Momentum!

Momentum!
Randy Milanovic releases the next chapter in his book on your online presence. 
Pro Tip: Continuous activity doesn't have to mean constant activity. You won't give over all of your responsibilities to maintain your content marketing full-time, but your content and networking schedules should be regular and frequent enough that your social profiles and blog don't become or appear stagnant.

#webpresence  

Originally shared by Randy Milanovic

FREE CHAPTER Better Business Websites book, 10 Strategies for Online Success, Chapter 9: Moving Your Campaigns Forward With Continuous Activity

So, you've just built a killer new site. Great, we can get started now.

Don’t think you’re finished just because you have all the right website elements in place. You haven't put in all this effort just to set it and forget it. If you did that, your site would actually lose momentum.

Getting your business website to where you want it to be is a little like pedaling a bike uphill. It can be hard work at first, but if you are persistent, you'll fall into a rhythm. You won’t have to expend as much energy to keep moving forward, but if you stop peddling, you’ll eventually come to a halt and maybe even roll all the way back down the hill. (see: Stephan Hovnanian's post on content marketing strategy here: http://goo.gl/RW66Fw )

That’s the last thing you want, especially if you have done the hard work of building a lead-generating business website in the first place.

Fresh Content Is Always Needed

The one thing that you’ll always need to keep adding to your website is fresh content. Although that will often come in the form of articles and blog posts, it can also include social updates, photos, online videos, and virtually anything else you could think of, including added pages.

One reason to keep feeding your website new content is to keep climbing (or stay on top of) search rankings. Google and the other search engines separate the ones that are active and evolve over time with new content updates, crawling them more often, and the ones that are lower-priority because content is updated infrequently, or not at all.

To put it another way, if Google already knows what’s on your site, and knows that it won’t be changing anytime soon, there really isn’t any reason to waste resources coming back to visit.

The more important reason, however, is that fresh content gives potential customers a reason to return as well.

Every business and industry is in a state of change at any given moment, and people might want to stop by to see if you have new ideas, products, or specials... but only if they think their visit is likely to be worth the time. (check out Vincent Messina's post on formulating Personas to write to here. http://goo.gl/0e8WuG )

Luckily for you, there are always great topics for fresh content out there. All you have to do is keep adding to your list of ideas (the one I suggested you start earlier when you create your editorial calendar) and keep turning those inspirations into new pieces of content.

Add New Offers and Keep Them Updated

Add offers or updating the ones you already have. This is something you should consider doing on a regular basis, at least once or twice a year if not more often. Ideally, you should be introducing a new offer (reason to visit your site) at least quarterly.

As your customers, competitors, and market conditions change, the information you want to use to attract new prospects is likely to evolve as well. Or, you could decide that a different kind of offer could help you break into a new market, or attract a different kind of customer. And of course, something that you have written or recorded several months or years ago could become out of date, or it could be made useful again with a couple of small changes.

Keeping your offers current and up to date is a great way to add new interest for your website. It also gives you an excuse (let's call it what it is) to get in touch with existing contacts.

Stay in Touch With Buyers You’ve Already Identified

Although I’ve discussed lead nurturing and auto responders to a certain degree in previous chapters, it’s worth pointing out that, regardless of where your existing contacts are in the sales cycle, you can still keep engaging them with new offers and ideas.

One of the most common ways to accomplish this is by sending a personalized email, newsletter, or blog article compilation. Although we aren’t in favor of the way most companies actually use email (usually as a method to annoy people by reminding them of marketing messages, rather than contributing fresh ideas), it can be deployed effectively if it’s used to inform people about new offers and reports that are helpful to them, or to encourage them to take some small action that moves them further along their buyer journey and deeper into your sales funnel.

The difference between these two approaches, as always, is in the quality of the content and the relevance to the reader.

New Activity Keeps Your Website and Online Marketing Fresh

Adding content like this gives your marketing new dimensions, and keeps your business website up to date. More importantly, though, it keeps your company in a forward-thinking mode, and stops you from doing the same old things month after month, which is one of the easiest ways to kill any online marketing success you have realized in the past.

Don’t expect that you’ll have to make a giant effort every month just to keep your business website going, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that you can build it up with content and offers once and then forget about it, either. )

The Internet is a very big place, and promoting your site so it stands out among the others — and your business stands above the rest — is an ongoing challenge you can rise to.

I trust you've found this chapter as helpful as the previous ones. "Activity" is the key to transforming your website into a business site. Some call it the fuel, some call it campaigning. Whatever you call it, please remember to keep ongoing activity top of your mind. This is how you'll achieve the real ROI for your website investment.

BONUS material:
Pro Tip: Continuous activity doesn't have to mean constant activity. You won't give over all of your responsibilities to maintain your content marketing full-time, but your content and networking schedules should be regular and frequent enough that your social profiles and blog don't become or appear stagnant.
Resources: Keep your regular activity on track with the EMA Toolkit (http://goo.gl/A8Ch8Q)
Further Reading: Are You Attracting Prospects or Just Looking for Attention? (http://goo.gl/LRLYNo)
Video:  Check out the #SMTpowertalk  with guest Gideon Rosenblatt, host David Amerland along with Alexandra Riecke-Gonzales as they talk about  #socialbusiness .

Missed the previous chapters? Go check 'em out!

Strategy 8: Using Offers to Feed Your Sales Funnel
https://plus.google.com/112138989808817331242/posts/CBf9cNAdmLU

Strategy 7: Reaching Farther with Social Media
https://plus.google.com/112138989808817331242/posts/GuNMExCiG4b

Strategy 6: Getting the Most From the Art of Findability
https://plus.google.com/112138989808817331242/posts/gdFo9JbsyjZ

Strategy 5: Using Your Blog as the Centerpiece of Your Content Strategy
https://plus.google.com/112138989808817331242/posts/LA2htgqjhyK

Strategy 4: Empowering Your Company To Do More on Your Own
https://plus.google.com/112138989808817331242/posts/6T9hyFh6d11

Strategy 3: Distilling Your Message into Unforgettable Content
https://plus.google.com/112138989808817331242/posts/SYKRsNxBzVG

Strategy 2: Making the Structure of your Business Website Customer-Friendly
https://plus.google.com/112138989808817331242/posts/Fw2uHB487T2

Strategy 1: Putting Marketing Insight To Use
https://plus.google.com/112138989808817331242/posts/Zdbp59fHP4x

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