We live in an age where content can make or break your business, especially as it relates to the effectiveness of your online marketing effort.
Content attracts traffic, directs traffic to specific pages within your site, communicates your value proposition, brands you and your business and bridges the gap between reader demand into profit for your online business.Â
Indeed, many business owners have finally made the leap toward understanding the importance of generating content, but they still miss the mark because they do not understand how or why content makes people buy.
More specifically, the assumption is that any content will get you more traffic, build more of a following and turn more of that traffic into paying customers for your internet business…but anyone with experience marketing online knows that generating traffic and generating sales can be as different as Lady Gaga and Warren Buffet (tell me that doesn’t present a scary picture in your mind 🙂
Brian Clark over at the Copyblogger tries to address this gap in content effectiveness in his recent blog posting “Are You Creating Meaningful Content” where he so clearly explains the need for content to create a contextual link with your reader (meaning it must be important to them) , that it must turn them into a believer, that the content be actionable and that they can get results with the content.Â
Especially important in the new world of social marketing are the last three elements where ONLY if your readers believe they can get results with your content AND can realize results will they share this content to others in a meaningful way.Â
As someone who has created hundreds of thousands of content pieces, launched products and marketing campaigns for our own HigherTrust Marketing business as well as hundreds of InfoMarketer’sZone members…there are two additional factors that must be taken into account when mounting your content campaign…
Relevant To Your Method of Monetization
It seems crazy that this even needs to be said, but I’ve seen, over and over again, content generation campaigns that were contextually important to their reader and helped them achieve an end goal, but where there was either NO method of monetization or a method that was out of alignment with the context of the content.
For example, you have a weight loss blog and give your reader 10 ways to lose weight while at work…this gets you thousands of visitors, great feedback and and is highly relevant as well as actionable for your reader, BUT… you market a program that focuses on exercise or you operate a website that sells treadmills, so there is a context mis-match between your content campaign and your method of monetization.
So, a simple way to prevent making this mistake is simply to look at your content as not only having contextual importance to your market, but make sure your content cretaes a contextual LINK between your reader and the product or service you are marketing.Â
Expert Status Makes Content More Believable
This one can drive you nuts…especially for new bloggers where they have not yet built a platform or loyal following.Â
Have you ever created a brilliant piece of content that fits all of the criteria above and yet you get a lukewarm response?
Then you flip over to a more established blog or website and find that they have written something HALF as useful and yet they have hundreds of comments, get twice the traffic and 3-times the response?
This happens all the time despite following the Copyblogger advice on creating meaningful content, so what is the reason?
Simple – branding, platform and how your market percieves YOU and your website’s BRAND online.Â
How can you improve your business and website brand so your market WILL find your content more meaningful based on their level of interest, trust and curiousity over your business?
- You can write a book, ebook or information product – this brands you as an expert in your field, enhances your credibility and trust instantly enhancing the value of your content
- You can work toward endorsements from established, well respected and meaningful content producers in your marketplace. There are many ways this can happen ranging from establishing personal relationships to helping them with their business to signing them on as partners or affiliates for your own information products…endorsements can elevate your status in your market very quickly creating a stronger bond between your reader and your content campaigns
- Be professional…one of the biggest mistakes new bloggers make is either building a website presence that is cheap looking, boring or over-the-top crazy – keeping your website presence professional with a focus on your content is an important factor in how your content is perceived
Knowing how to create meaningful content is the #1 way you can build a giant following and quickly grow your online business…but remember the key principles of context, action, results combined with strong relevancy to your method of monetization AND a concerted effort to build your online credibility and trust.
