Six Things You Can You Learn from B-2-B Publishers

June 22, 2011Joanne CostinLeave a comment

You’ve heard that everyone is a publisher now, so what can you learn from successful publishers.

B2B publishers have made a living off their ability to deliver audiences, initially through print and now online. Long before there was SEO, publications knew that great content would bring them loyal readership. Publishers continue to be go-to sources for information on industry trends, news, leaders, research and best practices. And with more competition for a reader’s time from all sorts of sources, today’s leading publishers are working harder than ever . The draw is still great content. However, many magazine websites have been transformed from online versions of the print product, into rich sites that fully embrace multimedia and social networks.

Now that you are trying to win over your own audience online with content, it makes sense to try and learn what you can from the pros.

1) Keep the needs of the customer/reader first and foremost.

It’s not about you and your company, it’s about your customer. What are their problems and how can you solve them.

2)Be fair and factual.

Your audience knows you are trying to sell something, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be a credible, reliable, source of information. Stick to the facts and avoid “ad-like” promises and sales jargon.

3)Hire professional writers.

Subject matter experts who can also write are few and far between. They are usually too busy with other jobs to write. Instead of trying to rely on them, hire a professional writer who knows how to pull the information from your sources and present it in a useful, usable and interesting format.

4)Keep a schedule.

As a reader, I know when my favorite industry publication will arrive each month, and I look forward to it. The same is true of my InBox. Whether you decide to publish content on a daily, weekly or monthly frequency, stick to a schedule. Be aware that there’s a direct correlation between frequency of content and website visits.

5) Look for the best way to tell a story.

Does the story lend itself to video, radio or text? PMQ’s Pizza TV is used to demonstrate a technique for rolling a pizza crust over the shoulder. It just wouldn’t be the same in print.

6)Add value with social sharing.

Today’s publishing websites include more ways for audiences to connect and share ideas with each other. PMQ Pizza Think Thank forum is a reminder that your customers and prospects can create your content. On techrepublic.com, social stats are front and center, helping the audience find useful content fast.

As a content marketer you need to know how to succeed in publishing. Examine your favorite industry magazine websites with a fresh eye. What do you like about them? How can you use that information to engage your audience? What do you see on consumer magazine websites that could translate to B2B?

When is a Purse More than a Purse and a Floor More than a Floor?

June 15, 2011Joanne CostinLeave a comment

Often times, peripheral buying considerations become the themes on which a marketer can build community: opportunity, sustainability, safety, patriotism and charity.

Do You Have What it Takes to Succeed in Social Media?

June 10, 2011Joanne Costin1 Comment

You can read all the articles you want about social media marketing for B2B companies, but until you jump in and do it, you probably won’t realize what you need to succeed. As many have found out, hiring a college-age daughter or son to set up your Facebook page or your twitter account isn’t the answer.

If hardly anyone is reading your blog, visiting your Facebook page or following you on Twitter, there is a good chance you may be lacking in at least one of these three success areas.

Success Factor No. 1: Content

You don’t have the foggiest idea what your customers would find interesting or engaging. You find it hard to think beyond what you sell, and you probably don’t enjoy staring at a blank page.

A content strategist can help you plan what you want to say and how you are going to say it. Content strategists know how to find engaging stories about your business or topic area that people actually want to read. And the best part … they never run out of ideas.

Content creators get the work done, creating blog posts, videos, and slide shows. Crafting messages that sound like you or your brand, only better. Content curators select the “best of the best” information and ideas, creating value for your B2B audience.

Success Factor No. 2: Technology

Words like “meta tag,” “API” and “robots” scare you. You’ve never seen or even attempted to find the traffic statistics for your website or blog. You aren’t interested in learning a whole new language.

Without knowing the technology behind social media, the best content in the world can remain lost. And without reviewing your website analytics, content opportunities will be lost.

Boosts in website traffic require link building and that means knowing where on the Web you need to be. Each social media network has its own characteristics. Do you have the patience to listen and learn?

Social media training will shorten the learning curve and let you know where you need to focus first. Mastering the technology skills can help your social media efforts deliver a better ROI from the get-go.

Success Factor No. 3: Time

Once you engage your B-2-B business in social media, you quickly understand the tedium of it all . Day after day, week after week, you need to participate, create content, and promote content. Conversations aren’t all in one place. Information needs to be posted in a lot of places with thoughtful messages targeted to the audience. It’s downright time consuming.

However, the more you are involved in social media, the greater the benefit you are likely to receive. Do you have the time? Do you know the tools that can help you best manage and monitor your efforts? Do you have someone who can do the “grunge” work for you?

Some businesses and business owners want to do social media themselves and they have everything they need to succeed: Content, Technology and Time. That’s terrific. Some may have the content, but lack the time and energy. Others may have the technological skills, but lack content.

The important thing is to not get hung up on what you don’t know.Recognize it and get some help. Hire someone to get you started. Build a team and share your knowledge. Sign up to receive some social media training. Move on. Don’t give up.

What has held back your social media efforts? What kind of help does your business need?

Here’s the Proof: Press Releases Drive Website Traffic

June 8, 2011Joanne CostinLeave a comment

The results are in. Visits to contentforbiz.com more than doubled the week after we sent our first press release. We tested three distribution services: PRWeb.com, PR.com and freepressrelease.com.

On PRWeb we selected the “Most Popular” $200 visibility level. According to the analytics on PRWeb.com, the Content for Biz press release was distributed to 3,321 media outlets via email or feed. It was opened for a full page read on PR Web.com more than 1,100 times and delivered nearly 47,000 impressions across the web over the last nine days. Additionally, based on our site analytics, there were 15 direct links from PRWeb.com.

On PR.com I subsequently found out that there’s not much included in the “free” version – not even a hyperlink. Visibility upgrades range from $30.00 to $100.00, and hyperlinks are $29.95 each. To include an image, you are required to select the $60.00 visibility level. Our budget wouldn’t allow all these extras. To be honest, it really isn’t much of a comparison with PR Web at the free level. As far as visibility, the only way I could find my release on this site was to log in.

Posting on freepressrelease.com was easy. It’s just like uploading a WordPress post. Hyperlinks are free, and there are some social sharing features, but visibility was next to nil. There were no search tools on the site to help a visitor find what they are looking for.

In summary, our little test proved that you get what you pay for. The PR Web Distribution service helped to increase website traffic vs. the prior week by 210 percent, while the free services did not appear to provide any measurable results.

Tip: Check out a free tool called Press Release Grader to optimize the press release for the web. It’s an extra step, but well worth your time.

What’s your favorite B2B press release distribution service?

What to Do When Your Company Blog is Failing

June 1, 2011Joanne CostinLeave a comment

Did your company jump into blogging without a plan? Has it been months since any content was created? Are your subject matter experts failing to create the content you need? It’s not all that uncommon. But don’t give up before you have tried these tactics.

Get Blogging Training

As you have probably discovered on your own, there is a lot more to blogging than meets the eye. The more your corporate bloggers understand about your goals and objectives, keywords and other blogging basics, the better job they will do. A boot camp for bloggers will empower and reenergize your team, build camaraderie, and demonstrate management’s commitment to the blog.

Hold a Content Creation Brainstorming Session

Devote a few hours exclusively to developing content ideas for the blog. Invite a professional content manager to lead a discussion using your keywords as a jumping off point. Do you have content related to every stage in the buying process? Can you make your customers the stars? What information lends itself to video? Consider a series of posts related to a specific topic. Get input from bloggers, customer service and sales and other departments. By the time the meeting is over you will have plenty of ideas to fill an editorial calendar. But don’t stop there. Assign various topics to your contributors. Realize that some content takes longer to develop. Choose quality over quantity, but also recognize that there are benefits to frequency.

Start Reviewing Results with Your Team

Share analytics and help your team identify those posts that are drawing traffic and response. Can you elaborate on hot topics or create similar posts using different examples? Identify trends in keywords. Reward bloggers who successfully engage the audience.

Build Your Social Networks

Understand your audience and encourage participation of employees in industry-related social networks so you can share your expertise and introduce potential customers to your blog. Know where your blog traffic is coming from. Create a plan for promoting posts online, generating inbound links and more. Share links with older posts as well.

There is no doubt business blogging requires a big commitment, but the rewards do appear to be worth the effort. In a study conducted by HubSpot, the average company that blogs has 55 percent more visitors, 97 percent more inbound links and 434 percent more indexed pages.

Can we help you get your blog unstuck so you can reap the benefits?

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