Why Content Marketing Is King by Mikal E. Belicove

| October 24, 2011

Mikal highlights the important of demonstrating your knowledge by publishing quality content using new media.  Enjoy the article.

When it comes to marketing strategies, content marketing has just been crowned king, far surpassing search engine marketing, public relations and even print, television and radio advertising as the preferred marketing tool for today’s business-to-business entrepreneur.

Late this summer, HiveFire, a Cambridge, Mass.-based internet marketing software solutions company, surveyed nearly 400 marketing professionals about the state of the business-to-business, or B2B, market, and discovered that marketers are retreating from traditional marketing tactics such as search marketing and have made content marketing the most-used tactic in their brand-enhancing tool box. Fact is, according to HiveFire’s B2B Marketing Trends Survey Report, twice as many B2B marketers now employ content marketing as they do print, TV and radio advertising, according to the survey.

So what exactly is content marketing? It’s the creation and publication of original content — including blog posts, case studies, white papers, videos and photos — for the purpose of generating leads, enhancing a brand’s visibility, and putting the company’s subject matter expertise on display. HiveFire’s researchers found that an impressive 82 percent of B2B marketers now employ content marketing as a strategy in their marketing programs. Coming in at a distant second place is search engine marketing at 70 percent, followed by events at 68 percent, public relations at 64 percent and print/TV/radio advertising at 32 percent.

Seventy-eight percent of respondents said driving sales and leads was the top marketing goal of their organization, followed by boosting brand awareness and establishing or maintaining thought leadership (both at 35 percent). Another 28 percent said their primary goal was to increase web traffic and 24 percent said it was to improve search results.

Part of the popularity of content marketing is its ability to generate qualified leads while engaging prospects in a branded environment without busting the budget. Nearly half of the content marketers interviewed said they dedicate less than a third of their budgets to such marketing expenditures. In addition to frugality, B2B marketers also believe most of their customers and prospects are online, which is why they’re focusing their marketing efforts on the Internet.

Finally, the survey shows that “content curation” — which is defined as the process of finding, organizing and sharing content — continues to gain strength as a top marketing strategy, up 17 percent from six months ago. Seen as a way for marketers to fuel their marketing programs, content curation does have its problems. Nearly 70 percent of content curators say lack of time hinders their efforts, with 66 percent saying a lack of original and quality content is a major drawback. Another 38 percent say difficulty in measuring results is the stumbling block and 37 percent say lack of staff to do the work is the hindrance.

Despite these issues, the survey makes clear that content marketing is only going to become more important going forward, whether you market to other businesses or to the public at large.

How have you used content marketing to enhance your brand? Leave a comment and let us know.

Let’s Get Rid of Management

| October 23, 2011

Many years ago I was gifted with the opportunity to participate in the Dale Carnegie Leadership Training Program.  One thing I kept is a short piece on leadership titled, “Let’s Get Rid of Management.”  It still applies.  Enjoy.

People don’t want to be managed.  They want to be led.  Whoever heard of a world manager?  World leader, yes.  Educational leader.  Political leader.  Scout leader.  Community leader.  Business leader.  They lead.  They don’t manage.  The carrot always wins over the stick.  Ask your horse.  You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t manage him to drink.  If you want to manage somebody, manage yourself.  Do that well and you’ll be ready to stop managing.  And start leading.  Lead the way!

Sixteen Ways to Earn True-Blue Trust and Credibility

| September 1, 2011

An excerpt from Ken Brand’s book, “Less Blah Blah and More Ah Ha.”

Trust is earned when we:
• Treat others with respect and courtesy.
• Communicate with calm confidence.
• Listen more than talk.
• Include facts, details, names, dates, statistics, testimonials, references, and sources. Strive to show, not tell.
• Employ professional-grade tools, systems, techniques, and people.
• Act energetic, enthusiastic, and in the present.
• Take pride in our work, demonstrate commitment, respond promptly, and act professionally.
• Ask lots of questions about what, how and when they want it, so we can deliver it their way.
• Collaborate, accept responsibility, keep our commitments, and correct our mistakes with a positive attitude.
• Provide a detailed, written marketing plan, including examples, samples, and track record results.
• Keep our clients informed in ways that respect what, how, and when they want their information.
• Lead with a positive attitude, candid conversations, and crisp execution.
• Are consistent in word and deed.
• Admit when we don’t know something and are prepared to find the correct answer, pronto.
• Allow our clients to fire us on the spot if we break a promise, slack, or suck. No questions asked. No fees. No hassles.
Facing the Trust Challenge Together
I’ve been in this business for over thirty-two years. During that time, civilian perceptions of our profession haven’t budged out of the cellar. If anything, advances in technology and gains in societal savvy have made it easier than ever for all of us to spot and avoid lame sales people. The advent and adoption of Internet ratings systems like Yelp.com, Zillow.com, and social media networks like Facebook mean that wary citizens can now identify, choose, and recommend trustworthy service providers, as well as instantly warn their friends and followers whom to avoid.
For you and me, this is fantastic news. By infusing your business approaches with the trustworthy actions outlined in this book, combined with your excellent personality traits and life experiences, it’s easy for you to rise above the vast pack of mediocre real estate agents. Instead of your clients hearing Blah-Blah when you engage with them, they’ll think Ah-Ha, this real estate agent is unique, behaves in trustworthy ways, and is choosable. The future for you is bright.

Ken’s book is available at Amazon.com.

25 Lessons from Jack Welch

| August 25, 2011

1. Lead
2. Manage less
3. Articulate your vision
4. Simplify
5. Get less formal
6. Energize others
7. Face reality
8. See change as an opportunity
9. Get good ideas from everywhere
10. Follow up
11. Get rid of bureaucracy
12. Eliminate boundaries
13. Put values first
14. Cultivate leaders
15. Create learning culture
16. Involve everyone
17. Make everybody a team player
18. Stretch
19. Instill confidence
20. Make business fun
21. Be number 1 or number 2
22. Live quality
23. Constantly focus on innovation
24. Live speed
25. Behave like a small company

Sales Training and The Challenges We Face

| July 18, 2011

It’s been almost two months since my last post. To say I’ve been busy is an understatement. Everywhere I go of late, the subject of sales brings looks of confusion in most cases. The business climate is very prosperous in some areas, and very dark and dismal in others. It depends on where you look and who you talk to.

The biggest challenge is to first admit that you don’t have it all figured out.
Companies just continue to trudge along doing the same things expecting different results. Few conversations take place between the sales person and the owner or manager. Most of those are client service and task related.

The other problem I’m seeing currently related to sales training is a lack of accountability relating to specific sales action. When did it become OK to be mediocre? Just do enough work to get by.

In a recent post by Radio Ink Publisher Eric Rhoads, he talks about the significant decline of the radio industry related to how sales people are managed, treated and trained. There is a clear lack of consistent sales training. Radio managers use “Grow Or Go”, “Make it or break it 90 day probation programs resulting in high seller turnover. One time I calculated the cost of firing and hiring a sales person and the total cost was well over $100,000. Expensive mistakes.

Bring sales training back to your company. Treat it like a part of your business like billing or order fulfillment. Provide the training and support that match realistic expectations. You’ll find your increases in sales lead to an improvement for everyone inside your organization.