Guide to Content Creation and Blogging

There are many reasons why social media agencies preach content, content, and more content.

I admit that I am embarrassed to sell my clients on blogging when I don't follow my own rules. But we seldom post content ourselves. I guess the reason is that we don't have the time. We're writing content for our clients. Content marketing gets people talking about you, your business, your brand. Content creation creates organic growth and blogging is a great way to engage with leads and your customers.

We consume content every day. Whether you are looking for reviews, asking Google a question, doing research, shopping, movies or sports, YouTube, blogging, listening to a podcast, or checking social media – it's still content. Content attracts, engages, and generates new leads, customers, and sales. And it is a way to keep your current customers informed and loyal to your brand.

Content is the best inbound marketing tool, and it's free. 

Content marketing brings in over 300% more leads than other marketing practices. Content marketing generates over 125% more leads than those who don't publish. A whopping 60% of online sales are from customers who read your blogs.

Let's take a closer look. 

Content Optimization

If written correctly, content can dynamically improve your SEO rankings. SEO is organic search using Google, Bing, and other search providers. The easiest way to see what type of content performs well and gets consistently high search engine results is to do a Google search with the topic you want to write about.

Look for blogs on the first page only. Forget the ads, and focus on competitors who rank. Read their posts, look at the content, and how the article is formatted. Check the SEO formatting like H1, H2, H3, and H4 headers and keywords. If you want to beat your competition, create a more compelling post, more images, updated information, better backlinks and push for engagement and comments.

In the past several years, we've seen an explosion in content marketing. Google has focused its algorithms on the interaction between searching and who and where you click. In other words, Google tracks engagement. The more reads, the better your ranking becomes, the more people will find you.

Google gives higher page search rankings for articles that are "How To's," and "Guides," and "List" formatted posts. If your competitors are posting and ranking, you need to improve your SERP (search engine ranking page) – where you appear in a Google search.

In addition to creating better content, there is considerable value in podcasting and videos as added value in your article. Your goal is to drive traffic to your blog. If you don't have a blog, you need to re-evaluate your marketing. Content is about being seen, getting found, and creating and enhancing your online presence.

Growth Roadmap

The number one value-driven metric in your roadmap to growth is driving visitors to your site using organic (content SEO), paid media, and social media and conversion rates. Getting visitors to your site without a purpose or CTA (call to action) does not create value because you will never convert them from a visitor into a subscriber.

You have to learn to allow the data to drive your decisions. Today the data tells us that an email subscriber is more valuable than a one-time visitor who looks and leaves. Once a visitor leaves, they are gone for good. Only a small percentage will buy on a first visit basis.

Email Marketing Services and Why You Need to Think Differently

This is a strategic decision that, over time, will impact sales and growth. E-Marketing is building relations. What better way than taking a new reader, getting them to subscribe, and converting them into a customer. You need to drive traffic to your content to build your email list. And there are proven techniques you can use to convert that reader to a subscriber.

Once you drive traffic to your site and track your conversions, you can determine the average conversion rate. With this rate, you can better understand your traffic needs to hit your conversion goals. Your goal becomes how many people you need to bring to your post.

If you are not converting, go back and use Google to analyze blogs that appear on page one of Google. Each blog will have different metrics and results. The content may not have a high search value or volume. If you are ranking and getting clicks but no conversions, the topic just doesn't drive enough traffic even with the ranking.

Do You Know Who Your Audience or Buyer Persona Is?

Can you profile your ideal customer? Without knowing who you are looking for, you are just shooting blanks. It's a shotgun approach. Everything you do, from the content you create to the design of your site and landing pages, your call to actions, sales funnels, and email campaigns, needs to be centered around who your ideal customer is.

Once you zoom in on your ideal customer, you will be able to see where they live on social media and have a focused ad campaign. And you can have more than one audience.

Why You Need To Do Keyword Research?

When Google indexes (reads and catalogs) your website, Google looks for special formatting called "Headings" and "Keywords." Keywords are the words and phrases that you think someone would type into the Google search bar where you will appear when they hit enter.

If you know your audience, understand what that keyword represents, and your keywords appear in your content, Google will start ranking your posts. We have seen content optimization take several months to over a year to generate solid organic traffic. Organic growth is a process, not an overnight miracle.

Customer Journey and Lead Generation

Your content has to be better, more dynamic, and engaging than anything out there because you are trying to beat them all. With Google, it is all about the audience and has nothing to do with you. If you provide what Google says your audience is looking for, then Google will rank you.

Your customer journey begins with your social media marketing, ads, and organic growth. You can create the journey from blog content or a landing page. Either way, you want to take visitors on a journey, moving them from cold prospects to warm, to hot, to becoming loyal customers, generating recurring sales.

• The customer journey is referred to as a sales funnel.
• Sales funnels employ different strategies.
• You begin by targeting your audience, choosing the right sales and social media marketing strategies.
• You'll need a landing page with a CTA and a contact form.
• Most CTA's are FREE offers.
• You offer a value proposition in exchange for getting a person's email.
• Now your email campaign kicks in. Campaigns are about building relationships and converting cold or warm leads into a customer.
• The sales funnel is about the journey your prospect goes through to close. During or after the close, there are usually up-sales. Not everyone will buy at each step. So the funnel begins to narrow (fewer people up the funnel) as the value of the product or service and price increase.
• The journey continues because you now have a lead and new customer email list to whom you can remarket.

Killer content that blows away your competition, creates engagement, and attracts readers is key to winning Google's search rankings. Over 94% of all clicks happen on page 1 of Google.

Some of the metrics you want to analyze are:

• Organic traffic
• Bounce rates
• Conversion rates
• Pageviews
• Audience growth
• Engagement rates
• Email open rates and link clicks
• Google page rankings
• Shares, likes, comments/ engagement

Is it time to do a content audit? If you need help contact us. It's what we do.

Hi, I'm David, the managing partner at Zoot Marketing. Part of our client on-boarding experience is to review and audit client competitors. If you are like our clients, you want to know about your competitor's successes as much as possible. Here's a special offer.