4 Keys for Content Marketing that Gets Results

How do you write good content for your web pages (blog, newsletters, articles, press releases, etc.) that also brings in clients and customers and makes sales?

Let's face it, talking about how great your product and services are isn't going to enthrall a lot of readers. What are 4 keys to writing content that markets your business?

Yesterday, while Denise and I were on a teleseminar called From Contacts to Contracts with Adam Urbanski about social media tools and business blogs, I gave this advice:

"Without a doubt content is key in business blogging, but even when a business professional writes well, they may not be adapting to blog writing for business results." The same is true for many kinds of business content marketing.

Let's look at 4 keys, the 4 E’s for content marketing purposes:

1. Is your blog post educational? Are you sharing something they may not know yet?
2. Does it entertain readers? Do you use real stories and bring in emotional words?
3. Do you engage readers, make them think, make them respond in some way?
4. Do you try to enrich the lives of your readers in some way? How can you save them time, energy or money?
   

In this way, if you look at each of these 4 E’s, you’re not just delivering content and educating your readers. Any article or a newsletter can do that. The goal is more than that:

The goal is to build relationships, create interaction with readers, and build the kind of trust you need to convert readers to clients.

How does this work from a marketing point of view? Through what Professor Robert B. Cialdini calls the Law of Reciprocity. When you give away something valuable to people, it puts them in a position of wanting to reciprocate. They are more likely to respond to your call to action.

P.S. Adam Urbanski's teleseminar series is on all week and it's free. For information, registration and audio recordings, go to www.fromcontactstocontracts.com/blogsquad.

Comments

[Debra Dalgleish]

Thanks for this recap of the 4 Es that you mentioned in the teleseminar. Engaging the readers, and encouraging feedback, makes blogging a bit different than writing the Excel tutorials on my web site. I'll be writing future blog posts with the 4 Es in mind.