Best of Content Marketing on ZachHellerMarketing.com

/

Content marketing has been one of the biggest buzzwords in the marketing space over the last year. For that reason, we cover content marketing often on this blog. But for our newer readers, we thought it about time to recap some of the 8 most popular content marketing posts ever on the Zach Heller Marketing blog.

5 Reasons to Create Content

From our now infamous 5 Reasons blog series, this post focuses on the core values of content marketing and how it can help drive success.

5 Steps to Creating Better Content

Once you identify the need to create content, you need to come up with a way to create it. And not just any content will do, it’s got to be great. Here are some strategies to help you create better content.

3 Stages of Content Marketing

Creating the content is just the beginning. There’s more to it, as the companies who have made content marketing work have shown. Here’s a glimpse of what comes after the content is created.

A Guest Blogging Strategy for Companies

Guest blogging is a popular form of content marketing. It allows you to deliver content to audiences who might not otherwise here from you. This post offers a simple way to get started.

The CREATE Method of Marketing

All marketers need a vision and a strategy. This post shows you a simple way of thinking about your job as a marketer and how to set out a strategy for success.

3 Step Approach to Better Business Blogging

I suggest to you that the most valuable BBB out there is better business blogging. And companies who know how to blog put themselves ahead of the pace in the content marketing game.

Using Webinars to Market Yourself

Content doesn’t have to be written. A great way to develop content for marketing is through webinars. You can host a live event, and have a recording that lives on permanently for all to see or hear.

Is this an Ad?

This isn’t. But that’s the question more and more people are, and will be asking themselves as they interact with content around the web. Ads and content are melding, and it’s important to learn and understand why to set yourself apart.

A 3-Step Approach to Business Blogging

/

If your business does not have a blog, you are behind the times. But that is no reason not to take that step. A blog is a great way to start producing content, drive social media engagement, and get your site ranking higher in search results.

Here is a quick 3-step approach to getting started:

1.       Set up a blog on your website. This can be accomplished very easily using a blogging platform that lets you plug and play. Wordpress or Squarespace are simple solutions that require limited programming knowledge. You can be up and running in no time.

2.       Recruit writers internally. You have a team of people who know about your business and the industry you’re in. Pick the best writers in the bunch and have them dedicate an hour a week to writing a post for your company blog. Posts can be simple opinion pieces on current events, tips for your customers, or curated lists of other content. They can be short (500 words) with images and illustrations that will attract readers.

3.       Promote through social media. Use Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Google+ to share your blog posts and get people engaging with your brand. Ask for commentary from the community and begin to write things that your readers want to read, making it more likely they share it with their followers.

Want to learn more about effective blogging? Check out “Branding for Bloggers” today.

Free Marketing Ideas Part 1 – Start Blogging

/
attraction marketing-101.gif

Welcome to the first edition of my new weekly blog series, “Free Marketing Ideas”. Each week I will identify and explain a simple marketing idea that you can employ at low or no cost.

This week’s topic: Start Blogging

A blog is a great way to get involved in a number of different areas. Once you start creating content, you’re getting started in content marketing. You can use that content as a way to attract new people to your website, to expose them to your brand and what you have to offer.

The content can also be shared on social networks by you and your readers. So it’s a nice way to get started in social media as well.

And finally, you’ll benefit from the SEO value a blog can bring. Search engines like sites full of quality content, and sites that are updated on a regular basis. A blog provides you with the ability to do both of those things. And you can link from your blog posts to important pages on your website, which shows the search engines where people can go to learn more about any given subject.

And all it has to cost you is time. You can use Wordpress to set up a free blog that you can host on your website. And you can start to write the content yourself. They can be short posts, updated on a regular basis. Each one might take you less than 30 minutes.

If you do have the money and want to make it work even better, you can find a developer on Craigslist to spend a couple of hours setting up your site so that the look and feel is exactly the way you want it. They can add plugins that connect to your social profiles and bring in outside content. And you can pay a writer or someone on your staff to make sure the blog is updated on a regular basis.

Share your thoughts on this, and other free marketing ideas in the comments section below and keep the conversation going!

 

The 3 Stages of Content Marketing

/
attraction marketing-101.gif

Content marketing is a hot topic in the marketing world today. Really, it’s something that many companies have been doing for some time now. But now it has a name. Now it has an industry. And now everyone is getting involved.

Bonus: For some great info about content, pick up a copy of Branding for Bloggers!

But getting started in the content marketing space is not as easy as just writing something. Step 1 is putting a plan together. And your plan should cover what I consider the 3 Stages of Content Marketing.

Stage One – Creation

Developing the right content is key. What you’re looking for is content that is going to be easily promotable, that has relevance to your company and your market, that demonstrates a level of expertise, and that has the potential to get shared. Content marketing companies will use the term “link bait” to describe a piece of content meant to go viral.

Content can be articles, blog posts, how-to’s, lists, videos, or graphics. You can pay for it or create it yourself.

Stage Two – Promotion

Once you create the content, you need to get it noticed. Here is where you need to think about everything from where the content will live, ie. YouTube, your own site, a microsite you develop, a blog, Facebook, etc.

And you will need to develop channels to push more people to it. This might mean developing an email list, promoting the link in social media, contacting other publishers in your space to let them know they can repost your content, etc.

Make it easy for people to repost, share, and like it, maybe even incentivize them to do so by offering giveaways or membership.

Stage Three – Capture

The last stage is the one that most often gets overlooked. What is the goal of your content? Is it signups, members, customers? Placing great content on your site and driving people to it is great, but where they go or what they do from there is most important.

You need to develop a clear and easy call to action that will steer your new visitors down the sales funnel. Excelling in this stage will mean the difference between success and failure in the content marketing world.

 

Book Giveaway: Branding for Bloggers

/
Branding for Bloggers Zach Heller Book.jpg

My second book, Branding for Bloggers: Tips to Grow Your Online Audience and Maximize Your Income, is out! You can find it on Amazon now.

Today, I want to offer one lucky reader a signed copy.

How to enter:

  1. Share this post on Twitter or Facebook
  2. Comment saying you’ve done so
  3. Do both those things by midnight on May 28th

On the 29th I will pick a winner, get in touch, sign a copy and send it out. It’s that simple!