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Posts Tagged ‘content’
Friday, May 10th, 2013
It doesn’t matter what kind of content you have, if it isn’t strong content, then your visitors will leave. Your content must do three things really well.
- First, it’s got to keep your site visitors informed about key information related to your niche.
- Secondly, it’s got to present you as a subject matter expert without making a sales pitch.
- And thirdly, it’s got to interest your audience in wanting to learn more about your business.
Content that does these three things is really strong content.
Before I went out and started producing all kinds of content that nobody is going to care about, I’d start with coming up with some content goals. Your goals should state what you want your content to accomplish. You should also discuss the types of content you want to produce and how much of each kind of content you want to produce. Finally, your content strategy should discuss specific accomplishments you want to occur by a deadline date.
Strong content is made stronger with a strong Web strategy. You have to set goals for your business and follow through. Failing to do this almost ensures that your content will be spotty and lack quality.
Before you can provide quality services for your clients, you have to attract those clients. The way you do that in the 21st century is with powerful content.
Tags: content, content strategy, online marketing, quality content
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | No Comments »
Thursday, May 9th, 2013
Viral content goes viral for one reason: It struck a nerve. Not with just one person but with a lot of people. You opened them up and hit them with something that made them share it with the world. It’s a good feeling when you do it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t happen every day.
So how often can you write viral content?
The good news is, you don’t have to write it every day. One good piece of viral content can sustain you for a long time. If you have one piece of content go viral every six months, your business will rise. But simply having content go viral isn’t going to make you money. You also need to find ways to capitalize on the traffic.
Viral content attracts eyeballs. What you do with those eyeballs after they’ve landed on your website is up to you. I recommend an opt-in form to capture leads.
You’ll know your content is working when you capture leads. Getting content to go viral is the first step. Getting people to sign up for your newsletter or e-mail marketing list is another thing. Once you get them, however, you can market to them over and over again. No need to go viral then. However, you can use your e-mail list to help your content go viral. All you have to do is share. Let the list do the rest.
Tags: content, lead generation, viral content
Posted in Viral Marketing | No Comments »
Thursday, April 25th, 2013
People are emotional creatures. Salespeople know this. That’s why they understand that people make buying decisions emotionally and justify them logically. The same can be said of sharing content on social media sites. The key is to appeal to people’s emotions. Here are 5 ways you can do that with your content no matter what niche you are in.
- Show that you care – The most basic way to appeal to your audience’s emotions is to show them that you care. Let them know that you care about their concerns, their needs, their desires. When people feel that you care, they are more likely to share your content.
- Make them laugh – Laughter is great medicine. It’s also a great way to connect to your audience. If you get people laughing, they will remember you. And they will share your content with their friends.
- Be nostalgic – People love to remember the good old days. Those days are usually when they are young adults, free from the control of their parents, in the world alone and single, with little responsibility and extra money to spend on having fun. Remind them how great those days were.
- Be human – Give people a reason to like you. Let your personality shine through.
- Take up a cause – People like to support good causes. Whether it be literacy, breast cancer, or starving children in Africa, if you take up a good cause, then you will get other people who care about that cause on your side.
There are a lot of ways to make your content more shareable. I’ve presented five of them. These are all powerful ways to connect with your audience. What else can you think of?
Tags: content, sharing, Social Media, social sharing
Posted in Social Media | No Comments »
Monday, April 1st, 2013
Are you looking for ways to improve your small business blog? Are you tired of writing sales content that no one is responding to? Would you like to expand the scope of your content marketing beyond the obvious posts that no one wants to talk about? Here are 5 ways you can improve your blog content easily without destroying your credibility.
- Content curation – Content curation involves scouring the web for useful content that your blog readers would enjoy and find helpful. You add that content to your blog. There are different ways of curating content. You can write useful resource posts with links to content on other parts of the web. Another way is to use a blog post to summarize other resources and link to them – either one at a time or in bulk.
- Incorporate multimedia content – Add videos, slideshows, and infographics to your blog regularly but not every day. Don’t overdo it, but you’d be surprised at how interactive this content can often be.
- Include guest bloggers – Establish a guest blogging policy and take in guest bloggers. Guests can often engage with your blog readers in ways that you haven’t thought about.
- Become a guest blogger – If you guest blog on other blogs within your niche, you can often establish a connection with readers elsewhere and drive them to your own blog where you can deepen, and strengthen, the conversation.
- Ask questions – Get your blog readers talking by asking them questions. Surveys are real good for this. You can also end your blog posts with open ended questions designed to get people talking.
What ways do you use to get your blog readers into the discussion? Tell us how you have improved your own blog with content marketing?
Tags: blog content, blogging, content, content marketing, guest blogging
Posted in Blogging for Small Business | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 5th, 2013
It used to be, if you wanted to rank web pages, then you had to count your keywords. Webmasters used what they called keyword densities.
Suggested keyword density was 1% to 5%, which means for every 100 words of content on a page, the keyword you were optimizing for had to appear 1 to 5 times on that page. It was not a very precise way of search engine optimization, but it worked, primarily because the search engine algorithms weren’t very sophisticated at the time. Today, the search engines look at many more ranking factors, one of which is related words.
This is called Latent Semantic Indexing, or LSI.
In a word, LSI means looking for related words to understand what a page of content might be about. For instance, if you were writing a page about raising chickens, what words might you use that would be associated with the subject matter without actually saying “raising chickens?”
Think about synonyms for the word “chickens.” What comes to mind? Roosters, hens, pullets. I’m sure you can think of a few more.
Now, how about “raising?” “Farming” comes to mind.
Latent Semantic Indexing is a form of natural writing that allows content writers to write more naturally and get pages ranked for key phrases even if those pages may not appear on your web page. A more effective natural writing technique might be to spread these semantic keywords around. Instead of relying on a single keyword mentioned 1 to 5 times for every 100 words of content, you might use 4 or 5 related words fewer times each. The search engine then puts all of those words together to determine what your page is about and ranks your page accordingly.
Welcome to the future of SEO.
Tags: content, keyword density, latent semantic search, LSI, SEO
Posted in SEO for Small Business | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 12th, 2013
Search engine optimization has changed a lot over the years. There are still some companies trying to do it like it’s 2005. That is, their main aim is to acquire as many links as possible. I don’t think that’s the best approach in 2013.
For starters, if you don’t see SEO as an intrinsic part of your overall marketing efforts, then there is a disconnect somewhere. The goal of marketing is to increase your bottom line. That is, you want to make new customers. And you want your old customers to buy new products. That’s why you have a marketing strategy. That should also be why you have an SEO strategy.
If you approach SEO correctly, you’ll start to see every page of content you create as a part of your overall marketing initiatives.
Instead of creating content for the sake of creating content, if you focus your efforts on making each piece of content you do create tell a part of your overall story and connect with your audience, then you’ll get a lot further. Links will only get ignored – if all you do is acquire links for the sake of acquiring links. They may even hurt your rankings.
Marketing and SEO go hand in hand. It’s a complete online marketing strategy. If you don’t count your SEO as a piece of your marketing, then maybe you need to rethink it.
Tags: content, link building, marketing, online marketing, SEO
Posted in SEO for Small Business | No Comments »
Monday, February 11th, 2013
It’s not easy maintaining SEO rankings when you redesign a website. There are a lot of considerations you should think about before you go through with the redesign. One of those is search engine optimization.
What are the dangers?
First, you could lose search engine rankings if you significantly change your content. Secondly, you could lose traffic. And thirdly, you could decrease conversions. If these metrics are high for your website, you should think about your redesign long and hard before implementing it. You don’t want to lose the effectiveness of those key metrics.
However, you do want your website to look like it meets the design standards of 2013, not 2005. So updating the design of your website is a good idea while you guard against the dangers.
Before you get too invested in your website redesign, do these three things and design your website with these tips in mind:
- Make a list of keywords – This should include current keywords you rank for and any new relevant keywords getting searched for a lot that you are not currently targeting or ranking for. On your spreadsheet, note which pages of your website currently rank for your relevant keywords.
- Rank your pages according to conversion rates – Which pages convert better and for which keywords are they converting? This is very important. You don’t want to make significant changes to pages that convert well for the right keywords. You’ll have to decide if you want to create new pages to seize upon new opportunities or revamp your content on certain pages to convert better for the targeted keywords.
- Traffic rates for content – You probably don’t want to rewrite every page on your website during your redesign. What you do want to do is find those pages that aren’t getting a lot of traffic and rewrite those. Identify your low traffic, low converting pages and rewrite the content. Also, if you have pages that include duplicate content, then rewrite those pages.
When you redesign your website, pay careful attention to SEO issues. You don’t want to ruin any good search engine rankings you have.
Tags: content, keywords, SEO, website design, website redesign
Posted in website development | No Comments »
Monday, February 4th, 2013
The top trending topic on Google+ this morning is #SuperBowl. The same topic is also trending on Twitter.
It’s not hard to see why the Super Bowl is a trending topic on any social media. It’s one of the most watched events on TV every year. And there is a game people play where they judge the best and the worst Super Bowl commercials. Then there’s the half time show. We won’t even talk about that.
But what about local topics? Can local topics go viral and hit the trending lists?
If you think your goal is to make your local topic trend on Google+ or Twitter, then you’ll be disappointed. But there’s no reason why you can’t make your local content go viral. It can trend in your local area. Unfortunately, there’s no metric to tell you how popular your content is locally versus other content. That doesn’t mean you can’t make it happen.
The key to local trending is to create great content that will appeal to your local audience. Then, you’ve got to get that content seen. How do you do that?
Here are some ways to ensure people in your local area see your content:
- Stuff their purchase bags with flyers and handouts
- Run a television commercial on your local TV stations
- Radio advertising
- Billboards
- Social media – you can still share your content with friends and fans on all the social media sites
- Your blog
- Pay per click marketing
- YouTube
In a word, if you make a big splash, your content will go viral. All you have to do is create it and share it.
Tags: content, local, trending topics, Viral Marketing
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | No Comments »
Thursday, January 24th, 2013
You’ve heard the old saying, “You get what you pay for.” That statement really applies to content. If you believe in content marketing – and in this day, who doesn’t? – then you owe it to yourself to invest in your content. And that means paying for what it’s worth, not a penny less nor a penny more.
So how do you judge the quality of content?
My best advice is you judge it on the reputation and skill of the writer. If you want high quality content at bargain basement prices, good luck in finding it. You likely won’t, but you can try. On the other hand, if you want really high content, then you should be ready to pay what it’s worth.
Imagine going to a restaurant and asking for the best prepared T-bone steak they have to offer, then expecting to get it for the price of a fast food burger. Think it will happen?
I’m amazed at how many people think this way about content. They want Cadillac service at Go-Kart prices.
If you treat your content like a fast food meal, then that’s what you’ll get. Your future revenues are directly related to the investment you make in your business. And what you pay for your content is an investment in your business. Don’t take it lightly. Online marketing is getting more and more competitive. You should give yourself a leg up.
Tags: content, content marketing, online business, quality content
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | No Comments »
Thursday, January 17th, 2013
Your website content must do two things:
- It must first appeal to your ideal customer
- And, secondly, it should close the sale
This is the dual nature of all website content.
Your Ideal Customer
Your ideal customer is the person you want to do business with. For an auto mechanic, it might be people who are experiencing car problems. You may even specialize in a particular type of automobile – say, drivers of foreign cars.
All of your website content should be written to attract the attention of your ideal customer. For a grocery store owner, it’s people who want to eat. Or, it might be people interested in eating organic foods. It’s the people you target your products to. If your content doesn’t appeal to them on some level before you ask for the sale, then it won’t appeal to them when you do ask for the sale.
Converting Your Ideal Customer
After you’ve attracted your ideal customer to your website, you then have to have strong calls to action. If you are selling a product, you have to have the Buy Now button in the right place and make it visible. If you are selling a service, you make your phone number prominent. Or maybe you have a lead capture opt-in box placed strategically in the right places.
Every page is its own sales tool. That means each page has to appeal to the ideal customer AND lead that customer to the close.
Write your website content in such a way that it performs both of these basic functions simultaneously.
Tags: content, conversions, sales, website content
Posted in Business Writing | No Comments »
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