It may seem counter intuitive to fight the noise of information by adding to what’s already out there, but information’s is among the most valuable tools in any marketing strategy. And in order to deliver effective information, you have to listen first. What is the market saying about your industry, your products or your services? Understanding through listening will help you target your information to meet the market interest.

In fact, listening is the basis of trust in relationships, be they business or personal. Listening enables you to determine what information will be most valuable and relevant to your customers. That information, then, becomes the key to building trusted relationships. Listening is accomplished through research from everyone about keywords being typed into the search engines to discussions in forums and social communities.

The new marketing isn’t about self-promotion; it’s about giving customers what they need to become educated consumers. This is the age of:

• Information marketing,
• Education marketing,
• Content marketing

If you want customers to see your brand as a trusted information source, you need to think like an information provider, not just a provider of goods or services. By empowering customers with relevant news and information, a company becomes one-half of a trusted relationship.

So, what are some methods for you to distribute information through content marketing on the Internet? First we would recommend reviewing a previous post on our blog related to Content Marketing here. Content Marketing is not directly about your website, but rather what is happening overall within your business and industry sector. This is a communications art and outreach effort that does not involve direct selling, but is rewarded with sales and loyalty. Content Marketing is a supportive method of selling via quality, relevant and valuable information which:

• Educates your customers
• Shows your authority in your field
• Allows prospects to find you through multiple sources

Your brand is what people read about and talk about online. Isn’t it better to be part of shaping the conversation?

Perhaps your strategy is to circulate positive information about your company as a digital public relations tool. Or maybe you’re working to promote specific products and services. Whatever your objective, the starting point is the same: research. Your research will help ensure your content is found under the right circumstances, as well as angled toward the areas in which people are most interested.

Your Products and Services Strategy

When beginning the keyword selection process for a web site, many of our clients initially gravitate to words which they personally associate with their business. Their first response tends to be, “we are currently ranked number one for this particular term or terms.” As part of our early research, SmartFinds Internet Marketing identifies how many people are actually searching the term(s) – and more often than not, we find there are no searches – or not a very significant number of searches.

Of course, the more meaningful data comes from our identifying which types of term(s) are actually being searched relative to a client’s products or services. The old days of guessing which keyword term(s) will bring results are gone. All three major search engines and many other resources can help you zero in on viable keyword choices. Terminologies, monthly search volumes and number of competing web pages are all data points that are available.

Use this research when developing your content for articles and news releases – as well as postings for social media marketing. The research is also valuable in determining how to strategically tag and describe your videos and photos. Furthermore, your analysis will assist you with terminologies for your web site and in developing landing pages.

One interesting situation which raises issues is when the world is seeking your business products and services in one way, yet you want to be known in another way. The business focus will need to lean towards bringing the traffic to your web site; and then, educate the visitors towards your focus. One good example of this is “dental benefits” versus “dental insurance.” Most dental coverage is legally known as “dental benefits,” but the consumer market seeks this information out as “dental insurance.”

Using Content Marketing for Business Digital Public Relations

Business digital public relations are all about your company name and your company’s domain name. There is less research required in this process since both items are easily located. The process begins by going to the major search engines and typing your company name in quotes to see what the results display.

The questions to ask and answer about these results are:

• Are they positive or negative about your company?
• How much of this information is on 3rd party web sites?
• Ideally we are not looking for those listings on your own web site, but on others. Prospects are typically more interested in what is on third party web sites than what is on your own web site. (Similar to how a magazine article about your business might be of more influence than your company brochure.)

• Does the information support your sales team when they drop off a proposal with a prospect?

You may find that there are other companies that have similar names; or there is other information unrelated to your business creating content noise that does not support your business. Inconsistent information about your business or neutral responses will not support your sales team.

Take the next step in this exercise by entering a search of your domain name in quotes. We find that companies may have more information on the web about their company name and significantly less with their domain name link. It is imperative that the two reach similar volume over time in order to build the story around your business.

The idea now is to develop content around articles, news releases, videos, photos, social media communities that is all about your business name and with your domain name as the link.

Stay tuned to this SmartFinds Digest; and we will tackle benefits, measurement and search engine ranking effects of content marketing. You can visit our recent post about content distribution at this link.

For now here is an exercise you can perform yourself. Do you know how much information exists on the Internet about your business? Have you performed a search at the major search engines on your company name? What about a search on your domain name? Now compare that to your competitors. Tell us what you found!

First, let’s consider that in order for the search engines to provide responses to users’ search requests, there must be content that is indexed from web pages.  The importance of content has been a reality since the commercialization of the Internet in the early 1990s; and while much has evolved in regards to search engine optimization (SEO), it remains important for a business to distribute content to increase visibility and promotion of their web site. Just having your web site has not been sufficient for a few years.

Imagine the steps associated with Content Distribution as a collective outreach program to let people and the search engines know about a web site.  A good content distribution platform includes news networks, social communities, forums, blogs, video communities, cross-linking techniques, and a variety of search engine related strategies. This platform should be constantly refined and used across all digital advertising and marketing efforts.

In all of the above cases, the content which is posted (text, images, and videos) can be set up to carry a link back to a web site.  The process is called “posting” and posted content has a shelf life of years.  Look at any search engine; and, it will contain content that was posted to the Internet in the early 1990s.  Posted content provides public relations and can help drive traffic to a specific web site from more places than just the search engines.  The process also carries with it the possibility for viral or third party distribution of web site links.

If posting is done successfully, a business may consider their web site address to be “cast in stone.”  Over a 12 month period, from direct efforts – as well as through viral and third party sources, a business web site may increase the number of links to their web site into the thousands.  Direct staff may have posted to some places, while, others are created through the viral process, or through third party web sites seeking information beyond a business owner’s direct control.  Each day, week, and month, the number of links grows even without a business owner’s direct input. The process does not have an end point, however generates exponential response.

In summary, while the distribution of content certainly does take time and is labor intensive, it produces results that are key components to successful web site marketing.

Are you currently engaged in content marketing? Are you realizing effective results?  Let us know what’s working for you; and remember, if you need support with your content marketing efforts, SmartFinds Internet Marketing and our team of experienced writers can provide you with assistance.

Of course, developing and writing content is only the first step. Where and how to distribute your content is even more important!  Consider this:  If you post 1,000 content items on the Internet, but they are posted in a way that lacks viral capabilities, the reach will not expand and will be constrained within the 1,000 original websites. As a result, these content items do not provide much value.  If, on the other hand, those same 1,000 posted content items virally find their way onto 100,000 websites, your business achieves a much bigger impact from the outreach effort.

Let’s dig into this process of content marketing.  First, let’s define content marketing:

“The convergence of editorial and advertising using multiple formats that allows for viral distribution to raise awareness about your business and website.”

Content Marketing is not directly about your website, but rather what is happening overall within your business and industry sector.  This is a communications art and outreach effort that does not involve direct selling, but is rewarded with sales and loyalty. Content Marketing is a supportive method of selling via quality, relevant and valuable information which:

• Educates your  customers
• Shows your authority in your field
• Allows prospects to find you through multiple sources

There are a variety of types of content, including:

• Articles (informative and educational, not featuring your business)
• News releases
• Photos
• Social Media
• Videos

The above tends to have the most viral impact, however, additional types of content are as follows:

• E-Newsletters
• Powerpoint Slides & Presentations
• Podcasts
• Webcasts or Webinars

…So you get the idea that there are many other items which might be included as types of content

Unfortunately, the process of physically distributing content on the Internet is far from an automated task. Instead, the process is laborious. Many of our clients simply do not have the time and resources for this important outreach effort; therefore, they outsource the management of their content marketing efforts to SmartFinds Internet Marketing. For companies who directly engage in content distribution, it is typically something to pursue at regular intervals over weeks and months.  Locating websites that accept your content, specific to your business and industry is not as important as casting a wide net on the Internet.  Some distribution point categories to consider include:

• Article Networks
• Blogs
• Directories
• Forums
• News Networks
• Wiki Communities
• Photo Communities
• Video Communities
• …and many more

You will notice that many of the above are plural.  Content marketing allows you to support your identity on the Internet and as such, acts as a public relations tool through a variety of distribution areas.

Stay tuned to this SmartFinds Digest; and we will tackle strategy, content development, benefits, measurement and search engine ranking effects of content marketing!

For now here is an exercise you can perform yourself.  Do you know how much information exists on the Internet about your business?  Have you performed a search at the major search engines on your company name?  What about a search on your domain name?  Now compare that to your competitors.  Tell us what you found!