According to Copyblogger.com, Content Marketing is used to create and share useful content as a means of transforming prospects into customers and customers into repeat buyers.  By contrast, Copywriting is used to get the prospects to do something.  Content marketing can be found in blogs, articles, white papers, case studies, ebooks, webinars and all sorts of other subject matter related documents.  Copywriting is used for sales pages, infomercials, direct mail.  Here are eight ideas that might get you started or improve your current content marketing strategy and drive awareness of your products.

1. Set detailed objectives and determine how the content marketing is going to help you achieve your goals.  A whiter paper can provide an outline or attract people to a webinar or it can be used as give away after the webinar is ended.  A ghost written article that is contributed regularly to an industry publication can be a way for your company president or technical guru to build credibility.

2. Figure out exactly who your target prospect or audience is. If it’s industry specific, production process orientated, profiled after an employment type, you’ll be aiming your content to address their needs.

3. One of the most important steps to content marketing is developing a flexible editorial calendar. It should include strategies, specific tactics, suggested headlines, content deadlines and responsibilities.

4. Determine industry keywords that are not only relevant to your product, but also are going to attract attention. Search engine optimization (SEO) can play a huge role. The tags you’re adding to your blog posts are going to generate traffic and choosing the right ones can help you get found in the first place.

5. Develop a central message that your audience wants or needs to hear. Determine what will differentiate you and your product, as well as what will help you achieve the goals you have set. Make sure your content supports that message.

6. Measure the effect of your content to determine whether or not your plan needs to be modified.  Anything your audience can take action on is something you need to pay attention to.

7.  Decide on the mix of marketing strategies: long-form, short-form and sharing.  Long-form includes blogs, articles, white papers, case studies — basically, anything longer than a couple of sentences. Short-form includes tweets, Facebook and LinkedIn status updates. Sharing includes participating in and driving conversations through blog commenting, link sharing and comments on videos which helps encourage discussions between other thought leaders within your industry.  Sometimes a subject matter expert can make observations a lay person wouldn’t know to.

8. Develop the content.  Content marketing is not about using traditional sales tactics but rather educating and creating trust through the information that’s provided.  In order to even begin using a content marketing plan, you need to decide what content you’re going to use and then develop it.

Reference:  Heather Huhman.  Mashable, Inc.  December 02, 2011

At year’s end, we are often caught up in thinking and planning for the current year. Did 2011 turn out the way you expected? Will 2012 be dramatically different? Are there other factors — things we are planning to do; things we think our competitors might do; outside forces such as changing tastes, demographics or economics — that might change the course of business in the coming year?

Most companies that do a formal forecast start out with a statistical projection of past sales patterns into the future. Your forecast model should detect and characterize any seasonality inherent in your markets and include that in the projection. But that’s just the first step.

The next thing to consider is product lifecycle. Nearly all products go through a predictable cycle of introduction, acceptance and growth, maturity (demand levels off), and finally decline to obsolescence. These cycles can be as short as weeks or as long as decades. Clothing fashions and consumer electronics would be on the shorter end of the scale, while products such as plumbing fixtures and construction equipment experience longer cycles. Nevertheless, the demand forecast should be adjusted to reflect increasing or decreasing demand according to the product’s position in its lifecycle.

Now comes the hardest part — predicting the unpredictable. In general, the future is likely to look a lot like the recent past in a similarity to Newton’s first law of motion: a body in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by an external force. But it’s those external forces that can send your carefully calculated forecast right into the gutter. A competitor might slash their prices to take away some of your market share. New technologies might obsolete your product before the end of its expected life span. Changing tastes or new regulations might stop sales in their tracks.

But good things might happen as well. You might be the one to slash prices or improve your product and take away a competitor’s business. Your product may catch the fancy of the market and sales will skyrocket. A competitor may abandon the business or go bankrupt, leaving you with more opportunity.

Should you plan for these kinds of things? It would be nice if you could, but it’s virtually impossible since these kinds of developments are by nature unpredictable (if they are predictable, then of course, include them in your plans). The key to success is agility — the ability to adapt to changing conditions. Prepare the best forecast you can, build your plans around that forecast, and monitor sales and market conditions closely and continually for the earliest warning that things may be going in a direction other than you predicted.

You must be willing to recognize and adapt to changing conditions — in other words, don’t fall in love with your forecast and ignore evidence that it may be wrong. Pride of authorship in this case can be deadly to your business.

It is also important to have contingency plans in place so you will be prepared to make necessary changes to procurement, production and inventory to respond to the new estimate of demand. The best tools for this are the shortest possible lead times (both production and supplier), good supplier relationships, and a clear view of the world and your markets.

Forecasting is difficult mainly because people know it is likely to be wrong and nobody likes to be publicly and visibly wrong. Nevertheless, a good forecast is necessary to position the resources necessary to satisfy customer demands. Just be open to the first signs of change and be prepared to react quickly and decisively.

Sadly, many companies are going through the annual physical inventory process at this time of year, wasting the company’s money and resources while providing no real value to the business or its customers. Why do they do it? Two reasons: (1) the accountants and auditors insist and (2) there is little confidence in the inventory records because of questionable processes and controls .

Most people in manufacturing now know that cycle counting is the definitive method for checking and improving inventory record accuracy. Most also know that inventory record accuracy is a key supporting structure for success with manufacturing business planning systems (ERP/MRP). Most also know that a full physical inventory is a waste of time, effort and money.

Yet, a lot of companies still do an annual physical inventory (and sometimes more than one per year). You can blame the accountants and auditors because they are the ones that insist that we do it. But accountants and auditors can be perfectly content with perpetual records as long as they are verified and maintained through a solid cycle counting process.

So, the real reason we do the physical is because we don’t have a functioning cycle count system in place and that means that record accuracy is low. And that also means that your ERP/MRP system is not providing the benefits that it should – fewer shortages (better customer service) with lower inventory.

Inventory accuracy is not the only determinant of success with ERP/MRP but it is an essential building block to that success. Once that issue is put to bed, then you can look at user understanding and training, proper measurements and corporate culture, and the other essential elements of effective manufacturing management.

If you haven’t made all of your New Year’s resolutions yet (or even if you have), why not put inventory record accuracy improvement at the top of your list for 2012. Even if you are doing well with cycle counting and your auditors don’t make you do an annual physical, there are always opportunities for improvement and improvements in inventory accuracy pay huge dividends in many other aspects of the business.

Two of the largest and most successful companies in the world achieved and maintain their success by mastering the supply chain. Wal-Mart took logistics to new heights, bringing big city, low prices and convenience to rural areas. Apple dominates its chosen markets through innovation but also benefits greatly from a single-minded focus on operational excellence.

Before Wal-Mart, small towns in rural areas had few shopping alternatives for basic household goods and supplies — mostly independent “mom and pop” stores with relatively high prices because their small size and remote location kept their costs high. Wal-Mart used high-efficiency logistics to cut costs and bring a wider selection of products at lower prices to these remote areas, creating the brand that dominates the retail space today. Superior logistics, in addition to the economies of scale that naturally accompany being the world’s largest retailer, continue to allow Wal-Mart to be the low-price leader.

Apple excels at design and innovation, but even the best products cannot be successful if they are not delivered to the stores and the customers. Apple is known within the manufacturing and logistics worlds as a smart and fierce competitor that will do whatever it takes to get its products built and delivered to meet market needs.

Have you ever wondered how Apple can sell literally millions of units of a brand new product on the first weekend of its availability? Sure, the product’s merits account for the demand, but Apple has to build those units and get them to the appropriate distribution points in time for the release. This takes planning, commitment and money.

Every product has a life cycle that includes an initial introduction and growth phase where the product is essentially alone in its market before other companies have a chance to introduce competitive products. Once competitors enter the market, competition drives down prices and profits; but before that happens, margins can be considerable. Apple can afford to spend more on manufacturing and distribution to get more product into the pipeline during that all-important early and exclusive high-margin window. But they must spend that money wisely to get the benefits.

Often, Apple will contract for a lot of air cargo space in anticipation of a new product’s initial release. Yes, air transportation is a lot more expensive than using ships, but six weeks on the water is simply untenable in these fast-changing markets. Apple will also buy up manufacturing capacity and lock up supplies of certain components and materials that may have limited availability. This strategy has the added advantage of “drying up” the supplies of these components and delaying competitors’ efforts to bring competing products to market.

Great product design and slick marketing can create demand for a new product, but you can only sell what you make available to your customers.

Getting the right quantities of the right products to the right places at the right time is the result of good planning and execution, and that’s the job of operations management and supply-chain management professionals.

Note: APICS Granite State will be offering the Certified Supply Chain Professional exam preparation course on Saturdays at the Pease International Tradeport beginning Jan. 28. For details, visit www.apics85.org.

December is often a rather strange month in the life of the manufacturing plant. There may be some seasonal demand effects to deal with (lower actual demand and lower production objectives in many cases) and there are often schedule reductions to be accommodated due to holiday shut-downs and the policy in many companies of encouraging employees to use vacation time before the end of the year.

Bottom line, schedules for December are often different than schedules for other months. Now here’s the critical question: is that difference included in your plan and especially in the operations portion of the sales and operations plan (S&OP)?

It is very easy to overstate capacity by not recognizing the realities of non-production activities (meetings, clean-up, material handling), vacation and sick time, and equipment maintenance and repair. Many companies naively assume for scheduling and planning purposes that an eight hour shift will produce seven or so hours of production each day (recognizing scheduled breaks and some of the every-day non-production activities) but forgetting that workers will not be there every single day and perhaps won’t be as productive every day. This results in overly optimistic schedules that are unlikely to come to fruition.

When production doesn’t live up to the plan, work isn’t completed on time and customer service suffers. Companies often resort to expensive expediting and overtime to catch up. Overly ambitious schedules will bring inventory in too soon and increased inventory and WIP can add to confusion and uncertainty, causing further production delays that only make the problem worse.

The whole purpose of a planning system is to model the plant and its activities and to give you an advanced look at what is likely to happen. The usefulness of that advanced look is dependent on how realistic the information is that it is given. If you start out with a false statement of capacity, the resulting plan will be inaccurate and misleading.

If you are currently suffering from overly optimistic scheduling, the first step (as always) is to recognize the problem and its cause. Next, correct the capacity statement in your planning and scheduling model to reflect reality. The system should then show you a better estimate of what can actually be done and what will happen without extraordinary measures. Be careful how you resolve any over loads or capacity mismatches because some common reactions can cause more harm than good. You can Google Lead Time Syndrome or Bullwhip Effect for some discussions of how small changes in one area can cause big problems in another.

Finally, don’t forget to factor in those extra vacation days that you are encouraging workers to take before the end of the year.

I’m going to discuss three things today about the number three. First, there’s something magical about three; secondly, three can be even more powerful when nested; and lastly, three can make your message more memorable.

Threes Have Magic
I learned a long time ago that including three items in a list is a lot more satisfying than two or four or any other number. I don’t know why – just a quirk of human nature, I guess. Consider: This newsletter is attractive and useful. This newsletter is attractive, useful and convenient. This newsletter is attractive, useful, convenient and valuable. The second example just feels better, it has a rhythm. Or should I say it feels better, it has a rhythm and it is more memorable.

Nesting adds power
Stacking or nesting threes within threes multiplies the effect. Make three essential points in your brochure, PowerPoint or white paper. Within each point have three sections, paragraphs or examples. Within each of these include three keywords, listed items or phrases. Establish the rhythm and exploit the resonance of repetition, nesting and consistency.

Make it memorable
Top ten lists are always popular but it is the top three that one typically remembers. Win, place and show – we don’t even have a word for fourth place. In technology writing – white papers, magazine articles and briefing papers – it is common practice (and an effective strategy) to emphasize a list of “7 best” of something, “6 things to avoid…”, or “8 things every (blank) should know about (blank)”. That’s all well and good but it’s only the top three that people remember. And in today’s text and twitter short-attention-span world, you have less of the reader’s time and attention so it pays to keep it short. It’s likely that they jump right to the top three things anyway so why not just put all of your marketing muscle into those three things to begin with.

Mark Twain is famously quoted as having written in a letter to an acquaintance “I apologize for the length of this letter. I would have written a shorter letter but I simply didn’t have the time.” (I paraphrase, but you get the point). This emphasis on brevity puts more pressure on marketing precisely because it is more difficult to write a short, concise and yet complete description of a product, theory or concept. But there is always room for the magic of threes to work for you even in the famous elevator pitch or 140 character tweet.

Goodwill is a valuable and amazingly fragile commodity, as dramatically demonstrated recently by Netflix and Bank of America. Both companies made changes that enraged customers and caused many of them to take their business elsewhere. While neither of these companies is a manufacturer, the lesson certainly applies to all of us.

Bank of America is in an industry that already had considerable public relations problems so I’ll focus on Netflix. This company had a sterling reputation and high customer loyalty based on good service and an attractive pricing policy. In one fell swoop, the company changed both the pricing and the delivery model without prior notice and, apparently without polling customers or test marketing to see what the response would be. It is safe to say that they were caught completely off guard (as were their customers) at the immediate and dramatic reaction.

Just like in every other business, manufacturing is all about meeting customer demand. From an operations perspective, we tend to focus on the physical aspects of the product like functionality, quality and durability; as well as the logistical aspects like on-time shipment and maintaining schedules in the plant. We are also concerned with cost control and efficient operation to preserve margin and profit so the business can endure.

All of those aspects of operations are aimed at meeting customer demand as we perceive it. Hence, that’s the crux of this discussion – it is important to have a clear picture of what the customer really wants. Practitioners of lean manufacturing understand that it all comes down to value. A lean initiative is focused on identifying those activities that add value and eliminating those that do not add value. And value is defined by the customer – simply put, it is what the customer is willing to pay for. That’s why a lot of lean activities focus on inventory, handling, etc. because they add nothing to the product and therefore are of no value to the customer.

Combine this focus with the company’s market strategy to see where Netflix went wrong. Netflix offered a convenient, low-cost alternative to premium cable and video stores – a segment that Netflix almost single handedly drove out of business. It still offers a much lower cost than cable and the streaming service is arguably just as convenient as cable and cable’s on-demand services. The disc-in-the-mail service is more convenient than Red Box and the price is competitive. So, why are customers upset and leaving Netflix by the hundreds of thousands?

The simple answer is customer relations. By raising prices and changing a key aspect of the service, they surprised the customers and failed to recognize what the customers viewed as valuable. They had to raise the price because their costs have increased significantly and the new price is still very reasonable. They should have talked to customers, presented the problem and proposed solutions, and developed a strategy that would be more palatable. They really didn’t do anything wrong – they had to raise revenues to cover increased costs and Netflix customers are still getting a lot of value for the money. But the way they did it was insensitive to customer perceptions of the company and what it has to offer. I’m sure they could have found a way to increase revenue without destroying the goodwill that the company had worked so hard to achieve.

As manufacturers, we have to be constantly aware of customer perceptions and expectations. We could be doing everything right but still not pleasing the customers because of what we might consider trivial or insignificant things that the customer considers valuable.

Listen to the customer. Understand what they expect and what they value. Collaborate with your distribution resources to hear the voice of the customer more clearly if you are not selling direct. Use every contact – service calls, parts orders and inquiries, warranty claims, trade shows, sales calls, surveys, blogs – to get clues as to what is of value and what isn’t.

Lastly, don’t forget that it is not only the physical product but the entire experience that pleases or displeases the customer.

As the United States struggles to climb out of the recession, the manufacturing sector has been particularly strong, leading the way with increased output and solid sales and profits. But hiring, even in the manufacturing sector, is not increasing as fast as one might expect, considering that healthy business growth.

How can manufacturers increase output without increased hiring?  They can increase productivity, which is measured as output per employee or per employee hour. Productivity increases are driven by employees working harder and by improved methods and equipment — and both are factors in the current market.

As the recession took hold, manufacturers (and other companies as well) reduced payroll costs through reduced hours and layoffs. Remaining employees were asked to work harder to help the company get through the rough patch.

As business begins to recover, companies are reluctant to hire those workers back because they are not certain that the increased demand will stay — the economy is not stable enough to lend confidence to a forecast of continued recovery. So, remaining workers are pressured to work even harder. Temporary and part-time workers are used where possible rather than hiring full-time employees who may have to be laid off if the recovery falters.

The other factor is the result of improved methods and equipment. U.S. manufacturing has been on a decades-long productivity improvement crusade that is absolutely vital to the survival of the industry. The only way American manufacturers can compete with lower wage economies in global markets is to increase productivity to the point where our overall product costs are competitive despite higher labor costs. Automation and continued investments in improved production methodologies like Lean Manufacturing have kept American manufacturing in a leading position, producing more goods every year despite growing competition from the developing world.

But higher productivity means fewer jobs unless markets can increase at the same rate as productivity or more. And therein lays the real solution to decreasing manufacturing employment in the United States — selling more products, especially by exporting to other countries. Fortunately, markets are, in fact, growing — dramatically. Rising development and standards of living in China, India and many other developing countries around the world are growing the middle class by millions of consumers every year. And they are and will continue to be hungry for Western goods.

American companies and political leaders need to aggressively pursue the free flow of goods to these new markets. Several trade deals that have been languishing in the political process are now moving through to enactment and more are needed. Free trade is the key to the future of American manufacturing and manufacturing employment.

Seemingly, there’s a new prediction every day: the economy is slipping into a ‘double dip’ — we’re in a recovery and there will be no double dip — we’re okay for now but expect another recession late in 2012. Nobody really knows what the future holds, but if we did know, would our plan and tactics change?

As marketing professionals, it is our responsibility to promote our companies and their products and services no matter what the economic climate happens to be. Our budgets may be smaller and we are expected to do more with less, but is that so unusual? Even in “good times” we never had enough money to do all the things we would have liked to do.

Since you can’t possibly know what’s coming, it’s important that you’re ready to grab hold of new opportunities. Here are 6 basic things you can do …

1. Take a marketing inventory.
Without adequate understanding of your company and product strengths (and weaknesses), you’re never going to be able to further your marketing efforts, let alone sell others on the features and benefits.

2. Strengthen relationships.
Studies show that now, more than ever, buyers are looking for a return to normalcy. They want some reassurance that in these challenging times, life goes on. So, at least for now, it’s essential to stay the course and focus your marketing efforts on building relationships with your best prospects and customers.

3. Identify Qualified Prospects.
Does your current marketing program focus on your ideal prospects? In a highly competitive environment, it’s vital to fine-tune your program to target only the most qualified businesses or individuals. Savvy marketers must use every means at their disposal to build a profile of their best prospects based on the demographics, preferences and even behaviors of current customers.

4. Write your elevator pitch.
Develop a Twitter pitch: can you summarize your products and services in 140 characters?

5.  Educate yourself.
Information is your most valuable asset right now, and knowing all you can about your customers and prospects is perhaps the most powerful tool in your toolset

6. Be creative.
Economic downturns favor innovation – they present new problems, or at least problems that are new to most people. At the same time, old problems disappear or cease to seem so pressing – people and organizations left hawking solutions to old problems will rapidly find themselves extinct. Seek out the new problems, and set your mind free in search of new solutions.

Nobody knows for sure what’s going to happen over the next year or so. Being prepared for anything will most certainly give you an advantage.

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Dustin M. Wax – lifehack.org
Kim T. Gordon – Entrepreneur