Competition in the world of online marketing is fierce - I mean really fierce - making it vital to choose the best possible marketing strategy to deliver sus
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3 content marketing strategies that work like magic
"Are you looking for some great content marketing strategies that will help to generate plenty of buzz around your blog posts and articles?"
Content marketing is not only important for getting your content read by other people.
One of its primary purposes is to help establish authority so that your content enjoys high page rankings and gets plenty of organic search traffic from Google.
This article highlights three magic marketing strategies to increase your website traffic, and dominate Google search results with your content.
1. Share your top content with specific influencers
It's not realistic to write a great article and expect it to go viral and shoot to the top of Google search results.
Instead, target a handful of social influencers who would be personally interested in that piece of content. Make sure you go straight to the people you want to reach, it's no good spamming their company website.
For example, I wrote an article entitled Top result in Google search against Google's own guidelines that showed how Google was returning content advising people to do the exact opposite of Google's own Webmaster guidelines in the number one position.
Obviously, this type of article would be interesting to the SEO community, and to Google itself.
I shared my tweets with some of the leading SEO influencers as well as Matt Cutts - the engineer in charge of Google's webspam team in a tweet:
You might be interested: Top result in Google search against Google's own guidelines http://SME Pals.com/seo/top-result-google-search-against-google-guidelines @rustybrick @randfish @mattcutts
When sharing content to targeted influencers, it's important that you share:
- only the best content
- content that is unique/unusual/insightful/buzzworthy
- content that is directly of interest to those individuals
Sharing the right content with the right people will help generate plenty of buzz and lots of traffic. This helps set the stage for Google to start ranking your content highly and sending plenty of long term search traffic.
By contrast, if you continually spam influencers with poor quality content, or content that is simply not that newsworthy, you will end up being ignored.
Social sharing tip: Twitter is a great platform for reaching out directly to social influencers because many of them monitor their twitter interactions.
2. Always build credibility
Reaching out to other people to tell them about your content is a lot easier when they know who you are. But, when you're first starting out no-one recognizes you.
So how do you get around this?
The answer is to spend time laying a foundation of trust and credibility by contributing to the blogs, forums, and communities of the influencers you know are going to play a role in your own success down the road.
I am far more likely to take the time to read an article by someone who I know has contributed to my blog. Someone who has written a guest blog for SME Pals. Someone who has previously done something for me without asking for anything in return.
And, if I take the time to read their blog (because their name stands out over the multitude of spammy requests I get every day), I will probably mention it, tweet it, or even write about it.
Credibility tip: Plan ahead. Make sure that you have built credibility with the right people weeks or months before you need to leverage that relationship.
3. Be contemporary
Creating contemporary content is not as easy as it sounds - especially since, like most businesses, you probably have limited resources to devote to creating high quality content.
There are lots of different types of content that cater for different audiences, or to different demands within your niche industry. For example, you might need to create a bunch of reference and technical type articles to help readers understand what your business is all about.
Obviously, unless you are specifically a news site, not all the content you create should be news.
But, a reasonable percent of your content should deal with contemporary issues. Offering intelligent opinion, insight, and advice on cutting edge issues, trends and developments in your niche, will establish you as a thought leader.
There is great value in being recognized as an influencer by other leading influencers, because they are the ones who will bring you exposure to the rest of the industry.
When someone with 1 000 000 twitter followers blogs about you, and shares the article with their network, it's going to have a positive effect on your niche authority and visibility.
But this will only happen if you are in a position to influence those people in the first place. And those people tend only to be interested in cutting edge trends, new developments, and profound insights.
So those are my three top content marketing tips to help get your content noticed, buzzing, and generating tonnes of juicy Web traffic from organic search.
What other marketing strategies do you use to promote your blog or business content? Share your tips, ideas, and questions in the comments.
Everyone knows that in order to make more money online you either have to increase the volumes of website traffic, or increase conversion rates (or both
It can be a challenge, especially if you're new to the game, understanding what marketing jargon means.
Every company in the world is obsessed with marketing and sales - trying desperately to get in front of potential clients, gain visibility, join the conversa
PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising on a platform like Google AdWords can be challenging to ge
When I started my first company some years ago I placed all my focus on creating a great offering, but almost no effort went into sales and networking. Needless to say that it took an incredibly long time to get off the ground - 6 years in fact.
During that time I learned a lot about how business works, and my focus has shifted almost completely onto sales, marketing and networking.
Nowadays, a good idea with a quality product backed by excellent service is the bare minimum required to succeed. Because there is so much competition (especially online), what sets companies apart these days is how effectively they can network and promote themselves.
The first time I started an online business I spent the vast majority of my time actually creating the service.
Here's the thing about moving traditional customers online; you have to find innovative marketing strategies and ideas to get them to migrate.
If you're in the business of making and selling unique stuff then the marketing strategies you use should reflect the creativity of your products in order to reach out to the right people.
Fortunately the Internet is full of the "right people" just waiting to place an order. But your message has to find them in the right place in the right way.
That's why it pays to think creatively about marketing instead of following the pack and doing the same old "tried and tested" things.
Any company that outsources their customer service is being silly, and are inviting competitors to swoop in and pilfer their client base.
Customer service is one of the few real opportunities you have to forge a solid relationship with people. Why on earth would you want to hand it over to someone else (who hides you from the people that sustain your business)?
And while handling customer complaints and queries can seem like a chore, it can be converted into one of the most powerful marketing strategies available to you.
I am an ardent supporter of creating great quality content that ranks well in Google search for marketing purposes.
Recently, however, I have been forced to concede that organic traffic from Google is no longer reliable enough.
Since 2012 Google's search results have been in upheaval, and while the general thrust of the changes are to improve search results and cut out spam, there has been significant collateral damage along the way.
Social media marketing is one of those things that most entrepreneurs and small business owners wonder if they really need.
In general, my answer is yes, but I need to qualify that by saying that the amount of time, effort and cash you invest must be proportional to the returns you want (and can realistically achieve).
I serve on the board of a wonderful not-for-profit, registered charity, and we have utilized the tools and technologies provided by the Web, and in particular, social media, to drive visibility, engagement, and awareness that would simply be out of reach otherwise.
