12. #cmworld
Step 1: Create The Plan – Potential Goals
• Garner 20 mentions
• Boost traffic by 2x
• Create 5 pieces of content
• Contribute 3 guest blogs
• Boost conversions by 2x, etc.
@amandamaks
13. #cmworld
Step 1: Create The Plan - Metrics
• Community size
• # of organic mentions
• Social media engagement
• Web traffic
• # of downloads, etc.
@amandamaks
16. #cmworld
Step 2: Uncover Who - Online
• Keyword-based searches
• Social media
• Tools: LittleBird, Vocus, TapInfluence
@amandamaks
17. #cmworld
Step 2: Uncovering Who - Offline
• Talk with customers
• Attend events
• Survey
• Network
@amandamaks
18. #cmworld
Step 2: Uncover Who – Keeping Track
• Build Twitter lists
• Create an excel file
• Add them your MAP / CRM
@amandamaks
19. #cmworld
Here’s A Quick Look At What To Store
• Contact Info
• Contact Preferences
• Content/Social URLs
• Priority/Score
• Pitch Ideas
• Activities
34. #cmworld
Hello [Name],
We haven’t connected before but I work
for X and I have enjoyed your blogs about
Y. We’d love to collaborate with you about
Z and we think our audience would love to
hear from you.
All week, you’ve been learning how to create content that rocks, amplify your story, and many of you are looking for new ideas, best practices to help get you started or take your existing program to the next level – how do we get visibility, more conversions, more subscribers.
Today I am going to talk about amplifying your content marketing with influencers and co-creation. It’s not a silver bullet (they don’t exist) but influencer marketing can help you achieve your content marketing goals more quickly.
Content marketing and influencer marketing are like peanut butter and chocolate. Fine on their own, but They make each other better. Back in my previous role at OpenView, a VC based in Boston, I got to participate in many consulting calls with Joe Pulizzi and the portfolio companies. For those of you who don’t know OVP, its an expansion stage VC focusing on tech-enabled companies. Its special sauce is a group of inhouse consultants specifically for the portfolio. Back to the calls with Joe...Time and time again, Joe would recommend working with influencers to any companies focusing on content marketing as part of their overall marketing strategy. In fact, a good majority of my role there was to build the influencer program for OpenView and the portfolio. So let’s look into the benefits to help drill this in.
Firstly, It helps to amplify your efforts. Your influencers are influencers for a reason. Use their audience to help get your message out to a bigger or different audience.
Collaborating with influencers can be a huge cost savings for your company –You can offset your internal content production efforts. I’ll share some tips to help you work with influencers to get more bang for your buck.
Lastly, you can capitalize on their thought leadership to propel your company’s brand into the top ten list.
Now, lets shift gears and focus on how to incorporate IM into your CM creation efforts.
Now, lets shift gears and focus on how to incorporate IM into your CM creation efforts.
Now, lets shift gears and focus on how to incorporate IM into your CM creation efforts.
First things, first. It’s important to remember that it isn’t smart to just dive in and start email blasting a few people you found on social media. That isn’t going to get you anywhere and it is a complete waste of time. With any marketing program, it is critical to slow down and create a plan. Let’s talk about how.
I stress the importance of setting goals. It is really critical to know where you are starting before getting going. Without having this in place, you’ll never be able to track your progress. If your time is limited, I would stress focusing on one-two goals max. Some things to consider – are you looking to drive more traffic, speed up your conversions, increase buzz?
Based on the goal you are looking to hit, you’ll have a variety of metrics to track. Critical metrics could include community size, number of organic mentions, engagement on social media, or unique visitors, but of course the mix depends on what specifically you want to accomplish. These numbers can be used to create goals around the influencer program. You should pull these numbers again three, six, and twelve months into your influencer program to start gauging success.
Now, lets shift gears and focus on how to incorporate IM into your CM creation efforts.
Next, It’s important to identify who. Who are your influencers? Influencers come in a variety of shapes and sizes. They could be academics, editors/reporters, bloggers, social media mavens, analysts, consultants, customers, partners, entrepreneurs, VCs... Let’s focus on how you find these people, because it is more than just looking at a few Klout scores. There are capital I influencers and lowercase i influencers.
I find the best approach to uncovering your influencers is a blend of online and offline research. Online – start with a few different google searches with keywords that accurately describe your space, peruse social media to see who is talking about your space. Search different blogs. Look at where/how your competitors are getting coverage or spoken about online. You can also experiment with the different tools available – Vocus, LittleBird, etc. It’s not just about Klout scores and Twitter followers.
Then don’t forget to go offline. Talk to your customers, prospects, sales team. Find out what sites your audience visits. Who do they get amped about to see speak? What books/blogs are they reading etc. If you can, conduct a survey. If you have a teleprospecting team in place, have them ask your prospects. It’s only a few simple questions and it could help save a lot of time.
Once you know the who, you’ll want to take a few steps to ensure you can always keep track of who they are. Here are some ideas.Simple – start with a Twitter list. Make it public so your influencers can see that you recognize them. Call it ABC tech influencers. Get a system in place. If you are resource-constrained, create an excel sheet.If you do choose to add your influencers to your MAP / CRM tool to help manage the contacts and ultimate activities, keep some things in mind: Contact assignment, contact routing, contact intervals, create the proper restrictions so you aren’t putting them in prospect nurture campaigns, etcKeep track of their content, their contact information, and your activities.
Now, lets shift gears and focus on how to incorporate IM into your CM creation efforts.
Now that you know who they are you can get started with your outreach, right?Wrong!Stop. It’s important to do your research before diving in. Don’t worry, this doesn’t take a lot of work. Ensure that you are following them on social media. Subscribe and read their blogs. Really sink in to determine that they are a right fit. This will help you prioritize. Remember that this is a two-way relationship and by no means, are you the only one ever reaching out with similar requests. Many influencers will share tips on how to get in contact with them.
Start documenting some ideas on what you want to ask of the influencer
Now, lets shift gears and focus on how to incorporate IM into your CM creation efforts.
Now the fun part. Once you have a handle on who your influencers are and what they are all about, you can start to build the relationship. Comment on their content. Engage on social media by retweeting and commenting to their posts. Once you have some solid back and forth, then pitch. Once you have an understanding of what makes your influencers tick, get on their radar with some outbound activities. Share their content with your audience or start posting supportive comments on their published works. You can also interact with your influencers on social channels. For example, sharing and retweeting their content and comments to your networks can help forge a connection and will indicate that you appreciate their perspective. If possible, you can even choose to reach out directly to your influencers and request a bit of their time to chat about their interests and issues first-hand.
Whether you are using a simple spreadsheet or MAP/CRM tool, be sure to log your activities and keep track of your progress.
Now, lets shift gears and focus on how to incorporate IM into your CM creation efforts.
This is it. This is what it comes down to. Making the pitch or making the ask. I’ve found that these 4 ideas help to craft the right pitch.KISS – no more than 1-2 paragraphs. No one has time to read your novel of an email. Get to the point quickly and be direct. You aren’t the only one emailing them.Make the connection – explain a recent blog you’ve enjoyed, etc but be truthful. Don’t go overboard because it comes across as phony.Show value – explain why they should consider it – explain the access to your audience. Make it hard to say no – it’s easy. Start by asking for a quote, or a google hangout and get the video transcribed, write it for them.. Create a google form to capture answers.
This is it. This is what it comes down to. Making the pitch or making the ask. I’ve found that these 4 ideas help to craft the right pitch.KISS – no more than 1-2 paragraphs. No one has time to read your novel of an email. Get to the point quickly and be direct. You aren’t the only one emailing them.Make the connection – explain a recent blog you’ve enjoyed, etc but be truthful. Don’t go overboard because it comes across as phony.Show value – explain why they should consider it – explain the access to your audience. Make it hard to say no – it’s easy. Start by asking for a quote, or a google hangout and get the video transcribed, write it for them.. Create a google form to capture answers.
This is it. This is what it comes down to. Making the pitch or making the ask. I’ve found that these 4 ideas help to craft the right pitch.KISS – no more than 1-2 paragraphs. No one has time to read your novel of an email. Get to the point quickly and be direct. You aren’t the only one emailing them.Make the connection – explain a recent blog you’ve enjoyed, etc but be truthful. Don’t go overboard because it comes across as phony.Show value – explain why they should consider it – explain the access to your audience. Make it hard to say no – it’s easy. Start by asking for a quote, or a google hangout and get the video transcribed, write it for them.. Create a google form to capture answers.
This is it. This is what it comes down to. Making the pitch or making the ask. I’ve found that these 4 ideas help to craft the right pitch.KISS – no more than 1-2 paragraphs. No one has time to read your novel of an email. Get to the point quickly and be direct. You aren’t the only one emailing them.Make the connection – explain a recent blog you’ve enjoyed, etc but be truthful. Don’t go overboard because it comes across as phony.Show value – explain why they should consider it – explain the access to your audience. Make it hard to say no – it’s easy. Start by asking for a quote, or a google hangout and get the video transcribed, write it for them.. Create a google form to capture answers.
Here are some ideas of what types of content you can co-create with influencers. If you are reaching out to a broad group of influencers for a short contribution to an ebook, for example, consider using Google Forms to pull together all of the answers.
Some of you may know CC Chapman, coauthor of Content Rules! Founder of Digital Dads. Check out this pitch.
Some of you may know CC Chapman, coauthor of Content Rules! Founder of Digital Dads. Check out this pitch.
Here’s a sample.You won’t always hear back and that’s okay. Don’t take rejection personally.
Now, lets shift gears and focus on how to incorporate IM into your CM creation efforts.
Now, that we’ve covered the framework, let’s take a bit of time to cover what to do to take things to the next level. I think it is really smart to use some type of automation tool to track your progress and stay in contact on a more frequent level. If you are using a MAP, you can set a regular contact interval/nurture stream to touch your lower-tiered influencers with regular content. But try to keep it personal. Don’t use mail merge and ensure you are writing really crafty subject lines to help capture attention. When you have a new piece of content, share it. When the content they helped create is live, share it. Use the tool to help stay in touch. There isn’t a magic formula for staying in contact, but I strive for 2-3 month once the relationship is built. Remember that you don’t always have to talk shop. Your influencers are people, They have families, interests, etc outside of your domain.
Another important lesson I learned is that influence happens offline too! If you have the opportunity, meet with your influencers in person. If you are going to an event where they will be there, try to set up a meeting for coffee, lunch, etc. When you do complete a piece of content with an influencer, remember to send it to them with a nice note. Take it a step further an include ideas for how to share it. Don’t get discouraged. Some times you won’t hear back. Some times you’ll hear a flat out NO. Don’t let this get in the way. Keep people in mind for other projects down the road.