Content Marketing Blog - News, Tips, and Strategies for Serious Content Marketers

As content becomes an essential part of growing your business, you can't just post a blog and hope people stumble across it. You have to push it out to multiple channels so it's seen by as many people as possible. 

Here are five cross-promotion strategies that may help you meet your goal.

1. Spread your content across social media.

The more active you are on social media, the better your chances of building an audience. But people tend to spend more time on some channels than others. That's why you have to use everything at your disposal to promote your content.

Every time you write a new blog post or produce a new video, share it across every channel you can think of. Include a captivating headline to introduce it to potential readers. You don't have to spend an afternoon doing this, though; using tools like HootSuite, you can publish across multiple platforms in as little as one click.

2. Add links to other content.

Of course, you want potential readers to check out the content you're promoting. But new content can be a great vehicle for introducing people to previously published blogs and videos, so make sure each new post includes links to related content.

While some of these links should go to your own content, don't forget other websites; if you link to them, they may return the favor and link to you. Ideally, you'll add a link to a specific word or phrase in your content. If you can't find a way to do it, though, a list of related links at the bottom works just as well.

3. Write guest blogs on other sites.

Even if you're doing everything in your power to attract new visitors, eventually you're just preaching to the choir if you're only promoting on your own social media pages and website. Guest blog posts can provide a whole new platform.

If you only rely on your own channels for promotion, you're reaching out to the same people over and over again. Posting guest blogs on other sites introduces you to people who may not have heard of you otherwise. It brings new people to your site; more importantly, it could prompt them to share your content with their own networks.

4. Add links to your signature.

When you receive an email, you may notice a signature with the sender's name, email, phone number and website. That sender had made it easy for you to find them online, and an email signature could do the same for you.

Email signatures were created to add formality to emails and to remind recipients how to reach the sender. Since then, they've evolved into handy cross-promotional tools. For example, if your signature includes a link to your blog, you've promoted yourself to a new potential follower.

5. Update existing links.

Studies show that new content fares better in search engines than old content. That means your most recent content will run circles around older posts. One way to breathe new life into older content is to update it for newer audiences.

Blogs get outdated and sites shut down, so if you add links to your content make a habit of updating them regularly. Do the same thing for that e-book your wrote three years ago. It makes the existing content look fresher, and it catches the eye of search engines, which are always on the lookout for new content.

There's more than one way to promote content, and if you use the tips above you could be your own best cross-promotional channel.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock

Publishing great content is worthless unless you can get people to read it. Email marketing is a great way of getting your message in front of your target audience. Not only have they actually asked to receive information (assuming you’re using an opt-in system) but you can deliver it directly into their inbox. That’s not an automatic recipe for success, though; it’s key to build a relationship with your audience by giving them value in exchange for their time. Don’t make these 5 mistakes:

In the early stages of search engines and search engine optimization it seemed that everyone wanted national, or even global, information. Over time this has changed. More and more Internet users are looking for local data as they seek places to shop, dine and be entertained. Your website needs to be optimized for local searches for your company to fully compete in today's business climate.

Local Search By the Numbers 

To get the full scope and power of local search it is important that you realize just how much of total searching has a local component to it. The numbers are truly impressive and will certainly be an eye-opener for most. Some of the more relevant numbers are:

• Over 10 billion unique searches are done in the country each month. 
• 20% of desktop searches have local intent. 
• 5% include the city and/or state name
• 2% use a more informal name such as an area or neighborhood
• 0.5% use a zip code
• 53% of mobile searches are local in intent

Google and other search engines have changed the way we use the Internet. We interact with each other, learn, communicate and in general reap the benefits of the Internet with search engines. 

A telling statistic to know is that 88% of people who use a mobile device to search for a local business call or visit that company within 24 hours.

As you can see by the numbers listed above local searches account for over 2 billion unique searches each month. This number is too large to ignore. It is imperative that if you own a business you optimize your site for local searching.

How Do I Optimize My Local Search Efforts?

Following are some concrete steps that you can take to optimize your website for local search. These steps will go a long ways in getting you ranked high in the search engines.

1. Get listed - You need to register your business at Google Places, Yahoo! Local and Bing Local among others. These sites and others you might register with have videos that will guide you through the features of their sites. These listing are a great place to start to get found on local searches.
2. Keywords - Research keywords. You need to know and understand how people search for your business. Tools such as Google AdWords can show you the specific number of  searches and the keywords people use on monthly searches. As you see what words people search for you can determine which keywords to use on your website. 
3. Phone number and local address - On your website make sure your phone number and address are prominently displayed on every page. 60% of websites don't have their phone number listed anywhere on the site. Many have 800 numbers for their customer's convenience. Give local customers an easy way to find you and be able to call you.
4. Share local content - Give your customers a taste of local news, weather, sports and other content. Websites containing information only about your company are not the best idea.
5. Get feedback - One of the best things you can do is get some feedback from your customers. Ask them for general views on your products and services, testimonials and other pertinent information. You may get a few negative comments but that is fine. Your company will stay relevant as long as people are talking about you.
6. Register with local organizations - The Better Business Bureau, your local chamber of commerce and organizations related to your industry can help out greatly. These organizations have plenty of credibility with customers and you can be checked out on these sites. Some may charge a fee to join though. 
7. Social is good - Use sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to help you get noticed on local searches. Offer discounts and incentives through these entities and keep customers coming back for more.
8. Verify your business - This is a key step to give your business credibility. You want to verify your business with Google for sure and any other sites that you can. Google tries to pull your data from sites such as infoUSA but this information is not always correct. Make sure you verify your business and get the correct information on the various search sites.

These are some concrete steps you can take to have your site optimized for local searches. 

Having your site optimized for local search is a must in today's business climate. Do so and reap the rewards!!

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock

When you see that familiar red-and-white sign on a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant, you can almost smell the gravy and feel the crispiness of the chicken, especially if you're hungry and haven't eaten yet. How is it possible that your brain retrieves these thoughts and sensory experiences at the mere sight of a logo?

That's the power of brand marketing, and you can use it to your advantage every bit as much as The Colonel, if you just know how to leverage it with your social media presence.

Social media has drastically reduced the cost of brand marketing. It used to be that paying a graphic artist to design a logo was just the beginning of your marketing costs. After you had the logo, you had to figure out how to print it: on t-shirts, on mugs, on flyers and brochures. Then you had to come up with a distribution plan. This method of brand marketing was expensive, but it got your brand out there where your potential customers could begin to make associations between your brand and the qualities you champion (irresistible gravy and crispy chicken, in the case of KFC).

But today, you don't have to bother with t-shirts and flyers and mugs if you don't want to. You can let loose your brand identity on the digital world simply by using social media. And, if you use social media wisely, your company and your brand will begin to develop a reputation. People will associate them with a set of qualities, skills, and traits.

Maybe your brand represents excellent customer service. Maybe it represents cutting-edge innovation. Whatever it is, you can have your customers salivating for it when they see your logo, just like you salivate for a hot and crispy chicken wing when you see the red-and-white Colonel Sanders.

Here's what you need to do if you want your brand marketing to really work for you. Remember, it's all in the content. Your content is what speaks for you.

1. Message. What is it you want people to associate with your brand? If you want people to look at your brand and think about interesting podcasts, don't tweet about your cat's hysterical antics. Colonel Sanders doesn't throw out messages about burritos or crepes every now and then just because he thinks they're yummy, too. Keep your message focused, and resist the urge to embrace variety. That's what your personal blog is for.

2. Voice. What's the voice of your brand? Is it folksy like Trader Joe's? Is it fun like Skittles? Is it sleek and sophisticated like Audi? Think carefully about your brand's voice because your voice should reflect the values, products, and services you offer. When you decide what kind of voice best suits your brand, use it in all of your social media marketing. Whether you're sending out a 25-character tweet or an 800-word blog post, keep your voice intact. If several different people handle your brand marketing, make sure they all adopt the correct voice while representing your company.

3. Authority. No matter what kind of voice your use in your brand marketing or what kind of message you're conveying, come across as an authority. People want to follow authorities on social media, sources they can trust to help them. How do you come across as an authority in your field, especially when you're a relative newcomer? Here are a few things you can do.

• Announce industry news. Set your news feeds to include stories about your industry. When you come across an interesting news tidbit, broadcast it to your followers in your brand-appropriate voice. 
• Relate anecdotes. When you share funny and helpful anecdotes for your personal experiences within your industry, your followers see that you're actively involved in the business. You're not just playing. This isn't a hobby.
• Share testimonials. "Thanks, @customer, for sharing: 'Couldn't be happier with the catering for daughter's wedding. Absolutely perfect.'" Who wouldn't see you as an authority when you share testimonials like this one?

Brand marketing has the potential to launch your business into the stratosphere--at virtually no cost--if you use it well. By staying true to the core message you wish to convey, using a voice that reflects your services and products, and adopting a tone of authority, you can become a social media influence that attracts the notice of potential customers, powerful industry contacts, and future employees. Use this power; it's within your grasp.

Online searchers are looking for information, so they can make better-informed decisions. Ebooks are the content marketing tool of choice when you want to provide information that’s too complex or simply too long to put in a blog article.

Any business looking for customers online must have a blog. A blog with rich and targeted content can improve your credibility in your industry and help you generate more sales. Your blog should be the go-to place for information about your products or services.

Whether you want to change course or simply produce more content than you can reasonably manage, at a certain point your content campaign has to evolve into a content strategy. There's no one right type of strategy - every producer has their own needs and objectives - but the wrong strategy is always the one that doesn't pay off.

A good content strategy is held together by a set of realistic, measurable goals. Your particular goals may be to:

• Increase traffic to your website
• Develop a stronger online brand presence
• Drive more social media traffic or engagement
• Improve your brand's reputation or credibility

Whatever your specific goals, your strategy has to achieve at least some of them in a short enough time that you know you're on the right track. Of course, some of these goals might be hard to hit because of missteps in your overall plan. If you're not meeting your benchmarks, look for any problems in your strategy, and then fix them.

People aren't sharing your content.

You've written a fantastic article about one of the hot topics of the day, and you can see that people have viewed it. But they're not sharing it. Are your readers complacent, or do they just not see a reason to share your content? These clues might give you the answer:

• It's too dated: A blog about this summer's fashions has as short a shelf life as the fashions you're writing about. On the other hand, a guide to the ABCs of content marketing is shareable in any season.
• It doesn't have anything to offer: Information is power, but most people forget most of what they read after they've read it. Your content should have at least one key take-away that readers will remember long after they've moved to another site.
• They've seen it before: A successful content strategy requires unique content, either a brand new topic or a familiar subject discussed from a unique perspective. People don't share content unless it's something they can't find anywhere else.

No one's following you online.

Months after publishing your first blog, or weeks after you published your Facebook page, the list of followers hasn't grown much. How come your target audience doesn't feel the need to stay in touch with you? It could be because:

• You're not promoting yourself: You can't just publish content and hope people stumble upon it; you have to let people know it's there. Your content strategy should include ways to put your content in front of your target audience. 
• You're talking to the wrong audience: If you're trying to attract stay-at-home moms, you won't get far if your content talks about after-hours clubs and cooking for one. Know who you want to target and write specifically for that audience.
• Your content is dull: Ideally, your content features cool graphics like flowcharts and photos, which generate more views and shares than written content. If you have to write it, make it funny, exciting, easy to understand, or all of the above.

No one's talking about you.

Why do reality show celebrities act like asses? Because in today's world, it's better to be ridiculed than to not be talked about at all. You don't have to become a laughingstock to be talked about, but you have to look at why you;re being ignored by the Internet:

• No one can identify you: No matter how prolific your content, it won't do much if you're not building your brand with it. Add key branding elements to every piece of content you create, including blogs, videos and infographics.
• You're not doing anything: If you're not very active, start acting; do things that would interest your target audiences. If you're already active, make sure your content strategy includes press releases and other PR campaigns.
• You're not talking about other people: You may have to make the first move if you want people to talk about you. Link to content from a favorite source, or promote key customers or partners to motivate them to return the favor.

Your content strategy might start as an idea, but it takes a lot of little steps to bring it to life. If your strategy isn't as strong as you'd like, make sure all the little steps are leading you to your overall goals.

An awful lot of business owners still don’t get what “brand” is all about. No wonder they don’t understand brand marketing.

Everyone’s generating content these days. We’re so bombarded by content from every direction that we’ve started to tune out even the good stuff, because we just can’t take in anymore. Internet users have become particularly selective about what they consume online, and you can no longer just “push” information at them and assume it will reach its target. Here are 5 secrets to creating a content marketing strategy that your market won’t be able to resist.

Have you "pinned" something lately? Chances are that if you're a woman between ages 25 and 54, you know exactly what I'm talking about. People around the world are sharing recipes, decorating ideas, craft projects and lots, lots more by creating and adding to virtual bulletin boards on Pinterest.

What is Pinterest?
Pinterest is the fastest growing social media site in the world. Launched in 2010, the site with thousands of virtual bulletin boards has attracted more than 85 million registered users in less than three years. Just who are these Pinterest users and how do they behave?:

• Between 63 and 84 percent of Pinterest users are women, depending on the source