As Chief Content Officer and co-founder of Copyblogger Media, Sonia Simone is one of the few online personalities who are considered as authorities on the subject of content marketing. So if you’re an author looking to make a mark online, you can benefit a lot from learning how to do content marketing the Sonia Simone way. Here are a few tips to get you started:
Understand the elements of content that sells
As an author, it is important that you know how to write a pleasing sentence or paragraph, and to practice proper grammar and spelling. However, the keyword here is “marketing”. You also need to learn how to write sentences or paragraphs that “sell”. If you want to be a content marketer, you should keep in mind that proper grammar and structure, while a must, do not necessarily equate to what people want to read.
Be professional and never stop learning
People who need content for their businesses require a professional, not an interested amateur. One of the hallmarks of being a professional is a commitment to keeping up with developments on any chosen field, and a commitment to keep improving. It’s not limited to just the ins and outs of writing itself, as medium of delivery, the Internet – particularly Google – is constantly changing and updating, so you need to keep modifying your strategies in order to maintain efficiency at work.
Expand your network
One of the main reasons why Sonia Simone is considered as an authority on content marketing, besides being very successful in the industry, is that her name is all over the Internet. She does interviews on other sites, guest posts, curates content, and gets her articles featured in other credible sites. If you want to do content marketing in the Sonia Simone way, you have to remember that part of her success is her vast network of peers. So, try to expand your network as well. Get yourself featured on other sites, offer guest posts (but avoid guest posts on spammy/poor quality sites) and befriend people from the industry. Basically, get your name out there.
Try to find an intriguing angle
A really good content marketer is not just capable, but also creative. There are already way too many capable content producers online. If you want to stand out, you have to find a novel new way of presenting information or attracting attention. This is what elevates an author from merely being a content producer to being a content marketer. The really good ones know how to market their text on the vast expanse of the digital space.
Prioritize the readers
Copyblogger is one of the few online destinations that aren’t rattled or thrown into disruptive chaos when Google changes their algorithms or an SEO method becomes obsolete. This is because they don’t prioritize search engines when producing content. What they do is write for the audience, who will eventually find their way to any good content through various methods, and Google is just one of them. This is probably the most important lesson you have to understand if you want to be as successful in content marketing as Sonia Simone. Many new authors get too fixated on gaming search engine results that they forget about one simple fact: your prospects are human beings that read the content for what it is, not search engine bots that could change their algorithm anytime for reasons that are not known to you.
Image credit:
Jared Goralnick on flickr and reproduced under Creative Commons 2.0[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://writingtipsoasis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/hv1.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Hiten Vyas is the Founder and Managing Editor of eBooks India. He is also a prolific eBook writer with over 25 titles to his name.[/author_info] [/author]