After talking blogs, Facebook, Vlogs, and the social communications scene in Sweden, I wanted to talk to a content provider.
Sharon Hurley Hall
Sharon, who is from the UK, specialises in web content and search engine optimized (SEO) web copy. She also does a lot of ghostwriting and ghost blogging.
I definitely recommend you follow Sharon on Twitter. She also blogs at Get Paid to Write Online.
Questions
Jon Buscall: What is the best way for a new business looking to embrace content marketing to get started?
Sharon Hurley Hall: The best approach is to forget about the idea of marketing in the traditional sense. People are tired of having the same old stuff pushed at them via the same old channels. Think instead about what you can provide that’s relevant to your customer and that your customer will find valuable. In a sense you are not selling your product, but showing off your expertise.
If your customers find value in the content you provide, then you will become a go-to resource – and *then* they may buy your product or service.
Jon Buscall: Do you think that a comprehensive content marketing strategy can completely or partially replace traditional advertising and marketing?
Sharon Hurley Hall: I’m not an expert, but there are lots of online examples of people who have built successful businesses simply by marketing content. Consider Brian Clark’s Copyblogger blog, for example, where valuable information is given away free every day.
As far as I can tell – and I speak subject to correction – Brian has built a following by giving away good free stuff, so that when he’s got something to sell, people are falling over themselves to sign up.
That can work for any business, if the business knows what information the customer wants and can provide it.
Jon Buscall: I see you’ve written an E-book. Should E-books (still!) be a core component of a small business marketing strategy?
Sharon Hurley Hall: E-books aren’t going anywhere. Although people don’t want to pay a lot for them, the popularity of the Kindle and ebook reading programmes for mobile phones shows that there is a market for them.
download Sharon's ebook
As with other content, it highlights your expertise and, where appropriate, you can highlight how what you offer can solve the customer’s problem. Of course, as a writer, I would say that. 
Jon Buscall: What can businesses do to make email newsletters (more) successful? (tips, tricks, suggestions?)
Sharon Hurley Hall: I got a great tip from one of my newsletter readers. He suggested that I put a signup form at the end of the newsletter along with a call to readers to pass the newsletter along. This has resulted in a couple of new subscribers each month.
Email newsletters have to be part of an overall content management strategy. Make them targeted, offer something that you are not already offering through other channels, make them attractive. Most of all, keep them relatively short and don’t send them too often and seek feedback actively.
Jon Buscall: There’s a lot of discussion in the blogosphere about successful content being centered on helping customers to learn or find solutions to questions. How do we make it easier for customers to transition from learning from a business to actually buying?
Sharon Hurley Hall: Let me put my customer hat on for a minute. Say I visit a site regularly and I find useful information every time I visit on Topic X. After a few visits, I will probably recommend the site to other people. If I am looking for a product related to Topic X, that site will be the first place I go – and since I already trust the information, provided everything else stacks up, then I will buy from the company. It’s about trust, and a business can create that by providing useful content and avoiding the hard sell.
Bonus Question: I’m very focussed on online content; however, can print publications (as opposed to online content) still be a powerful weapon in a company’s content marketing arsenal?
Sharon Hurley Hall: I wouldn’t write off print just yet; a lot of people still love it. Eventually, I suppose we will get to a time where people don’t know anything other than being online – but we’re not there yet even in the Western world and there are many parts where internet access is an occasional luxury or out of reach altogether.
I have seen many content producers make both print and electronic versions of their books, courses and other publications to cater for both online and offline audiences. I think that’s a smart move.
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