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Tag Archive for: content marketing strategy

Win with these Best Practices for Online Content

July 6, 2021/0 Comments/in Online Marketing /by Jill Kurtz

It’s easy to post content online, but not everything you publish will get attention. To get attention online takes planning. These best practices for online content will help your content rise above the clutter.

Create an Awesome Title/Headline

The headline (or subject line in the case of email) is the first thing users read. If there isn’t a title, like there is for web pages and blog posts, the first sentence is the attention grabber.

Great headlines:

  • Promise a specific benefit
  • Use numbers
  • Ask a question
  • Create urgency
  • Trigger curiosity or emotion
  • Use a keyword that defines the content

Use Special Characters and Emoji

Special characters add visual prominence. Research shows that special characters and emoji that are relevant to the content enhance the communication of meaning and interest in the content.

Don’t overdo it. Too many emoji have the opposite effect and make your content look low-quality or spammy.

Hashtag on Platforms that Use Them

Some online platforms use hashtags to organize content. Examples include Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Use them when relevant.

It’s important to use hashtags that are relevant to that platform. Don’t rely on a general set of tags. The meaning and following of a hashtag can be vastly different from one platform to another.
Always research hashtags! Make sure your content is relevant to what’s being shared with the tag. Also look to make sure the tag following makes it a worthwhile use of space in your post.

Include Visuals

Images are critical. Research consistently shows that more visual social posts get more shares, engagement and clicks than other online content.

When picking images, keep in mind:

  • Images with faces are powerful attention grabbers
  • Pets also draw attention
  • Original images stand out more than stock photos
  • Limit video length to be within best practices of the platform where it is being shared

Mention Others

Mentioning others in your content is powerful, especially when those mentions link to their content. People are influenced by social proof of others liking something. Search engines take these mentions as a signal of authority in a subject area.

When you mention and link to others, they are likely to respond with a comment or share. This expands the reach from your audience to theirs as well.

Get More Engagement with Online Content Best Practices

Most online posts get almost no traction, while a small percentage of posts get huge engagement. Putting more effort into following online content best practices as you create your content improves your likelihood of getting results. Fewer posts that are well created will outperform a volume of poor quality posts.

https://kurtzdigitalstrategy.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/headerkeyboardthink.png 225 770 Jill Kurtz /wp-content/uploads/2018/03/cropped-KDS-logo-for-print.png Jill Kurtz2021-07-06 08:19:552021-06-26 08:13:01Win with these Best Practices for Online Content

Seven Basics of Content Marketing

May 5, 2020/0 Comments/in Communication, Online Marketing /by Guest Blogger

Guest Post by S.L. Hoffman

Ask a group of digital marketers to provide a clear definition of content marketing is, and you’ll get various answers.

The Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as “a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

Digital marketing expert Neil Patel has a different definition of content marketing. He says that “content marketing is all about storytelling, and humans have told stories for as long as they could speak. Our attention will always go to those who tell great stories.”

I personally prefer Lexico’s explanation of content marketing, which gets far more specific about the type of content that needs to be created. According to Lexico, content marketing is a “type of marketing that involves the creation and sharing of online material (such as videos, blogs, and social media posts) that does not explicitly promote a brand but is intended to stimulate interest in its products or services.”

Content marketing is far more subtle – and in much wider use now – than traditional marketing that hawks a product or service. The tricky part is figuring out what content your audience wants to see and will consider valuable. But the ultimate test of content marketing answers two questions:

  • Brand awareness: Are more people aware of your brand now?
  • Lead generation: Did your organization see a notable rise in sales?

As Neil Patel points out, your content marketing needs to tell a story. But there are other aspects to content marketing to be considered as well.

#1: Show, Don’t Tell

These days, anyone can hop on the internet and claim expertise in a certain area. But with content marketing, you can prove that expertise. You can tell a customer’s story in a video, record a podcast interview with one of your experts or take photographs that reinforce why you’re good at what you do.

#2: Remember Visual Quality

Photographs, infographics, and videos are great ways to tell your company story, but they need to be flawless. Allowing a blurry photograph or an infographic with one or two misspelled words might sound harmless, but your visible lack of professionalism could encourage your potential customers to go somewhere else.

#3: Have a Solid Strategy

Before creating or publishing content, think hard about what you want that content to accomplish. Do you want it to generate leads, raise brand awareness or make you more prominent on search engine results pages? Create a defined strategy with clear, easily measurable goals.

#4: Remember Variety

Whether you regularly publish blog articles, tell your story through Pinterest images, or have a podcast series, take the trouble to vary your content. It’s easy to discuss the topics that interest you 24/7, but bear in mind that your audience has specific needs they’d like you to address. Get out of your comfort zone – try a Facebook live stream or create a video to liven things up.

#5: Realize That Audiences Have Short Attention Spans

If it’s possible to keep your content short and still tell a coherent story, do so. According to Erik Qualman of Socialnomics, human beings now have an attention span of seven seconds. When you combine that fact with all of the content created by your business competitors, creating good, easily “digestible” content for your target audience becomes even more challenging.

Use different storytelling techniques to keep your audience coming back for more of your unique content. For instance, break up an overly long blog article into several stories.

#6: Consider Your Timing

Let’s say you’ve created amazing content that is guaranteed to attract people’s attention. Do you know when they are online? Are more people viewing that content during the day, at night, on weekdays, or on the weekends?

If not, find out what day(s) and what time of day when your audience is most likely to be online with web analytics software. Consider geographic areas as well. If you’re marketing to the residents of more than one country, you’ll want to ensure your content is easily seen by people in different time zones.

#7: Remember Search Engine Optimization

You may have created wonderful stories that are broadcast all over your social media accounts, but not everyone has social media accounts. Make sure that you use search engine optimization (SEO) techniques so your content shows up on search engine results pages over time to maximize your content’s reach.

Whatever forms of content marketing you decide to use, remember to keep your audience’s informational needs in mind. Make it clear to your audience why the content you provide will help them and avoid lapsing into business jargon that will be hard for some people to understand.

https://kurtzdigitalstrategy.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/header-storytellingphonecaptureimage.png 225 770 Guest Blogger /wp-content/uploads/2018/03/cropped-KDS-logo-for-print.png Guest Blogger2020-05-05 08:24:102021-06-13 10:22:39Seven Basics of Content Marketing

Don’t Make These Content Marketing Mistakes

January 30, 2020/0 Comments/in Communication, Online Marketing /by Jill Kurtz

Content marketing – helping your target audience to learn about you through great online content – is one of the best investments a company can make. It increases traffic, creates and reinforces brand awareness, and brings in business! Content marketing mistakes can result in missing these and other opportunities.

Content marketing is challenging. Many businesses are sharing content, making it hard for you to be seen. Marketers have to get it right in order to achieve optimal results.

Here are five of the biggest content marketing mistakes, and what you can do to avoid them.

One and Done Approach

Creating quality content requires time and resources. You are creating an asset, and you need to maximize the mileage from that asset. Content should be repurposed.

  • Repurpose a blog post into an infographic or video
  • Aggregate several pieces of related content into one post or page
  • Update content to add or remove key points

Content should also be used across more than one platform. Make sure that you edit and optimize to fit each platform, and that you space out publication dates at least two weeks.

Assuming All Readers Are Invested

There are many phases of engagement with your target, from introduction to customer and beyond. Don’t assume everyone who sees your content knows who you are or is ready to act on everything you present. Provide content for people at all stages of engagement with your brand.

Expecting Content to Promote Itself

Content marketing doesn’t stop when you click post or publish. You have to help people to discover your content. Yes, you need to market your content marketing!

In fact, spend more time promoting your content than creating it. Many suggest the 80/20 rule: Spend 20% of the time creating content and 80% to promote it via social media, blogs, email, and other channels.

Discounting Content that Isn’t Your Own

You are not the only source of content about your industry, area of expertise or even your own business. In the social media age, anyone can create and publish content.

Resist the temptation to ignore all content that isn’t your own. Engage with content created by others. A simple “like” will do. Comments and shares are even better. When you participate in the larger conversation around your area of expertise, it elevates your connections online.

Anecdotal (or No) Measurement

One of the biggest mistakes is not taking time to review the performance of your content. Measurement is more than counting likes and direct feedback. Without looking at the data, there’s no way to know what is or isn’t working.

The data will tell you what content performs well and what isn’t worth the investment.  There are tools that give you measures on individual platforms as well as across platforms. Engagement metrics like page views, social media shares, and the time visitors spent looking at pieces of content can help you improve the impact of your content.

 

https://kurtzdigitalstrategy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/header-laptophandsdrinks.png 225 770 Jill Kurtz /wp-content/uploads/2018/03/cropped-KDS-logo-for-print.png Jill Kurtz2020-01-30 08:00:282021-06-13 10:11:40Don’t Make These Content Marketing Mistakes

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