Find your audience and build your brand through content marketing

6 Ways to grow your business through bloggingZontee Hou for

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Why1

About Zontee Hou

Strategist at top consulting firm Convince & ConvertFounder of her own firm, Media Volery, in New York CityAdjunct professor of communications at the City College of New YorkCurrent clients range from Allstate Insurance to Indiana University2

Contributor to the C&C blog, ranked #1 content marketing blog by the Content Marketing Institute. 2

Provide research resources

84% of shoppers said ZMOT shapes their decisionsCustomers need 10.4 sources before making a purchase decision3Source: Think with Google, 2011

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Build trust

67% of people trust technical experts 52% of people trust employees49% of people trust a CEO61% of people trust businesses versus 56% who trust the media4Source: Edelman Trust Barometer 2016

Retain customers80% of your companys future earnings will come from just 20% of your existing customers (Gartner Research)5% increase in retention can increase a companys profitability by 75%5

Companies spend on customer acquisition, but the most value comes from keeping customers. Blogging is also an exercise in making your customers feel confident in their selection of you. 5

Case Studies

6 examples from real businesses6

Content marketing

Provide save-worthy informationContent hubResources for your audienceRound-up 7

Thought Leadership

Create consider-worthy contentTrustworthinessExpertisePoint of view8

Jeff Rose8

Digital events

Create participation-worthy happeningsBuild community among far-flung customersPromote action around a specific product/service9

Have also seen this recently with bake-along, but what about a build-a-bike project? Or National Novel Writing Month. 9

Customer Support

Facilitate repeat-purchase-worthy experiencesProvide trustworthy DIY adviceShow you have customers best interests at heartBuild loyalty10

Southwest Florida business around since 1962

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Community Building

Create connect-worthy opportunitiesEngage influencersActivate advocatesHighlight community members 11

Go-To PatternsIn B2B, you see round-ups of influencers (10 thought leaders to follow) 11

SEOAnswer search-worthy questionsAnticipate topics that matter to your audience/customersSpeak in your customers languageShowcase local expertise12

More than just Google juice

Chain of preschools: they dont use the word daycare, but they compete in that spacethey can rank on content by using the word in blog posts like why its time to upgrade from daycare to preschools or provide resources to customers who might be researching preschools

Use Google Trends12

Best practices & resources

Tools, tips, and more.13

Editorial calendar

Keep track of content ideas by: ThemeVertical/product categoryTarget audienceAuthor/experthttp://bit.ly/SCOREedcal 14

Format for easy reading

Include multimedia:Photos/slideshowsEmbedded videos/Slideshare presentationsAudio clips/podcastsBreak up the text:Subheadlines (H2, H3)Bullet-pointsPull-quotes

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Cross-Promote

Email newsletter/subscriptionSocial mediaEmployees/associatesVoicemail/hold message16

tools

Wordpress, Rainmaker, MediumAtomic ReachCoScheduleWordpress SEO by YOASTGoogle Analytics17

Lets connectTwitter: @zontee_houLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/zonteehouWebsite & email newsletter: ConvinceandConvert.comMediaVolery.com18