Tom shared some inspirational content ideas recently, as well as a post on copyblogger all discussing ideas to generate content. But the trouble with creativity and tizzed-up text is it can distract from the main point of seo; the business and your profit.
Distilled’s best piece of their old homepage said this “It boils down to building your business”. It’s so true, and it stuck. (sadly, its given way to prettier stuff on the new distilled website). Rich, high-quality content is a winning, long-term strategy in the search space. Mint.Com, okcupid and seomoz are all getting traction in competitive markets by just pushing out cracking content.
The challenge is to turn these content-rich seo strategies into something consistently profitable. Sadly, sales copy isn’t always the most linkable content; the straight sales pitch will be a compromise between effective link-worthy content and persuasive copywriting. But maybe the one-hit sale isn’t the best idea anyways?
Where we can’t make a sale, build permission
Seth godin introduced ‘permission marketing’ back in 1999when he was trying to promote his company back then – yoyodyne – and their different China Business Fax List approach to email marketing, how it shouldn’t be treated as an interruption channel (like tv) but rather an intangible asset – building a relationship with a prospect and nurturing it over time.
Intravenous permission
Like a magazine-subscription or a doctor injecting you with this, that and the other in intensive care, intravenous permission is you [the Email Lists consumer] explicitly approving (even paying for) someone else to make decisions for you. The highest level of permission.
2) points-based permission – like a frequent flier program, you pay attention and loyalty in exchange for incentives to fly with them.
3) personal relationships – difficult to scale, and just as difficult to replicate. That’s the beauty of personal relationships. Its an incredibly intimate form of permission.
4) brand trust – built with frequency, consistency and relevance. People gravitate towards the consistent levels of service; the same starbucks coffee all over the world.
5) situation level permission – the bookshop owner kindly asks “Can I help you with anything?”. Annoyingly, so does the second-hand car salesman.