What Are The 4 Pillars Of Content Marketing Success?

Content marketing success is choosing the right topic for the perfect audience on the best distribution channels.

Remember that you’re publishing content that informs, that helps people do their jobs. If people are looking forward to your email blasts and blogs, you’re doing a great job. You should be thinking about where these people are in the sales funnel.

1. Understand your audience

Before you start creating your content, you need to understand your customer. Ask yourself who is your:

• Current customer?
• Potential customer?

Who would find your content useful?

Creating a customer or buyer persona is a valuable exercise. This is based on demographics and behaviors of the customers you have--and those you want to have.

Creating segmentation so you’re marketing differently to each unique group

Let’s look at a couple of customers in your database.

• One is your desired customer—smart, tech-savvy Chloe who totally gets everything the first time and is eager to see a preview of the next software rollout. Chloe has purchased your software for her company and understands the software’s potential and loves the way it integrates with other applications. 
• And then there’s Helen. Helen is a potential client who works for an IT manager. She’s in a strategic position as an influencer and could be making important recommendations, but prefers not to. Always expect Helen to call and ask for more instructions on how to use the new enhancement. You can send her a link to the excellent video tutorial that your tech team totally nailed, but you know it won’t be enough. Helen is always going to be very high maintenance. She may or may not ever become a client.

Just as Helen and Chloe are two separate segments in your database, they’re at different places on the sales funnel. Think about how you will market differently to them. You’ll want to include Chloe on new products/updates and invite her to your spring gala fundraiser. Helen will receive only the most general information. If you can’t get past Helen and build a relationship with someone else in her company, this relationship may not be worth more effort.

2. Map the content to the sales cycle

Could this example be any clearer? The scale and cost of the commitment drives the content

• If a buyer is considering a one-time license fee for software that costs $50/year, you might detail the software’s benefits in two-three paragraphs and include a few customer testimonials. 
• However. if a buyer is purchasing several hundred licenses for software that cost $100,000, this is getting into some serious money, and the content totally needs to step up. This calls for case studies, product sheets, a video and integration guides. 

Let’s break it down so you can see exactly what type of content to produce

• Awareness phase of sales funnel. Content to increase your brand awareness by promoting your brand. Blog posts, white papers, webinars and infographics. These will still be at a pretty high level.
• Evaluation phase of sales funnel. Content that will increase the marketing qualified leads (MQL). Buyer’s not ready to make a decision but understands that your brand is a leader in this field. Provide case studies, webinars, video and tech guides.
• Purchase phase of sales funnel. Content that will turn a marketing qualified lead into a sales qualified lead (SQL). Getting closer to a decision, so the content should make it easy to choose your product over that of a competitor: Implementation guides, free trials, and live demonstrations.

3. Create the content @ 2 thousand words/article

You now understand the customer and know what type of content goes with each stage of the sales cycle. Now it’s time to create different types of content that decision-makers want to read before making an important decision. 65% of B2B buyers value research reports and studies compared to any other content type (followed by technical guides, insight, white papers, and articles). Despite user-content protest, longer content ranks higher than shorter content. Remember that Google needs words in order to go to work. The number of words you need to write to rank in the top ten? It’s 2,000 words.

To increase traffic and show that your content marketing efforts are adding value for your business, those cheesy little 400-word posts are simply not good enough. Longer content is also shared more on social networks. Content that’s 3 thousand words is shared 2-3 times more times than 1-thousand word articles.

I have an ongoing battle with my clients because they never want to include more than a few sentences per page on their websites. I argue that “you consider yourself an expert and you sum it up in two sentences?” They insist that no one will read it--and they may not. But if someone wants more information, it should be there for them. We can frontload the important information. What they don’t understand is that Google needs that content in order to go to work. It’s content that will help their websites show up in search.

To clarify, longer content will help you:

• Rank better in Google
• Get more social shares
• Get more inbound links

4. Promote content

You have to remember that content marketing is part content, part marketing—you’ve got to step up and promote it.

The most fundamental way to promote your content is to publish it to your website

• Create a blogpost and publish that blog to your blog, LinkedIn and other blog sites. 
• I always post blogs to Google’s Blogger. It’s never a bad idea to be posting to a Google product. 
• Once you’ve posted your blog, post an excerpt with an image to your social media sites—Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, etc. 
• Use that blog in your email marketing blast. I love blogs because they’re the workhorse of a content marketing program. Post part of your blog to your email, then link to the blog on your website with Read more. 
• Google AdWords campaigns: If you’re promoting a new white paper or eBook, you can create display campaigns to raise the visibility.
• Start using remarketing that will retarget abandoned visitors. 
• Consider creating an ebook. Use this as intellectual property that users can download with their email address. 

5. Get to know and understand your data and make adjustments

Did the content perform well? Did the content perform as you expected? You need to measure how well your content performs and analyze its progress.

To measure the content marketing success metrics, ask yourself these questions:

• How many page views does the content receive?
• What type of content is shared the most?
• What type of content is read the most?
• What keywords do people search for to find my content?
• How many leads did my content generate?

Remember that you’re generating data as you go along to help answer these questions. I use my own blog posts as content marketing case studies by analyzing the data of what topics/keywords work well.

Contact Top of Mind Marketing. We’re writers, digital media specialists.

What If You Could Rank on Google Without Doing Ads?

What are online advertising platforms?

Online advertising has exploded. If you read any article about marketing these days, there’s just an assumption that you’re doing online ads. Google is raking in an estimated $100M/day from this business alone. Amazon’s right up there, helping Jeff Bezos finance his next trip to the great beyond. 

We advertise on Facebook and Linkedin, on Twitter and Instagram

Every business with an online platform is offering advertising opportunities. But online ads, (pay-per-click or PPC) are a bit of an art form. You can’t create an ad and expect it to just perform for you. You’ve got to test, monitor, make adjustments and swap it out to keep it fresh. Like a twelve-step program, it works if you work it. My experience is that many people launch their ad campaigns and assume that they’re going to be driving lots of new traffic to their websites and ultimately, new clients. Unfortunately, if you’re not committing to managing your PPC campaign, you’re likely wasting your marketing dollars.

It's hard to rank organically on Google 

It’s increasingly difficult to rank organically, which means it’s hard to show up on page one of a Google search without paying for ads. Take a look at a search results page and you’ll see that the results all say “Ad” next to them. Someone’s paying (a lot) to rank on the first or even second page of Google or other search engines. 

But what if you could rank high on Google without having to do PPC ads? 

I’ve been using some new software that’s based on creating content that matches the high-ranking search terms/keywords that people are keying into a Google search. For someone like me, for whom writing is easy, I can write a blog exactly matching those keyword phrases in my titles. These show up in my website’s information bar and Google recognizes these titles as part of its content indexing process. I use other highly ranked keyword phrases in my headlines and subheads and assign “H” tags to them, which Google also looks for.

This software, DemandJump, is giving me a blueprint—or think of these as breadcrumbs--for how to show up in search. The information is cumulative, of course, but I’ve been using this for a month or so, and I’m starting to see the results. I’m getting calls from people who saw me in a Google search. Happy. 

DemandJump’s content is based on a pillar strategy

DemandJump is based on creating a content hierarchy. At the top of every content pillar is a 3,000-word pillar page—this is an exhaustive overview of your business. Your individual landing pages roll up to your main pillar page. Blogs roll up to landing pages. It’s a hierarchy--layered, interconnected webs of content. Everything is connected, with links among pages and topics to keep the user engaged.

I love this application! Interested in DemandJump? Give Top of Mind Marketing a call and let’s talk about how this might work for your business. 

 

What Is Local SEO?

 

What Is Local SEO?

More important, why is it important? This is why: Nearly half of all searches--an estimated 46%, have a local intent. That means their users are seeking information that is location-specific. Local SEO is about optimizing for a search query that is location-specific. Google and other search engines, including Google’s YouTube, use a user’s location based on IP address (for desktop) and geolocation (for mobile) to determine what results to serve up to the user.

How many times have you keyed in a search query, then added “near me”?

That’s local SEO at work. Besides the convenience of identifying local doctors, dentists, barbers, drycleaners and other service professionals in our own little ‘hoods, we like to support our local businesses. It builds community.

Local Pack is another Google search tool

To help connect those users with their location results, Google has changed their algorithm to accommodate location in its search engine results page (SERP) listings. Another handy search tool is Google’s Local Pack--connecting users to specific local businesses they’re looking for.

You’ve used the Local Pack; you just didn’t know it had a name!

You’ve seen the Local Pack a gazillion times, but you likely didn’t know that it was its own product in the search space. Let’s say you’re going to be in Athens for a month and you’re looking for cafes with wifi near your airbnb. (Actually this was my local search for the month of May.) You’re served up a map with three listings, your location and that of three cafes. This is your Local Pack, and it’s very useful. If anyone’s wondering, I found a delightful little café in my neighborhood that became my go-to home with yummy food and friendly people, thanks to Local Pack!

How do you optimize for local search?

• First and foremost, claim your Google Business Profile (GBP). This has become nonnegotiable.
• Update NAP citations on your website. Having a consistent NAP plays an important part in Google’s Local Pack results and building citations to your GBP. Do an audit to make sure that your business is correctly listed the same way in every place that it’s listed. The same sequence of name, address, phone number, etc. is important as well. If your business is listed on those mysterious directories that seem to pop up, you’ll need to log in to all of these and make sure they all have your current information. 
• Add your business to local directories. 
• Get reviews and add them to your website. Add the local city for the person who’s giving the review. 
• Identify local search terms and create local content: Make sure your name and address are in your footer. Add a notation that you are, for instance: “Serving the East Bay cities of Walnut Creek, Lafayette, Danville and Alamo”. 

GBP Ranking Factors. While Google doesn’t share the exact ranking factors, you can work within these guidelines.

• Relevance: Complete and detailed business information will help Google better understand your business and match your listing to relevant searches from customers. This is a good time to do keyword research and identify what keywords/ phrases you want to own.
• Distance: How far each potential business is from the location terms used in a search. 
• Prominence: How well-known a business is. Know that you’re going to be competing with big brands. Prominence is based on your overall Internet presence. More reviews and positive ratings will improve your overall local ranking.

Google’s Business Profile is becoming a workhorse

Let’s be honest. Navigating among Google apps has been challenging. I’ve struggled with my own accounts as well as those of my clients and I always wonder how long it’s going to take me to log in. What kinds of workarounds I’m going to have to try. Sometimes I can’t log in at all and give up in disgust. But maybe Google finally figured out what a mess they’d created.

So now we have the newly named GBP. In the old days, you could never see your own GBP—you could log in to the page, but just like you can never see your own Google ads, you never could see your GBP. Now you can click on a link and it’s clearly visible! I just logged in to my page, updated my services, added a few blogs and uploaded images. Anyone can log in from Google apps—Google Maps, etc. A couple of my clients left reviews for me. This is so easy! It’s unlike the old GBP that it’s nearly transformational. What’s astonishing is that it took them 15 years or more to get here.

A recent article suggested that one of the very best things you can do for SEO is to get reviews on your GBP. Start reaching out to current and former clients and colleagues and ask them to give you a review. Forget Yelp. It’s just too annoying.

Google’s really getting behind their new and improved GBP and making it seamless

Google’s making it easier for users to interact directly with businesses from their GBP pages to book appointments, get quotes for services and message directly. Without a GBP, you’re going to be missing out on opportunities in local search results and Local Packs. The Local Packs, especially, are just a nice visual way to package search results. You really want to be taking advantage of Google’s tools.

A Google Business Profile may be one of the most important free tools that any business has at its disposal. If you haven’t already, create a one. Believe me, I never would have said this before, because there were times when I was frustrated beyond belief. But it’s just so easy.

If you need help optimizing your website, we can help

Contact Top of Mind Marketing. We’re writers and content marketing specialists.