content marketing

How to Create a Content Marketing Strategy (And Why You Need One!)

By |July 6th, 2017|

Content marketing consistently delivers high returns. For example, I’ll show you how it’s increased my own search traffic by 66% in just twelve months.

I’m not alone. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 70% of B2B marketers have planned to create more content this year than last. That’s for good reason. In fact, about 70% of businesses now use some form of content marketing.

“If you’re not creating content on the web, you don’t exist.”
Lee Odden, TopRank Online Marketing

Strange then, that only around a third (35%) of content creators do so with a documented content marketing strategy.

As I’ll show you, having a written strategy can make a huge difference to the results you achieve.

But how do you create one?

In this post you’ll discover:

  • What a content marketing strategy is
  • Why it’s so crucial you have one
  • How to create a content marketing strategy – including a free Word template you can download and fill in by simply answering just 6 key questions
  • How to keep your content marketing strategy in focus so you actually follow it and put it into action

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SEO and Content Marketing 2017: The Ultimate Guide

By |June 27th, 2017|

SEO and content marketing are often confused. Business owners often ask me whether they should be pursuing one or the other, as if they were entirely separate strategies.

In truth, they operate as a partnership. SEO relies on content marketing. Content marketing relies on SEO.

As we’ll see, they have different roles to play. But they are intrinsically connected.

So how do you get them to play nicely together so you get the best outcome for yourself or clients?

In this Ultimate Guide to SEO and Content Marketing, discover:

  • What both content marketing and SEO are
  • How they integrate together in powerful ways
  • 7 key ranking factors for SEO – and the central role of content marketing
  • 6 top SEO tools, including some you might not have come across before

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5 Ways to Nail Your Visual Storytelling Strategy

By |June 22nd, 2017|

As I’m sure you’re aware, visuals are incredibly effective for marketing.

Images, particularly when well composed and considered, pack a significantly stronger punch than text at evoking emotion and inspiring audiences to take action.

Why?

Because they can be so engaging. After all, think about storybooks and comics. Images and text are used side by side to create an immersive experience for readers who get lost in the imaginary world that’s created.

So, how can marketers and business owners take advantage of the power of visuals, and create a visual story that’s successful in attracting attention and engaging their marketplace?

It’s all about defining and implementing a Visual Storytelling Strategy…

So what do you need to do to create an effective visual storytelling strategy that truly attracts and connects with the audience in your market?

In this post we’ll help you determine:

  • What a visual storytelling strategy actually is
  • Why you need one
  • Key businesses who use a visual storytelling strategy effectively
  • 5 ways to nail your own visual storytelling strategy

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How to Use Instagram for your Business

By |June 15th, 2017|

Over the last few years Instagram has skyrocketed in popularity. It seems that everyone from teens to businesses of all sizes are making good use of the photo sharing social network.

Source: Pixabay https://pixabay.com/en/smartphone-notebook-social-media-1701096/

This may have you wondering if you should be leveraging Instagram as an additional marketing platform for your own business. A lot of businesses focus solely on Twitter or Facebook and completely ignore Instagram, despite the often higher levels of engagement Instagram attracts.

But where do you even start?

If you’re thinking about possibly adding Instagram to your current social media marketing strategy, this post shows you how to do so and why it’s a worthwhile strategy.

In this post, you’ll discover:

  • What Instagram is, it’s target demographic, and some key stats
  • 5 key ways Instagram can benefit your business
  • How to get started on Instagram for your own business
  • Basic 1-2-3 tips for using Instagram successfully
  • How some major brands – as well as smaller businesses – are using Instagram effectively
  • Creative ways for you to incorporate Instagram into your digital marketing strategy.

[…]

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How to Repurpose Your Blog Content for Social Media (and Why You Should!)

By |June 9th, 2017|

Are you struggling to produce enough content for your website, blog, or social media channels? Don’t worry, you’re not alone.

The not-so-secret key to a successful content marketing strategy is creating high-quality and in-depth content. However, this takes a good deal of time, effort, and often money, all of which can discourage many businesses from taking full advantage.

Source: Pixabay
In fact, research shows that producing enough content is one of the top three challenges that businesses pursuing content marketing face.

However, there are strategies you can adopt to ease the process and make it a whole lot easier.

As I frequently cover on this blog, one such strategy is to repurpose your existing content as new content you can then publish, share and distribute. Repurposing content saves you time and money, while extending your reach.

Simply put, repurposing your content and sharing it in different ways via different channels allows you to reach (and attract) a much wider proportion of your marketplace. The larger the audience you develop across multiple content platforms, the more influence you have. This increases engagement, boosting your reach significantly through sharing and inbound linking.

In other words, the more content you repurpose and share, the greater the long-term benefits for your business.

In addition, it’s no longer enough to just publish content to your own site. As I advise frequently, you need to be where your marketplace is, not where you want them to be.

Repurposing existing content for other platforms allows you to achieve it relatively easily.

But how exactly do you go about repurposing content for social media?

We previously covered a broader set of 50+ killer ways to repurpose your content. However, in this post we go into more detail and dig down into the main social channels to help you determine:

  • Which content on your blog you should be repurposing
  • The strategy to use to repurpose it for each social platform
  • Which social channels to focus on most

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4 “Kinda Clever” Ways to Incorporate Email Autoresponders into Your Content Marketing Strategy

By |June 1st, 2017|

At this point in your business, emails are likely old hat by now. You know how to compose them, how to use them effectively, and how to follow up with those on your list.

But are you using autoresponders as a purposeful part of your content marketing strategy?

Sure, you’re taking the time to:

  • Write and deliver great blog content
  • Cultivate and schedule your social media posts
  • Email your audience to communicate with them more directly.

But each of these options takes time, effort, and creativity, and often every single day.
Source: PixabayAutoresponders can be used to both lighten the load and better leverage all the content you have to increase your results.

They mean you can be delivering great content to your subscribers every day, even on days when you’re not feeling particularly creative. They help you:

  • Build your relationship with your audience and make that relationship more valuable for your business
  • Expand your audience so you’re able to share your message with more people and reach more of your marketplace.

After quickly running through exactly what an autoresponder is in case you’re unsure, I’ll then show you some different, if-I-might-say-so “kinda clever” ways autoresponders can work within your content marketing strategy to help grow your business.

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Creative Ways to Use Snapchat as a Marketing Tool

By |May 25th, 2017|

It’s an undisputed fact that a social media presence for businesses has become essential.

However, the tangible benefits of social media for your business are rarely explained very well and typically only focus on the major social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

It makes sense to figure out which networks are the most useful for you to dedicate your time and efforts to, and then stick with those. There are so many different options that it can be difficult to figure out which ones are actually useful.

Here’s one you might not have thought about: Snapchat.

Source: Pixabay https://pixabay.com/en/snapchat-app-social-media-1357488/

Snapchat’s been around for awhile, it started in 2011, but it’s not a platform many businesses are familiar with. Maybe you looked at it when it first came out, determined that it catered to a different crowd, and dismissed it. Or maybe it was a bit overwhelming and you never figured out how to make it work for you so you dropped it.

So it’s no surprise that it’s only recently that businesses have taken notice of Snapchat’s possibility as a marketing tool.

Pixabay https://pixabay.com/en/smartphone-screen-social-media-2123520/

But is it right for you?

That’s what this post aims to help you determine. We’ll show you exactly what Snapchat is and offer some creative ways for you to use Snapchat in order to build an online presence that benefits your business for the long-term.

This post gives you:

  • A brief overview of Snapchat
  • Key brands using Snapchat
  • 5 creative ways to use Snapchat to build your online presence

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A Content Marketing Sales Model: How to Boost Sales by 1,592%

By |May 19th, 2017|

This is probably one of the most important blog posts I’ve ever written. Quite simply, put it into action, and you can completely transform a business.

It shows:

  • Exactly how to use content, and a powerful content marketing strategy, to drive increasing amounts of revenue
  • How to make your content increasingly valuable to your business
  • A Content Marketing Sales Model that can be adapted and put into action for virtually any business
  • How, by tracking and testing each stage of the Content Marketing Sales Model, you can boost your sales by 1,592%, through the power of compounded results
  • Four key tools you can get started with straightaway to start putting this process into action
  • And more.

Shall we get started?

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10+ Top Ways to Reach Your Market with Video Content Marketing

By |October 22nd, 2016|

According to Cisco, more than half of all data traffic on mobiles was for video in 2015. This is expected to grow to 80% by 2019.

Video is everywhere on social networks, with those platforms making video support (including live streaming) a priority.

For marketing purposes, videos engage more effectively with potential customers and build stronger relationships, hence the explosion in video content marketing.

According to videobrewery.com:

  • An Australian real estate group claims real estate listings with videos receive 403% more inquiries than those without videos. In other words, video quadruples lead flow.
  • Forbes Insight found 59% of senior executives would rather watch a video than read text. For about 50% of those who viewed an online marketing video, it led directly to a purchase.

On social media, a NewsWhip study found engagements with video on Facebook was increasing markedly, while engagements with other types of content was decreasing. The more video there is, the more attention it gets, with other content falling by the wayside.

In other words, video content marketing must now be an essential part of your marketing strategy as a whole.
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How to Use Twitter Moments for Your Business

By |October 10th, 2016|

You may have seen the Moments lightning bolt tab on Twitter, first made available in 2015. Initially, Moments were created by Twitter’s own team of curators.

After a year or so, in August 2016, Moments were made available to selected influencers, partners and brands to start using too. Then a month or so later, at the end of September 2016, they became available to all, announced via a Tweet:

Twitter announces Moments available to all

Now all Twitter users can take advantage of Moments as an additional way to engage with followers and others on the platform.

This post tells you:

  • What Twitter Moments actually are.
  • How to create one yourself.
  • Examples of key people and businesses who are using Moments.
  • 10 top ways you can start to use Moments for your business in imaginative ways to engage with and attract your marketplace.

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