Many people remember the days of fliers, newspaper advertisements, commercials, and pamphlets. While those mediums still exist and are utilized in most business’ marketing strategies, those traditional tools don’t even hold a flame to the massive influence of digital marketing.
Digital marketing is essential because not only is nearly everyone online but also, the various digital marketing tools actually help businesses reach markets that would have never been possible before. If you have a business, you need to be using digital marketing. When you create a digital marketing strategy, it is important that you include content marketing.
Content marketing is a digital marketing approach that is focused on crafting and sharing relevant, targeted, and regular content. The purpose of content marketing is to gain visibility in order to reach your target market, increasing your leads and ultimately your conversions.
This important form of marketing can seem simplistic, but is in fact highly focused and requires a great deal of skill. Being able to consistently provide SEO-optimized content that is relevant and top-quality is not something that just anyone is capable of.
This essential form of digital marketing encompasses platforms such as your business website, your emails, and your social media accounts. When you design your digital marketing strategy, you need to ensure that you include content marketing in order to effectively impact your marketing goals.
Content marketing has its own unique benefits that basically touch each area of importance when it comes to marketing. The great benefits that come from this one marketing tool make it a method that you won’t want to forget about.
Content marketing is one of the main ways that you will build the identity of your brand. This is important because your brand identity is what draws people to you, helps them connect with you, leads them to eventually become your customer, and keeps them around as a supporter and returning customer.
Today’s consumers are looking for businesses they can connect with and feel drawn to, those that have shared values and a message that the consumer can get behind. Crafting a unique and relevant brand identity helps to put your business in that position. You are giving consumers something to connect with and making your business identifiable in a number of ways.
Content marketing is one way to build your brand identity. The content that you put out into the world should reflect your business, your personality, your message, and your values. It should offer expertise and information from your brand to your target market, consistently building your identity and putting your business in the place of expert.
Your content is the main tool that will help your business rank highly on Google and other search engines. When you are able to optimize your website’s content, you are making it much more likely that you will receive a high ranking.
When you are able to provide content that utilizes keywords, is relevant, and is consistent, you are basically setting yourself up to strike SEO gold. The content that you provide is one of the best ways to achieve a high ranking if you can meet a few standards.
Determine the best keywords in your industry and make sure to include them in your content. Keep your posts relevant to your target audience so that when people click on your links and visit your website, the content will keep them there and Google will rank you higher. You also want to ensure that your content is consistent, bringing in a regular flow of traffic, because if traffic dies down, so does your ranking.
Your content marketing strategy needs to include optimization tools in order to receive the highest possible SEO benefit.
You need leads. Without leads, there are no conversions. Without conversions, there is no success. Without success, frankly, you don’t really have a business.
Content marketing is one of the best ways to generate leads. When you create great content, you are increasing your visibility. Posting a link to one of your articles on social media provides an opportunity for new people to discover you and visit your website.
Once they click on your link, if your content is relevant, useful, or engaging, they will stay and read. If they value what you wrote, there’s a good chance they will either read more, follow you on social media, or sign up for your email list. Basically, there’s a good chance they’ll become a lead.
Getting leads is essential and the content that you put out provides a great opportunity for finding them. Without consistent content, you won’t be visible, and if you’re not visible, your target market will not discover your business.
You will also find leads with your content because relevant and useful content will be shared by others. Your social media followers will share your posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Their shares will increase your visibility and help you to gain more leads.
While 2023 will see a number of new marketing strategies, content marketing is just as important as ever because it has the ability to reach your target market like nothing else. You will want to make sure and craft a content marketing strategy as you are creating your strategy for 2023.
Content is basically a win-win, creating a cycle of visibility, traffic, lead, share, visibility, traffic, lead, and so on. As long as your content is consistent and relevant for your target market, while also utilizing SEO tools, your content marketing strategy will bring you the success you are looking for.
Sources: growthmarketingconf, SEMRush, toolbox
Are you looking to set a search marketing budget for 2023? In this article, we provide tips on how to allocate your budget based on your business's needs and goals, industry benchmarks, and overall marketing vision. We also explain how to use math and research data to determine a competitive budget and how to make adjustments based on changing data.
As a business owner, you know that success in marketing is crucial for driving growth and reaching your goals. One way to effectively reach potential customers is through paid search marketing campaigns, which allow you to advertise on search engines like Google and pay for each click on your ad. In this article, we will cover how to set and allocate a budget for your search marketing campaigns in 2023 in order to maximize your return on investment.
Before you start planning for your search marketing budget in 2023, it's important to review the success or lack of success of your previous marketing campaigns. Look at reports and data from campaigns you have run in the past and consider factors such as whether they helped you reach your goals, increased sales, or improved brand awareness. If you have had successful campaigns in the past and the budget you used for them, you can use that as a starting point for your 2023 budget. On the other hand, if your past campaigns have been less successful, you may want to develop a new plan and budget to achieve your desired results.
Get started with a free SEO audit here.
In addition to looking at your own past campaigns, it's also helpful to have an understanding of what your competition is spending on paid search marketing. Research industry benchmark data to see what other businesses in your field are allocating for their search marketing efforts. This will give you a sense of the cost of paid search marketing and help you determine a budget that is competitive but also fits within your overall marketing plan and goals.
You may want to consider an SEO tool like SpyFu or SEMRush to help find your competitor's secrets.
Before setting your search marketing budget, it's important to think about your overall marketing vision. What are you hoping to achieve through your marketing efforts? Do you want to increase website visitors, sales, brand awareness, or something else? Your marketing plan should be tailored to your specific vision, and your budget should be allocated accordingly. For example, if your main focus is on increasing website traffic, you may want to allocate more of your budget to search marketing than to other tactics like social media or email marketing.
One common method for determining an overall marketing budget is to base it on a percentage of your revenue. Many businesses allocate between 2-15% of their revenue for marketing. Once you have considered your past campaigns, industry benchmarks, and marketing vision, you can use this range as a starting point and adjust up or down based on your specific needs and goals. If your vision requires a strong focus on search marketing, you may want to allocate a larger portion of your budget to PPC campaigns. It's also important to keep in mind that your budget may need to be adjusted as you gather more data and see how your campaigns are performing.
Setting and allocating a budget for your search marketing campaigns in 2023 is an important step in ensuring the success of your marketing efforts. By considering your past campaigns, industry benchmarks, marketing vision, and basic math and research data, you can develop a plan that will give you the best return on your investment. If you want help developing a search marketing budget or have questions about other aspects of your online marketing strategy, Key Medium offers free website consultations. Book a time with us to get personalized recommendations and guidance on how to optimize your online presence. By working with a team of experts, you can be confident that your marketing budget is being used effectively to reach your goals and drive growth for your business.
Reference: SmartInsights
When you observe the “golden arches”, you know that that’s a brand! Whether positive or negative, McDonald’s logo is instantly recognizable. It is the same when you see Google’s G, Apple’s apple, or Coca-Cola’s signature writing and colors. Some companies manage to create a brand that elicits feelings and creates memories. There’s always one commercial from childhood that you never forget!
Let’s look at the relationship between SEO and branding and why it matters.
A brand is a name, “logo”, or symbol that distinguishes one company's products from another's. It produces an image in a person's mind when they think about that company and elicits an emotional response. Many companies can have an identical product, but a brand is always unique.
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO as it is more commonly known, is a way to improve your website to increase traffic. This is done by increasing your website's recognizable keywords. When people search on Google or other search engines for products or services your business provides, your company is more visible when it ranks for keywords. The more visible your business is, the more likely you will attract new customers or retain old ones. As more people shop online, especially due to the circumstances of the last couple of years, the more important SEO is for the success of a business.
SEO includes both on-page and off-page SEO. Every bit of your website has crawlable keywords, including your title tags, meta descriptions, website copy, landing page copy, and blog or newsletter copy.
So, what do keywords and SEO have to do with my brand imagery, you might ask?
To create a successful marketing strategy for a company, both SEO and branding need to be considered to attract new customers and gain their loyalty. Developing a solid brand takes time, but if a business optimizes its website for good keywords and content, it is more likely to be found when searching on Google or other search engines.
Famous brands have a better organic Google ranking, showing that branding is an influential tool to help businesses build their reputation and increase their SEO ranking. But that doesn’t mean that smaller brands can’t rank well. The Importance of Branding in Web Design and SEO – Key Medium. A higher search engine ranking can help your business grow.
Google uses links to calculate the search engine ranking. If people already know about and recognize a brand, they are more likely to visit your website and link to it, thus increasing the website's ranking. Shares on social media, such as Instagram and Twitter, can also influence a business's search engine ranking. The more shares a website gets, the more potential for attracting new customers and increasing the brand's reputation. The more Google reviews a company receives, the higher they rank because Google favors its products.
A well-known, trusted brand is more likely to be clicked on even if it is not at the top of the search engine's page. People will scroll past other websites to click on yours. This automatically improves the ranking of your website, even if the other websites have more backlinks! However, links are essential for improving search engine ranking, so getting links from trustworthy websites is vital. You can do this by connecting with publishers and bloggers to get your business’ website content more press.
Branding helps to build a reputation for your company. Highly ranked websites have good quality content but also a good reputation. People discussing your business online or writing blogs about your services or products make your company perform better in search engine rankings. Every brand mention is rewarded by improving your search engine ranking. Having your brand mentioned on news websites is one of the easiest ways to get rewarded.
Search engine optimization and branding are so thoroughly linked that branding needs to be used well in order to increase search engine rankings. Your business needs to create a brand strategy that focuses on its best points, improves the brand “value”, and increases traffic to its website.
Key Medium are SEO and website design experts and can help you come up with a keyword strategy that will work for your business. Get in touch today.
In the internet’s endless expanses of marketing competition, having a website with content that stands out from the rest is a true accomplishment.
The number of publishers pulling information from tantamount sources is ever-growing. This ultimately presents troublesome obstacles when it comes to differentiating your website from the masses.
Google, as well as other search engines, look for websites that implement innovative methods of producing content that stands out when presented to other people.
But let’s face it, the internet is chock-full of recycled information. Learning how to break the cycle with unique content is essential when integrating commodity content into your website.
Commodity content refers to any content that is accessible from multiple sources. This can be anything from content vendors to the government or commercial repositories.
With the overwhelming amount of commodity content that is required for use in certain subject matters, it’s becoming quite a challenge for website owners to stand out.
There are many elements that come into play when addressing website differentiation.
The definition of differentiation is “the act or process of differentiating,” or “development from the one to the many, the simple to the complex, or the homogeneous to the heterogeneous”(Merriam-Webster Online. Educational World).
In simpler terms, differentiation is being different.
But, when addressing commodity content differentiation, it’s about more than just being different.
In order to avoid blending in with the world-wide web’s extensive tract of indistinguishable commodity content, you must truly think outside the box.
Set your website apart from the norm by avoiding clichés and focusing on which elements you can integrate into your site to boost its popularity.
Let’s address the dos and don’ts of differentiating your website, even if you have commodity content.
Differentiating Commodity Content DON’Ts
Oftentimes, writers fall victim to content traps. This means the content they are pulling from can’t be altered because it depicts information that persists from person to person.
For instance, government information is difficult to differentiate because you’re limited in the number of modifications you can make to the information’s general format.
It’s a common misconception that producing lots of content will help your site’s overall SEO ranking. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
Google elevates valuable, original content over thin, fluff-filled content. Therefore, differentiating your content with useful information that your visitors can trust is essential to establishing a legitimate SEO ranking.
Differentiating Commodity Content DOs
Every publisher should create a comparison report before commencing with the further development of their site.
It doesn’t even need to be that complex. Configuring a basic list of your competitors’ pros and cons is plenty sufficient.
Prompt for answers to questions like:
In addition to links and keywords, Google ranks websites based on content relativity and effectiveness. Essentially, Google is focusing on users rather than keywords.
Consider asking yourself these questions:
Centering your content around users will help significantly in differentiating your website from the masses.
Key Takeaways
Effectively differentiating your website, even if you have commodity content, is not as intimidating as it seems.
Developing a basic understanding of commodity content fundamentals can ultimately ensure that your site outshines your competitors.
Remember these key takeaways:
1. Understand the fundamentals of commodity content
2. Understand how to differentiate commodity content on your website
3. Avoid content traps
4. Produce valuable, original content
5. Analyze your competitors’ positive and negative qualities
6. Center your content around users
Sources:
Oftentimes, branding, marketing, public relations, and advertising seem like interchangeable terms. While they are often tied together to form a coherent and comprehensive business strategy, they do have marked differences that determine how a professional should go about content creation.
As a result, you must learn the difference between these four before hiring an agency to complete some of your business tasks. Otherwise, you may find yourself requested the wrong kind of content. We have compiled a breakdown of the four types of business messaging below so that you may be empowered in your future agency hire.
Branding boils down to how your customers perceive you and the quality of your user experience. Typically visual, branding can extend to the colors you choose for your logo, the design and optimization of your website, the fonts that you use for your business cards, and anything else that will make your business recognizable as your business to your customers. Think of branding as the image that stands out and creates a feeling of customer loyalty.
Your branding should have the ability to speak to your style, industry, and even values. At the core, your branding is your business’s customer-facing personality.
Your strategy to reach your target audience with the right content at the right time is pure marketing. This is more of a process and involves specific tools and techniques that you bring together to get your business out to the world. Marketing may include social media posts, flyers, business cards, SEO, and anything else that can be deemed as strategic for the lead generation and sales goals of your business.
Communication is crucial for businesses, regardless of whether they are consumer-facing. Your team must possess the skillset to send diplomatic emails, interface with the media, or managing a public event. Public relations consist of anything that involve your potential consumers, investors, or partners hearing what your business has to say.
You have likely set aside an advertising budget to reach your customers and generate revenue. Your advertising can include multiple outbound platforms and assets, such as print ads, pay-per click ads, newspaper content, and television ads. Basically, advertising is an outreach mechanism via any possible channel that will convince a customer to buy your product or service. This is often repetitive messaging that takes the form of traditional or modern content, depending on your customer personas.
As you can imagine, although there are variances between these four categories that do require different skillsets, there is still some overlap. For example, marketing is a large category that spans over branding, public relations, and advertising. A marketing strategy can include all three in a game plan to grow a business, but it does not have to if there isn’t a need or if the marketing budget is not enough to cover the associated costs. Additionally, public relations can be deemed as advertising if the communication outreach is for the purpose of getting the business’s products or services in the hands of the consumer.
Overall, when hiring an agency to conduct public relations, advertising, general marketing, or branding, you must be aware of these differences to fully understand and convey your business’s needs. While an agency typically has specialists in different fields, the type of content or strategy needed can affect which agency is the best selection for you.
SOURCES USED:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK7Rk7Oe588
https://www.transformationmarketing.com/marketing-vs-advertising-vs-branding-vs-public-relations/
https://www.outbrain.com/help/advertisers/branding-vs-marketing/
It is no secret that it can be challenging to capture and hold your audience's attention. This is never truer than when it comes to web content. It takes only a matter of seconds for your audience to see if they are interested in your site before deciding to click away. So, the question is, how do you keep people from leaving your website in those first few seconds?
The good news is that there are some techniques that you can incorporate into your content that will make it more likely that you will retain your audience's attention and lower your bounce rate.
1. Presentation. Presentation is critical with your site. Whether you have a blog or a website, you need to make an excellent first impression. Make sure that everything looks uniform, and keep to muted colors with a white background. You want your design to be subtle, while the content pops.
2. Headlines. Headlines are so important. Not only for SEO purposes (they help though) but also for capturing your audience. A good headline lets them know what you are going to be talking about, and what benefit there is for them. This is not just for articles, landing pages, and blog posts; it stands true for email subject lines, as well as during presentations/pitches, webinars, and during public speaking.
3. Text. The text of your content plays just as important a role as the appearance and design. You want to write with short, attention-grabbing lead text that is easy to understand and for your audience to follow along with. This article explains more about how to get your audience to read your words.
4. Novelty. If you feel that your content is droning on try throwing out something unexpected to get your audience's notice: a funny anecdote, a joke, or a story. You want to lighten things up, and slightly change the subject to get them interested again.
5. Have an offer. Make it about them and let your audience know how they are going to benefit right from the get-go.
6. Connect. Using emotion and being relatable are great ways to connect with your audience. Be personable, tell stories, and find ways for your audience to see themselves and what they need in your subject (or why your product is right for them).
If you feel that you are not retaining your audience's attention take a quick overview of your content, or approach, and see it is following all of the above. You can do this with a content audit- read more on how to do that here. Next, continue to make changes until you find the techniques that work for you and keeps your audience interested.
When you are trying to keep people interested, these are the things to remember, whether you are using speaking, writing, or design as your medium to communicate.
Key Medium, Running SEO's digital agency sister brand, are SEO marketing experts in Philadelphia can help you come up with a content strategy that will work for your business. Get in touch today.
Sources:
https://www.inc.com/sims-wyeth/how-to-capture-and-hold-audience-attention.html
https://conversionxl.com/blog/how-to-grab-and-hold-attention/
https://thevisualcommunicationguy.com/2018/11/12/how-to-grab-peoples-attention/
