Marketing a start-up company on a minimal budget

Use these 5 steps to successfully market your start-up at low-cost or no cost

Your start-up opportunity...

So, you’ve had a fantastic idea for a new product, piece of software or solution to a business or personal challenge that everyone has, but no one has fully solved. The idea was so good you decided to quit your day job and found a start-up and have defined your business model using the legendary Business Model Canvas and built the online revenue model to prove the idea will fly.

Maybe you just invented a mobile app that allows you to hire someone to stay in your house for when you're waiting for a parcel to be delivered that is going to be ‘The Uber of getting people to wait for parcels’. Maybe it’s a website with a new photo-analysing algorithm you can submit photos of yourself to that finally answers the question ‘does my bum look big in this...?’. Maybe it’s a social network for cats. Whatever your idea, no matter how brilliant, you still need a way to tell people about it, but inevitably, initially budget, or rather lack of it will be an issue. You may have budget for coffee-fuelled planning or partner meetings, but not large media budgets.

But you have a tiny challenge...

The problem is that, unlike the established players, you may well be trying to un-seat; you don’t have a marketing department. It might just be you, or you and a co-founder. Maybe if you are a bit further down the line of start-up growth, it is you, your co-founder and a couple of developers. You have to do marketing on a shoestring budget, so how can you possibly compete with the big players in the industry you're trying to disrupt?

The answer is simple, although to put it into practice it is rather complex and needs a lot of hard graft and testing. The essence of this approach is to leverage the excitement around your idea via free/low-cost platforms, using your time or those of your first employees.

Download Expert member resource – 7 Steps guide to digital marketing for startups, small and mid-sized businesses

This guide is for you if you’re looking to expand a small business using the power of low-cost or no cost digital marketing.

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As you build a loyal following and have new customers become your advocates, you'll be able to reach far more people than you would if the same budget was invested in advertising. These 5 steps give an overview to break down the process of achieving this and you can also read our other articles on startup marketing:

Step 1: Brainstorm how to generate excitement

When Marketing a start-up company, always bear this one thing in mind; the established companies you’re trying to displace have vastly larger budgets than you, quite possibly more experience in marketing and pre-existing relationships with clients and customers. You have one huge asset: the power of your idea and the excitement this can create in your and others. You absolutely have to leverage this if you are going to be successful.

Dave's post on the prioritising online marketing channels using our Digital Marketing Radar and Marketing Bullseye gives some frameworks to help you brainstorm where to spend your time to get traction.

Think long and hard about how to present your idea to convey how exciting it is and how it will improve people’s lives, save people money, bring people joy, laughter or help people enhance their skills. The tone you use to market your idea and how you convey your brand has to be nailed down right from the start. And if you don’t think about it you are sure to end up with a generic brand tone that won’t do you any favours and won’t set you apart.

If your start-up idea is for a dating app for Smart Watches that uses Bluetooth to only match you with people within twenty paces of you, then you probably want to take a cheeky and fun loving tone.

Conversely if you are creating a Fin-Tech app that lets people loan money to other people to install solar panels on their home in return for them paying the lender the amount they save on their bills, then you want a brand tone that is serious, eco-conscious and conveys how you are going to improve the world by propagating the use of green energy.

Brainstorm with colleagues or even friends about how to convey the importance of your product/service via the right tone. Once you have this nailed you can go onto the next steps, but don’t start marketing before you know exactly what kind of message you want to impart on your audience.

Step 2: Build a presence across social media – use a personal touch to your advantage

For start-ups, social media strategies are a great place to start with marketing, because it is low cost and the barriers to entry are so low. You can have Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ accounts set up in an afternoon. That doesn’t mean you should only take an afternoon over it though...!

If you are going to be successful using Social Media to market your start-up you will need to Plan, Manage and Optimise. Planning, managing and optimising social media for a start-up really warrants a post itself, but here is a brief overview of what you need to do to be successful:

• Plan: Before setting up on any channel, read about what works and what doesn’t, and what techniques are working well within your industry. Shameless plug: Smart Insights guides provide both handy overviews and great in-depth advice for all the major social networks. Construct a plan for each channel first, and only create accounts on the channels you think you can really use. I’d advise you start out with the larger platforms; Facebook and Twitter, and depending on the nature of your start-up, then branch out to others. If it is a stylish and visually appealing product that is associated with a certain lifestyle, sharing images via Instagram or Pinterest may be a good bet. If the product has an audio dimension (maybe it’s an app that can read newspapers via a Smartphone camera and then turn them into audio recordings), then having a Sound Cloud account could be a good idea.
• Manage: Whatever you do, don’t go setting up accounts on as many social platforms as you can and then abandon them when you realise you don’t have the time to manage them all and have no content to publish on them. This will look unprofessional and you risk potential customers/clients either being put off or attempting to contact you via the channel but for you to not see their messages because you never log in. For all the accounts you do set up, make sure you manage them, post to them regularly and answer customer questions. Also make sure to have common branding across accounts so your accounts are all pulling in the same direction and none are undermining your brand.
• Optimise: To build a following, post content as regularly as you can manage without taking up too much of your time, and interact with other people and companies pages. Particularly on Twitter interaction is a great way to gain visibility, as your interactions with other accounts will often be re-tweeted by the account owner if the interaction was positive. Find out what goes down well with your audience and aim to produce more of that kind of content. Social media is not a virtual silver bullet, so don’t expect huge results straight away. You’ll have to work hard to build up a big audience, but because of the low barriers to entry and the low costs of using the platforms it is a great place to start for start-ups.

When using social media, make sure to take advantage of something major companies can’t match you on; personality. Your small size means you can engage with your audience much more authentically than larger brands. You don’t have any form of stymying corporate culture, which gives you far more freedom to be witty, funny or clever. Having a genuine personality will reward you with a more loyal following. People are much more willing to do someone a favour if they feel like they know them than if they are a faceless corporation.

Step 3: Run a regular newsletter to build an email list via voluntary organic opt-ins. This will create your future customer base.

Hopefully your social media channels will get people aware of your offering and start to generate a loyal following of people interested in your start-up. Email is the channel that consistently offers the best ROI, but only if done right. Some brands conduct email marketing campaigns by paying data-owners big sums of money for access to their databases of email addresses and then sending out vast numbers of emails which may have low click rates and low open rates if not well targeted. There is nothing wrong with this tactic if it is working, but for you as a start-up, you won’t have the cash for buying big lists of email addresses to send out E-shots to.

Start a simple newsletter to let people know how about the existing developments with your product. It may be that you’re still tweaking the design and adding new features. Loyal fans will want to know about this. A monthly newsletter is probably best if you don’t have much time to spend on it, but bi-weekly or even weekly could also be very effective if you have the time to create the content regularly. Tell your fans about this newsletter via your social channels and on your website, and prompt them to sign up, whilst promising them that they won’t receive any spam from 3^rd parties. This will reduce people’s hesitations to giving away their email address. Make sure to keep up your side of the bargain though. Don’t spam your audience with sales emails and don’t sell your email list to third parties if you’ve told people signing up they won’t be getting emails from third parties. This is common sense, but if it did happen it could be a PR disaster.

When it comes to using your email list to sell, do so softly without being spammy. Use product announcements and perhaps the odd offer in your newsletter to nudge your loyal followers towards conversion. If you were to send them regular emails that are just trying to get them to buy they are likely to unsubscribe from your list.

Step 4: Use excitement to increase reach via PR campaigns.

This goes back to point one; you have to utilise the strength of your idea to increase your reach far more than one would normally be able to on a shoestring marketing budget. Rather than taking out ads, contact journalists about how your product is going to change things in your industry, challenge the establishment or just simply make people smile. Whatever it is that your start-up does, getting a lot of press attention around it is probably the single most effective away to generate a huge reach without spending a huge amount on advertising.

"If I was down to the last dollar of my marketing budget I'd spend it on PR!" – Bill Gates

Work on your pitch, keep it short, snappy and exciting, and start contacting journalists. You may have to try a huge number before you get success, but once you are in one magazine, news site or paper, then others will sit up and start paying attention.

Step 5: Reward loyal followers to increase engagement

Your social media followers will have been helping you increase your reach at no extra cost throughout this process by sharing stories to their communities which will allow you to get your offering heard by many more people than would have been possible without them. If you are really lucky you may even have had some content go viral and shared exponentially to reach even more than your established competition could with a significant ad spend.

Once your start-up is into the swing of things, has launched its product/service and is starting to make sales, you should reward your followers/email subscribers with special offers and let them know you are grateful for them being with you along the bumpy ride from young start-up to flourishing company. This isn’t just worth doing because it’s a nice thing to do, it will help you retain that nucleolus of loyal followers and brand advocates which helps you to punch above your weight in reach and conversions. Word of mouth is hard to measure but extremely effective, and stories about a good experience with a brand can have a huge effect on purchasing decisions. Being generous to your fans can thus make great business sense. It will also help build your following which will in turn help you with email sign ups and improve your reach and positive PR. Rewarding loyal customers can create a powerful virtuous cycle.

Summary

Follow these five steps to market your start up effectively on a small budget. You will need determination and a fantastic product to succeed, but the rewards are potentially enormous. These steps won’t be enough on their own but provide a useful starting framework. Be agile, seek out the best advice you can find and always do your research before diving in blind. You don’t have time and money to waste getting things wrong. Needless to say, I think Smart Insights guides are a place to get the advice you’ll need to market your start-up effectively, so have a look around the site and see if you could stand to benefit from expert membership.

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The State of Email Marketing 2015 [Infographic]

What is the current state of Email Marketing?

Email Marketing is one the most effective techniques for digital marketers, so keeping up to date with the latest trends in the industry is super important. Our recent research on the State of Email marketing in 2015 with partners GetResponse showed how marketers rate email marketing and looked at the email marketing techniques they were using.

If you want to know what types of emails marketers are most likely to use, how they are tracking their effectiveness and what click rates and open rates they are getting, then look no further than our new state of email marketing infographic created by agency JBH.

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Are your Calls to Action based on Customer Appeal?

8 examples of CTAs that Should Inspire You to Assess Your Own and Make Some Changes

“If you build it they will click?” Not likely. Your visitors do not have some instinctive urge to click a button just because it is there. They have to want to click that button because there is some value in doing it. The questions to ask yourself are as follows:

• Have you created enough value or benefits?
• Is your CTA really “connected” to the conversion?
• Are you providing “no-risk” for clicking that button?
• Have you told the visitor exactly what to do?
• Have you established some form of urgency?
• Are your CTA’s taking advantage of the psychology of conversions?

While no single CTA will probably meet all of these criteria, the more that can be incorporated, the better. Here are 8 example CTAs that are getting conversions, with an explanation of why they do.

Manpacks Wants You to Get Creative

What Works:

• First, the image of a superhero is a great psychological feature – especially when you are selling something that might be rather boring (underwear, socks, razors and condoms), but these designers have found a way to make it more fun. (Note also the “girlfriend approved” button in orange – great humor.)
• Second, the CTA button is perfectly placed in the center above the fold and in a green color that cannot be missed. Also note the large amount of white space around the button to keep it from getting “lost.”
• Third, while no “value” such as a discount or a free trial is being offered, there is still value because of the words on the button. We all like to create things, and clicking this button will allow us to do that – so much more engaging than “buy.”
• Fourth, the CTA is absolutely connected to the conversion, the customer has been told exactly what to do, and it’s probably going to be fun.
• Fifth, there is the little psychological “push” of joining a “club” of 1,000’s of men already signed up.

Basecamp Says You Have Nothing to Lose

Basecamp is a cloud-based project management tool that keeps all of the “players” in the loop. They switch out the CTA page occasionally, but the conceptual design is always the same – a cartoon with some catchy text and then the following great CTA features:

• Enough white space around the CTA button
• The benefit of a 60-day free trial – value added
• Impressive value – 2,000,000 projects in a single year – this would be a great “group” to join.
• The text on the button is directly connected to the conversion
• One Suggestion: A/B testing has shown that buttons with rounded corners do better – they draw the eyes inward toward the text.

Quick Sprout Solves a Problem

QuickSprout is a relatively simple site compared to Neil Patel’s other major headliners – Kissmetrics and CrazyEgg. It provides a free initial analysis of your website which is of itself great value. But it also offers training for both types of people in the business of increasing traffic - those “in the trenches” and those who consult on traffic issues. These dual buttons on the same page may depart from conventional wisdom that there should be one request only, but in this case they are effective because of the text.

• The value is clear – these CTA’s clearly will solve a problem for the customer – growing traffic or coaching clients.
• There is no “buy” or “free trial” here, but the customer is compelled to make a decision between two buttons based upon what he wants.
• There is a definite connection between the text and the conversion, and the customer is given clear instructions with a command verb – “choose,” based upon who he is and what he wants.

Crazy Egg – Giving Control to the Customer

One of the big points that Crazy Egg makes with all of its marketing is that while other analytics tell you what your visitors are doing, they tell you why. All of their CTA’s offer a free initial example of what they do.

• Nothing to lose – you’re going to get something for free – great value
• Text totally connected to the first step of a conversion
• Some sense of urgency is established by the text below the button, plus the psychology of not wanting to be “stupid.”
• The balloon stating that all plans are free for 30 days is almost an afterthought, but because that is the only balloon with text, the visitor will probably read it. (it will also be repeated elsewhere)
• Text is allowing the customer to give the command – sense of being in control

Starbucks- Sleek and Simple

Notice the colors of this CTA – in keeping with the colors of the “brand” which maintains “familiarity” for the customer. Plus the following:

• There is definite value provided – rewards points that will result in discounts
• The word “Join” rather than “Get” is far more appealing. The customer becomes part of a group
• The word “Now” creates a sense of urgency
• The button text relates directly to the conversion
• Buttons are mildly rounded bringing eye into the text

Pinterest – Benefits and Value

Pinterest has become quite the phenomenon, especially for women. Originally, on became a member by “invitation only,” but because the nature of the site itself has transitioned so much, Pinterest if looking to increase “membership” by user choice, not invitation. This CTA works well for the following reasons:

• While value is not placed on the buttons themselves, it is very nearby – signing up gives the new member access to more than 25 billion pins
• Nothing is being sold, so the only conversion is signing up. The buttons are obviously connected to the conversion.
• Pinterest’s goal is to get user information, and that is accomplished, not by clicking the button, but by the 45 seconds that it takes to actually sign up once the membership account set-up page is reached.

Wordstream – Value, Urgency, and Free Trial     

From a physical appeal standpoint, this CTA is not the most exciting. However, Wordstream knows exactly what it is doing here:

• Value – The user can find AdWords errors quickly (nice touch with the clock).
• Urgency – “You can’t afford to wait!” Content marketers are now anxious to learn if any of the AdWords are wrong.
• Free Trial and “Try” button in contrasting color.
• No risk feature and the user gets something immediately

Mistakes to Avoid

Not being clear

You may know what your CTA is all about; you may completely understand what it is you want the customer to do. But you cannot assume that the customer understands it the same way you do. When there is this gap, your CTA does not tell the customer what s/he is getting for clicking that button. Take a look at the following Rich Dads Education site:

The author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad is now offering workshops on multiple means of increasing your income. Obviously, he wants people to sign up for these workshops. But look at his CTA – it is telling the customer to “pick your city.” Huh? The text on the button does not directly connect to the desired conversion, which is to get the get the registration. A far better button text would be something like, “Find a Workshop in a City Near You.” Now the text directly relates to the conversion.

Coming on too strong

Another CTA mistake is to come on too aggressively. Here is an example of that from the Zulilly website:

 It’s great that this retailer is offering 70% off, and there is certainly urgency in this CTA. However, I can’t get into that savings without first providing an email address. This is far too aggressive a campaign, and many visitors will bounce rather than leave their email addresses – they want value and benefit, not a way for a retailer to fill up their inbox!

Giving No Value to the Customer – Focusing on Your Needs Only

They ought to know better! Certainly, there are benefits listed on this page – finding problems in an hour, boosting conversions, etc., but they are not boosting their own conversions with a button that focuses only on what the company wants. No free trial, no example of what they can do, no value!

Contrast this with the BestEssay.Education. The predominant CTA is a “Start with Discount” button that is featured of every single page of this website. The value to the customer is the most important thing – not pricing quotes!

Here’s your Takeaway

CTAs can either motivate your visitors to take action or reduce their incentive to do so. Take a look at the criteria above and these examples and “test” your CTAs against them.

 

Thanks to Julie Ellis for sharing her advice and opinions in this post. Julie is a professional writer and editor. Her wide experience in the field of education, marketing and psychology gives her the opportunity to help all people that are willing to make the marketing world better. Learn more about her and connect on Twitter, and Google+.

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15 unstoppable trends which will shape marketing in 2016

What we discovered about the growing use of digital media and tech which will inform our strategies for next year 

2016 looms around the corner, and will be upon us before we know it. The busy and hectic world of digital marketing always has its eyes on the next year, interested to see what the latest new tool will be or what exciting new developments some of the big platforms in digital marketing have in store. This is important, but it is also useful to remember how far we have come. With that in mind we thought we'd look back over our research and research from others published throughout 2015 and summarize some of the great insights about the state of digital marketing we have gleamed in 2015.

Digital Marketing Priorities 2016 Summit

Join us to learn the latest trends and techniques in Digital Marketing including search, email and social media marketing plus web and mobile design. If you work in the B2B, retail or charity sectors sign up for these sector-specific webinars. Dr. Dave Chaffey of Smart Insights will be hosting all of the talks which are free if you are registered with BrightTALK. Sign up now.

Internet usage continues it's phenomenal growth...

Internet access grew to over 3 billion people, accounting for almost half of the world's population. 10 years ago over half of internet users were in the developed world, whereas now 2/3rds of internet users live in developing countries - highlighting the importance of emerging markets.

We've seen devices used to access the internet change considerably over the past few years. Smartphones have become massively more popular, whilst some devices such as Games consoles and Smart TVs have become able to access the internet and are thus starting to account for some internet traffic.

As does Social Media use

On average social media use continued to climb, although the younger age groups have now reached a saturation point, as about 90% already use social media. The fastest growing segment are the over 65s, which will change the marketing landscape when it comes to using social networks for targeting certain audiences.

The year of content marketing?

A year ago we surveyed marketers about what they thought would be the most commercially important digital marketing trend of 2015, and they had a resounding answer for us- content marketing.

Content marketing has evolved and grown considerably in importance throughout 2015, as Google's algorithm updates make quality content ever more important, and marketers start to use new and existing forms of content to get the attention of their customers. Already marketers are predicting that 3D video and virtual reality could be the next big trend in content creation, and unleash a 4th wave of content marketing. Something to look out for in 2016!

B2C content marketing gained in popularity over 2015, and now over 92% of marketers are using at least some form of content marketing. The same is true for B2B marketers, who have also enthusiastically taken up content marketing.

Blogs remain popular

What are you reading right now? That's right, a blog! No wonder they are the highest rated type of content marketing by marketers this year! Their ability to provide insight, talk people through complicated issues and be crawled by Google and thus give a boost to one's SEO mean they very much deserve their rating as the best form of content marketing. However blending many different forms of content marketing lets you exploit the advantages of different formats, which can be complimentary. For example an e-newsletter can drive traffic to your blog and quality blogs can inform the content of your e-newsletter, thus preventing people from unsubscribing. Infographics can grab peoples attention and point them towards white papers, whilst statistic heavy white papers are the perfect sources for creating quality infographics.

This rapid take-up of content marketing has left many organisations without a coherent plan, which means they are not getting as much out of it as they could be. 37% of businesses only inconsistently embraced content marketing in 2015, a situation which needs to be improved in 2016, lest they fall behind competitors which have fully embraced content marketing and are using its full potential.

Affiliate Marketing Diversifies

Affiliate marketing has involved considerably over the past 1o years, and in 2015 we are seeing editorial content growing considerably, whilst PCC has declined considerably by market share. This plays into the growth of content marketing, and the rise of 'banner blindness', where people are far less likely to pay attention to marketing message if they see it as coming from an advert.

Email goes mobile

The past few years have seen a massive shift from desktop to mobile devices. First this was in web browsing and social media use, but email is now moving to mobile, with the majority of email opens occurring on mobile devices for the first time in 2015. This changes the playing field for email marketers, who need to optimise their emails so they appear perfectly on mobile devices. Different email clients sometimes display emails differently, so it is important for email marketers to keep up to date with the most popular ones in 2015.

E-commerce grows strongly

E-commerce sales grew considerably in 2016, with the UK leading by volume in Europe. The potential for cross-border e-commerce to the UK is massive, as the UK is currently the 3rd largest cross-border e-commerce market in the world, behind only the US and China!

Digital skills grow in importance, and skills gaps appear

Our research into the current state of digital marketing skills revealed some interesting trends. More than half of marketers time was now spent managing digital activities, meaning digital skills are now more important than ever. However many marketers want to improve their skills in certain areas, and managers looking to hire are often struggling to find the skills they want.

Are we entering a post-digital era?

There has been a lot of talk this year about the term 'digital marketing' and if it is even useful anymore. Shouldn't we be beyond having to call it digital marketing by now, isn't it all just marketing? Surely everyone is onboard with digital marketing?

Our research presents a different picture. Many organisations are still struggling to build properly integrated digital marketing departments, and some still lack and kind of plan for utilising digital.

We hope those 19 charts have helped you get build up a picture of the momentous changes we've seen in the digital marketing world in 2015. Most of these changes happen are still gaining momentum, as the world becomes ever more digital. To succeed in 2016 you will need to be a digital-first organisation, for one simple reason, you're customers are.

If you have any thoughts on what changes you've seen in the digital marketing landscape in 2015, let us know in the comments.

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B2B Content Marketing: Strategy, best practice and inspiration

Three B2B content marketing case studies

The increased focus on content marketing has continued , a trend highlighted by a number of studies surveying marketers’ top priorities:

The content marketing boom is also reflected in the relative search volume trends for phrases related to content marketing:

Content marketing can be defined as the strategy of providing valuable, relevant, quality content that customers want in order to attract and retain a clearly defined audience.

This definition certainly applies to a number of notable case studies, particularly those involving Coke, Disney and famously Red Bull and Felix Baumgartner's space jump in 2012. However, whilst these are all very valid and useful examples of content marketing at its best, they are all from consumer brands.

Content marketing is practiced by both B2C and B2B brands and for that reason this post will look specifically at case studies demonstrating how businesses are using content marketing in the B2B space.

Why has content marketing emerged as such a top priority for marketers?

It’s worth briefly exploring the concept of content marketing, the reasons behind its emergence and some of the prerequisites for success.

Whilst the origins of content marketing can be dated back to the late 1800s and the launch of John Deer’s The Furrow, the practice of content marketing in the digital era emerged in the shadow of more established earned media disciplines, such as SEO, social media marketing and online PR.

For all these disciplines, content has always been a fundamental element, although as these established practices matured, the use and application of content has evolved, too. Successful SEO used to involve the acquisition and production of large quantities of links and content regardless of quality and relevance. However, with the advent of Google’s various algorithm updates it’s been interesting to see how the popularity of some tactics have declined relative to content marketing's rise:

The recognition from marketers of the need for more valuable, relevant, quality content to achieve cut-through and engagement has fuelled the rise in content marketing as a discipline. Whilst some have warned of the impending ‘content shock’ or ‘content deluge’  (diminishing returns from content efforts as a result of an over-supply of mediocre content), it’s clear that brands following a best practice approach are succeeding.

We’ll cover some specific content marketing insights within each of the case studies below. However, some of the aspects brands finding success using content marketing share include:

A core content strategy

There is a difference between content strategy and content marketing, with the former setting the parameters and structure for the latter. A company's content marketing efforts should be one of many elements encompassed within the overarching content strategy.

Source: Braintraffic

A documented approach to content marketing

According to research from the Content Marketing Institute, whilst 94% of B2B marketers are doing content marketing, only 32% have a documented content strategy - even though many are producing more content than the previous year.

Those that are succeeding at content marketing have a clearly documented approach that outlines:

1. Who are we?
2. Who are we trying to reach?
3. What are we trying to accomplish?

A differentiating factor

Content marketing success isn't about blindly copying the competition. Whilst it's certainly important to audit competitor activity, those that are really standing out have taken a unique approach that meets their target customers' needs and adds real value to their online community.

Who's succeeding in the B2B content marketing space?

General Electric (GE)

What are they doing?

It's really interesting to see how brands use content marketing in different ways and General Electric’s use of a wide range of channels and media formats, from Tumblr to Instagram and YouTube, are all quite inspiring:

• GE Social Hub
• GE Blog
• GE Tumblr
• GE Research blog
• GE Instagram

At first glance, one wouldn't expect a multinational energy, tech and industrial conglomerate to have the type of product and audience to be a social media hit and yet they've proved that thinking laterally and good execution pays off.

Content marketing insight: experiment with different channels and formats

GE have created a variety of owned and social media properties, including the main GE blog, a research zone and numerous social media channels, all of which is aggregated on the GE social hub.

There is real diversity and imagination in the approach GE have taken and Txchnologist, a Tumblr-based online magazine, is a great illustration of this, with posts, stories and insight designed to explore the ever-changing worlds of science, technology and innovation.

Moz

What are they doing?

For over 10 years Moz has been running their blog, initially specialising in SEO before over time expanding into other areas, including social media, web analytics and of course content marketing.

The Moz blog is a brilliant example of highly effective B2B content marketing, providing top quality specialist content to a very specific audience group. In addition to their daily blog posts, they also provide high-quality, in-depth guides as well as video tutorials - all for absolutely no cost.

Content marketing insight: focus on a select group of media for your target audience

Moz's Whiteboard Friday series regularly receives some of the highest social interaction and comments on the blog and their Beginner's Guide to SEO now has over 6,000 social shares and 1,000 backlinks.

Moz have successfully zeroed in on a target audience and use a select range of media (written content, video and research) that is regularly shared and referenced, all of which improves the brand’s authority within a very competitive niche.

Deloitte

What are they doing?

As a consultancy firm, Deloitte has a very broad customer base spanning multiple sectors and industries. Deloitte’s knowledge and expertise is a fundamental element of their value proposition and therefore great content marketing can be a differentiating factor.

Whilst some of Deloitte’s competitors are experimenting with content marketing, Deloitte stand out in the way they create a range of relevant content for such a wide audience that all fits as part of their overarching content strategy.

Content marketing insight: the creation of dedicated content hubs to meet specific audience needs

In order to reach multiple audiences effectively, Deloitte have created a set of dedicated content hubs, executed using topic tags based on each of the different services Deloitte provide and the industries in which they operate.

The result is a compelling content marketing engine that provides high quality, in-depth content for a very astute and knowledge audience, giving Deloitte an edge at every stage in the decision journey.

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Black Friday goes mobile [Infographic]

Black Friday mobile traffic outpaces desktop

Black Friday can generate some crazy behaviour. People camp outside stores at night, crush each other trying to get to the hottest details, and sometimes even fight. One year a woman injured 20 people by using pepper spray to make sure she got her hands on an X-Box.

But there is another way - shop online! Customers are choosing to do so in ever greater numbers as more retailers 'get in on the act', and in 2014 mobile shopping outpaced visitors shopping from desktops for the first time on Black Friday. If you are getting ready for Black Friday and own an online store, you should consider how the site looks for mobile customers. How clear is it from a mobile device what the special offers are? Do you have a dedicated landing page just for Black Friday deals? And if so, is it responsive and optimised for converting mobile customers? The answers could mean the differences between mediocre sales on Black Friday and sensational one. Check out the infographic below to see how important mobile traffic has become on Black Friday.

Thanks to Mobify for publishing this infographic

 

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10 less well-known tools to help you create outstanding content

Use these tools to give your blogging a boost

Anybody who has ever owned a website knows how much hard work goes into creating, and then running and updating it, adding changes, uploading content and media, and keeping track of all the social media accounts tied into it. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The problem is, the only thing an end user sees is the content, which makes it the most important ingredient.

Coming up with exciting content is a bit tricky though, not just because everything has already been done to death, so it’s hard to come up with anything original, but also because once you set out to create it, it seems as if everything is turning against you and wants to prevent you from creating it. You name it: procrastination (although that one is on you), writer’s block (a little bit on you), distractions, the agony of having to edit your work, the list is seemingly endless.

We've mentioned tools to help with content marketing several times at Smart Insights. We thought it worth mentioning these tools because whilst you may already be using the likes of Trello and Hootsuite, these less well-known tools may also help you be that extra bit more effective when it comes to writing content.

1. Bubbl Bubbl.us

If brainstorming with the help of pen and paper isn’t your cup of tea, perhaps you’ll want to give Bubbl.us a shot. It is a tool which utilizes diagrams, graphs and other graphic elements in order to help you flesh out your ideas and organize them into something useful. It is based on the concept of mind mapping, and while that may sound complicated, Bubbl.us is anything but, with its extremely user-friendly and intuitive interface.

2. Omniwriter OmmWriter

Battling distractions while writing content is difficult because you need to be online to do your research, and the Internet, as we know, is the mother of all distractions. Unlike your usual word processors, OmmWriter enables you to work in a distraction-free environment, and makes writing an extremely pleasant experience, by playing relaxing ambient music, and offering specially designed backgrounds which help you retain focus. Also, every keystroke is followed by a custom sound effect. Probably the nicest app there is.

3. EduGeeks EduGeeksClub

Sometimes, in order to improve the quality of your content, you need a professional to help you out. We advise you to check out EduGeeksClub, where professional editing services are done personally by their editors, not just some piece of software. Their blog section is also incredibly useful and populated with practical advice on how to write, edit and manage your content.

4. CoSchedule CoSchedule Headline Analyzer

Headline Analyzer is an interesting tool which allows you to submit the headlines of your articles, blog posts, or newsletters for analysis. This app will check the grammar, readability, as well as structure of your headlines and assign each a rating on a scale of 0 to 100, along with suggestions and tips on how you can make it better. Another clever thing about it is that it can detect the type of headlines you’re using, which we did, using the title of this article, and the app correctly detected it as a list.

5. Impactbnd Impactbnd Blog Title Generator

If you are running low on ideas for blog titles, which does happen, especially if you are writing a lot, you need an app which can assist you in coming up with some intriguing ones. That’s where Impactbnd Blog Title Generator comes. All that is required of you is to enter keywords, which will be used by the app to narrow its focus, after which you will be presented with a partial title, which lets you flesh it out even further by inserting more keywords. So, instead of automatically creating random title for you, it allows you to actively participate in the creation of the titles, which is a plus.

6. Hemingway Hemingway App

Bearing a famous name, this online app was designed to edit content by improving its readability, making the sentence structure simpler and easier to follow, replacing complicated and overly long words with shorter ones, indicating the use of passive voice, among others. It will make your writing more focused and economical.

7. Grammarly Grammarly

Grammarly is the best grammar-checking tool online, and about the closest thing there is to a human editor when it comes to accuracy. But, it does a lot more than your average grammar tool. Its spell check is also highly accurate, and it will check your work for plagiarism, too. In addition to all of that, Grammarly will provide you with a detailed feedback, including error explanation and suggestions on how to correct them.

[Editor's note: This is also available as a Google Chrome extension which can be used within WordPress or any CMS, so we count it as an essential blogging tool]

8. Write App WriteApp

Another tool which allows you to create content in a distraction-free environment. You still get access to all the editing tools you need, plus the option to save and publish your work, as well as create, categorize and share notes. We would recommend that you use it in full-screen mode for best results.

9. Power Thesaurus Power Thesaurus

Power Thesaurus is similar to other thesaurus websites you may find online. What’s different about it is extremely clean and straightforward user interface, absolutely free of any ads and pop-ups. Another plus is that it’s, unlike its competitors, very up-to-date with current trends in linguistics.

10. Stay Focused Stay Focused

If you are a Chrome user, and you find it hard to resists all the temptations that the web has to offer you, help is at hand in the shape of Stay Focusd, an extension for your browser which limits your access to distracting websites by introducing a time limit. Once your time is up, you won’t be able to access those websites for the remainder of the day. The app has a default list of websites, but you can configure it to include or exclude other sites.

Now that you have these tools under your digital belt, you are fully equipped to go on and create content which you will be proud of, and which will attract, intrigue, and inspire others.

 

Thanks to Antonio Tooley for sharing their advice and opinions in this post. Antonio is a hopeless optimist who enjoys basking in the world's brightest colors. He loves biking to distant places and occasionally he gets lost. When not doing that he's blogging and teaching ESL. He will be happy to meet you on Facebook and Twitter

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