Solutions And Ideas Updates

The #1 rule of online marketing is content is king.
Your website, social media, SEO or other internet marketing campaign can’t succeed without “fresh, unique, frequently updated” content.

But what exactly does that mean?

1. What Is Content Marketing?
In the last few years, various names have sprung up for producing great content that is more “editorial” than “sales pitch” in nature.

Previously, it was called “informational marketing” or “education-based marketing.” Now, the name has shifted to more catchier terms like “content marketing” or “inbound marketing.”

The fundamental principle behind content marketing is that people don’t want to read your sales pitch. They don’t want to sit through your commercials, read your ads, or be interrupted by your “Buy from me!” messages.

Value is subjective, but if your marketing messages are self-promotional and scream at prospects to pay attention to you, your prospects will judge them as having no value and filter them out. People only pay attention to what is important to them.

With content marketing, you recognize that people only care about “What’s in it for me?” so the best way to get people interested in you is to offer them editorial information that addresses their current aspirations and problems.

2. What Is Great Content?

Great content adds value to your prospects’ life in some way. That might be telling them how to do something, appealing to their emotions, passions or beliefs, entertaining them, or offering another point of view.

The rule of thumb is that if your readers consider it worthwhile, then it’s good content.
Depending on your audience, good content is:

humor and entertainment
practical, useful free information on a topic
opinions, commentaries, and reviews
products for sale
forums, chat rooms, and communities
breaking news
free tools and software

Good content

demonstrates your expertise
provides a free sample of your services
provides a snapshot of your personality

Of course, you’re not limited to just one of those categories, nor must you try to incorporate them all into your site.

3. Why Is Content Marketing Important?

The NY Times estimates that people are exposed to 5000 marketing messages each day. To cope, we filter out what isn’t relevant. Content marketing strives for relevancy, so it isn’t filtered out. Here are 6 reasons why content marketing is essential to any marketing campaign.

Engage readers – Content marketing adds value to people’s lives by offering interesting, useful information that helps them solve a problem, achieve a goal or make a purchasing decision.
Tangible body of work – When selling services, it can be difficult to explain all the value you provide. By producing articles, books, audio, video, seminars and other educational materials, you share what you know in an accessible way.
Position yourself as a thought leader – While people want to do business with those they know, like and trust, they also want competency. When you position yourself as a thought leader, you demonstrate your expertise and have others vouch for your credibility.
Drive sales without hard selling – People like to buy but they hate to be sold. Content marketing offers them information to help them make purchasing decisions without sleazy, high-pressure sales techniques designed to manipulate their emotions.
Build an authority website – Search engines want to rank sites they perceive as “the best” for any given topic, so they look for websites considered “authorities” in their fields. An authority site has lots of useful content and plenty of other websites linking to it.
Evergreen content – A good content strategy involves creating content that doesn’t have an “expire by” date. You create the content once and can use it for years to come.

4. What Does Content Marketing Include?

With content marketing, it helps to think of yourself as a publisher.
Just as magazines have editorial calendars planning what topics they will address in upcoming issues, you should have an editorial calendar for your website, blog, newsletter, podcast, or speaking series. Content marketing can include anything you publish. That might take the form of:

Writing: blogs, articles, white papers, ebooks, guest posts
Audio: podcasts, teleseminars
Video: Youtube, recorded presentations, webinars
Graphics: photos, infographics

If you are just getting started with content marketing, writing is probably the easiest. Consider what types of content your target market wants and start writing articles about those topics. Have a wonderful day. content is king.

One of the easiest ways to drive free web traffic to your small business website is by providing valuable content your visitors are searching for.

Fortunately, you don’t have to be an expert writer to benefit from article writing – you simply need to follow a few steps.

Here are six article marketing tips for more website traffic.

Tip #1 – Choose A Topic Based On Keyword Research.

Keyword research is essential to article writing. You need to know exactly what keywords and phrases visitors type into search engines to find content like yours.

A great place to research keywords is Google’s Keyword Tool.

Simply type in the keywords you’d like to be ranked for, and Google will give you suggestions and synonyms.

Pick a key phrase that is 3-5 words long and gets moderate traffic.

Don’t choose keywords with tens of thousands of visitors because they have plenty of competition and will be more difficult to rank for.

Tip #2 – Decide What Type of Article To Write.

There are a number of types of articles you can write. Some of the most common include a how-to article, where you lead the reader step-by step through a process; a list, where you give readers a number of tips or ways to achieve a goal; a case study,

which asks a question and then offers a few real-life examples; a review, which gives your opinion on a product or service; or an editorial, which offers your opinion on a particular problem, trend, or current event.

Tip #3 – Write Your Article.

Your article should include a brief introduction paragraph which tells readers what they can expect; the body of the article, which delivers the main content of the article, and a concluding paragraph.

Try to keep your article between 400-700 words, so it’s a fast read, but is long enough to give readers the content they are searching for.

For web articles, keep your paragraphs short and break up your text with sub-headlines, bullet lists, and bold font.

Use a conversational style and make your content useful to readers.

Tip #4 – Give Your Article A Powerful Headline.

Your headline is what grabs reader’s attention immediately, so writing a great headline is key to your article’s success.

A good headline peaks your reader’s curiosity so they keep reading.

You can promise quantifiable benefits for reading the article, such as what they’ll learn, how they can complete a task, or how they can save time or money.

Or you can ask a question about a common problem or fear they have.

Tip #5 – Proofread.

Use a spell checker and re-read your article to catch any spelling or grammar mistakes.

I find it helpful to read the article aloud to make sure it sounds conversational.

You can also ask someone to proofread your content, or wait a day or two and re-read it before publishing it.

Tip #6 – Optimize Your Content.

Finally, when publishing your article on your website, the best way to maximize its traffic generating potential is to make sure your keyword is used in the title.

Search engines place considerable weight on what your title tag says when ranking websites.

Anyone can write articles to generate more traffic to their small business website.

By following the above six steps, you can generate free web traffic quickly.