8 Critical Steps for Successful Content Marketing

8 Steps for Successful Content Marketing

ARNIE KUENN, PRESIDENT, VERTICAL MEASURES - @ARNIEK

About Your Presenter…

• President of Vertical Measures in Phoenix, AZ• Founder and past President of the Arizona Interactive

Marketing Association (AZIMA)• Instructor for the Content Marketing Institute• Author of Accelerate! Move Your Business Forward Through

the Convergence of Search, Social and Content Marketing

Twitter: @ArnieK #ASPDOTNET

Google Panda Update

• Biggest Google Algorithm update in years!

• 100% Algorithmic, No Manual Changes

• Clobbered Content Farms & Article Sites

• Even YOUR website could be affected if you have pages with weak content

• More Coming with Respect to Cleaning Up Spam on the Web (IMO)

Twitter: @ArnieK # ASPDOTNET

“Sites with original content such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on, will move up.”

– Matt Cutts & Amit Singhal (WSJ – 2/28/11)


Companies Are Getting It!


#1 Develop Your Strategy

• Why are you creating the content you are creating? • Who is your audience and who are you?• What will you measure? What does success look like?

What is different a year from now?• Where do you plan to publish your content?• When & how will you develop your content? (Calendar!)


#2 Keyword & Market Research

• Keyword research should be the foundation• Brainstorm for keyword phrases your customers use

when searching• Use your research to build targeted content • Think long-tail!• Try tools like:

– Google keyword suggest & instant search– Google Adwords keyword tool– Google Insights & Google Trends– SEOMoz.org Keyword Difficulty tool– Bing’s Commercial Intent


Online Market Research

• Check trending topics on Twitter, Yahoo and MSN• Look at answer sites like Yahoo Answers, Quora or

LinkedIn to figure out what people are asking about• Check Google’s Discussions in search• Check sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit and Mixx. • What are your competitors doing that is working?


Long Tail is the Key!


Identify Types of Content to be Created

• Your research determines what types of content your audience prefers and consumes.


#3 Create Great Content


http://www.youtube.com/v/0oVaEbRiqug

Brainstorm for Powerful Ideas

• Who?– Customers, Staff, Friends, Events

• What?– Highest Viral Potential– Easiest to Share– Drive User Generated Content (UGC)?– Add real value to the reader: Unique, Informative,

Entertaining, Relevant• And remember, customers don’t care about YOU!


http://www.youtube.com/v/0oVaEbRiqug

Benefits of an On-Site Blog• Gives you a vehicle to post new content• Allows for internal linking• Keeps the search engines coming back –

have 434% more indexed pages*• Have 2X as many backlinks*• Your site gets 55% more traffic*• You have 79% more Twitter followers*

*Hubspot


How Often Should We Post?


#4 Must Optimize Your Content

• Content is found through social media and search engines – so optimize it!

• Web pages, News, Local, Images & Videos1. Links pointing to your content2. Titles & title tags (viewed in results)3. Description meta tag (viewed in results)4. Image alt text tags 5. H1 Tag (headline tag – only one!)6. URL structure (short & include KW’s)7. Page load times


http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/04/sharing-advice-from-our-london-site.html



#5 Promote Your Content• Understand who your

customer is and where they are online.

• Conduct PR and blogger pitches

• Develop relationships & build partnerships

• People share your ideas, link to your content.

• Those references and citations will help with rankings


Facebook – The Motor Lodge (Prescott, AZ)

• Beat the crowds with a sneak peek of the Courthouse Christmas lights tonight from 5:30-6:30pm (the official Lighting Ceremony is Saturday).

• Time to get shopping so, for our Facebook buddies we will add 15% to any gift certificate that you purchase for holiday giving. Think of it, you provide a fun place to stay for your favorite people while appearing to be 15% more generous than you really are...It's a win, win!

• We thought you should know that waterboarding at The Motor Lodge has stopped! In case you never had the chance to experience the torture that was our showers, imagine standing in a phone booth while a 55 gallon drum of water was dumped on you from 8' up (a classic case of form over function...sorry). New and improved, ...adjustable and reachable showerheads make cleansing your beautiful body an absolute pleasure. Enjoy!

• Time to name the cat that adopted us 3 months ago! Whoever comes up with the winning name wins a free night in our swankiest room, #6. The cat is a neutered male, very friendly, green eyes and has a hole in his left ear. Voting ends Sunday at 5pm. (The post included a video of the cat.)


Twitter – AJ Bombers• Milwaukee restaurant formed a

community by publishing specials & answering customer questions

• Have more than 12,000 followers • Estimate 75 percent of customers are

Twitter followers• Treat everyone on Twitter as if they are

regulars• Allow customers to write their Twitter

names on the walls of the restaurant


#6 Distribute or Repurpose Content

• RSS feeds• Email Campaigns• Article Syndication• Web 2.0 Sites• Social Media Sites• Video, Photo, Presentation & Podcasts sites• These links will help your rankings!


#7 Build Links to Your Content

• Identify low hanging fruit– Internal links– Blog & forum participation

• Targeted Links via…– Competitive research for similar content– Use search operators to find opportunities

• Ask your clients & suppliers for links!– Offer t-shirts, gift cards, discounts, etc. – Or even a good old fashion reciprocal link

• When all else is equal, links win!


#8 Measure!

• Measure for successes… and failures• Check your rankings, traffic, conversions and

other key metrics• Focus on the strategies that are providing the

best ROI and keep rolling out the content


Results Like This…

19 out of top 25 landing pages


Tell Stories!

• What do your remember most?– How to Conduct Keyword Research? --OR--– The stories about the Motor Lodge, DLP TV

& WillitBlend?


All 8 Steps Matter

When all the links in the chain work together, just as in a bicycle chain,

the net effect is acceleration!


Additional Resources

• SEO Educational Videos:– http://www.verticalmeasures.com/resources/seo-tutorial-videos/

• Internet Marketing & Related Webinars:– http://www.verticalmeasures.com/webinars/

• How-To Books– http://www.verticalmeasures.com/store


http://www.verticalmeasures.com/resources/seo-tutorial-videos/

http://www.verticalmeasures.com/webinars/

http://www.verticalmeasures.com/store

Thank You!

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@VerticalMeasure

Contact: 888-476-1881 www.VerticalMeasures.com

Can be found on:

http://www.verticalmeasures.com/

8 Critical Steps for Successful Content Marketing

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