Why you need to integrate challenger marketing into your content marketing strategy to inspire action
“Thought leader” is a phrase that’s beginning to spark more ew than awe.
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Last week, Reputation Ink celebrated its fourth year in business. I founded the agency in June 2011 working out of my home with one large client (who we still work with), and in the last four years, we’ve grown to include over 20 clients (including many large, global corporations), six full-time employees, several freelance writers we have established relationships with, and a group of specialist agency partners we collaborate with for technical and creative support.
We have more growth ahead of us, but I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished so far. I thought I would mark our anniversary by sharing what I’ve learned about marketing and growing a professional services business over the past four years.
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According to a recent benchmark study by Marketo, 50 percent of leads aren’t ready to buy yet. That’s why it’s important to nurture them for a while and separate those who will never buy from those who will.
With advanced marketing automation software, companies can see a prospect’s behavior on their website virtually in real time. As consumers, we all know this on some level, but when your sales rep calls me while I’m still perusing your website or before my e-book is even finished downloading, I am forever turned off from whatever it is you’re selling.
Here’s why:
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How I transformed my career from lawyer to ESPN reporter to sports marketing consultant by becoming a ‘visible expert’
On Wednesday, March 11, I’m honored to be a panelist at the Jacksonville Women’s Leadership Forum on a panel entitled “Game Changers: Career-Defining Moments.” At just 33, why was I chosen for a panel on career-defining moments? It was probably because of that big career switch I made four years ago when I left my law practice and became ESPN’s sports business reporter on my way to becoming a nationally recognized expert on the business of college sports.
As I’ve prepared for my panel the past few weeks, I’ve been struggling to pinpoint the exact moment that changed my career.
My gut reaction was to say it was when I got my first book deal. Except, I wouldn’t have gotten that first book deal if I hadn’t written a legal journal article on the same subject or blogged about it for months afterwards. So was one of those my game-changing moment?
It took me a few weeks, but I finally figured it out. All those things — my legal journal article, my blogging, my book deal, my eventual invitation to write for Forbes and appear on television for Comcast Sports Southeast — they were all stairsteps on my way to my true game-changing moment: when I became a “visible expert” on the business of college sports.
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Many of the clients we work with understand the benefits of having a blog. Most, however, haven’t embraced developing an editorial calendar. That’s a huge mistake.
Assigning bloggers to specific days, thereby creating an editorial calendar, makes many bloggers nervous. You want the freedom and flexibility to write when it’s convenient for you – we understand that. However, an editorial calendar has benefits that cannot be overlooked.
An editorial calendar ensures you have a minimum number of posts per week. According to a study by HubSpot, companies that post more than 15 blogs per month receive five times more traffic on their website than companies that don’t blog at all. If you have a smaller team of writers — or maybe it’s just you — 15 posts per month might not be a reasonable goal. However, the same study showed companies that increase blogging from three to five times per month to six to eight times per month almost double their leads.
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As inbound marketing gains in popularity, some companies are playing catch up, while others are reaping the rewards of their efforts and refining their strategies. The cardinal rule in content marketing hasn’t changed along with the calendar year: it will forever be to focus on helpful, useful content that is well written and produced. As more and more companies see the ROI of inbound and shift more marketing dollars to content marketing, it’s important to know where to focus your attention:
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Whether you’re in public relations, journalism or content marketing, the meat of your job is communicating. And with communicating comes emailing—lots and lots of emailing. You’re constantly clicking in your inbox:
It comes with the territory. However, if you use Gmail, there are plenty of hacks out there to make your life at little easier. Here are my two favorites at the moment:
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Do NOT buy that marketing automation software (just yet). Before you pull the trigger, please read this blog post first.
Marketing automation is an incredibly valuable tool that is transforming the marketing industry. In the space of one year, the number of marketing technology companies has nearly doubled, rising to nearly 2,000 in 2015 according to Marketing Land.
However, it still faces an embarrassingly high failure rate of 60 percent. According to the Sales Benchmark Index, three out of five marketing automation installations fail, meaning they are under-utilized, not used at all, or eventually canceled.
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I’ll admit it: I hate talking on the phone. I’m in my early 30s, so I certainly grew up with the phone as my primary means of communication as a child and through my teens, but my professional years have been spent relying on Google, email and social media for any communication I cannot conduct in person. I’m a huge proponent of getting out and meeting people in person, but I absolutely loathe having to talk on the phone.
When I was a practicing attorney, I liked doing things by email so there was always a record. However, when I became a journalist and started writing for Forbes and then ESPN, I had to get over my aversion to the phone in order to interview sources for my stories. Then I joined Reputation Ink, and I was encouraged to pick up the phone to follow up on pitches and get to know editors.
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Have you finished polishing your clean slate yet? Happy 2014, I mean 2015 (ugh, I’ll be doing that for at least another two months). It’s no secret this time of year rings in resolutions and refreshed motivation. So what’s on your goals list? If finding a fulfilling, fantastic new job is top priority, this post is for you.
As Michelle wrote in my favorite post of hers yet (who doesn’t love getting showered with compliments?), Reputation Ink is in hiring mode, on the hunt for a full-time position marketing and public relations account executive. You can see the full job description here.
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