Simply put, CRO is the practice of testing web pages to encourage visitors to take actions that drive value; uCRO is the practice of testing web pages to encourage visitors to *not* take actions which decrease profitability.
The post How to Increase Profits Using uCRO by @davidvmc appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
It can be challenging to maintain high performance and stay competitive without a constant pulse on the Google ad platform. Here are some next-level tactics that can help supercharge underperforming PPC campaigns.
The post 4 Tactics to Supercharge Your PPC Campaigns by @HollystarPR appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
In today’s digital world, marketers know that creating quality content is key to informing, engaging and inspiring action, as well as building authority and rapport with their audiences. And oftentimes that means creating original pieces and assets that tap into their audience’s interests, address pain points and answer burning questions.
But let’s face it: marketers are busy—and creating quality, original pieces that get results and position your brand as having the best answer is incredibly time intensive.
However, there is one tactic that can come to the rescue: content curation.
Simply put, content curation is all about finding, gathering and sharing the best and most relevant content the web has to offer on a specific topic that your audience cares about.
First off, you’re likely already doing it in some capacity. According to Curata, more than 83% of marketers curate and share content from third party sources with their customers or prospects.
Secondly, content curation can add value, quality and credibility to your content marketing efforts and your brand. Curata also reports that over 50% of marketers say content curation has increased their brand visibility, thought leadership, SEO, web traffic and buyer engagement, and 41% of marketers say the number of quality or sales-ready leads increased, too.
Finally, as previously mentioned, content creation allows you to create quality, compelling content in less time. As TopRank Marketing’s CEO Lee Odden wrote in his book Optimize:
“Pure creation is demanding. Pure automation doesn’t engage. Curating content can provide the best of both.”
Whether you’re thinking about adding content curation to your tactical mix or looking for ideas to boost the quality of your curation efforts, below we offer some best practices, tips, tool suggestions and some examples of how brands are doing it.
Remember that content curation is all about finding and sharing the best of the best content that’s out there, so take time to find and document credible, quality sources that you can consistently pull from. This will not only ensure you’re sharing the best stuff, but it’ll also increase your efficiency.
Wondering where to look? Here are some ideas to get you started:
As another tip, consider conducting your own poll or survey to collect insights that can be rolled into other pieces of content.
“Content curation is all about finding and sharing the best of the best content.”
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Stay focused on just a handful of different topics and themes that are relevant to your audience. This will ensure that your curated content resonates and show that your brand or company has is knowledgeable and dialed in on those subjects.
As for the type of content you should be looking out for, here are some to consider:
You know that time, resources and a little love went into creating all the pieces you’ve curated. So whether you’re sharing on social media or working the content into a blog post, make sure you’re giving the original writer and/or publication credit for their hard work.
If you want your content curation efforts to be successful and effective, consistency is key. In addition, this tactic needs to be integrated into your overall content marketing strategy.
The frequency and curated mix that’s right for your brand will depend on your industry, overall marketing strategy and goals, but 2-4 curated social media posts a day and a monthly blog roundup could be a good starting point.
“If you want your content curation efforts to be successful and effective, consistency is key.”
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Your customers, prospects and partners are likely creating some great content. Highlight that content to show them you’re in touch with their business and help you serve up relevant content to your audience.
While curated content may not be your work, you should still share and promote it like your own to get more reach, engagement and awareness. Remember that variety is the spice of life. Below are some places to publish and share include:
There are a number of helpful content curation and distribution tools out there. Use them to streamline your processes so you can consistently share find and share. Below are some free and paid options to consider:
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
Each week, the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions publishes a “Top Trending Content” blog post focused on what’s happening and what’s being talked about in the marketing world.
Below is a shot of one of their latest posts.
BuzzFeed
BuzzFeed is a champion of curated content, utilizing a variety of sources to compile silly, interesting, newsworthy and timely posts each day. While the example below isn’t exactly hard hitting news or focused on helpful tips, it definitely employs a number of content curation best practices such as utilizing social sharing platforms, crediting sources and focusing on a specific topic their readers will enjoy.
Innovatech Labs
Big brands and companies aren’t the only ones who can find interesting and relevant content to curate for their unique audiences. There’s also opportunity for smaller and niche businesses to do it, too.
Innovatech Labs is a materials testing lab that uses several analytical testing techniques, which are useful to many manufacturers who want to ensure product quality and cleanliness. Each month, Innovatech Labs publishes an Analytical Testing News Roundup featuring interesting articles that showcase how those techniques are being used in the real world.
TopRank Marketing
TopRank Marketing’s social news feeds feature a hearty mix of commentary, photos, links to original content and, of course, curated content links. Here’s a peek at our recent Twitter posts, highlighting great content from some of our favorite sources.
HubSpot
HubSpot’s “The Ultimate List of Marketing Statistics” is a great example of content curation at its finest. This resource features the latest marketing statistics and is organized by tactic. In addition, it’s continually updated as new data is released.
CMO.com by Adobe
CMO.com by Adobe provides a great mix of curated and original content. In fact, their tagline says it all: “Digital marketing insights, expertise and inspiration – for and by marketing leaders.” The big way they’re featuring curated content is through their “Marketing News Feed,” which pulls in posts from authoritative and credible sources such as Social Media Today, MarketingProfs, Marketing Insider Group and even TopRank Marketing Blog.
Do you curate content? How often are you doing it and where do you find inspiration for it? Tell us in the comments section below.
Disclosure: LinkedIn and Innovatech Labs are TopRank Marketing clients.
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.
© Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®, 2016. | Content Curation 101: 7 Best Practices, Helpful Tools & Great Examples | http://www.toprankblog.com
The post Content Curation 101: 7 Best Practices, Helpful Tools & Great Examples appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
Do yourself a favor and become a Jedi, not a Sith. Going the way of the black hat SEO will only lead to fear. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering...
The post 11 Black Hat Techniques That Can Kill an SEO Campaign by @josephhhoward appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
Here are 6 mind-blowing SEO experiments we did this year, what we learned from them, and what it all means.
The post 6 SEO Experiments That Will Blow Your Mind by @LarryKim appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
Google and NORAD have the apps you need to track Santa this Christmas Eve.
The post Track Santa This Christmas Eve With Apps from Google and NORAD, or with Google Assistant by @MattGSouthern appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
We have a lot to celebrate this time of year and I feel incredibly lucky that TopRank’s Online Marketing Blog gets to celebrate yet another blog birthday.
And thank you to Ashley Zeckman for doing a great job managing our blog in 2016!
I have a confession: Starting a blog in 2003 was just another “thing” to explore for its marketing value, not some ephiphany-inspired marketing journey. The inspiration came from a drive to reach more people with fewer resources in a meaningful way. Could blogging be the solution?
In fact, the creation of TopRank’s Online Marketing Blog followed several other search marketing focused blogs that launched the same year including Search Engine Roundtable, Search Engine Journal and SEO Book. Two of those three are still going pretty strong with daily posts and large readerships.
But it didn’t take long to realize that the useful content published through blogging was opening up doors for our business. Actually, that’s a bit of an understatement.
A million plus reasons. This year we’ve attracted just under 1.5 million visitors to our blog and search has led the way. 56% of our visitors come from search and much of the rest from direct and social networks. Our blog has been included on many top marketing blog lists with a growing network of 300,000+ across our social networks. We’ve attracted amazing talent, super smart clients and great partners – all thanks to the great blogging contributions from Ashley, Josh, Caitlin, Tiffany, Kevin, Knute and Jolina from our team.
Thank you back! Beyond the acolades, rankings and such – some of the most meaningful feedback I get is when people approach me and say they’ve been following our blog through their career or after starting a business and how much it has helped them. What makes that feedback meaningful isn’t just the “warm fuzzy”, it’s seeing our strategy pay off: That the combination of content we create along with real world experiences will be instrumental for growing our business.
Content is Social and Social is Influential. Today, creating content through blogging is as social of an activity for us as it is a way to provide ultility. We’ve connected with an incredible community of marketing industry influencers through content delivered as blog posts in addition to candidates, partners and clients. These connections have evolved into relationships and more.
Slow Down and Ramp Up. In 2016 I took a backseat to creating content on our blog to focus on other areas of our business and methods of advancing our thought leadership. In my place, Ashley Zeckman has stepped up and published 3 times as many posts as I have. She’s also developed internal and external relationships for regular contributions and co-creation that have added a lot of value for our readers.
Social and Influencer Marketing Dominate Our Topics. It’s amazing what happens when you develop a strategy, create a corresponding editorial plan and follow through. I’m only half being snarky with that comment. We published a lot more content around social media marketing since that is what people are interested in (and it’s an area of our business). In fact, our most popular post in terms of traffic for 2016 was 9 Social Media Marketing Trends That Could Make or Break Your Business in 2017.
Side note: Out of the top 10 most popular (traffic) posts for the year, only 1 was actually published in 2016. Evergreen content FTW!
We also published a lot more content about influencer marketing as a result of a decision to advance our thought leadership in this fast-growing area of our business. We were engaged by 3 Fortune 100 companies in 4th Quarter alone for influencer content programs and that trend is not going to slow down in 2017 at all. In part, this is thanks to the useful and thought leadership content around influencer marketing being published on the blog.
Of course we’ll continue to cover all our staple topics that are most relevant to the practical areas of our consulting: Content Marketing, SEO, Social, Influencer Marketing. I also think we’ll evolve the fun Friday news videos that Tiffani and Josh do every week and do more video overall. I know our long time readers are thinking, “What took you so long?”.
Besides kudos to Ashley, our excellent blogging team deserves a lot of thanks. To give you an idea of the great work they’ve been doing, here are some of their most popular posts:
Ashley Zeckman
314 career blog posts
69 posts in 2016
Most popular post of 2016:
50 Influential Women in Digital Marketing: North Stars & Rising Stars (5,600 social shares/engagement)
Josh Nite
61 career blog posts
48 posts in 2016
Most popular post of 2016:
Content Marketing: Answer These 4 Questions in the First 15 Seconds (2,400 social shares/engagement)
Caitlin Burgess
56 career blog posts
52 posts in 2016
Most popular post of 2016:
7 Tips for Making Your Brand More “Likeable” on Social Media (2,600 social shares/engagement)
Tiffani Allen
47 career blog posts
47 posts in 2016
Most popular post of 2016:
Online Marketing News: Snapchat Unicorns, Periscope Moderation and Instagram Business (292 social shares/engagement)
Lee Odden
2514 career blog posts
24 posts in 2016 (I can’t believe it either – time to get back to blogging in 2017)
Most popular post of 2016:
50 Social Media Marketing Influencers to Follow (6,100 social shares/engagement)
Kevin Cotch
10 career blog posts
10 posts in 2016
Most popular post of 2016:
Understanding the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on SEO (1,800 social shares/engagement)
Knute Sands
7 career blog posts
7 posts in 2016
Most popular post of 2016:
Easy-as-Pie Guide to Content Planning (1,600 social shares/engagement)
Jolina Pettice
75 career blog posts
2 posts in 2016
Most popular post of 2016:
3 Great Storytelling Tips for Compelling Customers (1,100 social shares/engagement)
We all contribute to your success. The rest of the team at TopRank Marketing contributes to our blog indirectly, by sharing insights, research and data as well as sharing the resulting blog posts to their social networks. Blogging is truly a team effort at TopRank Marketing and I think the end product really shows the impact of our collective wisdom and collaboration.
Going forward. There’s a lot more I could share about this blog in celebration of our 13th blog birthday, but I think the overall focus here is that it’s important to experiment, but to do so with a vision or some long term goal in mind. If I wasn’t driven to persist with blogging during my first year despite no visitors, no engagement all with a substantial amount of of time invested, this blog would not have survived. Without that early survival, our young business would not have achieved the amazing momentum we have now, or laid the groundwork for being able to attract the team that runs blog now an into 2017. Persistence with vision (and ongoing optimization) pays off!
Our community rocks! I am immensely appreciative of the support our community has provided in return to the useful content our team publishes on TopRank’s Online Marketing Blog. I appreciate the contributions that super busy industry influencers and friends from Ann Handley to Joe Pulizzi to Mike Stelzner and many more continue to make to help make our content great. Also, a huge thanks to major brand executives from the U.S., UK and broader Europe that have contributed to our blog with their insights this past year. Your investment in time makes this blog a better resource for us all. Thank you!
Seasons Greetings!
Here are some warm wishes from our team to yours.
May your marketing programs be successful,
to make your holiday season less stressful.
May your customers be joyful and content,
because of the great campaigns you sent.
May your hearts be full and your season merry,
so that you start 2017 refreshed and not wary.
Thank you for being a part of our community.
From,
The Team at TopRank Marketing
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.
© Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®, 2016. | Lucky 13 – Happy Birthday to TopRank’s Online Marketing Blog! | http://www.toprankblog.com
The post Lucky 13 – Happy Birthday to TopRank’s Online Marketing Blog! appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
