Tag / seo

by caitlyncallahan14

2021 content marketing trends to watch

Empathy. Human. Connection. Transparency. Trust. Authenticity. These are all buzzwords you’ve likely come across when developing your content marketing strategy in the past, but due to the global pandemic and everything else 2020 brought, they will be more important than ever in 2021.

Your content marketing strategy should feed your digital and traditional advertising, social media channels, emails, website and blog. It should showcase who you are as a brand, connect with your audience on a deeper level, and provide value, entertainment and education to your customers and prospects.

Content strategies should be the backbone of marketing plans. Here are a few trends I’ve found to keep an eye on for 2021.

  1. Keep creating

Without content, your business will struggle. It’s an honest fact.

However, many of us are facing challenges we didn’t in past years, like significantly smaller budgets or less manpower. Don’t let those challenges stop you from creating.

If you have the time and money to invest in content, do it. You won’t regret building that into your budget and plan. However, if you don’t, creativity, consistency and authenticity can still go a long way.

  1. Include content in your customer journey

What do you know about your audience? What is their customer journey? Everything you know is likely translated into your marketing plans, and that information is used to create ideal marketing and nurturing campaigns for customers and prospects.

Consumers need you to be where they are when they need you, and each micro-moment is an opportunity for you to use content to move customers through the conversion funnel and customer journey.

Create mobile-first content, lead generation forms and opportunities. Make your content easier to find and navigate. Optimize for local searches and important industry keywords. Try creating content specific to your buyer personas and directed more toward the bottom of the funnel.

And as you do all of that, showcase engaging, entertaining or educational content instead of sales CTAs.

  1. Remarket

We’ve all been to a website, or looked at a product on Amazon, and then seen an ad for the same or a similar product in our Facebook newsfeed. This is a form of remarking, and it should be part of your marketing strategy.

However, consumers are savvy, and they are being more selective about the brands they engage with and purchase from. Your traditional remarking ad may not be enough anymore. Instead, use content to increase brand awareness and keep your product top of mind.

Make your content personalized. Allow the consumer to pick up where they left off. Tie other channel’s such as email, Google ads, social media ads and others together with the personalized content. Make the remarking ads seamless across channels.

  1. Diversify and include

If you have a blog, and that’s been the focus of your content marketing efforts, that’s a great start. However, it may no longer be enough. Diversify your content marketing efforts to be more inclusive of other tactics and channels.

This can include videos, infographics, memes, and gifs. In fact, video streaming has become even more popular than ever before, and with the introduction of Tik Tok and Instagram Reels (in addition to Stories and Snapchat), people are consuming video at record-breaking amounts.

Then, once you diversify your content, include it in everything. Tie together your website and blog, social channels, email and other marketing efforts. Make sure the tone, information and strategy carry over.

If you repurpose content, be sure to alter it (even if slightly) to fit the format and expectations of the channel you’re repurposing on. For example, you shouldn’t promote a blog post in an email the same way you would on your Facebook page.

  1. Improve the experience

How your audience interacts with your content is just as important as what content they are interacting with. In order to drive ROI with content, you need to focus on improving the content experience.

Analyze metrics like bounce rate and time on site, scroll depth, and clicks. It’s not enough that visitors come to your site, they have to engage and spend time with what’s on the page.

Try different content layouts, images, videos and types of content. Offer videos, webinars, white pages, podcasts, and images. Test which topics are the most engaging and informative. Be more tactful about placing CTAs and asking for email addresses. Be more strategic about how you more the consumer from that piece of content to the next step in the funnel.

  1. High-quality SEO

SEO (search engine optimization) has been a content marketing buzzword for years. However, as competition increases, attention spans decrease, and customers are being more selective about brands they interact with and where/how they spend their money, SEO will be a critical piece of your content’s success.

Figure out how you can differ yourself and your content from the big competitors. Focus on more niche, targeted and long-tail keywords. Be sure your content is engaging, including having a low bounce rate, and high time on site and scroll depth.

Take time to create an actual SEO strategy. Include members of your team, like your web analytics team and search engine marketers, to find the opportunities that will be key for you and your brand.

by caitlyncallahan14

it’s a digital world (part 3: digital)

Welcome to part three of my “it’s a digital world” blog series, briefly highlighting the importance of social media, content and digital marketing and why you should implement these tactics in your marketing plan, no matter how small your business.

Today, I want to talk about some more general digital marketing tactics you should consider, including email, SEO, SEM, display and pay-per-click (PPC) ads.

This list is not by any means all encompassing of digital marketing tactics out there, and is not inclusive of everything you should know about them. But, they are ones you are more likely to come across or wonder about, and the stats supporting them are pretty compelling.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is still one of the most effective ways for you to connect and engage with both existing and prospective customers. Email allows you to provide helpful tips, promote your business/products/service, give inside information and more through text, images, videos and links.

  • About 80% of marketers have reported an increase in email engagement over the past year.
  • There are nearly 4 billion email users worldwide.
  • Consumers open emails with personalized subject lines at a 50% higher rate than emails without.
  • A series of three emails performs better than a single email: 90% more orders for welcome emails, 63% more for abandoned cart emails, and 75% more for customer reactivation.
  • Emails segmented by user interest see nearly 75% higher click rates.
  • Email is ranked as the second most effective medium for building brand awareness, and has the highest return on investment.
  • Almost 50% of all marketing emails are opened on a mobile device.

Whether you already have an email marketing strategy or you’re looking to improve it, more than 20% of marketers report email design improves their email engagement rate. Focusing on your design, especially making it mobile-friendly, can help increase your click-through-rates.

Also take into consideration an A/B testing strategy. Litmus reports that companies who A/B test see email marketing returns nearly 40% higher than brands that don’t test their emails. You can test subject lines, images, calls to action and placement of CTA buttons, types of copy, etc.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

When we Google something, most of us will stick to the first page of search results, or even just the first few websites, to find our answers. Appearing at the top of that list has to do with your SEO strategy. SEO helps you to understand how your customers and prospects are both searching for and finding you online. Optimizing your SEO strategy can help ensure the maximum number of visitors come to your website by ranking it high on the search engine page.

  • About 64% of marketers actively invest time and energy into search engine optimization.
  • 49% of users say Google is their primary search engine for finding a new item or product.
  • More than 50% of searches on Google end without actually clicking on a result (which is why your meta title and description are so important).
  • Nearly 95% of all internet searches happen on a Google property.
  • There has been a more than 900% growth in mobile searches for “___ near me today/tonight.”
  • 60% of smartphone users have contacted a business directly using the search results.

There are a few ways you can help optimize your website for SEO and high search ranking:

  1. Be sure to include title tags and a meta description to help the search engine know what your website/page is about.
  2. The body content should be unique, educational and engaging. Answer questions users are searching for, and make the content sharable. Use relevant keywords and phrases with good search traffic potential.
  3. Mark your images with alt attributes, which provides alternative information for an image if it can’t be viewed.
  4. Be sure your website is accessible.
  5. Build relevant links from other high-quality, high-trafficked sites.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Also known as paid search, SEM is promoting your website (with budget dollars) and increasing its visibility in search engine results.

Open a Google tab on your phone or computer. Search something, like “best dog food.” The first few results will say “ad” next to them – those are paid search results (SEM). Advertisers bid on keywords that users may enter when searching for specific products or services, and then you’d appear with those results.

SEM differs from SEO because you pay for search engine marketing traffic, but SEO helps you rank higher organically.

  • Nearly 93% of all web traffic comes through search engines.
  • Google processes 2 trillion searches each year.
  • For each $1 a business spends on Google Search and Google Ads, it makes an average $8 in profit.
  • The average click-through-rate (CTR) for the first position on a Google search query is 19.3%.
  • Approximately 63% of users will click on a paid search ad on Google.
  • 66% of search queries on Google lead to at least one click.

If you have dollars in your budget and want to help ensure you rank high on the search query page, therefore leading to more clicks to your website and increased brand awareness, consider implementing an SEM strategy.

Display and Pay-Per-Click Ads

Digital display and pay-per-click (PPC) ads can help take your marketing strategy to the next level by getting you in front of the right consumers at the right time, attracting customers, increasing brand awareness, and ultimately driving revenue.

  • In 2018, U.S. advertisers spent nearly $50 million on digital display advertising, and 68% of marketers state it’s “very important” or “extremely important” to their overall marketing strategy.
  • Google Display Network reaches 90% of internet users worldwide.
  • Mobile advertising spending is expected to reach more than $280 billion by 2022.
  • 65% of all clicks made by users who intend to make a purchase do so through paid ads.
  • Visitors from a PPC ad are 50% more likely to make a purchase than a visitor who came organically.
  • The average click-through-rate across all industries is nearly 3.2%, but can vary higher or lower based on industry.
  • The average cost-per-click across all industries is $2.69, but can vary higher or lower based on industry.
  • The average conversion rate across all industries is 3.75%, but can vary higher or lower based on industry.

The most effective PPC channels are text ads, remarking, and mobile display ads. Consider what you know about your customers and prospects – what do they like to do? What websites do they search? What products or services are they interested in? Using audience insights to place your ads is key, and can help lead to higher click-through and conversion rates.