Yabsta Digital » content marketing

An Introduction to Content Marketing

Paul Dobinson — Wed, 12 Nov 2014 17:34:54 +0000

Marketing used to be much simpler. There were print publications, posters, newspapers, TV or radio (if your budget allowed), mailshots and, well, that was pretty much it. Over time, it has grown to include more and more media channels, creating a mix that can be overwhelming, at times, for the advertiser.

The digital marketing sphere includes banner ads, websites, online articles, social media, blogs, email, advertorials and more, and the list continues to grow. Web users are becoming increasingly web savvy, leading to an increased need for thoughtful, engaging tactics.

According to the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer 63% of consumers need to hear company claims 3 to 5 times before they’ll actually believe them!

In today’s advanced day and age, it’s easy for users to avoid your message. Mobile browsing has overtaken magazines in waiting rooms and favourite television shows are frequently downloaded, allowing users to skip through commercials or avoid them altogether. Many businesses are experiencing a decline in online advertising Return On Investment as the popularity of banner ads on the Web decreases and people click less on them unless they have a clear call to action.

Instead, the informed buyer is now doing their own research. Rapidly consuming digital content, they are carrying out research online, finding content from local resource sites and search engines like Google and Bing. As such, it’s important to ensure that your details are in front of them when they are looking for you, across multiple channels.

More and more, as marketers and business owners, we need the target audience’s permission to engage with them – and content marketing (link to in-depth explanation) is a great way to do this. Creating high quality, relevant and valuable content aimed at your customers, and publishing it far and wide, ensures that your message is waiting to be seen. Additionally, capturing the interest of your audience allows you to personalize and tailor future messages. Many publishing and analytics tools (link to one?) allow you to further refine where and when you publish content, increasing your marketing efficiency.

Content marketing allows you to:

Be seen – your customers will read your material because it is relevant and they are ready for it

Build trust – you will be seen as an expert in your field

Be smart – out-manoeuvre without outspending your competition

Want to learn more? Call a Yabsta Digital representative today. We can put you on the map!

Images courtesy of http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

10 Ways To Get Your Blog Posts To Go Viral

Kristen Scott — Tue, 21 Oct 2014 23:47:59 +0000

Wondering whether it’s even possible to go viral without a million dollar budget? It most certainly is. While having quality content is one thing, you have to put in a little bit of work to make it go. Most of the time, if not all of the time, this means that you have to place it in front of readers’ eyes in order to be found through all the noise. Below are 10 ways to get your blog posts to go viral.

1. Optimize Your Post

If you’ve been here before, you will already know the importance of using keywords in your blog posts. A recent study by blogger.com from August 2014, shows that although 60% of businesses have blogs, 65% of those spaces haven’t been updated in the past year. So whether you’re old or new to us, we suggest that there’s nothing wrong with giving all of your posts an SEO review.

It’s important to keep your content fresh and modestly packed with keywords that are relevant to what people are searching for today. Not to mention, adding SEO to your images which are just another opportunity to be found on the web.

2. Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest

If you don’t have time for anything else, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are your main channels through which to send your posts out to the sphere. If you didn’t catch it, our latest piece taught you how you can create Social Media Posts on the Fly using our Professional Online Marketing Toolkit. Sending your post through these channels will be the first place to go and will continue to get you the same amount of attention—so far this is probably getting you likes, but we can do better.

3. StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon was founded in 2002 and is a discovery engine that finds and recommends web content to its users—being you. After you sign up for an account you are able to “stumble” and rate different blogs and webpages, and others will be doing the same for you. This means that you will be getting more views that can translate to more likes and shares of your content.

4. Google +

Many people have created an account, but aren’t really sure how to maximize its use. In their Complete Guide, Mashable asks users why someone should use Google+. They received over 500 positive responses advocating for the platform including: “a cleaner way to selectively share data with others,” “a lack of distracting elements,” the ability to “share based on mutual interests and get exposure to interesting people and ideas”. Google+, at the end of 2013, was receiving 1.2 million page views per month.

5. Delicious

Similar to StumbleUpon, Delicious is a social bookmarking web service for discovering new web pages according to interests. They make it very simple to add web pages.

6. Friends and Colleagues

Don’t be shy about asking friends and colleagues to share your content. As long as it’s quality (which we already know that it is), your associates won’t mind giving it a little push. The more people in your circles you get to pass it on means more exposure to their circles and so on.

7. Link to Your Own Past Blog Posts

Wherever possible, link to your past blog posts. Just because it was written last month, doesn’t mean that it isn’t still relevant to your reader. Presenting them with a link lets them know that it’s there. By doing this, you’re still adding to the virality of your past posts while simultaneously enhancing the information on your most recent—creating more reason for people to share.

8. Reference Other People’s Blog Posts

Referencing content from other people or businesses with the same interests helps you to get noticed. Directing people to other experts in your field shows that you are familiar with the leaders in your industry, the literature that they write and you aren’t afraid to share the wealth. These people will come to you for their next question.

9. Add it to Your Newsletter

If you are writing for a business blog, they may send out a monthly newsletter to keep your potential customers updated on the latest news in your company. You’ll want to secure a spot to include a summary of your posts for the month—these readers are actually interested in receiving your content.

10. Add it to Your Signature

Adding your URL to the bottom of your email signature is simple, but effective. Add the name of your blog plus a path to click and you’ve instantly increased the potential eyes on your space. You’ll be promoting your content without even thinking about it.

Optimizing your post, shameless social media posting, subscribing to social bookmarking sites, sharing within your own circles, back-linking, using your company newsletter and adding to your email signature are all ways to make your blog posts go viral. Add these steps to your marketing mix when promoting your blogs and watch your numbers immediately increase.

Let us know the results with any comments or questions on Facebook.

The Top 5 SEO Don’ts: Part 1

Chelsea Oliver — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 12:07:55 +0000

SEO, or search engine optimization, is key to getting found online in 2014. As a business owner, however, it can be difficult to separate the good advice from the not-so-good when it comes to following the parameters set by large search engines like Google. Avoiding the following 5 don’ts is key to implementing a strategy that gets results.

Don’t Steal Content

Plagiarized, or duplicate, content is a big no-no in the world of the Web. While taking small sections from other sources and citing them properly is permitted, think twice before you copy and paste information that belongs to others. Google, which values unique, valuable content, will figure it out.

Don’t Stuff Keywords

A well-known black hat trick, keyword stuffing is the practice of adding extra keywords (in some cases, many extra keywords) to page content in order to try and improve rankings on search engine results pages, or SERPs. Outdated and considered poor etiquette, you’re much better off not.

Don’t Use Link Schemes

A technique that used to be all the rage, Google has been cracking down on websites with unnatural link schemes via updates like Penguin 2.0. This includes using article directories, blog comments, link farms, hidden links and similar tactics to build backlinks to your website that, unfortunately, won’t be recognized as legitimate.

Don’t Rely on Content Spinning

Spinning content, or rewriting existing articles so that they appear different to search engines, is an SEO don’t due to the increasing focus on originality. Many of the for-hire writing services turn out inferior work at a low cost and, while you may not be flagged for duplicate content, readers gain no value from this. Repurposing content, if necessary, is a much better bet.

Don’t Spam Users with Ads

At the risk of sounding repetitive, a key part of SEO these days is, to put it simply, creating websites based around offering real content to real users. Google is getting better at detecting this, meaning sites that are overrun with advertisements are less likely to rank properly. Part of search engine optimization is offering a great user experience.

When it comes to SEO, stuffing keywords, stealing information, building unnatural links, spinning content and going overboard on ads are 5 key don’ts. Learn more about the relationship between businesses and search engine optimization here and here and stay tuned for Part 2 for 5 more tips!

Image Credit: SEO Punishment by Sean MacEntee, CC license

Adapting To The New SEO

Charles Doyle — Fri, 06 Sep 2013 12:51:45 +0000

Any business owner who closely monitors their website traffic will know that 2012-2013 has been a game-changing period for the SEO industry. An infamous algorithm update to Google’s main search engine in April 2012 cause thousands upon thousands of businesses to lose their prominent rankings as a result of the tech giant’s crackdown on what they perceived to be shady traffic-driving practices. As if that wasn’t enough, May 2013 saw a second version of this update released, catching many businesses off guard and producing almost the same results en masse. Welcome to the new SEO.

If you’re a business owner whose website has lost traffic as a result of these algorithm updates, you’re likely not concerned with the technicalities behind the drop, and more with how to fix it ASAP, however, understanding the basic inner workings of SEO is key to mapping out a recovery strategy. Here are some tips to help get you back on track:

Understand The Difference Between On-Page & Off-Page SEO

This may sound obvious to those already aware, but you’d be surprised at how many small business owners with websites don’t even know what SEO stands for (it’s Search Engine Optimization, by the way). The two main types of SEO are on-page and off-page. In a nutshell, on-page SEO refers to changes made physically on your site (eg. writing new copy, assigning meta tags), whereas off-page refers to how many other websites, social media platforms and blogs are linking back to your site as an indicator of quality content. To be clear, Penguin 1.0 and 2.0 affected peoples’ off-page SEO significantly more than their on-page (if at all) because the algorithms’ main purpose was to punish websites who engaged in black hat back linking techniques. By running an on-page SEO checklist for your own website, you can officially rule out the issue being an internal problem and focus on what’s really keeping you down.

Be Prepared To Write & Reach Out

With the Penguin updates, Google has essentially backed business owners into and corner and forced them to reevaluate their existing traffic-driving strategies. If you were buying links pre-penguin, that’s now a no-no, so you should be prepared to dedicate resources to things like blogging, social media and link exchanges with reputable websites. The new SEO revolves around content, content, content, and it’s your responsibility to produce and market the kind of content that is both interesting to your target audience and relevant to your business. Run a sports shop? Write a weekly blog about the latest equipment or industry trends and encourage your readership to comment on it. Own a restaurant and want more customers? Start a Facebook page, regularly update it with your daily/weekly specials and encouraging people to click through to your website for a deeper look at the menu. Want to expand your link portfolio in an honest, white-hat way? Reach out to other local businesses and encourage them to do a link exchange with you (it’s win-win). Always be thinking of new ways to write intriguing copy and reach out to your clients and/or potential customers.