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Easy Marketing Trick
Martin (Marty) Smith's comment,
June 15, 2015 4:02 PM
Thanks @malek! You know now hard "down to earth" is for me, but this one was a fun find. Marty
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![5 Secrets of Social Media Lead Generation [Infographic] via @MarketingHits | Must Market | Scoop.it](https://img.scoop.it/A0aJCmC9MgZSq8X3yPVzMzl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVvK0kTmF0xjctABnaLJIm9)
Did you know that social media can generate almost 100% more leads than any other channel including; direct mail, telemarketing, trade shows or even PPC? Via Brian Yanish - MarketingHits.com
Martin (Marty) Smith's insight:
Yeah I've read that social media is an amazing lead gen tool, but there are some important ways to go about it outlined in this excellent infographic from @Brian Yanish - MarketingHits.com.
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You are playing a game. Once more than one person is involved games have begun. Online communities must disrupt and gamify to win.
Martin (Marty) Smith's insight:
Building online community is HARD. This post shares the 4th "Pillar" of online community - Gamificaiton. The New SEO: 3 Pillars of Online Community share the other 3:
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Why Contagious? You could read Jonah Berger’s Contagious: Why Things Catch On as an update to Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference, but I wouldn’t (lol).
This Curatti.com post shares my favorite examples for each of Berger's Contagious traits including Red Bull for "Inner Remarkability", Scoop.it for leveraging game mechanics and Rue La La for making people feel like insiders.
Brian Yanish - MarketingHits.com's curator insight,
March 4, 2014 12:14 AM
Great post @Martin (Marty) Smith a must read for all marketers!
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![What You Need to Know About Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk [Infographic] | Must Market | Scoop.it](https://img.scoop.it/BQLYqVVyBGtquoQAAjKv4jl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVvK0kTmF0xjctABnaLJIm9)
I'm all about Infographics these days, so I decided to break down my new book into some fun stats. Take a look!
Marty Note * Respects the nuances of the social network for which you make the content.
malek's curator insight,
January 9, 2014 1:18 PM
Looks interesting. Infographic is a visual leap, add some fun and you have a great resource to read and SHARE 
Neil Ferree's curator insight,
January 9, 2014 2:38 PM
What we need to know as Internet Marketers Where once the medium was the message now the medium influences the shape, form, tone and syntax of our stories. To be heard your marketing must speak the right language at the right time. What are your Top Performing Social Media Profiles? 
Lori Wilk's curator insight,
January 9, 2014 6:39 PM
Gary is keeping us up on the latest trends in the marketplace. You can always learn something from his books and blogs. Great use of infographics and his ways of explaining was we need to know for our businesses about social media.
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It’s every marketer’s dream: producing a company video that goes viral or gets nominated for an Emmy Award. But if we have to be realistic, it should, at
Martin (Marty) Smith's insight:
Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Video, especially great video marketing, is hard. I've created a handful of videos and have come away from the experience changed (lol). Best to avoid these BIG mistakes: * Too long - Vine is 6 seconds and that is the direction we are headed. * Bad Music or Music That Sits Up too Much (too loud or distracting). * Animation is too fast (they always are). * No clear goal for the video in the first place (AGREE). * Bad VO (voice over).
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Are you reading this on your mobile device? The probability is likely, considering there are currently 6 billion (and growing!) active mobile devices in the world, and companies continue to tailor their marketing to the small screen of your iPhone. Via Brian Yanish - MarketingHits.com
Martin (Marty) Smith's insight:
Great mobile / social Tips Scooped by Brian Yanish (@MarketingHits) including: * Resize your Facebook posts No bigger than 620 x 320 * Choose Facebook Ads wisely * Make it visual * Turn up the content * Get smart about couponing * Take advantage of Twitter * Upload to Instagram * Utilize Email Marketing My favorite is getting smart about couponing as that tip can make a real difference to your bottom line especially at this time of year. Be careful not to have "battling coupons" where one deal wipes out another an check coupon websites like Retail Me Not to make sure they are up to date and don't have old coupon codes that don't work anymore since there is nothing more frustrating than trying to get a deal that is dead.
Joachim Scholz, PhD's curator insight,
December 2, 2013 9:24 AM
The first phase of the trend towards mobile is in full swing, and it is time to adapt your marketing strategies for it. Resizing facebook ads, making it more visual and so on are the obvious things to think about, but there is also a second revoultion wrapped in the first: The move to (mobile) content marketing.
To oversimplify: Consumers watch big screens, but they touch small ones!
So the marketing communications you put on consumers' phone screens needs to be much more content oriented, something your consumers will voluntarily seek out. Being a service star in getting consumers the right coupon is a first thing to do, but also add levels of engagement and play. Coke did a great example during the London Olympic Games (on Marketing in Motion, use the Find buttom) for which they created a music DJ/mixing app that allowed consumers to build their own soundtrack to the games and send it to their friends.
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![How Creative Content Builds Your Brand’s Reputation [videos] | Must Market | Scoop.it](https://img.scoop.it/JZ2i1qQJqvkYqqSZSdVV4zl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVvK0kTmF0xjctABnaLJIm9)
Building and maintaining a successful brand is a difficult balancing act. This article looks at how brands can find and maintain a consistent voice...
Solid post on the value of having a unique voice with great examples and several videos. Voice can be created in copy, design or video and this post covers all three well.
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@BizStoryTeller (Brandon Hoe) is a friend who knows all about the creation of great videos. This blog post explains why #Video #Marketing is the fastest growing Small To Medium Sized Business (SMBs) conent.
Brandon shares good tips for video length and subject. Great blog post.
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A steady transformation is taking place in online marketing. The strategies for getting your website seen by existing and prospective custom
Content Is The New SEO
Content is the new Search Engine Optimization because Google wants it to be so. This is an excellent post about WHY content is the new SEO and how to get started.
I do have a common nit to pick. "Create great content," is advice I read frequently. That is like saying, "Win The Lottery" as a way to make your numbers. You might win the lottery, but you might spring wings and suddenly be able to fly too.
Better to embrace content marketing as a CSF for your company and brand (CSF = Critical Success Factor). No matter what your digital presentation is the most important communication you create (period and full stop).
This means you need to get GOOD at digital communication. Here are a handful of hard won tips to create "great online content":
* Short sentences.
* Don't use connections like and, but, thus.
* Short paragraphs keeps readers engaged).
* Visual clues (linked post is bad about clues).
* Use H1s and other meta tags for technical SEO.
* Make CSS makes tags look good on the page.
* Use bullet points early.
* Use a bigger font (reading online sucks).
* Tease links don't drown them.
This last tip is a common error. Many new to Internet marketing want to provide everything AND the kitchen-sink all at once. Better to tease a click and then tease another click and then another. The more time and pages your customers view the better your SEO (what is left of it).
Ask yourself a simple question. Would you rather read one page with 1,000 words or 5 with 200? True you can make a website too clicky. You can make your reader work to hard. Finding the fine line between engagement and work is where metrics and testing should rule your actions.
Never a reason to GUESS with Internet marketing when you can construct a test. If you see abandonment after the 3rd click reduce your 5 click journey to three. If you see preference to read the long form content eliminate the clicks. No matter HOW you present content its substance needs to be great.
Whoops, there I go adding to the "You must create great content," crowd without telling you how to do that. I have posted on tips to create great content and as soon as I find it I will link it in (lol). M
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Business 2 Community
The 5 Branded Content Channels You Need for Better Discoverability
Business 2 Community
You probably already have a presence on sites like Facebook and Twitter, but do you have a YouTube channel?
Agree weaving these 5 ideas together creates more power than either alone. The key is in the weaving not the "either or" approach we tend to take. You can't eliminate one of these ideas (blogging say) without the whole being significantly LESS than it was WITH that idea on board.
Virtually every one of these signals is an important SEO "confirmation signal" to though this article doesn't get into the many SEO benefits of weaving awards with blogs posts and strong support from social rating sites (StumbleUpon, Digg, Delicious).
Do all of these things well and your website gets discovered. Do some of them well and you leave money on the table.
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Content Shock Meets Community Shock
Building on Mark Schaefer's brilliant Content Shock ideas the next web marketing tsunami will be Community Shock. Community Shock is when adding one more member DEPRESSES instead of LIFTS a site's ROI (because cost of acquiring new members became unsustainably high due to intense competition).
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Why I'm Not A SEO in 3 Parts
Why Not A SEO #1
Blue Oceans on Scenttrail Marketing
http://www.scenttrail.com/why-im-not-an-seo/
Why Not SEO #2
Used Car Salesmen LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-im-seo-martin-marty-smith
Why Not SEO #3
Confusingly Similar & the Psychology of Great Web Marketers
on Curagami
http://www.curagami.com/magical-thinking/new-seo/why-im-not-a-seo-3/
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Community shock is what comes after March Schaefer's content shock. This post shares 3 quick tips for winning the coming race to create online community:
* Social - embracing social media marketing.
* Mobile - operating mobile first and crating responsive websites.
* Gamification - using the 4th pillar of building online community to attain the scale and return every Internet marketer needs.
Intriguing, mix economy with content and you'll be playing a new game. @Martin (Marty) Smith is outlining how to survive the new order.
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![Toy Story's Creator Shares Magical Storytelling Tips [TED Talk Video] | Must Market | Scoop.it](https://img.scoop.it/dczU9rkG-3RYrnguVccsPDl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVvK0kTmF0xjctABnaLJIm9)
Filmmaker Andrew Stanton ("Toy Story," "WALL-E") shares what he knows about storytelling -- starting at the end and working back to the beginning. Contains graphic language ... (Note: this talk is not available for download.)
We are entering a time when STORY is paramount. Anyone and everyone can share content. Few can tell great stories. Fewer websites will tell great stories.
Andrew Stanton shares great tips every Internet marketer and web designer should take to heart as we enter "the time of online stories". Loved this explanation of why stories are so important for humans:
"We all love stories. We're born for them. Stories affirm who we are. We all want affirmations that our lives have meaning. And nothing does a greater affirmation than when we connect through stories. It can cross the barriers of time, past, present and future, and allow us to experience the similarities between ourselves and through others, real and imagined."
and ...
"In 1998, I had finished writing "Toy Story" and "A Bug's Life" and I was completely hooked on screenwriting. So I wanted to become much better at it and learn anything I could. So I researched everything I possibly could. And I finally came across this fantastic quote by a British playwright, William Archer: "Drama is anticipation mingled with uncertainty." It's an incredibly insightful definition. "|
I love the idea of Story as affirmation. Reviews are affirming stories. Comments and other forms of User Generated Content (social shares) also feel like "affirming signals".
Affirmation goes in two directions as my friends at Bazaar Voice taught me years ago. I asked, "Why would someone write the 251st review of a product?" "To join the tribe," was their simple and beautiful explanation.
One VERY important role for User Generated Content (UGC) is to confirm the contributor as a member of the tribe. The other is to confirm the content being reviewed or commented on. More than affirmation UGC can help reset a company's branding and positioning.
As marketers we have our own language and the "curse of knowledge". We know too much about the stories we tell. UGC helps confirm our story is consistent with the experience our products create.
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If you are going to create #contentmarketing these days it better be EPIC. There is way too much noise. Only Epic Content will do. Here are 5 Easy Steps To Create Epic Content Marketing:
* Get your C-level executives to BELIEVE.
* Think Mobile First.
* Work with customers and creating a "commons".
* COPE (Create Once Publish Everywhere).
* Write a Content Marketing Mission Statement.
Set the stage with those easy steps and EPIC is possible, epic content marketing is probable IF your commitment is strong, you learn fast and you don't mind failing a little. Remember the content you write is NOT about you.
Epic content marketing is always about CUSTOMERS. Answering questions, solving pain points and finding innovative ways to be "of service" are all great ideas for your EPIC content marketing.
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Quirky Email Marketing Makeover TIps
Quirky.com is new to email marketing. They haven't won the hard won lessons 7 years as a Director of Ecommerce teaches such as:
* Less is more in email marketing.
* Never forget your Call-To-Action.
* Selling more than one idea in an email is crazy.
Quirky started strong with a cold weather hero (hero is largest image on an email or webpage), but made a common "new to email marketing" mistake - they thought their content is as interesting to US as it is to THEM.
Not so much (lol).
Best to apply some Occam's razor to your email marketing cuttting down to a single relevant idea. Quirky's BEFORE makeover email could become 6 or 10 emails. Showed how I would change their email and bet those changes woud increase conversioins 10x.
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Welcome To Content Marketing
Many "new to content marketing" are blasting content out on new WordPress blogs, creating categories and loving life. Glad to have you and if you are reading this post then you know it is time to learn some "inside baseball" content marketing and SEO tips.
Google doesn't like content to be duplicated. Problem is we bloggers and merchants MUST duplicate content since some of our readers care about SEO while another set wants to learn about social media marketing.
An article like my Websites vs. Blogs post for Curatti.com (http://curatti.com/websites-vs-blogs/ ) could be categorized into web design, social media and Internet marketing. WordPress makes setting categories so easy the full ramification of that tag isn't fully understood.
If I categorized my Websites Vs. Blogs piece in more than one category it appears equally duplicated to Google. The fact I know the piece MAINLY belongs in Internet marketing is something I can share with Google by using a canonical URL.
I think of the canonical URL as the MASTERBLASTER URL, the URL I WANT Google to think of this content in. Other categories, any category NOT deemed the single MASTERBLASTER category, aren't "indexed" by Google's spider for that piece of content.
Google sees your intent and understands your instructions to mean "don't index the same content twice" and that makes Google's spider get all warm, fuzzy and happy. You just saved Google TIME and time in the Google algorithm is truly MONEY so chances for your website to gain in authority just went UP.
Chances to gain in authority when you have the same content in many categories goes DOWN. Your duplication costs Google money and time because they have to sort out if you are good and true or a spammer. Oh, btw Google NEVER sorts out if you are a spammer or good and true (and I wrote that sentence to make my SEO friends laugh :).
Google ASSUMES you are spamming and treats your dupe content with disrespect and annoyance. Should you create many categories and place content in them? Sure, but when you do so be sure to use canonicalization to send the right signals to Google and so they don't assume you are spamming.
Promise to write my next Curatti.com post on canonicalization and other important "SEO Ideas For New To Content Marketing". Marty
BTW, geat @Tomewer post with one of the most clear and concise explanations of a difficult topic I've read. Well done Tom!
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This post was fun to write. I spent the morning writing about the importance of thinking digital first. This post shares 5 tips about the care and feeding of possibly your most important asset - your network of support, advocacy and content. If your content network isn't the most important thing no one really thinks about very often I don't know what is.
Since it isn't fair to tease such a list and not share, here is my list of 10 Must Follow Scoopers:
@Robin Good
@Guillaume Decugis
@Ally Greer
@ janlgordon
@Jesús Hernández
@Brian Yanish - MarketingHits.com
@Dr. Karen Dietz
@Thierry Saint-Paul
@Neil Ferree
@Ana Cristina Pratas
If you want to see what each of these great content curators has taught me you will need to read the post (since I'm not one to spoil a tease :).
Totally agree with Marty, each of these Scoopers uses Scoop.it to build their readership. That's right they are using Other Peoples Content (OPC) that they curate to build their own following and traffic to their channels be it a website or social network.
Thanks for this list... I must be doing something right. All were in my network. Even the incomparable @KarenDietz !
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It has become widely accepted that content arranged in list form is quicker to find, easier to remember, and more actionable, which makes lists ideal for sharing content as part of a highly effecti...
I'm not a big fan of numbered lists since to number is to create priority, but this excellent post from Content Marketing World with great examples of how your look and feel doesn't have to be limited shows numbered lists are a great idea from a Google perspective. Maybe expressing priority isn't all bad :).
Promising the reader a short list of tips to help improve his knowledge about an interesting subject, is a great attraction. Lists work
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"We are vehemently faithful to our own view of the world, our story. We want to know what new story we’re stepping into before we exit the old one. We don’t want an exit if we don’t know exactly where it is going to take us, even – or perhaps especially – in an emergency. This is so, I hasten to add, whether we are patients or psychoanalysts."
Is Your Internet Marketing Telling A Great Story?
Wow, this is GREAT. I love this sentence,
"I think it is because change requires loss. And the prospect of loss is far more powerful than potential gain. It’s difficult to imagine what a change will do to us. This is why we need stories so desperately."
The implication, stories are the key to change, rings true and so the right question is how can we tell better stories, stories that promote the change we want :).
Buying anything anytime is a form of "change". We want the security of knowing our money will be well spent and the excitement of new experience. When in doubt, as this great post points out, we stand pat. We hesitate because we can't imagine the new story.
Here is another implication. Our jobs as Internet marketers is really to help our visitors imagine the new story :). M
The Kübler-Ross Change curve is a tool you can store in your back pocket and pull our to help others get on with what is essential. You can also use it to coach yourself through the challenges of dealing with changes beyond your control. In the ICN Executive MBA change management module, we combine this tool with others such as story-telling in a co-learning approach.
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Marketing & SEO
Your marketing team might think SEO doesn't apply to them especially now. With all this talk of, "The death of SEO," marketers can ignore SEO and focus on branding right? Not so much.
Search engines control traffic; traffic is money so you need to avoid these common marketing SEO mistakes.
5 Common SEO Marketing Mistakes
1. Not thinking about SEO as you create online marketing.
2. Creating your own language instead of using keywords.
3. HIPPO decisions not test or data decisions.
4. Being boring.
5. Not open, relevant or social enough.
Marketing people need to understand SEO. Does every marketing person need to spend a week in Mill Valley in class with SEO Guru Bruce Clay as I did? No, but all-marketing people need to read and understand SEO. You can't delegate understand SEO, at least at a conceptual level, to others.
Marketing people love to create stories and often develop their own way to tag, refer to and name products, services, features and benefits. Better to use adwords keyword tool to CHECK your assumptions about marketing language.
If there is greater demand for e-commerce than ecommerce then make sure and use BOTH in your copy. Don't enforce your beliefs on your copy or marketing. Check your beliefs and modify if you are creating your own language, modify to be aligned with the way customers think about and name your products and services (otherwise known as keywords).
Highest Paid Person In The Room HIPPO can do more damage to Internet marketing than the plague. Internet marketing is DATA based. There isn't a reason to guess or roll dice. Do something, look ad the data, create the test. The problem is websites are also political things.
When the CEO says they like shocking pink and company logos the size of dump trucks it takes courage to say, "Let's test that," but if anyone could be an Internet marketer then you wouldn't get paid the big bucks :).
You can be many things in your online communication boring better not be one of them. Boring is as boring does and when HIPPOs tell you to use corporate speak, talk to yourself about yourself or ignore the conversational nature of online communication you are bing boring (and in the worst way).
Finally every website needs to be open, inclusive and relevant. Think of your job as a CURATOR of your online information. Just like those helpful people at the library you want to help people looking for information and engagement find it. Best way to do that? A: LISTEN and be open to social signals and all of their implications.
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Content Is The New Currency For Smarter Search And Smarter Marketing - 06/27/2013
Interesting to think of content as a currency. Content does act like a currency in a lot of ways including:
* Earns Interest (older content continue to contribute).
* Costs lower over time (as engine gets more efficient and archive is built).
* Returns multiply exponentially once authority is established.
* Investment is required to have a chance to create authority.
Content is like having a savings account when you were a kid. Your parents made you open it with your grannie's birthday money. The sum may have been so small you missed the BIG LESSON.
The BIG LESSON is money only has one purpose - self replication via compound interest. Money's natural state is one of decay. Eaten away by inflation and other natural enemies money can wilt, dry up and blow away.
The only way to overcome money's natural decay is to create a "money tree" that replaces the fruit you pick. Content marketing acts like money too. Its natural state is decay. You must tend your "content crops" with social support and links to "evergreen" or "tent poll" posts.
Think of linking in like watering. When you water your content marketing crops they become strong and are able to fight off content marketing’s decay. The more sophisticated your engine is about watering the better off your content crop is.
Features such as:
* People who've read X, also like Y.
* Similar posts "upsale" lists.
* Related posts "cross-sale lists.
* Most popular lists.
* Most commented on list.
By treating content as the "products" and "currency" it is your website and Internet marketing team is more likely to have content do the most magical thing - clone itself via social likes and shares.
"Clone" isn't exactly right, but each social signal tells Google your content is valuable (no matter when it was created) AND prevents decay. Soon, when author rank is fully incorporated in SEO, your content will have generations of benefit it can gain or share.
Content is the new "currency' of search marketing.
