If you’ve had the thrill of seeing your child for the first time via sonogram, nothing compares!  I’ve experienced it twice.  The funny thing is, that image is the most non-descript fuzzy photo you’ll ever get of your child.  Even with newer 3D technology, the images are nothing compared to snapping a photo of your child’s face on a sunny day.

Still, with such a fuzzy picture, the excitement is almost electrifying.  You are filled with anticipation and can only think of all of the ways your life with this child will be perfect.  And that is as it should be.

I had the opportunity to sit down yesterday with a group of individuals starting a new business venture.  They verbally showed me the sonogram of their yet unborn bundle of joy and the excitement at the table was incredible.  They talked of what this new baby business would look like and what it would grow up to be.  I too got caught up in the excitement.

I had been brought in to provide some marketing advice and to see if there might be a fit for us to work together in the future – and a I believe there is.  My advise to them rang in my head even into the day today because it applies to any business.  What did I say to these expectant parents?

FOCUS! Narrow your focus in every way possible.  Get narrow about the product or service you are launching.  Get narrow about the problem it will solve.  Get narrow about the vertical market you will go after.  Get focused…narrowly focused.

The beautiful thing about narrowing your focus is that it has a domino effect.  When you narrow your focus to say that you will only offer product/service A, instead of A, B & C, you also eliminate having to define the target and messaging for B & C.  The clarity that comes form narrow focus is amazing.

Whether you’re looking at the sonogram of your unborn business or have a mature one, consider how you might narrow your focus.  You might find that your dreams and aspirations are closer than you think.

Let’s start at the end.  You want your efforts to pay off in a new client or a sale of your product or service.  But  each of those “new clients” started off as “prospective clients,” learning about what you have to offer.  Identifying the different stages of a buyer’s steps to choosing you can be a great aid in creating content.

Rather than using a “shotgun approach” to writing, where all of your information is geared to all of your readers (which, by the way, is very, very difficult – as demonstrated by the number of people who sit staring glossy-eyed at a blank screen!), why not break your writing responsibilities down into smaller categories, with specific stages of the sales cycle in mind.  Believe me, with this laser-focus, you will find writing much, much easier.

The types of content you create for each stage will be very different from each other.  So to get the ball rolling, here are the four basic stages, and the types of content that work best in each stage:

1. Awareness Stage
This is the stage in which your prospect first realizes that they need your product or service.  They begin to become acquainted with you, and start to recognize your brand.
Best Content for this Stage:
Blog Posts
Social Media Updates

2.  Research/Education Stage
This is the stage where your prospect begins to identify their particular problem, and then starts the research for solutions.  They begin to associate your solution with their problem.
Best Content for this Stage:
E-Books
Webinars
Industry Reports

3.  Comparison Stage
This is the stage where the prospect takes a look at all of the options they have run across and begins to narrow their list.  They begin to see how your product or solution is unique compared to your competitors.
Best Content for this Stage:
Case Studies
Demos
Customer Testimonials

4. Purchase Stage
This is the stage where your prospect decides from whom to buy.  Ideally, that decision includes you!  Don’t be lax now – give them enough of the right information to guarantee a lasting relationship with you.
Best Content for this Stage:
Analyst Reports
Detailed Product Info

Marketers, business owners and PR people alike have, in the past, had a fairly easy job when it came to creating content (i.e. writing).  They waited until they had something to say – perhaps a new product or service – and then told the world.  I hate to be the one to say it, but those easy days are over.

The need to produce a constant flow of content – from blog posts to social media updates to ebooks, etc – is a constant concern for most marketers.  But if you are going to succeed in any way in this new world of inbound marketing, it is a concern that you need to address and stay on top of.

Constantly coming up with new – and even more important, relevant – content can be overwhelming.  What in the world do you do when the well of inspiration dries up?  Stop writing?  Never! The next few posts will be all about creating a strategy for coming up with great content on a regular basis.

Let’s hit the ground running.

Know Your Audience
One of the first things we address with each new client is the idea of creating a buyer persona.  (For more information, check out our blog post about creating buyer personas – otherwise known as Ideal Clients.) “Buyer personas are fictional representations of your ideal customers, based on real data about customer demographics and online behavior, along with educated speculation about their personal histories, motivations, and concerns.” In other words, who is your target audience?  You MUST answer this question first to know how to craft your content.  Trust me.  You don’t want to skip this step.  It will aid you greatly if you know who it is you are writing for.

There are 4 main questions to ask yourself about this person:
1. What are the biggest problems they are trying to solve?
2. What does he or she need most?
3. What information are they typically searching for?
4. What trends are influencing their business or personal success?

Next, you will create a profile of these people.  Again, don’t skip this step.  You will be amazed at how much easier it is to produce quality content when you are writing to at specific person  with a specific need.

The 3 questions are you answering are:
1.  What do they do online?  Do they read blogs?  Are they active on Twitter, Facebook or other social networks?  What kind  of search terms do they use?  Are they email newsletter subscribers?

2.  What kind of information do they tend to consume online?  Educational pieces?  Trend articles?  Interactive tools like calculators or worksheets?  Do they watch videos or listen to podcasts?

3.  Which of your products do they spend the most time researching?  How do they use those products?

I know, this all sounds like a ton of work.  And guess what?  It is.  But without this vital research, you risk losing a major source of new traffic and leads by failing to produce new content.  Or, on the flip side, you risk churning out content that is a bad fit for your audience, which results in either attracting those who really aren’t prospects and potentially driving away those who are good prospects.

This is only a first step in creating killer content.  Next we’ll deal with mapping your great content to the various stages of the buying cycle.

Can I just state up-front that, as a general rule, I don’t like change.

Now I recognize that quite often, change is very, very good.  I can’t imagine where I would be if I had stayed with my first boyfriend.  Some styles weren’t meant to be kept (endured?) for long.  And have you ever gone back and watched some of those shows from the 80′s?  Where were their acting coaches? I certainly wouldn’t want to go back to where I was even 10 years ago.

As we meet with clients – and potential clients – we sometimes find this overwhelming (and shall I say, often puzzling) desire to maintain the current status.  And sometimes, they can even be as fickle as wanting a change, but pretty much also wanting to keep the status quo.

Take website design.  This changes almost as often as high fashion does.  And I’m certainly not condoning a re-design every time something new comes along.  There is a lot to be said for consistency in brand and look.  But after a period of time, your website just might end up looking like the equivalent of someone wearing a pair of legwarmers and stone washed jeans.  In other words, out-of-date.

Here are some great questions to ask yourself – and answer honestly – about your current website:

• Does my site doe what I originally wanted it to do?  Have I changed what I want my website to do for my company?
• What about my audience – has it changed?
• Do I still like the look? the design? the logo?
• Do I need help maintaining my site so that it doesn’t end up with old information or content?

So, perhaps these questions lead you to the conclusion that yes, you do need a re-design of your site.  Here are some pointers to keep in mind as you navigate the waters of creating a new site.

K.I.S.S. (or in other words, Keep It Simple, Stupid)
Whether we are talking about design, functionality or content, the best – and longest-lasting sites – are the ones with a clean and simple look that are easy for the reader to navigate. (A great resource for this concept is the book by Steve Krug, “Don’t Make Me Think“)

Do Your Research
While this seems basic, I’m talking strictly about knowing who it is that will be visiting your site.  Take advantage of Google Analytics to see where your visitors are coming from and where they are going while on your site.  This goes a great distance in helping you decide what it is they want.

Brand Like Mad
If a visitor to your site doesn’t immediately know what you are about, you’ll probably lose them.  If you have old, out-of-date content, it says much to a visitor about you (all things you aren’t wanting to say to them!).  If visitors see something new as soon as they get to your site, it tells them that you are current, and that your company is doing well enough for you to provide new information.

Don’t Be Crazy
Websites that are full of off-the-wall stuff drive people away rather than attract them.  They often are deemed unusable.  Do try something different – just don’t make it so different that visitors have to stop and think before they find what they are looking for.  Because often, they will just as soon leave.

I love starting off with a brand new client.  It is remarkably like entering a new relationship with someone.  We spend all our time thinking about, talking about and learning about our new client.  And when a new client happens to be in an industry that is not overly familiar to me, I spend a lot of time researching all I can about what it is they do.

One of the things that I have noticed regularly with clients is that they have the “curse of knowledge.”  I know some of you are thinking, “I wish someone would curse me with knowledge right about now!”  So no, I’m not talking about general knowledge.  I’m talking about the very specific knowledge that comes with intimacy within an industry.  And in a way, that’s a good thing.  We expect people we work with to know what it is they do.

However, sometimes we can be so familiar with our product and industry that our language comes off as a bit foreign to others.  We use industry buzz-words like they were going out of style.  We use letters to represent whole concepts.  And often, entire ideas are condensed down to short phrases.  And really, that’s ok that those things exist.

But . . . it’s important to ask yourself, “Will those who are searching for my services understand what I am talking about?  Will they even know what words to use when searching for my services?”  You absolutely MUST know your audience (have you created a Buyer Persona?).  You MUST know their pains, their challenges and their motivation.  But you need to speak to them in words that they can understand.

Don’t be afraid to use simple, general words.  Those are likely the very words that your target audience is searching with.  Remember, you’re not writing for your peers.  you’re writing for your ideal audience.

Creating killer content – on your website, your calls-to-action, and your offers – sometimes begins with stepping back, taking a deep breath . . . and keeping it simple!

We had the opportunity last week to attend a luncheon where my colleague (ok, so he’s also my husband) spoke on the role of social media in marketing and the process that we teach, called “Combustion Marketing.”

Based on some questions that came up during the Q&A time, I realized that there is simply a lot of misunderstand and misinformation out there regarding this wonderful new medium of social media management.

So with that in mind, I recently ran across some great information on the fears of social media put out by David Griner of Luckie & Company.  And by the way, this company is quite the innovative thought-leader in the area of story-telling in branding.  Take a look at their website – I  highly recommend it!

And remember, the only thing more popular than USING social media marketing is QUESTIONING social media marketing.  Not necessarily a bad thing if you are armed and ready with the answers.

Fear #1 – The Public will eat us alive.
The Blunt Answer – If so, they’re doing it already.  You’re just not there to hear it.  Or defend yourself.
The Practical Answer – Your critics aren’t waiting for you to use social media.  Your customers are.

Fear #2 – We can’t trust our employees
The Blunt Answer – Then why are you paying them?
The Practical Answer – If you trust someone to talk to your customers, you can trust them to use social media.

Fear #3 – We’ll lost control of our brand
The Blunt Answer – You’re more likely to find out what your brand really is.
The Practical Answer – Social media is the ultimate way to prove your brand promise and make it a reality.

Fear #4 – If we screw up, it’ll haunt us on the Web forever
The Blunt Answer – That’s called accountability.
The Practical Answer - True, the Web has a long memory.  But it’s never too late to improve.

Fear #5 – Our audience doesn’t use social media
The Blunt Answer - Then your audience must be deceased.
The Practical Answer – Every generation is embracing social media, but not in the same ways.

Fear #6 – We don’t have time or staffing for social media
The Blunt Answer - Then start small and let the work prove its own value.
The Practical Answer – It takes less time than you’d think.  Soon, it’s just a part of your daily life.

Fear #7 – We can’t predict the ROI
The Blunt Answer – You can’t predict the return on an investment you don’t make.
The Practical Answer – Social media is one of the most measurable marketing tools in existence.  You just have to decide what to measure.

“While social media is not the silver bullet that some pundits claim it to be, it is an extremely important and relatively low cost touch point that has a direct impact on sales and positive word of mouth.

Companies not actively engaging are missing a huge opportunity and are saying something to consumers – intentionally or unintentionally – about how willing they are to engage on consumers’ terms.”

–Josh Mendelsohn, VP, Chadwick Martin Bailey

*All charts and graphs courtesy of HubSpot (click here for more awesome data from the good people at HubSpot)

One thing we hear often from business owners – and occasionally feel ourselves – is that owning your own business can sometimes be overwhelming.

Whether you have the “entrepreneurial gene” or not, clients, projects, accounting, maintaining (and even trying to grow) your own business – it all adds up to some big headaches sometimes.  Believe me, I know.

However, there are a few tips to keep in mind that at least help keep that beast (feelings of being overwhelmed) at bay.

Be Crystal Clear – and Realistic

Ever heard of “scope-creep?”  No, it’s not that weird guy that hangs out at the 7-11 parking lot.  This is a very real problem that plagues all of us from time to time.  Projects seems to get bigger and bigger as we get into them.  Clients have a way of adding “necessary” bits and pieces to projects.  But with some planning ahead of time – and to be honest, this takes some experience, too – you can outline carefully what is expected of all parties and stick to it.  And don’t oversell yourself.  Do what you do well, and don’t add to it to try to convince the client to use you.  Be clear and realistic with what you can, and are willing to do.  Those feelings of being overwhelmed will be a thing of the past if you stick to this little gem.

Know What You Don’t Know

Ok, admittedly, this is a bit of a problem.  The unexpected often happens, and it is very hard to plan for that.  But if you have built margin into each project (shoot, even each DAY), those things that come up that weren’t planned on don’t throw you for a loop.  I know that the times I have felt the most overwhelmed is when I feel under the gun, don’t understand things, and didn’t plan for that.  Usually, if I can take time to work through the problem and learn the things I didn’t know, the issue takes care of itself.  This only comes when there is margin in my life.  Plan it into every project.  And hey, if you don’t need it, you come out ahead of schedule!

Use Available Technology

Sometimes the fact that there is an upfront learning curve keeps us from using new technology that might, in the end, save us a lot of time and effort.  We live in a wonderful day- there is technology available for almost any scenario you might find yourself in.  Take the time to stay current on what is available in your industry.  For those of us who are in marketing, platforms like Hubspot and Infusionsoft are absolute life-savers when it comes to automating some of those time-demanding tasks.  A favorite of mine in the email marketing and list manager category is MailChimp.  Let technology take some of the stress off of you.  After all, you have better things to do with your day than deal with the feelings of being overwhelmed by the little tasks.

There are so many more ways that we can reduce those feelings of being overwhelmed, and I’d love for you to share your thoughts on this.  Share your thoughts and ideas – you just might keep someone from drowning in the Sea of Overwhelm!

The first week of the New Year is drawing to a close. It’s been a week to take down the holiday items, catch-up on emails from the days off, and tackle those resolutions that you made last week.

Your business will change in 2012. Hopefully, you will keep up with those changes, and make them positive ones for the bottom line. Most projections are that online ad spending will increase this year. More and more of your marketing dollars (and, equally as important, time) would be best spent on drawing potential customers to your site, offering them helpful, useful content, and then moving them towards buying.

I’ve compiled 4 “resolutions” that will aid you greatly as you pull together your marketing plan for this new year.

1. Be Relevant
Relevance will be “THE” thing in 2012. And you will need to keep your target audience’s desires, hopes and aspirations at the core of your marketing message. Tune in closely to what kind of content engages your audience (listen, listen, listen!). Then create your marketing message around what they watch and read. Take advantage of technology that matches ad content to the context of the page and delivers hyper-relevant ads to people who actually want to see them.

2. Content is King
We’ve heard this one before (and said it a few times, too). But it can’t be stressed enough. We now have the ability to put together some pretty slick marketing initiatives. But don’t forget, it’s what’s IN the ad (or webpage, or ebook, etc) that really matters. Don’t spend all your time on the remarkable ad and forget to engage the customer. Creativity is still a highly desirable trait – but don’t leave all the creativity at the design point. Make sure you have something to say – and say it well.

3. Track Your Data
When SEO first hit the scene, we had the limited ability to simply count clicks. But a highly successful click-through-rate doesn’t always mean closed sales. We now have the ability to look very closely at consumer behavior. Make it your goal in 2012 to use the data that you collect in a way that results in sales. Think it can’t be done? Stone Creek has some suggestions – contact us!

4. Stay Current
This is almost a repeat of #1 (Be Relevant). But let me put some numbers behind this one – an amazing 98% of 18-24-year-olds use social media! And the debate around ROI of social media is quickly becoming a thing of the past as platforms like HubSpot make tracking and analyzing data quick and easy. What part does Facebook and Twitter play in your gameplan for 2012?

For further reading (and to see where some of these statistics originated), check out the article – “5 Best Practices for Digital Marketers in 2012″

So, the end of another year – the beginning of a new one.  It’s the traditional time when we take a good hard look at what works and what doesn’t.  And life is full of promise that things will be different from now on.

I have a Facebook friend who posted the other day, “I make lists, NOT resolutions!  There is a difference!”  So whether you are making lists, resolutions, promises or whatever name you want to attach to it, now is a good time for CHANGE.

And one of the best changes you can make for your business this year is to begin blogging.  Really.  This quite literally will provide the absolute biggest “bang” for your time spent.  And once you get in the habit, it’s really not that difficult.

And as a 2012 gift to you, here are a couple of thoughts  from me to you to get your creative juices flowing:

1. Find 3-4 good blogs that you find helpful, and read the heck out of them!

I can’t tell you the number of times that I have stared at a blank screen, trying to come up with something meaningful to say.  After perusing a couple of blogs that I read regularly, the thoughts start coming, and the typing begins.  If you find it helpful, then others will too!

2. Put together an editorial calendar and don’t stray from it!

This is one of those little things that pays off huge dividends.  We have an editorial calendar here at Stone Creek Consulting.  I know what days I am expected to write – and what topic I will be writing about on those days.  It narrows my focus drastically, and I find that I am able to be much more consistent this way.

3. Absolutely DO use infographics, photos, videos and charts!

I have a daughter in High School who regularly has to write papers and reports.  They are very strict on the size of the font and the number of pages she has to turn in.  But guess what?  This isn’t high school (thank goodness!).  If your blog post is only 3 paragraphs, fine!  If your blog post is mostly made up of an infographic, great!  You don’t have to write a novel.  Give some of your thoughts and move on.  Trust me – people don’t want to read “War and Peace” anyway.  Short and valuable is the way to go!

4. And because I care –

Yes, I have posted this video before.  But it is just that important.

Happy New Year!  May this be a successful and profitable year for you!

Melanie Bowman

Stone Creek Consulting

I was recently doing some research on local companies – local to us in Kansas City, that is – that were involved in internet marketing strategies.  Ok, truth be told, I was looking at our competition to see what they offered, how we differed, and what “holes” were left out there that our particular flavor of inbound marketing can fill.

I learned something very interesting.  There are a lot of companies out there that have developed a very good, very successful plan for internet marketing.  One in particular has developed a very impressive radar that compiles all of the social media conversations going on around a certain topic.  It is extremely fast and extremely comprehensive.  I immediately saw the value in this tool.  In fact, I was plain impressed.

However, I noticed something missing.  Once all of that extremely valuable information was collected, I saw no plan of action to use it.  This particular tool leaves that to the customer.  So what if you have the ability to see that your competitor is lacking in a certain area – and it just happens to be the area that you excel in?  What next?

This is where I get really excited about inbound marketing – using internet marketing strategies to DRIVE traffic directly to you.  But equally important, to move potential customers through the sales funnel by giving them valuable content (maybe even what used to be regarded as your trade secrets?), finding out more about their needs through the offers they request, and tailoring your conversation with them to suit their very needs.  You build trust, loyalty and authority as you interact with these potential clients.

So, the take-away? Don’t stop at the latest, flashiest promise out there to get you all of the information you could ever want on those who are needing your services or product.  You need to be able to build a relationship with those “seekers” before they turn into more than just a visit to your website.

Social Media.  It is THE buzzword in marketing right now.  The problem is, it is still a little hard to grasp.  Most of us have a good idea of the concept – using all of the social media tools (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs, etc) around us to attract traffic to us.

But as this new mindset of marketing grows out of it’s infancy, through the toddler years, and is now gaining the recognition that it deserves, there are a few key elements that are coming to light that any social media consultant should keep in mind.

An article entitled “140 Predictions About Social Marketing” was released today that had some interesting points made by the master of social media marketing and consulting, David Meerman Scott (@dmscott).  Here are his thoughts on the biggest Social Media Development coming in 2012:

“Social media gives us the ability to communicate instantly, yet most marketers have not developed the communication skills to address real time. Marketers have been trained with a campaign mentality, spending weeks planning, designing and executing in a sequential manner. Social marketing is changing that. We now need the ability to react instantly to breaking news, changes on our websites and negative customer feedback. Marketers need a new mentality, infrastructure and workflows to meaningfully participate in real time.”

If you aren’t prepared to engage your customers – both the good and the bad – in real-time social media avenues, you may find that doing business successfully is harder and harder.

Are you prepared to embrace the social media marketing changes on the horizon?  Be prepared.  They are coming.

I love blogging about the art of blogging.  It seems circular somehow to me.  Like if I do too much of it, I might cause some sort of a loop that affects the world as we know it.

Ok, that might be a bit dramatic (I blame my husband – he has made me watch far more Sci-Fi than I ever imagined I would in my life).  But the fact remains, blogging can be the single most important thing you do for the success of your business.

And no, that’s not being dramatic.  We still talk to potential clients almost daily and find out that they have not yet delved into the blogging world.  They often spend money on SEO, and more often than that, have spent larger amounts on some sort of a marketing endeavor.  And yet, I know that if they would just commit to blogging on a regular basis, they could see results.

How does increased web traffic, a better engagement with customers and tangible leads sound to you?

Just keep in mind, your efforts at blogging need to go beyond just the occasional ramblings of someone on your team.  You need to keep certain practices in mind as you write:

Who Are You Writing To?
This is a huge question that is often overlooked.  You need to know your audience in order to reach them effectively.  You also need to know how your audience will use this information that you are giving them.  If you have no goal in mind, you are sure to hit it!

And Speaking of Goals . . .
Just exactly what do you want to accomplish by blogging on a regular basis?  Are you trying to increase traffic to your website?  What about educating within your industry?  Are you trying to build brand loyalty?  Are you attempting to set yourself up as an expert in your field?  These are just a few of the questions you need to answer before that first word is ever typed.

Don’t Be Over-Zealous!
A good, enthusiastic plan is a must – but a plan that puts too much strain on you just won’t hold up for long.  How many times have I gone to someone’s blog, hoping for new and fresh ideas, only to find out that the last time they posted was in July!  And frankly, I can’t be too hard on them.  Blogging takes time and effort.  And that is time and effort that is taken away from the endless list of other tasks you have.  So set your sights on a reasonable amount of blogging – and then commit to it like your life depends on it.  The life of your company just very well MAY depend on it!

I happen to love email campaigns.  (And I happen to LOVE the movie “You’ve Got Mail” – but that is a subject for another day!) Don’t get star-struck with all of the new social media out there and neglect this very important tool.

There are very few marketing strategies available today that are as cost effective as a well-thought-out email campaign.  If handled correctly, your strategic email marketing campaign can easily spread your sales initiative to a wide – and highly qualified – audience, while at the same time strengthening the ties to already-loyal customers.

With a little thought and effort, your email marketing efforts can be highly rewarding – generating leads, building loyalty, and communicating effectively with your target market.

By keeping these strategies in mind when you craft your email campaigns, you will see a much greater reward for your efforts.

1. Provide Valuable Content
Want to send emails that not only DON’T end up in the recipient’s trash folder, but are actually looked forward to?  Give your readers something valuable.  Don’t sell to them.  They are in the middle of something when that email arrives in their inbox.  And it can be a huge turn-off when they pull their attention away from a task, only to be assaulted by your sales pitch.  However, if you give them something that they find of value, they will spend the time reading what you have to say.  Keep in mind, your goal is to be a strong benefit to your contact as they interact within their company.

2. Get Them to Take That All-Important Next Step
You’re not in business to simply give away information.  You want your reader to take a next step with you.  You have drawn them in with your great content.  What next?  Make your call-to-action clear, highly visible and “above the fold” (don’t make them scroll down to read your offer).  Don’t leave it to them to contact you for further information.  Give them an easy form to fill out – resisting the urge to ask for more information than necessary – and a clear button to submit.  Keep drawing them to you by offering helpful, interesting and compelling offers that continue the conversation.

3.  Don’t End Up in the Trash/Spam Folder
You might be offering them the information that could save their job or their company.  But if your email gets automatically sent to their spam folder, they may never read it.  Follow a few easy rules in your subject line, and you will be sure to grab their attention – and stay out of that black hole called the Spam Folder.  Never use more than 45-55 characters in your subject line (this is roughly 5-7 words).  Include the offer – this is where you will “hook” them right up front.  Stay away from punctuation, all caps, and words like “free” “act now” and “credit”.  These will easily trigger spam filters.

A successful email strategy can have wonderful benefits.  By packaging what you know into valuable content, you extend an invitation to begin a mutually beneficial relationship with people who want to hear what you have to say, resulting in more leads, more exposure, and ultimately, more sales!