Just like in traditional selling, you can’t just march in unannounced and ask for the sale. You have to do the work and prove yourself first. Content marketing is no different.
An Audience Is Your Greatest Asset
Building an audience is difficult, which is why it’s so valuable. Organic growth takes time, but if you are willing to do the work, you can create perhaps your most valuable business asset.
How to Get Past Writer’s Block
If you’re running a business, you don’t have the luxury to succumb to writer’s block. Your content strategy depends on consistency, so you need to keep things moving. Here are a couple strategies that I employ, and I hope they will work for you too.
Getting Started on Your Book Project
Any book project is a daunting task. It’s simply too much to comprehend all at once. Here’s how to assess and organize the content you have, make some key decisions, and actually get the process started.
Things to Consider Before Starting Your Book Project
Writing a book is a huge undertaking. To make it more manageable, here’s how to use a blog as your first draft. Practicing in front of a live audience is not only good for your writing—it’s good for your business too.
Should Writing a Book Be a Part of Your Content Strategy?
Writing a book is not to be taken lightly. But it can be a fantastic strategy if it serves your business goals. Let’s look at the considerations to help you decide for yourself.
What the World Doesn’t Need
Do we really want people to stop innovating? Because that’s the sentiment in the phrase, “what the world doesn’t need.” Even if you’re not an early adopter, you can get behind innovators who are making the world a better place.
You Haven’t Tried Everything
Saying that you’ve tried everything is a form of giving up. But while there are always more things to try, how do you know when to stop? Is the project truly over, or is success right around the corner?
How to Run a Successful Kickstarter Campaign: Interview with Bruce Myren
Kickstarter can be a great strategy. But there are a lot of myths about crowdfunding, which is why most campaigns fail. On today’s episode, Bruce Myren shares his strategy and experiences in successfully funding his own project with Kickstarter.
Ideas vs. Execution
Ideas are a dime a dozen, even the great ones. It’s the execution that counts. So, if you’ve got a great idea, get going. Start building, start creating, start testing. Start solving problems. There’s nothing in your way.
The ROI of Content Marketing
What’s the ROI of content marketing? Measuring awareness is easy, but measuring trust is not. Awareness alone won’t do it for you though, and your message won’t travel without trust. So if content marketing is going to work for you, don’t start with the ROI question.
Content Marketing: Content as a Promise
Make a promise to your audience. Then consistently deliver on that promise. That’s content marketing, in a nutshell. Building authority, credibility, and most importantly, earning the right to ask for the sale down the road.
Content Strategy: Content as an Asset
Content strategy can make you a lot more efficient if you treat your content as a business asset. With a little strategic planning up front, your content can be a renewable resource—an investment rather than a cost.
Separating Strategy and Tactics in Content Marketing
For content marketing to be effective, you need two things: 1) a strategy; and 2) a set of tactics to execute the strategy. Here’s how to make sure that they are working together in service of your business goals.
The 3 Types of Content Every Small Business Needs
Any content strategy involves three types of content. The first two are about you and your business, but the third one is your true upside, because it’s about a relationship between you and your customer. The trick is to get all three types of content working together towards your business goals.
Is Content Marketing Right for Your Business?
Content marketing take a lot of time and effort, so you want to be sure that it’s a good investment. In the seventh episode of “Marketing without the Marketing,” Michael Boezi talks about how to determine whether or not your business is likely to benefit from content marketing.
How Your Audience Creates More Audience
In the sixth episode of “Marketing without the Marketing,” Michael Boezi talks about how you should abandon self-promotion and motivate your audience to bring you more audience.
The Three Core Elements of Content Marketing
In the fifth episode of “Marketing without the Marketing,” Michael Boezi talks about consistency, persistence, and patience—the three “core elements” of content marketing.
Building the Foundation of Your Content Strategy
In the fourth episode of “Marketing without the Marketing,” Michael Boezi talks about how to establish an online presence with The Three Pillars of Online Branding: Web, blog, and social.
Why Content Marketing is Your Only Choice
In the third episode of “Marketing without the Marketing,” Michael Boezi talks about how to cut the marketing speak and get better results using a content strategy instead.