Content Marketing Archives - Agence Luxury
Most luxury brand marketers reach out to popular and influential bloggers for a one-time outreach campaign that is aimed at boosting popularity and spiking interest during product launch. However, these same luxury brands will stop the relationship with the bloggers immediately after the campaign gets over, and only reach out when they need another spike in interest. This is where most of the luxury brands falter.
Influencers have the ability to drive action and shape the buying behavior of others. They can help the business establish authority, increase brand awareness, drive interest towards the brand's products and keep the trust levels high. Keeping the doors of communication and engagement open and real is important; think about incorporating some of these strategies into your marketing mix.
• Reciprocate – Any relationship demands reciprocation and appreciation. If you want to maintain a healthy and long-term relationship with your brand advocates, you should be ready to be involved, and be willing to offer benefits beyond the campaign. Offer regular gifts; give discounts, and deals so that your brand advocates are willing to give you back more in return.
• Surprise to Satisfy – Everybody likes a good little surprise; why don’t you use it to your advantage? Surprise your brand advocates simply mentioning their name on your Tweeter feed or in a blog post – at a time when they are not expecting a reward. The surprise element can work wonders to your brand image, it will create an additional buzz within your brand advocate's fan base. Your pleasantly delighted advocates might share their experiences with others, making it easier for your brand to garner more exposure.
• Let Them Be The First To Know – When you keep your brand advocates in the loop, by informing them about any company change, new product launches, new offers and new events to attend, you are letting them know that they matter. They deserve the right to know about your company and your products before it is launched to the general public. Think about reaching out to them on a one by one basis rather than with a copy/paste press release. If you want them to work with you on an ongoing basis, you need to let them know you care.
• Be in Touch – Everything is about maintaining relationships. So, it is important to continue building rapport to keep the conversation going. It is rude to contact them when you need a favor and then forget all about them once the work is done. Be in touch, check on them every now and then, send them an email, ask about their work, leave a comment on their blogs, and appreciate their work - anything to keep the conversation smooth.
• Show your Appreciation – Everyone likes to be appreciated and recognized. Your brand advocates deserve appreciation and recognition for the work they do. Make sure they know that their efforts at spreading word about your brand are duly appreciated. Plan events specifically to celebrate them and their efforts.
At LuxeInACity, we have seen brands go out of their way to make us feel special and be our friend for years to come; others seem to be only in it for the short term. We strongly recommend you engage influencers beyond the campaign.
LinkedIn - The New Publishing Platform For B2B
Earlier this month, LinkedIn expanded its publishing platform, in a move that will allow all of the platform’s users to write long-form posts and share them with their connections. This change will be helping to transform LinkedIn into a comprehensive publishing platform, and one that businesses will be able to use to create informative content to educate their audiences with. While LinkedIn has previously offered the publishing feature to a select group of industry professionals, also called LinkedIn Influencers, with the new update, the feature will now be offered to all LinkedIn members. Will LinkedIn become the preferred publishing platform for B2B?
According to an announcement from LinkedIn, the Influencers’ posts have been doing well, receiving more views and comments than average posts. This first group of Influencers included big names within the financial industry as well as Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Barack Obama, among others. After the initial group of “Influencers” were selected to pilot this new effort, LinkedIn has found that these posts receive an average of 31,000 more views, 250 more likes and 80 more comments per post. Even with the new platform in place, LinkedIn is still maintaining its Influencers program to help bring attention to some of the most influential users on the site.
There are currently more than 277 million users on the LinkedIn network, and now all of them will be able to access the publishing feature right from their home screen.
LinkedIn members who are looking to enhance their B2B transactions will find that this new feature can be instrumental to their success. LinkedIn is already one of the top sites for B2B content publishing, and the most used social media platform by B2B marketers. The addition of the open publishing feature should only expand the influence of LinkedIn within the B2B marketing industry, and should help LinkedIn become the leading professional publishing platform in the market.
Now that the new update is officially available, members who are interested in taking advantage of the new publishing power will find a small pencil icon to the right of their Share Box. By clicking on this pencil, any user will be able to access a screen where they can create their long form posts and content. They will also be able to add titles and links in order to publish their article. Once an article has been crafted, it will be part of the public profile of the publisher. With the platform in place, members will be able to share their expertise through videos, images, photos, articles and presentations. Many members hope that this new feature will help them grow their business and develop a stronger online presence.
The new LinkedIn update offers members the ability to deliver more personal insights along with their profile. The social media site has launched the blogging feature to help increase user engagement, however, different users have found different benefits of the new platform. While some companies may be focused on the B2B marketing component of the new rollout, others are seeing the benefits of this addition when it comes to hiring decisions. No matter what the reason is for utilizing the new LinkedIn feature, it is clear that this platform is ushering in a new era for all of the social network’s users.
It might be time for us to focus more of our energy on LinkedIn as the new publishing platform for B2B. What do you think?
Today is a day where I vent a little as it seems like one luxury travel brand we have been promoting for nearly a year has completely lost their way. To put you in context, let me explain the nature of our relationship.
The brand is a reputable luxury travel brand that became one of our monthly contributors on LuxeInACity, our luxury travel magazine. Since we value the opinions of travel experts, we published 10 original blog posts from them that included several SEO links back to their website. We even took it a step further and shared everything on our social media channels and randomly interacted with them throughout the year.
Last night, my partner/sister Maxine mentioned that she felt the relationship was unidirectional and that the content received was extremely generic. She had been noticing for a while that this luxury travel brand never took any initiative to share our own content with their fans. Unless we promoted them, they never interacted with us. It was always about them. So we decided to do a test.
I adapted one of our blog posts to include several links back to LuxeInACity's content and asked Maxine to sent them a request to publish it on their blog as a gesture of reciprocity. Remember that we have been promoted them on a complimentary basis for nearly a year and have never asked for anything in return. This was their response:
"Hi Maxine
Thank you for posting our April blog – looks brilliant. I love the tulip picture. I’ve got the May blog ready to send over to you next week but let me know if you want it any earlier than that.
Regarding posting on our blog, unfortunately we don’t feature reciprocal guest blogs. As I’m sure you are aware, Google places no value in a reciprocal link so this isn’t something we would do. I will always retweet anything you put out that mentions @brandname so I hope that is of some help to you.
Please do let me know if you have any queries at all
Seriously.... If this is how they act with their friends, I wonder how they actually threat their clients... Our response was simple... Delete, Delete, Delete. Yes, I deleted the last 10 blog posts they sent us and all those beautiful SEO backlinks we gave them over the year.
1- We only promote brands we love.
2- We only promote brands we value the friendship.
3- We only promote brands we recommend to our fans.
SEO is not about building random backlinks for Google but about building strong relationships with influencers that can give you traction. Maxine and I are not vindictive but enough if enough.
Lesson learned: Be friendly and give back some love! Build a real relationship with a luxury blogger.
Note: I am certain that this luxury travel brand is very happy we decided not to give them an SEO backlink from this post ;)
UPDATE: In case you wanted to know Maxine's reply:
"Hi "Name"
Thank you for following up. I am sad to see that "Brand Name" doesn't consider us a strategic partner. Since we are in the same field but offer different services, it does make sense that we help each other out. Not all reciprocal link are bad according to Google. If you were a dentist and I was a construction worker than it would definitely be considered black SEO to exchange links for the simple matter of a link exchange but since our content is relevant to each other and our readers, reciprocal links are still valuable when done right and and the links would be considered helpful additional resources on both our end, offering our readers more insight into the luxury travel world.
This isn’t a strategy to employ as an easy SEO tool to build lots of inbound links. If the link seems forced, unnatural, or out of place, it probably is and shouldn’t be used such as the example above.
This is a strategy to use to not only gain visibility for your brand and business in a new group of ideal clients and customers, but to also help your audience connect with and benefit from other relevant service providers, businesses, and retailers.
You see, there are still instances when reciprocal linking is smart for business, especially when it’s used as an online business strategy to gain visibility in front of new audiences. Our network in the luxury world is quite extensive and since we only link to businesses and websites that are trusted and authorities in their field, we have gained our authority by working and using reciprocal links that benefit both parties. We have never engaged in any purely SEO tactics since we have been online and purely gained our authority by getting involved in smart strategic partnerships so we have to believe that our tactic is working. We often even refuse linking to websites that are willing to pay as we believe our reputation is more important that a quick buck. Matt Cutts actually states that guest blogging purely for SEO purposes is not recommended but instead he says that "There are still many good reasons to do some guest blogging such as exposure, branding, increased reach, community, etc"
Having said that, last year, we used to accept guest posts from trusted websites for the opportunity to gain access to free quality content. However, our business has grown tremendously in the last year and we no longer need free content, now being able to produce our own. We now only accept guest posts if it's from strategic partnerships beneficial to both parties. Every guest blogger in our repertoire has agreed to continue working with us as strategic partners at one point or another. A simple retweet mentioning your company is not beneficial in any way to us since the focus is still on "Brand Name" and the links in the article still redirect everyone to your website. We can no longer justify the administrative costs if we are not getting anything in return. I hope you understand. I am sad to have to part ways but I see no other choices. I have to also mention at this time that we have removed all previous articles from our blog. We are strong believers in building real relationships and feel a little bit like we have been taken advantage of. If "Brand Name" is still interested in getting featured on LuxeInACity or would wishes for us to republish past content, I can provide you with a pricing list for a sponsored posts.
Maxine Genier"
Content Marketing Archives - Agence Luxury
Most luxury brand marketers reach out to popular and influential bloggers for a one-time outreach campaign that is aimed at boosting popularity and spiking interest during product launch. However, these same luxury brands will stop the relationship with the bloggers immediately after the campaign gets over, and only reach out when they need another spike in interest. This is where most of the luxury brands falter.
Influencers have the ability to drive action and shape the buying behavior of others. They can help the business establish authority, increase brand awareness, drive interest towards the brand's products and keep the trust levels high. Keeping the doors of communication and engagement open and real is important; think about incorporating some of these strategies into your marketing mix.
• Reciprocate – Any relationship demands reciprocation and appreciation. If you want to maintain a healthy and long-term relationship with your brand advocates, you should be ready to be involved, and be willing to offer benefits beyond the campaign. Offer regular gifts; give discounts, and deals so that your brand advocates are willing to give you back more in return.
• Surprise to Satisfy – Everybody likes a good little surprise; why don’t you use it to your advantage? Surprise your brand advocates simply mentioning their name on your Tweeter feed or in a blog post – at a time when they are not expecting a reward. The surprise element can work wonders to your brand image, it will create an additional buzz within your brand advocate's fan base. Your pleasantly delighted advocates might share their experiences with others, making it easier for your brand to garner more exposure.
• Let Them Be The First To Know – When you keep your brand advocates in the loop, by informing them about any company change, new product launches, new offers and new events to attend, you are letting them know that they matter. They deserve the right to know about your company and your products before it is launched to the general public. Think about reaching out to them on a one by one basis rather than with a copy/paste press release. If you want them to work with you on an ongoing basis, you need to let them know you care.
• Be in Touch – Everything is about maintaining relationships. So, it is important to continue building rapport to keep the conversation going. It is rude to contact them when you need a favor and then forget all about them once the work is done. Be in touch, check on them every now and then, send them an email, ask about their work, leave a comment on their blogs, and appreciate their work - anything to keep the conversation smooth.
• Show your Appreciation – Everyone likes to be appreciated and recognized. Your brand advocates deserve appreciation and recognition for the work they do. Make sure they know that their efforts at spreading word about your brand are duly appreciated. Plan events specifically to celebrate them and their efforts.
At LuxeInACity, we have seen brands go out of their way to make us feel special and be our friend for years to come; others seem to be only in it for the short term. We strongly recommend you engage influencers beyond the campaign.
LinkedIn - The New Publishing Platform For B2B
Earlier this month, LinkedIn expanded its publishing platform, in a move that will allow all of the platform’s users to write long-form posts and share them with their connections. This change will be helping to transform LinkedIn into a comprehensive publishing platform, and one that businesses will be able to use to create informative content to educate their audiences with. While LinkedIn has previously offered the publishing feature to a select group of industry professionals, also called LinkedIn Influencers, with the new update, the feature will now be offered to all LinkedIn members. Will LinkedIn become the preferred publishing platform for B2B?
According to an announcement from LinkedIn, the Influencers’ posts have been doing well, receiving more views and comments than average posts. This first group of Influencers included big names within the financial industry as well as Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Barack Obama, among others. After the initial group of “Influencers” were selected to pilot this new effort, LinkedIn has found that these posts receive an average of 31,000 more views, 250 more likes and 80 more comments per post. Even with the new platform in place, LinkedIn is still maintaining its Influencers program to help bring attention to some of the most influential users on the site.
There are currently more than 277 million users on the LinkedIn network, and now all of them will be able to access the publishing feature right from their home screen.
LinkedIn members who are looking to enhance their B2B transactions will find that this new feature can be instrumental to their success. LinkedIn is already one of the top sites for B2B content publishing, and the most used social media platform by B2B marketers. The addition of the open publishing feature should only expand the influence of LinkedIn within the B2B marketing industry, and should help LinkedIn become the leading professional publishing platform in the market.
Now that the new update is officially available, members who are interested in taking advantage of the new publishing power will find a small pencil icon to the right of their Share Box. By clicking on this pencil, any user will be able to access a screen where they can create their long form posts and content. They will also be able to add titles and links in order to publish their article. Once an article has been crafted, it will be part of the public profile of the publisher. With the platform in place, members will be able to share their expertise through videos, images, photos, articles and presentations. Many members hope that this new feature will help them grow their business and develop a stronger online presence.
The new LinkedIn update offers members the ability to deliver more personal insights along with their profile. The social media site has launched the blogging feature to help increase user engagement, however, different users have found different benefits of the new platform. While some companies may be focused on the B2B marketing component of the new rollout, others are seeing the benefits of this addition when it comes to hiring decisions. No matter what the reason i
s for utilizing the new LinkedIn feature, it is clear that this platform is ushering in a new era for all of the social network’s users.
It might be time for us to focus more of our energy on LinkedIn as the new publishing platform for B2B. What do you think?
Today is a day where I vent a little as it seems like one luxury travel brand we have been promoting for nearly a year has completely lost their way. To put you in context, let me explain the nature of our relationship.
The brand is a reputable luxury travel brand that became one of our monthly contributors on LuxeInACity, our luxury travel magazine. Since we value the opinions of travel experts, we published 10 original blog posts from them that included several SEO links back to their website. We even took it a step further and shared everything on our social media channels and randomly interacted with them throughout the year.
Last night, my partner/sister Maxine mentioned that she felt the relationship was unidirectional and that the content received was extremely generic. She had been noticing for a while that this luxury travel brand never took any initiative to share our own content with their fans. Unless we promoted them, they never interacted with us. It was always about them. So we decided to do a test.
I adapted one of our blog posts to include several links back to LuxeInACity's content and asked Maxine to sent them a request to publish it on their blog as a gesture of reciprocity. Remember that we have been promoted them on a complimentary basis for nearly a year and have never asked for anything in return. This was their response:
"Hi Maxine
Thank you for posting our April blog – looks brilliant. I love the tulip picture. I’ve got the May blog ready to send over to you next week but let me know if you want it any earlier than that.
Regarding posting on our blog, unfortunately we don’t feature reciprocal guest blogs. As I’m sure you are aware, Google places no value in a reciprocal link so this isn’t something we would do. I will always retweet anything you put out that mentions @brandname so I hope that is of some help to you.
Please do let me know if you have any queries at all
Seriously.... If this is how they act with their friends, I wonder how they actually threat their clients... Our response was simple... Delete, Delete, Delete. Yes, I deleted the last 10 blog posts they sent us and all those beautiful SEO backlinks we gave them over the year.
1- We only promote brands we love.
2- We only promote brands we value the friendship.
3- We only promote brands we recommend to our fans.
SEO is not about building random backlinks for Google but about building strong relationships with influencers that can give you traction. Maxine and I are not vindictive but enough if enough.
Lesson learned: Be friendly and give back some love! Build a real relationship with a luxury blogger.
Note: I am certain that this luxury travel brand is very happy we decided not to give them an SEO backlink from this post ;)
UPDATE: In case you wanted to know Maxine's reply:
"Hi "Name"
Thank you for following up. I am sad to see that "Brand Name" doesn't consider us a strategic partner. Since we are in the same field but offer different services, it does make sense that we help each other out. Not all reciprocal link are bad according to Google. If you were a dentist and I was a construction worker than it would definitely be considered black SEO to exchange links for the simple matter of a link exchange but since our content is relevant to each other and our readers, reciprocal links are still valuable when done right and and the links would be considered helpful additional resources on both our end, offering our readers more insight into the luxury travel world.
This isn’t a strategy to employ as an easy SEO tool to build lots of inbound links. If the link seems forced, unnatural, or out of place, it probably is and shouldn’t be used such as the example above.
This is a strategy to use to not only gain visibility for your brand and business in a new group of ideal clients and customers, but to also help your audience connect with and benefit from other relevant service providers, businesses, and retailers.
You see, there are still instances when reciprocal linking is smart for business, especially when it’s used as an online business strategy to gain visibility in front of new audiences. Our network in the luxury world is quite extensive and since we only link to businesses and websites that are trusted and authorities in their field, we have gained our authority by working and using reciprocal links that benefit both parties. We have never engaged in any purely SEO tactics since we have been online and purely gained our authority by getting involved in smart strategic partnerships so we have to believe that our tactic is working. We often even refuse linking to websites that are willing to pay as we believe our reputation is more important that a quick buck. Matt Cutts actually states that guest blogging purely for SEO purposes is not recommended but instead he says that "There are still many good reasons to do some guest blogging such as exposure, branding, increased reach, community, etc"
Having said that, last year, we used to accept guest posts from trusted websites for the opportunity to gain access to free quality content. However, our business has grown tremendously in the last year and we no longer need free content, now being able to produce our own. We now only accept guest posts if it's from strategic partnerships beneficial to both parties. Every guest blogger in our repertoire has agreed to continue working with us as strategic partners at one point or another. A simple retweet mentioning your company is not beneficial in any way to us since the focus is still on "Brand Name" and the links in the article still redirect everyone to your website. We can no longer justify the administrative costs if we are not getting anything in return. I hope you understand. I am sad to have to part ways but I see no other choices. I have to also mention at this time that we have removed all previous articles from our blog. We are strong believers in building real relationships and feel a little bit like we have been taken advantage of. If "Brand Name" is still interested in getting featured on LuxeInACity or would wishes for us to republish past content, I can provide you with a pricing list for a sponsored posts.
Maxine Genier"