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20 Content Marketing Ideas for 2012

20 Content Marketing Ideas for 2012
I know — just the idea of coming up with content marketing ideas is enough to instill fear in many small business owners. But why? As SMBs, we’re pros at using content as a way to attract customers and build word of mouth. We’ve been doing it our whole entrepreneurial careers! Here, I’ll start you off with 20. Below is just a handful (OK, a few handfuls) of content marketing ideas your business can implement and profit from: Create a free course on a topic related to your business and invite people in your neighborhood to attend. See how easy that was?

Link Building Strategies - The Complete List Remember how people say, "it's not about what you know, it's about who you know"? The same goes for the Web. Those relationships will turn into links, both in the short-term & the long-term. Just like with getting people to see you content, I realized a lot of the tactical ways to build relationships aren’t direct ways to get links, I decided to delete that section in this guide, and list all of them here instead. Random acts of kindness - Whenever you can, be nice to people. Give a crap - Actually care about people. Participate - If someone is conducting a survey or testing something, get involved and participate. Local meetups - Whether you find one or start one, meetups are a fantastic way to get to know people close by. User group meetings - A great way to get to know people who think like you is by finding those who use the same products or services like you. Conferences - Seriously, go to them. Call them - Yep, I said it.

Web Sites - How to Create a Successful Blog Editorial Strategy in Just Six Steps Blogs are one of the most valuable content marketing tools that businesses have to engage with and educate their prospects and customers. But many businesses still aren't taking advantage of what is a great opportunity to directly share information and expertise. At my company, we encounter that issue all the time. A solid blog strategy will help you create relevant content on a regular basis to attract the people you are trying to reach and help your business convert those readers into customers. Here are six steps to creating a successful blog strategy that delivers results for your business. 1. Though this first step may seem obvious, many businesses cannot define their exact audience. For example, if you are a winery with a fab Cab, talk about the Cabernet grape, your harvesting process, and great food pairings for your best vino. 2. Just as you have a reason for being in business, you have to have a reason for starting a blog. Think about what you want your blog to accomplish. 3. 4.

How to Strategically Dominate the Facebook News Feed Getting someone to click “Like” on your Facebook Page is only the first step toward building a thriving community—because few (if any) of your fans will return to your Page by typing in its URL. Instead, it’s up to you to engage them with timely and consistent updates that appear in their News Feeds. But this is exactly where most brands fail. They grow their fan numbers, but engagement is low—which means fewer clicks, countless lost leads and zero marketing momentum. High engagement, on the other hand, is the secret sauce for Facebook marketing. Each time your fans engage with your Page, you get exposure in the Ticker. But the opposite is also true. To drive continuous engagement, you need to make regular and compelling appearances in your fans’ News Feeds. Strategy #1: Post 2-5 times a day—consistency is key. Instead, post several different types of content throughout the day; these can include short videos, quick tips, links and questions, to name a few.

24 Eye-Popping SEO Statistics SEO isn’t exactly the most understood medium in online marketing. For one thing, people aren’t too sure what SEOs do exactly. Then there is talk about how SEO is converging with social media, content marketing, usability, and more. It’s not exactly the most well regarded marketing channel either: Every now and then, you’ll hear from the jaded webmasters who have invested in SEO a few times and wasted their money. That’s understandable. To start things off, you should get your minimum viable SEO right and then move onto building your site. You can turn to the more advanced SEO tactics to really help make some strides with your traffic. Keep the following statistics in mind as a reminder that investing more into your SEO efforts later will pay off handsomely: Content marketing rocks. Search Mobile Mobile internet users will reach 113.9 million in 2012, up from 97.3 million in 2011.Mobile shoppers will reach 72.8 million in 2012 References: ——- Spotlight Image Credit: tlorna / Shutterstocl

Content Marketing Success: Developing a Broadcasting Strategy More and more businesses today concentrate on content marketing in their efforts to convert prospects and deliver sales. And why shouldn’t they? Publishing helpful information online has several advantages that traditional advertising is missing: it offers the chance to explore new marketing methods that people don’t surf away from, it educates prospects in different niches, and (most important) it provides new interaction opportunities. In this article, I will focus on choosing the channels where you can cast your content, and preparing the actual publishing process. Along the way, I will point out some online resources that I find helpful in implementing broadcasting strategies for content marketing. Play the Broadcasting Manager I confess I really love this game! What’s a broadcasting manager? A broadcasting strategy in a TV network contains three key elements: The ChannelsThe PlaylistThe Automation Machine Let’s go over them one by one and see how they fit in content marketing: Blogs

7 Ways to Increase Your Blog Visibility With Social Sharing Are you looking to drive more traffic to your blog content? Social sharing is critical. But how can you make your content as shareable as possible? Follow this process, and consider the following 7 tips. #1: Identify Your Most Popular Posts and Keywords Take stock of your current content. Look at your top content and keywords in Google Analytics. Examine what isn’t getting shared and start to think about how you can replicate the success of the proven winners. You can also discover your top shared content with social sharing plugins such as Shareaholic. #2: Track and Leverage Trends Know what is top-of-mind for readers. This is where all that “listen first” stuff you hear all the time comes into play. Here are some free tools that will make your listening efforts more efficient: LinkedIn Today—this is a great tool, especially for B2B bloggers. Once you’ve identified the conversations that are happening, you should think of a way to use that information for a shareable blog post. Congrats!

Brands Derive Tactical and Strategic Gains From Integrated Marketing Marketers who have adopted multichannel marketing practices (i.e., integrating interactions with customers across digital, social, mobile, and offline channels) are recording solid business benefits across key metrics, including shorter sales cycles and higher ROI from marketing investments, according to a report conducted by Forrester Research on behalf of Sitecore. Moreover, such marketers are more likely to report a hardy appetite for new technologies, as well as stronger alignment with their technology departments. Below, additional findings from the study titled "The Multichannel Maturity Mandate." Multichannel marketing is gaining in popularity: 40% of surveyed marketers assess themselves as mature practitioners of multichannel marketing, 40% are in transition to the approach, and only 5% have no plans to implement multichannel marketing. Such mature practitioners of multichannel marketing are improving tactical results which, in turn, are driving strategic outcomes:

Back to Basics: Defining Your SEO Strategy Hey-oh! Rhea here and guess what? I’m supposed to leave for vacation in about six hours. I know I’m a business owner, what am I doing taking vacation?! Maintaining sanity, that’s what. We all need a break from our technology loop: Before I go I want to follow-up on several questions left in the comments of last week’s Whiteboard Friday. Frame a Purpose Statement We start with the most basic question. Why does the business exist? The usual answer is—to make money! Yeah, we get it, we all want money, but there’s no difference between a bakery and a car insurance company if we look at business in such simplistic terms. So, step back and really think about this. At Outspoken Media, our answer looked like this: Our purpose is to help grow and protect businesses. Using the aforementioned examples, the bakery’s purpose may be to provide fresh, local artisan bread to their community. Set Website Goals Why does the website exist? Let’s look at that bakery again. Awesome! It’s time to ask: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Sorry, Marketers, You're Doing Twitter Wrong [REPORT] Most marketers are tweeting too much on the wrong days, not using hashtags enough and almost never do the one thing that will dramatically boost their retweets — ask for them — according to a new study looking at how marketers use Twitter from Buddy Media. The social media marketing firm, which was recently acquired by Salesforce, looked at 320 Twitter handles from the world's biggest brands from Dec. 11, 2011 to Feb. 23, 2012. Among the findings: Twitter engagement rates for brands are 17% higher on Saturday and Sunday compared to weekdays. However, most brands aren't taking advantage of this phenomenon and, on average, only 19% of the brands' tweets were published on the weekend. If a brand spaced its tweets out evenly throughout the week, then 28.6% should occur on the weekends. A full copy of the report can be found here. Depending on the industry, the difference between weekday and weekend engagement is even more stark. Other findings in the report:

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