Usually, organizations that are creating a new or redesigning an existing website focus on only two things: appearance and cost. These are important, after all who wants to pay a lot of money for an ugly website? But if you plan on using the Internet to grow your business you should also commit to not only providing information that people are looking for, you should also commit to a process which will deliver a steady stream of quality traffic to your website.
In David Meerman Scott’s bestselling book The New Rules of Marketing and PR, David states that if you have a website, when it comes to the web you have to think of your business as a publisher. No matter what you sell be it bricks, sticks, or broom-handles, if you have a website you have to think of yourself as a publishing business. And there are two things a publisher must do to stay in business: publish good, quality content and publish it often.
Before beginning your content development process, you can try your hand at blogging and online relationship building in general by commenting on other people blogs, participating in online discussion groups, and e-mailing other “thought leaders” in your area of expertise. After several weeks of doing this you will begin to find your “online voice.” That will be a tremendous help in any content development effort your company decides to undertake.
But when you begin building your own content you should not stop participating in other online forums because that is one of the best things you can do to drive traffic and links to your site and develop you as a “thought leader.”
Remember when it comes to marketing your business online there are two very basic rules of the road:
- You are what you publish.
- You are what other publish about you.
This blog post will hopefully point you in the right direction for #1 on that list. A follow-up blog will have to address #2.