Case Study: WinePassionate.com and Web Content

WinePassionate.com is a in-the-works web site that focuses on - or will focus on - selling wine online. I stumbled upon the project on a freelance writing web site, and as a part of the application process, I evaluated the site for web content possibilities. Might as well share the work I did...

Right off the bat, we could do a lot with SEO in regard to urls, page titles and h1 tags.

1. URLs: Making some changes when naming URLs would absolutely affect the site's search rankings. For example, by changing "the whites" URL from http://www.winepassionate.com/c/2/the-whites to http://www.winepassionate.com/c/2/white-wine allows the keyword "white wine" to be included in one of the most important parts of the web site - it's address! Who is going to search for "the whites?" Maybe if it were a band...
2. Content Placement: I am interested to know where the site designer would like place page content, since many of the pages are category product pages contain very large product widgets. On these pages, I'd recommend adding a keyword rich H1 tag before the widget with two sentences (at a minimum) of keyword-dense text. Adding too much content at the top of what is essentially a category page would push the products "below the fold, so to speak," but would still be able to have actual content on the page. On individual product pages, I would take more space to expand on the content to provide more valuable information to readers and search engines, alike.
3. Dedicate a Place: I'd also recommend having a blog for content purposes, since the web site is product/picture/widget driven (which is certainly NOT a bad thing) and using an RSS feed to distribute important content to more trafficked pages on the site. Having a dedicated place for content - like a blog - would take the edge of trying to force it onto product pages.

What do you all thing? Do you have any other web content ideas for this site?

The Best Internet Marketing Secret Weapon There Is

Writing.

Writing is the best secret weapon available to you as an internet marketer. Learn to write, and you can do anything. There are some general rules for SEO and webinars out the wazoo for social media. You have to be persistent and committed to master those things but not overly talented.

Writing is a bit harder - takes practice plus persistence and commitment. And people in your industry want it. If you can write, you can helpfully and knowledgeably blog for product wholesalers, clients, magazines, industry affiliates and on and on and on. And they will all link back to you, your product, your company's web presence.

Learn to write. Then write a lot. Then share what you write, and offer to write for others.

Your writing, locked and loaded with strategic links and helpful content, is the best place to invest your time and start an internet marketing plan.

Email Marketing | Use Your Good Content to Stay in the Inbox

Click to enlarge view.

One of the owners of a company I consult for forwarded me this email (right) with the words, "Fantastic email" in the subject line.

I'm thinking, Well, it's kind of great. It's clean. There's some bullets and a call to action. My problem with this email is that it has missed at least one if not two additional opportunities to stay in the inbox of each person on its email list.

For example, when I look at the content of this email, I see the opportunity for three different emails.

1. An email featuring the “all star” speakers followed by a call to action to take advantage of the discounted product.
2. An email featuring the investment topics covered with a call to action to take advantage of the discounted product.
3. And a reminder email sometime before the product discount offer expires.

All of these emails should link to a landing page that includes comprehensive content, of course.

If you can justify emailing your list three times because you have new, valuable information - even if, and especially if, you are using the same call to action - why wouldn’t you?

Don't worry about the whiners. It is harder for a person on your email list to complain about sending three emails instead of one because you are giving them new, important information each time you "blast" them. The upside for you is you get to stay in their inbox on a regular basis without being spammy. (Having said that, yes, eventually you have to stop emailing them, so make a plan and be smart with your content.)

They need to know. If you're offering a generous product discount for a limited time about a topic many people are concerned about in this economy, no less, you should be making noise in people's inbox.

Don't waste your good content on a one-shot email. Break it down, schedule your email blasts and stay in the inbox.

Steps to Reeling in a Content Marketing Plan

One of the companies I am consulting has at least six web sites - some e-commerce driven, some blog-inspired and several without a category at all. This morning, I met with one of the marketers for this company during which I did not say a word, but rather listened to a stream of theories about how to refresh and distribute old content across these (at least) six sites. At the end of the meeting, I had a stack of hand-written content to sift through, complete with notes in red ink, and an overwhelming sense of shock about what I'd just gotten myself into.

What just happened here?

If you're like this multi-site company and have more than one web site for your business, you need a content marketing plan. Without subjecting you to what I just experience in this meeting, let me just suggest the following steps for quickly sorting through this process.

1. Make a ranked list of all your web sites. | The list should take into consideration how each web site ranks in search engines, how much traffic there is to the site (and probably where it comes from), how each site collects and converts leads, what kind of content exists on each site already and what holes you can fill with new content.
2. Write down your goals. | If one web site is a top performer and ranks higher, converts better and has great content already, do not reinvent the wheel. If you must run (at least) six web sites, focus instead on using the new content and sub-par web sites to drive traffic to the best one or two web sites. Write down this goal!
3. Briefly analyze each site. | Take a deeper look at each web site - not your top performers but the ones you are going to use as tools to drive traffic to the top performers - and ask questions like these: Where does this traffic come from? What kind of person "lands" on this site? What are they looking for? And what do I want them to look for on my top performing site? What kind of content can I use get them where I want them to go on my top performing site?
4. Lay out the breadcrumb trail. | Evaluate the content you have and are ready to post. Answer these questions: How can you build a trail from one of your sub-par web sites to one of your top performers? What kind of holes might you need to fill to complete the trail? At what points in the content might you allow certain types of visitors to deviate from the trail - if at all? Lay out the content and consider making a plan for filling the holes.
5. Implement. | One of the things I struggle with most with my clients is that they "fall off the grid." They lose commitment to the plan, forget about it all together or blow it out of the water completely by not implementing then reinforcing our content marketing plans aka "trail plans." Do the work. You've made the plan. Now, do the work.
6. Analyze and adjust. | If it's broken, fix it. If it works, fill in the holes, but otherwise LEAVE IT ALONE until it breaks. Just keep an eye on it. It doesn't have to be hard.

Having multiple web sites is not a bad thing. It can do wonders for inbound links on one of your partner sites, it can help direct the flow of traffic - it can even be powerful in lead nurturing and generation if you can get into that deeply. But you must have a content marketing plan.

Wish me luck with this stack of papers - and with staying on the grid.

HubSpot says CREATE CONTENT!

To anyone who has heard me talk about my job, it's no secret I am a big fan of Hubspot and Hubspot's message - INBOUND MARKETING. See what HubSpot TV has to say about creating content. Fast forward to 3:30 mins to get the bulk of the discussion on content. (Perk: Get HubSpot's scoop on the next hot marketing book).

For the Content Late-comers

For those of you who are not building content and don't know why you should bother, and unfortunately there are quite a few of you still out there, according to Wikipedia, "content marketing is an umbrella term encompassing all marketing formats that involve the creation or sharing of content for the purpose of engaging current and potential consumer bases...Delivering high-quality, relevant and valuable information to prospects and customers drives profitable consumer action." What company bottom line doesn't want that?

Most marketers will tell you that creating valuable content for your clients and web visitors is not a new marketing tactic. Seth Godin, who regularly champion-blogs about the unexpected, often Purple Cow value certain companies create, and David Meerman Scott, who interviews any and every successful by-chance marketer in the world, have been talking about it in their blogs and books for ages. Check them out immediately if you are a late-comer to the concept of creating content. Hey, then get on point. Create something valuable!

For the Content Bandwagon Riders

For everyone else, for my fellow veteran, content-creators, this post just a redundant hooray, a broken-record-pat-on-the-back and an admitted effort to support the awesome marketing gurus at HubSpot.

By the way, HubSpot, good for you!

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An inbound marketing pioneer, today Hubspot is the number two fastest growing software company according to Inc Magazine. The founders of HubSpot^® met at MIT in 2004. Both were interested in the transformative impacts of the internet on small businesses and were early students of Web 2.0 concepts. And they wrote a book!
Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs