I ran across this ebook on content marketing because I subscribe to Joe Pulizzi's Junta42 blog. The actual title of the ebook is Five Music Marketing Ideas That Will Pay Dividends, but as Joe rightly points out, these ideas will work for anyone in any business.
If you like the ebook, you can download a pdf copy here.
The name of the game with article marketing is to turn out lots and lots of good, quality articles that will all point backlinks to your website, and thus enhance your search engine rankings. You really can achieve a goal of publishing 100 or more articles on you your topic if you push to write more.
Here are ten easy article formats that will help you boost your output. Because they are easy, you can find yourself writing more and possibly turning out as much as ten quality articles every day.
List articles (like this one) are one of the easiest, fastest and most widely read article formats. Simply write out five, seven, ten or more key points related to your topic. Begin each item with a strong action verb and then write two or three more sentences of explanation. And before you know it, your article is done.
Frequently Asked Questions, or FAQ articles are also very easy to write. Jot down the questions clients ask you about your field, or create your own questions and then write short or long answers, depending on how much of a response the question warrants.
Brain Dump. This is a quick way to get a lot of articles written in a single day. Just freewrite everything you can think of on your topic and keep writing for ten or fifteen minutes. Take a break and come back to summarize what you have written and let your mind keep churning out new material. When you are done, you should have several pages and maybe 1500 to 3000 words worth of material. Then you just edit the material down into smaller articles. The great news is that your original 1500 word brain dump, will produce more than five 300 word articles because often you will use the same introductory material with each one.
Reviews. Have you recently read a book related to your topic or used a product that fits into what you want to write about? Then write a review. Tell readers what you liked, what disappointed you, who you would recommend it to, what its strengths and weaknesses were, and how they might benefit from this book or product.
Solve a problem. Chances are, people read article is your field in order to solve a problem. Identify those problems and come up with solutions. No you don't have to go on and on at length about how to solve it, just enough for them to want to contact you for more information (that is why you are writing this article in the first place, isn't it?)
Create a change. A companion topic to solving problems is to look at what changes people want to achieve. Show them how to bring about a desired change and your article will be very popular.
Pros and Cons. Discuss a topic and show readers both the positives and negatives of the topic. Don't be afraid to give your opinion. But also, it is ok to straddle the fence a little bit if you feel that a balanced analysis is in order.
Latest developments. This just might be the easiest article of all. Simply subscribe to Google news feeds on keywords related to your topic and you will get daily email updates on this topic. Each update may have five or six new items just hitting the web that day for you to write about. Just be a news reporter and give your readers up to date information on this topic.
Ask questions. This is not the same as the FAQ article mentioned earlier, but a way to move your article along. Just start jotting down all the questions you can think of and keep your fingers moving. These questions may be the first sentence of a new paragraph or they may just propel you along and provide you with new ideas to keep writing.
Cut your articles into smaller articles. In most cases, five 300 word articles will create much more traffic to your site than a single 1500 word article. As we've already discussed in the "Brain Dump" article, get in the habit of chopping your 700 word article into two 350 word articles; and your 900 word article into three 300 word articles. As I've also mentioned, the math will always work in your favor because you will probably find that that 900 word article can actually become FOUR 300 word articles because some of he sentences will have to overlap in order to make your point clear.
Article marketing is all about building traffic to your website. Nothing can do this faster than writing a lot of fresh, high quality articles. Use these formats and you WILL see your output climb through the roof.
Every marketing book on the planet (practically) waxes on and on about the importance of creating a "Unique Selling Proposition" or USP in order to effectively sell a product or service. Yet understanding what a USP really is, is still one of the most misunderstood concepts in business.
I've seen fuzzy slogans, unsupported claims, and vague sound bites all passed off as USPs. There is a law firm here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area that says they are the firm to go to when "results really matter." ???? Can anyone please tell me what that means? Who hires an expensive law firm when the results don't matter? Ok, I'd better get off my "lawyers can't market" soapbox right now because I have other things to say here.
There's a story about Claude Hopkins, the brilliant 1920s ad man who was asked to help a little-known, bottom-tier beer company named Schlitz boost their sales. This was before Schlitz became known as "The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous." In fact, it was before Schlitz was even famous within the city of Milwaukee itself.
The first thing he did was request a tour of Schlitz' brewery. While on the tour, Hopkins was surprised to notice that despite being located just a few hundred waters from Lake Michigan, Schlitz used only water from deep artesian wells to make its beer.
He also noticed that Schlitz' brewers repeatedly tested their yeast recipes, going through hundreds of trials in order to come up with the perfect formula. Furthermore, he was shown how they washed their beer bottles several times before filling them with beer.
When the tour was over, Hopkins asked the Schlitz executives why they weren't letting the public know about these painstaking processes. They responded that all breweries did pretty much the same things and that their processes were not really all that unique.
But, noted Hopkins, not one other brewer was talking about them. So he created a campaign to educate the public about the artesian water (even though an abundant and cheaper supply of water was only a few hundred yards away in Lake Michigan), the hundreds of trials in order to create the perfect yeast recipes, and the repeated re-washing of beer bottles prior to their use.
As a result, Schlitz came to "own" these painstaking processes in the minds of the public, even though other breweries did the same things.
A USP only has to be unique in the minds of the public to give your company a vastly superior selling advantage in the marketplace.
Think about your own processes. What are your own quality control standards? How do you produce a quality product? What do you do to deliver a quality service? How do you train your employees? How do you initiate, and then use, feedback and survey results from your customers?
If you are creating a personal brand for yourself, whether it is to advance your career or attract new clients, this same lesson applies. What are your areas of excellence? What do you do that no one else boasts about? These are the things that make up your personal brand and USP.
Personally, I prefer those car commercials that have engineers in white lab coats testing their cars with crash dummies or explaining the engineering processes (even though they are still over my head) over commercials that just shout to me about price and this-week-only sales.
Let's go back to the law firm I mentioned earlier. What if they educated the public about how they only hire law school graduates who were in the top of their classes, how their education continues once they come to work for this firm, how each newly hired lawyer is assigned a mentor, and how all the lawyers at that firm must take hours of continuing legal education.
The truth is, none of these things are unique to major law firms, but like Schlitz beer (oh I bet these lawyers would love to hear me compare their firms with a beer company), none of their competitors are educating the public about these things.
The reason a USP is so vital, is because it is a positioning device to create a unique spot of "real estate" in the mind of the marketplace. When Dominos Pizza began using the USP of guaranteed 30 minute delivery or less, they were not the only pizza chain that had fast delivery.
But they were the first to make fast, guaranteed delivery their claim to fame. And as a result, they came to "own" the idea of fast getting a pizza delivered quickly in the minds of the public.
What is your USP? What idea can you "own" in the minds of your public?
The success or failure of your marketing efforts depends on answering these questions. Don't pass them off with vague sound bites or unfounded, unsupported claims. The public won't buy these things and they will not make you unique in anyone's mind.
---------------------------------------------------- NOT USING NON-SPAM EMAIL MARKETING FOR YOUR BUSINESS YET? Learn why email marketing is the easiest, most effective and most affordable way to get new clients. Download my free ebook and receive tips, ideas and case studies to help you get more new customers at http://www.trafficwave.net/lcp/chbrown/emailmarketing/6604. ----------------------------------------- Add to Onlywire
More and more writers are posting great content about the subject of personal branding. Here are seven more articles that I found very valuable and thought you might worthwhile:
9 Ways to Brand YOU. i hesitate to say anything is the last word on this subject, but this article is a blueprint for personal branding. If you never read anything else on this topic, this article gives you a great overview on how to do it.
Personal Brand - How to Build Yours In Twitter. Hendry Lee presents some excellent ideas to help you use Twitter to formulate and promote your personal brand. One idea in particular, about how "Content Shapes Your Brand," is just excellent. For most of us who use Twitter as a business development tool, generally avoid Twittering about mindless chit chat. Instead we seek out people who tweet about useful information and ideas.
When Networking Doesn’t Come Easy. Although I am WAY older than Monica O'Brien's target audience, I still find her blog "Twenty Set" to be an astonishing source for valuable ideas. Here she focuses on how to start networking with some very concrete advice.
For example she says, "You don’t build a network by getting - you build it by giving." Simple yes, but how many times have we all failed on this elementary step?
She also says to, "The best networkers are people who ask lots of open-ended questions and genuinely listen. This way, you are more likely to disseminate what a person’s needs are and how you can help her fulfill those needs."
The Art of Writing Great Twitter Headlines. Why do some tweets get read and retweeted to thousands of people, while others are virtually ignored? Brian Clark says that a headline is a promise that offers a reward for clicking the link. After you read this article, think about what rewards your content promises to readers who click your links.
8 Ways to Build Your Email List Using Social Media. The pot of gold in online marketing is found in building a list of customers and highly qualified prospects. This article shows how to use personal branding and social media tools to build a highly responsive list.
Big news for your personal brand: Google Profiles. Google invented "Google Profiles" to compete with social networking sites like Facebook. This interview of Dan Schwabel by Heather Huhman shows that it is an invaluable tool if you are seeking to establish a personal brand online.
Why is a personal brand so important? The short answer is competition.
Regardless of whether you are seeking a job or are trying to attract business, you have lots of competition out there. Imagine your resume is sitting on someone’s desk in a large pile of other resumes. Not a very comforting thought, is it?
The same is true if you are trying to attract business. Your prospects are exposed to an estimated 15,000 sales messages every day. How in the world are you going to stand out amidst that much competition?
One key is to establish your own niche. Instead of being just one other fish in the pond, you can be the only fish in your own pond. A niche means you inherently have less (or even better, no) competition because you have your niche all to yourself.
Here is a simple, four step process for finding your own niche:
”T” stands for Target your audience. Identify a group of people you can serve who you can identify with and have a connection with.
”I” stands for Information. What information does your target audience want? What questions do they want answers to?
”P” stands for Problems. What problems do they have that need to solve? Better yet, what problems are they desperate to solve?
”S” stands for Solutions. What solutions can you provide for this group of people? What skills do you have that can solve their problems?
While the title of this article is designed to grab your attention, you may be wondering "How can you use the insanely silly comedy troop like Monty Python to market your product, service or event?"
Here's my answer: Not too many miles from me in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, just north of the DFW Airport, is the town of Grapevine, Texas. It is a very interesting town with an old main street which boasts of wine and antique shops on every block, and a very active schedule full of unique events.
One such event is the annual Monty Python Madness, sponsored by a store called the British Emporium.
But how do you promote an event like Monty Python Madness? What the owners of British Emporium did was to hire a few out-of-work local actors to film a video and post it to YouTube. Such as this one below (note: this video is from last year's festival, but the folks at British Emporium assures me a new video is in the works for this year).
I am not suggesting that you have to hire a team of actors to create a great promotional video. On the contrary, some of the most popular videos have a distinctive "home made" feel to them.
What I am suggesting is that you take advantage of the viral power of videos and YouTube to spread your message. As I mentioned in my post last week about Susan Boyle, social media platforms like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, or Digg make it possible for small firms or individuals to create what David Meerman Scott calls a World Wide Rave.
The lesson here is that quality has a better chance of spreading with Web 2.0 vehicles than ever before. Whether you are promoting a business, launching an unlikely singing career or a fun festival, social media levels the playing field, giving you a chance to compete just as well as a Fortune 500 company.
Over the past few months, I've come upon a lot of great articles and videos that I have submitted to my Digg.com account. After looking over them, I thought it would be a good idea to share them with you.
Most of these articles or videos have to do with social media marketing and/or personal branding.
With that said, here is my list:
Six reasons why no one likes you online A great article by Mack Collier with six simple reasons some people fail when they attempt to use social media marketing.
Youtube Video Marketing Tips 7 excellent tips by Doc Daniel on how to get lots of leads and traffic by using simple videos you can post to YouTube.
A Video of John Assaraf Interviewing Mike Koenigs Warning, this 59 minute video that is designed to sell a product called Traffic Geyser, but whether or not you decide to buy the product, these guys share a ton of valuable information. I could not keep track of the really valuable and informative tips these guys give on this video. So despite the fact that this video is a sales message, they add so much value, I wanted to pass it along.
Networking On Facebook This is an idea-rich article on how to build a large following on Facebook and use it as an awesome networking platform.
The Value of Connecting Your Business Blog to LinkedIn Marketing This is a great article that reinforces the need to have a blog and use it in tandem with social media tools like LinkedIn (although it would also work with Facebook) using your blog’s RSS feed.
30+ Apps for Doing Business on Facebook Think LinkedIn is the only place for business? Facebook is growing rapidly and it’s becoming a destination for businesses and business professionals alike to establish a presence. Josh Peters with Mashable lists over 30 Facebook applications to help promote, network, communicate, collaborate and accomplish more with your business.
100 Awesome Facebook Apps for Productivity and Learning When you think of Facebook, it’s not likely you consider it a productivity tool. But the truth is that there are a variety of ways to use Facebook for both learning productivity, and a number of apps that can help you do so.
10 Tips for Twitter Un-MarketingLeigh Duncan-Durst shows you ten ways to use Twitter as a marketing tool without resorting to old school, in your face marketing. These tips are all about how to add value as a way of attracting business.
The Benefit Of The Benefit A very interesting article by Paul Williams that shows how to target your prospects’ emotional core when selling or marketing any product or service.
40 Ways to Deliver Killer Blog Content With Chris Brogan, the tips and ideas just keep coming. This article is just packed with ways to make your blog articles dance and sing (or at least attract readers).
How to Create a Killer Elevator Speech in Minutes Need to sum up the value of your services in a short, powerful statement? This excellent article by Rhett Hatfield gives 3 tips on how to do this.
How To Become A Twitter Rockstar - Sort Of David Brown gives some great ideas (although some are already well known by people already using Twitter) on how to boost your popularity on Twitter.
HOW TO: Build Community on Twitter A very good Mashable article by Sarah Evans that shows how to use Twitter the right way. Instead of blasting out old school sales tweets, Sarah shows how to create two-way conversations with your audience on Twitter.
Strengthen Your Personal Brand by Leveraging It to Help Others Another great article by Liz Lynch, author of Smart Networking: Attract a Following in Person and Online." She shows how much of an impact helping others has on your own personal brand. She says that people who actively Refer, Recommend and Retweet. will benefit personally as they add value to others.
With Facebook Pages, Who Needs a Website? A thought-provoking article by Paul Dunay that argues that some businesses may not need a website. Instead simply build a Facebook Fan page that may get more traffic and get more exposure than a new website would get.
Within the last two weeks I've had three offline conversations with business people about Twitter. These individuals have heard about Twitter and even checked it out by setting up accounts, but they were baffled by how to use it to use it and organize the huge flow of information that comes from all the people they follow.
So I went to YouTube and found these videos about a tool I use that has made my Twitter experience profitable and manageable. The app is called "Tweetdeck" and here are the two videos:
Now this second video shows some of Tweetdeck's advanced features:
Over the past several days, the world has witnessed an example of what David Meerman Scott calls a World Wide Rave. I am referring, of course, to 47 year old, never married, never kissed, Susan Boyle who stunned a British audience at the April 11 episode of Britain's Got Talent.
People have emailed this video link to others, posted it on their Facebook pages, Dugg it, and tweeted about it because it is one of the most heart warming things many of us have seen in a long, long time (I've watched the video at least five times and have teared up every time).
David Meerman Scott describes a World Wide Rave as when people talk, email or tweet about you and/or your content. When they spread the news about you willingly without being coerced, and create buzz about you. This has certainly been the case for Ms. Boyle's wonderful performance.
So what is the marketing lesson here? I hardly expect that I will ever create the kind of international buzz surrounding Susan Boyle, but I can create the best content I am capable of. Frankly, I don't need to have international acclaim, I just need to create buzz within my niche of helping professional services organizations market themselves better with social media.
Social media gives all of us the tools to create our own modest levels of buzz, so long as we bring good, valuable content to the party. Think of ways you can solve other peoples' problems for them. Think of how you can help them achieve a goal or obtain something they really want. Then create content that will achieve these things for others.
Let's face the facts. Despite a few glimmers of good news popping up now and then, we all know that the economy will not turn around for at least a year, maybe more.
That means it is going to be harder for professionals like doctors, lawyers, consultants, accountants and others to attract new clients or get more business from their existing clients. Everybody is tightening their belts and planning to keep them tight for the foreseeable future.
However there are a few steps professionals can take to still get business coming in the door, regardless of the economy:
Create "bait" information pieces like white papers, tip sheets, ebooks, or videos that provide valuable, free information for prospective clients.
These bait pieces are soft sell devices like, "8 Ways to Save on Property Taxes," "5 Ways to Avoid Getting Sued," or "How to Keep Your Children Well This Winter."
But a hard sell piece like, "10 Reasons Goode, Hailey and Knight Should Be Your Accounting Firm" is not a good bait piece.
Turn every advertisement into a direct response ad – even Yellow Page or directory ads.
There are two types of advertisements, "awareness" ads and "direct response" ads. Awareness ads just tell prospects that you exist and if they have nothing better to do with their time, to give you a call.
Direct response ads entice readers to take action, such as to call your office or visit your website in order to get your white paper or tip sheet. When you advertise this way, you can actually measure how effective the ad is, based on the number of responses you receive, and make changes along the way.
Build a list. When people respond to your direct respond ads or request your bait pieces, collect these "opt in" leads to build a list. This concept is called "Permission Marketing" (based on the book by that name written by Seth Godin). This list of people who have requested your free information may become your most valuable resource, so take good care of it.
Continue to give valuable, free information to the people on your list. Create an email newsletter that is a source of solid information.
Start or maintain a business blog. A blog is so much more versatile than a static website. It is a great place to build your personal brand by adding useful information and content that your prospective clients will find helpful, much like the bait pieces mentioned above.
Make your blog a resource for people who are prospective and existing clients. Don't be afraid to give away free information, but create more white papers, tip sheets, checklists, articles, videos, frequently asked questions (FAQs), and case studies about some of your clients’ success stories.
It may sound counter-intuitive to give away free information, but you will find that it pays dividends. It gives visitors a reason to keep coming back to your site and it establishes your credibility as an expert in your field.
Use Social Media. Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are great ways to expand you online network and drive traffic to your blog. Every time you add new content, be sure to send a tweet to direct your followers to the new article or video. Use your blog to convert social media followers or friends to readers.
Build a personal brand. All of these efforts are ways you can communicate your value to potential customers. The content your produce shows that you are a solution to certain types of problems, problems your prospects need to solve.
And every time you add new content that your prospects find useful and informative, the more you make yourself stand out from the crowd of competitors.
For those of us who sell our services and knowledge, a tough economy is a time to roll up our sleeves and work smarter. But if you do work smarter, use social media, direct response advertising, build a list and create a blog that your prospects view as a resource, you will be rewarded while your competitors tread water.
Yesterday I posted an article called Build Your Personal Brand With a Blog, in which we discussed why a blog is the engine driving almost any personal branding campaign. Because a blog can be easily updated with text articles, mp3 audio files, or videos, it is the perfect personal branding vehicle to update new content in order to position yourself as an expert in your field.
However many people find it difficult to come up with things to write about or scheduling time to write a blog.
To help those who find it difficult to produce enough content to build a personal brand, here are some ideas various information you may wish to post to your blog:
Write a bullet point article that lists links to helpful resources beneficial to your target readers.
Write a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) article that follows a simple Q and A format. You can either use actual questions your clients have asked or you can pose questions that would provide readers with needed insights.
Write a list article that provides readers with useful tips and ideas.
Write a case study of an actual client or user of your product or service. Show various problems you helped this client overcome.
Post an applicable video from YouTube with your own short commentary in which you advise readers on how to apply this information.
Write a responsive or trackback article that is based on an article you find posted on another blog or website.
Subscribe to Google Alerts to receive daily emails updating you anytime new information appears on the web related to your topic of interest. Use this information to keep your readers informed.
Post instructional videos of yourself giving a short talk to the people who come to your blog.
Post articles from article bank sites like ezinearticles.com or articlecity.com.
Interview someone, such as a a client, an expert in your field or anyone with information that would be useful and interesting to your readers.
Whether you are a job seeker, own your own business or wish to move up the corporate ladder, it is essential that you develop your own personal brand.
But what is a “personal brand?”
A personal brand is what sets you apart from the crowd or your competitors. Think of how you perceive a Cadillac compared to a Neon, or a BMW compared to a Buick.
Most likely there is a huge difference in your mind between these automobile brands. The auto makers have spent years cultivating brand recognition in the market place so that we perceive these vehicles in a certain way.
Another analogy is a successful politician. All politicians strive to accomplish two things: name recognition and a perception that they are better able to solve problems than their opponents. In any campaign, the person who accomplishes these two objectives the best, is the one who gets elected.
In your your case, a personal brand consists primarily of creating both name recognition and a status of expertise. Whether you are seeking a job, new business, or wish to advance your career within your existing company, your personal brand is what keeps you from being a commodity.
This brings us to the question of “How do you create a personal brand?” I believe the best vehicle for creating a powerful and effective personal brand is a blog.
Unlike a static website, a blog is meant to updated with fresh, new content on a regular basis. You can write articles, like I do in this blog, or you can post short videos, or you can even post audio recordings called “podcasts.”
A good blog can position you as an expert in your field, gather a following of people who are interested in your content and produce a significant amount of name recognition.
Additionally, search engines like Google, love (and reward) blogs because they tend to be keyword rich and are updated frequently with new content.
If you decide to create a blog as your own personal branding tool, here are a few tips:
Compile a list of keywords pertaining to your topic and emphasize them often when you post new content.
Subscribe to Google Alerts so that new information on the web relating to those keywords will be sent to you daily. This helps you avoid the onerous task of coming up with new ideas to write about all the time.
Consider using your blog as a platform to write a book. Most people balk at the idea of becoming an author, but if you blog regularly, your book will almost write itself.
Use social media sites like Twitter and Facebook to attract readers to your blog articles.
Cultivate a community around your topic. You can do this by encouraging people to leave comments on your blog, making comments on other people’s blogs, and with the social media tools mentioned above.
What about you? Do you have any blogging success stories or thoughts you’d like to share about personal branding with a blog? Please leave your comment.
There are still many companies that have not decided whether they should get on the social media bandwagon. Many of these firms are wondering whether social media can help or hurt their existing efforts. Others are simply unsure of what to do.
To help provide answers to these questions, I have compiled a short list of articles I've run across recently that may show the way. (Note: I have included blogs in with other social media platforms even though I am aware that some people do not consider blogs to actually be under the social media umbrella).
First, let's define what social media is. The best definition I've seen is: Social Media is any site that has more than 50% of its content created by users. This means that sites like YouTube or Flikr, for which users upload videos and pictures, are social media sites.
It also means that bookmarking sites like Digg or Delicious, are also social media because it is the users that submit and "vote" on the importance of the web pages catalogued on them.
Blogs, as I have mentioned before, is a judgment call because the owner generally writes the blog posts, but readers may comment on these posts. So in this instance, the 50% rule may or may not apply, but nevertheless, blogs create communities and allow for back and forth dialogue between the owner and the readers.
With that said, here are the articles I think may be helpful:
The Power of One Knowledgeable, Dedicated Social Media Marketer, written by Brian Friedlander, shows how one marketing executive whose timely response to a blog post about her company's product, not only answered numerous questions but positioned the product for better sales.
Why You Should Be Video Blogging, by Kailee Brown (no relation) gives an excellent explanation of how video blogs can really boost a company's web presence.
How To Make twitter A Powerful Networking Tool. Networking is a given in the offline business world, but how do you transition those skills to online networking? This is a great article showing how to build a large and dynamic network with Twitter.
White paper on how marketers are using social media, by Michael Stelzner. Mike is always a source for great information and he never does anything half way. This white paper shows how other businesses are using social media. Many of them are your competitors, don't you want to keep up?
The Value of Social Media Marketing, by Mark Aaron Murnahan discusses why social media is a must marketing tool for companies today. The rub, he says, is that it doesn't fit neatly into old metrics. Trying to measure return on investment for social media is like trying to measure the value of every handshake or hello Instead he shows how value can be found in other ways that are good for business.
I consult with businesses on the strategic use of social media, web marketing and email marketing. I also speak and conduct workshops on social media marketing for organizations.
My team offers outsource solutions and training for companies needing to engage with their target market with social media.
Contact me at 817-501-6892 or by email at: or chbrown/at/webmarketing-coach.com.
Need a Speaker or Guest Writer?
Need a speaker or guest writer/blogger on social media marketing, rainmaking or personal branding?
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