7 Secrets to Outsourcing a Killer Content Creation Team

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This is a guest post from Steve Lazuka, founder of Interact Media, the software development firm behind the Zerys Content Marketplace and question-and-answer website, YoExpert.

If you read this blog regularly, you understand the impact inbound marketing and, more specifically, content creation have on a business’ lead generation and customer acquisition efforts. Problem is, marketing agencies who deliver inbound marketing services for their clients somehow need to find the bandwidth to create a high volume of quality content that drives ROI for their clients, and do so profitably, efficiently, and across a number of niche business areas.

Even more difficult, most agencies don’t have the budget and management resources to maintain a staff of in-house writers. This is where agencies can leverage the power of a large writer network to effectively manage an outsourced content team. Based on my experiences running a content agency and through case studies from power users of our Zerys content marketplace, I’ve learned what works and doesn’t work for an agency outsourcing content creation. Below are the seven very distinct peices of advice I always give to agencies who are getting started with a content marketplace.

1) Invest Time in Learning the Platform

    Most people don’t like writing; or if they like it, they certainly can’t find the time to do it. So what’s the next natural step? Outsource it!

    Anyone who has outsourced content creation, however, knows there are lots of moving parts you have to manage to get the quantity and quality of content you’re looking for. To put it plainly, businesses don’t want to spend the time figuring it out, which is why we see so many businesses out there struggling to keep up high levels of content creation. But as an agency, this affords you a great opportunity to learn and master the process of outsourced content creation on behalf of your clients!

    When you settle on a content creation platform — like Zerys for Agencies, for example — set aside time to start experimenting. Start simple, placing a few uncomplicated orders (think blog posts, not white papers) and sampling a variety of writers. Over time, you can start to learn the more advanced features that can make your process more efficient and streamlined. Think of it like a science experiment — if you test too many variables at once, you’ll have a hard time identifying what specifically contributed to your successes and failures. And if you do run into trouble, whether with processes or specific features, leverage the platform’s available support resources. That’s what they’re there for!

    Once you feel comfortable with the ins and outs of a platform, you’ll be able to invest time in things like writer development without getting caught up in those little snags that hinder your productivity.

    2) Sample Lots of Writers

      Agencies that sample one writer, throw up their hands in frustration, and then quit are never going to find the writers that make their clients’ content creation dreams come true. In order to build a solid team of trusted writers for your agency, you’ll need to sample plenty of writers, and identify which ones are capable of giving you the content quality you need, ad the price you’re willing to pay. It is possible to find great writers at lower price points, but only if you’re willing to invest time in searching for those writers, and teaching them about the intricacies of your clients’ needs. 

      One of our main goals when designing Zerys was to make the process of sampling writers fast, simple and risk-free. Get started by posting an initial batch of 10-20 simple assignments to the job board. This way, you can sample work from many different writers with no risk, since you only pay if you’re happy with the work you get back. Once you identify the writers you like, you can save them to a list of your favorite writers for quick access to your arsenal of killer content creators in the future.

      3) Get Good at Providing Instructions

        If you want to create amazing content for your clients, you must provide amazing instructions to your writers. And it’s a tricky balance to strike — instructions must be at once comprehensive, and concise. But mastering this skill is critical to your success at outsourcing content creation, because your writers simply cannot read your mind, or that of your clients. As you work with writers more and more, however, they will get to know what your clients are looking for and require less instruction.

        Let’s take a look at an example of a brief and comprehensive set of writer instructions, and an incomplete set of writer instructions for the sake of comparison.

        Write a short blog post about email marketing campaign best practices, and reference features from this tool: http://www.hubspot.com/products/email-marketing

        Write a short blog post — 700-900 words — about email marketing campaign best practices. While there may be other best practices you hit on based on your research, but it should definitely explain the importance of list segmentation, email design, copywriting best practices, personalization, and performance analytics. Pepper in references to this email marketing software throughout the post (http://www.hubspot.com/products/email-marketing), as it helps you implement all of those best practices and will be a nice visual counterpart to the text. The tone should be educational, but a little light hearted; we don’t want people to get bored reading it!

        If you sent a writer that second set of instructions, it’s much more likely you’ll get a piece of quality content than if you sent the same writer the first set of instructions. Investing a few minutes really figuring out what it is you want, pointing writers to external resources they can use to inform their writing, and establishing the right tone for each piece of content will save you time in revisions down the road.

        (Tip: While many agencies provide too little context and information for writers, providing too much direction can be just as ineffective. Unless you plan to pay the writer enough to spend hours sifting through heaps of documents you send them for reference, you’re better off keeping instructions clear and concise.)

        4) Consider the First Piece of Content a First Draft

          As you build your writer network, consider each post you get back as a first draft that may require a bit of editing and revisions. Even great writers may not capture exactly what you need the first time, but if you like their style and they are well-informed on the subject matter about which they’re writing, you can invest some up-front time offering helpful feedback, and nurturing the relationship to the benefit of your client.

          You can choose to offer a higher amount of money, and attract higher rated writers who will give you more “publish-ready” work, thus spending less time editing. Or, you could offer a lower amount and save more up-front, with the understanding that you will probably need to spend more time on the back-end editing.

          If you choose to work with lower-cost writers that require more feedback, invest time in providing clear, constructive feedback just like you did when writing your job instructions. Let’s pretend the email marketing blog post we referenced in the previous example needed a little work — here’s the right way to give feedback to that writer:

          Thank you for this first draft, it’s looking good but needs a few edits. In the performance analytics section, can you please provide a more comprehensive list of the metrics that an email marketer should consider to evaluate the effectiveness of their campaigns? Right now, you just recommend a few, and say there are others. The readers will want to know everything to consider, though. Also, the email design section get’s a little to technology-oriented; the client’s audience will likely be outsourcing the design of their emails, so can you please remove the how-to design parts, and simply list some general best practices they should reference when working with a designer? Other than that, looks good. Thank you!

          If you give feedback like this that’s extremely specific, the writer knows exactly what to change and will be able to turn around revisions much more expeditiously, and accurately.

          5) Invest in Building Long-Term Relationships

            Platforms like Zerys are tools, but at its heart, content development is all about people. In order to be successful in the long run, you’ll need to invest some of your time in building solid relationships with good writers. It’s no different than if you were hiring people in-house at your office; you don’t hire the first person that walks in, but by the same token, you’ll invest in developing your strong candidates to help them perform at their best.

            Once you identify writers that give you the quality you want at the price you can afford, be sure to offer well-thought out feedback like you saw in the previous example, as well as more general feedback that’s not necessarily tied to any particular assignment. For example, you might let them know what clients really appreciate about their writing so they continue doing more of that in the future. Similarly, you can tell them what you love about working with them — perhaps they always format their work very nicely, for instance. They will greatly appreciate this type of feedback, and over time, they will improve their writing to give you exactly what you want.

            6) Reward Your Writers

              Want to build a team of dedicated, loyal, reliable writers? Treat them well and they’ll reward you by giving your assignments top attention, and always doing their best work for you and your clients. There are a couple of ways to do this, but one of the best ways is to add a bonus every now and then when they do a great job, or go above and beyond your expectations. With Zerys, you can add tips on the content review/approval screen with just one click.

              On top of monetary incentives, however, you should also just be good to work with. Set clear and high expectations, but be understanding, too. For example, if you’ve worked with a writer for several months and they have an emergency come up that will impact the due date of their assignment, don’t flip your lid. Instead, thank them for letting you know in advance, wish them well, and reassign the job to another writer. It seems obvious, but when there’s a computer screen between two people, it’s easy for clients to forget they’re working with another human being — if you’re not familiar with the phenomenon, just visit the comments section of almost any blog.

              7) Let Your Clients Build Your Team for You

                Why not let your clients help you build your team of writers for you? After all, it doesn’t really matter if we feel that a writer’s great. All that matters is what our clients think!

                Tell your clients that you work with a network of writers with a wide variety of different skill sets and expertise areas. Tell them you will choose a writer that you think will work well for the client based on prior experience, and have that writer compose the first piece for the client’s review. If they don’t like that writer, it’s no problem, and they don’t have to pay for it. You will simply try another writer until the client finds the one they like. But just like you strive to provide specific instructions and feedback to your writer, you should also request that your clients provide clear feedback about what they do and don’t want before writing begins, and during the revision process. This will help you better match up clients and writers, and start off new client relationships on the right foot.

                Are you an agency that outsources content? What are the outsourced content creation best practices that work for you?

                Image credit: Kazarelth

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                8 Frequently Missed Lead Gen Opportunities for Your Homepage

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                This is a guest post written by Mike Lieberman, president of Square 2 Marketing, a gold-level HubSpot agency partner. He is also the co-author of the new book, Fire Your Sales Team Today!

                Let’s face it: while most businesses have a website, more often than not, that site isn’t optimized to generate leads. Research shows that 78% of people conduct product research online, and nearly all of those people will decide whether or not to stay on your site within the first few seconds of arriving. That means you have a very short window to capture their attention, deliver your message, and encourage them to complete a conversion activity.

                Equally important is an understanding that all traffic is not created equal. How visitors are finding your website and where they are landing is an important part of this lead generation conversation. For example, most of the people landing on your homepage through direct traffic probably know you or have at least heard about you. The other group of visitors arriving at your site are people who found your company organically, and they are more than likely landing on a specific landing page created just for them — either via a specific campaign such as an email send, through a shared link, or via a targeted search term. Understandably, this type of visitor should be treated differently. For the purposes of this post, let’s focus on visitors who reach your homepage.

                The purpose of your website pages should be to draw visitors “out of the shadows” so they identify themselves and you can convert them from a lurker into a lead. Before we tell you how to turn lurkers into leads, let’s take a look at how well your current homepage is prepared for lead generation.

                Take a look at this sample website that we’ll break down further throughout this post — it has all the necessary components of a lead-generating homepage.

                optimized homepage

                Run your current homepage through this quick 8-question assessment:

                • Does it have a clear, compelling statement that addresses your target audience’s pains as a headline on the homepage?
                • Does it have an empathetic photo so people can connect with your company?
                • Do you articulate your differentiation right there on the homepage?
                • Is there validation to back up your story on your homepage?
                • Do you provide a variety of educational content, like reports, videos, webinars, and research? Does your site deliver a personal experience?
                • Can your site be shared via social networks quickly and easily?
                • Does it work just as well on tablets and smartphones?

                If you answered “no” to even one of these questions, you might want to make some changes to your homepage. Here are 8 upgrades you should consider to optimize your homepage for better lead generation.

                1) Make Sure Your Messaging Is Clear

                New data from Microsoft Research shows that the first 10 seconds of the page visit are critical to a user’s decision about whether to stick around or hit the back button. But if your website survives this first 10-second judgment test, visitors will look around a bit and engage with your content — getting them one step closer to converting. Take a look at the messaging on our sample website’s homepage, for example:

                homepage messaging

                This copy is big, bold, succinctly explains what the business does without the use of business babble, and answers the prospects’ pain points — this company helps you design an emergency response plan. Got it. When your messaging is clear enough to help orient a new homepage visitor in those 10 seconds, you have the opportunity to present your other homepage content that helps them convert into a lead. In fact, if your homepage messaging is enticing enough to convince a user to stay on your page for half a minute, there’s a better chance they’ll stay even longer — 2 minutes or more. Therefore, the key to extending the length of each user’s visit is first capturing their attention with strong messaging.

                empathetic image2) Use Empathetic Photos

                People do business with people, not companies. Research shows that conversion rates for homepages with pictures of people are nearly double the conversion rates of homepages with other images. The reason for this is simple: images of people are more relatable. For example, the picture you see here from our sample website is Manny, the manufacturing plant manager — a real, live human being that works for the company.

                One goal of your homepage is to get visitors to experience a strong sense of emotional connection with and trust in your company that convinces them to convert into leads. Providing pictures of people that your target audience identifies with goes a long way toward accomplishing that goal.

                3) Be Remarkably Different

                Seth Godin taught us:

                “Something remarkable is worth talking about. Worth noticing. Exceptional. New. Interesting. Boring stuff is invisible. Remarkable marketing is the art of building things worth noticing right into your product or service.”

                You have 10 seconds to tell your story in a remarkable way; ten seconds to grab your visitors’ attention and show them how your business does things differently. If your website isn’t delivering this differentiation in a strong and immediately visible way on your homepage, you are going to lose your visitors and suffer from a low visitor-to-lead conversion rate. Take a look at this copy, for example:

                remarkable image

                This section of the homepage explains that not only does the company provide emergency response planning software, but they also have a team of experts in the subject of emergency response strategy that work with customers to design and implement every aspect of their strategy. Then they offer sample plans that demonstrate their ability to do so. Outline exactly how you differ from your competitors — visitors landing on your homepage presumably already know a bit about you, right? There’s a good chance they’re doing some competitive research. Make your differentiation clear, and you’re more likely to have a visitor convert into a lead to learn more about your solutions.

                4) Validate Feelings of Trust

                Researchers are naturally skeptic; they won’t trust you automatically because they know you are trying to sell to them. But while they may not trust you yet, they are much more likely to trust your current customers. In fact, research from Bazaarvoice shows that more than 8 in 10 of Generation Y’s purchases are influenced by user-generated content from people they don’t know, and there are multiple industries in which many of them won’t even venture to make a purchase without some third party credibility.

                So if you want to improve conversions on your homepage, provide the kind of validation your visitors need to know you’re a legitimate, trustworthy company. Here is a testimonial from our sample homepage that clearly shows another person who had an excellent experience with this company.

                testimonials

                Notice how there’s also a link at the bottom of the testimonial to read more — one short testimonial won’t do the trick. Give your site visitors the opportunity to validate inklings of trust with multiple testimonials, case studies, and the like. Research studies show that by adding written and video testimonials, you significantly improve your lead generation efforts.

                5) Highlight Educational Content

                We already know people are using the internet to perform research. These people are looking for information — education that will let them make a well-informed purchase decision — so don’t bury it deep in your website. Our sample website helps educate prospects by calling attention to their educational content using a yellow call-to-action button that highlights crisis management program best practices.

                educational content

                Our clients have benefitted from a 5-fold increase in leads after we added what we call a trio of offers — one low risk, one no risk, and one direct business offer. You can read more about these types of offers in this blog post about the Trio of Offers. Providing a variety of educational content in a variety of formats is also critical. For example, video content has proven to be an effective conversion enhancement mechanism; studies from Kissmetrics indicate that viewers are 64%-85% more likely to buy after watching a video.

                6) Personalize Your Content

                Website strategy is moving quickly away from the static content model to the personalization approach. Look at Amazon, Pandora, Netflix, and other popular sites. They are getting to know their visitors and their customers to provide a very personal website experience. But you don’t need to have access to the kind of customer data those big players have to deliver a personalized homepage experience. Take a look at this example of personalization from our sample website:

                personalization

                In the example shown here, they allow the client to provide personal information regarding their current response plan readiness in exchange for an assessment of their program.

                With this type of information about your website visitors, offers and lead nurturing content can be better personalized. You can also offer content targeted to specific roles, vertical markets, or product applications. Adding profiles that customize the visitor experience and provide personalized content delivery based on the stages of the buying cycle will have a significant impact on your visitor-to-lead conversion process as visitors begin to feel that you know them, understand their needs, and as such are the best-equipped company to help them.

                social sharing modules7) Make Your Homepage Social-Sharing Friendly

                Last summer, ShareThis released the results of a study that took into account 7 billion sharing signals generated by 300 million users across one million domains. They discovered that social sharing generates more than 10 percent of all internet traffic and 31 percent of referral traffic — almost half the volume of search. This means if your site isn’t social sharing-friendly, you are missing out on a lot of additional traffic and a lot of potential leads.

                Add the sharing modules to all aspects of your interactive marketing program, including home pages, landing pages, email campaigns, and blog posts. This includes not just the modules that allow visitors to share your content, but to also become your fans and followers on your social media accounts.

                8) Mobile Optimize

                Recent data shows that there are more people using smartphones to access your website than personal computers. In the next two years, Mobithinking reports that 1 billion people globally will access the internet on a mobile device. And in the US, 25% of people have already abandoned their laptops to rely exclusively on mobile devices. This means if your site isn’t working perfectly on a mobile device, there might be a huge group of people who aren’t seeing, hearing and learning about your business when they land on your homepage because it’s too difficult to pass the blink test and redeem lead generating offers. To learn the basics you need to know to mobile-optimize your website, check out this blog post — and implement those 3 steps!

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                Solutions to Staffing Problems Critical for Small Agency Growth [Industry Report]

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                Today, HubSpot released its first ever State of the Online Marketing Services Industry report. This report provides an in-depth look at the biggest challenges facing marketing agencies today, as well as insights into what business processes are being leveraged by those agencies with the best revenue growth and client retention numbers.

                A portion of the report sought to understand the makeup of the industry from an agency-size perspective. Responses depict an industry dominated by smaller-sized agencies, with over 70% of respondents classifying themselves as either an independent marketing consultant or as having a staff of fewer than 5 people. The smallest percentage of respondents identified themselves as 50 people or more. While many of the smaller agencies could in fact be lifestyle companies content with where they are, growth clearly seems to be on the minds of most.

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                Service Offerings Enable and Prevent Growth

                A large part of the survey is dedicated to understanding which services are being offered most across the industry. Social media (83% of all agencies), email marketing (81% of agencies), web design (81% of agencies), and SEO (75% of agencies) — all services that map back to inbound marketing — were cited as current offerings by 75% or more of the 750 marketing agency professionals polled. This shows that, not only are online marketing agencies seeing enough demand for these services, but that they also provide a sufficient return on investment to justify the internal investment needed to adopt these skill sets.

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                That being said, some of the most interesting data highlights the services agencies plan to add in the future (represented in orange above), for it is fair to assume that these services represent emerging needs of their clients. The top three services that stand out here are content creation (blogging and premium offers combined to represent a future priority for 22% of all agencies), video production (15% of all agencies), and app development (25% of all agencies). Considering that each of these three offerings represent a serious marketing trend, there’s no big surprise here. Expanding service offerings to include capabilities in these areas will allow smaller marketing agencies to capitalize; doing so will allow them to build out more robust service offerings, offer more complete solutions, driver deeper ROI, and increase billings.

                But understanding that more than 70% of the industry is comprised of five-person (or fewer) shops, it’s likely that agencies that want to ride these ever-strengthening app, content, and video waves will need to figure out a scalable way to provide these services. However, for an agency trying to grow, making business development activities and marketing take a back seat in order to write client blog articles doesn’t exactly make sense. Likewise, smaller agencies need people with multiple skill sets on their team to grow their client base, and hiring a developer to create apps or dedicating someone specifically to creating video — when those functions are not the sole focus of the agency — is unreasonable.

                How to Add Talent in a Way That Scales

                Some agencies achieve growth because of their focus on and dedication to a specific vertical — for example, an agency that has stable client success in the healthcare industry. Other agencies grow by focusing on a specific service — like a shop that becomes known for world-class SEO services. And other agencies grow by capitalizing on existing trends, as we outline above. But because acquiring talent is so vital to growth, let’s broke out the three most scalable ways for agencies to add the talent needed to fill the gaps they have in their service offerings.

                1) Forge Partnerships Within Reseller Networks

                Software drives the online services industry, and not surprisingly, the State of the Online Marketing Services Industry report finds that over 90% of agencies surveyed use software tools to deliver client work. In addition, 82% of businesses surveyed said they recommend/resell software. These reseller networks bring agencies from all walks of life together under one roof, and likely contain numerous partnership opportunities. The LinkedIn groups and community forums typically sponsored by software providers with channel programs are great places for agencies to post work requests and meet other agencies with complimentary service offerings. The HubSpot Partners Forum group on LinkedIn, for example, boasts over 1,200 members and consists of regular partnering conversations.

                2) Find Reputable Contractors in Online Marketplaces

                When in doubt, outsource! The web is filled with online marketplaces, brimming with freelancers and project-based guns for hire. Speaking specifically to the emerging needs of agencies identified above, the Zerys content marketplace provides agency-specific tools for purchasing blog articles and premium content. Agencies can also engage with developers on a project by project basis on sites like Project 4 Hire and GetAppQuotes. Ratings and peer reviews are often the lifeblood of these sites, allowing you to protect your precious time and maintain the quality of client deliverables by only engaging with the highest-rated folks. Or on the flip side, agencies can maximize their margins by bargain hunting among the lowest-rated or newer providers.

                3) Hire Professionals With Project Management Skills

                While hiring a developer or video production expert may not make immediate sense for your agency, outsourcing and partnering (outlined above) are legitimate options. But as your client base grows, so too will the amount of work that gets done outside the walls of your firm. It is entirely likely that a typical client engagement could involve managing multiple freelancers. Therefore, making sure the new team members you hire along the way have deep project management skills will be a necessity. Make sure you emphasize this in the job descriptions you post on your website or marketing job boards for open positions. Hiring folks that have run and managed effective projects in the past will be key as your company determines the most scalable way to add the services it needs most.

                Does you agency work with freelancers and/or partner with other agencies to fill gaps in your service offerings? What other steps are crucial in meeting the demand of your clients and prospects?

                Download the free State of the Online Marketing Services Industry report and register for our live webinar on April 11, where we’ll discuss key findings as well as highlight several best practices and agency success stories.

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                How to Use Content to Drive Referrals and Upsell Customers

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                Marketers are often hyper-focused on lead generation. And rightfully so — it’s our responsibility to make sure the business has a pipeline fat with juicy, qualified leads. But when Marketing leaves upselling and driving referrals to Sales and Account Management, as it so often does, it eliminates the possibility of using the inbound content it’s constantly creating to drive more revenue from its existing customer base.

                Your customers are an untapped vein of new revenue. Consider these tactics to help you leverage your already cranking inbound marketing efforts to drive referrals and sell more to your existing customers.

                Segment Your Email Sends to Include Messaging for Customers

                You’re already creating segmented email lists to ensure you’re targeting leads correctly. But have you considered how tweaked messaging could make your content relevant to your existing customer base? Consider a piece of content designed to create build value for one of your products or services — a case study you just finished, your latest best practices guide, or a solutions manual. Sure, you’ll use it for lead generation, but what about sending it to a segment of your existing customer base? These documents can help existing customers use what they have better, or see the need for additional or more premium product or service purchases.

                Current customers know your company well, presumably like you, and if they have the need, will welcome the opportunity to buy additional products or services from a brand they trust. If you haven’t already, create a customer list segmented by product or service and set a schedule to start sharing this type of content with them.

                Encourage a Customer Presence on Social Media

                Encourage your customers to meet each other on social media so they can learn how others are using your products and services. If nothing else, they will get more value out of your brand as they become a better-informed customer. But ideally they learn of other products and services you offer that they should be using.

                Your Twitter lists and LinkedIn Groups can turn into referral machines, as well. If these conversations are happening on public social media accounts, other can listen in. Consider facilitating a hashtag conversation or moderating a LinkedIn group on your different products so newbies can learn from power users, and power users can learn how other products or upgrade enhancements could help them be even more successful.

                Use Your Product Pages to Cross Sell

                If you sell more than one service or product, do some research into which folks have bought multiple things from your company. What did they buy? What do those purchases have in common? Use answers to these questions to feature other, similar products or services in the side navigation of your product pages. Let people know what problems your products solve and the value they bring through content that showcases successful use, making it easy for them to see all the pieces of the puzzle. You can use your knowledge of their past purchase history to more appropriately target your email sends, too, helping to move them through the post-purchase stage of the sales funnel that is so often ignored.

                Customer-Specific Demos

                Sales managers run demos for prospects. But what if an existing customer wants a demo of another product you make, or wants to talk about needs in a new or growing part of their business? Think about running customer demos for new product releases and updates, as well as all your other products if you sell multiple items. Invite Product Managers and senior leadership onto these calls to articulate how important you think these tangential opportunities and functionalities are for your existing customers. Similar to the customer blog, use what you know about the audience to highlight why upgrades and enhanced feature sets may be especially beneficial to those on the phone. Be sure to have on-demand recordings available on a customer resource page, too, for those who can’t attend these events live.

                Create a Customer Home Base on Your Blog

                Customer blogs are ideal places to house product updates and company news. Whether you keep your PR in-house or outsource it to an agency, you can easily syphon off content from their press releases for update posts. Likewise, you can create ‘Week in Review’ posts in which you group all your marketing blog posts and premium content offers into one place. This type of content was relevant when your customers came onboard, and it remains so — you just need to phrase it differently.

                Communicate each new product release or service enhancement in the language of people who already know your products and services well. Explain how a new update or release enhances the functionality of another product they might own. Or show them creative ways other customers are using your product or service successfully. You can even write short tip posts in which you highlight an underused or relatively unknown product or service feature that would make their lives easier. Be sure to include calls-to-action in every post for upgrades, and encourage them to share the post via email or social media to drive referrals.

                Your customers are, in a lot of way, smarter than your prospects. Using a customer blog to communicate best practices and highlight effective uses of your product or service will drive more usage among existing customers, and encourage upgrades and additional product purchases among your existing customer set.

                What other ways do you use content to upsell to your current customers and drive more referrals?

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                7 Webinar Tricks Every Marketer Should Master

                iStock 000011943601LargeWith inbound marketing, the name of the game is content: plain and simple. Whether its blogging, actively publishing updates on social media sites, crafting ebooks, or conducting webinars — the more content you have associated with your brand that’s findable through your website, the better. And by now, we all know the best practices for creating most of these content types. For example, we know we shouldn’t publish a blog article without keywords in the title.

                But what about webinars? Aside from a hot button topic and some mind-blowing slides, what are the basics for hosting a successful webinar? Once you gather registrants for your event, how do you make sure you deliver a great experience that creates value for attendees and makes them eager to attend future webinars? Check out our list below for 7 webinar tricks that will ensure your online events are rewarding for attendees and keeps them coming back for more.

                7 Tricks for a Successful Marketing Webinar

                1. Set a Clear Agenda at the Outset

                webinar agendaYou no doubt have a clever intro, but don’t get into the thick of it until you’ve shared an agenda with your audience. This will help people understand all the topics slated to be covered and set proper expectations. Folks dropping off or fuming at you in the Q&A pane is bad news and will distract your presentation. No surprises and a clear outline will keep butts in the seats and make for happy attendees.

                2. Don’t Be a One-Armed Paper Hanger

                Live webinars require a lot of orchestration — believe it or not. It’s much more work than just creating a deck. You’ll need to moderate attendee conversation, monitor social media, answer questions and — oh yeah — advance the slides and nail your presentation. It’s safe to say that many of us will want to be clear and focused when speaking, so make sure you grab a colleague to help manage all the behind-the-scenes details. This will ensure that the administrative tasks don’t get you off track.

                3. Have Your References Ready

                People will likely ask lots of questions on your webinar. They’ll ask where you found certain data, where links to other resources are, whether the slides will be available for download, if the presentation is being recorded, and many, many more. Prepare the person helping you with answers to all the questions you can anticipate, along with other pieces of basic info. Is the webinar part of a series? Have links to the previous events. Likewise, have links to resources you may mention during your presentation at the ready. Having all this handy will allow you to respond quickly to easy questions and have more time to thoughtfully reply to the more in-depth ones.

                4. Be Smart About Poll Placement

                As marketers, using webinar polls can be super insightful. But for attendees, a poll can mean 3 or 4 minutes of dead air. If you’re going to use them, be smart about when you launch them, and do your best to avoid silence. For example, ask your question, then have a slide or two to help you tell a short story. This way the time is engaging for those who don’t feel like sharing and your helper can organize the results.

                5. Create and Closely Monitor a Hashtag

                People’s total perceived value of your webinar event will be enhanced if they make lasting connections. Do this by creating a hashtag for attendees to use in social media conversations throughout your event. It helps folks connect with others on the line and share the insights they glean from your talk. But as discussed in #2, make sure you’ve got another body in the booth with you to monitor this and answer questions. Also, watch the hashtag for at least 24 hours (or until chatter dies down) following the completion of your event. The webinar may end at the top of the hour, but the conversations and connection-making will likely continue on Twitter. Don’t miss opportunities to connect yourself, answer follow-up questions, and leverage the engagement.

                6. Know What Should Happen Next

                webinar CTAThink about the topic of your webinar. Is it an educational, non-promotional, top-of-the-funnel topic? If so, schedule a follow-up middle-of-the-funnel webinar (like a demo or deeper-dive) for attendees that aligns with your TOFU content. This might mean planning two events for every one, but truly interested parties will love the opportunity to dig deeper into a subject with you. Strike while the iron is hot! Show a slide at the end of your webinar explaining, for those who are interested, what the next step is. Create a landing page with an easy-to-read URL listed on your screen so folks can jot it down. Whether you want attendees to download more content, check out your blog, or contact a sales rep, make sure you include a call-to-action so attendees know what to do next.

                7. Give Them Everything on the Thank-You Page

                Here is what people assume they are going to get after a webinar: a link with a video recording and slides. Give them everything. Get it all posted and live before you send your follow-up email. Attendees will have no problem waiting for a finished product (assuming you hustle), but will be annoyed when they have to email you looking for promised materials that aren’t posted.

                What other tricks have you learned from webinar production?

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