Internet marketing | Content for Biz Inc.

Internet Marketing Begins with Quality Content

One of the ways quality content can work in Internet marketing is to position your company as a knowledge center. Your knowledge space supports your brand and your customers’ need for information. Planning, creating, and publishing relevant content serves as a pathway for successful Internet marketing.

Visitors to your site are in need of fast answers. Your knowledge space should be helpful to your audience (market segments, customer profiles), be easy to navigate and include news, business insights, and community.

News

Offer outside reference sources as well as your own news. A content writer can write press releases, conduct interviews, find relevant timely links and keep this page updated daily. The page can serve as a kind of business radar uncovering business intelligence from a variety of credible sources. For an example of one such source see the Wall Street Executive Library.com

Business Insights

In this section describe methods. Include case studies, research papers, best practices and standards. A content writer can create and edit such materials, describe new tools and re-purpose existing content as blog posts. Content can take on various other formats. These may include profiles of companies (your suppliers, customers) and interviews with individuals who are leaders in the field. See Accenture’s Latest Thinking page for an example.

Community

Add a forum to your site for members to exchange information about trends, methods, and key issues of the day. At Evernote there are multiple forums for different platforms and audiences. Tips and suggestions abound.

Creating a robust presence through social media sites is another way of inviting visitors to participate in a community created by your company.

What is most important is that you deliver relevant content in a way that your prospects can find and understand. Your company’s true value proposition becomes apparent. The big promise to visitors of your knowledge space is to improve business performance. This is true no matter what product or service you are selling.

Having trouble positioning your company as a knowledge center? We can help.

How to Improve Your Search Rankings with Keyword Research

You know that using the right keywords is critical to your online marketing success, but who is generating your keywords and how are they doing it? Keyword research is one of the most important steps in improving your search engine rankings. It takes more than hunches and common sense to identify the right keywords. It takes research. A number of free and paid research tools such as Google Adwords Keyword Tool, and Wordtracker can help.

Here’s an example of how following your gut instincts can lead you down the wrong path. A client recently suggested that we use the term “commercial real estate brokerage,” to describe his business. A quick search using the Google Adwords Keyword Tool revealed that this term was associated with only 1300 local monthly searches, while there were 14,800 searches for “commercial real estate brokers” and 9,900 searches for “commercial real estate companies.” Had I not researched this, the site would clearly not generate all the traffic it should.

Time and again, I am surprised by what these search tools reveal. Who would have guessed that “JCB Backhoes” generates six times the number of searches as “JCB backhoe loader?” Research ultimately saves you time, because you are able to write website copy with a purpose and avoid costly mistakes.

When deciding on keywords, consider not just single words, but also relevant phrases. While there will be fewer searches for longer phrases, these phrases generally lead to more conversions because the searcher knows exactly what he or she is looking for. This is especially true for phrases that indicate a buying intention. For example, someone searching to “Get a quote on business insurance” would generate more conversions than someone just searching for “insurance agent.”

Once your keywords and phrases are identified, do a quick search on Google to identify competitors – those firms that show up on the first page for the keywords you deem important. Identify their competitive keywords and phrases using Alexa or simply viewing the metatag data on their site. (right click on their home page and click “View Source”). This is valuable information you don’t want to miss.

Your own website statistics will also reveal the terms visitors are using to search for you. View your statistics regularly and identify popular search terms you can ultimately use in your website content.

Once your keywords are known, you are ready to take the next step: creating a fully optimized website.

Ask us how we can help.

B2B Video Advantage

Content is more than words on a screen. In a recent collaboration with MicroShare Intl., an Internet marketing firm, a copy writing project quickly transformed into a new video product describing the company’s offerings. The client’s initial page was text heavy. We replaced the text blocks with graphic links so the reader could select the text by topic. The newly formatted text is concise and client-focused.

The company president, Barry Schimmel, made a simple video series using the text as a script. In this way he personalized the message and delivered it directly to his potential clients. Such is the power of video. When three video testimonials were added to the bottom of the page, a new video sales letter product was born. They are using it as an entry product for their more extensive services. Here are some video tips Barry shared.

Don’t make it all about you.
Try to teach something related to your product or service.
Stay personal and project your passion for problem solving.
Talk directly to your potential clients. Be authentic.
Keep it simple. Try to keep the length of the video between one and three minutes.
Tell a story.

People love stories. Think of the fairy tales you liked as a kid. In the beginning something happens to a character, creating a need or desire. In the middle, while the character is pursuing his need he faces an obstacle which causes a struggle to ensue. In the end, the character is transformed. A resolution occurs.

Today, the best businesses engage and educate by integrating all sorts of content including text, video, graphics, photos, and sound. Don’t limit your choices. Use them wisely and selectively.

Green Beer and WordPress Go Down Easy

I love this day. I love green beer, eating corned beef and cabbage, and celebrating my Irish heritage. It’s also the perfect day to showcase the new website I created for my friends at Chicago-based Shamrock Tuckpointing. I recently helped Owner John Gallagher overhaul the Shamrock Tuckpointing website using the WordPress theme WP Remix. I love the idea of WordPress for creating great websites, not just blogs. I hope we can finally say goodbye to stagnant, static websites. My Mom might not be able to update this site, but just about anyone else could do it.

When it comes to Internet marketing, Gallagher is like a lot of small contractors – he didn’t know where to begin. He understood that potential customers search the Internet and not the Yellow Pages. And he knew that a website lacking in style, substance and visibility was causing him to missing an opportunity. However, he was lacking a solution that fit his budget.

A few months ago, I wouldn’t have been able to help John beyond providing content. But after learning how WordPress can work as a website, I knew I could do more. Too often web designers complete the design, only to be held at a standstill because the client doesn’t have content. Waiting in the wings are search engine specialists who want to be paid handsomely for getting that page to the top of the Google rankings. It’s all too overwhelming and expensive for a small contractor who is busy estimating jobs, hiring workers, repairing chimneys and inspecting job sites.

With WordPress it’s easy for content to be the driving force for design, and the two can work together seamlessly. With elaborate paid themes available, an array of Plug-ins, SEO options and free analytic tools, you can have a very dynamic website up and running very quickly and economically. I’m not a webmaster by any stretch of the imagination, but I was able to get this site completed in a matter of weeks.

I wish I could show you the “before”… but you can see the “after” at www.shamrocktuckpointing.com.

Could WordPress be a solution for you?