The results of our survey on Content Marketing in Europe
In recent years, Content Marketing has been rated by marketers as one of the most effective marketing techniques. Indeed, our survey of Smart Insights readers asking about managing digital marketing in Europe has shown that in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 it was rated as THE most important marketing technique in terms of generating incremental online leads or sales in the year ahead. This has been confirmed in our new piece of research on Content Marketing in Europe in collaboration with HubSpot.
This is now the third consecutive year that we have partnered with HubSpot to gather the opinions of professional content marketers about the key trends affecting the industry and the big challenges they face in…
5 content marketing lessons and insights from Buzzfeed founder Jonah Peretti
Buzzfeed is a modern publishing phenomenon. Best known for listicles, GIFs and click-bait headlines, the company has now diversified into new areas, including politics, world news and even motion pictures.
According to Buzzfeed, 2014 revenues surpassed $100 million and their post in February asking people to vote on the colour of a dress has generated over 38 million views. Buzzfeed hasn’t found success by chance. Their business model and overarching content strategy has enabled them to consistently reach and engage a wide audience with a diverse set of stories, pictures, quizzes and breaking news.
[si_guide_block id="5651" title="Download Expert Member resource – Content marketing strategy guide" description="This guide shows you both how to develop a strategy to deploy content across all your online marketing and gives practical tips to make it happen. Now updated for 2016 to give the latest best practice…
A Q&A with Liam Fisher of BuiltVisible giving actionable advice and tools for people looking to improve their content marketing campaigns in the year ahead
Getting started with content marketing can be tough – from researching your audience through to executing a campaign across multiple mediums and devices, there’s a lot for the digital marketer to cover.
Often it comes back to really understanding what content marketing can bring to your business, who your audience is and what’s most likely to resonate with them, and what it is you need to achieve as a business from your content marketing.
To add a bit more to the conversation, I sat down with Liam Fisher the creative lead at Builtvisible, to talk about his views on content marketing and to share some actionable advice for people looking to improve their campaigns.
[si_guide_block id="5651"…
Creating a strategy in a team of one can be a challenge. Here's how to overcome it
In 2016, according to Curata reports that 60% of companies will have an executive who is directly responsible for an overall content marketing strategy. Yet despite the increasing emphasis that is being placed on content, a single executive is the often only resource that is allocated to an organization’s content marketing efforts.
Whether you are solely responsible for your company’s content marketing strategy, or part of a compact team, there are approaches you can take and tactics you can adopt to guarantee maximum results with minimum resources, from content creation right through to distribution. This article will show you how you can develop and implement a content marketing strategy on a limited budget.
Build trust and authority, develop your brand…
How to make content marketing generate results for your business by focusing on 5 success factors
Traditional marketing is self-centered. More often than not, it offers little more than a seductive image or a brief statement of your product’s qualities. On top of that, after decades of similar campaigns, consumers have grown adept at tuning out the noise.
Content marketing offers something different from traditional advertising. It requires marketers to step outside of their self-centered mindset and think about consumers’ needs. Content breaks through the marketing noise to create a relationship, offering knowledge and substance instead of fluff. It’s one of the reasons why content marketing is three times more effective than digital marketing in generating sales.
Where most ads are disposable, content is an asset that pays long-term dividends. Once an ad is gone, so is the opportunity. Content typically has a much longer shelf life. There’s certainly a cost…
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August 11, 2015
Produce your content as part of a well-planned strategy to get the best results as shown by this hypothetical case study
Content has been a big buzzword for the last 12 months, and still drives a lot of conversation today. This has only been encouraged with Google’s updated algorithm last year. Content now plays a more pivotal role in search engine optimisation (SEO), as link based metrics are decreasingly used as the main ranking signal.
So yes, everyone’s churning out content, more and more – how many server farms will we need in 2030 to accommodate it all?! So what can brands do to make their content strategy work across channels and align with customer needs?
To really leverage the power of content, publishers and brands should employ carefully thought out strategies, as this will ensure maximum returns. Given the vast breadth of the topic I will primarily focus on social and digital…
Evergreen content is key to boosting your organic SEO
What is evergreen content?
Content creation is essential in any marketing strategy. It takes time and effort to create good content. If you invest in creating content you want to maximise the return on your investment. You want to see a boost in: traffic to your website, shares on social media, subscriptions to your mailing list and enquires to your sales team. Great content can do all of these and ultimately drive more sales.
Some content will only attract traffic for a brief spurt. For example: an article about a new development in your industry. Such an article can drive a spike in traffic that might diminish in a matter of days.
source: moz.com
However some content can continue to attract…
To increase conversions with content marketing, you must get both quality and distribution right
No marketing strategy is effective anymore without good content. It’s the cornerstone of engaging with customers on social media channels, ranking in search and your vehicle to demonstrate your brand and values as a business.
Image credit: Startbloggingonline
With 50% of B2C marketers expecting to increase their budget spend on content marketing in 2015 according to this research infographic from Smart Insights, it’s abundantly clear that good content has become a major e-commerce marketing priority.
Approaching a content strategy in digital commerce has some significant challenges, however. Naturally, your digital commerce site is built to sell, and your content will likely take a softer approach, as it won’t be of value to your potential customers if it just contains promotional messages. Your content needs to entertain, educate,…
Sharing 9 tips on engaging staff within an organisation to create content
We find there is great enthusiasm for content marketing, but when we talk to marketers at companies and agencies, we find there are two common content marketing management challenges (amongst many). First, how do you make the business case for content marketing and prove its value post campaign and second, how to encourage colleagues with the specialist insights to create great content given limited time or inclination.
We are all busy, with our own priorities and responsibilities and it can be difficult to engage colleagues to understand the importance of relevant, interesting and up-to-date information to share with customers, prospects and stakeholders who can influence the sales or company brand.
This post was originally based around a discussion on our Digital Marketing Optimization LinkedIn Group. We still often get this question which we posed. The question was simply...
How do…
A review of the latest digital marketing approaches for charities and not-for-profits
Digital marketing is now a core communications method for Charities and Not-for-Profit organisations (NfPs). Charity websites give a great platform as a vital communications channel to inspire and engage people, raise funds, provoke discussion and explain the benefits and use of services provided through fundraising.
Trends in digital marketing for charities?
The future direction of Digital Marketing for charities was discussed by Dave Chaffey of Smart Insights at a recent keynote delivered to the Comms Rewired conference organized by The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) - the membership organisation for Scotland’s charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises.
[slideshare id=39786189&doc=digital-marketing-trends-for-nfp-davechaffey-scvo-141002024327-phpapp01]
You can see in the Slideshare that Dave reviewed examples of how charities are using digital communications across the Smart Insights RACE planning framework. Dave recommended that content marketing should be a the heart of charity marketing. As our Inbound marketing blueprint suggests, this requires these 6 key actions Dave…
