What does it all mean?

What's the point... Why are we here, what does it all mean??

Tis the season when we all fall victim to the occasional existential crisis.

But really, why are we here? What do we, as content marketers, think we're doing every day? Through every blog post, each infographic, countless 140-character-tweets... what's the point?

The Meaning of Life

Content marketing is about delivering quality, useful content to consumers. It's our goal to create interesting writing, clever graphics, and snarky comments to drive that elusive metric, "engagement"

A content marketer's mission, our Meaning of Life, if you will, is to reach and resonate with customers. It's not to drive sales, or get leads, or walk people in the door. Not directly, anyway.

We're meant to elicit a chuckle. Provoke a thoughtful chin-stroking. Maybe even a surprised head-tilt. If you're doing your job right, you'll get Likes, Shares, and Retweets. And if you're really lucky, you'll get site visits, phone calls, and closed deals.

They're Just Not That Into You

We often get lost in the data of marketing, and forget that people don't like ads. No one enjoys being marketed to, especially when it's interrupting their lives (e.g. TV commercials, pre-roll ads delaying your YouTube video, or data-stealing Facebook ads that run as you scroll through your newsfeed on your phone). So then how are you supposed to advertise your business to keep the lights on and food on the table? A marketer's gotta market, amiright?

People don't like being marketed to, it's true. But they do like being entertained. So entertain them!

Treat your customers to helpful holiday tips that solve those pesky problems everyone encounters each year. Create an infographic that'll have them emailing and sharing with the family because doesn't that sound JUST like Uncle Fred last Christmas? Post about familiar things, ideas that are useful, commentary that is thought-provoking. Whatever you do, don't just market at them. Be fun. Be funny. 

New Year, New You

We all lose steam from time to time, especially around the holidays. After a full year of content marketing, it's easy to burn out and lose that creative edge. Thankfully, this time of year is FULL of ready-made wit. It's easy to resonate with your customers with content that speaks to what's on their mind - the holidays!

So take it easy and use the theme of the season to add a little punch to your posts. Then regroup and start off the new year with a bang, feeling refreshed and creatively charged!

Put some content in your content

My old voice teacher had a saying when students were singing, but not giving out that quality, robust sound they could be. She'd shout out, "put some sound in your sound!"

In singing, you can tell when the sound is hollow, and she could tell when we had more to give. It's hard to explain exactly what you needed to do to make it fuller, but that phrase had something to it. You were singing, but there was something missing - you needed more sound in your sound.

Writing can be similarly hollow in its quality and feel, leaving you lacking satisfaction.

Putting lots of words on a page is one thing, but does it really mean anything? Does it say what you're trying to say?

I often find that people write in such a way that the end result is.... empty. Their statements are noncommittal. Their points are never fully made. Their focus is fuzzy. It's such a waste of good writing!

Now, I admit I fall victim to this on occasion myself. It's especially likely when I am writing about something unfamiliar, or I haven't quite settled on an angle to help me dig into a topic. The more undecided or uncomfortable you are, the more likely your content will also be uncomfortable.

Whether you're writing blog posts, ebooks, or press releases, your content needs to have a purpose and say what it's meant to say.

So how can you put more content in your content?

• Have a thesis. This one goes back to the good old days in school. But your English teachers had a point! A thesis creates a focus for your writing, around which everything should revolve. Doesn't tie back to your main argument? Doesn't belong in this post. It's that simple.
• Don't be vague. The death knell of any piece of writing is the lack of any real statements. Sentences dance in circles around a point, teasing at its existence, but never quite saying what they really mean. Spit it out! Don't be afraid to say it outright - your content will be all the better for it.
• Have actual supporting points/statements. Making an argument is great, but can you back it up? A one sentence statement doesn't have the impact or clarity that a statement, followed by supporting information does. Make your claim and then stand by it with good reasons.
• Use concrete examples. On that note, find examples! Nothing makes your case better than a (clearly explained) case study outlining the very situation or cause-and-effect you're trying to discuss.

and most importantly

• Say why it matters. So you've presented an argument, made your case, and supported it with strong statements and clear examples to illustrate your point. Now what? Your great points fall flat if you can't tell your audience why they should care. You should always say it outright when there's a benefit or key takeaway to be had from your point, even when it feels like stating the obvious. It provides a sense of closure (a conclusion!) and you never know when someone may not have followed your sense of reason all the way to the finish line. 

Put some sound in your sound! Make sure your writing is clear, concise, and describes things explicitly. Your customers (and your bottom line) will thank you.

There's no "i" in Content

There's no "i" in content.

Your website, your social posts, your videos... you're the one writing and creating them, but do you have your customer or yourself in mind when you're doing it?

It's natural to have expectations and specific desires for what's included in your copy. It's easy to go from "guided" to "heavy handed" with information that you think is crucial to the point where you're overloaded. When writing, it's important to take a step back and think about what's important to your audience.

Who is your content really for?

It's not for you, certainly. So it must be for someone else (hint: your customers). So make it about them!

Tips for keeping yourself out of your content:

• Avoid "I" and "We" like the plague. Why? Because it's not about you! You should be talking about your customer and what matters to them, not what matters to you.
• You can get away with using "we" in some of your website copy especially when describing your company and your excellent customer service, but otherwise, steer clear. 
• Social media? Forget it - those posts should be 80% about everyone and everything other than your business.
• Your best bet? Talking about your customer and how products/services/etc. can benefit them, their lives, their businesses.
• Follow the 80/20 Rule. Social media posts on any network should be only 20% self-promotional and 80% other content. That's right - 80% not about your business!
• Post about related topics, interesting articles, funny quotes, anything that keeps your human customers engaged and enjoying your posts. That way, when you do say something about an upcoming sale or new product, they're more likely to notice and listen.
• Keep it simple. Don't overload your site or blog with astronomical levels of detail. Your customers don't need it and might not even understand it,
• Save the specs and mechanical intricacies for the in-person explanation when you get to it. Too much up front is confusing, overwhelming, and off-putting.
• You may think all that detail is interesting and important - and it very well may be - but it's just not relevant to your customer. Think about what's most important for them to know right now, at this stage of their buying cycle.

Content, of any type, needs to be designed for your audience or else it's a waste of your time. You already know all that information about your business, you don't need to talk to yourself.

Sometimes it can be hard to take an unbiased assessment of your work. Find someone who knows nothing about your industry and have them review your content for it's value to someone with fresh eyes.

Think of it like gift giving. You don't give someone else a gift that makes no sense to them or doesn't fit their interest, you give them something that is going to suit them. Make sure the information you're giving your customers suits them - the questions they're asking, the concerns they have, and the needs they're looking to solve.

What's Old Is New: The Ikea Bookbook

Every once in a while, a piece of really clever marketing shows up. A piece that really resonates with an audience, elicits a reaction, and sticks in the mind.

And that's precisely what's happened with Ikea's latest ad, for the "Bookbook."

Have you heard or seen about this? It's all the rage.

It's intuitive, sleekly designed, and completely wireless!

It's incredible.

Incredibly good marketing, that is. It's snarky, smart, and perfectly targeted to the sarcastic side of the tech market. The ad plays on Apple's product videos calling it a revolutionary new product, just as the new iPhone or Macbook Air might be described.

Ikea nailed it with this one. Not only are they poking fun at Apple, but they're poking fun at all the consumers in the market that fall for those ads - albeit lightheartedly - and letting us all laugh at ourselves and each other.

Meanwhile, we're also watching a YouTube video about a catalog....

Brilliant marketing, really clever writing, and something that people will not soon forget. It doesn't get much better than that.

Long Writing? TL:DR

So you've produced great content. Whitepapers, ebooks, cool articles are just flying off the presses to provide solid information and descriptive discussions of important topics to your audience and customers.

In fact, you're producing long articles with so much good information, detailed instructions, and in-depth analysis, you just can't understand why no one's reading it! Why isn't anyone following up with your business, why isn't your phone ringing off the hook?

Why? Ain't nobody got time for that.

No really. They don't. Let's take a look at some of the facts:

Americans spend nearly 32 hours a month online (not including the time they don't admit to wasting on the internet while at work...). Of that time, they're devoting

• 22% of their time to social media
• 21% to searching
• 19% to email and communications

That's 62% of people's time online gone, without a second of it spent on reading materials produced by your business.

But that still doesn't get to the root of the problem. There's still 38% of online time left over! Why aren't they consuming your high-quality writing?

A human's attention span is now just 8 seconds. 8 seconds - down from 12 just a few short years ago in 2000. That means, in fact, that we now have an attention span shorter than that of a goldfish!

Content on the internet tripled between 2010 and 2013. All that great content you're producing, on all those channels (Facebook, LinkedIn, email, news sites, etc...) is bombarding people and driving them to distraction.

So how do you combat short attention spans online?

• Give the goods up front
• No one's going to wait around for the information they came to find. Don't bury key info after piles of lengthy paragraphs. Giving the important details at the start helps convince people to read more, rather than feeling like a waste of time.
• Keep it short
• Your writing should be short overall, using short paragraphs, and short words. No one's looking for a Dickens novel after clicking a link on Twitter. Use straightforward language and simple sentences to get to the point.
• Stay focused
• Speaking of getting to the point - keep your content focused and concise. No wandering tangets and digressions. Stay on topic and your writing will have clear direction.
• Bite-Size & Scan-able
• Using headings, subheadings, and bullet points helps readers stay engaged. These features provide a multi-level approach to reading that allows people to choose which parts and to what amount of detail they want to read.

People are busier than ever these days, and our attention spans are the proof. With the constant stream of distractions and things to look at/see/do/read/watch you've got to take advantage of those precious few seconds when you're granted them. Keep your writing focused and don't waste any time showing people just how valuable your information is, and then they'll stick around to read more.

5 Content Marketing Tips from #ContentRising 2014

Yesterday, Boston's own Moakley Courthouse played host Content Rising 2014, a meeting-of-minds dedicated to content marketing, big and small.

Hosted by Skyword, the panel also included bigwigs from Conductor, Outbrain, and Traackr, all cool names in the content world, and the local digital marketing scene.

I had the pleasure of attending to hear what great minds had to say about content. Here's what I learned.

• It's hard to mingle and balance a tiny plate of apps on your wine glass.

• The Moakley Courthouse has a spectacular view of the harbor and downtown waterfront.

Wait... back to the content

• Pierre-Loic Assayag, CEO of Traacker, brought the focus straight to your audience. Calling on marketers to "Influence the influencer," Pierre-Loic argued that your audience is full of influencers, and it's the marketer's job to reach them so they in turn influence their audience. A fascinating take on what we do, I loved the idea of reaching out to a few people who have a big voice in their communities (whatever those may be) and focusing on resonating with those people, then letting them do the heavy lifting of convincing a broader audience. At it's core, it's leveraging word of mouth via digital-age tools and networks.

• Seth Dotterer, Marketing VP at Conductor, reminded us all of the importance of SEO in what we do with a staggering stat: 94% of site visits come from unpaid content sources, like Pinterest, not your SEM campaign. When your content exists where you can't control it (your consumers do), it's crucial that your SEO strategy comes first to inform the content creation, so you can be found for the right things. 

• Tom Gerace, CEO of Skyword, rattled off a fantastic list of questions you NEED to ask when creating content, to make it meaningful, relevant, and scalable. And it all tied back to identifying your audience, matching your message to your brand's personality, and focusing on the end goals to define the hows and whats of your content campaign. Life (and marketing) moves fast, so there's no time to waste on creating content that isn't informed and backed by logical decisions!

• Last but not least, Gregg Freishtat, SVP Strategic Alliances at Outbrain, took the mic to remind us all that content's not about us - it's about them (your audience). Understandably, consumers care about themselves and their lives, not about your brand, so if you want to reach them you'll need to provide something that's of value or use. Your work won't go far if it doesn't serve a purpose in your reader's world. Make it resonate.

All in all, Content Rising was a reminder (and affirmation) that content marketing isn't just something you push out and force on people. It's an experience. Create an experience - blend content with your audience's needs and lives - and you'll create a brand relationship, not just "advertising."

Watch your tone

Are you talking to me?

If you are, then I expect snarky attitude, quick quips, and concise information. If you're talking to my grandmother, then she'll expect a softer tone, and LOTS of detail. Then she'll call. (I'll email).

What I'm getting at is the all-important question of tone of voice. Something that not too many think about, or not in so specific a way, tone of voice in your messaging is critical to the success of your marketing efforts.

Whether it's your website, your company blog, or your display ad campaign, the way you write conveys more than you might realize about your business.

You've got to consider ALL the factors when setting out to write for your company. Who is your audience? Where are they located? What's their personality and style? What are their expectations for your business or your industry?

You're not going to resonate with senior citizens in Minnesota if your content is jazzy and quick-witted and sarcastic, just like you're not going win over 20-somethings in LA with long, droning, wall-of-text traditionalism.

But wait. Your grandma is hip and with-it and loves sarcasm? Cool. (And good for her!)

That's why you need to know your audience. There's no formula for nailing down how you should talk to your people, how you should convey your business' personality. As some of my favorite tone of voice junkies recently said, "Tone of voice is a process, not a hard and fast set of rules."

Who are you? Are you the funky digital company shaking up the industry? Awesome. Use language that says that. Are you a down-home, local company serving your more-traditional community? That's wonderful - use language that says that.

Tone of voice is all about making your company sound less like a company and more like a human -- and humans have personality. Let yours shine through and reach out to your people with confidence in who you are!

On measuring content

If your content falls in the digital forest, how do you know if it worked?

Content - and its effectiveness - can be extremely difficult to measure. Sure, there are metrics to follow, data to analyze, but how do you know if those stats are really measuring what you think they are?

Marketers argue that content can easily be tracked and measured through metrics like bounce rate, time on page, and page views. While this may be true on some level(s), there's so much more to content than the % Exit rate.

First, there's the confounding variables that abound in the various outlets where you may find your content. Your website? A high bounce rate could mean that your content was poorly received, but it could also mean that your site design is off-putting. Your page view count might be higher than ever, but people might click right off your site after they get there.

How do you extricate your content from its surrounding context?

Second, there's the idea that content (and content marketing) isn't really about the numbers. It's about reaching people and resonating with people. Quote a famous author or offer a cute picture and people will pause, they'll share, and they'll remember. You can't measure the conversation they have with a friend later, but you've made an impact. 

You could create really fun, engaging, original content that has nothing to do with your services, but hits home with people - a shareable piece of content can be hard to track by the numbers, but it'll pay you back in dividends as you build positive brand recognition.

When it comes to digital content, it can be tricky to measure your return on investment when you put hours and dollars in, and aren't sure if your metrics represent results. But combine quality content with analytics + engagement, and you've got a solid formula for success.

Content By Numbers

Just how long is too long when in comes to web writing?

It can be hard to tell when you've written just enough, or totally overshot the mark.

Social Media Today  posted an article about the ideal length of various forms of content marketing. From Tweets to presentations and everything in between, they covered - in detail - just how long (or short!) your verbiage should be.

And, get this, it's backed by data! Actual, scientifically proven data!

It's an April miracle.

The article was a long one, so here I've boiled down a bit of what they found:

1) Multiple sources (including Twitter itself) reports that tweets get the most retweets when they hit around the 100 character mark.
So don't go pushing the limits of your 140 character max, but don't sell yourself short either.

2) Facebook posts should be 80 characters or fewer for 66% higher engagement - around 40 characters if you're playing in Hard Mode (and want 86% higher engagement)!
It can be hard to keep posts concise yet still convey the full message you're trying to share, but even in the land of unlimited characters, shorter is definitely sweeter.

3) Email subject lines incur both the highest open rate AND the highest click-through at 28-39 characters, which amounts to just a few short words.
You only get a few words and precious little time to catch a recipient's attention as they sift through their email inbox. Use your subject line wisely!

4) Surprisingly, the ideal blog post length is a whopping 1,600 words, or 7 minutes of reading! According to Medium's own data, anyway.
This seems mighty long, but the trick is in the writing itself. Anyone can blather on for a few thousand words, but having enough real detail and keeping attention for 7 minutes requires skill and knowledge.

Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule, but the key is in delivering quality content that people want. If you're providing something of value - and demonstrate it clearly (whether it's hard-hitting info or a funny gif of kittens), you're sure to score with your audience.

The balance between succinct, concise writing and delivering adequate detail and sentiment is a difficult one to strike. But when you find it, you've struck gold!



As Mark Twain once said,

“I didn't have time to write a short letter,
so I wrote a long one instead.”

Break it Down: Web Content Best Practices

When you're taking a stroll through the internet, the last thing you want is to be faced with the Mt. Everest of content, especially when all you wanted was a walk-in-the-park blog post.

With so much to do, and so little time, coming upon a wall of text is intimidating, if not just plain off-putting. How do you combat writing a mountain when you have so much to say? Break it down!

• Use headings to separate distinct ideas
• Try bullet lists instead of paragraphs (see what I did there?)

Breaking your content up helps readers decide how deep into the topic they want to go. Think of it as choose-your-own-adventure digital content. People can skim over the intro and subheadings to get a sense of what's being discussed, and read further into a given section if they feel so inclined. Headings and bullets both build in a hierarchy of information; this structure allows readers to decide for themselves how much detail is enough.

What else helps make your content less intimidating?

• Be concise
• Insert hyperlinks on complex topics

It can be far too easy to wax poetic on a subject that you find interesting or know a lot about, but too much is definitely a bad thing. I'm guilty of this myself, more often than not. It's important to know what's important, and what's just extra detail. Distill your discussion down to the key points - if it merits greater discussion, then there's your next blog post! Instead of over-analyzing a given subject, hyperlink off to good definitions or other posts on that specific topic. Again, you're letting the reader decide how much they want to learn.

In the age of short attention spans and rapid-fire consumption, turn your content mountain into a molehill by breaking it down into sections, identifying the main points in headers and bullets, and letting your reader decide just how much they need to know.

Quality, Not Quantity: Old Adage, New Tricks

It's hard to say exactly when people first started using the phrase "Quality, not quantity," but it has stood the test of time. And for good reason! There are few circumstances in which you want more of something shoddy in place of a couple really solid things.

This old standby holds up even in today's shiny, modern world of digital marketing. When it comes to content - be it images, copy, or anything else - it really is all about quality, not quantity.

No more jam-packing your copy with keywords til your sentences are incomprehensible, no more overloading your readers with irrelevant, nitpicking details, and no more blurry photo after blurry photo and widgets and sections and forms. It's time to think critically about what you're filling your pages with, and whether it's really driving the results you're looking for.

Content
Great content comes with great strategy. It's important to develop a plan first and foremost so you establish a guideline by which all your content is created. Once you know where you're headed, you can start to make your way there.

People are busier than ever, and have both short attention spans and a need for instant gratification. With precious little time to catch a visitor's eye, it's important to make every word count. Your strategy should start and end with a clear understanding of what people want when they get to your website. Chances are it's one of three things: 1) basic business information 2) yes or no answers to whether you do what they're looking for, or 3) requesting further details. Design your content to address these 3 needs right up front, with a hierarchical system to delve deeper as required.

Don't make visitors hunt for your phone number or how to get in touch, or dig through piles of irrelevant information just to find out if you offer something common. Keep it simple with the most important pieces first; don't get bogged down in technical specs up front - that's what your other pages are for!

Keywords
Gone are the days of keyword stuffing, jamming "car service in Boston, Mass, Boston Mass car service..." into as many lines, corners, and code of your website as possible to drive organic search traffic. That kind of SEO is bad for your visitors, bad for Google, and bad for you.

What are you supposed to do instead? Write like a human. Consider your audience, not only for what you write but how you write it. Ask yourself who your typical website visitor might be, what words and phrases they use to describe what you do, and what tone they're likely to respond well to. If you write it, they will come, so let your content do the legwork for you by naturally including key terms where they make sense. Google will reward you, and so will your customers.Write unique, informative, descriptive content and people will find you.

Photos
What's going to sell you on a business' merit: 30 low-quality, poorly lit photos of random work, or 3 high-resolution, professionally-lit and framed images of their top, representative projects?

It doesn't take a genius to recognize that it's more important for your images to accurately reflect the standards of your work than it is to have as many pictures as possible of everything you've ever done. When a picture is worth a thousand works, you need to make sure it's saying the right things.

The age-old idiom of quality over quantity has plenty of worthy applications these days, and it's never been more true than in this era of digital marketing. It's all too easy to get overwhelmed and overloaded with unnecessary information, when all you really need is short, sweet, and too-the-point content that tells people who you are.

Content's Not King: The Customer Is

Content is king of the castle no more.

In this social media world we live in, the lines become blurred as to who is running the show. Are you in charge of your business' social pages, or are your customers? You may be the one plugging in fun facts and scheduling witty posts, but it all comes back to the end user. The customer's in charge on social networks.

As Barry Feldman over at Social Media Today so eloquently put it, "The customer is the king. The customer has needs. You serve them with content."

Does this mean your content is no longer important? Absolutely not! If anything, your words - from Facebook to Twitter to your website - are more important than ever! It's also more important than ever to use them wisely, speaking to your audience with the information they want, the way they want it.

How do you write content that serves your customers?

• Determine who your audience truly is
• Are you marketing directly to your end user? A higher level decision maker? The language, tone, and strategy you use could be drastically different for one group than for another.
• Establish your value proposition
• What makes your product/service/brand worthwhile to that audience? What problem are you solving for them?
• Keep it simple
• No matter who you're speaking to, they're busy and their time is precious. Recognize the value of their time and get to the point quickly, making your message succinct and clear.
• Be relevant and informative
• What do people really need to know about your business? Don't waste time with extraneous information - keep it relevant to what your customers are interested in and give just enough detail for them to make their decision without overloading them.
• Keep in mind - on Social Media, Facebook in particular, the 80/20 rule still applies! Only 20% sales or promotion, 80% other content - somehow related to your business, of course.

Content is meant to resonate with people, not just talk at them. Your customer is king - be sure your content serves them well, and they will reward you!