This sounds simple, but sometimes it’s too easy to forget that market research should be the foundation for creating a high quality content marketing strategy. Duh.

Seriously though, investing time and energy into product research, market research, and connecting with people working and living in the area of concern is overlooked time and time again.

Rand Fishkin of Moz SEO, recently posted a great video blog  about the importance of research and analysis periods before starting a content marketing project. In his post, he says, “[People often] put something together that they hope will achieve their goal of reaching a new audience, of getting promoted, but it falls flat mostly because they had the idea before they talked to anyone else. Before they realized whether anyone else was interested, they went and built it…That’s actually kind of a terrible idea.”

Here is 5 ways to create better – more strategy driven content based off of some of the ideas Rand outlines in his recent post.

1. Learn about the industry you plan to work in.

Rand says, “This is going to be dozens of hours of research to understand the niche before you can effectively create content for it. That’s something where it isn’t just an on demand kind of thing.”

2. Learn about the community you plan to work with.

This is going to consist of many hours browsing through topic forums, YouTube channels, blogs, and magazines getting to know the people using and buying certain products or services. The one not so exhausting characteristic about this step is all of the aforementioned resources are easy to find and free or cheap.

3. Before you create any content, know that it would be unique and others would actually share it.

This is where having connections and being able to reach out and shake a hand come into play. Simply asking for an insider’s opinion sounds to easy, but it’s commonly overlooked. Also, if you’ve been doing your research, you should have an idea of what your audience is needing and wanting.

4. Visual and/or interactive content is going to perform a lot better than text.

Images are memorable.

5. Cater to an audience that will help you reach your business goals.

Creating content for the purpose of driving leads and closing deals involves a completely different strategy than creating content that drives traffic and builds brand recognition. The easiest way to explain this is: content that go viral usually don’t end with “sign up today.” Viral content is usually short, simple, universally understood, and instills strong emotions. Content that that drives leads is mostly analytical and logical.

In conclusion, if you’re going to do it, do it right the first time. Investing in research periods may be costly, but a content strategy that falls flat is always a waste.

If you need help developing and implementing a high quality content strategy, contact Clix. We’d be happy to help!

The post Simple Sharable Content Is Hard to Make appeared first on Clix.

Content becomes the link connecting businesses to customers. Storytelling sets the tone for their engagement. Blogs, social networks and video-sharing sites inform, entertain and empower your best prospects and clients. – Trond Lyngbø

Content Marketing can address every stage of the sale funnel.

Well planned Content Strategies should have a piece of content for everyone at every stage of the sales cycle. This includes everyone from the general public all the way to yesterdays customers.

First, by creating easily shareable content for the general public or even people just beyond the upper limits of your sales funnel, you can actually help your entire site gain domain authority by attracting more monthly visits, acquiring more backlinks, and increasing activity on social media channels.

Secondly, by raising awareness, answering questions, and addressing concerns Content Marketing can aid prospects through each and every phase of the sales cycle.

Lastly, just because a person has already purchased your product or service doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be addressed in your marketing plans. Content can be produced to keep people coming back again and again. Pieces centered around continuing education, product updates, or even company updates, can help ensure customers will recommend your business to their friends and family.

Content Marketing not only informs people, it can convert prospects.

In reference to my previous point, Content Marketing can help prospects build so much trust and confidence in your business’ product or service, they will be ready to purchase by the time they call in or visit a location.

The idea behind this concept is that your high quality content will qualify a prospect by clearly explaining every reason someone should buy your product or service. The content you’ve produced will in turn, nurture the prospect by addressing all of their concerns and answering their questions. Lastly, prospects will be ready to purchase because they will be well informed, know what they want, know why they want it, and now trust your brand.

Content Marketing helps you find out what is important to your market.

I know it’s a passive approach, but it still has value. Pieces of content can be used to gauge market interest. The more activity an article generates – the more your audience is concerned with that topic.

Be sure to remember, content can always be repurposed. Meaning, if you write an article that sparks a large amount of activity, host a webinar on that topic, create an infographic, or create a video blog. The main goal is to keep the ball rolling, generate even more exposure, and dig deeper into the market.

Content Marketing lets you tell your story.

This is something that Joe Corporate needs to understand. The internet has made finding and sharing sensitive information with the world incredibly easy. Using Content Marketing to inform people about your business, its morals, its agendas, and even its hiring practices can help everyone – including the general public – build trust, create understanding, and develop confidence in your company.

The post Why You Should Be Using Content Marketing appeared first on Clix.

Blogging for SEO benefits can seem intimidating at first, but following a few simple guidelines can help you make the most of your posts for both the search engines and your readers. Once you have decided on a post topic that is interesting and relevant to your audience, it is important to increase the odds that visitors will stop to read and share your content.

Titles And Headings:

Titles and headings within your posts serve multiple purposes. They benefit SEO, organize the content, and make the post scannable. Titles and headings tell the readers (and Google) what the post is about.

Headings help organize the content within the post into categories or topics. This makes it easier for the author to stay on topic and easier for the reader to find relevant information.

Titles and heading make it easy for readers to determine whether or not to invest the time to read your post. It gives the reader the highlights without requiring them to delve into a series of paragraphs to find the right information. Think of heading like chapters in a book. Would you rather search through an entire book to find the information you need or skip to specific, relevant chapters?

Length:

The length of the posts will determine whether or not readers will take the time to explore your post. Anything of great length will turn away readers, as will posts with only a few sentences.

The minimum length of content should be no less than 250-300 words. Posts with fewer words will seem unimportant to Google, and decrease the value of the posts.

There is no formula for determining the optimum length, so it is important to write naturally. If you have a post of several thousand words you may want to break it down into a series of smaller posts. On the other hand, if you feel you do not have enough to say regarding a certain topic you can combine it with other relevant information at a later time.

Scannable Content:

One of the most important things for bloggers to understand is that most people will not take the time to read an entire post. In the fast-paced world of the internet, users want content that they can scan quickly. Luckily, there are ways to make posts appeal to these readers.

• Use bullet points. Rather than typing out a long list of points, call them out in a way that is visually appealing to visitors.
• Number your points. Structuring a post around a concept like “Top Three Ways To…” gives you the perfect opportunity to number your points in an easy to read manner.
• Avoid long paragraphs. Forget the five sentence paragraphs you were forced to write in school. Online, 3-4 lines of text, regardless of the number of sentences included, is all that should be in a paragraph.
• Limit lists. Readers are not interested in more than 10 points per post. More facts become too difficult to navigate and remember.
• Dress up the text. Using features like Bold, Italics, and Underlining makes it easier for readers to find keywords and topics while scanning your posts.

Media:

Visitors love media. Videos, images, and infographics can increase the appeal of your posts and help prevent visitors from skipping a post. Make sure you complete the title and alternative text for images and videos so they will be found in Google search.

Images also are the most widely shared content on the internet. A quality photo increases the chances that visitors will share the content and build natural links.

Linking:

Links help Google understand how your blog relates to other content on the web. Linking can be used internally (to other pages on your site) or externally (to pages on other sites). External linking can occur any time you mention information found on another site.

The post Blogging Tips For Beginners appeared first on Clix.

While there isn’t a tell-all relationship guide to follow, the basic rules are the same as those for SEO.

• Take Your Time: Like any healthy relationship, good things come to those who wait. As important as it is to make your keywords and intentions known, it is far more important to take the time to create a quality introduction. Just like the guy who professes his love on the first date or the woman who immediately confesses her desire for kids and a wedding, bombarding readers with keywords straight out of the gate is a turn off, and unlike our friends who have the rest of a date to make an impression, in the world of SEO you only get one impression to secure interest.

• Quality Over Quantity: I’m sure there are couples out there who spend every waking moment together to feel secure about their relationships. This isn’t the case with SEO. It’s important to balance your use of keywords with the rest of the content. By overloading you can actually do more harm than good. A healthy relationship is built on space.

• Consistency Of Keywords: We’ve all had that friend that spends his or her time chasing anything and everything that moves. He or she is indecisive and just wants to try a little of everything. Unlike our eternally lonely friend, SEO thrives when focused on a specific, targeted set of keywords. Trying to include too many keywords at once will dilute the quality of each and, as a result, fail to produce long-term results. When copywriting for SEO, try to treat your keywords with the respect that you would any relationship and stay on target.

Now that you know the basics, let me drop the real knowledge. The most important thing you should know in your relationships and SEO is… yourself. Just like relationships, your SEO strategies are doomed to fail if you don’t know what you want. Be sure you understand your personal goals. While an SEO company may have suggestions and plans, you must remember that, at the end of the day, it’s your business and what you want matters.

The post Relationships and SEO appeared first on Clix.