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Scoop.it!
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Scooped by Martin (Marty) Smith |
Scoop.it!
[Content Marketing, Must Read] Great slides by Rand Fishkin on what makes an effective content marketing strategy. He outlines 5 reasons why your strategy might fail: You believed the biggest myth content marketing ever told the world You made content without a community You invested in content creation, but not in it's amplification You ignored content's most powerful channel: SEO You gave up too fast
Excellent and exhaustive punch to the gut of the many "content marketing" myths that exist. I would've added a section on Mark Schaefer's Content Shock, but that 1,000 word post is for another time. Between then (when I write the rejoinder) and now read Rand Fishkin's riff on why "inbound marketing" fails and see if you recognize some of your myths, urban legends and untruths about content marketing.
Love the almost RANDOM case view (see the beard slides) since that journey is so accurate to how journeys start, are sustained and end up in a purchase or subscription.
Also discusses visual marketing tend in a cool way (nope, nope, yes on Google).
How content marketing works?
Get ready for the long, entertaining and highly informative trip. I like the section about "content without a community", a real eye opener.
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Scooped by Martin (Marty) Smith |
Scoop.it!
There is only one way to break out of the rat race and eliminate all competing rats - create EPIC Personal Branding. Here's how..
* Create BHAGs NOW!
* Videos and Pictures.
* Think TEAM!
* Use Special SOCIAL Weapons.
* Fail Miserably.
* Give your Skills AWAY FREE.
Follow those hard won secrets, at least one of them tried to kill me several times, and your personal brand will be EPIC, your resume floats to the top and you win the promotion, can afford the G I Joe with the Kung Fu Grip and love the life you create.
Success is failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
Refreshing reading that drives you to (re)think about what you really want in life and be at ease with who you are - upside and downside.
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Scooped by Martin (Marty) Smith |
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Making Warby Parker's Annual Report VISUAL
As Beyonce proved when she rethought her last album to be more visual the visual marketing revolution is here (Beyonce covered here http://sco.lt/7Pci1p). Here are 12 GREAT Visual Marketing Tips from Column 5 the Infographics experts:
1. Be Visual.
2. Show YOUR Personality.
3. Only share NEWSWORTHY news.
4. Let People See Your Engine (able to look behind the curtain).
5. Focus on and Feature Your POEPLE.
6. Make IT Easy To Share (and IT is everything).
7. Present DATA in context.
8. Don't forget the TANGENTIAL.
9. Share the LOVE.
10. Product Tie-Ins should happen NATURALLY and ORGANICALLY.
11. Share VALUES.
12. Pat yourself on the BACK every now and again.
My favorite is FEATURE YOUR PEOPLE. Clients ask me and/or complain they have no good content. Nonsense you have amazing content sitting at desks or on the shop floor.
Telling your product's story by proxy, by telling the stories of the people that work on it, is a brilliant way to create STICKY content that isn't self-serving and feels more TRUE.
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Scooped by Martin (Marty) Smith |
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Visual Juxtapositions Captures Attention
Attention not cash is the most valuable "commodity" in the world. We can make more cash. We can't make more TIME. Attention is under attack.
Most curate, read, create and share a variety of content online in a variety of ways daily. As you head closer to the key "branding demographic" of 18 to 34 the amount of CONTENT these "brand preferences not yet set" consumers process daily is staggering.
If your visuals aren't stunning you aren't in the game. You may need more than "stunning". You may need strong visual juxtaposition to stop a swipe long enough to have your message read, shared or bought.
Here are 3 tips for creating winning visual juxtapositions:
* Align your juxtaposition to a key brand message.
* More dramatic visual juxtapositions create greater stopping power, but you may notice engagement drop off (so keep Calls To Action simple and use high contrast).
* Visual juxtapositions MUST pay off in copy and experience.
This last tip is critical since a visual juxtaposition that has amazing stopping power and then is skimpy on relevance (either to the juxtaposition OR the reader) feels like "bait and switch" and can make those who stopped angry (don't typically want this).
Imagine a horizontal line with "Low visual juxtaposition" on the left and "High Juxtaposition" on the right. As your visual juxtaposition heads toward a red line the demands on your content go up almost square the amount of juxtaposition.
That's confusing so let's say it more simply. The more dramatic your juxtaposition the better your content must be. Don't think this means you must explain the juxtaposition immediately. Never explain your juxtapositions right off.
The longer your push your explanation the more "attention tension" you create. Curious minds are looking for an explanation to your visual juxtaposition, an explanation you MUST give. I like to write copy AROUND the juxtaposition.
Copy Example for the Mondrian Dessert (pictured above)
1911, Paris
A new arrival didn't mind the cold windy August. He changed his name dropping an "a" to make the new name roll of French tongues easier. He wasn't mad for air races like everyone else. Things he cared for where rectangular and earthbound.
Earthbound would be a debate with the Spaniard, but acceptable to the less volatile French painters (George particularly). Grey Tree sat on his easel. Broadway Boogie Woogie was a war and thirty years away.
Can chocolate be "neoplastic"?
Piet Mondrian created the art movement De Stijl based on a simple grid. We create desserts based on a simple grid too. Our Mondrian Grid tastes like a 1911 Paris bistro.
Imagine sitting with friends spending an afternoon drinking coffee, arguing and sharing one more Mondrian Grid. Wishing this day would never end a robotic trill says a friendly goodbye to Paris, 1911.
You decide to take a chocolate Mondrian Grid home and notice the box shares a story about an unusually windy August day in Paris long ago when the city was mad for air races and a handful of artists created a revolution in taste, culture and time.
***
The greater the sense of time, place and mood copy builds the longer you can afford to delay the juxtaposition payoff. The Mondrian cake is a mild juxtaposition so my copy example can afford to go around the bend a little (the wandering first two paragraphs).
Those wandering fist two paragraphs are more functional than they seem. I imagined the copy for a shop like Serendipity in NYC, a destination you go to as a "guilty pleasure" to escape the press of LIFE.
Copy can communicate messages such as "guilty pleasures" and "escape" by wandering around a little. Note even in the wandering the factual base is correct if romantic (hey its Paris).
PS
Added a discussion about copy tone, rhythm and speed on GPlus
https://plus.google.com/102639884404823294558/posts/dDpmMM9mEaL
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Scooped by Martin (Marty) Smith |
Scoop.it!
Organic reach and engagement are declining on social networks. Here's how to share curated content with images for more clicks to your website.
Too Good! My first Scoop.it Pic. Thanks to @Guillaume Decugisand kudos to @Scoop.itteam and a great content curation tool gets better.
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Scooped by Martin (Marty) Smith |
Scoop.it!
Haiku Deck Rocks Visual Marketing
If you haven't used http://www.haikudeck.com yet you should. Mark Traphagen turned me on to it and it is the best visual marketing tool out there. Here are 5 reasons we love Haiku Deck:
* SO EASY - the creators of Haiku Deck may have made the easiest to use tool on the plant.
* Free - Amazingly the tool is FREE (at the moment).
* Visual Marketing - we use the tool to find images from the Creative Commons. Content marketing is hampered without great images & Haiku Deck helps you find 'em.
* Their Community - great marketers creating awesome decks makes the Haiku Deck community one of our favorites (right up there with Scoop.it).
* Their team - the Haiku Deck team is responsive, social and they want to help.
If you aren't using this awesome content marketing tool yet, you should be.
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Become storytellers: Modern marketing is less about selling and more about creating brand experiences fueled by brand storytelling. You only have about eight seconds to catch consumers’ attention. To make those seconds count, thoroughly investigate your customers.
Some ways to do this: Start with exhaustive persona profiles to build buyer paths from high-level awareness down to purchase so that you’re creating the right types of offers to deliver the appropriate content at every stage of the buying process.
Persona research should include: raw data (surveys, internal sales, and analytics data), interviews with sales and support teams, and discussions with or polls sent to existing customers. Add Interest to Email. Despite news of its demise, email is still a marketing workhorse.
However, businesses must stop the “spray and pray” method in lieu of incorporating smarter strategies driven by automation to get the most out of the medium. Ways to standout in... keep reading
With detailed images, you can get the attention of up to 67% of your targeted audiences.
And,,,,,,,,you can download a free guide
Martin Smith again on the importance of Visual Content Marketing, Storytelling and Persona ! Really Worth Reading !
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Scooped by Martin (Marty) Smith |
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You may catch Marty combing through Vogue, Elle and Vanity Fair at B&N. Why? Fashion mags are great visual marketers - 8 Visual Marketing Tips From Vogue. Here are 8 Visual Marketing Lessons from Vogue:
* Be specific & BIG NUMBERS are great ways to be specific.
* Be branded – take advantage of existing brands such as Shades of Grey.
* Be topical – March is “fashion week” in NYC and both magazines have extensive features.
* Be welcoming – note how both models look directly out at the viewers (my favorite online engagement pose).
* Use SOUND – “Sexy, Shiny, Bouncy Hair sounds fun. “Full on Fashion Force” sounds forceful. Words create rhythm and sounds that adds to or detracts from compelling images.
* Juxtapose – “street chic” and “fashion force” are examples of creative juxtapositions.
* Use Action Verbs – which of these action verbs AREN’T on either cover? grab, be bold, upgrade, must have, takes on, and rock? Yep, all of those “action verbs” are in sub-headlines.
* Simple Colors – ONLY colors used for headlines and sub-heads are black, white and red.
@Martin (Marty) Smith proves again simplicity is the tip of sophistication. A clean dozen of how-to. For a visually wired species like human being, it's always the eye placement and the body positioning.
It's hard to walk into a B-2-B client using Vogue as an ex. but everything they do has relevance. Takes an openminded client to know it.
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Scooped by Martin (Marty) Smith |
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It's never a great idea to blindly follow trends, but it's good to know what they are. It's kind of similar to the old maxim that 'you have to know the rules to break the rules'. But in fractured and disjointed world, working out what the latest visual design trends actually are can be difficult.
Some of these trends we are seeing over and over, but "filtered" is new to me. Glad to see the death of "sock" photos. Those Stepford pics have to go .
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Scooped by Martin (Marty) Smith |
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Gain up to 50% percent more followers on Pinterest by using this fantastic Pinterest Social media tool called Pinwoot
Cool tool shared on G+ by Tom George of Internet Billboards.
How to get more Pinterest followers using Pinwoot.
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Scooped by Martin (Marty) Smith |
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Fascinating to try to live blog an interview. It is impossible by the way at least for me. I had to stop typing while answering Scotty Mason; Raleigh CBS affiliate WRAL's Tar Heel Traveler's questions.
Scotty is a masterful visual storyteller and I picked up a few tips on this our third session together (Scotty shot a segment about Martin's Ride To Cure Cancer and helped create Cure Cancer Starter's mission video).
Video Storytelling Tips
* Don't have questions written down.
* But be prepared and know your subject.
* Be open to accident and unplanned ideas.
* Create in the moment on what inspires you.
* Ask great open-ended questions.
* If you don't hear what you want ask the same question again later.
* Shoot lots of related b-roll.
* Write a script AFTER filming.
* Tell a story.
Scotty's stories are always parabels. When he told Martin's Ride To Cure Cancer's story (http://scenttrail.blogspot.com/2013/01/tar-heel-traveler-art-of-visual.html) he stressed the winding road of one's life stesses not to take anything for granted.
Interesting to see how Scotty tells today's story.
http://scenttrail.blogspot.com/2013/06/being-interviwed-by-tar-heel-traveler.html
