HerMentorCenter Does Content Marketing - a Review

Content Marketing Review for Phyllis Goldberg, Ph.D. and  Rosemary Lichtman, Ph.D. www.HerMentorCenter.com: These two dynamic women are writing a book about healing family relationships, and to attract a following they are writing on a website and blog, NourishingRelationships.com.

They're attracting a following of mid-life people who face family issues caring for both adult children and aging parents. When they won the Content Marketing Review Contest, I was interested to see how their content marketing efforts are bringing the results they would like. Here's the review:

“Her Mentor Center – Mentoring women through mid-life”

The first paragraph on the home page is:

Are you facing mid-life challenges?

Perhaps you are in the midst of relationship, health or career transitions. You are not alone. Millions of other boomer women are searching for solutions. We the Mentors have been there, learned from our experience, and are here to guide you.

Let Her Mentor Center™ support and empower you.

This works to define the problem and the pain, and then to suggest the solutions as found on the site.

• Part of the problem these two ladies face in their content marketing and website copy is the fact that there is so much to cover in the topic. It’s hard to be targeted when you are helping people with “relationships,  health, careers”…plus all that goes with aging parents, “kidults”, etc.

Nevertheless, I think they do a pretty good job. For one thing, they are using terms that pretty well sums it up: “sandwich generation" makes sense, as does "sandwich boomers". I looked but didn’t find a definition, but I think I know what you’re talking about. Maybe you could put a little side bar definition on the home page to clarify what this is?

Does your web content grab readers' attention?

Not sure that this is as strong as it could be. You touch on the wide variety of problems in that intro paragraph, but if you told a story of a typical client, with typical pain and challenges, you might grab readers more, to the point that they say, “Wow, she could be writing about me!”

But what you’ve got is very tasteful. It’s simple, It’s short and to the point. Then you offer lists, with choices for what to do next.

Btw, the photos of paintings are a nice touch. You definitely need to have this ‘eye candy.’

The testimonials on the left side are very good and visible.

The navigation links are on the left. The newsletter sign up is on the right with the testimonials.

Here are a few questions that come to mind after reviewing your site:

• What is the main action you want people to take on the site?
• How can you get them to stay longer, besides reading your excellent articles?
• What’s in it for them?

Oh, there’s a link if I scroll down at the bottom left that says Submit Your Story. But I see that’s just an email link, not a page where I can go to find out more about how to submit my story. That’s definitely something you’d want to highlight and draw attention to. Move it higher up on the page. I’d like to see that linked to the About You page.

I see that there’s an About You page where people can tell you about themselves. This is good, but there needs to be something on the page to encourage them to do so.

• Explain what’s in it for them?
• What will happen once they fill this out and tell you about themselves?
  
  You’re asking for readers to reveal personal things about themselves with no benefit laid out. That’s not going to work well. Why would people tell you about their personal issues, and what are you going to do with this information? Is it safe? Will you publish it? Will you contact them? Spell it all out and reassure people.

Where do you share people’s stories on your site, or do you not do that yet? People will submit their stories after they see an example of what someone else has done.

Are you posting about them on the blog? If so, you need to say so.

More importantly, you need a way for people to stay in touch. I’m not sure the newsletter is going to work as well as a free report. What can you offer for free in exchange for their email addresses? An audio file, a special report of ebook?

Do you focus on a solution to a problem, or problems? Yes, you do. There needs to be more references and links to the blog posts where you talk about problems and solutions.

Do you educate and inform? Yes, you do this very well.

Do you entertain and engage readers? Yes. It’s entertaining to read other people’s stories. It’s engaging.

Do you enrich the lives of your readers, certainly you do.

Do you inspire action? Not really. There is no call to action. There isn’t much a reader/visitor to your site can do besides read, click and leave.

Content Marketing Review for HerMentorCenter.com
3 stars out of 5

Your content is being evaluated for how well it:

1.    Grabs Attention:  3 stars
2.    Focuses on problem solutions:  4 stars
3.    Educates and informs: 4  stars
4.    Entertains and engages readers:  3 stars
5.    Enriches the lives of readers:  5 stars
6.    Inspires action:  1 star

The Blog: NourishingRelationships.com

This blog is full of interesting content, including some interviews with authors of other books about family. It is definitely content rich! Keep up the good work here.

I see that each post has a footer saying “posted by Nourishing Relationships.” This is confusing since the blog is written by 2 people, and we don’t know which one wrote the post. If blogs are conversations, then the reader would like to know who is speaking to them, Rosemary or Phyllis.

Google search results:

Keyword searches:

Boomer women – not in first 8 pages
Midlife crises – not on first 5 pages
Sandwich generation – not in first 5 pages
***Sandwich boomers – top of page 5, a listing with Blog Catalog for your posts.

Suggestions:

1. Start targeting a keyword phrase and write several blog posts about that. For example, the one you are currently doing on in-laws. Google the phrase to see what page your posts start appearing. See if you can’t boost that by increasing the number of time you use this keyword phrase.
2. You will need to get outside links if you want people to start finding you. What can you do so that you get more people to link to your blog posts? Start linking to theirs. Through Google searches you can find where people are posting plenty of relevant stuff similar to yours.

Find an influential blogger in your field and start commenting on their blog in a meaningful way. Chances are, you will build a connection and begin to share each other’s stuff. This creates links and raises your score for credible authority with search engines.

You can’t get people to link to your posts unless you make it easy for them to do so. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that Blogspot blogs offer permalinks for each blog post, so while someone can link to your blog, they can’t link to a specific post. This is a downside of using a free blog platform. Consider using a for-fee service like Typepad or Wordpress if you want to really join the blogosphere.

3. If you want to build a community of people interested in what you have to say, who will then become interested in your book, you’ve got to find a way for them to sign up or register for something. That is how a book platform is built. Numbers.

I don’t know what kind of traffic and numbers you’re getting. Do you have a site meter installed? How are you tracking visits?

So what can you offer to build a list? Can you gather together your best blog posts, best articles in a category? Put them into an ebook and offer for free off your site.

So instead of people clicking to read them for free, they  can instantly download your free report, say, for example on caregiving, and you get to build a list of people interested in your book. This is the way to segment your list according to interests as well, good for future books.

As a side note, publishers will look at your numbers and want you to have a list. You will need a database management system to organize this and deliver digital downloads.

4. There’s no way to subscribe to your blog. Why is that? An email subscription form is free and available through Feenburner.com. They will also track numbers for you. Get an account there. This is probably the most important thing you can do to improve your blog.

5. Your sites could use more emphasis on the audience. Maybe some surveys or polls. Find out what their biggest concerns are. Get them to share stories. That way it’s not just you two delivering information, but it becomes more vital and alive with real people in real situations (or, to protect anonymity, make up ‘typical’ client stories.) And people will want to join in and participate.

6. If you’re not on Twitter yet, get going. People are talking about these issues. You need to join the conversation and publish your blog posts to Twitter. It will get you new readers.

7. I’m concerned that you’re putting a lot of work and energy into writing frequent, great content on your blog in the hopes that people will find you and love you.

Which they will, but you can’t bank on it. You need a way for people to keep coming back in order to build a community.

To do this you will need:

•     More emphasis on the reader
•     More ways for them to subscribe and come back
•     Something they can download for free
•     More targeted keyword phrasing in your post headlines & posts
•     More interaction with other blogs in your field
•     A way for people to find your blog through Twitter, and if you like Facebook

Thanks to Phyllis and Rosemary of HerMentorCentor.com for agreeing to have their content marketing review here in this blog. My hope is that others in similar niches will see the many things they are doing right, and where there can be improvements.

And, these are my views and opinion, others may agree, disagree. My only hope is that this review is helpful in improving your content marketing efforts.

Comments

[Phyllis Goldberg, Ph.D.]

Thanks for the time and effort you put into the review of our website and blog, Patsi.
We really appreciate all the helpful information and ideas.

We realize that remaining consistent with a brand is important for recognition. But we've been slowly metamorhisizing and gone through several iterations in the process.

We began in 2000 as Her Mentor Center and evolved into a focus on the Sandwich Generation and then Sandwiched Boomers. We cover much less territory now than when we started and deal only with relationships issues, not career or health. Our brand will once again change when we get closer to finishing our book, which is about healing the pain in family relationships.

It may not be clear, but we have published a monthly newsletter since 2001 and still do today. However, the newsletters since 2006 are archived on the website under 'Nourishing Relationships,' instead of 'Newsletter Library.'

[Phyllis Goldberg, Ph.D.]

We have not worked with a designer or marketing person, so your points about
easier to notice 'newsletter signups' and 'submit your story' are well taken.
And giving more information to the reader about what they'll find and how it
will help them certainly makes sense.

Because we're not selling anything yet, we're not sure about how to encourage people to come to us, stay a while and then come back. Since we've been giving away information and building trust, we haven't focused on e-book or report downloads as a way to grow our list. We have over 800 subscribers but we do want our numbers to increase. Your ideas about how to do this are great.

[Rosemary Lichtman, Ph.D.]

You have given us such important and helpful feedback. We feel so lucky to have your input. Thanks, Patsi!

Up until now, in the interest of keeping finances in check, we have not employed a virtual 
assistant to help us - even though our strengths are certainly not in the technology domain. Through your analysis, we recognize that we really need to implement some of your recommendations ASAP. We'll begin by researching VAs, other blog servers, spend more time on targeting
 keyword phrases, get outside links and develop some ebooks.



When we get a publisher for our book, we plan to create a website, and maybe an additional blog, dedicated specifically to the book. We'll then link our current site and blog to the new site and blog we 
develop.

We're charged about all your new ideas for us. Thanks again.