Archive for Content Marketing – Page 26

Invisible Content Marketing: Is Your Attitude Showing?

Funnyguy When I work with smart, successful people it’s usually to help with their blogs, newsletters, social media and content marketing strategies. And often there’s more to marketing than meets the eye. Much more that the actual words you use…

Most content marketing elements are easily visible. That’s a good thing, because it’s easy to see what’s been done and what works. (Also, what stinks, so to speak.)

But the stuff behind the visible stuff counts a lot. I call it the Invisible Content Marketing. It’s what’s inside the person doing the marketing and the writing that matters. You can’t write without bringing out your character, especially if you’re writing in the first person about things.

Invisible Content Marketing is your attitude. It’s your “tone of voice” on paper or the screen. It’s your personality and your values and …all that stuff that makes you attractive, or arrogant, or sweet, or bitchy, or whiny, or cool, really cool.

Of course you don’t have to be a trained psychologist like I am to know that what’s inside a person really matters, nor do you need a graduate degree to pick up on the attitudes and values of someone when they “speak” to you on the Web.

Every time you write content for your business, people are “listening” to your tone of voice, trying to pick up your attitude, values, and trust-worthiness. Read More→

Convince & Convert: #1 Content Marketing Blog

Congratulations to Jay Baer who writes the Convince & Convert Blog. He tops the list of Top 42 Content Marketing Blogs published quarterly by Joe Pulizzi. I took a look at Jay’s blog and I can understand why he’s #1 on a list that carries some excellent content marketing blogs.

Here’s what impresses me with his blog.

  • The name says clearly what he’s writing about, what his goals for the readers are.
  • His tag line for the blog, “Social Media Consulting & Coaching” says what he’s all about, what he’s in business for.
  • His banner has both his name and photo in it, so it becomes personal right away (no wondering, who’s writing this)
  • There are several offers made clear through the navigation bar and right-hand column: Speaking, free Social Media Tools, Newsletter, etc.
  • It’s not confusing, it’s very clear what Jay’s expertise is and how he works.

I love the work that Joe Pulizzi and his team put into finding great content marketing blogs for us. I also love that I’ve made the list consistently now for three years since it’s inception.

And I’m very proud to be named #5 this time! I’m especially honored because I’ve maintained a strong presence on this list which has grown from 81 to 353 possible contenders over the last 3 years. Thanks, Joe & Junta42 team!

Here are the criteria for selection: Read More→

Why a Content Marketing Strategy Review Matters

Content Marketing Matters!

It really does. As I wrote previously, we are in the Dawn of a New Content Marketing Era and Telling Beats Selling.

Advertising isn’t working.

Content Matters

But if that doesn’t bring up a lot of questions for you, it should.

How do you write content that’s interesting and informs, but at the same time sells you, your products and your services?

When you write content that markets for your business, you face certain challenges.

On the one hand, you write so that readers will get to know you, like you and trust you.

Then, you turn around and blurt out, “Oh, and by the way, BUY MY STUFF!” Uh-huh. No, I don’t think so, that doesn’t work.

To top it off, you may be an independent entrepreneur or a small business without a large budget to hire copywriters and web content specialists. You may write your web pages yourself. You publish your own blog, plus an e-newsletter.

How do you learn to “do” content marketing in a way that works for your business, your targeted audience?

Ah, so many questions, so few answers. While there are a few content marketing books published, and a few more are in the works, there aren’t too many places to learn what you need to know.

Your content should be reviewed for how well it:

  • Grabs readers’ attention
  • Focuses on a solution to a problem 
  • Educates and informs
  • Entertains and engages readers
  • Enriches the lives of readers
  • Inspires action
  • Comes up in search results for main keywords
  • Gets the results you want to achieve

You can get your blog and website content strategies reviewed for a small fee. I usually work with small businesses and independent professionals and partnerships. For more information, please read this page, How Can I Help You?