Last updated on January 4, 2021
Content marketing, you hear more and more often that companies want to do something with it. Precisely that ensures that it is still used far too often, without a good look at what it delivers. What is really important in content marketing these days? What should or shouldn’t you do when you start using it?
For the past 2.5 years, I have faced such decisions every day in my job. What is useful to do and what really delivers results? I would like to share best practices with you based on the 5 essential components of content marketing. On to more traffic and more importantly, conversion!
What is the added value of good content marketing?
Whatever industry you work in, content marketing is a valuable addition to your marketing mix. Blog content is one of the most important marketing channels for SendCloud, the company I work for. SEO is number two in traffic generation with more than 40%. In addition to traffic, content can generate leads, sales and newsletter subscriptions, if done properly of course. Furthermore, content marketing supports us in creating brand awareness and thought leadership.
Now we are a SaaS business (software as a service) and you can ask yourself if it is valuable for your company. It’s not about writing blogs or scoring on Google. Of course, these are means to achieve your goals. But no, the essence of content marketing is that you can teach your (potential) customers something. On the one hand about your product, on the other hand about your industry. You are (and your product is) the solution to the problems they are struggling with.
And yet it still often goes wrong, content does not deliver what you had in mind. Why is that? Because you have to publish the best content there is!
1 Give goals to your content marketer
It sounds obvious, but you also need separate goals for content. This is often not the case. A marketing team has goals and content marketing should contribute to that. That is why it is best to set sub-goals for content.
Be the first to find out what works best for you at the moment. Does email marketing convert best for you? Then content marketing could help you to collect email addresses. When search engine traffic often leads to sales, make traffic a separate target for your content marketing strategy.
The key question you should always ask yourself is: what do I want to achieve by (exclusively) creating content for my target group? Make sure that you link your content to a specific action that you need from the reader. So, do you want to increase traffic with your content? Then write the best content there is, so that you rank 1 and don’t forget to optimize the meta description, so that it is actually clicked on and you can increase your traffic.
2 Use the right tools
Tools are crucial when it comes to content. They will help you to write the best content, rank high in Google and most important to get readers to convert. Exactly in that order, I sum up a number of indispensable tools for you. I use these tools myself on a weekly basis and with results!
Determine the subject
Without tools, it’s pretty tough to know what you want to write about. Besides that, it’s also a waste of your time to spend hours on Google looking for what’s already available in your field and what you can still contribute. That’s why my search always starts with finding keywords using the Google Keyword Planner, SEMRush and Ubersuggest.
Thanks to these tools you can find relevant keywords for your product, see how much is searched for these words on average and get new ideas for future articles. In addition, www.answerthepublic.com and BuzzSumo are indispensable tools to see what people want to know through Google and which articles already score high on this.
Write the article
As soon as you start to write your article, it is important that this article will rank high in order to stand out. You also need to click on it. The more people read and share your article, the better it will be for your Google rating. When using WordPress the Yoast SEO plugin is indispensable, it shows you exactly what you need to do to optimize your article for SEO. The CoSchedule headline analyzer also helps you to write a title that people can’t ignore. The title is the business card of your article. Without a good title, no readers!
Converting Readers
Apart from the fact that your article has to score on every level, it is also important that you encourage your readers to take action. That’s why it’s important to use a tool that allows you to add opt-ins to your blog in total, but also in separate articles. Link relevant opt-ins to your articles via tools such as Sumo, Privy, GetSitecontrol, Convertful and more. So many different tools have been developed that it is difficult to make a recommendation. In any case, look at the integrations of the tool, so that leads are automatically stored in your CRM system or email marketing program.
3 Focus on the quality factors
If you do it, you have to do it right. A lot of articles have been written and Google only shows what is good for its users. But what is good? First of all, the content has to be good. Therefore, check which articles have already been written on the subject and try to “overrule” them. For example, if there are articles written about “the 5 best”, try to make 10 of them. Be as complete as possible in your description and don’t make a commercial piece of it. It is also important that the topics are close to your knowledge and expertise. You may want to write everything your target group is looking for, but if the link with your company is not clear you will not get results from the article itself.
In addition, I have analyzed a lot of articles myself and I can tell you that quality is about quantity.
What is quality of an article?
Judge your article on a number of factors:
– Solve a problem:
doesn’t your content answer a question or solve a problem? Then your article
has little added value.- In-depth articles score better: be as concrete as
possible. When you write about everything an article wants to write, it will
not rank and visitors will not be able to quickly find what they are looking
for.
– Longer articles score better: Articles with 1250 words or more score higher
in Google and get more social shares.
– Make it scannable: Make your article scannable and divide it into clear
paragraphs
– Don’t forget the visuals: The eye wants something and we humans are lazy. So
make sure you add images that support your text. Don’t know where to get the
images from? Don’t worry, we have listed 40 useful sites for you.
In addition, the question arises at many companies, should we place more or less articles? It seems simple, more articles are more likely to rank high in Google. Have you ever thought about the fact that you have to keep track of all these articles, out-dated information is of no use to anyone. Besides that, you better focus on super relevant articles that really have a link to your product or company.
4 Measuring is knowing and helps convert
If you’ve done your stinking best to publish high quality content, it’s important to know if it works. Still, the measurement aspect is often forgotten. This is a waste of your budget and time of course. How do you measure what your created content has delivered?
First of all, it is
important to always link UTM codes to your URL when you share it on external
channels such as social media. UTM codes allow you to see exactly which content
scores best and where.
In addition, you can see on an overall level how high your article ranked, what
the CTR is and how many unique visitors it generated. Google Analytics and the
Google Search Console are useful tools for this.
When you have set goals through Google Analytics, you can also see if there are articles that generate direct sales. Content marketing is generally more likely to help in generating “micro-conversions” where readers have entered an opt-in. Because of the questions you ask in the opt-in, you can qualify leads afterwards. Make sure you have a good follow-up flow with your sales department and preferably also automatically.
Last but not least, it
is important to look at the article level to see how much time readers spend on
the article and how high the bounce rate is. Articles that score well in all
possible ways, such as completed opt-ins, direct sales but also long “time
on page” and a low bounce rate indicate that the subject contributes to
your goals.
You can use this information cleverly by dividing the subject into smaller
subjects and other forms of content. This takes less time, increases results
and makes you indispensable on the web.
5. Go beyond your own channel
Think beyond your own channels. You can also create content for others. This does not necessarily mean that you need to generate as many backlinks as possible, but make sure you create synergy! Think about the subjects your target group is looking for, but you’re not a specialist.
You can look for new collaborations and ask them to write a guest blog for your channel. This allows you to rank high with more articles, without costing you a lot of time, but also ensures that your partner regains more visibility. The other way around, you can do exactly the same for external channels.
Returning to the backlinks. How about 2018/2019? Backlinks give your website authority, which is good for your ranking in Google. Now it’s not really the backlinks themselves that make your article score well. The point is, that you write such a good article, so others will refer to it, so you will eventually rank well.
Going viral is very important here and that is only possible if you come up with valuable content, which again solves a problem or answers a question.
Conclusion
There is a lot involved in content marketing and hopefully I was able to give you some key learnings. I also learn from the trade every day and that’s what makes it so much fun! In addition, the internet never stands still, so it’s important to stay up to date with the latest developments and updates from Google. The most important thing we always have to remember is: quality comes before quantity and we can only offer it if we offer problem-solving content.
In any case, I wish you lots of success and results. If you have any useful tips, please don’t hesitate to let me know. I am curious!
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