What is everyone talking about? Being involved in social media marketing, doesn’t mean you should be talking about what you ate for lunch. After all, this is an important marketing tool for your business. Leave the personal stuff for your personal pages or accounts.

1. Things that are compelling or interesting enough to make people want to check back and see what you post next.
2. Important information that attracts people to your store, blog, or website.
3. Call-to-action items that gets people to vote, buy or tell their friends.

Some examples:

Photos: Try pictures of new products in your business, new items on your menu or even a new customer giving your business a thumbs-up.

Video: Think short videos. People aren’t looking for long instructional videos on social media, so save those for your website. Instead, post a cool announcement from the owner or a short testimonial from a satisfied customer.

Contests: Everyone loves a contest! Announce a contest you’re holding and don’t forget to keep the contestants updated with the results.

Surveys & Polls: Asking a simple question can engage your followers and fans. You can even ask about a specific service or product in your business to get their feedback. Make sure you post the results!

Announcements: Let your followers know about any new products or services, menu items, partnerships, events, sales or even milestones you’re proud of!

How much time have you wasted going round and round on solutions that just didn’t work? Or what about a mix and match business strategy? Where you do a little bit of this and little bit of that, does it really work out in the end?  I mean for a business, or any dream for that matter, to work we can’t just care a little bit, we have to go all in. Likewise, we can’t manage a little bit or market a little bit – we have to go all in. They’re fundamental to our business.

Here are some quick marketing lessons learned the hard way that could same you real time and real money. And you know what they say about time . . .

Lesson #1: Do the work and then do it again. 

You have to do the work to create a great product. And then you have to turn around and do the work again to create a smart marketing strategy and management solutions. Having a great product doesn’t excuse poor management or weak marketing.

Lesson #2: Website strategy shouldn’t be an afterthought. 

Every website is not the same. Some are like brochures; they just lay there until someone stumbles across it and picks it up. But others are like the energizer bunny; they just keep going and going and going. The owner creates new and relevant content and marketing campaigns that go out gets attention and visits. The energizer bunny website goes to work (just like you).

Lesson #3: Make my website simple please.

You don’t have to design your own website. You can put your energy into something else while you pay an expert to create it for you.  But in the end you still want something with a login, so that you or a member of your team can change the text, plus add a few videos when you want to. Beware of designer hijacked websites.

Lesson #4: One time around the marketing block is never enough. 

Just like we all want more than one client, then we have to market more than one time. Consistent marketing is a about a systematic approach, not a random collection of hodge-podge solutions.

It’s hard to implement 15 marketing ideas at once, especially when you’re learning at the same time. It’s difficult to remember what everybody told you. But it’s easy to choose one strategy, study it, implement it and then start another.

The key to growing a healthy business in a tough economy is to have a base of repeat customers providing a steady stream of revenues. As a small business owner, having a loyalty program can set your company apart from the competition.  Below are several strategies you can initiate to foster more customer loyalty.  (Remember, good old-fashioned customer service is what can differentiate your business from the big guys.)

Offer a cash discount. Credit card processing fees can eat into your profits. Let your customers know that if they pay with cash, you will pass the savings on to them. Gas stations have routinely done this, typically offering discounts such as 10 cents less per gallon. Now, restaurants, dry cleaners and other service businesses are getting in on the action, offering flat or percentage-based discounts.   (If you offer a cash incentive, make sure to note it in marketing materials and on your website and social media profiles.)

Get your game on. There’s a new factor in mobile loyalty programs: fun. “Gamification” is the latest wave in customer retention, allowing businesses to extend their reach and to better monetize their websites.  Location-based social media platform Foursquare gives merchants the chance to reward frequent customers who “check in” via the service to become “mayors.” Other mobile gaming programs, such as SCVNGR, allow consumers to win prizes at participating locations by completing challenges, such as posting a photo of their meal to Facebook. Prizes may include free goods or discount codes.

These games do more than foster loyalty; they encourage user engagement and social media activity—essential for building your brand. The word of mouth on your company’s fun-factor alone can help drive more sales and repeat business.

Implement a card-based loyalty program. One of the simplest and cheapest ways to reward your customers is to print up a punch card offering a free gift after a certain number of purchases. Coffee, sandwich and frozen-yogurt shops; nail salons; car washes; and recreational businesses all use such enticements.

Go digital. Punch cards too retro? Consider digital loyalty programs. These not only reward your customers, they help you by automatically keeping track of sales information and offering insight into spending patterns.

New mobile services are integrating loyalty programs with QR codes. Some companies provide customers with a personal QR code, tied to a credit card account, that they can scan to make payments at participating merchants, receiving credit dollars that can be applied to future purchases. With other services, QR codes are printed on receipts and can be scanned by consumers using a free app, enrolling them in loyalty programs. QR codes allow customers to interact with their rewards accounts and engage with your brand online, and they allow you to create customized rewards based on consumer preferences.

Support your community. Box-store weary consumers are now more eager to patronize their local small businesses. Do your part by utilizing local vendors and products. You may want to institute a reciprocal program with a nearby business to use each other’s goods or services and to note the relationship in advertising, signage or marketing materials—letting customers know that their purchase supports not just your business, but the community at large.

Follow up with a call. A follow-up phone call after a service visit or major purchase will always be appreciated; it lets your customers know that they remain a priority even after the work is completed and the bill is paid. Thank them for their business, inquire if your work or product met with their satisfaction and ask if they have questions or if there’s anything else they need. Just think of the minute or two you spend on the phone as an investment in future sales.

Send a note. Luxury retailers have been doing it for years: sending handwritten thank-you notes to regular clients. It’s an effort that makes customers feel special and will keep them coming back to you. A personal email may work, but a handwritten note has more impact.

The little things matter. Ask for your customers’ mailing address or email when you see them, add an email sign-up link to your website, or put out a bowl for business cards, offering some small prize in return. You might also ask customers to fill out a form with contact information, product preferences and date of birth. Send a note after a significant purchase and on major holidays and birthdays. Just remember: Your customers have entrusted you with their personal information—don’t abuse the privilege. Keep your correspondence significant and to a minimum, and make it clear that you won’t resell names or data.

Starr Hall posted her blog on February 6th, 2012.  Read more here.

As Facebook continues to enhance its fan page options, businesses are not only struggling to keep up with the changes, but they also are still trying to figure out how to brand and market their pages. Because of some of the changes, strategies you used just last month to increase your “likes” and interactions with fans may not be as effective.

Here are a few quick branding fixes that will make it easier for prospects to find you, as well as some tips on getting more fans–or what I prefer to call interested prospects.

No.1 – Brand the URL. If your fan page URL is still set with a bunch of numbers, you are making it harder for prospects to find you and missing out on a branding opportunity. Facebook recently lifted the requirement that you get 25 “likes” before you can name your fan page URL. Now, all you need to do is go to www.facebook.com/username and set your name in the URL, which is great for branding purposes and easy link referrals. For example, instead of www.facebook.com/1283743hreu818, my link is now www.Facebook.com/StarrHalldotcom.

Related: New Tools to Create a Facebook Fan Page

No.2 – Name your page appropriately. Once you reach 100 friends, you cannot change the title of your page, so make sure you choose wisely from the start. Your brand name is the ideal title to make it easy for people to find your page when they search. You still can change the title if you have less than 100 likes by going to edit page, selecting Basic Information from the menu at left, changing the text in the Name field, and saving your edits.

No. 3 – Take prospects to a welcome tab, not your wall. When you send people to your fan page and have them land on your Wall, your posts probably won’t be enough to entice them to “like” you. Posts are just you talking. Even if you’re giving valuable information, prospects need a reason to be your fan. Instead of having them land on your Wall, set up a welcome tab. A welcome tab can include a greeting and an enticement, such as an e-book or video series, to encourage visitors to become fans. Such sites as woobox.com offer free trials and step-by-step tutorials to help you customize your page, including tabs.

Related: Understanding the Value of a Facebook Fan

No. 4 – Engage potential fans. You need to offer something that will engage people. For instance, you can use Facebook applications to create a poll or launch a game. These can be located on your welcome tab. Wildfireapp.com, for instance, provides a free trial so you can navigate its engagement applications. If you decide to use its programs, services start at $5 and go up from there, depending on which tools you use. SocialUps, a company that specializes in creating games for fan pages, starts at $300. One of SocialUps’ most recent game apps was launched at www.facebook.com/vitalyte, a fan page for Vitalyte Nutrition Products that was started three months ago and now has nearly 100,000 followers. The downside of some gaming applications is that they can gain access to your page and randomly post messages.

Related: Is Facebook Advertising for You?

No. 5 – Check market insights. Is Facebook Advertising for You? Recent enhancements to fan page analytics make it easier to know your prospects, including their sex, age and where they live. Also, you can see which posts they like best and follow a viral report showing if they did something on your page that their friends could see. Such viral activity extends your reach to friends of friends. However, this option only allows you to see that your fans are talking about you to other people; it doesn’t share information about whom they’re sharing with.

Facebook fan pages are quickly turning into Facebook websites and interactive business tools. With access to millions of prospects, it’s important to brand your page well, make it easy to find and keep the content up-to-date and engaging.

Starr Hall

Starr Hall is an international speaker, author, publicist and social networking expert. She’s the CEO of StarrHall.com, a consulting and training company based in Avila Beach, Calif.

Your company will always have haters, those unhappy customers who go out of their way to trash your product, service or customer service at every opportunity. They often find their way onto social media, thanks to the low barrier of entry and promise that any invisible comment can find its way onto the highly visible first page of Google results. But such negativity can actually be good for your business. Here’s why:

They highlight points of vulnerability. Look past the hurtful comments and ask yourself: Do the haters have a point? While they’re reacting in an unconstructive way, a genuine grievance might drive their rage. Addressing that flaw only strengthens your company.

Their minds can be changed. Most of your haters won’t harbor deep rooted or long term animosity. Perhaps they felt slighted by customer service, or misled by a salesperson. If you can find a way to fix that experience and make it right, that same person can be transformed into your biggest advocate.

They validate your social media efforts. Let’s say you’ve spent a lot of time building relationships on Facebook and Twitter. If a disgruntled customer starts hating on your brand, there’s a good chance loyal customers will rise to your defense. Observers will see the complaints—but they’ll also see the rebuttals.

They keep people talking about your brand. It’s not that any publicity is good publicity. But if you find a way to take control of the conversation, you’ll wind up with positive publicity you wouldn’t otherwise have.

Welcome your company’s haters—and use their agitation to fuel positive change.

We regularily publish white papers, tip books, interviews with small business experts and research on industry-relevant topics and issues you may find useful for your business.

Be sure to visit our Small Business resource document library and download the various documents you’re interested in.

It’s not about one marketing piece, it’s about the whole thing. To be effective, your business needs a presence both offline and online. It needs to use print and digital marketing tools. It needs both advertising (paid) and publicity (free). It’s the marketing mix that gets and keeps your company message “out there” in front of your target audience.

Here are five marketing mix tips to seriously consider and implement:

1. Brochures & Business Cards
Print marketing items are not dead yet. Sometimes our technology doesn’t work like it should, and having that business card and brochure as a backup could save your marketing opportunity. Besides, there are a lot of people who just need to have something in their hands in order to remember you, so give it to them. Have your calling card ready.

2. LinkedIn
Use this business social network as an extended business card. As people hear your name around the Web and at conferences, there is a good chance that they will check you out on LinkedIn So fill out that profile and link it back to your website.

3. Website & Blog
Your website is your digital home, so make it count. Let them know who you are, what you do, and how it could benefit them. And then solve a problem for free by answering a question that your target audience would care about. You could turn that answer into a little ebook or white paper for download, or make it a blog post. Just make sure it’s something that truly helps, because you’re building a relationship, and “fluff and foolishness” is not good for business.

4. Press Releases
Use press releases to let the local media know about your business and upcoming campaigns. Your company probably has some awesome events, but nobody cares if they don’t have a chance to know about it.

5. Email
It’s about the relationship, and email is one of the most enduring ways to build that relationship, so take the time to grow your list. For a beginner most of the initial work is in getting the code and placing it on your Web pages. But the email service that you use should have a guide or “how to” page showing you what to do. Once the code for your email subscription form is in place on your site, then you can begin to focus on what to send your subscribers each week or month. Remember, it’s disciplined and consistent marketing and marketing messages that makes the difference.

Just remember, it’s about consistency and the total marketing package. It’s up to you to believe in your business—and to get the message out.

We have all heard the old adage that half of all advertising dollars are wasted; the problem lies in figuring out which half. The numbers become even more interesting (or alarming) when one examines the typical response rates for conventional (and unconventional) media.

Most direct marketers are happy to achieve a response rate of 1 percent to 2 percent — or 2 percent to 4 percent if they include a telemarketing component. That means the recipients discard 98 percent to 99 percent of their materials without a second thought. The results for brand marketing or advertising bring even more frustration to marketers and business owners alike, mainly because consumers’ perceptions about brands are so difficult to quantify. Yet, every business, especially a startup, needs marketing to survive and thrive. So what can an entrepreneur do?

- Focus on generating leads over building a brand. Leads bring customers to your door. Then their experience of your product or service, as well as the reputation you develop for customer service and delivery, will build your brand.

- Create materials that properly sell your product or service and allow you to track responses. The difference between response-driven marketing and branding-oriented marketing is that you can track, test and measure the first type and adjust it until it is right for your business.

Why is it so important to track, test, and measure? You need to establish baseline performance numbers for your business in your particular category of business and then to try to improve upon them. This is very difficult to do. Even professional marketers find it hard to “move the needle” when it comes to measuring customer response. If you focus, though, on two metrics that most others do not, you can work your marketing and advertising in new and more profitable ways.

- Figure out a lifetime value for every new customer. That is, how much the average customer will spend at your company over the course of the business relationship.

- Calculate the customer acquisition cost: the amount you spend to acquire a new client for your company. You never want to pay more for a new customer than you absolutely must; and you are striving for this person to eventually spend more than the initial acquisition cost so that your marketing is profitable.

For lifetime value, simply come up with a guesstimate for the value of a typical sale to a customer (say, $200). Multiply it by the number of times annually he or she will buy products (say, three times) and multiply that by the number of years the typical customer does business with you (say, three years).
The result (in the above example, $200 X 3 X 3 = $1,800) gives you an indication of the importance of setting up a repeat-business program that not only raises the amount that a person buys and the number of shopping occasions, but also extends the length of time he or she remains a customer.

For the acquisition cost, if you spend $1,000 on an ad and pull 100 people in the door, you are paying $10 for each lead. But if only 10 people make purchases, you are shelling out $100 for each sale (10 X $10=$100).

The above example demonstrates the value of boosting the rate of converting leads into actual sales, as well as targeting a level of return (at least $100) so that your campaign breaks even — or brings in more so that your efforts truly profit.

What’s key is to use actual numbers from your own company’s experience and business category to help you make better decisions about spending your precious marketing resources.
Here are five additional tips to help you focus your thinking to generate a better response from your marketing and more return on your investment:

1. Define marketing differently. One of the simplest interpretations is to consider it communication and education. You are communicating to customers or prospects on a regular basis with actionable, sales-oriented information about your business, product, or service.

2. Adopt the mindset that you’re not advertising; you’re buying customers. Consider your efforts a way to purchase for your business the best customers possible – just like Billy Beane did in Moneyball. That means you always market and advertise with the expectation of realizing a return in the form of new leads. If this is not your result, end your campaign and move on. But if the new leads materialize and customers purchase your products, then you have the basis for a winning campaign.

3. Realize nothing has really happened until a sale occurs. You might have a great logo, a slick business card, exceptional letterhead, a killer website, and all the other props of a company, but you don’t have a real business until you net customers and sales. So orient everything you do to realizing leads, sales, and repeat business — especially the latter, which is where your profits and growth will lie over time.

4. Rely on the formula: “Target, Offer, and Copy.” Define your ideal, perfect customer. Then target that customer again and again with benefits-oriented offers (“what’s in it for them”) and marketing work that supports your sales message. Then measure the results. Profiling your ideal customer (through demographics and psychographics) and discovering the media to best target that client will keep your focus laser-like. This process alone will help you eliminate most media or at least limit your choices. Or if you plan to purchase radio or TV ads, you will be able to weed out the stations or programs inappropriate for your target.

5. Test any new marketing medium first. I have seen some startups set aside $50,000 or $100,000 for an ad budget and then fork it all out for a single media campaign. It’s better to take $5,000 or $10,000 and experiment first. That way, you will have enough resources left in a contingency fund to try something else if the first effort does not work. Plus, your company will be able to survive an ineffective campaign.

We had an opportunity to talk with Brian Clark about his blogging strategy that helped him build Copyblogger.com into a multi-million dollar company from the ground-up.

In this interview you’ll learn . . .

How Brian Clark Created a Multi-Million Dollar Software Company from Scratch The Art & Science of Crafting “Eye-Ball” Grabbing Headlines What Small Business Should Know About Content Marketing Why You Should Build And Audience Before Creating a Product 3 “Rules of Thumb” to Writing Compelling Headlines How Writing “Guest Posts” Can Help You Grow Your Blog Audience Read the full interview with Brian Clark . . .

Brian, you’ve written extensively about copywriting, keyword research, email marketing, content marketing, and so much more. How do you keep coming up with such great content week after week?

Brian: Well, fortunately it’s an area that really has a lot of ground to cover. We talk about online marketing in general, but as time has evolved and different practices have come and gone, the thing that really works is using engaging content as a way to draw people to your business. It’s less of a pitch and more about being helpful and educating people. We’d like to say we’re educating people enough to do business with us. I started Copyblogger.com as a one-person blog that was very focused on applying certain principles of copywriting to content to make it more likely to spread in social media. But I always had a broader picture in my mind of what I could do to expand the range of topics. If you do anything long enough, you feel like you may be repeating yourself. But when you have a fresh flow of new people becoming exposed to you and your business through your content, it never gets stale to them.

You’ve now developed a huge resource for anyone (or any small business) that wants to learn about content marketing, keyword research, and selling online.

Brian: Yeah, and we’re coming up on six years. We’ve got more than just a huge archive. We’ve tried to really make it organized and useful. We recently redesigned the site, and we have tutorials dedicated to copywriting, content marketing, and what that actually means for a small-business owner. We’ve also tried to organize years of content into these useful multipart tutorials as a way to really get you up and running, so as you follow along with our new content, you’ve got the fundamental knowledge to work from.

You not only provide great tutorials and daily advice to help small business owners and bloggers, but you’re also providing the tools. Can you talk a little bit about the tools you promote?

Brian: Yeah, there are many small to medium-sized businesses out there. They know what they sell, and they need to find out an effective way to reach people online through social media channels. Tthat’s where the content comes in.

I started the opposite way (by developing useful content first), not knowing exactly what we would end up selling. But if you pay attention to what people are struggling with and problems they face, it informs you on needs in the marketplace. That’s really how we evolved from a blog into a software company, which has been kind of a dream come true for me.

I remember six or seven years ago looking at 37Signals.com and saying, “Wow, that’s really great. Too bad I don’t know how to make software.” And I still don’t. But because I was able to build an audience that needed solutions, I was able to get the partners and the resources I needed. And now we are a multi-million dollar software company that provides the publishing and marketing tools people need to do online content marketing. So like I said: we’re educating people enough to do business with us. If we teach you what to do, you still need the tools to get it done. And we have the tools to help. And many people have been very nice to say that we provide the best tools out there, especially for WordPress, which has become the biggest content management system. It’s not just for blogging anymore.

Anytime you’re creating content, it’s got to be on a regular basis and needs to be fresh. WordPress has become the easiest way to get that done. So we’ve built our tools around WordPress because that’s what we personally use for our business. We’re content publishers and marketers. If we need it, there’s a good chance you’re going to need it because you’re doing the same thing we are.

I love that you started Copyblogger.com from a passion – and didn’t even know how you were going to monetize it.

Brian: Right. It really did evolve. Everything that I needed inspired a discussion about how we could actually build it. And then once we built it, we felt that we should share it with everyone else. And that became the basis of the business, so it worked out really well.

At the beginning all I knew was – I had been publishing online for seven years. I built three successful service businesses using the same principles. Now, I was ready to move away from services to something else. I knew that I could teach about copywriting, content, and how to use that to build a business (whether it’s an existing line of business such as real estate or something new where you listen to the audience, and they give you indications of what you should develop).

It’s a much safer approach than the traditional way, which is where someone comes up with an idea, then they make something and try to find someone to buy it. Sometimes, no one wants to buy it. The new way of doing things is to build an audience and listen intently. Then you’ll have a better chance of delivering something to them that they actually want.

You just shared some valuable points for small business owners and entrepreneurs here: 1) build your audience first, 2) listen to what they want, and then 3) develop the product.

Brian: Yeah, sometimes they can’t tell you exactly what they want. You know, Steve Jobs said that people don’t know what they want . . . it’s not their job to know what they want. But that doesn’t mean they won’t give you indications. Usually it’s in the form of problems, frustrations, and/or desires. And then it’s up to you as an entrepreneur or a businessperson to help solve the problem or satisfy the desire.

Social media is the greatest free-market research environment ever because people out there are acting on their own and being more honest than they’ll be in a focus group. You can survey people, but if you ask the wrong questions in the wrong way, they’ll tell you what you want to hear. You want to hear the truth because you don’t want to make an expensive mistake developing the wrong thing.

So by listening, you found that people needed certain tools to help them with their own blogging efforts like your Scribe SEO tool. Your tools have all been birthed from listening to your audience.

Brian: Yes, and a lot of times, it was also a software expression of what I was trying to teach. You mentioned Scribe — that technology was actually developed by Sean Jackson, who is now a partner in Copyblogger Media. But at the time, I didn’t know him at all. He had built the software on the principles of SEO applied to content that I had been writing about for years. He saw that it worked, and he wanted a way to help other people, other writers be more efficient at applying those principles. That’s really how Scribe started.

Now, from people using Scribe, thousands and thousands of people have given us feedback, and now Scribe is about to be in its fourth iteration. Radically different. Much better. Yet it started with solid principles that I had been teaching, and evolved with the needs of our user base. So if you’ve heard of agile software development or anything like that, it’s kind of coming out with something fundamental that’s simple, and then evolving it in line with how people actually use it.

What advice do you have for the small-business owner who is having trouble coming up with engaging content?

Brian: I think it’s a real problem. We’re at a time where it’s no longer novel that you need to create engaging content. People understand it. Now the challenge is actually getting it done. And so, early on with Copyblogger, I was talking to the do-it-yourself people, the people who were writers already, business people who liked to write, entrepreneurs who could write. But not everyone is cut out to create great content.

So I think we, as a publication, have a larger responsibility now to change the tone a little bit and say, hey, we’ve got all of this great information if you want to do it yourself, but we also need to start talking about how a small business owner can start seeing himself or herself as a media producer. In other words, not someone who is sitting there writing or creating content, but making it happen.

The analogy might be to a film producer who is really the business person who gets things done rather than the director or the writers or the actors. Instead of traditional avenues of marketing, such as the yellow pages or maybe some print ad or maybe even television or radio spots, you’d have to start thinking about online media as a channel and its own media. You’re not paying someone to access an audience. What you’re trying to do is build an audience. And I think that there’s a big opportunity out there for freelance writers and other people who are creating content because I think the small business people need to connect with content creators in order to get things done.

I think it’s really just the shift away from a lot of traditional media to new media. It requires someone in the organization, whether it be a marketing person or the founder of the company, to think in terms of how to build a media asset and an audience that grows my business through lead generation and conversion into the customers.

Brian, you always write “eyeball-grabbing” headlines for your content and know how to pull in people. You even devote a whole section of your site to writing attractive headlines. What inspires your titles?

Brian: Headlines are the the first thing that people will see, and often, unfortunately, the last thing they see of your content because a shockingly large amount of people will be scanning Twitter or scanning their e-mail inbox or RSS feed reader. You basically live or die by the headline. So if you don’t grab them there, you’ve lost. This is why headlines are so important.

From there, you’re trying to convey something useful. The key to content marketing is “Here is some useful information that is going to help you with a problem or a desire.” And the useful or meaningful aspect needs to be in a headline. Then there’s got to be something else, some sort of fascinating or entertaining element, or ultra-specific high value for why they should read it. I’ve got an 11-part series on headline writing.

There’s an art and a science to writing good headlines. And the science is when you see how much higher a percentage of attention your content gets, versus when you might not try so hard with your headline.

Some people are better at writing headlines than others. But I’m fairly certain that anyone who applies basic principles of headline writing can become better at it. So even if you’re not doing the writing as a business owner, you should be able to spot a good headline when you see it. I think that’s a skill that everyone ought to have.

A while ago, you asked your readers to submit headlines to you, so that you could rewrite them. You even provided great explanations for why you changed them. What elements are you looking for in a great headline?

Brian: Well, there’s some rules of thumb that you sort of check off when you’re learning to write headlines. Later, as you become more experienced, it becomes second nature to you, so you don’t consciously do any kind of checklist. I mean, you just look and you’re, like, that’s either great or good or not very good and needs to be rewritten.

Headlines should be ultra-specific, and it’s something people struggle with. They write these vague headlines and wonder why their otherwise great content is not getting the exposure it deserves. It’s because people glance at the headline and in half a second determine if it’s worth their time. The problem is they’re looking for reasons to say no more than they’re looking to say yes. That’s the kind of battle for attention that we’re in.

Headlines should express something ultra-specific, useful, and unique (such as a pop-culture tie-in, or just something fascinating where they want to see it now).I think if you check off those three things, you’re doing pretty well. There’s another set of three criteria that some people use, which is, again, specific, useful and concise (in this day and age of Twitter). You know, you’ve only got 140 characters to work with.

You’ve built several online companies just based on producing really great content. You started from scratch, and you know what it feels like starting a new website with no traffic. Can you share some advice for the small-business owners or even bloggers trying to promote their new sites?

Brian: Right. We’re now multi-million dollar software company, but we started with no venture capital or angel investments. I think I spent about $1,000 before we ended up profitable. Now, that does not account for all my time. It’s pretty remarkable that you can start a website and create content and never spend a dime on advertising because the content is shared through social media channels by people who find it valuable.

It’s the most amazing kind of marketing there is, and yet, you’re right, it’s not exactly second nature to people to be creating content, to think like a media company. When you’re in the business of selling widgets, you think that’s your business. But in order to get more of those widgets out the door, you’ve got to find a mechanism by which people come to know, like and trust you as a company. And online, that works with content.

I remember back during the first three months of Copyblogger, I was completely unknown. I’d been creating and publishing online for seven years, but I did it in the field of real estate and law. I wasn’t involved as an internet and marketing person. I was just doing it for my own businesses. So no one knew who I was, but I had a plan.

I started writing that first set of tutorials, Copyrighting 101. And the hard part during the initial phase is you’ve got to promote your content. You’ve got to get people to notice you because it doesn’t happen by itself. That’s probably the biggest misunderstanding about content. Eventually when you’ve got an audience, they will spread it for you. You don’t have to go beating down doors to get people to promote your stuff anymore. The trick is getting there.

Back then, I was writing high-value content, and then I was trying to do these premium kind of content events, like a PDF report or just some other kind of thing that would draw attention and try to get the word out. So along the way, you know, I started attracting links by reaching out to people in the space. I said, “Hey, I just wrote this post about headlines. I know you’ve written about blog titles before. Your audience might get a lot of out of this.” And Darren Rowse of ProBlogger was my first big link.

It didn’t happen naturally. It happened from me emailing Darren, who is a wonderfully nice guy, and saying, “Hey, can you take a look?” These days, that kind of cold emailing, especially to big sites, is not going to work. It just doesn’t. Back then, blogging was much more wide open. People were much more generous about linking.

Back then, it was almost unheard of to let someone else on your blog. But how I started was when Darren Rowse wanted to go on vacation. I offered to write a couple of posts to cover while he was gone. Then I wanted to go on vacation about eight months later. So I reached out to five people who were good writers in the little Copyblogger circle that existed at the time. I asked, “Hey, how would you like to guest post while I’m on vacation?” They did, and people loved it.

And now, we’ve had more than 100 of writers who have shown up. The amazing thing about that is they all write for free because they are accessing our audience which I had built initially in order to develop their own audience. So the two smartest things you can do is to build relevant followings in the places where your people are at in social media. That can be Facebook, Google+ and/or Twitter. For B2B, you’re probably best working LinkedIn. So choose two out of the four based on where your audience is.

Then develop a strategy where you contribute content to other people’s sites, which, again, seems counterintuitive. “I’ve got to create all of this content, and you want me to create more and give it to people?” But that’s how you get attention. They’re not just going to link to you, but you can link to yourself by helping them out with a good piece of content for their sites.

The first six months are kind of lonely, but you keep at it. Over the years, your traffic exponentially grows. And hopefully, you’re doing smart things as far as converting traffic into actual customers and clients.

It’s simple, but it’s not easy. We have a whole bunch of guidance at Copyblogger.com. It’s all free, so have it at it.

In a HubSpot interview you did back in 2009, you mentioned that your favorite business bloggers were Seth Godin and Chris Brogan. Do you have any others today?

Jay Baer. His site is ConvinceandConvert.com. He’s a very bright consultant in this space. Very pragmatic. He understands that there has to be a business purpose behind all of this. It’s not about flowers and penguins and ideals, necessarily. It’s about being able to make social media and content work for you. He has a great site.

Seth Godin is still as great today. He does tend to publish more esoteric little nuggets of wisdom as opposed to how-to content, but sometimes that’s the kind of stuff you need to get started in the morning. Also John Jantsch over at DuctTapeMarketing.com.

Since social media went mainstream and content marketing is becoming the norm, you’re starting to see publications like Inc. magazine and Entrepreneur featuring popular bloggers. So, you’re starting to see it all start to come together to a certain degree. But the difference between old media and new media is becoming superfluous. We’re all one big mess now.

Learn more about Brian Clark and ways to create great content for your website by reading Copyblogger.com.

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With online retail in particular, trust is a critical element in building sales. Here’s how to demonstrate your company’s reliability.

Any selling relationship has a lot to do with trust. A salesperson needs to be able to listen, to understand the buyer’s situation, and to know his or her product; vendor name and experience also help break down barriers to doing business. In online sales, trust can be even more important—because a buyer isn’t touching a product, or looking a salesperson in the face. People go through a lot of stress when they buy online doing research, confirming with friends, etc. Especially as the price point of the item/services grows larger. So trust is what relieves the stress of purchasing decisions.

One of the most effective ways we are able to add comfort and trust to the customer’s experience is by constantly talking to our customers–not only before and after a purchase is made, but after the delivery is made as well. What can you do? Call and ask whether customers received what they ordered, and whether they were pleased. By engaging your customers one on one, you not only leave the customer feeling confident about their purchase and your company, you also learn about your business–and some things you may be able to improve on.

Here are a few strategies to build trust online.

Be Available

Make sure you’re there to answer the phone–and if you don’t answer the phone, respond within an hour of the call or email. For instance, if you are open 9 to 6, Monday through Saturday try testing out this protocol. For anybody who calls or emails during those hours guarantee an hour response time for any message left. Remember, there is a lot of competition for your business nowadays. Make sure these customers come back, refer other people and feel secure with their decision. A number of your competitors do have large sites up–but they don’t have a dedicated person there to answer the phone.

Be the Experts

Make sure all of our customer service representatives who answer the phone are expertly versed in what you sell, so they have the expertise to answer the customers’ questions. This allows the customer to feel comfortable with the decision: knowing that your customer service people have the knowledge to answer any question they have.

Be Accommodating

Give the customer an option to return the product within 30 days for any reason. For example, if [something is] damaged [and] they call and report that within two days, they can return it.

Take away: a quick response, industry product knowledge and a strong return policy are critical for building trust–and having happy customers come back.