SEO is constantly evolving. And you need to match its pace to achieve your goal of ranking high on the first page of search results. This is only possible when you review, renew, and implement the strategies, and not settle for the same old ones. And that’s where an in-house SEO team or SEO services come in handy. But the next question is, can you actually afford to hire an experienced team to handle your SEO? This is important to consider, especially if you are a small business owner. To overcome this problem, and stay afloat and visible on search engines, you can go ahead with an agency that offers SEO services for small businesses. But again, you might ask – Isn’t it important to choose the best service available? How to actually choose one? And that’s exactly why, I have decided to pen down this article. Here, I will try to help you answer some major questions like: What does an SEO agency do? What services will they offer? How to check if the agency is any good? Which red flags should you steer clear off? So, let’s dive in… What Does an SEO Agency Do? Well, in short, an SEO agency helps businesses to improve their online visibility and rank better on search engine platforms. The agencies can achieve this by combining various strategies like site performance, keyword practices, website structure, content creation, campaigns, and many more marketing techniques. But why should you hire an SEO agency for your business? As I said earlier, SEO is constantly in an evolving phase that needs you to put in regular work to maintain standards. Nevertheless, if you still need a reason to hire a company that excels in SEO for small businesses, then here are a few for you. 1. SEO is a Complex Process Although it looks easier on the surface, it takes a lot of work, strategies, planning, implementation, and time to get it sorted. And you might even not succeed after going through this daunting process in case you don’t have experience. 2. SEO Needs Ongoing Work You cannot simply keep following one strategy that worked for you in the past. Ranking higher in the digital world requires fresh content, regular webpages updates, adding new links, and constant promotion on different channels. 3. SEO Requires up-to-date Knowledge Google keeps on changing its algorithm, and you need to keep track of all minor and major updates to stay on top of the industry. Without expertise, it is difficult to know all its various ranking factors that determine the quality, accuracy, and relevancy of the page. 4. Experience and Expertise in Handling SEO Tools With experience comes the knowledge of using SEO tools to their proper extent. Although a set of free SEO tools have made the job easier, you still need to have the experience to know which tools to use when. What Services Will an SEO Agency Offer? Generally, SEO is categorised into three sections: on-page, technical, and off-page SEO. Each section focuses on a different aspect of your strategy. An agency will help you out in all three sections. On-Page SEO This section basically checks all the ranking factors that are present or appear on the webpages. It means it includes everything that falls under the category of page optimisation. A classic example that I can give is keyword optimisation. Off-Page SEO Also known as off-site SEO, it is ideally the process of building your brand reputation beyond the website. SEO isn’t only about optimising websites and focusing on keywords, it includes a lot of different factors. With external forces playing a role in brand reputation (like social media and review sites), it is important to maintain and manage the brand reputation on third-party websites. Another important factor is the link-building. The agencies will reach out to influencers, industry experts, and thought-leaders to build a network and garner some powerful backlinks. Earning links from reputed websites will increase your value in domain authority. Lastly, an off-page SEO strategy will also include creating scope for guest blogging and social media marketing campaigns to increase brand reach. Technical SEO As the name suggests, an agency while offering these small business SEO services focuses mainly on technical aspects of the websites. In this, the agency will generally look out for opportunities wherein your competitors lag behind, in order to rank higher on the SERPs. A classic example of this is the loading speed of your webpages. Google places high importance on this while ranking on the search result page. So, checking your website for speed, ease of navigation, structure, crawling factors, etc. come under technical SEO. That being said, not all SEO agencies will offer all the services. You need to make a choice – like, you might have to pick between a package that offers all the services with different expertise levels and different packages with high expertise level in every single sector. Also Read: List of Best Free SEO Tools for Your Website How to Check If the Agency is Any Good? Now that you have decided to get an SEO agency on board, how do you choose one? Do you choose by SEO benefits or budget? These are the normal questions that might pop up in your mind. Although you should take both the factors into consideration, there are certain things to stay clear off. Some of those are: Do not blindly use Google as your filter. Although you would think number one would be the best, it isn’t always the case. Stay away from articles that mention ‘top SEO list’. There’s a high possibility that the website is being paid for listing certain agencies. Do your research and don’t go for sponsored stuff or just Google ranking. How would you do that? Here are some points to help you out. 1. Know Your Goals Before you start, sit with your team and define your goals. Figure out the priority SEO goals that you need to
Author: Krishnaleena Sarkar
(Free Cheatsheet) 12 Grammar Tips for Content Writers who Pursue Perfection
Getting grammar right is one of the absolute essentials when you decide to take up content writing as a career. Oops…did a crooked red line appear under “rghit”? Luckily, Microsoft Word caught it. Still, let’s not correct it right now. We need “rghit” to show you why grammar or spelling errors can ruin an otherwise amazing piece of content (in this case, the introduction). Though close to 1.3 billion people speak English all over the world, few can master it. Even if you are a native English speaker, being careful about common grammar errors and confusing words is helpful. However, we understand that learning grammar from the ground up or cracking open a dictionary every time you write can be a challenge. To make matters simple, we will share handy tips or a grammar cheat sheet on how you can avoid basic mistakes with commas, and apostrophes, and use commonly confused words (like compliment and complement) correctly. Though you can use smart tools like Grammarly or Spellcheckplus these days to catch errors, there’s nothing like the human eye. So, let’s get started with those tips. 1. To Capitalize or Not If you think that this rule only belongs to a book like ‘Grammar for Dummies’, think again! Even experienced writers tend to goof up often. So, to clear it up, proper nouns should always start with a capital letter, be it a place, brand or someone’s name. Example – Did you try the latest shampoo by Dove? It does wonders for my hair. Example – Can you ask Mary to clean up in the evening? Now, when it comes to names, don’t confuse them with the titles we usually give to our family members, like dad, mom, grandma etc. Unless the title can be replaced with a name, start with a small letter. Example – My dad knows how to fix bikes. Example – Annie, my sister, sings so well. Also Read: Content Writing Tips For Beginners 2. Stay Away from Vague Pronouns Does the sentence below sound alright to you? “After Sonia played for almost an hour with her dog Coco, she decided to chase squirrels. “ – Who exactly decided to chase squirrels? Sonia? Not likely! Vague pronouns can distort the meaning of a sentence and leave the reader wondering about the authenticity of the content. The above sentence should have been crafted this way – “After playing with her for almost an hour, Sonia’s dog Coco decided to chase squirrels”. 3. The Rule for Common Abbreviations Do you often get confused between i.e. and e.g.? Well, you are not alone. So, we decided to keep things simple and straight in this English grammar cheat sheet: i.e. is the abbreviation of the Latin phrase for ‘id est’, which means ‘that is’ in English. e.g. is also derived by abbreviating the Latin phrase ‘exempli gratia’, which means ‘for the sake of example’ in English. Hence, wherever you have to offer examples, use e.g. Example – Choose from popular content formats; for e.g. case studies, blog posts, articles and e-books. When you need to explain a sentence in detail, you should use i.e. Example – A spider is an arthropod i.e. it belongs to the family of invertebrate animals that have exoskeletons. 4. Use Comma Only Where You Should Using a comma before “that” is wrong as you are introducing a restrictive clause with “that”. Wrong – The vase, that shattered on the floor was old. Right – The vase that shattered on the floor was old. Also, you should not use a comma to separate sentences that are independent clauses. You should use a semicolon or full stop instead. Wrong – Susan was looking for salad bowls, there were no shops selling them. Right – Susan was looking for salad bowls. There were no shops selling them. [/vc_row] However, if you have to connect two independent clauses, using a comma is advisable. Wrong – After I washed the dishes I put them away. Right – After I washed the dishes, I put them away. 5. All About Quotation Marks No grammar rules cheat sheet is complete without this tip. If you are writing in US English, full stops and commas should be inside quotation marks. In the case of UK English, they can be inside or outside. Example – “It rained last night.” (As this blog post is in US English) When you are using an exclamation point or question mark, it should be inside the quotation marks, if the tone of the quotation is exclamatory or questioning. Example – “Do you come here often?” Note that dashes, colons and semicolons must be outside quotation marks always. Example (dash) – Roy said, “I like pies” – just when his friend offered him muffins. Example (colon) – He chose his favorite book from the works of Charles Dickens: “Great Expectations”. Example (semicolon) – Dan’s favorite quote is “Live and let live”; he uses it almost every day. Confused about when to use double quotation and single quotation marks? Follow this rule. Use double quotation marks while 1) Writing a standard quote or quoting another person. 2) Mentioning the name of a movie or book. 3) Indicating irony or sneering at something (like – No “good” pilot fears heights) Use single quotation marks while 1) Using a quote within another quote. Example – The bartender said, “There was absolute silence when the customer screamed ‘This is poison!’ “ Differentiate between quote and quotation – Though many writers use quote and quotation interchangeably, they are different. Quote is a verb you use to quote someone, or to say what he or she said. Quotation is a noun used to describe whatever you are quoting. 6. Don’t Keep the Participle Dangling A sentence like “A running man hit the pole” is an example of a sentence that uses an adjective-like participle (running). It basically tells you what the noun (man) was doing when he hit the pole.
Want Conversions? Learn the 7 Most Effective Principles of Blog Design
There is a reason why most humans judge a book by their cover. According to research, most humans are hired wired to like things that are aesthetically pleasing. In short, we do give importance to how a person looks. How is this related to blogs? Read this. In 2011, researchers at Melbourne University found that people tend to trust websites that have an appealing design and look good. Also, here is an interesting finding by Dr Brent Coker, a researcher and author who has spent years studying marketing. “As aesthetically oriented humans, we’re psychologically hardwired to trust beautiful people, and the same goes for websites. Our offline behaviour and inclinations translate to our online existence.” To cut it short, people are attracted to clean, well-designed blogs. A well-designed blog can get you higher conversions. And by conversions I don’t just mean visitors turning to loyal customers, I also mean more email subscriptions, more shares, more comments. Those are all the things you want from your blog. Changing our blog design and layout Ever since we relaunched our website in 2019, our blog design has always bothered me. This was for two reasons. Even though we got a really neat-looking and cool website design, our blog, which was an important source of our inbound traffic (as it should be for anyone else), ended up getting a second-hand treatment. Let us just say, we did not work enough on the layout or the readability part (font and design wise) of the blog. We can now admit that it was a grievous mistake. Design of the blog, especially its readability, is super important to make your readers stick around and read your content. Otherwise, all you will be left with is a high bounce rate. Also Read: 8 Proven Ways to Increase Traffic to Your Blog in 2020 Secondly, and more importantly, no matter how much you optimize your blog, if you cannot get your reader to read what you write, you will end up with a very low traffic-to-lead conversion. This simply means, you will not be getting conversions from your blog even though you might be getting traffic to it. So, we got thinking – how do we improve our conversions so we can get more customers with the traffic we already have? For starters, we started jotting down what we liked about some of the very popular blogs with high footfall. What could we learn from them? So, for our own sake, we decided to look for inspiration in popular blogs like Mashable, Huffington Post and more. Their clean layouts, good font size and style, attractive post headings, easy social share buttons and smart placement of CTAs (call to action) got us thinking. We knew that we had to tweak our blog as well to keep visitors hooked. Plus, we came across some interesting statistics. Like, Neil Patel had been able to reduce his site’s bounce rate by 29% with a new layout, better font size, all-device compatibility and faster loading speed. When QuickSprout included scrolling social share buttons in its blog posts, it witnessed a 27% rise in social traffic. So, we started to research the blogs of top content marketers, agencies, and brands, with our focus on these 3 areas: Layout and design (number of grids, use of pictures, banners, overall design) Readability (line height, font size, active white space) CTAs (types, techniques, placement) And our research gave us some interesting insights for improving conversion from your blog traffic. Also Read: 5 Types of Content to Get More Traffic to Your Blog So, if you are looking at more shares of your blog, more people subscribing to your blog, more leads through your blog, and more comments on your blog, here are some the 7 most effective blog design strategies to achieve that. 7 Most-effective blog design principles to get more conversions Neat layout for your blog’s home page – An attractive color scheme, adequate white space and clean layout (especially grid formats) can motivate visitors to read more. Bold and clean post titles followed by a few lines of snippet can also tell the visitor what a blog post contains. Zero compromise on readability – Choosing the right font type (Arial, Georgia, Verdana, Serif, Sans Serif) and the right font size (11-point or above, but maximum 14) are necessary to make your blog easy to scan, readable and comprehensible. The right line height and length, color contrast, active white space and alignment are also important. Ace the internal page design – A good design will encourage readers to take action. This is why you need to use the sidebar efficiently, place CTAs correctly, and incorporate social share buttons for easy visibility. Always include good images – Since the human brain processes visuals faster than plain text, use crisp and vibrant photos or illustrations or graphics to capture the reader’s attention. Pay attention to the sidebar on the right – This sidebar can be cleverly used to feature your best-performing posts, or ask the reader to sign up for newsletters or register for a free training session. Basically, use the sidebar to nudge the reader to take an action that is aligned with your business goals. Strong and clear CTAs – Use powerful CTAs that tell the visitor exactly what to do and place it right, if you want more conversions. A bold-colored CTA that pops up at the top of a blog or one that is big and on the right sidebar, asking the reader to speak to a marketing expert will grab more attention than a simple call for email signup. You can also use CTAs that ask the reader to try a tool for free or download an e-book. Position the bio right – A short and crisp bio with your image will lend a personal touch to the blog. It will increase credibility and you can include a link for those who want to read more. We have covered each one of these
How to Rank Ahead of your Competition with Exhaustive Content?
Every day, businesses publish articles, blogs, videos and podcasts to connect with their target audience, but don’t get the expected customer traction. That is because they often end up producing lackluster content that goes unnoticed. For instance, we have always wondered why our competitors ranked higher, even if the quality of the content wasn’t that different. So, a lot of research, along with testing of our content, helped us in deriving strategies to perform better than other players in the industry. Using those strategies, we have created a step-by-step guide that you can follow to create exhaustive, in-depth content that will rank ahead of your competitors. Read on. Understand the intent behind a search query Before starting to churn out content, understand what your target audience actually needs. That means, understand the intention behind a searcher’s query. Usually it can be informational, navigational, transactional or commercial in nature. A query broadly depends on the searcher’s purpose and background. For example, if the query is “best practices for job application”, some of the searchers might be candidates and some might be employers. Hence, you might have to craft your content in different ways to suit the needs of different segments of your audience. Also Read: Google Search Quality Raters Say About High-Quality Pages and Content Study the competitors Visit Uber suggest by Neil Patel to track the SEO strategies that your competitors are using. Enter the URL on the homepage to get details on SEO keywords and top SEO pages. By clicking on the “Backlinks” link on the left sidebar, get the information of the sites that are linking to your competition’s URL. Use this information to list down the sites for back linking. Increase your domain authority Create multiple content pieces that are well-researched and unique–with a length of 1,000 words or more. Once in a while, you can add extremely lengthy pieces that are longer than 2,500 words. Another way to increase your domain authority is by linking the web pages and blogs of your website to each other. The search engine prefers a strongly interlinked website. Embed videos and images in your content Did you know that 90% of any information that is understood by the brain is visual in nature? So, instead of restricting yourself to written content, embed infographics, videos or SlideShare presentations in your blog posts. You can also include screenshots to explain a particular point in your post. The readers tend to share the content more when they find it more interactive. Moreover, brand awareness and recall is always greater in case of visual content. Also Read: Why Great Brand Stories Need to Add Videos? Write catchy and unique headlines To write headlines that captivate users, perform a Google search using your keyword. Note down the first five results that appear on the search page. Tweak each headline by giving a new twist to it. For example, if you Google the phrase “Content Writing Tips,” the first result will be “9 Tips to Become the Best Content Creator in Your Industry.” Make it unique and catchy by writing something like “11 Surefire tips to Amp up Your Content Creation.” Another method is to search keyword phrases on BuzzSumo. Modify the headlines that appear on the result page to make them unique. Write your content conversationally When presenting information in your blog post, back it up with your opinion. Record yourself while talking about your topic and listen to the recording. If you feel that it sounds unnatural, start the writing and recording process again. While writing, pretend that you are explaining your topic to a friend or a family member. Read a lot of materials related to your topic using online articles, books, magazines, and online guides. Doing so will allow you to get more ideas and help you to go through different writing styles. Include a call-to-action A call-to-action is an invitation you give to your readers to take action. If you are creating a series of blogs, you can provide a link to the next or previous blog. If you finish your post with a question, ask the readers to share answers or suggestions in the comments section. You can also ask your readers to learn more by subscribing to your newsletters. If you are selling a product/service, ask them to click the buy button. Make your site faster Compress the file size of your images to speed up your site. Take the help of sites like Compressor.io to compress images without any technical support. Streamline your code by removing unnecessary and redundant elements. Visit codebeautify.org to use tools that minify codes of HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and other programming languages. The plugins like Better WordPress Minify also streamline your code if you have developed a site using WordPress. Also Read: 10 Things you must know Before Building a Website To conclude Using this guide, you will not only perform better than your competitors, but can also establish yourself as a thought leader in your field. With time, the above tips will help you get more traffic and conversions with smart content.
10 Steps to Create a Content Calendar and Boost Your Marketing Strategy
Isn’t it surprising that 63 percent of businesses lack a documented strategy when it comes to creating online content? No wonder their efforts to capture the target markets fail to reach the full potential. This is where the most crucial element of content marketing – content calendar—comes into the picture. Popularly known as an editorial calendar, a content calendar is an organizing tool to schedule and organize future content. The typical content calendar contains the list of upcoming content pieces, publication dates, titles, focus keywords, status updates, and other crucial elements. These elements vary based on the business and available resources. With a content calendar, your business can keep all content marketing efforts organized. Tracking the activities and their results can become more efficient with this tool too. However, before we dive deep into how to create a content calendar, let’s take a look at its 4 important aspects: • Editorial – Your calendar must include pieces that you plan to publish and they should be scheduled in advance (even by a full year if needed). This way, you can keep checking your schedule and stick to it and know what you need to do next. But, do keep some room for flexibility as digital marketing trends keep changing quickly. • Platform – This basically refers to the place where you have your content calendar. You can use a simple Google spreadsheet or an advanced tool or even go the traditional pen and paper route. However, when a lot of people are working on different content pieces, they will need to refer to one place where everything is visible to everyone. In which case, a spreadsheet helps. Tools like Trello and Basecamp can help you create a calendar too. • Promotional activities – This covers how you intend to promote different content pieces and where. Like, do you need to send a newsletter about your latest e-book to your subscribers or promote a blog post on Facebook? Will you be doing a podcast on a very successful case study soon? If you are listing down promotional activities in the same calendar, just use a different color to make them easy to spot. • Ideas for the future – Creative ideas can strike you anytime, while driving to office, taking a shower or while watching a movie! But, you need to jot them down somewhere, so that you can use them for building content in the future. So, include random topics or ideas in your calendar even if you are working on something else right now and schedule them later on. Now, check out this step-by-step guide to create an excellent content calendar: Step 1: Analyze your team to determine the type and amount of content you can create Your content creation team must have multiple professionals, like graphic designers, editors, writers, and distribution specialists. Take a look at how much content they can churn out on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, without hurting the quality. Other than these content creators and distributors, you must have several subject-matter experts. Though they usually aren’t directly involved in the content creation process, but they can offer invaluable insights on a wide range of topics. Step 2: Align your content marketing strategies with your business goals to populate the calendar Your content calendar should be aligned with your business objectives, which means, it should cover topics and ideas that will get you what you want. For example, you can fulfill the purpose of ranking higher on Google’s search results with the right content pieces and schedule them in your calendar. So, you can create and publish high-quality, informative and engaging articles and blogs on your website with relevant keywords, so that search engines find them relevant and valuable. You can also plan to publish guest posts on various third-party portals to get quality backlinks. Your goal can also be to target a particular set of customers to generate new leads. In that case, create useful content like e-books and whitepapers that go deep into a topic and solve the problems of your target group. You can then create a CTA (call to action) on your website for interested users to share their contact details to get access to these resources. The goal of establishing your company as a thought leader can also be fulfilled through content marketing services. And by creating a content calendar, you can make your marketing efforts consistent and strategic. For instance, in this case, you can develop a set of comprehensive articles, videos, and podcasts that talk about an array of topics from your industry. Feel free to take the support of subject matter experts for creating valuable content for the end-users. Step 3: Repurpose existing content for better reach than last time Don’t ignore the content that you already have, as these can be repurposed to provide more value to the target audience. For instance, old blog posts can be updated with the latest information or made more comprehensive and converted into a whitepaper or e-book. Slide decks can be repurposed to create blog posts or videos for more engagement and better recall. Big reports or whitepapers can be used to create a blog series, with multiple posts on a broad topic. Step 4: Determine the frequency of each content type For a quarter, publish 18-20 blog posts on your portal. Select around six topics from these blog posts to prepare and publish guest articles on reputable third-party sites. Create two long-form contents – case studies, white paper, and/or an e-book. Organize a webinar and create multiple social media posts to promote it. The frequency of each content type can vary based on your team size and business goals. Step 5: Choose a content calendar tool Go for Google Sheets if you want a content calendar tool that offers easy collaboration and is free. For teams that have only one member, Google Calendar is an ideal option. Microsoft Excel spreadsheets are also a
8 Agency Secrets for Hiring the Best Content Agency
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]If you have not been living under the rock, you definitely know that content is one of the key things you need to drive your marketing process. Be it SEO, be it social, be it content marketing, you need content. Information-rich, engaging and well-written content is your best bet to grab Google’s attention and rank high on the search results page. After all, 90% organizations market themselves with content today, 80% people tend to learn about a company through customized content and 70% consumers connect with a company through content marketing. But wait. How do get all that content written and drive your content marketing process? Exactly, that is where most businesses start looking for a content marketing partner. Picking the right content marketing partner from a million (ok yes that is almost reality) is the real task. You will see business/brands changing their content marketing agencies every year, citing reasons like mismatch in goals, lapse in delivery deadlines, quality issues etc. And then there are brands who happily continue with their digital partners for years (well we are talking of 3-4 years at a stretch). For real magic to happen, you need to find the right partner who know exactly how to deliver what your brand needs and what your customers want. We decided to make things easier and create a list of things you can measure them up against, basically questions you can ask and assess whether they are the right agency for you. Here are 8 ways to ensure that you are hiring the right content partner. Read on. 1. Are they really content guys for real? These days, there are many web development agencies, SEO company and digital marketing agency that claim to be content players. However, in reality, they often offer content services on the side and don’t have a dedicated team to understand your needs and deliver accordingly. Like, in the past 10 years, we were often approached by clients who wanted their website content to be improved. And the reason usually is that their content was developed by an agency that is chiefly into website designing. Naturally, the quality won’t work, especially in the long run. So, avoid content services that are offered as a part of a different package. So, to find out if an agency actually has content-related experience, knowledge and skills, you can give them a small assignment or sample to work on. This way, you will know if their work can measure up to your expectations and if you can trust them. Even if you give them an old content piece to work on, they should be able to analyze it thoroughly and come up with ideas for improvement. Also remember that not all content agencies are adept at all forms of content. So, take a look at their past projects or portfolio or ask them what kind of content they have developed in the past. For instance, if you want to create whitepapers or product descriptions, hiring an agency that excels at SEO articles might not be ideal. 2. Are they capable of offering 360-degree content? Content doesn’t just refer to website content or articles. The various content formats used today include infographics, videos, case studies, e-books, whitepapers, presentations, blog posts, memes, checklists, podcasts, emails, and so on. And brands often use a mix of different content formats to get their message conveyed more effectively. So, before you pick a content creation partner, find out if they can handle 360-degree content, which will cover multiple content formats. In the long run, sticking with an agency that only creates SEO articles will not be enough to beat competition. Also, the agency should be able to advise you on which formats will work best for your business and on which channels they should be distributed. 3. Do they understand how content marketing exactly works? Always go for a content marketing partner that proactively asks you about your goals, before suggesting a plan. No marketing campaign can work well unless they are aligned with what you want, be it boosting brand awareness, building your domain authority or thought leadership, getting more traffic or generating more leads. So, if an agency simply offers to churn out say 20 SEO articles per month based on the topics you provide, be wary. The right content agency will also satisfy these criteria: They will know how SEO and high-quality content can work together to drive traffic and sales. While information-rich, engaging and well-written content is necessary to appeal to human readers, optimizing the same for search engine crawlers can get you the high rank you desire. Also find out if their SEO team can do the right backlinking to promote your blog posts. Pick an agency that can help you choose the topics that will perform the best. They should be aware of the trending topics and what your competitors are working on, so that you can gain an edge. The agency should also research and come up with the top keywords you can use to make your content more valuable and aligned with search engine ranking criteria. Find out if they use the latest tools like SEMrush, Google Keyword Planner, BuzzSumo, Uberflip, Ubersuggestand Quora to get fresh and original content ideas and strategies. Ask what will be the agency’s content strategy to help you achieve your goals. Are they capable of identifying your target audience or creating the buyer personas?How do they pick writers, what content formats do they think will be right for you, and how do they intend to distribute your content and on which channels. Will they distribute on your owned media, paid media or both? The right content agency will also have an editorial calendar in place, so that they can easily track what to create and when to publish. This is especially essential if you want weekly articles, blog posts or daily social media posts etc. And remember to ask how they plan to
Infographics: Failing at Content Marketing? 7 Things You Need to Fix
After spending a decade in the field of content marketing services, we can say one thing for sure – only a few businesses can make this form of marketing work for them. Others fail. Naturally, many complain about how content marketing is not really worth it and the money spent on it doesn’t bear fruit in the form of the desired ROI. So, what you need to first understand is that, content marketing needs time, patience and expertise to show results. And you need to be smart and strategic about it as well. Currently, as per the Content Marketing Institute, 10% B2B marketers think that content marketing is hardly effective, while 54% consider it to be moderately effective. This scenario can only change for the better if you go about content marketing the right way. If you do it just because every other business is, you will not be rewarded. After all, your content marketing strategy should get you more traffic, better leads and greater ROI. So, you need to know what exactly works. So, even if you have a content strategy in place, you might want to know what else will help. But the overdose of information on the internet can leave you puzzled. This is why we have put together an infographic with 7 tips that are easy and actionable. Read on to truly succeed at content marketing. Conclusion Content marketing is a long-term game. The long-term gains can offset short-term losses. So, audit your strategy and amend it repeatedly to become the best in your niche. If you still have doubts about content marketing, schedule a call with us here.
4 Proven Reasons Why Blogging Is The Holy Grail of Content Marketing
First things first. Why is blogging important for brands? Whether you’re a B2B or B2C marketer, you’ll need to include content marketing services as an integral part of your brand marketing strategy. The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) reports that 91% of marketers use content marketing to promote brand awareness and 76% opt for blogging to drive traffic to their brand website. It’s needless to say that nearly 24% of marketers are not taking blogging seriously but, should they? Here are 4 broad and simple reasons why blogging is the “Holy Grail” of content marketing for brands. 1. Drives Search Traffic Do you want more traffic to your website? Duh, yes of course. Well, that’s your first biggest reason to start blogging. Very Simply Put – Blogs+SEO+Social Media = Traffic and leads. Coming back to blogs, if you are promoting your business through digital marketing, then your business blog is your largest ammunition. HubSpot has already shared facts to prove this. This clearly shows that the more blogs that you post per month, the higher traffic you get. When there is more traffic to the website, there is also naturally a higher chance of getting more leads. You can either post new blogs or re-purpose your existing blogs by adding new content to increase the organic traffic to your website by 106% according to HubSpot. For instance, HubSpot posts 200 new posts every month which results in 54% lead generation while repurposing its existing blogs results in 46% lead generation. Isn’t that enough proof to take your business blog more seriously? This is because your buyers are constantly looking for unbiased, relevant, and insightful content online that can educate and empower them to make the right purchase decisions. On Brand states that building an audience is more valuable than direct sales for over 70% of brand managers. Vlogging and blogging help build a community of audiences for your brand, organically. There is a higher probability of them converting into loyal customers over a certain period of time. Let’s be practical! Most of you would have googled for the latest mobile phones in the market at least once in the past and then, read through a number of buying guides on the CNET website or other websites before buying them. It’s a well-known fact that a buyer will research, analyze, and finally, is more likely to decide on a brand that has well-researched, good quality content in that specific field since it showcases the brand as a pioneer in its field. That’s exactly what a good blog does. It informs and inspires the buyers to zero in on the right brand in the market for their needs and wants. It educates your buyers with how-to guides and narrates your customer success stories to persuade them to buy from your brand rather than from your competitors. Blog also feeds your social media and keeps it going. You are not only increasing your brand’s social reach, you are also earning new traffic through social to your website. Also, here is a quick fact to digest. How many times do you add pages to your website? In most cases, people add pages to their website once in a year. Now think of your blog. Every post you put there is a new page indexed for your website, which basically means it’s a chance for you to get traffic to your website and increase your probability of ranking for that particular topic. Also Read: Types of Content to Get More Traffic to Your Blog Hint: Analyze the list of search queries from your target customers using SEO research tools like SEMRush or Moz to develop the right content for your brand blog. Something to remember: It’s also important to note here that just creating the blogs and publishing them will not do. You will need to optimise the blogs with the right keywords and distribute them properly to get more reach. Here is where SEO services play their part in helping the blog rank for relevant keywords. 2. Builds Domain Authority Domain authority (DA) is a ranking metric that indicates how authoritative your domain or website is based on several factors such as quality of content, social signals, and other SEO best practices. You’ll need to spend a considerable amount of time and effort to create, distribute, and promote exhaustive content that will benefit your potential customers and convert them into loyal clients over the long-term. The DA of a website can range between 1 to 100. The higher your site’s DA, the better chances you have of ranking. You can check the DA of your site with a tool called Open Site Explorer. Ideally, DA score above 60 for a domain reflects an excellent domain authority with a high probability of search ranking for that particular website. Likewise, a DA score below 40 indicates poor domain authority and requires a well-planned content marketing strategy for a higher score. Blogging is one of the major contributors to establishing the domain authority for your brand. There are a number of content types such as podcasts, webinars, and animated videos to promote your brand across the customer journey. Your brand blog will score high among other brand-building content types for the simple reason that it’s more comprehensive and clear in communicating your brand authority. Hint: Explore guest blogging opportunities on trusted websites for your brand.It will improve your domain authority and overall search engine ranking. 3. Generates Leads Can your blog influence your customers to make a purchase decision? Do your blog visitors make a product/service inquiry online/offline? The objective of publishing ‘n’ number of blog posts in your brand blog is to build brand relevance and brand authority. But, the goal of each blog post content is to initiate conversion for your brand from leads from customers through Call To Action (CTA). Yes, blogging is but a piece to the lead generation puzzle for brands in the digital marketplace. You’ll have to capture leads