Content Marketing Strategies For Dummies

Drive your content marketing campaign toward success Blogs and social platforms are all the rage right now—especially for strategists looking to cultivate influence among target audience members through content marketing. Content Marketing Strategies For Dummies explains how you can use content marketing to gain an edge over your competition, even in the most crowded of marketplaces. This timely text introduces you to the Five C Cycle: Company Focus, Customer Experience, Content Creation, Channel Promotion, and Closed-Loop Analysis. The Five C Cycle drives the creation and documentation of a targeted content marketing strategy, and allows you to approach your content marketing campaign with confidence. By helping you determine your company's focus, uncover your customers' experience with data, develop channel promotions across social platforms, create actionable online content, and use closed-loop analysis to build on previous success, this will become your go-to content marketing guide. Content marketing entails creating and curating content online via blog posts, social media platforms, and more. The goal is to acquire and retain customers by creating content that brings value to their lives, and that encourages them to engage with your brand. This easy-to-understand guide will help you do just that. Analyze customer data to better understand your target audience's journey Leverage social platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, to develop channel promotions Create and curate intelligent, engaging content that leads to action Build upon your previous success with closed-loop analysis Whether you work for a large corporation, are part of a small business, are a solo thought leader, or are an educator, Content Marketing Strategies For Dummies tells you how to gain a critical, competitive advantage through targeted content marketing strategies.

Table of Contents:
Foreword xiii  Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Foolish Assumptions 2 Icons Used in This Book 2 Beyond the Book 3 Where to Go from Here 3 Part I: Getting Started with Content Marketing Strategies 5 Chapter 1: Establishing Your Content Marketing Strategy 7 Understanding the Components of a Content Marketing Strategy 7 Determining the company focus 8 Uncovering the customer experience 9 Creating quality content 9 Developing channel promotions 10 Deploying check-back analysis 11 Communicating Your Mission 12 Crafting your statement 12 Reviewing real mission statements 13 Establishing Your Goals 16 Uncovering your goals 16 Picking KPIs 18 Expanding Your Corporate Mindset 18 Creating a culture of content 19 Thinking about reputation 21 Using content to serve customers 23 Dipping into User Design and Habits 26 Recognizing the importance of UX design in your strategy 26 Observing product habits 27 Chapter 2: Capturing Your Customer’s Attention 31 Focusing on Attention 32 Seeking the “attention web” 32 Looking at attention triggers 37 Making Your Content Easy to Consume 39 Reading in patterns 39 Considering design elements and typography 41 Deploying Interactive Content 44 Chapter 3: Understanding Your Business Model and Brand 49 Separating Your Business Model from Your Brand 50 Understanding the business you’re in 51 Looking at some popular online business models 52 Considering the freemium model 57 Analyzing Your Business Model 60 Discovering Your Brand 61 Benefitting from attention to your brand 61 Knowing your current brand reality 63 Solidifying the Look of the Brand 64 Considering design components 64 Using a digital asset management tool 66 Developing Success Measures for Your Brand 68 Producing Engaging Branded Content 69 Chapter 4: Facilitating Buy-In from Your Team 73 Presenting the Big Picture 73 Identifying your audiences 74 Using the Five-Prong Approach (FPA) to collect buy-in information 75 Engaging the Leadership Team and Identifying Roles 78 Understanding what leaders want to know 79 Understanding how roles will work 80 Communicating the Essentials to Everyone 80 Expecting resistance to change 81 Establishing results that will be shared 82 Chapter 5: Putting Your Content Marketing Plan and Presentation Together 85 Reorganizing for Success 85 Busting silos 86 Advocating change 88 Identifying the Components of Your Content Marketing Plan 89 Documenting needed resources 89 Measuring success 90 Establishing the timeline 91 Presenting Your Plan 92 Revisiting the Five-Prong Approach 92 Putting It All Together: Your Presentation 95 Part II: Uncovering the Customer Experience 99 Chapter 6: Dipping into Customer Data 101 Understanding Big Data 101 Looking at different kinds of Big Data 102 Looking at problems with big data 103 Uncovering the Role Big Data Plays in Content Marketing 104 Improving your content marketing 105 Using real-time content 105 Discovering the Internet of Things 106 Reviewing IoT market size 106 Impacting content marketing 109 Visualizing Big Data 111 Chapter 7: Discovering Buyer Personas 113 Reviewing Persona Development 113 Understanding how persona creation improves content 115 Taking action to understand your customers 117 Collecting Information 118 Finding different data types 118 Deploying listening tools 120 Conducting one-on-one interviews 124 Documenting your personas 125 Avoiding Common Mistakes 125 Looking at How Generations Differ 127 Understanding millennials 127 Meeting Gen C 129 Identifying a Prospect’s Emotions 130 Keeping Up with Trends 131 Chapter 8: Taking the Buyer’s Journey 135 Harnessing the Customer Experience 136 Looking at the customer experience from both sides 136 Benefitting from an omni-channel approach 138 Uncovering Commercial Intent 140 Defending Against Competitors 143 Researching competitors 143 Analyzing your competitor’s content 146 Identifying the Stages of the Buyer’s Journey 148 Understanding the buying process and journey map 148 Benefitting from the journey map 150 Focusing on content for each part of the journey 151 Personalizing Your Content 154 Chapter 9: Embracing Sales Enablement 157 Discovering Sales Enablement 157 Gaining a competitive advantage 158 Evaluating your current status 159 Understanding the new role of sales reps 161 Training Your Salesforce 162 Coaching Your Reps to Become Winners 164 Checking Out Sales Enablement Blogs 165 Part III: Creating Actionable Content 169 Chapter 10: Examining Your Content Plan 171 Evaluating Your Content 171 Benefitting from a content plan 172 Determining content maturity 175 Assessing Your Content 176 Interviewing your stakeholders 176 Conducting a content audit 177 Visualizing Your Sites 179 Mapping your content ecosystem 179 Picturing website content 180 Creating Your Plan 181 Focusing on Specialized Content 183 Creating pillar content 183 Utilizing “evergreen” content 185 Using graphics and other visuals 186 Going viral 187 Chapter 11: Exploring Content Types 189 Dipping into Content Categories 189 Working with Original Short- and Long-Form Content 191 Using Curation 193 Examining five curation models 194 Understanding how to curate 195 Making Use of User-Generated Content 197 Understanding the positives 197 Dealing with the negatives 198 Repurposing Content to Add Value 199 Benefitting from repurposing 199 Planning goals and picking content 199 Viewing Aggregated Visual Content 201 Dealing with Live Video Content 202 Extending Business News 203 Offering Online Courses 204 Managing Content Formats 206 Chapter 12: Storytelling for Content Marketers 213 Storytelling to Engage Your Audience 213 Seeking the science behind stories 213 Finding your product stories 216 Structuring Your Content Using Stories 220 Crafting the story 221 Incorporating copywriting 222 Chapter 13: Creating Processes and Systems for Your Content 225 Organizing the Content Process 225 Benefiting from a defined framework 226 Examining the systems needed 226 Determining Roles and Responsibilities 229 Managing the Workflow 230 Finding and assigning writers 230 Using an editorial calendar 233 Documenting Your Policies and Procedures 236 Content managers 237 Editors 237 Writers 237 Designers 239 Content system administrator 239 Web administrator 239 Part IV: Developing Channel Promotions 241 Chapter 14: Examining Channel Plans 243 Getting Started with Your Channel Plan 243 Benefitting from planning your channel content 244 Knowing what you need to create a channel plan 245 Preparing for a Channel Audit 246 Phase One: Current Channel Audit 246 Phase Two: Channel Content Review 249 Phase Three: New Channel Plans 250 Dipping into Some Major Channel Examples 251 Using Facebook for customer support: Avon 252 Tweeting for customer engagement: Warby Parker 253 Influencing through LinkedIn: Microsoft 253 Using Pinterest to gauge user interest: The Container Store 254 Documenting each channel’s plan 256 Chapter 15: Sharing Your Content 259 Embracing Shareability As a Strategy 259 Understanding sharing patterns 260 Sharing as a bottom‐line issue 261 Uncovering the Five Ws and One H of Online Sharing 263 Knowing who shares content, and why 264 Considering what they share 266 Discovering when they share 268 Observing where they share 269 Looking at how people share content 269 Adding Social Bookmarking 270 Making SEO a Priority 271 Deploying Hashtags to Encourage Sharing 275 Understanding hashtags 275 Using hashtag tools 275 Chapter 16: Looking at Paid, Earned, Shared, and Owned Media 279 Understanding Types of Media 279 Reviewing each media type 280 Determining your needs 281 Utilizing Paid Media 282 Discovering retargeting 282 Dealing with native advertising 283 Considering programmatic buying 285 Finding out what you need to know from advertisers 286 Championing Earned Media 286 Enhancing Shared Media 289 Amplifying Owned Media 290 Looking at the role of press releases 290 Spreading the message 291 Creating a Framework for Achieving the Right Mix 292 Section 1: Owned Channels 293 Section 2: Shared Media 294 Section 3: Paid Ads 294 Section 4: Earned Media 295 Section 5: Evaluate and Revise 295 Chapter 17: Delving into Syndication and Guest Posting 297 Understanding Syndication 298 Looking at content specifics 299 Uncovering syndication types 300 Looking at Online Syndicators 302 Establishing Your Syndication Plan 305 Discovering Guest Posting 306 Benefitting from guest posting 306 Pitching your guest posting to a blogger 307 Preparing to guest post 310 Starting your own guest blogging program 313 Chapter 18: Working with Influencers 315 Discovering the Evolving Role of Influencers 315 Understanding the six principles of persuasion 317 Understanding why influencers matter more now 319 Understanding how to measure expert influencers 320 Recognizing Influencer Types 321 Finding the Right Influencers 322 Discovering the influencers you need to target 322 Developing a system 326 Uncovering New Influencers 327 Influencing with Customer Advocacy 328 Enhancing Word of Mouth (WOM) with Advertising 331 Connecting with your audience 331 Identifying factors for WOMA 332 Paid Influencer Programs 332 Part V: Using Check-Back Analysis 337 Chapter 19: Reassessing Your Business Model and Brand Value 339 Validating Business Models 340 Looking at change 340 Revising your business model canvas 341 Reexamining your brand worksheet 342 Enhancing your business models 342 Reviewing Your Brand Status 343 Refreshing Visual Branding 344 Understanding what your branding means 345 Surveying about brand awareness 346 Locating a survey company 347 Chapter 20: Reviewing Your Content Marketing Strategy 351 Allowing for Failed Experiments 351 Looking Back at Your Content Marketing Strategy 353 Reviewing goals and KPIs 353 Assessing content maturity 354 Reevaluating Your Ecosystem 355 Part VI: The Part of Tens 359 Chapter 21: Ten Problems Content Marketers Face 361 Company Focus 361 Inadequate budget 362 Lack of buy-in 362 Customer Experience 362 Your content isn’t categorized for the buyer’s journey 362 Your content isn’t personalized 362 Content Promotion 363 It seems as though no one is listening 363 You’re not working with the right partners 363 Content Creation 363 Running out of good ideas 363 Decreasing content quality 364 Check-back Analysis 364 Not effectively monitoring customer sentiment 364 Inadequate measures to determine action 364 Chapter 22: Top Ten Blogs on Content Marketing 365 Buffer 365 Content Marketing Institute 366 Convince & Convert 366 Copyblogger 366 Oracle (Eloqua) Content Marketing Blog 366 HubSpot Marketing Blog 367 Marketo Content Marketing Guides 367 QuickSprout 367 Social Media Examiner 367 Social Triggers 368 Seth Godin 368 Chapter 23: Ten Free Tools for Content Marketing 369 BuzzSumo 369 Dropbox 370 Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer 370 Evernote 370 Google Webmaster Tools 371 Grammarly 371 Piktochart 371 Screenpresso 371 SEO SiteCheckup 372 WordPress Calendar 372 Index 373

About the Author :
Stephanie Diamond is a marketing professional with more than 20 years of experience building profits in over 75 different industries. A strategic thinker, she has worked with solopreneurs, small business owners, and multibillion-dollar corporations. Follow her blog at Contentmarketingtoolbox.com/blog.