Category Archives: Content Marketing

How to create brand loyalty with content marketing

This nice blog post on Entrepreneur lists different types of content marketing as infographics, newsletters, ebooks, videos, case studies and blog posts and information articles and then goes on to explain how content marketing helps you create brand loyalty.

The problem when it comes to small businesses is that most of the people think that content marketing means improving your search engine rankings. Yes, constant publishing does improve your search engine rankings especially when you don’t go overboard with your keywords and stick to creating quality content, but this is just one aspect of content marketing. This is how the Entrepreneur blog post defines Content Marketing:

Content marketing is a long-term marketing strategy that utilizes valuable and relevant content, adjacent to the business’s mission and brand, to draw in and enhance customer buying behavior and brand loyalty.

Three phrases are very important when it comes to executing a successful content marketing strategy:

Long-term implementation
Valuable and relevant content
Drawing people to your website or blog instead of barging into their personal space

Long-term implementation

You cannot execute a content marketing strategy in a couple of weeks or even a couple of months. It’s an ongoing process. Why is it an ongoing process?

Because everybody is a content publisher these days. You’re competing with 100s of businesses using content marketing as their main marketing tool. They are constantly reaching out to their target audience and if they are constantly reaching out, you also need to constantly reach out. Otherwise you will be left behind – whether you want to improve your search engine rankings or attract people on social networking websites. It needs to be a constant effort because you’re competing with multiple businesses at the same time. If you can outdo your competitors in perseverance, you will emerge victorious.

Valuable and relevant content

There is lots of junk content on the Internet because, fortunately for those who get content marketing, there are very few who understand the power of valuable and relevant content. Most of the people just want to fill up their websites and blogs with lots of content and most of this content is useless. It is mostly created hoping that it would improve search engine rankings. Does it?

In some cases yes, it does, but eventually better content wins. So don’t worry about creating lots of content, worry about creating valuable and relevant content.

Drawing people to your website or blog instead of barging into their personal space

Nobody likes to be disturbed. You must have noticed that now that we can do it, we quickly fast forward ads while watching interactive television. Even on YouTube you must have seen that after 5 seconds there is an option to skip the ad. 99.99% people use this option. It’s like throwing money down the drain. The more you interrupt people to push your product or service, the more averse they get to the idea of doing business with you.

Valuable content on the other hand people want to access on their own. They seek out such content.

Suppose someone is desperate to improve his email marketing conversion rate. He is either looking for someone who can help him or some useful content he can use to improve the conversion rate on his own. Suppose there is a good blog post on my website that explains, step-by-step, how one can improve email marketing conversion rate. Now, even if you stop that person from coming to my website, if he thinks that the information contained within the blog post is really valuable to him, nothing is going to stop him from coming to my website. You may think that he will use the information, improve his conversion rate, and forget about my website. Maybe that will be the case.

How persistent content marketing creates brand loyalty

But the next time he comes across somewhat similar content, somewhere else, from my website, he will immediately recall that help was available on my website when he really needed it. This increases my brand loyalty. The next time if he needs or if someone else he knows needs me he is going to contact me because using my information, he was able to improve his conversion rate.

By regularly creating helpful content you provide solutions to people that they may not find elsewhere and even if they find them elsewhere, the solutions are not as helpful as the ones available on your website or blog. When people come to your website by making an effort, when, as they have expected, they find high-quality, relevant and helpful content on your website, and when they understand that you’re going to provide high-quality content on an ongoing basis, you begin to experience brand loyalty. Your regular visitors become your evangelists. They will defend you. They will insist that people do business with you. They will promote your services and products on their own, sometimes, without even realizing.

What the heck is content marketing?

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Aren’t we constantly talking about content marketing? But what the heck is it, recently asked one of my clients.

I could totally relate to his confusion, I mean, does it make sense to go on publishing blog posts and articles hoping that after reading them people will do business with you? Even if that is possible, for how long one has to keep on publishing?

As a content writer who makes a living off providing content writing and content marketing services to my clients, it’s very important that I’m able to explain to them why the heck they should pay me, and that too, on an ongoing basis.

The clients who get what is content marketing and why their business needs high-quality content have no problem. Some of the clients understand that their business requires content marketing but they don’t have much clarity. I’m happy to get their business, but while I’m working for them, it is my constant effort to help them understand exactly what I’m doing and what it is going to lead to.

What the heck is content marketing?

Content marketing basically means creating, publishing and disseminating content, useful and highly relevant content, to a targeted audience in return for their attention. The scarcest commodity on the Internet is attention. There is too much distraction. There are way too many options available on the Internet and it often becomes extremely difficult for people to choose one business in favor of another. For instance, how do you know whether you should hire me as your content writer or another person?

In order to help you decide in my favor, I need to get your attention in a positive manner. I should be able to convince you, that whenever you need a reliable content writer, you should come to me. How do I do that?

One option for me is to constantly advertise my services. But the problem with advertising is one, it is too expensive for me (the last time I checked, Google AdWords charges almost $8 per click for the term “content marketing services”) and two, conventional advertising is interruptive and hence less effective. Even if I advertise on Google, I have enough data to prove that given a choice, people prefer to click links that naturally appears in the search results (due to the strength of their content) rather than those that appear by the side as sponsored links.

Content marketing is all about making connections with people rather than stuffing your messages down their throats. Once you have made connections, people do business with you not because they have seen your advertisement but because they have trust in you and they really believe that you’re going to deliver on your promise. They come to your website or blog on their own – this is called inbound marketing.

Does content marketing simply mean writing and publishing lots of content on your website or blog?

It differs from case to case, but “content marketing” per se doesn’t simply mean writing and publishing content on your own blog or website. Merely publishing your content doesn’t solve any purpose. Your content must reach the right audience or the right audience must reach your content in order to make an impact. This is where content marketing helps you. But yes, you cannot do content marketing meaningfully unless you have lots of valuable and compelling content on your website – if you don’t have anything to market, what do you market?

Here is the basic essence of content marketing:

Publish highly relevant and useful content people are craving to get.
Publish your content in multiple formats because different people prefer different formats – blog posts, articles, white papers, social networking updates, PDF files, videos, infographics and slides.
Use different platforms to distribute your content – as mentioned above, simply publishing content doesn’t do much good to you. The right people must avail your content. For example, if I want to promote my content writing and content marketing services then people who may someday actually need my services must somehow be able to access my content.
Build your mailing list so that you can constantly keep in touch with people who have shown even a little bit of interest in regularly hearing from you (that’s why they submitted their email ID to your mailing list); provide them high-quality content so that when they actually need your product or service, they remember you.
Establish yourself as an authority – it’s easier to trust people whose authority you respect. Once people trust you for who you are they do business with you more eagerly.
Constantly engage people – engaging people means interacting with them and responding to their feedback.

Why content marketing is better compared to conventional marketing or advertising?

For advertising you are paying constantly but this is not the cased with content marketing. Once you have established yourself (at the fraction of the cost of conventional marketing and advertising), once you have built good stock of content, once people have come to know you and what value you offer, your customer acquisition cost begins to move towards zero. Once you have gotten better search engine rankings for the quality of your content, you are not paying for every click the way you do with PPC programs. Just imagine, coming on the first or the second page of search results and getting 100s clicks everyday without having to pay them.

In monetary terms, let us suppose, you pay me $35 for a blog post that ranks well. Assuming you are paying $0.50 per click, for 70 clicks you will be paying $35. But if you’re getting your clicks due to my blog post, after those 70 clicks, you are paying nothing. And you’re not just getting traffic from search engines. Many well-written blog posts and articles go viral on Facebook and Twitter and massive amount of traffic can be generated.

But it’s not about money when it comes to content marketing; it’s about creating a credible presence on the Internet. People need to trust you. You need to be familiar to them. They should be comfortable because they know you have always been there. Through your content marketing they can easily find you on search engines, different blogs and websites, on your own blog and website and, websites like Facebook and Twitter. For them it is very reassuring. Conventional advertising can never accomplish this.

How to hire the best content writer for your startup

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Although the startup economy is buzzing with lots of excitement and opportunities, it is also fraught with extremely high risks especially when careers and lots of money are involved. Just as every aspect of your startup is important, so is the aspect of hiring the best content writer. Ultimately it is your content that is going to drive the engine of your marketing and communicate your idea to the masses. If the content writer you hire cannot come up with compelling, informative and highly unique content, the going is going to be quite tough for your entire team, and I’m not just saying this because I myself am a content writer – I say this because I know and understand the power of content.

Why hiring a capable content writer takes a backseat especially in the case of startups?

I’m not saying this is the case with most of the startups. There are many startups that take their content seriously because they know that without communicating to their core audience they cannot hope to achieve anything, but most entrepreneurs are too obsessed with their own notion of what people want. What people want might be totally different from what you think they want so no matter how revolutionary your product is, you need to understand what people are looking for, and then offer your product or service accordingly.

Resources are scarce in the beginning. Funding is hard to come and most of the people involved with the startup are spending money out of their own pockets, so they need to be really careful about where they spend that money. Unfortunately, whereas people are ready to spend money on software, website, office space, blog setup and conventional advertising, somehow when it comes to content they think it is merely text and anybody who knows how to write sentences can create content. The effect of a lousy website and buggy software is immediate but not that of content. This is why hiring an experienced and knowledgeable content writer takes a backseat.

Why it pays to have a content writer in your startup team from the beginning?

Every startup needs an involved audience. People among this audience are going to be your pioneers – the first time users, or what they call, the early adopters. These early adopters need to feel passionate about what you are building. Before you can offer your product or service you need to build a platform from where you can broadcast your vital branding messages on an ongoing basis.

Suppose you are building an app that is totally going to change the way people use their browsers. Now, making people use another app or a software tool is always a difficult task because people are so used to using what they are already using. Why would people want to change the way they use their browsers? Even if they’re missing something or they’re not aware of the fact that they’re missing something, and even if they are aware, maybe they don’t want to accept. Whatever is the reason, it is always difficult to make people do things or see them your way. This is where your content writer helps you.

Your content writer is going to become one of your first evangelists who will passionately write about the value you aim to provide to your prospective customers and clients once you have launched your product or service. He or she will make your target audience aware of exactly what you are trying to achieve for the people. This will be achieved through:

Blogging
Highly focused ebooks
Interactive and engaging content on social networking websites
Email marketing campaigns
Publishing blogs and articles on other, high traffic websites and blogs
Case studies and white papers

All these publishing campaigns will not be effective if they are initiated just when a startup is going to launch a product or service. Your content writer requires at least 6 months of constant content generation, publishing and content marketing before you launch your product or service.

How to hire the best content writer for your startup

Here are a few pointers you should keep in mind while looking out for a content writer for your startup:

He or she is as passionate about your branch of technology as you are (even if he or she isn’t aware of exactly what you’re trying to achieve at that particular time)
He or she knows how to communicate compellingly and convincingly
He or she can give you a long-term commitment because often it takes some time to incubate the project and then launch
He or she is totally comfortable with the language used by your target audience
He or she totally understands the way people communicate on the Internet and the way they respond to the various content formats
He or she understands how critical content is for your startup
He or she is comfortable writing for different mediums such as blogs, social networking websites, email marketing campaigns and ebooks
He or she has a solid presence on the web including social networking profiles, a business website and a blog (if you don’t intend to hire the content writer on full-time basis)

Don’t underestimate the power of commenting in your content marketing strategy

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Commenting on other blogs and websites can reap you great benefits, as claimed in this blog post where the author Neil Patel claims that he generated $ 25,000 with 249 comments. I can understand if you are a bit cynical about the tactic because most of us relate commenting to comment-spamming – people indiscriminately leave comments to generate traffic with the false understanding that it will increase their search engine rankings. Comment spamming is a legend in blogging circles and there are many plug-ins specifically to deal with the menace.

But Neil, quite understandably, doesn’t talk about THAT sort of commenting. Commenting is a very special feature and most publishers keep it switched on because it makes publishing more interactive. Whether it’s personal blogging, professional blogging or news websites, every publication these days has the facility to leave comments. So it isn’t that commenting is frowned upon. What’s frowned upon is commenting just for the sake of commenting. This is something you should avoid especially if you want to make commenting an integral part of your content marketing strategy.

How to make commenting an integral part of your content marketing strategy

You will need to be patient of course. Commenting is a bit different than blogging because you’re commenting on someone else’s blog or article and initially he or she may decide to not to approve your comments. So in that regard you will need to practice some patience before your comments begin to appear on the website that concerns you.

Be careful of what blogs and publications you choose. Remember that you’re commenting because you want to attract business. It’s no use commenting on a fashion website if you sell homoeopathic medicines unless there is a connection.

Being a professional content writer I have a wider choice because anybody can be my client (this also increases my effort manifold of course).

Once you start commenting, be careful that you add value to the ongoing conversation. Be sincere. In order to do that properly read the blog post or the article and take down the main notes. If you decide to disagree with some of the points, evaluate them carefully and crosscheck with the information you have with you. Even if you’re going to agree add your own take so that the people participating in the comment conversation know that you have actually grasped the thread.

What if you have no idea how to start? Doesn’t matter. It doesn’t mean you don’t start leaving comments. You can just leave a polite “well-written”. Being a new entrant, people won’t mind that.

With commenting you need to be persistent. As mentioned in Neil’s blog post, he left 249 comments on various websites. He is a known professional in the field of Internet marketing and blogging so it is quite understandable if his 249 comments were able to generate $ 25,000 for him. It might not happen to you. But even if a fraction of that success is generated by regular commenting, the effort is worth it.

Content marketing: what are the baby steps that you need to take

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Have you been wondering for a long time how to start on content marketing but the required baby steps stump you? I know, beginning something is always difficult and it is always the beginning that causes most of the problems. Once we have begun, many of the things begin to happen on their own (although nothing happens on its own – everything has a cause or a trigger). Most people have the same problem with content marketing. Once they have started putting the pieces at the right places it begins to get easier and easier. Whenever I tell people that they should have a clearly-defined content marketing strategy in place their standard responses, “Well, where do I begin?”

If this is the case, let me get you started. I can assure you, if you take these content marketing baby steps and then don’t abandon midway you’re going to experience some big results in just a few months. Please keep in mind that consistency is a big requirement if you want to experience success in content marketing.

Your content marketing baby steps

Carefully go through your existing content:
Your content marketing doesn’t necessarily have to begin with the addition of new content. As a beginning you can start reviewing your existing content. Preferably, one page at a time. You don’t have much content? At least you have a homepage. Services/Products page? About us? You can start with these. Do you have meaningful headlines? What about the language? Are these pages well-written? Do they sound compelling to you? Practice total detachment. Would you like to do business with you? Be ruthless. Remember that the point is not that you want to please yourself, you need to please your prospective customers and clients. If you think you cannot have an unbiased opinion about the content on your website, contact someone who can do that professionally for you (wink wink 🙂 ), and if you cannot do that, contact one of your friends or relatives who have a good grasp over the language and tell them to go through your content and give their feedback. Make sure your existing content is up to the mark.Please keep in mind that you don’t hurry into the whole thing because this may end up discouraging you. Content marketing isn’t a one-day or a one-month affair. It is an ongoing activity. Don’t aim at reviewing all the content in a single day or in a single week. Spend a couple of days on every page.
Start a blog if you don’t already have one:
Yes, yes, blogging is an old story and I myself say that not everybody needs a blog, but if you think you have got interesting things to say about your business then do setup a blog. Besides, content marketing without an active blog, to be frank, it’s a contradictory state of affairs. Don’t go for some free blogging service – why give precious content to other businesses when you can give it to yourself? I don’t mean to say you don’t write for other websites or blogs – there comes a time when writing for other blogs and websites is an integral part of content marketing, but that comes much later, when you already have a considerable amount of content on your own blog or website.Setting up a blog can be a daunting experience especially when you don’t do it on a routine basis. Seriously, hire someone who can properly setup a blog under either your existing domain or a new domain. You will need to integrate the design of the blog with that of your main website and you will also need many plug-ins for better content management and search engine rankings.
Decide, once and for all that quality is what matters: Content marketing doesn’t mean publishing content indiscriminately. This proves to be counter-productive. There was a time when you could publish all sort of garbage and rank well but this no longer works. Content marketing means drawing people to your website by offering them valuable, useful content. Stick to this philosophy. As you take your first baby steps it’s a good time to understand this once and for all that nothing can beat quality content. Never go for cheap content just to fill pages and blog posts. Believe me, it will harm you. Have less posts. Have less pages. But purely focus on quality content.
Start creating focused content: Don’t try to pack multiple subjects on one page or blog post. The more vertically focused your blog posts and pages are, the better will be their search engine rankings and conversion rate. Another psychological benefit of creating focused content is that you don’t overly worry about creating very long pages. Remember the content marketing is an ongoing process and if you begin to feel discouraged all your effort can be undone in a matter of a few weeks of lagging. So have smaller goals. Create smaller pieces of content if you don’t have much time because having some content is always better than having no content. It’s all right if you have just 200 words to say. Quality always matters over quantity.
Spend some time on your social media and social networking presence: Eventually you will be using these channels to promote your content. That is, if you don’t solely want to depend on search engines like Google for your traffic. A lot of content marketing involves building your own communication channels. The more solid content marketing strategy you have in place, the less you have to depend on the whimsical search engine algorithms. Again, you don’t need to spend lots of time, just 10-20 minutes everyday interacting with people in your niche or with people you think may one day become your customers or clients or your brand evangelists.
Start building your mailing list:
There is nothing like having a mailing list of people who themselves want to hear from you. You may wonder what content marketing has to do with building your mailing list but exactly what are you doing when you are sending out your email campaigns? You are broadcasting your content. Whom do you broadcast your content to? People who are eager to hear from you. Have a subscription form prominently displayed somewhere on your website and let people leave their names and email ids so you can occasionally send them email updates. It is just a way of keeping in touch with people who would like to hear from you. Don’t annoy them and don’t send them useless offers. Whenever you add some new page or blog post on your website, send them a polite reminder to visit your website. This way when you actually launch your content marketing campaign you will have a solid mailing list with you.

As I mentioned in the beginning, these are the content marketing baby steps. They may not seem much to people who are already comfortable with the concept but to those who want to make a beginning but don’t know where to start, these steps can prove invaluable.