Using content to convert visitors into prospects

Posted by: Michael Reynolds in General on Thursday, January 24, 2013

Modern online marketing is all about quality content. As more and more organizations jump on the content marketing bandwagon, it's becoming more and more important to cut through the noise with high-quality content.

Content marketing makes use of elements like social media, blogging, email, video, SEO, books/ebooks, case studies, and any other form of content that teaches, educates, or solves a problem.

Lorraine Ball and I recently discussed this on her podcast, More Than a Few Words. Being a guest on Lorraine's show is always a treat and we talked about the current state of content marketing (also called inbound marketing), how to integrate it into your strategy, and how to use content to convert vsitors into prospects.

Listen in by playing the full episode below using the BlogTalkRadio audio player.

Comments? Feedback? We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Getting your website found (Part 2: Website Redesign 101)

Posted by: in General on Tuesday, August 7, 2012

In the first post of this series, we covered good and bad reasons to redesign your corporate website. In part 2, we're talking about SEO. After all, if you're going to the trouble of redesigning your website, you really want to make sure prospects can find it.

If you've been following this blog, you know we've been talking about SEO for business a lot lately. In the context of a website redesign, SEO is an important consideration. SEO is the process of getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or “natural” listings on search engines, like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Good rankings for search are absolutely critical to online marketing. If your corporate website is not ranking well for the words that describe  your products and services, then you’re not getting found by potential customers either.

Here are four action steps to start increasing your visibility on search engines, and getting found by potential customers.

1. Determine your websites strongest and weakest assets

Start by doing an inventory of all your web pages. If you're using Google Analytics, you can easily see which pages are getting the most traffic, where your inbound links are coming from, and what your top performing keywords are. Next, start analyzing poor performing landing pages and keywords. Go through each page and optimize the basics. What are the basics? Well, there are a lot of way to optimize your pages, but these are a few things that are easy to tackle:

• Page title: each page should have a unique title (with relevant keywords!) that is less than 70 characters long
• Meta description: keep your meta description between 150-160 characters
• Alt attributes: make sure each image on the page has an alt attribute (commonly known as alt tag). This is a description of the image that not only helps the SEO sauce, it's also valuable to people who use "screen reader" software.

2. Establish and track key metrics

If you've ever used Google Analytics or even just taken a peek at your web stats, you know there is a ton of tracking data to absorb. It can be overwhelming. So, how do you determine what data is important and what's just nice to know? If you haven't already been tracking key metrics, here's a good place to start: Visitors, Leads, and Sales. Your website should be getting you customers, right? Track those particular metrics that show what content and areas of your website are actually leading to new business.

3. Continuously publish new and attractive content

Why is new content good for search? The more indexed pages, social interactions, and inbound links you have, the better. Creating fresh, keyword rich content, like through a blog or a podcast, serves several purposes. One, really good content is more likely to attract visitors to your website through your social networks and email lists. Two, your ranking improves when you have fresh content and more pages for Google to index.

Based on goals and metrics, what kinds of content can you create to draw your prospects in? What kinds of problems do your customers or constituents have that you could help them solve? Depending on your audience, you may want to publish a weekly blog, offer free eBooks, create how-to podcasts or testimonial videos, or present case studies and whitepapers.

4. Use social media to drive traffic back to your site

Of course you want to use social media to drive traffic back to your site. When you're creating great content, you can tell your fans and followers about it on social media. Google+ is a factor now in Google's search algorithm, so make sure you have +1 share buttons on your content, and that you're publishing on your Google+ business page. 

Whether you are redesigning your website because you need a fresh look, or you are simply unhappy with the results you're getting (or not getting), it's worth learning as much as you can about optimizing your website for search. If you're ready to get started, download our free eBook "SEO For Your Business." Stay tuned for part three of this series when we talk about redesigning your website with an eye on lead generation.
  

How often should I blog?

Posted by: Michael Reynolds in General on Monday, March 5, 2012

As you may know, maintaining a high-quality corporate (or non-profit) blog is a powerful component of content marketing and can be a keystone platform in your digital strategy. I enjoy helping our clients understand how to effectively use blogging to strengthen SEO efforts, achieve positions of thought leadership, and reach new markets.

One question I get a lot is "how often should I blog?"

It's a great question, and like a lot of things the short answer is "it depends."

At SpinWeb, we blog once a week. This is a deliberate choice that takes into account lots of other factors. I know some companies that blog every couple of weeks, or simply whenever they feel like they have something to say. On the flip side, I also know organizations that blog every day (or more), like my buddy Doug Karr who runs the award-winning Marketing Tech Blog. While I think Doug is insane, I also know (based on his reports) that he gets a lot of SEO benefit from this schedule along with many other benefits.

So how do you decide on a content schedule for your blog? I look at the following factors:

Goals

First, decide why you are maintaining a blog and what the goal is. Are you mostly interested in strengthening SEO? If so, a daily schedule could be a good move for your organization. Additionally, if you have the time, staff, or budget (for outsourcing) to maintain a daily posting schedule, then this may make sense for you.

However, what if your goal is more focused on thought leadership and SEO is not as important to you? In this case, you can probably get away with a weekly publishing schedule or maybe 2-3 times per week. You can still get great SEO benefits (especially using Scribe), but you don't need to be as aggressive. Additionally, a less-frequent publishing schedule can be appropriate if you have other components in your marketing system. For example, do you maintain a video presence, strong social media interaction, a Learning Center, PPC campaigns, and a regular webinar series? If so, a weekly blog can be integrated nicely into this system because you have other types of content that provides support.

Staff

Let's be realistic... a lot of organizations simply don't have the in-house staff to maintain a daily posting schedule. Maintaining a high-quality corporate or non-profit blog is not easy. In fact, it's just plain difficult and time-consuming. Because of this, many organizations give up after trying a few half-hearted posts because they get distracted and discouraged. If you have a team of great writers in your organization, by all means go for a daily posting schedule. However, if you're like most organizations that we encounter, a weekly schedule might be more realistic. I would rather see you maintain a steady weekly blog schedule and stick with it rather than try to post every day and then fizzle out.

Budget

So what if you don't have the internal resources to blog every day or even every week but you do have a marketing budget? In this case, you can revisit your goals and decide what makes sense within your budget. If you want to spend a good deal on SEO, a daily blog can provide great support for this. If your budget is more limited, scale it back and complement it with other components and platforms.

Audience

Who is your audience? If your audience is a community of knowledge-hungry marketing/tech professionals who read 25 new articles every day, then posting every day will make your readers very happy (see Marketing Tech Blog or Copyblogger). However, if you're targeting small business owners, professionals, HR people, or another specific group, be mindful of what their worlds look like. Do they have time to read a daily post? Will they get overwhelmed if you try to talk to them every day? If so, scale it back a bit so that you don't bombard them with too much content.

Industry

What is the culture of your industry? Are you in a fast-moving industry like technology or politics? If so, daily posting can make sense. However, if you're in a slower-paced, more conservative industry (such as a non-profit or an association), you might do just fine with a less-frequent posting schedule. This goes back to knowing your audience, as well.

Conclusion

As you can tell, there is no right or wrong answer to the question how often should I blog. It depends on a number of factors and I would encourage you to experiment.

I don't like to see any organization post less frequently than once a week. My reason for this is that we tend to divide our lives up into segments of time called the "week" and so most people have a logical work cycle that restarts every seven days. By aligning your content with this cycle, you have the opportunity to insert your content into the routines of your audience. Any less frequently and I think you lose some momentum.

Hopefully this has been helpful but I would love to hear your comments below. A strong corporate or non-profit blog can strengthen your lead-generation, retention, and growth efforts so if you're not doing it yet, consider giving it a try. You might be surprised at some of the long-term benefits.

It's not just about SEO anymore

Posted by: Michael Reynolds in General on Monday, January 23, 2012

I cannot count the number of times an organization has come to us looking for us to "do SEO" for their website. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) has been a hot topic for a while and seems to be in no danger of losing steam.

SEO is powerful, practical, and effective. When executed well, it can bring high-quality traffic to your website and can lead to qualified prospects and customers.

However, when people think of SEO, a lot of times they seem to have the impression that it's a switch that can be "turned on" for a website, or that it involves sprinkling the right keywords all over certain pages.

There are some misconceptions about SEO and especially about how it functions today that I would like to address.

The Google factor

Google (and other search engines, but who uses other search engines?) changes its algorithm just about every day, as explained in this video from Matt Cutts (head of the webspam team at Google). This may seem like a lot, but often these changes are minor so don't fret.

However, sometimes Google makes significant changes. You may have heard of the recent "Panda" update released on February of 2011 which aimed to increase the quality of search results by putting more weight on quality content over link-building techniques. Then, at the end of 2011, Google released its "freshness" update (described in this article from Entrepreneur Magazine) which placed more weight on fresh content.

Then, as if that weren't enough, Google made another significant change in early 2012 called "Search Plus Your World" which more heavily integrates signals from social media into search results, most notably focusing on Google+ as explained in this video from SEOmoz.

Is your head spinning yet? So what does all this mean to you as a business owner, marketing director, or communications manager?

Greater focus on content

It means that the game has changed. Many of the old techniques and practices use to boost search rankings are no longer as relevant. So what do we need to focus on to get noticed? Content. High quality, socially-distributed, frequently updated content.

Google is paying close attention to content and, while it's always been important, is now even more significant to your promotional efforts. Bloggers, content creators, and copywriters rejoice! It also means that SEO has more closely converged with content marketing - in a big way. For a primer on content marketing, check out this video: Strategic Content Marketing, in our Learning Center.

Bottom line: SEO is not just about building a well-structured website and getting lots of inbound links. Google has clearly warned us that well-optimized websites will contain lots of great relevant content that is fresh and frequently updated, and will also have a social media presence with a heavy emphasis on Google properties like Google+ and YouTube.

Social signals play a big part

Other social properties are also important since SEO is not the entire package. Content marketing tells us that multiple channels of content are important when creating a system for lead generation. Some prospects may find your organization through Google, but others may connect with you through other channels, such as Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. And how does your message get shared and seen by more people? By being interesting, useful, or relevant enough to get shared.

As you can see, the game has dramatically changed even in the last year. SEO, while once thought of as "king" by many, is still significant but looks different than it used to. It's not just about the old methods of link-building and structure. It's a more interconnected world of social networks, content, and behavioral signals from the people who use these networks.

It also means stepping out from behind your brand and showing your face (and the face of your CEO, your customer service people, your sales team, etc.) online. More weight is being placed on personal social profiles and it's easier to get engagement from your prospects as a person as opposed to a brand. Brand properties are important and are a great way to plant seed of information and content. However, CEOs and marketing people that hide behind logos and brand pages will have a harder time achieving their goals than those who engage as people.

How to market in the new digital world

So what can you do to ensure a prominent place in this new game? One of the best ways to stay ahead is to create and execute a content marketing plan (also known as a digital marketing plan at SpinWeb). This plan will likely include tactics such as blogging, ongoing videos, press releases, active social media engagement, and relevant onsite content (case studies, knowledge bases, etc.) And as you can see, it's time to stop ignoring Google+. Not sure where to get started? Sign up, circle me, and I'll help you out.

Business and non-profits alike will benefit from a strong content marketing plan that includes multiple channels and a relevant story. It's not just about "sprinkling some SEO" on your site. It's about creating and connecting. Organizations that embrace this mindset will be very successful at marketing their organizations.

How about you? Are you ready?

5 ways associations can use Facebook for content marketing

Posted by: Michael Reynolds in General on Sunday, November 13, 2011

We work with a lot of associations at SpinWeb. We enjoy helping them use digital tools to communicate with members and recruit in order to grow the organization. Some associations are seeing the value of content marketing to provide education and earn gradually increasing levels of commitment until the conversion goal of signing a new member is reached.

Facebook can be a powerful tool for content marketing. There are a number of ways that an association's Facebook page can be used to attract prospective members and engage existing members. Here are a few ideas.

1. Use a "Like gate" to earn permission. A Like gate is a tactic in which someone who is not yet subscribed to your page can get something of value in exchange for Liking the page. For example, you could write an educational e-book or report that is relevant to your members and allow a download once they have clicked the Like button. Or you could provide a 10% discount code for the next upcoming educational event that is only revealed after a Like. Check out this short tutorial for more info.

2. Set a theme for the page that promote value. By stating a specific purpose for your page, you are assigning a theme to it that may have value for your members. For example, what if you stated that your association's Facebook page was set up specifically for employment networking? You could promote it as the place within your profession to network and find a job in your profession. Or maybe it is designed to be a place for your office staff to answer questions and give advice. If your Facebook page became known as a strong professional resource for members (and prospective members!) to get professional advice, how great would be it at attracting new followers?

3. Use it as a distribution system for you blog. A professional blog is a great content marketing tool. If you use your Facebook page to post your weekly educational blog, your members will soon learn that following your Facebook page has value and will share it with others, too. This gives you opportunities to nudge your subscribers further up the content marketing ladder to an educational event or a webinar.

4. Ask questions and poll your members. A Facebook page can be a great way to hear directly from your members and gather feedback. It can lead to some interesting discussions that can provide a lot of value. Try asking a new question every day and see what happens.

5. Use video to educate. Capturing video is easier than ever. iPhones and Droids have built-in video camera and offer excellent quality. Consider interviewing your members on a regular basis (like AMTA-Indiana does here) and posting these videos on your Facebook page. Also interview presenters and other industry experts in a "TV show" format. Ask questions that are relevant to those in your profession and get useful advice from your subjects. Your members and prospective members will appreciate getting exclusive information from being a follower of your association on Facebook.

If you think of your association's Facebook page as a resource for your members, it has the potential to become more heavily used and can also become a great recruiting tool for attracting prospective members. Have some ideas of your own? I'd love to hear about them in the comments below!