SEO Predictions for 2017

As we already into the new year, business owners and digital marketers might be wondering if search engine optimization is officially a thing of the past.

The short answer: "No."

And the slightly longer answer: "Heck no!"

Sure, certain SEO practices are obsolete thanks to Google's ever-changing search algorithms. In many ways, though, this is a good thing. Stuffing blogs and websites with keywords, links and junk content never truly helped customers or merchants. On the other hand, today's best SEO practices - and the SEO practices of tomorrow - are based on making search results and websites more relevant to people's needs. The end result is a win for everyone.

Not only is SEO not dying, but this crucial form of online marketing is as alive and well as ever. Social media marketing might seem easier and more accessible, but there's far too much opportunity through search engine marketing to turn your back on SEO.

Don't buy into the hype that SEO has run its course. Instead, keep on reading and learn about SEO trends that are likely to pay off big-time in 2017.

 

Accelerated Mobile Pages

Have you seen that carousel of content that appears above the organic results? These are Accelerated Mobile Pages, also known as AMP. Webpages coded with AMP HTML tags load in mobile Web browsers with simplified formatting, making pages load up to eight times faster than normal.

Simplifying these pages doesn't make them static, though; AMP pages can still be coded with audio, video, social buttons and more. Between the high search engine results page placements, the fast load times and the rich content possibilities, webpages coded with AMP tags can be great for engaging Web users.

However, the AMP concept is still being worked out. Currently, webpages displayed with AMP coding can't display Web forms, rendering them useless for generating leads or email signups. Also, this technology is only really relevant to webpages with long-form articles and blog posts. AMP pages shared on social media might not help your domain authority, either.

That said, Google's message is clear: User experience comes first. Look for Google to expand on AMP coding and similar technologies in 2017.

Social Signals and SEO

Google officials have repeatedly stated that likes, shares and other social media signals don't directly impact search engine rankings - but will they?

That's a big question heading into 2017, with social media marketing continuing to rise in importance. History indicates that Google will eventually find ways to work social signals into its algorithms. Think about it - Google is obsessed with using the most relevant digital cues to determine which websites are the most relevant and credible. How people interact with websites and content on social media is an important measure of trust and value.

Regardless of what Google officials say, it's hard to ignore the popularity of Facebook. Chances are your target prospects are using Facebook regularly so social media is certainly an opportunity to reach them. Plus, researchers have found clear correlations between social media signals and SERP rankings.

The bottom line is that social media is here to stay, and favorable social signals already correlate with stronger SEO. This symbiotic relationship will only grow stronger through the upcoming year and beyond.

Mobile SEO

What makes people more excited nowadays - a new laptop computer or a latest-generation smartphone? The answer illustrates why the shift from desktop to mobile SEO is so critical in digital marketing.

Most people you see on the street are carrying powerful, portable computers in their pockets, and these folks surf the Web from anywhere and everywhere. People who use search engines via their smartphones have completely different behaviors than those who are seated at their desktops. SEO practices changed to accommodate those new behaviors.

Going into 2017, marketers should continue investing in mobile SEO. Especially with Google's announcement that they will soon be using a "mobile-first" index.

That means making sure your website resolves properly when viewed through the Android, Apple and Windows mobile operating systems. It means creating hyper-local content that might rank well in searches from people who are walking, dining, shopping or working nearby. It means using long-tailed, conversational keywords that people are likely to speak into their phones.

Smartphones aren't going anywhere, and neither is mobile SEO. This must be a top priority if you hope to be competitive in SEO.

Machine Learning

What if Google's algorithm could evaluate how people react with search rankings in real-time and adjust itself accordingly? That's the ultimate, big-picture implication of machine learning, a technology in which machines effectively learn based on a wide range of signals and parameters.

Google doesn't use machine learning in its live algorithm, and officials within the company say they don't plan on starting. However, Google definitely uses machine learning to test out changes to its algorithms. That's a big deal considering that Google has voiced concerns about transferring such responsibilities from human programmers to computers.

Going into 2017, SEO experts need to always be thinking about raising the quality of their websites - not for Google's algorithm, but for actual human visitors. Machine learning has significantly enhanced Google's abilities to craft an algorithm that scores sites from a more human perspective. Finding new ways to engage your visitors is the best way to prepare for algorithm changes inspired by machine learning.

Conclusion

SEO isn't dead. However, finding SEO success in 2017 will require a different approach than the blunt-force tactics of yesteryear.

The name of the game in 2017 is to make your approach to SEO as human as possible. Do that, and good things will happen. It's the start of a new era in search engine optimization.

[SEO Case Study] 317% ROI for Asphalt Paving Company

Search engine optimization (SEO) is an important area to focus on in your marketing, and it's important to make sure your efforts are paying off. In today's article we’re sharing a case study about how we helped one of our clients generate a strong return on investment (ROI). SEO Case Study About Return On Investment (ROI) Are you wondering if SEO can really generate ROI for your business? Today I’m going to walk through an SEO case study for one of my clients that will answer this important question.

Background In early 2014 our client, an asphalt paving company, contacted us and expressed frustration that his competitors were ranking high in Google and he was nowhere to be found. He knew he was missing out on new business every year simply because prospective customers were choosing his competitors that ranked on the first page of Google. Prospective customers are searching “paving contractors”, “asphalt paving”, and “asphalt crack repair” every single day and my client was losing that business. The problem was clear. The solution was not so obvious… What We Did The first step we took was to complete what we call the SEO Tune-Up. The SEO Tune-Up includes the following: Keyword and competitor research to identify the best search opportunities Edits to core pages of the website Creation of new core pages to target additional “buying-intent” keywords Creation of new informational pages to target “research-intent” keywords Fix all technical issues like site speed, mobile optimized pages, broken links, missing schema, duplicate pages Set up and verify Google My Business profile Set up Google Analytics and Search Console to track performance In other words, we cleaned up the on-page SEO. On-page SEO is everything on your website that affects your rankings. Since you’re in full control over your on-page SEO, this is usually your biggest leverage point. Next, we switched our focus from on-page SEO over to off-page SEO. Off-page SEO is everything off of your website that affects your rankings. For example, you’ve probably already heard that citations and links on other websites can boost your search engine rankings. Those are both examples of off-page SEO factors. Since our client was focused on local customers, we focused a lot of our efforts initially on building relevant citations, or mentions of our client’s name, address and phone number online. We did this by creating accounts on all the relevant industry and geographic business directories we could find. Plus, we also launched a 2-pronged content marketing strategy: We created content on our client’s website targeting research-intent keywords with the goal of ranking in Google. We created content and posted on other people’s websites that could rank in Google and also provide a link back to our client (aka guest posts). Was all this worth it? Let’s look at the results… The Results Below is a Google Analytics report showing the website traffic, as well as the leads generated directly from SEO. A goal completion for this client is a quote request form submission on the website.

As you can see, the traffic has increased from a steady 90-100 visitors per month in 2014 to a new high of 279 in May 2016 (179% increase). More importantly, the leads from SEO increased from a high of 6 in October 2014 to a new high of 20 in April 2016 (233% increase). (Two Important Notes: 1. This is a very seasonal industry because you do not pave driveways in the winter where our client is located. That’s why there is a decline in traffic and leads between November to February each year. 2. The graph above does not include phone calls generated from SEO) OK, this sounds nice, but what’s the ROI? To get to that number let’s look at the monthly change in leads from 2014 to 2016: 30 leads from SEO in 2014 122 leads from SEO in 2015 92 more leads from SEO year over year (307% increase) Next, we need to know the average fee per sale and the lead to sale conversion rate. With a little research, you’ll find that the average fee for paving a driveway is around $5,000. It obviously depends on the size of the driveway and the complexity of the job, but on average it’s about $5,000. SEO lead to sale conversion rates is a bit harder to research. If we assume a modest 5% conversion rate, then the 92 additional leads would generate about 5 more customers, or $25,000. Lastly, we need to compare sales to the cost of the SEO work. This particular client was investing in a custom SEO package for $500/month so the ROI calculation looks like this: ($25,000 – $6,000) / $6,000 = 317% ROI. Again, it’s important to note that this calculation does not take into account the phone call leads and sales so the ROI number is a low estimate. But the ROI between 2014 to 2015 is not what’s most impressive here. If you look at the graph above you can see that 2016 outperformed 2015. That brings us to the big takeaway from this case study… SEO Is a Growing Asset When done right, SEO is a growing asset that will generate a better and better ROI each year. That’s the beauty of this marketing investment. Rather than renting ad space that disappears as soon as you stop paying the ad network, you’re building an asset that will grow over time!

Local SEO Case Study: The Power of Press Releases

Until July 2013, press releases were a great tactic for building high quality links to your website.

And the process was simple.  Write a press release that includes links to your website, pay a press release distribution service like PRWeb, and then watch your search engine rankings improve as more and more legitimate websites posted the press release with links to your site.

Of course, that all changed in July 2013 when Google announced the death of press releases for search engine optimization (SEO).

But was it really the end of press releases as an SEO tactic?  No, and in this case study I'll prove there is still a lot of power in press releases (if you know how to use them correctly).

What Changed in July 2013?

In July 2013, Google announced they would now consider links in press releases as "paid links" and encouraged distribution services to use "nofollow" links in the releases.  This change makes sense since businesses were paying press release distribution sites in order to get high quality links to their websites.

In case you're not aware, Google does not count paid links or "no follow" links in their ranking algorithm.  Those types of links are ignored by the algorithm.  That means all of the links you get from the press release would not directly improve your search engine rankings.

Hence, the resounding cry that press releases were dead for SEO.

While it's true the links do not directly improve your rankings, there is another powerful SEO benefit of press releases.

The Key Benefit is Citations

A citation is a mention of your NAP (business Name, Address, and Phone number) on another website.  For example, if your business is listed in Yelp, then your profile on Yelp is a citation because it lists your NAP.

When drafting a press release, if you include your business NAP in the byline of the release, then when your release is published across the internet, each published page is a new citation for your business. You can see an example below: 

That means you could issue one press releases and within a day or two have dozens or even hundreds of new citations.

That sounds great, but why are citations important?

Citations Are Critical For Local Rankings

One of the biggest factors in ranking high in the local "map" results is the quantity and quality of your citations.  Sure, you can create accounts on business directories and build up a nice foundation of citations, but so can your competitors.

To gain a competitive advantage, you can use press releases to rank higher in the local results.  To prove this works, let's look at a case study...

How Our Client Jumped from #20 to #2

One of our dentist clients was stuck around #20 in the local "map" results.

We had already completed our website tune-up and set up all the relevant business directories, but the rankings would not improve beyond #20 for his top priority keywords, "Savannah dentist," "dentist Savannah," and "dentist in Savannah."  At this point we knew we had to take it to the next level to overtake the competitors ranking on the first page of Google.

Here's what we did...

Over a 4-month period, we issued 4 press releases for our client.  Of course, in the press release we included links to our client's website, but as you know those links were "nofollow" so they did not directly help for SEO.  The power was in the citations, or the mentions of our client's business name, address, and phone number.

As more and more websites published the press releases, our client began to jump up in the Google local rankings.  Eventually he was #2 on the first page of Google in the local results for his primary keywords.

As you can see from the screenshots above, the citations helped our client rank in the local "map" results on the first page of Google.  When Google determines the searcher is looking for a local business, then often Google displays a map with local businesses listed below.

To rank high in these local search results, you must have citations, and that's one of the reasons you should consider using press releases as part of your Local SEO strategy.

3 SEO Lessons from the Presidential Election

As we approach the end of the presidential race, it’s time to reflect on what we’ve learned.  More specifically, what are the key takeaways that we can apply to our digital marketing?

 

That’s right, while you were watching the debates you were subconsciously learning about marketing. :)

 

In this article, I’ll walk through 3 of the SEO lessons you picked up along the way…

 

1. The Wisdom of the Crowd

We’re all familiar with how our presidents are elected in the United States.  On Election Day, we go to the polls and cast our vote.  Those votes are tallied up and the candidate with the most votes wins.

 

While this is not a perfect example, it does loosely follow the phenomenon known as the “wisdom of the crowd.”

 

Studies have shown that when you average the guesses, or votes, of a crowd you’ll end up very close to the correct answer.  The classic example is when a crowd of people try to guess the weight of a cow.  It turns out that the average of the weights guessed will be remarkably close to the actual weight.  You can learn more about this by reading The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki.

 

This is important to understand because Google uses this phenomenon to rank websites in their search engine.  Every time you use Google and click on the search results you’re casting a vote.  You’re either telling Google you like what you see on the first page or you don’t like what you see.  Over time, Google uses that data to ensure the best webpages show up at the top of the results.

 

Think about that for a minute.  You have the power to influence Google’s search results just like you have the power to influence the election!

 

2. The Skeletons In Your Closet

In politics, your past will certainly haunt you.  We’ve seen this time and time again during this election.  Every other day there’s a new audio recording of a candidate flip flopping on a key topic or a video revealing unsavory behavior.  I don’t even have to mention a specific example because we can all quickly think of a handful on our own.

 

Depending on the size of the skeleton in the closet, candidates can easily lose elections because of something they did or said in the past.

 

The same is true with SEO.  Just because you’re ranking well now doesn’t mean Google won’t eventually find a skeleton in your website’s closet.  For example, Google may discover that you paid for other websites to link to you.  Or maybe you created several websites that are using nearly identical website copy.  These tactics may go unnoticed for a while, but once Google finds out, your SEO candidacy can come to an end.

 

3. Reputation By Association

In politics, you need to be extra careful about who you hang out with and who you do business with.  Trump received a lot of backlash when he praised Putin and gave an impression that he and Putin were friends.  Then Hilary found herself under fire for receiving money from Morocco.

 

Both examples hurt the respective candidate’s reputation, and in turn, hurt their campaign.

 

Guess what, this can also happen with your SEO.  Google reviews the websites that are linking to you (and that you’re linking to) because those are your “online friends.”  If a lot of low quality (aka spammy) websites are linking to you, then that can hurt your website’s reputation, which in turn, will hurt your Google rankings!

Marketing 101: Why Conversion is Key to Your Success

Your conversion rate is hands-down the most important metric in digital marketing.

 

Everything you do in online marketing is designed to convert visitors to your website into paying customers for your business.  And conversion rates don't just include sales -- people who make appointments, fill out contact forms, call you, and request free quotes also count as conversions. A conversion can be any desired action that brings your business closer to making a sale.

 

It's easy to get overwhelmed by metrics when getting started in digital marketing. You must watch click-through rates (CTRs) and cost-per-click (CPC) while always considering your return on investment (ROI). But the whole point of digital marketing is to maximize conversions for the cheapest-possible price.

 

In this article, we'll help you understand why conversions are crucial to your success.

 

 

Why Conversions Matter

Increasing the conversion rates of your online marketing campaigns is usually the cheapest way to boost your profits.

 

Think of it this way -- would you rather get more customers from Google AdWords by doubling your ad budget or by optimizing your advertising approach? Optimizing for a higher conversion rate means more bang for the buck. That's a big reason why conversion rates are so important.

 

That's not all - here are three other reasons why conversion rates matter:

#1: Conversion rates can predict success or failure.

Want to know whether your business is on the right track? Conversion rates give a pretty honest assessment, especially once you've optimized your campaigns.

 

With help from analytics reports, you can see which parts of your business get the strongest conversions, and you can predict which audiences are likely to become your best customers. Likewise, weaker conversion rates indicate where your business strategy needs work.

#2: Better conversion rates can save you money.

Campaigns with better conversion rates are generally more efficient than campaigns with weaker conversion rates. A higher conversion rate lets you cover more ground without increasing your ad budget, or you can reduce your ad budget and have cash leftover for testing new marketing tactics.

#3: Focusing on conversion rates will improve your website.

Creating an air-tight sales funnel is the key to boosting conversion rates. Your campaigns, your website and your sales processes need to be as in-sync as possible. As you learn which factors are most important for driving conversions on your website, you'll eventually discover how to make your site more valuable for visitors and customers -- and the benefits of this extend far beyond short-term profits.

How to Boost Conversion Rates

Now that we've reviewed the importance of conversions, the next step is taking action to boost your rates. Here are six easy tips to take your conversion rates to new heights.

 

#1: Sharpen your ads. The first step toward increasing conversions is nailing your ad copy to stand out from the competition.

 

#2: Optimize your landing pages. Deliver on promises made in your ad copy, and use concise, catchy headlines that immediately engage visitors.

 

#3: Test new ad funnels. Create new ads and variations of your landing pages. See how conversion rates change with different advertising approaches.

 

#4: Pare down your audience. Sometimes casting a wider net is better, but tightening your focus to specific consumer groups is an easy way to boost conversion rates.

 

#5: Use FOMO to your advantage. That's the fear of missing out. If you're advertising a sale, say in your ads or on your landing pages that time is running out -- and you can even use countdown clocks for added urgency.

 

#6: Grow your social media. Urge visitors to follow you on Facebook, Twitter and other accounts. Install social media login buttons on your website if it requires a member sign-in; people are much more likely to register using social logins. And if you have a strong social following, display the number of followers or shares on your pages for increased social proof.

 

Conversion Rates Aren't Always Reliable

Conversion rates may be the most universally important metrics in digital marketing. However, any data viewed out of context can be incredibly deceiving. Never be blinded by a high or low conversion rate without carefully evaluating all the data at your disposal.

 

Here are a few ways in which conversion rates can be deceiving:

#1: Higher conversion rates may hide poor performance.

Strong conversion rates are generally positive -- that's what you want. However, you might have a high conversion rate paired with a low sales volume. Or, despite your favorable conversion rate, perhaps high advertising costs are wiping out your ROI. Never assume your campaigns are profitable based on conversion rates alone.

#2: Some of your visitors aren't there to buy.

If you focus too much on conversion rates, you may overlook the multitude of other reasons why people visit your website. Some people may be researching products, and perhaps they'll eventually return to become paying customers. Some may already be customers and they're seeking support or checking on their orders. Do you maintain a blog? You may be building an audience. Don't become so fixated on conversion rates that you forget all the other ways your website is valuable.

#3: Conversion rates can fluctuate with different audiences.

Is your online marketing causing a large influx of new visits? If so, your conversion rates may seem unusually low. That's because new visitors are less likely to buy goods and services than established customers. Also, visitors from different traffic sources tend to convert at different rates. Using Google Analytics reports can help you determine your true conversion rates among different types of visitors.

Conclusion

Conversion rates are immensely important when optimizing your campaigns. Not only do they indicate whether your marketing is profitable, but they also reveal how visitors engage with your website. Conversions aren't all that matter -- you still need to watch your click-through rates, overall spend and numerous other metrics -- but driving conversion rates is generally the key for successful campaigns.

 

 

How Much Does Local SEO Cost?

There’s a common misconception that search engine traffic (aka SEO traffic) is free.  That’s primarily due to the logical comparison against search engine advertising, which is obviously not free.  With search engine advertising, you’ll pay for every click on your ad.  With organic SEO traffic there is no cost for clicks to your website.  Hence the conclusion that SEO traffic is free.

 
But is it really free?  Is it possible to invest zero time and money and still generate traffic from SEO?
 
Of course not.  Just because you built a beautiful website does not mean you’re going to rank high enough in Google to drive any meaningful traffic.  As I explained in this article, to rank high in Google, you’ll need a relevant webpage and an authoritative domain.
 
You may be wondering, how relevant and how authoritative does your website really need to be?  That question leads us to the #1 factor that will determine how much local SEO will cost.
 

      

#1 Factor That Determines the Cost of SEO

Ever hear the joke about outrunning a bear?  I’m no comedian so I’m sure I’ll butcher this, but it’s an important lesson so here we go… If you’re in the woods with your friends and an adult black bear starts chasing you, then how fast do you need to run?
 
Do you know the answer?  If you’ve never heard this before then you’re probably trying to figure out how fast an adult black bear can run.  Hint: It doesn’t matter how fast the black bear can run.  What matters is how fast your slowest friend can run, and whether you can outrun him! :)
 
OK, I know that’s not a great joke, but it’ll get your brain warmed up and you may have already guessed the #1 factor that determines the cost of SEO.
 
The #1 factor is your competition.
 
If you’re in a more competitive industry, then unfortunately, you’ll have to invest more in your SEO.  You’ll have to work harder to create a more relevant webpage (e.g. create better content) and to build up your domain authority (e.g. build more links) than a business in a less competitive industry.
 
In other words, to rank high you just need to outrun your “friends.”  The first step is to review the websites that are ranking high in Google for your target keywords.  An easy and fast tool to complete this analysis is Moz’s Open Site Explorer.
 
Head over to Open Site Explorer and simply copy/paste your competitor domains into the tool.  You’ll instantly see their domain authority score and their total number of backlinks.  The higher the authority score and the more backlinks your competitors have, the more you’ll have to invest in SEO to outrank them.
 

Do You Have Multiple Office Locations?

With local SEO, the number of office locations will also play role in determining how much you need to invest.  This is pretty straight forward.  Ranking each location in Google requires more resources than ranking just one.
 
At a minimum, each additional location will require you to build additional citations.  Citations are mentions of your name, address, and phone number on another website.  Think of citations like reference checks for job candidates.  Search engines need to confirm your business information is accurate and up-to-date and they do this by reviewing all the citations on different websites. If all your information checks out, then you have a better shot at ranking on the first page.
 
Creating citations for one location can be tedious enough.  Each additional location multiplies the workload.
 

Do You Have Multiple Products or Services?

The third consideration is how many products or services you’re trying to promote via SEO.  Again, this is straight forward.  As you try to expand your reach by targeting more and more product or service keywords, then you’ll need to invest more in your SEO. At minimum, you’ll want to build separate webpages for each of the products or services you’re promoting.
 
Remember, each additional product or service comes with a new set a competitors already ranking high in Google.  So make sure you analyze the competition using Open Site Explorer before diving in too deep.
 

No One-Size-Fits-All Solution

I hope at this point it’s clear that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for SEO. That’s why if you’ve done your homework, then you’ve noticed the range in fees is quite wide.
 
For businesses in less competitive industries, with one location, targeting just one product or service, the investment could be $500 or $1,000 per month. For businesses in more competitive industries, targeting multiple locations and multiple products and services, the investment could be $2,000 or more per month.  It just depends on your unique situation.
   

[Local SEO] The 3 C's to Rank #1

What are the 3 most important factors in real estate?

 

The answer is location, location, and location.  Every real estate agent knows that location is far and away the biggest selling point for a home.  A crappy studio apartment in Chelsea can sell for more than a fully renovated 2-bedroom in Harlem.

 

And if you own a business that depends on local customers, then you know location is also a critical factor.  Clearly, businesses near Super Bowl Boulevard are going to attract more customers simply because of their proximity to the Super Bowl festivities on weekend.
 
The same is even true with local SEO.  A business located near the industry hub within a city has a greater likelihood of ranking high in the local Google results (aka the Google+ Local results).  This is known as the “centroid bias.”  So if your office or store is located too far away from where Google thinks is the hub of your industry, then you’re going to have a harder time ranking in the local results.
 
 

Location Is Not Enough

Take a minute and re-read what I just said above about the centroid bias.  It’s a bit technical so make sure you fully understand it before moving on.
 
Now blink your eyes twice.
 
OK, the online marketing landscape has just changed in the time it took you to read this far!  I know, it’s frustrating.  As soon as you think you’ve figured it all out, Google goes and changes everything!
 
Location is not enough to rank high in the local results.  Sorry, it’s going to take a little bit more work.
 

The 3 C’s of Local Search Engine Optimization

Google changed the rules of local SEO when they decided to migrate Google Places to their social media platform, Google+.  Google Places was fairly straight forward because there simply wasn’t much you could do.  It was a static business page with contact information and customer reviews.
 
Now, take a look at the new Google+ Local pages and you’ll see text updates, pictures, videos, reviews, and even conversations between the business and their customers and prospects.  The businesses ranking and getting the most out of their local SEO investments use what I call the 3 C’s:

1. Citations
2. Community
3. Content

 

1. Citations

Citations are mentions of your name, address, and phone number on other websites.  Citations have always been important for local SEO because search engines use them to verify the accuracy of your business information.  Generally speaking, the more citations you can get for your business, then higher you’ll rank in Google because Google will have more confidence in the accuracy of your business information.
 

2. Community

As I mentioned above, Google Places was migrated over to be part of Google’s social media platform, Google+.  Google is still ironing out all the kinks of this overhaul, but we can see that local SEO is clearly merging with social media.  Community is now a factor in how your business is going to rank in the local results.
 
By community, I mean your Google+ Local followers, shares, +1′s, and reviews.  The stronger the community, and the more activity on your business page, the better.
 

3. Content

The new kid on the local SEO block is content.  This is good news to anyone already using content marketing for non-local search engine optimization. For traditional, non-local SEO, content has always been king.  Now it’s even a factor in your local SEO rankings. Great content will get you more high quality links from other websites, it’ll help you build community on your Google+ Local page, and it’ll improve your Author Rank.  All of this will in turn help you rank higher in the local results.

   

5 Ways to Energize Your Content Marketing

In our last article, I explained why content marketing is extremely valuable to use for your business.
 
But, just because you realize using content marketing to engage your audience is important, that doesn’t mean you know how to create that content.
 
This article focuses on how to create content that hooks your audience in and keeps your company top of mind.
 

     

1. Establish a Voice That Speaks to Your Audience.

Creating the “voice” of your company helps to connect to potential clients and customers that are ideal for your brand.  Whether you’re the person doing all of the content creation for your business, or you have a team that works on that, it’s imperative that you’re very clear about the voice of your content, and consistent about using that same voice across all channels.

To start, it’s helpful to identify who your ideal audience is. One way to do this is by creating a customer avatar, which is the person who represents those in your target market. To create a customer avatar, you should answer as many identifying questions about your ideal client as possible. 

Once you’ve established your customer avatar, you need to understand how they speak and what they connect to. What other websites are they reading? If your ideal customer is a single mom who works from home, take a look at blogs she may read and start to understand the terminology and writing structure those sites use.

Another way to research this is to look at forums that your ideal customer would post in. Do they write very formally with technical language, or is it a bit more casual?

Based on this research you can begin to create your voice. Here are a few things to consider when establishing your voice:

• Do you write in first person or third person?
• Does your content include personal stories, or is it strictly professional?
• What vocabulary are you going to use when referring to things in your business? Are there some things that the terminology can differ on?
• What will your format be? Do you use bold, italics, or both to stress a point?
• How do you break up your blog content?
• What kind of images will you use?
• Do you use any slang, or is all of your writing more formal?
• What is the format of your social media posts?

 

2. Create Really Really Ridiculously Good Content

Derek Zoolander may not have understood how to create a center for kids who can’t read good, but he knew how to be a male model.

The same goes for content. You may not know everything about marketing and conversion, but you understand your product or service and when it comes to creating content about it, your content needs to be really good.

Make sure the articles, videos, and images you create have a clear purpose every single time. Ask yourself, “Why am I creating this?” If it doesn’t educate, entertain, or engage your audience you should probably rethink it.

 

3. Write Catchy Headlines

One my favorite movies growing up was the Disney musical film Newsies, starring a very young, pre-Batman, Christian Bale. The movie was all about the days of William Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer and the use of yellow journalism. Basically, the newspapers of the time would put out papers with extremely catchy headlines, even if they had nothing to do with the truth behind the article.

While I definitely don’t recommend going to the extreme of yellow journalism, there’s no question that writing catchy headlines is key to producing good content. Your headlines should absolutely reflect what is actually in your article, but should do so in a way that makes the content sound enticing and lets your audience know that your article is worth taking the time to read.

Headlines that include numbers, address the reader directly (i.e. use “you”), and contain active word choices do really well.

For example, for the headline of this article I started with the title “Ways to Improve Your Content Marketing”. While this would have been a fair representation of what this article is about, it’s not very exciting.

Instead, I answer the question “how many ways” and use active verbs so readers understand exactly what the goal of this article is. “5 Ways to Energize Your Content Marketing” is a much catchier headline than the original, but still delivers on the promise of what’s included in the article.

 

4. Add Videos & Images

“A picture says a thousand words” might be one of the most cliché sayings out there, but there’s a reason it has hung around this long.

Photos and videos are hugely engaging when it comes to content, which is why platforms like Instagram and Snapchat have become so successful. It’s also the reason you can play videos directly from your Facebook feed.

Images can be created as standalone content or as a way to enhance a blog post or article you’ve written. According to Hubspot.com, not only does content that contains relevant images get 94% more views than content without images, but people also remember the content for longer. In fact, when people hear information they are only likely to remember 10% of that information 3 days later. But, if that information is paired with a relevant image, they’re likely to remember 65% of the information.

If you’re taking the time to create important content, you want to make sure that people read it and remember it. Adding images helps to make that happen.

The same type of statistics hold true for video content. An article from Insivia.com presents 50 stats about using video marketing. And one stat, from Unbounce, says that including a video on your landing page can increase conversion by 80%.

When it comes to livening up your content marketing, including photos and video is a no-brainer.

 

5. Switch Up Your Format

Nobody wants to read the same article, or type of article, over and over again. It just gets flat-out boring. That’s why varying the format of your blog content is extremely important for increasing and maintaining engagement.

Here are a few article formats that can help you change it up:

• Listicles – You’ve seen these. These are lists that are used to engage or educate your audience. 
• Resource Roundups – These articles put together a bunch of resources in one place. Audiences love these because it saves them time on research. 
• Stat Roundups – People love when ideas are backed up by numbers and that’s why stats roundups are so great– you’re able to back up why people should use your product or services.
• How-To Articles – Remember, a key goal of content marketing is to educate your audience with valuable information. How-To articles offer the perfect opportunity to do that.
• Quote Roundups – The goal of these types of articles is mostly to entertain your audience, but depending on the quotes you pick, you can also educate them as well. 

   

Why Content Marketing is the Key to Business Success

The phrase “content is key” has been buzzing around the marketing world for quite some time now. It’s an easy statement to make, but not necessarily an easy one to fully understand for anyone who don’t specialize in marketing or writing.

 

In this article, I’ll explain exactly what content marketing is and why you should start using it ASAP.

 

     

What Is Content Marketing?

According to The Content Marketing Institute, content marketing is,  “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.”

 

Let’s break that down to make it a bit easier to understand.

 

Content marketing refers to media you create that is specific to your business. This can include the creation of blog and newsletter articles, videos, social media posts, photos, podcasts, e-books, webinars, and more.

 

The key to being successful with content marketing though is making sure the content has a specific goal related to educating, entertaining, and engaging your audience in order to lead them to perform a specific action.

 

For example, let’s say you’re a chiropractor’s office manager who recently hired an acupuncturist on staff and you’d like people to start booking appointments. You can use content to tell your audience about the benefits of acupuncture. You could create a blog post that documents a patient’s recent success with acupuncture, or a video that informs people about 5 things they never knew about Eastern medicine techniques. All of this content has the goal of educating your audience about acupuncture in hopes that they’ll want to book an appointment and try it out.

 

Now that we understand exactly what content marketing is, let’s go over why you should use it.

 

Why Should You Use Content Marketing?

 

1. It Drives Relevant Traffic to Your Website.

Almost every small business I work with wants to increase traffic to their website. But, what many people don’t realize is that traffic in general doesn’t necessarily help your business. Instead, you want to focus on driving relevant traffic to your website. This way, you know the people who are visiting your site are actually interested in your business.

 

Content marketing can help make this happen.

 

By creating good content that is relevant to your business, you open up opportunities for that content to rank in Google, which benefits your Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

 

If you create a blog post focused on a topic that is specific to your business and it ranks highly in Google, then you know the traffic coming from that post is going to be from visitors who are interested in your products or services.

 

2. It Creates a Natural Opportunity to Follow Up with Customers and Leads.

Cold sales calls are tricky and require a lot of effort on the part of you and your sales team. Using content marketing opens up more “warm” sales opportunities.

 

Once you begin building an email newsletter list, you can create content to send out to the customers and prospects on your list that keeps them engaged with your company. Sending out monthly or even weekly newsletters with content your audience is interested in helps to keep you top of mind and opens up the doors for a more natural follow-up sequence. 

 

Sticking with the acupuncturist example above, after sending out an article about the benefits of acupuncture, it’s a much more natural phone call for someone from your office to follow up with clients to see if they’d like to schedule an appointment to try it out. Using content marketing to educate and engage with your audience helps to create warmer relationships.

 

3. Content Marketing Positions You as an Expert in Your Industry.

By creating content that educates your audience about your business, you’re automatically positioning yourself as an expert in your industry.

 

People love to learn new things, and if you’re the one who teaches them something new that is relevant to their lives, they’ll be looking to you for more advice in the future.

 

For example, I recently moved and needed tips on installing a wall mount for my TV. I Googled “how to install wall mount tv”. The first thing listed in the search results was an article from Home Depot titled “A Guide to Wall-Mounting Your Flat Screen TV”. I clicked on this article for tips without even considering that Home Depot would sell TV wall mounts. Because this article was highly relevant with good content, I trust that Home Depot is an expert in this and am considering purchasing my wall mount, or the tools needed to install one, from Home Depot.

 

See how that works?

 

4. Content Marketing Provides Opportunities to Engage With Potential Customers on Social Media.

There’s no question that social media is a huge part of any marketing plan.

 

According to Statista.com, Facebook had 1.71 billion active users as of Q2 of 2016. This provides a valuable opportunity for your business to engage with potential customers through social media platforms.

 

Drafting engaging social media content is a big part of content marketing. It’s important to identify which social media channels your ideal customer is using, and then to create a content plan that will engage your audience. Organic content, paired with paid social media advertising is a great way to reach potential customers.

 

I was recently on the receiving end of successful content marketing using social media. A few months ago, fitness accessory company, Caeden, was running a Facebook ad campaign to promote their new fashionable fitness tracking bracelet. Their product not only tracks steps, calories, and heart rate, but also uses the information to report on your stress levels and then pairs it with a meditation and breath app to help relieve some of that stress. This ad repeatedly came up on my Facebook and eventually lead me to click on a video post that featured a woman using this bracelet while practicing yoga.

 

This was genius because I’m their ideal customer — a female yoga instructor who has an interest in fashion. After watching the video and reading more on their blog, I became a strong prospective buyer.

 

I was shown well-crafted, relevant content which kept the product top of mind. A few days later, I ordered my Sona after using one of the promotion codes that popped up on my Facebook account through their retargeting campaigns.

 

Sharing and promoting your content, especially if targeted to your ideal customer, can help to connect with prospective clients.

 

5. Content Marketing Gives Your Business A Voice

What do you want the “feel” or overall perception of your company to be? If your target audience is doctors or engineers over the age of 40 you’re likely to want a different reputation than a business whose target audience is millennial social media marketers.

 

Content marketing helps establish the voice of your company which helps you attract and retain more customers who get along with your company culture.

 

Whole Foods is a great example of a business who uses their content marketing to establish a voice. Their Whole Story Blog focuses on healthy recipes and video cooking tips all containing words like healthy, better, benefits, and greens. This establishes their voice as a brand focused on providing meal prep inspiration targeted to people looking for healthy recipes with exciting ingredients — i.e. their ideal customers.

 

6. Content Marketing Helps Create Partnership Opportunities

Forming partnerships within your industry is a great way to get in front of a new audience that is likely interested in the product or service you are selling.

 

Content marketing opens up opportunities to engage with partners. You can reach out to influencers in your industry and invite them to exchange guest blog posts with you. This not only provides your audience with compelling content from a thought leader in your industry, but allows you to provide content to get in front of a new audience as well. And, circling back to reason #1, it will drive relevant traffic to your site… which is what you want.

 

Whether you’re exchanging blogs, social media shares, webinars, or other types of content, these types of partnerships help to expand your audience and potentially generate new clients.

 

Conclusion

Content marketing is a powerful tool that can be used to educate, entertain, and engage your audience. By establishing the voice of your brand and positioning you as an expert in your industry, it can help you connect to potential new clients. Creating a content marketing plan targeted towards your ideal client, with help you turn those prospects into new customers for your business.