Sometimes you just get stuck. Trying to come up with engaging ideas to wow your blog readers, social media followers, and email recipients can be a challenge - especially for small business marketers! 

But with statistics and pundits pointing to the the growing use of social media, you've got to stay on top of your game. Take this quote from Larry Kim, CEO of MobileMonkey, "According to Sprout Social, about 74% of consumers make a purchasing decision based on their social media accounts." 74 percent! So if you're not taking advantage of these social platforms to engage your customers and drive traffic both to your website and to your place of business, well, you may be losing out on sales. 

So how do you get unstuck and come up with ideas for great new posts and blog articles? Keep this content idea cheat sheet handy and refer to it for inspiration whenever you need it. 

​By Julee Klein, Marketing Consultant & President​

The attention spans of American consumers are waning and the amount of content being consumed is growing. So how can your small  business cut through the clutter and noise and make an impact on social channels and in search engine results? The short answer is: deliver quality visual content. 

This is actually easier than it sounds and can be a lot of fun! And when it comes to creating visual content for your small business, you have the ability to create content on a budget that's just as good, if not better, than the larger companies and brands in your industry. 

​By Julee Klein, Marketing Consultant & President​

 As a small business owner it can be really rewarding to see the success of your local business translate into a positive impact in your community. But it turns out that entrepreneurs who incorporate philanthropy into their business model and marketing don't just benefit from "feeling good," they also tap into additional profitability that can be essential to the success of their enterprise.

For example, you're probably already familiar with TOMS Shoes. The Santa Monica, CA based company donates one pair of shoes to a child in need for every one pair of shoes sold. To date, TOMS has given away over 75 million pairs of shoes to children in need around the world as part of its “One for One” program. Turns out that adopting a commitment to a positive social impact is good for business.

So how can you, as a small business owner, incorporate a philanthropic mission with social impact into your business model and marketing plan? We have a few ideas:

​By Julee Klein, Marketing Consultant & President​

As difficult as producing great content can be, it can be even more difficult to get quality backlinks to it to boost web traffic and SEO. But it's worth the extra effort involved.

​"Backlinks" are links back to your web content from other external websites. Despite the many changes announced by Google lately, backlinks are still considered one of the most important SEO ranking factors.

Keep in mind, not all backlinks are quality links that help your content. Some low-quality backlinks may actually hurt your website's page rankings*. 

​By Julee Klein, Marketing Consultant & President​

If you manage a business blog, you know that even your best blog content can age faster than cheese and become just as stale. Maybe it’s still relevant as-is, or maybe a few key points need a review and an update based on industry or market developments. But knowing how to prioritize and get the most value out of this older content can be a challenge. So where to begin?

​According to SEMbyotic, a digital marketing agency serving enterprise clients,  you should conduct a simple content audit. Here's how they break it down in the following infographic: 

​By Julee Klein, Marketing Consultant & President​

Content marketing is really just engaging and nurturing your customers and online communities by providing them relevant, valuable content on a consistent basis. If done well, content marketing attracts potential customers to your business and creates brand affinity. For content marketing to really be effective, marketers will need to understand their customers' and communities' behaviors and motivations and be able to put their customers' needs first. 

​Also important and closely related, search engine optimization, or SEO, is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of your website traffic through organic search engine results. Content marketing and SEO go hand-in-hand. Digital marketers and website managers continually refine their content based on SEO objectives and strategy and likewise, adjust their SEO strategy and tactics based on the performance of their content. Here's how to get the most out of your content marketing and SEO efforts:

​By Julee Klein, Marketing Consultant & President​

All the time and attention you put into your website design and content development can be sabotaged by any number of technical search engine optimization (SEO) issues. Some SEO issues  can do more harm than just lower your website’s ranking, they may make actually make your site invisible to Google and other search engines.

Through years of experience and testing, ToTheWeb has identified 21 website SEO issues in 10 categories you’ll want to audit to ensure your web pages are optimized to deliver the best possible search results in Google and other search engines.

By Julee Klein, Marketing Consultant & President​

When it comes to email marketing, sometimes the hardest part is just getting started. If your business is stalling out, instead of getting out, email newsletters on the regular, you're missing out on engaging with your most loyal customers. 

Take for instance this statistic from the folks at SalesWings, "90% of customers prefer to receive company updates via newsletters over Facebook updates, according to research from Nielsen Norman Group. That same research shows at least 50% of subscribers made a purchase that was influenced by content in a newsletter."

Luckily Campaign Monitor put together this fabulous infographic that's filled with 25 great ideas for nurturing your opt-ins, nourishing your loyal customers and keeping your subscribers up to date on the latest and greatest goings-on with your brand, products, and services. ​

​By Julee Klein, Marketing Consultant & President​

Last week we attended the Digital Transformation Day Online Conference. Important key takeaways were that millennials will make up 50% of the workforce by 2020 (That's less than two years away!) and serving up engaging content to this key group of 18- to 35-year-old consumers is very different than traditional content marketing methods. 

Critical to creating engaging content is promoting it on social with compelling social cards. For example, a study by Facebook reported that users increased traffic from the platform by 250%, simply by using clickable social cards.

​By Julee Klein, Marketing Consultant & President​

When it comes to content marketing, and more specifically blogs, marketers are learning that longer content and smart SEO are keys to success.

​But content readability is even more critical to keeping your readers' interest and engaging them to move beyond your blog post and further through your website to the contact form. The ability for the reader to easily absorb your web content, and engage with your brand, is even more important than SEO. ​