But now that so many websites and companies are wise to the importance of producing content, you’ve got to be able to do one better. At the beginning of every industry (cars, shoes, books, etc.), he who has the biggest quantity wins. And just as with every industry, the competition grows, and it’s no longer about having the most but rather the best-however your vertical may define it.

That’s where content strategy comes in. You have a blog, and that’s good. So does (just about) everyone else. You have to make your blog and everything else you write very distinct. That goes beyond branding and right into content strategy.

Here’s the skinny on content strategy: first of all, everyone from an interactive agency to a baking supply company either has one or needs one. The content strategy streamlines your content production and gives it a purpose and a place. A content strategy is an integral part of a marketing strategy, and just like a marketing strategy, it is highly specific to each company. There are, however, some general principals to get you started.

First: Know what your market is looking for

If you sell anything related to technology, are you writing and distributing press releases on a regular basis? SEO companies need to be on top of the latest search engine algorithm updates, and they need to let their market know that they are ahead of the game. Send out a press release giving your take on the latest update, gadget, whatever and talk about what you’re doing to evolve. Some companies maybe don’t need a press release as much as they need a white paper or Webinar or blog post. Find out what you’re missing.

But almost every company could find a way to expand. That’s the second rule.

Second: Repurpose your content

You know how Seth Godin keeps preaching to work smart instead of hard? I would listen if I were you. Like I said earlier, it’s not about producing more content; you just need to produce something relevant. And whether you’re a one-man band or a 200-employee outfit, no one has the capacity to create everything from scratch. Host a Webinar, and then post the audio as a Podcast. Take the transcript and make it a blog post. You can reverse it and use a blog post as the base for a Webinar transcript. Don’t do the same work twice.

Third: Whatever you do, do it regularly

Going back to SEO, you can pick a keyword for which you want to rank and then spend a week, a month, or a quarter producing content around that very specific keyword. Offer to do guest blog posts for interested people in the market, and link back to yourself. You can thereby create more content on that keyword than anyone else in the market has. Visitors will come back to you week after week to find out the latest on a certain topic. Are you a mechanic? Write about spark plugs. Get in deep. Go so far into the topic that readers could practically rebuild a spark plug from a gum wrapper and a rubber band. You are now the authority, and visitors-and Google-will love you.

Have you been implementing a content strategy lately? Tell me about it or ask questions in the comments!

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1) Search Engine Optimization

I would venture to guess that most people don’t know what search engine optimization, but you as a business owner most definitely have. This is the process of choosing keywords that your website is relevant for, and causing Google and the other search engines to rank your site for those keywords (optimally yours would show up higher than your competitors.)

Many small businesses don’t even have a website, or have such a small budget allocated to Internet marketing that they won’t be able to tell if Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a viable marketing channel. Quite often SEO is viewed as a black box that is unknowable, so people don’t want to try it. SEO’s are difficult to gauge since there is no formal governing certification board. Some are good, some are bad. Some are dangerous, and some are high quality. Whoever is doing the hiring of the in-house member or consultant, make sure they are familiar with SEO. It’s the technical equivalent of a non-programmer hiring a programmer – you wouldn’t dare do it.

2) Pay-Per-Click Advertising

The model for pay-per-click (PPC) is simple: Advertisers tell search engines how much they are willing to spend per click from a search page onto the advertiser’s website. The more advertisers bidding on a keyword, the more that keyword costs. It’s like a perpetual auction for traffic to your website.

This is much simpler to start than SEO, so many small businesses venture into PPC with very little experience, and are sometimes successful. Depending on your service area and type of service, you can plan on paying between $0.10 and $4 per click.

The same rules apply here – be familiar with Google AdWords at the very least when looking to hire a consultant. Hiring an outside consultant often makes more sense with PPC because after several months of optimization, a campaign can function well on its own.

3) Local Maps Optimization

If you’re a locally focused business with a brick & mortar location, local maps optimization is a fantastic candidate for your business. It’s a no-brainer in fact. The funny part about this is that you’ve likely never heard of it.

When you complete a search on Google for a product or service, quite often you’ll see a map with local businesses plotted on it come up in the search results. This is similar to SEO where there are moves you can make algorithmically to prove yourself more relevant than competitors in Google’s eyes.

Find a consultant to help you set up and optimize your profiles. Make sure they can teach you about citations and site schemas so you know that they have expert knowledge. Checking a past portfolio never hurts either.

4) Affiliate

If your product or service is such that you can sell it online, affiliate programs may make a lot of sense to try out. The idea is that you offer a decent commission (upwards of 20% is usually in good taste), and then you allow other internet marketers to sell your products for you in exchange for that commission. This gives you a large, motivated sales force rather simply.

Working with someone who has affiliate managing experience is a good thing here because you can do a lot wrong. Offer too small of commissions and no one will bother selling your product. Offer too large and you’re throwing money away. Let too many affiliates come onboard, people trying to cheat will get lost in the sea of data. Let too few in and you won’t see the sales volumes you’re seeking.

Depending on the affiliate network, you’ll be paying between about $500-$1000 per month just for being listed, so it makes sense to do it right. Affiliates are excellent, though, because they’re a large sales force that you only pay when they sell something for you; whereas, with PPC, you’re paying just to have people visit your site, whether or not they make a purchase.

I hope you’ve found these marketing channels informative and are considering trying them out on your small business! Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

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We know it’s hard to fallow that rule, this is why we will redesign our Simple Media Code‘s Social Media Blog into something more simple.

Image from my yandex.ru METRIKA

For next weeks, I’ll make a lot of redesigning and code rewriting

Web development blog of SimpleMediaCode.com - Web development blog of SimpleMediaCode.com - Internet marketing, web development and maintenance of online communication