5 tips for being sexy with your content marketing

Hi guys! Hope, you are all enjoying this lovely Wednesday and counting days to Christmas. :) I, on the other hand, am a little bit upset as my Glasgow days are almost over and my luggage is half packed. 

As for my blog - I am not saying 'Good-bye' to you anywhere soon, so here is my latest post. Let me share some sexy tips with you. Enjoy! :-)

Looking back on how TV, commercials and 'not-so-innovative' marketers work, one can always find that sex (sexy images, naked body parts, 'intriguing' noise and so on) always works as a fast and easy way to sell stuff to people, be it chocolate dessert, luxury car or the newest fragrance. 'Sex appeal' or the prosaic 'sex sells' rule has been long ago incorporated into the advertising/PR/marketing world agenda (which was 'scientifically' proven by Gallup and Robinson btw). 

And I am not here to judge what is and is not wrong with it. Let me just say that today's blog post was inspired by the growing popularity of 'Masters of Sex' and the iconic status of 'Sex and the City', people's interest to 'Secret Diaries of a Call Girl' and the idea that all commercially successful perfumes are 'Guilty' 'Pleasure' 'Seduction' 'Fallen Angel' and so on.

I guess there are so many decent ways to include 'sexy' principle into your strategy, be it in the field of marketing, content creation, or sales, that more attention should be paid.

One way to go, (which we have already discussed) is to feature half-naked people in your ads. The question is to what extent such idea is cheap and tacky.

Here is my rather tasteful solution of integrating the well known rules of seduction into the everyday content marketing strategy - 5 tips on how not to cross the line between sexy and vulgar.

1.  Every glamour magazine would advise women to be mysterious, because secret equals intrigue. With content marketing there is a similar trick. If you want to ‘write sexy’ something should be always left unsaid. To clarify, I do not suggest you write incomplete articles or do not answer questions in a proper manner; instead, your content has to be so engaging that the audience would strive coming back for more.

2. Pay attention to words and styles. Catchy headlines work better and so do witty articles. Always reflect on the people you are targeting: professional jargon might be appropriate for some industry-specific journals and websites, but general audience would prefer clear explanations. Would you say nerds are sexy? Who knows. In the meantime, don’t leave your audience feeling ‘What?! I did not get a word of this’. Do not confuse and provide great examples to illustrate your points.

3. Confidence is sexy. Confident people always have charm which makes them even more attractive. Make your content emphasise your expertise and leadership in the particular field. Moreover, let you style of writing be confident as well. No one will follow ideas like ‘our products seem to be better’; ‘you will probably enjoy our services’ and so on. Nevertheless, be careful with the thin line between the confidence and arrogance. If you claim you are the best - prove it (better have others prove this for you).

4. Flirt. Yes, just like in a real life, in producing and managing content, there often is a place for flirting. Of course, I believe flirt is art and talent, but some tips are pretty general so anyone can use them. Thus, engagement is one thing - replying to comments, Liking, re-tweeting and re-posting are all examples of modern digital life coquetry. You should make your customers, readers and potential buyers feel they all have their tiny place in your company's heart. The only exception to the rule in the context of flirting is customer service - if you provide this on your Facebook page - that is definitely not a place to ‘play hard to get’ despite how sexy you may think it is. Another way of flirting would be through the actual content. Talk through your content.  What this means is that engagement always increases when some real-experiences, case studies and illustrations are involved. When you write for your audience from their standpoint and in their words, real magic happens - readership starts ‘Liking’ you.

5. I thought of having tip No.5 here at first, but then decided to make it sexier by leaving some space for ‘fantasies’...I mean comments and questions. :) But than my colleague came up with this brilliant rule, which basically sums up everything written above - Think Pirelli calendar rather than Hooters bar...

Who is afraid of digital marketing? OR the Scariest Post so far!

Happy Halloween to everyone! :)

Never understood how scary holiday can be happy, though!;) Time to read about digital marketing tricks and treats inspired by this popular celebration.  Many news websites now offer their readers interesting pumpkin pie or soup recipes as well as coffee shops showcasing brand new pumpkin-flavoured lattes (I`ve tried one of those 2 days ago - not bad at all). 

Here is my Halloween marketing recipe.

1. Play with words

Did you know that every October the word ‘Pumpkin’ gets 20 times more searches than normal? Yes, this is pretty impressive and should be taken into consideration. What does this mean for us? Well, in our digital world we can plan content strategies around relevant holidays, celebrations or seasons; take trends onboard and craft content accordingly, having fun with wording, paying attention to keywords and tags.

Headlines are also important because of their power to increase engagement and readability of content. Therefore, I believe all Halloween headlines should be ‘killer’, content must be ‘scary-good’ and all of this better be accompanied with ‘to-die-for’ Tweets and Likes on Face-boo-k. Play with the words, turn them into hashtags, get involved in conversations and make the most out of the pumpkin hysteria!

2. Take pictures and make videos

Recently emerged phenomena of Vine and constantly growing popularity of Instagram encourage digital marketing practitioners to include those two apps (mobile social photo/video platforms) in their agendas even more. Six or fifteen seconds long, witty and creative videos may be a very good tool to use in the run up to October 31st. One of the most recent examples of great Vine Halloween-themed campaigns (fully described in AdWeek) was developed by washing powder brand Tide and consist of seven short viral videos. Every video clip features famous brand’s product in a well-known horror movie and a corresponding tagline, such as ‘Strains better be scared’ from the upcoming remake ‘Carrie’.

Check Tide’s Vine here: https://v.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/FBF48609FA1002937805493972992_1ddf9f35691.3.4_BbvM_c.6hYY6b9XVtG1Wvyb25fTwvidydqStiV5.JJUVlS8nS8p0l6Mw9GMYGbom.mp4?versionId=1TCGeZYTB2chlx4D_sYfzi1OZCNcnKuq

By the way, pictures of Halloween costumes may be also ‘Instagramed’. Moreover, if that’s a product you are launching or promoting, try putting a funny little costume on your product and make it Vine viral. Just imagine new iPad Air in a cute Batman cape :)

3. Create contests!

The last and probably the easiest idea to implement this last day of October as a part of digital campaign is to organise a contest. People love Facebook contests and so do I - they are engaging, easy-to-do and can only be limited to one's imagination. Photo sharing contest (such as of the craziest outfit or a handmade Jack O’Lantern; ‘guess a scary movie’ type of contest; the best Halloween meme; scariest-looking cupcake or even online trick-or-treating) can all be performed in order to make your brand more popular and more likeable while adding some life to your Facebook page.

Simple content marketing tips

Monday morning to everyone! :) Hope, you all had a great weekend!

This week I will start from explaining the basics of the content marketing, because this truly is a big thing nowadays. In case you are wondering why content marketing is important, I will provide you with 3 interesting facts from 2 different studies (by Content Marketing Institute and NewsReach)

1. 78% of UK companies invest in content marketing 

2. 54% of businesses plan to invest more into content marketing next year

3. 97% of UK organisations planed to maintain or increase their investments in content marketing this year

When marketing your content there are three simple but importnat things to remember:

1. Use various formats of content. Overall, among 12 different content marketing tactics - social media channels, blogs and case studies are seen by the practitioners as the most effective. Video as a way of delivering messages is used by 70% of UK businesses, making it 6th most effectively used content marketing tool. Interestingly, infographics - very engaging, likeable and shareable type of content, are used by 32% of companies. I believe this number will increase withing the next few years, because users seems to appreciate infographics more than long boring articles. Finally, contests, games and quests are brilliant, just make sure you know the best way to approach them. This recent piece at +Jeff Bullas blog on Facebook contests should be helpful. 

2. Use multiple platforms to deliver your content. It is not only about driviing traffic, but simplifying it for your audience. It is always great when the mechanics of the website or company`s blog allow readers/visitors to share the content in one click. Thus, don't forget to put the necessary social media buttons and make sure it is possible to login to your site through those social media channels. (And to make this paragraph sound more legitimate, here is some more statistics for you). 83% of all businesses use LinkedIn to share their content, this is a significant figure proving that professional networks cannot be underestimated. Moreover, Google Plus seems to promise great future for your business presence online.

3. It is not about how your write, but what your write about. Quality over quantity, content and essence over the delivery format - there are many ways to formulate this tip. The main point is that everyone, including Google and other digital habitants are becoming smarter developing digital savvy, creating a real challenge for the content marketing practitioners. Not only your content should be tailored for the specific audience, it should always provide additional value and originality. Facts and figures should be up-to-date, 'borrowed' ideas should be referenced, you should be an expert in what you write. (Well, luckily I just share what I know here, not pretending to be a business shark or marketing guru). 

Finally, I have co-written this fabulous blog post with my colleague +Euan Leopold (who, by the way, has also started his own blog). Don`t forget to check it out! 

Have a great productive week and come back tomorrow as I will share some thoughts with you on the new iPhone! :) 

How I became a millionaire blogger with Cision

Morning folks!

For those who thought that I forgot about you and this blog - the answer is no! I am still here, it is just that something so unbelieveable happened to me these days, that I needed a couple of days to realise this was true and so now I am finally ready to share this with you. :)

Before I tell you what it was I have to start from the beginning. Long time ago, in a galaxy far far away...(should probably skip this part)...Maria (this is me in case you do not know) decided to start a blog. This blog. I have mentioned somewhere earlier why I did it and you can say I lack belief and confidence or whatever, but I have never expected it to become this successful, not at least within 3 weeks!
With blogs I thought it takes a while for Google to index you, for Internet crawlers to notice you and for readers to start loving what you write. And it certainly does, but with me it all happened so quickly that I am still pleasantly shocked. :) 

Here is what happened step-by-step.

1. Remember, my piece on Cision - huge media contacts' database and the best tool for every PR  person?  I wrote that post because I trully believed in the usefulness of this software and was absolutely amazed with what it offered. What happened within 3 days is that I started noticing unexpected amount of traffic coming to my blog. 'Woo-hoo! I blog like a pro' - that's the kind of though I had immediately. :) Not to say that I don't, but the fact is that Cision did make me a millioner, in digital sense. 

2. It turned out that the company has recently introduced new software, called Content Marketing, and I was lucky enough to experience all the benefits of it for free.

[Just so you know, content marketing really is a big deal these days! According to one of the latest Econsultancy report, this is a key priority and, probably, the most significant digital trend for the following year. Thus, content marketing is a new king.]

So, what Cision has to offer in this context? Apparently, it it something even bigger than having all the media contacts in one place and send personalised press releases with one click. Again, the above mentioned Econsultancy not only names content marketing to be something all the marketers should keep their eye on, but distinguishes 'newsjacking' as a seperate valuable content marketing tool. Newsjacking means 'injecting your ideas or angles into breaking news, in real-time, in order to generate media coverage for yourself or your business' (Scott, 2011). What Cision Content Marketing software does, it uses the term in a very straightforward way. 

3. It literarly makes your news stories, press releases, blog posts appear in more than 60,000 key publishing websites (all over the world). Yes, we are talking The Times, CNN, Daily Mail and everything else you think is TOP. This is what happened to my blog post!!! Impressive, ha? Moreover, it really is different from simple advertising or paid content, because it does not look like a banner or cheap 'click on me' kind of thing. The stories look like part of the website content in a form of 'suggested news' or 'more related stories'. 

4. What have all of this given me? Could I imagine being on Daily Mail or Mashable? No way, not at this point of my blogging life. I can go on about how I am deeply greatful to Cision for noticing my blog and how impressed I am with their new service, but let`s be more professional here. People who know staff about digital, marketing and PR should be able to see if the new Cision software works from the report I attach below.

I told you I was a millionaire! :)

For those who do not know:

Impressions: How many people/businesses have chosen to engage and go onto the page.
Clicks: How many people have clicked onto the article

These are the sources that gave me traffic:

And finally, my weekly statistics (sociologists in me feels extremely happy about this):

As you can see, during the week with Cision Content Marketing I did not have less than 200.000 impressions daily. 

Some concluding thoughts:

1. Yes, I am lucky.

2. Yes, I did earn my first million with Cision.

3. Again, I do not want to talk about the price, because I am not selling anything here but sharing the fantastic experience I had. I believe you can check the details and request other useful information here. The only thing I want to add in the end is that I see so many ways this new software can help PR practitioners. First of all, it is seems like an interesting facilitation for different campaigns, because it does give more distribution and raise awareness. On the other hand, (I do not really wish this to happen to anyone, but) imagine you have a disastrous campaign, your press releases just did not make it, no one wants to publish the story. No, it is not because you are bad, say, the client is weird and wants to make news form a story that has been already revelead years ago. Well, I can think of different reasons for the campaign to not be successful, and I am sure you can too. The fact is you should show the client what you have done, no matter what. I think that is a great solution to use your own blog or website to feature the story and than distribute it through Content Marketing to all the top news services. This is the 100% traffic-attraction effective tool.  

Fuh, I feel so relieved, like I could not  keep this information without sharing anymore! ;) So glad I did it! 

I do hope you find this useful.

Sincerely yours,

M

Content marketing and 2 sociological principles

Aloha! :)

I could not feel happier after my last meeting with the dissertation supervisor, fall in love with sociology even more and decided to write something very academic today. So here are some thoughts on the content marketing.

In one of her recent articles Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School Anita Elberse suggested the two principles formulated by sociologist William McPhee on consumer behaviour, to work in Digital Media environment today as perfectly as they did 50 years ago. The first principle claims the most popular products to only attract ‘light’ consumers or those who are not ‘the biggest fans of your brand‘, but simply buy it occasionally. The second principle, in McPhee words, is that ‘the larger the proportion of the people [unfamiliar] with a given alternative, the less likely are those who are familiar with it to like it especially’ (says McPhee).

When applied into digital realities, you will see that niche products are less rated and appreciated than popular ones. However, those who order relatively unpopular products usually buy more items. As a result, the most popular products are chosen by the least loyal customers, or, in other words, the least loyal audience makes you products popular.

I don’t suggest you stop worrying about loyalty, vice versa, focus on content marketing. If we think about loyalty as the last step in the Awareness-Familiarity-Consideration-Purchase chain, than the most aware customers are your most active buyers. So, the more you speak and write, and post, and share the better.

Secondly, 68% of people spend time reading about brands, which means your articles, blog posts, newsletters, infographics and other forms of content are theoretically effective. For the remaining 32% make your content valuable and interesting by adding useful information without direct advertising and purchase offers.

Thirdly, do not emphasize your niche products in the online content because this will disadvantage their uniqueness and distract loyal and the most familiar customers. Finally, evaluate your results to be sure those two principles actually work.

PS. as for me I would not trust sociologists that much - they also say birthdays are very useful. Like the more birthdays your have - the longer your live. That`s a very engaging statistics. ;-)   

Enjoy your day guys! I will write to you tomorrow.