Content marketing attracts and retains customers by consistently creating and curating relevant and valuable content. That said, with the ever-changing consumer behavioural patterns combined with a marketers need to change or enhance them, it is an on-going process that changes daily. To ensure that we are always abreast of industry development and able to provide you with a clear window into the digital marketing world, we are constantly on the lookout for audience trends, technological developments, insightful opinions and all things content marketing – and that’s why we’re able to bring you our informative Crowdbait mashup every week!
This week we’ve investigated tips and hacks for using LinkedIn, gained a better understanding of the misconceptions in the SEO industry with Matt Cutts, and got to grips with Google’s 200 search engine factors with the help of a rather handy infographic. It’s all here in this week’s mashup…
Hacks for using LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a great tool for business networking, keeping customers in the loop, sharing content and recruiting talent, amongst other things, but as with any social networking site, there are certain strategies and practices you could try in order to get the most out of it. Keen to utilise the site to its full potential, the guys over at Inc.com decided to ask eleven successful founders from the Young Entrepreneur Council to share with them their favourite LinkedIn hacks. Joining national groups related to your industry, posting your best articles, sharing features, downloading various tools and plug-ins, changing your name to something that stands out more and posting jobs for free all made some of their top picks to increase popularity on the site. Find out more information from the article itself, but bear in mind that much relates to personal profiles; changing your LinkedIn Company page name to something more memorable will do little to help people find your business.
Misconceptions in the SEO industry
In his latest video, Matt Cutts, head of spam at Google, discusses the common misconceptions in the SEO industry. He explains that one of the biggest misconceptions is that SEOs frequently confuse data refreshes and algorithmic updates, and goes into detail as to why this is. Cutts also stresses that while many people within the industry might believe that when Google releases new updates they are only focusing on short-term goals of increasing their revenue, this is not the case. He uses the decrease in revenue after the introduction of Panda as an example, emphasising that Google updates their ranking mechanisms purely to deliver the best results they can to users to ensure their long-term loyalty. He goes on to make the point that SEOs should focus on spending more time on Social Media to help build up awareness.
Brands becoming publishers
A recent article on Guardian.co.uk states that the ‘big buzzword in the marketing world right now is ‘content marketing’, and turns to Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute to determine why. Joe says, ‘Your customers don’t care about you, your products, your services… they care about themselves, their wants and their needs. Content marketing is about creating interesting information your customers are passionate about so they actually pay attention to you’. We couldn’t have put it better ourselves. The final paragraph is some fantastic content marketing in itself, which the Guardian so modestly points out: ‘Because you have chosen to read this article – you have elected to concentrate you interest here, rather than elsewhere. [...] And that is why brands are rushing to become publishers’.
Google’s 200 search engine factors
What better way is there to get to grips with how to maintain and improve your website’s SEO amidst the constant changes than by use of an infographic? Google recently confirmed that they use approximately 200 ranking signals in their algorithm and luckily, digital marketing firms Backlinko and Single Grain have aggregated as much information as was available to create an infographic to explain it all. In it, you’ll find information on domain factors, page-level factors, site-level factors, user interaction, social signals and more. This information might seem a bit overwhelming for business owners at first glance, but why not share it with the right members of your team to see what they can get out of it? If there’s anything that doesn’t quite make sense, leave us a comment below and we’ll clear up any confusion.
Car brands trail other sectors in digital marketing
According to one of Nissan’s top digital marketers, automotive brands are falling behind other sectors in both digital and social marketing because they are attempting to cling on to the more traditional ways of using print and TV ads to sell cars through dealerships. While, of course, the expert engineers have the great ideas behind the designs and production, social and digital media is something no brand can ignore – even if it does mean turning toward the ‘Playstation generation’. This article makes it clear that brands can now only get so far without incorporating the most current marketing strategies and the success of brands such as Nike and Adidas that utilise content marketing support that. There’s a whole range of content that car dealerships, manufacturers and sellers could capitalise on, from usage comparisons between different models to full automotive rundowns. We’d love to see more vehicle brands and sellers embracing content marketing.
B2B brands follow their consumer peers
30% of the Content Marketing Association’s members are now B2B specialists; at last, the business-to-business sector is beginning to embrace content marketing and follow the footsteps of the business-to-consumer market. Marketing Week suggests this particular area of growth is due to a ‘better economic outlook combined with increased knowledge of the benefits of this marketing channel’. With brand such as LV= and Heineken making such great use of content marketing in a B2B context, It would seem that this increased appetite for content marketing services in business-to-business companies is because when good, relevant content in combined with blogging, PR and social media, the opportunities to B2B brands to excel are numerous. Content marketing works just as well in the B2B market as it does in the B2C.
Newsworthy notes…
YouTube has tripled its mobile advertising revenues in the last six months. The Guardian.co.uk suggests that the key factor may have been the removal of the YouTube app from Apple’s iOS software, which is a logical conclusion to reach as before then, Google couldn’t show ads in the native iOS app as part of its deal with Apple. A good move for Google, as YouTube generates 10% of their overall revenues.
Consumers, individuals and corporations alike all depend on telecom businesses in one way or another for transparent communication, so when it comes to increasing consumer engagement they must employ the latest strategies and technology. It comes as no surprise, then, that telecom companies are now using content marketing to attract their consumers. Amanda Fayer of the Huffington Post explores why such a large and diverse industry needs content marketing.
Major SEO and social media software provider and the company behind SEO PowerSuite, Link-Assistant.com, have announced the release of a second edition of their famous SEO book, SEO in Practice. The book is targeted at novice SEOs who want to ‘do SEO instantly’, rather than learn it. There is some sound advice, though in the wake of the aggressive updates Google is planning over the summer, we do have cause to question how up-to-date their guidance on areas such as link building will be once the dust settles – particularly as the bulk of the ebook was written in 2009!
That’s all from us this time around. Catch up with us next week for more great news, views, opinions and top-notch advice. If there’s anything you think we should hear about, do drop us a line and we’ll be sure to pass on the most important information and guidance out there.