A Content Christmas Carol

"Uncle, have you finalized your Content Marketing plan for the new year?" "Bah, humbug!" Ebenezer Scrooge replied to his nephew Fred, an independent marketing consultant. "Haven't I got a website?"

"Well yes Uncle, but that's not nearly enough any more," Fred replied.

"I pay to support that site," said Scrooge angrily. "It costs enough. If customers and prospects want to find me, they must go there."

"But Uncle, they need to have a reason to visit your site," Fred persisted. "You need to provide compelling content that will attract them."

"Bah, humbug!" Scrooge roared. "If I could work my will, every idiot who goes about with "compelling content" on his lips should be beaten with his own blog and buried with a keyword stuck through his heart!"

The conversation obviously over, Fred turned and left.

Later that night, Scrooge sat eating his gruel when suddenly, the door flew open and a vision passed into the room. With that, Scrooge was facing his long dead partner Jacob Marley.

"Your business is dying Ebenezer. I am here tonight to warn you that you have yet a chance and hope of saving it," the vision said. "You will be haunted by Three Spirits. Mark well what they reveal."

Marley then flew out the window.

Scrooge went off to bed and fell fast asleep. Soon after the curtains of his bed were drawn aside and a childlike figure stood before him.

"Who are you?" Scrooge demanded.

"I am the Ghost of Content Past," said the Spirit."Rise and walk with me. Bear but a touch of my hand there and you shall be upheld."

The Ghost and Scrooge flew out the window then stopped at a certain warehouse door and asked Scrooge if he knew it.

"Why it's old Fezziwig's establishment! Bless his heart. It's Fezziwig alive again."

Scrooge's former self, along with Dick Wilkins and Fezziwig were gathered around a table with papers scattered all over it.

"This tri-fold brochure will sure to draw in much business," Fezziwig bellowed. "Look at all the facts and features about our company."

"What about this Yellow Pages ad," cried Wilkins. "Chock full of details. This will surely attract our prospects!"

"Small matters," said the Ghost, "to make these silly folks so excited about their marketing program."

Scrooge thought about that. Though seemingly small, these marketing pieces did indeed help Fezziwig's business thrive in those days.

Abruptly, the Ghost was gone and Scrooge found himself back in bed in a heavy sleep.

Awaking in the middle of a prodigiously tough snore, Scrooge was startled to see a jolly Giant sitting before him.

"I am the Ghost of Content Present," said the Spirit. "Look upon me."

"Spirit," said Scrooge submissively, "conduct me where you will. If you have aught to teach me, let me profit by it."

"Touch my robe." the Spirit said. Scrooge did as he was told and held it fast as they flew through the window.

Scrooge was surprised when they landed at his own nephew's office. There in a bright, gleaming conference room, Fred addressed his colleagues.

"He said that Content Marketing was a humbug, as I live," cried Scrooge's nephew. "He believed it too. I have nothing to say against him. I am sorry for him. He and his business will suffer for it. I told him he needed to provide his prospects and customers with valuable information that would show him as an expert and attract new business."

Scrooge  suddenly looked about him for the Ghost, and saw it not. Lifting up his eyes, he instead beheld a solemn Phantom, draped and hooded, coming towards him.

"Am I in the presence of the Ghost of Content Yet To Come?" asked Scrooge.

The Spirit answered not, but pointed downward with its hand.

"Lead on," said Scrooge.

The Spirit stopped beside one little knot of business men. Observing that the hand was pointed to them, Scrooge advanced to listen to their talk.

"No," said a great fat man with a monstrous chin. "I don't know much about it either way. I only know they padlocked the doors. Likely no one will much care about it. Upon my life I don't know of many customers he had left."

"Spirit," Scrooge said. "Tell me who they are talking about."

The Spirit instead silently led him down a dark street and stood before a building that looked familiar to Scrooge. The Spirit pointed to the building.

"Are these shadows of things that WILL be or are they shadows of things that MAY be only?" Scrooge asked.

Still the Ghost only pointed.

Scrooge crept towards it, trembling as he went and following the finger, then read the sign upon the door of the abandoned building: Scrooge and Marley, Out of Business.

"No, Spirit! Oh no, no!" he cried, tight clutching at its robe. "Assure me that I yet may change these shadows you have shown me by an altered life. I will honor Content Marketing in my heart and try to keep it all the year. Oh tell me I may sponge away the writing on this sign!"

Scrooge suddenly saw the Phantom shrink, collapse, and dwindle down into a bedpost.

Yes! And the bedpost was his own and the room was his own. Running to the window, he opened it, and put out his head.

"What's today?" cried Scrooge, calling downward to a disheveled looking man in the street.

"Today?" replied the man. "Why it's Monday. The first day of a new work week."

"It's Monday!," said Scrooge to himself. "The Spirits have done it all in one weekend!"

"Hallo my fine fellow," Scrooge continued to the man. "What do you do for a living?"

"Me?" replied the man. "I'm just a poor freelance copywriter out here begging for work."

"Well beg no longer," Scrooge replied. "Come with me to my office. You are now in charge of my Content Marketing program. We have a great deal to do. domain owner . We need white papers, case studies, and blogs! Can you write blogs? We'll do eBooks, newsletters, and email campaigns. We'll become the kings of Content Marketing I'll say!"

On his way to the office he stopped by to see his nephew Fred.

"I wanted to thank you for your advice," Scrooge said to Fred, "and to tell you I am embarking on a complete Content Marketing program beginning today."

He then grabbed his new trusty scrivener by the scruff of the neck and held him up to Fred.

"See, I already hired a copywriter!" Scrooge cried. "Can you stop by today and help me with the details!"

"Of course I will uncle!" exclaimed Fred.

From that day forward, Scrooge was true to his word. Under Fred's direction, Scrooge and Marley became a Content Marketing machine, driving enormous amounts of traffic to their site and growing revenues manyfold. Scrooge had no further interaction with Spirits. It was always said of him that he knew how to drive Content Marketing well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge.

As for the scrivener, sitting in his corner cubicle he spoke for all copywriters when he said quietly, "God bless us, every one. And Happy Holidays."

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The Customer Journey: Does Your Content Match Up?

Content, content, content. If you have any responsibility for the marketing function in your organization, you're well aware of the steady shift to Inbound from Outbound Marketing. You're also no doubt being badgered by every blog, article, and webinar about the need to continually feed the content monster. More content. Relevant content. More frequent content.

All that pestering is valid. For your Inbound Marketing program to be successful, you need to be providing content on a regular basis so your prospects can find you and eventually become customers. But it's more than just pouring content into the top of the funnel and waiting for the revenue to flow out of the spout. To be really effective, you need to be providing the right content at the right time.

You know by now that prospects don't want to be sold. But they do want help to buy. The information they need differs at each stage in the buying cycle. That's the key point. A successful Content Marketing plan matches the appropriate content to the needs of the prospect at each step of the Customer Journey.

From your prospect's perspective, the Customer Journey can be separated into three steps: Discovery, Research, Purchase. From your point of view, the corresponding stages are: Awareness, Credibility, Sale. To get to the final stage and close the deal, you need to be aligned with your prospect by providing compelling content at every step.

Here's how to approach each phase from a content perspective.

1. Discovery/Awareness

Your prospects have a need to be fulfilled. At the beginning of the journey, they're casting a wide net looking for possible solutions. Your goal at this stage is to provide content that makes you part of the catch. Introduce yourself to prospects in order to advance to the next stage.

There are numerous ways to present your organization to potential customers. Blogs promoted on social media (Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube), infographics, and video are among the most effective content pieces to help you get noticed. Your website, logo, and ad campaigns all contribute to your visibility. plan a route . You have to be out there with content that people can find and share so when they have that need, they think of you.

2. Research/Credibility

Once you make the cut and become a potential source to fulfill the prospects' requirement, the validation stage begins. Prospects will be conducting more in depth research at this point to determine who is best suited to meet their need. You must prove that you can provide a credible solution. You can best do this by providing content that illustrates your knowledge, expertise, and ability to help them. Content pieces that establish your credibility include ebooks, white papers, articles, and webinars.

3. Purchase/Sale

If you've done a good job establishing your viability, you'll hopefully get a chance to close the deal. The prospect has invested a lot of time and energy getting to the final candidates. Your goal now is to differentiate yourself from the other contenders. Why should the prospect choose you? What makes you the best solution to solve their problem? Content that can nail down the sale includes vendor comparisons, case studies, company presentations, and proposals.

Don't cut corners when it comes to the final proposal. If you've been fortunate enough to be selected as a finalist, your last chance to seal the deal is with your proposal. Take advantage and make sure you use this final opportunity to convince your prospect that you can provide the best solution for their need.

Yes content is crucial. Your content plan is much more effective, however, when you have a strategy that puts the right content in front of your prospect at the time it will do the most good.

Do you have a comprehensive content strategy? If not, why not?

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The Case Study: Close Deals With a Story

Mommy, can you PLEASE tell me a story? Didn't we all wail that out from the time we learned to speak? Story telling, or more importantly, story listening is ingrained in us. As we grew older, that attraction didn't go away. We still love stories. Tap into that deep-rooted experience when reaching out with your marketing program.

Gather your prospects around and tell them a story.

The business version of a story is a case study. These popular, effective pieces of content prove we can all still be engaged and influenced by a good story.

Recent benchmark studies show that 7 out of 10 marketers include case studies as part of their marketing program. That makes it a top five content marketing tactic up there with social media, article posting, eNewsletters, and blogs. Better still, marketing executives believe case studies work. Two-thirds say case studies are effective, surpassing even webinars/webcasts on the perceived confidence scale. In Person Events is the only tactic that rates higher.

Interestingly, marketers use Social Media - Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn - more than any other tactic, but less than half believe they're effective.

Which brings us back to case studies. Why do they work so well?

It's pretty basic, actually. The first rule in any Writing 101 class is: to create compelling content, show don't tell. That's the secret to the case study. It's the ultimate in showing. Brochures, data sheets, and badly written web sites all tell. Your prospects don't want to be told anything. They want to be shown how your product or service will solve their problem.

A well written case study delivers a compelling story with a beginning (Our hero and his company had this problem), a middle (Our hero and his team tried everything to solve this problem but couldn't) and an end (YOUR PRODUCT came along and made everything all better). And then they all lived happily ever after.

The case study projects your prospects into a situation with which they are unfortunately familiar, and shows them how you will solve their problem.

No hard sell. No shouting from the rooftops. No chest beating.

The moral of the story? It works. The End.

When was the last time you used a case study to promote your business? Was it effective?

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The Online Customer: 3 Issues To Consider

Consumers continue to use technology to grab more power in their buying experience. For a recent report on the online customer experience, LivePerson conducted nearly 6,000 interviews in six countries. Their findings reveal:

• A wide diversity of sophistication in the online buyer
• Empowered customers that want to leverage in-store and online channels to maximize their buying power
• A consumer that is demanding fast, easy help tools to solve their online buying issues

Here are three things from the report you should consider.

1.  Diverse Customer Sophistication. Only one in six online customer are considered "experienced" defined as "rarely needing help when purchasing online." More than half are "semi-dependent" and sometimes need help. A third are "dependent" with limited online buying experience and often need assistance.
2. Channel Blur. The lines between online and in-store shopping are being erased as customers now use both in the purchasing process. Almost 80% of shoppers often or sometime conduct online research before shopping in a store. One in four shoppers conduct research on their mobile device while in the store. Although impulse buying is most associated with in-store purchases, half of the respondents say they often or sometimes end up spending more than they planned while shopping online.
3. Demand for Help. Online shoppers are demanding speed and simplicity in response to their questions and issues. More than two-thirds want help within five minutes and a third want it IMMEDIATELY. Half will abandon the site if help doesn't arrive within their expected time frame. Half give up immediately when they are looking for help prior to an online purchase. They want multiple choices to get help for sales and customer service, but they won't use them all.

One of the answers to this growing issue is Live Chat. According to the report, this interactive customer service channel:

• Meets the needs of speed and simplicity
• Garners high marks for customer satisfaction
• Increases the likelihood of a completed purchase
• Engenders customer loyalty
• Enhances brand trust

The study shows that although the online buying began as a self service model, it has now changed to a more interactive, collaborative experience. Customers want information and engagement. If you're a brand with both an online and physical store presence, that means you need to ramp up customer service to ensure you capture your share of the spend of this newly empowered customer.

What are you seeing from your online customers? How are you engaging them in meaningful and helpful ways?

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The Customer Digital Experience: 5 Emerging Trends

The next time you walk down the street, take a look around. Yes you'll need to lift your eyes from your smartphone to do it. Once you look up, what you'll likely see is everyone else's heads down, focused on their own devices. That's pretty much the case everywhere: in stores, at sporting events, and in restaurants. What you are witnessing - and likely participating in - is the Digital Experience, something that's growing stronger every day. According to Forrester Research, in 2010 90 million people in the US owned smartphones and 5 million had tablets. That grew to 140 million smartphone and 60 million tablet users last year. By 2016, it's expected that 205 million people will have smartphones and 110 million will be using tablets.

In its recently released study on this digital device explosion, Forrester discussed the effects of this phenomenon. Here's a look at five emerging trends.

1. From Responsive Design to Adaptive Design - By now you're likely aware of the shift toward Responsive Design in web site development. Organizations like the Boston Globe have designed their sites so they function appropriately regardless of whether opened on a desktop, tablet, or smartphone. As digital devices have become more pervasive, we're now moving from Responsive Design to Adaptive Design. Not only will sites display correctly, but the device will dictate what content you'll receive. For example, if you go to the New Zealand Kiwi Bank site on a smartphone today, you'll see a specific mobile friendly login, branch finder and customer service number.

2. Responsive Context - Companies continue to mine Big Data to find out more about you. This will allow them to match your specific information from prior purchase and service history for example, to current situational data - where you are and what time of day it is - and present you with appropriate offers. For example, if you go to the ZipCar site, it will recognize your location and guide you to the nearest available rental. It will then book the transaction and unlock the door for you.

3. Device Synchronization - As the use of the cloud increases, there's continued development to connect devices to products and services and to each other. Amazon with its Kindle and Evernote are already well down this path and the trend is likely to accelerate for all providers. AKQA built a social game for Heineken to engage fans at soccer games. The game connects fans at the stadium, pinpoints where they are and also provides commentary in synch with their play by play broadcasts.

4. Adaptive Interfaces - This year the number of people who access the internet on mobile devices is expected to surpass those that go online on desktops. Developers are reacting to that by creating interfaces more easily used on smaller, mobile devices. Layouts are cleaner and less cluttered. Action buttons are bigger and easier to click whether by touch or with a mouse.

5. Information Visualization - Information that is being presented from sites like Mint or Hipmunk is expected to take the next giant leap. They are moving from tools that track behavior - financial spending trends, health care tracking, and mobile phone usage - to interfaces that help users act on that data. In addition to presenting basic information, sites will explain what it means, its consequences and how you can use it to make improvements going forward.

Ultimately, according to Forrester, we're headed quickly to a time when our mobile phones become the remote control of our lives. Now if they could only come up with a DVR where we can relive the good parts and delete the bad ones....

What trends are you experiencing in your digital world? Where do you think we're headed?

What Are You Doing With Your "Golden Leads?"

You should be nurturing them so they turn into sales for your business. For more on Lead Nurturing, check out my guest post at Metropolis Creative.Photo Credit: Denis Collette...!!! via Compfight cc