Content Marketing Agency

Don't believe words really matter all that much? Well, if your content marketing agency can't convince you, your copywriter can't convince you, and even your mother can't convince you, watch this moving video by online content provider Purple Feather. 

A blind man begging for coins on a busy city sidewalk hears many more coins dropping onto his cardboard mat after a woman changes the words on his sign. The woman is no doubt a copywriter! She changes his straightforward message to one with an emotional appeal...and the people react. 

The pen is mightier than the sword...and the keyboard mightier still. If you're using any kind of creative content marketing to promote your business, or working with a freelance copywriter, never, ever estimate the real power of words. Let your content marketing services provider or copywriter take you that one extra step toward the authentic, the real, the emotional. Be willing to be different, to stand out. Change your straightforward message to one with an emotional appeal. 

And you might hear more coins dropping in front of you too. 

In response to an earlier content marketing blog post on what I call "blodder," and trying to capture what employees say in their emails as blog fodder for your online content marketing, I got the following comment:

"This is so true - if I could get my hands on the emails that one of my company's employees writes on a daily basis, I would have so much blodder to work with, I would hardly have time to plan."

I'm sure your work situation is at least somewhat similar, with your employees writing thoughtful, detailed responses to customers or prospects. They are creating content for your content marketing program without even meaning to! 

But how do you capture that content? Compendium just added a very cool email to post feature, where an email can be sent directly into a blog post. That's one way. But I think you also have to change mindsets. We've thought of these one-to-one communications as just that: me writing to you. That might be a big shift in thinking to start thinking of the emails one writes throughout the course of the day as resources for online content marketing!

I'm working on that right now with a long time client of our content marketing agency. My question to them is, how do we tap into the emails your employees are writing? Or the experiences they're having? Compendium CEO Chris Baggott advises people to start a blog post with "I just got off the phone with..." and simply write about that conversation. 

Content marketing doesn't have to mean generating lots and lots and lots of content (although that kind of need makes content marketing agencies like mine very happy!). Plenty of content exists or is generating each and every day at your company. 

You just need to get people thinking that way so you can tap into it. We can help. 

According to a recent MarketingProfs article on B2B email marketing, these marketers are primarily concerned with improving the relevancy of the content in their emails.

In fact, it's so important to them, 66% of B2B marketers surveyed cited improving content as a goal for the next 12 months. The next highest goal was list hygiene at only 42%.

In the interest of being self serving, may I point out that it's interesting that content is such a huge concern at the time when content marketing is coming into its own as a marketing strategy and tactic? 

And if two-thirds of B2B marketers want to make their content more relevant, then copywriting and content marketing services providers like We Know Words should plan to get really busy. Because the best content, the most relevant content these marketers will create will come from tapping into a customer-centric approach to content creation, the intellectual property known as their employees, the seasoned and skilled input of professional writers and editors, and a content coordination approach that ties it all together.

Which is a really long-winded way of saying the answer lies in outsourcing content marketing to a reputable, experienced content marketing agency...like We Know Words.

Really, why is this a concern for so many B2B marketers when there are companies like We Know Words who can make it all happen? 

Outsource the content marketing, marketers, and move to the next item: list hygiene.

I can't help you there. But I sure can help you with the content! 

Why blog? Because blogging is forever. OK, forever is relative in this day and age. But a blog post is going to be around a lot longer than other social media marketing.

A wall post on a Facebook page has a very short life span. A tweet even shorter. But a blog will be around always. It will be indexed by the search engines and served up when someone goes looking for what you're offering...even if it's two, three or even five years later. That's a lot longer than a lot of boyfriends! And that won't happen with any other kind of popular social media like Facebook and Twitter!

As a freelance copywriter and now as a provider of content marketing services, I have been pushing for blogs as marketing tools for a few years now. With the advent of content marketing as a strategic way to create and use content, maybe blogs will be taken more seriously.

Although I don't know. I still run up against the initial reaction of a) thinking a blog is just a place to spout off or b) the "there's no way we could keep up with one."

It's funny because people--even savvy marketers who should know better--seem to see the blog as something extraneous and extra. And a lot of work with no payoff.

It's none of those things.

It can be the hub of your online content marketing strategy. Dare I say it should be the hub of your online content marketing strategy? And blog content is easy to come by when you're focused on online content marketing. You simply need a strategy.

And isn't that what content marketing is all about? Being strategic with your creation and use of content? 

To talk strategy with a content marketing agency that's been around the content block for a while now, reach out to We Know Words.

I'm in love with the whole idea of content marketing because the premise is something I've pushed for for years. As a freelance copywriter, I have pushed people to be real and tell stories. I have pushed clients to get testimonials and find out their customers' stories. I have pushed for repurposing (now called reimagining) of content.

And why didn't clients listen to me before this whole notion of content marketing came along? I don't know. Maybe I'm simply not pushy enough. Maybe I wasn't secure enough because no one else was saying it so maybe my ideas weren't so great after all (or so said the little voice inside my copywriter head). Maybe I didn't explain it very well!

Today listening to a webinar on content marketing starring Chris Baggott, Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman...three of the biggest names in content marketing...I had a thought. What if it was fear?

I admit, it has been a battle at times to get the We Know Words copywriter clients to be real, to tell stories. "But what we do is proprietary." "But we need to sound like everyone else." "But we need to tell people about our widgets and gadgets." "But we can't sound that different." Those are the kinds of excuses I heard when clients wanted their freelance copywriter to create what I call "me too" copy rather than anything compelling and unique.

(And there was the time the landscaping firm had paid the PR firm tens of thousands of dollars and by golly, that was the messaging  they were going to use, no matter how irrelevant it was to their target market!)

As We Know Words morphs from copywriting agency to content marketing agency (which, of course, includes copywriting as a core offering), I sense I will still run into the same kinds of "buts" as before. And this idea of fear makes it all make sense.

Ever since the publication of Seth Godin's "Purple Cow," we've been called upon to be different, to stand out. As Seth said in his book, the risk isn't in being different, it's in being the same. And yet, maybe 20% of We Know Words clients over the past 10 years have embraced that concept.

It's scary to be real! It's scary to be different! It's scary to stand out! Not just for me and you as individuals, but for companies too. What if you're wrong? What if you fail? What if no one likes you? 

That's why we all dress pretty much the same and wear our hear pretty much the same and all that. And that's what most companies and brands do as well.

So as we move into thinking of what we do as content marketing, and we are called about to create, coordinate and distribute content that is real and engaging, as we work to convince those clients who hire us for content marketing services that yes, they do need customers telling stories and employees blogging, I suspect we will run into that same fear factor and bunch of "buts" that I've come up against before.

My job as the woman offering the content marketing services? Be more convincing.

It's a good thing I know words...

As the marketing world moves forward into Content Marketing, finally giving content its due, I guess not everyone is following suit.

In 2011, we can have our customers talking about us and marketing for us like never before. We can be more real, more authentic. We can let our brands have personality and engage with our audiences in completely new ways.

Or we can just throw more money at marketing the old-school way. That's apparently what Kraft is going to do.

Kraft is going to going the old route of more money, more ads. Some agencies are going to make a lot of money.

But will TV commercials build brand in the age of social media? Not the way content marketing would, says this freelance copywriter.

I like the Miracle Whip commercial, I confess. I think it's bold to have people saying they don't like your product. But I'd rather see Kraft spend their money on hearing from real people, not celebrities. Let's see money go towards viral social media campaigns, not expensive TV ads.

Oh well, what do I know. I'm just a freelance copywriter on cloud 9 because the popularity of content marketing is finally making people aware of principles I've been advocating for 10 years. (Be engaging. Be real. Be authentic. Have a personality. Repurpose content. Use indirect marketing.)

It seems like Kraft doesn't even know content marketing exists...

Good thing I don't like Miracle Whip! I suspect the price will go up so Kraft can afford the high cost of old-school marketing!

This whole Content Marketing thing has admittedly caught me a little off guard. As a freelance copywriter, I work with words every single day. Marketing through content is what I do. It's my passion, my livelihood.

As a freelance copywriter, at first I thought, "Well, content marketing is what I already do." But as the articles keep popping up in the email newsletters I read, and eMarketer, and other places, I am trying to sort this out. And here's what I think...

Yes, as a freelance copywriter, content marketing is what I do. But in a way it's also what I've always wanted to do, and that is to be involved in the strategic planning of the content. I tried making a list of what I would consider copywriting vs. what I would consider content marketing...as a way to sort things out on the We Know Words website. But having two lists was disingenuous. From web content to banner ads to SEO to ghost blogging to writing articles, it's all copywriting.

But maybe what's happening here is an evolution. For two years now, I have been the freelance copywriter for a Bay Area company, integrating the ghost blogging, email newsletters and other content. I have from the start tried to tie all together, repurpose content, and link between different channels. And you know what that is? Content marketing.

I can see some distinctions, that I'm working to address at our We Know Words copywriter agency as I type this. If you need to generate 100 blog posts per month for online content marketing, you're not going to pay a typical freelance copywriter rate for that kind of volume. That's where I stop thinking of it as copywriting and start thinking of it as content generation.

Ditto if you want to generate weekly articles as web content, or weekly press releases.

Working on that here in our Seattle copywriter office...stay tuned.

A few months ago, I roughed out the text because I was getting quite a few questions about small business blogging from fellow small business owners. This is by no means a definitive guide, but someone suggested this morning that I post it to my own blog, so here it is:

 

Why do you want to start small business blogging?

First, be clear on your goals. I hope you are small business blogging for three reasons:

1. Search engine optimization
2. Thought leadership
3. Relating to customers

 

What will your small business blog be about?

Second, decide what your focus will be. What the heck are you going to blog about? What can you talk about that other people might not be? What topic gets you excited and would be easy for you to write about? For example, my friend with an Indian restaurant wants to blog. Possible “themes” for her blog are: vegetarianism, Indian culture, running a small family-owned business, having an ethnic restaurant in a redneck town, cooking, Indian food, recipes, being a single mom running a restaurant, food allergies, etc.

 

Another example is my local florist. I’m trying to get her to start small business blogging because she’s very online marketing savvy when it comes to pay-per-click, but less so for SEO. I’m also trying to get her to blog because she’s so knowledgeable and well-respected and she could be even more so. I’d love to see her write a blog as the florist expert, offering advice like when to start choosing the flowers for your wedding, seasonal suggestions for wedding flowers, plants as corporate gifts, catering advice, maybe she talks about her favorite catering venues. She could talk about the price of flowers as impacted by gas prices, how to keep flowers fresh, etc. I see it as “advice” oriented.

 

Or consider my small business blog: Although I’m primarily a Seattle copywriter, my real passion is marketing, and my beliefs about being customer-centric. (Stated at the top of my blog: helping people talk to customers not at them.) My goal with my small business blogging is to get people thinking a little differently about marketing, while still using keywords that are helping my blog get found for copywriting. In the future, I’ll be doing more consulting and speaking, so my keywords will shift, but the blog’s theme will stay the same. So on the other hand, my goal is also to get people thinking about me in a certain way.

 

Your small business blog title

Third: Decide on the title of your blog. Make sure it reflects your blog’s focus, but also your keywords if you’re small business blogging for SEO. For example, when I started a blog for an email marketing agency, I chose “Email Marketing ROI” for the title, so the URL included those words. (It now has a different name.) And that was the theme of the blog: improving email marketing ROI by providing useful information.

 

Set a small business blogging schedule

Fourth, set a schedule for small business blogging and adhere to it. Blog at least two times a week, but if you want search engine results, do it more often. I have a Task in Outlook that pops up a reminder for me every Tuesday and Thursday. In that task list is a running list of topic ideas (more on that later). If you have produced an email newsletter or another publication, you know you have a production calendar to stick with. Think of your blog the same way.

 

Round up the bloggers

Fifth, consider having more than one person at your company blog. It doesn’t have to be the CEO or the marketer writing the blog. In fact, the best blog content might come from someone who works with customers every day, or on the shop floor. The first person would have insight into customer concerns, and the other into production. Both would produce great blog content that an executive or marketer might not think of.

 

Be clear on your keywords

Sixth: If you’re blogging for SEO purposes, determine your keywords. Use a free keyword research tool like SEO Book (http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/) or Google Adwords (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal), or maybe you already know your keywords you want to win? Then look at how competitive the search landscape is for the terms you want to use. Remember, more specific keywords won’t be used by as many people, but they’ll get you found by the smaller group of people who are a more targeted audience for you. The less often you plan on blogging, the fewer keywords you’ll be able to use enough to compete. But come with 4 or so keyword phrases. Long-tail keyword searches seem to do well in blogs. Keep this list in mind every time you blog and use your keywords, in a post title and in the post itself. I usually write a blog post, then go back and sprinkle in a keyword or tool. And I admit it, I don’t focus on the SEO part enough sometimes because I get caught up in the topic. J

 

Do you want editorial control?

Seventh, think about editorial control: If more than one person will be small business blogging, do you want administrative control so content is reviewed before it goes live? Will someone be proofreading blog content before it gets posted?

 

Developing your voice

Eight: When you first start, you don’t necessarily have to post those initial blogs. Just write them in a Word document first, or even on paper. You’ll want to write a few to get your voice, a sense of how you want to come across. But do be yourself, do be natural and a real person.

 

Coming up with topics

Now the “hard” part (not really): small business blogging!! The biggest hurdle for people seems to be topics. What will we blog about? If after reading this you still don’t know what you’ll blog about, let me know…

 

Keep a running list of topic ideas. Then when it’s time to blog, use one of the ideas (then make sure you delete it from your list!). If you have a recurring task in Outlook, like I do, you keep your list there. Then when Outlook pings you, you’ve got your idea list right in front of you. But once you start blogging, you’ll start seeing topics all around you. I use one of the topics on my list maybe every 3^rd or 4^th time because something will have happened that prompts a blog post in the mean time.

 

Look for ideas in the newspaper, trade magazines, in other blog posts. I even get ideas from the radio and from conversations.

 

I haven’t done this yet, but try and use photos sometimes. Not cheesy ones though, don’t include photos just for the sake of photos. Or clip art, ugh! But real photos of real people, like your staff or your customers. Videos too…

 

I saw a blog that copied and pasted in press releases verbatim. I wouldn’t recommend this because search engines hate duplicated content. It’s better to blog on the press release and link to it. And if your company creates press releases and posts them online (and you should!), write a summary of the press release in your blog and link to it.

 

Link to other sources. If you read a blog that makes a good point, write your own blog post with your take on it, and link to the original blog. Ditto for online news articles, video clips, etc. You can link to anything. Consider subscribing to a couple of email newsletters or other blogs just to get your own thought processes going. Your reactions to what you read are also valid blog content.

 

Link to studies and reports that are released. Some bloggers are the filter for their readers, helping their readers find important information without having to look for it.

 

Talk about what’s going on with your business: Are you going to be at a tradeshow? Will there be live music at your tavern? Are you moving?

 

Be creative in thinking about what content will be interesting. Like my business is a copywriting agency, but I don’t tell people how to be copywriters. I try to help people be better marketers. If you owned a coffee shop, you wouldn’t necessarily blog on your coffee shop, that would get boring fast, but you could blog on the coffee industry perhaps, because you could still use your keywords.

 

Include customer testimonials with an introduction, maybe “We received a great email from Susan Smith about her new vacuum, and just have to share it with you…”

 

Never forget that small business blogging is about being real. You could even include a recipe! Say you had a staff potluck and Joe’s potato salad was a huge hit. Talk about the party and include Joe’s recipe.

 

Please don’t post just to post. I have a friend that does that because his only concern is SEO, and that means he’s putting a lot of useless stuff out on the Internet. L I want subscribers to my blog, and if I did that, just posted blogs based on keywords, subscribers wouldn’t stay very long because I wouldn’t be providing useful information!

 

That’s my start on blogging basics. Please, please let me know if it was helpful or not by commenting!!

I really do love small businesses and small business owners, but they can make me crazy…

My best example right now is the small business owner who is pissed at me because they put up their new Web site and aren’t getting any hits. This is apparently my fault because my copywriting agency did the writing for the Web site. Never mind that their Web developer neglected to use the title tags and other meta tags we’d written. Never mind that it’s poorly coded and designed. Never mind that they chose not to do all of the pages we’d suggested for more content. Never mind that it only went up three weeks ago. Never mind that no sites link to it yet. Never mind that they have no content management strategy for updating the site. Never mind that I had explained all of this to him months ago when we first started on the project.

Just because someone is running and marketing a small business doesn’t excuse them from educating themselves about marketing. I’m not saying they should be an expert. (I joke that I don’t want to know about taxes, that’s why I have an accountant. But I still know what taxes get paid and when, I just don’t have to know the nitty gritty.) But they should know something.

Not all are like the client described above. I’ve worked with plenty of small business owners who took the initiative and learned enough to have a dialog about their marketing, whether it’s an email newsletter, web marketing, blogging or direct mail.

And thank goodness for those clients! Copywriters and marketers can’t do their jobs with clients who don’t know anything and aren’t willing to learn is the lesson I’m learning this week. Sadly, it’s usually the small business that falls into that category.

And for any small business owners who now feel compelled to know it bit more about web marketing and SEO based on this gripe, start here: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769.

From a conversation with a marketing agency yesterday: “We don’t need any real writing on that Web site. People don’t read anymore.”

Can I scream now? Blanket statements like this are baloney. First off, yes, people do still read online, it all depends. Second, words will always matter!! And third, what about SEO? Search engines seek out one thing when indexing your site: content.

In this case, I was talking to someone about Web writing for a bed and breakfast. One of the most popular sites we’ve done was for a bed and breakfast (www.thecanyonvilla.com). That was many years ago, but just last year, that Web site was mentioned in a newsletter for bed and breakfast owners as THE way to write a Web site for an inn. And the innkeeper still says guests tell her they chose her inn because of her Web site. Every once in a while I look at that site, trying to figure out why it works so well. I have my ideas, but that’s not the topic of this blog…

My point is, words do matter. What about the site I mentioned last week, the one I had to dig four pages into before figuring out what that company did? And the bed and breakfast Web site I was discussing yesterday, well, they have some very unique features, and they are located in an extremely competitive destination area. Are photos alone going to sell their inn? Not likely. They will need words. Very carefully chosen, well crafted words that speak directly to their target audience. Words that complement the photos and tell the complete story. (Show AND tell, remember?)

And some Web sites demand a lot of writing due to the nature of the site. A Web site selling software or other high-tech related products or services will probably require more content, because that is a more information driven purchasing decision than buying a yellow t-shirt.

Seems like the more money involved the more words needed. Just a few months ago I was shopping for a new saddle. I had made up my mind to buy a certain brand, but I couldn’t find any real information online about it, so I went with a different brand. If I’m spending several thousand dollars, I want my questions answered. I want a lot of information to support and reinforce my decision to buy.

So lots of words, few words…it depends on the site and what you’re selling and yes, the writing does matter.

The third reason Web sites require writing? SEO. Sometimes clients want Web writing that’s optimized for search, but then they want hardly any content. I get that—when the site is one that doesn’t require a lot of content, that is. In those cases, we recommend the home page be very concise, and maybe one or two other pages are short too, but then we recommend ways to add content to a Web site in a way that makes sense for both SEO and the user…meaning it’s useful information people would really be searching for and happy to find. Some possibilities include adding a press room and posting press releases; publishing an enewsletter and archiving it on your site; creating tip sheets, whitepapers or reports…or blogging. Yes, blogging can be a way to add content and increase your online presence. It took me a while to see the light, I confess. OK, two years to be exact. But then Compendium Software (www.compendiumsoftware.com) made it all make sense. Yes, shameless plug here. :^)

Do words matter on a Web site? You bet. More than you realize. But if they are words for words sake, you’re better off not using any at all.