Content makes the web go round. People go to websites because they want to read something or watch something, whether that is to be entertained, to learn something or to look up some information. That means content and therefore content = traffic. Seeing as traffic also = money, that means that content is pretty valuable for your site.
So, if you’re posting articles once and then forgetting all about them, then you’re missing out. Writing content takes time, hiring people to write content for you costs money… so make sure you are making maximum ROI (return on investment)!
Revisit
If you follow Tim Ferriss on social media, you’ll find he regularly shares old posts with his audience to remind them about that content and to get them to head back to his site. Remember: only 10% of your Facebook followers (or something like that) will see each post from your page. You need to keep posting to engage your entire readership and chances are you don’t have enough content to really keep that up.
Instead then, why not remind your followers of old content and show them posts they may have missed? Especially if your site has been around a long time!
Promotion
SEO will help people find your articles, but you should also try and promote your content and generate hype for it in the same way that Apple might generate buzz for its next iPhone. You can do this in a number of ways, but generally this means talking about your article on forums, discussing it through social media channels and showing it on YouTube. That’s right, not just posting links, but actually talking about the article and demonstrating why people should care about it. It’s a subtle but potent difference.
How about talking about the big exciting post you have coming next at the end of each article? Or referencing your ‘best post yet’ in a future article?
Iteration
The iteration cycle in business is a process of subtly tweaking a product over time in order to perfect it in response to market feedback. The point I’m making here though broadly is that you don’t have to just release your article then leave it at that – by tweaking it and improving it you can ensure it’s the best it can possibly be, always up-to-date (which Google appreciates) and well suited to the audience reading it and what they tell you they want from their articles.
You can even mention in your articles that this is a resource that will be updated from time to time and that way you might even find some people bookmark it and then head back.
In other words, then it’s time to stop popping out articles and posting links, and time to start thinking long and hard about how to really sell your articles and show them in the best possible light. View each post as a project and a business endeavor and your time and care will be sure to pay off.
Why Having a Consistent Message is Crucial for Your Online Brand
A great brand should meet many criteria: it should not only be memorable, but it should also be likable. It’s not enough for it to just be unique, it should also be easy to understand. And one of the most important things of all is for it to be consistent.
What do I mean by consistency? Well, essentially I mean that you should be delivering the same message across all platforms and that you should be constantly reiterating this point. Your company should have one overarching goal, one set of principles and one thing for which it is known, and if you can accomplish this then you will greatly improve your chances of success.
The Importance of Consistency
So why is this so important? Well let’s imagine for a minute a company that is in no way consistent. This company might sell books about gardening for instance, but it might also sell car parts. Now this is a confusing message right away to be giving and it’s one that will make it hard for them to market. Where would such a company market themselves? And who precisely would be the main demographic? Rather than targeting one audience you’d be targeting two, and the existence of the other part of your business would only serve to confuse your customers. Likewise, who would want to invest in such a company that couldn’t seem to make their mind up about which direction they want to go and what’s important to them?
Another great example is Apple. Apple is fantastically successful and largely this comes down to their consistent message across the board. Apple is a hardware and software company, but more than that they’re a company that makes high end, desirable and stylish products. People thus know what they’re going to get when they buy something from Apple, they sense that the company has integrity and they are proud to brandish that same message by using their products. In my personal opinion Apple’s move to release ‘budget’ phones such as the iPhone 5c will only weaken this consistency and damage their brand.
Either way you see the importance of having a single overarching vision. Put all your energy into heading in one direction and you’re much more likely to reach your destination.
How to Exhibit Consistency
But how precisely do you go about creating such a consistent message? Well, simply this means identifying your key goals and it means thinking about your long term plans. Even if you have a range of products, all of them should work towards the same end goal and you should be able to voice this simply and easily.
This end goal should also come across in your marketing and in your brand design – so that everyone knows not just what you do, but what you’re ‘about’.
And if you do have any parts of your business that don’t fit with this overall grand vision then you don’t need to scrap them – but create an imprint of your business and consider them ‘side projects’ so as not to confuse your overall message.
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