Written by:
Howard Fenton
Senior Technology Consultant
NAPL
There are important changes in SEO or search engine optimization since Google’s announcement that their search criteria is placing more emphasis on blogs, backlinks and multiple media (videos).
On John Foleys panel at the MFSA Spring Conference, Wes Powell from TMR Direct talked about how they use blogs as their major marketing focus. They have been blogging for a while and today they plan blogs two months in advance.
As a result, when they looked at their search engine optimization recently they were #2 on the Google list. One thing that was not discussed and is often overlooked is what determines success in blogs is storytelling.
As anyone who has ever Tweeted knows one of the greatest challenges is the ability to tell a story or capture someone’s attention in very few words. Those who succeed master the art of storytelling. Let’s face it – we are a culture of storytellers.
Look at the most influential CEO’s, or most popular TV anchors, your favorite newspaper or magazine columnists or your favorite actors, you will probably see that a common denominator is that they are all good storytellers.
They may choose controversial words, emotional words, or words that emit a vision, but they craft their message well. We can read books or take classes on the effectiveness of social media, but the key is telling a good story.
Here are a few tips to craft your message well:
- understand your key message
- pique their curiosity
- recognize why it’s important to your audience
- elicit interest or emotion
- engage your audience with your message
- motivate feedback
On the panel at MFSA, many people talked about the challenge of selling new services to traditional clients. Blogging, webinars and online video were discussed as ways of driving new prospects to their websites. Prospects that become customers were willing to invest in ongoing campaigns which resulted in higher billing rates and profitability when compared to traditional services.
How are you going to attract new clients to your website?
Howard Fenton is a Senior Technology Consultant at NAPL. Howie advises commercial printers, in-plants, and manufacturers on workflow management, operations, digital services, and customer research. He is a paid contributor to this blog.
Yeah you are absolutely right that story telling is most important to attract the visitors as they are interested in controversial facts and the way story presented out.