Content Marketing Archives - Page 4 of 13

Creating a Pathway to Purchase: Web Strategy 201

What happens when a visitor arrives at your site? Do you have a pathway set up to guide them from that first visit through dozens of points of contact until they become a customer? If this isn’t all set up in advance – Web, blog, social, email, and online store – there’s little point in getting traffic to your site.

Google Plus Is Shutting Down: What You Need to Know

Google Plus is shutting down on April 2, 2019. Here’s a quick overview of how (and why) to download all your data before it disappears forever.

Beyond Getting Traffic: Web Strategy 201

We are obsessed with getting traffic to our websites. I want to challenge that concept, because let’s face it – random traffic doesn’t do that much for you. Web Strategy 201 is getting beyond just “traffic” as a goal and making your site much more active in the sales process.

More Than Just a Showroom: Web Strategy 201

Competition on the Web is tough. You can’t just hang your shingle and expect people to show up. A basic website isn’t good enough anymore – it needs to function as a PATHWAY for prospective customers. Here’s how to make your website carry more of the sales load for you.

The Customer Journey: Five Common Waypoints

The interaction between you and your customer is unique to your business. But the “customer journey” has some common waypoints as we go from attracting that initial set of customers to developing a stable of loyal advocates.

The One Word That Diminishes Your Work

People don’t mean to diminish your work, but that’s exactly what they are doing when they use this one insidious little word. It undervalues your expertise and experience by making it sound simple – as a way to sell you on doing something, paying you less than you’re worth, or not paying you at all.

Build, Connect, Optimize: The Three Stages of Good Marketing

A solid marketing plan has three stages, depending on the growth cycle of the business. In the season finale of Marketing Without the Marketing, I take a look back at the past year and how this has influenced my most recent projects.

SEO and the User Pathway

SEO always starts with a simple query. But it doesn’t end when the user finds your site. For SEO to be truly effective, we need to set up a pathway to serve the user more than once so we can build trust over time. And of course, this needs to be set up and ready to go before the first visit.

SEO Is More Than Keywords

Yes, keywords are important to SEO. But when you boil it down, SEO is about providing relevant, useful content to your human users. Google is able to measure what happens once the user gets to your site. Is it a good experience, or are there things you could be doing better in serving your users?

SEO: Write for Humans First, Robots Second

Google’s Web crawlers are assessing your website with every interaction. Are people getting what they need from your site? It turns out that when it comes to SEO, what’s good for humans is good for robots. Let’s look at some of the biggest factors that affect your ranking and how they are in tune with the human side of marketing.

SEO: Understanding the Google Algorithm

What is Google looking for in your content? While they are famously secretive about their search algorithms, Google reveals important clues with each major update. Let’s take a look at the key search factors and how to apply them to your SEO strategy.

Creativity in Business and the Business of Creativity

There’s a myth that creativity and business don’t mix. In fact, the opposite is true: It’s never been more important to bring creativity into business, and there’s never been a better time to turn your creativity into a business. Here are 4 strategies to break down the myths that limit our potential.

What Is SEO and How to Unlock Its Power

Teaching is how we form a connection with a future customer. SEO is simply a signal that someone wants to learn – with a distinct data “signature” that offers clues about what they want to know. From there, it’s up to us to use that data to put ourselves in the best position to answer that question. Episode 134 is an overview of how to do that.

SEO: A Different Approach

SEO is one of the most important factors in any marketing strategy, so it’s worth the effort to learn the basics. It doesn’t have to be complicated, and anyone can learn it. Episode 133 is an introduction to my approach to SEO, and the start of a new series to teach you all the nuances of a good, sound SEO strategy.

The Power of Zero

The new season kicks off with a reset to zero! Let’s look at how creativity and business go together, and how you can rethink your own approach to your current project, job, or business.