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4 Amazingly Effective SEO Strategies for Content Marketing

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When it comes to generating web traffic and online brand awareness, few methods are more effective in the long-term than search engine optimization (SEO), which is simply the practice of optimizing your website and marketing efforts to facilitate higher rankings in the search engines. Since all of those search results are linking to content, the primary driving force behind any SEO campaign is content creation/marketing. Although site owners and marketers should always aim for quality over quantity, to a degree it really is a number game. The number of posts you have online at any given time will directly affect your brand’s visibility. With that said, here are four strategies you can use to achieve expansive results in any content marketing strategy:

1. Geo-Targeting and International Marketing

Sometimes, expanding into foreign markets is all it takes to tap into an extra group of visitors that you might’ve previously overlooked. This is worthy of being mentioned first because it’s something that many marketing campaigns fail to take into account. While global brands can benefit tremendously from international marketing – click here for more information on that – local brands should also be using geo-targeting techniques to increase the amount of traffic generated in the regions where they conduct business.

2. Guest Posting and Allowing Guest Authors

Another way to get your content in front of new eyes is to volunteer to post your content on relevant blogs and sites that allow guest posts. By guest posting on high authority sites and then linking back to a page on your own site, you’re not only attracting direct referral traffic but you’re also improving your SEO stats by increasing the number of high-ranking inbound links that point to your site. Likewise, posting an open invitation for guest authors will give your site fresh new content for free.

3. Infographics, Videos, and Other Media

You could be losing a large chunk of traffic by not producing and promoting infographics, videos, GIFs, sideshows, reports, presentations, and other forms of media content. Infographics can spread like wildfire if they contain a number unique and useful statistics, as they tend to be linked back to as resources by bloggers.

4. Focus on the Social Networking Side of the Coin

Finally, staying active on social media is a duty that no brand should neglect, especially if you’re trying to promote content to generate additional traffic and awareness. Having a post go viral on a site like Facebook or Twitter is a great way to build massive momentum and dozens of strong inbound links in a matter of days.

Content Marketing Has become the Crux of SEO

Not too long ago, SEO was ridden with sneaky, short-sighted tactics that often involved nothing more than seeking out random links from sites that match a set of criteria. However, in recent years search engines like Google have evolved past a purely metrics-based approach and are now able to more accurately discern what quality content reads and performs like. Since the goal of the search engine is to provide links to the most relevant content, it was only a matter of time before content quality became the core issue in SEO, so take note and adapt your SEO efforts to follow suit.

4 Reasons Your Content Marketing Plan Will Fail You

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Content marketing has never been so important. The content you create could make or break your business because there is so much emphasis on search engine rankings these days. One of the most important things a small business can do is take the time to plan content well and make sure it speaks to and engages with their target audiences. But, there are so many times when content marketing plans fail because of simple mistakes. Here’s why your content marketing could be failing you.

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article
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Content Marketing is a Temporary Fix

If you aren’t getting the sales and traffic you desire and you’re using content marketing as a quick fix, you may as well give up now. Content marketing is something that need to be used consistently and businesses have to make a long-term commitment. If you believe your business can survive by getting the custom you need from a few social media posts and blogs and then you’ll be able to stop, think again. You may be finding it difficult to invest the time a content plan needs. In that case, it’s wise to invest in the services of an internet marketing firm. If you want your business to flourish, you better have a 12-month content plan in place and refresh it every annum.

You Don’t Need to Know Your Audience

So, you think you can set-up a Facebook business page and advertise to anyone and everyone? Firstly, you’re unlikely to convert your audience into sales and secondly, your content won’t be specific enough to reach your target audience. Every business has a target audience and no business will survive without identifying it. When you know who your target audience is, you can design your content based on the information you have, and you’re more likely to attract the appropriate people.

Content Means Sales

Don’t make the mistake of looking for immediate results. Yes, content works, but it’s usually over a period of time. Think about the way you react to content marketing as a customer. One social media post is enough to get you interested, but it doesn’t mean you’ll automatically read the blog, visit the website or buy products. For many customers, the first engagement with a post is just the beginning. It may take several more posts before you convert that follower into a buyer. So, be patient and do your research so you can create a daily content plan.

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article
Photo courtesy of Pexels

SEO isn’t a Big Deal

It would be nice to think that the quality of a business will outshine everything else, but ignoring SEO will just lead to unnecessary failure. If your potential customers can’t find you when they search for your niche, the quality of your work will have no voice at all. At the very least you need to do keyword research so your site will rank in searches, but it’s also important that you create content that can gain links and increase your visibility.

Sometimes it’s best to create a content marketing plan by asking yourself, ‘What could make this fail?’ and working from there.

Digital publishers need to quit counting clicks and instead engage audiences to prosper

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It’s no longer just about eyeballs.

As the digital publishing world evolves and becomes more sophisticated, advertisers want to capture the minds of online audiences as well.

And that means publishers making the transition from print products to digital-first strategies need to focus not just on the breadth of audience reach, but on audience engagement.

Without the right process, people and platforms in place, these publishers are bound to miss the target and fail.

A shift in thinking is crucial to success.

In the early days as print publications moved to the web, one of the key metrics publishers and advertisers cared about was page views — how many sets of eyes scanned a page, even if only for a second or two. They effectively took the same measurement tool they used for print — reach, which was measured in part by circulation — and applied it to the digital landscape.

In the print model, publishers earn revenue from the reach they have in their distribution channels. Their reach allows them to sell advertisements that exist alongside readable content such as news stories.

The challenge that many publishers now face is that reach is outdated in today’s digital world. It doesn’t take into account how many people actually read or interacted with the content or advertisement. A growing number of advertisers are only willing to pay for content that was actually consumed – content where the user has engaged with it. They’re strong believers that the best indicator of content quality isn’t how many people see it, but how much time they spend with it.

The shift from media distribution to media consumption dramatically lowers revenue capacity and puts significant pressure on publishers to deliver a compelling value proposition to advertisers.

Consider publishers like The Financial Times and Say Media, which both clearly understand the relevance of engaged time and have placed it at the center of their value proposition to advertisers and users. Like a growing number of publishers, they are showing they understand that just boosting traffic isn’t enough because not all traffic converts.

As a user becomes increasingly engaged, they are more willing to pay for a digital publisher’s content or services. A recent MIT Sloan Management Review report, titled “Turning Content Viewers Into Subscribers,” asserts that engagement is the key to turning casual readers into paying subscribers, and the ladder model as an effective framework to boost engagement over time. Using what the research dubs the “ladder of participation,” publishers can prompt site users to progressively accelerate their onsite engagement to become paying subscribers.

While the engagement-focused model is beginning to resonate more strongly with a larger number of publishers, not all of them are making the transition as efficiently as they could.

Implementing an engagement model promotes readers to return, register and subscribe – and this is good for the bottom line. Engagement is driven by a commitment to identifying who your audience is and giving them what they want, when they want it. Not by spraying and praying on social media, which is the path chosen by many publishers today.

Facebook is now being used by many publishers to solve their digital publishing dilemma of increasing engagement with their community, website, brand and content creators. Publishers are handing over this huge opportunity to a platform that has its own business goals, none of which are aligned with the publishers’ – Facebook’s commitment is to itself. It is looking to solve its own audience development challenge of creating interactions with its brand, its community and its content. Facebook’s recent change to its algorithm — placing greater priority on posts from family and friends than on news feeds and posts from publishers — confirms this. The social media giant acknowledged this when it announced the change that “this update may cause reach and referral traffic to decline for some Pages.”

Digital publishers who rely too heavily on Facebook can count themselves among those who’ll see their reach dramatically reduced.

The solution comes down to owning your engagement platform in order to take full advantage of your audience and drive engagement to meet your own business goals.

When publishers commit to engagement and take ownership of their channels, and not rely on social media that has its own agendas, they can focus their efforts on increasing and owning their audience’s interactions, connections and relationships. This is the first step in moving to a process and platform that is specifically built to work in today’s engagement driven digital world.

About the Author

Jesse Moeinifar, CEO of Viafoura is a serial entrepreneur with multiple successes spanning a range of industries, including real estate, digital media and software. Dedicated to disruption, Jesse is passionate about game-changing ideas and credits his accomplishments to assembling teams of smart individuals committed to solving challenging problems.

The Holy Grail of Content Marketing – and When to Recommend It

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With much of the business world abuzz about content marketing, smart marketers are taking stock of opportunities for their clients to use the power of story to convey a message and build stronger brands. Conspicuously absent from most content strategies, however, is the granddaddy of all content marketing: writing a book.

The benefits of launching a book are many: increased visibility and credibility, tighter messaging, an angle around which to build a publicity campaign, a tool to acquire new business, and more. But writing a book is a daunting task for most, and a long process to boot. On top of that, many would-be authors doubt whether their ideas are book-worthy. So as a trusted advisor, when should you include writing a book in the recommendations you provide to your client? Here are four key elements to look for:

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About the Author

Tanya HallTanya Hall is the CEO of Greenleaf Book Group, a publisher and distributor with a specialty in developing non-fiction bestsellers and brands. Learn more at http://www.greenleafbookgroup.com/home and connect with Tanya on Twitter at @tanyahall.