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Your Complete Guide to Becoming a Rock Star Brand

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Often when I talk to someone about or speak on Think Like a Rock Star, they will say ‘I love the concept, but we’re not Lady Gaga or Katy Perry. They are actual rock stars, we’re just a brand.  We can’t have fans like they do.’

When I started writing the book, I set out to answer that question.  Do actual rock stars simply have some natural advantage that brands do not?  Are actual rock stars able to create fans, passionate customers that literally love them in a way that most brands cannot?

What I discovered, to my delight, was that rock stars do certain things to create fans that are easily replicated by brands.  It’s not that brands can’t do the things that rock stars do to create fans, it’s that most brands aren’t willing to do the things they need to create fans.

But we’re not Taylor Swift, we sell (insert seemingly boring product that no one can see anyone being a fan of HERE)

First, let’s accept that your brand would love to have passionate customers that considered themselves to be fans of your brand.  Rock stars have raving fans that love and support them, and your brand wants that as well.

The problem lies in calling them ‘rock stars’.  Because when you do that, it’s easy to say ‘they are rock stars, we’re a brand, it’s two totally different things’.

Really?  You think Taylor Swift isn’t a brand?  Lady Gaga isn’t a brand?  Katy Perry, Pearl Jam, Blake Shelton, these are some of the biggest and most bankable brands on the planet!

The other trait that’s common to these rock stars? All of them are exceptional marketers.

So if you accept that these performers and bands are also excellent brands and marketers, then that means they are just like you in that regard.  Which means you can learn from how they market themselves and apply it to your own brand-building efforts.

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So if rock stars are really brands, why does The Zac Brown Band have more fans than my brand does?  What is he doing that I’m not? 

Six years ago I got on an airplane for the first time.  And I had the normal fears of a first flight, and was pretty worried.  My anxiety got worse as we prepared for takeoff and then as we rose and I was pushed back in my seat I just knew that I was about to fall out the bottom of the plane and I couldn’t understand WHY NO ONE ELSE WAS UPSET!  Then I looked over and saw an older woman sitting across from me, and she had taken out a magazine and was reading it without a care in the world as the airplane climbed and the ground became harder to see clearly.  At that point I realized that she knew something I didn’t.  So I immediately calmed down, assuming if she wasn’t upset, I shouldn’t be either.

I tell this story to preface the rest of the post.  Rock stars do a lot of things, especially in their marketing efforts, that seem counter-intuitive and even completely scary to most brands.  But the end result cannot be argued, rock stars have raving fans that drive real business growth for their brand.  If you want to have the same, then you need to trust that the rock stars have a valid reason for doing the ‘scary stuff’.

If you want to understand why rock stars have such passionate fans and your brand does not, then you need to understand why the average rock star markets the way she does.  You need to understand The Loyalty Graph:

LoyaltyGraph2Yep, at the end of the day the reason why rock stars have fans comes down to simple marketing.  But the key is that rock stars understand the true value of their most passionate fans, and your brand likely does not.

To the average brand, it’s great to have a fan, a passionate customer that praises the brand to others.  But most brands don’t look to actively engage those fans.  While they are happy to have fans, the average brand leaves their fans alone, with the thinking being let them keep doing what they are doing.

Rock stars literally focus their marketing efforts around their fans.  What’s worth noting about this approach is that rock stars are based their marketing efforts around connecting with less than 5% of their customer base.

This is curious, because the average brand not only all but ignores its fans, it spends millions marketing to the other 95% of its customers.  With a premium placed on marketing to New Customers, customers that have little or no affinity toward their brand.  At the same time, rock stars are all but ignoring New Customers, from a marketing perspective.  Think about that for a minute: Brands are investing the majority of their marketing dollars on connecting with a group of customers that rock stars are literally ignoring.  Again back to the airplane example, what do rock stars know that your brand doesn’t?

Rock stars understand that your fans are the best salespeople your brand has.  And if you take your branding hat off for a moment, you know this to be true as well.  Let’s say you are making a trip to Switzerland this Summer and you want to buy a simple point and shoot camera for under $300 for the trip.  Before making your purchase you’ll do the following:

1 – Get recommendations from friends and family online.

2 – Get recommendations from friends and family offline.

3 – Check online reviews (Amazon as well as photography sites)

Note that your buying decision was influenced not by marketing from any camera brands, but instead by friends, family, and other customers.  Because we trust other customers more than we trust the brands marketing to us.

That’s what rock stars understand about marketing that your brand does not.

So rock stars literally shift their marketing message and put it in the hands of the people that you are most likely to trust.  They connect with their fans and cultivate them as salespeople for their brand.  This is why they don’t have to spend 95% of their marketing budget on trying to acquire new customers.  Instead, they connect with their fans that love them, and those fans then acquire new customers for them.

The key is to put your marketing message in the hands of the people that other customers trust the most 

The reason why most brands don’t want to do this is because most brands want complete control over how its marketing messages are shared and spread.  This is exactly why television, newspaper and radio advertising has been so popular for decades.  The brand can communicate directly with many people at one time.

The problem with this approach is that as a result, any communication from the brand is viewed as being ‘marketing’, and as such, less trustworthy to the average customer.  So to make sure that your marketing message is actually heard, it needs to pass through a source that the customer trusts, such as another customer (fan).

But again, we are back to the point that most brands don’t trust their fans enough to give them control of their marketing messages.  And yet, most rock stars do.  This is because most rock stars understand who their fans are and what motivates them.

Fans want to see their favorite brand, rock star or sports team succeed.  So they will act in what they perceive to be that brand/rock star/sport team’s best interest.  But the important point to understand is that since they are fans, they trust their favorite brand or rock star.  So if that brand connects directly with them and asks them to spread their marketing message in a certain way, they will listen.

Which is exactly what rock stars do.  They are constantly connecting with their most passionate fans because they understand that by doing so, their fans will better understand who the rock star is, and the message the rock star wants them to spread.

Your brand’s fear that your fans won’t spread the message that you want is mostly unfounded.  If they don’t spread the message that you want it’s probably because you haven’t communicated to them what message you do want them to spread!  What features of your product do you want them to tell others about?  What are the selling points that you want other customers to know about?

Participating in a conversation changes that conversation

Conduct this simple experiment: For the next 5 customers that mention your brand positively on Twitter, tweet them back and say Thank You.  Then note what happens next.  The odds are that at least one and possibly all five people will respond back saying you are welcome.  One or more of them might try to extend the conversation with you.  The point is that whatever happens after you reply happened because you replied.  By simply interacting with customers that self-identified as being fans of your brand, you gave them a reason to think more positively about your brand, and a reason to create more positive word of mouth about your brand.

Here’s your primer to becoming a rock star brand:

1 – Understand the business value of your fans.  Your fans are your brand’s best salespeople.  They are the real rock stars, treat them as such.

2 – Focus on ways to increase interactions with your biggest fans.  This galvanizes them and validates why they love your brand to begin with.  Plus, it gives them a better understandng of your brand and your brand a better understanding of your fans.

3 – Communicate to your fans how they can help you.  Remember that your fans are different from your average customer.  The average customer has little to no interest in helping you spread your marketing messages but your fans are actively looking for ways to help you grow your brand.  They want to help you, work with them to make that happen.

4 – Ask your fans for feedback.  Ask them what they think about your brand, and ask them what they are hearing from other customers they talk to.  Specifically, ask them what reasons other customers are giving them for why they do not want to buy from your brand.  This is incredibly valuable feedback that you need to seek out.  Once you learn why some customers don’t want to buy from your brand, you can work to correct those issues, and drive more sales.

5 – Remember this is doable.  There’s no reason why your brand, no matter what industry you are in or products you sell, cannot have passionate fans that love you.  It’s not about the product, if it were you would never see companies that create commodity products like scissors and industrial lubricants with passionate fanbases.  It is about how you relate to and understand your customers.  This is exactly why rock stars place a premium on having constant interactions with their fans and being as close to them as possible.

6 – Build the stage for your fans. They are the real rock stars.

Pic via Flickr user LunchboxLP

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The Biggest Blogging Mistake I’ve Ever Made and Why All Engagement is Not Created Equally

2872583288_8127958300_zLast week I got an email from someone that was interested in learning more about creating a brand ambassador program for their company.  I called them and during our conversation they told me they had been doing research on brand ambassador programs and came across my blog post 10 Things to Remember When Creating a Brand Ambassador Program.  They came across this post because it’s (currently) the top Google result for the term “Brand Ambassador Program“.

The Great Blogging Lie

One of the great ‘blogging rules’ we are told is that we must always write useful content for our readers.  This is also one of the biggest blogging lies we are told.  We should absolutely create useful content for our readers, but we should also create useful content for ourselves.  Both parties have to benefit.  If I am writing useful content for you that doesn’t benefit me, then I can’t afford to keep writing that useful content.  If I am writing content that only benefits me, then you won’t stick around to read it.  The content you write has to create value for both you and your readers.

A personal example: A few years ago I was talking to a friend about my blogging and my business.  She said “I’m confused. If your target audience is companies that need help creating programs to connect with their loyal customers, why was your last blog post about how individual bloggers can make money on their blogs?”

I looked at my blog and my jaw dropped.  She was exactly right, I was so focused on writing USEFUL content for readers, but not for the readers I wanted.  Which meant that content wasn’t useful to ME because it wasn’t helping me connect with the audience that I wanted to do business with.  From that point forward I have been extremely mindful of the content I create here and making sure that it is useful, but useful for the audience *I* want to connect with.  That ensures that it is also useful to ME.

And it’s working.  Up until this year, the majority of the emails I got requesting information about working with me came from small businesses wanting to know if I could help them manage their Facebook page or Twitter account.  This is NOT the type of work I typically do, but my content was often more focused on how small businesses could better use social media.  Over the last year or so I shifted my content to focus on more brand advocacy, brand ambassadors and creating programs and structures that help companies reach their biggest fans.  Now, 90% of the email inquiries I get are from companies that want to learn more about creating similar programs within their companies.  So if you are using your blog as a tool to drive business growth, make sure you occasionally spot-check the content you are creating to make sure that it is useful to the audience you want to reach.

What Type of Engagement is Best?

The default answer that most bloggers will give you is that comments are best.  They want readers to come to their blog and comment.  And that’s fine if you are running a personal blog and want to make friends and meet like-minded individuals.  But if your blog is part of your social media marketing strategy, you need to track engagement that matters to your business. In the above example, a marketing director did a Google search for ‘brand ambassador program’ and found a post I had written on the subject.  She read the post, and instead of leaving a comment, she emailed me asking about setting up a brand ambassador program for her company.  For me, that’s the type of engagement that has value for my business.   A comment still would have value for me, as her comment would have made the post itself more interesting and it still would have given me a way to connect with her, but her contacting me directly about us working together is what I want.

Always do this simple test with your blog:  If I were to visit your blog right now for the very first time, what action would you want me to take?  Would you want me to leave a comment?  Would you want me to signup for your newsletter?  Would you want me to buy your product?  Think about what type of engagement is most important to YOU, then craft your content and experience on your blog so it encourages me to engage in that type of behavior.

So that’s my biggest business blogging mistake, what’s yours?  And if you want feel free to change names to protect the guilty!

Pic via Flickr user Peter Lindberg

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“How Do I Get People to Read My Content?”

I hear this question constantly.  From current and potential clients, from peers, from other bloggers during #Blogchat.  It seems we are all chasing the same unicorn: How do we get more people to read our content?

The short answer is, you write about your audience.  You help your audience make the connection between your products and services, and their lives.  How is your service going to help their business be more successful in 2017?  How is your product going to help the average customer live a happier life?

Unfortunately, many bloggers feel the need to sell themselves, especially business bloggers.  They feel the need to sell their products and services, because how else would you know to buy their products and services if you don’t know about them?

While this can make sense to the business, the reality is that it is a complete disconnect to your desired audience.  You have to make the case for why your business creates a product or service that’s worthy of their attention.  And you do that by creating content that’s focused on the customer.  You do that by creating content that focuses on the connections between your products and services, and the lives of your customers. You help them understand how your products and services fit into their lives, and make their lives better.

Watch this video from Steve Jobs.  This is a very short talk that Steve gave his employees when he first returned to Apple in the late 1990s as CEO.  He talks about how Apple’s marketing and messaging had gotten off course, and the talks about how Apple could correct that problem so that it created marketing messages that made an impact with its customers.  At the end he plays the first commercial that is relaunching Apple’s brand effort, and notice that the entire point of the commercial isn’t to talk about Apple and Apple products.  The commercial talks about Apple’s customers.  It talks about the type of person that would buy an Apple product.  The underlying message is obvious “If you’re this type of person, then maybe Apple is the company for you.”

How will your customers know if you are the right company for them? Your content should speak to them and make the case for why and how your company’s products and services fit into their lives.

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Your Complete Guide to Creating Better Content For Your Business in 2017

Create better business content in 20172017 will be the year that brands and companies begin to seriously invest in their content creation efforts. We are already seeing major brands such as Cisco investing heavily in the hiring of content specialists and this will continue over the coming years. So now is a good time to start focusing on your existing content strategy and how to improve it moving forward.

A great way to get started is to audit your current content strategy. A content strategy audit is different from a simple content audit. A content audit typically focuses on engagement parameters only, whereas a content strategy audit analyzes your current strategy and measures actual results from your content strategy versus desired business outcomes.

Think of it this way: Your content is the stuff you create, your content strategy is what you hope will happen as a result of the stuff you create. For example, if you write 1 post a week for your blog, you can audit the engagement metrics associated with those blog posts, such as numbers of visitors, time spent on each post, social shares, etc. But if you audit that content in the context of a content strategy audit, you would analyze how that content led to other actions, such as number of white paper downloads, or times a lead-gen form was accessed, or number of email newsletter subscribers converted from that post.

For example, let’s look at the last post I wrote on this blog. If you just examine engagement around the post, you can see it did pretty well. It got over 200 social shares, and that’s not including shares on Twitter, which were probably another 200-300. So about 500 or so shares on social sites.

If my goal for this post was to simply generate engagement, then this post was a winner. It generated a lot of shares, a lot of chatter online, and gave my blog a 10-15% bump in traffic for a few days.

But if I want to look at this post from the context of how it impacts my overall content strategy, I have to dig a bit deeper. The end goal for my content isn’t simply to create engagement, I want to ultimately get business from the content I create. So engagement isn’t the end point, it’s closer to the beginning.

Think of how you would approach this if you owned a retail store in the mall. You send out a circular that announces the sales you’ll be running this weekend. That’s your ‘content’. You hope that ‘content’ will drive ‘engagement’, or in this case, people to your store. But the end goal isn’t simply to get people in the store, you want to sell them something.

So there’s a process that needs to happen:

1 – The circular or ‘content’ needs to drive people to the store
2 – Once inside the store, you need to convert them into customers

So if you approach your content in the same way, you need to first create content that drives engagement, but then that engagement needs to convert into a desired action.

Let’s go back to the last post I wrote here. We’ve already established that the post drove engagement, but we’ve also established that driving engagement wasn’t the ultimate goal of that post as part of my larger content strategy. I wanted that post to drive business for me.

So when I create the content, I position it so that it encourages the reader to engage in a desired action. For example, in the previous post, there was a pretty obvious call to action placed in the middle of the post in the form of this banner:

If you click on that banner, you are taken to the page that promotes my Content Strategy Audit service. So I want the content (post) to be engaging so that people read it, but once they arrive here, I want them to then click the Content Strategy Audit banner to go to that page. Then finally, I want them to contact me about purchasing a Content Strategy Audit.

Hit the bullseye with your business content in 2017So there’s three activities I want to track associated with this content:

1 – How many people viewed the content?
2 – After viewing the content, how many people then clicked on the banner and visited the Content Strategy Audit page?
3 – How many people after visiting the Content Strategy Audit page then inquired about purchasing the audit?

Looking at this list, you can see there’s three conversions that need to take place; You need to read the post, then once you arrive here you need to click on the banner ad for the Content Strategy Audit, then once you’re on that page, you need to email me to discuss buying the audit. Let’s take each one separately:

1 – How many people viewed the content? I’ve already stated that this particular post had higher than average social sharing, as well as traffic. So simply from an engagement standpoint, this post did its job.

2 – After viewing the content, how many people then clicked on the banner and visited the Content Strategy Audit page? I can check Google Analytics and find this information. But it’s worth noting that there are a lot of variables that can impact this on-site conversion. Maybe the banner would have converted better in a different location like at the end of the post. Maybe a different graphic would work better or maybe different wording. All of these variables must be considered and it pays to tweak things and see how conversion rates can be affected. I already have some ideas in mind for how I want to make some changes.

3 – How many people after visiting the Content Strategy Audit page then inquired about purchasing the audit? This is another conversion point. By clicking on the banner to come to the Content Strategy Audit page, you are assuming they are interested in learning more about the audit. How well this page converted into purchases of the audit gives me insights into whether or not the content of the Content Strategy Audit helped convert those visitors. So there are more variables that can be played with, such as giving more of an explanation of what’s included in the audit, or maybe less. Or maybe I could increase conversions by simply removing the price.

Now if all this seems like it’s getting a bit ‘in the weeds’, you’re exactly right. But, the bottom line is that if you truly want your content to be effective for your business, you need to invest the time to critically examining whether or not it is truly effective in helping you achieve desired outcomes for your business. As I’ve said before, engagement without desired business outcomes is just noise. Noise is easy to create and measure.

Meaningful outcomes are far harder to create, but create more impact for your business.

So when you audit your content strategy, you want to first decide What Is The Goal? Why are you making the time commitment to creating content in the first place? What are you hoping will happen? Create the goal first, then work backwards from the goal, creating content that will help you reach that goal.

For example, if the goal is to generate more product signups, then you need to create your content with that end goal in mind. You need to think about how your content will help move a visitor closer to wanting to singup for your product. You probably want to think about including relevant Calls to Action in your content that encourage the reader to signup for your product. I did this in the previous post by including both links and a banner ad that pointed to the page for my Content Strategy Audit. Because I wanted visitors to go to that page.

And before you think ‘All content needs to do is create engagment’, I beg to differ. I just did a search for Content Marketing Manager positions on LinkedIn. Here’s some of the job requirements that employers are demanding for these positions:

“to increase brand awareness, grow subscribers, and attract leads.”

“Develop and manage a global content strategy that drives XXXX’s brand awareness, website traffic, lead-generation efforts, and new customer acquisition”

“Accountable for all content marketing initiatives to drive traffic, engagement, leads, that deliver sales and customer retention.”

As you can see, most companies are expecting more than simple engagement from their content. They want that content to move people to perform specific actions. Think of it this way, let’s say you are a marketing agency, and you have a competitor that is also crafting a content strategy for 2017. If your content goals for 2017 are a 15% increase in ‘engagement’ and their content goals for 2017 are a 15% increase in leads generated, who do you think will have the better year? Probably your competitor, because their efforts are focused on creating content that comes closer to impacting that agency’s bottom line.

Now at this point you may be thinking “But Mack in your previous point you said that you can’t create content that ‘sells’ if the customer isn’t ready to buy, and now you’re saying that good content should do more than just create engagement. Which is it?” My point is that your content should aspire to a higher purpose than simply creating engagement.

Remember the AIDA model from your college marketing classes? AIDA stands for Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action. You make the customer aware of your business, you get them interested in learning more about who you are and your products, which creates a desire to own those products, and that leads to a purchase (action). Your content needs to be positioned so it can move the potential customer through the buying process. Many businesses focus on creating content that builds awareness, that establishes thought leadership and that helps get the ‘name’ of the business out there.

But then what? Creating content that builds awareness is fine, but what about the next step? What about creating content that builds interest? And if you can get me interested in your products and services, I might become interested in actually buying those products and services. Your content needs to be there to hold my hand and move me closer to a purchase.

Now as part of your content strategy, you may find that certain tools or platforms are best suited for creating and housing different types of content. For example, you might use the content on your blog primarily as a way to build awareness for your business. Then maybe you then move those customers to another tool or channel to build their interest and to ‘close the deal’.

However, none of this will happen until you make a commitment to get serious about your content strategy in 2017. That means taking the time to put together a strategy, to decide what it is you want to accomplish, then executing that strategy. Then along the way you can continually audit your efforts so you know if you are making progress or not, and adjust as needed.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Engagement without desired business outcomes is just noise. ” quote=”Remember, engagement without desired business outcomes is just noise. “]

 

The Importance of Topic Buckets

I’ve written here before about Topic Buckets and why they are so important. Topic Buckets are the 2-3 areas that your content will focus on that are associated with your business. Think of Topic Buckets as your business’ elevator speech. If you meet someone in the elevator and they ask you what your business does, what would say? Think about the 2-3 areas that you would want your business to be known for. Those are your Topic Buckets. You should try to fit every piece of content you create into one of your Topic Buckets. This brings clarity and focus to your content creation, but it also helps to establish your business’ association with these 2-3 areas. By constantly creating content that’s focused on your 2-3 Topic Buckets, you are helping others to understand what your business is about and what it does. Additionally, you are helping to establish your expertise around these areas.

For example, this post is focused on Content Strategy, which is one of my Topic Buckets. This is a very long and in-depth post that is written to help companies create better content strategies in 2017. I want to be known as someone that can help companies create better content strategies, so I wrote a very detailed and instructional post that will teach companies how to do exactly that. Ideally, this post will help establish my expertise in helping companies create amazing content strategies. The added bonus for me is that it will help others understand what type of work I do, which can lead to more referrals.

But honestly, at the end of the day this post is nothing more than a commercial for my consulting services. However, I purposely did not write this post to be an advertisement, because very few people want an advertisement. They want content that creates value for them. So if I can write a 3,000 word post on how to create better content in 2017, that creates value for the reader. Which means I can gain the reader’s attention, and once I have their attention, I have a chance to convert them in some way that I’ve determined has value for me. Notice there are multiple links back to my Content Strategy Audit page. Those are there as a reference point within the post, but are also included because I hope people will click the link and check out that service. This is because I am always viewing my content as being promotional and thinking about how I can add relevant Calls to Action within each post.

You should approach your content in the same way. You should understand that your content is there to promote your business, but you should at the same time understand how to promote your business in a way that also creates value for your audience. This is why the concept of Topic Buckets are so important, because it allows you to focus your content creation efforts on 2-3 areas that relate to your business. And if you approach your content as being promotional while also creating value for the reader, you will create content that promotes the topic areas that are relevant to your business.

Or if this whole idea of creating content that promotes your business makes you feel icky, think of it this way: If you have created great content, you have earned the right to ask for something from your reader. Remember the PBS pledge drive example in my previous post. PBS aired a wonderful live concert of The Highwaymen, it was great content that I loved, so I didn’t mind a few short breaks within that 90-minute performance from PBS asking for donations. PBS earned the right to ask for donations by providing amazing content.

Your focus should be the same, especially if you feel uncomfortable ‘asking for the sale’. Simply create amazingly valueable content and not only will you have earned the right to promote yourself, the odds are your audience will WANT that promotion. If I stumble across a site that creates value for me around a topic I am interested in, what will I do? Subscribe to new content from that site. I am communicating to that site that I want to get new content from them as soon as it is available. Whenever we interact with someone that creates content that has value for us, we want more. I know this from my own experience as a content creator. Whenever I create a piece of content that’s very popular and well received, I see an increase in traffic from that content to the following pages:

1 – My bio. People that have never read my content before want to know who I am.

2 – My Buy Think Like a Rock Star page. People that find value in my post become interested in buying my book.

3 – My Speaking and consulting services pages. People that find value in my post become interested in hiring me as a speaker or consultant.

No doubt, you have seen the same thing whenever you create content that is popular with your readers. This indicates that IF you have created content that’s valuable to your readers, then those readers are more OPEN to promotion from you. In fact, if you have positioned your content correctly, a relevant Call to Action (such as asking for a download of a white paper, subscribing to a newsletter or buying a product), should be expected and WELCOMED by your readers. So just think about that as you are creating content, you want your content to promote your business, but you also want that content to be so insanely valuable for your readers that they don’t mind the the promotion, they even welcome it.

Before I wrap up this post, a final word on why Topic Buckets can be so helpful to your content strategy. Remember that Topic Buckets are really the 2-3 things that you want to be known for. Once you have decided what the Topic Buckets are for your business, ideally you should then prioritize these Topic Buckets. So you know what Topic Bucket is most important to your business, then you can rank the others after that.

Additionally, having Topic Buckets helps you better organize your content calendar. For example, let’s say you have 3 Topic Buckets. If you have an editorial calendar that requires one new blog post per week, then you could write a new post on each of the 3 Topic Buckets, and the 4th post could be on the Topic Bucket that you prioritize as being the most important to your business. This instantly solves the ‘what will I write about?’ problem because you know to write about your Topic Buckets. You just pick which Topic Bucket each post is about, and go from there. So it greatly simplifies the writing process from the standpoint of picking your topic. Which, if you’re like me, if often the biggest issue you face when writing a new post. Using Topic Buckets has greatly helped me with this, and I believe it help you as well.

The Checklist You Need For Each Piece of Content You Write

1 – Remember the goal for your content strategy. Every piece of content you create should be associated with that goal. If your goal is to generate sales, then your content needs to be created in that context. If your goal is to build brand awareness or to establish thought leadership, create your content with that focus. Remember the saying ‘Begin with the end in mind’ because it applies here.

2 – What Topic Bucket does this piece of content fit in? Figure out the 2-3 things that you want to be known for, and try your best to make sure that every piece of content you create fits into one of these Topic Buckets. Also, prioritize your Topic Buckets so that you cover each and also focus more on the ones that are most important to your business.

3 – Create content worthy of the ask. Get in the habit of viewing the content you create for your business as being promotional, but do so with the understanding that it must also create value for the reader, or else you’ve wasted both your time and the readers’. Remember the PBS pledge drive example; Strive to create content that’s earned the right to ask for a donation. If you truly create great content that’s valuable to your readers, they will WANT to get more information about that topic, or they will want to sign up for your newsletter or subscribe to your content, or buy your product. Remember, the value you create IS the promotion. Think about what value each piece of content creates for the reader, and how that will ultimately create value for your business as well.

4 – Carefully consider your Calls to Action. This ties in with the above point especially. Create content that’s worthy of the ask, then carefully ask for the exact thing you want, that’s also relevant to the content you have created. Should every piece of content you create include a Call to Action? Not necessarily, but every piece of content you create should be worthy of you asking for something in return from the reader. Maybe it’s something as simple as asking them to visit a page, or leaving a comment. Maybe it’s directly promoting a product or service you provide. But the idea is to think more carefully and deliberately about not only the content you create but the time you are asking your readers to invest in consuming that content. If you have created value then you have earned the right to ask for something.

5 – Understand how you will measure the success of each piece of content you create. If you are writing a blog post, think about what needs to happen in order for you to realize that the time you spent on that post was worth the effort. Know what KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) you and your boss will use to judge the effectiveness of each piece of content. This is also useful to keep in mind as you create the content because it will help you create the content in such a way that relevant KPIs are impacted by the content.

Write better content in 2017 with Ommwriter

Finally, I wanted to close this post by letting you know about a very cool writing tool I just discovered from Peter Shankman’s blog. This tool is OmmWriter. It is designed to minimize distractions when you write so you can better focus. When you run OmmWriter, it takes over your screen so all you are left with is a blank screen with a background that you set (I prefer the snow scene). All system notifications are turned off so there’s no distractions. Additionally, several musical tones are provided (I prefer #5) that really help me get sucked into the writing and it also helps with focus.

Case in point, this is the first post I’ve written while using OmmWriter, and it is going to end up being around 4,000 words. Prior to this, the longest post I had ever written in 11 years of blogging was right at 2,000 words. I found it much easier to focus and just ‘get in the flow’ and write more in less time with OmmWriter. Now it does have a few obvious limitations to discuss. First, you can’t insert images or a lot of special formatting so you can’t just write a finished post with OmmWriter. You’ll still have to do some editing and formatting before it’s ready to publish. And it’s not free, although you can buy it for as low as $5.11, that’s the minimum price you can pay and the creators of OmmWriter let you decide what you will pay.

So definitely try out OmmWriter and I hope you love it as much as I do. My problem has always been that it takes me way too long to write a really good blog post. My ideas seem to come in spurts, and it often takes me 5-6 hours to write a substantial 1,000 word post. I wrote this post in about 4 hours, and it’s right at 4,000 words. OmmWriter really helped me focus and write more in less time. Here’s the link to check it out, and I’m not getting a penny from them, just wanted to share a really cool writing tool that I think you’ll love.

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The ‘Ugly’ Truth About Creating Amazing Content That Most Companies Don’t Want to Hear

head-1137275_1280Most companies start blogging and creating social media content for one reason: They are ready to sell their products and services.  So they create content that sells their products and services.

The problem is, most people aren’t ready to buy.  So when you try to sell to someone that isn’t in the market for your product, your sales message becomes a nuisance.  And by association, your brand becomes a nuisance.  The reality is that your content can be amazing, but if it isn’t aimed at your customer and their specific point in the buying process, then it will not work.

Period.

Now, let’s back up and see what type of content customers find trustworthy.  Research from Forrester into what type of content customers find trustworthy found that 70% of respondents found product recommendations from friends and family to be trustworthy.  Only 32% found content on a company website or blog to be trustworthy.  At first glance, it would be easy to understand why the average customer trusts their friends and family far more often than they trust the content from a company they don’t know.  But there’s also another factor at play that greatly influences trustworthiness.

Relevance.  Since your friends and family know you, they can apply that knowledge to give you more relevant information, and you are more likely to trust information that’s relevant to you.  If they know I’m in the market for a used sedan, they don’t bother telling me about the great deals the local Chevy dealer has on new trucks, because they know that’s not what I’m looking for.

The bottom line is that amazing content is relevant content.  Relevant content is amazing content.  If you give me the content I need, in the form I need, and the precise moment I need it, that’s relevance for me.

Too many companies use content as a way to convert customers when they should be trying to create customers.  You can’t convert customers until you have them, and when you push content that sells into the face of someone that isn’t ready to buy, you ensure that your content gets ignored.

For example, many companies are attracted to blogging because it can be a wonderful way to raise awareness for your business. But you have to incorporate that into your content creation.  If you are trying to raise awareness for your business, then that makes you are trying to connect with new customers that don’t know who you are and don’t know why they would want to do business with you.

ContentAuditSo if you create content that sells directly to new customers, it’s going to be a disconnect.  Since new customers aren’t yet aware of your business and products, then you need to focus your content on topics that relate to your products.  Here’s some examples…

If you sell athletic wear, create content focused on the activities customers would engage in while wearing your athletic wear.

If you sell cameras, create content focused on the experiences and events people would photograph with your camera.  I blogged about this last week.

If you sell  carseats, create content focused on how parents can be safer drivers.

Make Your Content Like the PBS Pledge Drive 

But let’s say you’re stubborn, and you are determined to SELL in your content.  That’s fine, you can absolutely promote your products and services in your content.   In fact, if you create useful content for your readers, you SHOULD use that content to sell to your readers.  Always keep in mind that if you have created useful content for your readers, then you have earned the right to promote yourself to your readers.  In fact, your best content SHOULD include a call to action for your readers.

Case in point, PBS is currently in the middle of its latest pledge drive.  Tonight, it will show a special concert from 1990 with The Highwaymen; Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson.   This is a unique and special concert that PBS usually doesn’t show.  Since PBS understands that this is content that its viewers will love, it uses this concert to promote its pledge drive.  During the concert, PBS will have scheduled breaks where it will ask viewers for donations by offering them the concert DVD in exchange for a donation.  PBS earned the right to ask for the donation by providing excellent content that was valuable to its viewers.

As a content creator, you can do the exact same thing. Notice I did this above by inserting a banner for my Content Strategy Audit directly into the post. I didn’t do that with my previous post because it wasn’t as in-depth as this post.  This post does a deeper dive into content creation, so as a result I feel more comfortable inserting a Call to Action directly into the post.  But also notice that particular Call to Action is also relevant to the content of this post.  A thorough post about content creation and strategy included a relevant Call to Action for my Content Strategy Audit.  It’s not that you can’t sell and promote with your content, it’s that you need to do so smartly.  Think about this as you are creating your content, if you’re writing a blog post that does a deep dive into a particular topic associated with your business, then it could make sense to promote your white paper that you did on a similar topic.  If I’m interested in the topic of the post, I might be interested in reading your white paper about a complimentary topic.

Let’s look at a slightly different example.  LawnStarter is a startup that provides lawncare services such as mowing and trimming in select cities across the US.  On its blog, the Austin startup does a great job of creating posts that are focused on lawncare and travel in the cities it serves.  But it’s hit upon viral sensations with its posts on the most beautiful college and high school campuses around the country.  Here’s one example:

LawnStarter

There’s two very interesting elements to note about this post.  First, it’s gotten over 40,000 Likes on Facebook!  The second, note that just to the right of the post, is a very clear Call to Action letting you get $10 off your lawn mowing service.  What LawnStarter has done is create content that is somewhat (perhaps even loosely) related to its core business.  But that content has gone viral, which means people are reading the post, and when they do, they are being exposed to a clear offer to get $10 off a lawn mowing service.

If LawnStarter had written a post just about getting $10 off its lawn mowing service, would it have gotten over 40,000 Likes on Facebook?  Of course not, it wouldn’t have gotten 40 Likes without being boosted.  But by changing the focus of the content away from its services (lawn mowing) onto something related to its services (beautiful landscaping and high school campuses), the post becomes far more interesting. And since LawnStarter was smart enough to marry a clever and clear Call to Action next to that post, they will benefit greatly from its popularity.

And the best part about this Call to Action? You’re letting the customer choose the content (experience) they want.  If they just want to read the post and look at the cool pictures and videos, they can.  But if they come read your post, then want to learn more about LawnStarter and even do business with them, that option is readily available to them as well.

The Bottom Line

Your content should only be selling IF your reader is ready to buy.  If your content strategy is to use the content to build awareness for your business, then you have to take that into account when you create content.  The job is to attract attention, and you do that by creating content that focuses not on your products directly, but the connections those products have to your customers’ lives.

At the same time, great content that creates value for your readers has earned the right to add a Call to Action.  Think of it as the PBS pledge drive example; no one wants to sit through a 90-minute commercial for buying the concert DVD, but a lot of people are willing to watch 90 minutes of the concert, with a short 5-minute commercial for the DVD placed every 20-30 minutes.

It’s the same approach with your content.  If you create content that interests your reader and truly does help build awareness for your business, then you are also building desire.  By creating content that the reader finds interesting, you’ve also made your business more interesting to that reader.  So you should focus on giving them valuable content, but also think about how you can include relevant Calls to Action in and around your content that gives interested readers the ability to move closer to doing business with you, if they chose to.

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Using Science to Create Better Content

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There’s been a ton of research into the idea that ‘money can buy happiness’.  The consistent conclusion is that money can buy happiness, but it greatly depends on how you spend that money.  For example, purchases of an item do tend to have an impact on happiness.  However, that happiness is typically short-lived, and can actually have the opposite affect if the item becomes outdated or less useful.  Can you remember the excitement you had when you bought your first iPhone?  Probably not, because a few months later the next version of the iPhone came out, and yours was ‘old news’.

On the other hand, research into how purchases can drive happiness has found that when we spend our money on experiences, the happiness enjoyed is more long-term.  This happiness can be increased if we share those experiences with others.  For example, if a family purchases iPhones together, that happiness will be short-term because soon the technology will become obsolete.  Plus the purchase can even become a source of disappointment if friends and acquaintances purchase newer phones that have more functions and capabilities than the now outdated iPhones that your family owns.

But if that same family had instead spent that money on a trip to The Grand Canyon, they would not only enjoy happiness from the trip itself, but for the rest of their lives, they could share that experience and re-live it through story.  They could also share their experience with other people that had visited The Grand Canyon.  So the value of the trip and its impact upon the family’s happiness is long-term.  In many ways, the happiness that the family enjoys from the trip can actually increase over time.

So how can you apply this research into your content creation?  By focusing on the experiences associated with your product.  This applies even if you are selling a product such as a smartphone, or if you are selling a local destination.  My friends in the tourism industry have known the power of selling experiences for decades.  So if you actually are selling experiences such as a destination or a waterpark, or similar, then using the experiences with your content is much easier.

If you are instead selling an actual product, then create content that’s associated with the experiences involving that product.  Notice that Apple actually does this with its iPhone commercials.  Most are focused on how you could capture moments with the iPhone during your experiences.  Such as travel, a wedding, riding in a car, being with friends, etc.

Think about what you are selling, and consider the experiences that are associated with that product.  Or consider life-changing events, like a wedding, a graduation, a birthday.  How does your product relate to those experiences? A camera could take photos of the wedding, maybe a car could be a graduation gift.

The reality is, until a customer KNOWS that they want to buy your product, content that focuses on the product itself does not interest them.  And this is a disconnect because many companies subscribe to the ‘well people won’t know that they want my product unless I tell them about it’ theory.  People would rather hear about how your product fits into their lives.  Which is why you want to relate your product to the experiences that your customers enjoy.

That approach will earn their attention and make them consider that maybe they should buy your product.  Gain awareness by focusing on how the product relates to the customer first, then when they are ready to buy, shift to more product-centric content.

Pic via Flickr user Laura Hadden

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Five Signs Your Company is Ready For a Brand Ambassador Program

If this is your idea of a 'Brand Ambassador' then stop reading.
If this is your idea of a ‘Brand Ambassador’ then stop reading.

Just like not every company should be using social media, not every company should or can launch a Brand Ambassador program.  There are certain conditions that need to exist within your company before you can start planning out taking the leap of launching a Brand Ambassador program.  Here’s five things you should look for:

1 – Your company looks for and values direct communication with its customers.  Direct communication is vital for the success of a Brand Ambassador program, so if your company doesn’t value communication and feedback from its customers, that’s a big red flag.  Companies that are primed to launch a successful Brand Ambassador program understand the value of keeping open lines of communication with its customers and seek out their feedback.

2 – Your company already has programs in place that organize its customers.  This could be a referral or loyalty program, or something like a Brand Advisory Panel.  The existence of such programs is another sign that your company is comfortable working with its customers, which is a precursor to launching a full-scale Brand Ambassador program.

3 – Excellent customer service is a point of pride in your organization.  This shows that your company values its customers and their satisfaction.  It also shows that they understand that customers are more than simply a transaction, and that type of mentality is vital to the success of a Brand Ambassador program.

4 – Your company has a robust social media monitoring program in place as well as a structure for responding to customers.  This shows that your company is already used to actively monitoring what its customers are saying online, and is comfortable responding to these customers.  It also shows that your company has a better sense for who its customers are, since it is constantly interacting with them.  This makes it easier for them to identify existing fans and to understand them as well.

5 – Your fans are already proactively contacting your company.  A byproduct of having systems in place that allow direct interaction with your customers is that your most passionate customers (fans) will start reaching out proactively.  They are looking for ways to better connect with you and better help other customers learn about you and discover why they should love your brand as much as your fans do.

 

All of these signs point to a company that is comfortable connecting with its customers and understands the business value of doing so.  With many companies, they hear about the concept of a Brand Ambassador program and think ‘Hey! That would be awesome to have our customers out there selling for us and spreading positive Word of Mouth about us!’  Companies that actively connect with their customers understand that the value of these connections is far more than simply creating new salespeople.  These companies understand that communicating directly with customers and helping them increases customer loyalty.  And feedback from customers, which can be acted on to make marketing, product design and really all areas of the business more effective and efficient.

The companies that are truly ready to create an amazing Brand Ambassador program love their customers and are constantly looking for ways to create more value for them.  The companies that aren’t ready for a Brand Ambassador program are the ones that view their customers as transactions, not people.

Finally, any successful Brand Ambassador program has to have buy-in from the top.  Unless the CEO is on board with creating a Brand Ambassador program, it’s not happening.  A Brand Ambassador program is a long-term investment, and if done correctly, it works wonderfully well by creating value for your customers and at the same time giving your customers the tools and assets they need to create additional value for your company.  A true win-win scenario, but that only happens if your CEO is willing to view your customers as partners, not transactions.

 

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In a Hyper-Connected World, Trust Is More Important Than a Sale

ShoppingYears ago I spent a summer working as a vendor for a company that provided lawn care products to chains such as Lowe’s.  I was very lucky in that my trainer was a professional landscaper.  So instead of telling me how to sell the products, he understood his craft well enough to tell me how to solve problems for customers.  He would tell me which chemical was best for ridding a lawn of a certain insect, and then tell me which products (ours as well as competitors) had that chemical.

Then he taught me something even more important: He taught me that it was ok to tell customers that their best option was a product that we did not sell.  He said that these same customers would be coming back to this store, and if I told them the right product to buy to solve their problem (even if it was a competitor) that they would come back and buy more products from me.

As a vendor, my job through the week was to keep the shelves and displays stocked, then on Saturday I would be in the stores selling.   Basically I would be waiting on the aisle that had our products, helping customers that came by.  Usually, another vendor from our main competitor would be there.  Typically, when a customer would walk up to him the customer would tell them what type of bugs were in their lawn and the vendor would say ‘Well we have a product to get rid of them, here you go!’  When a customer would come up to me, instead I was taught to ask them more about their lawn so I could diagnose their problem.  Then I would educate them on the chemicals they needed and the products that had these chemicals.  And sometimes I convinced them to buy a competitor’s product, but better than that I gave them the product to solve their problem.  I was selling solutions to problems while the other guy was selling his products.  One day a customer came down our isle and the other vendor pounced “Can I help you?”, ‘Nope!”, replied the customer, “I want to talk to him!” and he pointed at me.  He then came over with his wife and explained to her that he had come in last week looking for a product (a competitor’s) and that I had convinced him to buy the product that worked.  He said he had come back cause he wanted to get rid of another type of insect, and this time my company did make the best product for that.

He came back because even though I hadn’t made the first sale, with that first sale I won his trust.  Which is far more important than winning the sale.  Trust creates more positive WOM than pushing a product that doesn’t solve the customers problem, just to make a sale.

You earn a customers’ trust by showing them that you care about them as people, not as a potential transaction.  When you solve a customers’ problem, you win their trust.  When you win their trust, you will have them as a customer for as long as you have their trust.  The huge additional benefit is that trust transfers.  If you win the trust of Betty, she will then go tell her friend Sarah about your brand.  Sarah doesn’t know or trust your brand, but she knows and trusts her friend Betty.  So when Betty suggests to Sarah that she should buy your brand, she buys your brand.  Trust transfers and spreads in a hyper-connected world like the one we live in.

What’s more important today: Making a sale, or winning your customer’s trust?

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What’s the Difference Between a Brand Ambassador Program and an Outreach Program?

Influencer Marketing and working with Brand Ambassadors are two of the hottest areas in marketing today, but they are completely different tactics often aimed at completely different audiences.  So what’s the difference?

A Brand Ambassador program is where the company and its customers (fans) have a sort of informal and ongoing relationship.  Typically, the participants in a Brand Ambassador program have signed up with the company, so they are raising their hands and telling the brand that they want to work directly with them.  Most Brand Ambassadors are compensated for their involvement.  That compensation could be in the form of cash, or products, or discounts on products, or greater access to the brand, or possibly all of the above.  The benefit to the brand is that it gives them a way to stay connected with its most passionate fans, so they can work with those fans to help them better promote the brand’s products to others, but also the brand can get valuable feedback from its ambassadors and apply that feedback to the business and product cycle.  The Brand Ambassador benefits by having a closer connection to a brand it loves and supports.  Often, Brand Ambassadors will get advance access to upcoming products or projects, and get to go ‘behind the scenes’ at the brand, and are given a level of access that the average customer could never gain.  If the Brand Ambassador program is organized and executed properly, there are clear and obvious benefits to both the brand and its Brand Ambassadors.

For example, Chick-Fil-A has a program where it works with moms, #ChickFilAMoms. It will send them coupons for certain items and also promote certain items to them (especially new menu items). CFA tries to get the moms to try the items, but they also want the moms to tell other moms about the products so they’ll give them coupons but also instructions on messaging, how to promote the items to other people, etc. The customers will also give feedback on the items and brand experience, and Chick Fil-A can then leverage that feedback for change (see Chick Fil-A launching a Mom’s Valet service for moms that bring kids to Chick Fil-A). Customers opt-in to be a part of the program, it’s all about having an ongoing relationship with fans that have raised their hands and told the brand that they want to help them.

Outreach programs are a bit different.  Typically, these inititiatives are designed to raise awareness among a particular group, often a group of influencers.  For example, if Chick-Fil-A wanted to work with influencers, what they might do was identify say 25 moms that were also ‘influencers’, and fly them into Atlanta and let them spend the day with their chefs, see how the food is prepared, maybe learn more about how CFA works with moms, etc.  As Janice Person explained in a recent MarketingSmarts podcast with Kerry Gorgone (Click to listen), Monsanto brings in foodie bloggers to its partner farms to give them a complete look at the process in bringing food from the field to the table, and along the way they also learn more about Monsanto’s role in helping to facilitate that process.  In both examples, the idea of the outreach is to educate the influencers with the hopes that they will then go and tell others about their experience.

And in that regard, both a Brand Ambassador program and an Outreach program are tactics to drive Word of Mouth.  The tactics are simply aimed at different audiences.  With a Brand Ambassador program, you’re working with an audience (your existing customers) that loves your brand and who is already spreading Word of Mouth about your brand.  You want to work with these customers to help them do a better job of this as well as working with them to gain better product feedback from customers they interact with.  With an Outreach program, you’re dealing with an Influencer that has often built a large and (ideally) engaged online following, and you want to expose them to your brand so that they can share their experiences with their networks.  So the Outreach program is a brand awareness tool as well.

Another way to think of the difference is, an Outreach program is a good way to build awareness for a new product line or initiative, whereas a Brand Ambassador program is a good way to increase the marketing efforts of your customers around an established brand.

Is your company looking for a kick-ass Content Marketing Manager? I’m in the market!  Here’s my details, please email me if you have a remote opening! 

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This Is Why Your Brain Hates Case Studies

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Companies (and their agencies) love sharing case studies. They can be great PR for your business, but they typically aren’t the best way for your brain to learn.

Let’s be honest: Case studies are shared to promote the company and sometimes its agency or partners.  They aren’t positioned as learning tools, they are positioned as promotional tools.  And there’s nothing wrong with that, if a company has done good work and wants to toot its own horn, they should feel fine doing so.

I’m currently looking for a job, most specifically, a Content Marketing Manager or similar position (if you’re hiring, here’s my information).  In talking to B2B companies and agencies, one of the most common needs I am hearing from companies hiring for this position is “We are looking for someone that can help share our client success stories in order to grow our business”.  For B2B companies and agencies, this sharing of case studies makes perfect sense, because it’s proof of concept.

But often, these case studies aren’t positioned in a way that encourages learning.  Too often, case studies are shared, results are given, and takeaways provided. Unfortunately, this isn’t the best way to teach your brain the core concepts that drove success for the case study.  It helps the reader understand the case study, but it doesn’t help the reader understand how to apply the same core concepts to its own business.

Let’s say that your business sells productivity software.  If you share a case study from how your software helped a big-box chain retailer, the reader is going to understand how your software helps in that particular situation.  What you need to do is also share hypothetical or abstract examples that would be more relevant to your targeted audience.  For example, if you want to attract more software clients from the manufacturing industry, you could share your case study from the big-box retailer, but add to it a hypothetical example or two from the manufacturing industry.  Give an example of how a potential client in this space could use your software in the same way as the big-box retailer did.  The added relevance will help the potential client in the manufacturing industry understand how your software could help THEM.

By offering both case studies and hypothetical examples, you make it easier for the brain to both spot and learn the core concepts.  If you only offer the case study, then the brain will learn why the case study worked, but it won’t fully grasp the core concepts, because you are only sharing them in one environment (the case study).  But when you offer the case study AND hypothetical examples, it becomes much easier for the brain to detect (and learn!) the core concept that flows through both the case study and your examples.

The best part? When you marry a great case study with relevant examples that facilitate learning, then you drive more engagement and more interest in your business.  It becomes far easier to see the benefits of working with your business, which also drives more leads.

So if your business wants to make better use of its client case studies, focus on adding relevant hypothetical examples that facilitate learning of the core concepts.  This helps the reader understand why they should work with you and will greatly improve the efficiency of your content marketing efforts.

Or you can just hire me to do it for you!

Pic via Pixabay