Got content? SEO Is Great, But Content is King

If your small business has thrived mostly by "word-of-mouth" marketing, you know you need to invest in marketing to go to the next level. Word-of-mouth marketing eventually becomes too slow a sales channel for most companies (except those that come out with disruptive, cool technologies, like the iPhone).

Interactive marketing might be the right next step for your business--but recognize its advantages and, more importantly, its limitations.

Interactive marketing includes optimizing your website (SEO), setting up your Facebook and Twitter pages, building links, buying AdWords and building great looking landing pages.

But, sooner or later, interactive marketing leads to harder stuff: CONTENT, lots and lots of content.

Content is still king. Content builds your brand, your reputation, your persona and the niche for your product. Content lets people get to know your company, what it does, and what it stands for. Social media sites exist to be a show place for your content and a forum for communicating with your customer.

So, before you hire a tech-whiz to jump into interactive marketing, realize that someone in your organization will need to feed that person CONTENT--lots and lots of content.

And who will develop that content? Developing content can be difficulat, especially if you already have a full time job running, say, the product development department or the sales department. If you aren't ready to answer that questions, you aren't ready for interactive marketing. It may be more cost-effective to hire a marketing person and, then, hire a sub-contractor to do the SEO, social media and AdWord set-up and tracking.

Don't let the dazzle of the Internet tools blind you to the need for a solid content

--Paige Miller
MultiPlanet Marketing, Inc. - celebrating our 10th year!
pmiller@multiplanetmarketing.com
Certified Inbound Marketing Professional
If you have not thought about multi-planet marketing, you haven't considered all your marketing options.