Content Marketing Rules: What to Ditch and What to Keep

When reaching out to your leads and the targeted audience is on the agenda, content marketing is an approach that works.

The digital landscape is rapidly changing and different ways to promote our products and services are adding new dimensions to the way marketing was done in the past. The old mainstream habits have made way for innovation. And when was the last time you referred to the number of press releases you launched for your product to evaluate the reach of your brand or measure the success of your promotional endeavors.

Content marketing is not about press releases!

But, with an increasing awareness among the brands regarding the typical and atypical content marketing ways, more and more business owners have resorted to multiple ways to use content for maximizing their reach. That could include running a blog, or boosting their social media presence, or for that matter, continuing on with their email marketing.

…and that’s how the “Rules” were born

With the frenzy over content marketing as a potent tool to maximize brand’s presence over the web, the digital marketeers of the web have curated some “unwritten content marketing rules” that are being increasingly referred  to by those who are novices.

So, what really are these rules? Do you need to follow them to their last thread? Or maybe you need to listen to your own requirements and make your own rules.

Well, it’s a bit of both.

Instead of building from the ground up, it would be easier for you to go with the tried and true ways, but at the same time, using approaches that are relevant to your brand is what will serve you in the long run.

Here are some rules to “ditch” and some to “keep”

1. A rule to ditch: The title of post *Has to be shorter*

Shorter and crisper titles not exactly a passe, but if you are under the impression that your visitors will always find the lengthy titles too unwieldy to read, you have not been keeping up with the trends. The best of websites and bloggers can be observed of making their post breaking all the rules of word limit. Their titles sometimes end up being as long as 80 characters (at times longer), and they are still doing as far as gaining traffic is concerned.

A common myth going around the web is that the Internet readers are too impatient to read a long-drawn out title and they instead pay attention to the ones that express the theme in 5-6 words. The truth however lies somewhere between “definitely” and “not quite”. If you are able to make your title interesting enough, you have got their attention.

Look at Buzzfeed for inspiration

Buzzfeed has indeed created a buzz riding on their unconventional long titles that grab a reader’s attention.

2. A rule to keep: Include search-friendly phrases or words in the title

Now, there is no dearth of words and phrases that have a dominating presence over the web. As visitors, we usually start our queries on Google with certain words that include:

• How to
• What are
• Why is
• Difference Between
• Tips to/for
• Free
• New
• Best
• Good

Now that you are already open to using long titles, injecting these keywords or phrases shouldn’t be a matter of force-fitting them.

3. Rule to ditch: Email marketing is passe, go for social media marketing

There is absolutely no doubt over the efficacy of social media as a marketing tool, but you would be widely off the mark in your analysis if you believe you don’t need email marketing.

All you need to do is to observe how many fans on your Facebook  page see your posts on their Newsfeed. I have observed it to drop as abysmally as 0.3%. on my luckiest day, it sometimes reaches in excess of 5%, but that is rare.

Twitter is now a much better alternative for organic reach.

Posts on your blog that are are directly delivered to the inbox of your readers is effective and an essential part of content marketing.

In fact why don’t you start building your email list with Facebook using a tool like Heyo’s free contest builder.

4. Rule to keep: Write longer posts

Whilst there is an anti-rule as well to the word limit which suggests that you write shorter posts to stand a better chance of capturing the attention of readers, but most experts would advise you to write longer posts. The more information your post provides (unless you are just forcing-in words), more eyeballs it manages to grab. Let’s elucidate it further by the study Moz performed a while back:

Moz ran a test on their blog to evaluate the number of backlinks they customarily get based on the length of the posts:

As far the links to those posts were concerned, here is the graph for links against number of words:

But it doesn’t end with Google and links, the social media users like to Share and Like longer posts much more than the shorter posts. Neil Patel observed that the posts written in more than 1500 words received these results:

• 68.1% more tweets
• 22.6% more Facebook likes

It has been proven that content-rich posts get more ‘Likes’ and ‘Shares’ across the social media and most importantly, Google likes them!

So, with more links and likes to the content which lasts for more than 1500 words, it can be safely deduced that you don’t have to hold back while writing a post.

5. An evergreen rule that’s beyond ditching and keeping: Make your blog conversational

Conversational writing is now an essential approach to content marketing. And what is one way to do that? By asking questions.

Refashioning that approach, you can use it for your blogs as well. Whilst you don’t have to change the approach you take while writing your blogs, you can tweak the conclusion part by adding a relevant question at the end of each post, asking readers to express their opinions in the comment box.

Increasing activity in the comment box leads to increased engagement on your website. But don’t make that question scientific or filled with jargons. Ask a question the likes of which can be answered by the general audience, and you will see a lot many hands raised.

Wrapping up

Content marketing isn’t an exercise where you need to overplot and overcook, but it sure is a practice where focusing on the relevant, and getting rid of the fluff is what matters to fuel more-than-desirable results come down the pike.

Read more at http://www.jeffbullas.com/2014/08/11/content-marketing-rules-what-to-ditch-and-what-to-keep

SEO 101: How Important is Site Speed in 2014?

Even incredibly patient people can’t stand waiting in lines – whether that’s at the bank, airport, or pizzeria. We either get bored or angry that it’s taking longer than expected. In fact, businesses learn all about this in Queuing Theory – which uses data to determine if a business should hire more employees or add an additional elevator shaft.

This theory has more recently been used in analyzing web servers. Why? Because waiting for a website to load is no different from waiting in line for a delicious slice of pizza. We want that pizza now. And if it takes too long to get that slice, we’ll walk out the door and find somewhere else to eat. The same is true when surfing online. If a site takes too long to load, we’re outta there.

But, how important is site speed in 2014?

Google Has The Need For Speed

Image Source: Wikipedia

For starters, Google thinks site speed is important. Some would even go as far to say that Google has a bit of an obsession with how quickly a page loads.

Which isn’t exactly breaking news. Google has always rewarded sites that have clean codes and download quickly. This became particularly apparent when the Big G announced its Speed Online Tool in 2011.

From its Webmaster Central Blog, here’s a description of the tool:

At Google, we’re striving to make the whole web fast. As part of that effort, we’re launching a new web-based tool in Google Labs, Page Speed Online, which analyzes the performance of web pages and gives specific suggestions for making them faster. Page Speed Online is available from any browser, at any time. This allows website owners to get immediate access to Page Speed performance suggestions so they can make their pages faster.

But, why does Google care about site speed?

Former Vice President Marissa Mayer asked users if they preferred 10 or 30 results for Google searches. Obviously, web surfers went with the higher number, and Google made the changes.

The result? Traffic dropped by 20 percent on the pages that featured 30 results. Yet, the download speed difference between the pages with 10 and 30 results was only half a second – what an impact!

It should be noted that page speed is one of 200 or so signals Google uses to determine rank. In fact, as Moz has pointed out, page speed has affected less than one percent of search queries.

Keep in mind though, that page speed remains a ranking factor in Google’s algorithm for both desktop and mobile sites. John Ekman explains in an article on Unbounce that faster load times will indeed improve your ranking, as well as help you gain more organic traffic.

So while it’s just one of many factors in determining your site’s ranking, it’s certainly shouldn’t be ignored, especially since mobile sites can be penalized for loading slowly.

Site Speed Improves User Experience

Image Source: Wikipedia

Site speed will also improve the experience for visitors.

This should be common sense. After all, how many times have you left a website because it was taking forever to load? But, to convey just how important loading time is for users, here are some fascinating stats:

• According to a case study from Radware, 51 percent of online shoppers in the U.S claimed if a site is too slow they will not complete a purchase.
• Radware also discovered in another study that the demand for loading speed has increased over time. For example, in 2010 a page that took six seconds to load witnessed a -40 percent conversion hit. In 2014? That same loading time suffered -50 percent conversion hit.
• Research has found that 47 percent of web users expect a website to load in under two seconds.
  During peak traffic times, 75 percent consumers are willing to visit competitor sites instead of dealing with a slow loading page.
• Besides making visitors happy, having a website that loads quickly is good for business. In fact, Strange Loop has stated that just “a one second delay can cost you 7 percent of sales.”

In short, if you want people to hang around your site and make a purchase, it has to load in under two seconds. If not, people have no hesitation in jumping ship to another site.

What Causes Your Page to Load Slowly?

Image Source: veggiefrog/Flickr

There are a number of reasons why your web page is taking its sweet old time to load. And one of the first places to look is with your host.

Having the right host to fit your needs is a great business move, regardless. Remember, what you pay for is what you get. A cheap host may save you some money in the beginning, but it may not be reliable, which in turn will hurt your business in the long run. Make sure that you select a trusted host that can handle the needs of your business.

But what if you have a great host and are still having pages that load slowly? Here are some other common causes.

• Unoptimized Images: Unoptimized images actually impact 90% of the sites included in the Alexa 1000. These are usually PNG and JPEG images that have extra data included for comments or because they contain an inefficient DEFLATE compressor. PNG should be used for icons or logos, but JPEGs work better as photos.
• Widget/Plugin Overload: Sometimes the unsuspecting comment or social media buttons are to blame. For example, Matthew Ogborne discovered that the Facebook Like button was downloading 83 Kb of data at 1.34 seconds of load time.
• Incompatible Browsers, Plugins, and Apps: Take Flash as an example. It can seriously slow down a webpage. And it’s not even compatible with most mobile devices. Also consider browsers like Chrome don’t always play nice with plugins. Always test your site to see how fast your site is loading on different browsers and devices.
• Lots of Ads: No one likes tons of ads, but they can also slow down loading time. It only takes that one slow-loading ad to cause visitors to flee.
• Bulky Code: Whether it’s a code for analytics, sign up forms, affiliates, or inefficient HTML5/ CSS, they can all add up to make your site drag. Try to condense codes and shrinking files.
• Design Theme: While you want your site to look amazing, make sure you theme isn’t bringing your load time to a screeching halt.
• External Embedded Media: Media like videos or slide shows may be valuable content, but they can also slow down loading speed because the site they are hosted on may be having issues. Try to host content on your own server to boost speed.

Tools to Test and Improve Site Speed

Image Source: Leszek Leszczynski/Flickr

If you’re still having problems with site speed, or just curious to see how your page is doing in that area, there are plenty of free tools that can test the speed of your site. Here are ten tools that can test and help you improve the speed of your site (editor note: we have no affiliation with any of these listed, except for occasionally syndicating content by Yoast).

WebPageTest

This tool is supported by Google and allows you to run a free website speed test. It provides waterfall charts that break down content, check for Page Speed optimization, and make suggestions for improvements after receiving a page speed score out of 100.

Pagespeed Insights

This is a must-use tool from Google. Besides being easy-to-use, you’ll receive a page speed score out of 100 and analysis of both the desktop and mobile versions of your site. You get recommendations that are divided into high-, medium- or low-priority.

Google Analytics Plugin By Yoast

This is an essential plugin if you have WordPress for SEO purposes, plus it can also determine your load time across multiple browsers.

Yslow

This was designed by Yahoo! and has some pretty neat features like grades determined by predefined rule set or a user-defined rule set, suggestions for improvement, summary of components of the page, and performance analysis like Smush.it and JSLint.

Pingdom Website Speed Test

Probably the best feature about this tool is that it performs tests on browsers like Chrome, which better reflects real-world conditions. Another nice feature is that you can see how well your speed is measuring up to parameters set-up by Google Page Speed and Yslow.

GTMetrix

Your speed will receive two speed page grades from GTMetrix and Yslow, plus a charted history of page load times, analysis page sizes, and request counts.

P3 (Performance Plugin Profiler)

If you use WordPress, this is a plugin you shouldn’t miss. It examines which plugins are slowing down your site. Once this is installed you can even use it to test other speed-increasing plugins like Theme-Check.

Webpage Analyzer

Provides you with page size, composition, and download time. This tool also comes with a summary of page components with advice on how to improve page load time.

Load Impact

Unlike the other tools we’ve listed, Load Impact simulates a scenario where your page is flooded with users. This simulation will determine the areas where your site cracks, as well as how to fix any problems before they happen.

Page Speed Tool (Internet Marketing Ninjas)

Provides a complete analysis of page load time, how long it takes your page to load at different connection speeds, plus a report on external CSS, Javascript, and image files.

Source - SEO 101: How Important is Site Speed in 2014?

 

Mobile Now Exceeds PC: The Biggest Shift Since the Internet Began

If you’re still struggling to leverage the website to support goals, you have some catching up to do, as the landscape has recently experienced a tectonic shift.

Mobile Exceeds PC Internet Usage for First Time in History

In early 2014, the landscape in which businesses operate changed forever when Internet usage on mobile devices exceeded PC usage.

It has taken considerable time for businesses and brands to embrace the potential of the Internet. Today, most recognize the Internet as a vital foundation for everything from operations to marketing and sales to logistics, CRM, and customer service.

Still, many businesses and brands struggle to truly leverage the digital landscape to meet the expectations of their customers. Many more will struggle with the migration of audiences (customers) to mobile.

The time has come to seriously consider integration of mobile-friendly versions of all mission-critical assets: applications, data, the website, communications, demos, sales materials, customer service, etc.

What Are Consumers Doing on Mobile?

How do consumers use mobile devices to access the Web? According to Online Publishers Association/Frank N. Magid Associates:

• 99.5 percent access content/information
• 63.1 access the Internet
• 62.1 percent check email
• 49.2 percent listen to music
• 46 percent play games
• 41.7 percent download and use apps
• 15 percent make purchases
• 15 percent read a book

Shift to Mobile Impacts B2B Significantly

If you imagine that the mobile usage is merely a reflection of consumers logging onto social media, checking email or conducting search, or shopping, think again.

Executives lead the way in mobile adoption, validating the theory that digital assets for a business or brand must serve target audiences 24/7, and not just during business hours.

Meeting your customers wherever they work is no longer a luxury – it is a necessity. If you wish to convert interaction to action you must compel the decision-maker.

B2B Decision-Makers Rely on Mobile Devices

Mobile is preferred over the PC for executives conducting research during and after office hours, according to the IDG Global Mobile Survey 2014.

• 92 percent of executives own a smartphone used for business.
• 77 percent of executives use their smartphone to research a product or service for their business.
• 93 percent of executives will purchase that product via the Internet using a laptop or desktop.
• 86 percent use their tablet and 72 percent of executives use their smartphone to conduct research for products or services for their business.

Executives rely upon mobile devices (tablets and smartphones) to conduct business research more frequently in the evenings than any other time of day.

Mobile as a Competitive Advantage

Whether your day-to-day focus is business management, marketing, sales, SEO, social media, advertising, software development, or customer relationship management, the mobile device has increasingly become the preferred tool for work and communication. How quickly and effectively an organization plans, develops, and adapts to deliver quality mobile experiences will likely become a competitive advantage.

Some organizations may continue to view mobile as an “add-on” or supplementary effort when planning for digital interaction with customers. However, those who embrace the shift in behavior and deliver what their customers want and need to make a purchase decision will likely be the ultimate winners.

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The Prepared Writer’s Process for Creating Excellent Content Every Day

I only write when I am inspired. Fortunately, I am inspired at 9 o’clock every morning. ~ William Faulkner

Authors often claim that writing a book is like having a baby — both in effort and length of time.

Since I’ve done both myself, I would personally insist that birthing a child is, in fact, more difficult.

There is value in the comparison though.

Even when you write from a place of passion and purpose, you may still have trouble birthing your important ideas consistently.

Babies tend to come into the world when they are ready, but how do you regularly give birth to remarkable content?

You have to command it.

Rather than waiting for inspiration to strike, I take control of the content on my blog.

The secret of the prepared writer

I’ve been a writer for over a decade.

I began as a journalist and my reporting experience has greatly contributed to the success of my blog, but for reasons you might not expect.

Of course I was trained to follow grammar rules and avoid commonly misused words, but the real value was the practice of writing daily, on subjects I didn’t necessarily care about, and meeting a deadline.

I also knew that potentially thousands of people were going to read my work, so mediocre effort was not an option.

During those years of reporting, and throughout more than five years of blogging, I’ve also never encountered writer’s block. In fact, I don’t believe it actually exists.

Why?

Because writing good content, like anything else, requires proper research, planning, and execution. A prepared writer can implement a system to prevent writer’s block.

I developed a process that allowed me to write articles in under an hour and hand them off to my editor, and I still use this process each day when I blog.

This process assumes you already have two foundations in place:

• A content strategy — before I created my blog, I mapped out my ultimate goal and the content I would need to write to accomplish it. I created 300 post topics and planned how they all would eventually link to each other.
• An ultimate goal — my writing goal is to provide useful information that will aid my readers in making lasting changes for our children’s futures. My ultimate goal keeps me focused on writing content that my readers will be able to find, enjoy, and use immediately.

Here is my step-by-step process. See if it will work for you as well as it’s work for me …

1. Create a writing environment

I discovered early in my journalism career that optimizing a writing environment and creating rituals are important. I optimize my environment by removing all of the excuses and interruptions that slow down the writing process.

My current writing environment is a room in my house where I can put on soft music, avoid outside noise, have a cup of coffee or tea, and turn off the Internet. Years ago, I didn’t have the luxury of writing in the same place every day, so I created a writing environment with music on my CD player and a cup of coffee.

Creating a special writing environment trains your mind to get in the mood to write when you are in that space.

I’ve practiced this routine for so long that even a cup of coffee is usually enough to get me in the zone to write these days.

2. Schedule writing time

If you’ve used the excuse you don’t have time to write, writing isn’t a priority for you.

Harsh?

Maybe, but consider this: I have five children and the oldest is seven. I homeschool them. Our family is involved in multiple sports and activities. I cook 21 meals a week from scratch. I just finished the first draft of a cookbook. And I have written over 750 blog posts in the last three and a half years.

It comes down to priorities.

Blogging is on my daily schedule. In fact, I block off one hour and treat it with the same importance that I treat a doctor’s appointment or my son’s baseball game. I won’t miss it.

I stand at my desk (standing helps my creative juices), and for that hour I do nothing but write or attempt to write.

If I finish one post, I start on another one until that hour is up.

Then, I stop.

Schedule this time every day, even if you don’t need to create a new post. The extra writing time will help you become a better writer and give you time to practice without the pressure of having to hit Publish.

3. Have a framework

One of the most frustrating aspects of blogging is the ailment known as “what-should-I-write-about-today-itis.” To avoid this illness of mind, I have a framework for topics I write about for different days of the week.

For me, this is:

• Monday: health/core content
• Tuesday: natural living
• Wednesday: recipes
• Thursday: DIY

I have individual checklists for the structures of each of these types of posts to make the writing process faster. The more structure you add to the framework, the less you have to start from scratch each time you write.

Once you have established your content strategy and ultimate goal, split up your post topics into categories that refer back to your cornerstone content.

A framework also provides consistency for your readers and teaches them what to expect from you so that you can become an authoritative online presence in your area of speciality.

I also keep a running list of possible blog topics organized by category in Evernote for easy reference when writing.

4. Outline for two minutes

Sit down with a piece of paper and pen and create a two-minute outline for the content you plan to write.

I start by writing the topic and working title at the top of the page. Then, I number three to five main points (or occasionally up to nine) and fill in bullet points under each of these sections.

Use the full two minutes to get all of your ideas on paper before you begin so you can write the full post quickly.

5. Write 200 words

I only commit to writing the first 200 words after I outline. After 200 words, I re-read what I’ve written and make sure that I like the direction of the post. If not, I re-start with a new direction.

I very rarely have to restart, but taking 30 seconds to reread and reevaluate helps refine the focus on my post.

If I start over, I’ll save the 200 words I’ve already written in another document, so I can use them later in the post or for another post.

6. Refine

Spend 10 to 15 minutes refining and editing your content. If you have an editor, you get to skip this step.

I don’t, so I use the last 10 to 15 minutes of my writing time to find weak sections and refine the content. I usually trim down a blog post by a few hundred words and add links to relevant content.

7. Optimize

After I’ve written a post, I run through the following check list before I publish:

• Set the featured image and make sure it’s eye-catching
• Run WordPress SEO by Yoast
• Run Scribe Content Optimizer

Bonus exercises: creativity triggers if you get stuck

If I’m really having trouble getting into the writing zone, I take two minutes to do one of these creativity triggers:

• Read an unrelated article that is inspiring or funny
• Stand on your head (really, it gets the blood flowing!)
• Review your cornerstone content to ensure your post aligns with your goals

Now over to you …

Have you ever struggled to get in the mood to write?

Does a blogging schedule and routine help keep you on track?

Let’s go over to Google+ and discuss other ways to birth extraordinary content on our blogs.

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