When I say content marketing, you probably know
what I mean. You don’t? Then let me explain. Content marketing is
any marketing that involves sending out relevant content to
market your company. This article is content
marketing. Email newsletters are content marketing.
So are blog posts, e-books, podcasts, etc. Anything
you write and put on the internet that you expect someone to react
to is content marketing.
You should be marketing your
business through some form of content marketing. It is a
phenomenally large part of online marketing and can
give almost instant feedback from your target market. The most
effective and time saving method is to pay someone (a professional
someone) to handle your content marketing for you. But, content
marketing is something you can DIY. If you do choose to do it
yourself, the easiest forms of content marketing are email
newsletters and blog posts. You can always try to write a relevant,
exciting and informative e-book, but be prepared to spend a lot of
valuable time and effort on creating one. For those who are about to
market, we salute you (and give you a few handy hints).
If you want to blog,
here’s what you need to know:
» Blog
weekly, more if you can. Give your readers something new to
read at least once a week and you’re getting there.
»
Make it relevant, make it good. If you run a
trucking company, don’t write about cake decoration. Talk about what
would be relevant
to your
readers. For example, write about the easiest way to handle
cross-border logistics. Always remember to write good content.
Bad content will not get
read.
» Give advice. It’s
free and everyone benefits. Your readers come back for more and you
experience return customers and that all
important following.
» Update it in your
social media. Tweet a link, add a like button and tell
people about it in your Facebook group, update it in Google+.
Anything, really to let people know that you have something new for
them. Also, remember to allow people to get your blog as an RSS
feed.
» Write for your readers, not
for search engines. Keep in mind that when you write a blog that,
while it is great for SEO, you need to
remember that humans will read your writing too. Write for them and
they’ll come back.
» Always remember the
Rule of 24. Whenever you write something, leave it for 24
hours. If you come back after that and it’s still great,
then publish it. But, I can guarantee you’ll find something to
change.
When it comes to email marketing,
things get a little trickier. If you don’t have someone’s permission
to send them mail, it’s spam. Spam is bad.
A blog can help you get people to sign up for your newsletter, but
once they have, you have to keep them interested. Below is a short
list of what to do when creating your newsletter:
»
Use an autoresponder. These are programmes that
answer mails for you. When someone sends you a mail in response to
yours,
your autoresponder can
thank them and let them know that someone will deal with their mail
shortly. This lets people know that
someone real can help them. It builds a relationship and
relationships with your readers are good.
»
Reply. It really is that simple. Have a real human send
your subscribers a personal mail every now and then. It makes people
feel as if
their voice is heard
and that it matters to you.
» Write for
people, not spam filters. It is an unfortunate fact of
online life that some of your mails will end up in spam folders or
junk
email boxes. The easiest way
around this is to ask people to white-list you as soon as possible.
Always keep your end user in mind
when writing.
» Make people feel like a part
of a group. More specifically, an exclusive group. Humans
want to belong, but they mostly want to
belong to something only a few people belong to. Nothing makes us
feel better than a sense of exclusivity. In your sign up form,
mention that your potential reader is going to be one of an
exclusive number to receive your news.
»
Use a direct call to action. Instead of “please feel free
to sign up for our email newsletter” use direct commands like “sign
up now to
get our free
newsletter!”. Human beings respond better to commands than they do
to requests. It’s all very well and good to be polite,
but you also want to be read.
» Make it easy
for your readers to unsubscribe. We know you don’t want
them to leave and we don’t want them leave you either, but
sometimes they will. You have to make it easy for them to find that
unsubscribe button. People are afraid to commit so you have to give
them a chance to go when they
want to. Most email marketers have found that the easier your
unsubscribe button is to find, the less
likely people are to leave.
» DO NOT SPAM!
When people sign up, give them what they signed up for. Nothing
less, maybe sometimes more. Do not use false
advertising or fill their inbox with badly written junk that they
don’t want to read. Do not waste your readers’ time or they will
leave.
To round up the handy hints in this article, here is a
summary of the most important content marketing tips (in my opinion)
in this article:
» Write for your users.
» Write relevant, good content.
»
Keep your readers interested.
»
Do not flood them with useless junk they don’t want
to read.
» Be honest with your
readers.
If you follow my advice, you are well on your way to
getting a good content marketing following. Next week, we’ll stick
to the topic of content. I’ll teach you all about how the content on
your website will help with your marketing and how to make your
website content work for you.