Content Marketing Review for Phyllis Goldberg, Ph.D. and Rosemary Lichtman, Ph.D. www.HerMentorCenter.com: These two dynamic women are writing a book about healing family relationships, and to attract a following they are writing on a website and blog, NourishingRelationships.com.
They're attracting a following of mid-life people who face family issues caring for both adult children and aging parents. When they won the Content Marketing Review Contest, I was interested to see how their content marketing efforts are bringing the results they would like. Here's the review:
“Her Mentor Center – Mentoring women through mid-life”
The first paragraph on the home page is:
Perhaps you are in the midst of relationship, health or career transitions. You are not alone. Millions of other boomer women are searching for solutions. We the Mentors have been there, learned from our experience, and are here to guide you.
Let Her Mentor Center™ support and empower you.
This works to define the problem and the pain, and then to suggest the solutions as found on the site.
- Part of the problem these two ladies face in their content marketing and website copy is the fact that there is so much to cover in the topic. It’s hard to be targeted when you are helping people with “relationships, health, careers”…plus all that goes with aging parents, “kidults”, etc.
Nevertheless, I think they do a pretty good job. For one thing, they are using terms that pretty well sums it up: “sandwich generation" makes sense, as does "sandwich boomers". I looked but didn’t find a definition, but I think I know what you’re talking about. Maybe you could put a little side bar definition on the home page to clarify what this is?
Does your web content grab readers' attention?
Not sure that this is as strong as it could be. You touch on the wide variety of problems in that intro paragraph, but if you told a story of a typical client, with typical pain and challenges, you might grab readers more, to the point that they say, “Wow, she could be writing about me!”
But what you’ve got is very tasteful. It’s simple, It’s short and to the point. Then you offer lists, with choices for what to do next.
Btw, the photos of paintings are a nice touch. You definitely need to have this ‘eye candy.’
The testimonials on the left side are very good and visible.
The navigation links are on the left. The newsletter sign up is on the right with the testimonials.
Here are a few questions that come to mind after reviewing your site:
- What is the main action you want people to take on the site?
- How can you get them to stay longer, besides reading your excellent articles?
- What’s in it for them?
Oh, there’s a link if I scroll down at the bottom left that says Submit Your Story. But I see that’s just an email link, not a page where I can go to find out more about how to submit my story. That’s definitely something you’d want to highlight and draw attention to. Move it higher up on the page. I’d like to see that linked to the About You page.
I see that there’s an About You page where people can tell you about themselves. This is good, but there needs to be something on the page to encourage them to do so.
- Explain what’s in it for them?
- What will happen once they fill this out and tell you about themselves?
You’re asking for readers to reveal personal things about themselves with no benefit laid out. That’s not going to work well. Why would people tell you about their personal issues, and what are you going to do with this information? Is it safe? Will you publish it? Will you contact them? Spell it all out and reassure people.
Are you posting about them on the blog? If so, you need to say so.
More importantly, you need a way for people to stay in touch. I’m not sure the newsletter is going to work as well as a free report. What can you offer for free in exchange for their email addresses? An audio file, a special report of ebook?
Do you focus on a solution to a problem, or problems? Yes, you do. There needs to be more references and links to the blog posts where you talk about problems and solutions.
Do you educate and inform? Yes, you do this very well.
Do you entertain and engage readers? Yes. It’s entertaining to read other people’s stories. It’s engaging.
Do you enrich the lives of your readers, certainly you do.
Do you inspire action? Not really. There is no call to action. There isn’t much a reader/visitor to your site can do besides read, click and leave.
Content Marketing Review for HerMentorCenter.com
3 stars out of 5
Your content is being evaluated for how well it:
2. Focuses on problem solutions: 4 stars
3. Educates and informs: 4 stars
4. Entertains and engages readers: 3 stars
5. Enriches the lives of readers: 5 stars
6. Inspires action: 1 star
The Blog: NourishingRelationships.com
This blog is full of interesting content, including some interviews with authors of other books about family. It is definitely content rich! Keep up the good work here.
I see that each post has a footer saying “posted by Nourishing Relationships.” This is confusing since the blog is written by 2 people, and we don’t know which one wrote the post. If blogs are conversations, then the reader would like to know who is speaking to them, Rosemary or Phyllis.
Google search results:
Midlife crises – not on first 5 pages
Sandwich generation – not in first 5 pages
***Sandwich boomers – top of page 5, a listing with Blog Catalog for your posts.
Suggestions:
- Start targeting a keyword phrase and write several blog posts about that. For example, the one you are currently doing on in-laws. Google the phrase to see what page your posts start appearing. See if you can’t boost that by increasing the number of time you use this keyword phrase.
- You will need to get outside links if you want people to start finding you. What can you do so that you get more people to link to your blog posts? Start linking to theirs. Through Google searches you can find where people are posting plenty of relevant stuff similar to yours.
So what can you offer to build a list? Can you gather together your best blog posts, best articles in a category? Put them into an ebook and offer for free off your site.
So instead of people clicking to read them for free, they can instantly download your free report, say, for example on caregiving, and you get to build a list of people interested in your book. This is the way to segment your list according to interests as well, good for future books.
As a side note, publishers will look at your numbers and want you to have a list. You will need a database management system to organize this and deliver digital downloads.
5. Your sites could use more emphasis on the audience. Maybe some surveys or polls. Find out what their biggest concerns are. Get them to share stories. That way it’s not just you two delivering information, but it becomes more vital and alive with real people in real situations (or, to protect anonymity, make up ‘typical’ client stories.) And people will want to join in and participate.
Which they will, but you can’t bank on it. You need a way for people to keep coming back in order to build a community.
To do this you will need:
- More emphasis on the reader
- More ways for them to subscribe and come back
- Something they can download for free
- More targeted keyword phrasing in your post headlines & posts
- More interaction with other blogs in your field
- A way for people to find your blog through Twitter, and if you like Facebook
Thanks to Phyllis and Rosemary of HerMentorCentor.com for agreeing to have their content marketing review here in this blog. My hope is that others in similar niches will see the many things they are doing right, and where there can be improvements.
And, these are my views and opinion, others may agree, disagree. My only hope is that this review is helpful in improving your content marketing efforts.
Recent Comments