As a business owner, or a new digital marketer, you may have asked yourself on more than one occasion: what is content marketing?! With what seems to be speed-of-light developments and changes in SEO practices, social media and other online branding outlets it is very difficult to maintain a steady grasp of effective marketing practices that can yield positive results. One thing in all of this hectic change remains consistent - content marketing works, and is here to stay. It feeds into SEO rankings, original content attracts participants and brand ambassadors, it builds a community and most important it encourages interactivity. So how does it work?

What is Content Marketing?

To sum up the big question: content marketing refers to creating original, regular and engaging information that users/viewers/audience will find useful, entertaining, informative or in some way meaningful. This information does not necessarily mean it has to be written, great content can include the following:
- Videos
- Ebooks
- Mobile Applications
- Interactive Games
- Infographics
- Blogs
- Stories
- Presentations
- & much more!

Image courtesy of KROMKRATHOG / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The idea behind original, engaging content is that "sky is the limit" so to speak - if you can imagine it, you can create it. And always - I mean ALWAYS keep in mind what people will find meaningful, no point in boring someone with content it will most certainly not live up to its purpose.

How to Create (Marketing) Content

This is the hard part: creating regular, interesting and engaging information. How do you always create something engaging with limited time? It is not easy by any means - creating great content requires time, planning and constant effort. Something which is not considered with most small business organizations because it is hard to measure the success of great content - it is not tangible per say (at least not clearly, and not yet) as it does not directly correlate to more sales, or increase in revenue. The best way to start is to share ideas or knowledge in which your organization specializes in. But that is not all: you also need to make this knowledge creative, interactive and eye-grabbing.

While I cannot tell you what to create, I can help share some freebies that may help you take your content to the next level. Use the resources below to help you time-manage, and simplify your content creation:

- Infographic Building Tools
- Short Video Snippets (Vine)
- Ebook Tools
- Blogging Platforms
- Creative Presentation Tools

That should be enough to get anyone started on putting in creativity to some great ideas!

Why is it Effective?

Plain and simple answer: because you are creating information that people want or need. You are attracting ("pull strategy") users to your content by catering to their interests as opposed to doing paid advertisements ("push strategy") and interrupting them at some point during their online browsing. After getting a grasp of content marketing the next challenge becomes standing out from the rest of the content out there, there are millions of blogs on millions of different topics - your content has to stand out and grab someone's attention, help them solve a problem, make their life easier, encourage them to read, look, share, interact, comment.

There has to be a purpose to your content, just like there is a purpose to your brand.

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Unknown Tuesday, September 17, 2013  

SEO On-Page Optimization Basics [INFOGRAPHIC]

Search engine optimization, or SEO, consists of various efforts in order to fully experience higher rankings on search engines. After performing keyword research, competitors and other useful information as part of an SEO strategy - one of the most important next steps is to ensure each page on your website is optimized properly. On-page optimization is crucial before initiating any external link building efforts.

This infographic outlines all of the important factors which should be taken into consideration so that all of the on-page SEO efforts are fully utilized:

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<p> <b>Please include attribution to Brand Lounge - Encouraging Digital Branding Discussions with this graphic.</b><br /><br /><a href='http://www.brand-lounge.nrdigitalbranding.com/2013/09/seo-on-page-optimization-basics.html'><img src='https://s3.amazonaws.com/easel.ly/all_easels/147001/seoonpageoptimizationbasicsinfographic/image.jpg' alt='SEO On-Page Optimization Basics by NR Digital Branding' width='540px' border='0' /></a></p>

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Unknown Monday, September 02, 2013  

Vacation: To Connect or Disconnect?

Vacation is one of those times of the year that we all look forward to: whether you are planning a tropical getaway or a local camping trip, vacation allows you to take time off from work and enjoy time on your own terms. However, with the advent of mobile technology we are constantly connected to our work - particularity if our work is highly digital in nature. I recently had the pleasure of going to Florida's Gulf Coast for 10 days to soak in the sun and salt water since Kitchener-Waterloo has been experiencing a very mild summer so far.

Initially, there was no issues in staying disconnected - the beach and sun easily trumped a Sony Xperia mobile screen. The only thing the phone was useful for was the quality camera it comes with, as I was able to create plenty of HQ memories with it. After a couple of days I had the urge to connect online and at the very least check my emails, some new blog posts on digital marketing, etc. With free WiFi it was not a problem while at the condo - when I was at the beach the high roaming data charges were more than enough to discourage me from connecting.

Image courtesy of Michal Marcol / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

So is it better to stay connect or disconnect while on vacation? Based on my recent experience I have found the following regarding vacation work:

1) Depends on the Vacation (and You)

There a number of different vacations people take: cruises, snow trips, country tours, cottages, staycations and many many more. Are you going with family? Alone? Friends? Significant other? All of these factors can affect your connectivity - I found it difficult to connect, not because I had no means of connecting, but because having the wonderful beach and scenery next to me. I was spending the time with my significant other and wanted to leave work behind. I did sneak in a couple of social media updates and blog reads before sleep, but other than that I was disconnected. I was able to let my clients know I will be away for that time and that work would be on hold until I come back (there was plenty of last minute finishes before the trip, trust me!) - perhaps not all small business owners have that luxury and need to check their emails/phones regularly. It depends on how you run, and how your business runs.

Of course this is not always an option; if you decide to reconnect with mother nature and camp in a provincial park there may not be any sort of connections outside of the people (and surrounding wildlife) there. In this case if you plan to stay connected, keep in mind what type of vacation you are planning - as it may not permit you to connect at all.

2) Type of Job or Business

Business development or sales professionals may want to be more connected since their work by nature demands that they stay in touch with clients, potential clients and their team as they are the communication bridge between clients and internal team.

Some small business owners or entrepreneurs do not have anyone to take over while they are on vacation and need to stay connected to their business 24/7. Unless they can make arrangements where work will resume after the vacation time - this again, depends on what type of business is in question.

Other businesses such as programmer development might be mentally demanding that vacations without any sort of work are welcome, and any sort of work does not come into question. These vacations are usually preferred as they allow for "recharging of batteries" and time away from work. Not necessarily because its not pleasant, but because it can be demanding and focusing on cocktails and seafood dinners helps alleviate some of that stress.

Think of the sort of vacation you need - to spend time with loved ones, catch some sun, get some sleep, etc. and plan your work-schedule accordingly. This will help keep your clients/managers up to date on your availability, and help you enjoy your vacation maximally.

3)  Purpose of Vacation

This is probably most important factor, continuing from the two previous points: what the point of your vacation is. Like myself, many people take vacation to take time off from work and enjoy time with friends, family and close ones. Personally, I prefer to stay disconnected (with little cheat times - checking out new posts for a couple of minutes, uploading a photo or two) while away as it gives me time to focus on the people I am with and the place I am at.

If you are looking to just catch up on some sleep, but would not mind spending the afternoon doing work - then you may find it better to bring a laptop or phone to wherever you are going. If you just enjoy work, and want to stay connected to everything that works too - this varies from person to person. Just make sure you figure out the type of vacation before you go on it, that way you can enjoy it fully. However that may be.

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Unknown Sunday, August 11, 2013