“DIY online marketing PART 1”
Concept days: every Tuesday, we explain in our own words a new trendy concept around one of our favorite four themes – start-ups, customer behavior, e-commerce and technology.
This one is a little bit special. Because we realized the concept we chose needed more explanations, we separated it in two parts. In this first part, we focus on popular Content Marketing tools. Next time, we will talk about more technology demanding e-marketing tools.
Tuesday’s concept #5 “DIY online marketing PART 1”
Never outsource content marketing tools!
Themes : E-commerce, technology, start-up
Do It Yourself is very trendy. Why not build everything by myself ?
Growth hacking around, we realized today that there are tools that can and can’t be dealt with by ourselves. Not because we don’t have the coding skills, not because we are not smart enough, but because it is extremely time consuming and not always rewarding or even possible to learn to do everything during working hours. On the other hand, giving away your voice, your data and your money is not always rewarding either.
“Content Marketing” is any published content that does not advertise directly your product. Writing “Buy my product recommendation solution, it is the best one” is advertising. Saying “This article will teach you how to personalize your e-merchandising with 4 tools” is content marketing. Still, creating content aimed at your target customers is essential. An online fashion retailer who creates a blog about garbage truck is out of context.
Here are our findings about the fab 4, possibly free, Content Marketing Tools :
• PR
Reasons why you should outsource
We typically talk about a field where network is central. Journalists get hundreds of press releases everyday, and catching their attention is a real challenge. Outsourcing means hiring a PR firm that will create content for you and use its network to get your content published. Everything is of your hands, they know what they are doing, they even know how to get opened and read.
Reasons why you should Do It Yourself
PR can be free of cost, and a network can be built. This is why we call it “networking”. Moreover, it is your image that journalists will carry. The content that they will get has to be accurate, and when you have a specific business, it is hard to find a PR firm that will be as expert as you in the subject.
DIY!
Work on your content as much as possible and make it perfect. Then go for it, get your hands dirty, seek and guess journalists’ e-mail addresses, write excellent press releases, send them around, call them up directly, and send them again. One day you will be rewarded not only by positive answers, but by journalists calling you about your subject. And they will realize that a passionate person is talking to them, not a PR agency …
Our final advice: be sure to at least write your content yourself. Even if you are running out of time and you use a diffusion agency, you should always be aware of what is said about you.
• Social Media
Community management is a full time job. But community management is not only animation of social medias, this is completely accessory. It is really about creating a community around your product, maintaining a relationship with your users, recommenders … and competitors.
Reasons why you should outsource
When you enter a non mature business, it can be quite hard to create a community, even if your content is excellent. You have to seek it, attract it, and retain it. It needs a lot of attention, that you don’t always have the time.
Reasons why you should Do It Yourself
Many tools are here to help you : linking all your profiles together, publish again previous contents during a long pause, posting at a specific time of the day in certain network, targeting the right audience for your posts … Converting community into customers is not the easiest thing to measure. Doing it yourself allows a direct communication with your target customers and follow the outcome of each post.
“52% of marketers cite difficulties in accurately measuring ROI as their biggest source of frustration in social marketing. (Source: Adobe)”
DIY!
Keep your community close, and keep an eye on all references to your name. Extend your reach by advertising your Facebook posts, posting comments on Linkedin groups and favoriting your targets’ tweets. When you become big, you can start outsourcing comment moderation, ask a communication agency to generate some nice infographics, or get a excellent freelancer to tweet during your main sales event.
• Blogging
Whether writing blog articles to assert your expertise, to spread your knowledge or because you get to learn a lot, there is one truth: people come to your blog to learn something. If they learn from you, they consider you as someone interesting. If you stay interesting, you become credible. And they turn into customers.
A good question is : will you blog on what you do, or will you blog on what your targets like ? I hope you realize by now that you have to Do It Yourself.
DIY !
Blogging is one of the best SEO tools. Keywords, most popular adwords, research volume, huge amount of subjects, reaching your target market … But quantity is not quality, here or elsewhere. No magic potion in here, except using the right words and writing about what your target is interested in. The content you create for your blog will go everywhere else.
• White Papers
White papers are the basic tool to carry content around. It can be anywhere between 3 and 20 pages long and is written about a subject that gives compelling arguments for your product. For example, if we were selling cookies for children, we will write about the importance of snacking in primary school. It shows your interest and knowledge about your subject, and at the same time convince readers about the quality of your products.
Reasons why you should outsource
Creating content that has to be interesting and accurate for your customer. But it also has to be well written, especially when talking technical issue in a 20 pages work.
Reasons why you should Do It Yourself
You know your subject, you have already created content for you blog, website, social medias … Put it together in a white paper !
There are more content tools to consider, but they are far from being free : Native advertising (a news article that is really an ad for your products), display advertising and videos.
Always remember that in “marketing content”, there is “marketing”. The ultimate aim is to obtain leads and convert them into customers. There is also “content”. Content is what gives you visibility and credibility. One does not go without the other, and outsourcing is giving away what makes you stand out.
See you soon for “DIY online marketing PART 2” e-commerce, do outsource e-marketing tools !
Share your opinions or questions with us, we are interested!
Or send us a mail at : commerce@ezako.com
You would like us to write about something? Send us a mail: commerce@ezako.com or contact us via our facebook page EZAKO, or twitter account @BigDataEzako