Content Marketing guidelines To maintain Your Traffic and Customers Moving

You admire blogs like Copy blogger and Pro Blogger. You think they know just what their audience wants. You want to be like them. And write content that’s compelling, precious, and interactive.

You know that content marketing is not (and never has been) a sprint. So you want to expand classic content always.

That’s great!

But let’s face it: you somewhere, deep down, think that search engines are that species which can only smell links and nothing else – not even classic content. Sure, search engines can’t magically be known with epic content. But what we often fail to understand here is that crap content doesn’t fix that. A good content marketing does.

As a matter of fact, it’s the best way to make sure that your epic happy is considered as classic content and is ranked accordingly by search engines. Today, I’ll share some content marketing orders thats’ll not just help you better market your brand – it’ll keep search engines happy.

create with your website

Quite obvious, right? Wrong. I’ve seen many, many sites that miss out on this and experience.

• Get your site through a content review to make sure your content is in sync with your objective and is persuading enough to make people take out their credit cards.

• Make a valuable blog. According to a study, companies that blog have 55% more traffic, 97% more back links and 434% more indexed pages in search engines.

Guest blogging is good but investing in your own blog is amazing.

• If you don’t already have, employ an in-house content team to look after your blog and, in fact, all of your content marketing. Outsourcing content won’t get you going in the long run.

• Post often as it’ll keep search engines pleased and will get you more social consideration, more subscribers – all in all, more ROI.

• Be open to (and rather try out) unlike content models such as comics, infographics, podcasts, webinar, open discussions, newsletters etc.

• Make it easier for people to share your content, by giving them just a few options. For example, instead of having 10 social media buttons, settle for just 3 or less. Smashing Magazine is a good example here; it gives just one choice (“Share on Twitter”) and that too at the perfect place – end of an article.

• Take a special concern of your meta descriptions. Remember, they’re no more a ranking factor and have not been for long, but they sure can increase your click through rate (CTR) if you make them compelling enough.

You don’t want to do content marketing like a spammer

Whatever you create reflects your brand, and in order to be successful in content marketing, you need to inspire your audience. For this, you ought to:

• Stop producing bullshit content. If this sounds gobbledygook today, even the holy Google+ authorship may go against you tomorrow.

• Refrain from practices such as article syndication – because neither is it content marketing nor will it get you audience and/or valuable links.

• Check whether you’re unintentionally devaluing your content. For example, you may be putting up your content by your company’s name. Or you may be using a sub-standard author bio – one that’s many, many anchor texts and portrays you as a link-hungry bear. Thanks to Google, for it has finally started giving value to authorship (did you know, rich snippets in search results can increase your CTR by as much as 30%). Moreover, Google won’t mind penalizing you if it notices that you’re too much obsessed with your anchor texts.

• Stop blabbering about your dentist on an SEO-based blog – choosing the right channel plays a major role in content marketing.

• Think through what your content marketing objective is, what your audience wants, what your business needs and how you can help your customers.

• plan a content strategy, which should cover how you’d develop, publish and govern your content over time. Above all, it should cover the why behind all that you d you’re doing is not without meaning. So that your audience wants to tru o. So that you know what st you and buy into what you sell.

• Define presentation metrics so you can calculate your achievement time and again… and again.

• Think about mobile, too. 

How to Effectively Make Your Site Social Media-Friendly

Having a website has become something of a requirement for businesses these days, due to the global example shift where more and more people are integrating online tricks with their lives. Besides this basic reason of going where the market goes, there are also great benefits to having an official site for your business.
Starting a website is much cheaper than building and maintaining a brick-and-mortar store. There is no need to look for a good site, pay the lease, take into account overhead expenses, etc.
You can reach a much wider audience not partial by time or any borders, making market expansion much easier and opening up more room for increase. You also get to showcase your products, as well as important information about your business to customers, establishing your integrity while making it suitable for your target audience.

Social Media as a medium

Of course, there are still some truths in promoting an “offline” business that apply to the online world. Merely having a website does not guarantee profitability. You need to be able to show your know-how and individuality in the industry, and you need to establish a good connection with your customers. The best way of pursuing these goals is through leveraging the power of social media.

Creating accounts for your business for social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter is good, but these are just channels to your main website. Social media is simply a way for people to attach to your website to consume your content and eventually make purchases. You just have to make sure that your website has good social media integration.

Here are five ways to perfectly incorporate both assets:

Killer Content

“Content is queen” is a phrase that will never get old because content is exactly what people are looking for online, particularly in social media. People are constantly sharing with their huge networks of family and friends all sorts of content that they deem attractive, whether it’s a news article, an opinion piece, a funny picture, or an inspiring video. Their connections, in turn, share it with their own networks, and so on. The number of people you can reach with killer content is astounding.

Therefore, you need to make content that will make the rounds within these social media channels through shares, retweets, pins, etc., and you need to be able to do it in a regular fashion. There is no sure way to achieve this, but the best way is to simply create great content.

Social Content

Social media platforms are built with connecting people in mind, but you can go after their template with your website by allowing for some level of interaction with your website’s visitors. This can be done through a blog with a comments section, a forum where they can discuss your products/services, or a customer review feature where you let people send in their critiques of your business’ offerings. You can even let visitors leave comments on your content using their Facebook accounts for fuller integration.

By giving your customers a way to state their opinions, you also give them a sense of belonging with your company. They will feel that you care about what your customers think, establishing a stronger relationship in the process.

Striking Titles and Images

some truly great content doesn’t reach its full potential, because of poor titles that don’t at once grab people’s consideration when browsing through their feeds. Other great content that tackles technical and/or multiple subjects are not being read, because of the lack of convincing pictures that break up the uniformity of text.

• For titles, you want something that addresses a concern while being directly to the point. It has to fix your target audience’s gaze when they’re quickly scanning on their Smartphones or computers.

• For images, you want something that explains your points in a clearer fashion while maintaining the tone of your content, and more importantly, your brand is known for. You can actually just focus on creating content that is purely image-based (e.g. infographics) to simplify complex concepts and highlight important facts.

Social Buttons

Due to the fast-paced nature of today’s Information Age, people now expect a good level of convenience when surfing the Web. They want to be able to share things they like through their various social media accounts without having to deal with the relative hassle of opening up new windows or tabs and copying and pasting URLs. Social buttons are the answer to that problem, making it much easier for people to show their interest in a piece of content to the rest of the world.

These social buttons can also work in your favor, because they usually show the number of people who have expressed positive sentiments about particular content. Once these numbers climb, it can be even easier for people to take notice, because they will think the content is value checking out, attributing it to the number of people who already did.

RSS Feeds

Rich Site Summary or RSS is nothing new, but it is a tool that has found even more use now that there is so much more content being produced and shared all through the Internet. Use it to syndicate relevant content you have on your main website to microsites targeting more concentrated niches. This way, you don’t have to be publishing the same content on multiple sites.

Conclusion

While an official website serves as a base for creating an online presence, social media allows for even wider coverage for your business, and gets you even closer to your aim audience. By integrating it with your website, you realize the full potential of doing business online.

Secret to Create Awesome Content

If you needed heart surgery, would you let a plumber operate? Me neither! Obviously, you’d want an experienced surgeon to do the job. You’d be wise to follow the same line of thinking when it comes to your content program. Let’s look at why it’s important to work with professional writers.

Your content is a significant brand element

Companies spend millions – even billions – of dollars creating and protecting a strong brand. They set strict branding standards, and are vigilant about making sure folks abide by them. Yet these very same organizations don’t think twice about allowing just about anyone to write for them.

This is a problem.

However, businesses need to recognize that the content they publish represents their brand, and that it has the potential to affect them — their image, authority, credibility, and sales — in a positive or negative fashion.

Given that, companies should be just as concerned about the content they develop as they are with other important branding elements. Because of its importance, they should establish some standards and work with professional writers to produce the best content possible.

Content that misses the mark

Now you might be thinking, sure, professional writers and journalists are great for newspapers and magazines, but do I really need them for my content program?

The answer is yes! In fact, I believe they are the secret to creating awesome content!

I speak from experience that straddles the worlds of content marketing and journalism. Prior to becoming a search marketing manager, I was trained as a journalist, and wrote for Hearst Media. But today in my digital marketing work, I regularly see content that could have been so much more impactful if a professional writer had been involved. How so?

There are many reasons. I often see companies that cover the same topics again and again. Or businesses that produce material that speaks to an isolated group, such as practitioners, rather than to a wider community that includes their customers and prospects. Or content that fails to cover the basics, is hard to follow, or lacks value. In each case, poor quality material – content that misses the mark — leads to a less than positive brand image.

When I encounter such content, I can’t help but wonder why the company even bothered, and if they realize how it reflects on their brand.

Understanding the value of professional writers in content marketing today

But professional writers can do a lot for your content efforts. Because of their training, they are able to cover a variety of interesting and relevant topics, support their stories with rich sources, and illustrate their subject in a way that excites the reader.

They also work to remove jargon from their material in order to convey your message to your target audience clearly and succinctly, help you reach the widest audience possible, and differentiate you from the competition.

As a result, the outstanding content they produce will enhance your organic search metrics and increase your inbound marketing leads.

Overall, trained writers will help your content efforts position your company as a true authority that is knowledgeable, completely professional, and worthy of consideration.

Journalism tips to improve your content program

Below are 4 tips from the world of professional journalism that will help your business get the most out of your content efforts:

1. Avoid “one-trick pony” writers:

Whether you develop your company’s content in-house or via contract or guest authors, you should strive to create material that covers a wide range of topics. Having a variety of content will help you improve reader engagement, and boost your company’s keyword authority, search visibility, and inbound leads. Given that, it’s important to work with writers who can discuss many subjects, not just one or two topics.

But often, companies find that their content efforts are limited by their writers’ range. For instance, a business in the digital marketing industry might have a writer who can develop content on social media engagement tactics or on-page optimization, but that’s about it. While these topics are perfect for their audience, what’s next? How will they develop additional material on other topics so they can continue demonstrating thought leadership and authority in the marketplace?

This is exactly the danger of working with a one-trick pony. You need writers who can offer you variety and depth. When you are ready to hire writers to develop your company blog or website, look for three things: experience articulating a variety of topics, a range of understanding (from basic 101 advice to high-end, technical processes), and the ability to research and discuss new topics.

A good way to assess the strength of a potential writer is to ask them to develop three short articles that cover different subjects. For example, you could have them write one article on a topic directly related to your company and its services, and the other two articles could be on current events and/or something completely niche, such as alternative forms of energy, or how to build a computer step-by-step.

By challenging potential writers in this way, you’ll not only be able to get a feel for their current knowledge base, but also have the chance to assess their ability to learn about new areas and expand their range.

2. Make sure your writers know what the five W’s are

Before a great writer figures out how to introduce creativity and excitement. into a story, they make sure to cover the fundamental points first: Who, What, Where, When, and Why. And it’s important that your writers do the same. Addressing the 5 W’s and developing the content in an inverted pyramid format will help you capture online users’ attention. By immediately offering the most critical points of the story to the reader at the start – and funneling the rest down — you are able to satisfy their demand for information and answers, and position yourself in a way that supports their continued interest in your business website. Style and creativity are important for keeping your readers engaged and interested, but you need to work with writers who are able to provide an educated base for your readers to progress through. This will help ensure that they see your organization as credible and intelligent.

Producing a wealth of content that demonstrates your organization’s depth of knowledge will also help search engines view you as an authority. As search engines become more sophisticated in how they judge the quality of content, working with writers who offer substance and creativity will go a long way in making your company’s digital properties more attractive. As a result, search engines will pull content from them on a regular basis.

3. Leverage your writers’ talents to create the greatest reach

When you develop your content marketing strategy, make sure that the material you publish can reach and attract a large volume of online users. This will help your business continue to grow in recognition, search visibility and of course, sales.

To accomplish this, you need to tap into the full range of your writers’ talents. Strive to work with writers who understand how to create a mixture of hard news and evergreen content.

Hard news is anything that is current and only relative to the time period it was published within. For example, a piece published on Google celebrating Julius Richard Petri 161 birthday with a petri dish doodle on May 31, 2013 would be considered hard news.

Conversely, evergreen content is considered be timeless information that can be understood and utilized regardless of what is going on at the moment. An article on the top 7 SEO tasks to complete before thinking about hiring an SEO agency would fall into this category.

Working with writers who are able to produce an assortment of hard news and timeless content will benefit your business in two ways: it will help you capture immediate conversions in the short-term, and improve your search visibility in the future.

4. Create interest and differentiation with exclusive interviews

There is a reason that newspapers — and the media in general — promote interviews that are exclusive to their publication or outlet: it attracts significant attention that is exclusive to them!

And it is a very effective strategy.

But, if you were to quickly scan your competitors’ blogs, you would be hard-pressed to find any that offered their audience exclusive insight from a popular thought contributor or expert.

This is a mistake.

All too often, businesses develop content that is completely dissected and discussed in technical terms, rather than elaborated on and supported by actual experts and authorities.

Instead, you should strive to incorporate exclusive interviews into your content strategy. Have your writers be responsible for setting-up interviews with industry experts that pertain and relate to your company.

This approach will enable you to offer your audience something that they can only obtain from you, which will separate your brand from the competition.

In addition, not only does this tactic increase credible links to your site (since others will want to relay your exclusive content to their audiences and social followers), but also it positions your company as exceptional since you have such industry experts on hand.

Good writing is at the heart of a successful content program

Content marketing is very popular today because it pulls your audience in by providing value. Consequently, everyone is trying to generate more and more content. However, the quality is often lacking. Remember, good writing is at the heart of a successful content program. If you really want to leverage your content to improve your organic search metrics, establish your organization’s authority and credibility, and boost your inbound marketing leads, work with professional writers. They are the secret to creating awesome content! Just as you wouldn’t let a plumber perform heart surgery, why would you let just anyone write for your brand?

What do you do for your content program? Do you work with professional writers? What have you done to produce quality content? Do you have any tips you can pass along?

Still In The Dark About Google Glass

Are you still in the dark about Google Glass? If so, don’t be anxious about it; many others were as well. Google just unconfined a FAQ page all about Google Glass. It’s currently in beta and very few people have had contact to this innovative and new piece of technology.

Many are wondering when it will be released.

Google said the following:Our goal is to make Glass offered to a wider group of Explorers later this year, with even broader availability next year so stay tuned.

Until reading the Google Glass, I never really saw much use of it. That’s what happens when new machinery comes out. Some will adopt it right away, while others will lag behind. The idea of Google Glass, which I found extremely powerful, is that it’s a hands-free device that can be on when you need it and off when you don’t. Will it be against the law to ‘see’ and drive? ;)

What exactly will you be gifted to do with Google Glass?

•     Search
•     Directions
•     Gmail and calendar
•     Google Now cards
•     Phone calls and SMS
•     Photos, videos, and video calls

The top secret to Creating amazing Content:

Content that misses the spot:

Now you might be thinking, sure, professional writers and journalists are grand for newspapers and magazines, but do I really need them for my content program?

The answer is yes! In fact, I believe they are the top secret to creating amazing content!

I often see companies that cover the similar topics again and again. Or businesses that create material that speaks to an isolated group, such as practitioners, rather than to a wider group of people that includes their customers and prediction. Or content that fails to cover the basics, is tough to follow, or lacks value. In each case, poor quality material – content that misses the spot — leads to a fewer than positive brand image.

When I encounter such content, I can’t help but wonder why the company even worried, and if they realize how it reflects on their brand.

Accepting the worth of professional writers in content marketing today:

But specialized writers can do a lot for your content hard work. Because of their training, they are able to cover a mixture of exciting and relevant topics, hold up their stories with rich sources, and illustrate their subject in a way that excites the reader.

They also work to remove language from their material in order to convey your message to your aim audience clearly and succinctly, help you reach the widest audience possible, and differentiate you from the opposition.

Keep away from “one-trick foal” writers:

 

Whether you increase your company’s content in-house or via contract or guest authors, you should struggle to create material that covers a wide range of topics. Having a mixture of content will help you recover reader engagement, and boost your company’s keyword right, search visibility, and inbound leads. Given that, it’s important to work with writers who can talk about many subjects, not just one or two topics.

Leverage your writers’ talents to create the record reach

When you develop your content marketing plan, make sure that the material you publish can reach and be a focus for a large volume of online users. This will help your business continue to grow in recognition, search visibility and of course, sales.

To accomplish this, you require tapping into the full range of your writers’ talents. Strive to work with writers who know how to create a mixture of hard news and evergreen content.

Create interest and isolation with exclusive interviews:

There is a reason that newspapers — and the media in universal — promote interviews that are exclusive to their magazine or outlet: it attracts significant awareness that is exclusive to them!

And it is a very successful strategy.

But, if you were to quickly scan your competitors’ blogs, you would be hard-pressed to find any that existing their audience exclusive insight from a accepted thought contributor or expert.

This is a mistake.

Instead, you should strive to fit in exclusive interviews into your content approach. Have your writers be responsible for setting-up interviews with industry experts that be valid and communicate to your company.

Good writing is at the spirit of a successful content program

Content marketing is very trendy today because it pulls your audience in by given that value. so, everyone is trying to generate more and more content. However, the quality is often lacking. Remember, good writing is at the mind of a successful content program. If you really want to control your content to improve your organic search metrics, establish your organization’s authority and authority, and boost your inbound marketing leads, work with expert writers. They are the secret to creating amazing content!

Protecting Your Social Media Accounts from Phishing

The Onion was lately hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army and it made me re-evaluate the security of my personal social media accounts and, more importantly, those of clients. A company’s first and last lines of defense are the clients

The majority of netizens understand web security, but there are diverse ways social media accounts can be compromised. And let’s be honest, it’s not something people in general or us internet marketers tend to think about on a daily basis – especially when a huge Google update is on the loom.

The Syrian Electronic Arma (SEA) showed us just how easy it was for them to hack “America’s Finest News Source” by phishing Onion employees’ Google Apps accounts. It all started on one unsuspecting day in May and caused a huge headache for them.

To help prevent your social media accounts from getting owned, I’d like to suggest a few simple safety measures for you or your business to consider.

Educate Employees & Remind Clients

For businesses, the lowest-cost, lowest-tech safeguard against phishing is education. Make sure that employees know how to recognize phishing attempts in email accounts and social media accounts.

Also, you may feel like it’s not your responsibility, but you’d do well to remind clients every once in a while to run antivirus scans, to avoid sharing passwords, PIN numbers or account numbers and to be on the lookout for the red flags of phishing attempts.

Isolate Social Media Accounts

Instead of using the organization email for social media accounts, consider using a Gmail address to isolate your social media account from your business email.

Another isolation trick is to use an app like HootSuite to restrict hacker access. If your app gets hacked, no big deal. A bit of damage control and you’re up and running again. If your social media account gets hacked directly, and the hacker has total control, then you have a serious problem.

As an added benefit, many such apps allow you to measure your social networks, schedule activity ahead of time and more – two birds with one stone principle.

Strengthen Your Passwords

Treat your social media account passwords like you would the keys to your house. Twitter advises that they should include at least 10 characters, a mix of uppercase and lowercase, numbers and symbols and be different from other passwords used for other accounts. There it is, straight from the horse’s mouth.

Store your complex passwords in a safe place such as LastPass - my personal favorite.

Operation Damage Control

In the event that a phishing attack occurs, have an incident-management plan in place where everyone understands their roles to get things back to normal. Police may need to be notified. If that’s the case, then any and all evidence needs to be collected and handled with care. If clients have suffered significant loss as a result, your support should be readily extended.

In Summary

Phishing doesn’t need to be complex to work. The SEA used very basic methods involving Google Plus to hack The Onion. People just need to be more aware and take a few more precautions.

As more and more people engage and make their information public, we can expect hackers to take things up a notch as social media begins to play a bigger role in our lives. Make sure your accounts are sufficiently safeguarded and those accounts that have been entrusted to you receive the security and care that they deserve.

Valuable Optimization for Pinterest

Pinterest is renowned amongst the top position holders between the most visited sites across the globe. With its ever rising user base, Pinterest is indeed a great choice for those wishing to request more traffic and boosting the number of leads and conversions. In order to properly leverage this platform, your Pinterest business page must contain all the essential ingredients.

Even apparently trivial details have the potential to control your marketing efforts across Pinterest. Let us understand what strategic means can be adopted to maximize the outcome of your promotional efforts on Pinterest.

• Take care of the “About” Section: This is in fact the first section that informal visitors tend to see once they land on your Pinterest page. So, you must make good use of this chance. You just have 200 characters to speak your values to people and tell them how you can serve their wants. Since this section gets indexed by the search engines, do not forget to add in top SEO keywords here. Also contain you city or state in this section so it is more suitable for people to trace you.

• Use a personal logo or photo: While mounting a Pinterest page for your business, you are acceptable to upload an image through the settings menu. Keep in mind that people tend to get more associated with a brand when they are awake of the name and face behind it. In case of service-oriented businesses, personal brands or bloggers, the founder’s professional headshot can be a convincing means to communicate with the viewers. You can also consider using a brand logo as it lends a corporate feel and also enhances the ‘pinner’s’ confidence that they are linking to the official brand.

• Go for proper panel placement: As per a research conducted by Mashable, it has been seen that when people are browsing across your Pinterest page, the eye group in from the top towards the middle of the page. This implies that the boards which are located at the top as well as the center of the page get noticed by the maximum number of spectators. Hence, it is important to place your best, most relevant and popular content in the top two rows.

• Several focused boards work wonders: Many new Pinterest users give the blunder of rapidly coming up with some different boards with a couple of pins on them. In doing so, you page misplace its unity and each board seems unfinished, thereby unable to draw in followers. It might also hamper your brand image. A number of focused boards help in the formation of a lifestyle surrounding your brand. Try to render each board theme oriented using a catchy title which describes the theme and incorporate keywords within the account to enhance search ability. Also make sure that you pin sufficient amount of content so that the board looks full.

• Include non-industry topics: It is a huge thing to incorporate a few boards focused on non-industry topics like travel, home, cars, education or food and other popular areas on Pinterest. This will help in attracting a wide spectrum of audience and will also offer an insight to people regarding other facets of the brand and qualities. Always try to influence on trending topics through creation of sole themed boards focusing on these occasions or events and give them a boost during the applicable time of the year by reorganizing your boards. In this way your page will not only connect new followers but also enable the pins to go viral.