There was a time I was in love with blogging… I had already been in the business of content marketing for 5 years on the Web, using an old-fashioned website platform.
In 2004, I started blogging. It changed my life and opened doors and filled a few piggy banks. But my lover wasn’t really “the blog.” It was being able to speak with a world-wide audience. It was like magic.
Writing on my blog is my way of reaching out to people looking for ways to write content on the Web so that they can get found, get known and get new business.
A blog is still “The best darn content marketing tool on the planet!” But it’s not about “the blog…”
This year I switched from Typepad to WordPress, and I’m creating a new banner to reflect the changes.
When’s the last time you reviewed your site or blog banner?
For a while now I’ve been playing with some ideas. The name will remain the same, but the tag line will read,
“How to Use Online Content Marketing to Get Found, Get Known, and Get Clients.”
I wrote about these three big marketing challenges a few days ago, and I’ve blogged about them over the past five years.
Without doubt, people who use the Internet to market their services must find ways to solve these three issues, or they won’t stay in business long.
You might notice there’s nothing in my new tag line that mentions blogs, blogging, or WordPress. Because, just as I predicted a few years ago, it doesn’t matter if you’re blogging or not. What matters are results.
(I predicted the buzz about blogs would die down simply because everyone would be using a blog platform, such as WordPress, to build and manage their websites as well as blogs. The blur between the two has already merged.)
We’ve been told that world-wide, there are a billion people online, and we can reach a global audience for free. So it doesn’t matter if you’re using a traditional website platform or WordPress, or even Blogger (well, why not?), if that’s working to get you found, get people to know, like and trust you, and you’re converting readers to clients.
It’s not the messenger, it’s your message. It’s not how you do it, what matters is that you do it effectively.
For myself, I’m constantly learning, reading, and evolving (hopefully!)… I’m not sure where I’m going to be in 5 or 10 years, but I am intuitively following a direction. I’m sharing these ideas here with you, about changes to how we process Web content and marketing, and would love to hear your thoughts.
Given my background and experiences, first in journalism, secondly in psychology, and for the last ten years in Internet marketing and communications, I see an interesting convergence of art and sciences.
The Internet is becoming more influenced by brain science and research in neuro-marketing. Applied to copywriting and web design, marketers can improve click rates and results.
However, if there’s anything we’ve learned in the last 5 years, is that we’re social animals. The social ‘Net gives voice to people. Customers rule.
Will marketers be able to influence online buying decisions with subconscious persuasion powers? How is brain research influencing marketers? Are they able to use triggers to get us to buy stuff?
They already have … just look at the herd mentality of Internet guru product launches. And yet, I sense some changes afoot.
I sense that readers/ customers/ prospects are getting more educated and sensitive to Internet copywriting persuasion tactics. They are growing savvy and alert. They have antennae.
What does this mean to you and your business? You must learn to write quality content that builds trust with your readers and persuades them to take action.
You must learn the ways people (your prospects) interact with what they see on the Web, and how their Web habits are changing and evolving.
Just as print publications are changing, so is the Internet and the way people read, perceive, and process information online.
Learning about this is not a mystery, it doesn’t require a magic hat or special powers. I’ll do my best to help you learn a few tips, trends and tactics and have fun along the way. Stay tuned…
What are your thoughts?
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