This week on The Lede …

• What really works on Twitter
• One thing social media copywriters should never do
• 9 productive social media hacks
• A reminder of the power of the original social media

If you just can’t wait for The Lede every Saturday, and you want even more practical, useable links than the seven we highlight here every week, follow @copyblogger on Twitter. It’s painless. Really.

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9 Social Media Hacks You Need to Embrace Now
Mr. Baer makes a good case that though social media is inexpensive in monetary terms, it can get good and costly when it comes to spending your time and brain power. His 9 “hacks” can help keep you sane and productive in the fast, fast digital world we run in.

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100 Ways to Become a Twitter Power User
Mr. Patel is on a content tear lately, not just cranking it out, but cranking out the good stuff. The headline of his article says it all, and you’d do your Twitter efforts a service to give it the once over. From how to generate more retweets, to becoming a more interesting Twitter writer, this one is well worth an hour.

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The Basics of Pinterest for Content Marketers
Pinterest, Pinterest, Pinterest. It’s on the tip of many tongues these days, for good reason: it’s driving quality traffic. If you’re a content marketer with a visual bent, you should get over there and start pinning. But first check out the infographic above …

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Copywriters Should Never Try to Change the Prospect’s Mind
Remember that person you used to date, how you tolerated certain personality quirks or behaviors because you were sure you could change them … eventually? Veteran copywriter Nick Usborne shows you why it didn’t work back then, and why you shouldn’t try to do it now, in your business. Hint: It’s impossible.

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What Works on Twitter: The Definitive, Data-Driven Guide
It’s official, people on Twitter don’t care what you ate for lunch. What works? If you’ve been reading Copyblogger for any amount of time, the answer to that question won’t come as a surprise. At all. We’ve been preaching this very thing for more than six years …

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Email Newsletters are a Serious Business
Email: the original social media. By collecting and briefly analyzing a few top email newsletters publishing today, Mr. Baptiste has given us an important reminder — sexy does not always sell (best). Do you publish an email newsletter? Are you reaching out to your customers and fans on a regular schedule via email? If not, you’re leaving money on the table, and why would you want to do that?

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How to Create a Powerful Password You Can Actually Remember
The greatest plague that Social Media hath wrought? Passwords. There are a few great password management tools out there (that you should definitely be using), but xkcd brings us back to the old school in this cartoon. As always, the old school is simple, and it confuses the hell out of hackers and their big, bad hacking machines. Yeah.

Did you miss anything on Copyblogger this week?

• How to Grow Your Freelance Writing Business by Working Less
• 5 Ways Writers Can Break Out of the Tired Old Social Media Box
• 10 Content Marketing Goals Worth Pursuing
• What Zappos Can Teach You About Becoming Irresistible to Customers
• Even if Blogging Drools, Online Content Rules

About the Author: Robert Bruce is Copyblogger Media’s copywriter and resident recluse.

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What if most of the business world stopped blogging tomorrow?

Would you stop as well?

No, if that happened, you’d find yourself sitting on the opportunity of a lifetime. Social networking sites would explode with likes and retweets and pins and +1s of your original content all day long.

This is why the annual “blogging is dead” claim is so dumb. Even if it were true, your continued content production would dominate the web in every way.

So, instead of worrying about the latest, hottest, trend or alarming decline of the moment, stay the course.

Original content creation is the present — and the future — of online marketing.

In this episode, Brian Clark and I discuss:

• Has blogging peaked?
• The clear future of online marketing
• What Twitter wants, and how to give it
• Is the online playing field really even?
• Why it doesn’t matter (at all) if “blogging” dies
• What even the major brands are focusing on right now

Hit the flash player below to listen now:

Other listening options:

• Click here to download the mp3 | 25.1 MB | 20:49
• Click here to subscribe via iTunes
• Click here for the RSS feed (non iTunes)
• Click here for the show archive

The Show Notes:

• Internet Marketing for Smart People Course (free)
• Content Marketing 101
• Blogging Declines Across the Inc. 500
• Why You Want To Be the Last Blog Standing
• Be Better at Twitter: The Definitive, Data-Driven Guide
• 10 Content Marketing Goals Worth Pursuing
• Do not click this link
• We left the building with Girl Talk …

About the Author: Robert Bruce is Copyblogger Media’s copywriter and resident recluse.

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What can a well-run shoe store teach you about your own online business?

Well, everything.

If you’ve ever bought anything from the mega online shoe store Zappos, or if you’ve so much as heard them mentioned, the word that comes to mind is probably service.

But there’s more to the Zappo’s secret sauce than free shipping and some nice people on the phone.

They embody three important lessons that any blogger, online marketer, or small business owner can learn … and start finding customers that don’t just like you, they love you.

Let’s look at each, and how you can apply them to your business.

1. It all starts with passion and purpose

You might think it would be hard to imbue a shoe store with meaning. But Zappos does it.

A lot of companies have a mission statement. Nearly all of them are lame. Instead of another dreary statement about “synergy” and “excellence,” Zappos lives what they call their core values, which include things like “create fun and a little weirdness,” and “be humble.”

It all originates with founder Tony Hsieh’s insatiable curiosity and penchant for doing work he loves.

What Zappos does comes from their culture — and that culture is grounded in those core values. The two cannot be separated.

Without their core values, Zappos is just one of a million e-commerce sites. With them, they become something remarkable.

We have an environment where we empower our employees to do what’s best for the customer with minimal policies and hoops to jump through in order to do it. It’s about giving them a purpose to their job as opposed to just answering questions and taking orders.
~ Maura Sullivan, Senior Manager of Zappos’ Customer Loyalty team

Whether you’re running a company of one or one hundred, you need to have some values beyond “I need to book three new clients this week.”

Integrity and a sense of purpose are highly attractive to customers, and they make your business a lot more enjoyable to run.

2. Everything is customer service

Every action you take — the design of your web site, your content, how you answer email — communicates something to your customer. About serving her. About helping her.

It’s about under-promising and over-delivering.

At Zappos, the customer loyalty team is empowered to regularly go above and beyond to make the customer feel important and special.

This can mean a care package, random freebies thrown in with your order, or anything else they feel like doing.

Again, Sullivan says,

Our employees don’t have to be passionate about shoes, or anything else we sell, but they need to be passionate about service and helping people. That’s where great customer experiences come about — being able to help someone, it can change their day — even if it was just a pair of shoes.

When you bake surprise and delight into your business model, people talk about that. A lot. This is the secret to being a truly remarkable business. Accomplishing the unexpected is the norm.

When you see everything you do as service (and therefore, as marketing), everything you do will become just a little better. And customers will notice.

3. Keeping a lean state of mind

Some web startups are run like the former Soviet Union. Lots of rules. Lots of processes. And not much reward for going outside the lines.

And then there are those Fortune 500 companies that function like family businesses. (Some of them still are.)

The difference is mindset.

Unencumbered by organizational bureaucracy, Zappos’ employees are free to do the work they signed up for. Sure, they’ve got manuals and policies, but those only exist to help employees help customers.

Being this nimble is a choice.

And, admittedly, it can be a challenge at times, especially for a company the size of Zappos.

So how do they do it?

Communication is key, especially when making a change or something that will affect the day to day. In a company that is constantly reinventing and redefining itself, making sure everyone is up to date and on the same page is crucial.

Stay nimble. Stay flexible. And as you reinvent and redefine yourself, communicate with the people who need to know about it — your customers, and your employees if you have them.

You may even want to go the Copyblogger route with your business plan, and start talking to your customers before you have something to sell.

Make sure those lines of communication are open. This is as important on the day you start as the day you sell your business to Amazon for umpty million dollars.

What’s compelling about Zappos is their focus on connection. From the “top” down, it’s all about relationships.

They make sure passion and purpose are the fuel for all the work they do, and they never forget that the business lives or dies on how well they serve the customer.

You can do the same.

How about you?

Is there something you admire about Zappos that you’d like to do more of in your business? Let us know about it in the comments.

About the Author: Jeff Goins is a writer, idea guy, and online marketer. You can connect with him on his blog Goins, Writer or follow him on Twitter @jeffgoins. He is currently working on his first book. To read about his journey from blogger to book author, check out his free eBook Every Writer’s Dream: How to Never Pitch Your Writing Again.

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Ever wonder why content marketing works so well for some businesses … and doesn’t seem to do anything at all for others?

Curious about why some content that seems great doesn’t do anything to build the business?

“Content is king” has been an online cliché for years now, but it’s not true. It’s never been true.

Content all by itself — even terrific content — is just content.

It may be entertaining. It may be educational. It may contain the secret to world peace and fresh, minty breath, all rolled into one.

But it has no magical powers. It won’t transform your business or get you where you need to go, until you add one thing …

Content marketing is a meaningless exercise without business goals.

What makes content marketing work?

To make content work, you need to understand your marketing and business goals. Then you can create content that serves those goals, instead of just giving your audience something to pass the time.

Your blog posts, email marketing, special reports, podcasts, advertising … all of it needs to fit into a larger picture.

Now if you blog purely for creative self expression, go ahead and write as the spirit moves you.

But if you’re using content to market a business, you need a strategic framework so you can get the most out of your time and hard work.

Here are 10 of the business goals that drive our content marketing at Copyblogger Media. You might focus on just one or two, or you may use all 10. As you read through the list, see which of these you can apply to your own marketing plan.

Goal 1. To build trust and rapport with your audience

This is the most obvious use of content marketing, and it’s a good one.

When you create useful, interesting, and valuable content, your audience learns they can trust you. They see that you know your topic. They get a sense of your personality and what it would be like to work with you.

Lack of trust kills conversion. An abundance of valuable content builds trust like nothing else.

But too many marketers stop there. In fact, it’s just the beginning.

Goal 2. To attract new prospects to your marketing system

We all had it drilled into our heads by Mr. Godin when we were just baby content marketers: You’ve gotta be remarkable.

Your content has to be compelling enough that it attracts links, social media sharing, and conversation.

Why? Because that’s how new people find you.

No matter how delightful your existing customers are, you need a steady stream of new prospects to keep your business healthy.

Remarkable content that gets shared around the web will find your best new prospects for you, and lead them back to everything you have to offer.

Goal 3. To explore prospect pain

No, you’re not doing this to be a sadist.

The fact is, most enduring businesses thrive because they solve problems.

They solve health problems, parenting problems, money problems, business problems, technology problems, “What should I make for dinner” problems.

When you understand your prospect’s problems, you understand how to help them, and you have the core of your marketing message.

Strategic content dives into the problems your prospects are facing. What annoys them? What frightens them? What keeps them awake at night?

A smart content marketing program leaves room for audience questions. These might come in email replies, blog comments, or you may hold Q&A sessions or webinars specifically to solicit questions.

Listen to the problems your market asks you about, and use those as a compass to guide your future content.

Goal 4. To illustrate benefits

Obviously, we don’t dig up prospect problems and leave it at that.

We talk about solutions.

We talk about what fixes those annoying problems. Techniques, tips, tricks, methods, approaches.

If you have a viable business, you have a particular take on solving your market’s problems. Your individual approach is the flesh and blood of your content marketing.

Your “10 Ways to Solve Problem X” post shows the benefits of your approach.

Your special report illustrates how you solve problems, and shows customers what they get out of working with you.

Strategic content doesn’t just tell a prospect “My product is a good way to solve your problem.” It shows them. And that’s a cornerstone persuasion technique.

Goal 5. To overcome objections

Your prospect is looking for ways to solve his problem, but he’s also keeping an eye out for potential problems.

Strategic content can be a superb way to address prospect objections — the reasons they don’t buy.

Is price a pain point? Write content showing that implementing your solutions saves money in the long run.

Do your customers think your product will be too complicated to use? Write content that shows customers going from zero to sixty … painlessly.

Understand the objections that keep customers from buying, then think about creative ways to resolve those objections in content — often before the buyer ever gets to that sales page.

Goal 6. To paint the picture of life with your product

Ad-man Joe Sugarman was one of the great early practioners of content marketing. He was a master of long-copy magazine ads for his company JS&A (a consumer gadget company), ads that were often as interesting and compelling as the magazine articles they appeared next to.

In his Copywriting Handbook, he described how he might approach writing an ad for a Corvette.

Feel the breeze blowing through your hair as you drive through the warm evening. Watch heads turn. Punch the accelerator to the floor and feel the burst of power thta pins you into the back of your countour seat. Look at the beautiful display of electronic technology right on your dashboard. Feel the power and excitement of America’s super sports car.

Sugarman isn’t describing the car. He’s describing the experience of the driver.

Sugarman was a master at mentally putting the customer into the experience of owning the product … whether that product was a pocket calculator, a private jet, or a multi-million dollar mansion.

It works very nicely in an ad. It works even better in your content.

Storytelling is one of the best content marketing strategies, and it’s a superb way to let customers mentally “try out” your offer before they ever experience it for themselves. Use content to show what it’s like to own your product or use your service.

Case studies are terrific for this, as are any stories that show how your approach to problem-solving works. Pick up Sugarman’s book for lots of ideas about how to create fascinating content for products that might not immediately suggest a fascinating story.

Goal 7. To attract strategic partners

Once upon a time, Copyblogger was one writer.

No software business. No marketing education business. No premium WordPress themes or hosting.

From very early days, the quality of the content posted here has attracted strategic partners — the partners Brian Clark worked with to create every line of revenue-generating business we have today.

Eventually, that evolved into the creation of a new company — Copyblogger Media. The partnership brings together a great complement of skills, and together we can go farther and faster than Brian could have on his own.

Whatever your business goals are, partnerships are often the smartest way to get there. When you’re passionate about creating excellent content, you’ll find that potential partners are attracted to that passion.

Goal 8. To deepen loyalty with existing customers

This one is probably my favorite.

Every company needs to attract new customers. But the biggest growth potential in most businesses comes from building a tighter relationship with your existing customers.

A solid base of referral and repeat business is the hallmark of a great business. Even if you never did any content marketing to anyone other than your customers, you could radically improve your business by improving the communication you have with your customers today.

Create a richer experience for the people who have already bought from you. Make your products and services work better by pairing them with useful, user-friendly content.

Don’t treat the waitress better than you do your date. Give great stuff to the people who have already bought from you, and they’ll reward you for it.

Goal 9. To develop new business ideas

Your content stream is a fantastic place to try out new ideas.

Thinking about re-positioning your key product? Trying to better define your unique selling proposition? See a new problem on the horizon that your customers might want you to solve?

Get those ideas into your content, and see how people react. You can watch what excites people, and what fizzles out.

Business writer Jim Collins talks about firing bullets, then cannonballs. In other words, when you get a new idea for your business, fire off something low-risk to test the waters.

Don’t start firing your big ammunition until you’re sure you can actually hit the target. (And that there’s a target there to hit.)

Content is an amazing low-risk way to try out your ideas while risking very little. Your audience will let you know with their reactions which ideas fire them up, and which ones leave them cold.

Goal 10. To build your reputation with search engines

Lots of content creators think this is reason #1 to create content — but if you put this in the wrong place, you’ll probably struggle with SEO.

That’s because search engines find you valuable when readers find you valuable.

Search engines are looking for content that’s valuable to their users. If you create that type of content, your SEO battle is 9/10 done.

So put the first 9 content marketing goals first, and the 10th becomes a matter of relatively simple SEO optimization.

How about you?

What’s the main thing you’re looking to get out of content marketing? Do you have a content marketing goal you don’t see here?

Let us know in the comments.

About the Author: Sonia Simone is co-founder and CMO of Copyblogger Media. Share your brilliant content marketing goals with her on twitter.

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