ZINFI Technologies, Inc.

Over the past decade or so, many large organizations have deployed channel marketing automation tools involving partner relationship management (PRM) and partner marketing management (PMM). If you are currently considering whether to make such an investment, there are a few things you need to think about before you make that jump. You may have the budget, but is making an investment in channel marketing automation the right next step for your channel management team?Let’s take a few minutes and discuss what channel marketing automation is, and then we will lay out a framework for you to use to figure out whether this makes sense for you or not. Most organizations selling through the channel need to recruit, engage, enable and manage their partners. A channel marketing automation solution focuses primarily on the marketing aspects of this equation. Whether you are marketing to your partners to recruit and engage them or marketing through those partners to engage prospective buyers of your products or services, you need a set of channel marketing automation tools not only to make your marketing processes more efficient execution-wise, but also to provide the business intelligence that will help you understand what is working and what is not. That’s the basic premise for considering a channel marketing automation platform.A typical channel marketing automation platform will have several integrated modules designed for you to run campaigns to and through your partner base. These modules are:* Lead management: You should be able to upload a set of records—whether partner records or end-user records—to distribute via your partner network to drive campaign execution and closure using lead management tools.* Search and social marketing: While these are two independent sets of modules, you will need core capabilities in these areas to truly drive awareness of your target audience. Your channel marketing automation platform should start with these search tools as the core inbound marketing tactics.* Email marketing: Email marketing tools should allow you to run multi-touch email marketing campaigns to and through your partner base to engage your target audience with compelling content.* Microsite marketing: Chances are you sell a whole bunch of products and have multiple channel programs. It is challenging to promote all of these programs at the same time with the same level of intensity. If your channel marketing automation platform comes with microsite or landing page marketing capabilities, then you should be able to set these up on the fly and drive engagement using the email marketing engine that I talked about earlier.* Event marketing: Partner recruitment efforts rely heavily on road shows and webinars. If you are trying to recruit existing partners to new programs or new partners to the company, you need a robust event marketing platform. A proper channel marketing automation platform should be able to provide that to your channel team.* Web syndication: If you are trying to make sure your product and solution showcases are extended beyond your own website,

Over the past decade or so, many large organizations have deployed channel marketing automation tools involving partner relationship management (PRM) and partner marketing management (PMM). If you are currently considering whether to make such an investment, there are a few things you need to think about before you make that jump. You may have the budget, but is making an investment in channel marketing automation the right next step for your channel management team?

Let’s take a few minutes and discuss what channel marketing automation is, and then we will lay out a framework for you to use to figure out whether this makes sense for you or not. Most organizations selling through the channel need to recruit, engage, enable and manage their partners. A channel marketing automation solution focuses primarily on the marketing aspects of this equation. Whether you are marketing to your partners to recruit and engage them or marketing through those partners to engage prospective buyers of your products or services, you need a set of channel marketing automation tools not only to make your marketing processes more efficient execution-wise, but also to provide the business intelligence that will help you understand what is working and what is not. That’s the basic premise for considering a channel marketing automation platform.

A typical channel marketing automation platform will have several integrated modules designed for you to run campaigns to and through your partner base. These modules are:

* Lead management: You should be able to upload a set of records—whether partner records or end-user records—to distribute via your partner network to drive campaign execution and closure using lead management tools.

* Search and social marketing: While these are two independent sets of modules, you will need core capabilities in these areas to truly drive awareness of your target audience. Your channel marketing automation platform should start with these search tools as the core inbound marketing tactics.

* Email marketing: Email marketing tools should allow you to run multi-touch email marketing campaigns to and through your partner base to engage your target audience with compelling content.

* Microsite marketing: Chances are you sell a whole bunch of products and have multiple channel programs. It is challenging to promote all of these programs at the same time with the same level of intensity. If your channel marketing automation platform comes with microsite or landing page marketing capabilities, then you should be able to set these up on the fly and drive engagement using the email marketing engine that I talked about earlier.

* Event marketing: Partner recruitment efforts rely heavily on road shows and webinars. If you are trying to recruit existing partners to new programs or new partners to the company, you need a robust event marketing platform. A proper channel marketing automation platform should be able to provide that to your channel team...

Over the past decade or so, many companies selling to the channel have invested in some sort of marketing automation tool or platform for their channel activities. More recently, over the last five years or so, many of these vendors have come to realize that a direct marketing automation platform doesn’t work that well for a multi-tenant, channel-based marketing infrastructure. As a result of that, several large organizations—especially in the technology space—have begun to invest in channel marketing automation infrastructure. Most first-generation channel marketing automation platforms had some form of email tool, a web syndication tool and some basic event capabilities. However, buyers have moved online rapidly, and the ability to deploy a complete integrated set of tactics has become absolutely essential for any channel marketing automation platform to be successful. The next-generation platform—such as ZINFI’s partner marketing management platform—provides a core set of capabilities that not only make it possible to integrate diverse marketing tactics like email, events, search, social media and so on, but also bring in other elements to make the deployment and adoption of the channel marketing automation platform more successful.

In this article, we will explore five fundamental capabilities you need in your channel marketing automation platform

Partner profiling – You have to be able to dynamically create and manage your partner tier information. Many vendors tend to upload static partner tier information—e.g., platinum, gold or silver. But the partner base is dynamic. If you have a few hundred or perhaps even thousands of partners, managing the partner tier on a dynamic basis becomes very difficult. Therefore, you need to make sure that your channel marketing automation platform has partner profiling management capabilities. This is very important, especially as you try to provide personalized content—which we will elaborate on in the next sections below.

Campaign library – Another essential element to ensure partners adopt and use your channel automation marketing platform is a preloaded campaign library that provides personalized content. This is an area where you need to tap in to the capabilities of a good partner profile manager. You may have hundreds or thousands of partners, but not every partner should have access to all of the campaigns in your library. Instead, you need to have the ability to tag campaigns by partner type or partner profile. The campaign library should not only be localized (by geography) but also personalized (by partner tier or type).We know from market research that 40% of buyers today go online to perform searches before the buy. Because of that, your channel marketing automation platform needs to provide your partners with a fully integrated set of inbound and outbound tactics like search, social, email, event, syndication and collateral co-branding. These are foundational capabilities that every campaign library should offer so that partners can run campaigns that are relevant to their unique requirements, and do so easily.

Lead management and deal registration – As partners run campaigns, they need to be able to upload a list, put it through various cycles of the process, register a deal, and inform the vendor so they can get it approved and protected. In many cases, when a partner closes on a deal they may also be eligible for rewards and rebates—an extension of the lead management and deal registration capability. But your channel marketing automation platform needs to have—at minimum—a basic lead management and distribution capability. In addition to making it easy for partners to upload lists and run campaigns, you may also want to distribute leads to your partner base. This is where granular partner profiling and list management capabilities come into play. You need to be able to group and partition partners by various types and competencies; not all leads will be distributed to all partners. For example, partners who focus on selling to the healthcare segment will get only the healthcare leads, partners selling to banking and finance customers will get only those leads that are relevant to those segments, and partners selling to small and medium-sized businesses will get leads appropriate to the segments within that category. Detailed partner profiling and lead management are both crucial as you scale deployment and adoption of your channel marketing automation platform across the partner base.

Marketing services store – Most partners today lack in-house marketing resources and thus are dependent on external marketing capabilities. It’s nearly impossible for such partners to research and find appropriate vendors to help them with tasks like list cleaning or list services, customizing certain templates (email, syndication, etc.), or managing execution in areas like telemarketing and event logistics. Many partners depend on third-party resources to manage these tasks for them—whether they are using their own funds or are being funded through a vendor’s marketing development funds (MDF) program. The best way for you as a vendor to encourage partners to make use of such services is to provide them with a pre-selected list of vendors that you have screened and with whom—using your buying power—you have negotiated to offer best-in-class pricing and capabilities to your partner base in different countries.ZINFI has worked as a marketing services agency or concierge to multiple Fortune 1000 companies. Over the years, we’ve learned that it’s not only the ability to provide “bite size” marketing services that’s important (please read our article "How to Provide Partner Marketing Concierge Help in Bite-Sized Chunks" to know more on this topic). It’s also crucial to provide a high-quality engagement that will actually drive leads, partner satisfaction, pipeline growth and, ultimately, business results for both you and your partners. Picking the right set of vendors and promoting them through the marketing services store is essential to ensuring your channel marketing automation platform is fully adopted. Keep in mind that these services vendors will vary widely by country. Again, integration is key: You need to be able to use partner profiling and other channel marketing automation capabilities to be sure that marketing services stores are customized by geography, so that they are listing only the vendors that are relevant to a particular country or region.

Business analytics – This is possibly the most important area for ensuring adoption and usage of your channel marketing automation platform and ensuring you are getting the results you want. The business analytics function of your platform should be able to show you which campaigns are working, which campaigns are being used by partners, what other marketing assets are effective and how you can improve the quality of engagement with target buyers. Robust business analytics can also provide insight you can use to promote success stories across the partner base so that partners who are not necessarily using the best practices can learn about them and adopt them for improved results.

These five core capabilities—partner profiling, a personalized and localized multi-tactic campaign library, an integrated lead generation and management capability, a full-service marketing services store and business analytics—are essential for the adoption, usage and ultimate success of a channel marketing automation platform. They will provide value to your partner base and value to your business.

One final point: Channel marketing automation (CMA) is now becoming a core set of applications that fit within the overall framework of what we at ZINFI call Unified Partner Management. The two addition elements you must also consider are partner relationship management (PRM) and channel sales enablement (CSE). These three core solutions—CMA, PRM and CSE—together can comprise and Unified Partner Management platform that not only drives growth, but also reduces cost at a global level.

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Over the past decade or so, many companies selling to the channel have invested in some sort of marketing automation tool or platform for their channel activities. More recently, over the last five years or so, many of these vendors have come to realize that a direct marketing automation platform doesn’t work that well for a multi-tenant, channel-based marketing infrastructure. As a result of that, several large organizations—especially in the technology space—have begun to invest in channel marketing automation infrastructure. Most first-generation channel marketing automation platforms had some form of email tool, a web syndication tool and some basic event capabilities. However, buyers have moved online rapidly, and the ability to deploy a complete integrated set of tactics has become absolutely essential for any channel marketing automation platform to be successful. The next-generation platform—such as ZINFI’s partner marketing management platform—provides a core set of capabilities that not only make it possible to integrate diverse marketing tactics like email, events, search, social media and so on, but also bring in other elements to make the deployment and adoption of the channel marketing automation platform more successful.In this article, we will explore five fundamental capabilities you need in your channel marketing automation platform* Partner profiling – You have to be able to dynamically create and manage your partner tier information. Many vendors tend to upload static partner tier information—e.g., platinum, gold or silver. But the partner base is dynamic. If you have a few hundred or perhaps even thousands of partners, managing the partner tier on a dynamic basis becomes very difficult. Therefore, you need to make sure that your channel marketing automation platform has partner profiling management capabilities. This is very important, especially as you try to provide personalized content—which we will elaborate on in the next sections below.* Campaign library – Another essential element to ensure partners adopt and use your channel automation marketing platform is a preloaded campaign library that provides personalized content. This is an area where you need to tap in to the capabilities of a good partner profile manager. You may have hundreds or thousands of partners, but not every partner should have access to all of the campaigns in your library. Instead, you need to have the ability to tag campaigns by partner type or partner profile. The campaign library should not only be localized (by geography) but also personalized (by partner tier or type).

We know from market research that 40% of buyers today go online to perform searches before the buy. Because of that, your channel marketing automation platform needs to provide your partners with a fully integrated set of inbound and outbound tactics like search, social, email, event, syndication and collateral co-branding. These are foundational capabilities that every campaign library should offer so that partners can run campaigns th...

Over the past decade or so, many companies selling to the channel have invested in some sort of marketing automation tool or platform for their channel activities. More recently, over the last five years or so, many of these vendors have come to realize that a direct marketing automation platform doesn’t work that well for a multi-tenant, channel-based marketing infrastructure. As a result of that, several large organizations—especially in the technology space—have begun to invest in channel marketing automation infrastructure. Most first-generation channel marketing automation platforms had some form of email tool, a web syndication tool and some basic event capabilities. However, buyers have moved online rapidly, and the ability to deploy a complete integrated set of tactics has become absolutely essential for any channel marketing automation platform to be successful. The next-generation platform—such as ZINFI’s partner marketing management platform—provides a core set of capabilities that not only make it possible to integrate diverse marketing tactics like email, events, search, social media and so on, but also bring in other elements to make the deployment and adoption of the channel marketing automation platform more successful.

In this article, we will explore five fundamental capabilities you need in your channel marketing automation platform

* Partner profiling – You have to be able to dynamically create and manage your partner tier information. Many vendors tend to upload static partner tier information—e.g., platinum, gold or silver. But the partner base is dynamic. If you have a few hundred or perhaps even thousands of partners, managing the partner tier on a dynamic basis becomes very difficult. Therefore, you need to make sure that your channel marketing automation platform has partner profiling management capabilities. This is very important, especially as you try to provide personalized content—which we will elaborate on in the next sections below.

* Campaign library – Another essential element to ensure partners adopt and use your channel automation marketing platform is a preloaded campaign library that provides personalized content. This is an area where you need to tap in to the capabilities of a good partner profile manager. You may have hundreds or thousands of partners, but not every partner should have access to all of the campaigns in your library. Instead, you need to have the ability to tag campaigns by partner type or partner profile. The campaign library should not only be localized (by geography) but also personalized (by partner tier or type).We know from market research that 40% of buyers today go online to perform searches before the buy. Because of that, your channel marketing automation platform needs to provide your partners with a fully integrated set of inbound and outbound tactics like search, social, email, event, syndication and collateral co-branding.

If 2015 was known as “The Year of the Video”, 2016 has also delivered consistently on that promise. Virtually every social media network is pouring money into their video capabilities. In social marketing, videos are being used to create interest, raise brand awareness, generate leads and spark online engagement. Companies everywhere are flocking to video in social marketing, whether it’s on YouTube or Facebook or Vine or Instagram or wherever. And while it seems obvious that video will eventually become a part of our mandatory marketing repertoires, the question burning for most is when and how we make the jump to video marketing.

Below are 10 ways to know if you are ready for video:

You have the means (both time and money) to publish videos regularly on a schedule. An important thing to remember about social marketing is that it takes time to build an audience. To build a brand, raise awareness and spark online engagement, you have to be willing to show up in the same place regularly. In the case of video, you need to consistently deliver new material and your audience needs to get used to consuming their information in a new way. If you set out to do video, the best recommendation is to start small and deliver consistently. Once you master that schedule you can get even more aggressive.

You have a regular following on various social media channels. So let’s say you take the time and money to make videos on a regular schedule… then what? If you do not already have a following on different social media channels, the first suggestion would be to go win an audience, channel by channel. As you get involved in social marketing in different channels, you will begin to understand the culture of each channel and learn the do’s and don’ts before you turn to video. You also should write comments and follow others in each network. Video will help you acquire an audience, but it isn’t a magic solution; it probably makes more sense after you’ve already built an audience in a particular network. Winning in social marketing is a marathon, not a sprint.

You have customers who you can interview or your sales associates have industry stories to tell. One of the best social marketing rules, particularly in video, is that you should not be the only one talking about your brand. Before you journey to video, think about your customers and your sales associates as voices that can help you tell your brand’s story. Whether an associate offers industry expertise or a customer offers a heartfelt testimonial, video will always have more impact when you recruit the help of others.

You can speak frankly and have a plan for emotional connection. The worst mistake in video is thinking only about product, product, product. The immediacy of video gives you the ability to bring social marketing to a whole new level with humor and emotion. In television there is an expression, “Make me laugh, make me cry.” While you may not want to go that far when you are just getting started, presenting a “human” story about your brand or product that touches viewers’ emotions will help you make the most of the medium. If you miss the mark, viewers will just tune you out.

You have messages in mind that you can communicate quickly. In social marketing, a video viewer will decide within seconds if they are open to hearing your message. Video can be particularly brutal because the viewer can simply opt to shut down the video or stop loading it. If you cannot come up with brand-appropriate ideas for micro videos (remember, sites like Instagram only allow 3 to 15 seconds at most) you might want to rethink the decision to invest in video.

You have set keywords to optimize your content and have researched video SEO. There are tricks with every form of media, but video absolutely has its own set up rules. Among the tricks in social marketing that you need to consider are uploading to each individual network, and learning to tag your video to make it searchable. If you rely on just uploading your video to your YouTube account, your video will not be optimized for each individual network, because each social network has its own methods for optimizing videos.

You remember that image matters. Videos are incredibly visual. I say that not to encourage or discourage you, but to get you to consider that your company can appear polished, attractive or sloppy depending on what you feature in a social marketing video in 30 seconds or less. Remember that selecting pleasing color palates, choosing generally well-spoken and attractive people to represent you and careful editing can go a long way toward enhancing your brand’s image. You also may need to think twice about diversity, gender and age as you speak to a target demographic. A company that claims to be global, for example, should absolutely have an air of ethnic diversity, and that should be reflected in what the viewer sees.

You have a strong CTA and response team ready. Videos can pack a lot of social marketing information into a small period of time. With video you can communicate with audio, with images and even with subtitles—all in a matter of seconds. But one of the things that some people forget is how important the CTA on the video is to its ROI and success rate. Not only do you need to consider where you are driving traffic (do you want the prospect to go to your web page or pick up the phone?) but you also need to have a team set up to handle the lead flow. Remember that in an ideal world a video goes “viral,” but then you have to be prepared to handle the crowd of interested prospects.

You have a planned way to advertise your videos. A lot of people think that when they make a website or create video that people will just “find” it. Nothing could be further from the truth. Social marketers and SEO specialists have the daunting task of helping make your new content easy to find, but you may also need to turn to advertising to get viewers. You should not only consider paying for lists of new subscribers to distribute your video to, but you should also consider running short videos AS advertisements.

You have a designated person to monitor interaction on social media and to help with titles, transcriptions and posts. So, what does all of the above really mean? You should really consider the amount of work it takes to deliver well on social marketing videos. While in the beginning you may have a very small or outsourced team putting things together, you absolutely should consider who is ultimately responsible for consistently delivering these activities. Interest in doing videos in this day and age makes sense, but delivering them requires time and money. One of the best things that you can invest in if you are serious about video is a person or team to help deliver them.

For more information about social marketing syndication or automation software please visit ZINFI.com.

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If 2015 was known as “The Year of the Video”, 2016 has also delivered consistently on that promise. Virtually every social media network is pouring money into their video capabilities. In social marketing, videos are being used to create interest, raise brand awareness, generate leads and spark online engagement. Companies everywhere are flocking to video in social marketing, whether it’s on YouTube or Facebook or Vine or Instagram or wherever. And while it seems obvious that video will eventually become a part of our mandatory marketing repertoires, the question burning for most is when and how we make the jump to video marketing.Below are 10 ways to know if you are ready for video:* You have the means (both time and money) to publish videos regularly on a schedule. An important thing to remember about social marketing is that it takes time to build an audience. To build a brand, raise awareness and spark online engagement, you have to be willing to show up in the same place regularly. In the case of video, you need to consistently deliver new material and your audience needs to get used to consuming their information in a new way. If you set out to do video, the best recommendation is to start small and deliver consistently. Once you master that schedule you can get even more aggressive.* You have a regular following on various social media channels. So let’s say you take the time and money to make videos on a regular schedule… then what? If you do not already have a following on different social media channels, the first suggestion would be to go win an audience, channel by channel. As you get involved in social marketing in different channels, you will begin to understand the culture of each channel and learn the do’s and don’ts before you turn to video. You also should write comments and follow others in each network. Video will help you acquire an audience, but it isn’t a magic solution; it probably makes more sense after you’ve already built an audience in a particular network. Winning in social marketing is a marathon, not a sprint.* You have customers who you can interview or your sales associates have industry stories to tell. One of the best social marketing rules, particularly in video, is that you should not be the only one talking about your brand. Before you journey to video, think about your customers and your sales associates as voices that can help you tell your brand’s story. Whether an associate offers industry expertise or a customer offers a heartfelt testimonial, video will always have more impact when you recruit the help of others.* You can speak frankly and have a plan for emotional connection. The worst mistake in video is thinking only about product, product, product. The immediacy of video gives you the ability to bring social marketing to a whole new level with humor and emotion. In television there is an expression, “Make me laugh, make me cry.” While you may not want to go that far when you are just getting started, presenting a “human” story about your brand or product that touches viewers’ emotions will help you make the most of the medium. If you miss the mark, viewers will just tune you out.* You have messages in mind that you can communicate quickly. In social marketing, a video viewer will decide within seconds if they are open to hearing your message. Video can be particularly brutal because the viewer can simply opt to shut down the video or stop loading it. If you cannot come up with brand-appropriate ideas for micro videos (remember, sites like Instagram only allow 3 to 15 seconds at most) you migh...

If 2015 was known as “The Year of the Video”, 2016 has also delivered consistently on that promise. Virtually every social media network is pouring money into their video capabilities. In social marketing, videos are being used to create interest, raise brand awareness, generate leads and spark online engagement. Companies everywhere are flocking to video in social marketing, whether it’s on YouTube or Facebook or Vine or Instagram or wherever. And while it seems obvious that video will eventually become a part of our mandatory marketing repertoires, the question burning for most is when and how we make the jump to video marketing.

Below are 10 ways to know if you are ready for video:

* You have the means (both time and money) to publish videos regularly on a schedule. An important thing to remember about social marketing is that it takes time to build an audience. To build a brand, raise awareness and spark online engagement, you have to be willing to show up in the same place regularly. In the case of video, you need to consistently deliver new material and your audience needs to get used to consuming their information in a new way. If you set out to do video, the best recommendation is to start small and deliver consistently. Once you master that schedule you can get even more aggressive.

* You have a regular following on various social media channels. So let’s say you take the time and money to make videos on a regular schedule… then what? If you do not already have a following on different social media channels, the first suggestion would be to go win an audience, channel by channel. As you get involved in social marketing in different channels, you will begin to understand the culture of each channel and learn the do’s and don’ts before you turn to video. You also should write comments and follow others in each network. Video will help you acquire an audience, but it isn’t a magic solution; it probably makes more sense after you’ve already built an audience in a particular network. Winning in social marketing is a marathon, not a sprint.

* You have customers who you can interview or your sales associates have industry stories to tell. One of the best social marketing rules, particularly in video, is that you should not be the only one talking about your brand. Before you journey to video, think about your customers and your sales associates as voices that can help you tell your brand’s story. Whether an associate offers industry expertise or a customer offers a heartfelt testimonial, video will always have more impact when you recruit the help of others.

* You can speak frankly and have a plan for emotional connection. The worst mistake in video is thinking only about product, product, product. The immediacy of video gives you the ability to bring social marketing to a whole new level with humor and emotion. In television there is an expression, “Make me laugh, make me cry.” While you may not want to go that far when you are just getting started, presenting a “human” story about your brand or product that touches viewers’ emotions will help you make the most of the medium. If you miss the mark, viewers will just tune you out.

* You have messages in mind that you can communicate quickly. In social marketing, a video viewer will decide within seconds if they are open to hearing your message. Video can be particularly brutal because the viewer can simply opt to shut down the video or stop loading it. If you cannot come up with brand-appropriate ideas for micro videos (remember, sites like Instagram only allow 3 to 15 seconds at most) you might want to rethink the decision to invest in video.

* You have set keywords to optimize your content and have researched video SEO.

It is no secret that content is still king in the world of digital marketing. There is absolutely no way to get around the need for content to boost search engine optimization (SEO) over the long haul. Everyone is trying to get attention for their products and brand by leveraging SEO strategies and tactics. The name of the game is to improve your website’s page ranking by driving visitors to your site. Digital marketers know they can boost SEO through paid banner ads and keywords, but unlike content, these are short-term wins. A paid SEO campaign only lasts as long as you pay for it. Content, on the other hand, has teeth and staying power. A unique article with strategic keywords can create organic SEO that lasts as long as it is posted on your website.

Great digital marketing executives are quickly learning that there is really no way to escape the “content war.” Not only do you have to continually develop and distribute content just to stay in front of your audience, but the content you create also needs to be compelling and relevant to your target audience. To this end, it’s important to be up to date on industry trends and developments, and write compellingly about them. It is equally important to create a coherent digital marketing content strategy.

Here are 10 strategic steps you can take to engage in—and win—the digital marketing content war:

Grab a set of keywords that are relevant to your target audience and use them as often as possible across your website and in published content. Gone are the days that digital marketers write articles just for the sake of producing content. The new game is to leverage keywords that potential prospects may use to search for products or services like yours and distribute those keywords strategically throughout your content.

Post provocative digital marketing content that is targeted to make decision makers THINK. These days, business decision makers prefer to get information from content rather than advertisements. You can no longer win simply by advertising on a two-dimensional platform. As social communities grow, so does social selling. Industry leaders and decision makers are responsive to digital marketers who approach selling in an educational and conversational way.

Use your digital marketing content to push brand awareness, presence and reputation. The benefit of one article extends well beyond the content and keywords on your website. As your content library grows, you will begin to catch the attention of potential customers as they search for information. This effect will reinforce perceptions of your company as an industry thought leader.

Push digital marketing content that supports major events or announcements to regularly stay in front of your prospects on a schedule, and create how-to and self-help documentation for products and services. While diversity of content is important, content should always be created with a specific purpose in mind—to gain attention at a strategic moment, for example, or to deepen a prospect’s understanding of specific offerings or solutions.

Encourage and reward “likes” and “shares” on social media. Content sharing on social media is the new form of word-of-mouth (WOM) advertising. Now more than ever, people look to their friends for advice and recommendations. End users who share content are your most reliable messengers when it comes to referring products and services.

Leverage your internally produced content to save money. Why not benefit from lower marketing costs? When you use internal staff to develop content, it helps them gain confidence and expertise. Content marketing requires some savviness, but can it be done by multiple employees and is typically much, much cheaper than a new advertising campaign. Not only will you save money in the creation of content, you will also create a long-term ROI.

Send your content to existing customers as a part of your digital marketing customer retention program. Have you ever heard the expression, “Retention is the new acquisition”? Nurturing your existing customers is extremely important. Customers are always considering what your presence and your products and services add to their day-to-day business. Providing them with relevant content is a great way to reinforce the value you offer.

Improve your website digital marketing content. Don’t forget that as you drive traffic with blog posts, articles and other interesting content, your website needs to engage the interest of the prospects who land there and motivate them to dig deeper. Keep the content current and compelling.

Remember to include strategic calls to action in ALL of your digital marketing content. Even if you are writing an article with the intention of educating your prospects, always remember to give prospects an opportunity to buy your product or service or to request more information. A simple CTA can be the difference of making a sale or not at any given point.

Give back to your industry community with your digital marketing content. One of the reasons a prospect chooses one company over another is philanthropy. Creating and distributing content that is relevant, educational and interesting is a legitimate way to give back to the community. It enhances perceptions of your organization and ultimately helps your bottom line.

Content marketing is here to stay, and it’s a huge part of any relevant digital marketing strategy. In the digital marketing content war, some will win, and some will lose. Our job as digital marketers is to win. The very best digital marketing strategists will establish new rules of engagement by being more creative and innovative than their competitors. They will also understand that the war is meant to be a marathon, not a sprint. Developing an extensive content library over time that engages, educates and nurtures end users will ultimately enhance your business and give you the upper hand with any industry competitor.

For more marketing tips and best practices, information about marketing automation, or demand generation please visit us a www.zinfi.com.

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It is no secret that content is still king in the world of digital marketing. There is absolutely no way to get around the need for content to boost search engine optimization (SEO) over the long haul. Everyone is trying to get attention for their products and brand by leveraging SEO strategies and tactics. The name of the game is to improve your website’s page ranking by driving visitors to your site. Digital marketers know they can boost SEO through paid banner ads and keywords, but unlike content, these are short-term wins. A paid SEO campaign only lasts as long as you pay for it. Content, on the other hand, has teeth and staying power. A unique article with strategic keywords can create organic SEO that lasts as long as it is posted on your website.Great digital marketing executives are quickly learning that there is really no way to escape the “content war.” Not only do you have to continually develop and distribute content just to stay in front of your audience, but the content you create also needs to be compelling and relevant to your target audience. To this end, it’s important to be up to date on industry trends and developments, and write compellingly about them. It is equally important to create a coherent digital marketing content strategy.Here are 10 strategic steps you can take to engage in—and win—the digital marketing content war:* Grab a set of keywords that are relevant to your target audience and use them as often as possible across your website and in published content. Gone are the days that digital marketers write articles just for the sake of producing content. The new game is to leverage keywords that potential prospects may use to search for products or services like yours and distribute those keywords strategically throughout your content.* Post provocative digital marketing content that is targeted to make decision makers THINK. These days, business decision makers prefer to get information from content rather than advertisements. You can no longer win simply by advertising on a two-dimensional platform. As social communities grow, so does social selling. Industry leaders and decision makers are responsive to digital marketers who approach selling in an educational and conversational way.* Use your digital marketing content to push brand awareness, presence and reputation. The benefit of one article extends well beyond the content and keywords on your website. As your content library grows, you will begin to catch the attention of potential customers as they search for information. This effect will reinforce perceptions of your company as an industry thought leader.* Push digital marketing content that supports major events or announcements to regularly stay in front of your prospects on a schedule, and create how-to and self-help documentation for products and services. While diversity of content is important, content should always be created with a specific purpose in mind—to gain attention at a strategic moment, for example, or to deepen a prospect’s understanding of specific offerings or solutions.* Encourage and reward “likes” and “shares” on social media. Content sharing on social media is the new form of word-of-mouth (WOM) advertising. Now more than ever, people look to their friends for advice and recommendations. End users who share content are your most reliable messengers when it comes to referring products and services.* Leverage your internally produced content to save money. Why not benefit from lower marketing costs? When you use internal staff to develop content, it helps them gain confidence and expertise. Content marketing requires some savviness, but can it be done by multiple employees and is typically much, much cheaper than a new advertising campaign. Not only will you save money in the creation of content, you will also create a long-term ROI.