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Content Marketing

7 Ways To Create Content Marketing For Buying Intent

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7 Ways To Create Content Marketing For Buying Intent

Have you made a great content campaign, but struggle with making it successful? One of the main reasons a great content marketing setup isn’t working is simply that you might not be directly marketing for your customer’s intent and needs. You need to change this up, and tweak your campaign, but how? You can understand what your client wants by simply researching and getting to know them. I am going to walk with you to help you figure out just how to achieve this and make that incredible campaign a successful one! How Can You Get To Know Your Customers? Getting to know your customers isn’t as daunting as it sounds. You’ll find that it can actually be quite easy if you take a few simple steps and apply them to your content campaign. Here are a few excellent ways I’ve found that you can get to know your client base: 1. Send Out Email Surveys For Clients To Complete. According to an infographic from QuickSprout, a great way to get to know your client base is to ask them questions. You can always do this via social media or blogs, but you might not get the response you want or need. Instead, you should consider doing email campaigns with a complete survey. Allow your clients to answer both multiple choice and opinion questions. This will help you get several participants, as some people might prefer multiple-choice answers, and others might want to make sure their voices are heard through comment boxes. A few questions you can ask are: Do they like what your company has to offer? What do they want to see from your company? Why do they want these changes? Is there anything that makes them unhappy? What about happy? Find out if there is anything they’d suggest to make your content more effective. Ask them their favorite websites (outside of social media) to gather information from.These websites can help you tailor your content to suit your audience, especially if multiple people in your client base visit similar pages. 2. Be Part Of The Buying Process As Soon As Possible. There are several times where you might feel that things could’ve gone a lot smoother for you and the customer if they had only brought you in sooner. This is something several businesses miss the mark on, but by becoming involved in the buying process as soon as possible, you are able to learn more about your customers. This can help you see any problem areas in the buying process, and how you can make things easier for future clients. A few ways to do this are to always allow your clients the ability to contact you throughout the buying process or have them talk to a sales associate for larger products or services. This will help both of you out while also helping you learn about your customer base. 3. Pretend You Are The Customer. This is vital because it can show you areas in your business that need to be improved. When you are starting to gather information about your customers, you should take the opportunity to stand in their shoes and pretend you are interested in your product. Ask yourself the questions a customer would ask and look to see if you have the answers readily available. If you are having a difficult time with this, head over to a site you’d be interested in buying something from and think about what questions you want to ask that company. You can see from their layout whether or not they’ll have the answers, showing you any holes in your own content marketing or what you are actually doing right. Just be willing to notice when you’re doing something wrong. This is one of the best ways to learn, even if it does hurt your pride a bit. A great strategy big businesses take is creating a buyer or client persona. A buyer or client persona is a fictional “character” that you create to help you figure out what your customers want, and tweak your content for them. While this isn’t always exact, it can help direct you in the way you should go with your company. It can help you better craft surveys, getting the best information possible, and it can help you create new marketing campaigns that you can tweak as you learn more about your live client base. How Can You Market For Your Customer’s Intent And Needs? Now that you know a few ways to gather information about your clients, just how can you market to them with this information? I am going to look at a few great ways to incorporate your knowledge to better market for your customer’s intent and needs. 4. Publically Answer Frequently Asked Questions. Don’t just leave this up to your FAQ page, but actively answer them. First of all, this can offer excellent blog content. Secondly, you have the opportunity to give clients a more in-depth answer to certain questions. This might not be the case with all of your FAQs, but you might find that the more you answer frequently asked questions, the more likely you are to receive other questions from your clients. You can even consider hosting a blog series of “ask us anything” where you answer questions sent in by clients. This is not only a great way to answer questions people have, but also might help with improving blog engagement. This also offers you the ability to teach your clients through your blog, which is something that is vital for engagement and keeping a strong client base. 5. Use Your Social Media Accounts To Answer Questions. Another great way to market to your customer’s needs is to utilize social media. It offers you a great opportunity to answer questions, but it also helps you learn more about your clients through how they interact with you and what they feel is more important. While surveys can give you concrete data, you can … Read more

Are Infographics A Worthwhile Investment For Your Content Marketing?

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Are Infographics A Worthwhile Investment For Your Content Marketing?

As little as two years ago, some of us said the infographic got hammered and it just wasn’t worthwhile anymore when it came to content marketing strategies. Is this true? Are infographics on the down and out, incapable of spicing up and improving our content marketing plans? Is it possible to still create quality infographics, or should we forget about them entirely and try something else? According to a recent article by CopyBlogger (and we’re talking end of September kind of recent), research suggests that publishers who leverage infographics tend to grow in traffic by about 12 percent more than those who don’t. In fact, they went so far as to present the information in…can you guess it? That’s right! An infographic: Wow! It makes you think twice about infographics, now doesn’t it? Maybe these little visual packets aren’t so bad after all? The What’s What of Infographics According to Wikipedia, infographics are information graphics. They have a pretty rich history, dating back as far as 1626 when Christoph Scheiner published the Rosa Ursina sive Sol. The very first infographic debuted in this publication and illustrated the Sun’s rotation patterns so that non-scientific minds could easily grasp the concept. Today, infographics are still visual representations of data or information. They’re a prime means of turning complex information into something almost anyone can quickly understand. Unlike 1626, today they are social media friendly. It’s not uncommon for these tidy pieces of content to go viral. They appeal to our visual senses, which often make them initially more powerful than our standard text based content. Yet, these handy marketing tools have flaws. You’d think that a content type dating back to the 1600s would be perfected by now! Then again, how many of us saw the Internet coming? And in all honesty, how many of us can accurately predict just how Google will react to the content types we choose? The Downfall of Infographics The biggest downfall to information graphics is the fact that Google can’t index the content contained within them. The same issue applies to any image we choose to use. Crawlers are not (yet) sophisticated enough to capture the words on images and index them. As is the case with every type of content out there, it’s entirely possible to produce low quality. If you’re not careful, you can create awful infographics. According to CopyBlogger, Google’s Matt Cutts had some pointed observations about bad infographics: When it comes to topics, they can get off topic. It’s not uncommon for the facts contained within them to be of poor quality. The link (or links) associated with infographics often go to sites that are completely unrelated. The link (or links) embedded in the infographics are sometimes undetectable by viewers. Cutts wrapped up his observations by concluding that in the future, infographic-type links just might be discounted or devalued by Google. So, the point is you have two outcomes when it comes to infographics: Nail it! Produce a high quality, well researched, gorgeously presented, relevantly linked information graphic. It won’t be indexed by crawlers, but it will be a one hit wonder that can be repeated with new products that increase traffic and boom your business. Fail It. Produce low quality infographics void of confirmed facts and relevant links that are eye catching but otherwise worthless. They won’t be indexed by crawlers, but they won’t be one hit wonders either. Low quality = get hammered (no, not with alcohol) and you’ll be in danger of infographic type links getting devalued. But there’s something else to think about, too. Are you infecting the Web with an unwanted virus? Second-Degree Duplication Do you have a case of second-degree duplicate content? It’s a plague that just doesn’t seem to let up, as discussed by Eric Enge and Matt Cutts. What are we talking about? Second-degree duplicate content is when a user goes to pages that all contain the same information. Even though they aren’t identical and thus identified as duplicates, they’re so similar that the user frowns and clicks the back button because the information they’re after just isn’t there. The problem with this scenario is that no additional value is being brought to the reader. No, the content isn’t duplicated, but it’s not bringing anything new to the table either! How does this relate to our discussion of infographics? Well, if you’re not careful, your infographics will simply rehash information and cause second-degree duplication, the kind that isn’t technically duplicated, but doesn’t offer anything of value either. Repurposing Content Doesn’t Mean Rehash the Same Old Same Old Infographics have taken off in the content industry as a means of repurposing older content into a new form of media capable of drawing a diverse (and fresh) audience. We’ve talked about turning long-winded copy into a handy infographic as a tactic for making your content go viral. But there’s an element that you have to consider if you expect infographics to be a worthwhile content marketing investment: Fresh perspective. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with repurposing content via an infographic, but you must offer somethingof value. This means you must offer something new. Otherwise, your repurposed content will be little more than a fancy case of second-degree duplication, and it could very well fail. Infographics as an Asset At the start of 2014, we ran a series of blogs tagged 2014 Success, and success number five was all about why you should create infographics. We even provided a brief how to that handed our readers 10 popular ways of using infographics. The truth is this content type is a worthwhile investment IF you do it right. So without further ado, here’s your short guide to creating assets in infographics: Focus on Relevancy: It’s the key to every type of content. If it’s not relevant, don’t use it. It’s really that simple! Google is not a fan of irrelevant links or content. Period. (I want to add in an exclamation point because this point just cannot be … Read more

25 Reasons for Outsourcing Your Blog Writing

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25 Reasons for Outsourcing Your Blog Writing

With over 91% of marketers embracing content marketing today, in-house is out when it comes to content creation! But what exactly does this mean? Does it mean your in-house writers are defunct and outsourcing is the only way to get content today? Of course not! Most companies have use for in-house writers, and they won’t be entirely defunct anytime soon. That said, though, outsourcing your blog writing is becoming a popular decision, and many companies are utilizing a mix of in-house and outsourced content creation to run their businesses and boost their content output. In 2014, 62% of companies outsourced their content marketing. Today, marketers around the country are outsourcing a whopping 18% of their total content, and writing stands out as one of the most-commonly outsourced duties. While it seems obvious that outsourcing your blog writing can save companies time and money, the impact goes far deeper than that! Read on to learn more about why you should consider outsourcing your blog writing, and how it can help your company grow. Why Should You be Outsourcing Your Blog Writing? The biggest drawback of content creation is that it’s time-consuming. Today, 10% of marketers spend between 16-20 hours each week on their social media content alone. When you expand that to blog writing, article publication, and graphic creation, it becomes obvious just how much of a burden creating great content can be for busy managers and business owners. For many companies, this burden is just too much. Unfortunately, content is also too valuable to ignore. Companies that invest in content stand to enjoy the following benefits: A bigger audience Established authority A rapport and engagement with viewers Opportunities to turn leads into customers The ability to tell your story A platform to meet new people The ability to stand out Capacity to brand yourself as an expert in your industry The opportunity to make money and increase the company’s bottom line Companies who are outsourcing blog writing have more time to work on the business rather than in the business. In fact, professional blog writing can work to enhance all these vital benefits. What Can You Outsource? Today, you can outsource just about anything. Modern content creation is primarily web-based. It’s the process of researching, organizing, writing, and editing information for cyber publication. It’s not just writing, either. Aside from written material, content creation can include the following: Graphics and pictures Video Creation Podcasts Twitter Chats and other social interactions Some of the most foundational components of content creation include: Social media Blogging Web content Landing pages Sales pages White papers Press releases Articles and documents The creation of SlideShare presentations And the list goes on! While most companies want to create all these types of content for their online presence, few have time. This is where the decision for outsourcing your blog writing and other content creation responsibilities comes in! 25 Smart Reasons for Outsourcing Your Blog Writing Whether you’re an old outsourcing pro or you’re looking at making the decision for the first time, here are the 25 top reasons for outsourcing blog writing: 1. Outsourcing Passes Content Creation Along To Professionals If you don’t specialize in content creation, you’ll find yourself at a marked disadvantage. Professionals who specialize in the content industry know every nook and cranny, hidden detail, and trend. They understand every kind of content, and they work to best leverage it for their clients. This allows you to create better content across the board. 2. Not Everyone Can Write We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Not everyone can write, and that’s okay! Writing is a complex, learned task, and it’s often best left to the professionals. We’ve always been advocates of investing in the right copywriter to enhance your content development efforts, and the skilled writers working behind the scenes of content creation companies can help you skip the stress, pain, and investment of doing it yourself. 3. Outsourced Content = Quality Content When you work with an outsourced content creation team, you get a team of professionals that includes editors and writers. This helps ensure quality. Each piece of content you outsource gets a detail-oriented review before it goes live. This helps prevent spelling and grammar mistakes and ensures that all your content is material your brand is proud to attach its name to. 4. Increased Reliability When you work with in-house content creators, your projects can easily be stalled by someone getting sick or missing work. When you outsource, though, you’re working with a team, which means there’s always another writer to step in if someone drops out 5. Hands-Off Ease Ever wanted to create a situation where you don’t have to think about your content at all? Outsourcing your blog writing can make it happen. Content creation teams can create, manage, and post all your content for you, allowing you to kick back and enjoy the ride, without the hassle and burden of managing a team. 6. Quality SEO and Technical Knowledge Outsourced content teams keep up-to-date on the latest content trends and understand the best strategies to further your business in the digital age. By working with them, you can enjoy quality, SEO-optimized content that adheres to Google’s current standards and ranks well online. 7. Lower Costs Companies thinking about staffing an in-house content curation team need to consider the cost. It’s not simply a matter of finding and hiring qualified team members. This number also includes finding the space, tools, and budget for the entire department. Outsourcing gives you the ability to reduce your overhead and focus on what matters the most: talented, professional assistance. 8. Large Talent Pools Today, the best talent might be across the country from you. Fortunately, outsourcing your content allows you to access it. This is one of the many reasons outsourcing is such a positive move. It allows you to track down that perfect fit, whether it’s down the street or on the other side of the US. 9. … Read more

10 Rules for Sharing Great Content

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10 Rules for Sharing Great Content

Your content, especially (and mostly) on social media, should include sharing and mentioning other content and authors in your niche. How can you successfully do this? How can you share others’ content – and most importantly, pick the right content to share, and stay away from what could hurt or deter your reader base? Before actually getting familiar with the written and unwritten rules related to a perfectly healthy and legitimate content sharing strategy, you should focus on finding and assimilating original web content tailored to the real needs and expectations of your targeted audience. Here’s how you could narrow down your search. A Guide to Content Sharing Done Right A mini case study in great sharing is the TAGFEE code at Moz. It stands for Transparent & Authentic, Generous, Fun, Empathetic, and Exceptional. This “code” is what they stand by for everything they cultivate and create. It’s an awesome guide to live by and a wonderful route to great content. How to Find the Right Type of Shareable Content That Works for You Ask Questions. Social media platforms give you the opportunity to humanize your brand and let your fans and followers realize that they’re interacting with a living, breathing individual, not a money-hungry corporation that just wants to sell anything to anyone. Post questions related to potential upcoming topics that could be introduced on your blog. This way, your readers would be more inclined to talk about their most pressing questions and the answers that they expect from you and your company. Read Comments. Feedback is a gift from above, allowing you to prevent or correct past mistakes and keep your content creation/sharing strategy on the right path. Read comments and assimilate the most important lessons that your readers can teach you. Explore the Connection with the Pop Culture. Amazing content creators know how to educate, inform and entertain their public at the same time. They aren’t afraid to explore pop culture references and turn them into real life lessons that actually are relevant for their sector. This may give you a new reason to keep up with the Kardashians or watch Dancing with the Stars without feeling guilty. Write about the Good, the Bad and the Ugly in Your Niche (and Skip the Unremarkable). In short, boost your appetence for the unconventional. Your readers definitely don’t want to waste time going through boring stuff. Maybe you’ve always wondered why Harper’s Bazaar starts almost every headline created for social media with this standard formula: “You won’t believe what X has done with her hair/wardrobe/makeup!” This is one of the oldest in the book, based on the idea that a little bit of suspense and the promise of a spectacular discovery will make readers bite their nails in anticipation and finally click on the link that you provide. So now that you know what type of content you would like to share, how could you actually distribute it without stealing someone’s intellectual property? If this dilemma is stopping you from getting a good night’s rest, keep reading to spot 10 foolproof ways in which you can put X’s written thoughts to good use without getting in trouble. 10 Rules for Sharing Content Without Actually Stealing Other People’s Work 1.  Conduct a Keyword Search and Pick Your Most Reliable Sources According to Business2Community, keyword search represents the first step towards identifying great shareable content on the Internet. Using the keywords that make sense to you, conduct extensive searches in search engines, social networking websites (like Twitter, for instance) and Google alerts. Afterwards, you could always turn to different RSS readers like Feedly for instance, store the most relevant content pieces in a bookmark tool such as Pocket or Readability and schedule posts revolving around the hottest web content that you can find using one of the many social media management tools, like Hootsuite or Buffer. 2.  Subscribe to Different Content Aggregators to Stay in the Loop SmartBrief aggregates great content on a daily basis and gives you the chance to check out at least 10 new articles related to topics that may interest you. According to Convince & Convert, by using content aggregators, you can save a lot of time otherwise invested in a more or less organized topic hunt. 3.  Find the Best Collaborators in Your Niche and Start Building Mutually Beneficial Relationships Talk to influencers in your industry. Refine your people skills and reach bloggers who share your interests. Mention their work in your posts and they will be inclined to return the favor. This could mark the beginning of a more than satisfactory collaboration leading to a whole bunch of premium, shareable co-authored content pieces that will allow you to expand your reader database. 4.  Cite Content in Your Very Own Blog Posts & on Social Media While Complying with Internet Etiquette As you were struggling to reinvent the wheel and come up with brand-new food for thought for your readers, someone introduced a fantastic new concept. Instead of sweating even harder to rewrap your competitor’s ideas in a different manner and trying to convince your readers that the creative concept actually belongs to you, post the relevant quote in its original form and give credit to its author by mentioning the source and hyperlinking the blog/website in question. Also, make sure you are familiar with the rules and guidelines related to content sharing, set in place by all sources that you plan to cite. For instance, HubSpot lets you quote its web content, as long as the fragments that you choose do not exceed the 75-words limit (to prevent  duplicate content issues that could impact their rankings- and yours as well!) What happens when you stumble across really cool content on social media platforms? Do you rub your hands in anticipation and grab your favorite fragments when nobody’s looking? Sorry to burst your bubble, but this dubious strategy isn’t the best course of action. In most cases, you just have to mention the name of your … Read more

Keep Your Audience Engaged By Teaching Through Blogging

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Keep Your Audience Engaged By Teaching Through Blogging

Engagement, shareability, and even going viral. It’s what we all want out of our blogging. But how exactly do you get there? How do you keep a reader engaged enough (to read past the first word)? How do you get to the level of going viral and getting excess shares? One way is to teach through your blogging. It’s simple—start teaching your clients and visitors with your blog. Let’s take a look at why you should teach your clients, the benefits, and few examples of how you can do this! Why Should You Teach Your Clients? One of the main reasons you want to teach your client base is to keep them engaged with your blogs. Sure, the few blogs about your company are entertaining, but they do not provide value for your readers. Your services landing pages are where you can tell people about your company, what you offer, and more, but your blog is your chance to give your customers something of high value. People love being able to learn from businesses because it feels like they are getting something for free. This encourages them to use your company in the future for whatever their particular needs are. Marketing Land points out that when anyone encounters a problem they can’t solve on their own, they head right on over to the nearest search engine. This gives you the amazing opportunity to rank quickly and bring in new customers! What Are The Benefits of Teaching through Blogging? Teaching is something that is perfect for every company with a blog to do. Let’s take a look at some of the benefits you will see when you teach your clients through your blog: 1. Keep Visitors Engaged In Your Writing. One of the key benefits of teaching is that you are able to keep your visitors engaged in your blogs. It is easy for people to just skim and skip your content if it doesn’t offer anything that they want or need. If you start teaching people, they will keep reading your blog. You may even see that people do more than just skim your blog because people can’t learn just by skimming (though some do try!). 2. Convert Visitors Into Customers. You know that it is important to convert those visitors to customers, but you might find that it is quite difficult to do. Teaching through your blog is a great way to do just this. You will show visitors that you offer something pretty awesome and they might consider using your company in the future, or even purchase something that day! Doesn’t it seem like a great idea to start teaching your clients? Offer them something of value to show your visitors that you really are the company to go with. 3. Create Longtime Customers. If you continually offer something that has value, you will find that your customers are more apt to stay with you for a long time. We all love receiving consistent information that can help us in our everyday problems and are more likely to stick with a company that offers something no one else does. Just think about it; are you more likely to stay with a company that never offers any helpful information on a certain task or problem? Or are you more likely to stay with a company that consistently offers you valuable information? We know that we’d prefer a company who gave us consistent useful information! 4. You Get A Competitive Edge When Teaching. Teaching is still something that seems relatively new, and as Mack Collier points out, if you teach, you get a strong competitive edge. This is a great way to start beating your competition and you might even bring over a few of your competition’s client base just by simply teaching people. Obviously, your competition might learn from you to teach others, but you will have the satisfaction of knowing you are worlds ahead of them already. 5. Content With Value Is More Apt To Be Shared. In the same article mentioned above, Mark Collier explains that content with value is more likely to be shared on social sites. The more your content is shared, the closer you will get to have something go viral. Viral content is something that most companies really want because it will get them noticed by more people and grow their client base significantly. There are several different ways that viral content can be achieved; teaching your customers is just one of many. 6. Your Brand Becomes More Trusted. Hubpsot points out thatyou will find clients are more likely to trust your brand if you teach them, than if your blog doesn’t offer anything valuable. They can give your brand excellent reviews and you will stand out amongst all of the others in your industry. Teaching can really help your reputation management and keep your reputation higher. As you well know, reputation is crucial in the online world and is what can make or break your business. Teaching will help you keep that reputation up. 7. Overall Happy Customers. According to the same Hubspot article mentioned above, you will find that clients will be generally happy when they are learning from your business. What you are doing is showing your client base that you appreciate them enough to give them help and information for free. As stated previously, customers will be more likely to share your business with others, and you will find that if a particular blog post really resonates with them, they will share it. Happy customers make for a happy business. How Do You Teach Through Your Blog? You are now probably thinking, “well, those benefits sure sound great! But how do I go about teaching through blogging?” We are going to give you a few tips on just how to teach through your blog and offer some excellent, valuable content for your clients. 1. Offer DIY Projects. People really enjoy DIY projects; just take a look at Pinterest! … Read more

ALS Ices Out Content Marketing For 2014: The Story

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ALS Ices Out Content Marketing For 2014: The Story

Photo credit: Juan Carlos Reyes The ultimate goal of content marketing is to draw attention. The signal of successful content marketing is when that attention results in action. The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has literally iced out content marketing, providing one of the most incredibly perfect examples of the legendary power of compelling promotion for 2014. There’s a great deal for marketers and business owners to glean from this trending phenomena. How It All Began Would you believe that the popular challenge did not start out as an ALS Association fundraiser? According to Geoff Herbert of Syracuse.com, the roots of the phenomena date back to last winter when professional golfers were on a mission to gain support for various pet charities. According to The Guardian, the ice bucket craze hit the national radar when golfer Greg Norman issued the challenge to Matt Lauer, host of “Today,” and he accepted on live television. The challenge comes with simple rules. Once received, you must make a video of dumping a bucket of ice water over yourself, post it online, and then tag Facebook friends and family, challenging them to do the same. Per the rules, you have 24 hours from being “nominated” to take the challenge or your subsequent forfeit demands a donation of $100 to a cause of your choice. The challenge has gone viral, and ALS has become the overwhelming standard. What’s the connection between ALS and ice water? Just how did it become the overwhelming standard? It all goes back to the family of Pete Frates, a baseball player diagnosed two years ago with ALS. Their campaign fueled the standard and the results…well, they speak for themselves! Let’s consider the scope of this event. The Legendary Scope According to the ALS Association, from July 29 to August 27 of 2013 a total amount of 2.7 million dollars in donations was raised. As of August 27, 2014, the ice bucket challenge has rasied $94.3 million since July 29, 2014 from existing donors and 2.1 million new donors. Icono Square Blog has been tracking the challenge since it went live on TV via Matt Lauer back on July 15, 2014. Using their hashtag tracking tool, they tracked the number of mentions of the two official hashtags: #icebucketchallenge and #alsicebucketchallenge. After logging a total of over 3 million posts, they broke the mentions down per hashtag: Geologically speaking, the mass response to the ALS ice bucket challenge has been primarily rooted in the United States. But it has spread globally with participants from Canada, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Brazil, Israel, Lebanon, Hong Kong, China, and Malaysia. Icono Square Blog also graphed geological stats per hashtag, which show the massive response from the US: Just who has participated in the challenge? The support from some of Hollywood’s favorite celebrities has greatly contributed to its success and viral natural. A few of our favorites who have accepted and passed on the challenge include Robert Downey Jr, Oprah, and Steven Spielberg. And who can forget Tom Hiddleston’s nomination of Benedict Cumberbatch (television’s Sherlock), resulting in this hilarious continuation of the challenge that really captures the fun and reminds nominees to be punctual: Even Google Jumped On Board We all know Matt Cutts. He’s the Google guru. We track his tweets and stalk his site because he’s the go to guy for the latest and greatest Google news. He’s the first and last say on almost everything SEO, and when this guy does something, it’s usually followed by everyone and their Uncle jumping on board. On August 22nd, Matt did his challenge and nominated members of the search quality team, including Brian White, Evan Roseman, and Michael Wyszomierski (aka Wysz). Not only did he say he’d write a check to donate, but he also “earned” his nominations: With so many credible folks jumping on board, and the results of new awareness raising such a large donation total thus far, there’s just one unanswered question: Are You Icing Out? Don’t worry! We’re not going to ask if you’ve accepted the challenge and dumped a bucket of ice water over your head to raise ALS awareness. We’re not even going to ask if you’ve donated. But while we’re on the subject, if you haven’t at least donated to this profound cause, swing over to the ALS Association’s website and make a donation—every penny helps. And if you’ve accepted the challenge and caught it on film, feel free to share your awesomeness with us in this blog’s comments or via our social media. The truth is the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has been a legendary example of epic content marketing in action. Crowd-based business models and marketing aren’t anything new, but this challenge has shown the potential benefits for non-profits. The question we’re asking is whether you’ve “iced out” your content marketing this year? And as we fly toward yet another new year, are you going to grab the takeaway lessons from the ice bucket challenge that can bolster your marketing plan? Never underestimate fun and a good cause. Wikipedia notated some of the criticism that has surrounded the ice bucket challenge. It was issued as a means of raising awareness and encouraging donations. It combined a bit of fun with a profoundly good cause. In fact, it’s a safe bet that the majority of people undertaking the ALS challenge had little to no idea of what ALS was until it was issued. While critics like Williams Foxton almost insultingly label it as “a middle-class wet-T-shirt contest for armchair clicktivists,” there’s no denying the phenomenon created since the challenge went viral. It has literally become an international event as everyone from America to the UK take part. Takeaway: Never underestimate what a combination of good old-fashioned fun and a good cause can do. Imagine the publicity if your company had originated the ice bucket challenge and helped raise awareness and donations for such a good cause? Create the moment. The ice bucket challenge wasn’t originally made for ALS, … Read more

Why You Can’t Put a Price on Content

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Why You Can’t Put a Price on Content

Did you know that, on average, 27 million pieces of content are shared daily, and that number is projected to increase? 27 million is a colossal number. The majority of users who see and share this content use mobile social media apps. Mobile usage is expected to increase by 23 percent this year alone. Industry leaders, such as Moz, are rightfully preaching the importance of investing in social media advertising to spread our content reach. We all get it. We all agree with it. So why do we still label content as a “cost” instead of an “investment”? Cost vs. Investment: What’s The Diff? According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, “cost is the price of something” . When we use the term in business there is usually a monetary value attached. On the other hand, “investment” is the spending of money with the expectation of a profitable return. Investments are more favorable than costs because they hold the potential of returning more than we spend, thus increasing our profit margins. Investments are like social etiquette, they are largely a matter of perspective. For example, prior to 2010 the majority of small business owners likely saw social media advertising as a cost. It wasn’t strongly relative to search engine optimization. Users were addicted, but they weren’t all streaming their news feeds via mobile applications. Social media advertising was just like any other type of advertising, the cost required to reach an audience and (hopefully) generate leads. If advertising reaped effective results, small business owners labeled it as an investment; if not, it was simply a cost. Online Content: Cost or Investment? It’s 2014. Social media advertising is big business because Google uses social media in rankings! The majority of your audience is glued to their mobile device(s), and they get their “fix” on an almost minute-to-minute basis. With 27 million pieces of content being shared every single day, shouldn’t smart businesses owners be reevaluating the label they’ve assigned to content? If you have previously thought of content as a cost, it’s time to step into the 21st century. Content is not cost. It’s an investment. And it is PRICELESS in today’s SEO game. But this does not mean that some nasty misconceptions about buying content don’t exist. The Dreadful Dollar Days Are Done Rewind back to 2010 again, and you will find yourself smack in the middle of the dollar days of online content. I shudder to relive these days. You see, around 2010 the popular means of winning the SEO game was to order up content overflowing with keywords. The practice is commonly referred to as keyword stuffing; however, in hindsight, it was more akin to ordering that fast food burger from the local greasy spoon that hits your lap overflowing with excess grease. Nasty! That’s what readers thought of keyword stuffing, but to businesses, it was the cost of success. You’re a smart businessperson. What is your primary goal in the Cost vs. Gain Game? Is it not to reduce costs and increase gains? How do you do it? You decrease and/or eliminate costs. THIS is where the dollar days came from, from the businesses who wanted greasy content at dollar menu prices. And it made sense! They didn’t expect quality. They expected the cheapest possible “content” stuffed with keywords to drive their SEO. End of story. Readers and writers the globe over are elated that the dollar days are done. Fast food content is out. Gourmet content is in. Preparing For Global Exposure The nature of the Internet has made us all global enterprises. You never know who will visit your website. Launching a website isn’t like opening a storefront that’s only seen by passersby and noted on a local community level. Search engines don’t discriminate by country or nationality. Therefore, the content you publish—your daily share of those 27 million pieces at the world’s fingertips—has to be ready to handle global exposure. As a result, online content is absolutely priceless. Ask yourself: Is your content ready for international exposure? Does it take into consideration other cultures? Even within the continental U.S. we market to a bilingual audience, does your online content do the same? Is any of your content translated into a non-English language? If you’re a non-English company, is your content ready for an English speaking and reading audience? Investing In Your Future Online advertising and marketing are the way of the future. They have been since the invention of the Internet. The backbone of the Internet may be computer code and a level of technical knowledge that most of cannot hope to fully grasp, but the backbone your clients and potential customers see is composed of your content. Isn’t it time to stop looking at content as a cost and instead see it for the investment that it truly is?

Are We Drowning in Crappy Content?

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Are We Drowning in Crappy Content?

The ocean is enormous. It’s made up of five separate bodies of water, but there is really only one ocean broken up over the planet. In fact, as of 2013, it takes up approximately 71 percent of the Earth. It’s pretty amazing too because it houses about 99 percent of the biosphere and is home to some of the grandest geological features on the planet. But it’s also made of saltwater, something that isn’t all that awesome for humans dying of thirst. I don’t know about you, but if I were stranded in the middle of the ocean dying of thirst, I’d look out across all that water and say, “Well, this is downright crappy!” If the Internet were the ocean and you were dying of thirst for quality content, you’d find yourself in the same predicament because we are literally drowning in crappy content! Yes, it looks like the web is flooding with content, but instead of, “Oh no! Too much content!” going on, there’s actually a dire lack of quality and an overabundance of non-quality content. It’s like searching for a fresh water oasis (quality content) in the middle of mile after mile and gallon after gallon of never ending saltwater (low quality, crappy content). “Dollar Days” Have Produced More Saltwater vs. Freshwater Content We wrote a piece on LinkedIn that received over 300 views in a few days called, The Dollar Days of Online Content Are Gone. The response from the professional community has been intense, and the comments we received validate our belief: we’re drowning in crappy content. Years ago, it was commonplace for Webmasters to hire the cheapest writers on the Internet (and perhaps the planet) to “write,” and we use this term loosely, their content. The process was simple: Locate the writer who would accept pennies on the dollar pay averaging $1.25 to $2.00 USD per page, article, or blog. Send said writer a list of keywords to cram into the content. Receive said content and publish. I so badly want to sing the Sesame Street song that says, “One of these things is not like the other. One of these things just doesn’t belong.” But to tell you the truth, NONE of these things belong. Webmasters and business owners have been so driven by profit margins that they’re gung-ho about skimping on the fundamental staple, the ultimate moneymaking tool that sits so ready at their fingertips: content. Now, it’s understandable that business budgets aren’t what they used to be. After all, economics and the economy affect every last one of us. But the fact that a talented, professional writer (not one these non-English speaking yahoos with zero educational background, no relevant experience, and a complete lack of understanding of even the basics of English grammar) is considered a waste of money is absurd, not to mention more than a little insulting. I apologize for being so blunt, but the Great Quality Content Depression and subsequent flood of crappy content is a direct result of the hiring of underqualified and often completely UNqualified fakers wielding the title of Writer. As a result, the rest of us are trying to turn the tide on misinformation, a terrible reputation, and a world that scoffs at the idea of writing being a legitimate, demanding profession! The ‘Anybody Can Be A Writer’ Idea So you think you can be a writer, do you? It’s easy, right? I mean, everybody writes. We all went to school. We all wrote essays and papers. We all know how to spell and write complete sentences. Writing is easy! It doesn’t take skill, talent, or technique. Hell, it doesn’t even take a lot of time. If you were lying on the floor dying of a heart attack, what’s the one thing in this world you would want above everything else? Think hard. You would want a paramedic. Why? Because they are highly trained and skilled responders, capable of keeping their cool and doing whatever it will take to keep you alive while rushing you to a medical facility. Why would you want to be rushed to a medical facility? Because there are dozens of trained professionals there who can and will do everything possible to save your life. Thanks to their training, chances are they’ll succeed. Did you know that a well-researched, properly written, engaging, and emotionally moving piece of content sometimes takes hours to write—even for the professional writer who writes 5 days a week, 8 hours per day? Did you know that while some people wrote essays and papers in school that barely squeaked by with a passing grade, others wrote A+ papers that actually moved the teacher and left a lasting impression—one that 10 years later the teacher remembers like yesterday? Did you know that there’s more to writing than spelling and complete sentences? Can you spot misuse and errors involving subject-verb agreement, clauses and phrases, pronouns, prepositions, ellipses, and confused words? Can you confidently explain what any or all of those terms truly mean in practical working fashion? Did you know that storytelling is the art of using the written word to craft mental pictures, tickle the five senses, and connect with readers on such an intimate level that each reader believes the content was written just for them? Anyone can be a writer? Writing is easy? It doesn’t take skill, talent, or technique? If all of this is true, then you don’t need a paramedic or even a heart surgeon. Anybody will do! You see the point. Writing is no less demanding than any other profession, and writers are not entitled to mere pennies on the dollar for high quality work. Crappy content, that’s what you pay a couple of bucks for. Quality content comes with a price because it’s quality—just like YOUR quality product or service. You get what you pay for. How to Levitate Above an Ocean of Crappy Content Thanks to the dollar days of content, the Internet is crawling with downright scary bad … Read more

15 Awesome Tools To Assist Your Content Marketing  

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15 Awesome Tools To Assist Your Content Marketing  

Content pieces are the indispensable aids that highlight the cool factor of your company, products and services, increase brand awareness and customer loyalty and help you get (and stay) on the same page with your prospects. But unless you are commercializing your product—whether it’s the fairy dust that can prevent aging or sleek cars that run on tap water—chances are that you have a lot of competition in your sector. Why Should You Invest in Content Marketing Tools? A customized, cohesive content marketing strategy can help you separate yourself from other players in your field, reflect the best features/most notable benefits of your products and interact with your target audience in an ideal manner. In this context, great storytelling skills could guarantee your success. You may ask: what makes a good story? While your merchandise may be truly mundane, the story of your company and the message that you’re trying to send to your potential buyers should be anything but tedious and unoriginal. A Plethora of Handy Tools for Every Conceivable Marketing-Related Problem Maybe you’ve got a mean case of writer’s block. Perhaps you don’t speak SEO or don’t know how to adapt your content flow to the real necessities and expectations of your audience. Maybe in the absence of awesome content distribution strategies, your web writing looks like a crowned king who is yet to find his influent queen. Last but not least, maybe you’re the real ninja of words, but can’t or don’t know how to measure the success of your current content marketing strategy. Regardless of the real root of your problem, a great variety of content marketing tools can enable you to overcome any challenge and step up your marketing efforts the easy way. What Are the Main Categories of Content Marketing Tools That You Should Focus on? According to an awesome infographic introduced by ClickZ, content marketing enhancement tools can be broken down into 5 main categories, based on the specific purposes that they have been designed to serve: Content research Content organization Content creation Content organization Content marketing analysis It is advisable to use at least 1 or 2 tools listed in each category, to make sure that all your everyday tasks, ranging from extensive research that represents a major first step to content marketing analysis, are absolutely flawless. 15 Excellent Content Marketing Tools That Will Help You Steer in the Right Direction Most content marketing tools are free or almost free. If you need another great reason to put them to good use, think about the fact that everybody else is already doing it. Without any further ado, here are 15 excellent aids that every online marketer needs in his life. Quora. One of the most popular sources of knowledge, Quora is one of the basic tools that you should use while doing your homework. By simply selecting the topics that actually interest you (technology, luxury fashion, economics, history, psychology and so on) and following them you can stay in the loop and expand your knowledge database. Moreover, Quora defines itself as an accessible place to create new content and share existing pieces that float around the Internet. Content Forest. Do you feel lost in the middle of a thick, dark forest of unwritten thoughts? If so, you should know that you can actually exit this labyrinth by using Content Forest, a handy end-to-end, complete marketing solution that ensures the hassle-free automation of all your daily operations, ranging from content creation to marketing and analytics. Flexible, modulated and powerful, this tool could become a valid substitute for your marketing consultants who are costing you a small fortune. Pinterest. A great image is more valuable than 1,000 carefully chosen words. This is not a cliché; it represents the mechanism that made Pinterest so popular in the first place. People like to collect and organize images that reflect their style and aesthetic demands. Why wouldn’t you turn this hobby into an activity that could boost your content research efforts? Analyze different boards and create your own to become a cool trend scout and find out how you could put your products and services in a different light, to increase their power of seduction. Curata. Content curation is one of the hottest trends that you cannot afford to ignore. If you are an avid collector of rare written gems that are only a few clicks away, give this useful tool a try to achieve business success in 3 easy steps. With Curata, you just have to find, curate and share first-class web content that can truly make a difference in the lives of your readers. Contently. In case you are interested in finding the ultimate storytelling platform, remember to check out Contently. This handy tool ensures a win-win situation for brands looking forward to perfecting their marketing strategy and also for freelancers who are eager to get new assignments. Driven by the desire to create a “better media world” governed by great content and not by mercantile goals expressed via more or less compelling ads, Contently arms brands with all the tools and the talent that they could ever require to compete with the most gifted and influent publishers. Storify. Your images are breathtaking and your calls-to-action are compelling. Your body copy is 100% unique and your headlines make your visitors ignore the fact that curiosity killed the cat. But what is all these essential elements don’t add up? Use Storify to glue all the pieces together and create an awesome whole. You just have to collect media online, publish the best pieces on Storify, share your content with the whole world and go viral. In addition, a Storify VIP subscription would enable you to unlock real-time updates and additional customization options that could come in handy, when it comes to telling a convincing story about your brand. Percolate. Percolate defines itself as the complete content marketing software that is good enough to provide great answers to all your daily web writing-related problems and concerns. … Read more

What Are Content Delivery Networks (CDN)?

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What Are Content Delivery Networks (CDN)?

Have you been noticing the term “content delivery networks” or “CDN” hanging out around a few of your favorite sites? Have you heard that it is really quite useful to use content delivery networks (CDN), but still aren’t sure what this means? This blog is perfect for you! We are going to explore just what CDNs are, how to use them, and why you should be using them for your blog. What Is A CDN? Simply put, a CDN is a collection of several servers that work together to get end-users’ information quickly. The information is stored on one server, but is accessed by multiple ones throughout the globe, giving quicker access. This is a common technology used by online streaming services such as Netflix or Hulu. Did you ever wonder how you were able to download and stream that episode of House M.D. so quickly and why it is so easy to continue streaming episodes until you’ve watched 8 hours worth of TV? Now you know! You can blame the CDNs for your Netflix binges. While this is common for streaming services, it is also becoming increasingly common for webpages that don’t require videos to stream. This helps to get a webpage to load quickly, on any device, anywhere in the world. For example, if you are looking at Filofax UK to find the best planner or inserts for your planner and you’re in the States, you’ll notice how quickly it loads. This is because of a CDN. There is a cache of information from the Filofax website in a server that is much closer to you than one in London. It is helpful and makes it much easier to get what you desire. Doesn’t this sound like something you want for your site? It should! Now let’s take a look at how you can use it and some more reasons as to why you should. How Do I Use It? You will need to choose an adequate CDN service to use this for your site. One of the key elements in using and choosing a CDN service is that you research everything before choosing one. A few good things to know are the types of services you will need such as streaming, progressive downloads, on-demand, live, or combinations of these. Contact several different providers and ask them your questions. Don’t decide immediately on which provider to go with; take some time and compare notes from the different providers. This will help you weigh the options, as well as reflect over each conversation. You should definitely trust your gut when it comes time to choose. If you felt weird about a certain provider, even if they offered some excellent benefits, you should move them lower down the list. This could be because the offers sounded too good to be true or just that you weren’t keen on how the customer service representative handled your questions. Whatever the reason, trust your gut. Why Should I Be Using It? Seeing that you’d need to choose a provider might have made you raise an eyebrow and think, “Well, maybe I don’t need this!” However, nothing could be further from the truth. Let’s take a look at a few simple reasons why you should be using a CDN. 1. Better User Experience. One of the biggest perks of using a CDN is that user experience will be significantly better. A CDN helps to make the website load quicker and be available in more areas around the globe, which is important when it comes to the world now. If you have poor user experience, you will lose ranks and visitors quickly. Aim to make the experience on your site better with optimal flow and by switching to a CDN. 2. Perfect For Mobile Users. CDNs help tremendously when it comes to having a website that is mobile friendly. A CDN is perfect for mobile users because many aren’t near your area or server, so if there is a server that has your information stored already, it will make it available to mobile users no matter where they are. Remember, making your website available for mobile users is crucial to a successful website. 3. Pre-cache Is A Big Help. What does pre-cache mean? Well, if someone accesses the CDN your information is on, even for a different website, he or she will already have the network downloaded when that person goes to your website. This will keep the user from having to download the network again and give him or her almost immediate access to your website. Nifty, isn’t it? In Closing Start looking into investing in a content delivery network soon to start seeing excellent results on your website. You’ll be pleased with the success of your site when it comes to user experience, which can rank you higher on Google. However, you won’t be the only one who is pleased; your users will be just as pleased if not more so because they are able to access your website quickly. Speed is everything when it comes to the Internet!

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