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Marketing Priorities for 2014

With a new year brings new marketing opportunities, and we’re here to help you get a jumpstart on your 2014 marketing plan. A few of the marketing priorities this year are inbound marketing, knowledge marketing, newsroom approach and mobile.

Inbound marketing – Inbound marketing is the art of pushing prospects to your site using compelling content or offers. Experts predict that inbound marketing will increase in 2014, and clear messaging will help to ensure your company stays on top of the latest trends. Concentrate on persuasive calls to action and relevant information that will keep the prospect’s interest. Hubspot is a great example of a brand consistently using effective CTAs (Calls To Action) while providing quality content to their target audience.

When developing an inbound strategy, consider how it fits into your overall marketing plan for the year. Quality content is key, and without it you will lose the leads you’ve worked so hard to obtain. This is also the perfect time to take advantage of potential clients who are in research mode. Chances are they’re doing a significant portion of their research online, giving your company the opportunity to develop content that will have them coming back to you when they are looking to make a purchase.  Inbound marketing also offers a great way to receive feedback from your target audience, since you can track metrics on blogs, social media and more.

Knowledge Marketing – When your clients purchase products or services from you, they do so because you offer specific expertise. Knowledge marketing uses that expertise in a combination of content marketing and thought leadership. By engaging in knowledge marketing, you increase credibility, raise brand visibility and attract new clients. Knowledge marketing comes in many forms such as white papers, blog posts, emails, social media engagement, legislative or issue briefs, and by securing media coverage. Prium, a medical cost management company, has successfully gained market share by leveraging knowledge marketing throughout their website, especially in their blog and thought leadership sections.

Coming up with topics is easy. Think about what’s keeping your clients up at night and hot industry issues. Or call your clients and ask. You can also contact trade media to find out what’s on their readers’ minds. Once you have ideas, think about industry holidays, events and your organization’s product development plans. Then form a knowledge marketing calendar that integrates identified topics, channels and delivery methods with significant industry and company activities.

Newsroom approach — When it comes to content marketing, many organizations start by creating a sound strategy, from delivery channels and core messages to measurement tools. Once the strategy is in place, they find themselves facing another challenge: How to implement the strategy. One of the best approaches is the adoption of a “newsroom concept,” essentially operating akin to journalists at a daily newspaper. Here are some ideas:

• Establish an editorial team to own the content calendar, brainstorm ideas and generate stories that are compelling to readers.
• Rely on a managing editor to lead the team, approve final stories, edit content and ensure it meets standards.
• Assemble reporters with strong writing skills to develop stories and cover “beats”, which can be based on business line, department or subject matter.
• Adhere to clear story deadlines and publication dates.

Content marketing is less about promotion and more about relevant, timely and factually based stories that pique interest, solve problems and have readers wanting more. In much the same way as journalists, you want to be a trusted resource. The newsroom approach can spell success and set you apart.

Mobile – Heard of responsive web design (RWD)? It enables a website to have an optimal viewing experience across a wide range of devices.  In fact, in 2014 the number of mobile devices is predicted to exceed the number of desktops and laptops. Check out PNC’s Virtual Wallet aspect of their site. They offer an app as well, but their site shows up in a clean and precise format on tablets and cell phones. And what’s more, the load time is lightning fast and it’s visually pleasing. PNC knows their customers don’t want to get stuck at a cash register waiting for their screen to load while they figure out what fits in their budget, and this RWD design takes advantage of that.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is the IRS.gov site. Their website on a desktop comes up fine on a desktop, but on a phone screen it looks exactly the same. Due to the amount of information on the home screen this makes it hard to read and it also takes quite a while to load properly. Some of the documents get cut off and some don’t load at all. The last thing you want is to have your site passed over because it looked terrible on a phone screen.

But if you aren’t comfortable with the idea of putting a lot of time and effort into optimizing your site, don’t worry. The understanding of optimization has grown leaps and bounds in the past couple years, so now is an ideal time to jump on board. To get a better understanding or have your site reviewed for a responsive web design, call or email Marketing Works at  614-540-5520 info@marketingworks360.com

What marketing trends are you ready to try this year? Let us know in the comments!

Mworks740 • December 31, 2013

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