The first one is free and simply involves creating a Twitter account. You can then post messages on your profile, which can be read by users that follow you. But for those who want more exposure, Twitter has recently expanded its paid ads option, which allows your messages to be seen by Twitter users based on your selected demographic. Many companies, especially large and well known brands, have taken advantage of this paid advertising option.

But now, it seems that Twitter wants to increase the number of small and medium sizes businesses that advertise on its network. The company has made an announcement on November 20th that it is going to give away $100 in ad credits to small businesses that qualify. The conditions to receive the ad credit are quite simple: it requires a business based in the United States, which has a completed Twitter profile and image, sends tweets on a regular basis, hasn’t used Twitter’s paid advertising features before and has at least 20 users following them. The first 10 000 small business who sign up and fulfill these conditions are going to receive the advertising credit in their account and can begin using it right away.

Now, some may think that there isn’t anything spectacular or particularly generous about this offer. And this is actually quite true. Advertising credits have been given out by Google Adwords, Bing and Facebook through various channels. For example, it is common to receive $100 in Google Adwords credits and a $100 Facebook Ads voucher when signing up for a webhosting package. But it seems that Twitter has been a lot slower in rolling out its paid ad services and hasn’t been aggressively going after small business advertisers like Google.

But this seems to be changing and the company is now actively on the lookout for new advertisers, especially small businesses. And it also seems to be working. In fact, all statistics show that Twitter ad revenue has been steadily growing since 2010. This growth is expected to continue again in the next 2 years, with projected Twitter ad revenues reaching $808 million by 2014.

This recent promotion will give small businesses the chance to try out Twitter’s ad service without spending any money. This will give them a more “hands on” look at how Twitter advertising work and they can determine for themselves whether it is likely something that they will want to keep paying for in the future, or if other ad networks will give them better results for their online advertising campaigns.

Organize Your Content Well on Your Site

Don’t just throw articles around randomly on your website. Make sure that it is structured, so that the users can rapidly find the content they’re looking for and also navigate efficiently to the rest of your website. You can consider adding a blog to your main site as a place where you will put most of your articles too.

Your Articles Should Also be Well Structured

Nothing will annoy a reader more than a poorly written article. And this doesn’t simply refer to the quality of the English used either. The general structure of the article should make it easy for the reader to get answers to their questions, without having to go through the entire piece to see if it contains what they’re looking for. Don’t write a wall of text. This is unbearably hard to read. Structure the article by using paragraphs and include lists or bullet points if the type of article that you’re creating can benefit from this.

Vary the Types of Articles You Post

Unless you have a content-based site that is strictly reserved for certain types of articles (such as technology reviews, political commentary, etc), you should try your best to try to vary the type of content that you include on your site. Include some news, company announcements, reviews, how to articles, etc.

Include an Image in the Article

Ever notice how industry magazine articles very often have an image, such as a piece of clip art that is related to the topic? This can serve many purposes, such as focusing the reader’s attention on the article and making it more inviting to read. Just like on this blog, you should include a small image that is related to the topic of your article in it.

Don’t Forget to Let Readers Share Your Content

We’re in 2012 and are living in a world where sharing information through social media has become more commonplace than ever. So why not let readers share your content with others who may be interested in it? Include various social media buttons, like Twitter, Facebook, etc. which will allow readers to share the article with their friends and followers. You can also include an option that will allow the reader to forward the article by email to their friends. Sure, someone dedicated enough to share your article can copy/paste it and share it that way, but we’re not in 1995 anymore. The easier you make it for readers to share your content, the more likely it is that they will actually do so. And this means more readers, more exposure and more traffic to your website.

But the thing is, there is no standard in terms of number of words that defines what is a “good article”. When you measure how a certain article performs, there are numerous things you need to take into consideration. You need to ask yourself: what do I want this article to do? It could be: clicks to the rest of your website, views to the article in order to build up your brand image and reputation, having the article syndicated on other sites, having others post links to the article or getting an overall better ranking on Google.

A good way to approach the question is to ask yourself: what length is required to discuss the topic of the article? If you’re writing something about the economy or politics, a 1 500 word article may be needed. But if you’re writing about “animal shaped mailboxes made out of recycled organic materials”, chances are if you write 1 500 words, you will either go completely off topic, or start repeating yourself over and over again. This will simply bore the reader.

You should also remember that there will be human readers actually reading the content that you put out. In many cases, they’re not reading things just for fun, but are actually looking for an answer to their questions. In some cases, the answer can be provided in 250 words or less. In some other cases, it will take far more than that. When you do a search, you’ve probably had frustrating results where the page you click on either gives just a few bits of vague information that you already knew, or keeps rambling on and on and on and you have to pay close attention to the content to see whether it will eventually contain what you’re looking for or not.

Proper organization and structuring of the article will also matter greatly. If it’s a “How To” article, having well defined paragraphs, with bullet points that contain concise information will be much more satisfying for the reader than a 4 000 word piece of content that looks like a doctoral thesis on the topic. So for example, if someone wants a guide on how to change a watch battery, remember that they’re not coming to the page to read a history of watchmaking or to read several paragraphs where you critique different styles of watches.

The bottom line is, there is no hard and fast rule for article length. Just like with anything else, basic common sense prevails: it should be long enough for its intended purpose and not more.

Know who your audience is and what they want

While you may know what your target market is for your main business, you should also find out more specifically about the visitors to your website. Find out who they truly are, what they’re looking for and what’s important to them. There are many methods available online to truly discover your website’s audience. You may be surprised by the findings.

The point here is that your content should be something that your audience will like and will want to read.

Ask yourself why you’re creating the content

You need to be honest with yourself on this one, as it is something that’s directly linked to what your content marketing campaign is going to achieve. Since you’re running a business and not just creating a website for fun, your goal probably isn’t to “spread knowledge and increase the global intelligence levels”.

But you need to know what the purpose of the content will be. Is it to get people to know your brand better, to know that you’re out there and you exist? Do you want to establish yourself as an authority in your niche? Do you want to offer your readers solutions to their problems, while pointing them to how your company’s products and services can solve them? Do you want clicks on your PPC ads, or visitors to buy something from affiliate offers that you’re promoting?

All of these are valid objectives that your campaign can have. Of course, the list is not exhaustive and you can have some other things in mind too. But the most important thing here is that you know WHY you’re creating the content in the first place.

How often will you post things?

We’re not talking about SEO methods here, so you can forget the “post something every day” rule. You need to know how often you will be posting things. Will it be whenever you have something meaningful to say, or will you follow a certain schedule? If so, what will the schedule be: every day, every few days, every week, every month, etc.?

While posting on a regular schedule can have SEO benefits and also bring in some regular readers, you should be careful not to start posting just for the sake of posting. If you keep repeating the same things over and over, post bland content or simply restate what was said on other websites a million times already, people will rapidly lose interest in your content.

What Type of Content Will You Use?

“Content” usually refers to the written word, but there are other types as well, such as infographics, videos, and other multimedia. Think of what content types will fit your company well and will interest your visitors. Remember that you can mix content types as well, such as an article that contains an infographic within the body that provides a visual complement.

If you’re serious about deploying a content marketing strategy for your business, then you need to do things in a well planned way. You wouldn’t start a Google Adwords campaign without doing the proper research beforehand. You shouldn’t start content marketing without a plan either. Before you even define your objectives and see what you want to accomplish by using this kind of marketing approach, there are a few questions that you need to ask yourself.

Here are some of the main ones:

Do you really know your company and your brand?

You may say “sure I do!” but when it comes to creating content, you need to ask yourself: what exactly does my company do and what is its purpose. What do you want it to do in the future and how do you want to get there successfully. This will help guide you into producing the right kind of content.

You also need to be aware of your brand and its overall style. Do you want to keep going as you’ve been doing right now, or are there certain things you want to change? If until now, you’ve taken a more traditional and serious approach, it may not be a good idea to start loading every page with jokes and using memes just because it “looks cool” and you’ve seen others do it. If your brand isn’t that popular online yet, changing direction may be possible, but you should know that it will affect the way your audience sees your company for a long time. Therefore, you need to think about both the short and long term implications of the content that you’re going to post online for marketing purposes.

These are the two main things that you need to reflect about when you’re starting an online content marketing campaign. Of course, there are other elements that you need to keep in consideration to build a complete marketing strategy that you can use in the long term. There are additional elements that we will explore tomorrow and will give you a clearer picture.

One of the first things mentioned in the survey is that young adults, between 18 and 35 years of age are much more likely to use mobile devices when transacting online, of which a sizable proportion prefer their mobile device as their primary way of shopping online. Of course, this isn’t really a surprise, as we all knew that younger people are more likely to use mobile technology and to shop online on a mobile as opposed to a PC. The survey of 1 500 adults in the USA shows that those under 35 have a 30% chance of saying that they enjoy using the internet more on their mobile device than on a PC.

Additionally, 47% of users state that they’ve clicked an ad they saw on a mobile web page or an app. 55% made a mobile purchase within the last 6 months, however this also includes “mobile specific” content, such as music, images, ringtones, apps, etc. The same amount (55%) admit to using their smartphone to make comparisons between prices offered by different merchants at least once a week.

But what is even more important for online merchants is this: 50% of users indicated that they shared coupon codes, sales materials or promotions with others by using a mobile device at least once during the past month. A good proportion of these users (19%) are even more engaged and responded that they share this type of material 3 times or more every month.

What this means to marketers is simple: create mobile ads and use marketing materials or strategies that are easily shared via social media. Coupons are among the favorite type of content by those who share online shopping information, for several reasons. First, they don’t seem as “spammy” as just sharing an ad. Second, they allow the user’s friends to save money, so if someone is happy with getting a good deal thanks to the use of a coupon code or link, they are more likely to share that happiness with their friends, especially if they believe that these friends will be interested in the type of merchandise sold and will benefit from the coupon.

Drivers Budget Conscious Customers and Comparison Shoppers

One of the main reasons people shop online is because they have the ability to quickly and easily compare prices between different retailers. An ever increasing number of people are more conscious of how much money they’re spending when shopping online and they want to get the best deals. This is why searches for coupon codes are getting a lot of traction on Google. Sure, some people may simply buy something because it had a flashy ad, or will just buy whatever they want without considering the price. But unless your target audience is “lazy rich people”, including coupons as part of your marketing strategy will be a good idea.

Encourages Affiliates to Promote Your Site

There are now thousands of websites which list coupon codes for various e-commerce sites. If you do a search for [merchant name] + coupon on Google, you will see plenty of them pop up. Some are specific to a certain genre of retailer, while others are more general coupon sharing sites. But those who run these websites don’t do this simply for fun. As you’ve probably noticed, they include affiliate links to the sites that they have coupons for, so that when someone uses a coupon from their website and clicks through to the merchant, they will get a commission. There are many other affiliate sites which promote specific merchants more simply because they offer discount and coupon codes that make them more attractive to their audience. Therefore, making coupons available gives an incentive for your affiliates to promote your site more. It can create a win-win-win scenario for everyone: the customer gets a lower price, the affiliate gets a commission and you get increased traffic and sales to your business.

It Encourages Social Sharing

Coupon codes for online shopping sites are rapidly becoming an item that is shared a lot on various social media sites. In fact, people are far more likely to talk about an online shopping site if they offer discounts, special promotions and coupon codes. If you include coupons on your social media page, this draws more attention to your post and makes it more likely that it will be shared. Tomorrow we will take a more detailed look at how coupons can be a part of your social media marketing strategy. If you’re thinking of making your social media use more efficient, including them in your posts can be a definite way to turn things around for your business.

In the online world, coupons work a bit differently than with physical stores, as there is no face to face transaction going on. Online coupons can come in these formats:

A Discount or Promotion Link

Here the buyer clicks on a link, which can be a text link, video, banner or full page ad. They are redirected to a landing page that reflects the promotion that they’re supposed to get, such as a buy one get one free offer, a discount off the purchase price or free shipping.

A Coupon Code to Enter at Checkout

Here, the buyer would enter a discount code in a field during the checkout process. Coupon codes can be shared with the targeted audience through various means, such as email, social media, affiliate sites, etc. There are now thousands of sites whose only purpose is to list coupons for various merchants. People share coupon codes with offers, as well as give feedback to tell visitors whether the coupon is still valid.

Daily Deals or Time Limited Special Offers

Not really a coupon, per se, but works on a similar concept. An e-commerce site makes a special promotion that is only valid during a certain time period, usually a day or a few days. The promotion is mainly shared through the company’s own marketing efforts or through affiliate sites.

Discounts and Coupons Aimed at Specific Customers

Here, the promotion is not available to the public, but rather to select customers, usually those who have already purchased something from the site in the past. Sometimes, it is a rather large group of customers who gets the promotion, such as those who bought something in the past few months, or the customers could be hand selected by the merchant. This can be combined with loyalty programs.

Can coupons really help you as an e-commerce site owner? This is the question that many online retailers are asking. In reality, coupons can have many benefits to online merchants and help them drive more sales, even if it results in lower profits for some transactions, as the customer will essentially be paying less for their items. Tomorrow we will see some ways in which integrating coupons as part of your overall marketing strategy can help you get more sales and in the long run make more money from your e-commerce business.

According to traffic going from publishers to various merchants, 16% of users are on mobile devices and 84% of users are on PCs. Another similar compilation of stats was released by Web Meters, which included information from page counter applications such as StatCounter. According to the data, 11% of all web traffic in the United States is coming from mobile users, as opposed to 89% being generated from regular PCs. This has remained rather stable from 2011 to this year, which means that mobile traffic still has a long way to go before it dethrones the PC completely.

But there’s another interesting statistic regarding web usage. Site abandonment, or bounce rates, are higher on mobile traffic than for PCs. They hover around 10% according to a few different sources on the web. There are a few reasons behind this and what you can do to prevent site abandonment:

Sites not built for mobiles. If a user sees that the website can’t display properly, they will simply leave and visit one that does. Hence the importance of building a mobile version of your site and testing it with several different mobile browsers to see if it works well. The testing should be comprehensive and done on all pages of your site, ensuring that design elements are well displayed on the smaller screen and that the text remains easily readable.

Information not quickly available. Mobile sites should be direct and to the point. Many mobile users want to find something in a hurry. They don’t have the time and patience to go through 50 different pages on a site before they finally find what they wanted. Furthermore, the smaller screen of the mobile devices makes conducting long research a tad uncomfortable. Check how your site is designed. Your users should be able to quickly find your business information, prices and products. If you let them make purchases on your mobile site, then the entire process, from product selection to checkout, should be as simple as possible.

Sites loading too slowly. While the speeds of mobile networks has gone up with the introduction of 4G and LTE networks in many places, in general, browsing the web on a mobile is a tad slower than browsing on a PC. Combined with the fact that mobile users are often in a bit of a hurry, if your site is too slow to display, they leave. Ensure that your mobile site is designed in a way that uses as little bandwidth as possible, while remaining functional and visually appealing. The faster it loads for the user, the more likely they are to do business with you as opposed to leaving.

Recent numbers show that while Android based tablet devices are gaining a bigger market share day by day, there has yet to be a significant increase in web traffic from these devices. Therefore, as many could have guessed by now, the iPad is currently at the top of tablet generated traffic. Market Watch recently published the results of a study that was done by mobile publishing firm Onswipe. According to the report results, over 98 percent of tablet based traffic was generated from the iPad. This means that less than 2 percent of traffic is coming from other tablets. Other sources tell a similar tale. A Tech Guru study shows that 94% of all web traffic from tablet devices involves users with an iPad.

There are some other interesting facts that came to light with the study. Users on an iPad are a lot more likely to spend time on a web page. In fact, iPad users spend 56% more time on a site than iPhone users. This can be explained by the bigger screen and better suitability for web browsing of the device, which makes it more comfortable for users to actually spend time reading what’s on a page.

As for time spent using the device, the Kindle Fire from Amazon actually outranks the iPad. However, this shouldn’t come too much as a surprise to online marketers, considering the fact that the original Kindle was meant to be used as an e-reader to view books and documents, rather than as an internet browsing device. This is something that is still seen today. A lot of users who have a Kindle Fire use it to read books and online magazines and spend very little time browsing the web, even if the new version of the Kindle is in color and offers web browsing, plus integrated social networking functionality. Unless Amazon’s device gains a lot of market share in the near future, this isn’t expected to change much either.

What does all of this mean to marketers? Users of iPad tablets spend a lot of time browsing the web with their devices and it is rapidly becoming a replacement for the full featured PC in the hands of many users. Developing websites that are compatible with the iPad, as well as creating advertising campaigns that are focused towards the users of this tablet are some things that marketers can do to profit from it. Of course, it is possible that Android based devices may pick up some steam in the coming years, but for now, they still have a lot of catching up to do.