When I sat down to build the content marketing plan for Right Source Marketing, I initially had a case of “planner’s block.” I’ve helped a number of clients with this type of planning, and yet I could not figure out exactly where to start. How is it possible that I didn’t have some type of template or process that would push me through this barrier?

The answer was simple. I wasn’t asking myself the right questions, and I wasn’t asking them in the same determined manner that I use with clients. I was letting myself off the hook.

After a good deal of back-and-forth (mostly in my own head), I came up with the following questions, which may serve as a blueprint for building a content marketing plan for your organization.

1.       Why are we doing this?

You heard right. Even someone who makes part of his living on content marketing had to ask that very important question to himself.

I came up with a variety of answers, but none more pragmatic than this one. I’ve seen first-hand what an organized content marketing effort can do for a business, and it’s powerful when done right.

2.       What’s the goal?

There are a variety of ways to answer this question. Some answers will focus on hard metrics like brand awareness, lead generation, or actual transactions. Some answers will focus on softer metrics like prospect engagement or page views. There is no right or wrong answer.

No matter what, though, answer this question early in the process.

3.       What is our unique story?

Even if you think your business falls into the cookie-cutter category, it has a unique story. If you don’t know what that story is, then you may want to go through an extensive process that focuses on company messaging.

If you do know what that unique story is, it ought to inform content marketing themes and be woven into each piece of content.

4.       Who is our audience?

More than likely, you have multiple audiences: prospective clients, current clients, prospective employees, current employees, investors, partners and more.

Then consider the audiences within each of those groups. For instance, you likely have more than one type of audience within the prospective client group. There are likely people that hold different positions, that are interested in different services, and that are engaged in different stages of a sales cycle.

My advice: It seems complicated, but don’t let that stop you. Sometimes you have to build a content marketing plan for your most “common” audience, and then you can take that, tweak it, and apply it to the other audiences.

For more on creating buyer personas, check out Jeremy Victor’s post, Buyer Personas: Where (and How!) to Start.

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With 2012 approaching, many are making predictions for what will happen in the coming year.  While most of us can’t fully see into the future, 2011’s predictions featured quite a few interesting looks into what we thought the year might hold.  This year we once again reached out to some of our friends and colleagues for predictions.  Here are their thoughts on what the 2012 may bring in the world of marketing strategies, marketing tactics, mobile marketing, social media, leadership and management.  Take a look below and add your predictions in the comments section.

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Big Moves by Big Names
1. Buy, Not Build. There will be a slew of top brands that start to buy established niche media properties instead of starting from scratch.
2. Google will undergo FTC scrutiny for trying to corner the market on the purchase funnel…they buy one too many media companies (i.e. Zagat in 2011) that finally sets off some opposition from social influencers.
3. Facebook indeed surpasses $100 billion in market cap after going public (probably not a stretch, but worth saying… since Facebook is the only company that scares Google).

2011 is finally drawing to a close, so now is the time to reflect on the past year’s marketing highlights and stumbles, along with improvement opportunities for 2012. 2011 was a big year for Right Source Marketing; we expanded our team and our client roster faster than we expected, introduced a new content marketing offering, and rolled out our brand new website and blog. We also created a lot of content, and we’re very thankful to all who read, shared and interacted with our posts!

Just like last year’s, here’s a “Reader’s Choice” list of your favorite 2011 blog posts on Marketing Trenches. We compiled this list based on page views, comments, and tweets (maybe next year it will be Google +1s!), so also thank you for jumping in with comments and sharing our posts with others! The wait is over; here’s the countdown of the top 10 Marketing Trenches posts of 2011:

10. What Makes an Exceptional Social Media Manager?

The Must-Haves, Nice-to-Haves, and Bonus Points you should look for when hiring someone to manage your social media.

9. 10 Things You Should Include in a Social Media Plan

If you’re the fly-by-your-pants type, you might want to skip this post because it has the word “plan” in it (yikes!), but Mike Sweeney lays out exactly what you need to take the pain out of planning.

8. What Angry Birds Taught Me About Social Media

Forget what Mom said. Mindless games can teach you something! Find out what the smash-hit game can teach you about the social media realm.

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Around this time every year, I am engaged in at least a half a dozen conversations with companies that are looking for a marketing firm to help them reach their goals for the upcoming year. Some know exactly what they’re looking for, and are fully prepared for the selection process. Some don’t know exactly what they’re looking for, but think they’ll know it when they see it. And sadly, some just enter this process with trepidation, because they’ve been burned in the past.

Fear – and in particular the fear of making a mistake –  is a very strong force. For a select few, it can be a trigger for adrenaline and aggressive decision-making. For many others, it can cause inaction, paralysis and conservative decision-making.

For companies that have been burned in their selection of strategic marketing firms in the past, let me offer a few pieces of advice on making a better decision this time around.

1. Know the Difference Between Marketing Strategy and Marketing Services

Marketing strategy should inform and guide marketing planning, which in turn informs and guides marketing services and tactics. Building a new website or distributing one press release each month is not a marketing strategy.

If you have your marketing plan all buttoned up for 2012, you may be ready to hire a marketing services firm to handle one or more of the tactics you identified in that plan. If not, you need to find a firm that can think strategically as well.

Good marketing strategists can not only help you with things like customer, competitor and target market analysis, but they can help you evaluate past marketing performance and use that information to guide 2012 marketing objectives.

2. Get Educated, Set Parameters and THEN Compare Apples to Apples

I see a lot of marketing proposals, and it makes me feel terrible for the people that have to translate, evaluate and compare proposals from different companies.  Even when you cut through the buzzwords and verbosity of the average proposal, you’re often left with dramatically different approaches and price ranges.

Here’s how I solve that riddle when on the buying side:

• Explain the situation and objectives – as you see them – to the firms you’d like to speak with.

• Ask them to come back with a general approach for how they would handle the situation. (This is where you’ll see good firms separate from weak firms.  A good firm ought to be able to explain their approach and how and why it might be different from others.)

• Get educated on the different approaches, and decide which general direction you like best.

• Make that your new approach, and ask for proposals addressing that new approach.

Now you ought to be able to compare apples to apples. You just used this process to educate yourself, get information from some (hopefully) smart marketing firms, and make your decision-making process more efficient.

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The following is one of the best-of from students in David Toliver’s Georgetown School of Continuing Studies Interactive Marketing class. The following post is by David Longwell.

It‘s hard to think of a marketing tactic used these days that is more disliked by consumers than email. We all get so many emails now it has even gotten boring to complain about them (You’re just back from Florida and now you’ve got 1,000 emails to go through? – boo hoo).

Emails received from companies (other than yours, of course) are often intrusive junk, cluttering up mailboxes and adding undue stress to busy lives. Still, companies in the US spend over $1 billion dollars a year on Email Marketing, with projected growth of 11% per year through 2014 (Forrester). While that’s less growth than projected for hot channels like Social Media or Mobile Marketing (34% and 27% respectively), marketers are still committing increasing dollars to email campaigns.

But if consumers cringe at email, why are companies continuing to use it as a communication tool?

Some marketers get it – emails can (and must) be useful. The most effective emails from companies provide a kind of customer service, and always pass the ‘thank you’ test. Not only am I happy when I receive these, I’m relieved and grateful. What marketer wouldn’t covet that kind of response? It’s ok if there’s a soft cross-sell included, because the main purpose of the email is to bring value. Read the rest of this entry »