As a public speaker, you are an expert on some topic. What better way to demonstrate this expertise…and get some search engine juice for your speaking website…than through content marketing.
One content marketing technique is writing short 300-500 word articles related to your topic of expertise and having those articles published on other people’s websites — blogs, online magazines, etc. In your resource or “about the author” box, point readers to your speaker website for more information.
This is a long term strategy that can help build backlinks to your site, introduce new people to your topic of expertise and even attract potential joint venture partners and affiliate marketers for your products and services. It can also lead to more gigs booked.
Now here’s the trick to making this work effectively for you.
First, uncover the keyword phrases that people use when searching for a speaker like you. Then, optimize your articles and their titles for those keyword phrases. You can find these phrases by going to a keyword research tool and entering keywords that you think are relevant. The tool will generate a list of related keywords and phrases that are actually being entered into search engines within the past few days. Read through this list to see if you’re right and to further fine-tune your list keyword phrases.
You can also use Google to fine-tune keyword phrases you base your articles on. Once you’ve discovered strong keyword phrases using a keyword research tool, enter those into google.com. On the first page of your search results, you will probably find a section called “People also ask.” This is a rich resource for finding topics that people are actually asking about. In addition, the section at the bottom called “Searches related to…” can give you further ideas.
Don’t get too carried away with your optimization efforts. Make sure that your article is readable and shows off your expert knowledge.
Next, make sure you have a compelling resource or “about the author” box. This is the paragraph at the end of your article that will drive the reader to your website. Write your research box so that it does these two things:
- Transitions your readers seamlessly from the content of your article to your call to action.
- Provides the reader with a compelling reason to click on your link.
These things are crucial. If you don’t transition the reader to your offer, they will know it is separate content and may skip reading your resource box altogether. And, if you don’t give the reader a compelling reason to click on your link, they simply won’t.
Are you thinking this is all way too much work? Well, think of it this way… you’ve already created all this wonderful content for your presentations, why not re-purpose some of it to help grow your website’s traffic. Do you blog? You can re-purpose your blog posts and use them in your content marketing, too.
