tag:brandhearth.svbtle.com,2014:/feedBrand Hearth2018-04-04T22:58:28-07:00Scott Malthousehttps://brandhearth.svbtle.comscott.malthouse87@gmail.comSvbtle.comtag:brandhearth.svbtle.com,2014:Post/does-your-content-matter2018-04-04T22:58:28-07:002018-04-04T22:58:28-07:00Does your content matter?<p><a href="https://svbtleusercontent.com/4zmmkwsgwac9pa.jpg"><img src="https://svbtleusercontent.com/4zmmkwsgwac9pa_small.jpg" alt="background-black-coffee-caffeine-891674.jpg"></a></p>
<p>Here’s a disgustingly clichéd phrase for you: content is king. Except, this often regurgitated marketing line is flawed. It assumes that by simply making content you’re going to rule the rooste your competitors sup upon your mighty dust cloud. Nah.</p>
<p>Some brands have truly mastered the art of the shoehorn - creating content that doesn’t make sense in their space just because they believe that creating content is going to help. </p>
<p>Take a step back. Think about what your customers would expect to see from you. What helps them solve a problem? If it’s a piece of earned content for the media, what is going to get you in the most relevant publication for your audience? </p>
<p>William Faulkner said it best: “In writing, you must kill all your darlings”. He may as well have started with: “In marketing…”. If your content isn’t doing the right things to address audience pain points then savagely murder those ideas. </p>
tag:brandhearth.svbtle.com,2014:Post/using-data-to-get-your-brand-seen2018-04-03T13:34:20-07:002018-04-03T13:34:20-07:00Use data to create stories with media cut-through<p><img src="https://svbtleusercontent.com/tkfbeuk3h0zqg_small.jpg" alt="charts-computer-data-669615.jpg"><br>
Anyone who shares an office with me knows that spending hours combing through data in Excel is my idea of a dream. In my line of work, I need to be creating great stories that the media want to cover - something easier said than done, especially if you’re on a tight budget. Financial restraints mean I can’t opt to do an awesome video with a celebrity or organise a stunt, which means creativity and a keen news sense is key. This is why data is my constant ally and I’ve managed to use all kinds of data research to power some amazing campaigns that get results. In this post I’m going to explain how to get the most from your data in order to pitch a stellar story to the media. </p>
<p><strong>Figure out the story you want to tell</strong></p>
<p>Obvious, right, but crucial. There’s a lot of data out there, so before doing anything you need to understand the story you want to tell to allow you to hone in on your methodology. Note that this shouldn’t be an angle as such - you don’t necessarily know what you’ll find yet - but an overarching story. Use your customer demographic information here - what would interest them? Is there anything hot in the media at the moment or particularly seasonal? If I ran a fleet management company, my customers might want to know how many companies have issued internal advice about the recent freak snowy weather we’ve had in the UK, so I may want to find data on this. </p>
<p><strong>Surveys are just the tip of the iceberg</strong></p>
<p>The media loves a good survey and truthfully they can be super effective. Surveys can generate some really great fresh, unique data for a news hook. Using dedicated market research company to run a survey for you can net results in a matter of days aimed at even niche demographics, but these can often cost quite a bit of money. If you have a big customer base and a newsletter, you may want to try an e-shot survey. It’s cheaper, but unless you have an incentive or super engaged customers, you may come out with just a small sample size.</p>
<p>But don’t think that surveys are the only ways to get data because I’m going to let you into a secret… pretty much everything can be quantified. Ok, here’s what I mean. Say I’m running a job recruitment company and I want to find out what makes a great CV. I could totally survey 1000 SME decision-makers and ask about what they look for in a CV. That’s a good idea, but not the only way of telling the story with data. Suppose instead I took 200 CVs of people who had been successfully recruited to a certain role and analysed these anonymously (all within GDPR guidelines, might I add), looking at the skills provided, CV length, qualifications and type of language used. I then bring together the commonalities from this analysis to draw up trends I’ve seen in these CVs. I’m probably going to discover some cool stuff I didn’t know before and some information about CV writing my customers would love. </p>
<p>What I’m saying is that you shouldn’t be afraid to get inventive with data. Look at Google Analytics to discover anomalies in web traffic to certain pages, transactional data to find finance trends, or cross reference government stats to come up with a new dataset. </p>
<p><strong>Visualise it</strong></p>
<p>Numbers can be intimidating, especially if there’s a lot of them, which is why visualising your data story in graphic form can help the audience digest the information. Even creating simple charts can help, so don’t forget to pull the most pertinent data to prettify into graphs. This is going to do a couple of things for you. The journalist can use it to complement the article - imagery is attractive to readers. You can alsi add it to your own site to help drive those all important links for SEO benefit. </p>
<p>Using data can help you create great stories, providing you know what you’re looking for. Remember that you don’t always have to run a survey - there are plenty of creative ways to get data. It might take some extra time, but the effort will be worthwhile when you’re getting some fantastic media coverage for your brand.</p>
tag:brandhearth.svbtle.com,2014:Post/content-as-product2017-04-10T10:23:19-07:002017-04-10T10:23:19-07:00Content as product<p>It’s a common thought that creating branded content is all about mashing prospective customers down the funnel as quickly as possible. Never mind nurturing your leads, it’s all about the bottom line. </p>
<p>To some extent, that’s true, but only in that branded content exists to make customers from your readers. But an article that begins as something genuinely helpful then suddenly attempts the hard sell isn’t going to be attractive to many readers. </p>
<p>Content should be a product in itself. Media publishers don’t yammer on about themselves all the time - The Atlantic doesn’t create articles about how great The Atlantic is. Great content marketing digs into a customer’s lifestyle - it empathises, educates and empowers. Much of the time, brands do this badly. A reader can smell insincerity from a mile off and it’s going to send them running for the hills (or at least to make a snarky comment on Twitter). </p>
<p>Think of content as an extension of your product. Whatever you offer is likely designed to solve some kind of problem. If you sell umbrellas, you’re solving the problem of people being soaked. Your content should help reinforce your brand as a solution to that problem and issues related to that problem. As an umbrella seller, you’re going to be talking about the weather, getting out and about, design, history, human stories featuring umbrellas and more. You don’t just manufacture and sell umbrellas anymore - you ARE umbrellas and prospective customers will buy into your brand if you can show them that. </p>
<p>If you enjoyed this article, click the Kudos button and know that your life will be a little better for it.</p>
<p><a href="https://svbtleusercontent.com/tv8ssvv6hoqwg.jpg"><img src="https://svbtleusercontent.com/tv8ssvv6hoqwg_small.jpg" alt="people-woman-coffee-meeting.jpg"></a></p>
tag:brandhearth.svbtle.com,2014:Post/how-to-create-a-content-strategy-that-works2017-04-06T12:04:46-07:002017-04-06T12:04:46-07:00Here's why your content strategy isn't working<p>On the face of it, creating content seems easy, right? You tap out some articles on a regular basis with some tie to your brand and the job’s a good ‘un. No doubt the masses will flock to pour over your magic words and be instantly moved to empty their wallets. Of course, this isn’t the case.</p>
<p>It’s true that anyone can do content, but few brands do it well. The number of sad-looking company blogs and 'knowledge hubs’ I’ve trawled through is testament to this. Surely you don’t need a big old strategy for hashing out a bunch of blog posts - that’s for the direct marketing guys and those SEO wizards. Nope. Here are some pitfalls that are all too common when brands are trying to create content.</p>
<h1 id="you39re-doing-it-because-the-boss-said-so_1">You’re doing it because the boss said so <a class="head_anchor" href="#you39re-doing-it-because-the-boss-said-so_1">#</a>
</h1>
<p>Want to know the worst reason to do content? Because upper management wants it. Vanity is big in marketing and chucking out lumps of grotty articles because the boss says so isn’t uncommon. If your boss wants you to launch ‘content marketing’ and doesn’t give you a particularly good reason then it’s time to take a step back and evaluate. Don’t rush into it.</p>
<h1 id="you-don39t-know-your-audience_1">You don’t know your audience <a class="head_anchor" href="#you-don39t-know-your-audience_1">#</a>
</h1>
<p>You’d be surprised how many businesses don’t actually know who they’re marketing to. “Oh, well it’s everyone, really,” is a phrase I’ve heard all too often before slamming my forehead into the keyboard. Guess what, even if what you provide is the most generic thing imaginable, you’ve still got an audience. Carrying out audience segmentation is absolutely worth it if you want to write effective content. How else will you know what your audience’s desires and pain points are? Solid demo research is the bedrock of a good content strategy. </p>
<h1 id="you39re-not-setting-goals_1">You’re not setting goals <a class="head_anchor" href="#you39re-not-setting-goals_1">#</a>
</h1>
<p>Content should never exist for its own sake. If you’re not measuring performance then you will never know how to improve - it’s that simple. You need to be setting realistic goals and KPIs to hit those goals, evaluating them on a monthly or weekly basis. What are good goals? Traffic is a fine example. After all, you want as many people as possible to see what you’ve written and you want to convert those readers into loyal customers. KPIs here could be increased monthly visitors and dwell time, lowering the bounce rate and increasing percentage of readers who come back for more. Sales leads is another goal and one the bigwigs upstairs will be most interested in. Find out what content is the most effective at converting. What is the current customer journey? Is it effective? Get your goals in order and you’ll be shaping your strategy nicely. </p>
<h1 id="irrelevant-topics_1">Irrelevant topics <a class="head_anchor" href="#irrelevant-topics_1">#</a>
</h1>
<p>This can be a tough one, but it’s important. As a gardening brand your expertise lies in the best flowers to plant in winter, creating a lovely trellis or the secrets to keeping your lawn looking amazing. You are not able to talk about the socioeconomic status of Botswana or the ethics of stem cells. People will be put off if you’re out of your wheelhouse. Granted, some brands can be broader than others - Coca Cola famously talks about many topics that they feel is part of the ‘Coke experience’. But few of us are Coke. </p>
<p>These are just some pointers to think about when you’re setting up a content strategy and are by no means exhaustive. Still, I hope they’re useful. </p>
<p><a href="https://svbtleusercontent.com/k6cil4ojmyid8w.jpeg"><img src="https://svbtleusercontent.com/k6cil4ojmyid8w_small.jpeg" alt="pexels-photo-212286.jpeg"></a></p>
tag:brandhearth.svbtle.com,2014:Post/mozilla-gets-into-brand-publishing-with-the-open-standard2014-10-27T10:46:11-07:002014-10-27T10:46:11-07:00Mozilla gets into brand publishing with The Open Standard<p><a href="https://svbtleusercontent.com/5qucdmh5hmzw.png"><img src="https://svbtleusercontent.com/5qucdmh5hmzw_small.png" alt="theopenstandard.png"></a></p>
<p>Mozilla, the company behind the Firefox browser, has launched a brand new publishing platform covering technology in all aspects of our lives. </p>
<p><a href="https://openstandard.mozilla.org/">The Open Standard</a> not only wants to look at consumer technology, but also big data, citizen’s rights and technology policy in government. </p>
<p>Categories includes Learn, Innovate, Engage, Opinion and Live - so a broad range of article types. In this way Mozilla want to position themselves as a primary resource for consumers.</p>
<p>“Our lives are infiltrated [by the Internet] at all levels; at work, at play, in school, when we go to the hospital,” said Anthony Duignan-Cabrera, The Open Standard’s editor in chief. “We want to explain both the pros and the cons of this.”</p>
<p>“We’re an advocacy news organization, advocating on behalf of the philosophies and ideas that helped establish Mozilla,” said Duignan-Cabrera. “We’re not “fair and balanced” — that’s such an awful phrase that’s used by newsrooms. We want to produce solid journalism which reflects how digital impacts everyone’s lives.”</p>
<p>As well as offering a journalistic output for the brand, Mozilla also have their eyes on revenue generation: </p>
<p>“We need to approach advertising in a way that’s in keeping with the values of the parent organization; with regards to privacy, security and data,” said Duignan-Cabrera. “The sponsored content works, and doesn’t have all the scraping issues that traditional [banner] ads have, but our ad strategy will evolve. Our focus right now is getting out of the gate, grabbing our audience, getting an understanding of who they are, seeing what stories work well that really promote the vision of the mother organization,” he added.</p>
<p>Via <a href="http://digiday.com/brands/mozilla-editor-in-chief/">Digiday</a></p>
tag:brandhearth.svbtle.com,2014:Post/how-etsy-tells-its-users-stories2014-07-23T11:13:36-07:002014-07-23T11:13:36-07:004 Things Etsy Can Teach You About Content Marketing<p><a href="https://svbtleusercontent.com/nsvtfagnvwcbka.jpg"><img src="https://svbtleusercontent.com/nsvtfagnvwcbka_small.jpg" alt="etsy.jpg"></a></p>
<p>I have an unhealthy obsession with Adam Savage of Mythbusters fame. He just strikes me as the kind of person I want to be: cool, smart and can rock a pair of black frames like there’s no tomorrow. </p>
<p>So when I was Googling Adam to trawl through any interviews he had done, as I am wont to do when I develop a liking for a particular public figure, I came across a <a href="https://blog.etsy.com/en/2013/adam-savage-it-thrills-me-to-surf-etsy/">blog post</a> on Etsy’s US site about Adam’s love for the brand. I noticed that not only was this an interview, but it was also a community discussion opening up Etsy fans to ask Savage questions. Even more interestingly, it doesn’t seem that the author of the post, Karen Brown, actually works for Etsy - rather she’s the creative director for the Centre of Ecoliteracy. </p>
<p>This, I thought, was pretty savvy marketing. On the one hand you’ve snagged an interview with a celebrity to essentially gush about your brand, and on the other you’ve got incredibly interesting people writing for your blog. That’s pretty impressive. </p>
<p><strong>Get guest curators</strong></p>
<p>I decided to dig a little deeper to see what Etsy was doing with its content. As a brand that caters to and celebrates individuality, Etsy reflects this really well with their guest curators - something that seemed to be a frequent occurrence in 2013 but has sadly fallen off the radar. Despite this, these posts often attracted over 100 comments each, so I can imagine the traffic was pretty high. Guests were a mix of bloggers, journalists, designers and artists - all people who fit in directly with the Etsy brand. Guest curation is such a simple idea, but if you get the right people then it can be totally effective. Each guest offers up a hand-picked selection of products, some lovely imagery and, importantly, a story of their own. Just look at <a href="https://blog.etsy.com/en/2013/pattern-runway-best-craft-supplies/">this one</a> by designer Sarah Olding, who begins with a bit of family history and how she fell in love with sewing. Bringing the human aspect to a brand is exactly why Etsy has garnered such a high reputation in the relatively short time it’s been around.</p>
<p><strong>Tell your users’ stories</strong></p>
<p>Something else that really stood out at me about the blog was the <a href="https://blog.etsy.com/en/2014/featured-shop-leah-ball/">‘Featured Shop’</a> series. This is a really nice way of handing the mic over to the users and getting them to talk about themselves. Again, this series gets a tonne of engagement with little effort from the brand’s part. Simple and effective. </p>
<p><strong>Help your users</strong></p>
<p>But, in my mind, the real genius of Etsy’s content marketing efforts is in the <a href="https://blog.etsy.com/en/category/seller-handbook/">Seller Handbook</a>. Herein lies a plethora of information specifically for sellers including marketing advice, inspiring workspaces, creating product shots and much more. It’s pretty much everything you would need if you were an Etsy seller and it’s vital information. If you give your users the tools to be better at what they do, then they’re more likely to stay with you. </p>
<p><strong>Localise your content</strong></p>
<p>What’s more is that Etsy has a different blog for multiple countries, which is a hell of a lot of effort but will totally be worth it for them. People are going to relate to content if it’s of relevance to their locality. People in the UK want to know what sellers in the UK are up to, etc. This is a great move to aid with brand loyalty the world over. So if your brand has multiple domains in different countries, it’s a fine idea to create a different blog for each of these.</p>
<p>Now, I wonder if Adam Savage is a fan of content marketing? Back to Google, I guess. </p>
tag:brandhearth.svbtle.com,2014:Post/doing-transmedia-storytelling-on-a-shoestring-budget2014-03-16T04:00:42-07:002014-03-16T04:00:42-07:00Transmedia Storytelling on a Shoestring Budget<p><a href="https://svbtleusercontent.com/emxety5voi35va.jpg"><img src="https://svbtleusercontent.com/emxety5voi35va_small.jpg" alt="tumblr_myebwtELvb1st5lhmo1_1280.jpg"></a></p>
<p>Right now, people are going mad for Ingress. </p>
<p>Google came up with a stunning idea for an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) which has players the world over storming suburbs and circumnavigating cities connecting virtual grids anchored in material objects such as sculptures or historical signs. Ingress seamlessly integrates GPS, web chat, video, email and real-life events to create a game with a story larger than the sum of its parts.</p>
<p>Ingress sits firmly in the category of transmedia storytelling, a phrase that has cropped up in recent years to mean a narrative told in a non-linear fashion over a variety of mediums. For content marketers, it’s a dream. Engagement is intrinsic to the transmedia storytelling method, giving people a chance to unravel a narrative themselves; going down the rabbit hole, if you will.</p>
<blockquote class="short">
<p><em>“You can work with the bare minimum to launch a transmedia campaign”</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>The great thing is that you don’t need Google money to start. You can work with the bare minimum to launch a transmedia campaign that can work effectively and potentially net you a host of new leads. </p>
<p>I carried out a micro-ARG for the biggest book-seller in the UK that worked out incredibly well. It revolved around a murder mystery, one that was played out through various blogs. Each blogger had an alibi and each night for a week they would take to Twitter, get into character, and answer to a public interrogation (“well, if you weren’t in the bathroom at that time, where were you?”). We also created a detective twitter account who would periodically drop new clues to players, informing their next round of questions. </p>
<p>For a low cost, we used several mediums to create an engaging narrative. So what were the takeaways from the project?</p>
<p><strong>Takeaways</strong></p>
<ol>
<li><p><strong>Planning is paramount</strong>. When you’re running a narrative over several forms of media you have to know exactly what goes where and when. This is going to be the bulk of the work, so getting it right here means the different between a poor campaign and a great one.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Influencers lead to engagement</strong>. Working with several influential bloggers meant that we could increase our reach an expose more people to the campaign. Having a few influencers to mention your campaign can help gather momentum from the beginning, which is key.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Less is more</strong>. You don’t want to be creating noise. Every part of your campaign must have a reason. Each blog post, social media message or video must move the narrative along. Don’t muddy the waters with excess or else people may be turned off.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Incentivise</strong>. It’s an old trick, but it works. Every player in our murder mystery was in with a chance of winning a gift card. It wasn’t extravagant, but it was enough to gain more interest. Offering prizes for sticking with your narrative is a good way to reward people for taking time out to engage with your brand.</p></li>
</ol>
<p><strong>Where Your Brand Can Tell its Story</strong></p>
<p>If you want to run a transmedia campaign, you want to decide which mediums you’re going to use. It’s probably worth selecting a few, rather than many, as this will help to keeps costs down and also focus your campaign more. You have the following media at your disposal:</p>
<ul>
<li>Brand blog</li>
<li>Off-site blog</li>
<li>Video</li>
<li>Audio</li>
<li>Social media</li>
<li>Ebook</li>
<li>Physical magazine</li>
<li>Microsite</li>
</ul>
<p>The biggest cost in this list would be creating a microsite, but it’s always an effective way of anchoring your campaign to a central hub. If you don’t have the budget for it then consider a web page on your site or simply a blog post.</p>
<p>Remember, your big result with a transmedia campaign is engagement. If people are engaging with it, then you’re doing your job well. If they’re not, then spend your time analysing why they might not be engaging where you thought they would be. Resist the temptation of pouring more content out to try and rectify it. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
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tag:brandhearth.svbtle.com,2014:Post/doing-content-marketing-the-marvel-way2014-03-05T12:52:03-08:002014-03-05T12:52:03-08:00Doing Content Marketing The Marvel Way<p><a href="https://svbtleusercontent.com/r59zxvmvmhhrcw.jpg"><img src="https://svbtleusercontent.com/r59zxvmvmhhrcw_small.jpg" alt="1280px-Punisher_Glider_001.jpg"></a><br>
<em>Image attribution: Marvel Comics</em></p>
<p>When marketing blogs refer to companies who have completely killed it at content marketing you see the same names popping up again and again: Red Bull, General Mills, Virgin, American Express are among the most cited. But as a huge comic book fan, I see Marvel creating some incredible marketing content that’s seriously worth taking note of. </p>
<p>It’s hard to believe that in 1996 Marvel found itself filing for bankruptcy protection as the once-lucrative comics bubble burst. Fast forward to 2014 and Marvel is stronger than its ever been, with amazing creators like Matt Fraction, Jonathan Hickman, Kelly Sue DeConnick and Warren Ellis making amazing comics and a huge movie universe that is constantly netting them record box office sales. </p>
<p>While there is a tonne of reasons why Marvel has managed to claw its way back to the top of the tree, their approach to content marketing has likely been a factor in this. </p>
<p><strong>The Sound of Heroes</strong></p>
<p>Marvel quite recently overhauled their website to create an attractive, streamlined place for fans to discover more about their universe. One of their great additions to the site is a podcast called This Week in Marvel, where Ryan “Agent M” Penagos and Ben Morse talk about new comics hitting the shelves, interviews with creators and, my favourite part, talking about the Marvel Unlimited Book Club. The book club is a stroke of genius in marketing. Marvel has something called Marvel Unlimited, a subscription service that allows readers to gorge themselves on thousands of comics digitally. The book club allows Marvel to provide readers with a structured way of using Unlimited and exposing them to classic storylines. It’s engagement at its finest. </p>
<p><strong>Behind the Pages</strong></p>
<p>Marvel launched an app called <a href="http://marvel.com/mobile/#marvel_ar_app">Marvel AR</a>, which is an augmented reality programme that essentially brings the physical comic page to life. Some pages containing the AR symbol can be used with the app to provide the reader with a behind the scenes look at how certain panels were made in the words of their creators. This free app brings a whole other dimension of content to the usual reading experience, allowing the reader to immerse themselves in the comic. Amazing stuff.</p>
<p><strong>The Watcher Watches You</strong></p>
<p>Last year Marvel decided to put more focus on video content and they have definitely done that. Their <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/MARVEL/videos?view=0&flow=grid">YouTube channel</a> has almost one million subscribers, complete with deleted movie scenes, press conferences, con reports and the weekly show The Watcher (starring the lovely <a href="https://twitter.com/lorrainecink">Lorraine Cink</a>). Their constant flow of videos has made Marvel a hub of entertainment that people want to keep on coming back to.</p>
<p>These are just some of the ways that Marvel has conquered the art of content marketing. It definitely helps that they are a massive entertainment brand, which does certainly make it easier to market your products due to the fact that you have rabid fans that will eat up everything you do, but there are takeaways for all of us. Marvel made a concerted effort to focus on their digital offering, looking at where their fans were reading content and building around them. Video, audio and apps suddenly became valuable assets for Marvel and their attention to demographic has paid off. </p>
<p>Marvel didn’t settle for a couple of platforms to execute their content, either. They have used every avenue they can to communicate with their fans and deliver astonishing, amazing, incredible content every day of the week.</p>
tag:brandhearth.svbtle.com,2014:Post/how-your-brand-can-become-its-own-media-house2014-03-04T23:30:08-08:002014-03-04T23:30:08-08:00How Your Brand Can Become its Own Media House<p><a href="https://svbtleusercontent.com/ycqbzejs9i0wla.jpg"><img src="https://svbtleusercontent.com/ycqbzejs9i0wla_small.jpg" alt="SplitShire_IMG_6136.jpg"></a></p>
<p>One of the biggest successes in content marketing in recent years is Red Bull, which has become one of the few brands to take its storytelling to the next level and create its own media house. If you asked anyone 10 years ago whether an energy drink company would have its own TV channel I’m guessing 70% would say no and 10% would laugh you out of the room. But it’s 2014 and Red Bull not only has a TV channel, but a music publisher, a widely-read magazine, games and even feature films. They are the current kings of storytelling and just like the bull in their namesake they’re a force to be reckoned with.</p>
<p>But you don’t need to have the financial backing that Red Bull has to be able to become your own media house. Sure, it really helps, but if you want to effectively tell your stories then you can work with the platforms you’re probably already using, and you can do this for little cost.</p>
<p><strong>Get blogging (and bring the quality)</strong></p>
<p>You may already have a brand blog, but if you don’t you really, really should. Not only does is provide long-tail traffic for people searching for you, but it’s the most basic way of publishing content that’s of use to your customers. Admittedly, the most difficult part of blogging is continuing after that three month mark. That tends to be when people start letting things slide. Don’t let that happen. Also, don’t just throw an inexperienced intern at the blog and ask them to mash out some stock posts every week - that’s not helping anyone. You want to be producing quality content on a regular basis, so if you need to hire a journalist or copywriter to do it, then so be it. Even better, if you can get an editorial team together then you’re well on your way to having a professional blog.</p>
<p><strong>Stop selling and start helping</strong></p>
<p>Your first instinct might be to create content that heavily promotes whatever product you want to sell. You need to refrain from doing this otherwise you’ll be turning readers away before they’ve even become invested. Offer genuinely helpful content that will engage your customer base without shoving our brand down their throats. They will hopefully begin to associate your brand with trust, quality and usefulness and will want to come back again. Again, your media house should be built on tapping into the interests of your target market and telling them stories they will love. Don’t make everything a sales pitch.</p>
<p><strong>Learn to use social media effectively</strong></p>
<p>It’s so tempting to sign up to every social channel and just throw out your content left, right and centre, but this blunderbuss approach is going to cost time and energy for little return. Learn where your customers are on social media - are they using Pinterest more than Twitter? Perhaps they’re professionals that use Linkenin more than Facebook. Concentrate on a few key social channels rather than all of them at once.</p>
<p>You also need to remember that different social networks shouldn’t be used in the same way. If it’s on Twitter you may want to tweet that awesome headline, but on Facebook you might include a quote and an image instead.</p>
<p><strong>Video is content gold, so use it</strong></p>
<p>Video is growing ever more important in the world of content marketing. People would rather watch a video than read an article, so if you’re already producing videos you should get them in front of your customers - don’t expect people to just flock to your Youtube account. Feature them in your blog posts, on site and push them out on your social channels. Even get them in your newsletters if you have one. If you’re not a brand that produces video then think about curating some that your audience would find interesting - perhaps in a top 10 round up at the end of each week or month.</p>
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tag:brandhearth.svbtle.com,2014:Post/how-to-transform-your-brand-blog-into-something-special2014-03-04T00:04:22-08:002014-03-04T00:04:22-08:00How to Increase Traffic to Your Brand Blog and Grow Your Audience<p><a href="https://svbtleusercontent.com/zncfrd1ncw7lnw.jpg"><img src="https://svbtleusercontent.com/zncfrd1ncw7lnw_small.jpg" alt="unsplash_52b2cfb6647f6_1.JPG"></a></p>
<p>The first thing that I do with any new client is to see if they have a blog. If they do, I read it to gauge what they are doing correctly and what they could improve. Much of the time brands, especially smaller ones create a blog as a taken because they read somewhere that they should be doing that sort of thing. These ‘token blogs’ often serve as dumping grounds for company news, sales pitches and SEO-fodder. They tend to have little to no engagement and a quick check on Analytics shows a mere trickle of traffic. </p>
<p>Having a well-read blog is now a cornerstone in gaining new customers and forging loyal ones out of your current customers. It shouldn’t be written for search engines - it should be written for people. </p>
<blockquote class="short">
<p>“They don’t want to be force fed your latest products - that’s what the rest of your website is for”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Begin with looking at the sort of content you are putting out on your blog. The key question you need to ask yourself is whether your content will make its readers better people. Are you being helpful by addressing your customer pain points? Are you aiding your readers in some way that can help build them as a person? That doesn’t mean you need to fill your blog with guides - entertaining posts have a positive impact on the reader, even if there are no educational takeaways. But nobody wants to know that you were recently featured in a magazine unless it’s useful to the reader. They don’t want to be force fed your latest products - that’s what the rest of your website is for.</p>
<p>Then, look at your tone of voice. Brand blog can predictably have a corporate voice. This is safe, but not engaging. Blogs should have personality, so instead of writing as a faceless company, put staff faces to posts. Readers will be far more interested in what you have to say if you’re at their level. Humanising your blog is one of the most important things you can do, and it may only take a small incentive to get your staff writing for you. </p>
<blockquote class="short">
<p>“Thank people for posting positive comments and ask what they would like to see from the blog”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Next you should be getting the word out through social media. Twitter can be great if you’re ready to engage your customers and not just spam blog post after blog post on your timeline. This will make you look like a machine, and nobody wants that. If your customer-base can be mostly found on Facebook then post it there and don’t forget to engage. Don’t just leave the content sitting there - thank people for posting positive comments and ask what they would like to see from the blog in the future. StumbleUpon is also a great tool for getting your content discovered, but only put your best stuff on there. While you’re at it, make sure you have social sharing buttons on your blog. </p>
<p>If you have a company newsletter (and you should) then do a weekly blog post round up and send out to your subscribed customers. Sometimes great content can be the difference between a potential customer who has signed up to your newsletter out of curiosity and a sale. </p>
<p>Finally, consider reshaping some of your more popular blog posts into different kinds of content. Got some great B2B internet security advice? Consider writing a whitepaper, a Slideshare show or even hosting a video Q&A on Google Hangouts. Never let your content rest - if it’s truly good content then you can spin multiple pieces out of it or even create a whole campaign.</p>
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