Tag Archives: Content Marketing

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

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.

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

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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.

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.

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.