Tag: Content Marketing

11 Examples of Successful Content Marketing by Travel Companies

Posted on by NextJSjointviews

Travel & Tourism is one of the most exciting industries to work for. With a gross booking of $1.6 trillion in 2017, global travel industry is one of fastest growing sectors. Increased connectivity and technology are only going to make it easier for travellers to explore the world.

Today, travellers make their own booking after extensive research on the internet. 97% of millennials share their travel experience on social media. Hence, there is tremendous scope for digital marketers in the travel space.

Right from dreaming of a destination to booking accommodation, travellers search for information in all stages of their planning. Because of this, online marketing success for travel companies is largely dependent on providing the right content at the right time.

These 11 companies used content strategy to inform and help travellers in various stages of their search and saw phenomenal success in booking revenue.

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#1 TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor is a giant in travel industry with more than 300 million unique visitors every month. TripAdvisor originally hired content curators to develop content for the website but soon saw that user generated reviews were attracting more traffic.

The site encouraged user content and has been known for helpful posts by real travellers ever since. In fact user generated content is the main contributor in the site’s rise to number on travel accommodation site.

TripAdvisor has proved that user generated content can be a solid content strategy. It is not only a credible form of content but also self-sustaining requiring minimum work from TripAdvisor.

#2 Mr. and Mrs Smith

Mr. and Mrs. Smith operate in luxury segment for couples. This is an example of business that had its target niche carved out right from the beginning.

This is also the reason for inspirational content on their website. From content on northern lights to feature on stylish boutique hotels, their site is enough to make you pack your bags right now!

They have also used content to position their brand as a mix of luxurious and quirky. Speaking on their brand, founder James Tamara said “We wanted something playful and a little bit mischievous, because a sense of humor is an important part of who we are.” The brand has reached enviable position since its inception in 2003.

#3 AirBnB Guidebooks

AirBnB is the star child of both travel and tech industry. They rely heavily on content by local guides and hosts to provide value to users.

The app and websites gives travelers an inside scoop on local experience and events.
AirBnB has also used helpful guidebooks to share information with travelers looking for in-depth information.

Every local host could post a guide meaning that there is tons of information available on AirBnB app or website.

#4 SNCF Europe

SNCF, France’s state owned railway company, combined experiential marketing with video content. They placed doorways in the middle of busy cities that opened into LED screens displaying live feed from other cities. Here is a video of the campaign that went viral.

The video got millions in views and the campaign titled ‘Europe: It’s just next door’ saw massive publicity for the brand.

#5 Four Seasons

The fiercely competitive travel industry keeps all players on their toes. The Canadian hospitality giant Four Seasons is known for its successful content marketing strategy in travel space.

The hotel chain has taken on a role of travel content media house by producing upto 3400 content per week across 400 distribution channels.

They have a comprehensive content strategy and leverage real stories, attractive visuals and quality content to engage with customers.

The phenomenal success of their content marketing has led to more than 2 million weekly impressions across all channels.

#6 Bonvoy Adventure

Bonvoy Adventure implemented their SEO and link-building strategy to draw traffic to their website. They did this by inviting guest posts which earned them credible referral links.

With a deeper understanding of their target audience they were able to provide better content and leverage it for their existing email marketing channel. They also did a page by page audit to improve their SEO signals and rank higher results.

The result was a 148% increase in website traffic and 200% increase in onsite transactions.

#7 Kimkim

Kimkim helps travellers to plan itineraries. A well thought content strategy is how they were able to grow their organic search by 300% !

Content Marketing by Travel Companies

Their strategy was to partner with local travel specialist to come up with their exciting profile snapshot and blog content. This way they could also focus on long-tail keywords that travellers were searching for.

Targeted content along with link building and PR grew Kimkim’s traffic massively within 4 months.

#8 Tenon Tours

Tenon Tours has successfully implemented the inbound marketing funnel to increase their conversions. They concentrated on converting visitors to leads and leads to customer by applying sound principles of inbound marketing.

Of course the foundation of any inbound marketing is great content. For this, Tenon re-purposed their best performing content in the form of guidebook and used it as a lead magnet to build a list. They were able to increase their conversion rate by 34% after nurturing leads through email channel.

#9 Shorefield

This is a great example of how targeting can help your company to go to the next level. Shorefield had luxurious properties across UK as well as fair amount of traffic to their site.

However, operating in the luxury market, it was important that they had the right kind of visitors on their site.
Plagued with irrelevant traffic, the company decided to invest in SEO. With focus on buyer personas and long tail keywords the site increased its organic conversion rate by 86%.

#10 Intrepid

Intrepid is an Australian travel company with strong brand values. As the name suggests they target travellers who are adventure loving, fearless and looking for new experiences.

Having figured out their target market, implementing on content strategy was much easier for them. They started with their content website –  The Journal which focuses on responsible travelling and off beat experiences.

With a targeted content, the company has successfully built a following of travellers who are aligned with the brand’s value. They have more than 496 K followers on Facebook, 86,000 followers on Twitter and are steadily growing their YouTube channel too.

#11 Trivago

Here is another example of a company who has invested in a long form regular content in the travel industry. Trivago has a digital magazine called ChekIn.

An interesting point to note in CheckIn is that Trivago is extremely cautious about promoting itself in unrelated articles. The magazine is genuinely helpful mix of articles and videos that are meant to inspire and inform travellers.

Takeaway

There are a lot of content opportunities in travel marketing to play around with. The rising popularity of visual content is good news for travel industry that uses videos and images extensively.

Today’s independent traveller is starving for information and sound advice on new destinations. The examples in this blog prove that knowing your target audience and providing them with required content can take your brand to a whole new level.

What Content Marketers can do differently in 2018

Posted on by NextJSjointviews

Content marketing has emerged as the top marketing activity today. Every business is bullish on content marketing and is investing even more into it this year.

Here is the result of survey conducted by Smart Insights asking 850 marketers to pick the most important marketing activity.

Content Marketers can do differently in 2018
Image Credits

As you can see all marketers are aggressive on content marketing. This has increased the competition marketers face despite great content.

In this blog we will discuss what you can do differently this year to stand out and pull more traffic through your content.

• Long form in-depth Content

There was a time when a decent quality 650 word blog post had a chance to rank on page one on Google. This is not the case now. Ranking high on Google requires quality backlinks, domain authority, time and so much more.

When it comes to blogs, think of long form anchor posts of 1500 to 2500 words. These should be like a helpful guide covering A to Z of your industry or topic.

Anchor posts are blog posts that are the pillar of your site and pull in tons of traffic consistently. Do not expect to get traffic within a month.

It is typical to see your traffic rising after 6 months of posting. Do everything to make your content really helpful for your audience. Use infographics and videos to explain concepts.

Any content which does not make your reader say ‘ Wow! That was helpful’ has little chance to rank in top three searches. This is how you can differentiate your content and rank higher on Google in 2018

• Go niche

Differentiating your content in an already overcrowded web can be challenging. In any industry there will be in- depth blog posts that have been on the web for five years or more.

How can you possibly compete with those pieces? The answer lies in narrowing the focus of your content.

Write about nutrition for dancers instead of writing on general nutrition. Focus on long tail-keywords that will have less competition.

For example, instead of writing on ‘ladies shoes’, focus on ‘office shoes for working moms’. This way you will not only rank higher on search engines but will also attract highly targeted visitors that are easier to convert.

• Semantic Search

Google no more relies on just keywords to rank results. It uses something known as semantic search.
Semantic search takes into account the intent of the searcher.

This means weighing in the context, location, searcher history, language style and device.

That means Google now understands that a user typing in ‘green dress online’ is more likely to purchase the dress online than if she had typed ‘green dresses’.

For marketers this means that they have to be more aware of the context of searchers and conditions under which they are searching. Content should now match situations instead of just keywords.

• Target Google Featured Snippets

There is something better than position one on Google search. It’s position 0 .
You may have noticed that Google also gives the answer to your queries in a highlighted search box above all search results.

This gives the searchers the answers at a glance without having to go to another page.

Content Marketers can do differently in 2018

Ranking in featured snippets increases your traffic and decreases bounce rates. The great news is that you don’t even have to rank number one on Google to be able to feature in rich snippet.

To increase your chances to be featured in a rich snippet make sure your content:

  • Has a structured format with sub-headings
  • Keep your answers to the point, short and snappy
  • Mark up your article with structured data
  • Answer popular questions asked

• Explore other formats of Content

Audio podcasts have made a big comeback last year. There are more than 42 million people who listen to podcasts weekly in the US alone.

‘How to’ searches on YouTube have gone up by 70% in 2017. YouTube is also the second most popular search engine after Google.

The trend is clear. Users prefer video and audio form of content and marketers must produce this if they want to reach their audience.

Bringing it all together

Content marketing is here to stay as the most profitable channel to get leads. However, digital marketing landscape is changing continuously and marketers must concentrate on long-form quality content and niche topics to stay at the top.

Understanding Google’s semantic search and featured snippets will help to reach more audience. Lastly, experimenting with fresher format of content such as podcasts and videos will differentiate you from the other content.

Above all, it is important to keep experimenting in digital marketing. New trends emerge quickly and demand agility from content marketers.

9 Mistakes to Avoid While Hiring a Content Marketing Agency

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Quality content needs continuous effort and time. This is the reason why many companies choose to hire a content marketing agency for it. It’s not enough to publish just any content on the saturated internet anymore. Content marketing needs compelling content to work successfully.

Bad content can actually leave you in a worse place than you started in. It is difficult to re-build your reputation and authority once it is spoilt on social media. Adidas had to face the public heat after their tweet on Boston marathon which unintentionally reminded everyone of the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing. Adidas recovered with a heartfelt apology. However, smaller brands may not have a chance to recover from a social media post gone wrong with the same ease.

addidas boston marathon screenshot

Delay in promised content, website ownership issues, followers database privacy, breached timelines are all real issues that companies face while dealing with content marketing agencies.

We have put together a list of 9 mistakes that companies usually make while hiring a content marketing agency. Read on to avoid them and hire the right agency for you.

1. Not Knowing the Service Team

Sales personnel are usually the first ones to meet you from the content marketing agencies. They tell you about the success they have had with other clients and show you a vision for your content too.

That is great! But who is actually going to put this plan in action?  Do you know the team who you will work with?  Are they passionate about your growth and will they understand your brand? These are a few questions you must ask before you seal the deal. Many companies sign up impressed with the sales person only to be disappointed with the results of delivery team.

Request the salesperson to put you in touch with the content team and know your content strategist, content writer and SEO consultant by name.

2. Having Unclear Goals

 Being fuzzy about your marketing goals is also a mistake that people make. It is better to take your time and think about this before you start hunting for a content marketing agency. Some of the questions to ask are:

  • What do you hope to achieve with a content marketing plan?
  • What does your brand stand for and stand against?
  • How will content marketing fit in your overall marketing strategy?

The final pieces of strategy will of course be put together by your agency. However, these are some of the answers that a content marketing agency cannot just make up. These must come from you. Being unclear on these would be starting on a wobbly foundation.

3. Not Checking for Relevant Experience

It is important to separate experience from relevant experience when it comes to choosing the right agency. It would be a mistake to go for an agency based on its size and popularity alone. Many a times, niche agencies specialize in start up, small & mid-sized brands or certain industries.

Look at the past record of the agency to know the industry and size of clients they have worked with. Also look at the success rate they have had with those clients. An agency who has worked with companies similar to yours will be better able to understand your challenges in content marketing.

Also look at the agency’s own website, blogs and content they produce for themselves. How can you trust a content marketing company that doesn’t market itself successfully through good content?

4. Not Budgeting Time and Resources Required

 Many companies think that they can ignore content marketing totally because they have outsourced the work to a content marketing agency. This is far from the truth. Even though your agency will take the task of creating and strategizing content, you still need to account for time that will be required for communications, approval of plans, share references and resources.

Nobody wants a content that does not sound like the voice of your brand and lacks authenticity. Be sure to ask for weekly meetings (virtual if face to face is not possible).

5. Not Having a Clear Written Agreement

Having a written agreement on terms of service and deliverables is important to avoid running into problems later. Make sure everything is written down to the last detail with timeline for delivery.

6. Falling for Impossible Promises

 Never fall for agencies that promise to achieve unbelievable goals in a short time. There is no short-cut in content marketing. It requires time for your rankings to go up no matter how good your content is. There is no fixed recipe for viral content, so beware of anyone who promises it to you.

Working with agencies that employ unethical practices (such as buying followers, black hat SEO, keyword stuffing) without creating valuable content can get you red-listed from search engines and other web platforms.

7. Choosing Cheaper Option over Quality

Choosing an agency without checking the quality of content is actually expensive. Cheap content that lacks value doesn’t get you anywhere. You will just end up paying up for content that nobody wants to read.

If you lack the budget for a good agency currently it is advisable to wait until you have one.  You can also request for financing options or part consultancy until then.

Paying for content that lacks quality is actually counterproductive and leads to extra work of re-building your reputation later.

8. Thinking of Content Marketing as a Project

Content marketing is an ongoing strategy rather than a short term project.  It is not a campaign that you do but a philosophy that you follow. Changing agencies frequently can be damaging for your content marketing plan.  Hence, it is important to look for a partner who will be with you for the long-term.  This brings us to the last mistake that people make.

9. Not Looking for the Fit

It is important to look for an agency with a cultural fit. We do not mean same regionality or nationality here, but a partner who understands your purpose of business and shares your working values.  This synergy helps in producing content that has a strong voice and builds long term trust. Ask yourself if you can trust them as a long term partner before signing up.

Final Thoughts

When done right content marketing will be a continuous source of leads and revenue for you. Remember that results can take six months to a year to show. So choose your partner wisely and choose them for the long term.

How Anchor Content Defines Content Marketing Success

Posted on by NextJSjointviews

Every marketer is jumping into content marketing to succeed in digital marketing. But why is that out of millions of blogs published every day only few become popular. It is rare that a blog becomes popular on social media and attracts tons of traffic.

Yet, there are some sites that do it day after day. What is it that sets their content apart? The answer is anchor content or anchor text. In this blog we will look at anchor content and why it is the foundation of content marketing success. We will also share tips to create anchor content for your business.

What is Anchor Content?

Anchor content is a piece of content that drives huge amount of traffic because of its uniqueness. It is often a comprehensive guide on a problem that your target audience is looking for. It is well researched and offers an in-depth perspective that no one on the internet is offering.

It attracts lots of visitors because it solves real questions that readers have. It is a piece of quality content that can drive more traffic than hundreds of sub-par blog posts. In this essence it is the cornerstone of successful content marketing.

Why Anchor Content is Important?

Ranking high on Google is difficult enough. This is especially true if you are targeting a competitive keyword. Going head to head with bigger companies that have been posting for ten years is only going to waste your resources. You will need thousands of links to your content before you show even close to top results. Anchor content is the way that can ensure you a place over your competitors.

Getting shares and external links for your content is another task that most marketers fail at.

Moz and Buzzsumo conducted a study of 1 million articles and found that 75% of articles had 0 shares and insignificant number of external links. It is indeed hard to grab attention on the internet where millions of blog posts are published every day.

anchor-content-screenshot

Your content marketing requires the momentum of anchor content for it to stand out. Anchor content differentiates you among the overload of information that search engines throw up. It earns backlinks as a useful resource and establishes your authority online.

Here are some examples and ideas for anchor content that work for businesses.

Tips to Develop Anchor Content

Type of Content

Certain type of posts gets more attention than others. Step by step how-to posts are great for large number of audience looking for solutions.

People want to quote experts in their industry. Hence, industry experts’ round up interview are other type that gets lots of backlinks.

Statistics and research results are another type that qualifies as anchor content. If you can conduct studies in your industry and publish results, you will have unique content that everyone wants to link to. If that is not possible currently you can always bring all important industry statistics in one post that will be extremely valuable.

For example, we often link to Hubspot’s Marketing Statistics as it is a valuable resource in content marketing industry.

You can also play around with visual media such as videos, infographics and listographics to give a unique twist to your content.

Word Limit

A 2016 study by Backlinko found that the average word count of Google first page result was 1,890 words.

backlinko-graph-screenshot

This is especially true for anchor content as it is in-depth information that touches every part of the topic. In general, long form posts do better.

Remember; do not worry about the word count as long as the topic is being covered in best possible way. The value of content is most important.

Fresh Perspective

It is essential to differentiate your anchor content by giving it your own voice. Find a fresh perspective and new angle to the same information that everyone is talking about. Look for an angle to the topic that is not showing up in top results and then write a data backed, long , in-depth post on it.

This is especially true for anchor content as it is in-depth information that touches every part of the topic. In general, long form posts do better.

Remember; do not worry about the word count as long as the topic is being covered in best possible way. The value of content is most important.

Do not be afraid to go against the popular opinions. Opinionated content builds authoritative reputation and are more likely to be shared.

Collaboration

Anchor content cannot be written in two days. It usually requires years of industry expertise and a thorough research of articles currently out there.

In case you do not have an industry expert with required experience (or they are just be too busy to put in the hours) , you can always collaborate with guest bloggers or industry specific content writers. This will also give you the support of their followers and earn links to others blogs.

Similarly, you can contribute to others blogs with your expert content, linking it back to your anchor content.

Conclusion

You can start off with analyzing your current posts to find opportunities for anchor content. What are the posts that get maximum traffic? Which is your most shared blog post?

After putting in so much effort on anchor content, do invest some time in sharing it on social media and running back-linking campaigns for it.  Once the post starts getting momentum you will see your domain authority rise and even other content on your site getting more traffic.

How Augmented Reality is Changing Content Marketing Experience

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Marketers must always look at innovation in delivering their messages. Banner ads are replaced by entertaining and informative video on the internet today. Intrusive traditional marketing has given way to content marketing over the period of time. However, people have become averse to even email marketing, social media and search engine advertising. Users do not want to see ads, they want content that is fresh and interesting.

In this blog we will look at how Augmented Reality or AR is transforming content marketing experiences. The application of augmented reality to deliver content is all set to change how we see marketing messages and interact with them.

 What is Augmented Reality?

Augmented reality (AR) is superimposition of video, images, virtual objects onto the real world. AR came into the mainstream last year with the success of PokemonGo. The game unlocked the potential of AR for anyone with a smartphone in their hands.

Currently, all the tech giants and many startups are working on the potential to realize AR. There are more than 336 startups listed under the category on Anglelist. Research suggests that around 2.5 billion AR apps will be downloaded by end of this year. By 2021, mobile AR market alone is set to cross $83 billion in revenues (Source: Digi-capital).

Always the first to try out innovation, marketers are experimenting with the technology to bring novelty into the field.  Customers love these experiences as they are new, cutting edge and entertaining. They give audience a memorable and meaningful experience they love to share with their friends. According to Content Marketing Institute, 71% of consumers think that a brand using VR and AR is forward thinking.

How are brands using Augmented Reality?

Brands are using AR for publicity campaigns or to display their products in a personalized and visual context. Check out the interactive AR campaign carried out by Visa in Poland.

Brands are also using AR to allow users to try on their products virtually. This gives users an immersive experience that is exciting as well as functional. IKEA takes the guesswork out of furniture shopping using its AR app. Users can check how a piece of furniture looks in their room before buying it thanks to IKEA Place app.

How is AR changing Content Marketing?

As you can imagine these experiences catch the attention of users worldwide and quickly become viral.

In Pepsi’s London  AR campaign, a bus stop was modified to give the commuters unique experiences such as alien abduction and monster attacks. The campaign video went viral and got more than 50 million views across web! The campaign also reportedly led to a 30% increase in sales of single serving Pepsi bottles.

AR campaigns get huge publicity and which is great for content marketing. AR is not limited to just publicity campaigns and product apps, it is also changing how users are consuming content itself.

Many magazines and print ads are using AR interactive print to bring their content to life. Users can scan the ad to see a 3D model or video on their smartphones.

AR is already revolutionizing how content is consumed by in-store retail shoppers. Clothing retailer, American Apparel, has an AR app that allows shoppers to scan products and view its variants, reviews, inventory etc.

augmented-reality-screenshot

Future of Augmented Reality

AR will allow users to choose the format and context of content they want to see. AR is more promising than Virtual Reality (VR) for many companies. Unlike VR which takes users in an artificial world, AR allows brands to tell stories that adapt to the user’s reality while keeping him or her in context.

In future, we can also expect to see AR lens that do not even require a smartphone screen for AR. Scientists are working on eye lens that would project AR objects in our everyday reality. This can only be expected in a distant future though as we are far behind in terms of technology required for this.

Research team lead by Babak Parviz has already tested the lens on rabbits. “I mean, I don’t quite know what the timeline is going to be, but I give it a very, very high likelihood that they’re (AR lens) coming”  says Babak Parviz, researcher on display lenses and former Google X director.

The early phase of AR will be used by content marketers to create exciting content as well as deliver usual content in new immersive ways. As the industry matures, expect to see AR as common medium of communication while more products such as AR arenas, apps, lens, etc., are launched to support AR experience.

5 Strategies for Collaborative Content Marketing

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Some companies have a single person handling their content marketing campaigns. If you are one of them, you’d know that there are certain advantages with respect to the management and control since there is only one voice masterminding everything. However, you would also know that you are not witnessing the benefits of collaboration.

Content collaboration is simple – several people working on the same piece of content. These people could be from within your organization,  or industry influencers. In certain cases, content may also be collaborated from competitors.

Now, why do you think collaborative content marketing is beneficial?

1. Resources – Through collaboration, resources can be shared for effective utilization of each other’s specialization. For instance, if you are good at curating images, you collaborate with a person skilled at research and create something that is relevant and interesting.

2. Point of views – When more people work on a particular subject, there are different perspectives and takeaways. This makes the final piece of content flawless.

3. Audience – If you collaborate with industry influencers, your reach in terms of the target audience instantly increases. This makes collaborative content marketing extremely powerful for attracting links and shares.

Collaboration helps you reach out to a larger target audience and improve the metrics of your content marketing campaigns. So, what are the strategies that you must use for collaborative content marketing?

1. Form a great team

In order to have a strong collaborative content process, your team must be qualified and well-organized. The functionality of the team must be clearly defined. Each person should be involved and supportive to enhance the ability of collaboration. The final outcome must have a pool of ideas behind it and not just influenced by the marketing team.

2. Share access and control

Give several people the access to write and edit a piece of content. This may sound unusual since the inputs of several people could just ruin the entire objective of the document. However, on the flip side, it could also help prepare a document that is complete with all the information and ideas required to make it interesting and relevant for the target audience.

3. Make use of technology

Collaborative content marketing involves several people contributing to a particular topic. Managing this inflow can be a little challenging. This means that you need to utilize appropriate tools to organize and streamline the collaborative process.

4. Quote and Mention

This one is extremely interesting and simple. When you write an article, include a quote written by someone else. The quote could be back linked and in case it is by someone popular in the industry, it could just add more insight and evidence, making the content strong. Please note that it is important to let the people you are quoting know about your actions.

5. Spread the information

The best research and content collaboration effort can only reap results when it is shared appropriately. Your marketing team must use the information in a manner that it generates profitable sales. Knowing what consumers would like to read is only answering half the question. The second half is to find the means to disseminate this information in a manner that it finally reaches the end consumer.

According to experts, headlines, subheadings, bullet points must all be effectively used to concisely present the information. It must be optimized, adding value to the time spent by the user reading it.

Conclusion

Collaborative content marketing is easy but an important strategy to remember is that you must create information that is relevant. It could come through inputs shared by experts in different skills. The second aspect is to utilize this meaningful information appropriately by sharing it through the right medium that reaches the end consumers.

How to Create a Content Marketing Strategy that Works Best for SEO

Posted on by NextJSjointviews

High quality content is still the king in online marketing.  Most businesses are now focusing on creating more content than ever before. The major thing to note is that the content is used everywhere and influences every other type of marketing strategy; let that be emails, blogs, articles, press releases or even social media comments. A smart content marketing strategy helps to drive more organic traffic to your website.

Pushing out fresh content that keeps your audience engaged is the requirement that helps you score better in SEO. Professional SEO companies use advanced strategies to promote your brand and business.

Let us discuss some points that help you create a content marketing strategy that best describes your business goals.

Know your goals – Before you begin planning, define your goals. Think about how your content marketing should help you meet your objectives such as

Your audience is your asset

Determine your target audience and get to know them. Before you start suggesting topics and creating titles, you need to know exactly what your target audience is looking for.

Knowing your target audience needs will help you to produce more relevant and valuable content. Understand your audience clearly either using Google Analytics traffic report or with surveys. Learning to provide the right content for the right reader makes your job much easier.

There are few more tools that provide insight on your audience’s interests and requirements. Tools include

Answer the Public

The auto-suggest results provided by search engines provide insight for content marketers. When users start typing a word, Answer the Public allows them to link the keyword that relates to their product or service, the people’s queries about the concerned service, and it comes up with a number of search phrases drawn from Google, Bing and other search engines.

Twitter Audience Insights

This latest analytics tool from Twitter will provide marketers with relevant information about what kinds of people are interacting with their brand. The tool offers access to information such as key demographics, interests, lifestyle, purchasing behavior, and mobile footprint, which helps marketers know exactly what kind of people follow their brand and what sort of content attracts them to their website.

Competitor analysis, a great way to reach the right path

Grab a list of competitors, analyze them and understand what makes them different. Realizing your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, and the opportunities and threats helps to find what exactly your customers are searching for in your industry. This analysis also can discover the most useful keywords your clients may be using to search you.

Quality, a priority

High quality, engaging posts with useful details are likely to get more shares on social media platforms. With top quality blogs and articles, even you can get attention from your competitors or even from other industry who take your company as an expert. Also make sure to choose trending topics that are relevant for your business and include a back link to the source, which helps them to know about your article.

Get familiar with content types

Once you establish goals and your target audience, try to provide content that includes informative data that is of use for your audience.

Useful content types include

  • Infographics
  • Video tutorials
  • Case Studies
  • Social media ads
  • Email newsletters
  • Ebooks
  • Templates
  • Podcasts

Don’t just create content, track them too

Set a goal to publish one piece of content daily, weekly or in alternate days. Don’t just leave the content after publishing. Promote them and track the progress of your content. For instance, if you have posted a blog in Facebook, check how many people liked it, respond to the comments, provide answers if any questions were asked and write a follow-up blog with more updated information. This helps to keep your audience in track.

Editorial Calendar helps

Once you have an idea as to how great content can be created, then it’s the right time to go for an editorial calendar. This calendar, which includes social media posts, audit rates and more, helps to keep track of your content. They are extremely helpful to organize our workflow without any error.

Editorial calendar –

  • Provides chance to carefully plan content creation beforehand
  • Helps writers to overcome writer’s block
  • Allows to keep track of every single post in social media
  • Maintain the right track for publishing a well-balanced and diverse content on website

Social media is your friend

Engaging with your audiences in real conversations will bring better results and add more value to your social streams. Know your audience’s priorities as you plan. Focus on what they want to know and not what you want to tell them. Also stay up to date with latest social media changes.

Learn ways to distribute your content

Ways you choose to promote your content is also important. A detailed plan will help. Few suggested ways include

  • Using paid ads on social media platforms like Facebook
  • Preparing a list of sites and bloggers whom you need to contact, which helps in getting a steady traffic and fresh leads
  • Sending Emails and following up them using tools such as Yesware and Mixmax.

Creating a content marketing strategy may be time-consuming, but provide fruitful results for SEO.  If you are not that familiar with SEO or content, consider choosing an experienced SEO firm that can work as an extension to your company.

How does Social Media Support Content Marketing?

Posted on by NextJSjointviews

Content is at the centre of all digital marketing efforts. But how do you ensure that your content reaches your readers once it is ready ?
There are many channels to make sure your content is read by the right audience. Email, SEO, Social media, PR, Paid advertisements and videos are some of them.

Contact Jointviews

Social media is one of the most important platforms to promote your content. According to CMI 93% of B2B marketers list social media as one of the top five content marketing tactics.
Here is the breakdown of social media platforms used by marketers.

cmi-screenshot

Source CMI

Content marketing and social media go hand in hand. Good content has no value without being promoted on social media. And social media marketing will fail without good content strategy.

Social media should always be a part of the overall content marketing strategy. It is important to ask following questions before developing content:

  • Who are we writing content for? Who is our audience
  • What social media do they use?
  • How much time do they spend on each platform?
  • What are the most popular formats for each platform?

Social media is a way to reach your target audience. It is the vehicle which is fueled by good content. This is how social media can support your content marketing:

1. Reach out to the world

Great content is no good if it does not reach people. Social media is one platform where you can promote your content to reach maximum number of users.

Social media has more than 2 billion users currently. Facebook users alone generate around 3.2 billion likes and comments everyday!   It is undoubtedly the best platform to reach to large audiences and engage with them. Sharing your content on social media will help you to get more traffic and higher conversions for your website.

2. Let users do the marketing

The beauty of social media is that the users themselves will market content for you. Content that is relevant and timely will be shared multiple times by users. A positive word about your brand on Facebook is seen by other members and builds trust in your brand.

You can also encourage influencers to share your media. Influencers are users with large following and good engagement on social media platforms.

Influencer marketing is one of the top content marketing strategies for 2017 and has been successfully used by big companies like Adidas as well as small start ups.

3. Get Real -time feedback

Social media is also a good way to listen to your audience. Many companies use Facebook platform for customer support, feedback and online community of customers.

It opens up two way communication between your business and its users. You can use this platform to generate new content ideas that your readers want.

You can also create polls in Facebook to know what your readers want to read about.This will keep your content relevant and responsive.

4. Build a loyal community

Social media also allows you to build a loyal online community that is invested in your business. These community members identify with your brand and share a common purpose with your business (which is why they follow you).

You can build a sense of community amongst these users with the right kind of engagement.  These are your loyal base of customers who will spread your message in the digital world.

5. Drive traffic

Facebook shares, re-tweets and instagram impressions can get you huge traffic. Social media drives more than 35% of traffic and is the top driver of website referral traffic.

Your shares and posts act as baits to lead to your website and leadpages. Make sure that your blogs and content are socially sharable. You can follow following best practices to maximize the use of social media to drive traffic and conversions.

How to make Social Media work for you

Follow the best practices below to make sure that your social media presence supports your content marketing strategy. Once you get this right a lot of your content marketing and content delivery will be done by your loyal followers automatically.

  • Choose the right platform

As mentioned above you must ask yourselves what is the purpose of your content and who are you writing for. Once this is clear you must choose which platforms you must be present on. A B2B business must have a presence on LinkedIn and Slideshare while Vine may not be so important.

There is no hard and fast rule however. Figure out your brand personality and your buyer’s behaviors. Different platforms can also be used to portray different sides of your brand personality.

  • 4-1-1 Strategy

This is a strategy recommended by Andrew Davis, author of Brandscaping. It recommends that out of every 6 pieces of content shared,

-4 should be popular or interesting content by other influencers

-1 piece should be your own and educational

-1 piece should be sales-related

Again, this is not a hard and fast rule and should be tweaked according to your industry. However, the important point here is to share a lot of good content by other influences. This keeps you social and also gets influencers to notice and remember you.

  • Visual Content

Keep your content visual to get maximum shares on social media. According to Kissmetrics photos get 53% more likes and 84% more click-throughs on links than text-based posts.

Use infographics, videos and compelling pictures to get to your point quickly. Nobody likes to click on lengthy text on social media. Optimize your photos so that they do now appear cropped or odd on social media.

  • Add social media sharing buttons

Use social media sharing buttons on your blogs and sites. You can also insert tweet text in your blog. Use plug-ins to add these to your site. Ease of sharing will make a big difference to your share number as 51% of users access web on their phones.

  • Current topics

Use tools like Google Trends and Buzzsumo to find out topics of conversation on social media. Keep your topics relevant and fresh.

You can use industry events, sports tournaments or political elections to spike interests in your posts. Keep your posts focused rather than generalized for most part.

  • Listen to your audience

Keep a close eye on your social media accounts. Closely monitor the likes, comments and feedback. What are the posts that are doing well?

Which platform drives maximum engagements and why? Learn from your experience and continuously improve your content marketing strategy accordingly.

Social media is where you promote your content. It is an important part of a content marketing process and cannot be separated from it. In fact, introducing your content before your target audience would be difficult without depending social media platforms.

A Guide to Hire the Best Content Strategist for Your Company

Posted on by NextJSjointviews

Content Marketing is a rapidly growing field and, content strategist, a fast filling vacancy in many organizations in 2017. According to a survey by recruiting firm The Creative Group, Content Marketing is the top area where companies plan to add staff in 2017. You might have heard of the role of Content Strategist, of late. Maybe you have even decided to hire one. Before sharing the guide on how to hire one let us first look at what exactly is the job of a content strategist.

Who is a content strategist?

Content Strategist is involved in all stages of content marketing life-cycle. This includes market research, content planning, content creation, content distribution and monitoring. It is relatively a new job title and hence, is still evolving. However, a content strategist is definitely someone who

-has the bird’s eye view of the content required to meet your company’s specific goals

– can chalk out a plan to reach your business targets through compelling content

Here is a Guide to hire a Content Strategist.

  • Define the Job clearly in your organization

The first step is to define the position clearly in your organization. The role does not have a fixed scope and you need to know what you expect the content strategist to deliver. Do you currently have a content developer, a digital marketer and content designer? If yes, how will the roles evolve, change or overlap.

  • Skills to Look for

As must be clear from the description of content strategist above, he/she needs to have a wide range of writing and marketing skills with plenty of creativity and vision. Following are qualities/skills that a content strategist must have:

  • Storytelling
  • Creativity and vision
  • Project Management Skills
  • Knowledge of digital marketing
  • Content writing and development, copywriting
  • SEO skills
  • User Experience and Design knowledge

That’s a lot to ask for, right? Remember that a content strategist doesn’t have to be an expert in all of the above. What is more important is his/her ability to analyze data, gain insights and weave all the components of content marketing into an actionable plan. He/she must have excellent creativity, storytelling and project management skills  and communication. However, a basic level knowledge of other domains will also do.

It must be clear by now that content strategist is someone who has a varied experience under his or her belt.

  • Previous records & References

It is advisable to go through the candidate’s previous work. You can ask for samples or check the work they have done before online. The best past about content marketing is that all their previous work will be online and you can even check the success of it (check for number of followers, likes, traffic to page etc.)

  • What to ask

Interviewing the candidate should make it clear whether they have the required skills. Discuss goals and challenges that your company is facing and ask them for possible solutions. This should give you a fair idea whether they can solve the challenges and take you closer to your goals or not.

Where can I find the Perfect Content Strategist

We get it. The perfect content strategist might be hard to find. Not only does he/she need to have all the above mentioned skill and experience but may also need to have your industry knowledge. Consider looking at following places:

Within your Organization: Yes. Your content strategist might be already working with you as a content writer/ digital marketer. Look for project management skills and analytical abilities in your current employees. It is better to spend on training current employee who is a good fit rather than hiring someone completely new.

 Recruitment channels: Again look for required skill sets in various recruitment channels like recruiting firms or online recruiting platforms. Do not be stuck with the job title of content strategist as it is a relatively new term. Your next content strategist might be working under the job title of content manager in some other company.

Hire a Digital Marketing Agency: This is an effective way to have a digital presence. Digital Marketing agencies provide content marketing services while cutting out your investment in hiring, training and maintaining a team. They already have expert content strategist who have experience in handling hundreds of projects. Many companies are going with this option of outsourcing content strategy work to the digital marketing experts.

9 Indian Startups that have Aced Content Marketing

Posted on by NextJSjointviews

Content marketing leaves a lasting impact like no other marketing strategy. Businesses, having recognized the true potential of content marketing in gaining and retaining customers, have already started using content marketing to their advantage.

Startups have more advantages over established businesses when it comes to content marketing. Startups may not have the budget to create and promote large amount of content like their bigger counterparts. However, being passionate about making it to the top will force startups to work hard and churn out relevant but creative content.

Here are some examples of Indian startups that are doing an amazing job with content marketing:

Zomato is one site that is a perfect example to the growth of a startup through content marketing. It is an online directory to find the nearest restaurants and now serves 15 countries, raising more than $65 million on the go.

Zomato’s content marketing doesn’t end with regular blog updates. They do not hesitate to try out different types of content including infographics, videos and campaigns.  Not all of those different forms of content may click with the audience; however, trying out new things is the only way to understand what works and what doesn’t.

SutraLite is an HR recruitment agency for startups and SMEs. Its content marketing strategy is a bit different. Though some of the articles created by SutraLite are related to their services, the ones that mainly grab attention are those articles not belonging to their domain. These articles help them to improve web traffic and grow.

Brightpod is a web-based project management and time tracking software meant to help marketing teams to sort out and have a clear workflow. It is a part of Synage Software started by Sahil Parikh in 2005. Synage Software is an expert in marketing their products overseas and Brightpod is the latest addition to the list. The constant updates on their blog for customers and marketers alike is what keeps them growing.

Eventifier is a tool that helps to showcase all tweets, images, slides etc. of an event in one page. It is the brainchild of a group of youngsters from Mangalore and was first developed at The Startup Centre. Gradually, they have managed to find a place in the market through their content marketing strategy. Apart from blogs and newsletters, the best form of content delivered by Eventifier includes creating relevant insights for event organizers.

With digital marketing companies on a rise, Simply360 is a company whose services every business needs. The social media analytics company that was started in 2009 has more than 25 solid customers to their credit.

Companies like Adobe, WPP and Twitter had also come forward with acquisition offers which the company rejected. Instead of that, they decided to go ahead on their own.  Simply360 has made it big by gathering data, dividing them and presenting them in the most suitable way possible. Many of the infographics and analysis created by the company has been adopted by various publications.

Thrillophilia is a trip planning portal that has come a long way from being a startup to being listed among the top travel domains. The portal provides large amounts of travel-based shareable content that has played a major role in its growth. Thrillophilia also offers specific activity based and unconventional travel packages.

Buzzvalve is a data driven content marketing business that helps companies to manage every aspect of web-based content lifecycle, from creation, distribution, marketing and conversion of content.  The startup has big names like UNICEF, ISB, Honda, Fortis, etc. to its clientele and their amazing content and performance has tempted many more companies to hire Buzzvalve for creating content for them.

Buzzvalve has a simple and minimal website but is very clear about what it provides and what the customers can expect from the company.  People can get a glimpse of Buzzvalve’s previous works through their social media pages.

Druva is the ultimate destination for companies for data protection and governance technology. The company that was started in 2008 has about 3000 customers to its credit and has already found a place in US market with revenue of $65 million.  It was just a regular startup until one of the co-founders came forward to take care of the sales thus propelling the company to heights it is in today.

The Druva team has used their expertise to their advantage in terms of content they provide. Users can find information regarding anything related to data security in Druva’s blogs. Also, they use LinkedIn for promotions.

JU is a friend management system for Twitter and Instagram with 10 million users across the globe. Now it has been rebranded as Crowdfire, a social media marketing product.

It is a startup with minimal financial resource but has managed to find their place in the market through their content strategy.

Though the content they provide seems similar at times, there has been no compromise in terms of quality and continuity till now. The blogs are mainly about managing your social media accounts and relevant happenings across the world.