Marketing Mic Check – Content Marketing for Organizations (AMA edition):
Laura Prewitt President of Birmingham, Alabama’s AMA Chapter – @prewittlaura
Vice President, Business Development of Whiteboardit.com – Software Development
Andrew Barton President of Charleston, South Carolina’s AMA Chapter – @andrewbarton
Owner & Lead Graphic Designer of Andrew Barton Design
Stan Phelps President of the Triangle AMA Chapter (North Carolina) – @9INCHmarketing
Founder and CMO of 9 Inch Marketing – Marketing & Consulting
Kenny Harper President of the Jacksonville AMA Chapter – @kennywharper
Digital Director of Rock My Image – Authority Marketing Agency
Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties we were unable to capture the video footage so there is no replay, the re-cap is below.
Content marketing is when you create content such as a blog, pdf, podcast, video, webinar, infographic, slideshare or other formats and promote it as a way to get interaction with your perspective audience. You can utilize web forms on your website to gain people’s e-mail address in exchange for the valuable content. Once you have their e-mail address you can begin to nurture the relationship by sending them more information about your organization or providing more valuable content.
How Organizations Can Leverage Content Marketing:
1) Re-purpose Existing Content that Provides Value to Your Audience.
Creating valuable content takes time to write or produce, however most organizations already have valuable information that their audience may be looking for. Review your current content and re-purpose it in another format to create a tangible item that someone can download or watch.
You can also re-purpose past event’s take-aways in slide downloads, special interviews, existing resource downloads.
Stan Phelps compiled the Top 25 Take Aways from a conference that his chapter put on called High Five. Rather than letting the content end at the event, he compiled the best elements and re-purposed it into a slideshare that offers the highlights.
2) Nurture the Relationships with the Subscribers on Your List.
When you acquire someone’s e-mail address in exchange for a valuable download, it is probably too early to sell them something whether it’s a membership to your organization or tickets to an event. Create a strategy that will nurture the relationship you have with the person. Tell them about your organization, build value and interest in what you may be trying to sell or get them to do.
You can utilize automated marketing software such as Mailchimp or Sharpspring to develop a “drip campaign” which is a series of e-mails that will automatically be sent to someone when they download the content. While it may cost a little money to set up the automated marketing, this will save a lot of time and ensure efforts are being handled consistently.
3) Once Credibility has been Achieved, Now Ask for Them to Take Action.
Once you’ve established some rapport and built your credibility you can then work towards getting them to take action by asking for them to consider becoming a member or make a purchase. Not asking at all is just as bad as asking too soon. When you are looking for people to get involved, donate or make a purchase be sure to be clear about what actions you want them to take. If you have not clearly nurtured the relationship enough or shown the value to them of the actions that you’re asking them to take, you will have a hard time getting them to take action. When people decline your offer there is one more thing to do, ask – “Why?” When you know why they declined you then have an opportunity to help change their “no” to a “yes”.
Mic Check – Shout Outs.
- Thanks to guests who commented and showed love on the BLAB.
- Congrats to Laura who is expecting a baby to her family!
- Congrats to Andrew who is expecting a baby Monday.
- Congrats to Stan Phelps for releasing his new book “What’s Your Blue Goldfish”.
What are ways your organization uses content marketing?
