Content marketing is now a must for all business owners who want to boost their online presence, grab the best organic ranking and show they are engaged experts in their relevant fields.
While people sometimes feel overwhelmed with the amount of effort that’s required to continually update their websites and social media profiles with relevant and engaging content, they often overlook how one piece of well-written, engaging content can be used across multiple platforms.
This blog post will provide you with a number of tips as they relate to one individual blog. Imagine our blog is a pie. Let’s begin divvying up the content:
Let’s look at our pie: an original, engaging and relevant blog
Blogs are one of the simplest and easiest ways to update your website and attract new visitors. If you’re worried that you won’t be able to think of anything to write about, we suggest setting up an RSS reader (Feedly is our favourite). Add relevant news sites, industry websites, blogs, and even competitor’s websites – this way you can see what works and what doesn’t. Try to stick to around 300-500 words per blog post. Any less isn’t substantial enough and any more might deter people from reading the whole post. Be sure to break up blocks of text with images, too.
1st piece of the pie: infographics
OK, so we’ve put together a great blog, let’s slice up some of the information. Infographics are an engaging way to highlight main points from your blog post, especially since 90% of information received by the brain is visual (see our post about infographics). Whether your blog post is sales-oriented or follows more of a step-by-step guide format, it doesn’t matter – infographics can be used to visualise almost any information you can think of. Once it’s finalised, you can attach it to your blog post and then share it on your social media pages and even Slideshare.
2nd piece of the pie: Facebook
In the past, we’ve found it useful to come up with a few different Facebook posts based on a blog post and scheduling them over a couple of weeks – this is a great way to drive a consistent stream of traffic to your page. If you don’t have many likes on your page, it could be a good idea to “boost” one of your Facebook posts. For as little as $5 you can get your post seen by thousands of targeted Facebook users. If the post links back to your business’ blog, you’ll also see an increase in website traffic.
3rd piece of the pie: Twitter
As with Facebook, it’s a good idea to organise a number of different tweets linking back to your blog post. However, with Twitter, it’s important to schedule your posts at different times of the day. Remember, there are a lot more posts on Twitter than on Facebook, and whereas Facebook users might tend to scroll and scroll through their newsfeed, Twitter users who follow thousands of people usually don’t spend hours returning to the point where they left off last night. Remember to leave enough room for relevant hashtags. Have you tried using a hashtag research tool? There are a ton of free resources out there which can show you related hashtags and top influences. If you’re lacking in followers, you might want to consider paying to “promote” one of your posts.
4th piece of the pie: LinkedIn
If you have a business (especially a B2B business), it goes without saying that you should be on LinkedIn. You should look for new connections regularly, because these connections could become clients. The great thing about posting on a LinkedIn company page is that if you choose to sponsor an update or create an ad, you can specify in great detail the audience of your ad – that means choosing job position, company size, location, industry etc.
5th piece of the pie: Google+
Google+ tends to get a bit overlooked at times, but for businesses in particular it’s essential not to underestimate the importance of Google’s social network. When someone searches for your company and you don’t have a Google+ page, you could be sending them on a wild goose chase to find out more about your business and how to contact you. Take a look at our blog post on how you can take advantage of Google+ for your business.
6th piece of the pie: Slideshare
Surprised? Slideshare isn’t just for sharing presentation slides – we’ve found it to be a great resource for sharing our blog posts and infographics. It’s an attractive and engaging way to share your content, and users are also able to embed the slideshow on their blog or website, which could mean more visitors to your website. Simply turn your blog or infographic into a PowerPoint presentation and upload it to Slideshare. It’s that simple. Be sure to follow other businesses too – it’s a great learning tool.
Still hungry for more traffic? You could benefit from submitting your content to an industry website, blog or publication. This would promote industry-specific website visitors, and these visitors could become clients.
Don’t forget, content marketing is a lot less difficult than it sounds, and if you’re not doing it you could be missing out on a lot of web traffic and even potential customers. You’ve got nothing to lose!
If you’re still lost for words, contact us today to discuss how we can create an engaging content marketing strategy for your business.