HOW TO BUILD RELATIONSHIPS THROUGH GREAT CONTENT

“Marketing is a contest for people’s attention,” says Seth Godin, best-selling author, marketing expert and entrepreneur. Currently there is an attention crisis with brands and companies struggling for attention. Why not when there are so many brands to choose from? Gone are the days when the only thing a company had to do to be successful is to create a useful product and make people know about it through advertising. If you want to be a success today, then you have to market accordingly.

One of the best ways of marketing a product or a service is through content marketing. Industry leader Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as “a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.” Content marketing came to be as a result of consumers shunning away traditional marketing methods like television, print ads and even online ads. Content marketing has many platforms: social media, blogging, infographics, slideshows and videos, all geared toward customer engagement and eventually, profit for the company.

Content is King

Content can be anything from a very important piece of scientific writing to a video of three dogs chasing their own tails. Microsoft founder Bill Gates, in an article with the title Content is King, states that the Internet is a marketplace of content – ideas, experiences and products.

But this kind of marketing is not churning out articles or video clips just for the heck of it. Businesses need to do marketing with fresh and relevant content to stay on top. As Gates writes in his essay. “If people are to be expected to put up with turning on a computer to read a screen, they must be rewarded with deep and extremely up-to-date information that they can explore at will. They need to have audio, and possibly video. They need an opportunity for personal involvement that goes far beyond that offered through the letters-to-the-editor pages of print magazines.”

What is great content?

A post on the Google Webmaster Central blog explains how Google determines the quality of content. Essentially, the content has to:

• Have information that can be trusted.
• Have substance, preferably written by someone who is an enthusiast or an expert in the topic.
• Draw genuine interest, not written merely to drive search engine ranking.
• Be original, fresh and found on research.
• Be more insightful and interesting than what is obvious.

Content is written not only for search engine optimization, but more importantly for customer engagement. To produce great content and engage your audience, you must:

• Have knowledge, insight and perspective that set your content apart.
• Have someone in your business to produce compelling and valuable content.
• Have the resources to regularly create content for existing and potential customers.

Unless you have these, content marketing will not work for you. Bad content is just a waste of time and energy.

Content Generation and Relationship Building

If you want a successful business, – then you have to build a relationship with your customers. You can do this by engaging your customers – both existing and potential – through generation of great content. Here are some tips in producing fresh and engaging content:

1. Create content centered on the customer. Know your audience and create stories that focus on them. More than writing about your product specifications or the advantages of hiring the services you offer, you should make your audience the star – so make something that appeals to the customer in an intellectual and emotional level.
2. Know which style works best. Will you build a relationship with your customers through articles or forum discussions? Are you going to make videos to reach out to them? Personalize your content delivery to draw customers in and make sure to continue the connection through constant engagement.
3. Be accessible. Make it easy for your customers and your target audience to be connected and to stay connected to your brand. You can do this by phone, by chat or by email. Make sure that your website is easy to navigate by positioning buttons and links accordingly.
4. Be personal. Nothing would encourage engagement better than personal stories. Be yourself and communicate this in your content. Most products and services offered nowadays are of the same high quality, so differentiate your brand and inspire customer connection, engagement and loyalty.
5. Put quality over quantity. Do not feel pressured to put out great amounts of content at a single time. Remember that quality is always better than quantity, especially if you are after building a relationship that lasts.
6. Be committed. Building a brand and engaging customers is a long and hard process, much like building a relationship with a real person. If you cannot commit to generating great content, then do not expect to build lasting relationships with your customer base.
7. Nurture connections. Your content should not just bridge the gap between you and your customers. It should also allow your audience to connect with other people. Therefore your content should evoke emotions that will spur your customers to share it and spread the word about your brand and what you offer.
8. Offer help. People turn to the Internet for almost every need. If they know that you can help them solve problems, then you will become a trusted and reliable go-to resource for help. People inherently like to be consistent and loyal to what they believe to be trustworthy and consistent, so make sure that your content is truthful and honest.
9. Share your expertise. The days when you have to withhold your secret formula for success is gone. Nowadays, information is a commodity that people can easily get with a single mouse click or finger tap. If you want to be successful in building a relationship with your customers, then you have to share what you know through free courses, webinars and e-books, among others.
10. Be compelling. Write detailed and informative articles with catchy titles. Create emotionally-charged videos that people like to share and discuss. Be consistent with your delivery and before you know it, you will have a strong following.

Encourage engagement and create meaningful conversations through content marketing. Through these meaningful conversations you will be able to build strong, solid and lasting relationship with your customers, which will, in turn, drive profit and success for your brand.

Looking for help with your companies content or brand image online?

GROWING TRENDS IN THE SEO INDUSTRY

Search Engine Optimization has long been amongst the best and most effective ways to market a business online. In case you don’t already know, SEO is a process by which you can optimize your website in a certain way so that Google shows it amongst its top results. This is a sure way to increase your brand identity and drive traffic to your webpage.

Modern Day SEO

Just like everything else, SEO trends are changing with advances in technology and changes in Google’s algorithm. Today’s online world is not simple comprised of websites that provide you with information and nothing else. Most of today’s web is filled with websites integrated with social media platforms, and online business owners would do well to remember the importance of these websites in order to understand the meaning of real organic SEO in this era.

Social Media is not enough

Simply integrating social media into your digital marketing campaign is not enough to get your website awarded with amazing rankings, if done alone. Here are some growing SEO trends that you should keep in mind when trying to build an online following.

Create Content that is Audience-Aware:

This is an important part of modern SEO which has proven itself to be very effective. Creating content that is focused on the interests of a targeted audience is the first step any online business should take. This leads to content that is catchy and interesting for the specific portion of the population you want to sell your product or service to.

Social Presence is appreciated by Google, Use It:

After seeing the number of people actively using social media, Google has started giving better rankings to websites with social media integration or an online presence on a social media network.

Build Your Brand Before You Build Links:

Most people tend to take advantage of the power of link building for their SEO but they forget the fact that in order to drive true traffic to your website, you need a strong brand presence as well. So make sure that you give something concrete and interesting to the people when using links from other websites, otherwise they won’t be compelled to click on the links anyway.

Optimize Your Business for Mobiles As Well:

The amount of mobile phones being used daily is growing exponentially. Smartphones have made it possible to do anything a computer can do, but when you are on the go, and online businesses need to know that. If your website isn’t optimized for mobile use, you might lose a lot of potential traffic. Having a mobile version of your website built, or redesigning your website to be responsive is the solution for this.

Blog to Fulfill Needs, Not to Stuff Keywords:

There are two types of blogging. One makes use of unethical SEO practices like adding unnecessary keywords to the content just so that people will see your site in search results. The other one, which is ethical, as well as more efficient, is to  write content based on users needs that must be fulfilled. This will turn your content into something that is interesting and that actually provides the reader with helpful information.

We can easily see that the concept of Search Engine Optimization has evolved quite a bit with the increase in online traffic. People use the internet every day, and they are getting smarter about it. The old methods of SEO just don’t work as well as they used to and this has also led to SEO being more expensive than it used to be. The evolving trends of SEO need to be understood by marketers so that they can create engaging content for the user that, with the help of social presence and link building, can lead to a much more successful campaign.

WHY SEO IS THE BEST ONLINE MARKETING STRATEGY – ADVANTAGES OF ORGANIC TRAFFIC

Ever since the inception of the internet, everything has gone digital. From connecting with your friends and family to something as simple as ordering a pizza, the internet has had an effect on every aspect of our day to day life. Keeping that in mind, many businesses have decided to go online as well, and just like any business, they need to market their products and websites in order to gain the traction they need.

Digital Marketing Saves Cost:

Seeing the sheer number of people that use the internet today, one can imagine the amount of customers that can be attracted towards a business. The internet, along with the countless advantages it has brought, allows you to market your brand with minimal cost if you know what you’re doing.

Why Use Online Marketing?

Advertising your business through the web has many advantages over conventional forms of marketing. Some of these are as follows:

• You can target a larger audience, even in parts of the world inaccessible or impractical with conventional billboards and flyers.
• It is highly cost-effective.
• You will be able to gain profits more often, rather than having a website that costs you hundreds or thousands of dollars only to see it void of any customer activity.
• At the current rate the internet is growing, you can ensure your business will only further expand, provided you play your cards right.

Search Engine Optimization:

While there are many ways to market your business online, often times, the most affordable one is a process known as Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. What that essentially translates to is a process by which you can make your website appear more often in search engine results.

One major reason why SEO is the best method for online marketing is that most of the people looking for something on the internet start by searching for it through a search engine. This search engine, be it Google, Bing, or Yahoo!, categorizes its results on the basis of which said website or page has more SEO value compared to others. That means that your website could potentially be the top result for a web search, hence driving more and more traffic to your page.

There are many techniques used to increase your SEO ranking, but the most commonly used are:

• Adding certain keywords to your text and website. This increases the chance to have your webpage pop up in a search more often, if it matches the word that is searched for. This can be a very time consuming process that includes keyword research and competition analysis.
• Back linking is a way to connect your page to other pages through links in the articles or in references. This also drives more traffic to your page.

Why SEO is the Best Marketing Strategy:

• It is low-cost compared to other popular methods like Google Adwords.
• It’s a technique that leads to ever-increasing traffic. It may not be instant, but it is definitely quick enough to start providing results.
• People trust Google and its rankings. If your webpage is optimized correctly, Google will show it more often and people will click on your link because a credible search engine is telling them to open it.
• Through SEO, you can be sure that the people coming to your website are coming solely for your product. Google has told them that the product they searched for is on your website, and that will give you a higher return on investment rate than any other service.
• It has been found that 60% of the users using search engines click on the first result that pops up. That result could be your website.

Summary

So there you have it. Investing your money in a good SEO practice will take your business to the next level, where you can be sure of results that always increase and are permanent. Ditch the more expensive advertising techniques, and optimize for the better. To get a Free SEO Analysis, contact us today! Click here for more information.