Content Marketing Archives

We Interviewed 4 Successful Content Marketers For Their Content Marketing Process: Lessons from the Best in the Biz

June 19, 2024February 26, 2019 by Danielle N.

Ideas are free and unlimited. But, it doesn’t really matter what the next brilliant idea is. What matters most is how we execute it. How can we define a good execution? Here’s a short but straight to the point definition from Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan’s book, “Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done:” “Execution is a systematic way of exposing reality and acting on it.” To execute, you don’t just act — you act according to plan. If not, expect everything to turn into a mess. The same goes for making great content online. Before content marketers transform ideas into high-quality posts that bring in actual ROI, everything should go through a unique content marketing process. There are also content marketing tools used to save time and improve productivity, and standards to follow in identifying effective content. However, despite content marketing teams following workflows, some still face challenges: Based on CMI’s 2018 B2B Content Marketing Study, 32% of content marketers think their workflow is fair or poor. Furthermore, 27% are having a hard time producing creative content which can be tough to achieve especially when everyone is worried about not having enough time. Since we’re all curious about how the best ones out there create great content, here we’ve interviewed four of the best content marketers today: Kim Moutsos, VP of Editorial at the Content Marketing Institute; Susan Moeller, Senior Marketing Manager at BuzzSumo; Amanda Todorovich, Senior Director of Content Marketing at Cleveland Clinic; and Michael Pozdnev, Founder of I Wanna Be a Blogger. So, how do they do it? Read on to find out. [bctt tweet=”.@DaniNofuente interviewed four #contentmarketers for the Write Blog, and they shared amazing tips with us. Featuring @MPozdnev @kmoutsos from @CMIContent @amandatodo and @SusanCMoeller from @BuzzSumo ” username=”ExpWriters”] We Interviewed 4 Successful Content Marketers For Their Content Marketing Process: Lessons from the Best in the Biz Kim Moutsos, VP of Editorial at the Content Marketing Institute Tell us about your team’s content marketing process. What happens in each process? “We always start with the audience in mind: What new topics do our readers need to know more about? What evergreen topics are they always hungry for information about? We review what we’ve already published on those topics to see if there’s anything we can refresh or expand or whether we need a new piece. Finally, we consider what’s going on in our own organization, whether that’s the release of new research or an upcoming conference that we might want to create awareness about. But our audience’s information needs are a priority.” In this entire process, what’s the most important step/detail for you that’s often overlooked by other content marketers? “Checking for existing content that can be refreshed or repurposed. Starting from a proven foundation means a good chunk of the work is already done. For us, this means anything from updating an existing article, turning a great conference session into a blog post, combining examples from many different posts into a roundup or ebook, to turning research stats into an infographic, and so on.” What are your most recommended content marketing tools? “Every team has to pick the tools that make the most sense for their strategy, team, and needs. Since we’re a small but distributed team, we rely on our editorial tracker/calendar, which is a shared Google spreadsheet that’s evolved over several years, plus shared storage for files. And, of course, everyone needs analytics tools.” Share your secrets with us. How do you come up with the most brilliant content ideas? “I work with really creative people, so collaborating with them generally helps the seed of any idea blossom. Stepping away from the computer and venturing out into the real world, whether for a work-related event or just a walk in the fresh air, almost always opens my thinking to new possibilities.” What makes high-quality content truly high-quality for you? “Of course, high-quality content is well written, researched, and meets an information need. But those are just the basics. If it’s really a quality piece, it provokes a response in the reader. It drives them to do some action, whether that’s to try a tip or suggestion in their own work, to challenge or agree with us in the comments, to share an article with colleagues, to subscribe to one of our newsletters, or consider coming to one of our events.” [bctt tweet=”‘If it’s really a quality piece, it provokes a response in the reader. It drives them to do some action, whether that’s to try a tip or suggestion in their own work…’ – @kmoutsos on #highqualitycontent” username=”ExpWriters”] Kim Moutsos is Content Marketing Institute’s vice president of editorial. She is a 20-year veteran of online and print publishing, specializing in creating business and technology content. Follow Kim on Twitter @kmoutsos. Susan Moeller, Senior Marketing Manager at BuzzSumo In this entire process, what’s the most important step/detail for you that’s often overlooked by other content marketers? “Collaborating with others. Our content performs best when we have a partner involved from the beginning. It can be time-consuming to create something with a partner, but the benefits in distribution are significant.” What are your most recommended content marketing tools? “I use BuzzSumo for ideation, and I use SEMRush for keyword analysis. I also rely heavily on Google Analytics.” Share your secrets with us. How do you come up with the most brilliant content ideas? “Thinking and talking! Content ideation is a bit like making soup. I have a lot of things simmering away somewhere at the back of my mind. Then, I’ll have a conversation with someone who serves as a prompt to reach into the pot and pull out a tidbit or two. Further discussion will help me to decide if the idea is a juicy bit of chicken or just stringy celery.” What makes high-quality content truly high-quality for you? “Trusting the source. As a content consumer, I am very aware of the source of the content I consume. If I don’t … Read more

6 Major Content Marketing Trends from CMI’s 2019 B2C Content Marketing Research Report

March 23, 2022December 28, 2018 by Adam Oakley

Happy 2019, marketers! What better way to start out the year than to check out some major trends for our amazing industry of content marketing? Good news. Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs just released their 2019 B2C Content Marketing Report. CMI’s 2019 B2C Content Marketing Report The #1 major takeaway? B2C content marketing is hotter than ever. And more and more brands are getting with the times: realizing that they need a strategic approach in order to succeed. As the research reveals, the stronger your commitment to content marketing, the better the outlook for your success. Take a look at some of CMI’s impressive and intriguing findings around content marketing in 2019. 95% of B2Cs are committed to content marketing on some level. 96% of the most successful B2C content marketers say audiences view their company as a trusted resource. Educational content is the #2 content marketing method for B2Cs in nurturing their audience (first is email marketing). The highest area for spending in content marketing in 2019 is content creation (56%). 63% of marketers said their organizations were “very” or “extremely” committed to content. Of the most committed, 40% said their companies were “very” or “extremely” successful. (That’s in comparison with the least committed marketers. Only 8% reported any great success.) Those are some powerful takeaways, right? With these promising indicators, smart marketers and agencies should definitely increase their focus and commitment to content marketing – IT WORKS. That’s not all, though. The report is jam-packed with juicy information and insightful statistics. That’s why we’ve rounded up the top trends and takeaways from this important research so you don’t have to comb through the whole thing. Ready? Dive in and take some notes! [bctt tweet=”According to the latest B2C survey from @CMIContent and @MarketingProfs, 96% of the most successful content marketers say audiences view their company as a trusted resource. More #b2c #contentmarketing trends in this recap by @JuliaEMcCoy” username=”ExpWriters”] 6 Top Takeaways and Trends from CMI’s B2C Content Marketing Research Report These are the key trends that caught our eye: 1. More B2Cs Than Ever Are Committed to Content According to the report, the majority of B2Cs are committed to content marketing on some level (a whopping 95%). [bctt tweet=”The majority of B2Cs are committed to content marketing on some level (a whopping 95%). More on #contentmarketing trends via @JuliaEMcCoy’s recap of @cmicontent and @marketingprofs 2019 report” username=”ExpWriters”] As we already mentioned, 63% of marketers fall on the end of the spectrum: They’re either extremely or very committed. This should come as no surprise, but it’s still nice to hear. Content marketing is a proven strategy and can earn you or your clients major ROI if it’s done right. 2. Committed B2C Content Marketers Are More Likely to Hit Their Goals The most committed content marketers are all-stars who reach their goals more often, according to CMI’s survey. 49% of the most committed say they get content marketing buy-in from top leaders in their organization. Another 68% say they have successfully used content to build loyalty with their existing customers. 72% have successfully educated their audience over the last year. Meanwhile, among the least committed to content marketing: Only 16% get buy-in from top executives. 51% have built loyalty with customers. 53% have successfully educated their audiences. From the statistics, it’s pretty clear that to reach your content goals, you need to dig in and commit, especially if you want buy-in from the higher-ups! 3. Investment in Content Marketing Is Growing This next takeaway is in line with #1, above. As more content marketers and agencies commit to content marketing, more of them see the worth of investing fully in this strategy. As such, 57% of marketers foresee their content marketing budgets increasing in the immediate future. Of that number, 29% expect to increase their budgets by more than 9%. This is great news, because the more you commit your time and budget to content, the better chance it will have to pay off. [bctt tweet=”More than half of #b2c marketers expect their #contentmarketing budget to increase in 2019, says @CMIContent and @MarketingProfs in their 2019 B2C Content Marketing Report. ” username=”ExpWriters”] 4. For Many Companies, Content Creation is #1 Content creation is one of the top investment categories, according to CMI’s report. Of those marketers who increased their budgets within the last year, 56% funneled those dollars toward content creation. Other runner-up categories include paid content distribution, dedicated content marketing staff, technology for content marketing, and outsourcing content marketing. This trend says a lot about what’s important to most marketers going forward. It’s the audience. Content creation investment means higher-quality content. Higher-quality means better writing, more audience research, more targeted topics, and a brand voice that always hits the mark. And, don’t forget: Ongoing investment in high-quality content equals more consistency at every audience touchpoint. According to research from McKinsey & Company, that’s how you make customers happy across the entire buyer’s journey: “…positive customer-experience emotions—encompassed in a feeling of trust—were the biggest drivers of satisfaction and loyalty in a majority of industries surveyed.” In a nutshell, more investment in content creation = more high-quality, consistent content experiences for your audience = higher audience trust = more loyalty = more conversions/sales. That adds up to a whole lot of awesomeness. 5. The Key for B2Cs in 2019? Loyalty The next key point from the CMI research directly ties into the increased investment in content creation. More and more marketers (81%) are focusing on building loyalty with their existing audiences through their content. Meanwhile, only 12% are not concerned with creating content that builds audience loyalty. As a 2018 survey from Yotpo demonstrates, brand loyalty is a highly desirable outcome from content marketing. When customers are loyal, they do a bunch of amazing things for you: 60% will recommend you to their friends and family 52.3% will join your loyalty program Nearly 40% will spend more on your products versus opting for cheaper versions elsewhere It’s no wonder smart B2C marketers … Read more

When Will My Content Return on Success? The Truth About Short-Term vs. Long-Term Success in Content Marketing

June 19, 2024October 30, 2018 by Adam Oakley

“I blog all the time and I’m not seeing any traffic — why bother?” Okay, there’s a lot wrong with that sentence. First of all, define “all the time.” Does that mean every few months, every month, weekly, daily — hourly? The fact is — and you can quote me on this — the truth about how long it takes to get noticed in your content marketing… hurts. The Painful Truth About Content Marketing ROI — and Why You Should Grin and Bear It Anyway The honest-to-goodness truth about content marketing ROI is you’re not going to see content success the moment you press the launch button on your website and post your first blog. In fact, you’re not going to see success with your content in the first month — and maybe not even in the first year, depending on your post frequency (and the quality of your content, of course). Nope. If you’re looking for a significant return on investment (ROI), then you NEED to be in it for the long haul. In fact, this study from HubSpot outlines the magic number quite clearly — it’s around 400. After approximately 400 blog posts, HubSpot’s statistics showed that traffic just about doubles. For the savvy content marketer, that means you need to be prepared to deliver consistent, long-form content to drive the results you desire. [bctt tweet=”Publishing content consistently but not seeing any positive results? @JuliaEMcCoy discusses the truth about short-term vs. long-term success in #contentmarketing in this blog post #contentroi ” username=”ExpWriters”] And when I say consistent, I mean you have to have an editorial calendar and stick to it. No ping-ponging around with posts — posting twice a week one week, skipping a week, then posting again. I know, it’s not easy. Even Content Marketing Institute has found that more than half of marketers struggle with it. And yet, visitors want reliable, consistent, frequent updates — that’s what drives traffic. So, if you want the traffic, you’ll need to buckle down and find a schedule you can adhere to. Now, back to posting frequency. To get that traffic revving, you’ll need to not only be consistent — but frequent — with your posts. It’s a proven fact that companies that posted 16 or more pieces of content per month had 4.5 times more leads than those who posted 0-4 times. [bctt tweet=”Companies that post 16 or more pieces of content monthly have 4.5x more leads than those who publish 0-4x/month. @Hubspot ” username=”ExpWriters”] And that just makes sense, since all that posting means these businesses are providing their sites with four times the indexing and backlinking opportunities. You just need to be sure that all those posts are contributing high-quality content in order to keep visitors — and Google — happy. That means that even posting once a week, which many bloggers do, is likely to keep you in the realm of blogging hobbyists who don’t expect high traffic. So once you’ve decided you’re serious about moving forward with your content marketing, you’ll need to determine your goals. Want the maximum traffic? Consider publishing 4 posts a week, which will bring you up into that high-traffic-driving stratosphere. Looking for slower but steady growth? Consider 2-3 posts per week. If you don’t mind taking it very slowly, posting once per week is fine. Just keep in mind it will take you more than a year to see a significant jump in traffic. Once you’ve got your frequency and consistency down pat, you’ll need to concentrate on the meat-and-potatoes portion of success — and that’s your content itself. [bctt tweet=”What’s the recommended posting frequency for #contentroi success? @JuliaEMcCoy shares her insights, plus studies from @hubspot @cmicontent @backlinko @unbounce and others #contentmarketingroi” username=”ExpWriters”] Long-Form Content Provides Consistent Success Content return on success is not just about churning out random thoughts in 500-word posts. You have to consistently provide visitors long-form, comprehensive content that’s relevant to their needs. Multiple studies have proved this, and we’re a case study on this (stats on our own content marketing ROI coming up soon). To underscore the importance of this, BuzzSumo studied more than 100 million articles and found the posts most likely to be shared were over 3,000 words long. Image: Search Engine Journal And high rankings were tied to long-form content in a Backlinko study that examined more than a million blog posts. Of course, it’s not just the quantity that counts — it’s quality, too. Higher-Quality Content Brings Higher Content Marketing ROI Seems intuitive, right? And yet so many people miss this critical part of the content ROI equation. That’s why I conducted a case study using my own company as a benchmark. Why? Because Express Writers has managed to pull down six-figure earning months on the basis of our content alone. We did it by publishing over 1,000 blog posts with consistent, long-form content over six years. Yes, you read that right — six years. As of this post, we’re at 1,142 blog posts, total. That content, which is published weekly along with a few podcasts with notes and recaps from our #ContentWritingChat, costs us about $1,600 per month. It’s a very long time, a lot of investment, and a lot of content — but worth every minute of the hard work. If we bought that kind of traffic versus generating it ourselves, it would set us back a mind-blowing $66,700. But just by rolling up our sleeves and finding ways we could provide serious benefit for our reading audience, we were able to create a business that frequently breaks the six-figure threshold in a month — while spending under $2K. Of course, as I mentioned, our content isn’t just long, it’s high quality — and that’s what you need to strive for. E-A-T Your Words — How to Create High-Quality Content to Win at Content ROI High-quality content needs to adhere to Google’s quality rater guidelines, which require that it’s got a high level of expertise, authority, and trustworthiness (E-A-T), a nice … Read more

Your Nutshell Guide to Better Website Conversion Optimization: Boost Your Site’s Profitability With These Tips

June 19, 2024October 18, 2018 by Adam Oakley

Even if your content is killer, your conversion rates can still be lackluster. *mic drop* That’s because every tiny detail, including the surrounding content, sidebars, header images, and links (let’s call them the “peripheral stuff”), contribute to your user’s experience (UX, for short). You may think these extraneous details have no bearing on the effect of your content, but they DO matter – a lot. As it turns out, they can influence the user psychologically, especially if you cap your content with an ask or a call-to-action. The surrounding stuff, the little details beyond the meat of your content/copy, can make your reader more or less likely to follow through with your CTA. For example, did you know that something as simple as removing social login options (like Facebook) from a page resulted in increased conversions for a Norwegian cosmetics retailer? It’s true. They did a split test, pitting one version of the page with a social login option against another version without it: #1: The page with a Facebook login, above. #2: The same page without the Facebook login. The results? The one without the social login option (#2) earned a 3% increase in conversions and a spike in revenue for the company. That’s exactly why website conversion optimization exists. It’s there to help you create the version of your page that is most appealing to your customers/readers/audience and keeps them primed to act the way you want. In turn, this increases the likelihood of those people buying into your CTAs. If your content is great but your UX sucks, you’ll have a harder time getting people to bite. Websites that are harder to use due to off-putting ads, poor design choices, bloated copy (or not enough copy), and other UX mistakes are roadblocks to conversions. The key is not to apply very specific tweaks that worked to increase conversions for another company. Everyone’s customers are different, so everyone’s data from split testing these optimization tweaks is totally subjective. Instead, try implementing universally approved tactics, then test them to make sure they’re right for your audience. We’ve rounded up a list of these universal approaches that pretty much work for everybody. Ready? Let’s break them down. [bctt tweet=”Read a nutshell guide to website conversion optimization and 5 data-backed methods to improve your site conversions, via @JuliaEMcCoy” username=”ExpWriters”] Website Conversion Optimization: 5 Data-Backed Ways to Improve Your Conversions 1. Use SSL Certificates/Trust Badges One of the major ways to increase conversions on a page, especially a check-out or sales page, is to instill trust in your customers with the right elements. If a customer is thinking about purchasing, they may already have some level of trust with you. In this case, you want to make that sales/check-out page help them cross the finish line. Securing your site with an SSL certificate is one major way to build your trust and optimize your conversion rates. (Sometimes your web host will offer this as a service along with hosting your website.) Take a look at how this appears on our site: Or, for another example, here’s Amazon’s SSL-secured site: Want to see a non-secured site? It doesn’t look as trustworthy, immediately right off the bat. This isn’t a good first impression: Learn more in Google’s useful help article about SSL certificates. You can also include a “trust badge” on the page. This little graphic is evidence your site is safe and secure as verified by an outside, trusted objective source. Most of the time, these badges tell the consumer that your site uses SSL (secure sockets layer) technology to keep data like credit card numbers encrypted and safe. Others may simply signify a credible third party deems you trustworthy. A good example: the Better Business Bureau, or BBB, has “Accredited Business” badges that show they have verified your company as trustworthy. Here are some more examples of recognizable trust badges: Using trust badges is a pretty fail-safe method because plenty of consumers are worried about the security of their information online. According to a European study conducted by GlobalSign, 77% of internet users are worried about their data safety, including whether it will be misused or intercepted. Additionally, most people check for security indicators on web pages, whether it’s right before a purchase (24%), before handing out their details (48%), or just out of habit each time they visit a new website (21%). People are rightly anxious about protecting their data, so addressing the underlying worry can help ease the way to more conversions, including completed check-outs. [bctt tweet=”Your website not converting? @JuliaEMcCoy discusses #websiteconversion #websiteoptimization in this nutshell guide to improving site conversions” username=”ExpWriters”] In fact, Blue Fountain Media showed how effective trust badges can be when they conducted a split test on their “request a quote” form. One version of the form didn’t include a badge: While a second version of the same form included a VeriSign seal: The results: The version with the trust badge got 81% more form fill-outs than the one without it. The takeaway: If you could instill more confidence in a user’s purchase or other action on your site, why wouldn’t you? Get verified by a third party, or purchase SSL for your domain (DigiCert by Symantec is a good option.) Slap a trust badge like an SSL certificate on pages where it makes sense Test to see if it makes a difference in conversions 2. Use Pop-Ups Correctly for Better Website Conversion Optimization There’s a lot of contention surrounding pop-ups. Do they help conversions? Do they hurt? There are arguments for both sides. So, should you use pop-ups? Shouldn’t you? (Do you want to tear out your hair yet?) Guess what: The question is not whether you should use pop-ups. The question is how you should use them if you go that route. [bctt tweet=”Your pop-ups could be killing your conversions. @JuliaEMcCoy shares her insights on #websiteconversion #websiteoptimization in this nutshell guide ” username=”ExpWriters”] A. Avoid Intrusive Interstitials (or Risk Google’s Wrath) What the heck are … Read more

Why Your Content Isn’t Performing, and 6 Methods to Refocus on for Killer Results

June 19, 2024October 9, 2018 by Adam Oakley

Despite your best efforts, your content isn’t performing. It might even be failing, and the reason(s) for it may remain elusive. This is frustrating beyond belief, not to mention discouraging. (Head, meet desk.) Need help with your content? Register for free as a client. You’ve heard over and over how successful content marketing can be (in CMI’s B2B Content Marketing Trends Report, 73% of respondents said their organization’s content marketing approach was either moderately or very successful) – so it’s even more disheartening when you can’t seem to get there yourself. Luckily, content problems are common enough that we might be able to boil yours down to one or two (or a few) reasons why your content marketing creations aren’t working. Read through these scenarios and see if any could apply to your content. Then, keep scrolling for tips to help you turn it all around so you see success the next time you roll up your sleeves to create. [bctt tweet=”Are you having trouble seeing results from your content marketing? Here are 6 methods to help you re-focus for killer results, via @JuliaEMcCoy ” username=”ExpWriters”] Your content failure might have happened because… 1. Your KPIs and Content Expectations Don’t Match Up If your content expectations versus the reality of your KPIs (key performance indicators) present two wildly different pictures, something is up. Either your content is flat-out failing or your expectations are too unrealistic to achieve. Both scenarios require a reassessment of your approach, whether your content needs an overhaul or your expectations need tweaking. 2. You Don’t Have a Strategy If you’re creating content on an ad-hoc, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants basis, this could be the major reason why it isn’t performing. Without a content strategy, you won’t have a roadmap that leads to achieving your goals. It’s exactly like driving on a dark road without any directions or headlights. One of the major ways a strategy helps your content is by laying out how each of your pieces maps to the buyer’s journey. When a customer is able to find the exact type of content they need at the exact sales stage they’re in, it helps them move steadily down the sales funnel – closer to a sale with your brand, in fact, since it’s your content they’re engaging with. Without this mapping guiding your content creation, you’ll be taking wild guesses about what types of content will nurture leads and encourage conversions. It just won’t work. 3. You’re Overly Focused on Selling Yes, your ultimate end goal is to get those conversions (traffic to leads, leads to sales), but you’re self-sabotaging if your focus is on selling your products/services, promoting your brand, or a mixture of the two. Overly salesy content is a cause of death for any campaign because it moves toward being interruptive and valueless for the consumer rather than helpful, interesting, or educational. Consumers (especially millennials and Generation Z) don’t like ads for a reason. They’re pushy, annoying, and can feel a bit slimy. 82% of Gen Z-ers say they skip ads whenever they can, according to a Kantar/Millwardbrown study. Do you want to be seen as an authority in your field and a helpful advisor, or like a shady used car salesman? Promoting yourself too much in your content will lead to the latter, which turns people off. 4. You Aren’t Talking to the Right Audience If publishing content feels like shouting in an empty room (*taps mic* — Is this thing on?), consider this: Are you speaking to the right crowd? Content targeted at the right people is more likely to hit its mark. The people you need to talk to are the ones who will care about what you have to offer, whether that’s your knowledge, your brand, or your products/services. If your content isn’t connecting, it might be because you’re throwing bananas at horses or apples at monkeys. 6 Tactical Tips to Turn Your Content Marketing Around 1. Study Up on Your Audience, Then Write FOR Them If your content isn’t performing, you should take a hard look at your target audience and buyer personas. Are they still relevant? Or are they off the mark? Go back and do your research. Do surveys, interviews, and polls with your customers and social media followers. Look at who your competition is targeting. Reassess who your brand ultimately seeks to help with content. Michelle Linn has a great method to help you refocus on your correct audience: Ask yourself who you can help rather than wondering who you can target. Once you have an updated handle on your audience, write your content FOR them. Put yourself in their shoes. Speak their language. Imagine talking to them across a dinner table and what you would say. Address their fears, pain points, desires, and questions. A good exercise to try if you struggle with content that’s too self-promotional: Eliminate all uses of pronouns like “I,” “we,” and “us.” Instead, use “you” and “your.” 2. Research and Capitalize on a Trending Topic If you understand your audience well, yet regularly hit “publish” and hear nothing but crickets chirping, you need to start getting more eyes on your content. You can easily do this by jumping on a trending topic. Their impact is fleeting, but it can be big once it hits. To find one: Check industry news. Look at top posts on competitor sites and search for patterns. Check BuzzSumo for current trending topics in your niche. You need to be quick to find a hot topic and get related content pushed out in a timely manner, but it can be worth the time crunch for the traffic potential alone. Plus, these types of pieces are great lead-ins or introductions to your brand for that all-important awareness phase of the sales cycle. 3. Return to Start and Put a Content Strategy in Place If your content creation is willy-nilly, unorganized, or undocumented, stop. Do not pass “go.” You needed a strategy yesterday. Reaching any type of goal requires … Read more

How to Connect Your Content Marketing to the Sales Funnel (Without Being Sleazy & Turning Off Your Audience)

June 19, 2024September 4, 2018 by Adam Oakley

Here’s a truth for all content marketers: connecting your content marketing to the sales funnel is easy to ignore, but important to do. You need a sales strategy for your content if you’re trying to generate brand awareness, increase engagement, or sell more products or services from the content you publish. Have you heard about my all-NEW writing course? We’re about to open enrollment! See more here. And now, to continue my habit of staying brutally honest with you, here’s a second truth when it comes to content marketing and a typical sales funnel… Written online content, when done well, is valuable, relevant, and attractive to your leads (a.k.a real humans) Many “sales funnels” are sleazy, downright annoying, and sometimes paint a false picture just to gain your money So, today, we’re not talking about the sleazy kind of funnel built inside of software with a surrounding campaign of 15 annoying emails and a “timer” on your money. (See my vlog on the Content Strategy & Marketing Course site to learn just how anti- sleazy sales funnel I am.) We’re talking about the physical strategies behind attaching your content marketing to sales. This sales funnel is critical. Having a low or zero connection from your content to sales can mean low or no sales. And that’s something you (or/and your boss) definitely don’t want to experience after investing in and publishing content. Never fear, we’ve got you covered today with a new, engaging way of looking at how content marketing drives sales, sure to help you achieve your marketing goals. Ready for the big reveal? The Bucket List: 3 Way to Stronger Sales Through Content Who doesn’t love a bucket? Buckets are fun! You can fill them with sand at the beach to build a sand castle, use them to carry your shampoo into the shower, plant them with flowers, or use them in any number of creative ways to enhance your life. But in content marketing and sales conversion, buckets are critical. Using our unique three-bucket strategy to fill in your online strategy and built a well-developed intricate castle of content will help supercharge your sales and boost your content’s ROI. Read my full post explaining the three-bucket topic strategy. Each bucket represents a goal you need to achieve for outstanding keyword research and online content success. As the image shows, you’ll want to work on filling your buckets with strong content for three main goals: SEO rankings Sales and connections Brand awareness This is the step that most brand strategists gloss over in a hurry to get out there and start creating content. But skipping the bucket step would be a mistake. This is the foundation for your content marketing sales process and the one that’s going to make sure your return on investment (ROI) is sky-high. Let’s look at it this way. According to Wolfgang Digital’s 2017 report on e-commerce, the average conversion rate was 1.56%. That means in order to get high ROI content out there, you must assist your visitors at every lifecycle stage — even the one that comes before the funnel! So, let’s see what we should put in each of our buckets. [bctt tweet=”Discover a new, engaging way of looking at how content marketing drives sales that is sure to help you achieve your marketing goals in today’s blog via @JuliaEMcCoy ” username=”ExpWriters”] Bucket #1: SEO Rankings At this stage, you’ll want to fill your bucket with all the keywords you want to rank for. You don’t have to be super-focused, but you do want to have a good understanding of keywords that are hot in your industry. Want to learn the ins and outs of SEO content writing? You need to check out my new writing course! After you get a solid number of keywords, you can fill your bucket to the brim by including broad match or broad stem keywords for this task. Broad stem keywords are relevant variations of your keywords that will help your website attract more visitors. They’ll also save you time on building lists of keywords before you get a good persona in place (more on that later). These keyword variations include singular and plural forms, synonyms, stemmings (such as make and making), related searches, and even possible misspellings. You can generate these on your own or use a Keyword Variation Tool, as shown below. Once you’ve filled this bucket, move on to the next step. Bucket #2: Sales and Connections Here’s where you start to delve into the area where sales and content marketing become fully integrated. This is where you’ll build the kind of engagement and connections that drive sales and keep clients coming back for more. Take time here to focus on how you’re going to build trust. To do this, you can put a wide variety of things in this bucket, including: Company announcements and product reveals Interviews with top influencers Spotlight on how your employees work as a team A case study focused on customer success Customer-focused interviews or articles There’s really no end to this kind of content that focuses on developing a personal relationship with your prospects. A personal relationship is going to give a tremendous boost to brand awareness — which brings us to the final bucket. Bucket #3: Brand Awareness This is one big bucket. Brand awareness helps your content generate more sales leads per impression and leads to enduring customer loyalty, which then translates into repeat business. In fact, working hard on determining how to fill this bucket properly ensures you’ll get the maximum Lifetime Value (LTV) from your customers. In a nutshell, LTV represents the amount of money generated by a customer over their lifetime. The screenshot from smile.io shows an easy way to calculate this for your business. You start with the first calculation: Then build on it, for the final figure: But, to get high LTV, you need to boost loyalty. To boost loyalty, you must become a resource that your customer trusts. You can increase loyalty through a number of tactics, including: Outstanding customer service (and content that promotes … Read more

Client Story: How Express Writers Helped nFusion Solutions Rank for Keywords That SEO Software Missed

June 19, 2024August 20, 2018 by John G.

This is a guest post by John G., a full-time Content Strategist and expert copywriter in our team. nFusion Solutions faced a very common challenge when they came to us: their site wasn’t showing up in search results for their relevant keywords. However, their challenge was actually a lot more unique than that. This meant I needed to think outside the box to deliver. Here’s the story. Download the PDF case study of Client Story: How Express Writers Helped nFusion Solutions Rank for Keywords That SEO Software Missed What Happens When SEO Software Can’t Help with Keywords? Several of the company’s main competitors were showing up for practically every keyword they threw at Google. Usually, the solution is fairly straightforward. At Express Writers, we use premium software like SEMRush to discover which keywords stand the best chance of bringing our clients lots of traffic. They can’t be too competitive, but they also can’t be too low on monthly searches. However, nFusion Solutions’ predicament was a first for me. Even though we knew which phrases would bring up their competitors in Google – and, thus, were relevant keywords – the industry is so niche that these keywords didn’t see enough monthly searches to show up in our premium platforms. So, there was no simple way of knowing which phrases would be the most valuable to our client. 4 Steps for Using a Competitor to Do Keyword Research Instead, what I needed was a solution that would tell me which keywords these competitors used most across their entire sites – every single page. It stood to reason that these were the ones having the biggest impact on their rankings. Once I had that information, I could sift through the results to find the keywords that would put nFusion Solutions on the same page as these competitors. This involved “pulling apart” the other companies’ websites page-by-page. Step 1: Finding Every Indexed Page for the Competitors’ Site The first thing I needed to do was to find every single page of the target competitors’ site. Sometimes, you can just access the site’s sitemap. Other times, you might need to use a tool like Rob Hammond’s SEO Crawler, which will scan an entire site and return URLs for each and every page. If your competitor’s site has more than 300 pages, you’ll probably need a premium tool like Screaming Frog to accomplish this. Fortunately, nFusion Solutions’ competitors only had around 100 pages apiece. Once your crawler is done, take the results and put them into an Excel sheet. Here’s what the results look like when I did this for the Express Writers website: Then, I’d just copy-and-paste the results into an Excel like this: Step 2: Pulling the Keyword Density for Each Page Now comes the heavy lifting. To figure out which keywords showed up the most across all of a single competitor’s site, I needed to conduct a keyword-density report for every one of their 100+ pages. Again, there are free tools that can do this. I prefer SEO Centro’s version. You just enter each of the individual URLs into the tool and it will return the keyword breakdown for each one. Here are two screenshots of the results from one of the competitor’s main pages: And for three-word keywords: As you can see, I was only concerned with keywords that included two or more words. I left out single-word keywords like “gold” and “silver” because they aren’t nearly specific enough for nFusion Solutions’ purposes. Step 3: Identifying the Best Keywords After conducting a keyword-density analysis for each page of each competitor’s sites, I moved the most popular keywords for each page onto an Excel sheet, keeping an ongoing tally of the frequency with which each one was used. When I was finished, I had an excel sheet that showed which keywords were used the most across all of these sites. It looked like this: Step 4: Choosing the Right Keywords for My Client’s Pages The final step was simply choosing which keywords from the list were most important to each of nFusion Solutions’ new pages. I did this by looking at which keywords the competitors used most often throughout their sites. I also took the time to learn about nFusion Solutions’ market, so I knew which keywords made the most sense for each of their service pages. Want to hire John to build great content for your brand online? Let us know! You can also request a free 15-minute strategy consultation with him here. Going the Extra Mile to Find the Best Possible Keywords While premium SEO software is necessary for online marketing, it might not always be enough. In the case of nFusion Solutions, I had to get a little creative in order to find which keywords would be most valuable to them. Fortunately, the above steps are easily replicable. So, if you’re struggling to keep up with your competitors and the software you’re using doesn’t seem to help, you now know how to find what keywords are proving most valuable. Need great copy? Check out our pricing in the Content Shop.

How to Build Evergreen Content That Actually Builds Your Brand: 5+ Tips, Tricks and Methods to Get Started Today

June 19, 2024August 7, 2018 by Adam Oakley

Evergreen content is magical. ✨ Why? It never loses its green. While lots of other types of content eventually turn brown, lose their readers, and die off, evergreen content remains fresh, interesting, and relevant. It’s always green, and it keeps bringing in the green – whether that means traffic, engagement, conversions, or even sales. So, the question at hand is not whether you need it. Let’s face it: you do. If you haven’t yet… The question now is how to build evergreen content that is actually forever green. Today on the blog, I’m answering that question. Let’s dive in. First: What’s the Opposite of Evergreen Content? Evergreen content has a polar opposite, and it’s important to define that as we get started. Content that is fleeting or quickly dated because it’s based on current stats, trends, news, or data is not evergreen. Some examples: Announcements and event summaries Blogs discussing trends in your industry News stories Holiday or season-centered posts (with exceptions) The information in these types of content has an expiration date. They will cease being useful after a certain point in time. Meanwhile, evergreen content is always useful, relevant, and valuable, even if a reader stumbles on your content months, or even years, after you publish it. A good mix of both is a healthy way to publish content on your website. Take a look at how Content Marketing Institute mixes up the two on their blog: 5 Evergreen Content Examples and Topics with Everlasting Life Before we get into how to build evergreen content, let’s look at some examples in action. These evergreen content topics are tried-and-true, as you’ll see from the blogs below. 1. How-To Blogs and Articles A good, evergreen how-to post teaches your readers a concept, idea, or skill that has lasting value. It’s something they can refer to over and over, now and in the future. Copyblogger – “How to Get More Value Out of the Content You Consume” Copyblogger has lots of examples of great how-to posts. One that has lasting value is their blog on how to judiciously consume content. 2. Curated Content Lists Curated content lists have a lasting value up to a point – they may include tools or tips that can lose relevancy. But, as long as you update them to reflect changing technology, you’ll have a solid evergreen post that will last and last with little effort. Social Media Examiner – “18 Apps and Tools for Social Media Marketers” This post from Social Media Examiner is a perfect example of a curated list. If any of the tools become obsolete or outdated, they can update the post on an as-needed basis. 3. Stories/Interviews Stories and interviews have lasting value as content because they tap into the wisdom of thought leaders, innovators, or pioneers in the industry. Or, think of it this way: Storytelling never goes out of style. People love hearing about people, so including real human stories in your content has evergreen value. Content Marketing Institute – “’Stay Scrappy’ and More Wisdom on Creativity from a Pixar Animator” Pixar is a successful animation studio known for its innovation, creativity, and storytelling chops. This interview with a Pixar animator by Marcia Riefer Johnson for CMI showcases how you can successfully glean inspiration and wisdom from creators across industries. This information will stay relevant for a long time. 4. Original Research/Case Studies Despite the fact that the data they present will eventually become dated, case studies and original research are definitely evergreen content for two reasons: 1. You can pull universal truths from them – strategies, techniques, or steps that others can learn from. 2. They tell a story. These two factors are universally valuable, no matter the date of the study/research. EW – “Blogging ROI Case Study: How 18,000 Keywords in Google Bring Us Six-Figure Income Months” For our own case study here at EW, I get transparent and share how we have grown our success using blogging, SEO, and content strategy. (This particular piece of content pulls double evergreen duty – it includes an interview with one of our top clients, too.) 5. FAQs + Answers to Common Industry Questions Odds are, people/customers new to your industry or brand ask a LOT of the same questions. This lets you assume there is a base of knowledge you can share that has lasting value for ALL newbies who come through your door. Hence, the FAQ post. In this content type, you list the most frequently asked questions you receive from said newbies, then offer definitive answers. Search Engine Watch – “Duplicate Content FAQ: What Is It and How Should You Deal with It?” SEOers get regular questions about the mysteries of Google search regularly. This post smartly addresses a general topic area (duplicate content and the effect it has on SEO) and answers FAQs that many confused marketers ask over and over. How to Build Evergreen Content It’s time to get down to creating evergreen content. Our best tips to get started are right here: 1. Write for Beginners When Building Your Topic For any type of content creation, you need to have an audience firmly in mind before you begin. However, when building evergreen content, you should hone in on beginners to your topic vs. any other group. Why? Because these are the people most likely to be searching for help. And, above all, evergreen content is helpful and useful for the long-term. 2. Narrow Your Focus If you attempt to explain a topic that’s too broad in your evergreen content… Well, you could be writing for weeks. Take, for example, a topic like World War II. This is a huge, sprawling topic that has innumerable sub-topics. For example, which year or span of years during WWII are getting your attention? Will you approach the topic from the viewpoint of the Nazis, the Allies, the Axis, or the Americans? What countries will you cover? Which battles/attacks? Which leaders? Screenshot via Wikipedia Behemoth topics like this one are also harder for readers to immediately … Read more

100 Outstanding Content Marketers (Original Research Report)

June 19, 2024July 31, 2018 by Adam Oakley

In today’s report, we want to give you a list of outstanding content marketers, doing real and wonderful things in our industry. And to start, perhaps we should define what an “influencer” really means. These days, people aren’t putting their trust in one-off endorsements from celebrities or TV personalities. Instead, they’re choosing to trust people they can actually interact with, learn from, and admire: up close, and personal. And social media has made this all possible. Our favorite people are right there, within reach. Those people you follow, look up to, and know from your Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram feeds have major clout. Their sheer gravitas is enough to move people to act. That’s huge, and that’s the basis of influencer marketing. It’s more relevant than ever in 2018, as consumer preferences move farther and farther away from traditional ads (particularly Generation Z). Today’s influencer types include social media experts, popular YouTube users, bloggers, and celebrities (Sprout Social). Before we get into our official Top 100 Content Marketer influencer list, let’s discuss the concepts on which we actually built the list. (Want to save a copy of the infographic to read later? Download here.) How Did We Build the List of Top 100 Content Marketers? Our gross data points for this list were gathered on BuzzSumo, one of my favorite content intelligence tools. We combined both the Top Authors and Top Influencers for “content marketing,” cross-examined the results on both lists, and merged them into one, final list. We cleaned it up by removing accounts that had been suspended, had absolutely nothing to do with content marketing, or hadn’t tweeted about it in 5+ months. The top 100 accounts in both Authors and Influencers for “content marketing,” with a clear direct focus on content marketing and digital/inbound marketing, and an active role in the content marketing field (CEO, VP, Director, Marketer) were included. Fairness was important to us. We included teams and single marketers (a good balance of both women and men). Both teams and their team members had the opportunity to make the list. So, that’s why you’ll see both @Hubspot and a couple Hubspot writers/marketers on the list. We think that industry teams that work hard as a whole, as well as the individual people that really get behind moving content marketing inside the team, both deserve recognition. Our key goal with this year’s “The Top 100 Content Marketers” was to create a current, accurate, and real content marketing influencer list. Since the Twitter purge the week of July 9, which caused millions and millions of accounts on Twitter to be deleted and removed from the platform, it’s becoming more relevant and necessary than ever to maintain a real presence on social media. Not a presence built by bots, fake followers, and an overnight rush of success. But a real, humanly-built, humanly-connected presence. Over 2.5 months of work and 50-70 hours of team work has gone into the research and final list of 100. I worked on the final report-gathering research and work, the team at BuzzSumo helped me along the way (thanks, Susan Moeller!), and our team copywriters and editors helped me proof the list for any spam, as well as put all the bios together. Then, our editors proofread the copy while our designer put together a beautiful infographic and PDF. This was quite the project! [bctt tweet=”Fairness to both teams and individual marketers, as well as looking for leaders that have been recently active in content marketing, was important in building our #Top100ContentMarketers report. @JuliaEMcCoy” username=”ExpWriters”] How Does BuzzSumo Populate Their “Search Influencers” Feature? BuzzSumo combines and measures a lot of different data points to help you find influencers in an industry based on their Twitter profiles. Metrics that weigh into top-ranked include page authority, domain authority, total # of followers, real engagement: their retweet ratio, and more. The most important data point, however, is one BuzzSumo keeps under wraps: Relevancy. According to Susan, the relevancy factor measures how accurately a Twitter influencer matches the user search. For example, if I search for influencers using the keyword “content marketing,” BuzzSumo returns a list based on their own relevancy score for those results. We can surmise that this score depends on weighing all the factors together (total followers, domain authority, etc.) and ranking the results accordingly. However, there are other, proprietary factors involved that BuzzSumo won’t disclose. In other words, they use a “secret sauce” to return relevant influencers during a search. And, this proprietary factor is what makes their tool so special. Personally, in the last seven years of doing content marketing full time I’ve tried dozens of other content analysis-based tools, and I consistently find BuzzSumo the most accurate (accurate on share counts, followers, and minimal spam). Without further ado, we present The Top 100 Content Marketers for 2018. You can expand and scroll through the SlideShare embedded below, or download as a PDF and save for later. The Top 100 Content Marketers (Real Industry Influencers) Download as a PDF and save for later. The Top 100 Content Marketers 2018 (Express Writers & BuzzSumo) from Julia McCoy The Top 100 Content Marketers (Real Industry Influencers) Click on the @handles in the headers to open each profile in a new tab and follow on Twitter. 1. Content Marketing Institute – @CMIContent CMI is one of the top authorities in the industry. Their conferences, events, courses, and blog all highlight advice from experts, down-to-earth teaching, and a focus on advancing content marketing. 2. Ann Handley – @MarketingProfs Not only is Ann Handley the brains behind Marketing Profs – she’s also a pioneer of digital marketing, an inspiring speaker, and a best-selling author (Everybody Writes and Content Rules). 3. Joe Pulizzi – @JoePulizzi Another major name in the industry, Joe Pulizzi is the founder of CMI and a content marketing movement leader. He’s a speaker, an entrepreneur, and has authored go-to books like Epic Content Marketing, Content Inc., and Killing Marketing. 4. Lilach Bullock – @lilachbullock Lilach Bullock is a social media and lead generation machine. She shares her knowledge through … Read more

Outsourcing Your Content: The Risks and the Remarkable Rewards (Infographic)

June 19, 2024June 12, 2018 by Adam Oakley

Risks And Remarkable Rewards For Outsourcing Your Content

When you’re a small business owner and trying to save a buck, writing your own content can seem like a good idea. “It can’t be that hard! I’ll save lots of money! Right? …Right??” Well… I hate to break it to you, but writing content is not as simple as sitting down in front of a word processor and scrounging up 800 words off the top of your head. To be blunt, writing content isn’t even as simple as plain writing. To earn return-on-investment, to be profitable, content needs so much more: Time Planning Effort Research SEO smarts Can you ostensibly create this kind of content on your own – not to mention consistently, at the highest levels of quality – and still have time to run your business? Maybe if you’re a super-human or a wizard with magical powers. Maybe if you give up a social life, relaxation time, and sleep. Enter the case for hiring a writer and outsourcing content. It’s not only for the health of your business and your content’s ROI-potential; it’s also for your sanity. That’s why we’re discussing: When to outsource your content Why you should outsource And the real numbers involved, including the dollars and time you’ll save by hiring a writer (because time = money) To begin, here’s the first question we’ll answer: When should you start outsourcing your content? Spoiler alert: The answer is right now. Allow me to prove that to you. [bctt tweet=”When should you start outsourcing your content? @JuliaEMcCoy asks this tough question in today’s blog, complete with an infographic. ” username=”ExpWriters”] Exploring the Hidden Costs & Risks of NOT Outsourcing Content (Infographic Case Study) What will it cost you, in minutes and hours & dollars and cents, NOT to hire a writer with expertise in content marketing? Time = money. What is your time worth to you? Let’s estimate exactly how much time it takes to plan, research, write, and edit a high-quality, high-ROI content piece, like an in-depth blog post. Then we’ll compare it to the time and cost of hiring an expert. 1. Time Required for DIY Content (100 Hours/Month: Equivalent of a Part-Time Job) To create DIY content that actually gets results, the work you put in must include the following (assuming you’ve already researched your audience). The estimated time it takes to complete each step is included. Keyword research – Finding keyword opportunities to scoop up high-potential traffic (15-20 minutes) Planning – Ironing out a post topic that appeals to your target niche and uses your target keywords (5-10 minutes) Researching – Gathering relevant facts, stats, and supporting information you can link to and reference in your post (20-30 minutes) Outlining – Planning your argument, organizing your thoughts, laying out main points, and drafting headers and subheaders (10-15 minutes) Writing – Writing up the post, citing sources and linking to them, using SEO best-practices, adding visuals as needed, and finalizing your headers and subheaders (4-8 hours [dependent on MANY factors, including inspiration, the quality of your research, and your motivation – could take much less or much more time]) Editing – Checking your work for accuracy, proofreading for flow and tone of voice, checking for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors (20-40 minutes) Estimated time needed to craft ONE in-depth blog post: about 10 hours Estimated time needed monthly to publish 2x/week: 100 hours/month You read that right: It takes nearly an entire day to crank out a blog post worthy of ROI. To publish these types of posts two times a week, it will take about 20 hours per week, and 100 hours per month. That’s like having a part-time job. And those numbers are just an estimate! It could take much longer if you run into problems like writer’s block, or research fails such as coming up short for solid, recent studies to back up points in your content. It will take EVEN LONGER if you haven’t researched your audience, or if you don’t have a workflow and plan in place for strategizing your blogs. It takes a lot of work. Look at all the activities that top-performing content marketers commit to, from that same CMI benchmark survey we already mentioned. Top performers: Value craft and creativity in their content (88%) Have excellent/very good project management flow (70%) Deliver content consistently (75%) Use high-quality content to build their audiences (92%) For businesses who out-perform the rest, content quality and consistency is prioritized. If you DIY, that WILL take a huge chunk of time, effort, and resources that can add up to hundreds of hours over a few months. What’s your time worth? What is 100 hours/month worth to you? What could you do for your business in that time besides pulling your hair out over content creation? More importantly, could you repeat this exact same routine, ad-nauseum, to produce consistent results? 2. Time Needed to Hire a Writer and Hand Off the Dirty Work (Potentially 25 Minutes / $90) We know how long it takes to produce a high-quality, amazing blog that wins ROI. In contrast, how much time and money do you need to hire a writer to take care of it all for you? Let’s break it down: Finding and vetting a writer – At Express Writers, we handle writer vetting and match you with an expert who can write with authority about your industry topics. (0 minutes) Relaying keywords, topics, and strategy – With us, all you have to do is order the content you need (either fill out our guided order forms or talk to a content specialist). One of our content strategists can also do keyword and topic research for you. (5-10 minutes + $90 for an expert blog) Reviewing the completed content – All the creative work happens behind-the-scenes. All you have to do is wait for your completed content, review it, and, if needed, ask for any revisions. (10-15 minutes review time) Estimated time/cost for outsourcing content: 25 minutes, $90 What’s the Better Investment? About … Read more