Macy’s Chief Marketing Officer Martine Reardon doesn’t mince words when it comes to the impact of digital in her world.

“Digital is the most powerful disruption to hit retail in 50 years,” she told the audience during her recent keynote speech at Integrated Marketing Week.

Under Reardon’s leadership, Macy’s has pulled off the remarkable feat of not only embracing and mastering digital, but adding digital to the Macy’s traditional marketing efforts and finding creative synergies between digital and traditional. 

Macy's "American Icons" video

Macy’s approach to marketing, Reardon said, is “omnichannel.” 

When she says “omnichannel,” Reardon means it. Macy’s laundry list of marketing and advertising platforms includes television, magazines, newspapers, outdoor (everything from billboards to busses), social, desktop, tablet, smartphone, flyers and catalogs.

“Wherever our customer is, that’s where we’ll be,” she said. “We are media agnostic. I don't care where our customer comes in, either way they are engaging with the Macy's brand.”

All of these marketing efforts have generated volumes of powerful data.

“We have really rich data,” Reardon said. “Data really informs our decisions. We rarely make a decision without thinking about the customer. We use that data in one real time cloud that helps us offer more relevant content to our customer.”

Not only are they looking at data, they have an analytics team dedicated to quickly get to 'now what' decisions.

Among the things they’ve discovered is that their customers are regular people, not exactly trendsetters, but people who care about style and are looking to be influenced.

While those are the similarities, data mining has shown Macy’s that there are very different tastes in clothes depending on where you are in the country. What wasn’t surprising was that people in Texas liked brighter colors. What was shocking, though, was the taste of people in San Diego.

“San Diego was all about black, black, black,” Reardon said. “We would expect that in New York, but with all the sunshine in San Diego? We never would have guessed it, but the data showed it.”

In social media, Macy’s is extremely active with more than 13 million “Likes” on Facebook and more than 190,000 followers on Twitter.

For their in-store experience, Macy’s created the “Backstage Pass” program, where users snap QR codes in different departments and instantly get expert advice from Macy’s celebrity partners.

Macy's has long been a leader in event marketing, including the iconic Thanksgiving Day Parade and the massive Fourth of July Fireworks Show.

Most recently, Macy’s is getting into the entertainment business with “Fashion Star,” a reality series and a comedy series currently in production.

Reardon said her marketing team, like much of the rest of the world, is focusing heavily on mobile. Those who are not thinking about mobile will not survive. 

“It's a mobile, mobile, mobile world,” she said. “When we started in the digital space, we focused on desktop. Now, we start with the mobile device and then branch out to other devices.”

There’s been an enormous fuss lately about e-commerce shopping cart abandonment, especially on mobile.

Most of the discussion is technical in nature. Where are we going wrong in getting people to purchase on mobile? A recent Monetate study showed there was an abandonment rate of over 60% across all online shopping venues, with mobile having the highest abandonment rates of all.

While there are a million things retailers can be doing to improve conversion rate with their ecommerce sites on computers and tablets, I don’t think they should be terribly concerned about the high rates of shopping cart abandonment on mobile.

I have been working in e-commerce for years, especially with retailers. I know the frustration they feel when they see that someone has gone so far as to put the item in the shopping cart and are really just a few clicks away from a purchase.

My reaction to all of this is just calm down. Everyone is overreacting.

While mobile technology gives you the power to carry on e-commerce, it is not terribly conducive to getting people to complete transactions.

There are a thousand uses for smartphones: texting, calling, reading and writing emails, taking and sharing photos and videos, banking, and lots and lots of gaming.

When people are using their phones to access the internet,though, they are mostly doing so because they are bored and are looking for a bit of entertainment. They are generally not going to a site with the idea, “wow I really want to buy something.”

It’s not easy to get people buying on mobile. Entering card details, address details etc.,  one-click buy and delivery platform this will probably remain the case.

That doesn’t mean mobile isn’t an important force in retail ecommerce.

Many retailers have just done a lousy job of delivering their offerings on mobile.

But let’s say that you have a commerce site on mobile that offers clear images, easy navigation and an exciting user experience. A mobile site like this can certainly capture the imagination of a potential buyer. They’ll flip through pages of an online catalog or look book, see something that catches their eye, click to a more detailed products page, and if they really like the product, they are likely to put it into the shopping cart.

And then, they are extremely likely to just leave it there.

While this may seem really confusing to retailers trying to sell through mobile, the actual mindset of the person putting the item into the shopping cart is that they are either bookmarking the item or “Liking” it.  For them, it is a way of putting an item aside until you have a chance to see it more clearly later, either on a desktop, laptop, tablet or maybe in the retailer’s brick and mortar store.

So, what looks like an abandoned shopping cart in your analytics, should be thought of as a step in the path to purchase. According to a recent Google report (“Zero Moment of Truth”), the average shopper uses 10.4 sources of information to make a decision. A great user experience on a retailer’s mobile site could be one of those important sources of information.

It’s not that retailers can’t help the process along. When they see a potential customer has abandoned their shopping cart, it doesn’t hurt at all to send a friendly email encouraging them to revisit the site, timing that email for when the customer is likely to have access to a computer or tablet.

I suggest another alternative. Why don’t retailers create a “pin,” or “Like” or “remind me” function next to each item in their online inventory? If customers click this button, it will generate a reminder email that would be delivered at a time when it would be most likely the customer would have access to a computer or tablet.

Something to think about, isn’t it?

Best selling author and digital marketer Seth Godin has no patience for the mediocre, the bland or the boring. He uses the word “average” as if it was a curse.

“Average does not make beautiful,” he said in his keynote speech today at Integrated Marketing Week in New York City. “Art is about a human being doing something for the first time.”

Godin has written numerous books on marketing, has one of the most popular marketing blogs in the world and is the founder of Squidoo.com.

He challenged his audience to get out of their comfort zones. Today’s business climate requires marketers to be daring, collaborative and even humble. The old ways of doing things, he said, are done forever.

“It used to be, it doesn't matter what your product was as long as you advertised a lot,” he said. “Find a poor schmo and badger him until he bought.”

That “poor schmo,” he said, was part of the masses and mass is always going to be average.

The crowd watched in disgust as the annual car parking event was rudely interrupted by some jerk on a bike.

Godin singled out Charles Revson (Revlon) and Lillian Vernon, as examples of major successes in the old way of doing business They produced goods for “average” people and bombarded the masses with ads.

“(Marketers were told) ‘here's a bag of money. Bring us back two bags,’” Godin said. “That leads to cranking it out... If marketing is a machine that you can turn up the dial on, that machine is faltering.”

Not just faltering. It's broken. 

The web, Godin said, has changed everything. There are no more captive audiences. Gone are the days when there were a handful of television stations and a core of print publications where brands could reach huge audiences. Today, there are thousands of outlets competing for your attention.

With the customer now in control, brands can no longer market to everybody. You need to pick your specific audience or audiences and narrowcast your marketing to that audience. If the customer doesn’t feel served or even loved by a brand, they have the power to click away.

To serve this newly empowered customer, Godin said, brands must adopt a new model: a “connection economy.”

“The connection economy is based on abundance,” he said. “Customers can turn you off.”

So, how do you turn your customers on?

By creating products or services that truly serve the specific needs and interests of the target audience. Brands, he said, must identify their niche audience, or, as he calls them, “tribes.”

Find out what they need, what they want, and serve them well.

It means not only researching your audience, but reaching out to your audience. Connect with them. Listen to them. Most important give them something unique and special. Give them “art.”

Obviously, there’s a big difference between marketing at the masses and creating “art.” The latter requires creativity, daring and perhaps a little insanity.

The problem is that most businesses do not create an environment that fosters the creation of “art.” Art, Godin said, is dangerous and difficult.

People who are afraid of failure, he said, are doomed to fail in today’s climate. To succeed, businesses need to be fearless.

As Godin summed it up:

• “(You must) create an environment where it's not only safe to fail, but required to fail.”

• “We are looking for people who are dancing on the edge of failure.”

• “Be willing to do something foolish that might not work.”

• “All innovation is, is pushing yourself to fail. “

Remember, he said, “the guy who invented the ship also invented the shipwreck.”

Having been lucky enough to have spent my career in the business of creating content and software designed to create and disseminate content, it should come as no surprise that I am a huge believer in brands using their own content to drive business. Time and time again, I have seen brands increase market share significantly through the effective and strategic use of content marketing.

So, when I saw a recent study about the power of engaging brand experiences I wasn’t surprised at all, perhaps just a bit vindicated.

The study, commissioned by Analytic Partners, revealed that just about half (48%) of people between the ages of 18 and 44 feel that “any loyalty they feel toward brands in the future will have to stem from the “types of experiences brands create for them.”

That means – for a huge segment of the population – product quality and pricing will take a backseat to engagement and brand experience. What consumers are looking for are positive brand engagements and those come in many forums: blogs, articles, social media, video, music and even gaming.

Over the years, I’ve spent a fair amount of time helping brands to create that kind of engagement, and one thing I’ve learned about doing business in the digital age: consumers feel they need to be loved. Like any relationship, it all comes back to building trust, making people want you and then continuing to provide the kinds of engagements that make them want to be loyal.

At one end of the spectrum, there are products that people will just buy because those products are so incredible and do what nobody else’s products do. I will be loyal to that brand simply because I can’t do without it. But that scenario represents a tiny fraction of the marketplace.

When it comes to disposable products like food or fashion, that’s where brand loyalty is going to make a huge difference in the market share your brand can achieve. Think of Starbucks as an example.  Is it about the coffee? Or the experience? I think you get my point!

So, how do you go about creating loyalty around a brand?

You can’t create it out of thin air.

Firstly there’s no substitute for having a great product. All the engagement in the world is not going to make someone buy a totally crappy product. But, these days, a lot of people are creating high-quality products.

So, how do you differentiate?

In the past, having a powerful celebrity endorsement could do the trick or maybe a catchy advertisement. But in the age of multiple digital platforms and social media, all of that has changed. You need to create a special and compelling experience for your customer. You need to make them “love” you.

They looked longingly into each others eyes as they discussed the power of realtime content marketing.

In the pre-digital age, brands would gain that trust in their brick-and-mortar stores by making the shopping experience a highly positive one.

Lets take Super Dry as example. It’s a clothing story I feel very loyal to. You walk into that store and there’s a friendliness, a relaxed dialogue that begins the moment you cross the threshold. It’s a pleasing place to be, aesthetically well considered. The products are high quality and you get an immediate connection.

Again, in the pre-digital age, brands would use print advertising or television advertising to re-create those kinds of warm and positive feelings.

In the modern age, though, brands are making far more sales through digital outlets. With brands doing business through web sites, email marketing, tablets, smartphones and digital catalogues, how can they recreate those positive in-store experiences? How can they use digital platforms to create entirely new loyalty and trust-inducing experiences?

To thrive in today’s digital marketplace, like the study said, brands must embrace the notion that they are the creators of engaging experiences (which just happen to have products to sell). This shift requires brands not only to think like publishers, they need to be publishers.

What does this mean in practical terms?

It means brands must:

• Clearly define their target audiences.
• Get an understanding of the things that interest their target audiences.
• Know the platforms on which their target audiences devour information (web, tablet, phone, facebook).
• Understand the media in which their target audiences best take in information (articles, video, music).

Once they’ve done that, they need to produce the content in a professional, engaging and entertaining way. Finally, they have to figure out how to deliver that content efficiently and how to measure the impact of their content.

This may all seem daunting (and expensive) but the effort is worth it. Content marketing works and it works in a remarkably powerful way. Brands which have adopted content marketing are way ahead of the curve. Brands which have embraced content marketing in a huge way are getting huge payoffs. Not only is the revenue streaming in, that revenue is coming from customers who are fiercely loyal to the brand.

If that’s not love, what is?

With the hugely successful content marketing and brand experience campaigns being executed by the likes of Coke, Virgin, Red Bull and IBM. it still amazes me that there are brands which still believe that an online brand experience is just some kind of extension of, or digital replica of a traditional catalog.

Remember what the old school catalogs looked like? They were simply vehicles for presenting products, product descriptions, pricing and a mechanism to purchase the listed products. No real content, no real editorial value, in fact very little value at all.

Colin was awfully confused when the latest edition of his favourite catalogue arrived in this shiny new case.

In the new world of brand publishing, your customers are far more empowered than they have ever been. Where they used to accept the fact that advertising was a one-way street where brands barked marketing messages at them, consumers can now fight back in the digital world. They can complain about your brand, your customer service, your lack of attentiveness.

Ultimately, they can simply click away from your brand and onto your competitors.

To win the attention and loyalty of customers, brands must now offer their target audiences a full, robust brand experience with true editorial value. Brands must think of themselves as if they were providing the same kinds of benefits as traditional publishers would.

As a brand ask yourself this simple question: if my customers (or potential customers) would be reading a magazine, what would it be?

The answer to that will tell you a heck of a lot about the kind of content your should be producing:

• Red Bull is creating content for the adrenalin junkie.
  
• Nike is producing the kind of content you’d otherwise find in sports or fitness magazines.
  
• IBM, with their remarkable Smarter Planet campaign, is producing really creative content around cutting edge technology. (example)
  
• Amex Open Forum is producing valuable info for entrepreneurs.

Let’s not kid ourselves. Brands aren’t creating content because they want to be publishers, for the sake of being publishers. They are creating content because they want to engage their customers, create customer loyalty, and, of course, sell to their customers.

Some brands get this. Their print and digital “catalogs” are starting to look more and more like magazines. Some intertwine engaging content with their products, others offer up blogs geared to the interests of their target audiences.

Take a look at what some of these brands are up to:

• J. Crew
  
• Anthropologie
  
• Urban Outfitters
  
• Nordstrom
  

Many brands understand the need to become publishers, but they don’t know where to begin. The biggest fear is around building the team and the technological infrastructure to create, publish, distribute and analyze the content they would be creating.

These days though, more and more platforms are appearing that, in varying degrees, eliminate these concerns. Allowing  huge efficiencies and enabling creative talent to produce sophisticated, elegant and interactive content, integrate it with commerce, deliver the content on all platforms and some even doing so without the need to write a single line of code.

Brands are thus empowered to create magazines, catalogs, blogs, interactive lookbooks, digital deal circulars ... essentially anything intended to inspire and engage the target audience.

All in a highly scalable fashion and with little or no need for technical expertise.

Think of it as a brand new way of doing business.

Starting a content marketing campaign can be daunting for companies of any size. To do it well, you need to produce high quality content that serves the needs of your target audiences, find a way to distribute that content, monitor the impact of that content and then use that information to shape further content.

When you have a small budget and a limited staff, this can be especially daunting. It should be. Content marketing takes time, effort and dedication. But the payoff can be huge. By creating a stream of content that stands out from the crowd, content marketing can:

• put your brand on the map

• brand key executives as thought leaders

• gain valuable public relations and earned media

• boost your SEO and generate inbound leads

• drive sales

Can this all be done on a shoestring? Absolutely. But it must be done strategically, efficiently and enthusiastically. Having executed content marketing campaigns with a minimal budget in the past, I can offer these seven tips for strategizing, creating and executing a content marketing campaign:

1. Do it well or don’t do it at all

There is an overwhelming amount of content being produced today. Most of it is garbage. To stand out, your writing must be engaging, useful and entertaining.

Content marketing is all about storytelling. If you are going to embark on a content marketing campaign, make sure you have a professional communicator on staff or are willing to pay for the services of a professional writer.

2. “It takes a village”

While your new content chief may have great writing and communications skills, that person doesn’t necessarily know the stories your brand needs to tell. When you are working on a shoestring, you don’t have the luxury of building an in-house newsroom. This means that every department needs to pitch in. The C-suite, sales, marketing, design and tech all must contribute to the content marketing efforts, providing their perspectives, their expertise and their overall vision.

3. Write and repurpose

One of your first tasks is to begin the process of creating a trove of articles of real interest and use to your target audiences.  Do your homework. Figure out who your target audience is, then figure out the kind of content that would best engage that audience. Red Bull creates content relating to the active lifestyle. AMEX creates content with practical advice for businesses.

Once you’ve created these articles or blog posts, then house them on your website or company blog. Once you have these in place, they can be:

• sent to prospective clients via email or newsletter

• used to pitch guest columns

• used to pitch the media (see #6)

• used as links on social media (see #4)

4. Take advantage of social media channels

Social media has become the great equalizer for businesses with limited budgets. It doesn’t cost anything to comment on articles, participate in groups, engage on Twitter or post on Pinterest.

Twitter allows you to communicate directly with customers and link to your content. Facebook and LinkedIn provide great ways to introduce your company to the world and keep people up to date on news, offerings and company culture.

5. Embrace YouTube

With today’s inexpensive video technology, companies can produce meaningful and useful content through the creation and distribution of videos. Entrepreneurs can use video to show their knowledge and passion. Video is also a tremendous vehicle for showing off your products or demonstrating your expertise.

If you are adept at humor, a viral video can put a company on the map overnight!

6. There’s no media like earned media

Before the advent of social media and digital publications, the only way to reach the media was to send out press releases or try to call reporters directly. With the advent of social and digital media, journalists and bloggers are far more accessible.

Once you’ve created content, that content can be used to attract the attention of traditional media, online influencers, bloggers and content aggregators.  Virtually every journalist and blogger have Twitter accounts. Follow what they’re talking about. The key is to find journalists covering the topics of interest to your target audiences.

There are also some great free tools to find the media. Muck Rack follows thousands of journalists’ Twitter feeds. HARO (Help a Reporter Out) sends daily email featuring journalists and bloggers looking for sources for stories.

7. Monitor, analyze and adjust

Don’t make the mistake of executing a content marketing campaign and then failing to monitor how it performed. This begins with setting specific goals (driving traffic to your website, getting visitors to request more information, sales, media placements, etc.). Use free tools like Google Analytics to monitor traffic to your site and user behavior. Employ Google Alerts to monitor who is  talking about you and your brand online.  Use tools like HootSuite or TweetDeck to monitor what’s being said about you and your company in social media. In terms of inbound leads, make sure you have a mechanism in place to determine the source of the leads.

Armed with this knowledge, you will have a better idea of what is working and what isn’t. Remember, content marketing isn’t just a campaign, it’s a way of doing business.

In the end, the best advice I can offer is to take your content marketing seriously. When you go down this road, you become a publisher. As such, it is your job not only to provide great content, but to provide it on a consistent and steady basis.

As I said at the outset, the journey won’t be easy, but how many worthwhile things are?

Being in the business of helping companies to create interesting and captivating brand experiences, I pay a great deal of attention to what brands are doing in the space. While many brands are woefully behind the curve, more and more brands are starting to pick up on the fact that their customers simple expect more from them. In response, many of them have become publishers, delivering engaging and highly targeted, useful and even entertaining content to their various constituencies.

Periodically, I’ll present you with my favorites. Today, I’ve singled out these 3 brands for kudos:

Red Bull

I have to start with Red Bull, because nobody does it better or more massively. What I love about their content is that it’s all about extreme sports and nothing about the Red Bull beverage. They understand their audience and deliver exactly what their audience craves – great content about the subjects they love.

They have their own publishing house, which employs, according to their LinkedIn profile, somewhere between 500 and 1000 people. They produce a digital magazine and a print magazine which has content (and circulation) rivaling the likes of Sports Illustrated. They also have a production company responsible for their thousands of videos and even an entire music arm.

Does the content talk about Red Bull. No. Does it sell Red Bull? Absolutely, by creating an army of loyal and well-informed and entertained fans.

ASOS

What can I say about ASOS? They are a huge retailer, but they’ve embraced fashion and culture in a way that not only endears them to their customers, it is almost a love affair. They’re a brand that does a thousand things and does them all brilliantly.

They design and manufacture their own products

• They sell and distribute their products
  
• They create mountains of editorial content- including print and digital fashion magazines and an edgy blog
  
• They handle all of their digital and print production
  
• They shoot countless hours of the highest quality fashion video imaginable
  

Where other brands give you a nice product description in their catalogs ASOS provides a video with every single product. I swear, it makes you feel like you have a front row seat by the runway. Instead of a catalog experience, you have a virtual fashion show.

American Express

There’s nothing that sexy about a credit card, but American Express has found an effective way to engage their audience of small business owners, entrepreneurs and others interested in workplace issues together. AMEX Open Forum is an enormously useful resource for anyone looking for great ideas on how to improve their businesses. Open Forum has a stable of top business bloggers with expertise in everything from best digital practices to best hiring practices. Open Forum also presents opportunities for members to provide guest posts.

Not only is the site itself  popular, American Express has exploited social media extremely well. They have a significant following with nearly 200,000 followers on Twitter and over 300,000 “Likes” on Facebook.

Please check all three out. Over the next weeks and months I’ll be sharing more of my favorites. I’d really love to hear from you, as well. What brands do you think are doing it right? What are they doing that you appreciate? Do you buy from them?

Who do you want to do business with?

Someone you never heard of or the guy who is widely recognized as a thought leader in his/her field?

First of all, what is thought leadership? Basically, it is content that creates the perception that you have a knowledge base that brands you as an authority, an innovator and even a visionary in your industry.

True thought leadership is hard to come by. It requires real expertise and the ability to effectively communicate that expertise to your targeted audiences. Believe me, there are a lot of people calling themselves experts who don’t quite live up to the billing.

There are millions, of people out there calling themselves one form or another of expert. A recent search on Linkedin profiles revealed these terms:

• nearly 1.9 million “experts”
  
• over 171,000 “gurus”
  
• over 93,000 “mavens”
  
• nearly 40,000 “geniuses (though many work at Apple stores)
  
• over 26,000 “rock stars”
  
• over 17,000 “”ninjas”
  
• over 4,600 “Jedis”
  

Oh, and “thought leaders?” The most recent count was 27,826. On top of those, there were 146 geniuses who called themselves (sic) “thoughtleaders.”

Face it, to truly be a thought leader, you need to possess some actual expertise. From a content marketer’s perspective you need to possess that expertise in an area that is of specific interest and utility to your target audiences and then be able to communicate that expertise effectively.

Unless you (or someone in your company) has that kind of expertise, then you aren’t a thought leader and no amount of content creation and distribution is going to turn you into a thought leader. But, if you actually possess that kind of knowledge, knowledge that could actually be of value and interest to your current customers and potential customers, then you are a perfect candidate for a content marketing thought leadership push.

So where do you start?

Before you produce one piece of thought leadership content, you need to think about the expertise you possess. Start with a list:

• What am I passionate about?
  
• What experiences and successes have I had that I can pass on to others?
  
• What knowledge do I possess that would be interesting to my target audiences?
  
• Do I have practical advice that could be actionable for my target audiences?
  
• If I were to write a book, what would the chapters be?
  
• What unique perspectives can I offer?
  

The answers to these questions should provide you with a whole list of potential story ideas. With these in hand, get started!

• Start creating content and make sure you’ve created enough to keep your audiences engaged over a period of time.
  
• Publish the content to your website and/or blog.
  
• Promote your content through emails, social media, and advertising.
  
• Offer to provide your content to online media outlets as guest columns.
  
• Use your content as “bait” for press coverage (providing links to your content in media pitches)
  
• Use your content as an “audition” for speaking engagements and panels.
  
• Use your content as a sales tool, demonstrating your expertise to prospective clients
  

Take these steps and you will find out in a hurry if you possess real thought leadership. If people are sharing your content  widely, if publications are gladly printing your articles, if you’re being quoted widely, then you’re a true thought leader.

If you can pull this off- and not many can – you’ll be recognized as an expert. If you do, make one promise: for God’s sake, please don’t even think about calling yourself a Ninja!

Admit it. You are a bit overwhelmed with the enormous changes going on in the world of marketing. Go into a marketing meeting or a product pitch and you’ll hear terms being thrown around that didn’t seem to exist a month ago.

While the following list isn’t meant to be exhaustive, I’ve put together some key concepts that you should know and know well. Brands are spending more and more of their marketing budgets on content marketing and there’s a good reason for it. When done well, it pays off.

1. Content Strategy. This is where it all begins. The process of figuring out which types of content, which subject areas, and which content platforms are most likely to engage your target audiences.
2. Thought Leadership. This is the process of using content marketing to demonstrate internal expertise on subjects that matter to your target audiences. This is commonly achieved through blogging, writing guest articles, white papers and media outreach.
3. Target Audience Identification. This is the foundation of content marketing. Brands have to learn that the content they produce shouldn’t be about them, it is about the customers they hope to reach.
4. Editorial Calendar. If you are distributing a variety of types of content in a wide variety of venues, you will need to schedule and keep track of your efforts. An editorial calendar will tend to include titles, authorship, deadlines, publication dates, venues, and tracking.
5. Social Media Marketing. Even if you are on Twitter and writing 140 characters, you are engaging in content marketing. This isn’t about having an intern who knows how to use Facebook or Twitter. It’s about having a real strategy for engaging your key audiences in a way that will be meaningful to them.
6. Content Marketing as Search Engine Optimization. Thanks to major changes in the Google algorithm, creating and distributing high quality content is rewarded with higher placements in search results.
7. Content Marketing as Public Relations. Once you’ve created high quality content, that content can be used in pitches to the media and to online influencers. Think of your content as a resume to reporters and as an audition for guest column opportunities.
8. Visual Content Marketing. These include videos, photographs, infographics, animations and other graphic presentations of content. If a picture is worth a thousand words, videos and infographics are worth a thousand new customers!
9. Content Marketing Analytics. Very simple- measure every content marketing effort and see what it’s done for you. More traffic? More engagement? More sales?
10. Do it Right or Don’t Do it at All. The key to any content marketing campaign is quality. There is an avalanche of content out there and yours had better stand out. Great content will do wonders for your brand. Crappy content can destroy it.

As I said, while this list is far from exhausted, it will more that put you on the road to content marketing greatness. You will surely pick and choose and add a few of your own as you begin to dip your toes into the content marketing waters.

Good luck!

The content marketing revolution is upon us. Companies of all sizes are jumping on the bandwagon. Some are doing it brilliantly. Some are clueless.

On the brilliant end of the spectrum, some companies are  building large, multi-functional internal newsrooms. Not only do they have full editorial capabilities, they have video  production and broadcast facilities.

I know what you’re thinking. That’s great for large companies, but there’s no way in the world I can put together an operation like that on my budget. While that’s obviously the case, it doesn’t mean that you can’t build an internal editorial team capable of doing amazing things for your brand. These days, even with a relatively small  budget, you can find and hire some exceptionally strong content producing talent.

Look for most anyone with “content” in their tile at a startup and it’s almost certain they have some journalism experience in their background.

Since 2009, there have been well over 20,000 layoffs and buyouts at US newspapers. Just this month, The New York Times, New York Daily News, New York Post and Village Voice announced staff reductions. This is a horrible thing for people who love journalism, but it is a huge boon for small companies looking to acquire editorial talent.

The good thing about hiring unemployed journalists, is that they tend to come with skill sets of great use to a startup or medium-sized brand:

• Strong Writing Skills

• The Ability to Tell a Story

• Strong Social Media Skills

• Strong Research Skills

• A Nose for the Less-than-Obvious Angle:

• Speed

So, where do you find these journalists? Don’t worry. They're out there and they’re actively looking for jobs. Place an ad on LinkedIn and you’ll be overwhelmed with responses. A quick search for business journalists in the Greater New York City Area turned up over 10,000 names. A search in the same area for editors produced over 23,000 results.

If you want to post a job, journalists are always checking out  MediaBistro,  Editor & Publisher and journalismjobs.com.

While it is critical to get someone who knows how to tell a story, written content is only one piece of the puzzle.

Consider video. Why?

• It’s a great way to get a viewer’s attention

• It puts a human face on your company

• It’s a great vehicle for showing how a product works or looks

• Quality videos can be produced cheaply

The two other key members of your content team are designers and people with analytics skills.

Don't underestimate the importance of design. Why?

• Beautiful design enhances any form of content

• Very helpful in pitching the media (who are overwhelmed with boring pitches)

• Online users have short attention spans and great design can draw them in (no pun intended)

• Media outlets want eye catching content

• A picture or an infographic paints a thousand words!

Finally, you’ll need someone to figure out if all of your content marketing efforts are working. While there are some incredibly sophisticated analytic tools out there, small companies can certainly get by with products that are either free or dirt cheap.

Google Analytics can give you insight into site traffic trends and user behavior. Use Google Alerts to monitor who is  talking about you and your brand online.  Tools like HootSuite or TweetDeck can help you monitor what’s being said about you and your company in social media.

All of this is free and doesn’t require particular analytical expertise. Your primary content creator (even if he/she is right out of a journalism job)  can master these skills in no time at all.  

In Conclusion

Content marketing requires talent, commitment and perseverance. But it doesn’t require a huge investment in budget. What differentiates poor content marketing from great content marketing is strong messaging, an understanding of your target audience and a commitment to bring that audience the kind of content that serves them, entertains them and helps them.

Do this, do it well and do it consistently and you won’t be worrying about shoestring budgets much longer.