This year has been a rollercoaster ride for most brands and businesses. 2020 has taught many of us new concepts like being in quarantine, working remotely, and most importantly, marketing digitally. Although digital marketing has been the heart of branding for some years now, most businesses have started becoming aware of this term or its gravity only recently. And they often confuse it with content marketing Services, which might seem similar but is quite distinct in reality. So, if you are someone who doesn’t know which side to pick in a digital vs. content marketing scenario, this blog post is for you. After all, not every business needs the same marketing strategy or wants to invest in the same plan. Hence, understanding the difference between digital and content marketing and where each might come in useful is important. So, let’s start by defining each of these terms before we go ahead with some detailed insights. What is Content Marketing? As the Content Marketing Institute has beautifully defined, “Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.” In short, content marketing is a process that: Involves producing and publishing content that speaks to your target audience. Creates engagement and attraction towards your brand. Educates and entertains your customers with valuable and relatable content. The next question is, how does this strategy help you? Content marketing helps a business by creating a reputation in the market. It is mostly related to making potential customers aware of your brand and your expertise in the field. It also helps to establish your authority in a certain industry. For example, if customers find useful and interesting information on your website, they will keep coming back for more. Gradually, you will be able to convince and convert them, or even encourage them to share a good word about your brand. So, with content marketing, you can make people aware of your brand, help them decide to make a purchase, and let them share their experience with others. What is Digital Marketing? Digital marketing refers to any and all marketing efforts that involve the internet and digital devices. So, think of any ad that you see on the internet, content piece, or even a tweet from a brand – it’s all part of digital marketing. In fact, digital marketing is like an umbrella term that covers content marketing. Now, if you ask, how will digital marketing help you? The answer is simple. It is the same as traditional marketing, just executed on a digital platform. And so, even the goals are usually the same for both the marketing techniques i.e. conversions and sales. What is the Difference between Content Marketing and Digital Marketing? To put it in a straight forward manner, while content marketing focuses on establishing relations and engagement with the audience, digital marketing is more about conversions and sales. But then, why should one waste time on content marketing and not directly jump to getting more sales? It is because you need to follow a certain process to lead potential customers to your website and convert them into paying customers. It’s like cooking, where you need to follow a proper recipe to get a delicious outcome. Let’s take the example of Biryani to make things easy here– You need to let the meat marinate first for hours, then add some spices, let the meat sizzle, add rice, and finally let the flavours set in (I should try my hand at food blogging next!). In the same way, you need to guide prospects along a marketing funnel to get conversions. Ideally, a sales funnel goes like this: Step 1: Make people aware of your brand. Step 2: Create interest regarding your product or service. Step 3: Help them decide what they want or need. Step 4: Navigate them to take action. Step 5: Retain the customers or upsell them or let them review your products or services. And this where content marketing plays an important role to initiate the process, so that you can reach the sales phase (where digital marketing plays a big role) in a structured manner. So, if you ask me, content marketing and digital marketing are interdependent. Content marketing helps build awareness, generate interest, influence decision, and ensure retention, while digital marketing actually gives you sales. Now, let’s take a look at the various types of content and digital marketing. Types of Content Marketing If you are taking baby steps in the world of content marketing, you might be wondering what comes under it. Well…. Content marketing covers all kinds of content, be it in words, videos, images, infographics, or any other style. Even memes, GIFs and presentations are a part of this form of marketing. So, let’s check out some of the common trending styles (that will definitely help you). Blogs The reason why blogging ranks number one on the list is because it comes with multiple perks. Blogs can help you in building trust, establish domain authority, rank better on search engines, and finally drive traffic to your website. In short, it hardly has any drawbacks if your content is unique, relatable, and produced consistently. Videos Videos are among the most popular content styles these days. Since people have a very short attention span when they go online, videos do a better job of interacting with the target audience than long blogs. The human brain tends to recall visuals better than plain text, even after a long time. Plus, videos offer a more immersive experience and especially come in handy when you want to showcase how a product is made or how it works. Images When it comes to visuals, images or photos are widely used by different kinds of businesses to convey messages more meaningfully. Just make sure that they are well-shot, crisp and have a decent resolution. Most importantly, you can share these
Author: Payel Mukherjee
The Art of Creating a Content Marketing Plan in Just a Week
Content Is King – this was the title of an article that Bill Gates wrote in 1996. And what he advocated back then continues to be absolutely true in 2020 as well. However, just developing content will get you nowhere. You also need to have a content marketing plan handy. Whether you are new to this or have been using content marketing strategy for a while, revisiting the plan is never a bad idea. So, in this fast-paced world, here’s how to create a content marketing plan in just 7 days. These steps are easy to understand and implement and will help you achieve your business goals with more ease than ever before. Day 1: Set Your Goals and Objectives Let’s start with the basic stuff. Without an end goal, you may get confused and lost during the journey. And so, before you start, set a content marketing goal. To set a goal, you need to simply answer ‘What is your purpose with this plan?’ If your answer sounds similar to “content development is the trend”, then think again. You do not need to brainlessly follow what others are doing, but find a meaning behind your actions instead. Setting your goal is important to: Know what you want to achieve Understand the value you will offer Determine the voice of the content across all platforms Facilitate the direction of the content Some of the most common goals I have experienced for content marketing strategy are discoverability, industry authority, and building community. So, decide what is it that you want to achieve. Additional Tip: While defining content goals, always try opting for ‘SMART’ Goals. SMART Goals stands for: S – Specific M – Measurable A – Attainable R – Relevant T – Time-bound Here’s an example of a SMART goal: Instead of setting your goal as ‘increase blog revenue’, you can employ the SMART Goal rule and define the goal as ‘Increase blog revenue by 30% by the third quarter of 2021’. Day 2: Understand Your Target Audience Once you have a goal set, the next step in the content creation plan is to zero in on the strategy. You cannot directly jump to producing content. You need a bit of planning to start with. So, start with understanding your target audience and defining them. How are you going to do that? Step 1: Who are they? Start with defining your target audience. Get a pen and paper, and start writing about what you know about your audience. For example, if you are selling designer clothes, your audience would be ‘people looking for clothes’, right? Wrong. Here’s the problem, loud and clear. You cannot go on targeting each and everyone on this planet, just because everyone needs clothes and buys them. You need to be specific about the audience. Define if you are selling clothes for: Kids/Women/Men Casuals/Formals/Party Wear Low-range/Mid-range/High-range And so on… After all, a person whose monthly salary is around 20K won’t be interested in high-range party wear clothes that cost them 5-7K for a piece. This is why, it is important to understand, define, and target your audience. Step 2: What are their struggles? The next step for defining your audience is to understand their struggles. Only then you can offer a solution to them. Let’s go with our example of the clothing line. The struggles of your audience may include: Keeping up-to-date with current trends Colors and patterns as per seasonal change Combining accessories with their outfit styles And so on… Now, once you know your audience’s problems, you can start with content creation that offers the solutions. And this is why defining the audience is very important in content marketing planning. Day 3: Competitor Analysis By now, you should have a clear idea of what objectives you are going to achieve and brief information about your ideal customer. Before you jump in and start to create the content, make sure you do a brief competitor analysis too. Why is it important? The answer is simple – to know what is your competitor up to and what your audience likes to perceive. How you will do the competitor analysis? Analyse your competitor’s blog Check their social media profile Perform SWOT analysis SWOT Analysis Can help you understand your competitor better and prepare a smarter content plan. S – Know their Strengths and check if your quality matches that. W – Know their Weaknesses and use your content to target those. O – Check if there are any Opportunities like markets or alliances they do not serve currently. T – Understand Threats like negative brand sentiments or changes in customers’ attitudes. Day 4: Generating Content Ideas and Keyword Research Now comes the main part of getting started with the content. However, don’t just produce it yet. You know your goals, and the preferences of your audience, and have analysed your competitors. Combine all these results, and get into a brainstorming session with your team. To generate content ideas: Identify topics your audience will be interested in Conduct hot keyword searches related to your industry Explore Quora and Reddit to check what people are asking Check Hashtags and Google Trends for ideas And so on… You can use certain tools to help you generate content ideas too. Some of them are: Buzzsumo Ahrefs https://ahrefs.com/ Google Alerts UberSuggest SimilarWeb Feedly Portent’s Content Idea Generator Once you have several content ideas to work on, make sure that you do your keyword research too. This simplifies the process and gives you a breather time while producing content. And I hope that you know how important the role of keywords is in the content marketing industry till now. So, start with your research. Day 5: Make a Content Schedule Once you are done with generating ideas and researching for keywords, the next step is to make a content calendar. This is an important step that can help you churn out valuable content consistently and at the right frequency. Your content schedule will play
The Power of User Generated Content on Instagram and How to Use It Effectively
What is UGC? If you are a social media marketer who likes to be on top of the latest trends at all times, you have surely heard of user generated content. Such content is a powerful marketing tool to boost user engagement on social media and influence purchase decisions (in case of 90% users, in fact). The biggest reason is that, content generated by users are trusted more by other users rather than the claims made by brands. So, it’s no wonder that ads involving UGC witness 5 times higher click-through rates as well, compared to those without UGC. And when UGC meets Instagram, the concoction is truly powerful. Need proof? Starbuck’s UGC post on Instagram was preferred by 61% users compared to its branded post that was liked by 39%. Now, pair this fact with the following statistics to understand why Instagram is the perfect social media platform to leverage the power of user generated content marketing: Over 1 billion monthly active users. More than 60% users check the app once every day, at least. Every month, more than 130 million users interact with shopping posts. Conversion rate of posts containing UGC is 4.5% higher than those without UGC. So, it is easy to see why promoting UGC on Instagram is wise and can help you build deeper relationships with consumers, encouraging them to buy from you. If you too wish to use consumer generated content for your Instagram marketing strategy like some of the top brands in the world, first understand why user generated content is so powerful. Also Read: Social Media Style Guide – What is It & How to Create One? Why does UGC work so well on Instagram? Establishes authenticity – Did you know that consumer are more than twice likely to consider UGC content as genuine compared to what brands create? When real people are shown using or loving your brand or products, it will be easier for others to jump on the bandwagon. For instance, here is an adorable UGC post by Warby Parker, featuring a baby wearing its glasses! Just look at the number of likes it earned. Requires less spending – Unlike ads or fancy visuals, UGC content doesn’t require you to spend much. You simply need to request customers to share authentic content that shows them using your product or service. Even if you offer incentives like promo codes or discounts, it will cost you less than paid marketing. Also Read:- How to Edit SocialMedia Posts? Boosts trust – 70% people trust consumer reviews they see online before deciding to buy something. What does this mean? People trust other people when it comes to trusting a brand. Hence, UGC is a great way to earn customer trust on Instagram, as this Glossier post shows. Viewers can easily imagine how the lip gloss will look on them. Ignites desire for your brand – Here is one of the best user generated content examples that show how you can inspire serious wanderlust in viewers. This Instagram post from Destination British Columbia sparks desire for the brand or its image! Since the content is generated by actual tourists, the authenticity seals the deal. Encourages loyalty, community feeling and aspirations – By getting multiple customers to share their product or brand experience through images or videos, you can promote a feeling of oneness on your Instagram. Equiboodle does this very well, for instance. Such UGC posts inspire aspirations in others and boost the loyalty of existing customers. How to generate and use UGC content on Instagram? If you are wondering how to start sourcing user generated content, the good news is that Instagram offers you plenty of creative yet simple options. Here are the best methods: Just ask for it – Simply posting a question can motivate your followers to share posts that show them using your product. They will not only tag you, but also feel valued for being featured. Check out American Eagle’s direct and minimalistic approach here. Go for a unique hashtag trend – Come up with a unique hashtag that grabs eyeballs quickly and ask followers to share images or videos that show how they are using your product to match the hashtag. The hashtag should go well with your brand image or voice. Make sure you promote the campaign via emails, your website, and even YouTube videos, so that people know which hashtag to use while building their story around your brand or product. Starbuck’s #redcupcontest is a cool example. Seek help from micro-influencers – Even if you are a small business, you can try and find micro-influencers who are willing to share content based on your products or services. For instance, if you run a small but exclusive bakery, reach out to a well-known food blogger in your area to showcase your goodies. Or, if you are a real estate agent, contact clients you have helped to sell homes, and request them to share their experiences. Offering incentives like discounts on the next purchase, free products or a free consulting session might do the trick. Here is an awesome user generated content example for this. How about a contest – A caption, design or photo contest can do wonders for your Instagram marketing strategy. Keep it simple so that most of your followers feel driven to participate and share content. Check out how this contest grabs attention by promising a GoPro camera to the winner. The hashtag is crisp and the text at the bottom clearly states the steps of the contest. More tips to use UGC on Instagram Apart from using the UGC Instagram content that the above tips generate, here are some other things you can do. Also remember that users who create the content will tag you on Instagram or allow you to share their contribution in your Instagram stories. Here is a look at the different ways in which top brands share their UGC: Reshare genuine and positive content – If real people
How to Write a Case Study to Convince and Convert Prospective Customers ?
As a content marketing agency, we often get these questions from our clients – “How do we actually get customers?”, “How do we convince customers that we are the best?” “How can we show clients that we are better than our competitors?” To be honest, no matter what your industry or business type is, you are sure to have these questions sometime or the other. And our answer to all these questions is writing a good case study,which showcases your past success in a detailed and data-driven manner to prove your mettle in your industry. If you want to convince and convert potential clients, this is your best bet. Not sure what is a case study and how will it help? Well, as a business, just saying you are awesome at something (like boosting organic traffic in our case) is not enough to convince customers that they should buy your services or products. You need to give them some hard data that proves your claim for real. And this is where a case study helps. Such a detailed, data-rich study can help you narrate a past customer’s success story and elaborate on how your product or service helped solve their business challenges. A case study will also include the metrics you used to measure the success – be it in terms of revenue gained or number of leads generated. Check out this case study example for a better idea, before you learn the steps of crafting one yourself. Wondering how to create a case study?Here are the steps: 1. Determine the goal or objective of the case study First, figure out what you wish to prove with your case study and which client objective do you want to focus on. While there might be several client objectives, pick the one which you want to show to your would-be customers. For example, your case study could cover any of the following client objectives like lead generation, lowering business costs, increasing profitability and revenue, converting more customers or establishing a foothold in a new market. Read on to create a case study outline. 2. Establish the case study format Now decide which format you wish to use to create your case study. Consider your target customers’ demographics and content consumption patterns to decide which case study format will work for them. Millennial customers might prefer video case studies while CXOs, CEOs, and COOs might prefer case studies in text format. While an infographic case study can be ideal for Pinterest, a textual one can appear on the website, and a video case study can be promoted on YouTube. Here is a bit more information on the popular case study formats: • Infographic –Go for a vertical and longish infographic that charts your path of success from the top to the bottom. As the reader scans down the infographic, he should be able to spot the major metrics you used and the results you achieved easily. For this, use a simple case study format with neat, big font for text and charts or diagrams. Check out some cool infographic templates here. • Textual –Your case study can also be in the form of an e-book and you can make it into a PDF (see the one by Budweiser) that can be downloaded after your site visitors fill up a short form. This will help you capture their basic details like name and email ID and generate potential leads too. • Video –A good ideafor this kind of format is to meet the client and make a video of the interview. This way, your prospective customers can see how your client had actually benefitted from your services and be more convinced. You can also get more creative ideas for a video case study here. • Podcast –This format is ideal if you wish to go the audio way. A real conversation between you and the client will convince listeners about your services or products and seem human as well. Podcast case studies are also easy to follow when you are on the go and has a direct, engaging touch. 3. Identify the right customer for writing a case study Now find the right client to write a case study. Pick a client who has knowledge about your service/product offering and can speak well about the value that he received. Choose clients who have tasted success or achieved good ROI because of your product/service and will be happy to share their success story.Between small businesses and well-known brands (names that are easy to recognize), cover the latter first since it will give more credibility to your brand. Also Read: [Free Case Study] Alliance Fintech – How we used content marketing to boost traffic by 149% 4. Request permission to write the case study Inform your customer and ask for permission before showcasing them in your case study. Draft and email a case study release form. In it, mention why you are creating the case study, how it will be used, the type of client information you will include (like name, job title, picture etc.), what kind of help you expect from the customer and what kind of compensation you will provide. Here is how a release form might look like: You can convince them for the case study by explaining: • How they will get brand exposure and reach out to more people • How employee exposure will shoot up if quotes are shared against top employee names • How they can earn product (the ones you sell to them) discounts • Mentioning that the case study will link back to the client’s website, thereby boosting its organic traffic Remember that when the client reads your request, he will be more eager to know how he will benefit from the case study rather than you. Once the customer signs, approves and returns the release form, you need to prepare a questionnaire to conduct a productive interview and get the material you need for creating a
10 Super Creative Instagram Accounts that Are Really Kicking It
Be it a brand like Old Spice or Haldiram’s, or a celebrity like Priyanka Chopra or Cristiano Ronaldo, everything (and everyone) is on Instagram these days. And, why not? With about a billion active monthly users to boast of, Instagram is the perfect social media channel for businesses and people to connect with the target audience, inspire them to follow and buy, and tell others. But which are the ones that are really kicking it out there on Insta? Which are the grams which are a must-follow? Which are the accounts which really publish amazing content? We know how everyone loves a quick list and so we spent some time researching and putting out this list of 10 super-creative Instagram accounts that are really inspiring. This should also get you loads of ideas for your own (or your brand’s) Instagram page. So, let’s get going. 1. Personal Care: Old Spice Known globally for its amazing range of men’s grooming products, Old Spice has upped its Instagram game by using humor, environment, diversity and retro vibes for engagement and promotion. They have managed to loop in celebrities like Kevin Hart recently to take their strategy up a notch. This post on how their Sweat Defense keeps men as dry as the desert has caught attention with the great visual and creative text. 2. Food: Haldiram’s A giant in the Indian sweets and snacks industry, Haldiram’swas founded in 1937, but it has kept up with the times brilliantly. Its Instagram account is progressive, witty, colorful and yummy too. This post for instance says how your gender shouldn’t dictate the work you do. You will also come across enticing images of roadside snacks like paanipuri, packaged nuts with a pistachio saying “Crack me up” and even the funny use of mathematical symbols like the pi. 3. Travel Photography: Navaneeth Unnikrishnan For those who are bitten by the travel bug, Navaneeth Unnikrishnan’s Instagram account will brighten up your mood instantly. From the tropical lushness of Malaysia and Borneo to the chilly landscapes of Iceland to the spiritual beauty of Spiti Valley, Navaneeth has travelled far and wide and captured stunning images that inspire you to hit the road. Beautiful historical places, open roads, stark winters, marine life and even automotives are the subjects of his photographic pursuit. The above post, captured in Italy, celebrates the glory of sunrises. 4. Sports: Cristiano Ronaldo Unless you have been living under a rock, there is no way you have missed this world-famous Portuguese footballer’s shots, his Golden Ball wins (5 times), his dedication towards fitness and his good looks of course! And he is a winner when it comes to Instagram too, with 227 million followers and inspiring images from his workout sessions and matches. His social media activities proclaim his love for his family and beautiful places too. The above post is a clever branding in partnership with CLEAR hair care brand, as Ronaldo emphasizes how a “clear head” is necessary to make a strong comeback. 5. Nature / Wildlife: stevewinterphoto If you start looking at nature or wildlife accounts, many thoughts will cross your mind -the endless transcendence of nature, the beauty of life in all forms, and the people who have the privilege of photographing the same. There is simply too much beauty in the moment out there to pick favorites. Even then, our pick for wildlife photography goes to @stevewinterphoto who is a conservation photojournalist. Steve’s photos are not just about the imagery but about his experience and sheer love for the art. He has been chased by rhinos, stalked by Jaguars, trapped in quicksand and survived at freezing temperatures – all to get that shot he really wanted. And he actually cares about nature and its creatures, spreading awareness about unkind practices, as this post reveals. 6. Celebrity: Priyanka Chopra Beauty with brains, PeeCee has not only made it big in Bollywood, but has also shattered any glass ceiling that was ever there in Hollywood. Be it her movies, her songs, her Padma Shri win, or her marriage to Nick Jonas, Priyanka Chopra has always been in the news! Her funky and stylish Instagram account speaks volumes about her passions, loved ones, confidence, progressive views, and whatever she endorses. The above post is a citrusy and refreshing one that not only promotes her partnership with Bon & Viv Spiked Seltzer, but also her love for everything healthy. 7. NGO / Cause: Wildlife SOS This non-profit organization enjoys presence in USA and UK too, besides India, and is popularly known for bringing the cruel practice of “dancing bears” to an end. While rehabilitating such bears was their initial objective, today, they have extended a helping hand to many other animals in distress. Their Instagram account is flooded with heartening pictures of elephants, tigers, monkeys, crocodiles and common and rare birds, to inspire thoughtfulness and kindness. Their recent Father’s Day post featuring a caregiver with a baby monkey has beautifully highlighted the pure and selfless connection between the two. 8. Fashion: House of Masaba Instagram is the perfect platform for fashion brands and bloggers to flaunt their creations, ideas and exclusivity. And House of Masabaunderstands that really well. This Indian label is the brainchild of Masaba Gupta, and thanks to her Caribbean connection, she has done a wonderful job of featuring quirky prints, bold hues and trendy designs on her account. From ethnic and contemporary to fusion, this Instagram account brims with life and innovation. A video depicting the perfect COVID-ready combo of a chic shirt and matching mask has already created a buzz online. 9. Shopping: Sugarbox_india As a social media platform, Instagram is a shopper’s delight indeed. That’s because you can buy what you see. If it catches your eye for good, you can get it for a price. With close to 99k followers, @Sugarbox_india will send you a box
7 Excellent Content Marketing Examples To Learn From
If you are reading this, you already know how content marketing has emerged as the long-term success mantra for both small and big businesses. But creating and marketing exceptional content needs a bit of inspiration now and then. So, here are some wonderful content marketing examples from leading brands like Coca-Cola, Heineken, GoPro, Honda and more. Get ready to be motivated! 1. GoPro UGC GoPro believes that it is better to show viewers how good their products are, instead of just talking about them. And what better way to build brand loyalty then get customers to generate content – otherwise known as user generated content. It, of course, helps that the product itself lends excellently to UGC, making it super simple for users to record videos and share. To gather the best user generated content, GoPro has multiple programs in place, complete with incentives. Users who capture amazing photos or videos can try their luck at winning GoPro Awards. Their Million Dollar Challenge is especially a huge hit, as every user whose entry becomes a part of the brand’s highlight reel at the end of the year, gets a chance to win an equal share of the million dollars. Only shots captured on the latest cameras are accepted and the GoPro app allows users to edit videos and photos, before uploading on Instagram, YouTube or Facebook. Also Read: Top 5 Ways to Use Instagram Marketing to Boost Your Business Results And Insights As of 2017, GoPro’s revenue was $1.18 billion. With 10832296 followers on Facebook and similarly impressive numbers on other social channels, GoPro has hacked content marketing indeed. Their strategy is perfect for boosting both awareness and loyalty across geographies and among all kinds of adventure enthusiasts. Source Url: https://youtu.be/Prt-G4cPIn4 Your Takeaways UGC is a great way to build one of the most authentic relationship you, as a brand, can hope to build with your audience. Building a fan base brings in actual results. GoPro’s growth numbers will prove that. So, go ahead and create a structure that can inspire or encourage your audience to share their content. Think about who can you collaborate with to create content that shows the value of your product/services. Think about what incentives you can give them to create that sort of content. The effect can be long-lasting and tremendously satisfying for your brand. 2. AMEX Open Forum Often cited as the poster child for content marketing, the Open Forum campaign is effectively what all content marketing campaigns aspire to be. Since its start in 2007, it has single-handedly proven the business value of brands by providing useful content to its customers. So much so that it continues to remain the #1 source of leads for new AMEX cardholders. So what’s the secret sauce for their success? It isn’t too complex – it is ensuring that your customer comes first, doing the right thing for them and doing it well. AMEX started by putting itself in the shoes of its customers. What are your customers reading most often? What is resonating with them? They used the answers to these questions to map their content strategy. They then created content stories around impactful small businesses like a cafe whose husband-wife owners are active civic leaders or a hip men’s apparel brand that has a bulldog as a mascot. By weaving a beautiful story around their lives and the lives they impact, they created an engaging audience who were drawn in with top notch imagery and videos. The stories allowed the audience to relate themselves as AMEX customers as the brand did not sell itself but actually sought out to help them. The forum moved on to create a platform where the small business owners could share advice, post questions,and even rate each other’s helpfulness – all of which is now extended to social connectivity. Results And Insights This campaign is considered one of the best content marketing strategies by a brand. While visits and even repeat visits increased manifold, each visitor spent almost double the time on the site. It eventually became one of the top sources of leads for AMEX. Your Takeaways Business owners are consumers too. Your job is to step in their shoes and solve a problem for them. Make yourself useful and they’ll come back to you. 3. Coca-Cola Journey In late 2012, Coca-Cola launched a digital magazine called Coca-Cola Journey. The key differentiator in this case was that a lot of content was branded and only some third party content was used. Its latest campaign is JxJ which is JourneyxJourney. Two Coca-Cola Journey storytellers and a full production team recently hit the road to find and tell Coca-Cola stories across America. The JxJ crew used their behemoth 2017 Ford Escape (as a part of their brand tie-up with Ford) as a ‘Mobile Brand Publishing HQ’ and fans followed their content live when they were on the road. It was a lot of hard work to drive 4000+ miles while filming, editing, actively posting on all social channels, managing schedules and ensuring the team ate breakfast. Even as the journey ended, the Coca-Cola journey continued as they asked fans to submit their own road trip memories. The site also uses infographics services to showcase their quarterly results, some interesting nutrition facts and what its sourcing map means for the global sustainable agriculture industry. Results And Key Insights In the first year, the site published 1200 articles and attracted 13.1M visitors who averaged an impressive 4:40 time spent per article. The site currently features hundreds of photos from loyal fans sharing their ‘Moments of happiness’. Coca-Cola also makes stories easily shareable on social media and reports in real-time. Your Takeaways Even if you are publishing your own content, it is important to include your customers as a part of your journey. The aim of the content is the same – it has to be useful for its readers and not just for you.
Google’s Search Quality Raters: Here is What They Say About High-Quality Pages and Content
Google’s search engine algorithm is notoriously secretive. In fact, the entire SEO industry is built on trying to figure out exactly what helps a website rank higher in the search results. So, when Google released its “Search Quality Evaluator” guidelines back in 2015, marketers across the world were pleasantly surprised. Since then, Google has kept updating these guidelines. Today, they’re one of the most comprehensive and authoritative resources on SEO out there. It’s not like these guidelines tell you exactly what’s in Google’s search algorithm — of course not. But they provide very important insights into what Google sees as a “high-quality” webpage. And in the midst of so much speculation and conjecture, these guidelines are the most authentic and accurate source of information. So in this post, we thought we’d break down Google’s Search Quality Raters to tell you how to create a high-quality website that ranks up there. What makes a high-quality page? The first question is “What does Google see as a high-quality page?” For starters, there’s a basic definition: The webpage has a “beneficial purpose” — in other words, it’s designed to benefit users It achieves that purpose well Apart from this fundamental definition, there are some main characteristics of a high-quality page: A satisfying amount of high-quality main content What does this really mean? High-quality main content is one into which either time, effort, skill, or expertise has gone in. But the definition of high-quality main content depends on the nature and purpose of the webpage. So for instance: A news webpage should have information that’s engaging, factually accurate, and comprehensive. There should also be a fair bit of expert consensus around it. For a satire webpage, factual accuracy isn’t important. The content needs to be hilarious — that’s the biggest determinator of its quality. A functional website — for instance, an e-commerce page — needs to be high on functionality. So a big indicator of quality would be how easy it is to actually purchase an item off the page. Also Read: How to Check Website Content Quality? Naturally, webpages which are more broad-based in their purpose would have to have more content than those that are narrower to be classified as high-quality. For instance, this page about a Siberian Husky may not have a lot of content but would still be classified as high-quality main content because the topic itself is quite narrow. Similarly, this e-Commerce page is another example of high-quality main content because it has everything you need to know to make an informed purchase decision — user reviews, shipping and returns information, item details, product specifications etc. Clear and Satisfying Website Information Building trustworthiness is a big part of creating a high-quality webpage, and clear information is a big part of that. How much information is required depends on the nature of the webpage. YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) pages These are webpages that tend to have a direct impact on either your financial situation, your health or your safety. So these pages naturally require a lot of details — who is the owner of the website, detailed customer service information, and so on. Non-YMYL pages These pages usually need less information — an email address may be sufficient in some cases. So based on the purpose of your website, make sure you’re giving users all the possible information they need to be able to trust you and make a more informed decision. Positive Reputation Online reputation management is a big part of SEO. The guidelines say that a positive reputation definitely helps when it comes to classifying page quality as “high”. Having said that, the reputation is not as important as factors like quality of main content. Which means that a page which doesn’t have a positive reputation can also be marked as a high-quality page. Also Read: Know About the Future of SEO Having said that, a negative reputation is a big no-no. Having a negative reputation will automatically disqualify a webpage from having a high-quality ranking. That’s why a large part of online reputation management will involve mitigating negative reputation. Here are some of the most common ways your webpage can acquire a negative reputation: Negative Press: This is especially tricky if the content is long-form as opposed to a small paragraph or mention somewhere. The severity of the damage also depends on the Domain Authority of the news site. Government Notices: Government sites are considered trustworthy and tend to rank high — so a Government notice can be bad news. Bad Reviews on Neutral Sites: These can really damage your reputation, especially when they start to gain traction, and people post one after another. Bad Reviews on the Website: These are easier to manage but should still be few and far between. Litigation, Criminal Records, Tax Default: These usually appear on reputed government sites. They also contain a lot of text which leads to a higher ranking. Negative Mentions on Social Media: Reddit threads and Facebook groups tend to rank high since they fulfil the purpose they are created for. Negative reviews here means your reputation is likely to take a hit. Both news articles and opinion articles tend to rank very high riding on the reputation of the site on which they are published. However, reputation for different sites is measured differently. For instance, an article on a humour website could also rank highly because of the website’s reputation for creating humorous content. In other words, your reputation is built in the context of your website’s overall purpose. If you’re an entertainment website, you won’t be measured against stringent factual accuracy, whereas a news website would. The E-A-T Level Finally, a website will only have a high-quality rating if it has a high level of E-A-T (Expertise- Authoritativeness-Trustworthiness). Again, building expertise for a website depends entirely on the purpose of its creation.
Justwords Turns 10: Here Are 10 Lessons We Learnt
Justwords sprang to life in 2010. It’s sort of hard to believe that a decade has passed by since the first website went up. It felt good to launch the website, all yellow and bright (so wrong in terms of SEO today), carrying a pretty image of a piece of paper with punched holes as the background. It felt revolutionary to start a business that was going to be about content – about reimagining content for the digital world. The world felt right and things just seemed to fall together. When entrepreneurs start a company, they do not think of the troubles and problems that lay ahead. They think of victories, and wins, and how they are about to change something in the world – irrespective of whether they can or will ever do. It’s probably this courage, passion, and enthusiasm that led us to win our first big client – Nokia. They were looking for a young company that did good content and could help them execute an ambitious project. A friend had told a friend, who told another friend and that’s how the word got around that there was this startup in the market called Justwords – it did really good content. And that’s how it all started. It was kind of being swept up by a big wave into the sea when you have just learnt to swim. But that’s the beauty of it all. You gasp for breath, you come up for air, you remember what you are supposed to do and then just know what you have to do. And that was it. We were a small team, all sitting in our homes, and burning the midnight oil. We finished the whole project by 2011. It was a success. We had hit the ball right out of the park and got one happy client. Word got around and projects started trickling in. In 2012, we added a new product line, moved to a coworking space, added a tiny sales team. We focussed all our efforts in making that work. In doing so, we ignored what we were already doing well – content. In 2013, we almost failed and shut down. It was a dark phase but we survived. It taught us a lesson – focus on what you are good at. We returned to content and that saved us. Soon we found ourselves fascinated with content marketing. We focussed more and more on the combination of content and SEO and how it could drive up page views and traffic and change a company’s online presence and pull up its bottom line. Our whole business was getting built on one marketing strategy – Content Marketing. Over the years, we have kept growing. We were fortunate to work with some really good brands, who kept their faith in us and allowed us the opportunity to show some solid results. We feel incredibly indebted to all our patrons, especially the early ones who trusted us when we were not even a name. Without that trust, it would not have been possible for us to reach where we are today. So Thank You. Also Read: Why Content Marketing is important for any business? As we turn 10, we feel happy, excited, and humbled by all the love, support, and honour we received over the years. We also feel fortunate since 90% of all startups fail, despite the hard work, passion, right product, and everything else. That has also given us the confidence to say that we are really good at what we do. As a celebration of this decade-long journey, we thought of putting down a list of things we learnt in these 10 incredible years. So here you go. 1. Focus on the thing that you do best – If you play to your strengths, you increase your chances of winning the game. Be committed to what you believe in and make that work. Work on improving the strength of your brand;test it again and again, and make it stronger with knowledge and the right resources. We knew how to make content work and that saved us.Content marketing drove in leads, clients, and revenue. Even to this day, almost all our conversions come from inbound marketing. We offer what we know really well. And that is why we have been able to make it work. We built on that strength and almost closed when we ignored it. 2. Work hard to ensure customer satisfaction- It’s amazing what a happy client can do for your brand. If your customer is not happy, you are doing something wrong – well most of the times that is. Work hard on fixing that. If you have signed up a client, you need to work as a team and deliver on the results. A lot of business comes to Justwords through referrals from other clients. Also, we have a great track record of clients coming back to us for more and more. So work on your clients, and you wouldn’t have to worry about revenue. 3. Turn your failures into learnings- No one likes a failure. But when you fail it’s important to get back on your feet and get ready to start again. If you risk, failure is just something that can happen. Yes it sucks, yes it can be devastating but you simply cannot take failure as the end. Failure, almost inevitably, teaches you something. It tells you that you are going wrong. So you need to tweak that and start again. When we almost failed in 2013, it taught us that we should change our business strategy. If we would have shut shop then, we would never have reached this point. Here is a nice quote that I found recently that drives this point home. It’s from the founder of a company called Stella and Dot. She says “You have to see failure as the
AskNestle Wins Bronze at the Global WARC Awards: How We Helped Build Nestle’s Strongest Digital Asset
It’s not everyday that you get to be a part of a product that promises to be change worthy, and then also goes ahead and wins one of the most prestigious international awards – the Global WARC awards. In the middle of all the gloomy news, we received this one-hell-of-a-good-news email last week. It was from the head of communications, Nestle India, RashiGoel. She was informing us that AskNestle- a cutting-edge food tech product by Nestle – had won the Bronze at the Global WARC Awards 2020 in the “Effective Innovation” category.It was the only entry from India. “I cannot help but express heartfelt gratitude from the AskNestle Team at Nestlé… This success would not have been possible without the support, encouragement and many many nights of effort that has been put in by you. The AskNestle product has been created by a community of people, each one contributing ideas, analysis, technology, content and most of all positive intent,” read the email. It was addressed to the whole team that had built the product – designers, developers, technology partners, marketers, and content creators (that’s where we came into the picture). So now that you know why are have been up and excited about this whole episode, let me explain how content plays a part in AskNestle and how we played a (small yet significant) part in the whole process. AskNestle – Helping Mothers Understand Nutrition The whole thing that drives AskNestle is content and technology. It was developed to be a one-stop platform for complete child nutrition and help mothers of children (0-12) explore, learn and understand the best of nutrition knowledge. Also Read: Recipe of a Successful Food Blog That is what makes the product so compelling. To break it down, AskNestle offers these 4 things – A GROWTH TRACKER – This allows parents to track their child’s growth against other kids of the same age and height and weight. CUSTOM MEAL PLANS– These are designed on the basis of a growth tracker, taking into account regional preferences, food choices and allergies. A REPOSITORY OF RECIPES FOR CHILDREN – These are supposed to help mothers find to give proper nourishment. A KNOWLEDGE CENTRE OF EXPERT ARTICLES – This was designed as a resource hub where parents could find easy to understand and reliable nutritional knowledge. This was also supposed to equip mothers with the right knowledge about nutrition, banish myths, clear doubts about food and nutrition and health, and finally help them use that information in building healthier childhoods for their little ones. It was to create this knowledge hub that Justwords was taken aboard. Here is a CASE STUDY on how we did it. Creating Content that was Interesting, Engaging and Reliable: We started by understanding the objectives closely and then shared our plan to achieve the same. The biggest challenge here was to create content that was not only appealing to the average Indian mother, but also to create content that was factually right from the nutrition standpoint. Also Read: 10 Perfect Taglines That You Just Can’t Forget Hence, our first job was to put together a team of nutritionist writers as well a nutrition expert who could guide us on getting the content right. With that in place, we made sure that everyone else on the team, meaning the editors and the designers were all on the same page. The second challenge was a very strict deadline. How could we manage to put together this vast project on such a stringent deadline? We knew if this had to work, every team had to work like clockwork. The process had to be super smooth. After consulting the client, we zeroed in on popular nutrition and health categories for content development, like Immunity, Balanced Diet, Nutrients, Eating Habits, Deficiencies, Concerns, Digestive Health and Breastfeeding. Growth and Development, Complementary Feeding, Fussy Eating in Kids and Recipes were some other categories covered to address the usual pain points of expecting women and mothers. The content was further subdivided into different styles, like listicles, e-books, FAQs and guides and visually rich infographics. Once this was ready, the nutrition team created briefs for each topic, the writers wrote, the editors and nutrition experts checked for quality, and the design team added visuals. While the content team made sure that the everything was factually correct and relevant for the Indian audience, the design team focused on creating rich and attractive infographics, which could easily be read and understood my busy moms. Timely delivery and rigorous quality checks for all the content areas were ensured. Taking our content journey to the next level and attempting to reach a larger group of parents across India, the content was further translated in Hindi. Throughout the process of content development, we constantly updated the client about our progress and incorporated their suggestions and ideas to ensure that the perfect content hub was created. Also Read: Start and Build a Digital Marketing Agency Like with any successful tech product, we were also building this entire content library in an incredibly short span of time. In an incredible collaborative effort, the product went live in April 2020. Here are a Few Lessons we Learned in the Process: It’s important to chalk out a broad-level plan of how the project is going to flow. Set dates at every stage, assign the teams and have a workshop so that everyone is on the same page with the project delivery deadlines. Create an editorial calender for the content hub. Use tools like AHREFS and Buzzsumo to get select topics which are trending and have keywords likely to drive traffic. Start planning early since experts have other engagements too. Use experts who have in depth knowledge of the subject and can write well. Have a strong editorial team that can ensure quality output. A knowledge of SEO will make
9 Crucial Things To Keep In Mind While Building Your Digital Marketing Agency
We’ve all dreamt of being our own boss. Having a swanky office, a gifted team, innovative work and big clients, maybe your name on the masthead. But for most marketers, these castles in the air don’t anchor to firm ground. Why? It’s not because they lack talent, or that they don’t know where to start. There’s just too much competition before you make it as the cream of the crop. As brands set aside bigger budgets for digital advertising, it’s natural for everyone to want a piece of the client cake. There’s not much investment you need to start an agency. If you know your stuff, it’s actually quite simple. Working from home is easier than ever, and there’s little overhead costs. It’s landing—and holding onto—your first clients, that becomes difficult. But when has the road to success ever been a straight line? Little orange traffic cones can show up in the form of late nights, endless meetings, and countless rejections. But don’t dwell too long on these issues. If you have the drive, the passion, and the will to succeed, anyone can make it. Here’s our no-frills guide to get you started:- 1. Identify your niche, and build on it It sounds like a good idea to offer different services to clients. More options equals more projects, right? Wrong. This is not the best approach when you’ve just started out. Reputed agencies will already be offering integrated digital marketing solutions—as the fresh young thing, you have to find ways to stand out. Draw on experience and domain expertise. Identify your core competencies and build a market reputation in that segment. Advertisers starting an agency could focus more on creatives and design, while SEO experts might push forward based on their ability to reel in traffic. If you’ve worked in hospitality, your new digital marketing agency could offer custom solutions in food, travel and hotels. This narrows down your audience, weeds out competitors, and shows clients you know what you’re doing. Once you’ve built up enough testimonials and have a stable cash flow, you can gradually expand your niche. Always pick quality over quantity—remember, Amazon started with just books! Don’t waste precious earnings on renting offices or hiring too many people. Instead, set up a talented network of freelancers with only a few core staff on the payroll. Scale up as needed, but don’t skimp out on essentials like SEO experts or web developers. That’s the beauty of digital—all you need is talent, computers and good Internet to get started. 2. Your first client gets the ball rolling From cold calling prospects, to attending seminars and conferences to build your network, to generating leads through SEM, go all out when it comes to bagging your first few brands. Don’t go for big names—they probably have a long-term agency partner—and be open-minded about the businesses you want to bring in. Focus on startups who need help getting their operations off the ground. Give a solid sales pitch to break the ice, and maybe throw in a freebie or two. As you spread the word, it’s the unforeseen meet-ups that give you your first client. Don’t forget to tap into social Media channels. You’re just starting out, so people won’t come to you. Get ready to draw attention instead! 3. Know what you’re doing At the end of the day, it’s the business leader who pulls in the big bucks. Their knowledge of sales, combined with soft skills, will determine a company’s path—no matter how good the supporting staff are. As the face of the company, people’s opinion of you will affect agency perception. Your corporate communication—or even informal chats—must be crisp, clear and convincing. Brush up on latest trends and competitors. Don’t talk fluff. Your clients are probably testing out multiple agencies, and you must win their trust. Nobody will buy your services without the assurance that the CEO knows what they’re doing. Also Read: Incredible Blogging Stats to Inspire You to Blog 4. Have a system in place Creativity runs wild, but it needs policies and procedures to keep things in check. Your agency must have a uniform process while tackling any project. Right from converting leads into customers, to handing over the last deliverable, a clear-cut workflow must be in place. Who handles sales calls? What is the turnover period? Who manages client accounts and daily reports? How many revisions can brands ask for? Equip your team with all company guidelines, so that they don’t have to consult you for every step. 5. Mix marketing chops with technology If you want to grow as a digital marketing firm, you need the right tools to get work done. Project management software, team communication apps, keyword research platforms or social media know-how—get tech that streamlines your tasks and helps you work smart. Project management tools like Asana, Trello and Basecamp organise all work communications in a single place. Teams can report their progress as you assign and track tasks, as well as chat and share documents from a single window. This works wonders if you don’t have a physical office yet. Similarly, social media tools like Hootsuite and Buffer let you manage and analyse multiple channels from one place. The automation helps prevent confusion and mistakes if you’re handling many clients at the same time. 6. Be involved in the system Try to know every inch of your daily operations. Branding yourself as an expert digital marketer? You should be able to show that when clients start asking questions. Don’t micromanage your team, but be involved in their projects. Monitor their approach, suggest changes, and step in where necessary. Communicate regularly with clients and make sure to incorporate feedback. Over time, it gives your team a better idea of what to do for each account. 7. Focus on customer experience Business isn’t just about sales. The customer’s journey and overall experience is what builds the bottom line. Treat customers with value and respect, and strive to offer