Your content strategy is essential. If you're not investing in a strategy that helps you connect with your target audience, you aren't relevant to your target audience. This presentation will help anyone who thinks content marketing is optional in today's ever-changing digital world. Because, quite frankly, it's not an option anymore. In this guide: 2 Case Studies that illustrate the importance of Content Marketing - company generated and user-generated; 13 Facts about the way people consume online media today; the importance of knowing your customer; how to get started with creating Buyer Personas; and helpful tools and resources for your content marketing strategies. To learn more about content marketing, or to schedule a consultation, visit http://maximizedigitalmedia.com

1. Content: A Reality Check
for Business in 2015
13 Smart Marketing Realities you Cannot Afford to
Ignore Anymore

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Let’s Start With 2 Case Studies

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Marcus Sheridan: River Pools and Spas
in Warsaw,Virginia
• Answered the questions
he’d answered for years
• Wrote them down as blog
posts.
• Customers Qualified
themselves
• 2007: Spent $250K in
advertising to achieve $4
million in sales.
• 2011: Spent $20K to achieve
$4.5 Million in sales

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Let’s Start with 2 Case Studies

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ALS Ice Bucket Challenge
• Raised over $100 Million in one
month
• Accessible and Fun
• User-Generated, based on what
the PEOPLE wanted to do/say
• Networked Social Proof
• Understandable, compelling cause

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Content is at the center of both
stories:
! Company Generated Content
! User-Generated Content
What can we learn from them?

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Your # 1 goal:
to be the trusted, respected, expert
resource within your business
industry.
Wherever your customers may be.
To succeed online…

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Content is Essential
Because
Social Media won’t work without
SOMETHING
to put on the platform

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Digital Marketing without content is
like…
A hamburger without meat
A bucket without water
A gun without ammunition
A suitcase without clothes

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Social Media is the Fire
Content is the gasoline.
- Jay Baer YouTility

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Be useful.
Marketing is…
what the customer wants..
not what you want to tell them.

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Give away content
that people would
pay for.
What’s in it for you?
The power of the sharing
economy.

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Change your
mindset.
If you set them free… they will
be yours forever.

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Change your game
plan.
“Old school” marketing in the
“new school’s” platform
doesn’t work.

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Trust doesn’t come
(or stay) free.
You have to work to build it and
you have to work to keep it.

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Authentic stories &
conversations.
What you do for your customers
creates the story, all you have
to do is tell it.

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They don’t want to
talk to you…yet.
Before they buy from you, they
will research (aka “stalk”) you.
Calling is a last resort.

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The customer controls
the marketplace.
Meet their demands or they will
find someone who will.

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The one with the
(best) content wins.
If everything else is the same,
content tips the scales.
Winner takes all.

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Get your employees
on the bandwagon.
Start hiring differently
Your company culture needs a
facelift.

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Your biggest
competition?
Lost teeth
first steps
bad days
kittens.

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Nothing stays the
same.
Be ready to adapt.
Anyone buy a cassette lately?

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Know your
customer.
“Everyone” is not your customer
Buyer Personas

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Where do you
start?

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Do you know your
customer?

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Buyer Personas

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Buyer Personas?
Buyer personas are fictional
representations of your ideal
customers. They are based on real
data about customer demographics
and online behavior, along with
educated speculation about their
personal histories, motivations and
concerns.

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Buyer Personas:
Questions to ask
! What is their job/role?
! What are their demographics?
! What does a day in their life look like?
! What are their challenges or pain points? What do you
help them solve?
! Where do they go for information?
! What do they value most? What are their goals?
! What are their common objections to products or
services?
! What do they search for on Google?

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Resources
! Maximize Digital Media!
! HubSpot
! Marketo
! YouTility by Jay Baer
http://www.youtilitybook.com/
! Convince and Convert (Jay’s Blog)
! Content Marketing Institute

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Tools for Curation
(Content Discovery)

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Tools for Organizing
! Evernote
! (This will change your life!)
! Dropbox or Google Drive
! Pocket (save things for later)
! Buffer (posting to multiple channels)
! Helpful for teams