™Marketing Magazine Issue 5 | Page 13

Ask a “yes” question that strikes at pain points. Reveal that you’ve been there before and can relate. Call out your discovery of a solution. Send readers to do something with specific steps. By doing this, you draw the readers in, then give them a clear call to action. Without a clear call to action, it is difficult to get a good return on investment (ROI) simply because readers have no next-step to take with the information they have received. Maximizing return on investment is simply a matter of maintaining consistency, providing value and knowing how to link disparate pieces of marketing together into one cohesive story. 1. OPTIMIZE YOUR REFERRALS There are many ways to optimize referrals, but some of the best ways are to feature your customer as the front cover story in your personalized magazine, send a care package to them, and send your magazine to their contacts. The two most important things to have in place are, a website traffic generation process and an email capture strategy. What return do you get from this? Customer loyalty, referrals through the magazine share, increased online traffic generation, and a significantly bolstered email list. 2. ACTIVATE HIGH-VALUE PROSPECTS Every business owner knows that landing one high-value prospect can be just as effective (if not more effective) than landing multiple average-value prospects. To activate them, you’ll want to feature the story of a high-value prospect, send them a care package, and integrate your web traffic generation strategy and email list capture strategy as previously mentioned. In return, you give them value and start a dialogue with the prospect, potentially landing them as a client and driving online traffic to your site for bonus materials. 3. CREATE INFORMATIONAL ARTICLES Informational articles are going to be your bread-and-butter as a content marketer. You will have a two-part strategy consisting of MEET ANDY BUYTING FOUNDER & CEO CARLE PUBLISHING informational articles and informational advertisements which work together to hook and direct readers online. Again, this will generate web traffic and work with your email capture strategy. Content coordination with your website is an essential element here. You will drive online traffic into your buying cycle and begin to get conversions, all while building your email list. 4. CREATE INFORMATIONAL ADVERTISEMENTS Informational articles and informational advertisements have the same requirements and a very similar return. The two work in conjunction with each other. Ultimately, for both, you will need to have something built into your website to handle the traffic you are sending there. This is usually going to consist of related content in the form of a specially designed landing page that has the sole purpose of converting the traffic you are sending from these two methods. TYING IT ALL TOGETHER Utilize the three pillars of marketing in your initial content strategy. When designing individual pieces, think of the four ways you can maximize your ROI. Finally, make sure that you tie everything together and keep a consistent message. If your goal in an article is to send someone a free white paper or to a contact page, you should already have a landing page designed specifically for that purpose on your website and you should be thinking of ways to collect information (email, phone number, name, etc.) at the same time. Coming up with a valuable content strategy takes work. Then again, nothing valuable comes easy. You have the knowledge, you have the expertise and we know how to help you share it. What’s stopping you from getting started today? Give us a call at 1-877-719-8919 for a free 30-minute discussion about your marketing strategy and how we can help you maximize your ROI today. BONUS MATERIAL TM.MEDIA/TM104 TO ACCESS 30 MINUTE RECORDED WEBINAR Andy Buyting's thought leadership journey started when he published his first business book in 2007 and first magazines in 2009. Since that time, he has leveraged custom magazines and online digital content strategies to establish himself as a leading authority in content marketing and brand positioning. Through his company, Carle Publishing Inc., Andy and his team make these content marketing strategies and tools accessible to their Client-Partners. CARLEPUBLISHING.COM | 13