Marketing Strategy and Business

Excerpted from article:

"In content marketing, you don't have to go it alone. Use your fans and your customers to launch crowdsourcing initiatives to create bigger, better content.

Here are five ways crowdsourcing is impacting the future of content marketing:

1) Crowdsourcing speeds up the content creation process:

You will never have enough time in the day to create the amount of content you want to create.

With sites like CrowdSource.com, you can employ a scalable crowd of workers to create your content. With scalable labor, the only limitation to posting 5 articles per day is your budget.

2) Crowdsourcing gets your customers & potential customers involved:

Invaluable crowdsourcing systems build in options for your community to produce work, not just paid crowdworkers. Letting your target audience get involved is like handing out the mic at a conference.

3) Crowdsourcing gets your target audience invested:

Not only do your customers and potential customers get involved and actually tell you how to sell to them, but because they were involved with the process, they’re also now invested.

4) Crowdsourcing offers you diversity and creative choice:

One of the main draws of using a site like Genius Rocket to crowdsource a commercial or viral video is the number of options to choose from along the way. Imagine what your video would look like if you or your internal team created it.

5) Crowdsourcing inherently atomizes your content marketing process:

It always starts out this way because crowdsourcing is not natural. In a country where everything must be bigger and better, reports were due yesterday, and quantity & quality must be equally outpaced, it’s tough to imagine that projects need to be broken down into steps that could take no more than seconds to accomplish. However, to effectively use crowdsourcing, every project must be atomized as small as possible.

Read full original article here:

http://www.convinceandconvert.com/content-marketing-2/5-ways-crowdsourcing-improves-your-content-marketing/

Excerpted from article:

"You’re about to learn how to make each element of your landing page more enticing. And make your conversion rates go up. And celebrate your business growing.

[N.B. | Each tip is analyzed with more details, many examples and external links. Here is the check-list]

- How to command attention with your headlines:

1. Be useful.

2. Observe the rule of one.

3. Be ultra-specific.

4. Don’t be clever.

5. Be urgent.

6. Command attention.

7. Focus on loss aversion.

- How to write compelling copy:

8. Use the word "you".

9. Reduce your text.

10. Adopt familiar language.

11. Include fascinating bullets.

12. Tell us why.

13. Don’t focus on features.

14. Anticipate objections.

15. Try video.

16. Write tight.

- How to become trustworthy:

17. Avoid using I and we.

18. Provide proof.

19. Be unique. Nobody has confidence in copy cats.

20. Provide a reminder.

21. Use a conversational tone.

22. Add social proof.

23. Provide confidence.

24. Use symbols of trust.

25. Add a phone number.

- How to create a persuasive call to action:

26. Be clear.

27. Have one primary call to action.

28. Remove side bars.

29. Remove top navigation.

30. Don’t use vague words.

31. Set expectations.

32. Increase value.

33. Use the power of FREE.

34. Reduce barriers.

35. Be urgent.

- How to seduce with good design:

36. Stand out.

37. Show more.

38. Don’t use stock photos.

39. Add a photo of a real person.

40. Add captions.

41. Employ the power of the eye.

42. Use an arrow.

43. Embrace white space.

44. Be attractive.

45. Have your form above the fold.

- 5 more ways to turbo-charge your landing pages:

46. Learn.

47. Test.

48. Evaluate.

49. Evolve.

50. Study.

Read full, long and interesting article here:

http://blog.kissmetrics.com/seduce-your-web-visitors/

Excerpted from article:

"To get good at driving real change, you’ve got to define a CRO methodology. The real trick to improving your conversion is pretty simple: identify, and target the core barriers to conversion and then, scientifically test the changes. This is the good path that we advocate for all inbound marketers to follow.

At the heart of conversion rate optimization is the notion of removing barriers to conversion. These are the forces stopping your site from converting visitors into sales.

Barriers to conversion can include usability errors, weak persuasive techniques and often, page relevancy issues.

Here’s how we do it:

Step 1 – Set up Funnels

Setup your funnels and analyse the points where your users enter, until the point they exit. Try to identify the “missing links” or barriers to conversion.

Step 2 – Analytics

Find out what’s actually happening when people land on your site, analyse what they do, what keywords they discovered you for and where they land.

Usability tools such as ClickTale are also great for funnels and their form analytics reveal where users drop off along your forms. CrazyEgg is another simple and effective tool that we use for click density analysis.

Step 3 - Barriers

To identify barriers to conversion, you’ve got to build up a profile of people’s objections and opinions.

Tools such as Kissinsights, Pop-Survey, Kampyle are really good for page level surveys and pretty simple to setup.

Step 4 – Go Offline

If we know our target then the objective becomes easier. Study your website and understand your customers.

Speak to sales staff to learn the likely barriers they face when they sell and use the site.

Step 5 – Prospect for Missing Links

Study your website carefully and consider what you’re missing. For example, showing expert reviews, customer reviews, testimonials, or even taking the time to build a community.

Step 6 – Strengthen Average Order Value (AOV)

Step 7 – Wireframe the Solutions

We use tools such as Balsamiq and Cacoo to wireframe the solutions and then prepare hypotheses for testing. Test scientifically, the most important thing to take away from testing is to learn what works and what doesn’t and to keep building structurally to increase conversion rate. No guesswork!

Step 8 - Testing

We primarily use Google Website Optimiser (which is now becoming content experiments) and Visual Website Optimiser. There’s loads of split testing and multivariate software. But remember: it’s not the testing tool that increases your conversion it’s the ideas you put into it.

Step 9 - Review

Review your test, analyse the analytics, click density and form analytics (ClickTale) and compare it to the original page, check the difference.

Tracking AOV and revenue is so important when testing. Structure your follow up tests and build on your success, or failure.

Step 10 – Rinse & Repeat

Repeat the process and keep building successful tests. Each time you test and find winning variations, you build up a portfolio of increases. Conversion rate optimization is an iterative process, which builds on the success of the previous test.

Read full article here: http://j.mp/MzYuQ9

Excerpted from article:

"As a marketer, you already know getting your visitors to perform an action is crucial to the success of any marketing initiative. Content marketing is no different. Tracking measurable actions (like newsletter subscribers, social shares, leads, clicks, and sales) tied to your content is crucial to gauging its efficacy.

Every piece of content you publish should be crafted with this in the forefront of your mind. If you’re not doing this, you’re wasting your time.

Here are the elements of impactful content:

1. Provocative

Easily confused with controversy, being provocative is about more than raising eyebrows. Provocative content ignites emotion by pushing boundaries and challenges the status quo.

2. Visionary

Are you causing a “Eureka moment” for the reader?

Visionary content puts into words a frustration, realization, or need that the reader has, but may not have been fully aware of or seen properly verbalized previously.

3. Differentiated

Differentiated content presents a completely original idea or discusses a tired topic in a new fashion or format. This is uncommon to most content and one of the toughest attributes to master.

4. Relevant

Does your content appeal to your target audience?

Content should be related to your brand without being an overt sales pitch. If you do go off topic, you’re doing so from the perspective of your vertical.

5. Timely

Are you one of the first to cover hot topics?

Even if you aren’t trying to break news, you should be incorporating current trends and news into your content. Leverage news items your audience is naturally talking about or seeking more information about.

6. Demonstrates Mastery

Are you positioning your brand as a thought leader?

Masterful content offers an unparalleled depth of insight. It expands on complex ideas and shows a comprehensive analysis on the topic unlikely to be found from other sources.

7. Can Be Delivered On

Do you provide the solution?

Content should intrigue the reader about your brand, and make them feel they have an unmet need only your brand can fill.

8. Narrative

Are you telling a story with a clear beginning, middle, and end?

Content with a strong narrative takes the reader on an exciting journey full of surprises and leads to a call-to-action of value for the brand. It’s cohesive, easy to understand, and inspires action related to the story...."

Each element is enriched with some examples. In addition at the end of post, the author has included an evaluation rubric for you to consistently measure if your content incorporates these attributes.

Read full article here:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/8-attributes-of-content-that-inspires-action

Check out content evaluation rubric here: 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aj1fS7E2HfcKdE1udGdoQXZ2VDJxTXpnaDFSWU1IaGc#gid=0

Excerpted from original article:

"Infographics are awesome. Many marketers don’t know how to get the best out of infographics and reap the benefits available. The primary benefits being the generation of inbound links and making your posts incredibly sharable.

Here you’ll learn 12 ways to market an infographic:

***Building Your Own Infographic

This is the ideal method, but it’s not always possible (time, money, design talent), but if you can make them yourself, then it’s way better. Here are a bunch of tactics for how to do it right.

1. Create content that people actually want...

2. Infographic research...

3. Make sure it’s got data on it...

4. Infographic Design & Data Visualization...

5. Add an embed code to let others re-post it...

6. Making your Infographic go Viral...

7. Use your network...

***Using other people’s infographics:

People want backlinks – that’s why they create infographics in the first place. So this method of marketing serves two purposes; It gives you a content base to build a post from (awesome, quick and easy) and it gives some love back to the creator of the original work.

8. Finding Infographics...

9. Adding value...

10. What’s the proper etiquette for re-using others work?...

***Things You Should Do For all Infographics:

Regardless of whether you designed your own infographic or sourced one from elsewhere, there are certain things you should always do to ensure they get the attention they deserve. Here are some examples:

11. Add Pin It buttons...

12. Tweetables: Set up important and entertaining stats formatted as Tweets..."

This is just a summary. The full post includes many information, links, examples and key lessons.

Read full article here:

http://unbounce.com/content-marketing/ultimate-guide-to-marketing-with-infographics/

Excerpted from article on Mashable:

"Link building is a concept that anyone involved in online marketing will come across and, more than likely, be involved in. The principle is simple — get high quality, relevant sites to link to your own. In doing so you not only generating traffic from visitors clicking through but also give search engines an indication as to the importance of your site.

Here are six of the most popular link-building tools:

1. Ontolo:

It is a powerful, sometimes complex, tool that can work wonders for someone who knows how to use it. For link prospecting it’s pretty much unparalleled but search phrases have to be pretty specific.

In other words, this is not for the beginner link builder. If anything it’s better suited for larger companies or seo agencies.

2. BuzzStream:

This tool allows you to create your own database of possible link-building sites, lets you assign them to a team member, and then offers options for touching base with site owners.

3. OpenSiteExplorer:

Rand Fishkin’s SEOMoz is a very well-known name in the SEO industry with a reputation for delivering high-quality, easy-to-use tools.

The program’s competitor analysis option gives you an easy way to look at and understand what competitors are doing to increase their rankings. This is done by giving you a list of metrics such as inbound links to a page or site, their anchor text, and ‘Domain Authority’.

4. Raven:

Raven’s suite of SEO tools covers everything from on-page analysis to social media monitoring and link building. The thing that stands out here is the sheer size and scope of the available options.

One of the perks of Raven is that it integrates with a number of external services.

5. Citation Labs:

As a link builder, one of the most time-consuming tasks is to find top quality sites that are both relevant and likely to link to you — something that Citation Labs makes far easier than any of the other tools that I’ve come across so far.

Simply choose the type of link or site that you’re looking for, enter a few relevant phrases, and wait for the software to generate your report.

6. Whitespark:

Showing up at the top of specific search results can be a life-changing event for a local business, which is where Whitespark is aiming to help. Their local citation tool offers an easy solution to finding potential link partners at a local level. Simply enter your location and type of business, fine-tune the search phrase, and that’s it. Just a few seconds later you’ll have a list of potential link targets.

Each tool is analyzed with more information. In addition, you can read Pros, Cons, Cost and Value for the Money. Read full article here:

http://mashable.com/2012/06/07/link-building-tools/

Excerpted from article:

"With the rise in popularity of visual content, marketers are realizing that Pinterest is a great way to show off their brands' personalities, engage their social media fans and followers, and even generate some leads along the way.

Here are 28 creative pinboard ideas to power your Pinterest marketing.

1) Idea/Inspiration/Example Board;

2) Philanthropy Board;

3) Marketing Campaign Board;

4) Video Board;

5) Customer Success Board;

6) Products/Services Board;

7) Behind the Scenes Board;

8) Contest Board;

9) Employee Board;

10) Mission Board;

11) User-Generated Board;

12) Blog Board;

13) Content/Resources Board;

14) Testimonials Board;

15) Visual Industry Data/Statistics Board;

16) Industry Infographics/Diagrams/Flowcharts Board;

17) Meme Board;

18) Complementary Products Board;

19) Inspirational Industry Quotes;

20) Events/Conferences Board;

21) Brand Lifestyle Board;

22) Industry Tips Board;

23) History Board;

24) Customer Interest Board;

25) Industry Cartoons Board;

26) A Day at the Office Board;

27) Newsjacking Boards;

28) Boards Organized By Location;

Each pinboard is analyzed with many details, links and images.

Read full interesting article here:

http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33457/28-Creative-Pinboard-Ideas-From-Real-Brands-on-Pinterest.aspx

Excerpted from article:

"The concept of link bait is a little bit subjective, and marketers should consider link bait as any piece of content that generates significantly more links and traffic than the average piece of content they publish.

The term seems to have originated from the SEO world, referring to content that is effective for attracting inbound links to your website, thus boosting your off-page SEO.

Let's use this article to talk about why link bait is so effective, how it can benefit your marketing, and how you can approach creating top-notch link bait content that your readers love ... and value.

Link bait content can be extremely beneficial to your marketing. Here are 3 powerful reasons why:

1) Increased Search Rankings...

2) Tons of (Sustainable) Traffic ... & Conversion Opportunities!...

3) Exposure to New Audiences...

As we mentioned earlier, what any given marketer considers to be link bait is going to vary from business to business, industry to industry, and audience to audience. The key is to experiment with ideas you suspect will be successful for your particular blog, regularly conduct analyses like the one I did above, and learn from what tends to work as link bait for you.

So if you're just starting to figure out what has historically made successful link bait content for marketers, here are some ideas to get you going:

1) Original, Striking Data;

2) Controversial Content;

3) Being the Most Comprehensive (Or First) Resource on a Popular Topic;

4) Visual Content;

5) Content That's Creative, Entertaining, or Fun;

6) A Title People Simply Can't Help Themselves From Clicking (Accompanied by Awesome Content)

By now, you should be pretty convinced that link bait isn't always some evil, black-hat marketing tactic you need to avoid like the plague. But that doesn't mean all link bait is high quality, or that you can't abuse it...."

Each element is analyzed with more information and accompanied by a successful link bait example from the HubSpot blog. Read full article here: http://j.mp/PmCLvt

Excerpted from article:

"One of the hardest things to do in keyword research is to uncover related keywords. With that in mind, the tools I’m reviewing today all help identify related keywords that you may want to search in more detail.

All of the tools I reviewed for this article are free to the public. Some have paid options, but I’ve only covered the free features.

1) KeywordEye:

The nice thing is that it also has options for several other countries and returns results in language.

The free version of this tool does limit you to 100 keywords, so while it’s useful for high level ideas, it’s not a keyword research substitute.

Another nice feature is the ability to order the cloud visualization it returns – by Adwords competition or by search volume.

2) KeywordSpy:

Keyword Spy allows you to quite literally “spy” on keywords. It’s a great name.

There are several features of the free version of this tool, but the one I like the best is the Domain spy tool.

Just type any domain into the search box, make sure the radio button for “domains” is selected, and you can get reasonably accurate data on how much that site is spending in paid search, who their competitors are, what keywords they spend the most money on, and more.

3) SEMRush:

This tool is also a paid tool with a free option, but unlike other free options, I think this tool provides just enough data in its free application to be useful. One element that I like in SEMRush that I haven’t seen elsewhere is the metric for the number of results in Google. That’s this number for any given search...."

Each tool is analyzed with more information. Read full article here: http://j.mp/N8JOTb

Excerpted from article:

"Producing the same types of content over and over is not only boring for you, but it doesn’t exactly stimulate your prospects, either.

Well, we think it’s high time you shook up your content balance and experimented with some new types of content you’ve never tried before.

Here are 14 types of under-used content we think more marketers should be implementing in their campaigns and on their websites.

1) Animated GIFs;

2) Comics/Cartoons;

3) Concept/Content Visualizations;

4) Controversial Content;

5) Livestreaming Video;

6) Embedded Tweets;

7) Event Information;

8) Infographics;

9) Memes;

10) Music Videos;

11) Original Data;

12) Podcasts;

13) SlideShare Presentations;

14) User-Generated Content;

Each element is analyzed with more information. Read full article here: http://j.mp/MQ6fMx

Excerpted from original article:

"When I’m looking for landing pages that are underperforming, some of the metrics that I take into account include:

- Bounce rate;
- Navigation summary;
- Conversion rates;

Before I talk more specifically about each of these metrics, I want to touch on the power of using filters in your web analytics. If you notice that similar pages have higher than average bounce rates, for example, you can use filters to test whether or not this trend is true across the whole page type.

***Bounce Rate:

You should look for individual pages with remarkably high bounce rates; high traffic means they are a good opportunity for improvement. Also look for running themes and think of some ideas on how to test those themes using filters as discussed above.

***Navigation Summary:

You might want to check out the navigation summary report for your key pages to see where users are going next:

- Go to Content > Site Content > All Pages.
- Click on the page name.
- Select Navigation Summary from the top of the report.
- Click (entrance) in the previous page path pane on the left so that we’re just looking at users who are landing there.

***Conversion Rate:

Conversions can be thrown into the mix here to give you the full picture; after all, even if a page has an incredibly low bounce rate, it might be worth nothing to you if it doesn’t ultimately convert.

You have to do a little more work in GA to view landing pages with conversions by setting up a custom report.

5 things that might be wrong with your landing pages:

1. Is the traffic source relevant to your business?

2. Is the traffic source relevant to that landing page?

3. Have you got show-stopping technical or usability problems?

4. Are you observing basic landing page principles?

5. Are you speaking your potential customers’ language?

What next?

- Make obvious improvements straight away...

- Testing new pages...

- Analysis and Iteration...

Each element is analyzed with full information and with some links as examples or tools to use. Read full article here: 

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/identifying-and-fixing-your-worst-landing-pages

Excerpted from article:

"As the halfway point of 2012 approaches, we suggest using this seven-step checklist for measuring your content marketing success. The goal is to take a fresh look at your content marketing from a broader, long-term perspective.

The process will help you pinpoint the areas of your content strategy that are working well, and those that could use some fine-tuning.

Use the Content Marketing Success Worksheet below to record your responses to the following questions:

1. Consistency: How consistent is your content marketing?

2. Relevance: Does your content marketing deliver the right information?

3. Style: Does your content engage your market?

4. Efficiency: Do you have an efficient process for selecting and producing topics for your content?

5. Influence: Does your market position or level of influence improve each month?

6. Goals: Does your content support your firm’s long-term goals?

7. Challenge: Does your staff find your content marketing to be adequately challenging?

It’s easy to put this analysis process into play in your organization — there are just two main steps:

1. Share the Content Marketing Success worksheet with your staff.

2. Rate your content marketing on a scale of 1–5.

No content marketing program is ever finished — there is always room for improvement."

Each element is analyzed with more information.

Read full article here: http://j.mp/KspKKn