It might sound like something from a science fiction novel, but Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer a futuristic idea.

AI and its manifestations, machine learning and deep learning, already play a large role in our daily lives and in directing how and where we spend our money.

• Google uses AI to give you the search results you’re after.
• Machine learning helps Siri translate your speech and helps sort your emails.
• It’s machine learning that makes the ads relating to pages you’ve visited pop up in your Facebook timeline.
• AI adds the “smart” to your TV.
• Machine learning is built into most cars and deep learning will control the driverless cars of the future.
• Deep learning is what helps computers beat chess grandmasters at their own game.

What is AI and how does it work?

The theory of AI has been around since the 1950s. True machine learning surfaced in the 1980s and the related art of deep learning has really taken off in the last five years.

As its name suggests, artificial intelligence is about creating a machine that can make decisions and solve problems.

In the past, we programmed computers by giving rigid rules (algorithms) telling them step-by-step what to do or what to look for.

Machine learning combines more fluid algorithms with masses of data. This process allows the computer to “learn” or, more correctly, recognise patterns, predict outcomes and make informed decisions – “I think that email belongs in your junk folder” for example. What’s more, the program gets better with use.

Deep learning is the next step. It enhances and complements machine learning and is inspired by biology. Inside our brains are multi-layered neural networks. These layers work together to help us learn and make informed decisions. Deep learning uses artificial neural networks – lots and lots of them that are fed masses of information. This process helps the computer to “see”, to make the kinds of decisions we make and, for example, pick up cancer indicators in blood a human might miss.

What does AI mean in marketing terms?

There’s a whole lot of data flying round out there, the kind of data machine learning and deep learning systems thrive on. And there are many good reasons Google, Facebook and Microsoft are investing heavily in their own AI research and development.

Here’s one. By analysing just 10 of your likes on Facebook, an AI enhanced algorithm can evaluate your character better than a work colleague. After analysing 70 likes, the system picks up more subtleties than your friends, by 150 likes it’s more accurate than your parents and by 300 can give a clearer picture than your partner.

So, it’s easy to see how these smart algorithms, that get better with use, can pinpoint your buying and search habits, your hobbies and dislikes, even your colour preferences.

• Online searches are the number one way to connect with future customers, and AI exponentially improves the chances of the right connections being made.
• Google algorithms rely heavily on machine learning and Google AdWords also reap the rewards of the clear picture that emerges when AI is applied.
• AI is making market research faster and more efficient.
• Machine learning is a great way to predict and jump on trends.
• Big companies are using the information supplied by AI systems to constantly tweak their web content and ad campaigns.

Can AI enhance your business?

If you’ve got a website and are working with an SEO expert you’re already reaping the rewards of ongoing developments in AI as Google and other search engines continue to integrate more and more AI features into their systems.

You could also consider running a Google AdWord campaign as machine learning is what drives this highly targeted form of advertising. You can read more about why Google Adword gives you more bang for your buck here. The team at Online Influence has the knowledge and experience to run successful AdWord campaigns – which is why we’re a Google AdWord Partner.

Contact us to find out how we can help your business today.

 

What is Content Marketing?

“Content marketing is any marketing that involves the creation and sharing of media and publishing content in order to acquire customers. This information can be presented in a variety of formats, including news, video, white papers, e-books, infographics, case studies, how-to guides, question and answer articles, photos, etc.”

Content marketing is a very valuable business tool – it’s also a huge topic to cover in one blog post.

Because of this, I’m writing a series of blogs to lead you through the basics and to point you in the right direction if you want to dive deeper.
As Julie Andrews (or more correctly, Sister Maria) suggests, “let’s start at the very beginning”. Why? “It’s a very good place to start”.

So, what is content marketing?

Ask Google and you’ll receive this definition:

noun

a type of marketing that involves the creation and sharing of online material (such as videos, blogs, and social media posts) that does not explicitly promote a brand but is intended to stimulate interest in its products or services.

Which is true, but there’s much more to content marketing than that.

What the definition neglects, is that this super effective business tool predates the online world and it really is all about promoting your brand. Not implicitly in terms of sales, but in terms of how your audience thinks and feels about you and your brand.

Content Marketing is a way to engage & inform your potential client or customer, before they meet you and without selling to them. When you deliver relevant information to your ideal client, they will ultimately reward you with their business. It’s a valuable tool in building the know, like & trust factor. Strategic content marketing is one of the best ways to improve your website and improve it’s rankings in Google.

Content marketing involves:

• distributing regular free, relevant and valuable content across a range of mediums to a target audience,
• keeping your audience engaged with you and your brand (think loyal subscribers),
• inspiring your audience to share your content with their networks (hello Facebook!), and
• embedding the “ideals” and “ethics” you want associated with your brand.

It’s an ideal way to achieve the “know, like and trust” trinity.

And, if you do it well, you’ll turn potential customers into eager customers who give you their repeat business and encourage their friends to do the same.

Content marketing from a different angle

Another way to get a handle on the meaning of content marketing is to look at what it isn’t.

• It is NOT direct sales.
• It is NOT one piece of content.
• It is NOT a brochure.
• It is NOT an advertisement – that is, something that interrupts the content your audience actually wants.
• It is NOT directly telling people about your product or implicitly promoting your brand.

Who uses content marketing?

According to the Content Marketing Institute,  around 88% of B2B marketers use content marketing. While it’s hard to know how many businesses overall use this strategy, it’s probably safe to guess the answer is A LOT. Content marketing is an effective strategy for businesses big and small and for all business owners, young and old. Whether you have a shop front, a market stall or operate purely online, you can use content marketing to grow your business.

Why is content marketing so important?

Good content marketing really does work.

And the great thing about online content marketing, in particular, is that if you do it right your audience will take over and do some the work for you.

What does that mean? Well, while you may need to pay for someone to create some great content and initially use paid distribution channels to drive people

to your content, once you generate a following, you’ll get a natural flow of customers through email, social media and direct traffic.

Of course, to generate a following, you need good content and a good content marketing strategy – something I’ll go into more detail in my next couple of posts.

What’s the difference between good and bad content marketing?

Good content marketing is easy to spot.

• Subscribers anticipate the arrival of good content.
• Audiences enjoy the content and apply its information to their lives and/or business practices.
• Great content marketing inspires subscribers to share your content through their networks.
• The flow on from good content marketing is more customers and customer recommendations.
• Good content marketing is reflected in good data.

Perhaps most importantly, good content marketing is educational, inspirational, and aspirational.

Bad content marketing is, um, the opposite of all of the above.

Ask your self these questions:

• What blogs do I subscribe to?
• Whose YouTube channel do I haunt?
• Which websites do I head to when you want to know “how to”?
• Whose content makes me laugh, inspires me or makes me aspire to reach for more?

Take a deeper look at these sources and you’ll find people that have good content and a good content marketing strategy in place. After all, they’ve got your attention and loyalty.

Still unsure?

While you might know what you like, it can sometimes be hard to recognise why it works so well. Even if you get why it’s got you hooked, you still might be unsure about how to achieve similar results.

Never fear! You’ll find inspiration in my next blog in which I’ll give you examples of businesses who are content marketing champions. I’ll give you lots of examples of what kind of content works and where you can share it.

And if all else fails, ask an expert.

The team at Online Influence can help. We’re happy to have a chat to you, to talk through the possibilities and guide you to content marketing success.

Contact us today, on 02 9199 2228 or 02 4724 9555.

In this post I want to tackle  what makes a good blog from a technical point of view and from a less techie perspective. If you want to have your blog read, shared and commented on it’s important to make it relevant and interesting.

So, how do you actually write a good blog post?

Two ways to blog

There are two main types of blogs:

• The original classic style blogging, as seen in  the movie Julie & Julia (with Meryl Streep), Julie Powell blogged about cooking and her struggles as a writer – she decided to cook and blog her way through Julia Child’s iconic cookbook, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”. She cooked and blogged about all 524 recipes over 365 days. It’s a true story!  Julie’s blog became so popular that it caught the attention of a Hollywood producer and the rest is history. If you want to know what makes a good blog I highly recommend you watch this movie. Julie’s blog was the classic style of blogging, it’s like recording a log – web-log – blog. You have probably also read many blogs just like this.
• Blogging for your business is different to Julie’s blogging. Blogging for business is also known as “Content Management”.  This is the type of blogging I’m referring to in this post.

Why should you blog about your business?

• Google loves blogs because they deliver readers fresh, new, relevant content.
• Since the arrival of Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird (the names Google gave their updates), it’s getting harder for us SEO providers to get your business on the front page of Google.
• Providing new and interesting content for your blog, not only pleases Google but it pleases your readers, and this in turn pleases Google.

Where do you start?

Writing doesn’t come naturally to most of us and many of us are just procrastinators, but trust me once you give it a go you will feel very pleased with yourself. Blogging is a great way to step out of your comfort zone and try something new.

‘Where do I start?’ I hear you say. Consider these simple tips on what makes a good blogging experience. First of all you need to get back to basics. You need to know who your readers are and what they want. To get you started, try this exercise:

• Start with a fresh sheet of paper
• Create an avatar of your ideal client
  • Are they male or female? (or both)
  • What age bracket are they?
  • What income bracket are they?
  • Do they have children? If so, how old are they?
  • What keeps them awake at night?
  • What problem/s can you solve for them?
  • Keep expanding on this list, you need as much info as possible
  • Make sure you have a clear solution to their problem
  • Make sure this solution is very obvious on your website – in fact it should be the basis of your website. Everything on your website and blog should be telling the reader that you can solve this problem.
  • Knowing this and delivering this is what makes a good blog.

What to actually blog about 

This where you need to be strategic. There is no benefit in blogging just for the sake of blogging. You need a plan and it needs to be relevant. So grab another piece of paper or open a spread-sheet.

Start by listing all of the things you do in your business that you could blog about. For example some of the things we do in my business is:

• Getting leads for your website
• Optimising your website
• Website creation
• Fixing badly structured websites
• SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
• Google Advertising
• Facebook Advertising
• Blogging for Business

From this list of 8 blog posts; create at least 4 sub-topics for each one. So far we have 32 potential blog posts.
From each sub-topic, create at least 2 more sub-topics. Now we have 104 possible blog post topics.
Next think about the media –

• You could also make some videos about these topics.? An iPhone and a good mic is all you need.
• You could also interview someone else (another expert in your field) about these topics.? Again an iPhone and a good mic is all you need. These could then be turned into a podcast and/or a video series.
• Each of these videos and interviews could be transcribed and turned into written blog posts.

So from an initial list of 8 business components we now have a massive 728 potential blog posts.

The next post will be part two of – What makes a good blog – part two

If you need help with your content management (blogging) – give me a call and I’m happy to have a chat.

Let’s talk tech – SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

So now you know what to blog about, let’s get into the technical side of blogging.

• A golden rule – “One keyword per post/page”
• When I say keyword I don’t just mean one word – very rarely will it be one word. A good keyword can sometimes be 4 -5 words long, but usually it’s 2– 4 words long.
• Over time, your pages or posts will probably rank for other words in the copy too.
• Organise your blog by using categories and tags. Think of categories like isles in the supermarket e.g. the cooking isle, and tags as items in the isle e.g. spices and sauces. Finally keywords are the specific item e.g. “Uncle Bob’s sauce”.
• Use the keyword in the blog/page title – it can have other words either side, but don’t break up the keyword/s here.
• Use the keyword in the first paragraph
• Use it every 300-500 words, but make it natural.
• Use sub-headings using variations of the keyword/s.
• Always use an image and re-name the image using the keyword.
• Use alt-tags for images – this is the name that pops up when you hover on an image. Google reads this and can often rank these images in the search results (try it now – hover over the image in this post, you will see What makes a good blog.)
• Create links between other relevant pages/posts and use keywords as the anchor text. This tells Google and the reader, that you have other posts about this topic, and points to where it is.
• There are other more Geekie things that should be part of your blog structure. If you are not sure what these are, get in touch with me and I will be happy to review your blog.

How to actually write a good blog post…

Okay, so we’ve covered why you should blog, what you should blog about and the technical (SEO) part of what makes a good blog. Now let’s dig into how to actually write the blog posts.

• Write so that an eleven-year-old child can read it. This doesn’t mean you have to “dumb it down” but make it very easy for anyone to read it and don’t use Jargon.
• I like to use this simple acronym P O W E R
  • Pick a topic – use a “think sheet” to write down ideas.
  • Organise- group your ideas, number them in the order you want to write them and cross out ideas you won’t use.
  • Write – put the facts into sentences, adding bullet points, headings and paragraphs.
  • Edit – read your work out loud or to a friend.
  • Re-write until you are happy that your blog post delivers enough valuable information that your readers will share it and comment on it.

• Now read it one last time to make sure you haven’t “over used” the keyword. Use the search bar in MSWord to check how often you have used it (3% is a good rule of thumb). Anymore and Google will consider it “keyword stuffing” and sites that do this are “frowned upon” by Google.
• Just have a go.

I hope this helps you navigate the confusing world of blogging and I hope it helps you understand what makes a good blog. The most important point is the last one above – “Just have a go”. The first blog is always the hardest but it’s a rewarding journey if you persevere.

This is part two of a two part blog post – Read What makes a good Blog – part one

How do you like to write? I’d love you to share your hints and tips.