There is one thing that nearly 2/3rds of top-performing content marketers do, but only 13% of the least successful do. It’s a clear driver of content marketing excellence. Yet only 37% of all B2B content marketers are doing it.
That one thing is to developing a documented content marketing strategy. It’s that simple. Lay out your strategy, write it down, and you’ve drastically increased your odds of running a successful content marketing enterprise.
Documenting your strategy prevents random acts of content. It helps get buy-in from your whole team. Most importantly, it starts your content initiative with measurable goals and a plan to achieve them. It just makes every aspect of creating content and distributing it easier and more effective.
If your team wants to join the top tier of content marketers, it’s time to get that strategy written down. Here’s how to get started.
#1: Start with the Why
Why is content marketing a good fit for your company? Is there an audience hungry for the content you plan on producing? You can answer these questions with customer research—find the unmet needs that your content will meet.
#2: Establish Overall Goals
Once you make the case for your content to exist, get specific on what purpose your content is going to serve. Granted, your content program should serve multiple purposes, everything from attracting attention to securing loyalty. But in the end, it will serve specific business goals: Leads captured, cost per lead, and marketing-assisted sales. Express these goals in quantifiable terms and specify the metrics to measure them.
Don’t worry if these goals shift during the course of your implementation. It’s better to start with a few goals and get moving than to try and painstakingly predict the future. Your strategy can change as it’s implemented, based on response. In fact, it should be evolving constantly for better results.
#3: Document Your Audience
Who are the people in your neighborhood your content must reach? What motivates them? What role do they have in decision-making? Where do they get their content from? What channels are they already active in? All of these questions will help drive your strategy for content creation and amplification. Develop buyer personas based on solid research.
#4: Plan Content for Each Stage of the Buyer Journey
Call it a funnel, call it a spiral, call it late for dinner—there are generally three stages in the buyer journey. At TopRank Marketing, we call them “Attract, Engage, and Convert.” Most organizations without a strategy tend to invest heavily in Convert-level content. But great Attract-level content with clear next steps can be hugely effective. It’s important to have a healthy mix of all three stages.
#5: Draft Specific Goals for Content at Each Stage
These goals are the stepping stones to the big-picture business goals I discussed earlier. As with the big-picture goals, they should be expressed in quantifiable terms and paired with metrics for measurement. Here are a few quick examples of goals and metrics for each stage:
Attract:
- Goal: Brand Awareness
- Metrics: Views, Social Shares, Time on Page
- Goal: Search Visibility
- Metric: keyword rankings, content rankings
Engage:
- Goal: Audience Engagement
- Metrics: Comments, Shares, Clicks-Through
- Goal: Building a Following
- Metrics: Subscribers, Followers on Social Media, Gated Downloads
Convert:
- Goal: MQL Capture
- Metrics: Gated Downloads, Contact Forms Filled, Leads Converted to SQL
- Goal: Sales Assist
- Metrics: Sales Conversion Rate, Sales Cycle Length, Contract Size
#6: Plan Channels for Amplification
Don’t wait until content is created to figure out amplification. Let your buyer research inform your organic and paid efforts. If you plan on using influencer marketing, this is the time to bake it into the process.
#7: Create an Editorial Calendar
The editorial calendar pulls everything together into one actionable plan: Your big-picture planning, audience research, content mapping, and goals. It’s the central document your team will use for what content to create, when to create it, and how it will be amplified. The good folks at Curata put together a list of editorial calendar templates – experiment with a few and see which one best suits your needs.
These seven steps are a general guide to help get your content marketing strategy documented and running. It doesn’t have to be perfect—and your first draft likely won’t be. It will, however, be a jumping-off point you can return to and continually improve.
Simply by having a documented content strategy, you’re joining the elite top third of marketers. Stick to that strategy, continue to refine it, and you can rise even higher.
Check out this webinar (and accompanying blog post) to learn more about content marketing strategy.
Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.
© Online Marketing Blog – TopRank®, 2016. |
7 Steps to Documenting Your Content Marketing Strategy | http://www.toprankblog.com
The post 7 Steps to Documenting Your Content Marketing Strategy appeared first on Online Marketing Blog – TopRank®.
There is one thing that nearly 2/3rds of top-performing content marketers do, but only 13% of the least successful do. It’s a clear driver of content marketing excellence. Yet only 37% of all B2B content marketers are doing it.
That one thing is to developing a documented content marketing strategy. It’s that simple. Lay out your strategy, write it down, and you’ve drastically increased your odds of running a successful content marketing enterprise.
Documenting your strategy prevents random acts of content. It helps get buy-in from your whole team. Most importantly, it starts your content initiative with measurable goals and a plan to achieve them. It just makes every aspect of creating content and distributing it easier and more effective.
If your team wants to join the top tier of content marketers, it’s time to get that strategy written down. Here’s how to get started.
#1: Start with the Why
Why is content marketing a good fit for your company? Is there an audience hungry for the content you plan on producing? You can answer these questions with customer research—find the unmet needs that your content will meet.
#2: Establish Overall Goals
Once you make the case for your content to exist, get specific on what purpose your content is going to serve. Granted, your content program should serve multiple purposes, everything from attracting attention to securing loyalty. But in the end, it will serve specific business goals: Leads captured, cost per lead, and marketing-assisted sales. Express these goals in quantifiable terms and specify the metrics to measure them.
Don’t worry if these goals shift during the course of your implementation. It’s better to start with a few goals and get moving than to try and painstakingly predict the future. Your strategy can change as it’s implemented, based on response. In fact, it should be evolving constantly for better results.
#3: Document Your Audience
Who are the people in your neighborhood your content must reach? What motivates them? What role do they have in decision-making? Where do they get their content from? What channels are they already active in? All of these questions will help drive your strategy for content creation and amplification. Develop buyer personas based on solid research.
#4: Plan Content for Each Stage of the Buyer Journey
Call it a funnel, call it a spiral, call it late for dinner—there are generally three stages in the buyer journey. At TopRank Marketing, we call them “Attract, Engage, and Convert.” Most organizations without a strategy tend to invest heavily in Convert-level content. But great Attract-level content with clear next steps can be hugely effective. It’s important to have a healthy mix of all three stages.
#5: Draft Specific Goals for Content at Each Stage
These goals are the stepping stones to the big-picture business goals I discussed earlier. As with the big-picture goals, they should be expressed in quantifiable terms and paired with metrics for measurement. Here are a few quick examples of goals and metrics for each stage:
Attract:
- Goal: Brand Awareness
- Metrics: Views, Social Shares, Time on Page
- Goal: Search Visibility
- Metric: keyword rankings, content rankings
Engage:
- Goal: Audience Engagement
- Metrics: Comments, Shares, Clicks-Through
- Goal: Building a Following
- Metrics: Subscribers, Followers on Social Media, Gated Downloads
Convert:
- Goal: MQL Capture
- Metrics: Gated Downloads, Contact Forms Filled, Leads Converted to SQL
- Goal: Sales Assist
- Metrics: Sales Conversion Rate, Sales Cycle Length, Contract Size
#6: Plan Channels for Amplification
Don’t wait until content is created to figure out amplification. Let your buyer research inform your organic and paid efforts. If you plan on using influencer marketing, this is the time to bake it into the process.
#7: Create an Editorial Calendar
The editorial calendar pulls everything together into one actionable plan: Your big-picture planning, audience research, content mapping, and goals. It’s the central document your team will use for what content to create, when to create it, and how it will be amplified. The good folks at Curata put together a list of editorial calendar templates – experiment with a few and see which one best suits your needs.
These seven steps are a general guide to help get your content marketing strategy documented and running. It doesn’t have to be perfect—and your first draft likely won’t be. It will, however, be a jumping-off point you can return to and continually improve.
Simply by having a documented content strategy, you’re joining the elite top third of marketers. Stick to that strategy, continue to refine it, and you can rise even higher.
Check out this webinar (and accompanying blog post) to learn more about content marketing strategy.
Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.
© Online Marketing Blog – TopRank®, 2016. |
7 Steps to Documenting Your Content Marketing Strategy | http://www.toprankblog.com
The post 7 Steps to Documenting Your Content Marketing Strategy appeared first on Online Marketing Blog – TopRank®.
What can Where’s Waldo, the lovable children’s book series of the ‘90s, teach us about designing better page layouts?
A lot, it turns out.
In UX, we use different page layouts to help organize information and guide the users’ eye path. The “F” pattern, for instance, is commonly used for article heavy sites to guide the users’ eye path downward while supporting headline scanning. Reddit, Google News and Buzzfeed all use the “F” pattern layout.
One of the earliest layout patterns, and the one still most commonly used today, is the Gutenberg diagram. Originally conceived in the ‘50s by Edmond C. Arnold to help organize newspaper layouts, the Gutenberg diagram breaks the page down into quadrants and explains how the user interacts visually with each quadrant. In the diagram, the primary optical area is the upper left quadrant where the eye path naturally begins.
The lower right quadrant, the terminal area, is where the eye path ends. Gravity pulls the eyes diagonally between the two quadrants leaving the upper right and lower left quadrants largely out of the eye path.
The Gutenberg Diagram (Source)
While it is very western centric, the Gutenberg diagram makes sense. We read top to bottom, left to right, so our eyes are naturally drawn to the upper left of a page when first looking at it. As we scan the page, our eyes end up at the bottom right of the page.
We’re taught to follow this general eye path as soon as we learn to read. Even today, we utilize this pattern when designing web pages because it leverages our tendencies to follow that eye path. It’s rare to find a web site where the company logo isn’t in the upper left corner.
So what does this have to do with Waldo?
Randy Olson recently published an article on how to find Waldo in under 10 seconds (and trust me, it works.) Olson mapped all of the points where Waldo was hiding in the seven main Where’s Waldo books; then he ran those points through an algorithm that found the optimal eye path to use to spot Waldo quickly. As part of his research, Olson created a kernel density estimate to illustrate where Waldo is most commonly hiding.
Waldo’s 68 Hiding Locations Plotted Out (Source)
Olson’s Kernel Density Estimate (Source)
When you overlay the Gutenberg diagram and Olson’s kernel density estimate, something interesting becomes apparent; the highest density of Waldo’s hiding spots fall within the least viewed quadrants of the page. Waldo is most commonly hiding in the areas our eyes are trained to avoid. In fact, 70% of the time, he’s in the upper right or bottom left quadrants of the page.
What does this teach us about designing page layouts?
If you’re designing a page and want the most important elements to pop out at your visitors, don’t put those elements where Waldo would be hiding.
Use the primary optical area and the terminal area as your main points of reference for important information.
And always remember that no matter what you do, we don’t optimize web pages, we optimize thought sequences. Guide your visitor through a thoughtful conversation. Eye path and page layouts are simply tools to help you do that. But don’t forget that they are simply means, not ends.
Bonus: In case you read this whole thing JUST to find out how to find Waldo in under 10 seconds, 80% of the time, Olson’s optimized eye path to find Waldo is below. Happy hunting.
Olson’s “Where’s Waldo?” Optimal Search Path (Source)
You might also like:
Prominence: Design and layout lessons from Windows 8
This Just Tested: What is the optimal layout of a product page?
Homepage Testing: 91% conversion lift from new copy and layout
Marketing Research Chart: How do you know the most effective layout and images for your marketing sends?
What can Where’s Waldo, the lovable children’s book series of the ‘90s, teach us about designing better page layouts?
A lot, it turns out.
In UX, we use different page layouts to help organize information and guide the users’ eye path. The “F” pattern, for instance, is commonly used for article heavy sites to guide the users’ eye path downward while supporting headline scanning. Reddit, Google News and Buzzfeed all use the “F” pattern layout.
One of the earliest layout patterns, and the one still most commonly used today, is the Gutenberg diagram. Originally conceived in the ‘50s by Edmond C. Arnold to help organize newspaper layouts, the Gutenberg diagram breaks the page down into quadrants and explains how the user interacts visually with each quadrant. In the diagram, the primary optical area is the upper left quadrant where the eye path naturally begins.
The lower right quadrant, the terminal area, is where the eye path ends. Gravity pulls the eyes diagonally between the two quadrants leaving the upper right and lower left quadrants largely out of the eye path.
The Gutenberg Diagram (Source)
While it is very western centric, the Gutenberg diagram makes sense. We read top to bottom, left to right, so our eyes are naturally drawn to the upper left of a page when first looking at it. As we scan the page, our eyes end up at the bottom right of the page.
We’re taught to follow this general eye path as soon as we learn to read. Even today, we utilize this pattern when designing web pages because it leverages our tendencies to follow that eye path. It’s rare to find a web site where the company logo isn’t in the upper left corner.
So what does this have to do with Waldo?
Randy Olson recently published an article on how to find Waldo in under 10 seconds (and trust me, it works.) Olson mapped all of the points where Waldo was hiding in the seven main Where’s Waldo books; then he ran those points through an algorithm that found the optimal eye path to use to spot Waldo quickly. As part of his research, Olson created a kernel density estimate to illustrate where Waldo is most commonly hiding.
Waldo’s 68 Hiding Locations Plotted Out (Source)
Olson’s Kernel Density Estimate (Source)
When you overlay the Gutenberg diagram and Olson’s kernel density estimate, something interesting becomes apparent; the highest density of Waldo’s hiding spots fall within the least viewed quadrants of the page. Waldo is most commonly hiding in the areas our eyes are trained to avoid. In fact, 70% of the time, he’s in the upper right or bottom left quadrants of the page.
What does this teach us about designing page layouts?
If you’re designing a page and want the most important elements to pop out at your visitors, don’t put those elements where Waldo would be hiding.
Use the primary optical area and the terminal area as your main points of reference for important information.
And always remember that no matter what you do, we don’t optimize web pages, we optimize thought sequences. Guide your visitor through a thoughtful conversation. Eye path and page layouts are simply tools to help you do that. But don’t forget that they are simply means, not ends.
Bonus: In case you read this whole thing JUST to find out how to find Waldo in under 10 seconds, 80% of the time, Olson’s optimized eye path to find Waldo is below. Happy hunting.
Olson’s “Where’s Waldo?” Optimal Search Path (Source)
You might also like:
Prominence: Design and layout lessons from Windows 8
This Just Tested: What is the optimal layout of a product page?
Homepage Testing: 91% conversion lift from new copy and layout
Marketing Research Chart: How do you know the most effective layout and images for your marketing sends?
While B2B companies are investing in content for marketing, making more content is not creating the windfall of leads that many senior business marketing executives had hoped for. The problem? A lack of insight about what makes better content.
I believe that finding a solution to the “more” vs. “better” challenge starts with customer empathy.
As an example, Steve Rayson, director at BuzzSumo and Anders Pink, explained: “The primary motivation of B2B customers is to do their jobs better. Thus, at BuzzSumo we spend a lot of time trying to understand the questions our customers are asking and the issues they are struggling with. We then try to produce helpful content which addresses these concerns.”
Put yourself in the shoes of a business customer: When you need to buy a new phone system for your company, where do you look first? How about when you need to hire a consultant or find a scalable marketing automation system to grow leads and sales, where do you go to find the right solution?
Whether business customers use search, read an industry publication, or respond to an ongoing nurture message delivered by email, the variety of resources that business buyers rely upon for research can vary greatly. Ultimately, it comes down to the fact that buyers have questions and business marketers have answers. And B2B marketers are increasingly relying on content marketing to deliver those answers.
In fact, 89% of marketers are now relying on content marketing, according to the “B2B Content Marketing 2017” report from Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs. Marketers now spend an average of 29% of their total marketing budgets on content marketing, and 39% plan to increase that spend, according to the study.
With content marketing so popular among brands and content high in demand from customers, why are many B2B marketers so challenged to stand out and be effective? One reason is that the inherent pressure to produce can result in content that does not resonate.
“There is pressure for companies to ensure there is quality content being produced and distributed, yet at the same time, be visible and present,” noted Ketna Mistry, director of social media at S&P Global. “Creating valuable, digestible, and attractive content to a relevant audience quickly enough, so that content opportunities are not missed, often means something is sacrificed.”
The New Paths To Information Discovery
B2B CMOs and senior marketing executives not satisfied with their progress with content investments must understand the effect of major changes in information discovery, consumption, and interaction among business customers.
The way business customers find and interact with information when researching solutions has evolved significantly, with changes that include the ubiquity of internet access, growth of social media, and mobile.
Self-directed business buyers pull themselves through most of the B2B sales cycle with whatever content they can find. At the same time, B2B brands are challenged to stand out among a deluge of competitive content and growing distrust of ads.
The good news is that there is a trend among successful B2B marketing executives that involves taking a more customer-centric and integrated approach to content. By making sure insights from sources such as search, social media, email, and web analytics are integrated into content marketing planning, B2B marketers are making more strategically valuable decisions about their content marketing and how specialty areas of marketing are organized in the company.
“These marketing disciplines used to live in silos, with experts dedicated to each. The new trend is for what I call ‘a hybrid marketer’ to not be one-dimensional, but instead understand how these strategies and tactics all fit together and then embrace technology to bring them together as part of a fully integrated marketing approach,” said Jason Miller, group manager of global content and social media marketing at LinkedIn.
With insight about buyer preferences on where they find solution content and what formats and topics are preferred as well as the triggers that will motivate next steps, B2B brands can become the best answer for buyers wherever they may be looking. Content that is easy to find, relevant, and more useful makes it more effective to attract, engage, and convert more business.
Buyer Behaviors Earn Results
A great example of leveraging buyer insight for content comes from YouEarnedIt, an employee recognition and reward platform that wanted to show how companies can better engage employees. Their approach started with a multi-touch campaign that included several guides, lists, and a conference panel at SXSW.
Amplification of content occurred through a blog, landing pages, social channels, emails, and guest blog posts with calls to action. Buyer insight was used with follow-up content that was automatically delivered based on reader behaviors and segmentation. Results of this multi-channel and multi-content format approach included 270 new sales-qualified leads and an 11% contact to SQL conversion rate.
As marketers, we often overcomplicate solutions because our industry moves so quickly. It’s possible that the strategic answer to dealing with information overload for buyers and limited resources for creating content comes in a much simpler form.
A Best-Answer Approach
A best-answer approach to content marketing sums up the need to empathize with buyers to understand what questions they have. It also reflects the importance of quality and usefulness in content to satisfy customers’ needs while they conduct their research at each stage of the buying journey.
“It’s critical for B2B marketers, in fact for any marketer, to really understand their audience including how, when, and where they consume content. This type of research (which should be ongoing) is likely to highlight the importance of making sure your content is present and fit for purpose across multiple channels, platforms, and devices,” said Simon Morris, director of demand marketing EMEA at Adobe.
Successful marketers are evolving their sophistication at using a customer-centric approach to content planning and, in the case of Zendesk, a phased approach.
Data-Informed Content Speeds Results
To accelerate sales enablement with content, Zendesk’s first phase included research, aligning content, and reviewing sales data. Phase two focused on repurposing content and developing a framework, and phase three involved administering sales enablement training tools and guides.
The result of this data-informed program included a 730% increase in deal closings, with 5,000 companies and a 130% increase quarter over quarter in outbound booking amount. For a round-up of other successful B2B case studies, take a look here.
In order for B2B marketers to put a “best-answer” content marketing strategy into action, there are three essential insights about customers’ search for information that are useful.
1. Discovery: Where does your specific target audience discover solution content? Do they search? What keywords do they use? Do they see ads? Where? Do they subscribe to newsletters or publications? Which ones? Are they influenced by peers and experts? On which social channels or forums?
Understanding the start of a buyer’s journey can help you develop the right marketing strategy for owned, paid, earned, and co-created media.
2. Consumption: What are your buyers’ preferences for content type? Do they prefer a blog post or video, then a webinar or white paper followed by a cost calculator or case study?
Content topic, format, and media type all matter when delivering a best-answer experience because they enable relevance, utility, and engagement.
3. Action: What triggers will motivate your buyer to take the next step? Can they go from awareness direct to inquiry, or do they need to be educated over a period of evaluation along with a buying committee?
Best-answer content empathizes with what a buyer needs to satisfy their process towards collecting the information and confidence necessary to make a decision wherever they may be in the sales process.
Once these customer insights are put in place within a B2B content marketing program, the need to integrate messaging across channels and tactics will also be important as the table below shows.
The best content isn’t really that great unless it can be found, consumed, and acted upon by buyers. That is why an effective content marketing program is customer-centric and incorporates data from SEO, insights about format and topics from social media, topical relevance of content from buyer persona research, and awareness of what effect media and influencers can have on buyers’ research and purchasing decisions.
Ultimately, a best-answer approach to B2B content helps strategic marketers overcome the challenges of standing out with an approach that provides buyers with more relevant content when and where it matters most, and in the formats they prefer.
A European version of this article originally appeared in my column at CMO.com.
Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.
© Online Marketing Blog – TopRank®, 2016. |
The One Thing You Must Have for B2B Marketing Success: Be the Best Answer | http://www.toprankblog.com
The post The One Thing You Must Have for B2B Marketing Success: Be the Best Answer appeared first on Online Marketing Blog – TopRank®.
While B2B companies are investing in content for marketing, making more content is not creating the windfall of leads that many senior business marketing executives had hoped for. The problem? A lack of insight about what makes better content.
I believe that finding a solution to the “more” vs. “better” challenge starts with customer empathy.
As an example, Steve Rayson, director at BuzzSumo and Anders Pink, explained: “The primary motivation of B2B customers is to do their jobs better. Thus, at BuzzSumo we spend a lot of time trying to understand the questions our customers are asking and the issues they are struggling with. We then try to produce helpful content which addresses these concerns.”
Put yourself in the shoes of a business customer: When you need to buy a new phone system for your company, where do you look first? How about when you need to hire a consultant or find a scalable marketing automation system to grow leads and sales, where do you go to find the right solution?
Whether business customers use search, read an industry publication, or respond to an ongoing nurture message delivered by email, the variety of resources that business buyers rely upon for research can vary greatly. Ultimately, it comes down to the fact that buyers have questions and business marketers have answers. And B2B marketers are increasingly relying on content marketing to deliver those answers.
In fact, 89% of marketers are now relying on content marketing, according to the “B2B Content Marketing 2017” report from Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs. Marketers now spend an average of 29% of their total marketing budgets on content marketing, and 39% plan to increase that spend, according to the study.
With content marketing so popular among brands and content high in demand from customers, why are many B2B marketers so challenged to stand out and be effective? One reason is that the inherent pressure to produce can result in content that does not resonate.
“There is pressure for companies to ensure there is quality content being produced and distributed, yet at the same time, be visible and present,” noted Ketna Mistry, director of social media at S&P Global. “Creating valuable, digestible, and attractive content to a relevant audience quickly enough, so that content opportunities are not missed, often means something is sacrificed.”
The New Paths To Information Discovery
B2B CMOs and senior marketing executives not satisfied with their progress with content investments must understand the effect of major changes in information discovery, consumption, and interaction among business customers.
The way business customers find and interact with information when researching solutions has evolved significantly, with changes that include the ubiquity of internet access, growth of social media, and mobile.
Self-directed business buyers pull themselves through most of the B2B sales cycle with whatever content they can find. At the same time, B2B brands are challenged to stand out among a deluge of competitive content and growing distrust of ads.
The good news is that there is a trend among successful B2B marketing executives that involves taking a more customer-centric and integrated approach to content. By making sure insights from sources such as search, social media, email, and web analytics are integrated into content marketing planning, B2B marketers are making more strategically valuable decisions about their content marketing and how specialty areas of marketing are organized in the company.
“These marketing disciplines used to live in silos, with experts dedicated to each. The new trend is for what I call ‘a hybrid marketer’ to not be one-dimensional, but instead understand how these strategies and tactics all fit together and then embrace technology to bring them together as part of a fully integrated marketing approach,” said Jason Miller, group manager of global content and social media marketing at LinkedIn.
With insight about buyer preferences on where they find solution content and what formats and topics are preferred as well as the triggers that will motivate next steps, B2B brands can become the best answer for buyers wherever they may be looking. Content that is easy to find, relevant, and more useful makes it more effective to attract, engage, and convert more business.
Buyer Behaviors Earn Results
A great example of leveraging buyer insight for content comes from YouEarnedIt, an employee recognition and reward platform that wanted to show how companies can better engage employees. Their approach started with a multi-touch campaign that included several guides, lists, and a conference panel at SXSW.
Amplification of content occurred through a blog, landing pages, social channels, emails, and guest blog posts with calls to action. Buyer insight was used with follow-up content that was automatically delivered based on reader behaviors and segmentation. Results of this multi-channel and multi-content format approach included 270 new sales-qualified leads and an 11% contact to SQL conversion rate.
As marketers, we often overcomplicate solutions because our industry moves so quickly. It’s possible that the strategic answer to dealing with information overload for buyers and limited resources for creating content comes in a much simpler form.
A Best-Answer Approach
A best-answer approach to content marketing sums up the need to empathize with buyers to understand what questions they have. It also reflects the importance of quality and usefulness in content to satisfy customers’ needs while they conduct their research at each stage of the buying journey.
“It’s critical for B2B marketers, in fact for any marketer, to really understand their audience including how, when, and where they consume content. This type of research (which should be ongoing) is likely to highlight the importance of making sure your content is present and fit for purpose across multiple channels, platforms, and devices,” said Simon Morris, director of demand marketing EMEA at Adobe.
Successful marketers are evolving their sophistication at using a customer-centric approach to content planning and, in the case of Zendesk, a phased approach.
Data-Informed Content Speeds Results
To accelerate sales enablement with content, Zendesk’s first phase included research, aligning content, and reviewing sales data. Phase two focused on repurposing content and developing a framework, and phase three involved administering sales enablement training tools and guides.
The result of this data-informed program included a 730% increase in deal closings, with 5,000 companies and a 130% increase quarter over quarter in outbound booking amount. For a round-up of other successful B2B case studies, take a look here.
In order for B2B marketers to put a “best-answer” content marketing strategy into action, there are three essential insights about customers’ search for information that are useful.
1. Discovery: Where does your specific target audience discover solution content? Do they search? What keywords do they use? Do they see ads? Where? Do they subscribe to newsletters or publications? Which ones? Are they influenced by peers and experts? On which social channels or forums?
Understanding the start of a buyer’s journey can help you develop the right marketing strategy for owned, paid, earned, and co-created media.
2. Consumption: What are your buyers’ preferences for content type? Do they prefer a blog post or video, then a webinar or white paper followed by a cost calculator or case study?
Content topic, format, and media type all matter when delivering a best-answer experience because they enable relevance, utility, and engagement.
3. Action: What triggers will motivate your buyer to take the next step? Can they go from awareness direct to inquiry, or do they need to be educated over a period of evaluation along with a buying committee?
Best-answer content empathizes with what a buyer needs to satisfy their process towards collecting the information and confidence necessary to make a decision wherever they may be in the sales process.
Once these customer insights are put in place within a B2B content marketing program, the need to integrate messaging across channels and tactics will also be important as the table below shows.
The best content isn’t really that great unless it can be found, consumed, and acted upon by buyers. That is why an effective content marketing program is customer-centric and incorporates data from SEO, insights about format and topics from social media, topical relevance of content from buyer persona research, and awareness of what effect media and influencers can have on buyers’ research and purchasing decisions.
Ultimately, a best-answer approach to B2B content helps strategic marketers overcome the challenges of standing out with an approach that provides buyers with more relevant content when and where it matters most, and in the formats they prefer.
A European version of this article originally appeared in my column at CMO.com.
Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.
© Online Marketing Blog – TopRank®, 2016. |
The One Thing You Must Have for B2B Marketing Success: Be the Best Answer | http://www.toprankblog.com
The post The One Thing You Must Have for B2B Marketing Success: Be the Best Answer appeared first on Online Marketing Blog – TopRank®.
These days, it’s no secret that high-quality images are important for any marketing strategy, particularly when it comes to social media. Images not only help brands stand out in busy social news feeds, but they also boost engagement and build brand awareness—and their importance is growing.
According to a WebDAM infographic, 84% of all communication will be visual by 2018. So, there’s no better time than the present to ensure you’re creating and sharing top-notch imagery. And that starts with following sizing best practices for each channel.
To help you do just that, below is a quick cheat sheet for sizing your images for optimal impact, complete with dimensions and some examples. In addition, you’ll also find some helpful tools that can help your resize, edit or create images.
Sizing Best Practices
Since each network has different features and layouts, each has its own sizing best practices.
Follow these sizing guidelines to ensure that any images you share aren’t cut off or distorted when they display, your profile and cover photos make your page look top-notch. We’ve also included some examples of brands doing it right.
Facebook
Profile photo: 180 x 180
Cover photo: 828 x 315
Shared image or link: 1,200 x 630
Instagram
Profile photo: 110 x 110
Shared image: 1,080 x 1,080
LinkedIn
Profile photo: 400 x 400
Background image: 1400 x 425
Shared image: 700 x 400
Company cover photo: 1536 x 768
Twitter
Profile image: 400 x 400
Header image: 1,500 x 500
Shared image: 1,024 x 512 (maximum to appear expanded)
Pinterest
Profile image: 165 x 165
Board covers: 217 x 146
Shared image: 735 x 1,102
Google+
Profile photo: 250 x 250
Cover photo: 1080 x 608
Shared image: 497 x 373 (displays as this size)
Shared link: 150 x 150
Sizing & Editing Tools
Landscape
Landscape from SproutSocial aims to streamline the photo resizing process for each social network. It’s pretty simple. You upload your photo, select the social network you want to size it for and then crop.
Pixlr
If you’re looking for a wide ranging editing tool that will also allow you to custom size and image, Pixlr is a good option. In my opinion, using this tool is easiest if you have a little photo editing experience, but nonetheless still an option if you’re willing to take a little time to feel it out. Also, there is a mobile version, too, which makes it a convenient option.
Other simple sizing tools include:
Creation Tools
Canva
For those without Photoshop or InDesign chops, Canva is a fantastic tool for helping you create professional and compelling images. Not only is it easy to use, but it also offers different templates for Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, as well as many other options.
Adobe Spark
Adobe Spark, formerly Adobe post, is another easy to use tool that allows you to create graphics quickly. One feature that I personally like is the Inspiration Gallery, allowing you to select a category and get ideas for creating your own image.
Stencil
Stencil, formerly known as Share Image As, is a tool designed specifically for creating images to boost social media engagement, offering more than 30 custom sizes to fit different social network guidelines, as well as templates, and thousands of graphics, photos and icons to use. There’s also a Chrome extension that makes it easy to create images on the go. There is a free version, but the Unlimited version that includes all the pro features is just $18 a month.
Other creation and design tools include:
- PicMonkey
- BeFunky
- PowerPoint (Yes! It’s easy to use and probably already on your desktop.)
When Things Change
Like everything in the digital marketing world, these best practices are likely to evolve and tools will come and go. We’ll continue to update this page to give you the latest guidelines and tools.
What is your go-to image resizing, editing or creation tool? Tell us in the comments section below.
Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.
© Online Marketing Blog – TopRank®, 2016. |
Social Media Cheat Sheet: Tools & Tips for Perfectly Sized Social Media Images | http://www.toprankblog.com
The post Social Media Cheat Sheet: Tools & Tips for Perfectly Sized Social Media Images appeared first on Online Marketing Blog – TopRank®.
These days, it’s no secret that high-quality images are important for any marketing strategy, particularly when it comes to social media. Images not only help brands stand out in busy social news feeds, but they also boost engagement and build brand awareness—and their importance is growing.
According to a WebDAM infographic, 84% of all communication will be visual by 2018. So, there’s no better time than the present to ensure you’re creating and sharing top-notch imagery. And that starts with following sizing best practices for each channel.
To help you do just that, below is a quick cheat sheet for sizing your images for optimal impact, complete with dimensions and some examples. In addition, you’ll also find some helpful tools that can help your resize, edit or create images.
Sizing Best Practices
Since each network has different features and layouts, each has its own sizing best practices.
Follow these sizing guidelines to ensure that any images you share aren’t cut off or distorted when they display, your profile and cover photos make your page look top-notch. We’ve also included some examples of brands doing it right.
Facebook
Profile photo: 180 x 180
Cover photo: 828 x 315
Shared image or link: 1,200 x 630
Instagram
Profile photo: 110 x 110
Shared image: 1,080 x 1,080
LinkedIn
Profile photo: 400 x 400
Background image: 1400 x 425
Shared image: 700 x 400
Company cover photo: 1536 x 768
Twitter
Profile image: 400 x 400
Header image: 1,500 x 500
Shared image: 1,024 x 512 (maximum to appear expanded)
Pinterest
Profile image: 165 x 165
Board covers: 217 x 146
Shared image: 735 x 1,102
Google+
Profile photo: 250 x 250
Cover photo: 1080 x 608
Shared image: 497 x 373 (displays as this size)
Shared link: 150 x 150
Sizing & Editing Tools
Landscape
Landscape from SproutSocial aims to streamline the photo resizing process for each social network. It’s pretty simple. You upload your photo, select the social network you want to size it for and then crop.
Pixlr
If you’re looking for a wide ranging editing tool that will also allow you to custom size and image, Pixlr is a good option. In my opinion, using this tool is easiest if you have a little photo editing experience, but nonetheless still an option if you’re willing to take a little time to feel it out. Also, there is a mobile version, too, which makes it a convenient option.
Other simple sizing tools include:
Creation Tools
Canva
For those without Photoshop or InDesign chops, Canva is a fantastic tool for helping you create professional and compelling images. Not only is it easy to use, but it also offers different templates for Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, as well as many other options.
Adobe Spark
Adobe Spark, formerly Adobe post, is another easy to use tool that allows you to create graphics quickly. One feature that I personally like is the Inspiration Gallery, allowing you to select a category and get ideas for creating your own image.
Stencil
Stencil, formerly known as Share Image As, is a tool designed specifically for creating images to boost social media engagement, offering more than 30 custom sizes to fit different social network guidelines, as well as templates, and thousands of graphics, photos and icons to use. There’s also a Chrome extension that makes it easy to create images on the go. There is a free version, but the Unlimited version that includes all the pro features is just $18 a month.
Other creation and design tools include:
- PicMonkey
- BeFunky
- PowerPoint (Yes! It’s easy to use and probably already on your desktop.)
When Things Change
Like everything in the digital marketing world, these best practices are likely to evolve and tools will come and go. We’ll continue to update this page to give you the latest guidelines and tools.
What is your go-to image resizing, editing or creation tool? Tell us in the comments section below.
Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.
© Online Marketing Blog – TopRank®, 2016. |
Social Media Cheat Sheet: Tools & Tips for Perfectly Sized Social Media Images | http://www.toprankblog.com
The post Social Media Cheat Sheet: Tools & Tips for Perfectly Sized Social Media Images appeared first on Online Marketing Blog – TopRank®.
4 Things ALL Articles Must Have – Don’t Forget!
The importance of articles in today’s websites and internet based companies are immeasurable. They dictate a lot in the success and the drive of traffic into one’s site. It has become a key element in making a site work and earns a profit. A website operator and owner must have the good sense to include articles in his or her site that will work for them and earn them the many benefits articles can give to their site.
Articles have been known to be the driving force in driving traffic to a website. Articles are a factor in giving site high rankings in search result pages. The higher a site ranks the bigger slice of the traffic flow pie he gets. With a huge number in traffic flow, there are more profits and more potential for other income generating schemes as well.
But, it is not just about stuffing your site with articles; they have certain requirements as well. These requirements must be met to obtain the maximum benefits an article will provide for your site. A well written article will catch the eyes and interest of your customers and keep them coming back for more. They would also be able to recommend your site to others.
Here are some tips to help you and assist you in making your articles. Below you will read about four things all articles must have to make it successful and helpful in making your site a profit earning and traffic overflowing site.
• Keywords and Keyword Phrases
An article must always be centered on the keywords and keyword phrases. As each website visitor goes to a site, there are those who are just merely browsing but actually looking for a specific something. When this happens, a searcher usually goes to a search engine and types in the keywords they are looking for (e.g. Toyota Camry, Meningitis, Tax Lawyer and etc). It could be anything they want.
The Important thing is that you have an article that has the keywords that are related to your site. For example, if you maintain an auto parts site, you must be able t have articles about cars and their parts. There are many tools in the internet that provides service in helping a webmaster out in determining what keywords and keyword phrases are mostly sought out. You can use this tool to determine what keywords to use and write about.
• Keyword Density
Know that you have your keywords and keyword phrases, you must use them fully. An article must have good keyword density for a search engine to “feel” its presence. Articles should at least have ten to fifteen percent of keyword density in their content for search engines to rank a site high in their search results. Getting a high rank is what articles do best for a site.
Keyword density is the number of times a keyword or keyword phrase is used on an article. The number varies depending on the number of words used in an article. An effective article must have a keyword density that is not too high or too low. With a very high density, the essence of the article is lost and may turn off a reader as well as the search engines. It comes off as overeager. A low number may be ignored by the search engines.
• Good Article Content
Like what is stated above, you cannot just riddle an article with keywords. They must also be regarded as good reading materials. Articles must be able to entertain people as well as provide good information and help for their needs. Articles should be written well with correct spelling and good grammar. If you want people to trust you, make your work good and well thought out.
People respond well to figures, facts and statistics. Try to get great information and as many facts as you can. A good and well written article will boost your reputation as an expert in your chosen field or topic. As more people believe in you. They will be able to trust you and your products.
• Linking Articles
And another important thing to remember. If you are going to submit articles to e-zines and/or contribute your articles to newsletters and other sites, DON’T ever forget to include a link to your site. A little resource box with a brief description of your site and you should always be placed right after your articles that you have submitted. If people like your articles, they will most likely click on the link directing them to your site.
Thanks for reading, read more interesting articles like this @ www.e-MarketingBank.com
From Overture, a keyword suggestion tool, you will see the millions of searches done to a certain keyword. When these keywords are typed on search boxes of search engines, indexed websites containing articles with those keywords will be displayed. And this is what leads traffic to websites with keyword-rich articles. Yes, the magic word is articles.
Content is king. You can say that again. That is why writing articles is one of the most utilized Internet marketing media today. Internet surfers just can’t get enough of information on various fields. Providing information through these articles is a surefire way to drive hot traffic to your web site.
Why is this so? Here are the benefits that writing articles can give your Internet business.
1. It’s absolutely free
Too good to be true? Not. Okay, you have to pay for your Internet Service Provider. That’s it. All you need is your thoughts, your computer, and your hands. If you have those, nothing will stop you from typing words that will make you complete that article for your website. On which aspect of that process did you really shell out any cent? Maybe later when your electric bills come.
2. Your website will be noticed in a short period of time
Submit that article of yours to article directories that get the most web traffic and in no time your web site will be crawled. That is if you don’t forget including your resource box or byline.
3. Obtain back links automatically
When you submit your articles to directories, surely, other websites will make use of your article too. With the copyright terms of your articles, the URL of your website will still be in tact and will subsequently direct more traffic to your website.
4. Improve your reputation
As an Internet marketer, if you plainly display your products on your website, you will not gain much conversion rate. Conversion is when your traffic converts to sales. You have to show that you are knowledgeable on your field. And what better way to show that than by writing articles that will allow you some bragging rights, right?
Just make your creative juices flow and jot down or key in those ideas quickly to jump start your article writing momentum. With those benefits listed above, a writer’s block is the last problem you will ever be able to surmount.
Thanks for reading, read more interesting articles like this @ www.e-MarketingBank.com
Top 5 Ways To Generate Low Cost Website Traffic
There is one hard and fast rule in generating income for your website: A steady flow of website traffic. If no one goes to your site, it hardly bares a chance of generating an income. Many sites have tried and failed in doing so, and these results to the sites demise. It takes money to maintain an income generating site; it also takes money to make money.
BUT, it doesn’t take a whole caboodle of cash to generate website traffic for your site.
Ever wonder how does big hit sites drive traffic top their site? Most of them are spending tons of money to drive the traffic to their sites, investing in many advertising campaigns and different forms of marketing schemes and gimmickries. This is all worthwhile because, well, they are what they are now, high earning, big hitting websites.
You don’t have to do this if you don’t really have their resources. There are many ways to generate low cost website traffic without having to spend what you don’t have or can’t afford. Many people have banked on high cost methods and have ended up losing their shirt over it.
Here I present to you the Top five ways to generate low cost website traffic that could help your site a whole lot. Even if you only get a small percentage of successful visitors in to client ratio it still works especially if you get a high number of website traffic.
Exchange Links
This is a sure and proven method. Rarely would you see a site where there is no link to another site. Many webmasters are willing to exchange links with one another so that they could produce more public awareness about their sites. You’ll soon see and feel the sudden upsurge of the traffic coming in to your site from other sites.
A major prerequisite in exchanging links with other sites is having the same niche or content as the other site. They should share a common subject so that there is continuity in the providing of service and information to what interests your target traffic.
Exchanging links also boosts your chances of getting a high ranking in search engine results. It is common knowledge that search engines ranks high sites that have inbound and outbound theme-related links. With a good ranking position in the search engines, you will generate more traffic in your website without the high costs.
Traffic Exchange
This is like exchanging links but on a different higher level. This may cost a bit more than exchanging or trading links but could be made cheaper because you get to earn credits. You can use those credits when viewing others traffic, while you earn credits when someone views yours.
Traffic exchange services are the viewing of another’s site or page. This is done vice versa where a site can use your sites contents and so can you to his or her site. You both benefit from each others efforts to generate traffic. The other sites visitors can go to your pages and know more about your site as well as theirs. Once again the public awareness of your sites existence is boosted.
Write and Submit Articles
There are many e-zines and online encyclopedias in the internet which provides free space for articles to be submitted. If you want to save costs, you can do the articles yourself. There are many freelance writers who are willing to write for you for a small fee, but to save money, it is wise to do those articles yourself.
Write articles that are themed along with the niche of your site. Write something that you have expertise on so that when they read it, they can feel your knowledge about the subject and will be eager to go to your site. Write articles that produce tips and guidelines to the subject or niche your site has.
Include a resource box at the end of your article that can link them to your site. Write a little about yourself and your site. If you provide a light, information-laden and interesting article, they will go to your site for more.
Make a Newsletter.
This may sound like hard work because of all the articles you may need to use to build a newsletter but on the contrary, this is not so. There are many writers and sites that are willing to provide free articles as long as they can get their name in on your newsletter. This will also provide free advertising for them as well.
As your newsletter gets pass around, you can widen your public awareness and build an opt-in list that can regularly visit your site.
Join Online Communities and Forums
This only requires your time and nothing else. You can share your knowledge and expertise with many online communities as well as your website. You can get free advertising when you go to forums that have the same subject or niche with your site.
Share your two cents and let them see how knowledgeable you are with the subject. As you build your reputation, you also build the reputation of your site, making it a reputable and honest business that could be frequented and trusted by many people.
Thanks for reading, find more interesting articles like this @ www.e-MarketingBank.com
Viral Marketing 101 – Not Using It Could Kill Your Business
Creativity
This is one virtue a site must possess to lead the race in the ruthless competition in the Internet based business. With so many competition and rivalry going on, every method of marketing must be employed and utilized.
It doesn’t matter if you have a killer product or a fantastically designed website, if people don’t know that you exist, it doesn’t matter, and you are not going to make it big. Worse of all, you business could just get killed.
While there are so many methods and schemes used by so many e-commerce sites today, there are still some of those that can help you with an extra boost in the popularity ratings. One of these is the so called Viral Marketing.
While the term Viral easily depicts a virus, a word very much dreaded by all computer owners, it is not what it seems. You do not actually use a computer virus to spread your business; on the contrary it just might kill you. Everyone has had enough of all those pop up ads and spywares.
Viral Marketing Overview
Viral Marketing also known otherwise as Viral Advertising is a marketing technique used to build the public awareness of one’s product or company. They use many forms of media to reach out to the public without actually promoting the product by riding on in other forms of addictive means that could get a person hooked and be obliged or amused to actually pass it on, with the product or company advertisement along with it.
In a nutshell, companies ride on the idea that if people like the content of a media they will pass it on to their friends and family. They sponsor the certain media, such as a cool flash game, funny video, amusing story and such, which one may pass on to another with the company brand or logo or the products description or any other content to help promote the company or its product.
Viral marketing has become a popular means of advertising and marketing because they are relatively low cost. To avoid being tagged as spam mail, viral marketing counts on the eagerness of one person to pass on the product. If a person sees the name of the person they know as the sender, they won’t block it and open it as well.
Many companies offer incentives such as discounts and rebates when they help in spreading their viral marketing. They rely on the number of recipients a viral marketing gets from one person in determining the amount or number of incentive they can be attributed with.
Using Viral Marketing to your advantage
The main and foremost advantage of viral marketing is that you get a lot of publicity and public awareness about your site and your company. You get to generate a flow of traffic that are potential customers. With a little ingenuity and imagination, plus some incentives or prizes, you can reach out to a great number of people and announce your existence.
Most every site and companies are catching on to the effectivity of Viral Marketing and Advertising. Not using it could kill your business. Along with other schemes and methods in promoting your site, like Search Engine Optimization and such, viral marketing could easily push you ahead in the rating games.
Viral Marketing could be a sneaky way to get people to know about you and your company. You get them to pass your advertisement along. They are also very low cost that not investing in it could be downright a business suicide. All it takes is a great idea, a good addicting game, a funny story many ideas are still out there. Create a gossip or a buzz, many movies are promoted by using scandals and gossips to make them more popular. Remember the movie “The Blair Witch Project”?
Many big companies have tried viral marketing and have had many success stories with it. A classic example is Microsoft’s Hotmail. They were the first known big company to utilize the scheme and it has worked wonders for them.
Now it’s your turn to use viral marketing to work wonders for you. Act now and reap the benefits Viral Marketing will provide for you and your sales figures. And today, you have the great opportunity…, if you wish you can make your content Go Viral very easily with the help of the most advanced Viral Marketing system on the internet today – Email Marketing Bank @ www.e-MarketingBank.com – Publish and promote your world.
