The Content Marketing MOT

THE CONTENT MARKETING MOT

THE CONTENT MARKETING MOT

SELF-EVOLVING

EXTENDED

PROGRESSING

DEVELOPING

EMERGING

SUPPORTING YOUR CUSTOMERSYour customers today want support. It is your opportunity to become a trusted advisor.

If you don’t put your audience at the heart of what you do, you won’t succeed. It is time to walk in the shoes of others and be at the heart of what you do.

A content marketing/owned media approach can help build an ongoing relationship based on trust, authenticity and having soul in what you do.

It is time to provide a committed and consistent message across all platforms. Pick your spaces and be good at it. Don’t portray your business in a spray and pray, fingers crossed, mentality.

So, what do you need to consider? The Content Marketing MOT is here for you to see how your own path is developing and a benchmark to work to. We are all learning together, we’re just at different stages of the journey for how the world and businessis evolving.

This is broken down into five areas of development.

Media/Social Human, present, consistent, authentic, sharing, knowledge, entertain.

MeasurementRegularly reflection, organic subscribers, comments, emails, responses, conversations….helping to solve problems or missing the mark?

Raising Profile Build authenticity to what you stand for, leader in your field, taking content marketing beyond the blog, podcasting, events, other company links, community, wider purpose and recognising that nobody knows what you know, until they know you care.

Self Study Commitment, consistent, staying knowledgeable, leader, passion, search for the truth, inquisitive, creative, problem solver, new areas, open mindset, books, courses.

AREAS OF DEVELOPMENT

Media/social Measurement Profile Self study

• Use of different platforms driving traffic to your website

• Encourage subscribers

• Establishing deeper connections

• Consistency and dialogue

• What you stand and your brand message (human traits trust)

• Knowledgeable (industry) and problem solving

• Be that stick of rock

• Google analytics

• Responses to articles

• Conversations

• Increasing organic subscribers

• Praise by customers

• People share content

• Discussion and interaction from others (articles generate)

• Recognised as a resource by others

• Leads converting to sales

• Events

• Community projects

• Show your personality: a clear viewpoint so people know who you are

• Collaboration projects

• Wider community work

• Teaching others (young enterprise or speaking)

• Show proof of the things you say that you are e.g. detailed case studies

• Position yourself alongside other key influencers in your field

• Consuming resources: reading books/articles, listening to podcasts

• Learning from others: courses, talking to and learning from peers/other companies

• Self reflection, adaption and improvement cycle

• Taking feedback from others and using it to improve practise

• Having ‘mentors’ (e.g. someone you admire or connect with)

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EMERGING


• You are present on different channels although may not feel you have developed a ‘voice’ yet

• You may be publishing your content on sites that do not belong to you

• Your presence may be focussed on product/service or promoting your company (e.g. ‘we’re better than the competition’ statements

• Your messages are generalised rather than personalised e.g. ‘I’d like to connect with you on LinkedIn’ - Emails/contact are blanket in style titled ‘Dear friend / It was nice to meet you at recent networking event’

• No real measurement system in place/unsure of how to know if what you are doing is successful

• May focus at false/ superficial measurement tools e.g. likes on Facebook, followers on Twitter

• You are present on different channels but dialogue is one way (from you)

• You may be over reliant on networking events to ‘get your name out there’

• You may be overspending or have an over reliance of Google Adwords or purely SEO

• You may be buying databases to grow your audience and profile

• You speak to peers about thoughts, feelings and changes within your field

• You share ideas and learn from and with others

• You attend courses/events that are relevant to your field

• You consume viewpoints via blog articles, video and audio

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DEVELOPING


• You know what you want to stand for, but are not sure how to portray this to your audience

• You may have begun to write your own content, but have not yet developed consistency with this e.g. content is updated but sometimes weekly or sometimes fortnightly and on different days

• You are not sure what to write about (or know if it is of interest to your audience)

• Your content writing is still product/service focussed

• You measure the use of ‘gated content’ i.e no. of opt ins via e-books and guides

• You are able to see via programs such as ‘Mail chimp’ who is opening your emails, and click through rates

• Brief use of ‘Google analytics’ to view the number of visitors and the time spent on your site

• Your content is starting to grow an ‘organic’ audience (email opt-ins)

• You audience grows beyond your immediate local area (friends and peers)

• You enter competitions and industry awards and share when you are successful in ways that connect with your audience or invite dialogue

N.B. You may not yet have loyal customer base that returns to you time and time again

• Read particular sources regularly ie. industry press titles

• You read lengthier publications (books) relevant to your field

• You record your ideas and share these with other people

• You are beginning to think about how to change and improve practises within you company

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PROGRESSING


• You have a clear media strategy in place

• Content focuses on customers needs and solving problems for them

• You know what to write about and are able to use your measurement tools to see what connects. You can then use this to hone your topics to what your audience seems to want from you

• You update content both regularly and consistently

• You adapt your messages for the various channels you use

• You can show proof of the things you say you are e.g. detailed case studies, groups that you are a part of or projects that you are involved in

• You are predominantly publishing content on sites that you own

• You receive praise from your customers for the content themes you are creating

• You respond personally to comments people make about your content to promote ongoing dialogue

• Increase in email subscribers

• People are sharing what you are creating with others

• Your content is reaching a wider audience than you originally delivered it to

• Leads converting to sales

• You show consistency in your viewpoint and company ethics (through your online presence, actions as a company and in face to face meetings)

• You initiate links with your company and collaboration/wider community projects

N.B. You are starting to see repeat business from your customer base

• You begin to use the research/discussions you are a part of to shape your practice

• You have a good understanding of where your business is currently, what problems you are facing, and actively search for ways to overcome these

• You learn from the successes of other key influencers in your field

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EXTENDED


• You have a clear idea of who you are, business objectives, what you stand for and know how to communicate this with you audience

• You have a clear media strategy in place and portray a consistent message (of who you are and what you stand for) across the different platforms. Although you make sure this message is adapted to the appropriate form for each platform

• You know which channels are most appropriate for your company rather than blanket using of all

• You know which channels your audience prefers to consume and focus on these

• You have consistent regular communication with your audience e.g. email sent out every week without fail!

• You consistently publish different types of resources across a range of channels (e.g. podcast/blog/info graphics)

• You own the spaces where you publish (your website, your email, your subscriber details)

• You take time to update your media strategy in light of what the measurement tools tell you on a regular basis

• Other influencers within your field are sharing and commenting on the content you create

• Ongoing praise and acknowledgement for what you create

• The content you create encourages discussion

• You have ongoing dialogue with your audience and have built ‘relationships’ with them rather than just ‘contact’

• You are starting to get a return on your investment of time.

• Your content has created relationships with others that’s beginning to bring business for you

• You have repeat and continued custom from many of your clients

• You’re committed to teaching / helping others and do so – e.g. through links with universities, guest lecturing, young enterprise, local business groups

• You are involved in organising your own / collaborative events that significant numbers of relevant individuals attend

• You have a clear strategy for how to raise the profile of your business: this includes both short term and long term goals

• You have positioned yourself alongside other industry influencers and have good working relationships/ ongoing dialogue with them. This may lead to new avenues you explore or future collaboration projects

• You share your good practice with others

• You try out new approaches and ideas. You evaluate how successful they are

• You discuss and share new ideas/approaches with other trusted sources to gain their input

• You have regular discussion with other key influencers (or a ‘mentor’) in your field and use this to help shape and clarify your thinking

• You consume high quality content that provokes ideas that in turn become actions

• You learn from others (study and seeing other companies and good practice),

• You read a wider field of publications that may stimulate alternative thoughts / ways of working e.g. psychology

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SELF-EVOLVING


• You have a clear on and off line personality that is consistent. People buy into and are loyal because they know who you are

• You share your thoughts, feelings and opinions on topics within your field with your audience and encourage them to respond with you to promote dialogue

• You have a growing resource library that contains different types of content (podcasts, e-books, guides, blogs, webinars, workshops) that others check into and are able to use as a resource in its own right.

• You are seen by others as a key influencer in your field, and they may actively seek your advice/thoughts/opinions

• You are interested in new software and learning how to use it to see if it can move your approach / business forward

• You are committed to trialling uses of different systems and evaluate effectiveness so you know what to adopt and what to ignore

• You are excited about how this arena continues to develop and a thirst to know more

• You are connected to other key influencers within your field and have professional dialogue with them

• You are seeing significant organic growth in the number of subscribers/audience members

• You have continued professional dialogue with other key influencers from your field which may include: being asked for your opinion/ involvement in different projects

• Other companies begin to try to align themselves with you

• You regularly reflect on your practise, successes and failures and use this to shape your practice

• You are approached by others who wish for you to be a part of community / collaborative projects

• Others begin to try to position themselves alongside you

• Learning / self study has become a habit that you enjoy

• You continuously reflect and refine your practise in light of self-study.

• You see learning as a continuous journey and promote this ethos across your company and to others

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(N.B. gains momentum and continues to build – it becomes what you do and the way you work – it becomes a trait in its own right)

GET IN TOUCHAnything that you would like to discuss further and to make this approach work for you and your business, lets talk. Phone: 01202 989 316 Email: [email protected]: www.theidgroup.co.ukTwitter: @heyidgroup

Office 27, Briggs House26 Commercial RoadPoole, DorsetBH14 0JR