I saw 3 customer worthy examples of micro-content in the real world last week.

One from a local Victoria company.

One from a national company.

And one from one of the biggest brands in the world.

They all surprised me because they were exactly what micro should be.

Numbers don’t lie.

Right?

There are countless ways for creating the anatomy of a perfect blog post.

This is one of them.

According to science and numbers.

You can fill a room with 5,000 manikins.

And you won’t sell a thing.

That’s the problem.

Even if you follow a solid blogging strategy, promote your content on a regular basis and capture leads via email campaigns, how do you make sure you’re attracting people who are actually likely to become your customer?

Attracting qualified leads is crucial to getting customers online – here are the 3 essential ingredients you need to make that happen while blogging.

We’re obsessed with creating great content.

We write about it.

We talk about it.

We speak about it.

We go to conferences dedicated to it.

We dream about it. Yes, dream about it.

Marketers love content almost as much as celebrities love fame.

But you know the funny thing?

Customers don’t care.

In fact, not only do they not care, most of them don’t even know what “content marketing” is.

We’re the experts. Yet, they determine if we’re successful. Or not.

So, while your customers may give you the blank stare if you ask them how much they like your content campaign, this is what they want you to know.

Even if they don’t know it yet.

Note: This is a guest blog post by Adam Tuttle at ActiveCampaign. 

Spokal helps drive a ton of new traffic to your site, helps convert them to leads, and provides a ton of data about the people viewing your site. But what do you do with the leads once you have them?  How do you make them value adding to your business?

One of the strongest opportunities for capitalizing on captured leads is to tie it directly into a strong email / marketing automation platform. [Editors note: Spokal & ActiveCampaign integrate very tightly together) By doing this, you are allowing yourself the possibility as a marketer not to default to a simple, generic email blast; instead send targeted emails based on what actions your contacts are taking on your website or how they are interacting with your emails. You can reach the contacts with higher potential through lead scoring, and various other incoming metrics through your sales funnel (Spokal) at exactly the right time.

Timing is everything.

Coca-Cola knows this.

They know that even though you prefer Pepsi, when you have the choice of Coca-Cola or nothing, you’ll choose Coca-Cola.

Almost every time.

That’s why their mission is “to be within reach at the time of thirst.”

Because they need to be in the right place at the right time to make a sale. And considering they sold $46.9 billion worth of products last year, I’d say they’re doing a pretty good job.

So, what does this mean for your business?

Well, what if you could “be within reach at the time of thirst” for your customers?

What if there was a way to target customers at the time when they’re most likely to convert?

And what if it fit within the $7 a day that most small businesses spend on marketing?

We’re 106 days into 2014.

So while it was fun to predict what’s going to happen this year, it’s already taking place.

The Rimm-Kaufman Group (RKG) just released their Digital Marketing Report for Q1 of 2014.

Curious to see what’s impacting your business this year?

We were too…

Consider this a precursor to the Spokal ‘mission statement’ – though we haven’t penned it into words – it’s what’s driven us through every decision we make here. It’s how we determine what goes in the product and what does not. It’s the heart of who we are.

It’s how we make choices between ease of use, and flexibility. Sometimes we find the best of both worlds. Sometimes we need to make a call. 

We built Spokal because online marketing is changing so fast – it’s hard for anyone but full-time online marketers to keep up. 

Because current marketing automation platforms have complex feature-sets, mandatory training, and expensive annual lock-ins. 

Because none of the current generation of platforms work for small business. I mean real small businesses – from freelancers to owner/operators with up to around 10 employees.

We fail at the most obvious thing in our business.

Our customers.

Specifically, keeping them happy when they don’t have problems.

Everyone talks about “delivering great service.” Which is why I cringe bringing this up. Especially since I’m sure many small businesses do.  

But what about delivering remarkable service when it’s not a reaction to a problem?

How many of us take the time to deliver proactive customer service?

I know.

Emails suck.

Well, not really, but with more than 294 billion emails sent daily, your inbox can be one of the worst parts of your day.

Except maybe blogging.

Am I right?

Well, it’s time to put an end to that and kill two birds with one stone.

Every email is a piece of content, which is why it’s possible to turn your inbox nightmare into a content marketing machine.

I promise.

Simply follow these 5 things…