Category Archives: Content Marketing

Content marketing doesn’t just mean constantly writing and publishing content on your website

Most people confuse content marketing with writing and publishing tons of what they call “SEO content” on their blog or website. Regularly publishing content – whether good quality or bad quality – is just one aspect of content marketing. So a person merely providing content cannot call himself or herself a content marketer – even I don’t do that. Yes, I do provide content marketing services but since I understand the sort of resources needed I don’t exclusively promote myself as a content marketing expert. I call myself a professional content writer and I’m fine with that. If you also want to hire me for your content marketing requirements, I can help you.

Content marketing includes the following:

Publishing high-quality content on your website or blog
Publishing high-quality content on other websites and blogs linking back to your own website or blog
Promoting your content using various channels available to you

The last point is as important as writing and publishing content. Without this, there is no content marketing, there is just content publishing. Once you have started publishing content you need to let people know what you’re doing because unless they can find your content, it’s of no use.

So when you talk about content marketing strategy it doesn’t just mean publishing lots of keyword-centric content. Of course this is important because unless you have content you got nothing to promote but it’s like your favourite TV serial. Unless you know about the serial, you are not going to watch it and if you don’t watch it there is no use producing it. So what do they do? The company that produces the serial lets it be known by advertising on the same channel, on different other channels and also using print and Internet publications. The content is there: it needs to be promoted.

You may say that once you start ranking well on search engines you will automatically start getting traffic. Yes, it works for some, but for most it doesn’t. This is because there is too much competition. People who had to rank are already ranking well. Maybe they got some advantage or maybe they used some black hat SEO tactics, whatever, the point is, they are ranking better than you and they might be getting lots of traffic due to that. No use ruing over it. You can either leave it at that or start exploring other options, like promoting your content using whatever channel is available to you. Want to know what those channels are? Stay tuned.

Content writing and email marketing success

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Despite the scourge of spam email marketing still rules the roost when it comes to reaching out to your target audience. Nothing beats the good old email although services like Gmail are constantly working at creating an interface that separates normal, individual emails from promotional, marketing emails, but this is good, and shouldn’t be taken as a negative development. The more the garbage is controlled, the better gets the environment for people who really want to work hard and derive results off that hard work.

So how is content writing related to your email marketing success?

Because it is the content of your email that decides what sort of response you’re going to get. If the content is great, the response is going to be great and if the content is lousy, so is going to be the response.

But what is “great content” vis-a-vis your email campaign?

In order to understand that you need to understand what your email recipients actually want. If they want blankets because the winter is approaching, you cannot sell them ACs unless you’re selling them with off-season discounts and a great saving for the next summer is offered. The offer needs to make sense to the recipients.

Two things are very crucial for your email marketing success: why people subscribe to your email updates and whether you provide just the sort of content they have opted for. It is counter-productive to broadcast content they haven’t subscribed to. For instance, if you subscribe to my email newsletter updates to get tips on content writing and content marketing you wouldn’t like me to go on promoting my services or promote someone else’s services through my mailing list. You will immediately subscribe and you should definitely do so. However, there is no harm in sending promotional messages if that’s what they have subscribed to.

So make sure when people subscribe to your mailing list they know what they are getting into. They will be more receptive to your messages.

Email content should be conversational whether your marketing campaign is B2B or B2C. Email is highly personal and esoteric expression and jargon don’t convert well. Always try to talk in first person and avoid using “we do this” or “we offer that”. Even if yours is a bigger organisation assign someone with a name and a clearly defined designation to handle your email marketing messages. Always talk in “you”, “I” and “me”.

Try to limit one sentence per paragraph because most of your recipients may be browsing through your messages on their mobile devices and they may get distracted or put off if you have long streams of text. Keep your message short (not at the cost of communicating your message, though) and be ruthless when it comes to truncating words and sentences.

Call to action should be after every paragraph if possible. This is because in an email marketing campaign, every paragraph should be able to convey a distinct message on its own so that if a person wants to click a link he or she can do it without having to further read your message.

Remember that the sole purpose of broadcasting an email marketing campaign is to offer something valuable to your recipients, otherwise they will not be interested in hearing from you. You don’t have to offer something “irresistible” always because this is not possible and even not realistic (and your recipients will understand that).

It isn’t necessary that you send mailers to your recipients only when a business transaction is expected. Keep in touch with them. Encourage them to stay in touch. Seek their feedback on set days.

What about the subject line?

A big part of your email marketing campaign success depends on your subject line. It’s your subject line that makes people open your message and read it. There is no use having great content within your email if people don’t access it. Spend as much time coming up with a compelling subject line as you spend creating your email message. Your subject line is also your content because it contains text that prompts people to do something – in this case open your email message.

7 popular content marketing myths debunked

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This Search Engine Journal blog post by Neil Patel debunks 7 popular content marketing myths that people often follow blindly just because they have seen some of these tactics giving amazing results to other businesses. Please be mindful that the myths listed in this blog post, although don’t work for every business, some of them do work for some businesses and it also depends on how you execute your content marketing strategy. Anyway, these are the 7 popular content marketing myths you should stop following in case you are blindly following them, or at least, develop your own unique strategy to implement them.

1. Every business should have a blog

Having a blog can always help you one way or another, but it takes lots of time and commitment and if you don’t do it properly, you may end up wasting lots of resources on it. Don’t have a blog simply because other people have it. Publish a blog if you really have something interesting to share with your audience on an ongoing basis. On the flipside, if you think that you won’t be able to devote lots of time on your blog but nonetheless a blog is important for your business, you can always hire a professional content writing service to not just publish your blog but also regularly come up with interesting topics to talk about.

2. You should republish your guest posts on your own blog and all social networking websites like LinkedIn or Tumblr

Actually I’m not sure if people actually do this, that is, if they have published a guest blog post or an article on another blog or website, they want to publish the same stuff on their own blog or website. Most people, according to what I have experienced, are quite aware of the pitfalls of creating duplicate content. Besides, when someone publishes your guest blog post, he or she expects to get unique content from you. In case you want to use the idea on your own blog also you can simply create a small summary, in different words, publish it on your blog and then link it to the original guest blog post.

3. Longer blog posts and articles rank well on search engines

This is something that I always tell my customers and in fact even when I charge them a certain amount, they often ask me how many words I’m going to write for them. My standard reply is that there is no set number of words I’m going to deliver. I may write 250 words and I may also write 1250 words: it depends on what I’m trying to convey. What matters is the message and the impact that you make rather than the number of words you use. So go ahead, if you want to publish a small message of just 100 words that’s all right.

4. There is not much difference writing B2C and B2B content

Again, fortunately, most of my clients know the difference or at least have an idea, or at least they give me a patient ear when I try to explain them that B2C content is different from B2B content. How is it different?

Well, B2B clients tend to read more. They are fine with reading detailed literature about the product or service they are going to purchase. Since they are going to spend lots of money they’re going to take a good amount of time making a decision so you need to continuously provide them highly focused content.

B2C on the other hand maybe more visual than textual? People are emotion-driven. They may not spend lots of time reading about the product or service they are going to purchase as long as they find the price okay and the main features they are looking for are explained in simple language. The only similarity is just like B2B clients and customers, B2C clients and customers also need to be engaged with content on an ongoing basis.

5. Publish your best content on your own website or blog rather than on someone else’s blog or website

Personally I do feel that you should publish your best content on your own website or blog but it doesn’t make sense if you don’t have much traffic right now. If you feel that you have got something really important and useful and as many people as possible should be able to access it, better publish it on a blog or website that is already getting a decent amount of traffic. Stick to your own website or blog if enough traffic is coming, then there is no use giving your best shot to other blogs and websites.

6. Content marketing is successful only when you know exactly how much sale improvement individual content publications are bringing in

Content marketing is an ongoing process. You need a telephone. You need to talk to people on the phone. You need the fax machine. You need office or shop if people need to physically visit you before they can do business with you. You need a website. You need an email ID where people can write to you. But having all these things make you successful? No, they don’t.

Content marketing doesn’t normally give you direct sales. It helps you build an audience. It helps you build a platform where people can access your content on an ongoing basis and get to know you. If you continuously share with them high-value content they begin to appreciate you and like you and when they like you it becomes easier for them to do business with you. This is where your content marketing strategy can make a big difference.

7. More content means more traffic and more sales

It is true if most of your content is high-quality and well-written and it really helps people. For instance when you come to my blog you will find I write a lot about content writing and content marketing. I don’t just randomly blabber in order to attract as much traffic as possible. Most of my writing involves talking about my business, its various processes and how its various features can help you, either by your own effort or through my content writing services. I share with you my knowledge like I’m doing right now.

But it doesn’t make sense if I routinely start writing about web design, PHP programming, SEO, social networking, social media marketing and PPC campaign management just because they can get me traffic. People will come to my website and get disillusioned if I don’t specifically write about something related to my own business. So don’t focus on creating more content. Focus on creating value for your audience.

What is newsjacking and how to use it for content marketing

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Recently I wrote about news content marketing and its benefits. Here is a related topic – newsjacking. I’m going to explain what is newsjacking and how you can give your content marketing effort a real thrust with it.

Newsjacking means using some breaking news to create content for your website or blog and generating buzz around it. Why do that?

Whenever a new story breaks people look for it. They want to read about it as much as possible. They want to watch videos related to the breaking news. For instance there have been lots of leaks and hacks and many celebrity photographs are being distributed all over the Internet. Although the companies are denying it, cloud hosting services like iCloud and Dropbox are being compromised and even photographs from Snapchat have been stolen. It’s a hot news. You can use this instance for newsjacking as a business promoting cloud storage services using content marketing.

What is important is the twist you can give to make this newsjacking opportunity (no, I’m not saying taking advantage of people’s misfortunes) totally contextual to your own business. You can give a brief description of what’s going on and then explain to your users what measures you are taking to ensure that your servers are never hacked and the information people have stored over there is completely secure and safe. You can also create a tutorial about how people should keep information stored on their mobile phones, tablets and computers safe. If a major email service is hacked, you can advise your visitors on how to create stronger passwords.

Recently there were rumours in the US that the Federal Reserve Bank may increase interest rates by spring 2015. There was lots of buzz around this news. I saw a good newsjacking opportunity in this for a real estate website selling and renting real estate in Jacksonville Florida I regularly write for. Recently I wrote a blog post for them explaining how, if interest rates are revised or raised, it is going to have an impact on the real estate market.

What is the way to use newsjacking for content marketing regularly?

What newsjacking does is, render a sense of relevancy to your content marketing efforts. But it depends on how creative you can be. Yes, you can use newsjacking to your content marketing advantage as often as you can, but don’t turn your website into a random news website because that is not your intention. The breaking news has got to do something with your business. You need to give it a twist in such a manner that people should be reading about the news with a new angle. If you overdo newsjacking people will see through and after a while they will get disinterested and even disenchanted. The connection between the news and your business needs to be genuine. Don’t worry, if you pay close attention to news, you will get plenty of material you can write about from the perspective of your business.

What is the benefit of using newsjacking for content marketing?

Take for instance the recent landing of a space probe on the Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. What a feat for space science! When I checked Google Trends (even at the time of updating this blog post) the news was trending at the top. Millions wanted to know what’s going on. People are constantly sharing updates and the search engines are constantly looking for new content that they can throw up for related terms. What is the manner in which your business can use this event as a newsjacking opportunity? Well, if you were a commercial space agency using this for newsjacking wouldn’t be easy. But what if you are a graphic design agency? You can create a beautiful infographic chronicling the major events in the life of the Rosetta spacecraft. What if you are a restaurant? Create a dedicated theme menu and post photographs on Instagram and Pinterest.

As I have mentioned above, whenever some major event takes place people want to read about it. They search about it on search engines and social networking websites. They will look it up on Facebook and Twitter. They would like to see what people are writing on Tumblr and what photographs they are posting on Pinterest. They will share the links with each other. There is a sudden interest in the topic and the recently published content on this topic begins to surface at the top in various search results. This can give you instant leverage.

Other than this, there is always something interesting happening in the world so if you have problem coming up with interesting topics to write about this can give you a steady flow of topics that are already quite popular. So what is required to make proper use of newsjacking? An active interest in the things happening around you.

13 content marketing mistakes you should avoid

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Mistakes in general are not bad as they help us learn, and the same applies to content marketing. The important thing is that you are aware of something called content marketing and you also have a vague idea of how it can transform the way you promote your business. The problem arises when you are not aware of those mistakes and you keep on repeating them and by the time you realise the implications of repeating those individual mistakes, it might be too late. Most unfortunate would be, not even realising what mistakes you were committing or whether they were mistakes or not and then eventually you end up disenchanted with this entire “content marketing thing”.

Just like any other marketing, there are certain pitfalls you need to avoid while implementing and executing your content marketing strategy (that is, if you have one, because most, don’t). I have listed below 13 content marketing mistakes you should avoid in order to draw full benefit of this wonderful marketing tool so easily at your disposal.

Writing and publishing content with no clear purpose: This happens when you’re publishing content just because your competitors are doing so and you have no clarity of its inherent strength. If this is the case, you will soon lose interest and you will end up spending lots of effort and money on something you aren’t even clear about.
Having no plan: Whenever you embark on a journey you always know which route to follow. In case you are going to use public transport then you know which bus or train to catch. In order to catch that bus or train you need to reach the terminal at a particular time. Even when you have reached the city or town of your choice, you need to know how you are going to reach the actual destination. This means, you have a plan. In the same vein if you really want to benefit from content marketing, you need to have a plan. You need to know that from point A you want to reach point G and in order to reach point G what all other points you need to cover.
Expecting instant results: In the early 2000’s it was easier to experience success by publishing articles and blog posts and then distributing them over various websites and forums. With billions of webpages it is no longer possible. So it is going to take lots of time, effort and strategy before you begin to see any results. In fact, it’s alright if you don’t see any improvement in your bottom line for the first 4 to 5 months (if yours is a highly competitive niche) but if you carry on doing what needs to be done, the results will be so overwhelming that the effort will be worth it.
Having a wrong purpose: Are you creating content simply for search engine rankings? You may succeed in that, but if that is your only purpose, you may not see any improvement in your bottom line even after attaining higher search engine rankings. This is akin to having a plan because once you have a plan, you know the end result.
Not doing it professionally: Compared to other advertising and marketing channels it is easier to write and publish and distribute content and if you have enough time at your hand, you can do it almost for free. But this often means that people don’t take content marketing seriously and totally ignore the professional aspect. Your content needs to be impeccable in terms of grammar, language and presentation otherwise it is going to do you more harm than good. This is where a professional content writer can help you.
Ignoring search engine optimisation:
Although I have mentioned above that the sole purpose of creating your content shouldn’t be improving your search engine rankings it doesn’t mean that you totally sidestep this important aspect. Getting targeted and qualified traffic from search engines can literally make or break your business. Search engines like Google these days discourage Webmasters from producing content for search engine rankings but if you follow their guidelines without indulging in spammy tactics you can still publish optimised content and experience good search engine rankings.
Ignoring social media: These days it is not possible to get exposure while ignoring social media. Everybody and his granny is either on Facebook or Twitter. If you provide B2B services then most of your clients and customers are on LinkedIn. Social media is not just used for getting updates from relatives and friends, people also follow companies, businesses and organisations to receive interesting and useful updates from them. Major news consumption happens through social media and social networking websites these days. Writing and publishing content without distributing it on social media renders your content marketing atrophied.
Constantly promoting and pitching your product or service:
If you’re constantly writing about how great your products or services are it is going to put off visitors to your website or blog. If your constant talking of your products and services gives them the answers they are looking for, then well and good, otherwise keep it down a bit. Normally it is acceptable to publish 60% content containing helpful and useful information and 40% content talking about your products and services.
Not focusing on your audience: Instead of constantly focusing on your products and services, you need to focus on your audience. What are they looking for? What do they want to see when they come to your website? Use tools like Google Analytics and Webmasters Tools to find out exactly why people come to your website and then write and publish your content accordingly.
Not having anything valuable to say: Publishing everyday doesn’t mean publishing whatever comes to your mind. Although such indulgence is not bad and in fact it gives you a human voice, but don’t just write about random stuff that has got nothing to do with your business. Say something noteworthy. If you are writing on some subject, make sure that people go back with something new, something different and something that adds value to some existing chain of thought.
Not developing your authentic voice: How do people recognise you? With so many businesses employing content marketing how do you differentiate yourself? You do this by developing your own unique, authentic voice. If you’re simply parroting what others have written, they won’t be able to distinguish you from the others and they might as well do business with someone else. People will relate to you, remember you, if you express yourself in your own authentic voice. As it is the Internet is faceless and if people cannot recognise the way you express yourself, you can never hold their interest, trust or loyalty.
Not having a blog:
Well, this is too obvious. Thinking about content marketing strategy and not having a blog is like trying to learn driving without ever intending to sit in a car or any other vehicle. A blog is your own business channel. This is a place from where you broadcast your ideas, your messages and your wisdom. This is where people come repeatedly. This is a content repository the search engines love and rank better compared to the usual pages. This is the place from where your links get promoted on social media and social networking websites. This is the place where you engage your audience. If you don’t already have a blog, this is the first thing you need to do before even thinking about content marketing.
Neglecting email marketing: You can do content marketing without email marketing but email still remains the best way to reach your target audience. Pretty much everybody checks email, especially people who would be interested in doing business with you. Email marketing can be as simple as just having a subscription box on your website or blog and letting people drop their email ids so that you can notify whenever you publish a new webpage or blog post or as comprehensive as running routine email marketing and promotion campaigns. There is nothing like having your own mailing list of people eager to hear from you.