Use tutorials to establish authority and build relationships
The YouTube “stars” I’m most impressed by are those who have created a large following by publishing a series of tutorials on a given topic. These topics vary from how to apply make up to how to get started coding HTML to how to get really creative in your scrapbooking. I’m impressed by this group because they have large numbers of fans yet their expenses are very small. Aren’t these the things that small business owners everywhere what to achieve – lots of customers at minimal expense? Simply stated, what these YouTube stars are doing is creating an ongoing series of tutorials. This is a strategy that will work for many small business owners, whether the content you create is video or any other format. And, there are other benefits along with those I’ve already mentioned: You are usually creating evergreen content, so it will stand the test of time, You can cross promote between tutorials to lead people into the next “episode,” You can “tease” your next installment to create anticipation in your audience, You establish yourself as an authority in your field when you have a solid series of tutorials, and You can plug your tutorials into a drip marketing campaign. Let me go into a little more depth on two more benefits. Direct sales While your tutorials need to be centered around delivering great content to your followers, they often provide the perfect opportunity to make a good sales pitch as well. One major success story centers around a woman who started a YouTube series that demonstrated how to use hair extensions. She soon realized that she should be selling the extensions she was demonstrating. If you create a truly excellent tutorial that uses an equally excellent product, people will want to buy it. You can easily direct them to your online store, your toll-free 800 number, or your product page. Multi-use content You should be regularly adding tutorials so you’re creating a growing body of work. First, these tutorials can be adapted for different content formats. Videos can be turned into blogs and blogs can be turned into infographics, to give you two examples. Next, closely related tutorials can be turned into white papers or video training discs and finally, these white papers can be combined – with some infographics added – to turn into books. When you have a published book, you are officially a top authority, as I see it. To get started with your tutorial series, sit down and brainstorm about 10 episodes or articles. This preplanning will help you put together a cohesive series that you can properly promote. When you try “flying by the seat of your pants” your series won’t be able to realize its full potential. If you know where your series is headed, then at the end of each episode you can give your audience a roadmap that highlights your upcoming journey together. This builds your audience. If you can’t use each episode or “chapter” to self promote, you’re missing a valuable opportunity with your...
read moreEven more strategies to find business blog ideas
I’ve written and published a lot of advice on how to find business blog ideas to engage and grow you customer and prospect. I come back to this topic occasionally because it’s important and causes a lot of frustration among those responsible for digital marketing and content creation. When we can pursue a fresh, new strategy, it pumps a little life into our routines. I want to share a fairly simple idea with you today, but it’s a good one, and one that may even get you out of the workplace and away from your computer screen for a couple of hours. Why not touch bases with the analog world to find digital content inspiration? Spend some time browsing the publications that interest your customers and clients. You probably subscribe to some of these; skim them for ideas. (More guidance on that in just a moment.) But don’t stop with the publications you have in your possession. Take a trip to a large library and cruise up and down their shelves of magazines to find publications you might not regularly read. Grab a handful and sit down with them…and your smartphone. Start thumbing through the magazines looking for interesting topics. You will get some good general ideas very quickly. When you come to longer articles, consider the major topic, but also look for the subheads. They can reveal smaller topics that you can cover in shorter blog posts. I said to keep your smartphone handy. Use your camera and an app like Evernote to capture ideas. Snap photos of headlines and artwork. Be sure you organize them in a way that will allow you to find them when you actually need them! In Evernote they can all be stored in one notebook. Consistently using a keyword like “article ideas” doesn’t hurt either. Let me give you a solid reason why taking inspiration from traditional publications makes a lot of sense. Printing a magazine is expensive. When editors decide to publish an article on real paper, they have to be convinced that there is reader interest in the topic. Honestly, online publishing isn’t so picky, in fact, it works in almost the opposite way. While traditional publishers need to believe that something is worthwhile before printing it, online publishers often “print” a whole array of articles in order to find out what articles are a hit with readers. Before I close this, let me give you the links to a few articles on my site that suggest even more business blog ideas and strategies to inspire topics: 10 sure-winner blog post ideas 4 little-known strategies for creating powerful marketing blog topics Need Blog Ideas? Steal Them! How lazy people discover great blog topics How about you? Do you have any favorite ways to jump start your creative process and develop good blog topics? Share them in the comments section...
read moreBring Simplicity to Your Small Business
I was reviewing a calendar of various “special days” recently and I noted that a few weeks ago it was “National Simplicity Day.” I guess things were a bit too hectic in my life to notice it at the time… Sorry. Generally, I load these pages up with things you need to do to push your small business forward, but it’s also wise to step back, reflect, and find areas where you can simplify your life, both professionally and personally. Being a small business owner means you have to wear many hats, and it’s likely that most of your employees are juggling multiple roles as well. While a lot of this is inevitable, there are ways that you and your team can make this three-ring circus act a lot simpler. First, consider delegating certain tasks to a part-time administrative assistant, or even a virtual personal assistant. This may seem like a big expense at first, but when you consider all the tasks that can be removed from your plate, you begin to see many better ways that you could be spending your time. The benefits are two-fold: You have more time to do the things you are better at and enjoy, and/or you can simply enjoy more time for non-work related things. Second, set aside time every day to do your least favorite task or something you fear doing so they doesn’t build up into a tremendous obstacle that seems impossible to overcome. When you walk into your office day after day to see the growing stack of invoices, unfiled receipts, or messages that need returning, you probably feel overwhelmed even before the day even begins. Keep these tasks under control by doing a little at a time. Once it becomes a habit, you’ll find a sense of peace creeping in. Don’t forget that many of these most hated tasks can be delegated as well! While we’re on the topic, it’s also a great time to consider how simple your services are for your customers. Is it easy for them to pay you? Easy for them to contact you? Easy for them to make repeat orders or leave reviews? The simpler these processes are, the more your customers are likely to return, and the less you are likely to be facing a pile of unpaid invoices month after month. Finally, when it comes to something new, stick to the “one per time limit” rule. Learn one new skill a month, develop one new business contact per week, or set one new primary goal for the day. I’m reminded of a simple fact of the English language: Priority means prime concern or most important consideration. You simply can’t – and shouldn’t – have more than one priority. By setting your sights on just one new task at a time, you ensure that you’re giving each new item your complete dedication. This can help reduce feelings of overwhelmed anxiety and make your schedule seem far more...
read moreDiscover how U.S. ‘belts’ can simplify, inspire your marketing, product development
Need something to “prime the pump” and get you started thinking about new markets to develop, new customers that might be interested in your product or service, or new ways to adapt or market your product or service? Maybe you need a good belt! No, I’m not talking about taking a swig of your favorite craft whisky or other adult beverage, I’m talking about all the “belts” that our nation “wears.” You probably know about the Bible Belt and Rust Belt, but have you considered the attributes of the people who live there? Do your products, services, or marketing materials resonate with them? While these terms are very familiar with most Americans, many of us haven’t given a lot of thought to discovering ways to better penetrate those markets. However, those are just two of the most well-known U.S. belts. I’m going to list some more. Look over this list with an eye toward finding a few that might represent as-yet-untapped sales and marketing opportunities for you. The Black Belt. This is an area in the South and Southeast with a concentration of African-Americans. Many have roots in the area that reach back to the days of slavery. Rather than migrating north, these families remained in the south. That will give them different likes, dislikes, needs, and desires than African-Americans in northern cities and suburbs. The Frost Belt. Despite global warming warnings, the Northeast and North Central parts of the nation are going to be experiencing those deep freeze winters well into the future. Let’s contrast this with The Sun Belt, which stretches across the southern states of our nation from coast to coast. Do you have marketing materials or ads created that specifically target buyers in these two very different climate zones? The Jell-O Belt. These are the western states – especially Utah and the surrounding states – with a large Mormon population. The values and lifestyles of individuals there will differ from other areas of the country. The Stroke Belt. We’re back in the Southeast here, and I don’t think I’m going out on a limb to say that southern cooking plays a role in the name of this belt. In any case, this area leads the U.S. population in strokes and various cardiovascular diseases. If your product or service is health related, you should probably be here. The Unchurched Belt. I mentioned the Bible Belt above, here’s the other side of that coin. Specifically, it refers to the Northeast where church attendance is typically lower than other areas of the nation. Again, that will shape attitudes and how buyers react to your offerings. When marketing professionals tackle selling in the United States, they are presented with an extremely diverse population. Considering the different “belts” present here is one way to bring some order to that diversity and perhaps simplify some business...
read moreMy SEO secret: Evergreen lists
A blog is the utility player in a successful website. Here are just a few of the major roles a good blog plays: It boosts search engine optimization. It builds relationships with customers and prospects. It pairs nicely with your social media marketing program. It establishes your authority. Those are some of the benefits of a successful blog; now let’s look at two points that help make a successful blog post: List posts are always popular. Evergreen content gives any post a significantly longer lifespan. Whenever you can combine two proven winners into one post, you have the potential to create a monstrously successful blog post. Usually when we discuss the creation of list posts we don’t talk about them as evergreen content. But when done right, they can be extremely powerful additions to your website. By far, the single most popular post on my website is The 50 (plus) Best 2017 Small Business, Tech, Marketing Conferences: Attend and Grab Your Competitive Edge! I first published this post two years ago and it listed the best 2015 conferences. The list includes locations, dates, and links to the various conference websites. Several times each year, I review the conferences, looking for dates and locations for the following year. As I find these I update the list. Occasionally, a new conference comes to my attention and I add it to the list. I update the existing blog rather than create a new post; it’s an easy way to keep all the search engine authority the original post has built up over the years. It takes a significant amount of time for a post to start generating strong, consistent traffic, so you need to see this as a long-term play. Can you think of some “updateable” lists you can post that will be popular with your audience? Spend some time brainstorming ideas and then start knocking them off; the more you create, the more likely you are to hit a homerun. You might also publish some lists that complement your core subject area but are still of interest to the people you want to reach. It’s important that you keep these lists updated; that’s the only way that search engines will begin to see them as authoritative. Let me finish this by telling you about another major bonus of evergreen and updated list posts – not one do they produce traffic, they are easy to create and maintain. You’ll develop a routine for updating your lists and find that you can keep them current with just a few minutes of work every couple of months. Powerful and easy – that’s a combination you can’t...
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