Content Marketing is the New Black
Content marketing is the new black, is the future of marketing and isn't going anywhere anytime soon. For those who live under a rock, content marketing is all about creating and distributing valuable content to attract and convert a prospect into a customer. The goal is to educate and engage others so that they know who you are, like what you are sharing and trust you. So really, if you think about it, content marketing isn't really anything new. It's purely speaking to your audience through your own stories. Instead of purchasing advertising to get in to the mind of your consumer - companies are creating compelling content that captivates and lures your audience in.
At ToutApp, we consider ourselves a teaching company more than a selling one. We like to teach salespeople how to be better at sales by providing rich content, videos and resources. We are passionate about our product BUT we are also passionate about teaching others how to be better at sales. We found it is key to provide content that in the end will allow your audience to learn something valuable and for use to become a better salesperson all around.
With that in mind content marketing is a great wat to get customers or just an audience to your site. Just to prove the success we have acquired, we recently published our first iBook: How to Write Kickass Sales Emails. Our iBook generated over 100 conversions in the first few weeks. Simply because we created valuable content. FOR FREE. For salespeople and people who just wanted to learn the logistics of writing a kickass email. Over the past months, we have developed more awesome content where we have learned how to go all in - in the content marketing "trend." And so, we would like to share with you the content marketing truths we've developed at ToutApp around building a great brand, educating, inspiring and sharing valuable content.
- Create something VALUABLE. Engage your audience with interesting and valuable content. They need to be gaining something new in the first two sentences.
- Share a PROBLEM. Start with a common problem that you would want some insight on. Solve that problem by giving detailed insight with facts to back it up.
- Show you have a PULSE. Make you audience giggle, cry or ponder. Allow for them to be able to react and share your content versus bounding away from the page (Bonus: If it creates emotion chances are it will be highly shareable).
- Make the headline...KICKASS. Same goes for the subject line in your email - if they aren't catchy, short and informative most likely they won't open that email or take the time to read your content.
- Don't forget about YOU. Your content needs to encapsulate your company's core values and beliefs. Don't lose sight of this in your messaging. Exude a strong and consistent brand that others can easily recognize.
These simple truths will give you the foundation for getting started for greater resources and rich content check out these blogs:
- Quick Sprout: Neil Patel is the man. Founder of Crazy Egg and KISSmetrics, Neil was named top 100 blogger by Technorati and top influencers on the web according to the Wall Street Journal and boy does his blog rock. He creates some of the most valuable content on the web - seriously start reading Quick Sprout religiously and thank me later.
- Hubspot: "Create Marketing people love." Hubspot has an enormous library of content from introductory material to advanced. From SEO to content creation. You will be sure to gain more than enough knowledge to become an advanced marketer from their blog. Check out Hubspots most recent post 7 B2B companies to Admire for Exceptional Visual Content.
- Copyblogger has a wide range of knowledge from their in depth tutorials to their popular articles. They break down how to build an audience that builds your business beautifully.
- The Eloqua blog publishes powerful content on marketing from how to create that blog post, infographic, white paper or tutorial video that will turn a prospect into a paying customer.
Overall they all have some amazing valuable content that will transform you into a content marketing rockstar. So go out publish some valuable high quality content. Educate people and by doing so you will position you and your brand as content thought leaders in your industry. Give the ability to boast and share easily and it will spread. Teach people to be better and they will join you.
P.S. Try Touting your content. See how others are engaging with your messaging and know what is resonating and what is not.
How ToutApp Changed Elliot’s Workflow
Our featured User of the Week entry comes from Elliot Robia, a Market Strategist at Pixel Farm. Every week or so, we'll profile a different user group who uses our app to improve their email productivity. If you would like to be featured in the future, you can apply here.
Tout has totally changed my workflow.
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At Pixel Farm, we have two distinct customers: ad agencies and large companies. After understanding how we can help them, prospective clients are usually eager to work with us. Getting the initial conversation can sometimes be difficult, however. This is where ToutApp comes in.
I started using Tout for my outbound emails a few months ago, and it's excellent. I find leads using LinkedIn, and the app allows me to A/B test my messaging and eliminate receptive tasks (copy/pasting, typing and retyping). Tout provides great insights via its tracking and analytics features, and the user interface is beautiful. One of my favorite features is the email server integration which allows emails to be sent via your server -- not some third party application. Tout can also be integrated into Salesforce, and inbound emails will land in your inbox (Outlook, Apple Mail, Gmail, etc).
Check it out. It was worth the switch for me.
ToutApp Turns Three!
ToutApp was founded back in 2010 as a simple tool to write your emails faster and track them. Today we help over 45,000 customers crystalize and streamline their day-to-day communications process as one of the leading sales communications platforms and we are pretty happy about it.
We're only pretty happy because much like a toddler starting to develop his own personality and character and likes and dislikes, we feel like we're just getting started in leading the change in how salespeople communicate.
ToutApp has been through quite the journey over the years let's take a look back.
2010-2011
- Created Email Templates
- Introduced Email Tracking
2011-2012
- Rolled out integration with Gmail and Google Apps
- Integrations with Highrise, Batchbook, Capsule
- Introduced team collaboration features
- The Live Feed was created
2012-2013
- Rolled out Salesforce integration
- Outlook integrations
- Introduced attachment tracking
- Website tracking
- Made ToutApp enterprise ready
- Introduced an analytics dashboard
We have grown our team, our product and customers. Thank you all for being a part of the ToutApp jourmey and for what is to come. Without our amazing customers we would not be where we are today. Thanks for all your feedback and support over the years. Cannot wait for the years to come as the leading sales communications platform. Wish ToutApp a happy 3rd birthday today!
Introducing: The Sales Communications Dashboard
First of all, Happy Friday.
For those of you that are already ToutApp users, I hope you had a fantastic week of sales communications with new and exciting leads. Thanks to Tout's Live Feed, you already know who your most engaged leads were, and have probably closed a few more deals than you normally would have since you focused your time on the right people.
For this Friday, as you reflect on how the week went and what you want to do differently next week, we want to give you something that helps synthesize how your sales communications went this week.
Today, we're introducing something brand new that is going to take your sales game to the next level. Today, we're announcing something takes all of that amazing analytics and tracking data around your sales emails and wraps it into one meaningful dashboard. Today, we're announcing our real-time sales communications dashboard.
Although its unorthodox to release stuff on a Friday, we thought it would be great because as you wind down on your long week, you can go ahead and log into ToutApp Dashboard, click on the "This Week" button, and see how your whole week looked in terms of your sales communications.
Tout's pulse dashboard will make meaning out of all those individual email views and clicks and tell you:
- Which times of the weeks were busiest for you
- Which times of the week your customers were most engaged
- How many emails you dealt with this week
- Which templates you used the most
- What kind of email content drove the most engagement
- Who your most engaged leads/prospects/customers are
And ofcourse, the dashboard was designed for Managers and Teams in mind first, so it'll also help you tap into the sales communications across your organization and see how everyones doing as a whole.
We've put in a significant amount of investment into the underlying data infrastrucutre for processing our email and engagement data. We think this dashboard is just the beginning.
If you and your sales team aren't on ToutApp yet, what are you waiting for? Get Touting.
How Dyn Uses ToutApp’s Email Tracking and Analytics to Delight Customers
You’d never thought DNS and email delivery could get this exciting. Dyn are the coolest kids on the block making the internet work. They’ve delighted us with their Most Reputable Sender in the World campaign and their nontraditional take on classic internet memes.
When they’re not busy powering the internet, Dyn’s business development and marketing teams use Tout to improve their emails.
Tout is great for "reaching out to existing customers... Since there are wayyyyyyy more customers than there are BDRs, it helps us keep in contact with them all and inform them of other offerings Dyn has." - AJ Garron, Business Development Rep
As a very customer-centric company (we’ve written about Dyn’s credo and how they put the customer first here), the Dyn team use ToutApp to stay in touch with more customers while keeping the conversation personal. Our templates save the team time re-writing the same communications, and email tracking kicks in to make sure that Dyn’s reps are engaging with the most interested customers.
“Our team loves using ToutApp. Efficiency and 'working smart' are some of our credos here at Dyn, and ToutApp is a major tool to help promote both of them. It's a great connection tool that we use every day.' - John Zahr, Business Development Manager
"ToutApp is a great tool to not only learn how effective you are at first impressions, but also increase the number of first impressions you can achieve in a work day. It makes your emails more about the customers, rather than yourself using its customized templates. If there is one tool in your marketing and sales teams’ hands that is fist pump worthy...this is it." -Ryan O'Hara, Event Marketing
Tout’s offerings not only help Dyn send out a larger quantity of emails, they also improve the quality of them. Template analytics keep the team on top of their game by letting them know how effective each email is. Not only does Tout help Dyn succeed as a business, it lets them give their customers more of the information they want.
In fact, if you’re a Tout customer looking for your own email servers to send from, we definitely recommend that you check Dyn out. Existing Tout users can set up SMTP with them here.
You can learn more about why Dyn loves us by signing up for a ToutApp account today.