Bilder

Cu there.

Ok, right there is no „easy“ way to create valuable content for your content marketing strategy. But as for almost all marketing tasks a structure can help a lot.
Below the one I developed based on my experiences, best practices etc.

Overview

The overview part contains important information like date range, target group, language, key message, budget, short and long term goal, tools and links to documents like the brandbook, wordings, SEO tables etc. Sound boring but do never ever skip this step.

Maintopic

Write down the main topic as one sentence like „(We want our followers to use our SaaS to) find the perfect customers„. This is the title of the movie you are shooting.

Subtopics

The subtopics are „chapters“ in your movie. Develop 3 -5 subtopics like „Get Insights“, „Learn how to Analyse“, „Use Testing methods“ etc.

Perspectives

Now you go even deeper into your story with perspectives. List at least four perspectives for every subtopic.
A perspective can be a blogpost title, a Facebook message, a Youtube video title etc.
Here some example: For Insight: „3 free tools to measure the market potential“; For Test: „How to use A/B testing with your next newsletter“.
For every perspective add the format (video, text, info graphic etc.) and the channel (Facebook, Pinterest, blog etc.)

Selection and Timing

The next step is to list the dates you like to fire your content. Please check carefully holidays, weekdays and events like Christmas, eastern etc.
Te date comes next to the „perspective“. Example:
12.12, 16:00 CET:  „3 free tools to measure the market potential“

Develop

The very last step is develop the content. Write the text, shot the video, select images etc.

Ah one more thing: Don’t forget to analyze every content to improve your content marketing :)

In the last few years „music“ became essential in the fitness world. Running, cycling and even swimming headphone on.
But what happens if you press the stop button?
This is what I did in my today’s interval Spinning class. I motivated my class to do a few very intense interval (2-5 mintutes) „alone“.
Probable 50% of my group hated the idea (mostly women) and the rest loved it (mostly men).

So why is this? Exercise without music makes you feel naked.

Without distraction your brain immediately tries to start thinking – without a useful result. Some see this a challenge and are trying to focus, the others are not able to handle the „silence“ and the brain becomes stronger and stronger and finally the output is: „This is stupid“.
This progress is may personal but as well depending on your „day“, your training status, your gender etc..

But it is a great exercise. So give it a try the next time you exercise, drive, walk, work etc.

Last week I had a few amazing lunch-meetings with start-ups to discuss marketing strategies and „how to reach a larger audience“.
With the rise of genius frameworks and amazing prototyping software like marvel and invisio it is even easier to create a digital product or service. This is great but challenges the marketing even more. How many apps and tools does an average web-user needs? And how many are available?
Sites like killerstartups.com are listing hundreds of great services – but only a small number of them are gonna make it. And I learned this with my own product too…

That’s why I started to modify the well know innovation-to-market process by adding one more step: „Canvas Marketing“.
Canvas Marketing comes right after – or even before – the market-research. The idea of Canvas Marketing is to create and execute a „real“ marketing strategy and ad campaign for a „not existing product“. Canvas Marketing is close to research but within a real environment. And this is a big difference.

I made three tests:

Marketing Workshops for freelancer and small companies.
Before I even started to powerpoint the workshop I created a splashthat landingpage and up to 20 Facebook ads. The results after 2 weeks: Rate of 0.64%, no sign-ups (150USD/day).
Not a great result indeed. Sure there are a few triggers like location, date, price, targeting, ad design etc.. But I gave my best and 0.64% is definitely not a good results for Facebook Ads. I have to keep this in my mind and may find a better way or improve the product.

„Uber“ for Assets
Since a few months I am thinking about a platform for (financial-) assets. The idea is to skip the banks and create a platform where investors are able to promote their financial products and find investors. I created a professional looking page and planned a serious LinkedIn ad campaign.
Result after 1 week: Rate of 0%. Sure LinkedIn is not Facebook in terms of click rate but I definitely have to rethink this product – and talk with people working in the banking sector.

Online Certificate for Fitness Instructors
Personal trainers and group fitness instructors are well educated in health, training, nurture etc. but not in self-marketing and communication. That is why I came up with the idea of a certificate in „fitness communication“. I created a beautiful landingpage promotion the course and the certificate for USD 95. Once again I used Facebook to run a good looking ad campaign. Result: 2.01%  and tataaa: some pre-bookings! That’s is not superb but a good start…

For sure Canvas-Marketing is not 100% bulletproof but a great way to get insights and to think about how to promote an idea before it is finished. In my opinion this is the key in a digital world with thousand of great product launches every day.

A short remark about my test results: I know the fitness industry best as I work as instructor and I have no idea about asset management. Not surprising the fitness idea performed better. But I know a lot of start ups trying to create a product for an industry they don’t know – me included.
If I am doing a good job as consultant I address and help to solve this issue.

Als ich vor rund 13 Jahren mit Outsourcing in Indien, China und Rumänien angefangen habe, gehörte ich zu jenen die darin eine riesige Chance sahen. Die Jahre vergingen, viele Unternehmen schlugen am Boden auf und kehrten nach (Ost-) Europa zurück. Ich bliebt.
Miss-/Erfolg mit Outsourcing in weit entfernten und fremden Gebieten dieser Erde hat nicht’s mit unterschiedlicher Arbeitsweise sondern einzig und alleine mit interkulturellem Verständnis zu tun. Im Idealfall gibt es das auf beiden Seiten. Meist ist es aber so, dass ich mich als Besucher bzw. Auftraggeber anpassen muss. Die Vorstellung es umgekehrt zu machen, ist eine Illusion, die vielen zum Verhängnis wurde.
Anpassen heisst aber nicht, dass man vom Ziel abrücken bzw. Kompromisse bei der Qualität eingehen muss. Im Gegenteil: Man kann nur outsourcen, wenn man exakt weiss, was man will. Und an diesem Ziel gilt es festzuhalten. Der Weg dorthin führt nicht durch die Schweizer Täler sondern mitten durch die verrücktesten Gegenden dieser Erde. Nur wer das will und liebt hat Erfolg.