As busy marketers, we still need to make time to read blog posts by our peers. Not only does it improve your own writing, it also keeps you up to speed on the latest trends in the field. We've compiled the top content marketing stories from June 30 - July 4 in one post to make catching up easier for you.
How to Spot the Weakest Part of Your Blog Post (and What to Do About It)
Writing great content requires creativity, focus, and a laundry list of other abilities that can take years to truly master. What separates the greats from the mediocre is knowing your weaknesses and having the good sense to turn them into strengths. Stefanie Flaxman believes there are eight weaknesses (at least) that cripple blog posts and the writers who publish them.
These weaknesses include having no call to action, using too many words, and failing to deliver on promises just to name a few. For each weakness, Stephanie offers three fixes. Her blog is also a great example of the very strategies she’s touting, which is always a good sign that her advice is effective and applicable.
One Content Metric to Rule Them All
By Trevor Klein, @trevoratmoz
Measuring the success of your content based on the success (or failure) of your competitor’s content isn’t doing you any favors. True, it may make you feel good to get more ‘shares’ or ‘likes’ than the other guys, but is that really what you should be measuring? Does that metric really add value to your efforts? No, it doesn’t. It adds to your ego. Trevor Klein wrote about what he calls the ‘one content metric to rule them all’ and it has not nothing to do with what the competition is doing.
Klein defines the One Metric as “a single score that tells you how successful a piece of content was by comparing it to the average performance of the content that came before it.”
The one content metric is found by combining several other metrics that fall into these categories: Google Analytics, on-page (in-house) metrics, and social metrics. Read his post to find out how to start measuring the success of your content based on the performance of your other content.
27 Marketing Tips That’ll Woo Your Visitors and Win Them Over
By Neil Patel
What’s great about the Internet is that it gives everyone a platform to have their voice heard. The downside is that all those voices create a lot of noise, which can be hard to breakthrough for individuals and businesses alike. These days, simply having a website and social media presence isn’t enough to convert visitors into customers. Nearly every business has a web presence of some kind and they’re all trying to sell products, services, and perspectives.
With so many options, you’ve got to go the extra mile if you want to stand out and win over visitors. To that end, Neil Patel has 27 simple, sustainable marketing tips that will work for any business, such as how to properly use a business blog, social media, and conversion optimization to woo visitors. You’ve probably already heard some of these tips before, but Neil’s perspective is what makes these points hit home for me. He also links to a couple of tools I’d never heard of before. It’s worth a read. See for yourself.
How to Be in the Top 5% of Bloggers: New Research Results
By Sonia Simone (with Andy Crestodina)
Every blogger wants to be “one of the greats,” but establishing thought leadership and creating excellent content is easier said than done. After reviewing the findings of a survey of 1,000 bloggers, Sonia Simone decided to share a few key takeaways she gathered. Her takeaways highlight what it really takes to be in the top 5% of bloggers.
She touches on content quality vs. quantity, which is something every content marketer should always keep in mind when creating content. She suggests spending at least 24 hours between the draft and editing phase. Time is a rare commodity, but spending a little more of it on a blog can greatly improve its overall quality. Andy Crestodina’s research is very telling, so I encourage everyone to read it. Learning from other bloggers is a great way to hone your skills and master this craft.
4 Steps to a B2B Content Marketing Strategy that Drives Revenue
By Tamar-Weiss, @tamarweiss
It can be a struggle to create content that solves your customer’s problems AND drives revenue. If you find yourself struggling with this concept, Tamar-Weiss wants you to ask yourself four simple questions.
1) How do you know who will pay for your product?
2) What are the relevant trends and spending habits of your target audience?
3) Why should customers choose to buy your product over one from the competition?
4) What types of content does your audience think would help them most?
After answering these questions, you’ll be ready to start creating content that both focuses on your audiences’ needs and drives revenue for your business. Tamar expounds on each of these questions in detail, so if you’re blindly creating B2B content, this post will give you some direction.
An Exhaustive List of Google's Ranking Factors [Infographic]
By Sam Kusinitz, @sdkusin
Kudos to Sam Kusinitz for this exhaustive list of Google’s factors in the form of a well-designed infographic. Not sure this is valuable information? I dare you to take a look at your Google Analytics to see where your web traffic comes from. Chances are, Google Search is one of your biggest referrers.
In Sam’s blog, he references a comScore stat which stats that “Google holds 67.6% of the U.S. search engine market share.” This means that Google’s ranking factors are of great importance to your content marketing efforts and you should be optimizing non-stop. So do yourself a favor and check out all 200 of Google’s ranking factors.
