Content Marketing Best Practices for SMBs

by Nicole MunozFounder and CEO of Start Ranking Now, Inc.

About Start Ranking Now

• Got started in 2003 when I got my ecommerce site ranked #1 in Google for “camping gear” where we stayed for over 5 years.

• Founded Start Ranking Now, Inc. in 2007 to help other small business owners get top rankings in Google for their keywords

• Have helped over 150+ Clients• Have generated over 2.1 Million USD in Revenue From Personal

Websites• Focus on SEO and Social Media Marketing, Inbound Marketing,

Content Marketing, Marketing Automation, and Email Marketing• Speak at Conferences like SMX, SMSS, OMS, as well as

internationally in Latin America and starting in 2013 also in Europe.

Why Automation Is Important To Me!

• Mom of 7 Kids Ages 4-13• Full-Time Missionary in

Puebla, Mexico since 2001

Let’s Get Started!

What is Content Marketing?

What is High Quality Content?

It is not (necessarily) ….

• Content written by Native English Speakers

• 500+ Words of original content based on your topic

Engagement = High Quality

Quality Score of Your Site Determines if High Quality

• Time on Page• Bounce Rate• Page Depth

Do’s and Don’ts

Do

• Create high quality content written by native English speakers.

Do

• Create content that solves a problem or offers a solution.

Do

• Create content that people will want to read, like, and share.

Do

• Use a variety of content for your marketing strategy.

Do

• Determine WHO you are writing to and create custom content for them.(PERSONAS)

Do

• Write out the top questions your customers ask and create content that answers those questions.

Do

• Publish content on high traffic sites.

Do

• Promote your content after you create and publish it.

Do

• Use Google+ and link your content to your Google+.

Do

• Always have a call to action

Don’t

• Don’t “Spin” articles and publish multiple versions to many different sites.

Don’t

• Don’t post “guest blog posts” on websites whose only purpose is to publish “guest blog posts”.

Don’t

• Don’t post “unique articles” on web 2.0 sites that only link to your money site and have no other purpose except to pass link authority.

Content Types

1. Blogs2. Videos3. Infographics4. Mobile5. Audio6. Photos7. Charts8. Social Content

Go Where The Traffic Is!

• Amazon Kindle• Youtube• News Sites via Press Releases• Google+• High Traffic Blogs• High Quality Directories• Websites via Infographics• Image Search on Google

Amazon Kindle Best Practices

• Create an eBook and give it away for free.

Amazon Kindle Best Practices

• Create a ebook and give it away for free.

• Have a great graphic design.

Amazon Kindle Best Practices

• Create a ebook and give it away for free.

• Have a great graphic design.• Headline of book should focus on

Results + Time.  For example:  ”Overnight Authority.  How to Write a Book

in a Weekend.”

Amazon Kindle Best Practices

• Headline of book should focus on Results + Time.  For example:  Overnight Authority.  How to Write a Book in a Weekend

• Ebook should have an offer at the end to drive people to your site. For example, 

offer more videos, or a free consultation.

Youtube/Vimeo Best Practices

• Videos should be informational, instructional, or entertaining.

• Tell a story in your videos. Make your customers your hero. 

YouTube/Vimeo Best Practices

• Use the YouTube keyword research tool to find keywords for YouTube.

• Use keywords in the title and descriptions of the videos.

Youtube/Vimeo Best Practices

• Title of video is just like a headline of a blog post.  It needs to be compelling enough so people will want to click on the video to watch it.

Youtube/Vimeo Best Practices

• Embed your videos on your blogs for “Video Blog Posts”

• Promote your YouTube videos just like other content.

• Videos should be 1-3 minutes long

Google+ Hangouts Best Practices

1. Create a hangout and record it. 2. Slice it up into small videos of 1-3

minutes each and post to YouTube!

Guest Blog Posts Best Practices

• Make sure that the sites that will guest your posts have good Page Rank and Alexa rank and also that the topic matches with your market niche.

Guest Blog Posts Best Practices

• Make sure that the sites that will guest your posts have good Page Rank and Alexa rank and also that the topic matches with your market niche

• Choose sites with comments, likes and shares!

Guest Blog Posts Best Practices

• Make sure that the sites that will guest your posts have good Page Rank and Alexa rank and also that the topic matches with your market niche

• Choose sites with comments, likes and shares!

• Find real sites doing research: Keyword + Submit a Guest Blog Post

Guest Blog Posts Best Practices

• Make sure that the sites that will guest your posts have good Page Rank and Alexa rank and also that the topic matches with your market niche

• Choose sites with comments, likes and shares! • Find real sites doing research: Keyword + Submit a

Guest Blog Post • Find 2-4 high traffic, high quality sites, and start by

submitting content to those sites on a regular basis.  Promote your posts and reciprocal link them with your G+ account.

• After posting 5-6 blog posts, evaluate traffic to site

Press Releases Best Practices

• Capture the Key Problem, Benefit, and Audience in your heading and sub-heading.

Press Releases Best Practices

• Capture the Key Problem, Benefit, and Audience in your heading and sub-heading.

• Always Include a Quote

Press Releases Best Practices

• Capture the Key Problem, Benefit, and Audience in your heading and sub-heading.

• Always Include a Quote• Submit on PR Web or PR Newswire

Directories Best Practices

• Submit to high quality directories like BBB and Local Chamber of Commerce.

• Look for business associations / organizations in your local area that have high quality websites with a

directory of their members and join.

Infographics Best Practices

• Use it to explain a process, benefits of using a product or how something works.

Infographics Best Practices

• Use it to explain a process, benefits of using a product or how something works.

• Have 5-7 Main Points

Infographics Best Practices

• Use it to explain a process, benefits of using a product or how something works.

• Have 5-7 Main Points• Share your infographics in Social

Media and invite people to share and like.

Google+ Best Practices

• Use Google+ as a Micro Blogging Site.

Google+ Best Practices

• Use Google+ as a Micro Blogging Site.

• Share your content and promote to your circles.

Google+ Best Practices

• Use Google+ as a Micro Blogging Site.

• Share your content and promote to your circles.

• Post original content

Images Best Practices

• Use a keyword in the file name

Images Best Practices

• Use a keyword in the file name• Use a keyword in the alt text

Images Best Practices

• Use a keyword in the file name• Use a keyword in the alt text• Don’t overuse same keywords

Slideshare.net

• Share your ppts, pdfs, videos, articles• Always have a call to action• These are subtle sales presentations!

Content Marketing Calendar

Who Needs a Content Calendar?

• Community Managers

Who Needs a Content Calendar?

• Community Managers• Social Media Managers

Who Needs a Content Calendar?

• Community Managers• Social Media Managers• Content Marketing Manager

Who Needs a Content Calendar?

• Community Managers• Social Media Managers• Content Marketing Manager• Small Business Owners

Our Challenges

• Departments lack communication

Our Challenges

• Departments lack communication • Requests to come up with content at

the last minute to support a promotion

Our Challenges

• Departments lack communication • Requests to come up with content at

the last minute to support a promotion

• No time!

Challenge: Managing Many Content Types

Blog posts

Newsletters

Curated content

Videos

Case studies

White papers

E-books

Press releases

Live/ online events

Online advertisement campaigns

Contests

Planning a content marketing calendar

Grab Your Content Calendar Template

• www.StartRankingNow.com/contentcalendar

Monthly Theme• Focus on one specific area of your business• Ecommerce – Focus on a specific category of

products (Tents, Coolers)• Ecommerce – Focus on a specific use

(camping, hiking, fishing)• Service – Focus on a specific service or result

(Email Marketing, Build Your List)

Monthly Theme• Expert – If building a

program, focus on the problems that will pre-sell your next course

• Corporations – Market Segments (Each month focus on a different persona)

• Your ideas?

Holiday Themes

• Map out holidays for each week• Think of what could be tied in to a

promotion• Can do non-holiday promotions like

Winter in July Special

Key Dates and Events

• What events are going on in your business

• Tradeshows, Speaking Events, Radio Spots, TV Spots, Magazine Ads

• Events in your community that can tie in to a promotion

Sales Promotions• Have one per week (Ideal) • Think of what products you can tie sales

message into each month• Ask your sales department, when demand

is highest and lowest for specific products• Ask customer service what products have highest returns (Don’t promote these!)

Sales Promotions• Come up with an idea or theme to tie

into the product you are selling.• Can plan your content marketing

calendar in detail each quarter. • Work with entire team to brainstorm

and plan out.• Any promotion is better than no promotion.

Website Messaging

• The text that your web developer will put on the graphics that promote your sales promotion.

• The messaging goes on the home page of the site, on FB, on Twitter, on Youtube, everywhere.

Special Events and Sponsorships

• Put sponsorships here• Business Rockstars (We are sponsoring

5 young entrepreneurs with 5 websites!)• Try to do one sponsorship per quarter.

Actively look and seek out. Have a sponsorship budget.

• Product you give away ties in to your monthly promotion.

Press Releases• Look at events and sponsorships first.• Be newsworthy. • What people are interested in. New

product line (who cares?)• Do one or more per month.• Schedule the week you are going to do the Press Release.

Contest Giveaway

• Contests are great ways to grow your list, fans, and followers

• Have a monthly or quarterly contest. • Plan out a different week than your press release.

Testimonial Story• Survey your past customers to find

happy customers. Focus on your monthly product or promotion.

• Tell them you want to “interview” them.

• Be aware of legal and privacy issues.

• Your interview can be written or via phone.

• Schedule the testimonial to go live

Reputation Management• Write up content focused on your

brand and brand name• Review your existing properties to

see if they need to be updated.• Schedule at least quarterly.

Industry Conferences and Tradeshows

• Even if not attending, put on calendar so you are aware of them.

• Can have a special for “Attendees of” even if you are not there. Promote the special virtually.

Keywords• Based on products, add in 3-10

different primary keywords to focus on each week.

• These keywords should be used in the headlines of content,

headlines of press releases, headlines of videos, etc.

Blog Posts• High Quality is much better than

quantity• Once a week at minimum • Create content people will love, like,

and share• Blog posts should tie in to monthly

promotion.• Put in titles of weekly blog posts. Can always create more.

Guest Blog Posts

• Create strategic partnerships with complementary websites

• Offer monthly content.• Better to be a Lead Blogger or Guest Blogger

on one main blog, than get 20 posts on 20 blogs.

• Schedule your Guest Blog Posts, write out headlines for guest blog posts based on monthly themes and promotions.

Kindle Marketing• Repurpose Content and publish on

Kindle• Compile Monthly Blog posts,

transcribe a webinar• Have a call to action to get additional

content from your website• This is the new lead generation

strategy• Won’t last forever!

Facebook Marketing• People love photos• What kinds of funny or interesting photos

could you post?• What messaging could you add in to your

FB photos. Think like an advertiser. • Facebook Contest for Likes• New Tab or Content Area on Facebook• Schedule out which week you will focus on

FB.

Twitter Marketing• Schedule out which week you will

focus on Twitter.• Look at Twitter Lists• Look at Most Popular Content• Contest to increase fans• Stream down the list of people you

follow.

LinkedIn Marketing

• Schedule out which week you will focus on.

• Create headline of email to send to your LinkedIn contacts

• What content do the groups like to promote

Slideshare.net• Schedule out what week to focus on• Create a sales ppt to promote your

monthly promotion• Have a call to action to come back to

site for more content• Can add video, docs, pdfs as well!

Video Marketing

• Schedule once a month at a minimum.

• Determine headline of video• Map out content to include• Focus on monthly theme

Your calendar will be different!

• Items included in your content marketing calendar will be different than ours.

• Map out all of the things you are doing in your business.

• Schedule out when you will focus on getting each piece of your marketing published.

• Spread things out so they are not all due at the same time.

Email Marketing Content Calendar

• Plan out your daily or weekly themes for your emails

• Set aside partner promotions

Map Out Blog Content

Monthly Theme

Weekly Theme

Thank You!

Nicole Munozwww.NicoleMunoz.comFb.com/nicolemunozfan

@nicolemunoz

Start Ranking Now Inc.www.StartRankingNow.com

FB.com/startrankingnow@startrankingnow

Grab the Slides…

www.StartRankingNow.com/smbs