Content Marketing Today

Visitors to two new client websites are spending a lot of time learning about their teams on pages devoted to team members. Why? Because your visitors understand that they must count on your people to deliver solutions to their problems.

When I recently reviewed the Google analytics data from two recently launched websites, the amount of time visitors spent on pages devoted to their team members reinforced the value of showcasing each organization's team. Although, in both cases, a dozen or more pages got a solid level of traffic, their people pages ranked very close to the top.

Your customers want to know that you have the right people on the bus and that you truly value them.

When top corporate executives featured in Good to Great were asked to provide reasons for their success, they focused more than anything on their people. Author, Jim Collins, talked about the importance of getting the right people on the bus. Every leader understood that having the right team in place enabled them to manage almost any situation.  In effect, those leaders indicated that leadership was a heck of a lot easier if you had the right people to lead. 

Your customers know that, too. Sure, they will decide to do business with you in large part because of how you are positioned, on your ability to provide appropriate products and services that solve their problems, and on the competitiveness of your pricing. But, in the end, their trust in your team will take them from strong prospects to solid customers.

The best small business solution is to eliminate a separate blog and website.

Unfortunately, typical small companies often misunderstand the power of a business blog--and cannot envision how it can and should be the driving force behind your online presence.  Your best bet is to leverage the power of blogging software to create an online presence which is, at once, timeless and timely.

Most of us began with a website that contains static content that was never intended to change much over time. Your static website will be an essential source of product, service, and company data to the majority of buyers that now relying on the Internet as their primary repository of information for potential purchases. Your static website is a vital beginning.  But, it's only a beginning. 

To compete for the attention of both search engines and buyers, you will need to add more and more dynamic content over time.  That's where a business blog comes into play.  If you already have a blog--or are considering one--you probably think of it as a completely separate entity with limited functionality.  That may be true for large organizations.  But, for a small business, your blog should be the engine behind a full fledged website that delivers much more clout than your old-fashioned static version.

It's Not Visual. It's Doesn't Get Quickly to the Point. It Doesn't Show How It Can Help.

When much of the web was experimental and Web surfing was still recreational, it might have been okay to have a website that was creative for its own sake--even when it was unclear about its purpose.  Not so today. 

We face three key realities that must shape our thinking about a good versus bad website

• Websites are our most important marketing tool. They will increasingly replace most traditional marketing.  Therefore, you have to get it right.
• Your prospective online buyers are pressed for time and won't waste it trying to figure how they will benefit from what you do. 
• You have just one chance to influence your prospective buyer.  If they are not impressed, they will mosey on down the Internet.

Adventure Training Concepts(ATC) shows us quickly and precisely what they do and why should we should care

I met the founders of this company several years ago when they were just getting started. I always loved the idea of what they were attempting to do but had never looked at their website, until I reconnected with one of the owners, Michelle Jones.

ATC leverages the Armed Forces skills of its founders to teach leadership to the building of teams within a challenging adventure framework.

Of course, I knew what their company did because I had met them before. But I would have been just as clear about who they are, what they do and how they can help my company from a quick visit to their website.

Here's what works so well on their website.

AC Transit's Dedicated Site, ACTForMe.org, Paints a Brilliant and Loving Portrait of the Benefits of Public Transit

AC Transit operates a very sophisticated bus transportation system in the San Francisco Bay area, handling more than 65 million passengers annually in an area covering 364 square miles.  That's pretty impressive. 

But what really impressed me is the fact that they also make excellent use of the web to tell a story that turns taking the bus into the obvious transportation choice.

If you don't get good answers, keep looking.

If you are a big corporation, you may have plenty of in-house talent or can afford to spend a lot of money to outsource the rebuilding of your website.  Even if you are a small organization with a limited budget,  there are lengthy of technically and graphically talented folks who would love to work with you. Even so, you may not get what you need: A website chock-full of relevant and compelling content.

Before you choose the organization based on their technical competence or creative genius, be sure to ask of these five questions because, in the end, it's all about your content:

Think of yourself as the ultimate knowledge resource like those concierges serving fine hotels such as the Ritz-Carlton or the Four Seasons—But Available 24/7.

When you find yourself in a new town but are blessed to be staying in a hotel with a knowledgeable and caring concierge, you've got it made.  Any reasonable request you make for help--and perhaps even some not so reasonable or a bit off the wall requests --will be greeted with prompt and enthusiastic action by the concierge.  The very best of the breed combine encyclopedic knowledge, extensive connections, and an innate desire to look after their customers.

Those hotels whose concierges solve their guests’ problems successfully time after time will be rewarded not only with return stays but with unbeatable word-of-mouth as stories are told about the unbelievable lengths to which the concierge went to solve a problem.

When your customers come to your website, they are similarly looking to you to solve their problems.  If you can succeed at providing plenty of substantive information that addresses their biggest problems, you are beginning to play the role of content concierge in their lives.  You have an advantage over a typical hotel.  Your content is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  And, like a hotel, you can provide round-the-clock telephone or chat support that takes your problem-solving to the next level.

Marketing experts shared invaluable insights about how to market in turbulent times through the effective use of content online, in print, and in person.

Custom publishing has gone from being an ancillary, add on component of marketing strategies to becoming a vital ingredient.  Why?  Because content marketing is so important to an increasing number of marketers and companies of all sizes.  Therefore, creating custom content is no longer a nice to-do, if you have the money.  Rather, it has become an absolute must-do as part of an integrated content marketing strategy.

The strategic importance of content marketing, and of its first cousin, social media, was front and center at this year's Custom Content Conference. 

Here are 8 great takeaways that I brought home with me from the conference:

Lessons for small business marketers from a very creative insurance website

You might not think of renter's insurance as an especially lucrative product.  Although it may be very profitable, it's certainly not expensive. Even so, there are plenty of renters who don't bother to buy it because they just don't see the value.  And, going after prospects for this inexpensive coverage on the phone or in-person would probably not be worth the effort.

That's where imaginative content marketing plays a key role: It sells this important insurance product to folks who need it, but don't yet know they need it.

Liberty Mutual does a fantastic job online with its YouCovered.com site that targets what seems to be an ideal buyer persona: relatively affluent young people who have a fair amount of stuff that is worth a lot to replace. You can apply the best of what they do even with a small online marketing budget.

6 Lessons to Learn from a Young Mom Who Has Built a Successful Clothing Brand While Learning Business the Hard Way

Heather Nolte is a self-described 5' 1" Texas firecracker who launched her fun and fashionable  clothing company with tons of energy, but not a shred of entrepreneurial experience.

She targets moms and their very young kids who are desperate for clothing options that are not the same old same old "mommy and me" choices. Her tagline tells the story: "From the crib to the catwalk."

Although Heather was able to get her company up and running on just $2000, she has always had big dreams. Those dreams and her business naivety led her to make some expensive and damaging marketing mistakes very early on.

Instead of conceding defeat, she immediately set out to learn absolutely everything about building a successful business with a combination of creativity and frugality.  What she learned about marketing has made all the difference.