Internet Marketing

Making your content marketable to humans

Not everything must be marketing. There’s still operations to tend to, design, writing, editing, (which seem to be a large part of marketing these days) and of course reading. May was a month of discovery. From what was thought to be a crazy shift here from PCs to Macs to the mundane such as “how to remove the dot from the letter “i” in Photoshop (highlight the “i” and press SHIFT OPTION B on a mac). But one thing we’ve learned is that there is still much to learn and share about marketing no matter which aspect — design or content.

Wait! There’s a pop quiz at the end of this short article.

For small businesses, marketing online is a full-time job including both design and content. But as hard as that is for some, it’s actually getting more difficult. Design needs to be fresher and articles need to be well written to address busier users, those on mobile devices who seek easy to digest articles along with easy takeaway information while at the same time satisfying the search engines with their own criteria.

Quick thoughts about making your content work for you, not against you:

• Stay away from “information overload” and focus on what is key.

• Make your points and finish the article.

• It’s not a book, don’t repeat yourself.

• Write for humans first.

• If something is difficult to say, put it in pictures.

• Offer easy takeaways such as lists or questions.

• Add graphics so that users are likely to stay and read.

• Real photos, not stock, help to humanize corporate sites.

Think of the websites you use regularly, the ones you engage with, not the big boys you think you want to be and then see what they are doing to grab your attention. Ask yourself, “why do I continue to come to this website?” Then, review your website, ask yourself, friends, family what it lacks, what feels heavy and what is a bore.

Don’t jump to any one thing but work on a strategy to fix or add to the site changes that might help reduct your bounce rate, increase user’s returning and most important their trust to purchase. Make content sticky too so that readers want to share it socially. You’ll see a huge impact on your site’s traffic and return visits.

This article has both flaws and good practices. Can you see them? Comment or share below!