OUR BLOG

When you create your content marketing, you risk losing business if you do not make a conscious effort to make it inclusive. Inclusivity and diversity are not just buzzwords. They are concepts that are currently dominating our social, political and academic dialogue, and influence your clients’ purchasing decisions. A 2019 consumer survey indicated that 64% of consumers take action after seeing an ad they regard as inclusive. If you ensure inclusivity in your content, you can reach new customers and stand out from the competition. In short, inclusivity in your digital marketing is good for your brand and for your bottom line. Here are four ways to make your content more inclusive.

1. Rethink the way you create content

In order to reach more people, stop and reconsider how you are communicating with your audience. Written content is still the most common form of communication, and Google’s search algorithms are still heavily dependent on text. However, you may be leaving out a large audience by focusing only on blogs. Video and audio content will reach those people who prefer to consume their content in this way, rather than reading, but these formats are more critical and inclusive than that. Captioned video content can bring your message to the hearing impaired, while audio content will enable you to reach the vision-impaired community. You don’t have to create new content for each format; you can simply repurpose the great content you already have. Think about your audience and your message and then diversify your platforms to reach more people.

2. Remember that inclusivity is about more than demographics

While it’s important to consider gender, race, age and other demographic factors, your content marketing should be far more detailed and data-driven. Research your audience deeply and then think about how to reach specific sectors of it. What does your research tell you about your customers? What are their values, habits and goals? You can then devise content that reaches them directly.

3. Use images to improve inclusivity

Most companies rely on stock images to add visuals to their online content. As a result, their choices are limited to what the various libraries offer. However, stock image creators are working to make their collections more diverse and inclusive. You can make your search terms more specific when hunting for images, to ensure that you make inclusivity a priority in your search. Add phrases like “African American”, “Hispanic”, “senior”, “gay” or “disabled” into your searches. The options you find will help you to add both diversity and inclusivity to your content. 

4. Be careful with your pronouns

Most bloggers use the word “you” in their content. This practice is generally good in principle because it makes the reader feel that they are being addressed directly. Things get a little more tricky when you need to use the third-person form to refer to a hypothetical person (for example, your customer). “He” and “she” are inherently exclusive and can make some readers feel as if your content isn’t taking them into account. Some people then use the plural form – “they” and “them” as a way of getting around this, which can be a good solution. 

WSI New Media Marketing is a full-service digital marketing agency in Greensboro, North Carolina. Contact us for expert digital marketing services, including content marketing and social media marketing.

If you are running a small business on a tight budget with little to spend on marketing, take a look at these 5 budget-friendly content marketing ideas to turn your small business into an empire. 

1. Repurposing old content

Repurposing old content or Historical optimization as it is also known, is a great way to breathe new life into your ‘old’ content. Freshen up and update old content from a few years back or even from last month. Make sure it is updated for SEO with link building and keywords so that it’s able to generate more traffic and conversions than it already does. You can even take it a step further and recycle your old content in new creations. Take a blog post and turn it into a video or take a series of blog posts and turn them into an ebook.

2. Be a savvy social networker

SMM (Social Media Marketing) does not always have to include paid platforms or PPC (pay-per-click) advertising if your budget is tight. Share your content across a variety of social media networks by posting text, status updates, and videos without forking out a dime. UGC (user-generated content) is another extremely valuable tool to keep your content authentic and to create a sense of community around your brand. Best of all, it’s totally free.

3. Lists 

People love lists and they are among the most shared content on the internet. Lists are a great way to engage your audience with useful and straightforward information and it’s generally easy content to compile. Use a variety of formats to keep it interesting and create lists that are relevant and helpful to your specific audience. 

4. Blog posts and articles 

 Great content needs to be relevant to your target audience and optimized for SEO. If you are unsure what your customers want to read about – ask them. Update your content regularly so your audience can always have something new and interesting to read and share. 

5. Infographics

Infographics are not only powerful marketing tools, but are also a feast for the eyes and usually easy for audiences to understand. If you are up for it, create your own infographics using free vector kits that provide you with all the elements you need to make colorful and informative infographics. Remember to include your business name and website somewhere on the infographic so that if it gets shared, people will revert back to your website when they want more information. For more information on website design get in touch with WSI New Media Marketing in Greensboro, NC, today.  

Keeping your blog posts fresh and informative can be easier than you think. As with most areas of content marketing, blogging doesn’t necessarily require you to draw new ideas out of the ether. Blogging is a means of telling your customers the ongoing story of your company. This story develops naturally as you go about your business every day. 

Armed with this ever-developing story, creating engaging blogs is then a matter of fitting the content into pre-existing paradigms and formats. These have already proven themselves reliable vehicles for marketing content, and offer you inspiration and a structure to help you organise and present your information. They are frameworks and general outlines, into which the story of your business can be molded. There is a saying among musicians that there are only 12 notes but thousands of ways of playing them. The same goes for blogs: there are only so many kinds of blogs, and the key to their substance, variety and level of engagement is your content. Here are four of the most popular blog post concepts or formats into which any business can fit their stories.

1. A success story

There’s nothing wrong with taking a moment to brag a little – provided you do it with style, of course! A well-chosen success story allows you to demonstrate how your products or services work in a real-world scenario. Pick an example, describe the salient details and use the moment to show, rather than tell your readers why they should buy your products.

2. An ongoing series on a single topic

Sometimes a single blog, consisting of a few hundred words, is not enough to communicate the information you want to get across. You may want to explore the background of your industry, analyse complex market trends, or expound on the many uses and benefits of a particular product line. The best thing to do – both for your sake and your customers’ – is to break it up into shorter pieces that you can publish over several weeks or months. It would help if you didn’t let this run on for too long, however. Strike a balance between detail and sustained engagement. 

3. A guide to common mistakes in your field

This is a very popular choice for almost all industries. Listicles that expound on the various ‘what not to dos’ of your industry enable direct and honest engagement with your readership, as well as the chance to present your business as a solution provider. You draw readers in with questions of how they could be doing things better – and then you provide the answers.

4. A spotlight on the latest trends

This is one of the simplest options. All industries are constantly shifting and evolving. If you take the initiative and use a blog to highlight your industry’s condition at any given moment, you present yourself as a business that has its fingers on the pulse. You can use the opportunity to tell readers how your products and services exemplify, take advantage of, or provide solutions for the current trends. 

If you are unsure how to tackle your blogging strategy, why not entrust it to the experts? WSI New Media Marketing in Greensboro is a proud member of the global WSI digital marketing family. In addition to building brands through content marketing, website design, mobile marketing and SEO optimization, we are also one of North Carolina’s top social media marketing strategists. Contact us and see what we can do for your brand and blog content.

When it comes to improving your pay per click advertising, you’ve probably heard it all. Some marketers advocate for the sole use of content marketing, while others support the exclusive use of pay per click (PPC) to grow your business.

Combined, pay per click advertising can be a powerful tool that allows you to capitalize on your content marketing while waiting for search engines to start delivering search results.

Creating high-quality and relevant content should be your long-term strategy to boost your SEO ranking, improve the quality of your landing page and to build your brand’s standing.

We’ve listed four tips for you to do just this.

At WSI New Media, we provide a holistic approach to increasing online sales and leads. We specialize in designing and managing PPC campaigns by assisting our clients to see how this valuable resource will capitalize on your content marketing through improved click-through rates, conversions, and profit.

Contact us today for more information.

Major holidays have long been used effectively as pillars around which to structure powerful marketing campaigns. Christmas, Easter, Halloween, July 4th – these are all obvious sales boosters. In the world of social media, however, there are many more notable days you can use to boost your brand and increase sales. Almost every day there is some lesser-known quasi-holiday that brings with it opportunities to stretch your brand, add a little personality, and up your profits. Here are just a handful that can really help you increase your profile on social media. Before you try to leverage any of them, remember to make sure that they can fit your business; never try to force anything.

• Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday

Grouped together, the days of the Thanksgiving weekend already make up a well-established bumper period for retail – and increasingly for other businesses too. The basic strategy with these days is to sell products at a large discount so as to increase the number of items sold and achieve economies of scale. Discount your goods strategically, calculating what you can afford to sell at a hugely reduced price and what you think will draw the most buyers. Post your discounts on social media and make sure that your value offering comes through clearly, bringing attention to the benefits of dealing with your business, as opposed to any others, during the crazy, Black Friday rush.

• International Coffee Day (September 29)

You don’t have to be directly involved in the making or selling of coffee to make use of this one. Coffee is pretty much the core ingredient of almost all social and business interactions. This is a perfect opportunity to invite prospective clients in for a free coffee, giving you the chance to make your actual offers. It doesn’t matter what you do – coffee goes with everything!

• National Friendship Day (1st Sunday in August)

Friend referrals are an old marketing tactic. This day offers a great opportunity to have a little fun with them. Offer discounts or contest entries to everyone who brings or refers a friend to you, for example. Or you could devise a twofer deal – buy one get one free – if that’s what will work for your business. Think about your brand and how this will work, then get creative. It’s an opportunity for fun, uplifting, perhaps even emotive marketing campaigns.

There are many others: National Doughnut Day, National Flower Day, National Emoji Day, and many more! Look them up and create a roster, plan ahead and have fun with them. They are an excellent opportunity to engage your audience and give your sales that little shove they may need at certain times of the year.

WSI can help you develop a highly effective social media marketing strategy that works all year round. Contact us for help with your campaign.

With YouTube being the second largest search engine after Google, many business owners and marketers are focused on growing their influence on YouTube. But, how do you do that if you are starting from scratch with zero subscribers? In this blog, we will share some key tips on how to build your business’ YouTube presence.

• Tip No. 1: Get Started

Don’t wait until you have all the skills to create a Steven Spielburg-like video. The sooner you start uploading your own videos, the sooner people will have something to subscribe to. Remember that your first videos will probably be your worst videos. Everyone starts somewhere, but the important part is that you get started.

• Tip No. 2: Tell People About Your Channel

The first people you will want to alert are your friends, family, clients, and employees. Consider a YouTube launch campaign where you send out an email newsletter to your database announcing your YouTube channel and your latest blogs. Be sure to add the YouTube logo to your website and other social media profiles.

• Tip No. 3: Create Compelling Content

As you start creating videos, gaining subscribers, and interacting with them, you will learn what type of content elicits the most responses and engagement from your audience.

• Tip No.4: Share Your Content

Every time you post a video, you need to make sure it is reaching as many people as possible. Share your YouTube on Facebook, Twitter, SnapChat, and LinkedIn. Also, create a blog post with an introduction to the video and host the videos on your website.

• Tip No. 5: Optimize Your Videos

Just like you optimize your blogs with keywords and optimize images with keywords in your ALT tags, you need to focus on optimizing your YouTube videos as well. Find smart ways to incorporate the keywords your business is targeting into the title and the description of the video. At the end of videos, include a call to action for viewers to subscribe to your channel.

• Tip No. 6: Create a Content Calendar

Once you have gotten used to video creation, plan a content calendar so that you regularly film and upload videos. Consider filming interviews with key people at your company, product assembly demonstrations, FAQs or anything else that may be valuable to your viewers.

Need help with your SEO optimization and social media marketing? Then get in touch with WSI New Media Marketing, a local SEO company in Greensboro.

It is an all too familiar story: you have created a great new online store and you are carrying products that you know people will love, but nobody is coming to your store. Why is that? There could be several reasons, but the most likely one is that you are not doing a good enough job of driving visitors to your online store. Here are a few practical and proven methods to drive traffic to your website:

1. Partner With Instagram Influencers

Instagram influencers have thousands and thousands of followers and these followers are very interested in the products they are promoting. As a company specializing in social media for business, we often advise clients with e-commerce websites to send free product samples to Instagram influencers. Instagram is quickly becoming one of the most effective marketing channels for e-commerce merchants. A recent study showed that Instagram provides brands with 25% more engagement than any other social platform.

2. Reach Out To Bloggers

Start thinking outside the box with your content marketing strategy. One of the best ways to drive traffic to your e-commerce website is by being featured in a blog or in the press. You do not have to target the biggest and most successful people. In fact, your chances of being featured are better if you aim for bloggers and media outlets with smaller audiences – because they are not constantly bombarded with pitches from companies. Target journalists who have written about your industry and bloggers who have a big following of people who would be interested in the products that you are selling.

3. Post Your Store On Reddit

The whole of the internet hangs out on Reddit and in addition to its front page that aggregates the most popular content on the web; there are also thousands of category-specific sub-Reddits. You can find a sub-Reddit on nearly every subject. Define sub-Reddits that are relevant to your industry by typing in the keywords you are targeting in Reddit’s search feature. Look at ways that you can contribute content to sub-Reddits without coming off as too salesy and spammy. This could involve posting a link to a blog that you have written or a video tutorial for a product that you are selling.

WSI New Media Marketing is a digital marketing agency in Greensboro, North Carolina, specializing in marketing strategy and social media for businesses. Contact us for digital marketing services such as pay per click advertising programs and SEO today.

A former WSI consultant based in Colorado Springs has started a new foundation to teach young people the skills required for goal achievement.  Tom Kuthy, who recently sold his WSI practice, has created a web site to spread the word about his new endeavor:  The Foundation for Goal Achievement.

The mission of the foundation is to become the world’s most comprehensive source of information on goal achievement.  In addition to creating unique content, the foundation will also attempt to curate the information on goal achievement that has been developed over the last 100 plus years, and make it accessible from a single source online.

Still in its early stages, the foundation has already created some high-quality content covering the following topics:

The 4 Steps to Goal Achievement – https://www.foundationforgoals.org/steps-to-achieve-goals/

How to Create a List of Values – https://www.foundationforgoals.org/list-of-values/

How to Set Personally Meaningful Goals – https://www.foundationforgoals.org/goal-setting/

How to Achieve Goals – https://www.foundationforgoals.org/how-to-achieve-goals/

How to Track Your Goals – https://www.foundationforgoals.org/goals-planner/

In addition to the content above, the foundation is also offering a scholarship awarded bi-annually to students who have set clear goals for themselves and can document that in an essay. An application for the scholarship can be found here: https://www.foundationforgoals.org/goal-achievement-scholarship/

All of us at WSI wish Tom the best in his new endeavor!

This post originally appeared: http://www.wsiexpertinternetmarketing.com/our-blog/wsi-alumni-starts-foundation-and-offers-scholarships

Content creation can be a lot of work. As a company specializing in social media optimization and SEO services, we know that quality content is much more important than quantity. Here are a few types of content that lead to conversions:

• Thought Leadership Pieces

If you are sharing helpful information about your industry, then you are showcasing yourself as a thought leader. Many times, business owners are worried that they will be giving away ‘trade secrets’ if they publish ‘How To’ guides or similar type of content, but this couldn’t be farther from the truth.

When you create thought leadership pieces that help a potential client reach their goal, then they will turn to you the moment they are ready to spend money. Being an expert in the industry means that you have to make sure everyone online knows your name and affiliates your name with your industry. Creating compelling thought leadership pieces is one of the ways to achieve this.

• Infographics

According to this study, infographics are liked and shared three times more often than other content, so their ability to go viral is undisputed. Many people like reading and sharing infographics, however, what business owners don’t always realize is that they are key to engaging early-stage prospects.  Get a designer to take relevant statistics from your business, industry trend numbers or any other type of information and convert it into an infographic that you can share on your social media channels.

• Whitepapers

Whitepapers may seem like a lot of work, but with the right knowledge and a skilled copywriter, they can be published within a few short days. Whitepapers don’t have to be hundreds of pages long. Similar to thought leadership pieces, this type of content can go a long way in showcasing your brand as an expert in the industry. They are also particularly useful in the follow-up stage of the sales funnel, so if you are meeting potential clients at conferences or industry events, be sure to get their email addresses so that you can send them a link to your downloadable whitepaper.

• Case Studies and Project Profiles

People need social proof. In the past, a few testimonials on your website would be enough, but if you are selling high ticket items or services, then your potential clients may want to read about your success stories.

Create case studies and project profiles about your successful projects. If you do work in a number of different industries, then it would be a good idea to showcase projects from various industries. List the client name, add photos, and write about the challenge that your client faced and how your business helped them to overcome this challenge.

WSI New Media Marketing is a social media optimization company in Greensboro, North Carolina. Contact us for digital marketing strategies, local SEO services, and more.

Whatever you call it, digital, inbound or content marketing, for small business owners, it can seem a puzzle. Like all puzzles, though, once you get the first piece in place, the others follow more quickly. That first piece in content marketing is creating highly shareable content. Why? Just 15% of customers trust what companies post on social media. The good news is 83% of people trust those same posts if shared by friends and family.

All the other rules of content marketing, like writing relevant copy and using social media platforms apply, but shared content is what will build trust in your brand. Here are three ways to get started on creating original, relevant content that drives engagement and encourages people to share.

1. Understand Why People Share

A steady stream of relevant information on a variety of topics brings people in the door. SEO, advertising, PPC, and social media efforts all need content to promote. People may click the first time, but if what they land on doesn’t give them a reason to come back, they won’t. Obviously, it means they also won’t be motivated to share.  

At its core, shareable content is about making an emotional connection. Understanding the psychology of social media and shareable content is critical to the success of any small business content marketing plan. So, what makes people click the “Share” button?

Emotional engagement is the number one factor in getting more likes, comments, and shares.  People love to gather on social media and share their common ideas and interests with others.

Ever notice how many photos people posts of their pet causes like homeless animals, or links to feel-good videos (like the Ice Bucket Challenge)? When people see an image, quote, or product that makes them think of someone they know – or that they think everyone should know about – they want to immediately share it. Make people feel involved with the content you create and you will encourage them to share.

2. Focus on Data-Driven, Engaging Topics

Great content reflects thought leadership, and thought leadership occurs when you offer content that recognizes current problems and offers real solutions. Analyze your data and create shareable content by:

• Using interesting and engaging formats that include videos, infographics, and bulleted copy. These easy-to-digest elements offer instant appeal and gratification.
• Make sharing easy. Your website should have social media share buttons prominently displayed on every page. Use “Tweet this” to create pull quote, tweetable links.

3. Delight and Inform

If you want content that people can’t help but share, you need to create a compelling story that’s instantly relatable. Like all storytelling, that means opening with a narrative hook – or first sentence – that motivates people to keep reading. Catchy or funny headlines are good for this purpose. Remember to keep self-promotion or hard selling to a minimum. Delivering the unexpected, making it timely, and keeping it conversational will keep your audience engaged and inspired to share.

The Takeaway

When a small business communicates with its customers by providing relevant, useful information instead of offering a sales pitch, those customers will listen. A content marketing strategy that includes creating shareable content will build trust with your customers, lets them know you’re an expert in your industry, and that you understand their needs. The bottom line? Stay focused on creating high-quality original content in engaging formats that’s easy to share, and your customers will take it from there!