Dear Reader,
As you read this, I’m in Phoenix attending the first Creator Economy Expo (aka: CEX).
CEX was created by Joe Pulizzi, the founder of Content Marketing Institute and now The Tilt and Brian Clark, the founder of Copyblogger and now Further, and Unemployable. So it has the DNA to be one of the best planned new marketing conferences. #StayTuned
I’m here to soak up as much knowledge as I can about emerging trends as they apply to marketers. It’s an added benefit that I get to mingle with some of my favorite marketers including Roberto Blake, Brian Clark, Brian Fanzo, Ann Handley, John Jantsch, Joe Pulizzi, Robert Rose and Sonia Simone.
For those of you who were unable to attend, don’t worry! There will be a virtual option following the conference.
Recommended Reading
If you have any conferences to attend your future, read this article:
Table of Contents
- Marketing Lesson of The Week – How Do You Choose Holidays for Promotions?
- Content Communicates – A Night at the Library
- Social Scene – Is live streaming part of your social media marketing strategy?
- Marketing Reads
- Marketing Training
- Mark Your Calendar
Marketing Lesson of The Week
► How Do You Choose Holidays For Promotions?
How do you plan your promotional calendar?
I ask since this week is chock full of fun observances. Each provides the basis for fun promotions based on your audience. This includes your prospects, customers, employees, and local community. (Bear in mind that your community may extend beyond your physical location.)
April 30th – Independent Bookstore Day celebrates these special retailers who enrich our ability to connect with physical books.
Loyalty Bookstores do a great job of marketing products that compete with Amazon’s original product offering, books. In addition to a high quality newsletter, they offer a regular menu of themed book-related events.
Here’s a section of their Independent Bookseller Day email that I received in my inbox:
Recommended Reading
May 4th – Star Wars Day appeals to fans of all ages around the world. Having sold Star Wars books and merchandise, I can vouch for this franchise’s on-going ability to stay relevant and draw customers. More importantly, their legal team maintains an iron grip on their copyright.
Examine the difference between how Star Wars promotes Lego licensed products and how Lego promotes their Star Wars offering on their respective websites.
Star Wars promotes Lego licensed product not focused on Star Wars Day
Lego promotes its Star Wars product with a wish list, VIP early access and a countdown clock.
Recommended Reading
May 5th – Cinco de Mayo commemorates the date of the Mexican army’s 1862 victory over France at the Battle of Puebla during the Franco-Mexican War. Ironically, it’s a bigger celebration of Mexican culture in the US than in Mexico.
For example, Time Out created a Cinco do Mayo round up feature to help readers find the celebration to attend. This content offering has been successful in the past since they continue to update it every year.
Actionable Content Marketing Tip
- Annotate content to reuse in the future when you initially create it. This helps build your editorial calendar more efficiently. Of course, check your actual results over time to ensure that it remains useful to your audience.
Recommended Reading
May 8th – Mother’s Day has remained a popular promotional hook across retail and restaurants.
Mother’s Day is the biggest day of the year for eating out. For many women, it’s the only day that they don’t cook!
According to the National Restaurant Association 2022 survey of 1,000 consumers:
- 27% plan to visit a restaurant for Mother’s Day,
- 18% will order takeout or delivery from a restaurant, and
- 38% will eat a home-cooked meal at their home or someone else’s home.
Recommended Reading
Actionable Marketing Tip
- Assess what your competitors and close substitutes are doing for specific promotions. Since they will set customer expectations for incentives.
Actionable Holiday Promotion Marketing Lesson
Align your selection of holiday promotion with your offering and your audience’s interests.
As a rule of thumb, create one promotion per month. This helps to coordinate your various forms of marketing such as content, communications and advertising.
Recommended Reading
Content Communicates
► A Night At The Library
Last Monday, I attended a lively, unscripted conversation between Brewster Kahle, the founder of the Internet Archive, and Tony Marx, the President of the NYPL, one of the largest public libraries in the US.
Inspired by the Egyptian Library at Alexandria, Kahle created the Internet Archive, a not-for-profit organization, to be a “Library of Everything” for the digital age.
Built to last for posterity, the Internet Archive’s mission is to provide everyone with universal access to all knowledge. It’s a digital library containing all of the published works of humankind and provides them free to the public.
In Kahle’s words:
“The goal of the Internet Archive is to create a permanent memory for the Web that can be leveraged to make a new Global Mind.”
Why does this matter to content marketers?
- Because you must consider how to not only maintain and update your existing content, but also make it accessible over time with the appropriate content strategy and structure. This allows you to keep your legacy content accessible. For example, to allow customers to find information about products you no longer produce but they still own and use.
See the full conversation here:
Brewster Kahle and Tony Marx: The Internet Archive at 25
Actionable Content Marketing Tip
- Maintain the metadata about each element of content so that it remains findable and useful over time across content formats. Many media companies are going through their historic media to add this information. It aids findability and usability. For example, CBS licenses its historic recordings providing another revenue stream.
Recommended Reading
Marketing Reads
► Content Marketing Plan: How To Create A Strategy That Will Make
You Stand Out
In honor of the Creator Economy Expo, I’m highlighting how to create your content marketing plan.
This article is stuffed with charts, worksheets and actionable marketing tips that I’ve updated over time. It’s a MUST read for content marketers.
Recommended Reading
► Conference Blog Posts: 20+ Ideas To Steal That Will Make You Shine
This list of article ideas can be used across a variety of platforms, channels and formats.
Even better, it can work even if you don’t attend the conference IRL. You can track the hashtag on Twitter and other platforms. Alternatively, it provides a great opportunity to reach out to the participants and speakers
RECOMMENDED READING
Here’s an example of a post I wrote without being a speaker at the event.
Marketing Training
► How To Be A Content Entrepreneur?
Learn from leading content entrepreneur, Joe Pulizzi, and his team at The Tilt.
New Course: Exploring Web 3.0
Use code: heidi25 for $25 off
[Affiliate Offer]
Recommended Reading:
► Personal Branding Masterclass
Create your powerful personal brand with expert Mark W. Schaefer
August 2nd through August 18th, 2022
Recommended Reading:
Plan Ahead: Mark Your Calendar
Hands-on learning and demystifying + celebrating women’s careers in tech!
FREE — Register Now.
Connect and learn from the best Marketing Communications leaders from across the country. I’m speaking here. Register Here.
Organized by MarketMuse, it will explore the strategies that content marketers and SEOs use to succeed.
►Omnichannel X 2022 Conference – June 13-16th, (Virtual).
♦ ♦ Save 25% when you use code: SPK2225 ♦ ♦
►VOICE Global – June 15-16th, (Virtual).
Join Voice enthusiasts around the world for 24 hours of insights and interviews about the fast-growing Conversational AI market. It’s free! Register Here!
►MAICON 2022 – August 3-5th, 2022 in Cleveland, OH
The Marketing Artificial Intelligence Conference (MAICON), returns to an in-person event this year. Register Today! (Check out MAICON’s schedule of upcoming webinars.)
♦ ♦ Special AMG reader discount: Get $150 off — Use code:AMG150 ♦ ♦
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Happy Marketing,
Heidi
P.S.: Want Heidi Cohen to contribute a quote or other commentary to your next article, presentation, video, research and/or book? Then hit reply to this email and ask.
P.P.S: Did you miss last week’s AMG Newsletter? Previous newsletters can be found in the AMG Newsletter Archive.
The fine print
Social Scene
► Is live streaming part of your content and social media marketing strategy?
Before you reject the idea, realize that live streaming can be used to create a wide range of content involving other members of your team, community and influencers.
For example, Kane Simms of VUX World streams his interviews with global leaders in the Voice User Experience category. In addition to creating a video that lives on his website and YouTube, people can attend in real time and ask questions via the chat.
With limited additional content creation time, Simms has quality information with top influencers posted across multiple platforms including YouTube. I mention this since YouTube aids your search findability on Google.
Additionally, as a listener, these live streams have given me the opportunity to connect with a number of area experts.
As research shows, YouTube remains the dominant social media platform for live streaming with half of the respondents using it to watch. Given its longevity and connection to Google search, that’s no surprise. Further, your audience can view YouTube via their computer, smartphone, tablet, television or other device as my husband does.
Actionable Social Media Marketing Tips
Recommended Reading