The Center of Your Content Marketing
Written by Alice Seba
If you’re on our mailing list, you’ll know that over the past couple of weeks we have been sharing some ideas on how to maximize your content marketing efforts. Let’s keep this going because we have a few more topics to cover and the include:
- Put your focus on building a list and you’ll have a valuable asset to tap into over and over again.
- Numbers don’t matter as much as results. Focus on conversion strategies over building volume.
- You don’t have to do all the work. Employ the help of guest writers, ghostwriters and private label content.
- When you work hard just to work hard, you’re not doing yourself any favors. Spend less time working and more time strategizing. That’s where the money is.
Side note: If you’re not on our mailing list, go here and get a free Profit with Content guide…that’ll also get you signed up to email updates and tips.
Today’s Topic: Put Your Focus on Building a List
From working with a ton of online business owners in the past 8 years, I’ve seen so many people put too much time into something because they simply feel they have to. Many people feel the compulsion to blog X times per week or they have to write X articles per day.
It’s a dangerous trap because in this case, they’ve decided to SCHEDULE tasks, instead of working on RESULTS.
Whatever you’ve decided your schedule to be, this is NOT your magical formula to a successful online business.
Your key to a successful online business is knowing where to spend your time for maximum results.
I’ll say it again – your key to a successful online business is knowing where to spend your time for maximum results.
And I’ll tell you right now, it doesn’t matter how much people are singing praises for social media, blogging and other more modern ways of communicating…there is one key asset to your online business that you never want to forget about. And yep, I’m talking about your mailing list.
If you’re not convinced, perhaps the many reasons email marketing is alive and well might help.
Of course, all those other activities you do – like blogging, distributing content and “socializing” are important to your online business and they are what drives your list building. If you’re not sure where to start or how to ramp up your efforts for building your list, read these list building tips. Then let’s move on…
Of course, just having a list isn’t enough. You’ve got to maximize that resource as well.
It’s all well and good that we give you the tips to build the list, but what are you going to do with it? Well, you’re going to build a relationship with your readers, give them great advice they’ll come back for over and over again and you’re going to deliver AWESOME products to them too.
Here are a few tips that will help you make the most of your list:
- Keep in regular touch, but don’t knock yourself out when you don’t have something to share. You want your readers to remember you and readily open your email, so email them when you have something interesting and useful to tell or sell them.
- Speak directly to your audience. Get to know your readers and what they are looking for. Understand their dreams and their pains, so you can deliver what they what they want. Write to them as if you’re writing a letter to a dear friend who needs your help. Be sincere. Be real.
- Give information, but also give regular and relevant offers. If your goal is to sell a product, put your focus on that in that particular email. And better yet, be informative when you sell. The products you sell and recommend should enhance your readers lives, help them achieve their goals and/or solve their problems — your promotions can do the same.
- Limit the number of links you include in an email. If you want them to really click a particular link, make that the only link in your email to increase click throughs on that particular link. If you have a newsletter with a few different topics or sections, make sure to mention the most important part at the beginning of the email. As interesting as we hope to be to our readers, their attention spans wane and they are not likely to read through the entire email.
Whatever you do, be prepared to evolve to your market’s ever-changing needs. As your list grows…you will gain new insights, know what works and what doesn’t. The more you can be in tune with, tap into that, and adjust where necessary, the more valuable a resource your list becomes.
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Everybody says "Content is King", but what does that mean for you? 
Tracy says:
Excellent advice. I will definitely keep this in mind.
Michelle Brown says:
Great post and thank you for the encouragement; my list is growing slowly and I’m using many of your tips.
The key I keep in mind is “how do I react when I get the emails that I subscribe to?” I try to use my own responses to ensure I do (or don’t do) the things that I react to.
Working Hard for the Sake of Working: A Recipe for Disaster : Contentrix – Content Marketing says:
[...] The Center of Your Content Marketing [...]
Perry Permann says:
I’ve found that replies to common questions of my readers make great emails to send out. If one reader is interested in something, it’s likely that others want to learn about that as well.