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The Importance of Content in Marketing

Marketing is an amalgam of efforts from targeted advertising to email blasts, but the most underrated – and incredibly effective tool is Content. Unfortunately, this is often overlooked by marketing teams. When you can’t put an exact dollar sign on it, it’s tough to communicate to your team just how important content is to your overall marketing strategy. There’s no real measure of ROI. You can’t see a fast short-term return. Content is part of the long game. And it’s worth the investment. Content generates leads for your overall marketing plan. Unique, compelling content (something Google is looking for in ranking these days) is what persuades a website visitor to submit their email for a free eBook or sign up for newsletter. If the content doesn’t grab the reader’s attention, they won’t sign up. The content needs to be fresh and interesting. Your team can view the longer term results of this in website analytics and use this data to shape future content. How many people ultimately made a purchase after reading the newsletter or downloaded content? Track how many customers indicate that the content affected their decision to purchase. Marketing and sales people can note how often the content is referenced. If the content is educational in nature, it can be used during a sale to support the process. The benefits you can’t track include mentions by others. You never know when something from your content will pop up in someone’s conversation or presentation as an example. This is free advertising stemming from your articles, blog posts, guest blog posts, eBooks, newsletters, and other content. With Google using unique content as part of your search results ranking, you will be miles ahead of the competition. There are many companies who outsource writing to non-native English speakers with poor language…
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Grammar Matters

Have you succumbed to the illusion that in today’s society, with our abbreviated text conversations and online communications tools, grammar doesn’t matter? I’m sorry. Really, I am. Because grammar could make or break your business. Recently, a website called Grammarly conducted an informal study of 100 LinkedIn profiles. They were all from the same fields and had a set of “control” criteria. They found that there was an apparent correlation between the grammar and spelling errors in the LinkedIn profiles and the progression of careers. Professional people with fewer mistakes in their profiles progressed further in their careers. Those with around twice as many mistakes did not make it to director level. The professionals with fewer grammar mistakes also received more promotions than their counterparts within the same time frame. Why does grammar make such a difference? Because it is a reflection of you. Many times your cover letter, resume, or LinkedIn profile is the first impression for a prospective employer. Within the workplace, errors in spelling and grammar can be costly mistakes if they are made in printed materials. The errors can also lead to miscommunications. Most professionals must communicate in writing in some way. Your writing is an indicator of how you work and handle various situations. This is why good writing projects the perception of competence. Competence leads to innovation and success for an entrepreneur. Here is an example. I received an email blast with multi-colored, misspelled adjectives in a variety of fonts. It was attempting to pull me in and make me click the button to go to their website where they were selling proofreading. I was appalled. I, of course, had to see the website. Again, it was riddled with errors. One month later, the website was gone. If your spelling and grammar need a…
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