Posted by Melissa Thompson

Content marketing has been popular for a few years now, and marketers keep finding new ways to improve how to do it. The billions of searches done daily on Google prove that people are hungry for more information. 

How can you get your content in front of them so you can build brand authority and drive sales? Focus on these fundamental ways to improve any content strategy.

Know What Your Audience Wants

A frequent content marketing failure is to write content that isn’t relevant to your audience. It can be hard to see things from your audience’s perspective. A representative from Alcolock, an ignition interlock services company, explains:

“When you’re deep in your niche, you can lose sight of what your audience really wants to know. We might be interested in the technology, but our audience wants to know its applications more than the details.”

Improve Your Promotion Tactics

Long gone are the days when businesses can post content up on their site and expect people to find it. There are over one 1.6 billion web sites, each with multiple pages. Search engines do a great job of sorting through all that data, but it’s not enough if you want to drive people to your content.

Too many businesses think that content alone is enough. You also have to market that content. Social media marketing, email marketing, and other digital promotional tactics can spread your content to a broad audience and the right audience.

Measure Your Performance Better

Measuring the ROI of a content marketing campaign is hard. A visitor may bounce through many pieces before they finally convert. Fortunately, there are a lot of tools to measure how effective a content marketing campaign is going and how your leads are interacting with that content.

If you’re still playing a guessing game about your content or only using the number of visits as a metric for how well a piece of content is performing, it’s time to upgrade your metrics. Every content piece needs to pull its weight toward your business goals. Accurate metrics help you confirm that you’re writing pieces that resonate and that you’re promoting them well enough that your audience finds them.

Drive the Conversation

Finally, stop seeing your content as “bait” to get people to interact with your website. All too often, your readers will eat the bait and won’t go further into your funnel. That may be fine if you want brand awareness, but it won’t drive sales.

Give your readers ways to further interact with your brand. Start a conversation through things like replying to their comments and pointing them to other pieces of content on your site that relate to the topic. Encourage feedback. That’s how you start to know what your audience likes.

Content marketing takes work because you have to forge connections with your audience. These take time, but if you do it right, you can raise the lifetime value of each visitor.

Posted by Melissa Thompson

Most small business owners have similar goals for their business: more exposure and getting new customers. In other words, growth. While you may have already spent time and money trying to get your business ranked higher on search pages like Google and Bing, don’t forget that people use more than just search engines to find new services.

People regularly use social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram to find businesses. They also use service directories like Yelp. So, while using search engine optimization is essential, it is only part of the equation. 

Layne Davlin, founder and CEO of Einstein HR, an HR outsourcing company in Atlanta, states, “Knowing how to build your presence on social media is essential in today’s business environment. Thankfully, there are several easy ways that you can improve your business’ presence on social media.” 

Promote Social Presence Everywhere Your Audience Is

All of your social media platforms should be integrated. Facebook, YouTube, and your official website should just be a click away no matter where your customer is. If you have a blog page, make sure that there are share buttons available. You may also want to put the links to your social media sites on business cards, business signs, and a reminder as they leave your business. 

But Also, Maintain Focus

Be wary of stretching yourself thin across too many social media networks. From Facebook to Instagram to Snapchat to Pinterest. They have their own demographics, as well. It may seem like a good policy to reach out to all social media platforms. However, you might be best served by focusing on the ones that your customers utilize the most. 

Use Tools that Automate Posts

You don’t always have to manually post to social media to stay active. There are tools available that will allow you to automatically publish posts and schedule posts up to a month in advance. Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and Buffer are just some of the awesome tools that allow you to plan and schedule batches of posts at once. They also allow you to monitor your network so that you can respond quickly to customers. 

Develop and Maintain Your Branding

Using a professional, high-quality logo is essential for both brand recognition and establishing credibility. If you lack a logo or specific branding, customers may question whether your website and social media presence are legitimate and active. It’s especially questionable if things look different between sites. You’ll also want to make sure that you use the same logo across your social media sites to prevent confusion and help to build that brand recognition. 

Be Specific

If you want to attract customers who want your product or service, then you might need to get specific about what you offer. Placing your social pages, review profiles, and map listings under specific categories will do two things: help you get noticed by the people looking for something specific and those just using general search terms. 

Using these easy tips can help to improve your presence on social media. This can, in turn, help grow your business by making you more visible. 

Posted by Melissa Thompson

If you’re a business owner, then you’re likely aware of the power of social media.  Investing in social media marketing efforts is the number one most effective way to reach the masses.  

In particular, Twitter is an excellent platform from which to spawn your global initiative in business.  Nearly half of all people who follow a specific brand on Twitter investigate that organization’s website, so don’t overlook the utility of the tweet.  

Here is a quick look into a few ways Twitter can boost your business. 

Gaining a collection of followers builds your brand

Twitter is labeled a “social network” for a reason.  Twitter is a two-way street, and it’s appeal is driven by the quality of conversation regular people can have with businesses.  

Create a voice for your brand by engaging consumers in a back and forth discovery of ways to refine your operation, your products, and your services to the target community.  Twitter’s consumer-driven atmosphere is perfect for a budding business.  

Don’t forget the sharing icons 

Twitter is one of the social media sharing icons your digital content should never go without.  Even if it’s subtle, your digital presence should always be linked to Twitter. This solar power energy blog design shows a simple application of clear integration.  

There’s power in the little bird symbol because Twitter has a seemingly endless supply of potential connections.  Don’t overlook the usefulness of this particular social media platform. 

You can engage with consumers

Consumers are extremely vocal about their experiences, and your business has an invaluable opportunity to be a proverbial fly on the wall.  Engage consumers by posting updates about your operation, and allow Twitter’s social environment to carry the news.  

It’s important that you make sure you’re using Twitter properly to boost your business presence online.  If you don’t follow various marketing standards, your content can mistakenly be perceived as spam.  Spamming will damage your digital reputation.  

Twitter provides the perfect platform for insight

Yeah, you can get tons of information from listening to consumers on Twitter, but there’s another perk to be discussed.  Twitter provides the perfect platform for getting a more accurate feel for what’s happening with your competitors.  

You can scroll through the pages of competitors’ Twitter profiles, and get a more accurate view of what is and is not working for their social media efforts.  Use the information you gather to perfect your own approach to Twitter marketing.  

You can use Twitter to find capable professionals

Twitter is also a great networking platform for professionals and business owners to connect.  Searching the connections and pages of Twitter grants you an open forum from which to collect valuable professional relationships.

Posted by Melissa Thompson

There are several ways to generate traffic, and social media is one of the most effective ways, especially if you are looking for free traffic. Anyone can launch a paid campaign on Google Ads or Facebook, but many businesses cannot afford to spend a lot of money on traffic sources.

This leads to social media, which gives you the opportunity to attract a lot of traffic if you are creative. Twitter is one of the most popular social media platforms, and while most focus on Instagram and Facebook, which are the two largest, there is a lot of attention to be found on Twitter.

So, while all of your competition is focusing their efforts on Instagram and Facebook, give Twitter a shot. To help you dive in, we asked several people to share their best strategy for attracting website visitors via Twitter. Hopefully these tips can help you find success tweeting.

Use hashtags related to buyer-intent keywords.

“Twitter is where the hashtag was first introduced, and their core users still rely on it heavily when using the social media network. They search for hashtags like most people use Google, so you need to think of hashtags related to whatever it is that you are selling that will help potential customers find you.

It almost requires a reverse engineering approach. Just like you would research keywords for a Google SEO campaign, you need to think of buyer-intent hashtags that you can use in your tweets to help you get discovered and found by people that have an interest in the product or service you offer.” – Chad Gaynier of Clarity Clinic

Use Hootsuite to automate tweets.

“While it can be effective, most business owners don’t have the time to tweet on Twitter all day, or the budget to hire a full-time social media employee to tweet. So, it’s a good idea to use an automated program like Hootsuite that will allow you to load up a bunch of tweets and schedule them to drip out throughout the day.

This keeps you active on twitter and in front of potential customers without tying up your time or requiring an additional expense. The free plan will satisfy most small businesses, so it’s something I suggest you look into. You can plan out an entire month’s worth of tweets in a matter of an hour. It’s time well spent.” – Hyung Park, President of Abraham Lincoln University

Search hashtags and engage with potential customers.

“This is a strategy that will vary from business to business, but if you sell a specialty item or service with a high margin, then this might be something to look into. You can search relevant hashtags and find people that are tweeting related to your product or service.

While you don’t want to just directly pitch, as that will be viewed as spam, you can find clever ways to interact and engage with the person. This makes them notice your brand and also gets them curious as to what it is that you offer. If your offer is irresistible you can attract a lot of new customers this way.” – Pat Skinner of Answer First

Run a Twitter ad campaign.

“Twitter ads are great because you can get clicks to your offers much cheaper than you can on Google Ads, Facebook ads and Instagram ads. There is more inventory available, which lowers the cost-per-clicks.

You never know what kind of success you will find until you try it, so I would suggest running a test campaign of a few hundred dollars to see what type of lead and sale acquisitions you can generate. If it doesn’t work well for you then you aren’t out a lot of money, but if it performs well you can easily scale the spend and turn a nice ROI.” – Michael Herron, Law Offices of Michael R. Herron

Retweet content posted by potential customers.

“Seek out tweets that are posted by people that might be a potential customer. You can find them through similar accounts and also by searching industry related hashtags. Look for tweets that are a day or two old to make sure there is a good chance of the person being an active user, and simply retweet them.

They will receive a notification when you retweet them and they are likely to check out your profile to see who just retweeted their content. This is where having a well written bio and a strong call-to-action will come into play. You want them to be interested in your business enough to click-through to your website.” – Chris Moberg, President of Slumber Search

Team up with other local businesses to cross-promote.

“Look for other local business in your market that are not direct competitors but share the same local customer-base. Make a deal to retweet each other’s content, with a little blurb that introduces one brand to the other’s followers.

This is an easy way to get in front of a local audience. The retweet is a sign of approval, and since they follow the other company they are likely to trust their recommendation. If you include a special offer like a discount or coupon code you will see an even better response. Offer something of value that the other business can extend to their followers with the retweet.” – Christopher Kerr, VP Marketing at Earnhardt Lexus

Follow users that are following your competitors.

“The easiest way to attract attention on Twitter is to follow users that are following your competition. If you know you have a superior product, service or price, target their users. Make sure you have a professional header image and profile picture, a detailed bio and a call-to-action that they will not be able to pass up.

Doing this on a consistent basis daily will push highly targeted traffic to your website at no cost. This is a great hustle for early stage websites that might not have a large marketing and advertising budget. If you are willing to put in the work this can help you get off the ground.” – Paul Kelly, 247 CCTV Security Ltd

Ask for retweets.

“Have you ever seen tweets that have thousands of retweets and wondered how they got that traction? After all, a tweet that is shared thousands of times has the potential to receive millions of impressions. This can be a complete gamechanger for your business.

It all starts with an ask. Simply ask your followers to share the tweet. If the content is valuable you will receive some retweets. If it has any viral element to it, then it could potentially catch fire if it’s seen by the right accounts. This is why consistency is so important. You will never have the chance to go viral unless you are active and posting daily.” – Tad Thomas, Managing Partner of Thomas Law Offices

Use @mentions to help amplify your content.

“Look for large Twitter accounts in your niche that belong to influencers and @mention them in the tweet. If they like it or retweet it you will be seen by a much larger audience. You have to understand it’s a numbers game: you might have to do this 50 or 100 times before you receive a retweet, but just one can push a large amount of traffic to your website.

Tip: compliment whoever you are @mentioning. They will be much more inclined to share something that is offering praise to them, as they will want to share that with their followers. Kill them with kindness.” – Christopher Dziak, CEO of Pure Nootropics

Share your blog content.

“You can’t just blindly tweet random information and expect to yield any decent results. You need to be sharing good content. If you are publishing blog content then use that on Twitter. Make sure you have strong titles and use interesting and engaging featured images, as this will draw the initial interest.

Combine this with intelligent hashtag selection and @mention targeting, and you can see your blog traffic numbers spike. Schedule a few pieces of content to post each day on Twitter for the best results.” – Ignacio Soria, CEO of Cann & Co.

Posted by Melissa Thompson

So let’s suppose you’re a big bank and want to send out a helpful, a useful, a thoughtful tweet to your hundreds of thousands of loyal customers. It has to be brief, of course, and insightful. It should be sympathetic and non-judgemental, it goes without saying. Done right, such a tweet will be a marketing plus, and maybe a publicity bonanza.

But Chase Bank’s tweet to its customers this past Monday missed the mark, just slightly . . .

In a fictional exchange with a Chase customer, who asks the ATM why he has so little money in his account, the ATM, which has suddenly learned how to talk back, tells said customer to drink coffee at home, eat the leftovers in his fridge, and shun taxi cabs — a little walk will do you good, fatso.

It’s a paraphrase, just a bit; but the response from other Twitter accounts was immediate, and wrathful. Senators weighed in with reasons why the economy is to blame for slim bank accounts, not spendthrift account holders. Chase customers erupted in fury, many of them threatening to cancel their accounts with the bank.

Long story short, Chase Bank kept the tweet up for just a few hours, then hastily deleted it. And while they didn’t issue a direct apology for the insulting tweet, they did sheepishly post a tweet saying that their next big customer motivational campaign would be to get better at posting tweets.