Showing posts with label marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marketing. Show all posts
Sunday, 14 December 2014
Friday, 14 November 2014
“Does my business even need a marketing plan?”
Is it worth the time and effort to develop a marketing plan for my business?Yep, it’s a great question, one our clients are constantly dealing with here at TSL. Truth be told, here’s your answer:
It depends.
While that answer might not thrill you it’s probably the most accurate response to this question. Every business has their own DNA and some may respond favorably to developing a plan and using the plan to discipline everyday activities. Others may spend time, energy and money to develop a plan and then resort to tactical maneuvers that quickly veer off the prescribed path. Yet others may not have any plan and still manage to hit their numbers.
Get a quick read on whether a written plan may help by answering the following questions:
1. If you had specific goals or strategic objectives – did your marketing efforts significantly contribute to their achievement?
2. Does your company struggle with determining what the best performance metrics are?
3. Are your marketing expenditures heavily weighted to a specific area – even though that area is showing declining performance?
4. Does your company seek marketing performance improvement but is unsure of how to best achieve it?
5. Are your functional department leaders – for example, sales, marketing and operations – all on the same page as to what marketing performance should be?
6. Would a written plan keep everyone more accountable for results?
2. Does your company struggle with determining what the best performance metrics are?
3. Are your marketing expenditures heavily weighted to a specific area – even though that area is showing declining performance?
4. Does your company seek marketing performance improvement but is unsure of how to best achieve it?
5. Are your functional department leaders – for example, sales, marketing and operations – all on the same page as to what marketing performance should be?
6. Would a written plan keep everyone more accountable for results?
If you’re thorough and brutally honest in your answers to these questions, you may find that it makes sense to have a plan. One of the challenges in developing a plan is making it match the culture of your organization. Your plan has to fit the culture and the flow of how “things get done.” Because of the pace of change today, shorter is better because the plan has to be revisited and evaluated on a regular basis in order to fine tune it.
If you’d like to talk to us about helping you develop a plan that’s right for your company and will provide the foundation for better marketing performance, contact us today using the yellow form below.
http://www.thesaleslion.com/
“I don’t know where to get started with content marketing.”
Yes, Content Marketing is the latest rage in the world of business and marketing, as well it should be. Great teaching and communication gets results—always has, always will. But as with any trend, the issue of “getting started” has been a huge stumbling block for many companies—from the biggest brands to the smallest mom and pops.
Generally speaking, when a company or brand wants to initiate a content marketing campaign, there are many questions that need to be answered, a few of which are:
- Who in our company can produce content?
- How often should we post new blog articles, videos, etc.?
- What is the best type of content for our business and industry? (text, video, audio, etc.)
- What will the “voice” of our content and brand sound like?
- Who will be the person in charge of planning, organizing, editing, and managing our content going forward?
- Will we need to hire a new employee(s) to do this well or can we leverage the in-house talent we already have?
- What platform should we build our blog on (like WordPress) ?
- How much will social media play a role in our content marketing efforts?
- What will enable us to consistently produce content going forward so it has a lasting impact?
As you might imagine, there are many other questions to consider in this process, which is exactly what we do with The Sales Lion. Companies come to us when they know they want to get started with content marketing but need guidance so as to eliminate the learning curve that stunts the initial success of so many content marketing ventures. Furthermore, they come to us when their content marketing efforts are stagnant and not getting the desired results. And if you want to get a really good feel as to the principles we teach, view this slideshare deck:
http://www.thesaleslion.com/
How to Create a Movement and Explode Your Brand with Content Marketing: A Case Study
There is a reality to this thing called content marketing that is inescapable:
Content Marketing is NOT a “tip your toes in the water” approach to business.
Nope, not at all.
The fact is, those companies that manage to turn content marketing from a “program” (a forced set of actions) to a true “culture” (intrinsically motivated actions) are the ones doing exceptional things in their space.
And when this culture is established, the possibilities for impact are literally limitless.
A photo of the Health Catalyst website, a company that is truly creating a movement with the help of great content marketing.
How Content Marketing is Helping to Revolutionize the Healthcare Industry
Case in point, I want to take a look at a company today that is not only one of the greatest examples of building a brand and driving revenue through content marketing I’ve ever seen and been a part of, but has managed to spawn a literal movement within their industry.
This company I’m referring to is Health Catalyst.
In just over 18 months since starting Content Marketing, Health Catalyst not only signed massive clients like Kaiser Permanente and Partners Healthcare, but they’ve also become the “it” brand within their industry—the company everyone is talking about in their space and a respected thought-leader of their field.
But the question is, how did they do it? How did this small, Utah-based B2B company manage to become an industry-wide leader despite the incredibly deep pockets of competition from the likes of Oracle and IBM?
The steps of Health Catalyst’s success are a literal blueprint for any company looking to achieve amazing results with content marketing. And although *your* company may not do exactly what you read below, I would first ask you if the following would be possible…
8 Examples of Content Marketing Excellence by Health Catalyst
1. They have Amazing Leadership Buy-In
I knew the first time I ever spoke to Health Catalyst they were going to do some special things in their space. My reason for knowing this was simple—their Senior Vice President, Paul Horstmeier, told me the following statement:
“We want to be the premier thought-leaders in our industry. If hospitals and health organizations have questions, we want them to think of Health Catalyst.”
Simple, bold, and quite telling was this statement because since that time Paul has literally been the most impressive senior officer I’ve ever worked with when it comes to demonstrating leadership and vision with what content marketing is really all about.
2. They took the time to get Buy-In from staff
I’m sure you’ve heard someone in your company at one time or another say, “We don’t have time for blogging.” And if anyone should have that excuse, it would be Health Catalyst. Their company’s subject matter experts are doctors and health professionals, the last people you’d expect to “have the time” to produce content. Notwithstanding, theyfind the time to make things happen. Since our kickoff workshop to explain to the staff the what, how, and why of content marketing—multiple people throughout the organization have worked tirelessly to establish themselves as the true “teachers” of the healthcare analytics space.
3. They invested heavily in a content marketing team
Often times, companies think the duties of a content manager are no more than a few hours a week and certainly not the job of more than one person. With Health Catalyst, the opposite is true. The company has multiple team members working in their content marketing division and because of this, they have managed to consistently produce 2-4 new pieces of content (most of which is very technical and research-oriented) every week for over a year.
4. They focused not only on great content, but put major attention to things like SEO and Social Media.
I wish we had room in this article to show what the editorial draft of a Health Catalyst blog article looks like, as it would blow most companies away in terms of its detailed nature. But to give you a quick feel, whenever a new piece of content for the company blog is produced, it also includes the following for review:
- Page Title
- Alternative Page Title
- Unique SEO Title
- Target Keywords for the post
- Current site rankings for targeted keywords
- Corresponding articles for end of post
- Meta Description
- Customized URL
- Customized description for each social media platform (twitter, facebook, LinkedIn, etc.)
- And others components
Pretty detailed, isn’t it? To further paint the picture, their Senior VP I mentioned earlier, Paul Horstmeier, passionately reviews each posts as well as the SEO goals therein. In fact, there have been many times when I’ve personally traded multiple emails with Paul and his team debating over ONE single word in the title of the post, simply because they understand how much one word can matter in the grand scheme of SEO.
5. They developed a world-class website and knowledge center
I’ve spoken about the Health Catalyst knowledge center before, but I truly believe it’s the model for what great content marketing companies should look like. With all of their articles, videos, webinars, case studies, etc. housed in an easy-to-find area of the site, current customers and prospects alike can become immersed and thoroughly educated in the world of healthcare analytics.
A glimpse of Health Catalyst’s incredible knowledge center, full of videos, webinars, case studies, etc.
6. They produced the entire gamut of content—from articles to eBooks to Webinars
As mentioned above, Health Catalyst understands that in order to be true thought leaders, they need to teach the industry using a variety of methods, allowing their prospects to learn in *their* preferred style—be it video, audio, or text.
7. They organized an incredible conference with hundreds in attendance from around the world
In what may be their boldest display of passionate teaching for their subject matter, Health Catalyst put on an extremely successful conference called HAS14 (Healthcare Analytics Summit) where hundreds of health professionals from around North America flew in to Utah and received two days of premium education from the likes of Billy Beane (Moneyball) and other analytics and health professionals. With over 80% of the attendees not even a client of Health Catalyst, and with no reference to themselves (pitching) from the stage, the event was an overwhelming success for attendees and the company alike.
8. They produced a heartfelt and profoundly moving documentary
If global healthcare is going to improve and people around the global are going to get the care they deserve, changes MUST be made in the fundamental way healthcare facilities currently operate. In order to show what is truly possible to others in their industry, Health Catalyst produced an INCREDIBLE documentary called “From the Heart”—a work that has since been shared hundreds and hundreds of times on social media and throughout the industry. Shown below, the documentary is powerful, moving, and extremely well-produced. In fact, I’d personally recommend you watch the following 2 minute video, as it will give you a profound glimpse into the issues currently facing global healthcare as well as the possibility of a When it comes down to it, they’re just great teachers who care.
As you can see, what Health Catalyst has done in such a short period of time with content marketing (about 18 months) is rather astounding. But the fact is, they “get it.”They are obsessed with improving their industry through world class communication and teaching. They don’t shy away from the way consumers use technology, but instead they embrace it and even push the limits of what others might think is possible.
Folks, this is how you make change with content. This is how you become a thought leader in your space. This is how you create a movement.
Well done Health Catalyst, well done.
http://www.thesaleslion.com/
Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Jawatan Kosong swasta- Pegawai Perunding Dan Kerjaya- Pemasaran
• Kelulusan Ijazah/Diploma Busines dan Marketing /Busines dan Pentadbiran
Syarat-syarat :
•Minimum 2 tahun pengalaman dalam kerja-kerja marketing
•Mahir dalam Excell, word dan lain-lain
•Boleh bekerja dalam kumpulan dan luar waktu pejabat
Hari bekerja : 5 hari seminggu (Ahad – Khamis)
Jumlah kekosongan : 1 orang
Job Info:
Syarat-syarat :
•Minimum 2 tahun pengalaman dalam kerja-kerja marketing
•Mahir dalam Excell, word dan lain-lain
•Boleh bekerja dalam kumpulan dan luar waktu pejabat
Hari bekerja : 5 hari seminggu (Ahad – Khamis)
Jumlah kekosongan : 1 orang
- Salary: RM 1 000 / month
- Job Type: Non-Executive
- Experience Level: 1-3 years
- Category: Marketing/PR/Designers
- Application Deadline: 31 Jan 2013
Phone: 096+227525
Tingkat 1, Wisma KOKITAB,
Jalan Sultan Ismail
20200 Kuala Terengganu
Jalan Sultan Ismail
20200 Kuala Terengganu
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