How to Utilize Staff Strengths to Meet your Internet Marketing Goals

15 Jun 2009

No matter what industry you're in, everyone at the office is going to have different talents when it comes to internet marketing.  Some people are excellent writers and can write pages and pages of content in the blink of an eye.  Others are good at design and can effortlessly create custom banners and logos.  Still others are good with the camera and love taking pictures and videos. Instead of creating a marketing plan and then forcing staff members to fit into that mold, do the opposite.  Allow staff talents to drive the direction of your internet marketing efforts.  Working this way will lead to a more well-rounded campaign that everyone will enjoy doing. 1.       Writing Content Writing content is fundamental to internet marketing.   For most websites, written content makes up the bulk of the site and the content falls into two categories: informational and sales.  Informational content consists of free information put out on the web.  These articles give advice or tips on how to do something related to your business or industry.  But nowhere should you try to sell your product.  There are other places to sell and this isn't one of them.  Informational content can include eBooks, articles and blog posts. The other type of written content is sales.  You're a business (or an organization or charity or church) and you need a place to tell your customers what you have to offer.  This is the place to do it.  Sales and marketing content should give your customers enough information about your product in order to make a buying decision.  Be sure to include a call to action at the end of the page and let customers know exactly what they should do next. 2.       Design People who naturally love design are excellent assets to your e-marketing team.  They can make banners, landing pages and create flash videos to put on your site.  Creating different aspects of the site, while keeping with the branding of your company will add flare to your website and help keep customer's interest in the company and the site. On the surface, it may not seem like design is an important part of internet marketing, but in fact it is.  Good design that is clean, simple and professional helps with your e-marketing in that it builds credibility for the site.   Design is part of positioning yourself as an expert in your field.  It allows clients to feel comfortable with you and your product and will encourage them to return to your site for more information and eventually to buy your products. 3.       Videos If you're lucky enough to have someone on your staff who enjoys making videos you will be able to reach a much larger audience.   Different people have different styles of learning and many people learn best through videos.  Adding instructional or informational videos to your website will provide another kind of content for your customers. The beauty about videos is that they work overtime for you.  Not only can you post your video directly on your website, but you can also post it on YouTube, where millions of viewers are likely to find you.  At the end of the video make sure to include your URL and direct viewers to your website for more related information.   "How to" and instructional videos are excellent to put on your site because people are always looking for information on the web.   Additionally, you can transcribe the content of the video and publish it as an article or a blog post.  Now when people search for your topic, your transcription will also be indexed, boosting your SEO.