eBook Content marketing how to succeed where others fail

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Content Marketing – How To Succeed Where Others Fail
2
Introduction
This eBook is for anyone looking to implement successful
CONTENT MARKETING in a way that POSITIVIELY IMPACTS
website traffic & CONVERTS more visitors into loyal, paying
CUSTOMERS.
We focus on 5 main chapters covering:
 WHAT content marketing is
 WHY you can’t afford to ignore it
 HOW you can benefit from getting it right
 HOW to avoid getting it wrong
 HOW to implement an ongoing strategy

3
What Is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is ANY marketing format that involves the
CREATION and SHARING of MEDIA or PUBLISHING CONTENT to
ACQUIRE customers.
This information can be presented as:
 news updates
 blog articles
 press releases
 video
 white papers
 e-books
 info graphics
 case studies
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4
Content Marketing Is NOT
Content marketing is NOT :
X Advertising, selling or promoting
X Advertorials, biased product reviews
X Duplicating content from elsewhere
X Unreadable SEO Content (keyword-heavy)
Its more about simply COMMUNICATING with website
VISITORS, the objective being to CONVERT MORE of them into
PROSPECTS.
It’s NOT RESTRICTED TO SOCIAL MEDIA or even the internet
itself and as a concept can be applied to ANY marketing
medium.
The objective is to INSPIRE BUSINESS and LOYALTY from buyers
by delivering "consistent, ongoing valuable information” to
STRENGTHEN relationships.

5
What the EXPERTS say…

6
What The Experts Say…
Stephane Levy, Co-Founder of LABELIUM, who specialise in
online marketing and whose clients include global brands like
Carrefour, L'Oreal, LVMH & Pierre & Vacances had this to say:
“Google is increasingly promoting criteria that can’t be
influenced by SEOs.
A paramount consideration is the quality of the visit: after a
user enters a query and clicks on a link, do they remain on the
site or return to Google?
A simple way to maximize the quality of the visit is to have a
wealth of engaging content on the site”

7
What The Experts Say…
Alberic Guigou, Co-Founder of REPUTATION SQUAD who
specialise in Online Reputation Management and whose clients
include global brands like Axa, Nestle, SEGA & Western Union had
this to say:
"More and more, quality content is naturally rewarded.
Creating rare and relevant information can be rewarded by
Google without necessarily having to rely heavily on SEO
techniques.
It seems more important today to promote content that is
qualitative both in its function as in its form."

8
What the MARKET says…

9
BILLION DOLLARS will be spent
on CONTENT marketing, VIDEO
marketing and SOCIAL
media in 2013
25%
118.4
on average marketers say a
QUARTER of their BUDGET is
spent on content marketing

10
Is this the case for
YOUR business?

11
IF NOT….
Do you realise the impact
YOUR own content has on your
website’s search engine
RANKINGS?
Or its ability to ATTRACT and
ENGAGE visiting traffic?

12
75%
of internet users spend
MORE TIME on websites
that use ENGAGING CONTENT
than websites that are
commercial or promotional.

13
60%
of consumers say they
are MORE INCLINED TO BUY
from websites that publish
QUALITATIVE and ENGAGING
content than those that don’t.

14
80%
of consumers say brands
that create or publish
QUALITATIVE, ENGAGING
content seem more
interested in building
LOYAL relationships
with them

15
70%
of brands say that QUALITY
CONTENT posted to SOCIAL
MEDIA networks POSITIVELY
impacts other marketing
channels…

16
Social Media alone generates
2 x LEADS
as trade shows,
telemarketing or
direct mail.

17
Taking these statistics into
account, how does YOUR
business compare?

18
Did you know content can
help you COMPETE against
other websites?

19
Websites with 50-100 pages
generate
40%
more traffic
than websites with 1-50 pages

20
Did you know that publishing
BLOG articles more often helps
to drive business?

21
Even companies that only blog
1-2 times a month
generate
70%
more leads
per month than companies
that don’t blog

22
Are you aware of what is at
RISK should you ignore content
marketing or publish it on
pages with weak SEO?
ENOUGH BENEFITS…

23
An Artificial Audience
With AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT now a KEY METRIC for how
websites rank it means that Content Marketing is more about
SEO than many people realise.
Today, the way you structure, CREATE and UPDATE website
content is now balanced against the manner in which visitors
ENGAGE with it.
This combined referencing directly impacts how you will be
RANKED in ORGANIC Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) which
in turn will affect both the quantity and quality of visitor
TRAFFIC directed to your website.

24
Why CONTENT, why NOW?

25
What’s changed?
Over the last 5 years we’ve seen many changes to the way
websites :
 Recognise the need for quality content
 Focus more on links, anchor text & layout
 Aim to be structured more efficiently
 Recognise visitors have less time
 Provide faster access to data for search engines
 Focus on better sitemap management
 Improve home page organisation

26
How closely are your SEO &
MARKETING staff working
together?

27
How The Internet Changed
A brand talking about themselves is BORING.
The key today lies in INTERACTION, specifically how you
RESPOND and ENGAGE with your audience.
Despite employing comprehensive brand information MOST
SITES still lack the ability to include viewpoints other than their
own.
By GIVING A VOICE to your CUSTOMERS or third parties, you can
begin to EMPLOY TERMINOLOGY and CONTENT more closely
ALIGNED with REAL USER QUERIES.
“…a global player”
“the first agency to…”
“the only brand that…”
“a thought leader”

28
How often do you engage
online with CUSTOMERS,
PARTNERS or 3rd Parties?

29
What Websites Need Today
Fresh NEWS ARTICLES relating to TRENDING TOPICS and USER
NEEDS.
CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALS, CASE STUDIES or FORUMS…
ALL enable users to comment on your latest products and are
the MOST SUCCESSFUL way a website can EMBRACE content
marketing.
Such marketing assets promote a much more TRANSPARENT
tone, focusing more on what YOUR AUDIENCE thinks rather than
what YOU want to tell them.

30
What the MEDIA says about
CONTENT MARKETING in
regard to GOOGLE and SEO…

31
Content, SEO and Google
“It looks like Google has tired of its old friend SEO and is instead
cosying-up to the new kid on the block, content marketing.
Penguin (which removes link authority from spam sites) and
Panda (which dishes out penalties to over optimised and over
adsensed sites) certainly implies that SEO is becoming a less
gameable practice.
To keep in line with Penguin and Panda, SEO now requires a
much more varied skill set, something more akin to high quality
writing and PR.
Despite striking fear into hearts of some less respectable SEO
practitioners, Penguin and Panda are no bad things as they
ultimately ensure consumers receive better content.”
The Guardian, May 2013

32
Google’s Panda & Penguin
Algorithm Updates

33
Google Panda
Google Panda is a search results ranking algorithm first released
in February 2011 aimed at lowering the search engine rankings
of "low-quality sites” and returning higher-quality sites near the
top of the search engine results pages.
Google has stated that Panda is aimed at lowering the rank of
websites that offer a “poor user experience” based on their own
studies of how users behave when they visit a website.
To maximize their search ranking websites must employ:
 MORE FRESH and UNIQUE content
 MORE ENGAGING content
 MORE REGULAR content UPDATES
 Less EXCESSIVE search optimization
 Content readers are LIKELY TO SHARE

34
Google Penguin
Google Penguin is a search results ranking algorithm first
released in April 2012 aimed at lowering the search engine
rankings of websites that violate Google’s Webmaster
Guidelines.
Typically these are sites that employ tactics Google views as
“black hat SEO” – basically those that attempt to trick search
engines or deceive end users.
Violations include web pages that are :
 Clearly involved with any sort of LINKING SCHEME
 Using LESS THAN 300 WORDS per page
 Unreadable due to using TOO MANY KEYWORDS
 Deliberately using DUPLICATE CONTENT

35
What does this mean
for SEO today?

36
The 8 Rules of SEO today
 Focus more on what your audience wants to read
 Focus less on what you want to tell them.
 Delete pages that don’t offer quality content
 Update all website content more often
 Reduce your website’s bounce rate
 Employ useful and original content (ie exclusive)
 Keep the site interesting, engage users for longer
 Stop using duplicate content

37
10 SEO Tricks To Avoid
1. Duplicating your website/pages elsewhere
2. Publishing “advertorial” articles that solely promote
products or services
3. Paying for articles on blogs or other sites
4. Keyword stuffing making pages unreadable
5. Blog spinning: create variations of content
6. Blog comments containing SPAM
7. Link schemes: buying links, link exchange
8. Using third-party programs to create links
9. Doorway pages: optimized page redirecting to other sites
10. Hiding text behind images or funds

38
How confident are YOU that
YOUR SEO consistently avoids
all of these errors?

39
70%
of online experiences BEGIN
at a SEARCH ENGINE
80%
of GLOBAL search engine
activity is done via GOOGLE

40
70%
of search engine traffic comes
from users clicking on links in
ORGANIC search engine results
70-80%
of search users IGNORE
paid advertisements

41
Organic Search Benefits
Although underrated by many sites, OPTIMISING your content
so it appears MORE OFTEN in ORGANIC / NATURAL search
results – the non-paid/sponsored links - has been proven to
deliver various BENEFITS including:
 Obtaining a sustainable position of visibility
 Reducing Costs of AdWord (or similar SEM)
 Obtaining "qualified" visitors at low cost
 Developing your online business and sales
 Enhancing your brand’s online reputation

42
the MORE QUALITY content
you publish, the MORE LIKELY
you will appear MORE OFTEN
in Organic Search Results.
PUT SIMPLY,

43
How high you RANK totally
depends on how OFTEN you
publish and how QUALITATIVE
your content, and its’ SEO is.

44
The QUEST Checklist
Before you can start producing content you first need a strategy
that satisfies all of the elements we’ve been discussing in this
eBook. To help you build this strategy we offer the QUEST
checklist.
QUEST is a simple yet effective way of remembering to have the
maximum impact content must be:
 Qualitative – well written / interesting
 Unique – fresh / exclusive
 Engaging – captures attention longer
 Sharable – more likely to be shared
 Trusted – from a reputable source

45
Why QUALITY is Essential
How much you SPEND on content CREATION has more of a
financial impact than many people realize.
POOR QUALITY or POOR CONTENT STRATEGIES do MORE
HARM than good.
Today, only the VISITOR DECIDES whether content is qualitative
or not.
Not everyone can create quality content, it is a VALUABLE SKILL
that is available at a price.

46
UNIQUE Content Rules…
In the eyes of your audience, the more UNIQUE and
INTERESTING content is the more likely it will be SHARED by
EMAIL or SOCIAL MEDIA.
In terms of SEO, the MORE REGULAR content is updated, the
HIGHER the RANKING.
STATIC content can also do you MORE HARM than good, since
OUT OF DATE content is seen to be INACCURATE when
compared with other sites.
Google knows exactly where all content ORIGINATES from which
has resulted in many websites' ranking being PENALIZED for
content being DUPLICATED from elsewhere.

47
Customer Example
Following some of their web pages being affected by Google
Panda, Lastminute decided to test updating affected pages with
fresh, qualitative content and found that it had a significant
impact on their search engine rankings;
“Our efforts over the last months have been focused on creating
quality and unique content across a wide range of destinations
for our key travel products.
This hard work has been rewarded when the last Panda update
gave a big boost in our rankings:
90% of the optimized pages jumped to the 1st page of the
SERP. This represented an average improvement of 18 positions.”
Severine Assadourian, Lastminute Spain.

48
ENGAGING website visitors
Use text that is straight to the point. BREVITY is consistent with
how readers pass their time on the internet.
Is it really necessary to retain and provide ALL ADDITIONAL
INFORMATION on every single one of your pages?
Facilitate the activity of both VISITORS and CRAWLING
SOFTWARE by splitting long sections of content into MULTIPLE
pages, each reflecting a SPECIFIC topic or sub-section.

49
HOW OFTEN do
you UPDATE them?
How many TOPICS do YOU
currently employ per page ?

50
Keeping Visitors ENGAGED
The key to holding audience attention and making them return
for more lies CONSISTENTLY finding new ways of ASSOCIATING
the topics users are searching for with areas your business
focuses on.
There’s no harm in QUERYING YOUR AUDIENCE to ESTABLISH
which topics are TRENDING or are of professional value to them.
Another proven way of both establishing and MAINTAINING
ENGAGEMENT is to focus on channels like BLOGS or SOCIAL
MEDIA that can to ENCOURAGE feedback and stimulate
mutually rewarding discussion.

51
How often do YOU analyse the
TIME visitors spend on each of
your web pages?

52
Getting Content SHARED
Internet users are more likely to share content that is FRESH,
EXCLUSIVE and following TRENDS that INTEREST them and their
FRIENDS the most.
The first thing, if you haven’t done already is make sure that all
your web pages contain the latest SOCIAL PLUG-Ins to enable
readers to SHARE CONTENT in a way that DOES NOT DETRACT
from what you offer.
The next slightly more difficult skill is to employ content that is
either extremely RARE, USEFUL, FUNNY or follows a recent
trend in POP-CULTURE.

53
A TRUSTED Advisor
Internet users are more likely to consume content they view as
coming from a TRUSTWORTHY SOURCE.
REPUTATION goes a long way, especially as it is very easy to
debunk and VALIDATE anyone's CREDENTIALS or source
material.
That said, a great deal of AUTHORITY can be WON or LOST
simply in the manner in which content is written.
GOOGLE’S AUTHORRANK or YAHOO’s TrustRank are great
examples search engines giving MORE CREDENCE to AUTHORS
and WEBSITES that can clearly be TRUSTED and know what they
are talking about.
We’ll cover exactly how these ranking systems can be maximised
in our next eBook that looks at site structure and SEO in much
more detail.

54
Content Marketing Success
By using criteria highlighted in the QUEST Checklist websites can
define a CONTENT STRATEGY that EVOLVES over time, adjusting
it to suit their changing needs over time however it suits them.
A truly SUCCESSFUL STRATEGY REQUIRES that;
 ALL content used is qualitative
 ALL content is well written & relevant
 ALL content is what readers expect to find
 ALL new content is unique
 ALL existing content is kept up to date
 ALL pages support sharing to social networks
 ALL digital channels encourage feedback

55
Book a FREE audit!
QUEST is just one example of the tried and tested approach we
offer to help clients implement content marketing strategies that
compliment existing in-house teams and external resources.
We also offer a wide variety of different TRAINING programmes
designed to help companies benefit from our experience and get
the most out of their existing SEO & Marketing staff.
For those clients more comfortable on the digital landscape we
offer CONSULTING to help them implement a coherent content
marketing strategy.
BOOK A FREE AUDIT TODAY and start learning
how we could help you drive traffic and convert
more visitors into paying customers.
SEO / Site Analysis
Website Structure
Content Analysis
Page Link Analysis
Keyword Analysis
Editorial Strategy
Vocabulary Analysis
Content Sourcing
Creation Process
Ongoing Strategy

56
Stay Tuned!
We hope you’ve enjoyed this ebook and that it has answered any
questions you may have had about the best way to approach
Content Marketing
Our NEXT EBOOK will take a look at the more technical side of
SEO, Website Structure and how to maintain momentum with
your content strategy once you’ve implemented your first
campaign.
Thanks for reading!
Sources
All Rights Reserved
All Imagery courtesy of Shutterstock
Definitions provided courtesy of Wikipedia 2013
Statistics referenced courtesy of:
-Trends and Insights study by Ipsos Public Affairs 2012
-Marketing Benchmarks by Hubspot 2013
-Google 2013, NetMarketShare.Com, MarketingSherpa

57
Who we are…
INFLUENCER Community is a content marketing agency that
offers services and software to help clients improve the way
they CREATE, SOURCE and PUBLISH text, image and video
content.
What we do…
Established in 2011, we ANALYSE your website CONTENT and
page STRUCTURE to identify which changes will help you
MAXIMISE your web pages’ RANKING in search engine results.
Our unique platform…
INFLUENCER Community Editor (ICE) is our easy to use cloud
based platform that clients use to quickly CONNECT with
TRUSTED content creators to SOURCE QUALITY text and video
content to supplement what they already create in-house.
ICE supports FAST, SIMPLE & SECURE collaboration between
you and your preferred creator throughout the entire
CREATION PROCESS until content is ready to be delivered
seamlessly to your preferred digital channel.
Contact Us
Charlie McGhee or Emmanuel Dozoul
UK +44 208 133 5549
FR +33 786 705 259
@Inflowencer & @ContentQuality
www.influencer-community.com
blog.influencer-community.com

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