Archives for July 2009

Byron White of IdeaLaunch

Try to talk clients into building true knowledge centers, not places for sales pitches

Build your content marketing assets

• Create knowledge centers
• Write FAQ sections
• Submit articles to other sites

Then what?

• Build internal links!!
• Get the word out; links come back
• Get conversations going, not followers
• Publish a printed book, on demand, and you become an expert

Analyze competition

• Apply expertise
• Position your company
• Find keen insight
• Shed new light
• Offer inside scoop
• Raise awareness
• Progress leads off with knowledge

Find the “essentially contested concepts,” topics with gray areas

• Follow thought leaders
• Find topics to debate
• Chime in
• Contribute
• Put ideas to work
• Stay on topic

Other tools

• White papers
  • Establish expertise
  • Make understandable
  • Infuse personality
  • Showcase insight
  • Can be a bit stale
    

• Video
• eBook     —-> downloads jumped 68% from 2007 to 2008
• Microsites —-> Talk the real talk
• Webinars
• Podcasts
• Slide presentations —-> Slideshare.net

Please rate the following; which technique do you think lends greater credibility?

• Publishing a book, even an eBook
• 
  A full-on FAQ section
• 
  Microsites
• 
  Webinars
• 
  Podcasts
• 
  Videos
• 
  White papers
• 
  Commenting on thought leaders’ posts and articles

7/13/09
Content creation
Art of listening to the wants and needs of customers, science of delivering it in a compelling and engaging way

Constantly testing campaigns to put the reader in control: A-B testing, multivariate testing

Talk with people, not at them

The customers, not the company, need to be the focus

Insight and advice, not pushing products, features, or benefits

Content is the pipeline for warm leads —  Everything visitors do is tracked via SalesForce.com to see what they’re interested in

Optimize for search engines and readers

What to create content about?

• Keyword research – what’s popular
• Social media sphere – conversations, meaningful, leaders in industry
• Talk and listen – talk to customer service to hear about problems
• Surveys and polls

Keywords in position 11-50: low-lying fruit to write content about

What are the needs?
What can you get quick impact on?

• SpyFu.com
• RavenTools.com
• Google keywords
• Keyworddiscovery

Hire great writers

• Inhabit target audience
• Build credibility
• Are contagious

Learn how to pepper keyword content

Not just on keyword popularity

What are the needs?

What can you get quick impact on?