7 Online Properties You Should Build for Content Marketing
Now that you have great content to market you needs to build some digital properties to show off that great content. Wait… I don’t have any content!! Ok – firstly go here to check Rob Potter’s guide to creating appealing content.
Below we have listed 6 online properties that should be considered for your content marketing strategy.
1: Your main company website
Your main company website should achieve 3 goals. Firstly, it should present your business as the leader in your field so that new visitors have an instant feeling of credibility and trust for your business. It is important to consider the voice that you want your business to have; how professional and formal you want to sound.
Secondly, your website should give your existing clients easy and clear access to the information they need. Remember that it is six times easier to sell to someone who has already bought from you. Your website can certainly achieve this but only if your information is presented in the right way.
Lastly and in my opinion most importantly, your website should engage with the visitor. WE are all different so there should be a variety of different ways a visitor can interact with your site. Go through your current site now and see how many different options there are. If there is just one simple contact us page then you need to speak to someone about your online strategy.
2: A mobile site
A mobile site is a separate website that is specifically design for mobile and tablet devices. When a website visitor is using a touch screen device to surf the web they do not want tiny links and buttons that are difficult to hit. Your mobile site needs to have large, clearly labelled buttons that give direct access to the desired information.
Perhaps the most important factor of a mobile site is speed. 61% of mobile users are unlikely to return to a site that they had trouble accessing from their phone. This is a staggering fact and if your site takes more than three seconds to load on a smartphone then your business is losing leads and sales.
It is important to note that a website that is responsive is not a mobile site. Responsive websites automatically resize to suit the screen they are being viewed on. Whilst it is a must to make sure your site is responsive this does not replace the need for a mobile site.
3: Social Media Accounts
Social Media is a powerful and profitable marketing channel and if your business is not communicating across social networks then you are being left behind. There is scarcely an industry that cannot get a result from social media these days so it is time to put together a plan and get marketing.
Facebook is of course the most popular but your company should also have a presence across LinkedIn and Google plus as a minimum. Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest are also crucial to most Social Media strategies. These days there are dozens of popular social networks so make sure you spend some time planning how to get a good return on your investment.
4: Landing Pages / PPC site
PPC stands for Pay Per Click. This is a type of online advertising where your adverts can be seen by thousands but your business only incurs a fee once someone clicks on your ad. Google AdWords is by far the most prolific PPC tool but you can also get great returns from Bing/Yahoo, Facebook ads and YouTube ads.
Once a user clicks on your ad they are taken to your landing page. Landing pages have also been called squeeze pages or micro-sites. The goal of a landing page is to encourage a user to take action. Generally you need to have a clear and concise headline, an appealing offer and a time sensitive call to action to succeed in landing page design.
5: Blogs
Historically, blogging has been thought of as a tool for people to share opinions and thoughts about a range of topics. These days blogging is a valuable online marketing tool that business owners can use to drive more traffic to their website and also to position themselves as a thought leader within their industry.
Regularly, quality and unique blogs will have a huge impact on how google sees your website and therefore your google rankings. A well thought out blogging strategy can increase Search Engine rankings within weeks. In the past we may have advised you that once per week was enough but that is no longer the case. Your blog should have a new article going up at least three times per week but preferably every single day. It really is a case of the more the merrier. Rule number one with blogging is to make sure your content is not copied from somewhere else or indeed copied from you. Regular plagiarism checks are crucial.
6: Mobile Apps
An app is a tool that satisfies a need. Mobile apps are different to mobile site in that the user does not use the internet browser on their phone to access them. Your app can be something that delivers information about your industry or better still serves a kind of functionality that will save people time and energy.
Most iPhone users have more than 20 apps installed and regularly use at least 1 per month. Given the staggering amount of app downloads each day three is a huge opportunity for your business to attract new visitors that other forms of marketing will not reach. A word of warning through; the app stores across Apple, Google and Windows devices are littered will unsuccessful apps that offered great functionality and design, but had ill thought out marketing strategies. A great app is like any product or service. You still need people to hear about it for it to become successful.
How do I do all this?
There is a lot of work in what we have listed above and each business needs its own tailor made version of what we have just discussed. The first step for you is to start thinking about a content marketing plan. If you are in Sydney you can come into our North Ryde office and have a complimentary 1 hours content marketing planning session with one of our online marketing consultants. This will give you a good idea of what you should focus your resources on and what the best next steps are for you. Claim your free online marketing review here: Online Marketing Review
Also you can check out our content marketing page here.