Marketing: The content counts.

There are many different types of content. If you have a lack of ideas this post will help you. Otherwise if you are planning your content strategy with your editorial calendar, this post can bring more variety in your content strategy. This list (here we have the first type of content..) shows you 8 different types of content for your social media page:

 1. Infographics

This is the combination of information and graphics. It shows data in an attracting, visual way. The name speaks for itself: info + graphic. This type of content is perfect, when you want to show information in a compelling way, which has the potential to get viral. Infographics are up to three times more shared than other types of content! You can use it when you want to show ideas, research, statistics or findings.

A good way to create these infographics is e.g. Piktochart, which I mentioned one post before!

2. Meme

Meme’s are these mostly funny pictures that include one liner or short texts related to the picture. I don’t know meme’s, which are informative, but the aim of a meme is humor. People want to be entertained on social media and meme’s are perfect to make them laugh.

You can create meme’s by yourself with any picture-editing program (yes its that’s easy) or with online programs like “Meme Generator” or “Quick Meme”.

3. Videos

Besides pictures one of the most used content types on social media platforms. There are different types of videos, funny, informative, teaching, helpful, sadly, impressive and so on…

To create your own video you should have a plan (like a script) and care about their visual and audio content. Youtube or Vimeo are great platform to spread them!

 4. Guides

A Guide, like its name says, is a mostly written content with additional pictures to explain in detail different content. A Guide cannot made from everyone. You need experts for them to make the writing style and presentation for the user attractive and usable.

You will need the skills of a capable designer and writer. An interesting idea that is related to your audience is a must.

 5. Reviews

Whether it’s a book, product or experience review, they are all most likely the same.

They all need an introduction of the reviewer and the object, which is reviewed. Followed by a description, the likes and don’t likes, the recommendation and lastly a call to action.

6. How-to

A how-to is especially interesting for companies and their products, but also for any other object that is in need of explanation. A how-to can be made of pictures, written texts or videos. Visual content should include text or audios, when it’s difficult to show the function.

A simple method to create a How-to is this way: Introduce problem and the solution, show each step of the solution, summarize it and provide a conclusion.

 7. Lists

As you can see, I like lists. Lists can break up long text into more readable and easy to understandable content. A list doesn’t exist only of bullet points. To create an appealing list it should be detailed, “there is no too long” and include numbers. By the way, it’s a little bit satisfying to read a list and process all the numbers, isn’t it?

A good list includes a short introduction, listing of the points (numbers) and a conclusion.

 8. Link pages

It’s just as easy as it sound. Just link another page. It can be your own homepage, interesting articles or any other website. It should fit to your target group (audience) you are aiming with your social media page.

To shorten your link (no one likes these endless, cryptic links in a post) you can use free online software like www.bitly.com.

  What part is missing of the content type “list”? Yes, the conclusion. You can use all types (there are more than these 8) of content, but be sure you use it for the right platform. For example infographics are not very effective when you use it on Instagram, but are very compelling for your Tumblr or Facebook audience! Moreover Meme’s are very effective on Instagram and can create ripples on your Facebook page, too. You have to bring into line with your audience. Present them their favorite types of content, be compelling and get viral. By the way: you can mix these types of content. Create a how-to with a video or make an infographic and link it to your website. Be creative.

There are very many different content marketing tools, some expensive, some cheap/free, but they are all effective for different applications. When you want to create your content professional, you need tools. There are different types, which can help you to find ideas, create content, theme recherché, finding keywords, track your strategy, get inspiration or doing research/competitor analysis.

 Finding ideas and keywords

Pinterest

Pinterest is a visual platform that offers a user experience the other platforms like Facebook or Twitter don’t. Combined with your other efforts, Pinterest could provide the content you’re looking for and you can get ideas for images. So Pinterest isn’t only there to present yourself, you can also get more inspiration through Pinterest!

Keywordtool.io

If you are searching for a interesting theme about one keyword this is the right tool for you and a good alternative to Google’s Keyword Tool. To get to know which specific keywords are the most common on Google, Youtube, Bing or the AppStore you just type a search term and the most common keywords are presented. You can see the search volume (how often people search for this specific keyword per month), the average cost per click and how competitive the keyword is. All in all a very helpful tool, to pick the right keywords for your content.

  Quora

This is a portal for different questions and answers. User can ask a question and others (experts) answer them. This free portal is usable for recherché, but also to generate traffic when you answer to questions and link to your content.

 Google Trends

This Google tool shows you information about how often and which keywords were searched through the search engine Google. You can see how popular different keywords are and analyze them. That shows you trends in the community. It is possible to see to what specific time which trend was common. So you are able to see if there exists seasonality for specific themes.

Track your strategy

Editorial Calendar

For example “wordpress.org” are offering these calendars as a download. It is an easy way to track all your activities and plan your content for the future. You only have to plan different activities for specific dates in the future and it gives you a good overview and you will never miss or forget what you will post. By the way, you can create easily your own editorial calendar with excel! That’s a little bit more work, but has the same impact.

Research/Competitor Analysis

Buzzsumo

This is a very interesting tool. You can do influencer research, marketing, theme recherché, can choose the format, doing benchmarks and competitor analysis and you can report and monitor your campaign. The prices are from $99 (pro version for blogger) up to $999 (Enterprise version for brands and publisher) per month. For example Yahoo, IBM or Expedia use this tool. It is a little bit like an all-rounder.

Ahrefs

This tool can help you track your backlinks, keywords, brand mentions and it can show you what your competitors are doing. Prices are from $99 (Lite version up to $399 (Advanced version).

  Impactana

This is a really nice tool. It is a content marketing, video marketing and influencer analysis tool in one. With the content marketing part you can search ideas for content. The most interesting part is the influencer analysis. You can analyze the most successful influencer in your branch. Also you can study influential videos and improve your video strategy.

  Create content

Piktochart

This tool (online) allows you to create interesting infographics. There are plenty of designs available and nearly infinite adaptabilities. It is very easy to create compelling graphics and a must have. It is free, but if you want to use the whole range of designs etc. it is $15 for the lite version and $29 for the pro version.

Everyone talks about Content Marketing. What is Content Marketing, how to do it right, best practices, how to be more efficient, how to boost your marketing, how to avoid mistakes... Wait, just type in „Mistakes Content Marketing“ in Google’s search engine and tell me what are the most often mistakes. You can’t figure it out, right? There are so many different blogs, websites and so on and all tell you about the most often mistakes of Content Marketing. Some tell you there are five, some say there are twelve and some say there are only three. So what are the most often mistakes really? I took the trouble and compared the websites/blogs and figured out what are the most mentioned mistakes!

 1. Mistake: Focus on Quantity.

Every company concern about sharing content, publishing content and just be present and publishing thins. So this is often the biggest problem at all. They care more about quantity than quality. Just open your Facebook page, Instagram or Twitter… What do you see? Right, a flood of images, videos, texts… Imagine you are at a festival and dancing in between of thousands others. For an outsider these people are just a mass of people, they can’t really see you. The same is like creating more and more content without quality. It’s just a little bit more content in between of millions of other videos, images or texts… So you have to be creative and create high quality content! This content should be engaging and compelling.

2. Mistake: Don’t know who the audience is.

It is very tricky to create something that people want to see or know what people rally want right know. You have to break through with your content and let your audience know who you are. If you want to create content for the right people you should think about who these people are. What do they care about? Figure out who your customers are and what they want. Make sure that you know what their pain points are and what they concern about your product. DON’T create content that is all about benefits of your product/service or making content which is for everybody. You should create content for your own audience and those who could be potential buyers. You have to convince the potential buyers to make them customers.

3. Mistake: Don’t interacting with the audience.

Let your audience know that you are there for them. They should know that there is a real person behind the brand and somebody respond to what they comment/write. If you don’t interact with your audience, you fail a big part of what Content Marketing is about! So interact, share, comment and respond to your audience and make them from strangers to leads and afterwards to real customers! This is the goal.

4. Mistake: No Strategy.

Some companies just start their social media platforms just with these words: “Let’s do some content marketing”. This mistake is fatal, because they don’t really care about what they do. So you need at first: Groundwork. Plan your platforms, who is your audience and more… Secondly: Set your goals and make a plan. Thirdly: Create an editorial calendar to structure and plan what your posts are about and think about different types of content like images, videos and so on. If you start your content marketing activities with a great strategy and pursue your goals, you should be on the right way! Remember: Not being on social media is the biggest mistake at all…

Super Bowl & Snapchat – Five Brands that performed well during the Super Bowl on Snapchat

Snapchat is becoming more popular during the last years. It’s more than just sending some pictures to your friends, which will disappear for forever in a few seconds. For sure Snapchat is not as common as Facebook or Twitter, but it grows fast. In 2015 Snapchat increases users through all stages of ages. The 18- to 24-year-old group increased by 56 percent. Next the group 25- to 34-year-old grew by 103 percent and finally the over-35 user base grew 84 percent. These are incredible figures. Nonetheless Facebook and Twitter get more attention during the Super Bowl, especially from Social Media Marketers. Isn’t Snapchat about telling your story? Wherefore has Snapchat the function of add pictures and videos to your Snapchat story! In my eyes fits Snapchat perfectly to Content Marketing and telling your audience a story!

To set against the huge attention on Facebook and Twitter, I show you five brands that performed well during the Super Bowl on Snapchat!

 Gatorade

They really nailed it! A big plus was the sponsored lens (These little images/effects, which you can put on your video/picture.). You were able to give yourself a bath in Gatorade. It’s a funny way for fans and even a good marketing tool. The filters of Gatorade get over 100 million views!

(See attached Video!)

 Taco Bell

A very successful brand on Snapchat is Taco Bell. I think the target group of Taco Bell is right there on Snapchat (students/younger people). Taco Bell dedicated seven influencers like Shonduras, Jacob Whitesides and The Mowglis to tell the biggest Snapchat story ever. They all recorded videos and took photos to tell a story. Where is the social media marketing? Here: Taco Bell used this to introduce their new product (the Quesalupa) which was revealed to fans on Snapchat.

  Amazon

Another way used Amazon. They were paying for video ads during the Snapchat Live Story. A “classic” commercial in a modern social media platform.

The influencer David Lopez filled the brands Snapchat account with content during the weekend and he also attended the Super Bowl.

They also made a call-to-action. They cut a commercial and you had to wait until the halftime is over to see the rest of this commercial. This encouraged people to take one more look on Snapchat.

20th Century Fox

They started running Sponsored Geofilters (An image on your picture/video like Gatorade did it, but it depends on your current location) on Snapchat during the last month. They promoted the premiere of the new movie “Deadpool” (By the way: A funny action movie mixed with some romance and much tension. Even in the deepest romance or action scenes riddled with jokes.) They used during the Super Bowl two lines in their filter: “Superb Owl” and “Super Pole”. Great choice and timing and were addressed to people who are not really the biggest Football/Super Bowl fans.

 EA Sports

EA Sports used their Snapchat content during the Super Bowl to incidental promote their NFL game Madden. DJ Khaled was seen live from the Madden Bowl featuring custom Geofilters. It is common to invite Snapchat influencer to events like this, to boost the publicity for the brands.

 You can see that there are different ways on Snapchat to tell a story, creating content and be seen. You can create your own filter (like Gatorade or 20th Century Fox), place your advertisement in the Snapchat Live Story (like Amazon), engage influencers for your brand (like Amazon, Taco Bell and EA Sports) or use your own Snapchat account to tell a story (Taco Bell, EA Sports). No matter which way you use, if your content is valuable and compelling Snapchat a great social media marketing platform. Snapchat is more than just these annoying, directly disappearing pictures.

Many Marketing- and Communication-experts are unanimous: entertaining content and relevant content count. As a new and integrated operated communication strategy is Content Marketing traded and lays the focus on relevant content. While theorists keep saying for a long time, that Content Marketing is the new way to operate the Marketing of a brand in the right way, are the most of the companies after the event. So what is the status quo in the marketing department of international orientated companies in Germany? And has Content Marketing the potential, what the theorists dedicates it?

A statistic from „Statista“, from late 2014, shows the results of a survey, which includes the presence of a Content Marketing-Strategy of international orientated, German and Swiss companies. They are all B2B- or B2C-orientated. 59 companies were interviewed.

About one third of them said, they have a clear Content Marketing strategy. 23% of them had no strategy at all. 17% of the companies have purposes to create a Content Marketing Strategy in the next time and nearly a third of them are in the beginning of creating a Content Marketing Strategy. Only one third of the interviewed companies has a Content Marketing strategy and nearly two thirds have no strategy or they plan it respectively they are in the beginning of creating their own Content Marketing strategy. So all in all Content Marketing is at the ready and waits to get off the starting blocks. Although this statistic is about one and a half year old, you can see from where the companies are starting.

  Furthermore it is interesting to analyze the targets of German companies with their Content Marketing strategy. Another statistic from “Statista”, which is published in March 2015, gathered the the targets from clients of PR Agencies in Germany. The question is: “What want your clients achieve with Content Marketing?” 213 employees of PR Agencies were interviewed. The answers are bunched into ten different targets.

10% said, that they want to set commercials with Content Marketing. I think this is a “standard” answer and you shouldn’t pay attention to it.

To increase the user improvement said 16% of the sample. That’s Content Marketing: To get user to interact and communicate with your brand-story.

About 19% want to improve their Social Media and with a good Content Strategy, Social Media is the best way to spread out your content.

28% of the employees said, that companies want to generate leads with Content Marketing. So they want to make Leads out of strangers, but they shouldn’t forget to make them customers and promoters!

Nearly a third stated that they want to increase their turnover. With the right Content Strategy is this possible. (See the point before) Make strangers to customers and let the customers promote your brand!

One third care about the image of their brand. They want to improve it with Content Marketing. A good idea, but nevertheless to tell a story can be risky and you should be able to control the situation.

31% intend that their target is to retain customer stronger to the brand. When people engage with your content, you have to communicate with them and show them the social side of your brand.

“Deduce new target groups” is with a rate of 35% one of the most mentioned answers. Especially if your company isn’t on Social Media right now, spread you content with Social Media will deduce a big new target group!

The second most mentioned answer is, that they want to produce relevance. It’s not easy to tell a relevant story, but by following some rules is this possible and can be very entertaining for the potential target group.

With 46% most mentioned answer is “Conquer the thematic leadership”. So the companies in Germany are really aware of telling a story, that will anchor the brand in peoples head and let them forget the competitor of the brand!

 ·      Conquer the thematic leadership 46%

·      Produce relevance 44%

·      Deduce new target groups 35%

·      To retain customer stronger to the brand 31%

·      Improve image 30%

·      Increase turnover 29%

·      Generate leads 28%

·      Improve social media 19%

·      Increase user improvement 16%

·      Set commercials 10%

 The targets of German companies really fit to the main points of Content Marketing. Now the one third of the companies, which are in early stages with their strategy, should prepare a good strategy, prevent the Don’ts, master the Do’s and climb to the zenith of fame.

 Source statistic 1

Bellroy...

...offers wallets and phone cases which include holder for cards. All of their products are leather goods, have high quality and thus their in a higher price level. At the homepage you find different application fields for which the wallets and cases are valuable. The application fields are “For everyday”, “For phones”, “For outdoor” and “For travel”. If you follow the application field “For everyday” you can open an infographic, which visualize how you can slim your wallet. The main feature of the wallets is the slimmest fit. Under the application field “For outdoor” you can find a video, where the wallet is set out different weather conditions (e.g. rain, snow). Beside this the video visualizes again how slim it is and how many things fits in the wallet.

On Facebook Bellroy posts pictures, videos and also share articles, which relate to bellroy or their wallets. The pictures mostly show the wallets or cases in daily situations, reveal the easiness and how they fit in your daily life. The videos show the wallets and cases in some “how-to-situations” and practical situations. Most of them aim at the easiness and the slim of the wallet.

Bellroy post mainly photos on Instagram. Videos are very rare. The photos emphasize the features of the products. The photos are different. Some show adventures (like pictures of impressive landscapes). Some other show different things like cameras, cars or clothes, which are in a retro look. That fits to color of the wallets. Most of the pictures show the products in different situation or collocation with different things. The Instagram account is different to the Facebook account, because the focus is not on the functionality and supporting the features (like on Facebook) but rather on the lifestyle and wearing the wallet like it is fashion.

On Pinterest Bellroy have different channels to follow. The first one is for the community and how they show the wallets. Another one, which is called “Work / Play” is application-oriented and let the user see how different the wallet can be used. There are also two product channels, which show the product of their best side. One is only with pictures and the another one is video oriented. For the lifestyle there are channels like “Adventure”, “Owls”, “Nourish”, “Spaces”, “Stockist Map” and “Photography”.

If you want to find quotes and short messages from Bellroy you have to visit their Twitter feed. This is the only platform where they additionally use short written messages beside the pictures and videos. Most of the written Tweets are customer service oriented where Bellroy engage with their community and communicate with them.

 What’s good?

They don’t concentrate on only one platform, but on four at the same time.

There are different targets for each platform and they don’t use the same content for all of them! They use the right content for each platform. Some photos or videos may be the same, but they don’t post it in the same context or at the same time.

They are highly active on each platform and additionally engage with the customers on twitter and communicate with them! They know how to be SOCIAL on social media.

They connect their social media platform with their online shop. They call for shopping, but don’t do it to massive. For example they connect a photo of a new wallet with the link to the online shop where the whole new collection is available to shop.

They share peoples things. For example they share article on Facebook and retweet pictures/posts from customers on Twitter. They are highly active with this and do it frequently.

They know the features and benefits of their products. They know how to show the features (like in how-to-videos or in aesthetic pictures, which shows the lifestyle fact of their products.)

In summary: They have a really clear and well-structured social media presence.

And they avoid the biggest mistake of all: “Don’t be on social media at all”.

In the following blog-post you get information to different questions: What platforms? What strategy? What should I post on social media? How should I interact with the customers? How much effort is necessary? And different others. So lean back and enjoy the Do’s and Don’ts for your small business.

 1. To operate in the right way on a social media platform isn’t easy. There is no pleasure without pain. You need the right content for your social media platform. However this isn’t all you should do. Moreover you need to be highly active, communicate and engage with people and do this continually.

 2. When you using social media for your company, you shouldn’t concentrate on only one platform. There are many different, like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, LinkedIn and so on with many different users. Be aware, if you think you can post the same content at all different platforms you’re wrong. Many of the users are on more than only one social media platform. If they see, e.g. that you post on Facebook the same content as on Twitter, they find this very unappealing and don’t follow your company anymore.

 3. You need an elaborate strategy. If you use social media for your company, you as the company shouldn’t forget that all the things out there are SOCIAL. So respond to people who write a comment to your company and be social. If you don’t interact social and just let the people come and go, you won’t have success with your strategy and also your company is no more attractive to customer.

 4. You have to be authentic. Content is more than just post advertising on your page. It’s more than just self-promotion at a place where millions of people interact. You have to control the message. Some people use social media platform to let out frustration. If you respond frankly to criticism, it’s the best way to interact with customers and others will see this.

 5. You will succeed when you share peoples things, provide useful content, be a part of conversations and let people know you are there. So they can easily try your service and products.

 6. Don’t offer too much selling stuff with your content. People want to see content, not your advertisement every day. That’s why they use social media. If you want to get sells, you should operate differently. Try to build relationships with all your users and then introduce them to your business.

 7. If you think your content is the best without any selling, you’re doing a big mistake. On one point you should switch your brand awareness and credibility into sales. If you use your social media platform only for the awareness, you have the wrong strategy.

 8. The best way to attract customers is your knowledge. So you know a lot about your product and services and want to put this knowledge into you social media campaign? Then take it serious and don’t delegate the social media campaigning to a junior staffer. The junior staffer can be part of the team, but nevertheless a senior staffer with product and service knowledge should do the biggest part.

 9. You should know a way to evaluate all of your social media campaigns and activities. Otherwise it’s waste of effort. You need to know your metrics. Different metrics are for example: referred traffic from social media sites to your company website tracking brand mentions, shares of your company’s content, and the number of engaged people as measured by comments or direct messages. All these metrics are not the really perfect metrics which every successful social media platform use, but it’s better than estimating the result of all your activities and campaigns.

 10. Social media seems very attractive to small businesses, because there are no costs. You can use all the platforms for free and the things you invest are mostly time. Different other marketing activities in the internet are Google’s AdWord’s or email marketing. These might seem easier, but if you don’t test social media, you won’t know if it’s could be a really great marketing idea for you business. Maybe it will get you more success than you thought.

 All in all these are all tips and no rules. You can be successful if you strike a chord with your own content on social media.

The supreme rule of social media is: Be on social media. You probably do the biggest mistake by don’t being on social media!

Coca-Cola needs to change from “Creative Excellence” to “Content Excellence”. The purpose of the strategy deals abstracted with two main-parts:

Liquid: “To create ideas so contagious they cannot be controlled”

Linked: “link business objectives, brands and consumer interests”

WHAT TO DO?

Coca-Cola has to tell stories. These stories should provoke conversations. The aim is to earn share of popular culture. So there are four steps:

Tell brand stories

Storys create liquid and linked ideas

Provoke conversations

Act and react to conversations through the whole year

WHY?

There are three key drivers:

Need to double size of the business

Observed a distribution of creativity

Use the connectivity and consumer empowerment which is greater than ever before (e.g. connections through social media)

Like many other brands do: Develop direct relationships with technology companies to extend the business

Coca-Cola has to go from “One-way-storytelling” to “Dynamic-storytelling”. The clue is in the name. The stories have to be dynamic, they go viral but Coca-Cola need to control and select these stories carefully.

WHERE DO THE STORIES START?

Mainly the stories have to apply to our daily lives, activity and operations. All things considered the stories are about Live positively. They have to change from a insight to provocations.

DEFINITION OF CONTENT:

“The creation of stories that are to be expressed through every possible connection.”

DEFINITION OF LIQUID:

“Elements of content that move freely amongst themselves but do not become separate stories.”

APPLICATION

70% of content which take 50% of the time: Low risk content (basic content which is approved. Needed to pay the rent). 

20% of content which take 25% of the time: Innovate of what works.

10% of content which takes 25% of the time: High risk content. (Brand new ideas, but Coca-Cola has to be prepared to fail/succeed)

WHERE TO GET THIS LIQUID CONTENT?

Testing ideas, understand how to research useful content and go new ways (. To expand the potential of the creative spaces and ideas.

SUMMARY

To be the north star, Coca-Cola has to produce liquid ideas, that earn a disproportional share of popular culture!

Content Marketing is getting more attention and there is already a hype about Content Marketing. Nevertheless the term “Content Marketing” exists a long time. These days it’s the fact of the connection through the Internet and Social Media, which makes the hype even bigger.

A official definition is published by the Content Marketing Institute, which is founded by Joe Puluzzi:

„Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action“

So the main facts about Content Marketing are: create content and distribute this to confront the target, build trust and affect the opinion and behavior of them. The main aim is to reach customers and link them to the brand.

There is a process which have different steps which in turn have different results on people. In the following the steps are bold and all results are italic.

The process starts with “Strangers”.

The first step is to “Attract” these strangers by Blogs, Keywords, Social Publishing and so on.

Result: Visitors

Secondly you have to “Convert” them by using e.g. calls-to-action, forms or landing pages.

Result: Leads

Third Step: “Close”. Make the Leads to customers by using CRM, E-Mail and so on. You need to qualify the leads and take care of them to push them to a transaction. 

Result: Customers

The last step is the “Delight”. Take care of your contacts and existing customers to persuade them to FANS.

Result: Promoters. These Promoters have an good marketing effect on the strangers to sympathize with the brand/product.

Good Content Marketing escorts people through all stages and make them behave differently.