If you’re reading this… you’re part of the Connected Generation.

Today’s marketer is faced with a unique problem. There currently exists a generation of digital consumers that marketers have never before had to consider… The Connected Generation.

The Connected Generation is defined as any consumer willing to communicate, build relationships and ultimately make buying decisions using digital and social media tools.

Did you notice a key ingredient commonly referenced to define a generation missing from this description?

Age.

When marketing to the Connected Generation, age does not matter. 

It doesn’t matter if you were born in 1981 or 1951, if you use digital and/or social media tools to communicate, build relationships and ultimately make buying decisions then you are part of The Connected Generation.

Technology does not discriminate based on what year you were born. You don’t have to punch your birthdate into your iPhone every time you’d like to make a phone call…

…why then, when discussing digital and social media marketing do we always reference Gen Y in regards to our target audience for these tools?

My 58 year-old father goes online and researches restaurant reviews the exact same way that my 25 year-old sister does. They are both members of the Connected Generation.

Here is a short Slideshare presentation that explains the Connected Generation visually and in a little more detail {let’s connect on Slideshare}:

If you found value in this presentation and would like to share on your own blog, use the code below:

<iframe style="border: 1px solid #CCC; border-width: 1px 1px 0; margin-bottom: 5px;" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/21462418?rel=0" height="486" width="597" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no"></iframe></p> <div style="margin-bottom: 5px;"><strong> <a title="Marketing to the Connected Generation" href="http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/ryanhanley/~www.slideshare.net/ryanhanley/the-connected-generation" target="_blank">Marketing to the Connected Generation</a> </strong> from <strong><a href="http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/t/0/0/ryanhanley/~www.ryanhanley.com/the-connected-generation-marketing-in-a-world-where-age-doesnt-matter" target="_blank">Ryan Hanley</a></strong></div> <p>

The Connected Generation is Why We Use Digital Marketing

When age doesn’t matter…

…we can focus less on demographic bias and more on who our consumers actually are.

…we don’t have to chop up our marketing efforts to reach market segments.

…we can be laser focused on the tools necessary to deliver our message. 

This is why we use digital marketing tools such as content marketing, social media marketing and email marketing to help grow our business.

Seven years ago Facebook was filled with 20-somethings, there wasn’t a Baby Boomer to be found anywhere. That has profoundly changed. Digital marketing tools are no longer meant to only reach the younger generations. Mature social platforms, advanced logistics and widespread high speed Internet connections have given a large subset of US consumers the ability to communicate, build relationships and ultimately make buying decisions on their own terms…

This is the Connected Generation.

They’re not “technology” people, they’re people who don’t want their life interrupted for the benefit of someone else. 

As a marketer we don’t choose the Connected Generation.

They choose us…

…on their time,

…based on their own research and

…their own opinion of how your companies value structure aligns with their own. 

Understanding what how and why the Connected Generation chooses to do business with one company over another is a huge step in moving from an amateur to professional content marketer.

I dare you to forget about age.

Forget about age and focus on telling the exact consumer you want to attract who you are, why you do what you do and how you do it. Then you don’t have to worry about interrupting, the Connected Generation consumer will find you.

If you want to learn more about the Connected Generation, I encourage you subscribe to my newsletter here.

Thank you and Good luck,

I am Ryan Hanley

I hope you already realize choosing the correct keywords for your content is extremely important to your content marketing success. If not, from now on using the correct keywords are very important. Unfortunately for most of us, the keywords that logically make the most sense to attack are also the hardest keywords to actually rank for in Google Search.

Unless… we unlock the power of hidden long-tail keywords our competition doesn’t know exist.

Long-tail keywords are any keyword phrase longer than three words. Traditionally, content marketers haven’t spent much time attacking long-tail keywords because they receive a lower amount of total search volume. However, this creates an opportunity for anyone who does, as there is significantly less competition making it much easier to rank for long-tail keywords.

The following video outlines a two free tools and very simple strategy I use to find hidden long-tail keywords to use in my content marketing efforts.

Watch is video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMsvUH8ukaY

It’s easy, especially when you’re first starting out, to get enamored by large search volume numbers. I’d love to rank #1 for the term “Content Marketing” and receive the lion’s share of 33,100 unique searches a month.

The problem is there are 937,000,000 pages indexed for the keyword “Content Marketing.”

However, by going after the long-tail keyword phrase, “Hidden Long-tail Keywords,” I might only get 50-100 visits a month. But there are only 349,000 pages indexed for this phrase so there is a very good chance I can rank on the first page.

I encourage you to find hidden long-tail keywords for your business and enjoy content marketing success.

Additionally, this is the first video of what is going to be a new regular feature here at Content Warfare dedicated to content marketing tactic tutorials. To stay current on new resources click here to connect on YouTube or use the box below.

Thank you and Good luck,

I am Ryan Hanley

Speak Your Mind

What tools do you use for keyword research? What insights do you have about finding profitable or hidden long-tail keywords? What questions do you have about keywords?

Share below…

A golf lesson on content marketing success.

This is the eighth letter in a series on Professional Content Marketing. 

World class golfers like Tiger Woods see the game of golf differently than you and I…

…but the hard reality is that difference has nothing to do with their athletic abilities, work ethic or God given talent. It would be much easier to accept our lack of success if this wasn’t true. It’s much easier to accept the success Tiger Woods has achieved, including fourteen major golf championships, if it were all the result of simply being chosen by some higher power.

In considering our own content marketing success (or lack there of) it’s easy to look at Chris Brogan, Pat Flynn, Marcus Sheridan and the many others who’ve achieved at the highest level and equate their success to a talent or opportunity given to them that hasn’t been given to us.

There have been times in my own career when I’ve felt this way. You see another achievement from someone who’s already successful and ask, “Why wasn’t I chosen?”

Then I took a golf lesson and everything changed.

A Golf Lesson on Content Marketing Success

As a Christmas present this year, my father-in-law gave me two golf lessons at a local country club. A lifetime of playing baseball ruined any chance I had at a naturally successful golf swing and honestly, I think he’s sick of beating the pants off me. Two golf lessons was a much appreciated gift.

I took the first lesson about a month ago. It was cold, April in Upstate New York still feels like pouring a cup of ice water over your head, but I was anxious to get the golf season off to a good start.

I had never met the golf pro and upon our introduction I didn’t have high hopes. His cordial half smile gave away, that he was probably a pleasant man, but this was most certainly a business transaction.

When we got to the range I took five swings to get loosened up and give him a feel of what he was working with.  As I stood over the ball for my sixth shot, I asked the Pro, “What should I be working on? What’s a drill I should be doing at home to improve?”

…his answer changed the way I view achievement and success.

“How about you focus on where you want the ball to go… and then put it there.”

I was floored…

…what about mechanics?

…what about setup?

…what about positioning?

He said,

“Tiger Woods sees the game of golf differently then you do and it has nothing to do with mechanics. Every shot, no matter if it’s on the (driving) range, Augusta or mini-golf, Tiger Woods focuses on nothing else other than where he wants the ball to go and what he wants it to do when it gets there. He visualizes every aspect of the journey the ball will take to get to his desired destination. Then he swings. Forget about mechanics, your body knows what to do… The hard part for amateur golfers is focusing on what they actually want to happen.”

When he finished speaking, I found myself staring at him, awkwardly.

Wisdom.

Who was this guy? Is Arnold Palmer teaching golf in Upstate New York? As it turns out my golf pro is no one of overt distinction, just a man who’d studied the game of golf for a long time. What he didn’t realize is that he had not only given me the secret to golf but also content marketing success.

The Goal Dictates the Mechanics

About a month ago I created Ask Hanley, a resource for readers to ask their content marketing questions. I average five questions a week through the portal. But if you count emails and social media, the number of questions I receive a week about content marketing is well over twenty.

Without fail, every question is about tactics.

There is nothing wrong with this. Tactics are important.

…unfortunately tactics don’t help us reach our goals, if we don’t know what those goals are.

By focusing on tactics we’re essentially trying to push a rope.

Don’t focus on content marketing tactics, your goal dictates the tactics you’ll use. Who knew that a sixty-something year-old golf pro at a local country club in Upstate New York could distill such wisdom.

The Rub

Here’s how we harness this wisdom to achieve content marketing success:

1. Take out a piece of paper and write your most critical content marketing goal at the top as large as you can (i.e. capture more email subscribers).
2. Now quantify that goal (i.e. a 1,000 new subscribers).
3. Below this write a one sentence description of why this is your most important goal (i.e. with 1,000 new subscribers I can extract enough new clients to start my own business).
4. Next write down the timeframe in which you need this to happen (i.e. for my own sanity I need this happen in six months).
5. Finally, visualize the path to capturing new email subscribers and write a list, in order of importance, the tactics that will help you achieve your goal (i.e. create free eBook, build landing page, find relevant blogs for guest post opportunities).

If your goal is more email subscribers than the tactics you use are simple and well documented. If your goal is more Facebook Fans than the tactics are completely different.

Your goal dictates the tactics you’ll use.

So the question becomes, what is your goal?

Write your content marketing goal in the comments below and any questions you have about the tactics necessary to achieve that goal. I’ll do my best to help align your goal with a set of tactics that yield content marketing success.

If you love telling stories and want more, I encourage you subscribe to my newsletter here.

Thank you and Good luck,

I am Ryan Hanley

image credit: http://society6.com/VladimirSomov/Golf-on_Print

Story sells…

This the seventh letter in a series on Professional Content Marketing.

“Stories are the currency of human relationships.” ~ Robert Mckee

Storytelling is embedded in our DNA. Before human beings were putting their stories on cave walls, they were passing along survival strategies through stories.

Fast forward to today and consider how much we are willing to pay and go out of our way just to experience a great story.  Have you been to the movies lately? You’re going to pay $12, sit in an uncomfortable seat surrounded by 100 strangers just for opportunity to experience a great story. We don’t even blink at $10 for latest best seller for our Kindle and don’t even think about a live performance. A couple theatre tickets are going to set you back at least a Benjamin and you’ll still be a funny angle or really far away.

But then have you ever seen Les Miserables on Broadway? Or read the entire series of Game of Thrones series? Or seen Avatar in IMax?

When it comes to a great story, cost doesn’t matter. We crave the emotional journey of a well told story and the opportunity at that experience is worth the price of entry every time.

The most successful content marketers have figured this out. Spend 10 minutes reading just anything produced on Copyblogger and it’s obvious that stories sell.

Yet when it comes to corporate blogging we fail miserably at storytelling…

…stories are seen as unprofessional.

…stories can be misinterpreted.

…stories can offend.

…stories aren’t direct.

…stories rely too much on imagination and creativity.

Stories open the door to criticism and potentially negative feedback… the digital nightmare of every corporate executive.

So we take every product or service we sell and create lists of functionality. We refer to our business in the 3rd person. We don’t discuss individual staff members outside of their specific staff bio page. We never take a stance on any issue, nor do we discuss any topic in which we would could possibly have provide an actual opinion.

And truth be told, at the beginning of my career this was me. 

Fresh to the content marketing game, trying to produce content I thought was, “A good representation of our business.” 

The content I produced was so bland and boring and direct and politically correct and watered down it was impossible to provide any value. I was an amateur content marketer and I thought what I was creating was exactly what business blogs were supposed to look like.

…I used insurance insider language and technical terms.

…I used “The Murray Group” instead of using “We” or “Us” or “I.” 

…Every post was filled with information and no personality.

I was regurgitating insurance policy form information to try and sound “Professional.”

Heaven forbid a client or prospect visit our website and be offended by a reference or opinion.

I got exactly what I wanted. I didn’t offend anyone. I didn’t piss anyone off. No one left negative feedback on our blog. No one started a Facebook page dedicated to hating on our business.

…and no one connected with us on social media networks. No one shared my articles. No one subscribed to our newsletter. No one picked up the phone and called us for an insurance quote.

I got exactly what I wanted, a non-offensive, professional, boring, useless online presence.

A month went by, then two months, then we were through the first quarter with ZERO success. I couldn’t figure it out. I was writing three blog posts a week. I was sharing them on social media. We had a email newsletter that went out every month.

This content marketing stuff was supposed to work.

When we reached six months I was about ready to give up. Why would so many intelligent marketers preach content marketing strategy if it didn’t work?

Then I started to re-read old posts.

Awful.

I was ashamed.

When I created each post I thought I was creating something valuable, except I HATED reading them. I created these posts and I hated them, they were mundane and ordinary and lacked energy (yes, insurance can have energy). This is when I realized why I’d hadn’t achieved any success.

No stories.

If insurance consumers wanted technical information they could pull their policy documents out from under the cabinet leg they’d been keeping level. If I was going help people become more informed insurance consumers I needed to start telling some stories they could relate to.

I am not the best storyteller. But what I’ve realized since my revelation, is that the only way for me to successfully sell insurance, my content marketing speaking services or any other products online is through storytelling.

“Great stories succeed because they are able to capture the imagination of large or important audiences.” ~ Seth Godin

7 Secrets of Storytelling Success

This is not an exhaustive list, but I do think adding a few of these seven “secrets” to your storytelling will help yield better results:

#1 – Be Subtle

Our story is meant build trust with the reader. Direct, overt sales tactics and solicitations DO NOT build trust. We use storytelling to attract new relationships, leads and sales over time. We must be subtle in our desire for action. The story must be spun in a way that our Connected Generation audience feels they chose us and not the other way around.

#2 – Be Specific

Our story must be specific to one segment of our audience. This is a transcendant content marketing principle. If we attempt to address every member of our audience with ever story we tell, failure is the guaranteed result. Write one story for one segment of your audience. Keep doing this till you’ve addressed every segment.

#3 – Be Authentic

Storytelling should be done in YOUR voice, with your words and your cadence. Don’t try and recreate a formulaic process that may have worked for someone else. Your story only works if its yours.

#4 – Be Honest

Don’t inflate your success. This bears repeating, DON’T INFLATE YOUR SUCCESS. Writing a story about “going viral” claiming you received 100,000 visitors in a day when you only received 5,000 will eventually come back to bite you… and when that day comes all credibility will be lost and no one will believe your stories again.

#5 – Be Brief

If your story can be told in 750 words, don’t tell it in a 1,000. Brevity is a powerful and appreciated weapon in your storytelling arsenal (admittedly a weakness of mine).

#6 – Be Relatable

You know your audience (or at least the audience you’d like to have). Your stories should mix in locations, activities and vernacular that your specific audience (or desired audience) can relate to. We want our readers to place themselves into our story and believe they are part of it.

#7 – Be Direct

Don’t beat around the bush with your story’s climax (get your head our of gutter). We’re using storytelling to sell our products. If the resolution to the problem we described in our story is a product or service you sell then you must tell the reader and direct them to your solution. Don’t assume that readers will infer your product is the solution. Mixing #1 and #7 is an artform.

The Rub

You don’t need to have a have PHD in 17th century British novelists from Johns Hopkins to spin a story that sells your products and services online. Sometimes it can be as simple as retelling a memory for childhood or an experience you had helping a client the day before. Your stories don’t have to be long, nor must they be filled with vast unimaginable successes to sell your products.

The trick is to keep your eyes open in every day life and begin to see the stories taking place in your life that will help you to harness storytelling and ultimately make more sales.

If you love telling stories and want more, I encourage you subscribe to my newsletter here.

Thank you and Good luck,

I am Ryan Hanley

photo credit #1: mugfaker via photopin cc

image credit #2: http://society6.com/EllieBNoels/story-J7Q_Print

Have you ever become frustrated with digital marketing?

Don’t worry… we’ve all been there.

Digital marketing at face value seems intuitive. You write a couple blog posts, connect with a couple people on Facebook and BOOM… things start to happen.

Unfortunately this just isn’t the case. Over time we develop weaknesses, activities we struggle with so much the desire to continue marketing our business online disappears.

Fear not, digital marketing hope abounds!

In this week’s episode of the Content Warfare Podcast we discuss how to turn 13 of the most common digital marketing weaknesses into strengths. The best part is every weakness we discuss was submitted directly by my Facebook fans {we can connect on Facebook here}.

Two weeks ago I asked very simple question:

“What would you consider your biggest digital marketing weakness?”

This is the amazing response I received and what ultimately pushed me to do this podcast. How can I not do everything I can to help friends so willing to share their weaknesses? Thank you to everyone that submitted a weakness… I hope this helps.

If you would like to add to the discussion simply click here or on the image below…

Show Notes

• Jon Morrow Headline Hacks eBook
• Evernote

Support the Podcast

If you haven’t already I’d very much appreciate your review of the Content Warfare Podcast on iTunes…  This is the most powerful way you can support the show.  If you’d like to support this podcast please:

{Leave a Review on iTunes}

Subscribe to the Content Warfare Podcast

To subscribe, please use the links below:

• Subscribe via iTunes
• Subscribe via RSS
• Subscribe via Stitcher

If you have a chance, please leave me an honest rating and review on iTunes by clicking Review on iTunes. It will help the show and its ranking in iTunes immensely!

Listen on your Mobile Phone by downloading the free Stitcher App.

Here’s to winning the battle for attention Online!

This is the sixth letter in a series on Professional Content Marketing.

You’re going to have days void of creativity and originality.

Become comfortable with this fact of content creation.

There’s no tool, trick, tip, tactic or strategy that will allow you sidestep “The Block.”

…and “The Block” does not discriminate.

Yet professional content marketers continue to create content at a relentless pace where amateurs find themselves bloodied and beaten licking their wounds as far from a keyboard as possible.

How do they do it?

The answer to this question is also the secret to creating more content.

The inevitability of “The Block” is NOT an excuse to stop creating.

This is what professional content marketers realize that everyone else does not. If we’re going to successfully leverage the power of content marketing to attract attention, capture leads and make sales we have to create more content.

…and we can’t create more content by shutting down every time we don’t feel original or inspired.

Every piece of content we create does not need to be Shakespeare.

There are going to be days when every word will be clumsy and disconnected. Verbal vomit if you will… Your thoughts won’t be coherent and your conclusions will miss the mark.

Flat out there will be days you suck at creating content.

But we must create through those days. If we can’t squeeze an ounce of originality or personality or creativity out of your brain…

…then we write whatever mundane, trivial thought is bouncing around that cavern in our cranium. We don’t have to move mountains every day. We simply need to create everyday.

Content marketing is grind.

If we write through the hard days, the easy days will be really easy.

Professional content marketers write because they have to, because it’s who they are, because we never know when our Muse will decide to tap us on the shoulder and deliver our symphony. If we’re not at the keyboard than our small moments of brilliance may never take a breathe.

…and here’s a truth I’ve learned from experience writing over 400 blog posts in 2012, the tides of creative genius have a way of favoring those who put in the work.

You must put in the work to ride the waves…

Create till your fingers bleed, till scabs form, till your rough callused finger tips would make a banjo player jealous… then create more.

Because it’s here, when the pain of creation no longer exists that our mind is truly free to see what needs to be said. The turn of phrase, the twist of tongue, the innuendo at just the right instant to entice your audience to take action.

Brilliance.

Just like life, creation is a gift. We must nurture and feed that gift, never taking for granted it’s fickle, delicate nature by assuming we can command creativity to respond at our whim.

Creating More Content

Creating more content for your business or brand or mission has nothing to do with making time or coming up with new ideas. You simply have to write.

Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way, calls this her “Morning Pages.” Three full pages of writing every morning about anything and everything… whatever is on your brain at that moment. If the only thing you can think of is that you hate writing, then your three pages that morning will be filled with, “I hate writing” over and over and over.

Embrace the failure and awfulness of your early writing efforts. If you’re worried about sucking, then you probably do. THAT IS TOTALLY OK. Everyone sucks when they start.

But if you never start creating content… then you’ll always suck.

Give yourself permission to start… today.

If you’ve started and want more, I encourage you subscribe to my newsletter here.

Thank you and Good luck,

I am Ryan Hanley

photo credit #1: Lucia Whittaker via photopin cc
photo credit #2: Hani Amir via photopin cc

This is the fifth letter in a series on Professional Content Marketing.

This is going to sound mad…

…but I want to STOP trying to sell your product or service online.

No more sales pitches disguised as blog posts.

No more “Buy Now” social media posts.

No more pushy direct mail tactics.

We’re bludgeoning consumers with our online sales message and it’s simply not working.

Our traffic isn’t growing. 

We’re not capturing new leads.

No one is buying from us online.

The problem is simple, we’re trying to sell online.

Truly gifted content marketers never sell, or rather they sell without selling. They sell because they do everything but sell.

Please don’t pass this off as naive blogger speak and then mumble something to yourself about Return on Investment as you hit the back button.

Consider Who You’re Marketing To

We’re talking about online marketing here… The Connected Generation… people who digest information through smartphones, listen to podcasts while they work out and build blogs to share their thoughts with the word.

…they don’t need nor do they want you selling them anything.

The Connected Generation wants to choose you.

So that’s what we have to do: make them choose us.

Selling Without Selling to the Connected Generation

Direct mail sales tactics still work, no doubt they do, on Unconnected Generation consumers who have no ability to stay current on the products and services available in the market.

Much to the contrary, the Connected Generation has the tools, resources and most importantly the desire to research and stay up-to-date on the latest trends in the products and services they need. This is basically the defining principle of being a member of the Connected Generation (remember age doesn’t matter).

We live in a world where most products are a commodity.

The process of creating a product, having that product manufactured and delivering that product to the consumer is not difficult nor are there many ways to differentiate the process. One hundred years ago this was not the case. One hundred years ago the ability to scale the manufacturing and distribution process of quality products was the differentiation between companies.

Today, what separates Infiniti from Ford is Buying Experience and Ego.

When we understand why a car buyer would choose an Infiniti over a Ford then we’ll be able to position our value proposition in a way that creates action within the Connected Generation.

Why experience and ego matter to selling online

Think of today’s Connected Generation consumer as a child, they want the instant gratification of feeling good throughout the buying experience as well as the ego stroking positive reinforcement they get from ownership.

Connected Generation consumers live public lives and the things they purchase are a direct representation of who they are. Every purchase is on display. We want to be able to tell our friends and our family what an amazing experience we had purchasing a product and how awesome are for having done so.

There is a common belief among Connected Generation consumers that who is are as people is built upon the brands and organization we follow and buy from…

…so we must create an experience and perception around our product or service that matches the type of consumer we wish to attract.

Alone in it’s box the ego waits…

How to sell experience and ego online

If you’ve made it this far then you must believe my mad notion that hard sales tactics and interruption marketing are NOT the answer.

I want you to forget about sales funnels, pay-per-click advertisements and long landing pages filled with bright yellow highlighted copy…

…and instead focus on education, entertainment and transparency.

Don’t sell to your audience, become part of your audience. Give away all your knowledge for free. Support the consumers of your product or service in every way you possibly can without asking for a dime in return. Discuss each and every failure you’ve had within your business and what you’ve done to make sure it never happens again.

I’m talking about digging deep into the Simon Sinek “Why” of your business and finding ways to integrate into the lives of your consumers.

Become a member of your own community and start solving peoples’ problems. If you focus on making yourself part of the community of people who could potentially buy your product and less a gatekeeper of that product you’ll never have to sell.

At that moment you will become the trusted, respected authority in solving whatever problem it is you solve and to go to anyone else for a solution would just be silly.

The Rub

I’m not mad.

I’m not crazy.

I haven’t lost my mind.

I believe the successful organizations of our future will dedicate themselves to integrating into communities of people with a problem their product or service fixes and will deliver unyielding value before ever asking for a sale…

…maybe I am mad.

Thank you and Good luck,

I am Ryan Hanley

P.S. If you’re feeling a little mad yourself I encourage you subscribe to my newsletter here.

image credit #1: http://society6.com/product/Were-All-Mad-Here-8ci_Print
image credit #2: ‘PixelPlacebo’ via photopin cc

…Mark Traphagen is guy you want to know to find out how to be successful on Google Plus and we got to pick his brain on some very cool topics:

• Understanding that all organizations have a finite amount of time for marketing why should a business choose Google Plus over Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc?
• How does Google Plus fit into a content marketing strategy?
• What is the Authorship Tag and how does fit into Google Plus?
• What is Author Rank and how is it impacting Google Search results today?

These are just a few of things we discuss.

I HIGHLY recommend you connect with Mark on Google Plus here.

Show Notes:

• Mark’s blog on Virante
• Mike Elgan “The Google Plus Diet” 
• Google Plus SEO article
• Mark Traphagen on Twitter

Support the Podcast

If you haven’t already I’d very much appreciate your review of the Content Warfare Podcast on iTunes…  This is the most powerful way you can support the show.  If you’d like to support this podcast please:

{Leave a Review on iTunes}

Subscribe to the Content Warfare Podcast

To subscribe, please use the links below:

• Subscribe via iTunes
• Subscribe via RSS
• Subscribe via Stitcher

If you have a chance, please leave me an honest rating and review on iTunes by clicking Review on iTunes. It will help the show and its ranking in iTunes immensely!

Listen on your Mobile Phone by downloading the free Stitcher App.

Here’s to winning the battle for attention Online!

Authenticity is more than a buzzword…

To be nobody but myself-in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make me somebody else-means to fight the hardest battle any human can fight, and never stop fighting. ~ e.e. cummings

If you read blogs that involve marketing advice you’re probably completely sick of the word authenticity. I don’t blame you, the word authenticity is thrown around to support limp arguments on the under-explained, overemphasized theory that somehow authenticity is the holy grail to success in digital marketing.

Like if you find your “Authentic voice” that somehow your traffic numbers are going to spike through the roof of your Google Analytics account and you’ll have to turn the volume down on your computer from the Cha-ching of your paypal cash register.

…maybe.

But probably not.

Instead of going all “You must be authentic…”

Let’s start with a simple question:

What the heck is authenticity?

Authenticity defined

Not false or copied; genuine; real; having origin or authorship supported by unquestionable evidence.

No matter how hard to try to be original, the Internet echo chamber is going to have an impact on what do, say and believe… and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

The “Be original, epic, authentic” advice is a complete crock of shit.

Your voice online is going to be a stew of every word you’ve ever read…

…every piece of music you’ve ever listened to

…every conversation you’ve ever had

…every movie you’ve ever watched

…every experience you’ve ever lived through.

Authenticity in content marketing has nothing to do with your ability to be original.

Read that last sentence again because there are many experts, much more well-known than I, that would tell you otherwise. Authenticity in online business is about staying true to your own point of view and the direction of your business goals.

Write as a human being for human beings and you’re authentic.

The audience can tell when you’re writing for robots… Getting found in Google Search is great but if visitors don’t stay then what good was the effort to create content in the first place?

This is what authenticity means to profesional content marketing. We mix a human voice, meant for humans, with quality content that solves consumer problems and wrap it in help first, sell second message.

That’s authenticity.

Robotic, mechanical, corporate content sucks and is the antithesis of authenticity.

This may seem counterintuitive but professional content marketing at it’s core is Just Be Awesome SEO. Simple ideas, expressed in a way that only you can express them.

America runs on Dunkin’… the Dunkin Donuts Facebook page runs on you!

Look at our biggest brands… GEICO, McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts, Zappos… look at the way these brands (huge corporations) deliver their marketing message in very human terms. They don’t plod out mundane sentence after mundane sentence filled with jargon and adjectives, they break their products down to the human core of what they do.

Dunkin’ Donuts’ does a great job with their “America runs on Dunkin” campaign. GEICO (as much as it pains me to admit this) has a great strategy in radio and online using references to local landmarks in each of their markets. Zappos has employees try on shoes and produces video of the employee explaining how the shoe looks and feels. McDonalds produces unique blends of coffee (if you believe they actually do this) for each of it’s markets and names them accordingly.

These are mega-corporations working to create a human feel to their business. Don’t kid yourself into thinking your small or even mid-size business needs to be “Corporate or professional.” Nor do you need to wait for that truly original idea before you take any action.

Authenticity is being human. It’s that simple. It has nothing to do with being original or unique.

Professional content marketing is selling the human in your business to the humans who buy from your business.

Remember when your Mom put you on the school bus your first day of kindergarten? You were nervous because there were so many new faces… Then she patted you on the head and said, “Just be yourself.”

That same advice applies to creating content online (within reason obviously).

So what do professional content marketer’s know that amateurs don’t?

The ability to create authentic content isn’t some magical formula or god given gift, just a willingness to be human (which includes humility, transparency and voicing opinions).

Forget about being original or epic, just be yourself.

Game plan for creating authentic content

Here’s what you need to do to get started creating authentic content…

…write something about your business exactly as you would say if you were talking to your best friend, read it out loud to be sure it sounds like you (or have someone else read it to you), adjust accordingly, hit publish, repeat tomorrow.

You’re now creating authentic content.

It truly is that simple. The best part… people will recognize you and your writing because it sounds just like you. They’ll trust what you write because they’ll know it’s you.

The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are. ~ C.G. Jung

This is the fourth letter in a series on professional content marketing. You can subscribe to future letters here or if you would like to view the entire series click here.

Thank you and Good luck,

I am Ryan Hanley

image credit #1: http://society6.com/PeterBagi/Authenticity-is-invaluable_Print
image credit #2: makelessnoise via photopin cc

New media needs new advertising principles…

“You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.”

Every day marketing evangelists such as Seth Godin, Sonia Simone, Mitch Joel, Marcus Sheridan and Craig McBreen take to their respective outlets of communication and deliver the message that interruption-based marketing, the old advertising model, is dead.

Old advertising simply doesn’t work in a connected world. There’s too much information available, too easily distributed for the connected generation to rely on interruption-based marketing methods for buying decisions.

If you’ve read this blog for any period of time, then you know that I believe, just as the thought-leaders I mentioned above do, that today’s new media demands new advertising principles.

The Pig

Unfortunately, many organizations feel that spreading their message using new media is enough. We These organizations believe that by applying the doctrine of old advertising to new media they can continue the success achieved when interruption based marketing worked on the entire population.

I call this lipstick on a pig marketing…

…and it’s not a term of endearment.

If we’re to believe that old advertising is no longer effective in marketing to a connected generation, which I hope you do, (if you don’t follow any of the links above for any of the masters of marketing that I mentioned and read a few of their articles) then we must embrace a new way of distributing our message.

We must Integrate our message not Interrupt with our message.

Business owners get confused by the differences in new media versus old media and new advertising versus old advertising. Twenty years ago we used billboards and cold calling and direct mail and print ads to spread the message of what our products and services could do.

Based on the technology of that day, old media, we had to interrupt to be heard. The principles of old interruption-based advertising were built around the media constraints of that time.

Where business owners struggle with content marketing, social media and the other digital tools at our disposal is the application of old advertising to new media.

But technology has changed everything, we no longer need to interrupt the lives of our consumers in order for our message to heard.

We fail at delivering our message through content marketing and social media because we try to dress up old advertising with new media and expect no one to notice.

We’re putting lipstick on a pig and calling it beautiful. 

It’s annoying, disruptive interruption based marketing no matter shiny new social network we use.

Every day I receive emails and Facebook messages asking me questions about why their website isn’t attracting traffic or why they can’t attract more likes on Facebook or more twitter followers…

…though their specific tactics for each question that can help the core problem is always the same, old advertising with new media. {Get an answer to you content marketing questions here}

Old advertising is not dead

I do not believe old advertising is dead. There is still a significant portion of our population that needs interruption-based old advertising methodology in order to become aware of what’s available in the marketplace. This is the unconnected generation. With the unconnected generation we use old media combined with old advertising principles to attract new clients for products and services.

… and you can run a business successfully marketing only to this segment of consumers.

However, if you have any desire to market your business to the larger and fast-growing connected generation, the group of individuals looking to communicate, build relationships, and ultimately make buying decisions using digital tools, then we must throw out the old principles of advertising and apply a new set of advertising values to the new media tools of today.

What shade of lipstick do you use?

3 signs you may be putting lipstick on a pig:

#1 No feedback from blog posts or social sharing

I would never consider comments a primary form of judging an online advertising campaigns success, a lack of social engagement can signify that your message is not connecting with the audience as you intended to.

Two my buddies, Jon Loomer and Marcus Sheridan, had a great discussion on this topic on Jon’s podcast, (click here to listen for yourself), in this discussion they debated the importance of comments in a social campaign, ultimately they agreed  that comments should never be used as success indicator but should be used as a way to develop a content voice and messaging.

Lesson: Per blog post, per Facebook post, the number of comments is not overly important. But taken as a whole, if you’re creating content that integrates into the lives of the consumers that you’re trying to sell your product or service, there should be some form of feedback. Certain types of businesses and certain types of products will receive more comments and feedback than others. You can always adjust or add messaging that encourages feedback such as interesting images, questions, polls and contests to ensure that your audience is listening and engaged.

#2 High email unsubscribe rate

One of the most important marketing assets of any business is the email list. You want to protect your email list as if it’s one of your children. Building an email list takes time, effort, strategy and in some cases even capital investment, the last thing that we want to do is hammer those email subscribers with your sales message the moment you get them on the list.

A high email unsubscribe rate should trip the fire alarm in your head that you’re using old advertising tactics in your messaging.

Lesson: when marketing to your email list use white cotton gloves. For every one salesy message we send package ten straight value add messages around it. Remember these people subscribed to your email list because they want to learn from you and build a deeper relationship with you, not have your products and services shoved down their throat.

Take your time, get to know the people that are on your email list, and market to them slowly. You’ll see a significant decrease in the number of people who unsubscribe.

#3 High bounce rate on your website

I don’t care what this says about me as a person, I will look at my Google Analytics account every day. I like to constantly have a feeling for what is working and what’s not. After traffic, I always look at is bounce rate.

To me a low bounce rate signifies good human SEO. Bounce rate tells me what kind of experience the people who visit my website are having. A high bounce rate means that individuals are visiting my site, not enjoying what they see or not finding what they need and leaving immediately. This is very often synonymous with using old advertising tactics on our website in an effort to capture leads and sales immediately before ever building value in the minds of the consumers visiting your website.

Lesson: For most businesses return investment is the number one priority when making decisions. So our first inclination is to place our sales message right on the homepage with the idea that sales should be our websites primary function. This is an old advertising tactic.

The connected generation has been marketed to their entire online lives. Connected generation consumers came to your website to learn more about your product and services, more about you and more about the people who make up your business.

The first time someone visits your website they most likely did not come to buy your product or service. So if you have a high bounce rate it can be a sign you’re being too salesy too soon. Try finding ways to add value to the lives of new consumers first, through an e-book, and e-course or a free consultation and then sell them on your products and services once they view you as valuable resource.

The Rub

Ther are many marketers and business owners that hold onto the old advertising principles and shout, “But this is the way it’s always been done…”

…but it isn’t any longer.

Not by the organizations that want tap into the Connected Generation.

There are new media tools that simply don’t allow old advertising to work. If you try to force old advertising onto new media tools you’re simply putting lipstick on a pig…

…and you’ll never get the return on investment you desire.

If you’d like to learn more about using new marketing with new media follow my series of articles on professional content marketing by subscribing here. You can view the first installment here.

Thank you and Good luck,

I am Ryan Hanley

image credit #1: :http://society6.com/product/Pig-HVz_Print

image credit #2: http://society6.com/product/Actions-Speak-Louder-Than-Words-2cy_Print