NOVEMBER 2015 ISSUE TWO

WWW.MARKETINGONLINE.CO.NZ

Overcoming Content Marketing’s Legal ProblemGrow Your Business with Pinterest

The Road to Google Adword Nirvana

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EDITORIAL

Colin

It’s every man and woman for themselves,

each one claiming that ‘yes, we can do

that…’ and then making it up as they go.

But to extend the Wild West analogy a bit

further; the law is a bit slow in coming to

town, but it will eventually show up. In the

United Kingdom, the Internet Advertising

Bureau (IAB UK) has already released

guidelines following concerns over digital

transparency (see our Did You Know snippet

‘UK releases guidelines for native advertising’).

Closer to home, the powers that be –

particularly Government and the Advertising

Standards Authority – are beginning to take

notice. It is important that those of us who

believe that brands can act with integrity –

and create content that compares editorially

with anything the media outlets can produce

– prepare a foundation that leaves those

authorities with no cause for concern. Our

feature piece on content marketing and the

legal bottlenecks marketers are struggling

with is a good start.

By and large, brands and companies are the

experts and, as a result, should be in a position

to give better advice than any journalist.

An economist can write with more insight

than a journalist interpreting his comments,

but companies are commercial entities so a

balance must be found between commercial

imperatives and objectivity.

The sooner legal advisers and marketers start

talking, the better.

Like the Internet itself, the content marketing space is a bit like a Wild West gold rush at the moment, with everybody getting in on the act.

✉

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CONT

ENTS

ABOUT / Short and sharp, Marketing Online is a free eMagazine delivering thought provoking and

enlightening articles, and industry news and information to forward-thinking marketing people.

EDITOR / Colin Kennedy

ART DIRECTOR / Jodi Olsson

CONTENT ENQUIRIES /

Phone Colin on 027 2456060

or email colin@espiremedia.com

ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES /

Phone Jennifer on 09 522 7257

or email jenniferl@espiremedia.com

ADDRESS / Marketing Online, C/- Espire Media, PO Box

99758, Newmarket, Auckland 1151, New Zealand

WEBSITE / www.marketingonline.co.nz

4. Overcoming the legal challenge to content marketing

10. CONVERSION OPTIMISATION

How to build your conversion optimisation

programme from scratch.

14. SOCIAL MEDIA

Boost your business with Pinterest.

16. GOOGLE ADWORDS

Avoiding short circuits along the path

to search marketing nirvana.

20. CONTENT MARKETING

Content to conversion: A simple New Zealand case study.

22. MARKETING AUTOMATION

How should marketers use RSS?

24. WEBSITES

What’s the number one question your website

homepage should answer?

28. DID YOU KNOW?

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OVERCOMING THE LEGAL CHALLENGE TO CONTENT MARKETINGHow to get your content through legal fasterBY COLIN KENNEDY

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The marketing director of a large

Australasian multi-national told

us recently that she had given up

on content marketing. “We just can’t get

anything through legal,” she said. “They

either bottleneck to the extent we miss

our deadlines, or it goes into the ‘too

hard basket’ and never sees the light of

day.” Similar experiences are becoming

commonplace in the corporate environment,

but is legal really the problem?

Talk to digital agency staff and the

marketing and digital departments in most

corporate companies about ‘legal’ vetting

content and you’ll most likely get a grimace.

At first blush, it seems like legal, unable to

understand the bright new world of ‘content

marketing’, are becoming the fly in the

ointment. But a closer looks suggests that

things may not be all they appear.

Regardless of who might or might not be

to blame for the bottlenecks, or drastically

altered pieces of content and missed

deadlines, the legal challenge to content

marketing in New Zealand is a very real issue

that is, and will increasingly, impact the

ability of brands to engage their customers.

Customers hate ads; they don’t like being

sold but still love to shop – that means

giving them information that helps them

make better decisions rather than trying

to overtly persuade them to choose your

brand. Recent studies show that Internet

users are using ad-blocking software in

increasing numbers.

The editor of Netherlands-based

technology news site Guru3D.com,

discovered recently that ad blocking has

eaten into 50 percent of their ad revenue,

in spite of their growing audience. This

kind of thing is hurting publishers, but it’s

hurting marketers more as achieving ‘cut

through’ becomes steadily more difficult.

In other areas, Apple’s new iOS9 operating

system allows ad-blocking for mobiles. iOS ad-

blocking apps now top the most downloaded

charts, and not to be left out, Google is

working on its own ad-blocking service.

The upshot is that brands have to become

publishers. They have to start thinking

and behaving like journalists because

consumers want to be informed, educated,

inspired and entertained; not sold too. That

makes content marketing – done properly

– possibly the most powerful strategy for

building brand profile and trust.

The marketing world it seems has come

to recognise this. Marketing and digital

departments, even brand managers, are

keen to embrace content marketing in

ever growing numbers. That’s why content

marketing was recently voted the most

important digital marketing trend three

years in a row.

It seems that some legal departments,

however, may still be playing catch-up

when it comes to recognising the shift in

the way we market to customers. On the

other hand, marketing may have to play

catch up on the legal side of things.

MARKETING HAS A PROBLEM

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Objective, value added content

notwithstanding, content marketing is a

trading activity that promotes goods and

services, even if indirectly.

As such, it’s subject to laws like The Fair Trading

Act 1986, and potentially Advertising Codes of

Practice. Then there are sector-specific laws

like the Financial Advisers Act 2008.

But that’s not all. When brands begin acting

like publishers, they’re also more likely

to be dipping their toes into issues like

copyright law and even the Harmful Digital

Communications Bills (among others).

Simpson Grierson media and

communications lawyer Tracey Walker, tells

us that content marketers need to be wary

of making claims without the same rigour

applied to marketing compliance.

“If you make a claim about your product or

service, for instance, you should be able

to substantiate it. If you are going down

the editorial road, best practice is to pay

attention to [the] fundamental tenets of good

journalism – such as declaring conflicts of

interest, transparency and making clear what

is fact and what is comment. These are things

that brands should be taking into account

when publishing content.”

Legal departments within corporates

recognise that they have legal

responsibilities, particularly around

commercial laws like The Fair Trading

Act 1986. Few have recognised the trend

towards content marketing, and may

even be a bit slow in realising the need to

get across laws pertaining to media and

copyright, for instance.

“There’s no question that in-house legal

teams are going to have to brush up on

and take into account aspects of media

and copyright law as content marketing

becomes more prevalent,” says Ms Walker.

That, in a nutshell, seems to be a large part

of the problem. Marketing knows content

marketing is important but is unaware that

rules still apply. Legal might not be across

the necessary shift to content marketing,

but they know that rules apply, somewhere

– they just don’t know exactly which rules

and where they apply.

A major stumbling block for all is the

diversity of content and overnight

proliferation of content providers.

“Corporate publishing can range from ‘very

editorial’ through to advertorial and then

to native advertising,” says Ms Walker. “There

are different considerations requiring

mowre nuanced consideration; part of

the challenge is deciding where on the

spectrum a piece of content sits.”

Ms Walker raises a very important point.

The nature of a company, which is to

make a profit, means that it may be

producing all types of so-called content,

from advertisements to opinion articles to

‘how to videos’ – and legal departments

are suddenly faced with the challenges

of recognising the nuances in each and

applying the appropriate slide rule.

This diversity of content may be one of the

things stymying legal advisers.

LEGAL HAS A PROBLEM

CONTENT DIVERSITY A ROADBLOCK

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Part of the problem will be with the broad

adoption of the word content to apply

to anything that is produced – movies,

advertisements, opinion pieces, blogs,

advertorials but few of those things are

actual content marketing by definition.

Content marketing is defined as: “The

marketing and business process for

creating and distributing relevant and

valuable content to attract, acquire, and

engage a clearly defined and understood

target audience – with the objective of

driving profitable customer action.”

The keywords here are ‘valuable’ and

‘relevant’ – advertising and advertorials

are not necessarily relevant and most

certainly not valuable to the consumer. We

can assume from this that advertisement

campaigns like Old Spice’s ‘The Man

Your Man Could Smell Like’, do not fit the

definition of content marketing.

“The more content leans towards editorial,

the better shielded the company may be

from falling foul of the law,” says Ms Walker.

“However, the definition of advertising applied

by bodies such as the Advertising Standards

Authority is incredibly broad, embracing

advertising in any form, even that which

advocates ideas or beliefs. I think the ASA

will take an interest in many forms of content

marketing dressed up as editorial content.

“The key to my mind is to act with integrity,

with an eye to ethical standards applying to

real journalism and you will find there is a

degree of symmetry; you earn trust for the

brand and will avoid legal problems. For

example, declare any conflict of interest, be

transparent and value accuracy.”

It seems sound advice for companies

to clarify what they mean by content

marketing, to define a strategy and

to ensure that their content providers

understand the nuanced differences

between, for example, a press release, an

opinion piece and an advertorial.

For example, companies might be better

off relying on qualified journalists to

create editorial content like articles, blogs

and white papers, than on an advertising

agency. Because not only do journalists

put first the interests of the customers

(which is the essence of good content

marketing), but they will most likely have

a better understanding of media and

copyright rules.

(Disclosure of Conflict of Interest: Espire

Media is both a publisher and a content

marketing agency firmly in the editorial

school of thought.)

When it comes to advertising and making

representations that are more commercial

in nature, then obviously advertising

agencies are best qualified to work in

that area. Advertising agencies and public

relations companies’ work well together,

and there’s no reason content agencies

can’t enjoy a similar relationship.

What muddies the waters, however,

is when one tries to be everything

to everyone.

PICK HORSES FOR COURSES WHEN IT COMES TO CONTENT

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The best way forward through what are

essentially uncharted and untested waters

is for the marketing department and legal

departments to leave the silos behind and

begin talking.

▼

Marketing Online Editor Colin Kennedy is a journalist, content marketing strategist and a professional speaker. With more than 20 years experience in journalism, public relations and marketing, his previous roles include newspaper and magazine editor, CEO of New Zealand Agritech Inc. and marketing director for BNI New Zealand. His guise to creating compelling content for a New Zealand audience can be found here.

FINDING A WAY FORWARD

• Clearly define and silo your marketing

initiatives e.g. understand and

document the difference between

content marketing, advertising, public

relations and advertorial as they apply

to your organisation

• Define the content marketing

strategy for your company e.g. ‘how

to’ advice, ‘thought leadership’.

Understand what you are trying to

achieve with your content marketing

• Work with your legal department to

establish compliance checklists so that

you can produce content that has a

better chance of getting through, as well

as the legal department’s understanding

of what rules apply where

• Consider using ‘disclosure

statements’ and other indemnifying

statements e.g. “the opinions

expressed are the opinions of the

writers” etc.

• Work with suppliers who understand

the law and the differences in

marketing tactics to ensure you keep

your initiatives clearly defined and

the waters un-muddied

Some steps to consider taking to reduce bottlenecks:

Ms Walker says the conversation should be

about managing corporate reputation.

“The legal advisers have to work hand-in-

hand to enable content to be published,

rather than as an obstacle. They need

to show the way it can be done while

managing the legal risk. Yes, those legal

risks are a very grey area, but they can be

managed by being very clear about the

ethical or integrity standards that need to

underpin content marketing.

“If everybody is clear on that, the

likelihood is that legal risk is avoided. It is a

discussion that has to be had.” ▼

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New Zealand media law expert and journalism lecturer, Professor Ursula Cheer from the School of Law at the

University of Canterbury, says there is not too much difference between a media publisher and a company that acts as a publisher.

“The media have some limited allowances that companies might not enjoy – for example, source privilege under the Evidence Act – but a company may, for example, claim as a defence to a defamation claim that the content was in the public interest, as a journalist would, and they would not be disadvantaged overly much compared to mainstream media.”

Regarding copyright laws, journalists will often quote from published works, and it would seem that a company can often safely do the same.

“There are two main defences around copyright,” says Professor Cheer. “One is fair dealing for the purposes of reporting current events. A company can claim to be a specialist publisher in an area like finance, and be reporting current financial events, for example. This defence does not apply to using photographs in print media, however. In that case, use of the photograph must be paid for, or at least be consented to.

“The main thing for media and corporate publishers alike is not to take too much, not the substantive part, of the copyrighted work – don’t overuse it. Otherwise, there is no fair dealing.

IS THE LAW DIFFERENT FOR MEDIA CONTENT AS OPPOSED TO CORPORATE CONTENT?

BY Colin Kennedy

Dr Ursula Cheer

“The second copyright defence is fair dealing for the purposes of reviewing or criticising something. These defences also require attachment of a sufficient acknowledgement, which means the work must be identified by its title or other description and the author of the work must also be identified.”

Professor Cheer says another area of interest is that a company could turn around and say that they trusted their agency to be the experts in the area of the content that is being published.

“The company could enter into a contract with the agency that says the agency must not supply them with copy that causes them to, for example, defame someone and that they must accept responsibility for inaccuracies in the copy. It would be a form of indemnification, but it’s only useful in so far as the agency has the wherewithal to back the indemnity.”

The perils of instant content creation and social media extend to the media as well.

“Even mainstream media are wrestling with some of these problems,” says Professor Cheer.

“Journalists are having to produce content very quickly and constantly, and the chain of editor and sub-editor has been broken, so it is important that the writers of the content are trusted to have a clear understanding of the law.”

Producing content quickly and spontaneously looks set to become another area of consideration for companies who employ social media agencies. People not trained in media law, but who are regularly posting content to

Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn… ▼

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C O N V E R S I O N O P T I M I S A T I O N

HOW TO BUILD YOUR CONVERSION OPTIMISATION PROGRAMME FROM SCRATCHSix steps to get you off to an optimal startBY Cornelius Boertjens

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Nowadays businesses are aware of the

undeniable benefits of Conversion

Rate Optimisation (CRO), which

includes A/B testing, Multivariate Testing

and Personalisation. However, very often

businesses are stuck in the decision-making

process about starting CRO seriously

because they are unsure which tool to use,

or where to start.

In many cases, a tool is bought without

a plan about what to do with it, or an

understanding of whether it fits in the

business technologically and culturally.

Let me tell you right now that the tool

decision is the last decision you should make

even software vendors tell you otherwise!

The biggest trap with buying the tool first

is that you start paying a license fee before

you know what you want to do with it. It’s

at least three months of wasted money that

you could spend on training, for example.

I highly recommend before you embark on

CRO that you take time to go through the

following six steps before you buy any software:

First and foremost, you need to know how

much money can be spent on CRO in year

one. This is about more than buying a

software tool. It is important to assess the

capability and readiness of your business.

It includes the following considerations:

• Do you have the right people in

the business or do you need to ask

consultants for help?

• Do you have to hire? What is the

availability of talent?

• How much money do you need to

allocate for training?

• What is your internal cost for IT to

deploy and test?

• What integrations will you need – e.g.

with analytics or marketing automation?

• You will find that this can be substantial

but it will help you to define your break-

even point and the project ROI you need

to achieve

The question of what you want to achieve

with your tests is very important right from

the start.

You have to tie your testing effort to

revenue targets and work out with your

colleagues from product, marketing and

sales what the priorities are.

They need to be on board with you to

ensure timely sign-offs on variations and

support of your effort. Make sure that

overall CRO is in line with the business

KPIs. Otherwise, you operate in vain. Your

business will not support a project that

is not in line with the goals – which are

ALWAYS about money.

Step #1: Calculate your TCO (Total Cost of Ownership)

Step #2: What are your CRO objectives?

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Very often the process is stalled by IT whose

task it is to deploy the code. Usually, you

need to submit a business case for why

your project is important, and it has to be

prioritised over something else.

IT is the engine room of your organisation.

They have to make sure they protect the

business from cyber attacks. They have a

responsibility to ensure your site is available

24/7 and that pages load quickly. Give them

an early warning and inform them about

what you are doing and what tools are part

of your consideration. That gives the IT team

the time to assess the tools on a technical

level as well as estimate the effort to deploy.

Make IT your friend and a part of the team!

Make sure you know before you start what

the legal framework is you have to stay

within. Understand what must be included

on a page (PDS, T&C, etc.) and where they

have to be positioned to be visible to a

consumer. Make sure you understand all

aspects of privacy and compliance within

your industry. The legal team will sign off

quicker if they have confidence you have a

risk mitigation strategy.

By now you should know your use-cases,

priorities, test ideas, people capabilities,

deployment times and risk mitigation as well

as possible integration points. Only now are

you ready to talk to software vendors.

The key to an informed decision is an apple-to-apple comparison of tools. Every vendor will tell you that their tool is best and that it creates ROI and does everything except flying you to the moon and back.

However, you know by now that you need ROI on the total cost of ownership and not just the license. Prepare a simple document outlining your plans for the first year. Let the vendors come back with a reply about how their tool solves your use-cases. Ask for the cost of training. Find out your SLA around support and if you deal with persons in Australia or offshore. Ask your IT department to include their questions

around ease of integrations, security and APIs.

CRO needs an on-going commitment from the team and business. Doing one test here or there will not create ROI. Find a project sponsor in the executive team who is convinced that CRO is important. He/she will help you to communicate upwards and unlock budget. Suggest that you will deliver numbers for executive or board reporting.

Once the rubber hits the road, create a buzz in your business by communicating the test results publically, either on your intranet or in the cafeteria. Allow people to vote on the variations they think will win and announce the winner. Have an idea competition to ensure you have enough in your test pipeline. CRO is most successful when it is part of the DNA of the organisation, something that is done as Business As Usual (BAU) that is fun! If you show success and talk about it, the budget will be

allocated, and your team will grow. ▼

+64 9 522 7257 (NZT) | jenniferl@espiremedia.com | www.espiremedia.com

Step #3: IT support

Step #4: Governance

Step #5: Dealing with software vendors

Step #6: Get buy-in from the business

Cornelius Boertjens is a highly skilled Digital Marketing Strategist with over 14 years of experience in this field. He is the MD at Catchi, Australasia’s leading specialist in Website Conversion Optimisation, with offices in Auckland and Sydney. Cornelius is one of the Course Directors of the MA’s Certificate of Digital Marketing, and guest lecturer at Auckland University School of Business on Digital Marketing.

WWW.CATCHI.CO.NZ

GOT A PRODUCT, SERVICE OR BUSINESS WORTH TALKING ABOUT?

Want to grow brand awareness in a more effective and useful way?

Get in touch with Jennifer now to discuss our options.+64 9 522 7257 (NZT) | jenniferl@espiremedia.com | www.espiremedia.com

TALK TO ESPIRE MEDIA ABOUT OUR CONTENT MARKETING SERVICES We offer a range of ways to attract and retain customers, by creating and curating relevant and valuable content to engage and add value to your audience.

BENEFITS:• Expand your digital footprint• Grow brand awareness• Increase traffic to your website• Thought leadership• Media exposure• Attract new customers• And... grow SALES!

Check out our blog for content marketing advice, tips and ideas, plus a free copy of our content marketing guide The Content Creation Cookbook!

Step #6: Get buy-in from the business

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▼S O C I A L M E D I A

BOOST YOUR BUSINESS WITH PINTERESTMarketing online with photographsBY Linda Coles

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If your business is something that

‘photographs well’, you’ll probably have

heard of and be using Pinterest. Launched

in 2010 with an estimated 100 million users,

it’s the online version of scrapbooking,

a place where you can ‘pin’ images that

interest you and save them on ‘boards’ to

discover and save creative ideas to.

You can add colleagues to boards and

collaborate with them on projects or keep a

board totally private. Pinterest has oodles of

images, so if your business is food, or clothing

or travel or something that generates great

photo opportunities, you need to take a closer

look at what the site can do for you.

Think clothing, food or bike porn, to put it

bluntly, with images to dream over and aspire

to. It could be your favourite dish, your next

adventure or shoes to dream about.

Most Pinterest members are female.

Eighty-five percent, to be precise, with

many following bridal, fashion and other

beautiful product boards. They share

or ‘re-pin’ what they find, and it’s that

re-pinning that gives a product more

exposure and ultimately the much-needed

cash register activity that businesses crave.

While females may be the main users,

there is plenty to look at and pin for

the males too. Whatever you click on, it

takes you right back to the original site

it was pinned from, no matter how many

have re-pinned it or passed it on.

That means if you pin a picture of your

latest design from your website, and

someone re-pins it, and someone else re-

pins it later, the original trail stays intact.

If it’s been re-pinned twenty times and

someone sees it and wants to purchase it,

they can click back to the original source

to purchase – your website.

Making it even easier for browsers to

buy your products, Buyable Pins are now

trialling in the United States. Buyable Pins

allow someone to buy directly from the pin

and checkout on Pinterest – all very easy.

Promoted Pins, which follow much the

same process as Facebook or LinkedIn ads,

are also available in the US at present, but

I see them going worldwide if the beta is

successful; a natural progression.

In the meantime, there are Rich Pins –

something that takes a bit of technical

help – but allows you to share even

more information on a pin. For example,

the Whole Foods Market regularly share

recipes via Rich Pins, enabling the browser

to see the ingredients they need and then

buy them at their local store or online.

For Jamie Oliver, his recipes are back on

his website where he wants you to go for

more information and so he doesn’t need

to use Rich Pins. Similar food ideas but

with different desired outcomes.

If you haven’t discovered Pinterest yet,

take a good luck around and see how it

can work for you. With great photography

and a great product, you have the makings

of a successful pin campaign. Now go and

generate your audience. ▼

Linda Coles is a professional speaker, author and trainer in social media and building relationships at Blue Banana She is one of only 500 LinkedIn influencers worldwide, with a following of over 300,000. She has written three books published by Wiley; her latest, ‘Marketing with Social Media’, is out now.

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▼G O O G L E A D W O R D S

AVOIDING SHORT CIRCUITS ALONG THE PATH TO SEARCH MARKETING NIRVANA BY Chris Price

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Sick of looking longingly at those top

search placings hoping your website

will magically appear? Want to try and

jump to the top of the queue and open a

paid advertising account with Google? They

make it easy. You can go from nothing

to having them debit your credit card for

clicks in a matter of hours, but…

To allow this speedy entry into the land of

search advertising, their setup system needs

to take a few shortcuts. Some are valid;

others are I think more a short circuit then

and short cut. My job here is to highlight

those I think are important.

So your website is not showing up in the

rankings but do you know why this is the

case?

Other than the most senior search

programmer in Google, there are few

others who will know in exact detail all the

thousands of ranking factors that determine

why one website is above another.

Nevertheless, there are some well-

understood themes of optimisation you

should be aware of and be working to

fix (Google shares these in their guide to

Search Engine Optimisation, which you can

find here. And unless you want to be paying

your “Google click tax” for the rest of the

life, then you should be steadily working on

making changes where you should.

Okay, so you have read the guide, and work

is underway. However, you want results

NOW. So the logic goes something like this:

“I will let Google deduct $500 from my

credit card each month for clicks. In return,

I will get more than this in new business.”

Sounds simple enough.

However, at its core it relies on you being

able to track where each click went and if

any decided to buy any of your products or

complete a contact request for your sales

people to talk to them.

To achieve this, you need to track those

clicking. And Google doesn’t force you

to set this up BEFORE you buy your first

click. They will let you spend as much

as you want without ensuring you know

where every cent went. This could require

you installing Google Analytics on your

website, configuring it to track and measure

all you need and then ensuring your paid

advertising account correctly linked and

passing your click data through.

Nope, I know it’s a bit of an overhead.

However, the old adage of only being able

to manage what you can measure is as true

here as it is in any other part of business.

SHORT CIRCUIT #1: Not knowing why this type of advertising is required in the first place

SHORT CIRCUIT #2 Failing to track the transformation of clicker to customer

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▼

Zappos is a multi-million dollar online

retailing business now owned by Amazon.

They were one of the first to sell shoes

online. In the beginning, they had to prove

to themselves that people would actually

buy this way. So they built a website and

began. When someone purchased, they

would buy from the normal shoe retailer

and then deliver them to their customer.

A complete disaster when it comes to

transaction profitability, BUT a great way to

create just enough of the system required to

prove that customers would transact this way.

You can apply the same logic to your

campaign strategy.

Don’t go for hundreds of leads or thousands

of dollars. Just look for the first conversion

for a small group of search terms. Pick a

few search terms that you think are a ‘dead

cert’. Bid on these, send them to the most

relevant page on your website and see what

happens. Prove to yourself that you can

spend that $1 with Google and produce $5

in prospective revenue back.

SHORT CIRCUIT #3: Wanting to make a million when the first dollar is more important

Don’t go for hundreds

of leads or thousands of dollars. Just

look for the first conversion for a small group

of search terms. Pick a few search

terms that you think are a

‘dead cert’. Bid on these, send

them to the most relevant page on your

website and see what happens.

Prove to yourself that you can

spend that $1 with Google

and produce $5 in prospective revenue back.

w w w. m a r ke t i n g o n l i n e . co . n z 19

Chris Price owns Ark Advance, a web optimisation business that specialises in online marketing, and offers customised support services for a wide range of service based companies who want to grow their effectiveness online. Ark Advance also offer a free monthly email newsletter focused on helping business owners grow their services online – sign up for free at www.arkadvance.com

Do you know everything you can about your

prospect audience? I certainly don’t, and

many of those whom we work with would

admit the same. Therefore, every additional

snippet of research you can grab along the

way is worthwhile.

Details like: Which text advert my prospects

prefer between those I present them? Or

the page on my website that, of the two

we send clickers to, proves to be by far the

worst place ever for them to land on. And

finally: What search terms are prospects

using on Google before they click my ad?

Now you can avoid gathering all this data

by having one advert per keyword group,

not tracking your clickers and avoiding your

‘Search Terms’ report in Google, but then

you would be missing out on all the fun

wouldn’t you?

Avoid all these short circuits and you are

closer to achieving the nirvana of search

marketing. That is; to build an advertising

system that links the growth of your

business to the growth of Google, so that

as more people search, more people click –

and for you – more people convert at a cost

that makes you smile.

Sound like a plan? ▼

SHORT CIRCUIT #4: Missing out on the research you can gather along the way

WWW.ARKADVANCE.COM

Avoid all these short circuits and you are closer to achieving the nirvana

of search marketing. That is; to build an advertising system that links

the growth of your business to the growth of Google, so that as more people search, more people click – and for you – more people convert

at a cost that makes you smile.

20 w w w. m a r ke t i n g o n l i n e . co . n z

▼C O N T E N T M A R K E T I N G

CONTENT TO CONVERSION: A SIMPLE NEW ZEALAND CASE STUDY BY Richard Liew

How to combine social media and content for results

Many marketers and business owners understand the importance of content in terms of attracting or

earning the attention of potential leads,

customers and fans, as opposed to hijacking

it through interruption marketing. But

inevitably there comes a point where all

newcomers to content marketing ask: “So

how do I measure conversions? Come to

think of it, what is a conversion when it

comes to content marketing?”

And fair enough too – if you’re investing

your company or client’s money, you need

to be able to justify your decision to the

powers that be. In this respect, pay-per-

click ads are a marketing manager’s dream.

It’s easy to demonstrate the metrics/ROI

because the whole pricing system is based

on those metrics. Even the crustiest of

financial controllers could understand and,

therefore, buy into pay-per-click campaigns

because there is a direct correlation

between the amount you spend and the

number of interactions you get. No clicks,

no spend. Case closed. Thanks for coming.

But let’s say you’ve heard that content

marketing is where it’s at (perhaps your budget

has been unable to keep up with the increase

in your desired keyword bid rates, or you’ve

heard that Google is now offering its own ad

blocking service…). What do you measure and

how can you show that it helps achieve some

part of your marketing objectives?

Firstly, let’s be clear that ‘sales’ is not

something you should be trying to measure.

That’s not to say that content marketing

won’t help you get more sales, rather that

content comes to the fore in a different

part of the buying cycle. It’s usually the

beginning (or before the buying cycle has

even begun), whereas a sale is the very last

part of the buying cycle, the end result of all

the other parts done well.

In practical terms, what I am saying is the

purpose of content is not to make a direct

sale. That’s called an ad, and we’ve all

cringed at what happens when marketers

try to make their articles sell. You get

what can be viewed as the bastard child of

content and advertising, that is the dreaded

advertorial. So as any good sales manager

knows, we need to apply measurement

metrics relevant to the appropriate stage in

the sales/buying cycle.

w w w. m a r ke t i n g o n l i n e . co . n z 21

The primary purpose of content marketing

is to attract potential new customers into

your marketing programme, and then

keep and nurture them in your marketing

programme until they are ready to buy. If

you can’t buy their attention, you need to

earn their attention- to entice them into

your web, so to speak.

In this regard, lead generation is a much

more appropriate measure to apply to

your investment in content. So what does

a lead mean to you? A click through to

your website? A request for a value-added

whitepaper? A sign-up to your email list?

Here’s a quick example of a campaign we did

recently which illustrates how we used one

piece of content to generate over 150 new email

signups. It was for one of our digital titles, NZ

Photographer, but the principle and mechanics

of the process can be applied to any media

asset, business or organisation.

CASE STUDY

Richard Liew is an Auckland based entrepreneur and the founder of Espire Media, NZ Sales Manager, and NZ Entrepreneur magazines. He tweets irregularly at www.twitter.com/espiremedia

WWW.TWITTER.COM/ESPIREMEDIA

CLIENT: NZ PHOTOGRAPHER

GOAL:

Create a piece of content to drive new

subscribers to our email list.

METHOD:

1. We wrote a thoughtful article on a subject

our target audience is interested in

2. We posted the article on our website,

alongside a simple email sign up box

3. We did a post on Facebook linking to the

article and boosted it for $30 over three days.

You’ll find the Facebook post and link to the article

in question on our wall here (October 19, 2015)

RESULTS:

The Facebook post achieved a 9300 reach,

430 post clicks, 25 post likes, 18 likes of our

Facebook page and seven post shares.

Pretty lame. But that’s OK because we didn’t

create the content for Facebook likes.

What mattered is that we also generated 150+

new email subscribers over those three days as

a result. Cost per lead = $30/150 = $0.20

1. The results of content marketing, right down to

specific pieces of content, can be measured. As

long as you measure the right things.

2. A good piece of content and a good

opt-in device or call to action can work

very well together.

3. Content marketing levels the playing field.

Small companies can compete with big

companies. You don’t need big budgets, and

you don’t need fancy ideas. You just need to

know what your audience cares about and

to add value to them by creating a piece of

content that talks to those needs. ▼

CONCLUSIONS:

22 w w w. m a r ke t i n g o n l i n e . co . n z

Is simplifying your marketing a dream?

Can you remain authentic while talking to

your community with automated content

creation? Should modern marketers be ‘real

time’ using a newsroom to stay on top of

current affairs?

Step back and take a good long look at the

reality of your brand, your business:

• Where and how do your customers and

prospects engage with your brand?

• Are you front of mind daily, or are you

an occasional, regular or impulse buy?

• Do you have a clear time of year, time of

the week or month where people buy or

is it random?

There are easy ways to automate your

marketing message distribution using RSS.

Cross-posting from a blog to social is an

easy start. Most brands have customers and

prospects in a range of channels and so

sending messages in appropriate formats

to each channel is a good way to re-

purpose content. IFTTT.com is one tool that

facilitates this style of sharing. It enables

you to cross-post images to Pinterest and

Instagram while sending full blog posts onto

LinkedIn, Facebook and Tumblr with short

messages on Twitter.

But standardisation of message distribution

shows up to the discerning reader. If your

brand needs to engage with readers in

social channels every day, this should only

form part of your tactical plan.

M A R K E T I N G A U T O M A T I O N

BY Rebecca CaroeDistribute content and monitor competitors with RSS

w w w. m a r ke t i n g o n l i n e . co . n z 23

Using the functionality of social media to

distribute marketing messages is smart,

cheap and easy to do. Having an intelligent

and responsive relationship with your

audience cannot be automated. It can be

planned and managed. And that’s where RSS

comes in.

In our earlier article we reviewed RSS to email

as a specific content distribution tool

for marketers. Today I want to look at a

range of tactics that can support different

marketing objectives.

1. Get RSS to distribute your blog

content. But split your content into

streams for different customer groups

and have several feeds targeted to

each prospect type. Stuff.co.nz sends

a range of news articles out to custom

audiences, all powered with RSS.

2. Content discovery uses RSS to get

alerts – Rowperfect.co.uk uses this

to find new products to sell in their

store. They have a search that delivers a

weekly summary by email and the team

checks each one to find new websites,

products and bloggers in their niche.

An outbound sales email is sent, the

prospect added to a database and the

sales team sweeps into action.

3. Competitor analysis with an RSS

feed gets you updates on when a

competitor’s website changes. You

can use Feedreader.com to find feeds

on websites. For many marketers

you don’t have time to check out

competitors daily, this allows you

to focus on them only when there’s

something new to review.

4. Publish and share audio and video using

a unique RSS feed. Audio and video are

leading brand engagement tools and with

careful planning, you can create an MP4

and then strip out an MP3 and use that on

a different channel. Both can feed to your

blog as well as publishing to subscribers in

SoundCloud or iTunes.

Can you split your marketing

communications and content creation

into different streams for your different

audiences? Then this is your chance to

simplify your marketing communications

and content distribution, while maintaining

your core, original publishing on the blog.

Overall, a careful mix of automated and

uniquely created content will help you

to spend your time appropriately in the

channels that deliver engagement and sales

for your brand. ▼

Rebecca Caroe is CEO of marketing execution specialists Creative Agency Secrets

WWW.CREATIVEAGENCYSECRETS.COM

CONTENT MARKETING IS NOT THE ONLY WAY

TREAT DIFFERENT CUSTOMERS DIFFERENTLY

24 w w w. m a r ke t i n g o n l i n e . co . n z

▼

When a visitor arrives at your

website, the first thing they will

often ask themselves is “what

does this business offer me?” or simply

“what is this?”.

You need to assure your website visitor

within three seconds of them landing on

your homepage that they have indeed

landed in the right place.

We often refer to this as ‘a clear UVP

(unique value proposition)’ or a USP

(unique selling proposition). This lets your

visitor know what sets you apart and what

you can offer them.

W E B S I T E S

WHAT’S THE NUMBER ONE QUESTION YOUR WEBSITE HOMEPAGE SHOULD ANSWER?

BY Emily Wilson, Zeald

25

Some examples include:

Mainland let the visitor know quickly that

they are about heavy vehicle licensing,

through the use of images and text. They

also are very specific about what location

where they provide their service.

w w w. m a r ke t i n g o n l i n e . co . n z

MAINLAND

26 w w w. m a r ke t i n g o n l i n e . co . n z

▼

Beyond just text, Excelso uses a

range of images to convey their

message: they are about coffee.

EXCELSO COFFEE ROASTERS Here the visitor can tell what sets Durafence

apart from other fencing solutions. Perhaps

they even solve a problem the visitor didn’t

realise they had. If they were looking for a

fence, they might not have realised that they

ordinarily come with unwanted maintenance.

DURAFENCE

w w w. m a r ke t i n g o n l i n e . co . n z 27

EXCAVEYORFinally a solution for that

excavation issue.

Zeald is a full-service website design company, passionate about designing and developing websites that are easy to manage, grow with your business, and generate results. The company has designed and developed websites for thousands of small to medium businesses since 2001; its team are specialists in innovative website design and eCommerce websites.

WWW.ZEALD.COM

28 w w w. m a r ke t i n g o n l i n e . co . n z

▼▼

THE UK RELEASES GUIDELINES FOR

NATIVE ADVERTISING

The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB

UK) has released a set of guidelines

to help the marketing industry

there provide more transparency to

consumers around digital advertorials.

Two of the key guidelines for content-based

advertising are:

• Provide consumers with prominently visible

visual cues enabling them to understand

immediately that they are engaging with

marketing content (e.g. brand logos or names

at the beginning of the content)

• It must be labelled using wording that

demonstrates a commercial arrangement is

in place (e.g. ‘paid promotion’ or ‘brought

to you by’).

Find out more here.▼

DID YOU KNOW?