[Build Backlinks Online] Content Isn't King. Trust Is King.

Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Content Isn't King. Trust Is
King.'


Posted by becole
This post was originally in YouMoz, and was promoted to the main blog because it
provides great value and interest to our community. The author's views are
entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc.

As you likely already know, the goal of content marketing is to build up
familiarity and trust with your prospective customers. In this case, the content
isn't designed to sell a specific product or service, but rather to sell you,
and to interested potential customers.

People buy from people that they know, like, and trust. And if you haven't
heard it yet, let me be the first to tell you that "familiarity" breeds trust.

Content marketing certainly isn't new, but it's been getting a lot of new
attention online lately (and for good reason). Small business owners across the
globe are re-discovering these tried and true marketing practices, and using
them to get a big leg up on the competition.

One of the really big advantages small business owners have over the titans of
industry is thatyou can get much more personal with your target audience than
they can. You have a face and a voice. You can be human with your audience. And,
as it turns out, one of the best ways to do that is by talking to your
customers. One of the best ways to get a feel for some of the best-practices
around the industry is to follow and watch how others are succeeding. As such,
I've cherry-picked some of my favorite content marketing tips from experts
around the web.

1. Don't build on rented land


Publish your best content on web properties that you personally own (i.e., your
own self-hosted website). Social media has hit the business world like a freight
train, and there is great value in spreading your message far and wide via these
cheap media channels. The point of all that chatter, though, is to get all those
eyeballs back to your own site. Once they're there, it's time to convert them,
either into customers or, at the very least, into email list subscribers. Social
media is for mingling and chatting (and, obviously, marketing). Your own site is
where the magic should happen. That's where you answer your potential clients'
questions in depth. That's where you create loyalty.

Social media is great. Use it aggressively, but never forget what you're using
it for: to get all those eyeballs back to your own site for conversion.

"Before you create a single piece of content, think about where that content
will live and how audiences willget to it. Effective content marketing takes
work. You'll need energy, thought, and time to create goodcontent. This means
that nearly all of the content you create needs to live on a domain you control,
using a platform you can do as you please with. That means you're not producing
the bulk of your creative content for Facebook, Twitter, or Google+, and you're
not publishing on a "website in 20 minutes" solution that forces you to use
someone else's domain. If your domain isn'twww.YourWebsiteName.com, you don't
own your platform. If you can't publish what you please, with the wording, sales
messages, and images you please, you don't own your platform."


-Sonia Simonevia copyblogger.com


2. Help, not hype, your customer


The goal of content marketing is to allow the potential customer to develop a
trusting relationship with you. One of the best ways to develop that trust is by
answering customer questions and offering information in a clear, honest, and
transparent way.

If the product or service that you offer is part of that message, then feel
free to reference it. But if your content comes across more like an
advertisement or a sales letter, then you're not doing content marketing; you're
doing sales and advertising.

Trust is not built by pushing sales. Trust is built by selflessly helping
people looking for help. In fact, anything but hard selling will probably do
just fine. Some people tell personal stories. Some people seek to entertain.
Some people seek to inform. It all depends on your target audience. What are
they interested in? What do they care about? As long as you're not selling, the
possibilities are pretty much endless.

"Content marketing is not just about amplifying your message to your customer,
it is about helping them find what they are looking for. Discover your customer
needs by searching what they are looking for online and what they are saying
about your category/sector. Provide them with a program to meet these needs,
whether it directly impacts your business or not. Your audience will find the
help useful and you will become top of mind when they are looking for someone in
your sector.And don't forget the power of the face to face contact or 'just
asking' the question."


-Kaitlin Walshvia bluechipcommunication.com.au


3. Write what people want to read, not what you want to write


If you're planning to succeed in your content marketing efforts, there is one
big thing that you have to understand right from the start: it's not about you.
It's never about you. It's not about your company. It's not about your product.
It's not about your service. It's not about how great your company/product is.
It's not about the amazing charity work your president does. It's not about how
fun it is to work at your company. It's NEVER about you. And the minute you try
to make it about you, that's when you lose their trust, and that's when you lose
another potential customer.

Repeat after me: It's ALWAYS about them, never about you. This is content
marketing. It's not sales, and it's not advertising. If you want to do sales and
advertising, that's perfectly fine, but just don't do it in your content
marketing. Write for the reader, always.

"Your content should always have an audience in mind. That means you should
have their needs in mind, too, not your own. Remember, content marketing should
provide something valuable to people. So although you may want to write about
how terrible your day was or how someone should do something about the lines at
delis in grocery stores, that's not the kind of thing people will want to read.
They want to read something that's written about the things they're thinking
about. So ask yourself what concerns and delights your audience, then go from
there."


-Blaise Luceyvia constantcontact.com


4. Reference industry influencers


Even if you are the undisputed thought leader in your specific niche or areas
of expertise, it doesn't mean that you are the only person with something
valuable to add to the conversation. In fact, you make yourself seem more
trustworthy and confident when you reference other players in the marketplace.

I'm not saying that you have to specifically cite your direct competition
(although sometimes that's a great idea) but people are way better informed
these days than you might think they are. Customers are savvy. They know that
you're not the only expert, so if you try to pretend that you, are guess what?
Say it with me this time: they start trusting you less.

Referencing other experts is also a great way to show that there are others
that agree with what you're saying. This is huge. Guess what else? Search
engines love it, too. And just in case you're not fully convinced yet, try this
one. The people that you reference will be thrilled that you mentioned them, and
will likely help promote your content for you for free! Ahhh, viral marketing,
sharing...everybody wins!

"When discussing a specific topic within your content marketing piece, it can
be helpful to reference and cite individuals who are known to the audience and
have authority on the topic. People love to see their own names published and
will likely promote the content on their own for free, thus further spreading
the exposure and influence of your brand and its expertise."


-Marc Purtellvia searchenginejournal.com


5. Create content for all types of readers


Branch out from your normal niche and target readers in a wider variety of
related niche. This doesn't mean that you go way off on a huge tangent from your
core demographics, but people do have other interests. For example, accountants
aren't just interested in accounting.

Let's say you're a real estate broker. What things, other than buying a house,
are people moving to a new city interested in? People with houses often have
pets. Where are the best dog parks in your area? People with houses often have
kids. Where are the best schools in your area? Best restaurants in the area?
Best home improvement contractors in the area? Best landscapers in the area?
Best doctors in the area?

Let's also revisit #4 here for a minute. How thrilled do you think the local
contractor/doctor/restaurateur will be with you and your company if you
reference and link to them in a piece of your marketing content? Especially if
it's a 'best of' type post, you'll come out ahead.

That may have been an easy example, but use your imagination for your specific
industry/niche. What other things are your target customers interested in? You
know your customers better than I do (right?).

Another point is that people have friends, and you never know who will see your
content and pass it on to a friend that they think it will be more useful for. I
do this all the time, and I'll bet you do, too. I may not care about buying a
house, but if I happen to see a post entitled 'Best Pizza Shops in Yourtown,
USA' written by a local real estate agent, I may just tell my friends that are
looking for a new house how cool I think your real estate agency is for writing
such a post.

These actions go a long way toward showing your customers that you care about
them and that you're trying to help them, not just trying to sell them on your
company. That, more than anything else (arguably), builds massive trust.

"The cardinal rule of content marketing says that you need to create content
for your ideal reader in order toattract the right leads and customers. Most
companies follow this to the T, no matter how niche theirindustry is. So even
though their content is excellent, it does not get seen by too many people.
Contentmarketing success takes time and I suggest that you create content for
readers other than your ideal reader sothat it attract more traffic to your
website and social media pages. Instead of focusing on creating just one type of
content for your target audience, create some popular content to service other
readers."


-Jessica Davisvia socialmediatoday.com


6. There is more to content than links


Content marketing is so far above and beyond the classic SEO link building
tactics of the past. These days, it is likely better to think of links in terms
of the direct traffic you'll get from them, rather than any SEO benefits they
may or may not contribute. I'm not suggesting that backlinks are no longer
important for SEO. What I'm suggesting is a change in mindset. Links that will
actually get clicked through to your site are the better ones for SEO, anyway.

That being said, if you think of content marketing as a way to get link juice,
you're doing it wrong. Content creation is all about engagement building and
trust building. Let the SEO benefits work themselves out. What's good for
engagement and trust is also good for search engine optimization.

A link from a reputable site is valuable because of the number of people that
will click on it and come learn more about you and your company. And it just so
happens that the search engines will love it for that exact reason too; win-win.

"Content Marketing is so much more than getting links. It's the glue that holds
your funnel together. It's the reason a prospect visits your site, it's the
reason they choose to move further down the purchase path, buy a product and
return to your site time and again."


-Kieran Flanagan via seomoz.org


7. Don't forget the "marketing" in content marketing


Until now, I've talked mostly about content creation, but there is one other
huge piece to this content marketing puzzle: content promotion.

It's incredibly shocking, but one of the biggest problems I see is that small
business owners seem to be embarrassed about promoting their content. None of
them seem to have any trouble trying to promote their products and services
within their content, but once the content has been created, they're timid about
telling people it exists.

My best guess is that they're not proud of their content. Maybe that they don't
think their writing is very good, or that their content is boring, or something
along that vein. If that's the case, let me try to help you a bit with that.

In general, if you're being helpful, people don't really care if your writing
is a little rough around the edges. If you're getting people the information and
answers that they're looking for, they will very easily forgive non-perfect
writing. In fact, very often it can make you seem even more human to them.



Furthermore, the more you do it, the better you'll get at it. Nobody starts out
being a great writer, a great blogger, or a great content marketer, but the
sooner you start 'practicing,' the sooner you'll get better at it. I promise, it
gets a lot easier very, very quickly. As a matter of fact, read my I Hate
Bloggingpost here and you will see I am in the same shoes as many people who
struggle with writing.

You don't ever have to be perfect; you just have to help and/or entertain your
readers. If you do that and keep working at it, you'll be fine. But you must
promote your content. If you don't promote it, then no one will ever read it, in
which case, it's useless. The days are long gone where you could just post a new
piece of content and hope that people would find it via search (or because you
had built boatloads of spam links to it).

As discussed in point #1 above, this is where social media and your social
media connections come in. Use your social channels to guide traffic back to
your freshly minted content. If people like you on social media, they'll want to
learn more about you. Give them a way to do that.

If you're just starting out on sharing your content through social media,
here's an example of what you can say:

"Hey there folks, I just wrote up a quick post about some cool local resources
I've been working on recently. If you have a moment, take a quick peek and let
me know what you think. I'm just getting started with this whole content
marketing thing, so any feedback you can give me will be greatly appreciated.
Here's the link, thanks!"

This may be the one piece of advice I can give you that will determine your
fate in content marketing more than any other. If you are too embarrassed to
promote your content, then you may as well give up on the whole idea of content
marketing right now. Go do PPC instead.

"Do you know why your content marketing campaign is going to fail? It's not
because you can't write great content it's actually because you don't know how
to promote it. You can learn how to write great content, but if no one reads
your content and links to it, there's no point in putting it out there."


-Neil Patelvia quicksprout.com


8. It's all about relationships


If people can see you actively participating and being a team-player, then they
will treat you accordingly; as a member of the team. [ Insider Tip:That's the
goal!] The bottom line with social is this: you have to be an active member of
the team. It's not enough to just stop in and share a few things here and there,
a day or two before you're going to need those same people to share your stuff
for you. You have to be active. You have to be part of the team; a member of the
community. It's not a wishy-washy kind of thing. It's a commitment; a commitment
to your community. Your network depends on you to be there for them, just like
they are there for you.

This doesn't mean that you have to be on social sites all day long. This also
doesn't mean that you have to promote every piece of content that every member
of your social network produces. It does mean however, that you stay involved
and engaged consistently.

If people see you actively sharing and promoting other people, they will be
that much more likely to share and promote your stuff when the time comes.The
time to make friends on social media channels is way before you need them.

"I've heard this mantra a lot, but it wasn't until my first crack at this that
I really understood how crucial relationships were. The people who were
ultimately the ones to contribute something to the post were the ones I built
the best relationships with. They were the ones that (for whatever reasons)
responded to comments I left on their blog posts or replied to my tweets in the
initial weeks. They were the ones who I was able to engage with in a personal
way over email. And now they're the ones who are appreciative of the opportunity
and exposure and are interested in working with me again in the future."


-Mike Arnesenvia mikearnesen.com


9. Think like a publisher


Whatever business you're in, your website and/or blog is now a venue for that
industry/niche. That's just pure fact; no way around it. The trick, though, is
learning to re-train your brain to treat it as such. Go down to your local book
store and grab a few magazines that catch your eye, and then study them. Study
their format, study their layout, study their focus. Whether you like it or not,
you are in the "online magazine" publishing business now. The fun part is that
you get to talk about stuff you're already an expert in.

Use your site to engage, entertain, and inform. That's all you really have to
do. The hardest part is remembering to do that every time you sit down to write
another piece of content. One of the quickest/easiest ways to do that is to
write content that answers common customer questions. That sounds simplistic,
but it's incredibly useful and engaging for people seeking answers. And if you
can do that in a fun interesting way; all the better.

"You are not an advertiser[emphasis added]. An advertiser disrupts but a
publisher educates and connects in a two way communication. Don't put too much
emphasis on your brand. The goal is to engage your visitors and in due time,
your brand will get the proper recognition. Always put value in your content. To
be accurate, content is not king but value is. It's not enough to have content
that is readable and no grammar mistakes. What matters is the substance of the
content. What's in it for your visitors? What value will they get?"


-Mark Acsay IIIvia webbythoughts.com


10. Use other sites to find out what kind of content people want


I saved this one for last because it always seems to be a major sticking point
with small business owners, and I wanted it to be fresh in your mind as you
finish up this post. Small business owners oftentimes think that they have
nothing to say, and nothing to write about.

We started this conversation in #2 above, and then again in #9 talking about
answering customer questions in a fun, interesting way (and that should get you
started in a big way), but eventually, you'll probably want to start branching
out a bit with your topic ideas. The best way to do that is to watch what your
competition is writing about, and also what other industries closely related to
yours are writing about.

Read other good blogs on your topic and then just write similar articles with
your own opinions and insights on the same topic, and try to make it better. I'm
not suggesting that you copy anything from them obviously; just that you get
inspired from them. This is also a great way to incorporate #4 and #8 above.

Everyone does this. Everyone gets inspiration from things that they see (and
read) elsewhere; it's how the world works. Inspiration comes from building on
top of what has come before.

This very post is a perfect example. I was inspired by the people that I quoted
here. I read their posts, I picked my favorite tips from each of them, and then
I added my own thoughts on the topics. I didn't have to quote and cite them,
this post would have been perfectly fine on its own, but I did quote and cite
them because it makes for a more interesting and engaging article. Plus it helps
with a bunch of the other tips mentioned above.

"Sometimes it's hard to know what people want to read about. One way to find
this out is to visit sites within your industry. Check their blogs and see what
posts get the most tweets and shares. In the internet marketing niche, social
media is all the rage. If you write a post about Facebook or Twitter, it's
guaranteed to get more shares. Do some research to find out what kind of post
are popular in your industry and write that type of content. You don't want to
write these types of posts every time, but it's a great way to boost traffic
when it fits into your publishing schedule."


-Joseph Putnam via kissmetrics.com


Conclusion


Its a wonderful time to be a small business owner. The Internet and content
marketing has made it possible for us to stop chasing the media, and instead,
become the media. You are now a magazine publisher for your own industry (and/or
a local niche). Your voice can be as big or as small as you want it to be. It
can start small and then grow. Or it can just stay small and that's okay too.
You are in total control here. There's no reason to ever feel intimidated by the
process because you control the process.

Just remember, the goal of content marketing and its sidekick social media
marketing is to inform and entertain prospective customers in a way that
inspires them to trust you for the right reasons; authentic, legitimate,
deserving and well-earned trust. When the time comes for them to buy something,
they buy from people they trust: you. Which, as I may have mentioned once or
twice already, is the whole point of all this stuff. Trust, trust, trust; burn
that into your brain. Content isn't king. Trust is king. Content is just how you
get there.
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