In the world of content marketing, thin content refers to poor quality. Thin content may follow all relevant SEO best practices but fail to deliver value to the reader. As each of Google’s algorithm updates places an increasing emphasis on relevance, brands must optimize their sites with a focus on reader expectations. Identifying Thin Content on Your Website To gain a general sense about the quality of your content for SEO purposes, look at your page bounce rates. Google’s Panda update from 2011 created new standards for the quality of webpages. It enables website crawlers to weed out weak, duplicated, and untrustworthy sites. The update has been in place for years, but many brands continue to struggle w…Read entire entry »

Unfortunately, many companies continue to crank out content that sucks. Poorly crafted content represents a time suck and a money suck you really can’t afford. If your content isn’t delivering measurable and meaningful results, you may want to reevaluate your content marketing strategy. Why Content Deserves Your Attention Marketers rarely know which piece of content will serve as a reader’s gateway to their brands. Some consumers discover preferred brands through social media networks while others value the quintessential Google search. Still more find brand mentions by happenstance through blogs, articles, and advertisements. Each interaction can encourage or detract from future brand interactions. Content has largely …Read entire entry »

Special thanks to Melanie for contributing this informative holiday content marketing post, filled with awesome ideas for any business! Let us know your favorite below, and take advantage of our free holiday content guide: The Gift of ROI. By Melanie Deziel (mdeziel.com | @mdeziel) With so many gift-giving holidays in the Fall and Winter, it’s no surprise that we see a huge uptick in marketing from brands of every advertising category…Read entire entry »

When it comes to creating engaging content that people want to read, it is your responsibility to do the legwork. If you can create content with a formula, it will quickly become stale. But you can choose to write great content that readers will consume faster than you can produce it. Writing original, engaging content reaps its own rewards, in higher SEO rankings, increased site traffic, and more opportunities to continue creating content. Read on to discover 5 steps that can help you create the content your readers want to read and keep them coming back. 1.Know Your Audience Before you start, have a target audience in mind. Understand their interests, backgrounds, and needs. Learn what makes them tick or engages …Read entire entry »

The time, effort, and money you put into optimizing your content is all for nothing if your target audience doesn’t read it. Writing for the right audience is as important as focusing on the content itself. Producing content for the best audience for your brand is the only way to boost sales and increase conversions – reaching the people you need to reach the most. Target Your Audience If you don’t know who you want reading your blog, you can’t possibly know what to write. The first step in writing for the right audience is defining who that audience is. Are you targeting Millennials? Stay-at-home moms? Business executives? Identifying the ideal audience for your content is the only way to reach the consumers you want to convert, by tailoring your tone and information for the right crowd.…Read entire entry »

Last year, 2016, was a tumultuous one in many aspects, chief among them a rollercoaster of an election cycle that cast a glaring eye at the media for several reasons. Marketing is a constantly evolving game between marketing professionals and their target customers. Marketers are always looking for new ways to get their brands to resonate with the people who will benefit most from them, but they don’t always hit the mark. Marketing in the modern world relies heavily on popular culture and understanding the social conversations happening on any given day. In 2016, we’ve seen some content marketing campaigns fall absolutely flat – even entering the realm of downright tasteless in some cases – and others have captured audiences’ attention and delighted them in several ways. We’ve created a list of some the biggest wins and hardest fails in the content marketing world for 2016. …Read entire entry »

The time, effort, and money you put into optimizing your content is all for nothing if your target audience doesn’t read it. Writing for the right audience is as important as focusing on the content itself. Producing content for the best audience for your brand is the only way to boost sales and increase conversions – reaching the people you need to reach the most. Target Your Audience If you don’t know who you want reading your blog, you can’t possibly know what to write. The first step in writing for the right audience is defining who that audience is. Are you targeting Millennials? Stay-at-home moms? Business executives? Identifying the ideal audience for your content is the only way to reach the consumers you want to convert, by tailoring your tone and information for the right crowd. …Read entire entry »

How well do you really know your target audience? Do you know them or do you just think you do? Most of us, marketers included, can be guilty at times of trusting our instincts a little too much, and while instincts can be great, sometimes they can be misleading. So how do you test your instincts when it comes to knowing your target audience? Today’s Tool Tip Tuesday will show you how to do just that! Discover what questions and queries your target audience is asking Google with an insightful tool called AnswerThePublic.com. You probably already have personas that you built using market research, consumer surveys, social listening, and more, but imagine a tool that can essentially spit out what your audience is asking Google right now. I’m sure you’re already familiar with Google and Bing’s auto suggest function, which is great for coming up with content ideas. Just start typing and see what pops up: …Read entire entry »

It’s 2016, and content is still at the forefront of virtually every marketing technique, digital and traditional. Whether it’s video, photo, or content, marketers need to know how to stay on top of content and get the most for their efforts. Content has been a buzzword for more than a decade, yet many business owners still don’t know how to maximize theirs to get more of an impact. Here are a few quick tips to show you how to leverage your content the right way. #1: Form a Plan According to the Content Marketing Institute, the majority (53%) of the top most-effective B2B content marketers have a documented strategy. Documentation can be simple – just a few page…Read entire entry »

When I read stuff about “going viral” or “successful outreach” I typically see content that makes people happy or laugh. It’s not a bad thing. Who doesn’t like to be happy or get a chuckle out of an article? However, where are the rest of the emotions? You may not want to make readers angry or sad, but does that mean sites should shy away from topics that might cause that reaction? It’s not like we’re creating a circle of joy for that content to stay within. [caption id="attachment_8833" align="aligncenter" width="638"] Then again being Batman would be pretty cool.[/caption] However, you are not Batman and you have readers to think about. If you’re going to create content that won’t generate a smile or laughter, you might want to take a look at some angry and…Read entire entry »