Writing on the Web from Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad

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.

How Barb Sawyers, Newsletter Expert, Does Content Marketing

I've been asking people what content marketing means to them for their businesses. And I've been getting some interesting responses that I'm featuring here. Hopefully, you will gain a better understanding of what this popular buzz term means to people like yourselves, in small businesses.

This response is from Barb Sawyers, who runs the successful site Stickemail, Communications that Stick, and the blog, Sticky Communications. Barb has had mixed results from her efforts so far, and candidly expresses a few doubts. She'd like to see more action, more quickly, yet wants to avoid the "hard sell" copywriting of many internet marketers. Perhaps some of you can relate?

Q: What does Content Marketing mean to you in your business?

I was thrilled to discover content marketing because it gave a new respectability to what I've been doing for the past 30 years. I'm a corporate communication writer, with the first half my career in government, associations and the private sector and the last half as an independent. I have never enjoyed hard-sell marketing communication, but love writing for people who want to educate and inspire.

Q: How are you doing it now?

How John Agno, Leadership Coach, Does Content Marketing

I've been asking you to think about what content marketing means to your business, and how are you using it in your niche.

John Agno, a fabulous leadership coach I've known for some time now, has been calling himself an "infomediary", long before the term 'content marketer' ever became popular. Here are his answers to my questions. (See the post The Content Marketing Two-Step Trap for background.)

Dear Patsi,

Your questions:

• What works for you in your business? 
• What kinds of content work to attract and stay in touch with readers, build your KLT factor (Know, Like & Trust), and makes sales?

The thread that goes through my executive/business coaching practice is "leadership." 

Sub-categories are:

1. Coaching women executives/business owners in succeeding by better understanding how their male boss, peers and customers think--in order to succeed in their business and/or career. 

The Content Marketing Two-Step Trap

Every where you go on the Web these days you hear blog and Twitter talk about "Content Marketing."

Seems it's the new buzz word among Internet marketers. But if you're like me, an independent professional who does her own marketing, and who doesn't use paid advertising, you're no stranger to Content Marketing. You've already been doing it.

Anytime you write content on the Web (or elsewhere) you present yourself, your personality, and your knowledge so that readers get to know you. They like you (you hope!), they begin to trust you, and they eventually become clients or customers, or at least regular readers.

Or not. It's not always easy to write quality content that works to actually bring in business.

Although it seems self-evident, it's not. Why not?

Can You Be Nice AND Sell the Sh*t Out of Your Stuff?

A smart biz mentor once told me that success is in the 1% nuances. He said the difference between someone selling and making money online and someone doing all the work and NOT making money is in the details, those little tweaks to your email and web copy content marketing.

If you're like me, you don't want to come across like an internet marketing sleeze-bag and hype yourself up so bad you're embarrassed to read your own stuff. Especially if you're selling your own writing or services. There's something funny about selling yourself.

I just had a sale on my article and e-newsletters subscriptions and boy, did it start out slow. Happily, it ended with a bang of new orders. So I had a chance to analyze my own marketing efforts. Here's what I found.

Content for Coaches: Save 15% during Memorial Day Sale

 Just a quick heads up if you're an executive or leadership coach or consultant in need of quality content for your newsletters and blogs.

You can get 15% off of article and newsletter services subscriptions at my other site, Content for Coaches, if you order before Tuesday May 26, 2009.

If you're interested, go to ContentforCoachesandConsultants.com and click on the article subscriptions and ezine services pages.

When you order, use the coupon code SUBSCRIBE-15 and get 15% off annual orders of $400 or more. I usually do a sale twice a year on articles with reprint rights, but this is the first time I've offered a discount on higher priced services like the All-in-One Ezine services.

You can get complete services: content, formatting, template design, distribution and database management and save $360 off the annual fee of $2400. That's a pretty sweet deal, if you consider how much time and money it costs to do a quality e-newsletter yourself.

Take a look at the article titles page to see if the Content for Coaches article topics are appropriate for you and your business.

Marketing for Nice People Makes You Laugh Out Loud...

I'm taking a course called Marketing for Nice People with two of my favorite peeps on the Web, Sonia Simone and Naomi Dunford. These two have teamed up to deliver some really important lessons on content marketing for your business. They take a devil/angel approach, and you can guess which one wears the horns...

Click here to view more details about Marketing for Nice People...

If you're familiar with Naomi Dunford's blog, Ittybiz, you know she's got one of the most famous potty-mouths around, but she's also got a heart of gold, writing smarts, and is one keen biz whiz. She knows how to make money online, and knows how to teach you to do the same.

Sonia is the gifted writer/marketer behind the blog Remarkable Communications. She's such a talented writer that Brian Clark snapped her up as one of his permanent guest writers on Copyblogger.

If you want to know more about these two, I suggest you read this brilliant interview, Content Marketing Gets Real. Then go sign up for Marketing for Nice People, it's a gas (as we used to say)...Click here to view more details

Here's a sample lesson from something called 101 Tweaks to Fix Your Marketing and Your Business:

5 Expert Tips on How Small Businesses Should "DO" Content Marketing

ClickInsights: Tips on how B2B marketers should do Content Marketing

View more presentations from Ambal Balakrishnan.

My One Best Tip for How B2B Marketers Should "Do" Content Marketing

Don't you love it when you get asked for "your one tip?" Actually, I do love it, even though it's always hard to figure out what just "one tip" would be. It kinda helps me sort out all the stuff that goes through my mind and find bare essentials.

(This question reminds me of the game where you ask someone what three books they'd want with them on a desert island... how can you decide on only three?)

Anyway, Ambal Balakrishnan of ClickDocuments asked me this question and I thought I'd share my answers with you:

1. What is your one tip on how B2B marketers should do content marketing?

I hear so much being blogged and tweeted about "Content Marketing" these days, it’s like the Buzz-du-Jour. I’m sure it means different things to different people, depending on the size of your company and the type of products or services you’re trying to market.

Forget “how to do content marketing.” Just remember one key thing: be real. That means that you have to talk to readers and customers like real human beings do.

Top 20 Things You Should Know About SEO Copywriting

According to SEO expert Heather Lloyd-Martin, here are the top 20 things you need to learn about small business SEO copywriting. (And if you're not sure what SEO copywriting is, then you really need to learn this and sign up for Heather's online course!

   1. How to give your customers the exact information they need, exactly when they need it!
   2. How the search engines work (and what it means to you)
   3. Tried and true marketing “power words” that get results
   4. Powerful low-budget small business keyphrase research strategies
   5. How you can make more money during seasonal sales