• What’s the right time to understand who your best customers are? Who are your “worst” customers?
• When is it a good time to know what your prospects and customers care about and why they buy?
• What triggers your prospects to discover, consume and engage with content that inspires sales, social shares and referrals?
• Does having no content plan really mean you’re planning to fail?
• If you don’t tie your SEO, Social Media and Online Public Relations efforts together in a way that’s “manageable” and efficient now, will you wait until your competition does?
• When will you need a community of supporters to help promote your content, provide you with new content and serve as an on-demand focus group?
• When is it a good time to create more efficient and effective means for journalists and the media to use your content in their news stories?
• When is the right time to measure which content messages are working, which are not and to gain actionable insights that will improve overall marketing and PR performance?

The questions above get at some of the core principles and benefits of content marketing. Online marketers rely on channels like email, online PR, search and social media to generate awareness, leads and sales. Content is at the core of all those means of communication and without a plan that coordinates content planning, creation, optimization, social promotion and measurement, companies are simply guessing and getting lucky with their current online marketing efforts.

Without planned content designed to attract, engage and inspire action with prospects, customers and industry influentials, companies may find themselves looking in the tail lights of their competitors in the distance. Why wait to start the race when you can get a head start with Content Marketing today?

Research & Use Keywords. Optimize your blog for search engines. Use a keyword research tool to create a keyword glossary of words related to your brand, business, topic or industry that are in demand. Content creators should use the glossary as a reference for planning, writing and publishing content online.

Create a Content Plan. Create a structured, yet flexible content plan for your business blog. Assign topics and keywords to any planned articles, blog posts, curated news and other content. Its okay to expect some “wildcard” posts in case breaking industry news occurs, as long as content creators expect to consult the keyword list when posting.

Use Keywords Everywhere. Have you noticed a theme? Keywords are a blog’s most important feature for attracting organic traffic, but repetitive use in body text can turn readers off. To increase keyword density without sacrificing content quality, use keywords everywhere: In post titles, anchor text for URLs, tags, post categories, image alt text, audio and video title names, metadata, etc.

Create Valuable Content. Varied, compelling content draws readers back frequently to check for updates. Include wide-ranging content and formats in your blog posts, as they relate to your business, brand or industry. Some examples of types of posts that are popular include lists, FAQs, how-tos, interviews, industry news, current events, photo spreads and infographics.

The Three Cs. Get some of your content from the outside your organization through Curation, Comments and Crowdsourcing. Share posts from important blogs in your industry. Write posts that address poignant comments. Create surveys, polls and contests that result in content from your target market. Give audiences motivation to participate. Don’t forget to link – outbound links attract inbound links!

Quality Over Quantity. Some people post once a month, others by the week and even a few swear by blogging every day. But the quantity of posts that you publish isn’t as important as the quality. Quality over quantity will keep the readers of your business blog engaged and coming back for more.

Balance. Find a balance of optimizing blog text keywords and context for readers and search engines: Don’t forget that your target reader isn’t a computer. Offset curated content with original content. Find the right timing, for you and your brand, to publish new posts and remain consistent.

Incorporate Gadgets. You can share your work, but truly successful blog posts are distributed far and wide by zealous readers. Encourage this with gadgets embedded in each post or on each page, like RSS syndication feeds, widgets for social bookmark sites and buttons to instantly share posts via Twitter, Facebook or other social media sites. This gives more visibility and can help to build more links.

Getting the most value from a business blog takes a little knowledge and a lot of strategy, but it doesn’t have to be time consuming. Follow the tips above and you’ll be well on your way to reaping the benefits blogs can provide to companies.

Optimize Your Posts
It’s very important that you are always providing great content.  In addition to great content you want to make your entries as searchable as possible.  Implement a strong keyword strategy for your LinkedIn strategy as you would any other online marketing strategy.

The real SEO news is that Bing is launching its brand-new Adaptive Search. This is a tool by means of which Microsoft will attempt to adjust its algorithm to take into account the contextual relationship of a user’s search history.  Microsoft’s Aidan Cook explains the Bing Adaptive Search this way: “Every time you search on Bing, the information provided helps Bing understand what you’re trying to do. The more you search, the more Bing can learn – and use that information to adapt the experience so you can spend less time searching and accomplish what you set out to do.”

So, if you search for “Australia” with travel-related qualifiers, Bing can “surmise” that you’re planning a trip. The search engine can then present search results in line with this and make your search efforts more productive. The goal, in a nutshell, is to personalize search.

And what does this mean for a brand? To have an effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy, you have to REALLY know your audience. Search engines are continuing to evolve – with the goal of providing searchers what they really want and not just what they have asked for. So now the time is ripe for brands to look inward to ensure that their offerings, online messaging, and new content are in synch with the demands of their target markets.

A few questions to ask yourself to determine how well positioned you are to provide quality content to your target market:

• When’s the last time you conducted research into your buying audience (i.e. customers and prospects)?
• Do you have an editorial plan that outlines content for your different audience segments?
• Have you created content for each step in the buying cycle?

Your answers to these and other similar questions should serve as a litmus test for how well your content aligns with your target audience.

Because different mobile devices will render your site in different ways, it is most critical to first determine what percentage of your audience is accessing your content through a mobile device – and, of course – what type of mobile device they are most commonly using.  The ‘Mobile’ visitor segment in Google Analytics will provide you an overview of this critical data point.

Dependent on the types of mobile devices most commonly used to access your site, your options may fall anywhere between making only minimal changes to your content and layout (ie if your mobile audience is using Smartphones almost exclusively) or creating a completely new mobile friendly site.

Next, you’ll want to ensure the keyword glossary you create to support both optimization and content marketing efforts contains a balance of mobile friendly phrases.  As reported by eMarketing & Commerce, mobile search query strings are – on average – 25% shorter than desktop searches.  This means finding the ‘short hand’ (ie what abbreviated versions of your targeted keywords boast search volume or are generating real-time results?) in the ‘long tail’ (ie what ultra-specific keyword variations are driving traffic to your site?)

Fortunately, apart from these specific considerations, your mobile content marketing strategy will likely not vary too largely from your traditional content marketing strategy.  Ultimately, both aspects of this strategy will strive to:

• Quickly speak to – and address – the specific pain points of your audience
• Provide content that compels your audience and speaks to their interests
• Be open to constant testing and refinement, based on results measurement

And this means you should always be striving to produce content that is relevant, interesting and adjustable. This will always hold true – whether your platform is traditional or mobile.

If you are a marketer breathlessly trying to convince your C-suite of the need for content marketing, you likely identify with the wind’s role in the fable above.

Developing recommendations that point aggressively to content being created by competitors – or urging your C-suite to not fall any further behind – may have the unintended effect of causing more traditionally minded executives to hold more tightly onto tactics to which they are accustomed.

But what if you reversed your argument – focusing not on how the competitors are sharing information – but on how the executives you are trying to convince are absorbing information?

According to a recent survey from SiriusDecisions, covered in this article by Tom Pisello of Content Marketing Institute, targeted digital content marketing is the ideal entry point into the lives of busy executives.  It stands to reason that if your C-suite depends on you selling prospects sitting atop the same type of organizational hierarchy, the same type of tactics will likely provide the most benefit.

Of course, before you put all of your stock into the lessons shared by a fable, remember this: in real life, the wind helps carry the heat of the sun across the earth.  What this means for you as a budding content marketer is that you will need a powerful force to carry your message home. And this force will be best represented by samples of the content you are proposing (i.e. sample 90 day content plans, sample blog posts, etc.)

When proposing something new to your C-suite, remember, sticking to traditional tactics will be a very customary response.  Like the sun, you must compel someone past the feelings underlying this response.  And like the wind – you must be bold enough to carry your message home.  Sync your timing just right – and your company will be content marketing faster than you can read a fable.

The answer, provided by most firms, is ‘of course.’   But what positions some social media consultants above others is this:  the best consultants will never agree to such a narrow focus.

For metaphorical purposes, let’s pretend the consultant in question is a golf instructor.  Each day, you pay the instructor, and he helps you master the first hole of stunning 18-hole course.  Weeks later during a tournament, you double-birdie the first hole – and don’t come within a whisper of the competition the entire balance of the day.  Would you consider the money paid to the golf instructor as money well spent?

In much the same way, a consultant that agrees to a narrowly defined program – for instance, just growing Facebook likes – is agreeing to something they know cannot produce anything more than narrow results.  (Or rather, they SHOULD know.)

Succeeding in Facebook represents a vital indicator of any online marketing program – just as performing well in the first hole of a golf tournament is critical to your overall finish.  But it is simply a slice of your online marketing program – a contributor – rather than a representation, of your overall objective.

A true online marking consultant will never lose sight of this – and this will be most evident when they turn down an engagement focused on nothing more than Facebook.

For instance, the key to ensuring a group of people listen to what you have to say at a party – or to later share what you’ve said with their other groups of friends – is to say something that they will find engaging and valuable.  And the key to determining what  others will find engaging and valuable is to listen to what they are saying – in regards to both topic and tone.

In much the same way, the secret to getting your content listened to and shared online is to key in to what your target audience is saying.  And, again, this means listening.

Prior to developing your content, listen to the dialogues happening in the social networks you are curating – or the social networks you are trying to penetrate.  Sync the content you create, and the tone you use, with these dialogues.  In some cases, the content you create can even be a direct response to a question provided by another member of the group.

Fundamentally, we listen to and share the content that we find most valuable.  Create content that speaks to the value being sought by your target audience – and there will be much greater likelihood of your content being shared.

• Am I regularly publishing high quality, original content on my website?
• Would a new reader find my website content useful and engaging?
• As a new reader, would I trust the content that I see on my website?

A negative answer to any of the questions above could spell trouble.  In fact, it was these types of questions that helped to shape Google’s new algorithm, referred to as both Google Panda and Google Farmer.

It’s been widely reported that nearly 12% of websites worldwide have been affected by Google’s update – the search giant’s boldest attempt yet to filter low-quality content sites (or so-called ‘content farms’) out of the highest ranking positions.

If you feel as though you have been bit by the Panda, start by scrutinizing:

• Your rankings
  Did you recently experience normal movement in keyword ranking (ie move up or down the ladder a few rankings) or a complete bottoming out?
• Your traffic
  Did your trendline suddenly fall of a cliff?

Do keep in mind during this self-audit that some ranking movement, and seasonal traffic decreases, are normal for any website – and are likely unrelated to any algorithm update.  On the other hand, if you are seeing widespread plummeting, it may be time to explore a bit further.

Honestly assess your content marketing strategy to date, and if it falls even remotely on the wrong side of this update, make plans to remove and improve.

Blogs are an excellent source of steady content which can both inform an audience and improve the online visibility of your company. A business can increase the likelihood of future sales by providing information that is valuable to potential customers and serving as a resource.

An email newsletter which is issued on a less frequent basis, most companies choose monthly, can be developed to include a wide range of topics versus a focused blog post. Newsletters keep consumers engaged and informed in a simple manner and many consumers still prefer receiving news to their inbox. The mix of information can highlight both company news as well as industry information that benefits the recipient.

Any well-rounded marketing program should include multiple options and channels of distribution to meet the needs of the end-user. The combination of a blog and newsletter are just one way to connect with your target audience. In addition to those tactics, businesses should be evaluating their audience and consider social media, mobile marketing, advertising and more to create the best mix for their situation.

You can take advantage of the search capabilities of Twitter to find specific keywords in tweets to monitor the industry and look for the right opportunities to share your expertise. Connect at the right time when a potential customer is expressing a need or desire for the products you offer. Provide the customer with answers and support to resolve a problem and you could be looking at a sale or a new advocate for your company.

The methodology of social media marketing differs across industries but the ability to provide excellent customer support is universal. Using social media tools well can indeed boost the bottom line for any smart business.

Just as no upstanding SEO professional would ever state that Yahoo! and Bing traffic is the primary objective of an SEO program, no upstanding SEO professional would ever state that Google traffic is the only objective of an SEO program.

In reality, traffic from all sources can bring measurable SEO value.

For instance, by setting up Analytics goal tracking, we may learn that traffic from Yahoo! or Bing may be only 10% of that which is generated by Google, but visitors convert into sale or inquiry at four times the rate.  In regards to traffic from Bing, this scenario may not be as far-fetched as it first appears, as Adam Audette from SearchEngineWatch astutely points that ignoring Bing equates to ignoring a heavily e-commerce-focused demographic.

Ultimately, the answer to the question of how much you should care about traffic from Yahoo! or Bing is going to be one that is built into the individual objectives of your search marketing program, and how traffic from either source performs to these objectives.  In other words, while we may not able to definitively answer this question for you, we can say that an answer of  ‘not at all’ would be a definitively incorrect response.

In an ideal world, your blog will exist on your domain – benefiting from all the authority that you’ve worked to build up on your website – and lending the authority that you will work to build up on your blog back to your website.  Just as two good people enter a marriage and become a great couple, a website and blog married on the same domain is an ideal solution.

So what’s so loaded about that?  The simple fact that we do not live in an ideal world.

Just as not every person is emotionally adept at entering a marriage, not every website is technically adept to host a blog.  This doesn’t mean that the marriage reticent among us are not fit for relationships, nor does this mean that technically challenged websites are not fit to connect to blogs. It just means that for some of us, both websites and people, compromises and workarounds must be made.

As we enter 2011, content marketing will begin to inhabit a far greater role in successful online marketing programs.  As you navigate through this change, don’t make the common mistake of haphazardly launching a blog.  Start with a blog marketing initiative and be sure to devote the necessary resources of both time and money.

If you are soon to launch your corporate blog – know that the ideal solution is to host it on your main domain.  But if  for some reason that’s not possible, make sure you carry over the design of your main site so from a visitors perspective, they don’t know the difference.

The answer to this would be, of course they still do.  Traditional search rankings are simply no longer the be-all, end-all of a successful Search Engine Optimization (SEO) program.

Ten years ago, search rankings consisted of ten basic website links that were (essentially) the same regardless of where in the world you were searching from.

Rankings nowadays can be affected by everything from:

• Local, influenced by the geographic location of your IP address
• Social, influenced by the emergence or disappearance of trending topics
• Personalization, influenced by your own search history

So if rankings can fluctuate because of so many divergent factors, why do they still matter?

Taken from a more philosophical angle, rankings matter because there are things we can control and things we cannot control.  And while we may never control the size of the waves that rock our boat, or the external factors that rock our ranking, we can absolutely control the sails we run up our mast or the keywords that make up our title tags.

From a more nuts and bolts approach, for every keyword whose ranking fluctuates based on little more than whether a searcher is in Minneapolis or St. Paul, there are potentially ten keywords that experience very little fluctuation.  Think niche B2B technology focused keywords.  Think keywords that only the most seasoned, educated prospect would use.

In the end, it is those who build the sturdiest boat that have the best chance of staying afloat – regardless of whether or not they control the size of the waves.

Yes, of course.

For many, a straight-forward ‘yes’ when answered in relation to whether a mobile Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy should be launched is a terrifying answer.

Quite simply, if search moves at the speed of light, mobile moves at the speed of light on [insert favorite energy drink here.]

When something moves this fast, there are bound to be those that feel woefully behind in terms of understanding.

So before you breathe into your paper bag over mobile, take a deep breath of your analytics and find out how many of your users are actually coming to your site via mobile applications. Is it less than 40%?  Congratulations – you have some time.  More than 70%?  Well, yikes – let’s get moving.

Whatever camp you fall into, keep in mind that best practices – not fear – should always lead the way.  If it’s time for you to implement a mobile marketing strategy, set yourself up for success by keeping these best practices in mind:

1.     Ensure Content Is Built For Users: Different mobile users will see your content in different ways.  Feature phones (ie not Smart Phones) will oftentimes stack content from your site in a mobile browser while Smart Phones may display content either in zoom or postage stamp mode.  Mobile style sheets or unique mobile content can ensure your content displays properly for any user.

2.     Leverage Redirects and User Agents: Because different mobile and traditional search listings can appear in the same search results, user agents and redirects can be implemented to ensure the user is served the right content.

3.     Leave Behind Your Duplicate Content Fears: Mobile content is not counted as duplicate – even if it is the exact same minus the platform.

4.     Create An XML Site Map: A separate mobile XML site map, convertible to mobile, should be created.

5.     Implement Microformats: More and more, microformats will appear in mobile search results as rich snippets which can help compel the click.

For more details on mobile marketing or SEO best practices, contact TopRank® Online Marketing toll free at 1-877-872-6628 or locally in the Twin Cities at 952-400-0194.

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