Category: Content Development
Killer Content Marketing Techniques
Capturing an audience is to stand out from all the clutter in the World Wide Web. Effective content marketing is a major key in capturing people’s attention. It helps you earn a distinctive brand, a loyal fan base and increase in sales.
Good content marketing is the single best way to beat bigger competitors online that do not require a big budget to succeed. Content Marketing used to be about customer magazines and mailed newsletters. Now it spans to blog, email newsletters, eBooks, white papers, articles, videos and more. Below are a few content marketing techniques that you can apply to your business to get the online visibility you need.
Prepare
The first three important steps towards creating killer content are as follows:
Tone and Style. Prior to writing your web content, your brand needs to have a defined voice to prevent inconsistencies in the future.
Picking Content Creators. Choose the right person to create you content so you have to pick diligently.
Workflow. Having a well-staffed company to take part in researching, writing and publishing is better than the ‘one person does everything’ workflow. Allowing a number of heads to take part in the process helps you catch mistakes and bring more ideas for a better output.
Persuade
Create persuasive content. Take precaution on how you speak and what you say.
Use Simple Language. Studies show that most people respond best to advertisements that contain no scientific language. Keep your words plain and simple.
Have Opinions. Brand that have opinions are seen to be interesting. Be bold and popular but remember not be hostile towards your competitors. Refrain from mentioning names.
Sell the Benefits. Informing your audience about the benefits of your products or services helps your audience makes purchase decisions. Focus content on the benefits rather than promoting the product directly. Using ‘benefit-focused’ copy quickly tells the reader what’s in it for them.
Teach
It is important to remember that people want to hear answers and discover something new. In simpler words, think and give what your audience wants.
Give Answers. Remember that most people surf the web to look for answers. Content marketing has to offer practical advice that people can benefit from.
Say or Do Something New. Stay away from the boring and unoriginal content. Do something new or present existing topic in a new way. Don’t settle for block of texts. Use images, create infographics or shoot a video.
Captivate
Draw your audience by giving your content more personality. Captivate by telling stories and characters to draw them in and leave them wanting more.
Tell a story. Base on a number of studies conducted at Swinburne University of Technology, telling stories can be useful in corporate communication. It is a great way to connect with your readers.
Use Real People. To be able to bring people close to your brands, use real people. Let your audience see your employees by using pictures, audio and video. People choose to get involved with a company with which they feel a personal connection.
The Northern Office – Innovative Marketing makes use of engaging copies and informative content to attract its target audience. TNO is an independent marketing consultancy firm based in the Philippines with clients based in Europe, America and Asia. We develop killer web marketing content with the client’s goals and target audience in mind. For more information, go to www.thenorthernoffice.com.
Google Panda Recovery 101: Quality Content
First released in February 2011, Google Panda has affected websites and their content around the world with its new way of grading websites. Google Panda is basically a change to Google’s search results algorithm. In simpler words, the Panda update acts as a quality filter on search results, utilizing survey data to determine desirable and undesirable site characteristics.
Adapting to Panda updates require adjustments on your search engine optimization practices. Most of it heavily involves the quality of the content.
How can you recover if you’ve been hit?
Improving your content is a great start if you are planning a comeback. According to Google, “high quality content” comprises a large portion of the search engine ranking criteria. Below are actionable pointers for improving content quality.
- Content Authority. Users take into consideration the qualifications of the author because content authority improves the perceived value of content in the minds of the readers.
- Site Credibility. Establishing content authority extends to building site credibility. Credible websites are characterized by high percentage of up-time, are easy to use, easy to navigate and have high page speed.
- Content Purpose. Every web page needs to fulfill a unique purpose, otherwise it may be considered as a low quality website by Google.
- Content Scope. You have to make sure that every page on your website aligns with the scope of the site as a whole.
- Content Reliability. Webmasters should closely monitor site uptime, accessibility and functionality because these are quality indicators. Site outages, lack of functionality, 404 error and slow speed add up to poor quality content.
- Content Relevancy. One of the most important steps in site ranking is to ensure that your website contains plenty of rich content that should be relevant to the user’s query.
- Content Recency. Keeping your site updated, relevant and engaging encourages people to return.
- Content Format. Your website design must enhance your website’s purpose and not interfere with content or user interaction.
- Content Arrangement. Themed and organized content always appeal to readers. Present your pages in an orderly fashion with appropriate navigational elements to keep your users engaged.
- Content Treatment. Always bear in mind that content should be original, factual, objective, and uses proper spelling and grammar.
It is important to follow all the items mentioned to get the online visibility you need. With professional help, you can achieve high quality content that can improve your traffic and increase customer reach.
The Northern Office Innovative Marketing is an independent marketing consultancy firm based in the Philippines with clients in Europe, America and Asia. We can create high quality content that can get your website on top of search engines’ results. For more information, call us at (0)45 499 1082 or visit www.thenorthernoffice.com today!
Content Management System: 3 Reasons Why You Need Joomla Today
Big or small, veteran or startup, any business would probably agree that when it comes to maintaining a business website, a good Content Management System or CMS like Joomla is very important.
Joomla is basically a “framework” for building websites. It is an open source CMS (which means multiple users can log in and manipulate the system) that helps you organize and manage your content easily.
There are other CMS available on the internet. Some are free, some can be very expensive. Question is, why choose Joomla? And why use it now?
#1 Organized and convenient
A static web page becomes unruly once the content starts to add up. Updating and adding content are also often difficult to apply. Digging up content has become a headache since typical static sites doesn’t have a search function. Navigation is also a big problem for whenever you need to add another navigation button to include a new category to your website, you have to rebuild the whole navigation system to be able to add a new section. In such circumstances, Joomla makes more sense to use.
A Joomla website is recommended for a growing business’s infrastructure. Unlimited content can be added continuously with its user-friendly interface and formatting features. Finding specific pages is made easy as Joomla’s hierarchal structure keeps content organized and easy to search.
#2 Unlimited possibilities
No matter what business you are in, Joomla makes it simple to customize your website according to your requirements. For example, business owners can set up an online store using Joomla in a breeze as it only needs to install VirtueMart — a plugin created for online merchants. From there, setting up a professional online shop with full order management capability is not a problem.
You can pretty much create any type of corporate site using Joomla. International companies like Yamaha, Vodafone, Times Square, Porsche, Olympus, Linux Foundation and Burger King use it. Different businesses build their websites on Joomla. This proves that the system is highly flexible and customizable.
For small businesses, Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin nowadays are much needed. Joomla easily integrates with preferred social media platforms to able to expand customer reach.
#3 Online presence at no cost
Joomla is freely available to anyone who has internet access. With Joomla, gaining online presence is free yet effective! Take advantage of this convenience and increase productivity. But remember that although Joomla allows non-technical authors or publishers to quickly publish content on the website, navigating the interface can be quite difficult especially when articles start to pile up.
It is advisable to seek professional help to manage the different components and maximize its use. The average web user may find it hard managing complex and complicated Joomla features. For enhanced website functionality, you need to hire a professional to implement or monitor security, content backups, additional components, extensions and other necessary plug-ins.
The Northern Office – Innovative Marketing is an independent internet marketing consultancy firm in the Philippines with a wide clientele based worldwide. We specialize in web development and customer support for ecommerce businesses. Our dynamic web development team can help you build a profitable website using effective marketing strategies that will fit your budget. For more information, visit www.thenorthernoffice.com or call (045) 499.1082.
Top 5 List for Corporate Blogging
Blogging, which was initially described as an online journal, has evolved significantly in the last few years. Gone are the “dear diary” days when blogging is used for personal use only; it is now an essential aspect of the online marketing strategy of a business.
Why? Because blogs affect your site’s ranking and therefore traffic and consequently SALES!
Still need convincing about placing a blog on your business site? And why do it now?
Here’s the The Northern Office’s Top 5 List detailing the main advantages of a business blog.
#1 Search engine marketing. A blog is a great addition to any marketing plan. Considered as Google traffic magnets, blogs with good content are food for search engine spiders. If you keep packing your blog with rich relevant content, you’re sure to win over Google, Yahoo!, and Bing, to get targeted traffic to your site.
#2 Customer engagement and business relationship improvement. Blogs are also designed to facilitate conversation and engage existing and potential customers. To spark a meaningful conversation, content must also be meaningful and interactive. There’s a reason the phrase “content is king” is used so often when talking about blogs!
#3 Thought leadership. Earning trust and credibility are two of the major reasons we engage in online marketing and interact with customers. To become a leader in your industry, you should offer information, insights, and ideas which can all be presented in a blog. Blogging even makes you think on your feet and note ideas that can be beneficial for future developments. Providing your readers with quality and well-thought out blog articles positions you as a thought leader.
#4 Company’s human voice. Blogs are usually written in a more conversational tone. Something that you should take advantage of as it puts a more personable tone to your company. People prefer talking to real people instead of communicating through automated answering machines or contact forms connected to automated support ticket systems. This goes back to building trust and reputation with your market.
#5 Crisis handling. A blog is a powerful update tool. You can post in an instant, eliminating all the hassles and the waiting time for publishing an urgent announcement via traditional media.
The Northern Office Innovative Marketing Support helps you reach the top of search engine results by generating organic traffic to your website through content creation, guest writing, blogging, and great design. TNO focuses on online marketing support for corporate websites and e-commerce websites. For further details and inquiries, email us at inquiry@thenorthernoffice.com.
Going with the flow of Google’s Panda Update: 3 Easy SEO Tips
Google recently released an update to its search results ranking algorithm more popularly known as the “Farmer Update” because of the clear focus on removing or demoting content farm websites. The update is internally known as the “Panda” update.
Everybody wants to know exactly what happened, who was affected, and what can be done to retain legitimate rankings and avoid being removed from search engine results. Here’s what you need to know to be successful in your SEO efforts with regards to this recent Google update.
1. High Quality Content
It has always been Google’s goal to point users to high quality content and high-quality websites. This update basically emphasizes this objective further by penalizing websites that basically copy-paste content from other websites and those sites with numerous ads surrounding the content.
Always make sure to have unique authoritative content in your website that provides value to your users. This builds brand trust and increases traffic and usage as well.
2. Consider your Audience
Simple but absolutely useful. Before creating content for your website, ask yourself, “is this something that my audience find useful?”If your answer is yes, then proceed and publish your content into the website.
The next step would be to monitor your analytics closely and check the bounce rate of your new content. If the bounce rate is high, this could mean that your audience finds the new content to be invaluable. You will have to change it or remove it all together.
3. Stay Calm
Looking at the bigger picture, nothing much has changed. If your website has unique content and is useful to your audience, you have little to worry about. If you want to find out if your website was affected in any way, visit the Seomoz website to find out how you can use Google Analytics and identify any effects of the Google update to your site.
In any case, the best solution for any website is to improve the design, usability and of course relevant content of the website. If you achieve this, users will link to your website, drive traffic and basically ensure your ranking on top of Google’s search results.
About The Northern Office
The Northern Office (TNO) is a marketing and sales consultancy firm in the Philippines that caters to small to medium sized enterprises that do not have their own marketing department, but are big enough to need it. Our specializations include internet marketing, website design and development, content development, social media monitoring and sales support.
