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 shows, adopted by a enjoyable night time of dinner, drinks and a two-hour Q&A with movie maker Kevin Smith (I solely caught the primary half, however as you could already know, I can verify Kev is not any fan of Southwest Airways).
We’ll see how a lot gasoline is left within the tank for at this time’s operating diary, with extra updates (hopefully) coming all through the day.
For a breakdown of yesterday’s excessive factors, try my operating diary of Day 1 at Content material Advertising and marketing World.
Day 2
4:18 p.m.: The final session of the week simply acquired out (my apologies to Kevin Smith, who’s scheduled to shut the present. I really like ya Silent Bob, however I’ve a aircraft 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. “Content material isn’t for everyone – it ought to be, however you won’t be prepared, and that’s OK,” C.C. mentioned.
The pair made some significantly attention-grabbing factors on the parable that content material advertising 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 actually resonate with their respective audiences. So there!
It was an excellent present general, and I hope you loved the diary. See you subsequent 12 months!
3:04 p.m.: To begin off the afternoon, I made a decision to pop right into a session titled A Information to Social website positioning Technique for Content material Entrepreneurs. The presenter was Lee Odden (@LeeOdden), CEO at TopRank, who I’ve all the time been a giant fan of.
The session was nearly stymied by slideshow failure (PowerPoint stored transferring from slide to slip by itself accord), however Lee dealt with it like a champ and got here by means of with some superior data. (For instance, do you know that there are wherever from 50 to 200 totally different variations of Google’s search algorithm operating someplace on the ‘Web at any given time? I didn’t.)
More often than not was spent wanting on the connection between social media interplay and website positioning. Lee talked about how many individuals are likely to bounce forwards and backwards between social media and search, and the way content material entrepreneurs can benefit from this. For example, potential prospects might go on social media (LinkedIn, possibly) to ask their friends for product suggestions. Greater than doubtless, 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 superb likelihood they’ll then return to LinkedIn to debate the product they selected and why.
As Lee famous, latest research present that 48% of consumers use social media and search collectively when making shopping for choices – a chief instance of why search and social methods have to be linked. Every thing must be optimized for each, he defined. And by every thing, he means every thing. “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 find out how to carry out an website positioning audit in your web site. Hopefully we are able to setup a podcast with him someday quickly to go over that matter in additional element, as I feel it may actually profit plenty of corporations on the market.
1:45 p.m.: The lunch session for Day 2 was an attention-grabbing one. A handful of audio system have been every given seven minutes to debate a content-related matter of their selecting. I believed everybody did a advantageous job, although my two favorites have been segments on content material curation and the connection between content material advertising 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 totally of … properly … curated content material. The day before today she shot video of assorted content material specialists discussing the other ways entrepreneurs can benefit from curated content material, which included OpenView’s personal Amanda Maksymiw, pictured proper. (Word: The image doesn’t actually do justice to how huge the screens have been. Quickly after the video ended, I posted a tweet asking if that was actually Amanda or the nice and highly effective Oz.) Barbra then edited the footage collectively to make a cool five-minute video on content material curation – comprised totally of commentary generated by others on the present. Get it?
As for the Muppet phase, simply go forward and get in touch with Andrew Davis (@TPLDrew) of Tippingpoint Labs for the main points. It’s value it.
11:16 a.m.: I made a decision to strive the manager observe 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. A very good a part of the dialogue centered on the problem of getting firm buy-in and funding for content material advertising efforts.
Lynne Esparo, VP of Advertising and marketing with Nuance Communications, made the purpose that the ROI for content material needs to 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 consider it, because it prices a lot extra to acquire a brand new buyer than maintain an present one.)
Cam Brown (@CamBrown1), CEO at King Fish Media, famous that the rationale for this (as ordinary) is that it’s so tough to measure the success of content material methods for present prospects (the place as measuring success based mostly on the variety of new prospects is clearly a lot simpler). A few of the metrics he makes use of to find out content material worth embrace issues like elevated cart dimension (“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 beneficial metrics:
- Consumption metrics (readership measurements)
- Sharing metrics (social media, backlinking)
- Lead era metrics
- Gross sales/retention metrics
He added that corporations which might be simply getting began with content material advertising ought to begin with a centered strategy to make sure they get essentially the most worth and finest outcomes. “What I discover with corporations that haven’t traditionally embraced content material, they sometimes fall within the entice of, ‘We acquired to be publishers!’ In order that they find yourself placing all their eggs in that one basket,” Baer defined. “However nobody needs to learn your big whitepaper and stuff like that. Content material success isn’t about considering huge, it’s about considering small.” Beloved 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 widespread spots like SlideShare or YouTube definitely have a better attain than your individual weblog. “Don’t be a content material Grinch,” he mentioned to these of us 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 simply accept that sharing is vital. Simply make sure you institute methods for getting individuals to return to your website ultimately, 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 all the time dragging slightly bit on Day 2. CMW ’11 is not any totally different, as lots of the of us listed below are struggling to match the passion of Day 1 after a protracted day of periods (and an excellent longer night time 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 superb 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 method for fulfillment, Brian burdened the significance of staying “reader-focused and reader-friendly” when placing collectively your content material roadmap.
“We’re in an consideration battle,” he defined, citing the necessity to examine reader behaviors and eye research to assist maintain that focus centered on you. Brian famous the low-attention spans of readers, which is why usability is such a vital a part of the content material creation course of. Michael agreed, saying {that a} high quality visible design and format is important to their technique as a method of serving to the content material, website and model stand out and entice 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 might be simply digestible usually comes all the way down to the usage of good format and design practices. Brian talked about how easy ways like subheads and bulleted lists inside the textual content go a great distance towards making your content material easier 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. huge blocks of textual content with nothing to attract the reader’s eye – type 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 instruments at our disposal in relation to studying what individuals are concerned with. Michael mentioned his group’s desire for reader surveys as a method of producing concepts and matters. For these concerned with surveys, one tip each panelists beneficial was to incorporate open-ended questions – a significantly better solution to be taught one thing new about your readers than for those who merely present a number of alternative solutions for them.
It was a superb 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 advantageous job moderating for a crowd that was clearly in want of a second cup of espresso.
For a breakdown of yesterday’s excessive factors, try my operating diary of Day 1 at Content material Advertising and marketing World.
Yow will discover extra info on content material advertising and editorial practices on the OpenView Labs web site. You can even comply with Brendan on Twitter @BrenCournoyer and discover extra from the OpenView group @OpenViewVenture.