Our own Greg Fry was recently involved in the successful Smart Business Show where he delivered an amazing Workshop based on content marketing entitled How to Create Content that Flies.

The two day Conference was held in the RDS, Dublin and had a twofold objective; connecting business innovation and sharing ideas on working smart in business.

The Smart Business Show incorporated inspirational speakers, innovative workshops, insightful business stands, talk zones, digital engagement zones and more.

How to Create Content that Flies

Greg’s  aim was to take the participants on a quick fire journey through the ways Content Marketing can make a significant impact on business and ultimately make a difference to your Companies’ ROI.

The How to Create Content that Flies Workshop was a huge success so we thought we would share the Slideshare Presentation with you and some of the key highlights that Greg imparted on the day.

content that flies

The Content Marketing Institute defines Content Marketing as:

A strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience and ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.

The supporting statistics to this definition speak volumes:

Marketers who have prioritised blogging are 13x more likely to enjoy positive ROI. (HubSpot State of Inbound, 2014)

  • B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads than those without blogs. (Social Fresh)
  • Blogging increases web traffic by 55% for brands. (Rocket Post)
  • 62% of marketers use video in their content marketing. (NewsCred)
  • 73% of consumers get frustrated by irrelevant web content. (Source: HubSpot)

In fact, Greg used a quote by the former Chief Evangelist of Apple, Guy Kawasaki, to illustrate the fact that it does not matter a whole deal whoever creates the content; it’s the content itself that matters.

“The nobodies are the new somebodies” (Guy Kawasaki)

content that flies

 

There is no point in just creating content though; you have to have a reason, a structure, a target and a goal in order to get your content to fly.

Greg asked the Workshop participants these five relevant questions to create thought about the practical relevance of content to their business.

  • What are your business objectives?
  • Who is your audience?
  • Where are they hanging out?
  • What content would they find valuable?
  • What budget can you allocate for content creation and distribution?

content that flies

The thoughts and ideas generated from these type of questions will give you a guide on the type of content marketing required for your business.

There are many types of content marketing:

  • Infographics
  • Short Videos
  • Podcast
  • Case studies
  • E-Books
  • Link Round Ups
  • Visual content
  • Guides/ How to posts
  • Product reviews
  • Interviews

Are just some of the ways you can deliver content to your target audience.

In fact Greg wrote a great blog about killer content ideas for your blog that illustrates many of them.
A sample of some of the tools that can be used to create great content were also shown in the Workshop.

These included:

  • Write Great Titles: http://coschedule.com/headline-­‐analyzer
  • Use Great Looking Visuals:  Canva   PicMonkey and  Pablo by Buffer
  • Get Great Content Ideas: Feedly.com Buzzsumo.com

Greg also explained the value of keyword research using the Google Keyword Planner. He advised to consider the keywords that offer:

  • Relevance
  • Lots of searches
  • Less Competition

content that flies

When writing your blog, the advice given in the workshop was to:

  • Create a headline that grabs the readers attention
  • Write a great first paragraph. It should hold the reader’s attention, explain what the post is about and describe the value the post offers the reader
  • Use bullet points & numbering to make your posts easy to follow.
  • Use images to make your post stand out
  • Research your posts carefully and proof read carefully.
  • Invite comments and encourage readers to get involved.
  • Use your blog to demonstrate your expertise and listen to your readers and clients needs. If a customer emails you with an interesting question or even leaves a question on your blog. Ask yourself would this make a valuable blog post for my readers?

The ten key take- aways for creating content that flies for your business and, in turn, generating an increase in ROI were:

#1. Add Share Buttons at the top and bottom of your posts
#2. Post Blogs to 3rd Party Sites. Consider Book Marking sites.
#3. Consider writing guest blogs and contributing to Business/Community blogs. Comment on other people’s blogs. (be strategic)
#4. Use visuals and video in your blog posts.
#5. Include a link to your Blog on your email signature
#6. Tag your posts.
#7. Add Links (inbound and outbound).
#8. Encourage users to subscribe to your blog
#9. Be Consistent
#10. Write Good Titles and think SEO when writing your posts.

Think about how you can create content that flies for YOUR business.

Check out the full Slideshare presentation below and post any questions you may have in the comments section below. We will be happy to answer all your queries!

[slideshare id=47258047&doc=contentmarkeingworkshop-150421152931-conversion-gate02]