Archive for Content Marketing – Page 70

Email Newsletters: Best Ways to Deliver & Format?

Business_news
Ah, the eternal question of emailed newsletters: What’s the best format to send it so it gets delivered, opened, and read? Here’s what one of my Customized Newsletter Services clients asked in a recent email:

Dear Patsi,

There is a definite divergence of opinions among my colleagues about the best way to distribute a newsletter.

  • Some feel that the entire text should be in the email in html, eliminating the need for click-thru’s.
  • Some simply send a one or two sentence summary, with an attached pdf.
  • Some send what amounts to headlines, with a click-thru to the website where the newsletter is resident.   
  • Some send a one or two sentence plain text summary with link to the newsletter.   

Everybody seems to do something different. They all have a rationale for their decision. And all seem to have their limitations, as well.   

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Win a Free Book by These Marketing Geniuses

Books
Want to win a free book? I’m running a contest… The entries are fantastic already! Please join the fun…

If you’re new to marketing your business online, you’ve got a lot of learning to do. Fortunately there are a lot of books published now so you don’t have to spend a fortune buying expensive ebooks and home study courses. Here’s my list of free books you can win:

  • What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting by Ted Demopoulos
  • Meatball Sundae by Seth Godin
  • Email Marketing by the Num8ers by Chris Baggott
  • The Ultimate Guide to Electronic Marketing for Small Business by Tom Antion
  • Naked Conversations by Robert Scobel & Shel Israel
  • Publish & Prosper: Blogging for Business by DL Byron & Steve Brobeck
  • Advertising Headlines that Make You Rich by David Garfinkel
  • Writing White Papers by Michael Stelzner

I’ve got duplicate copies of these books and I’m cleaning out my book shelves. I’ve read everyone of these and they’re excellent. You should read them too.

How to win a book: Contribute to my  blog post below, my list of 10 Ways to Write to Makes Readers Think. I’ll pick three people from those who leave comments and send them the book of their choice from this list.

Or, take a stab at writing an answer to the bonus question in that post. Oh, and if you don’t want to contribute to the list, I’ll still send you a book if you want to pay the shipping. Just let me know which book and where to send it.

10 Ways to Write to Make Readers Think

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When it comes to content marketing, there are ways to write content so
it actively markets you and your business without being “in-your-face”
sales copy or boring product reviews or press releases.

I’m reminded of an excellent book on creating effective website design called Don’t Make Me Think.
The premise is that a customer searching for products and services
online shouldn’t have to figure out how to find what they’re looking
for on your website.

When it comes to reading your blog, however, please, please DO make me
think
! Your blog posts should have meaty content that stimulates
readers to ask questions, to comment, to agree wholeheartedly, or
disagree vociferously.

How can you do that? Ahhh, let me think about that a minute here… Wait! I’ve got an idea. I’ll build a list of ideas to make readers think. And, YOU can contribute to the list!

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Content Marketing at Its Finest: Pronouns!

I + YOU  –When it comes to content marketing, there’s a fine line between good writing and great writing. The difference is in the 1% nuances…

If I could put my finger on one element of great content marketing and blog writing, it would be in the simple use of ‘I’ and ‘you’ pronouns. This is the mark of a good conversation and you can do the same thing with your writing style to create conversational marketing in your blog posts.

Here’s an email review of one of our client’s blogs that I wrote that explains what I mean:

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Alltop Aggregates Content Marketing Blogs

 

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Do you know about Alltop.com? It’s Guy Kawasaki’s creation, and according to the site, is an “online magazine rack” of popular topics. Pick a topic by searching, news category, or name, and they’ll deliver it to you 24 x 7.

Here’s a great way to research content published on other blogs dedicated to content marketing: Go to http://contentmarketing.alltop.com/

They’ve aggregated Joe Pulizzi’s Top 42 Content Marketing blogs. Since we’ve been honored to make this list twice now, you’ll find us there. More importantly, all the other great content writing blogs are there, from a variety of perspectives and angles.

The association between Kawasaki and Pulizzi came about through their connection on Twitter. So you see, this social networking stuff does work for business. Want to follow me?

Content Marketing Magic: Buy Some Content, or Write Your Own, or Both?

Abracadabra
John Agno is a content marketing wizard. He writes a great blog called Coaching Tip: The Leadership Blog. Part of the reason for his success is that his business blog is content rich. He knows how to use content for marketing. He uses quality information from a variety of resources.

And he doesn’t spend a lot of time writing one post. In fact, John writes several blogs for his consulting business, so he’s found ways to save time and make content marketing as easy as magic.

I should know, because he is a client of my Content for Coaches and Consultants service. John is astute because he buys content from me and then blends a couple of paragraphs of mine with information and resources of his own and others. This makes his site unique and personalized with his own philosophies and experiences. John writes in the service of his clients, providing what they need to know.

Example: I recently wrote and made available for purchase an article called Narcissistic Leaders in Times of Uncertainty. John has already posted twice using a couple of paragraphs of the article I wrote, along with other resources he wrote. It’s a great example of blended content:

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Are You Visible? Are You Massively Visible Online?

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What’s your online visibility strategy?

Whoops, you say, you don’t have one? Didn’t know you even needed one?

Think about it: Many of your ideal clients go online every day, and
some have problems that only you can solve …but sadly, most of them
can’t find you. 

With more than 1 billion people connected to the Internet, you can bet a few of them are ideal clients for your business.

There were 61 billion searches done last month alone on the Web. Some of them were for your services…

Can they find you?

Denise and I know how hard it is to get new clients when you’re invisible.We’d like to teach you how to reverse the client chase…

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Writing on the Web: A few “what if’s” to consider…

Questionmark
What if you could spend 20-30 minutes a day writing 200-300 words on your blog and bring in hordes of first time visitors and regular subscribers?

What if your words happen to resonate with someone who at that particular moment in time was really suffering. .. and what if your words saved them from despair? Gave them hope? Offered solutions?

And what if you were able to offer solutions, products and services that could change the lives of 5-7 times as many people as you did last year?

What if people came to you, read what you have to say, then felt instant connection with you? These people might pick up the phone and call you, already convinced they want to work with you.

All this is possible when you write on the Web. I am living proof.

Along with my partner Denise Wakeman, we’ve started a new Facebook group called Massive Visibility Mastermind to gather together like-minded professionals who want to learn how this works.

Please join if you’re interested by going here: Massive Visibility Mastermind.

4 Paths to Massive Visibility on the Web

Eye
The truth is, it’s not about having a website anymore, is it? No, you can’t get massive visibility online with just a website.

You need a website and a blog, of course. All Internet marketing gurus will insist: you must write and publish a blog. And, they’ll tell you, you must write frequently on your blog, at least 3-4 times a week to generate search engine traffic.

As The Blog Squad™, you’d expect us to join this chorus: "Gotta have a blog, gotta have a blog…" But there’s more to it than that.

We’ll tell you, from our own personal experience and those of our clients, you need the following four elements in order to gain massive visibility and win the trust of readers in your niche:

1. A business blog (where you communicate in a conversational tone)
2. A brand (where you use design to help people remember you)
3. Valuable, relevant content (to educate and engage with readers)
4. Participation in Social Networking sites (where you become easily accessible)

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Content Marketing and the Economic Recession: Rising Trend

Trends1diagram
I talk a lot about ‘content marketing’ because the term encapsulates so well how most independent service providers can attract ideal clients and gain rapid visibility on the Web. Most coaches, consultants, authors, and speakers don’t have large marketing budgets, but the Internet is accessible to all.

These days, any professional can use the Internet to market their services, with very little funds and no tech skills. A business blog is the fastest way to build an online reputation and gain visibility. Then there is Facebook and Twitter, all completely free and easy to use.

What counts are your words. How you write is very important. Your content – be it blog posts, articles, white papers, special reports, even audio and video clips – all contribute to readers getting to know, like and trust you.

I expect more people and even big companies will increase their use of content to market their businesses as the economy is more difficult simply because it’s practically free.

Big businesses are often slow to recognize a good thing. But even huge companies are beginning to realize the best marketing may be free, in the form of content. Really effective content isn’t written by the advertising department but is crafted by writers to educate, engage and enrich the lives of customers.

Here’s an interesting article about trends in content marketing and budgets during the economic recession as it affects big companies, by Joe Pulizzi of Junta42Blog:

The Trickle Out of Traditional Media into Content Marketing Turns to Flood Starting Now

The economic "crisis" (or whatever you want to call it) will fundamentally change where marketing dollars go. Frankly, I’ve been surprised that more companies haven’t taken this on sooner.

Yes, companies spend between 27 and 30% of their budgets on their own content, but that number should be more like 50%. The case for content – engagement, search engine optimization, lead generation – it’s there, no doubt about it.

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