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Digital Marketing in a Noisy World

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The 4 Rules of Content Marketing – Digital Marketing in a Noisy World [4]

laptop pic  bannerWelcome to our series Digital Marketing in a Noisy World. This content was originally presented in our breakout session at Breathe Christian Writers Conference 2015. (Check out our Prezi here.) We hope this information is helpful and encouraging for you. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or contact us.

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The 4 Rules of Content Marketing

by Alexis De Weese

Content Marketing Infographic

With an understanding of the WHY, HOW, and WHAT of your platform (read the post here if you missed it!), you are ready to leverage your content and develop your voice.

Developing your unique voice is the key to producing great content. This can sound daunting if you’re not sure what your voice is. It can be really easy to look at the platforms of those you admire and mimic their voice. Or fall to the temptation to put on a salesmen persona when promoting your work.

Neither of these tactics are recommended, namely because neither are you! Marketing does not mean becoming someone you’re not. Only your voice can capture your WHY. Developing your voice is the key to successful content marketing.

Here are 4 content marketing rules to help guide you in discovering and writing in your unique voice:

1. Be Consistent

If you want people to hear what you have to say, you have to be there to say it. Be a source they can rely on.

This does not mean you need to blog every day or tweet every hour on the hour. This means that whatever content your are producing should come regularly. Your audience will know when they can expect new content and will be ready to listen to what you have to say.

2. Be Confident

Your voice is as unique as your WHY.

No one else has your perspective, your take, or your specific passions. You are the expert of your WHY. Approach your content with confidence. You are the only one who can capture your message—be bold!

3. Be Resource-Full

It can be overwhelming to think that you will need to create new content for years to come. It is okay to recycle!

Build content from what you’ve already worked on—speaking outlines, writing prompts, drafts, questions you encounter, even commentary on the content of others (with credit, of course!).

4. Be Involved

Your platform is a conversation. As people respond to your content, respond back. Ask follow up questions to continue the discussion.

Don’t only respond, but also reach. Comment on the content of others whose message speaks to you. You contribute to their conversation and, you never know, they may contribute to yours!

With a developed voice, you can easily leverage your content. Don’t be afraid to be clever. When it comes to content marketing, there are points for creativity.

 

Digital platforms leave room for innovation and experimentation. Don’t be afraid of trial and error. Some things are going to work better for your platform than others, but you’ll never know until you try.

This takes time, but the same amount of effort, time, and thought should be put into your platform as you put into your creative project. (Don’t worry! Remember, you can recycle.) Building your platform is part of the writing project, not a separate entity. Your WHY drives both.

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Creative writer, editor, word wiz and self proclaimed ‘punk-kid’ Alexis is Apricot’s content magician. Lex is passionate about books, music, movies, scrambled eggs, and nail polish. She prefers her music on vinyl and tea leaves loose.

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Thank you for joining us on this series. Tune in next time to learn more digital marketing tips.

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Great Content: Why, How, What – Digital Marketing in a Noisy World [3]

laptop pic  bannerWelcome to our series Digital Marketing in a Noisy World. This content was originally presented in our breakout session at Breathe Christian Writers Conference 2015. (Check out our Prezi here.) We hope this information is helpful and encouraging for you. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or contact us.

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Great Content: Why, How, What

by Alexis De Weese

Simon Sinek’s 2009 TED talk really gets to the heart of what makes a digital platform thrive. It is easy to get distracted by numbers or making your platform go viral, but that it not the purpose of having a platform. (View the 5 minute version below or click here for the full 18 min TED Talk.)

 

 

You want people to be invested in your platform because of why you do what you do.

To re-purpose a phrase Simon repeats:

People don’t buy WHAT you write—they buy WHY you write it.

Think about it this way: your favorite book is not your favorite because of the sentence structure or the specific words written. It’s the power behind what was said in the book—the ultimate why that drove the author to write the book in the first place. That why resonated with something deep inside you.

Here is an overview of how that breaks down:

WHY do you write?
WHY is your voice unique?
HOW are you bringing your voice to people who will engage with you?
WHAT are you communicating?
WHAT tools are you using to communicate?

Golden Circle—Why circle

WHY

Your marketing platform needs a healthy foundation and identifying your ultimate “why” will be the plumb-line for the content you begin to build.

Your why is the driving force in how and what you do. This informs your message or plot, your voice, and how you market. It is behind everything you produce. It is your why, not your what that will reach people. Knowing this will change how you approach your platform.

Start with your WHY—Your message deserves to be heard, is valuable and relevant. What makes you a thought leader?

HOW

When you understand your why, you can begin to look at how your are reaching your audience.

How are you representing your why in your content marketing? How are you engaging with those who will want to hear what you have to say?

Remember…

Content marketing’s purpose is to attract and retain customers by consistently creating and curating relevant and valuable content with the intention of changing or enhancing consumer behavior.

Marketing is impossible without great content.

Think about positioning content for consumption by those who want it. This will naturally lead to what.

WHAT

Once you understand your why and how, you can begin to strategize what you are actually presenting to your audience.

This includes what content you produce on your sites, what social platforms you use to broadcast that content and what ways you interact with those taking in your content.

Putting it All Together

With your WHY, HOW, and WHAT defined, you can begin to think through your content marketing plan more clearly and strategically. Your audience will find engaging with your content to be more fulfilling because it is getting at the heart of why you do what you do.

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Creative writer, editor, word wiz and self proclaimed ‘punk-kid’ Alexis is Apricot’s content magician. Lex is passionate about books, music, movies, scrambled eggs, and nail polish. She prefers her music on vinyl and tea leaves loose.

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Thank you for joining us on this series. Tune in next time to learn more digital marketing tips.

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What is Content Marketing? – Digital Marketing in a Noisy World [2]

laptop pic  bannerWelcome to our series Digital Marketing in a Noisy World. This content was originally presented in our breakout session at Breathe Christian Writers Conference 2015. (Check out our Prezi here.) We hope this information is helpful and encouraging for you. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or contact us.

Last week we discussed what marketing looks like for authors in the digital world, an introduction to content marketing. (You can read it here.)

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What is Content Marketing?

By Lindsay Gustafson

Remember the definition we discussed last week…

“Content marketing is an approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.
It is an ongoing process that is best integrated into your overall marketing strategy, and it focuses on owning media, not renting it. Basically, content marketing is the art of communicating with your customers and prospects without selling. It is non-interruption marketing. Instead of pitching your products or services, you are delivering information that makes your buyer more intelligent. The essence of this content strategy is the belief that if we, as businesses, deliver consistent, ongoing valuable information to buyers, they ultimately reward us with their business and loyalty.” – Content Marketing Institute

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Here are a few points to ponder as an author:

  • Authors – you own your content for life! You should have a home for your content in the digital world (more on this later – we are not talking about social media here!)
  • Publishers focus on your platform for the short term (which is wonderful), usually during the launch period of a book often using traditional marketing tactics with a specific goal in mind (and usually a budget – also good!).
  • What about your content as an author during non-book launch times? Your content is MORE than a product – a book. Writing is your trade. Just like developing content in books, authors can also be developing content in digital spaces.
  • Your content is personal, authentic, and immediate. No one can replace that. You write from a unique voice and purpose and there is a group of people out there who want to read it. Digital communication makes this relationship develop and grow very easily!
  • Approaching marketing with the end goal of selling a book (or getting a book published) starts with the wrong goal in mind. Content marketing is the “creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience.

As we discussed last week, all the digital marketing tools (website, social media, digital ads, etc) are amazing tools to be used by a writer! It is another venue (other than a book) to produce good content the author is passionate about and wants to bring others into. No time in history has an author (specifically) had such a opportunity to publish freely and influence BEYOND readership of a book. What author wouldn’t want to take advantage of that?

Next week Alexis is going to introduce a model that will help us guide the focus of this content – the why, how and what of writing good content. Because…content marketing does not work without GOOD CONTENT.

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Lindsay headshotLeveraging years of experience in marketing, the publishing world, non-profit development, and a passion for gathering tribes, Lindsay is co-owner, chief marketer and queen of detail of Apricot Services. When she’s not in the virtual world she can be found laughing with her husband, 2 kids and dog.

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Thank you for joining us on this series. Tune in next time to learn more digital marketing tips. If you need to catch up to where we are now, take a look back at the previous posts.

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