On Words and Business

Creating a portal for your content, whether it is a blog or your home page, might be the way to make sure your customers and prospects know exactly where to find the information they seek.

How to Create a Reliable Portal to Your B2C Content 

We’ve all seen the ridiculous copy generated by the use of too many keywords in the quest for the SEO grail. I’ve never truly understood the SEO world, which is fine because things are changing for the better. Here’s a useful article from Brendan Cournoyer about how to improve search visibility organically.

1. Social media–sharing means content is valuable
2. Internal links–just as important as external backlinks
3. Analytics–how many people click through and stay?
4. Page load time–quality site is just as important as the content
5. Engaging content

If you have a resource center, or wish you had one, read this article in which I examine the resource centers of three B2B websites, analyze what works and what can be improved, and identify some key features to include.

Some highlights:

• Navigation: Ensure that the link to the resource center is available on every page, so users can find the page from anywhere on the site.
• Resource list: Display the content title, a short description, and the date it was posted to clarify the results, enable scanning and improve users’ ability to select relevant content.
• Content: House all content across services, industries, market sectors, and content types in the resource center to make it easy to find any content you produce.
• Searching: Enable searches by keyword to allow users who know what they are seeking or know the subject that interests them to find information quickly.

How does your resource center stack up? Is there anything I missed or got wrong in the analysis?

When the subject is your company, do you see what your customers see? Do you understand their perspective?

For most B2B companies, your website is the face you present to the world. You can adjust the look and feel, content, and navigation to make sure customers and prospects see what you want them to see.

But what about the company as a whole–the culture, business model, product or service offerings, employees, etc. How do you get an outsider’s perspective on that? Think about that as you plan your next marketing effort. A thorough understanding of how your company is perceived from the outside is what enables you to create the best content for your website, marketing, and thought leadership initiatives.

How do you get outside the box for a fresh perspective?

How does your content marketing campaign fit with the 3 stages of buying?

A few thoughts:

1. Identifying the problem

• Whitepaper discussing the nature of the issue and a resolution
• Case study showing what challenges previous customers faced
• Ebook sharing thought leadership about the industry and common challenges

2. Identifying the solution

• Enewsletter with brief case studies showing how customers have resolved the problem
• Webcast answering typical customer questions
• Whitepaper discussing the nature of the issue and a resolution

3. Identifying the right solution

• Podcast with one of your subject matter experts talking about the benefits of your solution
• Online video showing your product in action
• Case study of customer who tried many solutions before finding yours

In case you are wondering about social media and if and how it reaches your (or any) audience, check out 20+ mind-blowing social media stats.

Some that I find interesting:

• LinkedIn has gained about 1 million members each month since last August
• More than 65 million Facebook members access their accounts via a mobile device
• Average number of tweets per day (as of end of 2009): 27.3 million