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Content is King – So What's Your Content Strategy?

kingmark_cogginsYou’ve heard it before – content is king.  Well without regularly updated useful content your business website will stagnate.  It’s the end of the year and a good time to reflect on how you’re using your website and the Internet to further your business goals.  Take a few minutes to think about how you can use content to help your customers and further your goals.  The good news is that content strategy can be cheap (in dollars) to implement and can provide excellent returns on investment (helping you reach your goals).  Here are some questions to consider in your content strategy:

  • What goals are you trying to reach with your content?
  • How will you measure your progress towards those goals?
  • What content should you provide?
  • How often will you post new content?
  • What types of content will you post (text, audio, video, images)?
  • How will you use your content and get your message out to your customers?
  • How will you connect with your customers and have rewarding, useful conversations?

In the next few posts I’ll give you an example of a content strategy that can work for any business and how to measure progress towards your business goals.

(photo by Mark Coggins @ Flickr CC)

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Why Every Business Should Have a Content Management System (CMS)

cmsdandelucaYou may not be aware of whether you have a content management system (CMS) for your website.  However, if you have a system that allows you to change and add content to your website without coding in HTML or some other language (php, asp, etc.), then you probably do. I think having a CMS is key to making your website work for your business goals and here’s why:

Ease of updating content

Having great content that is updated regularly is key to attracting visitors to your site and getting repeat visits.  A good CMS will give you the ability to regularly update your content without having to have a developer hand code everything for you.

Multiple types of content

Sometimes it makes more sense to create a video to show how a product works than just having a written article.  You should be able to easily add different types of content to your website with a CMS, enhancing the customer experience.

Ability to publish to multiple channels at once

Most readers still come directly to your website, but others will read your content through an RSS feed, or on an aggregator site.  Having a CMS which supports XML (RSS) feeds will make it much easier for your content to get out into the wild and give your customers the option to read it however they want.

New features

If you choose a CMS with a good development cycle, you’ll be able to implement new features and ideas as they hit the market.  While a website doesn’t need to be cutting edge, it’s a good idea to keep up with features that most visitors expect.

Accessibility

While it isn’t dependent on a CMS, most CMS’ include good accessibility practices which allow your content to be visible to people on a wide variety of devices (mobile, text readers, etc.).  This will become even more important in the near future as the mobile market continues to grow.

Portability

A CMS usually stores all your content in a database so even if you move to another CMS it should be possible to migrate your content.  Many CMS’ have the ability to export your data in a way that can be imported elsewhere as well.  Having a site in HTML or some other language is also portable, but a CMS separates your content (important!) from the design and functionality of the site, making it much easier to switch to something else.

Focus development on differentiators

Having a CMS lets your developers focus on features that may differentiate you from your competition.  This helps put expenses into projects which are more easy to measure return on investment (ROI).

Let experts work in their expertise

Designers, programmers and consultants can still be very valuable to your business, but now they can focus on what they do best – making great, usable designs and functions to help you attain your business goals.

Support

A CMS is a product that comes along with its own support system.  If you have a custom-coded website and it breaks, you have to spend time and money getting it fixed, instead of running your business.

Summary

Even with a CMS there is a time for custom-coded features, but a CMS will give you the ability to spend effort on those features that will make a difference to your business instead of re-inventing the wheel.  One caveat – if your website is a product or service, you’ll obviously want to spend time developing that product.  But even then, you should still have some way to create and edit content on your site, and that still means a CMS of some kind.

(photo by dandeluca @ Flickr CC)

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11 Tips for Getting Readers for Your Business Blog

readerpedrosimoes7You’ve set up a blog for your business and started writing.  Now, how do you get readers?

  1. Content, Content and more Content – Did I mention content?  The only way to attract and keep readers is with great content.
  2. Share – You started a business because you have some specialized expertise.  Share that expertise with your readers.  They will respect your efforts and look to you for advise.
  3. Consistency – Readers need to know that there’s a reason to check back from time to time.  Choose a posting schedule and try to stick with it.  Ideally, you should be posting at least once a week.
  4. Stay on Target – While straying off the path occasionally is ok, readers generally expect you to post on a certain subject matter (whatever your expertise is).  You may want to keep a personal blog for other posts (remember you’re representing your business).
  5. Listen & Respond – Encourage readers to interact with you through comments and email.  Listen to what they say and respond intelligently.  Your blog should be a place to have a conversation with your customers.
  6. Be Helpful – Related to #5, anywhere you see a question you can answer, answer it.  Help people out with problems and concerns, not just on your blog, but anywhere you see people post their issues.  If it’s something you can write about on your blog, you’ll also help out others who may have the same problem.
  7. Market – Add links to your blog on your website, your business card, your brochures, your email signature, and anywhere else you can.  You’ll need to let customers know that you have a blog.
  8. Be Social – Join social networks and socialize with the members.  Most social networks will also allow you to link to your website and blog.  Some will even automatically import posts from your RSS feed.
  9. Blogosphere – Read other industry blogs and comment on their posts.  Link to posts you think your readers would be interested on.  Write opinions about posts on your own blog.
  10. Keywords & SEO – Don’t go overboard trying to get keywords into your posts, but do take good SEO practices into account.  Knowing the keywords you want to target can help you incorporate them into your posts.
  11. Patience – It takes time to grow a readership on a blog.  It can take over a year to get a decent following, so don’t expect your blog to take off right away.  It takes a regular commitment to great content and a lot of patience.

Do you have a business blog?  What tips can you share for getting readers?

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(photo by pedrosimoes7 @ Flickr CC)

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