Effective Inbound Marketing Tips

If you haven't heard, the days that it impressed people to have a big, flashy website full of gadgets, animations, and bandwidth-heavy flash apps are pretty much over.

There are a couple reasons for this. While broadband is common enough in households, in the past couple years there has been a huge explosion in mobile browsing. Also, there has been a general trend towards simplicity in consumer product and website design.

Each of these presents its own issues, but the short version is, the business content of your website needs to follow the good old KISS principle: Keep It Simple.

Simplifying the Business Content of Your Website

1. Design With Mobile In Mind

While mobile browsing does still only account for a fairly small percent of web activity today, it is growing rapidly. Already, 85% of new mobile phone sales worldwide are web-capable, and that number is rapidly approaching 100%. Mobile sales are on the rise as well. Last December, 87% of tablet owners did at least some of their holiday shopping online through their tablet.

So, while you may not be losing too much if you're overlooking mobile right at the moment, the winds are rapidly shifting. It would be effective planning to begin working on optimizing your site now, before you fall further behind.

When optimizing the business content of your website for mobile browsers:

• Compress images and other elements as much as is reasonably possible, since many mobile users are on slow connections or limited data plans.

• Keep your site layout simple (more on that below) without an excess of top- and side-bars. Generally only one permeant sidebar should ever be needed.

• Verify your site renders properly on several of the most popular mobile browsers, especially Safari for iOS, Chrome for Android, and Opera Mobile. If it cannot and retrofitting it will be too difficult, consider spinning off a separate mobile site.

• Don't use of any third-party plugins like Flash, Unity, or Chrome extensions. Mobile compatibility for these is spotty at best, and often completely missing. Flash does not work with iOS, for example.

It's also worth considering that slow load times can contribute significantly to bounce rates. A leaner, meaner site means better visitor retention across all connection types. Even if you don't care about mobile users, having optimized business content is still a good idea.

2. On Simpler Website Design

It's typical to think of new technology first being embraced by the young, especially Generation Y / Millennials. However, in fact, one of the fastest-growing markets for technology is people in their middle age: older Gen-Xers and Baby Boomers.

These groups, who did not grow up using online services, want simplicity in their electronics and website design. They're likely to be confused or simply put off by overly-confusing websites, and go somewhere that's easier to use.

On top of that, being straightforward and unpretentious is a valued trait among younger demographics, so complex websites just don't appeal to many groups right now.

The more you can streamline your interface, the better:

• As we said above, keep the overall design as clean as possible, with a minimum of important button bars.

• Use a simple and straightforward color design, with preferably no more than three major colors involved.

• Graphic buttons like your Calls-To-Action should be fairly small. They should be eye-catching, but not at risk of being mistaken for anything but an advertisement.

If you want more tips for making a Boomer-friendly website, here's an excellent list of design elements to consider.

Simple Business Content is Better Business Content

Hopefully, the takeaway today is obvious: The more simple, functional, and easy-to-use your website is, the better. Keep your designs clean and uncluttered, and keep an eye out for mobile compatibility.

What other tricks have you used to make your website more accessible and inviting?   

Every once in awhile, a marketing trend comes along that revolutionizes the way businesses interact with their current and potential customers. Often, however, many businesses ignore this new trend for as long as possible – and some refuse to convert to new trends until the bitter end. In the last couple of decades, that trend was websites. While some companies were more than happy to pay for attractive, easy-to-navigate and professional websites to further their brand, some instead picked low cost and unprofessional looking alternatives and still others refused and assumed that building an online presence would do nothing to grow their business.

Here we are, just a short twenty years after the dot com boom, and some businesses still refuse to bring their business online – and thereby silence their voice to potentially millions of new customers. The simple fact of the matter is that many business owners refuse to move along with the times and attempt to resist the movement of technology. The most current example of this resistance is in those companies who refuse to set up a blog. Despite the proven results and widespread benefits of well executed business blogging, some businesses continue to refuse change.This leads to what we call "blog or die."

In an effort to change your mind, and put you back on par with your competitors, here are four reasons why a blog can increase your leads and put your business on top:

A blog is the center of the social media universe. Millions of conversations are taking place within social media platforms each and every day – and many of these conversations are happening in the comments sections of well-read blogs. The primary purpose of a blog is to bring in traffic and steer that traffic towards your product or service without overt sales talk, and what better way to accomplish that task than by getting people to talk about it on their own?

A blog increases your web traffic. If you’re one of those previously mentioned companies still attempting to survive without a website, then you’ll need to get one of those first. However, if you do have a website, get ready to blog or die. A blog brings people in with its interesting, relevant and entertaining content, and then it converts readers into website users by directing them to your company website through links and calls to action.

You can talk directly to your potential customers. With most marketing endeavors, there is a clear divide between you and your customer. However, when it comes to blogs, you can actually engage them in conversation. By encouraging your current and potential customers to leave comments on your blog, and then responding to those comments, you establish a sort of personal relationship. These relationships have been known to turn every day readers into loyal customers.

You can prove your competency in the field. One thing the internet has done has been to increase competition. While you may have only previously been competing with the company down the street, you’re now competing with all the businesses in your city, your state and maybe even your entire country. Blogging offers you an unique opportunity to share with your customers your knowledge, skill set and ability to solve their problems. Establishing this credibility is imperative to building brand recognition and loyalty. Choosing not to blog limits your reach. In other words - blog or die.

In short, if it really is blog or die, why choose not to blog when blogging can do so much for your business? With some professionally written content and a great looking interface, your blog can easily increase lead generation, improve your reputation and revolutionize the way you interact with current and potential customers. Invest in a blog, and bring your company into the 21^st century.   

Creating blog content is easy. The internet is full of content farms and  job boards in which companies can quickly hire out their web copy in bulk for pennies on the dollar. The companies who use these services receive their content extremely quickly – sometimes within just a few hours – and generally pay less than $5 per blog writing. Usually these content mills use search engine optimization tactics that claim to help your company’s name show up faster in search engine results. It’s fast, it’s easy and, best of all, it’s extremely cheap. There’s just one problem – the copy produced by content mills is total junk.

A well managed business blog, full of high quality, well-written content can drive lead generation, increase sales and quickly convert readers into paying customers. However, a poorly managed blog filled with cheap content can drive potential customers right into the arms of your competitors. That’s why, when creating blog content, it’s important to keep your business goals in mind.

Invest Wisely
You wouldn’t purchase an office space with leaks and termites just because the rent is a little cheaper, and you wouldn’t hire a high school dropout to handle your accounting because they expected a lower wage. So, why risk the integrity of your company by purchasing cheap and poorly written blog content just because you’ll save a few bucks? An intelligent business owner knows they’re not going to launch to the top of their industry by doing the least amount of work or paying the lowest for the services they need.  Successful companies get to where they are by making smart choices – and sometimes this means paying a little more.

Quality vs. Quantity
Unless your company is a news organization, your sole purpose is to provide a product or service – not pump out fresh content on a blog four times a day. When you enter the world of outsourcing content to professional copywriters, you must immediately decide what’s more important – the number of posts published or the quality of each post? If you’re looking to use blog posts to interest potential clients and convert them into loyal customers, you should probably focus more on quality. As any web analytics expert will surely confirm – it’s much better to have one well-written, well-researched blog post per week than ten keyword-stuffed, nonsensical pages of cheap copy.

Write to Your Audience
Your customers are smart people. They don’t have time to wade through paragraphs of drivel and cheesy sales pitches. Hard sells, spelling errors and overused keywords are a big turn off – and the sort of tactics that will make your company look sleazy and unreliable. On the other hand, a professional copywriter will take the time to research your company, your brand personality and your customer demographics, and will present you with the sort of interesting content that appeals to your current and potential customers.

The truth of the matter is that there is really no easy way to get around paying for good content writing.  However, this doesn’t mean you should succumb to outrageously high rates either. Instead, seek out trusted web content firms who can offer competitive rates and remember that if a web content offer seems too good to be true, it’s probably being written by a bunch of untrained chimpanzees. Like many other investments you make for the sake of your business, when it comes to creating blog content, you get what you pay for.  

More and more businesses are turning to outside website content providers to create the content on their site, and it's not hard to see why. Few businesses have the resources to maintain the steady stream of original content that their users demand, and most lack the internal expertise to have a truly good writer on staff. So, it makes sense to use website content providers to provide this service.

Unfortunately, there is a lot of competition in this area. Anyone with a website, a word processor and\or a graphics tablet can claim to produce great content for you, but they must be able to consistently deliver. You need to be able to know that your website will be constantly filled with compelling new content.

Here are a few attributes of website content providers that are worth your time. When you're asking questions, make sure you include many of these points.

Attributes of Website Content Providers That Deliver

• Every article is unique. A lot of the more cut-rate writing shops use so-called “autospinning” software that takes existing articles and rewords them to get around Google's plagiarism detectors. Avoid these companies! No automated process can ever produce content as readable as an actual writer putting words onto a page.

• They deliver on time, every time. Good SEO strategy means having a schedule for publishing new content, articles, Facebook posts, and soforth. You need to know that your content providers will always have your content ready for you when you need it. If your provider can't make your deadlines, find someone else.

• They understand that Content is King. Google has been pushing to make quality content the #1 factor in their rankings, and with their recent “Panda” Initiative, they've made that formal. High search engine rankings require good, original content. Find an SEO company that understands the importance of website content over tricks and slight-of-hand.

• They have mastered multimedia. It's easy to find a single freelance writer, artist, or web designer. If you have a one-shot project, they're fine... but if you want a true online marketing campaign, you need website content providers who can work in all mediums, including blog writing, social media, and video. Having a single source helps ensure everyone is onboard with the same strategy and understands your needs.

• Your numbers look good in six months, not six weeks. A lot of website content providers can give you a very quick boost to matters such as your overall traffic and pageviews, but fail to maintain those numbers over the long haul. That requires dedication, patience, and a true understanding of good SEO. The test of a content provider is not whether they boost your numbers in a month or two, but whether they keep them up month after month.

• They deliver what YOU want. In any artistic field, there will be a certain number of prima donnas who think everything they produce is perfect. As a writer I know this is rarely, if ever, the case. Your content creators should always be willing to work with you, discuss their projects, and do what they need to make it into the content that you want to see. If you ask for a revision, the first words out of their mouth should be “No problem!”

• They want to build rapport. The first and most important function of your content should be to build rapport with your visitors.

Have you ever heard the old saying about how there are only about a dozen different plots for a story, and every book and movie ever made is just reworking one of them? Well, believe it or not, the same is true for blogs. There's really a pretty simple set of “formulas” for blog writing, and if you follow them, you can be turning out plenty of content in no time!

So, if you're writing blogs for your company, read on for some tips on how to keep producing high quality content that brings in new leads!

Writing Blogs Made Easy: A Quick Guide

1. Find a topic.

Sources of inspiration are all around you. Talk about an aspect of your industry, or your manufacturing process. Answer a question you heard recently. Listen to the news for subjects relevant to your business. Read other blogs, respond to what they say. Variety is the main key here. Don't write about the exact same thing every day.

2. Decide on a Format.

Here's where those formulas really come into play. There are really only a small number of basic formats when writing blogs. Once you come up with an idea and then pair it with one of these formats, you're already halfway there.

• Problem resolution. Basically, you just present a problem, explain its causes, and then detail the solution to that problem. This format works for everything from explaining flea prevention to advocating political policy.

• Top ten (or bottom ten) lists. Go easy on these. A good Top Ten list can go viral because of its simplicity, but there are so many out there that it's become a stale format.

• Answering questions. A FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) is a great subject for a blog, if you commonly get questions all regarding a specific area of your business.

• Prognostication. Everyone likes to slip on their fortune teller hat from time to time. Analyze trends in the industry (or the country) and explain how you think they'll affect your business down the line. These can be great for getting you noticed as a strategic thinker.

• News analysis. No matter what industry you're in, regulations constantly change, and major financial or political news can have a big impact on you. When the wind shifts, that's a great time to write a blog with your thoughts on it.

• Article response. If your industry has a friendly community, start blog-based conversations going with fellow members by writing a response to something they say.

3. Pick Keywords

Hopefully you already have a set of keywords for targeting your SEO. If not, now is definitely the time to do so. Find a couple keywords that are relevant enough to your topic that you can slip them in naturally when writing blogs. Generally, you don't want to have more than two or three different keywords.  Otherwise your writing becomes about shoehorning them in, rather than actually producing good content writing.

And remember, you only need to have a keyword density of around 1%-2% for your SEO, so don't overdo it.

4. Include Some Links and Citations

Including links are great for your SEO. Just like back in school, it's best to provide links with sources on facts you're presenting, since it both legitimizes your work and gets some outbound links in there. Also, don't forget to link to yourself as well. If you mention something you covered previously, link to it so interested visitors will keep reading what you have to say.

5. Proofread!

No, seriously, proofread it before posting. Your word processor isn't going to catch all your typos or grammatical errors. When in doubt, read it aloud. You'll hear errors your eyes don't catch.

That's it! That's really all you need to know. Writing blogs really isn't that hard, once you break it down step by step.

What blog writing tips have you discovered that worked for you?