Blog Archives - Page 14 of 16 - Mutant Communications

6 golden rules for effective content marketing

Producing content is dead easy. Producing content that converts, not so much.

Due to the sheer volume of thought leadership, blogs, videos and infographics floating around the internet, your audience’s expectations of what constitutes ‘good’ content has changed. Active digital audiences want more engaging, relevant, smarter, and faster content than ever before.

By taking the time to cater to the needs of your target viewer, you’ll hold their attention – and their loyalty.

Here are a few key things to keep in mind before posting up a flurry of blog posts:

1. Relevance: Does your article contain your company’s key messages? There has to be a connection between the brand and what you’re publishing. Let’s say you’re creating a hilarious corporate cat video and it gets lots of clicks. That’s great, but what’s the point if the viewer isn’t your target audience?

2. Purpose: Does your article or video add value to your audience and your business? What are they getting out of it and learning from you? Before producing anything, ask yourself what the business objective is for both your viewer and yourself. Does it improve someone’s business, lifestyle or even state of mind?

3. Engaging: Does it sound like you or does it sound like a cyborg? With such a crowded atmosphere online, an authoritative or friendly human voice is essential. Content nowadays should read or sound like a conversation, not a document or presentation.

4. Calls To Action: Draw your readers in with engaging language and tone, and always – always – include a Call To Action (CTA). This could be in the form of a downloadable resource at the end of a blog, or an invite to answer a question in the comments. Without this, your efforts are being wasted. It’s no longer enough to publish information that is just useful – you need people to engage with you and take an action that will provide value.

5. Contextual: Cross-device marketing is making headlines for a reason. Audiences are using different devices, sometimes all at once. Tailor the content for the platform. For example, if you’re making long form video content make sure it’s on Youtube, and edit it down for Instagram and six-second Vines. Context is king!

6. Topical: Stay plugged in to what your audience is talking about by regularly checking the news and social media to monitor your audience’s most pressing issues. There are so many tools on the internet like Google Trends, Quora and Twitter. If something relates to your business, offer a position and get your audience talking about it.

The internet doesn’t need any more “Productivity tips from top CEOs”. We need to be making better, faster, smarter content for a better, faster, smarter audience.

So, how will you engage your readers? Let us help you. Contact us at [email protected].

How to create content out of thin air

Brainstorming for blog ideas used to be easy, but now the content marketing universe is constantly updating and addressing every possible pain point out there.

There’s no doubt the industry needs these thought leadership pieces, lists and guides — the on-going dialogue is important, but the straightforward approach has been done to death. This provides a fantastic opportunity for content creators to take existing topics, turn them on their heads and make their peers go, ‘Hmm, I never thought of it that way’.

Here are some ways to get brand new blog topics for your content calendar, without stepping too far from your comfort zone.

1. Listen in on social media. Social media is overflowing with chatter, so put it to use and elaborate on hot topics.

Twitter is a nearly ungated community bubbling over with thoughts, opinions and rants that are just waiting to be blogged about. In your settings create a ‘list’ for industry leaders to block out noise and check daily for interesting opinions about ones relevant to your industry.
Quora is literally a website full of questions that real industry people need answered. On the left column under ‘Feed’ type in keywords relevant to your industry. Or just click on your keyword and see what comes up, i.e. Search, ‘What are the best marketing strategies that startups could learn and execute?’
Facebook is where the internet lives. Do you know of a particularly loud page? Have a look through different forums in relevant communities and see if there are any issues you can put to rest in your blog post.

2. Tune in on pain points. Make the most out of the internal meeting conversations that turn one hour meetings into two hour meetings. While different departments are duking it out on whether training should be mandatory, or whether the biz dev budget should go to schmoozing after hours, take notes. Right in the comfort of your Monday Morning Meeting is a gold mine of pain points that are probably shared with other members of the industry.

3. Search through white papers. Alright, if you’re like me you cheat and look at the summary for highlights. Research reports are a pool of interesting data on your topic. Pluck out a positive statistic that really stands out about your region, industry, or department and share with your audience what you think the causes are or what conclusions can be made from this behaviour.

4. Invite someone unexpected. A guest post always brings a breath of fresh air to any content calendar. Ask people in different positions to write guest blog posts about positions they don’t work with day to day. i.e. ask a CEO to write about the importance of customer service while on cold calls, or interview a CMO about what he looks for in an agency (then, email me the answer :))

5. Go outside. As a last resort, step outside of the office. Creativity needs space. Why do you think the Louvre is so big? All creatives need to declutter their head. Taking a 15 minute walk outside of your office will allow you to further process information from an earlier conversation you had with your boss, a client, or colleague earlier in the day.

A fresh content idea doesn’t have to dip into the realm of the unknown. All it needs is a bit of creativity and thinking outside of the box.

Need help with your content? Drop a message to [email protected]

The Ultimate Cheat Sheet To Building A Powerful Media List

Behind every published news article, is a compelling media story and a PR pro’s powerful stash of press contacts. This stash comes in the form of a targeted list, consisting of the contact details of new editors and journalists.

Pulling a new list together for your business is no easy feat, and can take hours on end. With the availability of media database programmes, this task’s been made much simpler. These programmes however, often involve hefty fees.

To those who are feeling the pinch of investing in such programmes, this cheat sheet is made just for you.

Who do I want to read my news?

Building your own media target list is not rocket science, but it does require some thought. For starters, consider who your audience is, and the most relevant media outlets to best reach out to them.

Besides naming these publications, break the publications down into their individual sections – think the business section of a local newspaper, or the food section of a magazine. This will effectively narrow down the scope of your search, saving you a great deal of time.

Look into major newspapers and relevant magazines

Luckily for us, most newspaper journalists have their email addresses embedded alongside their news stories. If a writer touches on a topic or story you consider to be relevant for your business, take his or her email address down.

For the magazines, check out the foreword section. It will give you a quick overview of the magazine’s editorial team and the details of the various magazine section editors.

With this, you are well on your first step to building your targeted media list.

Get online and social

If you can’t seem to locate a particular journalist’s contact details within the print publications, tapping into the online counterparts of the news outlets can be helpful. If not, move on over to the journalist’s social media pages such as LinkedIn, Twitter or even blogs.

Along the way, you will probably even learn much more about the journalist – everything from their high school, the event they have just attended and a collection of past stories they’ve covered. This knowledge can come in handy as talking points when you are in touch with the journalist.

‘Make up’ the journalists’ email

If you pay enough attention to the email addresses of journalists from the same publication, you may begin to notice how the make up of their emails remain consistent across the board.

When necessary, play around with the journalist’s first and last name to try and “guess” his email address in context of the others in the same publication. If you have the journalist’s name right, chances are, you will get the email right as well.

For example: A journalist’s email in a certain publication could look something like [email protected], combining the journalist’s first and last name to create the email address.

Suppose you’re seeking the email of another journalist within the same publication or group, your guess would then reflect the above.

If still you still can’t locate a journalist…

Simply pick up the phone and get in touch with the editorial department of the various media outlet. When on the line, be clear with the purpose of your call and whom exactly you are after.

I’m sure these friendly folks will be more than glad to assist you.

Retain the list, keep it up-to-date

Getting your list ready is one of the stepping-stones to getting the word out about your business, but the work does not end there.

Due to the nature of the industry, journalists move around, and they do it fast. As such, you will need to be on top of these movements, ensuring that your media lists are always updated with the freshest press contacts, or risk having your news stories fall off the face of the earth.

Repeat the steps above over and again – including new contacts when you spot them, and removing contacts when their emails stop working.

Need assistance on maximising the reach of your press materials? Get in touch with us directly at [email protected].

What is content? – Part 4: How to be an engaging thought leader in 2016

It’s 2016, and the internet is hungover from the content overload of 2015. Thought leadership is still as relevant ever as a way to build your brand, but there’s too much of it floating around left unread.

As we mentioned earlier, the production of content is going up as engagement goes down. To ensure your thought leadership piece doesn’t get left behind, follow these six tips.

Look for your industry’s pain points. Before just writing what you know, do some research on and offline to find out what’s bothering people in your industry. As industries are becoming increasingly digital and offline activity goes mobile, there are lots of unanswered questions. Not sure what the future holds? Prediction pieces always make for great hits.

Take a stance. Having a strong opinion doesn’t mean pushing your ideas on other people, it means encouraging a dialogue and inspiring others. If there’s a topic dividing your industry, consider taking a side you believe in and go with it. As long as you know what you’re talking about it can be a positive to be a bit controversial, especially with the huge volume of copycat how-to blogs out there.

Give anecdotes. To make it seem like a really organic thought, give short windows of situations that taught you a lesson. You could also share a staff journey that can inspire others in their own careers.

Skip the cliches. Cliches can over simplify certain concepts and ideas. Using your own words and examples will help you establish your own voice that will be easier to remember.

Name drop. People want credibility in thought leaders. If you studied at a prestigious university, worked close with an inspirational leader, or worked at a Fortune 500, mention it.

Don’t have the time to produce your own thought leadership? Let our skilled content writers do it for you. Contact us at [email protected].

How to write a razor sharp content brief

You have a great idea but can’t put it into words. So, you hire a content marketing professional to package all those thoughts and visions into something easily digestible to potential clients.

The thing about content marketers, is that we are wizards of words and want to read your mind too, but we can’t. At times, hours can be spent going back and forth on a piece of content because a brief wasn’t clear enough. This can cost a client and agency money, and an extra $2 for the panadol required for the headache.

To save time, here are some questions we need the answers to, in order to write the content you want.

Why do you need this? There is nothing worse than someone reading your material and going — What is the point of this? A good digital content marketer front loads your key messages because they know how impatient people are while reading online. Without your goals for the content campaign, we will be writing aimlessly.

A client should make clear what the piece of this content is beyond pure lead generation (education? entertainment?), and the piece should be part of that client’s overall content strategy.

What’s the tone? If you have the time, speak to your writer on the phone so they can have a feel for your attitude towards the topic and ghostwrite the article to sound like you.

If not, share with them an article online where you liked the tone, and show them examples of what they define as “professional, friendly, authoritative” because those descriptions can mean different things to different people.

What’s the length? If you don’t tell us, we’re going to make it a standard 600 word post. This is about the longest a post can go before people stop losing interest – this is the average, not a rule. If for some reason you would like the next great American novel published, let us know a word count. Tip: An A4 piece of paper is about 400 words.

What’s the context? Let the content writer know the other blogs you’ve done or the ones you want moving forward, that way, the article can fit seamlessly with the others. Without context, especially with a freelancer, it will look obvious your article is outsourced.

Before getting your words of wisdom out on paper, make sure you have all the information required to have an effective piece of company branding.

Give an example. To make your brief sharper than the fangs of a saber-tooth tiger, link to a similar blog, thought leadership article, website content that you thought was really well done so we have more of an idea of what you’re looking for.

Need help with your content? Contact us at [email protected].

What is content? – Part 3: LinkedIn for the entrepreneur

LinkedIn started out as an online resume site, and it’s still one of the biggest resources for recruiters. Over time, it has also evolved into a content marketing platform, serving as a place for businesses to engage with potential clients and partners. So, how can you leverage this?

Tighten that bio:

More than half of LinkedIn’s engagement is on mobile, so tailor your message to be read accordingly. A longer, more flowery summary of yourself might be passable for a resume, but for B2B keep it short and sweet. The recipe for a good bio is:

Some personality
Clear and concise description of your service
A call to action (CTA) for people who aren’t able to send you an InMail.

Example:

Whether through written or video content marketing, I help young companies communicate their vision in the most human way possible.

Do you need more effective content? Get in touch with me directly at [email protected]

Spruce up that photo:

Nice pic from da club… but your LinkedIn profile image should be as professional as possible (avoid cheesy real estate pictures!) The photo you choose to represent yourself and your personal brand is a measure of trustworthiness and professionalism.

Tips for a good LinkedIn photo:

Choose a recent photo. We know it’s not Tinder, but if you’re already misleading about what you look like, it’s not a good start for business.
Forget the metaphorical mountain summit pic, make sure your face takes up at least more than half of the photograph.
Over exposed, blurry, poorly cropped photos are all over LinkedIn. Taking the time to take a proper photograph will actually make you stand out from the crowd.

Beef up your profile:

Now that you have the basics, it’s time to turn your details into a resource.

LinkedIn Pulse: You can’t say thought leadership’ without LinkedIn. Generously sharing your expert opinions and insights is a great way to build trust with your consumer before ultimately turning that lead into a sale. But nowadays there are a lot of opinions out there, and it’s not all being read. Make sure you have a really strong opinion on a topic that can add value to your reader’s life.

Slideshares: If you’re not the most eloquent writer but have ideas to share, use Slideshare. It’s a cost-effective way to get better traffic and ranking on Google. Make sure you have a clear idea of how you want to educate the reader.

Videos: In this crowded market, videos are dominating as the preferred way to consume content. LinkedIn lets you upload directly onto your profile, allowing you to showcase your work. If you don’t do video marketing, upload TV spots you’ve been featured in, your startup explainer video, and event coverage.

LinkedIn is growing as a content platform and it’s the first place clients and investors look to see a cohesive body of your work. Let us help you create content that best content for your profile. Get in touch at [email protected].

Finding the right social media influencer for your brand

In this day and age of social media, the rise of influencers can no longer be ignored. Social media influencers are often a powerful channel for driving engagement. Perhaps, a personal touch is just what a potential consumer needs to make a decision. In this blog, we’ll take you through the definition of social media influencer marketing and how to best use this for your business.

What is social media influencer marketing?

According to GroupHigh, social media influencer marketing is the practice of building relationships with the people who can build relationships for you. Influencers are basically your bridge to a whole new pool of end-users. No matter the size of the following, these influencers will be able to help you reach consumers via their social networks and blogs that your brand may not be able to.

As you can see from this little diagram by Affinio, target your audience through various influencers who share the same following.

From finding the right influencer for your brand to having them represent you, you will need to identify them, market to them, market through them, and then market with them. Here’s how:

Identifying influencers – rank them in order of importance and relevance.
Marketing to influencers – increase awareness of the brand amongst influencers.
Marketing through influencers – using influencers to increase market awareness.
Marketing with influencers – turn influencers into brand ambassadors.

Why social media influencer marketing?

Because a whopping 90% of consumers trust peer recommendations and only 33% trust advertisements!

In the eyes of the consumer, a social media influencer is that cool kid in high school and whatever he or she is into is the next cool thing. Most importantly, there is an authenticity and trustworthiness that comes with your influencer’s recommendation that advertisements lack.

How to get into social media influencer marketing?

Develop and build your relationships with the social media influencers that you think will best represent your brand and reach your target audience. Simply drop them an email with what you have in mind for your collaboration. Here’s how to find the right influencer for your brand:

Find an influencer who is pretty much already an ambassador

That means that the influencer’s content is already aligned with your brand’s message. Look through an influencer’s archived content to find out what kind of consumer they are.

Engagement vs. reach

Your choice of influencer should not only be able to reach a great number of your target audience, but should also be able to engage them to respond, comment and share. The relationship between your influencer and his/her readers should be meaningful and not just superficial.

Look out for authentic and organic content

The more organic the content, the more likely your target audience is to trust his/her recommendation.

The key is to find a social media influencer that allows for a mutually beneficial relationship. And don’t forget, a great relationship between your brand and your influencer of choice will definitely make activating your marketing goals more seamless and effective!

Need help with your social media? Drop a message to [email protected]

What is content? – Part 2: 10 Steps to writing blogs that convert customers

With the intense competition for businesses that promote online, the web content you use to talk about your company has to be easily digestible. Here are some key tips for killer site content.

Strong info hierarchy. Before typing your first letter, ask yourself whether the headers on your site are in the right order and easy to find. Depending on the type of company you have, do some research to determine what information people want to know first. If your concept is really complicated, make sure your “About Us” page is within easy reach (i.e. Should what you’re doing come before why you’re doing it?). Today’s app generation is also very impatient; if you’re going to boast about a feature, make sure the reader can act on it immediately by sprinkling calls to action throughout your home page.

Consistency. This is your credibility. There needs to be one style and format to all of your text. If you’re switching from American to British English and the tones of each subject are different, it’s going to look like your content was farmed out to freelancers around the world. If you remember from our article “What is a content strategy”, this doesn’t mean just one blog and that’s it! A content strategy refers to how your content looks as an entire body of work.

Break it up, people. Do you ever just read the first line of a paragraph and wish the rest of it never existed? That normally happens when you have a “wall of words” – an unbroken piece of text that’s normally more than five lines long. This makes people automatically want to skip to the top or bottom of the page.

One sentence paragraphs. The best part about writing for online compared to print, is we’re allowed to have one-sentence paragraphs.

That’s right, you can change the rules.

We went there.

Fragments. Another cool thing about writing for web is you’re occasionally allowed to have sentence fragments because the web content should be conversational. Use these wisely, otherwise your blog is at risk of reading like a tumblr account.

Economy of words. “So, there was this guy who had been going over to the back of the store to get boxes” vs “This guy got boxes”. Feel the difference? Imagine every time you’re writing for the internet, you get fined $1 per word. Use your words wisely, because the more wordy, the sooner your reader will lose interest.

Killer headlines with keywords. We know, balancing between a catchy title and making your content SEO friendly is tricky, but if it comes down to the two, always pick a clicky title. Think about creative ways to phrase your story. Instead of “Speedo cup sales increase in China,” how about, “China’s economy isn’t the only thing getting bigger”?
Connect. Write about issues that are concerning your audience and make sure your content connects with other people. Content isn’t just content anymore – your content can actually come alive. Don’t be shy to imbed posts, share, tweet at someone, and make it easy to connect your media.

Make it easy to scan. Upon first skim, can the reader figure out who’s doing what, when, where and how? With first time bloggers, there is a tendency to yammer on about your internal thought process. That’s alright, just delete it all once you’ve figured out your point and place it at the top of your paragraph.

Don’t miss a Call-To-Action. Now that you’ve proved you can truly help people, it’s your chance to direct people to the next step. Don’t let your reader leave the page without signing up, subscribing, sharing, commenting, clicking, or coming back.

Need help with your content? Drop a message to [email protected]

What is content? – Part 1: An effective Twitter bio

The “About me” section in your professional Twitter profile is like a little digital business card. It’s one of the first things that comes up when potential customers search for you, so when writing your bio, think about your ideal client and how you can explain how you can help them.

Here are 3 key things to keep in mind with your Twitter bio. We’ve paired our tips with tech companies that nailed theirs.

Have laser focus

What are you a master of and how can you help? An overly descriptive explanation of many things your company does doesn’t sound reliable. State the key skills or services you’re are really good at and say why you’re qualified to gain their business.

Likewise, if you’re an individual, listing off a bunch of professional fields you’re into will make you sound like a jack of all trades and master of nothing. i.e. “Writer, yoga instructor, DJ, singer, tech genius, ad tech expert.”

This bio from travel data analytics company, Sojern sums up what they do succinctly:

Write to attract leads, not followers

Followers you can buy, engagement you can’t. Don’t hard sell on your bio, make it conversational. If you can’t think of one, imagine how you would introduce your company to a stranger at a conference. Hammer in your key messages and keywords. Then, leave enough space for a call to action with your contact.

Check out this bio from Eyeota:

Lay off the superlatives

Likewise, don’t over compensate. Are you really “The world’s leading…” with just 300 followers? Twitter has only been around for a decade, but it’s already riddled with cliches. It’s better to be understated than exaggerate. If you’re an individual doing a professional bio, for cliche sakes don’t be a “guru”, “junkie”, or “ninja” of anything.

Here is a perfectly understated bio by one of the world’s most successful startups:

The square bracket takes the smoothness out of the bio, just pretend it’s not there.

Beyond Twitter, have consistency across social media channels, but change your tone. LinkedIn is business, Twitter is engaging with strangers, and Facebook is about friends – but everyone is a potential client. Don’t have the same tone for each platform; pick a key consistent message you really want to push and repeat its in each bio.

Most of all, have fun with your Twitter bio! Here is our personal favourite Twitter bio:

Stand out from the crowd and let us help you create an amazing bio. Contact us at [email protected].

Happiness at work

More and more companies are starting to subscribe to happiness as a business philosophy. These firms are focusing on happiness from the inside out and with happiness comes creativity. In our industry, creativity is a crucial element when it comes to creating content or communicating information and strategies. A happy employee is one that is productive and engaged, and owns their own tasks. Similarly, creativity is stimulated in a productive and engaging environment.

There are many solutions to achieving happiness for oneself, and here are just some which you can also implement at your workplace:

1. Take a breather. Go for a walk!

According to Stanford study by Opezzo and Schwartz, walking triggers a free flow of ideas and improves work performance by an average of 60%. And even after your walk, the positive residual effects can still be felt long after you are back at your desk!

2. Spend your money on experiences

This Harvard study, aptly titled ‘If Money Doesn’t Make You Happy Then You Probably Aren’t Spending It Right’, tells us to spend our money on experiences and not on things if we want to be happy. Simply because 83% of people mentally revisit their experiential purchases more than material purchases. You remember exactly how you felt the first time you had a cronut on the streets of New York City and when you rode a donkey up a hill in Santorini, but do you remember how you felt when you bought that Prada bag?

Staff lunches, employee days and events can all create a feeling of gratitude, and the friendships created as a result will make for happy employees in a happy office!

3. Control over your own workspace

By allowing employees to have more control over their workspace, productivity can be increased by up to 32%! Read all about it here. You never know how much more you can get out of your employee when you allow them to decorate their work desk however they like with limited rules.

Focusing on employee satisfaction and happiness can provide great returns for the companies who have hopped on board the happy train. Jump on, and we will see you on the other side!

Need help with your content? Drop a message to [email protected]

What is a content strategy?

Writing one epic post isn’t enough anymore. In order to reap the benefits of a content marketing strategy, you need an entire body of work that serves to tell your brand story to the right audience, while adding real value to their lives. Tricky, isn’t it?

There isn’t enough word count to wax on about how disruptive your company is, so focus your message around what your company can do for its target audience.

Why is content marketing so hot right now?

The offline world has moved online – from booking a taxi or a housekeeper, to fixing a light bulb or searching for holidays – and people are receiving too much information. Ad blockers are making it harder than ever for display advertising, so smart and creative content marketing is the solution to all of this.

A strategy isn’t simply sending out a company-wide shout-out for a blog post. It starts with a goal and an overarching theme over a longer period of time.

For example, content you need to think about might include:

Your Twitter Bio
Your LinkedIn Summary
LinkedIn account and activity
LinkedIn Pulse strategy
Website copy and tone
Thought leadership articles

Over the next few articles, we will go more into depth on individual content pieces. Stay Tuned!

Need help with your content strategy? Drop a message to [email protected]

Why Words? A brief interview with Joseph Barratt, CEO

Content marketing works, but there’s too much of it out there and engagement is dropping.

The world of content marketing is saturated and people only have time to read insightful articles tailored just for them. This is what we do at Words.

We help businesses engage professional copywriters for services ranging from website content to proofreading and editing. Our parent company, Mutant Communications, is a leading public relations and content marketing agency. However, the digital consumer is evolving, so we’re adapting with a site solely dedicated to your Words.

So, why should you trust us with your content?

To save you time, Words Content Manager, Jane Leung, sat down with Words CEO, Joseph Barratt, to grill him on why clients should be using our service.

JL: Joe can I bother you for a sec?

JB: Well, I’m actually-

JL: It’s about Words!

JB: Oh, what’s up?

JL: Can you tell me why you started Words? How does it differ from what we do at Mutant?

JB: Well, Words is targeted for clients who need ad-hoc and on-demand content. It’s for businesses who don’t necessarily want to jump into a full-blown PR package immediately, but could still use the wit of our wordsmiths to better articulate their brand messages.

JL: Sounds good. Remind me why we’re the best again?

JB: The content at Words can be produced quickly, with an average turnaround of 3-5 days. We only use in-house, experienced former journalists and media professionals like yourself, who know how to research content to help brands scale their content marketing strategy.

JL: What’s special about Words?

JB: You tell me, you’re the Content Manager

JL: Well, we’re real human beings writing words for real human beings.

JB: That’s true.

JL: Cool, thanks, for the info.

JB: Can I see a final copy of this?

JL: No, bye!

Well there you have it!

Need help with your content? Drop a message to [email protected]