You will probably often wonder what the secret is to writing quality content.

The truth is that it’s even more difficult to have your content be seen and read by your audience.

Today, I want to share with you a strategy that I have been using that has allowed me to share my posts in a way that I would have never imagined before.

How one of my posts was shared over 1000 times

About a year ago, I wrote this post in Spanish and it has been shared over 1000 times (without paid traffic).

You can read the complete post through the following link:
Cómo usar Google para conseguir clientes

The truth is that I never thought this would be possible and I want to share with you how I did it and the lessons I learned.

Strangely enough, the reason this post was shared so many times has no direct relationship with my writing skills. Although definitely, knowing how to choose the topic played a big role.

The door that led me down this road

Surely, you’ve had one of those moments where you sense that you’re living an important experience that will change the way you see things. Although at that precise moment, you are not exactly sure how.

This was exactly what happened to me the first time I heard of Donna Moritz and well known blog Sociallysorted.com.

Donna specializes in Social Media Marketing through visual content and is one of the people I admire the most that dominates this space. Her content is published regularly worldwide in media websites like: Social Media Examiner, Entrepreneur Online, Forbes, Huffington Post, etc.

My curiosity and my desire to learn more

At that time, I was not clear what visual social marketing was.

But since I feel a natural fascination towards visual, I did not think about it too much.

I was totally drawn to the idea of using visual content to increase traffic to my website and improve the results of my business.

So I decided to learn more about what she did and how she did it.

I read and learned everything I could from her blog.

And the next natural step was to enroll on her online course, where she teaches how to create traffic driving images.

The moment everything changed

Once I finished the course, the first thing I did was put into practice everything I learned and I wrote a blog that included visual content. In this blog post I included an infographic and Slideshare presentation. Here is the link to the post:

No sufras de parálisis por análisis: 10 decisiones que debes tomar para asegurar el éxito de tu página web

As of today, this post has been shared more than 300 times.

My post as a case study

In this post I carefully followed her advice and recommendations. The blog post caught Donna’s attention and was included as a case study in one of her more advanced trainings.

Since then, I’ve consistently added visual content to all my content.

Today I want to share with you the 3 most important lessons I have learned through the use of visual content.

How to create quality content (that gets shared 1000 times): 3 lessons I learned

1. The power of visual content

Donna Moritz has a totally different take on how to use social media to promote your business.

I learned that to effectively communicate my ideas, I need to illustrate and communicate them visually.

in addition, the use of visual content allows your content to be unique and stand out.

The use of visual content in my posts has allowed my content to move and be seen by people I would normally not have access to.

What I discovered

By following her recommendations, my website traffic has increased over 500%. Not only that, but I have also learned how to use visual content to convert traffic into subscribers.

2. Experimenting is key

So what did I do? Well, I started experimenting.

It does not matter if you are just starting out or do not have many social media followers, the power of visual content is undeniable.

The experimentation has allowed me to proof that posts that include greater elements of visual content obtain better results.

Every post provides with a new opportunity to test different ideas and review what works best.

Some of the experiments you can do are:

• Use different images for the same content.
• Try using different types of visuals: for example, illustrations and photographs
• Test different colors and fonts
• Compare results on different social media channels

What I discovered
In order to evaluate the results of these experiments, you need to be patient, because in many cases the results are not seen immediately.

Before we jump into lesson 3, I created an infographic that illustrates the 3 lessons I learned.

Please assign the infographics to Netklik.com or use the embed code I have included.

Code to embed the graphics
Use this code if you want to share the graphics

<div>
<a href="https://www.netklik.com/online-marketing-strategies/how-to-create-quality-content/"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1140" src="https://www.netklik.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/how-to-create-quality-content-infographic.png" alt="how to create quality content" width="800" height="2000" /></a>
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Infographic by: 
<a href="https://www.netklik.com/online-marketing-strategies/how-to-create-quality-content/">Netklik</a>
</div>

3. My friend: The infographic

Since then I have created dozens of infographics and different types of visual content.

What the 2 posts I mentioned have in common is that both include an infographic.

Which clearly demonstrates the importance of including visual content in your marketing.

What I discovered

The use of the infographics has been key in the growth of my blog.

Most of the shares come from Pinterest.

Thanks to Pinterest, the infographics of my post are shared every day.

How can you apply all this

If you are not yet using visual content, it’s time for you to get started. Remember to experiment and pay attention to the visual content you include on your website and in your online marketing strategy.

Create and online marketing strategy were visual content is the star of the show.

Writing is one of those things that is not easy.

However that should not be the reason that you do not create content for your business, especially if you understand the benefit that can have for your business.

I’m going to stop here for a moment.

Because I could have started by saying that daily physical exercise is not easy even though we know the advantages this has for our health.

Some times we know what we need to do, but we don’t know how to start or turn it into a habit.

I want to share with you what has worked for me and helped me develop the habit of writing regularly, so that it might help you develop your own habit.

In this case, I’m not talking about writing a book or winning a prize for it.

What I am talking about is, for you to write with the goal to promote your business, so you can communicate why someone should be interested in your services.

Of course I have to add that I am not a writing expert, nor have I been trained to do so.

I just have developed the habit of writing regularly. Here are 3 tips to help you get started:

How to write an article for your blog (3 tips to start writing today)

1.Create a writing ritual

I do my best to write early in the morning. Mornings are the most productive times for me and it’s easier for me to control distractions..

The trick to finding the time to write

I have learned that I need to block out on my schedule at least 1 hour of time for writing.
During this time I do nothing but write.

Writing is very different from all the others things I do during the day and my level of concentration also needs to be different.

This means that before I sit down to write, I need to be in the right state of mind.

So before I start writing, I usually go for a walk, read or listen to a podcast.

Common mistake to avoid
Before starting to write, you need to feel calmed. You need to avoid feeling stressed by thinking about the endless list of things you need to do.

2. Keep a list of ideas

It would be extremely difficult to sit down and write without having an idea of what to write.

That’s why I keep a list of possible topics for articles, frequent problems, or ideas that come up when I talk to clients.

How to create a list of ideas for writing articles

• Think about the conversations you have daily with people interested in your services, what are the questions that your customers ask, others may have the same questions.
• Reflect on the conversations you have with colleagues, what are the issues of interest in your industry right now.
• Take note of the common mistakes your customers make.
• Consider using stories that describe how your customers make use of your products or services.

Common mistake to avoid
Avoid writing about general topics, the more specific the topics for your article, the better.

Before we move on with tip #3, I created an infographic that illustrates the 3 tips to stop procrastinating and start writing today.

Please assign the infographics to Netklik.com or use the embed code I have included.

Code to embed the graphics
Use this code if you want to share the graphics

<div>
<a href="https://www.netklik.com/online-marketing-strategies/how-to-write-an-article-for-your-blog/"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1162" src="https://www.netklik.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/how-to-write-an-article-for-your-blog-infographic.png" alt="how to write an article for your blog" width="500" height="2500" />
</a>
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Infographic by: 
<a href="https://www.netklik.com/online-marketing-strategies/how-to-write-an-article-for-your-blog/">Netklik</a>
</div>

3. Prepare a draft of your article

It’s a good starting point to choose before hand the topic that you are going to write about, but it’s also important that you work on a draft of your article before you sit down to write.

This means that If I really want to take advantage of the time I am going to write, I need to have created a draft of the article beforehand.

This draft works as a guide and the plan I follow as I write.

What to include in the draft article for your blog?

In the draft I generally do my best to include:

• The conclusion:
  The conclusion is the lesson that I want people to take when reading the post.
• The call to action:
  This is what I want people to do after reading the post.
• Bulleted list:
  I think it is important to be clear and include in the draft the main points that I will discuss in the article.
• Other elements that I include in the draft are:
  Keywords, introduction, title, data and relevant links. These for me are of great help, but not totally indispensable, so I give myself permission to start writing without having the complete information.

Usually once I complete the draft, I find it easier to fill in the missing information.

Common mistake to avoid
The draft should not be perfect, nor should it be complete, it simply should be sufficient for you to use as a starting point.

Writing becomes easier when you develop the habit of writing regularly.

The trick is to know how to get started and the steps you need to take to follow.

The only way to make writing a habit is to do it frequently.

Of course the more you read, the easier the writing process becomes.

Now you know the list of the steps that you need follow to put this into practice!

Today I want to go deep into 4 common myths related to how to create content that attracts clients.

During the last 2 weeks I had the opportunity to rest and create white space.

I have to admit this is not an easy exercise for me and the worst part is that it’s even more difficult to get back into my routine, however the benefits of doing it outweigh any disadvantages.

I’ve been thinking about how my buying habits have changed, as well as those of the people around me.

Without a doubt, more and more, the internet plays an important role in our lives

Without going too far in the last few months, we bought furniture online (without seeing it before), pre paid a tour for the holidays, hired one session with a sports coach and paid for services for an appliance repair technician.

In each of these cases, we were attracted to these products or services by their content.

You might be wondering: What are these contents?

The reality is, If you want to attract new clients you need to talk to them.

And content allows you to precisely do that.

It allows you to start the conversation with your potential client

The key is to join the conversation your potential client is already having with himself.

Creating content that attracts clients

When I talk about content I referring to blog content, social media, visual content (images, videos) or the content of your website

Every day, we make more purchases over the Internet, either for products or services.

Every day, it’s getting easier to buy online

We can do it through the computer, the phone, the tablet or we can even do it through a voice command and say what we want to buy.

This translates into a huge advantage for your service based business

Because every day, there are more people doing online searches in Google or social media.

This people have the willingness to buy online.

Creating content that attracts clients (4 common myths to avoid)

The best way to attract this audience to your services is through content.

You might think that this does not apply to your service based business or you can picture how this can possible work for you or how to do it.

The purpose of this post is to show you how it applies and what you need do to put it into practice.

1. You need to be creative to create content

You do not need to be creative to create content for your service based business.

What you need is to understand the problems that your audience has and you need to be able to communicate how the services that your business offers solve those problems.

In other words you need to start viewing content as a key component of your marketing system.

2. Your business does not need to create content

I’ve talked to many business owners who think content creation is important only for businesses that provide fun or interesting services.

This way of thinking is totally wrong.

Regardless of the type of business or industry.

It’s important to understand that what attracts customers to your business is the content

And that is exactly where you need to invest your energy.

3. You always need to be selling

The main reason you should create content is to help your audience and not sell.

It is a common mistake to think that goal of the content is to sell.

For a moment, think how you feel when someone is trying to sell you something.

The best content is the one that really helps your potential customer.

In other words, the best content is: the most useful, educational, entertaining and inspiring.

Before continuing, I’ve created an infographic that illustrates the 4 common myths about how to create content to attract clients.

Code to embed the graphics
Use this code if you want to share the graphics

<div>
<a href="https://www.netklik.com/online-marketing-strategies/how-to-create-content-attracts-clients/"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1128" src="https://www.netklik.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/how-to-create-content-that-attracts-clients-infographic.png" alt="how to create content that attracts clients" width="450" height="1840" /></a>
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Infographic by: 
<a href="https://www.netklik.com/online-marketing-strategies/how-to-create-content-attracts-clients/">Netklik</a>
</div>

4. You need to be a good writer to create content

I know what you are thinking, you probably never really liked writing or you think you really are not good at it.

I don’t want this to stop you. The truth is that to create content for your business you do not have to have writing experience

You simply need to be able to communicate effectively why someone should be interested in your services and I definitely know this is something that you know how to do.

It’s possible to do this with writing, through visual content (images or video) and even through audio with a podcast.

The key is to take action and start creating content without seeking perfection. If you stay consistent, I am sure you that you will begin to see results.

Conclusion

You need to start to see content as part of your marketing system.

If you are reading this post, you know that’s not enough to create content the first time that you design your website.

You need to learn how to attract visitors to your website and more importantly how to convert them into clients

Having a content strategy, will allow you to do that exactly.

Without a doubt, if you have a service business, you are looking for the best Online marketing strategies for service based businesses.

But the reality is that not all the strategies we try will work.

In addition, sometimes online marketing strategies that work for one business will not work for others.

As the New Year approaches and we make plans for the new year, it’s important that to reflect your results.

I enjoy the planning process of the new year because it allows me the opportunity to start from scratch, learn from my mistakes and start fresh.

Hitting the pause button

It’s necessary that you pause and think about what stage in your business you are and where you want to go.

You need to understand what has allowed you to to get to where you are now and you need to have a plan that will allow you to reach your goals next year.

Think about your achievements for the present year, what worked and what didn’t work.

Easier said than done

The reality is that it is easier said than done.

I know it’s not an easy exercise because I’m doing it.

It is not so easy to rebuild the year and have a clear and objective view of what worked and what didn’t work.

However, it is an exercise you need to do, if you want to improve.

To help you start the process of reflection and planning for 2017 I will share with you 5 questions that you need to answer.

Online marketing strategies for service based businesses: 5 Questions you need to answer to dominate 2017

I suggest you start answering these questions without any specific order and make sure you spend enough answering each one of them.

As everything in leave, if you want to get good a planning, you need to work on it and develop the skill.

The idea of the questions is to use them as a starting point to help you develop a system that will allow you to improve the way you plan your online marketing strategies for your service based business every year.

1. What worked this year in your online marketing strategy?

Take a piece of paper and pencil and make a list of the actions you did that had a positive result and make you feel proud.

In this list you can include:

Examples of sales strategies you used

• If you launched a new service, think about the results of strategies to sell the service
• Made improvements to your website,
• Created new content for your website
• Improved the traffic of your web page

These are just examples, to help you get started.

Now I would like you to think why these actions were positive and how they brought you closer to your goals.

I want you to think if these actions were easy to implement or if you thought they were difficult.

Recommendations to answer this question
The truth is that you probably did more things than you can remember, take the time to make a list and add things as you remember them. You will see that after a few days your list will grow.

2. What didn’t work this year in your online marketing strategy?

Now I want you to think about the decisions and strategies that you use that in your opinion were not positive. You may feel that you wasted your time or simply did not produce the results you hoped for.

Recommendations to answer this question
You must be patient with yourself and understand that it is unusual to achieve success the first time you test something.

The important thing is to realize that your strategy failed as a result of taking action.

After all, the only thing that will bring you closer to your goals is to be consistent in taking action and losing your fear of failure.

3. What can you learn from what did not work in your online marketing strategy?

Now the most important part is to think of what you learned from what didn’t work.

Although it might not always be obvious, we can learn the most valuable lessons from mistakes and failures.

It is important to understand where you went wrong,

Was your idea bad from the beginning? or

Were there situations in the process that affected your results?

You need to understand what happened and what you could have done to prevent it.

Recommendations to answer this question

The key to improving is to learn from your mistakes, improve your systems and the way you validate your ideas. The only way to learn is through experience, trial and error.

Before continuing with questions 4 and 5, I created an infographic illustrating the 5 questions.

Please assign the infographic to Netklik.com or use the embed code I have included

Code to embed the infographic
Use this code if you want to share the infographic

<a href="https://www.netklik.com/online-marketing-strategies/online-marketing-strategies-service-based-businesses/"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1089" src="https://www.netklik.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/online-marketing-strategies-for-service-based-businesses-infographics.png" alt="online marketing strategies for service based businesses" width="800" height="2000" /></a>
</div>
<div>
Infographic By: 
<a href="https://www.netklik.com/online-marketing-strategies/online-marketing-strategies-service-based-businesses/">Netklik</a>
</div>

4. What are your goals for next year?

Once you answer the above questions you will have a clearer vision of what is the direction you need to follow.

A common problem is to set goals that are too broad and impossible to measure. Your goals should be as specific as possible.

It might be helpful to answer the following questions:

• What can you do to sell more of your products or services?
• How can you better serve your audience?
• Do you have the possibility to add new public products or services?
• What can you do to excel and differentiate yourself from your competition?

Recommendations to answer this question
Do your best to set realistic goals and always think about how you are going to measure your results.

It may be that some of your goals are: increase traffic to your page, learn how to attract your audience with content or simply sell more.

All these are too general goals. You need to be able to set a number and define exactly where you would like your results to be.

5. How will you achieve your goals?

Clear direction is useless if you don’t have a step by step plan that allows you to reach your goal.

There is no better time than today to develop your online marketing strategy.

The best way to improve your results is through practice.

The more experience we acquire by planning and taking action, the greater your clarity and confidence in the process.

Recommendations to answer this question
Be flexible, there will always be  unexpected obstacles that you will have to overcome, don’t let that stop you.

When this happens, think about the progress that you have made and adapt your strategy.

I invite you to do this exercise.

Conclusion
I hope that reflecting on the answers to these questions will guide you in planning online marketing strategies for your service based businesses for 2017.

Start fresh and make the new year, the best year.