Depending on what you’re promoting, though, keyword campaigns can cost a lot of coin: If you want to include the word “insurance,” for instance, you could be paying a hefty $54.91 per click—which provides no guarantee that the clicker will purchase your services or even call you. If you don’t prepare for a campaign, you could be wasting a lot of money.

Here’s how to do it right.

Choose your keywords carefully - If you don’t want to pay the equivalent of a dinner out for every new site visitor, seek “long-tail” keywords that aren’t searched for quite as often. Instead of simply using “homeowner’s insurance” as a keyword phrase, try something more specific (and cheaper): “homeowner’s insurance in Florida,” for instance. Google’s Keyword Tool can help you find the right phrases for your needs and budget.

Use multiple campaigns - AdWords permits you to run up to 25 keyword campaigns at once, so focus on creating a number of compelling ads aimed at different audiences and using different keywords related to your site. If you sell shoes, run an ad for UGGS aimed at teens, and one for Orthaheels aimed at their grandparents.

Monitor your results and adapt your campaigns accordingly - Log into both your AdWords account and your site analytics account daily to learn how many people are clicking on your ads, and, of those people, how many site visitors are “converting” (performing a set action, such as buying a product or signing up for your newsletter). If the number of clicks is lower than you’d like, switch up your keywords to increase visitors; if the conversions are low, look at ways to optimize your AdWords landing pages so that visitors will turn into buyers.

Hannaford’s Fresh Magazine - The New England grocery store chain has its headquarters in Scarborough, Maine, and prides itself on providing fresh, locally-grown fruit and produce. The store offers a custom magazine, Fresh, which features content such as profiles of local farmers and producers; tips on entertaining; nutrition advice; and plenty of recipe featuring products available at Hannaford. The magazine is available for a nominal $2 fee, or free with a purchase of $25 or more. Fresh is well-written and well-produced, and serves as a great outlet to help Hannaford get its customers inspired to do even more home cooking.

L.L. Bean’s “The First Hundred Years” - L.L. Bean has built its brand on traditional, durable, outdoors apparel and gear. So instead of following the latest trends, the company is building nostalgic value by focusing on the L.L. Bean story with an interactive timeline that harkens all the way back to the creation of the Bean Boot in 1911. Though L.L. Bean’s content marketing program is more self-promotional in nature than Hannaford’s magazine, it helps to place the company as a timeless brand in customers’ minds.

Tom’s of Maine - Tom’s of Maine (producers of natural toothpaste, deodorant, and other bath products) has an eco-conscious, hippie vibe, so it’s no surprise that the company’s blog focuses on clever tips for greening your life, such as “DIY Valentines from the Recycling Bin” for the upcoming holiday.  Employees also show their ethics with posts about their volunteer activities, such as Bill’s story about bike-riding for MS. Tom’s of Maine’s blog fits its company to an all-natural, eco-friendly T.

Bates News - Bates College, the small liberal-arts school in Lewiston, has a clean, elegant web presence and compelling web content to draw in prospective students, engage current students, and keep alums connected to their alma mater. The site features multimedia profiles of students, alumni, and faculty, such as a recent audio slideshow of student David Longdon’s summer internship with a local sustainable agriculture program. The site also includes links to Bates-related news from other sources, which can help enhance the school’s credibility.

LiveWorkPortland - This site is funded by the Portland, Maine city government, with the aim of attracting qualified candidates to move to the Portland community and start businesses or work for area employers. The vibrant website includes profiles of up-and-coming “people to watch” in the Portland community; a blog that features trends, news, and events; resource guides for people considering moving to Portland; and a new in-person social network. In my view, it’s an ideal snapshot of a thriving creative community that I’m proud to be a part of.

Starting a company blog is simple and low-cost. It’s a way to establish subject matter authority, generate sales leads, and network with prospects and other industry professionals. But if you want to rise to the top of the RSS reader, there are a few things to think about. Hawkins Multimedia has done content strategy and blog content development for dozens of clients, ranging from one-man businesses to global enterprises, and discovered a few common threads in what makes for compelling web content.

1. They speak to a focused niche. I like ice cream. Do you like ice cream? Great! But I’m not basing my business around selling ice cream, so this may well be the only time I ever mention it here. (FYI: the strawberry balsamic from Gelato Fiasco is divine.) The best corporate and small business blogs I’ve seen take a broad issue and discuss the ins-and-outs of it, rather than treating their blogs as personal journals. Take Intuit’s Small Business Blog for example: The company’s accounting software products are aimed at small business owners, and the blog provides tons of useful tips and insights on all aspects of entrepreneurship. (Disclosure: I write for it, but I’d read it even if I didn’t.)
2. They provide useful advice. Providing value to others is a key component of all types of content marketing. That doesn’t always mean attracting customers; many great blogs offer advice and insight for others in the same profession, such as my colleague Susan Johnston’s wonderful Urban Muse blog for freelance writers. It’s about putting the sales pitch on hold and focusing on helping others for free. When you do that, people will take notice and look to you as an industry expert. That can lead to referrals from colleagues, and work inquiries from prospects.
3. They stay on top of the news. If you’re focused on a narrow industry, it’s worth your while to stay on top of what’s happening on a day-to-day basis. Write about hot topics like Facebook’s IPO or the Komen Foundation’s funding misstep, thinking about what the news means for your industry or how the story can serve as a case study of a larger issue. In addition to coming across as relevant and insightful, you’ll probably pick up some extra keyword traffic.
4. They offer timeless content. In addition to analyzing recent news, most compelling blogs also focus on providing evergreen advice and tutorials on topics that people will never stop searching for. The topic of overcoming writer’s block, for instance, is a timeless subject; Men with Pens, a copywriting advice site, provides great tips on dealing with this problem that will be relevant whether you read them tomorrow or five years from now.
5. They’re focused on conversation. The best business blogs aren’t about lecturing readers; they’re about communicating with them. They link, reference, and respond to other blogs on similar themes. In addition to providing advice, they accept it willingly. They’re willing to learn from commenters and take criticism in stride. Michelle Rafter’s WordCount blog for writers, for instance, offers a fantastic Q&A section for responding to reader questions and concerns.

Hawkins Multimedia’s blog is just-hatched, but we’re hoping we can create content that meets all of those criteria. Tell us, what do you admire in a business blog? I’d love to see more examples of businesses who are doing things right.

You might have even gone as far as to hire an SEO consultant to send you some buzz words to include in your blog post titles. Write them up—or hire a $5-an-article intern to do it—and you’re good to go, right?

But Google isn’t everything, and in fact, thanks to Google’s recent Panda algorithm update that weeds the low-quality content out of search results, it’s tougher than ever to get traction with keyword content alone.

If you want to use content marketing to establish your company as a major player in your industry, you need a comprehensive content strategy based on identifying your prospects’ unique needs and the best systems for delivering the information that will help them.

First, think about what your company represents. Ask yourself questions about the image you want to present to the world. For instance:

Are we a fun, flippant start-up, or a serious enterprise company?

Who are our customers? Do we want to create a family-friendly website, or focus on appealing to urban singles?

As far as format goes, would our time and money be better spent on a daily blog, or would white papers and e-books help us build authority and generate more leads from our target audience?

If you’re not sure how to answer such questions, it may be worth investing in a content development consulting company with experience creating custom publications for brands. If you’re not a writer by trade, it’s sometimes tough to take your own personal voice out of the equation as much as you should—or, conversely, to give your clients a glimpse of your personality when you’ve been taught that all business writing should be formal and emotionless.

Together, you can find the right tone to strike, whether that means the hip irreverancy of Groupon, the friendly, down-to-earth attitude of Hannaford, or the suit-and-tie feel of Merrill Lynch. All of these companies thought carefully about their image and messaging before implementing their corporate communications programs; even though you may not have their budgets, there’s no reason you can’t do the same.

Spending time and money on content creation before you have a strategy in place can be a waste of resources. Take the time to focus on the broader picture before you begin filling in the details, and you’ll be doing more than creating articles—you’ll be building a brand.

Consider your budget and priorities

Facebook ads can be purchased on either a CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions) or CPC (cost per click) basis, and you’ll be able to set a daily spending limit to ensure that you don’t spend more than you’ve budgeted.

If making people aware of your company’s brand is most important to you, choosing a CPM format will be a more cost-effective way to make people take notice—but there’s no guarantee that they’ll click through to your website.

If you only want people who’ll take action, you can choose the CPC format, but you may pay as much as several dollars for each individual click, depending on how you’ve targeted your campaign. It’s simple to switch from one format to another, so you may want to spend a few days alternating between them before choosing which one you prefer.

Additionally, think about whether you want web users to click through to your company’s actual website or to your Facebook page. Although it might seem more appealing to send customers directly to your site, by asking them to “like” your page you’ll be able to communicate with them directly and send them promotions on an ongoing basis.

Target your ads effectively

One of the most convenient elements of Facebook marketing is the fact that you can easily target consumers according to age, location, hobbies, and many other data points. That means that you can create different ads for each demographic market, changing your message according to consumers’ personal information in order to attract their attention. For instance, if you have a store with several locations, you can create personalised ads featuring each store’s address for people who live within driving range of that location.
Get right to the point

You have a very limited amount of space for text in your ad, so don’t try to be clever or include unnecessary details. Simply describe what your company offers, with a short call to action, such as “sign up for our newsletter” or “like our Facebook page.” In many cases, offering some sort of incentive can encourage more people to click through—for instance, “Like our Facebook Page to receive a 20 percent discount.”

Analyze your results

After launching your Facebook ad campaign, you’ll want to keep a close eye on how well it’s working and what you might want to change for next time.

Consider testing several different versions of your ad to see which one is most effective, then using the winner exclusively. Pay attention to how many people are doing your requested action, whether that’s liking your Facebook Page, signing up for a newsletter, or purchasing a product, and determine how much each conversion is costing you in financial terms.

If you determine that it’s taken you $20 or more to gain a single new customer, consider what you might be doing wrong. Are you targeting the wrong demographic? Is your ad too confusing? In some cases, you may simply find that other marketing avenues are more effective—but in most cases, with enough trial and error, you’ll likely find that Facebook ads are worth the marketing spend.

Long before leaving, appoint a substitute supervisor

If you have a manager supervising your staff on a day-to-day basis, leaving for vacation may not be much of an issue. But, if you’re like most small business owners, you’re likely to maintain tight control over your business’ daily operations, which makes it difficult to even take an afternoon off, let alone an entire week or two.

Before planning a trip away, focus on training your most senior employee to handle all of the tasks that you would normally take on by yourself. Allow your employee to handle challenging projects independently, while you remain available to offer assistance as necessary. Before you leave, encourage other staff members to treat your substitute with respect: Explicitly tell them that when you aren’t there, they should go to the temporary supervisor for instruction and help.

Plan around your business’ slow times

Once you’ve been in business for several years, you’ll probably have a good sense of which times of the year are the busiest. Track your company’s billing history to create a calendar of your business’ seasonal highs and lows, and plan a getaway during one of the periods when business tends to drag.

Leave notes for your staff

You won’t want your employees to bother you with emails or phone calls during your vacation with simple questions, so before leaving, prepare a document for your substitute supervisor that includes a daily “to-do” list, notes related to vendor and customer contacts, and any other details related to tasks or problems that may come up during your absence.

Let your client and vendor contacts know you’ll be away

Even though your staff is well aware of your upcoming vacation, your outside business contacts won’t have any idea unless you notify them. Send out a group email (using “BCC” to mask each recipient’s address) to your contact list to tell them the dates that you’ll be away, providing the contact information for the employee that they should get in touch with in the meantime. When you leave for your trip, you may also want to set up an automated response message that includes the same details.

Bring in temporary staff if necessary

Because you’ve appointed a substitute to fill your role while you’re away, that individual may not be able to fulfill his usual duties. If necessary, consider hiring a temporary staff member or two to assist with simple tasks like customer service, so that your long-term employees will be able to focus on the business’ higher-level needs. Bring the temp workers in a day or two before you depart, so that you can ensure that they’ve been adequately trained in how to represent your business.

Check in­—but not too frequently

Unless you’ve made a point of unplugging yourself from all forms of technology while you’re away, you’ll likely be tempted to call and email your staff to find out how the business is going in your absence. If you feel that checking in will ease your mind, go ahead—but limit your check-in calls and emails to no more than once every few days, so that you’ll be able to spend most of your time focused on enjoying a relaxing (and well-deserved) vacation.

If you’re passionate about wildlife rescue or teaching literacy, incorporate these themes into your business. Find a local non-profit that works in the area of your greatest interest, and discuss the ways that you might be able to partner. For instance, are you able to make a commitment to donating 10 percent of your net profits to the organization each year? Your contribution will be tax-deductible, and, if your customers know that a portion of your proceeds is going to a good cause, they’ll be more likely to open their wallets at your store.

Find a non-profit that needs your excess inventory

In addition to or instead of working with a non-profit that focuses on your own personal interests, it can also be wise to align your business with an organization that can make good use of your unwanted surplus. For instance, if you own a café, you can partner with a soup kitchen and distribute your leftover bagels and pastries to the organization at the end of the day so that the leftover food doesn’t go to waste. If you run a hardware store, talk with an organization like Habitat for Humanity to find out what sort of building supplies it would appreciate. By working with an organization that can make use of your excess materials, you can prevent your surplus from going to waste while also making a positive impact on your own community—a win-win for everyone.

Donate labor

Along with financial or material donations, donation of labor is a valuable resource for many non-profits—and, if you run a small business with at least a few employees, you’re well equipped to provide this much-needed service.

If you run a professional services firm, such as law, accounting, or public relations, consider signing a pro bono contract with a local non-profit group. Make sure that both sides are clear about the terms of the arrangement, so that you don’t make a bigger commitment than your team can handle. If both parties understand what’s involved, however, this sort of arrangement can prove to be rewarding and valuable for both parties—your staff will appreciate the fact that they’re working for a good cause, and the non-profit will likely show its appreciation by promoting your organization heavily.

Even if you aren’t able to donate professional services, you can still offer physical assistance to a local nonprofit. Look for an organization that needs hands-on help for a particular event, such as a holiday meal for the homeless or a one-day home construction. Enlist your employees in a paid day of volunteer service: They can wear t-shirts bearing your company’s logo to help promote your business during the event.

Create a co-branded marketing campaign

Along with the feel-good aspect, one of the greatest benefits of involving your business in charity work is the fact that your contributions will have a significant positive effect on your marketing efforts. If you’re making a sizable donation of money, product, or labor to a particular charity, discuss the ways that the non-profit might be able to promote your business. The non-profit may be able to include a message about your business’ contribution in its next email newsletter, which likely goes out to thousands of local supporters. Be sure to spotlight your association with the non-profit to your existing customers, too: Ask for permission to use the non-profit’s logo on your marketing materials, and include a mention of your partnership on your website, brochures, and other marketing collateral.

Technically, the site didn’t die – the start-up that owned it (a venture-funded group in LA) did. Gimundo got sold to a bigger company, becoming one of hundreds of sites in their inventory. They let it languish, with no updates, and the visitors began to drop off.

Then my husband and I had an idea: What if we bought the site and brought it back to life on our own? Even though it had never made any money for the previous company, we believed we could make it profitable on our own.

What made us think we could make it work with a team of two on a shoestring budget, when a company with around ten staff, an office in downtown LA, a large budget, and ample resources had never made a dime off it? We didn’t have nearly the resources that the start-up had, but we knew that we had the skills between us to do all of the site development and content on our own, saving us from needing to shell out thousands of dollars each month.

Our monthly expenses would be low: hosting and email newsletter fees would come to just a couple hundred dollars. Whereas the previous owners would have needed to make hundreds of thousands in revenue just to break even, our expenses would be far more modest, and it wouldn’t take much for us to become profitable.

We purchased Gimundo in April 2009 for a competitive price, and then spent months working on revamping and relaunching the site after finishing work for our paying clients, often staying in our office until 11 PM. We had a baby due in September, so we were working against our own deadline.

More than a year (and an adorable little girl) later, we’re thrilled to say that we were right to take the gamble with the site: traffic is higher than it ever was under previous ownership, and it’s not making us rich, but it’s already recouped our initial investment and is now profitable. And though updating the site requires a fair bit of work on my part each week, I enjoy what I’m doing. Nothing makes me happier than telling the stories of people who are making a positive impact on the world, or receiving emails from readers who love the site.

Our experience in owning and operating Gimundo has given us a crash course in entrepreneurship. Every day, we need to think about our site’s content, social media efforts, content partnerships, advertisers and sponsors, and a whole world of other terms that suddenly make sense when you take on a big web property.

While running Gimundo for its own sake is a pleasure, its greatest value is, perhaps, that it gives us conviction when we make suggestions to our clients. If we provide tips on running a Facebook contest, it’s not merely a hunch pulled out of thin air – it’s insight based on our own experiences as business owners. We’ve learned a ton about content strategy and marketing in the year and a half we’ve owned and operated Gimundo. We may serve up good news at Gimundo, but at Hawkins Multimedia LLC, we can serve up something even more valuable: good advice.

How have your own business experiences led you to valuable insights that you can share with clients? Share your own stories in the comments.

In this blog, the partners of Hawkins Multimedia, LLC will be sharing some of our insights as business owners. Subscribe to our RSS feed to come along for the ride.

Interested in talking about a custom content and/or web development project? Contact us for a quote.

I spent over a year writing and editing stories for now-defunct BNET.com’s “Owners Only” section, ghostwriting stories for business owners about the problems they’ve faced and lessons they’ve learned as they try to make a living doing something they’re passionate about. Here are a few tips I’ve learned from collaborating with these fascinating entrepreneurs about what makes for a compelling story:

1. Hook them with a great opening line. Business writing can be boring. Take a lesson from Charles Dickens’ classic David Copperfield, which begins, “Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.” While you may not be able to keep up the momentum for 1024 pages, as Dickens did, try to follow his lead by starting with a sentence that will intrigue readers and ask a question that will entice them to read on.
2. If you don’t feel strongly about your subject, neither will anyone else. For my first article, a local entrepreneur told me she’d like to tell the story of how collaborating with other businesses has helped her own business. When I called her for a follow-up, asking for more detail on her collaborations and what problems she’s faced with them, she was candid. “I can’t really think of any problems with that,” she said. “What I do have a problem with is finding qualified staff.” Just that day, one of her employees had quit, and she launched into an impassioned rant about Generation Y workers and the problems that she’s had hiring and retaining them. I switched the focus of the article completely, and the resulting piece has generated more than 80 comments. The comments aren’t all positive, but the story got plenty of people talking and weighing in with their own views—and as a business owner, getting people’s attention is exactly what you want to do.
3. Don’t be ashamed to admit to mistakes that you’ve made. Success stories are boring without an element of conflict. To captivate readers, it’s important to reel them in with a moment of doubt: Should I have maxed out my credit cards buying equipment? Is the company going to run out of money? By sharing the darker moments of your business, you’ll show clients and potential clients that you’ve been through the wringer and come out the other side, making your business a force to be reckoned with.
4. Be specific and universal at the same time. If you want people to pay attention to your story, don’t speak in vague generalities—share specific instances of what’s worked for your company and why. At the same time, be careful not to alienate your audience by making it all about you. Be sure that the story you’re telling provides insights that your readers will be able to connect with their own experiences.
5. Be conscious of your audience in determining your voice. Sure, you might get a little raunchy when you’re watching the Superbowl with your buddies—but that casual tone isn’t appropriate for the boardroom, and likewise, it’s not a good fit when you’re sharing your business’ story in hopes of attracting new customers. When you’re writing a blog post or preparing marketing copy for your business, it’s fine to show a sense of humor, but keep it all in line with the image that you want for your company.

If you’re a business owner, what other lessons have you learned about creating a compelling narrative?

(If you’re trying to write your company’s story and not sure where to start, drop me a line—maybe I can help.)