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March 31, 2017

6 Ways to Energize Your Content Marketing Team (and Your Content)

Nearly half of B2C businesses have small content marketing teams supporting the organization. Yet, 73% of businesses will produce more original content in the coming year, which means content teams will spend more time keeping the engine running with little time or headspace for innovation. While boosting the size of your team might seem like an obvious solution, it’s expensive. If you really want to improve your team’s ability to produce quality content, you better protect their opportunity for creativity. Here are six ways to help your team create more amazing content and improve your content marketing program in unexpected ways. 1. Aim for more creative, less standardized process Adobe’s State of Create 2016 survey confirms that 73% of workers today feel increasing pressure to be productive versus being creative at work. Of course, there are always deadlines to meet, but if your team members don’t have space to think, experience diversity of thought, or have the ability to engage in new experiences, their creativity will suffer. A recent study showed that unfamiliar experiences can contribute to a 50% increase in creativity. Even small changes in one’s environment can provide a boost including lowering the lights , adding some ambient noise , or even just taking a walk . As the leader, you want your team knowing they have the freedom to do what’s needed to conjure their muse. Remember, your team will follow your lead, so show them how you change your environment to fan your own creativity. 2. Encourage more risk-taking When you’re focused on getting the next piece of content to market by deadline, it’s easy to shy away from trying new things. Untested ideas carry the risk of your team not hitting goals, so it feels safer to go with the tried and trusted. Yet, […]

The 4 Ways to Fix Your Broken Content Marketing

As more and more (and more) content is created, the performance of the average piece of content is plummeting. There is no shortage of content about content marketing, either. Yet, when content doesn’t work, many marketers are perplexed. Perhaps they’ve been lulled into a false sense of, “If I write it, they will come?” Or maybe most content marketers simply don’t have a background in testing and optimization? (Fun fact: That’s why this company and site are called “Convince & Convert.” My plan was originally to make this a conversion rate optimization consultancy, as we did a lot of that at my prior firm, Mighty Interactive.) Certainly, the specific changes you can make to improve the performance of your content marketing are nearly limitless. But realistically, all of them fall into one of these, the 4 Ways To Fix Broken Content Marketing. Fix Your Content Marketing Topic You are competing against EVERYTHING with your content, not just your competitors. Content is consumed as a mixture of personal and commercial updates, like an information smoothie that combines Trump, each and every Kardashian, reminders from Mom, and whatever you’re trying to tell your customers. It’s daunting. If your content isn’t working, maybe what you’re creating content ABOUT is off-base? Remember, if your content solely talks about your company, its products, and the corresponding features and benefits, you don’t really have a content marketing initiative; you have an episodic brochure. Kim Kardashian was robbed of all of her jewels. Your bullshit blog post about your new product doesn’t stand a chance. Ultimately you have two paths for your content marketing topics, and you should pursue both. First, make SURE you create content that addresses known or inferred customer questions. If you don’t have—by far—the best FAQ in your industry, you’re forgetting the […]

How Do Consumers Really Feel About 2017’s Digital Trends? [Infographic]

As we approach the year’s second quarter, Google is already returning over 46,600 results for “ digital trends 2017 .” And if you’re in the digital marketing space, there seems to be an unspoken rule that you must always have an opinion on what the key trends will be for the year ahead. But could it be that we’re all stuck in an industry echo chamber? As it turns out, some new research from Code Computerlove might burst that bubble. Code Computerlove surveyed 1,000 U.K. adults to find out what they really think about these trend predictions — things like voice search, virtual reality, and chat-bots. That data was then compared to what’s actually making the most noise online. Some key findings included: Mobile payments are the most sought-after technology in 2017. 9 out of 10 consumers claim to have no interest in using augmented reality in the near future. 1 in 5 people surveyed aim to spend less time in front of screens this year. With that many people aiming to spend less time in front of screens this year, brands have to make their digital interactions count — a poor initial digital experience can carry a long-term impact. Curious to know what else your brand needs to know about these trends? Check out the infographic below.

Why Google’s SEO advice is NOT (always) in your best interest

Last month, Google released a video detailing best practices for hiring an SEO company , and it is positioned to become the go-to guide for hiring an SEO. After all, who better to tell companies what they should look for in an SEO than the operators of the world’s most popular search engine? The advice in the video is useful, but it’s biased and incomplete — like so much of the information the company distributes. For example, Ohye states that valid recommendations from an SEO must be corroborated by official Google statements, but the search giant frequently declines to comment on algorithm updates, and they have also been known to advise what they want SEOs to do — not necessarily what works. Reputable SEO companies seriously consider all official statements that Google makes about its ranking factors. But if Google is an SEO company’s only source of data and best practice information, the results of the SEO’s work are likely to be suboptimal. Whether you’re trying to hire an SEO company or improve your own SEO strategy in general, remember a few things about Google: their word is not always their bond, their data is deliberately incomplete, and they are a for-profit company. Some opinions expressed in this article may be those of a guest author and not necessarily Marketing Land. Staff authors are listed here . Learn to craft remarkable customer experiences Join us at MarTech San Francisco May 9-11 and tackle digital transformation at the intersection of marketing, technology, and management. Only MarTech blends graduate-level marketing, technology and management topics designed to help you succeed in this software-powered marketing world. Register now . About The Author

5 Vendors Explain What Makes Their Digital Marketing Hub Unique

Not all ducks — or digital marketing hubs — are identical. Leading analyst firms like segment vendors into various categories, from leaders to the also-rans. But is the top rated vendor necessarily the right vendor for you? In a recent Magic Quadrant on digital marketing hubs (DMH), for example, Gartner named four leaders: Adobe, Oracle, Salesforce and Marketo. Gartner said digital marketing hubs provide marketers and applications "with standardized access to audience data, content, workflow triggers and operational analytics to automate execution and optimization of multichannel campaigns, conversations, experiences and data collection across online and offline channels.” Those capabilities are often complementary to native applications within a marketing cloud or suite. “Extensibility through published services,” Gartner researchers added, “is a key benefit of this technology.” We decided to find out what’s under the hood of some of the vendors recognized in the Gartner digital marketing hubs report — and give company representatives an opportunity to explain why their company’s platform is the best to use. What makes your digital marketing hub unique? The Answers Cory Munchbach, VP, Marketing, BlueConic Cory Munchbach Munchbach oversees inbound, outbound and all other marketing and associated activities. Before joining BlueConic , she was an analyst on the customer insights practice at Forrester , covering the intersection of marketing strategy and technology and an expert in the marketing technology landscape. Tweet to Cory Munchbach . Gartner succinctly nailed what differentiates the BlueConic digital marketing hub, which is that our technology is a customer data platform (CDP) — and the only one so identified by the MQ’s authors in the report. According to the founder of the CDP Institute , a CDP is a “marketer-managed system that creates a persistent, unified customer database that is accessible to other systems.” There are parallels between a CDP and […]

Content Marketing Advice, with a Side of Snark

So today is April 1, which usually means we’ll try to feed you some stupid joke that will just make you roll your eyes when you realize the date. Not this time, internet. Brian kicked things off on Monday with three ways to get links that you haven’t heard 20 million times from people whose websites have no links. Plus he gets a little snarky, which you never want to miss. On Tuesday, our friend Jon Nastor showed us how we can actually get listeners for our podcasts . It’s a useful thing to know, since the #1 question on the minds of new podcasters is: “For the love of all that is holy and good, is anyone ever going to hear this thing?” And on Wednesday, Loren Baker helped you figure out why your site is slower than a slug on Xanax … and how to fix it . Seriously, there’s moss growing on that thing. Moving to the podcasts: On The Showrunner, Jerod Morris and Jon Nastor discussed sponsorships and affiliate marketing . On Copyblogger FM, I considered the fine balance between being precise with usage and grammar … and just being an annoying jerk . And on Unemployable, Brian Clark talked conversion optimization with Talia Wolf. “Conversion optimization” is another way of saying, “People will actually buy what you are selling,” so don’t miss that conversation. That’s it for this week … enjoy the goodies, and watch out for April Foolery! — Sonia Simone Chief Content Officer, Rainmaker Digital Catch up on this week’s content by Brian Clark by Jon Nastor by Loren Baker by Sonia Simone by Brian Clark by Kelton Reid by Jerod Morris & Jon Nastor

3 Strategic Ways to Get Links to Your Website

“Link building” is something I’ve never done in my 19 years of publishing online. In other words, I’ve never spent any time whatsoever emailing strangers and trying to convince them to link to my content. I have, however, been on the receiving end of many link-building requests. And they’ve never worked on me. Now, I know there are smart people who work on behalf of clients to get links through these outreach initiatives. Strangely, I’ve never received a link request from a smart person. It’s usually just dopey people using bad email scripts and automation that some clown sold them on. They don’t even bother to modify the language, so you see the same lame emails over and over. Outside of receiving compensation for a link (which I would never accept and is just a bad idea in general these days), I don’t see why any online publisher would agree to these requests. What’s in it for us? So, if you’re looking to get links to your site for all the benefits that come with it (including enhanced search rankings ), maybe you should try a different approach. Let’s look at three that might work for you. 1. Guest posting Not a new approach, certainly. But guest writing for relevant and respected publications remains one of the best ways to gain exposure to an audience that builds your own. And of course you’ll want, at minimum, a bio link back to your site in exchange for your content contribution. Now, you may remember that Google at one point spoke out against guest posting for SEO . Yes, spammy sites submitting spam to other spammy sites in exchange for links is not smart — but that’s not what we’re talking about. I’m also not necessarily talking about content farms like […]

Google’s Featured Snippets: How to Get Your Content to Appear

In the rush to get on the front page of Google, a major SERP opportunity stands out as the most useful and most relevant available: featured snippets . The bits of text at the top of many informational searches in Google, featured snippets can drive a ton of attention toward your site and can be an invaluable weapon for marketers. How can you create content that has the chance of ranking in featured snippets? While many marketers assume featured snippets are the territory of SEO masters or brands with million-dollar marketing budgets, that isn’t true at all. In fact, it’s easy to rank for featured snippets with organic content only. You just need to know how. What are featured snippets? Featured snippets are the informational content that shows up in Google’s SERPs immediately after the ads and sponsored posts (if available). This search for “how to show ROI for marketing” features a snippet from Marketing Mo: If there had been sponsored ads around this search term, they would appear above the snippet, which ranks as the top organic result. Google shows what it considers high-quality content in this space because it’s focused on fulfilling user intent . 5 tips to create featured snippets The good news is that, as a form of organic content, the featured snippet box is available to everybody who knows how to optimize their content accordingly. Yet, it’s tough news — you have to work hard to gain it. How do you make your content fit? If you can’t buy the space, how do you take proactive steps to ensure that your page earns the top spot? Here are a few simple steps I’ve used to create content that ranks in the snippets. 1. Create content specifically to answer questions. Provide in-depth answers. Featured snippets […]

To Drive Massive Online Traffic, Start With What Your Audience Loves

With content overload at an all time high, competing with heavy-hitting media sites seems impossible. They’ve staked their claim, and all the rest of us can hope for is to pick up the leftovers and eke out a meager living. Nonsense. On August 17th of 2016, Arthur Tubman and the team at Monday Monday Network did the impossible. Within the first 45 days of launch, their site attracted just under 9 million visitors and today their daily average visitor count clocks in over 600k. The question is: How? Answer: By adopting a them-first approach before pushing go on a single piece of monetized content. While much of their approach centered around Facebook, there’s nothing magical about Facebook ads and there are plenty of other creative ways to drive traffic . The lessons from the launch, however, prove that the bedrock principle of all marketing is still true: it’s not about you … it’s about them. Here’s how you can take that advice to heart. Start with what you love. When it comes to social media, brands are notorious for taking one of two misguided paths: “dominating” or “dumping.” With the first, businesses — particularly e-commerce — dominate their feed with heavy-handed promotions, pitches, and products. With the second, social is treated as little more than a repository for that same business’ usual onsite content — i.e., a digital dumping ground. Both approaches, while well-intentioned, amount to a social-media presence that screams, “Me first.” In contrast, consider Monday Monday Network’s approach. Today, the site hosts 24 separate topics — basically channels to which they post roughly 30 articles a day. Each of those topics began its life not as a column or blog, but as an individual Community Page on Facebook. Some communities they took over — like Addicted 2 […]

Humanize Your Brand: 3 Ways to Create a Visual Social Media Calendar

Social media is arguably the most powerful growth tool on the internet. Ironically, it’s also the most difficult to master. In a study by Ascend2, 40% of digital marketers cited social as the “most difficult” channel to master (a tie for first with websites). Asked to identify the most difficult tactic on this most difficult channel, the answer — by a landslide — was three words: creating compelling content. How can you rescue your social media approach and create truly compelling content? The easiest way is to create a visually based social media calendar built around three of the primary reasons humans engage with social media: Celebrate holidays At the risk of stating the obvious, marketing revolves around holidays: Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, Halloween, Presidents Day, etc. Augment your holiday promotions with original content that celebrates the holiday … not your products or sales. Chubbies does this brilliantly and gets phenomenal engagement as its reward: In 2015, Samuel Adams reached viral status with its April Fool’s campaign announcing the release of a new “heliYUM” beer. The real social gold, however, is in the obscure holidays : Batman Day (Sept. 17, according to DC Comics), Star Wars Day (May 4), Bubblegum Day (Feb. 3 — not to be confused with Chewing Gum Day on Sept. 30), and many, many more. Building a visual social media calendar around these types of holidays involves two steps. First, get to know your audience. Outside of the usual suspects, the prioritized holidays should be a direct reflection of the people you serve. Sometimes a connection will be obvious. If it’s not, dig into Facebook Audience Insights to find pages and events your fans like, as well as the hashtags they frequently share. Second, get organized. Set up a visual calendar. Consider using tools […]