your brand interacts with timely content, the more people will see the brand, and its digital offerings.

Monitor trends in the news, pop culture, and the lives of your customers. Map out how your brand can participate in these conversations, via social media, blog posts, or other appropriate media. Don’t get involved in every conversation. Instead, focus on stories that relate to your overall brand strategy and messaging.

Create evergreen content that your customers need

Know your customers’ pain points, busy seasons, challenges and strengths. Create ‘evergreen’ content and address long-term issues that don’t go out of date.

When your customers search topics that regularly impact their lives, you already have relevant content out there. Customers and reporters alike will come to rely on your brand as a resource for their research, they’ll become more engaged with your timely content as well.

Leave room for real-time

24-hour news is your brand’s opportunity to offer instantaneous commentary. Remember the Super Bowl blackout? Oreo’s social media team was on standby and capitalized with timely humor. No one could have anticipated the blackout, but they seized the opportunity as it happened.

For maximum effectiveness, create an editorial calendar. Consistency is key: by regularly publishing quality content, you can drive more traffic, more leads, and more revenue as you nurture those leads into customers.

Spring Clean Your Marketing For Success

Just like closets and cupboards, marketing strategies and assets can accumulate clutter over the course of the year – It’s time for some spring cleaning.

Here are three ways to make sure your marketing is current, polished, and efficient:

Clean up your lists

Bounced back and duplicate emails are ineffective and can damage your goodwill with customers, journalists and other stakeholders. Go through your lists to verify that names, email addresses and other information are still current. Delete inactive addresses as well as duplicate or incomplete entries.

This is especially important for your media list. Journalism is a fast-changing world and writers move to different outlets and cover different topics. Ensuring that you’re contacting the right people with your news is critical when it comes to generating publicity for your business.

Revisit your social strategy

Take stock of how you are using your social media channels and content. If you’re neglecting certain channels or networks, consider deactivating them until you have the time and/or resources to maintain them regularly. Focus on cultivating the channels that serve your business best.

Check that your content still aligns with your overall marketing goals.

• Has your strategic message changed at all?
• Have your social media goals changed?
• Do your analytics show any weak areas that need improvement?

Answer these questions to evaluate whether you need to update your social strategy.

Update your boilerplate and website

It’s easy to forget about your company boilerplate. Take stock of your accomplishments and milestones from the last year and update your boilerplate accordingly.

The same goes for your company website. Have you hired new team members? Secured killer press coverage? Launched a new product or service? Now is the time to update your website to reflect your recent growth.

Don’t let out-of-date information and content weigh down your marketing. Spring-cleaning your strategy is crucial to long-term success.

Visual Online Marketing: Are You Looking Good?

Images have never mattered more to marketers, brands, social media managers, and customers alike.

Facebook now owns photo sharing app Instagram. Twitter has beefed up its own photo sharing features. Sites like Buzzfeed that collect images from around the Web are surging in popularity. Pinterest, the network devoted entirely to sharing images, is the new social media darling that also drives sales with users buying the products they pin.

Visual online marketing is here to stay and it has big implications for your business. Here are three steps to implementing a solid visual marketing strategy.

1          Turn your website into a lookbook

When designing your website to showcase your products or services online, use hi-res images and think about what you want customers to feel as they browse.

How can you use images to create an emotional connection? One strategy is to give context to your images. Show people using or display your product in its natural habitat – a home, café, at the office – as opposed to cold, static product shots. This helps people envision themselves using your product and may inspire them to make a purchase.

If your business offers a service, you can still incorporate images into your web design. Own a spa? Try using a rotating backdrop of serene, peaceful places intermixed with high-quality images of your space. Scale back on the text and let images do the talking for you.  

2          Incorporate social for sharing

Another benefit of using context-rich, hi-res images is that these are the visuals most shared on Pinterest. Pinterest users collect images that speak to the greater theme of the board they’re creating. This means that visually pleasing images within a context are easier to incorporate and more likely to get re-pinned.

Instagram is a social network where users share their own photographs. Twitter also has photo-sharing capabilities. Think about creating promotional campaigns that encourage customers to post to Instagram or tweet photos of themselves using your product or service, at your location, or enjoying the service you provide. Capitalize on the popularity of these apps to drive sales and reach new customers! 

3          Remember the big picture

As with all marketing strategies, keep in mind your long-term, big-picture goals. Using images and visual social media strategies should be just one part of a comprehensive, integrated marketing strategy. The key to marketing success on social channels and beyond is all about producing engaging content—and your visual strategy should be no different.

GET YOUR BLOG ROLLING

Don't let the constant buzz around short-form social media channels fool you; original, thoughtful content is still king. And a company blog is the perfect platform.

Blogs are a fantastic marketing tool. While short-form social media channels are great at building buzz, thoughtful blog content adds real long-term value to your business. Done right, blogging gives customers insight into your brand, establishes you as an industry expert and resource, and attracts traffic from search engines.

And if you're asking, "How can we maintain a blog?" or "How can we come up with new ideas?" we have four tips to get you rolling.

1          Get personal.

Got a great customer referral? Share it. Has a particular mentor shaped the way you do business? Profile them. A star employee you want to call out? Do it. All of these things personalize your business. When it comes down to deciding between similar businesses, potential customers will often go with the company they can relate to. Content - especially stories - is the vehicle for that.

2          Write about what you know.

Struggling for ideas to blog about? An engaged writer makes for an engaged reader, so make sure you’re writing about something that interests you, and tie it in to your business. Don’t be afraid to have an opinion. Certified foodie? Passion for fashion? Crazy for “American Idol”? Whatever your interest, if it’s something that you care about, it will be easy to write about and to apply to your business.

3          Be brave.

Writing about what customers want to know about is a sure-fire way to keep them engaged. To do so, you've got to be willing to tackle tough topics in your content and commentary. Blogging about difficult issues and controversies within your industry attracts customers, and keeps them coming back to you as a resource.

4          Be trendy.

Blogging provides an excellent vehicle for discussing news trends that may not directly relate to your business, while engaging with potential customers about a topic that has piqued their interest. Keep abreast of the latest breaking news and figure out creative ways to engage readers. By positioning your brand as a thought leader, you build trust with customers, which will count when the time comes to make a purchasing decision.

Above all, keep it simple. Your company blog shouldn't read like a promotional brochure. Readers are looking for concise writing with clear takeaways, along with some fun and personality. Keep it brief, make your point using relatable examples, and then post it.