How many times has the thought crossed your mind? Another guru says content marketing is the way to go to attract more customers and you smile politely and think, “Ugh, why spend time on content marketing?”
It is the 400 lb gorilla in the room – “Who has time? What do I write about? Where to publish?
It is a fact in today’s digital world that content is what attracts visitors to your website – if you want more customers, you need to take content marketing very seriously. Why? Because that is how people are educating themselves when making a buying decision. Most are already 53% of the way to making a decision before picking up the phone or filling out a form. Content marketing works because it’s how to differetiate yourself from everyone else that says they do what you do. When we have a problem, most of us go online to find a solution to that problem.
Social media (i.e. content) marketing includes everything online: Twitter, Blogging, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google rankings, email marketing, and more…even the keywords you choose to caption or label your photos when you upload them to your website’s gallery.
We’d like to expand on Jeff Bullas‘s recent article on the value of content marketing (i.e. blogs and social media and getting your written info out there on the web!). If you don’t know Jeff Bullas, you should! He is a blogger, author, speaker and social media marketer.
Getting found online in this digital world and making you visible involves a series of strategy, time and effort, but you can start with these 8 things. To get shares, comments or people engaged in your content, use these tips/write about:
1. Facts and figures in your industry
2. The negative or the dark side of a topic
3. Trends and predictions in an industry
4. Controversial headlines (one that worked for Jeff Bullas was “Why You Should Forget Facebook“. It also ended up going viral on LinkedIn with 300,000 views and 1,000 comments!)
5. Tips from the top people in your industry
6. Use headlines that can be defined as having a “curiosity gap” (don’t reveal the content of the post in the headline!)
7. Create multiple headlines for the same article (David Ogilvy was famous for having written over 100 headlines for one advertisement)
8. Emotion is a key. Reach their mind but touch their heart.I
n Jeff’s article, he also reiterates the importance of converting your website traffic into sales. “Otherwise your content marketing can be big a waste of money and time. Leads for any business in a digital world now often starts with getting that all important email. A Twitter follower doesn’t count nor does a Facebook like…or even a connection on LinkedIn. That is top of the sales funnel attention.”
It’s just part of the equation.
Get started with putting relevant, important information out there that interests the hearts of your readers, then their email is where it starts to get serious. Click here to read our blog on why email is a viable marketing tool or subscribe to receive more on this topic in future blogs.
This blog was written by our staff writers. If you are looking for a solid inbound marketing strategy, contact us today for a free consultation, we are here to help! Follow @cogomojo on Twitter, the COGO Interactive Company Page on LinkedIn, and subscribe to our blog, for more tips and resources. Thank you for reading! Your support is very much appreciated.
