ebook content marketing how to succeed where others fail
DESCRIPTION
Content Marketing is a must for branding, but what role does SEO play? We’ve written this eBook to help explain why there’s much more to Content Marketing than simply raising brand awareness or getting likes on social media. By combining the latest expert opinion and market statistics with our own client experiences, we’re confident this is a resource no digital marketer would want to be without. In this eBook you will learn: - where content marketing came from - how it’s employed today and where it is going, - what it takes to get it right - what’s at risk if you get it wrong - content marketing best practiceTRANSCRIPT
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Content Marketing – How To Succeed Where Others Fail
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Introduction
This eBook is for anyone looking to implement successful CONTENT MARKETING in a way that POSITIVIELY IMPACTS website traffic & CONVERTS more visitors into loyal, paying CUSTOMERS.
We focus on 5 main chapters covering:
WHAT content marketing is
WHY you can’t afford to ignore it
HOW you can benefit from getting it right
HOW to avoid getting it wrong
HOW to implement an ongoing strategy
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What Is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is ANY marketing format that involves the CREATION and SHARING of MEDIA or PUBLISHING CONTENT to ACQUIRE customers. This information can be presented as: news updates
blog articles
press releases
video
white papers
e-books
info graphics
case studies
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Content Marketing – How To Succeed Where Others Fail
Content Marketing Is NOT
Content marketing is NOT :
X Advertising, selling or promoting
X Advertorials, biased product reviews
X Duplicating content from elsewhere
X Unreadable SEO Content (keyword-heavy)
Its more about simply COMMUNICATING with website
VISITORS, the objective being to CONVERT MORE of them into
PROSPECTS.
It’s NOT RESTRICTED TO SOCIAL MEDIA or even the internet
itself and as a concept can be applied to ANY marketing
medium.
The objective is to INSPIRE BUSINESS and LOYALTY from buyers
by delivering "consistent, ongoing valuable information” to
STRENGTHEN relationships.
Content Marketing – How To Succeed Where Others Fail
What The Experts Say… Stephane Levy, Co-Founder of LABELIUM, who specialise in online marketing and whose clients include global brands like Carrefour, L'Oreal, LVMH & Pierre & Vacances had this to say: “Google is increasingly promoting criteria that can’t be influenced by SEOs. A paramount consideration is the quality of the visit: after a user enters a query and clicks on a link, do they remain on the site or return to Google? A simple way to maximize the quality of the visit is to have a wealth of engaging content on the site”
Content Marketing – How To Succeed Where Others Fail
What The Experts Say… Alberic Guigou, Co-Founder of REPUTATION SQUAD who
specialise in Online Reputation Management and whose clients
include global brands like Axa, Nestle, SEGA & Western Union had
this to say:
"More and more, quality content is naturally rewarded.
Creating rare and relevant information can be rewarded by
Google without necessarily having to rely heavily on SEO
techniques.
It seems more important today to promote content that is
qualitative both in its function as in its form."
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BILLION DOLLARS will be spent on CONTENT marketing, VIDEO marketing and SOCIAL media in 2013
25%
118.4
Content Marketing – How To Succeed Where Others Fail
on average marketers say a QUARTER of their BUDGET is spent on content marketing
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Is this the case for YOUR business?
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IF NOT….
Do you realise the impact YOUR own content has on your
website’s search engine RANKINGS?
Or its ability to ATTRACT and ENGAGE visiting traffic?
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75% of internet users spend
MORE TIME on websites
that use ENGAGING CONTENT than websites that are commercial or promotional.
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60% of consumers say they
are MORE INCLINED TO BUY
from websites that publish
QUALITATIVE and ENGAGING
content than those that don’t.
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80% of consumers say brands
that create or publish
QUALITATIVE, ENGAGING
content seem more
interested in building
LOYAL relationships
with them
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70% of brands say that QUALITY
CONTENT posted to SOCIAL
MEDIA networks POSITIVELY
impacts other marketing
channels…
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Social Media alone generates
2 x LEADS as trade shows, telemarketing or direct mail.
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Taking these statistics into account, how does YOUR
business compare?
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Did you know content can help you COMPETE against
other websites?
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Websites with 50-100 pages
generate
40%
more traffic than websites with 1-50 pages
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Did you know that publishing BLOG articles more often helps
to drive business?
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Even companies that only blog
1-2 times a month
generate
70%
more leads per month than companies
that don’t blog
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Are you aware of what is at RISK should you ignore content
marketing or publish it on pages with weak SEO?
ENOUGH BENEFITS…
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Content Marketing – How To Succeed Where Others Fail
An Artificial Audience With AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT now a KEY METRIC for how
websites rank it means that Content Marketing is more about
SEO than many people realise.
Today, the way you structure, CREATE and UPDATE website
content is now balanced against the manner in which visitors
ENGAGE with it.
This combined referencing directly impacts how you will be
RANKED in ORGANIC Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) which
in turn will affect both the quantity and quality of visitor
TRAFFIC directed to your website.
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What’s changed? Over the last 5 years we’ve seen many changes to the way websites : Recognise the need for quality content
Focus more on links, anchor text & layout
Aim to be structured more efficiently
Recognise visitors have less time
Provide faster access to data for search engines
Focus on better sitemap management
Improve home page organisation
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How closely are your SEO & MARKETING staff working
together?
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How The Internet Changed A brand talking about themselves is BORING. The key today lies in INTERACTION, specifically how you RESPOND and ENGAGE with your audience. Despite employing comprehensive brand information MOST SITES still lack the ability to include viewpoints other than their own. By GIVING A VOICE to your CUSTOMERS or third parties, you can begin to EMPLOY TERMINOLOGY and CONTENT more closely ALIGNED with REAL USER QUERIES.
“…a global player” “the first agency to…”
“the only brand that…” “a thought leader”
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How often do you engage online with CUSTOMERS, PARTNERS or 3rd Parties?
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What Websites Need Today Fresh NEWS ARTICLES relating to TRENDING TOPICS and USER NEEDS. CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALS, CASE STUDIES or FORUMS… ALL enable users to comment on your latest products and are the MOST SUCCESSFUL way a website can EMBRACE content marketing. Such marketing assets promote a much more TRANSPARENT tone, focusing more on what YOUR AUDIENCE thinks rather than what YOU want to tell them.
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What the MEDIA says about CONTENT MARKETING in
regard to GOOGLE and SEO…
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Content, SEO and Google “It looks like Google has tired of its old friend SEO and is instead cosying-up to the new kid on the block, content marketing. Penguin (which removes link authority from spam sites) and Panda (which dishes out penalties to over optimised and over adsensed sites) certainly implies that SEO is becoming a less gameable practice. To keep in line with Penguin and Panda, SEO now requires a much more varied skill set, something more akin to high quality writing and PR. Despite striking fear into hearts of some less respectable SEO practitioners, Penguin and Panda are no bad things as they ultimately ensure consumers receive better content.”
The Guardian, May 2013
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Google’s Panda & Penguin Algorithm Updates
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Google Panda Google Panda is a search results ranking algorithm first released in February 2011 aimed at lowering the search engine rankings of "low-quality sites” and returning higher-quality sites near the top of the search engine results pages. Google has stated that Panda is aimed at lowering the rank of websites that offer a “poor user experience” based on their own studies of how users behave when they visit a website. To maximize their search ranking websites must employ:
MORE FRESH and UNIQUE content
MORE ENGAGING content
MORE REGULAR content UPDATES
Less EXCESSIVE search optimization
Content readers are LIKELY TO SHARE
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Google Penguin Google Penguin is a search results ranking algorithm first released in April 2012 aimed at lowering the search engine rankings of websites that violate Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. Typically these are sites that employ tactics Google views as “black hat SEO” – basically those that attempt to trick search engines or deceive end users. Violations include web pages that are : Clearly involved with any sort of LINKING SCHEME
Using LESS THAN 300 WORDS per page
Unreadable due to using TOO MANY KEYWORDS
Deliberately using DUPLICATE CONTENT
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What does this mean for SEO today?
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The 8 Rules of SEO today
Focus more on what your audience wants to read
Focus less on what you want to tell them.
Delete pages that don’t offer quality content
Update all website content more often
Reduce your website’s bounce rate
Employ useful and original content (ie exclusive)
Keep the site interesting, engage users for longer
Stop using duplicate content
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10 SEO Tricks To Avoid
1. Duplicating your website/pages elsewhere
2. Publishing “advertorial” articles that solely promote
products or services
3. Paying for articles on blogs or other sites
4. Keyword stuffing making pages unreadable
5. Blog spinning: create variations of content
6. Blog comments containing SPAM
7. Link schemes: buying links, link exchange
8. Using third-party programs to create links
9. Doorway pages: optimized page redirecting to other sites
10. Hiding text behind images or funds
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How confident are YOU that YOUR SEO consistently avoids
all of these errors?
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70% of online experiences BEGIN at a SEARCH ENGINE
80% of GLOBAL search engine activity is done via GOOGLE
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70% of search engine traffic comes from users clicking on links in ORGANIC search engine results
70-80% of search users IGNORE paid advertisements
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Organic Search Benefits Although underrated by many sites, OPTIMISING your content so it appears MORE OFTEN in ORGANIC / NATURAL search results – the non-paid/sponsored links - has been proven to deliver various BENEFITS including:
Obtaining a sustainable position of visibility
Reducing Costs of AdWord (or similar SEM)
Obtaining "qualified" visitors at low cost
Developing your online business and sales
Enhancing your brand’s online reputation
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the MORE QUALITY content
you publish, the MORE LIKELY
you will appear MORE OFTEN
in Organic Search Results.
PUT SIMPLY,
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How high you RANK totally depends on how OFTEN you
publish and how QUALITATIVE your content, and its’ SEO is.
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The QUEST Checklist Before you can start producing content you first need a strategy that satisfies all of the elements we’ve been discussing in this eBook. To help you build this strategy we offer the QUEST checklist. QUEST is a simple yet effective way of remembering to have the maximum impact content must be: Qualitative – well written / interesting
Unique – fresh / exclusive
Engaging – captures attention longer
Sharable – more likely to be shared
Trusted – from a reputable source
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Content Marketing – How To Succeed Where Others Fail
Why QUALITY is Essential How much you SPEND on content CREATION has more of a
financial impact than many people realize.
POOR QUALITY or POOR CONTENT STRATEGIES do MORE
HARM than good.
Today, only the VISITOR DECIDES whether content is qualitative
or not.
Not everyone can create quality content, it is a VALUABLE SKILL
that is available at a price.
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UNIQUE Content Rules… In the eyes of your audience, the more UNIQUE and INTERESTING content is the more likely it will be SHARED by EMAIL or SOCIAL MEDIA. In terms of SEO, the MORE REGULAR content is updated, the HIGHER the RANKING. STATIC content can also do you MORE HARM than good, since OUT OF DATE content is seen to be INACCURATE when compared with other sites. Google knows exactly where all content ORIGINATES from which has resulted in many websites' ranking being PENALIZED for content being DUPLICATED from elsewhere.
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Customer Example Following some of their web pages being affected by Google Panda, Lastminute decided to test updating affected pages with fresh, qualitative content and found that it had a significant impact on their search engine rankings; “Our efforts over the last months have been focused on creating quality and unique content across a wide range of destinations for our key travel products. This hard work has been rewarded when the last Panda update gave a big boost in our rankings: 90% of the optimized pages jumped to the 1st page of the SERP. This represented an average improvement of 18 positions.” Severine Assadourian, Lastminute Spain.
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ENGAGING website visitors Use text that is straight to the point. BREVITY is consistent with
how readers pass their time on the internet.
Is it really necessary to retain and provide ALL ADDITIONAL
INFORMATION on every single one of your pages?
Facilitate the activity of both VISITORS and CRAWLING
SOFTWARE by splitting long sections of content into MULTIPLE
pages, each reflecting a SPECIFIC topic or sub-section.
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HOW OFTEN do you UPDATE them?
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How many TOPICS do YOU currently employ per page ?
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Keeping Visitors ENGAGED The key to holding audience attention and making them return
for more lies CONSISTENTLY finding new ways of ASSOCIATING
the topics users are searching for with areas your business
focuses on.
There’s no harm in QUERYING YOUR AUDIENCE to ESTABLISH
which topics are TRENDING or are of professional value to them.
Another proven way of both establishing and MAINTAINING
ENGAGEMENT is to focus on channels like BLOGS or SOCIAL
MEDIA that can to ENCOURAGE feedback and stimulate
mutually rewarding discussion.
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How often do YOU analyse the TIME visitors spend on each of
your web pages?
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Getting Content SHARED Internet users are more likely to share content that is FRESH, EXCLUSIVE and following TRENDS that INTEREST them and their FRIENDS the most. The first thing, if you haven’t done already is make sure that all your web pages contain the latest SOCIAL PLUG-Ins to enable readers to SHARE CONTENT in a way that DOES NOT DETRACT from what you offer. The next slightly more difficult skill is to employ content that is either extremely RARE, USEFUL, FUNNY or follows a recent trend in POP-CULTURE.
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A TRUSTED Advisor Internet users are more likely to consume content they view as coming from a TRUSTWORTHY SOURCE. REPUTATION goes a long way, especially as it is very easy to debunk and VALIDATE anyone's CREDENTIALS or source material.
That said, a great deal of AUTHORITY can be WON or LOST simply in the manner in which content is written. GOOGLE’S AUTHORRANK or YAHOO’s TrustRank are great examples search engines giving MORE CREDENCE to AUTHORS and WEBSITES that can clearly be TRUSTED and know what they are talking about. We’ll cover exactly how these ranking systems can be maximised in our next eBook that looks at site structure and SEO in much more detail.
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Content Marketing Success By using criteria highlighted in the QUEST Checklist websites can define a CONTENT STRATEGY that EVOLVES over time, adjusting it to suit their changing needs over time however it suits them. A truly SUCCESSFUL STRATEGY REQUIRES that; ALL content used is qualitative ALL content is well written & relevant ALL content is what readers expect to find ALL new content is unique ALL existing content is kept up to date ALL pages support sharing to social networks ALL digital channels encourage feedback
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Book a FREE audit! QUEST is just one example of the tried and tested approach we offer to help clients implement content marketing strategies that compliment existing in-house teams and external resources. We also offer a wide variety of different TRAINING programmes designed to help companies benefit from our experience and get the most out of their existing SEO & Marketing staff. For those clients more comfortable on the digital landscape we offer CONSULTING to help them implement a coherent content marketing strategy.
BOOK A FREE AUDIT TODAY and start learning how we could help you drive traffic and convert more visitors into paying customers.
SEO / Site Analysis
Website Structure
Content Analysis
Page Link Analysis
Keyword Analysis
Editorial Strategy
Vocabulary Analysis
Content Sourcing
Creation Process
Ongoing Strategy
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Stay Tuned! We hope you’ve enjoyed this ebook and that it has answered any questions you may have had about the best way to approach Content Marketing Our NEXT EBOOK will take a look at the more technical side of SEO, Website Structure and how to maintain momentum with your content strategy once you’ve implemented your first campaign. Thanks for reading!
Sources
All Rights Reserved All Imagery courtesy of Shutterstock Definitions provided courtesy of Wikipedia 2013 Statistics referenced courtesy of: -Trends and Insights study by Ipsos Public Affairs 2012 -Marketing Benchmarks by Hubspot 2013 -Google 2013, NetMarketShare.Com, MarketingSherpa
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Who we are…
INFLUENCER Community is a content marketing agency that offers services and software to help clients improve the way they CREATE, SOURCE and PUBLISH text, image and video content.
What we do…
Established in 2011, we ANALYSE your website CONTENT and
page STRUCTURE to identify which changes will help you
MAXIMISE your web pages’ RANKING in search engine results.
Our unique platform…
INFLUENCER Community Editor (ICE) is our easy to use cloud
based platform that clients use to quickly CONNECT with
TRUSTED content creators to SOURCE QUALITY text and video
content to supplement what they already create in-house.
ICE supports FAST, SIMPLE & SECURE collaboration between
you and your preferred creator throughout the entire
CREATION PROCESS until content is ready to be delivered
seamlessly to your preferred digital channel.
Contact Us
Charlie McGhee or Emmanuel Dozoul
UK +44 208 133 5549 FR +33 786 705 259
@Inflowencer & @ContentQuality
www.influencer-community.com blog.influencer-community.com
Content Marketing – How To Succeed Where Others Fail