Category Archives: Content Marketing

5 Steps to Produce Great Content

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Writing Content MarketingProducing great content can sometimes be tough, we’ve all been there, staring at a blank Word document trying to think of something to say. Here’s a few steps that I usually follow to produce content.

1. Generate a bunch of ideas – I usually separate this from my writing time; I find that they are both very different activities. Sometimes, I get in a creative mood and come up with 1-2 months worth of writing ideas and just jot them down, very quickly. Many times, I do it outdoors, in the fresh air, with a pad and pencil.

2. Create an outline – With long form writing, I always write an outline of the main points I want to say. I find it helpful in structuring my message points, and makes my time writing easier. Even with shorter form stuff, I still create a few bullet points ahead of time, before I start writing.

3. Focus and Write Fast – I always write fast and proof-read later. I never worry about grammar or spelling so much on the first pass. My main goal is to get words on a page.

4. Proof-read and edit – Once I’ve gotten the general piece written, I’ll go back and correct spelling errors, fix my grammar, and restructure sentences for more clarity. I find that the creative aspect of writing is very different from the structural part.

5. Make It Look Pretty by Formatting – The last thing I’ll do, when writing, is to take care of the formatting. Make sure my numbered lists are correct, make sure all the fonts are appropriate, add colors and pictures, etc. If this is a blog piece, I’ll always make sure that everything looks great on the page, and reformat as needed in WordPress (our CMS system.)

4 Content Marketing Rules You Must Follow!

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Content Marketing RulesMore and more companies are starting to use content marketing these days as larger part of their marketing efforts.  When done correctly, it’s been proven to be an effective marketing technique.  Just make sure to never forget to follow a few simple rules:

  1. Don’t Forget the “Marketing” in Content Marketing – It’s can be easy to write content that funny and entertains your customers, but remember not to forget your objective.  You are not a publisher for the sake of being a publisher but you are using content to market your product or service.
  2. Tell a Story – Your content needs to draw people in and engage them.  They aren’t going to share your content with their friends if its one big sales pitch.  It’s ok if you use soft sales pitches from time to time within your content, but remember to hook them in and encourage them to share your content with their friends.
  3. Target the Audience You’re Selling – You can’t be all things to all people.  Know the audience that’s buying your product and try to write exclusively to them.  Find out their likes and interests.  Survey your customers and figure out what makes them tick.  Once you’ve identified your audience, always keep them in mind when you’re writing.
  4. Educate Though the Sales Cycle – Depending on the level of complexity of your product, make sure you are educating your potential customers all along the sales cycle.  Talk to your sales team and echo the key points they discuss with potential customers on an initial phone call. Find out what they talk about in a first in-person meeting.  What are the most common questions asked right before the signing of a contract?Try and create content that addresses these issues and educates a customer.  Remember, these days, many customers want to use the Internet to answer their own questions even before they talk to anyone

Is Content Marketing Replacing SEO?

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Confused about SEOIf you talk to many SEO experts, they will tell you that with the advent of Google Panda and Penguin updates within the last year, SEO has changed dramatically. Many people have even declared the death of SEO, as we know it. While this seems partially true in some ways, on-page SEO continues to be very important and working in-conjunction with content marketing.

What is “on-page SEO” you might ask? These are the basic things you need to do on your web pages, to make it clear to Google what your content focuses on.

First, it begins with doing a little bit of keyword research. When you’re writing about a subject, you need to know what terms, within that subject, get the most searches and have less competition. You can use a tool like the Google Keyword Planner (http://adwords.google.com/keywordplanner) or Ubersuggest (http://ubersuggest.org) to figure out popular keywords to use.

Once you decide on your keywords, you can try and work them into your title, URL, and within your articles. You don’t need to go overboard, just make sure you’re including them when it makes sense. You should also work in your keywords when you do your META description, but make sure that there is always a clear value proposition to get the user to click.

Lastly, above all else, remember to put the customer first before any search engine. Don’t go crazy trying to work in your keywords if they take away from readability in any way. Content marketing is all about educating your potential customers with high quality content. Make sure to keep your standards high and, over time, Google will realize it.

Five Ways To Make Your Content Snowball Virally

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Viral SnowballIt’s great that you’ve taken the time to make great content for your blog, but if no one ever sees it, it’s doing you no good. Here are five tips you can use to ensure that your content is something people are going to want to share.

1.         Have a great headline. This is the users’ first impression. They will decide within two seconds if they wish to read your article. This is especially important when your content is being shared on social networks, as people do not have the ability to scan your article, so many times the headline is all they are going to see.

Your headline should instantly answer your users question, “What’s in it for me?” It should also be catchy and irresistible to click, and must always match the contents of the article. You never want to have a disconnect between the article and the headline.

2.         Make your readers seem smarter to their friends. People love to share content that provides new information to their peers because they want to be known as, “someone that’s in the loop.” Be sure you have a fresh perspective on a subject and include some unique data if possible.

3.         Add an eye-catching picture to your post. When persons “Like” your blog post via a social share button, a photo will automatically be taken from your site. Always take the time to select a photo that attracts attention. A blog post with a photo will get 50% more links and 100% more comments than one without. An engaging photo versus a generic photo can multiply this effect 10 times over.

4.         Spread it to all your social networks. Many persons only stick to one network when spreading their content. Use a social media management tool like Hootsuite or Buffer that allows you to easily post to multiple social networks in a single session.

5.         Give virality a push by using content-style ads. Having your content go viral sometimes requires a little push. Using content-style ads like Newsbullets® can help your blog post gain the momentum it needs to spread across the web. You can use these ads many times to give your post a little push, or to have a constant source of traffic coming to your site. You can just visit www.Adblade.com and get started with as little as $50.

Why The Buzz About Content Marketing?

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Content marketing has become the new leader in marketing strategies. 86% of B2C Content Media Buzzmarketers are now using content marketing to reach their customers. For B2B marketers that number is up to 92% and they are spending over 33% of their marketing budgets to produce fresh content.

Content marketing has become the fastest growing part of marketing budgets over the last few years. It is surpassing SEO, PR and traditional advertising (print, TV and radio) based on the businesses we surveyed.

So what exactly is content marketing? It’s the creation of original web content for the purpose of creating sales, leads and increasing a brand’s visibility. The content can be many things; blog posts, videos, pictures, case studies, slide shows, etc. This content is shared on the web through social media, virally, on sites like YouTube, email and countless other ways. This content can also be distributed by content-style ads such as Newsbullets™, positioned to reach people on hundreds of news sites around the web. This is a great way to spread content virally for an initial push or ongoing basis.

Educating your customers along the sales cycle is a fantastic way to make your company stand out from the competition. Content marketing is poised to increase in importance over the next few years, as consumers have grown weary of seeing more and more ads in their daily life.