Cultivating Word of Mouth recommendations is valuable for any business but especially SMB and SME organisations. This post discusses one way to easily implement some content marketing strategy and increase your Word of Mouth referrals.

How often do you pass on the details of a blog post or an online article to your network? I do it all the time. I’m particularly inclined to do it when I can click on a widget to do the work for me. Time is in short supply in my office and I don’t always stop to shorten a link and send it along. Give me a tool to construct a message and I’ll happily broadcast it.

What a great idea!
I was delighted last week to see someone use a sharing widget in a different way. A company based in Sydney called Ideas into Action have a Share This Site button on their home page. That’s right, they’re encouraging a Word of Mouth recommendation by making it easy to share the details of their website. When you select the Twitter option on the widget, you conveniently get the following tweet crafted for you:

Small Business Marketing Consultants, Services & Strategies, Sydney | Ideas into Action: http://bit.ly/d9bTQ8 via @addthis

The Take-Away
Put a sharing widget on your home page. With very little effort, customers and prospects give you a valuable Word of Mouth (WoM) recommendation. It has the potential to generate unique user traffic, improving your SEO. If you're a small business, it's a potent piece of content marketing. I’ve added it to my list of website upgrades.

What cool little marketing tricks do you use?

Follow Sarah Mitchell on Twitter: @globalcopywrite

website: www.globalcopywriting.com

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How do you keep your website looking fresh and ranking with the search engines when you don’t have time for anything?

Like many small business owners, I have to prioritise my tasks with customer demands always ranking first. School holidays changes the mix a bit with family battling for the first spot. Nearly everything else languishes - including my website. Consequently, my search engine rankings take a hit because I don’t get a chance to update my site as often as usual.

Tricks of the Trade
I do have a little trick to keep Google and the rest of the pack happy. I have a “News” section on my home page. It holds three articles with the most current sitting at the top. It takes less than five minutes to add a news item. By keeping this one small area of my website up-to-date, I achieve several things:

• Even when I’m busy or away, my website looks fresh
• The home page is being updated 3-4 times a month which keeps the search engines interested
• It’s a great way to promote events and business successes without spending a lot of time tooting your own horn
• The content is being refreshed with very minimal time expenditure

The Take-Away
Consider putting a news feature on your home page. Your SEO will improve and it’s a great way to communicate with your users.

How do you keep your search engine rankings during busy periods?

Follow Sarah Mitchell at Twitter: @globalcopywrite

Visit the Global Copywriting Blog for more thoughts on Content Marketing

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Writing a blog is one thing. Getting people to read it is an entirely different matter. This post explores simple ways you can increase the traffic to your blog.

Blogs come with two problems. 1) You have to keep them regularly updated. (Yes, that’s a blush creeping up my face.) 2) You have to get people to read them. Let’s face it. Most of us aren’t full time bloggers. Few blogs enjoy massive reading audiences. That’s okay with me as long as I’m reaching the people I want to.

Read Sarah Mitchell’s full post: Avoid the Post and Hope Syndrome

Follow Sarah on Twitter: @globalcopywrite

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Welcome to the first Global Copywriting BRIEF. If you’re like me, you’re inundated with information. My goal for the BRIEF is to provide a little nugget of data, quickly digestible, to supplement my longer blog posts. I give credit to Casey Hibbard from Compelling Cases who inspired me with her Tip of the Month. When I get a bit of time, I’ll send the BRIEF out in email format for anyone who has subscribed through my website. You can find the feature on my Home Page. To reward you to getting to the end, I’ll include a “Take Away” tip or Word of Mouth (WoM) reference every time. Oh, and there’s no jump for the BRIEF. The complete article will be found on Posterous.

Spin Your SEO Web

According to Dave Morse, an internet marketing strategist, you control about 25% of your search engine rankings through your website. It’s almost entirely related to the keywords on your site and in the page titles. The other 75% is largely outside your control and has to do with what other websites are saying about you and who is linking to you. If you’re worried about SEO - and who isn’t? - these statistics can seem pretty grim.

A great way to gain SEO effectiveness for your website is to post comments. Nearly every blog post, discussion board, news article or social media tool requires you to add the URL for your website. If you’re adding comments to authoritative sites, you’re automatically spinning an SEO web for yourself. The search engines will troll through these sites, recognise your URL, and use it to establish the rankings for your website.

The Take Away:

Aim, every day, to leave at least one thoughtful comment somewhere on the internet. The bigger your web, the better chance you have to attract search engines. Additional benefits include staying in touch with industry trends and establishing yourself as an authority in your field.

You can find more information from Sarah Mitchell at:

Blog:    www.globalcopywriting.com/blog

Twitter: twitter.com/globalcopywrite

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/sarahcmitchell

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A lot is being written about content marketing. When I first started research for a seminar, I realised much of what is published has been done with the assumption the reader understands the main components of content marketing. I wrote this post to help anyone new to content marketing or wanting basic information.

Content marketing is gaining a lot of traction in the mindset of marketers and, especially, small business owners. I recently presented a seminar on the topic at the Brew Small Business Expo in Perth. While doing my research I realised much of what is being written about content marketing assumes the reader understands the basic components. I didn’t fully understand them when I started so I thought it made sense to lay the groundwork here.

Read the rest of Sarah’s post: 3 Components of Content Marketing

Follow Sarah Mitchell on Twitter: @globalcopywrite

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The thought of standing in front of a crowd and delivering a speech, presentation or even an introduction strikes fear in many hearts. This week I had the chance to judge and be judged in the public speaking forum.

Writers spend a lot of time sitting behind a desk in solitude with their thoughts. I enjoy working on a project, researching and revising until the copy is the way I want it. I usually deliver my work via the internet and have customers I’ve never laid eyes on. It’s a stress-free job especially when you work from a home office as I do. This week I was away from my desk and, on two occasions, remembered work can be nerve-racking.

Read Sarah’s full post: Public Speaking: The ultimate terror or extreme lead generation?

Follow Sarah on Twitter: @globalcopywrite

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Getting a website developed can be fraught with unrealistic expectations from the client. When it comes to the Home Page copy, what the client wants is often very different from what the web designer expects. This post discusses the work of the Home Page and why client requests are often turned down.

I’ve been writing a lot of website copy lately. I’m consistently caught between the web designer’s instructions and the desire of the client. The client, invariably, wants more content on the front page of the website. If they can’t get more text, they will usually ask for different wording. While client satisfaction is a driving factor in my business, when it comes to the Home Page, my answer is always the same. “Your Home Page has a job to do.”

Read Sarah’s full blog post: 3 Things Your Home Page Must Do.

Follow Sarah Mitchell on Twitter: @globalcopywrite

Attend my FREE seminar on Content Marketing at The Small Business Expo Perth on 5 November at Challenge Stadium, Perth. 

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