Content marketing is continually reaching new heights. The content marketing examples out there right now prove it.
Storytelling, imagination, deep research, creativity, innovation…
All of these elements and more are evident in today’s best content marketing. ?
To see what I mean, just look at these seven stunning examples of content marketing prowess. It’s impossible to NOT get inspired by these top content publishers raising the bar to atmospheric heights.
Ready to climb the mountain and check out the view from the top? ?
Some of the best of the best in content marketing examples are right here. In fact, many of them were Content Marketing Awards finalists, and others won various industry accolades.
If you ever need to answer the question “what is content marketing?”, point to one of these outstanding specimens.
[bctt tweet=”We’ve been always exposed to brilliant content marketing ideas that leave us feeling we’ve seen it all — not really. Here are 7 stunning content marketing examples that should inspire you to level up your strategy skills! ?️ ?” username=”ExpWriters”]
This content marketing example from 2018 shows what you can do with a tiny bit of video and a lot of ingenuity.
The San Diego Tourism Authority teamed up with MeringCarson to produce six 15-second clips of beautiful, classic, and surprising California scenery. Sometimes, a coffee cup or a wine glass is in the foreground of the shot, but each one is a peaceful, sweet reminder to appreciate what’s right in front of you.
Of course, the biggest draw is showcasing San Diego scenery like a beach at sunset, a cheerful theme park, calming ocean surf, or iconic palm trees swaying in the breeze next to an ice skating rink.
Some of the videos (like the one featured above, “Good Morning San Diego”) have up to 200,000 views. This campaign was a finalist in the Content Marketing Awards for the “B2C Branded Content Campaign of the Year.”
If you haven’t heard of Cleveland Clinic yet, well… why haven’t you?
This health center is killing it with content, mostly thanks to its content marketing team (with Amanda Todorovich, their Senior Director of Health Content, at the helm).
Currently, Cleveland Clinic’s Health Essentials blog draws in 6-7 million inbound visitors every month. That’s over 200,000 visitors per day!
They rank for millions of health-related long-tail keywords – over 3 million, to be precise.
How do they do it? Their content strategy is meticulous. They have it down to a science. ??
They publish 3-5 blogs daily with help from over 40 medical experts, who contribute interviews and review each piece.
The content marketing team meets up every single morning to “huddle” and ensure everyone’s on the same page.
The writers are on-point, too: The content is snappy and grabs your interest – even if you’re not researching a health problem.
To learn more about Cleveland Clinic’s strategy and content marketing team, check out our interview with Amanda Todorovich alongside three other industry experts.
Synchrony recently launched its content marketing platform, State of Pay, in 2018, but it’s already garnering notice in the best way.
Dedicated to exploring the ways people shop and pay for purchases, the content offers insights for businesses as well as news about the ecommerce world.
Trends, interviews, original research, and thought leadership are all evident here. In fact, the #1 resource cited on State of Pay articles is original studies conducted by Synchrony itself.
It’s not all blog articles, though. There are also videos, ebooks, and animated infographics posted on social media.
It’s all targeted, cohesive, and ultra-relevant for their audience. Marketers, in general, agree – Synchrony’s State of Pay was another 2019 Content Marketing Awards finalist for B2B Branded Content Campaign of the Year.
4. YouTube – #TheYouTubeAd of the Year
Next on our list of the best content marketing examples from 2018 and 2019: a bit of crowdsourcing from YouTube.
Every year, the media giant holds #TheYouTubeAd of the Year, a campaign that lets anyone vote for their favorite commercials from the past 12 months.
Generally, YouTube keeps tabs on ad performance through their YouTube ads Leaderboard, which tracks the most-watched ads viewed on the platform.
At the end of the year, YouTube chooses categories based on the trends from that year, then culls the list to dozens of finalists. Viewers vote on their favorites, and the winners are announced after 8 days of voting.
This is a great example of giving content on YouTube a second life while also promoting viewership. People are motivated to watch the nominees and vote on their favorites, and more views is equal to more money from advertisers.
Here’s the 2018 winner for the category “#TheYouTubeAd That Deserves Best Picture” (it has over 17 million views as of this writing):
Semcon, an international technology company, is all about innovation. With their content initiative, Add Perspectives, the company set out to feature women’s voices and minds and how they approach product development.
The result was an all-women product development team assembled to come up with a new concept for smart, user-friendly tow bars for hooking up cars to trailers. Semcon documented the process.
In other words, this content marketing example is unique and ah-mazing.
When using the standard tow bar (which hasn’t been redesigned since the 1930s!), most women admitted to feeling insecure. They couldn’t hook up their cars and trailers themselves easily, which made them self-conscious.
Thus, in pictures, text, and video, Semcon told the story of how a team of women tackled this flaw in product design and development.
This impactful content piece is engaging as well as demonstrative of Semcon’s values as a company. In short, it’s a fantastic exercise in trust and authority-building through exceptional content.
6. Western Union – One Year in the Dark
Another good marketing example using video is Western Union’s “One Year in the Dark” – a short, 2-minute clip that captured what it was like living in Puerto Rico without power after Hurricane Maria.
To produce the video, Western Union teamed up with CNN and did field research to find the story they wanted to tell:
“We identified an individual in Jonathan Sepulveda and his family, who had to learn how to live without power, while relying on the help of neighbors like Alana Feldman to bring normalcy to life. With no electricity and banks closed, they had to rely on cash to go through their daily endeavors. With their story, which gets to the heart of our business, we wanted to show how connection and support helped a community deal with the lasting impacts of Hurricane Maria.”
Here’s the 60-second version of the video:
As you can see, it highlights human stories and how Western Union’s services played a vital role in helping the community survive after a disaster. (Note, however, that the emphasis is on the people, not the company.)
From this one video, Western Union received over 286,000 impressions through their social media channels and nearly 12 million from CNN’s. They also won the 2019 Gold Stevie Award for Marketing Campaign of the Year – Financial Products & Services.
Last but not least, among the best B2C content marketing examples for 2019 is Bank of America’s Saving and Budgeting blog.
Helpful, guiding videos, infographics, and articles pinpoint topics the average consumer is worried about in their everyday lives:
How to budget
Easy ways to save money
Affording your next vacation
How to set up an emergency fund
All the content is engaging to read and demonstrably useful. Look at this infographic about budgeting for your next vacation. As you scroll down, little bits of the scenery animate next to relevant, actionable tips:
Every bit of content is super simple and clear. This is obviously a great content hub to rely on if you have financial questions for day-to-day living and planning.
[bctt tweet=”Looking for content marketing inspiration? ? @JuliaEMcCoy shares 7 brilliant, award-winning content marketing examples from brands like San Diego Tourism Authority and Western Union. ?” username=”ExpWriters”]
Follow from These Content Marketing Examples and Get Creative
If you’re like me, your brain gears immediately started turning after perusing these content marketing examples.
Creativity, strategy, planning, and imagination – serious inspiration, right here.
One more thing: As you looked through each of them, you may have seen a theme emerging: Telling human stories is a clear-cut way to engage an audience.
And, as I predicted, storytelling is going to keep making waves in the content marketing world. (The possibilities are beyond exciting!)
Want even more inspiration? We served up a ton of it in our original research report of the Top 100 Content Marketers. This list is full of amazing content marketers who are innovating, creating, and leading the scene in fun, fresh ways.
Today, I’m super excited about the topic I’m sharing with you — how to get powerful organic lead generation results with six inbound content must-haves.
These are the six we’ll go over in today’s video:
Web pages
Blog Posts
Call to Actions (CTAs)
Ebooks and Lead Magnets
Lead Forms
Conversation App (live chat)
In today’s video, I’m sharing how all six work together like an ecosystem to bring you massive results and pull in ideal clients. You just need to know what to do with each, and how to set them up properly. Let’s get into it!
Power Up Your Inbound Lead Generation With These 6 Content Types (Video)
[bctt tweet=”Inbound lead methods, especially through content marketing, are hot for marketers today. But how do you set up content that will bring you results? @JuliaEMcCoy’s video on the six content types to use for lead gen is a must-watch. ” username=”ExpWriters”]
If you’re a content marketer — or even a marketer, in general — looking to pivot into inbound, you’re in a good place.
Inbound taps into a major traffic potential stemming from Google search (70.6% of ALL web traffic on the entire web originates from Google, according to Backlinko/Sparktoro).
Publishing strategic content generates 67% more leads than NOT publishing strategic content, says a HubSpot study.
And more than 71% of B2B buyers read blog content during their buying journeys (3-5 blogs is the norm).
But, how do you actually set up content in a way that will bring you results?
That’s what we’re here to talk about.
I’ve been practicing content marketing for eight years, using my own businesses to test the best content marketing practices. I’ve launched four different brands that are all profitable. What I’ve found, especially with my primary income source — my agency, Express Writers, where we handle on average 200 client projects every month — is that you need these six inbound tools, so to speak, to get real results.
Three are content formats, the other three are more or less tools to help that content work.
Web pages
Blog Posts
Call to Actions (CTAs)
Ebooks and Lead Magnets
Lead Forms
Conversation App (live chat)
Think of all of these things like an ecosystem. Without all six, you won’t hit massive inbound results.
[bctt tweet=”There are six inbound marketing tools that you’ll need to get the results that you’ve always wanted : web pages, blog posts, CTAs, ebooks and lead magnets, lead forms, and a conversation app! ” username=”ExpWriters”]
When and How Do You Create These Six Content Types for Inbound Lead Generation?
Here are the answers to that question.
Two of these should be created every week: blogs and CTAs.
One of these should be created once per quarter at a minimum: ebooks or lead magnets.
The other three need to be created and then maintained at least once every quarter: your web pages, lead forms, and you should set up an app on your site for live prospect conversations. We use Drift.
Here’s how all six work to bring in live prospects. See below for a real pathway example of all six working together to pull in prospects (via my agency, Express Writers). I’ve put a number for our list of six content types next to each to identify how all six work together in this “cycle” of pulling in an ideal lead.
#2 Blogs — Example of a 2,000w search-optimized blog post (found through SEO keywords we’ve researched that tie into searches our prospects make on Google, like ‘how to write SEO content’)
#3 CTA inside the blog goes to two forms (#5): Form #1 — Client Registration (captures live prospects). Form #2 — Free Ebook
#1 and #4 Web Page & Ebook: — Ebook on a Landing Page (hooked up to an email sequence that triggers once they enroll, housed in ConvertKit).
#6 Conversation App — Installed and sits on the pages on our site (we use Drift).
Remember, a massive trend I’ve been talking about everywhere these days, as we head into 2020 and beyond, is that your content must be AMAZING for it to actually work and earn results.
[bctt tweet=”This 2020, one great trend you shouldn’t miss is creating AMAZING content. @JuliaEMcCoy shares the 6 inbound lead generation content types to create, and when and how you should create them — all in this video. ” username=”ExpWriters”]
So, when you apply the tips I’ll show you for setting up an inbound lead engine that WORKS, you must create content that doesn’t fall short of amazing. If it does fall short for your readers, unfortunately, you really won’t see the kind of results I’m talking about.
Final tips:
Conversion paths are key — think about what a prospect needs to contact and/or buy from you
Make the buyer’s journey clear and easy
Grow an audience that wants what you have to sell with the right keyword terms and content created around those consistently
How do you track your content marketing successes (or failures, to learn from and improve next time)?
It all boils down to tracking the right content marketing KPIs.
Note that we didn’t say all the content marketing KPIs – just the right ones.
You aren’t alone if you’re wondering why some content marketers succeed and others fail.
What makes the difference between the two? ?
Is it the volume of website traffic? The number of likes, comments, and shares? Revenue from unequivocal quality content?
All those are examples of content marketing KPIs (key performance indicators). Some matter more than others. If you want success, you need to know which content marketing KPIs to track.
Here are the top twelve that should be at the top of your list. Let’s dive in!
Content Marketing KPIs: Which Ones to Track & How to Track Them Correctly
How Do You Track Content Marketing KPIs? Use These 6 Handy Tools
Content Marketing KPIs Measure Your Success
[bctt tweet=”How do you define real success in the world of content marketing? ?️ @JuliaEMcCoy lists down the top 12 content marketing KPIs that you should keep track of to identify if your efforts are producing great results. ☝️” username=”ExpWriters”]
Why Track Content Marketing KPIs?
In sports, it’s easy to track success. For example, think of soccer. In soccer, your aim is to get the ball through the goal. One goal equals one point. The team with the most goals wins the match.
But content marketing isn’t that simple. It’s like playing soccer with a hundred goals instead of two. What’s more, when you shoot the ball into the goal, you aren’t sure what score you’ll get. Some goals give you a hundred points while others give you two points.
The key with this type of soccer is first to find out which goals give you the highest points. Then you start putting energy into shooting the ball into them.
This is what tracking content marketing KPIs is all about.
You need to find out which content marketing KPIs are important and give you the highest improvements (scores). Then, you set out to outperform yourself on them.
When you track the right content marketing KPIs, you’ll start winning in content marketing.
[bctt tweet=”Why bother tracking content marketing KPIs? ?️ Getting to know which KPIs perform well gives you an idea of how you can further boost them. It’s also good to know which ones badly need a strategy makeover. ?” username=”ExpWriters”]
The Top 12 Content Marketing KPIs to Track
These 12 content marketing KPIs are your safety net and formula for success. Let’s dive in!
Content Marketing KPIs for User Behavior
First of all, let’s look closely at content marketing KPIs that show you how users interact with your content. 1. Bounce Rate
Bounce rate refers to the number of visitors who view only one page of your site. It’s one of the top content marketing KPIs because it tells you what visitors feel about your content.
Here are 5 reasons visitors click on your site, scan it, and immediately click the back button.
Your content is boring.
Your paragraphs are too long.
Visitors can’t find what they’re looking for.
Your site isn’t user-friendly.
Your writing style doesn’t fit user needs.
For example, if you’re a user and you find this as the opening paragraph of a blog?
Source: Grammarly
You’ll most likely run for the hills with your go-to back button.
The more visitors click the back button without visiting any other pages on your site, the higher your bounce rate will be.
So what’s a good bounce rate? According to The Daily Egg, it depends on what industry you’re in. However, a good rule of thumb is to keep your bounce rate below 70%. 2. Scroll Depth
Scroll depth is one of the content marketing KPIs that’s closely related to bounce rate. Scroll depth indicates how far down the page your reader goes before leaving.
What causes a reader to leave your page halfway through reading it? Mostly, it’s when you don’t follow through with the promises you made in your headline.
For example, maybe your headline looks like this.
Source: Have The Relationship You Want from Rori Raye
This headline makes one promise: After you read the article, you’ll know the secret to winning the man of your dreams. Forever.
Now, what if you’ve reached the halfway mark and you’re nowhere near discovering this secret? You guessed it. You’re going to click back.
The point where you stopped reading is your scroll depth.
Keeping track of your readers’ scroll depth will help you figure out exactly where your content stops working. This is one of the content marketing KPIs you can rely on because it helps you measure the success of your content. 3. Time on Page
As the name suggests, time on page refers to how long users spend on your page. Using this valuable content marketing KPI, you can tell what your readers feel about your words.
According to Capitalize My Title, it takes an average of 1 minute to read 300 words.
Now, if your blog has 1,500 words and your reader spent only 2 minutes on it? That’s right. He didn’t read everything.
What you need to track is reader time on page corresponding to how many words your post has. If readers are clicking back after less than a minute but scrolling to the end of the page? They’re scanning your headings but not devouring your content.
As a valuable KPI for content marketing, time on page shows you if readers are loving your content or not.
[bctt tweet=”Content marketing KPIs for user behavior include ? bounce rate, ?️ scroll depth, and ⌛ time on page. Know what each KPIs are in this post by @JuliaEMcCoy ?” username=”ExpWriters”]
Content Marketing KPIs for User Engagement
When anything is inspiring, controversial, or new, it will be talked about. This is why user engagement is one of the huge content marketing KPIs to keep track of. 4. Shares
You need to keep track of how often your content gets shared on sites like Facebook and Twitter. Shared content is one of the biggest content marketing KPIs in 2019 because of how big social media is.
To give you an idea, take a look at how popular social media is today.
You need to track this content marketing KPI religiously because, in social media, it’s plain difficult to stand out.
For example, take Facebook. Facebook users are bombarded daily with distractions. There’s instant messaging. Inspiring quotes from friends. Posts from an ex. Photos of a rival’s latest vacation. If your content can compete with all of these and get shares? That’s right. Your content is beyond juicy and delicious.
Here’s an example from Bright Side called 10 Things We Don’t Appreciate Until Life Slaps Us on the Face.
It’s easy to see why this post got 1,700 shares on Facebook. It’s innately human, relatable, and despite being sad, strangely hopeful.
5. Comments
Comments on your posts are huge content marketing KPIs because they show that users consider you worth their time.
Let’s take a look at this example from English Literature’s Facebook page.
Source: Facebook
As you can see, the post has only 381 comments compared with 27,000 reacts and 9,900 shares. Why is that?
It’s simple. Composing, editing, and posting a comment takes more time and energy than liking and sharing combined.
So if people are commenting on your posts, sharing their insights, and asking advice? You’ve nailed it with this huge content marketing KPI. 6. Conversations
In content marketing, conversations refer to how you talk to your prospective clients. This includes live calls, chat, discount coupons, and more.
Conversations are important content marketing KPIs because the buying process has drastically changed over time. Buyers are now more informed, skeptical, and careful. They can no longer be bullied into the traditional 4-stage sales funnel that worked wonders in the 20s.
Instead, they go through the marketing lifecycle. Part of this lifecycle is finding value in products and services, asking questions, and getting the right information. When you have experts standing by to talk to prospective clients, you can get a 60%-80% conversion rate!
If you carefully take care of your conversations as vital content marketing KPIs, you’ll win over brands still relying on the outdated sales funnel strategy.
[bctt tweet=”Content marketing KPIs for user engagement include ? shares, ? comments, and ?️ conversations. Know what each KPIs are in this post by @JuliaEMcCoy ?” username=”ExpWriters”]
Content Marketing KPIs for SEO
7. Backlinks
Backlinks are essential content marketing KPIs.
To understand this, let’s look at what backlinks do. Check out this image from Moz.
As you can see, website A has a link to website B. There are a number of reasons why one website links to another.
It makes a site more valuable as a resource.
It encourages engagement with other sites.
It sends out trackable traffic.
So if other sites are linking to you, what does it mean? Simply, it means they trust you. You have vouch-worthy, high-quality content and a good standing online.
Backlinks are essential content marketing KPIs, but make sure yours are high-quality and not black hat SEO links. 8. Organic Traffic from Search Engines
Another great content marketing KPIs to watch is organic traffic. When you get a ton of traffic from search engines, you’re doing something right with your content.
Take a look at this pie chart from Conductor Spotlight.
Since 64% of traffic comes from organic search, it’s a good idea to keep your Google ranking high.
However, even if your content is good, it won’t obtain a high ranking on search engines if it isn’t optimized correctly. To pull traffic into your site from search engines, you need quality content plus cutting-edge search engine optimization (SEO) practices.
9. Keyword Rankings
Keyword rankings are content marketing KPIs closely related to organic traffic. What to look for is how many keywords your content is ranking for on Google. To do this, you can use great software like Google Analytics.
[bctt tweet=”Content marketing KPIs for SEO include ?️ backlinks, ⛖ organic traffic, and ?️ keyword rankings. Know what each KPIs are in this post by @JuliaEMcCoy ?” username=”ExpWriters”]
Content Marketing KPIs for Company Revenue
10. Leads
Leads are potential clients who come to you via a lead magnet. In short, users exchange their personal information and e-mail addresses for a freebie you offer.
Here’s a popular lead magnet from International Living.
Want to know the world’s top 10 havens for retirement? All you need to give is your e-mail address. Sounds like a good exchange! This magnet provides International Living with leads and a growing e-mail list.
The more leads you have, the bigger your chance of growing your brand. This is why you should track your leads as essential content marketing KPIs. 11. Conversion Rate
Conversion rate is one of the best KPIs for content marketing because it shows how compelling your content is. Conversion happens when you tell users what to do and how they do it.
Take a look at Great Escape Publishing’s homepage.
Source: Great Escape Publishing
Who doesn’t want to travel the world while creating a full-time income? Users are curious and click find out more. A percentage of them will buy a photography or travel program. This percentage is the conversion rate to watch out for when tracking content marketing KPIs. 12. ROI (Return on Investment)
ROI refers to the revenue you get minus your total investment. For content marketing, it’s how much you earn minus writer pay, the cost of hosting your website, and other expenses you incur in business.
Source: Business 2 Community
When tracking ROI, take into account the required expenses to get quality content. Then, note how such content is performing. Does it bring in higher revenue than expense?
For example, take a look at this chart.
Stellar content works like this. It builds momentum. As can be seen in the chart, the cost per lead dropped 80% in five months because of the high revenue the content brought in.
[bctt tweet=”Content marketing KPIs for company revenue include ???? leads, ? conversion rate, and ? return on investment. Know what each KPIs are in this post by @JuliaEMcCoy ?” username=”ExpWriters”]
How Do You Track Content Marketing KPIs? Use These 6 Handy Tools
After learning about the essential content marketing KPIs that you need to keep track of, the question now is: how do you exactly find these?
It’s easy. You can rely on the tools already provided for free by Google and the social media platforms you’re using. You can also go for paid tools if you need some extra help to easily track and understand these data.
Here are six practical tools you can use:
1. Google Analytics
Checking Google Analytics is the fastest way to get an overview of your site’s performance – the blog posts that are getting the most traffic, page views, bounce rates, traffic sources, and more.
2. Facebook Page Insights
If you’re curious about the shares, likes, clicks, reactions, and comments your posts receive on Facebook, you can simply use its free Facebook analytics tool.
Besides measuring your Facebook page’s performance, you can use this tool to know more about your audience’s demographic data, which is important if you’re trying to build a new buyer persona for your content strategy.
3. Twitter Analytics
For those who are actively sharing content through Twitter, checking the social media channel’s analytics page is a must. Access Twitter’s activity dashboard, and you can find the detailed number of retweets, follows, replies, and link clicks on your Twitter page.
You can also easily check your page’s performance through mobile.
4. SEMrush
You may have already read about SEMrush several times in our blog as a highly recommended SEO tool for keyword research.
However, its usefulness doesn’t stop there. With SEMrush, you get to see updated metrics such as your site’s visits, unique visitors, bounce rate, visit duration (time on page), backlinks, traffic sources, traffic cost, top pages, keyword rankings, and more. Get to see most of the important content marketing KPIs in an instant – all in one place.
5. BuzzSumo
BtuzzSumo can monitor engagement across Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Reddit. With BuzzSumo’s Content Analyzer, you can get a list of your best-performing content in a certain period of time just by typing in your domain in the search box. It also lets you know the number of engagements for every major social media platform.
Moreover, BuzzSumo’s Monitoring feature is something you shouldn’t ignore. It can search for your brand’s linked and unlinked mentions, which shows you the brands and influencers that you should build relationships with.
6. The Content Marketing Trifecta Equation
If you are dealing with clients, executives, stakeholders, and business partners, you’ll know that sometimes it’s best to go straight to the point and provide them what matters most in the content marketing KPIs of company revenue: ROI. In this case, you’ll need to look for the average rates of earned traffic, leads, and sales. These three will serve as the benchmark numbers needed to compute the ROI associated with conversions from content marketing.
The Content Marketing Trifecta Equation helps you estimate how many leads and sales you can expect to see per month using content marketing. We actually used this equation in our own blogging ROI case study.
Monthly Visitors x 16% Organic Traffic to Lead Conversion Rate = X Leads/Month
X Leads/Month x 14% Lead to Sale Conversion Rate = X Sales/Month
Take note that the “16% Organic Traffic to Lead Conversion Rate” is the current average rate for converting organic traffic to leads across industries, based on a MarketingSherpa’s 2013 SEO Marketing Benchmark Survey. Moreover, studies show that leads generated from SEO have an average close rate of 14%, thus “14% Lead to Sale Conversion Rate” is used in the equation.
Learn more about how you can compute and explain the ROI of content marketing in this infographic.
[bctt tweet=”How do you track content marketing KPIs? ?️♀️ Some of the most practical paid tools you can use include SEMrush and BuzzSumo. But there’s also free to use tools like Google Analytics and your favorite social platform’s analytics page! ?” username=”ExpWriters”]
Content Marketing KPIs Measure Your Success
Keeping track of these 12 KPIs will show you if you’re succeeding or failing in content marketing. Not getting good results from one or more indicates serious trouble for your brand.
On the other hand, if all 12 are performing well, you can sit back, relax, and celebrate a little. But don’t forget to get back to work tracking them once the party’s over. You need content that converts to take your KPIs to the next level. Visit our content shop to get it.
[bctt tweet=”Now as the year comes to a close, it’s time to look back on the top-shared content of 2019 that gained the most engagements under ‘content marketing’ (⚡ Spoiler: @JuliaEMcCoy’s SEJ post is in the 22nd spot!) See if your fave is here! ” username=”ExpWriters”]
Shutterstock’s post pulses with color, music, and art. It features wild photos of duotone gradients, cutouts of stars and fish, and striking images of leopard prints, snakeskin patterns, and gold chains.
But reading the article is more than falling into a well of technicolor. Here are the key takeaways readers get from it:
The major trends based on increased user search are 80’s opulence, raw zine culture, and early-tech neon styles.
Rising trends include environmentally friendly products, childlike pastel Kawaii colors, rococo romance, prisms, and hypnotic patterns.
For the first time ever, a typography style takes a seat at the creative trends table. Think 3D text made sweet with sugar dusting, chocolate coating, and sprinkles!
Overall, this piece is a colorful adventure to read. Plus, it gives useful insights on styling trends in 2019.
[bctt tweet=”See the top 22 content pieces of 2019 in @JuliaEMcCoy’s original study featuring Shutterstock’s ‘2019 Creative Trends Infographic'” username=”ExpWriters”]
You won’t be successful in content marketing without an array of fine tools. In this blog, Hina Naz lists everything you need to add to your toolkit in 2019.
What I love about this blog is it isn’t limited to tools for keyword research. Hina lists a tool for perfecting grammar (Grammarly) a headline analyzer (Sharethrough Analyzer), an organizer (Evernote), and more!
No wonder this post made it to number two of the top-shared content of 2019!
[bctt tweet=”See the top 22 content pieces of 2019 in @JuliaEMcCoy’s original study featuring @NazHina’s ’15 Content Marketing Tools for Success You Need in 2019′” username=”ExpWriters”]
Or how he built his gigantic digital marketing empire?
In this Youtube interview, Sorav Jain successfully mashes entertainment with serious questions about what it is to be an entrepreneur. It’s a mixture of laughter and heart-to-heart that’ll get you thoughtfully nodding your head.
Neil answers questions about:
His top three favorite marketing tools
The secret to how he built his empire
The biggest lie he ever told a client
His diet and exercise regime
His digital marketing predictions for 2019 and 2020
My favorite part? When Neil tries and fails to say “I love digital marketing and I cannot live without it,” in Gujarati.
The most inspiring thing he said? “Entrepreneurship is like a rollercoaster… there’s good moments, bad moments, scary moments, happy moments. You’ve just got to accept it all.”
[bctt tweet=”See the top 22 content pieces of 2019 in @JuliaEMcCoy’s original study featuring @SoravJain’s ‘Interview with Neil Patel on Content Marketing with Awesome Rapid Fire'” username=”ExpWriters”]
Most posts will give you a list of the top five or ten types of content that’ll grow your business. Kat goes further and gives you 18.
Each section of Kat’s blog is carefully detailed. She doesn’t only tell you which types of content to post but also why it’ll work for you.
According to her, the big three of content marketing are blogging, social media, and email marketing. In fact, she used this secret trifecta to grow her business to six figures in under two years!
Start with Kat’s trifecta, and once you grow to cover all 18, your empire will be rock solid.
[bctt tweet=”See the top 22 content pieces of 2019 in @JuliaEMcCoy’s original study featuring @MrktgSolved’s @MrsKatSulli’s ’18 Types of Content Marketing You Can Use to Grow Your Business'” username=”ExpWriters”]
This post starts off making readers uncomfortable. In the beginning, Neil throws hints about the huge, unwanted changes coming to digital marketing in the (near) future.
The deeper you go into the blog, the more uneasy you feel. The changes Neil mentions will definitely rock your content marketing boat. Here are some of them:
In a few years, voice search will make all our current SEO strategies useless.
Algorithms will only grow more complex with time.
Blogging will become weaker as the web gets more saturated.
The good news? Neil ends the blog with powerful insights on how to confidently prepare for and meet these changes.
[bctt tweet=”See the top 22 content pieces of 2019 in @JuliaEMcCoy’s original study featuring @neilpatel’s ‘How Digital Marketing Will Change in 2019′” username=”ExpWriters”]
Ever seen a movie about the controversial issue of AI technology replacing humans? This post is like that.
But this time, it’s about the death of organic search as friendly AI systems like Alexa and Google make it their mission to answer users’ questions as quickly as possible.
That’s right. No more links, no more web pages, no more web as we know it today. Pretty scary stuff!
So what’s Michael Stelzner’s take on this? How is Social Media Examiner preparing to take these changes head-on?
Here are three things they’re doing to prepare for SEO Armageddon:
Working on their conversion rate optimization (CRO)
Upping their video and audio game
Writing expert opinion pieces
As a content marketer, you should be doing them too!
[bctt tweet=”See the top 22 content pieces of 2019 in @JuliaEMcCoy’s original study featuring @SMExaminer’s @Mike_Stelzner’s ‘The Death of Google Search Traffic and What It Means for Marketers'” username=”ExpWriters”]
The headline of this post is a huge attention-grabber. 912 million blog posts is a lot of content to go through!
But it’s not only the headline that’s great about this blog. It’s also the 11 key takeaways that should be part of every content marketer’s bible. Some of them include:
Long-form content gets around 77% more links than short content.
Long content outperforms short content in user engagement.
Headlines ending in question marks get around 23% more social shares.
The 11 findings in this blog can be mixed together as a recipe for producing successful content every time.
[bctt tweet=”See the top 22 content pieces of 2019 in @JuliaEMcCoy’s original study featuring @Backlinko’s ‘We Analyzed 912 Million Blog Posts. Here’s What We Learned About Content Marketing'” username=”ExpWriters”]
According to this amazing guide by Susan Moeller, marketing on Facebook is entirely different from marketing on the web.
Facebook is about users engaging with family, friends, and pages they’re interested in.
So how can you compete for user attention in today’s biggest social network?
Here are four (of the many) facts Susan points out:
80% of marketing posts should be videos.
The best time to post on Facebook is Sunday.
Unlike on the web, shorter posts get more attention on Facebook. In fact, posts with less than 50 characters are the most successful!
The sweet spot for video length is between 3:00 to 3:20.
[bctt tweet=”See the top 22 content pieces of 2019 in @JuliaEMcCoy’s original study featuring @BuzzSumo’s ‘The 2019 Ultimate Guide to Facebook Engagement’ by @SusanCMoeller” username=”ExpWriters”]
This post by Neil Patel is all business. In it, he introduces his newly-updated SEO tool: Ubersuggest 3.0.
Here are four things the tool can do for you:
Find out how many keywords your site ranks for
Learn how much organic traffic would cost you if you were paying for it
Find out the most popular pages for a single domain
Search your competition and see how their pages are doing (so you can create better, more in-depth content to outrank them)
Of course, Neil stays true to his style and offers complete guidance on how to use his sparkling, newly updated tool.
[bctt tweet=”See the top 22 content pieces of 2019 in @JuliaEMcCoy’s original study featuring @neilpatel’s ‘The Ultimate SEO Tool: Ubersuggest 3.0′” username=”ExpWriters”]
10. BuzzSumo: “7 Steps to Create a Successful, Profitable Blog” by Mike Allton
Number of engagements: 4,700
This post is every beginner blogger’s ultimate guide to getting a successful blog started. It teaches how to find your unique blogging voice, how long your posts should be, how often to post, and more.
The blog’s structure is simple to digest and follow. It outlines the seven crucial steps you need to get your blog up and running.
Here are some cool tips from the post itself:
In the beginning, it’s not about how many blogs to post per week. It’s about how soon you want to generate sizeable traffic. For instance, you need around 50 posts to start getting traffic. If you’re okay with getting that in a year, you can post one blog a week. However, if you want to get it in 90 days, you need to boost your blogging strategy.
There are 16x more blog posts under 1,000 words than over it. However, blog posts over 1,000 words get more engagement because of their depth and expertise.
To find your unique blogging voice, take a moment to listen to the way you speak. Then, find out how your target market speaks. When writing your posts, blend these two voices together to discover your unique tone.
[bctt tweet=”See the top 22 content pieces of 2019 in @JuliaEMcCoy’s original study featuring @BuzzSumo’s ‘7 Steps to Create a Successful, Profitable Blog’ by @mike_allton” username=”ExpWriters”]
Today, there are over a billion blogs vying for reader attention. How can your blog stand out, gain traffic, and give you the conversions you’re looking for?
With 17 useful charts, Neil Patel answers these questions. Here are the top things you learn from his findings.
Organic traffic through social media is going down.
You need at least two full-time employees dedicated to blogging.
60% of your site’s traffic comes from your blog.
In 2019, potential buyers will visit your blog 3.5 times over a 2-week period before they’re converted.
Other findings answer questions like how to convert blog readers into customers, how to boost your traffic up to 28%, and how long your average blog post should be.
[bctt tweet=”See the top 22 content pieces of 2019 in @JuliaEMcCoy’s original study featuring @neilpatel’s ’17 Charts That Show Where Content Marketing is Heading'” username=”ExpWriters”]
In a world of zero-click SERPs and local ads, we no longer need websites. Right?
Wrong. In fact, we need them more than ever.
In this post, Miriam Ellis goes into careful detail about why we need strong websites in 2019. For instance, she points out that even though Google prioritizes local ads, 75% still goes to companies with strong organic search.
You can just feel the urgency of this post , especially in the last part where Miriam tells us to act fast while 43.9% of searches still go to organic SERPs.
[bctt tweet=”See the top 22 content pieces of 2019 in @JuliaEMcCoy’s original study featuring @Moz’s ‘Why Local Businesses Will Need Websites More Than Ever in 2019’ by @Miriam_Ellis_” username=”ExpWriters”]
As you can guess from the title, this blog is a guide to the best time to post on Instagram for maximum engagement.
But it isn’t any generic guide with arbitrary guesswork on the best time to post.
It’s a study Shannon did by examining 258, 956 posts from 20 of the most popular Instagram accounts.
What did she find?
Here are some examples of when to post depending on your industry:
Food and beverage: Friday at 12PM (lunch time!)
Entertainment: 12PM to 3PM
Professional services: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday at 9AM or 10AM
As a bonus at the end of each section, Shannon mentions the times you should never post on Instagram (the no-no times to post are different for each industry as well!).
[bctt tweet=”See the top 22 content pieces of 2019 in @JuliaEMcCoy’s original study featuring @hootsuite’s ‘The Best Time to Post on Instagram in 2019 (and the Worst)’ by @tien_spirit” username=”ExpWriters”]
The good news is if you rank highly on Google, you get tons of traffic to your site.
The bad news is Google keeps changing the rules for ranking.
But one thing doesn’t change: provide readers with value, and your site will be noticed.
Why? Simply because that’s Google’s number one goal.
In this swift, succinct blog, Lorenzo Gutierrez gives you three reasons why quality content marketing will keep your rank high on Google — no matter how algorithms change.
Hint: Number one is about gluing your readers to your blog so your bounce rate goes down.
[bctt tweet=”See the top 22 content pieces of 2019 in @JuliaEMcCoy’s original study featuring @seoalien’s ‘3 Ways Content Marketing Boosts Your SEO Rankings’ by @LGutierrezSEO” username=”ExpWriters”]
What could be better than Neil Patel’s amazing tool Ubersuggest 3.0?
Answer: Ubersuggest 4.0.
Ubersuggest 4.0 isn’t only about finding the best keywords to use in your blog. It’s about learning how to rank for these keywords.
Here are three (of many) cool things this tool can do for you:
Show you what topics are gaining success online
Help you select the right keywords for your blog
Reveal who’s linking to other successful blogs with similar keywords
Along with providing screenshots of his tool, Neil gives step-by-step guidance on how to use it to successfully rank for popular keywords.
[bctt tweet=”See the top 22 content pieces of 2019 in @JuliaEMcCoy’s original study featuring @neilpatel’s ‘Ubersuggest 4.0: The Ultimate Content Marketing Tool'” username=”ExpWriters”]
To find articles with the most keywords? The most links? Solid domain authority? Anchor text? Freshness?
The answer is no to all.
Google’s goal is to keep searchers on Google (instead of finding other search engines).
How does it do this? By providing users with value, of course.
And if you reward Google by providing value, Google will reward you by ranking your site highly on the search results.
I love everything Rand Fishkin provides in this blog: the humor, the surprising insights, the colorful visuals, and, of course, the “aha!” moments when he nailed crystal-clear explanations.
[bctt tweet=”See the top 22 content pieces of 2019 in @JuliaEMcCoy’s original study featuring @Moz’s ‘Optimizing for Searcher Intent Explained in 7 Visuals’ by @randfish” username=”ExpWriters”]
Video marketing is huge today. In fact, 87% of marketers see video as a crucial component in their campaigns.
But what kinds of videos work best?
According to Melissa, there are three:
How-to videos
Product videos outlining the benefits of a product
Customer review videos
After discussing how these videos work, Melissa then goes on to provide useful tips like:
The best platforms for video marketing
When to integrate a CTA into a video
How to make videos attractive and engagement-ready
Her post is a must-read for every marketer who doesn’t want to waste time producing videos that don’t convert.
[bctt tweet=”See the top 22 content pieces of 2019 in @JuliaEMcCoy’s original study featuring @SMExaminer’s ‘3 Types of Social Video That Work for Any Business’ by @MelissaaBurns” username=”ExpWriters”]
Brian Dean’s blog is a mini e-book in length. But that’s what makes it amazing.
It’s the ultimate, definitive guide to copywriting that gains more traffic, sales, and leads.
Plus, it’s entertaining to read, easy to digest, and packed with helpful images, charts, and examples.
Here’s what the table of contents looks like:
Chapter 1: Customer-Focused Copy
Chapter 2: Pro Copywriting Secrets
Chapter 3: How to Write Amazing Headlines
Chapter 4: Master the Lead
Chapter 5: How to Write Compelling Copy
Chapter 6: Proven Copywriting Formulas
Chapter 7: Advanced Copywriting Strategies
Don’t have time to read it all in one sitting? Have Brian Dean email it to you in handy PDF form so you can download it and take it in at your own pace.
[bctt tweet=”See the top 22 content pieces of 2019 in @JuliaEMcCoy’s original study featuring @Backlinko’s ‘Copywriting: The Definitive Guide'” username=”ExpWriters”]
To stand out on social media, what you need is quality images, video, and audio. And today, creating these is less about being an expert photographer and more about having the right tools.
So, which are the best mobile and desktop tools marketers can use for crisp audio, stunning visuals, and crystal-clear videos?
In his post, Erik Fisher lists 26 you’ll love.
These include:
Video Resizer for IGTV and Frame (never have to worry about resizing videos for Instagram again)
Emoji Builder (create customized emojis to match your campaign!)
Lumen5 (convert your web page into a video in only 30 minutes!)
and 23 more
These tools are great if you’re a writer, video marketer, or anything in between!
[bctt tweet=”See the top 22 content pieces of 2019 in @JuliaEMcCoy’s original study featuring @SMExaminer’s ’26 Mobile and Desktop Tools for Marketers’ by @ErikJFisher” username=”ExpWriters”]
BuzzFeed is criticized by many as lazy journalism. Its content is said to be shallow, short-lived, and packed with clickbait.
But no one can deny its success.
According to Jessica Foster, you can steal genius ideas from BuzzFeed that’ll make users gobble up your content.
Here are five ideas she lists:
Deeply understand your target audience (for instance, BuzzFeed caters to the nostalgic feelings of millennials).
Use smart quizzes and tools (The quiz doesn’t have to be a lot of nonsense like “What type of cheese are you?” Instead, it can be smart like: “Take this quiz to find the right home décor for you.”)
Go viral by speaking to your audience’s core. Find out their fears, desires, and hopes. Then address them in your writing.
Create roundup posts, asking multiple experts for pieces of advice.
Post timely content (content that’s related to the top trending events of today).
With every section, Jessica offers advice on exactly how to apply each one of her tips. No wonder her post created its own buzz as one of the top-shared content of 2019!
[bctt tweet=”See the top 22 content pieces of 2019 in @JuliaEMcCoy’s original study featuring @sejournal’s ‘5 Freaking Genius Content Ideas You Can Steal from BuzzFeed’ by @seocopychick” username=”ExpWriters”]
90% of B2B and B2C marketers use content marketing.
In this saturated atmosphere, how can you stand out?
In her fast-moving, value-dense post, Ann Smarty lists three helpful ways you can do it.
Content collaboration. Your whole team should be working on content creation, not just your writers.
Question optimization. Because Google loves to answer questions, it’s a powerful strategy to humanize your writing by asking them.
Personalize. Use first names in email and personalize CTAs and banners.
With screenshots, bulleted points, and clear advice, Ann’s blog is a complete guide to lesser-known content marketing tips and tricks.
[bctt tweet=”See the top 22 content pieces of 2019 in @JuliaEMcCoy’s original study featuring @DigitalMktr’s ‘The Future of Content Marketing and How to Adapt: Trends, Tactics, and Tools’ by @annsmarty” username=”ExpWriters”]
In this post, I share with you some secrets I learned on the best SEO and content marketing practices.
I explain why superficial blogs won’t work, and how to supercharge your own blog by creating depth (Hint: I give tips on how long your blog posts should be, plus tricks on how to pack them with value).
I show you where to invest in content creation, and why it’s a good idea.
I list the benefits of personalizing your content.
I also show you how to expand beyond blogging (think podcasts, webinars, Youtube videos, and more!).
[bctt tweet=”See the top 22 content pieces of 2019 in @JuliaEMcCoy’s original study featuring @sejournal’s ‘5 Trends to Know in SEO & Content Marketing’ by @JuliaEMcCoy” username=”ExpWriters”]
Insights from BuzzSumo’s Top-Engaged-With Content for “Content Marketing” in 2019
Reading the top-shared content of 2019 is amazing (as reading anything beautifully written is). Also, it’s a learning experience that teaches you the top tricks, tips, and secrets of content marketing in today’s age.
But it’s more than that.
It’s also a guide on how to create stellar content that goes viral.
So since I don’t want you to go back and comb through these articles again, I’ve pulled useful insights from the top-shared content of 2019 (again using BuzzSumo as my go-to data tool).
Here are four things I found out.
1. The Best Month for Posting Viral Content
We all know what January is like every year. Gyms are full of new registrants. People start buying organic bamboo toothbrushes. The world is new and ready for a fresh start.
It’s no different in the world of content marketing. In January, marketers are prepared to root out old practices, review what went right and wrong in the past year, and research statistic-based data that’ll give them a boost in the months ahead.
So, the best time to post viral-worthy content? January.
2. The Best Content Is Long Content
Content length is as important as the content subject.
While short blogs can entertain and amuse, they only scratch the surface of a topic. Long blogs, on the other hand, have more space to go in-depth with guidelines, statistics, images, and unique information.
So how long should your blogs be?
According to the chart above, a blog between 2,000 and 3,000 words will get you the highest engagement.
What’s the best day to publish a blog post? Many people suggest weekends, as it’s when users are most active online.
However, according to this chart, the posts which got the highest engagements in 2019 were posted on Tuesday!
Also surprising: The next best time to publish is Monday. Maybe it’s because people are eager to start a new week with fresh minds and new ideas?
4. The Top Domains of 2019
One thing to note here: a number of these blogs made it to the top-shared content of 2019.
What does that say to you? The best way to achieve a blog that goes viral is to become an established expert in your field.
[bctt tweet=”Know the best time, length, and day to post content based on 2019’s top-shared content. Also, get to know the top domains of this year that can inspire your next strategy. ” username=”ExpWriters”]
Our Top-Shared Content for 2019: Trends on Express Writers
With 6,500 Write Blog readers and over 90,000 visitors a month, we’re definitely nowhere near the numbers of some of these hottest top-shared content of 2019.
Yet, I’m thankful to say that we’ve even earned this status — it’s awesome to pull in business through valuable content creation!
And, it’s one of our quarterly habits to review our top-shared, top-read content to identify and see what topics and concepts our readers like. (As a marketer, you should do this too!)
So without further ado, here’s our own top-shared content of 2019 (Hint: The number-one most engaged is not even an SEO piece!).
In this guide, I give you 11 steps to writing a polished, professional press release. Plus, I give you great samples you can compare your work to – five of them, to be exact!
Ever asked yourself, “Where should I invest my marketing budget?” What about this followup question?
“How much do companies spend on marketing that doesn’t work?”
Because, let’s be real –
Are you seeing results from your PPC (pay-per-click) ads on Google?
How about your Facebook ads?
If you’re like most ad buyers, the answer is almost always a shrug, a sigh, and a reluctant, “Well… no.”
That’s no coincidence.
The ROI of PPC alone is lower than low. (Sadly low. Ridiculously, hopelessly low.)
How low is it?
That’s what we’ll discuss today: Why PPC ads and similar avenues aren’t worth it, why there are better options, and exactly where you should invest your marketing budget.
(Hint: It starts with an “i” and ends with “-nbound.”) ?
Where Should You Invest Your Marketing Budget? The Truth About PPC vs. Inbound ROI
1. Marketing Budget Breakdown: What’s the Real Cost of PPC?
2. Marketing Budget Reality: The Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) for PPC Ads vs. the ROI of Inbound Content Marketing
3. The Inbound Marketing Difference
3 MORE Reasons PPC Ads Don’t Pay Off
People Distrust Ads in General
PPC Has a Steep Learning Curve
Many PPC Experts Prioritize Numbers over Human Readers
Where Should I Invest My Marketing Budget? Inbound Is the Answer
[bctt tweet=”? Been throwing out loads of cash for PPC ads? And was it worth it? ? If the ads in 2018 brought only 0.66x return on ad spend, then it’s a 100% NO ?♂️?♀️. Where should you invest your marketing budget then? A: Inbound Content ?” username=”ExpWriters”]
Where Should You Invest Your Marketing Budget? The Truth About PPC vs. Inbound ROI
If you looked at a chart of marketing budgets by industry for 2018 or 2019, you would probably see a fair amount spent a chunk of money on PPC ads. Many probably prioritized PPC above building their organic search rankings.
This is a big mistake, and I want to show you exactly why.
1. Marketing Budget Breakdown: What’s the Real Cost of PPC?
The cost of PPC is easy to break down in surface terms. You bid for the specific keyword you’re targeting – the maximum amount you’re willing to pay every time someone clicks your ad. If your bid is the highest (and your Ad Rank is equally up to snuff), you’ll appear at the top of search results.
Here’s a visual of that from Wordstream:
However, for many highly competitive keywords, bidding can get insane.
For example, to rank at the top of Google with a paid search ad for a competitive keyword like “content marketing,” you would need to shell out $18 per click.
However, before you decide that would be totally worth the cost, look more closely at the click data in Ahrefs.
Clicks are currently going to only 4% of paid “content marketing” search results. Meanwhile, almost all the clicks (96%!) are going to organic search.
Let’s put that into perspective.
“Content marketing” has a search volume of 31K.
48% of searches for this keyword ended in clicks (searchers clicked on one or more of the results).
That means about 14,880 people clicked a result in this SERP.
Only 4% clicked a paid search ad.
That means PPC ads are only getting about 595 clicks per month in this SERP. The lion’s share of the clicks (14,284!!) are going to organic search.
Very, very few people are clicking ads in search results like this one.
[bctt tweet=”What’s the real cost of PPC? So here’s how it goes: you bid for your target keyword aka the max amount you’ll pay per ad click. The highest bid gets to the top of search results. Easy. ? BUT, its low ROI will shock you. ??” username=”ExpWriters”]
To drive the point home, let’s look at another example of the low ROI of PPC ads.
A colleague recently sent me a case study from one of their clients with declining sales. Without naming names, my colleague looked at the client’s search data and conversion rates and found:
About 26% of their traffic was coming from paid search.
Roughly 17% was coming from organic search.
Their conversion rate for traffic from paid search was 0.27%.
Their conversion rate for organic search traffic was 51% – nearly 6x higher than paid search.
Imagine the ROI if this client switched gears and started focusing on improving their organic search rankings!
2. Marketing Budget Reality: The Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) for PPC Ads vs. the ROI of Inbound Content Marketing
The return on investment for paid search isn’t looking good.
But wait:
There’s more.
According to The Ad Strategist, the ROAS for Facebook ads (as part of a cold ad funnel, where cold leads are served ads based on their interests, etc.) has drastically dropped within the past 1-2 years.
In 2016, ROAS hovered at a decent 11.88x. In 2018, ROAS dipped to a dismal 0.66x.
Display ad conversion rates have plummeted. Across industries, the average is 0.72% on mobile.
That means, if you spend, say, $450 on ads, you’d only get back 0.0066% of what you put into your campaign. With a 0.72% conversion rate, you would actually lose money. Your small business marketing budget statistics would look horrible.
That’s why inbound and content marketing are incredible in comparison.
[bctt tweet=”Return on ad spend (ROAS) went from 11.8x in 2016 sliding down to 0.66x in 2018. ? The average ad conversion rate for mobile is 0.72%. ? These are the signs that you should change where you invest your marketing budget RIGHT NOW. ??” username=”ExpWriters”]
3. The Inbound Marketing Difference
On average, across industries, organic traffic from search converts at a rate of 16%. Thus, when you target organic traffic with inbound marketing, the ROI speaks for itself.
When you create content of amazing quality consistently, the stuff that speaks deeply to your target reader’s pains and problems (and solves them!), you can’t help but win.
I came up with a formula for predicting content marketing ROI a few years ago. Let’s compare it to the ROAS we discussed earlier.
Start with your average monthly traffic numbers. For the sake of the example, let’s say you get roughly 5,000visitors per month.
To find the average number of traffic-to-lead conversions you could expect from content marketing, grab that average 16% conversion rate and get multiplying:
5,000 x 16% = 800 leads/month
Now take your estimated leads and multiply by the average lead-to-sale conversion rate for content marketing, 14%, to estimate monthly sales:
800 x 14% = 112 sales/month
Now, let’s say your average sale is about $10. That means you could expect $1,120 monthly in new sales as a direct result of content marketing.
When you compare the cost of content marketing to the ROI, it all makes sense.
[bctt tweet=”So if you’re wasting money on PPC, where should you invest then? Go for inbound marketing. Creating useful content for your target readers can bring in ?????????? traffic ➡️ leads ➡️ sales (with an average close rate of 14%!) ?” username=”ExpWriters”]
For example, a Level 3 Blogging package from our Content Shop costs $1,000/month for 8 expert blogs at 1,000 words each, produced by a subject-matter expert and posted bi-weekly.
It’s pretty easy to do the math and see that you would still come out ahead, even AFTER outsourcing the content creation part (which, by the way, most marketers [84%] do, according to Content Marketing Institute’s most recent B2B report).
*TV infomercial announcer voice* ? But that’s not all!
Content marketing comes in clutch at every stage of the buying process. No matter how close your leads are to buying (or far away), content helps you do everything. It builds brand awareness and secures, nurtures, and converts leads:
Last but not least, let’s pull in a really fun example to go out with a bang: ?
(Disclaimer: This is an extreme marketing budget example.)
How does the average cost of a Super Bowl ad compare with the cost of content creation for 2 years? (Hint: They’re not evenclose.)
The average Super Bowl ad costs $40,000 for 5 seconds of airtime. (Read: $5 million for one minute.)
For 2 years of expert blogging PLUS 1 year of EW’s social media plan, PLUS one written and designed ebook, PLUS four lattes from a coffee shop per week for 12 months (for this, you’ll have to rely on your local barista): $37,000.
That’s 135x cheaper for nearly 200 blogs that will live on your site and compound in value over time. Many of them will still be relevant and draw in leads years from now. (Use that example in your marketing budget presentation if you want to get the boss’s attention!)
Meanwhile, in 2019, the Super Bowl drew in its fewest number of viewers in the past 11 years. If you watched, do you even remember any of the ads? ?
Me neither.
3 MORE Reasons PPC Ads Don’t Pay Off
If I’ve made my point clear, inbound content marketing is a better investment than PPC, hands-down.
“But PPC is faster,” you might object. “I want to see sales now, not later.”
Wait one minute, there, Speedy. PPC is NOT necessarily faster for bringing in traffic and revenue. Sure, it shoots you to the top of a SERP (IF you win a keyword bidding war), but your position at the top is shaky.
This is totally unlike if you earned your way to organic position #1 with solid, quality, user-satisfying content.
Why?
1. People Distrust Ads in General
Ad distrust (especially distrust of display ads) has been mounting in recent years. It’s something you can’t ignore if you’re considering ads for your marketing strategy.
According to Edelman’s Trust Barometer Report, 74% of consumers say they avoid ads completely.
That includes:
Using ad blockers on websites
Changing their habits to see fewer ads
Finding ways to avoid ads
Paying for streaming services to skip most commercials and TV ads
[bctt tweet=”PPC might be faster but consider this: More people distrust and avoid ads. ? They use ad blockers and pay for streaming services just not to see a glimpse of it. Know other reasons why PPC don’t pay off in this post by @JuliaEMcCoy” username=”ExpWriters”]
Ad avoidance is common. That behavior isn’t limited to display ads or commercials, either. According to a Sprout Social study, 27% of consumers have a more negative view of social media advertising than they did one year ago.
The reason? 58% said they saw too many social ads and were just plain sick of it.
The nail in the coffin? Most people simply view advertisers as morally and ethically bankrupt, according to a Gallup poll. The profession of “advertising practitioner” is rated among the lowest for honesty and ethical standards.
Behold the myriad of reasons why paid search gets ridiculously fewer clicks than organic search. (Remember that 4% vs. 96% example from earlier?)
Bottom line: IF you go for ads of any kind, think long and hard about WHO might pay attention to them and WHY. In most cases, a better long-term marketing investment (and better ROI!) comes from content marketing.
2. PPC Has a Steep Learning Curve
Every new concept you encounter has a learning curve, but PPC ads, in particular, are not for the uninitiated. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you’ll probably get it wrong and waste money.
For Google Ads, they must conform to specific quality standards, keep under a certain length, maintain clarity and honesty, and more.
If you’re a DIY marketer with no pay-per-click ad experience, learning to be successful with it will take lots and LOTS of time.
[bctt tweet=”Sure, PPC can be interesting to study and use to boost your online traffic — if you’re lucky to grab the keyword and audience you want.? But if you’re a DIY marketer, learning all the rules and best practices will take lots of time. ⌛” username=”ExpWriters”]
If, however, you decide to spring for a PPC expert…
3. Many PPC Experts Prioritize Numbers over Human Readers
The problem with PPC experts is they are numbers-driven. They have to be because they’re paid to get results for their customers… but, it turns out that’s a problem in itself.
When you’re so numbers-focused, you forget about the real humans on the other side of the screen.
For example, if you pay for PPC ads and you’re not getting highly visible spots on a SERP (or you’re not getting clicks), your expert may just say you need to increase your PPC budget.
But the issue isn’t with your budget. It’s with your content.
It’s what your PPC ads SAY – the wording – that encourages clicks.
Furthermore, if a potential customer clicks and discovers your content doesn’t match their search intent – well, say goodbye.
Even if you own the top paid spot, without content that meets or exceeds the user’s need, you’ll go nowhere.
And, let’s not forget many searchers simply skip over the paid results and go straight to the organic results underneath.
The problem isn’t with your PPC bidding. The problem is you need better nurturing strategies to pull in customers.
Really, let’s call a spade a spade. Where should you invest your marketing budget, if not with ads?
You need inbound for your digital marketing budget plan. ?
[bctt tweet=”PPC experts can surely help bring in the traffic you’ve been aiming for. ? However, this could be a problem itself when the work becomes simply obsessing over getting high numbers. ? A click doesn’t convert to a sale in a snap. ?️” username=”ExpWriters”]
Where Should I Invest My Marketing Budget? Inbound Is the Answer
If PPC and/or Facebook ads have left you high and dry, it’s not wholly your fault.
The industry is working against you. Expectations vs. reality are drastically different because the ad landscape has changed across the board.
Over and over, users are showing us what they want. We have to stop leaning into marketing tactics that used to work in favor of embracing what works now.
Today, people are tired of ads. They avoid them at all costs.
Today, organic search draws in traffic and leads through information sharing, nailing user search intent, and building trust. We can literally build our customer bases through honest, expert, authentic content.
Isn’t that amazing?
