How to keep your content strategy cutting edge
We’re entering a new era of content marketing, and if you’re like the majority of content marketers out there, you probably haven’t adapted. Competition is fierce, and if you want to remain relevant and visible for your target audience, you have to reimagine your strategy for the new challenges and opportunities that exist. Influential forces like Google and basic consumer preferences are beginning to weed out the slow adapters, so now’s the time to adjust your campaign and forge a course for the future of content marketing.
The New Era of Content Marketing
What is this new era of content marketing and why is it important? There aren’t many landmark changes that have spurred this shift; instead, it’s the result of a number of gradually evolving technologies and shifting market trends coming together to establish new content marketing norms. Some of the biggest influencers include:
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Use these tools to assess and improve on-site user interaction
Time-on-site, bounce rate, page views. You've probably grappled trying to boost these metrics for a while, and it can be difficult to make big improvements. Getting the right tools can make a massive difference and really help to generate that all important engagement which lets you boost these key metrics and thus helps you rise in the SERPs and sell more products. So we took at look at 5 of the best page engagement tools so you can see which ones are right for you and give them a try.
What do these tools do?
These tools help assess and improve the effectiveness of website design including different page template types such as home page, landing and campaign pages.
Why are they important to digital marketers?
These…
5 Questions to help set, manage and review your content marketing effectiveness
As we accept that our consumers are learning about, and navigating through, more and more information about our brand, organisation, industries or topic areas as they research online, we're needing to deploy more sophisticated strategies in order we can earn attention, and importantly trust. This is what sits behind the drive of content marketing's rise to the forefront of the digital marketing agenda.
Content marketing is starting to mature, too. More and more reports, such as this from the Aberdeen Group, illustrate this, here too.
An easy start-point
Below is a simple matrix of ideas to help you set the KPIs or metrics based on what we've used on different projects. We're not saying "this is the way you must do it" or that you need to use all of these KPIs. Instead, we hope this is a useful framework…
A framework to help you get the best results from marketing tools
You don't need me to tell you that there are a lot of different options when it comes to marketing technology. Just one look at Scott Brinker's infamous martech graphic shows just how bamboozling the 3000+ strong field of marketing tools can be.
With new marketing tools and available to us almost daily, it can be difficult to know where to prioritise your marketing activities to get the most 'bang for your buck'.
As marketers we need to be agile by reacting to new developments to gain an upper hand on the competition, but at the same time, we need to avoid being 'technology magpies' following seductive, shiny new tools which may distract us from working on optimising the most effective channels.
Our CEO Dr Dave Chaffey,…
This post examines common reasons for content marketing failure and introduces a 7 step content marketing strategy framework to mitigate the problem
Many businesses are now actively using content marketing, but it seems that there is potential for these initiatives to fail. According to the Smart Insights - HubSpot’s Managing Content Marketing Europe 2016 research as many as 72% of marketers rated their content marketing as "limited," “basic" or "inconsistent.”
In another survey from the CMI examining content marketing usage and effectiveness, a mere 32% of those polled describe their organisation’s content marketing as “sophisticated or mature”, with just 34% saying they are effective.
In the same report, conducted by Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, the effectiveness of B2B…
A new report by renowned digital marketing analyst Rebecca Lieb points to the decline of banner ads and the opportunity it represents for content marketers.
Advertising effectiveness is declining. Savvy web users are installing ad-blockers in droves with Adblock use in Europe over 30% in some countries, whilst everyone is developing 'banner blindness' with their own internal ad-blockers, which is also known by its more common name, the human brain. The move to mobile makes it harder to deliver effective ads without being obtrusive and increasing concerns about data privacy mean some consumers are in no mood to hand over their details.
This might sound like bad news for digital marketers, but it actually opens up a whole world of opportunities for doing things differently and reaching customers more effectively. For content marketers specifically, it means budgets will continue to tilt in their favor, and greater demands will be put on content marketing departments, as…
7 Steps to Content Marketing Success in 2016
In our previous infographic, 7 Steps to Digital Marketing Nirvana, we showed the success factors with creating a digital strategy to help grow a business.
Since the 7 Steps format was popular, we have used the same format in this Content Marketing infographic. In it we highlight a process to help your business grow using Content Marketing, which we believe should be at the heart of your digital marketing strategy in 2016.
To help you review or benchmark how well you compete with your content marketing, for each step in the infographic, I have included relevant research from our free managing Content Marketing in 2016 research report we have just published with HubSpot - thank you if you were involved in the research!
The research shows the challenge of content marketing with:
Over two-thirds (67%) of businesses creating more content in 2016 compared to 2015
Only 11%…
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.
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Technical options and tools for creating more engaging content marketing
A brief history of animation on the web.
Since the beginning of the Internet, the web has been constantly and rapidly evolving. The evolution of the web has been directed by predominantly 2 conflicting factors. The first factor being content providers and readers who are always seeking for more complex and exciting forms of content. The other factor is the technology that provides the foundation of the web which allows users to have the type of content they require. It is both of these factors that have driven the web forward and brought us the web that we know and love today.
One form of content that has always been a requirement for users is animated content. However, technology has often limited the capability of animation on the web. One of the first signs of animation on the web was the introduction of the…
