A young startup recently came to us thoroughly confused and exasperated by SEO. They had begun to think of SEO as this black box where things are constantly shifting and they just never quite knew how to get it right. There were so many elements to SEO — content, keywords, website optimization, meta tags and so on — that they often ended up feeling confused and directionless. Plus, with SEO evolving so much every few months, what worked one day would just not be as effective later. However, as we explained to this client when it comes to SEO, there are some things that are evergreen. And one of these is high-quality backlinks. A quality backlink basically says that a well-reputed website considers your content relevant enough to send their audience to it. In Google’s eyes, that automatically increases the value of your content and brings it much higher in the search engine results. Yet, most people, just like our client, are so intimidated by the idea of generating high-quality backlinks that they simply don’t know where to start. So, we decided to break down some of the strategies that have worked really well for us in the recent past and are likely to work in the near future as well. Reporting Broken Links This is a way to build high-quality links with some smart research and well-timed outreach. Here’s how: For starters, you need to find a list of sites that have either changed names, stopped offering a service, moved to a new URL, shut down, etc. Of course, these sites should have content similar to the content you offer. Use a backlink checking tool like Ahrefs to see which websites had links to these sites that are now defunct. In other words, all these websites will now have broken links that don’t lead to real content, undermining their user experience in a big way. Then email the people who are still using these outdated links and give them a heads up. In the same mail, you can mention that they could link to your website content instead. Chances are they’ll be a lot more receptive to your outreach because you’re doing them a huge favor. Skyscraper content A great way of generating high-quality backlinks is to create that one piece of content in your industry that truly stands out. It should be evergreen, comprehensive, extremely detailed, and at least 5-10x better than any other article on the subject. To know what to build this content around simply find a piece of content in your industry that has already performed well in terms of backlinks. And then create a more comprehensive, in-depth piece on the same subject. Make sure you aggressively share the article with influencers and bloggers in your industry as well as companies and brands that have been mentioned in the article. This will ensure you get the retweets and shares that you need. Before you know it, your content will generate the maximum number of backlinks for you. Turning brand mentions into backlinks This is a simple one. Use a social listening tool to get an alert every time someone mentions your brand on their blog. They’ve mentioned you so you already know they like you. All you need to do is send them a friendly email requesting them to convert the mention into a link, and voila, you have a high-quality backlink right there. Guest Posts Guest posts used to be one of the most effective methods for link-building. Over time, companies began mass-producing low-quality guest posts and publishing them across websites. This led to Google issuing a warning about guest posts with the result that a lot of marketers began staying away from this technique. However, guest posts continue to be one of the most effective ways of building high-quality backlinks. It’s a win-win situation where the owner of the blog gets free content and you get a quality backlink. The key is that the content should be top-notch. Also, it’s important to find the right websites for guest posts. A great starting point is to do some research on the guest posts of your competitors. If these websites have published something from competitors, they’re likely to accept guest posts from you. Use content formats that have a proven track record Did you know that 75% of all online content gets 0 backlinks? It’s very easy to create content that falls into this category. To create content that is among the other 25%, you should stick to content formats that have been proven to work. Take a look at this table for instance: As you can see, things like videos, infographics, lists, “how-to” and “why” posts are particularly successful when it comes to link-building. Of course, this doesn’t mean you should just create lists, how-to guides, and infographics. But they provide a good starting point around which you can build a comprehensive content marketing strategy. Find authority resource pages Authority resource pages are absolute gold when you’re looking to generate high-quality backlinks. Here’s an example of the perfect resource page: Hence, all you really need to do is find relevant resource pages and then send them the link to your content, simply asking to be added to the list. Of course, most people don’t refer to them as resource pages so finding them can be a little tricky. People usually refer to them as “helpful resources”, “useful resources”, “further reading”, and “additional resources”. So simply google any of these phrases together with the relevant keywords to find the right article. Conclusion Many people are still skeptical about whether link building actually works. Of course, misguided black hat SEO techniques like link building generators will only be counter-productive. However, painstakingly building high-quality backlinks is still the best way to build SEO in the long run. The techniques listed in this article should be your go-to as you look to build a long-lasting and
Author: Payel Mukherjee
5 Amazing Home Page Design Templates That You Can Use
There are many misconceptions that home pages simply don’t matter anymore. Why bother with a perfect home page when you can just create targeted landing pages for each of your marketing campaigns? But the truth is that the homepage is here to stay. Whether you like it or not, it’s the face of your company, especially when someone searches for you online. It welcomes new users and explains what your company is all about. However, what is changing is the way we visualize and design home pages. There was a time when the home page crammed in as much information as possible. They tried to tell users everything they could in just that one page. But that led to extremely overwhelming and confusing user experience. For instance, many homepages had carousel sliders that allow you to showcase multiple things at once. But over time, tests showed that they ended up negatively affecting conversions, SEO, and page loading speed. Today, homepage design is all about user experience. This means keeping things clean, simplistic, and minimal while telling users what they need to know when they first come to the site. Here are 5 diverse homepage design templates. Over the years at JustWords we’ve found that close to 85% of our clients’ websites fit into one of these design templates. You can figure out which one suits you best and adapt it for your own site. Template 1: Mint.com Mint is a budgeting app that people use to plan and manage their personal finances. With products like Mint that handles confidential financial information, designers always have to find that line between building trust and still being extremely user-friendly. The Mint homepage finds the perfect balance. The first thing that strikes you about the Mint homepage is that the design is extremely simple, without any added frills. The headline and sub-headline are strong and impactful but without having any unnecessary jargon. Their CTA is both simple and compelling – “Sign Up Free”. Finally, the homepage doesn’t try to perform too many functions at once. Its purpose is simply to tell you what the app can do for you and every section talks about this in different ways. Template 2: Kiva Kiva is a microlending platform that connects smaller entrepreneurs in developing countries with sponsors and donors from all over the world. Kiva had a dual goalkeeping things simple and impactful while also motivating people to take action. Here’s what they get right: Their template is extremely minimalist. The design is as simple as possible and there are plenty of white spaces. The headline and sub-headline are really hard-hitting. Being an impact sector company, Kiva’s goal is to showcase the impact of what they do. And the headline and sub-headline together with the cover photo do this very effectively. Their home page feed tries to accomplish only 3 goals — build trust in Kiva, showcase the range of offerings and get people to take action. There is no overcrowding and confusion on the home page. Finally, Kiva also needed to find a way to make visitors understand what value they could get. Hence, they decided to go for a pop-up overlay with a simple email subscription. This can be a risky move that may backfire. However, with clever content and right timing, a pop-up overlay can exponentially increase conversions. Doing several rounds of A/B testing to find the right content and timing is the way to go. Template 3: Jill Konrath If your business is built around your personal brand, Jill Konrath’s homepage is one template you need to see today. Whether you’re a life coach, a freelance copywriter, or a dietician, this homepage is personal branding 101. There are no frills and unnecessary technical terms. The headline and sub-headline tell you exactly what Jill Konrath is all about and why she’s so effective. A large part of Konrath’s website is about establishing her credibility as an authority in the sales field as well as her credentials as a keynote speaker. She has all her thought leadership materials as well as her press coverage prominently displayed on the homepage. With a personal brand website, there are two things that become even more important — making it easy for people to reach out to you and getting more subscribers to your content. Both the Contact Us and the Newsletter subscription are very accessible on the homepage. Image Source Template 4: MailChimp If you want to build a homepage with a razor-sharp focus on conversions, look no further than MailChimp. MailChimp has just one CTA (Call to Action) button above-the-fold on the home page. Above-the-fold refers to what you see when you first click on a website without scrolling down. In a way, this completely reduces the choices the user has when they visit the website. Given that more choices actually lead to higher decision times and sometimes no decisions, this is actually a good thing. MailChimp also uses negative spaces or white spaces very effectively. All the white space around the primary CTA makes it that much more prominent. The MailChimp homepage also uses a photography trick called the “rule of thirds” which means it puts the most important elements in the middle of your line of sight. In the example below, the design is helping you subconsciously prioritize a page hierarchy. Template 5: Evernote Evernote is a really interesting homepage design because, over time, the product evolved from a simple notes app to a whole range of productivity software. This could potentially make for a very messy website but Evernote navigates this problem successfully. Evernote emphasizes on the broad range of its tools but summarizes them into a few important benefits. This keeps the messaging simple but still shows customers the range of functions. The background colors are rich and muted which in turn makes the CTA (Sign Up for Free) more prominent. Conclusion Your homepage is the storefront of
11 Must-do Tactics for High Ranking Videos on YouTube
If you’ve been looking for YouTube video optimization ideas, you’ve most likely been through the regular tactics – adding proper tags, adding keywords in the title or description and the likes. This article is ideally for people who want to delve deeper into the core aspects of YouTube SEO, to go above and beyond and experiment, and find their niche to rank better. So let’s start with the fundamentals. People search differently on YouTube and Google This is one big reason why YouTube optimization can’t simply be an extension to your regular search optimisation process. You need to remember that the consumption of content is very different depending on the medium delivering it. The same video may have a lower watch rate on Facebook and higher one on YouTube. The rate of consumption also changes drastically on whether a video is sponsored or organic. This core understanding allows one to think differently on how you are creating videos and how you are disseminating it. You can rank and rank well even if you don’t have a huge subscriber base If you can engage, entertain, you can gain visibility even if you don’t make videos for the masses and are limited to a specific industry. SEO cannot outperform content Being visual, engaging and also a medium of choice, the quality of content you create here is directly proportional to the rank you achieve (all other factors of SEO being equal). The easiest example is the scores of recipe videos available on YouTube. If you look for Broccoli soup, you’ll see videos where the chefs are ambling for a while about the benefits of Broccoli before getting to the actual recipe. Within the recipe too, some spend time to show the detailed chopping of vegetables just to prolong the video. Other videos will simple show the accelerated recipe with captions describing the ingredients and method. While both show the exact same recipe, no prizes for guessing which video is likely to have a higher watch and completion rate. So now let’s get down to business What is YouTube SEO? YouTube SEO, as Google describes, is the process of optimizing your videos, playlists and channel to rank high when searched on YouTube. Videos are ranked based on their title, description and content. This definition, while sounding simple, allows us to form the base of the important factors that form the foundation of SEO for videos The title and description are super important – You need to feature your keywords here It is important to align with the user’s search intent – Think of the context in which you want your video to rank, evaluate who is already ranking and then provide a better context. Your video should be engaging enough: Engagement has many metrics on YouTube. It depends on how many people watch your video for the first six seconds and then go beyond it. It checks on how many people watch the full video – a metric that works disproportionately for longer videos. Here is a checklist of the top YouTube video optimization techniques. Searching for the right video keywords: The way we search has generally evolved with the adaptive intelligence of search engines or vice versa. From searching for ‘London Hotels’ to ‘Which hotel in London has the best reviews’, the way people search is now conversational. In YouTube too, you will see a lot of keywords starting with ‘How to…’ like “How to make Sanjeev Kapoor style butter chicken”. Tools for video keyword research Google Keyword Planner: Just like you do for regular search, pick out the keywords with the highest potential search volume. These give a base to start cover your ground, especially for the tags you’ll add during the optimization process Youtube auto suggest: Start typing the most likely terms someone might use to search for your video and YouTube will automatically drop down a list of phrases that are being searched. These give an idea on how to frame your title AHREF YouTube keyword search volume: AHREF comes the closest in terms of providing the YouTube search volume for keywords and phrases. Competitors: Stealing keywords from competitors isn’t a new SEO practice. Tools allow you to swoop on enough and more information on competitor strategy. See who is currently ranking for your prized keywords, analyze their video length, quality, backlinks, title and description optimization and also engagement ratio. This will give you a fare predictive model on what you need to achieve in the next three to six months to beat your closest competitors. How to optimize the title and thumbnail of your video The book is only as good as its cover. In this case, the title (a key part of your cover) is a big contributor in allowing easy discovery of your video. YouTube titles are similar to your blog headlines and you can pretty much use the same guidelines to create click-worthy headlines. A few tips to remember Include your most important keyword phrase in your title: Including the key phrase in your title gives validation to the user that your video is close to being the answer to what they are searching for. Solve a problem in your title: The intent to click on a video is high if the video is closest being the solution to the user’s query. For example, if the user is typing “How to make Origami Peace Crane”, having ‘Origami Peace Crane’ in the title is a must. Along with it, also include words like the easiest tutorial or quickest tutorial or such phrases that make your video closest to the user intent of learning to make the origami crane. The video thumbnail is essentially the make or breaks factor when it comes to clicking on your video. Choose your thumbnail to either include the finished product or value proposition so that viewers know what to expect by watching. Optimize your tags for SEO Tags give you the perfect opportunity to add Latent Semantic Indexing
How Customer Reviews Can Bring a Whole New Meaning to Your Content Marketing
Content Marketing and Customer Reviews have traditionally been two very different things, belonging to completely different domains. Content Marketing is used to build interest and educate users while customer reviews come only after the product has been purchased. Yet, in a world of peer reviews and social proof, the lines between the two are blurring rapidly. Let me give you an example. One of our clients that has a very niche B2B product, came to JustWords claiming that they simply didn’t have enough content surrounding their product that users would actually be interested in viewing. The product they sold was extremely vital for most businesses, it just wasn’t particularly interesting or exciting. We realized we didn’t have to inform or educate users through the content, we simply had to convince them of the credibility of our client’s product. We also found that our client had a solid and loyal base of existing customers. So our content marketing strategy really became about showcasing why customers loved the product through different channels and content formats. Simple and yet very effective. It’s not hard to understand the appeal of customer reviews — people tend to trust each other more than they trust businesses. With social media becoming such an integral part of everyday life, this peer reviewing has become even more important. A Brightlocal survey found that a whopping 84% of people trust online reviews as much as they trust a personal recommendation. Not only are peer reviews becoming more trustworthy, but people are actually using them to make purchase decisions. For instance, the same survey found that 70% of consumers need to read at least 4 online reviews before they trust a business. Tips to integrate customer reviews If you want to revamp your content marketing strategy to make sure it incorporates customer reviews, here are some key tips. Make it easy to collect customer reviews The first step towards creating a content marketing strategy based on reviews is to make sure you have a steady stream of positive reviews coming your way. For starters, make it as easy as possible for people to leave a review. Use email software like ActiveCampaign or MailChimp to send an automated mail to customers requesting them to leave a review on your preferred platform. Make sure you also leave a link on your home page to make it easy for people to leave a review on your preferred website. You can also ask customers for more detailed feedback through an online form submission. You can use this longer, more personalized feedback on important landing pages or critical content pieces. Use an independent review platform For reviews to be taken seriously, you need to make sure they are published on an independent, third-party platform that customers trust. If your reviews are not trustworthy, all the effort spent in collecting them will be wasted. There are two ways to approach this. The first is to find a platform that works for your industry. Zomato for restaurants, Amazon for e-commerce, and TripAdvisor for travel and hospitality are some credible forums. The other approach is to collect your reviews on a review platform like Trustpilot. In any case, make sure you check the site’s policy on sharing reviews before you make it your go-to review platform. Use embedded reviews in your website Well researched articles, versatile writers, and wide coverage of topics! Posted by Arielle Ann on Friday, February 3, 2017 Embed reviews from the third-party platform within your website, especially those critical landing pages. When users enter a new website, they are immediately looking for signals to confirm the credibility of the product. Embedded reviews from a credible, independent site like Yelp, Trustpilot or TripAdvisor can go a long way in building credibility right off the bat. In fact, customers won’t even need to go elsewhere to look for social proof; they will find it on your website itself. Use the latest marketing tools to incorporate reviews into your marketing content Recently, Promo.com and Trustpilot came together to create an integration that makes it extremely simple to incorporate customer reviews into your marketing. Promo.com is a tool that makes it easier for people to create marketing videos while Trustpilot is an online community for trustworthy reviews. With this integration, Promo.com customers can now identify important customer reviews on Trustpilot and easily incorporate them into their marketing videos. Similarly, rich-snippets stars that show up on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) as a result of reviews can lead to an increase to a 10-20% increase in CTR (Click Through Rate). Reviews also help businesses to qualify for Google Seller Ratings which is an automatic extension in Google Ads that can lead to higher CTRs. Do some research and use the many different tools available to incorporate reviews into your digital marketing effort. Use customer reviews as an inspiration for other content Many times, we don’t know how to create content that is valuable to users without directly promoting the product. Did you know that 79% editors end up turning down guest blog pitches because they’re over promotional? For instance, if you’re looking for content to promote your gourmet snack company, a blog entitled “5 Reasons Why Our Snacks Are Amazing” isn’t going to go down well. A great way to combat this problem is to actually go through customer reviews. Many customer reviews will have detailed insights into how your product is solving customer pain points. For instance, a customer may have written, “I love your snacks because I know they are good for me. They also tend to fill me up without bingeing and leave me feeling full for hours afterwards.” This could inspire you to write a blog post titled “How to Snack While Also Taking Care of Your Body”. Understanding customer pain points through meaningful reviews is a great place to look for content marketing ideas. Summing up Companies are always on the lookout
Google and the Future of SEO
This is one undisputed fact – Google, being one of the top search engines, has a massive influence on key SEO practices. The algorithm used by Google can essentially make or break the future of your online venture by determining its positioning in the search engine results. While Google fervently guards its search algorithms to provide unbiased information to its users, savvy SEOs have, over the years, developed a pretty good knack of getting an idea of what works and does not work in that mechanism. To keep its secret sauce really secret and prevent people from manipulating it, Google keeps changing its algorithms. This makes it essential for SEOs to remain updated. Here are some of the most prominent changes brought about by Google which may help you in redesigning your SEO strategy in an optimal manner. 1) Getting on the first page just got more difficult One of the most significant tweaks made by Google is related to the number of results displayed on the first page. It is a fairly known fact that search listings beyond the first page get significantly lower organic traffic, so SEOs try their best to hit that golden spot. The top listing on the Google search page may get 33 percent of the traffic while for the second position holder, the traffic drops down to 18% and keeps getting lower for subsequent listings. However, Google now frequently features less than 10 listings on its first page. Keep this in mind while designing your new SEO strategy so as to ensure that your website features on the first page. 2) Richer Snippets Google has changed its layout in a way that in many cases, the users do not even need to click on the relevant links to get the desired information. Snippets have now become the new battling ground for SEO. It has been observed that when there is a featured snippet, the topmost organic search result gets less than 20% of all the click-through. The richer content in the snippets now translates to lesser traffic for the concerned websites. In such cases, SEOs may need to redesign their websites to ensure that more Google users are converted into traffic for the website. Using a table with summary on your website or designing your website to be mobile friendly is a clever strategy to harness this new development. Further, you can rearrange the information on the website in such a way so that the snippet readers are motivated to get further information by visiting the website. These snippets are mainly based on the meta-description of the page and hence it may help to tweak the meta-description of different pages on your website. Ideally, the meta-description should be 300-320 characters long and should also be relevant to the content of your page. 3) Paid Search Results Google constantly revamps its search page to increase its efficiency as well as monetary value. Lately, these tweaks have brought paid search results to the fore. These paid results are displayed more prominently than organic search results as Google is all set to have four text ads instead of the current three, right above the organic listings. Hence, it is advisable for SEOs to remain vigilant and adaptable to ensure that their strategies are able to make the best of this situation. A smart mix of SEO and paid ads can be employed or better content and headlines can be used by a business to attract more traffic and distract them from paid ads. 4) Combine SEO with Other Tools While SEO is here to stay, the developments have made it imperative for marketers to combine SEO with other online marketing tools. Some of the most important such tools are page load speed optimizer and whole query placement. It is also time to pay attention to informative and high-quality content rather than just cramming it with keywords. You should also use relevant images to improve the overall readability of the website. As a matter of fact, 1 image for every 100 words is considered to be ideal these days. Regularly updating the website to provide the most relevant information is another way to ensure that your website is featured high on the search page. Also, keep in mind that a large population of the world is still offline. The SEO scene is likely to change drastically as more and more people go online. Overall, it is safe to assume that Google will keep playing a big role in online marketing policies adopted by brands. However, to stay on top of these developments, it is important to have a well-diversified online marketing strategy, using a wide range of tools. The SEO strategy also needs to be flexible to incorporate new changes without requiring substantial alterations and expenses. So, work today to make your SEO strategies future proof.
6 Reasons Why your Content Marketing may be Failing and How to Fix it
If you ask me, content marketing is probably one of the best long-term marketing strategies that you can adopt for your business. For starters, there is enough evidence that it works. And there is research to support what I just claimed. As per research, content marketing is actually three times as effective as outbound marketing and costs 62% less. And yet despite the fact that content marketing has been transformational for so many businesses, many brands still look at content marketing with skepticism and suspicion. For eg, a small business owner very recently declared to me that the whole content marketing thing was a sham and nothing really works. Turns out that he had hired a small-time agency who had promised great results through “a foolproof SEO and SMO content marketing package” and significant results are still to come in after 3-4 months in the game. And there are many like him who are simply not sure whether they should invest in content marketing when the results won’t come for days or even months. The reason for this hesitation and skepticism is not unfounded. The fact of the matter is that many companies who do content marketing get it completely wrong and struggle for months, if not years. This survey found that a whopping 96% of respondents believed that content marketing isn’t very effective. At Justwords, we’ve have met several clients who came to us saying that they’ve been publishing content regularly but they don’t think it’s having any impact. However, what people don’t realize is that content marketing is just like any marketing effort. It can be broken down into a number of logical steps. If any of those steps are being neglected or followed incorrectly, chances are your content marketing will fail dramatically. So in this article, I have broken down these important steps so you can see where you’re going wrong and take action to correct it immediately. Problem 1- You’re executing without an effective strategy This may seem basic, but it is one of the biggest problems we’ve seen over the years. Most companies are vaguely aware of the benefits of content marketing so they start publishing a blog post twice a week and then wait for the magic to happen. Even worse, they hire writers who start churning out content without any basic content strategy in place. The biggest mistake with content marketing is to start executing without a proper strategy. You have to begin by outlining your goals as clearly as you can at the very outset. The next step is to define the content formats and communication channels that you will be using to achieve these goals. Then use this strategy to prepare a weekly or monthly content calendar so that every piece of content is now aligned to the marketing and publishing plan and the overall goals. Simply put – If should know for what you are generating content for, which platform you are using and why, how are you publishing and marketing that article, where is that content piece sitting in your marketing plan and what is its final goal. Once you know this, you have a strategy in place. Problem 2- You don’t have a brand voice There are many companies that are churning out content regularly. The problem is, far from going viral or even creating a ripple in the vast ocean of the internet, most of this content goes by unnoticed. With over 2 million blogs being created every day, it’s easy to think there’s just too much competition and creating content is simply not worth the effort. But, there is also the fact that people’s capacity to consume content has also increased manifold. In fact, there are new blogs building a following and becoming wildly popular every single day. So what are they doing right? The answer is two-fold. First, to stand out, your content has to be truly exceptional. Ask yourself if you’re actually solving customer pain points in a clear and succinct manner, preferably in a way that hasn’t been done before. Secondly, there has to be a seamless flow between your content and your brand. In order to achieve this, you need to focus on what your brand voice is all about, and then create content consistent with this brand voice. Problem 3 – You’re using the wrong content format This is a very easy one to get wrong; especially if you haven’t focussed on audience research while building your content strategy. While it’s easy to follow some standard patterns— for instance, lifestyle brands should use Instagram stories while newsletters are a great idea for B2B brands — there are other nuances which need extensive research. Invest the time to understand what content is working for your competitors, what is the format in which your audience regularly consumes content, and so on. You really don’t want to waste time drafting blog post after blog post when an Insta story is what your audience needs or vice versa. Problem 4- You’re not being guided by metrics It’s great to go by your gut, but it’s not nearly enough to be successful. Your content marketing will only work if it is also backed by solid data and analytics. Unless you inculcate a culture of scientific, data-driven decision making, your content marketing strategy is unlikely to work. It’s important to have objective metrics to evaluate every single piece of content and alter strategy accordingly. Conversions, article views, CTR(Click Through Rates), shares, etc are all important metrics to track. Google Analytics is great for basic insights and you can also use specialized tools like Kissmetrics for more detailed analytics. Problem 5- You’re doing everything yourself This is one of the biggest traps smaller organizations fall into. The founder might kickstart the content marketing journey by writing a few blog posts, but it’s nearly impossible to sustain this. From content planning to strategy to metrics, there is far too much for a founder or marketing
[Infographics] Why Content Marketing Works
As content marketers, there’s one question we never stop hearing from clients — “Does content marketing really work?” While people can easily see how content marketing propels brands to success, they often doubt if it will work for them. That’s usually because content marketing doesn’t always have a very direct correlation between effort and result. What’s more, it usually takes some time before the results start to show. However, a sustained content marketing effort is one of the best ways to build a brand in the long run. This infographic takes a deep dive into what makes content marketing one of the most powerful brand-building techniques of our time. Share this Image On Your Site </p><br /><br /><br /> <p><strong>Please include attribution to www.justwords.in with this graphic.</strong></p><br /><br /><br /> <p><a href=”><img src=’https://justwords.in/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Why-Content-marketing-works-Justwords.jpg.pagespeed.ce.3ANrKi4KBO.jpg’ alt=’WHY CONTENT MARKETING WORKS’ 540px border=’0′ /></a></p><br /><br /><br /> <p> “Content marketing is the only marketing that’s left.” – Seth Godin 91% of B2B marketers use content marketing to reach customers. And 86% of B2C marketers think content marketing is a key strategy. Is this focus on content marketing warranted? Content marketing has lower long-term costs and deeper long-term benefits than paid marketing. It generates 3X the number of leads and costs 62% less. Content marketing brings 55% more visitors to the website 72% of marketers say content creation boosts SEO ranking Businesses with blogs receive 97% more backlinks, leading to more authority and higher search engine ranking So why does content marketing work so well? Reciprocity Content marketing creates value for your customers without pushing them to buy your products. This creates long-term goodwill that pays off as a loyal customer base. Establishes Authority It establishes you as a problem solver and thought leader vis-a-vis a product pusher. Content marketing showcases your expertise and builds your brand voice. Unity Good content equals good stories. And good stories bring people together. The more people can relate to your brand and identify with it, the more long-term equity you build. Why content marketing remains a big challenge 65% of companies find it a challenge to produce meaningful and engaging content 62% of companies don’t know how to define the ROI from content marketing 60% of companies can’t produce content consistently Tips to make Content Marketing work for you Personalize Use words like “You” and I to make the content more relatable. Produce visual content 84% of all online communications will be visual by 2018. Use infographics services, informative videos, and illustrative images to amplify the impact of your content. Subheadings Divide the body of your content into subheadings so that readers can skim through your content. Short paras Short paras with less than 5-6 lines make for much easier reading. Long form content Google prefers ranking content that’s at least 1890 words on Page 1. If you’re in a competitive industry, try to make your blog posts between 2000-3000 words. More data The more stats and data you use, the more authoritative you sound. Encourage engagement with your conclusion End with a question, inviting answers from the readers. This is a great way to get comments and build engagement. Mind-blowing headlines 8 out of 10 people will read your headline. Only 2 out of 10 people will actually click through to your article. To get that number up, you have to write headlines that are absolutely compelling. Know more about our content marketing agency and content creation services.
The Best Social Media Marketing Channels Strategies for 2019
Social media marketing is no longer a novelty but an everyday reality for most companies. In fact, research reveals that 90% of customers have already used social media as a way to communicate with a brand while another 63% of customers actually expect companies to offer customer service via social media. The problem is that while most brands have enthusiastically adopted a social media presence, few are using it to build a genuine connection with customers. Most social media marketers we speak with are confused about where their social media strategy is going, and end up creating random content for the sake of consistency, without enough clarity on how to achieve their marketing goals. While it’s not the only thing to factor in, an important starting point of any good social media strategy is the choice of social media channels. There are so many different social media platforms today, all of which seem compelling in their own way. It’s important to recognize which channel is best suited to your product, your marketing goals, and your brand voice. It’s also important to be aware of the latest shifts in social media usage so that you can stay ahead of the curve and design a futuristic marketing strategy that pays off in the medium to long-term. In this article, we will break down the social media channels of 2019 and help you decide which ones you should incorporate in your marketing strategy. Is it the end of the road for Facebook? There are a number of recent changes that many experts believe will herald the end of Facebook’s domination. For instance, the changes in their newsfeed algorithm have wiped out massive organic reach for so many brands and advertising now seems like the only way to build a following. The Cambridge Data Analytica scandal and the recent privacy issues also mean the brand reputation has taken a hit. Finally, there’s Facebook’s biggest challenge — it simply isn’t hip anymore. The younger demographic across the world is increasingly moving towards Instagram as its go-to social media channel and Generation Z looks upon Facebook activity as infra dig. Reinventing itself is the biggest challenge Facebook will face in the next decade. So should you just give up on Facebook marketing altogether? Of course not. Despite its shortcomings, Facebook, with its user base of over 2 billion and rich marketing features is still the platform with the widest reach. Yet, keep these things in mind when you’re leveraging Facebook. Focus more on newer features like stories, Messenger, and groups. Facebook is looking to build groups in a big way so this is the right time to build and nurture a thriving online community. Definitely, do not put all your eggs in the Facebook basket. If your social media marketing strategy is predominantly Facebook-dependent, start diversifying immediately. The Challengers: Instagram and Linkedin Last year, Instagram crossed the milestone of 1 billion users. More exciting than the number itself is the fact that they actually doubled their user base in 2 years. With a much younger demographic (Users under 35 make up more than 70 per cent of Instagram accounts) and higher levels of engagement (the average Instagram user spends 53 minutes per day on the Android app), Instagram has definitely emerged as a massive marketing opportunity. With features like Stories that see amazing engagement rates, Instagram is the platform of the present and the future. For a long time, marketers have complained that Instagram simply isn’t as marketing-friendly as other platforms but the slew of marketing features they have launched in 2018 will change that. Instagram marketing is definitely something that should become an integral part of your marketing mix. LinkedIn is the other incumbent that will really shine in 2019. LinkedIn has always had a stronghold in B2B marketing but it has consolidated this position with a well thought out strategy and feature roll out. LinkedIn doesn’t suffer from the loss of credibility and trust that other social media channels have been subjected to. Over time, it has grown into a platform that’s much more than an online resume. It’s a place where people engage meaningfully over work-related conversations and that will not change anytime soon. The Up-and-comers: Whatsapp and Tik-Tok 2019’s round-up of the best social media channels is incomplete without talking about two new entrants. Although both are at very different stages, they are both still new for marketers, who are still finding their feet with the platforms. The first of course is Whatsapp. After years of relentless focus on user experience with no thought of monetization, Whatsapp has finally launched its Whatsapp for Business app which already has more than 5 million users. Given Whatsapp’s strict focus on user experience and privacy, chances are it will never become the thrust of your marketing strategy. Yet, Whatsapp can be a great complement to your primary marketing channels, especially to deliver better customer experience. This brings us to the newest kid on the block; Tik-Tok. The platform has grown at a phenomenal rate and already boasts of 500 million monthly active users. Tik-Tok is the new avatar of Musical.ly after its acquisition by Chinese tech giant ByteDance. Although the channel is still very nascent and building marketing features is probably not in the picture yet, this is undoubtedly the channel of the future. If you’re looking to build a futuristic strategy, this is the time to start experimenting with some organic brand content on the platform and get ahead of the curve. At the end of the day, the choice of social media channels and the emphasis on each one is a very personal decision. It is a combination of factors — previous performance, suitability to your product, and relevance to your current goals. Having said that, it’s important to be aware of the shifting trends in social media channels so that you stop playing catch up and are able to build a competitive strategy.
Top 5 Ways to Use Instagram Marketing to Improve Your Business
Over the years, we’ve seen many standpoints towards Instagram marketing. Some clients feel it’s just a fad while others feel it may not work for their product. On the other end of the spectrum, we’ve also had clients who see Instagram as the only thing their marketing strategy will ever need. In our experience, both perspectives have usually been off the mark. On one hand, Instagram is one of the most effective social media marketing platforms with engagement rates that are far ahead of other marketing channels. Instagram has 500 million users accessing the app every day. What’s more, an Instagram user spends an hour on an average scrolling through their feed. This kind of unprecedented engagement makes Instagram one of the most powerful tools out there today. People who believe Instagram won’t work for their product usually think it’s because Instagram has a perceptibly “younger” audience base (64% of 18-29 year-olds use Instagram) or because it only works for “lifestyle” brands. While Instagram is undeniably popular with young people, it now has diverse demography that is only getting more diverse with time. At the same time, a large range of businesses now advertises on Instagram; from mental health organizations to hardware stores. It’s all about using Instagram’s platform to tell your brand story in a compelling way. Here are some of the most effective ways in which brands have used Instagram to dramatically transform their business. Branding View this post on Instagram ? A post shared by Zomato (@zomato) on Sep 23, 2018 at 11:30pm PDT Generating brand awareness is the biggest opportunity that Instagram’s high levels of engagement provide a business enterprise. Crafting content on Instagram must echo the brand voice since it is a key imperative to build credibility for the brand that will go a long way. The content need not be blatantly promotional — in fact, one should constantly avoid thrusting one’s product in users’ face — rather, they need to create content that resonates with the vision, mission, and values of the business. Humour, beautiful visuals and crisply edited videos are all useful tools. Before creating your messaging, though, it’s important to find your brand voice. Are you quirky, trendy, edgy, professional, etc? Brands like Chumbak and Zomato does a great job of this. Albums and Captions View this post on Instagram Opposites attract. A post shared by Ben & Jerry’s (@benandjerrys) on Apr 24, 2019 at 10:30am PDT In the early days, taking a meaningful photo, adding an appropriate filter, and posting it was enough. That’s not true anymore. Instagram now allows up to 10 photos in a single post, and you should leverage this feature to tell a visual story through each post. Also, you need to make sure that visual captions are created that add to the story while lending it a finishing touch. Today, every post on Instagram can tell a unique story through a series of photos and captions that goes with it. And that’s what effective marketers are striving for! For instance, Ben and Jerry’s Instagram posts are not only drool-worthy but tell you everything you need to know about their latest products and flavours. Influencer Marketing View this post on Instagram Hydration never tasted so good ?@meyagirls #earthsfinest A post shared by FIJI Water (@fijiwater) on Oct 10, 2018 at 2:00pm PDT Influencer marketing is set to become a $10 billion industry by 2020. In fact, most marketers are looking at influencer marketing as an integral part of their marketing strategy and with good reason. 22% of users aged 18-34 often make a large purchase after seeing an endorsement from an influencer. When it comes to influencer marketing, few platforms are as effective as Instagram. If you think you can’t afford to invest in influencer marketing, think again. Influencer marketing is no longer about huge online celebrities with millions of followers. Instagram has a number of micro-influencers who have between 15k to 100k followers. These micro-influencers are far more accessible and much less expensive. Best of all, even though they have a smaller following, chances are that their followers are more loyal and highly engaged. As long as you’re able to find the right influencers to match your product, you will be able to get great results from influencer marketing. If you want to understand how to use micro-influencers to grow brand awareness at a phenomenal pace, check out Fiji Water’s influencer campaigns. Stories/IGTV Most marketers have found that Instagram stories, and more recently IGTV, are performing exceedingly well. Even within stories, videos are especially attractive. Stories also have a number of features that make them more discoverable. For instance, by tagging your location in a story you can appear in your city’s Instagram story, instantly making your content more discoverable. Similarly, you can also add URLs to your stories so that people can instantly go to the website that offers your product or service. Shoppable Posts For a long time, one of the key issues most marketers have had with Instagram is that it isn’t as advertisement friendly as Facebook. In fact, the platform has intentionally prioritized engagement over ads for many years now and that was seen as a major disadvantage from the brands’ perspective. However, Instagram has recently introduced “shoppable posts” which is set to change the dynamic completely. Shoppable posts allow people to buy products from an Instagram post, without leaving the app at all. As a business, you simply have to tag a product catalogue to their Instagram account. You can tag your product the same way you tag a person and people can directly shop through your post. In fact, now, influencers can also create a shoppable post which expands the scope of this feature even further. Nars and Michael Kors have been experimenting extensively with the feature. Of course, it isn’t wise to make Instagram (or any one platform
How to Turn an Idea into Two Weeks Worth of Content
We all know that panic strikes when we are running out of ideas for the next blog post. There is pressure to constantly find ideas that captivate your audience can be very intense. In extreme cases, one can even start feeling burnt out or run into a creative block. One of the best ways to get around this situation is by turning one content idea into a four or five-part series. This can help you navigate the pressure of finding new content ideas every three days while also enabling you to create well-researched, and in-depth blog posts. Why series are so great Here’s why carving one content idea into a series can pay off in a big way. Building anticipation and increasing traffic Someone who reads the first part of the series will want to keep going till they finish the entire series. Similarly, someone who stumbles across the 4th or 5th article will probably start from the beginning and go through them all. In fact, people who are waiting for the next post in the series may even end up subscribing to your blog. Eliminate stress and improve productivity When you decide to write a series, you have to go through the ideation process just once. After that, you already know the overall idea and its breakdown into different posts. All you need to focus on is writing. With the stress of constantly coming up with new ideas out of the window, you’ll actually be able to focus solely on quality content creation. Go in-depth Have you ever had one of those content ideas that are really meaty and important, but there’s no way you could fit everything into one blog post? That’s exactly what a series is meant to achieve. You can finally go into details and share in-depth insights without overloading your readers with too much information at once. More conversions and profits Believe it or not, series are often far more amenable to your business goals than stand-alone posts. Whether it’s getting more subscribers, generating leads, building your brand, or creating online products that generate recurring revenue. More ideas With a series, you have more time to play around with ideas and concepts. Many of our best writing ideas come to us subconsciously when we’re not actively writing. With a series, your subconscious mind has enough time to formulate ideas and arguments, whether you’re gardening or in the shower. Chances are that the ideas will flow a lot more easily when you do sit down to write. How do you know if an idea can be made into a series If you’re not sure how to figure out which content ideas will make for great series, here are some tips. You’ve written a post with a meaty list Say you’ve done a post saying “Top 5 Content Marketing Formats in 2019”. You suddenly realize that each of these 5 formats merits a full post in itself. And suddenly you have your idea for your next 5-part series. The idea is too substantial for one blog post Many times, you don’t start off thinking of a content idea as suited to a series format. Maybe it’s intended to be just one post, but as you begin writing the outline you realize there’s too much substance to restrict the idea to one post. These kind of ideas are best outlined in a series. If there isn’t too much material, you can always stick to a short, three-part series. Your readers have many related queries This is another great organic way to develop a series. Many times, readers respond overwhelmingly to a post. In fact, they may come up with a number of questions on related topics that are not covered in the original post. It’s a great idea to take some of these questions to create a 4-part series. Evergreen content In general, it’s not a good idea to invest time and energy into writing a four-part series for passing trends. In most cases, in fact, articles based on the latest fads and trends simply don’t have enough material for a series. Evergreen content ideas that focus on substantial issues are ideal for creating a series. The idea-to-series playbook Let’s say you are planning to write a four-part series. The topic you’ve chosen is video marketing. Here’s a general playbook on how you should go about it. Post 1- Establish authority In the first post of the series, spend time on introducing the topic, your own background, and connecting the two. For instance, while talking about video marketing, you could start by introducing the concept and why it’s become so important to have a video marketing strategy today. You could then talk about your own experience with video marketing. It could be about your journey as a video marketer or even your experience with video marketing for your own product. Use interesting anecdotes and make sure to use an interesting CTA (Call to Action) that makes people want to know more. Post 2- Prepare the background In this post, you don’t delve into the details of creating video marketing but talk about the things you need to know in advance. For instance, you could talk about things that need to be in place before you get started with video marketing. This could include considerations like budget, a video marketing strategy, equipment, cast and crew, and so on. Post 3- The details This is the post where you actually break down video marketing into a step-by-step tutorial that users can follow. The best part about saving the details for the third post is that readers already know a fair bit about the topic by now and are well prepared for the information-centric content. Post 4- Give advanced information and answer queries This last post helps you give value-added information to your readers. A great way to design this post is by going through relevant questions you receive in the comments section in the previous posts.