Whether you know it or not, you most likely create ‘content’, and engage in ‘content marketing’ every day. With online channels that include websites, sales pages, blogs, articles, social media channels, mobile apps, newsletters, and email – the use of content and content marketing is unavoidable in the sales and marketing world. If you’ve ever posted anything on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter (or composed an email for that matter) you’ve created content. The question is, was it good content?

First, what exactly is ‘content’? Very simply, it’s information that is valuable and relevant to the reader. ‘Content marketing’ is the act of getting that information to the right people on a consistent basis – with the goal of inspiring them to take action. Remember, the key to content is: valuable information, with the most common uses being on social media and blog posts.

Consistently publishing updated content on these sites, with the best wording to get your message across, is crucial to getting more traffic from social media sites and search engines, while creating a power of influence over your visitors. It will also help make YOU the person (or business) that people think of when they need the type of services your offer AND help get you found in online searches for your type of business.

The first thing everyone reading this should do, whether you have a blog or social media channels or not, is to create a list of keywords and keyword phrases that define your business. Why? These are the cornerstones of your marketing plan. They should be the words and phrases you use on sales calls, your printed material, and on your website and social media to create continuity with your overall strategy. What are they exactly?

Your keywords and keyword phrases are literally the words and phrases that your potential client might type into a search engine to find you and/or your business, or in other words – the features you provide that make you valuable and unique. It’s important that you use these in everything you do, online and offline, so that you are known for that particular set of ‘terms’. If your business deals with “elders” or “seniors”, or “assisted living facility florida” or “senior memory development 33770”, these would make your list of keywords and keyword phrases. The longer your list and the more unique, the better.

By consistently utilizing these keywords and phrases in your social media and blog posts, you will in time become more findable in online searches by potential customers, peers, other respected members of your audience.

In addition to the written word, things that can be considered good content are photos and images, quotes, infographics, videos, and testimonials to name a few. However, be sure to pepper these with descriptions and comments that include your keywords and phrases for an extra punch.

Stuck for ideas to create original valuable information for your audience? Try some of these:

*Google Alerts: Enter your keywords and Google will trawl through all of the new results on a daily basis and email you with the results. These are great ways to come up with topics that are not only topical, but also hot off the press.

*Your Staff: Ask the people within your organization. They may have ideas that you haven’t thought of!

*Competitive Analysis: Look at what your competition is writing about and see how successful it is. Then write some original blogs and articles with those topics in mind.

*Social Media: Do a social media search for your topic and see what comes up. I suggest using Twitter and LinkedIn for this as they tend to give you the most relevant results. See what people are talking about, see what they are asking about. Find some hot topics and create a blog or two around them.

One great tip is to keep a page on your computer desktop just for jotting down ideas. If you see something interesting, cut and paste the link so that you can go back and expound on it later. Be creative, explore what makes your business unique, and share it with the world! Using some of these tips will help you to create content that is effective, well received, and will

THE GOLDEN CONTENT RULE: MAKE SURE THAT YOUR CONTENT IS ENGAGING, ENTERTAINING, EDUCATIONAL AND FOCUSED ON YOUR TARGET MARKET AT ALL TIMES!