Why content marketing matters Brafton
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Overview of content marketing that includes a description of content marketing, strategy, the relationship with search/ SEO, asset types and pulling it all together.
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Why content marketing matters Brafton
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Editor's Notes
- How would you define content marketing?
- Originally, salespeople and store employees were the experts Brands and businesses used to spend advertising dollars to find prospects who needed their services That’s still true today, but now, buyers are moreso the experts and the ones who are proactively reaching out to brands and businesses for help The idea with content marketing that we want to create content that answers the questions consumers are looking for
- So how does this relate to businesses? Businesses like marketing programs that provide immediate gratification such as list purchasing, PPC, or trade show marketing Content Marketing, on the other hand, is a lot of work the results are not as immediate as list purchasing (which is a BIG no-no), PPC (which is expensive), or trade show marketing that delivers names and email addresses in mere minutes Often businesses turn to content marketing when they realize the programs they’re using are ineffective, too expensive, not scalable, or all of the above
- PPC: advertisers bid on certain keywords or queries that they’d like to have their ads appear for, they incur a charge when the ad is clicked How is PPC not effective? Let's say you own a business and created an asset, like a white paper, to help bring in leads. People have to give you their email address to access a copy of your white paper. Now let’s say you're using PPC as your primary means of generating leads for your business. You need more leads, and decide to bid on certain terms for $2 a click. At the end of your month-long campaign, you generated 1,000 leads and spent $10,000. Not bad. But what about next month? You have to spend $10,000 again. And again. And again. That is, if you want the leads to keep coming. The idea is that PPC is like a faucet – when you run the faucet that is your budget, leads and traffic will keep coming in. If you turn the faucet off, the leads and traffic will stop.
- So let’s compare that experience against blogging Let’s say you write a blog post about your white paper and include a link to the asset so people can download it from the article If 100 people read that blog post in your first month, you’d get 2 leads from it But contrary to PPC, your work is now done. And over time, that one blog article you wrote can continue to generate leads over and over again, every month. And not just that blog post! Every blog post you write will do the same. In other words, content marketing programs set businesses up for predictable, scalable, and cost-effective traffic and lead-flow that doesn't rely on securing budget each month. So it may be a lot of work, but companies can gain the rewards for years to come! Ideally, businesses see the best results by doing a mix of both content marketing plus paid avenues, like PPC or social! Questions?
- I went to a presentation at Hubspot’s Inbound marketing conference last year that really drove home the importance of content marketing for businesses. It was with a CEO of a digital marketing agency in Kentucky and outlined a 6 point blueprint for digital marketing success The most important points are the second and third Without content, companies do not exist the more quality content companies have, the better chance they have of being in the mind of consumers Companies need to produce content online and offline for people to find and talk about them Search is imperative those are the people who are actively seeking information and looking for answers and solutions To reach a certain audience, you have to rank well for the terms they’re looking for To rank well for a given term/phrase in Google, you have to earn it! The way you earn it is through SEO
- SEO is the process of improving your website so it attracts more visitors from search engines Google has over 200 ranking factors that they take into consideration when showing results, which is a lot to consider! But they need all of those ranking factors since Google needs to provide the most useful and trustworthy answers to searchers
- One client objection the CMS team used to get a lot from clients was “how do I get on the first page of Google?” or “why isn’t my content getting me to page 1”; something of the sort Now certain web pages don’t just “get” that top spot – Google picks it because it believes that page is the exact result the person was searching for with that particular query To determine who ranks first, Google reads every element of the page to make sure the content is relevant, popular, unique, and was produced naturally Google wants to provide users with the best experience, which is why it doesn’t want to serve users a poorly designed page
- Once I explained to clients how Google ranks web pages to pull the top result, the second question was always “how do I get to #1?” There are two ways to help you rank on the top page – On-page SEO and off-page SEO On-Page SEO involves the use of keywords Keywords are words or phrases on a specific topic searchers are trying to learn more about This is where keyword research comes in for the content we’re writing Hubspot recommends understanding what your audience is searching for Categorize keywords by stages in the buyer’s journey Expand keyword list by searching for alternatives make sure you’re mimicking the language your buyer personas would actually use Determine which keywords are already using to find your site Decide which keywords you have the best opportunity to rank for (“Jackets” is a broad phrase, but searching for something more specific yields more specific results to better answer your question)
- Once you’ve used your keywords, you want to implement them into a few key areas The first one is your title tag Title tags are the most valuable area in terms of keywords they are what users refer to the most and are the most important keywords according to Google’s crawlers
- Then there’s meta descriptions! What do you think is the meta description? Meta descriptions actually don’t affect SEO at all Google doesn’t consider any keyword used in the meta descriptions What meta descriptions do is improve CTR The description is almost like your PR piece, it should function like an ad this is what readers are looking at to determine if your page is what they’re looking for so they should still incorporate keywords and be succinct
- Then there are Headings Google uses headings to understand the structure of the page Your title is automatically made the H1 tag H2 tags should function as section headings this helps break up content to make it easier to digest Searchmetrics’ 2015 Ranking Factors reported that two in every five web pages in SERPs didn’t utilize h1 tags at all Furthermore, several case studies have highlighted the importance of using header tags effectively For example, SearchEccentric worked with Motor Cars Ltd. in overhauling their header tags to be more SEO-friendly. Rankings leapt accordingly, with one keyword in particular jumping from 320 in the SERPs to the top spot.
- And lastly, content! You want to create content around your keywords! It’s important to use your keywords naturally within the piece the old practice was “keyword stuffing”, where you would “stuff” the keyword in every other sentence Now, Google will penalize you for keyword stuffing so it’s important to have your keywords flow within the piece After you write your piece, you want to optimize it: - Add primary keyword to URL - Use your keywords naturally in your page headers and content - Add Alt Text to images - Add keyword to meta description - Include relevant links within the content - Edit the page to promote good UX
- But there is one important note to remember… The first quote what’s the most important part of that first quote? “Variations” think of the kick off slides, we’ve come a long way from optimizing for exact match keywords… That’s what the first phrase is saying variations of keywords are key! If we align the same keyword in our title tags, headings, internal and external links exactly, then Google will pick up on that and penalize us So how do we get around that?
- With Semantic Keywords! Google has gotten so intuitive that it can understand the intent of a users’ search query This is where semantic keywords come into play Google is looking for meaning, not exact words Synonyms of keywords account for 70% of searches so it’s important to have a semantic keyword strategy
- You have related words: Superman, Lego, etc. And then you have related topics: Arkham city, The Dark Knight, Joker, etc. The idea is that we want to create content not only specifically on “Batman”, but on other related topics and queries since they all relate to “Batman” Questions?
- Now going back to how to get to the top spot on Google we talked about on-page SEO, now it’s time to talk about off-page SEO, or Link Building Search engines follow links between pages to see how they’re related to each other Links coming into your website are called inbound links Search engines view inbound links as a vote of confidence if a trusted site is linking to you, your website becomes more trustworthy But not all links are created equal! It’s important to earn high-quality links from trusted, reputable sites Link Building Strategies: Natural Editorial Links – links that are given naturally by sites and pages that want to link to your content or company Manual outreach link building – emailing bloggers for links, submitting to site directories, etc.
- Now that you’ve done your keyword research, you know the topics you want to write about, how do you set up a strategy?!
- LinkedIn stalk your clients What is your role at ABC Company? How familiar are you with content marketing? Google Analytics? What resources do you have in house? What reporting will you need to provide the decision maker with and how often? How is the decision maker fitting into the subscription What collateral do you already have? (Case Study, White Paper) The idea is to get as much information out of them as possible! The more you know the better
- Ask yourself: Is the client's goal attainable? Phase 1 Goal - not looking at sales, looking at traffic (get more people to the site to then increase sales) Phase 2 Goal Phase 3 Goal
- Some clients are not bought on the value of having a blog "I like to think of blogging as fishing. The more hooks you have in the water, the more likely you are to catch a fish..." What goals can be publishing consistent blog posts help achieve? Increase Organic Traffic Builds out internal linking Increases total number of pages on site Thought leadership Do not fear keywords! Create (and update) the keyword strategy If your client is trying to rank for an extremely competitive phrase be realistic and guide them towards long-tail keywords (ex. instead of health food try health food meal plans or health food on a budget) Create a content calendar
- "Your reader doesn't care about your product, He cares about what your product can do for him." Hint - work closely with Editorial and your client on selecting a subject
- "Your reader doesn't care about your product, He cares about what your product can do for him." Hint - work closely with Editorial and your client on selecting a subject