Here are some of our most Frequently Asked Questions (F.A.Q). We hope you find this list useful. If you would like to set a meeting to discuss Content Media and Social Media for your business specifically, please give us a call during office hours on 0845 2264 247 or email us via mail@marketingfundamentals.com

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Content Marketing

What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is what we do at Marketing Fundamentals Ltd. We create value-added content for our clients, primarily B2B businesses and entrepreneurs, to promote their business. Content typically takes the form of blog and video content which attracts potential leads and customers to your business, but can also include white papers, executive guides, webinars and infographics.

Good content marketing strategy and implementation includes a content audit, creating an effective content strategy, content development, content distribution, lead nurturing and content analytics. Content marketing plans should be focused on the creation of long term relationships with prospects over time. Content should also be created to engage with existing clients over and above the ongoing project work that you will plan and execute for them. For more about content marketing, watch our video here.

What are the 4 Roles of a Content Marketing Agency?

There are primarily four roles and responsibilities of a content marketing firms, although these roles may differ from client to client.

The first is to execute smart content strategies. Strategising is important for every business. Content marketing agencies formulate innovative strategies which gives an extra edge to your firm. They will also segment your customers according to their needs and interests. With the help of an Agency you can develop the roadmap to a superb content plan that addresses all the customer segments perfectly. For content to stand out, the strategy needs to be creative. When the customer and the Agency work collaboratively, there is a greater chance of creating content that is powerful, relevant and can ultimately be used for lead generation activities.

Agencies then must create and produce the content. It might sound easy, but in practice, the actual procedure of creating and producing content is probably the greatest role which a content marketing agency has to fulfil. Agencies can create content by understanding their client, their client’s business and the key challenges of their customers. The resulting content can be produced in the form of a blog, an infographic, an e-book or even an e-journal. Finally, it is our responsibility to keep the content in sync with current SEO standards. There are many regular search engine updates as a consequence SEO has evolved. At the end of the day, each piece of content you produce needs to be published. Even if your content is terrific, it needs proper promotion. Agencies ensure that your Content is optimised and then distributed on the most effective Social Media platforms for your business.

Want more detail? You can find more information on the roles of a content marketing agency here.

How do Digital Marketing Agencies Help you Achieve Your Business Goals?

Marketing agencies target the right platforms, ensure your content is optimised for SEO and SMM, plan your content requirements and provide practical value from your digital campaigns.

As a business owner or brand manager, you know your audiences by now and have a list to target. However, an Agency will identify the right platforms to target your marketing campaign. If you know where your customers are, deciding on which platform to use will be easier. For this purpose, digital marketing agencies use several media. The first one is social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Google+. Then, you have options of targeted advertising, emails, newsletters and other forms of online marketing that are used by professionals to create a holistic strategy. We can help you decide on the best strategy for your business.

Search engine optimization and social media marketing are also crucial parts of online marketing, and agencies and professionals know their function. Unless the product/service reaches the right medium and has the scope of connecting with customers, almost all other efforts are futile. Keeping in mind the needs of search engine ranks and traffic, digital marketing experts are now offering everything for clients in the nutshell.

When your content has been published, we can help you judge the effectiveness of the digital marketing strategy. Here, the team working for you will use Google analytics, Facebook analytics, and various other analytics tools to analyse campaign effectiveness and ROI. Digital marketing agencies bring in expertise and experience which mean you can focus on your core business without having to worry about the details of digital marketing. This will quicken the learning curve. The scope of these agencies is huge, with their sophisticated methods, they are adding more value for every business. Sometimes, spending on digital marketing in the right perspective can mean more benefits in the long run. Read more about how the Marketing Fundamentals Team can help you achieve your business goals here.

How Does Content Marketing Help B2B Businesses Generate Leads?

Content marketing has become the next big thing for both B2B and B2C companies, although the techniques and approaches are widely varied and dissimilar. For B2B businesses, content marketing is like a funnel, which works by filtering prospects into a funnel comprised of potential buyers by slowly inching them towards making a deal. If you have not reaped the benefits of content marketing in your B2B model as yet, here’s what you should know to get the campaign right.

In the past, many B2B models worked simply on sales activities, which were based on both inbound and outbound marketing techniques. That time has passed. Today, businesses don’t really look ahead to sales-based promotion, because they are interested in better content, which provides value to prospects. In short, the target of your business doesn’t need to change, but the approach must. Content marketing should not merely work in gross terms but must serve as a tool to understand how your targeted segment is reacting to the same. This is precisely where you would think of hiring a digital marketing agency that can work towards building a customized content marketing tool and plan that can work in the right perspective.

Content marketing agencies help you to create varied and unique programmes, which includes content audit, creating a content strategy, content development, content distribution, lead nurturing and B2B content analytics. With a precise methodology, your digital team will work on insight and data at every step, and keep continuing the process iteratively. Sounds complicated? Well, most businesses are already reaping the benefits. Starting with a professional agency only reduces the time between efforts and results. The earlier a business adapts to the market trends and gets the fundamentals of content marketing right, the better is the work through the funnel, which certainly adds to more prospects, leads and finally conversions. Read more about how we can help you generate leads for your business here.

How Long Does Content Marketing Take to Work?

Building trust in business as in life cannot be done overnight. Unfortunately, many of us have encountered people who have not delivered all they promised. The good news is that Content Marketing will build up trust and generate new leads and customers in six months. That means six months of weekly blog posts and Social Media Marketing activity will deliver new leads and enquiries. In the business sectors that we work in on behalf of our clients the return on investment can be very healthy with new customer contracts worth millions of pounds in some cases. Of course this will depend on the sector or niche that you are in. There is a great opportunity for you to reap the rewards of a successful Content Marketing Strategy because many of your competitors are not publishing content consistently, or are focusing on the wrong Social Media platforms. You can read more about how long it takes to see the results of content marketing here.

How much time Should I Spend on Content Marketing Each Week?

For each client, the most effective strategy will differ slightly but generally speaking you should publish one blog post per week. You should allow time for research and adding keywords and metatags on your website. The best way to ensure that this gets done is to schedule it into your work diary as a recurring meeting. This should take around 1- 2.5 hours weekly.

Depending on your sector there will be preferred Social Media platforms. Often for companies with a B2B focus, Twitter and LinkedIn are great platforms to use – as is YouTube. On your daily task list should be some time spent each day engaging and interacting with your audience. For the best results, don’t be constantly logged in to these platforms but instead focus on bursts of activity when your audience is most receptive. You should dedicate around 30 mins – 1 hour each day.

When your have written a few blog posts and uploaded them you may then feel confident to begin creating video content as well. Please note – it is not essential in the early stages unless of course that is the sector in which you are operational. For most businesses the addition of the occasional short video adds variety to their Content Marketing and enables them to create more impact and engagement. Producing video content will take you around – 1 – 2 hours weekly. For more detail, read our post on this subject here.

Who Should Create Your B2B Content Marketing?

There are several choices for who could create your content marketing: your in house marketing staff, recruit interns, a copywriter, or a content marketing agency. Of these, hiring a content marketing agency is the choice most likely to deliver success because you are accessing a team of people specifically focused on the creation and distribution of Content to generate leads and customers. They are not trying to ‘fit in’ content creation to their already busy task list. Content is their focus. Here’s a few reasons why the others are less likely to consistently produce results.

Giving your marketing officer the responsibility of creating Content Marketing for your business means they are likely not to have the requisite skill set or time to create engaging Content Marketing. According to this Social Media Examiner report, writing is still the bedrock of Content Marketing and marketing managers are not all natural born writers. They are often hired for their analytical and project management capabilities rather than their ability to create Content. Giving the role to an intern might be equally tempting. Millennials seem to understand Social Media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook etc more than Generation X so why not hire some and give the responsibility for Content and Social Media? Millennials can be great additions to your team but they are not naturally imbued with a special power that enables to create excellent Content and use Social Media effectively. Yes, they are statistically more likely to understand the basic functionality of Twitter or Snapchat but this will not make them Content Marketing Experts.

Hiring a new member of staff with a remit for Content Marketing is another popular choice. This could be someone with a writing background who will take an editorial approach and is possibly more “hands on,” or someone from a project management perspective who will build the right team to deliver your Content Marketing Plan. This approach is a one of the best options. You are taking on board a specialist resource to plan and execute your company‘s Content Strategy. Depending on the personnel this route is likely to deliver two of the key benefits of Content Marketing to your business – leads and customers. Still, hiring a specialist Content Marketing Agency is the safest option because they will know what works with your potential customers and the most effective Social Media platforms to reach them. From a cost perspective hiring a Content Marketing Agency will be more cost effective than hiring a Head of Content Marketing and they can work with existing marketing staff. Read more factors that affect this important decision for your business here.

How can Content help with Professional Services Marketing?

Firms achieve three primary goals by engaging in content marketing: (1) Showcase sensitivity regarding topics of interests for clients and target audiences; (2) Interact with the audience and hold their attention; (3) Foster loyalty.

A firm’s interaction with its clients and customers is dependent upon the relevance of its content and the frequency with which such content is updated. Content marketing helps tune customers and prospects into the firm’s own way of thinking and if pursued correctly, it may lead to prospects choosing and hiring the firm without any overt solicitation from the firm. The concept underlying all of this is that if a firm manages to build an interactive and loyal audience which awaits updated content and discusses the information presented in the content, then that firm will have a much easier time closing sales.

Content marketing works best when firms offer a lot of information for free. This information could be in the form of blog posts and articles or regularly sent newsletters and discussions on social media platforms. If the prospect desires to read more or find out more detailed information, then a fair trade of information should be done. This fair trade implies that the viewer trades his name and his email address for more detailed information. The viewer gets his information and so does the firm. Want to know the value of webinars versus articles, or e-newsletters versus e-books? Read more here.

Inbound Marketing

What is Inbound Marketing? Does my company need Inbound Marketing?

Unlike outbound marketing that aims at getting leads and audiences from different zones, inbound marketing is more about targeted approach. The idea is to get the attention of the prospect, and for that, there is no hard selling. The techniques and strategies used for inbound marketing is varied and often poles apart from conventional marketing. Irrespective of whether it’s for a B2B model or a B2C business, inbound marketing works for one and all, with results that are much more scalable. Still wondering on whether your company needs inbound marketing? Check the reasons for more valid consideration here.

How Does an Inbound Marketing Agency Help to Grow Your Business?

When you consult an inbound Marketing Agency you realise that inbound marketing is a strategy that delivers leads and sales momentum into your business through the use of Content and SEO. However, there are no short cuts here, and nothing works like a wand; inbound marketing takes time and skill to execute.

An inbound marketing agency not only works on creating posts and blogs, but they take the time to understand the core proposition of your business, the positioning of your brand and analyse which marketing platforms can help you get the maximum visitors. They identify marketing tools and techniques that are relevant to your business. Apart from dealing with blogging and social media accounts, agencies create content, infographics and a lot more. They may also deal with conversion funnel optimisation techniques such as lead generation forms, A/B Testing and analysing performance through sophisticated marketing analytics. In other words, agencies understand your industry dynamics, competition and target market and help you create and execute a strategy that delivers better results. An inbound marketing agency promises to give your business the right presence in front of your target audience that can enhance the chances of business growth exponentially. Still not convinced? Read more about how inbound agencies can help grow your business here.

Social Media

B2B Social Media – Is it relevant for B2B Businesses?

The short answer? Absolutely. A strong presence on social media platforms which are popular for your prospects is key to any good B2B content distribution strategy.

Today, any B2B marketing professional would be honest enough to confess on how he/she is using LinkedIn. The growth LinkedIn, as well as Twitter and YouTube, for professional use has meant that B2B businesses can now rely on these social channels for new and valuable business connections.

Just being active on social media doesn’t guarantee results however; what is essential is the right content strategy. Building brand awareness is a complicated task, where budget and strategies are to be even-handed. There are many B2B marketing execs who rely on click ads to a good extent, but unless the budget is large enough, this can be tough at producing consistent results. It is wise to consider the ‘visibility factor.’ Placing content in the right places (including social media) means you can balance ads with content to bring quality visibility. Brand awareness in B2B sector is created over time, and that needs consistent and unrelenting efforts from the team. To understand better how B2B social media is different for B2B companies, read our relevant post here.

How Can Businesses Use Social Media Effectively to Generate Leads?

Brands are smart enough to know how to use the right elements on their side and get the desired results. One of the inevitable aspects of a business is lead generation, most businesses are not using social media effectively for this purpose. Getting leads on social media may seem to be the easiest task, but requires perception and a fundamental understanding of how the web works. Businesses that have managed to do the same are the ones that have gone vocal with the marketing techniques online.

Before understanding how businesses are using social media successfully for getting leads, one has to understand the various social media platforms that matter. Obviously the kind of platform one chooses depends on the type of business. A social media platform which works for one may not work for the other. For a more specific take on online lead generation from the most prominent social media sites – Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn click here.

Professional Services

How is Content Marketing More Effective Than Your Credentials Presentation?

Let’s imagine that you are the owner or work for a professional services company – no need to imagine for most of you because we know that is exactly what you do. Your customers are business to business customers.Our clients are people like you and we enjoy helping you to build your businesses. Let’s assume it is your responsibility to attract and secure new business.

What methods are you using to do this? Are you contacting companies directly? Finding out the decision-maker and attempting to book a meeting? Are you sending a generic email to a lukewarm database? A much better scenario is for the fish to jump into your keep net. This is what will happen with Content Marketing and here’s why.

You will build relationships. This is because when you create valuable Content that solves the problems of your leads and prospects you start to build a relationship with them. Your proactivity in solving your customers problems will lead to favourable comparisons with your competitors in the minds of your intended audience. You will become an authority in your niche. Let’s now consider the standard business credentials presentation. The format is fairly predictable. In such a presentation you usually cover the following information:when the company was established, what you do, how many people are employed by the company, who your most impressive clients are, who will be in team and perhaps a couple of case studies that may or may not be very relevant to the person / people you are meeting. This is all information that your prospective customer is probably only mildly interested in whereas a Content Marketing approach focuses on information your prospects are actively searching for now. A successfully executed Content Marketing strategy will lead to more prospects and more customers. To read about this process is more detail, read our relevant post here.

Marketing Fundamentals Ltd Services

Do you have any Client Testimonials?

Yes, many of our clients have left us testimonials. We’ve sampled a couple for you to read below. Want to see more? We also have client video testimonials. You can access them here.

“I had the pleasure of first connecting with Mike when we at Outlier Magazine reached out to him for an interview for our entrepreneurial podcast, Outlier On Air. Mike gave a fabulous interview which was well received and continues to gather downloads throughout the globe. His relevant knowledge about online marketing is on pace with the changing trends and he has fresh, new ideas with solid reasoning and examples to support it.

Mike has proven himself to be a serious marketer, author and content creator in the online space. We have developed a promising relationship with him and look forward to partnering with him as we grow. It is my pleasure to personally know and work with Mike and I confidently recommend his services.”

– Melinda Yeaman, Entrepreneur, Digital Marketing Consultant, Podcaster – March 6, 2014

“Mike is an exceptional marketer who understands the challenges that startups face today – and how to solve them. He has excellent ideas and strategies for creative branding and marketing. I have been in online marketing for over 12 years, have worked with some very well-known marketing professionals, and he is on a par with any of them.”

– Dani Waldrop, Artist at Yeshua’s Child Art – June 14, 2012

How can Marketing Fundamentals Ltd Help you? – 13 ways

1. Content Marketing consultancy – We create blog & Social Media Content and implement it for you leaving you to focus on your core business. We can create a bespoke plan for you dependent upon your requirements.

2. Video Content – We create video Content to promote your business and for use on YouTube / Vimeo etc.

3. Social Media Consultancy – We devise a Social Media Strategy and implement it for you. Watch a testimonial here.

4. Blog Post Writing – We create a number of posts for you and supply to you for you to upload to your site. Thirty posts is a popular number because when you have created thirty blog post traffic to your site increases by up to 30% Source: Social Media Examiner.

5. Blog Mentoring – Regular face to face sessions instructing business owners and entrepreneurs how to blog to promote their business and organisations. Booked as 12 weekly sessions and can be delivered via Skype if distance prevents face to face meetings. Note – There is homework in between each session.

6. Email Copywriting – You’ve built a mailing list but don’t really know what to say to maintain momentum? We can do this for you.

7. Company Workshops – Content Marketing & Social Media 1 day Workshops delivered at your company’s premises. Watch a testimonial here.

8. Online Blogging Course – Learn on Demand by registering for our our Udemy course How to TurboCharge Your Business with a Blog’

9. Book – Buy our ‘How to TurboCharge Your Business with a Blog’ paperback book from Amazon. There is also a Kindle version available.

10. App – Buy our SME Marketing App on App Store and Android platforms

11. Blog – Read our Marketing Fundamentals Ltd blog.

12. YouTube – Watch Marketing Fundamentals Ltd videos on our You Tube Channel.

13. Online Twitter Course: Twitter: TurboCharge Your Twitter Presence

What is it like working with Marketing Fundamentals Ltd?

Each member of the Marketing Fundamentals Team brings years of experience and an unique skill set to every project that we undertake. Coming from a diverse range of personal, professional and academic backgrounds enables the team to think broadly and creatively about all our work and to consistently approach it from a fresh angle. This leads to the creation of engaging content designed to help your business grow its online presence and ultimately generate leads.

At Marketing Fundamentals Ltd, we are guided by several core values. It is important to us that we uphold these in both our professional and personal lives. These values include integrity, dedication, loyalty, respect and being fun-loving, among others. To read all of our shared values, visit our ‘Values’ page here.

What Sort of Clients do you Work With?

Marketing Fundamentals Ltd is a B2B Content Marketing agency which means that our clients are primarily in the B2B field. However, we also occasionally work with entrepreneurs and B2C businesses who are passionate about, and committed to implementing a content marketing strategy. You can view a list of clients here.

How are Marketing Fundamentals Ltd remunerated for your services? Retainer or Project Fee?

In return for our services, we typically ask all our clients for a monthly retainer fee. In our experience this is the best type of client arrangement because it allows us to have a valuable, on-going relationship with your business where we each understand and fulfil each other’s needs. The retainer feee will differ client to client and will be dependent on the range of services that we provide for you.