What is “Adaptive Content”?

shine-and-happy-1440357Adaptive content is a strategy that can be utilized across multiple channels and throughout all types of content.  The goal of adaptive content is to personalize interactions between business and consumer to the maximum extent possible.  It is developed and designed “around” your particular set of customers and includes sensitivity to their moods and goals.  Statistics from an Econsultancy.com article show that, “94% of businesses say personalization is critical to their success.”  That is a statistic that every business should know and take into consideration.

 

Personalization and Delivery

Adaptive content is a necessary requirement for a successful personalized experience across many channels (i.e., print, sales, training, customer support, etc.).  Adaptive content is geared away from the “one-size-fits-all” strategy.  Retailers need to learn to leverage this type of content.  It has proven highly successful in the marketing and consulting industries, taking client conversion rates to an all-time high.

Content Strategy and Karma

According to the Intelligent Content Conference web site, “The underlying ethos of content marketing and user-centric content strategy involves karma: The more real value you give to consumers, the more that will come back your way.  The more we can make our content adaptive, the more we can realistically deliver tailored, high-value content without running out of budget, resources, or time.”

A New Look at the Five Ws

ICC invites us to take another look at those classic five Ws: Who, What, When, Where, and Why.  To really understand adaptive content and get to the heart of the strategy, you will need to look at each “W” with a new vision and two different perspectives.  Who is your target audience really?  Who/What is your company/business/organization and Why?

  • Who are your customers?
  • What kind of content will provide your customer with the most value?
  • When should you display which type of content?
  • Where should you display your content so that it attracts the largest audience?
  • Why are you creating this adaptive content (i.e., what value do you want it to provide to your business?)

Your customers are ready for personalized, adaptive content?  Is your business ready to deliver?

 

A Content Overseer Can Help!

the-leader-515337-mWhat is a content overseer?  What role can that person play within your organization?  A content overseer reviews all marketing content for acceptability and applicability to each different marketing platform.  Studies show that organizations utilizing a “content marketing strategy” are the ones who are most successful.  It’s always a good idea to have a second set of eyes, a second opinion, another person’s frame of reference to review work efforts to ensure the final content meets the firm’s goals.

Content Marketing with a Content Overseer

The world of content marketing is changing; it’s progressing and growing. The more experienced marketers become about quality content and how to use it to engage clients, often with the help of a content overseer, the more it becomes apparent that a “content marketing strategy” results in the highest dividends with respect to building a solid client foundation.

You Have to Have a Strategy

In fact, a “documented content strategy” says Social Media Examiner is the key ingredient to content marketing success.  As the content marketing industry grows, so too do the expectations placed on content writers and managers; therefore, the greater need for a content overseer.  The players gain more expertise with every passing day and demands for higher quality content grow, as well, to achieve the ultimate goal: a successful business.

Social Media

Can social media help?  Is it effective?  Yes and yes.  LinkedIn has the reputation of currently being the top social media site for businesses.  Three other sites with the biggest recent increases in popularity include SlideShare, Google+, and Instagram.  Social media is a very cost-efficient method for promoting your content and it can be hugely beneficial to your marketing strategy.  Why?  It is concise and it has the ability to reach around the globe instantly.  It is typical for content marketers to use an average of six social media platforms to promote business messages and reach target audiences. With such a wide range of platforms, a content overseer can be the glue that holds all the marketing tools together.

Content Creation is Increasing

Upping your game with quality content and a documented strategy that has set guidelines in place to ensure all parts of the process are successfully interacting helps bring the most value for your money and your time.  You need quality content.  Why?  Because the number one purpose of quality content is to offer information that will attract new customers to your products and services.  Quality content is designed to highlight the message of your business with rich wording that will grab the attention of potential clients. You need a content overseer to ensure all pieces of the marketing puzzle fit well together.

With the wide variety of marketing platforms available today, is it any wonder your business needs a content overseer to coordinate your diverse marketing efforts?  It’s the only way to ensure you are utilizing all the tools at your disposal to get the best results possible.

Depressed About Your Facebook Stats? Don’t Be!

question-2-1339414-mAre you finding it difficult to get FB likes? Does your FB strategy seem not to be working? It can be depressing when you get those FB emails with Facebook stats regarding the people you have (and haven’t!) reached during the preceding week. Why aren’t your FB posts making impacts and reaching people and increasing those FB stats?

PHOTOS AND IMAGES

Your cover photo is the first thing people will see when visiting your FB page. If you only use a bland representation of your company’s website address, that’s not going to garner the kind of attention that a cutting edge photo or image will muster. Remember, you only have a few seconds to GRAB and KEEP prospective FB likers’ attention! Make it worth their while, and yours. Increase those Facebook stats!

  • Show benefits of products or services to increase Facebook stats.  When someone gets to your FB page, let them see what you do. Utilize pictures and/or images that will represent what you can offer that will be of value to them. When you do, your Facebook stats should improve.
  • Offer something free.  Nothing gets someone’s attention like FREE stuff.  Do you have a free report, e-book, e-guide, e-newsletter that you can offer to give away for free? In return, you’ll also get their email address that you might possibly utilize for future mailings, with their consent of course.

USE FACEBOOK APPS

Select your use of FB apps wisely. Make sure they are interesting and, again, have something of value to offer your FB viewers. Use your creativity, your genius, your imagination – you’re going to need something “different” from everyone else to stand out and increase your Facebook stats.

USE VIDEOS WISELY

Plug in a video with an interesting title. Keep it honest and, again, use your creative powers to GRAB their attention.  Then have the video link back to that interesting something that is located on your web site.  You will take them out of the FB realm and deposit them in your realm. But you had better be sure where you’re dropping them off is interesting and has a high potential for proving useful to them if you want your Facebook stats to increase.

STRONG CALL-TO-ACTION

It’s what everyone wants: a strong call-to-action that will convert web travelers to clients. Start out with a call-to-action that a majority of people can identify with, whether it be a sporting event that’s in the news, a business topic that has recently been in the news, an environmental topic, a favorite charity, etc.  By asking your FB viewers to “LIKE” an agreeable issue that most people could find themselves getting behind, you are creating a base of interest to your FB page and you are more likely to get more “LIKES” yourself.

It can be discouraging to see those Facebook stats that get emailed to you if you haven’t had a successful week, but, keep your chin up! There are still plenty of things you can do to increase your FB likes and get those positive, motivating FB statistic emails rolling in.

Three Ways Your Business Can Use An E-Book

communicate-4-1162225-mE-books have become the norm for reaching a target audience with your message.  Why?  They are electronic, first and foremost, which is nearly crucial these days to finding success online.  An online e-book can reach many people very quickly.  What can it do, specifically, to help grow your business?

ACT AS AN INTRODUCTION

An e-book can be a handy introduction to your company and your services and/or products.  Like e-newsletters and e-guides, they can provide a short, quick reference to who you are and what your company has to offer.  Seconds matter: getting a prospective client’s attention with a well-written e-book that is concise and to the point can prove extremely valuable to growing your client base. Offer them free on your Facebook page; that’s a great way of introducing your services – plus, you can grow your list of email addresses which might have marketing potential.

MARKETING COMPANION FOR BUSINESS LIFECYCLES

E-books are easier and more cost-effective than traditional publishing methods to produce. They can also reach a vast and wide audience, quicker and more efficiently than traditional books.  As your business moves through different phases (i.e., lifecycles), these short information messengers can help spread news about changes, products and services, recent content surrounding your industry, etc.  EPUB-style e-books should also be a priority as they can be uploaded from iBookstore, as well as Barnes and Noble, and Amazon.

ANOTHER SOURCE OF INCOME

As well as being a source to spread messages about your business, your services/products, and your industry, these short electronic books can also become another source of revenue for your business. You can easily add an interesting and informative e-book to your line of business tools by growing interest in a subject and then charging a small fee so others can download it straight from your web site.

E-books can be profitable in a number of ways. Select topics with care, using intuitive thought, and combining images and graphics with refined text that is concise and to the point. Many suggest using colors in a complementary fashion, as opposed to just black and white text. Done on the computer, this is a very easy and cost-effective solution. However you choose to promote your business, using these brief marketing tools can be very beneficial.

 

 

Is LinkedIn Sucking Up Your Time?

linkedinIt’s easy to get lost in the world of social media management. There are so many platforms and so little time. Sure, a social media management service like ours can help (read: Shameless Plug for More Business), but for some companies, managing those feeds is an essential part of what they do. The problem? They often take more time than they’re worth. LinkedIn is little different from the others in that regard. Is it actually paying off? One article suggests it’s not, at all.

Is LinkedIn a waste of time?

Is LinkedIn really linking you in? With more than 238 million members, including 4 million in Australia, a profile on LinkedIn is like the modern-day equivalent of a business card.

But how many of those users have benefitted from LinkedIn?

Leadership expert Paul Lange was an early adopter who began using LinkedIn when it launched in 2003.

Paul Lange says LinkedIn has become less relevant.

“At the time it was a great way of finding people,” he says.

“It became like an online Rolodex.”

In the past 10 years, Lange says he has gained about $3000 in work from LinkedIn. This compares with an $80,000 contract he scored from a connection on rival business networking site SunZu (previously Ecademy).

Lange says LinkedIn has gradually become less effective and relevant in the business landscape.

Check out the full text of this article, because it makes some pretty interesting points. That said, though, be careful with your time. Social media is an important part of any marketing interface today, but there are lots of other marketing methods out there that may prove slightly less time consuming.

Are You Really As Good As You Say You Are?

conceitedWhen was the last time you reviewed your LinkedIn profile page? What about your Twitter profile? Facebook? Google+? The chances are good that you haven’t looked at any of them since you initially set them up, right? At the time, you probably thought social media marketing was a slam dunk, and it was going to bring hundreds of clients to your virtually door within hours of your first posts. Now you know the truth about social media marketing – it’s just as difficult as other marketing methods, and the payoff can take just as long.

If you’re still plugging away at the social media equation (and we think it’s essential that you do), maybe it’s time to take a look at those self-aggrandizing profiles you created to help get things started. Does anyone actually want to buy from a company that claims to sell world famous fudge, even though no one outside of a five mile radius has actually heard of the stuff?

The key with any social media profile is a bit of perspective. You need to subtly sell your company without overselling it. Are you award-winning? Maybe, but the awards you gave yourself at the employee banquet last year don’t actually count. Do you really offer cutting-edge services? It’s possible, but the truth is, there aren’t that many services out there today that actually fall into that category.

Need to rethink your profiles? Give us a call. For a low rate, we can not only help you revise those profiles, but also automate your social media processes too so that your content truly is stellar, not just claiming to be. For more, check out our social media services page, then give us a call!