Compelling content: (web site, blog, YouTube, social media and so on) Helpful, how-to’s, interesting, cool, viral (worth sharing), top ten lists. Be educational, both with basic helpful tips and in how your business works. See http://www.crutchfield.com/App/Tab/Learn.aspx to see some helpful content Crutchfield provides to customers. Whole Foods Market (http://blog.wholefoodsmarket.com/) is an excellent example of what an awesome blog looks like. Most experts recommend using the url blog.yoursite.com or yoursite.com/blog as the address to your blog, but, if you are just starting out with a blog it’s okay to use a free one like Wordpress.com or BlogSpot. Whatever platform you are using, blogs, Youtube, social media; do not push out a sales message, it’s more about being informative and helpful. I've repeated this several times, it's so you will remember. Nothing wrong with promoting the business, but that’s secondary to sharing. If you ever have trouble coming up with content ideas, pick a buyer segment that you are presenting to. For example, a cell phone repair and retailer might write the top ten iphone tech tweaks for an advanced user and helpful hints for a beginner. When you start a blog or make videos, it’s about demonstrating thought leadership, illustrating that you know what you’re doing. The results of an active web presence is a lot of content, a better search ranking, and some new customers. It’s also good to refer someone to a blog post or video you made about something that is a common issue, “Oh, I made a video on how to set up your email with the iphone, here’s the link.” All of the content you put out also helps target ideal customers. Remember, everyone is not your ideal customer. You should build an ideal customer profile like the FBI does with serial killers. It sounds a bit crazy, but you really should understand who your ideal customer is. John Jantsch talks a lot about this topic in The Referral Engine.
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