5 Tips To Avoid Losing Money On Content Marketing

I know one business owner who hired a content marketing agency because he wanted to build his business.

The agency said it would bring in over a dozen inbound leads per month.

After four months of preparation and two months of releasing content, he ended up sacking the agency because it had not brought in a single lead.

Of course, he’d already spent several thousand pounds with them by then.

So how do you avoid this happening to you?

Tip #1: Understand what content marketing is

At its simplest, content marketing is a way of proving you are an authority in your field.

It makes you more credible: people are more likely to choose you before others.

This means giving people advice so that when they decide they need a product like yours, they’ll think of you first and get in touch.

For example, you might sell an IT system that helps companies comply with health and safety legislation.

If so, it makes sense to offer advice on how the latest legislation is likely to affect them, the trends in the industry, and so on.

In the old days, this was simple. You struck up a relationship with someone in your relevant trade press – or the local press – and wrote articles for them.

That’s still an option. But now you can also get your information out via a blog, downloadable reports on your website or an email subscriber list.

And that’s not even mentioning the various social media.

Then there’s the question of how often you need to create content.

This leads to some important questions:

Do you know your market well enough to write about it convincingly? If not, you need to hire someone to do it for you and they will not come cheap. Come to think of it, if you don’t know your market, you won’t survive long anyhow. And come to think of it again, many peoples’ idea of what their market is turns out to be spectacularly incorrect.

Do you have a clear idea of how best to reach your market? Yes you can write a blog, but if your customers prefer to read the trade press then blogging won’t help you. And if nobody reads your blog – often the case – you’re wasting time anyhow.

Do you know how often you need to put information out? Once a quarter? Once a month? Once a week? Once a day? There is no fixed rule. You need a feel for what will interest your customers – otherwise you can end up wasting a lot of time and money putting out useless content. And you need to be constantly thinking what will interest them. Every time you think of something, communicate.
Tip #2: Don’t believe the hype

Unfortunately, content marketing – indeed virtually all marketing today – is based on fallacies.

The biggest fallacy: that customers are fundamentally different today to how they used to be.

Well, after 54 years in marketing I can tell you that’s rubbish.

Customers today are no different to how they were when I started in this industry in the 1950s. All that’s changed is that there are far more media you can use to reach them.

Statistics are bandied about ‘proving’ that people now have fearfully short attention spans, when actually they always did. With advertising in a newspaper (for example) you only had split seconds to grab someone’s attention before they flipped the page.

If you don’t understand people, and realise that people have not fundamentally changed, you will lose money with your marketing. It’s that simple.

But from the idea that people now have the attention spans of goldfish, many agencies will point to studies showing that people don’t like to have their day disrupted by advertising. They find it annoying.

Let me assure you that people have always found bad advertising annoying. This also hasn’t changed.

Marketing people love easy answers. They yearn for a world where one particular approach – the one they specialise in – will solve all problems. And they are good at proving it to you.

If you don’t apply a little logic you can end up losing a lot of money.

An agency may show you that more money is now being spent on marketing to attract inbound leads rather than outbound leads.

They tout this as proof that inbound marketing is more successful.

However, what they won’t do is show you the revenues generated by inbound versus outbound; only how much is being spent.

As you’ll have worked out already, that’s like saying a Mercedes ad campaign is more effective than a Volkswagen one because Mercedes spent five times as much.

There is precious little proof that inbound marketing is more successful at generating leads or sales. And that should be all you care about.

Tip #3: Find out what works – and copy it

There is no doubt that content marketing does work if used correctly. Here are some examples.

Serial entrepreneur Neil Patel runs three blogs. Each one has over 100,000 regular readers and they are the number one source of customers for his various businesses.
Almost all of consulting coach Ian Brodie’s new customers now come to him as inbound leads.
US information publisher Agora runs a number of daily email newsletters to generate new business.
What do these three have in common?

Each uses the same technique as the cornerstone of their content marketing.

When you visit one of Neil Patel’s blogs, for example, you get a pop up offering you a free report in return for your email address.

If you choose to delete the pop up, you get taken to a page with another sign up box asking you to subscribe to his emails. Only once you get past that do you get to read the blog.

Similarly, at the top of Ian Brodie’s homepage is a sign up box offering you a free report in return for your email address.

And as I’ve already indicated, Agora’s content marketing model is based entirely on getting you to sign up for one or more of its email newsletters. It offers at least half a dozen different ones, depending on your interests.

Examples are all around you when you look for them – even from so-called social media experts.

Mari Smith is a renowned Facebook ‘guru’, yet when you go to her homepage what’s the first thing you see? An email sign up box.

It’s the same for Pinterest ‘guru’ Melanie Duncan. Go to her homepage and the first thing she asks you to do is not to find her on Pinterest – it’s to sign up for her regular email updates.

In fact, you have to negotiate three pop up boxes asking you to subscribe before you can get to the homepage itself.

Why do they all do this?

Because getting people to subscribe to your regular updates is a tried and tested method of increasing sales. Subscribers have opted in to receive your news and advice, so they are more likely to read the content.

And of course, for every few emails offering advice, they slip in one selling something. Or they get you to return to their website or go a landing page that tries to sell you something.

Pop up boxes are surely just as annoying as any other form of disruptive marketing.

I’ll bet that if you asked the visitors to these websites whether they found it annoying, they would say yes. And yet they work.

Tip #4: “Don’t forget the marketing in content marketing”

If you look up the Content Marketing Institute, it tells you that content marketing is “the art of communicating with your customers and prospects without selling. Instead of pitching your products and services, you are delivering information that makes your buyers more intelligent.”

The italics are mine. Just think about what they’re saying here for a minute.

That you should be sending out information without actually asking people to buy? Does that really make sense?

From spending millions of my own money – and God alone knows how much of my clients’ – I can tell you it doesn’t.

Trying to sell without selling is just plain stupid.

People are not thinking when they get your stuff. Even if they are intelligent – which many aren’t in the first place.

The entire premise of this kind of content marketing is that people don’t like being sold to. In research they say they prefer articles and white papers and that stuff.

What they think they prefer and what they do have nothing to do with each other.

What works and what people like are two different things.

What they need and what they think they want are two different things.

The quote that forms the heading for this section comes from Neil Patel, who points out that producing content is not enough if you don’t promote it.

Bill Bonner, the founder of Agora, recently explained that, though it may not seem like it, a daily email in which you don’t sell anything is really just part of a bigger strategy to bring home a sale.

As Agora copywriter Glenn Fisher says, “People who like modern terms call this content marketing, but it’s not.

“Content marketing is just a buzz phrase to describe something that’s always existed: it’s just plain old long copy.”

The guys at Agora should know. While there are several estimates around of how much the company makes each year, the most conservative figure is $90 million.

If you try to sell without selling, then guess what?

You won’t sell anything.

Tip #5: Know what your customers need

I can’t stress this enough.

Most of the content marketing I see that fails does so because those producing the content do not know enough about the market they are writing for.

As a result, they get it wrong in two major ways:

They write content that’s too shallow, of the teaching-granny-to-suck-eggs variety. Telling your customers what they already know is not the way to look authoritative.
They write content that doesn’t speak to their customers’ or prospects’ concerns.
You must know what your customers are thinking and worrying about – and write about them. This means you need to do your research. Don’t just read reports on the state of the market, or articles in the trade press.

Speak to your customers directly – or at least some of them. And do so with an open mind. Otherwise your content will never move them to want to act.

If you’ve decided you want to launch your own content out into the market, here’s what you need to do.

Research any agency you consider taking on. You wouldn’t hire someone without checking their references, so do the same if with an agency. Talk to their clients about results – and also what it’s like working with them.

Think about hiring a specialist. Many companies hire trade journalists or copywriters with a specialist niche to write their content, whether in house or freelance. Just bear in mind that real specialists do not come cheap.

If you try to get them cheap, they won’t stay long enough to have an impact. Resist the lure of false economy.

Know your market – and make sure anyone writing for you does too. If you don’t, your content will fall flat. So take the time to research this first. Only if you know the market can you test whether any agency or copywriter knows enough to write good content.

Know what you want to achieve. Many companies jump into content marketing just because everyone else is. Resist this urge. You can do well without content marketing and focus on outbound marketing instead.

Keys to Drafting Internet Advertising Agreements

Ever since the Internet came of age in the mid 1990s, advertising deals have become extremely common. As we all know, companies advertise on the Internet through the usage of banners and through search engines such as Yahoo and Google in an effort to drive users to their websites. This article will analyze the key provisions usually found in Internet Advertising Agreements and will hopefully provide drafters of these agreements with guidance before they commence the difficult drafting process. For purposes of this article, the company purchasing the advertising shall be referred to as “purchaser” and the seller of the advertising shall be referred to as “advertiser.”

1. Definitions

The first paragraph of an Internet advertising agreement should set forth the definitions of the key terms that the agreement will refer to frequently. Since the agreement will likely use the term “click-through”, this term should be defined, and is usually described as a “user presence on the advertising purchaser’s website that originated through the advertiser’s promotional advertisements or promotions as part of this Agreement.”

2. Term

This paragraph should recite that the agreement will commence upon the effective date and shall last for a specified amount of time.

3. Positioning

This paragraph should clarify how the advertising banners will be positioned on the advertiser’s website. This provision may simply refer to a positioning schedule attached as an exhibit. On the other hand, if the parties decided not to agree on a specific positioning schedule, the agreement might simply recite that the advertiser has sole discretion to control the positioning so long as it uses its reasonable best efforts to position the banners in such a way as to drive traffic to the purchaser’s website. The drafter for the advertiser may also recite that the advertiser shall not be liable for any claims relating to usage statistics.

4. Click-throughs

Before a drafter of an advertising agreement can go to work, she must know whether her client will be paying per banner ad or per click-through. One “click-through” means that a user has clicked on the banner or the link to the purchaser’s website. If the agreement is for a certain amount of click-throughs per month, this provision of the agreement must clearly describe the commitments promised by the advertiser. Let’s say that the advertiser is promising 1,000 click-throughs per month. The agreement could thus read “Advertiser shall deliver no less than 1,000 click-throughs per month, and purchaser shall pay to advertiser the monthly amounts according to the payment schedule set forth in exhibit A.”

This “click-through” provision may also want to address what happens if the advertiser cannot make good on these click-through commitments. For instance, it may recite that “if advertiser misses any monthly target, advertiser shall “make good” the difference within two months. If advertiser does not make good the click-through difference within two months (60 days), purchaser may suspend that portion of its monthly payments that represent the percentage of click-throughs missed by advertiser until advertiser delivers such make goods.”

5. Exclusivity

If the deal points include an exclusivity provision, the agreement must reflect this intention. The agreement should be drafted to recite something to the effect of “no competitor of purchaser shall be permitted to place or purchase from advertiser, banner or promotional advertising as defined in Exhibit B, and advertiser agrees to use reasonable efforts to prevent third parties that are entitled to place ads on advertiser’s site from placing any banner or promotional ads of purchaser’s competitors.”

These are the most important provisions of an Internet Advertising Agreement. Other provisions covering Cancellation and Termination Limitation of Advertiser’s Liability, Indemnification, and Advertiser’s Right to Reject Advertising may also be included. In all, it is critical for the drafter of the agreement to know the deal points backwards and forwards and to carefully draft the agreement accordingly.

Real Estate Auctions – The New Land Rush

On a sunny afternoon in Florida, an energetic crowd gathers on the lawn of a high end luxury estate. A loud and eager banter between an auctioneer, a group of bidders and bidder assistants fills the air. For several minutes the auctioneer asks for the next highest bid and the bidders respond. Suddenly the bidders grow silent. The high bidder holds his breath in anticipation of winning the auction. The auctioneer calls for one more bid. In a loud clear voice which rolls over the audience he says, “Fair warning, last chance” the auctioneer pauses, “SOLD!” And in less than 10 minutes another multimillion dollar estate has changed owners.

Successful real estate auctions like the one above are happening all over North America and the Caribbean. Recently real estate auctions have been on the rise, the increase in popularity is partly driven by growing inventories and fading buyer confidence. Properties that were selling in weeks using traditional methods are now languishing on the market unable to attract buyers even as seller’s lower prices. Many say the real estate boom is over but savvy buyers and sellers are profiting from real estate auctions.

Real Estate Auctions Work in Up or Down Markets.

Regardless of trends or market cycles, real estate auctions provide an open and transparent process for buyers and sellers. Properly conducted real estate auctions attract ready and willing buyers and motivate them to act now.

The auction method removes the “wait and see” attitude which serves to further depress real estate values. Buyers are always concerned about overpaying. Buyers gain confidence with their purchases at real estate auctions because they can see what others are willing to pay.

When market demand is high and inventories low, real estate auctions can deliver selling prices well above what a willing seller would have accepted in a negotiated private treaty sale. In good selling climates many property owners using traditional real estate methods; negotiating with one buyer at a time, leave thousands of dollars of equity on the table. During up markets real estate auctions are the best way to establish top market price.

Evaluating Your Real Estate for Auction

Not every property or seller for that matter makes a good candidate for auction. First of all sellers must be ready to sell now and for the current market value. Also a real estate auction will not fix problems caused by a downturn in market value of your property, if you owe more than a willing buyer will pay, be prepared to come to closing with your check book.

Properties that do well in real estate auctions have a high uniqueness factor. Ask your self, “What makes my property different from most others?” Maybe you own a resort property or high end luxury home, commercial properties and land do very well at auction. Real estate auctions thrive on uniqueness. If your property is like everyone else’s, the best thing you can do is offer the most competitive price.

Most importantly sellers must be reasonable about setting a minimum bid. A seller must look at the lowest, most current comps and price below that to generate the interest and urgency necessary for a successful real estate auction. Once the auction begins and qualified bidders start competing against one another you can watch the selling price increase.

Locate a Qualified Real Estate Auctioneer

Start by checking with the National Auctioneers Association, the best real estate auctioneers belong to this organization. These real estate auctioneers are well trained and adhere to a standard of practice and a code of ethics. Many attend the annual International Auctioneers Conference where the latest techniques and innovations in the real estate auction industry are presented.

Find out if the company you are interviewing is a full time real estate auction firm. Many real estate agents are getting auction licenses yet have no experience with the auction method of marketing. Conducting a successful real estate auction is nothing like (private treaty) traditional real estate sales. Go with a real estate auction pro.

You’re probably better of with an auction house that specializes in real estate auctions. There are many qualified auctioneers who have generations of experience selling personal property; furniture, dishes, lawn equipment and the occasional rare painting. Selling real estate at auction is a complex matter that should only be attempted by full time experienced real estate auction professionals.

Commissions and fees may vary, sellers must pay all marketing expenses up front and buyers typically pay 10% of the sales price to the auctioneer of which a share goes to participating real estate agents.

Types of Real Estate Auctions

Auctions are effective because they create a seller’s market. Professionally conducted real estate auctions create urgency, a reason to buy today and competition for the property. Terms and conditions of sale are established ahead of the auction. Real estate auctions will follow one of these three approaches:

Absolute Auction

The property is sold to the highest bidder regardless of price- using this process often returns the highest sale price.

Minimum Bid Auction

Seller agrees to sell at or above a published minimum bid price – this method is useful for internet auctions.

Seller Confirmation or Reserve Auction

With a reserve auction, the seller “reserves” the right to accept or decline any bids usually within 48 hours of the auction. Reserve auctions are used when there is a lien on the property from a lender or a court ordered sale with a minimum selling price.