Want to know more about online persuasion and how you can write content that gets results? Here’s a quick one minute video promoting my Content Marketing with Blogs ebook.
The e-book formatting and design was done by my son-in-law, expert graphic designer and creative genius, Scott Krakoff. Tell me what you think…
If you haven’t downloaded it yet, be my guest: Content Marketing with Blogs…
One of the most frequent question small business owners and coaches ask me is “What should I write about on my business blog?” It’s not as daunting as you might think, if you follow a few guidelines. These five steps will help you master business blog writing with quality content that attracts readers every time.
With practice, anyone can start and finish writing a blog post in under an hour. It may take longer to add an image, link keywords and edit, but aim for 30 minutes and 300 words and you’ll soon become good at it.
Most small business owners recognize that fresh content published on a blog is simply a required marketing tool. I like to point out that an online business blog is the smartest way to get found, get known, and get clients.
People – your target audience of ideal customers – want to know what you stand for and what you can do for them. A blog is your platform for establishing your business as trustworthy.
That said, I know not everyone loves writing, and as a business owner, you have a lot of plates to keep spinning in the air. Whether you write on your own blog, outsource to a ghost blogger, or have a designated writer on staff, you are still faced with a content marketing strategy for your business blog.
Here are five tips to simplify the process and save you valuable time.
How do you create quality content that attracts online readers and yet works to promote the growth of your business?
Creating great content for your business blog is a what and how issue, as in what constitutes “good” content, and how does one produce that content so that it brings in the readers that a business blogger wants. Quality content stimulates reader/ customer engagement.
Here’s what quality web content looks like: It’s short, sweet, smart, and funny.
Without any of these factors, you risk losing readers to boredom. It’s click and bye-bye!
How do you keep readers interested and coming back to your blog?
The second-best thing about writing a blog is that you have an opportunity to express your opinions, thoughts, and viewpoints to the rest of the world. But the number one advantage to blogging is that it’s a meritocracy; in other words, anyone can be successful at it!
Just look at Perez Hilton. He comes from an unremarkable background far away from Hollywood, but his blogging has amassed thousands of followers and his approach has changed the way people view the entertainment industry
Of course, being a winning blogger is more than just creating good content. You have to be able to get people to read what you write on a consistent basis. Here are ten ways to increase traffic flow to your blog:
Image credit: wikipedia.org
About our Guest Author: Chris Martin is a freelance writer and blogger who writes about the hottest topics on the Web at www.business.com.
For a social media site to truly step into the spotlight, it has to have something special. Pinterest is one show-stopping sharing site that has taken the Web world by storm. A study done by Shopify, shows the growth of this site is better than Facebook and Twitter at the same point in their history. So how does your content marketing strategy work for this site?
According to Wikipedia, Pinterest is a pinboard-style social photo sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections such as events, interests, hobbies, and more. Users can browse other pinboards for inspiration, ‘re-pin’ images to their own collections or ‘like’ photos. Their mission is to “connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting” via a global platform of inspiration and idea sharing.
Orders from Pinterest are double those of Facebook and the site is the leader in average dollar amount per order, over sites such as Google, Amazon and Bing. Marketers are trying to find the best ways to leverage their companies and clients on this photo-driven site. So, how do these online marketing professionals incorporate content marketing while on Pinterest?
What to Share
For sure, this new social site is a no-brainer for retail stores and e-Commerce sites. However, if you’re in a B2B business or sell services or have products that might be tricky to show off on an image driven site, what to share as part of your content marketing strategy can be a roadblock. Read More→
It seems that the younger the employee, the more frequently they use social media. While it is still relatively easy to find baby boomers who have no social media accounts, it’s tough to find a millennial without at least one online profile. Tougher still is finding a teenager who is not connected on Facebook and Twitter.
The difference between teens and their older counterparts on social media platforms is that they use it less to connect, and more as a creative outlet. Most of the friends that teens have through social media are the same ones that they see on a regular basis at school. As a result, social media outlets are used less to connect and more to keep up. (Image: freedigitalphotos.net)
It can be easy to write our youthful “friends” off as irrelevant to our own social media pursuits. The truth is that there is actually a lot to be gleaned from the younger generation. In many ways, they get a lot right when it comes to social media. Here are a few tips savvy social marketers can take away from teens: Read More→
Content marketing is all about quality content that grabs the attention of your ideal prospects and clients. If you want to create content that engages readers, you need to know their online habits and interests. Yet how many of us post on a blog or upload a video to YouTube without taking time to survey what are our target audience‘s interests, wants and needs?
Content marketing requires that you publish frequently on your site, your blog, and in social media. You want to focus your content on the keywords your prospects are likely to use in searches. You can’t do that without asking them what their interests are.
Here’s a quick list of survey questions to ask your target audience to help define what they want to read:
You have about eight seconds to engage someone before they click away. Clever headlines and intriguing social updates will get them to click over to your content. But unless you know what your audience wants, you’re shooting in the dark. They won’t stay. Click and bye-bye. So how do you keep them on your site to read your stuff? What makes for effective content marketing? Read More→
If you’re a small business professional, you may end up doing a lot of your website updating yourself. Without being a geek, you can take care of a few key elements of SEO basics to help prospects and clients find you online. This article explains the basics.
If you’re not using search engine optimization (SEO) to promote your business online, you’ve at least heard of it. And you’ve probably heard it’s crucial. SEO involves doing things to increase your website’s rank on Google’s search engine results pages. (Image: Wikipedia)
Typically, if you’re engaged in SEO, you’re trying to get links, using keywords in your content, and improving the technical aspects of your website to make it more search engine and user-friendly. Ultimately, we don’t know much about Google’s algorithm, but we do know that it rewards content that includes relevant keywords.
We also know that links help improve a website’s rank on Google’s search engine results pages, and we know that websites without technical issues are generally favored by Google.
Yet it’s quite common to find blogs written and published without any hyperlinking in the content at all. This is a pity, as your blog post won’t do a good job for search engine indexing. It can be a waste of your time and energy spent writing it! Read More→
Twitter is not just for kids. Smart business tweeters know that the social network is a great tool in promotion, brand recognition and customer interaction. The same goes for other social media sites – (Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+) the number of them growing by the day. (Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net)
Someone should send the boss a memo.
In a recent survey done by the social media branding firm BRANDfog, respondents said that CEOs and other company leaders who use platforms like Twitter effectively are regarded more highly by customers and their employees. An overwhelming amount (86%) of respondents said that CEO involvement in social media campaigns is “somewhat important” to “mission-critical.” Here are some of the other findings:
So it seems like a relatively easy concept, right? The big shots — yes, the top executives — need to spend a few minutes every day tweeting, updating statuses and accepting friend requests. But they’re not doing it… quite yet. Read More→
Are you thinking about creating a social media page for your business? Social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter) can be great marketing and networking tools for small businesses, but there are a few rules you should know before jumping on the social media bandwagon.
The following three P’s of social media will help your business create a loyal customer following and find new clients through a fresh, well-organized social media page. (Image: Freedigitalphotos.net)
1. A Purposeful Plan
Before you open a social media account for your business, make a plan. First, learn your way around the specific social networking site. Most sites offer tutorials to new users; take these and get to know the tools and tricks available to you. Once you know what you can do with your account, devise a marketing plan that will maximize your business’ page presence. Read More→
