It’s Day 2 of Content material Advertising and marketing World 2011, and fairly frankly I’m exhausted. Yesterday featured a full slate of top-notch displays, adopted by a enjoyable evening of dinner, drinks and a two-hour Q&A with movie maker Kevin Smith (I solely caught the primary half, however as you might already know, I can verify Kev isn’t any fan of Southwest Airways).
We’ll see how a lot gasoline is left within the tank for at the moment’s working diary, with extra updates (hopefully) coming all through the day.
For a breakdown of yesterday’s excessive factors, take a look at my working diary of Day 1 at Content material Advertising and marketing World.
Day 2
4:18 p.m.: The final session of the week simply received out (my apologies to Kevin Smith, who’s scheduled to shut the present. I like ya Silent Bob, however I’ve a airplane to catch.)
So only a fast replace to wrap issues up. I sat in on a session with Ann Handley (@MarketingProfs) and C.C Chapman (@cc_chapman), co-authors of Content material Guidelines. The 2 went excessive 10 excuses for not being prepared for content material advertising and marketing. “Content material isn’t for everyone – it ought to be, however you may not be prepared, and that’s OK,” C.C. stated.
The pair made some notably attention-grabbing factors on the parable that content material advertising and marketing doesn’t apply to B2B organizations. (C.C. truly referred to this notion as “full crap.”) As Ann (appropriately) put it, B2Bs truly know extra about their prospects than anybody, and thus have a golden alternative to create content material that can really resonate with their respective audiences. So there!
It was an excellent present total, and I hope you loved the diary. See you subsequent 12 months!
3:04 p.m.: To start out off the afternoon, I made a decision to pop right into a session titled A Information to Social web optimization Technique for Content material Entrepreneurs. The presenter was Lee Odden (@LeeOdden), CEO at TopRank, who I’ve at all times been a giant fan of.
The session was nearly stymied by slideshow failure (PowerPoint saved shifting from slide to slip by itself accord), however Lee dealt with it like a champ and got here by way of with some superior data. (For instance, do you know that there are wherever from 50 to 200 completely different variations of Google’s search algorithm working someplace on the ‘Web at any given time? I didn’t.)
More often than not was spent trying on the connection between social media interplay and web optimization. Lee talked about how many individuals are inclined to bounce backwards and forwards between social media and search, and the way content material entrepreneurs can benefit from this. For instance, potential prospects might go on social media (LinkedIn, possibly) to ask their friends for product suggestions. Greater than probably, they’ll then take these ideas and plug them into Google to analysis them and resolve on which one to buy. After that, there’s a very good likelihood they’ll then return to LinkedIn to debate the product they selected and why.
As Lee famous, current research present that 48% of shoppers use social media and search collectively when making shopping for selections – a major instance of why search and social methods must be linked. The whole lot must be optimized for each, he defined. And by all the things, he means all the things. “If it may be looked for, it may be optimized.”
There was much more to cowl within the presentation, together with some nice stuff on the best way to carry out an web optimization audit on your web site. Hopefully we will setup a podcast with him someday quickly to go over that matter in additional element, as I believe it might actually profit plenty of firms on the market.
1:45 p.m.: The lunch session for Day 2 was an attention-grabbing one. A handful of audio system had been every given seven minutes to debate a content-related matter of their selecting. I believed everybody did a fantastic job, although my two favorites had been segments on content material curation and the connection between content material advertising and marketing and the Muppets (sure, you learn that proper).
Barbra Gago (@BarbraGago), strategist at Left Mind DGA, gave a intelligent presentation on the worth of curating content material that was made up nearly completely of … effectively … curated content material. The day prior to this she shot video of varied content material specialists discussing the other ways entrepreneurs can benefit from curated content material, which included OpenView’s personal Amanda Maksymiw, pictured proper. (Observe: The image doesn’t actually do justice to how large the screens had been. Quickly after the video ended, I posted a tweet asking if that was actually Amanda or the good and highly effective Oz.) Barbra then edited the footage collectively to make a cool five-minute video on content material curation – comprised completely of commentary generated by others on the present. Get it?
As for the Muppet section, simply go forward and call Andrew Davis (@TPLDrew) of Tippingpoint Labs for the small print. It’s value it.
11:16 a.m.: I made a decision to strive the manager monitor for the morning’s first breakout session. This one, titled Content material Advertising and marketing Metrics: Justifying Content material Advertising and marketing Spending, additionally featured a panel. An excellent a part of the dialogue centered on the problem of getting firm buy-in and funding for content material advertising and marketing efforts.
Lynne Esparo, VP of Advertising and marketing with Nuance Communications, made the purpose that the ROI for content material must be actually buttoned as much as succeed, since whereas many senior managers haven’t any downside spending on buyer acquisition, they’re much much less more likely to make investments the identical sum of money into buyer retention. (Which is foolish when you concentrate on it, because it prices a lot extra to acquire a brand new buyer than preserve an present one.)
Cam Brown (@CamBrown1), CEO at King Fish Media, famous that the explanation for this (as common) is that it’s so troublesome to measure the success of content material methods for present prospects (the place as measuring success primarily based on the variety of new prospects is clearly a lot simpler). A number of the metrics he makes use of to find out content material worth embody issues like elevated cart measurement (“Did we get them to begin shopping for extra?”) and the speed of product returns.
The panel additionally included content material guru and creator of The NOW Revolution Jay Baer, who shared his personal really useful metrics:
- Consumption metrics (readership measurements)
- Sharing metrics (social media, backlinking)
- Lead technology metrics
- Gross sales/retention metrics
He added that firms which can be simply getting began with content material advertising and marketing ought to begin with a centered method to make sure they get essentially the most worth and greatest outcomes. “What I discover with firms that haven’t traditionally embraced content material, they sometimes fall within the entice of, ‘We received to be publishers!’ In order that they find yourself placing all their eggs in that one basket,” Baer defined. “However nobody desires to learn your large whitepaper and stuff like that. Content material success isn’t about pondering large, it’s about pondering small.” Liked this quote, because it echoes the identical theme many have argued this week — do one factor rather well first, then transfer on to the larger stuff.
He continued by citing the significance of getting your content material on the market on different websites, since extra fashionable spots like SlideShare or YouTube definitely have a better attain than your individual weblog. “Don’t be a content material Grinch,” he stated to these people who get queasy on the considered setting their content material free exterior of their very own websites. I’ve struggled with this myself, however from a pure branding perspective, I’ve grown to just accept that sharing is crucial. Simply be sure you institute methods for getting individuals to come back to your website finally, even when the very first thing they see from you is hosted someplace else.
9:36 a.m.: I’ve been to plenty of occasions like these, and attendees are at all times dragging a bit of bit on Day 2. CMW ’11 isn’t any completely different, as lots of the people listed below are struggling to match the passion of Day 1 after an extended day of classes (and a good longer evening of partying, for a lot of). The sluggish begin was not misplaced on our host Joe Pulizzi as he welcomed the attendees to the primary panel of the day. “Congratulations all of you for getting up so early to see this superior presentation!” he hollered to the sleepy eyed lots.
Thankfully, the opening panel was a very good one, that includes Brian Clark (@copyblogger) of Copyblogger fame and Michael Stelzner (@smexaminer), founding father of SocialMediaExaminer.com. The 2 chatted about a few of the methods they’ve used to construct profitable companies on the again of content material. When requested about their system for achievement, Brian harassed the significance of staying “reader-focused and reader-friendly” when placing collectively your content material roadmap.
“We’re in an consideration conflict,” he defined, citing the necessity to research reader behaviors and eye research to assist preserve that focus centered on you. Brian famous the low-attention spans of readers, which is why usability is such a crucial a part of the content material creation course of. Michael agreed, saying {that a} high quality visible design and structure is crucial to their technique as a method of serving to the content material, website and model stand out and appeal to readers and potential prospects.
The idea of design has truly come up fairly a bit on the occasion, as many session leaders have pointed to the significance of being visually interesting when competing for consideration. This definitely pertains to website design, however from a content material perspective, creating articles which can be simply digestible usually comes right down to using sensible structure and design practices. Brian talked about how easy techniques like subheads and bulleted lists throughout the textual content go a great distance towards making your content material less complicated to eat. It additionally helps to keep away from what we former journalists seek advice from as “an excessive amount of grey” on the web page (i.e. large blocks of textual content with nothing to attract the reader’s eye – form of like this diary entry).
The 2 additionally mentioned a few of the methods they use for deciding what to put in writing about. Brian made the case that social media is likely one of the biggest advertising and marketing instruments at our disposal in the case of studying what persons are concerned with. Michael mentioned his group’s choice for reader surveys as a method of producing concepts and matters. For these concerned with surveys, one tip each panelists really useful was to incorporate open-ended questions – a significantly better technique to study one thing new about your readers than should you merely present a number of alternative solutions for them.
It was a very good begin to the day from two of the perfect within the biz, and On-line Advertising and marketing Institute’s Aaron Kahlow (@AaronKahlow) did a fantastic job moderating for a crowd that was clearly in want of a second cup of espresso.
For a breakdown of yesterday’s excessive factors, take a look at my working diary of Day 1 at Content material Advertising and marketing World.
You will discover extra data on content material advertising and marketing and editorial practices on the OpenView Labs web site. It’s also possible to observe Brendan on Twitter @BrenCournoyer and discover extra from the OpenView group @OpenViewVenture.
