Why Creating Great Content Is The Only Online Marketing Strategy You Need To Follow

When you hear the words "online marketing", what comes to your mind? Social Media? Facebook? Search engine optimization? Blogging? WordPress? Or maybe you think about online advertising, pay-per-click, and search engine marketing. I believe there is one word that everyone thinks about when they hear the term "online marketing", and that word is "difficult." Online marketing is difficult.

Have you ever talked to a marketing guru about online marketing? Don't they all give the same, vague, generalized advice when it comes to online marketing? First, they tell you to hire an SEO firm, then they tell you to blog, then they tell you to use social media, and after you've done all of this, they tell you that you'll start receiving traffic to your website. Every marketing guru says the exact same thing, and the advice is always vague. Even the in-depth advice about online marketing is vague. Have you ever read an article about online marketing? Try this when you have some free time. Research "online marketing strategies" on Google and click on and read some of the articles. You don't have to look past the first page on Google. Just read some of the top articles that Google returns. This is a compare and contrast exercise. Once you complete this, you'll realize that all these articles sound the same. The first paragraph gives you a brief overview of what online marketing is and why it is so important. Then the list starts. Now after you've completed this exercise, you probably realize that the titles of the article all have something in common; they're all formatted as a top-ten list. They all look like this: "7 Online Marketing Facebook Strategies to Increase your Fan Base." Now, this isn't a problem. I like the top-ten list format. It makes the article more appealing to the reader. What I don't like about the majority of these articles is that almost everyone's top-ten list is the same. They all give the same online marketing strategies and advice. I mean c'mon; these are the experts! These are professional writers, writing for some of the biggest companies in the world. Why do the majority of the articles sound the same? Because again, online marketing is difficult! No one likes to be wrong or give bad advice. The writers are just writing the same vague, generalized advice that the marketing gurus say. I could go on-and-on, especially when it comes to online marketing workshops, but I'm not going to; I think you've gotten the point by now.

In this article, I'm going to attempt to do something that's rarely done. I'm going to attempt to give you original and effective advice about online marketing. I'm going to be completely honest. I will not give you outdated strategies that do not work just to make my article longer. These strategies will work. How do I know? Because I run a company and they're currently working for me. I have experience in this area and I've made many mistakes in online marketing, so I know what works and what doesn't work. So, without further ado, here are my online marketing strategies that will definitely help your business gain more exposure online.

Online marketing is all about the kind of content you're creating. First of all, the best online marketing strategy is creating content. Hands down! Sure, Facebook likes, retweets and social media shares on other popular social media sites like Pinterest, Instagram, and Reddit are cool but do they really increase profits for a business? Think about it, how many times do you patronize a business because you liked their Facebook post? Exactly. I believe social media is very powerful but only works if you have great content. Content can be anything. It can be from a very nicely written article to a fashionable t-shirt with a clever phrase on the front. Content can really be anything. I believe the majority of the businesses out there think that just posting a catchy post on Facebook along-side an eye-catching photo will increase their consumer base and ultimately their profits. This just isn't true. If online marketing were that easy, everyone, including the average person would be an expert at online marketing. Anything in this world worth having takes hard work and time; the results from an effective online marketing campaign are no different. Creating great content isn't easy; however, when you do create great content, there are so many resources at your disposal that could potentially help that content become viral. Have you ever saw a video on Facebook or YouTube that has hundreds of shares and thousands of likes? The reason that video went viral is because of the content. The average person isn't a marketing guru and doesn't have a social media budget; all they have is their imagination. That's all you need to create great content.

So, now that we've established that creating great content is the best online marketing strategy, I'm going to show you how to create great content. As I stated earlier, creating great, viral-worthy content isn't easy. However, there are so many resources to help that content go viral; creating the content is really the only hard part. Creating great content requires research. You have to think about what's trending in the world. Too many marketing gurus think that the only thing that can go viral is a funny YouTube video and that's just not true. If you're not funny, don't try to be funny. You don't have to be funny. Play to your strengths. You just have to be creative, persistent, and use your imagination. There are a lot of things that are trending in the world. Pick one. Create content about a subject that's important to you. The more important it is to you, more than likely, the better the content will be. The next step is to create the content using a media that's popular. There is a reason why videos are more likely to go viral than an article. A great article can go viral, but it will definitely take longer. People enjoy videos more; there's no reading involved in watching a video. Your video doesn't have to be aesthetically appealing and you don't have to be an expert in video editing; it just has to be interesting. And don't worry, you can always learn about video editing and special effects while making the video; it's not exactly rocket science, it just takes a little practice. The next step in creating great, viral-worthy content is relating that content back to your business. This might be the hardest part, but, if done correctly, is a game-changer. The ultimate goal is conversions, however, why do you need to convert people through the content? That's the mistake that many marketing gurus make. Great content may not raise your profits right away, but it's not supposed to. The purpose of content marketing is to raise awareness of your business. The profit gains will come in the future, not immediately. As long as the content relates back to your business (in some kind of way), you're good. The next step in writing great content is your content has to solve a problem. Consumers have problems, even if that problem is ignorance, meaning, not knowing enough about a particular subject. Great content solves problems and enlightens consumers. That's why great content goes viral. Consumers share things that they've recently learned because everyone has the inner-urge to help someone else in need.

So, let's recap. The best online marketing strategy is creating great content. There are five steps to creating great content:

1. Pick a topic that's trending
2. Use a popular medium to create the content (i.e. WordPress)
3. Relate the content back to your business
4. Make sure the content solves a problem or enlightens consumers about a particular subject.
5. The last and easiest step in this process is to share the content, everywhere.

When sharing the content, use every avenue you can think of. Social Media, Blog, YouTube, PR, press releases, etc. Don't be stingy. Great content is meant to be shared with the world. See, I told you I'd give you advice that actually works. Stop worrying about all that other stuff, like building backlinks using automated software. Google hates that anyway, but that's another subject for another day. Take care!

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Allen_S_Michael/1837896

P.S.

We would love to let you know about our Content Marketing Starter-Kit & our Conquer Your Content System. This system has been proven to increase reach, engagements, and followers. It also helps bring in new customers EVERY MONTH! 

Gain clarity on your target audience, a downloadable and editable 6-month content calendar as well as a guide on how to set up the PERFECT content strategy for each month! 

Do yourself a favor & LEARN MORE about the Conquer Your Content System  & Content Marketing Starter-Kit 

The Top 5 Reasons Why Your Content Marketing Campaign Failed

I am, from time to time, asked to troubleshoot why someone's content marketing campaign has not been the success they had hoped for. Almost always, the cause of the problem falls within the scope of one of the following reasons. Here, in reverse order, are my top five reasons why content marketing campaigns fail:

#5. You are not content marketing:

Content marketing is a marketing business to achieve one or more goals of that business. If the achievement of your business goal is not the reason for producing your content, you are blogging. That important distinction is not always understood.

Many content creators do not understand the part content marketing plays in moving your prospects along your sales funnel. Different types of content are needed for each stage, which is for suspects, prospects, and retaining and selling again to existing customers. If you are not producing content that supports each stage in the sales process, you are not content marketing.

#4. There is not a market for your product or service:

It never ceases to surprise me how many businesses fail because the founders did not do proper research to establish whether there was a market for their business and or whether their product or service met that need.

You can have a technically excellent product, but it will fail if no one wants to buy it. I once worked for a company that had such a product. Every prospect the sales force presented to said what a great idea it was, but they would not buy it. It was a solution looking for a problem. Then you have the other side of the coin: There is a market, but your product or service does not meet it. There is a problem, but you do not have a solution.

No matter how good your content marketing is, your campaign will fail in its objective of acquiring new customers if:

• There is no market for your product or service, or
• If your product does not solve the customer's problem.

#3. You are publishing in the wrong place:

You must ensure that your content gets to your target audience. You need to know:

• Who your target audience is. That includes demographic information such as their age, gender, socio-economic group, whether they are likely to be married, and if they have a family;
• Where they currently go to get information; and
• How they prefer to consume data.

Let's consider a couple of examples:

Example 1: You have a business that provides support for WordPress websites globally. Your target audience is likely to be business owners that already have, or intend to have a website on the WordPress platform. They are likely to be in the age group 24 to 54 years old, likely to be married and probably have a family. They are entrepreneurs, not software engineers.

You will find them on Linked In, and they probably also have a personal and business FaceBook presence. They are also very likely to use mobile computing devices, which is their device of choice for consuming data.

You need to be publishing your content in the places these people go to for answers to their WordPress problems, such as YouTube, podcasts (think iTunes, Sticher, Podcast Republic, and Zune to name but a few) - you could either have your own show or make guest appearances on other shows, SlideShare, writing articles (think long SlideShare documents, not just article directories), blogs, and forums for WordPress users.

Example 2: You provide an on-line tuition course in mathematics. Your target audience is likely to be school-age children and their parents. They will have a personal FaceBook presence and will probably also use one or more of the other popular social networking sites such as WhatsApp and Line. They are likely to have a Gmail account and also use YouTube.

The nature of your service lends itself to visual media, which is how this group prefers to consume data. Your target audience will be using sites such as Udemy and YouTube to find content.

The preferences of your target audience will determine where you need to publish your content and predicate the medium you use to deliver your content. If your target audience prefers to consume visual content, text-based content will not appeal to them and they will be much less likely to visit text-based content sites.

If your target audience prefers to consume data at a time and in a place that suits them, in other words, they want to consume content on-demand, consider audio podcasting. However, you should only do so if your content lends itself to the spoken word.

Should you publish your content on your own website?

The answer depends on how long you have been in business, and what reputation you already enjoy. The Pareto principle or the 80:20 rule will apply in any event. If your business is a start-up or is a young business, 80% of your content should publish off your website. As your business becomes established and your reputation has grown, that ratio can be reversed.

Not only do you need to publish your content in the places your audiences go to for information, but you must also ensure that it comes to their attention. That means systematically promoting your content on social networking sites such as FaceBook, Google+, Linked In and YouTube, as well as on Twitter, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and other similar sites. Consider issuing a press release and linking to the piece of content in blog posts and comments, and on forums. If you have an email list, tell your list about the content you have created and ask them to share it with others.

You should expect to spend at least as much time promoting your content as you did in creating it. Not all marketers do this, which is why many content marketing campaigns fail.

#2. Your campaign is too short:

Although there are people who claim great success from a short campaign, these fortunate few are the exception. For most of us, content marketing is a medium to long-term exercise that performs different roles for the various stages in our sales funnel. Put another way, you need to create content that is suitable for and supports each stage in the buying process.

Let us say, for example, that you have a business selling video cameras and accessories. You will need to create content that explains the different types of cameras that are available, their prices, the uses for which they are most suitable, and the amount of knowledge and or experiences the user will need to operate the device. This type of content is aimed at the person browsing your online store looking to see what is available.

Next, you can segment your content to cover the different sections of your potential audience, such as those looking for a camera to take videos of the family and holidays, hobbyists, and the high-end amateur and professional users. Content that compares the features, benefits, and disbenefits, the pros and cons if you like, of each product in the market segment will help the potential customer make a shortlist of suitable products. The person browsing your site is now a prospect.

The next set of content will focus on a specific product and the benefits of purchasing it from you. This type of content will help convert the prospect into a customer.

The final set of content will help your customers get the best out of their purchase and will upsell product add-ons and accessories.

If you are not creating content for each stage of the buying process and after-sales support, your content marketing campaign is not likely to be as successful as you had hoped.

#1. Poor quality content:

Poor quality content is the main reason why many content marketing campaigns fail. The term "poor quality" covers a multitude of sins.

Earlier in this article, I said that your content must be created with the objective of achieving a business goal. That is true, but not only should your content marketing do that, but it must also solve a problem your target audience has. At the very least it should give them something of use and value. Unfortunately, a great deal of content that is created is little more than a thinly-veiled sales pitch.

It should go without saying that your content should be grammatically correct and free from spelling errors. It should also be well written and follow a logical sequence. If you are writing an article, your objective is to retain the reader's interest long enough for them to get to your resource box. It is there that you should give the reader a good reason to click on the link to your website from where you will do the selling.

Similarly with video. You want to keep the viewer's attention until they see the call to action, which is usually to click on a link in the description.

Poor quality is a description that can also be applied to content that is too short or too general to be of any help to the person consuming it. Your content should be long enough to impart all the information you need to give in sufficient detail, but short enough to ensure you retain their interest.

There is another definition of poor quality content that is often overlooked by content marketers, that is if they are even aware of it. If your content fails to engage with your audience, it has not achieved one of your business goals. Most marketers gauge the success of their content by how many views it has received, or how many likes it has, or a combination of both. A piece of content may have have been viewed a great many times, and it might have received a large number of likes, but nobody has engaged with it. They did not comment on it, or share it with their own audience, or tweet about it, or list it on Reddit or StumbleUpon.

For your content marketing to be successful, your audience has to engage with your content.

The Takeaway:

As marketers, I think we can take away the following points:

#1. There must be a viable market for your product or service;

#2. Your content must assist you in achieving a business goal;

#3. Your content must be published in the places where your audience is likely to find it, and you must promote your content;

#4. Your content marketing campaign must support all the stages in the sales process as well as providing after-sales support, and

#5. You must create good quality content that encourages audience engagement.

Your content marketing campaign is likely to be successful if you apply these five lessons.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Robert_Reddin/43660

P.S.

We would love to let you know about our Content Marketing Starter-Kit & our Conquer Your Content System. This system has been proven to increase reach, engagements, and followers. It also helps bring in new customers EVERY MONTH! 

Gain clarity on your target audience, a downloadable and editable 6-month content calendar as well as a guide on how to set up the PERFECT content strategy for each month! 

Do yourself a favor & LEARN MORE about the Conquer Your Content System  & Content Marketing Starter-Kit 

5 Reasons Why Online Groups Are Important for Business Growth

If you really want to learn more about your audience, find more people to promote your products, and get new ideas for more offers, groups are one of your best investments outside of email marketing.

Nurturing groups is inexpensive and can really help you accomplish a lot. Look at these important ways that groups help your business grow and you'll know it's the right thing to add to your marketing efforts.

1. Conduct Audience Research

Groups are an effective and fun way to conduct audience research. You can use your own group that you build with your target audience, customers, and prospects, or you can use other people's groups which consist of an audience like your own. You can be stealthy and just observe and learn, or you can ask questions, submit surveys, or invite them to group chats to discuss issues related to your niche.

2. Experience Higher Engagement Opportunities

Groups are an easy way to engage with your audience because they come to the group for conversation and learning. Therefore, it's a way to have a conversation, conduct a poll, share pictures, and talk to your audience in a more casual way. Email is great for sending messages, but sometimes it's not conducive to a real discussion in the way a group is.

3. Increase Brand Credibility

Having a group that your customers come to where they speak to your prospects is a great way to increase brand credibility. People who don't know you very well yet will see the people who have purchased from you and who are happy talking in the group, and that will increase your credibility in a lot of ways - more than one-way emails.

4. It's Inexpensive

The wonderful thing about having a group online today is that it's very inexpensive. You can start groups free on Facebook. You can start groups on platforms like Delphiforums.com, Ning.com, and others without much money too. But they pay off in big ways once you build them up, as long as you contribute often and engage with the audience.

5. Find Joint Venture Partners

Groups are excellent places to find your next JV partner. When you are a participant in a group that has a lot of other people who market complementary products to your audience, you may find someone who is perfect to work on your next idea together. Ideally, that will be someone who can contribute something you cannot and vice versa.

Facebook groups can generate leads, build your email list, give you access to more prospects and sell your products and services. But if you do it the wrong way it can lead to lasting damage to your reputation and brand. However, doing it the right way ensures that you have the best possible chance for business success. Get your free Facebook Group Checklist at http://jonallo.com/facebook-groups/

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Jon_Allo/1079948