Contextual marketing – or contextual advertising – focuses on smart targeting.  Instead of something large and ubiquitous such as a television commercial, focus marketing efforts on specific social media outlets or even individual blogs.  Simply put, the idea is this:  if you find just the right place for your ad (place it in the right context), then marketing budget will not be the determining factor for success.  If you can get your message in front of the right people, then a small graphic hyperlink could be just as attractive as a superbowl commercial.

Chris Pyne of MediaCom offers a staggering perspective on contextual marketing when he says that, “Twice as many children under the age of five can download a mobile app as can tie their own shoes.”  (from Contextual Marketing Hands Power Back to Consumers by Jonathan Gardner of Vibrant).  What he means is:  go where your customers are.  They are technology savvy.  If you are not, then engage the help of a network marketing assistant.  There are plenty of affordable options available.

Small businesses are uniquely positioned to implement a contextual marketing strategy.  This blog has long advocated that business owners find out where their customers spend time online – find the forums, blogs, and websites that appeal to your target audience.  I have always advocated that you provide value in those areas, such as answering questions or joining discussions. 

Now, in moderation and with deep thought, you should consider placing tasteful ads or running special offers for your fellow members and readers.  We are only scratching the surface of what contextual marketing is and what it will become.

First and most important, consider your target audience and what they expect from your website content or blog post.  Naturally since you have already defined your target audience, you know what they expect.  But – egads – since sometimes target audience analysis was glossed over, you can review the type and tone of the comments that visitors leave for a good indication of what seems appropriate.

Target Audience for Blog Posts
Some blogs are completely successful using text-speak (U R gr8!), and the target audience and commenters are comfortable in that style.  I caution against anything that casual in all but the most laser-targeted blogs.  It is falling out of fashion, even for avid texters, in favor of actual words.

Stilted formal writing that would pass inspection by grammar police is the opposite extreme of text-speak.  Save “hitherto” and “wherefore” for your dissertation.  Even common grammatically correct uses of “whom” and “I am well” can come across as high-brow.

Subject Matter for Website Content
The second consideration is your website subject matter.  If it is highly technical, you may want to make blog posts more accessible to lay-people, and provide a link to a more technically correct white paper pdf for those that need the technical terms and specifications.  Keep in mind that there is a wide variation between “accessible to lay-people” and “dumbed down to the point of insulting.”

Typical Website Visitors
Finally, the third consideration is the nature of a typical website visitor.  Most will scan the page or skim the content, spending only a few moments per page.  Make sure they can find what they need quickly.  That might mean using numerals (2, 3, etc) despite being taught that all numbers under 10 should be written out as words (two, three, etc) and ignoring the heap of other grammar rules from your formative years.  Go ahead and begin a sentence with “And” or “But.”  Split an infinitive and end with a preposition.  (These are not true rules, anyway, but that is another blog post!)

The best type of website content is the type that will actually be read and understood by anyone who slows down enough to read it.  Opt for a casual voice, slightly fuller than spoken conversation.  Use short sentences, easy words, and at least basic punctuation.  I am still a fan of 2 spaces after a period to give the eye a break.  But convention seems to be moving toward 1 space, so just do what seems right to you … and your target audience.

The article sites a recent Pew Internet report that shows that blogging by teenagers has fallen by half since 2006.  Naturally this statistic is whizzing around cyberspace and causing earthquake-like ripples (even Wired put it in the “Epicenter” category).

But if you read further, the article quickly sums up that in total, blogging has risen in popularity in statistics confirmed for 2008 through 2010.  The reason for this seeming contradiction is simple:  teens are spending more time at social sites, but blogging among older generations is actually increasing.  The article continues on about the change in communication dynamics with the advent of texting and makes an excellent point about a blogger’s ability to garner a wide audience with timely content.

What this Means for Your Business Blog
Two important things:  first, those statistics are chiefly for personal interest blogs and teenagers who have notoriously short attention spans.  And second, if your business blog’s primary focus is SEO, then the report should not discourage you. 

Blogging has a wide definition and encompasses many communication tools.  A business blog continues to be an effective method to attract both human and search engine attention and further your marketing goals.

Any text that is included in a graphic image format (jpg, gif, png, bmp, it’s a long list) is not truly text, but is a picture of text.  And pictures are not searchable text areas.  Some website owners include their logos and other information by displaying graphic files.  While this might make the site look attractive, it is doing zero SEO work for the business.

Make sure that your business name and other important keywords appear repeatedly in the actual website content – literally as words on the page – so that search engines can find them.

When you do include graphics, make full use of the “alt” tags and other meta data spaces, because these text areas are searchable and valuable.  If you do not know how to capitalize on the meta data, consider having your site updated by a reputable web developer, SEO company, or website copywriter.

Most web page visitors will scan a page in a predictable pattern:  upper left to lower right.  They will take in much more of the information that is high on the page and near the left.  They will also pause at information that is in the target area AND highlighted in bold or of a different color.  These visitors will move quickly and completely through a bulleted list or table of information, making these writing techniques some of the most effective.

A website content writer will distill your information down to the most important, most easily presented pieces and use those pieces to capture the visitor’s attention.  The web site content writer might also work together with your website developer to make sure that the information is linked to other pieces in a logical way.  This will create the best end-user experience for your visitors.

Just as important, you need to know what NOT to do with your website content.  For example, do not use bold, highlighting, or different colors for all of the text.  This negates the effectiveness of the attention-grabbing highlights.  Do not put all of your content in the upper left and leave the rest of the page blank.  This detracts from the natural eye flow of upper left to lower right.  Do not include too much detail.  Readers will rarely read every word of the page, and with the cluttered look of too much text, they may not stick long enough to read any of it.

Writing for an internet audience is quite different than writing for any other source.  A good website content writer will ensure that your information contributes to your web site success

As a society, we have wanted to answer that question both ways: YES – if it’s a large corporation who is hurting me, my family, or the environment, and NO – if it’s my own company, I need to make a living, and people should make their own decisions about product use.

Unfortunately that contradiction is self-evident.  Seth Godin, popular author and contemporary blogger, discusses both sides of the conventional wisdom.  He sums it up simply:  If you’re not proud of it, don’t sell it.

I absolutely agree.  For your own sense of integrity – not moral superiority – make sure that you market yourself, your services and your products responsibly.

There can be justifiable reasons to have duplicate content.  The most common example is a website that has “printer friendly” versions of pages and “mobile friendly” versions of pages – in this instance, three versions of content that is exactly or appreciably similar.  When this type of need for duplicate content exists, you can have an experienced, legitimate SEO company help you to add instructions on the duplicate pages that keeps the search engine robots from indexing them.  Voila, no more duplication.

Google goes on to explain, “However, in some cases, content is deliberately duplicated across domains in an attempt to manipulate search engine rankings or win more traffic. Deceptive practices like this can result in a poor user experience, when a visitor sees substantially the same content repeated within a set of search results.”  What that means is:  your page ranking will definitely suffer.

Most websites that end up with duplicate content have done so accidentally or without realizing the detriment.  Regardless, it is important to remedy the problem.  Either delete the duplicate content, rewrite the website content, or engage a professional SEO company to help you keep the pages from hurting your rankings.

The two most commonly used programs are Facebook and Twitter.  If you will only pick one, then Facebook is a broader choice.  You will need to invest some time in getting your account set up, but here is a great primer published at Social Media Examiner, titled, Facebook 101 for Business:  Your Complete Guide.  This article leads you step-by-step through setting up a basic business presence, and adds a few strategies for expansion later on.

The social networks may have started out as a fad.  But with each passing month their relevance to business marketing grows stronger.  Creating and maintaining a presence is not difficult.  But if you cannot or will not make the time, you can always rely on a professional network marketing assistant service to help keep your company up to date in the social networking world.  And while you are building, make sure that your content development is a professional representation of your company, and that your social networking content utilizes your SEO keywords strategically.

The way your business is perceived by women will affect not just your bottom line today, but also your customer loyalty and long term growth.  Being old enough to have once heard, “Honey, that’s not the insurance coverage you want.  Why don’t you have your husband call me and I will discuss it with him,” while comparing car insurance, I can attest to the fact that that company remains on my never-again list even after 20-some-odd years.

The effect that your business message – your website content or blog post – has on the women that visit your site is crucial to converting those visits to sales.  It is important to know that your web site content is appealing, or at least not offense, to women.  Your copywriter, blog writer, or marketing strategist need to understand what women want to see when evaluating your product or service.

The entire story is summed up well here on the Mashable site, so I won’t repeat that.  But the highlights are this:  ATL posted a Facebook photo with a model in a pair of cargo pants that included a “click to buy” option.  A discussion developed among followers that questioned whether those pants would look good on any woman that was not 5’10” and rail thin.  ATL photographed their own employees, from size 2 to 12 and 5’3” to 5”10”, in outfits that featured those pants and posted the photos the following day.

This is a perfect example of using social network marketing to monitor the pulse of your business, to respond to real customer concerns, and to demonstrate a professional customer service attitude.  At that point, selling pants was just gravy.  That the company responded so positively and so quickly that they maintained – even increased – customer loyalty was the win.