With a little planning, writing effectively online isn’t difficult. It’s the “with a little planning” part that can be a little tricky. 
Let me explain what I mean by that…
When people tell me “I can’t write,” my response is always – “if you can carry on a decent conversation, you can learn to write effectively online.” The beauty of this medium is that it embraces a more conversational tone than other forms of business communication.
The real secret to writing effectively online lies in having a clear picture of WHO you are talking to and WHY you are having the conversation in the first place! In other words, when you know who your audience is and why you are trying to reach those individuals, your message will be much more compelling.
So, let’s talk a little bit more about our strategy before we launch into the nuts and bolts of online content creation and promotion.
Yesterday, we looked at how to set S.M.A.R.T. goals with respect to the 90-Day Content Marketing Challenge. Today, let’s talk about the 2 key things you need to know before you start creating and marketing your content online: your business objectives and your ideal customer.
Here are two posts which dig deeper into why these 2 factors are so important to your long-term business success:
What Are You Main Business Objectives
The Importance of Creating an Ideal Customer Profile
My challenge to you for today is to start taking some notes and creating an outline of how these 2 concepts relate to what you are doing online. Take a look at the web site you are working on for the 90-Day Challenge and try to identify the main business objective you want to work towards in the next 90 days.
In addition, put some thought into who, exactly, is most likely to benefit from what you have to offer. (The post on creating an Ideal Customer Profile offers specific pointers on this).
Tomorrow, we’re going to begin pulling all this talk about setting goals, establishing business objectives and identifying ideal customers together as we start to dig into keyword research.
Til Next Time,
PS It’s not too late to take the 90-Day Content Marketing Challenge! You can join at anytime by completing the form below and work at your own pace!
{ 2 comments }
Since I am participating the 2010-90 Day Content Marketing Challenge, would you advise for a blogger like me to have a free blog platform either with Blogger or WordPress? My understanding is that bloggers, who has blogs with Typepad or Wordpress.com are required to pay a monthly fee.
FYI, I have a very low number of traffic to my blog nowadays.
Hi Dina Marie
Before I can answer that question – what are your main goals for your blog? Is it part of your long-term business strategy – or is it more something you do for fun?
The reason I ask is because I always, always advise my business clients to invest in their own web site. There are a number of reasons for this – but namely because you are then building your own valuable piece of online real estate (vs. doing it for someone else). It doesn’t have to cost a fortune, but there is some cost involved.
At the minimum, I recommend you register your own domain name (e.g. http://www.webcopyresults.com vs. webcopyresults.freehostingplatform.com) and get your own hosting account. This should cost less than $100 per year – which is pretty reasonable for a true business expense.
Then, install WordPress (free with many hosting accounts) and if money is tight, use one of the thousands of free themes available to dress it up. (I use the premium Thesis theme now for all of my sites and for my clients – I like that I can customize it however I want for each site and it is is designed for SEO purposes.
If you would like more help on this or have more questions – just email me (use the contact tab above) or send me a DM on Twitter and I’ll get back with you.
Hope that helps!