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Michael Stelzner joins us for another exciting episode of Inbound Now, HubSpot's social media and inbound marketing podcast!
Michael is the founder of SocialMediaExaminer.com, author of the books Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition and Writing White Papers: How to Capture Readers and Keep Them Engaged, the popular Social Media Marketing Industry Report, and the man behind large summits, such as the Social Media Success Summit.
In this episode, we chat about:
- Attracting outside experts to help with content creation
- Leveraging fire starters to supercharge your marketing activities
- Pinpointing your correct buyer persona
- Vision statements and why they are critical
- Why your business is like a rocket ship
- Tips for creating better white papers
- Social proofing your website and why it matters
- The Elevation Principle
View the full transcript here: White Paper Best Practices & Advanced Content Creation Tips with Michael Stelzner
Enter to Win a copy of Michael's Newest Book Launch.
Attracting Outside Experts to Help With Content Creation
"This was really instrumental to the growth of Social Media Examiner in the beginning, because we were in a marketplace where we were a nobody."
An expert in your industry is someone:
- With great knowledge & insight.
- Recognizable in their space.
- Who's out there doing things and indicating that they're open to talking to folks.
- Who likely has something new to promote (a book, etc).
The key is to not just go to experts and tap their knowledge, but to rather do something for them without asking anything in return. Experts are always getting requests from people to "pick their brain", so to stand out just ask, "How can I help you?".
Experts lead to strategic alliances down the road.
Leveraging Fire Starters
"I reached out to these people and I said, 'Hey, would you like to be part of something that I'm growing here? It'll be a mutually beneficial situation for both of us.'"
Fire starters are really influential experts. All they have to say is "I suggest you check this out," and it's like dropping a match in the kerosene and all of a sudden people come. Fire starters can propel you to places you might not be able to get on your own.
Michael gives a great case study about how working with fire starters Mari Smith, Denise Wakeman, and Chris Garrett were instrumental in the success of Social Media Examiner.
Pinpointing Your Buyer Persona
"Social Media Examiner's demographic profile is a woman who is a marketer or a business owner that's between the ages of 30 and 50. She is interested in marketing, knows a decent amount about marketing, knows that social media in particular is very critical to the growth of her business, but doesn't really understand how to make it all happen, and wants to know how to use the tools and wants to cut to the chase."
Here's what you want to ask yourself:
- What do my customers have in common?
- Is there a certain industry in which they all operate or predominantly operate?
- Is there a certain kind of task they all share?
- Is there a certain gender or range of age?
- Do they share the same problems?
- Do they share the same passions?
Everything you do should always be checked against that persona. It'll help you decide on who you want to interview. It'll help you decide what you want to write about on your blog. If you find that you're off track somehow, it's probably because you've moved away from your buyer persona.
Vision Statements
"Developing a vision that is clear and something that gets everybody looking in the right direction is important for the long-term projection of your rocket ship."
First create a vision. Then set goals. Then set markers to get to those goals. Then you have a good plan in place, and you'll know exactly where you're headed.
Your Business as a Rocket Ship
"If you think of your business as a rocket ship, your goal is to keep it moving forward. Just like you have to put gasoline in your car every couple of days, if you don't put gas in there, you're not going to be able to get anywhere. Content is the fuel that you put into your business. People are what consume the fuel."
The more people that consume the fuel (content), the faster your rocket ship goes.
There are two different types of fuel:
- Primary fuel is the stuff you produce every couple of days. It's blog posts, how-to articles, interviews, case studies, or whatever content your audience wants. This type of content has a 72-hour shelf life, typically.
- Nuclear fuel is the special kinds of content that are hard to make, and you use sparingly. It's things like reports based on surveys (like the Social Media Marketing Industry Report that Social Media Examiner does) and contests. This type of content has a longer shelf life.
Creating Industry Surveys
"This is where fire starters and experts come in handy. If you've built relationships with these people, you can ask them to link to a survey."
Here's the process Michael lays out for conducting an industry survey:
- Put together your survey. Figure out what you want to know, and what you eventually want to do with the information. Also figure out what those in the industry want to know.
- Survey your readership (SurveyMonkey is a good tool to use). Try to get experts and fire starters involved by getting them to share the survey link.
- Run an analysis on the data, create charts, and put it all into a big PDF file.
- Make the PDF file easy to share by embedding a retweet button in the file itself. Make sure to put it in strategic locations (beginning, middle, and end).
Creating White Papers
"The trick to creating this kind of content is to focus on the needs of people and of a specific audience. Start by talking about the trends going on in the industry, some problems that are faced by the reader, and maybe, historically, how people have gone about solving those problems. That lures the reader into the piece. It gets them to see this isn't a pitch piece."
A white paper is a cross between an article and a brochure. It's predominantly used in the B2B world for lead generation. For more information, see Michael's white paper, How to Write a White Paper.
When writing white papers, focus on the needs of a specific audience. Talk about industry trends, problems faced by the reader, and how to solve those problems (talk about solutions in a generic way instead of pitching a specific product or service). The goal is to educate, not sell (save the selling for the last couple paragraphs).
Should you worry about giving away all this information for free in a white paper? Michael doesn't think so: "What I like to tell people is your competitors already have all the insight on you, because chances are pretty good all your confidential presentations that you gave to your customers, they've given to your competitors. The moral of the story is it's a risk/reward thing. You have to ask yourself, 'What's the risk of me not demonstrating amazing insight to a reader versus my idea being stolen?' I think that it's much riskier to not get the customer because you haven't demonstrated your expertise than it is to risk the possibility of a competitor taking a couple pages out of your playbook, because, in reality, most white papers are seven to eight pages.'"
Social Proofing Your Website
"Social proof is the concept of, if everybody else is doing it, maybe I should do it. If you think about McDonald's, 99 billion served under their sign is like this sign to everybody that, look, we've served billions of people. So if you've never been here, you may as well come, because billions of people couldn't be wrong."
Include basic social proofing on your website by showing:
- How many email subscribers you have.
- How many Twitter followers, Facebook "Likers", etc you have.
- How many times a particular article has been retweeted.
It's better to have social proofing up there (like a Facebook fan box) than not, so don't be afraid to include it even if you have low numbers.
The Elevation Principle
"The key takeaway that I talk about in the book is this thing called The Elevation Principle. The Elevation Principle is great content + other people - marketing messages = growth."
You need to create great content and work with experts to see growth. Do both of those and put your marketing messages aside.
Connect With Michael Online
You can follow Michael on Twitter
@Mike_Stelzner and connect with him on
Social Media Examiner. You can also download a free chapter of his new book,
Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition,
right here.