This post is one in a series of five guest posts authored by the super star bloggers pictured below. As part of a celebration of National Small Business Week we are asking readers to match all five guests posts up with the contributing blogger to be entered for a chance to win an iPad2. Read all five posts in today’s series and come back each day this week for five new posts in this great educational series and another chance to win.
Brian Halligan
Brian Halligan is CEO & Co-Founder of HubSpot, a marketing software company he co-founded four years ago to help businesses transform the way they market their products by “getting found” on the internet. He is author of two books: Marketing Lessons From the Grateful Dead and Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs.
Okay, I’m Creating Content How Do I Get Someone to Read It 1
Let’s take a step back. First and foremost, is this content you’re creating remarkable? Does it offer something valuable? The first step toward getting eyeballs to view your content is to appeal to your target audience’s wants and needs. Are you delivering your points in an interesting way that makes it enjoyable to read/watch/listen to? You can create content day-in and day-out, but if it’s no good, people won’t be coming back to you for more.
Now that we’ve got that covered, let’s take a second look at the content you’re creating. Is it optimized for search engines? Did you use the right keywords that will draw in the types of readers you’re hoping to attract? If someone conducted a search in Google using a keyword by which you want to get found, would that person come across your content? Remember: the key to making your content visible in search engines is optimizing it.
Okay, so now you’ve got remarkable content that’s been well optimized to gain some traction in search engines. Are you promoting it? How are you promoting it? Be sure to share links to your content in social media. “But I don’t have any followers,” you say? Start building a following so your content has the potential to reach as many readers as possible. Add social media sharing buttons to your blog articles so people who read and like your content can easily share it with their followers. The great thing about social media is that your content is not only limited to the eyes of your followers, but can also reach the eyes of others’ followers.
Once you’ve got all that down, keep on creating! Regular content creation is the basis for any successful inbound marketing program. If you want to continue to get found online, you need to generate a constant flow of fresh, remarkable content. The good news is: inbound marketing success is relative to the size of your brain, not the size of your wallet, so the possibilities are endless!
