Inbound marketing is the art of making customers seek out your content, and blogging is one of the most effect methods of this type of advertising. In fact, business-to-business marketers get 67% more leads when they maintain a blog. While this is a promising statistic, blog posts will only do well if you abide by a few rules.

Consistency is Key

In any type of marketing, it is important to remain consistent. This is especially the case, though, when it comes to blogging. Once people start utilizing your blog as a source of information, they will expect consistent postings. If they do not get them, they will likely look elsewhere. Additionally, an always up-to-date blog will really help your organic reach on search engines.

Focus on Search Engine Optimization

One of the big draws of blogging, and content marketing in general, is that it brings people to your business who may have otherwise never encountered it. This is done through effective search engine optimization. Keep this in mind when creating your blog. By using industry keywords and your location in the opening paragraph, keywords in headers and utilizing photos with those keywords in their file name, you can help move these blogs up the search engine ladder.

Make Your Blogs Scannable

A recent report found that consumers trust bloggers more than any source other than family and friends, but this will not matter if people are not reading your blog. To make sure your content is being seen, make your blogs easily scannable. Keep paragraphs short and use subheaders and images to separate content. This will be much easier to read, so people will stay on your page and develop that essential trust.

Blogging has become a powerful marketing tool. Make sure you are not dropping the ball by making simple blogging mistakes.

While the Internet has in essence made everything “local,” the reality is that you need to focus on people searching in your local area. If you are unsuccessful in this area, it will be nearby competition who gets prospective customers.

To get started, claim all of your local pages from sites like Yahoo and Yelp. Next, focus on city-specific keywords when producing content. Concentrate on local, and local will focus on you.

Related: Local SEO Best Practices: How to Enhance Local SEO

Not Investing Enough in Content Marketing

There are local business owners out there that do not yet have a content marketing strategy, and if you are one of those, you need to adjust straightaway.

Content marketing is one of the critical aspects of getting your company noticed, and research has revealed that effective marketers devote most of their budget to content creation.

This means you have to invest in your content strategy.

The most thriving marketers invest 42 percent of their marketing budget into content. This may seem like a big amount, but with low-cost strategies like email marketing and social media, you really can afford to splurge a bit on content.

Related: Content Marketing: Discover the Recipe for Viral Content

No Unique Selling Point

Every small business needs some special selling point. This is something which makes you stand out among your competition.

Even if it is a free meal on Thursdays or a specific award your business has earned, remember to be marketing something special about your company.

There are innumerable ways to run a successful marketing campaign, but it is often the same mistakes that can harm them all. Thankfully, these mistakes aren't difficult to avoid, so spend time to make your marketing great.

A quick way to ingratiate yourself with the thought leaders within your sector is to grab their particular attention. No matter if your organization is computers or home renovation, every marketplace has thought leaders. Building informative and eye-catching content based on industry topics is the starting point to getting the right attention.

The big step, though, is to get these thought leaders to take notice. Share this content on their Facebook pages or tag them in a tweet when sharing. Many professionals will discover these posts, and if they like what they see you have a great possibility of getting shared. This will unquestionably help you along your way to thought leadership.

Start Guest Blogging

You should have a blog for content marketing on your website. At least 25 percent of marketing budgets are devoted to content marketing simply because it is a great way to get the right results. In addition, guest blogging is a great way to get your company name out to those who may have never heard it before. And with more corners of the web occupied, more people will see the business as a thought leader.

Network, Network, and then Network Some More

Networking is a common sense necessity to operating a successful business, but by doubling down on it, you can help build an image as a thought leader in your industry. Interacting with your mentors and other influencers on social media is only half of the formula. Another step is to attend networking events and engage in speaking opportunities at these events. This will help get your company's name acknowledged as a leader.

There are innumerable marketing methods that could or may not highlight your company's potential. Set your small business a part by focusing your power on thought leadership.

Blogs, articles, and whitepapers are some of the most powerful pieces of content but that does not mean that you should avoid other platforms. Videos are also highly effective marketing tools, and depending on your audience, you may even get value from podcasts and slide presentations. Regardless of anything else, do not neglect video which is predicted to dominate 64 percent of all marketers' strategies one day.

Here are three content marketing mistakes you should avoid

Focusing Too Much on Yourself

It seems second nature for an organization to focus on itself when marketing to others, but this should not be the key objective when it comes to content marketing. Consumers enjoy imaginative content because it is valuable. In fact, 90 percent of prospects find custom content useful. This implies marketers must focus on providing value instead of saying “Look at us, we are great!” Rather than selling your customers, try showing your customers why the product or service will make their lives easier and they, in turn, will ask to buy it.

Leaving Out Calls to Action

Just because you are trying to give appeal more than a “Buy Me” vibe in content marketing, it doesn't mean you need to neglect your sale entirely. Once you've provided the information the purchaser values, always add a call to action at the end that would interest them given the content they read. Make certain it flows smoothly, though. “Buy Now” does not flow well from informative content.

Focusing on Only One Format

The written word is a powerful thing, but it mustn't be the only tool employed in your content marketing strategy. It is fine if most of your time is spent with blogs and articles, but don't forget videos, slide presentations, podcasts, or any other form of content that your clients may be interested in. If nothing else, at least utilize video, which is expected to dominate 64 percent of marketers' strategies in the future.

Don't let little goof ups ruin your entire marketing strategy. The good news is, the most common mistakes are often possible to avoid.

Develop Shareable Content

The technique of gaining huge returns on inexpensive content is to really make it go viral. This is obviously easier said than done, but it is in no way impossible. You first must make your content shareable. Just as before, easier said than done, but it becomes much easier when adopting the recipe for viral content.

• Social Currency
• Emotion
• Triggers
• Public
• Practical Value
• Stories

Think Outside of Facebook

Dropping some ad dollars on Facebook certainly will help turn your content viral. It's also advisable to utilize Twitter which can oftentimes return exactly the same result totally free. It starts with looking for trusted voices in your industry and following them on Twitter.

Observe to find out which individuals take the time to retweet and respond to tweets. They are the influencers you need to focus on. Tag these individuals when sharing your focused content and hope they will think it is great enough to share. It's usually a smart idea to test run a piece of content on Facebook to check shareability before trying it out on influencers.

Think Beyond the Social Media Box Altogether

Despite the fact that Facebook and Twitter are clearly powerful resources,it is important to break away from these limitations. Sites like Reddit and StumbleUpon can drive just as much, or even more, traffic than typical social media giants. StumbleUpon, for example, recently made up over half the internet's referral traffic.

Simply by using social media and producing great content, you can make the tiniest marketing budget do wonders. We should never accept the fallacy that economical somehow means low quality.

You may have heard the term cross-channel promotion tossed about, and were wanting to know what exactly it is and how can it possibly benefit your business.

In case you aren't acquainted with the concept, cross-channel promotion is where you conceive an integrated plan to market to your target audience irrespective of which web platform they prefer. With content found on blogs, sites, videos, audios, image sites and more these days , it's more valuable than ever to make use of a strategy that meets them where they are.

Where is your audience found?

It's clearly important to have business intelligence that allows you to anticipate where your audience is and how it can be identified. Another vital aspect is the conversion factor. Some platforms convert very well, (Pinterest for example) while others are more effective as a conduit leading to your content.

Another concern is the demographics of a particular site. If you've got an offer designed for a particular age range or other pertinent demographic parameter, it would be foolish to market it on a platform that doesn't share that. Still other channels have dramatically different demographics. Integrating an Instagram lead with your LinkedIn crowd would not make a great deal of sense, given the age and focus of each audience.

Plan your content strategy accordingly

Once you know where you're planning on posting, you need to carefully map out a step by step approach to distributing your content there. There are numerous forms of content that work well for this, including…

• Search engine optimization
• Search engine marketing
• Email marketing
• Social media
• Videos
• Events
• Speaking engagements
• Websites
• Blogs
• eBooks
• White papers
• Special reports
• Presentations
• Press releases
• Webinars
• Print

Make use of as many as make sense for your business as a way to widen the reach and overall exposure your content receives.

Then simply execute the plan

This is the part where many stumble, in the actual execution of the plan. This presupposes you have a plan, which is a necessity in an undertaking like this. There are many moving parts that need to coordinate with each other, and good intentions fall short when there is no cohesive, step-by-step roadmap for your team to follow.

Utilizing cross-channel promotion is a terrific way to significantly expand the reach of your content and influence. Use it as often as possible for best results!

There is no doubt the world is growing increasingly visual, at least the online world. These days people are a lot more inclined to view visual content than they are to read textual material. For proof you have to look no further than your Facebook newsfeed. 87 percent of the most-shared posts contain photos, and posts with visual content result in 180 percent greater engagement.

You've also likely noticed the influx of marketing via visual content. This is one of the least difficult and most lucrative ways to market to come along in a while. And the good news is, there's still time to make this work for your business too.

5 Types of Effective Visual Content for Marketing

Create an Infographic – Becoming increasingly easier to create, infographics are an exciting new form of visual content that has taken the marketing world by storm. You can creatively pack a load if information into an infographic, which can then easily be shared, ultimately causing great direct traffic and backlinks.

Videos – Versatile and easy to share, videos also offer the ability to be shared widely, and are easy to create in a number of forms. You can produce simple slideshow videos, web cam videos, live on location videos, short Vine or Instagram videos (6- 30 seconds long!) and many more ideas. This form is also perfect for generating traffic and links.

Develop Unique Imagery – It has become easier than ever to craft unique images that are solely available for your marketing purposes. Since it's become an unwritten rule that images need to accompany or overpower textual content now, it's up to you to create these. In addition many of these can be posted to sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram for more traffic and links.

Screenshots – Screenshots are an excellent way to convey social proof. They are super easy to make, and you can easily insert them into many types of posts, or create slideshows with them.

Create Data Drops – Similarly, you can also convey more complicated data by making use of charts and graphs to illustrate and amplify your points through visualization. This can make a difficult to get concept much more accessible.

So what distinguishes your site from all the other e-commerce sites in your market? Why are visitors going to be buying from you rather than any of the other guys?

Moreover, how will you hope to rank in Google if your site is not demonstrably different? You won't, plain and simple.

Content marketing is what helps your business attract new visitors and convert them into customers. But, how many businesses are following these important strategies today? Let's look at how some businesses are accomplishing this.

How to use content marketing for your e-commerce sites

Video – Video is one of the best ways to insert content on to your e-commerce pages. Not only will this help you give visitors the visual content they seek, but you will also be able to use these videos in several different ways on several different channels. It can exist on your page, on YouTube, as well as social media. This is an excellent way to generate traffic to your pages.

Create unique descriptions – Create unique textual content for your e-commerce pages. This will jump you ahead of the many folks who copy and paste product descriptions and give you a better chance to rank in the search results. In addition, you have the ability to communicate in a way that is more sales-oriented than a typical e-commerce description.

Show 'em! – An e-commerce site needs to give visitors a clear picture of precisely how their products look and perform. Using original, descriptive images is important to attract the largest number of visitors to your site. Get your camera and try to take some great images of your products. Include these images with your content in order to enhance the effectiveness of the content.

Employ social proof – Nobody wants to be the first one to purchase a new product, taste that different food, or try that new restaurant. These days people are using social networks more and more to help them make their buying decisions. Do your part by including as much social proof as you can put together on your pages. This helps build trust and can be the reason they buy!

The key is to make sure that you are making every effort to have your e-commerce pages stand apart from the crowd. By utilizing content marketing for e-commerce correctly you can do precisely that!