Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most unique areas of marketing — people either love it or hate it, there’s usually no middle ground. One of the reasons for this is that since its inception around 15 years ago, SEO has been constantly evolving. Justwords has been around for a decade now and in just 10 years we’ve seen so many shifts in the world of SEO. There was a time when stuffing blogs with keywords and creating hundreds of poor-quality backlinks actually helped increase search engine rankings, but that seems laughable today. Many of our clients ask us if there is any point in investing in SEO when things always change so quickly. In fact, SEO can often seem like a cat-and-mouse game between marketers and Google. The Google search engine algorithm is hell-bent on rewarding only high-quality content and trustworthy websites, and every update becomes another challenge for marketers to overcome. Yet, avoiding SEO is the worst possible answer to this conundrum. The fact of the matter is that organic traffic still contributes as much as 53% of all website traffic. And it’s really the only form of traffic that is sustainable in the long run, just because you don’t have to pay for every additional click on your website. Image Source So what’s the key to successful SEO? It’s fairly simple really — just stay updated. Every year, the Google search algorithm changes — sometimes in small, subtle ways and other times with massive upheavals. In fact, Google made 3200 changes to its algorithm in 2018 alone — that’s right, 3200 changes in just one year! With so much changing almost every single day, it’s important to keep going back to the drawing board to revise your approach to SEO, or there’s a strong chance you’ll get left behind in the organic traffic game. In this article, we break down the 5 best SEO tips for 2020 so that you can get that website ranking in Google once and for all. SEO Tips #1: Search engines are now much “smarter” This was the year Google released BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers). BERT is an NLP (Natural Language Processing) based update that focusses on the intent behind the search query. This means that for the first time, Google search is able to take transformer words (to, for, etc) into account while deciding rankings as opposed to just the keywords. Also Read: Google BERT — The Algorithm Update Everyone is Talking about and How it Will Affect Your SEO What does this really mean? It means that Google has started prioritizing the idea that is conveyed by the content over the keywords. So if you’re stuffing keywords like it’s 2010, then you’ll find yourself far from the first page of Google search results. The best way to deal with BERT is to start creating content that is geared towards audiences and not Google search rankings. It’s also important to start focussing on informational search — building content that answers important queries. Mathew Howells-Barby, Director of Acquisition at Hubspot sums it up in a nutshell, “Ultimately, BERT will dramatically increase Google’s ability to better understand the context behind queries being made in the search engine, thus allowing them to better serve results that match intent. But marketers shouldn’t be looking for ways to game the new update. There’s no ‘optimizing for BERT’ in the same way that there was no ‘optimizing for RankBrain’. The result of BERT being introduced has simply meant that Google’s natural language processing engine has reached new heights and you can expect much more granular answering of queries. If you’re already optimizing for intent, you’re in a good place.” SEO Tips #2: High-quality content that focusses on long-tail keywords This is going to be the key to success in SEO this year. Google has started rewarding high-quality content — although there may be exceptions, chances are that if your content is the best in a particular category it will rank highly. In short, you need to make your content the best in the domain that you’re competing in. But with 2 million blog posts getting published every day, this is easier said than done. A good way of doing this is to find long-tail keywords that you want to rank for, and then create content around those. For instance, let’s say you have a bakery in Noida that delivers cakes through online orders. If you create content around ‘Order cake online’, you will find it very hard to find a Google search ranking because of the competition. If you choose to build a high-quality, authoritative piece of content around ‘order cake online in Noida’, then chances are you can create content that will be an industry leader for this phrase. This will make achieving that website ranking in Google a lot easier. Also Read: 5 Types of Content to Get More Traffic to Your Blog For this strategy to succeed, it’s important to pick keywords that are at that sweet spot — where they attract a fair bit of traffic but are not as competitive as some others. Here are some of the best tools to help you figure out the long-tail keywords you need to target: SEMrush SEMrush is one of the most effective long-tail keyword research tools. This is mostly because it lets you see where your competitors stand, across keywords. It also allows you to see which keywords competitors are bidding on so that you can customize your strategy. Google Keyword Planner We have a tendency to underrate Google’s own tools, but the Keyword Planner is one of the best free tools out there. While it may not give you detailed insights like some other tools, it still gives you a fairly comprehensive list of long-tail keywords (along with the traffic) that you can then choose from. BuzzSumo, AuthorityLabs, WordTracker, and UberSuggest are other keyword research tools that work really well. SEO
Author: Payel Mukherjee
Brand Campaigns That Earned the Right Spotlight on Republic Day 2020
Brands are in the constant lookout to engage with their prospects and build a moment marketing connection on special occasions. Republic Day 2020 too was one such occasion. On such days, it is never about a hard sell, but the messaging, where there is some product or service synergy. We questioned various marketers on how they can evaluate the value of such initiatives. Mostly ranging for a week to just on the day of the event, some believe in ensuring that they never miss a chance to be in the visibility range of their users. Others, with contests, offers and quizzes, and engagement campaigns, try to generate leads and sales too. Here are some interesting brand campaigns and ideas from Republic Day 2020. Twitter: India Gate Twitter launched the tricolor India Gate emoji on the 26th of January. They also had President Ramnath Kovind tweet it during his address to the nation. While an emoji is a great way to cut across language barriers, Twitter still made sure that the emoji (which was available until 30th Jan) was available in ten Indian languages, including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Urdu and Gurmukhi. Also Read: Content marketing for heavy industries – how you can make it work Google Doodle The 71st Republic Day Google Doodle was created by Meroo Seth, a Singapore based guest artist. It is the celebration of iconic India from famous landmarks like India Gate and the Taj Mahal to our national bird – the Indian peafowl, music and dance, fabric and culture. Even the camel from Rajasthan and the ubiquitous auto-rickshaw found a place in this doodle. Tiktok #Deshkibhasa @theshilpashettyHappy 71st Republic Day! Jai hind!??#DeshkiBhasha #fyp #republicday #republicday2020 #happyrepublicday♬ original sound – theshilpashetty Tiktok invited users to share videos of Republic Day wishes in their mother tongue using the hashtag #DeshkiBhasa. The tricolor sunglasses added to the fervor with several users responding to Tiktok’s call. It was an engagement strategy that urged users to create more videos by riding on the patriotic sentiment of the day. Zee5: #RepublicOfEntertainment View this post on Instagram The #RepublicOfEntertainment gives you the right to enjoy the best of blockbuster movies and original web series! @zee5 @zee5shows @zee5_marathi @zee5_bangla @zee5kannada @zee5telugu @zee5tamil A post shared by ZEE5 Premium (@zee5premium) on Jan 24, 2020 at 3:46am PST We need entertainment and we need it now. OTT platforms have both created and fulfilled a need that we did not know we had. Today, they are an integral part of the way we consume content (or rather binge watch it). This Republic Day, Zee5 put out the #RepublicOfEntertainment message with a pledge to entertain with no bias of language or genre. FBB: #WearYourPatriotism View this post on Instagram This Republic Day, express pride with your unique statement of fashion. #WearYourPatriotism and flaunt it well, with scarves from fbb. . . . #styles #scarf #india #RepublicDay #pride #patriotism #fbb #fbbOOTD #Suave #casual #fashiongram #basic #fbbonline #instaalert #Fashion #Style #CasualWear #Trending #MensWear #WomensWear #lookbook A post shared by fbb (@fbbonline) on Jan 22, 2020 at 6:29am PST FBB asked everyone to #WearYourPatriotism. This is a great way to ride on a popular trend as most people choose to wear some representative colors from the tricolor to mark the celebrations on this day. In addition to this, they also created a special line of scarves inspired by our flag. The proceeds from the sales of the scarves were to be donated to the Indian army. Also Read: How to start your first content marketing campaign: the 5 must-do steps Lava: #SendItBack Mobile handset brand Lava conducted the #SendItBack to curb the fake news menace. It urged users to send the ‘Back’ emoji to verify the authenticity of a forwarded message. The message also fits well into their #ProudlyIndian umbrella of brand positioning. Amazon Prime Video and Netflix Prime video launched The Forgotten armies on 24th of January and Netflix launched Vir Das of India on the 26th. Both shows are now on the trending list. Contests #ContestAlert #Contest ? Tag, Retweet, Repeat! #RepublicDayWithMoneyTap should be trending before we start.? Starting in 30 minutes.? #MoneyTap #RepublicDayWithMoneyTap #RepublicDay #RepublicDay2020 pic.twitter.com/QKw53kwMqz — MoneyTap (@MoneyTapApp) January 24, 2020 Several contests were launched on the occasion and some even lasted until the end of the month. Kamdhenu Paints put out the #ShareTheColoursOfRepublicIndia contest asking for four colors they associate with the four pillars of our constitution – Equality, Fraternity, Justice and Liberty. Money Tap ran a Republic Day Quiz, the OppoColorOS community ran a contest for their fans. Restaurant offers Restaurants came up with some interesting offers to woo customers on Republic Day, which also worked well for them as it was a Sunday. Soda Bottle OpenerWala offered one cocktail from their new menu for just INR 26, all-inclusive. Taste of Punjab offered all their dishes only in tricolors among others. See what you missed here Discounts If not a special campaign idea, discounts do manage to grab attention. Big Bazaar made their annual 5 SabseSatse Din campaign around Republic day. Here’s a look on what got discounted Ecommerce deals AJIO offered flash deals of 71% flat off on popular brands, Lemon salons offered 50% flat off on all services, Lenskart offered 50% off on everything, Helios offered flat 20% off, Myntra had the Right to Fashion sale, and Amazon and Flipkart also worked hard to catch our attention. Those that did not have an offer simply piggybacked on the celebration asking users to check out their already existing offers and discounts. So, what did your brand do differently on Republic Day? Share via comments.
5 Content Marketing Trends in 2020
Like everything else, digital trends in content marketing 2020 too are undergoing a change. The way we create, market, and analyze content will have some new facets. Blogs, social media content, websites, and apps will all still be on the content marketer’s job list. But there are going to be 5 new areas to focus on. January is the month when most content strategies for the year begin to take shape. Ensure these 5 latest content marketing trends are a part of your calendar for the year. Content Marketing Trend #1: User-Generated Content Short for User Generated Content, UGC started as a way for users to express their opinion and turned into a tool for marketers. UGC started with people sharing reviews of products and services. This was fanned into something much bigger with the usage of social channels. The free publicity worked in favor of the brand… until negative reviews gave birth to a new job in the digital landscape, known as online reputation management. Users decided to hold brands to ransom by increasing their amplification volume on social media. Some also go to the extent of tagging the company CXOs to be heard. This has driven brands to create a counter-strategy of sourcing, displaying and amplifying positive UGC. In the background of this play and counterplay, the fact of ebbing brand trust also came to light. At the beginning of this decade, content marketing trends 2020 showed that over 60% of people trust consumer comments more than the brand message. While the trust helps, this isn’t foolproof either. The Shed at Dulwich experiment, stories on AI bot reviews and, of course, planted reviews for SEO are also alternative fakes in the real world of UGC. What does this mean for marketers to generate great UGC? Understand your UGC sourcing points. UGC starts at a point when the user has made a purchase and is having a moment of delight on usage. For many companies, all customer-facing functions from pre-sales to sales to after-sales servicing allow opportunities to generate UGC. To ensure you are generating this, create channel touchpoints and reminders in all your customer lifecycle journeys. Record and attribute feedback to a campaign or strategy and work. Make it a point to reward your brand advocates and train all your customer-facing touchpoints to customarily ask for feedback at the end of the experience. Get to the root cause of negative UGC. Use custom strategy to manage UGC from each channel. If you are a B2C brand with an active customer base on social media, you can use FB and Insta visitor posts to be moderated and pulled into your site for the showcase. Twitter is often used as a complaint forum so you can either source out positive UGC to be posted on the channel (via campaigns/contests) or have different handles for brand and customer queries. Allow guest and influencer posts. Create a community of your users: A community (either brand owned or general) is a great way to source out the most engaged users of your brand, nurture them and elevate them as brand advocates. They are your non-paid (of sorts) sales managers who can, in this day and age, sell more than you can imagine. Also Read: 6 Reasons Why your Content Marketing may be Failing and How to Fix it Content Marketing Trend #2: Voice will get bigger The way we search is undergoing an overhaul. Google is releasing more updates every day than we can track. But the trend lines show a clear inclination towards voice search. Don’t believe us? Observe a 4-year-old with a mobile searching for YouTube videos. The search went from “London Hotel” to ”Cheap hotel in London near Hyde Park”. Subsequently, the way we write content to cater to this new audience also needs to change. Search results are now focused on not only having the best answer to user queries but also answering questions on Google directly. In addition to this, we also have Siri, Alexa and a few others competing for giving answers quickly. In the near future, you will be wondering how much your friendly neighbourhood search engine can do. If you didn’t hear the ‘a-hah…’ by Google Assistant during Sundar Pichai’s keynote address at Google I/O 2019, you simply HAVE to watch this video. https://www.facebook.com/EconomicTimes/videos/10155431554932694/ OK Google, Show me content trends in 2020 for voice search. Focus on Featured Snippets: Featured snippets, well, get featured, right on top of organic search results in the form of an ‘answer box’. Content featured here is your best bet on generating traffic. Here’s an interesting read on how you can go about doing this. Write for user intent: When you search for your brand, Google will show you the most common set of queries around your brand. Write a blog to answer each of these. Also ensure that your FAQ section is updated and your site is interlinking well to the answers to the most commonly asked queries. Use long-tail keywords: Have blogs and content specifically targeted at long-tail keywords. In fact, ensure these are quality, authoritative blogs and also meet additional criteria of having over 5000 words, content chunking and keywords highlighted in the right proportion. Improve page speed: Speed is key in getting your website up for general and voice search. Don’t take your eyes off the ball on this one. Use structured data: Adding Schema markup allows machines to better interpret the content you are putting out. This will be key in making your content ‘readable’ for voice search. See Infographic: Why Content Marketing Works? Content Marketing Trend #3: Personalization is your next big digital content trend The new throw-around word in Content is conversational marketing. Is it really possible to have a direct conversation when you are speaking to the mass of your audience? Advertising has done this over the years. For instance, talking to different audiences with different messaging. A fairness cream may mean different things to different women. A
7 Reasons Why Outsourcing Content Can Stop Being a Pain and Become a Pleasure
Content creation and marketing are among the most underrated tasks in marketing. It requires a mix of many skill sets along with the ability to constantly keep up with changing formats and burgeoning requirements. A content creator needs to be well-versed with various specialized forms of content like text (blogs, website copy), ad content (banners), images (visual content), social media content, audio, video, presentations, and other emerging formats. In addition to creation, there is the tough task of classification and storage for easy retrieval, content dissemination within the organization and outside, a content marketing and re-marketing strategy and analytical knowhow to determine the ROI derived from the content. In addition to all this, the constant check for outdated content and revising it is a task on its own. Although this sounds like the usual job description for a content manager, it is nowhere close to being simple. Often, the sheer volume of content can be exhausting. The job requires not only editorial skills but sound technical knowledge and functional knowledge of ATL, BTL and digital formats of content. The most immediate solution is to outsource some parts of the work to an external agency to do the heavy lifting. It eases the internal pressure and also allows you to expand the volume of work as and when required. The bone of contention here is that ‘managing the agency’ now gets added to the content manager’s job description. The agency-client relationship is one that needs to be handled with patience and understanding from both sides. Persistent deadlines or a deadweight team member can often strain the relationship, causing damage to the process as a whole. Even then, outsourcing content should be a valid consideration when you are making your strategy. Here’s why: 1. Tap into the skill sets of professionals you require, as and when you need it This is, by far, the biggest advantage of content outsourcing. While some content needs will be ongoing, a lot will change according to your campaigns and needs of your organization. From creating emailers in new languages to tweaking content on the landing page, or a GIF to announce a new product variant, you will require professionals with different skill sets at different times. Having a content marketing agency on board will give you the flexibility to pull in expert resources as and when you require. 2. Save time for your business The biggest contribution you can make to your organization is to drive a content strategy. With a load of content creation services outsourced, you will have the bandwidth to contribute on critical aspects of ‘why’ the content is being created and what are the best ways to drive its ROI. 3. You can create and publish more content Imagine that your Search Engine Optimization agency shares a new strategy that you write 10 long-form blogs every month in addition to 10 short articles. Don’t forget, you also need to do all the other regular content. If you have a sales meet at the end of the month, you may also need to create collaterals for it. Demands vary on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis and you will need flexible support to be able to deliver on these demands. 4. It’s cheaper From producing short films to translations, you will require professionals with various skills as a part of your content team. Hiring individuals with such specialized skills will not be the best strategy as, more often than not, each individual will be required selectively and will come at a lofty salary. Instead of hiring an entire team, outsourcing content to various agencies can be a better approach to saving on costs. 5. Get fresh viewpoints and ideas Everyone is creating content to the extent that the daily churn can be overwhelming at times. It is important to take a step back and not lose sight of the big picture. With new campaigns and channels, it is important for you as a content owner to be able to innovate constantly. Having an agency partner will mean getting specialized ideas from industry experts. You can collectively tap on their knowledge base and creative talents to come up with ideas. It also helps to have a sounding board with multiple viewpoints to be able to take a weighted decision. 6. Experiment with different types of content From infographics to cinemagraphs to Whatsapp updates, having a partner churning out content will give you a wider range of content to experiment with. It takes persistence and to keep experimenting with a particular type of content to determine if it is working for your audience. Having a partner share different formats as per your calendar requirement can allow you to schedule tryouts and have a more data-driven approach to your content marketing. 7. It is easier to measure your ROI At the end of the day, all our work comes down to how well we can measure the ROI for it. Measuring ROI from content is tricky as it is almost never the only variable in the equation (like blogs or SEO). It is easier when you are A/B testing emails or landing pages. Traffic, engagement, leads and ultimately conversions are some of the metrics that will have to be measured for all the content you create. Discussing these early on with your partner agency and setting key performance indicators (KPIs) will allow you to measure the ROI on your content on an ongoing basis. With the reports and analysis coming in, you can now spend constructive time to act on the feedback to tweak your strategy. Conclusion: Having a content partner allows your organization to take a lean and agile approach for all your content needs. Having you helm the relationship and own the strategy ensures the best use of your time and expertise. If you are looking for an agency that can not only create content but do it with a ROI focus, drop a
5 Content Marketing Ideas to Showcase Your Brand This Republic Day
India’s emergence as an independent republic is observed with much pride and gaiety on the 26th January of every year. Since 1950, this day has been deemed as a national holiday, and it not only evokes patriotic sentiments in the common man but also allows him to spend quality time with loved ones and indulge in happy pursuits. So, what does this mean for brands? It means leveraging the unique importance of the Republic Day to showcase your products and services in a whole new light! From sales and discounts to new product launches, most brands engage in a variety of marketing activities around this time. But that is not all. With the advent of digital marketing services, attracting the attention of the target audience is a whole different ballgame. The concept of marketing has witnessed several transitions in the last few decades. While Marketing 2.0 was about highlighting the features and benefits of a product, Marketing 3.0 is all about sentiment. Brands are now shifting focus from talking about the product directly and moving on to things that consumers connect to, as human beings. It’s the emotions and sentiments that stay at the forefront — the product itself recedes to the background. Keeping this in mind, it’s a good idea to build some unique content for Republic Day. Here are five different approaches that have worked really well for brands in the past. Tugging at the heartstrings Appealing to people’s sentimental attachment to the country is one of the most effective ways to plan a Republic Day campaign. Most effective sentimental campaigns focus on one aspect of India that’s particularly appealing and then build an entire campaign around it. While images can work with this one, we’ve generally found that short videos with the right words, images, and background score have the maximum impact. Here are some great examples: Tata Salt In 2019, Tata Salt used the hashtag #NamakKeWaastey and created a wonderful video using salt art. The video talks about the spirit of the Indian constitution, which can always make the sentimentalists teary-eyed. We often take for granted the freedom and privileges of living in the largest Democratic Republic in the world. Here’s a salt art tribute revisiting some of the many reasons to celebrate the Indian Constitution #NamakKeWaastey pic.twitter.com/35v7aZjDzD — Tata Salt (@_deshkanamak) January 25, 2019 Sony Pictures Network Sony Pictures really nailed their Republic Day Content last year — their beautiful video talks about unity in diversity in their filmmaking. This one was a tear-jerker— and a perfect example of sentimentality meets patriotism. View this post on Instagram Cinema that entertains and binds this great Republic together! ❤️ Here’s wishing all our fellow countrymen a #HappyRepublicDay! ?? गणतंत्र दिवस की हार्दिक शुभकामनाएँ । ? A post shared by Sony Pictures Networks (@sonypicsprodns) on Jan 26, 2019 at 12:42am PST Paper Boat Paper Boat focuses on a very specific kind of Republic Day sentiment— nostalgia. With vivid memories of numerous Republic Day celebrations in school, this one finds an immediate connect with its audience. This campaign is particularly clever because the theme of Paper Boat’s overall marketing also revolves around nostalgia— and this post fits in perfectly. Tongue-in-cheek While one doesn’t traditionally associate humor with Republic Day, it’s still a great opportunity to design some witty, tongue-in-cheek content. Here are some examples of brands that nailed it: Zomato This image is the perfect example of tongue-in-cheek — it wishes the reader a happy Republic Day, while also focusing on their love for food (which in turn is very closely related to their business). Chances are, many viewers saw the image, realized they were hungry, and decided to order from —you guessed it — Zomato. Visual product placement This is one of the easiest and yet most effective ways to create a successful Republic Day campaign. All you need is an incredibly creative graphic that allows you to integrate your product with a Republic Day campaign seamlessly. Here’s our list of brands that really got this right: Amazon This campaign is simple yet so effective — making the tri-color a part of the Amazon packaging integrates the product and the Republic Day message with great ease. Strangely enough, Flipkart put up a very similar post not long after Amazon — but they went a step ahead to subtly emphasize that Flipkart was “born Indian”! Oreo Oreos Republic Day image gets it completely right. Visual, evocative, and most importantly, delicious-looking — need we say more? Engagement building campaign Republic Day is a major foundation stone in the idea of India as a nation— which makes it a big talking point, especially nowadays. Hence, a great content marketing services idea would be to build a thought provoking campaign, inviting opinions from the viewers. This doesn’t have to be very political or controversial — it can even be fun and frivolous! Myntra This is one of the best examples in this category. Myntra uses the constitution— and the principle of fundamental rights — to create the hashtag #RightToFashion. It then asks users to come up with their own definition of style and fashion— redefining their Right to Fashion. It’s fun, relevant, and designed to instantly invite engagement. Also Read: Here’s How Brands Used Social Media to Celebrate Republic Day 2019 Action-driven campaign Since Republic Day is such an important and momentous occasion, it’s a great way to encourage viewers to take some action— building on a particular sentiment associated with the day. Here are a couple of great examples: Axis Mutual Funds With this campaign, Axis Mutual Funds is focusing on what it means to be a responsible citizen— and correlating that with what it means to be a responsible investor. https://www.facebook.com/AxisMutualFund/photos/a.719225541430944/2193682630651887/?type=3 Robin Hood Army and Girliyaapa This was one of the more interesting Republic Day campaigns from last year. The Robin Hood Army collaborated with popular YouTube channel Girliyapa
Content Writing 101: How to Become a Successful Content Writer
Content writing can be a tricky profession today. On the one hand, everyone’s potentially a writer in the age of the internet, which can make it really hard to stand out. On the other hand, with the number of brands that rely on content marketing agency today (newsflash, it’s almost everyone), there is no dearth of opportunities. It’s important to remember that being an effective content writer is very different from writing for magazines, newspapers, and journals. It also isn’t the same as typing out a few posts on your different social media channels. At Justwords, we have built a successful business over the last decade because we truly empower our writers, investing in them, so that they get the skills they need to succeed. Here are some of the basic things you need to keep in mind while embarking on a journey as a content writer: Find your niche(s) This is one of the most important things you need to do as a content writer, especially if you plan on freelancing at some point. There are a huge number of content writers today; and many of them are floundering, unable to make a sustainable career out of writing. And then there are others who are on top of their game and are constantly in demand. The major difference between these two sides is this — people who succeed at content writing, get ahead of the curve, and invest time and effort in finding the right niche(s). To be a successful writer, you can’t be a jack of all trades. You have to find niches that you’re good at and stick to them. To choose the right niche, think about three things: Is it a profitable niche where writers are in high demand? Is it a niche where I can build expertise and write with authority? Is it a niche that I would enjoy writing about? Zero in on the niche that fits the bill and then stick to it. You don’t have to stick to just one niche — you can develop expertise in multiple niches as well. But you need to find these niches and build your expertise— don’t try to write about everything under the sun. It may mean multiple assignments in the short run, but it won’t ensure a sustainable content writing career. Also Read: 10 Tips To Get Past The Writer’s Block Write as if you’re talking It’s important to understand how content writing differs from any other kind of writing. At the end of the day, your words are the medium through which a brand is connecting to its audience. In the age of constant information and instant gratification, people are not going to work hard to read your content. This means, your content needs to be simple, interesting, and effortlessly readable. One of the best ways to write in a simple, readable way is to imagine that you’re not writing a blog— you’re just having a conversation with a member of your target audience. When the blog takes on that conversational tone, it automatically clicks better with readers. Use short simple sentences, don’t convolute things too much, and try to relate to your audience. Also Read: The content writer’s easy grammar cheat sheet Formatting is everything If you think spewing some words on a blog is enough, think again. Today, people scan content, rather than read it. For people to go through your content in a matter of a few seconds, it really needs to stand out. Here’s how: Use bullet points wherever you can, to draw attention Use subheads and short paragraphs Incorporate images and infographics wherever you can — visuals drive home the point much faster Learn the rules of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) As a content writer today, you need to know the basics of SEO — it gives you an immediate edge over competitors. Fortunately, you don’t have to know too many technicalities. As a writer, the main SEO-related skill you need to have is to be able to figure out which keywords (anything from a few words to a long-phrase) need to fit into which content piece. You can do this by using simple tools like SEMRush or Google’s Keyword Planner. Once you have a set of keywords, you need to be able to incorporate these organically within your content. This means that the keywords should exist in your content, but never in a way that feels forced. Keyword stuffing is a huge no-no— remember, you’re writing for your audience first and foremost and not Google’s algorithm. Also Read: 13 actionable copywriting tricks to get your SEO content rocking The world is your oyster One of the biggest advantages of being a content writer is the freedom and flexibility that come with it. You can get several well-paying gigs even as you work from the comfort of your home— which means you can work as a content writer from anywhere in the world. What it also means is that you should be able to find clients across the world (especially if you write in a global language like English). Invest in marketing yourself — set up your website, showcase your portfolio of work, and focus on meeting the right people. Marketing yourself as a writer can seem a bit intimidating but it’s well worth the effort. You’ll find yourself commanding higher rates and working with better clients, and not just in your home country, but across the globe. At the end of the day, content writing can be one of the most satisfying and lucrative professions. But given the sheer amount of competition, you have to make sure that you invest enough time and resources to acquire the right set of skills. Do try these tips and let us know if they worked for you. If there are any important tips we’ve missed out on, let us know in the comments below. Watch: We are a Content-First Agency
5 Types of Content to Get More Traffic to Your Blog
Are you suffering from blogger’s block? Or, just wondering how to liven up your blog so that you can find a better connection with your audience? If so, you’re not alone. Most content marketers struggle with this at some stage of their journey— maintaining a blog that’s consistently exciting isn’t easy. Luckily, over the years at Justwords, we’ve been able to figure out certain types of content that can immediately boost your blog calendar. What’s more, with different types of content, you can even recycle old content in new formats — like old wine in a new bottle, so to speak. So if you’re looking to make your blog richer or increase blog traffic, make sure you incorporate these 10 types of content. How-to articles/tutorials An effective how-to article is one of the best ways to draw attention from your readers. Here’s why: Many queries on Google are related to learning to do something — whether that’s changing a tire, baking a cake, or writing a good blog post. A how-to post guarantees that you will be found by people looking to solve a specific problem. “How to” posts come under the category of “evergreen content”. This means that as long as you keep making minor updates, your article will continue to be relevant to users, even if they are reading it 3-4 years down the line. This increases the longevity of your post and brings a steady stream of traffic. It’s a great way of informing people about your business. If your how-to post is essentially a summary or short glimpse of what your business does, you’ll definitely be in the minds of users when they’re looking for a paid solution. Also Read: 8 Proven Ways to Increase Traffic to Your Blog in 2020 Topical, curated content You don’t have to do Content creation from scratch — curating a newsletter with high-value content from thought leaders in your industry is a great way to add that extra zing to your blog. You need to keep a few things in mind here: Choose quality over quantity— only share articles that add value to the users. If you spend time in researching quality content, it will help build your credibility as an industry expert. The format and theme of the newsletter are critical — it’s the way you link different pieces together and showcase them through a particular lens that really matters. The frequency of a curated newsletter depends on the nature of your content, and how easy it is to find quality content in your industry — it can be weekly, fortnightly, monthly or even daily. Also Read: How to Write Content That is Future-Proofed for Google Algorithm Updates Product Reviews and Comparisons If it makes sense in your content marketing plan, product reviews or comparisons are a great idea. Customers are always looking for reviews before they make purchase choices so this one is guaranteed to get you those eyeballs. These blogs are also fairly straightforward to execute and can become a staple part of your blogging calendar as long as they don’t detract from the overall messaging and aesthetics of your blog. Of course, once you become a regular with reviews, chances are that you’ll be inundated with free samples of products, which is a nice little bonus! Also Read: How Customer Reviews Can Bring a Whole New Meaning to Your Content Marketing Infographics It is said that 70% of all sensory receptors are in your eyes — which means that humans are visually wired. What’s more, color visuals are likely to increase our willingness to read something by 80%. In short, anything that’s extremely visual is appealing — and that’s why infographics are becoming so popular. Some things to keep in mind: Infographics are a combination of great content and great design. It’s important to have a great theme, a particular format for presenting the content, and some great data to back you up. At the same time, you need a top-notch design— consider using a professional graphic artist to build those infographics. If you can’t create your own infographic, you can still share existing infographics. Most of them are ready to be embedded — so add a paragraph or two of your own perspective, and share an existing infographic. Also Read: Visual content formats that can triple your content marketing results Case Studies Case studies are one of the most effective ways to demonstrate your value to potential users. If you’ve already achieved fantastic outcomes for someone, a prospective customer needs to know that. Keep the following in mind when designing case studies: It might be tempting to throw in all the facts about a particular case. But it’s more important to design a compelling narrative that draws readers in. If a user reading your case is able to connect with the situation being presented, your job is 70% done. Focus on outcomes — big, important metrics make a huge splash. Showcasing the impact you had in a real, meaningful way will go a long way in finding the right customers. Don’t try to show off your work. Be more focused on showcasing the actual solving of customer problems through the case. Using these content types is a sure-shot way to get more blog traffic and add some freshness. Best of all, many of these content types can become a recurring feature in your blogging calendar. If there are any other content formats that you’d like to add to this list, let us know in the comments below!
Best Content Examples of 2019
As the year comes to a close, it’s time to share our favourite picks of content from around the world that has induced a range of emotions. We had the team pick and vote their favourite content and these are the ones that we want to be on our list in 2020 too. The most interesting newsletter(s) whlw What Happened Last Week is an amazing email magazine circulated by Sham Jaff every Monday. There are over 5000 people who subscribe to this ‘human-curated’ magazine. The magazine does not give news but adds perspective to each facet of the story. From how the current situation in South Sudan is affecting the world to what Christine Lagarde – Forbes No. 2 most powerful woman – is planning, you’ll read different stories in a new light. The magazine works on donation from patrons. Subscribe here https://www.whathappenedlastweek.com/ TMAI Being a digital and content writing agency, The Marketing and Analytics Intersect circulated by Avinash Kaushik holds a special place in our heart. Most of his newsletters hold an interesting nugget of wisdom on the one piece of a campaign that many marketers want to cover up in fluff – real ROI. It always brings the focus back on data and analysis and the overall purpose on why you started with content marketing in the first place. The Best ads of 2019 Ballerinas, footballers, an astronaut, a hummingbird, a tiger, fairy lights and a cloud of smoke – we can’t imagine what the brief for this ad would have been! Clearly, it looks like Indian viewers found the combination along with the animation an interesting way to introduce a new car. The Kia Seltos ad bagged 232 million views on YouTube, making it the most-watched ad of 2019. Not too far behind, with 205 million views, is the Samsung Good Vibes ad. With the perfect mix of product innovation (an app for the deaf and blind) and feel good factor, this 2:59 minutes long ad can stir up teary emotions in its viewers. Have a look if you haven’t seen it yet. Great UGC campaigns Cisco’s #WeAreCisco It’s hard to push out UGC content in the B2B space but Cisco seems to be doing this just right. They invited 20 super ambassador employees from all over the world to connect with the Gen Z population of new graduates and university students. Named ‘Kitten Rainbow Unicorns’ (to reflect everything that is awesome about the internet), the group was responsible for posting daily snapchat stories of the awesome work-life at Cisco. What we really liked is that they got the pulse of the audience right. GenZ is looking for authenticity and validation from their online experience. And having employees of their peer group post positive content does both. Innovations India is home to 40% of the world’s blind population but the masses are hardly sensitized about it. Savlon decided to change this. On World Sight Day, they did the first mass media Braille campaign where two daily newspapers – Dainik Savera and Vijayvanni, worked to publish fully Braille newspapers. The campaign reached 549mn people and improved Salvon’s trust scores from 51 to 64. Most viral videos of 2019 We all have videos that we’ve watched and shared instantly with friends. Whether it was Ruby the dog who patted a tiny kitten or a porcupine frustrating a leopard with its spikes, or Chad Kempel sharing hacks on feeding his quintuplets, here is a quick recap of the most viral videos from 2019. Best digital strategy The ad that took home the Emvie this year comes from Brooke Bond Red Label, continuing on its Swad Apnepan Ka theme. The theme focuses on inclusion. While last time the ad showed a Hindu couple having tea at a Muslim house, this ad addresses the vegetarian / non-vegetarian divide and leaves you with a smile. HUL used TV as the main medium and also used digital, outdoor and print to improve its reach. Buzzing Community Building a brand community is a difficult task but some just know how to do it right. Our pick this year for a buzzing community goes to Spotify. There are music chats, playlist exchanges, idea sharing, issue tracking and the best of all, their brand advocate program called Rock Stars. Simple and clean design, good UX, clear communication and lots of buzz from its users makes this platform a great go-to place for the 71,94,451 people connected with Spotify. You can also check out Spotify’s newsroom for their top stories of 2019. Best of radio The ‘Knock Knock.. Who’s There?… Its RJ ALEXA!!’ campaign took home awards for its witty presentation on radio. Amazon Echo’s Alexa has been answering both straight and quirky questions. Alexa now supports over 350 radio stations which include live broadcast of 17 All India Radio stations in 14 languages. The best of tongue-in-cheek content We have three contenders – Netflix, Swiggy and Zomato here that you should definitely follow on Twitter. The internet broke out laughing when Netflix and Swiggy got on the Parle-G memes for Sacred Games! Netfilx even ended up ordering ‘Kaali Chai’ from Swiggy! Season 1: 0 mentions of Parle-G. 0 hit songs written by Bunty. Season 2: 1 mention of Parle-G. Bunty becomes a world-famous producer, casino owner and lyricist. Coincidence? We think not. https://t.co/VJKyOBu8Bt — Netflix India (@NetflixIndia) August 21, 2019 Take the recent spat on Paneer and Radhika Apte where Netflix ended up having the last laugh. Well, she is everywhere. pic.twitter.com/XcEw0OjtHf — Netflix India (@NetflixIndia) August 29, 2018 These brands show that wit and brand tone together can make you stand out on social media. Visual presentation of content When was the last time you gave a miss to the same old company newsletter? Though content is interesting, presenting it in a visually attractive format is necessary for that content to draw attention. Boston Consulting Group (BCG) was having trouble grabbing its employees’ attention on internal communication. The communication was then revamped to meet
8 Proven Ways to Increase Traffic to Your Blog in 2020
Currently, there are close to 250 million blogs in the internet-verse. Many of them are vying for your target audience’s attention. However, there are only a few blogs that enjoy a constant flow of traffic and engagement. If you want to make your blog among those select few, read on. Blog marketing needs skills, persistence and patience. Of the strategies mentioned below, some will get you high traffic quickly while others will put your traffic on a slow increase. You’ll have to use a mix of both these methods to start reaping benefits from your blog. 1. Check the UI/UX of your blog If you started a while back, chances are that your blog wasn’t fully mobile responsive. With mobile being the medium of choice for 70% of the audience in most markets, it is important to have a clean responsive design. In addition to this, readable fonts, large alluring imagery, content chunking, lead capture mechanisms are some of the basics that need to be in place. Don’t forget to check the page speed of your blog to remove any unwanted code and manage the size of the images you upload. Having these hygiene checks in place seems to be the most obvious thing to do but still many bloggers don’t pay as much attention to it due to paucity of time. 2. Get your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) practices in order SEO is the slow burn way to increase traffic to your blog. The optimization you do today is likely to drive traffic in the next few years. SEO best practices suggest that each page on a site should be optimized for one particular keyword. Blogs come in handy when you have a lateral keyword strategy. They help in introducing your product, telling a story, drawing a happy picture with testimonials and reeling in a prospect. To ensure the blog continues to draw traffic, build quality links to all the inner pages. 3. Build a marketing plan for every single blog post This one is a difficult strategy even for seasoned bloggers. At times, most bloggers are caught between writing a new blog every week while also marketing the new one or the one before that. In most cases, the mandatory posting to social happens once, maybe twice, and then the article disappears into an obscure corner of your website. To get out of this rut, the best way is to have a plan for each blog. Here are a few ideas on building a plan Target each blog to a different niche of your base: If you blog about parenting, you can break down topics into categories like health and nutrition, academics, extracurricular activities and emotional wellbeing. A blog under each of these topics can be marketed by tying up with leading websites in the category to push traffic to your blog. Eventually, you’ll have a rich link history built to your websites. Put the basics in place for every blog: Have a scheduler in place to ensure each blog is visible by different audiences across social channels. Maintain a re-marketing sheet: Once a blog has run its course of initial visibility, add it to a re-marketing sheet. Use topics that are over 4 months old to occasionally re-post on social. Update your seasonal posts: If you’ve created a blog on the top Diwali sweets, do some general rewriting and post it as fresh content. This helps you to recycle old content with minimal fuss. Also Read: 10 Incredible Blogging Stats to Inspire You to Blog in 2020 4) Publish posts regularly A little bit of procrastination and a whole lot of ‘I don’t have time’ generally leads to blogs being published with delay. Having a schedule is an interesting way to get your reader base habituated to expecting blogs from you at fixed intervals. The best way to do this is to go all out and start a weekly or bi-monthly newsletter which includes the blogs you have published. With deadlines looming close, you will force yourself for faster closures and publishing cycles. Start with a simple schedule like publishing a blog every Friday and sending out an email to your subscriber base on a Saturday. This gives you the entire week to be productive and close a blog post on time. 5) Connect with other bloggers While one blogger can add value, a group of bloggers of the same niche can be an invaluable resource when it comes to brand collaborations. Grow your subscriber base so that you can hold your own when you interact with other bloggers. Through offline events or with thoughtful comments online, you can slowly and steadily build your blogger connect to network. Eventually, cross-linking to resources can be a valuable way to drive incremental traffic. You can also take this a notch up by guest posting on others’ blogs or allowing guest posting on yours. 6) Create rich content for your blogs A story can have different narratives depending on the channel used for the narration. From text to video, to images to cinemagraphs to infographics, every piece of content can give a different cut to a specific user base. Aim to imagine the formats of the story before making it completely. That way, you will be able to make some changes on the go. Also Read: Move over blogs, articles. Here are new content formats to consider 7) Promote on social Though this one is obvious, we don’t see a lot of people doing this right. If you are writing for an international audience, you can use buffer or Hootsuite to schedule posting at times that can work well for other time zones. Tagging your relevant target base on social is a great way to get them to repost/retweet your blog. You can also run contests that have answers hidden in your blog. You can run a Q&A session with an expert or ask your target audience for feedback and comments. The plan is to know which one you want to try for which post
Wondering How to Shape Your Marketing Strategy? Use Google Analytics
We’re almost on the verge of embracing 2020, and most digital marketers still struggle with proving the efficacy of digital marketing. In fact, 42% of them said that their biggest challenge is “proving the ROI of our marketing activities”. At Justwords, we have understood over the years that digital marketing cannot be driven by instinct alone. Marketing instincts are important, of course, and they really help in coming up with intuitive ideas that just take off. However, it’s just as important to understand the numbers behind different marketing activities to make better-informed strategy decisions. And that’s where analytics comes in. In this article, we’ll talk about one of the simplest and most fundamental analytics tools — Google Analytics — and how you can use it to figure out how to align your marketing tactics. First things first— Get Google Analytics on your website Obviously, if you haven’t done this already, getting Google Analytics should be your first step. Here’s the simple way to do it: Go the website – analytics.google.com Click on ADMIN Click on “Tracking Code” and insert the code on your website If you use Squarespace, you can read further instructions here. If you have a WordPress website, this is the place to go. 4 Powerful Google Analytics Tools to Help Decide Your Marketing Strategy Google Analytics helps you understand some fundamental things about your website — where you get your traffic from, who your audience is, who is the most interested in buying your products, and so on. These insights, when put together, can give you a much clearer picture on your marketing strategy going forward. 1. Analyzing traffic channels The very first thing to do on Google Analytics is to understand where your website traffic is coming from. Here’s how you do it: Go to the Acquisition tab Click the “All Traffic” dropdown Select “Channels” button Set the time period you want to see the traffic sources for. This can be done at the top of the viewing pane Google Analytics usually divides traffic into the following sources: Direct: This refers to people who came directly to your site Organic Search: This represents the strength of your SEO and content strategy Paid Search: This means that Google Ads is working well for you Referral: Things like traffic from guest blogs show up here Social media: This shows you all the various social media channels and tells you which channel directs how much traffic Email: This helps you figure out the success of email marketing campaigns Keeping an eye on this part of Google Analytics is the best way to figure out which strategies are working. Let’s say you are getting a lot of traffic from referral, and very little from social media. Start experimenting with your social media strategy and see if your efforts are showing results. If the Google Analytics stats don’t reflect your effort, you’re probably better off sticking to the channels that show results. This will automatically help you prioritize your marketing correctly. 2. Understanding your audience Once you’ve understood your traffic sources, it’s time to start understanding your audience. Here’s how you can check your audience on Google Analytics: Go to the Audience tab Go to the sub-sections of Demographics and Geo The two most important things you can find out about your audience through this feature are their age and gender. This allows you to align your website copy, user experience, and even your content towards your target audience. For instance, if more than 80% of your users are in the age group of 18-30, you will probably use a language that caters to Gen Z and millennials. If, on the other hand, your users are largely 40+, chances are you won’t use phrases like “FOMO” or “YOLO”. Gender is another important number — if your numbers are overwhelmingly dominated by one gender, your language, design, content tone, and even color scheme can cater to that. Geography is another key to understanding your audience. If you know where your current audience is coming from, you can effectively use Google Adwords and Facebook Ads to leverage audiences in the locations that are already coming to your site organically. 3. Checking user behavior to zero in on website strategy You need to see which pages your users prefer over others— where they come most often, and stay the longest. To do this: Go to the Behavior tab Go to All Content Go to Content Drilldown Content Drilldown gives you an overview of which websites are viewed the most — whether that’s your blog, your services page, or your home page. You can also look at the “Landing Page” view which is in the same section as the Content Drilldown. The Landing Pages view shows which of your webpages people are landing on, which is a good indicator of how effective your social media and other marketing strategies are. This will clearly help you decide which marketing tactics you need to focus on and which you can let go of. 4. Using buying intent as a metric You can also track when visitors are going to particular pages on your site— specifically the pages which demonstrate an intent to buy. This includes pages like Contact Us, Discovery Call, Product Page, Pricing Page, and so on. To track these pages: Go to ADMIN (the gear icon on the bottom left) Find goals on the right side. Click on it and go to goal set-up Incorporate all the pages which demonstrate buyer’s intent in your set-up. Wait for some time after which you can review your goals. If you go to Goals, then Overview, and then Source/Medium, you will be able to figure out how the “high buying intent” visitors are finding your website. You will understand whether it’s happening through organic search, referral, social media, or other. This analysis goes deeper and tells you which of your marketing tactics are bringing users who are actually interested