Here are 12 to-dos that will help you succeed with your online marketing (in a somewhat particular order)…

1 – Critique your site

We’re always looking to improve ourselves – lose weight, eat healthier, make more money, etc. The best way to achieve these goals is to first identify our bad habits through honest self-examination.

Your site should have goals too – get more traffic, convert more traffic into leads, etc. In order to achieve these goals you will first need to critique your site and identify those “bad habits”.

Make an honest and objective appraisal of the quality of your site’s design, structure, content, calls to action, etc. You will need to look at your site statistics (Google Analytics) to see which pages are popular and which sections of the site need some love.

Think of this as the equivalent to sending your site to a shrink for some deep analysis. Sometimes you might be too biased to make an objective assessment. If so, consider bringing in a consultant.

Or you could ask a handful of clients to critique your site. If you ask clients, make it easy for them. Put together a survey they can fill out online within a few minutes, and make sure you ask them what would make the site better for them. Either way prepare to be surprised by the results.

2 – Develop a keyword list

Some will argue that this is the first thing you must do before engaging in any sort of online marketing. Be that as it may, it is simply important that you DO have a list.

As you engage in any online marketing activities – blogging, social media marketing, email marketing, white papers, video, eBooks, etc – you will want to have a list of targeted words and phrases that are important to you AND your clients. They are important in the sense that these are the words and phrases your clients use to find you in an online search.

There are a few ways to go about developing this list. You will again want to take a look at your site statistics to see what words visitors to your site are using to find you. You will also want to do some searches on those words and see what the competition is doing. I am over-simplifying a bit of course.

There are many resources out there to help you with this process. For the purposes of this article, I will leave you with some suggested resources…

1. Outspoken Media
2. SEOMoz
3. Search Engine Land
4. Search Engine People
5. Google

3 – Eliminate bad content

Hopefully as you review your site and your site statistics in order to develop a keyword list, you will realize that some of your content has got to go. Maybe it’s a page that gets no traffic because it’s out of date, poorly promoted or just plain wrong. Instead of putting “lipstick on a pig,” try a radical approach… get rid of it.

Bloat used to be OK. For some search engine professionals (who shall remain nameless), it was part of a content strategy. Not anymore.

It is much more effective to think about all content as it relates to the intended user. If it serves them no purpose or – worse yet – confuses or misinforms them, get rid of it. Pretty simple.

4 – Rewrite old content

Of course not all of your old content is completely useless. There could be old blog posts, white papers, case studies, etc that still hold some relevance. Instead of eliminating them simply because they’re old, why not try and re-imagine them (h/t to Content Rules).

Take a fresh look at old content. Perhaps try rewriting it or leave the original content and add to it. Think about a news story online. Sometimes news sites will leave the original story for context and then offer updates below.

Again, consider the user. What is the best way to rework this old content in a way to better serve a client?

5 – Develop a content strategy

If you haven’t read Content Rules by Ann Handley and CC Chapman, do so, soon. In this book you will find a very easy to follow overview of content marketing. In online marketing, content is king and content marketing is the king’s horse.

On today’s internet the companies that offer valuable information to users where they are seeking it are the clear winners. If you are a sought after resource online, you will get leads and your site will get traffic.

Content marketing is how this is done. You write blog posts that empower the user. You shoot video that educates and entertains. You create presentations and host webinars that inform. And you do these things through your channels – your website, your blog, your social media channels, etc.

But before you do any of this, you want to have a strategy. Once you have looked through your existing site (and ripped it apart) and identified the needs of your target audience, you’ll be able to better identify what content you need to create and where you should post and promote that content so it’s easy to find.

Some other resources that will help you with your content marketing efforts are these incredibly useful blogs…

1. Marketing Profs
2. Junta 42 and Content Marketing Institute
3. Copyblogger

6 – Update your design

Yes, design still matters. If you think design doesn’t matter, you must dress in the same gray clothes, drive the same gray car and all the walls in your house must be a shade of off-white. Let’s face it, we judge things on some level based on their looks.

If your site looks old and tired, you look old and tired. If your site looks out of touch, you look out of touch. And if your site is boring and uninspired… well, you get the picture. Try sprucing things up a bit. Maybe it just needs a little curb appeal. Maybe it needs an extreme makeover.

Either way, I am willing to bet there is always something you can do to improve the look and thereby improve the user experience of the site.

7 – Start blogging

Blogs are no longer just for bloggers. You don’t have to have aspirations of becoming the next Perez Hilton to be effective at blogging. You just need to know the needs of your target audience and write about it.

You are sitting on a mound of expert information that you need to share. Don’t believe me? Read this post about business blogging.

Or, simply look back through your email inbox, notepad, sales materials, presentation materials, etc. You talk to your clients everyday (members and volunteers are clients too if you live in that world).

Be the same expert in a blog that you are everyday in the real world. You will benefit from an SEO standpoint because of the useful keyword rich content you’re adding to your site. You will position yourself as an authority in your field. And you will steadily be “out there” talking about what it is that you do.

8 – Embrace social media

As you engage in a content marketing strategy, you will quickly realize that blogging, video, online presentations and the like NEED social media. You also need social media. Why? This is where your clients are. Yes, they are, trust me. The numbers do not lie.

That said, there are going to be some differences from group to group as to where they prefer to spend their time. So, take a little time and look around. They may be on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or in lots of different places. As an example, let’s use LinkedIn…

Are your clients spending time in LinkedIn discussion groups? Yes? Share your blog posts with them, along with posts from other experts you think would be of value to them.  Most importantly, engage them. Talk to them and have meaningful discussions.

Read this very short yet powerful post from Seth Godin to see what I mean here - One option is to struggle to be heard whenever you’re in the room…

9 – Develop an editorial calendar

Are you overwhelmed yet? Don’t be. These are tasks that can be easily integrated into your marketing and communications workflow (there really is no other choice). The key to success is to map this all out.

This can be done using what’s called an Editorial Calendar. Here is a post from Jason Keath in Content Marketing Institute that really lays this out nicely… How to Put Together an Editorial Calendar for Content Marketing

Mapping out your content marketing efforts in advance will allow you to see the bigger picture. It will also help you to set deadlines. If you commit to content marketing for your organization but make no written outline of the what’s and when’s, you will fail.

If you treat this like a regularly scheduled task that is just as important as say paying the rent, you will see results.

10 – Read

There is so much content out there. Go and find it, devour it and report back. There are books of course. Personally, I love my Kindle and it is loaded with books on marketing, social media, web design, etc. But, I also subscribe to a bunch of blogs and I check my Google Reader everyday.

I guarantee you that there is at least one blog out there that is filled with great information about your industry. Chances are there is more than one. The key is to find them and set some time aside each day or week to read the posts that catch your eye. And then report back to your followers, subscribers, etc on what you’ve read.

Reading is fundamental. It’s fundamental to your continued success. It keeps you in the game with a fresh perspective on what it is that you do. Start by setting some Google Alerts using the keywords from your list (see above). This way, you are guaranteed delivery of content related to those terms. You will have to sort through some junk, but you will eventually find some sources of great reading material and, therefore, wonderful inspiration.

You will want to subscribe to the usual suspects that show up in your alerts – the blogs and sites you go to time and again.

11 – Take the keys from the intern

I’m not sure when and why it became acceptable to give all online marketing tasks to your intern or part-time summer help. I like interns, I think they serve a great purpose. We even hired one full-time.

But, do you think they really should be the ones managing your brand and your online reputation? If you task them with managing your social media or your blog or your email newsletter, that’s exactly what’s happening.

Take control. At the very least monitor what the intern is doing. But even then, you really want to be much more involved than that. This is the front line. This is where the meaningful connections are made. I would not leave this up to the intern.

12 – Be a resource

We’ve been saying this since day one, literally. Our very first article (before we and everyone else had a blog) was titled “Turn Your Website into a Resource”. It’s still true today. As I’ve said already in this list, you are already an expert, be that expert online.

But don’t just be the expert that tells everyone what to do. Be the expert that everyone looks to for guidance, for the best information and for thought leadership. Do that by creating your online expert persona. Being a resource means you share anything that your readers, followers and fans would find useful, regardless of the source.

If you’re even the slightest bit successful right now, chances are you are doing this already. It’s just time to fine-tune your efforts to get the maximum return from your online marketing efforts. If you are struggling to find business, maybe it’s because you’re not “out there” enough.

13 – Prepare for the zombie invasion

Just in case, I added a 13th tip. It’s actually quite apropos. The Center for Disease Control or CDC has prepared an online communications effort aimed at protecting the population from a possible zombie invasion.

This is a great example of using content marketing, and a sense of humor, to deliver what is actually important information to the general public. This campaign was launched this year and has been an amazing success. Plus, it is quite fun.

I hope you got something from this list. If you are doing any or all of this already, good for you! Keep it up! If not, what are you waiting for??? This is the new norm! It’s time to embrace online marketing, content marketing and social media because its not going anywhere and more importantly, it works!

Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments below…

“Our goal is simple: to give people the most relevant answers to their queries as quickly as possible. This requires constant tuning of our algorithms, as new content—both good and bad—comes online all the time.” - Google Webmaster Blog, from the Panda Announcement

In an effort to eliminate spam and irrelevant search results, Google has spent the past year making major updates as well as minor tweaks to their search algorithm (code-named Panda). Basically, Google is working to improve the user experience of the people using their search tool by eliminating the junk from the listings.

We are often asked about different “tricks” for showing up higher in the search results. Our clients are inundated with conflicting information about the best ways to rank in Google. But, look back at what Google says about its own updates…

“…give people the most relevant answers to their queries as quickly as possible.”

What’s the secret? Produce a quality website that offers quality information, correctly and effectively. Think about the user and stop trying to game the system. Instead focus on the user experience. What does the user want or need? How will they find it and what will they do with it once they have?

Instead of trying to implement SEO tactics trying to fool the search engines into listing your site higher than your competition, focus on writing useful content that is rich with keywords. This means your site has a content strategy focusing on targeting a specific user with information they want.

And when you’ve produced this content, share it. Use your social channels and affiliates to promote and share this content with your target audience. These social signals and back-links to your site will help Google’s spiders find your content and rank it appropriately.

I am not saying that all SEO consists of tricks. It is important to optimize a site for search engine visibility (H1 tags, page titles, meta descriptions, ALT attributes) and make sure you are creating links back to that site. Just keep in mind that if something seems too easy or a little shady, there might be something to that.

The problem with tactics is that they rely on the idea that you know something Google doesn’t. You can try and fool Google by using duplicate content, useless landing pages outside of your site, keyword stuffing, and other “black hat” tactics. But do you really want to go toe to toe with Google? You will lose.

Isn’t it better to focus on delivering value to those that matter most, your clients? Isn’t it a better strategy to be a resource for clients, potential clients and referral sources? Of course it is. And judging by the way things are going with Panda this is going to matter more and more in the future.

So, our advice? Stop gaming the system. The only proven SEO “tactic” is hard work, research and providing value to the targeted user.

Do you agree? Let us know your thoughts on SEO tactics.

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“Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”

Chances are you’re probably doing some of this. Most businesses today have a website, some have a presence on social media channels, and some even have a Blog (or two). Let’s break this content marketing definition down a bit…

• Relevant and valuable content – Blog posts, video, podcasts, eBooks, white papers, etc.
• Attract, acquire, and engage – make a connection that has value to them and you
• Defined and understood target audience – your ideal client
• Driving profitable customer action – your goals met, be they monetary or otherwise

At Wood Street, we’ve created lots of websites, lots of blogs, and have worked with many of our clients to help them integrate social media marketing into these and other content channels. This is all important and useful.

If you’re doing some or all of these things, good for you! But, is your business getting the most it can out of all of this content? Do all elements of the definition above apply to your content marketing efforts?

Content marketing should be fluid. Before I expand on that, let’s take a look at what the word “fluid” really means. According to Merriam-Webster, fluid means…

1a: having particles that easily move and change their relative position without a separation of the mass and that easily yield to pressure : capable of flowing

1b: subject to change or movement <boundaries became fluid>

2: characterized by or employing a smooth easy style <the ballerina’s fluid movements> <fluid recitation of his lines>

When you think of your content, do words like move or change come to mind? Is your content capable of flowing? Does your content have a smooth easy style? It should.

The idea behind content marketing is that you’re targeting your potential clients with valuable content where they’re looking for it. And you’re doing this with the intent of driving them to some sort of movement. Action.

Fluid content can live anywhere. An idea on Twitter can lead someone to a Blog post. A post on your Blog and be shared on your Facebook page and then transformed into an eBook or a YouTube Video or SlideShare presentation – all working towards a common goal, allowing an idea to change position without a separation of the mass.

In order to have a fluid content marketing strategy, you must accept the fact that you’re aiming at a fast moving target. Your audience, more than ever before, is on the move – blogs –> websites –> YouTube –> mobile…

You need to know who you’re marketing to. What are your buyer personas? What do these people look like? What are their hopes and dreams? Ok, a bit far, but you see what I mean.

Let’s say you run a local chapter of the Humane Society. You know your target audience is made up of people concerned about animals who are looking to adopt a pet or looking to care for the pets they have.

What content is going to help them achieve their goals when it comes to their pets? Blog posts about pet care? Sure. Video about animals? Of course. A white paper on the endocrine system of a parrot? Maybe, but that’s one you need to work up to.

The white paper example is important to look at. A white paper can be an important part of your content marketing efforts. But, can you post a technical white paper and expect hoards of pet enthusiasts to flock to it? No, of course not.

Your content marketing is an organism made up of many parts working together as one. Our parrot example could have many parts. Sure, you have the white paper about the endocrine system of the parrot. But, this would be considered “in the weeds” and not the first place someone with a parrot issue would necessarily look.

They’re going to look for quicker answers to their questions. Answers contained in blog posts, a video showing what a parrot experiencing pain looks like or a podcast interview with a parrot specialist talking about a parrot in pain – all placed on the society blog and then shared…

These concerned parrot owners are going to ask their Facebook friends or Twitter followers for resources on pet bird ailments. They might search through YouTube for helpful parrot care videos. Is your content marketing fluid enough to reach all of these places?

As you can see in the graphic above, all of this should lead back to your website and blog, where you have strategically placed, targeted calls to action. For a local humane society, this could be a callout to signup for an upcoming workshop, or a button to donate online.

As you can see, there isn’t one line with a beginning and an end. Content marketing is not linear. It’s fluid. It moves and transforms itself so that it can be where it needs to be when it needs to be there.

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We are asked repeatedly about the best ways to develop and use content. I was already following @marketingprofs and @cc_chapman on Twitter when I saw the announcement about their new book…

Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business (New Rules Social Media Series), ©2010 Ann Handley, CC Chapman; (P)2011 Gildan Media Corp.

Naturally it made sense for me to pick this up.

Content Rules Cover Courtesy of ContentRulesBook.com

I am very glad I did. This book is a combination of many things we already tell our clients about content marketing plus some new ideas that I hadn’t really considered. It’s an easy read and very well thought out with practical tips and real world case study examples of their principles at work.

Some key elements of the book I found to be quite useful…

1. Chapter 5: Reimagine; Don’t Recycle: Anatomy of a Content Circle of Life – this is a great overview of how to repurpose content that you are already creating without simply regurgitating the same stuff over and over again.
2. Chapter 7: Stoke the Campfire – in this they compare content marketing to storytelling around a campfire. A great analogy focusing on using the storytelling principle. Some good tips and some easy content marketing lessons.
3. Chapter 10: Attention B2B Companies: This is the Chapter You Are Looking For – any B2B companies out there with doubts about the benefits of content marketing – blogging, seminars, podcasts, etc – need to read this chapter.

Of course there is so much more. I would like to be able to write some negatives about this book so I don’t sound like a screaming teenage groupie, but there just aren’t any that I can see.

Have you read Content Rules yet? Let me know what you thought of it in the comments below.

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“Content marketing is an umbrella term encompassing all marketing formats that involve the creation or sharing of content for the purpose of engaging current and potential consumer bases.” – Wikipedia

According to Google’s Eric Schmidt “, every 2 days we create as much information as we did up to 2003”. In other words, every 2 days we create as much content as was created up to 2003. That’s a lot of content. And it keeps coming.

With social media, mobile and an all-but-universal access to the web, accessing content is easier than ever before. And with so many tools available now, creating content is easier as well.

While this is revolutionary, it poses a bit of a problem for marketers: cutting through the noise. How can your content make an impact? Where will all of this content come from? And how does it help you reach your goals?

First, let’s establish one thing: quality content is important. This is a fact. There are plenty of studies to back this up. But let’s just look at the announcement for Google Panda, which is the latest algorithm Google uses to evaluate and rank your web site…

“Our goal is simple: to give people the most relevant answers to their queries as quickly as possible. This requires constant tuning of our algorithms, as new content—both good and bad—comes online all the time.” - Google Webmaster Blog, from the Panda Announcement

Gone are the days of keyword stuffing and mindless link exchanges and backlinks. Google Panda has been designed to search the web for quality sites that offer valuable user experiences and rank them accordingly.

So, what is quality content? I would define it as content that offers the consumer something unique and of value. Quality content goes beyond just words; it is information created that empowers the user in some way.

To that end, this post is not about the creation of content. This is about achieving goals, converting visitors online, and growing your brand. How does your content break through the noise? Let’s talk about strategy…

Content Marketing Strategies

Matching Content with Goals

If you don’t know what your goals are as a business, stop reading this and go work on that. Assuming you do have a clear idea of where you are heading and what success looks like when you get there, then you are in good shape to start (or continue) to build your content marketing strategy.

Sometimes visual reminders are best. As you start to put together content, be it repurposed or fresh, you will want to cross-reference the content, the approach, and the audience against your list of goals. Having a list of those goals handy could prove very useful.

If you are creating content simply to fill a void or to increase the keyword count on your site, you are missing the point. If you are building a web site first and then backfilling it with content, you are missing an opportunity to convert an online user into a client, member, fan, what have you.

Your content marketing strategy should not be a shotgun approach. Each piece of content should be created to achieve some goal or to promote some aspect of your organization as it relates to the needs of the consumer. This is important because these days the user has more control, so they will need to see what’s in it for them.

Consider your web site. The question is not where you need to “fill in” content. Rather, the question is where can this content live on your site where it will have maximum effectiveness? Where can you use your content on your site to drive site traffic AND increase online conversion?

Maybe certain topics are great for Blog posts, like how-to articles and lists. Some content might work better as a video interview, webinar or white paper. And some of it might be able to be used in various ways across multiple forms of content.

Which brings me to the next point…

“Re-imagine Content”

If you’ve read Content Rules by Ann Handley and CC Chapman, then this term should sound familiar. If you haven’t read it, do so.

Chances are very good that your organization produces content of some kind every day. This could be as simple as an email to a client or as complex as a white paper or case study.

The point is that your organization is not starving for content if you know where to look for it. In their book, Ann and CC talk about ways to think about your content strategies so that you can re-imagine all the content you create for use in other mediums.

For example, if you create a white paper on a specific topic, you could re-imagine parts of that content and turn it into a Blog post or video. Or the inverse, you might have a strong series of Blog posts or articles that could be combined and re-imagined as an eBook.

All of these things can be used as content on your website, since they are content rich with keywords and phrases that your target audience is searching for. But not only that, this is content that they want, need, and will be forever grateful to you for posting.

But this only works if you have an overall content marketing strategy with specific goals in mind. You need to know your audience and what they want.

Your Content Needs Fans

Content needs fans to grow. Think about music or entertainment. Fans of a song or movie or TV show will share it and promote it again and again. This works in B2B too. For example, if you have a problem and find a Blog post that offers a great solution, you will share that Blog post with others, right?

Content cannot exist in a vacuum. Effective content is promoted. As you are creating or reimaging your content, try to also consider how you will be promoting it.

Are you going to post it on Facebook? If so, what do those folks want that will inspire them to come to your site, read (and act on) your content, and like or share your post on Facebook?

Or think about guest blogging. If you are blogging on a regular basis and seeing some success from that, maybe it’s time to venture out a little farther. There are tons of services to look for guest blogging opportunities.

But I would recommend starting closer to home: friendly competitors, trade orgs, etc. Offer your services as an experienced blogger. Owners of blogs are always looking for good content.

There are other ways to promote your content. Here is a list of some very useful content syndication tools:

1. YouTube.com – start a channel and post all of your videos. Include catchy titles and keyword-rich descriptions. Then, when you post a video on your site, use the YouTube version. This has very strong SEO benefits as well.
2. SlideShare.com – this is a great way to share your PowerPoint presentations to promote them to users who might not find your site directly.
3. BizSugar.com – This is an easy way to promote your Blog posts. These are listed in a directory where people can vote on and share this content easily.
4. Social Media – of course, any social media channel would be good for promoting your content. The trick is to match the target audience with the content and to promote accordingly.
5. There are more, but I think I will save them for another post.

How are you using content to promote your organization? Share in the comments section below.

So, what does this mean? First, it means that simply having a Facebook page doesn’t lead to increased site traffic. It also means that if you have a targeted and effective Social Media Marketing campaign, you can see an increase in site traffic.

These two things may seem contrary to each other, but the simple fact remains that we are, as marketers, still learning a lot about the effectiveness of social media on our marketing efforts.

However, one thing that hasn’t changed is that a web site is still important and that the strategy for that web site is crucial. Social media marketing is about conversation and your web site is about conversion. This is where you make the connections that lead to business.

I’m not saying that you can’t make business connections in social media channels. Of course you can, but your web site is where you can readily convert a prospect into a client.

To illustrate this point I want to focus on 3 reasons your web site is still your most important marketing piece:

1. You Own It!
2. Search Engines Look For It!
3. Content Marketing Needs It!

You Own It!

We all know that Facebook is popular, will readily admit that LinkedIn is still the best professional social network out there, and am definitely a Twitter fanatic. But does this mean it’s time to abandon your web site in favor of these? No.

Here is the main reason why, you do not own them: these pages are not yours. Don’t believe me?  Read the terms and conditions. Plus, these sites are forever changing the rules. The headaches of having to redo your Facebook fan page when they removed FBML are proof enough. This is not your site and you have limited control.

Your web site is yours, you own it! You can design it and control the look, message and tone there. You can also do a lot more to control the user experience to drive better conversion. Plus, it is all about you – no friends, ads, or other distractions to overshadow your message.

Take advantage of ownership:

1. Make your web site unique with strong design that reinforces your marketing efforts. This is how you stand apart from every other WordPress template site and Facebook Company Page.
2. Think through the user experience – work with your web designer and a group of advisors and valued clients to craft a meaningful user experience with a strategically-developed site architecture.
3. Think about goals, you have more control here, so focus on what your goals are and how you can use the navigation and design to drive goal conversion.

Search Engines Look for It!

Yes, social media is being integrated into search more and more each day. The search engines are crawling these pages in an effort to identify your social authority and what kind of reach and influence you have online.

More importantly, the search engines are still looking for your web site. They are looking for the best possible answers to their search queries. Do you think Google wants to show a top 10 results page full of Facebook links? They want the search results page to be diverse yet effective and relevant.

Search engines will list social media pages but mainly when you search for the proper name associated with it (ex: if you search my name, you will see my LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter profiles). For more keyword specific terms, you will find results that list blogs, forums, etc. So, include these on your web site:

1. Host your Blog on your domain, e.g. www.yourdomain.com/blog. This way, your Blog content shows up in search engines and is tied to other areas of your site that are targeted towards conversion.
2. If you have video, podcasts or webinars, add an archive section on your web site. You can and should post these on sites like YouTube and SlideShare, but you also want this content on your site.
3. You can also post video and reviews of that video on your Blog. This is more keyword rich content driving rankings for your site.

Your web site should be driven by content. Develop a strong content strategy starting with your web site as the main content repository and you will have your editorial calendar in place to keep you moving forward – placing quality, keyword rich content on your site regularly.

I would argue that it continues to be important from a search perspective for your company to have a well built website with targeted landing pages and a solid content marketing strategy.

Content Marketing Needs It!

Content marketing is a newer term for an old idea. If you push useful content, become a resource for potential clients and show yourself to be a trusted expert, you will win business. You might remember this from your old-school networking days… “the giver’s gain”.

The basic premise means that you provide quality content that is of some immediate value to the user. You can do this on social media sites like LinkedIn, YouTube, SlideShare, Facebook, etc. and you should.

But your site should be the centralized source of all of this content. You want your web site to be your central content marketing hub – the destination from your outreach efforts and the source of your content push.

Why? Because, as we previously covered, you control the user experience on your site. You can bring users in with valuable content and through smart design and effective navigation you can convert them into clients. This is not as easy to control on social media outlets because there are too many distractions getting in your way. Marketing on social media can sometimes be like herding cats.

Your site should contain a Blog with entries that appear on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. It should have a video feed from your YouTube channel. It should be the source of any eBooks you promote. And the majority of the information you promote in your email marketing should live here.

The web is changing and you need to be able to change with it. But this does not mean that you should relinquish control. Marketing is still about crafting the message and controlling its delivery. Sure, it’s become easier for the user to control but at the end of the day, content still needs a source. Make sure that source is your web site!

I don’t mean to pummel a dead horse here but this is very important. If your idea of content marketing is placing a mention here and there about what you do, you’ve got it all wrong. Content marketing is much more than that:

1. Start a Blog and make it useful to the reader
2. Host seminars and webinars, record these and post them on your site
3. Post white papers, eBooks, studies and published articles with source reference
4. Ask people to guest Blog, guest host a seminar or webinar, and post this on your site
5. Host contests and integrate with a specific social media channel
6. Even more! Be creative, thinking about the user

The important thing is that all of this is focused and tied to goals. Your marketing approach needs to be targeted. And the best anchor for all of your content marketing and general marketing efforts is your web site.

What do you think about a web site’s importance? Let me know in the comments below.

Chances are good that you or someone in your organization is an expert – someone who has a great deal of knowledge on a specific topic or discipline. You may have even done some seminars, written for trade journals or simply been asked for your expert opinion.

Your clients and potential clients want to learn from you. They want to gain from your years of expertise. They look to you as a resource, a trusted adviser in your field.

Blogging is one more way to give them what they want. They will appreciate it, do more business with you and recommend you to people they know.

We talk to businesses all the time about blogging. We get the same questions from all types of businesses, and the answers we give prove to be very valuable to our clients. So, in the spirit of the theme of this blog post, I will share some of those answers with you here.

First, the questions… Who will write your blog posts? How often should you post? What should you write about? Who will read it? Let’s begin…

Who will write your blog posts?

Some posts are produced by one person and some are produced by many but credited to a select few or even just one person. None of this matters as much as getting the content out there effectively.

But first, you have to know your business before you can even think about blogging. Who has what role? How does each person in the business work with your clients? If you have one sales person out there dealing with clients every day, then does it make sense for the face associated with your blog to be your intern? Probably not.

You might have a team of experts who travel the country attending trade shows, conferences and seminars. These people need to be on your blog. Of course busy people make for potential blogging logjams. Schedules and priorities will interrupt the flow of your blog.

In either case you need to establish an internal “Blog Manager”. Whether it is the same person that handles the majority of the writing, or someone who never even contributes a word to the blog but is good at organization, one person or team needs to be in charge.

You know who your experts are. They are the resources your clients seek out regularly. But who can keep them writing? If they can manage themselves, fantastic. But if you know they will get distracted, get a manager.  This should be someone with those same skills you would see in an executive assistant or receptionist you could not live without. The person that keeps the ship afloat – organized, type A.

Of course, you might not have the resources internally. Don’t worry; there are plenty of great marketing firms and copywriting specialists out there that can develop a content marketing management plan for you and your budget. Sometimes a well-organized freelance writer that you trust will work well.

Once this person or team has been established, their list should look something like this:

1. Editorial calendar
   1. Topics (are they related to events or times of the year?)
   2. Authors (if you have multiple – maybe stagger their posts)
2. Management, editing and submittal guidelines
   1. Establish guidelines for all aspects of your blogging
   2. Set up a way to enforce these guidelines so it isn’t a hodgepodge of efforts
3. Live Posting – who will handle it and how?
   1. I recommend getting something like WordPress (an Open Source Blogging Platform)
   2. Train the manager so they can manage the posts
4. Tracking and reporting
   1. The manager should be telling the company how the posts are doing
   2. Keep the team excited, informed and engaged
   3. Use something like Google Analytics to track post stats

How often should you post?

I hear this question all the time. The answer is always the same… it depends. How many contributors do you have? What frequency can you honestly commit to? What is your audience going to respond best to?

Some businesses should post daily and some could be fine with once a month. Your editorial calendar (if developed with realistic goals in mind) will help to determine frequency.

Just make sure you can deliver what you set out to do. If you blast out 6 posts in 6 weeks and then nothing for the next 6, you will lose momentum and confuse your audience.

Of course, you may be conservative in your initial estimate and then find out that you really have a knack for this. You can crank out good popular posts every week. You can adjust. Nothing is etched in stone here.

You want to establish an effective and manageable rhythm that you can stick to. The worst thing you want to have happen is for people to get discouraged. You want your blogging experience to be positive for all involved. You need the stakeholders to be excited about this process.

What should you write about?

This is my favorite question because the answers I give always get the light bulbs to turn on. There are content sources and post inspirations all over the place.

Let’s start with some of the standard blog resources I use:

1. Google Alerts are great. You can set up alerts based on specific keywords in your Google account. Let’s say you are a financial firm: You can get alerts on bond ratings, financial indicators, etc. These are emailed to you as a list of links to blogs, articles, news items, etc. Great resources for blog posts.
2. Subscribe to industry newsletters and blogs – I belong to a bunch of them. As you get your Google Alerts you will notice that some of the same blogs and websites are your favorites. Subscribe to their email newsletter or RSS Feed.
3. Trade journals and magazines – read these daily, even if it just an article a day or scanning the headlines. You need to stay on top of what’s happening in your industry anyway.
4. Your seminars and presentations are great sources for blog posts. You may even want to post a video of the presentation or the presentation slides and then write brief synopses of it.

Some other sources of inspiration for blog topics that might surprise you…

1. Emails – you get questions from clients and colleagues all the time in your inbox. And the answers you give them could easily be transformed into blog posts. Also, the questions they ask could spark an idea for a new Blog post. Just be sure to keep this in mind when working on your email.
2. Your sales pitch – no, I am not talking about writing a post called “Today, for You Only!” But, when you are in meetings with clients, pay attention messages they respond to. Think about restructuring those messages into a blog post, like this one.
3. Your environment – there is inspiration everywhere; you just need to look for it. The news, radio talk shows, songs, kids, ads. Watch things happen around you and try to relate it to what you do. If you are serious about this blogging thing, you might want to keep a notebook or voice recorder with you for noting ideas.

The main thing is that you want to duplicate your content, not your efforts. Try to look for ways to repurpose content for your Blog instead of always having to write something from scratch for every post.

Who will read it?

A blog post is only as good as the quality of the attention it gets. Notice I said quality and not quantity. The numbers will come in time but numbers alone do not equal success.

Think about your target audience. What is important to THEM? Write posts that they want to read, things they need to know about or are always asking you about. Of course, you will learn more about your readers the more you write. You will see which posts get lots of comments and which posts get nothing.

Remember, we are talking about quality. For business blogging the important thing is not that thousands of people click every day, it is that the right people click. You want the right demographic looking at your content and hopefully digging deeper – contacting you, subscribing, forwarding the post to a colleague, etc. Only the right content will do this.

To get the readers engaged the content needs to be important to them. It has to be about something they need to know. Good content brings good readers.

Another important reader is the search engine bot – those little programs that go out and sniff through web sites for valuable content. Search engines love blogs. These are generally well-organized, frequently updated, keyword rich pages of content and that’s what these bots are looking for.

Even if your Blog doesn’t get hundreds of enthusiastic fans right away, check your stats, I will bet that if you are doing it right, you will be getting lots of visits from search engines. This will help the overall rankings of your web site.

Remember, you want to add value to the reader’s experience. Are they getting something new from you, some sort of useful takeaway? Or is this just another boring piece of sales copy?

Be different, be useful, be a resource. If you are good at what you do and provide value to your clients every day, this should be an easy way to extend that reach to more clients to get more referrals online.

Questions, comments, let me know in the comments area below…

So what does this mean for organizations with marketing budgets that aren’t the size of a small country’s GDP?  Don’t worry, there is still time.  Content marketing is about the long tail.  It is about engagement.  Huge corporations still struggle with this in a major way.

To be successful with content, you need to know what content to create, how to best to create it and how to use it to your advantage.

Let’s go ahead and assume that we all agree that content is important for successful inbound marketing.  Now what?  I am going to give you 5 tips for using content to drive traffic, improve conversion, build a presence, and be successful with your online marketing.

Tip One – IDENTITY

Know yourself and what you do.  Seems simple right?  Sure it is.  But, have you taken the time to write this out?  Do you know your own story?  How does it read?

Before you can start churning out all of this great content for your web site, Blog, or social media outlets, you better know who you are talking to and what you need to say.  To figure this out I suggest you start with a little creative writing.

Take 30 minutes with a blank page and start writing.  Answer the following questions:

1. Who are you?
2. What is your history?
3. What do you do today?
4. What makes you different from your competition?
5. Who cares?

Don’t take too long to write this, just the facts, keep it simple.  We are looking for the essence of who you are as a business or organization.  Leave the technical or detailed stuff for white papers and Blog posts (a little foreshadowing for you).

Put it down, walk away and do something else.  After you’ve had some time apart from your story, come back to it and read it again.  Does it still sound like you?  No?  Make some edits and repeat the last step.

Yes, it does sound like you?  Good.  Now, share it with a few of your best clients, colleagues, associates, members, etc. and get some of the best feedback on your business you’ve ever read.  The feedback you get will help you to determine how these people think about your organization.  Make a note of this; you will want to refer back to it often.

Tip Two – INSPIRATION

I don’t care what anyone says, writing is hard.  Even if you are writing about something you care deeply about.  It still takes time and dedication.  It also takes a lot of inspiration.

Ideas beget ideas.  Even if you disagree with someone else’s idea, it can still get your creative juices flowing.  The process of creation generally starts with some sort of catalyst.  So, where do you get good content ideas?  From other content.

So, start reading blogs, newsletters, trade journals.  Watch YouTube videos from experts in your industry.  Devour.

Here are some ways to get great content delivered to you everyday…

• Google alerts – Let’s say you are a bike shop, well set up an alert on “biking”
• Blogs and newsletters – Some of the better blogs out there will have a way to subscribe.  This could be an email newsletter or an RSS feed
• Subscribe to YouTube channels – there are some great retreads of seminars, presentations, etc out there.
• Competitors – Seriously, what are they talking about? What aren’t they talking about?  Figure out how you can do it better.

Now that you have these channels open and are receiving lots of inspiration, start jotting down ideas.  Keep a notepad on your desk or wherever you do your best thinking and fill it with scribbles only you can understand.

When you find the time to write something, you can go back to your list for ideas.  Make sure you jot down on this list where those ideas came from, in case you need some reference points.

Tip Three – RECYCLING

Not all content you create for online marketing has to be brand spanking new.  Try looking back through all of your past materials for some things you can re-use.

If you are a technical firm you might have a series of white papers you’ve written in the past.  Can these possibly be repurposed for your web site or Blog?  Or could they inspire a Blog post that references and links back to the white paper, also on your web site?

How about lengthy emails you’ve written answering a client’s question?  This is often a great source of inspiration for Blog posts.  Think about it, a client has asked you about something specific.  You fire back a brilliantly written explanation that the client is thankful to receive.  Well, turn this into a Blog post.

If you are writing content for your web site for the first time or you are looking to enhance or refresh your content, you can certainly look to these same places for ideas.  You can also look back through your past marketing materials.  Which of them were wildly successful?  How can you recreate that success online?

You don’t always need to reinvent the wheel.  You might just need to put some air in the tire.

Tip Four – WRITE

If you are going to go to all this trouble, you want to make sure you are actually able to write.  You want to have the tools in place so that you can write and post content yourself.

I know this might sound obvious but so many of our clients come to us talking about content but have no plan for how they will create and manage it from day to day.  With blogs and content management systems today you can create content easily and on YOUR SITE.

That is really the key.  If you are going to write, make sure you are writing for your own site.  Don’t just give all of your good content away by posting it on Facebook or any other site that isn’t yours.

Sure, sharing content and guest blogging are both beneficial but you don’t want to give it all away.  Even with all of this transparency and openness today, ownership is still important.

There are various levels of content management systems for various levels of budgets.  WordPress, for example, is a scalable content management solution that can be templated or completely customized, depending on your budget.

You want to make sure you have all of the tools in place so that you have no excuse not to write when the time is right to write.

Tip Five – PROMOTE

You cannot create content in a vacuum.  This is marketing, you need to share.  If you don’t put your content out there then who is going to read it?  The more you get this content out there (see our post on SEO) the more traffic your site will get.

If you are blogging, do your own “syndication.”  You can easily link your Blog to your Facebook page or tweet your latest Blog posts.  In fact, most social media outlets will have a place where you can add the RSS feed directly from your Blog.  Just make sure it is on your site first so the links you are building come back to your web site.

To promote the other content on your web site, simply promote your site.  Place your web address on everything.  Place it in your email signature, on business cards, in your advertising, your social media profiles, etc.

Email newsletters are also a great way to promote your content.  You can include summaries of your latest blog posts, information about specific product offerings or updates about what is happening in your company.

Promoting your content will make you a better writer.  Promotion and tracking help you see what content works and what content is dead weight.  You will see which Blog posts are getting comments or feedback.  You can tell which pages of your site are popular by checking your web statistics.  You can see what topics in your email newsletters are getting clicked.

The feedback you get will help you to find out more about who you are.  And it will inspire you to create more content and seek more inspiration.  It is a cycle that is perpetuated by the successes and failures it creates.

All of this leads to more qualified traffic, better conversion rates and a more successful inbound marketing strategy.

Do you have a number 6?  Let me know, comment below…

A great content resource is Content Rules by CC Chapman and Anne Handley.

If I wanted to add your email marketing program and website to the list above, would it fit? When it comes to making these two things go together like milk and cookies, Mick and Keith, etc (I think you get the idea), then it’s all about creating a seamless experience for your audience. Take a look at these two scenarios:

Scenario 1) Someone visits your website, but they’re not ready to purchase yet. They sign up to receive your emails in order to stay in touch with you. They receive their first email and are unfamiliar with the from name; the voice is completely different than on your website; they don’t recognize the logo, the colors, or any of the messaging; and, in fact, they aren’t really quite sure this is the same company they were initially interested in doing business with. They leave your site and start looking at your competitors.

Scenario 2) You plan an email campaign with a great offer that you’re sure will drive conversions. The email is well laid-out, compelling, and you’re sending it to your highly engaged list. Once people receive the message, they click through to your website and it takes them to your homepage. There’s a small button on the homepage relating to the offer and you’re sure they’ll find it. Unfortunately, once most visitors click through and can’t find anything related to the offer, they bail and forget about your message.

Branding: Consistency is Key

Virgin is philanthropic and innovative; Apple is fresh and fun; Southwest is customer service-oriented; and Lady Gaga is unique and daring.

Each of these people/companies have created a brand that we all know them by. When creating your email campaigns, do you focus on branding? Consistency in voice, messaging, and even down to your logo and color scheme, is key across all of your online channels, including your website, email marketing campaigns, social media communications, and other online messaging like banner ads. When planning your email marketing campaigns, keep the following in mind:

• Overall look & feel. When designing your emails (or website), use your main logo and color scheme, so that when subscribers open your email (or visit your website), they immediately recognize who it’s from.
• From name, from address, subject line. How do you refer to yourself? At Blue Sky Factory, that’s exactly what we call ourselves in our communications. No Blue Sky, no BSF, just Blue Sky Factory. Because of this, we use “Blue Sky Factory” as our from name in most emails, and our from address is bsfinfo@blueskyfactory.com (most of the time). Both make our emails easily recognizable in the inbox. If you also want to include your company name in your subject line, then by all means, go for it; just remember to make sure you’re consistent with how you refer to yourselves in other channels.
• Style & voice. On your website, are you formal or more casual? If your style is more professional, then your audience will expect a more formal tone across all channels. If you have a more casual, laid back tone on your website, just be consistent when writing your email content.

Landing Pages: How to Increase Conversions

When you create an email campaign, you determine what you want your customers to do. Do you want them to click-through to read an article or click-through to purchase your product? No matter which it is, more times than not, you’re directing people to your website to take action. It’s important you avoid “Scenario 2″ above, and make the conversion a seamless transaction for them in order for them to take your desired action and return for more in the future. In order to help this process, ask yourself these questions when planning your campaigns:

• Is my branding consistent between my website and email? (in order to avoid confusion)
• Does the call-to-action direct subscribers to a specific landing page, so there’s no mistake that that’s where they are supposed to be?
• How many clicks does it take to get to the final landing page? (most people will give up after having to click once or twice)

When planning your email campaign, send a test email to a friend or family member. Ask them to try it for you and see if they have any questions or confusion. If not, then most subscribers will probably find it easy to act on too.

While your email marketing program and website may seem like two different channels that don’t necessarily cross paths, they do. Treat them like extensions of one another. The easier it is for subscribers to convert, the more likely they are to do so.

Questions or comments? Leave them in the comment section below!

If you want to take your email marketing up a notch in 2011, download Blue Sky Factory’s free eBook, “50 Ways to Grow Your Email Marketing List”, now.

How do you design a landing page that delivers? Try the following 3 methods.

1 – Determine your desired action, then make a wire frame.

When setting up a landing page, you (should) have specific goals in mind. Before you jump right into the design, take a little time to decide on what your targeted goals are and if there have any specific hierarchy. Also, determine if you need a page for each link or subject area in the email. It will be counterproductive to send someone to a page with too many calls to action or options; it dilutes the effectiveness of the landing page.

Make a list of your goals, prioritize them (primary, secondary, tertiary) and then design your page. However, before jumping right into design, try developing a wire frame first. Wire framing is a quick and effective way to visually plan the layout of your page. View some sample wire frames here.

Once you have your list and are ready to develop your wire frame, it’s time to start thinking about callouts. A callout is a specified area of a page designed to highlight specific information and its subsequent call to action. Consider which callouts are the most important and what real estate they will occupy within the layout. There are a few guides for this: the “F layout”, the “backwards S”, etc. They basically refer to the way the average eye will navigate the information on a page.

Because, in this culture, we generally read left to right and have a short attention span, the F layout tends to work very well. The idea is to place the most important information in the areas of an “F”, the horizontal lines of the F being the most desired real estate. Read F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content for more on this.

2 – Determine which design elements from your web site need to convey and which do not.

Design is important and the look of your page will determine a good deal of its effectiveness. Unfortunately, many designers will play it safe here and use the style guide of the existing site as their only guide for the look of the landing page. But some of these elements may not need to convey and some may actually hurt conversion.

Consider imagery, color, layout, and textures – all of the same things you take into account when developing a regular website homepage. The role of design elements is to lead the eye to targeted content and drive a user to take action. For example, your website may not have a bright red submit button on any of its forms but for the purposes of your landing page, a red button might just do the trick. Or there might be images that do not appear on your site but would make lots of sense on the landing page. Get the picture?

When designing this page, keep in mind that conversion is the goal and key to the success of your landing page. Branding is important and consistency will play some role, but conversion is how you are measuring the success of your campaign. So, be sure that all design elements, while attractive and appropriate, draw the reader in and move them to action.

3. Try a little A|B testing. The results will prove beyond valuable.

A|B testing is pretty simple and straightforward. Test your landing pages in two groups, group A and group B. Test them simultaneously and be prepared to track the results. From there, determine which works best and proceed accordingly.

For a landing page, set up 2 versions: Version A and Version B. If you’ve used landing pages in the past and did a relatively consistent layout for all of them, then use this layout as Version A (the control). For Version B, change the layout and adjust the placement of your callouts and the wording of your call to action items. When you have these 2 layouts ready and live as landing pages, then divide your email distribution list (or some portion of it) into 2 groups (your email marketing consultant will be able to help with this). Send Email Group A the email with links to Landing Page A and Group B to Landing Page B. Then using your campaign monitoring or web site analytics, see which landing page performs better and provides higher conversion rates.

Be patient and give it a little time for the results to come in completely. Once you have a good data set of statistics on each layout, take the time to analyze everything and make some decisions. Review which callouts produced conversions and which ones failed. If you have multiple callouts, you might get a mixed bag of results where some callouts did well on A and others did better on B. Either way, determine which layout elements performed the best and use this to set up your final landing page for your next email campaign drop.

Taking some time to prepare a Landing Page correctly will prove very valuable and provide the conversions needed for your business to succeed. Design is important, layout matters, content and wording is key and colors make a difference. Good luck!

Originally posted on the Blue Sky Factory blog