Content marketing

1. C O N T E N T M A R K E T I N G - L E A R N T H E B E S T W A Y P I N K L E M O N A D E . I N 2 0 1 7 - 1 8

2. Table Of Contents Topic I - Content Marketing: Step by step Approach (a) Define Content Marketing (b) Understand Why it matters (c) Assemble the right team (d) Arm yourself with right tools (e) Create and publish content (f) Distribute your content (g) Analyse, Analyse, Analyse Topic II - Avoid These 11 Mistakes (the Don'ts) (a) Not doing your ground work (b) Not having a clear take away (c) Not Having Call to action (d) Choosing Quantity over Quality (e) Not Optimizing your content (f) Writing long paragraphs (g) No Internal or External Links (h) Not using relevant images (i) Overly Promotional Content (j) Distributing Content haphazardly (k) Ignoring Content Metrics II

3. Content Marketing - Step by Step Approach is a lot like George Orwell’s 1984. Most claim to know it but in reality, they’ve only glanced at the cover. More often than not, the term content marketing has been used flippantly with little to no knowledge of what it actually is. Content Marketing Before we get down to the nitty gritties of what content marketing can do for your business, let’s break down this seemingly simple concept – step- by-step. Step #1: Define Content Marketing - The definition of content marketing goes beyond ‘marketing content’. In fact, it doesn’t have just one definition! The simplest one is this – content marketing is a dedicated marketing program that includes creating, publishing, and distributing content to create an online presence. 01

4. Step #2: Understand Why It Matters - The goal of content marketing is also simple – to get attention, and more importantly, to retain it! Many organizations today use marketing programs like PPC or list purchasing to find their target audience in minutes. A method like PPC is simple – all you have to do is post your ads on Google and pay every time a user clicks on it. Admittedly, such methods offer quick results but they’re not the most economical, scalable, or effective route. As long as you’re funneling money into purchasing more lists or investing in PPC, everything seems fine. But once the money stops, so do the results. Where methods like these fail, content marketing triumphs. Let’s say you’ve written a blog about your service with a helpful link. Considering a minimal 2% rate of visitor-to-lead conversion, you would find two promising leads every 100 views. But unlike PPC or list purchasing, you don’t have to keep writing the same blog repeatedly. This single blog post will continue to generate leads again, and again, and again. Content Marketing is like the gift that keeps on giving, making it economically viable and strategically smart! 02

5. Step #3: Assemble the Right Team - Even with the most basic strategy in place, content marketing needs manpower. The size of your content team depends on many factors such as the size of your organization and budget. So how do you create a plan based on the size of your team? Here’s how: Team of 1 (Startups) If you’re a solo entrepreneur or running a startup, your marketing team most likely comprises a single person – you. Your responsibilities include creating content, managing social media platforms, and optimizing SEO. Focus most of your time on creating content – be it blogs, long-form, video etc. When you gain traction with your content, shift your attention to SEO and social media. Team of 3 (SMEs) If your business is enjoying steady success, your marketing team may involve a small team of 3-4 people. You can either assign one marketer to handle every aspect of content marketing while the other two handle conversion and closing; or you can leave the core content marketing tasks to two marketers and let the third manage the rest. 03

6. Team of 9 or 10 (Mid-size business) With a larger team, you might be tempted to expand your efforts into converting more leads. However, your best plan of action is still to focus on pushing out content that sustains your strategy. In a team of about 9-10 people, at least half the team should be dedicated to content creation i.e. two for blog writing, one for long-form content, one for SEO, and one for design. With a group this size, it is smart to appoint a CMO who manages everyday activities of the team. Team of 20 and above (Large enterprise) If your organization has a marketing team of over 18 people, kudos! Chances are you have a sizeable budget dedicated to content marketing alone. A team this size includes SEO experts, designers, blog writers, and long-form writers. To sustain quality, hire bloggers with extensive experience in proofreading and editing and create a position like Editor-in-Chief or Head of Content to support the CMO. Their responsibilities include streamlining reporting, securing budgets, hiring talent, contributing ideas, and strategizing for growth. Step #4: Arm Yourself with the Right Tools - A few basic tools used right can make all the difference in your content marketing endeavors. Here are some necessary tools you should have in your arsenal before you get started. 1) Analytics: Measure your performance against your pre-determined goals 2) CMS: Publish and manage your content easily, quickly, and effectively 3) Design: Create different types of creatives for all visual content 4) Project management: Manage projects across different campaigns and teams 04

7. Step #5: Create and Publish Content - You’ve got the strategy, you’ve got the team, and you’ve got the technology. What’s next? The actual work! If you’re not sure where to start, here’s a quick rundown: Blogs Your blog posts should improve your company’s presence in search rankings. You can achieve this by publishing relevant content with SEO optimization and keyword research. Depending on your industry, these are the types of blogs you can publish: * How-to / Informative * Thought leadership * Listicles * Slideshares * Infographics * News reports 05

8. Premium assets Long-form content is usually more time-intensive but can be very rewarding when done right. Ideal for and lead generation, premium assets can work wonders in promoting high-level content when tied in with regular blogs. These are the following types of premium assets: brand building * Research reports * Webinars * E-books * Templates * Tools Visual content It’s not enough to include text-based content in your strategy as visual media is gaining mainstream popularity. A healthy mix of blogs, long-form, and visual content can lend balance and variety to your content marketing strategy. Some popular examples of visual content include: * Videos * Slideshares * Infographics Step #6: Distribute Your Content Once you’re done with content creation, distribution is your next step. After all, you have to make sure that your voice reaches as many people as possible. But there are many who skip this step, and here’s why: 06

9. 1) After publishing the content, they leave the distribution to Google 2) Most writers and designers are more focused on creating cool content than marketing it Distribution deserves just as much attention and here’s how you can do it right: * Search engines: Google might distribute your content for you, but if you don’t market it right, your content will end up on page 26. With the right SEO measures, you can bring it to page 1 * Social media: If Google considers social media to be important, so should you. Sharing your content on social media platforms will increase audience engagement Digital Marketing * PPC and ads: Targeted can help boost your SEO and drive traffic to your website * E-mail: A smart and simple way to drive traffic and improve conversions, email marketing is a great way to publicize and distribute your content Regardless of the scenario, it is not enough to just publish the content – this is only one part of your job. Now that you’ve shared it, it’s time to reap the benefits! Step #7: Analyze, Analyze, Analyze - Your strategies for remain unfulfilled if you don’t take the time to measure your progress. With these simple metrics, you can keep track of your content marketing and ensure that you’re reaching your goals. Content Marketing 07

10. * Site traffic: This metric gives you the number of hits your website received over a fixed time frame * Leads: This metric directly influences revenue and can be used to maximize your conversion rate * Social media: This asset is measured by the number of followers on each platform * Blogs: This major website asset contributes to site traffic as it matures and grows at a steady rate * Premium assets: This asset is measured by the number of leads it generates per offer Success in content marketing isn’t quantifiable. But a surefire way to see results is to create scalable and flexible strategies that can be improved and scaled. Content marketing may not be an exact science but hey, experimentation is the best way to make new discoveries! 08

11. Avoid These 11 Mistakes In the near-limitless universe of the Internet, the art of marketing content can be a tricky one. You’ve got to know your target audience and what they want, and always be one step ahead of the competition. Add to that the constantly emerging new channels for your content, and you have quite a challenging task ahead of you. However, before you jump into this war of words, here are 11 pitfalls to watch out for: 1. Not doing your ground-work You can’t construct a skyscraper without laying the foundation. What is the purpose of your content? Who are you targeting it to? Is it in line with your brand personality? If you don’t brainstorm on these questions and build a concrete plan, you might fail before you even start. It also helps to double-check your content and see what you can do differently from the competition. 2. Not having a clear take-away Humorous fluff pieces are fun to read on the Internet, but don’t let their popularity sway you. Good content needs a solid take-away – a message previously unavailable to your readers. Give them something new through your content, and they’ll be hooked on to your every word. 3. Not having a Call-To-Action An ending paragraph is strong, but a Call-To- Action (CTA) is stronger. 09

12. Every piece of content needs to arouse something in the reader by the end – be it curiosity, happiness, or even fear. Give your reader an action to perform after they have read your content – it could be liking, sharing, commenting, or accessing your hotline or website to know more about your product. Whatever you do, just don’t leave the reader hanging at the end of your piece. 4. Choosing quantity over quality (or vice versa) Content marketers today still grapple with this question – produce more content faster, or deliver comprehensive content less frequently? In our experience, a healthy mix of the two is the best long-term strategy for . Don’t be pressured by the speed and frequency of new posts on the Internet; just produce the best and most timely content that your marketing plan allows. Content Marketing 5. Not optimizing your content (SEO) Do you want your content to be the first thing netizens see in a quick Google search? Then don’t let search engine optimization (SEO) be an afterthought in your content marketing plan. Come up with some strong keywords, and strategically sprinkle them throughout your content. Do this right, and watch your content shoot straight up the search results list. 10

13. 6. Writing long paragraphs Let’s face it – the online reader’s attention span has taken a nose-dive in recent years. Long paragraphs are a chore to read through. On the other hand, breaking up your content into shorter paragraphs or bullet points boosts the readability of your piece. Each paragraph and point also acts like a place-holder in the readers’ minds, which they can refer to at any time. 7. No internal or external links Don’t you want a visitor to your website to stay and know more about your product? Internal links to older content are a good way to ensure audience retention, greater interest in your brand, and better optimization for search engines. External links to related topics also add ranking power to your content since Google’s search spiders read them as ‘third-party votes’ for your piece. 8. Not using relevant images Your post’s featured image is the first thing a viewer will see on social media. Relevant images and infographics make people want to read your blogs. After all, no one likes to read a continuous stream of text. Content is getting more and more visual by the day to keep readers hooked, and you should follow suit 9. Overly promotional content The online audience wants entertaining and engaging content, and also doesn’t want to be marketed to all the time. You aren’t going to achieve the latter by producing overtly promotional content, with words such as ‘buy’, ‘sell’, ‘exchange’ at the forefront. Creative, engaging content with out-of-the-box visuals are today’s gold standard in marketing. 11

14. 10. Distributing content haphazardly Simply sharing your content on every social media platform out there might sound like a good idea at first. However, unless you share it on the right platforms frequented by your target audience, all your efforts might go in vain. Base the online distribution of your content on the social media habits of your audience, as well as the nature of your product. 11. Ignoring content metrics is not an open-and-shut case; there’s always more to learn from your existing work. To simplify, there are four metrics by which you can analyze the success or failure of your content so far – consumption, sharing, leads generated, and sales and revenue. You can then tweak your future content or strategy depending on these results. Content Marketing FOOT NOTE Marketing your brand through online content needn’t be rocket science – if you do your homework right. Work with a communications agency that can get your brand the attention it deserves! 12

15. About Pinklemonade We are, where creative effectiveness is unrestrained and wonderfully infinite. If you need a voice (or even just the words) we’ll deliver it in the most relevant way possible. Pinklemonade We specialize in visual and written communication across multiple spectrums. Whether digital, social or good ol’ print, we provide creative strategizing, branding, and even production for all communication requirements. Give us a ring or drop in. We can contemplate life, movies, and of course you. Services Branding and Corporate Identity Design Content Marketing Digital Marketing Internal Communication Marketing Collateral Videography Presentations Brand Activation Consultation Contact Details Pink Lemonade, 313/1, 7th Cross, Next to Ranka Heights, Patel Rama Reddy Cross, Domlur Layout, Bangalore – 560071, Karnataka, India www.pinklemonade.in reachus(@)pinklemonade(.)in Thank You For business related queries call: Roshnee: +91 9845038373 Tina: +91 9845000342 13