Build Your Online Business with Content Marketing
Among the many ways an online business entrepreneur can attract clients and build a sustainable online business is by using content marketing.
What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is educating your prospective customers using various forms of content for the purpose of establishing a relationship that enables you to make multiple offers for your products and services over time.
Get it? Got it? Good.
Now, let’s get practical.
The Four Elements of Effective Content Marketing
Your content must provide value. Give your prospects information that they care about. Let’s say you run an online cosmetics store, information that your prospects value might include:
How to Apply Makeup So It Looks like You’re Not Wearing Any
Sexy Seasonal Makeup Styles and Colors
The Health Benefits of using [your type of makeup- not brand]
5 Ways to Enhance Your Eye Color with Eye Shadow
3 Techniques for Fuller, Juicer Looking Lips
The possibilities are endless, but your goal is to find out what problems or needs your prospects have and then solve or meet them. You must talk to your prospects about the things they give a hoot about, and I hate to break it to you, but it’s not you, or your great company, or cute little kid. They care about themselves. So, give them content that they can’t wait to read. Establish an expectation that your content is must-read material, and prove to your audience you are worth their time because of the value you provide.
Your content must be reliable. When a friend makes a compelling recommendation, how often do you take it? If it meets your need and they’ve made good recommendations in the past, you probably take their recommendation without much hesitation. Why? Because you know, like, and trust your friend. So what does this mean for you as a female online entrepreneur? Become your prospects familiar friendly resource. Do this by providing your prospects with useful information that solves there problems. If your prospects learn from your content, apply your tips as instructed, and get reasonable results, they are going to trust you. They are going to rely on you somewhat, and as a result, they are more likely to buy from you.
Your content must be believable. You have got to provide credible content that your users can accept as truth and apply to their needs and problems. Think about it. Unless you are a desperate buyer, how often do you believe a person or product that promises you millions in the bank overnight? Never! I hope! In online entrepreneurship there are no shortcuts to success, you’ve got to do the hard work for the big rewards. If you want your prospects to become loyal customers, you must provide them with legitimate information that meets their needs. Do yourself a favor. Just tell them like it is.
Your content must demonstrate that you are an authority in your niche. You need to become the go-to problem solver for your target market. You need to be a need-meeter (clearly that is not a word, but I’m going with it). Most importantly, you need to respect those willing to listen, learn, and buy from you. Basically, you need to become a leader.
Why Content Marketing Works for Online Businesses
Duh! Because people are on the Web looking for information! They are Googling their hearts out for answers to their concerns, fears, problems, and desires. It doesn’t get any better than this as an entrepreneur because if you meet the right needs, solve the right problems, and alleviate those pressing concerns prospects are looking for YOU!
This is why it is essential that you deliver exactly what your prospects need. You only get one chance to catch your prospect’s attention, so make sure your content does the job. Not to mention, providing supercalifragilistic content means your prospects will continue to come back for more which means that over time you can erode any barriers they may have to buying your products or services.
Differentiate Your Content or Die
Okay, so you’ve got the fundamentals. Now let’s kick it up a notch. Let’s talk about how you can actually get people to crave the content you produce. For the most part, we live in a sea of sameness on the web. Add to that the proliferation of content generating software and content scraping sleazebags, and you have a bunch of regurgitated junk that can be found almost anywhere. Whatever you do, you must avoid getting lost in that mess at all costs. Use the following checklist to make sure your content stands out from the crowd:
Make your content interesting. Tell a story. Share an experience. Write like you are talking to one person sitting right across from you. Being conversational enables your readers to engage with you through your content. No one really enjoys textbook, so just be you.
Make your content persuasive. Let’s be real. You are not just writing all of your brilliant content for the greater good. You are writing your content to build relationships with potential customers so that you can sell to them over time. This means that at some level you need to do some convincing, you need to make a compelling offer, and you need to get your customers to take action.
Make your content a reflection of yourself. Your content needs to be relate-able, tangible, encouraging, and easy to understand. Most of all, your content should reflect your unique voice and demonstrate to your prospects just how much you care about the things that matter to them.
There are a number of ways you can differentiate your content, so take some risks and get creative. Whatever you do, avoid being a carbon copy of the next guy. We’ve got enough of that already.
Getting Your Content Out There
Your content is only as good as the people who receive it. If you’re doing things right, people are going to want to read, bookmark, and share your information. This is where SEO, social media, and social networking can play a big role in increasing your visibility.
Using social media to distribute your content deserves an article all it’s own, so for now I recommend you check out the following posts by Chris Brogan for some quick social media schooling.
Starting a Social Media Strategy
20 Free eBooks About Social Media
50 Ways Marketers Can use Social Media to Improve Their Marketing
100 Personal Branding Tactics Using Social Media
If you build it, they might not come, so go find them and share the good news.
Is Blogging the Only Way to use Content Marketing?
No way Josefina! Content marketing takes place in many forms. If you are not into blogging consider using video or audio. Or, create a special report or write a guide book for your target market. In the article 49 Creative Ways You Can Profit From Content Marketing, Senior Editor of Copyblogger, Sonia Simone, shares 49 knock your socks of ways to create content that will help you grow your business. Check it out, because it will certainly get your gears turning.
I should also mention that if you’re not familiar with Copyblogger, and you plan to use content marketing, you should be. Copyblogger offers a multitude of resources that can help you grow your online business. As far as I’m concerned Copyblogger is the godfather of content marketing that doesn’t make you cringe.
So how will you apply content marketing to your online business? What kind of creative content can you think of producing that your audience might enjoy? Let me know in the comments. Let’s kick around some content marketing ideas!
Speaking of all this content marketing now would be a good time for me to give you a heads up on a special document I’ve created just for you. If you’re not subscribed to my RSS feed, do it now so that you can get this document right in your feed reader. And, don’t forget to submit your e-mail address in the box at the top right of this page so that you can get first dibs (and the best price) on my upcoming Girls Guide to a Kick-Ass Online Biz.
Okay, so tell me what you’ve got?
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Marlee! I’ve been in business for 12 years, so I’m constantly signing up or opting in to sites for information. Your podcast was great as is the information on your site and definitely in this post! You give away so much free advice that I can’t wait to receive the emails and will definitely consider your biz university. I also appreciate you including your spiritually in the podcast, says a lot about you and your business!!! KUDOS!
Thank you so much, Dawn. Your words are beyond encouraging. I hope you’ll find all of those resources tremendously useful.
Nice post…really useful for people like us who is doing this content marketing through blogs and websites. despite from the above information i wants to add something to this article to make your blog successful. That is post according to test and daily post. daily post makes people visit your blog every times they open their computer.
Hi Ariff,
Thanks for your comment. I’m glad you enjoyed the post. You make a great suggestion too. Posting regularly does help attract visitors to your site. Testing your analytics will help you determine the best posting schedule for your audience.
Welcome to Metamorphoself!
Hey Marlee,
I, like Steven H am not a girl but want to comment on this great post. I got so many insightful things from the information you shared I just had to sign up to be on your opt-in list. Hopefully you won’t mind another guy getting your information. I will also pass this information along to many of my clients who happen to be female and our looking for better ways to run their businesses.
Two cool people that you may want to check out that fit your market are Corvida Raven from shegeeks.net and Angela Benton with blackweb20.com Here are their Twitter handles @corvida @ABenton These two ladies really have it going on in the Social Media and Technology world. I highly recommend that you follow them if you are not follow them already.
As far as a content marketing is concerned I have been using it for some time now. The one thing that gets me is the ability to laser focus on just one subject matter or market niche. I, like you, have also been in the medical industry but as you know it is a hard nut to crack. I have also dabbled in other market niches but have not really found me true calling just yet. I do feel I am on the verge of finding it but I am still doing the “Jack of all trades thing” to cover all my bases.
Well thats all I have for now.
Again great post
All the best
JB
JB BrathwaiteWould You Pay To Keep Your Twitter Username
Hey JB! Thanks for your response. I’m so glad that you found the insights on content marketing useful, and thank you for the contact referrals. I will definitely be reaching out to them. Of course I don’t mind you signing up for my info! In fact, you can prove be a great alternative perspective for us ladies.
As for the medical industry – three words – I hear ya! Such a hard nut to crack. I think there is a bit of a mindset issue and lack of understanding that goes with the target market. I think we may be a bit ahead of the curve in the needs we serve. I checked out Twarketing.com – I like your take on things. I would caution against the “jack of all trades” thing, even though it’s a temporary position on things until you find that call. Being a “jack of all trades” for too long can lead to being viewed as a “master of none.” You definitely have a number of strengths as evidenced on your blog, you’ve just got to search for that “sweet spot”! Keep pressing in…it’s right around the corner!
Don’t be a stranger!
This is a grade-A, high quality post. I’m not a girl, but I’m definitely going to apply this knowledge to my future endeavors. I just recently started visiting copyblogger to up my game (it is actually where I found the link to your site!)
What social media have you found the most effective? Also, do you have any tips for StumbleUpon users?
Hope to read more from you soon!
Steven H50 Stress-Relievers That Take 5 Minutes Or Less
Thanks for stopping by Steven! And, yes I write to “my girls” but we play nice with the boys too.
I’m glad that you’ve found the info in this post useful. You’re website is very interesting and I love the layout! Copyblogger is certainly the most comprehensive resource on the web for improving your copywriting skills…and on the Web those skills are almost everything when it comes to your on site success.
As for social media, I’ve struggled with social media for some time because it seemed like everyone was just shouting into a vacuum vying for attention. I’ve found that I’m most successful in generating real connections with people through social media when I use the tools that I like best and use most often. Establishing mini-relationships with people through social media and taking time to get to know them a bit makes for a very power distribution network down the line, but randomly adding people and blasting links to your site, etc. is a quick way to kill the benefits of social media as a distribution mechanism.
I like StumbleUpon, it’s a great tool and you can generate a nice bump in traffic with it. In my experience however, much of the traffic you get from StumbleUpon is drive-by traffic. They come and leave quickly. So, you have to ask yourself if your time is well spent building a StumbleUpon community and being an active user if you can’t convert the drive-by traffic well. Here’s a couple of links to some interesting insights on how to use StumbleUpon if you think it’s right for you. Hope they help! Don’t be a stranger.
http://www.stevenaitchison.co.uk/blog/2008/02/03/stumbleupon-tips-video/
http://theinternetmarketingguidefornewbies.com/blog/?p=351
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