Many business owners are confused by the jargon bantered about by website developers. Two of the most confusing terms seem to be Blog vs Website for business. Here Jann Mirchandani breaks down the pros and cons – and overlap – between the two.
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Last month, we talked about why your business needs a multi-channel content strategy to increase your company’s awareness among clients and prospects, capture their interest and prompt them to take action. We also spoke about targeting your content to the needs of your target audience (not your peers) with text that is informative and interesting and will resonate emotionally with your customers. Sounds great. So, what exactly should you write about? And how do you create compelling content?Well, technically, the sky’s the limit… and if that frightens you, you’re not alone. If it’s any consolation, almost everyone runs out of ideas at one time or another, including famous writers such as Leo Tolstoy, Virginia Woolf, Stephen King and J.K. Rowling. So what happens when that copy deadline is looming and you just don’t know what to say? Well, here is a great infographic that provides 22 wonderful suggestions to create content that is…
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The latest trends say that content is an effective way to build brand awareness, increase sales, and retain your customers. And you think, so I’ll start a blog, add a video to my Facebook page, and post a topic of interest on my LinkedIn profile. That should do it. Ah, if only it was that easy. The truth is, good content can help you achieve all these goals BUT only if it is based on a well-planned and executed content strategy. Basically, this means creating compelling and valuable content (and by content, we’re talking anything that’s visual, audio, or written—online and in print) to a target audience and distributing that content through a variety of channels on a regular basis to capture the readers’ interest and prompt them to action. And a good content strategy isn’t a one-time solution but an ongoing process. 6 Steps to Developing a Successful Content…
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“Content is King” as the saying goes. But creating content consistently over the long haul is an investment no matter how you look at it; an investment in time and money. So how does your content marketing strategy stack up to the typical B2B? Check out this infographic and see.
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You know you need a website to reach the 50%+ of customers who begin their research online. A blog may seem like overkill. It’s not. Here’s how a blog helps your business. 1. A blog provides information to your readers. Your standard pages are great and talk about who you are and what you do. But your blog pages are what provide information about your industry, trending topics and latest best practices/products. This is important information especially for those who might be in the early stages of the buying cycle. They might not be ready to buy yet because they just don’t know enough. Give them what they need to get ready to buy. 2. A blog provides information to search engines. As you write articles around your primary business and industry you will be providing information to the search engines about your site. Even if you don’t write with…
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I’ve had several conversations in recent days about websites suffering from extreme growing pains. You know the kind; they have tons of information that you can’t find using the navigation maze…I mean menu. It all starts innocently enough. “I need a simple website for my business,” you say to your designer/programmer/neighbor’s kid. “No problem” is the reply. And a new website is born, exactly the way you said you wanted it; Home page, About Us, Contact Us, Services. But now you want to add a page about the new whiz kid you just hired. There’s another page. Hmmm. I guess we’ll just add that under “About Us”. And the new service package? Just throw that under “Services”. You’re smart though. You know good SEO is all about adding content so you add those articles from your newsletter for good measure. Ummmm. Those can go under…well, they aren’t services exactly, and…
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Blogging for business is a key component of your website. In this video-slideshow learn why you really do want to have an integrated blog on your business website.
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An essential tool for content creation. What is an Editorial Calendar you ask? It is an essential tool for consistent, quality content creation. Let me be honest. I knew I was due to write a blog article, but I was not sure what would be relevant and useful. Typical “uh…what now?” kind of moment. In an effort to a) follow my own advice and b) show how content creation doesn’t have to be torturous, I thought I’d share with you some thoughts on getting past the blank page. Create An Editorial Calendar What questions do you find yourself answering all the time? You likely have ten or more questions that clients and prospects regularly ask. Moreover, you probably have an answer at the ready. Each of those questions and your response is fodder for an article. Taking a few minutes to jot down some article topics that you can write throughout…
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I had a conversation with a new client in White Plains the other day. He had just completed a redesign of his primary domain and blog. Both were lovely. However, they did not share the same domain. Conversely, I had a separate conversation with a separate client just a few days before and my advice was to set up his blog and website on unique domains.So what gives? When would you want to keep you blog and website together and when should they be separate? Should Our Blog Share A URL With Our Primary Domain? Yes, if…If your blog is written around subject matter that relates to your business. So let’s take our first example. He is a service provider and his blog contains articles around the service he provides. It is, of course, peppered with keywords that his audience might use to search for him or his services. The…
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When you sit down to write something for your website do you struggle to find just the right, compelling language? You want to show your readers that your team knows what their talking about. You want to establish your credibility. But what happens too often in this desire to appear a “subject matter expert” – in marketing parlance – is the copy becomes jargon-heavy; it becomes more about the writer than the reader. So how do you write web content for your business that is compelling and written for the reader? Create personas. What Are Personas? A persona is a fictional character, if you will, representing a segment of your target audience. The persona is written around a particular behavior or goal. For every goal, there will be a persona. For example, say you own a wine store. You will have some customers that are wine connoisseurs and already knowledgable about wines. They…
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