A constant content flow that has the power to keep you and your brand in the public eye is an invaluable asset. Nonetheless, the process of creating fresh, reader-oriented, 100% original content for different platforms demands a lot of time and money.
Successful content and social media marketing require the highest level of commitment and consistency, whereas you, as a budget-conscious small business owner, have the responsibility to manage your resources wisely and limit your spending without making any quality compromises.
This is where content curation comes into play, allowing you to increase your online visibility without breaking the bank.
What Is Content Curation and How Could It Help Me Grow My Business?
Content curation represents the act of identifying, collecting, organizing and displaying content that is relevant to a certain area of interest and a particular audience. According to an article published by Search Engine Journal, this concept refers to the process of discovering and using quality content pieces with a real substance, elaborated and published by high-authority sources.
You may be wondering: how could this strategy benefit my business? Truth be told, there are several benefits associated with content curation. First of all, this technique enables you to save time, money and energy that you would otherwise have to invest in content creation. Secondly, the almost overwhelming abundance of premium content launched by reputable sources allows you to select the best pieces based on the interests and expectations of your audience, and also according to your own mission, vision and goals. Thirdly, content curation is a social act by definition; therefore, it could represent a viable and extremely effective method to establish new partnerships with prominent players operating in your industry, make new contacts and rely on the type of writing that can give you the chance to reach a larger segment of public.
An example of curation is what we’ve been doing. The Great Content Roundup accrued over 200 shares in just a few days.
Content Creation vs. Content Curation: Which Tactic Works Best for Your Business?
An article published by Social Media Today reveals that content curation and content creation are two excellent methods that any company can use to fill its content pipeline. Both processes have their pros and cons and should be seen as the two halves of the same whole; not as two disparate strategies implemented to achieve a steady content flow.
4 Benefits of Content Curation
Cost-Efficiency. When you have sharable, world-class content at your fingertips, you can choose to curate your favorite pieces instead of crafting new ones from scratch.
Time-Efficiency. When you don’t have much time to create your own content, you can promote the most brilliant ideas introduced by reputable industry experts to give your readers the food for thought that they’re expecting to see on your blog/website/social media account.
The Chance to Build and Maintain New Connections. By consuming other people’s web content, you encourage the development of new potentially fruitful partnerships that could support your boldest marketing goals in the future.
The Opportunity to Help Your Readers Explore Various Perspectives on a Certain Topic. Content curation lets you introduce newsworthy facts from multiple perspectives, enabling your readers to form an educated opinion on a particular subject.
On the other hand, content creation also has its fair share of benefits, including the following ones.
4 Benefits of Content Creation
The Opportunity to Make Your Voice Heard Through Original Content. Your tone of voice, the originality of your ideas and the way in which you bond with your readers and encourage their feedback are the main elements that reflect your uniqueness. Through content creation you can celebrate your individuality and make sure that you’re not at risk of drowning in a sea of copycats.
The Ability to Demonstrate Your Skills and Knowledge, While Consolidating Your Position on Your Niche. Unique, highly researched content helps you talk like an expert and be identified as one by your audience.
The Chance to Craft, Publish and Promote Quality Content That Is Exclusively Yours. Words. By creating quality content you can boost your level of exposure. First of all, world-class writing encourages visitors to land on your page over and over again; secondly, the superior quality of your content pieces may stimulate other curators to showcase your masterpieces, implicitly spreading the word about your business.
A Deeper Connection with More Loyal Readers. Last but not least, generally speaking a constant content flow based on original pieces could improve your relationship with your readers and boost their loyalty, who will see you as an inspired creator, as opposed to a mere curator with no voice of his own.
[Tweet “Creation without #Curation is like Cake without Icing. #Content”]
5 Tips on How to Simplify and Optimize Your Content Curation Ritual
Both curation and creation can support your everyday marketing goals, allowing you to support the growth of your small business. The key is to maintain a solid balance between the percentage of curated content and original content that you publish on your website. In our article published on SiteProNews, we have listed the main steps that one should take to guide a healthy content curation strategy in the right direction. Here are five tips that you should apply to curate content like a pro.
Discover the Particularities of Your Audience (Including Its Area of Interest). What kind of subjects would make your readers tick? What type of content pieces should you actually curate to stay on the same page with your readers?
Make Sure Content Creation Is Just a Piece of Your Content Marketing Puzzle. These days, in order to maintain your competitiveness in any industry, you have to be more than an enthusiastic curator. Perfect your content crafting skills and let the whole world hear your unique story.
Add Value to Each Content Piece That You Curate. Make sure every single content piece that lands on your website/social media channel bares your creative imprint. Instead of copy pasting info coming from different high-authority sources, choose to filter the facts that you present through your own perspective.
Do Your Research. Find the best sources that could offer you the most relevant and engaging type of writing for your content curation strategy.
Use the Right Tools to Take Your Content Curation to the Next Level. Now you can make the most of an ample series of free and almost free curation tools, such as Curata, Scoop.it, Bundle Post and Storify, designed to discover, organize and share relevant, engaging content coming from trustworthy sources.
Creation and Curation: Getting the Best of Both Worlds
You are the content pieces that you distribute through different channels, so what does your writing actually say about you and your business? Moreover, what kind of favors should you expect from the content that you choose to publish on your website, blog and/or social media platforms? According to an article by Convince&Convert, you can measure the effectiveness of original content and curated content by taking a closer look at conversion rates and click rates.
According to the data provided by this source, posts linked to one or more third-party websites ensure up to 33% more clicks than the ones linking to owned websites. In other words, curation leaves content creation behind when it comes to counting clicks. Nonetheless, content creation appears to be the optimal strategy that you should employ if your goal is to drive conversions. Convince&Convert reveals that posts linking to your website can click-to-conversion rate up to 54% higher than the one displayed by posts that are linked to third-party websites. If you take a minute to think about it, this actually makes sense: your prospects need at least one good reason to become your clients. In this case, your original content is the main motive that stimulates them to make a purchase and interact with your brand in different other ways (subscribe to your newsletter, provide feedback, share your content on social networking websites and so on).
All in all, why choose between content curation and content creation when you can have both? Learn to see curated content as a breath of fresh air; turn it into your valuable source of inspiration and use it as a solid foundation for your upcoming content crafting efforts. Convince&Convert sheds some light on the secret recipe for success based on curation and creation: people who link their posts to their website anywhere from 25% to 50% of the time get the best results. However, this range may not always serve your best interest. A trial-and-error process is the best way to establish the optimal ratio between curated and original content. Measure your very own curation/creation efforts regularly and find out what type of content actually encourages your readers to respond to your calls to action in the most desirable manner.
Looking to jumpstart your content curation? Learn more here!
Twitter is an awesome tool that can help you generate more followers, and bring in more clicks and eventual revenue for your business.
You know it is powerful, and you want to make sure you are doing things as best as possible, right? Well, I’m here to help you further improve your tweets and Twitter outreach with a few awesome tips. Let’s take a look at what can really help your Twitter account out, getting more engagement and clicks!
10 Ways to Improve Your Tweets
There are several great ways to get the most out of your Twitter account, and I am going to look at 10 different ones!
1. Use Your #Hashtags Properly. Hashtags are a great part of Twitter, and can be incredibly powerful. There are many different ways people use hashtags ranging from simple business ones to incredibly powerful hashtag moments. When it comes to Twitter, you need to use your hashtags, and use them well. Many people aren’t entirely sure how to use hashtags, but a great way to approach them is to think of them as SEO for Twitter. What are your top keywords, what do you use in your web content and blogs? Use those words for your hashtags, and start grabbing people’s attention.
While you use hashtags as SEO, you should also consider making a few fun ones that are unique to your business. A great illustration of doing this is BioWare’s Twitter account for Dragon Age: Inquisition and their #DAIFanQuisition:
2. Make Your Tweets Short and Fun Instead of Dry and Professional. The one thing with Twitter is that you want to make sure you stay fun and informal, even if your company is more professional. This is because you will find that it is easier to get engagement on Twitter if you are fun, laid back, and still reflect your company than when your tweets are constantly dry and boring. You need to loosen up a bit and just have fun because that is one of the main reasons people love social media, especially Twitter. We get enough professional sounding things through work documents, the news, and other professional settings, but Twitter lets people loosen up and have a fun time. Sassy is currently the new fun, and there do happen to be some hilariously sassy Twitter accounts out there to gain inspiration from:
3. Find the Best Time to Post Your Tweets. A great way to make sure you are using Twitter correctly is to make sure you know the best time to post your various tweets. When it comes to the perfect time, it does depend on your client base because people use social media differently. However, there has been some awesome research done to help companies find an optimal starting point for their tweets and when to post them. It is suggested that you post to Twitter mainly on Mondays through Thursdays before 8PM, as this seems to be when people are more active, and if you post on Fridays (which you should), research says to post before 3PM. While this can help you get started, there are two major things you need to do. One is to make sure you are actually reaching people during those times, and tweak your posting times if you aren’t. Two, you need to make sure you share images because people enjoy images on social media.
4. Make Sure You Optimize Your Twitter Profile. Optimizing your social media profiles is really important no matter what site you use, and it can be pretty powerful for Twitter. There are several great brands out there that optimize their Twitter accounts amazingly with incredible photos, a great bio, and a link to their webpage. This is all very important because it shows that an actual person is using the Twitter account, and that the account is your company’s. A bio can help people know more about your business, and that link sends them directly to your webpage. Never leave any aspect of a Twitter profile empty – always fill in any and all information.
5. Don’t Hesitate to Use Twitter Ads. A great way to use Twitter for more of an impact is to make sure you use Twitter Ads. Some companies might be a bit wary to start using Twitter Ads when they would normally just rely on hash tags, but the ads can really help you get more exposure. In fact, Twitter makes sure that people who would be interested in your company will see the promoted tweet, instead of people who wouldn’t be interested seeing it. You can also grow your followers by promoting your account and increase lead generation with ads. Try it out, and you might just be surprised how many people it brings to your Twitter account and eventually your website.
6. Don’t Be Afraid of Acronyms and Emoticons! You can’t go anywhere on the Internet without seeing many acronyms and emoticons. However, many businesses wonder if this is something they can benefit from or if they should simply stay away. I believe that acronyms and emoticons are perfect to use for your business because it can help you create a connection with your followers. In fact, many people react to a smiley face emoticon as if it were a real face – interesting, no? Learn a few acronyms, and use some great emoticons and test just how well they work. Chances are, you will be able to boost engagement, which can lead to more people coming to your site and purchasing from your company.
7. Use Some Psych 101 When Crafting Your Tweets. Not many people consider basic psychology when they craft their tweets, but all of the engagement you are likely to receive stems from psych 101. Not everyone took a psych 101 class, and that is completely fine, you don’t need a psychology degree to learn a few basic tricks. You can learn some things to do such as using the “bandwagon effect” to bring in more engagement. What is the bandwagon effect? It is simple saying things like “join our team” or stating something and asking, “who agrees?” It seems like you are involving a lot of people (even if you don’t feel like you are) and people are more likely to respond if they think others are responding as well. There are some other great basic psychology things you can do and Social Media Examiner has a handy list to get you started!
8. Always Make Sure You Define Your Goals for Twitter. A basic step some people might not consider at the beginning of their Twitter usage is what goals they have in mind for their account. This contains knowing who you want to reach on Twitter (age, location), knowing what you want to accomplish with a Twitter campaign, and know who will be crafting and sending out your tweets. These seem very basic, but it can help tremendously if you have goals set up for your Twitter account. Your goals can also change and grow throughout the years, so make sure you are constantly reviewing them.
9. Create a List for Your Company Name to Avoid Missing Mentions. One of the major problems a lot of businesses have is missing when they are mentioned on Twitter. This can be a detriment because people love when a business re-tweets or mentions them, and if you don’t see it, you won’t interact with them. In addition, if someone says something negative about your company, you won’t be able to meet the problem and work to resolve it.
The biggest problem with this is that people don’t often use the @ to mention the company they are talking about. A great way to make sure that you don’t miss a single mention whether they use the @ or not is to create a list with your company’s name as the search term. You will then be able to track who says what, and give you the chance to reach out to people who didn’t mention your company. This promotes engagement, and can also help in reputation management.
10. Utilize Twitter Analytics to Help Tweak and Improve Your Tweets. A great thing about the Internet is when you’re able to use analytics to see just how well your site is doing. However, what can you do to see if your tweets are having the best impact or not? You can use Twitter Analytics to figure it out! You can look at specific tweets or an overall report to learn more about your Twitter usage, reach, and overall power. This will help you see what types of tweets your followers engage with, as well as the best times to post to your specific Twitter account. You can use Twitter Analytics to make sure you get the reach you want and need, which is incredible.
Tweet, Tweet and Grow Your Followers!
Twitter is the perfect way to reach out to your followers and have more engagement with them. It is also a great way to direct people to your blogs, and help you generate more revenue. Don’t skip out on using Twitter if it scares you.
You don’t always have to rely on using the Twitter account yourself—we know it can be hard as a business owner wearing a lot of hats! Take a look at our awesome social media packages that not only help with Twitter, but can help with Facebook and Google+, as well.
Social media can be a tricky field for many businesses, but there are some out there who know how to use it, and they use it well. Have you heard of a smaller, yet big-reach company that has a powerful social media campaign—Adagio Teas?
Adagio Teas is a wonderful place with both a physical location on the East Coast, as well as a major Internet presence. They work diligently to bring in more online customers through their social media campaign. Let’s take a look at how Adagio Teas uses social media and see just what you can learn from this small business.
A Social Media Success: Adagio Teas
I am going to take a look at the top ways Adagio Teas wins at social media, with a few things hopefully you can takeaway for your own social media campaigns.
They Have a Great Social Media Presence With Twitter. Adagio Teas knows that the place they are going to get their clients is through social media, and they make sure to have an incredible Twitter presence. When you take a stroll on their Twitter feed, you see the company consistently tweeting about offers, contests, as well as re-tweets from their followers. In fact, Adagio regularly encourages people to use Twitter and it is always nice when you get your tweet re-tweeted by the company. I am going to look into their usage of Twitter further on in this blog, but they do have an incredible presence there, and one that is definitely a great inspiration for small businesses.Twitter is an amazing social media site for small businesses because it allows you to talk to your clients in “real time” and it makes the interaction feel more personal. When it comes to other social channels, people are used to having to wait for a response, but Twitter is where the action is at. If you don’t have a Twitter account, set one up, and get to tweeting and talking to build great relationships with your clients.
They Utilize Pinterest to Share Teas, Recipes, and Quotes. While they have a great Twitter presence, they also make sure to utilize their Pinterest account. Pinterest is a great place to share a wide variety of content all the way from memes to product pictures, recipes, and even quotes. Adagio Teas knows how to use Pinterest well and they regularly update with some great photographs of products. They also share some fun, cute little sayings that always involve tea and sometimes include the one thing that pairs with tea nicely – books.Pinterest isn’t a social channel for every business, but it can be useful for some. Many people use this site as a place to collection great DIY tips, as well as fun quotes, sayings, and recipes. If you are in a niche market that can give people DIY tips such as how to brew the perfect oolong tea, then this is a great site for you. If you are in the financial industry, Pinterest might not be the social channel for you. It is always best to keep your channels down to what you will use as well as what will give you the best impact.
Adagio Creates Fun Contests Involving Social Media Channels. Back in February, Adagio Teas created a great contest for their fans about the teas people love. The contest rules stated people had to create an individual Pinterest board titling it “I <3 Adagio Teas” and then share the top ten items they loved from Adagio. This was a great marketing ploy because it got hundreds of people to share their favorite products, which meant all of their followers saw it. But how did Adagio make it worthwhile for clients? Obviously not everyone could win the grand prize, but if you created a board, you could email them with a link to your board and get a $10 gift certificate. Overall this was pocket change compared to what Adagio could make with this promotion, and it made all of their clients pretty happy.This is a perfect example of not just setting up a contest or giveaway, but also making it worth your clients’ time and energy. Not many people would have made a board if it weren’t for that gift card. Give your clients something free when you run a promotion to spice things up and add a favorable image of you in their minds. This will help produce customer loyalty, and happy, loyal clients are more than willing to help promote a business that helps them. As Social Media Examiner writes, you don’t always have to use Pinterest; Facebook, Twitter, or any other social channel can work just as well for a giveaway or contest!
Tweet About Adagio and You Get Points! One of my favorite ways Adagio uses Twitter is that they encourage people to tweet to receive points. These points add up to a money value, which can take a significant amount of money off of an order. You can only tweet about them once a day, but this is a great incentive for clients to promote a company while getting something in return. Again, this is another great example of encouraging your clients to help promote you while making it worth their time and energy.
Allot Points for Social Media Reviews. Outside of just tweeting on Twitter, Adagio also offers points if you review a product and post it to their Facebook page. Facebook reviews can really help a company out, and many people are willing to do this for a business they like. You will find that they are definitely willing to review things if you give them something in return. Each review gives the reviewer 6 points towards a gift certificate that can be used together with the points mentioned above. Everything about Adagio is about promoting the company while helping the customers, which creates an incredible atmosphere for the workers and clients alike.
Adagio Knows that Email is Still Vital. While not a specific social channel, email does have a social quality that many people end up ignoring. Many think that it is a thing of the past when it comes to marketing, but that is simply not so. Adagio understands this and sends out great emails to encourage their clients to try new teas or products. When they send out an email, it isn’t the typical mass generated one that every single client gets. In fact, it is tailored to what the client has purchased. Let’s say you purchased a cinnamon apple Rooibos tea, Adagio will follow up with an email about a cinnamon tea you might like. A few weeks later, they’ll share an apple tea, or they might just say that they’ve randomly put a free sample into your cart for you to have next time you check out. All of this is communicated through email, and it is a pretty wondrous thing to open your email and see you have a free sample of tea waiting for you.A takeaway from this for you is that you should still be using email in your marketing campaigns. It doesn’t have to be done just like Adagio by making it user specific, but this shows just how vital email is in 2015. Think about it – what is one of the first things you do in the morning? You check your email. The same thing happens all over the world as people stretch their feet to the ground and groggily pick up their phone as they head to the kitchen for a cup of coffee or tea. Outside of morning email checks, we all find ourselves checking our email for work purposes or waiting for orders to arrive, making it important for businesses to use email.
They Favorite, Re-tweet, or Respond. Adagio Teas also understands one of the most vital aspects of social media – engagement. They’ve worked hard to get decent engagement on their sites, and now that they have it, they make sure to maintain it. They do this by responding to their clients on Facebook and Twitter, as well as by re-tweeting images, or by marking “favorite” on a tweet. This helps promote further engagement because people simply love knowing that someone is going to respond to their comments and tweets.In order to have a great, successful social media presence, you need to make sure you are regularly engaging. Yes, getting engagement can be difficult up front, but there are several things you can do to promote it. Once you get it, you need to make sure you work just as hard to keep it by responding to comments, re-tweeting, and just engaging overall with your clients.
Grab a Mug of Tea and Get Social!
These top points are great things to add to your own social media campaign, helping you get the most out of it. It can be daunting to be a small business and using social media when all you see are tons of very successful large businesses. However, if this small business can have an incredible social media campaign, so can you!
Developing content has become the now method of getting readers from the Internet to your web pages. In the 90’s, traffic was driven through keywords and although these could lead to some horribly inorganic pages, it got the job done and got traffic to your site.
Content production has since literally taken over and in the last five years we have seen a gradual shift away from traditional SEO rules and a new look at content from the lens of SEO.
Two Key Ways You Can Do SEO the RIGHT Way With Content
When the Google search algorithm changed what they were looking for in websites, it hurt a lot of sites because of their methodology. Stuffing unneeded keywords into a site made Google rank their pages higher, but provided little useful information to the users.
Eventually, users started shying away from using search engines. If all you got was junk websites then what use were the engines anyway. Google’s game changer made use of the understanding that human beings read differently from machines. As a result, they developed a system by which they could determine if the site was “organic” or artificially generated. With every iteration of Google’s algorithm, the original SEO algorithm scammers have tried to change their tactics to stay ahead of the game, but Google seems to have weeded out the majority of them.
Writing For The Audience. The changes in Google’s algorithm led to a change in the attitude of the entire Internet (and e-commerce in general). Before, traffic was a means of getting users to click on a link, end up on your site and be bombarded by advertising in the hopes that they would click something and you’d get paid. This new paradigm calls for a different approach to the reader: treating him/her like a human being.
Content Builds A Community. One of the more important uses of content in the modern world is the building of a community. Blogs and websites help to create and foster a community of interaction and sharing that reaches far beyond the boundaries of the wired world. By creating content that people want to discuss, you give them a platform for further interaction and this builds reader loyalty. By integrating proper SEO techniques within your content you expose it to a much wider audience than you would normally. The result is of course more traffic, but traffic that is liable to return. The SEO invites them and the content keeps them there.
Case Study: Express Writers
Our own company of Express Writers was one of the early adopters of the idea that a high-content website would attract users a lot more than simple SEO by itself. In a brave move in November 2013, we ceased the use of traditional SEO tactics and moved towards using content alone to drive out business. We did away with the buying of social fans and the building and maintenance of keyword list. We went in for the long haul.
The Results
Today, we are among the top three links from Google for the term “copywriting agency” and have huge placement in the search results that have fluctuated little over the past year. This is wholly through organic content, not by any SEO methodology or plan. We outrank suppliers of copywriting services such as Scripted and Elance and for a company that doesn’t bankroll an advertising fund, we have done very well for ourselves.
We maintain our current situation via a series of blog posts (more than 3 per day on every platform we manage), and by launching our new website in January of 2015. We guest blog in order to increase our reach and our post there for December, “10 Ways to Beat the Panda and Penguin in Your Content Strategy” was the top read for that entire month. We presented ourselves as experts and cultivated this persona, and we were able to deliver based on our content production, a testament to our performance as the following graphs show.
The User Experience: How Has It Changed?
In the past, at the turn of the 2000’s, SEO was about getting users to your site using whatever means was necessary. As we got up to 2010, the game changed and it was about getting users to your site by craftily inserting keywords throughout your content. Now, in a post-2010 world, it’s all about the user experience. Through a series of clever updates, Google has managed to force the hand of website owners and operators to start considering users as more than just throwaway currency and see them as the force that drives their business. It has turned out to be a good move for the average consumer as it nets them more value than the previous methods of SEO.
Mobile Content. Content production dedicated to mobile users has already proved to be a major source of incoming traffic. By optimizing a site for mobile usage you get access to a whole new set of users that can benefit from your pages. Content production geared towards mobile users has quite a lot more marketability now and will continue to see popularity as the years go by. Approximately 17.4% of total Internet users are using their mobile devices for access. As these devices get cheaper and more accessible, we should see even more users adopt it as a means of browsing the Internet.
Social Media and Content. Social media has been a major game-changer for a lot of companies as regards their content production and promotion. Content promotion through social media has a very wide-ranging audience and because of that it can mean a lot more traffic to a site than regular SEO. It is estimated that over 2 billion people use social networking in one form of another and as long as you can direct your advertising at the correct sector of users you have a ready market for your content.
Quality before Quantity. Even though social media will get users to visit your site, it won’t get them to stay all by itself. In addition to having clever social media marketing savvy, you need to have high quality content. Again, this follows from what Google has been seeking to do with its implementation of the Panda and Penguin algorithm updates. Social media is a much harsher critic than Google, however. Google may occasionally rank a site that isn’t up to usual par with their search algorithms. If you share a site with bad content on social media, eventually the users you’re trying to attract will start actively avoiding your efforts, and that’s a lot worse than having a bad page rank.
SEO & Content: A Changing Paradigm
SEO isn’t about tricks and tips any more, it’s all about the content. It’s about attracting the user and keeping them interested with what you have to say and offer to them. You’re not writing for the search engine bots any more, this time you’re writing for the reader. The change in the paradigm of SEO has come suddenly but has brought a lot of changes to the industry; changes that have made many Internet marketer reconsider their profession. It has made unscrupulous use of keyword stuffing infeasible and has ushered in a new age of information-based, user-centric Internet.
How this Affects Us: Because of the search engine’s interest in topic-matching instead of exact keyword matching (which was where the search engines were leaning previously) we now have to work harder to get our users. The days of lazy Internet marketing are well and truly over. There is a lot of difference between the traditional approach towards keyword-driven SEO and the modern version of topic-driven SEO.
Traditional Keyword-Driven SEO Is Dead?
The thought behind traditional keyword-driven SEO lies with trying to rank well for a particular keyword because that keyword drives a lot of high quality traffic to your site. The downfall of this method is that it doesn’t incorporate thinking for other channels: it’s solely for search engines. This means that we ignore things like social media, content marketing and other forms of outreach marketing both offline and online. Developing this type of SEO limits out outreach and doesn’t fully incorporate all the possible marketing channels we can have. Although it’s a really good idea if you were in the early 00’s or late 90’s, it’s not so good a strategy to adopt now.
The Problems Behind Traditional Keyword-Driven SEO
One of the most annoying things about doing keyword-driven SEO is creating redundant landing pages for the purpose of testing and retesting keyword performance. It’s a lot of work that overlaps and sucks up time that can be spent doing other things. It’s also useful to remember that each page only ranks for a specific keyword or phrase. That means that even though your ranking for one keyword or keyphrase may rank well, you are going to have others ranking poorly and the traffic will probably be of a lower quality. The feedback mechanism for testing the success of a keyword has also changed since Google no longer provides a metric for keyword referral data. All in all, traditional keyword-driven SEO is more or less ineffective at what it seeks to do.
The Modern Model of SEO
Today’s SEO isn’t about keywords and rankings, it’s about the broad performance of traffic based on searches by topic across a website. Based on the referral from search engines, companies can decide that a certain sector of their content is performing better for them and would want to put more money into improving its SEO capabilities. The common link it has with the traditional model is that you still need your keywords: they are what your users are searching for after all. The difference here is that your keywords are grouped into sections based on what content best serves them. This is a marked difference from simply fitting in your keywords to a certain density and hoping for a few search engine hits.
How the Modern Model trumps the Traditional Model: The modern model is better than the traditional model in two distinct ways. Firstly, because you don’t need to expend your effort over a wider range of pages, your page quality is usually higher. Instead of having landing pages for each keyword, you can have one landing page for a particular keyword grouping, allowing you to spend more time on that single page and make it a much higher quality. The second thing that the modern model beats the traditional model at is scope and amplification. Using the modern model you can incorporate social media and even email marketing into your mix and open up new channels for traffic that were largely ignored by the original methodology.
The Shifting Sands of SEO Marketing
As we have seen throughout the years, SEO changes at the drop of a hat. But the thing that makes content-based SEO so important is its penchant for longevity. Content ranked searches have the potential to make your pages rank well as soon as they first go up because of your previous success in the topic area. Developing a content strategy is a good way to go about getting started on the road to content-based SEO. Generating high-quality content that is posted regularly is of the utmost important in getting yourself noticed as an expert in the field. However, it is going to be a long process that requires dedication and determination in order to see success. There aren’t going to be a lot of stories about overnight success from content-based SEO, that’s for sure.
Long Term Benefits
Going back to our own case study, it is clear that we do get a lot of traffic thanks to our content production and promotion techniques. Guest blogs on high-quality sites drive a lot of traffic for us, and provide a platform where user can experience firsthand the quality and extent of knowledge which we represent. These are what content-based SEO is about: providing the user with an experience that keeps them coming back for more. A well-planned content marketing strategy combined with content auditing (to ensure that you maintain high standards for your existing content) and in-depth keyword research (to get relevant groupings for specific pages) sets you up for a future based around the interest value of your content and the user experience of your pages. Together, these serve as a powerful booster for your traffic, both from search engines as well as any other marketing channel you invest in.
Want to create buzz around your brand, build trust with your audience, and add tons of fresh names to your email list – all at the same time?
Create an ebook.
This type of content is a winner for marketing your business.
The trick, however, is to keep the content inside the ebook totally free of sales pitches and chock-full of value. It needs to reach must-read status for your audience to want to pull the trigger and trade their details in exchange for a download.
Sounds good?
If so, let’s get into why ebooks are so awesome for business marketing, plus five rules to follow when creating your ultimate lead magnet.
Why Create an Ebook for Your Business Marketing?
Ebooks are valuable for your marketing because they don’t look like marketing at all.
If you do it right, your ebooks should provide nothing but relentless value in the form of expert, informative, useful content – without selling or pitching anything.
That, right there, is their draw for your audience. They get tons of value in exchange for nothing more than their name and email address. It’s not a hard trade, and it will pay off for you in spades because your list will grow by leaps and bounds. (And, as we all know, your email list is a powerful tool.)
Another huge plus: Ebooks are relatively inexpensive to produce. All you need is some well-written content and basic design to pull it all together.
Here’s an example of an ebook from Jeff Goins on growing your blogging audience:
It’s a 55-page PDF that includes a table of contents, 3 parts, an introduction, and a conclusion.
Pretty cool, right?
Yours doesn’t have to be nearly this long, either. You can create an ebook as short as 3-5 pages, as long as the information inside is super valuable.
Feeling excited yet? Follow these 5 rules to create an ebook, and walk away with an awesome lead magnet that will draw in tons of interest and new subscribers to your list.
How to Create an Ebook: 5 Basic Rules
1. Find the Right Topic, Tone, and Style
If you want to create a desirable ebook, you have to begin the process with the right topic in hand. After that’s accomplished, you need to write the ebook with a tone and style that’s consistent with your brand voice.
How to Find the Right Ebook Topic
When I say the right topic, I mean one that your readers will eagerly look forward to reading. It’s one they want to know about, have questions about, and one for which you can provide concrete, valuable answers.
That’s why, before you start on your ebook, topic research is essential. Here are a few tips to begin:
Search for industry hashtags on social media and look to see what people are talking about. Follow conversations and find the questions people are asking. Could you answer topically related ones in your ebook?
Search for industry keywords on BuzzSumo and see what major topics come up over and over in top-shared posts. Look for knowledge gaps you can fill with your ebook content.
Look at your own blog posts for inspiration. Which topics are most-shared? Which ones get the most follow-up questions and comments? You could potentially create an ebook that dives deeper into these subjects.
Consider common customer problems you hear about regularly and write an ebook that helps solve them.
[bctt tweet=”Before you start on your ebook, the first step you should do is topic research. Here are a few tips in finding the right topic for your next ebook. @JuliaEMcCoy” username=”ExpWriters”]
How to Ensure Your Ebook Tone and Style Are Consistent with Your Brand AND Non-Salesy
When creating ebooks, consistency is key. If the writing style and tone of your ebook content differs from your brand style and tone, it will be glaring to readers. That disconnect makes for a disjointed experience with your brand, which you never want.
To keep the writing style and tone on-brand, ensure you/your writers are familiar with:
Your brand style guide (Don’t have one? This how-to from 99designs is a good primer)
Your blog posts
Any other materials that effectively showcase your communication style
For a good example of a brand with a consistent style across their content and communications, check out our post on Panera Bread’s content marketing.
After you (or your writer) have a clear idea on your brand tone and style for writing your ebook, you need to turn your attention to non-salesy writing.
The purpose of your ebook is NOT to sell your brand, products, or services. Its only purpose should be to hand your reader tangible value in the form of useful information.
That’s it.
To avoid salesy language:
Keep your focus on the reader, not on your brand.
Think about what the reader wants/needs to know to fully understand the topic you’re covering.
Answer questions you encountered in your topic research.
Provide your unique expertise on the topic.
2. Include Premium Content
To create a must-have ebook, it needs to include premium content.
That means:
You haven’t written about the topic elsewhere, like on your blog, where readers can easily access it.
If you have written about it before, you haven’t covered the topic in a deep way.
The topic requires research to provide a full picture.
In other words, premium content needs to be exclusive, exhaustive, and the highest quality possible. It needs research and your best writing.
The main reason premium content in your ebook is necessary, though, is because it builds trust with your readers. When you offer such a valuable resource for free (in exchange for their name and email address), your reputation and authority will grow by extension.
That’s why an ebook is so valuable to you as a marketing tool.
Great example: Brian Dean of Backlinko started offering “content upgrades” (A.K.A. premium content) to his blog readers in exchange for their email. In this way, he increased his conversion rate from .54% to 4.82%. That’s a huge difference.
3. Don’t Skimp on Ebook Design
If you’re going to pour your all into your ebook content, skimping on the design makes zero sense. That’s like baking a delicious birthday cake but leaving it undecorated.
This is a special lead magnet. Treat it as such. Your ebook needs to be the entire package for the best outcome.
Page layout, organization, design, graphics, fonts, and branding are all going to matter here. For a relevant example, I’m going to reference Brian Dean’s case study again (linked above).
Brian, like most people, doesn’t have design or Photoshop skills. When he creates a lead magnet, it looks like this:
I think this is on par with what most of us can achieve. However, when you create an ebook lead magnet, you need to do better.
It needs to be professional, branded, and pleasing to the eye. For Brian, that means he hands his lead magnet draft over to a graphic designer. This is the result:
Wow.
Now that’s a lead magnet that is not only pretty to look at, but fun to read. Plus, it uses brand colors and design so you know this is a Backlinko resource.
If you truly want your ebook to be a valuable, lead-generating machine, you need to go the extra mile, too. That means investing in the final presentation, including layout and design.
Good news: It doesn’t have to cost tons of money. Try hiring a fledgling designer looking to build their portfolio – they will have lower rates. Fiverr are good places to find designers looking for work.
4. Include Calls-to-Action in Your Ebook Offer
So your new ebook is written, edited, designed, and ready to go as a complete package. Now it’s time to offer it to the world.
One problem: If you don’t use a call-to-action with your free ebook offer, your time and hard work will be wasted.
Wherever you end up offering the ebook for download, you need two things:
A way to capture leads who want to download the ebook (i.e. a form where they can submit their details)
A call-to-action to tell them what to do and encourage more downloads
It includes a lead capture form as well as TWO calls-to-action: “Download our free 20+ page ebook” and “Get your free copy”.
The page also includes a preview of the ebook cover as well as a short description of what’s inside.
All of these elements work together to make downloading the actual ebook as enticing and easy as possible. Plus, when I create relevant content where the ebook might provide further reading, I can link to this page to encourage more downloads (and more list subscribers!).
[bctt tweet=”Don’t forget CTAs in your ebook. These should: 1️⃣ capture leads who want to download the ebook and 2️⃣ tell them what to do and encourage more downloads. – @JuliaEMcCoy on the 5 rules in creating an awesome ebook.” username=”ExpWriters”]
5. Market Your Ebook for Best Results
Nobody will download your ebook if they don’t know it exists. That’s why you need to market it effectively.
Link to Your Ebook Download Page in Related Blog Posts
One way is to add the link to your ebook download page to related blog posts, as I mentioned already. You can add a simple text link anchored on a call-to-action (“download my ebook” works), or you can create a banner or call-out box linked to your download page, like we did, below:
Link to Your Ebook on Social Media Posts
Another easy way to market your ebook is to post the link to the download/landing page on social media. Add a line or two of copy to spice up the offer, include an image of the ebook cover, and you’re good to go.
Create Awesome Ebooks for Marketing That Builds Your Email List (+ Trust & Authority)
Creating an ebook lead magnet is a smart way to invest your time and a bit of money. Once your ebook is out in the world, it should be an evergreen resource that will help you bring in new leads and build your list for months (and maybe even years) to come.
Follow these 5 rules to create the best ebook that ultimately will do exactly what you want it to – build up your brand with flair.
