Dan Necklen from the Likeable Marketing Company came to visit Locus Research for the last Inspiration Session of the year. Dan is an entrepreneur, blog writer and social media specialist based in the Tauranga Region. He is also the man behind the fantastic 4good Charitable trust which seeks to change the way giving for good happens.
The Problem – In the past, marketing, web-design and search engine optimisation have all existed in isolation. But nowadays you need to find the sweet spot in the middle of these 3 disciplines.
To get the most out of your online platforms, you need to create and share valuable, free content. CMI outlines that 'Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action'.
If you do this well, you can create a loyal following of followers and customers that come back again and again.
[insert number of steps] to [insert something magical]
When searching the internet for answers, we just want to find answers as quickly and painlessly as possible. Our inboxes, Facebook feeds and google searches are filled with mess that we often ignore. A great way (but not the only way) to catch someone’s eye and bring them to your blog site, is to write a list.
For example ‘Three steps to keeping your BBQ cockroach free’. An article broken down into three, eight or even 12 steps, seems a lot easier to digest simply because you’ve been able to evaluate if you have the time and/or patience to read that particular article to find the information you need.
Sorting out your metadata is an easy way to reach the top of the list when a search is carried out. Wikipedia says that ‘the main purpose of metadata is to facilitate in the discovery of relevant information’, so by describing the context of your content, it makes it quicker and easier for customers to come to your website and your products.
To keep people returning to your business platforms, it is important to consider your tone of voice. Customers want to feel like they are being approached by a human, not a big corporate business trying forcefully sell them products.
Let’s look at the Vitafresh Facebook page for example. The below post teaches you how to make your very own gummy lollies – with no artificial colours, flavours or sweeteners! The post has had 50 shares, and a respectable reach of over 4,000 sets of eyes. By posting an update that incorporates Vitafresh into a ‘health trend’ treat, people are able to share and discuss with others and use the product in a way they hadn’t thought of before.
By keeping content short and sweet, customers have happily interacted with the post and product. I’d much prefer to read a post like that, than someone trying to push the product into my face – wouldn’t you?
Social marketing should be social. Makes sense right? By involving your audience, you are extending your reach without working your fingers to the bone. A local example, The Tauranga Art Gallery, have done a great job at involving their audience, simply by asking questions both online and physically in the gallery. By directing people within the Gallery to their Facebook page and vice versa, they have been able to start discussions around the artworks they are displaying and get people involved with the company. Easy.
We have probably been using content marketing for a while, with the general underlying belief that if it is interesting to us it may be interesting to the people that we work for. Learning and sharing content is something that is an important part of what we do to stay engaged and keep fresh in what we do, so it is always a win win.
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