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Archive for the ‘Online Marketing’ Category

I talk to people every day who struggle with how to create unique and compelling content. It’s all around you – you just have to tune in. Here are some more ideas that I share with my customers regularly:

1. Follow Industry trends and hot topics – Being able to add relevant content on timely subjects is a huge advantage and mistake if you are not on top of things. If you are in technology then write about tech trends, if you are in entertainment write about the superbowl, if you are local then write about events, news whatever you can. You have to watch and listen and there are plenty of tools to do it for you…you don’t even have to go our hunting for it.

• Google Insights – so cool. Best insider tip – use this! Enter your keyword and it shows you trend wise what is going on, and you can see and follow what new “breakout” terms may be on the rise.
• Google Alerts – it doesn’t get easier. This sends you all the information you need and filter by topic.

Take what you read and summarize, rebuttal or general response to what you read. Simply copying what you read is not impressive, anyone can do that. Your readers can get that anywhere, provide people some insight, resolution or glimpse of knowledge other than what they can find somewhere else.

2. Use Social Media tools – If you have the luxury of using a tool to track conversations online, great…there is no reason not to listen in. At the very least use some of the free resources out there and you can even use wordpress plugins like Zemanta to give you ideas.

• Search.twitter.com – Using social media does not have to be complicated or expensive. This was probably the first search tool and it gives you plenty of information. Tip: Track your brand and name and subscribe to the RSS to track what people say. Additionally track your competitors and industry to stay abreast of developments.

3. Go old school – Hint: this requires actual human interaction. Attend an event, tweetup, conference, continued education classes, interview someone etc. And write about it.

Like I said, there is lots to write about. As you think of ideas write them down, use a sticky note pad or access your computer and keep a list by saving blog posts as drafts and then continue writing when you feel inspired or have time. Use what you’ve got!

image source: blog.mindjet.com

Ever find yourself in a pinch to create new content. You know that best practices dictate to write on a weekly basis, but you just can’t find the time or have enough resources to get it done…or so you think. Here are a few quick tips to get you back on track and adding content in no time:

1. Use your internal resources – Have other people at your company write content. It doesn’t have to be just you. If they are not writers then have them put together ideas and pass them along to you that you can that masterfully incorporate into a blog post.

2. Revamp and recycle – (Re)Use old blog posts and (re)purpose them. Content, especially stats and timely pieces quickly become irrelevant. Compose articles to show a history time line or give readers and update on facts and figures and show how things once worked, were used, viewed, valid etc and show the relevancy it has today.

3. Look at your competitors – Challenge them on content that they put out. Write a rebuttal, or complimentary commentary and continue to establish that authoritative voice from your point of view.

5. Use your keywords – You’ll hear me and most SEO consultants say this time and time again. “Incorporate your keywords”…in your page title, header, URL, content etc. You can also use your keyword list – the longtail – for ideas on what to write about. Find a tool to help you with the research on what to target, make a list and tackle one at a time each week.

Ever wish that you could ever so gently nudge some of visitors to comment or promote your content? There have been many instances where someone will email me or mention in passing that they really liked my blog post on “such and “such” and when I then go to check they never left a comment…hmphhhh. It’s like thanks for the feedback but a comment would be much more helpful…well guess what…there’s a tool that can help you.

At HubSpot, my place of employment, we constantly talk about the importance of “nurturing your leads”. That is absolutely an important component to ensuring that those you engage with you continue to stay engaged. In a similar manner this wordpress plugin, WP Greet Box, allows you to stay on top of with your returning visitors. Why not nudge someone who returns to your site…they are obviously interested so nurture them by keeping them engaged and in the process giving others a chance to become engaged.

Are you intrigued? So here’s the deal…”Greet Box” allows you to set customized messages to certain audiences. So if someone comes to your site via Stumble Upon you can encourage that visitor to Stumble your content. Pretty cool huh. I haven’t used it yet myself but as I find time I will let you all know how’s it going. You can see more details, screenshots etc through Wordpress.

Let me know if you try this yourself, or if you are employing similar ways to engage your loyal followers and fans.

I’m one of those who believes that you can always learn something from your mistakes or things that go wrong. In fact sometimes you don’t know how to get to the right solution without failing miserably in the process of getting there.

SEO is one of those things where you will fail the first several tries. It’s ok. A great example is on page SEO. Meaning everything from Title tags, to H1 headers, content etc. Chances are you will not get the perfect combination of all of these with the “best” use of your keyword the first time around. So if you are wondering, well what can I do each month to improve my site…one thing is to try/test different on page SEO variations.

So technically your first attempts are not a “failure”. Thus every change you make can lead to improvement. You have to try to get anywhere to begin with, and you have to understand that you will not reach your goal of page 1 in the first few months and there is plenty of work you can do to help you get there over time.

If at first you don’t succeed try and try again!

In the world of online marketing it’s all about getting found and having a presence. Good SEO (one means of getting found) has always been about making your site and its content more relevant for search engines (obviously) and also users. Social media (another way to get found) is all about online engagement and connecting with your audience. Combining the two makes for the perfect recipe. And thus (through simple math) Good Search Strategy = Engagement=Use of Social Media

The problem isn’t that social media is useless, but you have to think about what conversions are of value to you. Consider the following value metrics:

• drive people back to your site
• receive large amount inbound links
• appealing to early adopters
• build customer relationships
• learn what your clients want, need and think (help set and meet expectations)
• manage online reputation and brand
• increase traffic from various sources
• share/distribute content yourself, and via others, word of mouth
• chance to position yourself as the best
• have honest conversation and feedback (priceless), that’s why most (successful) industry giants are now involved
• rewarded emotionally
• it’s fun (can’t deny it)
• gives small business the opportunity to leverage themselves

In every one of these cases the feedback and the metrics are coming from real people that I can reply to, hear back from and with whom I can strike up a conversation. I can legitimately justify why updating my status and adding more people to my friend list, replying to feedback and building relationships are valuable to branding, marketing and bottom line metrics for the company. Understanding all of this, and gaining that insight helps promote more conversion driven focus on your site. It helps you interpret what brought your visitors to your site, how the user first became engaged, potentially why they care…it makes all the SEO work worth it and helps those engaged users become “active” through your site.

Other things to consider:

• Find a social medium that works for you, testing and tracking are extremely important.
• Some social media sources, especially Twitter is hard to track because traffic sources are often from other tools used to connect to the application and therefore don’t always register the same with Analytics.
• Good content naturally spreads.
• You have to track visitors, leads and customers.
• Set realistic expectations – Social media cost per conversion is obviously much lower and there tend to be fewer conversions overall. The social media conversion rate almost always is less than SEO because it’s just not the same.
• Outside of time, social media is low cost. Just track how much time you spend and the leads from sources.

Part of any process of converting a visitor to a lead is nurturing and engaging that individual. While Twitter or Facebook may not be the medium for everyone, there is plenty of opportunity to become engaged, and really the question should be, can you afford not to partake?