You may be looking at the terms ‘content marketing’ and ‘SEO’ side by side, and be thinking, “Aren’t they the same thing?” The answer is that though they are very similar, they’re actually quite different as well.

SEO’s as important as ever in generating organic reach for a new or existing website. The truth however is that content marketing’s a stronger investment long-term for any brand. With SEO algorithms always at risk of changing, a traditional approach to search engine optimization is outdated and dangerous to spend a lot of time on. Here’s why your long-term digital strategy should center on content over search optimization.

SEO or Content Marketing, What’s Better – See Why Traditional SEO Has Expired!

What is the purpose of SEO?

SEO, aka search engine optimization, is a set of strategies that involve getting your website or content to rank at the top of search engines. Though SEO involves content marketing strategies, it’s primarily technical in the sense that it’s about getting the technical specifications right i.e. descriptions, keywords, meta data, headers, and general coding.

What is the purpose of content marketing?

Content marketing is more advanced than SEO and goes beyond your website to brand reputation management. Content marketing can have many different objectives, ranging from awareness to relationship building – all depending on what a brand is looking to achieve. ‘Content’ is not just text and can comprise of videos, images, eBooks, podcasts, and more.

What your Analytics will tell you

If you have a website with either SEO or content marketing dominating its design, look to your Analytics. If you’ve installed analytics software on your website, there’s a lot of data it can produce, demonstrating whether a given strategy is succeeding or falling short.

As we move further into this discussion on SEO and content marketing, it’s important to let your Analytics guide you on developing new content, revising old content, and posting content already proven to resonate with your audience. The majority of content marketing does not receive a whole lot of attention. This is because there’s just too much of it! To be successful in content creation and SEO, it’s crucial to rely on Analytics to determine where the most value is.

Why content marketing is better than SEO

It’s not necessarily that content marketing is better than SEO, as SEO actually comprises a component of content marketing. This is to say however content marketing is superior to SEO, tagging in more advanced strategies that go beyond targeting search engines, coding, and conducting keyword research. This isn’t 2004, anymore. There are plenty of ways to reach new and existing customers, far outside of search engines. Content marketing provides some key strategies to maximize channels like email and social media as well.

Why SEO has failed

Traditional SEO fails to generate returns at times because competition is high and users are on other platforms. To cut through the noise of every other brand vying for your customer, to contribute a piece of unique, meaningful content is more valuable than writing a blog or producing web design around a keyword.

Content marketing succeeds because it is so adaptable to all kinds of platforms, current and future alike. It involves being creative, one-of-a-kind, telling a story, and to do so across friendly medias.

The impact of social media on SEO

Social media can prove to be a far more attractive, easy, and more investment-friendly way to reach customers. With social media, you can adapt an SEO approach and build around descriptions, keyword clusters, and meta descriptions with your posts.

It’s content marketing however that ties more closely to social media. Content’s easy to share, like, and engage with, contrary to how traditional SEO can work at times. This isn’t to downgrade SEO in any way. A lot of marketers, to this day, consider the ultimate awareness-building digital marketing strategy to involve SEO, content marketing, and social media working together as one.

Put your SEO under the influence of content marketing

A smart move to make is to incorporate content marketing-led strategies in your SEO. This is because the unfortunate truth of SEO is every brand’s at the mercy of Google’s ever-changing algorithms. What Google will prioritize in its algorithm is beyond your control – your content comparatively is fully in your control. If your content marketing game is on point, that works wonders for SEO and on its own merits can help get you ranked higher than you may think.

What’s the best SEO strategy to base my content around?

High quality SEO marketing strategies include to use the right keywords, use keyword-rich descriptions and tags in your content marketing, and to have a mobile-friendly, visually-appealing website ready for clicking. Every piece of content you put out should be optimized with SEO keywords guiding the publishing of these pieces. Quality of content is priority, of course. Don’t sacrifice quality to get the technical elements right. If you need to use less keywords to write amazing content, absolutely, do so.

You may think this will penalize your SEO but in all actuality, with each passing year, Google’s algorithms continue to move more towards prioritizing high quality content over SEO technical expertise. This is great news for a lot of starting brands who have a message with something meaningful to say. This means you don’t necessarily have to be an expert to succeed in generating organic SEO rankings.

If you know you audience, you’re halfway there!

The best content marketing is that which pleases its audience. This involves knowing user intent, what they’re thinking, what they need, their interests, and what their buyer persona is. No brand can intentionally sell to an audience they don’t know about. After all, how can you create engaging content when you don’t know what ‘engaging content’ is to your target audience?

Look at the competition. Do some studying into your existing user base and the audience you might be trying to target. Research is a marketer’s best friend. The information is out there, oftentimes already in your Analytics.

Content marketing statistics to help you build a strategy

 Video marketing is incredibly popular with adults, with videos seen by all ages every day across platforms like Facebook and YouTube.
 There are more users on mobile devices than desktop platforms, meaning content and media should be optimized to these users – just like your SEO!
 Almost half of all online searches in 2020 will be done by voice search. This means how content’s structured should be voice search-friendly, using a mix of SEO voice search strategies to optimize.
 Approximately 96 percent of all mobile search traffic comes from Google. As you can assume, SEO is far from dead! Blend in what works in contemporary SEO with your quality-driven content.

The balance between SEO and content marketing

As digital marketing and consumer behaviour continues to slowly abandon old school SEO, moving to content marketing, the balance between them is important to remember. SEO is technical, organic, keyword-driven, and web design efficient. Content is creative storytelling, engagement-driven, and will reach more people than any SEO keyword can. As a brand, a balance must be found between doing strategy and quality.

 Strategy is to get the technical, paint-by-numbers aspects right.
 Quality is to give your customers content that engages them.

It will be your success at balancing these two priorities that determines content marketing performance on social media, email, and more. There is a lot of overlap between SEO and content marketing, thankfully, so any website leaning more towards the technical SEO aspects doesn’t necessarily have to move mountains to switch to a content marketing-first digital strategy.

Are you ready for a results-driven, high-performance digital marketing strategy? Contact Unlimited Exposure today. Align SEO, social media, email, content marketing, video, brand building, and sales-ready strategies all in one. Reach thousands of people across numerous channels and generate the results your business deserves!

Source: https://unlimitedexposure.com/basic-digital-marketing/1113-seo-or-content-marketing,-what%E2%80%99s-better-%E2%80%93-see-why-traditional-seo-has-expired.html

Late November into December, it’s prime time to amp up social media marketing and eCommerce strategies to get consumers buying from your brand. Every year though, the noise out there on the Internet grows and the competition becomes fiercer.

As marketers ourselves, we don’t want to see any brand investing in strategies that don’t work or going down a path that isn’t going to lead to anywhere. So for this holiday season December through to January, here are some tips, tricks, and pointers in this ultimate guide to using social media marketing to sell more.

This Article Will Help You Use Social Media Marketing for Holiday Shopping, Gift Buying, and More

Start early

The best advice anyone can give for a successful holiday eCommerce marketing campaign or holiday digital marketing is to start as early as possible. Ideally, this should be around October 28-29. This then gives enough time for Halloween to pass and sets you up to attract as many gift buyers as possible throughout November to January. For this year, obviously, we are right in the heart of the holiday season so it’s late advice. For next year though, remember!

Plan objectives

For every social media marketing channel – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. – have holiday objectives. Every brand is different, and there are pros and cons to each channel. Objectives for sales, engagement, and other key metrics provide clarity on how you intend to move forward with strategies and approaches.

Stay visible

New and existing social media followers will buy from brands that are visible. This type of visibility is what every brand strives for. You want your brand to be the first thing someone sees when they search out a Christmas gift in your category, or be the first thing that comes to mind when someone thinks of when they think of holiday shopping. It can be tough being visible without overwhelming your followers so be aware of how often and what you’re posting.

Holiday-themed social content

Your usual gamut of social media posts should be infused with Christmas cheer. When content isn’t in some way leaning on the holidays come December, brands can appear culturally tone-deaf. Even for those of us who don’t celebrate Christmas or certain holiday traditions, we likely participate in one way or another even if it’s just to capitalize on some premium gift buying.

Set up a schedule you stick with

Come holiday shopping time, you’ve got to be on the ball with social media marketing posts, ensuring a schedule’s maintained throughout the entirety of the month. Successful brands pre-arrange what they’re going to post when and they stay on top of reaching out to followers. Consider launching a few different strategies, whether that’s user-generated content, a social media photo contest, a week-long of sales, a prize-based contest, or something else. Give your brand enough time to roll these out and turn them around into something that sells for you.

Build out holiday-themed customer personas

If you don’t know who you’re selling to, you won’t sell – it’s pretty simple. Develop holiday-based customer personas that focus on what your customers are looking for this holiday season, the products they want to buy, who they’re buying for, and why they’re buying gifts. A high quality persona profile is also going to share their pain points, emotions, and needs. As you discover common personas that exist among your social media followers and buyers, you’ll come to understand the language, tone, and approach needed to pull on their heartstrings and maximize the holiday shopping season for your brand.

Influencers

The easiest way to cut through the noise come the holidays is to use influencers with built-in audiences. They can help get the word out on special offers or discounts and reach whole categories of social media users you may not otherwise have. Holiday influencer marketing promises big returns, if you choose the right partners for what you’re trying to accomplish.

Re-design your social media look!

Get in the mood for the holiday season by re-designing your social media avatars and banners. Holiday digital marketing should look like it. The hype will pull in customers, give your brand an optimum aesthetic for the time of year, and set you up to attract gift buyers in the spirit of giving!

It’s not all about selling!

The holidays are filled with brands promoting, promoting, and promoting! Content marketing excels most when it’s most educational, relevant, informational, or giving tips and insights. Opportunities to educate your audience on holiday gifts, how to use your products, and the specifications and benefits of certain products should be taken advantage of. This is high-value content that takes the pedal off trying to sell something and instead, you’re just having a conversation. For new social media followers, this can help build trust, authority, and convert prospective leads.

Show some humanity

During the holidays, a lot of us go to connect with our friends and family. There’s a lot of mixed emotions, of course. This is perhaps why the best holiday marketing campaigns are like the best Christmas movies – those with emotional resonance. Share human stories about you and your customers, share the humanity behind how you celebrate the holidays at your brand, and show off a human side. The better you tell your emotional-driven story, the more it will resonate with audience members.

Focus on remarketing

Come December, a lot of consumers are going to be buying from brands they already know. Focusing on new, unproven markets or target audiences is expensive. Ideally, you’ll want to go for remarketing as your primary targeting option on social media and reaching out to existing followers in an attempt to bring them back to the point of engagement.

Create a gift suggestions blog

On social media, no one wants purely promotional content. Everybody’s searching for gift suggestions in an effort to buy the right holiday gifts for their loved ones. Create a gift suggestions content marketing blog that showcases holiday-friendly products. It’ll give your social media followers some ideas on items that would make for the perfect gift. Don’t hesitate to write a thorough post outlining all your favourite recommendations.

User-generated social media campaign

Launch a holiday social media campaign where you ask your followers to share a post or post a video tagging your brand. This fosters high engagement among customers but will also potentially provide you with content to share on your website and to repost to your page. User-generated content solves the issue of not having enough meaningful content to share. Even better, you accomplish this without having to offer much in the form of sales or discounts.

Launch a Facebook Live video campaign

Holiday-themed live video streaming on Facebook generates social interactions and conversations around your brand. This is widely considered to be one of the most valuable marketing components on Facebook. Live videos get up to 6 times more interactions than non-live videos on Facebook. Your live video doesn’t have to be long and can show behind-the-scenes glimpses into how products are created, how your brand is celebrating the holidays, or sharing any promotions.

Encourage social media sharing

All the time you spend on retargeting and remarketing to your social media followers, encouraging social shares can get your message out beyond that network. An outreach campaign like this can do a lot of good in increasing sales and creating more brand awareness around the holiday season.

Social media isn’t the only digital marketing channel to capitalize on during Christmas and the holidays but it’s a very, very important one. Across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest, you have millions of people searching for gifts. By launching objective-driven digital campaigns on relevant platforms, you can outperform last year’s numbers in a major way. Join Unlimited Exposure today and make the most of your social media following before the month’s up!

Source: https://unlimitedexposure.com/basic-digital-marketing/1110-this-article-will-help-you-use-social-media-marketing-for-holiday-shopping,-gift-buying,-and-more.html

Every business, brand, personality, or organization has to sell something in order to sustain themselves. Be it products, services, or the brand itself, selling and sales are the most crucial component of long-term success in any category of business.

In content marketing, we prioritize creating the best quality content possible. This means to write and release content that resonates with one’s target audience, and which contributes value. Content can come in many forms, some more effective than others.

If you want to make the most from your brand’s potential and any existing marketing campaign you may be running, know you can make more money and sell more product with content marketing as a focus.

For the purposes of stretching your dollar as far as it can go and to maximize your return on investment, here are the 8 most effective types of content marketing guaranteed to help your business reach more customers and drive revenues.

8 Types of Content Marketing Guaranteed to Help You Sell More and Make More Money

Long-form blog posts

The best way to enable sales is to, ironically, not sell. Long-form blog posts that are useful, informational, or of a high value resonate with prospective customers. Blog posts shouldn’t be written simply to promote. They should tell a story, have some emotional resonance to it, and ultimately communicate something meaningful.

Do you know your buyer personas well – if so, write direct to your audience. Play on their pain points, their needs, and speak to them directly from one human being speaking to another. The best content marketers and those who work at the most profitable businesses generate money simply by being human.

High quality infographics

Infographics utilize your graphic design skills and come in the form of a how-to guide or typically a list. In a long and detailed image, an infographic shares information in point form mixed with creative shapes, colors, and designs. On platforms where images matter most – Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and other social media – infographics resonate.

When it comes to creating the best infographic you can, you want to stick with some pretty general rules. First off, you want to ensure you have enough information and points to create an infographics from. Other than that, you want to keep it visually simple and focused, ensure it’s easily viewed, of a common size and length, and of course, aesthetically pleasing.

Video marketing

What’s the most effective form of content marketing – video. More Internet users want video, engaging with this type of content more than any other. For top notch content marketing, an investment in video will help your brand reach prospects, increase conversions, and generate awareness that a written blog simply cannot.

A lot of the same rules around long-form blog posts apply in how to make video marketing. You don’t want your video campaign to be purely promotional. Make it mean something! Create videos that tell a story. You can do so by using a customer’s story, capitalizing on your brand’s background, or simply telling those watching how a product or service makes life easier for customers.

Customer testimonials

Customer testimonials and online reviews – written, on social media, or in video form – can make or break a business almost overnight. If one believes digital marketing is about creating a conversation ideally leading towards a sale or a conversion of some kind, at some point the conversation is out of your hands. You’ve got to deliver the goods in customer service and the quality of your product or service. Otherwise, customers aren’t going to be leaving you the testimonials and reviews you want.

Customer testimonials fit under user-generated content which is content your customers will generate for you. Encourage your customers to leave reviews. Some brands even offer a promotional discount in favor of a review or testimonial. If someone who is unfamiliar with your brand comes to your website and sees positive review after positive review, they will be more confident in purchasing from you. Leverage the process of giving your customers a voice into something sales-driven.

Email marketing

Though some see email as an older form of content, for eCommerce brands, email marketing delivers $1,000,000s in sales every year. There’s a lot of potential here for anyone. Anyone using a smartphone has their email accounts tied to it, likely with push notifications on. This means sending out any content across email will instantly pop up on their phones and, if presented correctly, could help you generate sales almost instantly.

Email marketing content is going to be a little different from the other types on this list. Email focuses a lot on titles and teases. Headings should be strong, to the point, time-sensitive, and creative. Links should lead back to your website to longer-form content. Email marketing also heavily relies on images and sometimes videos to emphasize a point. In a sense, you want to preview offers in an email and get customers returning to your site.

Social media content marketing

Social media content marketing plans involve writing very short blurbs and incorporating other forms of content in preview. On social media, unless their interest has already been qualified, people don’t have time to read a 1,500 word article. They want a sentence or two at most, communicating your offer or information. Every word counts.

Like email, the content you develop for social media can lead back to your website. Lead cultivation is where social media succeeds. At popular times of year where customers go gift shopping, you can use social media to really generate a lot of positive attention and bring individuals back to your website to complete a sale.

eBooks

eBooks are used as guides into how to use a product, tips and tricks on something, and/or can provide additional value typically given for no charge to prospective leads. eBooks used to be incredibly popular. Though they still generate a strong return, they aren’t used as often today because it can be somewhat labour-intensive to develop one. Even so, you don’t need 100,000 words written on a subject to turn it into an eBook. Almost anything can be an eBook!

An eBook should be a way to introduce a customer into how to use a specific service or product. Consider the prospect you’re writing for – their pain points, background, needs, and the likely interest in your product. An eBook doesn’t have to sell anything. It’s used to inform. The hope is thereby that unique, high value information will create an impression to such a degree that a reader becomes a customer.

Interactive content

This category of content marketing is still growing, with AR and VR making it closer than ever to develop integrative, immersive content that brings the customer to a new brand-centric world designed by you.

Other forms of interactive content can be polls or online games. There’s a lot of ways to invite a customer or lead to interact with your brand in unique, unexpected ways. As web design and marketing continues to advance, as will the capabilities of the Internet, there’s no telling how interactive content will impact more traditional content types like email or social media as well. Needless to say, there are definitely opportunities today for brands to explore interactive marketing which can be very advantageous at getting noticed in a crowded market.

If you want to sell more and make more money for your business, you’ve got to give your customers, leads, and prospects something of value. What we’re talking about is high quality content, whether that’s in the form of an infographic, a long-form blog, video marketing, or a social media post. Content marketing is a focal point for any digital campaign as without your content, it’s hard to attract new buyers. For high quality content in a multi-channel digital marketing campaign guaranteed to give you results, check in with Unlimited Exposure today.

Source: https://unlimitedexposure.com/basic-digital-marketing/1109-8-types-of-content-marketing-guaranteed-to-help-you-sell-more-and-make-more-money.html

With the arrival and passing of Black Friday, this marks one of the most competitive times of year across almost all eCommerce and online shopping platforms. It’s the holiday season! Every business that might have fallen behind on their numbers earlier in the year, with the right digital marketing holiday strategy, can boost engagement and potentially get their year to where it needs to be.

Did you know over 50 percent of all holiday shopping happens online – it’s true! Every year, more people are shopping online. In an effort to get you the biggest piece of the holiday online shopping frenzy, your 2019 holiday digital marketing strategy begins here.

What’s the Best Digital Marketing Strategy for the 2019 Holiday Season – Get Ready to Sell!

Target locally and be specific

Everybody’s going to have launched some version of a holiday or Christmas marketing campaign. You’ve got to cut through the noise. The best way to do that is to target locally. Be specific in audience targeting. Consider digital marketing messages that make reference to local events, language or customs. Be local in your eCommerce holiday SEO keywords as well. This will help a great deal in reaching relevant customers in your marketplace.

The first step is to look at last year’s holiday shopping season

If you were in business last year, look to your analytics, sales reports, and any data you might’ve accumulated. What worked last year? What didn’t? What was your website traffic light? Were your conversion rates where you wanted them to be? Lastly, do you think you underperformed anywhere and if so, why? Think of how you can use your eCommerce strategy this year to do better.

What are the basics of a holiday digital marketing strategy?

A holiday-themed digital marketing strategy should rely on the basics of an intuitive holiday-friendly website. Any holiday sales strategy should be clearly marked and the first thing anyone sees when visiting your site. As well, a smart targeted holiday SEO strategy, an easy-to-use eCommerce checkout process, content marketing, and social media sharing icons should be included in your campaign. A lot of these details you may already have but it doesn’t hurt to confirm everything’s still working and you’re ready for the holiday rush.

Where are your customers online?

If you are dedicating marketing efforts on platforms where your audience is not, you could be wasting valuable time, effort, and money. Before spending anything on PPC campaigns or dedicating time promoting content, consider looking at platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, reddit, YouTube, and others. Where is your audience? If you can find them, at least you know where to invest any paid or unpaid marketing effort. You may find marketing opportunities you never knew you had.

When do customers actually do their holiday shopping?

Over half of us start our research for holiday gifts before November 1. In general, most of us will purchase gifts in November and the first two weeks of December. For this reason, as much as brands may not want to, starting holiday eCommerce marketing gently in October is a smart move. By December’s first week, almost all research on gifts have been done and most purchasing will be completed in the days that follow. The earlier you catch people, the better. That said, there are plenty of last-minute shoppers. You’ll also want to save the more aggressive holiday shopping for late November or early December.

Mobile marketing for eCommerce during the holiday season

There are more mobile shoppers than ever. People love using their smartphones to buy holiday gifts and go online shopping. If you don’t have a mobile responsive website or a mobile-friendly checkout process, you’re not in luck. You will lose far more customers than you care to. eCommerce categories like cosmetics, apparel, and general holiday gifts sell more on mobile than on desktop. Comparatively, electronics and tech still have more desktop buyers than on mobile. Regardless of where your products are on the spectrum, join 2019 and ensure your holiday marketing campaign is mobile friendly.

Holiday language, images, and video

The holidays are a time of year where marketing really becomes swallowed in holiday colors, language, images, and video. Your home page of your website, social media accounts, email marketing campaigns, and any holiday-based materials you give out should be branded accordingly. Get people excited to do their holiday shopping on your website with digital marketing content and images! For inspiration, visit virtually any online shopping website. There, you’ll find plenty of language, images, colors, and content ideas to peruse for yourself.

How does holiday content marketing work?

Like any other content marketing strategy, you want to use holiday-themed articles on well-researched, high-traffic keywords. SEO matters a lot. Anyone searching for a product like yours, they’re probably going to go to Google first. If you can have your website appear on the first page within the first few selections, you may be able to convert that inquiry into a sale! Don’t forget about scheduling your holiday blogs, articles, and content marketing elements. Also, continue using that holiday-themed language. Get everyone excited.

Why is social media the busiest during the holiday season?

Have you ever wondered why social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are the busiest during the holiday season – the answer is easy. Consumers are looking to buy gifts. If nothing else, your 2019 holiday marketing strategy should be to amp up efforts on social media. Schedule posts reliably, hype up holiday-themed gifts or marketing, push sales and promotions hard! You are more likely to pull in sales and conversions on social media from new customers than anywhere else so be sure to monitor any platforms you are active on daily.

Launch your best holiday-themed email marketing campaign

Another source of how to nab last-minute gift shopping and holiday sales is to use email campaigns. With email, you can segment your subscriber base into current customers, past customers, etc. Appeal to them with time-sensitive, affordably priced sales and promotions. Sweeten the deal any way you can. You can capitalize on a person’s impulses during this time of year more likely than any other. They’re ready to spend money so give them something to spend it on.

A holiday video marketing campaign that taps into emotions

Video is a great way to tell a story and tap into emotions, nostalgia, and universal love. There are some absolutely amazing eCommerce Christmas and holiday themed video marketing campaigns out there. If you have the budget, filming a meaningful video for Christmas for your customers that speaks to them is a very wise investment. The holidays can be lonely for some people. It’s also a time when family matters most. No matter what product you’re selling is, consider your audience and their experience. What’s important to them during the holidays? Video that!

The best content isn’t the content that sells you direct

Although you’ll want overtly promotional holiday images, video, social posts, and articles, valuable content like how-to articles, reviews, YouTube videos, and information-based content marketing is a covert holiday marketing strategy. A customer may arrive at your site unsure of quality of product. They will want more information. That’s where your content marketing comes into play. How-to articles, instruction, and a little bit of creativity can communicate value in a product as a holiday gift. See how to contribute value in content.

eCommerce holiday marketing is a challenge. The best digital marketing strategy for the 2019 holiday season is a results-driven train of content, video, social media, email, and more. As marketing experts, we know nothing’s guaranteed. Any brand will need to work hard and tirelessly to achieve the sales they want. This holiday season, partner with Unlimited Exposure and see big results! The holiday shopping season is truly a phenomenon. The rewards can be plentiful and satisfying. Get ready to sell!

Source: https://unlimitedexposure.com/basic-digital-marketing/1108-what%E2%80%99s-the-best-digital-marketing-strategy-for-the-2019-holiday-season-%E2%80%93-get-ready-to-sell.html