Posts Tagged ‘content marketing’


Posted on August 17, 2010 - by

How to Convert Your Blog or Newsletter Content into PDF, Audio and Video

How to Convert Your Blog or Newsletter Content into PDF, Audio and Video

There are a number of ways you can reuse your blog and newsletter content. It doesn’t matter how old or new it is. It just needs to be relevant at the time you’ll be reusing it.

Converting your content to various formats allows you to reach many content consumers, thus, boosting your traffic level and conversions. It’s like killing two birds with one stone; in our case, getting more leads with one content.

I’ve divided this article article into three parts:

  1. How to Convert your blog and Newsletter articles into PDF;
  2. How to Convert Your Blog and Newsletter articles into Audio; and
  3. How to Convert Your Blog and Newsletter articles into Video.

By the way, if you need some lead generation and content ideas and haven’t already seen these posts, check them out. They are related to this content marketing related article:

25 Blog or Newsletter Topic Ideas For Company Bloggers

10 Ways to Generate Leads With Social Media

Now let’s look at converting old text content to PDF.

1. How to Convert your blog and Newsletter articles into PDF

PDF documents are popular lead baits for many online marketers. How do you use them in your marketing? If you publish a blog or a newsletter, we’ll be looking at how to convert them into marketable PDFs.

Before we begin, here are tools you’ll need:

Don’t worry if you don’t have any of the tools mentioned above. I’ll show you where to get some.

Converting Blogs to PDF:

There are two ways you can convert your blog into a PDF document:

  • The manual way and
  • The automated way.

The manual way requires some time to complete but the automated way doesn’t. The manual way is also the best way to convert your old newsletter content into a downloadable PDF document.

We’ll be looking at both methods of PDF creation.

Manual conversion:

Follow the following steps to convert your blog into PDF:

  1. Open your text editing software (I use Microsoft Word)
  2. Go to your blog and copy some of your best articles and paste them into the text editing software
  3. Format your content; text size, alignment, colors, etc. Strategically place the retweet buttons in your content; preferably, on the first page and in the footer of every other page. Save everything.
  4. Import your saved document into your PDF making software. If you don’t have any, you can buy the latest version of Foxit Phantom or use Bullzip (free).
  5. Design your cover, using your graphic design software. I use Photoshop because you can easily save your finished design as PDF. After designing your cover in Photoshop, save it as a PDF.
  6. Insert your cover design into your PDF document just before the first page. If you’re using Foxit Phantom, go to “Organize” and “Insert Pages” on the menu bar.
  7. Now you can add links to your retweet buttons. This tutorial from Social Media Examiner will help you do just that: How to Add Retweet Buttons in Your PDF Documents
  8. Add other links to your content if you like. Save everything when you’re done.
  9. Your PDF is done and ready to be used as lead bait for your newsletter subscribers.

If you think the manual way of converting your content is long and boring, you can use the automated way.

The automated way of repackaging your content to PDF documents works best with blog posts than with newsletter content.

You can use Zinepal to convert your blog posts into PDF. If you want more control over the formatting and design, you’ll need to purchase a premium version of the service.

You can find step-by-step guides on Zinepal to help you in your PDF creation. If you’ve already installed social sharing buttons on your blog, Zinepal shows them in your finished PDF document so you don’t have to go through the struggle of inserting them in your post manually.

You can also use PDF24 if your blog is on WordPress.

Marketing Your PDF

Read this article to get ideas for promoting your PDF: 11 Easy Tips For Better Content Marketing

PART 2: Converting Blog Content to Audio

First of all, you don’t have to convert all your text content to audio. You’ll have to convert your best articles to audio. You can have a schedule for producing audio content. You can record audio content once a week, twice a month, once a month or you can use any schedule that you see fit.

There are two ways of converting text content to audio; the automated way and the manual way.

Services that can help you automatically convert your blog’s content to audio are:

These services use text to speech converting technology to change all your text content into various formats of audio so that your readers can download your content and upload it on their mp3 players, their PCs or iPod.

If you want to do the conversion manually, it’s pretty simple too.

Tools you’ll need to do a manual text to audio conversion are:

  • PC mic
  • A Computer
  • Content
  • Audio editing software (use Audacity. It is free and simple to use).

The process is simple. All you have to do is to install Audacity on your computer, install your mic and then start recording. After recording, save your audio in different audio formats so that you can share it in different ways and on different services.

Marketing Your Audio Content

1. Upload it to iTunes as a podcast

2. Start your own radio show on Blog Talk Radio

3. Create a blog category for your audio content so that your visitors can easily find and download them.

Part 3 Video post:

Videos are among the most powerful promotional tools you can ever use in your marketing. There is no doubt about that since most of the video sites receive tons of traffic and daily views.

There are a number of ways you can convert your text content to video.

  1. You could make video screencasts
  2. You could choose to just stand in front of a camera and talk to your audience
  3. You could make physical product presentation videos.
  4. You could also stand in front of a black board to give a lecture on one of your topics

The type of content you have will determine what video you should do for it.

  1. Screencasts are mostly used for on-screen tutorials of how to use a product or service or to explain how something works.
  2. Videos where you just stand and talk are better for content that carry announcements.
  3. Physical product presentation videos are videos you can use to showcase your company’s physical products
  4. Videos where you give a lecture using a blackboard as your aid are great for explaining situations and outcomes. They are similar to screen casts but definitely not the same.

If you want to create screencasts, you’ll need these tools:

  • Screen casting software: You can use Camtasia (premium) or Screenr(free)
  • PC microphone: To record your voice
  • Computer

If you want to create any other form of video, you’ll need a video camera and probably a microphone to record everything.

Promoting Your Videos

  1. Upload your videos to video sharing sites like Metacafe, Youtube, BlipTV, Vimeo, etc.
  2. Copy the embed codes for your videos and place them on your website or blog.
  3. Practice video SEO.

Conclusion:

I hope this article gave you some ideas for your content marketing campaign. The next article I’ll be sharing will be on video SEO (video search engine optimization). I’ll walk you through how to get your videos easily found and watched on video sharing sites like Youtube.

Subscribe to the RSS feed to be notified when that post is live.

As usual, your comments and points concerning this article are always welcome and appreciated.

Photo Credit

http://sociatic.com/marketing/general-tips-marketing/content-marketing-strategy/

Posted on August 5, 2010 - by

11 Easy Tips For Better Content Marketing

11 Easy Tips For Better Content Marketing

Do you use content to drive traffic and generate leads? Content marketing has become the preferred means of marketing for many businesses. It’s a great strategy for attracting leads to your business. Blogs, whitepapers, online videos, podcasts and other content forms are there to show us the truth behind content marketing.

If your content is not getting you the results you want or even if you are new to content marketing, there is good news. It’s possible to change.

With that setting the stage, here are 11 tips to help you in your content marketing.

1. Have a goal: When you’re planning your content, set a goal for it. What do you want to achieve with your content? Perhaps, you want it to get you more newsletter signups or more sales for your products. The best way to set goals for your content is to categorize them. For example, you can categorize your content like this: drive traffic, generate leads, generate sales, etc. Delving further:

  • List posts: Drive traffic. Traffic may convert to leads
  • Downloadable Documents: Increase traffic conversions to leads
  • Customer reviews/ testimonials/ case studies: Convert traffic and leads to sales

Categorizing and setting goals like this helps you choose the right words to use to achieve your content marketing goals.

2. Produce enlightening content frequently: The two keywords here are “enlightening” and “frequently”. When you produce great content, people will want to share it and subscribe to your RSS feed or newsletter. Teach people in your industry new ways to do things. If you disagree with an accepted norm in your industry, produce content to debunk it and share it with top players in your industry.

When you produce great content, people talk about you on their blogs. When you produce great content, your business grows. When you produce great content… the goodies goes on and on and on.

3. Analyze and Proofread: After planning and producing your content, take your time and double check for errors. If you’re unsure of any mistakes, work with someone who is better at spelling and grammar to help you out. Also make sure your content is easy to understand and is convincing enough especially when you are using it as a sales tool or to debunk a theory.

 4. Stack up content ideas: Plan your content ahead of time. This reduces the probability of not having any content to share when you want to produce content. I keep a word document with many content ideas so I’m not often faced with writers block. Stacking up content ideas also helps you write great content because you have a mental picture of what you’ll be writing about.

5. Use different content formats: Don’t only rely on text to promote your business. Use graphics, PDFs, audio, and video. People want to be spoiled with choice when it comes to giving them content. They want to watch screen casts of what you are talking about. They want to listen to your content on their mp3 players. They also want your content on their desktops in document format.

6. Stay informed: Be attentive online. Subscribe to blogs in your niche. Set up alerts on Social Mention and Google to track news and articles with keywords you’ll be interested in. Learn about new marketing opportunities. Learn about new trends. Use the information you collect to keep your content and strategies up to date.

7. Manage your time: Having a time-table or to-do list is a great way to manage your time as a content marketer. Producing great content can take some time so you need to give yourself enough time when you are producing content. Learn how to manage your time so that you’re ready when you feel the urge to create content.

8. Network Effectively: Do you want influential bloggers to link to you or talk about your product? Then don’t just follow and friend them on social networking sites. Most of them won’t follow or friend you back anyway. You’ll have to prove yourself worthy to be talked about by networking properly with them.

Start by commenting on their blogs and joining in their conversations on social media and networking sites. Leave insightful comments on their status updates. If you don’t have anything to say, don’t say anything. You can also contribute an article to their blog.

Another great way to network is to use interviews. Interview opinion leaders about the latest industry trends or get yourself interviewed by bloggers.

Networking gets you noticed. When you get noticed, you’ll be talked about on these blogs and their readers will also notice you and talk about you on their blogs.

 9. Do your research: When you’re not sure of something, do some research online. Never add statements and quotes to your content without finding out whether they’re right or not. If you make a mistake with this, people will question the credibility of the rest of the information you’re giving them.

10. Identify and use content aggregators: Some websites are programmed to aggregate and show content from various sources. I call these sites content outlets. These sites will help you reach a larger audience with your content. Some examples are Social Media Today, The Daily Brainstorm, The Customer Collective, Alltop, etc.

11. Think SEO: If you publish text, audios and videos, you have to always think S.E.O. when producing your content. You’ll have to optimize your titles and use the right key words in your descriptions. It’s the only way you’ll reach more people.

Conclusion:

What strategies do you use in your content marketing? Share them with me.

Next week, I’ll start a series of articles that will show you how to reuse your blog and newsletter ideas to generate more leads. You’ll learn new things including video and audio SEO. Subscribe to the RSS feed in order not to miss this.

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