Content Marketing 1-0-1
Welcome to content marketing 1-0-1. I am your instructor, Professor Marketing Who Cares?
Right, all that matters is the content…oh, and the connections to that content.
Remember back in High School or College when you were required to write a paper and list the references?
That is a good way to think of links. Now, I know what you are thinking…I just took all the fun out of it. Sorry. Not really.
The fact is that links are what make the Internet work. Way back before the Internet as we now know it, a fellow by the name of Tim Berners-Lee was working at a lab in Switzerland. He was working through tons of documents kept on big magnetic spools that took hours to sift through. While working on these things, he figured out a system that would allow him to quickly go to whatever he needed quickly and the hyperlink was born. The hyperlink, or link, is what makes the internet work.
Think of it like this. If you are old enough to remember these, cassette tapes had to be rewound to hear the same song again. Rarely did you reach the exact point to replay a favorite song unless you were really good. For some, it was almost like a game. But then CD’s came along and instantly, you could just go right to your favorite song without all the time-consuming rewinding or fast-forwarding.
The hyperlink did for research and marketing what the CD did for music.
How Do Hyper-links Affect Content Marketing?
Hyper-links (links) make it possible to tie (link) material together no matter where it is so that rather than having to sort though mountains of material to find what one is looking for, all that is needed is to click on a link and instantly you are transported to the material needed.
This is an important concept in content marketing for without links, when someone did happen to stumble upon your content, they would then have to manually enter your web site address and then sort through all your pages (which would really be a single long page) until they found what you may have referred to in the original content they began with.
Yuk.
Instead, by using a link, they can jump right to what they want AND they don’t have to read a bunch of stuff they don’t care to read, or at least not at the moment. We hope that they will later, right?
1-0-1?
I use this as an analogy to get you thinking better about links, content marketing, and networks. Computers function through combinations of ones (1) and zeros (0) strung together to form digital signals that are converted into anything the programmer can think of. The foundation then, of that PC before you is nothing more than connections. Links. Connections or links between 1′s and 0′s. That is all.
Content Marketing and link-building are pretty much just like that. Nothing happens without links and content marketing cannot survive without the connections that drive traffic. Marketing content is building links; building links drives (marketing) people to content that drives (more marketing) people to more content and the process is endless when done right. Links are the key, just as the connections between the 1-0-1 makes computers work.
Marketing Content and Networks
Marketing content is pretty much like marketing anything else. There really is no mystery here. You get the material (content) out to where it will get the most and best interest, then wait for customers to come beating down your door. If they do not, then your marketing failed. If they do, then you step up that particular form of marketing.
Think of links like business cards. When you market in the brick-and-mortar world, you get business cards out to as many people as you can. Some of those people call you later, some do not. Some give your card to a friend, who passes it to his mother, who gives it to her daughter, who gives you a call.
Now, some people are stingy with their business cards and some give them out to everyone they meet. As a general rule, we expect the one who gives out cards generously to get more calls, all other things being equal. Links are the same.
Of course, just as someone does not always give out their card to just everyone they meet, for in some circumstances this could be rude, we don’t always put links everywhere…there is an etiquette to be followed. But as a general rule, we do try to get as many links in as many hands (websites) as possible. In addition, we often collect other business cards for you never know when you may need one of these services. Also, it is not uncommon for folks in the same line of work or even company to exchange cards.
Another term of for this is networking. Networks of cards is the same as networks of links. They are simply ways to get in touch with what (who) we need. Who we need is the mind behind the information and they way we get into that mind is by clicking on the link that brings us to the content that they have earlier marketed in such a way that we would find it.
Content marketing is really that simple.
Links…or more specifically, networks. This is the foundation of content marketing.
Oakes Writing Consultants can build links for you or teach you more about how to use links in content marketing.
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