Writing On The Web by Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad

Content Marketing Strategies for Smart Professionals

4 Keys for Content Marketing that Gets Results

By Patsi Krakoff in Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Online Marketing

How do you write good content for your web pages (blog, newsletters, articles, press releases, etc.) that also brings in clients and customers and makes sales?

Let’s face it, talking about how great your product and services are isn’t going to enthrall a lot of readers. What are 4 keys to writing content that markets your business?

Yesterday, while Denise and I were on a teleseminar called From Contacts to Contracts with Adam Urbanski about social media tools and business blogs, I gave this advice:

"Without a doubt content is key in business blogging, but even when a business professional writes well, they may not be adapting to blog writing for business results." The same is true for many kinds of business content marketing.

Let’s look at 4 keys, the 4 E’s for content marketing purposes:

3 Blog Squad Teleclasses this week

By Patsi Krakoff in Teleclasses & Seminars

Monday, June 23, 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time (10:00 a.m. Pacific)

How to Get the Best Out of Your Blog: A 4-Point System to Get Found, Get Known and Get Clients
Part 1 of a 4-Part Teleseminar series hosted by Adam Urbanski on how to use social networking tools to get more business.

Info and registration

Tuesday, June 24, 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time (3:00 p.m. Pacific)

Discover the 5 Internet Marketing Traps that Can Derail Your Business
with The Blog Squad and Kathleen Gage The Street Smarts Marketer

Info and registration

Thursday, June 26 (Denise’s birthday!), 7:00 p.m. Eastern (4:00 p.m. Pacific)

Blogging for dollars: Can you really make 6-figures?
Interview with Author and Problogger Darren Rowse

Info and registration

Again, there is no charge for any of these programs. All are
designed to accelerate your business success. Hope you’ll join us for
one or all these terrific programs next week.

Ask, Ask, Ask: Using Surveys for Content Marketing

By Patsi Krakoff in Content Marketing, On Writing Better, Online Marketing, Teleclasses & Seminars

We recently asked a thousand readers what their biggest problems are when it comes to Internet Marketing, using SurveyMonkey.com. This a great way to get content ideas, stay in touch with what readers want, and develop programs and info products that sell.

How can you create content that markets your business without knowing what readers want?

You can’t know what your targeted audience’s pain points are unless you ask. Even if the results aren’t what social scientists would validate as statistically reliable data, you can get a ton of comments that can seed blog posts and articles.

Here’s what one person said they wanted to learn:

"How best to use my writing skills to attract quality folks who will convert to customers. I write articles, post to my blog, have Squidoo lenses and I’m on MySpace and Facebook. Still, there is a gap. I know that relationship building takes time and patience, but I need to see financial results from these activities."

From this comment you can discern several concerns:

Time is certainly a factor
Knowing which marketing tools to favor
Return on investment of time
Financial results

Trap #5: The Trap of Manifesting by Meditation and Visualization

By Patsi Krakoff in Online Marketing, Teleclasses & Seminars

The 5 Traps of Internet Marketing that Can Derail Your Business

Kathleen Gage, the Street Smarts Marketer, reveals the #5 Internet Marketing trap: it takes more than the Law of Attraction to be successful online. You have to get into Action! Success on the Internet requires effort…the right kind of effort. Learn the truth about marketing on the Internet.

Trap #4: The Trap of One Big Success

By Patsi Krakoff in Online Marketing, Teleclasses & Seminars

The 5 Traps of Internet Marketing that Can Derail Your Business

Kathleen Gage, the Street Smarts Marketer, reveals the #4 Internet Marketing trap: you only need one really great product to make a lot of money. Success on the Internet requires more than one book or product and the right kind of smart effort. Learn the truth about marketing on the Internet.

Social Networking Online: How to find out what you need to know

By Patsi Krakoff in Content Marketing, Online Marketing, Teleclasses & Seminars

Are you puzzled by buzzwords like "web 2.0" and "social media?" If you’re like me, you probably cringed when you started hearing the buzz about MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. At first you could ignore it because it was just for ‘the kids.’

Not any longer. You can’t ignore social sites if you’re in business and want to get known, get leads, and be seen as a credible, trustworthy professional.

Fortunately people like my partner Denise paid attention to this phenomenon early on. Another person who was a skeptic ("Online networking is a total waste of time!") is Adam Urbanski, the Marketing Mentor. He’s become a raving fan.

Read the rest of this post if you’re a skeptic but have a gnawing feeling you really should find out the essentials of how to work things like Facebook into your marketing mix. To solve the problem about what to pay attention to and what to ignore, (and how to save time doing all this) there’s a series of free teleseminars you can register for at the end of this post.

Trap #3: The Trap of the Internet Guru

By Patsi Krakoff in Online Marketing, Teleclasses & Seminars

5 Traps of Internet Marketing that Can Derail Your Business

In this video, I talk about how easy it is to fall for smooth marketing hype that promise you millions.

Internet "gurus" don’t always have the right answer for you and your business. Success on the Internet requires more than throwing money at a guru. Learn the truth about marketing on the Internet.

Trap #2: You Can Buy Web Traffic

By Patsi Krakoff in Online Marketing, Teleclasses & Seminars

The 5 Traps of Internet Marketing that Can Derail Your Business

In this video, I talk about Internet Marketing Trap #2: You can buy website success. Not. It’s a myth. Success on the Internet requires effort…the right kind of effort. You can’t buy ads and expect great results. It’s better for the long term to use organic search strategies with relevant content.

The other part of this myth is that you can outsource everything to freelancers. Avoid these costly mistakes. Learn the truth about marketing on the Internet.

Marketing Trap #1: Make Money in Your Sleep

By Patsi Krakoff in Online Marketing

The 5 Traps of Internet Marketing that Can Derail Your Business

Kathleen Gage, the Street Smarts Marketer, reveals the #1 Internet Marketing trap: you can make money while you sleep with little or no effort. Success on the Internet requires effort…the right kind of effort.

You have to know what you’re doing, and you have to have the right systems in place and learn how to use them. Learn the truth about marketing on the Internet before you make costly mistakes.

How to Survey Your Readers & Clients

By Patsi Krakoff in Online Marketing, Teleclasses & Seminars

I don’t normally post on Friday afternoons, but if you use the Internet to market your business, you need to learn how to ask your people what their needs are. I posted this morning about our survey, but what’s important is for you to learn what’s involved in running a survey, as well as why this is so important.

Denise, my trusty Blog Squad partner just posted a step by step outline of how we used Survey Monkey to survey our 20,000 people interested in learning Internet marketing. Please read her post to learn how easy this really is.

It doesn’t matter if you ask one question or 10, or if you ask 20,000 people or 20: You need to know what your people want and need. Asking them has so many other benefits as Denise also mentions. Read the post, it’s a good one, and tell me what you think.

We’re teaching this tactic, and more, so much more. You’re invited to attend our free teleseminar on June 24 to discover The 5 Traps of Internet Marketing.

Oh, and be sure to take our survey, on what your biggest Internet marketing challenges are!