With 115.8 million US smartphone owners and 54.8 million US tablet owners estimated by eMarketer in 2012, how we shop is changing.

Using multiple devices, particularly smartphones and tablets, at different steps of the purchase process is an emerging trend. [Here's more mobile shopping data.]

While a 1Q2012 Viacom study found US tablet owners used their devices at home three quarters of the time, don’t underestimate the importance of tablets in the purchase process.  Roughly one third explicitly used tablets in stores.

80% of North American online shoppers used their tablet to research and/or purchase products online according to Local Corporation research conducted by the e-tailing group.

Nielsen research is consistent, showing that about four out of  five smartphone and tablet owners use their devices at some point during the shopping process. Closer examination of the data shows that consumers use their devices to gather and purchase products as they did with computers; their activities vary by device.

Specifically, tablets are used throughout the purchase process: they’re where customers turn for product research and reviews, where customers buy, and where customers communicate post purchase via social media reviews and comments. By contrast, consumers use their smartphones for on-the-go shopping-related information such as finding store locations, product prices and coupons.

Applications are increasingly used by shoppers according to Kantar Media/Compete research. Retailers’ apps are preferred by a significant percentage of consumers, more than those seeking coupons! 

Local Corporation’s research conducted by the etailing group provides more granular insights into how consumers use tablets during the shopping process. As a content consumption device, tablets offer consumers many ways to research and buy products online.

What does this smartphone and tablet shopping behavior mean for marketers?

1. Have a mobile optimized website. Customers don’t like to scroll through your regular slow loading website to get shopping information when they’re out and about. Actionable Mobile Marketing Tip: Think streamlined information and quick load times on mobile devices.
2. Ensure prospects can find you on mobile search. Since prospects use their smartphones when they’re on-the-go and close to purchase, it’s critical to be findable. Actionable Mobile Marketing Tip: Include your physical address and phone number.
3. Offer a mobile coupon to close the deal. If they’re checking for deals before they buy, your coupon may sway the deal. Assess how much of a discount you should offer to ensure that you maintain your profit margins. Actionable Mobile Marketing Tip: When offering a special deal, use it as an opportunity to capture a mobile phone number and/or email address in exchange.
4. Determine whether you need a mobile application alternative. With the growth of mobile applications and consumers’ preference for retailer apps, it’s important to assess if your customers want one. If you’re not sure, check what your competitors are doing and ask your customers if they’d like one. Actionable Mobile Marketing Tip: Don’t overlook the need to promote your application and its use.
5. Use post purchase communications to drive engagement. If you’ve captured customer email addresses or mobile numbers, use them to check if they’re satisfied. If so, get them to leave a review and, if not, find out why and try to make good. Actionable Mobile Marketing Tip: Take engagement one step further and upsell customers.

With increased smartphone and tablet ownership, consumers are adapting their shopping to leverage the advantages these devices provide, whether they’re at home, in the office or in your store. To convert these prospects, it’s important to provide them with the information they seek and to make effective offers when they’re ready to buy.

What other mobile, smartphone and tablet, shopping recommendations would you add and why?

Happy marketing,
Heidi Cohen

Here are some related articles of interest.

• Understanding mobile content consumption. [Research]
• 7 Reasons you need mobile marketing now!
• Mobile and Search 

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/morning-theft/3355875232/

Smartphones & Tablets: How We Shop Now [Research] – © 2011, Heidi Cohen. This post originally appeared on Heidi Cohen on May 16, 2012.

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Search optimization is a critical component of every marketing plan because it extends the reach of online and offline content and interactions. [Here's some SEO tips to start.]

Search engines are where consumers go to get their questions answered 24/7 via computers, smartphones and tablets and how you optimize for that behavior influences the purchase process at each step including offline advertising, content and events, as well as in-store questions. As a result, your firm must appear when and where your audience seeks information related to your offering. The challenge is ensuring your search optimization is on track for success.

To help, here are the suggestions of fifteen search optimization experts with a variety of different approaches.

1. Too often, marketers don’t focus on the end goal. In The B2B Social Media Book we talk about about focusing on revenue for the results of your social media efforts and not awareness, positive sentiment, followers or other top of the funnel metrics. We have seen too often marketers obsessing about where they rank for a particular keyword regardless of how that keywords helps to contribute to their revenue goals. Quite often keywords can send a high amount of website visitors that convert poorly into leads and customers. Focusing on these types of keywords is a major mistake.  Kipp Bodnar, Inbound Marketing Strategist at HubSpot (@KippBodner) and Jeffrey L. Cohen, Social Strategist at Salesforce Radian6 (@JeffreyLCohen) Co-authors of The B2B Social Media Book: Become a Marketing Superstar by Generating Leads with Blogging, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Email, and More.
2. The biggest mistake I see many good marketers make is having great blogs without any optimization.  Lisa Buyer – The Buyer Group (@LisaBuyer).
3. People place too much emphasis on ranking. Barely anyone uses actual data to determine what people are using to find their products or services. The same is true for determining success once a visitor lands on your site.Conceptually, this is all very simple:
   1. Determine what words people are actually using to find products and services in your vertical. (Or, if you’re a blogger, the categories that you write about).
   2. Optimize on-page content toward those keywords, keeping in mind to write for humans, not engines. Gear your marketing efforts towards your quality content and offer incentives to share your content on-page.
   3. Set goals and measure conversions. Too many people don’t look at the right data afterwards. Thousands of visitors who don’t buy is not good. Thousands of visitors who buy your loss-leader or least profit-generating products isn’t much better. Handfuls of visitors who buy your highest profit margin items does wonders for your bottom line.  All visitors are not created equal. But you can sure pigeon hole them by groupings. Determine which visitor segments give you the best results and fine-tune toward that audience. Determine why other segments aren’t performing and make the right adjustments to change them from browsers to buyers.  Thom Craver - Rochester Institue of Technology (@ThomCraver)
4. SEO has been undergoing some radical changes in the past few years, to the point that here at DragonSearch we say “old school” and “new school” SEO. Old School SEO is that myopic focus on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) – “how are we ranking for this competitive key phrase?” Instead, in New School SEO, we focus on the traffic that is brought to our sites using a wider range of key phrases – and how that traffic behaves on our site (is it relevant traffic?). Ric Dragon – Dragon Search and author of Social Marketology (@RicDragon).
5. Too much or too little. Once people learn about SEO they go in one direction or the other.  The “too much” crowd gets obsessed and start looking for every possible tweak to squeak out one little ranking gain or another.  This is a little bit like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.  There are too many big thing happening in Internet marketing to spend your time tweaking and re-tweaking title tags over and over again, or creating boatloads of new pages to thin slice on every conceivable search phrase.  Some of this is healthy, but many people go way to far with it.  Most of your efforts should remain on the bigger picture on why your business is special and making sure that the world (and the search engines) know it.

   The “too little” crowd oversimplifies what SEO really is. They may do a complete redesign of their website and then ask the SEO team to come in and do their SEO wizardry, as if it were some magic pixie dust you can sprinkle on after the fact. It does not work that way, and as the old saying goes, “you can do it right, or you can do it over”. Or, they may ignore the promotional side of SEO, and focus only on the on page factors.  On page factors are primarily about establishing relevance, and promotion (links and social media mentions) is the main driver of rankings.  You need both to get the impact you are probably looking for!  Eric Enge – Stone Temple Consulting Corporation  and co-author of The Art of SEO with Stephan Spencer, Jessie Stricchiola and Rand Fishkin (@StoneTemple).

6. The biggest mistake I see many marketers making with search optimization is a check-the-box approach to a laundry list of what they think are once-and-done tactics (e.g., tags-check, keyword content-check, links-check, etc.).  As algorithms and ranking factors continue to evolve, marketers need to take a strategic, integrated and on-going approach to leveraging multi-channel tactics for search optimization success.  That means integrating SEO with PPC as well as with blogging, social media, content marketing, video and mobile. This holistic, strategic marketing approach leads not only to search success but to better down the funnel conversion/ROI success as well. Marc Engelsman – Digital Brand Expressions (@marc_engelsman).
7. The biggest mistake that I see marketers making with SEO is to leave it in the same spot in the company’s org chart where it was put 12 years ago.  Back then, SEO required technical skills in order to be effective.  But, most of the popular methods used to improve rankings in November 2000 – when AltaVista was the leading search engine – are now considered “illicit practices that may lead to a site being removed entirely from the Google index.”  On May 16, 2007, Google took its critical first steps toward a universal search model that incorporated videos, images, news, maps, books, and websites into a single set of results.  So, there should have been a reorg five years ago that put SEOs in the same group with the company’s PR people.  Then, earlier this year on Jan. 10, 2012, Google introduced Search, plus Your World.  This transformed Google yet again into a search engine that understands not only content, but also people and relationships.  This means SEOs need to sit next to community managers in order to be effective today.  So, it’s time for another reorg. Greg Jarboe – SEO-PR and author of YouTube Marketing An Hour A Day (@gregjarboe).
8. Not using web analytics or consistently studying web analytics. You have no idea what is or is not working if you are not looking closely at visitor behavior.Ron Jones – Symetri Internet Marketing and author of Keyword Intelligence (@Ron_Jones).
9. Marketers sometimes fall for risky link-building schemes that violate Google guidelines and lead to penalties.  Make sure you practice safe organic link building, adding only links that are merit-based, relevant, and non-transactional. Chris Keating, VP, SEO and Conversion Optimization – Performics.
10. That search is set it and forget it. It’s not. Search engine algorithms change, content is constantly updated, topical trends come and go. Search is ever evolving, which means SEO efforts can’t sleep. They also can’t be an afterthought – they have to be baked into digital planning from the get-go.   Rebecca Lieb – Altimeter Group and author of The Truth About Search Engine Optimization  and Content Marketing (@lieblink).
11. Over-reliance on shortcuts or tactics that have nothing to do with customer acquisition and everything to do with moving the needle on SEO  based KPIs like rankings on certain keywords or how many specific anchor text links were acquired.Consumers expect a lot out of search engines and marketers, along with Google and Bing, need to deliver more in order to keep their attention. That means more than keywords and links. SEO has to fit within brand messaging, empathy with customer needs and product storytelling. Search is not mutually exclusive of consumer interactions with other media. The customer journey to purchase can be very diverse and search can play a minor or the only role in that experience. The mistake is when marketers think that SEO is the only way their customers can be reached. orks through search can increase subscribers, fans, friends and followers. Lee Odden - President, TopRankMarketing.com and author of Optimize (@LeeOdden).
12. Over-optimizing. There are no shortcuts in SEO. Although traditional SEO tactics, such as on-page optimization, are still essential, concentrate your efforts on generating inbound links, traffic and leads through remarkable content and social media participation.  Paul Roetzer – CEO, PR 20/20 and author of The Marketing Agency Insider (@paulroetzer).
13. 1. Not giving their SEO campaign enough time! SEO is a long term and ongoing process. Depending on a variety of factors, it might be 6-9 months before you really see the effects of your SEO kick in. SEO is not for the impatient, so you have to be willing to make a move and then wait it out. Changing direction too often because you’re impatient won’t make your SEO campaign any better.
    2. Not taking a rounded approach to Internet marketing as whole. SEO is important, but without traditional link building, onsite SEO, social media marketing and content marketing all working together, your SEO efforts are eventually going to plateau. Get your SEO out of the silo and involved with the rest of your marketing efforts. Nick Stamoulis – President, Brick Marketing  (@NickStamoulis).
14. I think the biggest mistakes in SEO involve believing the myths and the hype, and then allowing those beliefs to cloud your judgments. For example, how many times have we read that you have to constantly update your website because search engine algorithms change all of the time, or that you have to add content almost every day due to the “freshness” part of the algorithm? Believe it or not, there are SEO best practices that have existed since the mid-to-late 90s that are just as applicable today as they were almost 20 years ago. Having that solid and usable SEO foundation is the key to long-term, sustainable search engine visibility.

    The hard part? Getting people to build the foundation. For some, it’s a baby step. For others, it is a giant leap. Shari Thurow – Founder and SEO Director, Omni Marketing Interactive and author of When Search Meets Web Usability (@sharithurow).

Search optimization is challenge for many businesses since it touches many different areas. Unlike other aspects of the marketing mix that are totally controlled by the marketing department, search optimization requires combines technology, content and marketing.

What would you add  in terms of the biggest mistake you see marketers making with search optimization? What do you recommend they do about it?

Happy marketing,
Heidi Cohen

Here are some related articles you may find of interest:

• 15 SEO experts give their best blogging advice.
• 15 SEO experts give their best social media optimization advice
• Mobile Search: 15 SEO Experts Give Their Advice [Research]

The Biggest Search Optimization Mistake Marketers Make – © 2011, Heidi Cohen. This post originally appeared on Heidi Cohen on May 15, 2012.

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Content marketing, regardless of what marketers call it, is the most popular digital marketing strategy according to Chief Marketer’s March 2012 online survey of US marketers. Closer examination of the Chief Marketer research as reported by eMarketer shows email, social media and search are at the top of the list for mainstream marketers with a third using video.  Further, marketers’ focus on content is strongly correlated with supporting sales, optimizing their owned content for search and helping social media. 

What’s a marketer to do? Develop a plan to get your content marketing on track. According to hotel consultant Max Starkov of HeBS Digital, courtesy of eMarketer, content marketing is smaller hotels’ secret weapon to compete against big online travel agencies like Expedia that outspend them on search. Show your hotel off and answer customer questions to stand out from the pack. For a 130 US hotels Marriott franchisee, Starkov’s team created effective content that outperformed its peers on Marriott’s site by a third.

Regardless of what type of content marketing you’re using now or plan to add to your mix, here are eleven steps to get you on track.

1. Determine your business objectives. What do you want your content marketing to accomplish? Top on most marketers’ list are build your brand, attract new prospects and convert prospects to customers. Underestimated content marketing goals include post sales support, customer retention and advocacy (aka fans).
2. Know your audience. These are the people who use your product and the people who influence them. Think in terms of who you’re trying to communicate with and when. What questions are they looking to get answered? Where do they look for information and what devices do they use?
3. Understand your competitors. Purchase decisions don’t happen in a vacuum. Take off your blinders and pay attention to what your competitors are doing. Assess are their relative strengths and weaknesses so you can distinguish your products. Remember the firms that your customers view as your competitors may not be your direct competitors.
4. Find your organization’s stories. This is critical since people remember stories not a bunch of facts. Think across your organization including your product, sales and customer service staff. Don’t underestimate your customers’ stories related to your product.
5. Plan your content. Assess where you need to place content and how to use a story across different media formats and platforms. Also consider who will create it. It’ useful to have an editorial calendar.
6. Integrate your brand into your content. Think beyond the logo. Your brand needs to come through even if the content is on different sites. It’s the colors and language used as well as the spokesperson and how they’re dressed.
7. Optimize your content for search. Remember that one of the reasons marketers use content is to support their search optimization efforts. This means focusing on a set of keyword terms and linking to other sites as well as to other aspects of your own site or blog. Also, associate text with photographs and videos.
8. Distribute your content. Having the best content doesn’t do you any good unless people are exposed to it. Plan how you’ll distribute it across your owned platforms. This includes your website, emailings and your blog.
9. Be where your customers are now! Join the social media conversation to engage with your prospects and customers as well as to distribute your content marketing. Allow readers to comment on your content and respond to them to answer their questions.
10. Socialize your content. At a minimum, incorporate social sharing buttons so your readers can extend the reach of your content.
11. Measure your content marketing results.  As with any marketing strategy, it’s important to track your results back to your initial business goals. To help your content marketing to drive sales, it’s useful to integrate a call-to-action and a trackable promotion code.

Content marketing encompasses a variety of formats. Every marketer is challenged creating sufficient information to answer customer questions and to set the business apart from its competitors.

What would you add to this content marketing list and why?

Happy marketing,
Heidi Cohen

Here are some related articles.

• The one reason you need content marketing 
• 42 Ways to Attract Shoppers With Relevant Information

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/puuikibeach/3242828279/

11 Tips to Get Your Content Marketing on Track [Research] – © 2011, Heidi Cohen. This post originally appeared on Heidi Cohen on May 14, 2012.

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Bloggers are a lot like mothers. We put our hearts and souls into our blogs and want them to succeed. But the problem is that often we’re too close to them to see obvious errors that hold them back from reaching their full potential.

Sound like your blog? If so, here are eleven mom-inspired tips to transform your blog into something your target audience will love forever.

1. Sit up straight. Just as good posture helps your body, give your blog a platform on which to grow. Like leaving home, there’s a time to put your blog on it’s own domain. In other words move off of WordPress.com and Blogger.com. Get your own URL and self-host WordPress. Think about your blog’s name and how your target readers will think about it. Is it something people can spell or is it confusing? Can they type it easily?
2. Eat your vegetables. Integrate appropriate blog plugins to make your blog more effective. Like the way spinach provides vitamins. Not sure what to select, here’s a list of twenty useful plugins, even if you’re not a geek. In addition, leverage the search benefits of blogging to help your content get found. This means focusing each post on one or two keyword phrases.
3. Clean up your room. Instead of picking up your toys and dirty clothes, think in terms of blog design. If your blog’s still lounging in a basic theme design, you’re limiting its ability to grow. This applies to your layout and overall content presentation. Remember don’t cram so much stuff on your blog that it causes readers to leave.
4. Dress your blog for success.  Make you blog look distinctive. Do you want to drive readers to your blog? If so, it needs a recognizable look. Need help? Here are some tips for building you blog’s brand.
5. Get the hair out of your eyes and allow readers see your face. Let readers know who you are. Include an About section along with a photograph. Present this section in line with your brand.
6. Speak up so people can hear you. Create compelling content. To this end, it’s helpful to use an editorial calendar. To get readers to stop and consume your content, it’s important to have great headlines that pull them in.
7. Watch your language. What mother likes foul language and poor usage? Unless it’s part of your brand like Erica Napolitano’s Redhead Ranting where readers are disappointed if she doesn’t drop an f-bomb, think about your blog’s language. Do you have a specific way you write your blog posts? Don’t underestimate the need for a copy editor or at least a second opinion. How do you incorporate photographs, videos and presentations?
8. Call your mother. Like calling your mom to let her know you care, it’s important to stay in touch with your readers. Offer email and RSS delivery options. Also promote your blog on internal content venues such as on-going emailings, website and other collateral like catalogs.
9. Play well with the other blogs. This translates to guest blogging where you create targeted content for other blogs, link to other blogs to reference them, and comment on other blogs.
10. Share your toys with other children. Let your content socialize by making it easy for readers to share you content on social media. Alternatively, you can get permission to repost other people’s blog posts such as Business-2-Community does. (Remember: posting someone else’s content as your own is plagiarism and scraping someone’s content without permission is copyright infringement.)
11. Get good grades. What mother doesn’t want her child to succeed? Similarly you want your blog to be a success relative to your goals. To that end, gather your blog’s metrics and adjust your strategy to achieve your goals.

The bottom line is that every blog can benefit from some love and care. To make your blog break through you can’t be a nag. You need to provide readers with the information they’re seeking and present it so they have confidence in you.

What would you add to this list and why?

Happy Mothers’ Day!

Happy marketing,
Heidi Cohen

Here are some related articles to help you.

• 11 Tactics to Optimize Your Blog.
• 3 Secrets to Being an A-List Blogger [Infographic included]
• 31 Ways to Make Your Blog Stand Out

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kryten/125710155/

11 Tips to Take Your Blog From Fix-it-Upper to Fantastic – © 2011, Heidi Cohen. This post originally appeared on Heidi Cohen on May 13, 2012.

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On social media platforms not all shared content is equal. As in real life, some social shares are more effective at achieving marketing goals than others.

As marketers are continually challenged to create sufficient content, how do you maximize the effectiveness of each piece of content marketing regardless of whether it’s a Facebook update, a tweet or a blog post? As any accounting student can tell you the answer is “It depends.” [Here are some general social sharing tips.]

To extend your content marketing’s reach and life, study research from Bit.ly, Hubspot’s Dan Zarella and Buddy Media. (Understand that each firm’s research is different and isn’t entirely comparable. Taken together, however, they provide useful insights.)

Facebook

With Facebook’s usage across age groups, research shows that people view it as a personal platform.

1. Have lunch with Facebook. Bit.ly found links posted between 1:00 pm and 4:00 pm, the lunch hour across US time zones, had the highest click-throughs, peaking on Wednesdays at 3.00 pm.
2. Think me time for retail posting. Consistent with Bit.ly’s findings, roughly 90% of retail brand posts are made between 8:00 am and 7:00 pm according to Buddy Media. This makes sense since this is when marketers and consumers are working. Wednesday’s the best day for retail Facebook posts based on Buddy Media results. While Bit.ly found links posted at night didn’t attract as much attention, those people that are reached may have more time to engage. Similarly, Dan Zarella found that Saturday was the best time for sharing content, especially if you’re looking to break away from the pack.
3. Less is more for post frequency. Posting less than three times a day increases Facebook fan engagement 40%. Further, keeping posts to under five times a week increased consumer engagement over 70%, based on Buddy Media research. Similarly, Dan Zarella found that likes declined when posts increase.
4. Kiss theory applies. Keep it short and simple. Don’t make prospects think. Use dollars off versus a percentage off to double engagement according to Buddy Media.
5. Leave room in the conversation for prospects. Buddy Media found posts containing questions doubled interaction and posts containing fill-in-the-blanks increased engagement ninefold.

Twitter

Unlike Facebook, Twitter tends to be used for business related engagement and the research in terms of when to tweet confirms this. [Here's more research on Twitter content.]

1. Come tweet with me. Twitter activity peaks between 9:00 am and 3:00pm according to bit.ly while click count is highest from 1:00pm through 3:00 pm Monday through Thursday. As a marketer or blogger, you must assess the tradeoff between the number of people who are active versus your tweet’s ability to break-through the noise.
2. Click me baby. If you’re looking for higher click-through rates (aka CTRs), then tweet later in the day and on the weekends according to Dan Zarella’s infographic on his website. While on the surface this goes against bit.ly’s advice due to the number of active participants, it focused on getting more activity from each tweet. [Here's more research on making each tweet count.]
   

Tumblr

The age of Tumblr participants shows through its activity. Most of its users are between 12 and 25 based on comScore data and activity as reported by bit.ly confirms this. 

1. Hoping for clicks? Since Tumblr’s core users are in school during the day, post after 7:00 pm to generate more click-throughs over a twenty-four hour period since traffic peaks between 7:00 pm and 10:00 pm on Mondays, Tuesdays and Sundays.
2. Partying yet? No surprise this young platform’s deserted on Friday and Saturday nights.

Blog

With blogging, your business objectives are a critical determinant for publishing since results vary.

1. Looking for Mr. Goodreader? 70% of readers consume blogs in the morning peaking at 11:00 am US Eastern time and Monday’s the best day to post in terms of pageviews according to Dan Zarella via Kissmetrics.
2. Optimizing posts for links. If so, Mondays and Thursdays are your best bet with activity peaking at 7:00 am based on Dan Zarella’s findings delivered via Kissmetrics.
3. Seeking blog comments? Comments peak on Saturdays and at 9:00 am according to Dan Zarella. This makes sense since readers take the time to think and engage when writing’s involved, so they do it when they’re not working. (Of course, it’s critical to consider that 90% of your audience lurks, 9% of your does something small and 1% creates content.) For bloggers, the business question is how do comments (especially those that read “Nice post”) translate to revenue and other important business information?

If you’re looking to minimize content creation and maximize social media impact, it’s critical to post your content on different social media platforms taking into account how and when users engage on each one. To this end, it’s important to align these activities with your business goals and editorial calendar.

Have you seen other research regarding social media timing? How would you change your marketing based on this information?

Happy marketing,
Heidi Cohen

Here are related articles you may find of interest.

• Share the social media love-21 tips to show you care  
• Twitter etiquette: 24 Guidelines
• Why isn’t anyone following me on Twitter?

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alancleaver/2661425133/

On Social Media Timing Is Everything! [Research] – © 2011, Heidi Cohen. This post originally appeared on Heidi Cohen on May 11, 2012.

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As marketing students graduate and start their first jobs, they bring a fresh perspective to businesses. Similarly, marketers can take this same approach to assess 2012’s opportunities and challenges to maximize their marketing effectiveness before the holiday push and budget season begins. [Hint: Mobile, social media and content marketing are on the list!] 

2012 Marketing opportunities

Here are five marketing opportunities to help take your business to the next level.

1. Mobilize your business on smartphones and tablets. If you haven’t jumped onto mobile, do it now! Smartphone and tablet penetration are changing how your target audience engages with social media, consumes content and shops for a wide range of products. Your firm must be visible when consumers are ready to engage with or buy from you. At minimum, develop a mobile website streamlined for an on-the-go mobile experience, implement a mobile search strategy separate from your computer search, and deliver email optimized for mobile devices.
2. Give your brand a 360 degree transformation. With the range of media and customer interactions available in today’s social media savvy, connected environment, your brand must deliver a consistent image based on tangible and intangible attributes across a variety of formats, online, offline and in real life.
3. Become your organization’s publisher by expanding your content marketing. Use your content marketing to support sales at every step of the process, before, during and after the transaction. Remember social media feeds on content marketing! Think broadly across platforms, both online and offline, including owned, social media and third party media. Integrate your 360 degree brand into your content across media formats. Bear in mind that you can reach out to others in your organization to help develop the content.
4. Leverage social media participation to drive sales. While many firms find that social media helps expand their reach and improve brand recognition, they’re often baffled as to how to take the next step to drive sales. To support these efforts, incorporate a relevant call-to-action, optimized landing pages, and streamlined purchase process. [For more details, check out seven steps to get your social media selling.]
5. Enable consumers to transact business wherever they are. [Check out this research to see where and what people buy via mobile devices.] Prospective customer use your retail establishment to examine products regardless of where they ultimately buy; they consider this shopping experience the way people use print catalogs. Further, while in your store, they check the price and other purchase details on their smartphone.  Therefore you must be ready to close the deal once your prospect is ready where and how they want to do it. This can be in-person, on the phone, on a computer or via a mobile device. Further you may need to offer a mobile coupon to close the deal.

2012 Marketing challenges

Here are five of 2012’s top marketing challenges.

1. Create sufficient content marketing. Despite the ever-increasing amount of content available from diverse sources, marketers continually need new, fresh content. Your content must resonate with your audience. Further it must be optimized for search and be consumable for social media.
2. Keep your finger on social media’s pulse 24/7. Be present on appropriate social media platforms and build your following. Understand you don’t need to respond to every comment and interaction, but you do need to know when and how to respond to issues. Further, your responses must reflect your brand and require consistency across your organization. Therefore you need to have real-time responses ready and train your staff. [Here’s help avoiding a PR crisis.]
3. Optimize internal platforms to convert prospects. Your business’ functionality, including your website, sales team and customer service, must be able to convert warm leads and prospects into paying customers with the least friction possible. This means linking to product and tailored landing pages as close to a streamlined purchase process as possible. Bear in mind that extra steps or long load times can cause prospects to leave.
4. Create and track actionable social media metrics including sales. Effective social media metrics that associate marketing with revenues still elude most businesses. Determine your success metrics when you create your strategy and ensure that your tracking systems can capture and analyze your results.
5. Build your own database. The use of social media platforms hinders marketers ability to create useable housefiles with customer contact information since the customer information is held by the social media site. As a result, marketers must coax prospects to their own sites to gather their information. This is complicated by the fact that many customers are concerned about privacy and other related data issues. While big data and cloud computing have come into their own in 2012 especially with trackable social media information, the marketing challenge is capturing the relevant data, cleansing it and converting it into useful business intelligence.

While implementing marketing strategies around these opportunities and challenges will extend beyond 2012, they’ll help get your business on track to succeed.

What opportunities or challenges would you add to this list and why?

Happy marketing,
Heidi Cohen

Here are some related articles you may find of interest.

•  The one social media metric you need
• The one reason you need content marketing 
• 2012 Mobile research

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/schluesselbein/3111180478/

2012 Marketing Checkup [Mobile, Social Media & Content Marketing Included] – © 2011, Heidi Cohen. This post originally appeared on Heidi Cohen on May 10, 2012.

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When it comes to social media, marketers can’t help making mistakes. [Check out When Social Media Goes Bad.] In their rush to embrace this hot marketing format or promote their latest campaign, marketers forget everything they’ve learned about social media and ignore its rules assuming this one time won’t matter. But it does, especially to the social media participants they’re trying to reach.

Here are ten social media mistakes marketers can’t help making because social media differs from the way they’ve always done marketing.

1. Assume social media participants are waiting for their pearls of wisdom. Understand consumers are on social media platforms to interact with family and friends, not merchants. Wanting to be part of the conversation isn’t enough to qualify. You must engage and interact with people to become part of the community. Many social media followers only want your discount.
2. Use language stripped of anything remotely sounding like a person. While social media requires a human voice, many marketers and marcom professionals are so accustomed to using corporate-speak that it spills into their social media communications.
3. Yell me, me, me.  Just focusing your social media communications on your firm, products and brands is the surest way to turn prospects off. The one exception is discounts. Take a lesson from your mother, who while she’s interested in what you’re doing, really only wants you to listen to what she has to say.
4. Broadcast one-way communications.  No surprise here because we’re programmed to use media to blast our messages to our target audience. Social media, by contrast, offers two way and multi-directional communication. Therefore engage in the conversation and limit business promotions to one out of ten exchanges.
5. Treat social media as one time campaign. Unlike traditional media, social media is an on-going exchange. Don’t run your campaign and move on to the next. Old Spice’s The Man Your Man Could Be video campaign did this when the brand moved on to another spokesperson instead of taking Isaiah Mustafa’s videos to the next level with weekly videos or newsletters. Continue to build on your past conversations. Similarly, don’t build a following for a one-time event and abandon it like LeBron James did.
6. Follow the crowds to next shiny object. It’s fun to work with the latest social media platform that attracts attention just because it’s the hot new thing. Instead determine what social media forms are best for your business, long term. For example, it’s easy to make the case for using Facebook since its got massive numbers in terms or participants and time spent. Yet the critical question is what’s the long term impact on your brand, audience and profitability. By contrast, blogs directly support your sales by answering product related questions, linking to your products, supporting search optimization, and providing content to attract readers.
7. Neglect to integrate social media with rest of marketing. Social media marketing doesn’t exist alone in a silo. Don’t focus only on the conversations about your products and brands. The Old Spice campaign was part of a larger branding campaign. Integrate appropriate keywords and phrases, targeted landing pages, and optimized sales pages to support sales and drive prospects to purchase your products.
8. Skip promoting your social media presence. You’re not finished after you create your social media page, blog or video. You must let your target market know about it. Leverage internal media including your website, emailings and offline marketing including packaging, to promote your social media efforts. Also, include social sharing to broaden your reach.
9. Forget to give credit when and where it’s due. Taking recognition for work or comments that aren’t yours on social media is wrong.  Just because something appears on the Internet doesn’t mean that you can use it! This applies to ideas, posts, photographs, videos and other information. It can be plagiarism as well as copyright infringement. When in doubt, ask permission to use the content.
10. Blend personal and professional social media interactions. While it can be difficult to separate personal social media engagement from professional ones, it’s critical to do so. Never communicate anything you wouldn’t want your significant other, parents, children or employers to see. While you may have rigorous privacy settings, others connected to you may not. The Internet never forgets. So your communications are available for your colleagues and future employers to see. [Here’s more information on the topic.]

While social media provides marketers with new ways to engage with their target audience and achieve their business goals, it requires marketers to play by new, unstated rules, many of which are contrary to how marketers have done business for years.

What other social media mistakes would you add to this list and why? Please include your answers in the comment section below.

Happy marketing,
Heidi Cohen

Here are some related articles.

• Ask not what social media can do for your company.
• How to fail at social media by not really trying.

Photo credit: http://www.thelogorunner.com/blog/free-social-bookmarking-icons/

10 Social Media Mistakes Marketers Can’t Help Making – © 2011, Heidi Cohen. This post originally appeared on Heidi Cohen on May 9, 2012.

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No one cares about your latest press release especially on social media. Built on a pay-it–forward and play well with others, social media can’t be approached with a “What’s in it for me?” (aka WII-FM) attitude. To attract attention on social media, change your approach from pushing press releases to being a go-to resource.

Using social media for PR is about building a community around your business and creating content your audience wants. Here are ten social media tactics for PR that focus on how you can help others on social media while building relationships for your clients.

1. Get rid of the one-size-fits-all pitch. Don’t assume journalists are waiting for your fill-in-the-blank releases without requesting them. As an experienced journalist and blogger, let me tell you that they feel like spam and get deleted as soon as they appear in my inbox. (Check out the views of Social Media Explorer’s Jason Falls on email pitches.) Only use your old-fashioned press pitches for regulatory reporting reasons.
2. Build a social media following. Engage on a variety of social media platforms and expand your circle of acquaintances. Connect with family, friends and business colleagues. Actively participate in the conversation, such as Twitter chats and Meetups. Your goal is to have a base of followers and associates who can help you spread your message when needed. Remember, social media is a two way street where reciprocity matters. For example, Ford’s Scott Monty was able to diffuse a potential PR crisis because he had a large Twitter following and he sent 138 tweets in one day.
3. Become a go-to resource. Take a page from Peter Shankman, founder of Help-A-Reporter, and help get journalists the information they’re seeking and introduce them to other resources, even if they’re not your client. Leverage your social media contacts to help journalists and get them a bit of press. Be succinct and to the point. When I need information, I have a set of contacts I go to and they turn around my requests with lightening speed.
4. Forget the “Oprah or Bust” approach to media attention. Don’t just focus on getting a mention on major television talk or news shows. Expand your media horizons. Plant lots of smaller stories to build word of mouth and don’t underestimate your story’s ability to have legs. Think in terms of getting exposure to new audiences. Consider adding a blog to your organization’s content mix to create your own media entity and following. Additionally, use social media news matchmaker Help-A-Reporter. It’s a free, thrice daily emailing containing media requests. Use it for yourself and your clients.
5. Add to the action. Leverage hot topics and current trends to create related hooks for your clients. These stories can be used on your blog and Facebook as well as by journalists who are always looking for new angles. David Meerman Scott calls this newsjacking. You can publish these stories on your own blog as well as third party media sites.
6. Intrigue people with your story. Build an irresistible story around your product or business. Then seek opportunities to share your tale and extend the narrative. Understand what pulls your target audience into your message. Share different variations of your tale on your blog, Tumblr or Facebook. For example, the Woods Hole Inn created a blog about their red chair’s travels across different inns on Cape Cod making it a ready-made local news story.
7. Engage with the press on social media. Many established media outlets both online and offline use a combination of blogs, Facebook and Twitter to connect with readers and viewers. Use these outlets to engage directly on topics of interest to your business and connect with the journalist in the form of following them on Twitter and commenting on their blog posts.
8. Get into the picture. With the meteoric rise of photographic sites like Pinterest and Instagram, consider how you can get your business, client or product in the picture. Use photographs of your product to intrigue prospects and customers. Also, get your customers involved by having them send in their images. A number of news sites like the Weather Channel display viewers’ videos and photographs.
9. Do their work for them. Another way to leverage the media’s audience is to write guest blog posts. This works well for blogs in your category as well as for some media sites that solicit guest posts. Understand that you must supply the guest blog post in return for being exposed to the blog’s audience and getting a link back to your website. When contacting a blogger, make sure you check whether they have guest post policies before sending them your story.
10. Test new social media platforms. Find ways to get your client featured in different forums. Social media options include being a guest on a Twitter chat, creating a video interview, and uploading your latest presentation. Don’t underestimate the value of emerging social media platforms. This works very well for smaller companies that are willing to take more risks. For example, Exude lipstick tested a photo spread using social commerce site, Svpply.

Social media provides businesses with the opportunity to be exposed to broader audiences. To succeed you can’t assume that what worked before will work now. You need to be willing to help the journalist write a strong article in return for a mention or link back.

Do you have any other suggestions for building your media exposure using social media? If so, please include your recommendations in the comment section below.

Happy marketing,
Heidi Cohen

Here are some related articles:

• 10 Suggestions to get PR attention
• How to deliver media relations like Domino Pizza
• 12 Real-time PR and communications checklist

Photo credit: http://rafiki270.deviantart.com/art/Hand-drawn-social-media-icons-153787919

Social Media: 10 PR Tactics – © 2011, Heidi Cohen. This post originally appeared on Heidi Cohen on May 8, 2012.

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Think you’re a marketer merchandising a non-media product or service? Think again. In today’s content marketing driven, social media world, you’re a digital media entity. Extending beyond your organization’s website, emailing and other communications, your media empire includes blogs, photographs, video, presentations and other content whether you own them or not.

Like the original Mad Men, you must convey your product’s message. But now you’re competing with other brands, media entities and consumers for your target market’s attention. To breakthrough with your point of view, you must think differently about your brand, consumers, and media.

While the concept of corporate driven content marketing isn’t new, companies are just learning how to use it effectively as social media options continue to expand. To put today’s dynamic digital media landscape in perspective, look at the food vertical where Kraft Foods, which ranks third with 9.2 million unique visitors in the US during March 2012, from all sources, according to Nielsen, follows top sites Allrecipes and Food Network which are owned by media companies. Notably missing from the list are traditional media names like Gourmet. 

What does this mean for marketers? Your marketing investment must develop a branded content experience on your media platform to drive prospects and sales. While every business doesn’t have the level of Kraft’s resources, you can invest in creating effective content marketing to drive results across a variety of social media platforms.

1. Know your target audience.  As your firm’s public face, your audience extends beyond current customers to include all potential product users, distributors, employees, investors, the media, the government (particularly if your product is a regulated one,) the local community, and the public. To help understand how these prospective readers consume content, create marketing personas.
2. Develop a hook for compelling content. Create a set of hooks to lure readers in. Use fun ways to attract your readers. For food companies this often translates to recipes. Consider what works for your company and brand. Don’t assume that it has to be Pulitzer Prize winning novels. It has to be fun and attention-getting. Use an editorial calendar.
3. Expand your brand across the senses. While your organization probably has a set of brand guidelines, you’ll need to ensure you know how your brand must be presented in your content. Think in terms of language, people representing the brand, clothes, and other elements that support your brand.
4. Engage with readers. This encompasses a combination of getting readers to share your content with their social connections as well as contributing to your content. To extend your reach include social sharing with the icons most relevant to your audience. Also offer email and RSS options. Encourage readers to contribute to your content in the form of photographs, comments and articles. Remember that most readers won’t take any action and the rest will likely do something small and low risk like sharing an article.
5. Build your readership. The drawback of not using an established media entity is that you must develop a readership on your own. To this end, take a guerilla marketing approach to build your reader base. Don’t under estimate other corporate assets. Of course, advertising is an option.

As a marketer you need to evolve with the market, especially in terms of content marketing and social media.

What other suggestions do you have for creating amazing integrated social media?

Happy marketing,
Heidi Cohen

Here are some related articles you may find of interest.

• How to make your content spread like wildfire.
• How to get your content distributed.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mustafakhayat/6580304127

5 Steps For Social Media Content Marketing – © 2011, Heidi Cohen. This post originally appeared on Heidi Cohen on May 7, 2012.

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Here are ten tactics to optimize your blog content.

1. Focus on one or two keyword phrases. Don’t over stuff each post with every keyword and phrase for which you’re seeking to rank. To this end, have a list of all of the keywords you want to cover. Actionable Marketing Tip: Consider how your content is associated with your keywords. (Here’s 15  SEO tips for bloggers from experts.)
2. Create killer headlines. Headlines do the heavy lifting when it comes to attracting readers. Actionable Marketing Tip: Assess what hot buttons work be for your readers. Start with a working title and edit it once your post is finished.
3. Write relevant post URLs. Don’t settle for computer generated post URLs consisting of meaningless numbers. Instead include keywords in your blog post URLs. Actionable Marketing Tip: Ensure that your URL is consistent with your post’s title and content.
4. Develop amazing content. Don’t rehash the latest press release or corporate communication. Provide useful information potential readers and customers want! Actionable Marketing Tip: Write what people want to read and share with their social circles. Do your blog posts make sense if they’re read out of context of your blog? If not, re-read them and try to better edit or re-write them.
5. Decorate your post with photographic eye candy. Photographs are reader magnets. Including an interesting relevant photograph increases views. Go beyond just posting the photograph. Actionable Marketing Tip: Make sure they’re optimized with relevant filenames and alternate text, including your keyword(s). For example, don’t just name a file: Image_2374.jpeg, rather change the filename to keyword.jpeg.
6. Guide readers with headings and bullet points. Facilitate reading-on-the-go with headings, bulleting and bolding (known as semantic structure in geek talk.) Actionable Marketing Tip: This enables search engines to determine what’s important and how your content is organized.
7. Link to other relevant content both on your website or blog and on third party websites. Help both robots and humans read your content by giving it context. Link to additional information whether it’s related article or the ability to buy a specific product. Actionable Marketing Tip Make your links specific by associating them with the appropriate words or terms in your post text, not just the word “here”.  Add titles to your links with your keywords. You should be able to see these words when you mouse over the link. Use a balance of links to your content and third party content.
8. Use appropriate blog plugins. When many bloggers think optimization, they focus on Yoast’s SEO plugin or the All-in-One SEO plugin (both for WordPress-based blogs.) Actionable Marketing Tip: While the SEO plugins do a lot of the work optimizing your post titles and declaring your keywords, don’t underestimate the ability of other plug-ins to make your blog posts more findable and distribute them more effectively.
9. Make blog content spreadable. Think beyond the blog. How do your readers want to receive you content? Actionable Marketing Tip: Beyond making your content findable, think in terms of how can you get prospective readers to consume your content regularly. It can be via RSS, email or social media sharing. Don’t underestimate then need to offer other options like house emailings.
10. Provide relevant social sharing buttons. While chances are most of your readers are savvy enough to share your content on social media, make it easy for them to help distribute your content. It’s the don’t-leave-it-to-chance approach to marketing. Actionable Marketing Tip: Make it easy for readers to share your content more broadly. Include the buttons more appropriate for your content both at the top and bottom of each post as well as incorporate a contextually relevant call-to-action. (Here it means “please share this”.)
11. Handcraft post blurbs. Write your own post blurbs or excerpts. Make sure that they summarize your article and include the keywords on which you’re focusing. Actionable Marketing Tip: The excerpt is often shown in RSS feeds on other websites. Assess whether the summary makes sense on its own. If not change it. Include your blog’s name in the blurb.

As with any other form of content, it’s critical to ensure that each blog post is optimized for findability on search and social media. This requires understanding that both humans and search engines are looking to find  and use your content.

What other suggestions do you have for optimizing your content marketing?

Happy marketing,
Heidi Cohen

Hat tip to Lee Odden, author of Optimize, and Mack Collier for inspiring this post.

Here are some related articles you may be interested in.

• SEO Tips for Bloggers 
• How to write compelling content – 10 tips

11 Tactics to Optimize Your Blog – © 2011, Heidi Cohen. This post originally appeared on Heidi Cohen on May 6, 2012.

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A social media crisis is every PR professional’s nightmare. No one wants to wake up and discover his firm or client is a negative trending topic on Twitter or other social media platform.

In today’s always on, always connected world, everyone has a personal publishing and distribution platform at his fingertips so the potential for social media flare ups, whether it’s an angry customer or an employee having a bad day, always exists. For example, even a well-loved brand like Jet Blue had trouble when a frustrated steward used an emergency exit to leave one of their planes. What matters is your ability to handle the situation with a cool head.

What can a PR professional do to mitigate a PR crisis caused by a social media flare up and reduce the impact if one occurs? Here are nine steps to help you avoid a social media nightmare.

1. Install effective social media monitoring. Social media ecosystems are filled with noise; on average only 2% of inquiries require your response. Actionable Social Media Tip: Understand that Google Alerts are probably not sufficient for most firms. Assess what level of information your organization or client requires to ensure you can track the latest conversations related to your firm, brand(s), product(s), senior executives and competitors. Determine the keywords and phrases important to track. Decide whether you need to monitor in more than one language. Install internal processes to elevate customer service issues to ensure that you don’t have a United Breaks Guitars moment brewing.
2. Define and distribute corporate social media guidelines. Be explicit as to what employees, agencies, suppliers and customers can say about the company on your owned social media as well as what they can say on third party social media networks when representing the firm. The guidelines can be short and sweet. Ford has five rules that fit on one page. Actionable Social Media Tip: Ensure that every employee has a copy and understands that not following them can result in job loss.
3. Always have social media coverage. Don’t leave social media unstaffed. Create back-up plan to keep things going (aka contingency plan). Don’t assume fill in staff will know what to do. Actionable Social Media Tip: Define who is to do what in the case a key corporate spokesperson is out sick or on vacation. Make sure that these individuals have access to your social media accounts and related content.
4. Train customer facing employees and senior executives regarding social media engagement. Take a lesson from BP’s Gulf Oil Spill. You don’t want your senior executives to appear more concerned about personal issues than the crisis. Actionable Social Media Tip: Teach your employees to be able to respond in any situation and give them the flexibility they need to adapt your instructions to the specific issue.
5. Build a social media following. Get involved in social media. This includes understanding how the networks operate and what’s expected in terms of interaction. Actionable Social Media Tip: Don’t wait until your firm or client is under fire to jump onto social media and participate. Start now! Commit the time and resources to engage and build a reputation. Don’t use this channel just to push your own messages. Use this channel to connect and engage. Pay it forward and promote others.
6. Create a viable owned media entity. Translation: Develop a blog. It’s a search-friendly CMS that creates a face for your organization. Actionable Social Media Tip: Think 24/7 media entity. Build it before you need it. While you can roll out a brand spanking new blog when the sh*t hits the fan, the problem is you won’t have an established reader base. You need the ability to get your message out fast to a broad audience without going through a third party.
7. Create additional content to post during a crisis. Have more content available to publish across a variety of topics and platforms beyond your carefully worded press releases. Actionable Social Media Tip: Ensure that you can expand the conversation beyond the issue. For some this may seem like a difficult task since you don’t want to appear tone deaf to the problem. But you want to ensure that related issues show up on search results as well as to expand the conversation beyond the current flap.
8. Be a boy scout and have a PR crisis plan ready to implement. Think always be prepared. Actionable Social Media Tip: Go through a practice run of the plan at least once every six months to ensure those involved understand what to do and who to contact. Take it one step further and do it at night or over the weekend so that it’s more real world. Further, ensure that there’s a list of phone numbers including mobiles.
9. Provide access to Legal personnel who can fast track and provide actionable answers if needed. Often-social media flares chart new territories where there’s no corporate precedent. In this case, it’s often critical to bring in a member of your Legal team. Actionable Social Media Tip: If your organization or client is large enough, it’s useful to designate one or more individuals dedicated to social media efforts so that your team isn’t always relearning the rails.

While you can’t prevent a social media crisis from flaring up, you can take steps to mitigate the impact when one does occur. Further, know that it will happen at the worst possible time meaning late at night, during the weekend or on a holiday.

What other tips do you have for ensuring that you’re protected against a PR crisis?

Happy marketing,
Heidi Cohen

Here are some related articles you may find of interest:

• What to do when social media goes bad
• Real-time PR Checklist
• Social media’s social responsibility

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/elvinwong-photography/5566692200/

PR: How To Avoid a Social Media Crisis – © 2011, Heidi Cohen. This post originally appeared on Heidi Cohen on May 4, 2012.

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Business blogs require more than a rehash of other ho-hum corporate content. To be effective, your business blog must offer information that prospects, customers and fans feel drawn to consume. They should feel like your blog is reaching out and pulling them in.

Here are seven ways every marketer can develop killer content for their business blog regardless of the type or size of business. Don’t forget to include a call-to-action in the post linked to the appropriate page on your website. (If your boss doesn’t want a blog, check this post.)

1. Use show-and-tell to put products in context. Entice prospects and customers to buy your products by showing how they’re best used. Showing a lone jacket or lamp is great for supplying purchase details but may be difficult for potential buyers to envision in use. Think print catalogs come to life. Since blogs continually need fresh posts, plan a sequence of articles. While showing a full wardrobe may work at the beginning of the season, plan posts for later when customers may only buy fill in items. Stacks and Stacks’ Clutter Control Freak Blog shows customers how to use their products.
2. Answer customers’ burning questions. Use your blog to offer extended responses to FAQs. Reply to one question in each post. Until you answer all of your prospects questions, they won’t purchase. Source questions from your sales team, customer service and social media. Include a section on your blog to gather customer inquiries. The more information you give the more that prospects can assess your offering against the alternatives. Marcus Sheridan blogged about price on his pool blog. The transparency helped persuade buyers.
3. Give prospects and customers the inside scoop. Everyone loves gossip. Consider how you can use voyeurism to pull prospects into your offering. One option is to show how your products can be used to achieve runaway and designer looks, whether as is or a knockoff version. This works well with clothes, home furnishings and crafts. If you’ve got well-known executives, spokesperson or industry experts, give them the podium.
4. Offer enhanced alternative to instructions and manuals.  Support customer use post-purchase, whether it’s a step-by-step video on how to put children’s toys together or determining what the problem is when one of your car’s dashboard lights goes on. Go one step further and gather customer input to enhance your blog. This works for complex products and DIY crafts. Don’t underestimate the need for this type of information by other users. Include photographs and videos where available and appropriate.
5. Teach prospects and customers. Make learning fun. Show your audience how to use your products better. Think fun or useful information whether it’s videos regarding how to apply makeup better or DIY home improvements. The goal is to support customers and encourage them to buy your products. Here’s where you can use a different spin on product placement. Don’t forget to provide printable instructions with your product name included. Enhance the utility of this information with a human face in terms of photographs and videos. Lion Brand runs a knit along (aka KAL) so that shoppers can work on the same project together.
6. Shine a spotlight on your customers and fans. Make your customers celebrities. Use photographs of them or their work. Interview them in a fun way related to your offering. Let them explain their best tip of the week or recipe. If your customers aren’t willing to engage, consider offering them a gift or special promotion.
7. Make them laugh. Entertaining prospects and customers is an old content marketing approach. It led to the creation of soap operas.  Develop a company mascot or representative to help communicate with your target market. Don’t forget that you can deliver videos via your blog. While Ford used videos with Doug, an orange puppet, to introduce their 2012 Focus (although they’re no longer available), this type of fun content could have been delivered via a blog.

Publishing for a killer business blog, like any content creation, starts with understanding your customers and their needs so that you can answer their pressing questions. By engaging them with your content, you can build a relationship that keeps them returning to your business blog.

What examples of killer content have you seen in business blogs? Why did you think it was good?

Happy marketing,
Heidi Cohen

Here are some related business blogging articles you may find of interest.

•  Blogging is dead.
• 42 grop or Business Blogging TIps 
• 3 Secrets to Being an A-List Blogger [Infographic included]
• 31 Ways to Make Your Blog Stand Out
  Why your blog is guaranteed to fail.

7 Ways To Create Killer Content for Business Blogs – © 2011, Heidi Cohen. This post originally appeared on Heidi Cohen on May 3, 2012.

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