Tag: content marketing

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Content Marketing

The Essential Content Audit: 7 Ways To A Successful Content Marketing Review

Content Audit Review Steps

Content marketing has become a ‘go to’ option for online businesses in a bid to outdo competition and maximize earning potential and build brand presence.

This certainly sounds appealing and demonstrates its value, but does it always work out as intended? No, and the reason comes down to many enterprises being unable to pinpoint what works and what does not.

Let’s take a look at what is required to have a comprehensive content audit done on the business to ensure things are up to scratch.

Content Audit Process
Courtesy SearchEngineWatch

The following seven ways are going to guarantee the total content review is completed as required and all details are being assessed prior to tweaks being made. You should not be making changes until everything has been sifted through as required. This is a big part of what is required.

“A content audit is an accounting of all currently published web content and a cornerstone of content strategy”

1) Be Clear On The Site’s Direction

What is the site’s direction (overall goal)? What do you want your existing and new content to actually provide for you? Ultimately, how/where/what will your audience consume?

You have to be willing to have this in mind immediately.

It will guide the audit and ensure you are looking for specific things during the process.

If the goal is to rank better, SEO is going to be heavily playing into all actions taking place.

Are you looking for conversions through the site? This should be taken into account during the audit then.

When you have a direction to focus upon, it will make things that much easier.

The audit requires direction to drive home results and be meaningful.

2) Scan The Site

Begin to scan the site. You can use a manual approach, but make sure to combine that work with tools that spider your site too. You may have forgotten about old content that is ready and ripe for review and re-purpose.

The first time around, don’t start picking out flaws. Just collect, store and then read through and see if there are any severe mistakes – or opportunities you’ve missed.

Some of this content may have been published in the past, but you forgot to read through it as a reader & consumer. This is essential to determine what is good and what is not.

This has to be completed beforehand to ensure the content is relevant, and that the architecture (navigation, access points) flows as nicely as it should. After this is done, you will have an audit trail in hand of what has to be fixed.

Create a checklist of changes – things like new titles, re-write, different format use (for example PDF to HTML) and distribution points.

3) Perform Keyword Research

It is essential to take a look at what keywords have been used in the content and which ones are lacking. Comprehensive keyword research at this stage is important. Often old content will benefit from an ‘upgrade’ in the keyword selection and nomination for use.

The idea is to start working on related keywords that will fit in with the content you have written.

This makes it easier to replace over optimized keywords which have been ‘spammed’ into the content either on purpose or by mistake.

4) Focus On Removal And/Or Rewriting

You will have three options to choose from.

You can leave the content, remove it, or rewrite the parts needing change.

If the content is not relevant now (users, search engines) for certain keywords and topics, you could easily rewrite it and make positive changes. This will help drive traffic in especially if you replace the old keywords with newer ones.  Remember, it’s about the reading value and experience also – don’t just think about keywords.

Check for duplicate content in copyscape, one of the tools at your disposal.

The content you leave should suit the direction of the site, be optimized well for keywords in and topics within your niche, and be easily consumed. Also, remember that you may find that existing content could be repurposed into PDFs, Videos, and Audio. Leverage all channels appropriately. Find out what your audience likes, and provide that too.

5) Assess Content Gaps

There are going to be certain ‘content gaps’ you will have to assess during the audit.

You may have content that needs a tighter integration within the topic. These are potentially missed opportunities from the past, or you were not aware of them. Use a tool like Google Keyword Planner (within the Adwords interface) to see what existing and new topical groups might be. Add value within the gaps.

6) Analyze Traffic

Where is the traffic going? What pages are driving in the best results? Which ones are converting the best? Are there correlations between pages that are converting compared to those that aren’t? And, are there pages driving traffic, but the bounce rate is too high?

You should be able to pinpoint all of this information by running a comprehensive web traffic analysis. Patterns will start to develop whether it has to do with incorrect keyword usage and/or poor content.

Whatever the case may be, it is important to determine opportunities and fix them as soon as possible after the audit is completed.

7) Pinpoint Accuracy And/Or Viability Of On-Page SEO Work

When content is being put up for the first time, it is easy to make silly mistakes with regards to on-page SEO (visible and non-visible content/code).

Whether it comes in the form of URLs not using keywords, headlines and HTML tags being over optimized, or the content simply not being written as a user would expect it.

Make sure to assess all of these details during the audit to see which pieces have to be tightened to reap the rewards of on-page SEO.

These seven ways are going to make a substantial difference in the long-run.

The business will be able to maximize its potential with relative ease as long as the content audit is done perfectly. No one is going to get it right the first time around and that is a given.

It takes practice and those who are willing to put in the hard yards are going to get fascinating results. Those who don’t are going to struggle and that is always difficult. Run a content audit as soon as possible to see how things are moving along. The results can often be surprising to those who were not as prepared as they should have been.

Take the information you are getting and make the necessary tweaks to help bolster the business. It is all about paying attention to details and learning from one’s mistakes because everyone is going to make them from time to time.

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Content Marketing General

11 Compelling Reasons Why You Need Content Marketing In Your Life

content marketing reasons for your life and business

There was a time when businesses could simply cobble together a few web pages and boast of building an online presence.

Those times were so simple.

However, Internet has grown tremendously and become so competitive that mere presence on the web is not sufficient to increase business anymore.

You need to market your business, so you can serve prospects & customers better.

Content marketing is the key to online marketing success.

If you still have any doubts, here are 11 compelling reasons why you need content marketing.

1. Build Your Brand

Some businesses still don’t understand the value of investing in their own brand. The business landscape is so competitive that businesses cannot survive by competing on price alone. You need to focus on building your brand to succeed online.

Content marketing allows you to give your company a voice. Content can be in any form. It can be in the form of white papers, e-books, blog posts, infographics and videos among other things. The goal is to let the consumers see your business through the content present online.

2. Free Search Engine Traffic

Search engines love fresh content and when you are going to give them highly useful content on a regular basis, they are going to send loads of traffic your way. However, it is important that the content is of good quality and that the content and keyword themes are relevant, well researched and timely.

Half baked content can potentially harm your brand and your website. Another important thing to note is high quality content will continue to deliver high quality traffic for years to come. This is the magic of “ever-green” content.

3. Get More Customers

Research studies have reported that content marketing can greatly influence decision-making and purchase intent of consumers. In other words, spreading high quality content around the Internet (in the right channels for your market) will allow you to influence buyers during the research phase.

It is estimated that more than 80% of consumers search for information online before making a purchase. Content marketing allows you to be in front of the consumer during the research phase and sell suggestively.

4. Native Advertising

Native advertising is quickly becoming the next big thing. In fact, there are quite a few billion-dollar companies successfully driving traffic through native advertising. High quality content allows you to draw in the target audience using native advertising.

While driving traffic is important, converting them to paying clients is more important. Good quality content on your website will convince the visitors to buy from you. TIP: Test native Facebook videos. Facebook videos are trumping YouTube.

5. Consumers Want Content They Can Trust

While it is true that there is a lot of content online, the truth of the matter is that most of the content leaves a lot to be desired.

Consumers are always looking for useful and in-depth information on products or services they are looking to research and buy. Content marketing done in the right way can help you in gaining trust of customers.

6. Social Media Traffic

Social media cannot be ignored as it has become a big driver of traffic these days. Although the customer journey and purchase intent is different on social media than a user of search engines, you are missing out if you don’t have a social media strategy in place.

Almost everyone has an account on at least one of the many social media sites including:

  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube

…and others. Find our where your prospects are hanging out, and build out a presence on those social networks. High quality content that is naturally shared by people on social media has high potential to drive huge amount of traffic to your web properties.

7. Decreasing Attention Span

National Centre for Biotechnology Information (read: https://www.statisticbrain.com/attention-span-statistics/) recently published some statistics about what everyone already knows.

Average attention span has gone down to 8.25 seconds in 2015 as compared to the average attention span of 12 seconds in the year 2000.

In simple terms, high quality content in various forms, spread all over the Internet, can help your business by drawing the attention of consumers who are looking for something interesting.

8. Excellent ROI

One of the main advantages of content marketing is that it offers excellent return on investment when done in the right manner. It makes overwhelming financial sense for small and medium businesses that cannot spend too much money on advertising.

In fact, big brands such as Coca Cola are spending tons of money on content marketing to keep and grow the mindshare.

The cost of attracting visitors to your online properties has been increasing at an astronomical pace. In many markets, businesses are forced to pay upwards of $20 per click. Keep in mind that this is just the cost to attract the customers to your web page and call-to-action (you have one, don’t you?)

The final cost depends on your conversion rate.

On the other hand, the cost of native advertising is extremely low and the content is always there. Content does not vanish from the Internet. It will keep sending you customers for a long time.

9. Consumers Love Free

Everyone likes free things.

If you take a look around, the Internet is filled with freebies. Some of it is in the form of a gift cards or actual physical products but most of the free goodies available on Internet are in the form of digital content. It is also a form of content marketing.

A well-written piece of content has the potential to attract thousands of customers to your web properties and subscribe to your newsletter. It is easier to gain subscribers by giving them free content in the form of informative videos, e-books or white papers.  TIP: Make sure to reach out to influencers in your topic. They might be interested in reading your content piece. If done right, they’ll probably share it with their tribe too. Think about their audience and the value it brings.

10. Content Marketing Delivers High-Quality Leads

You can always drive traffic to your website through advertising but the truth is that the quality of leads driven through advertising cannot match the quality of leads through content marketing. In fact, research suggests that content marketing done in the right manner has the potential to convert 30% more organic visitors into sales leads.

Arguably, high quality content attracts high value customers. They keep coming back for more and it is easier to convert them into paying clients.

11. Manage Your Business Reputation

Smart marketers have taken advantage of the social media and other online marketing channels to make their content go viral. There are a number of success stories where a piece of viral content has driven tones of leads and sales for a business. However, it is a double-edged sword.

Negative things about your business (even if totally false) can also potentially go viral which means that it can adversely affect the image of your business in the eyes of the consumer. Content marketing can help you in managing your business reputation if you already have high-quality content all over the Internet.

When consumers search for your business, it is more likely that consumers will find that content and know the truth about your brand instead of looking at your brand from someone else’s perspective.

As your visibility and traffic improves from your content marketing strategies and tactics, make sure to capture the leads:

BONUS: Get the free lead generation guide that will show you how to quickly get more leads from traffic. Includes 2 bonus strategies not found in this post.

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Content Marketing

Become a Content Marketing Expert? The 14 Best Blogs To Follow About Content Marketing

how to become a content marketing expert

Want to become a content marketing expert? Or, you need somebody on your team to learn more to help create strategic content plans for your company?

Content marketing is all the rage these days and as is the case with all things popular, there are hundreds of blogs on the subject.

Well, nobody has the time to go through all the content published on content marketing. Content marketing covers a lot of ground and it is not possible to cover all the related topics on a single blog.

Therefore, you should read a variety of blogs covering the whole spectrum of content marketing to stay ahead.

So, here is the list of 14 best blogs to follow about content marketing in no particular order.

  1. Social Media Examiner

https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/

As the name suggests, this blog covers various aspects of social media websites including Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat and various others. The unique thing about this blog is that they explain everything in an easy to follow manner and they know what they’re talking about.

In fact, all of their posts are shared hundreds of times on various social media websites and they are a living example of content marketing done right.

  1. Copyblogger

https://www.copyblogger.com/blog/

This blog was started by Brian Clark in 2006 and since then, it has retained its position as one of the authorities on blogging and copy writing. They have a number of high quality posts on developing the right content to share and how to develop the right content marketing strategy.

  1. Buffer

https://blog.bufferapp.com/

If you haven’t been living under a rock, chances are that you would have heard of Buffer App. It is a popular web-based tool that allows users to manage their social media shares. You will find some excellent blog post on analytics, social media marketing, content marketing and various other things.

One thing that sets this blog apart from other blogs in this category is that they are very transparent about their own experiments on social media and content marketing. You can learn a lot by regularly reading this blog.

  1. Hubspot

https://blog.hubspot.com

Hubspot is a widely popular suite of tools for inbound marketers. There are a number of authors sharing high-quality content on this blog. In addition to tips on content marketing, the authors share a lot of useful information on search engine optimization strategies as well as other digital marketing things.

  1. Quick Sprout

https://www.quicksprout.com/blog/

Neil Patel is well known in the industry for SEO. The focus of his blog is to get more traffic through search engines with the help of content marketing. He sits on the boards of various companies and you can learn a lot about social media, analytics, blogging, conversion optimization, landing page optimization, automation and various other things on his blog.

  1. Moz

https://moz.com/blog

Moz is at the top of the list when it comes to SEO and inbound marketing. They do have a paid section but even the free information offered on the blog is full of various strategies, tricks and tips to improve brand and content marketing in addition to social and search.

There are a number of highly popular posts on this blog by various authors.

  1. Seth Godin

https://sethgodin.typepad.com/

Seth Godin is a bestselling author and is credited with developing the term, permission marketing. His blog is chock-full of useful information on creativity, business and marketing. The good thing is that the blog posts are short and thought-provoking. You can learn a lot by studying his marketing strategies.

  1. Kissmetrics

https://blog.kissmetrics.com/

While Kissmetrics is known for their analytics solution, their blog has excellent information on content marketing, SEO, social media marketing and various other things. The unique thing about this blog is everything is backed by data and examples. You won’t feel lost on this blog.

  1. Content Marketing Institute

https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/

Joe Pulizzi is the founder of CMI. He was talking about content marketing even before it was a thing. He is a very well known expert on content marketing and advises a number of brands. The authors on this blog have worked with a number of brands and have helped these brands in formulating their content strategies. They know what they are talking about.

  1. Curata

https://www.curata.com/blog/

Curata is a popular software tool for content marketing. They started in 2007 and since then, they have helped hundreds of businesses in creating and curating high-quality content with the help of their software platform.

Their blog is full of high quality information on content marketing that is backed by solid data. On this blog, you will also find lists of high-quality resources on everything related to marketing.

  1. The Content Wrangler

https://thecontentwrangler.com/blog/

This is Scott Abel’s blog. Here you will lots of informative posts on content marketing strategy, content management and related stuff. He works with a lot of clients as a social media specialist and content management strategist.

  1. Social Triggers

https://socialtriggers.com/blog/

It was founded by Derek Halpern who is well known as an entrepreneur and expert marketer. On his blog, you will find informative hosts on product launches, increasing traffic through content marketing, analytics, increasing your conversion rate, social media and various other things related to online marketing.

  1. Convince and Convert

https://www.convinceandconvert.com/blog

It is the brainchild of Jay Baer. This blog has won numerous awards and is widely known as an authority in the content marketing field. As the name suggests, the focus of this blog is on creating a winning content marketing strategy. They work with a number of brands and you will learn a lot about various aspects of marketing on this blog.

  1. Occam’s Razor

https://www.kaushik.net/avinash/

It is the blog of digital marketing expert, Avinash Kaushik. Kaushik is well known as an analytics expert and he writes interesting blog posts on content strategies and digital marketing. Overall, you will gain a lot of actionable insights by regularly reading this blog.

BONUS:

https://problogger.com

This is a must-read, must-follow blog. Very applicable and unique material from the classic blog and content marketing superstar, Darren Rowse from Australia. He started writing early on, and one of the few bloggers that is considered a total leader of his craft. You should follow his photography content also.

WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH THIS NEWFOUND TRAFFIC? TURN THEM INTO LEADS OF COURSE:

BONUS: Get the free lead generation guide that will show you how to quickly get more leads from traffic. Includes 2 bonus strategies not found in this post.

Categories
Content Marketing

10 Unusual Ways to Use Content Marketing to Promote Your Business

Content marketing plans, channels and formats

Content creation continues to emerge as a very important part of an online marketing strategy.

You can’t just build an appealing website but throw in some mediocre content and make it rank well. These days, people know how and where to get what they want; and Google is responding to that. High quality content that caters to people’s problems is the key to drive traffic to your website and make your audience share it to others, therefore multiplying your reach.

Content marketing can be a much more affordable and effective way to help your SEO efforts these days. Writing high quality content (assumed) produces links faster and naturally gets shared on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus, and the like.

Another big advantage is Content marketing doesn’t get affected by algorithm updates, making it count as a big investment for the long term. Now that you know just how important high quality content is for both Google and your audience, you need to guarantee results. There are many tactics utilized now by different businesses worldwide, but these 10 unusual, non-conventional ways of using content marketing to promote your business may just do the trick for you.

1. Research, Research, Research

Staying in research mode at all times will always be better than being stagnant and just sticking to the same formula over and over again. You need to be updated about content marketing for you to never run out of great and effective content ideas. Research will keep your mind fresh, making idea pop into your head and increase the quality of your content. As soon as you get ideas based on the current trends in content marketing, jot them down and develop them until you have a good outline to work on.

how to organize content marketing in your business
(Click to see larger image – From Altimeter Group)

In connection to doing your research on a regular basis, you should think out of the box when it comes to choosing the topic and title of your articles. Know the latest things happening in your industry and write about them with a unique and thought-provoking angle in mind. You should learn how to stimulate your readers’ minds and make everything more interesting than usual. Many businesses are writing content, so you should know how to stand out.

3. Write with Personality

At the end of the day, your audience are people and they would want to read something that sounds like a relatable human being actually wrote it. Whether you’re writing a press release or a blog entry, it’s important to incorporate who you are and what is unique about your brand. Developing your writing style for your business and finding your own voice (if you are a content writer) is an ongoing process. Let the content you produce innovate by developing your own voice and knowing what works well with your target audience.

4. Create Infographics

Infographics is a one-two punch when it comes to content marketing. Not only do you create content that matters, you produce them through images that make them more interesting and shareable. Looking at a full page of text can sometimes feel basic and boring, so incorporating infographics to your content marketing will make your strategy more effective than usual.

5. Different File Types

Converting your content into a PDF file, slideshow, or eBook is an unusual but effective strategy. This is especially effective for content materials that aim to inform. These file types are print-ready and can be projected so your readers can use them as a reference material or as a lecture. Make sure you leave links leading to your website so your readers can always go back to your site for future references.

6. Giveaways

Some businesses are stuck with using content creation to inform and persuade, but it shouldn’t end there. Just like any marketing strategy, having some kind of promo or giveaway will definitely spark interest to your content. Giveaways are unusual blog traffic method that can generate massive blog traffic. Get your visitors to participate by sharing your posts to various sites and subscribe to your feed. This way, you can retain them and even earn some loyal followers in the long run.

7. Blog Commenting

The good thing about blog commenting is you gain blog traffic and also earn a backlink. Same with forum commenting—simply use your site URL as your forum signature and when you make comments, it will be displayed alongside your posts. Join active forums and blogs, start commenting today (and regularly), and see the amount of traffic you can drive to your blog.

8. Promote Your Content Daily

Content creation is a marketing strategy, so you must know how to promote your content. Direct promotion involves sharing your content through email and social media, while indirect promotion involves building connections with key players and credible sources related to your business. You need to have techniques for both of them to work effectively, and this requires daily practice. Make it a habit to perform all these promotional tasks. This is the only way your content will get noticed, and ultimately, help your business grow.

9. Get Affiliated

Affiliates are important because the more partners you have, the more exposure your business gets. This promotes business stability and identity in the long run. Learn to choose affiliates wisely. They should be related to your business or the key interests of your target audience. Learn how to deal with them in a friendly manner so that your relationship will grow overtime.

10. Create Shareable Content

We live in an online world dominated by social media. People now have the means to share to their followers what they’re interested in. If you can create content that is shareable, contains important keywords, and is interesting, it will rank high in search results, make people talk, and introduce your business to a wider audience. One of the greatest ways to drive traffic to your website is to create valuable and engaging content that is highly shareable and relevant to a large group of people. Make sure everything you write is so exciting that people will want to share it to their own social networking accounts.

The opportunities of content marketing and promotion are already vast, but they continue to expand by the minute. Growing your business is the bottom line objective with content marketing.

Use these 10 unusual strategies and always remember to step it up a notch to promote your business the best way possible. Do all this with one primary goal in mind: how can I provide useful, helpful value to my community and market?

BONUS: Have you tried NewsJacking for your company, product or service? Here’s a detailed look at how to get big media attention: Get the authority book from Meermann Scott today (Kindle/Amazon link)

Resources:

https://www.quicksprout.com/the-advanced-guide-to-content-marketing-chapter-5/

https://creativemarket.com/blog/2013/07/03/10-tips-for-driving-traffic-to-your-website-part-1

https://www.netmediablog.com/increase-blog-traffic-in-2013

photo credit: AltimeterGroup | cc

Categories
Content Marketing

The Data is In On the Future of B2B Content Marketing in 2013

Content is the answer to effective B2B marketing efforts.

Each year MarketingProfs and the Content Marketing Institute measures trends and specifically B2B marketing trends. What was found in the “2013 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends-North America” is the clear direction pointing to the increasing importance of content marketing. It remains a top priority as 9 out of 10 marketers are using it.

B2B marketers are spending more, distributing content on more (and different) social platforms and, although with uncertainty about effectiveness, are using additional delivery methods (tactics) to distribute their message.

In fact, content marketing fills 33% of B2B marketer budgets (up 7% from 2012). It doesn’t matter the size of the operation; large companies such as Microsoft, small business and solopreneurs across the globe have continued success and benefit from the advantages. Sadly, organizations that fall into the 9% not invested in content marketing are behind the curve and will fall fast to the sidelines.

Continue reading “The Data is In On the Future of B2B Content Marketing in 2013”