Inbound Marketing Insights

Now is the time when everyone has made New Year's resolutions, and is working very hard to keep them in mind as they enter 2014.  Are you in the same position?  As we continue to see an increasing amount of emphasis placed on content marketing, I find it useful to put together some New Year's resolutions that I have made, and hopefully this will benefit other content marketers like you as well.

Here are 4 content marketing resolutions to help make your content
more efficient and effective in 2014. 

1)    I will focus less on the number of keywords and more on the reader:  With the Google Hummingbird release in 2013, black hat SEO tactics are strongly frowned upon…even more than before.  Write your article for your buyer persona first, and then work on incorporating the keywords second.  Keywords should flow naturally within your content.  Also, keep in mind that the new algorithm was launched in response to users searching with increasingly more semantic and contextual queries. 
 

2)    I will use analytics to see how my content is performing:  Analytics and data can sometimes seem tedious, but analyzing your data is necessary to ensure you are creating the right content to resonate with your buyer personas. Your content should be written for a particular target market (buyer persona), to increase your website traffic and convert that traffic into leads.  Some tips to understanding if your content is performing is to look at the following questions when developing your marketing content:

• How many visitors did your content piece bring to your website?
• Did your content drive individuals to click on your links and calls-to-action?
• How many leads did you receive from your calls-to-action?
• How many social media shares did your content receive?

3)    I will re-purpose my content:  No, this doesn’t mean a simple re-write to your blog post. This means strategically utilizing your content to promote your brand across a variety of channels.  For example, if you spoke at an event, you can use your PowerPoint to share via Slideshare, and through downloads on your blog and website.  If you have a series of blogs that are focused on a similar subject, you can turn that into an Ebook. Instead of becoming overwhelmed with content, be sure you are utilizing all of your content in the most efficient and effective way possible.

4)    I will focus less on highly priced banner advertisements, and more on social media advertisements:  It’s time for marketers to stop focusing on paid banner advertising, and focus more on advertising your organic content.  A banner ad doesn’t show your thought leadership, or provide individuals with a variety of different ways to interact with your business.  A social ad gives you an extraordinary amount of targeting capabilities, while promoting the content on your website.  This drives website traffic, thought leadership for your brand, and various opportunities for lead conversion through blog subscriptions, downloads, and calls-to-action.  

Planning your 2014 marketing strategy and goals is critical to ensuring your team stays on track to meet your lead and revenue goals.  We invite you to download this free template on how to set SMART marketing goals for 2014. 

What are your 2014 marketing resolutions? We would love to hear from you!