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A smartphone essential? The search engine 0

The search engine is proving to be the most essential tool at the disposal of smartphone users who responded to a recent survey.

It’s what mobilemarketingthey turn to when they want to know about what restaurant to dine at, the retailer to make a purchase, how to get from Point A to Point B. And it almost always involves accessing good, informative and searchable content for the mobile device.

Research by the advertising and technology company Local Corporation, gleaned from an online survey of 1,294 mobile shoppers in March, found that 73 percent of customers use search engines like Google in their smartphones to do their research about a product.

Search engine results are also a top influencer in purchasing decisions, with half of those customers surveyed saying it helps them make a decision, and 42 percent saying they rely on ratings and reviews.

The use of apps and other websites continues to gain traction, according to Local Corporation. Thirty-three percent of those surveyed turned to companies’ mobile specific websites, and 24 percent accessed mobile apps.

As consumers use their smartphones more for online searches, companies will need to do more than rely on keywords or search terms to attract customers. It also means a commitment on their part to high-quality content.

All eyes on these brand channels on YouTube 0

Video content for a camera that’s favored by the extreme activity set tops YouTube’s Brand Channel Leaderboard.

YouTube launched, with little fanfare, a list of the top 10 highest performing, most engaging and shareable brand channels. It looked at which brands have the most watch time, repeat viewership, likes and shares, and other factors to determine which have the most active fan bases.

This from Google:

“As brands continue to blur the line between advertiser and creator, we want to recognize those brands that regularly publish content—paid or otherwise—to build an engaged fan base.”

GoPro is the No. 1 brand channel for March. Customers to its official site can narrow their search for merchandise like cameras, software, mounts and accessories based on activities like skydiving, rock climbing or wakeboarding. There’s even a bundle of products for those in the military.

Six Pack Shortcuts, No. 2 on the leaderboard, offers extreme exercise advice on how to get a ripped body and six pack abs. Interestingly, YouTube at one time suspended the account of the channel’s owner, fitness specialist Mike Chang, and blocked all the content. Google now says Six Pack Shortcuts creates content “based on who is responding to its videos to drive continued engagement.”

And the one you’ve probably not familiar with, unless you’re one of its fans? Rainbow Loom, known for its colorful rubber band bracelets.

Its introductory video has been viewed 1.6 million times, and Google says the channel has built a passionate fan base through its instructional videos and user-generated content.

The others that made the list:

  • Sony Playstation
  • Warner Bros. Pictures
  • League of Legends
  • Sony Pictures
  • Call of Duty
  • Nintendo
  • Game maker Ubisoft

 

 

Learn your target audience for your content 0

You’re the person in charge of creating content that enhances your brand’s profile and makes people want to know more and share it with others. The content will be well written, engaging and shareable by your target audience.

But do your know what that target audience is?

contentmktg_artIf you’re creating a digital narrative of the joys of owning and driving a luxury sedan, what is your focus? The consumer with the income to own it? Someone with the resources to lease it? Or who likes German engineering? Or who is interested in being a second-generation owner?

You’ll need a solid understanding of your customers and what they need and want, and how your company’s product, service or brand benefits them. You’ll also need a thorough knowledge of what you can present in the content that shows what your company, your business, can offer.

There are resources available to help you determine the audience to reach out to with your content.

Google Analytics shows who’s visiting your website, how they got there, how much time they spend and more. Surveys tell you what your customers are thinking about your brand. The use of Census Bureau economic statistics can also help in plotting your audience strategy. Try online resources like articles focusing on your particular audience, or blogs that record feedback from people who communicate their opinions.

Ask yourself some questions: Is this the audience I want to reach? Will it really benefit from the written marketing content? Are you giving the consumer something new, a nugget of knowledge they did not have before? Is this message effective enough to reach this particular audience based on the information you collected?

Learn your audience. The more you know about it in advance, the more effective and receptive the content you produce can be.

A virtual CEO’s content marketing advice 0

Chris Ducker, a British businessman best known as the “Virtual CEO,” has some advice in this segment on making your content marketing efforts effective in the marketplace. It’s just under five minutes, and his three tips are worth a look.

Feel free to let us know what you think.

YouTube’s playbook for content creators 0

Search YouTube for “content marketing” and you’ll have your choice of over 450,000 videos, many of well produced, quick-hit segments by companies pitching their expertise in creating custom and native content.

Ads are becoming content, only this is content that people chose to watch to become educated about a marketing brand to make an informed decision. The challenge for those responsible for the marketing strategy is creating the compelling content that attracts attention and gets shared.

Enter Google.

youtubebook1_artThe parent company of YouTube released “The Creator Playbook for Brands,” a how-to guide for content marketing success on the platform.

The guide presents the tools and know-how developed by a generation of YouTube content creators that can help brands develop content strategies that will resonate with today’s consumers.

The guide, downloadable here, is fairly comprehensive at 100 pages and divided into seven sections, each presenting several strategies for building engaged audiences on YouTube:

  • Content marketing as part of your brand strategy. This helps you, as a content creator, develop it for YouTube and define how it should fit with your overall brand strategy.
  • 10 fundamentals to create content people love.
  • Schedule your content. This advice helps you decide what your channel stands for, how best to communicate this, and what you need to map out the different types of videos and the best times to release them.
  • Optimize your content. From metadata and annotations to playlists, what you need to know for a successful optimization strategy.
  • Promote your content with paid media.
  • Amplify your content with social.
  • Measurement. Use the tools to help track metrics around all of your paid, owned and earned media on YouTube.

 

Five tips for getting your brand message out 0

contentmktg_artQuality content, created and produced consistently, is a key element to any content marketing strategy. The way the content is distributed is also just as important.

While social media is the dominant means of distribution of your brand message, and as published sponsored content grows in popularity, it’s good to remember that there are other channels just as effective and important to your company’s strategy.

TheNextWeb.com offers five suggestions for distributing your content, just in case you may have overlooked them:

  • Your company’s sales and management teams can use your content as a means to build on customer relationships.
  • Syndicate your content with relevant blogs, brands or publishers to build your audience base.
  • Email is still an effective channel to reach out to an audience. A solid, well written headline in the email always grabs attention.
  • Reach out to traditional connections and networks to promote your content.
  • Try out LinkedIn as a platform to present your message. With the launch of its Insights tool that helps businesses gauge the effectiveness of their brand marketing posts, you’ll be able to see the results.

Tell, don’t sell, your content 0

Marketing content, simply put, is created to help customers make an informed decision about the brand or product they are reading about.

It’s about establishing a relationship with the consumer through quality writing, informative graphics, solid images and overall consumable and engaging content. Consumers want to be educated and informed. They really don’t want to be pushed.

contentmktg_artIn other words, tell, don’t sell.

A sponsored content story, blog post or item that comes off as a written version of a cold call – “This is our product! Buy it now! You will not be disappointed!” — will divert the consumer elsewhere, especially a consumer with a smartphone and limited attention span.

Giving them information in consumable bits that keep your brand in mind, as well as move the conversion factor in your favor, is effective. Sometimes the customer wants to know more about the product, not just what it is, but how it relates to their daily lives, and the experiences others have had with it.

This article by Business 2 Community has a few straightforward tips about content marketing strategy and avoiding the product-pitch approach:

  • Be an effective storyteller. Draw people in, and engage them.
  • A content marketing relationship takes time, so be patient and consistent.
  • Put away the sales script. Come up with content that humanizes the company.
  • Set aside the ego. Think like the demographic you are trying to reach.

 

Estimating the payoff from content marketing 0

It can take six to nine months of consistent creation and production of high-quality content, say 15 posts per month, before a company can start to see results.

That’s the advice from content marketing expert Arnie Kuenn in this segment. Kuenn, CEO of Phoenix-based Vertical Measures and an author and frequent speaker on content marketing, says the payoff comes to companies that are patient and consistently productive.

Check out the segment here, and tell us what you think.

Content marketing trending by the numbers 0

Here’s where the state of content marketing is in 2014:

Companies are taking the initiative to create their own content, with 93 percent doing it in house. But, 17 percent of marketers don’t blog at all.

Other people’s content is shared on social media by 56 percent of companies. But, 16 percent of companies have a policy not to share third-party content.

Only 37 percent of companies are tracking engagement like time users spend on content.

That’s just a few of the revelations in “The State of Content Marketing 2014,” an infographic produced recently by Oracle Eloqua and Lookbook HQ. It illustrates trends in blogging, production, sharing and measurement strategies, and is worth a look.

stateofcontent_art

 

Three resources for crafting solid headline content 0

When it comes to attracting new customers to your online marketing content, the headline is one of your most effective tools.

A well-written and informative headline peaks the reader’s interest and draws them into checking out the content, be it for scanning or thorough reading.

If you have a minute or two, here’s a segment by the CEO of Los Angeles-based Fresh SEO Company on resources to create effective, engaging headlines for your content.