Content Marketing: Strategic, Educational and Effective!
Content is King While social platforms are queen, quality content is what powers these strong networks. Learning how to effectively utilize a company blog to educate your audience and move customers through the sales process is an affordable, long-tail marketing plan. The difficult part of implementing a content marketing initiative is deciding what to write about. You don’t have to chose one specific topic, like if you are a yard care company, you wouldn’t just write about the new fertilizers and lawn mowers you are using. These are topics that would be relevant to show you are using top-notch equipment and could be an effective post, but really you should be focusing on valuable tips. If you can show your company as a thought leader in the industry, not only do all of those posts you are writing help your site gain rank in search engines, but you have also shown why you are the right choice for lawn care. There are millions of topics to write about on your blog, though most importantly remember to keep a similar tone. The tone is your brand, it is your image and readers will expect that similar attitude for each new post. After deciding what to write about and how to sound, now is the tricky part, how to divide the work. Pawan Deshpande, founder and CEO of Curata has published an article on Boston.com explaining 5 tips to ease the daunting task of populating an organizations traditional marketing channels read his suggestions below: Find Your Niche: It might seem obvious that an organization will publish content that’s relevant to its own industry, but go beyond that. Is it possible to carve a niche within the industry for your organization? Is there an untapped issue or trend that your company can own and become the leading expert? Maybe there’s an opportunity to put a new spin on content that feels overdone dated. No matter the opportunity, be sure to define the space you’re working in and have a clear focus, ensuring that all of your content helps drive your organization’s goals and objectives. Share the Load: You may have a team or you may be the sole marketer in your organization, but regardless, you may feel the responsibility of content creation rests squarely on your shoulders. While you should certainly drive and manage the effort, content can seem stale and monotonous if it’s only coming from one point of view. Enlist colleagues from different departments to contribute to your content efforts. This will help keep content fresh and offer new perspectives. “Color” your Content: When most people think of the term “content,” text usually comes to mind and can feel like a time-consuming initiative. Text is certainly a critical part of content, but don’t underestimate the value of an image, such as an infographic. Images can often influence an audience even more than text, as it may be more attention-grabbing right off the bat. An image can be the lead point of a particular article, or it can complement your text. It’s a great way to keep your content exciting and different for your readers. Furthermore, infographics are often shared by the original reader, especially with encouragement, which means that a reader’s audience is now seeing your content and spreading your message. Remember, if your...
read moreThe Power of Networking and Referrals
You are only as good as your network. They are the one’s who vouch for you, they are the one’s who represent you, and ultimately will refer business back to you. Now I keep mentioning the word YOU. But really it is never about you, it is about helping your network. Pay it forward and if you have built the right network, it should come right back. This approach is how I do business, and how I generally find new clients. I’m not saying you have to go out of your way for everyone you meet, but have a sense of pride in helping others. This will be noticed and the rewards will be reaped later in life. These words of advice can be used in and out of the office, at a family dinner or just running into an old friend at the grocery store. It is important to verbalize what you want out of a relationship, especially if it is a business relationship. Being up front about expectations and desires helps build trust between clients, friends and colleagues. Also, if you don’t mention what you want, than how will you ever get it? No, it’s not being selfish, it’s being honest. It’s not wasting someone else’s time. The power of networking is the ability to find mutually beneficial agreements and trades to satisfy the goal of each party. Start the bartering by referring a new lead or suggesting a better service offering. People are much more willing to help you out if you have already made an effort for them and if they are not, then we are back to the beginning. You are only as good as your...
read moreNew and Improved Website
It’s a new dawn, a new day, a new website for me! And i’m feeeeeeling goooood. Badum badum badadada dada dum. Now that I got that out of my system, let’s move on from Michael Buble. This new website for Tower Marketing Agency will feature different insights and tips for businesses interested to learn more about how to successfully market their business. Generally focusing on inbound and online strategies, I would expect there to be some insights on trade show marketing and offline strategies. Business development, client relationships and the need to vent after a long week of work may also find their way into this business marketing blog. Tower Agency was the original name of this business but after being mistaken for a modeling agency, it was time to add more information about the nature of this consultancy. I’m Roger Tower, and available to answer your questions, explore new ideas and recap on poor uses of QR codes, so please email me what you may want to accomplish in our relationship. Without further ado, I present what you have all been waiting for… Roger Tower is a marketing consultant, blogger, and small business advocate. Completely obsessed with advertising, you will often find him talking to commercials and offering up better marketing...
read moreThe Times they are a Changin’, Right Mark?
Capitalism. Some say it is the root of all evil, others that it is what helps a business grow and flourish. I’m not here to tell you what the system does, but I will say how facebook has changed since it’s IPO. Whether you are a consistent social media user or just using once a month, you’ve undoubtedly noticed that their are more ads across your newsfeed. The algorithm is changing, and it is not changing in favor of the users. In a free service the user is what is being sold, and the buyer are the business pages. Posts are showing up less frequently on newsfeeds and facebook is pushing it’s sponsored posts ability to increase profits. On a more positive note, these sponsored posts are a fantastic way to reach like minded users and find a targeted group to build your following. For example, one of my clients is a printing company near a large ivy league university. Every year the graduating seniors must bind their thesis and turn it in to the university. With the social ads it is possible to target only graduating seniors at that particular school and do it only during the 2 month period in which they must bind the thesis. If you really wanted to get particular than you could align each ad with the students major based on when the turn in date is scheduled. What other advertising medium can you reach out to this specific of an audience? Facebook may be headed in the direction of evil, but for a small business with minimal ad budget, it can be a gold mine. This campaign referenced gained 40+ clicks to their online order form page in the first day. That day cost them $3 in media buy. In comparison, this could have bought one single click on google adwords. Written in entrepreneur.com: May 2012: Facebook’s IPO debuts disastrously. The stock price opens at $42.05 but closes at $38.23. Despite the lackluster performance and some technical snafus, some 500 million shares are sold and the IPO raises $16 billion. Facebook becomes the second largest IPO in U.S. history. December 2012: At the final bell of the year, Facebook stock closes at $26.62, a far cry from its IPO. February 2013: The Pew Research Center releases data suggesting that users are getting tired of Facebook. Reports of “Facebook fatigue,” especially among teens, continue to surface. May 2013: Facebook credits gains in mobile advertising for the growth of its first-quarter revenue of $1.46 billion — an increase of 38 percent compared with the same quarter last year. The company’s shares slide to around $26. Source: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/226688#ixzz2UDg2Hvav Thanks for reading, more rants about facebook to...
read moreAgent Profile: Roger Tower
Reliable, vigilant, and determined.
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