How to Be Loud Online

March 26^th 2015 Sally Ormond case studies, content marketing, online marketing, online profile, seo

be loud

The internet is a crowded place, so it’s important your online profile is loud enough to stand out from all the others.

As you know, content drives the internet, but it’s only going to work for your marketing strategy if people are reading it.

So how do you make sure you’re not talking to an empty room?

Of course, there’s SEO. That means your articles and blogs should include the keywords you are using to attract customers, but not so crammed with them they become meaningless drivel. Stuff’ your articles with keywords they will look and feel amateurish and no one will want to read them.

If you’re one of the dinosaurs who still hangs on to theban old days of keyword stuffing, here’s what Google’s Matt Cutts has to say on the matter:

“…We are trying to level the playing field a bit. All those people doing, for lack of a better word, over optimization or overly SEO – versus those making great content and a great site. We are trying to make GoogleBot smarter, make our relevance better, and we are also looking for those who abuse it, like too many keywords on a page, or exchange way too many links or go well beyond what you normally expect. We have several engineers on my team working on this right now.”

In other words always write for your readers and not the search engines.

Sell without selling

Once you have readers flocking to your door, you must make sure the content they read adds value.

It should be informative, interesting and relevant to your customers not a blatant piece of sales writing.

Your customers will spot a sales pitch a mile off, but if you offer them great information, which subtly persuades them to take a specific action (such as sign up for your newsletter, visit your website etc.), you’ll be seen as someone who cares and who wants to build a relationship with them.

How do you write without selling?

Stories are a great way to do this, especially in the form of case studies. By outlining, in a story-style, how your products or services helped one of your customers overcome a particular problem they had will come across as being informative, although subconsciously it will be showing the reader some of the main benefits you can bring to their business.

Another way of adding value is to create ‘how to’ and ‘top tips’ articles. Readers love items like these because they get something back from you – information. Plus, you’ll do yourself a lot of favours by positioning yourself as an expert in your field. So, when they need help and advice, guess who they’ll come to – you.

Whether you’re writing for your own blog, creating articles for other sites, guest blogs or producing new content for your website, remember:

Write with your keywords in mind, but don’t overdo it
Create articles that give something back to your reader
Don’t write a sales pitch, but do ask them to do something (e.g. leave a comment, visit your website, sign up for your newsletter etc.)

Following these simple tips will help your online marketing gain a voice, attract readers and, ultimately, provide you with a potential new source of customers.