by Leonie Seysan | Mar 1, 2016 | Blog Writing
Blogging is easy. Doing it in a way that gets results is trickier. If you’ve wasted time or money creating blog content that isn’t yielding results for your business, it’s likely due to a simple gap in your understanding of the art (and science) of business blogging. Here are some fundamentals that could shed some light on why your current approach isn’t working. Cut your own path. Don’t assume that your competitors who publish frequently are getting it right and try to imitate their strategy. Only a tiny percentage of them are likely to be achieving significant results. Learn how to excel – the rewards really are there for the taking. The content bar is much higher than most people think it is. Informative style articles on your blog offering a few basic tips might seem perfectly acceptable in terms of quality, but in reality it’s mediocre to poor in its capacity to generate engagement and leads. If you want outstanding results, your blog writers need to be producing outstanding content – the type of content that’s so amazingly useful to your target audience that some will share it with their contacts and colleagues. It also needs to be a ‘good read’ in terms of structure, pace and flow. Publish and promote. Posting an article on your blog and hoping people find it while searching for information on that topic might bring you some site visitors, but you’ll be missing the bigger opportunity. You need to promote the article by linking to it from your social media accounts, and using an update teaser that’s good enough to compel people... 
by Pat Briscoe | Dec 7, 2015 | Blog Writing, Content Marketing, Content Writing
At its best, business blogging is an art AND a science. The art is taking readers on a journey that both soothes their headaches and inspires their ambitions. The science is showing a clear path to where they want to go. Great art understands what an audience feels and makes an emotional connection. Sound science stands up to robust examination and creates new opportunities. In blogging, one won’t survive the acid test without the other. Achieve both and the possibilities are exhilarating. Finding the sweet spot We live in exciting times for businesses of all sizes to connect with clients in ways not thought possible a few short years ago. Some have mastered the art of communication. Others grasp the science of forging new relationships by freely sharing their skills and knowledge. Both get a tick from me. Ultimately, employing one technique or the other works to a point but soon runs out of steam. Few successfully blend both because, in business, finding good storytellers who also have an impressive story to tell is rare. Why does it all go wrong? Impatience, greed, poor advice, lack of planning, no strategy? Take your pick. They all apply. MORE: Why Your Content Marketing Strategy Isn’t Working For You The times are changing As one of the cornerstones of content marketing, blogging for business remains an ever-moving target and your content team and blog writers need to keep up. What works this year might not work as well next year. Constantly raising the bar is critical. Michael Stelzner, the founder of Social Media Examiner, explains. “You have to accept the fact that this (content... 
by Pat Briscoe | Dec 2, 2015 | Blog Writing, Content Marketing, Marketing Online
Long before the word blog had any currency, one man predicted the rise of the information economy and understood its commercial potential better than anyone. Content, he wrote, was where “much of the real money will be made on the internet”. His March 1996 “essay” explained: “Over time, the breadth of information . . . will be enormous, which will make it compelling. Those who succeed will propel the internet forward as a marketplace of ideas, experiences and products – a marketplace of content.” Those words were penned by none other than Bill Gates – the head of the world’s biggest corporation who had just closed a deal with a US broadcast giant to create MSNBC. The rest, as they say, is history. Content is King Many of Gates’ predictions in the essay he titled Content is King not only came true, they are shaping the lives of almost everyone on our connected planet every day. Thanks to Smartphones, content can literally be in the palm of our hands wherever we are, whenever we want it. When he wrote this prophetic piece, Gates probably had no idea that soon all businesses would be communicating with their customers in a similar way – regardless of their size and advertising budgets. But he did forecast the rise of online advertising, the decline of traditional publishing empires, a surge in electronic subscription services, and the popularity of personalised and niche content providers who could grow large audiences to monetise their services. So what can today’s business leaders learn from the master? Not only does content remain king in 2015, marketing guru Seth... 
by Leonie Seysan | May 21, 2015 | Blog Writing, Content Marketing, Content Writing, Marketing Online
Blogging for your business on a frequent basis is a relatively straight-forward and inexpensive way to attract prospective clients, build existing customer relationships, and drive traffic to your website via search engine optimisation. However, the effectiveness of your blog depends on the quality of content you provide and on ensuring that you have a strong call-to-action for the reader where appropriate. If you don’t have the luxury of a professional article writing service preparing articles and generating content ideas for your blog, coming up with fresh ideas can be a challenge. To give you a bit of inspiration for your company’s blog, and some ideas on what makes a blog effective, here are five good Australian examples that are worth a read. … 1. Sydney Criminal Lawyers – With a focus on current Australian news and events and how they interrelate with the criminal justice system, the Sydney Criminal Lawyers blog cuts through the jargon to provide insightful information for those seeking a greater understanding of controversial or thought-provoking topics (or those who need a lawyer!) … 2. Digital Crew – As digital marketing experts, the writers of the Digital Crew blog provide great tips for organisations aiming to tap into the Chinese market offshore. Covering everything from how to build your online brand in China, to setting up an e-commerce storefront, you’ll walk away with plenty of useful information on on how to market successfully to China. … 3. Safety at Work – If you don’t have your own Human Resources team, don’t worry – this blog will prove to be a useful tool to keep across all the latest work, health and safety... by Leonie Seysan | Apr 21, 2015 | Blog Writing, Content Marketing
Never underestimate the power of a good blog or outstanding blog writers. Not only do blogs provide the opportunity to push influential words out across the World Wide Web to build your company’s brand, they are also excellent for encouraging two-way interaction with customers through comments. B2B blogs can incorporate sophisticated SEO strategies and community-building campaigns, becoming a very effective part of your content marketing strategy. So how do you make your B2B blog effective? As a starting point, Joe Pulizzi, the founder of the Content Marketing Institute, suggests keeping three key points in mind: Encourage conversations with your blog. Don’t fear ‘bad’ comments – every comment provides an opportunity for customer engagement. If you do receive a negative comment, it’s important to respond to the comment, acknowledge the issue, and offer the chance to discuss it in more detail. Participate in other blogs, not just your own. Find out where your customers and prospective customers are ‘hanging out’ online and aim to make informative comments on 10-15 key blogs per week. Loosen up. Rather than being too caught up in making your blog entry perfect, let your personality shine. “Authenticity trumps perfection when connecting with readers,” Pulizzi says. Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s okay to have spelling errors in every sentence! Top 10 tips for blogging success With that as a basic framework, here are our top 10 tips for making your company’s blog successful. 1. Use compelling titles – Similar to the cover of a magazine, article titles need to draw the reader in and encourage them to read the story! Titles should be very specific, and utilise relevant keywords... by Leonie Seysan | Dec 23, 2014 | Blog Writing, Business Website Help, Content Marketing
You might have a goal to drive organic traffic to your blog or website, but do you know exactly what methods you’re going to use to achieve it? Are your article writers creating the right type of content to achieve your goals? Here are eight ways that you can use your content to drive organic traffic. Have a content marketing strategy Before you start on any content marketing, you need to have a content marketing strategy in place. This plan should include information on who your target market is, what activities you will undertake to engage with them, when you will implement these activities, as well as KPIs and metrics so you can measure your progress. Create a buyer persona You can’t expect to drive traffic when you don’t know who you are creating content for. Your ideal buyer persona might include information on their: Background – education, hobbies, employment type, family. Demographics – gender, age, income. Goals and challenges – employing a new staff member, or poor cash flow for example. Once you have determined your buyer persona, you can more easily create content suited to your target audience. Optimise for keywords Optimising for keywords doesn’t mean keyword stuffing or writing a post based around a single keyword. It means writing content that is relevant to your audience, so that keywords fall naturally into the text. With Google moving into semantic search, longtail keywords are becoming very important. These are longer keyword phrases rather than single or typical two word keyword phrases. An example is the keyword ‘Android’. This keyword is much too broad even though it’s likely...