Content Marketing from 1700s to Now

Content is king, and it will always be.

If marketers had a dollar every time they’d be told “write good content!”, plenty of us would be millionaires by now! No matter how many updates and changes there will be in digital marketing and the search industry, relevant and original content is a staple.

Over the years, what determines “good” content has changed. Before Google’s Panda and Penguin updates in 2011 and 2012 perspectively, the web was proliferated with low-quality sites and spammy content.

But how did we reach this point? Who, where, and when started content marketing?

1700s: The Formula of Content + Promotion

If we consider the combination of content and promotion as to what is considered content marketing, then our story begins in the 1700s: when Benjamin Franklin published the first annual Poor Richard’s Almanack in 1732 to promote his printing business.

This was one of the earliest idea emergence of creating a copy to advertise a product or business. Even way before the internet came to be, marketers used customer experience, relevance and even storytelling for their content. While the end goal was to generate sales, the approach was not to sell to the people, but to talk them. It’s a useful tip for today.

1990s: The Birth of Computers

Towards the end of the 20th century, the introduction of computers changed the landscape of content marketing. In 1994, the first online blog was made, and four years after, Microsoft launched its first major corporate blog.

Sponsored content sprouted from the ground following the advent of the first blogs, but that’s all that they were then: sprouts. The goal of most content marketing back then was to get people to visit businesses’ real-world locations.

Content marketing and blogging weren’t anything big and popular back then, although that was bound to change in just less than a decade.

2000s: Getting More Digital

Personal blogging flourished in the 2000s; the birth of bloggers who would become influencers. There was at least one blog for any topic you could imagine at that era. Of course, since people had gone online, businesses followed suit.

E-commerce experienced significant growth at the turn of the century. It was this decade where marketers started understanding how content, relevance, keywords and ads can help them generate traffic and leads.

2010s: The Digital & Social Revolution

The immediacy of producing, sharing, and consuming content was even easier thanks to search engines and social networks by the 2010s. And so, content marketers grew in number and importance. Besides blogs, content was also in the forms of articles, eBooks, and white papers.

Marketers began optimising their websites and content for search engine- essentially the birth of SEO. Aiming to rig the system to their favour, marketers also utilised a lot of blackhat SEO techniques. Content quality went down the drain as keyword stuffing, invisible text, link manipulation, and bloated metadata became a common sight online.

But like mentioned at the beginning of this post, Google penalised these websites that used blackhat tactics. The search engine aimed to please the consumers because that’s where the value is. 

What is Content Marketing Now?

There’s a lot that’s changed but the key takeaway of what constitutes as good content marketing is that content should be written for your human audience- natural-sounding, human-like, and of course, relevant.

Make sure that your content marketing and SEO work seamlessly together. One cannot work well without the other; you need both. There are plenty of digital tools at your disposal to create rich, original content that users will love.

Effective Video Marketing - Ways to Do it for Free

Videos are a great way to increase online engagement and speed up brand awareness. Don't hide your videos by producing without promoting. Any way that you can encourage people to find your video, is a step in the right direction. And it doesn't have to cost you any money.

1. Embed videos in your blog - It might sound obvious, but even though you're uploading videos to YouTube, you should still write a blog post and intro to the video and embed it into your blog. Remember to include in the title that a video is included, and include a good description.

2. Add a keyword-rich title - The title of your video should also include some keywords that help search engines find it. A keyword-rich title is the best thing you can do for every blog post, video or not.

3. Write descriptions - Don't forget to include a description of your video when you upload it. It's important to use the space you have to its full potential to include a link to your website and any products you are promoting.

4. Share your videos - Sites like YouTube, Flickr.com, Vimeo.com and others allow you to share all your videos. The more eyes on your video, the better. Don't disable the ability for people who like your video to embed it into their own blog or website. This will give you more exposure.

5. Cross-link to other videos - When you write any blog post that is relevant, you can add the link to the video at the bottom as other information that your audience might want to see.

6. Ask people to share your videos - In every video you create, ask people to like it, share it, and tell others about it. The more you ask, the more likely it is to be shared.

7. Keep comments open - Always let people make comments on your videos. Yes, in some cases you'll get spam, and from time to time people will be mean or disagree, but that's part of the process. How you respond will make a huge difference in how you're perceived.

8. Repurpose videos - You can cut up longer videos into shorter quick videos to share with your audience, and even turn videos into blog posts, or transcribe the videos, add to them and turn them into an eBook or report.

5 Productivity Techniques Every Entrepreneur Should Know

The amount of time we have available every day is limited. Not every entrepreneur can put in 18-hour days -- personal obligations and family life take up time, making it important that we maximize the time we do have allocated for business. 

Here are five time-wasting habits that many entrepreneurs are guilty of. Eliminate these and watch your productivity increase.

1. Trying to do everything yourself. You have to learn to delegate if you are ever going to be productive. All entrepreneurs are guilty of this at some point, especially in the beginning. You think you can handle everything -- but as tasks and responsibilities stack up the weight on your shoulders becomes unbearable and everything collapses. Delegating those tasks to other people that handled them more efficiently made a significant impact. You can’t do everything yourself, and the sooner you realize this, the better off you will be.

Source: UNSPLASH

 2. Saying ‘Yes’ to everything.One of the hardest things to do is say no. Personally, it took me a while to learn that it was physically impossible to try to accommodate every request that was presented to me. This circles around to point number one above -- I thought I could do it all. I didn’t want to disappoint anyone. If I received a request for a quick 15-minute chat, I would squeeze it in.

3. Waiting for perfection.Perfection doesn’t exist, and if you sit around waiting for it you’re going to miss the boat. When people are hung up on a task they will often say they are trying to perfect it before moving on to the next one. They are simply procrastinating.It’s important that you understand perfection is a unicorn you most likely aren’t going to encounter. Imagine if companies such as Uber and Airbnb waited to expand into new markets until they perfected all of the working components of the business. They would still be sitting there wasting time, scratching their heads, waiting for something that wasn’t ever going to happen. Look how fast both companies have grown because they were extremely productive.

4. Allowing distractions to constantly interrupt your day. Distractions will only interrupt your day if you let them. You have to create a work environment that provides you with some distraction-free time, allowing you to stay 100 percent focused. Every entrepreneur is going to have different distractions to deal with. Here are a few of things I do to eliminate some distractions:

No personal text replies: When I’m working I don’t reply to personal texts. It’s a time suck, but it also tells the other person that your work time isn’t valuable. Just because someone is bored at his or her desk or on a day off, it doesn’t mean you have to entertain them. When you ignore work-time texts and begin to reply to them in the evening when you are done, you will notice your mid-day interruptions will decrease significantly.

Airplane mode: If I’m working on something extremely important that requires complete focus I’ll switch my phone to airplane mode. When I simply silence my phone I still see the notification icons and I’m apt to pick it up and check emails and messages. Airplane mode prevents this and allows me to fully focus.

Block off calendar time: I have specific time blocked off on my calendar every day. When you get into this habit, you know without a doubt that you have a period of time without meetings, conference calls or distractions. This time will quickly become your most productive daily block of time.

5. Constantly refreshing your email inbox. If you are constantly refreshing your email inbox, you are pissing away valuable time. It can become quite addictive. I suffered from this myself, and had to create a system to check and respond to emails that wouldn’t dig into my productivity.

I check my emails at set times every day and I also have someone screen them. The screening eliminates a lot of wasted time deleting junk, unsolicited requests and spam. When I do jump into my inbox it’s in and out, as I know everything waiting for me requires my attention and I fire back replies and address each one without having to waste time identifying the emails that are important. It’s a habit that isn’t easy to break, but once you do develop a system that works for you, the time saved will be very noticeable.

Quick Thoughts on Updating and Rebuilding Your Website

There are no rules when it comes to updating your business website in a regular manner. Deciding on whether to update, redesign or re-engineer your site should depend entirely on your business goals, objectives and economic considerations. It should not be dependent on a superficial time frame not based on facts.

A variety of factors can make a redesign worth considering rather than rebuilding it.

• For example, you have new branding and color standards this year, and you need to make sure your new look extends to your website. Moreover, your bounce rates - few converts from visitors - are extremely high. A well-thought-out redesign can turn this around.
• Another example is, your business has grown and you will need to have new products and services. Your website’s design may need to reflect that change. 
• Lastly, your customers complain about your site looking outdated, not working or too slow.

Source: UNSPLASH

 
What developments might be required to re-engineer any website from scratch?

• Making it adapt to mobile device screens. Fixing this is an absolute must in today’s mobile-driven world. Anyone in your company should be able to learn and use your content management system (CMS) to update your site. 
• Keep things simple: If your site takes forever to load, you need to re-engineer the back end. Nobody puts up with long waits anymore.

Customer opinion and feedback give you the kind of insights that convert visitors into customers. Start by asking what they think of your proposed design and if it appeals to them. Then,

• ask about the problem they’re looking to solve
• ask if the information they need access to is easy to find in the new design. 
• after you relaunch the site, ask them again if they like it. If they say no, address their concerns through incremental design enhancements, which your new site should allow you to do without starting over.

In short, you want to follow the lead of sites like Apple.com and Amazon.com, which rarely undergo complete facelifts. Instead, their sites evolve over time using an iterative process that results in near invisible refinements that have the bonus of maintaining the user experience that customers know and like.

Ways to Be Productive When Your Internet Connection Is Down

While internet connection is necessary in accomplishing a lot tasks concerning your  business, the absence of it shouldn't stop you from being productive. Yes, you read that right. You can be productive even if you're online. How? Read these tips.

Read articles - offline. This requires preparation. You will need to download an app that will allow you to store the articles you wish to read. If you like reading from hard copies, have your favourite magazines on stock so you can read them whenever your WiFi's cut.

List down all the blog topics you ought to write for the whole month. You can skip the keyword research until the internet is back. Use the questions frequently asked by your clients as the basis of the blog topics you're planning to write. If you're done with the list and the internet is still out, create an outline for each  of the posts in your list.

Take advantage of the downtime to talk with your co-workers, family and friends. This a good way for you to de-stress and become happier and more productive. Interactions with other human beings can make you feel recharged and more passionate about what you do when you get back to work.

Make some phone calls. Got a list of your clients whom you need to thank or follow-up? Call them now. If you don't have clients to call, contact your parents, doctor or friends whom you haven't met and spoken to for a long time.

Take a break and relax. Studies show that taking breaks increases the productivity level of human beings. When you're able to rest and relax, you become more alert and focused on the things you need to accomplish. Rest also allows you to work quicker than before.

Marketing VS Sales - Four Top Issues Between Them That Must Be Solved

photo owned by mobile tech create

The Battle Royale  seems to be unending between the sales team and marketing team. While there's no exact reason for this conflict, it should  be resolved as it results to issues that can affect the flow of profit to an business. Keen to know what these issues are? Read on.

Marketing campaigns are considered unimportant by sales people. This can be caused by lack of communication and proper discussion of the goals of each of the marketing campaign. For better results, an  outsider's view and some fine-tuning are needed.

Sales people don't share with the marketing team the created content. There are times when the sales people lack the ability to bridge the gap between the target audience and the content. Discussion of the content's main purpose can resolve this issue.

Marketing campaigns don't provide quality leads. This can be attributed to conflicting metrics and miscommunication. The sales team can help the marketing people by forwarding questions - from prospective clients - that are key in creating marketing campaigns for attracting quality leads.

Marketing people don't work side by side with sales people after the former have handed over the information to the latter. In most businesses, there isn’t enough accountability for lead generation, nurturing and conversions. The key to solving this is working together through the entire buying journey of current  and potential buyers or customers.

Understanding the Efficiency of Your Business Website Today

To evaluate and understand the efficiency of your website, it will be helpful to visit the website of another business or company. You might want to take note of the following questions as you continue browsing the entire website:

1) Did you get confused about the website’s design?

2) Was the purpose of the website clear to you?

3) As a visitor, do you understand where the website owner wants you to go?

As you answer these questions, think of your own business website too. Unknowingly, you might be sending the wrong signals to your visitors and causing them wander away from the path that you have designed. However, there are times when spending too much time on your website to perform appropriate evaluation won't help. Therefore, you will need help from the experts.

If you're in the process of creating your business website from scratch, here are three important points which you must bear in mind. Use them as your guide in the creation of website copy, landing page forms and social media posts.

1) Find ways how you can attract visitors to use your website as much as you do.

2) Keep in mind your target audience or prospective customers as you build your website.

3) Have a test run for your website and request for honest feedback for improvement purposes.

Here's a video you might find helpful. (Note: I don't own this video. All credits to the owner/publisher)