Most business owners at least know what a website is...hopefully. They can usually tell you what navigation is, a banner/slider/rotator, usually a footer, and sometimes even more specific things on a website. One thing that is not always easily understand is the difference between a website page and a blog post. Because this is a fairly common question, I thought it would be good to address it here.
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Content marketing isn't only about blogging, but it is one of the easier forms of content marketing that ANY business or organization should be able to implement on a regular basis. There is a lot of clutter in the blogging world these days, so you must work to cut through that clutter. Here are 10 blogging tips for your content marketing strategy!
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Whether you want to admit it or not, there is definitely value in blogging. Maybe you don't get sales or leads directly from many of your blog posts, but you've got to look beyond that. Blogging is just a piece of the puzzle. A piece that helps you along the way in getting sales and conversions. If you want a bit more motivation to keep up with blogging, understand these additional benefits. Here are some blogging tips to help you out!
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Most people know how essential blogging has become to running a business and increasing revenue; however, many small businesses have trouble implementing this marketing tactic. Blogging requires quite a bit of time and effort, and let’s face it, most small business owners work around the clock, leaving little time to worry about starting a blog. But for those people how are ready to give blogging a short, here are some helpful tips to make your life a little easier. Introduce Yourself! This step is easy to overlook but you need to introduce yourself. If you want people to read your blog, they should know who is writing the blog so include a brief autobiography and the history of your business. Try to answer the following questions: What does your business offer? When was your business established? Where are you located? What sets you apart from your competitors? Readers need to feel a strong connection to any author if they are going to continue reading whatever content is being ...
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Generating valuable content is one of the most critical aspects of ranking well in search results, and it will help you achieve inbound links and generate more leads. Depending on the size of your company, your content plan will vary, but a good goal to aim for is producing five small content pieces each week (one per business day) and one large content piece per month. You see on the chart below that content marketing is one of the fastest growing lead prospecting channels. Why? Because it works!
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If you didn't catch my last two posts on rural realtors' use of the web for marketing, please check them out:
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Today on the Bruce Clay blog, Jessica Lee provides some tips on reducing writers block if you are an avid blogger. She did a terrific job with the post and I think small businesses need to take those tips and relate them to your small business blog even if you aren't a consistent blogger. Because most of you are SMBs and might not read the Bruce Clay blog, I'd like to cover her tips and relate them to your small business.
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Enter Dead Horse... Yes, yet another post about why you need to be blogging. If the charts I shared earlier weren't motivation enough, what about the impact of blogging on small business search engine optimization? Most of our small business prospects and clients are familiar with SEO and want help with their site's ranking in the engines.
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As a follow up to my post last week on staying regular with blogging :), I wanted to touch on some actual data for added motivation to start or keep blogging. I came across several great charts that touch on the power of blog content and the benefit to businesses so I wanted to share some of my favorites:
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Inevitably most small businesses that we meet or talk to think of excuses not to blog instead of reasons to blog. Most of these are the same businesses that feel like they should get involved with social media, but only because they hear Facebook and Twitter on TV or from other businesses telling them they should, not because they actually see the value. Needless to say, these businesses are not generally successful at either. Let's take a look at some of the common excuses and why they are wrong.
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If you are executing digital marketing, congratulations! You are most likely already one step ahead of your competition, and making strides to meaningfully connect with prospects online. But, how do you know if you’re seeing continual success year over year, and improving your metrics?
Without the tools in place to analyze and benchmark your efforts, it is impossible to scale your online marketing and ensure continuous success.
