Content marketing tools and training.
This is an installment in the Content Marketing 101 series.
Maybe you think “content marketing” means having a blog that makes money. Or that it’s about producing content for sites like ezinearticles and Squidoo. Or having an email autoresponder.
Content marketing is bigger than that.
This is an installment in the Content Marketing 101 series.
Your business needs help, fast. Your site isn’t getting the traffic you need. You aren’t converting that traffic to sales. The tactics you used to rely on aren’t working. And the lousy economy means you won’t be able to even give up in disgust and just keep (or go get) a day job.
You want to find your own village of loyal customers, but you can’t seem to capture their attention. And when you do get it, you aren’t closing as many sales as you need to.
You need to know what works today to find customers and persuade them to buy. And the answer to that question is content marketing.
It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever. ~ Kyle Reese, The Terminator
Remember the first time you saw it?
The yellow highlighter? The centered red headlines? The fake handwriting and the blinking arrows?
You thought the same thing everyone thinks. “Who in their right mind would give this person a credit card number?”
You didn’t realize what a ruthless, efficient machine you were looking at.
The unique selling proposition (USP) is one of the cornerstones of marketing. There has to be a reason people do business with you and not someone else – a winning difference that sets you apart and makes you the only real choice.
Traditional marketing advice will have you lock yourself in a cave for weeks listing all of the features of your business, translating them into benefits, then somehow finding that one compelling point that will differentiate you from everyone else you could possibly compete with.
There’s nothing wrong with this approach if it works for you. But if it doesn’t, try throwing it out the window and doing it the cheap and easy way instead.
The advertising world is obsessed with “eyeballs.” If you want to sell ads on your blog, for example, you’ll have to show potential advertisers how many unique users are coming to the site each week–how many eyeballs are looking at your stuff.
But readers are made of more than eyeballs. If you want to get beyond advertising to where the real money is, and find your village of profitable customers, you’ll need to get beyond simplistic eyeball thinking and start addressing whole human beings.
So, how’s the economic meltdown treating you? Excited about the opportunities, or sick to your stomach worrying about how your bills will get paid?
Exhilarated or freaked out?
Maybe a little of both?
