Content Marketing is Too Hard... So We Gave Up | Get Fact Up #95

Transcript

Chris Hogan - G'day world, Chris Hogan and Andrew Groat coming to you live form Me Media Studio here in Burleigh Heads for episode 95 of Get Fact Up.

We've had a bit of a break all due to an increase in workload from our new clients and existing clients so, that's fantastic but we've learned some lessons from that and we want to share them with you. So, it's always a good time with content marketing that if you don't keep up the momentum, effectively you don't keep the momentum of leads and prospects coming in. And also there's an opportunity for others to steal the lime light away from you.

So, for example, we've had a great audience here for MeMedia's Get fact Up and we'll be somewhat surprised if all of them stick around given the two months sort of break that we've had, maybe even three months.

So,as you know we normally produce Get Fact Up weekly, so it's a weekly video and it's topical on content marketing, specifically. And we're bringing it back in a new way where, obviously it's Andrew and I, as you've met us before. But the future is bright and there's gonna be a lot of guest speakers. Some great content coming through, which we'll show you a preview to you in coming episodes.

So, today we wanted to talk about, I guess, what's happening in the content marketing landscape or in the marketing landscape. - What's going on?

Andrew Groat - It's crazy out there.

Chris Hogan - It's crazy and it's not getting any easier. Yeah, guys gone are the days of the, well you said it, the wild wild west.

Andrew Groat - Yeah, the wild west. Where you can be first in and just clean up.

Chris Hogan -Yup.

Andrew Groat - Yeah, there's a lot of restrictions now, a lot of updates, a lot of changes, new formats. A lot of legal stuff's happened, too, since with Cambridge Analytica and GDPR and a lot that sort of thing. It's really gotten complicated and a lot of people don't know where they stand. A lot of people are sort of afraid to just touch the advertising side of things for the time being. A lot of the features that we new and loved are gone.

Chris Hogan - Yup, and we're decreases in, I guess, social media channels actually promoting that content which has our bound links on it where we both read Rand Fishkin's recent blog, which he's a fantastic marketer, in the industry for many years, and well respected, and has done his own little study on what has been happening with regards to social media channels and each post that goes out with a link in it and how there's been a decrease of virility of those posts, verses posts without links. So, social medial channels are trying to really hard to keep people on their own channel.

Andrew Groat - Yeah, everyone wants to own the internet now, especially Facebook, Facebook wants people to stay on Facebook, so it's interesting, we want people to be holistic with their marketing and be on every channel, have a website, bring people back to their website for conversions and leads and things like that but Facebook and other channels are trying desperately to keep you right there, so you have to kind of work with that. You can't work against it because it's changing.

Chris Hogan - Exactly, and so gone are the days where I think you would go holistic and go across every social media, and do bits and bobs here and there, and keep your brand and reputation, you know, tip top condition just by doing little bits and pieces.

Andrew Groat - Yeah, that's right, blanket doesn't really work anymore because if you're sort of half-assing on every social media channel, it just doesn't look good anymore, people don't like that, no ones gonna follow that on Facebook. You really need to be able to do something that works really well, really good formats for that channel, say Facebook for example, and really be able to nail that content for the right audience for that channel, which is hard to do if you're doing all the socials, you know Facebook, LinkedIn, if you're doing AdWords, as well. Instagram, website, it's a lot of work now.

Chris Hogan -Yup, absolutely.

Andrew Groat - So what do you do?

Chris Hogan - Yup, and you know, the new ad formats that are coming out on these platforms, for example, I've always referred to LinkedIn as Facebook for business, and so they always seem to be travelling behind Facebook in terms of the types of ads that they allow you to do, and they have lead generation ads, you know, now which are quite prolific on LinkedIn, where by, you can actually fill out a form on LinkedIn but not leave that social media platform, therefor not end up on your own website, because why? Well, LinkedIn wants you to stay there and why are they doing that way? Well there must be some reason, you know, viewing research that says well users actually don't want to leave the social media channel they're on, they want to stay in the death scroll, you know?

Andrew Groat - Yeah, that's right, just keep feeding them content. And also, they benefit from those leads and stuff coming through there as well.

Chris Hogan - Yup, absolutely they do because the longer people stay on their networks, the more chance that they're gonna click an ad or watch an ad, which means more revenue for them and so on and so forth. So, there you go, that's pretty much I guess the theory behind why the social media channels are doing what they're doing. But what does that mean? What does that really mean for marketers? Can you say that, oh your website should be treated differently to your Facebook marketing, if you are gonna go out and pick a social media channel, should you forget that your people aren't gonna come back to your website?

Andrew Groat - Well, it's a funny one, I would say, we've always said we maintain that you have all your social channels to get people back to your website and try and build your own thing, you know, you don't want to rely on the socials in case they change something and stuff up the way that you do business. It still kind of remains that way but you have to also respect the fact that socials are trying to do things differently now, so you've kind of got to do a bit of both. You're always gonna need a website because that's where you have complete control and stuff like that, but if you stop resisting what all the socials are trying to do, find the right social that works for you, find where your audience is, it's different socials will always be different and some people just find one works better than the others and it's kind of better to just focus on the ones that work instead of trying to blanket everything, and definitely still need to have a website, that's never really gonna change, but don't expect to be able to drag everyone back to your website now. Start using the new tools, lead forms, new formats of ads, like the HTML5, full page Facebook ads and stuff like that, fantastic. When it comes to content marketing, though, if you're creating content just bare in mind that you're gonna have to create a variation of that content to go on the socials, as well. I think that's more the way we're going now.

Chris Hogan - It's absolutely, it's kind of been like that for some time but it's even more critical now. Given the drop off that we're seeing on click throughs and what not. And each social media channel is going for an experience for each social media user. Every channel is an experience in itself and so if you don't create an experience on your own website, then effectively, there's no reason for people to come there. They actually aren't gonna feel like, oh I'm gonna get something out of coming to your website, so content marketing is about creating content, how many times do we harp on that? Video is king and second to that, probably infographics. That's what I would suggest, photography, also up there. And so, if you don't create awesome content and host it on your own website and develop that experience of that content, then effectively you're not gonna get people there and you're not gonna keep people there, and you're not gonna get them engaged, you're not gonna want them to take extra steps, maybe to sign up to download an ebook, even though that's a very quite outdated strategy, but maybe it's a course, courses are huge now. Sign up to, you know, free secret content.

Andrew Groat -Information packs, members areas, that sort of thing, yeah.

Chris Hogan - Yeah, so that sort of strategy is playing out hugely online at the moment and that's what websites are sort of becoming. I want my users and my potential customers and my existing customers to stay on my platform, 'cause I can't control it, but you're gonna have to create an awesome experience to do that, and so what are we saying? It's that think holistically, always think holistically. Don't think that you're website is separate to your marketing per say, it's not just a functional thing that shows pages and gets Google organic traffic.

Andrew Groat - That's right, your website is your marketing in effect. I think a lot of people think of web design and development as an entirely separate process to marketing but it's actually the first step in marketing. The first step in being able to market your own brand. And when you're deciding on the design and development of the website, you have to keep that in mind, that this is just another marketing tool. It's not just a thing that businesses do.

Chris Hogan - Yeah.

Andrew Groat - You have to design with the experience of marketing, the marketing experience in mind, and everything you do with the website should be pointing towards that, what's your goal with the website? How are we going to promote that goal with the website? It's just a marketing tool.

Chris Hogan - Exactly, and so Rand Fishkin's blog again did actually say something pretty cool, and that is that it is entirely possible for, example, a yogi to go out and actually put their entire strategy into a Google my business page.

Andrew Groat - So maps, that is, yeah.

Chris Hogan - Maps, yeah, and put all the content there, upload photos regularly, even video content and get reviews there and all the rest of it. That could be a strategy, but even he said it. That's a risky one.

Andrew Groat - It's risky, yeah.

Chris Hogan - So again, don't think that each channel is the be all and end all, it has to be holistic and it has to be content base marketing. - They're pushing you to feel like that a specific channel is a whole solution now.

Chris Hogan - Yeah.

Andrew Groat - Like Facebook for example feels holisic. It does when you're using Facebook to promote your business. There's enough tools there for it to feel holistic but it's risky.

Chris Hogan - Absolutely, given all the changes.

Andrew Groat - Especially Facebook, given the changes and the fact there's no warning.

Chris Hogan - Yeah.

Andrew Groat - They don't care about if you have a problem with it. They change it, it's done, so think of secondary steps and all that sort of stuff, but it's not blanket anymore.

Chris Hogan - Well that's all we really have time for today. We know that we can ramble on. We're very good at that, we're very good at talking, especially after a few coffees. Stay tuned to Get Fact Up, we're bringing it back. We're bringing it back in a big way. Guest speakers, regular guest speakers, regular topics that matter and are highly relevant right now and hopefully for years to come. Stay tuned, we're on memedia.com.au, that's where you can get all the episodes, we're also on YouTube and Facebook and we'll be keeping those channels real, as well.

Andrew Groat - Thank you.

Chris Hogan - Cheers.