Content Marketing

Here’s what marketing looks like today:
You determine your ideal customer.
You create a message that will resonate with him or her.
You build visual marketing that communicates your message.
You use content — blog posts, ebooks, guest posting, interviews, podcasts — to get your message out.
You drive everyone who finds you back to your website, which is your marketing hub.
You’re in control. It’s called Inbound Marketing.
Did you know?
62% of marketers have a blog.
The average company that blogs generates 55% more website visitors.
43% of marketers generate  customers from their blog.
Companies that blog generate 126% more leads than those that don’t.
Inbound marketing delivers 54% more leads into the marketing funnel than traditional outbound leads.
61% of U.S. consumers have made a purchase based on a blog post.
81% of consumers trust information and advice from blogs.
70% of consumers prefer getting to know a company via articles (not ads).
84% of B2B marketers use social media in some form.
Facebook is the top social channel for generating leads.
43% of all marketers found a customer via LinkedIn in 2013.
Source: Hubspot

Tip 1. Do you know your target market? Who are they?
It all starts with defining your audience.
Who are they?
What is their most pressing issue, problem, or desire?
What benefit of your product solves their problem?
Who do they trust?
Tip 2. What am I offering?
A digital download?
Are you selling a physical product?
Do you provide a service? Training? Education?
Are you a retail business with a physical location?
Tip 3.  Remember how to use your keywords
Embed relevant keywords in your content. This is an easy way to make it more visible to the search engines. At the very least, your site’s <title> tag should include those keywords that best describe your skills . Work them into your categories, URLs, post titles and subheadings where appropriate.
Tip 4. Create unique content
Having content that no other site has is the first step to drawing a crowd. Strive to be original. By writing original content (something that’s useful, informative, funny, free, beneficial or helpful, for instance), you’ll encourage people to link to what you’ve created. All SEO techniques start with good content creation.
Tip 5. Use images creatively
Images have the potential to make or break a site’s effectiveness.
Websites that use images well can sell a lifestyle, an ideal, an idea of whatever the product needs to sell more. They can sell the features in an instant and provide clear and accurate information on the product. Replace iStock photos with original photos from your smartphone and sites with free high resolution downloads such as unsplash.com.
Tip 6.  How does your site look on your smartphone?
You need a responsive design website that has been constructed so that all of the content, images and structure of the site remains the same on any device.
Reason? Users get a better experience, they don’t have to fool around with zooming and shrinking the text or images on screen. Instead, all of the content automatically adjusts to the screen of the device. Plus you get an edge over your competition!
Tip 7.  Revisit your About page
Your About page is a primary connection point for customers. It’s a place where they can find out more about what makes you, your business, or product tick and, most important, what you can do for them. Use your About page copy to tell visitors how your product or service will be able to benefit them.
Tip 8.  Do you have to squint to read your copy?
Maybe you’re using a lot of fonts, colors and sizes. Keep it simple – two fonts and 2-3 sizes.
Make it easy for your user to read your copy and make the font large enough that people can read it. Keep your font styles consistent.
Tip 9.  Are you using a slider on your homepage?
Sliders can be interesting, but also problematic. Mostly they are distracting.
It all comes down to focus. Basically, what you’re saying with a slider is: “I really don’t know which product or picture I should put on display on my homepage, so I’ll just grab 10 of them!” Consider killing your slider.
Tip 10.  Do you have a call-to-action button?
Drive customers to become leads with a button or link so visitors can download a free ebook, start a free trial, make an appointment, get a free consultation.
Add a CTA button to your homepage.
– By Marcia Coffey
Find Marcia on Google+
Call Marcia at 561.906.3436.

Yours is a small business site. Say about ten pages. That means, of course, you have about ten chances of coming up on Google when someone searches for what you do with your keywords.
Right? Wrong!
Remove the contact page, the disclaimer page (if you have one), the thank you pages, etc , it’s likely only 6 pages on your site may be searchable.
I’m being generous here. When was the last time you google’d and a Company Services page came up? Or the company’s About page? No doubt NEVER.
Assuming you have optimized your pages well, added individual titles and descriptions for each page, etc … still there will probably be only 3 pages on your website that show up on Google.

Blogging changes everything

You want to increase the amount of business you get from the internet — you want to use the web to generate more leads and make more sales.
So you publish your first blog post.
Now instead of three pages that could show up in search results, there are four. By publishing a single blog post, you created another opportunity online for someone who needs what you do to find you.
If you blog twice a week for a year, you will add over one hundred new opportunities to get your website in front of people, increase your chances of appearing in the search results, and you’ll expand the visibility of your brand and business.

What Others Have To Say

Blogging may just be the magic for your local market.
Most local businesses do not blog, so if you do you will have a distinct advantage over your competition and attract an audience that may interact with you.
See how that works here:
http://searchengineland.com/need-a-secret-weapon-for-local-seo-try-blogging-138067
The Viral Effect of Blogging
While Hubspot states the obvious – that a core benefit of business blogging is to drive traffic – it adds a little-known fact.
About 70% of their traffic each month comes from posts that were not published that month!
More about the benefits of blogging.
Knowing all the benefits, still many businesses don’t blog!
Why?
I think it’s because businesses don’t understand the real power and PURPOSE of consistent blogging. It is => to entice potential clients by proving you can solve their problems. Consistently solve people’s problems and you win clients online.
Read about Copybloggers’ eye-opening blog post formula here: – http://www.copyblogger.com/blog-post-formula/
– By Marcia Coffey
Find Marcia on Google+
Call Marcia, WordPress Web Design, Inbound Marketing, at 561.906.3436.
Follow @jmgroupdesign

In the 20th century “small businesses” were mostly local and had major marketing challenges.
Without the graphic design and marketing skills required, local car dealers, plumbers, stores, doctors, lawyers, et al. jumped into weekly newspaper advertising, brochure writing & design, direct mail, outdoor signage, radio spots, in-store promotions, and more.
None of this was cheap, though it could appear so. Much of it was hit and miss. All of it was ephemeral. Some of it relied on local “experts” in the field who charged whatever the market would bear.
Meanwhile, all of the above were brick and mortar operations with major overhead like employees.
Who knew?
In this century the same businesses have come to know a totally different universe. A seductive one. A do-it-yourself one.
Champagne Tastes and a Domestic Beer Budget
How to Squeeze the Most Out of Your Marketing Efforts
In her latest blog post, Pamela Wilson, Director of Special Projects, Copyblogger Media and Owner of Big Brand System discusses in fascinating detail all the ways you can get maximum impact from the limited budget you have.
Read Pamela’s post here:
How To Squeeze The Most From Your Marketing
– By Marcia Coffey
Find Marcia on Google+
Call Marcia at 561.906.3436