Social Chats – Episode #33 ✍️
Bonnie Chomica of Marketing Done Write has lived in several big Canadian cities where she worked in tech companies in the corporate environment, then startup companies. Among a myriad of skills and experiences, she translated a lot of tech jargon of engineers and programmers so that a customer could understand how our services could benefit their business.
When she moved to Vancouver Island, Bonnie started her own company helping entrepreneurs with their copy and content writing, essentially doing their marketing for them. Now her focus is on mentoring and guiding entrepreneurs on how to do content marketing themselves. She helps the do-it-yourself marketer who appreciates a second set of eyes, because they don’t always know if what they are doing is right, or where the gaps are. She mentors them on their progress and offers expert advice on how they can improve.
✨ A quick note about Social Chats. Social Chats is a weekly live show that we put together to help small businesses learn from great people who stand out in their industry. What they do works well with social media and we hope you this will keep you educated and inspired! View all Social Chats here & subscribe to our YouTube channel here.
- What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is a strategy that focuses around creating and sharing value-added or valuable content that is not necessarily promotional. The whole idea behind it is to show your expertise, to show what you know and position your brand. It positions your brand as the thought leader in that niche.
- Why is Content Marketing So Important Today?
It’s a long-term strategy that if consistently done, can really show your authority and make you look like the Go-to-Expert.
Brand Awareness – The more often people see your content, the more your brand becomes top of mind. If you are providing content that answers people’s questions or describes solutions to their problems, they will remember you and appreciate that you are providing value.
Search Results – Over a longer period of time, you are likely to get better search results with Google. Google wants people to have a good search experience, so if you’re consistently providing valuable content, use keywords and some promotion, they will tend to rank you higher on page one.
Know, Like, Trust Factor – If people are getting to know you online, they are doing so through your content. Provide valuable content and they’ll get to know your expertise, your approach, your style. Let’s face it, people research online and aren’t always ready to buy at that moment when they find your content. But, when they are ready to buy, they will remember your brand.
Email List Growth – Content Marketing helps you nurture your email list, your most important marketing asset. By providing valuable free content, you can offer that information in exchange for your audience’s email list, and then nurture that relationship through email marketing tactics.
The bottom line is, the more you write about a specific topic, you position yourself as an author and therefore the authority in your specific niche.
- How do people constantly come up with specific content
First of all, consider your client. What are their challenges, what are they struggling with, what keeps them up at night? Consider what they are searching for and provide the content to address those concerns, which shows your authority and knowledge.
Try to tap into their emotion because that is what will draw them into your content.
- Explain how to do things, how to improve things, how to use things, etc.
- Describe what happens behind the scenes at your business
- Think of seasonal or holiday topics for educational or motivational purposes – spring, Mother’s Day, Take a pet to work day, etc.
- Poll your clients about what issues they have
- Create Content Clusters
- e. 5 or 6 posts about blogging – How to get an idea, how to do headlines, how to do graphics, how to structure it, how to distribute it, how to repurpose it, etc.
- Scan the industry to see what competitors are writing
- What examples of non-promotion content media do you recommend?
Blogging – Blogging is the mother of all content marketing. It’s not essential, but is the most powerful. It really provides the opportunity to show your greatness, to show what you know in a value-added way. And you can take that content and expand it to other media like social posts, video, etc. Blog on your website, or on sites like Linkedin and Medium.
Newsletters – Newsletters are valuable opportunity to build relationships. If you have permission to be in someone’s inbox, you should respect that space and provide value always. It’s okay to promote a bit, kind of the 80/20 rule of 80% value-added content, and 20% promotional. It’s a balance. If you promote 100%, people will unsubscribe.
Broadcasts – Providing a voice and/or face really connect with your audience to better get to know you. i.e. Facebook Live, Podcasts, Webinars, Teleseminars
Free Downloads (in exchange for email address) – This is where the real value comes in with free checklists, reports, ebooks, case studies, webinars, etc. You provide the freebie, then after they opt-in with their email, you send a 5-6 email follow-up sequence that nurtures your new relationship and typically leads to an offer or discounted offer.
- What about Offline? What could you do?
Content Marketing has been around a long time, long before the internet.
- Soap Operas, first on radio and then on TV. The networks were providing a storyline for stay-at-home housewives, and then promote their soap products
- Marvel Comics – in the 1980’s they introduced GI Joe. They only published two issues, but those two storylines drove people to buy over a billion dollars’ worth of GI Joe action figures. The comic book was the valuable, entertaining content, and the doll was the promotion.
- Speaking, training, workshops – the most effective form of showing your greatness, because you are sharing your expertise and gets you face to face with people
- Print media – magazines, newspapers, ask the expert columns, articles
- Radio talks shows
- Catalogues – not just pretty pictures – opportunity to show helpful tips in callout boxes
- e. seed catalogue with plant pictures plus info on how and when to plant and maintain.
- Networking – market yourself by not being salesy. Be there to build relationships so people get to know you and are comfortable referring you to their network. Not everybody there is going to be your client. Be genuinely interested in the other person. Ask them questions about their business, and they will remember that you were a good listener, and will seek you out at a future meeting, and remember you when an opportunity arises to refer you.
- What are the biggest mistakes people make with their content marketing?
Being too salesy. Promote. Promote. Promote. That just turns people off. They want to be educated or entertained. If you just sell, they will leave your website, unsubscribe from your newsletter, and unfollow you on social channels.
Starting out and then stopping. They jump in and start, but can’t carry on because they don’t have a plan. They need to understand their audience and their challenges, plus a marketing and content plan to understand how it all fits together.
Being lazy with quality. You are supposed to be providing value, to show your expertise. If you don’t deliver your best content, then you will look unprofessional and quickly lose followers. Instead, consider this approach when your readers are thinking, “If she is giving away this amazing content for free, imagine what she would deliver if I paid her.” (Mari Smith).
Besides your value-added content, ensure you have a great website and professional looking graphics to ensure a quality visitor experience.
- When you work with people, Bonnie, how do you help them with content marketing?
It’s start with a Marketing Checkup. I review what people are doing with their content marketing assets, with their website, blog, newsletter, social and online presence, lead magnets, the works. I diagnose what they are doing well and identify where the gaps might be. They then get a personalized prescription for things they can do to improve. After that Checkup, if they want to focus on a specific area, say a blog, for example, I teach them best practices; they implement them and I monitor their progress; I provide feedback to improve. It’s really a mentoring approach, so they can learn skills to build confidence so they can get better content marketing results.
- What is the best approach to getting started with Content Marketing
Really look at and understand your client, their persona, and what their pains are. Truly understand the angst and frustrations they have or even their desires.
Start keeping notes of the ideas that come up. There may be a short list to start, but as you really dig in and start keeping notes of your ideas, more ideas will evolve, and you can start creating Content Clusters, as mentioned earlier.
Make a Plan of what can be posted where and when and you will get better organized and better able to deliver valuable content, efficiently and effectively.
