Category Archives: Content Strategy

The importance of visual content in your content marketing

When I started providing content writing and content marketing services more than 10 years ago, content marketing mostly constituted of publishing blog posts, broadcasting a newsletter and publishing articles and blog posts on other websites and blogs. People were quite happy writing lots of stuff. We were writing articles, tutorials, how to’s, and in the process, attracting decent amount of traffic to our websites.

Then a new breed of content marketers started experimenting with visual content. I remember, initially they used attractive graphics and imagery along with textual content. Gradually, in fact, not gradually, but quite fast, they started replacing textual content with infographics. They started presenting useful, insightful information, with the help of very attractive and slick visuals.

Along with visuals, videos also became an integral part of content marketing. GIF files for some time appeared here and there, but they lost to videos, but then again, they are in vogue with the advent of giphy.com.

In fact, visual content has become so mainstream that recently I came across a keyboard that types just emojis. There is an instant messaging app that just allows you to send emojis instead of text messages.

All mainstream instant messaging apps like Snapchat and Instagram heavily depend on images and videos. On Facebook and Twitter, updates that contain images and videos get more views and likes compared to the updates that contain just text.

So yes, visual content is as important, if not more, as textual content for your content marketing. Text is important, as of now, because it is down to earth, and not everybody wants to see just images and videos. Sometimes you just want to read text so content writing isn’t going to be replaced very soon.

In fact, most business websites depend on content writing for their content marketing needs. Whereas visual content requires some sort of platform, content writing can be accommodated almost everywhere. Even the images need to contain some sort of text to convey a message. This is why, no matter how much importance visual content gains, content writing for content marketing is indispensable.

But this blog post is about the importance of visual content for content marketing.

Visual content is everywhere these days due to many reasons. It’s way too easy to notice an image or video in your rapidly changing timeline than text. According to these insightful statistics on importance of visual content for content marketing, 51% B2B marketers preferred to publish visual content in 2016. Here is another very useful blog post on the importance of visual content and how it is gaining traction compared to textual content.

There is a misconception that creating visual content is difficult compared to content writing. Of course it is, comparatively, difficult, it is not as difficult as it is perceived.

For example, there are many online image editing tools available that allow you to create very attractive graphics. Videos can be created using an average mobile phone. GIF files can be created using giphy.com. Simple text messages can be created using image files. You can create PowerPoint slides and then export them into video files and then upload those videos on YouTube. Later on, you can convert certain portions of those YouTube videos to GIF files.

If you have been ignoring visual content for content marketing simply because you think that it will be difficult to produce, just start with shorter images and videos. You will be surprised to know how easy and interesting it is to create them.

How to customize content writing for your local business for better SEO

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Writing content for your local business involves understanding your local market and then creating a presence on the Internet that makes it easier for people to find you as quickly as possible. When I say customizing content writing to promote your local business I don’t mean to say a business that mostly depends on the clientele within a building compound (we have a grocery store in the basement that doesn’t need any sort of promotion or advertising) or a business in the lane or even a business in a village because in such case scenarios you don’t face much competition.

You have to think in terms of content marketing and content writing to promote your local business when your business depends on Internet traffic and you have tough competition even when people carry out very specific searches. Local business in terms of using content writing means business within a city or within a small town.

For example, I live in Indirapuram, which is a big city within the district of Ghaziabad. You need to hire an auto rickshaw, a cycle rickshaw, get onto a public transport bus, or drive your own vehicle in order to get around within the area. What I mean to say is, there can be many businesses providing the same service or the same product or the same utility within the ambit of being a local business in Indirapuram.

My computer was heating up really fast and it would just shut down after a few minutes. Lots of dust had accumulated inside. I needed to find a computer maintenance service within Indirapuram so that the servicing engineer could visit my place as quickly as possible, and not just visit my place for that particular requirement, I also wanted to find a service I could use consistently. I wouldn’t find a service in Ghaziabad because Ghaziabad is a big area and travelling within Ghaziabad would be a big deterrence. I specifically wanted to find a computer maintenance service in Indirapuram and that’s what I looked for: “computer repair service Indirapuram”.

Of course there were many results. The website results were interspersed with Google Local Business listings and online business directory listings. I wanted to find a service that had its own website because it is very easy to list oneself in a business directory and then forget about it. My experience is, local businesses that have a website are more professionally run compared to those that simply have an online directory listing. But not everybody is this choosy. So, if you have a website, you have to compete with all sorts of results.

How to set down to writing customized content for your local business

Prepare your list of important keywords: When writing and customizing content for your local business for better search engine rankings, make a list of all the keywords someone from your local area would use in order to be able to find you. Having a list of keywords is very important before you start writing customized content. You will need to use these keywords in the titles of your webpages and blog posts, in your social networking profiles and within the body content of your webpages, blog posts and social media updates.On the top of your list should be all the keywords having the name of your locality. For example, if I want to promote my content writing services within Indirapuram, then Indirapuram must feature in my keywords as frequently as possible: “content writer in Indirapuram”, “Indirapuram content writer”, “content writing service Indirapuram”, and so on.
You can also get ideas about the important keywords for your local business by asking people questions: what do they search for when they are looking for your service? This can give you plenty of ideas.
Find reasons to write about your locality: This can be broader content marketing. People should come to your website and interact on your social media profile for other reasons related to your locality. For example, if I want to promote my content writing services in Indirapuram, lots of activities are taking place on an ongoing basis. I can write about those activities on my content writing website so that when people read about those activities happening within Indirapuram, they also come to know that I offer content writing services from the very same website.Whenever you get a chance, participate in cultural activities and then write about your experience as a business owner.
Write about what a positive difference your business is making to the community: Since you are a local business, you get most of your business from the local community. So, naturally you are interested in the welfare of the community that gives your business. This might not be possible in every case, but whenever you feel that your business is making a positive impact on your community, write about it.
Avoid keyword spamming: Repeating the same keyword senselessly all over the web page isn’t going to improve your search engine rankings and even by some fluke if you manage to get good rankings, the webpage is not going to convert because people are going to get confused. Some website owners try to cram all the keywords into a single webpage – this doesn’t work.Create different topics if you need to cover different keywords and then create dedicated webpages or blog posts on those topics.
Suppose you are a realtor in the US covering multiple counties. You don’t have to cover all the counties on the same web page (I actually convinced one of my realty clients in the US to avoid this and she got very good results). Ideally, only one keyword or one phrase should be covered – in various combinations – but at the most, stick to 2 keywords or key phrases.
Write about customer experience: Have you been serving well? Are local customers happy with your service or product? Then write about that. Write about all the extra measures you are taking to serve your customers and clients in your locality well.
Encourage your local customers and clients to share their experience about your business: Nothing works like a good testimonial. Create a testimonials section on your website if you don’t already have it and encourage your local customers and clients to leave positive feedback, or even constructive feedback about your business. Encourage them to write testimonials even by offering them freebies. Serve an extra helping to get a good word written about your local eatery. Do a free computer checkup to get a testimonial. Do a free health checkup for a paragraph of recommendations for your local health clinic.

Writing customized content for your local business primarily revolves around writing about your area but in such a manner that you also get to mention what you can offer to people living in your area. You need to write about your business vis-à-vis your locality on an ongoing basis because a typical website has 5-10 pages and in terms of getting good search engine rankings, 5-10 pages cannot help you especially when your competitors might be publishing new webpages in your blog posts on a weekly basis.

So, publish content on your website or blog regularly. Write about your services. Focus on the work that you actually do rather than your business name. Keep finding excuses to write customized content for your local business.

Content marketing for local business

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Local businesses can use content marketing to their great advantage but unfortunately, most of the local businesses aren’t even aware of the concept. I’ll give a personal example.

The housing society where I live has a Facebook page. The page was created so that the residents could exchange ideas and although, the exchange of ideas does happen, people mostly post messages to promote their local businesses, and one of such businesses is a small catering business that is perhaps run from within one of the apartments in another housing society.

In the beginning, when they hadn’t yet created a nuisance on our housing society’s Facebook page, I had contacted them because I was interested in getting early breakfast from them (which, they don’t provide, but promote anyway). Now I don’t remember how I shared my phone number with them, they also included me in a WhatsApp group. Later on I had to block their number because they were sending 5-10 messages every day about what a great catering service they have and what are their offerings for the day.

As I am always excited about helping new businesses in the beginning I advised them to register themselves with Google Local. I also told them not to spam the Facebook page and the WhatsApp group but, although, they didn’t know how to set up themselves in Google Local and I provided them step-by-step instruction, they didn’t take me seriously when I told them that continuously posting senseless messages is going to be counter-productive. Eventually people started complaining about them on the Facebook page and like me, many blocked them on WhatsApp.

Although the catering service is using the available content distribution channels like Facebook and WhatsApp, they are not providing any value through their content. They’re overdoing it by posting their menu multiple times in a day. They are not making personal connections. I help them with the Google Local listing, I initially showed interest in their service and even interacted with them multiple times but even with me, they have never tried to make a connection. They were simply crowding my timeline with their menus and photographs of the food they are cooking. They never even thanked me for the Google Local listing help. And the worst part is, when I eventually tried to order breakfast, they informed me that they couldn’t deliver, and that was the last straw.

A very nice example of creating a presence through providing content (in the form of a low-cost service) is the hair-salon chain owner Habeeb. Although he runs a chain, at the micro level, what he is doing is, running a local business. Although in the conventional content marketing sense, it doesn’t use the Internet, but it definitely uses the “freemium” service to attract customers.

In the local malls, mostly in the basement lobby, he hires a small space and erects a temporary, mostly wooden structure. In the wooden box (with good interiors) a sleek, unisex salon is run. You can get a nice haircut at 20-30% of what you would normally pay to a nice salon in a mall or a posh market. The hairstylists (normally very young trainees) are very courteous and friendly and give you a basic haircut with all the modern gadgetry. Seats are always occupied and one only has to wait for his or her turn. The place makes good money, it is very affordable, it offers good service and the initial investment is very little. Then, after a couple of years, he opens the big saloon where you have to pay the normal posh-salon rates. Does brisk business.

He doesn’t have to spend on advertising; instead, he advertises round-the-clock in various malls. Everybody is familiar with the name because the box is always set up at the most crowded place. At a fraction of the cost of conventional advertising, he doesn’t just create a presence for himself, but also makes good money while laying ground for the bigger, five-star salon.

What has it got to do with content marketing for local business? I think many of you already know what I’m talking about.

He is basically indulging in content marketing as a local business. Instead of providing content in terms of text, video and audio, he is rendering the service at a highly affordable rate at strategic locations. In the local community, instead of stepping on everybody’s toes, he is providing a useful service. Those who don’t want to get a haircut at a roadside unkempt barbershop but also don’t want to spend a ton of money in a salon, are very thankful that there is a place that is clean, well-lit and efficient and all the hair stylists are neat and clean and courteous.

But not every local business can afford to provide such a service either for free or even at a lower cost. Such local businesses can use content marketing to their great advantage.

Local businesses can use content marketing channels like Facebook, YouTube and to an extent even WhatsApp to stay connected with their customers without annoying them with useless updates. As a customer, from a catering service, I don’t need an update on their daily menu, but I definitely need to know what sort of service they are running, whether they are reliable or not and what the others think of them. For that they can create a Facebook page and invite people in the neighbourhood to join. They can create a food channel on YouTube. They can start a blog detailing how they cook various items.

As long as content is relevant, it doesn’t always have to be something about your business. Yes, eventually, it is about your brand, would be useful. Be a part of a community through useful content. Encourage people to talk about your business on social networking websites, blogs and even YouTube videos. Make videos of your satisfied customers if they don’t mind and then post them on YouTube. Create an Instagram account or a Snapchat account if you want to post daily pics of your food items.

Stay tuned – in the coming days I will be publishing posts on how different local businesses can use content marketing to their advantage.

Should you switch to video content or stick with written content?

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They say Socrates was quite pissed when writing was gradually beginning to be used for preserving information and wisdom. He thought when we transfer our wisdom and knowledge to the written word, we begin to use our brain less and less. The oral tradition in India lasted for multiple millennia.

Anyway, in the beginning, people used to use clay tablets to preserve important facts. Then they started using animal skins and after that, tree leaves and tree barks.

Eventually publishing came and it took the world by storm. For a very long time books, newspapers and magazines were the only source of news, entertainment and information. Along came the radio and then came the television. Now we have the Internet and even after the initial stage of the Internet, now we have the Internet-connected mobile phones. What am I trying to get at?

No matter what is the message, the medium keeps changing. And we have to adapt. In the times when connectivity was scarce, slow and expensive, people preferred written content to such an extent that you would find hundreds of tutorials advising you not to use even images on the webpages so that they would load fast.

These days there is no such problem. Bandwidth is abundant and today’s mobile phones are more powerful than the PCs and laptops we used to use 10 years ago. They say that the total computing power that was used to send the man to the moon for the first time is equal to the computing power that we have on an average smartphone. A minimum Internet browsing speed of 2 Mbps is almost becoming a fundamental human right. The point is, it’s easier to view videos today than it was a few years ago. We don’t even give a second thought before watching a video on our mobile phone even if we are using mobile data.

Not just watching a video, these days even making videos is easier. If nothing else, you can simply create a PowerPoint using MS Office and then export the PowerPoint presentation to a movie file and then upload that movie file to YouTube. Of course you can use your phone to create HD videos any given day.

So, if so many people are inclined to watch videos rather than reading text, should you switch to video content marketing from written content marketing?

If your audience demands it, then why not? Ultimately it depends on whom you are trying to target. If your viewers/target customers prefer videos, promote yourself using videos. If they are not crazy about watching videos all the time and would rather go through text, give them written content.

Video content is good but you cannot use video content everywhere. For example, if you have a website you have to explain your stuff with written content. Whether it is your homepage or your about us page, or services section, or the products section, or the FAQs, you need written content. So no matter how great video content looks, you cannot rule out the importance of content writing. On the flipside, if your business can benefit from video content then you should definitely consider having it for your business and using it for marketing.

5 steps to creating a powerful content marketing strategy

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A powerful content marketing strategy may carry different connotations for different marketing needs but its fundamental purpose is to give you the results you want. It doesn’t matter whether you want to generate more leads, more sales, more subscribers for your email updates, more blog readers to generate ad revenue, get more donations for your charity organisation, get more students for your school or college or further your political career, a powerful content marketing strategy can help you create an impressive presence on the Internet. Again, impressive presence means that it’s easier to find you for the stuff you should be known for and what people find is compelling, relevant and useful – it solves the purpose.

This Huffington Post blog post on creating a powerful content marketing strategy lists 5 steps that can help you create one for your business, although it misses the 2^nd step, which I will try to incorporate here. These 5 steps are

Know your audience
Prioritise and plan your content publishing and marketing
Assign roles and responsibilities if you have a big content marketing team
Set goals and track performance
Focus on the long-term (the point that I feel is missing)

Points 1-4 are explained in the blog post so I will throw some light on the 5^th point.

Although content marketing is one of the most effective ways to project yourself (or your business) it also takes time and effort, and money if you want to work with a content writer. Many small business owners mistakenly believe that since content marketing seems to be free (because hey, everybody can write blog posts and articles) it should be quite easy and low-investment.

Yes, exceptions are always there. There are many small-business-owners who are doing a great job doing their own content marketing and many small businesses have transitioned from small to medium and even big. But for every small-business turning into big-business there are thousands of businesses that never grow or evolve. In fact, a majority of businesses shut shop within the 1^st year because they get disillusioned. If everything is so easy and free on the Internet, why doesn’t it work, they wonder?

Well, just like any other marketing medium, content marketing is for real businesses and when it comes to real businesses, you need to spend money, time and effort.

You want to achieve success in your content marketing? Then prepare a long-term plan. Don’t expect a jump in your targeted traffic or your social media exposure within a couple of months unless you have a million dollars to spend. Content marketing requires a strategic, focused and sustained effort. Only then it shows results.