There are limitless topics that you could write about. But to make the biggest positive impact on your business, the articles that work the best are those that match the interests of your niche market.
If your business is selling information products to stay-at-home moms who want to start their own at-home business, then you want to write articles that demonstrate your expertise in that area. When those readers get to your resource box at the end of your article, they’ll click on the link expecting more of the same great content. Writing articles for dog lovers, for instance, when your target market is aspiring work-at-home moms just doesn’t make sense. [Read more…]
5 Steps to Writing Your First Article
For many people, the idea of actually sitting down and writing an article stops them cold. You may wonder if you have anything worth saying, or if your writing is “good” enough for publication. If it makes you feel any better, virtually every writer – even the professionals – start out with the same fears. Really, the only way out is through. But once you have one article under your belt, the next ones become much easier. Here’s a five-step plan to have you on your way to your first article: [Read more…]
What Makes Quality Content?
Whether you write about coin collecting or gardening, there are key ingredients that go into the creation of a good article. Providing quality content involves providing website visitors and readers with information they find useful and informative. While the details will vary, depending on your topic and article structure, there are some common ingredients of quality content:
Answer a question.
- What answers are people in your niche market searching for?
- What are the frequently asked questions in your niche?
- Are there subject areas in your niche for which few articles have been written? [Read more…]
Outsourcing Your Video Marketing
So you're not a technical or audio/video whiz, or you're so busy with your other business management tasks that you know you need to outsource your videos if it's ever going to get done. It is possible to outsource your video successfully. But like any outsourcing you do, you need to prepare and be aware of who you are hiring.
Here's what you need to keep in mind when hiring a freelancer for your video marketing:
- Know What You Need: If you don't know what you need from your assistant or your marketing, how can you expect anyone else to know? If you can describe exactly what you need from your assistant then you will have a great chance for getting just that back from them when the project is completed.
- Check Their Video Portfolio: Check the abilities of the person you're considering hiring to see if their style suits your needs. Ask for references – and check them!
- Prepare Materials and Logins: If there are specific materials and login information your assistant will need, it will save you a lot of time if you prepare everything ahead of time. If your assistant needs to email you every time they need something, you'll hold up the process while they wait for you to respond.
- Find Reference Examples: Locate a few videos with the look and feel you like and forward those to your assistant. This will help your assistant make sure they're clear about what you're looking for.
- Ask For Referrals: Asking for referrals is a great way to find qualified contractors. If you see a video online that you particularly like, contact the site owner to ask who created it. You'll know what kind of quality you'll be getting when you hire this way.
- Be Open to Suggestions: Your contractor is an expert, so be open to suggestions from him or her. Explain your high-level goals, and then let them do their stuff.
Having a great team member or even a full team to handle your videos can be a real load off your mind. Just remember that successful outsourcing requires a careful blend of preparation and clarity on your goals, and willingness to let go and let the experts take over. Once you hit that sweet spot, you can cross one more thing off your To-Do list.
The Video Call to Action – Keys to Getting Them to Take the Next Step
You can produce the most compelling, interesting video online, but without a clear call to action, your video is just pure entertainment. Whether you want a viewer to buy your product, sign up for your list, or take another action, you have to tell them what you want them to do.
A call to action can take many different forms. Do you want the viewer to click on a link, click the “Buy Now” button, watch another video, or take some other step? Know what you want from your viewer before you even create your video so everything you do points to that desired end result.
Some people believe that if you push your message on your audience, they will resist any kind of “sell” and turn away. While you want to avoid the used car salesman approach, remember that when you have the solution to your audience's problems, you're doing them a favor by sharing it with them.
Your call to action can take many forms. Here are some examples:
- Click here to download your free report on X.
- Click here to visit X and sign up now for more information!
- Enter your name and email below to sign up for the free webinar now.
- Fill out the form below to request your free consultation.
- Enter your information below to apply for this special program.
The logistics of creating a call to action within in a video will vary depending on the type of video you use, the location of the video and the rules of the site where you are hosting your video. Here are some ideas:
Mention in Video – You can include a call to action within the video itself. Create the video to capture the attention of your audience, give them the information they need and then tell them what action to take next.
Text on Video – Another way to tell your viewers what move to make after the video is to add it across the screen of the video. This text can be a link to your website or an explanation of any other action you'd like them to take.
Clickable Video – By using ‘Flash' software or YouTube's video tools, you can create video that, when clicked on, can link the viewer to the desired page.
Video Descriptions – You can add a call to action within your video descriptions. If you have uploaded a video to a hosting site, check the rules as to how you can link to your site and how promotional your videos and descriptions can be.
The most important part of your call to action is ensuring it fits with what your audience needs. When the call to action matches the exact needs of your audience, taking your recommended next step will be a natural next step for your viewers.
Marketing Your Business With Video – 7 Benefits
You've heard that using video to market your business can bring incredible results. But do the benefits outweigh the effort it takes to put your video online? In a word, Yes! Shooting a video, editing and formatting it, uploading it to the internet with the right title and description takes a bit of time.
But the payoff for video marketing can be tremendous. Here are seven real benefits of marketing with video:
- Personal Connection – Especially for internet based businesses, the personal connection with your potential market is a huge selling factor. With video, your audience can truly get to know you, eye-to-eye. They get to see that you are indeed a real, live person. They start building a deeper relationship with you and feel as if they actually have met you.
- Social proof – There's an old proverb: “Believe nothing of what you hear, and only half of what you see.” On the internet it's so easy to be a fake and a fraud. People are skeptical about claims they read online, and rightfully so. But video puts a face to your words and makes you more believable and trustworthy.
- Traffic – People are watching 2 BILLION videos per day on YouTube alone! That's a whole lot of traffic you're missing if you're not marketing yourself with video. It's free and easy to add your video to a large number of the video sites available online.
- Emotional Influence – The classic horror movie is a great example of how the audio has an emotional effect on us. The creepy music comes in, immediately cluing you in that something bad is about to happen. Now, imagine combining that audio with powerful video cues to influence the emotions of the listener and create a much more compelling message than with just text alone.
- Portability – Maybe even more so then articles and ebooks, video is portable. iPhones, Smartphones, iPads and all kinds of other devices allow video to be seen on the go. You can also allow people to download video easily so they can view it over and over again.
- Demonstrations – Reviews, case studies and examples are great ways to sell products and services. It's the reason why infomercials make millions of dollars. Now there's no need for you to be as annoying as the Sham-Wow guy to make money with video; you just need to create videos that show and tell your potential customers why your product will be helpful for them.
- Engagement – There are many reports available online to show that video boosts response and conversion rates. When someone is watching a video, you have their full attention – eyes and ears. Unlike with the written word, they're not likely skip ahead or gloss over important information. Most people will watch a video from beginning to end, allowing you to clearly create a message and call to action that engages your audience.
Overall, video is an effective marketing strategy that is only growing in popularity. Since video is here to stay, it's time to check out the options and see how quick and easy video marketing can be.
9 Ways to Use Video for Business Promotion
5 Tips to Create an Engaging Video
Who Can Benefit from Article Marketing?
Building A Business Blog? Understand These Key Issues First
Far too often, people create a blog for their business only to abandon it because it wasn't what they had envisioned it to be. One of the most common complaint is, a low return on investment, the blog taking up a lot more time than they had to give. If you have not created the blog and are wondering if it is a wise move, take a look at these issues, understand them so that you enter this venture with your eyes wide open.
You Should Always Use Your Own Domain
This should be rather obvious, yet many people start business blogs on a Blogspot.com or even WordPress.com address. Bad move. Now, let's get this straight. Blogger and WordPress.com are fabulous services. There's absolutely nothing wrong with using them. However, if you do, please, spend $10 to register a domain for it. Your blog is a part of your brand. You should control it.
You Can't “Set It And Forget It”
Just because there are automated tools that claim to be able to fill your blog with content or doesn't mean you should use them. Oh and PLR – great stuff, but if it is the only thing you'll ever publish, you might as well not build your blog.
You can use PLR. Just don't lay it on so thick. People like blogs that have personality and great content so that human element has to come through. Pretty hard to achieve with only PLR. Update the blog with original, quality content regularly, promote it and take time to associate with your readers. There is work involved but on the other hand it can also pay back many times over. Check your expectations at the door, a blog is never ending.
Have A Focal Point
Whatever your topic is, there should be a focus. It is totally alright to break the rules a little here and there, post a little personal news on occasion, sometimes an off topic post is a welcome break, particularly if you can connect into the overall message of your topic. The problem arises when consistently post things that are all over the map. It is not compelling reason for anyone to follow you. Consider what is the focus, your reason, your theme. A wide theme is OK as long as people know what you're all about. This also helps you in the long run, to develop content that satisfies your readers.
You Will Need To Promote It
It is confusing for some business owners because they figure, if I have to promote the blog, why not just skip a blog altogether and concentrate on promoting the web site? Great question. The fact of the matter is, content is a whole lot easier to sell. You are more likely to get someone to click and visit you when you offer them valuable information versus getting them to a page that tries to sell them something. By promoting your content, you are warming up your prospects to your products. This is a good demonstration of how to engage people.
There's No Need To Stress Out Yourself Doing It Alone
By this time, you may be thinking if this blogging business is worth your time. It sure sounds like a ton of work in addition to your existing obligations. I'm not going to lie to you. It can be but the good news is, there's no need for you to be the only one doing all the work. There are actually people out there whom you invite to contribute posts and they would be happy to. Find fellow business owners, especially those who have complimentary products and services. They would be able to gain extra exposure on your blog. By the way, a good place to find these people is at Blog Energizer. You can also invite your customers to contribute. They would be able to write good content that also doubles as testimonials.
Every project has challenges. Small business owners like you realize that owning our business can seem like a giant obstacle course. Yet, we would not trade it for a thing. Building a blog is a lot like that. If you understand and accept these facts and still look forward to getting started, you should know there is plenty of help out there … (ahem, like us).
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