Saturday 27 December 2014

You’re Not Relevant: 6 Content Marketing Tips to Avoid Blending In



“The tiny cost of failure is dwarfed by the huge cost of not trying.” ~Seth Godin
Being relevant means to be closely connected. When customers align with your brand and feel connected, they start to develop trust in you and your products and services. Revenue grows as trust is strengthened. 
When it comes to marketing, there is nothing worse than blending in. Being considered “not relevant” either through your marketing messages or by word-of-mouth, does no one any good. Companies send us information all the time but it’s often not very relevant or valuable (aka: spam). When you’re not relevant, you’re forgotten. Good content marketing makes a person stop…read… think… behave… differently.
Take a moment and think of a brand that you feel connected with. It could be a major brand or it could be your local restaurant or clothing boutique. There are components to their philosophy of doing business that resonate with you. There may even be personal relationships formed. The experience they deliver keeps you coming back.
Now contemplate your business or your personal brand. What components resonate with your customers? If you don’t know, then ask them.
The world is full of noise. Stop clawing your way to the bottom. It’s just plain lazy to publish messages that everyone’s seen or heard 100 times before. For instance, if your business is “Family owned and operated since…” then don’t tell people, show people. Illustrate it in the most creative ways you can possibly come up with.
As the bottom gets more and more crowded, it’s harder than ever to be more short-sighted than everyone else. If you’re going to need to work that hard at it, you might as well put the effort into racing to the top instead.

Content Marketing Tips to Avoid Blending In

1. First, stop broadcasting messages that no one cares about

Social Media and Social ads are designed to connect you with those most likely to buy from. Broadcasting messages that aren’t relevant to your target customers or to “everyone” is a waste of time and money. What’s more, you can damage yourself and your brand by publishing annoying updates.

2. Broadcast Your Brand “Personality” Instead.

“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” ~Simon Sinek
There are 3 things that no one can ever take away from you:
  • Your Name
  • Your Image
  • Your Knowledge & Expertise
Leverage your assets. Creatively show off your company and the people that work hard every day to keep the business running.
There’s so much content on the web now that getting attention has become very difficult. Find ways to differentiate yourself. Whether you’re a salesperson, an entrepreneur or a business, getting and staying relevant with your target customer is crucial to your success.

3. Create Remarkable Experiences for Your Customer

Your customer already has a deep, cross-functional understanding of what a great experience is. It’s the leadership’s job to make sure products and services are designed to give the customer a reason to talk positively about your brand.

4. Modernize Your Operations to Encourage and Inspire Content Creation

Employees are the one of our greatest assets but we often fail to empower them to talk in Social Media. This is a big mistake; you’re overlooking one of the greatest ways to build trust in your brand. Instead of having policies that say no, teach them, encourage them to recognize opportunities to create content. Employees are a wealth of information. Tap into their expertise and inspire them to contribute.

5. Exude Trust: Make Your Employees the Stars

The public wants to hear directly from employees as ambassadors for the company who can attest to its integrity, the quality and relevance of products and services offered and the operational strength of the company, including its leadership. 
Edelman Trust Barometer 2014: “Employees are considered the most trusted source across most clusters of trust attributes, especially among those attributes grouped under engagement (50%) and integrity (37%).”
Engagement and integrity are keys to building trust and by extension, relevance. Content published around employee contributions demonstrates that the company:
  • Is ethical
  • Listens to customers
  • Treats employees well
  • Customers before profits
  • Acts responsibly in a crisis
  • Transparent and open
  • Communicates often

6. Leverage the Heck Out of the Tools Available

Successful content marketing takes a lot of time, skill, effort and budget. With respect to your time element, make good use out of tools to help you automize some of your duties:
  • Post Planner.  This Facebook app will save you time and relieve anxiety. It’s got a powerhouse post scheduler and viral content suggestions to increase engagement.
  • Hootsuite. A great app to schedule and manage content for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ Business Pages.
  • Canva. Like me, you may consider Photoshop just way too complicated. Canva will help you create striking images (with text) without any of the trouble of Photoshop…and it’s free. You can upload your own images or purchase images for $1.
  • WordPress (self-hosted). The ultimate platform in content publishing. It’s truly the best for websites and blogs. Note: There’s an automotive-retail-specific solution called CarDealerPress.com. For car salespeople who want to blog, there’s MarsCars.com 
These content marketing tips will help you differentiate yourself and your business. As humans, we crave to be relevant to those that matter to us. Take these actions to capitalize on your craving. Attract attention and avoid blending in!
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