Hitting Content Strategy Out of the Park

By: Casey Kleekamp, UMSL MBA Student
I recently attended an UMSL Digital Marketing Seminar: “Blogs to Buzz” hosted by Danielle Smith – A digital correspondent, host, storyteller, speaker, media trainer, vlogger and author! The seminar was not only very insightful, but totally fun and engaging! I enjoyed her style (both teaching style and fashion style – ha!) so much that I immediately started following her on Twitter and Pinterest.
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Danielle shared tons of information on Blogging – the history of blogging, how marketers should be leveraging blogging, how to get started, and how to go beyond just a blog utilizing it on all social media platforms.
The takeaway from the seminar that could be applied easily and quickly to your blog and our very own UMSL Digital Mindshare Blog is Jason Calacanis’ “5 Tenets of Content Perfection.” Calacanis is an entrepreneur, blogger and keynote speaker for the digital industry worldwide (so I’d say his advice is pretty solid!).
5tenHere are the 5 Tenets. Plus, I have included ideas on how the UMSL Digital Mindshare Blog could bring them to life.
1. Speak in Real-time: Talk about current events and show that you are “in the know.” There is so much going on in our world today and there is so much news every second of the day that UMSL Digital Students should definitely be “in the know” and most importantly, be able to connect it back to UMSL and our digital marketing program. An example shared in Danielle’s class is Evernote. On their blog they wrote about Fantasy Football. Evernote and Fantasy Football you ask? After reading the blog post, it all made sense. Evernote told their readers how to get the most out of Fantasy Football by using Evernote to stay organized.
2. Think Fact-Driven: Pretty self-explanatory.
3. Use Visuals: Blog posts with images = 94% better. Pretty simple right!? Even for this blog, since unfortunately I wasn’t able to take personal photos, I used visuals that hopefully have made reading this post a little more fun?! Danielle might have thought it a tad bit weird if I was snapping photos of her during the seminar – right?
4. Be Efficient: Resources. Let’s get smart with the important questions: Who, What, When, Where, Why, How? One thing that really stood out to me in the seminar was “micro-blogging.” I love the idea that we can create a blog and then pick “pieces” of it to share out across other social platforms. Or use “story-telling” where you can write several blogs all at once on one topic and then post one blog at a time over a period of time. Seems pretty efficient to me!
5. Curate: Discover and share the best. For UMSL, we could have someone focused on looking for fun, informational and engaging content to repurpose and connect with UMSL Digital.
After reading my own post, I realize it’s not rocket science what I’m talking about here, but it does take time to get organized and plan. I hope this was helpful and that UMSL’s Digital Blog can continue to be a source of great content for digital marketers and beyond.
And just in case I didn’t say it enough – take the Digital Marketing Class and Danielle Smith’s “Blogs to Buzz” seminar as soon as you can. You will NOT be disappointed!
All seminar course descriptions and dates are here: http://umsldigital.com/courses.

4 Online Tools for Digital Marketers

By: Kathryn Todd

In a world where digital marketing is so prominent, it’s hard to decide which tools will produce the best results for your product & customer. Digital presence is now necessary for companies, and it is a huge part of the overall brand experience. It’s easy to let digital and social take over your schedule, so here are some helpful tools to streamline some of your digital marketing efforts.
Managing Multiple Social Communities
With the presence of so many social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Vine, and more, it is hard to manage all of the 512px-owly-grad-hsuposts and presences. The CMO Council states that 46% of global users go to social media to help make purchase decisions, and 71% of customers purchase from brands they are following on social media. These statistics show the huge impact social media makes on a brand and its success. Websites such as Hootsuite help manage different social media websites. This website allows users to schedule and post to up to 35 different social media platforms.
Inbound Marketing Automation
The CMO Council also states that content marketing generates 3 times as many leads as traditional outbound marketing at 62% less of a cost. Hubspot was founded in 2006 and aims to help businesses to “attract, engage, and delight customers by delivering inbound experiences that are relevant, helpful, and personalized.” This company has over 15,000 customers in over 90 companies to whom it provides blogging, social, SEO, analytics, CRM, and more.HubSpotLogo_Dark_Web_Flat
Online Creative Services
Ever wonder how brands create beautiful images for social, email or print deliverables? With companies like Canva emerging in the online graphic design space, even the novice designer can create simple and ultra-professional branding for your firm in a matter of minutes. Canva is free, with premium elements available for purchase. Start creating your visual content by using Canva’s templates or highly customize starting from a blank page. Digital options include blog graphics, cover photos, social media images and much more. Print templates include presentations, flyers, posters and invitations.
Scoring Marketing Tools
Does your inbox feel overpowered by great companies reaching out, but you don’t know where to start or who you really need? G2, a business software review platform, allows users to learn more about marketing products, compare them side by side and access full reports. Products are assigned a G2 score, a market presence score, and a satisfaction score. Viewers can see how many ratings each product has – ranging from 10 to over 800.
From start-ups to legacy companies, there are many different tools available to develop and evolve your digital brand. What are your favorite tools?

The Changing Content Marketing Landscape: An Interview With Matt Kamp

Matt Kamp

Matt KampAs every marketer knows, “Content is King”. This phrase continues to be more true each year as both search engines and consumer expectations of brands change. To help us take a deep dive into the importance and power of having a strong content strategy, we sat down with a St. Louis specialist, Matt Kamp.  Continue reading “The Changing Content Marketing Landscape: An Interview With Matt Kamp”