actionable marketing guide

This week I received an email from a reader who works for a small creative group in a western U.S. city.  He wondered how his team could give their blog a personality like Actionable Marketing Guide.

Translation:

• How do I create a brand with a personality and voice that sets my business apart from the competition?

Before responding, I checked his website and blog. While the group had a roster of small local clients, their site had the most basic branding and their blog content could have been written by lots of businesses anywhere in the US.

Not good for a creative agency seeking new clients.

If I’m looking for creative help for my business, I want to see what you have to offer.  Show me your best work or I’m gone.

Even worse, you’ll never know I was in-market for your services. Further, in today’s world, I don’t need to be local to you to use your firm.

This is where you must think of your business as your most important client. Otherwise, your team will never find time to create and/or improve your own content assets.

Sound familiar?

This thinking is short-sighted. Over time it limits your ability to acquire new clients and to grow business from current clients.

The Economist was the most brand conscious business I’ve ever worked for. It was more than the valentine red of their name. Their employees and readers shared common values and perspectives. They were proud of their brand association.

It was the only place I’ve ever worked where people who didn’t read the newspaper (as it’s called internally) gave me excuses why they didn’t.

During my tenure, I contributed to brand research as well as observing various customer segment focus groups. Despite the bench strength of their marketing department, the branding was handled by one of their outside agencies.

At customer focus groups attendees brought in briefcases full of Economist product to show their group. In the pre-Internet days, customers formed live weekly meetings to discuss the issues the newspaper raised. In my experience, this is exceptional behavior.

So what do you do to improve your brand without grinding your business to a complete halt?

At a minimum, set aside time to get your entire management team together to work on branding and other related exercises. These meetings shouldn’t be crammed between other daily activities. If necessary, hold it on a weekend or offsite.

Work through some of the classic branding exercises. Participants should do these exercises independently before you look at and assess the results as a team to determine your points of consistency and aspiration.

Here are some free articles to get you on track.

• Branding basics
• Small business branding checklist
• Small business branding super powers
• Small business branding guidelines

Then go through all of the responses to see where your sweet spot is. Use these findings to determine your points of differentiation and consistency. This is what you’ll use to start setting out your brand guidelines.

After going through these exercises, take time to assess your competitors. You want to define your brand in terms that sets you apart. This difference should be included in your search optimization and content creation.

These exercises will help get your brand started and allow you to begin setting brand guidelines. Branding is an iterative process and requires input from your audience and suppliers.Sometimes you need outside support (if you can afford it) to bring a fresh perspective and uncover potential you may have overlooked. If you’re interested in improving your brand, I’d love to work with your firm.

For those of you focused on content marketing, I hope I’ll see you in Cleveland at Content Marketing World 2017 next month.  (BTW, if you haven’t purchased your ticket yet, I’d be thrilled if you used my code. Heidi100.)

At the encouragement of my friend and colleague Aaron Orendorf, I finally put together and distributed my Orange Cowl Photo Album from Content Marketing World 2013.

https://www.slideshare.net/HeidiCohen/how-to-create-fun-user-generated-content-at-a-conference-case-study

Yes I realize that was 4 years ago. But the surprising thing is many of the 45 people pictured are still at the forefront of Content Marketing.

My conference user generated content shows how important it is to give your audience a way to participate and be a part of your event.

Here’s how to create your conference related content.

It also shows you that you can continually rehab existing content to create new content experiences.

Happy Marketing
Heidi.

Heidi Cohen
Actionable Marketing Guide

P.S. If you’re already going to Content Marketing World, perhaps you’ll join me for my Interactive Content Workshop. It’s the guide you need to get your interactive content on track.

P.P.S. I'll also be speaking at MarketingProfs B2B Forum in Boston a month later (Oct. 3-6, 2017). See the announcement below. Use my promo code: AMPLIFY1717 to save $100  

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CMWorld 2017

Content Marketing World is the one event where you can learn and network with the best and the brightest in the content marketing industry.

You will leave with all the materials you need to take a content marketing strategy back to your team – and – to implement a content marketing plan that will grow your business and inspire your audience.

Please join me at Content Marketing World 2017  in Cleveland this September 5-8. It's the standout event for the people who want to be where the top marketers are, make face-to-face connections and learn the latest trends. 

Drive Results With Interactive Content: The Foodie Approach

Interactive content is like food delivered by world-class chefs who are always looking for ways to be at the forefront of the latest food trends.

Like interactive content, the food top chefs create eye catching, talkworthy and fulfilling food. They satisfy different needs like your content purchase funnel. Continue reading

Content Marketing World  – #Throwback2013

Joe Pulizzi and his Content Marketing Institute team have built a community of professionals that descends on Cleveland every September for Content Marketing World (aka: #CMWorld).

Beyond the high quality, must-see content and the ability to connect with content experts, Content Marketing World speakers, exhibitors, attendees and staff are most notable for their use of orange. 
Continue reading

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Five Ways To Improve Your Headlines

Headlines matter.

This isn’t a marketing newsflash.

Back in the Mad Men era, David Ogilvy famously said:

"On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. "
 Continue reading

How To Improve Your Interactive Content Marketing Results

Interactive content marketing is white hot.

Why?

Because when the average reader spends 37 seconds per article(NewsCred)your content needs all the help it can muster.  

Continue reading

If you enjoy reading this email newsletter, perhaps there’s a friend or colleague that you’d like to recommend us to? Please send them this link to our email signup page. http://heidicohen.com/subscribe-to-actionable-marketing-newsletter/​​​​​​​​​​​​​​