If you want to improve your website’s rank on Google… develop guru status in your area of expertise… build a web presence that keeps people coming back for more… turn visitors into customers and customers into raving fans…
You want to rely on content marketing.
But content marketing is no get-rich-quick scheme. You aren’t going to make $90K in 90 days just because you start a blog. And you won’t get a flood of new customers begging you to sell them your highest priced product.
What you will get is a reliable way to connect with people and help them know, like and trust you — so you can increase the average lifetime value of all your customers.
Online or off, real wealth builds over time
There’s a mistaken idea that getting rich is as simple as building a website. It’s an idea spread by “marketers” who did, in fact, get rich selling systems for making money online, systems that often involved nothing more than selling and reselling the opportunity.
The idea of getting rich with new technology was easy to sell when the internet was young. The problem is, the idea still exists. People still want to believe they can get rich quickly just by going online.
But the internet isn’t a magic bullet. It’s just another medium for marketing your business. (Granted, these days it’s the best medium for marketing, but that’s beside the point.)
An online business is just like any other business: work smart, and you can get rich. But you have to treat it like a business.
Wealth isn’t going to start raining down from heaven just because you build a simple website. As with any business, you need a product to sell and customers who want to buy that product from you.
Which brings us to content marketing…
Engage, entertain, enrich
We live in a time when people don’t trust advertising. (Those smarmy online marketers probably have a lot to do with this.) If you want to connect with people, you need to earn their trust.
What are people looking for in a vendor? Someone who will be in business tomorrow if they have a question or need to make a return. Someone who delivers as promised and doesn’t try to take advantage of them. Someone who is an expert in their field.
There’s no better way to build this kind of trust than content marketing. Think about it. As a content marketer, you’re a publisher. You have to…
- Publish regularly on a consistent schedule. This gives you credibility as someone who can be trusted, someone who will be there long-term.
- Create useful information that benefits your readers. There’s no doubt you know what you’re talking about; your content proves it.
- Give away valuable information for free. This demonstrates that you aren’t in business to gouge your customers.
As an added benefit, content marketing gets you noticed by Google. Websites that publish lots of high-quality content generally rise to the top of search engine results. Not immediately, mind you, but over time.
It all starts with your decision to provide winning content that engages, entertains and enriches the lives of your readers. Create content that rewards your readers for taking time to read. Solve a problem, offer tips and tricks, suggest a new way to think about something, report on a relevant issue…
Just keep your readers your highest priority, and in the long run, you’ll win their business. Like I said, it’s more of a marathon than a sprint. But if you plan to be in business for years to come, why wouldn’t you invest in a marketing strategy that gives you the long-term win?
