Tag Archive for: content marketing agency

Unveiled: Paid Placements in Public Relations

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As a respected and experienced PR agency, a question we get all the time is, “Can you guarantee coverage?” The answer to this question gets cloudier and cloudier as the media world evolves. First, let me explain that earned media, the most valuable coverage, comes from a respected media producer and media outlet. This kind of coverage can not be guaranteed, but a good PR firm can improve your chances considerably. This is what we call earned media, and it’s what most people think of when they think of PR. Yet today, there are options for paid content. This content trend looks a lot like editorial coverage, and in some cases, it goes through a rigorous editorial process, but it is not earned media. I think it is critical to understand the differences between paid placements in magazines and earned media coverage in magazines and TV. If you’re of a certain age, you may remember these as “advertorials.” Paid content is different from advertising, primarily because of the format. Paid placements rarely offer any analytics or tracking in the way digital advertising offers; they are more of a digital PR tool.

You’ll see disreputable PR agencies advertising these kinds of placements as “guaranteed coverage.” The reason this is unethical is that these are NOT coverage; they are placements Paid placements have a variety of options and availabilities, and we believe paid placements have a role in a strategic reputation or awareness-building campaign.

Guaranteed Paid Op-Eds and Editorials

From Rolling Stone to Forbes to Entrepreneur and beyond, numerous outlets allow thought leaders to publish their points of view. This privilege comes with an annual membership cost.

Each of these publications accepts submissions which undergoes a rigorous editorial process. However, none of these publications will allow you to advertise your product or your company outright through this platform. You must still provide value to the reader, and these pieces are published when the outlet decides to publish them; the writer has very little control over the timing. The membership will include a bio profile and photo of the writer, and typically, this will contain a link to your website; these are high-quality links and can be a nice addition to your SEO efforts.

When we offer these to our clients, we are completely transparent about the pricing and the conditions. Typically, we ghostwrite the pieces with approval from the thought leader and walk the piece through the editorial process. Because we understand the process, our pieces are typically accepted on the first submission, but we know exactly how to handle the revisions and corrections when they aren’t. This is important because the first round of editorial review can take up to four weeks, and if there is a second editorial review, that too can take up to four additional weeks. To keep the process moving, you want your piece to be well-written and meet the editorial standards the first time.

Supposedly, you can publish unlimited articles for your membership cost. Still, between bandwidth and editorial timelines, the most we’ve seen our clients push through is six times a year. Still, there are six outstanding opportunities to share your point of view. Also, these are strictly online pieces, they will never be published within the print version and I’ve never seen them on the primary landing page of the online magazine.

One of the most important aspects of these articles is activating them; writers should share them in owned content, like newsletters and on social media. After all, if you want to share your point of view, then share it. These pieces will still have a level of cache, providing you with a more elevated platform than social media. Some paid placement publications will allow you to republish the article after a certain time, which means they could be repurposed on LinkedIn or blog.

Paid Content in Magazines

What if you don’t have much to say and aren’t ready to step into a thought leader’s shoes? There are also paid article publication options—from business to niche lifestyle, publications like USA Today to US Weekly, and even Tech Crunch. While some outlets may charge as little as $2,000 per article, the more prestigious the publication and the better the offering, the more expensive—sometimes $30,000 and up.

We offer these options to our clients less often, but sometimes, they make sense as part of a larger content strategy. The offer varies by publication, but these pieces are usually submitted and already completed and will undergo rigorous editorial oversight. Sometimes, they will include a “do follow” link, and sometimes, they won’t. Our services include writing the piece in an editorially acceptable way to reduce the back-and-forth cycle of editorial changes. For our bespoke clients, paying that much for a single placement rarely makes sense when you’re working with a firm that’s securing 3 to 4 pieces a month; even with our boutique PR pricing, the per-piece price becomes much more attractive, especially when combined with our strategic oversight.

Unlike earned content, which usually stays up as long as the outlet exists, sometimes paid placements appear for a certain amount of time (e.g., three months) and then disappear. Sometimes, the pieces will include disclosures like “sponsored” to indicate to the reader that this is not news; today’s readers understand the implications of sponsored content as much as they know paid partnerships from influencers; the reader accepts the content as paid, and will read it if it’s good content, but they do not have the same value because the reader understands the difference.

Remember that paid placements rarely appear on the front page of the magazine’s website and certainly don’t appear in any of the printed versions. The key advantage is the ability to control the message a little more. While all these outlets will also have an editorial process, you will have more control over the piece’s shape and even possibly links to your website within the piece, which happens more rarely in earned media. Again, activating these sponsored articles can add much value to your investment.

Press Releases: Paid Content Old School

Press releases are a unique tool. They are completely in your control, yet there is a very expected format for them; deviating from this format is a reputational ding for journalists. If a journalist sees a poorly formatted press release, they will assume you don’t have PR representation, which could impact whether they approach you or how they approach you. Today’s press releases hold value as a powerful piece of paid content within a branded search—they rarely generate earned media by themselves.

You control your press release for the most part. You may not make libelous claims, and there are some other editorial conditions, but most companies never encounter any issues. Press releases can typically be issued quickly. Press releases for publically traded companies have some additional requirements.

The pricing on press releases is mostly determined by the credibility of the outlets that republish your press release along with the length of time they stay up.  While your press release will also be on the press release site, most press releases published by online outlets like Yahoo Finance stay up for a certain period time. How accessible your press release is in a branded Google search is also variable. If you want your press release to be visible and even included in the “news” section, then the pricing will be more expensive.

Paid Product Placement

Some television segments offer paid product placement. Typically, the hosts engage with the product and discuss how they would use it. Other segments are pre-recorded and distributed to multiple stations.

These placements also must qualify for the segment in various ways and often be relevant to a gift-giving season or other editorial cycle. We offer these placements within our consumer product PR Sprints for qualified products. Sometimes, the TV show will require that show’s ability to meet demand; sometimes, they will need a split in sales. In some cases, major market TV stations will also allow an in-studio lifestyle segment or interview. The editorial conditions for this are specific and variable. Pricing on TV segments is usually in the 5-figures.

Sometimes, these segments will live on YouTube; sometimes, they won’t. Sometimes there is a written companion on the news website, sometimes there isn’t. Sometimes the written companion includes a link, sometimes it doesn’t.

Affiliate Product Placement for Consumer Products

Finally, we have an affiliate product placement. Affiliate links earn a commission on sales for the site that hosts them. You might have seen ads for Rakatun, that’s an affiliate program that gives the commission back to the buyer if they aren’t already using an affiliate link.

We’re seeing more and more that when publications do reviews, they want to include an affiliate link so they receive a commission on the piece. These pieces are typically in gift guides or other reviews of products lumped together. Occasionally, you may receive a featured piece, a stand alone piece for your product.

Journalists typically work with particular affiliate networks; we’re happy to guide our clients to those networks. A whole genre of journalists only writes articles with affiliate links. On reputable media outlets, you will usually see a disclaimer at the top stating that they have genuinely reviewed and approved the product but may receive a commission if a purchase is made. I think it’s an easy way for readers to support publications, and the disclosure means there are no ethical concerns.

From the reader’s standpoint, there is no difference in experience, but from the brand standpoint, there is. For one, there aren’t direct links to your site. It’s a matter of debate how these links impact SEO, but it’s fair to say there’s no clear answer. Second, the brand is paying a commission on those sales. The brand sets up the commission; setting your commissions is an art and science.

Buyers seem very accepting of these practices, especially GenZ. Because the outlet authentically reviews the product, the brand still gets third-party validation. Because the outlet receives a commission on each purchase, you may find affiliate link articles with a very long shelf life that get promoted on social media and landing pages.

 

In Conclusion

Paid content does have a place in today’s well-rounded marketing and PR campaign. But it’s important to know what you’re getting—and what you’re not. You can bet there’s a catch if it seems too good to be true.

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What Does AI Mean for Owned Content?

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We’re living in a post-ChatGPT world. One place where we’re seeing a lot of discussion is around content. So what does AI mean for content marketing and content creators? The discussions I’m having with colleagues and clients are two-fold. First, what will AI mean for owned content like blogs? And second, how do search engines using AI affect SEO? In short, AI won’t drive out innovative ideas, or interesting content, and it’s certainly not currently an SEO threat to quality content.

3.5.2024 Update

Once again, Google’s Core update isn’t explicitly banning AI content, in fact, Google seems to be going out of their way to NOT ban AI content. But it is clarifying the signals that they consider spammy in the latest update. Specifically: “Scaled Content Abuse.” Google saying that websites posting hundreds of articles a day aren’t contributing anything to the conversation. Google doesn’t care HOW you create valuable content, it cares that there IS valuable content. It isn’t “just” AI content their flagging, either. Here’s their update:

  • Using generative AI tools or other similar tools to generate many pages without adding value for users
  • Scraping feeds, search results, or other content to generate many pages (including through automated transformations like synonymizing, translating, or other obfuscation techniques), where little value is provided to users
  • Stitching or combining content from different web pages without adding value
  • Creating multiple sites with the intent of hiding the scaled nature of the content
  • Creating many pages where the content makes little or no sense to a reader but contains search keywords

Stay Focused on Quality Content

From an SEO and digital PR perspective, it’s not as straightforward as “Google is penalizing AI content” because there’s no signal that they are explicitly targeting AI content. But a lot of ChatGPT content is iterative or not very insightful and, sometimes, flat-out false.

I’ve been testing searches out on Bing, Google, and other AI search engines, and my observations are consistent with Google’s long-touted philosophy for content that drives dividends. Google has long said that it will prioritize content that is “helpful, reliable, and people-first.”

Google knows the internet needs no more “stuff,” and it wants people searching to find genuinely helpful content. If you’re a reader and you’ve tested out ChatGPT content, you’ve probably noticed it’s not all that insightful. That’s because, for all the talk of a sentient AI, it is not actually sentient. My Dad, who worked at IBM, used to say “junk in, junk out” about computers, which is so true about AI. And since there is a lot of junk content, there will always be a lot of junk AI content. The world’s greatest thinkers aren’t teaching AI, because there aren’t enough of them to teach AI at the scale currently necessary. Most AI-generated content would not (now) be categorized as quality. Could that change? Sure.

“I use it, but I edit it,” 

Well, that will undoubtedly help. Be sure to fact-check. Until about a year ago, I was testing long-form writing with a well-known AI content engine. I once had a blog post with a completely made-up source, including an author, a book, and a quote. It was fascinating but fake. Plus, my human content team generates better content that performs way better in search, so using AI didn’t pay off in my case, even for SEO content.

I know lots of people using ChatGPT for their blog posts. I can only imagine the rate at which this stuff is going up on the internet. But great content, like the world’s greatest thinkers, is rare, and there’s only room in every search for a #1 position – and it’s extremely unlikely that AI-generated content will surpass everything else out there anytime soon. In short, you CAN use ChatGPT to write a blog post, but I won’t recommend it.

3.7.2024 Update: 

Google’s Core Update on March 5, 2024 makes it abundantly clear that Google wants person-first “helpful” content. And it’s evaluating content for quality:

  • Does the content present information in a way that makes you want to trust it, such as clear sourcing, evidence of the expertise involved, background about the author or the site that publishes it, such as through links to an author page or a site’s About page?
  • If someone researched the site producing the content, would they come away with an impression that it is well-trusted or widely-recognized as an authority on its topic?
  • Is this content written or reviewed by an expert or enthusiast who demonstrably knows the topic well?
  • Does the content have any easily-verified factual errors?

AI-Generated Content for Thought Leadership

The more technical or expert content, the less likely these generative engines can create value.

Plus, the entire point of creating thought leadership content is to provide your insights – and that’s something ChatGPT can’t do. Only you can provide your ideas and perspectives. As a leader, you’ve spent so much time becoming an expert; why would you threaten that reputation to save 30 minutes?

Repeatedly, automation has let me down. That’s why the content on this site with my name is written by me. The only person who writes my content is me. Now, do I think executive ghostwriters are valuable? You bet I do, but ghostwriters take the time to learn an executive’s voice, and adhere to the point of view, so that’s very different from using AI to create a “thought leadership” piece. But regarding my reputation, there is a clear delineation on this blog of my content and content written by my (human) content team, and that’s because, as an entrepreneur, my reputation is valuable, and I bet yours is too.

Is creating quality content difficult? Yes. Does quality content pay off? Yes. I believe actual thought leadership content, like this article, will increase in value, while ChatGPT content will decrease in value. So since creating content is an investment, why not invest in improving returns?

Where Generative AI is Useful for Content

Is AI-generated content useless? No. But it’s essential to consider the context.

ChatGPT and content platforms like Jasper can be most helpful in triggering ideas. ChatGPT is a pretty good communicator and excellent for creating outlines. I recently used ChatGPT to create a book outline, which triggered some ideas. Ultimately, I’ll probably view those suggestions much like my first drafts – part of the process but distanced from the result.

I also think ChatGPT can be useful in creating questions that create many results. Testing your questions on ChatGPT will give you a sense of the content that’s out there on the web and the depth of that content and help you decide if you want to add to that body of thought or not.

In conclusion

Like a calculator, or Excel, using AI will make creating content smoother and faster, but it won’t be a substitute for creativity or critical thinking for content. If you’re writing to improve your reputation, increase awareness, or improve SEO, there isn’t much reason to use ChatGPT to create content right now.

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2024 B2B Media Trends Leaders Need Today

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With the emergence of ChatGPT, the world is waking up to changes in content. While these disruptions aren’t always visible to the average reader, top PR agencies have been aware of these changes for quite some time; well before AI-generated content. These changes are impacting all media, including tier one media outlets. These changes aren’t all bad – in fact, for PR savvy B2B companies, leveraging these opportunities can be game-changing. Whether you’re a challenger brand, an emerging industry or Pre-IPO, from CleanTech to HealthTech to Cannabis and AI companies, these are the 2024 B2B media trends leaders need today.

 

2024 B2B Media Trend #1: Thought Leadership, Not Just for CEOs

While CEOs will always play an important role in B2B brand reputation, today’s B2B companies can leverage other brilliant C-Suite leaders to expand their horizons and speak directly to their customer base. Let’s say you’re a SaaS platform for accountants – why not take advantage of thought leadership opportunities for your CFO? Your CEO probably has insights your customers and potential customers would really appreciate, and the signal you’re sending to them is “we get you.”

There’s no reason your C-Suite leaders need even to write their own content, ghost writers do the heavy lifting. In fact, from a brand reputation and thought leadership standpoint, having a ghostwriter is the most optimum choice. Top PR agencies have excellent writers in their ranks and you can take full advantage of their decades of discipline by leveraging that talent to do the heavy lifting of creating content calendars and ideas, not to mention eagle-eye editing.

While owned content remains extremely important, third-party thought leadership opportunities abound today. Never have there been so many opportunities for the C-Suite to make their mark. Today’s ambitious leaders are contributing to Forbes, Newsweek, Entrepreneur, and even industry verticals regularly. And that’s relevant because according to eMarketer, content marketing is the #2 channel driving revenues for B2B companies.

 

2024 B2B Media Trend #2: Give Me The Data

As advertising revenues decrease for top publications, there have been huge swaths of layoffs for journalists. Today’s freelance journalist doesn’t have the weight of the publication behind them in the same way and that means gathering marketplace, consumer, or trending data is harder than ever.

B2B companies can double down on earned media by commissioning credible research or leveraging their own data to provide insights to journalists on trending business stories. And remember, even the top business publications are chasing stories that are of broader interest to the public. Data is the hero of B2B PR – use it.

Not only will using data give you a burst of earned media coverage, but your customers will appreciate it, and it’s the gift that keeps on giving. A well-structured survey will be useful throughout the year and position your company as the top of your industry immediately. Reports like this are also an excellent way to build out your database of potential customers.

Is commissioning credible data expensive? Yes. Is it worth it? Only if you enjoy seeing your company in media outlets like Fortune, Inc., and Bloomberg. Even the Wall Street Journal uses third-party data, and there’s nothing like a quote from your leadership that solidifies a point of view with hard data.

While we’re at it, make PR decisions based on data, too. Modern PR firms have access to data that extends beyond reach and impressions. Identify target KPIs with your PR agency and demand they keep track of those KPIs quarterly. Your stakeholders, like B2B investors, will love this data and allow you to create credibility. Avaans Media uses a combination of social listening and AI to project trends and report on KPIs.

 

2024 B2B Media Trend #3: The Purpose Matters

As 2024 is an election year, there will be ever more eyes on how businesses impact culture. B2B companies can help their customers and themselves by articulating purpose beyond making money. Purpose-driven PR isn’t just for consumer brands anymore. This is especially true for Pre-IPO B2B companies.

Numerous B2B brands have leveraged purpose to distinguish themselves in a crowded marketplace. According to the Harvard Business Review, “Purpose-driven companies make more money, have more engaged employees, more loyal customers, and are better at innovation and transformational change.” Purpose is your secret weapon to productivity and PR because purpose gives you another connection to make to timely news stories, especially trending stories like climate and the changing labor force.

If all that isn’t reason enough, because so many B2B leaders shrug off purpose-driven initiatives, it’s a great way to create a competitive advantage, even and especially when there is uncertainty.

2024 B2B Media Trend #4: Re-Thinking Social Media for B2B Companies

For the past two decades, Twitter was the town hall that gathered VC, potential customers, and media. PR-savvy CEOs took a personal interest in Twitter and knew how to leverage it. What’s more – media outlets LOVED going to Twitter to find sources, take a pulse, and find perspectives. But today, Twitter (X) is a red hot mess. The platform is unstable; the future is uncertain; the bots and trolls have taken over, and media outlets have jumped ship because of reduced credibility. There has been an onslaught of Twitter replacements, from Meta’s Threads to Jack Dorsey’s Blue Sky. But neither of them have quite reached the levels of Twitter (yet). But LinkedIn is a trusted standby and more and more professionals, including journalists, are finding refuge there.

LinkedIn has so many ways to improve a B2B brand, but one of our favorites is the LinkedIn newsletter. Leverage this this with premium content gets delivered right to the inboxes of your subscribers. Inboxes that your newsletter doesn’t have access to. LinkedIn is also experimenting with AI-generated content that allows thought leaders to contribute.

2024 B2B Media Trend #5: Use Your PR for Recruitment and Sales

Media coverage provides proof to investors, clients, and the public. But it also provides social proof in recruiting and sales.

From a recruiting standpoint, when your brand is an industry leader, PR helps you attract the best talent. This is especially important for hypergrowth companies who need top talent to take them to the next level or emerging industries that need to establish broader credibility. Your media coverage tells a candidate as much about you as your recruiter does. Plus, ambitious employees like to imagine that there is room for them to be included in media coverage.

PR takes a lot of heat for not being trackable. We disagree, PR is trackable, when your PR is aligned with your business strategies. But nowhere is that more clear than how PR increases revenue. PR helps your current customers stay confident in their choice, reduces friction for new customers, and stimulates potential revenue by allowing you to share solutions that potential customers didn’t even know could be solved.

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Successful Content Marketing 101

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Content marketing involves sharing any material online, such as videos, infographics, and social media posts, that don’t directly promote a brand but create awareness and enhance visibility regarding the products and services of a company.

It is an important strategy to attract and engage a targeted audience by making a brand seem more relevant through articles, blogs, podcasts, videos, and other media. Content marketing ensures that a company establishes its expertise and credibility while also promoting awareness about the brand so that when a potential consumer wants to buy a specific service or product, that particular company is at the forefront of their mind.

No matter how small or large scaled a company is, keeping its content marketing game updated and effective is the key to attracting and engaging more customers for their business. In this beginner’s guide, you will learn how to create a compelling and successful content marketing strategy for your brand to reach your targeted audience and boost your sales.

What Do You Mean by Successful Content Marketing?

Content marketing focuses on boosting trust in companies’ relationships with their followers. By distributing various content creatively, content marketing ensures that a company attracts more customers, retains the existing ones, and builds loyalty and trust among its audience so that a brand can appear authoritative and influential.
So what exactly is content marketing? It produces and distributes valuable and relevant content like articles, blogs, social media posts, emails, newsletters, videos, and other media forms to attract existing and new customers.

When a company has mastered its game of content marketing, there’s no stopping it from generating profits from positive customer actions.
Content marketing is composed of two elements. First is content creation; pieces of written, spoken, or visually described materials that are engaging and convey a company’s goals to the right people. The second is content distribution. This part of content marketing concerns sharing strategic content through websites, emails, and social media.

Different companies have different content marketing strategies. Some famous companies like Spotify, Airbnb, Slack, and Wendy’s have social media teams that plan strategically to promote their content to customers and interact with them. Other organizations, like Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, LinkedIn, etc., use B2B white papers for marketing purposes.
New industry and technology trends also influence content marketing plans. But as long as a company knows its core messages and ideas and how to create material that people will receive positively, it can adapt and evolve its marketing strategies accordingly.

In short, here are some ways in which successful content marketing can help a company or business;

  1. Increases brand visibility and allows the company message to reach the right audience.
  2. Promotes a brand organically and naturally.
  3. Attracts potential new customers and engages existing customers.
  4. Increase conversions and boost revenues,
  5. Establishes a company as an industry leader.

What Are the Benefits of Content Marketing?

Consistent and high-quality content marketing is essential for companies to connect with their audience and to develop trust and reliability in their relationship.
Future Market Insights expects the US’s content creation market to grow with a CAGR of approximately 11.9%. Content creation and distribution have now become a top priority of the marketing department of every company and business, as there are many reasons why a consistent and engaging content marketing strategy can enhance the growth and success of a business.

Creates a Positive User Experience

Successful content marketing ensures that new and existing customers are satisfied with the ideas and messages promoted by a company. If they find your content engaging, unique, positive, and beneficial for them, they will come back for more as your customers will start trusting your brand and find it reliable and authentic. This approach is again helpful to the company as it retains the old customers and approaches new customers with a positive brand impression.

Helps Brands Gain Popularity on Social Media

According to the Pew Research Center, around seven in ten people in America use social media to engage with news, share information and connect, and for entertainment purposes. Creating trendy content on social media will not only garner more brand awareness but also help increase conversions and promote the products and services of a company in a natural way.

Content Marketing Creates Trust Within the Audience

When a company answers a complaint or query presented by its customers, they create value and change the public’s perception of the brand. Best content marketing strategies ensure that the relevant content shows up at the right time and place, thus interacting positively with the customers who will realize that your company’s advice and recommendations are reliable and accurate.

Content Marketing Improves Conversions

Using blogs, videos, or newsletters to bring in traffic, including a CTA, which can guide the audience regarding their actions, are examples of different content marketing plans. When your audience receives the correct answer to their question, their positive response will influence your conversions. When people view your content, it is more likely that they will purchase a product or service from your website, thus generating better leads for a company’s sales team.

Content Marketing and SEO

The consistency and high quality of content marketing also ensure better search engine optimization for your company’s websites. Suppose your content is helping your business gain more brand awareness and build trust with its audience. In that case, the content will rank higher on search engine results, thus positioning the company as authoritative and reliable from the public’s viewpoint.

What Are the Different Kinds of Content Marketing?

Content marketing sometimes uses outbound and inbound marketing strategies to present their content to the target audience.
Inbound marketing feels more organic and natural as the content creates a narrative or tells a story that is relevant and engaging to the audience. Outbound marketing is less effective in creating a positive user experience than the audience usually likes a link that interrupts their content.

So what are the different types of content marketing?

 

Social Media Content Marketing

Everyone should know the importance of the power of social media, especially when technology has become cheaper than ever and accessing news is faster and easier. Social media is essential in content marketing because it allows companies to reach a greater audience in less time and provides multiple opportunities to present content in various ways, like live streams, stories, photos, and videos. Many businesses invest lots of money to promote their brands through content creation on Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media platforms.

Website Content Marketing

Website content marketing refers to the content you publish via web pages. Website content marketing is one of the best content marketing strategies as it can create a strong brand presence online, thus allowing it to rank higher in search engine results. This approach enhances brand visibility, ensuring that your company’s website and content pop up in the right places and in front of the right audience, thus generating better leads and conversions.

Blogging in Content Marketing

Blog content marketing uses blogs to engage potential customers by sharing a creative and relevant narrative that can achieve customer trust and loyalty. Blogs are regularly updated web pages on a website that contains content written in a conversational or informal style. Blogs can also include inbound or outbound links and social share buttons that can further contribute to promoting a website.

Digital Marketing / Infographic Content Marketing

Infographics are content that presents information or data through visual representations like charts or diagrams. Infographics display this information in a format that is easy to understand and uses short statements and words, clear images, and simple context to communicate a company’s message clearly and effectively. Infographics are a great form of content marketing to tone down a complex, research-intensive, or educational topic so that more audience members can understand it.

Podcasts as Content Marketing Strategy

Podcasts are digital audio files available as series, episodes, or installments so subscribers can listen to each audio when the host releases it.
The number of podcast listeners worldwide is increasing yearly, so many companies and businesses are now sharing their podcasts to share a topic of their choice with their desired audience. With the right creativity and content marketing strategies, podcasts can help brands communicate their expertise and thought leadership regarding a specific topic.

Paid Ad Promotion

Paid ad content allows companies to reach a broad audience and place themselves on social media, banners, loading pages, and sponsored content where they want to be seen by their customers. Another method of content marketing is a paid ad promotion, in which specific content is created and distributed for the advertising and advertisement of a brand. This method uses PPC ads, paid social content marketing campaigns, and sponsored placement of these ads.

Video Content Marketing

Videos are also important content to raise a brand’s profile online. Companies usually post videos on YouTube or social media platforms, but companies can also publish in the form of courses, webinars, or live videos.
Video content marketing helps companies boost conversions as audiences find videos more reliable and authentic. It means that if a company promotes its products and services through a tutorial and promotional videos, they allow its audience to learn more about its brand in depth.

What Are Some Examples of Successful Content Marketing?

Alo

Alo is a luxury activewear brand that uses social media marketing strategies to generate sales and revenue for its products. When you look at their Instagram account, not only will you see the different Yoga products that the brand presents, but you will also notice that the brand tries to resonate with its audience by letting them know that they can not only wear their clothes in a gym studio but also while going for a walk in the park. They use top models like Gigi Hadid or Kendall Jenner to showcase their clothes while staying genuine and authentic by creating awareness about physical activeness and a Yoga community online.

Taco Bell

Taco Bell also uses clever social media content marketing strategies to target teenagers and adults aged 18 to 34. Their best content marketing approach is to reply with witty remarks and comebacks in response to customers’ feedback, especially on Twitter.
Taco Bell uses fun and engaging, and sometimes bold ideas to capture the attention of its new and existing customers. In this way, people are encouraged to try out their products and then leave feedback on their social media platforms, thus generating more visibility for the brand.

Spotify

Spotify uses data generated by millions of listeners on their apps to create their annual “wrapped” content marketing campaigns. It is a brilliant idea to use in-depth analysis of the songs and music that shape the lives of their consumers and then create a playlist for them that displays the most played songs of the year. This strategy is fun and engaging for Spotify’s users and gives artists a statistical examination of their year’s top songs.

Conclusion
Creating clever and unique content marketing campaigns can take time and effort, even for experienced digital marketers. However, with practice and creativity, any company can achieve successful content marketing and reach its targeted audience through different digital media channels.

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Using Cannabis Content Marketing to Connect with the Cannabis Community

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The cannabis industry is rapidly growing, and to stay ahead of the competition, cannabis businesses must use effective content marketing strategies. Cannabis content marketing involves creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract and engage a targeted audience. By doing so, cannabis businesses can establish their expertise and credibility while promoting their brand and products. Think owned media doesn’t apply for your cannabis business? Think again – your brand is already online; it’s just a matter of how much you control your presence. And if you’re tired of owing all those listing and delivery sites, content marketing is your best friend.

PR Benefits of Owned Media for the Cannabis Industry

There are several benefits of content marketing for the cannabis industry, including:

  1. Improving Reputation: Consistent content marketing can improve a cannabis business’s reputation by promoting positive messaging and reinforcing the brand’s values.
  2. Increasing Visibility: Content can increase a cannabis business’s visibility by ensuring that their message reaches the right audience through different platforms such as blogs, social media, and email newsletters.
  3. Organic Promotion: Content marketing promotes a cannabis business organically and naturally, which can lead to increased conversions and revenues on both online ordering and in dispensaries.
  4. Cannabis Customer Engagement: By attracting and engaging both new and existing customers, content marketing can help cannabis businesses establish a loyal customer base and increase customer retention.
  5. Establishing Cannabis Industry Leadership: Consistent and high-quality content marketing can establish a cannabis business as an industry leader and help them stand out from competitors.

Effective Cannabis Content

Use content to benefit a cannabis business’s public relations (PR) strategy. PR is all about managing a business’s reputation, and owned content is a powerful tool for doing so. Here are some of the ways content marketing can benefit cannabis PR:

  1. Positive User Experience: By consistently producing high-quality content that is engaging, unique, and beneficial, cannabis businesses can create a positive user experience that strengthens their relationship with customers.
  2. Increased Social Media Popularity: Creating trendy and shareable content on social media can increase brand awareness and help promote a cannabis business’s products and services.
  3. Building Trust: By answering customer queries and complaints through relevant and accurate content, cannabis businesses can build trust with their audience and improve their perception of the brand.
  4. Improving Conversions: By including a call-to-action (CTA) in their content, cannabis businesses can guide their audience towards taking the desired action, which can lead to improved conversions.
  5. Better SEO: By consistently producing high-quality content, cannabis businesses can improve their search engine optimization (SEO) and rank higher on search engine results pages.

Different Types of Content

Cannabis content marketing can take many forms, and businesses should use various content types to keep their audience engaged. Here are some of the most effective types of cannabis content marketing:

  1. Blog Posts: Blogs are a great way to provide valuable information to customers while establishing a cannabis business’s authority in the industry.
  2. Social Media Posts: Social media is a powerful tool for reaching a broad audience and engaging with customers through shareable content.
  3. Infographics: Infographics can convey complex information in a visually appealing way, making them an effective tool for educating customers.
  4. Videos: Videos are highly engaging and can be used to showcase products, educate customers, or provide behind-the-scenes glimpses of a cannabis business.
  5. Podcasts: Podcasts are an increasingly popular form of content that can be used to discuss industry trends, provide insights, and engage with customers.

Creating a Successful Cannabis Content Strategy

To create a successful cannabis content marketing strategy, businesses should follow these steps:

  1. Define Goals: Determine what the business hopes to achieve through content marketing, such as increased brand awareness or improved conversions.
  2. Know the Target Audience: Understand the target audience’s demographics, interests, and pain points to create relevant and engaging content.
  3. Create Engaging Content: Create high-quality content that is valuable, relevant, and unique to attract and retain customers.
  4. Distribute Content Effectively: Share content

Great Examples of Cannabis Content Marketing

There are several impressive examples of cannabis content marketing that have successfully promoted brands and products in the cannabis industry. Here are a few notable ones:

  1. Leafly – The platform has a robust content marketing strategy that includes educational articles, strain reviews, videos, podcasts, and more. Leafly’s content not only helps cannabis consumers make informed decisions but also promotes brands and products available in the market.
  2. Weedmaps – Weedmaps’ content marketing strategy includes blog posts, videos, podcasts, and more, that not only educate cannabis consumers but also promote products and brands available on its platform.
  3. High Times – High Times has been covering cannabis culture since the 1970s – they know content. The magazine’s content marketing strategy includes informative articles, strain reviews, interviews with industry experts, and more that not only inform and educate cannabis consumers but also promote products and cannabis brands in the industry.
  4. Charlotte’s Web – Charlotte’s Web is one of the OG’s. To some extent, its brand strength owes to a strong content marketing strategy that includes educational articles, blog posts, videos, and more, that educate consumers about the benefits of CBD and how it can improve their health and wellness. The brand’s content marketing strategy has been instrumental in its success in the CBD market.
  5. Dosist –  The California cannabis company’s content marketing strategy includes informative articles, social media posts, and videos that educate consumers about the benefits of dose-controlled cannabis products and promote its brand and products.

These are just a few examples of the many successful content marketing strategies in the cannabis industry. Each of these examples demonstrates the importance of creating informative and engaging content that not only educates consumers but also promotes brands and products in the market. With the right content marketing strategy, cannabis companies can establish themselves as industry leaders, build trust with their audience, and ultimately drive sales and revenue.

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What is Content Marketing? A Comprehensive Guide

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Picture this: you’re a talented baker, and you’ve opened up a little bakery in your neighborhood.

You know your pastries are divine, but somehow, customers aren’t lining up at your door.

The culprit?

It’s not the quality of your baked goods but the lack of a specific secret ingredient: content marketing.

In this post, we’ll unravel the mysteries behind this powerful business tool, discover its many forms, and show you how to make it work for you.

By the end, you’ll have the recipe for successful content marketing to keep your customers returning for more.

What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is the calling card of modern companies. Content marketing involves crafting and disseminating valuable, pertinent, and steady material to engage your audience and own your reputation. The goal is to drive profitable customer action and tell your story. However, instead of selling your products or services outright, you provide information that educates, entertains, or inspires your audience, making them more likely to trust your brand and become loyal customers. Content marketing for PR means creating highly trustworthy, premium content that builds your brand and company’s authority. Owned media is today’s calling card for fast-growing companies and ambitious brands.

The Tantalizing Types of Content Marketing

You may be surprised to learn that content marketing comes in many flavors, each with its unique appeal. Here’s an array of the most popular types of content marketing:

Blogs: The quintessential form of content marketing, blogs are excellent for showcasing your expertise, offering helpful advice, and building trust with your audience. They’re also highly shareable, increasing your brand’s visibility on social media.

  • Listicles: These viral blog posts feature lists of tips, tools, or resources, making them easy to digest and highly shareable.
  • How-to Guides: These in-depth articles provide step-by-step instructions for solving specific problems, making them highly valuable to readers looking for solutions.
  • Thought Leadership: By sharing your unique insights and expertise on industry trends and challenges, you can position yourself as a thought leader and build credibility with your audience.

Infographics: Infographics are the perfect way to convey complex data or ideas in an easy-to-understand and visually appealing format. They’re also highly shareable and can drive significant traffic to your website when promoted on social media.

Videos: From how-to tutorials to behind-the-scenes glimpses, videos offer a dynamic and engaging way to connect with your audience. They’re also an excellent format for storytelling, allowing you to convey your brand’s personality and values effectively.

  • Webinars: These live or recorded presentations enable you to dive deep into specific topics and provide value to your audience through expert advice and Q&A sessions.
  • Video Series: By creating episodic video content, you can keep your audience engaged and returning for more.

Podcasts: Audio content is on the rise, and podcasts offer a convenient way to consume information on the go. They’re ideal for sharing interviews, stories, and expert insights and can help you reach a wider audience.

eBooks: If you’ve got a lot to say on a topic, consider creating a comprehensive eBook that provides in-depth insights and establishes you as an authority in your field. eBooks can also serve as lead magnets, enticing visitors to provide their contact information in exchange for valuable content.

Social Media: Platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn are excellent ways to share your content, build a community around your brand, and engage with your audience. You can optimize your social media content marketing efforts by tailoring your content to each platform’s unique strengths and audience preferences.

  • LinkedIn: This professional networking platform is ideal for sharing industry news, articles about thought leadership, and company updates.
  • Instagram: This visually driven platform is perfect for sharing eye-catching images, behind-the-scenes looks, and short-form video content.
  • Twitter: With its short-form format, Twitter is ideal for sharing quick updates and news and engaging with your audience in real-time.

 

Case Studies: By showcasing the success stories of your customers, case studies provide social proof and demonstrate the effectiveness of your products or services, which are beneficial for B2B companies looking to build credibility and trust with potential clients.

Email newsletters: A well-crafted email newsletter can help you maintain regular contact with your subscribers, informing them about your latest content, promotions, and company news. Personalization and segmentation can further enhance the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts.

The Irresistible Importance of Content Marketing

“Great,” you might say, “but why should I bother with content marketing?” Here’s a taste of the benefits that successful content marketing campaigns can offer:

  • Builds trust and credibility: By providing valuable information, you demonstrate your expertise and show your audience that you understand their needs and challenges. It helps establish your brand as a trustworthy source of information and advice.
  • Boosts brand awareness: High-quality content gets shared and discussed, increasing your brand’s visibility and attracting more potential customers. Content marketing also enables you to reach new audiences by targeting specific keywords and topics that resonate with them.
  • Improves SEO: Search engines love fresh, relevant content. Regularly updating your website with new content will enhance your search rankings and make it easier for people to find you online. Well-structured content with proper headings, meta tags, and internal linking can improve your SEO efforts.
  • Generates leads: Content marketing enables you to capture leads through forms, gated content, and email subscriptions to give you a direct line of communication with potential customers. By offering valuable content in exchange for their contact information, you can build a robust email list that you can nurture into paying customers.
  • Nurtures relationships: By consistently offering valuable content, you can nurture relationships with your audience, turning casual readers into loyal customers who will spread the word about your brand. Personalized content and targeted email campaigns can further deepen these relationships and increase customer loyalty.

What is Content Marketing of the Future

The world of content marketing is ever-evolving. The future promises even more innovative and exciting ways to connect with your audience. Some content marketing trends to keep an eye on include:

  • Voice Search: As voice-activated devices like Alexa and Google Home continue to gain popularity, optimizing your content for voice search is becoming increasingly crucial. It includes focusing on long-tail keywords, natural language, and conversational tone.
  • Virtual and Augmented Reality: As technology advances, immersive experiences like virtual and augmented reality will offer new ways for brands to engage with their audience and create unique content. It could range from virtual product demos to interactive brand experiences.
  • AI-Generated Content: Artificial intelligence is already making waves in content marketing, with tools that can generate written content, design visuals, and even create personalized content for each user. While AI-generated content might not fully replace human-created content, it can enhance productivity and efficiency in content creation.
  • Interactive Content: From quizzes and polls to interactive infographics, audiences increasingly seek content they can actively engage with, offering brands a chance to stand out. Interactive content can also provide valuable insights into your audience’s preferences and behavior.
  • Web3: Some call this the next evolution of social media: a digital world in which we purchase products and interact with one another and brands.

 

The Art of Content Marketing Activities and Media

Now that you have some basic understanding of content marketing, it’s time to dive into the nitty-gritty. Here’s a rundown of the most shared content marketing activities and media you’ll want to explore:

  • Content Creation: This is where the magic happens. Develop a content strategy that outlines your goals, target audience, and the types of content you’ll create. Ensure your content is well-researched, engaging, and aligned with your brand voice. Allocate resources for content creation, such as hiring writers, designers, or videographers, and invest in tools that can streamline your content production process.
  • Content Curation: You don’t always have to create original content. Curating content from other sources can provide added value to your audience and establish your brand as a thought leader. Share relevant articles, infographics, or videos from industry experts, offering your unique perspective or insights, acknowledging the sources of curated content, and ensuring that the selected material aligns seamlessly with your brand message.
  • Content Distribution: Creating great content is only half the battle. It’s imperative to have a distribution plan that utilizes a variety of channels to guarantee that your content effectively reaches your intended audience. It might include email marketing, social media, guest posting on industry blogs, and syndication platforms. Tailor your distribution strategy to your audience’s preferences and habits, and continuously refine your approach based on performance data.
  • Content Promotion: Boost your content through paid advertising, influencer partnerships, or co-marketing campaigns with complementary brands. Experiment with promotion tactics, such as sponsored social media posts, native advertising, or content discovery platforms, to find your business’s most cost-effective and impactful methods.
  • Content Analytics: Keep track of your content marketing performance by monitoring key metrics like website traffic, social shares, engagement, and conversion rates. Use this data to identify patterns and trends, pinpoint areas for improvement, and make data-driven resolutions about your content strategy. Invest in analytics tools and platforms that can help you collect, analyze, and visualize your performance data.

PR: What is Content Marketing’s Role?

A content marketing campaign is only as good as the strategy behind it.  It takes time and energy to craft delectable content, whether that’s for social media, a blog post, or a compelling video; doing it right in a way that enhances your reputation with all stakeholders is worth the extra effort.  Follow these steps to create a breathtaking plan that will leave your audience craving more:

  • Define your objective: What do you like to achieve with your content marketing efforts? Whether it’s increasing brand awareness, launching a product, generating leads, boosting sales, or improving customer retention, having clear objectives will guide your game plan and help you measure success.
  • Know your audience: Develop detailed buyer personas that outline your target audience’s demographics, preferences, and pain points. By conducting market research and analyzing your customer data to refine your personas, you can create content that resonates with your audience to meet their needs. This approach can help you fine-tune your content creation strategy and ensure your messaging hits the mark.
  • Choose the proper content formats: Based on your audience’s preferences and your brand’s strengths, determine which content formats will be most effective for your campaign. Experiment with various designs and monitor their performance to find the perfect mix for your audience.
  • Audit your existing content: Look at your current content and evaluate what’s working and what’s not. Identify gaps in your content library and brainstorm ideas to fill them. Repurpose high-performing content into new formats to maximize its reach and impact.
  • Create a content calendar: Plan out your content in advance by creating a calendar outlining your content’s topics, formats, and publishing dates. It will help you stay organized, maintain a consistent publishing schedule, and produce fresh content that aligns with your marketing goals.
  • Establish your brand voice and style: To ensure consistency across your content, develop a clear brand voice and style guide. It should include guidelines on tone, language, visuals, and any industry-specific terminology or jargon.
  • Optimize for SEO: Perform keyword research to identify the terms your audience is searching for and incorporate them into your content. In addition, it’s essential to optimize your website for search engines by implementing appropriate meta tags, headings, and URL structures. It can improve your website’s visibility on search engine results pages and drive more traffic.Remember to optimize for voice search and local SEO, as these are becoming increasingly important.
  • Promote your content: A substantial content promotion strategy is essential for reaching your target audience. Leverage owned, earned, and paid channels to amplify your content’s reach. Feel free to repurpose or repackage content for different platforms.
  • Engage with your audience: Encourage them to interact with your content by asking questions, inviting comments, and responding to their feedback. Monitor your audience’s engagement and use the insights to tailor your content strategy and improve your content’s effectiveness. It will help build a community around your brand and foster loyalty.
  • Measure and analyze: Track your content marketing performance using key performance indicators (KPIs) such as website traffic, social shares, and conversion rates. Use the data you gather to make data-driven decisions and refine your content strategy for maximum impact.
  • Iterate and improve: Embrace an agile approach to content marketing by constantly testing, learning, and iterating on your strategy. Be prepared to pivot your plan as your audience’s preferences and the content landscape evolve. Always look for new trends and techniques to keep your content fresh and relevant.

Content Marketing Success Awaits

By understanding the importance of content marketing, exploring various types and formats, and crafting a well-thought-out plan, you’ll be well on your way to achieving content marketing success.

As you embark on this journey, always remember that the fundamental element of a prosperous content marketing campaign is generating valuable, engaging, and distinctive material that genuinely connects with your audience. Dare to be bold and innovative, and be proactive in experimenting with new ideas and formats. With creativity, hard work, and persistence, you’ll soon see your content marketing efforts translate into tangible results for your business.

Now conquer the content marketing world, one captivating piece at a time!

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