5 steps to a successful content marketing strategy
TRANSCRIPT
Content Marketing and Conversion
How to Create a Content Strategy that Drives Sales
Fernando A. LabastidaSmall World Labs
Fernando Labastidahttp://www.linkedin.com/in/flabastida
@flabastida
• Customer Success Manager Small World Labs www.smallworldlabs.com
• Founder Latin IT Marketing www.latinitmarketing.com
• Organized first Latin America Track at South by Southwest Interactive http://www.sxsw.com/interactive
• Helped organize debut edition of Americas IT Forum www.americasitforum.com
• Speaker at upcoming conference Engage Mexico www.engagemexico.com
What is Content Marketing?
Content Marketing means creating and sharing valuable free content to attract and convert prospects into customers, and customers into repeat buyers. The type of content you share is closely related to what you sell; in other words, you’re educating people so that they know, like, and trust you enough to do business with you.
Source: Copyblogger
The problem
The web has fundamentally changed the dynamic for customer communications
Is this a problem…or an opportunity?
The problem – and the opportunity
Source: worlwidewebsize.com
The media monopoly is gone
The playing field has leveled
The 5 Steps to a Successful Content Marketing Strategy
• Provide overwhelming value
• Focus on your customer– not your product
• Become the media
• Use your content as market research
• Get them to subscribe
Provide Overwhelming Value
Entreproducer:
“If you feel like you’re giving away too much, you’re on the right track…”
The Potlach
“The status of any given family is raised not by who has the most resources, but by who distributes the most resources. ”
Source: Wikipedia
Law of Reciprocity – Robert Cialdini
As humans, we prefer to return favors or debts, because we generally feel uncomfortable feeling indebted to somebody
Copyblogger
Content Marketing Institute
Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream: Jeni’s at Home
Focus on your customer, not your product
More than just a persona
Persona + Unmet need = content marketing success
Rock’N’Realty: Content for Vegans and Music Lovers in Austin http://rocknrealty.net
Become the media
Source: The Promo Blog
Produce media on a regular schedule – become an addictive habit
“The more content I can put out, the more luck I have,”
Gary Vaynerchuk
Source: Forbes
The First Soap Opera
P&G’s As The World Turns
Source: Forbes
Being the Media
• A regular schedule (editorial calendar)
• Content types for your personas
• Guest appearances
Share content through 3rd party sources
Guest appearances was one of Lil Wayne’s “secrets to success.” Guest blogging will be one of your secrets to success too
Sharing content through social media
“it’s not good enough to just produce long form content; you have to put out micro-content to drive awareness to it,”
Gary Vaynerchuk
Use your content as a market research tool
Minimum Viable Audience
“I learn more from serving an online audience than any other approach I’ve taken to truly understanding a market.”
Brian Clark, Entreproducer
Content Research
• Analytics
• Comments section
• Social media feedback
James Altucher shares posts through Facebook first before posting to his blog
Get them to subscribe
Content Marketing Institute Email Marketing study – the average CMI subscriber:
• Was more likely to attend our events and purchase our products
• Was more likely to share our content with their networks
• Closed three times faster than a non-subscriber, once he or she had entered our sales process (for our consulting service).
- Joe Pulizzi, Content Marketing Institute
Thank you very much!