Content Marketing Ideas

1. Create an eBook and offer that on your website, in your email newsletter, on your blog, at trade shows, and post it on Amazon.com and other places that feature eBooks.  Be sure to ask the person for their name and email address in exchange for downloading your eBook.  That then gives you a potential sales lead and an opportunity to follow-up with that person to learn more about what they are looking for. 

• How to Create eBooks
• Website landing Pages - A landing page is a web page that's been created specifically to "catch" traffic that comes in as the result of a focused campaign (like a search PPC ad, an email program, or offering an eBook or seminar) to collect information from the person and convert that traffic into a lead or buyer.
• How to collect and save customer information
  
• Customer and User Registration Examples

TIP:   If you write a blog, compile several of your best posts into an ebook.  Here's an example of how consultant and author David Aaker did this on his blog.

• Top 6 Aaker on Brands Blog Posts

2.  Create an infographic

• Infographic How-to
  

3.  Host a seminar and invite customers and prospective customers/clients to attend. 

For example, if you’re an attorney and you want to attract business owners, host a relevant seminar to offer information they would be interested in learning about like how to buy a business or how to sell a business or how to structure partner agreements. 

If you're a personal trainer, host a seminar to demonstrate specific exercises people can do to trim their waistline or get in shape for ski season. 

• How to Host a Seminar
  
• Public Speaking How-to Guide
  

TIP:  There are some amazing new tools, software and services that will make your presentation much more interactive and interesting.  You can:

• Show your notes on screen real time
• Poll your audience and show instant results real time
• Demonstrate how software or a website works by using "screen recordings."
• Add more visual interest with photos and images by getting access to millions of stock images and using software that allows you to zoom in and out on a particular slide as you are making a point.
• Incorporating video clips
• Top Suppliers for Presentation Tools and Software
  

4.  If you've spent the time to create a seminar, video tape it and offer it as a webinar (a seminar on the web) and as a podcast (an audio-only seminar).  You can also post the slides you've created on a slide sharing site like SlideShare.

• How to Host a Webinar
  
• Podcasting How-to Guide

5.  Use the information you've created for a seminar to create articles in a printed or email newsletter. 

• Newsletters for Marketing
  

6.  Offer to write a column in the local paper or an industry trade journal.

Easier and faster:  write a letter to the editor each quarter.  Most local papers accept letters to the editor that are not obvious sales pitches.  Same with industry trade journals.  Be sure to include your website address to learn more.  Also know these letters will show up in a Google search about you. 

7.  Answer questions on Q&A sites like LinkedIn and Quora

When you are answering questions, don't promote yourself or your business.  Answer the question like a consultant would and then share your name and website address.  Don't share your email address or phone number or you'll get a lot of unwanted spam.

• Question and answer sites
  

8.  Comment on relevant blogs

Offer more information and links for people who want to learn more about the topic of the blog post.  Give people context about you and your expertise.  That will give your comments more authority.

9.  Blog yourself or offer to guest blog for someone else

Put together an informative blog series of several posts on a particular topic that are written to capture traffic for a particular keyword phrase that people are searching for that is relevant to what you sell or offer.  Demonstrate your expertise.  Write for terms like "how to" and "what is".  These will attract people who are early in the buying process who are looking for expert advice.

• Blogs and Blogging How-to Guides
  

10.  Get Active in Social Media

Focus on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and the newcomer Google+1.

• Facebook Marketing How-to Guide

• How to Market Yourself & Your Company on LinkedIn

• Twitter for Business

• NEW:  Google Plus Business Pages - learn about the pros, cons and some Red Flags for setting up a Google Business Page

• Google Plus +1
  

• Social Media Advertising

• YouTube Marketing How-to Guide

• How to Market Your Business on Angie's List

11.  Think of YouTube like free infomercials and advertising for your business

Just know you must create a video that is either very credible or very funny and entertaining for this to work.

• What is an Infomercial - this how-to guide may be helpful to learn what the experts in TV infomercials do and then adapt that to do it yourself on YouTube.
• Video Marketing How-to Guide
  

TIP:   Create a video interview series where you interview influential people in your industry or your community.  You might also interview your customers and help them to create more awareness for their business.  

 

12.  Include educational information in your catalog and direct mail

Instead of just showing a product, give someone ideas for how and where they can use it. 

Here's a great example of how REI does that in their catalog. 

13. Very ambitious content marketing ideas

• How to Create and Print Your Own Magazine - maybe you do this with others in your community or industry. 

• Write and self-publish a book - sell it and also use the book as a new business tool by sending a signed copy with a personal note to prospective clients and to your existing clients for them to read and share with others. 

Think of content marketing like a new way to sell

Nobody wants to be "sold to" but people do want expert advice and information from people and companies they deem to be credible. 

Lifecycle marketing starts with the customer and their needs.  The goal of lifecycle marketing is to build loyal, long-term customers.  How?  By using data about a customer and their behavior (what they buy, when they buy, how they buy, along with what else they look at and share) as a way to determine and trigger what information will be relevant and valued by them at each stage of their purchase cycle and over their lifetime as a customer. 

Lifecycle marketing is about delivering the right message (content), at the right time, through the right channel (text message, email, phone call, printed mailer, invitation).  It's about helping a customer learn to use a new product or service and helping them to prevent problems.  It's about recommending relevant information, products and services and troubleshooting problems.  It's marketing that considers the 360 degree customer experience:  pre-sales, sales and post-sales support.

Lifecycle marketing uses software tools and smart people to replicate the experience a customer might have had long ago at a small town general store where the owner knew the customer personally and helped them with relevant information, tips and recommendations throughout their lifetime. 

How-to guides to help you:

• Lifecycle Marketing
  
• Lifecycle Marketing Examples
  

These MarketingZone articles may be helpful

• Social Media Marketing
• List of Business Networking Sites & Organizations
  
• How to be Seen as an Expert
• PR / Public Relations
  
• Writing for Marketing
  

 

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