Are you having trouble finding content for your blog and newsletters? This article focuses on how and where you can quickly find engaging, interesting content to can pass on to your readers and customers. Remember, the ability to regularly provide your audience with interesting, up-to-date, useful information will help keep them engaged and create opportunities to build relationships.
Finding Content for Your Blog and Email Newsletter: 5 Places
One of the biggest challenges in developing a content marketing strategy is finding content for your blog, email newsletter and other communications. And if you?re busy running your business, you may not have the time to figure out which topics will engage your audience.
Luckily, there is a host of free tools that can make finding content for your blog or email newsletter easier, regardless of the topic.
But before you start using these tools, you?ll need a list of keywords related to your hot topics. These keywords will form the basis of what you write about, improve your SEO rankings and help bring targeted leads to your website. Here are a few questions to ask when you select your keywords:
What subjects do you cover in your blog?
What keywords are your ideal customers searching for?
What words relate to your business?
Make a list of these phrases so you can refer to them during planning. Then check out these five free content sources that can inspire ideas for your email newsletters, blog posts, articles and other marketing materials:
Google Alerts: The great thing about Google Alerts is that it brings the latest articles, posts, and press releases about your favorite topics directly to you. Simply enter the keyword you wish to monitor in the search field and decide how often you want to receive notifications. You can also choose to receive updates via email or an RSS feed.
Scoop.it: Scoop.it allows you to create an online magazine about your favorite topic. Start by searching for your keyword, and Scoop.it will show you relevant content from the Web. You can select which items you want to include in your magazine. Then, you can customize it and share it with your community through social media. In addition to sharing your magazine with others, you can use the articles for inspiration for your own writing.
Alltop: Alltop pulls the best from the Web and organizes it by topic. Enter your keyword in the search box and Alltop will let you know what some of the Web?s most respected blogs have to say about it. This site is great at weeding out the junk and giving you the most relevant content.
Digg: This site shows you the top trending articles around the Internet, as chosen by its community members. You can see the most popular articles by sector such as business or lifestyle. You can also use the newswire feature to easily search for the latest articles within your sector.
Delicious: This social bookmarking site allows you to save and organize any posts or articles you find on the Web. Let?s say you plan to write some blog posts about the holiday shopping season, even if the inspiration hits you in July. With Delicious, you can bookmark and organize the Web pages you need whenever you stumble across them, so you can quickly find them when the right time comes.
Build Customer Loyalty Through Email Marketing
Stay in touch with your customers and send them offers, updates, and valuable content. With pbSmartConnections, you can easily build, track, and deploy email marketing campaigns that help grow customer loyalty.
Once you find interesting content, you can use it as inspiration. For example, if you see a great article on Alltop, you can write about the same topic from a different angle. You can even take an opposing stance on a subject to create controversy and drive people to your blog.
What?s Next:
Watch this webinar to learn how to better communicate with your customers
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Last week, McDonald?s announcement that it will begin posting calorie counts on its menus caused an online buzz.? Reactions to the announcement ranged from support to dissent to the unconvinced.
Christy Matta M.A. is a trainer, consultant and writer. She is the author of "The Stress Response: How Dialectical Behavior Therapy Can Free You from Needless Anxiety, Worry, Anger, and Other Symptoms of Stress." 







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