Content marketing is not as easy as the pros make it sound. Oh wait, were you expecting a blog post that was going to give you the secret to making a seven-figure income from blogging and other content creation? Sorry, this isn’t that post; but it will inform you how to build a successful content marketing platform that will contribute handsomely to your income stream.

Start with experimentation

When I started an email newsletter (for customers of my ColorMetrix business) back in 2005, I had no idea that what I was doing had a name – content marketing. When that email newsletter grew into this blog (I know that sounds backwards in retrospect), I didn’t know what SEO was and that it would eventually help me build an audience both on this site and others. When I opened a Twitter account in 2008, I had no idea that it would help grow readership and eventually find me both customers and a business partner.

All those activities I listed in the previous paragraph I approached with curiosity and an open mind. I viewed it all as marketing research and development. I feel the same way today as I look at new social platforms such as Pinterest, Vine, Google+ and even Facebook, for which I’m still searching for the value. And then there is my new favorite tool for growing audience: webinars. I say new because it’s just in the last year that I’ve figured out how to use the tool effectively to grow my audience. I have, however, been using a webinar tool, Webex, since 2003 for sales demos and technical support purposes.

Find what works and refine it

The tools and technology you choose for your unique content marketing platform are important, but not nearly as important as the topics and styles you choose to tell you stories. A couple of years ago, Shelby and I started a series of blog posts on this site that we called “She Said, He Said.” Those blog posts quickly grew into a Twitter chat and then into live speaking engagements. Eventually that led to consulting clients and the formation of a new venture She / He \ Media. If the story ended there, it would be an example of a successful unique content marketing platform.

But that is not the end of the story. We decided to see if we could take our unique combined voice and use it to also grow the content marketing platform for ColorMetrix. Again, it took a bit of experimentation but eventually we found someone willing to let us speak at their conference in our back-and-forth style calling on our respective backgrounds in the print production world.

We turned that speaking experience into qualifications to lead webinars with partner companies that are now helping us greatly expand the audience that ColorMetrix reaches. Each time we perform a webinar, we are reaching hundreds of folks without ever getting on an airplane or spending money for a trade show booth.

Being unique is hard work

There is a reason I don’t write for this site as much as I used to. While this is part of the content marketing platform for the brand that is me, it’s not the most effective platform I have at my disposal. I’ve found that by partnering my content creation efforts with Shelby for both She / He \ Media and ColorMetrix we get a better return on investment than either of us was getting separately.

Finding that unique voice that is the two of us combined did not just happen. We’ve had to work at and refine the voice that comes out when we speak together. Sure we disagree – a lot – but that is part of the voice. I’m not going to say we plan our disagreements, because we don’t. What we do work on and plan is how to temper the disagreements so that the audience can take away more value.

The other tool we’ve added to the arsenal is webinars. By presenting to audiences numbering in the hundreds each month we are able to reach far more people for far fewer dollars than any other platform we have utilized to date. Here again, presenting via webinar is not the same as standing on the stage in front of a live audience. It takes hard work and preparation to make sure the message is properly conveyed.

The secret to build a unique content marketing platform

The secret is equal parts experimentation, refinement of what works and continued hard work. The hard work comes in the form of constantly hustling for audience, creating great content and improving upon that content to make it better and better each time you deliver it.

Last week, I learned a relatively new friend had passed away in a tragic accident. I met Ken about eight months ago, and had seen him at least half a dozen times at various Audi Club of Wisconsin events. Ken took the lead roll as a driving instructor for our club and I learned a lot from him about how to safely drive, even on difficult surfaces like ice. Ken also shared many tips and tricks about how to set up my car for track events. I had lunch with Ken and a group of club members just three days before his tragic accident. I remember looking forward to him being one of my instructors this summer at a two-day closed track safe-driving event. And now all I have is memories.

Live in the moment

There are no guarantees about you getting any more in life than you have right now, this very instant. Sure the memories are great; and I’ll think of Ken this summer when I drive at Road America with new break pads and other minor modifications to my vehicle. What I won’t get is his expert driving advice like I did back in February as we drove around on an ice-covered lake. I know I’m a better and safer driver after spending six hours with Ken and the other instructors.

During those six hours of ice driving school, I was 100 percent present in the moment. I’ve read plenty of articles in the last few years about putting your phone or mobile devices down when in the presence of others. I’m a huge, huge offender of this simple lack of courtesy; and I plan to change it. There are plenty of solitary moments when the phone can demand 100 percent of my attention instead of taking time away from another human being.

Love the pain as much as the pleasure

I sat with my good friend Cindi last Friday evening discussing this very topic and she made an observation (probably while I was checking my Twitter stream) that you have to live in whatever moment you are in. Sure some of those moments are “bad,” but they also just are. Embrace those moments the same as you do the “highlights” of your life, because it all counts and all helps you move forward. Maybe even take a moment to ask why you ended up in this bad place. In the answer to that simple question, you may find yourself propelled back to a better place.

Be there for others by being there for yourself

When you are 100 percent present for others, you are also 100 percent present for yourself. Imagine all the large and small details of a conversation you miss by allowing your mobile devices to distract you from the conversations going on right in front of you. The same is true of the conferences you attend. Imagine if you didn’t try and multi-task during the speaker’s presentation. You might find that one nugget of advice or knowledge that could propel a project you are working on forward. You can always tweet the highlights after the session is over.

Be present here and now because this moment is all life can guarantee you.

There is a saying: “The devil is in the details.” Preparation is about making sure the details don’t bite you in the ass when it’s your time to shine. The power of preparation is in mastering the details before it’s time to explain them to others.

You’ve been granted an audience; honor that

Recently, I was granted a third opportunity to present our solutions to a prospective customer. This customer committed the time of four senior managers to my two-hour presentation. That is no small investment on their part. If you also consider my travel cost and the value of my time, you could say there was a big investment by all parties.

The incremental cost of the six hours of preparation time I spent before the meeting seems small when added on top of the already significant investment. I decided to view the preparation time like I would when preparing for a speaking engagement. I wouldn’t dream of getting on stage or presenting a webinar without sufficient preparation. Why walk into a sales presentation any less prepared?

Knowing your stuff vs. knowing their stuff

Sure, I know my software and solutions backwards and forwards. What I don’t know without doing a few dry runs is how our solutions are going to mesh with the client’s needs. In this case, I’ve been working with the prospective client on and off for about three years. I know what their needs are and decided to see how well our solutions really fit.

By working through a couple of dry runs, I was able to prepare a demo that met their expectations. I created an agenda that stepped them through our solution from their point of view and not mine. From my point of view, our products and services are technology. From the prospective client’s point of view, they are solutions to their problems.

Present the solution and let the technology sell itself

I walked the prospective client through a solution to a problem I know they have and understand. While I was presenting that solution with our technology, the reality is other technology products out there could also solve their problems. A canned demo of our technology would have done nothing more than confuse them and raise more questions.

Instead, I had a four-step approach to solving their problem that happened to be presented using our technology. It’s too early to know if I sealed the deal, but I do know I walked out of that meeting in a stronger position than I had when I had walked in.

Now I have a small favor: Take a moment and leave a comment about how taking extra time to prepare for a presentation (or anything for that matter) has helped you be more successful.

About a month ago when I shared “Finding the fun by changing direction,” I didn’t anticipate that part of the fun would be learning the value of performing keyword research before writing a blog post. But half the fun of most journeys is not knowing where they will take you or what you will end up learning. So how did a guy who knew almost nothing about SEO and keywords three years ago turn into a pretty decent practitioner of both? The short answer is both SEO and keyword research are a necessity if your blog is going to be a profitable business. But I’m not talking about this blog, so let’s get into the story of how I found myself in this strange place.

Writing for fun and profit

Let me start with the realization that this blog was probably never intended to be a profit-making venture. It can’t be if it’s going to be a place you come to find Jim Raffel and the unique stories only I can tell. That’s not to say I won’t find ways to monetize what I do here in small ways. It’s just that it’s not an overarching goal of the writing I do here.

Instead let’s talk about the 4 or 5 sites I’ve conceived of and/or launched to some degree or another over the last few years with the goal of being a profitable business. This journey has culminated with the soft launch of Business Travel Exclusive (BTE) on March 1. BTE is a different type of endeavor for Shelby Sapusek and me in that we go into this project with a great deal of subject matter expertise and blog/website creation knowledge. We’ll also be leveraging Shelby’s 17 years of journalism and graphic design experience in several ways.

The key points are that we know what we are doing and we know what we are getting into. This is not going to be a hobby (like this blog is). Instead it’s going to be a business, and it has been from day one. We’re following the three-step formula we developed for our She / He \ Media clients: Define your brand, grow your audience and execute your strategy. We have a plan; we are not winging this.

So it’s business writing. What now?

What really changes when your writing goes from a hobby, such as this blog, to a business like BTE? The short answer is that site traffic isn’t just a fun statistic to keep track of; it’s the life blood of the business. We’ll need lots of folks visiting BTE and liking what they read enough to sign up for our email newsletter. Today, we find ourselves in the middle of step two of the She / He \ Media formula and that means we need to grow our audience and we need to do it fairly quickly. We have six months versus the years it took many of the early hobby bloggers to grow an audience from zero to thousands of email subscribers.

This means we need to write tightly focused content about business travel topics. There are two good reasons for this. First, our intended audience is business travelers so the topics need to be those that appeal to that audience. Second, Google and other search engines now want your entire site to be focused around a single area of subject matter expertise. At least, this is what the experts tell us about the new search algorithms.

No need to reinvent the wheel

I’ve written before about SEO and keyword research and my story is going to remain consistent in that I still don’t want to learn all the details of these areas of expertise. I’m more than willing to pay someone else for their expertise, so on the BTE site we are utilizing two tools to help us with SEO and keyword research.

WordPress SEO by Yoast – the free way to go

WordPress SEO by Yoast is a WordPress-powered site and as such it’s a good idea to install a plugin that allows you to customize the Focus Keyword, SEO Title and Meta Description of each blog post. Some themes include this capability but I recommend staying away from using that feature in any theme. The reason is that when and if you choose to change themes you will have to figure out a way to move this very important meta data to the new theme. By sticking to a dedicated SEO plugin, you remove that restraint and/or the time drain of any future site redesign.

The neat thing about WordPress SEO is that it also contains a free SEO analysis tool set. Once you’ve filled in all the necessary meta data, the plugin returns red, yellow and green light analysis of the post on both an overall basis and also with drill down detail of what could be improved. If you are on a limited budget and explore the many features of this plugin, you may find it to be good enough for your purposes.

Scribe Content – taking it to the next level

There are free ways to do keyword research but no good ones I have found that reside right within the WordPress writing interface as a widget connected to a powerful API. This means that as I begin to write a blog post about business travel restaurant reviews I can quickly research combinations of those keywords for several metrics.

Before we get into those details let’s remember that BTE is a professional venture for us, so spending some money to improve our odds of success is something we are willing to do. We also happen to make use of Scribe Content as an agency level tool within She / He \ Media so there was no additional out of pocket expense for us.

As we perform our keyword research for each article, we are able to see what type of competition we are up against for these keywords and what the overall popularity of the keywords is. The trick is to find a balance between high popularity and the lowest possible competition. Does any of this change the articles we intend to write? The short answer is yes; but not when it comes to the substance of content. The changes we make are in our choice of words to describe what we are writing about.

If part of our strategy for monetizing BTE turns out to be Google Ads, then we want to make sure our site is rich in keywords to reach business travelers. In that way, our site will end up with ads relevant to our audience and hopefully income producing for us.

How about you? Are there writing projects you work on that SEO and keyword research are important enough to do before you start writing?

Sometimes the activities you love pursuing, writing in my case, become less fun than they once were. When that happens it’s time to look for a new direction to take your passion in. Most recently I’ve published on this site about once a week, and frankly even that has started to be an effort. It often feels like I’m telling the same stories, just in different ways. So, it’s time for a change.

Changing directions

Last week I conceived of and began a new writing project. There will be a website and blog that goes along with the project but it’s just getting off the ground so it’s premature to discuss it in any detail. I’m not going to stop writing I’m just going to take my writing in a different direction. The new topic is one I have 25 years of subject matter expertise in.

If you find yourself in a similar circumstance the only words of wisdom I can offer are, to search for an area you are both passionate about and already have significant subject mater expertise in. For example, when I write on this blog about business issues, I have credibility because I’ve successfully run a business for going on 20 years. What I’ve come to realize is there is an area related to my business that I have also been successful at for almost 25 years.

Finding the fun

I love business but lately at the end of a long week the last thing I want to do is write about that which has occupied my brain all week. Last Fall I learned the lesson of stepping away from your work sometimes, as I reconnected with my hobby being an automobile enthusiast. And no the new topic is not cars and Audis. That’s a very crowded space and one in which my subject matter expertise is lacking at the moment. Maybe in 5 or 10 years I can pursue that topic.

As you look for your own change in direction the key is to look close to home. When you figure out what your new focus is going to be, I suspect you’ll be as surprised as I was how close and obvious the choice is. Finding the fun in your direction change can be tricker, but I can tell you when I did there was no doubt in my mind that I needed to at least give this a shot.

So, I’ll still be writing here, I’m just not certain of the frequency. I suspect as the new project gets off the ground there will be plenty to write about that doesn’t belong over there. As the new project gets closer to launch readers here will be among the first to know!

Newsletter update

If you want to be one of the first to know about the new project be sure to subscribe to my updated newsletter list. Since I won’t be publishing here as frequently, I’ll also push each new post to you as an email. I’m using Mailchimp now, so it will always be easy to unsubscribe if I start overfilling your inbox.

You know those tasks you keep putting off, that if you just completed would stop being a daily annoyance and draining on productivity? This post is about a willingness to take a break from the day-to-day grind and spend some time on those tasks that will increase your long-term productivity and perhaps also give you peace of mind. Last week, I took a day to organize my workspace and secure a much needed reliable auto to replace an aging one. Those are the kinds of monkeys you want to get off you back.

Knowing when it’s time

The workspace organization happened when I couldn’t find a book that I wanted to read to solve a current problem. After spending 10 minutes looking, I got fed up and just decided to clear my morning and organize my entire portion of our home office. It’s not that my office and desk were a real mess; but it had not been properly organized in about a year. In a few hours, I was able to throw a lot away and get things back the way I like them. I now feel better about sitting down to my desk because I know where everything is and I have plenty of open workspace for multiple projects again.

The car, on the other hand, had been letting us know for the last several months that it wasn’t going to make it much longer. Both my wife and I will be traveling a fair amount in the coming months and we wanted to make sure the car she and our son share would be a reliable way for him to get to school and work. We decided financially we could finally replace the vehicle without it being a real drain on the monthly budget. So instead of waiting for the car to die on the side of the road, we took the afternoon off and got the car replaced.

In one day, I was able to get two pretty big monkeys off my back.

Monkey free working is more productive

In the days since I resolved the messy desk syndrome, I’ve found myself less likely to feel the need to work from a coffee shop. I’ve set the desk up so one surface is always clear of messy clutter. That’s where the current project I’m working on goes – and ONLY the current project. It’s like a table at a coffee shop. It allows me to focus on a single task for as long as I need to. Plus, I know I can find what I’m looking for quickly with organized cabinets and file drawers.

As for the car, I won’t worry about a call like I got last month while at an important business dinner. The car had in fact died on the side of the road and needed to be towed in for service. Now no car is perfect; but at least I know we have the most reliable piece of transportation our family could afford.

With the monkeys off my back, I have peace of mind that I can work without distraction, find what I need when I need to and that my wife and son can get where they need to go when they need to be there.

How did I get the monkeys off my back?

The method I used to get the monkeys off my back was simple really. I gave myself permission to work on tasks that while they would not contribute directly to the company bottom line would improve my productivity over time. The six or seven hours I invested will easily be recouped in the next 30 days, and then in future months those become extra hours I can use to get more done or spend more time with my family. Those choices we all get to make individually.

I’d love to hear how you get monkeys off your back and which ones are clinging on now that you’d love to be rid of. Leave a comment and let me know!

Last week’s travels included lodging in two Hilton family hotels on the eastern seaboard of the U.S. In both properties, the staff exhibited a willingness to go above and beyond what one would expect to make sure your stay was exceptional. This is an elusive quality that I find difficult to define but clearly understand when I am experiencing it first-hand. For purposes of this blog post, we will simply call that elusive and highly desirable trait – professionalism.

Service is all about professionalism

The word “professional” can be a tricky one. Many associate that term with doctors, lawyers and even athletes who practice their trade at the highest level for million dollar annual contracts. And while that definition of the word may or may not be correct, it has absolutely nothing to do with the kind of professionalism I’m talking about.

I was traveling with my business partner Shelby last week and on the plane home as we discussed this blog post, she made a comment that she had not opened a door for herself all week. Now while my mom would hope that’s because she raised a gentleman and I held the door for a lady at every opportunity, the truth is the hotel doormen took care of that for me. Before you start thinking this makes us sound like snobs, take a step back and let me explain why this matters.

Quite often when we are entering and leaving hotels, we have our bags with us. We might also be engaged in a conversation (or staring at our cell phones). It’s nice to get a hello or “Welcome back, Mr. Raffel” (yes, at the second property they knew my name somehow). On top of that when your hands are full, it’s nice to not have to juggle everything to get the door. And even if that makes me sound like a snob, it also should make the doormen sound like the professionals they are.

Time is money for them and us

Between two appointments in Manhattan, Shelby had to do some emergency shopping and the timing was tight to make it to our next appointment. She didn’t really want to bring the shopping bags to the next appointment so we had the cab stop at the hotel and asked the doorman if he could get them to her room for her. As you might imagine, his response was “Absolutely.” Yes, I tipped him for that service. After all, he’s not there for charity sake and his time was just as valuable as ours at that moment.

Professionalism is in the details

Repeatedly throughout the week, I was impressed by the people who staffed the hotels in which we stayed and the restaurants we chose to dine in. Even the corner bar we happened into in Manhattan was a case study in knowing your clientele and treating them appropriately. In that bar, they couldn’t remember my name, but they knew our drinks and that my tab was “the one you couldn’t find the first time.” It sounds silly; but I felt like they cared we were there and that our business was valuable to them.

Is that how you’re treating your customers? Do they feel valued and appreciated for the business they bring you? That’s true professionalism. A great many small errors and omissions can be overlooked if I feel valued and you willingly and graciously circle back to fix whatever wasn’t done correctly the first time.

How does this definition of professionalism look to you? Leave a comment and let me know.

This is a tale about why you want a former journalist in your organization if communication is any part of what you do. And if you aren’t communicating, I’d really like to know how you’re making any money, but that’s another topic entirely.

Color Geek Meets Dyed In The Wool Journalist

Two years ago this month, Shelby Sapusek and I reached an agreement to work together for three months on a contract basis. At the time, Shelby was a practicing journalist and our agreement was the beginning of her freelance life. A year later, we formed a consultancy to work together on a few business opportunities. (You know, because we weren’t already busy enough with our work at ColorMetrix.)

In that first year working together, one of Shelby’s tasks was reviving our ColorMetrix email newsletter. She came up with a plan and delivered about two a month. I know she did a great job because folks started replying to the newsletter and those emails came to me. At trade shows and conferences we also got comments about how much better and more informative the newsletter had become.

There are a lot of reasons the newsletters became more effective; but the primary component of the improved success was telling our story instead of selling our products. Think of the products as data and the story as information. In addition to telling our story, Shelby found blog posts and articles on the internet that would be of interest to our subscribers and shared those links as well. So instead of just talking about ourselves, we shared the stories of others.

The Data vs. Information Conundrum

Last week, we were sitting across the conference table from one of our clients. We were talking about the very exciting topic of SEO and the client reached into his leather portfolio and pulled out the multi-page SEO report we had prepared for them for the previous month. (It’s important to note that we email this document as a PDF; and not only had the client printed the PDF, but had also highlighted and made notes on almost every page of the document.)

My first thought, was: “Rut-roh, what doesn’t he like?” I thought this because when we won their business, the client started forwarding us the SEO reports from the previous vendor. We never saw one as a printed copy. And honestly the previous vendor had simply prepared standard reports from the SEO tool they chose to use.

As it turned out, he wasn’t upset at all and in fact went on to praise the work we’d done in a relatively short period of time.

Shelby and I prepare these reports as a two-step process. I generate a half dozen or so charts and graphs that I feel represent the progress we’ve made in the past month. We also include graphs that highlight areas on which we need to see improvement. I email this package to Shelby with a few brief notes.

The reporter still locked somewhere deep inside Shelby then turns those boring charts and graphs and my three word phases into a compelling story. A story is about information; not data. Clicks and keyword rankings are only part of that story. And honestly if you own a business, “new visitors,” contact forms completes and ecommerce sales matter a great deal more than total clicks or click growth month over month.

Results and the future

Data is just that: Data – or research results. Without some context, it’s only of use to those who have great interest in the topic or did the research. I love all the numbers behind our clients SEO reports but the truth of the matter is they may not. They are in the business of selling products and services. They want to know how the money they spend on us helps them achieve their goals. That’s the story Shelby is so good at telling. She uses words to paint a picture of how the current results are helping them and how our future plans will help them even more. It reminds me a great deal of some writing I did awhile back about selling dreams.

Image Credit

This is my first blog post of 2013 and as I first did in 2011 and then again in 2012, I am sharing the three words that frame my personal and business plan for this year. Two years of watching these three word sketches become reality is proof enough for me that goals and plans unwritten never get done. The other benefit I’ve come to realize is that each year of this direction-setting method builds on the previous years. When you follow a plan for a full year, it becomes part of who you are and how you live and work.

Change the World

The three-word method of planning and direction setting works because of its simplicity. You’re creating a framework against which you can evaluate daily decision making. Your daily work and task completion should support the vision of your world that the three words create in your mind. Stick with that decision-making method and by the middle of the year you’ll realize you’ve changed the world … your world.

The 2013 Plan Discussed

I started thinking about my three-word plan earlier than I have the previous two times through this exercise. If fact, if you are a regular reader you may recognize these three words as the topics of the last three blog posts of 2012. Below is my explanation of each of my three words and a link to each respective blog post.

The Why: Passion

My “why” for the year is to only do the work that is driven by an inner passion.

Like most things in life, passion has a yin and yang associated with it. A singular passion can turn you into a one-dimensional person. Singularity of purpose and intense focus for short periods of time can be very constructive. The tricky part is to break out of that cycle and find competing passions to remain or become a balanced human being. [Read More...]

The How: Footprints

My “how” for the year is to leave both online and traditional footprints that share my passion for education with the world.

Mix things up a bit and get outside your comfort zone. We’re taking a hard look at the conferences, trade shows and speaking engagements on which we will spend money to participate in next year. These are expensive propositions so a return on investment is essential. Leaving footprints strictly for the sake of leaving footprints doesn’t cut it when the dollar outlay is high. [Read More...]

The Who: Education

My “who” for the year is existing and prospective customers with whom I will freely share subject matter expertise.

By sharing your subject matter expertise for free in advance of the sale, you create an educated potential consumer for your product or service. That educated consumer will probably also have some loyalty to you for providing the knowledge necessary to improve their business processes and bottom line profitability. [Read More...]

And now it’s your turn: What’s your plan for 2013 expressed in three words or whatever format makes the most sense to you?

I sell technical services to folks that typically have limited knowledge of the services we provide. It would be easy to call our prospective customers stupid or ignorant; but that’s certainly not the case and is not going to help us sell more of our services. In fact, it would quite likely have the reverse effect. Instead we see this knowledge gap as an opportunity to educate our prospective customers so then can understand the value of our services to their businesses.

Bridging the knowledge gap with education

Some products require little or no education to be sold successfully. Items like clothing or shoes are typically purchased based upon how they look with additional consideration for the reputation of the brand. Of course even in this case, an argument can be made for educating the consumer that a higher quality piece of clothing will last longer or be more durable. At the end of the day, however, if you don’t like the way the shoes or suit look on you, you won’t be buying them.

On the “education necessary to successfully sell your product” continuum, most services and technical products are at the higher end of the scale. For example, we have a service that comes and fertilizes our lawn several times each spring, summer and fall (Why I thought of this example while looking at a snow covered yard I have no idea.) Now that we’ve had the service for several years, I see the benefits each warm summer day as I walk through my yard barefoot. There are no weeds; just richer, thicker green grass. The tricky part for the service provider was convincing me they could do this BEFORE they did.

The lawn care provider educated my wife and me with well-designed marketing materials showing before and after pictures of yards they had treated for a few seasons. They also explained we wouldn’t have to lay the fertilizer down ourselves and keep track of the right times of the year for each product. It wasn’t a hard sell; but it certainly took a half hour or so of the gentleman’s (and our) time. And here’s one key difference: I didn’t go looking for this service. They came and found me. When I need clothing, I go looking for it either in a store or online.

Knowledge empowers the educated buyer

By sharing your subject matter expertise for free in advance of the sale, you create an educated potential consumer for your product or service. That educated consumer will probably also have some loyalty to you for providing the knowledge necessary to improve their business processes and bottom line profitability. A great example of this approach is the Scribe content marketing software from CopyBlogger Media. By simply signing up for their email newsletter list, you can get the Scribe Content Library (affiliate link) for free. These free ebooks are just one example of a successful education marketing strategy.

Education Marketing Strategy Ideas

• Blog posts such as this one (says Captain Obvious)
• ebooks such as the Scribe example above
• Webinars such as this one I did on behalf of my company ColorMetrix
• Short information videos such as this one I did for ColorMetrix
• Public speaking about your subject matter expertise such as one I did as part of this Color Myths and Mysteries panel
• Host free or low-cost educational seminars for customers and prospects like we did with Color Conversations Live
• And for the most ambitious among us, you could write a book.

That’s a pretty good list to get you started, and I think enough that you get the idea. If you think I left some out, by all means please leave a comment below and let me know!

Photo Credit