Category Archives: Content Marketing

What is guest blogging?

Guest blogging is one of the best ways of making your content available to a wider audience, getting high-value link-backs for your website and blog, and consequently, increase your search engine rankings. Many people make it an integral part of their overall content marketing and SEO strategy.

There are millions of blogs out there on various themes and niches. If you are a web design company you will be focusing on web design blogs or at least blogs publishing content on related topics. If you’re a fashion designer then you will be looking for a blog talking about fashion or clothes, or accessories.

Guest blogging is writing blog posts for one of these blogs. Some of the blogs are very popular. For instance, Digital Photography School is one of the best-known blogs on photography and there are many professional as well as amateur photographers who aspire to write for this blog.

When your posts are published on one of these well-known and high-traffic blogs, via the resource box (that briefly talks about the author; what’s her name, what she does, link to her website or blog and probably her twitter handle) they also publish your profile. Through this profile people can come to your website if they want to. Guest blogging in such way helps you in following ways:

It highlights your content and your abilities in front of a wider audience. Suppose on your own blog you just get 100-300 visitors every day. But on a famous blog your blog post will be read by 10,000-50,000 (even more) readers in a single day.
It boosts your search engine rankings. Search engine algorithms, before ranking your website need to know how many genuine blogs and websites are linking back to you. If they link to you it means your website has valuable content and valuable content is what the search engines are looking for. It’s kind of a validation when people link back to you. Since they won’t just link to you they need a reason. One reason might be finding a valuable blog post or an article on your website and then linking to it from within one of their own blog posts or articles. The other reason is, when they publish your article they link back to you through the resource box.
It sends direct traffic. Since your link is published along with the guest blog post many people will be clicking the link to check out your website.
It sends indirect traffic. If your guest post becomes popular other bloggers and web masters may link to it from their own blog posts and this will send you further traffic.

So this is how guest blogging benefits you. Famous blogger Leo Babauta is known to have garnered 15,000 RSS subscribers for his blog in a single month by publishing his content as a guest blogger on scores of high traffic websites and blogs.

Content marketing is basically P2P

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You always write content for people. The basic strength of your content lies in its ability to engage people and fruitful engagement can only manifest if you create and market your content keeping intended people in mind.

I have lost track of the link, I came across a very relevant thought regarding content marketing: it says that content marketing is neither B2B nor B2C, it’s P2P. This makes perfect sense. After all, you are always writing for people. There might be different writing styles and you might be using different jargon to target different audience, by the end of the day it’s the people who are going to consume and understand your content, and share it among their friends, colleagues, relatives and business partners.

So what makes your content people-centric?

It should be conversational, first of all. By conversational I don’t mean use that notorious SMS or Twitter language. Just use smaller, easy to use language your target audience can understand. I’m not averse to using technical words wherever necessary because this makes people relate to what you are conveying. For example, if I’m talking about a mobile device people would like to know various specs in an appropriate language (although personally I prefer focusing on functionality rather than specifications).

In terms of business content writing, make it useful and relevant. When people read your content they should learn something. If you are creating content for your own business website, use a particular profile while writing your content, and talk to that profile. This is also called a “persona”. Don’t try to please everybody because then you only end up with hodgepodge.

It is possible to create interesting, engaging business content. Write in first person wherever possible, even when you are writing on behalf of an organisation or company. Use some passion. If you are not interested in what you are writing, it is easily conveyed through, no matter what an excellent writer you are. Try to feel what you are writing.

Well, I never intended to write this blog post on the art of content writing, it’s just that I was vocally thinking about creating a P2P content marketing strategy and how every strategy revolves around this concept.

Creating content for mobile devices

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Browsing the Internet via mobile devices no longer remains a fad of the geeks. With more and more people using smart phones and tablet PCs to access the Internet and browse websites, creating content for mobile devices no longer remains an option – it is a necessity.

There are two ways you can create content for mobile devices: formatting existing content so that it looks good and presentable on various mobile devices, and creating new content from scratch specifically for mobile devices.

Creating content for mobile devices is totally different from creating content for laptops and PCs. For that you have to understand why people would go to your website via their mobile device?

The “why” in the above-mentioned question can also be divided among two types of devices: cellphones and tablets PCs. Whereas tablets like the iPad can be used to read lengthy articles, reports and even complete novels and books (I do that), it is difficult to read long streams of text using mobile phones due to their size. The screens are smaller compared to tablets and people might be doing scores of other things while using their mobile phones.

According to a 2011 Nielsen study around 86% people in the USA watch TV while using their mobile phones for various activities. Just observe people around you carrying their mobile phones and you will notice that there will be very few people who specifically sit down somewhere and use their phone. They are always in the midst of something else. They are conversing with somebody, travelling in train or bus, waiting for their turn in a restaurant or a clinic or waiting at the airport, to name just a few. What does this tell you?

Although people might be visiting various websites using their mobile devices, they might also be doing scores of other things simultaneously. That needs to be kept in mind. Long chunks of text or indirect references will definitely confuse them or distract them. No paragraph should be more than a sentence or at the most a couple of sentences.

When people are visiting your website through their mobile device they are not interested in the nitty-gritty of what motivates you and how you feel about your business. They simply want to know what you can deliver, how you can deliver, by what time and at what cost. They’re looking for information that can help them decide in a clear-cut manner.

Does it mean the information needs to be totally drab? Not necessarily. You can engage your reader through your mobile content but you just need to keep in mind that there should be less text and more message.

Defining Content Marketing

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Joe Pulizzi on his Junta42 blog has put up some great definitions – gathered from various content marketing experts – of content marketing.

My favourite there is this one:

Traditional marketing and advertising tells the world that you are a rockstar. Content marketing shows the world that you are one. — Robert Rose

Don’t take “rockstar” literally; what he means is, instead of harping on about what great stuff you’re selling and what miraculous product you have got, content marketing helps your prospective customers and clients find that out on their own.

So how do I explain content marketing to my clients?

I don’t have a definition, but I do tell them that their content creates a ripe ground for conversations and engagement. It’s easier to buy from you if I know you, but how do I know you unless you are close to me or I am mad about you, or if you’re a totally trusted and respected public figure? I begin to know you if you have regular conversations with me.

By “conversations” I don’t mean having useless talk – nobody has time for that. People remember you and visit your website multiple times if you offer them something valuable. Since you cannot offer them free services or free products all the time (you offer them once, so they will come to your website once, or maybe a couple of times) the best option for you would be offering them valuable information. This information exists in the form of content.

Content marketing primary constitutes of three activities, or rather four:

Figure out what your target audience is looking for in terms of content
Mostly which medium it uses (prefers to use) to access that content
Produce that content and make it available through their preferred medium
Keep doing that on an ongoing basis

Many people find the fourth point troublesome, but when it comes to marketing your products and services on the Internet, this is the most crucial point. Content abounds on the Internet. Millions of pages and blog posts (containing text, video, images and audio) are being published daily and within seconds your content can be buried under the new content.

So what’s the use of creating new content, you may ask, if it is going to be buried instantly?

This is where quality matters. Since most of the content has no value, valuable content gets highlighted not just on search engines, but also on various other websites and forums.

But then again, publishing one or a couple of valuable pieces of content doesn’t give you sustainable engagement. Engagement happens when you provide valuable content on an ongoing basis. It doesn’t have to be everyday, but it definitely has to be consistently regular, whether you publish new content every day, once a week, or once a month. Quality, coupled with regularity, creates the most effective content marketing platform.

The Content Grid: At which stage of buying people prefer what type of content

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I just came across this magnificent content grid at Eloqua that graphically explains at which stage of the buying funnel what sort of content is sought by prospects. This infographic can be a great reference source while planning your content marketing strategy.

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As you can see content marketing isn’t just about aimlessly creating content and publishing it on your blog, on your website or even on other blogs and websites. You need to find out at what stage what sort of content is needed.