The Guide to Developing a Content Strategy for "Boring" Industries The author's posts are entirely his or her own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz. There have been multiple articles that have discussed the value and opportunities that content marketing brings to SEO - from organically building external links and ranking for more long tail keywords, to establishing a community and building brand awareness. As the SEO industry slowly moves away from manual linkbuilding and adapts a more long-term and forward-thinking approach (whether it be forced as a result of recent aggressive Google algorithm updates or because as an industry, we're starting to seek a sustainable methodology to establish authority), the challenge is in figuring out how to set up a proper framework that would help our community develop a content strategy for all websites. Image courtesy of SEOmoz Image courtesy of Distilled Step 1: Asking the Right Questions (Learning About the Industry) How do tire shoppers use the Internet?
12 Things You Should Be Using Your Blog For (Besides Blogging) So you want your business blog to perform better. What do you do? Uhh ... Blog harder? Well yes, you could set to your keyboard and type away 'til your fingers bleed, or you could think of ways to get more out of your blog without just increasing content volume. After all, you only have so many hours in the day, and writing isn't exactly a quick task. Before we get started, let's get one thing out of the way -- none of these tips are intended to be replacements for a consistent volume of high-quality blog content. 1) Solicit Content From High-Profile Sites If that caveat about still having to create blog content was, indeed, a total bummer, this tip should strike your fancy. And not only does your blog's clout skyrocket, but it's also likely that your guest blogger will promote the post to their network, too. 2) Work on Increasing Subscribers Speaking of your blog's reach, it may be worth your time to invest in increasing your blog's subscriber base. 3) Optimize Past Post Titles
10 Ways to Get Your Content Marketing Strategy in Motion Content has always been king, but more recently content marketing has started to get more of the attention it deserves in organizations with budget allocated to creating content. In recent years, we have also witnessed many new software platforms entering the market to help companies create content. As many of you would attest, it’s always easy to go out and spend money on creating content or any marketing campaigns for that matter. Alternatively, in my experience almost all companies have access to lot of content in-house, but for some reason they are either not surfacing them or not using their resources efficiently to create new content that can help them with their content marketing efforts. Content creation is a huge undertaking. 1. This is a classic way of creating content where you can use your favorite keyword tool and type in the keyword that you want to target. Most content creators are tempted to go with the first keyword since that has the most query volume. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
6 Social PR Secrets to a Better Website A brand’s website or blog should be its ROI hero, but in many cases it ends up being a public relations liability. The failing truth: “99% of the reasons why websites fail are 100% preventable,” Rebecca Murtagh reminds brands in her new book “Million Dollar Websites”. Critical. This rollercoaster of emotions might sound familiar if you’re working on the design or redesign of a website or blog. By far, one of the most critical components of today’s marketing is an organization’s website; the digital entrance that represents a brand’s aesthetic, culture, personality, mission, vision and business proposition. A recent survey reported by WhatUsersDo reveals: 60 percent of brand owners rate their website as average or below average.Despite the stated goal by 78 percent of those surveyed being “extremely” or “quite” committed to delivering a quality user experience to customers, an alarming percentage of brands admit knowing that their website will disappoint their customers. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Multitasking Makes You Stupid: The Case for Outsourcing Content -- Joe Pulizzi Content Author-blogger Joe Pulizzi is one of the sharpest content evangelists on the Web. In this year-end post, he explains why brands ought to outsource their content and poses the eternal question: Is your content stupid? ©istockphoto.com/Yulia Akatyeva I’m a big proponent of outsourcing content. There are a number of reasons why brands should seriously consider outsourcing their content. Content is everywhere. I could go on. I’ll explain. So now there’s a group of people who have to do their current jobs, and also have this content thing to do as well. In almost all cases this is a bad idea. When brand managers throw content marketing in the mix as just another individual or group task, the result is bad content. Is your brand story important enough to foster in its own right, or is it just another item in the marketing pile? Is your content stupid?
36 Books on Digital Marketing The rapid expansion of both the internet and ecommerce has resulted in some seriously dramatic shifts in terms of business marketing best practices. If you’re feeling a bit lost in this new world of digital marketing, take a look at any of the following recommended resources to help get you up to speed! Digital Marketing The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly – David Meerman Scott If you’ve done traditional direct response marketing or promotional work in the past, Scott’s book will give you all the tools needed to transfer these skills to today’s digital world. Available in both print and Kindle editions. Understanding Digital Marketing: Marketing Strategies for Engaging the Digital Generation – Damian Ryan and Calvin Jones Ryan and Jones have produced a great overview of the world of digital marketing, encompassing everything from search to social media to mobile marketing and more.
4 Ways to Create Content That Sells Let me just cut to the chase here: When it comes to business blogging, there is content, and then there is content that sells. Ask any business owner or marketer which they’d prefer and the obvious answer would be the latter. The fact is, all the business blogging in the world doesn’t help a bit if it’s not increasing sales. Make no mistake—a business is a business and it needs to make money. In this article I’ll discuss 4 ways companies can create blog content to bring in more sales. Here goes… #1: Teach With Story and Sell With Subtleness Of all the things I’m going to discuss in this article, teaching with story and selling with subtleness is really the most important. Here’s how this works. But first, customers want an answer to “What’s in it for me?” Here’s an example of how to first teach with story and then sell with subtleness. And I shared the story of a company doing just this. That was the “teaching” segment of the article. Enable your employees to be content producers.
5 Pillars of a Successful Modern Web Design To compete successfully in today's new media landscape, simply having an optimized website isn't enough. You must now consider a number of new factors when designing your website. These factors include modern design and content, usability and conversion, and search and social media. Not only has the SEO technological market changed with new on- an off-page SEO considerations, the way the consumer views and consumes content and changed. Building Outside of a Silo Gone are the days when a web developer builds a site, the SEO consultant optimizes the site, a conversion expert looks at the site, and then the business owners review the site. To make your new website work for your business it essential that a marketing led approach is implemented that involves technical, search, social, usability, and design teams. Objectives are set by the business so that your site reflects not just your brand but also meets your business objectives and conversion goals . Tip: The 5 Pillar Approach 1. Tips: 2. 4.
Five Lessons from Content Marketing World This is the year of Content. For sure. It’s used so much and by so many people, it must be, right? But I hate the word. I really do. As a wordsmith, I hate that Content is used primarily as a web/digital/mobile “strategy.” I attended two content conferences this year and both were some of the best conferences I’ve ever attended. The indefatigable Joe Pulizzi of Junta42 was behind this year’s Content Marketing World, held last week in Cleveland. Well, actually, he would. Content is fascinating I learned a new word at Content Marketing World. This was the first presentation and it speaks to the high quality of the conference overall that the presentations didn’t let up. In a world where our attention span is down to nine seconds, the key to attention is through fascination. Content has hit the real time The real difference, to me, at least, between “old” and “new” media isn’t delivery or metrics. He’s right. Friend the Muppets It’s the story, stupid. Story, story, story. Be honest
15 social media tips for small businesses You and your small or micro business need to have a social media presence. That we know. If your potential clients, customers, and audience live on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and so on, then it's only reasonable that you go to those places to reach them. Rarely do small businesses have the resources to hire a social media manager, meaning the fate of your online social presence likely rests on your shoulders. The following 15 social media tips are designed to help you set up and manage a social media presence for a small business or brand. 1. I see so many businesses (not just small ones, either) set up social media profiles without having any idea of what they want to do with that presence. Do you want to provide answers and assistance to your customers or readership? If you don't know what results you want, using social media will be a huge waste of your time and resources. 2. 3. On Facebook, use the search bar to look for your business or brand. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.