Posted by Ryan Malone
I wrote before about the
many reasons to conduct blog interviews. They can be your secret weapon to delivering great content that accurately captures the voice, flair and attitude of your subject.
If you’re tasked with blogging about topics in which you aren’t already an expert, blog interviews are the most effective way to get the job done and provide valuable content to your subscribers.
While interviews have worked for journalists for hundred of years, you don’t have 10 pages to work with on a blog. So it’s important to get to the point and extract the meat of the argument quickly and concisely.
Here are 5 killer questions to ask your next interview subject:
1. Can you tell me about your ideal reader?
It’s difficult to write a targeted article if you don’t clearly understand who you writing for. Many people have written about developing personas—and we do that her for inbound marketing and blog writing programs—but if you need a quick compass, this question works wonders.
Make sure you learn the reader’s gender, age range and typical personality. This will help you define the language to use for the blog—length of words, sentence structure how you plan to identify with their concerns. It also helps frame any historical references to a time they remember.
2. What are three implications of this [SITUATION]?
Many writers dedicate time to define a problem or a trend, but they never discuss its implications. Discussing problems is one of the best ways to build affinity with your reader. If you fail to discuss the implications, you miss a valuable opportunity to share their pain and earn their continued reading.
3. What’s the single most important takeaway from our discussion?
You’ll often be interviewing someone who is clearly passionate about the topic. They can list many things—problems, trends, issues—you name it. While lists are a popular in blog posts, they also create an opportunity to add confusion—kind of like a polka dot tie on a paisley suit (No I have not worn this combo, although it sounds fun!).
By asking for the single most important takeaway, you can quickly channel the interview into the one or two points that really matter. And don’t think the rest is wasted. It’s likely great supporting material for the article or a future post by itself.
4. Can you describe this [IDEA/CONCEPT] as if I knew nothing about it or the market?
When you interviewing individuals who have a high degree of expertise in their field, they tend to use acronyms or assume that you know as much about the industry as they do.
If you write an article that includes “expert-only” terminology, you’ll likely lose many readers. To protect yourself from this, it’s important to ask your subject to explain their concept in plain English. Ask them to assume you know nothing about the topic. This will force them to describe the concept in such a way that maximizes how many people will follow the article.
5. What action do you want the reader to take?
Almost every blog post you write should have a call to action. Just because someone reads your post, doesn’t mean that they’ll read your site. You have to treat each post as a standalone object. This means including a relevant call to action on almost all posts. For example, if you’re writing an article like I am now about blog interviews, you might include a call to action that offers a free blog writing consultation like the one below (heh).
The next time you set off to write your blog, think about how you can use interviews to add depth, create a stronger argument or add some insight you might not be aware of. With blog interviews, the sky is really the limit. The better yours interviewing skills, the more interesting content you can create.
What blog interview questions have you used successfully?
Need to give your blogging program a kick in the pants?
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If you're struggling to add depth, consistency or results to your blogging efforts, consider getting outside help. In this free consultation, you'll learn how the use blogging services help can push your marketing results to the next level. Schedule a free consultation today. |
Posted by Ryan Malone
I was speaking with a customer the other day, and he was telling me that he felt so many companies had lost their souls. When I asked what he meant, he said that companies were always so focused on driving traffic, leads and influence, that they didn't take a step back to accentuate the fun of their brand, and why they enjoy what they do.
About an hour later, I was forwarded a hilarious Dilber-esque video from another client. It's a reminder of the joy we all get from a group conference call. So consider this your Tuesday fun...
If you've spent much time on conference calls, you'll get a kick out this quick little diddy.
Posted by Ryan Malone
The business benefits of blogging are pretty clear. According to Hubspot, companies that blog regularly realize
55% more traffic, 97% more inbound links and
126% more lead growth. Unfortunately, many organizations get caught up with the concept of
blogging regularly.
Regular blogging can be a challenging commitment for executives and other company thought leaders who don’t have time to conceive, write, edit and publish blogs 2-3 times a week with any consistency. As a result, many companies leverage a content marketing agency to write their posts. Some companies utilize internal writers to write blogs on behalf of others in the company.
Regardless of the approach you take, the best way to consistently delivery high-quality blog posts is to conduct blog interviews.
Here are five benefits to conducting blog interviews as part of your blog writing process:
1. Results in better content
Interviews have long been a key component of successful white papers because they extract better content than does researching alone. The same logic applies to blog writing. The better questions you ask during the interview, the better content you’ll receive from your subject. The result? Compelling content that will product results for years.
2. Builds consensus before writing
Blog writers who don’t use interviews often present posts only to find that it wasn’t the right direction, or didn’t cover a topic in the right manner. When you interview a stakeholder, you are by default gaining approval on the direction and content of the article. This saves time, results in better posts and increases your value to your client.
3. Captures tone, attitude and character
Many executives and thought leaders are known for their tone, attitude, character or sense of humor. Without blog interviews, it’s impossible to reflect these important details accurately. If you’re writing for multiple people, blog interviews are often the only way to ensure you don’t write in the same tone for every writer on the blog.
4. Unlock additional insights
The people you’re interviewing have likely perfected their approach about many of your interview topics. As a result, your subject may leave out details they believe are well known by their readers. By asking additional questions to probe the background and logic behind their ideas, you’ll unlock insights that will broaden the appeal of the article to a broader audience. This results in an article more educational and more likely to shared with your readers’ social networks.
5. Write more efficiently
The better interviews you conduct, the less time you’ll spend thinking about the approach or direction of the article. You’ll identify the terms and phrases most relevant to the blog’s readers. And since you’ve already gained consensus about the direction of the article, you’ll benefit from less writing and fewer revisions.
What do you believe are some other benefits to conducting blog interviews? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
Photo credit: A. Germain
Need to give your blogging program a kick in the pants?
|
If you're struggling to add depth, consistency or results to your blogging efforts, consider getting outside help. In this free consultation, you'll learn how the use blogging services help can push your marketing results to the next level. Schedule a free consultation today. |
Posted by Ryan Malone
Maybe you've heard: video marketing can be a very effective way to generate buzz for your business. The search engines love video, often ranking videos higher than text-based pages. This is especially true in niche markets or for long-tail keywords in a larger market.
If you've put together a compelling viral marketing video, you've got a chance to place your brand in front of thousands, if not more.
Aging and Viral Video Marketing. Huh?
Getting old can be a depressing topic for many of us. Whether your relatively young and can't do the things you used to, or your elderly and need assistance with activities of daily lives, it can still be frustrating.
The senior care and services market is a multi-billion dollar market and expanding quickly. More often than not, providers are very conservative in the way they market. In short, they're afraid push the envelope much for fear of alienating a senior or a their kids--the real influencers in care decisions.
As a result, most senior care marketing consists of the same brochures, with the same pictures from iStock photo. All company follow the same marketing routines that outbound or interruption marketing: print, radio, direct mail pieces. They're leaving a LOT of money on the table by not focusing on inbound marketing (but that's a topic for another post).
Some are starting to break the mold. AAHSA (American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging) is a non-profit advocacy group in the senior care space.
Their recent video about their annual conference is a good example of how video marketing can electrify even the most conservative of markets.
What's Making This Video Go Viral
Videos that go viral have several qualities, including:
1. Upbeat - it's fast-paced and keeps you engaged
2. Funny - makes you laugh; we have enough seriousness in the world
3. Targeting - targets the audience in a subtle way
4. Celebs - adds a little celebrity power, which in this market is useful
5. Short - it's short enough to consume when you need a break during the day.
I especially loved the closing, but I'll save that for you to enjoy yourself. So go ahead, and get your AASHA on.
How can video marketing help you achieve your goals?
Schedule a free video marketing consultation today. You learn how a targeted video marketing campaign can drive leads, customers and influence.
Posted by Ryan Malone
How many times have you thought to yourself "What kind of company are we?" The technical folks will often argue that you're an engineering company, because without innovation, there would be no products to sell. The sales team argues that you're a sales company, because without sales, you'd have no money to run the business.
The truth is, they're both right...in the short-term. Yes, you need to have a great product to sell. And yes, you need to have great sales in order to generate cash flow.
But in the long run, you have to work to transform your company into a marketing campany. Marketing company generate more leads, more customer and more influence, because every contribute to that cause.
Are You Marketing or a Marketing Company?
Most companies have marketing teams whose job is to size the market, define products, create messaging, and promote those products to the market. In most companies, marketers are the ones solely responsible for building awareness. And hey, they're marketing, that's their job right?
Not so fast!
In marketing companies, everyone plays a role in marketing. They know that every conversation -- whether a vendor, customer, partner or prospect -- is an opportunity to demonstrate the company's expertise, professionalism and ability to solve problems.
When we say "role," we don't mean half the work day, we mean incorporating marketing-oriented things into their workday. This maintains productivity and adds leverage to your marketing efforts.
5 Baby Steps to Becoming a Marketing Company
When we have this conversation with clients, we're often met with fear, uncertainty and doubt. But the truth is that becoming a marketing company is a low-risk, high-reward transformation. Here are some easy things to get you started:
Recruit non-marketing bloggers: Recruit at least one person from each department outside marketing to contribute to your company's blog. Being outside marketing, these folks have a unique view of the company and it's relation to vendors and partners. While these articles directly impact their groups, they also show prospects that you have your act together. And don't forget that your vendors and partners can be great referral sources. Start small--rotate each department every two weeks, so the workload is minimal.
Promote blog content: Encourage departments to promote their team's blog content by including links in your email signature. This is a passive, yet effective way to drive visitors to your content. It also generates a huge amount of comradery and friendly competition.
Since their blog speaks from their view of the company, it is by default highly-relevant to the people they communicate with regularly. Here's a screenshot of a signature that works well for us:
Embrace social media: Many companies are afraid that social media will kill productivity. Encourage employees to utlize social media. Create a social media usage policy for the company. At a high level, this policy should communicate that you encourage their use of social media as long as it is not disruptive to their jobs. You'll also want to include examples of what they should and should not do while representing the company on social networks.
Encourage employees to use Ping.fm: Ping.fm is a tool that syndicates a ad-hoc or scheduled tweet or a blog post across all your social network accounts. Encourage your employees to utilize ping.fm to syndicate new company blog posts across their social networks.
The account is free, takes only 5 minutes to set up and runs on auto-pilot once you configure it. As a result, every time the company publishes a new blog post, it will automatically be sent to all your employees social networks.
Recognize employees to your customers: If an employee does something creative and helpful, let your customers know. Mention the employee in your email newsletter or a blog entry. This adds personality to the company, and encourages all employees to get engaged. Let's face it: everyone loves their 15 minutes of fame.
These five baby steps can be implemented in an afternoon and make a huge impact in moving you toward becoming a marketing company.
I'd love to hear of some ther other ways to foster this change?
Posted by Ryan Malone
I just finished Marketing VOX article talking about the different research dictating what time you should tweet. We get this question quite frequently actually, so I figure we'd share some of our experience.
The whole discussion around tweet scheduling is humorous--it's been going on for quite some time. It reminds me of the mad rush that occurs around the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Vegas. For years, PR agencies advised their clients to put their CES news release on the wire at 9AM EST. The logic was that it would catch writers on the east coast the moment they came to the office. Pretty soon, every company released news on the wire at 9AM, and the vast majority of new releases were missed by editors.
At events like the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), PR firms followed the same path, until someone broke ranks and put their news release out the day before. Then it all shifted to the next trendy time to put the news release on the wire.
The discussion about Twitter reminds we of this same things. There are certainly good points to tweeting during daylight hours, but don't blindly follow the schedles that everyone else follows. You'll risk being one of the one 20 million who are scheduling their tweets at the exact same time.
Here are a few points to consider:
Match your target customer's schedule: Unless you are a celebrity or have a bunch of free time, you're likely tweeting to connect with customers. Make sure you plan your tweets when your customers are likely near their desk.
Match tweets to personas: You likely target several audiences with your content. Make sure your tweet schedule matches the language and schedule of your different personas.
Send the same tweet multiple times: The reality is that people are bombarded with messages. It is highly likely your target won't even see your tweet the first...or even the third time. Schedule your tweets at different times during the day.
Don't be afraid to tweet after hours: Many peope who use twitter apps clear their list of recent tweets when they read through them. This is especially true if you have been listed. If you have a tech-saavy audience, consider scheduling some tweets later at night. You'll be the first on the list when they launch their app in the morning.
Photo credit: Noel A. Tanner
Posted by Ryan Malone
Being in California and complete political junkie, it's hard not to be interested in this year's elections for Governor and and the Senate. You've got several interesting storylines: the Meg Whitman/Steve Poisner race to see who is the biggest conservative; the old-timer Jerry Brown looking for a second run on Sacramento; and new-look Carly Fiorina trying to leverage her demise at HP into a run for the Senate.
As a marketer, you can't help but analyze the marketing plans the candidate puts forth. It's fun to watch the commercials and try to reverse engineer their strategy. That's why my ears perked up this weekend when I read an article in the L.A. Times about how telemarketing is back at the forefront of the Fiorina campaign.
For anyone following the market shift to content marketing, inbound marketing and social media, the words "outbound telemarketing" always make you pay attention.
The article starts and ends with not-so-ringing endorsement about the effectiveness of outbound telemarketing. Here's the first sentence:
In a tiny Santa Ana office one recent evening, campaign volunteer Linda Barnes hit a prime target in her third hour of calls: a voter, torn between Republican Senate candidates Carly Fiorina and Chuck DeVore, who was actually willing to hear her pitch.
And here's the closing sentence:
The rest of the time, he said, he just tries to get in the campaign mantra — Carly is the conservative Republican who can defeat Boxer —
before the line "goes click."
So the next time, you're thinking about firing up the cold-callers just to "ramp up revenue," think about that last political call and whether you want your customers to have the same reaction as you.
Instead, spend your time creating a trusting relationship with your prospects--one based on educational content and transparency. That'll turn your outbound telemarketing into a win-win sales call.
Need Help Pulling the Content Together?
Studies show companies that blog regularly have more leads, more customers and more authority. Schedule a free blog management consultation to learn how you can cost-effective dominate your niche with regularly-published, high-quality content.
Photo credit: witholeary, myDefinition
Posted by Ryan Malone
Donald Trump's The Apprentice is the classic reality TV format. The producers shamelessly employ product placement, but do it in a way that's entertaining and (I confess) addictive.
Video marketing online is no different and has become a key part of many marketing plans. Why? A few reasons:
People love video: People are comfortable watching video-we've been watching TV for generations. According to Comscore, 78% of the total U.S. population view videos online, consuming an average of 5 hours of online video.
SEO love: Search engines love video and often rank video content higher than their text equivalent. Google and Bing also provide prominent options to look at video within search results. Video search on YouTube accounts for 25% of Google's search queries, making it a significant marketing channel.
Inbound Links:
Executed correctly, video marketing campaigns can drive an enormous number of inbound links to your offer or website. Remember, inbound links account for 75% of SEO, so this is a good thing.
Viral: People love to share clever videos, giving them a good chance of broad distribution (if they are indeed clever!) When a fun video gets in the right hands, you can literally wake up to thousands of visitors or leads.
6 Tips for Successful Viral Video Marketing
So what can you do to increase the odds your viral video marketing gains all the reach it deserves?
Comedy or drama:
Comedy and drama sells offline. And it sells online too! A funny or dramatic video with an intriguing storyline performs far better than those without. Rather than creating a video about your product, create good story and treat your product like a product placement. Not sure what product placement is? Watch any reality TV show and notice how consumer products are weaved into the story line.
Trend-based: Pop culture drives consumer interest. Always has, always will. Use this fact to your advantage. Create a video that gives a nod to a current trend, and you'll attract more viewers.
Compelling title: Just like any other piece of content, videos need compelling titles too. Titles are the first thing a prospect sees and often makes the difference between a huge success and the best video never seen. If your know your ideal reader, creating a compelling title should be a snap.
Short in length: Keep your videos short, or people will lose interest. For a video with a story, shoot for a duration of between 90 seconds and 3 minutes. A short and entertaining video is a great set-up for...
Make a sequel: Video is simple. If you think you've got a good storyline, make a series of several videos. Link each video to its prequel and sequel to maximize viewers. The result is all good: more views, more pages indexed on Google and more trust and appeal for your brand. Hubspot's FourSquare Cops did a great job with this.
End with a call to action: What's your end game? Every video should end with a call to action. Where you are driving someone to a landing page or trying to sell a widget, make sure your video ends with a call to action. When you upload your video to a video site, make sure the first thing in your description is the link to your site. People won't make it to your site if you don't tell them how to get there.
Wrapping It All Up
Video marketing can be a fun and easy way to extending the impact of your marketing programs. Get creative, don't be too stuffy and be clever placing your product, service or brand in a video with the chance to travel the world.
Question: What's your favorite video and why do you like it?
How can video marketing help you achieve your goals?
Schedule a free video marketing consultation today. You learn how a targeted video marketing campaign can drive leads, customers and influence.
Posted by Ryan Malone
Good copywriting is the secret weapon for marketers. It drives all that we do-web site conversions, landing page performance, building blog readership, video scripts, social media reach and followers to our social media profiles. Without doubt, the choice of the right copywriter is a big decision for your business.
Here are 8 things to consider when hiring a copywriter:
Strong marketing background: Seek someone who has worked in a variety of marketing roles, including content marketing, public relations and lead generation. This marketing experience will be invaluable as create messages for your company. You want someone who has walked in your shoes.
Strong interviewing skills: Look for a writer who asks many questions and demonstrates strong interviewing skills. The most powerful arguments are in your team's heads-arguments only a strong interviewer can unlock.
Skilled at writing in various formats: Look for a copywriter who has experience working with a variety of formats included books, blog articles, social media updates and scripts. Strong writers can work successfully in a variety of different formats.
Experience with media and industry analysts: Ensure your writer has experience working with the media. Media-savvy writers know how to place compelling hooks in your content without exposing you to a public relations problem.
Published byline articles: Find a copywriter who has published byline articles in leading publications. You want to find a writer with the skills to write for large and diverse audiences.
Social media presence: Seek a copywriter who has a strong social media presence. This ensures content is created with an eye for how it will be received and shared throughout your social networks.
Technical aptitude: Select a writer who has the ability to translate technical or complex concepts into language easily understood by your reader. Confused readers will simply not respond to your calls to action.
Strong references: Make sure your writer can provide references from leading-brand companies. Writers with large-company experience will be more comfortable and polished when interfacing with your executive team or those from your customers.
Is your content marketing reaching its potential?
Many white papers never reach their potential. To learn how many companies are exceeding white paper marketing expectations, download the free white paper 7 Tactics to Boosting White Paper Performance: The Many Benefits of the White Paper Launch Method. In this paper, you'll learn how a single white paper can help you:
- Boost white paper performance: more leads, more customers, more influence
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- Build relations with industry analysts and reporters
- Increase high-quality inbound links to your web site
Photo credits: Sasha Walton,
Posted by Ryan Malone
For those of your using Hubspot for you inbound marketing analytics platform, you know that best practices require a daily, weekly and monthly set of tasks. Some of these are very useful, some are designed to keep you focused.
As a huge GTD fan, we use OmniFocus to keep track of these reviews for our clients. For those of you who also use OmniFocus for GTD and want an easy-to-use template for your Hubspot review, we've created this template:
Hubspot GTD OmniFocus Template
The file includes a daily, weekly and monthy project that is repeated. Each project is completed when the last task is done. Once you unzip the package, you can launch the file. It will load OmniFocus and this template as a separate database. Then just copy or drag and drop it into your own OmniFocus group and create a copy for yourself or each of your clients.
Standard Disclaimer: This file is was created as a courtesy. We are not responsible for anything that happens as a result of your utilizing this tool.