Content Marketing tactics to grow traffic

Presented by Polkadot Digital

What the hell is content

marketing anyway?

Content marketing is the marketing and business process for creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.

Your customers don’t care about you, your products, your services…they care about themselves, their wants and their needs. Content marketing is about creating interesting information your customers are passionate about so they actually pay attention to you.

(Content Marketing Institute definition)

Content marketing strategy

Objectives

Metrics

Brand guidelines

Buyer Personas

Content matrix

Syndication & Promotion

Key objectives:Secure links from 10

credible publishers

Increase traffic by 25% in 6 months

Double newsletter subscribers in 5 months

Secure 5,000 social media impressions

Obtain 15 leads in 6 months

Rank on the first page of Google for ‘dress’ by Apr

Key metrics:

Social engagementReferrals & backlinksEnquiries

Leads generatedBlog commentsNewsletter

subscriptions

Blog posts

Content GenerationBegin with keyword research to create SEO friendly copy that will also appeal to readers. By content mapping for customers at different stages of the buying cycle you can create more targeted content. Content sources like social media, blogs, Google Alerts/Trends and pop culture in general is always a good start but remember to produce content that is on brand.

Content typesCase studies, How To guides, Top Ten lists, interviews, templates and features.

Syndication and PromotionInbound, Stumble Upon, Quora, Medium, HubPages, Reddit, LinkedIn Pulse, Facebook & LinkedIn groups, Business2Community, Biz Sugar, influencer outreach, industry forums, newsletters etc

CREATIVE, ENGAGING & FUN

HOW TO GUIDES

Whitepapers

Thought LeadershipThought leaders are the informed opinion leaders and the go-to people in their field of expertise. They are trusted sources who move and inspire people with innovative ideas; turn ideas into reality, and know and show how to replicate their success.

Lead CaptureIn online marketing, a landing page, sometimes known as a "lead capture page" or a "lander", or a "destination page", is a single web page that appears in response to clicking on a search engine optimized search result or an online advertisement. ... Landing pages are used for lead generation.

MCKINSEY GIG ECONOMY REPORT

HUBSPOT LEAD CAPTURE

Infographics

Social engagementFind a compelling and topical subject matter relevant to your industry and find a creative way to visualise the data. Brands who tap into humourous or newsworthy topics see a much larger increase in social impressions.

Accompanying contentEncourage wider media coverage by creating additional content to supplement the infographic. If you’re in a niche B2B sector, a press release is a great explainer piece for journalists.

PROTON MOTORS INFOGRAPHIC

Guest Posts

Build expertise & credibilityOwn the narrative about your brand or industry by creating engaging content that provides value to readers and establishes your expertise.

Pitching to publishersFor God’s sake do your research! Read the publication you’re pitching to and ensure you get a feel for their editorial style and more importantly make sure your pitch is strong and covering mostly uncharted territory on their site.

Posting strategyConsider your overall objectives and have a plan of action; who will you contact, how many posts will you write, how will you promote those posts?

SEM RUSH CASE STUDY

Slideshares

Post-event promotionEnsure those who missed your presentation get to view it in their own time; by uploading to SlideShare and sharing on social, your further extending the reach of the deck to potential prospects.

Repurpose for blog contentChop the deck up and squeeze out as much content as possible! Do a highlights post, a FAQs post, a speakers roundup post etc.

Engage & follow upMake sure there’s strong call to actions at the end of your deck and touch base with event attendees. For those who watch and comment on your SlideShare, for the love of God please respond and be helpful.

TOP SLIDESHARE DECK

Blogger Outreach

Influencer marketingTools like Buzzstream and Buzzsumo will help you find influencers in your industry who are already talking about similar content. People are more receptive to content from those they admire than brands, so spend time on aligning the right influencer with your brand message.

Pitching & social outreachWhether it's a campaign, event or press release, you will need a targeted lists of bloggers and press to outreach. Take time to craft a compelling pitch email, preferably offering an incentive and refer to tools like Open Site Explorer to monitor any links in the post outreach stage.

Media opportunitiesLive on Twitter and refer to #prrequest #journorequest hashtags

MILLENNIUM HOTELS

Shoppable Magazines

Combine content with commerceEcommerce brands must become publishers and employ journalistic tactics to create content that will encourage customers to move through the buying cycle. Tools like Styla and ZMags allow brands like Net A Porter to enable customers to shop directly from a feature page. This helps drive conversions and click through to key product pages that could do with a boost in rankings.

Editorial or Advertorial?Customers are clever enough to know when they are being sold to so don’t patronise them! You can however blur the lines between content and advertising with a campaign that is customer centric and avoids a hard sell at any cost.

NET A PORTER & TESCO

Microsites

UGC Content HubBuild a dedicated home for all your brand’s content and encourage customers to create their own content too. By developing a community with shopping haul uploads, social media feeds and practical shopping guides, you can have your own merry band of brand evangelists without parting with a single penny.

MicrositeAs it’s separate from your main site, you can use different branding to reach new audiences. You can highlight a specific campaign, target specific buyer personas, tell a short story or inspire a specific call-to-action. It is a great lead generation tool and should ultimately drive users to one specific action you want them to perform.

HOUSE OF CARDS - NETFLIX

ASOS UGC CONTENT HUB

Top content marketing blogs

Content Marketing Institute

Hubspot

Kissmetrics

Moz

Convince & Convert

Contently

Inbound

Top Rank

Key takeaways

Create a content marketing strategy with goals and metrics

1. Produce a variety of different content types to appeal to all buyer personas

Promote the hell out of your content to everyone and his dog

Wash, rinse and repeat - you’re in it for the long haul!

How Polkadot Digital can

help

Copywriting

Social media management

Public relations

Bespoke strategies

Workshops

Consultations