Blue Swing Media

How Real Estate Agents Can Dominate AI Search Results: The Ultimate Guide to AI-First Marketing

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 22:21:31 GMT

The real estate landscape has transformed dramatically in the past year, and if you're not preparing for AI-powered search, you're already behind. While traditional search engines still matter, millions of potential home buyers and sellers are now turning to AI platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini for their real estate questions. These AI assistants don't just crawl websites—they understand context, interpret intent, and provide comprehensive answers that could either feature your expertise prominently or leave you completely invisible.

The paradigm shift is profound: instead of optimizing for keywords, you're now optimizing for conversation. Instead of ranking for single queries, you're positioning yourself as the authoritative source AI systems turn to when discussing real estate in your market. This comprehensive guide will show you exactly how to dominate this new frontier of AI-powered search and attract more qualified leads than ever before.

1. Understanding the AI Search Revolution in Real Estate

AI search platforms fundamentally operate differently from traditional search engines like Google. While Google focuses on matching keywords and analyzing link authority, AI systems understand context, synthesize information from multiple sources, and provide conversational responses. When someone asks an AI, "Should I buy a house in Miami right now?" the AI doesn't just return a list of links—it provides a comprehensive analysis drawing from the most authoritative and well-structured content available online.

This shift creates unprecedented opportunities for real estate professionals who understand how to structure their content for AI consumption. Unlike traditional SEO where you might rank on page two and still get some traffic, AI search is binary: either your expertise is featured in the response, or it's not. There's no page two in a ChatGPT conversation. This makes positioning yourself as a trusted authority more critical than ever before.

The most successful real estate agents are already adapting their content strategies to speak directly to AI systems. They're creating comprehensive, authoritative content that answers complete questions rather than targeting isolated keywords. They're building topic authority by covering every aspect of real estate in their market, from neighborhood guides to market trends to buying and selling processes.

Understanding this shift means recognizing that your website isn't just competing with other real estate sites—it's competing to be the definitive source that AI systems trust and recommend. This requires a fundamental rethinking of how you create, structure, and present your content online.

2. Optimizing Your Real Estate Content for AI Discovery

Creating AI-friendly content starts with understanding how these systems process and evaluate information. AI platforms favor content that is comprehensive, well-structured, and provides complete answers to user questions. Instead of writing a 300-word blog post about "buying a home," you need to create exhaustive resources that cover every aspect of the home buying process in your specific market.

The structure of your content matters enormously. AI systems prefer clear hierarchies, logical progression, and explicit connections between ideas. Start each piece of content with a clear overview, break information into digestible sections with descriptive headings, and always provide specific, actionable insights rather than generic advice. For example, instead of saying "the market is competitive," explain exactly what that means: "In downtown Austin, well-priced homes typically receive 3-5 offers within the first weekend, with successful buyers often waiving inspection contingencies and offering 5-10% above asking price."

Depth and breadth of coverage signal authority to AI systems. Create comprehensive neighborhood guides that cover everything from school districts and commute times to local amenities and future development plans. Develop detailed buyer and seller guides that address every question you've ever been asked, no matter how basic or complex. The goal is to become the go-to resource that AI systems consistently reference when discussing real estate in your area.

Context and specificity are crucial for AI optimization. Generic content gets lost in the vast sea of real estate information online. Instead, focus on hyper-local, specific content that demonstrates deep market knowledge. Write about specific streets, developments, and market trends unique to your area. This specificity helps AI systems understand your expertise and makes your content more likely to be featured in responses about your market.

3. Technical Website Optimization for AI Platforms

Your website's technical foundation plays a crucial role in how well AI systems can access and understand your content. Unlike traditional search engine bots, AI systems need to easily parse and comprehend your site's structure and information hierarchy. This means implementing clean, semantic HTML markup that clearly identifies different types of content and their relationships to each other.

Site speed and accessibility aren't just user experience factors—they directly impact AI crawling and analysis. AI systems often have limited time and resources for processing websites, so technical issues that slow down access or make content difficult to parse can effectively render your expertise invisible to these platforms. Ensure your site loads quickly, uses proper heading structures, and provides alternative text for images that accurately describes content rather than just listing keywords.

Structured data markup becomes even more important in the AI era. While search engines use structured data to create rich snippets, AI systems use it to understand the context and type of information on your pages. Implement real estate-specific schema markup for property listings, agent profiles, and service areas. This helps AI systems quickly identify and categorize your expertise, making your content more likely to be referenced in relevant conversations.

The mobile experience is critical for AI optimization because many AI platforms prioritize mobile-friendly content. Ensure your website provides an excellent experience across all devices, with content that's easy to read and navigate on smartphones and tablets. AI systems often evaluate the overall user experience when determining content quality and authority.

4. Creating AI-Optimized Real Estate Content That Converts

The most effective AI-optimized content solves complete problems rather than addressing isolated queries. When creating content, think about the entire journey your ideal client is on and create resources that guide them through each step. For buyers, this might mean a comprehensive guide that starts with determining readiness to buy and continues through closing and beyond. For sellers, create content that addresses everything from market preparation to post-sale considerations.

Storytelling and case studies perform exceptionally well in AI environments because they provide concrete examples that systems can reference when explaining concepts. Instead of just explaining the buying process, share detailed case studies of recent transactions that illustrate different scenarios buyers might encounter. These stories help AI systems provide more nuanced and helpful responses while showcasing your expertise and track record.

Frequently asked questions and comprehensive Q&A sections are gold mines for AI optimization. Create extensive FAQ sections that address every question you've encountered in your career, no matter how basic or complex. Structure these with clear questions and comprehensive answers that could stand alone as complete explanations. This format naturally aligns with how AI systems prefer to consume and present information.

Local market insights and data analysis position you as an authoritative source for your specific area. Regularly publish detailed market analyses that go beyond basic statistics to explain what trends mean for buyers and sellers. Include specific examples, historical context, and forward-looking insights that demonstrate deep market knowledge. This type of content is exactly what AI systems look for when fielding questions about specific real estate markets.

5. Building Authority and Trust Signals for AI Platforms

AI systems evaluate authority through multiple signals that go beyond traditional SEO metrics. Consistency across platforms is crucial—ensure your expertise and perspectives are represented consistently across your website, social media profiles, and any guest content you create. AI systems often cross-reference information from multiple sources, so inconsistencies can undermine your credibility in their analysis.

Professional credentials and certifications should be prominently displayed and explained in context. Don't just list abbreviations—explain what your designations mean and how they benefit clients. This helps AI systems understand your qualifications and makes them more likely to reference your expertise when discussing topics related to your specializations.

Client testimonials and case studies serve as powerful trust signals for AI systems. Create detailed testimonials that tell complete stories rather than just collecting generic praise. Include specific details about challenges overcome, results achieved, and the process you used to help clients succeed. These detailed accounts help AI systems understand your approach and effectiveness while building credibility for your recommendations.

Community involvement and local expertise demonstrations strengthen your position as a local authority. Write about local events, development projects, and community changes that affect real estate values. This ongoing demonstration of local knowledge and involvement helps AI systems identify you as a credible source for information about your specific market area.

6. Leveraging AI Tools to Enhance Your Marketing Strategy

The same AI technology that's changing search can also transform your content creation and marketing processes. Use AI tools to research comprehensive topic coverage, ensuring your content addresses every angle of important subjects. These tools can help identify gaps in your current content and suggest additional topics that would strengthen your authority in specific areas.

AI-powered content optimization tools can help ensure your writing style and structure align with what AI systems prefer. These tools analyze factors like readability, information density, and structural clarity—all important factors for AI consumption. However, always maintain your authentic voice and expertise while using these tools as guides for improvement.

Automated content distribution and social media management can help ensure your expertise reaches multiple platforms where AI systems gather information. Use AI tools to optimize posting times, format content for different platforms, and maintain consistent messaging across all your digital touchpoints. The broader your quality content distribution, the more likely AI systems are to encounter and reference your expertise.

Personalization and lead nurturing can be enhanced through AI tools that help you create more targeted content for different buyer and seller personas. Use these insights to create content that addresses the specific concerns and questions of different market segments, making your expertise more relevant and valuable to a broader audience.

7. Measuring and Monitoring Your AI Search Performance

Tracking your success in AI search requires new metrics beyond traditional SEO measurements. Monitor mentions of your name, business, and content across AI platforms by regularly testing queries related to your market and expertise areas. Keep detailed records of when and how your information appears in AI responses, noting patterns and opportunities for improvement.

Brand mention tracking becomes crucial in the AI era because these systems often reference sources by name when providing information. Set up monitoring for your name, business name, and key pieces of content across various AI platforms. This helps you understand how well your authority-building efforts are working and identify new opportunities for exposure.

Content performance analysis should focus on comprehensiveness and depth rather than just traffic metrics. Track which pieces of content are most frequently referenced by AI systems and analyze what makes them successful. Look for patterns in structure, topics, and presentation that you can apply to future content creation efforts.

Competitive analysis in the AI search landscape means monitoring how AI systems reference your competitors and identifying gaps you can fill. Regularly test queries where you want to be the featured expert and analyze whose content currently appears. This intelligence helps you identify content opportunities and understand what level of authority and comprehensiveness is required to compete effectively.

Conclusion: Your Next Steps to AI Search Dominance

The shift to AI-powered search represents the most significant change in real estate marketing since the advent of the internet itself. The agents who adapt quickly and strategically will gain enormous competitive advantages, while those who wait will find themselves increasingly invisible to potential clients who rely on AI for real estate guidance. The transformation is happening now, and early adopters are already reaping the benefits of increased visibility, authority, and lead generation.

Success in this new landscape requires a fundamental shift from keyword-focused content to authority-building, comprehensive resources that serve as the definitive guide for real estate questions in your market. It means thinking beyond individual blog posts to creating interconnected content ecosystems that demonstrate deep expertise across every aspect of real estate in your area. Most importantly, it means committing to providing genuine value and insights rather than just optimizing for algorithms.

The opportunity ahead is unprecedented for real estate professionals willing to invest in building true digital authority. AI search platforms will continue to evolve and improve, making authoritative, comprehensive content even more valuable over time. By positioning yourself now as the trusted expert AI systems turn to for real estate information in your market, you're not just optimizing for today's technology—you're building a foundation for sustained success in an increasingly AI-driven world where expertise and authority matter more than ever before.

GEO vs. SEO: What’s Changed, What Hasn’t, and Why It Matters Now

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 18:49:54 GMT

A lot has changed since I published Digital Marketing with Tortoise & Hare in 2017. Back then, the digital marketing conversation was heavily centered on websites, search rankings, social media consistency, and building momentum over time. Those principles still matter, but the landscape has shifted in a big way. Even the way people discover businesses and consume information has changed. My book was published on June 12, 2017, and in many ways, that feels like a different era of digital marketing.

One of the newer terms getting a lot of attention right now is GEO , which stands for Generative Engine Optimization .

If you’ve been hearing people throw that term around and wondering whether it’s just another buzzword, you’re not alone. But there is something real behind it, and it’s worth understanding.

So, What Is GEO?

GEO is essentially the practice of optimizing your business, website, and content so that AI-driven search experiences can find, understand, trust, and reference you.

Traditional SEO has focused on helping your website rank in search engine results. GEO is more about helping your brand show up in AI-generated answers , summaries, recommendations, and citations.

In simple terms:

SEO helps you rank.
GEO helps you get referenced.

That’s a meaningful distinction.

Today, people are no longer just typing a keyword into Google and clicking through ten blue links. More and more, they are asking full questions and receiving summarized answers from AI tools. That means your content is not only competing for rankings anymore. It is also competing to become part of the answer itself.

Has SEO Been Replaced?

No.

Let me say that clearly: GEO does not replace SEO.

It builds on it.

If your website is poorly structured, your content is thin, your service pages are weak, and your business has little authority online, then GEO is not going to magically fix that. The same foundational principles still matter:

a technically sound website
strong service and location pages
clear messaging
helpful content
consistent brand signals
trust and authority

In other words, the tortoise still matters.

Steady, strategic digital marketing still wins over hype, shortcuts, and shiny-object syndrome. That hasn’t changed.

What has changed is that now your content needs to be useful not just for human readers and search crawlers, but also for AI systems trying to summarize the web.

Why GEO Matters

If AI-powered search experiences continue to grow, businesses that are easiest to understand and trust will have an advantage.

That means the question is no longer just:

“How do I rank for this keyword?”

It’s also:

“How do I become the kind of source that AI tools want to cite, summarize, and recommend?”

That changes the strategy.

Businesses that win in this next phase will likely have content that is:

clear
direct
well-structured
specific
trustworthy
supported by real-world authority

The businesses that struggle will often be the ones still publishing vague, bloated, keyword-stuffed content that says a lot without really answering anything.

What GEO Looks Like in Practice

For most local businesses, service businesses, and brands, GEO is not some mysterious technical trick. It’s really a more disciplined and strategic version of what good marketing should have been doing all along.

Here are a few examples of what that looks like.

1. Answer real questions clearly

AI systems tend to favor content that is easy to extract meaning from.

That means pages that clearly answer questions like:

What is this service?
Who is it for?
How much does it cost?
How long does it take?
What should I expect?
How does this compare to another option?
Why choose this company?

If your content rambles for six paragraphs before getting to the point, that works against you.

2. Make your expertise obvious

GEO favors clarity around who you are and why you should be trusted.

That means your website should clearly communicate:

who you are
what you do
where you operate
who you serve
what qualifies you
what results you’ve produced

Case studies, testimonials, reviews, author bios, project photos, credentials, and examples all matter here.

3. Build authority beyond your website

This is a big one.

In the past, some people treated SEO like a website-only game. But GEO makes it even more important that your business is consistently represented across the web.

That includes things like:

reviews
directory listings
local citations
press mentions
social proof
guest content
industry references
branded searches

Your website tells your story. The rest of the web helps validate it.

4. Structure content for extraction

Good GEO content is usually easier to scan.

That means using:

strong headings
short paragraphs
concise definitions
lists where appropriate
FAQs
comparisons
summaries
clean page structure

This doesn’t mean writing robotic content. It means writing content that is genuinely helpful and easy to interpret.

What Has Changed Since 2017

When I wrote Digital Marketing with Tortoise & Hare, the emphasis was on consistency, patience, and long-term strategy. I still believe in that deeply.

But in 2017, most of the conversation was still centered around traditional websites, traditional rankings, and more linear search behavior.

Today, users are interacting with search differently. They are asking longer questions. They are using AI tools to shortcut research. They are often making decisions before they ever reach a website.

That means marketers and business owners have to think one step further upstream.

It’s no longer enough to simply publish content and hope it ranks.

Now we need to ask:

Is this content actually useful?
Is it easy to understand?
Does it answer a real question?
Does it show real experience?
Is my business clearly positioned as a trustworthy source?

Those are GEO questions, but they are also good marketing questions.

What Should Businesses Do Right Now?

You do not need to panic. You do not need to chase every new acronym. And you definitely do not need to throw out your SEO strategy.

But you do need to adapt.

Here’s where I would start:

Audit your most important pages

Look at your homepage, service pages, and top blog posts. Are they clear? Do they answer real questions? Do they sound like they were written to help someone, or just to rank?

Strengthen your authority signals

Add testimonials, case studies, team information, service-area clarity, photos, credentials, and proof of real work.

Build better FAQ and educational content

Think beyond keywords and start thinking in terms of buyer questions and decision points.

Tighten up your structure

Use headings, summaries, bullets, and clean formatting that makes information easy to digest.

Be consistent everywhere

Make sure your business information, positioning, and messaging are consistent across your site and third-party platforms.

Final Thoughts

GEO is worth paying attention to, but it should not distract us from the fundamentals.

At its core, it is simply pushing us toward something we should have already been doing: creating content and digital assets that are genuinely useful, trustworthy, and easy to understand.

That’s not a trend. That’s good marketing.

So yes, a lot has changed since 2017.

But some of the most important truths have not changed at all.

Steady strategy still beats gimmicks. Clarity still beats confusion. Trust still wins.

And whether you call it SEO, GEO, or simply good digital marketing, the goal remains the same:

Help the right people find you, understand you, and trust you enough to take the next step.

— Joel Conner
Blue Swing Media

Why Your Church Isn’t Showing Up in AI Search (And How to Fix It)

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 18:34:23 GMT

Most People Think They Understand AI Search. They Don’t.

And that misunderstanding is exactly why they’re not showing up in:

Perplexity
Google AI Overviews (Gemini)
ChatGPT web results

Let’s break something open that most churches and ministries haven’t realized yet.

The Assumption That’s Costing You Visibility

You search for:

“churches near me”

You check Google.

You see the top results—maybe even your church is listed.

So logically…

�� Those should be the churches AI recommends, right?

Wrong.

The Strange Reality of AI Search

In many cases, AI-generated answers (especially in Google AI Overviews or Perplexity) recommend churches that:

Aren’t at the very top of Google
Sometimes aren’t even the most obvious local options

At first glance, it feels random.

It’s not.

It’s a pattern.

“Wait… Doesn’t Local SEO Still Matter?”

Yes.

It absolutely does.

Showing up in Google Maps, having reviews, and optimizing your website are still critical foundations .

But here’s the shift most churches don’t see:

�� Your keyword is just the starting point. Not the final query.

What AI Is Actually Doing Behind the Scenes

AI doesn’t just take “churches near me” at face value.

It reinterprets the intent.

Inside tools like Google’s Gemini, if you dig a little deeper, you’ll notice something like this:

“The user wants a church… but what kind?
Maybe they want a family-friendly church… or a Bible-based church… or something with kids programs…
I should search for: family-friendly churches near me with kids ministry”

�� That’s the turning point.

Why Your Church Isn’t Showing Up

Here’s what happens next:

AI rewrites the query
It searches using its version of the intent
It pulls churches that match that refined query

So now…

�� The churches being recommended are NOT just optimized for “churches near me.”

They’re aligned with something like:

“family-friendly church near me”
“church with strong kids ministry near me”
“non-denominational church with modern worship near me”

Proof in Action

If you take one of those rewritten queries, like:

“family-friendly church near me with kids ministry”

…and search it yourself…

You’ll often see:

�� The same churches AI is recommending.

This pattern shows up across:

Gemini (Google AI Overviews)
ChatGPT search
Perplexity

And it’s consistent.

The Hard Truth No One Is Talking About

Let’s be clear:

❌ Your church isn’t being ignored
❌ SEO isn’t broken

�� You’re losing interpretation battles.

The New Game: AI Search for Churches

If you want your church to show up in AI-driven results, here’s what actually works:

1. Start with the Core Search

Think:

“churches near me”
“church in [your city]”

2. Identify How AI Expands It

Ask:

What kind of church is someone looking for?
What concerns or needs might they have?

Examples:

Families with kids
Young adults
Spanish-speaking communities
Bible-teaching focus

3. Discover the Rewritten Queries

These might look like:

“family-friendly church in [city]”
“Christian church with youth group near me”
“church with Spanish service near me”
“small church with strong community near me”

4. Create Content That Matches

Not just a generic homepage.

But pages or sections that clearly communicate:

Kids ministry
Youth programs
Worship style
Beliefs
Community life

5. Align With How AI Thinks

When your church clearly answers those deeper needs…

�� AI starts including you in its recommendations.

This Isn’t About Doing More. It’s About Being Clearer.

You don’t need:

More complicated SEO strategies
More technical tricks

You need:

�� Clear alignment with real human intent—through the lens of AI.

Final Thought

AI search is changing how people find a church.

They’re not just searching…

�� They’re asking.

And AI is answering based on interpreted needs , not just keywords.

The churches that will grow in this new landscape aren’t just visible.

They’re understood.

Building a High-Impact Non-Profits Website: The Brand & Website Launch of Brighter Story

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 20:20:18 GMT

At Blue Swing Media, we believe every mission deserves clarity.

Recently, we had the privilege of developing the brand identity and building the new non-profits website for Brighter Story — an organization currently in the process of gaining official nonprofit status.

This project wasn’t just about launching a website.

It was about building a digital foundation for long-term mission growth.

You can explore the live site here:
�� https://www.brighterstory.org

Starting with Brand: Designing a Logo That Communicates Mission

Every strong non-profit begins with a clear identity.

For Brighter Story, we developed a logo that communicates:

Hope
Light
Forward movement
Story-driven impact

The brand direction centers around the idea that every individual and every community carries a story worth telling — and that those stories can shine brighter when given the right platform.

The visual identity reflects:

Clean, modern typography
A hopeful color palette
Balanced design suitable for digital and print
Scalability for future fundraising materials, social campaigns, and outreach programs

For nonprofits, branding isn’t vanity — it’s credibility. A cohesive identity builds trust with donors, volunteers, and community partners.

Building a Non-Profits Website That Works for Growth

Many nonprofit websites look good but lack strategic functionality.

When developing Brighter Story’s non-profits website, our focus was on long-term sustainability and growth.

We prioritized:

1. Clear Mission Communication

Visitors should immediately understand:

Who the organization serves
What problem it addresses
How they can get involved

Clarity builds connection.

2. Donation-Ready Infrastructure

Even while in the process of obtaining nonprofit status, the site was built with:

Scalable donation capability
Clean call-to-action placements
Simple user flows for giving
Mobile-optimized contribution pages

Non-profits websites must reduce friction. Every extra click lowers conversion rates.

3. Volunteer & Community Engagement Features

The site architecture allows for:

Easy expansion into volunteer sign-ups
Event promotion capabilities
Story-driven blog content
Email list growth
Impact updates

Nonprofits thrive when their communities feel involved — not just informed.

4. SEO-Optimized Structure for Visibility

A strong non-profits website must also be discoverable.

The build includes:

Proper heading structure
Optimized metadata
Clean URL architecture
Mobile responsiveness
Fast load speeds

As Brighter Story grows, this SEO foundation will allow the organization to rank for mission-related search terms and attract organic traffic from people already searching for ways to give and engage.

Why Non-Profits Website Strategy Matters

Nonprofits face unique challenges:

Limited budgets
High trust requirements
Dependence on donations
Volunteer-driven growth
Grant visibility requirements

A non-profits website must function as:

A credibility builder
A storytelling platform
A fundraising tool
A recruitment engine
A community hub

Without strategy, a website becomes a digital brochure.

With strategy, it becomes a growth engine.

Designing for the Future of Brighter Story

Because Brighter Story is in the process of gaining nonprofit status, the website was built to scale.

Future-ready features include:

Grant-friendly content sections
Impact reporting areas
Testimonial and story showcases
Newsletter integration
Campaign landing page capability
Analytics tracking for growth measurement

This ensures that as the organization expands, the website won’t need to be rebuilt — it will simply evolve.

The Power of Story-Driven Design

The name Brighter Story guided the creative process.

Instead of a generic nonprofit layout, we emphasized:

Narrative-focused sections
Emotional clarity
Strong visual hierarchy
Strategic whitespace
Mobile-first design

People give to stories.

People volunteer for stories.

People share stories.

The website is structured to make storytelling central — not secondary.

Final Thoughts: Every Mission Deserves a Strong Digital Foundation

Launching Brighter Story’s non-profits website was more than a design project.

It was about aligning brand, technology, and mission into a unified digital presence.

If you’re building or rebuilding a non-profits website, ask yourself:

Does it clearly communicate your mission?
Is it donation-ready?
Is it mobile-optimized?
Is it built for long-term growth?
Does it make engagement simple?

If not, it may be time to move beyond a basic website — and build something that fuels impact.

You can view the Brighter Story website here:
�� https://www.brighterstory.org

How to Set Up Go High Level for Real Estate (Without Getting Overwhelmed)

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 01:30:52 GMT

If you’re a real estate agent or broker, you’ve probably heard of Go High Level.

You may even know it’s “powerful” and “can run your whole business” — but when you log in, it feels like a cockpit. Dozens of features, endless menus, and no clear roadmap for what you actually need to use.

The good news: as a real estate professional, you don’t need everything.

You just need a few core pieces set up correctly:

A simple pipeline that matches how you work
Automated follow-up so no lead slips through the cracks
Smart tagging and routing so leads go to the right place
Appointment reminders that reduce no‑shows
Easy open house and offer follow-ups
Basic dashboards so you can see what’s working

In this guide, we’ll walk through how to set up Go High Level for a real estate business step by step — and how to use it without getting buried in complexity.

Why Go High Level Is a Good Fit for Real Estate

Go High Level (often written as GoHighLevel or GHL) is an all‑in‑one platform that can:

Capture leads from forms, funnels, and ads
Store and organize contacts like a CRM
Automate follow‑ups via email, SMS, and even ringless voicemail
Track deals in pipelines
Book and manage appointments
Build simple landing pages and funnels

For real estate agents and brokers, that means you can:

Respond instantly to new leads
Keep track of buyers and sellers by stage and property
Follow up after open houses
Send appointment reminders automatically
Stay on top of which leads came from where

You don’t have to use every feature. If you focus on a handful of essentials, you’ll get real value quickly — and you can grow from there.

Step 1: Start With a Real Estate Sub‑Account and Snapshot

Go High Level lets you create sub accounts — essentially separate spaces for each business.

If you’re just getting started:

Go to your Agency account.
Click Sub accounts in the left menu.
Click Create sub account .
Search for Real Estate snapshots.

You’ll see options like:

Real Estate Agent
Real Estate Broker

Pick the one that matches you best. These snapshots come preloaded with:

Real estate pipelines
Basic automations
Landing page templates

Then:

Add your business information (address, name, etc.).
Click Add sub account .
Switch into it with Switch to sub account .

This gives you a solid starting point tailored to real estate rather than a blank, generic setup.

Step 2: Build a Pipeline That Matches Your Real Estate Workflow

Your pipeline is where you visually track deals from “new lead” to “closed.”

The real estate snapshot usually includes a default pipeline with stages like:

New lead
Hot lead
New booking
Visit attended
Deal
Left a review

You can keep this, or you can create your own so it reflects how you actually work.

How to Create a Custom Pipeline

Go to Opportunities .
Click Pipelines .
Click Create pipeline .

For a buyer pipeline , for example, you might set stages like:

New lead
Contacted
Appointment set
Showing
Offer made
Closed

For a seller pipeline , you could have:

New listing
Photos taken
On market
Offer received
Sold

Name the pipeline and click Create . Then, in the top left, switch to your new pipeline to start using it.

Tip: If you work with both buyers and sellers, create separate pipelines. It keeps your view clean and makes follow‑up easier.

Step 3: Automate Lead Follow‑Up So You Respond Instantly

This is where Go High Level really shines.

Most agents lose business not because they don’t get leads — but because they don’t follow up quickly or consistently.

With Go High Level, you can create workflows that:

Trigger when a new lead comes in
Send an immediate SMS and/or email
Add the lead to a pipeline
Assign it to an agent
Continue nurturing over days or weeks

Start with a Simple New Lead Workflow

Go to Automations → Workflows .
Click Create workflow → Start from scratch (or use “New Lead Nurture – Fast 5” as a base).

Add a trigger , such as:

Form submitted (for website or funnel forms)
Facebook lead form submitted
TikTok form submitted
LinkedIn lead form submitted
New contact created
Appointment booked

If you’re using a standard Go High Level form, choose:

Trigger: Form submitted
Filter: Form is [Your Buyer/Seller Form]

Once you’ve set your trigger, add actions like:

Create/Update Contact – to ensure the lead is saved properly
Add to Pipeline – put them into the “New lead” stage of your buyer or seller pipeline
Send SMS – something friendly and immediate, like:

“Hi {{contact.first_name}}, thanks for reaching out about homes in {{location}}. Would you like to schedule a quick call to talk about what you’re looking for?”

Send Email – a slightly more detailed introduction and next steps
Wait steps and If/Else conditions – for follow‑ups based on whether they reply

You can also use the prebuilt New Lead Nurture (Fast 5) workflow in Go High Level. It typically:

Triggers when someone submits an offer form or Facebook lead form
Creates a new opportunity in the New lead stage
Sends a conversational email and SMS
Waits for replies
Moves leads to Hot lead if they reply
Triggers call connect actions

This is a great starting point if you don’t want to build from scratch.

Step 4: Auto‑Tag and Route Your Leads for Better Organization

Once leads are flowing in, you want them automatically:

Tagged (e.g., buyer, seller, rental, luxury, open house)
Routed to the right pipeline and agent

This keeps your database clean and makes it easy to run targeted follow‑ups.

Tagging Leads Based on Forms and Sources

Say you have different forms:

Buyer form
Seller form
Open house form
Free home valuation form

You can:

Use a trigger like Form submitted or Facebook lead form submitted .
Filter by specific form.
Add an action: Add contact tag .

Useful tags might include:

Buyer / Seller
Rental
Luxury listing
Came from Facebook
Came from Google
Open house – 123 Main St
Free home valuation

With these tags in place, you can quickly filter contacts, build targeted campaigns, or trigger routing automations.

Routing Leads to the Right Agent

You can also route leads based on tags.

Example: all Buyer leads go to your buyer’s agent.

Create a new workflow with trigger Contact tag .
Filter: Tag added is Buyer.
Add action: Assign to user .
Choose the agent responsible for buyer leads.

You can set up similar workflows for sellers, rentals, or specific property types or locations.

This way:

Facebook buyer leads go straight into your buyer pipeline
Seller leads go to your listing pipeline
Agents see only the leads they’re responsible for

No manual sorting. Less confusion. Faster response times.

Step 5: Set Up Appointment Reminders to Reduce No‑Shows

Once you’re booking showings and consultation calls, appointment reminders can dramatically reduce no‑shows.

Create a Calendar in Go High Level

Go to Calendars → Calendar settings .
Click New calendar .
Choose the calendar type:

Personal booking – for one agent
Round robin – for multiple team members
Class booking – useful if you want a “group” appointment (e.g., open house time slots)

Name the calendar (e.g., “Buyer Consultation,” “Listing Appointment,” “Property Showing”).
Add team members if using round robin.
Set:

Meeting duration
Bookable times
Buffer times between appointments

Then, connect it to your personal calendar:

Go to Connections
Click Add new
Connect Google Calendar, Outlook, iCloud, or Calendly

Now, when someone books through this calendar, it automatically shows up in your personal calendar.

Use Automated Confirmation and Reminder Workflows

Go High Level usually includes a workflow like “Appointment Confirmation and Reminders.”

This can:

Trigger when an appointment is confirmed
Update the opportunity stage to something like Appointment set
Send a confirmation email:

“Hi {{contact.first_name}}, your appointment has been confirmed for {{appointment.start_date}} at {{appointment.start_time}} {{appointment.time_zone}}.”

Send reminder emails:
24 hours before
1 hour before
Send SMS reminders (e.g., 1 hour before)

If someone doesn’t show, another workflow can trigger on Appointment status: No show and:

Send a link to reschedule
Follow up again after a day

This combination keeps your calendar fuller and minimizes missed opportunities.

Step 6: Automate Open House Follow‑Ups

Open houses are great for collecting warm leads — but those leads often go cold if you don’t follow up quickly and consistently.

Go High Level makes it easy to:

Capture visitor info
Tag them based on the specific open house
Send personalized follow-ups with similar listings or next steps

Create a Simple Open House Form

Go to Sites → Forms → Form builder .
Build a form that collects:

Name
Email
Phone
What they’re looking for (beds, baths, budget, area)

You can use this:

On a tablet at the open house
As a QR code link (visitors scan and fill it out on their phone)
Embedded on your website
As part of your Facebook lead ad form that’s integrated into Go High Level

Automate the Follow-Up

Use a Form submitted trigger for your open house form.
Add an action to Add contact tag , e.g.: Open house – 123 Main St.
Add actions to:

Send an immediate “Thanks for stopping by” email or SMS
Include links to similar listings or next steps
Add them to a Warm leads pipeline
Set reminders for follow‑up calls or texts

Example SMS:

“Hi {{contact.first_name}}, thanks for visiting the open house at 123 Main St today. I’ve got a few similar properties you might like — want me to send them over?”

This simple automation helps you stay top‑of‑mind and turn casual open house visitors into real opportunities.

Step 7: Use Dashboards to See What’s Working (and Fix What Isn’t)

Once everything is up and running, you don’t want to guess how it’s performing.

Check your Dashboard or Reports in Go High Level regularly (weekly works well). You can see:

How many leads are coming in
Which sources (Facebook, Google, website, open houses) are performing best
How many leads are moving from stage to stage in your pipeline
Where deals tend to get stuck

From there, make small tweaks like:

Adjusting the delay between follow‑up messages
Refining your SMS and email templates
Changing which tags trigger which workflows
Fine‑tuning your pipelines or reminders

Often, small improvements in timing or messaging can significantly boost your response rates and conversions.

Bonus: Simple Funnels and Offers for Real Estate

You don’t need complex funnels to generate leads.

Go High Level snapshots for real estate often come with ready‑made pages like:

Free home valuation offer
Home buying consultation
Seller consultation

For example, you could:

Run Facebook ads to a free home valuation landing page
Collect details through a form
Tag those leads as Free home valuation
Trigger an automation that:
Reminds you to prepare the valuation
Sends a follow‑up message to schedule a consultation
Adds them to a seller pipeline

This turns a simple offer into a structured system that consistently feeds your business.

Keep It Simple, Then Grow

Go High Level has dozens of features — social planners, reputation management, and more — but you don’t need all of them on day one.

If you’re a real estate agent or broker, start with:

A buyer and/or seller pipeline
New lead follow‑up workflows (email + SMS)
Tagging and routing rules
Appointment calendars and reminders
Open house follow‑up
Basic dashboard checks

Once those are in place and working, you can gradually add:

Social media scheduling
Review generation (reputation management)
More advanced campaigns and funnels

The goal isn’t to use every feature — it’s to build a system that quietly saves you hours each week and helps you close more deals.

Need Help Setting This Up?

If you’d like to use Go High Level (or any CRM/automation system) but don’t have the time or desire to configure it yourself, Blue Swing Media can help.

We work with small businesses and local service providers — including real estate professionals — to:

Set up practical, easy‑to‑use pipelines
Build automated follow‑ups that feel personal, not spammy
Connect your website, ads, and forms so every lead is tracked
Create landing pages and offers that actually convert

If you want a real estate system that runs smoothly in the background while you focus on serving clients, reach out to Blue Swing Media. We’ll help you implement the strategies in this guide and tailor them to your business, your market, and your goals.

7 Proven HVAC Marketing Strategies (That Work in 2023): Expert Tips

Wed, 11 Oct 2023 12:41:25 GMT

Having A Clear Plan Can Make All The Difference!

Introduction

In the fiercely competitive landscape of the HVAC industry, the need for effective marketing strategies is paramount. As we move further into the digital age, the importance of staying ahead of the curve and utilizing the latest strategies cannot be overstated. According to Padula Media and Gotch SEO , digital marketing has become a vital tool for HVAC companies to increase their visibility, target potential customers, and stand out from the crowd.

In 2023, these needs will only become more pronounced. With the North America HVAC system market projected to grow from $43.67 billion in 2022 to $62.31 billion by 2029, there's a growing need to keep up with the competition and capture a portion of this expanding market.

The aim of this article is to provide 7 proven HVAC marketing strategies for 2023, backed by expert insights and data from Forbes . These strategies have been handpicked for their effectiveness and relevancy in the current market, providing actionable steps for HVAC companies looking to enhance their marketing efforts and achieve business growth.

Sources:

Understanding the Current HVAC Marketing Landscape

The HVAC market of 2023 presents a complex and evolving landscape for HVAC companies. Digitalization has caused a major shift, paving the way for the rise of online marketing for HVAC services. HVAC businesses that are quick to adapt find themselves thriving, while others struggle to keep up.

One of the most defining characteristics of this landscape is the increasing importance of customer reviews and a solid online reputation. In an era where potential customers can find information about your HVAC services with a quick Google search, what they find can significantly influence their decision to choose your service.

Staying competitive in this environment is not an easy task. However, by understanding these dynamics and implementing effective HVAC marketing strategies, HVAC businesses can rise above the competition and attract more customers.

Crafting an Effective HVAC Marketing Strategy

In the dynamic world of HVAC marketing, the cornerstone of any successful campaign is a comprehensive HVAC marketing plan. A crucial aspect of this plan is maintaining a high-quality website optimized for both desktop and mobile users. The importance of mobile optimization for your HVAC website cannot be overstated, as more potential customers are finding HVAC services through mobile searches.

In addition to a stellar website, effective content marketing is essential. This includes incorporating engaging images and videos that showcase your services, hence, enhancing your HVAC company's appeal.

Furthermore, a robust online presence on social media platforms can help you connect with your audience, fostering trust and brand recognition. Leveraging the power of local SEO is also vital in reaching potential customers within your service area and establishing credibility.

Remember, the most profitable HVAC businesses adopt a long-term approach to marketing. This strategy fosters enduring relationships with customers, ultimately leading to repeat business and a strong reputation.

Utilizing Different Marketing Tactics

Email marketing is a powerful tool in the arsenal of HVAC marketing. It allows businesses to leverage customer data and foster long-term relationships. Moreover, Google Business Profiles can significantly boost your visibility and attract new customers.

In the world of digital marketing, PPC advertising has proven its worth, driving traffic and generating leads. Another effective approach is video marketing, which showcases services and engages potential customers.

Don't underestimate the power of traditional methods like direct mail and referral programs. They can help reach a wider audience and bring in more HVAC leads.

Last but not least, Google Local Services Ads and search engine marketing tactics can skyrocket your conversions and help attract local customers, making them crucial components of your HVAC marketing strategy.

Educating Potential Customers and Building Trust

In the realm of HVAC marketing, educating potential customers is more than just a noble endeavor—it's a proven strategy for building trust and driving sales. Content marketing is a powerful tool in this regard, providing value to your audience while subtly promoting your HVAC services.

However, education alone isn't enough to win over customers. That's where customer reviews enter the picture. Online reputation has become a dominant factor in the purchasing decisions of potential customers. Actively managing online reviews can help foster a sense of trust and loyalty among your customer base.

Another effective approach is the utilization of mobile-friendly ads and promotions, which have the potential to significantly boost customer engagement. Furthermore, customer loyalty programs can assist in retaining customers and fostering repeat business, proving to be an invaluable asset in your HVAC marketing strategy.

Look at some of the successful HVAC companies out there—they're all leveraging these strategies to their advantage.

Conclusion

In wrapping up, the seven proven HVAC marketing strategies for 2023 offer a robust roadmap for businesses to navigate the competitive landscape. From developing a comprehensive marketing plan to building a conversion-friendly website, leveraging online reviews, and providing exceptional customer service, these strategies are crucial for staying ahead.

It's essential to adapt these strategies to the unique needs of your HVAC business to unlock growth and profitability. As the North American HVAC market is projected to grow significantly, the potential for success through effective marketing is immense.

Staying updated with the current trends, such as the digital marketing landscape and customer service expectations, is also vital. Remember, your HVAC marketing strategy is a dynamic tool that should continually be refined to meet the evolving market demands.

Want Help Marketing Your HVAC Company? Let us help you. Let us do for you what we have done for other companies. Schedule a free, no risk, no pressure strategy session today!

Sources:

https://aspireinternetdesign.com/industries/hvac-web-design/11-proven-hvac-marketing-tactics-in-2023/

Content Marketing Ideas for Small Businesses

joelc@embroco.com (Joel Conner) — Tue, 09 Aug 2022 12:00:29 GMT

There are many ways to deliver value to your audience!

As a small business owner, you may not have a significant budget to spend on marketing your goods and services. This is especially true if you haven't seen much in the way of results through conventional tactics in the past. You may even question whether the cost of marketing is worth it. Firstly, yes, it is, and luckily for you, content marketing is another more cost-effective way to generate new leads and increase visibility or findability in the digital age.

What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is the engine that drives sales in the online world. When you upload online material (blogs, images, videos, articles, etc.) to promote your small business, to be shared, liked, or commented on by followers or future customers—this is an example of content marketing.

The content you upload is all part of your marketing strategy, and to make the most of this effort, you must develop material that focuses on educating your audience and building trust—all based on your core business objective.

Did you know the similarities between a hamburger sold at McDonald's and content marketing? They're both easy on the wallet. But let's get real here. Content marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. As you communicate successfully with your audience, it has the potential to change their behavior over time. Not only will this help you sell more, but it will also help you accurately predict your company's growth. Here are some content marketing ideas to help you get started.

Conversion-Bound Website

A company's website serves as their home base, and every content marketing plan revolves around it. Because more than half of consumers research businesses before making a purchase, having a high-quality and dependable platform is essential for businesses of all sizes, from small startups to giant corporations. While some marketers believe in faster routes, taking shortcuts in this regard is likely to discourage potential customers, resulting in higher bounce rates.

On top of that, it's important to understand that creating a conversion-bound website is no simple task, particularly if you have no training in web design, copywriting, and coding. Therefore, if you don't have whatever it takes to build a dream website, hire some experts. Considering that your website is the foundation of your digital marketing efforts, you must ensure it is done right.

Written Material

A good place to begin is with some written content; however, the internet is a vast space, and the mere existence of your blog will not be enough to make it stand out from the competition. You must aim to write articles that present new information, help your target audience in some way, or simply just entertain them—and the best content revolves around all three. Simply put, if your material is well-written, optimized for search engines, and adheres to blogging best practices, you're good to go.

If you often find yourself asking, "What should I write?"—you are in trouble. Instead of asking that question, you should be wondering, "What do my readers want to read?" Effective blogging (aimed to build a brand and boost sales) is focused on what the target audience wants, NOT what you want the audience to read. Here are some foolproof ways to get blog post content ideas any day, every day.

● Start by creating content similar to your most-viewed posts.

● Use Google Search Console (Check out its 'Performance' tab).

● Visit Quora to find what individuals are talking about these days.

● Just like Quora, Reddit is also a treasure trove for content ideas.

● Search for the relevant Hashtags on Twitter, and create something similar.

● Make use of social media analytics. (There's one in nearly every top platform).

● At the end of every post, ask your readers/visitors what they'd like to see next.

● Learn from competitors but never try to copy the stuff they're already producing.

● Follow the "news" in your industry—preferably the controversial ones.

Once you have the content idea that works in your favor, use it to create an editorial schedule for at least three months. Not only will it save you time (you don't want to look for content marketing ideas every day), but it will also bring consistency to your blogging approach, transforming it into a content asset. Having a content asset is essential to building a brand.

Savvy Infographics

Try to recall when you last read a lengthy article or blog post with loads of complicated jargon, where it wasn't easy to make sense of all that was going on. Your audience may feel the same if the content you put out there is not quite comprehensible—and this is where infographics come in. Infographics are visually appealing and simpler to distribute than text, making it far simpler to understand and recall statistical information. Good content is 50% of a successful infographic.

For those concerned with infographics being a thing of the past, note that they have had the most significant increase in the last four years among B2B marketers and were at 67% in 2020. Infographics have always been—and will always be—a powerful tool to deliver information. Don't worry if you don’t have the required designing skills. There are hundreds of customizable infographic templates available online to provide a helping hand even if you have a tight budget.

However, even if you are familiar with the infographic fundamentals, there is something remarkable about the professional approach. An experienced infographic designer will not only think about the components of the design but will also concentrate on the other aspect of content “marketing” - the marketing. They will create a design that draws in your target demographic, boosts user engagement, and expands your customer base. So, DIY approach or professional infographic designer, the choice is yours.

Interviews Industry Rockstars

Rockstars may be found in every field imaginable. For example, Elon Musk is at the helm of startups, Jony Ive is available to designers, and then there's marketing guru Seth Godin. Due to their accomplishments and years of expertise, they are a veritable treasure mine of pointers, strategies, and recommendations your audience is itching to pick up. Before setting up an interview, one must have a strong familiarity with their qualifications and experience.

Start off by determining what their backstories are and what it is about them that makes them so exceptional. Look for marketing advice and think about what your readers may learn from them. Simply put, create subjects that are relevant to the situation. This way, you can connect their area of expertise to something you already know your audience would like. You may ask:

● How do you manage to be so good at what you do?

● What is the key to your incredible level of productivity?

● What are some of the most significant errors you've made?

Digital Advertising

Digital advertising has become a significant component of modern-day content marketing strategies—and if it's not part of your small business marketing strategy, it should be. The transition businesses have gone through to migrate and adapt to the changes that society has undergone may be considered digital advertising. After all, if 4.18 billion individuals connect to the internet with their smartphones, your small business must also be visible to increase its relevance and brand recognition.

One of the most well-known methods marketers use to promote their content is via Google's search adverts, which were once known as AdWords. Marketers can advertise their content alongside organic search results using this method, often known as search engine marketing or SEM. The Google Adverts program uses a concept known as pay-per-click, or PPC for short. This means that you only pay when users click on one of their ads rather than for impressions.

It is an excellent way to put your content in front of the appropriate audience since the adverts display the search queries entered by users to determine results. Additionally, considering that around 75% of individuals never go beyond the first page of search results, this might significantly boost the visibility of your content, improving your business's SEO.

Email Marketing

A regular newsletter is one of the best ways to get your content in front of your targeted audience. Remember that users will only sign up for your list if there is something in it for them. Start by creating enticing subject lines. On top of that, maintain brevity and focus when writing the body of your email. Finally, don't forget to add a direct call to action along with a link to your content.

Video Marketing

As the old adage goes, a picture is worth a thousand words; multiply that number by a thousand in the case of a video—the foundation upon which video marketing is built. It is a powerful marketing tool that successfully engages with the audience and only requires a little practice and creativity to blow them away. When it comes to video content, marketers have various tools at their disposal. This indicates that locating a strategy compatible with your content marketing objectives is simple.

● Videos experience a 27% higher click-through rate.

● Receive 41% more web traffic.

● Grow revenue 49% faster than non-video users.

Converting your articles into videos is one of the simplest ways to repurpose your content. Additionally, doing so gives you a new avenue to generate new traffic. More precisely, a whopping 91% of those who use the internet. So, what are you waiting for? Take your most recent blog or article, hire a video marketing expert, give it a few minutes of your time, and voila! A custom-made video is all set to be published on your social media accounts.

Bonus Idea: Invest in Innovation

Even though Amazon was not the first online business, practically everything it has done since its inception has been groundbreaking. They don't keep up with the rest of the industry; they are the ones in charge. Even after all these years, Amazon continually seeks new methods to monetize its existing customer base. However, not everything Amazon has done has been a home run success story. They've undoubtedly had several setbacks.

Nonetheless, the critical factor to note here is that Amazon has never shied away from developing and experimenting with new ideas. They were frequently willing to take risks when the rest of the industry was not, which has paid off handsomely in the long term.

The secret sauce here is to think like your consumer and design services and an experience that meets their requirements and expectations. Remember that not everything you try will be successful; therefore, test even the smallest ideas to ensure they are safe to implement.

Rather than using a costly survey platform, simply establish a free Google Form and manually distribute links to the general public. If the reaction is positive and the input is meaningful, you may want to consider investing in a more sophisticated, automated solution.

The Final Cut

Content and marketing are like peanut butter and jelly, complementing one another and generally performing best when integrated. However, you must have a strategy to balance them to get the highest ROI. Whether you're a rookie or a pro, at some point, you will experience writer's block and find it challenging to come up with relevant ideas. If you're in a rut or simply need new content to align with your marketing strategy, join hands with the content marketers at BlueSwing Media.

Here, we unpacked some content marketing ideas to make your small business the next big thing. This brings us to the end of this quick-start guide. Now it's time to hear from you. Any questions? Or maybe there's something we missed? Either way, feel free to leave a comment below.

Is Content Marketing Effective for Small Businesses?

Wed, 11 May 2022 16:25:27 GMT

There’s a reason the “godfather of new-age marketing” Seth Godin made this bold statement in 2015.

“Content marketing is the only marketing left.”

Actually, there are several reasons why he said so all those years ago. But, that’s a discussion for another time. What Godin meant was that marketers should focus on creating content that their target audience can genuinely relate to and consume. Repurposed and thinly veiled advertisements won’t cut it anymore!

The marketing industry has changed significantly since those comments were made. Nevertheless, the requirement to produce content according to the above-mentioned approach remains as strong as ever. To say that the world has moved away from traditional advertising methods would be an understatement.

These days, the brands aren’t that much concerned about bombarding the public with eye-catching messages. Instead, businesses have turned to inbound marketing to get the most out of limited budgets. This ensures that the right people can find a brand when they need it.

Think of the digital marketing sector as a theater of short attention spans. In there, every performance is just one click (or screen tap, depending upon your device!) away from being consigned to the dustbin of irrelevance.

This is often tough to take for marketers, but it’s the sad truth. Online business promotion isn’t easy by any means. You can be in a niche market and still face lots of competition. As mentioned already, simple ads and promotional emails aren’t enough nowadays. To stand out in your chosen market, you need a well-thought-out content marketing strategy.

Small Business Content Marketing

For small business owners, content marketing may appear complicated and overly pricey. You probably believe that this is something only the big brands can do well. Not to worry!

Given the considerably low cost and hardly any barriers to entry, there’s a level playing field for businesses of all kinds when it comes to digital marketing. Even mom-and-pop shops can now devise an efficient content marketing strategy to entice more customers and grow their venture.

We would even argue that content marketing holds greater value for small businesses. This is because such companies have to function within their limitations. They don’t have the resources usually available to a big corporation. And since content marketing is known for delivering the highest ROI (Return on Investment) among all marketing tools, small businesses have a lot to gain from it. Furthermore, this is a long-term ploy that can continue benefitting businesses even years after implementation.

Perhaps this is why an eye-watering 70% of marketers today are investing heavily into content marketing. Also, an astonishing 72% of professionals in the field believe that a sound content strategy is indispensable to the success of their companies!

Why Should Small Business Owners Focus on Content Marketing?

Delivering interesting, engaging, timely, and relevant content can help small businesses become thought leaders in their industry. As a result, your firm will get better recognition while also building loyalty, respect, and trust with the consumers.

Through content marketing, you can identify customer pain points and illustrate how your product/service can deal with those issues. This will generate a ton of quality leads, which you can then work on closing and turning into repeat sales.

Moreover, content marketing can help you generate lots of evergreen and high-quality content. Suppose you’ve created an infographic detailing the steps involved in a process that isn’t likely to change, or your team of writers has produced an engaging blog post about the history of your industry. Such stuff can eventually turn into valuable intangible assets for a business with virtually no expiration date!

Multi-purpose content is another reason why small businesses should invest in content marketing. At a relatively much lower cost, you can create marketing material for various platforms and types of campaigns. Examples include a YouTube video on a common industry topic or a blog post about the needs of a specific community.

Once this content has been created, you can share it on all your social media channels. You just have to make a few tweaks here and there depending upon the requirements of a particular platform. This saves both money and time, while you can position your organization as one of the leading names in the field.

What Purpose Can Content Marketing Serve for Small Businesses?

The ultimate aim of any marketing effort is to increase the customer base by creating brand loyalty and driving sales. Content marketing happens to be one of the most economical and effective ways of doing that in the multi-channel environment of today.

That’s mainly because content marketing provides value to the audience. You can’t say the same about paid advertising. Thanks to this value delivery, building trust with potential customers becomes easier.

The numbers indicate that around 70% of people would prefer understanding a business by reading an article about it. This is just one form of content marketing. Your small business can generate so many different types of content for a variety of platforms. All of them can help you come up with a robust marketing strategy.

And as already mentioned, there’s no better way than content marketing if you want to position yourself as an industry expert, raise the profile of your venture, and gain valuable exposure for your products and/or services. In a nutshell, this strategy ticks every box.

Content Marketing: The Benefits for Small Businesses

Small businesses can benefit from a well-prepared content marketing strategy in many different ways.

Significantly Lower Cost Compared to Traditional Advertising

Conventional advertising media, like direct mail and television commercials, are often out of reach for small businesses. Besides, these platforms no longer have the effectiveness or audience pull that they once had. As a result, they won’t necessarily be the right sources to get to your target audience.

On the other hand, there’s a whole new world of affordable and addictive platforms for small business ads courtesy of digital marketing. From SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and social media marketing to community building, email marketing, and influencer partnerships, there are so many options for you to distribute high-quality content. Doing so would help you build brand awareness among key audience demographics.

You Can Easily Repurpose Digital Content

Unlike a TV commercial, static ad, or window display, a well-written article on your blog is much more efficient at marketing your business. This is because its reach goes way beyond your own website. You can publish it as a “guest post” on another site, share it on different social media channels, make a video or infographic out of it, add it to an email newsletter, etc.

Simply put, a single blog post can be responsible for continuously sending traffic to your website long after its publication. This will ultimately generate a much bigger ROI than you could have predicted.

Hence, make sure to add some content repurposing ideas into your marketing plan. For example, if you’re planning the launch of a new product or service in the next 6 months, this is the time to consider each and every element of the campaign. Think about the blog calendar, social media posting schedule, videos, email promos, newsletters, and new website landing pages that might be needed in the lead up to the big announcement.

Doing so will help you be prepared for key marketing channels. A properly planned marketing and product launch roadmap would enable you to find the best ways of repurposing content that aligns with your goals. If you do this right, there will be lesser need of creating new content all the time.

Sharing Your Expertise Via Content Is Actually Easier Than It Sounds!

The customers of today don’t take too kindly to hard sales pitches. They’re a knowledgeable bunch (thanks to the wonder that is the Internet!) who’re looking for education rather than product/service benefits being flaunted in their face. This explains why nearly 70% of present consumers prefer learning about an organization through a blog post, feature article, promotional video, etc. rather than an advertisement.

Here again, content marketing plays an important role. It enables marketers to produce and share high-value content that can educate potential customers about your brand. This will ultimately have a positive impact on your lead generation and conversion rates.

Effective and efficient content is trustworthy in the eyes of your audience. This is why blogging is an easy way for businesses to position themselves as industry and subject matter experts. That being said, you don’t build trust overnight. For it, you have to consistently come up with valuable, engaging, and relevant content that can entice users on multiple digital platforms.

Blogging is also a wonderful marketing tool because it facilitates conversations that allow customers to trust and like your offerings over time. As a result, whenever they’re ready to buy such a product or service, your offering would be the first one that comes to mind!

Characteristics of Quality Content

Many small business owners tend to start sweating at the very mention of the words “content marketing.” Creating content is likely to give them sleepless nights, even though it’s no rocket science. The problem lies in the way they approach the content production process.

In truth, as long as you and your team have a grasp on basic writing skills, you should have no problem coming up with high-quality, reliable, and engaging content. Admittedly, viral content is somewhat harder to quantify. Since there are no rules as what may or may not be a hit with the public, generating viral-quality content is more challenging.

Nevertheless, figuring things out shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Following are some characteristics of top-notch digital content.

Original

You can try and copy stuff from anywhere. It also doesn’t matter how smartly you go about it. Doing so just wouldn’t work. Google’s algorithm has evolved over the years and its current form has been designed to punish duplicate content. Back in the day, you could generate endlessly repetitive material brimming with keywords in every line. That’s not possible anymore.

To attract visitors to your online channels, it’s important to come up with original content that can add lots of value to the business. For this purpose, you can build a team in-house or outsource the work because there’s no shortage of talented content creators and copywriters on the Internet. You can even look beyond your national borders for more economical services in this regard.

Informative

The hallmark of any great piece of content is that it educates people. By the time they’re done going through it, they know something that they didn’t before. This knowledge can take the form of a funny anecdote, practical know-how, historically relevant stuff, etc.

Remember to keep things interesting when trying to come up with informative content. However, don’t make the mistake of adding humor just for the sake of it. Similarly, don’t put in irrelevant stuff to make your content more engaging.

Tell the story by using interesting hooks that can keep the audience on edge. Avoid technical jargon as well; only add stuff that’s necessary. Also, consider your audience. Are they an experienced user or a newbie with not much understanding of your product or industry? These factors should dictate the direction your new content goes in.

Furthermore, the kind of content you need will also affect the level of creator that you choose to hire or outsource the work to. Any half-decent writer can produce some off-page blog posts meant to improve your SEO stats. However, if you want to be known as an industry expert, your team will need to have a thorough understanding of your offerings as well as the sector before they can sit down to create something unique and engaging.

Actionable

Lastly, good content advises potential customers about what they should do next. Basically, you add an effective call-to-action (CTA) into your content. For instance, a product review tells readers if they should buy something or not. In the same way, informative content shows readers/viewers how to deal with a particular problem that they might be experiencing. Furthermore, opinion-based content can help people make up their minds about an existing issue.

Parting Thought

There’s no doubt about the effectiveness of content marketing for small businesses. Contrary to what many small business owners think, this is actually a great equalizer when it comes to marketing. With a well-planned content marketing strategy, even a mom-and-pop shop can compete against bigger firms with huge marketing budgets!

P.S. Would you like to automate your content marketing and have a steady flow of quality leads coming in? Learn more about our content marketing services here .

Using Storytelling in Your Local Content to Boost Credibility and Engagement

joelc@embroco.com (Joel Conner) — Fri, 06 May 2022 18:48:06 GMT

Leveraging Storytelling in Your Local Content Marketing to Boost Reliability and Engagement

Telling a compelling story makes any media far more fascinating and gives you big boosts in credibility and will in general significantly increase the effectiveness of local content marketing. What are the elements of a terrific story? How can you utilize it to increase your reliability? Here are the most important skills and elements to master.

Start With Giving Valuable Content

Every story requires to have a crystal-clear lesson. The storyline could be an ethical one (e.g., "Don't cheat your clients"), or it could be a technical one (e.g., "What happens when you just take notice of CTR and not page quality in Google Ads").

Whatever the case, the lesson requires to be clear to you prior to you starting to write the story. Never ever attempt to put 2 lessons in one story and never begin composing a story prior to being clear on the lesson.

Your story's message doesn't need to be clear to your reader till they get to the very end. But it must be clear to you prior to you writing a single word.

Use Content That People Can Relate To

If you're targeting young homebuyers, will they relate more to a story about an mega real estate investor, or the financial woes of young first time buyers? The latter, of course.

The more you can use situations that they can relate to, and tap in emotions, the much better.

Even in an simple narrative, the objective is to develop your character as much as possible. The reader needs to be able to get a taste of their character and their current emotional state in their story.

Every character should desire something. They may or may not get it in the story, however, the desire itself produces stress in the air. "Will they get it?" is the question that ought to be on the reader's mind until the end of the story.

The Two Ways to Build Credibility with Stories

There are two primary ways to construct reliability with stories. The very first is to tell real stories and slip reliability points into the story.

Teach your audience how they can benefit from your local service or product by using an informing a story. In the process, you can "slip" in remarks from other people about how unique your process/product is.

In telling a story about how to be an effective realtor, you might "slip" into the story the truth that your client beat 95% of the other real estate groups, then go right back into the story.

There are claims that would sound presumptuous or bragging if said outright, however that can be securely stated in a story. For more on this type of engaging content checkout this post: How to create engaging content That post also has a top rated video, if you'd rather watch.

What's the second way to build reliability?

To clearly demonstrate that you know what you're discussing by providing superior tips and advice.

Use the story to highlight an instructional point and actually give your users something valuable. The reliability does not come from discussing yourself, but just truly showing that you know your subject.

Storytelling is an effective marketing tool in any local business owner's toolbox. It may feel uncomfortable initially, however, with a bit of practice this ability can pay off for the rest of your life. And if you can do it in a video format, you may be able to 10X your impact. Also, it's ok to outsource your content creation, optimization, and posting as long as you take the time to share your stories with a content marketing agency .

Storytelling makes any material marketing much more fascinating and provides you huge increases in reliability and will in general significantly increase your sales. What are the components of a fantastic story? How can you utilize it to built trust? These are paramount elements to master if you want to convert digital consumers into followers or clients.

They may or might not get it in the story, however, the desire itself sets the stage for taking some action.

Is Content Marketing Worth the Investment for Realtors?

joelc@embroco.com (Joel Conner) — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 00:01:38 GMT

If you haven't heard of this marketing secret, your mind is about to be blown!

Realtors have access to a variety of marketing and advertising platforms and strategies. Yet, content marketing may offer the greatest return on your investment.

Content marketing is an effective way to generate more traffic to your website and attract more clients. With the right marketing strategies, you can also position yourself as a leading choice for real estate in your region.

Keep reading to explore the importance of content marketing for realtors and which methods are likely to deliver the best results.

What does Content Marketing for Real Estate Look Like?

Content marketing is the process of creating and distributing informative content to a target audience. It is one of the oldest forms of marketing, dating back to the use of pamphlets to share information with the public. However, modern content marketing relies heavily on online platforms.

As a realtor, you may produce a wide variety of helpful content for local home buyers and sellers, such as:

● Informative blog articles

● Tips and tutorials on buying/selling a home

● Web pages for local neighborhoods

The content may be published on your own website, local real estate directories, and other relevant platforms.

So, why should you create online content? Content marketing stands out for offering several distinct advantages over other marketing techniques, including the following:

● Attract more leads

● Build trust with clients

● Gain a competitive edge

● Get a better return on your investment

Here is a closer look at each of these benefits.

Content Marketing Helps You Attract More Leads

One of the main uses for content marketing for realtors is to attract more leads. About 97% of all homebuyers start their home search online .

If you do not have content, your website gets buried at the bottom of search results. Although you may rely on real estate listing sites to attract leads, generating your own content allows you to obtain your own traffic.

Generating digital content gives search engines something to include in search results. The articles and web pages that you create help increase the size and relevance of your website for searches related to real estate in your area.

Continuing to add high-quality content allows you to gradually increase the number of leads your website generates.

Content Marketing Builds Trust with Clients

Producing new content as part of your online marketing strategy can also build trust with visitors and clients. There are two ways that online content builds trust.

First, content increases your online presence, which people take as a sign of authority and professionalism. People are more likely to trust the web pages that appear at the top of search results.

Second, providing visitors with helpful content shows that you value their time. You are willing to share knowledge without requiring anything in return, which is why content marketing continues to outperform other marketing techniques.

By helping sellers and buyers make more informed decisions, you convert more leads into new clients. You have already helped answer questions through your content, which makes you a trusted source for help with local real estate.

Content Marketing Gives You a Competitive Edge

Only about 33% of small businesses have content marketing strategies . Most realtors fail to take advantage of online marketing, which gives you the chance to offer something that your competitors do not.

Outshining your competition with the creation of high-quality content may also improve your rankings for local searches. More people are likely to notice your website when performing searches for realtors in their area.

If you search for “realtors” in your city, Google displays the top three businesses in a separate section above the standard search results. Your content can help your real estate business appear in the top three results.

Content Marketing Is Cost-Effective

Creating quality content offers long-term benefits for realtors and other professionals. The content that you add to your website may continue to receive traffic for years to come. You can even update articles with fresh content to increase their relevance.

Few other marketing strategies offer the same long-term value and continued return on your initial investment.

In the end, content marketing is an invaluable method for attracting more clients and interested home buyers and sellers. You can use articles, videos, and other content to grow your online presence and become a real estate leader in your area. The sooner you get started the sooner you can reap the rewards of your content.

If you want to sell more homes and get more listings, start using content marketing as part of your marketing approach.

Content Marketing for Landscape Companies Case Study

joelc@embroco.com (Joel Conner) — Fri, 12 Nov 2021 21:30:42 GMT

Introduction: A new way to think about growing your landscaping business

How to target landscaping clients by creating relevant content

It's not that complicated. If you want to "skip to the front of the line," and target those who are ready or almost ready to take action there is a better way.

Create helpful web pages for those searching for landscaping and lawn services and design your web pages to build trust

Now I know that this is not a new concept, but in most cases, landscaping companies are only approaching this target with advertising dollars. And because this target, "Landscaping services in MyTown," is coveted, it's an expensive keyword to go after with paid advertisements. How expensive depends on the competitors in your area. Their are many marketing strategies for landscaping businesses , but we believe that content market builds more trust and organically grow (no pun intended) your business.

What if you could have more of those who were looking for landscaping companies find you organically? It is doable! But it doesn’t happen overnight and without the right game plan. We were able to do it in a matter of a few months. I am not going to go through all the details, I’ve already provided that in the local content marketing pages of our website, but I would like to get you excited by showing you some compelling stats.

We started sending the right blend of signals to web crawlers that our website was about the top/best landscaping services in the area. We did this all over our website using the website description, h1 metatags, information on the main page, supporting pages, the “about us” page, and blog posts. We created custom video content around the web pages, posted the videos on YouTube, optimized them to perform well, and then put those videos on the website via I-frame.

The result of using content marketing to target those searching for landscaping companies

The statistics in this case study are pretty amazing in my opinion, especially when you factor in the quality of a prospect that takes action to get in touch with you after finding your content, learning about landscaping, reading your testimonials, or watching or of your videos. The value of these leads is made clear by how much local landscaping companies are willing to bid for them in a Google Ads Campaign.

Google My Business Results

The image above shows the visibility of a local landscaping company in a small town in Florida that hired us to do local content marketin g for them. Notice that the larges percentage by far (in blue) is discovery!

Sidenote: The are some large services aggregator websites are also targeting these terms. Don't let them deter you. They don't show on google maps. You also have an advantage as being a local business. And many folks will scroll past those web pages, recognizing that they don't deliver what they are searching for.

Sidenote 2: Currently google reviews make big difference in building authority for new prospects & elevating your presence on Google maps. Search engines and users rely on verified testimonials because they are hard to manipulate. So, don't forget to ask your fans for testimonials, so make it a part of your business plan.

Target People Who Are Doing Serious Research About landscaping tips

This group isn't as zeroed-in as those searching for a landscaper, but they are much more targeted than those just scrolling on social media feeds.

People who are in the " research phase " are more intentional than casual YouTube browsers. They are looking for insights about the absolute "best fit" home for their lawn and garden. They are going to want to know about landscaping tips specific to their geographic area, best hedges, hardiest flowers, and a myriad of other factors. The most helpful webpage that provides all of these localized landscaping tips is likely to perform well on Google. And in most cases, the competition is going to be willing to do this.

Once you have this helpful information, turn it into a video that you place at the top of the page. Don't just put all this landscaping tips info on one page. Create pages for each landscaping tip and link to them from one master landscaping tips page. If it is a small to a medium-sized city you can have one main landscaping tips page. If it is a large city you may want to create a master page for multiple areas.

Landscaping tips within an area can link to each other via internal links, as it makes sense. This internal linking will boost the authority of the main root page.

So, enough about the concepts, let's look at some results.

Landscaping Tips Pages Results

Notice that the number one page on the website is a content related page with almost 3,000 views.

Case Study Summary: Content Marketing for Landscaping Companies

As you can see, strategically creating relevant content around potential home buyers that are close to taking action is highly effective. It is a game-changer when done correctly.

Disclaimer:

Is this something that is doable? Is it an easy feat for a busy landscaping company owner to accomplish? I'm sorry to say it is not. Is it a possibility? Yes. Is it likely to happen? No.

So this is where content marketing agencies can help. We have the team, experience, processes, and tools to accomplish the fastest ROI. Hiring a team like ours is an investment. It is one of the best moves your company may ever choose to make. Results won't happen instantaneously, but for those who stick with it, the result (when properly executed) is website traffic and findability that stays on 24-7.

There are many factors involved, such as domain authority, your local presence , the quality of your content , and the competition in your city, but we have seen content marketing work well in highly competitive areas. If you're curious about how this could play out for you, let us get acquainted. This strategy is highly effective and would love to implement a content marketing campaign to help your landscaping business thrive.

Ready to Get Started?

Content Marketing For Real Estate Case Study

joelc@embroco.com (Joel Conner) — Mon, 01 Nov 2021 20:44:40 GMT

A different approach to marketing for realtors

It all started with an idea. After a lengthy conversation with a realtor-client of mine, we both agreed that we didn't like the typical real estate, marketing model. It is all very invasive. Disruptive ads on social media that lead to a frustrating forced lead capture are a far cry from a good user experience. Do realtors really want to introduce themselves to potential clients in such a way? And after the lead is "captured," now some poor agent is calling them "out of blue" on the phone.

Agent-

"Oh, hi Mary... I saw that you were looking at 123 Lake Looky Drive... Would you like to set up a viewing?"

Mary-

"No, You Pesky Real Estate Agent! I am not looking to buy a home right now, I just wanted to see that beautiful home that popped up on Facebook. Please do not call me ever again!" Click.

The agent then clicks into the CRM and disqualifies the "prospect."

So you see how this whole setup is a bit uncomfortable. Forcing someone to give you their contact information is never the ideal way to start a relationship. Can you imagine a romantic relationship starting that way?

"Hi there pretty thing, give me your phone number and I'll show you my investment portfolio."

The current method of casting a wide net and going after any potential home buyer that has a pulse, is targeting the very top of the marketing funnel.

It can be effective. It takes a lot of work to follow up. And as noted before can be a poor way to introduce yourself to new clients. But what if you could target people who were much further down the funnel instead. Well, the good news is, you can.

How to target the right real estate prospect with relevant content

It's not that complicated. If you want to "skip to the front of the line," and target those who are ready or almost ready to take action there is a better way.

Target those looking for realtors and design your website to foster trust

Now I know that this is not a new concept, but in most cases, realtors are only approaching this target with advertising dollars. And because this target, "Realtor in Fill in the Blank," is coveted, it's a very expensive keyword to go after with paid advertisements. How expensive depends on the competitors in your area. But you can be paying $10+ just for clicks, and those are not even "leads."

What if you could have more of those who were looking for realtors find you organically? You can! Is it easy? No. We did it in a relatively short amount of time. I am not going to lay out the whole strategy, I'll do that in another post, but I'll give you the proof.

Instead of sending the signals to search engines that our site was about searching for homes (top of the funnel), we sent the signal that our website was about the top/best real estate group/team in town. We did this with the site description, h1 tags, homepage content, subpages, team pages, reviews pages, and so on. We also created videos around this content, ranked them on YouTube, and embedded them on the web pages.

The result of using content marketing to target those searching for realtors

These statistics are pretty amazing in my opinion, especially when you factor in the top-tier quality of a lead that voluntarily reaches out to contact you after landing on your website, reading reviews, or watching a video. The worth of these leads is highlighted by how much real estate groups are willing to pay for them.

Case Study: Realtor Pages Results

Google Maps Results

YouTube Results

Side note: The are some large aggregator websites are also targeting these terms. Don't let them deter you. They don't show on google maps. You also have an advantage as being a local business. And many folks will scroll past those web pages, recognizing that they don't deliver what they are searching for.

Side note 2: Currently google reviews play a huge role in establishing trust for new potential clients & boosting your placement on Google map placement. Google and others trust these reviews because they are difficult to fake. So, don't neglect to ask for reviews, in fact, build it into your processes.

To learn more about the strategy for targeting the bottom of the marketing funnel for realtors read this article: Content Marketing for Realtors.

Target People Who Are Doing Serious Research About Neighborhoods

This group is not going to be as far down the funnel as targeting those looking for a realtor, but they are much farther along than those just browsing homes.

People who get into "research mode" are more serious than casual Zillow browsers. They are looking for insights about the absolute "best fit" home for their family. They are going to want to know about neighborhoods or areas that are safe, close to good schools, near parks, easy commutes to work, and a myriad of other factors. The most helpful webpage that provides all of this is likely to rank well on Google.

Once you have this helpful information, turn it into a video that you place at the top of the page. Don't just put all this neighborhood info on one page. Create pages for each neighborhood and link to them from one master neighborhood page. If it is a small to medium-sized city you can have one main neighborhood page. If it is a large city you may want to create a master page for multiple areas.

Neighborhoods within an area can link to each other via internal links, as it makes sense. This will reinforce the relevancy of the master page.

So, enough about the concepts, let's look at some results.

Neighborhood Pages Results

Content Marketing for Real Estate Case Study Summary

As you can see, strategically creating relevant content around potential home buyers that are close to taking action is highly effective. It works wonderfully when executed properly. There is an important consideration. Is it easy to do? Is it easy for a busy real estate agent to do? No, and no. Is it possible? Yes. Is it likely to happen? No.

So this is where we come in. Not only do we have the documented experience, but the team, the process, and the software to achieve the quickest possible results. Hiring a content marketing agency is an investment, however, it is likely one of the best investments your company may ever choose to make. Results don't happen overnight, but for those who stick with it, the ROI is a flood of website traffic and visibility that never gets turned off.

There are many considerations, such as your starting point (your current domain authority and website visibility) and the levels of competitiveness in your area, but we have seen these strategies pay off in the most competitive markets. If you're interested, let us start a conversation. We are not pushy salespeople, we are just passionate about content marketing.

Content Marketing For Realtors

joelc@embroco.com (Joel Conner) — Wed, 20 Oct 2021 21:30:02 GMT

Tips to help realtors leverage the power of organic search by creating high quality article, videos, and social posts.

The need to forge relationships with people and show your worth is more vital than ever. For Real Estate Brokers, content marketing is one of the most effective ways to accomplish this.

Fact-checking backs this up. According to a recent post from Agentfire , content marketing "... can be worth thousands or millions of dollars of properties a year..." Realty Biz News stats that "Content marketing is an excellent tactic to bring in new, qualified leads." We here at Blue Swing Media had tested out content marketing in many different verticals, and it is 'hands-down' our favorite and most effective long-term marketing strategy. However, in real estate it had been relatively untested, until 2018 when I convinced a broker in the Savanah Georgia area to give it try. Six months later, their organic traffic and organic leads generated overtook their moderately aggressive advertising campaigns, and never looked back.

Client Testimonial

The Hupman Group , Savannah Georgia

The Value of Content Marketing for Real Estate Agencies

The benefits of content marketing are clear:

It supplies answers for client issues.
It positions you as the authority on real estate.
It increases brand awareness.
It drives organic traffic through SEO.
It produces targeted leads.
It establishes the agency's reputation.
It gives you something valuable to share on social networks.

Real estate agent's Guide for Leveraging Content Marketing: Best Practices

Start with a Terrific Website

It's important to give visitors a good impression of your firm with a professionally developed site. Keep the design tidy and uncluttered, utilize clear navigation that consists of a search tool, and link to your blog site and social networks channels.

Plan Your Content

Without a plan, you'll have a hard time maintaining content quality. Creating an editorial calendar is the primary step. Here, you can develop content concepts, schedule material, and ensure you fulfill due dates.

Develop Relevant Articles

A blog is among the most reliable ways to provide brand-new content to your target audience, establish brand trustworthiness, and improve your search engine rankings. Offer an archive with clear categories to make it more user-friendly and accessible. This can be outsourced, but make sure you read over any content that has been created.

Build Your List of Contacts

Use e-mail to promote brand-new content, deliver market news, and send out home updates. To grow your subscriber list, consist of a clear email membership button on your website and blog site.

When you have a big adequate list, you can begin to check different email copy and determine the results utilizing email marketing tools such as Campaign Monitor or Mailer Lite. You can then start to organize your list into various buyer types to optimize conversions.

Have a Presence on Social Media

Social networks can be a surprisingly effective method to get in touch with possible clients and find out content concepts. Share listings, reach younger purchasers and build connections with people inside and outside the market. Display real estate conversations, links to helpful content, fun to watch real estate videos, or home tours on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn and then take part in the conversation. For Instagram and Pinterest, your material requires to use more graphics and catchy images.

Pro tip: Some of this can be automated. We love using Publer to auto-share our client's blog posts on their social pages.

Publish New Content Routinely

Creating fresh material for your website, blog site, and social media channels is important for SEO, establishing credibility, and generating leads.

To stick out, provide premium content in various formats throughout multiple channels. Utilize a mix of written and visual material. This can include articles, ebooks, guides, how-to videos, infographics, gifs, graphics, and photos.

Content Marketing Concepts for Real Estate Agencies

Written Material

Your company's story. Why are you enthusiastic about real estate? How did you begin in the industry? Who works in your organization? What make your realtors unique?

Client stories

Describe the problems that your home buyers or sellers faced and how you helped them in their real estate journey.

Provide Helpful Local Information

List the services and top things to do in each geographical area. Share the history of a regional town and link to property listings in the location. Create videos that allow people to get a feel of the area in virtual experience.

Provide Market Updates

Write about local market updates or create short videos that would be of interest to homebuyers or sellers? Most of this information is easy enough to find, but remember to add your own insight to what has already been posted.

Write about Tips for Home Shoppers and Sellers

For instance:

How to Prepare for the Buying Process.
How to Make Your Home More Valuable and Sell Faster.
Home Improvement Tips for First-Time Sellers.

Client questions

What do clients constantly ask you? Provide your professional responses in a frequently asked question page. Ask questions. What do your clients think of a topic? Gain valuable audience feedback that you can talk about in future material. Browse websites like Quora or Reddit to find the most asked real estate questions and find the best answers.

Create Engaging Video Material

Establish your own agency channel on YouTube to list residential or commercial properties.
Drive through a neighborhood, shoot video and talk about the neighborhoods pros and cons.
Post "virtual tour" videos of properties for sale to your website and social media channels.
Produce videos of the communities in which your properties are located to give prospects a genuine sense of the location.
Interview team member for insights into how you work and what you use customers.
Interview pleased customers-- with their consent-- for trustworthy client testimonials. (These are marketing GOLD!)
Click Here to Learn how to Create Engaging Content.

Create Helpful and Catchy Graphics (leverage free web-based tools like crello or canva)

Infographics highlighting current surveys or data from the real estate industry.
Property pictures. Employ a professional photographer to take images of the homes you represent.
Staff photos. Program your fun side with images of your group and bios. They're great for establishing rely on your company.
Slideshows. They're ideal for how-to content, market details, and fast guides.

Wrapping Up

Impressive real estate content marketing can create a belief in the level of service that you use and foster an authentic connection with possible customers.

To implement it properly, you really need a strategy to ensure you continually produce initial and useful material for your audience. Then you ought to keep an eye on the results utilizing analytics tools to see what works and what doesn't. Also, learn from others that have implemented content marketing to grow their real estate business. And finally, don't give up too soon. These strategies take time, often many months before you begin to see results. When done properly, will you begin gain a competitive advantage.

Which Social Media Platforms Should You Use for Local Content Marketing?

joelc@embroco.com (Joel Conner) — Sat, 11 Jul 2020 19:37:50 GMT

Choosing the Right Social Media Platform for Content Marketing

All marketing experts agree that having a strong presence in social media is extremely important if a business wishes to stay visible and relevant to their customers in today’s Internet-fueled world. As a matter of fact, 92% of marketing agencies agree that social media platforms can increase your business’ exposure, meaning that a business that doesn’t have a social media presence is losing out on tons of incredible opportunities.

However, even getting your social media presence up and running is a difficult task. Selecting the right social media platform may be a confusing affair as well, with new social networks popping up every fortnight. The best way to begin is by launching your company’s presence on the most famous platforms, after which it should be fairly easy to narrow down the platform that will give your business the right kind of exposure to the right type of audience, thus fulfilling your marketing goals with ease.

Narrowing Down Your Options

There are numerous social networking platforms available today, which can help people connect with others who have similar hobbies, comparable demographics, interests, and so on. However, a majority of them are mostly junk and will not fetch your business any meaningful exposure. Your time is best spent by focusing your efforts on the platforms that garner the most amount of traffic. As of today, the social media platforms with the most amount of monthly active users are Twitter , Pinterest , LinkedIn , Instagram , and Facebook .

Set Your Goals

Social media offers numerous benefits to anyone looking to market their business . However, you must establish clear-cut goals before starting your journey. Not only will they help you narrow down the platform best for your business, but they will also help you target the right audience and create meaningful content. The most widely recognized benefits of having a social media presence include:

You can learn more about the habits, wants, and needs of your customers and audience and use this information to increase your website traffic, thus boosting sales in the process.
Market your services or products to new demographics and audiences who may be potentially interested in them, thus raising brand awareness among the general public.
Significantly improve your company’s customer service standards by offering a new platform where customers can approach you with their concerns, questions, and complaints. This will allow you to identify new prospects and profitable leads.

Determine Which Platforms Your Audience Likes

The whole point of having an active social media presence is to help you reach out to your target audience, which is why it’s important not to select a platform that’s unlikely to be used by your audience. Therefore, you need to understand the platforms preferred by people in your target audience and develop your profile on these social media networks.

The most popular method for finding out where to find your target audience online is with a simple customer survey. All you need to do is ask which social media platforms they utilize, where they obtain most of their information, and the influencers they’re prepared to listen to. You can also make use of tools offered by social media platforms to understand more how to market to your audience. For instance, Facebook allows you to input customer profiles, which can help you estimate the total number of people who match those characteristics. Information sources like Pew Research can also be used for researching the audience demographics of various social media platforms, which can help you refine your marketing strategy.

Conduct A Comprehensive Examination of Your Content

Some forms of content work better than others on certain social networking platforms. It’s important to examine the content you usually create and release them on platforms that have been proven to be receptive to such content. For instance, Instagram users prefer picture-based content whereas LinkedIn may be ideal for your needs if your content consists of long-form text. Create your content after considering numerous important factors, including your brand, your industry, and target demographics. Here’s a list of content types that you can focus on:

Photographs
Videos
Whitepapers
Ebooks
Livestreams and webinars
User-generated content
Testimonials
Podcasts
Blog posts

Ensure Your Content, Target Audience, Goals, and Platform Are In Perfect Sync

After determining your business’s social media goals and target audience, and selecting the content type that appeals the most to them, it’s time to compare different social networking platforms in order to decide which one works best for your requirements. Here’s a brief intro to some of the most popular platforms available today:

Facebook – With over two billion monthly active users, out of which 61% are American citizens between 25 – 54, it’s a great place to implement lead generation strategies since its ad platform allows you to fine-tune your strategy immensely to target specific groups. It can also help you build relationships with customers and turn your leads into active followers.
Twitter – This platform is ideal for businesses looking to provide important messages, announcements, breaking news, and other information to their followers in a short period. Most users tend to be aged below 50. Easily digestible text-based content like quotations, listicles, and articles are the best content types for this platform.
LinkedIn – Primarily used by B2B businesses, it’s a great platform to generate leads and publish editorial content, which can establish your company’s position in the market as a reputed leader, build brand awareness, and gain leads with high chances of conversion.
Pinterest – This is a graphics- and picture-focused platform used for sharing stunning photographs and images related to travel, wedding, fashion, art, food, and décor. Businesses can post stunning and beautiful photographs on this platform to boost brand awareness and authority.

Conclusion

Any business that seeks to gain positive exposure online and remain relevant to the changing times cannot do with an active social media presence. Apart from helping you connect with prospects all over the world, it can also help you gain important insights about your customers, generate impressive website traffic, find new leads, build brand awareness, and give you pointers to improve your company’s customer service. Set your social media marketing goals, discover the platforms used by your target customer audience, come up with content best suited to the platform’s design – take these steps and you’ll develop a successful reputation for your brand online in no time!

Free Ways To Promote Your Content Marketing Plus Pro Tips

joelc@embroco.com (Joel Conner) — Sun, 28 Jun 2020 20:13:18 GMT

We all love free stuff. Now you can promote your best content with these media channels. Plus, some of them can be automated.

1. Share content on social media networks

I know what you are thinking, Duh! However, this is still the quickest easiest way to promote content freely.

Pro Tip: Use automation (software that will automatically share your RSS post to all of your social media on a predetermined schedule.

Pro Tip: If the content is evergreen, share it repeatedly. (software can also do this) Social Pilot, Social Bee, Publer.

Pro Tip: Some social networks are a better fit for certain industries. Don’t waste your time on a social media channel that doesn’t work well for your industry.

2. Share on Q&A sites such as Quora.

Pro Tip: Don’t just share it anywhere, make sure that your content delivers a relevant answer to the question.

Pro Tip: Don’t merely share, answer questions, comment, and vote as well.

3. Share on social community bookmarking sites such as Readit.

Pro Tip: Don’t merely share, comment and vote as well.

Pro Tip: Look for other, smaller content focused communities such as BizSugar.

4. If your business is local, post as much content as possible on Google My Business.

Pro Tip: You can link one post to another creating a chain of connected posts. This is called post stacking.

Pro Tip: Posts on GMB can also be shared on your social media networks.

Pro Tip: A quick and easy way to boost your Google My Business is to take photos with your smartphone (geo-location turned on) and then post them to GMB with relevant keywords as the description.

5. Ask questions / take polls.

If you ask someone a question and they think that they have a good answer. They are more likely to engage with your business.

Pro Tip: Leverage software & automation to gather leads or build subscribers. (The marketing software is so crowded that most offer a free service for a certain # of subscribers) MailerLite is one of my favorites.

Pro Tip: Use Facebook’s built-in polling feature

6. Use Online Groups to Promote Content

Facebook has thousands of niche groups that you can participate in. If the group is closed and you can get in by approval only, that even better.

Pro Tip: Never abuse the group’s policies. Doing so will do more harm than good.

Pro Tip: Make sure that the group is active and not a dead relic from 4 years ago.

Pro Tip: If you are a B2B business, check out LinkedIn Groups.

7. Leverage Events (Online & Local)

More and more platforms have event functionality.

Invite people to events and have them promote it as well.

Pro Tip: Collaborate with others to do an event. This can often double or triple the impact of your event.

8. Submit your post to blog aggregator sites.

Alltop, Popurls, TheWebList, BlogEngage

This is something that content marketers often overlook. It is true that we are hoping for our content to be found through organic search right away, but often this is just not the case. Blog aggregator sites can be useful in giving your content an initial boost.

9. End your post with a link to similar content on your site or a video you made.

Pro Tip: use an attractive thumbnail for your link.

Pro Tip: The goal of your page should be aligned with Google philosophy: to be as helpful as possible and provide a good user experience. The opposite of so many pages where you are bombarded with ads, popups, and lead magnets.

Pro Tip: If you don't have a similar piece of content yet, link to someone else's relevant media. This sends the right signal to web crawlers.

10. Embed a video at the top of your post.

This tenth way to promote your content will greatly decrease your bounce rate and send the right signals to your search engine.

Pro Tip: Make sure the video content is relevant to your post & good quality content. Otherwise, this strategy will backfire.

Here are some more helpful ways to promote your content: 7 Promotion Tactics To Get Your Content Noticed

How To Create Engaging Content

joelc@embroco.com (Joel Conner) — Tue, 02 Jun 2020 20:46:15 GMT

How to make media that will actually be consumed by the modern distracted person.

Whoa now hold on… This is another blog about blogs? A post about media that engages ought to be, well, engaging, right? If you make it to the end of this article, you will have a new superpower! You’ll be able to draw in any reader and have them stick around long enough to get your point across. There are a few tricks used by best selling authors and award winner movie producers that work great for content marketers.

I have been enjoying 2 courses and 2 books simultaneously. How to write best selling fiction & how to produce engaging video. So much of what I am learning applies perfectly to web content. So many content marketers get so focused on getting people to their content (I have been guilty of this.) that they neglect to make content in such a way that readers/viewers will want to engage with the content.

Disclaimer: This is not an article about merely getting people to take action or engage with your business. That will never happen if you don’t first get them interested in what you are saying.

It’s not that the content is low quality (though this is also commonplace), it’s just not easy to digest. Even if the content is decent, if it’s presented poorly, no one will care and what’s even worse is that they won’t ever have the chance. Why, because if your delivery stinks, then your content may as well not exist. Search engines will interpret the bounce rates of your content to mean that users don’t like your content.

So, what to do about it? How do we ensure that your media is liked enough to be consumed?

5 keys to engaging content

Start With Intrigue
Introduce Conflict
Deliver Something Valuable
Be Personable & Builds Trust
Invite Them to be apart of something

I’ll attempt to put this into a single statement.

Blue Swing Media’s Content Manifesto

Content should draw in the user, help them feel tension, deliver actionable insight while building trust and offering them a chance to in some way associated with the creator.

I know that this is no small task. And if your content just has 1 or 2 of these elements it will already be ahead of 80% of web articles that you encounter.

Start With Intrigue

Do you know what killed the second Star Wars Trilogy?

Well if you read to the end of this section I’ll tell you.

From the get-go, the post title, include some mystery.

Example: “How to get reviews on Google, in ways that you wouldn’t expect.”

Don’t spill the beans too early. Don’t give them the whole solution in the first sentence.

If you are solving a problem for the reader/watcher, give them a teaser. Let them know that their is more to come and that it will be worth the wait.

So what the second round of Star Wars movies less that wonderful?

Unless you lost in a galaxy far far away, you already knew the ending. And on top of that, it wasn’t a very warm and fuzzy ending. It was an anti-climax.

Introduce Conflict or Struggle

Life is full of struggle, pain, and conflict. Best selling novels and movies thrive on conflict. No one wants to watch two friends sitting idly at a coffee shop talking about the weather. Without conflict, you wouldn’t be reading this.

You have a need or pain point and you are hoping that this post might help your content get from A to B so that your business and get from A to B so that your life goals can get from A to B.

Why do I want this article to be as helpful as possible? Struggle. In compelling books and movies, we begin to care for a character, and then that person gets slammed into a conflict of some kind that they must overcome.

On your blog post, the reader is likely there not for mere entertainment, but because of some struggle that they have. If you can poke that pain point a bit, you may just invoke the motivation for them to consume your content.

Deliver Something Valuable

Ask yourself this question before you start writing, “Why should they care?”

If you can’t answer that question, then don’t waste your time. Then ask another question, “Does my blog post solve the issue with insight or does it just rephrase what most people already know from common sense?”

Readers are tired of catchy article titles that under-deliver. Or when the top 3 google results all basically say the same thing, just in a different way.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t write about something if someone else already has. It just means that your content needs to be something of value to the reader.

In college, many of us learned how to stretch out our content to fill four pages. This is exactly the opposite of what makes for good writing. Say what you need to say in as few words as possible.

Be Personable & Build Trust

When you can tell a story. I am writing from my man cave/office attached to our carport/therapy space. Managing my media agency from home allows me to help my wife with our two special needs children as much as possible. At any moment my door may burst open and children will be crawling all over me and my equipment. From my space to your screen, I believe that this post could make a difference for you and your family.

People like to know a bit about you. You don’t want to go on about your personal struggles, but you include a bit about yourself and what makes you different from all the bots out there. I enjoy taking conversations offline a quickly as possible. And when I get on the phone, I never ever try to sell them anything. People are valuable. All people. Be personable, learn from Mr. Rogers, care. It will always come back around.

Invite

Within your content, you want to give the readers a way to connect or reconnect with you. This could be in verbiage or it can be another on-page element. This is commonly labeled as the “call to action.” Be creative with your invitation. Here are some very common ways to invite people to connect with you.

Link to contact form

Click to call button

Chat Widget

Schedule a Meeting Form

Subscribe to Newsletter/Channel

Offer a free resource in exchange for contact information

Invite them or Challenge them to call you on the spot!

I genuinely hope that this will help make your content more engaging! If you would like to chat, please don’t hesitate to reach out!

Cheers,

Joel

Why Is My Content Marketing Not Working?

Mon, 18 May 2020 13:30:42 GMT

Learn how to Optimize your Content Marketing

There are a lot of businesses these days trying out content marketing. B2Bs , Small Businesses, B2Cs all make use of content marketing ; many companies give it at least a weak try.

It is estimated that about 70% of all businesses make use of different content marketing strategies, which means a lot of businesses are trying it out. Although many companies are doing content marketing it doesn't mean that most of them are succeeding at it.

Based on a report from the Content Marketing Institute , just about 5% of the B2C marketers get to see their efforts at content marketing as been "very effective. " This means, most time production of content doesn't seem to make much of an impact.

There's currently a kind of disconnection between what the marketers are involved in and that which is working. It is not false that content remains the present as well as the future of marketing.

Is there any success in content marketing?

Just because a marketing term is in vogue, commonplace, or "trending" doesn't mean that it's worth it.

This article was written for businesses that are involved in online marketing but are not seeing the desired results. They have not seen the effectiveness of content marketing.

Below are some reasons why you might be unsuccessful at content marketing.

The first reason will be dealt with properly due to its importance. Let's see if you're familiar with any.

1. Your Strategies are Missing the Mark.

Just like other forms of marketing, you'll need to devise a strategy to enjoy some success in the market.

It's surprising how a lot of businesses do not have a strategy to make their content marketing successful.

Are most content marketing companies implementing any strategy ? From the survey carried out the answer is no.

This question was put forward first on this list for a reason. If you want to become successful at developing content , then you'll need to have a smart plan and some insight.

An effective strategy is important to be successful. Below are certain tips that will help you in developing a strategy:

A very successful strategy in content marketing begins with a definition of your goals. Get to know the numbers that move the bar for your business, keeping tabs on shares, traffic, views, purchases, form submissions, phone calls, etc and be able to track them properly.
When you discover what you're doing is not effective, you must change your strategy.
There are many content marketing agencies available, but they sometimes fail to do a thorough job as regards strategy. Some just take up the responsibility of sketching out your posting schedule, writing the articles, then sometimes helping you to publish. However, we here at Blue Swing Media consider strategy before we write the first word.
Just publishing a bunch of blog posts is in no way an effective strategy. There is a big scope as regards the issue of marketing — search terms, searcher intent, audience as well as competition. So, just making random content isn't going to cut it. You need insight and a clear plan to dominate or at least compete.

2. Your Content Fails to Provide Sufficient Value to the Reader.

Content marketing entails that c ontent has to be produced , but we are concerned about the quality of the content as it has major importance. Developing and sending out crappy content doesn't tell well on your brand, and produces just a negative impact. This gives your brand a bad image and poor performance. In some cases, the content might have very poor quality as some writers lack the basic knowledge of your industry and as such can not be effective bloggers in the industry.

3. Poor or Boring Presentation of Content.

There are lots of articles that have some value but are presented in a way that is plain and boring. There is a need to develop very engaging media with depth, focus, and value. It is quite harder to stand out as a content writer at this time as there are a lot of people cranking out articles.

To succeed, you'll have to create something that stands out a bit from others in the market. To achieve this doesn't come easily or cheaply and takes grit.

4. The Competition is Fierce!

Business who are having very difficult times seeing results are those who are in quite difficult industries :

Industries where customers aren’t online.
Industries that are not very popular, mostly B2B.

If you're involved in a very competitive vertical or space, you can't perform any magic to achieve quick success using content marketing. You'll need to develop a very sound strategy and then stick to it.

Take Action: Develop a list of very effective players who are dominating search results in your industry or your niche. Learn their ways.

5. No Effort to Promote your Content.

Doing nothing after developing content is sure enough to undermine your effectiveness.

Here's an explanation.

Some marketers assume that the business of content marketing just entails content creation. Then what? Certainly, the viewers will discover the content, then there will be an increase in traffic, people will look into it, then convert and we're sure to attract plenty of customers, right?

Well, that's wrong!

Developing content is just the first and foundational piece of content marketing. Then the other major half is the promotion of content . Let's split up content marketing into two major parts:

Content creation.
Promotion of content.

Which of the above are you actively doing which are you not carrying out? If you engage in active promotion, but just develop very little content, then you might enjoy more success than any company who is involved in a lot of content creation but just little promotion.

Promoting your content is as significant as developing.

Take Action : If you're not involved in promoting your content, restrategize to spend more time promoting your content.

6. You Give up to Early.

I have witnessed this occurrence numerous times. A company is so excited about creating and developing their blog because they see others getting results. Some write 5 articles, others write 10, some just write 3 and others even 1. Then no result is seen.

They tend to believe it's not working and then give up. This has happened to some of our clients that have unrealistic expectations. Their posts seem not to have any traffic after some months and then they cancel. Unfortunately, those posts tend to become recognized a few months later but fail to reach their full potential.

7. Their Domain is Young and Doesn't Have Authority.

When you buy a domain initially, it is going to be lost in the large sea of other new domains on the internet. Also, there are about 359.8 million already registered domains on the web. Your new domain is seen as a "baby" by Google's algorithm . And most times search engines do not readily recognize these new sites as they assume they do not have many contents to present.

8. There is no Consistency to Your Content Flow.

Once you have something valuable and useful to share, your readers will come to appreciate your blogging routine or schedule, however, it is been carried out. Ensuring you post once a week or twice a month helps you communicate with search engines and readers that your blog means business. Also, long posts (1k+) often perform better in results and levels of engagement.

If your major aim is to increase traffic numbers and attract some clicks to the site and your content, then you'll need to post more frequently. It's totally on you to develop a schedule that will suit you best. If your competition is posting much more frequently than you, watch out.

If you have just a small blog with a few co-workers, then brainstorming, creating, and publishing a new article multiple times in a month might seem difficult to carry out. Hence, a need to draw out an effective plan or take a look at working with a content marketing agency . When making plans for the campaign of your next product launch, create time to plan and outline your blog posts.

Conclusion

There could be a lot of reasons why content marketing may not be working very well for you, and there are chances one of the reasons may be because you're involved in one of the issues listed above. Try to reach out to us if you require a professional content marketing analysis . That's the thing that we do best.

Need help with Content Marketing?

What is Google My Business Location Authority? How Local Content Can Help.

Thu, 07 May 2020 17:40:06 GMT

How to boost Location Authority using Local Content Marketing

Location authority plays a huge role in advancing the interests of businesses that are looking to gain more customers and local content can help. The reason behind this is that location authority endows a company with the ability and power to rank better on Google Map searches, thus increasing the chances of it being discovered by new customers. As a business’s location authority grows, it will start ranking higher on Google Map search results. To put it simply, your business listing will pop up without the need for a customer to zoom in on a particular location, thus enhancing your credibility and visibility among potential customers. With increasing location authority, a company will be able to dominate search results over a much larger area in Google Maps.

For instance, if a customer types ‘Restaurants in FL’, restaurants with greater location authority will be ranked higher and be displayed first to the user. And if your business has a content rich website, search engines with eventually take notice. Additionally, the restaurant will also rank first on the map’s listed results, thus increasing the likelihood of the user clicking on their listing.

Local businesses can generate a huge amount of leads and sales by ranking better on Google Map results. Bagging one of the top spots is absolutely crucial since the latest statistics show that more than 90% of all traffic is hogged by the top 3 local business listings. To gain more customers, it is imperative that you improve the location authority of your business.

Verification of your listing on Google My Business is necessary for ensuring your business is visible on Google Map results.

However, mere verification doesn’t mean that your listing is going to top the search rankings automatically.

How to Achieve Better Google Map Rankings?

The secret lies in increasing your business’s location authority and having a local content marketing strategy will take care of a large portion of what is needed. Apart from giving your business the ability to rank better on Map results, your business listing will also likely be shown to users who are relatively at a greater distance from your location.

Not having any location authority means that your Google Maps listing will only pop up when users are near your place of business. However, by increasing your location authority , your business will be visible to users even at greater distances.

For instance, possessing enough location authority could help your business be seen by people who are 3 miles, 6 miles, or even 12 miles away from your business location.

At Blue Swing Media , we frequently talk to our clients about an important phrase that can take the performance of their Google Maps listing to a whole new level – Location Authority.

This is what drives the rankings of a location or local business in Google Map search results. If you want to drive more customers to your business in this digital age, you need to make location authority your new best friend.

Once your business starts ratcheting up its location authority, it will start making its way up the local Google Map search results, shining a spotlight on your business in the process.

While describing local SEO practices to our clients, we usually talk to them about location authority as well. However, many prospective and existing clients are completely unaware of the role played by location authority.

Location Authority – How Useful Is It?

Location Authority is a measure of a business’s credibility, consistency, and accuracy.

For achieving any significant location authority & for competing in Google Map/local search results effectively, it is location authority that plays the biggest role compared to other factors in determining your ranking within the defined radius and market.

Location authority can be boosted by ensuring that the information posted online about your business is accurate and consistent to the best of your abilities.

The information we’re talking about here are your official business citations. Business citations contain the following information regarding your business:

Name of your business (as per GMB listing)
Street Address
City Name, State, and Zip Code
Your Business Phone Number
Website URL

All of your online business citations should follow the same format given in your listing on Google My Business .

What are Google Maps Citations?

Let’s take Blue Swing Media as an example. Here is our standard citation format, which we use for distributing on webpages around the Internet via our partner network:

Blue Swing Media – Website Design, Content Marketing & SEO in Southwest Florida
157 S. Davis Street
LaBelle, FL 33935
863-517-0615
https://blueswingmedia.com

Even you can harness the magnitude and scale of our citation distribution network that we use for enhancing Blue Swing Media’s rankings, when you engage our services.

You can also check out White Spark’s graph , which has been presented here to help you better understand the citation ecosystem in greater detail.

Are Google Map Citations Enough for Building Location Authority?

Distributing business citations across many websites is actually quite similar to backlink building strategies that are commonly used for increasing a website’s organic search traffic from search engines.

However, mere publication and distribution of your business citations isn’t enough for building your business’s location authority.

The citations must be published on websites that deal with your location and industry.

To sum this article up , this is what you need to do to improve your location authority:

Register your business on Google Maps
Claim your business listing
Provide comprehensive details about your business on your Google profile
Use local contact numbers
Avoid using tracked phone numbers
Update the working hours of your business
Optimize your business description on Google Maps
Ensure that the business has been categorized properly
Add photos of your office to the listing
Try to increase the number of Google reviews you have
Consolidate all duplicate listings for your business
Maintain a well-designed, responsive site
Embed Google Maps on your site
Utilize local keywords

Building location authority can be extremely useful in increasing your search result rankings on Google Maps. By optimizing it properly, not only will your leads, sales, and revenues rocket monumentally, but your business will also be able to make a name for itself as a reliable and credible service provider. In this day and age, where the reputation of your business online can make or break your business, this is one aspect that you cannot afford to ignore.

DIY Content Marketing Guide

Wed, 12 Feb 2020 18:51:23 GMT

The Simple DIY Content Marketing Guide

Do you want to become a content marketing superstar? If you believe that you’ve got what it takes to conquer Google Search but are just missing that final shove in the right direction, we’ve got your back. With the help of our content marketing guide, you are guaranteed to turn into a champion of the SERPs!

Why Bother With Content Marketing?

Did you know that 60% of people enjoy reading relevant brand content and are inspired to seek out a product after reading about it? According to this Demand Metric infographic , 90% of consumers find custom content useful. High-quality content makes them more likely to take action, so on average, companies with blogs increase their leads by 67% a month.

That data clearly shows that content marketing is the most effective and viable way to raise awareness of your brand. Never has it been more vital to keep potential customers engaged with quality content than right now. The goal is to succeed in giving site users the information that they seek and to answer all their queries. If your business insights prove valuable to them, you will establish yourself as an industry leader and an authority in your niche. As a result, you will inspire more trust in your consumers and experience an increase in sales.

★ Check this out for more on Content Marketing

What Your Content Should Deliver

High-quality content has to be effective on several fronts. Namely, for the content to generate leads effectively, it:

Has to provide a genuine solution to the problem that the target audience is trying to resolve
Must meet the audience’s needs and expectations
Has a system for attracting continual website traffic
Guides visitors further down the funnel
Nurtures brand loyalty

★ For more content-related information, here’s how to breathe new life into content that you already have.

How Can You Get There?

Having clearly identified content marketing goals is a great place to start, but how can you successfully bring your ideas to fruition?

The first thing to do is to get to know your target audience. What are their problems, and what are they aspiring to do? Once you’ve got the answers to those questions, you will know just how to address them.

Next, you need to identify the best channels for your content. Create engaging, long content pieces and dedicate them to your top channels.

Last but not least, build a conversion funnel and carefully structure every step of the customer’s journey from marketing and promotion to sales.

★ Learn how to speak to your audience and customers through your blog .

How to Master Google Search — All There Is to Know

If your goal is to dominate Google’s search engine results pages, there are two things you need to keep in mind:

Building organic traffic
Building brand awareness

You want potential customers to be able to find you in the SERPs easily and to be familiar with your brand image and your goods and services. In order to build organic traffic and boost brand awareness, there are several steps you ought to implement.

Step 1: Focus on Keyword Research

The first step of the way is to find the keywords you want to rank for. Choosing the right keywords is essential as the keyword query is the starting point of the searcher’s journey — and you want that journey to lead to you.

We suggest you use the Google Keyword Planner . This free tool will help you identify keywords and ideas that most accurately describe the products or services you are offering.

Another convenient tool is SEMrush . Use this SEO tool to do your keyword research, monitor your competitor’s keyword activity, and do SEO of your blog.

Also, make sure to track your current keyword ranking with Google Webmasters . This tool helps you stay on top of your site’s visibility and performance with ease.

Once you have determined the keywords you want to rank for, use Ubersuggest to check if they are worth spending your budget on. This tool will show you how your competitors rank for the same keywords.

★ Want to know more about this topic? Learn how to choose the right keywords in this article.

Step 2: Create and Distribute Valuable Content

Now that you know which keywords to use, it’s time to envelop them with some high-quality content. Enter a keyword or your domain name into BuzzSumo to generate ideas for high-performing content.

The goal is to create SEO friendly content and distribute it to multiple channels. Make sure to crosspost your content on blogger.com, medium.com, and other RSS and CMS channels. Dedicate the content to your mailing lists and newsgroups. Encourage your coworkers, fans, and followers to share the content with their networks. Also, expand the content to forums and social media pages, such as Facebook pages, Facebook groups, Twitter, LinkedIn pages, LinkedIn personal accounts, Slack, and others.

Step 3: Keep Track of Your Content Ranking

Once you have singled out the keywords and created, published, and distributed the content, the work doesn’t really end. Now it’s up to you to analyze the content you’ve produced.

How does it rank? Verify whether the new keywords have an impact on your website’s visibility. If you keep track of your content’s rankings, you will be able to optimize it by altering the metadata, such as the meta description and the title. If a given keyword scores well, you may start to introduce long-tail keywords to your article. That way, your ratings are bound to go through the roof!

Step 4: Work on User Engagement

Google rewards content that provides a positive user experience. Show that people enjoy your website by creating backlinks and building a returning visitor base.

For instance, use Ahrefs to locate your competitors and monitor their activity. Research and seek backlinks to strengthen your link building.

Send browser push notifications and regular newsletters every time you produce new content. Subscribers.com offers custom, schedulable, and automatable push notifications.

The Best Tools That Will Help You Reach Your Goal

To recap, let’s have an overview of the most useful tools and apps that we’ve covered in our content marketing guide.

Best keyword and content research tools:

Google Keyword Planner
SEMrush
Ahrefs
Ubersuggest
Buzzsumo.com
Google Webmasters
Subscribers.com

What is a content marketing agency?

Mon, 18 Nov 2019 14:25:54 GMT

There are many different forms of digital content and methods for executing an effective optimization strategy, but where does an experienced content marketing agency fit in?

You have experienced content marketing in many different forms on the internet. Have you notice how the words were crafted to sound appealing? Coming up with such content goes beyond writing few blog posts and putting photos on them. This is because there are some aspects of content marketing which may prove to be highly technical. Despite all of these, it is way through which business can reach out to more potential and existing customers.

Content marketing is similar to inbound marketing where customers are being attracted without any kind of interruption. Rather than bombarding your target audience with unsolicited ads and messages, they will be coming to your site of their own free will to devour the helpful content that has been purposefully created, just like this article.

Content marketing agencies exist to help solve a specific problem. Businesses want to expand their reach through content marketing but don’t know how to go about the process. Content creation is a process that is time consuming and a lot of hard work. Also, the tools required to track your results can be very expensive. Through the help of content marketing agencies, all of these obstacles can be overcome. Costs will be reduced and businesses will be able to outsource the most difficult aspect of traffic generation.

Blue Swing Media has been chosen as one of the top Florida Content Marketing Agencies !

Expanding the reach of your site

Content marketing is proving to be very effective when it comes to generating organic traffic to your website. It is the traffic being generated from search engines when your website ranks on them. This isn’t the same as direct traffic whereby the URL of your site will be typed by someone. Direct traffic can also be those generated through social media platforms, paid advertisements and others.

Organic traffic consistently brings in leads. The best part is that the cost is almost zero after your content has be created and the best part is that (unlike ads) it never gets turned off. Once a content is published, it will become live for people to access.

Agencies follow the best practices conscerning search engines will be able to rank such content as your domain authority grows over time. A very popular way through which the outreach of your website can be expanded is blogging. It is also possible for more web pages to be created and building of quality backlinks from authority websites around the web.

In order to get a grasp about the roles of a content marketing agency, it is important to know the meaning of content marketing. This isn’t about knowing how it tends to work but the reason why it is working in the first place.

The meaning of content marketing

Content marketing is a form of digital marketing where content is being created and circulated around the web by webmasters with the primary aim of driving traffic back to their websites. Content could be in the form of written blog posts, videos, audios, graphics and others. It has some goals which is to generate traffic, establish a relationship with your target audience and build trust. The bottom line is getting new customers and trying as much as possible to keep existing ones.

Modern content marketing can be said to have been made possible by the advent of the internet. However, the idea of concept marketing was used by businesses before the internet came into existence. Graphs, charts and guides for products have been very useful most especially in the aspect of generating sales. There are some who believe that content marketing started centuries ago through the idea of cave painting.

Content marking isn’t a sales pitch but has been designed to help people. You should try to avoid sounding like you are trying to sell something. This is most especially important for those contents produced like articles and blog posts.

Just as content is of different types, that is how their approaches vary. Every business has its own unique content marketing strategy. Whatever the case may be, you will find out that there is always a content marketing strategy that is relevant to your business.

For instance, social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and others are the best places for B2C businesses. These companies are into the sales of high – tickets as well as services of long – term. Their focus should be on developing those long form content after which they will then be shared on a platform such as LinkedIn.

Blogging

This is one content marketing strategy which has been tested and proven to deliver. It doesn’t seem to be declining anytime soon since it is still bringing results for webmasters. In a statistics shown by Hubspot , over 50% of webmasters claim that blog content creation happened to be their inbound marketing strategy in the year 2017.

Blogging Statistics

Most businesses are using their blogs in distribution of press releases or even news regarding their products. Some companies make use of in providing news about the industry trends. These are crucial strategies given that your company is being seen as an authority. This can help you establish a relationship with your target audience and build trust over the course of time.

However, always note that blogging requires two major objectives which you need to be aiming for. These will be listed below:

SEO

Blogging is vital when it comes to search engine optimization . Every blog post has got a chance of ranking for keywords and search queries. Your keywords are selected based on what potential and existing customers are searching for on search engines. The primary aim is to ensure that your posts rank very high amongst the various search engines thereby generating traffic for your website.

For instance, this post is optimized to target keywords like “content marketing”, “benefits of content marketing,” “content marketing agency," “what is content marketing” and “content marketing strategy”. In case you are reading this post by doing some searches online, it is possible you must have inputted any of these keywords on the search queries.

Effective blogging is all about writing for both Google and your target audience. This is why you need to choose topics that your target audience will find appealing. What are those questions they must have asked about your company before? Why have they decided to patronize your brand? Ensure that your blog posts are being written with your customers in mind.

Regular blogging will enable your blog to maintain high positions on search engines. Changes within your industry should be addressed. Get a schedule for blogging established and be consistent with it. You will be fine by putting up a few posts every month. However, be consistent with whatever number of posts you must have decided to develop.

In case you tend to be working with any of those content marketing agencies, let them know when you would want contents written for your website. All that you have to do is review the posts before submitting them to search engines.

Content in the form of a "Lead Magnet"

Through content offers, your traffic will be converted into leads. It is form of gated content whereby your target audience will need to get a form filled out before accessing the main page. They will get access to such content after filling out their personal details.

Lead Magnets are basically repacked helpful content repackaged in a helpful way and you can choose any one of them to start using. Some popular ones are industry reports, whitepapers, eBooks, how - to - guides and checklists. Content offers don’t necessarily have to be lengthy. Customers may prefer infographics, videos, chart statistics, and audios. Any type that you must have chosen, ensure it aligns with what your audience wants.

Through landing page optimization , traffic can be generated to any content offer. However, the major purpose isn’t traffic generation. Content offers are all about increasing contact database. If you want your landing pages to have lots of exposure, ensure they are shared on social media platforms and other authoritative web pages within your niche. Once someone signs up, start sending them emails about your products/offers.

More leads can be generated by sharing your landing page on social media. Digital ads are also another method that works fine. Ensure your blog posts and webpages have got Call to Actions. These are simply buttons which take visitors to landing pages when clicked on.

Do You Need In - House Marketing Department Or Marketing Agency?

Content creation is a hectic task. It requires understanding how to come up with an idea that your target audience will find appealing. In case you are working with any content marketing agency , ensure that a schedule has been established where content offers can be created. They have tools available that will help in the posting of such content.

Videos

Videos are becoming increasingly popular among marketers. By the end of 2019, it is expected that video traffic should make up around 80% of overall traffic being generated on the internet and YouTube is the second largest search engine on the planet.

This number is about 85% in the US. Videos seem much easier to consume as compared to contents that are written. Also, they tend to provide viewers with a more realistic example about how your business operates.

The way that video is created depends on people you are targeting. The videos you can choose from are of various types. These could be:

• Thank-you

• FAQ

• Demos

• Even/experiment videos

• How - to videos

• Educational videos

• Testimonials

• Advertisements

• And others

Just like other forms of content marketing, your chosen video will be determined by the section of funnel which you tend to be targeting. Videos that are educational seem perfect for top of tunnel. FAQ videos will work very well for bottom funnel.

Video content has a drawback which is the fact that they have to be perfectly created. A poorly created video will only putt off your target audience. Also, not everyone around your company or business that will understand how to make them. It is always very expensive creating those videos that are of very high quality. This is why most companies prefer using the services of third – party marketers for video creation.

Content marketing agencies can also create compelling videos.

I n situations whereby they can’t, they usually work with other partner companies. Some agencies charge an arm and a leg for custom videos, but others include videos as a part of a marketing package. That is the approach that we take and you read more about it here: Content Marketing Services .

Whatever the case may be, you need to start considering the option of video content marketing. As compared to written content, videos tend to get far more shares on the various social media platforms. There could be someone in your team who understands how to create stunning videos. You are likely to have some knowledge about it once you’ve organized a webinar before.

Social media

Social media happens to be another part of content marketing. Every post you make is tailored towards engaging your target audience. You may want them to read such posts, share them, take action and others. Every step or requirement is very crucial. A professional copywriter can help you compose powerful messages.

Whenever you are posting, ensure to include your content as well as those from other people. If you have any business you are partnering with, it is possible to exchange content. This will drive traffic to both businesses’ sites. You can also share contents from sources that are related to your niche. A strategy like this will not generate traffic for your site. However, it will enable you get lots of followers in the long run who will be interested in your brand.

You can share posts once or even twice every day most especially when you seem to building your follower base. With automation tools being used, sharing becomes easier. With tools like these, you will know posts that are getting the most comments, shares and views.

Social media marketing can also take the form of social media advertising, active interaction and influencer marketing. In case you happen to be partnering with any content marketing agency, contact them in order to know the option that is ideal for your business. Such agency can also help out with some tasks that will make these strategies to be very effective.

Original images and graphics

Images such as graphs, charts, designs, photographs and infographics can be easily consumed. Visual content is more powerful when compared to written content. Over 60% of people seem to be visual learners. When details are transmitted via images, they tend to be easily processed. Using visual aids to make presentations can also be very persuasive.

It is common for images to be included in your written content. Articles which have images will get higher views and retention rates. You will notice most blogs have images especially at the top of their pages.

You can get a graphic designer to handle this aspect. Alternatively, use your content marketing agency to get it professionally done. Through images, brand identity can be easily created.

Stick with original images for now. In order words, avoid the use of stock photography. Ensure the images will be customized before used on your site. This can be done by a professional graphic designer.

Content marketing benefits

Most websites have got social media presence but still need content marketing in order to become effective.

It is possible for products to be included in your site. However, your blog will have to be very active. This is the only way to generate traffic on steady basis. It is possible that you’ve created several pages on various social media websites. However, original content need to be posted to generate leads steadily.

In case you seem to be doubting the potentials of content marketing, you aren’t alone. Although this strategy is inexpensive, time will be required. Patience is also required before results will be seen. However, there are lots of long term benefits attached to content marketing. It is possible for new leads to be captured through old contents. Contents will be permanently on your site.

You will need an effective software to track your results using this strategy. You will understand contents that are performing and those which aren’t. This will enable you know the right content marketing strategy to adopt for your business.

Businesses hire the services of content marketing agencies. This is because they can handle their content creation as well as dissemination on daily basis. This could be article curation, creating of content offers, social media posting and writing of blog posts. Provided there is a strategy, results will likely start coming.

Increased and enhanced brand awareness

People need to know your brand is existing. The only way to make this happen is providing content to them. There are 2 ways that posting of content can improve awareness about your brand. The first is that it will reach out to more people while second is that it will educate people about what your brand stands for. The search engines as well as social media platforms have made the process of creating brand awareness much easier than before.

Always write content which target a much broader audience. Your topics should reflect your brand. For instance, we have managed to write articles on topics such as team building and company culture.

Building relationship and establishing trust

Putting up some pages on your site gives visitors the chance to know more about your company. However, you can do better by helping them go even deeper. According to statistics, over 70% of B2B buyers tend to carry out researches online. In case your blog is active, it won’t be a bad idea to have content that your target audience can download.

Partnering with a professional content marketing agency

In case your staff is inadequate in terms of creating content on regular basis, a content marketing agency can help out. Just like any other option you can choose to grow your business, choosing a content marketing agency also has some pros and cons.

Even when there is marketing department, there are other ways a content marketing agency can also help your business. Marketing agencies are there to help out on those tasks you may not have the time to execute. Without having to incur overhead costs in hiring additional workers, your business can grow beyond where it is.

You may not be able to monitor the activities of an agency though. Also, patience will be required before you will start getting results.

Content Marketing for Local Businesses

Mon, 11 Nov 2019 23:16:00 GMT

Consistent Content Marketing Can Catapult Your Business Success to a Whole New Level

Content Marketing for Local Businesses

Whether your business has only just launched their first website or you’ve got an established presence on the internet, there’s always more you can be doing online. There are an endless amount of opportunities to boost traffic , drive more high value leads, and ultimately convert those leads. Is there a way to do all that without spending a fortune though?

Your search is over. We even have proof that content marketing can be effective. This very article you are reading right now is proof. The fact that you are reading this article shows that our own content marketing has worked. It’s something you can take advantage of to. Here is our definitive guide to digital content marketing for small businesses to help you achieve your own success.

What is Content Marketing?

We’ll start by addressing what content marketing is. It’s when you publish high quality content on a regular basis. The content should be consistent with your own branding and your campaign goals. It also requires a great SEO (search engine optimization) strategy. One cannot exist without the other.

The Benefits of Content Marketing

Much like with major brands, small businesses are able to get a lot of benefit from a good content marketing strategy. It presents a great way to naturally boost organic search traffic for key words and terms related to your business. By hitting the top spot for important keywords you will;

• Boost engagement and sales

As the content climbs the search rankings, more and more people will be driven to your website. A great call to action can encourage readers to buy your products/services, subscribe to a mailing list, and more.

• Boost savings

Google AdWords has seen businesses drop a pretty penny to appear on top of search results. Effective content marketing can get your business to the top of rankings at a fraction of the cost of buying AdWords. Organic rankings also feel more authentic to visitors. People will see your business as being more approachable and genuine when it doesn’t have that “sponsored” tag attached to it.

• Better Quality Leads

By searching for keywords related to your business, people have shown their interest in what you can offer them. By writing effective content that ranks high on search results and attracts those people to visit your site, you’re roughly halfway to having a sale. You can kiss goodbye to broad advertising and cold calling, which are ineffective for about 90% of the people they reach.

• Build a Loyal Customer Base and RE-TARGET

After you attract users with high quality content you’ll see them coming back for more. You can further boost engagement with them by including a call to action to join a mailing list. Re-marketing will prove to be effective at this. It allows you to show targeted ads to people who have visited the website before in particular. Re-targeting means that you are always online when your customers are. These constant reminders make them more likely to return to your website. Just make sure your audience loves your content, don't spam them!

All in all, there’s a lot of evidence that content marketing just works.

How Long Can it Take for a Return on Investment?

We’ve seen people boost their Google rankings and get more online leads for their keywords through regular blog post updates across a year.

Just how long it takes for content marketing to offer a significant return on investment for a small business depends on how much authority the business commands online. If you’ve got a huge presence in the industry and are ranking high on a number of keywords, the payoff for content marketing is almost instant. Google ranks websites higher if they have more “authority” and are more well-known than lesser-known sites.

If you are doing great already, you might think that you’ve squeezed every drop of value from important keywords. That is when content marketing is actually the most important. There are plenty of long-tail keywords that offer almost endless opportunities to increase traffic. Cast yourself a wide net and make a huge catch with your content marketing.

If you are just getting started with your small business though, then it’ll take time to build trust and authority with Google. You need to post regular high quality content. As you continue to produce online content, it makes you better established in the industry. That means that Google ranks you more favorably. You’ll notice major returns on relatively small investments over a period of time. With that said, it doesn’t mean that you can’t expect to see some big wins if you are a relatively young business. With the right amount of research and due diligence, you may notice some immediate returns. Make sure to target the best keywords and write really effective content that performs well immediately. That can be easier to do if you focus on local traffic in particular, but you can still do it on the national level and even the global level.

Create a Content Marketing Plan

This all sounds very good, but you still want to know how it works and how much effort is needed to make it work. Here’s our own handy guide to putting together a great content marketing plan of your own. We’ll shed some light on the tools and services you can use for an extra helping hand too.

• Do Your Research

You should never go into this blind. You’ll vastly increase your chances of success by doing some research ahead of time. Research is one of the first – and arguably most important – steps in the content marketing process. You should take notes now to allow yourself to make the right moves later. You should have enough notes to know your customers.

You need to know who the customer is, what they want, and how they plan on finding these products and services. You should understand customers so that you can make sales. You can learn more about the customers by finding forums and discussion groups related to your industry to see what actual customers are actually saying.

You can also take a peek at the competition. See what the big names in the industry are doing. Check their website to see the content they publish. What kind of structure does their website have? What keywords does it look like they target?

• Target Long Keywords

You aren’t done with the research just yet, as a lot goes into this area of effective content marketing. This is also the key to success though. Finding and targeting the appropriate keywords is an important part of any digital content marketing campaign. For this step, you have to take your important findings from the initial research – such as the audience and competition – and determine the right keywords to effectively achieve your goals.

It's no longer a simple matter to just appear on the first page of results. With more and more businesses adopting healthy content marketing strategy, there’s never been more competition for the best rankings. If you are in the business of engagement rings, for example, you can give up on ranking for just “engagement rings”. There are around 1.5 million searches for engagement rings each month. That’s a lot of competition. You need to work smarter.

It’s more effective to understand your niche and then have tools like Google Keyword Planner help put together a list of keywords that offer less competition but still good amounts of traffic. Most of those keywords are “long tail keywords” that have longer strings. These long phrases are less likely to be targeted by the competition because they are less likely to be searched.

Long tail keywords are the backbone of a good content marketing campaign. When used properly, you could rank better – and get more traffic from – these keywords compared to keywords with a better search volume or more competition. If you could appear on page one for five long tail keywords with around 100 searches per month, that’s around 500 potential hits for your website. If you were to rank on the second page – or worse – for a single keyword with 500 searches per month, you are less likely to get more hits. Try to hit the target from as many different angles as you can. An effective content marketing strategy for small businesses is one where you slowly chip away at the block instead of trying to smash it in a single hit.

How to Properly Implement a Content Marketing Strategy

Now you have your list of keywords, it’s time to start producing the actual content. You should first make sure that the main pages of the website – all the pages in the navigation menu – are properly optimized with content that reflects the results of your research. Make sure to follow the SEO best practices too. You can start by working on on-page SEO. Make sure that the titles and H1s of pages reflect the keywords identified by your research. Also ensure that the meta descriptions are appropriately written for the page.

After taking care of on-page SEO, you should make sure that the website has effective copy and a consistent design. Determine if you should add new pages so that you can take better advantage of keywords and under-utilized areas identified by the research. If you don’t have them already, then it helps to create service pages that outline all your main offerings. If you operate an ecommerce business, then managing the content for products will present its own challenge that you’ll have to overcome.

Once your website is packed full of killer content, it won’t take long for your website to achieve better rankings. You’ll start bringing in more traffic and – with it – more conversions. This doesn’t mean you can stop though. This is when you start to create a regular blog. You can use the content marketing strategy and the research done before to create a blog. This blog will serve as an effective and efficient marketing tool in its own right that offers some high returns. You can target the keywords that you didn’t target through static web pages. The blog posts also work as a landing page to drive traffic that may not have found your website before.

For some more ideas on marketing your small business check out this very helpful post: Small Business Marketing Ideas That Can Make A Difference Today

SEO Best Practices

This has been a lot to take in, so let’s turn things into a few key points. In general, Google likes there to be at least 300 words of copy per page. Aiming for 500-600 words has been shown to be effective for our clients. You should ensure that the copy doesn’t hamper the UX or design of the website though. You can get around that issue with the use of “Read More” tags to prevent things from being cluttered. While you want to include the most important targeted keywords, you should avoid keyword stuffing. Just Use the main keywords a handful of times and make sure that they are in alignment with the title tags for the page. Try to include engaging imagery and stick to the SEO best practices when it comes to alt tags and titles for said images.

Tired of trying to do Content Marketing by youself?

How We Became a Content Marketing Agency

Tue, 05 Nov 2019 18:19:17 GMT

Our Story may Help You Figure Out How to Leverage Content Marketing for Your Business

How we became a content marketing agency and which type of content marketing is the best fit for your business.

Before I jump into our story, I need to give you this insight, content marketing is a great long-term investment for any business. The extent of certain factors (competition, location, marketing budgets, time constraints…) will determine if you should or could do some content marketing on your own, hire a small content marketing agency, or hire a large digital marketing firm. As you read our story, you should have a clearer understanding about the content marketing path your business should be on.

When I started out as a web designer almost a decade ago, I used simple content marketing to rank my services on google. This included writing an occasional blog post, sharing a few things on Facebook, and listing my business with local directories. Over the years my web design firm grew and we became more of a typical “we do everything under the sun” digital marketing agency. This came about because our client’s pretty websites on a brand-new domain were often lost in vast ocean of the world wide web.

So, since we care, we began helping our clients grow their web presence. We often provided these services without extra fees. Another reason that we ended up doing this was because of some of the astronomical fees that agencies would quote them for “SEO.” Paying a thousand dollars a month for content marketing make perfect sense if you have product or service that may bring in several thousand dollars a month per new client/sale, but not if your product is $10-$50 and you’re not currently being found online.

So, after learning and testing PPC, Social Media Marketing, SEO, Backlink building, blogging, Video marketing and just about every other element of the digital marketing footprint, I have found that “Content Marketing,” was by far one of the best investments for business when done properly. SEO becomes the complimentary partner when more competitive keywords or locations are involved.

Don’t get me wrong, all those other pieces have their place, but providing answers to people’s questions and pain-points and understanding what a person is most likely to type into a search box in order to get a relevant answer via blog or video works wonders for getting your business in front of potential clients or buyers.

On a national or international level, content marketing can really difficult, but for local businesses, it can and does work wonders. This is why our agency made the decision to put our main focus on content marketing. We still provide all of those other marketing services, but they are not the backbone foundational piece.

Making Content Is Hard Work

Here’s the thing about content. It’s really, really hard to get it from business owners. Even larger businesses who could delegate blog writing, don’t, because nobody wants to do the hard work of writing quality original content.

So here are a couple of key points before I lose you…

1. You say you are going write a blog but, most likely, you won’t.

2. A content marketing agency will do a better job because they have insight about content keywords , article structure, plagiarism checking, URL structure, and other factors that will make a difference.

3. Media Agencies have the software to assess your competitors and thus provide a viable strategy to compete. Our agency spends thousands on software that provides us with insight in content development strategies.

4. Agencies have the tools to monitor and make adjustments to blog posts and webpages on your website.

5. Content marketing companies also know how to layer on other digital marketing factors such as video marketing and social signals to magnify the effects of your original content.

So, let’s unpack your options for doing content marketing.

1. Do it yourself.

Pros: Free. Rewarding. More personalized.

Cons: Lots of work. You have to schedule it into your daily life. You must be consistent and patient for it to work.

2. Small Content Marketing Agency

Pros:

• Happens on Autopilot.

• Agencies have more insight on what works (target keywords research - word count – SEO)

• Smaller agencies are much cheaper than large Marketing Agencies because they are typically leaner and have much less overhead and also less likely to outsource operations.

• More likely to have access to agencies founder or top minds.

Cons:

• Cost

• Content won’t be as personalized.

3. Large Marketing Agency (These may vary from one agency to the next)

Pros:

• Typically have access to more resources and connections

• May have more experience in multiple industries

• More man-power for monitoring and managing projects. (a smaller agency typically has to do more multi-tasking)

Cons:

• Cost: These larger operations can cost up to double or triple what smaller content agencies charge.

• Outsourcing certain tasks to overseas virtual assistants has become common to offset overhead such as office space, larger staff, and leadership salaries.

• Stability: Many agencies never grow out of start-up mode and borrow insane amounts of money to get up and running. Smaller firms are usually cash-flow positive from the beginning, thus less likely to go out of business due to financial reasons.

• Access: Your support personal are likely not going to be seasoned experts at SEO and content marketing.

Disclaimer: These are general observations from an industry insider, but there are going to be media agencies that break the mold and to which these observations don’t apply. The account that I have given if born of my experiences, conversations, and research in trying to help businesses grow.

If I had to sum up Content Marketing in one word it would be RELEVANCY. You create the content that delivers relevant answers to what people are looking for. If you do that well, people will stay on your website and devour your content and what’s more they will know you are the “go to” resource when they need help and the goal of search engines is to put the right piece of content in front of the right person.

What’s the Difference Between SEO and Content Marketing?

Fri, 27 Sep 2019 22:34:33 GMT

Content Marketing Vs. SEO

Content marketing and SEO are the two foundations of an effective digital marketing campaign. They are the two things you need most. If you are able to utilize them effectively, you’ll increase your chances of succeeding with your marketing efforts.

Whether you run a small business, write a blog, or work as a webmaster, you should understand all of the benefits that come with using content marketing and SEO as part of a digital marketing strategy. Of course, they are only effective when used properly.

What is SEO and What Benefits does it Offer?

The term “SEO” refers to a set of rules that can be applied to blogs and websites to allow search engines to better understand. The goal is to make it easier for the crawlers used by search engines to “read” through your website as fast as possible and index them efficiently.

To keep it simple, the more pages a search engine has in their index, the greater your chances of appearing in search engine results pages when someone searches for something related to your business.

SEO is a little more complex than that and there are several parameters that help determine the SEO-friendliness of a website, but this idea works as a general concept to work from.

In order to compare content marketing and SEO, it’s worth looking at only the technical aspects of SEO rather than everything as a whole.

What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing uses a content for marketing purposes. It’s a bit more of a theoretical concept compared to SEO, but it works effectively. Content is defined as anything that can be posted online including text (blog posts and articles), images, videos, podcasts, infographics, banners, product reviews, user comments, and more.

The marketing aspect of content marketing refers to using promoting online content to achieve digital marketing goals. This could be something like boosting traffic to your blog or website, improving sales, encouraging people to register to an email list, and other ways you can leverage content to benefit your business.

The most common forms of content marketing include;

Blogging – creating content on a blog
Publishing an image gallery to showcase products
Creating an infographic to explain something to customers
Create videos for comparing and reviewing products

There are endless options when it comes to content marketing. Just about anything that is posted online could be connected to content marketing in some form or another.

Reusing Content that you Already Have to Triple your Reach

Sat, 21 Sep 2019 18:00:31 GMT

Advanced Content Marketing Tips

It isn’t always easy to create brand new content. It takes lots of research to create and time to edit before publishing it. Even after that, you have to spend a lot of time and money to promote it. It must be shared across social media, you need to send out emails to subscribers, and you have to optimize it to get the best results.

If you do all of that – and do it right – then you’ll get some extra traffic from the article. You could spend extra time building backlinks so that it outranks competitors in search results, but that process is never-ending. Most people have already moved on by that point.

What if there was a way to use old posts again and turn them into something new? That’s where repurposing content comes into play. Here are some advanced content marketing techniques for content you already have.

1. Make Videos Out of Old Blog Posts

Videos perform well on YouTube of course, but they are also effective on Facebook. Buzzsumo recently analysed 100 million Facebook videos and learned that videos are the most engaging kind of content for Facebook.

Given the popularity of videos, it makes sense to turn a highly-performing article and convert it into a long-form video. Take the video and post it to YouTube so that new people can enjoy it and engage with it.

While long-form videos don’t do too well on other social media platforms, you can get a good response for short-form videos on Twitter and Facebook. You can take the same posts you turned into videos for YouTube and focus on the key points to keep the video short, sweet, and ready for social media.

2.   Create Infographics
Infographics are another good way to get more from old content. What’s great about them is that you don’t have to be – or hire – a design expert to make a good infographic. There are several do-it-yourself tools you can use to make them such as Visme , Venngage , and Canva . These tools let you put a solid looking infographic together in a matter of minutes.

If you don’t have the time, energy, or bandwidth for making an infographic you could always outsource it to someone else. Fiverr is filled with talented people who can get the job done, and Design Pickle is a more professional service (at a professional price).

After designing and publishing your infographic you can submit it to infographic submission sites to give it some extra power. You should also share it across Tumblr, Reddit, and Pinterest to boost their social reach.

3.   Repost Articles on Quora
Ever since Quora was launched in 2010, it has built up a strong and steady reputation and currently sees around 200 million active users each month. If you were to search Google for a question you’d almost always see a Quora search result within the first few results.

Quora offers two ways to repurpose blog content. The first is to create a blog page on Quora and syndicating popular content there. The other is to answer questions related to your content on Quora. The catch is that if you answer questions without doing any research you’ll likely not have any results at all.

4.   Convert Posts into Podcasts
Podcasts have become more popular in recent years. If you’ve got a podcast of your own already, then you can just convert a popular post into a podcast episode. If you haven’t started a podcast yet, then it’s time that you jumped on the podcast train . The app Anchor (available on Android, iOS, and desktop web) lets you get set up without any extra equipment.

Anchor allows you to record, host, and distribute podcasts on all major podcasting platforms including Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Apple Podcasts.

After you publish your podcast you can start promoting it to generate more traffic.

5.   Create Interactive Content
Having interactive content on your website helps you to stand out against the crowd. According to Business2Community, 88% of marketers say that this interactive content is how they differentiate themselves from the competition.

Thanks to tools like Ion Interactive and Outgrow it’s never been easier to create surveys, quizzes, and other interactive content.

6.   Create eBooks Using Popular Posts
Every long-form post could potentially become an ebook that you can then use to entice subscribers into joining your email list. Ebooks make for fantastic lead magnets after all. You could take a single long-form posts and use it to make an eBook, or take several posts on a single topic and connect them together as a guide to that topic.

It’s recommended that you use services such as Beacon to convert blog posts into eBooks. Beacon offers a free plan but you can upgrade to the professional plan ($49/month) to enjoy more benefits and features.

7.   Create Presentations from Blog Posts
Another way to get more power from your posts is to turn them into presentations. There are lots of programs that let you do this including Canva , Keynote , Slidebean , and good old fashioned PowerPoint. After you complete your presentation, you can upload it to SlideShare and then embed it into the most relevant posts.

Slideshare has around 80 million active users and it gets a lot of traffic from online searches. That’s why it’s a great place to put presentations. It puts them in a position to get more attention and potentially drive more traffic to your website.

8.   Host Webinars
If you have a post that gets a lot of good attention then it’s a sign that you’re giving your target audience something they are interested in. It’s time to consider taking that post and turning it into a webinar on a subject that has generated a lot of organic search traffic for your website.

You could also post a poll on the blog and let your audience choose a topic for you so you can pick something they really want.

Hosting a webinar repurposes content effectively and also helps you to reach out to a wider audience. On top of that, it also builds your email subscriber list. Tools like EasyWebinar make it easy (pardon the pun) to host webinars live or play a pre-created automated webinar.

9.   Create an Email Series
You can consider using a series of posts to create an automated series of emails. This gives you the chance to send your best content directly to email subscribers. Choose 10 popular posts and turn them into automated emails that are triggered whenever someone signs up to your email list.

10.   Create Micro-Content for Social Media
Long-form blog posts likely have a lot of statistics, facts, and other observations. You can turn that information and distribute it across social media in the form of micro-content to get more attention and build engagement.

Start out by choosing a piece of “pillar content”; a long-form piece of content such as a podcast, video, interview, or vlog. Then turn that long content into several pieces of micro-content such as images, GIFs, quotes, mashups, and blog posts. You can take that content and post it across social media.

Summary
If you need new content for your website, you might not actually need new content at all. There are many ways to repurpose existing content to get more out of it. Try a few different things to see what works well for you and your content.

Content Marketing vs. Paid Advertising. Which is better for your business?

Wed, 28 Aug 2019 14:32:23 GMT

Pros and Cons of Content Marketing and Paid Advertisements

There are many challenges that come with being a business owner and a marketer. One of the main ones is the challenge of expanding the reach of your business, improving brand awareness, and building a bottom line.

You have two main choices for this; content marketing and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) marketing.

Content marketing appears to be the better choice if you just look at the stats;

Content marketing offers website conversion rates of almost 6x what other marketing methods get.
On-page content remains the most effective SEO technique around.
Marketers say that branded content initiatives are more effective compared to advertising on magazines and TV, through direct mail, or through PR.

Paid Ads has benefits too though; the main one being that it gets you to the top of SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), putting you in front of the right people at the right time.

Is the initial cost of PPC worth the return on investment though?

If you aren’t sure what to do, then just relax. There has never been a simple and straightforward answer to the question of whether content marketing or PPC is the right choice.

We’re here to help you understand the choices. Let’s consider the pros and cons of both forms of marketing. You’ll have the information you need to choose which one is right for you depending on your brand, target audience, and situation.

Let’s assess the pros and cons of content marketing vs PPC to see if there’s a clear winner.

Content Marketing Pros and Cons
Content marketing is a lower cost solution that improves website visibility, but it takes time to be really effective. It’s good choice for better conversions and higher quality leads if you have the time, money, and patience to go with it.

Here are more pros and cons of this marketing method:

Paid Advertising Pros and Cons
PPC offers targeted reach and immediate visibility . One thing that Ads offer is the ability to block fraudulent clicks through Google Ads. You can protect your ads against bots, click farms, competitors, and other click fraud. It’s simple to set up and get started with Google Ads. Let’s look at the other pros and cons of PPC.

Which One is Best?
Content marketing is about creating content to build trust and loyalty with a target audience. This will eventually come back in the form of increased profits.

PPC advertising is about paying to get a prime spot in search engine results pages to generate a lot more traffic. You’ll have to pay each time a visitor clicks on your link.

There are pros and cons to both of these methods, but you can’t choose one over the other. It always helps to diversify your strategy a bit.

Content marketing and Paid Ads are both situation-specific solutions . There may come a time when you need the immediate visibility and power that PPC offers so more people reach your content. Just make sure it’s good content though, or you’ll never get any conversions.

At the same time, you need to have great stable content that climbs the SERP ranks and generates a continuous return on investment over time.

You may notice both of those strategies require a strong foundation of valuable content . PPC can’t generate conversions for you, but content marketing can.

All in all, content marketing has the edge over ads. It offers a better return on investment and offers long-term results. With that said, there are definitely benefits to digital advetising. It’s great for immediate visibility and getting your content in front of an audience as soon as possible.

Which one is right for you depends on your situation, but you should certainly consider using both. The pros of each account for the cons of the other.

Neuromarketing Techniques

Wed, 14 Aug 2019 16:00:57 GMT

Neuromarketing Techniques

The brain has specific natural tendencies and biases that come into play when we're making decisions.

Neuromarketing technique #1: Social Proof

Social Proof - Companies have discovered that if they advertise that other people are already using their services, the audience in which that company is advertising to will be more likely to consume that particular company's services. Testimonials are a very powerful example of this.

Testimonials should not be secluded to a side folder, but rather, right out in the open. Visitors should never have to hunt for testimonials and social proof.

Including the number of users/customers/clients that have previously used your company's services is another great form of social proof. Instead of simply a call-to-action, it now becomes a call to conform.

Social media widgets can also backfire. If you have a low number of people that have visited your website, don't choose to share it. Sharing this information would show that your company is unpopular and not as legitimate, therefore hurting results.

When you say it, it's marketing... When they it, it's social proof. Nothing you can write as a marketer is ever as credible as the word of the target audience. Check out our plan that puts this on autopilot.

Neuromarketing technique #2: Priming

The Neuromarketing technique of Priming is quite an intriguing method, and can be used to hook your visitors. When you first receive a piece of information, everything you read afterwards is in context to the original information.

This technique typically lists a range of prices and manipulates the boundaries so that a price that originally seemed expensive now seems cheaper compared to the higher price put into play.

The same goes for the other direction. If an item or service has a lower price compared to the original, the original price will likely be perceived as expensive.

But sometimes, listing out options can be inconvenient and can backfire. By providing options, the visitor is required to stop and think about which option is best. Whereas if only one option is listed, such as the top seller, the consumer is limited to one choice, therefore not forcing them to have to think about multiple inputs or choices.

Neuromarketing technique #3: Loss Aversion and Scarcity

The Neuromarketing concept of Loss Aversion and Scarcity is also incredibly fascinating. Psychological studies show that the pain of loss is greater than the pleasure of gain. The point of this tactic is to create a sense of urgency that persuades your audience to act now.

Tags such as "Time is running out!" and "Supplies are running out!" communicate to those who are viewing your website that they need to act immediately if they want to receive the benefits of your products and services that are being provided. Scarcity expresses a concern for a lack of time or lack of products.

Loss aversion creates the mindset that if the audience does not act within the allotted time frame provided, they will lose the chance. This can also be referred to as a "FOMO", or fear of missing out.

Neuromarketing technique #4: Visual Tips

People will always tend to remember things that stand out visually

Have the call-to-action as a contrasting color to the rest of your web page, or a color that stands out, such as a bright yellow call-to-action button contrasting a web page with a dark blue color.

In Conclusion

Neuromarketing techniques can be a very powerful and influential way to attract and potentially manipulate consumers and visitors to your website if used correctly. Hopefully this guide has given you some basic knowledge and insight about various techniques that can be implemented to take advantage of a few of the neurological factors at play in the minds of consumers. Along with the techniques mentioned, Blue Swing Media can greatly improve your website, blog, advertising, infographics, and add many other features for your group as well. We can also provide your team with more knowledge, guidance, assistance, and advisory with absolutely free consultation! Learn how our main service, Content Marketing , can greatly benefit your company.

What Is Content Marketing?

Wed, 24 Jul 2019 20:51:59 GMT

If you are curious about how relevant, helpful, original media makes a difference for business' marketing efforts, you are in the right place. Read on my friends...

Content marketing is one of the oldest marketing methods, going back to at least the 18th century. Businesses used to release pamphlets containing beneficial information about their products.

The words in pamphlets were very similar to what you see on blogs and landing pages.

While the medium may have changed, the concept remains the same. You use content to build trust and develop a stronger relationship with potential customers.

Deliver Relevant & Useful

Marketers define content marketing as a value-based approach focused on the creation of helpful and relevant media to help connect with and form a relationship with a specific demographic.

With content marketing, you are providing helpful information to your website visitors in the hopes that they will come back to discover additional useful information. You nurture your sales leads through the delivery of content. This relevant information is also logged by search engines. If it is original enough, then your domain gets credit for it.

Why Should You Use Content for Marketing?

Content marketing provides one of the most effective ways to target your audience, promote a brand, or reach new markets.

Most people searching for things on the Internet are not ready to make a purchase. They want to find information or compare their options. Generating original content helps you provide the information that they seek.

The typical buying process does not occur instantly. Visitors arrive on your site, view your information, and then leave without making a purchase. Without helpful content, these visitors have no reason to come back to your site.

Creating content also boosts online visibility. When you add content to your domain, you provide search engines with more pages to crawl and index. As these pages start to appear in organic search results, you attract more visitors to your site.

Over time, adding content boosts your search engine optimization (SEO), bringing you more traffic and more potential visitors. But in order for this to happen, you have to understand how search engines use keywords as a part of its algorithm for determining the placement of your page in the search results. We have a handy article that explains this foundational part of your digital marketing efforts here: How To Pick The Right Keywords For Your Content Marketing .

Your content also provides visitors with something to share with their friends, family, and coworkers. When people start sharing links to your content on social media and other platforms, you increase your online exposure.

Content drives SEO, website traffic, and customer acquisition, making it an essential component of any marketing strategy.

Understanding the Formula for Quality Content

Content marketing is not the same as advertising. You are not writing sales copy that focuses on trying to make an immediate sale of a product or service, however, that could happen with an appropriately placed call to action button. The content that you create needs to provide real value to your visitors.

Many marketing experts stick to a time-tested formula for generating effective content:

● Introduce a pain point that your product or service addresses.

● Let the readers know that you understand their pain.

● Present a solution to the problem without an overt sales pitch.

Most content starts out by addressing a common problem that a specific target audience faces. For example, if you sell vacuum cleaners, you may address the issue of vacuums losing suction power.

Most Common Content Delivery Methods

Besides creating quality information, you need to choose the right platform to deliver it. The most common option is to post your amazing media on your own website.

Adding blog posts to your site helps create a catalog of helpful content for visitors to discover. As mentioned, these articles also boost SEO and organic search traffic.

Solutions for delivering your content include:

● Blogging

● YouTube

● Podcasts

● Social media posts

● Downloadable PDFs

● White papers

● Email newsletters

It helps to choose a method that appeals to your target audience. For example, white papers help you reach corporate clients that may require detailed information about a product or service. When targeting young shoppers, you may rely on social media posts or YouTube.

Using Content Mapping for Sales Funnels

Content marketing helps bring people to your website but it may not always bring them back.

Fewer than 2% of the people that visit your site are ready to complete an action such as making a purchase or contacting your business. The other 98% of your visitors leave without performing any action. Sales funnels provide a way to retain these potential customers.

The top of the funnel includes your general website visitors. You attract these visitors with no-risk or low-risk offers.

No-risk offers require no registration. Examples include blog articles or YouTube videos. Low-risk offers require visitors to register with their emails, giving you a way to continue delivering content.

After the initial discovery phase, you provide visitors with helpful content. Using email newsletters, testimonials, and free trials or demos, you build trust and keep people coming back to your site.

Each time that potential customers read your content, you move them further along your sales funnel. The bottom of the funnel includes visitors that are ready to make a purchase.

Sales funnels become more effective when you use content mapping to tailor the content to their journey. Focus on three basic stages of the funnel:

● Awareness stage

● Consideration stage

● Decision stage

Initial visitors may not want detailed information about your products or services. They often simply want basic info to start exploring their options. This is the awareness stage. You target these visitors with blog posts and other types of web content.

During the consideration stage, you increase the depth of the content. You may use email newsletters, downloadable guides, or webinars to help with the consideration stage. However, you also require email registration to capture their contact info.

For the decision stage, you rely on phone consultations, contact form inquiries, or emails to help complete the process and acquire a new customer.

Conclusion: Content Marketing Grows Your Domain Authority & Helps You Attract Customers

Consumers are smarter than most businesses give them credit for. People want to research products or services before making a purchase. However, the main purpose, in my humble opinion, is that content marketing builds up one of the only online assets that a business owns: their domain. You don’t own your Facebook page or even your YouTube channel, but you do own your domain.

For more about building your domain authority, check out this handy article from moz.com: How Do I Improve My Domain Authority ?

With content marketing, you help the visitors on your website to make informed decisions. You can also utilize effective techniques such as sales funnels to nurture your leads and keep people coming back to your site.

If you struggle to convert website visitors through other marketing or advertising techniques, focus on the creation of informative content.

Here are some other great resources on understanding this subject:

What is Content Marketing ? by the Content Marketing Institute.

What is Content Marketing? by Josh Steimle of Forbes.com

The Beginners Guide To Content Marketing by MOZ.com

Why Local Businesses Need a Blog

Sun, 21 Jul 2019 20:34:00 GMT

Don't miss out on one of the best ways to bring value to your clients & gain more visibility on search engines!

Why Local Businesses Need a Blog

If you run a business, chances are good that you already understand all too well how tough it can be. A volatile local economy and business competition mean that you might struggle to break even in your first year of operation. So, what can be done about it and how can you ensure greater success?

The Big Change in Business Marketing

Once upon a time not so long ago, business marketing was all about radio, TV, and print. The gatekeepers in this area tended to keep their secrets to themselves. This has all changed dramatically now due to the internet.

The web has pretty much leveled the playing field when it comes to business and content marketing. There are hundreds of tools available to everyone, which can make a big difference when it comes to getting your message across to an audience. So, the question is, do I need a blog to get my business message out there?

What about Blogging?

When a blog platform is used alongside social media promotion, it can become a powerful marketing tool for any size of business. However, there are a few reasons why so many business owners don’t maintain a blog, including the following:

It's hard work

It takes too much time to build an audience

It requires technical knowledge

It takes time to set up properly

Coming up with relevant posts for content marketing is not easy

The fact is that most business owners simply don’t have the time or expertise to create a blog that will really create a stir and sell their brand. This is a pity, because when used properly, a good blog can really help a business find new audiences and potential customers.

The Benefits of Blogging for Your Business

If you’ve been wondering, “Do I need a blog?” here are some good reasons for investing the necessary time and making it work for you:

Get more clients and customers: Every business needs more customers and clients but securing them is not always easy. In most cases, business blogs are not about direct promotion of products and services at all. In many cases, posting relevant industry-related articles can create a new and interested audience.

For example, instead of talking about your new product or service, why not provide funny behind-the-scenes videos related to your products? You won’t be directly marketing your product, but you will be potentially engaging an audience with a video that could make them laugh. If they get enough out of it, they may just decide to follow your social media presence or check out your business and your products. Also, don't shy away from emotional responses to your brand, such a testimonials. These can provide a great segue to introduce your value proposition.

Increase traffic to your website: Most businesses these days have some kind of web presence. A central website where potential customers can check out the business’s services and products is essential, but it’s not always easy to get people to the website. One of the best ways to boost your website traffic is through the use of a business blog. Most of the time, the blog is a website separate from the main business site, and this can be a good thing. It means that the business owner can use the blog to focus on other things, such as behind-the-scenes videos and so on. It can be a less formal site and this can engage more people.

Engagement

When people are engaged by the blog, they may then decide to check out the main business website too, thus boosting traffic and recognition. Additionally, a blog can create better local SEO for the purposes of driving more search engine traffic to your main site. Google, for example, ranks websites more highly and places them closer to the front page of searches when a related blog is building a network. When they see that local search terms are being used, they will rank your website higher.

Clarity

If you decide to blog, you have to planing and get into a routine. For me, writing in the morning works best. Before everyone else is awake. No phone. No email. Just write. But crazy thing happens if you can ever get to this point. Clarity. Writing about your business makes you think about the particulars. This mental energy can have multiple benefits. It is likely that you will begin to see and understand some of the aspects of your business that need attention. It is difficult to gain insight when you are overwhelmed with actually running your business. The mental focus needed for creating content about your business could just improve your company.

Community support: One thing that the web has introduced to businesses is engagement with real customers. This means that people can make comments on social media which get right back to the business. This sort of direct and honest feedback can help the business modify upcoming products and build better community engagement. By hosting a blog, you can encourage discussion both on the blog itself and through related social media channels. Customers can tell you exactly what they think and what they’d like to see from your business. In this way, customer loyalty can also be generated.

You are an expert - Share Your Insight: This has been touched on before, but building a blog can set you up as an industry expert in your area. Talk about what you know. By providing helpful advice for free, you can generate goodwill with visitors to your blog while also becoming an expert in the eyes of other businesses.

Create a Real Sense of Engagement

The rules have changed when it comes to business marketing, and every business owner needs to be aware of these changes. Taking the time to build a blog can pay off in a big way. It can drive more traffic to a primary website, build brand recognition, and create excellent community connections.

If you’re looking for a way to boost your business, looking into blogging or hire a content writer could definitely be the key to your success. In the modern online world, it’s all about connecting with real people and fostering a truly engaged and interested community. It's not that complicated, just hard work, some insight, and planning. Also, if you find that is just too cumbersome to take on blogging, why not hire content marketing pros to do it for you. Click here to learn more about our auto-blog.

How to pick the right keywords for your Content Marketing Strategy

Sun, 21 Jul 2019 20:17:36 GMT

How important are keyword when it comes to content marketing? And why does it matter for your business? When I started my first business years ago, I didn't think about Google's algorithm for search queries. I thought of a name that sounded cool to me and I built a snazzy website. On my website, I listed my services and had an about page. That was about it. And guess what happened? Nothing. I had been working a web-designer for several years, so I knew the basics about setting up the code to communicate with search engines. I also knew about how to build a site that would give the user a clear and easy way to navigate around and take action, but I was missing something.

Google grew to prominence and then world domination by doing one thing really well: provide a more accurate search result. There is a word for this, RELEVANCE. Googles every evolving algorithm is attempting to put the most relevant ads (slots 1-3) and then the most relevant "organic" search results next, in regards to what someone types or speaks into the search box. So, what does Google look at, look for, evaluate, filter.... WORDS. Words are the foundational piece when it comes to content marketing.

Brainstorm

So words. Think about your business. What is your value proposition? What would "Major Tom" type into a search box in the hopes of finding a website containing your product or service? The goal here is to successfully implement and execute a content marketing strategy by generating a list of specific keywords to target for search engine rankings, or at least to support the overall domain authority of your site. Once you have a shortlist of these terms, you need to do a bit of simple research.

Research 3 Things

There are many tools that you can use for this next step. Some are free, some are cheap, and some are very expensive. What we are going to look at “search volume.”

1. Search Volume: How many people on average are typing your desired keywords into a search engine per month.

Why is search volume so important? Well, imagine you invest a great amount of time and resources or Content Marketing to show search engines that your website is a relevant option to send traffic to for your targeted keywords only to find that no one or very few people are typing in those terms. By targeting terms with a higher search volume, there's a better chance of attracting a high volume of organic traffic, which can then lead to increased conversions and a better ranking in search engine result pages based on the keywords you are attempting to rank for. But beware, keywords with an exceptionally high search volume will be much more difficult to rank for.

2. Competitiveness: How many people are competing for your main keywords? How hard it is to rank well on search engines for your keywords? How expensive are your keywords in Google Ads? Good news, there are great tools for assessing how competitive your targeted search term is.

Why is assessing competitiveness so important? Well, imagine if you have 200 big companies with huge marketing budgets that have been competing over your target keywords for decades already. How hard do you think it will be to get on page one? Some level of competitiveness is actually a good sign of a healthy market and if you have a local business, search engines will give you some precedence for being local. But knowing the playing field is an absolute necessity in content marketing. There are many strategies related to overly difficult keywords, such as utilizing “Long Tail Keywords,” but that is a very big topic that you can read more about it here: Long-Tail Keywords: A Better Way to Connect with Customers

3. Searcher’s Level of Intent: This is related to initial brainstorm, but I place it here at step three because it is easy to lose clarity as you work through step’s one and two. You want to make sure that the terms that you are going to be targeting are connected some level of intent on the part of the user.

Why is searchers level of intent so important? Imagine that you find great keywords that are not too competitive? Then you work really hard making great content around those words and you start to rank well on search engines. Great right? Traffic is flowing! Fantastic right? But then you realize that your website visitors are finding great value, maybe doing some research, and then leaving. Now, this scenario is better having no traffic, and could possibly be salvaged by creating a bridge to more actionable pages, but in most cases, targeting terms related some intent to take action is achievable. The objective of this tactic is to find keywords and phrases that people search for meaning, and really stop to ponder and comprehend what the searcher is actually looking for when they enter a particular question or statement into a search engine. By researching this, you'll be able to retain traffic that doesn't just bounce off the page!

Words are only the beginning of your content marketing strategy, but they are the foundation piece. Now that we are starting off on the right foot, all the other pieces will lead to a much happier ending for your bottom line. Once again, we cannot stress enough the importance of using content marketing keyword research to identify and target the right keywords along with researching search volume, competitiveness, and the searcher's level of intent to more efficiently perform your content marketing strategy.

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