One common hurdle that writers do have to overcome before being accepted at a new client or company is the submission of a writing sample.

Since a lot of pressure is placed upon this piece of content, writers often start to panic when they are asked to submit a writing sample, which can lead to simple mistakes ruining the chance that the writer had to land that new high paying client.

What is a Writing Sample And Why Do You Need to Submit One?

Understanding what exactly a writing sample is, should be a vital part of submitting one. Many people think that a writing sample is simply an article that will give the company they are applying to an idea of their writing style – and this is true, but there are more to a writing sample than simply to show off your own skills.

Writing samples are also used to help a company go through an elimination process so that they can choose the best writers for the particular job they are hiring for.

Spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes and any other mistakes – even the simple ones – can result in an elimination, which means you will not be contacted for a “final round” and the company would not hire you.

For this reason, extra attention and effort should be used while you are writing your sample article and a professional process should be followed while submitting the sample to ensure you have the best chance possible to be hired by the company you are applying at.

The Do’s and Don’ts of

Once you are approached by a company, or you contact a company directly to apply for a position as a writer, you should expect to be asked for a writing sample before you can be hired.

In this post, we would like to discuss some essential factors that you should keep in mind while you are writing your sample article, as well as important elements that you should never miss while writing such a post.

We would also like to discuss some factors that should always be avoided as these factors can reduce your chance of being hired by the company.

The Do’s

Let’s start with the elements that should always be included and never be missed when writing a sample article. These elements are vital and missing out on them or not taking proper care to ensure you follow these instructions could result in elimination.

The most important factor is always to follow the instructions that are provided with the assignment closely. Many companies will have their own guidelines and rules for their writers, and you need to ensure you follow these instructions to the letter.

This will not only show the company that you are competent but will also prove to them that you can follow instructions and work independently, which is something that most companies are looking for when hiring writers.

Your initial writing sample should also be in the tone and style that the company that might hire you tends to follow.

For example, if they specialize in sponsored blog posts, then you should do some research to ensure your article follows the latest trends in this category of writing.

In addition to these essential factors that you should take into consideration when you are applying for a writing position and producing an article to submit as a sample, you should also take the following tips into account:

• UMBC50 ^[1]reports that writers should not be afraid to ask the company that has provided them with an assignment questions about the task they are conducting. It is vital to follow the instructions that the company gives you and if there is anything you do not understand, then you should ask for clarification to avoid making simple mistakes.
• If no instructions are provided along with the application form, then you should carefully review the current sample articles you can send them and strongly consider doing an entirely new article for sample purposes. In such a case, you should always focus the sample article on the niche that closely matches the niche that the company specializes in.
• Follow a similar tone throughout the entire article. This is vital and will show that you are professional and that you can be consistent with your writing style.

The Don’ts

The most important “don’t” that you should keep in mind is to completely avoid making any type of spelling mistakes or grammar mistakes.

You should also avoid simply stating facts that you obtained from another website or source, but rather add interesting aspects to the article and only mention the facts that you obtained from external sources sparingly.

The Muse^[2] also recommends keeping the length of your article at a reasonable length and not to go overboard.

Even though the company will be using the writing sample to determine your skill level and to see if you are worthy of being a writer for them, they do not want to be bombarded with too many words.

In some cases, you may not be requested to write a new writing sample, but rather to submit a sample of work you have completed previously. In such a case, you should send the company that may be hiring you an updated copy of your work.

Writers are constantly improving their skills and sending the company one of the latest posts you’ve written is very important. If you do send a previously written sample, send something fresh and relevant – even an article you used in a blogger outreach campaign could work as these articles are usually grammar-free and interesting, showing off your talent.

Read Next : 10 Smart Ways to Promote Your Blog on Social Media Platforms

Final Words

Applying for a new writing position can be quite exciting, but it can also be a nerve-wrecking experience at the same time.
A writing sample is usually requested with such an application, which is a post that should be written to showcase not only the writing style of the applicant but also their language skills and their ability to conduct research.

This guide will help you better understand what you should always do when writing a sample, as well as elements that should always be avoided during such a process.

The post The Ultimate Guide to Producing and Submitting a Writing Sample appeared first on Proven SEO Blog.

And, if you are a self-funded startup, just like we are, you can’t afford to waste a single dollar you invest into your marketing.

Trying to market a startup on a shoestring seemed like a huge disadvantage at first. Yet, it turned out to be a valuable experience. Instead of throwing the cash around, we carefully selected only the most effective (and free!) strategies and tools.

The result – we were able to triple our organic CTR in less than a year, all while keeping our marketing expenses as low as possible.

Curious to learn more? Here are some of the tactics that worked for us as well as some eye-opening insights we sourced along the way.

1. Craft an irresistible headline

First of all, your article title needs to convey a clear message. Address a specific pain point, answer the reader’s’ question, offer a solution to their problems. To know exactly where you should be targeting in your title, look up the relevant keywords on Google Keyword Planner.

In our case, we started with pretty obvious variations of “team chat app” queries. And it worked just fine. Until we dug a little deeper^[1] and found the hidden gem – long tail “[competitor] alternative” keywords. It turned out, there is a vast pool of prospective customers looking for the substitutes to the popular team communication apps (aka our major competitors).

Despite the lower traffic, such keywords turned out to be significantly easier to target and, as a result, get higher website rank. Plus, most long-tail queries tend to have a strong buying intent, and, as a result, higher conversion (up to 10% on average).

There are many ways to optimize your title for better CTR^[2]. For example, using numbers and symbols (e.g. brackets) in your titles is a proven way to boost the click-through rate. Listicles or “how to” articles also tend to enjoy better readers’ attention. You can also mention the type of content, such as infographics, expert roundup, survey, etc., right in the title to make the readers click.

Another trend that we’ve noticed while experimenting with our headlines is that opinion-based, personalized titles have a higher CTR on average. Using words and phrases like “our feedback”, “we’ve tested”, “our team”, adds credibility and value to your headline.

Consider the following example.

Both articles offer an overview of the 7 Slack alternatives. Yet, which one would you choose — an article based on someone’s experience using the apps or another generic list of “top something?”

2. Break through the noise with your snippet

There is one more difference between the snippets in the example above. You’ve probably noticed the stars under the title and URL. Wow, you might think, 16 votes with the 5-star rating? Is this article really that good?

The thing is, this article currently ranks #3 on Google Search (preceded by an ad and a featured snippet). Yet, it still has a relatively high CTR, compared to the similar articles ranked #1. And it’s all thanks to the attention-catching snippet that stands out from the other results on this Google Search page.

If you want to make your snippet just as good, there are several aspects you need to pay attention to:

Description

Make it short and sweet, just enough to catch readers’ attention but don’t give away too much information. The ideal length^[3] is 160-230 characters. To optimize your snippet (and title) length consider a handy tool by SEOmofo^[4].

Just like titles, the description should include relevant keywords. Using different symbols can also help you increase the visibility and grow your organic CTR.

URL

The same principles apply to the link featured in your snippet. Make sure it is short, readable, and includes relevant keywords, so the people know they are on the right path to find the answers to their questions.

Additional elements

You can always include some extra details to make your snippet stand out. For example, an article can feature readers’ rating, date of posting, time to read, etc.

Here is an example of how we use the listed hacks to make our snippet from the previous example even more visible.

3. Make your content worth reading

As we already know, the higher your rank is, the more clicks you will get.

What’s even more important, the two metrics are closely connected. Namely, some of our article with 15-20% CTR and a reasonably high dwell time have experienced a significant rank boost over time. It makes sense – why would Google bury your article on page 10 if the users seem to enjoy it?

That’s why creating an engaging and highly valuable content is the best strategy to both improve your Google Search position and CTR.

Mind several attributes of a high-quality content^[6]:

• Unique and valuable insights (preferably experience or research-based)
• Clear and readable formatting
• Credible and data-backed judgements
• Visuals – images, charts, screenshots, videos, GIFs, or even memes

I guess it goes without saying that your content should have excellent grammar and style. Hiring a professional copywriter and editor is a sound investment, taking into account the business benefits of proper content marketing.

One more reason to put the quality of your content first is that such articles have a better chance to convert the readers into customers.

Ready to give your CTR a boost?

The CTR hacks we’ve covered in this article are only the tip of the iceberg. Content marketing and SEO are no easy tasks. It takes time and effort to get to the top 10 on Google Search (as well as to stay there for as long as you can).

In our experience, CTR depends on a number of factors, from your Google Search rank to the snippet you use. It can even be traced down to your backlinks^[7] and other basic SEO elements. Yet, it all starts and ends with the quality content.

No matter how hard you try, you can’t possibly trick Google into loving a generic, yeah-whatever content that delivers no real value.

The post How We Grew Our Organic CTR by 300% in Less Than a Year (And You Can Too) appeared first on Proven SEO Blog.

Gurus, newbies and all marketers in between stress how content marketing grows your business.

How?

For starters, creating helpful content distances you from the crowd in your niche.

Content marketers can experience exponential business growth through their own steam.

But boosting profits through content marketing requires you to learn and hone specific skills to better connect with prospects.

Put in the time to create, publish and market content effectively and you will grow your business steadily over the long haul.

Changes Customer Perception Favorably

Customers and clients crave value.

Even before they buy your products or hire you they need to know that you can help them.

Prospective customers and clients buy into the freemium before buying the premium.

If you create content designed to address customer problems and target these individuals you earn their trust and set the table for a prospering business.

Most entrepreneurs try to squeeze money out of people without offering anything of value, struggling to grow their ventures.

Content marketers lead with value to be seen as valuable in the eyes of customers and clients.

Creators rise above the field of competition. Clever, creative marketers run laps around entrepreneurs in their niche because content marketers render immense service to their prospects.

Sharing helpful blog posts, videos, podcasts and courses is a simple way to earn the trust of your customers and clients.

People can go from cold to warm leads in a jiffy after reading an in-depth, thorough, helpful blog post that turns you into a niche authority in the eyes of your audience.

Quick to Ship

Seth Godin stresses the concept of shipping, or publishing, to grow your business.

Engaging in content marketing through a self-hosted WordPress blog helps you ship quickly. While other folks try to spread the word through static sites and more traditional, clunky, slow-moving methods, content marketers can create and publish blog posts quickly and easily.

Whether you’re podcasting, doing live broadcasts or blogging you have every tool at your disposal to publish content swiftly to follow trends and to meet the needs of your audience in timely fashion.

Leveraging Potential

Content marketers accelerate their business growth by expanding their digital footprint swifty.

After publishing a blog post you can convert the content into a:

• Podcast
• YouTube video
• Facebook Live video
• Infographic

Leveraging your presence across multiple channels grows your business while serving customers and clients through their channels of choice.

Market a single piece of content through various channels to reach a wider customer base.

Related: Try These 6 Content Marketing Strategies To Never Revamp Again

Enhances Creativity

Gone are the days where internet marketers dryly played a numbers game, pitching their business to any sentient being.

Internet savvy folks demand creative, innovative, valuable content served through various formats to make informed buying decisions.

Engaging in content marketing forces you to become creative. Whether you’re bootstrapping or hiring freelancers to outsource different elements of your campaign your enhanced creativity only augments your business venture.

The post How Content Marketing Grows Your Business appeared first on Proven SEO Blog.

Informative articles and blogs nurture a company-client connection, strengthening the customer retainment of a company.

One of the core reasons behind the large-scale implementation of content marketing strategies is its high ROI, as compared to more traditional ones. Around 60% of business firms^[1] generate at least one piece of content each day.

Content marketing involves a blend of creativity, technical knowledge, and marketing skills. The content has to be optimized for the utmost visibility, and if successfully implemented, it can deliver a higher rank in the search engine index for your website.

The number of platforms in cyberspace is increasing. You need to come up with content for your social media pages, like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, as well as blog posts and articles on off-site pages.

Here are five ways to boost your content marketing game when you market your product in a competitive business environment.

1) Develop Quality Content For Your Readers

First, you will need to craft compelling content for your readers. Thought-provoking content engages your customers and drives their actions. And accurate and authentic information enhances the brand image of your company.

Customers rely on your brand when they find these posts beneficial. Business firms cater to the psychological needs of their customers through blogs that are relevant to them. You need to identify their problem areas and develop informative or ‘how to’ articles, which keep your readers engaged. Today, around 88% of marketers have implemented content marketing strategies^[2] in their business.

A powerful blog penetrates deep into your target audience and enjoys millions of shares on social media platforms. Remember, your content should revolve around the interests of your readers.

Your primary focus should not be to develop hardcore sales-oriented content. Generate blogs that keep your brand connected to your customer base. You will also need to keep the blogs updated, as people develop a habit of checking in with certain websites at regular intervals for new posts.

When developing content, maintain a friendly tone to keep the customers tuned to your brand, while sticking to professional standards.

2) Identify Your Audience

Now developing a content marketing strategy without identifying the audience is one of the greatest blunders a business can make. It is important to know the background, demography, requirements, psychological needs, purchasing power, and other details about your target customers before you craft your strategy.

But just ‘knowing’ your potential customer base is not enough. The secret behind a successful strategy is ‘understanding’ them. You need to gather extensive research to strengthen your strategy’s bottom line.

Successful brands establish individual personas for potential customers, and tailor their content accordingly. Understanding the motives and expectations of clients will help you project your content in the right direction. When it reaches the right group, your content enjoys maximum readability.

3) Repurposing The Content

Content is precious, so make optimum use of your content by repurposing it. You can use the same content in various formats, which will cater to people with diverse tastes. Certain people are less inclined towards blogs. When you repurpose the content to present as a slideshow, it can engage those readers. Repurposing content also reduces costs substantially.

Tweak your content and use it on various platforms. However, make sure that it does not appear to be repetitive, as the same reader may come across the content on multiple platforms.

Experiment with format and presentation styles, integrate a few statistics when they are available, and deliver the repackaged materials to your customers.

Businesses come up with innovative strategies when repurposing their content. Creating infographics is one of the most effective ways of doing this. These are visually appealing, and you can cultivate variety by changing the format.

4) Distribute Your Content

Your creativity and research are wasted if you cannot reach your customers. With the number of platforms increasing, it is crucial to come up with a specific type of content for each segment of your audience.

For instance, your LinkedIn posts should be more professional in tone than the ones you place on your Facebook pages. Twitter blogs are short and to-the-point. Other platforms, like Pinterest and Google, also channel your content to readers.

A study^[3] revealed that in 2014, 53% of marketers were aware of the benefits of content distribution, while only 26% had actually invested in it. These figures have greatly increased in the last three years, and today, almost all businesses are coming up with blog posts for their customers.

Remember, your content does not reach its target customers on its own. You need to distribute it on the right platforms, keeping track of your customers. It is essential to create a plan, schedule posts, and keep readers updated with new feeds through articles and blogs.

5) Generate Evergreen Content

One of the most effective ways to optimize your returns through content marketing is to generate evergreen content. Great articles and blogs are timeless, and they remain relevant to readers long after they are posted.

Successful content marketers choose themes that never grow old. You need to tweak these articles and blogs from time to time, and optimize them to retain their ranking on Google. Around 45% of marketers^[4] consider blogging to be the most powerful content marketing strategy available.

You can create write-ups that inspire, motivate, and educate your audience, all at the same time. Focusing on articles and blogs can serve many purposes and help you reach your goals.

Read More: What Is Content Marketing – Benefits, Examples & More

Conclusion

Competition in cyberspace is on the rise and you need to devise an effective content marketing strategy to bolster your business.

In the digitized business infrastructure, the content on your website should go the extra mile, informing and educating readers, rather than simply selling products. An effective strategy will strengthen your business, giving it an edge over your competitors.

The post 5 Game Changing Ways To Intensify Your Content Marketing Game appeared first on Proven SEO Blog.

Notice I used the plural. You try and try again to get your marketing strategy right.

As they say, “You have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince.”

But, what if you didn’t? (I don’t mean kiss frogs.)

What if you didn’t have to try and try again? What if you could get your content marketing strategy right the first time?

This post will explain how to get your content marketing strategy right the first time and never have to revamp again.

Strategy 1: Link Building

Link building is as important as ever for the same reason it’s always been important. Google believes your website has quality content if other people link to your website pages. The more links you have to your content, the higher the likelihood you’ll get visibility in search engines.

How To Drive Links To Your Site:

• Create stellar content consistently so people will want to link to you. Consistent publishing tells Google you have an active website. Do you have a team? Great! Creating quality content consistently takes time. Help each other.
• Work with other marketers and ask them to promote and link to your content, and you’ll do the same for them.
• Ask companies you’re creating content for to link to you. This will boost your ability to be found in search engines which helps the companies who’ve retained you.
• Offer a blogger compensation for publishing your link in their content. Make sure you tell them what the anchor text should be.
• Create links to your other relevant content.

Note: To let Google know your content is important, bold the anchor text, which should be your focus word, on your website page.

Strategy 2: Promote Your Content

80% of your efforts should be directed toward promoting your content.

• Ust Instagram. Today, most brands are promoting on Instagram.
• Involve the community. Brands encourage community members to send pictures of themselves using the product on sites like Instagram. They add the brand’s hashtag to the caption so everyone can find each other. Your marketing campaign results in the feel of a party.
• Interview an expert in your industry. If they share the interview on their website, you get a link. Industry leaders generally have pretty strong domain rankings. A link from them will help your rankings at Google.
• Are you a blogger? Many bloggers actually invent a hashtag for themselves which they use to promote their content on social media. This helps with branding. The hashtag becomes associated with the blogger’s brand. Brand awareness helps you stay in the forefront of potential visitors’ minds.
• Buy Facebook ads. Using Facebook ads to get the word out about your content is so successful the strategy is becoming commonplace.
• Promote in Facebook groups designed for promoting your product or service. Make sure you mention any discounts you’re offering.
• Remember the not-so-mainstream sites that allow promotion for serious content marketers. These sites include Kingged, Inbound, and BizSugar.*

Strategy 3: Use Google Analytics

Before you start your social media promotion, you should determine on which social media sites you’ll find your target audience.
Step 1: Go to Analytics.Google.com
Step 2: Click Acquisition/All Traffic/Channels.
Step 3: Scroll down and click “Social.” You will see which social media sites are sending you visitors.

Notice: You can change the date range. As you can see, a one-week view is the default. This may not be enough to give you a comprehensive view of which social media sites are sending you traffic.

Google Analytics Can Offer You Other Important Metrics As Well.

Knowing which pages most interest your site visitors is crucial in understanding your target audience. Replicate content that interests them.

How To Know Your Best-Performing Content:

Step 1: Go to Analytics.Google.com^[1].
Step 2: Scroll down to “Which pages do your users visit?”
Again, feel free to change the date range to get a more thorough idea of which content most interests your website visitors.

Strategy 4: Generate Social Shares

Having your article shared also help you get your website visibility in search engines. Google likes active websites. Active websites are frequently shared.

• Offer your email list members a discount code or free item for sharing your content.
• Incorporate influencer outreach. Try and incorporate the name of an influencer into your content. Send the influencer the link to your content either through email or Twitter and ask them to share.
• Host a giveaway. People who’ve shared your content can be entered. Rafflecopter^[2] helps content creators host giveaways.
• Include a Call to Action that asks people to share. Vary your CTA with each article. Also, you should tell people why they should share. For example, “Please share so other people discover the benefits of… ”

Strategy 5: Generate Comments

As mentioned above, Google likes active websites. Active websites have a high engagement rate which is revealed by many comments.

• Offer your email list members a discount code or free item for commenting on your content.
• Host a giveaway. Only people who’ve commented are entered.
• Include a Call-to-Action and ask people to respond in the comment section. Perhaps ask them how they plan on using your product or ideas? Other website visitors will be more inclined to use your products or tips since many people read the comments left on website pages.
• Respond to comments consistently. This will create a positive feeling about your brand. If you’re not able to respond in a timely manner, consider placing a chatbot on your site who can greet and respond to your visitors immediately.

Strategy 6: Use Artificial Intelligence In Your Email Marketing


Make sure the subscribers on your list know about your articles.
Use technology that exists today to increase your email open rates:

• Email services like MailChimp will send your emails at an optimal time. This service comes with paid plans. Make sure to select that option.
• The SendPulse Email Service uses push notifications. Push notifications are so trendy today people are used to receiving them. People don’t get annoyed because they select to receive the push notifications.

Read More: Why SEO Audit Is Mandatory For Your Website?

Wrapping Up

In closing, a solid content marketing plan doesn’t form automatically. If you use these tips as an action plan, you will see results from your content marketing efforts.

Related Reading:

This is Why You Should Promote at Kingged
17 Ways Inbound.org Will Make You a Better Blogger
7 Reasons Why BizSugar Will Make You an Awesome Blogger

Image Credits
Feature Image Credit: Shutterstock.com
In Post Image Credit: Shutterstock.com & www.chrisvanpatten.com

The post Try These 6 Content Marketing Strategies To Never Revamp Again appeared first on Proven SEO Blog.

]]> https://www.provenseo.com/blog/content-marketing-strategies.html/feed 0 https://www.provenseo.com/blog/content-marketing.html https://www.provenseo.com/blog/content-marketing.html#respond Thu, 09 Nov 2017 08:42:31 +0000 https://www.provenseo.com/blog/?p=739 In today’s digital marketing circle, content marketing has attracted so much attention, that it has become the most essential part of any business or organization. Leading brands and marketers are utilizing content marketing to grow their businesses in all spheres. A recent study jointly conducted by MarketingProfs[1] and Content Marketing Institute, and cited in an … Continue reading "What Is Content Marketing – Benefits, Examples & More"

The post What Is Content Marketing – Benefits, Examples & More appeared first on Proven SEO Blog.

]]> In today’s digital marketing circle, content marketing has attracted so much attention, that it has become the most essential part of any business or organization.

Leading brands and marketers are utilizing content marketing to grow their businesses in all spheres.

A recent study jointly conducted by MarketingProfs^[1] and Content Marketing Institute, and cited in an infographic by Point Visible tells it all.

Please, find the complete Infographic here ~ Impact^[2].



The study found that 62% of B2B marketers and 63% of B2C marketers are “much more” or “somewhat more” successful with content marketing than they were one year ago.

The truth is that more and more businesses are using, planning to invest, or increase their content marketing budget.

To further back this up, Ben Green’s article at Oktopost^[3] shows that 86% of B2B marketers are using content marketing.

While the joint research by Content Marketing Institute^[4] and MarketingProfs shows 89℅ B2B marketers and 86℅ B2C marketers are using content marketing to maximize their businesses.



The study further shows that 55% of marketers plan to increase their content marketing budget in the coming year.

As you can see, over 80℅ of B2B and B2C marketers agreed that content marketing is the most important element to their content marketing campaigns – establishing the fact that content is King.

Hence, to go much further down this article, let’s find out what content marketing is all about?

What Is Content Marketing?

Here’s Marketo’s^[5] description of content marketing:

“Content marketing is the process of creating high-quality, valuable content to attract, inform, and engage an audience, while also promoting the brand itself.”

And here’s how Content Marketing Institute^[6] defined content marketing:

“Content marketing is also defined as a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

These digital marketing giants gave a vivid description of content marketing, pointing to one fact – purpose!

What Is The Purpose Of Content Marketing?

Simply put, to attract and retain readers and prospective customers to your website or business by creating, curating, and publishing high-quality content on a consistent basis.

Now that we know the purpose let find out the components of a content strategy.

Examples Of Content Marketing

There are numerous content marketing examples in the market-place where you can learn from, or get inspired.

Some content marketing examples are:

ProvenSEO

Proven SEO is a digital marketing hub that is connecting marketers, businesses, and organizations with prospective clients.

It is a leading influencer marketing Platform that is connecting quality brands, big & small with top blogs and trusted publishers.

ProvenSEO will help you improve your search rankings, brand awareness, and build online authority.

Coke’s “Share A Coke” Campaign



Coca-cola (Coke) launched a campaign called “Share a Coke.” The exercise offered everybody the prospect to personalize their drink.

The campaign coordinators added 150 popular Australian names to the side of the bottles.

What was the result? The campaign went viral, and every single person or group of people were talking about it.

Do You Know Why The Campaign Was So Successful?

Personalization was the key factor to the campaigns success. The company made every single person feel like a king and queen by using personal names.The point here is for you to get to the heart of your targeted audience and prospective customers. How?

By personalizing your message accordingly. This will make them feel special, and the result will be increased engagement, leads, and more sales.

GoPro



We all know that visual content is an incredible content marketing type that has a powerful force.

These type of content can significantly boost traffic and sales.

GoPro knows how to do it best. Their marketing strategy is nothing but quality visual content. They market their products in a variety of ways.



Most prominent is sponsored events – sports. These activities help GoPro to promote their products to customers and show them how their products work.

Consequently, GoPro has successfully established itself as a visual content marketing superpower.

How Can I Develop a Content Marketing Strategy?

Developing a content marketing strategy for your business is a MUST if you want to succeed in content marketing.

That is why more than 80℅ of B2B and B2C marketers have a content marketing strategy.

Some amazing ways to develop a content marketing strategy are:

Set Priorities

A combined study by “The Content Marketing Institute and The MarketingProfs,” found that creating more engaging content is the top priority for 72℅ of B2B marketers.



What are your marketing priorities, have you identify them?

• Do you want to create more engaging content?
• Do you want to understand what content type works best?
• Do you want to create visual content?

Consequently, try as much to set your marketing priorities, it will help you maintain consistency and maximize your ROI.

Establish Your Content Marketing Goals

Why Is This Important?

Establishing your content goals is the cornerstone of your content marketing strategy.

You need to understand what you want your content to achieve.

The screenshot below by “Content Marketing Institute” shows that the goal of 85℅ B2B marketers is to generate more lead.



So, determining your goals will help you understand how to create a successful content marketing strategy.

Generating Content Ideas

Being able to come up with a regular flow of content ideas has always been a major challenge for many marketers.

To succeed in content marketing, you need to frequently come up with valuable content that are meaningful to your audience.

Here’s what Ronell Smith said in his article on Moz space:

“If you desire to create a brand whose content is sought-after and, indeed, clamored for, you must bake meaning into your content.”

To create meaningful content and maintain consistency, you must have an arsenal of content ideas at your fingertips.

Kissmetrics^[7] offers 101 ways to come up with amazing content ideas.However, there are many tools that can help you as well, such as:

• Quora
• Buzzsumo
• Google Trends
• Answer the Public
• Moz’s Keyword Explorer

What Are The Common Content Marketing Mistakes?

The good thing about mistakes is that it provides you a clear picture of what to avoid in future.

Here are some common mistakes content marketers are making you can avoid.

Publishing Less Content

Many are not getting the benefits of their content campaigns because they’re producing less content.

Marketers who are frequently publishing saw a great increase in web traffic than those who publish less.

For example, research by Hubspot^[8] found that marketers who published more than 16 blog posts per month saw an increase of about 4.5× more leads than those who published between 0 – 4 posts per month.



The study even became more interesting when it found that small companies with 1 – 10 employees that publish over 11 blog posts per month drive much higher traffic.



They saw 3× more traffic increase than companies of the same size that publish less blog posts per month.

NewsCred also saw an incredible boost in traffic of almost 50℅ increase after they increased their publishing frequency from six posts per week to 10 weekly posts.

Pro Tips: Ensure that you consistently create and publish more high-quality content.

Talking too Much About Yourself

The core value of a good content marketer is to position yourself as a credible expert – a solution to the audience.

Your audience needs to know that you’re always there to help them solve their problems.

Ironically, some have chosen to talk about themselves instead of identifying customer issues and address them accordingly.

Your “About Us” page, for example, should be a page that tells visitors to your site that they’ve come to the right place – a place where they can find solutions to their problems.

You can find more common content marketing mistakes here ^[9].

Read More: What is the Link between Influencer and Content Marketing?

In Conclusion

Now you know that content marketing is all about telling a good story and having a consistent strategy for your stories.

Being able to establish and maintain your strategy, priorities, and goals will set you up as an authority content marketer.

Many wonder how they can become a successful content marketer. It doesn’t have to hard or expensive.

Identify the essential elements of content marketing, implement them, and keep testing to find out what works best.

Image Credits
Featured Image: Shutterstock
In-Post Images: Images provided by author

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]]> https://www.provenseo.com/blog/content-marketing.html/feed 0 https://www.provenseo.com/blog/blogger-outreach.html https://www.provenseo.com/blog/blogger-outreach.html#respond Fri, 03 Feb 2017 10:14:13 +0000 https://www.provenseo.com/blog/?p=90 The secret to a successful business is its promotion which includes blogs too. That said, it takes more than sharing a link to a post on your Facebook or Twitter account, more effort is necessary to truly improve your business or generate more traffic on the website. That’s why blogger outreach has become quite popular … Continue reading "Blogger Outreach: 10 Strategies You Must Know"

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]]> The secret to a successful business is its promotion which includes blogs too. That said, it takes more than sharing a link to a post on your Facebook or Twitter account, more effort is necessary to truly improve your business or generate more traffic on the website. That’s why blogger outreach has become quite popular nowadays. Blogger outreach or blogger relations refers to businesses working with bloggers to create genuine and authentic content to promote services, brands, products, and so on. Throughout this post, you’ll see ten blogger outreach strategies to try.

1. BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo allows you to research blog post titles and see how your content is performing, but it does much more. For example, you can use this website to find the best performing content in a particular niche e.g. content marketing. When you find the popular content, all you have to do is to reach out to the appropriate party, introduce yourself, and make your pitch to set up a collaboration in the form of guest blogging, or mentioning your brand in apost, and so on. The greatest advantage of this website is that it’s easy to use.

Here’s a quick tip; when making a pitch for guest blogging or any other type of blogger relations, always make sure you include the person’s first name into the email. Although it’s a respectful thing to do, most people avoid it which is a big mistake because it’s important to leave a good impression and build a solid relationship with that person.

2. Find Authentic Brand Ambassadors, Send Something for Free

Bloggers are everywhere today, thus making it easy for you to find potential brand ambassadors that will promote products or services you provide. One of the best ways to do so is to reach out to them, introduce yourself and your brand, and make a proposal that also includes something for free. Let’s take Lorna Jane as an example, the brand’s head of digital marketing chooses bloggers, sends specific pitches or proposals and provides the link to the company’s active wear to pick out a free item. That way, bloggers post photos and content mentioning the brand. If you have a business or service to promote but can’t really afford to send something free, brainstorm and find a unique approach that bloggers will find intriguing and collaborate with you.

3. GroupHigh

GroupHigh is one of the fastest blogger outreach tools you can use which is why more than 400 companies and organizations use it. Using a variety of filters you can comb through the massive database of about 15 million blogs to narrow down your search and find best bloggers for your campaign. The software also provides built-in email, allows you to contact influencers, and much more. The tool is fast, versatile, has a number of different features with a single purpose – to help you find blogger (or more of them) easily.

4. Proven SEO

Individuals and companies looking for reliable tools for successful marketing through sponsored content often turn to Proven SEO. Proven SEO is a leading influencer marketing and sponsored content platform that specializes in connecting brands with top bloggers and publishers. They also help connect brands with social media influencers as well. The platform helps clients achieve online presence, spread awareness of their brand, and achieve top search engine rankings.

5. Host Blogger Events

Blogger outreach doesn’t require software only, hosting blogger events is an effective strategy to expand the visibility of your brand. The face-to-face events result in a stronger ongoing relationship with influential bloggers and add more authenticity to posts they write about your company, products, or services. This unique approach enables you to avoid the common mistake that most people make – they forget that bloggers have a life outside the blog. Reaching out to them and inviting different bloggers to events also shows you don’t look at them as promotional tools only.

6. Tomoson

Tomoson isn’t your average blogger outreach website, but it’s useful anyway. When entering the website, you can click on “Find influencers” option and get started. You are taken to a page where it’s necessary to write a keyword, e.g. health, lifestyle, tech, and it automatically lists influencers matching the keyword you submitted. Clicking on their profiles, you’ll see the number of followers, blog clicks, and other important stats. A major benefit of Tomoson is the built-in audience. You don’t have to search for influencers and bloggers, they are already in the system and all there’s left to do is to decide which one to choose.

7. Don’t Ask for Fake Reviews

This is yet another mistake that brands make – they offer something to bloggers and ask them to write only positive things. That’s not how it works! Blogging may seem incredibly easy, but it’s not. With the ever-growing number of bloggers out there it can be difficult to succeed, stand out, and get thousands of followers. So, those bloggers that do succeed have worked hard to build a base of followers who trust them and rely on reliable posts. That’s why you should never contact a blogger or influencer making a pitch and demanding all-positive content. The best thing to do is to ask for an honest review. In fact, they’ll appreciate your approach which is always a plus.

8. BuzzStream

BuzzStream allows its users to research influencers, manage relationships, and conduct a personalized and efficient outreach. Although it doesn’t seem much different from other blogger outreach options, it comes with practical features. While browsing the internet, you can add new bloggers, websites, and social media accounts to your profile with a simple click. Another useful feature is the ability to save a variety of information for future use. Also, BuzzStream also allows you to automatically research influencers without losing effectiveness.

9. Inkybee

One of the greatest advantages of Inkybee is its simplicity, which is perfect for all people who want to do the blogger outreach process without unnecessary complications. Inkybee uses various algorithms, text-processing, and machine learning techniques to process big data and allow you to find ideal bloggers and influencers. Probably the most useful feature of this website is Ongoing Blog Discovery which continuously scans the web to find blogs from your niche and points you toward different bloggers.

10. Ninja Outreach

What makes Ninja Outreach stand out is that it provides a platform for users from all parts of the world, regardless of the location or language. On the other hand, a vast majority of blogger outreach websites only focus on the US, Australia, UK, Canada, and some other countries. Ninja Outreach also offers personalization of templates, automatic email outreach, and tracks email statistics.

Conclusion

Blogger outreach is an effective way of improving your company, products, services, or basically everything you’d like. To do this, you should use websites that specialize in finding ideal bloggers for you, host blogger events, and establish a great relationship with influencers you find.

The post Blogger Outreach: 10 Strategies You Must Know appeared first on Proven SEO Blog.

]]> https://www.provenseo.com/blog/blogger-outreach.html/feed 0 https://www.provenseo.com/blog/sponsored-blog-post-opportunities.html https://www.provenseo.com/blog/sponsored-blog-post-opportunities.html#respond Mon, 21 Nov 2016 10:18:24 +0000 https://www.provenseo.com/blog/?p=40 Money has become the main issue in every activity that people partake. Even bloggers are now looking for ways in which to monetize their blogs. In fact, blog posts are now being sponsored and many of these kinds of blogs can be seen online today. If thinking of monetizing your blog posts or acquiring sponsored … Continue reading "Sponsored Blog Post Opportunities: 4 Easy Steps to Follow"

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]]> Money has become the main issue in every activity that people partake. Even bloggers are now looking for ways in which to monetize their blogs. In fact, blog posts are now being sponsored and many of these kinds of blogs can be seen online today. If thinking of monetizing your blog posts or acquiring sponsored opportunities for you blog posts, don’t be intimidated by the lengthy processes or competition observed. Furthermore, there are quite many options at your disposal to ensure that you adequately monetize or your posts are sponsored.

Even with the sponsorship opportunities being quite many, it is impossible to cope and make use of them. It is important to get the best opportunities and to understand that failure means you keep on trying. With the numerous opportunities out there, you need to know the processes used in acquiring sponsored post opportunities for any specific blog. This is why ProvenSEO has come up with this procedure to help you in your quest.

Identify media firms and closely work with them

For any sponsored blog, this is the first and major step for the blogger. Media firms are quite many and therefore you have to identify the most pertinent ones. As a person looking for a job, the first most important step is to apply, the same happens for bloggers. Apply and await your letter of acceptance. If not, do not give up, keep sending your applications to the different available firms and one of them is bound to accept your blog and sponsor your posts.

Identify firms that sell products or brands that are similar to your blog theme

Sponsored blog posts do not only come in form of money or cash. Some firms may offer other services in order to sponsor a post. Identify those firms that have brands that rhyme with your blog and send brief but informative blog pitches. Specifically those firms that are looking forward to expand and grow their media presence especially in marketing will form the best targets for sponsored blogs. In order to be brief but informative in your pitches, here are some tips from ProvenSEO.

• Clearly indicate your name, that of the blog and ensure that they are hyperlinked.
• Be selective in your choices and do not apply to all the opportunities presented as it degrades your virtue as a blog.
• Compliment the business you are applying to briefly.
• Explain the theme of the blog, main areas you specialize and the type of content that is popular with your fans or readers. Give a summary of the blogs statistics.
• Add blog links to your link stating what it is you can do for that specific firm.
• At the very end, include your blog signature which should be composed of;
  • Blog name
  • Link to the blog
  • Address i.e. email
  • Social media contacts



Link your blog with social media and Blogging Communities

Where else can you find sponsored opportunities than in fellow blogging communities or the social media? Once you have opened your own blog, it is essential to know other bloggers around you and any blog around your area. Opportunities may be posted on these communities and many may be viable for you. In addition, the group may be a resource in that it can create a link between you and potential blog post sponsors. Remember, this groups or communities vet and approve you and your blog before you are accepted. Giving up is never an option, therefore keep trying.

Publishing blog posts

This is one of the most important factors when starting a blog and the main determinant of whether the posts will be sponsored or not. Posts shape your blog and give it a theme over time. It is fundamental for you to write and publish posts that you take pride in over time. The quality of the posts, images, suspense in stories told or making a post as interesting as possible makes it unique in the midst of other blogs. This means that you are more likely to be seen and firms going through blogging communities may select you to represent their products or brands.

Conclusion

ProvenSEO provides bloggers with information and a chance to understand these types of processes. Log in to acquire further information on these procedures on how to acquire the best-sponsored blog post opportunities.

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