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content marketing for small business

There is no question that you can still boost your small business sales, marketing and internet activity, through content marketing and social media networking. What can small business owners take away from this political experience of underdog victories?

Content Marketing and Social Media how have they Evolved?

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How social media and content marketing can work together in a network to promote small business

Will Social Media Still Work for Small Business?

What Has Trump Shown Us about Marketing in 2016?

By Thomas R. Reich PhD

 

There is no question that you can still boost your small business sales, marketing and internet activity, through content marketing and social media networking. Even though there is a lot of talk about social media, content, SEO and networking having passed their prime, and you feel you just don’t have time to do it all, take a lesson from this season’s political primary.

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If you have been watching the news, and if you have not noticed the primaries you must have been very busy indeed, the candidates that are winning are not the ones that are spending the hundreds of millions on traditional advertising. Where Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton spent an estimated 100,000,000 on TV and Radio spots, Donald  Trump and Bernie Sanders spent a fraction of that amount during the same period on Twitter, instagram and FaceBook, both winning the New Hampshire primary by better than double digit margins, though both widely considered the underdogs going in.

What can small business owners take away from this political experience of underdog victories? No I am not saying to bring politics into business, this is still a taboo, but it does outline that not only is social media not reaching its maturity, it has barely reached its stride!  We are just discovering that it really can win elections over traditional forms of advertising that has won consistently for 100 years, so what can it do for business.  Can social media help your small business compete with the giants of your industry?

How social media and content marketing can work together in a network to promote small business

Marketing is the life blood of your business; it is what keeps your business growing. What makes your reputation is the ongoing dialogue of what the community is saying and thinking about your business and the people associated with you and your business.  Today, that also includes what social media is saying about your business and what it is saying about you and your involvement with the community. Content Marketing and Social Media is a living breathing thing which evolving to become the guide more and more customers look to for help in deciding who to trust in a buying or trust decision.

In order to boost social media networking and exposure in a positive way, small business internet activity must get more involved with its community.   We offer the following suggestions and advice.  If you have any questions or need help in planning or executing a marketing program contact us at director1@gmail.com or find further information at YourPMA.com and Troblinreich.com

How social media and content marketing can work together in a network to promote small business

So let’s start with the good old basics, and build from there. You have been told for years that Social Media is a silver bullet that will solve all your problems, it will not.  You have been told that SEO is the be all end all, it is not, and having a blog will bring you all the customers you need in and of itself, no it will not.  As in every evolution of business marketing history, nothing happens with out a plan, hard work and a lot of effort.  But we can help you direct that effort in more efficient ways, more effective ways to meet a changing market in today’s changing world.

 

Why do Businesses Fail?

Tax Deduction Tip 30

  1. Not enough people know they exist

  2. little or no social media networking

  3. They did not do enough to get the word out

  4. Did not work hard enough for brand recognition

  5. Did not remind the customer daily through social media networking why the business matters

  6. Did not Build a website that showcased their business as the expert in their specific niche market

 

So what is necessary for a small business to appear to be a player on equal footing with its larger more established competition in today’s new frontier of social media, content website driven, media market of millennia’s driven workforce web searchers? Well, to be honest, we aren’t all millennia’s and we don’t all have to be experts in the twitterverse to make a dent in what is happening with new market realities.  But as I said before, to be successful today, as it was in the past, it will take hard work, time and dedication.  Nothing is free, nothing is ever easy it is just done a bit differently today.

How social media and content marketing can work together in a network to promote small business

If you follow a few simple guidelines it can be a lot less expensive than it has been in the past for some real tangible success. But remember, if it did not take time, effort and had no cost associated with the marketing efforts, everyone would be successful without effort, and that has never been the case.  If you have been around as long as I have you know; “There is no such thing as a FREE lunch”, that said, many great deals have been made over one, so let’s get started.

A successful business must have a daily promotion habit, do at least one or more of the following each and every day as part of office routine of content marketing and social media:

How social media and content marketing can work together in a network to promote small business

  1. Write or post a new blog

  2. Tweet a timely question

  3. Do a radio interview

  4. Do a webcast or podcast

  5. Post an update on LinkedIn or blog to a group on LinkedIn

  6. Write a letter to the editor or comment on a major forum

  7. Link and share pictures, blog or news of your business on FaceBook page

  8. Do at least one thing that will publicize your product each day through social media networking

 

As you begin to develop a regular habit of content marketing and social media, you need to start to tailor your social media posts to exactly what you wish to achieve. You also need to have a plan and couple this plan with content that you post to your blog, which stays in line with the niche you are developing for your unique story, what makes you different within your market.  If you were a customer looking for what your provide, what information, answers and points of interest are you providing that would attract you to your product.

 

Other things to do on a regular basis:

How social media and content marketing can work together in a network to promote small business

  1. Contact 5 people a day that could help you publicize your product

  2. Give the social media network a hook to use to grab their audience (in the end you and your product do not matter to that media outlet, to the organization giving you the publicity, it’s how you can add interest to their show or blog, even their tweet stream, remember this!)

  3. Research what various factions of the social media network can put in their heading or intro; “Coming up________” that will help their audience to stay tuned in or check back. What about you or your product would cause this reaction, think of catchy phrases, make it easy to promote you or your product.

  4. Again, you need to come up with hooks, what makes this social media network member or blogger or interviewer’s audience tune in to his or her show or blog. If it pushes you or your product at the same time, that makes it a win win, that is what we are looking for!

  5. Create a hook. Hook = “Could you go to jail for linking the wrong website?” or “have you checked your FaceBook picture for malware, XYZ co knows why you should” or “Is your health drink, healthy?”

 

 

You hear a lot about taking things “Viral” or making a “Viral” video. Many will come or send spam emails over and over claiming to make “Viral” videos or blogs for you or to have “fool proof” methods for “Viral Content”.  When you see this type of talk, ignore it, no one can “make” viral content, it is something that can be strived for like a hit record or a hit movie, but if there was a guaranteed method for a hit song, The Rolling Stones would still have #1 songs every week.

I was in the Music industry for many years, I was lucky enough to hit on big success many times with 66 gold and Platinum records over the years, but that was with many hundreds of productions. There is no way anyone can ever guarantee a hit and there is no way anyone or anything can ever guarantee viral period!

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That said, you can increase your chances of creating a viral video or blog or even a viral social media post by learning to create a good “Hook”.  In the world of advertising it is called a hook, same in the music world, same in the film world.  A hook is something you remember, a tune you hum, a scene you remember from a Superbowl add.  A hook is something you take with you after you read, hear or see it long after the event of reading, seeing or hearing it.

 

5 Ways to Create a Hook for the Social Media Network

First, create interest with the topic:

How social media and content marketing can work together in a network to promote small business

  1. How to do; “How do you Tweet a Question?”

  2. Counter a Myth; “Parents want a quick fix to poor study habits-could drugs be the wrong answer?”

  3. Make a prediction; “Why the US will soon experience dramatic food shortages” –or—“Why food prices will continue to rise”

  4. Ask a Question, “Can you give the media a question they can use?” or “What are cats thinking?”

  5. Give them a timely hook, a reason they need to have information about your product now; Tax advice at tax time, new business start up advice in January, new kind of tomato plant in the spring.

 

Now that you have created interest by making the post a topic that will in itself create interest and make the reader want to read the post, there are further considerations. So many neophytes to Social Media approach posts as if they are writing for themselves or to keep continuity to “their” Social Media.  This is not the case, you are writing for the audience, and each post stands alone, rarely do readers ever look back, so each post is unique and stands alone, think in terms of content marketing and social media always.

 

Create an effective publicity plan around the posts to promote a viral blog which you have just titled with the criteria listed above:

How social media and content marketing can work together in a network to promote small business

  1. Who is your core audience

  2. What does that core audience read or watch

  3. When will your topic be timely; time of year, anniversary, create a holiday around your product, look in the book Chase’s Calendar of Events for listing of 10,000 holidays

  4. Is there a predictable news event that can be spun to your product and sent to the social media network, release of a movie, elections, release of monthly employment figures or farm reports

 

 

Avoid the “I’ll wait till it comes out to publicize the product” approach, look at the political primary elections as an example. Long before the candidates get to an area of a state the more popular ones have been engaged by content marketing and social media.  They have read blogs, seen videos, so when they see Trump or Rubio in a town hall, they are seeing a celebrity, not just a political candidate.

Pre-publicity was a luxury only the wealthiest of companies could afford in the past, now small business can compete on equal ground, with the right plan and help from a good team.

 

Here are some suggestions:

How social media and content marketing can work together in a network to promote small business

  1. When a new or updated product is released, the publicity must already be in place, The Social Media Network; Twitter, FaceBook and LinkedIn announcements kicking for weeks before the product hits the street.

  2. Again do interviews blogs and email blasts, and consistent social media network exposure before the release date as well, to create anticipation of the new or improved product.

  3. Listen to your core interest group, you may find improvements or hooks you never thought of before the product even comes out.

 

Another way you may get some viral juice in today’s changing world of almost free publicity machine is by using a little known trick. You want to get on the good side of the influential bloggers.  Many of these bloggers that have large audiences in the niche you are aiming your blog and products at are blogging for self gratification.  They are not in it for the money, they are industry watch dogs, or industry “experts” or just want to be recognized as “important” to a group of readers.  Your attention to them, asking them to look at your product or position, your attention, could be the touch to get their readers to see you in a positive light!

Get publicity and exposure on blogs that reach your core audience, not just your personal blog. The top 500 bloggers sites have over 100,000 visits per month; this is a resource you need to tap into!

How social media and content marketing can work together in a network to promote small business

Main ways to get valuable coverage on blogs:

How social media and content marketing can work together in a network to promote small business

  1. Offer to write an article, this is called a “guest Post” free, this will boost small business.

  2. Offer the blogger the opportunity to interview you

  3. Offer the blogger mention or a posting on your blog

  4. Offer the blogger a free product so they can review it

  5. Offer to run a free advice column in their blog

  6. Offer copies of your product as prizes

  7. Give them timely hooks

  8. Always get a plug in return for the appearance

  9. www.technorati.com to find blogs to contact in your field

 

There is also another very inexpensive way to get even more low cost publicity for your small business. In the past Videos, even internal videos showing product training, or simple messages from officers could cost tens of thousands of dollars.  Some well produced video products produced on film for larger companies may have cost in the hundreds of thousands.   But today, with simple quick 30 – 60 second videos produced very inexpensively, you can get your message across visually and compete even in the video arena with the big boys.

You Need a YouTube Strategy, and don’t forget that you can embed YouTube videos within your website, letting YouTube host the videos, but play within your website and not slowing down your website. This can give your website a lift and a much more interactive feeling, with instructional videos, personal messages and fun facts about products and services.

How social media and content marketing can work together in a network to promote small business

You must have a strategy, YouTube should part of any social media networking plan:

 How social media and content marketing can work together in a network to promote small business

  1. What could your core audience be looking for?

  2. How can you set up your video so your core audience can find you?

  3. Video must be no longer than 2 min.

  4. Better to have 40 videos, each 90 second tips, than to have 6 videos, each 15 min speeches.

 

 

How social media and content marketing can work together in a network to promote small business

The YouTube videos should contain:

 

  1. Hi I am _____________

  2. I am important to you because _______________

  3. Here is what we are doing for you

  4. End with find me here and follow me on twitter

  5. Ask for a response from them through your social media network

How social media and content marketing can work together in a network to promote small business

 

With a little imagination, a lot of work and a little help from your friends, there is no telling how far you can go in today’s world of marketing options. With Social Media, Content Marketing and Video Marketing you can compete on a level playing field with the big boys, for a much lower budget than you ever thought possible.

 

Want to explore the possibilities with a seasoned professional marketing consultant that has been through the transition from the way it was to the way it is. We have been there from the 80’s to the 90’s to the dawn of the Social Media age, the dawn of The Video age, and we saw the transition coming long before it was here.

We stand ready to help you take your place in this brave new world, and have a little fun along the way! Marketing should be fun, and if your customers see joy in the way you present your products they see great things in you in a new world of content marketing and social media working together in a complete network.

How social media and content marketing can work together in a network to promote small business

Marketing for a New Tomorrow Today

Questions?  Need Advice?  Email Dr. Reich: Director1@gmail.com

 

 

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    How social media and content marketing can work together in a network to promote small business

    Easy Content Marketing Ideas for Non-Profits and Small Business

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    content marketing ideas for small businessContent Marketing Ideas That Attract Targeted Traffic

    By: Thomas R. Reich PhD

    Today, the best and most cost effective form of marketing is Content Marketing and great Content Marketing Ideas. Many times, even the best websites begin to get stale, with content that becomes repetitive, themes and keywords that become over used, so what can be done to keep a content rich website fresh?

    We have developed 6 key content marketing ideas that can be powerful and at the same time freshen up that stale website. Really good Content Marketing Ideas are important to become an information source, an “expert site” and a celebrity of sorts in your industry. These ideas can help freshen up your existing online content library without re-inventing the wheel.

     

    •  Successful Content Marketing Focuses on One Expertise, and Variations of content marketing ideas for small business that Theme:

    The universe of Content Marketing Ideas is vast, it would be impossible to read even 1% of what is available on the internet in a lifetime. That leaves you in a predicament; how do you and your informational portal get found in that vast universe of information?  The answer is simple; you get found in that vast universe of businesses by making your firm’s information portal unique with original content marketing ideas that are consistent and relate to your product or service.

    In business you specialize and find a niche that fulfills a need. Content Marketing Ideas for your website must find a niche, and fulfill information needs.  Once found it is important to fill that niche with every angle and every fact that covers that niche of information.  Become the one best place for information on that niche, your firms area of unique expertise, an area of expertise that leads to your product or service as a solution to unique problems discussed in regards to that information which you have created as a service to humanity.  Starting to get the picture?

    content marketing ideas for small business Some business websites, in their attempt to become the one true source of information on a particular niche, give free video training, white papers even eBooks on that narrow niche. This goes beyond directly promoting the information portal and creates advocates in the internet world sending potential customers to your website to get the free material, prospects you never would have reached otherwise.

    Email marketing can bring potential clients to your information rich website, and instead of being bombarded with “Buy my stuff.” They find the answers they were looking for. When it is time to buy a product or service that is a solution to their problem, who are they more likely to buy from? You, who has provided answers and information, positioning you as an expert in the field, or go back to the internet and search randomly for a solution that would come from a site without any detailed understanding of their problem.

    Another great method to make you the information niche leader is to actually establish an information forum. That is a place where a community can develop around your niche expertise and discuss problems openly with each other. This gives you an opportunity to comment and recommend as a member of the group, rather than as a sales force.  It is possible tocontent marketing ideas for small business develop a large following that will bring many others to your website, with little or no effort on your part.

    What all of these things have in common is consistency, stay on topic in everything you do, everything you represent, all your social media, social sharing and every blog, and rigidly branded to your logo and colors.

    If your narrow niche is Real-estate agents who are frequently driving to properties, you could introduce a series of pod casts that may help grow your community of followers. Also this real-estate website trying to be an information portal, would by definition, have to have a responsive site, a website that converts automatically to maximize viability on any device – be it phone, tablet, laptop or desktop.

    Remember, do one thing well, concentrate on one narrow topic, be consistent, be relevant and be branded in all things. Have an active social media network and social sharing network; shear both new entries and occasionally the popular old entries.  Make sure to update all information as the market and conditions change, even update the oldest pages of information from time to time and re-share.

    Do all this, stay on target and your targeted traffic will grow consistently month to month.

     

     

    content marketing ideas for small business

     

    • Keep all Content Marketing Ideas Consistent with Your Established Party Line on all Issues, But Keep it Coming:

    All Blogs and information content pages need to keep consistent ideas about what you are an expert in. By this we mean, if it is your company’s opinion that Red is the established color for a particular road stripe, then all information presented on that website needs to be consistently in support of Red used as color for that particular road stripe.  If a law changes, or your position on Red changes, make sure all information on your website is changed to reflect that change in law or opinion.  Leaving conflicting information will not only make your website inconsistent and confusing, and instead of being a reliable expert site, it becomes a place to avoid because of inconsistencies.

    As your website becomes full of information and you reach 100s of pages of information, it is a great temptation to feel that’s enough information, and stop adding new information. Adding new information on a consistent basis is not only important to keep visitors returning, it also affects those rankings you have worked so hard to achieve.  A website with no information for even a month becomes stale in the “eyes” of the Google, Yahoo and Bing’s Spiders, and after 2 months of inactivity, the sight is down-graded by search engines no matter how much information it contains.

    content marketing ideas for small business I have dealt with many customers that after we built a great expert site with consistent information and posted consistently over a long period of time that, after differing periods of time, felt, “We can do this ourselves.” Unfortunately, after a month or two they stopped, possibly because it got boring. After several months of inactivity, a very popular website became stale and loses its consistent visitors. Even worse, it gets downgraded by the search sites, and soon the site is dead in the water. It is very important, if you are not a writer and do not enjoy researching and creating the consistent content on your websites chosen expertise, you should hire someone to keep the website fresh.

    Content Marketing Ideas must be fresh and consistent. If they are, you will have success with building and maintaining an information portal or expert site for your product or service. That said, Content Marketing is slow going at first and is hard to define ROI from the growing content. These 2 factors make it hard to stick with a consistent long term Content Marketing Ideas program.  This is human nature, but a consistent program carried out over time will increase your ROL, and a poorly maintained “Expert Website” will hurt your ROI over time.

    The bottom line is to be consistent with the material you add to your Expert Website, and be consistent with postings and promotions of content marketing ideas for small businessnew and old blogs. Read over your older material, if it no longer applies to your companies party line, remove it, if it is just a few lines that are not consistent, change those lines to reflect your most recent position.

    Finally, be prepared to spend time, money and effort to create and maintain a true information portal that, eventually, makes you famous in your market. Consistency will bring you increased and verifiable ROI over time by using fresh content marketing ideas every month or even more frequently.  Once you start building your information content rich website, do not stop, always be reviewing, adding new material, and you will see your expert website grow into something to be truly proud of!

    • With Content Marketing Ideas More is Best

     

    content marketing ideas for small businessIf you have not added to your legitimate Content Marketing Ideas in several months, in other words, some new fresh perspective on the chosen narrow expertise of the website, you must add content, or find someone reliable to do it for you or with you.

    Don’t lose perspective, once your website has become an information portal or expert site, it is tempting to stop adding material. Do not fall into this trap, a website should be looked at as a living breathing thing, adding fresh material at least once a month keeps it fresh in the eyes of the search engines and with your frequent visitors.  Remember Content Marketing Ideas develop over time, your targeted audience grows over time, and as it grows your results will grow exponentially, be patient and consistent.

    Inject new team members and new information sources to keep your content coming and to keep it fresh, and don’t let inspiration fizzle out. More pages are better, the more good information that stays on topic and is branded to you, for example white papers, videos and blogs, that stay on topic, the stronger you grow as an information destination on that targeted need for information.

    As content increases you will see an increase in true legitimate comments and questions. Make sure to answer these questions on the site and respond to the comments, to encourage personal contact with those commenters as a commenter. Remember that whether it is good or bad, they are a prospect, and giving correct answers can get the business. If there is a complaint, make sure to use it as an opportunity to clear up a misconception.content marketing ideas for small business

    Do not copy and paste blogs from similar sites and post on your site, this is not only plagiarism, but will seriously hurt your standings with Google and Bing and Yahoo for posting unauthorized duplicate content. A guest blog from another site can be good if it is on topic and is truly original material, unique to your website and your website only.  Get inspiration and ideas from other blogs, as they say, “there are no original ideas,” but be unique in the way you execute that information.

    There are many ways to increase the volume of output to your website, without compromising consistency or quality. It is a good rule of thumb that Google, Bing and Yahoo will probably not notice your website until your website contains at least 50 pages of tagged consistent information, 100 pages gets some traffic, 200 pages and you start to hum along, and when you reach 500 pages, you will have truly arrived.

    Remember, this volume must be achieved over months, and years, for 500 or more pages sometimes close to a decade. Here are a few ways to speed up the volume of your pages of information.

     

    Post blogs more frequently, if you post once a month, increase that to twice or three times a month.

     

    1. Longer blogs are better, when it comes to getting search engine attention, if you are doing blogs 400 words or less in length, thatcontent marketing ideas for small business should be a press release, they should be 800 to 1000 words as a good minimum to shoot for.
    2. If you don’t use pictures, start including lots of them, make sure they are tagged to your key word and have an explanation that matches your narrow information portal, also URL link them to your home page of the blog itself.
    3. Try imbedding a video that is on topic, and if from YouTube, you have an endless choice to pick from and you are helping the video creator with views on their video while providing your reader with video reinforcement to what you are trying to teach or explain.
    4. Experiment with info graphics, they can take time to create, but they take up a lot of space, and count as more pages. Info graphics also add a lot of interest to a blog which matches the subject of the info graphic. It may even be fun to use other sources of info graphics with permission, and since it is viewed as a picture in most cases, it is not duplicate material.

     

    When you increase output of material on your website, stay on topic and keep it all branded to our standard logo and colors, you will see increased activity. If you are doing things correctly, you will have success. If you provide a unique information service in a consistent manner and on a regular basis, the search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo will send you more and more traffic.

     

    • content marketing ideas for small businessIt is Absolutely Essential that One Person or Firm be in Charge of the Blog Site – No Unauthorized Entries

    It is important that your blog take on a character, one that speaks to your growing audience in a friendly and inviting way, in many cases using first person terms. The regular readers must see consistency, they need to be able to see the face of the blog talking to them, to build a loyal following.

    Years ago, I was a professional and very successful music producer. I always told the artist, “sell yourself sell the group, the hits will sell themselves.” When people come to your website, and enjoy the style as well as the way information is displayed, they will be back. Make sure what they see next month is of the same nature.

    content marketing ideas for small businessYou see how I related a small part of my past in that last paragraph? When you add a personal touch, just a drop, from time to time, the reader begins to feel they know you, and that is the very definition of keeping it fresh. If you ever get a message saying “when are you posting again?”, or “what happened to enter personal comment?” you have got the beginnings of a growing loyal audience.

    In many cases, you were taught how to write for a corporation, stilted and stuffy, perfect and never in first person.   It is important that you not be too corporate in your internet blogging, use first person and keep it a little personal.  When a reader feels they are talking or listening to you, and the like what they read, they will be back.  Finally, always stay professional, keep everything branded and stay on topic.

     

    Some tips for finding that right person for the face of your blog:

    1. Finding a grammar and spelling wiz is great for the proofing stage, since your blogs should always be proofed and proofed again. content marketing ideas for small businessHowever, the writer needs to be creative and smart, not necessarily a perfect speller, we all have our strengths, find the best creative writer and get a great proofer!
    2. Let that one person run with the direction and character of the blog, but you should read and approve of content. Make sure facts are straight and pictures are appropriate, it is still your company’s blog.
    3. Let the blog master express opinion, relate personal but appropriate things, and complain about market conditions in a positive way. They can express points of view that follow company line but with a twist and express a unique personality. Basically, you can give your content some personality and, in the process, break it out of the typical corporate sounding boring rut.
    4. When hiring a marketing firm or content creation firm; commit for a period of time, it will take 3-6 months to see any real results, give them a chance to prove their worth, let them develop a personality to your blog and your content marketing ideas.
    5. Freelance writers can go rogue, even after great success they can just up and quit on you. Make sure you choose a consistent, reliable and affordable blog master, then stick with them and let them guide your ship for a while; give it a good chance for success.
    6. Expect and use the terms I and Me in the blog, this gives the firm plausible deniability in the case that an opinion becomes different from a customer’s position.

     

    • Content Marketing Ideas Must Have a Narrow Focuscontent marketing ideas for small business

    This is in essence, a review of the first 4 suggestions and a reinforcement of what makes Content Marketing Ideas into Content Marketing Success. Pick one narrow niche of knowledge, research that area of expertise and make sure it is an area that compliments your product or service.   Then exploit that area of knowledge with blogs, white papers, pictures, info graphics and videos.

    Stay on topic, be about one area of knowledge, add to that knowledge base every day, week, month and year, to stay consistent and be successful.

    content marketing ideas for small business Many say they will run out of things to talk about with a narrow topic of information. In actuality this is not the case, by focusing on one area of expertise, you can research deeper, ferret more and more data out, report on the newest developments and with a little luck become one of the absolute best locations in the WWW for information on that topic.  Can you see how that may bring you targeted traffic?

    The deeper you get into your topic, the more you can research it and nurture the data you have found, use the facts and the side stories, and the more you find to write about. Data never ends, and when a website is done right, it will not get stale. The website will grow in stature and interest to its ever growing number of visitors.

    • If You Have a Scattered Website, Now is the Time to Change

     

    If you have a website that gets little or no traffic it could be 1 of 2 things: Either you have chosen a topic no one is searching for or you havecontent marketing ideas for small business a scattered site without direction or consistency, possibly with less than 50 pages of information.  You now have an idea what needs to be done to freshen it up.

    Get some help from experts, pick a topic or even a different angle on a topic to freshen up a website that has been blogging on 1 topic with no success. For those that have just been posting blogs with no consistency, pick a topic and get started anew, it takes time but it does not take forever to see real tangible ROI results to this Content Marketing Ideas approach of website management.

    These last pieces of advice are a whole different topic, but research your keywords to find the best keywords to affect searches of those looking for information contained on your information portal. Keywords help focus more on what your website is about, and helps search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo bring the targeted traffic you are looking for, right to your information.  With the right Content Marketing Ideas, over time built into a true expert website, you will find the targeted traffic brought to your doorstep more efficiently than any other form of marketing that exists today.

     

      Conclusion:

     

    content marketing ideas for small business Boredom will happen if you do all the work on your own website, unless you are not only a content writer, but someone that genuinely enjoys the writing experience. There is an alternative, you can hire a firm like YourPMA.com and enjoy the help of a team that loves to market, understands consistency, and enjoys their work.  There are many more aspects to online marketing that go into a successful Knowledge source website, but content consistency is top on the list.  I hope I have exposed you to some of the specifics of Content Marketing Ideas and how to implement them on your website.  If you enjoyed this blog let me know, and be sure to read the other blogs on every topic important to creating a great information hub around your website, social media and social sharing network.

     

    content marketing ideas for small business

     

      Call or email us today:

     

    Whether you have questions or need our help, please do not hesitate to contact us:

    Professional Marketing Associates, Inc.

    YourPMA.com

    37 North Orange Ave

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    At YourPMA, we pride ourselves in our commitment to detail and our motto which is:
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    When you contact us we help you with your most critical problem, the problem of time.  Many companies today need to spend their time and energy in sales, customer service and delivery of the best product available to their customers.  We make it easy,  contact Your PMA and we become your marketing department, and we arrange and complete your marketing programs.
    Whether it is Social Media set-up, follower growth and maintenance (we are top 5 in that area according to Orlando Business Journal) or video scripting and production, Your PMA can arrange it once you contact us.
    Contact YourPMA today at (407) 801-1PMA(1762) to schedule an evaluation to see how we can help you become a celebrity in your industry.  Customers buy from a name they know, “we make you famous in 6 months or less!”  Then we keep you there, refreshed, current and relevant for years to come. all you need to do is contact us now!

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      TRoblinReich.com helps explain content marketing

      Content Marketing Tips for Small Business

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      content marketing by TRoblinReich.com

      What is Content Marketing?

      Why Will it Work for Small Business

      By: Thomas R. Reich PhD

      Why is Content Marketing so important for small business?  Because it is the one strategy that works to draw prospective customers to your website, prospects that have a genuine interest in your product or service.  Also, it does not involve large amounts of hard cash to out bid larger competitors, just hard work and a little skill at content gathering and creation.

      To be truly effective with content marketing, you must fill your web presence, social media and social sharing sites with content which truly answers questions that your prospective customers may have about your specific product or service not just about your business. To become the information site for answers to questions relating to your product or service a small business must present itself as a portal for expertise in the products or services they represent.

      Every day potential customers in your area ask questions that can be answered by the content marketing is the alternative to expensive PPCadvantages of a product or service you sell in that area.  The trick is to give them those answers, without selling, but leading them to your landing page after they have been impressed with your understanding of the problem at hand.

      Most marketing firms recommend traditional online advertising methods like Pay Per Click (PPC), banner advertisements, pop-ups, and video pre-rolls, which interrupt users when they’re searching for answers.  These methods are somewhat effective, but at what cost?  Research says 90% or more of all potential customers that click on PPC or banner adds click away as soon as they see a “sales landing page”.  Not only have you lost a potential customer, you have paid for the opportunity for them to leave you site without ever finding out if you understand your product or service. Put yourself in the shoes of your prospective customers. When you’re online trying to find an answer to a problem, do you want quick, concise help, or do you want a sales pitch?

      TRoblinReich and Content Marketing

      5 Good Reasons Small Business Needs Content Marketing

      rPMA.com shows you how to content marketing is the alternative to expensive PPC1. The most common way to get website traffic is paying for traffic (PPC), and it is expensive. The average cost for many industries to purchasing a single website visitor through PPC or Banner advertising is between $1.00 and $3.50 for each click.

      Paying for online advertising is almost always inefficient for most small businesses. It can be expensive to the point of being prohibitive to get any real result, unless you are already an information portal.  If you’re a locksmith with a citywide service area, paying $3.50 per website visitor simply makes no sense. For a business with a perfect website designed for converting sales to leads, a site that would typically cost thousands to design properly – a price that is already prohibitive to most small business – 100 website visitors purchased for $350 turns into 20 sales leads, which turns into five booked appointments. That’s a $70 advertising cost per new customer. For a locksmith who has an average revenue of $100 per sale, he’s already given away all of his profit before he even arrives at the customer’s door.  Remember that assumes a top of the line website, one that stands content marketing is the alternative to expensive PPCalone in the market as the best website out there.

      With content marketing that same locksmith could have gotten those same five sales leads, or more, for significantly less cost per lead.  There is always a cost to the creation of the content, whether  it is created by someone internally and then converted to SEO friendly blog, or created by a content creation expert, but that content builds and is always making the site better and better over time, PPC can be a one time traffic source and is then gone, PPC would then have no long term lasting positive effects on your website.

      2. It is possible to generate far more leads with a well executed content marketing strategy, than with consistent PPC campaign. Small Businesses that use content marketing in a long content marketing is the alternative to expensive PPCterm marketing plan generate 55 percent more website leads at a cost that is 62 percent less than leads acquired through paid advertisements, according to Hub Spot– an organization which markets primarily medium to large business worldwide.

      This is more leads at less than half the cost, but content takes time to roll out and implement.  Once in place and you have enough content for search engines to consider you an information source. At that point, your costs go down even further and the leads you get are for your company and its expertise not just your product or service.  Here you can see the fundamental advantage of content marketing.

      TRoblinReich.com explains content marketing

      3. A recent study by MOZ shows adding one new piece of content to a small business website each week for one year produces search engine traffic equal to that from a $90,000 paid advertising campaign.

      When a company uses paid advertisements, such as PPC orBanner ads, they are only displayed in the search engines while your credit card is being actively billed, that is the nature of that beast.  On the other hand, new content on your website lives on and can continue to attract targeted prospective customers over and over for years.

      This study shows that each well written, targeted new page of content containing only valuable information relating to the product or service the website represents, on a small business website receives an average of 55 new visitors each month.  This also assumes that the content is not sales related but fact filled and interesting — that’s 660 visitors each year on average fore each well written and SEO targeted blog page. The effort to create a new piece of website content is made once, and the benefit continues without additional cost for a very long time.

      Creating quality targeted and building information filled content on a continuing basis will yield cost efficient results over time.  Even though the results of good consistent content are not instant, as are the results of PPC, the costs are far lower, and the results can be long term which will increase with time.  A PPC campaign has its advantages in the beginning of a campaign, but may be replaced completely over time by a well executed Content Marketing campaign.

      TRoblinReich.com explains content marketing

      4. The more quality, targeted content, the more results you will see over time. According to HubSpot, a major research advisor in the online marketing arena, small businesses with websites that contain 50 – 200 pages of targeted information on their specific products or services get 300% more leads, than those small business without content marketing is the alternative to expensive PPCtargeted information pages.

      Each piece of helpful content on your website acts like a bobber on a fishing line off the side of a fishing boat. The more lines and bobbers you have in the water, the more chances you have of catching fish, aka clients.

      The search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing care about the scale and freshness of your content. Larger (more pages of actual original content targeted to the website’s primary products or services and Keywords)  and more recently updated (newly added quality material on a regular basis) websites achieve higher authority ranking (a type of ranking given sites that are information sources for a targeted topic). At that point, the search engines deliver more “organic” visitors to these websites.  Remember, the search engines are the new Yellow Pages, so if your website is simply a sales tool, it needs to pay to get its traffic, – this should be obvious.

      content marketing is the alternative to expensive PPCHowever, if that same website becomes an information source, for example how to deal with different locks, the locksmith we were talking about earlier is providing an information source for the public.  It is part of the search engines’ duty to deliver answers to questions by the user. This is where “organic traffic” comes from.  An information resource allows the search engine to fulfill its need to steer users to answers on a particular targeted question. When the user is on the site, they are likely to migrate to other pages, thus becoming a prospect.  Do not miss the opportunity to ask these targeted visitors to sign up for a newsletter, giving you more opportunities to convert the prospect with EMAIL MARKETING, but that will be discussed in another blog!

      If you have five pages on your website right now, the best way to get to 50 is to start creating one or two new pages of content each week or a few each month. Large sites don’t get built overnight, but once your website reaches a nice size you’ll have a valuable marketing asset thatwill catapult you ahead of your competitors online.  Making sure you have a unique angle is also an important issue, but that is another blog onKEYWORDS and WEBSITE DESIGN.

      So, what do your competitors plan to do with content marketing this year?  Have you considered this? If you don’t get going on content now and make your site an information portal that search engines will send targeted traffic to for information, you may miss the boat.  It takes time to build a proper information destination for your specific targeted products or services; the time to start is now!

      TRoblinReich.com explains content marketing

      5. You have heard Content marketing is growing. Until now many did not fully understand the true meaning of Content Marketing, what it is, how it works, and how simple it is to turn your website into an information resource.

      content marketing is the alternative to expensive PPCThe reality is, if you’re not creating new content on your website each week, you’re getting left behind. You should expect your traffic to shrink and to get fewer website leads over the next six months than you got over even last month.

      There is good news and a competitive advantage to be had here.  You have now been exposed to the secret so highly prized and talked about among big business, Content Marketing.  Chances are, in the small business arena (5-100 employees) many of your competitors are not using Content Marketing yet, but relying heavily on PPC, this may be the competitive advantage you have been looking for.

      There are many factors to be considered when creating content that is to propel a website to that status of “information source” or “Authority Site”.  Content Creation, SEO, Pictures and how to place and link those pictures, Social Media and how it announces, interconnects and links new material to the world, and many other factors that can help generate “Organic Traffic”.  Professional Marketing Associates can guide you through the sea of information out there, and bring your ship into a portal of information designed to steadily increase targeted leads the honest organic way.

      TRoblinReich.com helps explain content marketing

      Why Not Give Content Marketing A Try?

      At YourPMA.com we have found Content Marketing is better because your prospects prefer it, it costs less money, it produces more sales leads and long term customers, it helps you beat your larger competitors and the marketing results you begin generating today will continue for a very long time.

      The easiest way to start creating new content for your website is to launch a blog. Your first ten blog posts should cover answers to the questions you most commonly hear from your prospective customers.

      Together we can work out a strategy that is targeted to your market and your customers.  Combined with other services, YourPMA is in a unique position to deliver actual old school marketing along with the most cutting edge promotions possible.  With our 50+ years of combined marketing experience and the hundreds of customers over the years gives us a unique perspective on how a small business works and thrives in today’s marketplace.  Everything old is new again, and delivering a positive service to the market has come full circle, you’re rewarded with prospects and business in exchange for hard work.

       Let’s talk about making your business famous, a stand out in your field, call us today: Professional Marketing Associates International.

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