Are they The Real Thing?

I read yesterday that Coke have a new revamped corporate website, a nice example of responsive design. Not your average corporate site and a major step in implementing their 2020 vision for marketing. It's a site that's much closer to being a consumer magazine title than what we might expect from a large corporate website.  

Are Coke a little late?

I've mixed feelings about Coke being positioned as pioneering in modern marketing, listening to them you'd be forgiven for believing that their Content 2020 vision is somehow leading edge, world changing stuff. They are "ahead of the game" compared to some corporates on one hand, I guess, yet on the other hand, especially given their size, they're way behind the pace. To top it off, they're…

5 themes and 21 ideas to help create a content strategy

We'd no doubt agree that creating, sharing, distributing and promoting great content is now a very significant component of not only effective marketing, but effective brand-building today? We'd certainly suggest that it requires a key place in the strategic thinking in almost every organisation.

Perspective enables strategic thinking

As with most things when talking digital, the tactical jargon can really confuse people and I've been reminded again this week how our infographics have been really useful to people, to help think about this. The word "content" is thrown around a lot these days, most know what it means and its potential, but most are unsure as to whether they're doing it right. We suggest that it's the jumping into a down and dirty tactical perspective which causes this early confusion, the key is to elevate up and get a bigger picture view…

This is a great infographic - communicating 5 principles of B2B lead generation, it's useful for any company marketing to business buyers. There's some good basic reminders on here, here's our favourite in Mobile (principle #5) - click to call: have a clickable phone number as well as a form. It's these simple things that make the difference. …

What does it mean for content marketing?

What is it with the idea of storytelling these days, everyone's at it apparently - creatives, PR execs, ad agencies and now digital marketers, it appears. It sounds useful, inspiring even, I used the expression myself last week in a marketing seminar, but as the word came up again in a meeting yesterday I wondered - what does it actually mean for modern marketing? And, do we all think it means the same thing? "Marketing is storytelling. The story of your product, built into your product. The ad might be part of it, the copy might be part of it, but mostly, your product and your service and your people are all part of the story. Tell it on purpose." ― Seth Godin

Bigger than marketing

First and foremost it's important to say that stories have to reflect the sum total of your business or brand, you…

Google's framework for multichannel success

I appreciate the headline might be a bit controversial, but it's a genuine question. It's a natural follow-up to my previous post reviewing McKinsey's New consumer Decision Journey. After all - Google are saying that their Zero Moment of Truth model represents the death of the sales funnel. Really? I don't think so… Of course we already know that P&G first realised the idea of 'moments of truth' in 2005, they said that the first moment was "in front of the shelf," and that the "second moment of truth" was gained through product trial and experience. So compared with McKinsey's Consumer Decision Journey, what is ZMOT adding? The aim of ZMOT is to explain how the consumer's research and decision-making journey on the way to purchase is now fundamentally different, that there's a step prior to P&G's first moment of truth, called ZMOT. ZMOT also explains that this…

Red Bull: A lesson in modern marketing?

I was debating writing this post, after all there's so much written about the Red Bull Stratos mission in the 2 days since it was finally completed. Yet I've not seen much written about how the event supports branding and marketing. I think there are certainly learnings for marketers like us, most of us who aren't multi-million pound brands.

So, what are the practical marketing ideas that we can really take from all of this? Here are our 4 lessons from the Stratos mission... Success comes from committing to the hard work. Red Bull included, was this easy for them - no way. The Stratos project took 7 YEARS to plan and execute with ex-NASA engineers which means that Red Bull started doing the work seriously as early as 2005. We…

Practical tips and an example of creating a content plan for SEO

This is the 11th step in the 12 part series on SEO. In this article I’m looking at the crucial role of content marketing and providing easy-to-implement tips on how you can use it to support your SEO program.

Why is content relevant to SEO?

There are several ways in which content can support SEO by boosting search presence: 1. Content drives search presence It's simple, to be found by searchers and search engines, you have got to have something for them to find. But to compete it needs to be outstanding content. Moving into 2013, content is still king as it helps you build webpages & other content assets (e.g. videos) that can be indexed. This applies to database driven product pages for e-commerce as well as CMS driven content pages like Buying Guides and Articles. 2. Content variety can increase SERPs penetration Search…

Models, tools and tips to help with content curation

Online spaces like your website, blog, Facebook page and Twitter accounts need recent and relevant content to retain readers. To stay ahead, your social footprint needs a regular supply of content. You can create original material or you can ‘curate’ content.

What is content curation?

The definition of the art of content curation is where the publisher (in our case a business looking to use content curation as part of content marketing)  researches and gathers the best content on a niche topic that is aimed at a certain audience, all of which is relevant to their business, and then adds to this content personal opinions and expertise thus enhancing it. Note that curation is not just repeating earlier information, but it’s about re-interpreting, re-telling or re-shaping earlier stories or images. The personalisation makes…

Repurposing with a purpose

Content marketing is a large investment both financially and strategically for any business. This post is designed on the principles that if you are investing a lot into content creation it makes sense to be creative in how you use your content in order to get the most out of it.

Advantages of re-purposing content

There are always loads of things we don’t do simply because we ‘don’t have the time’. I can’t suggest how to find more time, but I do have suggestions about how you can save time and improve your content marketing. Why reinvent the wheel when you can repurpose content? In an era when content marketing is essential, it is time to start thinking outside the box about how to use your existing content effectively as well as how to create new material. Maximising the usefulness of one piece of content will save you time and…

A practical approach to creating more effective content

Whether you are running a large scale publishing website, ecommerce site or simply a blog, today's marketing has a common theme; the requirement for amazing content to encourage engagement and sharing leading to sales. Utilising members from your marketing, PR & editorial team to form ideas for your site or client requires effective use of a meeting or thought shower as some people would say [a new term for the editor, apparently a politically correct version of brainstorm]. As with all meetings without the right structure they can quickly become a waste of time, hopefully the steps below will help you achieve a productive thought shower.

Thought shower prerequisites - understand current content marketing

Any meeting requires preparation, but equally this doesn’t need to be over engineered. Insights are key to empowering people in this thought shower. Answering the following questions about your existing content marketing…