Blog Archives - Page 14 of 21 - Mutant Communications

Hey ho recruiters, it’s time to show the passive crowd some lovin’

News flash: Providing a tofu-smooth hiring and job seeking experience today serves as a no-brainer fundamental of a recruitment business.

If you’re reading this, you’ve probably got a business sales target you’re not meeting and your team is close to exhausting your cold call list.

It’s convenient to revisit your list, but here are two possible consequences:

An unmotivated sales team
Annoyed, cold-called recipients who will remember you – for all the wrong reasons

In other news, most companies today already have a recruitment firm of choice that they turn to in times of need, as with job candidates. Until absolutely necessary, your compelling sales pitch alone is no longer enough to move them.

Today, most recruitment business strategies still revolve around the direct business audience – the active employers and jobseekers. When we look past them, there lies an oft-neglected crowd who does not need you yet, that you should set your sights on.

Hijack them

Of course, there are many ways to bring attention to your business – attending events and conferences, sales calling and advertising. But there are also other less intrusive and subtle alternatives to get the job done.

The trick is to gather gather leads – to get people interested in what you do and to know what you can do for them.

But I’m already spending heaps on advertising?

Great job! Advertising is a surefire way of raising your brand’s visibility by leaps and bounds.

But did you also know that people are increasingly discerning about the content they consume, and that the use of ad-blocks is the heaviest amongst the millennials – the very people who are likely to be considering a career switch some time in the near future?

Now picture a portion of your marketing budget getting flushed down the toilet.

Make people come to you

To do that, you would first need to give people what they need, and by that I don’t mean another sales pitch.

People know you’re a recruitment firm. It’s time you venture deeper into this relationship with some quality content pieces, sans the jargons.

Shy away from sales speak, and instead try telling people something they don’t already know about your business; perhaps IT is not the highest paying job in Singapore this year? Maybe wearing a floral shirt to a job interview is the worst idea ever? Should employers begin looking beyond paper qualifications when it comes to hiring?

What’s a hot topic to chat about right now? What do people want to know? Or even better still, bring about attention to a lesser known or discussed about topic.

Knowing how to effectively communicate these thoughts to your intended audience is crucial, and a great way to build trust for your brand – essentially generating more leads for your business.

Stretch that content

To get the most out of your content, spread it like wildfire across various platforms and formats. In one of our previous blog posts, we share in greater detail about how you can do more with a piece of your content by plastering it everywhere in a meaningful manner.

How are people responding to your content?

Leaving your content untouched once it goes live on your website is the biggest mistake you can make. You need to share it with the world.

Be sure to set time aside to monitor it’s performance and make use of free tools such as Facebook or Google Analytics, or even your back-end website analytical tools.

Some pointers to keep in mind:

What is the % increase of site traffic since the first content piece was published?
Who came through to your content via organic searches?
What is the best or worst performing content?
How long are people staying on your page for?
Where did they click next after landing on a piece of content?

While these clicks or figures do not always have a direct impact on sales targets, it speaks volumes about the level of engagement people have with your content, taking them one step ahead in their consideration process.

At the end of the day, it’s really about how you utilise the data to better tailor your content and business strategy to reach your target crowd, in this case, the dormant folks that matters.

Need help with your content? Drop a message to hello@mutant.com.sg

Your brand sucks: Part 1

This feature is part of a regular series”Getting frank with Joe” giving you a brutally frank, yet realistic look at the business world.

Look, I get it. You’ve worked your arse off building your business – you deliver a product or service you are proud of. The market is simply waiting for something like this and a massive increase in sales is just around the corner simply because you have nailed it. Right? Wrong.

When you fail to communicate your brand, you will not achieve the success you aspire to and – most likely – will crash and burn. I’m not about to give you a step-by-step guide on how to do that but I will give you a few pointers to keep in mind.

Your business is not unique

I’m a simple guy; I love the idea that a person can deliver an exceptional product and it will become a success. But unfortunately those times are no longer here, if they ever existed.

Sure, there is the odd exception, but when you do come across those rare cases, there is a specific purpose and strategy behind it. Think of those cool bars with a secret entrance and no obvious branding. They didn’t get popular simply because they make a good cocktail, there is a specific strategy behind their success. This can be a mix of PR, word of mouth and social media. I’ve seen amazing businesses go under because they wanted to be underground or aloof, without understanding how to effectively communicate.

It’s not just lifestyle either. Whether you are in construction, B2B technology or whatever, if your target market doesn’t know you exist, can’t relate to you, or they don’t easily understand your key values, then you are not building the long-term relationships that is needed to scale your business.

Take a look in the mirror

All founders need to take a good, hard look at themselves before getting too involved with branding at a creative level for both planning and execution. Supply the vision and ethos that will guide the strategy, but if you lack the skills, understanding, or even interest to get involved, then please don’t.

I’ve seen all sorts of approaches towards brand strategy and communications, where the CEO doesn’t have any experience or know what they are doing. If they recognise they lack in the area, they are often fine. The others, less so.

In one meeting, I met the CEO of a tech company that had successfully raised millions in funding. It was an amazing platform and should have done really well in the market since they launched 18 months earlier. Yet here they were looking for desperate last ditch measures to get sales, so they could raise more funding just to survive.

I asked the CEO about his marketing and branding strategy. There was none. He even told me he hates doing “that sort of stuff”, yet he was the one in charge of executing it. Unsurprisingly, the marketing efforts fails, and then the CEO decides it doesn’t work.

With millions of dollars and over a year of operations, this company had built itself a large global team, yet not one person outside of the CEO had a role that involved giving thought on how to actually get the product in front of paying users, or how to build the brand or to scale it (beyond tech requirements).

So there you have it! Stay tuned for the second instalment to my branding series where i’ll guide you on how turn failure into success.

In the meantime, drop me a note at hello@mutant.com.sg if you could use a hand promoting your new idea.

Missed the first Getting frank with Joe instalment? Check it out here.

The Words Way – Sourcing quality content for your business

The content you create says a lot about your business. It provides your readers with insight into your knowledge, expertise and offering, and is a great marketing tool that helps prospective customers decide whether they want to do business with you.

Content works to:

Demonstrate your expertise
Solve problems or pain points
Build your brand’s credibility
Helps with your SEO and Google rankings
Develop lead generation

Content is ubiquitous

Essentially, anything you write and share with your audience falls under the content umbrella. From the material posted on your website, to the marketing collateral you hand out, through to your social media, and company blog – that’s all content.

However, the way the content is written, presented and distributed will determine its level of penetration and ultimately success for your business. The words you write can leave a lasting impression on the reader, so make it work for your business.

Have a point of view

It always helps to have a fresh perspective on the material that is produced for your company. If you are writing the same messages over and over again, chances are it may start to become repetitive and won’t be as sharp and witty as it should be.

Keep in mind that the needs of your target audience are forever changing, and your writing style will need to adapt accordingly. If, for example, you are trying to target a new market, the content will be relevant to the local audience – a single global piece just won’t cut the mustard.

Stick with a reliable agency

That’s what we do at Words! Our team of content specialists will transform your content into something that’s sharp, to the point and appeals to your target audience – no matter where they are based or what interests they have.

Our team will write any piece of content that you need, including blogs, articles, website content, press releases, marketing copy, through to white papers, ebooks and social media content. We can even draft your next winning awards application or help create an eye-catching infographic that’s sure to turn heads and generate engagement.

Below is our easy 5-step ordering process.

Simply upload a brief and voila! you’re now on your way to great content.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us on hello@mutant.com.sg, and we look forward to writing for you soon.

I’ve launched an entire company on my own, I can do my own PR, right?

The email addresses of the reporters are online, I have friends of friends who can introduce me to some reporters at Channel NewsAsia. I can save some money and do my own PR, right?

Well you could. Then again, you could also buy your own property without an agent and represent yourself in court. The question is then, would that really be the best way forward?

The most important thing about PR is not the media contacts, it’s the narrative. What an agency can provide is a seasoned ear that can counsel you on what exactly are the really juicy stuff that would be interesting to press and then find a way to package it.

You know that saying: “When you are too close to a situation (in this case your business) you can’t see the big picture”? This is exactly that.

If we had donated a dollar to charity for every time a client wanted to release to media the outcome of an “internal meeting” or “upcoming revolutionary product upgrade”, the world would be a better place.

So back to packaging, how do we do it exactly? Here’s the secret. We take a magical blend of the following:

Your objective for the PR effort (e.g. get more users to your product, build buzz before an upcoming IPO?)
Your key messages (e.g. what makes your business special in the market? Reliability? Cost-effectiveness? Proven R&D?)
Your initiative / announcement (e.g. Doubling your headcount in Singapore? Tie-up/partnership with another firm for an initiative? Received a round of funding?)

We will use all this information to provide journalists and influencers with a comprehensive narrative that will articulate your brand in the best way possible.

Without the narrative, you may still get the coverage, but trust us, it won’t have the same impact on the readers. There’s nothing worse than securing a big interview but losing the story because the message was lost. It won’t leave a lasting impression.

Need help kickstarting your next PR campaign? Get in touch with us at hello@mutant.com.sg.

Content yoga: How to stretch your content into multiple posts

You have heard it over and over again. Content marketing is the next big thing in marketing communications. You have bought the Kool Aid, you have started drinking it.

You have established a content development process that is both consistent and committed. Various internal stakeholders are coming with you with ideas, or even better, written pieces of content that are exactly to your requirements. The website blog is being updated once a week. Now what?

It’s time to get the most out of the content that you have painstakingly developed. Here are some tips on how can you make your content go further so that it reaches your intended target audience.

Check with your PR agency if the content is pitchable

With shrinking newsrooms, publications are more open to taking in op-eds or contributions these days. Having your original content published in a business or industry news portal definitely gives your brand a boost in credibility. Publications usually have some strict requirements though – the brand cannot be mentioned in the piece other than the byline, the content usually has to be on a wider industry trend rather than a specific product and usually the piece has to be published first only on their site. You can of course, then use the content on your own website after a specific period of time. Take note of the advice your agency gives you and make a call on whether you would like to go down this route.

Get the content linked

Content on LinkedIn is getting a lot of traction these days. If you need to raise the profile of a certain executive (e.g. the new Asia MD), you may want to consider posting the content on a regular basis using LinkedIn Pulse, with their approval of course.

A repurposed article on LinkedIn pulse could help to build your executive’s credibility as an industry thought leader and also steer people to becoming more aware of your brand. As a bonus, LinkedIn Pulse enjoys a high search quality rating on Google which means the content will be included in search results.

Updating a senior executive’s page on their behalf also encourages them to be more hands-on in the content – it’s their reputation after all. This means you will also get more ideas on content topics and they are also more likely to share their personal industry observations. This is a win-win for both, your content is more authentic and they boost their own profile.

Make it shareable

Summarise each section of your blog post or break it down into tips. You can then use these bite-sized pieces to post on Facebook or Twitter on a daily basis as part of a multi-part series. Remember that you have to keep the post to 140 characters for Twitter – which probably will come up to no more than 1 sentence. For Facebook you have more flexibility on the word count but try not to go over 250 characters (Posts with less than 250 characters receive 60% more engagement). Also, don’t forget to add an image and link the content back to your website to drive traffic.

On that note, while having Twitter and Facebook is great – it may not be necessary to have both. Check our post on choosing the right social media channel to see which is right for you. https://mutantid.wpengine.com/less-is-more-4-tips-to-choosing-the-right-social-media-channel/

Reach out to new people

Since you are posting on social media already, why not promote selected posts on Twitter, LinkedIn and/or Facebook? Promoting a post is a good way for more people to see your content and reach out to new audiences through targeting.

Promoted posts can boost traffic to your web page and also gives you some rich data analytics so that you can figure out which channels are most effective for your brand. The best thing about promoted posts these days, is that it is fairly affordable – you can promote a post for as much or as little budget as you want.

Communicate to employees

Your employees are your most important assets. They are the face of the company and they are the ones that deal with your customers. A great piece of content can inspire employees and align ideas. Summarise your article into a teaser and use it in your latest newsletter. Encourage engagement, ask them their point of view on the topic and as always, link the article back to the website to boost traffic.

Play around with formats

While a blog post is the most immediate way to get content out, do explore other formats that may work better with your target audience. Be it an infographic, video, slideshare or audio file – explore the various formats from time to time and use your website analytics to check on how much traction you are getting.

If you need help maximising your existing content or need help setting up a winning content development marketing strategy, please get in touch with us at hello@mutant.com.sg.

Getting frank with Joe Part 1: “No one cares if you are a startup”

Okay, maybe your friends, family and investors do — but that’s about it. The rest of the world couldn’t care less that you are a startup.

They say they care, they think they care, they like the idea of it and the romance of it all, but they don’t really care. Don’t blame them; I’m sure they are nice people, but at the end of the day, their love of supporting a startup goes no deeper than an immediate reaction.

This might come as a bit of a shock because your business is everything to you. To you. Allow me to run you through a few home truths to help you avoid falling on your face when it comes to managing a successful startup.

Your target market doesn’t owe you anything

You can certainly leverage being a startup in your branding and to tap into natural sympathy and support. You can even cultivate pro-startup audiences and have your brand develop and evolve over time.

But be under no illusion that most people won’t hesitate to drop you if they have any issues or face any barriers.

They will gladly move back to their safe corporate, mass market product if you impact their consumer experience in any way. It’s simply the nature of the beast.

Don’t be a loser

Always be positive around friends, contacts, clients… anyone.

Why? When you talk about your business, even your closest friends are making subconscious decisions about you and your company, and when they have the opportunity to refer you to one of their friends or contacts, they know their reputation and credibility is also at stake.

If all they hear from you is complaints about staff or how tough it is, they are going to form a negative image of you and are less likely to make the referral.

But when you are positive and they feel like you are on the up and up, well, everyone loves a winner.

This is not necessarily a conscious decision. And yes, if you are too positive, you run the risk of not sounding genuine. No one believes any entrepreneur who says it is all smooth sailing.

Try something like this:

Friend: “Hey mate, how’s business?”

You: “Really good. Cashflow is a total pain in my arse but we are getting some really strong traction.”

Boom. You get your gripe out, but the positives outweigh it and you still sound like a winner.

Don’t let your bubble become a crutch

I often come across founders or staff from startups who are extremely tapped into the startup scene, constantly patroning drinks, networking events and conferences. In many ways this is great – you will learn something from your peers in this space and you’ll have a good time. They will be a valuable source of tips, advice and a sympathetic ear, but it does not replace your need to get out into the real world.

Unless your company or brand is aimed at the startup community, no one cares if you are friends with a dozen different CEOs of bootstrapped enterprises. By all means keep your toe in the scene, but the law of diminishing returns exists even for your own time. Instead, think about who your target audience is or what you want to achieve, and go where they go.

Don’t be a wuss

Toughen up. It’s supposed to be hard.

Recently, I was blown away when a startup I was meeting with said they couldn’t meet before 11am because that’s when they arrive at the office. Seeing my shocked expression they followed up with, “Oh don’t worry, we work really late. Like until 8, sometimes 9.”

It was clear they had bought into the romanticised version of their own story – staying up late working over Red Bulls and pizza with the occasional break to play Xbox. Meanwhile they are barely doing a normal day’s work because they don’t turn up until lunch.

I’m all for work life balance, but if you are serious about your startup, you are going to have to haul arse.

There is more to having a startup than proudly proclaiming it.

So basically, ignore the fact you are a startup in your day-to-day work life. Your number one priority is to move your business forward, so focus on that. Don’t let the hype or romanticism blind you. Be awesome every single day and get on with being successful.

If you have any questions just get in touch with us at hello@mutant.com.sg.

This blog was first published in Tech in Asia on 19th April 2016

How I got schooled by a 16 year old while trying to do my job

I thought the times of me being put on the spot at meetings were over. I’ve had practice of dealing with different personalities at many different meetings before, both professional and personal. We all have that one difficult friend or client that deserves an honest piece of your advice.

But what I wasn’t prepared for, was a simple, innocent question by a 16-year-old high schooler at a business meeting. I was there to discuss about a social awareness campaign that involved charity work by students from different secondary schools. They were packing meals for the needy.

A client was sponsoring the initiative so we had to step in and help out with some PR. Our conversation went something like this:

Me, overzealous: “I think this is a great media opportunity, maybe we can discuss some great story angles and objectives about the campaign to pitch to the media.”

Student, sassy: “Well, the objective is to stop world hunger and feed hungry people, who are dying everyday from starvation.”

That, I did not expect. It was a legitimate argument, because shouldn’t world hunger be enough of a reason for media to care and write about?

I wasn’t angry, nor did I blame the student. The poor guy was sincerely puzzled and confused.

I calmly gathered my thoughts and realised that it was time to take a step back, and bring it back to the basics. As PR professionals, we need to help our clients understand what it takes for us to do our job properly, while helping to achieve their goals.

So what is it that we do exactly? Here is a simple break down:

Angles (Gathering of information)

We need as much information as possible. With this information, we will pick out the most important angles we can use for the press release. Tell us about the who, the why, the what, the when and the how – we’re all ears.

Stopping world hunger is a legit reason, but what sets Stop Hunger Now apart from Oxfam, Red Cross, or The Salvation Army, who are all sharing the objective of feeding the needy?

Press release (Storytelling)

We help tell the story about your brand, and why it is worth writing about in the media. Yeah sure, we’ll add a bit of fluff in there – but most importantly we only write about the facts, nothing in there is made up or a lie.

Media pitching (Persuasion)

Journalists are very busy people, they get tons of emails and sometimes our emails get buried under piles of other releases. This is when we pick up the phone, and have some one-on-one time with a specific journalist.

It can get quite nerve wracking, speaking to someone unfamiliar on the phone and trying to pitch an idea to them. This, thankfully, only gets better with practice. Once you know the journalists, their style and personality, you’ll gain confidence in persuading and become more eloquent in trying to deliver your message.

4. Media coverage (Public opinion)

This is what it’s all about! Getting your story published and hearing people talk about your brand can be a great feeling. People read the news, and we always aim for a positive story. This plays an important part in informing and swaying public opinion, about the good and bad of your company.

We help educate about your brand and to support it. Media coverage is one of the best and foolproof ways to do this.

If you need help with your PR campaign, please get in touch with us at hello@mutant.com.sg

3 steps to creating targeted content that sells

Understanding your consumer, their journey and purchase process is and should be the backbone of any content marketing strategy. The material we produce needs to help a buyer with their purchase decisions and address certain pain points.

It should educate and inspire as well as provide helpful tools to steer the buyer’s decision toward a specific product or service that you are offering. If it doesn’t, then the content serves absolutely no purpose and becomes a huge waste of your time and resources.

As well as to educate, your content needs to generate a sense of trust and show the reader that you understand what they need and know how to solve their problems. It should never be a sales pitch.

To understand your consumer means to follow their journey from the awareness stage right through to purchase (and beyond), and a content marketing strategy helps to attract those prospects and convert them to customers. It’s about producing targeted content, always keeping the buyer’s interests in mind, and with so much consumer and industry information available to us online, there is simply no excuse for poor content.

The move to digital has made content marketing one of the most effective marketing tools out there. The most important and fail-proof factor is to thoroughly understand your target audience and address something they cannot solve or are struggling with. This is the key to success.

If you have appeal, gain their trust, satisfy a need and delight them in the process, you could be on your way to converting a prospect to a customer and producing targeted content doesn’t have to be hard. Here’s a simple guide to get you thinking:

1 – Start with market research

Thoroughly research your industry, your audience and their behaviour patterns. What do people need and what are they struggling with? How do they buy?

Consider the buyer journey and start thinking about the sort of information they would require. This is the first step to developing great content that is targeted with purpose.

2 – Develop a buyer persona

Once you’ve done the research, you should by now be able to identify who your prospects are. Now it’s time to develop a few buyer personas.

According to Hubspot a buyer persona represents a semi-fictional version of your ideal customer. Consider their demographic information (i.e job title, role, responsibilities company, industry and budget) and their behavioural traits, such as their concerns, goals and motivating factors. Write it all down with as much detail as possible.

Developing these personas will immensely help with creating engaging content ideas and will help you structure a great content campaign.

3 – Your prospects matter…all the time

The buyer journey should not stop at the market research stage. Combine the buyer journey with the buyer personas that you have created. Always think about the prospect when producing any sort of content. You should ideally create a content series that covers topics relevant to their purchase journey – it’s not supposed to be a direct sales pitch.

For example, if you have started a fitness business focusing on body transformations, your content needs to work through all the elements that prospects should consider on their health and wellness journey. Talk about diet changes, foods that promote weight loss, what to eat/not to eat before and after a workout, simple lifestyle changes and include some success case studies. In a non-intrusive way you want to educate your customer and show how your services can help them achieve their fitness goals.

Now it’s your turn. Start creating some awesome content!

If you need help creating a winning content marketing strategy, please get in-touch with us at hello@mutant.com.sg.

Why you need to hire a cross-functional PR and content agency

As PR and content professionals, we’re no longer just writing releases and making calls, we’re producing videos, directing photoshoots, filming vines, writing literature, overseeing design work, and some of us need to breakdance. Okay one of us.

Public relations is one of the fastest moving industries, and that’s mainly due to how much digital has changed the way audiences perceive brands. Likewise, content marketing has been the advertising industry’s hot new potato for the past few years and we have to learn a new skill every quarter.

In order for agencies to keep up with the demands of our clients, we need to be agile and perform roles outside of our departmental silos. At Mutant we have a small team, but we are also flexible ninjas at adapting to new roles. Three of the skill requirements for working with us is 1) flexible 2) digitally savvy 3) parkour.

When hearing pitches from agencies, pay attention to how big their team is. Is it a huge agency where they’re passing clients to juniors down the line? Do you know your main point of contact and content producers? Get to know the roles of each member you’re working with and their skillset.

If you’re not hiring an agency, but want to have a cross functional team, it’s not easy. But it is achievable with some guidelines. It takes a lot of planning, structure, patience, and snacks to get everyone on the same page. Here are some tips on how to build your own cross-functional team.

Clearly defined roles: To avoid the “that’s not my job” culture, make sure everyone in the team has a clearly defined job description with expectations of crossover duties. This can avoid any work left incomplete, or tasks ignored. With explicit roles, team members will know exactly what is expected of them, and they’re just not dropping in and out of the conversation and getting involved as they please. I.e. “The content manager is responsible for all video strategy, but contributes 3x weekly social posts.”
Set standards: Learning on-the-go is fun, but you can save hours if you spend one day training a newbie on what “done” actually looks like. When everyone has more than one role, there can be some heavy inconsistencies.
Creative brainstorms: Getting stuck in your own silo means you’re recycling the same ideas over and over. Once a week, sit down to share some creative ideas across the entire team to see them through (in our case, everyone does PR and content ideas).

This means getting ideas from all departments, because nowadays, data teams could be offering PR teams some killer insight, likewise content professionals might know all the buzzwords that the sales team need to close those deals.

Set limits: One of the biggest downfalls of cross-functional teams is work being put on one person. Deadlines for specific deliverables should be set. To set realistic deadlines that get done, don’t overload work on to one person.
Be resourceful: We don’t mean re-using post-it notes. Be resourceful with your staff. Not everyone is hired to do the job that they’re meant to do. One benefit of having a cross-functional team is to be able to allocate resources properly. If you see a flailing staff member, give them the option to move onto another project that they might be better at.
Have several accountable leaders: With some staff members grinding out the details, it’s hard to see the project as a whole. The trend towards cross-functional teams means we’re losing that old-school hierarchy mentality that inhibits pro-active and creative staff. That being said it’s important to share leadership functions and make sure each project has a different team leader that’s accountable for seeing the project end to end.
Training sessions Not everyone will walk into a role knowing how to do multiple jobs. Team training sessions are valuable for staff members to step in if someone is sick or away. A monthly training session on photoshop, content, press releases, pitching to the entire team is essential.

If you can’t change your team or hire staff to be agile, hire an agency that’s able to adapt to new changes in the media landscape.

To find out more about one of the quickest moving teams in the industry write to us at hello@mutant.com.sg.

5 signs your business should invest in a content marketing agency

There are a multitude of large and small businesses that think they know best when it comes to content marketing. How hard can it be? A blog here, a social media post there and you’re done! Right?

I hate to break it to you, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Put simply, content marketing is a strategic marketing approach that relies on the regular creation and distribution of quality content to a specific audience. The aim is to ultimately turn prospects into customers. Read more about what content marketing means here.

An effective content marketing strategy takes time and commitment and everything needs to be written with purpose. It not only yields powerful results, but also becomes extremely cost effective.

There is no point in writing one blog, adding it to your website and then hoping it will automatically translate into sales. It sadly doesn’t work that way. How will people see your content?

With that being said, here are some early signs that should prompt you to consider using a content marketing agency to help you get organised and on track:

Lack of regular, quality content

Think about how often you produce content.
Is it once a month? Once a quarter? Or whenever you have a chance to?

Whilst it’s not necessary to create content every single day, a solid content strategy requires consistency and commitment. Creating regular content allows brands to build thought leadership in their area of expertise, create trust and promote engagement with their target audiences – which is more likely to lead to a sale.

No visible SEO results

Without relevant and regular content, your SEO efforts may be wasted. Google evaluates how often you update your website with fresh content. It also ranks the quality of the content as well as the length. You can read more about this here.

Another thing to consider is how well the content is tailored to your chosen keywords. Content creation isn’t just about putting some words on a page about a certain topic. You do need to write for your target audience but also for SEO. Fall too deep to one side and you will be penalised on the other, so it’s essential to strike a healthy balance between crafty and engaging content and writing for SEO.

Your conversions are suffering

Writing relevant content that addresses your target audience and their needs is so important. Identify and create a buyer persona that would need your product or service. Who is this person? (i.e Marketing Mary, 35 years old) What is their role? (ie Marketing Manager for an SME) What do they wish to achieve? (Brand awareness, sales etc.) Then look at identifying their pain points and how you can help solve them.

A content marketing agency can be useful to help structure your strategy and make suggestions about why your efforts have not been successful. They will create new ideas and avenues for you to explore.

Little to no engagement across your social media

Social media can be an amazing avenue to promote your content and directly engage with your target audience. Using social media helps drive traffic to your website as you are providing your followers with a preview of what they can expect to see if they click a specific link.

If you are doing this already and it’s not working, think about the quality and relevance of the content that you are producing and posting. Always remember that one size doesn’t fit all on social media. Each platform has a different audience, and therefore the language, tone and delivery needs to be tailored every time.

A content marketing agency will pull together a strategic content and social media strategy and create relevant and engaging content that can be used across multiple platforms.

Your brand lacks credibility

If you are a new business, it’s so critical early on to establish credibility in the market. A solid content marketing strategy enables your brand to educate prospects and instill their trust in your brand.

According to Hubspot’s 2015 State of Inbound Marketing report, the top two priorities for companies, regardless of size, are to a) increase the number of contacts/leads, and b) to convert contacts/leads to customers.

A successful content marketing strategy can help you achieve this.

Need help with your content? Drop a message to hello@mutant.com.sg

If you’d like to speak to us about effective content marketing for your business, feel free to get in touch at ola@mutant.com.sg.

5 ways your brand will slay instagram

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a caption will turn browsers into consumers. Captions are the opportunity to connect with your audience on a more personal level. You know your brand voice? This is the time for it to shine. An effective instagram caption can make the difference between a conversion or leave a post ignored.

1. Find the right voice

Voice refers to the personality projected when writing a caption or interacting with other users. The trick to achieving the right tone is through establishing your target audience and coupled with the nature of your business. When in doubt, caption it as if you were writing it to a friend, but leave out short-lived instagram slang that expires faster than you can say “on fleek”

2016 Instagram terms that we predict will die quick painless death:

FAM
Squad
Savage
Bae

Tip: As of Apr 2016, ‘Snatched’ is the new ‘On fleek’

2. Stay consistent

If you’d take a look at the instagram accounts of big companies like General Electric, you’d notice that there is a strong consistency in how the photos are all professionally shot. More importantly, there is consistency in how the captions are crafted. In the case of GE, the Instagram is all about inspiring individuals and sharing their research with the world.

3. Be funny

Take a look – Hewlett Packard, Intel, and our personal favourite, Cisco, have the funniest Instagrams of all time. Did we mention they are also traditionally pretty boring companies?

Instagram is the one place where you can let your freak flag fly, no matter how serious your product is. Don’t take yourselves too seriously on this platform, show some brand personality.

4. Use hashtags

Hashtags are the perfect way to increase the odds of accidental discovery from users who may just be interested in what you have to say. Hashtags are especially useful for campaigns as they allow user-generated content to get aggregated all into one place.

But don’t over do hashtags. #Otherwise #you #will #look #outdated.

Click here to see the list of trending hashtags!

View this post on Instagram

#Fall, give it your all. ? ?: @mrvphotography #bmx #dirtbike #? #givesyouwings

A post shared by Red Bull (@redbull) on Oct 29, 2015 at 7:24am PDT

Red Bull loves to hashtag their photos and I must say, it’s done very tastefully and as a result of that, Red Bull’s account often gets discovered by chance.

5. Be engaging

Do you know why Instagram overtook Flickr as the world’s leading photo-sharing app?

Social skills.

Instagram isn’t just a chance to share photos, it’s a platform where you can ask a question and people can have engaging conversations (or arguments) about your photo. The caption space is an opportunity to open up the floor to ask your audience anything, or to have them ask you. There’s a reason why some photos have over 9000 comments. Start a conversation on your image today.

View this post on Instagram

Tag who you would share your Taco Bell with.

A post shared by Taco Bell (@tacobell) on Oct 7, 2015 at 5:15pm PDT

An effective Instagram account is all about having the right attitude, good humour, and a solid picture to go with it.

If you need help with your Instagram captions, let us help you create some magic. Drop a message to hello@mutant.com.sg

6 golden rules for effective content marketing

Producing content is dead easy. Producing content that converts, not so much.

Due to the sheer volume of thought leadership, blogs, videos and infographics floating around the internet, your audience’s expectations of what constitutes ‘good’ content has changed. Active digital audiences want more engaging, relevant, smarter, and faster content than ever before.

By taking the time to cater to the needs of your target viewer, you’ll hold their attention – and their loyalty.

Here are a few key things to keep in mind before posting up a flurry of blog posts:

1. Relevance: Does your article contain your company’s key messages? There has to be a connection between the brand and what you’re publishing. Let’s say you’re creating a hilarious corporate cat video and it gets lots of clicks. That’s great, but what’s the point if the viewer isn’t your target audience?

2. Purpose: Does your article or video add value to your audience and your business? What are they getting out of it and learning from you? Before producing anything, ask yourself what the business objective is for both your viewer and yourself. Does it improve someone’s business, lifestyle or even state of mind?

3. Engaging: Does it sound like you or does it sound like a cyborg? With such a crowded atmosphere online, an authoritative or friendly human voice is essential. Content nowadays should read or sound like a conversation, not a document or presentation.

4. Calls To Action: Draw your readers in with engaging language and tone, and always – always – include a Call To Action (CTA). This could be in the form of a downloadable resource at the end of a blog, or an invite to answer a question in the comments. Without this, your efforts are being wasted. It’s no longer enough to publish information that is just useful – you need people to engage with you and take an action that will provide value.

5. Contextual: Cross-device marketing is making headlines for a reason. Audiences are using different devices, sometimes all at once. Tailor the content for the platform. For example, if you’re making long form video content make sure it’s on Youtube, and edit it down for Instagram and six-second Vines. Context is king!

6. Topical: Stay plugged in to what your audience is talking about by regularly checking the news and social media to monitor your audience’s most pressing issues. There are so many tools on the internet like Google Trends, Quora and Twitter. If something relates to your business, offer a position and get your audience talking about it.

The internet doesn’t need any more “Productivity tips from top CEOs”. We need to be making better, faster, smarter content for a better, faster, smarter audience.

So, how will you engage your readers? Let us help you. Contact us at hello@mutant.com.sg.