Using content to generate business and traffic is not a shot-in-the-dark strategy. It’s not just about putting lots of content out there and hoping something will stick. The quality of that content is ultimately crucially important as well.

No matter what your niche is, here are three kinds of content that any business should be putting out there:

1. Content that EDUCATES
2. Content that ENLIGHTENS
3. Content that ENTERTAINS

This trio is often called the three E’s of content marketing.

Content that educates is needed to help explain concepts better; this kind of content is used to spread information and knowledge. Think how-to guides and website FAQ pages as examples of content that educates. Increasingly though companies are turning to video as educational content since nothing explains a concept better than a live visual medium!

Content that enlightens highlights benefits and features that may have not been uniquely featured in other mediums and serves to reassure your readers. Enlightened content may take the form of podcasts, webinars, or blogs. The purpose of using enlightened content is to help illustrate a new angle or a new product use that helps broaden your reader’s perspective.

Content that entertains is typically used for attracting people towards your content. Videos, compelling infographics, contests, polls, quizzes and social media content in general are popular means of entertainment.

So let’s look at how businesses develop content within the three E’s of content marketing:

Blogs: Blogs, because of their regular and frequent nature are a great way to build trust and credibility one post at a time. Blogs take work and the rewards take longer, but the ultimate relationship created is stronger and longer-lasting. Use blog posts to inform, educate and entertain readers, especially since posts don’t need to be limited to text – use images and videos and get creative!

Newsletters: Opt-in newsletters are a great way to send special information to those who sign up to receive it. This kind of content implies exclusivity – in essence you are thanking them for trusting you with their email address and for keeping an open channel of communication. Use newsletters to share stories and features that give your readers new insight.

User Videos: Testimonial videos are a great way to persuade and inform because people love to hear unbiased endorsements and reviews before making a purchase decision. If you can get a bunch of videos of people reviewing your product that’s a whole new level of persuasion!

Webinars: Oftentimes your business may need to hold online seminars (webinars) to field commonly asked questions or dispel common myths. Webinars, because they can be interactive, give your readers a chance to connect with your company on a one-to-one level and can be great for holding product-specific Q&A sessions.

E-books: Short, punchy, instantly downloadable, conversationally written and packed with useful information, e-books have infiltrated the market as one of the most common types of persuasive and informative content that you can put out there.

Content on its own is not the driving force. Content that solves problems is the key. Find out your readers’ problem, and then use content to address those problems in a way that aligns with your brand.

What kind of content is your business putting out there and are you fulfilling the three E’s of content marketing?

A few days ago I spoke with Elance CEO Fabio Rosati. It was an interesting conversation on many levels but one particular thing that he said stood out in my mind – he said (and I’m paraphrasing here) Salma you will always remember the day you and Ali chose to make the New Way to Work video and it will be a pivotal point in your business.

I believe what he was referring to was the ecstasy of reaching out to people and the power of a personal, yet universal story to inspire and evoke responses from all across the globe. The response has truly been overwhelming. Some numbers: over 1200 YouTube views in a month, a 233% increase in traffic to my website, scores of people sending me Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail messages, lots of potential clients and hopefully lots more people who have been inspired enough to want to take charge of their lives.

It seems like the New Year started a little early for me

So what have I learnt from all this?

Two things:

1. Build good content
2. Promote the heck out of it (but in the right channels)

Well, point #1 first. It goes without saying that the Internet is full of, pardon my expression, crap. To find anything relevant and meaningful you must sometimes sift through a lot of non-sense. That’s why good content is so valuable. Businesses shell out good money for compelling SEO web content that will drive more traffic to their site – they understand that it’s the content and its authenticity and uniqueness that will keep people coming back for more.

So if you want to build a successful online business, put out good content. You can do it in whatever way you’re comfortable with and good at, be it text, multimedia, video, audio, presentation, design, whatever – just make sure it’s really you.

Point #2. You know that old saying of build a better mouse trap and they’ll come? Doesn’t hold true any more. It’s not enough anymore to just put great content out there; you’ve got to make sure people actually see it.

At first I was shy, like many people, about self-promotion. I didn’t want to send out links, I didn’t want to send e-mails, and I certainly didn’t want to be that obnoxious person spamming links to friends of friends of friends. So I took the safe way out. I e-mailed a select group of friends and family members and asked them to pass it on if they liked what they saw. I updated my Facebook and Twitter statuses and posted it in the online communities that I’m a part of. That’s it. That’s all I did.

Google Analytics, my trusty web companion, tells me that to date I have had over 61% referrals to my site through social media channels and email referrals. That’s 61% more people who’ve been affected in some (albeit small) way who might never have seen my content otherwise, never gotten inspired and never known that there are business-moms like me out here (esp in Pakistan) trying to make a go at running an online business from home.

So I urge you, get out there, show the world what you’re doing, believe in your work, tell people who matter and they will promote you and your message if they find it to be sincere.

First do something that will get people talking and then ride the momentum with all you’ve got! Here’s to a prosperous 2010! *clink*