Promotional notebooks make great gifts for content marketers

Content Marketing is the best thing your can do for your business!

For the past month I have been re-writing all the content on my promotional gifts websites. It has taken many hours and even led one of my good customers to jokingly ask why I spent so much time writing.  After all, my business supplies promotional gifts! Are promotional gifts not good enough to promote my business and build my brand on their own?

Well – truth be known, promotional merchandise can work wonders for business promotion but content marketing is even more important.

Promotional gifts can show appreciation to good customers and employees. They can also create interest in a brand and attract new customers.  I would hate to try promoting my business without them!

But content marketing takes it all to a different – higher -  level.

Ten years ago all you needed was a good website.  Now you need a good website with lots of excellent content in order for your target customers to find you. Great content is the new SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

My customer was finding this new content thing a bit overwhelming.  I had been advising him for months to do something with his site and to ensure content marketing played a much larger role in his business promotions.

He started writing new content for his website but found it to be a bit much! As far as he was concerned,  his products ‘sold themselves’ and his site was the best in his industry. He needed some convincing!

So why is content marketing so important?

Think of it this way…  You walk into a shop and the staff are spot on.  They answer all of your questions and help you to find exactly what you are looking for. You walk out a happy customer.  The salesman in the shop answered all your questions and saved you time and money.

Now imagine the opposite scenario.  You walk into a computer shop looking for accounting software. The staff don’t have a clue about the products they sell.  When you ask questions they smile nervously and shrug their shoulders.  You leave without finding what you want, disappointed and frustrated.

Good content should answer the questions about the products and service you have on offer. It’s true that content marketing is done so that the search engines can find you and point new customers your way.  But equally important is offering your customers a good shopping experience.

Good Content Marketing Should Offer Your Target Customers a hassle-free shopping experience.

If there’s one thing I hope you do after reading this article, it’s start writing content.  You don’t need to be a great writer.  All you need to be able to do is tell your target customers about the products and services your company supplies.

Taking the time to write good content will help your site to rank higher in the search listings and help your target customers find exactly what they are looking for quickly and easily!

Content marketing isn’t going to go away so get started now or you will wish you had in the future!

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!

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.