Online marketing is like no other marketing, in the sense we are not only trying to get our message out, we are also trying to be found. The Internet is the only medium where users, can actively search for the content of our website and additional content we have posted on other sites. It only makes sense to develop content in a strategic manner to make it easier to be found by users. It only makes sense to develop content that is useful for clients and potential clients. In this sense, our content is our marketing. Here are some ways we can approach marketing through content sharing, and link it to the content we have on our website design and ‘news’ or blog.
· How to Videos. It only makes sense to use YouTube videos and a YouTube channel to distribute videos to help potential clients. Some people prefer to watch videos instead of reading text. YouTube is a search engine, and a heavily used one at that. If you have a blog, you can use YouTube to host your videos and embed them into your blog. We can save on our own storage space, and we can take advantage of being directly in YouTube’s search results. Make sure you use appropriate tags and proper descriptions of your videos so they can be found by YouTube and Google’s search engine. Google still cannot actually watch your video.
· Forums. We often turn to forums when we are trying to find particular information. This makes them the perfect place to be a part of when we are actually marketing ourselves. Again, we should be conscious of our keywords as forum results will also come up in Google search. We should spend the time to find the appropriate forum for our business with the right type of user – one that matches our potential target client. We can link to our existing online content to assist with answers to user questions and issues on the forum.
· Social Media. Facebook and other social media sites can be used for more than just snippets of information. We can work on Facebook like we work on Forums. We can address issues and we can raise them. Linking from Facebook and other social networking profiles to our existing content, or new content for particular issues we see arise on these sites. Facebook in particular, is very friendly towards links. For example, an image is easily incorporated to our link on Facebook – automatically, in fact. Not all Facebook marketing needs to be inside Face book. It can be used as a point to leverage from.
· Website Posting. While there are number of ‘e-zine’ sites where we can post content and direct readers to our own website, these websites are not getting the value in searches by Google after changes in May this year. We need to search out websites, which are respected in their area of content, and attempt to post content on those sites. They will accept our content when it is appropriate and of benefit to their readers. In this method of external posting, we can greatly raise our profile among an established reader base.
They key to making the most of these links is correct anchor-texting. This is the art of SEO (search engine optimisation). By anchoring the words and terms relevant to our website we build up relevance for Google. Over time, this will see our website and our own blog rank higher for those particular terms. Not only will users see our content because of where we have placed it, we are working towards being found in a standard Google search.