How To Write A Blog With Great Content Every Time  

Finding content for your blog is not impossible. There are many places to find ideas.

You started a blog for your brand. You knew it was time, and you knew how it would benefit you. And, at the start, the going was great; there were plenty of things to write about. That is, until writer’s block set in, and suddenly you were drawing a blank.

Somehow, it just got a bit more complicated.

How do you generate great blog content regularly without burning out? Inevitably, there will be an average Tuesday morning where you’ll find yourself staring at a blinking cursor, a blank screen, and a looming deadline. Right about then, you’ll wish you knew what to write about. Right about then, you’ll wish you knew how to go about finding ideas when you didn’t have any of your own.

Here are some tips to make the ideas flow.

1. Answer Questions

Wouldn’t you like to know what questions your readers were hoping you’d answer for them? If you have the time to look and listen, you’d find out that readers are actually telling you this very thing.

Questions on Quora

Quora is where people are asking — and answering — questions. It’s easily searchable by specific topic, so you can find your niche audience fairly quickly. By setting up your account and selecting specific Quora users and topics to follow that are relevant to your industry, any quick visit to the Quora site will bring up useful content. So, are there questions Quora users are asking that you could answer? Write about them on your blog.

The questions asked on Quora.com are a great source of ideas; blog your answer.

Your Own Readers

Don’t ignore your own blog’s comments section, or your customer feedback. If a blog comment section turns lively, you’ve hit on a topic that you should definitely consider expanding in a fresh post and then going back and letting those readers know you’ve written a new post. This is particularly useful if you find yourself leaving long comments that might be better served pulled up onto the main area of the blog. And of course, it goes without saying that if you have customers that are asking the same questions about your service or product, there’s a clear need for a blog post to cover the topic. At the very least, it’s the start of a user guide or online FAQ.

2. Go Google

Google provides generous source material for blog ideas whether they intend to or not. In the process of supplying their customers (us) with data, they give us insight into the customers using that data.

Google Search

Using Google Search for research, rather than just search, will garner you related topics that people are actively looking for. For each search you make, you have the opportunity to use the advanced search options and generate “Related Searches.” From these related searches, you can follow a rabbit trail and end up with as many blog topics as you have the desire to write. These searches will also tell you what to use for a headline. The related searches can be found in the “Show search tools” option in the left sidebar of a Google search page.

Google related-search will help you find new ideas.

Google Blog Search allows you the opportunity to search within blogs only, so you can quickly see what other bloggers are writing about, and what kind of comments they’re getting from those topics.

Google Keywords

Google AdWords provides a keyword tool where you can input words and phrases for your industry or niche. The keyword tool will break your search terms down, allowing you to see which keywords you’d like to dig deeper into. By saving these keywords, you can find out what people are searching for on Google, and which terms are the most popular (and have the stiffest competition) with those buying AdWords. These keywords can give you ideas for SEO-friendly headlines, and such headlines quickly turn into SEO-friendly blog posts.

Google Alerts

Google Alertsare especially helpful if you already have your email or RSS reader in your daily workflow. It’s easy to forget to do regular searches, or find the time to set aside an hour or two to perform regular online searches to see what’s new in your industry. By setting up a Google Alert, you can have those search results sent to your inbox or RSS reader automatically. Any time you can find a way to incorporate information gathering in your current workflow and keep things simple, you’re more likely to make us of it.

Google Alerts can come to your inbox or RSS reader, as this setting shows.

Google Trends

By their very nature, trends are going to be quick and hard to grab onto in time. Using a trending topic for microblogging (Twitter, Google+ post, Facebook post, Tumblr) is probably going to be the easiest way to capitalize on their here-and-gone nature, rather than a long and meaty blog post. However, you may still get an idea on a topic that you can tie into your industry.

Google Trends offers a “hot trends” section which lets you know what people are searching for right now. Current events are often in search trends. Your readers appreciate an expert who can speak their language and put a hot topic into context for them from a particular view. Think of yourself as a translator, and tell your readers what the latest news means for them.

And of course, within the Google+ network, you can finding trending topics that even indicate which direction they are trending.

Google Trends’ Hot Searches let you know what people are searching for right now.

3. Build Libraries

Great minds have great ideas, and there’s few better places to find ideas than in the writing and voices of others.

You can make a digital library using an RSS Reader; the more well-organized the better. It’s the best way to stay on top of what your favorite bloggers and information sources are saying. This isn’t about stealing other’s ideas. It’s about validating or challenging your own, finding inspiration, and writing your own content.

Reading books regularly is also necessary for the serious blogger. You need to get pushed out of your own mind in order to fight your way back in by writing. Books are ideas, and new ideas are disruptive. Disruptive gets the creative juices flowing. A good blogger writes. A great blogger also reads. Read books associated with your industry voraciously. Blog about the book itself, if nothing else.

4. Mingle With The Trendy Crowds

It’s very likely you have a presence on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, and are using it to promote your blog. Facebook and Twitter have their own versions of showing which topics are trending and popular based on your settings and who you follow; these will work similarly for you as blog content much like the Google Trends hot trends does.  The best thing about using the trends on a social network is that this is where your fans and followers are, and this is what is catching attention right now. It is less easy to capitalize on a broad internet search trend than a trend on a social network.

Twitter trends are found in the left sidebar, and can be tailored based on who you follow, or not at all.

Other popular social networks, like Pinterest, easily show you what your audience is interested in as long as you’ve planned your social following practices well. You can use Pinterest, for example, for your own interests and follow those boards that interest you only. Or, you can follow the boards of known fans or related niche audiences and see what’s popular among them, discerning what kinds of images they are drawn to.

5. Tell A Story

Everything you consider writing can be told as a story. What makes a great story?

A great story hooks the reader immediately (which often means you’ll have to be a brutal editor of your own words because wordiness kills the hook). A great story has anticipation, a feeling of “what’s next!” and a resolution that doesn’t leave the reader feeling cheated or angry. A good story makes a person feel something, whether it’s laughter or empathy or some other emotion.Have fun with your story, or be serious.

People love stories. Tell them one. Tell them a story as a series, or to generate leads. Just tell a great story.

You Have A Story

You have a story to tell. It’s the story of your business, the daily things that happen in it every day. It’s the teachable moments where you learned something about yourself or your readers. Whatever it is, your story is personal and inspirational, and should be told in that way. Use what you know best: your business, your hobbies, entertainment — what story can you tell that your audience will nod their head and think “I know exactly how he felt.”

They Have A Story

You have a story, and so does everyone around you. Have you asked them to share their stories with you?

Interview other bloggers or industry leaders. You’ll get great content, learn something, and attract a few of their fans to read what you wrote. Generously link back to the interviewee’s website and social media accounts, and promote the blog post.

Respond to other bloggers’ posts. Write well, don’t start a flame war, and avoid responding to well-known bloggers for promotion sake only. Make sure it is a post you really want to comment on, and have something valid to add to the conversation. Link and attribute properly so your readers can find the original work.

6. Look Within

If you’ve been blogging for several years, it’s a pretty good guess that you have early posts that embarrass you terribly. As a blogger, you got better; it’s hard to look at the old posts without wincing. Writing style aside, what about the ideas? Are they still valid? Have you changed your mind, or expanded your opinion? Your old blog posts are a gold mine of ideas you might not remember you had. Recycle by rewriting. Make them better, make them the best, make them relevant, and make them pull their weight again.

And, when all else fails, have a system in place that forces you to work. It might be a system to generate headlines (writing the headline before the rest of the post is a good habit to get into). It might be a system to quickly scour your library and write a post on the themes you see in the posts of the day. For example, you might come up with 10 “stock” headlines that you can easily adjust for different topics. Perhaps they are “5 Ways To _______ Your _______”. Whatever you decide, set up your system, fill it in, and force yourself to write.

A blog is a powerful tool, but a poorly written or seldom updated blog is almost worse than no blog. It tells those who find your site that you’re no longer in business, not around, or not worth serious consideration. 

- Amanpreet.

Top 10 Marketing Trends of 2012

Like most businesses, you will probably have your marketing plan for 2012 already in place. But have you built your plan so that you’re ready to respond to the latest market trends?

While it’s important to stay focused, it’s equally as important to be prepared for the opportunities and challenges that will come from the latest marketing trends.

Wondering what the future looks like for marketing in the year ahead?

Here are my predictions for the top ten marketing trends of 2012:

1. A broader brand presence across channels

With the range of available marketing channels growing all the time, businesses will start to recognise the value of connecting up their marketing approach across the web, social media and other channels. This will be inspired by the need to better manage business resource in more challenging times – and to create a more streamlined brand presence. Instead of relying on one or two channel marketing approaches, more and more companies will link up their activities to create a truly coherent brand across multiple channels.

2. The rise and rise of user-generated content

User generated content took on momentum in 2011 – and this will continue into the New Year. Whether it is a YouTube video showing a customer using a product or customers sharing their experiences within a selective online community, content that comes direct from the potential or existing customer is likely to grow in value. The key test of this trend will be how successfully companies inspire and facilitate user-generated content. However they do it, it looks like the voice of the user will grow significantly in value in 2012.

3. Mobile marketing reaches critical mass

Mobile is going centre stage. A third of smartphone owners have used their device to buy a product online (Source: EPiServer) and this number is growing. The companies that fully prepare their marketing approach for mobile in 2012 are the ones that will benefit from a potential customer-base that browses – and shops – on the move. This demands targeted, mobile-ready content and a willingness to adapt internal marketing processes. With 59% of UK consumers now in possession of a smartphone and 18% owning a tablet device (Source: EPiServer), mobile marketing is a trend that businesses can’t afford to ignore.

4. The gap closes between business brands and social media

We all know social media is big news for business. But in 2012, it will be even bigger – and even slicker. Companies will start taking social media more seriously as a professional marketing tool. But it won’t just be the big companies using social media to actively connect with customers. Many more companies will start to interact, meaning customer service – and customer interaction – via social media will evolve even further. The gap between social media and the business brand will get ever smaller. Again, the user or the customer will take centre stage with the rise of the brand advocate in recommending, recruiting customers and connecting with companies in 2012.

5. A clearer vision on the value of analytics

Companies will seek to improve their understanding of marketing analytics in 2012. With increased channels and brand presence, businesses will look to clarify and streamline their marketing data. Companies will recognise the value of analytics that allow them to maximise on the flexibility of social media marketing by adapting their content according to live viewer response. Add to this an increasing focus on cost management and online marketing analytics look set to become the vital flipside of business marketing.

6. Up close and personal

Next year is the year that marketing becomes more personalised. Tailored content that is customised to the needs and interests of a specific market or audience will grow in value and popularity. This is for a number of reasons – the increasing growth of content’s role within online marketing and the growing presence of online, niche communities, for example. As people become more and more accustomed to selecting which brands and businesses can join them within their own online community, the value of personalised marketing approaches and content will continue to grow.

7. Content diversifies – again

Content has been big this year – and its role and value is likely to diversify even more in the year ahead. With the increase of personalised marketing, more companies will start to present content that is focused on telling stories about their business and products or services. But this won’t be a top down approach. Companies will need to draw out the stories from within their workforce – and encourage their workforce to share stories. In 2012, carefully crafted, managed and distributed content will play a vital role in successful business marketing.

8. The customer recommendation rules

In 2012, the voice of the user or the customer will get louder. Businesses are becoming smarter at integrating opportunities for customer feedback and response within their marketing approach. Social media word of mouth will keep growing, with people increasingly relying on their own online social circles to advise and comment on their choice of services or products. The companies that actively embrace this shift will be the ones that boost their profile and credibility in 2012.

9. The influence factor takes over

Closely linked to prediction number 9, social media influence will gain critical mass in 2012. Already gaining momentum, a powerful trend in the year to come is the ability for companies to influence, increase and map their influence across the social media channels. The power to inspire users in a real-world, but professional way will make a huge difference to their performance in 2012.

10. Video is centre stage

Anticipated to be big for quite some time, it looks likely that video is set to be one of the leading marketing trends in 2012. The growth of video within business marketing fits naturally with the broadening of social media channels and with increasing customer focus on feedback and recommendations. Expect video to take on some surprising approaches in 2012 – with many companies developing fresher and more user-focused forms of viral marketing.

Cheers,

Amanpreet

Top five current digital marketing trends

The field of digital marketing is one which is in constant flux. As technology and social trends evolve, brands too must alter their strategies in order to adapt to digital environments and platforms. Although marketers will never be able to predict the future, it is vital to keep abreast of trends in order to maintain the connection with their ever-changing trend-savvy consumers.

Location based marketing

Location based marketing has emerged as one of the biggest trends in digital marketing today. But, despite its many advantages, some obstacles have made this a rather tricky medium for brands to leverage. Most of the concerns with location based marketing pertain to privacy issues - in order to utilise location based marketing, marketers need to know where consumers are. Consumers use social media or applications such as Foursquare and their own initiative to check into locations, and marketers are only just beginning to understand the value inherent in this interaction. One of the proponents of this medium has been mobile location based marketing, a triggered system that detects when consumers enter a certain location such as a store or shopping mall and then automatically sends marketing messages or special deals to their mobiles. While marketers are still finding the best way to connect with customers using this technique, it seems fairly certain that this form of marketing will gain popularity as smart devices and social networks become even more prominent.

Mobile email

Despite the ever-increasing popularity of social media, marketers are still seeing the best results from email marketing. However, as with all forms of digital media, email too is undergoing somewhat of a transformation - not in the way it is constructed, but in the way it is consumed. More and more people are now receiving and reading email on their smart phones or tablet devices instead of their desktop computers. In a society that is constantly connected, people are drawn to the idea of taking their email with them everywhere rather merely logging in a couple of times [per day. Marketers need to understand the gravity of this trend and how it will affect their email marketing g campaigns. Issues regarding image display, formatting and deliverability need to be considered and taken into account in order to make sure that subscribers are receiving brands' content via mobile email. 

Integrated marketing

When it comes to digital marketing, brands are increasingly moving away from single-focus campaigns, choosing to implement integrated marketing. Studies have shown that customer recall is greatly improved when brands strategy carried across TV, mobile and online. This allows all aspects of a digital campaign to work together while also helping each other. Brands can expect to see social media boosting SEO and email sign ups, while email and mobile campaigns improve the success of social media and the overall campaign.

User generated curation 

The popularity of apps such as Flipboard and the stellar rise of social networks and blogging platforms such as Pinterest and Tumblr respectively has emphasised the importance of user generated curation. In the information-saturated online world, users are seeking ways in to organise content in order to consume it in a way that suits their needs. This trend is almost certain to continue as the web and online content continually expands, which means brands will have to understand what kind of content to produce, share and how to share it with their followers. 

Adapting advertising to different formats

These are exciting times - new trends and technologies are opening the door to fresh potential projects for marketers, provided that they take the time to understand and make the most of these new mediums. Here smart phones and tablets represent the new frontier for digital marketing as interactive, connected, personal digital spaces where users expect to see cool things. Brands who venture into marketing specifically for these platforms need to think about how campaigns can be altered to cater to its features and strengths specifically. Simply re-hashing the same ads used for display and hoping that consumers will interact with it is not going to cut it. Think about creative ways to utilise the medium in order to appeal to users who are aware of the device's potential.

Rebranding of Bajaj

Rebranding of Bajaj

People should now get used to saying Humara Pulsar’ or ‘Humara Discover’ instead of ‘Humara Bajaj’. The reason Rajiv Bajaj, MD, Bajaj Auto, has decided to drop ‘Bajaj’ from the two wheeler brand name.

According to reports, the company has decided to overhaul its distribution set-up and rename all its consumer touch points to just Pulsar or Discover with an estimated total cost of 21 Crores

Is this rebranding exercise makes sense? Does removing the parent company name make sense?

The Rationale

I would rather see this as a product portfolio management exercise which would give a clear vision to the product strategy and helps in streamlining promotional and product launch strategies.

Bajaj and Pulsar contributes more than 70% of Bajaj auto two wheeler sales and broadly these two brands serve the two distinct segments of Indian consumers.

So, instead of adopting product centric segments (like pulsar 150 CC, Discover 135 CC) Mr. Bajaj has created customer centric segments with Discover, a economy class segment with high fuel efficient bike for the families and Pulsar, a sporty bike for the youths.

Again if you look at consumers’ perspective, these brands (Pulsar and Discover) have a better recall due its high brand value rather than the brand equity of name “Bajaj”. Ask someone which bike they have? 8 out of 10 would say Pulsar or discover not Bajaj Pulsar or Bajaj Discover. So removing the brand name from the customer touch points and communications of two bikes would not harm the company.

Coming to the name Bajaj, it is associated with ‘broad’ values such as trust and reliability, especially in the two-wheeler category. While the strength of the Bajaj brand ‘identity’ is undeniable, its ‘equity’ is far from being well focused. The name Bajaj does not stand for any thing (Think of Volvo for safety, Mountain dew and Thumbs up for Adventure).

Ultimately it’s the brand value that drives the revenue not the parent name. It is up to the Bajaj to keep Pulsar and Discover relevant and refreshed.

Amanpreet.

Crowd Sourcing

Crowd Sourcing

Hello World,

We have heard the term “in sourcing” and “outsourcing” but for the last few years the term crowdsourcing is in the news.

According to Wikipedia Crowd sourcing is the act of outsourcing tasks, traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, to a large group of people or community (a crowd), through an open call

In simple terms when you know your in sourcing capabilities are not enough to get the desired outcome, Crowd Sourcing is the answer.

An Early Example

How the Crowd sourcing Works

A problem statement is broadcast along with associated incentives, and people with expertise apply their talent to solving the problem

Financial or Nonfinancial Rewards are the Key

The biggest advantage in the crowd sourcing model is availability of large pool of internally motivated global experts working towards a single objective of solving your problem.

A Canadian gold mining company, Goldcorp. had outsourced it talent by offering a 500,000 prize for whoever could find gold in their property. The company had released it’s private mining data which was always keep internal and allowed externals geologists to utilize to find gold. Rob McEwen , Chairman and CEO of Goldcorp had innovated in this industry and the company managed to re-coop more then $3 billion in gold.

The popularity of  face book, orkut and wordpress are due to its  application and themes. These are again developed by enthusiastic folks around the globe with decent web programming knowledge. They downloaded the SDK (Softeare Development Kit) develop the app and hosted it all for free.

After it gets uploaded, the importance of these applications is decided by other users. As more people  add a particular application to their profile, its rating goes up. If the application is not interesting enough for the community, it gets automatically pushed down the stack. From the user’s perspective, they can choose and install applications of interest to them, thereby ‘personalizing’ their profile. This is the real power of crowdsourcing – consumers as creators

Wikipedia is another good example of Crowd Sourcing where the content is added and edited by a large group of experts in their respective fields.

Internet is playing a vital role in bridging the gap between the crowd and solution seeker. A website www2.innocentive.com brings the solution seeker and problem solver together. The seeker lists the problem and award on the website and solver from around the glode with related expertise tries to solve the problem.

Innocentive Provides a Platform Where Seeker and Solver Comes Together

Crowdsourcing in Indian Marketing Context:

Crowd sourcing in Indian marketing arena is just beginning with more and more organizations are acknowledging its importance.

In the field of marketing Crowd Sourcing can be the perfect tool for consumer engagement as well as gaining insights and product development

Take the example of Frito lay which crowd sourced started a contest for new flavor development with a reward of 50 lakh rupee and 1% of sale of that flavor

Another good example is Tata Do Co MO which has created a website http://create.tatadocomo.com/ where consumer can create their own animations and the best animation used for advertising the brand Tata Do Co Mo

In his recent work on ‘New age of Innovation’, renowned management thinker C.K.Prahalad calls this phenomenon as ‘N = 1 R = G’. In order to provide one unique user experience (N = 1) firms need to leverage resources (R) globally (G). It is mainly because every consumer has his unique preferences when using a product, which cannot be satisfied by the firm hiring more people

The potential for crowdsourcing is so huge that It can not be summarized in this post.  The only challenge is to find right experts / communities / consumers who are willing to listen and motivated enough to solve your problem

So the next time you are out to develop / innovate some thing just ask yourself: Am I involving my customers in the process?’

AMUL - The Gentle Giant

AMUL stands for Anand Milk Union Limited. 
AMUL is the umbrella brand for a variety of products like Cheese, Milk, Ghee, butter, ice-cream etc.

The real name behind the 'Amul' brand is Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF). 
Amul has gone from strength to strength with a great fabric of Supply Chain Management and a low budget yet highly effective and aesthetically pleasing Marketing Campaign, and created history in Indian FMCG sector.

Amul has created a very simple, sociable and Indian brand; people identify themselves with the AMUL brand. 
Lets look at the Marketing Mix of Amul:

Product - Dairy Products, Cooking Products
Price -  Low Pricing Strategy
Place -  Rural and Urban Market, International market
Promotion - Advertisements, Show sponsorship's

A point worth noting is that AMUL spends a mere 1% of its turnover on promotions. The simple yet effective print ad campaign which creates adverts on the daily issues has been a MEGA success; and has greatly been able to identify itself with the people. A brand is nothing but a manifestation of trust. The Butter Girl Ad campaign is the longest ever ad campaign and has been running for over 40 years now (the same was launched in 1967) 

Some of the most enticing ads are posted here:

Ad on Shoaib Akhtar's book - Controversially Yours

Zidane's head butt in the WC 06:

 Ad on Lord of the Rings success:

Kumble's 10 wicket hall:

2008 US recession:

Raju's Satyam scandal:

Ad on Joker from Dark Knight:

Please refer to this link for a comprehensive list of the Amul's Billboard ads:
http://www.nofullstop.com/2009/04/30/125-mesmerizing-ads-from-amul-india-marketing-management-at-its-best/

The billboard campaign has indeed done wonders for the Amul brand.

Other than these ads, AMUL also sponsors TV shows like Chef of India Contest, Star Voice of India, Music ka maha muqabla etc. Association with these TV shows helps Amul gain mass media coverage and an opportunity to bind more with the youth. It also organizes competitions like Slogan Likho Disneyland Dekho. 

Amul has its presence in more than 40 countries till date. No doubt, with this so 'Indian' and unique way of advertising and Brand building, Amul will always pose a stiff task for the behemoths like HLL, Nestle, P&G etc.

Way to go AMUL, the taste of India :)

                                                                                                                                                                   - Amanpreet