Using Content Marketing to Strengthen Relationships

by Andrew Schulkind

You might think that having and keeping long-standing relationships is the key to business success, but it’s not. In fact, just keeping those relationships can give you a false sense of security.

Instead, your goal should be to strengthen relationships rather than lengthen them. Because if a relationship isn’t growing, it’s quite likely going to be devalued and taken for granted.

Soon enough, someone will come along offering something new. New is exciting. And you’re just the same old you.

Too keep your customers happy – especially those customers who are always on the lookout for ways to improve their businesses (and who are likely to be your best customers) – you have to be proactive in staying fresh and staying relevant.

Content marketing can help with this. Publishing content about how you’ve solved problems similar to your prospects’ and how you’ve applied your know-how provide an excellent way to stay top-of-mind with your audience and to remain relevant.

Plus, it’s a whole lot cheaper than creating entirely new business lines. Not that you shouldn’t expand or extend your offerings from time to time, but you should be introducing new ideas to your clients and prospects a lot more frequently than you could possibly introduce new services.

Make it easy for your clients to engage more deeply and you’ll be rewarded with more profitable client relationships and more frequent client referrals.

--- Strategy, Research & Planning ---

Marketers Ruin Everything

Remember when email was cool? Before everyone had an email address. Before everyone had even heard of email. The really, really cool kids had “@well.com” email addresses. (That’s WELL as in “Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link.”) The rest of us had addresses like 92304.1263@compuserve.com. Then there was the huge influx of @aol.com addresses and email wasn’t…MORE >
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Is Podcasting Right for Your Content Marketing?

If you’re considering adding a podcast to your content marketing mix, you’re going to like this article. I recently posted an item on LinkedIn about deciding whether a podcast or a blog might be right for your content marketing efforts. Long-time friend and colleague E. B. Moss commented on that post and this conversation grew…MORE >
--- Visual Design & User Experience ---

Improving Website Conversions – Building Better Mail Forms

We all know that the more fields you include in a form on your website, the fewer responses you’ll get. But that doesn’t mean you can’t ask for any information. That’s not much of a form, after all. Here are three approaches to consider. Single-Form Fields Yup, you can go the minimalist route and ask…MORE >

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