Matt Durante’s Post

If you want to discover how to stand out from the crowd, make a bigger impact, and grow your business then you need to be using one of the oldest, and most effective marketing strategies of all time, content marketing. But hold on, because the devils in the details here. And it’s not enough to just say 'content marketing' and think that you’ve got everything you need. Because like all things in business and marketing it’s not just what you do, but how you do it that makes the difference between making sales and increasing your revenue and just wasting your time, money, and energy. I mean it’s good to learn about content, and read about content, and have all these awesome ideas floating around in your mind but if don’t actually get them out there and in front of people, ideally your current and potential customers, then they’re doing you no good at all. So the key then is finding a way to make creating quality content on a consistent basis. Ideally daily, but at least a few times a week. There’s a little-known secret in marketing called the 'Marketing Rule of 7.' The Rule of 7 was originally introduced by the film industry back in the 1930’s when studio bosses discovered that it took around 7 touchpoints, or interactions with a customer in order to get them to see a certain movie. And this rule has carried forward to today. Meaning that if you wanted a product or service or business to succeed, you needed to make sure that your prospect heard your marketing message at least 7 times before expecting them to take any kind of action. The higher the price or more complicated whatever it is that you sell, the more touchpoints are required. On the other hand, if you’re selling a pack of gum or some other kind of impulse purchase than all you might need is a simple and compelling offer like “hey, you should buy this gum cause it tastes good”. The disappointing secret to creating content is that there really is no secret. It’s just a matter of sitting down, or standing up if you’ve got one of those fancy-schmancy standing desks, and getting to work. But I appreciate how hard this can be, so I think it’s time I introduced you to one of the most powerful books I’ve ever read on getting stuff done which is the War of Art by Steven Pressfield, and if you haven’t read this before then now is as good a time as any.

If you want to discover how to stand out from the crowd, make a bigger impact, and grow your business then you need to be using one of the oldest, and most effective marketing strategies of all time, content marketing. But hold on, because the devils in the details here. And it’s not enough to just say 'content marketing' and think that you’ve got everything you need. Because like all things in business and marketing it’s not just what you do, but how you do it that makes the difference between making sales and increasing your revenue and just wasting your time, money, and energy. I mean it’s good to learn about content, and read about content, and have all these awesome ideas floating around in your mind but if don’t actually get them out there and in front of people, ideally your current and potential customers, then they’re doing you no good at all. So the key then is finding a way to make creating quality content on a consistent basis. Ideally daily, but at least a few times a week. There’s a little-known secret in marketing called the 'Marketing Rule of 7.' The Rule of 7 was originally introduced by the film industry back in the 1930’s when studio bosses discovered that it took around 7 touchpoints, or interactions with a customer in order to get them to see a certain movie. And this rule has carried forward to today. Meaning that if you wanted a product or service or business to succeed, you needed to make sure that your prospect heard your marketing message at least 7 times before expecting them to take any kind of action. The higher the price or more complicated whatever it is that you sell, the more touchpoints are required. On the other hand, if you’re selling a pack of gum or some other kind of impulse purchase than all you might need is a simple and compelling offer like “hey, you should buy this gum cause it tastes good”. The disappointing secret to creating content is that there really is no secret. It’s just a matter of sitting down, or standing up if you’ve got one of those fancy-schmancy standing desks, and getting to work. But I appreciate how hard this step can be, so I think it’s time I introduced you to one of the most powerful books I’ve ever read on getting stuff done which is the War of Art by Steven Pressfield, and if you haven’t read this before then now is as good a time as any📚

How to Track ROI from Content Marketing Content drives visitors which drive email subscriptions which drive sales. All are measurable. https://lnkd.in/eqN3Epgh #contentmarketing #fascinatid

As a professional with extensive experience in content marketing and consulting, I have personally experienced the challenge of convincing business owners that marketing is not optional but an indispensable investment for sustainable growth—particularly in today's economic climate. For instance, after creating high-quality, visually compelling content aligned with business goals and audience needs, I'm often asked, 'Why do we still need to market the content after investing so much in its creation?' The general misconception is, 'Once you build it, they’ll come automatically. Right?' Wrong! This assumption places small agencies under immense pressure. We spend hours strategizing and executing campaigns as we work overtime to drive organic growth and prove the value of the content we’ve created. Sadly, these efforts often go unappreciated, due to a common expectation that organic strategies should yield the same significant results as premium, paid marketing campaigns. However, differences in reach, speed, and scalability often make this unrealistic. Recently, during one of my routine client visits, a principle originally taught by Jesus came to mind as I discussed the importance of marketing for sales growth with a team: "The value you place on something determines the results you get in return." (Paraphrased from Mark 4:24 - AMPC). I couldn’t help but voice it, and it resonated with them, driving home my point in a pleasant way: businesses that make minimal investments in marketing and sales often attract equally minimal returns. Content creation alone cannot generate results; marketing is the bridge between creation and impact. Content development is only one side of the coin. Without robust marketing strategies—such as social media marketing, SEO, influencer collaborations, retargeting, email marketing, media buying, among others—even the best content will fail to achieve its potential. Recent social media's monetization also highlights the need for consistent, targeted marketing efforts. Half-hearted initiatives will yield exactly that level of return. Let me stop here for now. Brief reintroduction: I help businesses and organizations craft compelling narratives and innovative strategies that drive measurable results, build brand awareness, and boost sales growth. In subsequent posts, I’ll be sharing more of my works, alongside insights and probably, other true-life encounters like how cross-selling, upselling, and sales rebuttal efforts can sometimes backfire, and how explicit communication and better negotiation skills can save the day. Have you had a similar experience on the job? Please share in the comments. In any case, take heart—you’re not alone! #ContentMarketing #DigitalMarketing #GrowthMarketing #BrandAwareness #BusinessStrategy #SalesGrowth #ContentStrategy #MarketingConsulting #ContentDevelopment #SEO #SocialMediaMarketing #B2BMarketing #MarketingStrategy #StrategyAndGrowth #crossselling #upselling #salesrebuttal

Understanding the ToFu, MoFu, and BoFu Content Strategy Many businesses grapple with the same issue of effectively marketing and selling their products or services to their prospective customers. To solve these issues through the years, businesses and brands have agreed on one important skill: understanding and mastering their buyer’s journey. The buyer’s journey is the journey the buyer makes from their first encounter with a product or brand until they take the needed action that the business wants. Understanding this journey has become the bedrock of making massive online sales. As time passes, better modifications have been made to simplify the buyer’s journey and make it easier to understand. One of the processes of simplification is the funnel. The funnel is a description of how prospective buyers move through the process of buying. The top of the funnel is quite significant because it comprises many prospects who may be interested but cannot complete the journey for some reason. The bottom of the funnel is smaller because it consists of people willing and able to make the final purchase. These stages of the funnel have been divided into 3 categories. The ToFu, MoFu, and BoFu. These terms describe the Top of the Funnel, the Middle of the funnel, and the Bottom of the funnel. These stages address different issues in the buyer’s journey. The advertising strategy and tools used to target these 3 stages are different.] ToFu content strategies are all about making the first impression. This means you need to put in great effort to create valuable content. You need to use organic and paid advertisements to propel the reach of your content. Your target audience does not know you, so content like educative blog posts, webinars, ebooks, and the like. Since you are not known, selling your products immediately may not yield the best result for the business. How effective your effort is in this stage is measured by how many clicks to the links, downloads, and engagement. MoFu: This phase of the buyer’s journey is centered on nurturing the attention already gotten from the audience. You need to groom the prospects to become willing buyers. The content you need to put out in this stage are regular classes online and offline, more interactive blog posts, and social media content that gives detailed information about what you’re about. Your content should be solution-based. Email marketing is very effective at this stage. BoFu: The content is mainly to endear the customer to the product. The primary purpose of the products in this category is to lay the customer's fears about these products to rest and boost their assurance about the product. The use of testimonials, free demos, and posts addressing the deepest concerns the customer may have concerning that product. You know the success of this stage by looking at the product purchase rate, the retention rate, and the referrals you get afterward.  

Content does not get the respect it deserves despite underpinning marketing. Here's how I'd change that impression: (Let me know what you would do) 1) 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗯𝗲𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗮 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗲𝗿 The most popular talking points amongst content folks revolve around distribution, repurposing, and ideation. Topics like aligning SMEs, gathering input, metrics measurement, etc come a close second. 🛑 If you behave like a process executor, you'll get treated like a back office. Everyone pays lip service to how important the back office is but when times are tough, who do you think goes first? To get a seat at the strategic table, we need to start behaving like marketers. 2) 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 & 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆 Given SEO's success, execs treat content like a machine. Put in a few dollars and out comes X SEO-optimized articles that drive traffic. We moved past traffic to "Revenue" over the past year, in an effort to sound more intelligent. 🛑But if we keep putting up with the SEO-as-default "strategy", we're not changing anything. We need to rethink what a content strategy is (coming up in my Substack next week) and stress how consumer behavior has changed. I'd use data to show these changes in action. Things like research data showing more SERP saturation, more people buying based on referrals, people shortlisting vendors and only then Googling, etc. Stuff that people like Chris Walker have been talking about for over a year now. Then use that data to emphasize a content strategy that drives attention, instead of "Revenue" (which most companies cannot attribute accurately to begin with.) 3) 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 Great execution cannot save a bad message. But a great message can survive bad execution. Talking to functions that interact with customers is a great place to gather data. But instead of stopping at pain points, I'd dig deeper to understand what capturing revenue looks like. As in, how long does it take, what the buying process looks like, whose objections are heard the most, what is the biggest fear preventing purchase, etc. Gather that data and design a strategy based on that. As for execution, I'd validate whether my topics and approach work. This means publishing on channels where I can gather feedback quickly and adjust. Go deeper on topics that deserve that treatment. Focus on a mix and speaking the language with the rest. That's what gets me attention and eventually revenue. 𝗜'𝗱 𝗱𝗼 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. What would you do to get content a seat at the table?

In developing ADAPTABLE BUSINESS BLUEPRINTS various Insights can be Valuable? In focusing this month on RAPID SCALE let us peruse the opportunity to gather FRAMEWORKS and STRATEGIC INFORMATION shared. STAGE 1: Gathering of Strategic Business Information for Competitiveness on LinkedIn. Please add if you want to join my journey? Most Businesses struggle to break free from stagnation. We have a proven process that helps to design a new BLUEPRINT for expansive growth. In our times the organisations and individuals that thrive are the very INNOVATIVE and ADAPTABLE ones, who LEARN CONTINUOUSLY. Please note what we offer in Ceobusinessclub.com and mocafrica.com to drive ADAPTABILITY and GROWTH enabling you with world-class designed and tested BLUEPRINTS to GROWTH. Taking you on a lifelong journey of LEARNING. The next Big CEOBusinesslcub.com event is from 3-4 June with DR Wong from Singapore. In person at the Klein Kaap Hotel and Conference Centre Centurion South Africa. Book your space - only a few seats are available. Pieter +27833040987 # Adaptability #Lifelong Learning, # Business Tool Innovation # Strategy # Innovation # Digital # AI #Networking,#Dealmaking,#Investing and #Exponential Business Growth

3 Steps For a Clear Marketing Roadmap

Before you invest in content marketing, take a good look at your reviews. If you’re disappointing customers, you shouldn’t invest more dollars into organic marketing or ads to get brand-new customers— they leave after one purchase. That’s too expensive. I see it every day in local magazine ads. There’s pool cleaning, gutter installation, and all sorts of companies. Then, I look up their reviews. Two stars. It’s obvious they need new buyers because they don’t have happy customers or referrals. These companies can check their ratings and customer satisfaction and improve retention before investing in marketing. That way, they don’t lose valuable resources when a first-time customer leaves forever. The best part? Once the company fixes the issue, they can create content addressing the pain points they once failed at. For example, if a B2B SaaS’s weaknesses was poor communication but improved on it, they can publish content based on great comms and service. Think of content emphasizing rapid customer responses, tight turnarounds, and case studies about fast deliverables and results. When companies work alongside marketers to create a holistic growth plan, everything can improve, from sales to marketing ROI.

This is the Future of Marketing... According to 4 Billionaires: Ever wanted to eavesdrop on the conversations of 4 silicon valley billionaires?  Well, now you can. The hosts of the ‘All In Podcast’ have a combined net worth of over $5 Billion. And in a recent episode they made a shocking prediction about the future of the marketing industry. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 ↓ ‘In the near future 𝟭𝟬𝟬% of marketing budgets will be spent on Content’ Now this may seem like a crazy prediction, but the trends are already there, every year more marketing $ is allocated to content. 28% of marketing budget is allocated to content marketing across various types of organizations in 2024 (Semrush). 90% of B2B marketers utilize organic social media platforms to distribute content W𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘀𝗼 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗳𝘂𝗹? In the past, to build a connection with someone you had to get in a room with them. Content lets you build relationships at scale. The content distribution systems created by platforms like linkedin offer business owners insane amounts of leverage. With one well crafted post you can reach 10,000 people. and with consistent output, content can help you build an audience of thousands all with the potential to turn into future customers or partners. 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱'𝘀 𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝗻𝗲 ,𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗶𝗻’ 𝗼𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁. Alex Hormozi has spoken on how during his recent campaign launches he examined the number of impressions gained through his organic content strategy. The data showed he spent $60,000 on content but had he acquired the same number of impressions through paid channels it would have cost him north of $2,000,000. The value of organic content far outweighs that of paid campaigns.  Especially when thinking long term. 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗜 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝗶𝘁 It’s difficult to see overall budget allocation for content jump from 28% to 100% in the space of a few years. But in this space change tends to happen fast. Think about it... 18 months ago the idea of having AI write a blog or a LinkedIn post was practically unheard of. Now it’s normal. I only see the importance of content marketing growing over the next few years, especially organic. Weather or not it accounts for 100% of spend remains to be seen. Either way, nows the time to start getting your content strategy down. Need some help? Shoot me a message. PS. How do you see content marketing changing over the next 5- 10 years? Do you agree with their predictions? Interested to hear. Happy Tuesday Folks 🍀