Wondering how you’re going to keep your content calendar full for the rest of the year? Thousands of business owners struggle when it comes to coming up with content ideas, and a simple strategy can help them: conduct a study or survey. Original research provides tons of benefits for businesses seeking content marketing performance gains. They can accompany the release of the study with a recap series, for instance. After that, they can dive in-depth into some of the findings for unique takes or insightful real-world applications of the data. At the same time, they can introduce their study to online outlets that get mega traffic with guest posts. The beauty of conducting original research is that you don’t even have to do all of the content writing yourself! In addition to the content topic possibilities listed above, there’s also a good chance that someone might cite your data or share your report on their own blog. Well-performed research that answers important questions in your field can receive references and citations for months. You may even get quoted as an expert as a result of your own analysis! The possibilities are practically endless, and they all start from a single … [Read more...]
After the Reddit Redesign, Should Your Business Give the Social Channel a Look?
Many business owners overlook Reddit as a social media marketing channel, but recent changes to the platform should have them all reconsidering. A complete overhaul has modernized the look and feel of Reddit’s various niche-focused forums. As a result, community members are engaging even more frequently than ever—with both posts and ads. According to Reddit’s Zubair Jandali, their VP of brand partnerships, the platform has been engaging users at a rate three to seven times higher compared to before the redesign. Interestingly, ad response rates have also been rising. “Advertising didn’t play a role in the redesign per se,” Jandali told Marketing Land, “but we’re seeing much stronger engagement on ads by virtue of the fact the core organic experience is more engaging.” Businesses have opportunities to engage directly with community members in ways that build brand awareness and relationships. However, they have to use the right strategy. Reddit notoriously fights against forms of intrusive marketing, and especially accounts that fail to be transparent about their business affiliations. If you can play your Reddit marketing cards right and treat the community with respect, … [Read more...]
Are You Making These 7 Mistakes When Writing Blogs?
Blog writing can be an incredibly effective digital marketing strategy when the creator pays close attention to all the markers of quality. These markers include both technical and artistic elements as well as the context your blog plays within your overall marketing funnel. Ignoring any part of this equation will leave you with a less-than-satisfactory result. Your audience will either disregard your content outright or any audiences you successfully build will fail to enter your marketing funnel as intended. Luckily, plenty of companies out there are doing it right. 78{17cd8fbc6bad37c1b023347ae188e1c38d7c772c9eb7506ee43890ec2f0dc103} of B2C companies using content marketing say they are “moderately” to “extremely” successful with their content marketing efforts. 2 out of every 3 also say that their performance is better now than a year ago. So what are they getting right? Most likely, they are avoiding the following seven common business blog mistakes that can hurt performance. Read the list below to ensure that you can find success and avoid the common pitfalls that hold content performance back. Using Outdated SEO Techniques That Hurt Readability If you find … [Read more...]
Should You Outsource Content Writing, Develop Talent In-House, or Both?
Quality content is quickly becoming a brand differentiator for businesses trying to compete for online visibility. Companies able to maintain a steady stream of great content can capture larger online audiences, earn higher search engine results rankings, position themselves as thought leaders and strengthen the overall performance of their marketing funnel. The question for businesses, then, isn’t whether they need a content writer but rather how they should go about working with one. Hiring a full-time writer (or a stable of writers) as part of your in-house marketing team is one option while outsourcing the work to various creative agencies or freelancers is another option. Some business also choose a mixture between the two. Deciding which route to go for your own content marketing needs depends completely on your unique goals, how you want to portray your brand online, and how those requirements might shift as time goes on. To help you come to a conclusion, consider the following pros and cons of outsourced content writing compared to developing your own in-house team. The information can provide food for thought as you develop your own content writing strategy and whose … [Read more...]
6 Huge Advantages Hiring a Content Writing Agency Can Have for Your Business
When weighing your options for creating content marketing pieces, don’t overlook the significant benefits outsourcing your workload to an agency can have. While onboarding content writing staff or working directly with a freelancer can both be viable options, they barely scratch the surface of what a content marketing agency can offer. When working with an agency, you have the ability to dramatically upscale the quality, quantity and overall reach of the content created for your digital marketing campaigns. For instance, a content writing services provider can give you a set cost for creating a high-quality asset like an eBook that includes all the services you need like graphics and a paid social media promotion budget. When managing such a campaign in-house, each of these services and the tools required to make it happen are an individual cost. Working with a content writing company therefore upgrades your capabilities while helping you achieve efficiency and streamline your content creation processes. Even if you have your own talent in-house, outsourcing even just a portion of content creation and content promotion to an agency can cut your costs and help you achieve far better … [Read more...]
Is Your Content Not Performing? Here’s 5 Things That Could Be the Problem
Content marketing has gotten bigger than ever, but not every business is reaping the benefits. When looking at their targeted marketing metrics, many are finding that their content marketing efforts fail to make the needle move. According to a recent survey, 89{5bdb28e31dc2fc6f2f870a7c4d0ccdde10321c89bc3e68b7496e24957760c3cd} of B2C companies and 93{5bdb28e31dc2fc6f2f870a7c4d0ccdde10321c89bc3e68b7496e24957760c3cd} of B2B companies say that in 2017 their content marketing campaigns performed better or the same as in 2016. Yet, there are still 4{5bdb28e31dc2fc6f2f870a7c4d0ccdde10321c89bc3e68b7496e24957760c3cd} of B2C businesses and 2{5bdb28e31dc2fc6f2f870a7c4d0ccdde10321c89bc3e68b7496e24957760c3cd} of B2B businesses that say their content is performing worse. So what can these organizations do to improve? They can start by considering the following five common mistakes below, which can cripple your content marketing performance and stand in the way of building audiences who can become business leads. You Aren’t Choosing Topics That Have Value Too many content teams choose shallow, uninteresting or overtly sales-y topics for their blogs and other content. While … [Read more...]
How Big Should Your Content Marketing Budget Be? Industry Benchmarks and Three Examples
The size of your content marketing budget dictates a lot of things. It controls the level of performance you can expect. It also influences how scalable your overall content reach can be — bigger budgets have the infrastructure behind them to reach exponentially more people with just some marginal extra spending. At the same time, money doesn’t grow on trees. Most businesses operate on a very tight budget, and they have little wiggle room when it comes to how much they can allocate to marketing. Another complicating factor is that many professionals are unfamiliar with the amount of work that should go into content marketing and the overall output they can expect. Setting a content marketing budget therefore requires you to clearly understand your content marketing goals and the types of marketing activities you need to make those goals happen. To help you get oriented and make a decision that leads to good outcomes, consider the following information. It will tell you what should go into your content marketing budget, what most people are spending on content and a few sample budgets. What All Should Your Content Marketing Budget Include? A content … [Read more...]