Archive for June, 2011

Content Marketing- Article Writing- The Importance of Keywords in Your Headlines

Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011

Content Marketing advice - Dan Toombs

If you have any questions about content marketing, please leave a comment!

 

Content marketing is like any other inbound marketing… If people can’t find your content, your content marketing is doing nothing to promote your brand!

Carefully chosen, keyword rich headlines are crucial to the success of your content marketing campaign.

I’d like you to walk with me for a moment into your favourite bookstore.

As we walk in, you know exactly what you’re looking for and head over to that section of the shop to find the book.

I, on the other hand just want to browse. I check out the books featured in the ‘NEW’ and ‘TOP 50′ Sections for interesting titles. I also like karate so I go to the sports section to search books that could be of interest.

What you are doing is what we all wish people would do when they go online looking for our products and services. We want them to go directly to our site and place an order.

What I’m doing is much closer to what usually happens. Online browsers know what interests them and search for these things by typing keywords into their favourite search engines.

They then scan the search results for page titles that could lead them to what they require.

Can you see how important keywords can be to the success of your traffic driving article?

Let’s look at this strategy up close.

Let’s say I agreed to order 20,000 promotional pens with pull out flags from my supplier in Germany. That’s a big commitment so I want to ensure people know where to find them.

In order to do this I will need to write a series of articles using carefully chosen keywords in the titles so that people who want promotional pens with pull out flags can find them.

Here are some possible titles I could ensure these people find my business.

Promotional Pens with Pull Out Flags

This title is straight to the point. There is a good chance it will get read by those wanting to promote their business with flag pens.

Flag Pens- 5 Ways to Promote Your Brand With These Unique Promotional Pens

Again, this title says it all. The browser will know that the article is about flag pens. He will also see that the article also offers suggestions on ways the promotional pens could be used.

Promotional Flag Pens- The Pens to Choose When You Have A Lot To Say

This is another article title that will catch the eye of anyone looking for promotional flag pens. Usually people purchase flag pens because they have a lot more to say than most pens can display.

Remember when writing your article titles that most search engines pay much more attention to the first few words of your title. This may not always be possible but try to get those most important keywords up front in the majority of your content marketing articles!

If you would like more free information about content marketing and article writing, please subscribe to my RSS feed. If you would like to take your marketing one step further using promotional products, please click here!

Content Marketing- Article Writing- 4 Tips To Help You Establish Yourself as an Expert in Your Field

Tuesday, June 21st, 2011
Content Marketing by Dan Toombs

Hope these 3 tips help! Be sure to click the RSS feed button.

Content marketing is the small business owner’s secret weapon

 

Writing articles and posting them to your blog should help promote your business and establish you as a leader in your field.

I say ‘should’ because all too often a few unexpected things get in the way.

Having written as many articles and blog posts as I have over the years, I have seen my promotional gifts business thrive.

I would now like to help you get the most out of your content marketing.

Get it right and you could walk all over your larger competitors while they’re still arguing in the boardroom whether or not they should have dress down Friday.

The following four tips will get you on the right track;

Proofread all your work!

When I first started content marketing, I tried to get as many articles published as quickly as I could. I did proofread the articles before posting them but I didn’t take this important stage seriously enough. I’m still cleaning up the mess!

Check your articles for grammatical errors, misspelled words and readability.

I always read my articles at least twice before publishing them. I read out loud which helps me stay focused and actually listen to what I’ve written.

Write at a 10 year old level

Many studies have shown that it is in your best interest to write at a ten year old’s reading level. If you get too technical people could switch off.

Don’t expect your customers to be impressed with your vocabulary and reach for their dictionaries to understand you. They won’t!

Sure there are times when technical language is essential to the success of your article but know your audience.

If you are a medical doctor writing about reducing high blood pressure through diet, you will want to write your article differently for a top medical journal than you would for the general public!

Understand that brevity is key

Writing for the Internet is different to the way we were taught at school.

People looking for information online scan text for information.

You should therefore write short concise sentences and paragraphs with lots of white space in between.

Give them large blocks of text and they are certain to click the ‘get me out of here’ button.

Also remember that short articles between 400 and 500 words are more successful than longer articles online.

Well you’ve obviously read this far so I’d like to give you one last bit of food for thought. Content marketing will only work if you publish regularly! It is a long-term commitment so keep it up and watch your business grow! Get to lazy and watch your competitors’ businesses grow.

 

For more information about content marketing, please subscribe to the RSS feed of this blog. If you would like to take your marketing one step further with promotional gifts, please click here.

Content Marketing- Writing Articles- 3 Good Tips to Make It Work For You

Monday, June 20th, 2011

Content marketing advice from Dan Toombs

CompuGift can help you get the most out of your marketing

Content marketing is all about establishing yourself as an expert in your field by publishing quality content to the internet that answers readers questions or solves their problems.

Over the past two years my niche articles about the promotional gifts my business supplies have helped my business to thrive while the competition was frighteningly slow. Writing content for the Internet is a serious commitment: one that many still don’t take seriously enough!

Many internet marketers try to cut corners or save money by employing unqualified copywriters who know a lot about getting Google’s attention with keywords but know very little about what they are actually hired to write about.

This strategy may help you get ranked higher in the major search engines but anyone who reads the article probably won’t want to do business with you.

I have seen many blogposts and articles submitted on behalf of my competitors that are in broken English and are nonsensically basic in the information they offer.

This is of course a very bad move.

If you are not comfortable writing or just don’t have the time, you could hire a professional copywriter.  But make sure they know your business and your products/services.  Get involved and proof-read every article before it is published.

This article is more for those of you who want to write your own content.

Following are three tried and tested tips that will help you succeed;

Write great articles with original content and establish yourself as a leader in your field.

You don’t have to be a great writer to write great articles. You do need to be able to write about your subject and answer all those questions your readers may have about your products and services.

Try not to over sell!

Good content marketing is all about establishing yourself as an expert in your field. By doing this, people will view you as an expert and want to do business with you. Try not to sound like a dodgy salesman. Instead, be the expert who can help solve the readers’ problems or answer their questions.

Post regularly or be forgotten

Last month I decided to do a little experiment. Before then I had been publishing blog posts daily for two years straight. Often I posted more that three articles per day.

A new project came up which was going to demand a lot of my time so I decided to give blogging a rest. I wanted to see if it would have a negative effect on sales.

It did! Needless to say, content marketing is at the top of my list now!

There you have it! Three tips that will help you succeed at content marketing with the written word. Follow this advice and you are bound to see sales increase.

Don’t forget to send all those new customers some nice promotional products to remember you by. Hey… I might just be able to help you with that!

For more information about content marketing, please subscribe to the RSS feed of this blog. If you would like to take your marketing one step further with promotional gifts, please click here.

Content Marketing- You Can Write Your Own Business Success Story!

Friday, June 17th, 2011
content marketing promotional notebook

Promotional notebooks make great gifts for your blogging customers

Good content is what makes the internet the valuable source of information that it is.

Understanding this fact is essential to growing your business online.

Would you like to promote your business to the masses for free?

It’s not only possible… It’s done all the time by business people just like you who are taking advantage of Internet content marketing.

By sharing your knowledge about your industry, you can gain the attention of people searching the Internet for information about the products and/or services you supply.

By sharing your expertise through written articles, podcasts or even video, you will help the search engines find you and direct people to your door.

Sound to good to be true?

Luckily for me, most of my big competitors still don’t understand how content marketing works or just don’t have the resources and structure in place to make it happen.

You see, just over two years ago I began writing articles and blogposts about the promotional merchandise my company supplies to businesses in the UK and Europe. To date I have written over 2000 articles about many different promotional products.

Each of these articles works as a silent salesman for my business that will continue do promote my company for many years to come.

Can I stop now that I’ve written 2000? What do you think?

The truth is, the more articles I write, the more customers find my company. These are people who understand the value of promotional products. By the time they find me, they know what they want or at least want me to help them find the best promotional products for their marketing requirements.

Would you like to attract new customers to your business too?

It’s easy and I can assure you it’s worth every minute you put into it.

Start today by writing a series of blogposts that answer a question or solve a problem in your area of expertise.

Get that great content out there for all those perspective customers to read.

If you would like help getting started, follow my blog. In the coming weeks I will offer content marketing tips that have worked for me and many others.

By Dan Toombs

Capture the Moment by Keeping a Journal to Hand

Monday, June 13th, 2011

Promotional notebooks are becoming the new 'IN' Gifts!Promotional notebooks can help your business and your clients’ business to thrive.

Over the past few years I have used business blogging and article marketing in a big way to promote my promotional gifts business. In fact, I have found writing about my products and services to be invaluable both as a marketing tool and as a way to learn more about my industry. When I see a new product, I write about it. If I feel something is wrong and needs to be addressed, I post it on my blog. Often article ideas come to me only after serious contemplation about how this or that product can be used in a different way.

Recently a supplier of promotional notebooks visited me to show off his new range. Now notebooks are very useful to just about everyone but for me they have always been one of those slightly boring products that I have to feature in my promotional gifts catalogue.

My opinion has now changed.

That day I learned that my supplier was also a keen blogger and always kept one of his leather-bound promotional notebooks on hand. He took it out of his pocket to show me before handing me one just like it as a gift.

‘Keep it with you all the time and note down all those things that interest you at the moment.’ He said.

I opened it to see a pad of paper and a printed pen that fit nicely into a pocket. That is the day I started keeping a journal.

I keep the notebook by my bed at night just in case I wake up with a great blog post idea. When I’m travelling on the train and a great article headline comes to mind, that promotional notebook is soon to hand. It has become a friend which I should add is quite good for my supplier. I see his logo every time I go to write something down.

Think about how this could help your business. You could encourage your employees to keep business journals. Ask them to write down ideas about how they think they could help build your business or make things run more efficiently. Give them a pocket-sized notebook and be sure to print your business logo on the cover. People like to have products with their business logo on them.

You could also hand them to clients who use content marketing as a way of growing their business. Tell them how you use your notebook as a blogging journal. Can you see how this could benefit your relationship with your customer and also build your brand?

Promotional notebooks have so many different uses but I am excited about the idea of journaling. With more and more people using blogging and article marketing to promote their businesses it seems that promotional notebooks will become increasingly important to those with the ideas!

  • You are currently browsing the CompuGift blog archives for June, 2011 .

  • Compugift on Facebook.find us on facebook
    Compugift on Twitter.follow us on twitter
    Compugift RSS Feed.subscribe to our news feed