A presentation examining how important your written content is to being found online. It examines every aspect of the written word including your source code, url's, web page copy, social media, blogs and search marketing.

1. Content Marketing
The value of the written word in online marketing
IJL Seminar – Wednesday 7th September 2011
Presented by Eddie Prentice, Adaptive Consultancy

2. Agenda
• The importance of keywords
• Writing for search engines
• Writing for shoppers
• Social media
• Conclusions

3. Step 1: Keyword research
• Check your own website analytics
• Check out your competitors:
– Source code
– Anchor linked text.
• Use a keyword research tool
– Google keyword tool (free)
– Wordtracker (subscription)

4. Google Keyword Tool

5. Copywriting – Google Adwords

6. Google Adwords and landing pages

7. Copywriting – Meta Tags
Enter what you wish searchers to see on a Google search
results page in your meta title and meta description

8. Copywriting – Meta Tags
Writing meta titles and descriptions is like writing ad
copy. Should be persuasive not merely descriptive.
Company/brand name
Keyword in
Keyword in title line in description
description
Call to
Features &
action
benefits

9. Copywriting – product descriptions
• Incentive to purchase NOW
• Lots of reassurance
• Payment options
• Clear, visible path to next step

10. Copywriting – product descriptions
Don’t limit yourself to manufacturer descriptions.
– Google doesn’t like duplicate copy
– Present benefits consumers show they like
• Check out customer reviews for copy ideas. Amazon is a
good source of material.

11. Product pages - shoppers like detail

12. Why do people use search engines?
• Learn more about a product/service 46%
• To compare products/services 25%
• To read reviews about product/service 10%
• To purchase a product/service 9%
• To find to a particular site 7%
84% of searchers seek some form of online content.
Only 9% are ready to buy.

13. How does Google find you?
• On-site factors
– Coding
– Navigational structure
– Web page copy
• Off-site factors
– Backlinks
– Blogs
– Social media
– Articles/PR

14. Why online content is so important
• It’s the main reason your potential
customers are online (content for
research and to compare)
• It’s the main way Google uses to rate the
popularity / importance of your website
in your market
Google measures your popularity by the
number of backlinks to your site from
other sites.

15. Content marketing goals
1. Get found online by creating and
promoting interesting content
2. Convert followers and traffic into leads
and sales
3. Measure your results to grow your
business

16. Social media: Buyers no longer act
independently
We live in a connected world
Product reviews
Price comparison sites
Social networking sites

17. Connectivity doesn’t come
with guarantees
Best marketing is word of mouth
BUT hot air is still hot air
We remain resistant to spammers

18. What are the rules of Social Media?
• - Listen before you speak
• - Engage people with what they’re
• interested in.
• - It’s not about you, it’s about them
• (and they know it)
• - Don’t be fake
• - Have fun!

19. So take the “Marketing” out of
Social Media Marketing
• Social media sites weren’t initially set up as marketing
sites
• Success driven by the engagement between
users/members
• Think “Social Media” not “Social Media Marketing”
• Focus on getting people to talk about your products
and services not your marketing?
• Walk the talk. No good having Facebook, Twitter etc.
if your service isn’t up to scratch.
• What matters more are experiences that inspire
people to engage with and your brand in social ways.

20. The secret to winning new
customers in the connected world
Keep the existing ones happy
Build brand advocacy

21. Social Media Landscape
• Blogs
• Microblogs
• Forums
• Social networking sites

22. Blogs

23. What is a Blog?
• A highly personalised, publicly accessible, web
presence
• Used to express opinions, feelings and passions
• Bloggers share links and integrate media (videos,
photos, podcasts) into their content
• They are updated frequently (daily or weekly)
• Intrinsically conversational and often solicit
comments or call out to their readers for input

24. Why Blog?
Blogs are attractive to search engines & consumers:
• Frequent updates. Search engines are known to
give preference to sites which have frequently
updated content.
• Quality content. Good content attracts readers,
incoming links and provides text for search engines
to index.
• Link building. Due to the highly interlinked nature
of the blogging community, blogs can quickly attract
quality incoming links, another important search
engine ranking factor.

25. How to blog for eCommerce
Set up your blog on your own domain
Ensure that your blog is located at…
http://blog.yourshop.com or
http://www.yourshop.com/blog
Not …
http://yourshop.wordpress.com or
http://yourshop.blogspot.com
Hosting your blog on your own domain will
improve your site’s ability to get found by
search engines.

26. How to blog for eCommerce
• Look at your customer enquiry inbox. What
are the common questions/themes? Create a
blog post on these.
• Keep it punchy and conversational. It’s a blog
not “War and Peace”
• Use pictures, videos or graphics. Don’t set
boundaries on what you can do.
• Have a purpose – calls to action, links to
promotions or for more information

27. What to write about
• Don’t focus only on your products
• Address your industry customers’ needs / interests
• Write about general trends in jewellery
• Write about who’s wearing your jewellery
• Find ways to make your jewellery newsworthy
• Don’t just blindly promote your products
Ask the question: “will people find this interesting and
want to share with their friends and colleagues?”

28. Twitter

29. Most popular retailers on Twitter
Source: eDigital Research

30. Why people follow brands on Twitter
Source:
eMarketer/ExactTarget

31. Why people follow brands on Twitter
1. To get updates on future products - Twitter is a useful PR tool for
creating buzz around a new product launch.
2. To engage with the company or brand – Twitter has value as a
customer feedback tool.
3. To save money - To encourage brand loyalty and drive sales you
can use Twitter to feed out discount codes and coupons
4. For entertainment - Brands can engage through Twitter with more
interactive content, videos and pictures (rather than just a news
and updates) in their Twitter stream.
5. To display loyalty - Engage them in the right way and they will
help spread positive word-of-mouth about your products or
services Source: ExactTarget

32. UK tweets about brands are 3
times more likely to be
negative as they are positive
It’s how you respond
that matters

33. Facebook

34. The most popular retailers on
Facebook
The most popular retailers
give people a reason
- to follow them
- to keep coming back
That means regularly
updated content:
- wall posts
- photos
- videos
- competitions
- prize draws
Source: eDigital Research

35. Competitions
help you
build your
following

36. Discounts
and offers
help you
build your
following

37. How Facebook
response creates
links back to your
website

38. Forums

39. Forums
• Online members communities which serve to
facilitate discussion threads around common
interests (mums, techies, fashion etc.)
• Can be branded or independent
• Hierarchical in structure and highly protective
(moderators, administrators etc.)

40. Social Media is hot, yet ….
• 28% of marketers say they are not spending
anything on social media marketing.
• 33% are spending less than £5,000 a year.
Source: Econsultancy/bigmouthmedia

41. What holds back investment in
Social Media?
• No social media budget
– Expectation that’s a “free” marketing
activity
• Lack of knowledge and skills
• Lack of human resource time
• Unable to measure ROI

42. Convert your social media
followers in to leads
• Most of your social media audience is not yet
ready to purchase.
• Offer them non-transactional ways to engage
with you.
• Create landing pages on your site designed to
collect their email address in exchange for a
benefit e.g. 20% Off for all email subscribers

43. Your Website and SEO

44. SEO and content on product pages
• Develop a uniform and clean website
structure
• A clear and easy-to-read URL structure makes
understanding and categorizing your pages
easier for search engines and humans.
• Organize product pages in this way:
http://www.yourshop.com/productcategory/product

45. Create unique product titles
• Search engines discount the value of
duplicate content.
• If you are using the same product title as
many other sites selling your same products,
you will be out-ranked by bigger competitors
using the same content on their product
pages.

46. Clean url’s and category pages

47. Google likes clean url’s

48. Conclusions
• Write for search engines - a keyword
strategy is critical
• Write for people – be persuasive not just
descriptive
• Social media is about engagement not
sales
• Make sure your website facilitates your
efforts rather than hinders them – urls,
source, code, navigational structure

49. Thank you
View our eCommerce platform at IJL
Stand number: C119
Email Us: info@adaptiveconsultancy.com