Stay Calm during the Storm

If you were to only get your news via Facebook or Twitter newsfeed which most people do, you would think mask wearers hate non-mask wearers, white people hate black people and Republicans hate Democrats.  In reality there are a few on opposite sides of ideology that truly despise each other, but most people in this world value the same basic things.  They want to have a safe place to live, a way to make a living to provide for their family and watch their children accomplish their goals in life.

Of course, if you travel up the pyramid of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, people want to feel belongingness among their family and friends and have a feeling of accomplishment.  Ultimately, people will want to achieve their full potential including creative activities which usually they will identify with their career.  However, what happens when the basic foundation rests on the unsolid ground?  We all remember the story of the “3 Little Pigs” and how they built their homes.

As business owners, we must understand the current events of the day.  Every story has to have a villain.  If Superman didn’t have Lex Luther or Batman didn’t have to battle The Joker than there would not be a story to be told.  Since the beginning of time, there has always been a battle between Good versus Evil.  The News Media as well as politicians understand this and use this to their advantage.  As long as there is division, there is a story to be told.  However, think about it for a moment.  If you could help out a stranger in need would you?  The majority of readers would give a resounding yes.  Unfortunately, there are many politicians that benefit when a news story is sensationalized.  This allows them to shore up their base and obtain more votes to continue to stay in office.  We The People are the ones who fight their battles for them as they exploit our differences.

Understanding and realizing that when Kingdoms battled in the early centuries, the front-line soldiers were the ones who paid the price showing nothing in return.  When Hitler, Stalin or Mussolini set out to gain more territory; their people suffered.  Yet all of them used propaganda to further their selfish agenda.  Today is no different.  There are evil people in this world that gain by having good people disagree and fight their battles for them.

Knowing these things as a business owner, you have an opportunity to spread your message.  I’m not talking about getting into uncomfortable discussions about Race, Religion or Politics although you should not be afraid to speak out against injustices.  I’m talking about staying calm while the puppet strings are being pulled.  As a business owner, you can utilize your platform to spread a positive message about your company which will draw customers and potential customers to you.  Remember, everyone has basic needs to live.  Everyone wants to feel safe and have a sense of belonging.  If your clients feel that you meet these requirements you will gain a customer for life.  In addition, if you are able to reach more clients by having a strong digital platform, you will gain a larger market share.

DeliveryMaxx is a small business that takes pride in helping other small businesses succeed in an increasingly digital world.  That was our mission prior to the outbreak and news stories of racial inequality and continues to be our goal today.  If you need help navigating a transition to becoming more active on social media, building an e-commerce website, or post-sale communication with your clients we are here to help.  Our clients experience positive Online Reputation, stronger SEO, concise content management, an increase in social media engagement and advertisement, and higher customer retention. See how we have helped clients in multiple industries across the country such as Automotive Dealerships, Real-Estate Brokers & Agents, Churches, Service Industry, Sports Teams, Non-Profit Organizations and more as we utilize our Patent-Pending Program to develop a digital strategy that will meet the needs of sales, service and messaging to your audience.  www.deliverymaxx.com or give us a call at 888-936-6299 today or watch the DeliveryMaxx Introduction Video!

Fight or Flight in the Year 2020

Every young boy who played or who has attempted to play sports knows what it means to either “Fight or Flight” all too well.  At first glance, one might think the cause of the dilemma the player would be a game situation, but most of the time it was in the locker room.  There would inevitably be a situation presented that the player would have to make a choice to stand up for what he felt was right or back down and try to deescalate the situation.  “Fight or Flight”.

Today, business owners are faced with a variety of situations that have or will trigger the release of hormones that will prepare them to either face the continuous threats or try to move to safety.  In the past, our ancient ancestors faced dangers in their environment.  They could either fight or flee.  Sun Tzu, the legendary Chinese military strategist from 5^th Century BC would use both options as a strategy in his well-read book, “The Art of War”.

Instead of facing enemies armed with weapons determine to take your life, in business, we are faced with challenges that try to alter our path.  My home state of Texas is facing an unemployment rate of 12.8% which is the worst on record.  The closest past unemployment rate was 9.2% back in November of 1986 during the last big oil bust.  Every state in the Union has been hit hard.  Nevada, for example, has registered an unemployment rate exceeding 28% which is the highest in the nation due in large part to its reliance on tourism and hospitality.  The overall unemployment number is at 38.6 million at the time of this blog with an average of 2 million new filings a week.  To understand how big this number is, 38.6 million is greater than the combined population of 21 states.

Mainstream news media that continues to scare uninformed citizens by distorting the truth, power hungry politicians (although a few have changed their stance because of the unrest of their voters) and opportunist who continue to profit off of a pandemic that has a 99.9% recovery rate (much better than the seasonal flu) have become a business owners’ nemesis.  The so-called stimulus meant to assist businesses to keep their doors open while we “flattened the curve” and ease the burden for hospitals; instead lined the pockets of political operatives and their interest.  These enemies of the people have and continue to threaten the lives of millions minimalizing the crisis by flippantly calling it “The New Normal”.

So we are faced with a choice.  Fight or Flight.  There will be casualties in this civil war.  Currently, as we are experiencing The 2^nd Great Depression in the year 2020, we will see deaths from suicide and stress related illness.  We will see families destroyed through divorce, child and spousal abuse.  Crime rate will be much more than a neighbor reporting another neighbor for not “Social Distancing”.  Alcohol and drug abuse will rise.  The Government of the People will give way to the Powerful Elite.  The top .05% of wage earners will increase while over 95% of the population will soon learn why deflation is not what economist want to see.

History has shown civilizations having mass exodus from countries such as Ireland, Sweden, Germany and most recent, Mexico and Honduras.  Can you imagine Americans running for the boarder to the North or even the South?  Our other option is to stay and fight.

Necessity is the mother of invention.  To survive, businesses must understand the fears of their employees and potential customers.  Although the threat of the seasonal virus has been proven to have been overhyped and the response to the threat has been catastrophic to tens of millions; business have to adapt to the current battleground.  Investment in PPE products and having a digital strategy will be crucial to stay alive.  Staying transparent and forming alliances between competition and your own employees will forge a stronger bond allowing you to operate at a point of strength versus weakness.  New opportunities will emerge and appear before you as you survey the ever-changing economic landscape.  You will have battle scars, but if you stay the course you will come out victorious.  God Speed to all of you!

Take control of your own destiny and do not rely on the humanity of corporations or the effectiveness of a bloated government.  We are not in this together… yet we could be by choosing not to listen to those that say we are. We can stop succumbing to the fearmongering and support each other in our own communities. 

DeliveryMaxx is a small business that takes pride in helping other small businesses succeed in an increasingly digital world.  That was our mission prior to this outbreak which has now shown it is more important than ever.  If you need help navigating a transition to becoming more active on social media, building an e-commerce website, or post-sale communication with your clients we are here to help.  Our clients experience positive Online Reputation, stronger SEO, concise content management, increase in social media engagement and advertisement and higher customer retention. See how we have helped clients in multiple industries across the country such as Automotive Dealerships, Real-Estate Brokers & Agents, Churches, Service Industry, Sports Teams, Non-Profit Organizations and more as we utilize our Patent-Pending Program to develop a digital strategy that will meet the needs of sales, service and messaging to your audience.  www.deliverymaxx.com or give us a call at 888-936-6299 today or watch the DeliveryMaxx Introduction Video!

Better to die on your feet, than live on your Knees

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was once quoted as saying, “We, too, born to freedom, and believing in freedom, are willing to fight to maintain freedom.  We, are all others who believe as deeply as we do, would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.”

As FDR delivered is 20 minute 1,883-word Presidential Inaugural Address after taking the oath of office a month over 87 years ago on March 4, 1933 becoming the 32^nd President of the United States of America; he stated, “So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is...fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and of vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. And I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.”

What a poetic words of wisdom we have to look back on.  Make no mistake, with unemployment nearing the 22 million mark which is almost 14%; businesses are going to need a lot more than rhetoric to keep this country from entering into The 2^nd Great Depression.  Businesses are going to have to utilize a complete Digital Marketing Strategy that includes positive Online Reputation, stronger SEO, concise Content Management, increase in Social Media Engagement and Advertisement and higher Customer Retention.  To meet these strategies businesses must use Blogs, Reviews, Daily Post, Video Messaging, Automated Follow-Up, Email Blast and Website Development & Optimization.

Over the next several days, whether the media reports it or not, many business owners and those who have questioned why the government continues to use scare tactics, are taking to the steps of Capitols, County Courthouses and other National, State and Local government buildings to peacefully remind our politicians that they must step up in a time like this to make the right choices. 

The fact still remains that the shutdown of our economy was prompted by the famous “Flatten the Curve” Graph made by Epidemiologist, Neil Ferguson who boldly predicted that the United States would achieve 2.2 million deaths by the middle of April.  Of course the premise of the whole scare was that 100% of the world’s population would become infected with the virus and with a little research one would find that this has never happened in the history of the world.  Nonetheless, the United States has 28,580 deaths that have been attributed to the Coronavirus which accounts for .00008661 of our population.  These numbers include the nearly 4,000 deaths in New York that were not directly confirmed but only suspected as people that might have had symptoms similar to those who have COVID-19.  The numbers have never added up, and “they” continue to move the target each time a new question is asked.

Those who continue to distort the facts are doing it in the name of “science”.  This verse often comes to mind from Romans 8:31- “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”

A 2.2 Trillion Dollar Government Pork Filled Stimulus that many small business will not receive is not enough for you to stay open while people have been scared or mandated into hiding much like Germany of 1938.  Businesses must be vigilant in getting their message out to continue to survive.

DeliveryMaxx has been the leader in the digital media arena over the last decade and continues to help businesses in all sectors reach their potential customers through the most innovative digital strategy utilizing common sense and today’s technology.  We are able to customize and create a strategy for any entity that is trying to gain more exposure on the web.  With clients in multiple industries and across the country such as Automotive Dealerships, Real-Estate Brokers & Agents, Churches, Service Industry, Sports Teams, Non-Profit Organizations and more; we utilize our Patent-Pending Program to develop a digital strategy that will meet the needs of sales, service and messaging to the masses.

DeliveryMaxx is one of the only digital media company that provides a simple to use app which will allow our clients immediately collect online reviews, post engaging videos and online content with branding and advertising.  The program is embedded with digital code helping increase SEO which provides first page results on the Search Engines.  It is a tool that is implanted with a complete digital strategy giving our clients a competitive advantage over the competition.  For more information about DeliveryMaxx contact (888) 938-6299 or watch the DeliveryMaxx Introduction Video!

What do you do when everything crashes around you?

Adversity brings out the best, but also brings out the worst in people.  This is the same for businesses as well.  Sometimes being prepared does not mean obstacles won’t happen.  As a matter of fact, if you have been in business for any length of time you have major developments that cause adversity quite often.

DeliveryMaxx is no different.  We started our company in 2008 which at the time was the worst recession in US history since the 1929 stock market crash.  The company was developed with a great idea to help clients improve their customer retention and satisfaction by reminding them of their happy moment during the buying process.  DeliveryMaxx had created new technology that utilized a special Kodak Camera that was able to label images using unique identifiers that would be sent through a portal allowing us to deliver marketing and advertising material to our clients’ customers within days of the sale or service performed.  By 2010, Kodak announced they were going out of business and DeliveryMaxx had to adapt.  In addition, online reviews and social media marketing was becoming the norm.  Out of necessity new DeliveryMaxx innovation was born.  Quickly adapting to the change of marketing landscape we found a way to help companies compete in the new digital arena that included Online Reputation, Social Media Marketing and Engagement, Content Management, Search Engine Optimization while still focusing on customer satisfaction.  After 10 million lines of code, over one million dollars in research and development; DeliveryMaxx was able to create a patent-pending digital media strategy for any business that needs maximum exposure on the internet in order to sell products or advertise their services gaining more reach than ever before.

Now, in the year 2020, all businesses are facing the fight of their life.  Whether one believes the Coronavirus threat warrants government intervention and shutdown of business or thinks that it is a Chinese virus developed to destroy the United States’ economy; it is and will have a drastic effect on millions of people’s lives.  The numbers that were originally reported by the World Health Organization as well as Centers of Disease and Control will not be met thankfully; however, businesses are entering their third week of nationwide quarantine measures and will have a very tough time keeping their doors open.  Enter the government’s massive pork filled special interest stimulus package of 2.2 trillion dollars and some businesses will be able to limp through a minimized slowdown.  Unfortunately, the people will be burdened with this debt to pay back and the economy will reflect these choices down the road. 

As the initial shock of good people debating whether lives of the elderly and those with underlying health conditions were more important than the lives of tens of millions that will be faced with unemployment, health issues, child abuse, increase crime, marital conflict, and potential death (suicide, murder, health) if we enter into the 2^nd Great Depression; we are now hearing and seeing reports that this might be something other than just a virus.

There are theories showing that it is a Democrat strategy even supported by some Republicans to rid the country of Donald Trump as President of the United States.  You can even start to see political operatives on both side trying to blame each other on why the medical field was ill equipped (even though the Doctors have lined their pockets through Insurance and Pharmaceutical Drug Makers) to handle cases of people who will get sick from a virus that will come back every season since there will never be a cure for it.  Other stories are coming out that China with the help of traitorous greedy anti-Americans to help create and spread this virus in hopes to bring down our economy ultimately creating a rebellion or civil war in our country.  This has always been a strategy starting back when Chairman Mao Zedong, an ideologically Marxist/Leninist was the founding father of the People’s Republic of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976.  In addition to killing close to 80 million of his own people through starvation, persecution, prison labor and mass executions; his modern enemy was the United States.  His predecessors have continued adverse policy towards the United States and many plots to this point have been foiled by our intelligence community to keep the balance of both world powers.

Therefore businesses have to look at the world around them and make plans or adjust to a changing environment.  Although many people have flippantly said that this shutdown will only last a couple of weeks and maybe a couple of months thinking that businesses can just pick up where they left off like this was a long overdue vacation; entrepreneurs will have to have a concise plan of action and it must include a robust digital media marketing strategy that allows their customers to positively influence others helping create a demand for their product or services. 

Digital Advertising is less expensive than traditional advertisement, but it has to be done right.  Every site has to be optimized and a complete understanding of each platform’s audience must be known.  There has to be a balance of daily post with branding and testimonies from clients.  There also has to be informational blogs and educational videos that show you are an expert in your field.  DeliveryMaxx makes this happen on a consistent basis meeting all of your needs in the digital world giving you a stronger reach on the internet allowing you to focus on what you do the best.

No matter the cause of the virus, how serious or not or if someone is behind a terrorist act, businesses will have to be vigilant to survive while the world seems to be crashing around them.

When it comes to an online digital strategy, businesses must make sure their message is concise and supportive of their narrative.  If a business provides a great product or service, there should be several pieces to their online digital media strategy that supports these claims: Blogs, Reviews, Daily Post, Video Messaging, Automated Follow-Up and Website.

DeliveryMaxx has been the leader in this arena over the last decade and continues to help businesses in all sectors reach their potential customers through the most innovative digital strategy utilizing common sense and today’s technology.  Our clients experience positive Online Reputation, stronger SEO, concise content management, increase in social media engagement and advertisement and higher customer retention.  We are able to customize and create a strategy for any entity that is trying to gain more exposure on the web.  With clients in multiple industries and across the country such as Automotive Dealerships, Real-Estate Brokers & Agents, Churches, Service Industry, Sports Teams, Non-Profit Organizations and more; we utilize our Patent-Pending Program to develop a digital strategy that will meet the needs of sales, service and messaging to the masses.

DeliveryMaxx is one of the only digital media company that provides a simple to use app which will allow our clients immediately collect online reviews, post engaging videos and online content with branding and advertising.  The program is embedded with digital code helping increase SEO which provides first page results on the Search Engines.  It is a tool that is implanted with a complete digital strategy giving our clients a competitive advantage over the competition.  For more information about DeliveryMaxx contact (888) 938-6299 or watch the DeliveryMaxx Introduction Video!

How to Create Good Press using the Internet

Whether you are an automotive dealership, realtor, church, or even a college hopeful; building good press is a necessity to further your interest.  All entities wishing to share their message must have a thoughtful strategy in addition to a strong conviction to their desired audience.  In short, treat people how they desire to be treated and they will share your message to the masses.

For years, businesses have sought out traditional forms of media such as television commercials, newspaper ads and radio spots to influence consumers with products and services.  With the introduction of new media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media sites; anyone or business can produce a story which rapidly circulates across the World Wide Web.  With the ease and availability of a medium which can deliver ideals into the intended recipients’ hands businesses would be wise to take advantage of this technology.

However, with the ease of communication should come great caution as the perception of reality quickly becomes reality.  Online reputation sites such as Google Reviews, Yelp and others are a constant reminder and act as a digital report card.  Thus again, by providing superb product and/or services an entity can expect a positive evaluation.  Although most businesses strive to please their customers, many of the online reviews which are published don’t reflect the true principles of the company.

Marketers and media experts alike continue to preach the value of utilizing social media, online reputation, and publishing content.  The prevailing opinions are correct, but sometimes the advice does provide solutions that meet their needs rather the advice is heavy on advertising on new media the same way businesses used to advertise on traditional media.

The first thing businesses must realize is that new media, often referred to as social media, is much different than traditional media.  A good analogy would be to consider a time when you were talking with a group of friends at a gathering, if a car sales person (insert any sales person) were to interrupt your story; how would that make you feel? It’s pretty simple.  You would not appreciate it no matter how great the deal or sales pitch was.  This is what many businesses try to do on social media.  They interrupt your news feed with advertisement that the consumer does not want to see.

Now, it is no secret.  Everyone is on social media today and cell phones have increased this activity by thousands of percent.  Thus, in order for businesses and marketers to increase their reach; they cannot abandoned social media and review sites.  However, they have to create a great strategy to allow their message to be seen without rudely shoving this message down a virtual throat.  If only there was a way that companies could get their customers to share their great experiences with all of their friends and family. 

DeliveryMaxx has created a patent-pending solution that allows any entity to make it easy and desirable for the consumer to share their wonderful experience.  It’s very simple and doesn’t interfere with the normal sales or service process of the company.  In fact, companies that implement the DeliveryMaxx solution see a positive change in culture and have the ability to meet the demands of Social Media Marketing, Online Reputation and Content Management.  For more information on how DeliveryMaxx can customize a program for your company contact us at www.deliverymaxx.com or call 888.936.6299.

Content Content Content

For decades real estate professionals have been pounding home the phrase that opening a new business is all about… Location Location Location.  This phrase or concept dates back to as early as 1926 or even earlier.  The internet has made it commonplace for businesses to reach customers from around the world and with the advent of social media digital marketing is all the rage.  When designing a digital marketing plan or simply starting a new business, yes it’s that fundamental, every business owner or manager should consider several factors when deciding what and when to launch a campaign.  There are several types of marketing campaigns to consider, but here we are talking about digital marketing and more specifically content marketing.

Every post every picture for that matter every word that is said about a business or product is now an opportunity to introduce oneself or said product to the marketplace.  Customers are not only right around the corner, but now sit just a click away.  I’m not going to bore with details and statistics of why ecommerce is so important and explain the complexities of what makes for a good website, if you’ve made it this far you already understand these things.  What we are going to discuss is that in the digital age location matters, just not that much.  Online marketing programs are all about CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT, and did I mention CONTENT.

So where are you getting your digital content from?

Blogs are and excellent source to increase the number of mentions and backlinks to your respective address and in many cases this is the primary driver for original content most businesses use.  Blogs must be original and always include a message that speaks directly to the audience you wish to show up in your show room.  Blogs are also a great opportunity to share accomplishments as well as community spirit/service activities.  This is the best place to show case your business to the ever so discriminating public.  In short Blogs are your way of describing you.

Press Releases are much like blogs in that they provide the reader or prospective customer with a summary about you and/or your business.  The biggest difference here is that you don’t have control over the message.

Reviews/Online Reputation is all about what others are saying about you.  It’s pretty simple to maintain a positive online reputation, simply treat customers correctly and deliver on promises as stated when stated.  There are countless numbers of online reputation companies promising to “fix” businesses reputation.  Be wary of anyone that says they can get you reviews or have negative words that are being said about you removed from one site or another.  Simple fact is you are who your customers say you are and in most cases perhaps even better.  In general 95% plus of the people businesses serve would return to that business or even refer a friend, but statistics show that less than 3% share that information in a public forum.  What about the other 5% that for one reason or another were not satisfied??  You guessed and overwhelming number of those tell everyone.  You need to find a program that will capture more of the 95%ers.

Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.) could take up an entire article, and there are plenty already out there, on how to utilize it for ecommerce but here it’s all about content.  Every post is an opportunity to add content about your business.  Unfortunately businesses fall into the trap of posting useless information just to fill a page every day.  Posting services sell or shall I say prey on managers and owners selling them on their “need” to have daily posts.  Here’s the secret… If it doesn’t point directly back to your businesses internet space then it is just filler.  There is content everywhere within the everyday activities of each organization that utilize third parties to create their social footprint.  What if each employee had the ability to create effective content that was a direct reflection of that organization and could show honest and current interactions with customers.  That company would now have an edge that no third party provider could provide.  

Recently, DeliveryMaxx was chosen for the 2015 Best of Rockwall for Management Consulting Services due to the program meeting all of their client’s marketing and advertising needs.

DeliveryMaxx is a privately held company providing social media marketing, web-based solutions, customer retention, and other advertising services and is based in Rockwall, Texas.  DeliveryMaxx is the preferred provider for companies needing to improve web presence, online reputation, customer satisfaction, sales, and innovative strategies that enables them to confidently deploy their mission-critical products and services in today’s competitive environment for market share.

For additional information about the company or its products and services, visit www.deliverymaxx.com or contact (888) 936-6299.

Content Marketing Doesn't Work

This may seem like an odd article coming from someone who makes their living in the content marketing world. But when I say that content marketing doesn’t work, it’s true. It doesn’t work for many companies because they either have the wrong expectations or the wrong creation and promotion strategies. And when content marketing isn’t deployed correctly, it doesn’t work.

Content marketing is a bit of a buzz word. The idea has been around for a long time, but it’s recently garnered attention as social media and SEO have started valuing content more and more. Add to this the fact that customers are doing more research before they make a purchase, and you can see why content marketing is getting more attention than ever before.

In the chart you can see that content marketing has actually surpassed search engine optimization (SEO) and pay per click (PPC) in search popularity. In fact, of the big four digital mediums, it trails only social media marketing in current interest.

But What Is Content Marketing?

The dangers of trends is that there is a lot of misinformation around what the trend really is. Because of this, I’ve seen definitions of content marketing ranging from native advertising to blogging to social media. Technically these are all forms of content, and yes they are also forms of marketing, but does that make them content marketing?

For this article, let’s limit the definition of content marketing to this:

Content marketing is the act of a company, business, or organization producing and promoting informative content to engage and interact with their target audience.

Why Doesn’t It Work?

Simply put, content marketing doesn’t work because it needs two attributes to be successful, a long-term commitment and high-quality content. And both of these requirements have high demands in terms of time and effort. Because of this, they are often ignored in an attempt to make content marketing more scalable and easier to deploy.

But unlike SEO and PPC, you’re not dealing with an algorithm when it comes to content marketing. You’re dealing with the reactions and emotions of your living, breathing customers. And that can’t be gamed, hacked, or exploited. Instead, you need to plan and deploy a content marketing campaign with the same care and attention that you would any other major company initiative.

Consistency

Content marketing requires time and effort. And these are two things that are usually in short supply in most growing companies. So, how do you find them? You democratize your content creation. Instead of trying to shoulder the burden of content creation with one person or one department, the responsibilities should be spread around the company. This accomplishes two things. First, it allows the workload to be shared and ensures that there is always someone fresh ready to step up and produce content. Second, it gives your message many different perspectives and voices. This is great for keeping the content from becoming stale and tired.

Another great trick to remain consistent is to have a well-established plan going into your campaign. This means that you sit down and write up your content calendar and your promotion strategies. And you need to make these as specific as possible. Ambiguity in your calendar will open the door for dropped initiatives and forgotten tasks. So assign hard due dates and make sure that everyone sticks to them.

Finally, in order to stay consistent you have to make sure your content doesn’t become a chore for you, the producer. To do this, mix in many different types of content so you’re always working on something that challenges you in a new way. Here’s a short list of a few types of content that work great:

• Blog Posts
• Infographics
• Slide Decks
• Case Studies
• eBooks
• Whitepapers
• Videos
• Quizzes
• Audits
• ROI Calculators
• Memes and Images

As you can see, content marketing isn’t dependent on having a blog. Yes, a blog is a great tool for content marketing, but it’s only one piece of the larger puzzle.

Once you have a consistent plan, you now need to focus on the quality of the content.

Quality

When it comes to the quality of your content, I like to liken it to the décor of your home. You want to produce content that you’d be proud to take home and hang on the wall. If you wouldn’t be caught dead with your content adorning your house, then you shouldn’t be using it to try and engage with your customers.

For the penny pinchers out there, it’s an unfortunate fact that you often get what you pay for when it comes to content creation. This doesn’t mean you can’t outsource your content creation, but you should expect to get what you pay for. That’s why for smaller companies it’s usually a better idea to create their content in-house.

So, whether you’re outsourcing your content creation or taking care of it internally, you need to ensure that you’re producing content on the right topics. To do this, you need to put yourself in your customer’s shoes. At our firm we use in-depth buyer personas and customer journeys to give us an idea of who our target audience is and what we should produce.

Once you know who they are you want to help them. You do this by solving their problems. So, instead of producing content that’s all about you and your company, you should produce content that answers questions and helps them solve the challenges they face. As I’ve stated many times before, no one wants to download your brochure.

And don’t scrimp on the details. There have been many studies that the content that’s shared and engaged with the most is long-form, in-depth pieces that are supported by research and statistics.

This means you shouldn’t be killing yourself to produce new content every single day. But rather, you should focus on producing high-quality pieces. As long as you’re doing that consistently, then arbitrary cadences don’t matter as much.

The Proof Is In The Pudding

A friend of mine, Jake Baadsgaard, who owns a conversion optimization and PPC company called Disruptive Advertising, realized early on how much impact content marketing had on his marketing efforts. And we’re talking about a guy who works with PPC every day. Be that as it may, he knows that his PPC efforts are much more effective when they’re supported by content marketing.

“We have one of the most active and informative blogs in the PPC industry. And it produces great results for us in terms of traffic and customer engagement. But the temptation to short-cut the content production and promotion was a major challenge I needed to overcome. But a dedication to writing and planning has allowed us to stick to our guns and produce content that we’re proud of and that we know our customers want to engage with.”

Jake is not a natural content marketer. He would rather spend time on marketing activities that can be easily quantified and graphed in an Excel sheet. But his blog has been active for over a year and the posts they publish are long-form with great insights and research. This has led to syndication of the content, speaking opportunities, and interview requests. But without that commitment to quality and consistency, he wouldn’t have experienced those fringe benefits.

Put It All Together

So the next time you hear someone tell you that they don’t see the value in content marketing and that they never saw results for their efforts, they’re probably right. Because as I’ve outlined in this article, content marketing won’t work unless you focus on what’s important and have a long-term plan for success.

Original article can be found at http://www.forbes.com/sites/miketempleman/2015/08/17/content-marketing-doesnt-work/ 

DeliveryMaxx has the answers and tools you need to successfully create the content you need to work for your business.  For more information visit http://www.deliverymaxx.com 

Chelle Smith - Digital Marketing Manager - Huffines Auto Dealerships - D...