To say 'Merry Christmas' from your favourite marketing agency search and selection team, we've created these clever (at least we think so) email one-liners, season-themed for your enjoyment.

Have a great holiday break and New Year from all of us here at FindGood!

In our final post with coverage from Inbound Marketing UK 2013 we get on to the hot topic of content.

Not you run of the mill content, but ‘home run’ content that will put your business on the digital map. Doug Kessler Creative and Content Strategies at Velocity Partners was our guide to this and, by golly did he have some inbound marketing wisdom to impart.

Kessler’s influence in the world of content marketing was clear as audience members waited with baited breath and notepads at the ready in anticipation of his talk. And what did he start with?

Crap, that’s what.

In our last post we talked about the joys of running an inbound marketing strategy for your business, guided by the wise words of HubSpot CEO Brian Halligan.

Your second installment from IMUK13 goes a little deeper in to the inbound marketing process with Twitter data tips from SEO Gadget’s Richard Baxter that will revolutionise your Tweeting habits.

Twitter is often considered a business luxury, overlooked and undervalued it can become an abused channel that is only used to send the odd tweet about the trails and tribulations of the daily commute. Interesting stuff… Wake-up folks, you are missing out an amazing inbound marketing opportunity here.

Richard Baxter lifts the veil on Twitter to reveal a mine of data waiting to be harvested. We now see Twitter through Baxter’s eyes – and it’s marketing friendly, full of graphs and charts. In this post you will learn how Baxter:

• Improves your SEO with Twitter
• Builds a Twitter data mine in Excel 
• Targets influencers and builds SEO friendly relationships

Improve your SEO with Twitter

FindGood have the tid-bits, tips and most of all the marketing agencies’ quips that kept us entertained for a full day at HubSpot’s conference: ‘Inbound Marketing UK 2013’.

Welcome to part one of our series of blogs that we hope will enlighten you to the world of inbound marketing straight from the mouths of the 12 influential speakers (plus a little light conference comedy thrown in for good measure).

Your BIG IMUK13 takeaways:

• Brian Halligan (CEO of HubSpot) taught us that using your dog in a presentation is cool and Inbound is more about changing your attitude to business – including how you manage your staff.
• Doug Kessler (Creative and Content Strategist at Velocity) taught us that stealing is OK and to commit the crime shamelessly [content and ideas only guys, no tablets and smart phones]. FYI Doug, we plan to so, so watch-out. After the success of his recent book release ‘Crap’ we also learnt swear words are a great way to market yourself but we think that might be bullshit.
• SEO Gadget’s Richard Baxter gave us enough social stalking tools to start our own private investigation agency. But more importantly how to harness our Twitter data to reach influencers and make SEO friendly connections.
• Carrie Longton (Founder of Mumsnet.com) educated us on the Mummy market such as; don’t call Mums yummy and that they love to talk Politics. In general Carrie is a pro at understanding a market and how to enfranchise that market to support your brand.

Setting the inbound tone

For marketing agencies and businesses of all shapes and sizes, blogs can be a fantastic inbound marketing tool.

Here, Gemma Farmer, of PR agency Neo PR gives her 5 quintessential steps for building a fool-proof blog. We're listening, Gemma...

A blog (a contraction of the words web log) is a discussion or informational site published on the World Wide Web.

Content marketing is the creation and publication of interesting content (such as blog articles, comment pieces or multimedia shares) with the objective of driving traffic to your site and promoting your brand. Having a good content marketing strategy is essential for anyone looking to keep up with their competitors, foster consumer relationships and get the attention of potential consumers.

Key types of marketing content:

1. Viral: Content that is designed to spread and be shared across social platforms. This content marketing strategy has a short lifespan and is predominately designed as a quick-fix, that is, to entertain, provoke (often emotional) reactions and to provide the 'wow' factor. It's great for growth and getting your name out there but doesn't offer the reader much in terms of substance. Examples of viral content marketing include infographics, videos, stats and picture galleries.
2. Lead gen: Marketing content that aims to point out a problem or gap in the reader's knowledge and to then provide a solution (solved by opting in or signing up). This is a popular content marketing strategy encompassing all aspects of marketing, PR and brand journalism. It is designed to spark some kind of call to action.
3. Sales gen: As above but with the objective of triggering a sale rather than a sign up.
4. Discussion: As you would expect, this type of content is designed to create conversation and promote interaction between not only the reader and publisher but the readers themselves. This kind of community-focused thought-leadership is best characterised by comment or reaction pieces, industry overviews, insider/insight articles or instructional pieces, for example Do's and Don'ts (just like this!).

One of these content marketing strategies should always be applied when creating any new piece of content. Content is, after all, a marketing tool and should ultimately aim to drive users to the site and boost brand awareness and consumer interaction. Without an objective, as above, it's helping nobody.

So, with that out the way, here are our very own Do's and Don'ts, to help you develop your content marketing strategy.

DO: Offer the reader something

Viral content marketing aside, each piece of content should help the reader in some way. This could be through educating, advising, entertaining or offering some kind of solution. Yes, at the end of the day Content Marketing is just that, marketing, but it should ultimately lead the reader to some kind of goal rather than just be self-serving. It should aim to encourage contribution and engagement while positioning your brand as a go-to thought leader or expert.

DON'T: Regurgitate old content

In the real world recycling may be great, but online there's nothing worse. Your content marketing strategy should be inventive and reactionary, incorporating developments in the industry, the latest viral trends and consistently offer your readers something new, fresh and engaging.

DO: Make it search-friendly

All marketing content strategies should be SEO (or Search Engine Optimisation)-friendly. That means when generating your content you need to take into account what your audience is looking for and what is likely to draw attention. With Google's updated algorthyms now kicking in it can be hard to stay ahead of the system, but SEO Moz is a great place to start. Also make sure you are monitoring your social footprint and the traffic your content generates. This way you'll know what is working and what isn't, as well as identifying room for growth.