The style and topic of your blog and social media formulate a story that connects customers to your brand
Your marketing content is a reflection of your brand personality. Just as your colour scheme, visual elements and overall aesthetics communicate what your brand is all about, so does your content. The style and topic of your blog and social media formulate a story that connects customers to your brand – both literally through SEO and figuratively through established sentiment.
However, creating top-notch content has always been a challenge for marketers. The demand for great content is extremely high, considering that the average customer views between three to five pieces of content before making the decision to purchase.
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Stories are extremely effective at building trust. This is why businesses are using influencer marketing
Stories are a great way of appealing to and connecting with people. They’re extremely effective at building trust. Think about every time you consider customer reviews before buying a product - the stories of real people and their experiences are what truly encourages you to buy it. This is why businesses are using influencer marketing.
A study by Twitter found that tweets from influencers coupled with tweets from brands can increase purchase intent by 5.2 times. In fact, 40% of the respondents in the study reported having purchased products based directly on an influencer’s recommendation.
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So, the big question is - is storytelling the future of content marketing? In this post, we’ll explore…
Successful content strategies that stand the test of time have been built from the outside of an organization looking in. In other words, the prime motivation was to help and assist the needs of their audience
In 1889, Andre and Edouard Michelin founded a tyre company, Michelin, which has now become a globally recognized brand. It accelerated the automobile industry in a time when there were fewer than 3,000 cards where it was established, in France.
For the company to grow, it had to win the hearts and minds of this very small target market of motorists and find similar audiences keen to aspire to own their own automobile. It also had to offer some creativity and inspiration as to what owning an automobile would allow you to do.
One such creative idea was to inspire the idea of taking road trips and look at how these trips could be…
When and when not to gate your content
Generating leads and demand is a key function for many B2B organizations. Building a meaningful pipeline of interest in a product or service is an always-on activity and impacts nearly everyone across the organization, both customer and non-customer facing.
As digital has become increasingly prominent within B2B over the last decade, sales and marketing teams have been using content to build awareness and interest. As a result, the use of content marketing more specifically has seen strong growth:
Whilst there is widespread agreement that high quality, valuable content can produce positive results, there are different perspectives on how online content should be used to generate leads and sales.
On the one hand, content marketers with a strong background in SEO believe that if content is made open and available, search engines will reward…
All successful content strategies result from the right content assets that drive engagement, enhance reputation, and increase the visibility of a business
The purpose of content marketing is to use content as leverage to attract visitors to your site or digital assets, engage them, turn them into paying customers and retain them. Seems like a tall ask, doesn’t it?
And it is.
Even the best laid out content marketing strategy fails to find traction. So the question is – as businesses increasingly offer omnichannel experiences to their target audience, how do you ensure your content marketing strategy can be woven seamlessly into this business model and remain effective?
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The answer – don't forget content assets that are central…
Content marketing that converts was created to help differentiate your brand from the others and help you achieve your business objectives
Have you ever found yourself trapped in a conversation where you’re talking to a self-absorbed person, almost doing a monologue about themselves, not caring what you think and feel?
Your readers could be feeling the same thing when they read your content.
There’s a misconception among marketers that content marketing should make them stand out. While there is a truth to this - after all, content marketing that converts was created to help differentiate your brand from the others and help you achieve your business objectives - it’s not meant to position you as the hero of your own story.
Why?
Because your customers are the heroes of the story. Not you.
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Leverage the power of user-generated content to drive traffic and increase conversions
User-generated content (UGC) has become an important part of the content marketing strategy in the current era where customers are ready to rave about your products or services online. UGC refers to the content that is created by the users of a brand. It can be anything from comments, reviews, and images to social media posts.
According to the Nielsen Consumer Trust Index, 92% of consumers trust organic, user-generated content more than they trust traditional advertising. This is because brands don’t pay for UGC, it is unbiased and created by users because they like the offerings of a business. As a result, UGC is perceived as more authentic and honest.
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Interview: Lee Odden, CEO and founder of TopRank Marketing and Author of "Optimize: How to Attract and Engage More Customers by Integrating SEO, Social Media, and Content Marketing"
One thing I have learned working for start-ups and big brands looking to build their presence through digital channels is the need for you to develop “continuous learning”.
With the shifting technology landscape and the growth in new emerging channels to engage with audiences, the only way to keep on top of how you operate and to remain relevant is to identify good resources to follow
Lee Odden is one of those people who has been a leading voice in the marketing industry – an author and founder of agency, TopRank Marketing you can also follow Lee on Twitter @leeodden
I had the chance to catch up with Lee specifically on this very…
Create a strategic plan for getting the most out of your content marketing, including the best tools to use
With 91% of B2B and 86% B2C marketers currently using content marketing, there is no doubt that content accounts for a large part of most marketing strategies today. With 70% of marketers able to show how it has helped to increase engagement and leads, it seems obvious why everyone is investing so heavily in content creation and resources. But if you’re managing or are part of a small business, there isn’t always an endless pot of money for your marketing budget and factors such as time and resources can be limited. So how can you overcome these challenges and still create some killer content?
What I will be looking to cover is exactly this. I will go through the steps you need to take to create a strategic plan for getting…
These are the exact steps I took to see ROI in 3 weeks, not 18 months
Since Bill Gates was (arguably) the first to popularize the phrase “Content is king” in a 1996 essay, the locution has been harped on to the point of vexation, but it still rings true — maybe today more-so than ever. In the last six or seven years, the level of distribution that business owners and subject matter experts have been able to get with their content has gone from local to worldwide.
But, how do you actually get a return on the time and money you put into content marketing? It’s a nebulous concept for most business owners. Content marketers will tell you, “It’s a long game...you may not see results for 12-18 months.” I’m here to tell you that that is a lazy, and possibly dishonest. When you’re a results-oriented business leader, this kind of…
