It’s a Tuesday afternoon, and the clouds threaten rain. Outside, the brutal summer sun has transformed Austin’s sidewalks and parking lots into makeshift stovetops.

Inside, the prospective client is not happy. She’s a small business owner by profession and an Internet marketer by accident. And no matter what relevant keywords she punches into her computer, she can’t get her company to show up on the first, second, fifth, or even tenth page of Google results.

“All I see are my competitors,” she snarls. “These people make inferior products. Why are they at the top of the list? Why isn’t my SEO working? I paid those other guys a lot of money and I’m still not where I want to be!”

Well, I’m not an SEO guy, but I’m Tom Myer, the web content guy, so here I sit. I tell her that SEO is important, but that it won’t solve her problem, not in any long-term way. Sure, there’s lots of little tricks you can do to make things happen today or even tomorrow, but none of them last forever.

What the “experts” rarely talk about is how search engines really work. But I do, and I tell her that the thing that really matters is incoming links. Given two competitors with equally optimized pages, the site with 100 other sites linking to it will generally perform better than one with just 10 sites linking to it. What ends up happening is the owner of the second site spends a lot of money on search engine optimization in a vain attempt to catch up.

It’s a simple obstacle to overcome. Search engine results follow the tried and true marketing rules that govern the rest of our lives: it’s often not what you know, but who you know that gets you ahead. In the search engine world, if someone links to your content, they count as someone you know. If the site that’s linking to you is deemed important in the search engine’s algorithm (it has a high pagerank, for example), then it counts more than another site that has lower importance. Either way, its better to have a whole bunch of people who know you (incoming links) than to be someone who is unknown.

Pile up enough incoming links and you start dominating keywords in the search engines. The more links you have, the easier it becomes to get to the top of the search engine rankings–and stay there.

“Fair enough,” she says. “The key is to go out and get links. How hard can that be?” Well, it turns out to be kinda tough, mostly because not all links are created equal.

Fear and Linking

In the search for links, I explain, there are lots of ways to go wrong:

• Paying other sites to link back to you. There are plenty of site owners (and even owners of entire networks) who would happily link to your site for a set fee. What’s wrong with this approach? Absolutely nothing, but eventually, Google and the other search engines figure out what these sites are all about and start docking points. Those incoming links become less important, and your rankings decrease.

• Trading links. This mechanism dates back to the birth of the Web. I link to your site, and in return, you link to mine. It all comes out even in the wash, unless you’re lucky enough to trade links with a site that has high pagerank…..which is unlikely to happen, as they’ll want cash for the privilege.

• Asking/begging/pleading for links but with nothing substantial for them to link to. This strategy might have worked five years ago, but isn’t very effective anymore. The bloggers who are worth getting a link from are all too busy. It’s likely that they don’t even have the time to focus on you, and your request just makes it that much harder for them to accept you as worthy of attention.

So what’s the answer? It’s really simple, and it all goes back to marketing basics. Here it is:

Create such compelling content that others can’t help themselves–they have to link to it!

I let that sink in, watching her face as she mulls it over. She’s interested, of course, but over the course of several seconds, I can see the competing emotions on her face: realization, fear of the unknown, despair at the size of the task ahead.

I know what she’s going to say, that there’s no way she has the time, creativity, or energy to come up with a plan for creating compelling, clickable content. But before she can say that, I hold up a hand and say, “Let’s take you through a scenario. I think you’ll like what I have to say.”

Of Widgets and Wins

My prospect owns a highly successful widget business. She’s been in the widget business since 1991. In fact, she inherited the business from her father, who started the business when he came home from a hitch in the Navy. That’s where he got the initial idea for widgets, and the business has been good to them ever since.

The company has been in the widget business so long that they’ve seen six or seven revolutions in the process of designing, packaging, shipping, and selling widgets. They know all there is to know about integrating widgets with wackets. They’ve even figured out how to allow for mass customization, such that customers can ask for slight variations in color, size, and appearance without costing everyone an arm and a leg.

In other words, these folks have forgotten more about widgets than anyone else will ever know.

On the surface though, they look just like any other widget company, of which there are dozens and dozens everywhere you look. Everyone wants a widget, and the widget makers have flourished. At least 50 widget makers are in the same state, another 800 worldwide. There are 20 within a five-mile radius. Another 500 or so firms specialize in aftermarket widget stuff, widget consulting, widget reselling. You name it, and widgets are involved.

They’re not exactly the biggest player, but they’re definitely in the Big Five. But that doesn’t mean anything, because on the Internet, everyone looks the same, regardless of their real size and asset allocation. You might have a three million square foot facility, but you look just like the guy working out of his spare bedroom with outsourced Chinese factories on his speed dial.

We already know what happens when you do a search on Google. These guys don’t show up in the first ten pages, but a lot of other guys do, and it’s a guarantee that some of those are operating out of a spare bedroom.

But how are these other guys doing so well on Google? Well, if you visit the competition, you’ll notice that most of them are running pretty ordinary sites. Some have blogs. Others have invested in search engine optimization–page titles and keywords are focused on widgets. So is their copy.

But the real secret lies somewhere else. It’s all about who links to them, what the links say, and where the links go. Those other widget makers have a steady set of sites that are linking back to their pages. Do a Google search to see who is linking to their sites and you’ll see a list that will include blogs, business periodicals, forums, social networking sites, news sites, and online magazines.

Some of those links are coming from news stories that were placed by their PR agencies. Other links come from sites that host conversations between widget users (such as on a forum), or bloggers reviewing the latest in widget accessories. Still other links come from LinkedIn profiles belonging to employees.

Google (and the other search engines) don’t much care what’s being said. It could be good, bad, or indifferent. They simply track who links back to a site, and what the link text was. So for example, if someone writes a story about a widget company on CNN.com and the link text is “best widget company ever” then that particular key phrase will get associated with that particular destination.

A Blueprint for Action

I can see that my prospect is taking this all in good stride. She’s following what I’m saying, nodding at all the right places.

“In short, I need quality links,” she said. “Some will come from PR, and some will come just because people will naturally love our content?”

That’s right, I answer, but before we get into specific content creation tactics, its time to hit the brakes a little and figure out some important things. We need a strategy for content development.

Namely, we need to know who you’re talking to, what we’re going to say, how we’re going to say it, how often, and to what effect. In short, our busy business owner needs a content strategy. Once they have that in place, it’s easy to combine this strategy with a content reuse plan and an editorial policy.

Content Strategy Essentials

Content strategy is one of those topics that can fill up a week-long seminar, so I’m always careful to keep things brief, move fast, and cover the high points. I don’t want my prospect’s eyes to glaze over.

The heart of any good content strategy lays out the following important points:

1. Who am I talking to? If you don’t know your audience, you’re toast. Find out as much as you can about them: hopes, dreams, track records, finances, location, marriage status, socioeconomics. Even if your buyer is at a company, this stuff still matters.

2. What am I saying to them? You’ll find yourself tweaking what you say as you explore different media channels. With blogging, you are generally giving your opinion (ranting, sometimes), linking to a resource, providing news, giving advice or teaching someone, asking for feedback, or riffing on existing content.

If you’re writing a press release or trying to place a story in the trades, write something that’s really newsworthy. Ask yourself how this bit of information ties back to the audience. Do they really care that you’ve hired a new VP of Support Engineering? Yes, they might, if they’ve been complaining about lack of support.

3. How often am I saying it? If you’re blogging, be prepared to publish every few days (if not daily depending on your audience). Learn how to reduce what you’re saying and pace yourself. Your audience has been conditioned to get their content in serial form. Don’t be afraid to give them a three-part blog post instead of one giant honking post.

If you’re writing stories that appear in the trades, you might want to shoot for once a quarter. If you’re publishing a white paper on a certain topic, you might want to tie it to a special event, such as an upcoming webinar or appearance at a trade show.

4. What is my objective? With blogging, an authentic voice delivering information of true value (as opposed to a corporate drone trying to sell stuff) builds trust. With trust comes other good things, such as a deeper relationship with current clients, a shorter sales life cycle with prospects, more leads from online campaigns.

White papers and case studies need to deliver hard information that’s valuable to your customers, not superficial marketing fluff. If your case study doesn’t define the problem and delineate lessons learned, then most won’t want to read it. Some may avoid other case studies from you in the future if you persist on putting out inferior product.

How-to articles, special reports, and other fact-based pieces must be approachable yet contain a high signal-to-noise ratio. In other words, you’d better have lots of data tables, screen shots, diagrams, or code samples, depending on your industry.

Content Reuse

Content reuse is where things get fun. Let’s say that our widget company surveys its customers and compiles some amazing results in the process. They create a special report and post it on their web site so that anyone can register to get it. The special report is valuable in itself, as it is an interesting piece with hard data of interest to prospective customers.

However, the data in the report (and even the report itself) can be reused for maximum effect. For example, here are 10 quick ideas:

1. The executive summary can be turned into a short article for the business press, with a link at the end inviting readers to download the PDF from their web site.
2. A senior widget engineer or executive can write a short companion piece to the special report that explains the ultimate ramifications of the data for a particular industry vertical or geographic region. For example, how this data relates to the widget purchasing trends for the defense sector, or factories in the Northeast.
3. Another senior analyst or executive could then write companion pieces for other important customer niches.
4. Longer stories about the data can be pitched to the business and trade press that emphasize how the widget company is reacting to a trend.
5. If the compiled data were complex enough, it could be parsed out into a three-, five-, or ten-part blog series that explores all the ramifications.
6. The analysts who put together the original data set (or any companion pieces) could be interviewed on podcasts to further discuss the importance of the findings.
7. Those podcasts can be archived on the corporate web site. Access could be given to anyone who registers to listen in.
8. Those podcasts could also be burned to CD and then handed out at trade booths along with the original special report or any other pieces.
9. Given a big enough data field (or a data field that changes quickly), an entire membership-type site could be set up that users register for to get access to the latest updates.10. Any and all of the above can be mentioned in press releases to the business press.
10. Any and all of the above can be mentioned in press releases to the business press.

Editorial Policy

Having a good idea of what you’re going to say, and to whom, and a plan for reusing the content for maximum efficiency, are only two parts of the puzzle.

Unfortunately, you also need some guidelines for how you’re going to operate. That’s where a good editorial policy comes in. It can be pages long, or it can be three bullet points, but you need one.

For example, you might stipulate what your tone and style will be like– conversational versus academic. You might also say that you will never publish anything defamatory or libelous, or anything that attacks another person for their gender, race, or creed. Or that you won’t publish anything that gives away a corporate secret.

An important part of any editorial policy is adherence to corporate objectives and brand equity. For example, your editorial policy might stipulate that anything you publish enhances the brand.

Why bother? Because you’re not going to be the only one who creates content. You’ll have in-house and freelance copywriters working for you, as well as executives who turn their hand to blogging, and marketers putting together white papers. You need something coherent that will allow you to judge what they produce.

Linkbait, Blogging & Flacks

By the time I’ve laid all this out, we’ve both scribbled plenty of notes. She turns to me and says, “Okay, I’m convinced. We definitely need all of this. I can already see how we’ve been doing a bad job of targeting our audience, and we’ve done zero work on reusing content. So talk to me about blogging and linkbaiting. And what role our PR person plays in this.”

There are certain terms in this business that make some people crazy. Two of these terms are “flacks” and “linkbait.” The first is better known–its a derogatory term for a public relations professional who is hired to spin stories for a client. The second term denotes any content on the Web that is designed to attract links. Interestingly enough, “linkbaiting” is closely associating with the practice of blogging, but more on that in few minutes.

From my point of view, the most valuable person on your search engine victory team is your PR specialist. Every time you get media attention, it can lead to traffic to your site and other sites linking to you. It’s the PR person’s job to pitch stories, craft and send out press releases, and establish meaningful relationships with sources and journalists alike.

To do that, the PR person needs a story to tell. Yes, she can send out endless press releases about new hires or new facilities. Yes, he can spend all of his time lining up interviews for your CEO or putting out the word about your upcoming webinars and trade show events.

But they can also be used in a proactive way. If you showed up with a ten-part content reuse plan similar to the one above, they’d be in hog heaven. They would immediately see what’s important, and start working their sources and connections. They’d have a story to tell, and everyone loves a good story.

As far as linkbait goes, I think it’s the most fun you can have with your clothes on. In the past, I’ve written stories that compared B2B lead generation to going out on a first date. That got a ton of incoming links from other bloggers, including some who are in the top tier of the blogosphere. I wrote another blog posting titled “Everything I know about marketing I learned in the 1980s” that also received a great deal of attention up to six months after it was first published.

The Web is filling up with content of all kinds. If you want to attract attention, then you’d better get to it with abandon. I’m not advocating that you explode your brand on the altar of linkbaiting. The blog posts I wrote were all very much in line with my snarky, cheeky brand. At the same time, though, they brought me traffic and incoming links.

So why is linkbaiting associated with blogging? Because most of the linkbait pieces you see out there are hosted on blogs. Look around the Web and you’ll see posts with titles like “10 things you didn’t know about X” or “A funny thing happened on the way to the Apple Store” or whatever will cause a stir. If it’s humorous, insightful, and features some kind of top 10 list, then its bound to be featured by another blogger.

There’s a lot of uncertainty among business owners and marketers about blogging. We could set aside an entire afternoon to just explore this topic, but in the interests of keeping this paper under 200 pages, I’ll keep my thoughts about blogs brief.

In fact, I’ll get the whole blog thing down to one sentence:

A blog is just a web site that’s easy to update with daily content.

That’s it! That’s the key to the whole thing. I’ve installed WordPress in under fifteen minutes, picked a theme in another ten, taken twenty minutes out to install some plugins, and am off and running. Within two or three days, I’m posting stories and getting comments from readers. In fact, that’s all I care about: quick publishing, easy feedback, zoom zoom.

It’s the speed that matters the most. Eventually, as you keep going, you’ll have the mass weight of all your blog posts on your side as you build equity.

Now What?

“This all sounds fantastic,” my prospect says. She has put her pen and notebook down, and is looking me square in the face. “However, I have a problem. I’m not a writer. I don’t have time to learn all of this stuff and run my own business.”

That’s where we come in, I say. I lay out what we can do for her business:

We can help you develop a cohesive content strategy. If you need help defining target audiences, topics, media channels, and publishing frequency, we can tailor a plan to your budget, talent base, and objectives.

We can help you create new content. We have expertise in writing case studies, white papers, print and online newsletters, articles, ebooks, and web site copy. You’ll be working with closely with Hope and Tom (our principals) or one of our talented content developers.

We can help you polish, edit, format, or repurpose what you’ve already created.

Our editors and content experts can help you reshape, reuse, and polish any content you have to meet the needs of your audience segments and media targets.

We can help you create an outreach plan. No matter how good your content is, we give it a nudge onstage so that it can get noticed by bloggers, media, and site owners.

We can help you make smart platform decisions. The world of blogs, content management, email tools, CRM, and portals can be awfully confusing. We’ve figured most of it out. We can also help you make the most of analytics packages.

We can help you create effective policies. Don’t publish without something in place. It will make your day-to-day operations less stressful and much more productive.

Just give us a call at 512.750.3835.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve already done this with one set of developers. The new group of guys want to get the full brief, mostly because they aren’t mind readers. Oh, and because briefing the team also gives you a chance to assess where you’re at. If, for example, it’s been three months since the beginning of your project, a lot could have changed in terms of the competition, user requirements, market opportunity, you name it.

Another great thing about the face-to-face brief? You pony up the money to pay for travel and day rate for the guy getting the brief. This tells people like me that you’re serious about fixing the problem.

Why am I harping on this point so long? Because an astonishing number of project leaders never have enough time to brief their team, but almost always have time to do things over.