TCMA 2016: It’s More Than Just Results (Part 1)
Back in September 2015 I walked out of the COSLA Conference Centre in Edinburgh with a handful of free pens, a book about Networking and more information than I could fully comprehend.
The Content Marketing Academy 2015 was a fantastic experience for me, but being fairly new to the concept of ‘Content Marketing’ at the time, it was all a bit overwhelming. The subsequent months allowed me some time to try and take on board a few of the lessons I’d learned:
TCMA 2015 – ‘Content Shock’
Back in September 2015 I walked out of the COSLA Conference Centre in Edinburgh with a handful of free pens, a book about Networking and more information than I could fully comprehend.
The Content Marketing Academy 2015 was a fantastic experience for me, but being fairly new to the concept of ‘Content Marketing’ at the time, it was all a bit overwhelming. The subsequent months allowed me some time to try and take on board a few of the lessons I’d learned:
“Facebook will strangle your reach unless you pay for ads!”
“It’s important to follow up with people you network with!”
“It’s remarkably easy to be remarkable!”
and
“Become the Wikipedia of Your Industry: They Ask, You Answer!”
It was a lot to take in but, gradually, I began to put these new concepts into practice through my role as a Content Marketing Intern for Self Build specialists Allan Corfield Architects.
‘Great Content Earns You a Seat at the Table’
We had launched a new website in August 2015, so now it was time to get the blogs up on the site, and get them out there.
The results were fairly significant – each month from September onwards the traffic to the new site was growing; regular blogs were doing the trick. Growing an audience was the aim, creating helpful content for potential clients was the game. This Content Marketing malarkey was actually working!
Having attended TCMA 2015, I was also privileged to be a member of The Content Marketing Academy’s online community forum, hosted via an app called Slack.
This is a brilliant forum, and TCMA founder, Chris Marr, does a great job of encouraging members to try new modes of content for their businesses. For us at ACA, we were seeing results from the blogs – so the next natural progression from this was to create an eBook for our potential clients.
Starting it off in February 2016, I was able to call on a number of the forum members for advice on creating this eBook – from the design stage right through to the download distribution.
It took a number of months to complete, but the enthusiasm from TCMA members was infectious, and helped push us on and get our first eBook ready for publishing.
The concept behind creating this eBook involves educating your potential clients; those interested in building their own home can download the eBook, and learn the ins and outs of the process at their own pace.
If they then decide that Self Building is for them, they can contact ACA – prequalified – and take their ambition to the next stage. This saves time for ACA, as the team don’t have to spend as long explaining the company’s services to enquirers over the phone, or via email.
At the start of May 2016, we published our ‘Introduction to Self Building’ eBook on our website – and the results so far have been better than we anticipated! Within the first three weeks, we had two new clients who opted for ACA after downloading and reading the eBook.
So, with a production line of blogs scheduled and ready for publication – and a chunky piece of content in the form of our glossy eBook ready for download – what next? We have a growing audience to cater for here!
TCMA 2016 – ‘Ignition & Transmission’
It had been nine short months since TCMA 2015, when Allan and I arrived at The Hub, Edinburgh, for The Content Marketing Academy 2016.
This time, it was a two-day event, and I felt a bit more confident going into this one than when I left in 2015. I recognised a lot of faces from last time, and had had the opportunity to get to know many of them, over Slack, in the months leading up to this conference.
The difference for us this time, was that we’d made great strides with our content marketing in a fairly short space of time. We were getting it. And now we wanted to know more – with our focus at ACA now firmly on creating engaging video content.
The first day went by alarmingly fast – with our interest in video marketing satisfied by the amazing Amy Schmittauer – host of hit YouTube show ‘SavvySexySocial’.
Amy taught us how we can gain lifelong advocates of our brands through creating video content that is packed with ‘likability’. Lose the fear of gear; it doesn’t matter what kind of video recording equipment and editing software you have – get in front of the camera, and get the damn footage out there!
The key message was ‘learn on the way’ – your audience will grow as your videos become more polished. It was an inspiring start to the day, and hearing Amy’s talk made it easy to understand why her YouTube channel has had over 3 million views!
There was a notable energy in the room – the networking breaks were at times as enlightening as the keynote talks! Day one motored on after ‘lightning talks’ from TCMA’s legendary core members of Caroline McKenna, Col Gray and Julie Christie – covering the importance of building trust with potential customers through transparency, branding, and education.
The day’s other main speakers – Richard Tubb, Kate McQuillan and Pete Matthew – were brilliant too, inspiring us to structure our week in a way that allows us to take opportunities when they arise, produce content on a regular and consistent basis, and focus on personal engagement online.
The bar was set extremely high for day two to follow!
DOWNLOAD OUR FREE SELF BUILD EBOOK!
Are you considering building your own self-build dream home? If so, download our free ‘introduction to self building’ ebook.
