In this guide, we’ll share our comprehensive knowledge of visual content marketing. You’ll learn about the diverse types of visual content and how to use them strategically, explore real-world examples of successful campaigns, and discover a step-by-step process for creating your own robust strategy. We will discuss innovative tools, best practices for integration, and techniques for building trust using visuals. 

Get ready to craft unforgettable brand stories using eye-catching visuals that resonate with your audience.

What Is Visual Content Marketing?

Visual content marketing is the strategic use of visuals to achieve your marketing goals. This includes images, videos, infographics, illustrations, and any other format that visually communicates your message.

Leverage imagery to:

• Quickly attract and retain the attention of fickle scrollers
• Simplify complex concepts and data
• Evoke emotions and build stronger brand connections

Images, graphics, and videos often convey information and drive action more effectively than text alone. Picture the difference between assembling new furniture using only written instructions versus diagrams or a video tutorial. 

What’s more, visuals allow you to personalize your brand, fostering a deeper emotional bond with your audience. Authenticity is a game-changer for building trust and standing out in the increasingly crowded digital landscape.

Why Is Visual Marketing Important?

Our brains are wired for visuals. Since the dawn of humanity, we’ve communicated through visual storytelling. Cave paintings, hieroglyphs, and modern emojis all convey meaning and emotion universally. An innate preference for visual information shapes how our content consumption patterns today. 

In particular, our brains process visuals 60,000 times faster than text. This has profound implications for today’s marketers. The benefits of visual content marketing include:

• Improving comprehension and recall: The brain processes visual communication better than text, which equals better information retention.
• Triggering an emotional response: Visuals evoke feelings, forming strong connections between your brand and your audience.
• Driving action: Compelling visuals, paired with clear calls to action, can increase engagement, clicks, and conversions.

Visual content marketing isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s a necessity for brands that want to be seen, understood, and remembered.

Key Elements of Impactful Visual Content

Here’s what sets truly impactful visuals apart:

Clarity and purpose: Every piece of visual content should have a clear objective. Are you simplifying a complex process? Design an infographic to break it down. Highlighting a product’s features? Create a short, stylish product demo video. Understanding the “why” will ensure that every visual aligns perfectly with your brand goals.

Strong visual hierarchy: Don’t make viewers work. Guide their eyes effortlessly through your visual, emphasizing the most significant elements. Use strategic pops of color, bold typography, and clever composition to create a clear visual journey. Be sure to make your branding consistent across all channels to ensure a cohesive experience for the audience. 

Visual storytelling: Even the simplest image can tell a story. For instance, a heartwarming social media image for an animal shelter could show a recently adopted pet with its loving family. This picture will trigger stronger emotions and inspire more engagement than text alone. Such visuals make your message more memorable and likely to prompt a response because they connect with your audience on an emotional level.

Related: Learn more about the power of narrative in our article, Unlock the Power of Digital Storytelling With a Content Marketing Strategy.

Authenticity: Move away from generic stock photos. Instead, create visuals that genuinely represent your brand and resonate with your audience. This builds trust and a sense of connection, both key ingredients for long-term success.

Accessibility: Don’t leave anyone behind. Consider users with visual impairments by ensuring all images have descriptive alt text and videos have closed captions and transcripts. This extends your reach and demonstrates that you’re a brand that cares.

Exceptional visual content requires more than a pretty picture. It’s a strategic combination of design, storytelling, and an understanding of how your audience engages with the world.

Types of Visual Content That Captivate and Convert

There’s a never-ending flow of content out there. According to experts at Yale, it’s visual elements that cut through and leave a lasting impression. Creating compelling visuals drives the conversions that supercharge your business and boost revenue. Let’s look at the most effective types of visual content. 

Infographics

Infographics simplify complex data, statistics, or concepts into clear, concise summaries. Look at it this way: People are more likely to share a well-designed infographic than a wall of text. This expands your reach and earns your brand valuable exposure.

Critically, infographics make complicated topics easy to grasp. This is empowering for your audience, and it positions you as a trusted source of information.

Say we’re working with an online wellness brand. We might create an infographic for an article exploring the benefits of exercise. It would feature colorful illustrations, statistics, and simple explanations to show physical activity’s life-changing impact on health and well-being. Your audience might share the graphic on social media or their own website to educate their audience — promoting your brand at the same time.

Video content 

Video content is the easiest way to unpack complex information, demonstrate expertise, and build a bond with your audience. Think dynamic product demos, engaging how-to videos, and behind-the-scenes glimpses that reveal your brand’s personality and offer a peek into the culture and people behind the products or services.

What’s more, videos excel in humanizing your brand. Authentic videos showcase your brand identity and offer social proof. Create videos that brim with passion, shoutout loyal customers, and help viewers solve common pain points.

For instance, if we were working with an HVAC company, we’d recommend they produce a series of short videos that provide troubleshooting tips. Each one would explain a common heating or cooling issue and guide homeowners through simple fixes. These videos save customers a service call, establish the company as go-to experts, and provide an opportunity to connect emotionally.

Interactive content

Interactive content creates two-way conversations with your audience. It encourages active engagement through quizzes, polls, interactive infographics, and calculators. Giving your audience something to click, answer, or play with keeps them on your page longer and increases their investment in your brand.

As a bonus, interactive content helps you collect zero-party data about your audience. Gain actionable insights into their preferences, pain points, and interests, and use those to inform future campaigns.

For instance, if we were working with a beauty brand with a blog post titled, “Find Your Perfect Skincare Routine,” we’d add a quiz. It would ask questions about skin type, major concerns, and product preferences, ultimately providing a customized routine at the end. This keeps customers on your page, builds trust, and drives product discovery.

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR)

VR and AR push the boundaries of traditional marketing. VR immerses users in entirely digital environments, while AR overlays digital elements onto the real world. These technologies offer unparalleled opportunities for customer engagement and interactive experiences, especially for brands with products customers need to “try on” or visualize. 

An excellent example is the augmented reality IKEA Place app. It lets customers virtually “place” furniture in their own homes before buying. This reduces uncertainty about size and fit, increasing confidence in purchase decisions. The concept is practical and innovative, and sets IKEA apart in a competitive market. 

Memes and GIFs

Memes are funny viral images or videos with catchy text. GIFs are short, looping animations. Both are popular formats for infusing a dose of personality and relatability into your online presence.

[insert screenshot of meme and GIF]

The inherent shareability of memes and GIFs makes them powerful tools for organic brand growth. Their humor or relatability can tap into trending conversations and expand your brand’s reach organically. Plus, they add a relatable touch that’s more likely to connect with modern audiences than text alone.

Let’s say we’re working with a pest control company. To promote a blog post, we might create a meme to share on social media when we hit publish. It could be a cartoon of a startled homeowner facing a spider and a member of your staff holding pesticide, captioned “Say goodbye to your little friend.” This is funny, relatable, and nods to a familiar pop culture reference for maximum impact.

Never underestimate the effectiveness of humor and shareability. When done right, memes and GIFs humanize your brand and drive engagement with your audience.

Social media stories

Social media stories are short-lived, visually engaging posts on platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat. They exploit the FOMO (fear of missing out) factor, usually disappearing after 24 hours. Sharing limited-time offers, sneak peeks, and exclusive content via stories creates FOMO, driving engagement and quick action.

Starbucks is renowned for using Instagram Stories to promote seasonal drink launches. The brand creates visually enticing teasers with countdown graphics, fueling excitement and urgency. This motivates customers to visit their nearest Starbucks to try the new drinks before they’re no longer available, leveraging the FOMO effect to boost sales and customer interaction.

Data visualizations

Well-designed data visualizations make complex ideas easy to grasp. Additionally, visual data allows for quick identification of trends and patterns, catering to audience members seeking instant answers.

If we were helping a digital marketing agency design its annual report, instead of spreadsheets alone, we’d add a mix of eye-catching visuals, such as:

• An interactive timeline showcasing key milestones and major client wins over the past year
• A pie chart breaking down website traffic sources and highlighting growth areas
• A line graph comparing client ROI against industry averages, demonstrating their superior results

This approach establishes the agency as data-driven and transparent, building trust with investors and clients. 

Embracing Technology in Visual Content Creation

The visual content landscape is constantly evolving, with new tools and technologies emerging regularly. While the convenience of AI-generated imagery is tempting, customers increasingly crave authenticity. Like stock imagery, AI-created visuals often lack the human touch and brand-specific details that resonate.

That said, AI isn’t the enemy. These tools can be valuable assets for:

• Creative inspiration: Use AI to generate new ideas, explore design variations, and overcome creative roadblocks.
• Placement and composition: Some AI tools can analyze existing imagery and suggest optimal layouts or color palettes, streamlining your workflow.

While AI is excellent at ideation, prioritize on-brand, human-made designs. They speak directly to your brand personality and build a stronger connection with your audience.

The Importance of Professionalism in High-Impact Visual Content

Using amateur visuals on your website is like showing up to a board meeting in sweatpants. On the other hand, professionally produced visuals command respect and make a strong first impression. 

Here are a few more reasons why investing in pro-level design is a smart move:

• Brand guardians: Top-tier designers do more than enhance aesthetics; they fiercely protect your brand’s identity. Every image, graphic, and video feels undeniably yours, building recognition and trust.
• Attention to detail: Professional designers have mastered those tiny details that separate polished visuals from amateur ones. Perfect image resolution, balanced layouts, and fonts that amplify your message, not distract from it.
• Cutting edge insights: Skilled designers know how to translate your goals into visuals that resonate with the right people using the latest techniques. They know what grabs attention, feels trustworthy, and inspires action.

DIY visuals can have their place, but for high-stakes content such as your website or major campaign, leave it to the pros. It’s an investment that reflects your brand’s value and attracts the right customers.

CTA: Strategize Your Content to Complement Visual Marketing

Successful Visual Content Marketing Examples

Examining real-world success stories gives you valuable insights to use for your content marketing initiatives.

McDonald’s

McDonald’s tapped into anime’s rising popularity with a campaign that deeply resonated with a growing audience segment. The WcDonald’s campaign leaned into Studio Pierrot’s vibrant colors, iconic characters, and bold design elements. 

Visual storytelling and brand integration

The campaign featured a series of short videos starring anime characters from shows such as Naruto and Bleach. The visuals stayed true to the original animations, fostering a sense of authenticity and nostalgia among fans. Subtle product placements, like characters eating McFlurries, were smoothly woven into the storyline, making McDonald’s presence natural rather than intrusive.

Social media frenzy and fan engagement

A ton of WcDonald’s videos went viral on social media. The eye-catching visuals, combined with the novelty of seeing beloved characters in a fast-food setting, sparked a wave of excitement and online discussion. Fans created and shared memes, fan art, and cosplay photos, further amplifying the campaign’s reach and engagement through user-generated content (UGC).

Spotify

Spotify’s annual Wrapped campaign is a cultural phenomenon that highlights the power of personalized content and community engagement. It’s widely anticipated and shared, teaching invaluable lessons to anyone seeking to level up their visual marketing game.

Visual storytelling powered by data

Spotify transforms raw listening data into a compelling story about each user’s year in music. Instead of providing a list of statistics, the brand crafts vibrant personalized infographics highlighting top songs, artists, genres, and total listening time. Bold colors, playful animations, and a shareable format create an experience that’s informative and fun.

Interactive and shareable for maximum impact

Wrapped’s success lies in the fact that it invites interaction. The format guides users through their musical recap using dynamic transitions and instilling a sense of discovery. Most importantly, these infographics are designed for social media sharing. It’s a subtle yet effective way to turn users into brand ambassadors and encourage conversation between followers.

Building anticipation and community

Every December, music lovers around the world buzz with anticipation for Spotify Wrapped. The brand fuels excitement with social media teasers, countdowns, and hints, and they’ve managed to transform it into an annual event. When Wrapped finally goes live, it becomes a global conversation starter, with users eagerly comparing their streaming habits with others. This shared experience solidifiesSpotify’s role as a connector and curator of personalized music experiences.

How Do You Use Visuals in Marketing?

Visuals aren’t just eye candy. They’re powerful tools for achieving your marketing objectives. Here’s your roadmap to success with visuals:

• Define your goals: What do you want your visuals to do? Is it increasing web traffic, enhancing brand awareness, or boosting sales? Clarity is everything when it comes to choosing the right formats.
• Understand your audience: What are your audience’s pain points and preferred digital spaces, and what kind of visuals resonate with them? Tailoring your approach will yield maximum impact.
• Build brand consistency: Every visual should feel like it undeniably belongs to your brand. Maintain a cohesive color palette, font choices, and overall aesthetic. Consistency builds recognition and trust.
• Choose wisely: Think of each visual type as having a specific superpower. Need to simplify a complex topic? Infographic. Want to be meme-able and get shares? GIF. Match the visual type to the goal.
• Know the rules: Each social platform has its own preferences and peculiarities. Research image size requirements, optimal video lengths, and what looks best on each platform.
• Quality matters: Sloppy visuals reflect poorly on your brand. Ensure that each visual is crafted with care, from resolution to framing, to maintain a professional appearance in all your marketing efforts.
• Analyze and optimize: Track your KPIs. Are your infographics driving traffic? Do your video demos increase sales? Use data to pinpoint what works, ditch what doesn’t, and refine your strategy over time.

Download our checklist for clear guidance on which content types and platforms to use for common content goals.  

How to Craft Your Visual Content: Tools, Tips, and Tactics

Below, we’ll break down tools and tactics that will help you bring content to life.

Integrating visual content marketing into your marketing mix

Here are some tips for strategically integrating visuals and making maximum impact:

• Repurpose: An effective way to extend the life and value of your visual content is through repurposing. One impressive infographic can become multiple social media posts, a blog header, and a slide for a presentation. This approach maximizes your investment and ensures consistency across different platforms. Think creatively to get the most mileage from your best content.
• Your website is home base: It’s your brand’s online storefront. Optimize visuals for your website to improve user experience, boost SEO, and drive conversions. Make sure visuals on your website are optimized for fast loading, appropriately tagged for SEO, and aesthetically aligned with your brand identity.
• Don’t forget email: Email marketing works best when it has visual oomph. Break up text with eye-catching images, GIFs, and short videos relevant to your customer base.

Choose the right tools for effective visual content marketing

No matter your skill level or budget, there are visual content creation tools you can use to bring your creative vision to life.

Canva

• Pros: User-friendly with tons of templates and a wide range of content types, even with the free version. AI tools make complex design features accessible to amateurs. 
• Cons: Limited customization options, although paid plans unlock more elements and features
• Best for: Anyone focused on social media graphics, simple infographics, and presentations. It’s also particularly useful for marketers and business owners who need to produce attractive visual content quickly and without extensive design training.

Adobe Creative Cloud

• Pros: Gold standard in the industry with unmatched creative control, customization, and polish
• Cons: Expensive with a steep learning curve, which can be overkill if you don’t require the full suite of programs
• Best for: Professional designers and those needing advanced image-editing capabilities. It’s the go-to choice for high-end content creation that demands meticulous detail and complex compositions.

Piktochart

• Pros: Infographic-specific templates and tools make it much easier than starting from scratch with design software.
• Cons: Designs can feel template-y and it’s limited to infographics and data visualization.
• Best for: People who create infographics regularly but don’t have professional graphic design skills

Lumen5

• Pros: Turns text into videos quickly, and good for repurposing blog posts and creating shareable social clips
• Cons: Limited customization options, free version has a watermark, and some features are paywalled
• Best for: Content creators who want simple video creation for social media — ideal when speed is key

Imagery evokes feelings that can get lost with words. Use these tools to make visual content that builds trust, makes your brand relatable, and builds a community around your brand.

Leverage visual content for brand amplification 

Imagery is an impressive tool for brand amplification. Think of your logo, colors, and overall visual style as your brand’s uniform. When those elements are consistent across your visual content messaging, they become instantly recognizable signatures that identify all communications as distinctly yours. Recognition equates to trust over time, positioning you as a leader in your space. 

In a world overflowing with information, strong visuals help you stand out, build meaningful connections, and leave a lasting mark on your audience.

The Creation Process: DIY vs. Professional Visual Content

Do you go the DIY route or outsource to professional designers? There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. Here’s how to decide what’s right for your brand:

• DIY pros: Budget-friendly, full creative control, and ideal for making simple visuals
• DIY cons: Requires time investment, potential for less-polished results, and possible steep learning curve. This could become a drawback if your team already has a full workload.
• Outsourcing pros: High-quality outcomes and access to specialized skill sets, freeing up your time
• Outsourcing cons: More expensive, with potential for miscommunication if you don’t have clear brand guidelines and expectations. Relying on external resources might also lead to delays or challenges in project timelines if not managed properly.

Find a balance that works for you. Consider your budget, resources, visual content needs, and internal skill sets when making this call. Also keep in mind that you can mix and match, handling some things in-house and outsourcing big ticket projects.

How Do You Measure the Success of Visual Content?

Measuring visual content effectiveness gives you the power to optimize your strategy and achieve your business objectives. By tracking specific metrics, you can gather insights into how your visuals are performing and make informed decisions to enhance their impact.

Metrics to track include:

• Engagement: Likes, comments, shares, and saves
  
• Reach and impressions: How many people see your content?
  
• Website traffic: Click-throughs from visuals to your site
  
• Conversions: Did visual content contribute to sales/leads?
  

Say a fashion brand notices its product demo videos get significantly more shares and website clicks than static product photos. This insight tells them to allocate more resources to creating video content, ultimately driving better results.

Your Visual Content Marketing Strategy

Your visuals are competing for people’s attention in a crowded space. Generic content gets ignored, while standout visuals make people stop scrolling and engage. 

For your visual marketing strategy to be effective, you need to know your audience inside and out. What grabs their attention? What makes them stop and think? Use visuals to tell your brand story in a way that connects authentically and resonates deeply. Do this well, and your visuals will build instant recognition and help you achieve your goals.

This guide has armed you with the tools and knowledge to take your visual content to the next level. Experiment, analyze results, and let your audience show you what works best. With solid strategy and a dash of creative flair, visuals can tell your unique story and propel your brand forward.

The post Visual Content Marketing appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

To help you along, we’ve compiled a comprehensive guide to the AI tools we love to use all through the content-creation process.

Use Cases for AI Content Creation Tools

AI content creation tools leverage the many intricacies of natural language processing and machine learning algorithms to create content that looks and sounds human but originates deep within the inner workings of the World Wide Web.

Over the past couple of years, the majority of public focus has been on AI’s increasing role in content generation. With the help of a human operator, artificial intelligence tools draw on existing content, data, and other inputs across the internet to create new copy used for everything from blog posts and news articles to product descriptions and About Us pages. But the written word is far from the only way to utilize AI.

AI tools are also invaluable for:

• SEO: AI can help with search engine optimization, by identifying quality keywords and generating metadata that appeals to Google’s algorithm.
• Social media management: Platforms such as Hootsuite and FeedHive tackle vital social media tasks, such as identifying the best time to post a meme and using social listening to track and analyze consumer conversations.
• Email marketing: Creating content for emails can be especially tricky because you have to pack a lot into a relatively small space. AI can draft personalized email content, improving your marketing campaigns without taxing your brain power.
• Translation: Looking to break into a new market? Use AI to translate existing content into another language without losing context and tone.
• Chatbots: Providing 24/7 customer service can be expensive, which is why so many companies are training chatbots to interact with customers and answer their questions when human agents are unavailable.
• Graphics: AI image generators can create images based on prompts, reducing reliance on those generic stock images people love to hate.

And those use cases are just the tip of the iceberg. AI can also help with editing content, analyzing data, scripting, creating quizzes, crafting how-to guides and tutorials, drafting legal documents such as contracts, aiding developers in generating code snippets, scheduling appointments, and hundreds of other useful things.

Top 10 Content Creation Tools

Using AI content creation tools to improve your business practices or to lighten your personal workload is a clever play. But the even more brilliant move is learning which tools are the best overall for the task at hand.

1. ChatGPT

Classification: Broad-spectrum content generation

Overview: Large language models (LLMS) are used to power platforms such as ChatGPT, creating a methodology that generates blogs, social media updates, content summaries, and just about every other content imaginable based on text data originally used to train the LLM’s neural network. In other words, ChatGPT has learned how to create content just like a human would (or pretty close, anyway).

You can use ChatGPT in multiple ways, depending on your role and your goals. Are you a writer who needs help brainstorming? A content strategist building a content map with pillar pages and spokes? A content manager tasked with generating briefs and outlines? You can do all this, plus tons of other jobs, from one chat interface — you just need to tweak the copy before sending it down the pipeline to the next person.

Features: ChatGPT has the ability to answer questions, summarize text, translate content, generate code, etc.

Pros: ChatGPT’s prompt and response format is easy to use and works for everything from writing blogs to figuring out how to fix your washing machine.

Cons: If in the hands of a novice user, long-form writing can easily come off as formulaic (or, dare we say robotic?). Also, because these models train on potentially outdated data, you still need to fact-check everything the platform generates.

Pricing: The basic model is free, but a $20/month subscription provides faster responses and more consistent access when the site is overloaded with users. 

2. ClickUp

Classification: Project management and AI writing assistant

Overview: This productivity-boosting tool empowers teams that can benefit from having multiple utilities all under one umbrella. Functionality is the name of the game, and the completely reconfigurable setup means each user or organization can find a way to make ClickUp fit their needs — even if those needs continuously change.

ClickUp’s tagline is “One app to replace them all,” and it makes sense. Instead of flipping back and forth between apps used to monitor tasks, write content, track goals, and chat with team members, ClickUp puts it all in one place and creates new connections powered by all-knowing AI. It’s like having a personal assistant who knows what you need before you do.

Features: ClickUp has hundreds of features on tap, including tools for task management, marketing campaign management, visual collaboration, real-time reporting, content ideation and creation, editing, and checklist generation.

Pros: The platform is customizable and built to integrate with over 1,000 other tools. It also has a library of customizable templates for work-ready shortcuts.

Cons: AI features are available only through higher subscription tiers.

Pricing: Subscriptions range from free (best for personal use) to business accounts for $12/month. Larger enterprise-level accounts are priced by request.

3. Narrato Workspace

Classification: End-to-end AI content creation and planning

Overview: Narrato Workspace isn’t a single tool — it’s an entire workspace that puts research, planning, and content creation all in one applause-worthy box. It doesn’t matter if your to-do list includes automating publishing for a couple dozen blogs, coming up with ideas for video scripts, or writing a press release for that upcoming product launch. Narrato can do it all — and add some custom AI images for good measure.

Features: Narrato’s SEO content brief generator is a total powerhouse. Other features, such as workflow automation that streamlines repetitive tasks, AI image generation, and built-in content planning and organization tools, are equally indispensable.

Pros: The all-in-one workspace saves time, and the template generator helps users keep dialing in their own processes.

Cons: Users report few cons, but the content editor can lag a bit when processing larger docs.

Pricing: Plans start at $36/month for a base Pro subscription and increase to $76/month for a larger business account.

4. Lately

Classification: AI social media post generator

Overview: Turning long-form content into easily digestible nuggets suitable for social media can feel like a slog. Lately generates social posts in a jiffy, which serves several purposes: You can reuse existing content, populate your social feeds, and generate more engagement all at once. And you don’t have to strain your bandwidth to do it. With Lately, you can create dozens of social posts with a simple click of a button, and that’s not limited to text. The platform also distills audio and visual content.

Features: Lately’s solutions list includes tools that generate content and transcripts, create clips of videos and podcasts, and build social posts with all the necessary elements (copy, images, tracking links, etc.) intact and ready to go.

Pros: As easy to use as it is focused, Lately gives small businesses and busy marketers a way to power up social media without getting distracted by other functionalities.

Cons: The platform’s narrow focus means you’ll need other tools for other tasks.

Pricing: Pricing depends on the number of social channels linked; subscriptions start at $49/month for four channels.

5. Jasper

Classification: AI content generator for blogs

Overview: Jasper is kind of like ChatGPT’s lesser-known cousin, but don’t let marketing make your decision for you. Jasper is adept at understanding tone, something that’s often missing in AI-generated content. Cross-app integrations make it easier to transfer content between Google Docs and the Jasper platform, and you can even use the built-in API to create new integrations that aren’t automatically supported.

Features: Use Jasper’s Boss Mode to create more detailed long-form content. SurferSEO integration helps finished content rank, and with 30-plus languages available for translation purposes, that content is poised to reach an even bigger audience.

Pros: Jasper’s ability to understand and replicate tone is ideal for branded content, and Boss Mode helps avoid some of the pitfalls that usually come with content built off AI-driven templates.

Cons: Like other AI content generators, Jasper isn’t built for nuance. Have specialty and sensitive content reviewed by human subject matter experts for the best results.

Pricing: Creator-level subscriptions start at $39/month and go up from there. Enterprise pricing is available on request. 

6. Copy.ai

Classification: Freestyle AI writing tool

Overview: Copy.ai is another content generator, but this one responds well to additional guidance. Instead of entering a general prompt, such as “zoo animals,” you can provide more context, such as “zoo animals most prevalent in the United States, written from 2nd person POV, geared toward kids, with a humorous undertone.” Similar to ChatGPT, Copy.ai has a chatbot interface that assists with research by answering questions and hunting down data in response to prompts.

Features: Unlike other AI content generators that require you to copy output and paste it into a third-party word processor for further work, Copy.ai has an in-line doc editor so you can polish as you go. You can also build email sequences, translate copy, and use the AI prompt library to help cut to the chase.

Pros: Real-time data collection helps improve factual accuracy and prevent copy from being out of date, and the in-line editor streamlines workflow.

Cons: Copy.ai doesn’t check generated content for plagiarism, and pricing is relatively high once you bypass max inputs for a free account.

Pricing: Basic accounts are free; Pro accounts start at $36/month.

7. Synthesia

Classification: AI video generation

Overview: Video production can be a pricey endeavor. Between equipment, casting, post-production editing, and time off from all the other tasks on your plate, you can easily rack up five-figure costs. Synthesia makes video creation more accessible by using AI to generate videos based on plain-text prompts. Instead of human leads, videos are led by an AI-generated avatar that also handles narration. This tool puts the power of video creation in the hands of small businesses and solopreneurs who might not otherwise be able to share pro-level explainer videos or support their blogs with advanced visual aids.

Features: There are over 140 stock avatars and 120-plus languages available to help you speak to your core audience. Use customization options to dial in your branding and the 60-plus video templates to jump-start “filming” if you feel stuck.

Pros: All the plug-in-play type features make it easy for total newbies to get up and running quickly.

Cons: The editing process takes some time and practice to master, and some features (such as the number of scenes you can include) are limited, depending on your subscription level.

Pricing: Start accounts are $22/month, with an annual billing discount; Enterprise account pricing is available on request. 

8. Murf

Classification: AI voice generation platform

Overview: Murf helps you create AI voiceovers in record time, using the scripts you provide to bring life and an almost-human touch to everything from new client introduction videos to how-to guides. You can choose what type of voice you want and even which accent you prefer, matching your finished voiceover to your business or target demographic.

Murf has also solved the once-universal issue with computer-generated voiceovers: stilted, robotic speech. Use the built-in editing feature to eliminate strange pauses, and switch up vocal emphasis so your end product is less William Shatner and more relatable for the average customer.

Features: Text-to-speech input creates voiceovers from written content; multilingual support increases diversity; and AI cloning can even mimic inflections that indicate emotions.

Pros: If you can write something (or have someone write it for you), you can create a voiceover using Murf.

Cons: Editing is possible but requires oversight by someone who understands speech patterns and knows how to achieve a more natural result.

Pricing: Basic accounts are free; paid accounts with additional features and support start at $19/month.

9. Canva

Classification: AI image generation and graphic design

Overview: What-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) editors changed how the average person created, organized, and published blogs, and now the same tech is revolutionizing image and graphic generation. You don’t have to be a graphic designer to use Canva — the knowledge and taste level are already there. No-code editors offer multiple menus of design elements, along with templates that act as a foundation for almost any type of imaging possible. Create business cards, presentations, posters, videos, social media posts, whiteboards, and animations — as soon as you catch up, Canva will have something new to announce.

Features: Canva has stacked the deck with features such as a huge library of free stock photos, graphics, design elements, fonts, and templates galore. You can export in a variety of formats, and there’s a built-in sharing mode to get finished designs up ASAP.

Pros: It’s useful for everyone from complete newbies to design pros, as templates can stand alone or be tweaked down to the tiniest details.

Cons: Many of the best graphics, fonts, etc., are only available via a paid subscription.

Pricing: Basic accounts are free. Canva Pro is $14.99/month, and Canva for Teams of five people costs $29.99/month. 

10. Podcastle

Classification: Blog-to-podcast conversion

Overview: Approximately 42% of Americans age 12 and up say they’ve listened to at least one podcast in the past month. Podcast formatting is increasingly popular, and Podcastle is helping content creators and businesses step up to the plate, thanks to software that turns blogs into podcast-ready scripts. The technology also works to create audiobooks and other audio-based content. You can also do the creation process in reverse and turn your existing podcasts into blogs. It’s a win-win situation that multiplies functionality.

Features: The platform provides studio-level sound without studio equipment, plus there’s an audio editor you can use to enhance tone, edit recordings, and remove background noise.  The AI tech makes it possible to create digital copies of your voice.

Pros: You can go from text to voice and back again using one utility, and there are a lot of customization options up for grabs.

Cons: The platform is still a bit clunky. But updates keep coming, and the interface should be more user-friendly soon.

Pricing: Basic membership is free for a single creator; multi-creator subscriptions start at $11.99/month per creator; and Pro-level subscriptions cost $23.99/month per creator. 

Top 4 AI Content Creation Tools – Bonus SEO List

AI is also storming the SEO castle, and these tools can help you conquer the SERPs without scouring content for keyword placement manually — and really, who wants to do that?

1. Semrush

Overview: Semrush is all about SEO, with a slate of 55-plus tools on hand so you can optimize content from every possible angle. While basic keyword tools just look at phrases you need to include, Semrush takes a much wider view. Content marketing, PPC, competitor research, and social media marketing — you can do it all with Semrush.

With Semrush, you have a market research tool that also does SEO, making you more competitive and eliminating lag time between seeing a content problem and finding a solution.

Features: Use the AI-driven site auditor to pinpoint gaps in your SEO strategy, then act on the bot’s recommendations. The keyword magic tool rates short- and long-tail keywords by search volume and difficulty.

Pros: So many utilities, so little time! Semrush does a lot, and much of it is available for free.

Cons: Higher plans can get pricey, and with many functions on tap, those new to SEO could get confused.

Pricing: Basic searches are free; paid plans start at $129.95/month and go up to $499.95/month for large agency and enterprise accounts. 

2. SurferSEO

Overview: SurferSEO’s main strength is in content optimization. It uses data-driven insights to create suggestions users rely on to improve their on-page SEO. The goal is to improve visibility and SERP rankings based on the targeted keywords, current search engine algorithms, and lengthy competitor analysis. AI can see patterns the average human won’t notice, increasing the likelihood that SurferSEO’s recommendations can give you a competitive edge and improve your ranking more than you’d be able to achieve on your own.

Features: SurferSEO has its own on-platform content editor, plus analytics tools that track performance and generate reports. It also has a robust resource library, including tutorials, to help you get the most out of your subscription.

Pros: Multiple integrations increase utility, and it has a user-friendly interface that minimizes the scare factor for newbies.

Cons: SurferSEO’s basic plans have limited functionality, and higher plans are expensive. There’s also a learning curve, and those new to SEO may have to dedicate time to reading guides and familiarizing themselves with the platform.

Pricing: Essential AI plans start at $119/month; Advanced AI costs $239/month; and full Surfer AI power requires a Max AI account for $419/month.

3. Diib

Overview: Diib is like a scaled-down version of SurferSEO and Semrush, but smaller doesn’t mean less than. In fact, Diib’s focus is one of the platform’s biggest benefits. Small businesses looking to scale can jettison the noise that comes with too many features and concentrate solely on SEO and traffic insights designed to automate SEO and promote growth.

With Diib, you get a clear growth objective you can work toward, along with alerts that let you know how you’re doing with SEO, social media, mobile conversions, and overall UX. Instead of checking up on your website 800 times a day and neglecting other tasks, Diib does it for you.

Features: Daily health scores keep your finger on the pulse of your website’s well-being. Diib’s 12-metric system ensures a holistic view of your progress, and AI-powered SEO gap checks and competitor monitoring buoy your success even further.

Pros: Diib is affordable, focused, and easy to understand, and the mostly hands-off daily operations are perfect for bootstrapped startups.

Cons: If you need a lot of extras, such as a built-in content editor or lots of templates, you’ll have to supplement Diib with another platform or tool.

Pricing: Self-service plans are free. Pro plans with unlimited access to Diib tools cost $7.99/month.

4. RankIQ

Overview: RankIQ is another specific SEO tool. This one only cares about blogs. The utility’s sole goal is to help businesses and enterprising individuals write blogs that rank on the first page of the SERPs. It does that by handpicking low-competition, high-traffic keywords niche by niche and generating content briefs and outlines that put those keywords to work.

Features: The software uses a call-and-response formula — you enter a keyword, and RankIQ comes back with everything you need to know. It also prepares detailed AI-generated SEO reports and checks rank regularly.

Pros: The interface is remarkably straightforward, and all you need to know going in is your original target keyword.

Cons: There are no advanced features or customization options here. It’s bare bones, and if you want help with website content or social stuff, you won’t get it from RankIQ.

Pricing: Plans start at $49/month.

Is It OK to Use AI Content Creation Tools?

AI content tools are pretty darn useful. From fueling ideation and assisting in research to creating briefs and publish-ready prose, AI plug-ins and platforms are indelibly woven into the future of writing. But, an over-reliance on these tools can lead to lower-quality content, something that can negatively impact your brand and your SERP ranking. That’s why it’s so crucial that you learn how to balance the potential of AI with frequent reminders of the importance of human oversight.

There are legal and ethical considerations, too. It’s your responsibility to ensure everything you publish and put your name on complies with copyright laws and ethical standards. Saying “AI did it” won’t fly.

The Future of AI Tools and Revolutionary Content

From increasing efficiency and offering new insights to giving professional assists that would otherwise cost companies tens of thousands of dollars a year, these platforms are stepping up to make life easier and content better. In many ways, AI content-creation tools are the wingmen we need at a price we can (usually) afford. It enhances our creativity, improves our outcomes, and puts voice and image creation in the hands of people who have never held a microphone or video camera. It’s magical — but even an enchanted bunny needs a person around to pull it out of the hat.

As you scale your business, keep experimenting. But always think of and treat AI as an enhancement, not a totally hands-off alternative to people-first processes.

The post Top 10 AI Content Creation Tools appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Gone are the days of just winging it. Today’s cluttered blog landscape and the developing metaverse of tech and talk mean spontaneous posting just isn’t enough to get your brand noticed. That’s why it’s so important to understand what makes a strong content production process.

See how infusing every step of your content strategy with a triple-optimization approach (SEO, reader engagement, and business goals) can get you where you need to go.

What Is Content Production and How Does It Connect to Your Digital Marketing Strategy?

Content production is a comprehensive process and includes planning, creating, refining, and publishing content to meet your business objectives. This is so much more than dashing off a blog post and pushing it through your WordPress dashboard.

Properly producing effective and on-brand content requires equal parts art and science. The artsy end of things comes when your writer crafts a pithy turn of phrase or your graphics team creates a memorable infographic. The science portion of the process involves things like keyword research, evaluation of potential distribution channels, and analytics review.

All these components feed into and become one with your digital marketing strategy. Think about how you choose to spend time on and funnel resources into:

• Audience engagement
• Brand awareness
• Search engine optimization
• Lead generation
• Social media presence
• Email marketing
• Analytics and iteration
• Consumer education

Lay the proper foundation; tick all the boxes, and visibility and audience reach will soar. Skip steps or engage in random marketing — think paying freelancers for content without a brief or review process — and you might as well convert your marketing budget into dollar bills, throw the pile into gale-force winds, and try to get your stack back in place. 

The Process of Content Production: Strategies for Guaranteed Results

We should preface: There are no guarantees in content or marketing overall. But there are ways you can construct your content production process to increase your chances of success. For your content to be a hit, you should pay attention to every stage of the process and understand the true goal for each phase. 

Hint: Too much of what should happen early in the process is often left to writers. 

1. Initial strategy/keyword research/analysis

This is where you establish the initial whos, whats, and whys of content creation.

• Why are you producing content in the first place?
• What business goals are you trying to achieve with content? 
• Who is the content for?
• What does that audience need or want?
• What are your competitors doing better than you? 
• What are your competitors not doing well?

Keyword research, market research, and market trend analysis can aid your search for those answers. The goal is to understand what your competitors are up to and how your target audience behaves to better fuel your strategy.

2. Ideation

Brainstorm unique and competitive ideas that address the keywords and their respective search intent. Every concept should build on the research in step one and answer those whos, whats, and whys.

3. Pre-production

Pre-production is like planning for the plan. What kind of timeline are you thinking, and what outside influences (an upcoming product launch date, for instance) impact your decisions?

During this phase, create content briefs and infographic templates, conduct interviews, or send out surveys that will become part of the content created down the line. Don’t leave the opinions and insights captured in your content to chance here; determine what they’ll be before moving onto the next phase.

4. Writing

Now, the content briefs, resources, and instructions land in the hands of talented freelancers or your in-house writing team, and the actual writing begins.

5. Editing

Fully drafted content is sent to editors, who review everything for clarity, coherence, grammar, and style. This stage is not just a case of dotting an “i” here and crossing a “t” over there. Editors contextually review the content, double-checking that it aligns with brand guidelines and the messaging fits the campaign.

6. Review

Send the edited draft to anyone who needs or wants to give their input. This may include subject matter experts, peer reviews, or other decision-makers on your team. Content that’s on point moves to the next step. Everything else gets marked up and sent back for further work.

7. Design

Support written content with bespoke images, graphics, and videos. Everything should slot in well with existing branded material and be formatted for the intended distribution channels — no long-form videos for TikTok or long-winded rants for X.

8. Publishing

Send your finished, multifaceted content out into the world. Channels might include your company website, a branded blog, social media pages, email newsletters, industry publications, podcasts, or e-books.

9. Tracking/analytics

Use key performance indicators to track how your content is doing and whether you’re meeting your brand’s goals. Metrics such as page views, conversion rates, social shares, and post likes and comments can give you insight into what’s working well and where you could improve. Be sure the primary metric you track for each asset aligns with the reason you created the content in the first place. 

10. Content refresh

Update content that has grown stale or isn’t performing as you’d hoped by adding insights, recent developments in the topic, and updated statistics. At this stage, you should also ensure that the content still aligns with the search intent of your primary keywords. 

Best Practices for SEO and Content Production

There are lots of bits and pieces that go into planning stellar content, but SEO is a big one — it’s integral in producing compelling content that ranks high in the SERPs. Best practices demand you incorporate SEO at least three times during the content production process:

• Keyword research: During the ideation phase, spend time researching what keywords can help you achieve business goals and which best answer your target audience’s queries.
• Search intent optimization: As your team creates content, they incorporate the keywords chosen during the ideation phase. These should address users’ questions and individual stages of the buyer’s journey. By determining the intent behind KWs, you can ensure you attract the right online traffic.

Image Source: semrush.com

• SEO analysis: After publishing your content, track and analyze key metrics that show how that content is performing. This requires looking at organic search traffic and click and conversion rates to see which KWs are effective and which may not best serve your purpose.

Working SEO into your content production process offers a range of benefits, such as improved visibility and rankings, increased organic traffic (saving money on paid ads), and advantages over the competition. But SEO is also closely tied to user experience. When you serve your research KWs properly versus simply shoving them into existing content, you give searchers valuable content that satisfies their needs and wants.

AI and Other Advanced Strategies in Content Production

Storytelling is the foundation of content production. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about product descriptions, white papers, or press releases. The bottom line is that you’re telling a story. This is more important than ever with Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines, which favor personalization and experience. While weaving a tale is a tradition as old as time, the methods you can use to convey your message have evolved.

Artificial intelligence

Not too long ago, AI seemed like something to be feared rather than embraced, but machine learning is transforming digital marketing at a rapid pace. For content production, AI has several purposes:

• Content personalization: Use AI to get to know your core audience’s behavioral patterns and preferences. Algorithms can review massive data sets and find patterns in record time, efficiently informing your strategy.
• Content optimization: Tools that oversee A/B testing and analyze content can help evaluate context, sentiment, and technical SEO needs.
• Predictive analytics: Knowing what lies ahead can help you stay ahead of the curve. AI-powered predictive analytics look at future trends and expected content performance to see what audiences might love tomorrow as well as today.
• Content creation: You can use AI to create outlines, brainstorm topic clusters, and even write actual content — as long as there’s always human oversight and final review processes in place.
• Content distribution: Figure out where to distribute your content and use AI scheduling tools to push out social posts and other assets when they’ll have the most impact.

User-generated content

User-generated content is all the content created by fans or followers of your brand. Testimonials, hashtag campaigns, social media posts, case studies, and even comments on blogs or social profiles are all types of UGC that can help create a more authentic content experience.

UGC is a win-win proposal. You save money on paid content creation and take advantage of social proof. Consider that, out of 500-plus surveyed marketers, 92% reported increased brand awareness due to UGC. 

In recent years, Formula 1’s racing team, Mclaren, has encouraged fans to use the hashtag “FansLikeNoOther” to increase brand awareness.

Top Tools and Resources for Effective Content Production

You can use top-rated tools and platforms to help guide and streamline the content production process. Here are some of our favorites.

• Content management systems facilitate content creation, modification, and overall management. They’re primarily used to manage website content, as seen with sites like WordPress and Squarespace. Some, like Shopify, have additional utilities to facilitate running an online store or creating a digital portfolio.
• SEO tools: Google Keyword Planner and Ahrefs are two of the biggest SEO tools in the marketplace. They help brands identify relevant keywords and provide in-depth analysis of goodies like backlink potential and competitor strategies.
• Analytics platforms: Master business intelligence’s nuances with platforms designed to discover and analyze data and provide actionable insights. With tools like Google Analytics, Semrush, and HubSpot, you can make data-driven decisions that fuel your overall digital marketing strategy.
• AI-driven technology: AI content creation tools focusing on the written word are everywhere these days, with sites like OwlyWriter AI and ChatGPT making major waves. But there are also tools for creating AI graphics (Midjourney), recording and editing podcasts (Podcastle), and building competitive content strategies (Crayon).
• Project management: Make no mistake, scattered communication and a lack of centralization can bring a robust content production team to its knees. Look for tools that support the collaborative process that content production has to be. Tools like Trello, Asana, monday.com, and Basecamp should fit the bill here. 

Key Challenges and Solutions in Content Production

Even experienced content production specialists run into hurdles from time to time, and for newbies, content creation can be a minefield. Understanding common challenges and approaching them armed with solutions can mean the difference between achieving success or stumbling.

• Maintaining content quality: When you start to generate more content or branch out from your initial content type or topics, it’s easy to watch quality sink as you just focus on getting it out there. It’s important to post consistently and stay visible, but if that means you start churning out content that lacks value and authority, the tradeoff isn’t worth it.
• Scaling production: Companies often experience temporary surges in production needs, such as wanting to populate a new blog in under a month or needing tons of local SEO service pages lumped into a one-off order. Other brands want to rapidly scale from a couple of pieces of content a week to a couple dozen. That’s hard to accomplish when relying solely on in-house staff.

These concerns can be mitigated — if not eliminated — by outsourcing content creation. At Crowd Content, we funnel our resources into building vetted, experienced networks of writers, editors, and subject matter experts who know how to generate high-quality content. With a pool of talent already in place and a three-step quality assurance process on tap, you can get a single piece of content or 1,000 product descriptions at a time, all while preserving quality.

The Role of Visuals and Multimedia Content in Content Production

The word “content” is often tied to text-based assets, but content production encompasses visual elements and multimedia creations. A whopping 91% of consumers prefer viewing visual content over something written. 

Incorporating so-called visual aids such as videos, infographics, images, and interactive elements into your content — or as the content itself — can make content more appealing. It may also make the things you publish more memorable and more desirable for consumers to share.

And while infographics, videos, and tables do take some effort to create, images that illustrate, entertain, and break up lengthy articles are now merely a few keystrokes away. 

Future Trends in Content Production

As we tiptoe further into the year, expect the landscape of content production to change. Some shifts may feel small, like shifting consumer behavior that hints at more significant changes in years to come. Other trends are poised to smack into industry norms hard enough to make the industry quake.

Take Google’s Search Generative Experience, for example. This feature, unveiled by Google in 2023, uses the power of AI to give searchers insight into their topic of interest without the need to repeatedly click on links in the SERPs. The risks and opportunities presented by this extension of Google’s search ecosystem aren’t yet known. Still, companies will have to adapt to more zero-click search and fight to be featured and preserve organic traffic.

Content Production Today, Tomorrow, and Beyond 2024

Crowd Content’s content creation services lead the industry with a pool of content managers, writers, SMEs, and editors who are as talented as they are committed to all things content. 

While there’s no such thing as a turnkey content production process, getting to know the top tools, strategies, and trends can undoubtedly make it easier to produce content that resonates. Given the importance of crazy-good content in digital marketing, it’s more important than ever that you get expert guidance and ultimately produce content that makes you — and your audience — proud.

The post Crafting Content That Counts: Inside the Content Production Process appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

This guide offers clarity around the content channels you can choose from, with examples of how other brands are leveraging these platforms. We’ll explore how to choose channels to share your content and ways to track performance to build a robust brand presence. To wrap up, we’ll peek into the crystal ball to see what the future of content distribution might look like.

The Essence of Content Distribution Channels

If you’re producing high-quality content, you’re on your way to building brand awareness, nurturing leads, and closing sales. However, you still need to nail down your distribution strategy to get that content in front of potential customers. 

If you feel it’s hard to find and connect with your audience, you’re not alone — there’s a lot of competition for their attention. Consider what happens in a single minute on the internet:

• Emails sent: 241 million
• Terms searched on Google: 6.3 million
• WhatsApp messages sent: 41.6 million
• Facebook posts liked: 4.0 million
• X (Twitter) posts sent: 360,000
• Years of streaming content watched: 43
• Global hours spent online: 25.1 million

With all this digital commotion, taking a measured approach to content distribution helps cut through the noise. By assessing the effectiveness of potential channels, you should come closer to your goals.

As you continue through this guide, remember: Content channels overlap. Your social profiles send traffic to your blog; your website promotes your latest posts, and paid ads funnel traffic to your landing pages. Your content distribution strategy needs to work cohesively to engage customers and guide them through your marketing funnel.

Types of Content Distribution Channels

Content distribution channels are the various platforms and media you use to promote and share content with your target audiences. They’re divided into three categories: owned, earned, and paid. 

1. Owned channels

Owned content distribution channels are properties you manage or control. You can distribute content on your schedule and customize it to suit your branding and messaging goals. Some examples of owned channels include:

Websites

A website is the foundation of your digital presence, containing official information about your company’s products and services and generating and converting leads. Visitors from search engines, social media platforms, paid ads, and newsletters often land on your website.

Since you have autonomy over user experience and functionality, you can publish an array of web content and get creative with engagement tools.

Blogs

Blogs are an extension of your website. By delivering helpful content to your audience, blogs position your business as an authority in your field. You have the flexibility to plan and distribute content for different audiences and stages of the buyer’s journey. 

IBM, for example, has a comprehensive blog with topic clusters that demonstrate their depth of knowledge. Users can navigate to subjects such as artificial intelligence, security and identity, and business automation. 

Social media accounts

Your social media accounts let you connect with online customers wherever they hang out. Even if they don’t follow you, they can discover you through a hashtag. To leverage social channels effectively, you’ll need an in-depth understanding of which platforms your audience uses.

You can use social media to tease content on your blog or deliver content on the platform. Lululemon’s Instagram reel, for example, promotes a New York pop-up event.

Newsletters

Newsletters let you reach your customers directly in their inbox. You can set your distribution frequency and customize the content of your mailings to link to blog posts, promote new products, and offer discounts.

The beauty of newsletters is you can segment recipients by audience, personalizing content based on customer demographics, interests, and behaviors. Want to reach out to customers who haven’t purchased in a while? Tailor content based on what they ordered previously to reignite their interest.

At Crowd Content, we opt for both written and video newsletters. 

Consumer-facing apps

Customers reach for mobile apps when shopping and ordering food, but forward-thinking brands are using them to keep audiences engaged.

Check out Nike’s group of mobile apps, focused on interests such as shopping, workouts, running, and new product drops. Nike Training Club, for example, is dedicated to wellness and distributes content such as yoga videos and healthy eating tips. 

2. Earned channels

Earned or shared channels are organic, unpaid avenues owned by third parties. Snagging a mention on these channels can give you exposure to a wider audience, but you do have to earn the opportunity by:

• Generating interest or loyalty in your brand, which inspires users to recommend or promote your company
• Demonstrating credibility so a third party feels confident associating with your business

Media coverage

A highly coveted earned distribution channel is media coverage. A profile in a reputable publication or industry blog can amplify your brand and send users flowing to your website. Audiences view these channels as especially trustworthy because you can’t control your placement or pay for it.

It might be hard to land a mention on a site like Wirecutter or authoritative sources for your industry, but you can sometimes coax similar results through press releases and some savvy PR. Just make sure you have a newsworthy reason for reaching out. 

BrightLocal publishes data-filled reports that are frequently cited. Shout About Us published an entire article summarizing one of their reports, providing BrightLocal with unpaid promotion and authority-building backlinks.

Guest blogging

With guest blogging, you contribute content to third-party sites. This practice is a win-win for both sides. You’re introducing your brand to potential new customers, and the partnering site benefits from your expertise and content. Make sure the site you’re contributing to has the same target audience as your brand, and make the most of the opportunity with exceptional content to emphasize your credibility.

Littledata, an e-commerce data platform, authored a guest article on Smile.io, a loyalty app. Both businesses target online retailers. The piece delivers useful information to readers, but more importantly, it highlights the Littledata brand with links to Littledata’s X account, white paper landing page, and free GA4 order checker tool. 

User-generated content

User-generated content (UGC) is influential word-of-mouth information created by your customers and fans. UGC comes in many forms: images of new purchases, fun unboxing videos, beauty product tutorials, reviews, and testimonials. UGC carries significant weight with audiences because it tends to feel genuine.

Instagram user charlesjpgs tagged RockCreek Seafood & Spirits during a recent dining experience, providing the restaurant with potential exposure to nearly 50,000 followers. On a larger scale, GoPro promotes UGC by giving their users a tool to share their video adventures to social media. 

Keep an eye on social media review sites for user-generated content around your brand, and interact with posts by liking, sharing, and commenting. It helps if you’ve built a community of engaged followers — you can create your own hashtag and invite customers to share their experiences. 

3. Paid channels

Paid content channels help you tap into a targeted audience, providing significant exposure to customers you don’t normally reach through other channels. 

Digital advertising

Digital ads are also known as pay-per-click (PPC) because you only pay when someone clicks the link. They’re found throughout the internet in different forms:

• Search engine marketing ads appear on search results pages above the organic snippets.
• Social media ads appear in the feeds of users who match the ad’s target audience.
• Display ads include banners and other clickable ads on websites and apps.

You can zero in on the audience you want to reach based on their demographics, location, device, interests, search terms, and other targeting options. Customize your ads with text, images, or video, and support them with a well-crafted landing page to convert clicks.

Influencer partnerships

Influencers have an audience of followers who look to them for niche recommendations. These content creators can give your brand a sizable boost by talking about or using your product, offering discount codes to their followers, or running contests and giveaways. If their audience matches your target demographic, you’ve got an opportunity to connect with a fresh segment of customers.

Influencers typically create content in their own style for authenticity. KitchenAid’s most high-profile partnership may be with actor Jennifer Garner, who uses the mixer to whip up recipes in her “Pretend Cooking Show” posts. However, the brand has many online ambassadors promoting its products.

Sponsored content

With sponsored content, you pay a third-party site to distribute your content to their audience. It’s similar in concept to guest blogging, but you’re paying for the exposure.

Software company Accelo has a sponsored post on the Search Engine Journal site about mitigating agency churn. It’s created in the form of a blog post, delivering expertise on a topic while also promoting their client work management platform. The piece ends with a link to a free trial to generate leads. Search Engine Journal does identify sponsored posts to distinguish them from their regular content.

Evaluating Content Distribution Channels

So many channels, so little time. How do you choose between them? To begin, each type of channel has advantages and limitations that you’ll have to weigh:

• Earned channels carry a lot of credibility but can be hard to secure. You can work toward these organic endorsements by cultivating relationships, but don’t rely on them solely for promoting your brand.
• Paid channels generate quick results, helping you reach a specific demographic in a short period. But on the flip side, they can be costly to maintain long-term and you lose visibility when ads stop running. 
• Owned channels give you complete control over messaging, style, and branding, and you can update content whenever you wish. These properties help you build a strong online presence but take time and resources to build and manage.

The channel, combination of channels, and investment for each channel you choose greatly impacts the results you’ll get. Here’s where research, trial, analytics, and adjustments come into play. 

Perform due diligence 

Picking content distribution channels is a bit like matchmaking: You’ve got to make sure the channel is compatible with your goals and target audience. What you shouldn’t do is randomly push out content on different channels in the hopes that somewhere, something clicks. 

You can make purposeful and informed decisions when you:

• Research your audience: Conduct market research to understand where your target customers go for information and their preferences for consuming content. If they’re not on Pinterest, you don’t need to be either.
• Identify your business goals: Look at your short- and long-term goals. Determine which channels are best, whether you’re focused on product launches, customer acquisition, lead generation, or customer retention.
• Review past performance: Analyze the channels you’ve used previously, and look at the costs and results. You may decide to continue distributing content on some channels or, based on audience research, move on to others. 
• Stay competitive: What are your competitors doing? Monitor your industry to see where brands are finding their customers. If competitors are having success engaging audiences on another channel, you may want to test it out, too.
• Optimize resources: Track data to understand the best return on investment, and adjust your strategies accordingly. We’ll explore this in more detail a little further down.

Diversify your channels

As you develop your content distribution strategy, aim to make it sustainable. If any of your channels lose traction, you should have others in place to pick up the slack. We recommend a mix of owned, earned, and paid distribution channels so you enjoy stability and growth.

“Marketers need to look at their different channels as an investment portfolio in terms of diversification and return,” suggests Carlos Meza, President and CEO of Crowd Content. “Double down on your winners, invest in other channels to mitigate risk, and make some bets on high-potential channels.”

Here are some examples of what a content channel portfolio might look like in practice:

• Double down on your winners: Is your website making progress in generating organic search traffic? Direct more resources to the channel to accelerate growth.
• Invest in other channels: While you’re reaping the benefits of your proven assets, strengthen other channels. You might focus on growing your newsletter mailing list to safeguard leads in case your search rankings take a hit.
• Bet on high-potential channels: Based on your market research, test out promising new avenues for content distribution. Maybe you can check out TikTok or try your hand at digital PR. 

Avoid having all your eggs in one particular channel, as it can leave you exposed. You may be one Google algorithm update away from having your traffic, engagement, and inbound leads vanish overnight.

Carlos Meza

Measuring and Analyzing Performance

Your content distribution strategy may be sound in theory, but you can’t always predict customer behavior or the impact of external factors.

Set benchmarks so you can compare performance after specific campaigns and on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis. Regular tracking gives you the data you need to guide decisions and refine strategies. You may want to test messaging and timing, for example, to see if any adjustments impact performance. 

Select your metrics and tools

There are many metrics you can measure, but focus on ones that deliver meaningful data. They should be tied to the content channel and the goals you’ve set so you can measure your progress. We’ve listed below some common metrics for various channels, along with tools you can use to gather insight.

Sample website metrics 

• Organic traffic
• Unique visitors
• Page views
• Time spent on page
• Bounce rate
• Time spent on site
• Conversion rate (for desired actions, such as white paper downloads or free trials)

How to track website metrics: Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Semrush, Ahrefs

Sample PPC metrics

• Impressions
• Reach
• Click-through rate
• Cost per click
• Return on investment

How to track PPC metrics: Google Ads and individual social media platforms

Sample social media metrics

• Engagement (followers, likes, shares, comments, views)
• Reach/impressions
• Click-through rate
• Conversion rate

How to track social media metrics: Analytics features on individual platforms or dashboards such as Hootsuite and Rival IQ

Sample newsletter marketing metrics

• Open rates
• Click-through rates
• Conversion rates
• Subscriber growth

How to track newsletter marketing metrics: Email marketing tools, such as HubSpot, Mailchimp, and Constant Contact

Future Trends in Content Distribution

The playing field for content distribution is ever-changing. Competition is ramping up, new channels are vying for attention, and audience preferences change. Here are some content distribution trends we’re keeping an eye on:

• The role of content intelligence: This AI-driven technology processes existing content, behavioral data, and market research to provide in-depth audience insights. Watch for marketers to lean on content intelligence platforms to choose content types, formats, and distribution channels.
• Data-driven personalization: There’s more data than ever to analyze, and the focus will be on harnessing information to deliver hyper-personal experiences. Marketers can use proprietary data, third-party data, and AI technologies to build a better understanding of how people move through channels. Based on these patterns, they can deliver precise content.
• Holistic content distribution: Instead of having SEO, social media, and digital ad teams working in silos, brands will begin to unify content across touchpoints to provide a seamless experience.
• Renewed emphasis on owned channels: With so many changes in the distribution landscape, marketers will focus on properties they have control over to ride out any rough patches. This may include strengthening brand websites as a trusted source of information, creating loyalty through memberships, and building first-party mailing lists.

Trying to balance the pieces of your content strategy? Our experts can help with your content production or distribution needs. Contact us today for a free consultation about how to maximize your content marketing to keep in step with your customers, no matter where they’re spending their time online. 

The post A Marketer’s Guide to Exploring Effective Content Distribution Channels appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

And all marketing is content.

• Video scripts
• Instagram images and captions
• Blog posts
• Landing pages
• Emails
• Search ads
• Radio and television ads
• Direct mail

Each of these is made of content — content that someone or some team created. 

No matter what your specific business or organizational goals are, if you have a message to put in front of an audience, you need people to create that content. Whether you turn to in-house talent or outsource content creation is up to you, but it’s critical to understand the costs before you make a decision.

Apples & Oranges: How to Successfully Compare the Cost of Freelancers With the Cost of Staff Writers

Before you can accurately assess costs — and cost-savings — it’s important to understand how to compare apples with oranges. 

For instance, if you pay an in-house writer $25 per hour and a freelancer 10 cents per word, how can you tell which is less expensive? 

It’s almost impossible to make this comparison when you’re talking about one small writing project. In fact, if all you need is one small writing project completed, you shouldn’t be making this comparison at all. Why hire an in-house employee for a single project when you can outsource it and be done with the expense once the project is over?

If you have ongoing content needs, however, it makes sense to crunch some numbers to determine what’s best for your budget. Here are a few tips for ensuring you do so accurately:

• Look at the big picture instead of costs for single projects. Think about what you would pay for content over the course of an entire year. It can be easier to compare a year’s worth of freelance content expenses to a year’s worth of payroll expenses than to compare hourly wages to freelance charges. 
• Include all the costs of employing someone. When calculating the cost of hiring in-house writers, consider more than what you pay them. Add in benefits, training expenses, and the costs of hiring. 
• Remember that you may have internal costs even when you work with freelancers. You may still need to manage freelancers, and if you work directly with writers, you might have to do edits and quality checks yourself. 

Average Cost of Hiring an In-House Writer

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, writers and authors make an average of $69,510 per year — or $33.42 hourly. 

However, “writers and authors” is a pretty big umbrella, and the average salary isn’t inclusive of all costs that an employer might pay when hiring someone. Let’s break this down a bit further so you can get a better idea of what it might cost for you to hire an in-house writer for your organization.

As you can see from the above table, a good estimate for the amount you may need to pay an in-house writer is $25 to $50 an hour, or around $50,000 to $115,000 per year.

However, you’ll also incur other costs if you hire full-time in-house staff. 

Estimated additional costs of hiring an in-house writer at $60,000 per year in the U.S.

Depending on the benefits you offer, you could end up paying $78,000 or more annually for a single in-house writer. A team of just five writers can cost $400,000 or more yearly. 

How Much Does it Cost to Hire a Freelancer?

Freelance writers offer services for a wide range of prices. They also charge for those services in a variety of ways, including:

• Hourly
• Per project
• Per page of copy, which is usually defined by an approximate number of words 
• Per word
• Per unit, such as per meta description or Instagram caption

Working directly with freelancers versus working with an agency or content company can also drastically impact how much you pay. 

What does it cost to work directly with a freelancer?

One option for working with freelance writers is to put out a job posting, accept resumes or applications directly from freelancers and choose some writers for contract work. 

In this scenario, you foot the bill for a variety of expenses, including:

• The cost to develop the job posting and market the listing
• The cost of training freelancers, which can include developing internal briefs, offering feedback and taking time to ensure freelancers understand any software or internal processes
• In-house employee labor expenses associated with managing the freelancer team — including assigning work, managing workflows, receiving work and any editing or feedback that might be necessary
• Paying freelancers for the work they do

What are some average freelance writer rates?

Here’s what the American Writers & Artist’s Institute suggests professional and experienced freelancers charge for various copywriting projects. 

Using these rates as a basic guide, let’s look at the cost of hiring freelancers directly to complete a website content writing project. For this hypothetical project, imagine that you need:

• New home page copy ($1,500)
• 30 new pages — a mix of high-quality sales pages and SEO pages ($10,000)
• 2 pillar posts — $1,000
• 10 blog posts — $3,000

The freelancer cost for your project would be $15,500. Add in internal costs associated with managing the freelancers, and the total costs could be $17,000 to $18,000 or more.

Of course, you might save money by hiring freelancers with much lower rates. However, as with any other service, you often get what you pay for. Freelancers with less experience or those that charge bottom-barrel rates may also increase how much internal effort you need to exert on a project, which can lead to increased internal costs that negate your savings.

How much does it cost to hire crowd content freelancers?

Crowd Content offers a wide range of pricing choices — and several ways to work with freelancers through our platform. 

Generally, pricing structures are per word. However, we can also accommodate flat pricing per piece and other structures to meet unique client needs. 

Pricing in our Marketplace is 3.5 to 15.8 cents per word. If you want our professional editors to proofread your copy before it’s delivered, you can add editing for 4 cents per word.  Our customer service reps can help you build strong writing and editing teams, but you generally manage those teams, so you may have some internal expenses associated with overseeing content. 

To understand how much high-quality 4-star content might cost with Crowd Content’s marketplace services, consider the table below.

You can also choose managed services and work with fully-managed content teams. Our content managers and production teams partner with clients to deliver publish-ready content, and they can take a lot of the burden off your internal teams. Managed services can include brief creation, editing and quality assurance, and management of large freelance teams, reducing some of your internal costs.  

Hiring In-House Writers, Directly Contracting With Freelancers, or Working With Crowd Content: Which Is More Cost-Effective?

Let’s look at another hypothetical situation to understand how much content might cost with each of these options.

In this scenario, a company needs around 250,000 total words of blog content per year (about 250 blog posts). It considers the following options:

• Hire one full-time in-house writer at an expense of around $80,000 total
• Contract with freelancers directly at an expense of $62,000 to $125,000 total
• Use Crowd Content’s 4-star marketplace writers and editors at an expense of around $49,750 plus any internal costs associated with managing workflows

Which Choice Is Right for Your Business?

A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t exist here, so you need to consider your business needs, budget and how your team works best. Some teams need in-house support and collaboration more than cost-savings. Some companies don’t have any in-house resources for content creation and are happy to outsource everything. 

There isn’t a single right answer, though you can see from the numbers above that there’s definitely a more cost-effective answer. If you’re interested in those cost savings and how Crowd Content can help you drive them without downgrading the quality of your content, connect with us today.

The post The Cost of Hiring a Freelancer vs. an In-House Writer appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Cue the ghostwriter. These professional writers lurk behind the scenes and are invisible to audiences, but there’s nothing supernatural about them. Learn how ghostwriters deliver meaningful content on your behalf, putting an expert face on your company. We’ll fill you in on their role in content marketing and how you can leverage a ghostwriting service to raise your brand profile and build trust with audiences.

What Is Ghostwriting?

Ghostwriting is the practice of creating content that’s credited to someone other than the original writer. This process is common in book publishing, where public figures often hire professional writers to craft memoirs or autobiographies on their behalf.

With digital content playing an increasingly important role in brand marketing, many companies are hiring ghostwriters to produce online content. Thought leadership pieces, blog posts, articles, e-books and white papers are extremely valuable for raising brand awareness and establishing a company’s authority in a field.

These types of pieces can be attributed to senior leaders and executives or published as general website content. Think of ghostwriters as playing a similar role to speech writers shaping a keynote delivered by a CEO or publicists putting together quotes that appear in press releases. People want insights from those at the top and ghostwriters help get important ideas across in an expressive and compelling way.

Why Use a Ghostwriter?

Companies use content marketing to reach audiences and demonstrate authority in a niche. A smart thought leadership piece from your CEO, published in a respected industry journal, gives your company valuable exposure. It also helps develop the personal brand of senior executives and makes it easier for audiences to relate to your company.

However, while your leadership has plenty of wisdom to convey, they likely have more urgent work priorities. Ghostwriting gets your company’s expertise out to audiences when potential authors are too busy to devote hours to writing. It also makes sense to use professional writers to create copy, as the quality reflects directly on your company. It takes superior writing skills to produce highly polished, engaging content that also fits into your brand image.

When to Hire a Ghostwriter

If you have an in-house writing team, you can get started on your content marketing strategy right away. But some companies may not have staff writers or their team may be stretched thin on other projects.

In this case, you have a couple of options for ghostwriting.

• You can hire your own freelance writers to call on when needed, reviewing applications and vetting them to ensure their skills match your needs. You might have to try a few writers to find one that can hit the tone or style you’re looking for or that charge rates within your budget. Freelance writers tend to have a stable of clients, so you also need to make sure they’re available when you need content delivered in a timely fashion.
• You can use a ghostwriting service and tap into a group of writers with different backgrounds and areas of expertise. You can outsource an array of content, including blog posts, articles, opinion pieces, columns and e-books. And, with a large pool of freelancers, you’re usually assured of finding one who can turn content around quickly and meet deadlines. 

How to Work With Ghostwriters

If you’re investing resources in creating content, make sure your efforts pay off. Here are a few guidelines to ensure you receive impactful copy, whether using a ghostwriting service or your own freelancers.

Determine Goals

Set out the purpose of the piece so your team is working toward the same objective. Some examples of content goals are:

• Increasing brand awareness by publishing guest posts on other websites
• Boosting site traffic through blog posts you promote on social media
• Encouraging readers to download an e-book or white paper by teasing key highlights in a LinkedIn article
• Improving your search engine ranking by building an inventory of quality SEO content on your site

Once you know what your content should accomplish, set out a plan to achieve it.

Create a Content Brief

Provide the ghostwriter with as much detail as possible to guide their work. The more clarity you give, the more likely the final piece meets your expectations. Writers need details such as:

• Content objective. What should readers take away from the piece? What impression do you want to make?
• Context. Where will the piece be published?
• Topic. Outline key points to cover, including key information or data.
• Word count. Provide a range to give the writer some flexibility.
• Keywords. List primary and secondary keywords with placement guidelines.
• Links. Provide a list of the types of internal and external links to use.
• Tone. A good ghostwriter can capture different tones and styles. Provide direction to ensure the piece fits seamlessly into your brand voice.
• Formatting. Provide a link to your brand’s style guide or specify any preferences.

Collaborate If Needed

In most cases, ghostwriters with expertise in the subject can deliver accurate, well-researched content to meet your needs, whether in the area of finance, law, real estate, health or technology. 

For personal pieces, you may need to provide the writer with quotes and stories. For example, if you want to publish an article by the company founder about the early years of the business, you’ll need to conduct an interview and gather necessary anecdotes. Let the ghostwriter know the type of personality or language to infuse into the piece if you want it to reflect the personal brand of a CEO or executive.

Implement a Review Process

Content marketers talk a lot about demonstrating authority, which is important for establishing credibility and respect. Authority helps persuade customers to do business with you and gives search engines confidence in placing your site higher in search engine rankings. 

To establish authority and achieve brand goals, your content must be impeccable in quality. It’s good practice to ensure the content is reviewed for accuracy, either by your in-house team or ghostwriting service.

• Editors ensure logic, flow and style
• Proofreaders look for grammar and spelling errors
• Subject matter experts review for content and accuracy
• Editorial directors or content strategists ensure the piece meets corporate goals

The person receiving the byline should also review the piece for voice and to ensure they agree with the contents.

Benefits of Hiring a Ghostwriting Service

Ghostwriting services can be a cost-effective solution when you don’t have in-house resources to devote to content creation. Here are some benefits of outsourcing to an agency such as Crowd Content.

High-Quality Professional Copy

Content marketing is highly competitive. According to Semrush’s 2023 State of Content Marketing survey, 53% of content marketers are focusing on improving content quality and 55% are creating more content and posting more often.

As standards increase and competition ramps up, your content needs to stand out to make an impression. Professional ghostwriters can transform your content strategy into well-structured, compelling copy that reflects positively on your brand, captures attention and motivates readers toward your goals.

Maximize Productivity

Content creation can be time-consuming, but a ghostwriting service offers a pool of writers ready to produce articles, blog posts and other content to meet your needs. You can leverage this talent and use ghostwriters to execute your full content strategy. By planning an editorial calendar with deadlines and scheduling regular delivery of content to publish, you can grow your online presence quickly and effortlessly. 

Better Online Visibility

The more quality content you create, the better your chances of reaching your target audience. Each web page is a fresh opportunity to rank in search engines and drive audiences to your page through social media, marketing emails and internal linking.

You can also build important backlinks to your web pages from other sites, which Google sees as an endorsement of the value of your content. These backlinks improve your site’s authority and search engine ranking.

Save Time and Money

Crowd Content’s flexible pricing makes outsourcing cost-effective. Freelancers are prescreened according to experience so you can build a team that suits your budget. You can access thousands of writers with different specialties without the hassle of vetting each one and negotiating individual rates. 

Our ghostwriters fit into your workflow as needed. If you have a specific vision, provide an in-depth outline and writers will follow your instructions. If you prefer to be hands-off, offer general direction about the topic and trust our skilled writers to develop and produce a compelling article on your behalf at the same standardized per word rate.

Need to add more than a writer to your team? Tap into editors, subject matter experts, keyword researchers and content managers, taking more tasks off your to-do list.Whether you want a high-profile article under your CEO’s byline or snappy content to perk up your website or blog, our ghostwriting services make content production simple and efficient. Find out how to get started today and put your content strategy into action.

The post How Ghostwriters Help You Conjure Up the Right Words appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

A technical writer helps make complex topics understandable, so you can effectively deliver information to employees, colleagues and customers. For many companies, particularly those in the technology, scientific or medical space, this can mean the difference between success and failure.

So, can technical writing benefit you? To answer that question, let’s take a deeper dive into what technical writing is and why it’s so important in certain industries and departments.

What Is Technical Writing?

Technical writing aims to make the complex simple. It’s a form of written or digital communication that documents specific processes or imparts information about complex or specialized subjects with a high level of accuracy and in the most efficient way possible. For example, technical writing may deliver research findings, forecast or analyze industry trends or provide instructions for difficult tasks. If you’ve ever had to create a user guide or assembly instructions, you’ve used technical writing skills.

Technical writing often targets a narrow audience consisting of industry professionals, such as engineers, doctors or scientists. However, content may also be aimed at a general audience, which often includes users of a product or service. In the latter case, technical writing must present complex topics in a way that even a layman can understand. 

Who Needs Technical Writing?

STEM-related industries, including scientific or medical organizations and computer-related companies, often hire technical writers to create product documentation, operator manuals and other instructional materials to help employees and customers understand complex topics and to teach them how to execute technical tasks. Additionally, technical writing is important in the management space, particularly in industries that must deliver complex quarterly or annual financial reports.

However, any business that needs to share accurate or complex information with their employees, customers or other industry professionals, can benefit from technical writing services. For example, a restaurant may require training materials to help new staff learn to use kitchen equipment, or a furniture manufacturer may need to provide assembly instructions with their products.

How Does Technical Writing Work?

There’s no universal formula for technical writing. The process can vary widely depending on the type of content, the targeted audience and the industry. However, regardless of type, most technical writing involves several stages:

1. Defining the content: Typically, the person who orders the content lets the writer know what tone, writing style and difficulty level they should aim for. Writers should also know the target audience and its needs. In some cases, technical writers may have a say in choosing the best medium for the message or audience.
2. Gathering resources: A technical writer should have access to all relevant resources, which may include item specifications, research data and product samples.
3. Consulting with relevant experts: Often, technical writers work directly with technical staff, product liability specialists and customer service managers to ensure the content they create is as clear and accurate as possible, complies with safety regulations and meets any other organizational requirements.
4. Creating the content: Technical writers may write text from scratch or update existing content to meet new or changing needs, or to address revised product specifications or corrected information. Content creation may also involve incorporating visual elements, such as photos, illustrations, graphs or animation to enhance clarity and comprehensibility.

What Are the Characteristics of Technical Writing?

Although technical writing spans a continuum of written and digital content, high-quality examples typically share several common characteristics:

• Accuracy: The main goal of technical writing is to convey information, so it must be accurate. Incorrect, vague or outdated information can result in costly mistakes, lost customers and, in extreme cases, legal action.
• Thoroughness: To be effective, technical writing must be thorough and comprehensive. It should address all relevant aspects of the topic and may include visual accompaniments to complement written text.
• Logic: Technical writing must make sense, so actionable steps are easy to follow. It should never include contradictory information or gaps in logic that could diminish authority or credibility.
• Sequence: Technical writing embodies the philosophy of one step at a time. Particularly in operator guides and other “how-to” instructional materials, writers should make sure all steps are listed in the order they must be performed.
• Organization: Readers don’t want to skip around to find important information. Technical writers should present the material in a well-organized, intuitive fashion.
• Economy: Because technical writing is meant to inform or instruct, every word matters, and text should include no wasted words. If you can convey information sufficiently in 50 words, don’t use 75.
• Audience appropriateness: Technical writing may target different audiences. The complexity and style of writing should be appropriate for the intended audience. For example, technical writing aimed at a general user should be substantially different in tone, vocabulary and style from writing aimed at engineers or other technical professionals.

What Are the Different Types of Technical Writing Services?

Depending on the industry and a company’s unique needs, technical writing can take many forms. Although the applications are numerous, common types of technical writing services include:

• Case studies: These in-depth studies may focus on individuals, groups or events.
• Assembly manuals: Step-by-step assembly guides show consumers how to safely and correctly put together a product.
• User guides/user manuals: These guides provide comprehensive information about operating a product or using a service.
• Product specifications: Spec sheets highlight features and functions of an item. They may include dimensions, materials and safety specifications.
• FAQs: Often used on websites, FAQs answer frequently asked questions about products and services.
• White papers: These informational documents typically highlight information about a product, service or solution
• Quarterly or annual reports: These public-facing reports summarize a company’s financial statements. They typically include a profit-and-loss statement.
• API documentation: API documents typically include tutorials, references, tutorials and other materials that help developers understand and use your application programming interface.
• Statements of work: These legally binding documents define the scope of a project. They may include a project’s goals, deliverables and schedule.
• Literature reviews: These documents summarize previous research and scholarly sources on a given topic.
• Technical video scripts: Scripts may be written for television, radio, Internet or podcast.

How Technical Writing Skills Differ From Copywriting Skills

Both technical writers and copywriters must be able to write clear, readable content, but they differ in many areas. Copywriters need to create engaging, marketing-focused content that drives sales, while technical writers deliver objective instructional or informative content designed for employees, customers and industry professionals.

Besides knowing how to write well, technical writers often have a specialized skill set, which includes experience in or knowledge of the topic they’re writing about. In many cases, technical writers must be able to distill complex information into language that the general population can understand. They must also be able to share, discuss and understand the information received from technical professionals about a given subject. Because of this, technical writers often start out in technical or scientific jobs. In some industries, technical writers may need to hold a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field of study.

A Comparison of Copywriting, Business Writing and Technical Writing

It’s worth noting that many projects, such as video scripts or trade magazine articles, may combine elements of two or more types of writing. 

How Technical Writing Services Can Benefit You

Whether you lack the resources to hire a full-time technical writer or you just want to leave the writing to someone else, outsourcing technical writing services can help your company gain the competitive edge. No matter how big or small your business is, you can acquire the top-notch instructional materials you need through Crowd Content. 

Through Crowd Content’s world-class content writing services, you can order spec sheets, technical manuals and any other written documentation your business needs. Many of our dedicated, professional freelancers are subject matter experts and have the experience and expertise to create engaging, copy in technical areas, such as computer science and engineering. 

When you work with Crowd Content, you’ll receive publish-ready, SEO-rich content that drives organic traffic to your website while meeting your company’s high standards. We can also accommodate any requirements you have regarding style and format, including citations, to cement your industry reputation. So, if your latest white paper or e-book is still nothing more than notes, leave the writing to Crowd Content and rest easy.

The post Simplifying the Complex: Why Technical Writing Matters appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

In early 2023, the content world was atwitter with talk of AI content and what it might mean for the industry. We’ve got the details below about SEO artificial intelligence, including how you can use it and where you might want to back away from the machine.

What’s ChatGPT and Where’s the Controversy?

While SEO marketers that read industry blogs have seen plenty of content about AI through the years, the discussion has catapulted into the mainstream recently. ChatGPT, an AI content bot from OpenAI, is one reason for that.

OpenAI released the bot in November 2022, and it took around 2.5 months for the impressive piece of machine learning to go viral in the news cycles. While Meta’s chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun, says ChatGPT isn’t as innovative as it seems, the bot is wowing users across all industries—and bringing to light numerous ethical and practical concerns about this type of AI.

Professors at the University of Minnesota and the University of Pennsylvania report that ChatGPT successfully passed both law and business exams, for example. It’s all enough to bring the lawmakers out; one United States congressman is already calling for a committee to consider regulations for this type of AI.

But Can You Use AI Tools to Write Your Content?

The answer really comes down to whether or not you should. ChatGPT and other fairly advanced tools do a decent job of stringing coherent sentences together and even providing some basic facts. And even less robust AI tools can create the type of short phrases common in search ads.

Before you take AI to the bank in an attempt to scale your content fast and cheap, though, you must consider all the ramifications. Here are just a few reasons not to use AI to create all your content:

• Google is against it. In early 2022, John Mueller of Google gave a pretty straightforward answer about the viability of AI-generated content in SERPs. He said that AI is a type of auto-generated content, and that it is banned by Google Search Essentials (formerly Webmaster Guidelines). Publishing AI-generated content, said Mueller, can result in manual penalties that reduce page rank and devalue your SEO.
• AI can’t think like a human. Consumers want real value when they come to your pages or read your emails. While advanced AI content tools can string some pretty sentences together, computers don’t think like humans. The AI doesn’t think “What is most valuable to the reader?” or “How can I tell a story to capture the reader’s attention and persuade them to take action?” AI isn’t going to integrate powerful emotional marketing elements appropriately—that’s still the sole territory of human content creators. 
• AI is only as good as the data. Computer-generated content is often riddled with factual errors. That’s because AI content generators draw on all the data available to them on the web to create “new” content. You likely know from experience how hit-and-miss the internet can be with facts, and those issues find their way into the content generated by machines. This makes AI an especially bad option for long-form or complex content or even short-form content about niche topics. Check out our case study to find out how Crowd Content’s human writing force helped one client meet scale, quality and accuracy requirements not possible with AI alone. 
• AI might plagiarize. Since these bots are drawing on what was written before to create new content, there’s a chance they might “borrow” a bit too much, creating duplicate content. If you publish that, you could be accused of plagiarism. 

Why SEO Artificial Intelligence Is Different

While generating all your content with chatbots and other automated approaches is a bad idea for quality and SEO performance, that doesn’t mean SEO artificial intelligence is without value. In fact, as digital marketing gets increasingly competitive and the search engine landscapes become more and more technical, failing to turn to these tools can make it hard to succeed.

Here are some ways SEO artificial intelligence can be used to improve—and not compromise—content quality and performance in SERPs.

Conducting Competing Content Analyses

To rank higher in the search engines, your page has to bump someone else down. That requires creating a page that more effectively serves the searcher’s intent for the query and meets Google requirements for quality. 

Meeting these goals usually requires starting with competitive research. What are your competitors doing with content, who is most successful and how can you do it better?

You can do this manually. Search all your keywords, read dozens or hundreds of Google pages in the top results and take notes about the content—how long is it, what headers are used, what topics are covered, does the competition use conversational or journalistic language? The list goes on…and on.

Or, you can invest in AI to handle this for you. That’s part of what tools like INK and SEMRush do; they scour the web and return suggestions for content based on what’s performing well. 

Strengthening Keyword Research

Automation tools to find trending keywords have been around for more than a decade. AdWords was launched in 2000, after all. Today’s automated keyword research tools go further than basic lists and stats about monthly search volumes, though. 

AI can help you create entire keyword content plans by categorizing keywords according to intent, overall topics, trends and search volumes. Instead of walking away with a list of keywords you have to shuffle into shape, you can get a well-organized keyword report that takes little effort to tweak into a viable SEO strategy. 

Planning and Outlining Content

Once you have the keywords and a basic plan, these same tools can help you plan and outline your content. SEO artificial intelligence tools can generate entire blog outlines or offer decent, actionable advice about:

• What subheadings you might include in content
• What questions are trending that you should answer 
• What semantic keywords and phrases can increase the SEO value of your page

Many of these tools also help you increase the SEO-quality of your page by helping you keep reading levels in check, reminding you to create meta tags and offering suggestions for the number of images you might need. 

Writing Some Content

SEO artificial intelligence tools can even be used to create limited content to help you scale your approach. You shouldn’t use machines to write entire blog posts, but you can definitely put AI to work creating formulaic meta descriptions or blurbs. Just make sure you have some human quality assurance processes in place, because when a computer misunderstands the assignment, it usually does so spectacularly. 

Balance SEO Artificial Intelligence With Human-Forward Content

Crowd Content has always embraced technology when it serves a purpose for our clients and adds value to the content we create. If you want to scale content for SEO and aren’t sure how to balance old-fashioned creativity and human talent with new SEO AI tools, we can help.

The post SEO & Artificial Intelligence: Where You Can Use AI and Automation and Where You Probably Shouldn’t appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

What Is Blog Writing?

In a professional context, blog writing is the process of creating informative articles related to your business. Each blog post supports one or more operational or strategic goals. If you’re positioning the company as an industry authority, for example, you might write thought-leadership posts related to current developments and trends. Other articles might be designed to build brand recognition, educate readers about your products and services or drive customers to an online ordering system.

What Are the Benefits of Blog Writing?

A strategic, well-written blog can have a profound effect on your company, whether you’re running a start-up or growing a small business. Some of the most important benefits include:

• Boost search engine ranking. Google loves fresh content; when you publish regularly, it’s easier to rank your website higher in the search results.
• Build credibility. Whether you work in the B2C or B2B sector, a well-written blog showcases your institutional knowledge and establishes your company as a credible, authoritative resource.
• Increase website traffic. The more pages you have on your website, the more traffic you receive. A blog also creates more chances for potential customers to find your company.
• Foster customer relationships. Every blog post is a chance to provide more value to customers and create loyalty that sustains your business over the long term.
• Expand content marketing strategy. A blog opens up a world of opportunities to grow your company’s content marketing strategies and reach a larger audience.

Google E-A-T — What Is It?

E-A-T stands for expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. Google uses this concept to evaluate its search algorithm and ensure that the rankings are showing the best possible results for users. In late December 2022, Google released a new version: E-E-A-T, or experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness.

• Experience: The creator demonstrates first-hand experience in the topic they’re writing about.
• Expertise: The creator has the appropriate skills, certifications or knowledge for the topic at hand. This is particularly true for topics that affect the reader’s money or life.
• Authoritativeness: The creator is known as a reliable, authoritative and trusted source for the topic area
• Trust: The content is safe, accurate and honest.

To stay on Google’s good side — and rank high in the search results — your website must have a high level of E-A-T (or E-E-A-T). Writing a blog can go a long way toward improving your standing.

Why Hire a Professional Blog-Writing Service?

On the surface, blogging seems simple. That might be true of a personal project, but professional blogs are held to a higher standard. In addition to content creation, professional blog-writing services deliver the strategy, optimization and technical know-how you need to build a successful business blog.

1. Adapt to Algorithm Changes

Search engines adjust their algorithms regularly; in fact, Google made more than 4,000 updates in 2021 alone. A single change to the algorithm can affect your search engine rankings overnight, so it’s important to keep track.

Blog-writing services monitor algorithm updates closely, so you don’t have to. They can help you adjust your content strategy and edit older blog posts to align with new guidelines. This constant vigilance makes it easier to maintain your rankings, web traffic and sales funnel.

2. Access Professional Writers and Verified Subject Matter Experts

Blog content writing services make it easy to source professional writers with expertise across a range of fields. Most companies also provide editing services to ensure that your content is polished, free of mistakes and easy to read.

Why does that matter? Start-up and small blogs are often written in-house, usually by people without a writing background. Chances are, many of your competitors fall into that category. When your blog is written to a professional standard, your company automatically looks more credible and authoritative by comparison.

As your blog grows, you may want to expand beyond your core competencies or tackle topics that demand accuracy. Some content services can provide verified subject matter experts to evaluate the blog posts and provide a “reviewed by” line. This extra step builds E-E-A-T, which is essential when you’re publishing about sensitive topics such as health care or personal finance.

3. Target the Right Audience

Successful blogs are written for a specific group of readers. Your target audience should inform everything about each post, from the way the article is structured to the tone and vocabulary you use. A blog post for college-aged YouTubers will be considerably different from a technical blog written for senior engineers.

That’s harder than it sounds, especially if you’re new to writing. For professional blog writers, it’s second nature — they know exactly how to identify your audience and adjust their writing accordingly. The result? Blog posts that resonate with your ideal customers.

4. Free Up Your Time for High-Value Tasks

As a business owner, there are certain tasks that only you can do. By handing off your blog to a professional service, you free up time to build client relationships and pursue new contracts. Outsourcing blog posts can be helpful even if you have an experienced writer on staff — it gives them more time to spend on high-value, conversion-focused B2B copywriting.

5. Enable a Consistent Publishing Schedule

When you’re juggling projects and deadlines, it can be a challenge to stick to a regular publishing schedule. If you can manage it, you can please both Google and the customers who find value in your content. If you can’t, it might be time to seek help.

B2C or B2B content writing services can deliver a steady flow of blog posts according to your needs. You can order them all at once or schedule them to align with your content calendar. Most services can even accommodate last-minute assignments to help your brand keep up with current news stories and emerging trends.

6. Help With Keyword Research and Topic Selection

Solid keyword research — finding the phrases your ideal customers are searching for online — is the foundation of every successful blog. Once you find the right terms, you can turn them into blog posts that attract traffic and bring in more leads.

Aside from writing, keyword research is one of the most important services that content agencies provide. They’re experts at identifying the keywords that will have the biggest ROI for your business. These highly targeted phrases and blog post ideas can give you a significant advantage over competitors in the industry. 

7. Provide SEO-Friendly Content

Search engine optimization (SEO) is critical for business websites. Strong SEO increases your chances of ranking well in the search results, making it easier for customers to find your company.

The thing is, effective SEO takes time — and when you’re running a business, you may not have the capacity to manage it in-house. A blog-writing service can take SEO off your plate entirely. Your content will come back ready to publish, complete with optimized headers and metadata.

8. Develop a Brand Voice

Have you ever noticed that many of the most successful global brands have distinct personalities? That’s mostly due to brand voice, which is the way a company expresses its personality in writing. A solid brand voice can help distinguish your business from competitors; it also helps customers make personal connections that inspire both sales and loyalty.

A blog can go a long way toward building your brand voice — but only if you’re intentional. Reputable writing services will work with you to develop a voice that aligns with your style and attracts the right audience.

9. Establish Brand Guidelines

When you put out marketing materials for your business, you probably use similar colors, fonts and image styles for each document. There’s a reason: Consistency breeds familiarity. It’s the same for a blog — when key elements remain the same across all posts, it creates a unified experience that helps customers recognize your brand.

Blog-writing services can help you establish and maintain guidelines. That way, every writer knows exactly how to capture your company’s style and voice. Some of the elements you can include are:

• Default tone
• Stylistic preferences
• Grammatical rules
• Words to avoid
• Brand-name formatting

10. Scale Quickly

The bigger your blog becomes, the more opportunities you have to bring in new customers, boost traffic and improve search-engine rankings. That’s why many start-ups try to grow their blogs quickly to help carve out a place in the industry.

If you’ve ever written a blog post, you know that producing content at scale is a gargantuan task. Publishing 25, 50 or 100 blog posts can involve hundreds of hours of writing, editing, formatting and publishing — something that’s not feasible for most business owners.

When you’re ready to go all in on your content strategy, blog-writing services are a worthwhile investment. You’ll have access to hundreds of writers who can complete your entire order, often in a matter of days.

Whether you’re planning to scale or you’re just dipping your toes into the world of business blogging, a blog-writing service can ease the transition. Contact Crowd Content today to find out how our expert writing, SEO and keyword research teams can help build your blog into a revenue-generating asset for your company.

The post Supercharge Your Content Marketing Strategy With a Blog-Writing Service appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

It’s that time of year again! (Actually, it’s happened multiple times this year now, but who’s counting?) An algorithm update from Google that impacts how webpages rank.

You’ll probably want to pay attention here because this update is a big one.

How you rank on Google Search directly influences how many people find your website and how many leads your business generates.

Google announced the Helpful Content update on Aug. 18, 2022, via a blog post by Danny Sullivan, a Public Liaison for Google Search.

The update began rolling out the following week. But the effects will be seen gradually as more data feeds the machine-learning algorithm over time (more on this below).

This is the first major Google update since the Broad Core update announced the previous May. Broad Core updates are major, reoccurring algorithm improvements by Google with wide, general scopes, so it’s hard to know or guess specific details.

But with the Aug. 2022 Helpful Content update, guess what? There are particular details about what it means and how to adjust for it to optimize your website’s performance.

Kind of….

So what is this all about? What’s changing with how Google evaluates websites from its Helpful Content update? How will it affect your website? And what are tips to improve your website after the Helpful Content update?

Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered to help you know how to optimize content for SEO and provide great experiences for your audience so your business can get ahead!

What Is Google’s Helpful Content Update?

Are you ready for this? Google’s Helpful Content update is about…helpful content.

As Google themselves explained from the above-referenced announcement, their goal is “to tackle content that seems to have been primarily created for ranking well in search engines rather than to help or inform people.”

In other words, trying to spray search engines with keyword-stuffed articles, instead of focusing on overall quality to actually answer users’ queries, isn’t wanted by Google.

So if you provide website content that’s helpful for search-engine users, then drink it down! If your content is written to game search-engine rankings, then send it back!

What’s the Backstory Behind Google’s Helpful Content Update?

Google’s motivation was to expand upon an early trial run from previous updates for product reviews. In 2021, their goal was to show more helpful reviews by customers of company products on SERPs (search-engine results pages), like what you would see in the below image from searching for gaming laptops, for example.

As Sullivan explained, the Helpful Content update expands on what Google’s learning from a previous update, to make product reviews more helpful, by applying this knowledge to content in general, including webpage content.

Google’s also implementing an additional iteration of the existing product reviews update at the same time as they roll out the Helpful Content update so the two can complement each other. In her initial analysis of Google’s Helpful Content update, SEO influencer Lily Ray breaks down the following example of how the Helpful Content update—as a complement to and extension of a reviews update—would reward well-written content.

Ray believes this article about tweezers secured the top organic spot on Google Search for its target keyterms after these updates because it sticks to best practices of E-A-T (Expertise, Authority, Trust), quality guidelines that suggest your content demonstrate topical expertise, come from an authoritative perspective and earn your audience’s trust.

Simply put, if you want your content to dominate search engines, care about your audience and put in the effort to write for people. Show that you’ve formed a researched opinion, illustrate that you can communicate your opinion and engage audiences with compelling writing.

What We Know About the Helpful Content Update So Far

Ok, let’s reel it in a bit!

We know the Google Helpful Content update extends beyond on-SERP reviews and even review articles to all types of content in general.

This means it can have a major impact on your website, affecting your lead-gen rates and website metrics.

But how? And what can you do about it?

Let’s start by figuring out how the Helpful Content update differs from other Google Search algorithm updates and what we know so far based on early effects & what Google is telling us.

How Does the Helpful Content Update Differ from Other Google Search Updates?

The Helpful Content Update is unique, there’s no way around it.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way. Most other unique updates are named things like Panda or Penguin—not really what you would call descriptive monikers.

Here, Google is clearly well-committed to pushing the message that this update is about something…something big. They’re on a mission to encourage content creators to make articles, blog posts and webpage copy as helpful and valuable to website visitors as possible.

In other words, it’s time to get on board and ditch the rushed, low-quality stuff you’ve been pumping out over the years.

But what specifically is unique this time around? Let’s compare this update to a broad core update.

As mentioned, the last time we had one of those was the Google Broad Core update of May 2022.

Again, a board core update refers to periodic updates Google Search makes to its algorithm that are expansive across the board, hitting at the “core” of main ranking factors the algorithm looks at, but not necessarily targeting any particular area in depth.

Because of this lack of deep specificity, Google doesn’t publicly release details about what has changed and what remains the same. And they always refer to the same set of high-level SEO guidelines as advice to website marketers about how to react.

Therefore, with core updates, it can be hard to diagnose how to improve details or what to fix. Effects can be scattered or inconsistent in a way that can balance out.

Take a look at this information below from Semrush about average ranking gains and losses by industry.

This graph shows that average gains and losses within almost all verticals balanced out following Google’s May 2022 Broad Core Update.

That means the effects were at least industry-agnostic, and the best practices moving forward involve the usual, like ensuring you’re following the best practices of E-A-T.

How are things different this time around with the Helpful Content update? Let’s take a look!

Early Effects of the Google Helpful Content Update

We’re not in Kansas anymore, that’s for sure.

The weeks following the launch of the Helpful Content update produced surprising and mixed early results. And the subsequent online commentary (i.e., “what’s really going on here?”) has sparked confusion, further distinguishing this update from the recent Broad Core update.

Many SEO analysts predicted that the Helpful Content update will be at least as impactful as Panda was—maybe even more so.

It felt like Armageddon was coming. But for now, things are still calm.

That doesn’t mean lots of websites are out of the woods yet though. Google is urging content creators to stay vigilant because this update is designed to self-adjust over time as it makes an ongoing impact.

We’ll deep dive into why and what that might look like further below in this post, but let’s start with the early data thus far.

Let’s look at the below data via Rank Ranger. It shows no statistically significant differences in average, across-the-board search-engine rankings between the weeks before and after the launch of the Helpful Content update.

And SEO company Sistrix observed no significant changes from the helpful Content update a week after the rollout, noting this was slightly unusual compared to broad core updates, where moderate changes are usually noticed within a few days.

So what’s the deal here? Is this all smoke and mirrors?

Not entirely. Sistrix did concede one example website that took a noticeable hit in rankings; the below image shows <foodandwine.com>’s visibility metrics nosedive.

And Ray highlighted websites with “‘meh’ content” in industries you might expect to see employ content mills, like health, dating, horoscopes, etc.

Most websites didn’t really see an impact, other than websites with unsurprisingly low-quality content.

Does this mean Armageddon was more like a Nah-mageddon?

Actually, maybe.

Google made a big deal about the Helpful Content update and were careful to position it more distinctly than a broad core update. It’s possible the Helpful Content update isn’t any more impactful than a pedestrian “spam update” and Google hyped it up as a public-relations stunt to encourage content marketers to take quality-control more seriously.

On the other hand, the Helpful Content update’s rollout will be gradual. In fact, it will be continuously gradual.

What does continuously gradual mean though? You might also ask, How will it impact my website?

Let’s unpack these questions by taking a look at what Google says—and at others’ interpretations of what Google’s saying….

What’s Google Saying About What the Helpful Content Update Means?

On the same day of the announcement, Google published guidelines for website-content creators to help them optimize their website for the Helpful Content update.

Their core recommendation is to focus on writing what’s known as “people-first content.” Write for the people who will read your content, not for search engines.

As Google says, write “content where visitors feel they’ve had a satisfying experience.”

They provide the following list of questions you should ask yourself before publishing any content on your website to ensure your content is the best that it can be for your readers:

1. Do you have an existing or intended audience for your business or site that would find the content useful if they came directly to you?
2. Does your content clearly demonstrate first-hand expertise and a depth of knowledge (for example, expertise that comes from having actually used a product or service, or visiting a place)?
3. Does your site have a primary purpose or focus?
4. After reading your content, will someone leave feeling they’ve learned enough about a topic to help achieve their goal?
5. Will someone reading your content leave feeling like they’ve had a satisfying experience?

Ultimately, Google’s goal is to reward webpage content that checks off the above criteria with better search rankings—and thus more website traffic!—while also explicitly saying content that doesn’t meet this criteria “won’t perform as well.”

How Google’s Helpful Content Update Impacts Search Rankings With Machine-Learning

How does this advice from Google translate to your day-to-day work? How can you apply these guidelines to improve your content for search engines?

SEO influencer Kevin Indig perfectly summarized a takeaway from each one of Google’s guidelines.

1. Do you have an existing or intended audience for your business or site that would find the content useful if they came directly to you?
   • Satisfy an existing demand and/or build an audience.
2. Does your content clearly demonstrate first-hand expertise and a depth of knowledge (for example, expertise that comes from having actually used a product or service, or visiting a place)?
   • Provide factually correct content.
3. Does your site have a primary purpose or focus?
   • Focus on a core topic.
4. After reading your content, will someone leave feeling they’ve learned enough about a topic to help achieve their goal?
   • Create original content.
5. Will someone reading your content leave feeling like they’ve had a satisfying experience?
   • Don’t force visitors to navigate back to the search-engine page to find their answer elsewhere.

What’s interesting is that Indig also highlighted a unique point from Google’s guidelines, that the Helpful Content update “introduces a new site-wide signal” to determine a sort of overall quality level.

In other words, even individual pieces of helpful content could underperform on search engines if your website has what Google describes as “relatively high amounts of unhelpful content overall.”

What the heck does that mean? You publish a well-researched & well-written post that satisfies user expectations and it doesn’t rank as well as it could because your website already has lots of bad content already?

Well, kind of, yeah…. In fact, that’s actually Google’s intention.

A disportionately high amount of unhelpful content shows your website isn’t optimally focused on a core topic and on providing holistic solutions to visitors’ queries.

Google wants helpful content to be associated with websites that have strong reputations in their field—that helps send trust signals to users.

How does Google do this? As Ray clarifies in a LinkedIn post, this site-wide signal is a “classifier” applied to websites by the Helpful Content Update that uses machine-learning to gradually assess the quality level of a website’s content.

This is what we mean by continuously gradual. The classifier will perpetually learn more about your site over time to feed more & better data to Google algorithms.

This is the message Google is trying to impart. Ray’s LinkedIn post was in response to a Twitter discussion between Sullivan and SEO consultant Glenn Gabe over whether the Helpful Content update has actually been as big of a deal as it was made out to be.

Sullivan clarified that the site-wide signals from the Helpful Content update were what made it unique and that impacts from the update would be “noticeable” over time, referring to Google documentation about improving SEO as guidance for webmasters.

Clearly Google is taking a stand and instructing us that, even if the effects have been underwhelming thus far, the impacts of the Google Helpful Content update could never end.

So if your website has lots of low-quality, unhelpful content from over the years, even if you haven’t seen a major hit yet from Google’s Helpful Content update, you still might over time.

How to Improve Old Content After the Helpful Content Update

Okay, so what’s the solution here? You can’t only focus on providing quality content moving forward; also audit your existing content by the same standards you apply to new content.

In fact, this might be the biggest takeaway from the Helpful Content update.

Let’s look at some simple steps to get you started.

Steps to Improve Old Content on SEO After a Google Update

1. Develop quality criteria around E-A-T
2. Create a database and audit existing content
3. Identify content decay
4. Update or redirect existing content

1. Develop Quality Criteria Around E-A-T

We mentioned E-A-T earlier, but it’s a strong foundation for developing criteria for grading content quality.

Ensure your content reflects expertise, is written authoritatively and establishes trust. To do this, refer to an E-A-T SEO checklist to hit all the right notes, like double-checking your old content is comprehensive, backed by reputable authors and reviewed by industry experts.

For a detailed list of criteria you can steal, feel free to thank SEO consultant Aleyda Solis.

<https://twitter.com/aleyda/status/1560550093941456896>

2. Create a Database and Audit Existing Content

Now that you have set standards to audit your old content, it’s time to start, well, auditing your content.

Looking at E-A-T standards is a great way to make subjective or qualitative qualifications. But sometimes real, hard data makes things a lot easier.

See what’s underperforming in Google Search Console to start by narrowing things down.

The SEO influencer known as Niche Site Lady on Twitter outlined a great process for deciding which website content to cut or update by looking at traffic data and cross-referencing organic clicks with impressions.

3. Identify Content Decay

Your audit can’t only include underperforming content in your audit. There might be warning signs for content already bringing in traffic too.

First, what is content decay?

It’s the process of traffic-generating content beginning to lose its traffic. In other words, things are on the downhill.

Common culprits of content decay usually include increased competition from other websites. But think about it, if your content were strong enough in the first place and fully helpful for your users, then in theory the risk from competition is low.

Pull reports from Google Analytics to identify content decay. Don’t rush to delete articles with decreasing traffic—they’re still generating traffic, after all—but study what else ranks for the same search queries to see what you’re missing, and then update your content accordingly.

4. Update or Redirect Existing Content

The ultimate question remains: Should I update my content or redirect it?

It can be a fine line. Sometimes it comes down to a judgment call. If your content topic is important for your audience, then it’s likely worth an update. Otherwise a redirect might be in order. Sometimes known as 301 redirects, referring to the relevant HTML-response status code “301,” a redirect enables you to depublish content by instructing web browsers to automatically send users elsewhere on your website.

So for anything that doesn’t make the cut, either update the content if it’s worth salvaging or if you have to remove it, set up a 301 redirect to send its website traffic to a better version of the content you have on your site.

If there’s not a direct match, map the old content at least to something as best you can. Remember, your goal is always to resolve user queries and satisfy audience expectations.

Let’s look at an example! Say you’re an ecommerce website that sells waterproof shoes.

You have a blog post about why waterproof shoes are worth the cost.

Now your traffic decreases after the Helpful Content update. You conduct a content-quality audit and suspect this “costs” article isn’t helping. There are lots of better-written content pieces on the same topic from other websites performing better on Google Search.

Maybe this other content goes into more detail on secondary keyterms, showing expertise by discussing not just benefits, but also price-point differences, the reasons behind what drives prices, why your shoes are versatile even when there’s no rain, the concept of waterproofing as an investment, the effects of waterproof technology on shoe aesthetics & comfort and so on.

Your article? It’s a listicle of basic benefits of waterproof shoes, essentially a front to target the primary keyword “cost.” But the content isn’t otherwise diverse, so the listicle just ends up floundering. In other words, it’s not as helpful as it could be.

Option #1. The article is worth saving to compete for the primary term about costs, so you add more unique information about why customers should spend more for waterproof shoes.

Option #2. Since it already has some traction for keyterms about “benefits,” you redirect the traffic to another post you have specifically about that topic.

Which option should you go with? This is where SEO is half-art and half-science. Sometimes it’s a guess—but always a researched, educated guess.

In this hypothetical scenario, if the destination page (about “benefits”) already ranks well for its target keyterms and the existing page (about “costs”) has previous activity about “benefits” from either Google Search Console or rank-tracking tools like Ahrefs or Semrush, then go Option #2 and 301-redirect the “costs” article to the “benefits” one.

But if you do go with the latter and redirect the page and “costs” remains a high-value target keyword, you can still write net-new content for it!

Otherwise, just go with Option #1 and update the existing content in the “costs” article.

Takeaways for Moving Forward With the Google Helpful Content Update

At a high level, what should content marketers consider moving forward after the Helpful Content update?

Google certainly doesn’t make your job easier, but you need to stay on top of tips and best practices to ensure your website traffic grows and your company can scale.

With the site-wide classifier from this update, the message from Google is simple: lackluster content on your site will drive down rankings and traffic over time (even if the update’s impact has been meandering thus far).

Perhaps the biggest takeaway is to pay special attention to optimizing legacy content on your website on top of what you’re doing with new content. Investing in subject-matter expert services can help you improve new & old content alike to crush those E-A-T requirements so you can start futureproofing your website for better sales.

The post Google’s Helpful Content Update: Everything You Need to Know appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Whether you’re targeting other businesses or marketing directly to consumers, your social media posts can help your audience get to know your company in an informal, no-pressure environment. That’s why it’s crucial for online businesses — or any company that maintains an online presence — to understand how to write a social media post that catches and holds the attention of their target audience.

Why Writing Good Copy for Social Media Is So Important

Learning how to write a social media post for your business takes practice, but great content can be an integral part of an online marketing strategy — and for good reason. Social media platforms let you reach a large audience within seconds without breaking the bank.

By getting the right copy in front of your target demographic, you can potentially reap numerous benefits, including:

• Lead generation
• Increased brand loyalty
• Higher conversion rates
• Improved customer satisfaction
• Enhanced brand and product visibility
• Insight into customers’ likes, values and interests
• More accurate metrics for marketing and advertising campaigns

Social Media and SEO

It’s also important not to underestimate the importance of social media in SEO. Although social media posts don’t directly impact search engine optimization, they can influence it in other ways. For example, social shares, likes and comments may signal to search engines that you’re providing useful content to your target audience, which can ultimately influence rankings. This can increase your brand’s visibility and help generate organic traffic to your website.

What Makes Social Media Copy Great

Although each company’s approach to creating content for social media may differ from others in the space, great social media posts typically have several key attributes:

• They entertain
• They inspire engagement
• They’re attention-grabbing
• They’re easy to digest

However, what defines great social media copy is likely to change depending on the platform, and what works for LinkedIn may not be ideal for Twitter. 

How to Make a Tweet Stand Out

The key to writing great tweets is keeping it short and conversational. Although Twitter permits up to 280 characters per tweet, the sweet spot is typically closer to 100 characters, including spaces.

Twitter is also a hotbed of hashtags, so give your tweet context and promote engagement by including relevant hashtag phrases. Just be sure to limit yourself to one or two, and keep them short. If you aren’t sure where to start, Twitter offers free tools for monitoring trending conversations and events, which can help you keep your brand current and relevant on this crowded platform.

Using Facebook to Your Advantage

Facebook remains popular across numerous age groups and demographics. However, because users’ feeds tend to be cluttered and change quickly, you won’t have much time to attract attention, so it’s important to keep posts short, sharp and clear. Many Facebook users access the platform from smartphones or other handheld devices, so optimizing your content for mobile is crucial.

When creating Facebook posts, avoid industry jargon and marketing speak, which can negatively impact content in the platform’s algorithm.

Facebook users have come to expect visuals, so include creative elements, such as eye-catching photos and videos, with your posts. Just be sure not to use overused stock images, which can be off-putting to customers.

Building Authority Through LinkedIn Posts

As a professional networking platform, LinkedIn is useful for positioning your business as an authority on a subject. Consequently, great LinkedIn posts often contain business or career advice, intellectual property or links to crucial press releases.

Many successful LinkedIn posts also use mentions (which begin with the @ symbol) to tag influential or notable connections. This can increase your reach if the mentioned person shares or comments on your content. And, if you’re interested in presenting long-form content, you can also benefit by learning how to write an article on LinkedIn.

How to Write Social Media Posts That Capture Your Target Audience

Because most social media platforms are crowded with content, you’ll have to compete for attention. By learning how to make social media posts pop, you can cut through the noise and help your brand stand out. Fortunately, writing catchy social media posts isn’t difficult. By following these basic social media content writing tips, you can write posts that stand out from the pack:

• Know your audience. Understanding your target audience is a crucial step in creating relevant, attention-catching social media posts. Although knowing your target audience’s age, income range, and educational background is crucial, you should also understand their needs and likes. Fortunately, many social media platforms, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, provide free analytics to help you learn more about your audience’s online behavior.
• Be intentional. Before you write a social media post, you should know what message you want to send or what result you hope to achieve. Great posts ultimately reflect your intent, whether that’s highlighting a product, improving your brand’s reputation, or driving traffic to your website.
• Use a consistent voice. Your writer’s voice reflects your vocabulary, tone and syntax, and a strong voice can make you uniquely identifiable. By developing a clear, relatable voice that’s consistent across platforms, you’ll influence how your audience views your business.
• Add personality. While being professional is important, using a casual tone that highlights your personality lets your audience see your business as friendly, relevant and approachable.
• Don’t waste words. In today’s fast-paced world, time is a commodity. Keeping posts short, simple and catchy demonstrates an understanding and respect for your readers’ time.
• Never create clickbait. Sensational headlines or hooks are great, but any linked content must live up to the hype. Otherwise, you’re creating clickbait, which is a major red flag for a potential customer.
• Edit and proofread. Editing and proofreading to minimize errors and clarify your message should be a standard part of your writing process. Even a single typo can convey carelessness and diminish your credibility.

What Should a Social Media Post Include

Regardless of the platform, most effective social media posts contain some key components. If you want to create copy that draws and keeps a reader’s attention, incorporate these vital elements.

The Hook

Your post’s first sentence or phrase, known as the hook, is often your best chance of drawing in readers. A good hook should pique a casual browser’s interest so they stop scrolling. Fortunately, an eye-catching hook doesn’t have to be difficult to write if you incorporate one or more of these elements:

• Headlines: A great headline creates promise, enticing potential readers to continue.
• Fascinating facts: Lead with an interesting fact about your chosen topic. Besides catching a reader’s attention, an interesting fact can define you as a reliable source of information.
• Strong statements: Set an authoritative tone for your post by hooking readers with a strong opening statement. Try statements that are intriguing, compelling or polarizing for added impact.
• Great quotes: Inspiring, controversial or insightful quotes are a great way to introduce a post. They can evoke an emotional response and convince a follower to continue reading.
• Metaphors and similes: Hook readers by inspiring them to look at a topic differently. Good metaphors and similes can surprise and delight an unsuspecting social media user.
• Open-ended questions: Start with an open-ended question to get people thinking. Questions naturally keep followers reading because they want to discover the answer.

Valuable content

When you provide valuable content, your social media posts are more likely to be read, discussed and shared. However, what defines valuable content can vary by reader, industry, platform and whether you specialize in B2B or B2C products and services. 

Valuable content may be original or curated and can include:

• Giveaways
• Industry insights
• Educational content
• Career or business advice
• Inspirational stories
• Tips for product use
• Links to unique articles
• Inside information on your company
• Solutions for pain points
• Previews for forthcoming products or services

Links

Interesting links can drive traffic to your website and may even improve its SEO. You can increase the chance of click-through by using relevant anchor text and/or enticing, accompanying images.

Don’t just link to your homepage, though. Link deep to specific pages and posts on your site. By using deep links to direct readers to specific pages, you can draw attention to product information, exclusive offers and other value-added content.

If you aren’t using anchor text, make sure visible URLs are clean and concise. Long URLs take up space and can look suspicious, so it’s important to convert them to shortened or branded links. URL shorteners, such as Ow.ly or Bitly, compress or customize URLs, optimizing them for social media.

Hashtags

Hashtags, which begin with a # regardless of platform, are words and phrases that identify a post’s topic or theme. They help people follow online conversations and find interesting or relevant content, particularly from accounts they don’t follow.

To effectively incorporate hashtags in your social media posts, remember:

• Hashtags don’t use spaces, symbols or punctuation marks, so if you need to include more than one word, just mash them together. 
• Hashtags should be simple and easy to remember.
• A blend of trending, branded, popular or industry-relevant hashtags can have more impact. 
• Avoid choosing only overused hashtags, as your post may get lost in the sheer amount of traffic they generate.

White Space

Because white space is essentially the empty space around your content’s other elements, it may seem odd to consider it a crucial component of a social media post. However, long walls of unbroken text can be off-putting to even diehard followers. Posts that incorporate plenty of white space are usually more readable and easier to navigate. Plus, when used well, white space can draw attention to important aspects of your content, such as brand messaging or calls to action.

Creating white space can be easily accomplished by:

• Shortening sentences
• Aligning text
• Incorporating bulleted or numbered lists
• Using plenty of line breaks
• Limiting paragraphs to two or three sentences

Visual Elements

Although not every social media post should or will contain visual elements, images are an effective tool for drawing attention. The right image can also provide context for your words, evoke emotions and ensure your brand stays in readers’ minds long after they’ve read your post. 

When choosing a visual element for your post, make sure to complement the tone, message and intent of your content. Options include:

• Photos
• Artwork
• Video clips
• Memes
• Cartoons
• GIFs
• Animation

When including creative content in your posts, always use copyright-free images or material that you own, and make sure the resolution is compatible with the platform.

A Call to Action

A call to action is a prompt that invites the reader to take a recommended action. Although a CTA isn’t essential, or even relevant, for every social media post, in the right context it can cue a follower to take a crucial next step, such as:

• Claiming an offer
• Answering a question
• Visiting a landing page
• Subscribing to a newsletter
• Requesting information
• Ordering or preordering a product
• Connecting with your business on other channels

Outsourcing Your Social Media Posts

Learning how to write for social media can help you broaden your business’s reach and connect with your customers, and it doesn’t have to be a chore. In fact, your audience can usually sense when you’re trying too hard, and the most engaging social posts are often written when you relax and let yourself have fun.

However, writing for social media isn’t for everyone, and that’s okay. If it’s time to refresh your content strategy, why not give professional content writing services a try? Connect with Crowd Content’s network of talented writers for compelling content that gets results.

The post How to Write a Great Social Media Post appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

But managing numerous social media profiles across a half-dozen platforms entails numerous activities. These might include writing and scheduling social media posts, replying to comments, monitoring the success of social campaigns and more.

In other words, social media management is a lot of work.

Successful social media management requires constant attention. For many, it’s a full-time job. Fortunately, there are several tools available that help with your business’s social media presence. A social media management tool can help you maximize your social presence while minimizing your efforts.

What Are Social Media Management Tools?

Social media management tools simplify your social media presence across platforms. They give you a single platform to manage all of your profiles from. And they provide some excellent tools for getting the most from your social efforts. For big businesses, they’re incredibly useful. And for small teams and freelancers, they’re lifesavers.

Some of the most popular social media management solutions feature a variety of user-friendly features to help you manage your social presence. A few of the things they offer are:

• A central tool to manage profiles across social media networks
• Planning and scheduling social media postings
• Automated monitoring and moderation
• Improved analytics

Sounds good, right? It gets better.

The Benefits of Using Social Media Management Tools

The ability to see all your social media feeds in one location is likely the biggest advantage of social media management software. Being able to monitor customer conversations and campaign performance from a single platform saves time. And probably your sanity.

You can also save time by generating social media postings in advance and scheduling them to go live at a specific time. You won’t have to stop what you’re doing throughout the day to post on multiple platforms. You’ll also be able to better plan your content releases according to optimal posting times.

Stay Organized

Spreadsheets are popular among social media marketers for planning and managing their posts. But it’s far more effective to utilize a social media management tool. Most of them come with content planners to help you stay on top of things. They enable you to:

• Balance different types of social messaging
• Publish posts when they’re likely to receive the highest engagement
• Curate compelling content to share with your followers
• Plan for seasonal and release-specific messaging

These planners allow you to schedule posts when your target audience is most likely watching their feeds, ready to engage. In most cases, adjusting your schedule is as simple as dragging and dropping.

Analyze Social Performance

Another crucial component of successful social media management is analytics. Every major social platform offers analytics reporting that shows you how well your social marketing efforts are doing and where they need improving.

But the built-in analytics on individual platforms don’t show you the big picture of your broader social marketing efforts.

With a social media management tool, you can leverage cross-platform analytics to find out what content performs best across multiple networks. You can create custom reports based on the requirements you need rather than network-specific data.

Finally, maintaining consistency on every social network is a significant time sink. Social media management tools offer content libraries that can help keep things organized across networks. It also helps ensure your social presence is on-topic and brand consistent, regardless of the network.

Streamline Social Feeds and Messaging

Staying on top of the conversation is a cornerstone of effective social media marketing. It’s not just about engaging with your customers — you need to know what the conversation is surrounding your brand.

While many platforms allow you to filter conversations based on keywords, doing so across multiple platforms is a chore, to say the least. With a social management tool, you can listen for keywords across social networks, email lists and other channels, all from a single dashboard.

This kind of integration enables you to engage and do the following:

• Monitor post interactions, such as likes, shares and comments
• View and send messages
• Examine profiles and monitor follows
• Monitor and respond to conversations

All from a single platform. You’ll never find yourself bouncing through browser tabs again.

For bigger businesses, social management tools are invaluable. Not only do they consolidate messaging across platforms, but they also provide routing options to get each message to the appropriate person or department. All of which interface with your business’s CRM.

The 5 Best Social Management Tools for 2023

There are countless social media management tools in the wild. As is the case with other business solutions, choosing the right one depends on your brand’s needs.

Perhaps you need a tool to manage multiple profiles. Or maybe you’re more interested in content scheduling. On the other hand, you might want something that integrates with your CRM and provides in-depth insights.

Whether you’re a freelancer, a small business with ambitious marketing plans or a thriving enterprise, you’re covered. These five social media management tools have what you need.

The Best Overall: Sprout Social

Sprout Social offers robust publishing features, detailed analytics and a wealth of scheduling options. The platform supports all major social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest. All in an easy-to-use package that won’t break the budget.

Some of the biggest benefits that Sprout Social offers are:

• An excellent dashboard for managing social media postings, feeds and schedules
• Tools for social media optimization
• Reports and analytics for measuring user engagement and returns on investment
• Excellent scheduling tools for batching and posting content

Sprout Social also provides great social listening features, including tools for identifying influencers. There’s even CRM functionality focused on social media contacts. Impressive analytics capabilities and an easy-to-use interface round out Sprout Social’s offerings.

This makes it a fantastic all-in-one social media management program. With a commendable balance of cost, features and analytics, Sprout Social is a great choice for most small and medium-sized businesses.

Best for Freelancers and Small Businesses: SEMrush

SEMrush is best known as an SEO platform, but it also offers extremely capable social media management tools for all the major social networks. The social management tools cover posting across networks, including automated scheduling and content editing tools. There are also ad management features for Facebook and Instagram.

SEMrush’s social media tracker enables marketers to track user engagement across networks. It covers post reactions as well as mentions across each network. It also aggregates analytics data, so you can monitor performance from a single dashboard.

Being an SEO tool at heart, SEMrush is keen on competitive analysis. As such, its social media tools include features for monitoring your competitors to see what kind of posts they’re putting up and how often.

The biggest benefit of using SEMrush for social media management is its SEO integrations. You can manage your social media presence and your SEO efforts from a single tool. And integrations between the two are robust and seamless. Perfect for freelancers and small businesses with limited budgets and manpower.

Best for Analytics: Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a complete social media toolkit with some of the best analytics available. With support for over 20 social networks and an App Directory that provides even more, you’re never left wanting. The platform also provides integrations to other popular tools, such as Mailchimp, Zendesk and Canva.

The comprehensive analytics that Hootsuite offers are some of the best available, providing detailed tracking tools, customizable reports and performance metrics. They help paint a clear picture of your social marketing efforts by pulling from over 200 metrics. Once generated, you can export the reports to Excel, PowerPoint or PDF to share with colleagues.

It’s worth mentioning that adding analytics capabilities increases the platform’s price. But for businesses that depend on social media for most of their marketing efforts, the cost is worth it.

Best for Automation: HubSpot

HubSpot is an all-in-one solution geared toward enterprises. Along with its social media marketing offerings, it provides SEO management, a CRM platform and even email services.

The biggest selling point of HubSpot is its full line of marketing integration and automation tools. While you can certainly manage your social presence with ease, the platform also has tools for:

• Editing and creating landing pages
• Content management
• Lead management
• Automated content posting on your website

HubSpot’s bulk scheduling feature makes queuing up and posting to various networks a breeze. With a provided template, you can add your batched content, select a post schedule, choose which networks to post to and select your campaigns. The template even shows you the character count of each post. When you’re ready, you can drag it back over to HubSpot and you’re all done.

From social media to web conversions, HubSpot lets you optimize every step of your sales funnel. It’ll even help you create targeted CTAs to improve ROI. There’s also full Canva integration, which allows marketers to design attractive images with a few clicks. For full-scope marketing efficiency, HubSpot is difficult to beat.

Most Affordable: Buffer

If you’re looking for a tool that’s a little less complex and a little more affordable, Buffer might be the one for you. Since it’s one of the few tools that offers a free plan, it’s a great solution for freelancers. It’s also a great option for younger businesses just getting into social media marketing.

Despite its low cost, Buffer still provides a lot of value. It supports all the major networks, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest. In addition to accessing all your feeds from the platform, you can schedule all your social media posts using a full-featured content scheduler. There’s also an optimization tool for hashtags and mentions across platforms.

A standout feature of Buffer is its available browser extension for scheduling posts. With the extension installed, you can click a browser button, compose an update and add it to a queue.

Who Should Use Social Media Management Tools?

If you spend more than a few hours per week managing social media, a social media management tool is a good idea. If you spend more than a few hours per day doing so, you need a social media management tool.

These tools are excellent for freelancers and one-person marketing teams — people who are accustomed to wearing multiple hats. When you’re juggling multiple tasks across numerous platforms, simplification and automation are essential. This gives you time to think about strategy rather than dealing with daily busy work such as posting and content creation.

For small businesses, social media management tools offer big benefits. If you have a marketing team, these tools help them collaborate better and more securely across platforms. They also give smaller businesses the power to run with the big dogs, so to speak. Even if you don’t have the staff hours to do so, you can run campaigns with daily posts.

Social media management enables secure cross-platform collaboration, CRM integration, message routing, and more for larger companies. They also provide permission controls so businesses with compliance concerns can keep PR incidents to a minimum.

The bottom line is that social media management tools provide more than just a single platform to manage your social profiles. All the tools listed here offer advanced scheduling features for managing posts. More importantly, they provide integrated analytics that can synergize your marketing efforts across networks.

In marketing, where even small improvements can equate to big returns, social media management tools are invaluable.

Conclusion

Your social media presence has a big impact on your brand. Social media management tools give you the power to manage, automate and optimize that presence without making it your full-time job. They’ll also provide you with insights to help amplify your brand’s impact and grow your business.

If you’re looking for other ways to free up your time so you can focus on the bigger picture, let Crowd Content help. Our team of professional freelance writers can provide you with in-depth articles, engaging blog posts, compelling web copy and more. We’ll even write your social media posts for you. In other words, we’ll supercharge your content strategy. Go ahead and take a look at what we offer or get in touch with us to find out more.

The post Here Are the 5 Best Social Media Management Tools for 2023 appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

The Benefits of Hiring Freelance Writers to Create Content

When you’re contemplating whether to rely on your in-house team or work with freelance writers to create content, there are plenty of reasons to choose freelancers. Some of the biggest benefits of hiring freelance writers for content creation include:

Cost Savings

Keeping a full-time writer on staff can put a big dent in your budget, especially if your content needs are inconsistent or change with the seasons. Hiring freelancers means you only pay for professional writing when you need it, and you don’t have to deal with the overhead costs of adding a new employee.

Professional Quality

Bad grammar and poor word choice can turn off potential customers, costing you sales and hampering your ability to make a profit. According to CXL, poor grammar can affect your site’s credibility, particularly if typos and nonstandard phrasing occur on static business pages or product pages. Professional freelance writers have the experience necessary to create error-free content so your business makes a great first impression. Freelance writers also know how to craft content that captures attention. With expertise in marketing, search engine optimization and best practices for web writing, a freelancer helps ensure your content achieves your goals. 

Writer expertise isn’t just about grammar and keywording, though. It also involves building your brand identity. Freelance writers are experts at adding the right style and tone to your content so readers remain interested and engaged.

Specialized Knowledge

Freelancers bring specialized knowledge to your project that you might not otherwise be able to find. Some have niche expertise in specific fields, such as medical degrees or prior industry experience. Others might offer specializations in particular types of writing, such as product descriptions, social media posts or long-form content. Because freelancers come from diverse backgrounds and have expertise in a variety of fields, you can easily find a writer or team of writers perfect for your project.

Offsite Project Completion

With an in-house writer, you need to provide office space and equipment. Freelancers work remotely, and they’re used to working independently and meeting deadlines, so you can rest assured the content you need gets done on the timeline you require. Using freelancers typically doesn’t require you to restructure your existing teams, either. So there’s no downtime involved when you add a freelancer to your existing project structure. 

Fast Turnaround

Outsourcing your content writing to freelancers can speed up your overall timeline. Freelance writers deliver high-quality content quickly, and you can specify the deadline to make planning easier. Writing projects assigned to your in-house team could get sidelined as other tasks come up, but a professional freelance writer can prioritize your content and keep your editorial content calendar on track. Freelancers also work all through the day, so you might be able to get a quicker turnaround from a freelance team than you could from employees who are limited to working a 9-to-5 shift in the office. If you need content within an extremely short time frame, such as less than 24 hours, a freelancer may be your best option.

Agility and Trend Spotting

Freelancers tend to stay abreast of what’s happening in the world of content creation and SEO. While full-time employees might have too much on their plates to track the latest Google search engine algorithm adjustment or trending keywords, freelancers know the latest best practices to get your page to rise in the rankings and capture reader attention. According to Quick Sprout, 42% of companies lack the skills in-house for effective content marketing, which makes hiring a freelancer with that expertise the wise choice.

Providing Relief to Your In-House Team

Overburdening your in-house employees can lead to unwanted turnover and missed deadlines. Hiring a freelance writer frees up employees to do what they’re best at instead of concentrating on trying to produce the next blog post or product description for your site. Alleviating the workload of your internal employees also helps build morale and reduces burnout. 

Leveraging Freelancers to Support Your In-House Team

Hiring freelancers to supplement the work your in-house team is already doing can help speed up production and ease the burden on busy employees. Leveraging the talents of freelance writers is different from managing your regular team of full-time employees, though, and you need to determine where each fits into your overall business structure. Some things to consider when using freelance writers to support a team of in-house employees include:

Establishing the Parameters of the Job

While hiring new employees typically means bringing them through an onboarding process, freelancers don’t require onboarding. Instead, working with freelancers involves defining the parameters of what you need them to do for you. Before hiring freelance workers to take on your long-form content creation or social media posts, establish the scope of the job. Determine the budget, timeline and specific requirements of each piece of content you intend to outsource. Have an end goal in mind, including what you want the written content to accomplish. For example, if you’re outsourcing blog post creation, do you want that content to bring new visitors to your site, convert casual readers to buyers or establish your company as an authority in the industry? The goals of your content help determine the type of content you need.

Assign a Dedicated Project Lead to Deal with Freelancers

Talk to your existing team to determine where freelancer-produced content fits into your existing structure, and assign someone to take charge of scheduling and posting the content once it’s in your hands. Having a single person as the point of contact for freelancers ensures you aren’t providing conflicting information to your writers and keeps everyone accountable. Your project lead can also communicate with in-house teams to make sure the content is adhering to overall company guidelines and meeting the needs of different internal departments.

Automate Content Distribution

Hiring a freelance writer to create great content is only part of the process. You also need to get it onto your site and post links on social media. Automated tools can help you move content from your inbox to your live webpage. You can also create content calendars that give your internal team and site visitors an idea of when new content goes live. Automation can help you maintain consistency so a blog post always goes up on the same day of the week or social media posts appear within a certain time frame after an article is posted. The project lead in charge of content can handle setting up when and how to post the content your freelancers provide. 

Use Freelancers Strategically

While it can be tempting to assign all your writing tasks to a freelancer, you and your team may be better served by taking a more strategic approach. Decide what content is essential for your current business needs and establish specific, measurable goals for that content before hiring a freelancer.

If you need to completely revamp your website or create one from scratch, decide what pages are necessary for your initial launch or rebranding and which can wait for a later update. You might want to start with the front-facing landing page and some pages describing your services and company history, or you might need 10 blog posts to start establishing a regular blog posting schedule right away. Established companies with an existing web presence may want to bolster their social media or update product category pages, which could necessitate a different type of content strategy. Planning out your content needs and timeline makes it easier to figure out when in the process to hire a freelance writer. 

Some types of projects work better with freelancers, so part of your company strategy should involve assessing projects and finding the right ones to turn over to a writing team. Things to consider when deciding whether to use a freelance writer include:

• Whether the project has a measurable, well-defined objective
• Whether the timeline and scope are appropriate for a freelance contract
• Whether any regulatory guidelines or privacy concerns prohibit the use of freelance talent for the project
• Whether you have the skills in-house and whether your employees with applicable skills have the time to complete the project on their own

How to Work With Freelance Writers to Optimize Your Success

Working with freelancers can maximize the effectiveness of your entire team, and there are ways to set up the freelance job to simplify the process. For a successful long-term relationship with a freelance writing team, check out these tips:

Make Your Content Guidelines Crystal Clear

The more detail you can include in your content guidelines, the more easily a freelancer can create the content you need. You may want to establish separate written documents as brand guidelines and specific guidelines for each writing task. Your brand guidelines include details such as your overall brand tone, information about your target audience and examples of content you want to emulate.  Content guidelines for a specific project lay out the details of that particular piece of content, such as a blog post or social media update. Here are some specifics you may need to include in your content guidelines:

• Specific keywords you want to use and keyword placement
• Linking requirements to internal pages or external expert content
• Any metadata you want included
• Whether you want a call to action and how you want it framed

Establish Routine Check-Ins

If you’re hiring freelancers to provide content on a specific schedule, set up regular check-ins to assess how well the content is working and whether you need to make changes to your content plans. For example, a company that needs weekly blog content might reevaluate its content needs after a few months once it becomes clear which posts are doing best in terms of reader engagement and conversions. Writers producing social media posts may want frequent updates of new products and services you offer so they can include those things in the posts they write. 

Consider Offering Bylines

While some types of content need to remain anonymous or give the impression it was created in-house, other content might be better served by having a writer’s name attached. Offering to attach the freelance writer’s name to the content can be a way to establish a relationship with that writer and keep them producing the kind of content you need. Hiring the same writer or a small team of writers every time helps establish a consistent tone for your website, press releases or blog.

Provide the Necessary Information for Freelancers to Get the Job Done

In addition to a well-defined content brief that outlines the details you need included in your project, you may also have to provide other information that helps your writer accomplish your objectives. Including links to similar ranked content by competitors can help your freelancer create content that outperforms others in your industry. Freelancers also need to know what you want out of your content. If you want specific links included, you should provide those. Sometimes content creation also involves knowing more about your company, so you may want to send details about your mission statement or how you’re positioned within the industry. 

Start with a Calibration Round or Test Project

If you plan to establish a long-term relationship with your freelance writing team, consider running a paid test project or calibration round before turning over the entire project for rapid content creation. During a test project, you provide the basic guidelines for your project and the freelancers create sample content for you to peruse. Together, you and the freelance team can make changes to the guidelines or format of the project before anything goes live. You might discover that your word count or keyword guidelines need some minor adjustments, or you may decide that an SEO suggestion by the freelance writing team would work well for your project. Test projects are typically paid and may involve a few rounds back and forth before you settle on the content requirements for your job. 

Trust Your Freelancers’ Expertise

When it comes down to it, you’re hiring freelance writers because they provide expertise, speed and flexibility your in-house team can’t currently match. Micromanaging your writers can hamper your long-term content goals, so aim for a working relationship that lets you turn over the task to your writers and get stellar content on or before your stated deadline. If the freelancer or manager of a team of freelancers makes suggestions about SEO best practices, you may want to consider incorporating those suggestions into your job to get better results. 

Learn About the Writing and Editing Process

If you’re working with a content agency, ask about the writing and editing process. Decide whether your freelance job should be sourced to a specific writer or given to a larger team that can produce content more quickly. Find out whether the work goes through a round of editing before being sent back to you. When you’re working with a team of freelancers, you may be able to request the same writers or specify writers of a particular quality level before you assign the job. 

Connect With Freelance Writers Using Crowd Content

Working with freelance writers can be an easy way to increase your work capacity and save money. The first step to outsourcing your company’s freelance writing is to find freelancers who can meet your needs. Visit Crowd Content to connect with over 5,000 professional freelance writers who can help craft content that draws attention, establishes authority and converts browsers to buyers.

The post How Freelancers Support In-house Teams appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Most popular types of content

The best websites create a mix of different content types to keep their readers interested. While there are hundreds of different types of web content, these 50 in-particular are our favorite types of digital content.

1. Articles

This type of web content develops an idea and incorporates interviews, quotes, and data to support the article’s hypothesis. Articles are usually long-form content, between 1,000 and 3,000 words.

2. Blog posts

Blog posts typically range between 500 and 750 words, focusing on a variety of topics. Some of these topics can include news in the industry, bios of industry leaders, reviews of new products, and more.

3. Surveys

Adding surveys to your content arsenal can gauge your readers’ interest and to increase reader engagement with your brand. Surveys are also fun for the reader and is one of the more interactive content types.

4. Quizzes

Quizzes are another way to engage your reader, by having a question on one page and the answer on the next, which adds extra potential for ad revenue and click-throughs.

5. Photos

Images help make your content more visually appealing, and contributes to the overall user experience. Additionally, optimizing your photos with alt-text and captions to your images can even help with your rankings on Google Images.

6. Videos

Using videos is a great way to diversify your content and add visual interest to your pages. These can be videos you take yourself or videos from sources like YouTube or Vimeo. (Just make sure to give credit where credit is due.)

7. Case studies

Case studies outline how a particular individual or company used a product or service. Seeing a real person use your product can help potential buyers see themselves using it and, thus, encouragement to purchase from you.

8. Website content

Website content encompasses many content types. This can include website pages detailing your individual services, products, people, locations, etc.

9. Guest blogs or posts

Find guest writers from notable people in your industry, writers of other blogs or websites that focus on your topic, or on social media pages or groups related to your topic. Adding a few posts by guest writers adds a new voice to your pages and helps to bring in new readers to your website.

10. Interviews

First person interviews with people actively involved in your topic is a way to share different points of view with your readers and expand their knowledge of your topic. You can ask readers to submit questions in advance to increase your user engagement.

11. FAQs

Everyone has questions. A FAQ (frequently asked questions) page is one of the best content types to help address common questions all in one place. This helps you better manage your time and not have to answer the same question over and over again.

12. Press releases

Press releases from companies in your field make good fodder for your blog or website. Just make sure that you don’t copy the release directly to avoid a duplicate content penalty from the search engines.

13. Announcements

Do you have a new employee, product, or even some new swag? Let your readers know about it in an announcement post. Market your site as the place readers can learn about news from your company before any other source.

14. Contests

Contests are a good content type for getting new readers and to keep your readers coming back to your site. Like quizzes, this repeat traffic is good for increasing your click-through rate.

15. E-books

Having an e-book that your readers can download, or read directly on your site, can expand on your regular content types with more in-depth information. Promoting an e-book is an excellent way to promote your company as an expert in your field.

16. Landing pages

Landing pages are designed as the first page that a site visitor sees when they take an action like clicking on an ad. It’s important that these remain your highest-quality pages, so they make a good first impression to the user.

17. Infographics

Out of all the other types of content, infographics remain one of the best at providing a visual representation of data or information to your reader. Plus, they also just look cool and can often illustrate a point much more clearly than if you explained the point with only text.

18. White Papers

A white paper is a concise report that seeks to educate the reader about a complex issue, which you can post directly on your site or offered as a download. Like e-books, they help to establish your site as a leader in your industry.

19. “How to” posts

Readers like to learn how to use a product or accomplish a task. (Look at the proliferation of YouTube videos of this ilk.) “How to” posts can range from recipes to instructions on installing a hot water tank.

20. E-courses

E-courses are designed to teach your reader about your topic. Generally divided into several sections, the reader can complete one each day or week. This type of post is another good way to get readers to return to your site.

21. Lists

Lists are, arguably, the most popular type of web content. Whether it’s “9 ways to attract a new boyfriend”, “The 10 hottest guys on the PGA circuit” or “5 ways to cook acorn squash”, there’s just something compelling about a list. List headline are very clickable and a good way to introduce new readers to your site.

22. Reader questions

You probably get questions from readers. Rather than answering the same questions privately over and over again, it just makes sense to create a page or two of real questions you’ve received from readers. (Just make sure that you get permission from the reader if you use their question verbatim.)

23. Roundups

Roundups are compilations of links to other sources posted elsewhere on the internet. This can include things in the news related to your industry this week or something like the best places to shop online for a product related to your industry. Make sure not to copy text from the other site, just the link, to avoid having your SEO suffer.

24. Book reviews

Every topic has books written about it. Share with your readers the ones you’ve read and what you thought of them. (Just make sure not to spoil any plot twists or surprises.) You might even ask readers about their favorite books to increase engagement.

25. Product reviews

One of the perks of having a successful blog or website is that companies are often willing to send you a product to review at no cost to you. You can also purchase a product to review (with none of the potential ethical problems of accepting gifts.)

26. Predictions

Look for this web content type towards the end of the year, when everyone with a web address is offering their opinion about what will happen in the new year. Prediction posts are fun and, until January 1st, you can’t be wrong. This is another way to encourage readers to view you as an industry expert.

27. Demos

Similar to “How to” posts, demos show how to use a specific product and can be a useful way to market your wares.

28. Live streams

Live streams, such as Facebook Live broadcasts, let your readers attend events, board meetings, product unveiling, contest drawings and other happenings right from their homes or office. This is another good way to engage site visitors.

29. Awards

Awards are a fun way to get other businesses and individuals involved in your site. “Best of 2021”-type awards can start with nominations, move on to have readers vote on the top picks and end with an announcement of the winners. This type of content not only engages readers, but draws in fans of the nominated companies that may not have been familiar with your site before.

30. Guides

Guides are a comprehensive look at a topic or destination. For example, if you have a site about Ohio travel, you might create a “Travel Guide to the Lake Erie Islands”. With several of these pieces, you can market your website as a comprehensive resource about your topic.

31. Templates

Templates are examples for readers to use to create their own documents or crafts. This type of content might be a sample resume format or how to write a letter of recommendation.

32. Check lists

Checklists are useful lists that help readers prepare for something. For example, a checklist might be “things to pack when you hike the Appalachian Trail” or “Documents to take when you apply for Social Security benefits”.

33. Memes

Memes are just silly, funny content that combine images with jokes, sarcasm or political humor.

34. User-generated content

Why not have your readers create your content? These can be blog posts, videos, images or full articles. Just make sure that you post guidelines and that your readers understand that you have editorial control.

35. Research and data

Recent statistics and research can make for interesting content and help your site provide industry-leading resources for your readers.

36. Maps

Maps are useful to illustrate where a user can find an attraction, business or other sites.

37. Essays

If your website is like most sites, the bulk of your content is informational and written in the second or third person. Essays give you an opportunity to share your own, first-person experiences and create a rapport with your readers.

38. Event calendars

Event calendars list things that are happening during a particular time frame. For example, you might post “What to Do in Nashville in May” or “Stephen King Book Events in the Midwest”. These can be a useful resource and bring new visitors to your site.

39. Giveaways

Do you have some swag you’d like to offer your readers? You can ask them to take an action like signing up for your newsletter or liking your social media page in order to qualify for the freebie.

40. Social media posts

Posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn are generally shorter versions of the content on your website. You can include a link to your longer content, so readers can learn more if they are interested in your topic.

41. Podcasts

Podcasts are increasingly popular. These might be interviews or instructional talks and work to support your other marketing efforts.

42. Testimonials

Share what your readers and/or customers are saying about you with a testimonial page. (Again, it’s important to ask permission before you use someone else’s words.) Testimonials are great from a marketing point of view because they come from (presumably) unbiased third parties.

43. Industry news

This might be a roundup, a recap of a press release or an article about a single happening in your field.

44. Glossary

This type of content page is especially useful if your industry or topic has a lot of jargon within your field. Prevent readers from becoming confused by creating a glossary page that defines these terms and then link back to it when you use those terms on other pages.

45. Comparisons

A type of product review, comparisons show a side-by-side look at two or more products. This might be a face-off between a Ford Mustang and a Chevy Camaro.

46. Best practices

This type of page gives readers advice on how they can make their life a little easier. It’s even better if you can include how your product or service can make a reader’s life easier.

47. Recipes

Who doesn’t like cooking? Just make sure that you only post original recipes. While ingredient lists aren’t subject to copyright restrictions, the instructions on how to cook a dish are.

48. Cheat sheets

Everyone likes to learn about an easier way to do something. Again, see if you can work this around one of your products or services.

49. Screenshots

Screenshots are images of what’s on your computer screen at a particular moment. These are useful when you’re trying to explain to readers how to do something on their computer.

50. Calculators

Calculators can be useful for things like figuring compound interest, paying off a mortgage early or estimating retirement income.

Creating Quality Content with Crowd Content

We understand that creating quality content can take you away from your other job responsibilities. That’s why Crowd Content matches quality writers to website and blog administrators like you. We have more than 5,000 professional writers waiting to create top quality content for your web pages.

To learn more about adding diverse types of content to your website, blog or social media pages, feel free to contact us today.

The post 50 Popular Types of Web Content for Driving User Engagement appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

In this blog post, we’ll explore seven principles of communication and teach you how to incorporate them into your delivery strategy. Ready to morph into a marketing maven? Excellent: read on.

What Makes Communication Effective?

When one person successfully conveys an idea to another person — or a group of people — that’s effective communication. Going further, effective communication in marketing is always persuasive. Conversions depend on your ability to persuade customers that your products or services are essential — or at the very least, extremely beneficial to them.

Let’s think about the characteristics of persuasive content for a moment. Effective communication must be:

• Clear
• Accurate
• Complete
• Precise
• Reliable
• Considerate
• Polite

Effective communicators don’t just broadcast a message: they listen, too. We’ll explore this in detail later on, but effective communication is a dance between sender and recipient. You’re the sender; consumers are the recipients.

What Are the Seven Principles of Communication?

Some people are undoubtedly better natural communicators than others. With that said, any of us can learn the seven principles of effective communication.

#1: Listen Carefully

Communication is a two-way street. Experienced negotiators and diplomats know that to achieve results, they need to listen as well as speak. You can use this principle to create truly compelling marketing content. To find out what your consumer base wants, use a service like SurveyMonkey to create a questionnaire; then, use social media and email to distribute your survey.

#2: Create a Goal

What do you want your audience to do after they read your marketing content? Let’s look at a few examples:

• Marketing emails: Ideally, recipients follow a link to a landing page on your website and make a purchase.
• Advertorials: Advertorial text must compel readers to enter your sales channel and purchase your product.
• Product descriptions: Descriptions have to answer visitor questions about function, price, size, shipping costs etc. to create conversions.

Think about goals for your marketing content and then pinpoint a few trackable key performance indicators (KPIs) to help you review your progress. Great content marketing KPIs for websites include:

• Page or social media post shares
• Unique page visitors
• Time spent on pages
• Inbound links to pages on your site
• Social media interactions or comments
• Cost per lead (CPL)

Organize Your Thoughts: Winners keep score, so create a well-organized outline for your marketing plan and stick to it.

#3: Think About Your Medium

You might need to adjust your message for each medium you use. Social media demands a different marketing approach than an advertorial, for example. Twitter and Facebook posts are short and to the point; advertorials can be thousands of words long. To generate a decent click-through rate (CTR) on social media, your message must be both compelling and succinct.

#4: Clear, Persuasive Writing

Let’s get one thing straight: jargon doesn’t add credibility to marketing content. Leave jargon behind — and make sure you check your content for spelling mistakes and unnecessarily wordy sentences. Long-winded declarations don’t lead to conversions; short, precise statements do, though.

To write persuasively, you have to appeal to consumers’ emotions. In his 2011 book entitled Thinking, Fast and Slow, psychologist and economist Daniel Kahneman explores two separate thought processes. Readers react intuitively and emotionally first — logic gets second dibs. Think of emotional triggers and rational facts as ingredients in persuasive writing, and combine them equally for best results.

Less is More: Stay on point and avoid repetition to ensure busy readers receive your message.

#5: Tell Stories

Early humans came together around communal campfires to cook, create tools and tell stories. Leading anthropologists agree that we’re hardwired to learn from storytelling — and that’s something you can use to your advantage whenever you create marketing content. Well-crafted stories convey information in an entertaining and engaging way; stories also humanize your product and your company.

#6: Get Visual

People learn in a lot of different ways. When educator Neil Fleming unveiled his VARK model design in 1987, he proposed four sensory modalities — more commonly known as learning styles:

• Visual
• Auditory
• Physical
• Social

Most of us use all four modalities to learn new information. Many people are primarily visual learners, however, which is why it’s so important to use images in your marketing. Photographs, illustrations — even cartoons — pique the reader’s interest, while diagrams and infographics translate text into digestible pictures.

Images Rule: Are your readers in a hurry?A 2014 MIT neuroscience study found that people were able to absorb information from images in as few as 13 microseconds.

#7: Stay Curious

As your business evolves, your customers will also evolve. If you decide to concentrate on a niche market, you’ll need to target a specific consumer subset. If you expand your range, you might decide to market your products via a greater number of channels. In either case, keep your ear to the ground to make sure you continue to communicate effectively with your customers.

Effective Communication in Marketing

We know the seven principles of communication; now we’ll talk about how they apply in your day-to-day marketing strategy. Let’s look at marketing emails, advertorials and product descriptions.

Marketing Emails

Marketing emails need an eye-catching subject line, or they risk being tossed in the trash — or even worse, being relegated to your recipient’s spam folder. Marketing emails also benefit from concise, compelling content and a bold call to action (CTA) link or a clickable button. You’ll also need to create a sales funnel for your marketing email — a custom landing page, for example.

Advertorials

Advertorials use the power of storytelling to promote and sell products. They’re the marketing equivalent of a really great salesperson on a shop floor. Laced with emotional hooks and carefully selected information, advertorials turn mundane items into must-haves. Genuinely great advertorials don’t even sound like adverts — they sound more like blog posts, or enthusiastic (but genuine) endorsements.

Product Descriptions

The best product descriptions (PDs) use a combination of hard fact and entertaining prose to convince visitors of an item’s value. Most shorter PDs begin with one or two descriptive paragraphs and continue with a relevant list of product features. Customers need to be able to see key facts at a glance. To avoid losing consumers at the checkout phase, make sure you display shipping charges clearly on each product page.

It’s a Marketing Wrap

Product descriptions, press releases, emails, advertorials and other marketing content are all built on the principles of effective communication. Let’s end with a quick recap of each point:

• Listen: Communication flows both ways, so listen to what your customers want.
• Goals: Create marketing targets and identify and monitor KPIs to stay on the ball.
• Medium: Adjust your content to match your publishing medium.
• Clarity: Stay focused and make your writing persuasive.
• Stories: Tell stories to draw your readership in.
• Visuals: Use infographics, photographs and illustrations to reach your visitors.
• Curiosity: Stay curious about your customers — and modify your marketing methods if your base changes.

Want to improve your website with top-notch marketing content? Make Crowd Content your go-to provider for engaging blog posts, enticing product descriptions and excellent advertorials.

ALSO – How to Create Original Content and Why It’s More Important Than Ever

The post What Are the Principles of Communication? appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

So which one do you need when clients come to you to boost their business online: a content writer for your website or a web copywriter? The answer depends on the goals and objectives of the client’s campaign.

Nearly 100 percent of the time, though, you need both a content writer and a web copywriter. Here’s why:

Why You Need a Content Writer

Customers love buying things, but they hate the feeling of being sold. Navigating this dichotomy is one of the most challenging things in marketing. The most successful campaigns don’t push products and services on customers. Rather, they give customers a reason to buy and make them feel like it’s their idea.

That’s where content writing comes in. Rather than always trying to sell, sell, sell, content writing provides value to the reader.

Let’s pretend your client runs a mortgage brokerage. The client wants to increase their online presence and capture leads from people searching the internet for information about mortgages. You help the client set up their website. Now it’s time to populate it with content.

Purely sales content doesn’t give the customer what they’re looking for, and it doesn’t inspire their confidence. There’s a time and place to switch into sales mode. But that comes after your client has built a rapport with the customer and earned the customer’s trust.

The way to build rapport and trust with a website or blog is through content marketing — using a well-defined content strategy to get a customer visit a page or fill out a lead form. It gives the customer something of use to them — such as detailed explanations of different mortgage types – without requiring anything of the customer in return.

It also establishes your client as an authority in their niche. It’s easier to sell to clients after you’ve demonstrated the depth of your knowledge and competence. According to Caleb Chen, Founder at The Highest Critic, “content writers are usually/ideally subject matter experts in the industry for which they’re going to be writing content. This allows them to bring context and expert opinion to their content when compared with a copywriter. Generally, a content writer will be more costly than a copywriter.”

Why You Need a Web Copywriter

Anyone who has ever watched a sales movie understands the importance of closing. Remember the iconic scene with Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross, where he delivers the ABCs of sales: Always Be Closing?

ALSO – What is Copywriting?

It’s true. If your client doesn’t use their content to compel a specific action, then they’re essentially just a free source of information.

That’s why good copywriting goes hand in hand with good content writing. Your client’s content writing establishes trust and provides value to the reader. Their copywriting calls the reader to action and closes the sale. Says Chen, “copywriters are generally people who have a solid writing and editing skill base and can be trusted to write grammatically correct copy for any purpose — but don’t often have experience in the industry for which their copy is being generated.”

While the two types of writer vary in their expertise, their skill set, and often, their cost, the interplay between content writing and copywriting forms the crux of a winning online marketing campaign.

A Place for Both in the Customer Journey

By now you understand the difference between copywriting and content writing in a theoretical, goal-oriented sense: content provides educational, valuable, and relevant information about a brand, while copy is used to convince audience members to take an action. But what does it look like in practice?

Sunny Ashley, CEO of Autoshopinvoice, helps put the concepts on more accessible ground: “The difference between the two boils down to their end goals and deliverables. The end goal for content writers is to enhance SEO and build a following. Their content is targeted more towards the top-of-the-funnel. Their performance is ultimately judged on things like page visits and keyword rankings.

Conversely, a copywriter’s is to convert leads into sales. Their content should be less about brand awareness and more about persuasion and calls-to-action. Conversion metrics, form submissions, and new signups are better indicators for success for copywriters.”

Content: First Steps Toward Your Marketing Goals

Content writing serves a few different purposes, including audience awareness, brand recognition, and lead generation. It comes in a wide variety of different packages, from emails and social media posts to blog posts, press releases, well-researched white papers, and e-books.

Imagine you’re building a campaign for a new brand. You don’t have an audience that you can send sales letters or conversion-optimized emails to, so you have to start at square one with a content marketing campaign. You hire a writer to write content related to your brand, something with mass appeal to your audience; preferably, something that brings to light a problem that can be solved by the products or services you’re selling.

Once you have a strong, engaging piece of content, you can strategically deploy it in ways that will best reach a cold “top-of-funnel” audience.

Whether it’s via paid traffic on Google or Facebook, organic social media, an email campaign, or successfully ranking for your target keywords, the next step is driving traffic to your content. When a prospect clicks on a link in any of these channels, they might be taken to a landing page that advertises what they’ll be able to read or download in exchange for submitting some simple information, like their name and email address or phone number — this is called gated content.

Side note: the writing on landing pages tends to be a mix of content and copy; it continues to engage the audience while using the value of the content to persuade them to take the desired action.

Now, you’ve put together a list of leads and you’re starting to grow an audience that has engaged with your brand and is looking forward to what you’ll give them next. That’s when it’s time for marketing copy to take the stage.

Copy: The Hitter That Cleans Up the Leads

Writing copy is all about understanding what the audience wants to hear in order to take the next step in the buyer journey. Luckily, having all clicked on the same piece of content, your audience is filled with prospects that have similar priorities to each other.

Conversion-based sales copy is then deployed through email, direct mail, and other channels that directly advertise the products or services of the brand. It also fills the pages of your website so that anyone who visits is automatically engaged by compelling writing. In this case, copywriting follows up on the awareness of the customer’s problem, strongly positioning your brand as the solution.

Christian Antonoff, a content writer at Independent Fashion Bloggers, says, “the copywriter’s role is to sell products and services by appealing to your senses and emotions. They write persuasive copy targeting brands, selling the notion of needing them in your life.”

But What About Writing that Serves Neither Purpose?

This is actually a trick question: writing that is neither copy nor content has no place in today’s digital marketplace. Some marketing managers will look at certain types of writing and see it as filler; placeholder text to take up space on a page. But, this is a counterintuitive way to think about writing. After all, if any text on your website, blog, or emails isn’t being written to accomplish a goal, what’s the point?

Are Copy and Content Becoming Less Distinguishable?

At the same time, as the world of digital marketing continues to evolve, finding a writer with skills in copywriting and content writing becomes increasingly valuable. Google’s search engine algorithm gets more sophisticated with every new update, becoming better equipped to find and elevate valuable content of all kinds up the list of search results. As the burden shifts away from the rigid guidelines of SEO, the lines between copywriting and content creation will blur even more.

And, there’s mounting evidence that Google values pages and content that have strong engagement metrics. People engage with good content if it provides value to them, but they’re more likely to visit other pages on your site and convert if you also employ strong copywriting. Using both types of writing together can help you boost your overall engagement.

As Isaac Hammelburger, Owner & Founder at SearchPros.co, puts it, there’s no better time for a diversified skill set as a writer: “As the marketing world continues to evolve, the roles of content and copywriters are blurred, but this is exactly what people need now. Writers have to learn a little bit of the other side to take full advantage of their talents.”

Some feel that the difference between the two is nearly obsolete. Adriana Tica is the Founder and Owner of Idunn, and having worked with writers for a long time, is beginning to see them as indistinguishable. “Both of them actually need to write copy and content that sells and converts”, she says. “A blog post with a cleverly placed CTA can convert as much as a long-form sales page. An insightful white paper can bring a lot of sales if written and marketed correctly -— we’ve seen this happen for a lot of our clients. Our point of difference has always been that we create both copy and content that aligns [with] our clients’ financial goals. And we know that both content writing and copywriting can bring sales and conversions.

So, Do You Need a Content Writer or Copywriter For Your Project?

As we’ve discussed, both types of writer have a role in moving your audience through the customer journey. But, what type of content should you assign to each type of writer?

Here’s a quick summary.

Content Writers

You’ll want to send content that is meant inform and engage to content writers. Common content types to send them include articles, blog posts, ebooks, guides, white papers and social media posts. You may also need to find a subset of content writers – technical writers – if you have complex documents to create like how to manuals, reference documents, etc.

Copywriters

Writing that is meant to compel action should be sent to copywriters. Common content types include advertisements, brochures, city pages, landing pages, print ads and collateral, website copy, social media updates, and more.

Mentioned earlier, but one example of the line between content writing and copywriting getting blurry is advertorials. These are short content pieces that look like blog posts or personal stories, inform them reader, but then also compel them to take action. These are very common on Facebook now.

The Takeaway

The easiest way to determine if your client needs a content writer or a web copywriter is to ask this question:

Is my client looking to build their brand and become an authority in their industry, or are they trying to close the sale and compel customers to take a particular action?

Chances are, they want to do both. And for that reason, having a winning content writer and a winning web copywriter on the job is vital for producing a successful campaign. The outlook for the future suggests that finding a writer who can master both skills will give your client the agility to accomplish their marketing goals even more easily.

Need help with your web copy or blogs? Fill out our contact form or call us at (888) 983-3103 to learn about our engaging content solutions.

ALSO – Who’s on Your Business Content Writing Team and How Do You Manage Them?

The post Do You Need a Content Writer or a Copywriter? appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

While content creation for consumers—B2C—might garner more attention in the marketplace, a strong B2B content creation strategy can produce quantifiable, bottom-line results for B2B businesses as well. More than just snackable content designed to engage for a few minutes and drive a quick consumer purchase, B2B content is based on strategic initiatives. It needs to attract, engage, and most importantly, generate quality leads. By building trust and helping prospects, great B2B content moves potential buyers further along the sales funnel.  

ALSO – Check out our B2B Content Writing Service

Differences Between B2B Content and B2C Content

Before we dive into B2B content, let’s talk about three ways it’s different from typical  B2C content. 

B2C purchase decisions are typically driven by emotion. When it’s B2C content, you want to connect with buyers on an emotional level—make them feel good about your brand and the qualities it imbues. With B2B content, you need to start by developing content that establishes trust with potential customers. The stakes are higher in B2B—purchase decisions typically involve multiple people, and are often long-term contracts.

B2B buyers want to see the ROI of your product or service. When a consumer chooses one brand of toothpaste over another, they probably don’t view it as an investment they plan to evaluate. So B2C content can have an informal voice. In contrast, B2B content needs to start the process of convincing a potential customer that the product or service will create cost savings or efficiencies that will help them grow revenue. A solid B2B content strategy will use logic and data to sway the decision-makers.

B2B content needs detail. Most of the daily decisions we make as consumers are not based on deep, investigative research. But details matter when a business is considering a product or service—they increase the confidence of the buyer. Quality content should establish you as an authority, so information needs to be valuable, pertinent, and useful. Use relevant statistics and draw on real-world examples. Engaging content isn’t focused on creating basic awareness or prompting someone to do something as simple as clicking to make a purchase—it’s building confidence in you, your services, or your products that will lead to outreach and a sale. Getting this right is a special skill set. Remember many of your readers will be experts in their own right, so your content needs to speak to them. 

Benefits of a B2B Content Strategy

Maybe you’re not convinced that a B2B content strategy will really move the sales needle for your company. Wondering how an investment in high quality content will make a difference is a valid concern.

The reality is that all kinds of companies are currently using B2B content successfully. Done well, it provides quantifiable ROI. Whether it’s through blog posts, social media, white papers, user-generated content, or any of the other avenues that are available to B2B marketers, the right content marketing strategy delivers results. A critical piece is providing intelligent, well-researched material. Remember that people who are deeply involved in an industry, especially those who are empowered to make purchase decisions, have a great deal of knowledge already. They are experts already, and they’ll have little patience for B2B content that is thin or just scratches the surface of a topic. 

What are the main benefits of a B2B content strategy?

More qualified leads. Content creation for B2B brands can drive customers to your website at the key moment in their decision-making process. Specifically, they’ll land there after an internet search, where they have entered a specific query, provided your content is optimized for search. When your products or services match up with their needs, and you have B2B content that establishes your authority, you have a customer who is far more likely to buy from you. 

A premium spot in a competitive marketplace. With effective B2B content that establishes thought leadership, you can create a presence outline that outstrips even larger competitors. Work with writers who understand the principles of SEO, and your content will rank higher in search queries. Which, of course, means that a potential customer is more likely to reach out to you first. 

Enhanced brand image. It no longer requires a multi-million dollar traditional advertising campaign to create good feelings about a brand, and you don’t need to allocate a big chunk of your marketing budget for paid search to build awareness. Detail-oriented, educational B2B content that reaches your target audience at the moment they’re searching for your products or services imbues your company with positive attributes. When you produce valuable B2B content on a consistent basis, current and potential customers are more likely to only work with you but also tell their friends and colleagues about your company.

Enables the sales team. When the right content is created for a B2B brand, it also helps educate and empower salespeople. It provides them with material they can use to navigate a potential buyer through the process and turn them into a customer, and reinforces the pain points that are likely for the prospect.

Content marketing is affordable, and when done well, more effective—according to some studies, B2B content marketing generates three times as many leads as paid search. 

Quality content matters for B2B marketers

Still not convinced that investing time and resources in B2B content creation is worth it?

Well, a quick browse of the internet will show you just how much is out there—blog posts, visual content, landing pages, webinars, and more. And that endless supply has raised expectations, so your customers and potential customers now expect high quality content. If your target audience visits your website and doesn’t see fresh, informative material, it sets off alarms. You never get a second chance to make a first impression, and you’ll appear less capable than your competitors. It’s important to deliver factual, well-researched content that will establish you as an authority. 

In fact, 47% of the people making B2B purchases will look at three to five pieces of content before they engage with a salesperson for the first time. 

What’s more, the same purchase patterns that have emerged for consumers are relevant in B2B—just like the person figuring out which flat screen TV to buy, the team that is buying for a company will conduct extensive online research before making a decision. According to the Content Marketing Institute, this happens nearly 50% of the time. In the year ahead, it’s likely that content marketing statistics will reveal that number is growing, as millennials and Gen Z  move up the ranks and become the key decision-makers at more and more companies. 

Tips for Creating B2B Content 

Once you commit to creating content for a B2B audience, how do you ensure that it’s a valuable part of your overall marketing strategy? How do you create content that delivers ROI? What kinds of content will drive lead generation?

Whether you’re a small business or a large corporation, developing quality content takes creativity, attention to detail, and consistency. For every company that does it well, there are scores that flounder or just muddle along without seeing an impact. If you want to be a part of the former group and develop B2B content that really works, here are some tips:

Tell good stories. Not fibs or half-truths, but relevant information delivered in a human way. When embarking on a B2B content marketing strategy, it’s easy to fall into the trap of filling everything with industry jargon or buzzwords in an attempt to sound like your idea of an industry professional. Don’t go overboard on the lingo—keep your content clear and easy to understand. Think about the best storytellers you’ve met in your life. Have they been the people who seem intent on demonstrating how intelligent they are? Or the ones who engaged you throughout a tale with wit, relevance, or imagination? 

Target buyer personas. As much as possible, think about B2B content like a one-on-one conversation instead of a presentation in a massive lecture hall. Before you create a piece of content—whether it’s a blog article, a webinar, a LinkedIn post, a video—decide who you’re hoping to reach. Your buyer persona shouldn’t be an audience so narrow that it’s not useful, but recognizing different kinds of customers will help you craft B2B content that connects with purchasers at the key point in their decision-making process. To help define your target audiences,  account-based marketing can be an effective way to create messages that resonate with the people receiving them. 

Don’t just write it. Use your words is good advice for your preschooler, but quality B2B content builds on great copy with other attention-grabbing elements. Use infographics to reinforce key points, build a subscriber list and use email marketing to let people know when new content is available, and foster user-generated content to augment your own material.  If you have a great article, don’t be afraid to promote it months later with a press release, an attention-getting LinkedIn post, or a message on another social media platform.  You can also take quality content and repurpose it for other channels. Ben Culpin, Content Marketer at Wakeupdata, says, “The strategy that has worked best for us is clustering content for SEO and then repurposing certain content for different formats and channels. As an example, a client case in which we increased Google Shopping conversions worked pretty well as a blog article. However, once we used the same case in a YouTube video, an infographic, a newsletter, and a podcast discussion,, we saw traffic to the original article increase by 160% in a month, while signups to a downloadable ebook from the page rose by 83%. Since then, organic traffic to the article has increased by around 7% month-over-month, so it’s a strategy that yields results in the long-term too.

The right content at the right time. What kind of content will resonate with a prospect at different phases of the sales funnel? A first-time visitor to your site is likely to examine the features of your product or service, and engage with some of the articles—your tone and voice need to establish both personality and authority. But few B2B decision-makers are going to make a decision based on a quick scan of your site. Can you capture their email and follow up with a white paper that may be especially relevant to them? After a salesperson takes them through a demo, can you share some visual content? Consider filming testimonials of some current customers and creating short videos you can share—these can help your buyer communicate your value to other key constituents in the company. Reach out to the prospect through your social media channels attention to those will ensure they see bite-sized reminders about your company. Andrew DeBell, co-founder of Water Bear Learning, relies on LinkedIn, “…because that is where most of our best B2B leads are and is the best opportunity for us to get eyes on our brand.”

Build the right team. If you run a small to mid-sized business and have an entrepreneurial mindset, it’s easy to think that you can handle B2B content creation on your own. The reality is that running your operation will always take precedent, and your content marketing efforts will be pushed lower on the priority list. Whether you staff a group yourself or rely on a content marketing services company, it’s a mistake to take on the task of creating B2B content without any help.

Put yourself on a path to better B2B content creation. 

There’s not one, clear path to creating quality content that works for your company. It’s an ongoing process—companies need to consistently provide information that clients and prospects find valuable and moves them closer to a purchase decision.  

Use data-driven marketing research to help you measure the effectiveness of your content. Use SEO tools like Google Analytics to find out what content performs well and what fails to gain traction. Google Search Console will help you find keywords that can drive quality content. Olga Mykhoparkinam, Chief Marketing Officer at Chanty, notes, “The majority of the content we create is for B2B audience and it has a strong focus on SEO. Before creating a piece of content, we do keyword research to see what the content needs to be optimized for. For example, our top-performing post is one about Slack alternatives, which targets this very keyword. This article alone brings us more than 100 new users every month. The purpose of the article is to present the reader with an overview of Slack alternatives and present us as the best choice. It works incredibly well and articles like these are the main reason we now have over 10,000 active users and more than 50,000 website visitors every month.”

Remain open to fresh thinking—you just might find your target audience reacts really well to long-form articles when you figured they would be more likely to embrace webinars and visual content. Reach out to your customers and have conversations to help you identify areas that interest them. Connect with your sales team to find out what prospects consistently identify as pain points. Keep up with the topics covered in your trade journals to see if there is material you can build upon and make especially relevant to your products or services. 

Yes, B2B content creation is an investment of valuable time and resources. But done well and consistently, it pays off. 

ALSO – What Makes Good B2B Copywriters, and How Can You Find Them?

The post The Complete B2B Content Creation Guide appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

One of Crowd Content’s most skilled writers, Alana has completed over 1,400 orders and written nearly 800,000 words for our clients since joining the platform in May of 2016. Her knack for writing compelling marketing copy has earned her frequent praise from numerous businesses, and she’s often the go-to writer for project managers who need high-quality sample or calibration orders for new clients. “I do love onboarding new clients though and doing samples. It’s especially rewarding to help bring CC business and play a role in shaping project briefs,” says Alana.

ALSO – Hire Freelance Writers Today

Born in Ohio and currently living in Las Vegas, Alana has a varied background. “I spent 15 years or so as a professional musician, then I dabbled in culinary school and worked in restaurants as a server, corporate trainer, and sommelier.” (that’s a wine snob – I had to look it up). 

After a life-changing car accident kept her at home, she began freelancing full time in 2013, and it “basically saved her life,” she says. She doesn’t quite remember how she stumbled upon Crowd Content (it was four years ago, and I can’t remember what I did two weekends ago, so we’ll let it slide), but she thinks she may have migrated here with a group of other writers who left another platform because… well, we’re just better. That’s not a quote, but I’m going with it.

Alana’s preferred type of content is “anything with a little voice to it. I specialize in bringing personality to sales pages and web content,” she says, “but my main passion is food and wine writing.” She writes at home after her children are in bed and sometimes moves the workspace out to the porch but not too often because “we have Las Vegas heat to contend with. And also coyotes.” Yikes. 

Not one to shy away from the hard-hitting questions, I dug deep to get a true feel for who Alana really is. Enjoy the spoils of my investigative reporting:

Do you have any hobbies or unusual interests? “I have two young children. My hobbies are cleaning crayon off of walls and sleep typing.”

Who is your favorite author? What’s your favorite book? “Poe. Dorothy Parker. I also really like short stories, so I read anthologies more often than not but I also have a deep love of nonfiction — biographies, anything about travel. I read cookbooks like they’re novels.”

Have you been published by any notable sites or organizations (digital or traditional)? “A bunch, many as a ghostwriter though. My favorite ‘notable’ project is a profile I wrote about legendary winemaker Mike Grgich. It was published online; his staff saw it, and they said he loved it so much that he had a bunch of copies printed and handed out to guests at his (mega big deal) 93rd birthday party/book release. Meant a great deal to me as a writer and as a wino.”

What’s your favorite restaurant or meal? “I will never turn down a good sandwich. My life is pretty much sponsored by Boar’s Head and Jersey Mike’s.”

What’s your favorite TV show or movie? “The Princess Bride, forever and always. As for TV shows, I frequently rewatch Friends, The Office, and 30 Rock. But Fleabag is an absolute masterpiece. Phoebe Waller-Bridge is the kind of surprising, authentic, comedically brilliant writer I inspire to be.”

Complete this sentence: When I’m not working, I… “love to play with my kids and sleep.”

What are the five worst words in the English language? “We’re out of Diet Coke.”

Let’s get to the good stuff before Alana resumes her Diet-Coke-and-wine-drinking, crayon-cleaning, sleep-typing days. What can you gain from Alana’s experience, and can we get some unsolicited compliments about our platform? (ok, maybe not completely unsolicited).

What do you think sets Crowd Content apart from other content platforms? “The staff. The platform is great (and about to get better); the clients are solid and delightfully varied, and the interface is fairly intuitive, but the PMs and other admins are why I stick around. I had pretty high status on another well-known content platform but I couldn’t stand how the staff treated the majority of writers — like they’re disposable. CC listens to and appreciates laptop monkeys like little ole me and that respect goes a long way.”

If you could change one thing about our platform, what would it be? “I abhor the TAT system and think rewarding speed while expecting accuracy/quality is the exact wrong approach. Sorry(not sorry)!”

Do you have any advice for new writers? “Don’t ever disqualify yourself from a project unless you’ve already tried it and know for sure it’s not a good fit. I’m totally self-taught, and I’ve advanced because I’m willing to learn on the go. Mastering a new niche while writing requires dedication (and lots of sandwiches), but it’s totally possible and will vastly expand your professional potential. Also, use a thesaurus. Repetitive content is the pits.” 

What do you find most challenging about writing content? “Creativity on demand. Sometimes the muse just doesn’t want to play and having to come up with all the werdz when you really just want to watch Love is Blind and dream of pudding is really hard.”

I don’t know about you, but I get the impression that Alana is hungry. Go grab yourself a sandwich and big bowl of pudding — and maybe some wine; you’ve earned it. We appreciate all you do, Alana. Keep up the great work! Join us next month for a peek into the mysterious and glamorous life of another Crowd Content writer. Maybe it’ll be you.

The post Writer Spotlight: Carrie McCarthy — A Story of Wine, Crayons and Coyotes appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

What’s more, email marketing works across four phases of the customer life cycle—Acquisition, Sales, Retention, Advocacy. In other words, it can capture new buyers, prompt a purchase, and retain connections to customers for future sales. 

ALSO – eCommerce Content Creation Made Easy

Alexander Kehoe, Co-Founder & Operations Director at Caveni SEO, says, “For our own business, email marketing has always been very important and it makes up roughly 12% of our overall sales. This includes both our outreach and additional factors like abandoned cart emails. Throughout our tenure working in eCommerce, we have seen these numbers vary wildly, but email marketing is very much essential for the early stages of business profitability.”

But not all ecommerce email marketing is equal. Done well, it produces great results. But when it’s mediocre, it fails to reward the time invested in it. And done badly, it can even push buyers and potential customers away. 

How do you improve your open rates? And your conversion rates? How do you reconnect and get people completing purchases? And what can you do to build trust and win over customers?

There is no one-size-fits-all magic formula for ecommerce businesses. Chances are, you’re already juggling a bunch of work and email marketing might have to compete for your attention. But following some simple rules can set you up for great results. Here’s a quick guide to best practices that will  help you make ecommerce email a valuable component of your marketing strategy. 

ALSO – How to Create Killer SEO Category Pages

Capture Email Addresses

We’ll start with the blindingly obvious—even the most creative, thoughtful email marketing campaign won’t succeed if the subscriber list is small or untargeted. If you’re just starting an ecommerce operation or email marketing is a new effort, you need to capture email addresses. 

Sure, you can buy a list of email addresses. But purchasing contact information, no matter what a provider may say, has many drawbacks. Among other issues, these lists usually aren’t truly opt-in, many email services won’t send to addresses on these lists, and your account can be flagged for sending spam. Building your subscriber base organically will result in an audience that is not only targeted, but more engaged. 

What’s the most effective way to build your list? On-site email capture. After all that you’ve invested in generating traffic, it’s time to build more value by connecting with customers. 

When people visit your ecommerce store, offer them a first-time buyer discount, a special deal, a contest entry—as long as they provide their email address. The reality is that most people will visit a site just once, and having a way to reconnect with them is your best tactic to engage and encourage a return. Pop-ups, sliders, header bars—there are numerous features you can build into your site that will attract the attention of a visitor and encourage them to share their email address with you. Test different approaches and see what prompts the most action from your audience. 

Whether you’ve recently launched your own Shopify store or you’ve been selling online for years, your email subscriber list needs steady attention and constant cultivation. 

ALSO – How to Write Engaging Buyer’s Guides

Follow up to Prompt Action

Now that you’ve captured email addresses, you need to use them well. Think of your ecommerce email marketing like news about your company—you never want to underwhelm with information that the person is unlikely to find interesting. 

Follow-up emails, also called triggered emails or transactional emails, have a clear call-to-action and are valuable for any online retailer. You can use marketing automation to make this process simpler—emails will be sent whenever a potential buyer visits your online shop and fails to make a purchase. 

Triggered emails can include:

• Abandoned Cart email. When a customer puts things in their cart but fails to check out, following up with a thoughtful message can remind them to spend some time completing their purchases.  

• Browse Abandonment email. With pre-submit tracking on your site, you’ll know when customers look at items in your ecommerce store but leave without buying. Guess what? That makes them prime targets for a friendly nudge in their email Inbox. Keep the email simple and direct—use an image of the items they viewed, link to reviews, maybe offer suggestions for similar products that you also sell. This is another opportunity to test different approaches and see what proves most effective with your prospects. Don’t be afraid to borrow from the marketplace leaders—reviewing what Amazon does will definitely help you. 

• Replenishment email. If you sell a product that buyers will need on a regular basis, use marketing automation to follow with a reminder email when enough time has passed that it’s time for them to restock. 

• Cross selling email. Analyze sales patterns to see what items are frequently bought with other items in your inventory. Then follow up with an email to a customer after they have made a purchase to suggest other products that would be complementary. This tactic has been an important element of Amazon’s success. 

• Price drop email. If you’re having a sale on a particular item, don’t let it happen in a vacuum. News of a price drop is usually welcomed by the people on your email subscriber list. 

• Win back/defection or reactivation email. It’s not just an existing customer you want to target with your email marketing strategy. Your subscriber list provides an opportunity to reconnect with people who may not be buying from you anymore. Invite them back into the fold with a special offer or discount on their next purchase. 

Alistair Dodds, Marketing Director and Co-Founder of Ever Increasing Circles, suggests that the goal of this kind of email is, “…to make them an offer they can’t turn down in order to get them back into a more frequent remarketing and upselling segment list…they are often loss leader style campaigns as the future upside of sales more than compensates for offering products at a slight loss or break-even price point.”

Improve Open Rates

If you’re sending emails but your subscribers are sending them straight to Trash, it’s time to rethink your ecommerce email marketing. Pay careful attention to your Open rates—and your conversion rates. 

What kind of open and conversion rates should you be looking for? Every industry and category is different, but establishing your own benchmarks will help you make good decisions. 

Becky Beach, the owner of MomBeach.com, says, “The open rate I am getting is 19% on average. The best email campaign I had sent out was when I did a promotion where you got a product for free plus shipping. That open rate was 33% and I had about 500 people take advantage of it.”

Whenever possible, use A/B testing to compare creative approaches. Try the same message with different graphic elements—or no graphic elements—to see which email secures a higher open rate. 

Track sales of specific items in your email marketing to evaluate conversation rates, and don’t be afraid to make changes when the results are unsatisfactory. Remember that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results. Sending emails that don’t deliver is a waste of your valuable time and energy.

Hit Send at the Right Time 

Don’t forget about the customer life cycle stages that email marketing helps—Acquisition, Sales, Retention, Advocacy—and make sure you’re sending the right message at the moment when it will be most effective. During Acquisition, your email will need to work harder to demonstrate the appeal or value of your brand, and create awareness with a potential buyer. If they are in Sales, you need to close the deal—this is the time for a discount or a promotion. And when it comes to Retention, make sure the tone of your email reflects the fact that the person getting the email is a valued customer. Finally, turn loyal customers into ambassadors for your brand. Email incentives that encourage them to share your brand with friends, family, and their own online followings by using referral bonuses or special discount codes they can share.

Make it Personal

No, we’re not talking about sending thousands of messages from your personal account— that’s a very bad idea. But leveraging the data you have gathered about your subscriber list, and tailoring your message appropriately, can make a huge difference in your Open Rates, Click Through Rates, and actual sales. Whenever possible, segment your list so you’re sending emails that will resonate and be considered useful by the people receiving them. Develop profiles of your customers—what do they buy, which styles do they favor, when do they make purchases—and use that information well. It’s a good practice for both you and your customers. After all, the woman who loves the shoes on your ecommerce isn’t going to be excited to get an email that touts a special sale on men’s neckties. 

ALSO – Hire the Web’s Best Product Description Writers

Build Trust

You can’t expect successful ecommerce email marketing without building trust. Your subscribers need to be confident that you’re not sharing their information, and that the emails you’re sending have value. 

Being consistent matters, but don’t send email marketing messages that don’t have real value—a discount, real news, information that will improve the connection between your subscribers and your brand. 

To make consistency easier, establish an email template so you’re not forced to reinvent the wheel every time you send an email. Use marketing automation so certain emails are automatically sent—the Cart Abandonment email is a prime candidate for this solution. 

Use Ecommerce Email Marketing to Build Online Sales

Whether you’re just launching your online shop or an established brand, ecommerce email should be a vital component of your marketing efforts. By following established guidelines and measuring your success through some key metrics—opens, conversions, growth of subscriber list—you can count on email marketing to prompt purchases and increase revenue. 

ALSO – Using eCommerce Influencer Marketing to Drive your Brand Forward

The post How to Make Ecommerce Email Marketing Effective appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

However, SEO isn’t a one-size-fits-all endeavor. There are many different ways to approach SEO, and what works for one company may not work for another. In spite of this, some tactics are better than others and are more likely to work for a longer period of time. 

When choosing an SEO strategy for your business, it’s important to understand best practices as well as the most effective ways to succeed while still following Google’s rules and preferences (like writing high-quality SEO content). 

This post covers what you need to know about black hat SEO, including how it works, when it works, what the future may hold, and why sticking with white hat techniques is the best way to approach SEO in the long-term.

Black Hat vs. White Hat SEO

In general, SEO practices can be divided into two categories: white hat and black hat. White hat practices are considered those done in good faith that play by the rules of Google’s search guidelines. Things like the legitimate use of keywords and high-quality content are considered white hat strategies as these are the kinds of activities that Google encourages.

Black hat SEO techniques, on the other hand, skirt Google’s rules in order to see an immediate boost in traffic. These options are considered less legitimate and are seen as a way to break rules (or bend them, at best) in order to get ahead. While Google often penalizes sites caught using blatant black hat techniques, there are too many tactics and too many players out there for Google to catch all of them. 

And, while many of the more basic strategies, like keyword stuffing, are known and actively discouraged, even automatically penalized in Google’s algorithm, there are still some more advanced black hat techniques that still slip past Google’s ever-evolving algorithms and thus avoid SEO penalties. That is, unless a Google employee finds it and issues a manual penalty to a site. 

These are the black hat SEO options that Google may not notice today – but is certainly aware of and looking to crack down on in the future. 

Also – Google’s Webmaster Guidelines: What Can You Learn to Help Future-Proof Your Content for Algorithm Updates

Doorway Pages

Want to drive traffic to your site? Of course you do! So, doesn’t it make sense to have as many pages as possible ranking that lead back to your contact or purchase pages? That’s where doorway pages come in – highly templated pages with thin, duplicated content that exist solely to rank for niche, long-tail keywords.

In theory, this makes sense. After all, peppering your site with keyword-rich doorway pages provides more content across the web that belongs to your company. And since these pages are often optimized for niche long-tail keywords, they often rank very well. This can lead to an increase in organic traffic as searchers click on these doorway pages. 

However, visitors are often greeted by a really poor experience on these pages, and immediately directed to actually important pages on the site. While some will make it to these pages, others will click away within a few seconds to find another resource that actually has something valuable to offer. 

The problems with doorway pages are clear – but wouldn’t giving up on doorway pages mean less traffic? Savannah Little, a Senior SEO Specialist at WRAL Digital Solutions, explains that the switch from unqualified traffic to qualified traffic can look like a decline year over year – but the metrics often tell a different story. As she puts it, “part of the transition from black hat techniques to white hat techniques includes imparting on the client the knowledge that not all traffic is good traffic and having less organic traffic is okay, especially when they’re converting at a higher rate and the year-over-year conversions are up.”

It’s important to distinguish between doorway pages established for the sake of being doorway pages and legitimate landing pages that differentiate between things like service areas. These kinds of pages, like city pages, can function in a similar way to doorway pages but as they provide quality user experiences, the end result is quite different.

For many businesses, putting more effort into what are effectively doorway pages and building valuable landing pages with great content could yield greater results and mean they don’t have to take down their existing pages. 

Expired Domains

Maintaining a website is a critical part of ongoing operations for pretty much any company. From time to time, domains expire, either as companies go under or choose to go in another direction online. However, domains aren’t just destroyed when they expire: they go up for sale to other buyers.

A common black hat strategy involves purchasing expired domains that previously ranked well and had backlinks from the kind of reputable sites Google likes to see. Then, fresh content can be created under the old URLs to include anything the buyer wants while still preserving the backlinks already in place. While this works superficially, Google is getting smarter at evaluating relevance, which puts this strategy on unsteady ground moving into 2020.

“This is a black hat tactic because it’s taking advantage of Google’s preference to rank highly authoritative websites in search,” explains Nikola Roza, the CEO and Owner of Nikola Roza – SEO for the Poor and Determined. “This tactic is on its way out in 2020 and beyond, because Google is getting smarter at determining relevance, and they will soon be able to figure out algorithmically this glaring lack of relevance, and devalue links pointing to these domains. And this will tank those black hat sites for good.”

Scholarship Link-Building

Scholarship link-building isn’t a terribly popular strategy but it’s still considered viable by some who are focused on getting valuable .edu links at all costs. These .edu links are valuable, often because the institutions behind them have huge domain authority, but the context of why you’re getting the backlink matters here. 

In essence, a company creates and advertises a scholarship for students in hopes that different schools and scholarship sites will feature their scholarship and include links to the company’s site. 

In many cases, the scholarship never pays out, and if it does, the amount is small and the purpose isn’t to reward students – it’s to game Google’s system.

“Even IF a webmaster pays out the scholarship, there’s misaligned intent and clear desire to ‘game’ the system, which is against Google’s Terms of Service. While Google hasn’t released a specific update targeting these profiles, scholarship link building is a clear footprint. Google COULD easily crackdown if (or when) they want to,” states Ewen Finser, a digital marketer and the Founder of TheDigitalMerchant.com.

Private Blog Networks

Private blog networks, or PBNs, have long been a fallback for companies of all sizes. This strategy involves the creation of a network of seemingly authoritative sites simply for the purpose of building links to a primary website. 

Note – sites created for PBNs often use expired domains with existing quality backlinks. 

While now largely out of vogue as Google is getting better at detecting this strategy, some businesses still believe that using PBNs is the best way to enhance domain authority.

However, Google now values page authority over domain authority, immediately decreasing the value in this once-trusted strategy. Google is also specifically targeting PBNs and has actually been de-indexing these pages if a network is suspected.

Link Swapping and Buying

Most marketers are aware that building backlinks is critical to search rankings and building authority, but not all are sure how to create an effective linking strategy organically. As such, link buying and link swapping have become a popular option for those who understand the principles behind linking as an SEO strategy but aren’t sure how to get started.

Link swapping is often managed through closed Facebook pages catering to niche industries that exist solely as a way to swap links. This essentially creates a large web of reciprocal linking. While this is in the grey area of SEO, it’s not an overly valuable tactic.

Andy Chadwick of Digital Quokka explains how this concept works, and why it’s not a great idea, calling a site that relies on the existence of link swapping, “a site whose link profile is almost entirely made up from domains who they too have linked to. You’ll see this most commonly on “mummy” and “recipe” type blogs where users will write a recipe and then link to their friend’s similar recipe and vice versa. We know Google’s actively targeting these sites,” he warns, citing an unnamed Google update from November.

Link buying, on the other hand, is considered questionable SEO from an ethical standpoint and Google strongly advises against it. For those in small or difficult niches, developing the content necessary to build quality backlinks can be a challenge. 

To get around this, many SEOs make use of services that explicitly sell links from websites that meet certain criteria. There are different ways this is achieved including getting links added to existing posts, publishing new guest posts, and even getting links added to directories. 

This lets the SEO choose the exact site placement he wants, what page of his it will link to, and also the anchor text he wants included in the backlink. In theory, it’s a really powerful tactic.

Andy Chadwick explains why this idea is less effective than taking the necessary steps to do things right: “You need to ‘link build.’ Again, normally you’d pay for someone to do this. Here is where the subtle difference is – ‘link building’ should be done by building up relationships and making the right people aware that your content exists. ‘Buying’ is simply exchanging cash in place for a link. Normally the latter yields very poor results, especially in the long run, because if the site is selling links to you, they’re probably selling it to loads of other sites to and, eventually, the site will become spammy.”

What Can Go Wrong?

These tactics can and do work for many SEOs. SEOs, if nothing else, are great at finding new tactics that will drive results. They’re also quick to abandon tactics that no longer offer any value. 

Most of the tactics we’ve discussed have at least been discouraged by Google, which means they’ll likely try to reduce the tactics’ influence in Google’s search algorithm in upcoming updates. Or, they’ll build penalties into the algorithm. Either way – it will likely mean a drop in rankings and traffic for businesses that relied on these tactics.

A bigger threat to be aware of though comes in the form of manual penalties. This happens when someone from Google’s search team identifies unnatural SEO tactics on a site or group of sites and applies a manual penalty to the domain. This can result in a site being entirely removed from Google, and these penalties are notoriously hard to recover from. 

ALSO – The Complete Guide to Google E-A-T: What Is It, Why Is It, and How Do You Create It?

White Hat Options

So if these black hat SEO tactics aren’t the best way forward for your SEO, what should you focus on?

There are actually a lot of ways to boost your SEO in a white hat way:

1. Create high-quality and comprehensive content. On-page factors are hugely important, so having the best quality content on the web can do wonders for your SEO. An upside to this is that you’re likely to earn backlinks to your site if other marketers view your resources as valuable.
2. Build link magnets – things like original research, surveys, tools, etc. – they’re all things that other marketers might consider linking to when attempting to add value to their audiences.
3. Link outreach – there’s nothing wrong with reaching out directly to publishers in related fields and asking them to link to your resources. If it adds value to their readers, they might do it.
4. Public relations – what’s old is new again, as they say. Public relations has evolved into a way for marketers to get major publications, bloggers, and influencers to cover newsworthy stories. If you can get this kind of coverage, the links are usually from high domain authority sites and carry a ton of weight.

ALSO – 7 Tips for How to Write SEO Content

These are just a few approaches to try, but it’s important to keep in mind that they’re all likely to hold up over time and won’t run you much risk of being penalized by Google. That’s better for your business long-term.

And although doing things the white hat way may not be as quick or easy to generate large numbers of backlinks, the results are often better. 

As Reece Mack, an SEO Manager at Trek Marketing explains, “Consider Public Relations outreach, opinion articles, and guest posting to improve your authority and authentically build your public profile. These days, the quantity of backlinks doesn’t hold as much weight as the quality.”

Choosing Black Hat Options

For those who want to go from A to Z while skipping the rest of the alphabet, black hat techniques can seem enticing. However, it’s important to realize that Google’s approach to determining search results gets more sophisticated every day. The black hat strategies that work today, regardless to what extent, likely won’t work for long. As such, it’s very important that those considering these strategies understand the limitations – including the fact that any perceived growth is unlikely to generate real results in the long-term.

By staying on the up and up and perfecting skills in the white hat tactics Google encourages, it’s much easier to see sustainable and real growth that can benefit your business at a base level – not just on the surface.

The post Black Hat SEO Tactics That Work in 2020, But Might Not For Long appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Creating original, engaging content is not easy (though a good content writing service can certainly help). Yet, it is the least that’s expected of you as a content marketer today. The real content marketing challenge of 2020 is getting your content in front of the right audience. As Ross Simmonds often preaches, “distribution rules everything around me.”

As more businesses realize the importance of content marketing, the competition for content promotion is getting tougher. So, how do you rise to the top of your space? Keep reading to learn about the top content distribution tips for 2020.

1. Find Your Target Audience

Who is interested in what you have to say? Ideally, this question should be answered before your content is created.

Identifying your niche audience is one of the key steps in creating and distributing content. Sadly, it is also one of the most overlooked! Too often an article, a video or a blog post are created without well-defined audiences in mind. So, here is your chance to stand out.

Creating targeted content also means identifying and using keywords and key phrases that your potential customers are using in their search engine queries.

Many keyword research tools are available to make the task easier for content marketers. The most widely used are Google’s Keyword Planner, Google Trends, Moz Keyword Explorer, Ubersuggest and Answer The Public.

By understanding how your audience describes the topics you want to cover, and understanding the intent behind their searches, you can tailor content that speaks directly to them.

ALSO – Qualitative Keyword Research: How to Invest 10 Minutes into Your Content Marketing Process & See Your Content Rise to the Top of Google

2. Create and Promote Blog Posts

Everyone seems to run a blog these days – so, is it still worth it? The answer is definitely “yes” – if you do it right. A recent study by Content Marketing Institute confirmed what many of us have intuitively known for ages – that 7 out of 10 customers prefer promotion through articles rather than ads.

So, what makes an effective blog? You need to:

• Publish original content that is genuinely useful, insightful and/or entertaining
• Maintain high standards – create comprehensive, best-in-industry content
• Post regularly
• Stay true to the topic and purpose of your blog
• Engage with your audience and build community
• Keep the information up to date
• Promote widely – there’s no point in publishing great content if nobody sees it!

Well researched and written blog posts help establish and support your brand’s reputation and expertise – building trust, making your audience more receptive to your messages, and creating lasting customer relationships.

When your blog post is combined with a logical, well-defined call to action, it is also invaluable in building highly targeted email lists. For example, if readers of your blog find your content useful, they will be more inclined to provide their active email address to access a comprehensive guide on the topic – and to stay subscribed to receive further messages from you.

The blog format allows for a more informal, personal tone than your main company site. That makes blog posts great for sharing on social networks, and for using such opportunities for cross-promotion as guest posting.

ALSO – 13 Types of Blog Posts to Fire Up Your Readers (And Your Editorial Calendar)

Guest Posting Might Be Harder to Get – But It Still Works

Guest posts remain a great way to get more exposure for your content.

Marketers today may be more wary of allowing guest posts on their site because the practice has been abused by spammers. Still, the collaboration between bloggers can be very effective – if done right. If you can enrich each other’s content, you instantly increase exposure and provide more value for your audience.

For example, BackLinko’s Brian Dean has recently teamed up with PitchBox, an outreach and content marketing platform, for an impressive study on the effectiveness of outreach emails. Backlinko benefited by acquiring some cutting-edge data-driven content, while PitchBox got significant exposure for their product.

Guest posting can also be a great way to promote your existing content. Including links to other relevant topics in your blog ensures that your evergreen or updated content keeps being discovered by new audiences.

3. Keep Search Engines Happy – Never Neglect Your SEO

On-page SEO remains as important as ever. The tedious bit – optimizing your posts for their target keywords using the latest SEO best practices – should never be skipped.

One well-targeted, informative blog post that makes it to the first page of Google results for a given keyword can drive substantial organic traffic for years. So, the time and effort invested in SEO are well worth it when considered against the long-term gains.

As the competition among content creators heats up, it is particularly important to understand search intent – the reason why users look for information – behind queries that are likely to bring traffic to your site. Your primary keywords should always be chosen with search intent in mind.

When you have decided on your primary keyword, make sure to use it:

• in the page title
• in the H1 heading
• early in the body of your content

Every post should have a custom meta description that includes your keywords and accurately summarizes your content. If your description matches your audience’s search intent closely, it will drive up the organic CTR (click-through rate) on your listing in Google search results.

The quality of your content is the most important ranking factor with Google now. That means it needs to read well, offer valuable information, satisfy search intent, and perhaps most importantly – it needs to be comprehensive. Additionally, you’ll want to spend time ensuring your content is surrounded by good design so that it’s more appealing to visitors.

All of this impacts how visitors interact with your site. If your site has a low bounce rate – meaning that your visitors spend time on your site consuming your content – it will help your content rank even higher as a result of Google’s RankBrain, which looks at behavioral metrics like this, bringing in more visitors from search engines.

Sharing your content widely and building backlinks from authority sites in your niche are also solid off-page SEO techniques that you should use.

ALSO – 7 Tips for How to Write SEO Content

4. Know Your Content Distribution Channels

What channels can you use to distribute your content in 2020? All content distribution and sharing channels can be grouped into the following categories:

1. Channels that are under your complete control (often referred to as “owned” distribution channels). These include:

• Your website
• Your blog
• Your email newsletter
• Your brand profiles on social media
• eBooks, PDF guides, infographics, etc. (downloadable from your site or emailed by you)
• Video content (posted on your YouTube channel or your blog, included in your emails, etc.)
• Audio content (your own podcasts, audiobooks, guides, etc.)

2. Channels that you have limited control over (“earned” or “shared” content distribution channels):

• Strong organic search engine rankings
• Social shares and mentions
• Reposts on other social networks
• Citations on other websites and blogs
• Reviews that link back to your site

3. Channels for paid distribution:

• Paid advertising – Display Ads and Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
• Sponsored content on social networks (like LinkedIn Sponsored Updates, promoted posts on Facebook or Pinterest’s Promoted Pins)
• Native advertising and content discovery platforms (like Taboola and Outbrain)
• Paid influencer campaigns
• Social media advertisements

Your budget, as well as your overall brand strategy, will determine which owned and paid distribution channels you use the most.

Earned channels have the potential to provide the biggest return on your investment in content. At the same time, content sharing carries some risks, as the spin that can be put on shared content is largely out of your hands.

The effectiveness of earned channels has been steadily declining over the last few years. On Facebook, for example, the decline in organic traffic has been particularly noticeable since the 2018 algorithm update, which changed the way content appears on users’ timelines to prioritize, in Mark Zuckerberg’s words, “friends, family, and groups” over “businesses, brands, and media.”

As a result, the competition for earned channels in 2020 is set to be tougher than ever. In this situation, your paid distribution efforts should be used to try and increase your earned reach.

For example, promoting a post on Facebook or LinkedIn can help generate some organic shares. You can also invite the people who like your promoted posts to follow you, increasing the audience for your future content. Having a network of people that will like and share your post also ensures that it gets picked up and promoted by social network algorithms.

ALSO – Content Advertising: How to Leverage Paid Ads in Your Content Marketing

5. Pick the Right Content Distribution Channels for Your Target Audience

Once you know your channels, it’s just a matter of matching them with your potential audiences. If you’ve done your homework researching your niche audience, then the task of finding the right channel for distributing your content becomes easier.

Are you trying to reach busy professionals that are likely to use LinkedIn daily? The fashion-conscious crowd on Instagram and Pinterest? Is your audience more likely to use Facebook – or Twitter? If you know your target audience, the above questions should not be hard to answer.

Then you need to put a sound content distribution strategy in place. Alexander Porter, Head of Copy at  Search It Local, explains:

“Successful content marketing heading into 2020 must exist within an integrated framework. You can’t release it in a handful of channels and expect to keep up with your competition if they are casting a wider net. At Search It Local, we build the foundations of our results like we were building a pyramid.”

For example, if your goal is to create brand awareness and build trust by running a business blog, then your content distribution strategy for new posts could include:

• Publishing an SEO-optimized blog post on your company site.
• Posting the key quotes from your post to Twitter.
• Emailing the summary of your blog post with a link to the full post to your mailing list subscribers.
• Posting summary/infographics/video promoting the post to your Facebook and LinkedIn profiles.
• Sharing the post through Facebook and LinkedIn Groups.
• Using sponsored listings on social media feeds to promote the post.
• Contacting influencers that might be interested in sharing your post.
• Using remarketing to promote the post to the audiences that have shown interest in similar content or have recently visited your site.
• Using Google Ads to drive paid traffic directly to your blog post.

Finding the right channels to connect with your audience will initially require some experimentation. Once you are confident that you are reaching your crowd, you can play with the formats and topics of your posts, fine-tuning your messages so that they are tailored to your chosen channels and platforms.

6. Maximize Your Social Shares

Each content sharing platform has strengths that should be used to maximum advantage. For example, short video content is perfect for sharing on Facebook and Instagram, while some eye-catching infographics can be created for ease of share on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Always look for usage patterns of the content sharing platforms – then, look for ways to stand out.

Jason Thibault, the owner of the content marketing agency Massive Kontent, shares some insights on the optimal use of LinkedIn:

“LinkedIn now has just over 300 million active monthly users, 40% of which visit the site daily. Only 3 million of those users share content every week – so creating and sharing content on the platform automatically puts you in the “one percent”. This year I started including short PDFs with my LinkedIn posts. Just 6-7 pagers that summarize my main points. The posts with PDFs generate anywhere from 250% to 600% more views (4,000-12,000 views) in the LinkedIn newsfeed.”

It is crucial to create your content with the distribution platform in mind. For example, the optimal length of a Facebook post for ease of sharing is between 40 and 80 characters, while the ideal content length on Twitter is often reported to be 70 – 100 characters. At the same time, some brands have discovered that much longer Facebook posts work for them, while others swear by multi-tweet messages on Twitter. Ultimately, you are the best judge of what works best in your space – and figuring that out does take quite a bit of experimentation!

ALSO – Social Media: How Does it Impact Your SEO?

Paid promotion may be a good tactic to use to start things off. The initial traction that your post gets from paid placements start leading to organic shares.  

Samantha Milner, the food blogger at RecipeThis.com, has been able to grow her blog to 8 million pageviews a year using the following strategy:

“When a new recipe is published, we will share it first to our Facebook page and Twitter account. It will also have every image featured in it shared to a relevant Pinterest board. It is then distributed across Pinterest with Tailwind until it has gone through all relevant Pinterest groups, shared with relevant Tailwind Tribes, and then shared throughout social bookmarking channels – as well as to recipe sharing sites and link parties. Then each Friday it will be shared with our newsletter subscribers.”

So, to maximize social shares:

• Consistently share quality content on the platforms that your target audience uses
• Use the best formats for sharing on your chosen platforms
• Use paid promotion to initiate organic shares of your top content
• Always study the competition – then look for ways to stand out!

7. Email Is Still HUGE

It has been around forever, but, year after year, numerous studies agree that email remains a powerful content distribution and marketing channel – even for younger generations. As many as 68% of millennials report that promotional emails have influenced their purchasing decisions.

Build a quality email list

Building targeted email lists is more important than ever. One successful tactic is to offer some actionable, in-demand content – like an eBook or an instructional video – for free in exchange for mailing list subscriptions. The pieces of content that you offer as subscription incentives should:

1. Add immediate value to your audience – teach them a strategy, show them a technique, etc.
2. Be as targeted as possible.
3. Promise to deliver more – soon. (Make sure you deliver on that promise!)

If you provide immediate value, your readers are more likely to stay subscribed. They will also be more motivated to open your subsequent emails and be receptive to your messages.

Keep your email formatting clean and simple

While it is tempting to experiment with formats of your email messages, it is important to remember about the overwhelming number of emails your readers open daily.

People are becoming tired of the visually bulky “traditional” newsletter formats.

Simple, brief, to the point, letter-style emails are easier to skim through and are more likely to get attention and initiate immediate action.

In fact, emails sent by some of the most prominent content marketers of today are concise to the point of using an almost bullet-point format.

Your email promotion success also greatly depends on your attention to detail and persistence. To get better response rates, personalize the subject and body of your messages as much as possible, and be prepared to send multiple emails to the same contacts.

ALSO – Email Copywriting: Tips for Mastering a Profitable Niche

8. Share in Social Network Groups (and Create Your Own!)

Your top content deserves extra distribution effort. Both Facebook and LinkedIn have the Groups feature that is great for reaching out to people that are actively looking for information on very specific topics.

Oksana Chyketa, a B2B marketer at Albacross.com, has the following tips on distributing content via Facebook Groups:

“A great way to promote your content on Facebook is through Facebook Groups. In this case, you have two options: 1) You can join Facebook groups and boost your reach by sharing your content once you’re a member. Or 2) You can create your own Facebook Group and invite users to join and promote your brand. Both options are excellent in an organic increase of page ‘likes.’ It’s important to mention that only high-quality, problem-solving and engaging content will attract and retain your prospects.”

As a content marketer, it is important to make sure that you are present on all major social platforms that your audience frequents. Be it Quora, Reddit, YouTube, or smaller niche forums – before you start promoting your content in any way, you need to learn the rules of the group, and add value by answering questions and genuinely contributing to discussions. Do not post any content that can be perceived as spammy. Reddit, in particular, has zero spam tolerance and can be more valuable as an audience research platform than a content distribution one.

9. Always Look for Emerging Channels (and for New Opportunities to Use Existing Ones!)

Who heard of TikTok two years ago? Very few people would’ve predicted its amazing rise. The same could’ve been said about YouTube just a few years earlier.

The new channels for publishing your content emerge every day, and, as overwhelming as it all might feel – it’s crucial to keep up with them.

At the same time, new uses of established platforms should never be overlooked.

YouTube Community Feature Can Be Used for Content Sharing

If you have access to a YouTube channel that has over 1,000 subscribers, you can use the Community feature to share your content.

When a piece of content is shared with the community, the post will appear to all of your subscribers.

“We tripled our referral traffic from YouTube since we started posting to our community,” says Antti Alatalo, Marketing Director at CashCow.

Use Audio to Establish a Deeper Connection with Your Audience

Audio is another traditional content distribution channel that appears evergreen.

Simon Elkjær of Nutimo believes that the audio format has given him a deeper connection to his audience:

“I have been doing blogging, YouTube, book launches, events and public speaking amongst other things. But through my podcast, I feel the listeners are getting a deeper connection. When I meet people who are podcast-subscribers, they feel like they know me, they listen to me on evening walks, while commuting, going to the gym or just in a quiet place, in a nice chair. In this way audio is unique. It requires nothing of you, and no screen time to consume. It’s a way of disconnecting from a stressful smartphone or tv screen, and just listening.”

According to Simon, with audio, it is best to go in-depth:

“We changed our format from 15 minutes to about an hour and our listeners loved it. Our format is 20% on topic, and 80% anecdotes, stories, and small talk. Those who listen now really care, and listen because of us, not because of the information.”

Look for New Ways to Use Your Channels

Always be on the lookout for new features of your main distribution channels. Identify and follow the experts in the field. And don’t forget to always experiment yourself – it’s little, subtle touches and tweaks that often help you stay ahead of the content distribution game.

10. Use Paid Promotion Channels for Retargeting

Paid channel targeting is becoming more sophisticated every day. One of the most valuable tactics is retargeting – keeping your brand and content in front of the customers that have already visited your site, or showing ads based on the history of their interaction with some of your content. Content marketers need to make full use of this trend in their social media marketing efforts.

You can build your retargeting lists based on the type of content that your target audiences have already interacted with. Then, you can use these audiences to promote your new content. For example, when promoting a new instructional video, you would target people that have already watched some of your videos.

Once you have a good understanding of your main audience, you can start to experiment with the Lookalike Audiences feature (offered by both Facebook and LinkedIn), targeting audiences with similar characteristics and expanding your reach.

Here is how some content marketers do it.

Oksana Chyketa of Albacross shares some of her Facebook ads strategy insights:

“…One more way to boost your content is by using Facebook ads. The tip here is that you don’t need to target the unknown people, but those who have already been to your site, let’s say during the last 60 days. In this way, you’ll manage to drive only quality leads to your blog and the bonus is that your CPC will be much cheaper.”

Jason Thibault of Massive Kontent has been successful in distributing content on Twitter and Quora:

“Currently, I’m finding that the Twitter ads platform and Quora for Business are offering the best return on ad spend. With Twitter, I upload custom-tailored audiences and continuously build a second ‘website visitors’ audience via the Twitter conversion pixel. If I’ve set everything up correctly I can send 2-400 visitors to a new piece of content for 20-40 cents per click (sometimes less).”

11. Influencer Marketing Tip: Don’t Overlook Micro-Influencers!

According to a recent study by MediaKix, 80% of marketers find that influencer marketing is effective. The good news is that your influencer marketing campaign does not have to come with a hefty price tag. Emerging influencers and micro-influencers often have more genuine engagement with their followers than established ones. While marketers can find themselves working harder initially to identify and contact micro-influencers, it is usually worth the time and effort if you want to reach your niche audiences.

Micro-influencers are also more likely to be interested in collaborations that involve distributing content for free in exchange for the exposure they get.

One great practice is to contact micro-influencers with relevant expertise and ask them to contribute to your pieces of content. “They’ll be your content marketing advocates,” Alexander Porter of Search It Local explains. “Show them the finished content and thank them for their contribution. Avoid overtly asking them to share it, by developing authentic relationships you’ll find these micro-influencers naturally share your content which increases its reach and exposure.”

12. 80/20 Rule: Your Main Focus Should Not Be on Creating Content

Gone are the days when content marketers could just distribute quality content blindly and expect results.

The 80/20 rule of content marketing for 2020 is that only 20% of your time should be spent creating content, while 80% should be devoted to content strategy, distribution and promotion.

Spend More Time Sharing

Outsourcing your content creation to experts with content writing services such as Crowd Content allows you to direct your main efforts to where they matter most – developing an effective strategy and putting your content in front of the right eyes.

The post 12 Content Distribution Tips to Ensure Maximum Exposure in 2020 appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

How Much Should I Pay a Freelance Writer?

As a business owner, you need to find a balance between paying a freelance writer what they deserve and not decimating your budget. This would be easier if there were a set rate for writing, but that’s not the case. With so many types of content, niches, and other factors in play, figuring out the going rate isn’t always simple.

It’s like hiring a plumber or any other home service contractor. The amount you pay a relatively new-to-the-biz plumber differs from what a veteran might charge you with decades of experience. Add offerings such as regular versus emergency service and routine tasks versus specialty tasks, and the rates shift again.

A low rate doesn’t mean poor quality, and a high rate doesn’t mean you’re getting the best. That’s why it’s crucial to consider your needs, the industry norm, and other ingredients of the project pie before you set a rate and start your hunt.

Factors influencing freelance writer rates

Many factors go into determining how much a freelance writer charges. Some are within your control, such as the length of the project and the amount of research. Other factors depend on the freelancer’s professional background and personal circumstances. Get to know each element, and you’ll be better prepared to make the right writer an offer that benefits both parties.

1. Content type and purpose

Consider what content you need and how you plan to use it. Some types of writing are best handled by a specialist with extensive experience in your industry, while a general writer can manage others. Product descriptions and broad-topic blog posts with minimal research requirements are easier to write than case studies or white papers. 

Freelance writer rates tend to be higher for content that’s used to convert prospects into qualified leads or leads into paying customers. You can also expect to pay more if you need a writer for highly technical topics. For example, a medical device manufacturer needing a case study should expect to pay more than a fashion designer who needs basic product descriptions.

Here are some of the most common types of content:

• Articles
• Blog posts
• Press releases
• Case studies
• White papers
• Reports
• E-books
• Email newsletters
• Infographics
• Thought leadership pieces
• Product descriptions
• Category descriptions
• How-to guides
• Sales letters
• Landing pages

2. Content quality

When it comes to quality, speed, and price, there’s an old saying in the business world: “You can have it fast. You can have it good. You can have it cheap. Pick two.” In other words, you shouldn’t expect top-tier quality at bargain prices. This informal explanation of the iron triangle is a business concept related to scope, time, and cost.

If you’re planning to hire a writer, think about whether you want to prioritize your budget or the quality of your content. Quality should be your top priority if you’re trying to win new clients or get media coverage for your business. For basic product descriptions, you may be able to give your budget more weight.

Just remember your published content needs to paint your business in a positive light. There’s no real benefit to paying bargain-basement freelance writer rates if the finished product is riddled with errors or makes your company look bad.

3. Additional responsibilities

If you expect your writer to wear more than one hat or provide more than basic writing duties, expect to pay a higher rate. Depending on the type of project you’re doing, you may need to pay for the following:

• Travel time, lodging, and other costs associated with on-site work
• Time spent interviewing sources
• Photography or stock photo sourcing
• Article pitches to digital or print publications
• Graphic design/document layout
• Extra revisions
• Editorial services

4. Turnaround time

Freelance writers usually work on multiple projects simultaneously, many of which are scheduled months in advance. If you need a quick turnaround time, the writer may have to reschedule other projects or work extra hours to write your content. Remember the plumber analogy? If you need someone to tackle a major leak ASAP, you pay a premium for priority status. Likewise, freelancers often charge a premium for flexibility.

Even if you’re paying extra for a fast turnaround, you should have reasonable expectations. While writing a short blog post in 24 hours is possible, a writer may need more time to collect data for a case study or interview sources for a long-form article.

5. Expertise required

It’s a good idea to write a job description or request for proposal before you start looking for a writer. The document should spell out the knowledge, skills, and abilities a freelancer needs to mesh well with your team. Consider the type of expertise required. Do you need a journalist who can write long-form articles about your business? How about a technical writer with experience writing user documentation for complex software packages? 

You may also look for writers with specific degrees or professional certifications. If you’re hiring a writer to craft content about project management, someone with the Project Management Professional certification may provide deeper insight than a generalist writer without the PMP credential.

6. Project requirements

Not all writing projects have the same requirements. Some clients provide templates and ask their writers to submit completed projects via email. Others want their writers to use a content management system (e.g., WordPress, Joomla) to write the content, add photos, and develop meta titles and descriptions.

At Crowd Content, we work with clients who have detailed requirements regarding keyword usage, formatting, backlinking, and image use. Generally, the more precise your requirements are, the more you can expect to pay a freelancer.

7. Author credit

Freelance writer rates also depend on whether you plan to give the author a byline or publish the work under your name. Publishing under the name of a well-known writer gives your company and website credibility — something Google’s algorithm loves and looks for — so you can expect to pay more if you include the writer’s byline on your site.

How Freelance Writer Pay Is Determined

There are typically three ways freelancers get paid.

• By the word: This is arguably the most common and straightforward pricing method. Paying by the word helps you manage your budget — 20 cents per word times 1000 words always equals a maximum of $200. But word count doesn’t always equal value. For instance, a 20-word Facebook post is typically more expensive than $4.
• By the hour: Many clients like to pay by the hour because it’s the system they’re most accustomed to. But if a writer works quickly, they’re penalized for their expertise. Conversely, a slow but methodical writer could exceed your budget. For those reasons, hourly pay is best reserved for add-on services, such as interviewing an executive for a business profile or attending a Zoom strategy meeting with your marketing team.
• By the post/page/project: Freelance writing rates set by the post or project are often the fairest way to approach projects that require a lot of knowledge but few words. Flat fees also work if you have a budget in mind and don’t know how many hours it will take to complete the project.

Rates for Freelance Writing Services

Carol Tice, an experienced journalist and the owner of Make a Living Writing, conducted an annual survey to determine how much freelance writers earn for various projects. The 2020 survey included more than 600 participants at all levels of experience. Approximately 50% of respondents indicated making over $100 for a short blog post (500-800 words); for longer blog posts between 1,000 and 2,000 words, most writers reported earnings of up to $350. 

According to Tice, writers should expect to be paid hundreds of dollars per page for case studies and white papers, as they’re “heavy-duty lead generators for businesses that help them book millions in new revenue.” Short marketing email prices ranged from $100 to $750 per email.

As of 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics put the median pay for writers and authors at $73,150 or $35.17 per hour. Using that model, you could estimate how long a project would take and pay by the hour or the project. For instance, a blog that should take about 2 hours may cost about $70. But using that rating system across the board doesn’t consider industry, expertise, or content type. Content focusing on specific niches and requiring extra education or credentials is priced higher than articles requiring basic research. An agency outsourcing content for a portfolio of end clients might encounter the following rates for an article or blog:

• Education: 25 cents per word
• Business: 30 cents per word
• Fintech: 50 cents per word

The rate for a buyer’s guide or email template might be slightly lower in each category, while the rate for technical writing, such as a white paper or case study, nearly doubles. When you work with Crowd Content, you get access to teams of freelancers who write at various pay rates. We review your budget and let you know what to expect regarding quality and turnaround time.

Making Room for Content in Your Marketing Budget

Content is one of the most important aspects of any marketing campaign. Whether you run a small business or work in the marketing department of a Fortune 500 company, great content helps you boost your search engine rankings and increase conversion rates. If you want high-quality content, you need to pay reasonable freelance writing rates based on the scope of the project, your company’s needs, and the writer’s skills and experience.To see how a freelance writer can help you grow your business, look at Crowd Content’s content creation services today.

The post Freelance Writer Rates: How Much Should You Pay in 2024? appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Press releases date back to the ancient times before the Internet but they’ve remained a vital tool for getting your message out in the digital age. While print magazines and newspapers were once the main targets for press releases, these days bloggers, journalists and digital outlets can help transform your story into a newsworthy headline. And unlike the old analog days, one great piece of coverage not only drives awareness, but it can also provide an SEO ripple effect that brings your brand to a whole new audience.

Crafting a newsworthy press release and pitching it to the right outlets can open a new level of PR success, but it takes the right approach. So, we’ve gone direct to some our most experienced press release writers to get their insights on what the best approach is. In this article, we’ll cover some do’s and don’ts to help you write fun, professional press releases that can make an impact for your brand.

Press Release Primer: How to Make A Newsworthy Story Stand Out

Before you start writing a press release you should ask yourself this simple question: “Is this actually a newsworthy story?” Of course, you’re doing big things, but remember that people outside of your organization may not find every new development important enough to read about. This is especially true for media outlets.

For example, fashion blogger Melanie DiSalvo of Virtue + Vice explains that jumping into an ongoing trend isn’t enough to catch her attention:

” … At this point, I ignore press releases that highlight a brand’s buy one give one model, or if they are making swim or yoga clothes out of recycled water bottles. Everyone is doing that these days. It has to be a unique idea. For me, it’s not so much the press release, but learning about something new and exciting that is not currently being done.”

It can be hard to tell if your story is truly newsworthy, but luckily there are a few simple methods you can use to ensure that your press release has the traction it needs to become a news article.

ALSO – 5 Tips for Optimizing Your Press Release

Play It (Mostly) Cool

Getting media coverage for your news story is largely about credibility. Good thing your brand is oozing with street cred! But how can you be sure that writers, editors, bloggers and industry tastemakers will find your brand worthy of exposure? One of the fastest ways to blow it is by constantly blasting out press releases about every little event that happens within your organization.

Nobody likes spam emails, and media outlets are constantly inundated with requests for coverage. So if you’ve been issuing many press releases hoping to “stay on the radar” of press outlets but haven’t had any coverage, consider reducing your frequency and only issuing a release about the biggest, most important news items.

Keep the “New” in Newsworthy

Drafting a press release may feel like a lesser priority when you’re ramping up for a newsworthy event, but don’t put it off for too long. Any event could have the potential to bring new exposure to your business, but not if it happened 18 months ago.

Media outlets work on tight schedules and require a constant flow of new content to keep their readers engaged. It’s critical, therefore, that you only issue a press release about current stories or those coming in the very near future. Don’t jump too far down the road though or the public may forget about your event before it even happens. 

When in doubt, reach out to your target media outlets and ask them how much lead time they need and set your release date accordingly.

Think Outside the Office Walls

Within the culture of an organization, any little shakeup can feel like a seismic shift. It’s important to remember that most outsiders won’t pick up every nuance of your business the way that you do. To help decide if your event is truly newsworthy, keep an eye on news articles about your industry and community at large.

If you’re unsure whether your story is worthy of a news release, ask yourself if it will have implications for your industry outside of your office space. Could your story even transcend your industry on a cultural level? If you can confidently say yes to either of these questions, then it’s a safe bet your story is newsworthy and deserves a solid press release.

Craft Your Press Release for Maximum Impact

If your company has news like a game-changing new product, a venerated CEO retiring or a new mega-merger then you’ll need to tell the world. But having a newsworthy story isn’t enough. You also need to have a well-written press release.

A press release ultimately serves to make a journalist’s life easier by offering them a compelling story in a bite-sized chunk that they can run with. So if your press release is a long-winded, confusing mess then tear it up and start again. Because after all, your press release can only be newsworthy if writers are willing to make it into news.

Short, Fun and to the Point

One of the easiest ways to make your press release shine is by keeping things brief. A PR industry standard is that a press release should never be longer than one page. It should also follow a fairly specific template that’s common across industries. If your story is newsworthy, its impact will be self-evident and you won’t need thousands of words to get your point across.

To help keep things brief, avoid presenting too much background information about you and your firm outside of the standard boilerplate section. Include contact information like your website and phone number, but trust that readers will seek out more info about you if they need it. Also, avoid using too much technical language or industry jargon to tell your story. Most media outlets aim for at least some degree of diversity in their readership and they may be hesitant to pick up a story that’s too technical.

Brevity is not only important for your overall word length, but also for your writing style. Keep your sentence structures simple and easy to read by avoiding excessive superlatives and adjectives. Your company’s new product may be “amazing” and “groundbreaking” but if so, you only need to say it once. This kind of language can quickly expand your word count and make your news story feel oversold.

Instead of leaning on fluffy language to tell your story, consider including original data. There’s little that can prove how awesome you are like cold, hard numbers. If your business works with measurable metrics then get creative and look about how your impressive numbers tie in with a broader cultural story.

While it’s important to keep your press release tight and fast-reading, don’t be afraid to give it some character. Your story is unique and so is your organization, so let your singular voice shine through in your writing. Editors receive stacks of bone dry, cookie-cutter press releases every day and a dash of whit and genuine passion may push your release to the top of the pile. So have fun with it and enjoy the process of turning your passion into a newsworthy story.

Keep Your Headlines Above Water

The headlines in your press release are the first point of contact and it’s critical that you make them count. Headlines have an outsized responsibility because they have to convey critical information in your story and also hook the reader in the shortest length possible. The key here is to keep things simple.

If you can tell your entire story in a single line that’s also imbued with wit and personality, then, by all means, go ahead, but it’s more important to convey the critical information in a tidy package. That’s because Google search headings are limited to 70 characters and a partial heading can seem misleading or confusing to potential readers looking for your story. Keeping your titles short and sweet not only helps with search results but also brings the reader right to your point with immediate impact.

Find Your Target Audience

Once you have a well-crafted press release about a newsworthy story you’ll need to get it into the right hands. While your press release should ideally have relevance beyond your specific industry, it’s critically important that you contact media outlets that cover your specific niche.

Think Like A Journalist

When you start to send your press releases to news outlets, remember that they are businesses relying on top-shelf content to keep their readership engaged. Start by seeking out the publications that only tell stories like yours or create content about your industry. If your news has broader appeal then bigger outlets may pick up your story after it gets coverage on a smaller scale.

Bottom line – you want to craft a press release that a journalist or blogger could easily pick up and present to his or her audience.

ALSO – The Secret of Writing a Press Release that Actually Gets Read

It’s All About That Niche

Blogs, social media and digital magazines have a major influence on today’s media climate. Many of these smaller outlets have risen above the cacophony by narrowing their focus to a single niche. No matter the news you hope to share, there’s a good chance that a social media influencer or blogger could lend a trusted, credible voice to your story.

Dig deep to find the experts in your field who are active bloggers or social media users. If you can’t find any, contact outlets in adjacent niches and see if they can recommend anyone. Once you find the right niche outlets for your story, tailor your press release to each recipient and highlight the ways in which your story is relevant to their interests. Specificity is king and if you can find the right niche outlet to cover your story you may find a media ally that will stick with your brand for years to come.

Break Through the Noise

If you’ve got a great story to tell then a well-crafted press release could be the perfect tool to help bring that story to the world. With today’s frictionless media, it’s easier than ever to take a newsworthy story from a basement workshop to the global stage with the help of just a few passionate bloggers.

If you can honestly say that your story is newsworthy and you’re willing to keep your writing simple and compelling, then you may have all that you need to claim headlines within your niche and beyond. So roll up your sleeves, fire up your laptop, and crank out a press release that’s worthy of your unique story!

The post Moving the Needle: How to Make A Press Release Newsworthy appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

The same sentiment holds true when it comes to content marketing. Yes, Google and everyone else loves unique, creative and relevant content. But if you’re reinventing the wheel with every word by starting with a from-scratch editorial calendar, then you’re probably wasting time, burning out creative resources and falling behind the competition when it comes to publishing content.

Because here’s the not-at-all-secret tip that successful content marketers use to capture audience attention and drive SEO: You can reuse your old content to support new wins in SERPs and new traffic to your site or social profiles.

The Benefits of Content Repurposing

Regardless of the type of content you plan on reusing, this tactic has some benefits for SEO and your bottom line. Some reasons to repurpose your blog posts and other content include:

• Saving time and money. It’s often faster and easier to repurpose what you already have than it is to come up with something completely original. Plus, chances are if you’re reusing a landing page or article, you won’t have to rewrite the entire thing. That can save you money if you’re paying someone by the word.
• Expand your reach. You can take a blog post and split it up into dozens of different social posts, create an infographic or slide decks from it, use it to fill out content for email subscribers, or turn it into a short script for video content. The same idea now lets you engage target audiences across numerous channels.
• Get more ROI out of high-quality content. It takes a lot of effort to create high-value marketing collateral in the first place, and repurposing content lets you get more out of each piece.
• Keep up with a robust publishing schedule. Whether you’re trying to get out six Tweets a day or want content on your company blog three times a week, keeping up with the demands of an editorial calendar isn’t easy. Sliding your old content into the mix — albeit with a slight facelift — can help you keep content churning consistently without diminishing quality.

ALSO – 6 Content Marketing Tips That Ensure You’re Following Best Practices for 2019

How to Repurpose Content

When it comes to reusing content, you can do so in a number of ways. Here are some of the most popular methods for turning existing content into something new.

• Refresh an old post. This is akin to a minor renovation on a room. You’re not taking anything down to the studs, and a lot of the writing is going to remain intact. Instead, you replace all the stats and facts with the most updated information and add anything that’s relevant to today. You then republish the post with a more current date. This is a good method when you have content from years past that’s simply a bit out-of-date.
• Rewrite an old post. This is a bring-it-down-to-the-studs effort. Plumbing is getting ripped out, bathtubs replaced. Or, in the case of a post or article, you’re scrapping all the words and starting from fresh with only the topic and some of the talking points. Choose this method when you’re sure the concept of the content was on point, but it failed to drive SEO for some reason.
• Reuse existing content in different formats. You can take content you created in the past or today and expand its reach by converting it into different formats. Pull out quotes for social media, turn data into visuals or simply publish a shorter form of the content on a site like Medium to get more viewers. Use this method when you have strong content but your site isn’t yet getting the traffic you need on its own or you want to delve into multichannel marketing.

5 More Tips from Content Marketers About Content Repurposing

1. Plan Seasonal Content with the Future in Mind

Although BestCompany.com Content Manager Alice Stevens typically aims for evergreen content that stands the test of time, she knows that in-the-moment blog posts also perform well. But one-and-done work can be a form of waste in the content world, which is why she plans each piece of content with the future in mind.

“I do some seasonal content to capitalize on trends or events,” says Stevens. “There are some articles that are seasonal, like articles about health insurance open enrollment. When I write these articles, I plan to update and repurpose them as necessary for the following year.”

2. Use Analytics to Choose Which Content You Repurpose

Popular posts from the past can be made fresh again, but when you’re creating content, remember that the blog content that’s performing right now can also be repurposed to drive more traffic or engage different audience sectors.

Andrew Maff, Director of Marketing and Operations for Seller’s Choice, says his company doesn’t tend to consider whether existing content will be valuable again in the future. But they do look at their past content to see if they can use it again as different things trend.

“For example, when Rakuten, the largest eCommerce site in Japan, first started gaining popularity, we wrote about it on our blog,” says Maff. “A year or so later, when Rakuten was trending more and more on Google, we optimized that blog article for current SEO trends and are now a top listing for the topic.”

Hamna Amjad, a Content Marketing Executive with Gig Worker, adds, “You should consider recycling those pieces of content that have already done well with your audience. Those pieces of content that became very popular are likely high-quality and relevant to your audience and can be repurposed. Your focus should be on adding value to the original content.”

3. Present the Content in New Forms with Added Information

Amjad provides a few tips on how to add value to your existing content when you repurpose it. Some ideas Amjad provides for content repurposing include:

• Create infographics. “It’s been proven that audiences are attracted more by visual content rather than plain textual format,” says Amjad. “This format works really well if you have a lot of data in your content.”
• Develop podcasts around the content or content around podcasts. Amjad points out that “podcasts are the only passive way to consume information, so more people are hopping onto this trend. Podcast transcripts can easily be converted into blog posts and vice versa.”
• Create videos based on content. Video is highly engaging and often favored by younger audiences. Amjad notes that you can easily convert a blog post or article into a video script.

4. Combine Blog Content into Longer-Form Content

Go through popular blog posts and turn them into an eBook, or gather customer testimonials and data to create a case study. You can also convert information from popular posts into large Slideshare presentations that position you as a leader in the niche.

5. Rescue Mediocre Content and Give it New Life

“In my experience, content can be split into two categories when it comes to repurposing,” says Reece Cambron, search specialist at Lucid Agency. “The first is content that has been live on the site for a while but has never quite achieved the results you had hoped for. The second is new content that is designed to serve a specific short-term purpose. In both cases, a strategic repurposing of the content can yield an improvement in rankings and organic traffic.”

So, how does Cambron give unsuccessful existing content new life?

“As a best practice, I try to repurpose a few unsuccessful content pieces each month,” says Cambron. “These are typically blogs with useful information (not just internal news or press releases) that didn’t have the success I expected.” Cambron provides a step-by-step approach for positioning this lackluster content for better SEO success.

• Start by conducting additional keyword research around the topic to see how search volume or intent may have changed since the piece was originally written
• Rework the content to optimize for these phrases.
• Adjust the metadata, H tags, and even the URL if necessary to ensure the blog is transformed into a new, better version of itself.

ALSO – 6 Situations Where Content Rewriting Can Help Your Marketing

Need Help Repurposing Your Content?

Whether you simply can’t keep up with the publishing schedule that works for your company or you need a fresh pair of eyes to figure out how to make your content shine, freelancer writers can be an invaluable resource. Check out all the ways Crowd Content freelance content writers can help you get more out of existing content.

The post Content Repurposing: How to Make the Old New to Drive SEO appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Writers skilled at business-to-business communications will take your instructions, consider your objectives, and come back with powerful landing pages, white papers, and articles aligned with your business goals. B2B copywriters — both in-house and outsourced — are an integral part of your marketing strategy.So, how do you recognize these skilled wordsmiths? We’ve put together a guide based on our experience working with freelance professionals and advice from marketers who tell us what they look for when hiring writers. Once you have capable business copywriters on your side, you can improve your SEO rankings, drive organic traffic, and more importantly, convert your leads.

The Nuances of B2B Copywriting

First, let’s look at what you need your B2B writing partner to accomplish. According to research from Gartner, when B2B buying groups consider a purchase, they spend 27% of their time researching online. This means your messaging has to be on point to capture these leads when they’re searching for information.

Having highly effective B2B marketing content positions you as a leader in your industry. It connects you with decision-makers and establishes you as the expert who can solve their business problems and simplify their processes. When integrated into your content marketing strategies, top-performing B2B copy also:

• Explains your products and services in a way that positions you as a leading brand, not simply another solution
• Enables you to share expertise and insights, not just information
• Helps you build trust and an authentic connection with your audience
• Engages readers and draws them into your marketing funnel, leading to conversions

This may be why one-third of the most effective B2B marketing teams spend 50% or more of their marketing budgets on content marketing. With smart, results-driven copy, businesses are much more likely to partner with your brand.

Here’s What an Accomplished B2B Copywriter Looks Like

We’ve come across more than a few copywriters in our line of work, and we can confidently say this: Writing to a business audience is immensely different from creating content that speaks to consumers. Writers who can craft snappy social posts might struggle to translate technical information into product guides (and vice versa, of course). Those who can create attention-grabbing press releases might fall short with e-book content.

So, what should you look for when hiring a writer? We’ve listed some qualities that the best business-to-business copywriters have in common. We also asked marketers who hire writers for insights on what makes a skilled copywriter. 

1. They’ve built a strong track record

A B2B copywriter knows how to market to businesses. Unlike consumers whose decisions can be driven by emotions, B2B buyers need informative copy about how a product impacts workflow, adds value, and helps the bottom line. B2B writers are comfortable with the precise requirements of business writing and can create solutions-oriented content.

“When I’m assessing a B2B copywriter, I’m looking for someone who absolutely understands the difference between B2B and B2C,” says Nextiva CMO Yaniv Masjedi. “A savvy copywriter understands web design and can tailor their words and character count to the space they have allotted. If the writer is sending an email, they know how to maximize open rates; if they are writing landing page copy, they take into account the accompanying graphics, etc.”

Crowd Content tip: When hiring a B2B copywriter, focus on professionals with experience creating case studies, white papers, product pages, and testimonials. If you’re evaluating a portfolio filled with copy marketed to consumers, you may want to keep looking.

2. They adapt to your needs

Any freelance writer who produces copy for different brands needs to adjust their tone and voice appropriately. But smart B2B writers take their writing far beyond grammar rules and style guides. They absorb insights relative to your niche, increasing their knowledge as they write. This desire to pick up new concepts and skills helps them mold and adjust their writing to fit your business’ needs.

As Clare Bittourna, a marketing designer for Codal, puts it, “When we hire B2B copywriters, we’re looking for fast learners, ones that can quickly adapt to a company’s existing voice, tone, and style to produce copy that’s aligned with it.”

Crowd Content tip: Look for writers who assimilate your guidance and perspectives in their writing. If you find one who doesn’t require lengthy explanations for complex topics and asks intelligent, pointed questions about your brand, you’re on the right track.

3. They’re willing to get it right

Any writer you hire needs to craft clear, concise prose that resonates with readers. But the best B2B writer also listens to and communicates with you to deliver what you need, which prevents misunderstandings and confusion.

According to Bittourna, this often takes the form of a rapid feedback process to get writers up to speed. Her content creators need to receive, internalize, and respond to editorial feedback efficiently and positively. 

“We’ve had a lot of success incorporating a rapid feedback process with our copywriters,” says Bittourna. “Instead of writing an entire site or white paper and then passing it to upper management for review, we have the writer quickly draft and send over more fundamental core concepts — like hero text or above-the-fold copy — and adjust or approve it before the bulk of the writing is started. By approving these foundational pieces, we reinforce the tone for the rest of the site’s copy early on and give the writer solid touchstones to lean on moving forward.”

Crowd Content tip: There’s always a learning curve when you bring in new writers, but the ones that excel build on their experience. You should see progress in each piece of content as writers absorb the intricacies of your niche and brand and translate them appropriately.

4. They’re experts in your niche

In every profession and industry, expertise comes at a price. The best B2B writers have positioned themselves in a specific niche and often have years of hands-on experience in your brand’s industry. They’ll be able to delve deeper into topics and create valuable, top-notch content that helps you meet Google’s most recent helpful content update.

While companies with tighter marketing budgets may have to settle for writers with less experience, it’s important to keep in mind that quality is much better than quantity for B2B marketing copywriting. Masjedi points out, “If they have a background in the business they are targeting, they’re going to land higher conversion rates.”

Crowd Content tip: Try to find experienced B2B writers with professional industry experience on their resumes. If your business has to go with a writer without experience, consider using subject matter experts who can review the accuracy of your content and ensure it meets E-E-A-T guidelines for ranking well.

5. They have sharp research skills

Writing for B2B audiences demands a particular skill set that consumer writing doesn’t need. Business readers are savvy — they can spot an imposter in a heartbeat. And while B2B copywriters are often domain professionals, they should still stay abreast of what’s happening in your industry. As such, they need to possess superb research skills so their content isn’t outdated when published.

Bittourna says, “We’ve also found the most successful copywriters are voracious readers and researchers — nobody’s an expert on everything, but writing in a B2B space means familiarizing yourself with a specific industry or market space quickly, even picking up the jargon if necessary.”

Crowd Content tip: Ask potential writers what resources they use to bolster their industry knowledge. If they mention industry-specific journals and sources regarded as trusted authorities in your industry, their research skills are probably keen.

Where to Find Proven B2B Copywriters

We’ve set the bar pretty high for your B2B content, but the truth is, it takes a copywriting maestro to help your business shine in a highly competitive market. It’s not worth the effort to publish substandard content — search engines will overlook it, and it will reflect poorly on your brand.

There are a few ways to find business copywriters. You can post job ads, search on Google, and browse LinkedIn. This can be time-consuming, however, as you have to sift through applications and assess writing samples to find a writer that knows their craft and your industry. For some businesses, it can take months to find the perfect fit.

Crowd Content’s professional writing service accelerates the process. We have an active pool of freelance writers from a variety of backgrounds. They’re all prescreened based on their writing skills, creativity, and ability to follow instructions. Outsourcing writing can be cost-effective, especially if your content needs to fluctuate or you want to scale.

There are two ways to tap into our B2B copywriting services.

Crowd Content Marketplace

Our Marketplace is a self-serve option. Request content when you need it, specifying requirements such as word count, keywords, voice, and tone. Some clients provide a full outline, while others let the writer choose the article’s structure, but for best results when outsourcing, provide writers with as much detail as you can. 

You can place and receive content orders through a simple online interface and communicate directly with your freelancers to answer their questions and ensure content meets your needs. Our Marketplace can also be tailored to your processes:

• Place your order to a wide pool of talent or build a team with your preferred writers.
• Order content occasionally, according to your needs, or scale up production with a bulk order.
• Publish content easily through WordPress, Shopify, and BigCommerce.
• Reach out to your dedicated account manager for help or questions.

Crowd Content Managed Services

If you prefer to hand the details of content creation to us, simply let us know your requirements. Our Managed Services team will organize project briefs to your specifications, assemble a qualified team of B2B copywriters, monitor for quality, and send you content that’s ready to publish.

We’ve built in quality assurance from the beginning. To ensure you get the content you need, start with test batches. Think of it as fine-tuning the content creation process and checking that you’re getting the right voice, tone, and messaging before scaling. Throughout production, we incorporate feedback and adjust the process, making sure your B2B content is ready for distribution so you can start generating and converting leads.

Give Your B2B Content Strategy a Lift

Exceptional B2B copywriters may seem elusive, but Crowd Content can help connect you to them. With hundreds of experienced writers across virtually every industry, our platform can invigorate your business marketing and establish your brand as an authority in your domain. Get in touch with us today to get started.

The post How to Find a High-Performing B2B Copywriter That Drives Results appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Learning how press releases support your content marketing strategy can help you get more bang for your buck out of every blog, social post and white paper, and that’s something worth talking about.

AlSO – Find out how to hire the web’s best press release writers

Combining PR and Marketing

Whether you’re a new startup, a global Fortune 500 company or something in between, press releases will work for you on some level because they revolve around a story. And everyone has a story.

While it’s true that journalists are still probably going to pay more attention to big companies than small ones, a great press release (built around an equally great story) can help you gain traction as journalists pick up your release and pass it on. And that’s an important point — though you’ll see press releases pulling double duty in your online newsroom or as extra collateral for your social media pages (more on that in a moment), your primary audience is still journalists rather than end users. Keeping that in mind as you create and distribute could go a long way toward helping you shape content that resonates with the people who have the power to pass on your news.

But how does PR support content marketing? Skilled PR teams and professionals craft press releases that they distribute to journalists, journalists and bloggers that they can use as inspiration to write articles about.

As you’re designing your next marketing program, consider if you could build in a PR campaign to support it. If you’re able to get your story picked up by journalists in significant and industry relevant publications, that can get a lot more eyes on your content as well as some powerful backlinks.

You can create press releases with a customer-centric bent and use it to tell a tale your audience wants to hear:

• Announce your newest celebrity endorsement or an appearance by a local sports star
• Discuss how your upcoming fundraiser will benefit neighborhood initiatives
• Share why your small business block party is going to be kid-friendly
• Highlight what problems your new ebook will help solve

Use Press Releases to Support Your Content Strategy Via an Online Newsroom

As the owner of Redhead Marketing & PR, Hilary Reiter has a plethora of experience in both content marketing and public relations. She advises clients to include press releases in the newsroom of their website as “this helps them keep their content fresh to enhance organic SEO.”

Combine those PRs with in-house announcements, messages from the founder and other time-sensitive tidbits, and you’ll maintain a steady flow of information without being repetitive or sacrificing cohesion.

In addition to keeping your site’s content fresh, a newsroom adds a sense of legitimacy to any company’s site which can help build trust with your audience.

Press Releases Can Help Drive Traffic

Reiter’s multipronged approach to press releases also includes a dash of social media strategy. After all, your content is useless if nobody’s reading it, and with two-thirds of adults on Facebook, most on a daily basis, social platforms are an invaluable resource for anyone hoping to build readership.

“We advise them to link their press releases from social media to drive traffic to the site,” says Reiter. “Distributing press releases to media to get 3rd party coverage and credibility results in greater awareness as well as referral links that drive traffic to your website.”

ALSO – How Social Media Impacts Your SEO in 2019

Keri Lindenmuth, marketing manager at KDG, uses weekly press releases to fuel his company’s content marketing strategy and stay ahead of the competition. “To find a topic for our press release, we first look at our keyword rankings. If there is a keyword that seems to be struggling or a keyword that our competitors are catching up on, we’ll put out a press release concentrating on that keyword and link back to our website.”

Follow Keri’s advice and you’ll usually garner the added benefit of publications writing about that keyword and linking back to your site which can help rankings even further with powerful contextual backlinks.

ALSO – 5 Tips for Optimizing Your Press Release

Establish and Expand Your Authority

Most content creators have two primary goals: creating pieces that are SEO-driven and those that capitalize on thought leadership. The value of SEO is indisputable, but thought leadership is far more underutilized. By becoming an authority in your field, you insert yourself into the public conscious as the go-to source for industry trends, new ideas, and interesting takes on existing concepts. People build entire businesses on the back of their authority, and according to Michelle Calcote King, founder of PR and content marketing agency Reputation Ink, press releases can help get the word out in a big way.

“If [the content] is thought leadership-driven,” says Calcote King, “the press release can announce important content pieces that you want your target audience to be aware of (i.e. announcing an e-book, research report, etc.). The fact that you’ve created a resource for your audience can be news. You can also announce speeches, industry involvement, etc. — anything that will build a reputation for being a thought leader in your space.”

Anyone can hold a seminar on personal finance or self-publish a book on flipping houses, but only someone with a sound content marketing strategy that incorporates press releases will get maximum exposure when time in the spotlight matters most.

Getting Your Press Releases to Journalists and Influencers

Once you get the hang of writing press releases, you have to know where to send them. You can distribute the PRs yourself via social media, as part of your email marketing plan (a great way to flesh out your newsletters), or on your website, or you can hire a professional press release company. Many PR pros build media contact lists as well, and pitch those contacts to write stories about their latest press release (often offering early access to the press release to help them get a jump on competing publications).

News wire distribution agencies know which publications are best suited for the topic at hand and they likely have relationships and contacts you don’t.

Reiter recommends services such as PRWeb to help boost online visibility while minimizing the burden on your in-house resources. Lindenmuth favors multiple distribution points. “EINPresswire is a paid platform, but it is perhaps the best for building backlinks across the web. It submits your press release to hundreds of news outlets. PRLog is a free service that also lets you include links back to your website. Using both sites together, and distributing a press release weekly, ensures that fresh, new content about your site is always on the web, which does wonders for SEO.”

Distributing press releases is a specialty job, and sometimes it’s best to have specialty help.

As with most things in marketing, writing content alone won’t guarantee success. By using press releases to support your overall content marketing strategy, you help your brand gain visibility, build authority, improve search rankings and reach journalists who act as your conduit to a new, larger audience. Focus on careful integration and look at your press releases from the audience’s point of view and you may soon see just how relevant PRs continue to be.

Need help mastering the art of the press release? Hire a professional press release writer and get your story the attention it deserves.

The post How Can PR Support Your Content Marketing Strategy? appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Decoding the Length Myth: Quality Over Quantity

While long content peppered with detailed anecdotes and long-tail keywords can engage readers and please search engines, it’s the substance — not the length — that truly matters. Google values content that fully addresses user queries, acting as a comprehensive resource. Yet, length for the sake of length — filling pages with fluff rather than valuable insights — won’t fool Google’s discerning algorithms. The goal is to create content that directly answers readers’ questions, while avoiding unnecessary tangents. As you aim for SEO success, focus on creating meaningful content that informs and satisfies, rather than on merely extending word counts. 

A Quick Overview of Current Conventional Wisdom on Word Counts

Recent studies indicate that content length matters to Google. According to Yoast, cornerstone pages perform best with over 900 words, but even taxonomy pages should have at least 250 words to maximize rankability.

It’s not just about pure rankings, either. Content with 1,000+ words attracts backlinks from twice the number of referring domains as 400-word content, according to backlink data from Ahrefs. Neil Patel also found that pages with more than 1,500 words receive up to twice the number of Twitter shares.

These findings shape conventional SEO wisdom asserting that longer content is typically better, and most sites such as BuzzSumo, Medium, and CoSchedule, call for content between 1,500 and 2,400 words to optimize performance in Google.

Still, there’s some nuance to content length. Neil Patel points out that different content lengths perform better in various industries, and SEMRush reminds content creators that quality is more important than length. However, as a general guideline, research from Hook Agency pinpoints 1,760 to 2,400 words as optimal.

What’s Google’s Stance on Content Length for SEO?

Google doesn’t like to give too much away regarding how its algorithms work and what might give you a leg up against the competition. However, John Mueller, head of Search Relations at Google, has repeatedly stated that content length isn’t a ranking factor.

Instead, Google looks for authority and overall content quality. Longer content often meets those criteria because it offers more value to users by thoroughly covering the subject matter.

So, what factors do equate to quality in the eyes of Google? Your content should:

• Approach the topic in an original way
• Provide a complete resource to answer all questions surrounding the topic
• Offer a unique analysis of available information
• Avoid using clickbait to attract users
• Flow well and be free of glaring spelling or grammar issues

Google also recommends looking for ways to highlight your expertise during content planning and creation:

• Build overall website and business credibility
• Present information using evidence and appropriate sourcing to improve trust
• Highlight the skills and knowledge of your authors so readers know where the information is coming from
• Double-check everything for factual accuracy

Finally, everything about the content should be oriented toward real people rather than search engines. This means content should be reader-friendly and should answer the questions it promises to answer.

While SEO is important to a page’s success, you must ensure that people don’t leave your page to look for more or better information elsewhere.

Why These Benchmarks Aren’t the Be-All, End-All

Most SEO experts will tell you not to take their numbers as gospel. Yes, research is important, and you should always understand what trends affect content marketing and your industry in general. But you don’t write content in a vacuum made solely of word counts; you write content for actual users — the people whose needs, preferences, and feedback shape its success.

You also have to consider the topic, the time available to create the content, and your budget, as these can all impact content length.

Google won’t rank your content higher for using 1,000 words to say what others say in 100 words. 

Ultimately, you don’t need to write every piece of content according to some benchmark. CoSchedule notes that content that comes in around 2,500 words tends to perform best in the search engines — but that doesn’t mean every page or piece has to be 2,500 words. For example:

• A product description for a white cotton T-shirt should not be that long.
• A blog about how to wash a white cotton T-shirt will be full of unnecessary fluff if you try to get it to 2,500 words.
• A buying guide that discusses all the varieties of white cotton T-shirts and how to find the right one for you could, however, reach 2,500 words without being full of superfluous content.

Padded Content Doesn’t Do You Any SEO Favors

But if 1,500, 2,000, or 2,500 words is the range  for optimal SEO performance, why can’t you make your basic T-shirt description that long?

It’s true. Most writers can meet the word count quota on any type of content by  including irrelevant information, repeating exact phrases and statements, and saying everything in the longest way possible.

We like to refer to this as “peanut butter writing,” illustrated in the following example: “I love peanut butter sandwiches because peanut butter sandwiches have a lot of peanut butter in the sandwich.”

That’s 18 words giving you five words of information and no additional value. Here’s why peanut butter writing should be avoided:

• People don’t appreciate it. Online searchers are busy and don’t want to parse through fluff to find the information they want. 
• It reduces the authority of your brand. That means people are less likely to return to your site, share your content, or link to it.
• Users can only handle so much. Even if someone makes it through one PB writing article on your site, they probably won’t return. This means less traffic flowing to your site.
• Fluffy writing isn’t as strong. Concise writing converts better because it gets straight to the point and avoids confusion.

In short, too much fluff can negatively affect the time people spend on your pages and the bounce rate. Consequently, people will be less likely link to your content, . hindering your site’s growth potential.

ALSO – Copywriting for SEO

Choosing the Right Word Count

If you’re not sure how to choose the right word count, you’re not alone. 

Here are some tips for identifying the correct word count for every project.

Consider the topic and outline

Start by sketching out a simple outline, assigning each component a word count, and adding it to get a total. For example:

• Blog post: How to Buy a Book for a Child in Your Life
• Introduction – 50 words
• Seven tips – 700 words (100 words each)

• Find out what reading level they are
• Discover some of their interests
• Choose nonfiction or fiction
• Choose whether you’ll buy online or in the store
• Talk to bookstore employees for recommendations
• Buy something from an author or series they already read
• Consider the parents or guardians when you buy picture books
• FAQ section with three questions – 300 words

• What are reading levels, and how do they work?
• How can you learn more about kids’ books on Goodreads?
• How much stock should you put in Amazon reviews?

• Conclusion and call to action – 75 words
• Total word count: 1,125

An outline helps you determine the right number of words, but it also keeps the writer on the appropriate path and away from padding.

Need help coming up with a topic? Ideation 101: How to Develop Strong Article Themes That Work

Complete competitive benchmarking for your industry

There are industry benchmarks for content length. It makes sense that a blog in the tech industry should look different from one in the medical or fashion fields, and these numbers can be a good starting point. 

But consider conducting benchmark research to help you understand the type and length of content performing in your niche. Tools like MarketMuse and SEMRush Content Templates can help you see how your content measures up against the competition, build strong outlines, and develop winning SEO ideas.

These tools look at the content currently ranking in the top 10 results on Google for the term you’re targeting and tell you how long your content should be to outperform the ranking content. In most cases, creating longer content than your competitors should be a priority for you.

The tools also disclose what topics your competitors’ content covers and suggests what topics to include in your content — one aspect of effective content gap analysis. In most cases, the top 10 results don’t cover all topics, so if you do, your content should outperform the others.

Here’s an example of what a report for the term “peanut butter sandwiches” looks like:

You’ll see a list of semantically related words (topics) you want to explore in your article. Build these into your outline so you naturally discuss them.

You’ll also see it recommends a word count of 651 words or more.

In most cases, the recommended topics are semantically linked to your main topic, so covering them as subtopics should add value for your readers. This is a great way to increase your word count without adding fluff.

Also, there’s a lot of evidence indicating that Google ranks semantically complete content well, as it delivers a high topic relevance. It’s one of the best ways to meet the expertise and authority demands of Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines.

While the tools mentioned above can help you identify ideal keywords, you can also use solutions like LSIgraph to find these related topics.

Consider the type of content page you’re building

The type of page you’re creating tends to dictate length, so that’s another benchmark to consider. Again, you should  conduct your own research and testing. Listed below are the ideal lengths for each type of content:

• Blog posts: 1,000 to 1,500 words. Ensure the outline and topic are appropriate for the word count.
• Pillar pages: 3,000+ words. Hook Agency’s research shows continuing improvements in traffic and social shares up to 7,000+ words, but you won’t see this success from topics where there simply isn’t much to discuss.
• City (or local) pages: 300 to 800 words. Ensure each page targets local SEO accordingly and offers a unique take to avoid duplicate content.
• Landing pages: 400 to 1,000. Again, the word count depends on the topic you’re covering.
• Guides: 1,500 to 2,500 words. Google rewards guides that explain how to do things in detail. You should also look for opportunities to include experience and expertise in this type of content. Create how-to guides that fit your company’s practical skill set.
• Product descriptions: 50 to 300 words. Only the most complex or unique products, such as computers, need the higher end of the word count.
• Press releases: 400 to 700 words. Keep press releases short to ensure journalists can digest your message quickly and easily.

Remember, these benchmarks for SEO content length are simply guidelines. If you’re struggling to meet these word counts, it could mean you should drop the word count or reassess how you approach your topic.

Conversely, the opposite is also true. More words are better if they help paint a more comprehensive picture of the topic without boring readers.

Does User Intent Affect Optimal Content Length?

User intent — the information a user expects to find when searching for a specific keyword — affects optimal content length. 

For example, someone searching the term “how to build a computer” will want a comprehensive resource that discusses the process at a high level while also explaining how to choose and install individual parts.

However, someone searching the term “buy running shoes” won’t typically want much information because they’re ready to purchase a product. You won’t necessarily benefit from a 2,000-word product page in this case.

Another aspect of search intent is specificity. Some search terms have a narrower scope, and your content needs to go in-depth on the topics. Longer content naturally targets more open-ended keywords, such as “nutritional benefits of apples,” whereas searchers will want quick answers for a term like “capital of Italy.” 

Get the best of both worlds by offering concise featured snippet answers within your longer-form content, targeting narrower keywords.

TL;DR: There’s No Easy Answer

Choosing the right word count comes down to knowing what your audience wants and providing exceptional value. If you’re struggling with either of these, book a consultation call with our content strategy service. Our experienced strategists will utilize their industry knowledge to iron out the wrinkles in your SEO content.

The post How to Determine Optimal Content Length for SEO appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

That’s what happened in March 2019 when Google released its March Core Algorithm update. While SEOs are still debating exactly what changes that update made (which is tough to identify, as Google describes the changes as not targeting specific tactics), evidence is showing that sites following E-A-T guidelines benefited most.

E-A-T content was definitely important to the Medic Update that happened in late 2018 (named the Medic Update since it hit online health brands the hardest). Out of the ashes of that update, Google offered advice about creating great content (E-A-T content) that might fare better against future updates.

What Is E-A-T Content?

E-A-T content is something Google talked about in a white paper that supports their comments on the Medic Update. It explains how Google measures the quality of each page — and we know that quality is a critical factor in ranking.

According to Google, three factors play a major role in quality determinations:

• Expertise
• Authoritativeness
• Trustworthiness

Expertise refers to whether the site owner (or the author) is knowledgeable about the subject at hand. There’s a difference, for example, between a licensed RN with 15 years in the business and a high-quality LinkedIn page writing health content and a random author without any credentials doing so.

Authoritativeness refers to the credibility of the website. Is it long-standing? Do other credible sites link to or reference it?

Trustworthiness refers to whether the website inspires trust. Is it known for high-quality, accurate content? Again, do others reference or link to it?

How Do You Create E-A-T-friendly Content?

Consistently producing high-quality, relevant SEO content that’s accurate goes a long way toward having content that keeps the principles of E-A-T in mind, but marketers can take it a step further with a few of the tips below:

• Make use of bio and about pages. If you have the expertise, don’t let it go unsaid. Create bio pages and bylines for blog posts and articles your staff or freelancers write, and include specifics that position the authors as experts or influencers in the niche. Do the same on your about pages for the company as a whole and its leadership. Consider your entire team; if you have experts on staff, talk about them online.
• Regularly audit content performance. A blog post you published last year that hasn’t gained any views or traction may be dragging your entire site down when it comes to E-A-T. Don’t be afraid to purge some of your poorest-performing content to right the ship.
• Up the ante on your backlinking game. Sure, link building and old school black hat SEO tactics don’t push you up the search engine pages anymore, but links are still important. They help establish your credibility and authority. Study new linking tactics to score some support for your pages.
• Work with writers who can deliver authoritative content. You don’t have to write all your own content to stay authoritative in the niche, but do vet your freelancers and writing teams to ensure you’re working with people who understand your industry and can write high-quality content.

ALSO– How You Can Find a Great Content Writer Who Has Niche Expertise

Long-Term Benefits of E-A-T-friendly Content

Creating content with E-A-T in mind does seem to help pages rank better on their own, but it also has a variety of knock-on effects that can strengthen your content now and in the future. Here are three ways E-A-T content can be good for traffic, page performance and search engine rankings:

1. Boost Behavior Metrics

The type of content that passes muster under Google’s E-A-T requirements is also the type of content visitors are likely to spend time engaging with. When users trust the content you provide and perceive that it’s high quality and authoritative, they’re more likely to read the entire article or follow internal linking to other pages on your site.

That improves behavioral metrics, such as increased time on page and decreased bounce rates. Those in turn drive up your RankBrain score, which is a factor in search engine ranking.

2. Increased Links and Social Shares

True E-A-T content is more likely to impress and resonate with readers, and that leads to more social shares and links. This is fantastic news in its own right, because that means more people are likely to connect with your brand online. But it’s also good news for search engine rankings, because links enforce credibility.

3. Inclusions in Featured Snippets

Finally, E-A-T content that impresses Google is more likely to be included in featured snippets. These are concise answers to specific queries that Google pulls from various pages; the site with the featured snippet gets prime placement on top of the organic search results — and often on top of paid, map or local pack results.

Check out the image below for an example of a featured snippet. The query was about types of screwdrivers, and Google pulled a short answer from Primer Magazine. You’ll notice that the site answers the question in a few short sentences and even includes an image.

It’s also important that you consider what type of featured snippet Google would show for the keywords you’re targeting, and you should structure your content to match.

In the case above, that means posing a question and an image (and alt-image attribute) or subhead and then answering the question in around 25 to 50 words. You can also provide a structured list to answer the question. Adding schema markup to your page may also help you get placed into the snippet section.

You don’t have to limit your own page content to those 25 to 50 words; in fact, it would be disastrous to do so. Continue on providing E-A-T-quality content for the rest of the page, addressing other elements of the topic or expounding on the information in the short answer. After all, longer content also performs well in the search engines.

Our Crash Course on Becoming an SEO Content Writer dives into why you should care about featured snippets.

The Final World on E-A-T

This is nothing ground-breaking. Search marketers have known for a long time now that quality is a critical component of success in the search engines. But Google’s provided us with a more detailed breakdown of what it considers quality, and by sculpting your pages to match E-A-T requirements, you can help safeguard them against future algorithm updates.

The post How Creating Content With E-A-T In Mind Can Help Future-Proof Your Site Against Algorithm Changes appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Why?

Because the sheer amount of writing now required for even small and midsize businesses makes this impossible to avoid: Any content created for organizations should be subject to proofreading at a bare minimum and more thorough editing at best. But, that doesn’t always happen.

For many companies, however, a more specific pain point has emerged: Technical writing. Engineering firms, software development companies, medical organizations and manufacturing enterprises must transform complex concepts into actionable, easy-to-read insights. For many, it’s hard to strike a balance in-house — how do they retain core concepts without frustrating their audience? How do they ensure simplicity without compromising specificity?

The solution? Hire a technical writer. But what makes a great technical writer? What skills are must-haves for businesses to get the biggest return on their writing investment?

Technical Writing at a Glance?

Technical writing is the ability to simplify complex concepts for a specific audience. Great technical writing does more than just get the message across — it helps engage readers and motivate them to learn more about a subject.

Given the increasing complexity of business operations and the quickly-expanding role of technology in day-to-day business processes, highly-skilled technical writers are now in demand. As noted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the market for technical writing is forecast to grow at 11 percent per year — faster than average in comparison to the job market at large.

It makes sense: As companies look for ways to deliver engaging content that both demystifies complex topics and resonates with readers, they’re on the hunt for technical writers capable of quickly delivering top-tier content on-demand.

While any company could find themselves in need of a technical writer, organizations involved in IT, manufacturing, engineering or medical sciences are often tasked with converting nuanced and detailed concepts into clear and concise prose. This could take the form of user manuals, eBooks, specification sheets, technical product documentation or even press releases.

Top 10 Business Must-Haves

As the job market grows, both business demand and the technical writing labor force will increase.

The result?

Evaluation becomes critical: What separates one writer from another? What skills and talents make them the best-fit for your business? What assurances do you have that their work will be completed on-time and require minimal revision?

Here’s a look at the top 10 must-have skills for your next technical writer.

1) Content Clarity

The top skill for any technical writer? Producing content that’s easily readable, engaging and logically segmented to draw reader interest. This is no simple task — many experts in your company have vast technical knowledge but lack the ability to clearly communicate what they know to anyone who doesn’t share their skill set.

Best bet? Before bringing on a technical writer, ask them to create a small set of trial content based on information you provide.

2) Audience Awareness

Not all technical writing targets the same audience.

Consider a user manual. For front-line staff members, actionable and simplified use cases are ideal — they need to understand how the service works and what to do if they encounter common issues. For more tech-savvy management staff, this same manual requires greater depth and complexity; a stand out technical writer can speak to both audiences with equal facility.

ALSO – Find Your Target Audience With This 4 Step Formula

3) Brand Alignment

Your brand has a mission. Key values. Value propositions. And while technical writing is often used to create internal documentation for a product or service, brand alignment is critical to ensure users, managers and stakeholders alike recognize can identify a cohesive brand narrative. In the same way software developers consult with IT teams to understand their needs, technical writers should ensure all content meets brand expectations.

4) Professional Planning

Creating great technical documentation requires great planning. The result? Businesses need writers capable of creating content plans and carrying through on expectations to meet specific deadlines. While this can be difficult to evaluate in face-to-face meetings or via email, it’s worth asking prospective writers for references that can verify both timeliness and attention to detail.

ALSO – The Struggles With Content Planning and How to Overcome Them

5) Corporate Communication

A great technical writer also has the soft skills to go beyond the keyboard and easily interact with SMEs (subject matter experts). Why? Because these SMEs are the critical link between products and services that require documentation and content that clearly articulates requirements, expectations and context.

Simply put? Great writers aren’t enough: You also need great technical communicators.

6) Superior Sourcing

From creating user experience documents to product guides and technical checklists, sourcing is critical for above-average content. Great technical writers need the ability to combine provided sources with relevant outside information to produce documents that can be adjusted to serve multiple end users.

7) Concept Conversion

Many companies recognize the need for good technical writing but aren’t sure how to effectively translate business concepts into readable content. Great writers do more than simply write to the brief their given — they’re able to take abstract concepts, ground them in conversational language and create relatable work that doesn’t lose its technical impact.

8) Education (or Experience)

Writing skill sets vary considerably, making it difficult to directly compare technical content creators. A degree in communications is often a good indicator of technical writing skills, but it’s also worth looking for more specific training such as Bachelor’s or Master’s degrees in computer science or engineering. Experience is also critical. Writers with years of experience and extensive client lists are often in high demand for a reason.

Depending on your industry, finding someone with demonstrable industry training and experience could prove a huge asset. Technical writers tasked with writing documentation for programming languages, for instance, benefit tremendously if they have a background in software engineering.

9) Web Savvy (or Willingness to Learn)

Web skills are great add-ons for technical writers, such as the ability to use and modify HTML documents, interact with CMS tools or leverage CSS. If these skills are a must-have but experience is lacking, look for established technical writers with a willingness to learn.

10) Adaptive Aesthetics

Great content that looks terrible won’t engage users or drive uptake. In addition to their “core” writing skills, technical writers should also have the ability to visually assess technical documents and make adjustments as required. This includes everything from breaking up long paragraphs for better readability to including bulleted lists that provide actionable takeaways.

Note – this doesn’t mean that technical writers need to be designers. It means they should write their content in a way that isn’t going to drive the designer crazy.

The Write Stuff

Technical writing is now a must-have for companies of all sizes and industry verticals. But not all writers offer the same ROI — start with our top 10 must-find list to make sure the writer you hire can produce the content you need.

The post What Makes a Good Technical Writer? appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

You need a writer who can convey the best aspects of your product or service to consumers and convince them to buy in; numbers and data work, but only if they’re buoyed by emotion. People want a reason to stop scrolling by and tricking them into clicking through to a web-based snoozefest just isn’t going to cut it.

With so much at stake, it makes sense to hire a freelance copywriter to write your landing page copy, but outsourcing comes with its own unique set of key considerations. Follow these tips for making the most of landing page copywriting services and see what high-converting landing pages can truly do.

ALSO – What is Copywriting and What Are Its Best Practices?

1. Hire the Right Person for Your Landing Page Copywriting Job

Many business owners aren’t aware that copywriting and content writing are different.

Copywriters specialize in creating copy closely tied to sales — think ads, landing pages, websites, billboards, brochures and product descriptions — while content writers lean more toward informative writing and storytelling, creating blogs, press releases, white papers, books and so on. Hiring a copywriter who excels at landing pages is a crucial part of properly shaping and sharing your brand’s message and reaching your goals.

ALSO – Do You Need a Copywriter or a Content Writer?

2. Double-Check Whether Your Writer Knows Their Limits

No, I’m not talking about pushing your contractor to eat three squares a day and get decent shut-eye. Some forms of content come with restrictions. Violate them, and the content could be less effective or even unusable. Landing pages often rely on templates that have fixed lengths for text — does your copywriter know what those limits are, and can they write fluid, compelling content that fits?

Crowd Content lets users build templates that dictate how long each content element can be (either by word or character count), keeping writers on task and ensuring everyone is on the same page.

3. Be Crystal Clear About Your Offer

Writers who work in the dark rarely submit picture-perfect content. It’s difficult if not impossible to create a high-converting landing page if you don’t understand what the page is supposed to do. Tell your writer:

• Where the landing page fits in the funnel
• What the purpose of the landing page is
• Where the user is at in the buyer journey

Paint a vivid version of the big picture and your writer will be better equipped to craft any landing page that helps you accomplish your goals.

4. Know Where Your Page’s Traffic Will Be Coming From

…and share that information with your copywriter. Landing pages should be relevant to the buyer journey, and that means continuing a conversation that started elsewhere. Whether the buyer clicked on a Facebook post or a paid ad or an affiliate link, they’re already mid-conversation and it’s up to the writer to create a landing page that’s consistent.

Remember, ad platforms also rate your page’s user relevancy—Google Ad’s Quality Score and Facebook’s ever-changing ad algorithm have the ability to scan your landing page and decide whether it’s in line with the content used to send consumers there. At the very least, you need to give your writer info on which audience is being targeted, and a set of keywords would be helpful too.

ALSO – Copywriting For SEO

5. Give Your Writer the Gift of Social Proof

Social proof is kind of like the modern, more positive version of peer pressure. Every time you look at a restaurant’s Yelp reviews before making a reservation or buy into the “4 out of 5 moms recommend…” line featured in a diaper commercial you’re taking action based on the actions of others.

Marketers use social proof to give new concepts, products and services perceived value. Consumers are understandably hesitant to spend their hard-earned cash on a fancy frying pan that could easily be a dud, but show those same consumers a Facebook video of people flipping golden-brown pancakes and talking about how the pan revolutionized breakfast and the hesitancy starts to disappear.

It’s possible to write landing page copy without social proof, but writing copy that incorporates testimonials, case studies or social media engagement figures is a far more effective way to urge potential customers through the sales funnel.

6. Compare Your Landing Page Copy with Split Testing

Even the most experienced copywriter isn’t omniscient. All the writing talent, word acrobatics and technical marketing expertise in the world can’t predict with absolute certainty how a landing page will connect with your ideal customer. The only way to know for sure is to ask your copywriter to create variants for key text elements—headlines, bullet points versus block text and so on — then use A/B testing to compare conversion rates and choose which page to launch in full.

You can also choose to A/B test other elements of your landing page; vary your offer, reframe your selling point, swap out images, or tweak your forms and see how consumers respond. While those decisions are for the client to make rather than the writer, your offer also informs the landing page copy, so if you change one, you’ll need to change the other.

7. Don’t Skip Over the Small Things

Why pay someone to dither over a few words here and a call to action there when you can dash them off yourself? Well, there are several reasons actually, but here’s the big one: you hired an expert, and you should let them do their job.

Cohesion is vital to the success of a landing page, and that’s best achieved by sticking to one voice, one writer, one cook in the kitchen.

Every word on that page plays a role and it often takes writers hours or even days to wrangle those words into submission. You may not be able to see how one stray phrase here or there could make a difference, but trust me, consumers can sense a disjointed message from a million miles away. Great copy is like alchemy—you don’t need to understand how it happens in order to appreciate the result.

Wrapping It Up

A good copywriter is worth her weight in gold… and sometimes more. But, even the best copywriter will struggle to craft copy that drives results if they’re lacking clear instructions along with information and context about how their work fits into the buyer’s journey.

In my experience, following the 7 tips I’ve outlined above will set your writer up for success, and in turn, setup your campaigns to print money.

The post Can You Outsource Landing Page Copywriting? 7 Things to Consider First appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

You can dot every ‘i’ and double check your blog for dangling modifiers, but if you aren’t on top of industry changes, you’re not at the top of your game.

Here’s what every great content writer needs to know heading into 2019.

1. SEO is Evolving

Keywords can be odd. SEO is even weirder. Search engine optimization is a specialty that runs the gamut from simple keyword insertion to mastering a complex algorithm that requires tweaking an entire website.

As a content writer, you’re likely on the lighter side of SEO; your client gives you keywords, you insert them organically in the proper place and presto! High-ranking content. Or at least that’s how it used to be.

Google is constantly updating its search algorithm (whether it wants to share the details with the public or not), and it’s not enough to just write to the keywords anymore. Now it’s about understanding intent—why people are searching for certain terms instead of just what terms they’re searching for. By wrapping your head around how people search, you can better address their needs, and that’s the very heart of content marketing.

2. Multi-niche Experience is Essential

Niche work versus generalization. It’s an ongoing debate in the content marketing world, and if you ask a dozen writers which approach is better, you’ll likely get a dozen answers. It’s still okay to claim one content format or channel as your main specialty, but the best content writers know a little bit about a lot. Being able to help a client with content for their social network as well as local content such as Google posts creates a more cohesive campaign.

Content writers are like mini branding experts; you may not be leading a business’s launch, but you’re ensuring that brand’s core message is conveyed the right way to the right people.

Diversifying also helps you look out for your own career. The more skills you offer a client, the more valuable you become. After all, most clients would much rather deal with one or two multi-talented content writers than try to juggle an entire team of one-trick ponies.

3. Voice Search is the New Mobile

Once upon a time, the digital marketing world was all aflutter about the move to mobile. According to Statista, mobile now accounts for more than half of global web activity, marking a substantial shift from desktop-based surfing. When that evolution began, it changed how we approach marketing. Voice search technology is now driving another major industry leap.

By 2020, an estimated 50% off all searches will be voice searches. That’s huge. Content writers have a responsibility to anticipate progress by learning how to capitalize on voice search.

A few quick tips:

• Incorporate lots of questions into your content, such as “How do I….?” or “Where can I find…,” to mimic the way consumers use their voice-activated digital assistants.
• Use long-tail keywords, again to mimic the speech pattern of typical voice searchers.
• When you’re writing, think like a user rather than a marketer. You want to answer questions and provide solutions, not go in for the hard sell. Information is your strongest sales asset.

4. Few Things Are More Powerful Than the Buyer Journey

Speaking of thinking like the consumer… what is it that your reader wants? The most effective, compelling and important thing you can do is to empathize with the buyer’s journey and use that that information to fuel your content writing.

What are your buyers’ challenges? Where do they go for product/industry education? How are they making decisions? What are their alternatives? Are there common misconceptions that must be addressed? Do buyers have expectations as to what they’ll get out of the purchasing process? Include all of the above in your ideation process so you’re not creating a blog post or white paper in a vacuum. In other words, think like a buyer but write like an expert.

Whether you’re marketing yourself as a press release expert or showcasing your capacity for literary genius with high-quality content across a plethora of niches, there are ways to get better. Study up on the key qualities of a good content writer and then put your expertise to use with freelance writing jobs that give you a chance to shine.

What’s your content writing super power? Share your top qualities in the comments!

The post 4 Qualities a Good Content Writer Needs Heading Into 2019 appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

During the period from October 1, 2018 to November 30, 2018, the company generated 90% more revenue than during the same period in 2017. On top of that, during September of 2018, Crowd Content generated 147% revenue growth over September of 2017.

Through its proprietary content creation platform, Crowd Content operates a self-serve marketplace and provides fully managed services for enterprise customers with large-scale projects. “We’ve seen growth this year from both business units,” stated Crowd Content CEO, Clayton Lainsbury. “It’s a good feeling when you have two well-developed revenue streams working effectively. We’re even seeing some customers leverage both self-serve and managed services, which is great.” Lainsbury indicates the revenue split between self-serve and managed services for 2018 is approximately 50%.

Crowd Content credits its underlying technology platform for much of its success. In a recent press release, the company shared it has achieved industry-leading turnaround metrics and quality ratings due to several proprietary features that competing platforms or marketplaces lack, including a gamification algorithm that increases the performance of writers and editors working through Crowd Content.

About Crowd Content: Crowd Content is a content creation company based in Victoria, BC that helps brands and agencies create online marketing content at scale. The company is backed by well-known angel investors including Todd Dunlop (founder of Neverblue Media and RingPartner) and James DeGreef (founder of GenoLogics and Tectoria Venture Partners). For more information, visit www.crowdcontent.com.

Media Contact:
Eric Hoppe
Director of Marketing
Crowd Content Media
eric@crowdcontent.com

The post Crowd Content Media Reports 90% Year-Over-Year Revenue Growth appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Hiring outside help is a phenomenal way to boost marketing efforts while ensuring your brand is in experienced, linguistically capable hands — but writers aren’t all created the same. In fact, there are several different types of writers, all of whom have their own strengths, weaknesses and areas of specialty.

Finding the right person to write content for your website isn’t just a matter of connecting with someone who can string together a convincing combination of nouns and verbs.

For your content to excel, you need a writer whose skill set and expertise matches the project at hand.

With that in mind, here’s a quick overview of the three types of writers your business might consider hiring and for what jobs.

Copywriters

Copywriters are the word-spinning geniuses behind marketing content and other kinds of promotional material. “Copy” generally has three goals:

• Connect with the target demographic
• Communicate brand messaging
• Convert, as in compelling a sale or inspiring the reader to click, email or call

Think of copywriting as action-based writing. It’s sales, but instead of knocking on doors and demonstrating the handy-dandy features of an upright vacuum cleaner or convincing car shoppers that they really need that upgraded interior, copywriters are using the power of the written word to position a client’s products or services as the solution to a specific pain point.

ALSO: What is Copywriting?

You might hire a copywriter for:

• Ads
• Product descriptions
• Landing pages
• Sales pages
• Copy-based search engine optimization (SEO)

Some copywriters dabble in multiple niches, while others are the master of landing pages or Facebook ads and won’t touch anything else. If you’d prefer to have one writer take care of everything, make sure you discuss that up front, but also know that sometimes it’s good to have a surgeon, anesthesiologist and scrub nurse all on your team. In other words, there are occasions when a copywriter with a practically Lilliputian area of expertise is far more valuable than a supposed jack-of-all-trades.

ALSO: Copywriting for SEO: How to Be Sure Your eCommerce Copy Converts and Ranks

Content Writers

Content writing is also part of marketing, but it’s a softer sell and involves more layers of the overall sales funnel. Depending on the piece, content writers may try to inform, entertain, establish authority, nurture rapport and build trust — or all of the above.

Where copywriting seeks to make a sale, content writing is how you soften up a potential customer, laying the groundwork for the idea and promise behind a product.

Most often, content writers create content that’s top of funnel near the awareness and interest stages. Copywriters tend to create content at the desire and action stages.

Content writers are responsible for projects such as:

• Blog posts
• Articles
• White papers
• Ebooks
• Social media posts
• Press releases
• Reviews
• Web content
• Employee bios

As with copywriters, the content writers you hire may do a little bit of everything, or they might stick to a single industry — say, plumbing or wine — or a single category of content.

ALSO: How to Tell Freelance Content Writers What You Really Need

Fiction Writers

All writing involves a certain level of imagination, but creative writing has more leeway. Fiction writers may be inspired by real-life people and events, but they aren’t tied to that narrative. They can conjure characters out of thin air. They can even conceive of entire worlds a la Tolkien or Rowling, writing a book that takes readers places nobody on the planet has ever been before.

It may not seem like fiction writers have a place in the cold, hard world of sales and marketing. While it’s true that both content writing and copywriting require a strong factual thread that lends credibility and legitimacy, how you flesh out that truth skeleton is up for grabs.

Some people choose to fuel their marketing initiatives with pie charts and statistics. Others turn to storytelling to share information in a format that’s attention-getting and gently leading. It’s not surprising, then, that some of the greatest literary minds of the last century also offer up some sage marketing advice.

ALSO: How to Revolutionize Your Copywriting Strategy

How They All Work Together

While many freelancer writers specialize in one kind of writing — and some niche down even further, focusing their energies just on newsletters or blogs posts, for instance — others offer overlapping services. You may find a talented writer who churns out unbelievably pithy social media posts but also creates catalog copy and collaborates on children’s books on the side.

Sound confusing?

It can be. Maybe this will help: Pretend you have a business selling a new kind of mop. Everybody needs mops, right? But there’s also a thousand other mops on the market, so you need to find a way to differentiate your brand.

A fiction writer might create a story around your mop, introducing the Duke of Dirt and the Princess of Perfection who are locked in an eternal battle of clutter versus cleanliness.

Your content writer will build on those tales from the Land of Tidying Up by referencing them in blogs, using the characters to connect with consumers on social media or author an article that uses the Duke and Princess to recount the many benefits of clean floors and research behind your brand’s cutting-edge mop technology.

Finally, a copywriter steps in to create a sales page to convince those clicking on a Facebook post or blog CTA that this is the mop they want — no, the mop they need.

The point is this: take the time to vet and hire a writer who knows how to open closed doors and invite readers in. Whether you’re looking to publish a book or launch a new website, the writing process doesn’t start when your freelancer picks up an order and starts tapping on their laptop’s keyboard — it starts when you choose the talent whose skill set best serves your needs.

The post The Three Types of Writers Your Brand (Probably) Needs appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

And, content marketing is no longer the simple game it used to be ten years ago, when just publishing a decent piece every now and again would be sufficient.

Not anymore — with over 2 million blog posts published online every day, the occasional piece of average quality just won’t cut it. To cut through the noise and produce strong results for clients, agencies need to deliver high-quality content that provides significant value to the reader.

But, that isn’t always so simple or easy.

From our experience, many agencies are faced with multiple dilemmas when it comes to writing content for their clients. I’ve reached out to a number of digital marketing agencies and asked them what the most common challenges in content writing for agencies are.

Here are the most common challenges they reported.

The Need for Expert Insight

Finding a capable writer — who also happens to be an expert on a specific niche or highly technical topic and is available to produce content when you need it — is no more different than hunting the proverbial unicorn.

Why?

Simply because the vast majority of content writers are generalists. Sure, they possess excellent language skills, the ability to adapt their style to effectively capture the unique voice of each brand they’re working with, and a very good understanding of different content structures — from blog posts to press releases, whitepapers, product descriptions, and beyond. Their SEO knowledge is also pretty polished and they know how to work in the right keywords to boost the reach of every piece of content they produce.

While talented, content writers may lack the expertise required to create top-level content in extremely specialized industries. They’re jacks of all trades.

But, they can’t deal with the more advanced stuff. Like, say, gramework, or the golang web framework.

What does that mean for your agency?

Simply – finding expert writers among a sea of generalists could prove challenging. And, for certain clients, finding those experts could be critical to creating content that’s going to help their business.

According to Julien Raby, president of web marketing agency Combustible, “In the past, we tackled this issue with extensive research on our end, but the result was bland, uninspiring content and our clients weren’t happy with the results.”

There are many industries that require that expert knowledge to create content clients will be happy with. For your content to stand out, you need someone who is intimately acquainted with that industry area or niche; someone who can artfully combine their professional expertise with their exceptional writing skills to produce expert-level content sprinkled with some good humor and a dash of personality; someone ready and willing to pour himself into every bit of the creation process.

In these cases – you need a specialist.

For most digital marketing agencies, it’s downright impossible — and decidedly unrealistic — to have specialists on staff for every single industry area or niche there is.

ALSO – Ghostwriters: The Secret to Maximizing Your In-House Writing Team

Unrealistic Expectations

Successful content marketing is “a byproduct of strong planning and consistent execution,” as Ben Sailer of digital marketing giant CoSchedule very well puts it.

Before any content is created, agencies need to articulate an effective plan, with both short- and long-term goals, and share it with clients.

There’s no shortcut to achieving content marketing success. It doesn’t happen overnight, and there’s no telling exactly how long it can take to see any results.

I’ve chatted with agencies whose clients regard content creation and content marketing as a small part of their overall marketing mix and under-appreciate the great deal of work that goes into every step of this process. And, they often don’t appreciate that it can take time to yield results.

Writers and content marketers work really hard to produce content and promote it.

And writing exceptional content is no easy task, especially when there’s a specific goal or need to be addressed.

According to Nelson Jordan, co-founder of Agency Match, “Although most clients understand that content creation [and inbound marketing] can take months or years to bear fruit, other stakeholders with a lesser understanding of content marketing can sometimes questions why results haven’t been achieved, particularly if they’re more familiar with the instant results that paid advertising can generate.”

When clients realize their content isn’t garnering any ROI, they may get concerned. They want results — the kind of immediate results they get when boosting a Facebook post or running a Google AdWords campaign. Instant. Almost palpable.

We all know it’s not going to happen in a flash. But there’s no definite answer as to how long content marketing takes to produce positive ROI. Three, maybe six months, seems to be a good estimate.

It’s only natural that your clients will fear they’ll invest in content marketing for months on end without anything to show at the end.

But that’s all the more reason why agencies should educate clients on the huge potential they have for generating ROI with content marketing. Results from paid advertising will stop generating anything the moment you stop your campaigns, whereas each piece of content you publish will continue to generate compound traffic growth and leads over time. It’s a bit like real estate.

There’s so much potential, but you’ll need to prepare your clients to be patient.

Budget Constraints

The U.S. is the largest market for content marketing, with spends estimated to have exceeded $16 billion in 2016. A 2018 study by the Content Marketing Institute shows that successful B2B marketers spend a staggering 40 percent of their marketing budget on content, which is higher than the industry average of 29 percent. At the same time, as much as 37 percent of marketers who aren’t successful with content marketing blame it on their inadequate budget.

The average recommended budget for content marketing ranges from 7 to 8 percent of gross revenue for companies with annual revenues below $5 million and a net profit margin — after all expenses — in the 10 percent to 12 percent range.

Unfortunately, smaller companies often don’t have the financial resources necessary to map out and execute well-articulated content strategies consistently. “Smaller budgets see smaller campaigns and smaller results. Rarely will clients invest all that is truly needed for a really impactful content strategy,” says Katie Mayberry, senior director of social media marketing agency Releventure.

But it’s not just smaller companies that don’t invest. Larger companies with more sizable revenues aren’t always willing to allocate reasonable budgets for their content marketing, either, which limits agencies’ ability to grow their content marketing efforts.

If you don’t have a robust strategy in place with both short-term and long-term goals and a well-laid-out plan to achieve them, your efforts will fall flat, point blank. And, if you don’t have the resources to execute in both the short and long term, your efforts will fail.

Quality Versus Quantity

Marketers are under pressure to create more content than ever. The 2017 B2B Content Marketing Report by Content Marketing Institute shows that 70 percent of marketers expect to produce more content this year.

It takes a lot of perseverance to make content marketing work, and delivering content consistently is of the utmost importance. Eighty-five percent of top performers publish content on a regular basis, compared to 58 percent of the overall sample and 32 percent of bottom performers.

For every digital marketing agency, the same old dilemma almost always crops up: should you scale back on the sheer volume of content you’re producing for clients and focus on quality, or should you increase the volume and let the quality suffer in the process?

For agencies with limited creatives, this dilemma becomes a serious concern. Spending more time producing less content means you’re paying more for less — not to mention you could be delivering more content in that same time. But churning out content that is devoid of any value won’t help your content marketing efforts, either.

Why? Simply because:

• Every piece of content you produce should accurately capture the unique voice of your clients and portray their values.
• Your content must address very specific content marketing goals.
• Your content must be authentic, engaging, and valuable.
• Google is rewarding content that best solves searcher intent, which means your content needs to comprehensively address each topic you cover.

But as I always say, your content marketing strategy isn’t measured in volume or quality — it’s measured in results. And you’ll often find that, to get results, you need to strike the right balance between the two.

You need to produce content consistently, and the content you produce must really resonate your client’s target audience, rank well with search engines, and showcase thought leadership — something I talked about in this post.

Content is just words until you put motivational goals behind it.

A Mismatch Between What the Client Wants and What Works

According to Jason Lavis, managing director of Out of Box Innovations, one of the biggest pain points when managing a content strategy is the mismatch between what the client wants and what actually works.

“A business owner might genuinely care about their technology or processes, whereas the customers — and the public in general — might prefer entertainment or fundamental information. This mismatch makes it harder to achieve growth in page views or social media following.”

It’s all a matter of trust, as Steve Page of Giant Partners points out: “Getting them to trust you to do what’s right is a struggle. They know they need to do something different to transform their business but are hesitant to do so.”

And it’s no surprise, given the great level of commitment that comes with every content marketing strategy. If digital marketing agencies cannot earn their clients’ trust, they cannot build the kind of campaign that would actually produce results.

ALSO – Build a Brilliant Content Strategy in 6 Easy Steps

Not Committing to Content Promotion

In the content marketing world, creating and publishing content are just the very first steps of the journey — critically important but scarcely sufficient on their own. To maximize the reach and visibility of the content you produce, consistent promotion is a must.

Overlook it, and you’ll end up missing a huge chunk of ROI.

Yet the need for consistent promotion might catch some clients by surprise — isn’t content, in itself, already designed to market their business?

Sure, provided people see it.

If the content sits without any promotion, then nobody is likely to just stumble upon it. Promotion means more people will see the content, and this increased visibility will eventually pay off later on.

Content promotion starts with an initial distribution across key external channels. Think Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and even email, if that’s what works for your client. Spread the word, spark some interest in the content, and you’ve got yourself a solid audience that wants to hear what you’ve got to say — or to be precise, what your client’s got to say.

Moving on.

After the initial distribution, you need to think about ongoing distribution, which usually takes place in the long term. There likely are many who’ve missed the initial distribution, so why not give them a few “in case you’ve missed it” opportunities along the way?

For many agencies, content promotion is a time-extensive process. If you’re one of them, you’ve very likely come across at least one client who was unwilling to commit to promoting their content.

After all, if they’re already paying you to write great content to promote their business and generate ROI, they may not want to spend more.

If you can convince them that ongoing content promotion actually helps them maximize their ROI, you can often alleviate this concern.

Content promotion shouldn’t be an option, like having an extra dollop of chocolate drizzled on top of your vanilla ice cream or a brand-new garage door with built-in smartphone connectivity (heck, I’d love one for myself).

Content promotion should be an integral part of any effective content marketing campaign — and the keyword here is integral.

Addressing Content Writing Challenges

I could probably list out a dozen more challenges, but you’ve probably picked up on a couple common themes by now — clients won’t benefit from sub-par content, nor by overlooking or neglecting any of the steps involved in content marketing.

If your agency simply doesn’t have the manpower or resources to produce the kind of content your clients need to achieve content marketing success, consider checking out our agency services.

The post Boiling Down the Top 6 Challenges in Content Writing for Agencies appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

• Will they “get” your company’s brand voice?
• Can you rely on them and still make your crucial deadlines?
• Will they understand your customers and the best ways to motivate them?

These are all valid concerns and important considerations for a content manager to mull over before hiring a ghostwriter. You don’t want to sacrifice quality for quantity, after all, even in the name of content. There’s good news, though: more than one in ten working adults identify themselves as a freelancer or a member of the so-called gig economy, so there’s rich variety of ghostwriters to choose from.

At the end of the day, your asks and results need to stay the same, and adding new team members can send ripples through your carefully plotted content path. So what’s the best way to introduce a ghostwriter to your in-house team to maximize results and minimize issues?

One Big Happy Content Family

Beyond the immediate relief of tension in your content calendar, ghostwriters can increase the effectiveness of your existing teams, offer unique points of view and help your company look its best, no matter what industry you’re in. But…they can only do that if they’re chosen and introduced the right way.

There aren’t many hard and fast rules to bringing a ghostwriter into your content creation team, but there are a few guidelines to help you make the transition smoothly:

• Ask your current team what they consider to be the most important points of creating content for you and potential pitfalls your ghostwriter should be aware of.
• Assure your current writing team that you’re offering them additional support, not attempting to replace them.
• Set clear reporting lines so that your ghostwriters know who to approach with questions on projects.
• Set a budget up front, complete with volume expectations and deadlines to avoid miscommunication when it comes to the structure of ghostwriting work.

If you can address all of these points and collect them in a quick-start guide for new writers, you’ll find new recruits will be up and running very quickly.

Addressing Some Common Questions

While hiring ghostwriters can quickly improve an in-house team’s capacity and expertise, many content managers can get hung up on a few questions about working with ghostwriters.

Here’s a quick collection of the most common ones I’ve seen.

But I Have a Writer Already…

Many business owners echo that sentiment — they’re under the impression that they either need to choose between hiring professional writers to work in the office or great ghostwriters to work as needed.

Often, the ideal answer actually comes from a harmonious blend of the two, not from treating your content as an “Option A vs. Option B” writing scenario. Ghostwriters are excellent as standalone freelancers, but they also routinely work together with existing brand and company writing teams to follow the voice and tone of a business.

For example, when it comes to eCommerce, there’s a virtually endless appetite for content — even the best in-house writing teams often can’t keep up. Many companies maintain relationships with multiple ghostwriters who have learned their brand voice and style guide, so they can quickly send overflow work to these writers and receive copy they can publish immediately.

Imagine doubling your writing staff overnight or assembling an entire team from scratch in a matter of hours. If you’ve been wondering how the big guys get high quality content and blog posts churned out so quickly, ghostwriters are the secret.

But I Already Do My Own Writing…

No one is more passionate or informed about your business than you are, of course, so it can be difficult for many content managers to trust writers to convey that passion you do in your writing. But as businesses grow, most content teams have to expand and find writers who can also convey that passion.

And while capacity often requires businesses to bring on writers, in some cases the need for exceptional writing ability necessitates it. Even the most passionate manager doesn’t always translate their passion for their business well to the page. A love of sunsets, for example, doesn’t mean you’re necessarily good at painting them, nor does a deep appreciation for classical music give you innate skill with a cello.

In these situations, the best way to convey your brand enthusiasm to your audience is often calling in a professional writer to do the proverbial heavy lifting.

Finding the right ghostwriter means that you can find someone who shares your enthusiasm and has the technical ability to take your content to the next level. Having team members like that can really help your business scale effectively.

Will a Ghostwriter Understand My Business?

The best freelance writers available for hire may work with dozens of clients every week, often spanning several industries, length requirements and tones. They are flexible and quick on the uptake, able to scan style guides, your past content or even your rival’s content for context clues and ideas about your ideal customer base.

In short — they can get up to speed really quickly.

While good ghostwriters are extremely adaptable, you can also find writers with tangible expertise in your industry. At Crowd Content, we work with over 5,000 writers, so clients can always find an industry expert to write for them if needed.

Between strong adaptability and industry knowledge, you can start working with a ghostwriter that gets your business very quickly.

Plus, you can also specify certain keywords to be used in your content, templates or layouts that you prefer for your web pages, and even hyperlinked in-text sources for Google-approved credibility on your subject matter once you publish.

Strong communication, especially when starting work with a new writer, can also help them understand your business quickly. Be sure to add notes, ask questions and even ask for writing adjustments in the rare case a revision is needed.

It’s in a ghostwriter’s best interests to impress you, as repeat clientele offer a consistent source of income. This is also an incentive for them to work closely with your in-house team, achieving a seamless brand voice for your customers in the process.

What if I Need More Than Blogs?

Ghostwriting used to be strongly associated with the process of writing a book, moving into blogs and landing pages as the internet grew. Today, a ghostwriter can handle almost any type of written content.

While this can help your team’s capacity, it can also help its capability.

For example, if you use an in-house team for product descriptions but suddenly find yourself in need of a new product press release, a ghostwriter can bridge the gap.

Their expertise and recent experience writing press releases for other clients will ensure that their approach is fresh, accurate and designed to grab attention. If, on the other hand, you rely on your product description writers, the results might be less targeted and less successful.

What Do Ghostwriters Cost?

Don’t let cost deter you from hiring a ghostwriter: it’s become such a common process that there’s professional writers for hire on nearly any budget. On platforms like Crowd Content, clients are able to set writing quality star levels to determine their end cost: one star offers very basic content to complete web pages, while four stars offers premium, highly-experienced writers. Prices range from 2.2 cents per word to 12 cents per word.

Plus, there are a number of cost savings to consider. Ghostwriters don’t need to be on-boarded through human resources, they don’t need benefits or paid vacation days and, as a total resource, you can find and work with a ghostwriter at virtually any hour, any day and on nearly any deadline.

In addition to their inherent affordability, it’s worth noting that their work — inbound-centric content creation — costs up to 62 percent less than outbound lead generation, per DemandMetric in a 2017 Content Marketing Institute report.

Can I Afford a Ghostwriter?

The question should really be can you afford not to hire a ghostwriter? Leaning too heavily on your in-house staff can be risky in terms of volume, and it can also put undue stress on your employees as well.

A creative team should know they have backup on large or unexpected projects, and ideally be given the discretion to vet and choose ghostwriters they can work with. This will not only ensure they feel appreciated and supported, it will also free up your in-house team to take on larger and more complex tasks parallel to the growth of your business.

Don’t Wait For a Content Crisis

Assembling a content team before an immediate need gives you the time and space to find writers that truly align with your needs. You can put up a few small projects as try out pieces to narrow down candidates, or solicit guidance from platform professionals to laser-focus on the “write stuff” for your needs.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that ghostwriters aren’t fantastic for that unexpected crunch time — you know, when that big project is looming — but planning ahead takes a lot of stress out of the equation.

There’s no time like the present — get started today and discover the perfect writer for your brand. You’ll be glad you did the next time you’re facing down a deadline and your in-house team is running on coffee fumes.

The post Ghostwriters: The Secret to Maximizing Your In-House Writing Team appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Finding a trusted content partner is a crucial part of unlocking a brilliantly successful future, but zeroing in on the right contractor is harder than it seems. You’re about to put your brand’s image and online communication in someone else’s hands. Do you know if you’re making the right decision?

Some 91 percent of B2B marketers use content in their strategies, and 85 percent of B2C marketers do the same. Of those few marketers not currently incorporating content, 54 percent have plans to launch soon. Content marketing is hot, and where there’s heat there are tons of agencies and platforms eager to get a cut of the profit.

The key to wading your way through the noise and finding a content partner you can trust is knowing what questions to ask and what answers will likely serve you best.

[ctt template=”4″ link=”d7_4j” via=”yes” nofollow=”yes”]Here are the 6 questions you should ask before hiring a #content partner. [/ctt]

1. What is the Production Process?

There’s an old saying that advises “you don’t want to see how the sausage is made,” but this is one time that a behind-the-scenes peek does a body good. You need to know how your content is being produced and who is managing the project while it’s in progress. Is a 20-something recent grad with little to no practical experience in charge of your account? Or is it an expert editor with a flair for content strategy and an eye for detail?

Project managers who are familiar with both the writer and client side of things are better able to convey instructions, interpret feedback, facilitate an efficient and effective onboarding process, anticipate needs and make recommendations when appropriate.

More from Meghan: Holder of the Content Marketing Budget? Here are 3 Awesome Ways to Spend It in 2018

2. Does the Prospective Content Partner Have Any References?

Looking for a content team with big-name experience? Everyone and their dog says they’ve worked with the biggest Fortune 500 companies, and sure, that seems impressive, but in what capacity did they serve? What kind of content did they produce? Is the relationship current? If not, why did the contract end? Did they mess it up?

You ask your in-house hires for references alongside their resume, so why wouldn’t you expect the same credential check and character testimonials from the company about to get custody of your content? Ask for the contact information of a couple current clients (some may subject to an NDA agreement, but not all of them), and you’ll find answers to all your burning questions.

• Listen to see if the reference offers enthusiastic feedback or canned phrasing.
• Ask what type of content they purchased and how they felt the deliverables measured up.
• Are they happy with their account manager?
• Has work ever been late? If so, why?

3. What’s Their Take on Scale v. Quality?

Content marketing isn’t a one-and-done deal. Even if you have a stellar strategy in place when you launch your business, your marketing efforts will need to evolve as your operations expand — in fact, one often drives the other. Scaling up your content efforts is both exciting and expensive, so finding a way to do it right truly matters.

Ask your potential content partner how they handle volume. If you suddenly surge from 20 articles a month to 200, what systems are in place to oversee the change? How will deliverables be structured? Are there enough writers, editors and admins to handle your new workload in stride?

4. How Will They Manage Your Writing Team?

Some smaller-scale projects only require a single writer, but when you’re ordering up a few thousand product descriptions or contracting weekly blog posts for each of your dozen franchise sites, you’ll more than likely have a team of content experts assigned to your account. There is a bevy of pros to that approach, including more access to fresh ideas and the ability to generate mass content in shorter periods of time, but some important new questions crop up as well:

• How will you ensure cohesion of your brand message and voice?
• What measures will be in place to prevent duplicate topics and boilerplating?
• How will quality be monitored and maintained so that it doesn’t tank a few months into the contract? Are there editor and quality control steps? Or does content go straight from the writer to the client?

Learn More: The Struggles with Content Planning – and How to Overcome Them

5. What Experience Do the Writers Have?

A talented writer can do some research and generate an interesting take on almost any topic, but if your company is in a particularly nuanced niche or an industry with a ton of high-level lingo then you may need a writer or two who specializes in your field. Some companies — an online magazine with multiple columns, for instance — require a bank of writers to cover a variety of topics relevant to their expertise, and diversity becomes much more important.

The last thing you want to do is hop from platform to platform or agency to agency in search of the right writer for the right piece. Ask your potential content partner what their writer roster looks like, how writers are vetted and whether your account manager will play matchmaker when you’re ready to build your team.

6. What is Their Track Record in Terms of Time Management?

When deadlines loom large, you can be sure there’s a writer chugging coffee and furiously typing as the clock ticks down. That may be life as they know it in the crazy world of freelance writers, but your company has a schedule to stick to and blowing a deadline could force you to appear less than reliable to your own clients.

Ask your content agency or platform contact how they manage timelines and determine the pacing of a project. How long does turnaround typically take? For larger projects, will you get everything at once or will there be a series of milestones to keep everyone on track? What happens if something is submitted late, and how often does that happen?

You don’t have time to micromanage writers or proofread press releases, but spending a few hours investigating your list of content partners could prove to be exponentially beneficial. Content marketing costs less than paid search, generates more than triple the number of leads compared to outbound marketing and turns boring blogs into lead-generation factories. All you have to do is connect with a platform that knows how to turn words into wins.

Keep Reading: Content Seasonality – How Far Out Should You Plan Your Calendar?

The post 6 Crucial Questions for Finding a Content Partner You Can Trust appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

How It Works – The Workflow

When you place your first order, and any subsequent orders after that, it reaches a large pool of writers who can view and access orders at your preferred star level and higher. For instance, if you place an open order for 4-star content, it reaches all available 4-star writers in the system. Placing an order at the 3-star level makes it available to all 3- and 4-star writers. Similarly, 2-star orders are available to all writers with 2, 3 or 4 stars.

Writers receive an email notification when your orders have been placed, so they can log in and decide whether or not to write the order depending on their time constraints, interests or skills. After your order is placed, a qualified writer will pick it up to work on and complete it according to the deadline you set and the minimum time allowed by the platform — 24 hours per 500 words. To set a custom deadline, scroll to the bottom of the order screen, select Advanced Options and use the Processing Time dropdown.

If you place an order that requires 500 words or less, you can set the deadline for 1 to 10 days. A 1,000-word order requires a minimum deadline of 2 days and a 1,500-word order needs a minimum of 3 days. If you need content faster than that, you can call us directly and we’ll put you in touch with a qualified writer who may be available to complete it for you right away.

After the writer produces the content according to your instructions and guidelines, they’ll submit the content for you to review. At this stage, you have two choices: Choose to accept the content as-is or send it back to the writer to make revisions. If you request revisions, you’ll have an opportunity to provide specific guidance for the writer to let them know exactly what you want changed. The writer has 24 hours to complete revisions, and then the content is sent back to you for further review. If everything looks great, then you can accept the content, and the writer is paid. Once the content is accepted, you can use it as you need for your business.

How Many Orders Can I Place at Once?

You’re not limited to how many orders you place in the same day. If you have a large batch of orders to complete, such as hundreds of product descriptions, you may be better suited for our Enterprise services — you can contact your customer success manager for more information on this.

Different Order Types

At Crowd Content, we offer several content types that can be sorted into four main categories.

Custom Content

Custom content is our specialty: Entertaining articles, blog posts, web content and press releases belong here. You can provide a specific title, instructions and exactly what topics you would like covered in the written post. Our writers are skilled at being able to help you meet your business goals through developing and implementing successful content strategies.

Product Descriptions

This is a specialized category and applies to written descriptions of individual products on an e-commerce website. Depending on your product types and preferences, product descriptions can be short, long, or somewhere in the middle, and they should include strong keywords to help drive eager buyers to your site.

Facebook Posts

Need help promoting your latest blog posts? Want to keep your fan base engaged? You can do that effectively with a batch of custom Facebook posts. Customers must order a minimum of 10 posts to use this service.

Twitter

This is an excellent platform for promoting your brand and getting the word out to the masses about how great your business and services are. Our Twitter-savvy writers will create a minimum of 15 tweets for you when you choose this content option.

Going Through the Order Form, Step by Step

Once you’ve signed up for an account on crowdcontent.com and communicated with your customer success manager, you’re ready to place an order. Our simple, one-page interface asks essential questions related to content creation and ensures writers will have everything they need to create great content.

Campaign

The default value for this is “Campaign 1”, but if you’ve worked directly with a customer success manager, they may have created a custom campaign for you with specific pricing and services. This is selectable here.

Folders

Customized folders let you keep content in an easily accessible place. They can be organized by topic, date, or content type — the labels are totally up to you. Folders make it easy to group individual orders together. During each stage of the content creation process, that order remains in the folder you selected for easy retrieval later.

To create a new folder, go to your content queue and click the + to the right of label Folders on the left sidebar.  

Content Types and Categories

The next drop-down let you choose the type of content you need, whether it be Facebook posts, tweets, an ebook, a blog article, product descriptions or a press release. The box directly under content type lets you select a category for the content. Categories are important because writers add tags to their profiles to match category types, so someone who is extremely knowledgeable about photography equipment or animals is more likely to write your order if it falls into their area of expertise.

Instructions

The rest of the order form changes based on the content type, but in general, it lets you provide specific directions and guidelines for the writer. For instance, if you’re placing orders for tweets to be posted on Twitter, there is a field for you to include your business’s Twitter handle so the writer can view your current Twitter page. An instruction box lets you provide details about your order, links to Google docs or links to example content.

Order Type, Pricing and Word Count

Next, you must select an order type. On Crowd Content, we have three basic types of orders:

• Open Order: The most common type, these orders are available to writers at the star level you select. We recommend 3 or 4-star content for most orders, because these writers have proven skills in the industry and often have specialized areas of expertise.
• Direct Order: This type of order is placed with one writer that you choose yourself. The individual writer selected is the only one to have access to a direct order.
• Team Orders: This restricts order access to writers placed on a team that you create. Gather as many writers as you’d like and place them on individual teams; this way, you know your order will be picked up by someone you hand-selected.

Pricing is based on word count, star level, and services selected (such as whether you’re just using writing services or writing and editing). When you fill in the word count fields for each individual order, the sidebar on the right updates to reflect accurate pricing based on the word count provided and the star level selected for both writing and editing.

Editing & Proofreading

Editing and proofreading services are also available for each order you place at an additional 3 cents per word. Just as with a writing order, you can choose to place editing open, direct to a specific editor, or to a team of editors.

Advanced Options

Advanced options let you upload a relevant document, spreadsheet or PDF for the writer to use as a reference. There are also several other order options included here:

• Keywords: The writer will include keywords you select when you indicate them in this box. You can include a total of up to three keywords. The system lets the writer know when they submit the order if they’ve met your keyword requirements. Keywords are extremely important for SEO.
• Target Audience: You’ll receive better copy in the end if you let the writer know upfront who the intended audience is. You may have formal buyer personas in place that you can summarize, or you can say something as simple as “golf enthusiasts.”
• Suggested Outbound Link: If you have a URL you would like the writer to link to within the order, insert it here.
• Identifier: This option lets you tag the article with an identifying number. For product descriptions, for example, this may be the model, item or UPC number.

• Metadata: Choose this option if you would like the writer to create a meta title and meta description to go along with your order.
• Layout: If you need multiple fields available to the writer, you can use this option to create a layout that contains the fields you need. If you don’t select this, the writer will have access to a title field and a single text field.
• Language: Use this option to indicate the language you’d like the writer to use. The default is English (US).
• Processing Time: Choose a time frame when you’d like the order returned to you. Most clients choose 1 or 2 days as an appropriate time frame, but options are offered up to 10 days if needed. You must give the writer at least one day for each 500 words in the order.
• Point of View: Indicates from what perspective the writer should create content from. Options include:
  • 1st person – Using pronouns such as I, me, we, us
  • 2nd person – Using pronouns such as you, your
  • 3rd person – A company, the business, and pronouns such as it or they
  • Let the writer decide: Often skilled writers know what perspective to write from based on the content you need. You can check this box if you’re not sure, and the writer can choose whatever seems appropriate for the content type.

• Things to Emphasize/Things to Avoid: Text boxes are provided for both of these fields for you to indicate exactly what points you want the writer to emphasize and things you definitely want avoided.

In general, the more information you provide to the writer about what you want, the better chance you’ll have at receiving quality written content that suits the needs of your business. Anything you want to see in the created content should be communicated when you place the order — this way, the writer has everything they need to create quality content. If you placed an order but missed an important detail, find out how to get in touch with your writer and message them while it’s in progress.

The post How to Place an Order: Tips and Tricks for Your First Order appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

“We’re very excited to see another strong financial year to follow up from the 57% revenue growth we saw in 2016,” said Clayton Lainsbury, Crowd Content’s Founder and CEO. “Topline revenue was driven by sharp increases in enterprise business after acquiring several new Fortune 500 customers.”

The content creation company has been able to penetrate a retail segment where its services are desperately needed. Customers such as Bloomingdale’s, Michaels and 3M, to name a few, use Crowd Content to create compelling content at scale for their product pages. These large brands often have hundreds of thousands of SKUs, making it impossible for in-house teams to write, review and manage product copy on a consistent basis. Crowd Content’s enterprise service lets these brands offload those tasks and focus on their core competencies.

“Two things we’ve learned are that the world’s best brands can’t waste time managing content and can’t afford to publish subpar content,” stated Lainsbury. “Customer retention has been exceptionally high because our focus is on delivering publish-ready content. For customers, this means they save time and money by not having to review, edit and revise content before it goes live. It also means they can trust that published content is accurate and designed to sell their products.”

Lainsbury credits the company’s mature technology and refined production process for the success in attracting and retaining large accounts. “For the past two years, we’ve made it our goal to be the best at helping brands create publish-ready content at scale,” he said. “It’s really been a team effort from our development and production teams. They’ve built the platform to handle the volume while adding key layers of quality review throughout the process. It all comes together to create a smart content engine that works for both writers and customers.”

In a recent press release, Lainsbury stated that with its production capabilities running at full speed, Crowd Content will be investing more resources into sales and marketing for 2018. Considering the company has been primarily focused on R&D to this point and hasn’t had a formal marketing effort in place, it expects to see growth increase as customer acquisition campaigns are implemented.

About Crowd Content: Crowd Content is a content creation company based in Victoria, BC that helps brands and agencies create online marketing content at scale. The company is backed by well-known angel investors including Todd Dunlop (founder of Neverblue Media and RingPartner) and James DeGreef (founder of GenoLogics and Tectoria Venture Partners). For more information, visit www.crowdcontent.com.

The post Content Marketing Startup Crowd Content Reports Double Digit Revenue Growth for 2017 appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Online retailers can get a jump on their own revenue spike in the 3rd quarter by integrating back-to-school content marketing strategies. Even if you don’t offer traditional school-related goods (think notebooks, pens, clothing, locker decor and dorm furniture), finding creative ways to link your content marketing to back-to-school mindsets can be profitable. If you do sell school-related goods, this type of inbound marketing is pretty much compulsory, and here are some shrewd steps you can take this season and use again next September.

[ctt template=”4″ link=”r7UP0″ via=”yes” nofollow=”yes”]Get a jump in the third quarter by integrating back-to-school content marketing strategies.[/ctt]

Target the Right Back-to-School Search Phrases

Say what you will about the relevance of keywords today: people have to find your pages somehow, and search engines still play a big role there. Seasonal keyword word research requires some extra steps, though. You need content that targets what consumers will search for in the days before and as school starts, and those phrases may differ from high-performing niche keywords from December or May.

Real-time keyword research may not give you all the data required to target correctly, so consider reviewing 12-month trends. You can see what keywords performed well last school-shopping season and couple that data with current keyword performance and market research to make better informed SEO decisions for blog posts, titles, landing pages and product descriptions. One tool that lets you see keyword performance over time is SEMRush.

Related: 3 Tips to Help Your Emerging eCommerce Business Surge

Create Show-and-Tell Content and Product Descriptions

Getting kids ready for school can be stressful. Parents and guardians have to meet multiple demands —€” teachers and schools want very specific, and not always easy-to-find, supplies, but kids have their own ideas about accessories and style. Add in the need to get things together in a timely manner and stay within a budget, and it’s understandable why parents dread back-to-school shopping.

Online retailers can make the entire process easier by creating informative, concise content. From buying guides to how-to videos, incorporate content that goes beyond telling parents (and kids) why they need your products. Show them how to use those products, help them decipher the confusing language of school supply lists and provide tips for getting the most out of each supply. Use tags and categories to organize products so shoppers can easily find different types of goods or filter offerings by age, class type or interest. Create a slide show that explains the difference between types of paper, or put together a video showing how your product can help kids with academic, social and extra-curricular activities this school year.

Even your product descriptions can be informative as well as salesy. Not sure how to strike a balance between helpful expert and retail shop? Professional product description writers can convert unengaging feature lists to PDs that entertain, inform and convert.

[ctt template=”4″ link=”Qdk39″ via=”yes” nofollow=”yes”]Get the most from back-to-school eCommerce content marketing by enriching product descriptions and offering targeted promos.[/ctt]

Host Contests and Promotions for Kids and Parents

School shopping can get expensive, so deals and promos definitely catch parent eyes. If you offer free shipping, participate in tax holidays or have a BOGO option, incorporate it into content marketing on your blog, landing pages and social profiles. Remember that kids —€” especially teenagers —€” often have a say in what items are bought for them for school.

Many eCommerce companies don’t leverage promos well in marketing campaigns, so take some time to create an editorial calendar specifically for contests and deals. Ask yourself or your team:

• How can messaging be incorporated onsite, via social and through email? Remember: content has to be customized to both the target audience and the medium.
• Can you issue a press release? PR services don’t typically accept purely promotional pieces, but if your organization is offering a specific, temporary promo, you may be able to spin it into a newsworthy piece tied to the season.
• Who is the audience for the promo? Remember to meet them where they are: teens are more likely to be on Snapchat and Instagram while their parents are on Facebook.

Content marketing that leverages seasonal pain points — such as school supply shopping —€” and promises an easy, helpful solution wins. Incorporate back-to-school campaigns to get a head start on end-of-year revenue boosts.

The post Make the Most of Shrewd Back-to-School Content Marketing This Year appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

If your content marketing strategy is producing lackluster or down-trending results, here are some things you can do to revitalize performance.

1. Unlink Social Feed Postings and Go with Custom Content

Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and other social platforms let you link feeds; a post to Instagram can automatically post to Twitter and Facebook. Twitter posts can be fed directly to Facebook, and several other networks offer similar functionality. What’s convenient for the company isn’t always great for the content marketing strategy, though.

Automatic sharing between platforms gives your feed a robotic feel –€” and it looks sloppy and confusing to boot. Each social platform is optimized for certain types of content and plays best to different users. For better results, the content you post on each network needs to play to those strengths.

2. Rethink Your Press Release Strategy

Online press releases are still a wonderful tool for driving exposure and attention, particularly when you have a time-sensitive, newsworthy story. If you’re pushing out a press release every week just to get your name out there, though, you might want to rethink things.

Press releases are costly pieces of content to create and distribute, especially when compared to a blog or social post. If you’re just repackaging blog-appropriate post into press release format, you might not be getting the exposure necessary to justify the investment. Consider working with experienced press release writers to develop true press release ideas, or spend the money and effort boosting blog performance instead.

3. Spend Time Developing a Better UX

No matter how awesome your content is, if your site is confusing, slow or frustrating, it won’t perform. Spend some time testing user experience on a variety of platforms and devices to ensure everyone who follows a link to your site is able to use your site without issue. Employ categories and tags to organize content, so users can find the information they want within a few clicks.

4. Infuse Your Content Marketing with New Creative Blood

Sometimes content marketing strategies lag because your content managers and creators are exhausted or out of ideas for the topic at hand. Creativity is a renewable resource, but the well sometimes needs helps or time to replenish. By working with outsourced freelancers, you give in-house or regular contracted workers a break and infuse your content marketing strategy with new ideas and perspectives.

5. Locate and Replace Stale Content

Finally, if your strategy is sound, it might just be old content that is dragging the ship down. Run analytics on all of your pages and identify content that’s performing poorly. It’s especially important to rework product description and landing pages periodically to ensure they conform to keywords and content best practices that are currently trending. By working with a managed content team of crowdsourced writers and editors, you can overhaul an entire site quickly, boosting performance in the search engines.

The post 5 Tips to Revitalize a Lagging Content Marketing Strategy appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

With more than 20 years of experience in consumer research and brand marketing for global brands such as Smirnoff, Jose Cuervo, and Baileys, Rohner brings a wealth of experience to the young and growing company. Specifically, over the last ten years, she managed the production of high-volume content creation programs for top  retailers such as Cooking.com, Williams-Sonoma, and Staples, where she was responsible for delivering thousands of publish-ready content pieces.

“Anyone who sits down with Lisa for five minutes realizes she was born and bred for this role,” said Crowd Content CEO, Clayton Lainsbury. “When it comes to quality assurance and content production in general, there is no replacement for experience. That’s what Lisa brings. She understands that great content turns shoppers into customers. More importantly, she knows how to deliver that content at scale to brands and retailers.”

Rohner saw promise in Crowd Content when she compared it to other companies in the space. “I’ve been in this business for a long time, and Crowd Content impressed me straightaway as it doesn’t operate on the ‘good enough’ principle,” stated Rohner. “Its dedication to becoming a best-in-class enterprise content platform makes it clear that this company will become the leader in the managed content space.”

Based in the New York City area, the addition of Rohner also adds an East Coast presence to the Victoria, BC based Crowd Content. This announcement comes shortly after Crowd Content released its first half earnings for 2016, where it reported 44% revenue growth over the same period in 2015, crediting much of its growth to increased enterprise business.

About Crowd Content: Crowd Content is a content creation company based in Victoria, BC that helps brands and agencies create online marketing content at scale. The company is backed by well-known angel investors including Todd Dunlop (founder of Neverblue Media and RingPartner) and James DeGreef (founder of GenoLogics and Tectoria Venture Partners). For more information, visit www.crowdcontent.com.

The post Crowd Content Media Appoints Industry Veteran as Director of QA and Production appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

What Are Readability Scores?

The most popular readability metric is the Flesch-Kincaid grade level index. It uses a formula to determine what grade level of readers a piece of content is appropriate for. Lower numbers signal that a text is easily understood while higher values mean that a piece is more difficult. This system aims for a rough equivalence to the U.S. school system, so a score of 5.0 corresponds to around a fifth-grade reading level. The related Flesch-Kincaid reading ease test uses similar calculations, but it expresses results on a scale from 0 to 120 with higher scores awarded to more readable passages.

The factors that go into these estimates are the average number of words per sentence and the average number of syllables per word. Lengthier sentences and words cause text to be graded as harder to read.

Why Are Readability Scores Relevant?

Although Google’s exact ranking formulas aren’t available to the public, there is a correlation between reading ease and search placement. SEO software firm Searchmetrics released a white paper that says that the average Flesch-Kincaid reading ease score among the top search results is 76. This corresponds to a grade level of around seven or eight.

There is an argument to be made that technical or literate audiences prefer more complex content, but don’t go too far with this line of reasoning. Remember that even the most educated readers can understand content that’s basic, so you won’t necessarily lose them if you use straightforward language. The UX consulting service Nielsen Norman Group recommends keeping your texts at the 12th-grade level if you’re writing for an audience of college graduates. This allows you to cater to their tastes for more refined reading material without alienating less erudite readers.

Don’t worry about “dumbing down” your words and sentences. The whole point is to make your website clear and engaging without omitting anything important. Journalist Malcolm Gladwell, of “Outliers” fame, was able to effectively communicate his ideas without taxing his readers beyond the ninth-grade level according to a chart produced by Contently. Cormac McCarthy penned critically acclaimed fiction at a fifth-grade reading level. Unless the message you’re trying to get across is more complicated than that of these two gentlemen, there’s no reason for you to employ language any more demanding than they did.

Readability Tools

It’s easy to figure out where your document falls on the Flesch-Kincaid scales because there are a number of convenient resources that will tell you. If you use Microsoft Word, you can adjust your proofing settings to enable the display of readability statistics. Every time you perform a spelling and grammar check thereafter, you’ll see a box like this one:

View post on imgur.com

Microsoft Word is a commercial product, and if you’d like a free option instead, you can head over to readability-score.com. Copy-paste your content or enter a URL. The site will analyze the text and then display its readability scores. It also offers additional information, such as estimated reading time, and it will show you your longest sentence and word:

View post on imgur.com

Unless your content is already perfectly pitched to your patrons’ preferences, readability scores can be a valuable addition to your content-creation arsenal. Use them wisely to identify when you ought to break up overlong sentences and replace problematic phrases with simpler synonyms. This will improve user engagement and may even make an impact on your search performance.

If you’re looking to find a content writer for your website that can match the reading level of your audience, be sure to contact us.

Note to the reader: The above post is rated 10.2 on the Flesch-Kincaid grade level and 52 for reading ease.

The post Why Readability Scores Could Make Your Content Better appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Where there used to just be a simple thumbs up icon, you may now see a variety of smiley faces, or even a heart. These new icons are part of the Facebook Reactions that Facebook recently rolled out.

New Icons?

Even if you do frequent Facebook regularly, it is very possible that this review is the first you have heard of Facebook Reactions. The reason is that it isn’t immediately apparent how to use the new options if it hasn’t been explained to you, because the user interface hasn’t changed.

The old “like” button appears on every post, but there aren’t obvious buttons to produce the other reactions.

In order to do anything other than like a post, you have to hover over the “like” button until a pop up menu gives you other options.

Facebook Reactions In-Depth

Facebook Reactions increase the ways you can non-verbally respond to a post. In addition to being able to like a post, you can now also express shock (wow), anger, love, sadness, and even laugh at a post.

There are some limits to this new system, though.

First, you can not express multiple reactions for a post. You can change your reaction, if you want, but you simply can’t laugh and love at the same time.

Second, Facebook Reactions only apply to the initial post. Comments are still restricted to simply being liked or not.

Third, only the top three reactions (ordered by number of reactions given) are visible on the post. Anyone who can read the post can click on the reactions to get a more complete accounting of how many of each type of reaction was given and who gave each reaction type.

Where is the Dislike Button?

Simply put, there isn’t a dislike button. Mark Zuckerberg announced in 2014 that Facebook would never include a dislike button, because he doesn’t think such a button is a force for social good and doesn’t want to see posts getting demeaned on Facebook in that way.

Bullying Concerns

Facebook reactions were released worldwide on February 24th, 2016, which happens to coincide with Anti-Bullying Day in Canada.

This is rather appropriate because there are some concerns that the new system could be used for bullying. Whether this concern is merited has yet to be seen.

There are some who believe that Facebook Reactions can actually be used to fight bullying. And while Facebook hasn’t made any direct statements on the matter beyond those made when referencing a potential “dislike” button, at least one part of the feature does seem to combat bullying.

Since only the top three reactions are visible on any post, even if a few individuals do give inappropriately negative reactions to a post (like anger on a happy post), those reactions are likely to be hidden from view by the positive reactions.

Additionally, at least in the first 24 hours, the system doesn’t seem to be getting abused yet. On one of the most abused Facebook pages in history, Feminist Frequency, not a single person has yet to post an “angry” response to any post.

Final Analysis

It is too early to tell for sure whether Facebook Reactions will become popular, but the initial response by Facebook users shows a lot of excitement.

The system has been thoroughly tested for months in other countries, so hopefully the bugs are fully worked out.

Even if interest fades, the flexibility of Facebook Reactions is sure to increase the overall value of Facebook for private and commercial users alike.

What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments section below!

The post Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Facebook Reactions appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

This article examines how you can find articles on the topic freelance writing and how you can be a featured author on the Crowd Content blog.

What is Writers Hub?

Writer Hub is an area of the Crowd Content blog where you’ll find articles related to freelance writing, writing best practices, and how to craft content in certain styles such as press releases and search engine optimized product descriptions.

Some of the current trending topics in Writers Hub include:

• How to Use Social Media as a Research Tool for Your Writing
• 5 Ways Freelance Writers Can Capture a Fair Share of the Market
• My Top 3 Freelancing Goals for 2016

I think of the Writers Hub as a writer hangout because there’s almost always an active discussion among writers in this area of the blog.

How do I get to Writers Hub?

The Crowd Content blog is divided into topic categories.

At the top of the blog, you’ll see a category selection. Click Writers Hub.

You’re now in the Writers Hub.

Here, you can join the discussion with hundreds of contributors in the comments section of blog posts and earn coins and status in the Community.

How do I become a featured author on the Crowd Content blog?

We’re actively recruiting contributors. If you have a unique and interesting topic that has not been covered on the Crowd Content blog, please pitch your idea.

Note: your pitch can be for any topic related to content marketing, social media, freelance writing, SEO, community, or marketing and branding.

Check out the Community FAQ for more information about the Community and how you can get involved.

The post [Community Talk] How to Get Featured and Find Articles Relevant to You appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

What could have gone wrong?

One possible reason for the lack of readership could have something to do with the fact that it hasn’t been picked up by the search engines.

There are plenty of reasons people may not be reading your press release, but here are some tips on how to increase your traffic and get it found on Google.

1. Make it Search Engine-Friendly

By creating your press release with search engines in mind, you will increase its rankings, making it easier to find by both readers and reporters.

If the reporter likes what they see, there’s a good chance they will publish it on their media website. To do this, you need to make a list of keywords you want to get ranked for.

Once you have a good list of words to work with, include them in the article. Also, don’t forget about the metadata; include a few keywords in the metas to increase your chances of getting found online.

While the article should be easily scannable by search engines, remember that actual people will be reading it, so don’t stuff keywords where they aren’t necessary.

2. Write About a News-Worthy Topic

As much as we all want to sell our products or services, that’s a big no-no. Even if it ranks well on Google, no one is going to read it if you are blatantly trying to get them to buy something.

What big change has been going on with your company (new management, product launches, etc.)? Also, make it sound professional by using a third person writing style so that it doesn’t sound like you have a biased opinion.

3. Optimize Photos

Most audiences are more likely to read an article or press release that has an image. Pick one of a customer using your products or something else relating to your business.

Include meta tags and links on your image so that it is easier to share on social media by your audience.

4. Create a Great Headline

The first thing readers will notice about your press release is the headline, so it’s vital to have one that captures their attention. It should be short and sweet, yet act as a little teaser to give your audience a hint at what it will be about.

5. Promote it on Social Media

I’m sure you already know this, but social media is one of the most effective ways to get the word out, so don’t forget this step. Post a link to your press release on all of your social media pages where your target audience hangs out in order to make it easier for them to find.

Press releases are a great way to keep your audience informed on what’s going on with your business, while also being used as a way to build links to your website.

With these tips, your press release will be much easier to scan and find by the big search engines and your potential customers.

The post 5 Tips for Optimizing Your Press Release appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

In fact, press releases are not like articles in form, structure, components or even in the end goal. A press release is there to publicize an event, a company, a project or a product launch.

It is not there for SEO purposes or to be sent to the end reader. They are sent to bloggers, news sites and industry publications so that whatever you are trying to publicize will be written about by those publications.

The Vital Newsworthy Element

Before writing a press release, or having a press release writer create it for you, there are two important steps- researching what you’re publicizing and finding a newsworthy angle. Because you are trying to interest blogs and news outlets in carrying a story about the topic, there has to be some kind of newsworthy angle that will allow them to do that. Without the newsworthy element, it’s basically an ad that you are asking them to publish for free. 

They won’t.

To find your angle, choose the essence of the message and present it in a way that will interest more than just the company that is releasing the info. If you are writing a release about the introduction of an interesting new product, research the industry and how this product will change or fit into that industry. That will make the release perfect for blogs and periodicals that cover that industry.

Don’t Try to Sell

Above all, your press release can’t read like an ad. It isn’t designed to sell anything. At the most, it is designed to get people to find out more about what you are publicizing. If your release is full of language about how great and fantastic a product is, it will be deleted along with the other releases that do exactly the same thing.

Instead, consider tying the launch to something currently in the news. Instead of talking about how great a new vape shop is, talk about the launch of the store it the context of how popular vaping has gotten and how studies have shown that they can help people quit smoking. With a newsworthy hook, you have a much better chance of media outlets taking notice.

The post How to Find the Newsworthy for Your Press Release appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

But there is also a type of person who wants to be informed. For this type of person, a press release is a better format for engaging interest.

The following tips will improve your skills as a press release writer.

Structure of a Press Release

A press release has three fundamental parts: title, summary, and body.

As a press release writer, you need to understand the purpose of each of these parts and craft your prose towards fulfilling that purpose.

Title

The title of your press release is the source of your search engine optimization. Current search engines will also analyze the summary and body of your press release, but the title gets a lot of weight. You need to include at lease one popular keyword in your title and the name of your business, product, or both.

Use an application like Google Analytics to determine good keywords for your title. The final goal is to crafts something that both has good keywords and succinctly describes the content of your press release.

Summary

The summary of a press release is roughly two to three sentences long and gives the reader a full understanding of what they should expect to see in the body. The purpose of the summary is to hook the reader.

You want your summary to be interesting and include just enough information that the reader wants to learn more.

If the summary hooks the reader, the rest of the content often all but sells itself. As a press release writer, you should practice writing summaries that are highly engaging.

Body

Finally, the body is the full story of your press release. The main goal of this section is to make the reader feel informed. Start the body with a date and include direct links in the body to your website. While it may seem a bit counter intuitive, a press release is better for marketing if it doesn’t try to sell a product.

Instead, focus on making it informative and not too long. An informed reader that isn’t bored by an overly long press release is likely to explore links, allowing the actual sale to be made by a web page focused towards that purpose.

The post The Secret of Writing a Press Release that Actually Gets Read appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

This is why more businesses are relying on SEO content writing services for their marketing.

If you are looking to be competitive in the field of SEO content, the following tips will help you improve your fundamentals.

Format

Blog writing is very different from press releases or product descriptions. If your content doesn’t match the standards for the format, it will fail to engage readers and thus slip in SEO rankings.

Familiarize yourself with all common formats and research carefully when writing in a new format.

Quality

Quality is king of modern SEO practices. Search engine metrics put high emphasis on whether readers are spending meaningful time on a site, whether they click on links, and whether they return to the site.

Besides standard good writing practices (good spelling and grammar, sentence variety, etc.), you need to understand your audience.

Always target your prose towards a specific audience, rather than a generic one and make your content compelling, informative, and relevant. Modern search engines recognize variations on keywords and synonyms very well, so don’t sacrifice quality just to include keywords.

Social Media Marketing

Using social media to market your content will increase the traffic to your site, which also improves your search engine rank. Of course, using social media effectively requires that you understand how that social media platform works and what methods work on it.

For example, if you are using images, Instagram is a better way to direct traffic to your website than Twitter.

Notable Tools

Google is pretty much your best friend when it comes to SEO. Tools like Google Analytics and Google Authorship allow you to match your content to trending searches and to build your brand, respectively.

Wordstream is another similar tool that will help improve your keyword use. But, probably the most important tool is a good spell check and thesaurus.com. Spelling error free copy that uses lots of creative words is ideal for engaging your audience.

Linkbuilding

Good linkbuilding is more important than ever in content marketing. Search engine metrics significantly downgrade your site’s ranking when links aren’t relevant or are clearly paid for.

On the other hand, just a few relevant links that are inserted naturally in to appropriate keyword text will give you a good boost.

The post The Fundamentals of Writing Engaging SEO Copy appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

When it comes to website content, fresh is best. Scraped or auto-generated content is just a big ole' waste of time, money and resources.

Says who? Matt Cutts, the leader of Google's own Webspam team, that's who.

In one of his recent YouTube Q & A sessions, Cutts answers the question of whether or not it's useful to re-post content (including press releases, blog posts and articles) from other sites.

The short answer? No.

Google has made their mission clear from the get-go – they're dedicated to "providing the best user experience possible", and to that end, the search engine giant is constantly 'tweaking' their algorithms.

According to Cutts, "Google focuses on high quality content" by focusing on 3 main factors:

• "Discretion"
• "Curation"
• "Content"

Cutts explains that marketers, website owners and businesses who want to make the most of their SEO content marketing strategies should look at:

• Why would users want to return to my website?
• What value am I providing visitors with each piece of content on my website?

He uses the NY Times as a cystal-clear example of a website that, in Google's eyes, does everything right when it comes to content creation, discretion and curation.

What's So Wrong With Duplicate SEO Content?

According to Cutts, "It's probably not worth just having automatically generated stuff that could be duplicate content".

That's right. Sourcing and posting auto-generated RRS feeds, passed-around press releases and scraped content is at best, a waste of time, money and resources.

And if you really go all-out with recycled content, you run the risk of being reported directly to Google by virtually anyone who's online.

It's time to stop scraping for content and start creating your own, high-quality SEO content – or hire the pros to do it for you!

After all, while Cutts doesn't claim that Google has any plans to penalize sites with non-malicious duplicate content, he's perfectly clear when he states ""Why not just concentrate on the good stuff"? Indeed.

The post Duplicate vs. Fresh SEO Content – Advice From Google’s Webspam Team Leader appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Looking for new ways to improve the quality of your marketing content? There are literally hundreds of online content writer tools and applications that can help you.

The following top ten content writer tools are the best digital options to help you improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your content marketing.

9. Google Calendar – This free, easy to use online tool lets you organize the release date of your content to avoid flood and famine marketing. A great addition to your content writer tools.

8. WordPress SEO by Yoast – If you have any difficulty with metadata tags on your WordPress articles, this tools will help you always pick the best tags for your content.

7. Tag Crowd – Tag Crowd creates a visual representation of your keyword density that allows you to judge how efficiently your content can be found by search engines.

6. Dropbox – Besides providing additional storage, this tool simplifies online collaboration with client or other writers when creating content marketing.

5. Piktochart – Infographics are both popular and effective in content marketing. This valuable application will have you creating your own in minutes.

4. Yahoo Style Guide – This is one of the best style guides available for content marketing because it was specifically designed for internet content, as opposed the AP Style Guide.

3. Keyword Planner – Keyword use is much like Goldilocks and the Three Bears. You don’t want too little or too much. You want it just right. This tool is ideal for your needs.

2. Brainy Quote – An on point quote will make your marketing more memorable and memorable marketing sells better. This tool will help you find famous quotes quickly.

1. Thesaurus.com – Your audience will bore quickly if you call a product “amazing” more than twice. Use this website to call it “fascinating,” “incredible,” “marvelous,” and “prodigious.”

The post Top 9 Tools Needed to Master Writing Quality Content appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

The Attributes of a Press Release

An Eye-catching Headline

Kerin Foster of Marketing Land states that the best way to develop a great headline is to put yourself in your readers’ shoes. What type of headline would capture your attention? People have access to limitless information every time they browse the web. Without an eye-catching headline, your target audience is unlikely to read, or even notice, your press release.

An Informative First Paragraph

You have succeeded in catching a reader’s attention, and this is not the time to be coy. As captivating as your press release may be, it is unlikely that your reader will read every word before moving on to another headline. All pertinent information should be covered in the first paragraph: the Who, What, When, Where and Why.

A Notable Quote

Providing straightforward, boiled down facts can feel a little dry and boring. By including a quote from a notable person regarding your announcement, you can provide interest to your piece. According to Hannah Fleishman of Inbound Marketing, the quote you choose should emphasize the core of your announcement.

Contact Information

A common mistake a press release writer may make is forgetting to include the company’s contact information. Your press release should conclude with the company’s telephone number and the email address of whoever handles your company’s marketing communications.

Marketing Your Press Release

Whether you are writing the press release yourself, or you have hired a professional press release writer, effectively marketing your press release is the key to success.

Social Media

Press releases are easily shared across social media platforms. Whether you post it, tweet it or pin it, social media provides a great way to connect with your target audience.

Email Marketing

Do you send out regular newsletters? If so, you already have an effective means of sharing your press release with those who will benefit from it the most.

Website

Whether you post the press release to your blog or feature it on your homepage, your website is the prime location to share your announcement.

The post A Guide to Writing a Great Press Release appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Skip directly to the Complete Guide for Using Campaigns (Beta)

Today, Crowd Content released the beta version of Campaigns. Campaigns is a tool that helps marketers organize and automate their entire content strategy.

Campaigns allows marketers to plan their content calendar weeks, months, or even years in advance. The tool then automatically places content orders with your team of writers according to the schedule you have created.

Campaigns makes it easy to add different content streams to your calendar such as blog posts, tweets, Facebook posts, ebooks, or white papers.

You can pre-assign each piece of content to a specific writer or set each piece on a first come first serve basis for your writing team.

Have a list of titles or keywords that you need content written for? Bulk upload tools make it easy to add hundreds of titles in minutes. The calendar then schedules each title as a separate content order on the days you want them.

Need to make changes to your content calendar after scheduling it? Bulk edit tools allow you to edit several content orders at once. A bulletin board also lets you communicate with your entire writing team from one place.

Combined with our publishing apps, Campaigns will significantly reduce the time it takes for marketers to plan, schedule, approve, and publish content. Completed content can be sent directly to your website. You can also export content with full HTML coding or export in bulk to a CSV file.

Campaigns truly does make managing and executing a robust content marketing strategy easy for brands and agencies. To learn more, view the tutorial below or contact us today for a live demo.

Complete Guide for Using Campaigns (Beta)

Below is a complete guide with screenshots on how to use the beta version of Campaigns at Crowd Content. Because Campaigns is currently in beta, you will need to request access to this section of the platform by clicking “Campaigns” in the top navigation bar and then contacting your Client Account Manager.

If you’re new to Crowd Content, then you should check out the Quick-Start Guide for Crowd Content Clients.

Guide Contents

1. Campaigns Video Tutorial
2. Creating a New Campaign
3. Create a Campaign Brief and Default Settings
4. Select Writers for Your Campaign
5. Schedule Content for Your Campaign
6. Launch Your Campaign
7. Monitoring Your Active Campaign
8. Editing Scheduled Content Orders

1. Campaigns Video Tutorial

2. Creating a New Campaign

Click on Campaigns in the top navigation bar of the site. Click Create New Campaign to get started. The site will walk you through an easy Campaign set up wizard which we outline in the following steps.

3. Create a Campaign Brief and Default Settings

Every Campaign has a Brief and a group of Default Settings.

Brief

The Brief should cover your high level objectives and guidelines for all content that will be created in the Campaign.

Give your Campaign a name, upload a logo for your Campaign, and outline your general guidelines in the Campaign Overview section.

You can also upload an attachment for your Campaign. You may want to do this if you have a more detailed set of guidelines in an existing document.

Default Settings

Specifying your Default Settings will save you time when adding content orders to the Campaign.

These settings will be automatically applied to all new content orders added to the Campaign going forward. However, you will have the option to change any of these settings at the time of adding each new content order – these are only default settings.

Most of these settings are optional, but you will at least want to select a default Content Type. Select Custom for any type of content other than tweets or Facebook posts. For example, for articles, blog posts, press releases, ebooks, and white papers, you should select Custom.

The other settings in this section are the same settings you would find on the normal order form at Crowd Content. These settings tell the writer what you are looking for. Specify any settings that you feel will apply to most content orders added to this Campaign. If you’re unsure about any of the settings, leave them blank.

Remember, these are only default settings – you will have the option to change them when adding any new content orders to the Campaign.

When you’re happy with your Campaign Brief and Default Settings, click Save and Continue.

4. Select Writers for Your Campaign

On this step, you select which writer or writers will have access to the content orders in the Campaign.

This will be a default writer setting for the Campaign, but you will be able to adjust your writer settings for individual content orders if you wish.

To select writers, choose between Open, Direct, or Team Order.

Open Order

If you don’t have any preferred writers yet at Crowd Content, you may want to start your Campaign with Open Orders. This means that your content orders will be available to all qualified writers at the Quality Level you select.

For example, if you choose Open Order > 3 Star, only 3 and 4 Star writers will have access to your content orders.

Direct Order

If you have a specific writer you want to work with on this Campaign, choose the Direct Order option.

The writer search tool will appear and you can select your preferred writer.

While in the writer search tool, you can view a writer’s profile by clicking on the blue square icon in the bottom right of their listing. The profile will show you useful statistics, samples, and previous ratings for that writer.

Team Order

If you have a group of writers you want to work with on this Campaign, choose the Team Order option.

A list of your existing writer teams will appear. Hover over a team name to see a snapshot of the writers on that team.

Simply click on a team name to select that team as the default writer setting for content orders in this Campaign.

Don’t have any teams yet, or want to create a new team? Click the blue Create New Team button in the bottom right.

Give your new team a name and click Save. A label for your new team will then appear in the left column under Teams in the writer search tool.

To add writers to your new team, you have two options. You can select multiple writers using the checkboxes on the left of their listing and then click Add to Team at the bottom left. Select your new team and click Save.

You can also drag and drop writers into any team by clicking and holding to the left of the checkbox on any writer listing.

When you’re done adding writers to your team, click the green Save and Continue button. This will take you back to the team select page. Simply click on the new team name to select that team.

Once you have your team selected for this Campaign, click Save and Continue.

5. Schedule Content for Your Campaign

The final step of creating your Campaign is to schedule your content calendar. This is the fun part!

On this screen, you’ll see your content calendar on the left and a list view of scheduled content on the right. To start, your list view will be empty because you have no scheduled content yet.

To add content orders to your calendar, you have a few options. Click on any date on the calendar, Quick Add, Upload File, or Paste In.

Quick Add

The easiest way to add a new content order to your calendar is by clicking Quick Add. This will bring up the form to request a new piece of content.

Alternatively, you can just click on any date on the calendar. This will bring up the same form, but will have the date you clicked pre-selected as the Place Date for the content order.

You will notice that your Default Settings are already applied to the content order. Your Order Type (Open, Team, or Direct) will be pre-selected along with your Quality Level (pricing level).

You can change either of these settings at this time if you wish.

You should then add a Title for this content order, select a Word Count, and add the instructions for this specific order. Your instructions tell the writer how to approach this content piece.

The rest of your Default Settings can be view and edited by clicking Advanced Edit in the bottom left area of this order form.

You can easily set this to be a recurring content order by clicking the dropdown menu beside Repeat Order?

You can choose to have it repeat Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly.

You can even specify an end date for the recurring order. Choose to have this recurring content order end after a certain number of titles (occurrences) or on a specific date.

After you’re happy with the settings and instructions for this content order, click Save Order.

The content order will then be scheduled as per your settings. If you’ve set it on a recurring schedule, you will see all future occurrences of the order listed on the calendar.

Hover over the icons on the calendar to see details about that order.

Upload File

If you’ve already created several titles and saved them into an Excel file, you can use the Upload File option to add them to your content calendar.

You are then brought to the same content order form that we saw with the Quick Add option. The difference here is that the settings and instructions on this form will apply to all the titles in the batch you are adding.

Just like the Quick Add, all of your Default Settings will already be set on the form when it opens. You can change any of those default settings now if you wish (remember, you can see all settings by clicking Advanced Edit).

When you’re happy with your instructions and settings, you need to decide if you want to place all of these titles on the Place Date or schedule them over several days.

If you want to place all of the titles on the Place Date, click the Yes button beside Place all on Place Date?

If you want to schedule them into the future, leave the Place all on Place Date selection to No and use the Repeat Order tool.

Use the dropdown menu to select Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly.

IMPORTANT: The system will automatically set your schedule to end after the number of titles you are adding in this batch. For example, if I am adding 3 titles in this batch, the system suggests to end the schedule after 3 titles. You can change this suggested setting if you wish. However, if you schedule past the number of titles in your batch, your titles will be repeated after each title has already occurred once. In other words, the system will just keep running through your list of titles over and over again until the schedule ends.

Paste In

Another easy way to add multiple titles is with the Paste In option.

A large text area will appear when using the Paste In option. Paste your list of titles into the area.

Each title should be on a separate line.

Click Add Titles.

Just like the Upload File option, you will have a chance to review the list of titles, edit them, or add more titles if needed.

When you are happy with the list of titles, click Save and Continue.

At this point, you will go through the same steps as explained in the Upload File section.

6. Launch Your Campaign

After your content calendar is scheduled, you’re ready to launch your Campaign.

Click Save and Continue.

A confirmation box will appear asking if you want to launch the Campaign now or pause it and activate it later.

To launch immediately, click Activate Campaign Now.

To pause the Campaign and activate later, click Activate Campaign Later.

You can also see your dedicated account manager’s contact information on this pop up. This is just a reminder that you can reach out to your account manager at any time for help with Campaigns or any other part of the Crowd Content platform.

TIP: If you aren’t ready to schedule any content at this time, you can skip the scheduling step and still finish creating the Campaign by clicking Save and Continue. You will be able to add content orders to your calendar later on when you are ready.

7. Monitoring Your Active Campaign

Now that your Campaign is active, you can monitor it from the Campaign home area.

To go to the Campaign home, click on Campaigns in the top navigation bar of the website. If you only have one Campaign, its Campaign home will automatically show when you get to this page.

If you have multiple Campaigns, you can select the Campaign you want to monitor by clicking on the dropdown menu in the top left corner of this page.

On the Campaign home, you will see the following areas:

Bulletin Board: Here, you can add messages that all writers in your campaign can see. This is a great tool for announcing updates to guidelines or for motivating your writer team. If they’re doing a great job, let them know! Writers in your Campaign can also post to the Bulletin Board if they have general Campaign questions.

Campaign Logo, Brief, and Default Settings: You can view all these elements on this page and can edit them at any time.

Default Order Type (Writers): Here, you can edit your default writer settings.

Upcoming Content: This list shows you content orders that are scheduled to be placed soon. You can edit any of these upcoming orders by clicking on them.

Active Content: This list shows you all content orders that are Placed, Being Written, Ready for Review, or Completed. You can see the writer’s progress on Being Written orders and see the ratings of ones that are Completed. Click on any piece of Active Content to view it.

Mini Calendar: In the bottom left, you’ll see a mini calendar that shows all of your scheduled content in a month view. You can flip through different months using the left and right arrows. Hover over any content icon to view details about that piece of content.

Pause or Activate Your Campaign: Controls exist in the top right corner of this page to either Pause or Activate your Campaign. You can also Delete a Campaign, but only if it does not have any Active Content in it.

8. Editing Scheduled Content Orders

After scheduling your content calendar, you may need to make edits to the details of certain content orders.

It’s easy to change the Place Date, instructions, or other settings to a single content order. Simply locate that order on your calendar or Upcoming Content list. Click on the content order to bring up the same form you saw when you created the order.

Here, you can make changes to any of the details. You can also click Advanced Edit in the bottom left to see more options and settings.

Editing Multiple Content Orders (Edit Series)

If you want to edit several content orders at one time, you can click Edit Series in the top right corner of the edit form.

This will take you to another view that shows you all the titles in that series.

This view will also display the schedule settings you have in place for the series.

You can make updates to the schedule to change the dates that orders in that series will place on.

When you’re happy with your changes, click Update Order.

IMPORTANT: The system will ask you if you want to update all content orders in the series or just this and all future content orders in the series. It’s important to understand that if the initial content order you clicked on to edit occurs in the future after other upcoming orders, selecting Following Orders will NOT update any content orders before the one you initially selected to edit. If you want to update every content order in the series from today going forward, select All Orders.

Request Beta Access to Campaigns

As noted, Campaigns is currently in beta. If you are interested in using the Campaigns tool, please contact your Client Account Manager to get full access. If you’re new to Crowd Content, please create a client account here or contact us for more info.

The post Crowd Content Launches Campaigns (Beta) to Automate Your Content Strategy appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Press releases have been a cornerstone of public relations since their inception nearly a century ago. While they have always received a great deal of criticism, they remain one of the most effective tried and true ways to produce results.

As a press release writer, you have the responsibility of creating awareness of a new product or service. As Wendy Marx of Marx Communications explains, a press release should answer five basic questions: Who, What, When, Where and Why.

A well-written press release is compelling, scannable and offers the reader everything they need to know upfront. Whether you are writing a press release or are purchasing one from a professional press release writer, there are basic guidelines to follow.

Read on to learn about how to write a press release that will stand out.

The Elements of an Effective Press Release

The tone may vary depending on the purpose of the business and the length is subjective according to its needs, but every press release follows a basic format.

The Headline and Subhead

The headline is the reader’s first impression of the press release. It should accurately explain the purpose of the press release, while compelling the reader to continue reading. Proper formatting dictates that the headline is written in bold font, while the subhead is italicized.

The Body

The body of the press release should be as concise as possible, while still covering the pertinent information. Your target audience, who in this case is the media, is unlikely to spend more than a couple minutes reading over the press release.

The first line of the body should include the city of the press release’s origin, as well as its release date. A press release writer should include all the important information in the first paragraph of the press release. The details of the announcement can be further expounded upon in the following paragraphs, but the reader should have quick access to the essentials.

While the press release should be factual, this does not mean it needs to be dry. Incorporating a quote from an authoritative figure regarding the announcement will bring color and interest to the piece.

The Press Release: An Important Aspect of Your Marketing Strategy

As Heidi Cohen states, a press release alone is not enough to ensure the success of your business. However, when integrated with the other aspects of your marketing strategy, it can be effective in driving your campaign.

The post What Every Press Release Writer Must Know appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Are blocks in creativity preventing your website from consistently reaching your target audiences? If so, you have a lot to gain from using an editorial calendar.

Content writing can be a challenge, and editorial calendars are becoming an increasingly common means of strategizing, organizing and managing content creation.

While you may feel that utilizing an editorial calendar is confining and does not permit creativity and freedom, taking a little time to plan and prepare now will save you from a lot of stress in the future.

Here are four benefits to working from an editorial calendar.

Eliminate Writer’s Block

Nothing blocks creativity quite like stress. By taking the time to map out future blog posts or website content, you free up time to research your topic, find images or find the right writer for your content.

Plan Strategically

As stated by Beth Levenson from Sigma Web Marketing, using an editorial calendar allows you to tie your content writing to date-sensitive events. Plan your content around holidays, product launchings, trends or company milestones.

Stay Organized

Working with a variety of writers is a great way to give a voice to different perspectives and keep your content writing fresh and relevant. However, it can also make it challenging to stay organized. By using an editorial calendar, you can give your writers a clearer sense of direction.

Find out What Your Audience Wants

According to Kat Liendgens, CEO of Spectate, using an editorial calendar is a great way to find out what interests your audience. By overlaying your editorial calendar with analytic data, you can see with what type of content your audience views and interacts. This enables you to become more strategic in your marketing campaigns.

Clearly, editorial calendars are not limited to the blogging world. You can also use an editorial calendar to plan updates to your website’s content, determine when you will need fresh product descriptions for existing products or schedule a press release for the launch of a new product or service.

The post Scheduling Your Content Writing with an Editorial Calendar appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

While knowing is often half the battle, many still struggle with the execution portion of the content marketing process.

Here are just a few surefire techniques that you can use to supercharge your own content. 

1. Mix Evergreen & Topical

Regardless of the specific form that your content takes on any given day, you need to vary the focus of your pieces.

Release a regular stream of content that's related to current events in your field. At the same time, try to put out periodic evergreen guides on niche-specific topics. 

2. Curate Content Regularly

An easy way to boost your content output is to use the work of others as a jump-off point. Content curation allows businesses to siphon off a bit of the buzz created by other businesses and sites.

Better yet, it's a great way to improve site SEO and boost SERPs rankings. 

3. Repurpose Old Content

Few businesses realize that there's plenty of content value lurking within their archives. Oftentimes, it's not even necessary to edit or rewrite content to squeeze a bit of extra life from older publications.

All you have to do is repurpose the content in question by promoting it to a new audience. 

4. Cross-Promote with Video

If you're not using video to augment traditional content marketing avenues like blogging, you need to start immediately.

More importantly, you should use your YouTube and Vimeo videos to promote other forms of content that you've posted elsewhere. Make sure that your videos mention your primary website and social media profiles. 

5. Use Q&A Sites for Research

Keeping your finger on the pulse of the community and using that intelligence to guide your content efforts is a must in this day and age.

Check out sites like Quora and Reddit to see what your potential customers are most interested in and tailor your content to address their concerns. 

6. Content First, Keywords Later

One of the biggest mistakes that businesses make when using content to raise their profiles is focusing too much on keywords. While keywords are important, they're not the be-all and end-all of content marketing.

Build your content so that it revolves around a particular topic and seamlessly incorporate the appropriate keywords later on. 

7. Focus on Unique Photos

While social media is an effective way to promote content, most of your traffic will come from Google and Bing. More and more, images are being used to search for content.

As such, it's vital that you optimize your images for search and use unique photos that set your content apart. 

Going the Distance

Devising a content marketing strategy that accomplishes your goals at a reasonable price is a marathon, not a sprint.

You can reach the finish line more quickly with less effort by employing established SEO best practices and putting out the best content possible. The tactics covered here should help you immensely.

The post 7 Content Marketing Tactics for Success appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

While a happy customer is likely to come back again and spread the word about your business, you have an uphill battle on your hands when trying to win back an annoyed customer.

Understanding the Impact of Annoying Content

According to a paper on annoying online content presented at the 22nd annual International World Wide Web Conference in Rio in early 2013, content publishers know how much money they make from annoying ads. What they don’t know, however, is what the actual price is for annoying consumers for the sake of getting those initial clicks.

Is It Really Worth It For Extra Clicks?

If you take the attitude that any attention is good, you run the risk of turning off consumers before you even get to make a serious sales pitch. When considering your online marketing design, consider these points:

1. You Could Waste Money by Going After Unproductive Leads

Annoying content can be a costly mistake when it comes to your advertising budget. Even if you generate leads, a lack of conversions isn’t going to be good for your bottom line. Smaller businesses can’t easily afford to absorb such losses.

2. Some Consumers Purposely Avoid Annoying Sites

When it come to annoying content, once is usually enough for a visitor. If somebody was annoyed when they first visited your site, they’re not likely to come back any time soon, if ever.

3. You Risk Doing Brand Damage

Annoyed visitors are likely to spread the word about your annoying content features. This does more than just take a few conversions away from you. It could tarnish your overall brand image, which can be devastating to smaller businesses.

Top Offenders: What Content Is Most Annoying?

The first step in addressing annoying content is to determine what exactly annoys consumers the most. There is no definitive answer, but there are certain annoyances that seem to rank high among consumer complaints.

Some of the top online content turn-offs include:

1. Unfriendly Mobile Content

With more consumers moving to mobile devices as their primary source of access to the Internet, things like small text and bright colors tend to be annoying.

2. Pop-Ups

Another common annoyance among online searchers is sites with automatic pop-ups. This can range from the offer to access online help to a scrolling pop-up that your visitors can’t get rid of until they stop and find the box to click to get rid of it.

3. Unable to Automatically Leave a Site

While it may seem like you’re doing a service by setting up your site so that a message comes up with one more pitch before a visitor can leave, this can be downright frustrating. This is especially true for casual visitors who have some interest, but aren’t ready to commit to a decision yet.

One way to remedy the situation is to take a critical look at your content from the perspective of a typical visitor. Take a closer look at what it is about your content that is annoying. Once you fix the problem, do some damage control by issuing a press release to announce your new website, blog or social page.

This way, you get some free publicity in the process. Another route to take is to announce the changes you made in your email newsletter or as a blog or social post.

The post Is Your Content Annoying? appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

Add Your Name to Your Contact Page

Customers tend to like to know who they are dealing with; or at least have a contact name they can reference when making initial contact with your business. On your contact page, it generally makes sense to include the following individuals:

• Business owner(s)
• Managers or project managers
• Other key people associated with your business (associates, contact person in HR, etc.)

This is where you would include names and phone numbers and/or email addresses associated with each name. This may also include presenting a list of your team members with a small photo and short blurb of info. If it is an extensive list, this can be relegated to another website page or placed on a sidebar on the homepage.

Create a Content-Rich LinkedIn Profile

Curious customers are likely to search for your LinkedIn profile or search your business in connection with your name or the individual they dealt with most of the time. You can accomplish this goal by simply adding your name and contact information into your LinkedIn profile. If a customer searches by your name, they will likely find your LinkedIn page. Your profile should include:

• Business name
• Name of business owner or CEO
• Brief intro for key figures

Register Your Domain Name

If you happen to be a business all by yourself, this should be a priority. As for a regular business name, there are times when it makes sense to register your domain name. Even if you have a unique business name, there is always the possibility that another business in a completely different field could use the same name.

By registering your domain name, you have the security of knowing that yours is the only business that will be associated with that domain. Think Donald Trump. He owns several businesses that have their own websites, yet he has created a strong personal brand too.

Build a Website with Your Domain Name

Once you register a domain name, you might as well use it. Create a website with your registered domain name. Create a link to your site on any other online platforms you are using for your business. If you are shifting from a URL you previously used for your website to your new site based on your domain name, send out a press release or at least place a post on your other platforms.

In Conclusion

When you create a personal brand, make sure you keep personal accounts private. The last thing you want is for customers to find embarrassing photos or ramblings online in your personal accounts that have nothing to do with your business. Keep all non-business accounts as private as possible. It takes time to establish a personal brand, but there are many rewards for successfully creating a brand based on your reputation and experience.

The post The Power of Personal Online Branding appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

We’ve taken this feedback and infused it into the brand new Crowd Content – a robust and intuitive content creation platform.

The new platform replaces the old one and offers more control managing content orders, greater ability managing your freelance writers, and, overall, is a lot easier to use.

A full tutorial of the new Crowd Content is below. If you don’t have a Crowd Content client account yet, we suggest you create one and check it out. It’s free to sign up and look around.

Dashboard

Your new Dashboard makes it easy and quick to see what’s happening with your recent content orders.

Recent Activity

Easily view recent activity on your account. We’ve added intuitive icons that tell you when orders are placed, picked up by writers, dropped by writers, or ready for review. Simply hover over an activity item to see quick actions you can perform for that order.

Order Status Shortcuts

Just above your recent activity, we list all orders you currently have for each status. Just click on a status, like “Ready” for example, to see all orders that currently have that status.

Easy Access to Create Orders and Add Funds

You’ll notice that the green Create Order and Add Funds buttons are shown in the same place on every page. This makes it easy to find these commonly used actions, saving you time and frustration.

Featured Blog Posts

We’re starting to publish more and more great content at our blog, Crowd Content Resources. On your Dashboard, we list the 4 most recent blog posts to keep you updated on content marketing trends, how-tos, and Crowd Content updates.

Notification Menu

A new feature we’ve added is the Notification Menu. You can view this menu by clicking on the small “notepad” to the right of your account balance.

The Notification Menu keeps you up to date on all happenings with your account. For example, we’ll add new notifications when you receive messages from writers or when orders become ready for review.

Help Menu – Your Client Account Manager

Click the “question mark” icon that is next to the Notification Menu to view your dedicated Client Account Manager’s contact info.

All clients at Crowd Content get a dedicated Client Account Manager regardless of how big or small you are. Use your account manager to help with system support or to give guidance on content strategy.

My Account Menu

In the top right of your screen, you’ll see your profile image or a default image if you haven’t added a profile image. Click this image to view your My Account Menu.

You can manage your account and navigate to important areas of the website from this menu. Here is a list of the menu items described:

• Edit Image (hover over image) – allows you to add a new profile image or crop your existing one
• Add Funds – allows you to add funds to your account
• Account Information – allows you to update your contact information
• Deposit History – shows you the funding history on your account
• Low Funds Notification – allows you to set a low funds threshold. If your account balance falls below this amount, we will send you an email notification
• Change Password – allows you to change the password on your account
• FAQ – brings you to the frequently asked questions from Crowd Content clients
• App Directory – allows you to install apps and connect your Crowd Content account to partner services
• Sign Out – safely signs you out of Crowd Content

Writer Management – Profile Images and Pen Names

One of the biggest upgrades to the new Crowd Content platform is the way you see and work with your writers.

For every writer you interact with, you now see their profile image and their Pen Name. You can also hover over a writer’s image anytime you see it to bring up a mini writer profile.

When viewing the writer’s profile, you can see his or her rating (from 1 to 4 stars) and perform the following key tasks:

• Blacklist Writer – blacklisting a writer means that the writer will no longer have access to any new orders you post
• Send Direct Order to Writer – this automatically takes you to a new order form with the writer pre-selected. The new order will then be sent directly to this writer.

My Content – A Comprehensive Order Management Tool

In the old Crowd Content, you had My Orders – an area that simply listed your orders. In the new Crowd Content, you have My Content – a tool that not only lists your orders, but allows you to perform advanced filtering actions and organize your content into folders.

Quick Actions Give You More Control

Hover over any order to see available actions for that order. Quickly Copy, Edit, Pause or Delete an Order. Or view the History of that order to date.

Progress Indicator

Easily see how much progress your writer has made on your order. The percentage shown is based on the number of words written by your writer as a percentage of the maximum word count you specified for the order.

Note: the progress indicator is replaced with the rating you gave the writer for that order once the order is Completed.

Colored Status Labels

We make it easy for you to know what’s happening with each order by listing colored status labels. As you use Crowd Content, you become familiar with the colors and know quickly what status each order is in.

Robust Filtering Options

The filtering options here are flat out amazing. Filter by:

• Status – see only orders in a certain status, like “Ready” for example
• Folder – see only orders in a certain folder
• Quality – see only orders placed at a certain Quality Level
• Writer – see only orders from one or multiple writers
• Rating – see only orders you gave a certain rating to. For example, view all Completed orders that you rated as Excellent. Then use those writers for future work.
• Date – see only orders from a certain date range

You can also combine any of the above filters together to mine deeper into your content. To clear all filters, simply click the refresh icon to the right of the date range filter.

Batch Controls Save You Time

Click the check boxes to the left of the orders to perform batch controls. Current batch controls available are Accept, Delete, and Pause.

Drag and Drop to Organize Content into Folders

Want to move a content order to another folder? Easy! Just hover to the left of the check box on any order and then click and drag the order to a folder on the left.

Condensed View for Power Users

Are you managing a lot of content? We make it easy for power users to get the job done. Click the button with 4 lines on it to the right of “Display” in the top right.

This brings up a condensed view that lets you see more orders at one time. Despite the view being condensed, you don’t lose any functionality. Simply click the “gear” symbol to the right of any order to access all available actions for that order.

Chat with Your Writer – Communication Is Key to Project Success

We’ve made it easy to communicate with your writers by offering an instant messaging feature. Chat with your writer while you review his first draft and let him know what you think. This feature also helps when one side needs to clarify the instructions, limiting needed revisions and saving you valuable time.

Projects Are Now Called Folders

A small change made on the new platform is that Projects are now called Folders. Folders behave in the same way that Projects did on the old platform – they are simply a way for you to organize your content orders.

If you have several websites, or have a large website with several sections, you can create a folder for each website or section.

If you’re an agency, create a folder for each of your clients.

Advanced Order Management – Even More Control!

As you may have noticed, a big theme built into the new Crowd Content is maximizing control over your ordering and management processes.

After placing an order, enjoy the following tools that give you full control with every content order you place:

• Edit Orders – this is a huge upgrade over the old platform. You can now edit an order provided that it is still in Placed status. Edit an order to change the word count, title, instructions, or anything else. The only thing you can’t edit as of now is the Content Type (from Custom to Tweets to Facebook Posts).
• Pause Orders – this is another new feature. You can now pause an order. This simply puts the order on hold without deleting it. You can then unpause the order when you’re ready to put it live again. Note: if you pause an order that is “Being Written”, the order will not be paused unless/if the current writer drops the order.
• Copy Orders – click Copy if you want to create an order with similar details as a previous order. By clicking Copy, an order form will appear with the exact same details and instructions as the order you clicked Copy from. You can then make any changes you want and place the order as a new order.
• View History – clicking History will show you the status history of the order. For example, it will show you when the order was placed, picked up by a writer, dropped by a writer, ready for review, and completed. This can help when trouble shooting an order.
• Delete Orders – you can delete any order that is still in Placed status.

A More Sophisticated Content Ordering Form

The new order form is still very similar to the previous order form, but offers a few key advantages.

Content Type – Now Order Tweets or Facebook Posts!

Before, there was no specific Content Type for Tweets or Facebook Posts. You had to request a large word count range and then ask the writer to create as many Tweets or Facebook Posts as they could within the word count. This was confusing and lacked quality control; character counts were not monitored.

In the new Crowd Content, we’ve introduced the Content Type. You now have the following content types to choose from:

• Custom – this is exactly what we offered before. If you want a blog post, product description, article, page for your website, or any type of content other than Tweets or Facebook posts, choose Custom.
• Tweets – choose this type if you want Tweets for your Twitter campaigns. When writers are working on Tweets, all character counts are monitored and are guaranteed to be between 15 and 140 characters.
• Facebook Posts – choose this type if you want Facebook Posts for your Facebook page. When writers are working on Facebook Posts, all character counts are monitored and are guaranteed to be between 100 and 300 characters.

Order Type – Open to Crowd or Direct with Writer

The new order form makes it easy to send orders directly to your preferred writer.

Choose Open Order if you want to make your order available to all qualified writers (based on your order criteria).

Choose Direct Order if you want to place your order directly with a preferred writer. A dropdown menu will appear to your right with the images and names of writers you have previously worked with.

More Control over Processing Time

If you have an order that requires a lot of research or extra work, you can now give your writer extra time. Simply open the Advanced Options and then adjust the Processing Time.

App Directory – Your Workflow Just Got More Efficient

We’re happy to announce the launch of the Crowd Content App Directory! We’ve partnered with some pretty big names to connect your content with services you already use.

After installing an app on your Crowd Content account, you can use it by going to the Tools and Apps tab of any Completed order. From here, you can use your apps to send completed content to partner services.

Currently, the App Directory has the following apps:

ShopWriters (Shopify)

Shopify has everything you need to create your own ecommerce store. ShopWriters is an app that is built directly into your Shopify admin panel. To use this app, you need to have a Shopify account.

The ShopWriters App allows you to:

• Order content for Product Descriptions or Blog Posts from your Shopify admin panel
• Automatically publish completed content to your store (no copying or pasting!)
• Manage thousands of Product Descriptions with ease (no spreadsheets!)

WordPress

WordPress is free web software that allows you to create a beautiful website or blog. Connect your Crowd Content account to your WordPress website or blog to:

• Automatically send completed content to your blog or website (no more copying or pasting!)
• Set content to draft status or to publish instantly
• Manage multiple blogs or websites by connecting multiple WordPress accounts

Constant Contact

Constant Contact helps small organizations grow their businesses by providing email, event, and other online marketing tools. Use the Constant Contact App to:

• Send completed content directly to your Constant Contact account
• Create a new email campaign for your completed content

MailChimp

MailChimp makes it easy for marketers to send email newsletters, manage subscriber lists, and track campaign performance. Use the MailChimp App to:

• Send completed content directly to your MailChimp account
• Create a new email campaign for your completed content

HootSuite

HootSuite is a leading social media dashboard that helps you manage and measure your social networks.

Crowd Content is fully integrated with your HootSuite account. After connecting your Crowd Content account with your HootSuite account, you will be able to place, review, and accept Crowd Content orders from within your HootSuite Dashboard!

Use the HootSuite App to:

• Automatically send completed Tweets, Facebook Posts, or other content to your HootSuite Dashboard
• Send completed content to streams like Twitter, Facebook and WordPress from your HootSuite Dashboard

My Schedules – Automating the Content Creation Process

Looking to automate your content creation process? Is the scheduling tools built into Crowd Content.

To create a new schedule, simply create an order and enable the schedule for that order. Then, to view and manage existing schedules, click on My Schedules in the main header.

To learn more about scheduling orders and to learn best practices for using the scheduler, please read Automating Content Creation: 5 Best Practices for Using Schedules.

Thank You, Clients and Writers!

We want to send a huge thank you to all of our clients and writers. We couldn’t have put this amazing content creation platform together without your feedback and support. We truly feel that a positive content community is coming together around Crowd Content and we’re just happy to be a part of it.

As always, if you see any bugs or have feedback about the new platform, please contact support or your friendly Client Account Manager. Thanks!

The post Crowd Content Releases Powerful Content Marketing Platform for Businesses appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

In this post we are going to cover some of the basic tips you need to know to create killer content that gets people to not only see your headline, but rush over to your blog to read it and then spread it on their social networks for everyone else to see and hopefully do the same.

Better yet, we are even going to throw in some examples of what’s worked in the past as well!

Content is King… Right?

Yes, content is still king but only if you are writing content that people are finding value in, though not all content is meant to be spread viraly. If you have a niche web site that is focused on “how to install a new toilet”, sure you can create the best article in the world with a step by step process and maybe even a video… but the sad thing is it’s probably not something that people are going to be excited to share with their friends.

On the flip side, there is still value in creating excellent content… and that is having other web sites in your related niche linking back to you as a reference. When you put in the time to create amazing content, you will also find that your site will rank better in the search results. Don’t write for the search engines, write for the people and provide valuable content and you will see your content rank and be shared over time.

Call Out the Big Name Bloggers!

One of the best ways to create content that gains attention of big name web sites and bloggers is to actually call them out and include them in your content. This is something I did a few months back when I created a post all about the top make money online bloggers and how they are using Facebook timeline images to better promote their brands or personality. The post did very well and was actually shared by a decent amount of people that were featured on the list.

You can get really creative when it comes to using well known brands and people in your content creation. From interviews, key tips, excerpts from their content and much more… it’s really all about gaining the attention of the people you are writing about, while also providing value. The key point here is that you aren’t just targeting the high profile targets you are mentioning in your content, but also everyone who is interested in them as well!

Everyone Loves a Good Infographic

Never has boring information been as exciting when it’s visually described through the use of infographics. There is just something magical that draws people into facts and when you throw in a long design format with fun images and arrows… then you really can go viral with your content.

This is what happened for BloggingTips.com when they released an infographic on the top wordpress plugins that bloggers can use on their sites. While plugins certainly aren’t an exciting topic, the inclusion of key stats and mind blowing numbers on just how many plugins are available and are used by bloggers all over the world really grabs your attention.

The good news is that infographics can be created for nearly any type of web site as long as you have some interesting stats to back them up. While the majority of us aren’t designers, there are plenty of services out there that can whip up a nice infographic for your web site for under a few hundred bucks. When you translate that into how many people may end up back on your site through all of the sharing and re-posting of your infographic, it very well may result in a killer return on investment!

Create Controversy and Relate to Current News Trends

The last way to create killer content on our list is to focus on the latest industry trends and world news. What are people searching for right now on Google and how can you report on this same information or spin it in a funny direction to create a viral buzz around your blog.

You can visit http://www.google.com/trends/ to see what people are currently searching for on Google on any given day. If one of the hot topics was on a specific celebrity in the news, you could always create a funny article like “Five Things Britney Spears Didn’t Know About Blogging“… then come up with a funny and creative way to spin the content.

It’s all about the content and creating a buzz around topics that people are interested.

The next time you are writing a blog post and it doesn’t seem as exciting or fun as it could be, think about these quick tips on how you can make your content more appealing and viral.

The post How to Create Killer Blog Posts that Go Viral appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

A content calendar is essential to organizing production. In this article, we’ll show you how a calendar helps manage your content and enrich your SEO processes.  We’ll also help you create an SEO content calendar by providing a template and tips on filling it with SEO content.

What Is an SEO Content Calendar?

A content calendar, also called an editorial calendar or a content plan, is a schedule that lays out when and where you’ll publish articles, blog posts, and other digital content. If social media is part of your marketing strategy (and it should be), you can also use a content calendar to plan your social posts for the next few months.

The calendar is a tool you can use to keep key details of your content strategy in one place. Need a reminder of what’s in the pipeline? Wondering who’s been assigned to the fintech piece? Pull up your content calendar. It should be accessible to and updated by your whole team so everyone can work in sync.

On a strategic level, an SEO content calendar breaks down the steps you’re taking to make an impact in the SERPs. The calendar also sets out the requirements of the page: audience, keywords, search intent, and goal. Each piece should have a purpose before it’s placed in the schedule.  

A content calendar has many benefits for product-based and service-based businesses:

• Having your content planned several weeks or months ahead of time makes it easier to come up with ideas for an article or blog post.
• Developing a content calendar streamlines your SEO strategy.
• An editorial calendar can help you stay organized, eliminating the problem of publishing duplicate posts on the same site or forgetting an important publication deadline.
• Content plans increase consistency, ensuring your site has a steady supply of new content to attract new visitors and improve your search engine rankings.
• Creating an editorial calendar makes it easier to see gaps in your content marketing strategy.
• If you work with multiple writers, a content calendar makes it easier to assign work and track each piece through every step of the editorial process.

What Should a Content Calendar Include?

Content calendars provide a snapshot of upcoming content — usually on a weekly or monthly basis — including the project title and due date. When you view individual entries, you can see key details such as:

• Content title
• Assigned roles (writer, editor)
• Publication date
• Status
• URL slug
• Graphic requirements
• Links to project briefs
• Notes

Some marketing teams expand this information to include search volume, target audience, meta title and description, funnel stage, and social media distribution. You may want to consider keeping these details in a content brief linked from the calendar to conserve space. 

The bottom line: Your calendar should be designed to incorporate the information that’s most useful to you as you oversee your content production.  

Tools for Creating Your Editorial Calendar 

For many businesses, a spreadsheet such as Google Sheets offers enough functionality to organize a content strategy. You can share the document, customize fields, use color coding, and create dropdown menus for changing the status of projects. 

If you require more capabilities, a specialized platform such as Monday.com, Asana, Jira, or Trello can help you visualize workflow. Some of these tools enable team members to change view layouts and highlight their personal tasks. You can also drag and drop items as they’re assigned or moved through writing, editing, and QA.

You may need to explore these platforms to discover the right one for your needs before investing in a software right away. Ultimately, your content calendar should make work easier and more enjoyable, so take some time to find the right one. 

Incorporating a Calendar Into Your Content Process

Before entering content ideas into your calendar, make sure you’ve done your research to ensure that your content performs well in the SERPs. To perform well with Google’s helpful content system, it’s important to deliver valuable content to your readers rather than publishing content with lots of keywords and  little to no benefit.

1. Conduct keyword research

SEO content begins with keywords — words and phrases customers are searching for. When you nail your keywords, you can tap into the right audience for your products and services. 

• Primary keywords are the main terms in your SEO strategy. Ranking well for these keywords can drive thousands of new visitors to your site, increasing revenue and helping you build a stronger brand.
• Secondary keywords can target a more specific audience. They often relate to a user’s search intent or reason for conducting an online search. For example, a recipe website might use “chicken recipes” as a primary keyword and “30-minute chicken recipes,” “chicken recipes with cheese,” or “slow cooker chicken recipes” as secondary keywords.

If you’re new to keyword research, here are a few ways to uncover search terms relevant to your website and readers:

• Use SEO tools such as Google Keyword Planner, Moz, Semrush, and Ahrefs to get ideas. When you enter seed keywords, these platforms return a list of related keywords you can incorporate into your content.
• Visit competitor websites to see what keywords other companies in your industry are using.
• Consult with subject matter experts to find out which topics are most important to the people in your target audience.
• See what long-tail keywords (three to five words) Google suggests when you start typing in search terms related to your product, service, or industry. For example, entering “all-terrain bike” brings up “all-terrain bike vs. mountain bike,” suggesting readers are interested in a comparison of the two types.
• Survey customers to find out what information they’re interested in.
• Run a content gap analysis to see what topics your competitors are ranking for but your website is missing.

2. Sort your keywords

Once you have a long list of keywords, sort them according to search volume and competition to determine which ones you want to target first. Your top priority should be keywords that have high search volumes and low levels of competition, as it’s easier to rank for these keywords than to rank for terms that have high search volumes and high levels of competition.

As you sift through the keywords, move terms with low search volumes to the bottom of the list. You shouldn’t ignore them entirely, but you don’t want to put a lot of effort into targeting a keyword that gets only 10 or 20 searches per month.

3. Develop content titles

Page titles are extremely important, as they tell readers what your content is about and give them a reason to keep reading. Titles also help search engines understand the focus of your website and determine if the content is relevant for specific keyword searches.

Although a good title should include your primary keyword, craft it with your readers in mind. If a title isn’t dynamic enough to draw them in, few people will take the time to read the entire page.

To make your titles as appealing as possible, follow these tips:

• Explain exactly what the reader will take away from the article.
• Promise to solve the reader’s most pressing problem.
• Use numbers to help readers understand what to expect.
• Share news you know your audience will care about.
• Ask a question.
• Incorporate adjectives to help your titles appeal to the reader’s emotions.

4. Schedule your content

When creating a content calendar, it is important to put each piece of content on the schedule. The calendar should follow a consistent publication schedule, whether that’s once a day or once a week.

For SEO purposes, it’s best to publish as often as possible, but frequency is less important than quality. Publishing two great posts weekly is a lot better than publishing low-quality content daily, especially when it comes to building your reputation and establishing your website authority.

For each title, write down a target publication date and where you plan to publish the content. When you’re done, you’ll have a schedule you can follow for several months or even a year. If you want to scale, consider outsourcing content, ordering several pieces of content at a time.

5. Write exceptional content

Once you have an angle in mind, determine what type of content you want to create. Articles and blog posts are some of the most popular types of content, but you have plenty of options: 

• Listicles
• Infographics
• Case studies
• Buying guides
• Industry reports
• White papers
• Customer profiles
• Q&As
• Press releases
• How-to guides
• Checklists
• Tip sheets
• Fact sheets

Consider the search intent of your audience and the best format for addressing their needs and helping them accomplish their goals. Don’t be afraid to mix it up a little too. Diversifying your content can make your site more inviting to explore.

As your calendar fills up, assign roles to your in-house team or content agency and make sure they’re clear on deadlines so content is published on time. Use your editorial calendar as a road map for managing workflow, giving writers as much lead time as possible. They’ll need to research each topic thoroughly and consult industry experts when necessary. 

And here’s a pro tip: Provide writers with detailed content briefs that emphasize the importance of creating high-quality SEO content and following E-E-A-T principles.

** maybe an Insights from the Crowd quote here: “Think of your editorial calendar as the engine that keeps your content production humming. Each piece gets you closer to your ultimate destination — search visibility, organic traffic, and conversions.”

Integrating SEO Into Your Editorial Calendar

Search engines consider hundreds of factors when determining how to rank pages for specific search terms. When you create and implement a well-designed content calendar, you can send positive signals to Google and improve your positioning in the SERPs. 

Freshness factor

One factor Google considers is query deserves freshness, which applies to topics that change frequently. The QDF factor is the reason news sites tend to rank well for search terms related to current events — the more often they publish, the more accurate and up to date the content is likely to be. Use your SEO content calendar to set a consistent schedule, and stick to it to increase your freshness factor.

Content length

While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to the length of a blog post, research shows that the average Google first page result is around 1,400 words.  Using an SEO content calendar can help you to schedule plenty of lead time for writing and editing longer pieces of content. Make sure your team hasYour team should have time to thoroughly investigate a topic, find unique angles, and provide well-written, comprehensive insights.

 Semantic keywords

Semantic keywords are words that are closely related to your primary keywords. They typically provide more context, making it easier for both readers and search engines to understand what your pages are about. Google considers the use of semantic keywords when determining if a page is relevant for a specific keyword search. 

If you sell sneakers, for example, you might use “running shoes,” “athletic shoes,” “athletic trainers,” or “walking shoes” as semantic keywords. You can list semantic keywords in your content calendar for each page title to ensure that your writer knows what phrases to include.

Duplicate content

In some cases, a site may be penalized for having multiple pages with identical content. Even if you make a few edits to each page, the search engines can tell these pages are nearly identical, resulting in lower search engine rankings and fewer visitors to your website.

Without a content plan, it’s easy to publish multiple pages on the same topic without realizing it. Creating an SEO content calendar keeps you organized, ensuring you have just one page on each topic and helping you avoid duplicate content penalties.

Page quality

Search engines consider many factors when assessing the quality of a page, including grammar, spelling, reading level, and the availability of supplementary content. If you don’t have a content calendar, it’s difficult to stay organized, making it more likely that you’ll publish content with typos, grammar errors, or inaccuracies that could hurt your rankings.

Keyword usage

Your search visibility hinges on smart keyword usage. You have to identify the right search terms and use them in several places on a page, including the H1 tag, URL slug, title tag, description tag, and H2 and H3 tags. 

Keyword research ensures your website aligns with what your target audience is searching for and helps search engines determine page relevance. Set keyword requirements for each piece of content in your plan so your team knows at a glance which ones to use.  

Get Expert Help With Content Development

Need a partner to help plan your editorial calendar and create content that appeals to your audience? Crowd Content takes the guesswork out of writing articles, blog posts, white papers, case studies, and other digital content. Find out how our content creation services can support your team’s workflow, help scale production, and increase the flow of organic traffic to your site.

The post How to Create an SEO Content Calendar (With Template) appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.