With brick and mortar stores, it’s easy. If a customer comes in and makes a purchase, that’s a sale. While ultimately that’s still the goal, the process of getting to the sale is much more involved now than simply putting an ad in the Yellow Pages. With all the new ways to spread the word, how do you know you’re improving conversion rates from interest to sale and having an impact?

One of the best ways is to track your communication, ideally through an employee working in social media monitoring productivity. Metrics like how many questions have you received through your channels, how many positive/negative interactions have you had and how many thank you’s have you received are valuable, as is how those interactions have grown or changed over time. These twitter tactics and Facebook practices show that you care about your user/customer base.

As well, utilizing link, shortening services such as bit.ly or tinyurl allow you to track the number of clicks over time as well as the source of those links (and where they’ve been shared,) allowing you to track how your customers interact with each other.

So how does this translate to your business growth? It’s all about what people are saying, and if your business is a positive contributor to the social media world (marketing on twitter or Facebook) and considerate of the way your customers access you, word of mouth will take over on its own.

Lou Perseghin lives in Providence, RI and works for a non-profit managing volunteers, recruiting members and handling marketing efforts.

Image from sbsearchmarketing.com

(Little did I know that years later this would become content for blogs.)

That’s who you had in mind when you started your business, isn’t it? But it’s amazing how that simple but essential concept—doing what’s best for the customer—can be lost, especially as a company grows. Are your business practices actually hampering your ability to serve your clients/customers/readers?  Are you so focused on impressing the board, your colleagues, or even yourself that you’ve lost sight of the end recipient? Seth Godin tackled this subject in a great and typically succinct blog post last month:

Every campaign that I’ve ever seen fail has failed for precisely the same reason: it pleases the wrong person. Think about it… it wouldn’t have launched if it hadn’t pleased the boss or the client, right? Pleasing the wrong person meant failure.

If you’re in marketing, will your marketing content dazzle your customers as much as your colleagues?  Think about the customer and how they will respond. If you’re designing a product, don’t get so caught up in ground-breaking innovation that doesn’t actually benefit the consumer in the slightest.  Joe Pulizzi also addressed this issue in June, asking “Whose Business Are You Developing?” Your services should be developing your customer’s business. That is your endpoint. Your own business will grow as a result of concentrated efforts to really help your client.

In theory, content marketing is all about serving the customer. It means giving your consumers something of value, particularly information, in order to pique interest and gain trust. But when drawing up ideas for your content, whether you’re hiring freelance writers or a marketing agency,  make sure your ideas are based on what your  customers will want to see.

It may sound idealistic and oversimplified, but the root of all commerce really is the consumer. Paying attention to the little guy and making sure that he is satisfied is what will ensure your success. Especially now, with so many tools available for each individual to broadcast their opinions to the world, it is even more important to make sure you keep your consumers in mind. What do they need? How will they respond to whatever changes you have implemented?

Nicola Fairhead is an ideaLaunch editorial intern with a ferocious appetite for writing, editing, and consuming content.  She has quickly become a content marketing evangelist.

Image courtesy of http://www.branchesoflancaster.co.uk/images/newimages/red%20%20tape.gif

It’s beginning to feel like every business is expected to give something away now.  The belief that offering something for free cheapens the overall brand has been all but abandoned in mainstream business practice. Companies like Starbucks have lured countless social media contacts into their stores by blasting the offer of “free iced coffee” down the social network airwaves.

But, wonder of wonders, providing a service for free isn’t always the most profitable way to go. Almost every publication has an online form with website content creation that overlaps with the printed version, a fact that no doubt contributed to the fall of so many magazines and newspapers in the last couple of years. Journalists are still in the process of damage control, scrambling to figure out a way to profit from their online readership. New York Magazine reported that on July 2^nd, the London Times put up a pay wall, but even with its well-established reputation and the incredibly minimal price tag, the transition from open to restricted has had its effect on traffic. In that same vein, some established bloggers have reverted back to subscription-only email newsletters, forgoing the freedom of information that characterizes the blogosphere in an attempt to reestablish the worth of their content.

So what is the verdict on giving it away? Many now-defunct newspapers began reproducing all of their printed content online before determining how to make a profit from it. However, any content marketing agency, by nature, is an advocate for providing quality content to develop and maintain relationships with consumers. But whatever you offer for free, it can’t be the entire substance of your service. That doesn’t mean that your free marketing content should be insubstantial fluff, far from it. Your content for blogs should be an asset to your readers.  It should establish your authority your ethos, even, and give your reader a sense that you are willing and able to help them (but that you still need to make a living).

Nicola Fairhead is an ideaLaunch editorial intern with a ferocious appetite for writing, editing, and consuming content.  She has quickly become a content marketing evangelist.

Image courtesy of http://blog.politiken.dk/klik/files/2009/10/free-sign.gif

Last weekend, I witnessed an astonishing thing. Concrete personal benefit as a direct result of my social networking efforts.  The Creator’s Project, “a new network dedicated to the celebration of creativity and culture across media,” held a competition on its facebook page. Whoever could accrue the most “likes” on a single post would win two tickets to the Creator’s Project official launch in New York, featuring musical performances, films, and art exhibits.  Simple.  A friend of mine dutifully wrote a post, then sent a facebook message to a limited circle of friends with an emotive and humorous back story, a link, and a simple request.

Not a bad start, but not a great one either.  And definitely not enough to secure a win. Your main base of friends/readers/customers/what have you can be your greatest promotional asset. Don’t be afraid to appeal to them, albeit sparingly. Luckily I didn’t need to be asked—the content marketing deviant in me immediately came to life. Surely this was the perfect opportunity to use social networking as a marketing tool? After a solid hour’s effort, I solicited a large fraction of my friends list, with five separate drafts tailored to different audiences within my network.

Making a demand of the network you’ve spent so long cultivating can be a delicate process. Keep these key points in mind when you start drafting:

• Make it personal. No one wants to be bullied by a robot.
• Provide some back story so your readers know what they are supporting. But don’t drag it out.
• Acknowledge that you are asking something of them.
• State your gratitude along with any benefits they could receive.
• Humor helps, but make sure to be sincere.

While my recruitment rate was less than 50%, that in addition to my friend’s previous efforts was enough to secure two tickets to the Creators Project’s New York event.  And there you have it! Concrete results.

In this case I made a request based on my confidence in existing relationships.  And that is why you’ve spent so much time cultivating your company’s online persona. You too are developing relationships that you can one day call upon. Provide support for your target market.  Return their comments. Show that you care about their input. If you have really taken the time to invest in solid content marketing that actually provides a service for your readers, you may find that they’ll be willing to champion your cause when the time comes. Then when you really need them, go ahead and make the ask.

But the real winner in this story, of course, is the Creators’ Project. I can pat myself on the back all I want, but by offering even the mere chance of something truly phenomenal, they got me to do their work for them. The Creator’s Project facebook page is gaining fans daily by transforming existing followers into active recruiters.  Have you offered your readers something spectacular lately?

Nicola Fairhead is an ideaLaunch editorial intern with a ferocious appetite for writing, editing, and consuming content.  She has quickly become a content marketing evangelist.

Image courtesy of http://andpluckyourstrings.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/man_loudspeaker.jpg

So it’s no wonder when social media sites like Facebook and Twitter started sprouting up, I initially steered clear. Why would I want another way to spread my personal business around?

I was even more skeptical when social media started infiltrating the business world. However, I have to concede that I am now a convert.

Fast-forward a year or so from my mortified self to my entrepreneurial self, and the Mom Circle was suddenly my most useful business tool. My neighbor and I wanted to break into the lemonade stand business, but we lived in a cul-de-sac – great for scootering, horrible for lemonade stand publicity. The solution to getting ourselves recognized was the Mom Circle. We launched our business the same weekend my mom was holding a garage sale, and with just one word from my mom, suddenly we were known across all of town as reputable beverage-selling duo featured at a trusted business event. That was all it took. We made twelve whole dollars!

My lemonade stand taught me a simple, but genius, marketing rule: use your connections. And now I see that sites like Facebook and Twitter make connecting with people easier than ever. Even if I don’t like sharing the play-by-play of my personal life through social media sites, there is no more denying that they are extremely useful business tools. So I guess there really isn’t a reason to be afraid, and I want to share my newfound fearlessness. If you take the time to make social media sites work in the best interest of your business, they will only help you. Unfortunately, I can’t promise that your mom won’t ever embarrass you again.

Marcella Vieraitis is a new summer intern at ideaLaunch. She loves writing and editing, and is soaking up all there is to learn about the world of blogging, social media, and content marketing.

Have you ever wondered what makes sites like Amazon and Wikipedia so addictive? When you visit these sites, you can’t stop clicking; one link leads to another, and each page is more intriguing than the last. This is accomplished using a simple technique that you can mimic on your own website or blog: an effective internal linking strategy.

Think about it; in Wikipedia, practically every significant word or phrase in every article is linked to another article that deals exclusively with that subject. You might intend to read up on World War II and end up following a trail of links to an article about pirates or Romanian folklore. As far as website content tips go, leading your visitors deeper and deeper into your site—treating them to one wonder after another, like Alice as she tumbled down the rabbit hole—is at the top of the list.

Amazon takes this gem of content marketing even further; it recommends products to you based on those you have already looked at, lets you know what other people have ordered after viewing  those products, and provides you with lists of similar products—lists created not by Amazon itself as a marketing tool, but for fun and by customers like you. This strategy is based on a solid hypothesis: that if you happen to like one gothic romance, Marvel comic book, or young-adult urban-fantasy novel, you will like more of the same.

If you want to improve conversion, there is no better strategy than linking every page of your website to half a dozen other pages that tackle similar material from a fresh angle. Updates to one part of your site should be advertised on every other part, and it doesn’t hurt to have an interactive section where your customers can share their favorite products or services with visitors who are still on the fence.

Remember, interesting links keep your visitors clicking, and the more time they spend on your site, the more likely they are to find something they are willing to pay for. Internal links are also an integral part of search-engine optimization. If you want the best possible results, you can hire a marketing agency to help improve your internal linking strategy.

*Image from http://www.thecampussocialite.com/blog/images/alice-falling-down-rabbit-hole.jpg

Emily Robinson is a fiction writer and an editorial intern at ideaLaunch. After her final semester of college, she intends to become a copyeditor and/or a starving novelist.

In the world of blog marketing, people link to your content, not websites. Those few friends who read your blog are your most valuable asset, your first link to driving traffic inbound. Linking your existing social networks is the best way to employ this established group, but you’ll need to do some work on your end.

According to web information company Alexa, Facebook is the second most visited website in the world. Adding a ‘Like’ button to your posts is an unobtrusive way to promote your blog downstream to the networks of your friends. Having friends share your links in this way will bring a new audience to your site; it’s up to you to give the content to keep them coming back and, ideally, sharing your posts with their own networks.

Another quick and easy way to get the word out is to see who’s ‘Liking’ your content and engaging them. Saying thank you and promoting their site through your own network goes a long way in building a base of readership.

Two simple changes can help you steadily build a base of readership for your blog, but it’s up to you to offer them a reason to keep coming back!

Lou Perseghin lives in Providence, RI and works for a non-profit managing volunteers, recruiting members and handling marketing efforts.

Image from glamtings.files.wordpress.com

Even Chris Brogan,  an undisputed master of social media,  admits to a few pitfalls as his operations have grown. “My first attempt at managing my inbox was a failure because I wasn’t very human about it,” says Chris.  And just by admitting his failure, he shows how great he is at being, well, human.

“In every case that you build tools and process into your business,” says Chris,  “work out how you’ll keep it a human business: relationship-minded, sustainable, and friendly.“

Wise words for any budding entrepreneur. But automated responses aren’t always the culprit. In an effort to gain credibility and come off as a no-nonsense professional, you may want to stay all business. Dry.  Formal.  Never erring from your corporate message. But social media in particular seems to reject that approach. In our last blog post, Dawn Alcott explained that heavy hitters like Seth Godin, Chris Brogan, and J. Money succeed because “they aren’t afraid to be themselves.” Platforms like twitter and facebook provide the means to establish a friendly face for even the largest corporation. Take advantage of these faculties. Crack a joke. Share a (relevant) anecdote. Sometimes all it takes is an appropriately placed “?!?” or even, dare I say it, a telling emoticon to show that yeah, you’re a person. A person who, apparently, when necessary, can  curl their mouth into the shape of an S.

This isn’t a new concept by any means. But it remains relevant whether you are a fledgling company preparing to hire your first employee, or a multinational conglomerate. If you are struggling to establish not just your company’s identity, but its personality, keep trying. Emote. Add a conversational tone to your auto-responses. Or, if either a) you’re a bit on the bland side yourself or b) you really don’t have the time to be human, try hiring writers (who tend to be bottomless pits of personality) for your content marketing needs.

And If you absolutely have to use  robots, why not use Wall-E as a model? Develop robots that will bring grown men to tears!

Nicola Fairhead is an ideaLaunch editorial intern with a ferocious appetite for writing, editing, and consuming content.  She has quickly become a content marketing evangelist.

image courtesy of http://www.hooversbiz.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/sadrobot.jpg

What makes Seth—and bloggers like Chris Brogan, J. Money, and others—stand out?

1. They aren’t afraid to be themselves. We’ve all read about the importance of transparency, but transparency is more than revealing a few secrets about what you do in your spare time. Your marketing content should be uniquely “you.” And yes, a good freelance writer can be “you” on your blog as well as you can (if not even better!). You don’t get much more transparent than these birthday videos from Chris Brogan in a recent post.
2. They are short but sometimes not-so-sweet. This ties in with Number One on this list. It’s okay to be brutally honest if that’s who you are. If you have something to say, get to the point. Skip the niceties.
3. They are truly original. We’ve all heard the expression, “There are no new ideas.” But guys like Seth Godin have a way of putting a new spin on old standards that makes their ideas feel new and revolutionary. If you want to keep people reading your marketing content, be different. (Or, as Seth says, “Be remarkable.”) Go crazy. Take chances.
4. They create marketing content that is easy to remember and easier to share. I never feel like I’m asking a favor of people if I suggest they read Seth’s blog. Instead, I feel like I’m doing something nice for them, because they’ll learn something important or, at the very least, walk away smiling.

Dawn Allcot is a full-time freelance writer and blogger. She frequently writes about technology, business, parenting and paintball.

Image from pharospartners.com

 

1. Pay attention to quality from the beginning. Curdled milk won’t taste sweet no matter how much chocolate syrup you pour into it, and content marketing won’t succeed if your content is nothing more than a couple of mediocre paragraphs stuffed with keywords. You should hire a freelance writer whose copy is polished, professional, and free of spelling and grammatical errors.
2. Quantity and quality go hand in hand. Too little syrup leaves a glass of chocolate milk pale and underwhelming, while too much just makes you sick. The same goes for SEO content. Hire writers who are able to strike the right balance, optimizing your content with a variety of keywords, but avoiding an overdose that would only leave readers distracted and annoyed.
3. Don’t forget to stir. SEO may be about marketing content, but you also want to improve conversion rates, and potential customers appreciate a company website or blog packed with well-crafted, relevant content, not random keywords. When you’re hiring writers,  find someone with a talent for mixing keywords into good content like chocolate syrup in a glass of milk, till the two are blended seamlessly. The final product is guaranteed to be both delicious and nutritious for your customers and your company.

Whimsical metaphors aside, the quality of the writing and the skillful use of keywords on your site or in your blog should be integral factors in your marketing strategy. If you want to achieve the best possible results, hire a content marketing agency with plenty of experience in blending these ingredients just the right way.

Image from http://preparednesspro.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/chocolatemilk.jpg

Emily Robinson is a fiction writer and an editorial intern at ideaLaunch. After her final semester of college, she intends to become a copyeditor and/or a starving novelist.