Content Marketing from the Outset – What to Keep in Mind when Creating Content?
Why should you include a number in your blog post heading and why it isn’t a good idea to publish your texts on Monday? Is it important whether you use comparative and superlative forms of adjectives? Keep reading our today’s entry to find answers to these questions and to make your content marketing more efficient!
Google has been appreciating valuable solutions in content marketing for many years. Valuable, meaning those that are user-friendly and compliant with the SEO rules.
What kind of content is appreciated by Google?
A memorable update of the Panda algorithm which surprised SEO professionals almost a decade ago and the modifications following it enabled to draw several general conclusions:
- Website content should be valuable for the users, not for search engine robots;
- Each of the published text should be unique;
- The authors ought to be experts in given fields and they should explore the subject in depth;
- It’s acceptable to use keywords, however, they need to be incorporated into the content in a natural way.
Although SEO professionals and website owners often have such knowledge, the content doesn’t always generate satisfactory traffic to the site. So what modifications need to be implemented to achieve intended results? Especially for you we’ve prepared a few life hacks which will help you to improve sales and goodwill of your brand.
How do users read?
Let’s start from the very beginning. There must be a reason why we say that Internet users scan or browse. It takes us only a second to decide whether the content is useful and even then we read only one fifth of the whole text.
Jakob Nielsen’s research indicates that users track content according to the F pattern. It means that we thoroughly read only the first, clearly separated fragment of the content, then we scroll a little bit down (as the abovementioned letter shows) and finally we get to the end to go through a few lines of the text.
It is also important to enrich your content with images, photos or informative infographics. It will not anly make your content easier to read but also will make your user’s more focused.
The potential of heat maps
Let’s begin from getting to know the concept of heat maps. These are collective data, combining three studies related to the user behavior on the Internet. Click tracking, scroll tracking, attention tracking and eye fixation enable to create a network indicating how and where Internet users move.
The data allows to determine the most popular user behaviors – places where they move the mouse, click, how much they explore the website and which content is most visible to them. You can do your own research with the use of tools such as Crazy EGG or Smartlook.
How to encourage users to read?
It’s a good idea to use the AIDA principle when building your content strategy. It’s an acronym of four words:
You need to find an optimal way to create an effective message – start from constructing headings, select suitable graphics, format your content and finally, focus on appropriate function of your text.
Drawing the users’ attention isn’t a piece of cake and it doesn’t guarantee that they’ll stay on your website and keep tracking the content. You should put every effort to make people interested in your texts, meet their expectations and suggest which specific steps should they take.
Three types of the Internet content
In web writing, we can distinguish three basic content types:
- evergreen content,
- hard news,
- cyclical content.
The first one, the most profitable for website owners, is characterized by a fixed number of searches and it isn’t affected by seasonality or fashion. Most often, evergreen content is connected to such fields as DIY guides or articles on how to deal with certain conditions. Hard news entries ensure large volume of search, however, the trend will probably continue only for a couple of hours or days. Finally, cyclical content is about upcoming events such as holidays or various festivities.
Content marketing starts with the heading
According to the attention parameter, the title of the entry (the heading) is the key element of the content. After all, users decide whether they want to continue exploring the site and its content due to its title. According to various research, 36% of readers prefer entries with numbers in the titles. Below you can see an exemplary heading with numbers:
10 tools necessary for the work of an SEO specialist.
And those with comparative and superlative forms of adjectives:
The best methods to conduct a content marketing campaign.
It’s also a good idea to ask questions in your titles and at the same time suggest that you know the answers to these questions:
What were the trends in the SEO industry in the first half of 2019? Find out what are the Delante specialists’ tips.
This kind of encouragement allows readers to estimate how long the text will be and to predict that someone will share with them the expertise in a clear and structured way. The heading should be approximately 140 characters long and it should focus on the first and last three words (which are the only words noticed by the readers when they skim the text).
CTA as a way to improve your traffic
A CTA button, which is a permanent banner with an active dofollow link that redirects users to the products or services discussed in the content, is becoming more and more popular solution. In your how-to articles you can advise people how to dress on a special occasion or which cosmetics will be helpful in everyday hair care. And apart from the substantive knowledge, you can also post direct links to the mentioned product categories or selected brands. The CTA button should definitely stand out from other content on the website, it should have a fixed, specific shape and a conspicuous text calling to action such as:
Click here to get the latest news. Subscribe to our newsletter.
You can also use the button to encourage users to subscribe your social media channels. A call to action link can improve your conversion rate up to 10% and it’s particularly effective in the clothing industry.
Show your expertise!
As an owner of a very specialized online store, you should be more than happy to have the opportunity to show your expertise. Publishing know-how articles regularly is a perfect way to present your knowledge and competencies. In this case, the YMYL platforms, where direct advertising is often impossible, definitely have legs. Your entries should be created by an expert – it’s a good idea to find or create an experienced person for marketing purposes, it can be a trustworthy store employee or someone operating in the industry for many years.
Advise, encourage, compare
Purchasing new household appliances, electronics or mountain bikes definitely requires more customer’s attention. In such situations, users very often compare, search for alternatives or more affordable products. Here, pros and cons articles turn out to be the most profitable for website owners. If you want to create such an entry, it’s worth taking advantage of tools such as Senuto or Google Trends which will indicate which equipment is the most popular and searched for by the users at a given time.
As extra visual elements attract attention, it’s advisable to make use of such things as dedicated banners, infographics or star rating systems.
And what about sponsored posts?
Sponsored posts, until recently very eagerly used on blogs, have acquired a strictly advertising nature. Instead of adverts, it’d be much better to consider starting a series of expert entries. But what are they about? Well, just include a few sentences of an expert in a given field in each of your know-how articles. So, for example:
Content marketing is an effective way of attracting new customers. John Smith, an XYZ expert, endorses the statement and emphasizes:
A well-thought-out content marketing strategy improves conversion rate and attracts new, previously uninterested users who are looking for alternative ways of advertising.
Using such a form of advertising means not only creating reputation and status of an expert. It’s also a perfect link building strategy.
Give your website… more time
The time aspect should be analyzed from two different angles – creating your content and publishing it. The research shows that the optimal length of text per paragraph shouldn’t exceed 6 lines and each line shouldn’t have more than 12 words. Your article shouldn’t be longer than 1600 words (which equals approximately 7 minutes spent on the website). Interestingly, some of the linguists claim that the most effective content doesn’t exceed 500 words.
When it’s best to publish?
Just to stay in the subject of time, the date of publication of your previously prepared content is also important. Publish on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, between 9:30 and 11 am, because these are the days when your content can be the most successful.
It’d also be rewarding to post your texts in the morning (when users leave for work and school) and in the afternoon (when they come back home). The Kissmetrics tool indicates that each blog generates the biggest traffic around 11 am and users are the most eager to comment your posts at 9 am.
Take advantage of the social media potential
If you’re active on various social media platforms and on YouTube, it’s a good idea to “advertise” your content published there. Consider creating a weekly newsletter or even a separate blog series where you could inform about your achievements and the latest news from the company’s operation.
Conclusion
Creating a consistent strategy tailored to the needs of users is the key to attracting new customers and maintaining the interest of the current ones. Plan your content in advance so that your blog contains both cyclical content and some current industry news. Adjust your communication to needs and knowledge of your users. Remember to make sure that your texts are comprehensible. Monitor your website, get rid of any inefficient elements and expose its key parts. Make use of numerals and expressive forms. Take advantage of the potential of your industry and become an expert in the field. We also hope that our tips will be useful in improving your products and services sales. Good luck!
