Content Marketing Archives - Duct Tape Marketing http://ducttapemarketing.com/category/content-marketing/ Thu, 29 Dec 2022 17:45:22 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://ducttapemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-15921-New-Logo-Favicon_V1-DTM.png Content Marketing Archives - Duct Tape Marketing http://ducttapemarketing.com/category/content-marketing/ 32 32 41106627 5 Ways to Start Using AI in Your Marketing Today https://ducttapemarketing.com/ways-to-use-ai-for-marketing/ Fri, 04 Nov 2022 17:03:04 +0000 https://ducttapemarketing.com/?p=66511 5 Ways to Start Using AI in Your Marketing Today written by Editor read more at Duct Tape Marketing

AI is the future of marketing.According to a study by Quantcast and Forbes,  AI helps marketers to boost sales, increase customer retention, and succeed at new product launches.This post will provide you with practical and useful examples to understand a bit more about AI and how it can help your marketing team do all of […]

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5 Ways to Start Using AI in Your Marketing Today written by Editor read more at Duct Tape Marketing

AI is the future of marketing.

According to a study by Quantcast and Forbes,  AI helps marketers to boost sales, increase customer retention, and succeed at new product launches.

This post will provide you with practical and useful examples to understand a bit more about AI and how it can help your marketing team do all of that and more.

What is AI?

The simplest way to think about AI is to see it as a tool or system that has the ability to learn and predict. It can comprehend what we want, or it can learn from its mistakes, and then predict what we might want the next time.

AI is all around us. Every time we ask Siri something, it learns and gets smarter understanding what we're asking, who we are, and what we want to know.

Anytime we ask for directions on Google Maps, AI processes and learns what is going on around us through traffic patterns and how cars are moving.

Siri, google maps and Grammarly. Three of the most common tools based on ai

There are some AI tools that use existing data to make new content. Article writers, for example, can create original content because they scan and take in all of the information available on the Internet.

There's also AI that uses trial and error. The AI-driven chess computer that gets better and better and eventually beats everybody learns from what the opponent did, and processes all that information to come to a better result.

The thing all of these tools have in common is that they take in information, learn from it, and can make informed future decisions all on their own.


AI and Content Marketing

Content has become a crucial part of digital marketing in recent years. In fact, content is now the primary focus for most marketing teams. 

The problem is that creating long-form content, On-page SEO, and social media posts can be extremely time-consuming. Even more challenging is coming up with ideas that your audience will find interesting and engaging.

AI tools are making it easier for marketers to streamline their content creation processes. From generating ideas to choosing images for your blog posts, AI moves the implementation work to a place where it can be done effectively, even with the smallest of teams.

Is AI going to make us obsolete as marketers?

AI is not going to make agencies, marketers, or business owners obsolete, but it is going to make us more efficient. It becomes a competitive advantage if an agency can produce 10 times more content than before.

However, AI is not going to process emotion, is not going to be able to process an opportunity, is not going to understand a gut feeling you have or relationships that it can lean on, and it's not going to replace strategic thinking.

5 practical ways to use AI in your marketing today

 Use AI for your long-form content

wxample of an outline used by ai marketing tool to create long form content

Long-form content has become one of the hardest things for smaller marketing teams or smaller agencies to produce because it's so time-consuming and yet it is so essential for end users and the educational approaches that we have today.

Here are some of the ways to use Writesonic – An AI tool we frequently use –to helps create better long-form content:

  • You can use Writesonic to help you create a fully customized blog outline. The AI content tool does this by scanning the Internet and choosing content based on what people are searching for online. This allows you to then easily fill in the rest. 
  • Writesonic uses AI to make long-from content more engaging, relevant, and attractive for readers. This can decrease your blogs bounce rate and increase your overall visibility online.
  • Connect Writesonic with an SEO tool like Semrush to optimize your long-form content towards your target keywords and audiences.
  • If you are creating content for new clients, Writesonic can save you tons of time by completing the initial background research for you.

Spend more time creating a stellar experience for your leads & beat your competition

Disclosure: Duct Tape Marketing is a Writesonic affiliate and may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post. Duct Tape Marketing would never endorse products or services it has not tested or does not use.

AI for Metadata and SEO

Good SEO practice is a necessary process that takes time and effort. However, much of it can be repetitive and time-consuming. Tasks like creating SEO-optimized titles, creating the right meta tags, or keyword research can now easily be automated with AI.

How can AI tools produce better results for SEO?

screenshoots of Writesonic's features for seo

Doing keyword research manually is time-consuming. AI tools help you streamline this process by crawling relevant content on the internet and then giving you questions, keywords, and information that people are looking for in Google, so you can create more valuable blog posts or pages.

AI tools like Writesonic can also help you write engaging and optimized titles and meta descriptions in seconds by simply typing in an overview of the topic. It’s a great way to save time and free up your marketing team to focus on more innovative and strategic tasks.

Q&A is another essential feature that can boost your SEO results. With today's AI tools you can easily create highly relevant Q&A content, that you can use in Quora, Reddit forums, or in relevant Facebook Groups.

Add copy and variations

Google Ads now gives you the ability to create up to 15 headlines for your search ads. It takes time and brain cycles to write those ads.

AI tools can automatically produce these variations for you in the format that Google, YouTube or any other platform will understand. The ad copy will also be automatically optimized for higher click-trough rates based on past campaign performances. 

Additionally, AI recognizes that people on LinkedIn write differently than on Facebook, so you can customize tone based on the platform.

Examples of ai written copy for facebook ads

Below is another example of using Google headlines. Some of them are great, and some maybe don't hit the mark, but it gives you a quick sample of things to start working with.

By having 10 different ad copies to test, you whittle down and find the winner. It makes the creation of the ad variations much faster and efficient.

example of google ads copy written by ai in writesonic

Social Media Content

Brands need to create and publish content every day on several different platforms. 

One of my favorite ways to produce social media content is to break one big piece of content into many pieces. So, you can take an article that you've already written, put it into your AI tool, select the social media platform and the tool can generate weeks worth of posts from that one piece of content.

AI tools can also generate content ideas, hooks, and captions with just a topic or a few keywords.   

screenshoot of the benefits that ai offers for social media content creation

Some AI tools can even create complete posts for you, give you a mixture of Instagram captions, descriptions for your YouTube videos, titles, script hooks for TikTok, and more.

Content repurposing

Content repurposing has become a big topic. Constantly refreshing content can be a powerful way to impact your SEO without having to write new content. AI tools can easily accomplish this task in seconds. 

AI can also help you shorten content. For example If you have a blog post that people love, but you need to shorten it in order to repost to LinkedIn, AI can do that. 

Start using AI tools to help you create great content, and save you time, and money

AI tools are great for getting more content and finding easy ways to boost your SEO. Utilize these powerful tools today along with some editing and styling to boost your results in marketing.

It is not a 'cut and paste' solution, but it does get you closer to an optimal result.

Now that you know this, it is time to identify some aspects where you can improve your marketing efforts using AI today.

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5 AI tools every content marketing pro should use today https://ducttapemarketing.com/ai-content-marketing-tools/ Fri, 04 Nov 2022 15:40:59 +0000 https://ducttapemarketing.com/?p=66491 5 AI tools every content marketing pro should use today written by Editor read more at Duct Tape Marketing

The global market value of artificial intelligence (AI) in the marketing world is projected to reach over half a trillion dollars by 2024. There is an AI tool out there for almost any marketing need, and the stat above proves that these tools will grow and develop to offer even more value to marketers and small […]

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5 AI tools every content marketing pro should use today written by Editor read more at Duct Tape Marketing

The global market value of artificial intelligence (AI) in the marketing world is projected to reach over half a trillion dollars by 2024. 

There is an AI tool out there for almost any marketing need, and the stat above proves that these tools will grow and develop to offer even more value to marketers and small business owners.

Using AI tools is just one way to help optimize your content marketing workflow. As you create your next piece of content, look at the tools shared here, and see what value they can bring to the table.

The more tools you plug into your workflow, the easier it will become to build great content, and deliver it in a timely manner. 

What are AI marketing tools?

AI marketing tools are platforms or systems that mimic human intelligence and help marketers improve efficiency, accuracy, and automate parts of their job. There are numerous AI marketing tools on the market right now, and odds are, you probably already use a few of them.

Benefits of using AI tools for Marketing

AI Marketing tools can take a lot of the work out of doing marketing for a small business. They’re often scalable to the size of your business, and quite easy to use. They also reduce the amount of manual work needed, meaning less human error and more efficiency. 

Best of all, AI marketing tools can cover every area of your small business marketing. As you’ll see in this article, there are AI tools for copywriting, design, social media, SEO content creation, decks, and much more.

Honestly, the biggest pain in using AI marketing tools for your business can be deciding the best to use.

Here are our 5 AI tools that every marketer can and probably should start using today. Check them out and see what works for your business:


1. Writesonic

Screenshoot of the instant ai writing features of Writesonic

A market leader, Writesonic offers marketers the opportunity to use AI to create written content of any kind. It has you covered from creating SEO-optimized long-form posts to sales emails, Q&A, essays, product descriptions, reports, and even ebooks. 

For blogs and SEO articles, simply enter a keyword or a topic, and it will give you AI-based options for your title, introduction, outline, and finally a well-written post in minutes.

Writesonic has a cloud-native, AI-powered system, that provides complete ownership of the AI-generated copy in your account, and integrates effortlessly with Semrush, WordPress, and other common marketing programs.

We use this tool at Duct Tape Marketing, and it has been a massive help to us with time-consuming tasks like topic research, crafting engaging long-form content, doing FAQs and Q&A pages, optimizing our SEO, and creating ad variations.

If you struggle to create written content but want to brighten up your online presence without spending much effort and time, then Writesonic might be helpful. With their generous 2,500 words free trial, it can help you build tons of relevant content in no time.

Disclose that DTM is a Writesonic affiliate: Disclosure: Duct Tape Marketing is a Writesonic affiliate and may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post. Duct Tape Marketing would never endorse products or services it has not test or does not use.


2. Lately

screenshoot of Lately  platform for social media ai marketing tool

If you want the content of your social media to be created and tested efficiently,  Lately is the perfect solution. 

It employs a combination of your social media analytics, millions of data points from its own archives, and crowd testing to create organic social media content that your audience will love.

This allows your social media team to spend more time focusing on strategy, growth, or creating a better end-to-end experience for your clients online.

Try their 7-day free trial to create posts your followers will love and share.


3. Photosonic

ai marketing tools image generator

Need some inspiration for new creative designs, concepts, or projects? PhotoSonic lets you create realistic or artistic graphics from a text description, using a text-to-image AI model. Just type in a few keywords and the software will produce several relevant images for you to choose from. 

This AI marketing tool also lets you modify existing images with text and filters, create images of any kind, and customize them with diverse attributes and details within seconds.

Photosonic offers a 15-credit free trial that helps you get an idea of how AI Image generators can boost your marketing.


Jasper

example of jasper ai tool writing a podcast description

With all of its combined features, Jasper is an effective AI Marketing tool that can help marketing teams break creative blocks to create amazing, authentic content faster.

Jasper has a Chrome extension that lets you create content directly on social media platforms. It also helps marketers write viral YouTube and TikTok video scripts, craft LinkedIn articles, Instagram captions, website copy, and write emails.

Jasper and Writesonic are built on the same AI technology, both have good customer support and can help marketing teams to create content more efficiently. However, Jasper doesn't offer a free plan and is more focused on writing short-form content like ads and product descriptions.


5. Grammarly

example of how Grammarly ai system works

If you create written content, then you have to check out Grammarly. This AI tool helps writers with grammar, spelling, and tone mistakes. Grammarly also offers a Chrome extension and smoothly integrates with commonly used tools like Slack, Gmail, GoogleDocs, WordPress, CRMs, and others.

Grammarly’s AI system processes reams of natural human language, a component of AI that involves teaching machines to understand human language. This method allows Grammarly to do sentiment analysis, score your writing, make styling decisions, and more.

There is a free versions and which corrects spelling, grammar, and tone mistakes in your writing. 


How to start using AI Marketing tools for your business

Choosing the right AI marketing tools can often feel overwhelming. There are often so many services and each with their own unique features. 

To get yourself through the process and find the best AI tools for your business, think about these 3 simple tips;

  1. Nobody knows your business more than you do, so really think about where an AI  tool might benefit your workflow. Is your content creation process slow? Are you disappointed with your social media efforts? Identifying your needs will help you target the right AI tool for your marketing.
  2. Test all the AI tools you’re considering. Most of the above-mentioned offer free trials, so take advantage of these. Make sure you like using them, and that implementing them will be as easy as possible.
  3. Does the tool save time and drive growth? If you do your research and test the product, you’ll know if it helps you or not. Don’t add too many tools and keep it simple.


Essential Workbooks for Small Business Marketing Strategy

rethinking customer journey workbook


You’ve hopefully come away with some new insights about AI marketing tools, the benefits of AI tools for marketing, and how to choose the right one.

Now, you’re ready to get out there and find the right tools for your business. 

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10 Critical Elements Your Website Must Employ Today https://ducttapemarketing.com/website-content-strategy/ Thu, 11 Aug 2022 15:27:06 +0000 https://ducttapemarketing.com/?p=63099 10 Critical Elements Your Website Must Employ Today written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Many people assume that a website's purpose is to get new clients. Just create high-quality product pages, write a little content, add a CTA button then sit back and see if it works.Yet the primary goal of a website isn’t only to obtain new clients. In fact, 92% of consumers visit a brand's website for […]

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10 Critical Elements Your Website Must Employ Today written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Many people assume that a website's purpose is to get new clients. Just create high-quality product pages, write a little content, add a CTA button then sit back and see if it works.

Yet the primary goal of a website isn’t only to obtain new clients. In fact, 92% of consumers visit a brand's website for the first time for reasons other than buying.

So, what is the job of a company website in the world of modern marketing strategy?

Sometimes the goal is to build trust for a potential employee. In other scenarios, the purpose is to be an influential part of a complex-non linear buyer journey.

There is no one "right" answer to this question, but based on my years of experience consulting for small businesses, the best answer is - the job of your company website it to increase someone’s WTP (Willingness To Pay) or even WTPP (Willingness to pay Premium).

This means guiding an end-to-end elegant customer journey, where the role of the website content strategy is to increase somebody's trust and likability until they are ready to pay.

So what are the website essentials for small businesses, and how do you start building a site that earns the trust of its visitors and increases WTP?

Let's get into the ten things that will help drive WTP on your website.

Use the following links to jump to a section quickly:


10 Critical Elements Your Website Must Employ Today

Learn how Lead Spark can help you build a SMS/Text strategy 


1. Make a Promise to solve the problem

No one wants what you sell - they want their problem solved.

The first thing that your website must do is - promise to solve a real problem. Avoid those big headlines telling what you do or what industry you're in. If people are on your website, they probably know that already.

Instead, tell them the most significant pain point that you solve. That’s the greatest opportunity to differentiate your business from every other company that does what you do.

For example, here's the homepage of a digital marketing agency, Tuff. Rather than promoting their marketing services, they tell us the problem they solve

example-homepage-website-content-strategy

2. CTAs

There are many reasons somebody might want to talk to you. So it is essential to help your customers move through the buying journey by using strategic calls to action or CTAs. 

Offer various stopping points where people can take action if they want. Don't wait until the bottom of the page, or just have a contact us link in your top navigation menu. “I want to know more,” “I want an evaluation,” “Set up a meeting,” “Get this free report, or “Learn more” - are all examples of different CTAs that could be used throughout your website to ultimately connect you to your site visitors.

You can have various CTAs all over your website for many reasons, but they should be clear, immediately visible, and at strategic stopping points throughout your customer's journey.

3. Who do you get resultd for?

The third website essential for small businesses is focusing your website content on a specific niche.

Go as far as you can to narrow the focus on who makes an ideal customer for you and make them an essential part of your website content strategy. You might even go as far as saying, “If you're not this type of company or person, we're probably not a good fit for you.”

Be specific about who you serve and what problem you solve for them. Be explicit about who gets the best results from your services because those will be your best customers.

website-content-strategy-example-ideal-client.

Showing your clients in different industries or situations is an effective way to show others who you work with. The more they recognize themselves on your website content, the easier it will be for them to go deeper on a buying journey.

4. Core offerings

So many companies offer too many things. They write about every possible way they could work with somebody on the homepage. But the reality is that there are often a few services, products, or offerings that generate 80% of the profit for the organization.

Keep it simple. Avoid trying to feature everything. Pick two or three rock-solid offerings you can do better than any other company and really showcase those throughout your site.

For example, this website’s tagline is “We build software from start to finish.” But rather than featuring every single product or platform they can build, they picked full lifecycle services and technologies as their core offers. It’s simple, but it works perfectly.

website-content-strategy-example-dtm-core-offerings

5. Marketing Your Process

So many companies offer too many things. They write about every possible way they could work with somebody on the homepage. But the reality is that there are often a few services, products, or offerings that generate 80% of the profit for the organization.

Keep it simple. Avoid trying to feature everything. Pick two or three rock-solid offerings you can do better than any other company and really showcase those throughout your site.

website-content-process-example-dtm

Especially if you have developed unique procedures internally that guarantee that somebody will get a great result, you have to show them that process.

paperback-Website_Essentials

6. Your Team

In my experience, the second most visited page on any website is the “About Us” or “Team” page. This is because people want to know you are real; they want to know who they will be working with and what they stand for.

Additionally, most clients will experience your brand through the people in your team. So show them who they are and let them know their values and backgrounds.

Check out the below 'About Us' page sample. This company has snippets representing an everyday conversation at work. It gives a real insight into the company culture, what they stand for, how they operate, and how they appreciate each other. It also makes you, as a consumer, want to work with them.

about-page-example

Many buying decisions today are based on the ability to connect with your audience.  So reveal your stripes, tell people what you're all about, and show them who they will work with if they become clients

7. Trust and Proof

When we land on a website, we first determine whether or not the company can solve the problem. If they do, the next step is to look for details about how they've helped like-minded people.

That’s why you need case studies, customer testimonials and examples right on the homepage. This will help your audience trust you by giving them proof. 

social-proof-example

The case studies above are right on the homepage of this company's website. Actual results that they've gotten for people and specific numbers as a form of proof. 

531% increase in six months, 192,853 in additional sales, how they outranked Home Depot. Nothing says more for your brand than the word of people who have used your products or services before.

Don’t have any case studies? Use your Google reviews to create a testimonials page. Look at this amazing website content from Basecamp.

testimonials-example-website-content.

8. Video

Video is one of the best ways to develop trust with potential buyers, especially for small businesses. Still, it has to go beyond just putting a video of the owner talking about what their company does. 

Video is a key part of a website content strategy. I see brands summarizing long-form blog content with a video that says, you want the short story here? Click on the video. It not only sends a message of trust but also, many people just want to consume content that way. 

You can have more genuine customer testimonials, reveal how your product is made, create how-to videos solving a problem, explain your unique approach to the market, or just have videos showcasing your company culture.

This video is from an interior designer brand. Everybody on their team talks about their approach to design, where they get their inspiration, and the kind of projects they love doing.  It's like you've met them before having direct interaction.

9. Segmentation

Most businesses have at least a couple of target audiences. You could have beginner vs. advanced level customers, customers based on title, or even customers with different needs based on their geolocation. 

Each of these potential customers fits into a different segment for your business, and the more tailored you can make their journey on your site, the better their experience will be with your brand. 

You can start to segment your site based on your target audience in several different ways. You could create specific content, prompt your audience to self-select who they are, or even use automation and AI to do it for you.

Here’s a typical scenario on B2B marketing: 

Suppose you are selling to businesses with several stakeholders. The CEO cares about something different than the CFO and the COO. So, solutions by role can be a great way to segment. 

For example, at Duct Tape Marketing, we work with small business owners, but we also train marketing consultants looking to learn our methodologies.

So by asking a simple question on our homepage, we let people select their content path and deliver a more personalized journey for each segment we serve.

duct-tape-marketing-segmentation-content-strategy

10. Contact Options

Make contact easy, give options and let people interact with you how they want and when they want. To explain this to new clients, I tell them that it's like when businesses used to take cash, credit card, or checks. Now we have to take email, text, chat, and phone.

If you are using forms, make them easy to fill. Many design tools can help you design elegant forms in minutes. And once somebody fills out that form, make sure you use that opportunity to redirect people to a page where you can greet them with a short video, share more content with them, and connect them to your social media channels.

By doing this you are continuing to engage with them, showing them other elements of your business and giving them clear instructions on what to expect from your business next. 

Bonus Essential Website Element! - Think Mobile First

Many websites are still designed and optimized on a 40-inch monitor. But the reality is that 80% of website traffic of many businesses comes from mobile devices—which means that you not only need to optimize your site for mobile, but you need to have a solid mobile-first strategy.

google-analytics-mobile-traffic.

The graph above is website traffic data from a local remodeling contractor. When we looked at the numbers, almost 60% of their traffic came from either a mobile device or tablet. These results prompted this contractor to audit how they were showing up on mobile and improved their overall mobile audience experience. 

Odds are the majority of traffic to your website is on a mobile device as well. That is why the bonus essential element to designing a great website today is to focus on designing your website with a mobile-first mindset. Providing a great mobile experience compared to your competitors could drastically improve your customers WTP or WTPP.

For even more detail on essential website elements - check out the Small Business Guide to Website Design.

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The Top 10 Duct Tape Marketing Podcast Episodes for 2021 https://ducttapemarketing.com/top-10-podcast-episodes-2021/ Fri, 24 Dec 2021 16:45:12 +0000 https://ducttapemarketing.com/?p=57877 The Top 10 Duct Tape Marketing Podcast Episodes for 2021 written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

As we’ve tried to return to some sense of normalcy in 2021, the implications of the pandemic have bled into this year — impacting and shaping the future of business and small business marketing as we know it. We’ve faced new and old challenges, pushed hard for innovation, and trudged forward in the face of […]

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The Top 10 Duct Tape Marketing Podcast Episodes for 2021 written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

As we’ve tried to return to some sense of normalcy in 2021, the implications of the pandemic have bled into this year — impacting and shaping the future of business and small business marketing as we know it. We’ve faced new and old challenges, pushed hard for innovation, and trudged forward in the face of change and the many lessons learned.

I chatted with some incredible guests on the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast over this past year. I wanted to take a look back at the most popular episodes we aired in 2021.

If you enjoyed what you heard here, check out the full line-up of shows.

1. Oliver Burkeman – Making The Most Of Your Time

Oliver-burkeman

Oliver Burkeman is the author of The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking. For many years, he wrote a popular column on psychology for the Guardian newspaper. He’s the author of a new book called Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals.

Biggest takeaway:

The average human lifespan is brief. Nobody needs telling there isn’t enough time. We’re obsessed with our lengthening to-do lists, our overfilled inboxes, work-life balance, and the ceaseless battle against distraction; and we’re deluged with advice on becoming more productive and efficient, and “life hacks” to optimize our days. But often, such techniques often end up making things worse. In this episode, Oliver Burkeman talks about concepts from his book: Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals. We discuss the many unhelpful ways we’ve come to think about time, and how to think and do things differently so that we can show up better in the present moment.

Click here to listen to the episode.

2. Clare Kumar – How To Optimize Your Work Performance

Clare Kumar helps busy professionals optimize their performance. She is a media contributor on productivity, organization, and work-life integration.

Biggest takeaway:

People are busy, and that’s applicable across every and all job roles — entrepreneurs, business professionals, employees, stay-at-home parents, consultants, you name it, we’re busy. Clare Kumar works directly with people and professionals helping them optimize their performance and work-life integration. In this episode, Clare shares how to shift your mindset in a way that will help you build habits that last, boost your productivity, and optimize your work performance.

Click here to listen to the episode.

3. Solo Show – Creating Content For Every Stage Of The Customer Journey

john-jantsch

John Jantsch is a marketing consultant, speaker, and author of Duct Tape Marketing, The Referral Engine, The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur, and The Ultimate Marketing Engine. He is also the founder of the Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network, which trains and licenses independent consultants and agencies to use the Duct Tape Methodology.

Biggest takeaway:

Content can’t and shouldn’t be viewed as a bunch of one-off projects. The creation of it needs to come out of one comprehensive strategy. Because it is such an important piece of the marketing puzzle these days, it needs to be incorporated in every phase of the customer journey. As a person moves through the customer journey, you must hit them with content throughout the process to keep them engaged with your business, and the best way to do this is to match the content you’d like to develop with the various phases of the Marketing Hourglass. In this episode, I share how to create content for every stage of the customer journey.

Click here to listen to the episode.

4. Mike Michalowicz – How To Create Marketing That Can’t Be Ignored

Mike Michalowicz

Mike Michalowicz is a speaker and bestselling author, the creator of Profit First – which is used by hundreds of thousands of companies across the globe to drive profit. And he’s got a new book today called – Get Different: Marketing That Can’t Be Ignored!

Biggest takeaway: 

Many business owners are frustrated because they feel invisible in a crowded marketplace. They know they are better than their competitors, but when they focus on that fact, they get little in return. That’s because, to customers, better is not actually better. Different is better. And those who market differently, win. In this episode, Mike talks about his new marketing book, Get Different, where he offers a proven, method to position your business, service, or brand to get noticed, attract the best prospects, and convert those opportunities into sales.

Click here to listen to the episode.

5. Ryan Englin – How To Attract The Right Talent

Ryan is the CEO of Core Fit Hiring which helps blue-collar companies fill frontlines with quality technicians and craftworkers.

Biggest takeaway:

Finding the right talent is not an easy task to conquer. In fact, many people waste time hiring the wrong people or have a difficult time retaining the people they worked so hard to attract. In this episode, I talk with the founder of Core Fit Hiring, Ryan Englin, about why people have such a difficult time attracting the right talent today and what you need to do to attract quality frontline workers who align with your company values — and how to get them to stay.

Click here to listen to the episode.

6. Jeffrey Shaw – Making Your Self-Employed Business Sustainably Successful

Jeffrey is an experienced speaker and small-business consultant. He helps self-employed and small-business owners gain control of their business in what otherwise seems like uncontrollable circumstances. He’s also the author of a book called: The Self-Employed Life: Business and Personal Development Strategies That Create Sustainable Success.

Biggest takeaway: 

To be self-employed means more than employing oneself. It’s a choice to challenge yourself to grow personally while building a business. As we develop ourselves, we raise the bar—we’re capable of even more success. What self-employed folks need is both business strategies and personal development to reach and maintain that success. In this episode, Jeffrey Shaw shares his holistic approach for sustainable, self-employed success.

Click here to listen to the episode.

7. Jacqueline Lieberman – Making Brands More Human

Headshot of Jacqueline Lieberman who was a guest on the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast

Jacqueline Lieberman is the former Managing Partner and the Head of Strategy Story Worldwide and the current founder of BrandCrudo.

Biggest takeaway:

Brands are people’s introduction to businesses and their way to interact with companies. The more human a brand is, the better that interaction is going to be. All of the beloved brands that are out there are the ones that behave like human beings. They have a conscience, a point of view, a soul, and a personality. In this episode, Jacqueline Lieberman discusses the work that she does with her clients and the ways in which she has helped many brands become more human.

Click here to listen to the episode.

8. Sophia Godkin – The Simple Truths About Happiness

Headshot of Sophia Godkin

Sophia Godkin is a Health Psychologist, Happyologist, and Happiness, Relationship & Transformational Coach. She’s also the author of The 5-Minute Gratitude Journal: Give Thanks, Practice Positivity, Find Joy.

Biggest takeaway:

During her Ph.D. journey, Dr. Sophia Godkin found herself under an incredible amount of stress that led her to an internal realization that life could be lived in a more harmonious internal state. There is so much truth in the statement: “All you have to do is decide to be happy.” But how many people actually have the tools, resources, and mental mindset to be able to decide to be happy? There are many things that actually prevent us from the decision to be happy. In this episode, Dr. Sophia Godkin dives into the simple truths about finding happiness.

Click here to listen to the episode.

9. Tripp Lanier – Reach Your Potential by Living Dangerously

Tripp Lanier is a professional coach, author of This Book Will Make You Dangerous, and host of The New Man Podcast: Beyond the Macho Jerk and the New Age Wimp which — for over a decade — has been downloaded millions of times. We’re discussing his book called This Book Will Make You Dangerous – a guide for the rare, few men who refuse to sleepwalk through life.

Biggest takeaway:

Tripp Lanier has spent thousands of hours coaching forward-thinking men all around the world on how to not sleep through life and how to see opportunities instead of walls. In this episode, Tripp Lanier focuses on mindset and shares how to challenge your fears, align your life with meaning, and find clarity and direction in your life.

Click here to listen to the episode.

10. Allan Dib – Is the 1-Page Marketing Plan Right for Your Business?

Allan Dib is a serial entrepreneur, rebellious marketer, and #1 bestselling author. Allan Dib wrote The 1-Page Marketing Plan: Get New Customers, Make More Money, And Stand Out From the Crowd.

Biggest takeaway:

To build a successful business, you need to stop doing random acts of marketing and start following a reliable plan for rapid business growth. Traditionally, creating a marketing plan has been a difficult and time-consuming process, which is why it often doesn’t get done. In this episode, Allan Dib talks about his 1-Page Marketing Plan – which is a marketing implementation breakthrough that makes creating a marketing plan simple and fast.

Click here to listen to the episode.

 

Is your favorite episode on the list? If not, we’d love to hear which one you enjoyed listening to the most!

For our podcast audience, we can’t thank you enough for your support over the years! If you like the show, click on over and subscribe and if you love the show give us a review on iTunes, please!

 

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The Top 10 Duct Tape Marketing Podcast Episodes for 2020 https://ducttapemarketing.com/top-10-duct-tape-marketing-podcast-episodes-for-2020/ Fri, 26 Mar 2021 15:15:33 +0000 https://ducttapemarketing.com/?p=55428 The Top 10 Duct Tape Marketing Podcast Episodes for 2020 written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

2020 was an unpredictably eye-opening year that brought forth swift change, lots of uncertainty, and a shift in perspective for many. Even though 2020 immediately conjures words like “challenge,” “hardship” and “crisis,” there are many lessons learned that will impact and shape the future of business and small business marketing moving forward. I chatted with some […]

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The Top 10 Duct Tape Marketing Podcast Episodes for 2020 written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

2020 was an unpredictably eye-opening year that brought forth swift change, lots of uncertainty, and a shift in perspective for many. Even though 2020 immediately conjures words like “challenge,” “hardship” and “crisis,” there are many lessons learned that will impact and shape the future of business and small business marketing moving forward.

I chatted with some incredible guests on the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. I wanted to take a look back at the most popular episodes we aired in 2020.

If you enjoyed what you heard here, check out the full line-up of shows.

Tim Staples – Creating Shareable Content for Your Busines

Tim Staples is the CEO of Shareability and co-author of Break Through the Noise: The 9 Rules to Capture Global Attention. Staples has developed a reputation in the marketing industry for being a creator of viral content. In the past few years, several of his video campaigns have amassed more than five billion views, and 35 of them have landed on the first page of YouTube.

Biggest takeaway: Today everybody has a megaphone. But now that everybody has a megaphone, they’re shouting into it all day long, every day, to the point where most people have tuned almost all of it out. You’ll hear from Staples on the five positive emotions that are the most effective in content to get people to lean forward and share: happiness, awe, curiosity, empathy, and surprise.

Click here to listen to the episode.

Michael Margolis – Storytelling Around Disruption and Innovation

Michael Margolis is the CEO and founder of Storied. Storytelling has become a business buzzword of late, but there’s a lot of complexity behind the term. Margolis’ focus is specifically on storytelling as it relates to disruption and innovation. It’s often hard to tell stories about change—audiences grow wary or defensive—but Margolis helps leaders in Silicon Valley and other hotbeds of innovation make that change feel exciting and achievable.

Biggest takeaway: We are taught to lead with data and conclusions. But if you lead with data, the story is dead on arrival. Margolis shares his three-step narrative framework that will help you capture your audience’s imagination, attention, and relate to your story about what you’re selling.

Click here to listen to the episode.

 

Alison Levine – How to Treat an Opportunity Like Your One Big Break

alison levine

Alison Levine is a leadership expert, polar explorer, and mountaineer who is no stranger to extreme environments. She has survived sub-zero temperatures, hurricane-force winds, sudden avalanches, and a career on Wall Street. She is one of the most in-demand keynote speakers, delivering resounding leadership messages that transcend her extreme climbing expeditions and remain relevant in today’s fast-paced business environments. She is able to draw relevant, authentic parallels between mountaineering and business because she has experienced both first hand—on multiple mountains, in multiple organizations, and in multiple industries.

Biggest takeaway: Alison Levine shares her story of starting her journey at 30. Levine shares how progress happens when you get uncomfortable, and how to treat an opportunity like it’s your one big break.

Click here to listen to the episode.

Steven M.R. Covey – Timeless Habits for Cultivating Success

Steven M. R. Covey is the former CEO of the Covey Leadership Center, where he helped his father, Stephen R. Covey, launch his classic book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. He is also a New York Times and #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author himself. His book, The Speed of Trust, is designed to help leaders build a collaborative team and environment on the basis of trust.

Biggest takeaway: Steven M.R. Covey shares his insights on why it’s so important for people to feel understood, how a paradigm shift can change your reality, why spirituality doesn’t need to be religious, and how it can help you in challenging times.

Click here to listen to the episode.

Ben Shapiro – Uncovering New Possibilities in the World of Marketing

Ben Shapiro got his start at eBay, where he served as their manager of business development and SEO. He then went on to found his own business and run marketing for a number of early-stage startups. In more recent years, he transitioned into marketing strategy consulting and now runs several popular podcasts, including the MarTech Podcast and Voices of Search

Biggest takeaway: Shapiro shares why companies should consider getting into a content business. what really matters when it comes to creating a successful podcast (or great content in any format), and how to approach going independent whether that’s the next big step in your career, or you’re doing it for the time being.

Click here to listen to the episode.

 

 

Seth Godin – Tips of the Trade with Seth Godin

Seth Godin

Seth Godin is an entrepreneur, best-selling author, and speaker. In addition to launching one of the most popular blogs in the world, he has written 19 best-selling books, including The Dip, Linchpin, Purple Cow, Tribes, and What To Do When It’s Your Turn (And It’s Always Your Turn). His most recent book, This is Marketing, was an instant bestseller in countries around the world.

Biggest takeaway: You’ll get insights from best-selling author, teacher, and entrepreneur Seth Godin about what it takes to create a successful podcast and produce one at that, the difference between the homemade and the professional approach to media production, and where conferences will stand on being relevant in today’s world.

Click here to listen to the episode.

 

Kara Goldin – How to Find Inspiration in Doubt

kara goldin

Kara Goldin is the founder and CEO of Hint Water, a flavored water brand founded in 2005. She is also the author of Undaunted: Overcoming Doubts and Doubters. Kara is an active speaker, writer, and host of the podcast Unstoppable with Kara Goldin where she interviews founders, entrepreneurs, and other disruptors across various industries.

Biggest takeaway: Don’t let anyone crush your dreams! Kara Goldin shares her story about the incredible risks she took and how she overcame huge challenges in founding Hint amidst all of the doubt from herself and others.

Click here to listen to the episode.

Solo Show – Google Analytics Simplified for Small Business

john jantsch

Closing the loop on your marketing investment, on your channels, on your customer engagement, are important. This allows you to focus, spend less money, and invest in what really works. I work with a lot of small business consultants and small business clients and this is one of the biggest challenges to get them excited about. It’s a lot like telling people they need to like math. Especially when you go to this tool, one that I believe is one of the best tools on the planet, and it’s free, but it’s really easy to get lost. In this podcast, I’m going to spend some time trying to simplify this.

Biggest takeaway: You’ll learn why you should care about Google Analytics, how to set it up, and what goals you should have when you set it up.

Click here to listen to the episode.

Todd Henry – How Motivation Can Drive You to Produce Your Best Work

Todd Henry

Todd Henry is the founder of Accidental Creative, and author of The Accidental Creative as well as Die Empty. Todd Henry’s latest book he wrote with Rod Penner, Todd W. Hall, Ph.D., and Joshua Miller, Ph.D. – The Motivation Code: Discover the Hidden Forces That Drive Your Best Work.

Biggest takeaway: Todd Henry has created a new framework for understanding what motivates us and why. Henry shares tips on how you can use your motivation to produce your best work.

Click here to listen to the episode.

Shaina Weisinger – Repurposed Content Can Increase Your Traffic 300%

Shaina Weisinger is the CEO of Repurpose House. Shaina Weisinger is an expert in social media marketing, specifically optimizing content through repurposing. Repurpose House takes all of the content your business produces and adds the social media bells and whistles. They trim video and audio, create text motion videos of blog highlights, add headlines, captions, size them for all platforms, and more.

Biggest takeaway: You’ve spent effort and time creating content, you should get the most out of it. Shaina Weisinger shares how you don’t always have to reinvent the wheel, and you can use repurposed content to increase your traffic significantly.

Click here to listen to the episode.

 

Is your favorite episode on the list? If not, we’d love to hear which one you enjoyed listening to the most!

For our podcast audience, we can’t thank you enough for your support over the years! If you like the show, click on over and subscribe and if you love the show give us a review on iTunes, please!

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7 Super Simple Ways to Get More From the Content You’ve Already Written https://ducttapemarketing.com/repurpose-your-old-content/ Wed, 25 Nov 2020 13:00:16 +0000 https://ducttapemarketing.com/?p=47618 7 Super Simple Ways to Get More From the Content You’ve Already Written written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

This post was brought to you by Essay Tigers Content marketing plays a critical role in pretty much every business in every industry even more so today. If you’ve been in business for a while, you probably have a stockpile of content that you’ve created over the years. As content ages, it starts to collect […]

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7 Super Simple Ways to Get More From the Content You’ve Already Written written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

This post was brought to you by Essay Tigers

Content marketing plays a critical role in pretty much every business in every industry even more so today. If you’ve been in business for a while, you probably have a stockpile of content that you’ve created over the years.

As content ages, it starts to collect dust — it’s out of date, tactics change, it’s buried deep in the archives, and it’s not doing anything for your business. Not only can repurposed content increase your traffic 300%, but it’s an easy way to get more ROI out of what you already have. 

If you want to save time on content creation and draw new traffic to your site, do these 7 things.

1. Add New Information to Evergreen Content

Some content never goes out of style. Many businesses have created foundational content that provides readers in-depth information on their industry, and this content can continue to be useful for years. But just like anything that’s getting up there in years, it sometimes needs a refresh to regain some of its old sparkle.

Take our content here, for example. We’ve written thousands of blog posts over the years on just about every digital marketing topic. Something like a foundational piece on SEO can remain relevant for a long time, but some of the specifics will need to be updated as search engines change their algorithms and best practices shift.

Refreshing content and republishing anew, with an acknowledgement that it’s been updated to reflect the latest on the given topic, is one of the quickest and easiest ways to repurpose your old content. This allows you to hang onto any goodwill that particular link has garnered in terms of ranking over the years, while introducing it to a whole new audience and allowing it to generate even better standing in search results.

2. Incorporate Media into Existing Posts

Blog posts can get boring after a while. Reading through one after the other demands a lot of focus from your audience, and today’s consumers are looking for new ways to engage with content.

Video has become hugely popular of late and can add a lot of visual interest to existing pages. Plus, if someone’s unable to read through an entire blog post, they may have the time to watch a quick video that provides a summary of the information in the post.

You can incorporate other forms of media, too. Infographics are a fun, eye-catching way to repurpose your content. Check out this article from Visme for some great tips on making an infographic

Podcasts are another popular medium, with 62 million Americans tuning into their favorite shows each week. For simple steps to get a podcast up and running, check out this post on our blog.

Because you’re creating dynamic media to accompany the existing content, it’s easier to script out what you need and get it done. You can quickly distill the blog post down to a handful of bullet points and from there create a video that riffs on those key elements.

Again, this saves you time in the content creation process and allows you to attract a new audience to this content. While someone might not have wanted to read 1,000 words on the topic, that infographic that hits all the highlights might be just what they were looking for.

3. Turn Video Content into a Blog Post

Creating content takes a lot of time. You need to put together a thoughtful strategy and build your content calendar around that. Then there’s the process of actually making the content itself. Blogging involves research and revision; video and podcasting means you need to adopt production skills and be able to edit video and audio.

If you go through all the trouble of creating content in the first place, why not get as much mileage out of it as possible? 

Let’s say you own a home remodeling business. A while back, you posted a video walking prospective clients through the ins and outs of the kitchen renovation process, from budgeting and planning to selecting materials to managing construction timelines. The video generates lots of views and drives traffic to your website. You know that the content is useful to your audience and helps win attention for your business.

Don’t just leave it at that video! Instead, get the video transcribed, so you can easily convert it into a blog post. (I love Rev for fast, accurate transcription services).

You can even take it a step further by using the audio from that video and transform it into a podcast episode. Suddenly, your one piece of content has multiplied into three. And that provides more opportunities for you to reach your audience through the medium that works best for them.

4. Create Social Media Friendly Content

Social media is a vital channel for businesses of all sizes. You can take content you already have, and repurpose it in different ways for social as long as it aligns with your overall social media strategy.

Your existing blog posts are packed with social media gold. Pulling snippets from your blog posts are a great way to quickly develop social media friendly content AND drive traffic back to your website. You can do things like: 

  • Make a twitter thread pulling important points from a blog post
  • Create micro-blogs on Instagram by sharing snippets from in-depth blog posts
  • Use insightful quotes from your podcast episode, videos, or blog posts to create eye catching graphics – here’s an article to help get you started on creating a quote graphic

5. Transcribe Your Podcast

Developing content, recording, and editing a podcast episode takes time.  Instead of only utilizing the audio, why not transcribe your podcast episode and turn it into a SEO-rich blog post. People consume content differently. By offering a written version of your show, you’ll reach more people because you offer content that can suit multiple people’s preferences.

6. Assemble Hub Pages

Most businesses have their content scattered here, there, and everywhere. There are videos and podcast episodes on various pages on their website and hosted on external platforms. Their blog posts are so numerous they could rival the National Archives. But the content is scattered, so it’s not actually serving a purpose.

If you want to get the most out of this content, you need to organize it around hub pages. I’ve described hub pages as your own mini-Wikipedia on your website. You start by identifying a broad topic that’s of interest to your readers. For example, we work with a lot of local businesses, so we’ve created the Ultimate Guide to Local Marketing hub page on our site.

From there, we walk local businesses through everything they need to know to supercharge their marketing efforts. We cover the basics of Google My Business, paid search, SEO for local businesses, and reviews and competitive analysis. Under these broad topics, we’ve gathered together relevant content.

For local business owners, this repository of information is a gold mine. Rather than having to search through our thousands of pieces of content, the most relevant ones are organized nicely for them in the hub page’s table of contents. Suddenly, this page becomes a go-to resource. Visitors return again and again to go deeper in depth on the topic, and share the posts with their colleagues. Search engines take note of this behavior. They realize that the content is useful, and suddenly our hub page moves up the SERPs.

When done correctly, hub pages can get your local business ranking on the first page of results for relevant search terms. And you achieve that strong ranking by repurposing and reorganizing existing content, rather than having to start from scratch.

7. Compile Blog Posts into an e-Book

If you have a series of blog posts around the same topic, you can create a new piece of content by compiling them into an e-Book to use as a lead magnet. You can use each blog post as a chapter of your e-Book, make the content in each blog post a little meatier, and write an introduction and conclusion. Then, you can use a free tool like Canva to compile these posts together. This e-Book is a great way to help you build your email list and reach more people with the content you already have.

Creating content takes a lot of time and work. Repurposing your existing content allows you to get the greatest benefit from that investment. Not only does repurposing give it a new life and introduce it to a new audience, it can also help you boost your SEO standing and grow your reach even further.

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The 8 Video Types That Every Business Must Master in 2021 https://ducttapemarketing.com/5-types-of-video-that-improves-marketing-content/ Tue, 17 Nov 2020 18:35:11 +0000 https://ducttapemarketing.com/?p=51647 The 8 Video Types That Every Business Must Master in 2021 written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

What was once a complimentary, nice-to-have component of content marketing now plays an imperative role. Video has emerged front-and-center and is arguably one of the most effective types of content to connect with your audience. Video consumption shows no signs of slowing down in the next few years. By 2021, the average person will spend […]

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The 8 Video Types That Every Business Must Master in 2021 written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

What was once a complimentary, nice-to-have component of content marketing now plays an imperative role. Video has emerged front-and-center and is arguably one of the most effective types of content to connect with your audience.

Video consumption shows no signs of slowing down in the next few years. By 2021, the average person will spend 100 minutes every day watching online videos (a 19% increase from 2019).

If you still haven’t yet embraced video, now is the time to start.

Oftentimes when people think of video marketing, they think of social media content. While there’s certainly a great case to be made for using video on social platforms (and lots of ways to do it!), incorporating video across other marketing channels is just as essential.

Here are eight types of video content that can be added to any business’s marketing system. This will allow you to tell your brand story in a dynamic, engaging way, and influence people to take action. 

1. Brand Story

Every brand has a story. Lots of entrepreneurs have fascinating tales of how they got the idea to start their business and the journey that they went on to get that business off the ground. But when we talk about the core story, it’s not about where the brand has been, it’s really more about the customer’s story.

Every brand has a problem that they solve for their customers. It’s their own unique approach to solving the issue. This is what attracts customers to the business in the first place and keeps them coming back time and again.

Creating a video that tells your core story is a great way to establish trust immediately with prospects. A strong core story outlines a prospect’s problem, paints a picture of a world where the problem has been solved, and then offers up your business as the solution to the issue.

Putting a video like this front-and-center on your website sets you up for success with prospects. Not only do prospects feel seen and heard by what they’re seeing in the video—this is a brand that really gets my problem!—they also have a sense of connection with the people behind the brand.

When the business owner gets on camera and talks directly to their prospects about how they address their big concern, this wins their trust and builds a human-to-human connection from the get-go.

2. Service or Product Videos

You have gotten the attention of a prospect with your core story. Next, your prospect might want to learn more about the specifics of how your business can solve their problems. That’s where product or service videos come in.

It doesn’t matter what kind of business you run. A video showcasing your offerings can help to dynamically demonstrate all the pros of purchasing your product or service.

For more complicated products, like a new software system or a tool or machinery that requires some set-up, product videos can help eliminate some of the fear that a prospect might feel about purchasing a complex product. When they see how easy it is to set up and use in the video, they’ll feel more confident in their ability to do it on their own.

The same is true of videos that feature services. Let’s say you are a car mechanic. People are often distrustful of car mechanics, thinking they’re able to rip people off because most of us don’t understand how a car actually works. A service video, where the mechanic walks viewers through the standard inspection process and points out potential red flags along the way can help to eliminate prospects’ fears that they’re a scam-artist mechanic.

Even for simple products, video can help to bring the item to life. A product video for a children’s construction toy that shows the features of the completed model might sell a parent on the purchase. Or a video on a clothing e-commerce site, showing a model walking back and forth in items of clothing can give viewers a sense of how the shirt or pants look and move on a real person.

Product Video Examples:

Service Video Example:

 

3. Client Testimonials

Testimonials, reviews, and case studies all play a similar role in the lead nurturing process. They offer social proof that your business is as good as you say it is. Of course, you have a vested interest in selling your business as the best business out there in your field. That is your job when you have your marketing hat on, after all! 

The most persuasive messages don’t come from email campaigns or sales reps, they come straight from the mouths of satisfied customers. Testimonial videos create a deeper and more emotional appeal from your brand. Social proof is a powerful decision-making factor. Video testimonials give regular customers the opportunity to be a brand advocate. 

By showing prospects an existing happy customer, you give them a taste of what their life could be like if they hired you. If you’re looking for tips on how to get the most out of your interview with one of your happy customers, check out these steps for putting together an effective case study.

Testimonial Video Example:

4. Frequently Asked Questions

Let’s face it, scrolling through dozens of questions in a standard FAQ page is boring. Why not create the most engaging FAQ page possible by incorporating video answers onto the page?

This is also a great opportunity to get a number of people from the company involved in the video creation process. Have someone from each department get in front of the camera. They can each record a handful of answers to the FAQs that are most relevant to their role at the company.

First, this is a fun activity for the team members who participate. Additionally, it provides you with the opportunity to introduce prospects to even more of the faces behind the business. And the greater the sense of familiarity and personal connection you can establish early on, the more you will stand out in terms of trust and likability.

5. Educational and ‘How To’ Videos

People love having their questions answered and learning new things – especially when they’re looking for more information about a specific topic.

Educational videos offer real value to your audience they can apply and use in their everyday lives. When people find the content you produce to be valuable and genuinely helpful, you begin to earn their trust.

When they trust you, they’re more likely to return to you for more help in the future thus building a stronger relationship with them. This encourages leads down the funnel.

Educational Video Example:

6. Event Videos

Planning and hosting an event takes a massive amount of work. Capturing your event on video is an easy way to extend its length and reach. Videos make events scalable. You’re able to spread brand awareness, engagement, and authority far beyond the event itself.

Events are about making new connections and networking with other people. Your event video should capture that. 

Event Video Example:

7. Explainer Videos

Explainer videos are often used to learn more about a product or service. They help you deliver important information in a short amount of time and leave a memorable impression. It’s a short informative video that explains something in a colorful, fun, and engaging way.

Adding an explainer video to your homepage is a great way to quickly explain your product or service to someone visiting your site. It effectively walks customers through a scenario where their problem would be solved by using your product. This way a user won’t have to click through and read multiple pages to understand what it is that your company does or what your offer is.

Explainer Video Example:

8. Personalized Sales Videos

Once you have won prospects over with great video content on your website, it’s time to take things to the next level. Encouraging your sales team to use one-to-one video in the sales process allows them to embrace personalization.

Using a tool like Loom makes it easy for even the least tech-savvy sales team in the room to record and send videos. Creating a personalized video, where they address the prospect by name and speak to their specific concerns and questions, makes that prospect feel special. They think, “If this business went through the trouble to record a video just for me, can you imagine the lengths they’ll go-to for me if I become a customer?”

Video content can play a role throughout all stages of the customer journey. Video can be critical to establishing trust, building a personal connection, and moving prospects down the hourglass towards their first purchase.

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6 Time-Saving Hacks for Content Creation https://ducttapemarketing.com/save-time-on-content-creation/ Thu, 12 Nov 2020 14:00:05 +0000 https://ducttapemarketing.com/?p=46435 6 Time-Saving Hacks for Content Creation written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

This post brought to you by Fresh Essays When content creation is done the right way, it takes a lot of time. There’s topic planning, research, editing, revisions, the list goes on.  As a busy entrepreneur who has a ton on your plate, it seems impossible to get it all done without investing a large chunk […]

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6 Time-Saving Hacks for Content Creation written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

This post brought to you by Fresh Essays

When content creation is done the right way, it takes a lot of time. There’s topic planning, research, editing, revisions, the list goes on. 

As a busy entrepreneur who has a ton on your plate, it seems impossible to get it all done without investing a large chunk of your time. Surely, there’s a way to optimize the content creation process. 

The good news is: there is! There are ways to streamline the process and save time, while still creating meaningful content that will get you noticed by prospects and keep you top of mind with existing customers.

Here are my top six time-saving hacks for content creation so you can get back to the other tasks that come along with running a business.

1. Cut back on quantity

Remember: It’s about quality, not quantity. You don’t need to create mountains of content. You’re better off creating less, high-quality content than you are flooding your audience with lots of empty content. 

You might try writing fewer, longer-form content pieces. These pieces take longer to produce, but provide your audience with much more value and have a massive impact on authority.

Along with quality, consistency is just as important. When you set a cadence for your content, you want to stick to it. Releasing content every single day and then going radio silent for a week and a half is not the way to build an audience.

Most prospects need to see a brand a handful of times before they even begin to think about doing business with them. If you can be a consistent presence in their inbox and on their social media feeds, you’re far more likely to get their attention than if you spam them with meaningless content for one week and then disappear the next.

2. Plan it out and create an Editorial Calendar

How do you ensure that you’re creating high quality content on a regular basis? Put together an editorial calendar, and compile multiple ideas at one time.

Don’t make the mistake of forcing yourself to come up with a topic on the day you’re going to write it. Set a plan and stick to it. It’s a much more efficient use of your time to sit down and plan out the month’s content in one fell swoop, rather than scrambling to pull it together piecemeal each day. 

Set aside a few hours at the end of each month to plan your content approach for the following month. Centering your content around a particular theme can help you to create content that works well together and provides the depth of information that your audience craves. It also aligns with the strategy of creating hub pages for your content, which will empower you to continue to get use out of your content well after it’s been published.

3. Refresh Existing Content

Just because you’re sharing content on a regular basis doesn’t mean that it all needs to be brand new. Repurposed content is packed with value and can increase your traffic 300%. Refreshing old content is a great way to get additional life out of your content that remains relevant.

Some topics will never go out of style, but may need to be updated as the details change. Let’s say you own a business that handles home renovations. Perhaps you have a blog post about selecting the perfect kitchen countertop. While some of the principles of countertop selection will always be the same, some of the trends will change. You can refresh this content to reflect changes in consumer trends (acknowledging the shift from granite to quartz as the material of choice, for example). This keeps the content relevant, while allowing you to continue to benefit from the material meat of the original post.

4. Turn to Guest Posters

If you’re trying to create content on a regular basis, sometimes you know it will be difficult for you to keep pace. If there’s a week when you’ll be out of town at a conference, or a month when your business is launching a new product that will take up a lot of your time, this might be the time to tap a friend to create content as a guest.

Whether it’s a blog post, webinar, or podcast episode, guest content can serve a few important purposes. First, it frees you up to spend less of your time on content that week. Second, and perhaps even more importantly, it allows you to tap into the existing network of the guest poster.

Like with any strategic partnership, you want to seek out guests who are aligned with what you do and complement the work your business does. This not only adds value for your audience, but it also introduces you to guest posters’ fan base (and vice versa—it’s a mutually beneficial arrangement).

5. Create a Stockpile of Ideas as You Have Them

Don’t wait for a deadline to force your brain into being creative. Keep a running list or notebook for ideas. When things come to you, write it down. See an interesting article? Think of a catchy title? Add it to the list.

Even when you set aside dedicated time to brainstorm, you’re likely going to come up with new ideas on the fly. Take advantage of that by making a point to add it to your idea file. If you find yourself still struggling to come up with content ideas, doing these things will help you overcome writer’s block.

6. Consider Outsourcing

There are a lot of small businesses that aren’t quite big enough to build out their marketing department, but are a little too big for the owner or small team to handle marketing all on their own. This is when it might be time to outsource some of your marketing efforts and content creation.

Fortunately, in today’s highly connected world, it’s easy to find contractors who can work remotely to help you with content creation. Outsourcing allows you to put your marketing work in the hands of a professional, without having to worry about finding the resources to add to your permanent team.

Content Creation can eat up a lot of time and attention for small business owners. But it doesn’t have to be that way. If you get smart about planning out your content and turn to others for help, you can continue to create meaningful, effective content without losing too much time in your day.

If you’re looking for help managing your content creation, check out our Certified Marketing Manager coaching program. We’ll train you or a member of your internal marketing team so you can get to growing, faster.

If you liked this post, check out our Small Business Guide to SEO.

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How to Put Your Website At the Center of All Your Marketing https://ducttapemarketing.com/how-to-put-your-website-at-the-center-of-all-your-marketing/ Tue, 14 Jul 2020 18:15:10 +0000 https://ducttapemarketing.com/?p=51868 How to Put Your Website At the Center of All Your Marketing written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Your website is the heart of your online marketing presence. It’s the one place on the internet over which you have full control of visuals, messaging, and content. Everything else that you do online should drive visitors to this website. But that’s just it, there are a lot of other online channels to consider, from […]

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How to Put Your Website At the Center of All Your Marketing written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Your website is the heart of your online marketing presence. It’s the one place on the internet over which you have full control of visuals, messaging, and content. Everything else that you do online should drive visitors to this website.

But that’s just it, there are a lot of other online channels to consider, from various social media to paid and organic search to local listings. With all these other marketing channels in the mix, it’s best to plan everything around your website and to work out from there. Here are the steps to getting that done.

1. Publish a Website That Works

First thing’s first, you need to create an effective website! I’ve talked before about our Model for Marketing Maturity; it’s all about making sure that the basic marketing elements are in place before moving onto the more advanced elements. You have to crawl before you can walk and run! As you can see, a marketing website is at the very top of the list for our initial build phase. If you don’t have a great marketing website in place, now’s the time to fix that.

Build, Grow, Ignite marketing maturity index

That means creating a website with a modern promise and trust elements. It should be mobile-friendly with a smart, simple design that’s easy to navigate. It should have a strong SEO strategy, complete with metadata, keyword research, and off-page elements.

Each page should have a call to action aimed at driving conversions. Plus, you’ll want to share content in a variety of forms—blog posts, videos, and podcasts—that is valuable for your audience and helps establish you as the go-to resource for any information in your area of expertise.

Once those basic elements of a great website are in place, you can begin to turn your focus outward to integrating the other online marketing channels into your plan.

2. Create Organic Social Media

We include social media in the foundational build stage of the Marketing Maturity Index as well, and that’s because social media has become an essential part of most people’s daily online experience. Sites like Facebook tout billions of daily users, and so it’s critical that you have a presence on these major social sites.

In establishing profiles on these sites, you want to make sure that your messaging and design are aligned with what’s happening on your website. Logos, color schemes, and the voice and tone adopted in copywriting should sync up with what visitors will find if they end up on your website. A disconnect in look and feel between social assets and your website can put prospects off and erode trust in your brand.

Once you’ve established the basic profile (which includes your website URL, of course!), you can begin to leverage the power of social media to actively drive visitors to your website. Sharing content that’s housed on your website is one of the easiest ways to do so. Whenever you create a blog post, explainer video, webinar, or podcast episode, share this content on social media. The content should be accompanied by a little blurb, letting followers know what it’s all about, and a link that directs them to the content on your website.

3. Build Out Email Marketing

Email marketing is an essential component of a complete marketing system, but it can sometimes feel disjointed and separate from your website. Because you’re communicating directly with your audience via email, what’s a website got to do with it?

There should be a symbiotic relationship between your email list and your website. A great website includes lead capture forms, so that interested visitors can sign up for your mailing list, and you can in turn gather valuable information about who they are.

Plus, the content in emails sent out to your list should include links back to your website. Perhaps you send a monthly newsletter, which can link to relevant blog content on your site. Maybe you send emails about new products that are about to launch, and the link in the email sends readers to a page on your site with exclusive insider information about the soon-to-be-publicly-announced product.

4. Add Paid Social and Search

Once you’ve established an organic presence on social media, you can begin to broaden your marketing horizons into paid social and paid search. With paid social and search efforts, you can create ads that are targeted at specific groups. This can mean people living in a certain geographic area, people who are already customers, or people with a demographic profile similar to the customers you already have.

After segmenting your audience and creating ad copy that speaks to each subset of the population, the final step in establishing a successful ad campaign is to have a landing page on the website that’s designed specifically for each ad.

A landing page that’s tailored to the messaging in the ad can help to boost conversion rates in paid social and search advertising. Rather than sending visitors to a generic page on your website, they’re greeted with the information that’s specific to the ad campaign that caught their attention in the first place. This means it’ll be easier for them to find the information they want and then take action.

5. Integrate Offline and Online Tactics

While online marketing is essential for modern business, it’s important not to neglect offline tactics as well. Particularly for local businesses, there’s often value in advertising in more traditional channels, like local print ads in the city’s newspaper or a direct mail campaign for neighbors.

Even though these tactics are happening offline, it’s possible to still drive traffic from offline marketing efforts to your website. Creating UTM codes is an effective way to track where traffic is coming from. In fact, if you create separate codes for each offline tactic, you can measure the results of each print ad, direct mailer, or radio spot you run.

An effective website should be the heart of any business’s marketing efforts. Whether online or offline, all marketing roads should lead back to that site. This gives you the power to better understand your audience, control your messaging, and drive conversions along each stage of the customer journey. But a great website can’t exist in a vacuum; it does need all of the other marketing efforts around it to be its most effective self.

If you liked this post, check out our Small Business Guide to Website Design.

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How to Create Segmented User Experiences https://ducttapemarketing.com/create-segmented-user-experiences/ Tue, 26 May 2020 16:00:29 +0000 https://ducttapemarketing.com/?p=51681 How to Create Segmented User Experiences written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Your business doesn’t serve a homogenous customer base. Unless you’re an incredibly niche service, it’s likely that you have at least a handful of types of people who benefit from your products or services. Because these types of customers are different from each other, they won’t all be won by the same kind of messaging. […]

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How to Create Segmented User Experiences written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Your business doesn’t serve a homogenous customer base. Unless you’re an incredibly niche service, it’s likely that you have at least a handful of types of people who benefit from your products or services.

Because these types of customers are different from each other, they won’t all be won by the same kind of messaging. That’s why it’s helpful to create unique user experiences on your website that speak to each segment of your overall customer population.

Here’s what you must do to create a more personalized, segmented user experience for your website.

Create Target Market Personas

First thing’s first: You need to figure out what the segments of your larger customer population are. There are a number of ways to break an audience down into distinct buyer personas, and it starts with data. This might be data from your CRM, email service provider, website, or social media analytics.

Start looking for demographic and behavioral trends. Are there certain age groups, genders, or people from specific locations that do business with you? If you’re a B2B company, are there industries you work with often, or are your point-people in a particular department, or do they hold a specific job title?

Behavioral trends can help, too. Are there certain pages on your website that nearly everyone visits before they become a customer? Is there a particular email campaign that drives a lot of prospects to set up a sales call and eventually convert?

Finally, take a look at how these demographic and behavioral data points overlap. Is there a specific age group that responds well to a certain section of your website? Does your social media page generate a lot of interest from people in a particular geographic area?

If possible, it’s also a good idea to conduct some interviews with your existing customers. Hearing straight from the source about what problems your client solves and why they chose your client over their competitor can help you hone in on some of the other elements of the customer personas.

Once you’ve gathered all of your information, you can create your composite sketch of each type of their ideal customers: Who they are, what they need, and what they expect from you.

Allow for Self-Identification

Now that you understand who these different segments of your audience are, you can begin to create different messaging and experiences for them on your website.

The easiest way to ensure that each customer ends up on the path that’s intended for their persona is to allow them to self-select into the appropriate segment on your website. Websites do this all the time to great effect. Let’s say you own an architecture firm, and you handle both residential and commercial projects. On the homepage for the website, build a splash page with two separate buttons—one for those interested in each type of project.

Each button will take the visitor to a separate homepage for that specific audience, with a navigation bar that speaks to their needs (i.e. those who click on residential will see the portfolio for homes the architect has designed, and informational content about the process of undertaking home renovations).

Design Unique Landing Pages

I’ve already covered one instance in which unique landing pages can work on your website to speak to different audiences. This is also an effective tactic when you’re driving traffic from ads to your website.

Take, for example, a paid search campaign. Let’s stick with the architectural firm example and say that within your commercial work, you have two distinct personas: You work regularly with private schools and non-profit organizations. You design a Google Ads campaign targeted at private school leaders and board members. When they click the ad, rather than taking them to the generic landing page for commercial projects, why not create a landing page specifically about your work with other schools?

This customized landing page is effective in immediately addressing the pain points of your distinct persona. That board member of the private school might be somewhat interested in your work for other types of commercial properties, but when they see right off the bat that your architect has designed beautiful spaces that address the specific needs of a client in private education, that prospect feels an immediate connection to your work. They feel seen and understood, and you begin to immediately build trust.

Select Channels Based on Audience

Once you’ve captured the attention of each segment with an effective strategy to get them onto your website, continue to dazzle them with content that speaks specifically to their needs.

Of course, you want the meat of the content to be relevant to the audience. That means topics that matter, filled with advice and helpful information, rather than sales pitch after sales pitch.

But in addition to considering what you’re going to cover in your content, you want to think about how you’re sharing it. Typically when people think of content, they think blog posts, but there’s so much more to it than that: Podcasts, explainer videos, webinars, infographics, and ebooks—there’s a wide variety of ways to reach your audience.

For example, did you know that video, while a popular medium with all consumers, is even more effective with Baby Boomers? It might surprise you to learn that they watch 10 percent more videos on YouTube than Millennials. Meanwhile, Millennials and Gen Zers outpace Boomers and older generations when it comes to podcast listening.

So while you want to be providing a variety of content to each of the segments of your audience—because no one wants to be greeted with the same content format over and over again—think about ways you can lean into certain types of content for specific personas.

Invest in Hub Pages

Hub pages do a lot of good in organizing content on your websites. In addition to giving you great SEO juice and breathing new life into old content, it can also establish thought leadership in specific areas that are important to your different personas.

Let’s return to the architect example. If you know that your commercial clients are mainly in the private education and non-profit worlds, it makes sense to build hub pages around those two areas. One hub page can be specifically for that private school audience and include content that speaks to topics like fundraising and budgeting for major capital improvements, planning your construction around the school year, and designing a modern education building that speaks to what today’s parents are looking for.

Different segments of your audiences will have different needs and expectations when it comes to what they’re hoping to get from your business. By identifying these different buyer personas and creating specific customer journeys for various groups, you get a better chance at directly addressing pain points, building trust quickly and efficiently, and moving new prospects towards the sale even faster.

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