Good Content: What Is It and How Can You Use It If You're Trying to Sell Books by Cheryl Pickett
Today, I'm thrilled to introduce you to our guest blogger. Cheryl Pickett is an author and a content creation coach. She has a new course in March that you might be interested in checking out: Write Your BEST Right Now. The details are on her website, www.cherylpickett.com.
As authors, we know how important great content is; but do we take that knowledge and respect for great content into our book marketing activities? Today, Cheryl will be discussing how to use content to help us sell our books.
Good Content: What Is It and How Can You Use It If You're Trying to Sell Books?
By Cheryl Pickett
If you're a student of marketing (which you must be if you're reading this blog), you've probably heard about the need to offer "good content" to attract business. If not, I can almost guarantee you will in 2011, especially if you're working in non-fiction.
Even if you haven't heard that yet, you've certainly noticed marketing has changed. Where it used to be that the loudest, most persistent messages were the winners, now audiences expect much more. They expect engagement, help and information long before they buy. How do you do that? One big way is by offering good content on a regular basis.
What Is "Good" Content?
Of course, "good" is a highly subjective word, but for our purposes, good content can be defined as: content that bridges a gap, that is effective, that shows your uniqueness, and that ultimately teaches or transforms the reader. Simply supplying average information will rarely satisfy anymore because any Google search pulls up plenty of that. Good, compelling content connects with readers and ultimately opens the door to relationships which, hopefully, leads to fans and purchases.
Once You Have Good Content, What Can You Do With It?
The great thing about good content is the ability put it to use in so many marketing strategies. Here are just a few examples:
1. Your Own Website: Wordpress based sites are frequently recommended now. One of the most useful features of Wordpress is the ability to update the text yourself. Even if you choose not to blog, you can still create a mini library of useful tips and articles. If you have a "regular" static site, it's still a good idea to include a similar kind of archive and add to it every few months.
2. Article Marketing: This strategy may be best known in online marketer circles, but it should be on many authors' lists too. In a nutshell, article marketing is a way to syndicate your content around the web in order to attract traffic. One of the most popular ways to do it is by submitting to article directories, the biggest being www.Ezinearticles.com. Sites like this offer your content for free to their visitors in exchange for letting you include links. Do a solid job there and you can almost guarantee an increase in traffic.
3. More Print Products: Great content isn't just useful online, there's plenty to do with it offline too. Having a book is by no means the end of a project. For example, not everyone wants a book so booklets, tip sheets and magazine articles are all useful ways to get your content into the hands of an even wider audience.
Now It's Your Turn
Hopefully, this short list gives you a glimpse as to the importance of good content as well as some ideas for how to use it in your own marketing plans. It's a challenge to keep up sometimes for sure, but also definitely worth the effort. What kind of content (besides good) are you going to add to your marketing mix in 2011 and how will you use it?
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Cheryl Pickett is an author and content creation coach with a passion for helping other message-driven authors & entrepreneurs to impact and inspire their audiences. If you aren't sure about how to create the content you need, you can learn how in her new course, Write Your BEST Right Now, which begins in March. You can even attend from the comfort of your home. Find out more about the course along with more news and tips you can use at www.cherylpickett.com
As authors, we know how important great content is; but do we take that knowledge and respect for great content into our book marketing activities? Today, Cheryl will be discussing how to use content to help us sell our books.
Good Content: What Is It and How Can You Use It If You're Trying to Sell Books?
By Cheryl Pickett
If you're a student of marketing (which you must be if you're reading this blog), you've probably heard about the need to offer "good content" to attract business. If not, I can almost guarantee you will in 2011, especially if you're working in non-fiction.
Even if you haven't heard that yet, you've certainly noticed marketing has changed. Where it used to be that the loudest, most persistent messages were the winners, now audiences expect much more. They expect engagement, help and information long before they buy. How do you do that? One big way is by offering good content on a regular basis.
What Is "Good" Content?
Of course, "good" is a highly subjective word, but for our purposes, good content can be defined as: content that bridges a gap, that is effective, that shows your uniqueness, and that ultimately teaches or transforms the reader. Simply supplying average information will rarely satisfy anymore because any Google search pulls up plenty of that. Good, compelling content connects with readers and ultimately opens the door to relationships which, hopefully, leads to fans and purchases.
Once You Have Good Content, What Can You Do With It?
The great thing about good content is the ability put it to use in so many marketing strategies. Here are just a few examples:
1. Your Own Website: Wordpress based sites are frequently recommended now. One of the most useful features of Wordpress is the ability to update the text yourself. Even if you choose not to blog, you can still create a mini library of useful tips and articles. If you have a "regular" static site, it's still a good idea to include a similar kind of archive and add to it every few months.
2. Article Marketing: This strategy may be best known in online marketer circles, but it should be on many authors' lists too. In a nutshell, article marketing is a way to syndicate your content around the web in order to attract traffic. One of the most popular ways to do it is by submitting to article directories, the biggest being www.Ezinearticles.com. Sites like this offer your content for free to their visitors in exchange for letting you include links. Do a solid job there and you can almost guarantee an increase in traffic.
3. More Print Products: Great content isn't just useful online, there's plenty to do with it offline too. Having a book is by no means the end of a project. For example, not everyone wants a book so booklets, tip sheets and magazine articles are all useful ways to get your content into the hands of an even wider audience.
Now It's Your Turn
Hopefully, this short list gives you a glimpse as to the importance of good content as well as some ideas for how to use it in your own marketing plans. It's a challenge to keep up sometimes for sure, but also definitely worth the effort. What kind of content (besides good) are you going to add to your marketing mix in 2011 and how will you use it?
-------
Cheryl Pickett is an author and content creation coach with a passion for helping other message-driven authors & entrepreneurs to impact and inspire their audiences. If you aren't sure about how to create the content you need, you can learn how in her new course, Write Your BEST Right Now, which begins in March. You can even attend from the comfort of your home. Find out more about the course along with more news and tips you can use at www.cherylpickett.com
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