The Rules Have Changed…Content Marketing Is No Longer Optional!

March 5, 2016

If you’re like most marketers online, you’ve been doing things a certain way, and it’s been working pretty well….until recently.

It goes like this…

Drive traffic to an opt-in page
Collect the email address
Give value, and sell, sell, sell

I’m not here to criticize you, because we’ve all been taught that same mantra..

“The money is in the list!”

And while having a solid marketing list is a great asset for any online marketing effort, it is no longer the holy grail.

The problem is, the internet has grown. And so have the amount of advertisers online. Marketing messages appear everywhere, and most people who’ve spent any amount of time on the internet have become jaded. They no longer care about your shiny lead magnet. They care only about THEMSELVES. Think about your own experiences online, and this will become blatantly obvious.

Further, the big online advertising mediums understand this, and they are VERY concerned with their user’s experience. They want their visitors to have happy, positive, experiences, so that they keep coming back. As such, they penalize (and sometimes disapprove) advertisers who run traffic directly to opt-in pages.

So, how do you qualify a prospect, if you can’t send them to an opt-in?

Simple.

Send them to a piece of valuable content. This content should not be salesy. It should only serve to create awareness for your prospect.

From there, you can retarget the people who read the article, and put more congruent information in front of them. After 2-3 exposures to your content, your readers are now becoming FAMILIAR with you. This makes it MUCH easier to send them to an opt-in page, and will INCREASE your opt-in rates…imagine that!

So, if you want to be successful at online marketing, providing good content is NOT OPTIONAL.

Let’s face it…the average internet surfer has the approximate attention span of a FLEA. In fact, the ONLY way you’re going to get your prospect’s attention is with interesting content. As such, your best tool is no longer your lead magnet, it’s your Content Calendar.

If you don’t have a regular content plan, get one….like RIGHT NOW! There are some great tools out there that can help you understand what’s trending, and what people in your niche are interested in. We’ve recently been trying out a tool called BuzzSumo.com and we love it. You can also look at what your competitors are posting on their fan pages. There are clues all around you, you just have to keep your eyes open.

The foundations of good marketing always apply. Who is your best Avatar, and how can you best serve them?

Go forth and prosper!

To get a free consultation for your marketing funnel, CLICK HERE.

It’s time to make your fortune!

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Jeff Schechter

With the soul of an entrepreneur, and many business ventures under his belt, Shecky is the Marketing Director at Black Box Social Media LLC, (BBSM) an online marketing company that uses the latest digital marketing strategies, such as video marketing and pay per click marketing, to allow businesses to get found and generate leads online. Shecky is passionate about training and coaching other entrepreneurs to achieve high levels of success in their own online marketing ventures.