Posts tagged: Content Marketing

The Medium may be the message, but the message still applies

Posted on March 22, 2012

by Stephanie Goodman

Last September, I wrote a blog titled “The Medium is the Message” and how it applies to our social media efforts. As mentioned in my previous blog, McLuhan’s theory was not made for the internet and social media, however, his theory applies none-the-less. When stating “The medium is the message”, McLuhan believed that it was not what we said, but the way we said it that mattered most. Although McLuhan was right in saying that the way we send our message is important, we cannot neglect the message itself; this is where the importance of copywriting comes in.

Copywriting is essentially the value of your company, its services and products in writing. In order to ensure you accurately portray your brand to your customers, prospects and even competitors, here are a few tips to get you on your way:

  1. Assign someone to do the task. Startups and growing organizations suffer from inadequate resources to get things completed. Find the person in your company that handles the majority (or all) of your Marketing efforts. This person will have some prior insight into how your company should be communicating with your audience.
  2. Prep yourself before writing. We won’t all be superstar copywriters at first, but a bit of help can lead to success. Attend webinars, read whitepapers and even take a copywriter in your neighbourhood out for a coffee to pick their brain for an hour.
  3. Make a copywriting plan for each medium. Put a copywriting plan in place for your Social Media outlets, Whitepapers, Email Newsletters and Website. Having copywrite for each medium put into a plan and templated will make it easier to pass it on throughout your company. It will also serve as a back-up source of information in case any of your employees need a refresher.
  4. Keep a content calendar. A content calendar can be done on something as simple as Microsoft Excel, or it can be done on Google Docs. Either way you choose to track this information, make sure your entire team is on the same page. This way, the timeline and expectations for each source will be known by all your employees. Mark Evans speaks also speaks on the importance of content marketing and how it applies to our Marketing efforts; check out his website for more information. 

If you’re looking for help on your copywriting efforts, or simply looking for resources on Copywriting techniques, reach out to myself or sign up for our monthly newsletter filled with great information, suggested readings and events on Sales and Marketing.

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Tips for Starting a Linkedin Group

Posted on March 15, 2012

By Tabitha David

Recently VA Partners launched a group on Linkedin called “Sales and Marketing for Canadian Startups” Linkedin groups have a number of benefits for member such as sharing content and making connections, as outlined in a previous blog post.However, from the perspective of a group owner there are different things to consider when it comes to Linkedin groups.

When I was doing research on how to start a Linkedin group I came across a number of resources with great guidelines.These include articles from Hubspot  and Social Media Examiner.The recently published article “How to Run a Successful Linkedin Group” featuring Sourov De and Chris Hebert has some great tips as well.

Below are some tips I have gathered:

Marketing:

  • Develop a digital marketing strategy to gain momentum in attracting members.Use social media platforms such as twitter  to spread the word. Other outlets can include the use of your newsletter.You can use these platforms to not only present the launch of the group, but to also provide continual updates on the group’s progress.
  • Use connections that individuals have on Linkedin to send out personal emails encouraging them to join the group to by outlining what benefits it could offer them.It’s important to only invite people who will actually consider joining.

Content:

  • Since the group is encompassing both sales and marketing it’s important to vary the topics of the content that is being posted as well as the sources that they are being drawn from but still maintain the overall topics of sales and marketing.
  • Formulate questions and post them as discussions to allow members to engage in conversations.
  • Comment and like discussions that are posted by other members in order to show that you are involved in the group’s discussion board.

Monitoring:

  • Decide whether an open group or a closed group is more appropriate for the goals of your group.Some factors that play a part in making your decision include: approving members, approving discussions or allowing updates without any approval.The decision to have an open or closed group will alter the amount of time you will regularly spend on the group.
  • Set up group rules for members to refer to.This also shows that this group is meant to facilitate only relevant discussions.It indicates to members that the group managers are involved in the group’s progress and are committed to making it one that will be beneficial to its members.
  • Develop a way of addressing spam and other promotional material.First, it’s important to create guidelines on what is considered spam and what isn’t.Utilize the personal message feature in Linkedin to connect with anyone who is posting things that aren’t relevant to the group

It’s important to realize that once the group has been launched many of your pre-planned ideas may need to be adjusted.For example there can be lot of activity on the group’s discussion board so you may reduce the amount of content you post.Continue to develop your plans to cater to your groups demographic.

Take a look at the group “Sales and Marketing for Canadian Startups” to see the results of the efforts that are put into creating a Linkedin group.If you have any more tips drop us a line in the comments section.

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Linkedin Group: Sales and Marketing for Canadian Startups offers valuable content and connections

Posted on February 23, 2012

By Tabitha David

Venture Accelerator Partners presents a new Linkedin Group: “Sales and Marketing for Canadian Startups”. While doing some preliminary research on Linkedin groups we noticed that a lot of groups were catered towards one area of the business world, for example Social Media, Marketing, or Sales. Here at VA Partners we believe that Sales along with Marketing and Social Media all work together, so it only made sense to have a group encompassing all three topics. It was also discovered that many groups were tailored to a broad audience so we felt that it was important to focus the group down to startups in Canada. This is crucial for the development of local discussions and connections.

Over the past month and a half the VA Partners team has been working hard to plan the start of this group. This begs the question, what are the benefits of being a part of Linkedin groups? Here are just a few of the reasons this Linkedin group can be helpful to you:

Valuable content: Linkedin groups offer information about topics that you are specifically interested in. As a member you are able to choose groups to join that will cater exactly to your needs.  This group focuses on Sales and Marketing. The content on the group has been compiled from a number of sources which eliminates the need for you to search for information from different places. As group managers we will also do a thorough job of weeding out spam to create the best content for members.  Additionally this information can then be shared with your organization, through social media streams, and other personal connections allowing you to pass on the valuable content.

Participation: Linkedin groups aren’t just for reading interesting articles and blogs; it is a forum in which you are able to contribute to. Members can use this platform to ask for advice, feedback and share their opinion. Most members are also genuinely interested in learning and sharing which provides the perfect environment to cultivate interesting discussions.

Connections: Simply by engaging in insightful discussions, it is highly probable that as a member you will discover new connections. People participating in the group are likely to be interested in the same topics as you are; this mutual interest can increase the chance of interaction. In addition, some groups, are location bases, including this one which is for Canadians. Therefore, members that you are beginning discussions with may be located in the same geographical area which again increases the probability of gaining connections.

As you can see, Linkedin groups offer a number of benefits to active members. To see what the group is all about click here and get involved in the active discussions to learn more about sales and Marketing.

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Learning to utilize Email and Social Media Marketing to reach out and keep your customers

Posted on October 11, 2011

by Stephanie Goodman

Social Media and Email marketing are two categories that I’ve found most popular among blogs, webinars and topics of discussion. Common questions from those less social media/email marketing savvy are: Is Twitter/Facebook right for my business? Will I really reach my customers the right way by using an email newsletter? Isn’t this “new” type of marketing a fad? One of the most important things to remember is that social media and email marketing is not a fad, and although I’ve said it many times before, if you are not moving your business’ marketing efforts at the same pace as the rest of the companies in your industry (and the dozens of other industries) you and your brand will be left in the dust. 

Last week I sat in on a webinar hosted by Constant Contact about “Email and Social Marketing” run by Josh Mendelsohn. I took away a few interesting facts from Josh about B2B businesses, social media marketing, email marketing and what those of us in marketing need to remember when targeting our current and future customers.

Watch what you say and do. According to a study presented by Josh, 82% of small businesses have said word of mouth is the most successful form of marketing. Word of mouth may not be taking place on social media but what a company says or does on social media will be talked about. Interact with your customers on Twitter or Facebook, listen to their concerns or their praise and acknowledge that there is a company behind an account. If a customer complains to you on Twitter and you ignore their concern, the likelihood that they will suggest your services at the next cocktail party they’re at or coffee meeting is highly unlikely.

Don’t be a 5 minute tweeter.  By this I mean, don’t spend 5 minutes increments on Twitter throughout the day and only send out tweets during those times. Your followers will notice that you’re not engaging with your audience and instead using Twitter to pump out information at them like an advertisement. Schedule your tweets, using platforms like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck, to ensure that you’re consistently sharing information throughout the day.

Find out what your audience wants and respond to it. At VA Partners we use Constant Contact for Email Marketing and have found their “Reports” tool very useful in understanding what are readers are reading and what sparks the most interest. If we see multiple hits for a particular sales blog, we use those analytics to perhaps write a follow up on that blog rather than ignoring useful marketing statistics. Use the analytics from an email newsletter to continue to provide your audience with the information and educational material they’re interested in. Constant Contact also provides an Email Survey tool that can be used in conjunction with the Email Marketing tool.

If you’d like to see what VA Partners is doing with our e-mail marketing, sign up for our newsletter. The newsletter is sent out on the first Tuesday of every month and showcases our featured blogs, recommended events to attend, recommended reading list, connection of the month and links to our social media platforms.

 

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Increase your Sales efforts by implementing a Social Media plan

Posted on September 27, 2011

by Stephanie Goodman

Last Thursday I posted the blog “Starting or Managing a Social Media strategy? Key terms you need to know” which was Part  1 of a book review for How to Make Money with Social Media. In the second part of my review, I’ve consolidated important tactics from the book to know and learn when starting or managing any social media plan or strategy.

Ensure you have the resources. There is nothing worse than starting a social media plan and having it fail because the person in charge is stretched too thin with other duties or there wasn’t a social media coordinator designated in the first place. Before starting your plan, make sure your company has the resources, structure and capabilities to keep up your social media efforts. In saying this, do not leave the job of representing your company’s brand and image over to a summer intern. The changes are, they do not have the right resources and will not be there long enough to see it through.

Outline your company’s situation analysis. Know how your company’s goals, objectives, strategies and tactics are built. In order to be the online face and presence of a company, one must know how the company operates inside and out.

Become familiar with Social Media Etiquette. When online, follow these guidelines:

  • Show Respect
  • Show Responsibility
  • Demonstrate Integrity
  • Be Ethical
  • Add Value

Education can go a long way. There is more to engaging customers than posting an interesting fact or tweeting an article. Become a thought leader and educate your audience. People can sense when they are being sold to, so instead of telling them what they need, educate them on the things they could have (bringing these back around to the services you provide).

Quantity is just as important as Quality. Measuring the quantity of your social media efforts could include your Twitter following, your Facebook likes, Blog comments and Foursquare check-ins. Measuring the quality of your social media campaign is when you look into who those Twitter followers are, who the Facebook likes are from, what people are saying to you and about you and how they are saying it. Is there a negative undertone to the responses you’re generating or are people pleased with the information you are providing them? Measuring your quantity and quality of your social media efforts will help you determine the cold leads from the warm ones.

  • Social Media measurements: Twitter followers, Facebook fans, comments, social bookmarks, page views, inbound links, click-throughs, leads generated, ratings, downloads, conversions, likes/favourites, growth of fans, followers and friends, online mentions across blogs, positive and negative feedback and bounce rate.

For more information on services pertaining to social media, take a look at our website and feel free to email, call or tweet if you have any questions.

 

 

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