Google Maps for iOS Receives ’Add a Pitstop’ Feature

Google announced the ‘Add a Pitstop’ feature within Google Maps is now available on iOS devices in all countries where navigation is offered.

The post Google Maps for iOS Receives ’Add a Pitstop’ Feature appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

SEJ Wrap-Up: Google Removes Sidebar Ads & All Google Compare Products—What’s Next? by @megcabrera

This week’s SEJ Wrap-Up is all about Google's removal of the sidebar ads, and its upcoming shutdown of its compare products.

The post SEJ Wrap-Up: Google Removes Sidebar Ads & All Google Compare Products—What’s Next? by @megcabrera appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

Win a Ticket to #SEJSummit Santa Monica! by @sayscaitlin

Want to attend #SEJSummit for free? Here's your chance. Enter our photo contest at #winSEJ16!

The post Win a Ticket to #SEJSummit Santa Monica! by @sayscaitlin appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

How to Create a Promoted Pin That Will Actually See Results by @annaleacrowe

Ever look at your Pinterest Promoted Pins and think, "There’s just something off here?" Find out how to optimize your Promoted Pins with this guide.

The post How to Create a Promoted Pin That Will Actually See Results by @annaleacrowe appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

3 Ways Digital Advertising Gives Tactical Support to Your Content Marketing Mission

In today’s digital, content-saturated world, it’s no secret that we marketers are all battling to connect, engage and inspire action from our respective audiences. As a result, having an integrated content marketing strategy is of paramount importance.

As a matter of fact, 80% of B2B marketers have some sort of content marketing strategy in place, according to the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs.

But, the question is: Are you using all the weapons in your content marketing arsenal?

Including digital advertising such as paid search ads, boosted social posts or remarketing in your tactical mix can help you hit your target. How? Well, consider the following facts and stats:

• Marketing expert Sonny Ganguly says social media advertising is set to explode in the next three years because it helps businesses find new potential clients by using users’ own shared information to identify interest. (Source)
• Users who are retargeted are 70% more likely to convert. (Source)
• A bakery saw a 35% increase in conversions and a 330% increase in impressions on the Google Display Network. (Source)
• When it comes to remarketing, Wordstream found that conversion rates increase the more users see an ad. (Source)

With a little research, planning and testing to find the right mix for your brand, digital advertising can round-out your integrated content marketing strategy. Use some of our tips below to ensure you’re getting the most out of your paid efforts.

Direct Hit: Connect with the people you know.

Marketers have a detailed picture of who they want their content to reach. And the first target is usually the known audience.

Your digital advertising weapon of choice? Remarketing or account-based style paid advertising programs.

Your known audience is the low-hanging fruit for engagement and it’s typically receptive to your content regardless of the topic. These people could be current or past customers, brand advocates, industry influencers you’ve connected with or your social following.

As an example, a TopRank Marketing client recently launched a new product within their suite of SAS software. The client knew their audience, but wanted direction on how to get the new product in front of them. We recommended a remarketing program.

The program involved remarketing several key pieces of content to different segments of our “known”  target audience with the ultimate goal of driving demo’s for the new software. The result? A 26% percent increase over their current advertising tactics.

Depending on your brand, one way to get the most out of your remarketing efforts is by spreading your targeting over multiple channels. Your audience isn’t just on one channel so showing your ads on multiple platforms will help you reach your audience wherever they are.

New Alliances: Your untapped audience.

Digital advertising allows brands to target a specific audience using keywords, affinity, topics, interests, demographics, geographic criteria, title, company—and the list goes on and on.

The tactical advantage? Delivering topical, relevant content to a previously unknown audience.

When should you use this tactic in your content marketing strategy? When you want to fill the pipeline, drive additional sales, increase product visibility or build brand awareness.

As another example, a healthcare technology client recently created several assets surrounding a dramatic change within their industry. This information was useful to a large audience and presented an ideal opportunity to reach out to those consumers via paid promotion. Our goal was to position our client as a thought leader while filling that aforementioned pipeline.

Using several targeting methodologies we were able to drive extremely high engagement with a relatively untapped audience. And the engagement numbers significantly surpassed historic performance.

If you’re just getting started with a campaign, test different messaging styles and tones, and offer different calls-to-action and assets. If you do this, you’ll soon have a clear understanding of the type of content your audience is asking for and how they want that information delivered to them.

Special Forces: Discover insights that allow you to tailor content to your audience, known and unknown.

Having accurate intel is important to every mission. When you launch a digital advertising campaign, whether it be on social platforms or search engines, you begin to collect valuable insights and metrics that you can use to plan your next move.

For example, paid search campaigns feature search query reports. These reports show all of the search queries that resulted in your ad being shown. You’re able to see exactly what people are searching for, and use that information to create content that fits with the intent and terminology your audience is actually using.

Make sure all of your tracking dots are connected so you can review the data for even better better targeting and content on your next mission. For example, if you’re running paid search ads on Google, make sure you have a campaign synced to your Google Analytics account or whatever tracking software you might be using. This will ensure that the proper data collection is happening. You’ll easily be able to evaluate what is and isn’t working as consumers move through your landing page and dive deeper into your site.

It’s also a good idea to look outside the chosen tracking platform for other engagement data. This allows you to add some additional context to the data you’re receiving, and this is often the true test of content and paid promotion.

The digital world is a marketing battlefield where an integrated plan of attack is essential to survival. And adding a digital advertising program to your marketing mix will help you gain a tactical advantage. From using remarketing to keep your products top-of-mind to targeting new customers through paid search, digital advertising programs not only support your content marketing efforts, but provide a nice little boost, too.

What’s been your experience with digital advertising? What type of paid ads have been the most successful or least successful for you? Tell us in the comments section below.

Want to learn more about digital advertising and how it can fit with your content marketing strategy? Check out this case study that details how Facebook ads helped a Minnesota resort increase booking requests by 500%!

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© Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®, 2016. | 3 Ways Digital Advertising Gives Tactical Support to Your Content Marketing Mission | http://www.toprankblog.com

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5 Reasons Why Audiences Only Accept Remarkable Content and Ideas by @cognitiveSEO

No matter how powerful a story is in itself, we’re going to like it more if it feeds our curiosity. Here's why audiences only accept remarkable content.

The post 5 Reasons Why Audiences Only Accept Remarkable Content and Ideas by @cognitiveSEO appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

How Important are Tags in 2016 for SEO? by @ab80

Arguably one of the most crucial aspects of on-page SEO is tags. But are they still as important and as effective in 2016 as they have been in the past?

The post How Important are Tags in 2016 for SEO? by @ab80 appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

Google Says AMP Not A Ranking Factor (But Does it Matter At This Point?)

Responding to a question asked in a Google+ Hangout, Google’s John Mueller officially stated AMP is not a ranking factor at this point.

The post Google Says AMP Not A Ranking Factor (But Does it Matter At This Point?) appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

Head of Wikimedia Resigns After Search Engine Plans Leak

The recent leak of documents which detail Wikimedia Foundation’s plans to build a search engine have led to the resignation its executive director.

The post Head of Wikimedia Resigns After Search Engine Plans Leak appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

Google Search Console Not Showing Your AMP Pages? Here’s Why

The short answer is because “abrupt changes take time to be visible in Search Console.”

The post Google Search Console Not Showing Your AMP Pages? Here’s Why appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

Don’t be Sucked in by #SEO Lies by @LEWatrous

Want to make sure you’re not getting swindled by SEO companies? Watch out for these SEO lies.

The post Don’t be Sucked in by #SEO Lies by @LEWatrous appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

#MarketingNerds: Eric Siegel Goes In-Depth on Predictive Analytics by @brentcsutoras

Eric Siegel takes a deeper look at what Predictive Analytics really is and how businesses can use it to make important decisions and improve success.

The post #MarketingNerds: Eric Siegel Goes In-Depth on Predictive Analytics by @brentcsutoras appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

Online Marketing News: Pinterest Matters, Google Loses Sidebar Ads and Facebook Reacts

Why Pinterest Matters to Marketing [Infographic]
Did you know that Pinterest is the third most popular social network in the US, behind Facebook and Twitter? That statistic came as a surprise to me. But what isn’t surprising is the rise in brands that are using Pinterest as part of their social and content marketing strategy. While the platform is easy to use and visually appealing, there’s more to using the platform effectively than meets the eye. This infographic details the demographics of the Pinterest audience, the best time to post, and even what post categories work best on which days. WebpageFX

Google Removes Right Hand Sidebar Ads
Starting on February 19th, Google began phasing out sidebar ads from their search engine results pages. They will now show one to four ads before the organic search results, and the rest will be pushed to the bottom of the page. The update – which is described as “global and permanent” will only apply to desktop searches, which may affect the traffic you see from desktop devices. According to Search Engine Journal: “High volume and general search terms have been most severely affected by the update so far. Long-tail and niche terms will begin to see their right hand ads disappear in the coming weeks.” This change hasn’t yet rolled out to mobile, so it remains to be seen if/when that will happen and what the results will be. Search Engine Journal

Facebook’s Reactions are Here – Here’s How They’ll Change Your Approach to Facebook Marketing
If you’re like me, you went on Facebook earlier this week and noticed something odd — in addition to the Like button, there were options for reactions as well: Love, Haha, Wow, Sad and Angry. Pretty cool, right? These alleviate the commonly expressed concerns about Liking sad or negative statuses in an effort to show support, and also allow users to express other emotions, even if they aren’t ready or willing to leave a comment at the time. If you haven’t seen them yet, go ahead an log into Facebook and take them for a spin. I’ll wait. My only complaint is that we still don’t have a ‘Dislike’ button – but maybe that will make it through phase two. Social Media Today

From the @toprank Twitter Community

Instagram Now Has More Advertisers Than Twitter
According to Marketing Land: “Seemingly as a result of all those moves, Instagram now claims more than 200,000 active advertisers as of February 2016, the Facebook-owned photo-and-video-sharing service announced on Wednesday. That number may pale in comparison to Instagram’s parent company — Facebook claims more than 2.5 million advertisers — but it trumps Twitter, which had more than 130,000 active advertisers as of the fourth quarter of 2015.” Although Instagram has probably had some serious help ramping up their advertising platform from their parent company, Facebook, it still says a lot about the direction online advertising seems to be taking. The ability to easily purchase ads from anywhere, and in formats that can contain links or extended video, makes a difference for online marketers. Marketing Land

Here’s Why You’re Failing By Ignoring LinkedIn As a Content Platform (Study)
According to a recent study from Wibbitz, more people (28% vs 24%) prefer reading their news online than seeing it on TV. This could have quite a bit to do with the variety of sources to choose from online compared to the relatively limited amount available on TV. That same study found that 67% of LinkedIn users polled considered themselves “news junkies”. So what does that mean for digital marketers? If you have relevant industry news or content, especially for those brands in the B2B sector, it makes sense to include LinkedIn in your content marketing strategy. Read more on SocialTimes.

Google To Shut Down Google Compare Products In US And UK On March 23
In a letter from Google to Compare partners, Google wrote: “Beginning on February 23, 2016, we will start ramping down the Google Compare product, which is currently live in both the US and UK. We plan to terminate the service as of March 23, 2016.” Google cites lack of success as their primary reason for shutting down the lead generation product that serviced the credit card, auto insurance, mortgage and travel insurance industries. Search Engine Land reported: “A Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land that while searches on these queries remained high, the product didn’t get the traction it hoped for and revenue was minimal.” The next step, according to Google, is a focus on transitioning these partners to standard AdWords products. Search Engine Land

Adobe Launches App Creation & Management Tool For Marketers
Adobe is hoping to make app creation and management easier for marketers, according to Marketing Land. The new Experience Manager Mobile app, launched as part of Marking Cloud, is meant to simply app creation and management, making it almost as easy to manage your mobile app(s) as it is to manage your website(s). With the rising popularity of mobile web and app use for shopping, consuming content, and myriad other activities, it’s not surprise that an organization like Adobe would come up with a way to make the lives of marketers a bit easier. But, my prediction is that as we’ve seen with ‘do it yourself’ website development tools, is that while you can certainly create apps on your own, but at some point you’ll need to harness the knowledge of someone who knows more about mobile development for it to be successful. But, only time will tell.  Marketing Land

What were the top online and digital marketing news stories for you this week?

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend! I’ll be back next week with more online marketing news. Have something to share? Tweet me at @Tiffani_Allen or send it to @toprank!

Infographic – WebpageFX

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Introducing SEJ’s New Bi-Weekly Column: Ask an #SEO by @wonderwall7

Got burning SEO questions? Now is the right time to Ask an SEO!

The post Introducing SEJ’s New Bi-Weekly Column: Ask an #SEO by @wonderwall7 appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

5 Examples of Social Media Celebrity Endorsements That Paid off Big Time by @mindydweinstein

Why are brands using celebrity endorsements in social media campaigns? Because it works. Discover which five campaigns paid off big time.

The post 5 Examples of Social Media Celebrity Endorsements That Paid off Big Time by @mindydweinstein appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

Is Your Digital Marketing Strategy Red Carpet Worthy?

The music. The movies. The stars. The glitz. The glam. And, of course, the flawless—or sometimes flawed—red carpet looks.

Oh yes. It’s Oscar Season.

What’s been dubbed as “Hollywood’s Biggest Night” is set for the eve of Sunday, Feb. 28. And while watching one of your favorite stars take home a golden statue can be exciting, it seems like the one thing people are most eager to see are the gorgeous looks stars are rocking on the red carpet.

But looking radiant on the red carpet isn’t just about finding the perfect shoes or the perfect dress or having every hair in place. It’s about the entire ensemble working together to pull off the perfection to make you unforgettable.

And the same goes for your integrated digital marketing strategy. Integration, using multiple types of content and marketing tactics, is the key to success.

An integrated approach to your digital marketing strategy allows you to reach your audience on a variety of platforms and at multiple touch points throughout the buying process. In fact, case studies reveal that integrated customer journeys provide a competitive advantage, in some cases doubling sales year over year.
An actress wouldn’t show up to the Academy Awards wearing an ill-fitting dress and mismatched shoes. So use some of the tips and best practices below to make sure your integrated digital marketing strategy is red carpet ready.

The Dress = Quality Content

The dress is the foundation of a stellar red carpet look. It’s often the most talked about and it serves as the starting point for any accessory selection. Get the dress right and you’re sure to steal the spotlight.

Similarly, quality content is the essential bedrock of your integrated digital marketing strategy. Quality content needs to provide value. Without quality content, you can’t engage your audience, create brand awareness or ensure that your content is even seen.

For the best foundation, do your research and create target personas. Understanding who you want to reach, the questions they’re asking, the searches they’re performing and the pain points they have will guide your content creation.

The Jewelry = SEO

The jewelry is what adds all the glam. It sparkles. It shines. It adds a touch of majesty. And that’s exactly what SEO does to that quality content. It dresses it all up and commands the attention of the audience—or search engines.

When it comes to SEO, remember that user experience and search engines need to be taken into consideration. Just like a piece of gaudy jewelry can draw negative attention on the red carpet, keyword stuffing can not only turn off your audience, but also send negative signals to search engines.

Also, don’t just focus on the keywords you want to rank for. Take some time to research the trends and topics that your ideal customers are searching for.

(Get more tips on optimizing for humans and search engines.)

The Shoes = Social Media Marketing

The shoes add serious support during the red carpet stroll. They carry you through the entire night as you meet new people and pose with old friends. Your social presence reinforces all your other efforts by amplifying your message to your biggest fans, while presenting opportunities to widen your audience.

Since the shoes have to match the dress, planning and coordination are musts. The same goes for your social media strategy. During the content planning process, determine how you will use social media to amplify content and how you will measure success.

When it comes to taking the red carpet walk on social media, one great way to ensure message amplification is to create pre-written messages. These messages make it easy for employees, influencers, customers and contributors to share the content.

The Purse = Digital Advertising

While some starlets go without, those who choose to accessorize with a purse are able to keep all the necessary tools to stay looking flawless. Digital Advertising allows you to touch up or add a nice boost all your other digital marketing efforts. You can take that optimized, quality content and put it in front of a targeted set of eyes. This results in better conversion rates, more brand awareness and compliments all your other efforts nicely.

One effective digital advertising option is remarketing. A remarketing program uses a specific group of ads to target people who have recently visited your website or digital property. Remarketing adds another touch-point on the customer journey, and helps keep your brand or product top-of-mind. The best part? It’s one of the easiest and most cost-effective way to re-engage and already engaged audience. It’s like that Oscar-nominated film …

The Date = Influencers

No red carpet walk would be complete without a stunning and well-respected date to lend you his or her arm, show you off and get some buzz going. Influencers do all that and more. They can co-create more quality content, introduce your brand to a new audience, and amplify your content by sharing it with their communities and followers. And like landing fabulous date to the Academy Awards generates buzz, influencers can add serious credibility to your brand.

Choosing the right influencers—like being escorted by the right date—is essential. Using recruiting tools like Traackr and search tools such as Buzzsumo can help you identify relevant influential people to reach out to. When you’ve identified your influencers, spend some time connecting with them on social platforms to build a foundation before you reach out.

The Total Package

The dress. The shoes. The jewelry. The purse. The date. They all work together to create the perfect look—the total package. And the same goes for your digital marketing strategy. It’s not just content. It’s not just SEO. It’s not just social. It’s all about integrating those tactics in a way that helps you reach your objectives and be a showstopper to your audience.

Now the question is: Is your digital marketing strategy red carpet ready? If you’re looking for a stylist, TopRank Marketing would love to help. Get in touch with us today.

Header image via Shutterstock

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© Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®, 2016. | Is Your Digital Marketing Strategy Red Carpet Worthy? | http://www.toprankblog.com

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The Evolution of the Like Button: Facebook Rolls Out Reactions

Facebook has rolled out Reactions, its anticipated extension of the Like button.

The post The Evolution of the Like Button: Facebook Rolls Out Reactions appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

Send Places to Your Phone From Google’s Knowledge Graph Panels

Google has quietly rolled out the ability to send information about places directly from search results to your smartphone.

The post Send Places to Your Phone From Google’s Knowledge Graph Panels appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

7 Data-Driven Tactics Travel Marketers Need to Use Now by @ZoeLeeSkelton

What can travel marketers do to ensure they’re reaching their market? Here are seven data-driven tactics to help travel marketers reach their audience.

The post 7 Data-Driven Tactics Travel Marketers Need to Use Now by @ZoeLeeSkelton appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

Study Shows Outgoing Links Have Positive Effects on SEO

A study conducted by marketing firm Reboot aims to show that there is a positive correlation between a page’s outgoing links and its search rankings.

The post Study Shows Outgoing Links Have Positive Effects on SEO appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) Already Live For Some

Google’s anticipated Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project is already being seen by some searchers ahead of the official February 24 launch date.

The post Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) Already Live For Some appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

How to Create Relationships With Influencers to Boost Your Content Reach by @JuliaEMcCoy

Learn how to boost your content marketing outreach hugely by connecting with powerful influencers in your niche. Julia McCoy breaks down the key steps.

The post How to Create Relationships With Influencers to Boost Your Content Reach by @JuliaEMcCoy appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

Empathy in Content Marketing: Three Stories to Tell Your Audience

You are (presumably) a person. The people you are trying to reach with your brand’s message are, amazingly, people as well. Content works better when it comes from a place of empathy—that is, when you know your audience and can speak to them on a personal level.

For example, I can use my astounding powers of empathy to read your mind right now. “For crying out loud,” you’re saying, “tell me something I don’t know, Nite. I know what empathy is. I know it makes marketing better. Quit wasting my time!”

See? It’s like magic.

Empathy starts with a deep understanding of your audience, gained by social listening, interviews, and persona-building. But you can have a deep understanding of your audience and still fail to tell the stories that will engage them. When you use the insight you have to tell a story that resonates, that’s empathy in action.

Here are three types of empathetic stories you can tell in your content, complete with examples from brands who got it right. Note these types of stories all go beyond the intersection of person and brand—they consider people beyond the small data point where they become customers.

#1 – Tell them It’s Going to Be Okay

Let’s face it: No matter how mature you may be, no matter how many challenges you have faced and overcome in life, there’s a scared child curled up in a ball at the base of your brain. We have a primal human need to have someone say, “Hey, it’s going to be okay. I know things are bad right now, but we’re going to find a way through it.”

That’s why I love this ad from CVS. In 30 seconds, it clearly addresses a specific audience, tells them it’s going to be okay, and tells them why.

It may lean a little too heavily on the promotional side in those last few seconds, but it’s in the context of, “you’re going to be okay, because we’re going to help you.” As someone who is intimately familiar with the little days-of-the-week pill boxes, these 30 dialog-free seconds had me blinking back tears.

#2 – Tell them What they Need to Know (NOT What You Want to Say)

Speaking of blinking back tears, take a few minutes to watch this short video from Extra Space Storage.

I’ll wait while you grab a tissue. It sure is dusty in the office today, isn’t it? Makes your eyes water like crazy.

Extra Space Storage had a message about their brand they wanted to get across: “We have storage solutions for people starting a family.” That’s what they needed to say. But that’s not what their target audience needs to hear.

To get at the right story for their target audience of couples freaked out about having a baby, they brought in a multi-cultural, multi-generational cast of real-life parents to give their best advice. The result is a heartwarming, genuinely informative, funny, touching video. That also, by the way, conveys the message the brand wanted to get across in the first place.

#3 – Tell them the Hard Truth (with Humor)

After those first two videos, I’m sure some of my fellow B2B marketers are feeling a growing sense of despair. Sure, those B2C guys can make beautiful videos about health and babies and whatnot. But we’re talking about serious business things with serious business people.

Take IBM for example. Their research lab is addressing some of the most serious problems facing the planet today. Like the ultra-critical issue of our out-of-control agricultural system. You can’t convey that type of information with, say, a funny cartoon:

Or maybe you can. IBM doesn’t skimp on the hard facts in this brief video, but uses humor to keep it relatable and make the message easier to swallow. They let the URL at the end do the heavy lifting to keep the video short and zippy. Most importantly, they remember that behind every ‘B’ in B2B, there’s a person.

Put the “Path” in Empathy

Content marketing requires putting the empathy you have for your audience to a constructive purpose. When you empathetically tell the story they need to hear, you can help lead them to the place they need to go. And that place just happens to be—thanks to your smart targeting and thorough research—where your solution is the best answer.

How do you put empathy in action in your marketing efforts? Let me know in the comments.

Could your business use stellar content with solid strategy to back it up? We’re here to help.

Header image via Shutterstock

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How to Create Powerful “Linkable Assets” In 3 Steps Using Ahrefs by @sejournal

What does a white-hat SEO do when they need to naturally attract a ton of links to their client’s site? Create a linkable asset.

The post How to Create Powerful “Linkable Assets” In 3 Steps Using Ahrefs by @sejournal appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

Snapchat Now Lets You Order Custom-Designed Geofilters

Snapchat’s latest endeavor to monetize its app is offering on-demand Geofilters, which can be created virtually anywhere.

The post Snapchat Now Lets You Order Custom-Designed Geofilters appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

How to Use Video to Illicit Human Connection: An Interview with #SEJSummit Speaker Melissa Palazzo-Hart by @wonderwall7

In this interview, we discuss how video can create emotions in your customers, causing them to react, share, and interact deeper with your brand.

The post How to Use Video to Illicit Human Connection: An Interview with #SEJSummit Speaker Melissa Palazzo-Hart by @wonderwall7 appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

50 Awesome Women in Marketing to Follow by @texasgirlerin

International Women's Day is on March 8, and what a better way to celebrate it than to check out this list of 50 women marketers to follow.

The post 50 Awesome Women in Marketing to Follow by @texasgirlerin appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

Heidi Bullock of Marketo Helps Uncover Ways to Engage Self-Directed Buyers

Last week at the Content2Conversion conference, Heidi Bullock, VP of Demand Generation at Marketo took the stage and covered a topic that is top of mind for all marketers. That is, how to create the right message at the right time to meet the needs of customers.

Today’s self-directed buyers typically go through up to 90% of their purchasing journey on their own. Which means that marketers need to find a way to build credibility, without even speaking with customers directly. Below we’ll discover some best practices for creating engaging to better meet the needs of self-directed buyers.

Content Marketing for Self-Directed Buyers

According to a 2016 report from MarketingProfs and Content Marketing Institute, B2B marketers list “producing engaging content” as their top challenge, followed closely by “measuring content effectiveness” and “producing content consistently”. To help with this top need, Heidi provided a formula for creating engaging content:

E = Relevant Content + Right Time +Personal

Let’s break down the different elements of that formula to see what changes can be made to your program to begin creating more engaging content.

Create Relevant Content

In the example Heidi provided, you’ll see how the team at Marketo creates different content for their different customer groups. That means, when someone in higher education is searching for a solution, they won’t find a generic message that is meant to apply to a bunch of different prospects across the board.

Additionally, you can follow these tips for creating more relevant and engaging content:

• Address a Need: Create content that shows you understand what readers care about.
• Be Relatable: Know your audience and speak in a language that they can connect with.
• Make a Point: Use content to make a point, and get to it quickly.
• Standout: Create content that differentiates you from your competition.
• Listen to Input: Information can be gathered from sales teams, social media websites and customers to create more engaging content.

You can also create a better experience for your customers by providing them different content types to consume and share such as:

• Webinars
• SlideShare Presentations
• Videos
• Blog Posts
• Podcasts
• Infographics
• Activity Books/Worksheets
• Articles

Present Content at the Right Time

Different content types and whether they are gated or un-gated should be mapped to the customer journey. Below are examples of early, middle and late stage content types and whether they should be gated or not:

Marketers can implement lead scoring systems to rank leads in a way that helps determine sales-readiness. So, the type of content that your prospects are accessing can help shine a light on which stage of the buying cycle they are currently in.

Personalize the Content Experience

True execution and measurement of personalized content is still something that is very new to most marketers. However, a recent study from HubSpot found that personalized calls-to-action have a 42% higher conversion rate than those that are the same for all visitors.

Opportunities to personalize content exist in many places such as your website, video, social media, email and mobile. Other tactics such as retargeting have become increasingly popular, but results can be improved with the use of personalized retargeting as shown below.

With the amount of information available, marketers can now begin to leverage the behaviors and profiles of both professionals and consumers by uncovering and incorporating the following information:

Professionals:

• Industry
• Organization
• Target Account
• Revenue/Size
• Region
• Persona
• Buying Stage
• Products Owned

Consumers:

• Geo-location
• Price Sensitivity
• Purchase History
• Buying Intent
• Engagement
• Customer Profile
• Offers Accepted

The Importance of Measuring Marketing ROI

While anyone will tell you measuring conversions from your marketing efforts is key, many marketers still overlook the importance of measuring the multiple touch points that customers Go through before finally converting. It’s very rare that a prospect will see one piece of content and then immediately hire a company. There is credibility and trust that is built up over time, from multiple sources that typically encourages that type of action.

Below is an example of a conversion that could happen over 3 months, and many touch points:

Each of these different steps should have a value attached to them so that marketers can track the potential in revenue for each piece of marketing material.

You can view Heidi’s full presentation below:

What Did We Learn?

In order for content marketing to be successful, you have to develop messages that are relevant to your audience, at the right time and in a way that is personalized to their needs. Using the tools available to listen across departments and directly with customers MUST inform your content strategy.

What have you found to be your biggest challenges in creating relevant engaging content for your audience?

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© Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®, 2016. | Heidi Bullock of Marketo Helps Uncover Ways to Engage Self-Directed Buyers | http://www.toprankblog.com

The post Heidi Bullock of Marketo Helps Uncover Ways to Engage Self-Directed Buyers appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.