With the rise in inbound marketing, more and more blogs are using white papers to promote themselves effectively. Blogs can use white papers as part of their marketing campaigns to spread expertise, generate leads, get more subscribers, and to take advantage of many other benefits. If you’re keen on learning how to write effective white papers and then use them to promote your blog, then you have to read this post!

What is a white paper?

A white paper is a cross between a magazine article and a brochure. It possesses both the educational qualities of a magazine article and the persuasive qualities of a corporate brochure. This combination of education and persuasion makes it one of the most powerful marketing tools.

How do white papers differ from guides and reports?

Guides and reports are helpful documents that usually dwell into the solution right away. There’s a brief paragraph or two as to why the guide is helpful and why they need to read the guide, and then the helpful information starts. – How to Create White Papers From Your Blog Posts and Use Them Effectively by Mitt Ray

The best time to post content with a link on Twitter is 1 to 3 p.m. EST Monday to Thursday. Over on Facebook, between 1 and 4 p.m. mid-week is the sweet spot, while Tumblr users are more likely to click after 4 p.m. and especially on Fridays. How can these networks be so different?

URL shortening service Bitly has released a series of graphs demonstrating the optimal time and day to post on each of these three social networks.

“By understanding the simple characteristics of each social network, you can publish your content at exactly the right time for it to reach the maximum number of people,” Bitly advises in their blog post announcing the data. – When to Post on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr for Maximum Effect by Miranda Miller

I put that question to Google today and I did not get an answer.  The closest I got was a checklist for a customer-centric business and a post on Amazon’s customer experience obsession.  Let’s take a look at both of these before whilst you consider the question that I have posed here.Checklist for a customer-centric business
According to the folks at YSatisfy you can determine the customer-centricity of your organisation by answering the following questions:

1.     Do your have a clear idea of  who your customers are and their needs?
2.     Do you know which of your customers are most valuable to you?
3.     Does your business strategy / mission mention anything about your customers?
4.     Do you hire / develop your staff with your customers in mind?
5.     Do you have a process by which customers and employees can give feedback and review / act on this within your business?
6.     Do you have a customer complaints process which enables quick resolution of customer problems?
7.     Are all your employees empowered to deal with customer complaints?
8.     Do you know how satisfied or loyal your customers actually are?
9.     Do you provide specific services or incentives for your most valued / loyal customers?

Do you deliver what you promise in your advertising / marketing to your customers?
This occurs to me as a list of features / characteristics as in what are the features/characteristics of a cat.   Yet, knowing the features of a cat (even if they are accurate) does not help me to locate the cat.  Where is the cat? – Where Do Customer Focus, Customer Obsession, Customer Centricity Reside in Your Organisation? by Maz Iqbal

The hype around gamification is fairly new, but the idea has been around for some time. In fact, badges and leader boards could be considered the new sweepstakes and loyalty rewards. And gamification is not just for major consumer brands and their tech-savvy 18-to-34-year-old demographic. There are examples where gamification in marketing has worked spectacularly for 50-year-old rural ranchers. In other words, any audience is up for grabs.

That said, marketers can’t just add a Groupon-style approach to something and think it’s gamified. If you’re thinking about giving gamification a test run, here are four steps to help you get it right with your next marketing campaign.

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1. Decide on the Right Opacity

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Do you want this to actually feel like a game for your customers or do you want game mechanics buried deep enough that your target may not realize why the experience is so compelling? Many game mechanics are those hidden hooks in video games that tap into psychological triggers that drive behavior. You can apply these same hooks to a marketing campaign for any audience, whether they are into traditional video games or not. If you’re still scratching your head, or if you work for an organization that doesn’t do change well, consider trying gamification lite. – 4 Tips For Gamifying Your Tired Marketing Plan by Darren Steele

“Chasing the past, I stumbled into the future”. – T A Sachs

I’ve always been a firm believer that in order to look to the future, we must look back to and fully grasp the past (and the present). Having had several recent engaging conversations with smart people who I respect, I’ve picked up a hint of exhaustion around usage of the word “social”. Could it be that some who saw the “change” coming years ago are weary of having carried that torch for so many years as we move into the heavy lifting? It’s natural to want to move to the next thing—but I’m convinced that today we are largely still talking about the “social media” era. The best of “social business” is yet to come in my opinion and we have a lot of work to do in between. Let’s take a look back before we begin to look forward.

Digital: The Interactive Revolution When I entered the workplace—the world was already in the process of going digital. E-mail was just being introduced and I had gotten a job immediately largely because I entered the business world with a valuable skill—I was taught desktop publishing (ie computer aided design) in addition to design fundamentals. The digital revolution initially begun by replacing the analogue world. Music was digital and computers offered an interactive medium to produce upon. Digital began seeping into personal and professional lives and organizations, businesses and industries had to evolve along with it. Most did and the ones that didn’t were outperformed. – Social Business: Where It’s Been & Where It’s Going by David Armano

Here are the top Internet strategy, marketing and technology links for the week of May 5, 2012… [Read more...]

Shhhh. Can you hear it? It’s the sound of yet another corporate giant falling to its knees after a tidal wave of social media criticism.

Corporate capitulation is happening with frightening regularity these days. We no longer look at the Fortune 500 as impenetrable monoliths; instead, they now appear as dominoes ready to topple at the first flick of public outcry via the Twitterverse.

When do ‘we the people’ stop having a point? And when do we as communicators stop listening to it?

Are we counseling our clients/organizations to respond because it’s the right thing to do or are we being bullied into it via the blogosphere?

Effective social media advocacy campaigns typically start with a like-minded demographic – underlining the ‘strength in numbers’ theory.  Mom bloggers first made waves with the makers of Motrin and then took public umbrage at JC Penney’s “I’m too pretty to do homework” T-shirt debacle.  In both cases, McNeil Laboratories and JC Penney bowed to the pressure and removed their campaigns. – Is It Time To Stop Listening to Social Media? by Elissa Freeman

Today’s consumers want to connect with businesses in a variety of ways, but the sophisticated consumers in your database and on your subscriber list are not willing to tolerate generic email blasts from corporations. Email campaigns must be targeted and relevant to the customer. It all starts with knowing the best email marketing tips and strategies to obtain customer data and how to reach your consumers wherever they are online.

To find out what email marketing tips are trending and showing success with list subscribers, CIO.com spoke with leading email marketing vendors and analysts to come up with this best-of-breed email marketing tactics list.

1. Capture Emails With Double Opt-In

 

“Using double opt-in forms on websites, blogs, social media pages and anywhere prospective recipients may be looking to stay in touch with you is a must,” says Paul Turnbull, product marketing manager at Campaigner. Double opt-in means the system sends a confirmation request to the submitted email address, requiring the owner to take an action—usually click a link in the email—to confirm that they are the email address owner and want to subscribe to the mail list. – 12 Best Email Marketing Tips for Professionals by Vangie Beal