Talk to People, Not to Websites
A recent post on SEOmoz by Michael King provides great tips for link-building; it’s such an excellent metaphor for content merchandising that we had to mention it here.
Based on the simple assertion that “context is king” (sound familiar?), the author walks readers through the process of tailoring a link request email to the site and subject, personalizing your subject line and sender address, doing your research ahead of time, offering value to your target website (and the people running it), and maintaining open communication after successful first contact. The author might as well be talking about considering the platform of your content, addressing consumers directly without jargon or market-speak, knowing who your customers are when creating content, employing our basic feature-benefit model, and bolstering your products and services with good customer service (that’s not about content per se, but it’s certainly important).
Read about the details (and check out the author’s first infographic) at SEOmoz.org.
Make Your Products Stand Out
Rather than leaving it up to your customers to understand what you’re selling and why it’s of value to them, provide comprehensive information about your products and your company. On Copyblogger, Pamela Wilson talks about busting stereotypes and misinformation in three critical ways: showcase your product with video, share your personal face with customers (hello, social media!), and overcome public stereotypes that may be associated with your industry. To continue the tutorial, we say: Develop detailed and accurate content with the goal of overcoming misinformation in mind.
Find out how this guide relates to moving to Texas at copyblogger.com.
Paint a Good Picture
Talking about the value of video has gone viral. Not quite like the Evolution of Dance by Judson Laipply, but maybe like a lolcats pic (we aren’t number crunchers here, we’re just guessing). At Video Commerce, Grant Cromwell shares conclusions from a recent Forrester Research report about opportunities for and benefits of integrating video across multiple platforms. Cromwell also includes excerpts from an interview with Martin Gill, Forrester’s principal analyst, about the report.
Get an inside view of the expert analysis at video-commerce.org.
