3 Tips for Online Content Marketing Success

June 16, 2010 By 16 Comments
ontent marketing success

So which way are you headed?

The success of your online content marketing always rests on whether you’re getting the right message in the right format to the right audience and in the right way.

It sounds simple in theory but you’d be amazed at how many (small!) businesses can’t work this out.

Identify your audience?

Are you selling services, consulting, products, you name it? Before you know who to target, you need to clarify what you’re actually selling in the first place. Other wise how will you know what online content to create in the first place?

Identify your audience?

The next step to achieving success with your content marketing is to figure out where you’re prospective clients actually are! Small businesses in Stockholm? B2B marketers in Chicago? French-speaking CEOs? It doesn’t matter what you’re selling if you’re not actually talking to the right people in the first place.

Find out where they are online, create a content marketing strategy document that includes details of where prospects hang out online and let your people know about this. You and your people need to understand exactly who you’re company is targeting.
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Your Community Matters

June 4, 2010 By 5 Comments

If you’re looking for success in social media your company doesn’t need an audience. It needs a community.


Audiences listen. Sit passively. Sometimes get really excited. They shout a lot and have fun. And they’ll even sing along.

You can get an audience by shouting at people – but only for a split second or two. Perhaps that’s why there are so many one hit wonders in the music industry.

Audiences tire of things very quickly and are often ready to move on to something new. They have an insatiable thirst for something new, hotter, sexier, better looking.
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Your Audience Needs to Love What You Do

May 20, 2010 By 7 Comments

Does your content marketing inspire a loyal following or leave people cold? Do people really love what you do?

I personally can think of very few brands or businesses that I check out on a daily basis because of their content marketing whether it’s a blog, Facebook Page, etc.


Working in the communications space, however, I have a bunch of daily must-reads (Mark, Gini, Mitch, Joe Jaffe and Joe Pulizzi) whose content marketing (blogs, podcasts, videos, eBooks, etc) really strikes a chord with me.

What unites these business bloggers for me is that they create something that I want to use, be inspired by and learn from. They’re answering questions and engaging in debates that interest me and help with my own growth.

Does your blog, presence on Twitter, YouTube channel or online newsletter deliver that kind of quality? Does your content really drum up a loyal following of fans?

Cut the crap, Ditch the thinly-veiled sales pitch

I know as a business owner that you should never leave money on the table. We all need to make a sale to keep us going. But content marketing is not interruptive advertising. It’s not about bombarding your potential audience or customers with content just for the sake of driving a sale. So stop doing that!

My experience on RyanAir the other day drove it home to me just how unsatisfactory interruptive marketing really is and left me very irritated. Predictably, RyanAir don’t do anything to provide cool content that will interest me either. They’re an example of a business that’s (currently) thriving because they offer cheap flights. But you won’t believe the amount of people I know that swear they’ll never travel with them again.

Imagine if an airline had the number one travel blog on the Net and sold plane tickets costing slightly more than Ryanair. Imagine if the quality of that flight experience, along with a really cool in-flight magazine, and great service began to strike a chord with business people looking for a cheap flight with that little bit more luxury. And if said airline provided genuine tips for (business) people like me to get about and get the most out of international travel, they could really start to be noticed on the Net.

Throw in brilliant online customer service, quick responses and tips on Twitter and people like me who regularly spend a lot of money on air fares, will sit up and take notice.

In short, producing quality cool content marketing that really strikes a chord, along with great service, might just help me to really learn to love the whole travel experience again.
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