Content Marketing - where to start?

I found an interesting article that was published in one of the LinkedIn network groups I am a member of. It seeks to define one of my favourite marketing terms: content marketing.

I am not just a fan of content marketing because TWCA the web content agency has made it part of our business model; but also because it actually works.

Content marketing works in three ways. It is any sort of content you create online or offline that drives traffic to your website; and by traffic I mean traffic that is valuable. It gives you more room to create copy for SEO and it will put you into the shoes of an information provider or an online publisher.

An example for the girls: expensive footwear and a shoe blog.

If your business is shoes, what could be better to talk about on your website, your blog or your twitter account than shoes? Or the makers of shoes. Or, if you want to jump the celebrity marketing machine, VIPs wearing shoes and how they wear them. Quality in shoes. Design kinks for shoes. The list is endless. Because if someone is truly, really, totally into shoes: they will want to read about them. They will be informed about shoes, so the more insider knowledge, the more topic related, theme orientated and interesting content you can deliver to the true shoe aficionado: the more these sole-mates will appreciate you and recognize and trust your brand, your business, your online entity as an information provider on their favourite topic and a valuable source of information.

Content marketing also means exposure for your brand – but more than that: you are not just commissioning online advertising: you are giving interesting information to the public, by sharing it, much less obvious than a blunt ad of some out of date celebrity wearing your shoes and nothing but them. Therefore it generates real interest in the brand.

The traffic it will drive to your online entity is more valuable: because you are talking about shoes to shoe lovers. What more could they wish for? And what more could you wish for? If you want shoe-loving-folk to visit your website: you will get them with the right content marketing strategy.

It need not be advertorials in the lifestyle pages of Vogue magazine (not that you can place such things, mind you) or similar out of reach targets. It can be your company blog – which people will regard suspiciously at first (well you are the company trying to sell to them and everyone is wary of salespeople), but once your audience has realised that you are writing insightful, valuable articles or blog entries about their passion: you will have won.

My passion is shoes, in case you were wondering; but also anything to do with online marketing. So there you go, advice from a content marketing professional and part time shoe-fanatic.

The article I was referring is published at the search engine optimizsation journal and can be found here.

Social media: probably here to stay…

Recently I attended a WKS presentation about social media for marketing professionals; the presentation by Ed Wohlfahrt was interesting for a number of reasons. Ed’s examples of dos and don’ts of social media very much fell in line with our own company policy at TWCA: of harnessing the power of social media to expand our business and those of our clients.
One thing that struck me again and again was that we put ourselves in the “online” limelight so much these days; how do we know when it becomes too much?
Who hasn’t got a Xing account, a Facebook account, at least 3 email accounts, a company blog, a personal blog and a Flickr photo gallery and you can insert the name of any online community here – the list is endless.

My business is online. I have accounts with all of the social media platforms stated above; I utilize them for business but I am also wary of the fact that I am totally and utterly “exposed” online.

I have business contacts and private contacts in a joint Facebook account and I am very aware that people can look at my online profile very closely before they choose to do business with me. But hey, the key phrase here is do business with me.

If done correctly, and that was very much a key point of Ed’s presentation, you can do vast amounts of business online.

The grey area of keeping personal things private and having an online business which means having a public and visible online presence for me blurred a long time ago; and it should do for you too.


Here is my view of the private vs. business dilemma surrounding social media:
If you have a Facebook account: create different friends lists – one for personal friends and one for business associates. That way you can keep things private that are personal and go public with all the things you want to go public with.
If you use Xing: remember it is more of a business platform, than a social community network. Be aware that becoming chairman of the “let’s get hammered every weekend” group might not show you in the best light to potential clients and business partners.
If you have a corporate blog: remember to keep it real. I blog once a month, if at all, and I try to blog about things that really matter to me and my business. The days of just adding vast amounts of copy for the Search Engine are over. If you do not produce quality blog entries that really have something to say it’s best to leave it altogether, I am sure you can make better use of your time.
Twitter: is micro blogging, it’s a blog that comes in tiny doses (just 140 characters) – a much quicker way of sharing information and lending someone an online ear. Remember that telling the online world about what you had for lunch will really not do much for your business – unless you are a Michelin award winning chef.
I cannot twitter 24 hours a day because I have a job to do: I run a business. Yes an online focused business, but still I run a business.
I cannot blog every single day, as much as I would love to do that, for exactly the same reason: I have a business to run.
But I check all these accounts probably once a day; they keep me posted, inform me about what’s going on and let me share information. I find likeminded people, employees, business contacts and associates online and they also find me and my business.
So, if you keep it real, if you have something valuable to say and if you understand that once you place information online you are visible to the www (whole wide world),social media networks are a great way of generating more online business.

Übelsetzung - Mistranslation awards...

The Mistranslation award for 2008 – how not to do it.

Well. I got this a while back; it was forwarded to me from my business partner Martina Müllner. Initially we both laughed. But soon we were not laughing any more as we come across similar translation errors on almost a daily basis.

Not only that, we often have to sit and ponder for quite some time to find out what an author, who may not be an English native but perhaps Dutch or Italian, wanted to say using English as their universal means of communication.

When I first started TWCA I wanted to make a point of the fact that I am not running a regular translation agency. This is because your standard translation agency will not spend all that much time on a project or get someone else to proofread the content. They might say they do but the reality is they don’t.

Also, I figured that if you have a website and you are looking to attract a certain customer from, say, the UK, you have to find a way of speaking that customer’s language. You have to look at the cultural background and online search behavior of the customer and at what he or she might find great about your business.

If you do not know which clients you are looking to attract and what kind of language they speak – what they are looking for when they use the search engines – then even very best translated version of your website will still not work.

It’s a rather simple principle and I have to remind myself on a daily basis not to forget about it:
If you do not know what is important to your customers and what are their base line criteria for each particular product they are offering, you will not be able to attract them to your website. More importantly, you will not be able to get them to commit to you and your products.

My business is web copy. Copy for SEO and online content. I find the right words for my clients in a number of different languages. But before I can go and write a single line I have to find out what is important to each client.
What you are looking to communicate with your website; what corporate identity you have created and which products are selling (as opposed to which products aren't selling).
If I don’t understand what a client is looking to express, looking to sell, or even what type of customer they are looking to attract, then the very best web copy will not work. It's as simple as that.

So, how not to do it: Do not expect someone else to be able to find the right words for you if you have not answered any of these questions for yourself. No matter what language.