This Week in Content Marketing: Google and Amazon Prepare for Internet War

PNR: This Old Marketing with Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose can be found on both iTunes and Stitcher. If you enjoy our show, we would love it if you would rate it or post a review on iTunes.

In this week’s episode

This week, Robert ponders the nature of our personal power – and how we should choose to wield it. In the news, we discuss the week that was Advertising Week. Google and Amazon begin the war to end all wars, while Twitter is wasting everyone’s time by going to 280 characters. Our rants and raves include Time’s new membership model and Nielsen ratings; then we wrap up with an example of the week on the Chagrin Falls Film Festival.

Download this week’s PNR: This Old Marketing podcast

Show details

• (00:01): An advertising blast from the past: “You can’t say ‘beer’ better than Busch.”

• (00:33): Robert muses on this week’s theme: Understanding your power, and how to wield it.

• (06:12): Welcome to Episode 203: Recorded live on October 1, 2017 (Running time: 1:06:41)

• (09:57): Special offer for Content Marketing World video on demand – You may have missed the show, but don’t miss out on all the insights. Videos of 100+ sessions from Content Marketing World 2017 will be available for a limited time through our video on demand portal. Register for access, and use the coupon code CMIFRIENDS100 to save $100.

• (10:30): Content Marketing Master Classes – Our multi-city tour is returning for another round of in-depth content marketing training. Starting on November 6, we’ll be making stops in Boston; New York; Washington, DC; Seattle; San Francisco; Chicago; Atlanta; and Austin, Texas. Robert and I would love to see you there, so register today.

Content love from our sponsor: Ahrefs (11:40)

Ahrefs is a powerful SEO tool set that has many amazing tools for content marketers who’re looking to grow their traffic from Google. With Ahrefs tools you can easily find out what people are searching for in Google, so you can create content around the most popular search queries. You can also discover content that got the most shares or earned the most backlinks, so you can piggyback from it and get the same results. And finally, you can easily research your competitors and find out which content brings them the most traffic from Google.

Here’s an exclusive opportunity for PNR podcast listeners: Any listener who tweets using #ThisOldMarketing between the dates of September 30 through October 28 will be entered into a drawing to win an annual Ahrefs account plus a signed copy of Joe and Robert’s new book, Killing Marketing. One randomly selected participant will be drawn each week; four winners in total.

The quick hits – Notable news and trends

• (13:34): The Advertising Week wrap-up. (Source: The Wall Street Journal)

• (25:00): Google pulls YouTube off the Amazon Echo Show. (Source: The Verge)

• (30:40): Twitter to test doubling tweet length to 280 characters. (Source: The New York Times)

The deep dive – Industry analysis

• (34:42): Research reveals the habits of top content marketers. (Source: Content Marketing Institute)

Content love from our show sponsor: SnapApp (43:40)

Today’s buying committees are diverse; Millennials are already taking their seats among Generation X and Baby Boomers at the buying table, making navigating the already complicated buying environment even harder, thanks to their different preferences. Though this shift might seem minor, it greatly impacts how marketing teams operate, sales teams engage, and how purchase decisions are ultimately made.

SnapApp and Heinz Marketing recently conducted research to answer the question: How do different generations like to buy? Their report, The Millennials Are Here! How Generational Differences Impact B2B Buying Committees Today, looks at the differences between the rising Millennial buyer, their Generation X and Baby Boomer counterparts, and how B2B marketing and sales strategies can address the gaps between them. Read the report.

Rants and raves

• (45:50): Joe’s rave No. 1: PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) is the hottest video game of 2017 – and it isn’t even finished being developed yet. According to The Wall Street Journal, the Hunger Games-like title has spent no money on marketing; but the demo version of the game, which the company updates every day based on tester comments and critiques, has drawn enough attention to get the pre-release sales flowing. It’s like a Content Inc. model unfolding in real time, letting the audience dictate the product to be built.

• (49:42): Joe’s rave No. 2: I also wanted to call attention to Time Inc.’s newest launch: its People Perks paid membership program. As per Folio: The program represents the publisher’s latest push to reduce its dependence on advertising revenue. I don’t know if it will work, but I applaud the effort.

• (50:58): Robert’s “note”: A few episodes back, Robert raved about a new book, Get Serious About Editorial Management for Business to Business Media Professionals. Author Howard Rauch heard the glowing critique and wanted to let PNR listeners know it will be available on Amazon for a discounted price, for a limited time.

• (52:07): Robert’s correction: Last week, Robert shared a rant, in which he said the number of panelists in a sample of Nielsen’s Portable People Meter survey of television viewers was 6,200. However, Robert misread the source article, which actually reported that the sample size had increased by 6,200, for a total of 26,000 viewers. (Source: Video Advertising Bureau).

• (55:00): Robert’s commentary: Following on that discussion of audience measurement from last week’s show, Robert found a wonderful article in MediaPost that put the issue into perspective for him. The findings cited in the article make a great business case for using an owned audience as a people-based panel, which can confirm what the data companies use to make their media-buying decisions.

This Old Marketing example of the week

(58:46): Chagrin Falls Film Festival: This week, I wanted to share a homegrown story of how a woman turned her small town into a magnet for movie fans and filmmakers around the world. Chagrin Falls Film Festival founder Mary Ann Ponce wanted to do something to draw visitors to her small town in the Cleveland area. According to a profile article on Cleveland.com, Ponce became inspired by the filmmaking experiences of her son – who had been a film student, before he passed away from leukemia – to build a festival around sharing the small, passion-driven stories that other festivals overlooked. The annual event first launched 8 years ago with an attendance rate of 1,800 viewers; but thanks to Ponce’s drive – and a supportive community of over 200 local volunteers – last year’s festival attracted over 10,000 people. In Ponce’s words, the festival is all about taking something positive and turning it into something bigger – a concept embodied by one of the films being featured this year: Knife Skills tells the story of a Shaker Square eatery that has earned national acclaim for its food and its staff, which consists almost entirely of men and women just out of prison. It’s a wonderful This Old Marketing example of how to build a live event from meaningful stories.

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For a full list of PNR archives, go to the main This Old Marketing page.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

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The post This Week in Content Marketing: Google and Amazon Prepare for Internet War appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

How to Infuse ‘Know,’ ‘Like,’ and ‘Trust’ Into Your Content

You’ve read the research that says people prefer to do business with people they know, like, and trust, right?

Me, too.

Yet whenever I hear that advice, I think, “that sounds nice,” but what does it really mean to know, like, and trust someone? And what does it take for that person to know, like, or trust your brand?

And, more important, how do you translate that understanding into your content?

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Get audiences to know, like, and trust you through your #content, says @WriterRen.
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To get at the answers, I investigated what it really means to know, like, and trust. I’ll share what I found, along with examples of companies that get each of those elements right.

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To know you, your prospect must ‘get’ you

This kind of knowing is not surface knowledge where people have seen your name, logo, brand, or content. In that kind of knowing, people recognize you and know you exist. You’re not a total unknown or stranger. They know about you or of you.

The kind of knowing you want – the kind that opens up greater possibilities for stronger relationships that can lead to sales – is deeper – the kind of knowing that follows when someone shares private details and understands what sits at your core or foundation.

Let’s look at how this plays out in an example shared in a Psychology Today article. The author uses actor Johnny Depp to ask: “What’s the difference between knowing about someone and knowing someone?”

As a fan, I know some facts about him. He:

• Is older than me (not by much)
• Has two kids
• Plays guitar
• Likes to work with Tim Burton
• Was magnificent as Captain Jack Sparrow

Image source

But can I say that I “know” him?

Not really.

In order for you to “know” Johnny Depp, according to Psychology Today, Johnny himself would have to “actively share information with you, particularly intimate, private information. For instance, you may be able to find out online what Johnny Depp’s favorite movie is, but if he were to tell you himself, perhaps with personal insight into why it’s his favorite, or where he first saw it, that would give you reason to say you know him (at least a little).”

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Brand Backstory: Where Your Content Marketing Strategy Is Born

Businesses that get ‘knowing’ right

Example 1: Jonathan Fields

Author and entrepreneur Jonathan Fields is intimate and open with readers from the first sentence of his About page: “You can read what’s below, but truth is, that image above, that’s all you really need to know …”

As you read, you naturally look at the image. The colorful heart draws you in.

You wonder why it illustrates all you really need to know.

You head back to the text, and find that Jonathan took the picture while giving the final keynote presentation of the World Domination Summit in 2011. He shares how he felt and the importance of the photo.

“On that day, I was nervous. Though I’ve spoken in front of much bigger audiences since then, it was my first time standing before 500 people. Eyes and hearts staring back at me, yearning for something good. Something real. … As I walked up onto the stage, I brought a small picture that had been hastily drawn by my then 10-year-old daughter and tucked into my backpack before I left. A series of colored hearts to wish me luck and remind me how much I was loved. That’s all I needed. I knew that at any given moment, no matter what happened on that stage, I could look down and know everything was going to be okay.”

Jonathan reveals more than the standard “about” information – his background, his experience, his accolades, etc. He reveals himself – the man behind the entrepreneur and speaker.

After reading his page, you feel that you know him. You likely want to learn more about him and his business.

Let’s look at a corporate example next.

Example 2: Zendesk

Zendesk’s About page starts with two simple headings: “This is Zendesk” and “In the beginning,” followed by three short sentences that explain how the founders wanted to create software that was “nice to look at” and “easy to use.”

Scroll down, and the page tells what to expect from the company’s products – software that simplifies customer service and incorporates design elements people expect.

Scroll further, and learn what ignites the hearts of the people at Zendesk – making lives better for the people in their communities.

The next panels give a sense of its playfulness.

After viewing the About page, my overall impression is Zendesk is clear, simple, heartfelt, fun.

Do I feel as if I “know” Zendesk? I’m starting to “know” them and I’m also starting to “like” them enough to want to learn more.

TIP: While About pages are ideal places to give visitors a chance to know your brand, it’s not the only place where your content can help your audience know the real you.

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How to lead people to ‘know’ through your content

How can you instigate that kind of “knowing” to someone poking around on your website, reading your brochure, or scrolling through your Facebook page? As in the examples, your brand must be more personal so your prospects can know who you are as a company, your values, and your approach to work.

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To trust you, prospects want to know who your company is & what it values. #Content can help. @WriterRen.
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Here are a few ways to reach that level of knowing.

• Let loose with a little color and personality. Share details of the time when an experience with a customer made you break into a big smile. Is there a running joke among your staff about those Philly pretzels you must have flown in every month? Tell your audience about it. Are you in business to make life easier for a group you care about? Share it. Does your CIO like to do headstands before lunch? Yep. Sharing a detail like that instigates knowing, too.
• Share your brand’s WHY with readers. Simon Sinek, author of Knowing Your Why, explains about your why in his popular, 18-minute TED Talk. Here’s the five-minute version that gets to the heart of the matter fast.

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• Do You Know Your Why? Your Content Marketing Success Depends on It
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To like you, your prospect must connect with you

What does it mean to like someone?

I’m not talking “like like” as in having a romantic crush. I’m talking “like” as in appreciating or respecting a friend, mentor, or colleague.

What do these friends, mentors, or colleagues do?

• They inspire you or make you see things in a new light.
• Their values and opinions match yours.
• You feel good around them.
• You like their sense of humor or style.
• You enjoy some of the same things, whether music, sports, hobbies, or mustaches.

Businesses that get ‘liking’ right

Two caveats before I get to the examples:

• “Liking” is subjective. What I like, you may not. If you find that the examples aren’t to your liking, think of companies or brands you really like. Then, ask yourself, “Why?”
• The world is filled with companies and brands. To find the few I share here, I turned away from the internet and asked myself, “What brands do I really like?” The brands that first came to mind made it to my roster of examples.

Example 1: Big Ass Fans

Here’s a tidbit about me: I hate the heat. Despise it. Heat makes me cranky. While it might not make sense that I lived in Florida for 20-plus years, it does make sense that I now live in the mountains of North Carolina.

I discovered Big Ass Fans while searching for a fan big enough to cool the gym where my husband and I worked out at the time. The workout room was at least 10 degrees too hot. When the owner (finally!) brought in a fan, I was happy – until I realized, rather quickly, that the fan wasn’t big or strong enough. I waited impatiently for the slight breeze as the fan pointed in my direction while rotating.

After suffering through too many overly hot workouts, I searched online, and came across Big Ass Fans.

I fell in love right away with the bold use of the word “ass” in the company’s name, playing right into the story in my head of “Renae the rebel.”

The other obvious reason for loving the brand is, of course, the product – the big ass fan, which I needed in my life to tackle my big-ass aversion to heat, both at the gym and at home.

Example 2: Velocity

Velocity is a B2B content marketing agency in London. I discovered the company when it promoted an e-book called the B2B Marketing Manifesto. That e-book broke the rules of e-book design, moving away from walls of text on a page to a few words on a page. It spoke in simple terms rather than jargon. It used large, bold images to get a point across.

Yes, Velocity uses a few cuss words, which speaks to my rebellious spirit. And that’s exactly why I like the brand. I feel a connection. I aspire to be like them. I like the things they think, say, and share.

How to lead people to ‘like’ through your content

Now, how to translate what you do into content that boosts your “like” factor? Consider these ideas:

• Create content that inspires people and makes them feel good – aspirational content.
• Recognize that even if you’re a B2B company, you’re selling to people – people who are consuming your content. Use second-person language. It’s far more personal and increases a sense of connection. (Do you get a sense that I’m talking to you? I hope so!)
• Provide real value in your content, not a sales spiel – create and distribute apps, checklists, best-practice guides, research results, and how-to’s.
• Show your personality and style. How about giving the reader a sense of the company culture? Is your ideal client a risk taker, or does she shy away from risk? Tap into the story in your audience member’s head.

Liking comes down to being open and honest, to being who you are, and to sharing common interests. Just be open about your insights and talents, and how you can use them to serve (not sell).

TIP: A common interest is the success of the people you serve. Don’t forget to tell that story.

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To trust you, your prospect must feel safe

Although the trust element is easier to work into content, it’s harder to answer the question, “What does it mean to trust someone?” I like this definition from Tam Thao Pham posted on Quora:

“Trust is about the intersection of the past and future. It’s taking the evidence of the past (sometimes your own past and references) and extrapolating that into the future – what can I expect going forward? – and then being able to apply this information within a context of risk.

“To trust a human being is to be able to anticipate generally how (that person will) behave in most of the future situations in which you might encounter them, and to feel comfort in taking an (often emotional) risk based on that (anticipated behavior).”

Businesses that get ‘trusting’ right

Example 1: Amazon

When I think about companies I trust, I think of companies that won’t let me down. Amazon quickly comes to mind.

In all the years I’ve shopped with Amazon, across hundreds and hundreds of transactions, my trust has been shaken only once – and it was so long ago that I can’t even recall the details.

I shop at Amazon because I trust my order will be delivered on time. I trust Amazon will make things right if something goes wrong. I trust I’ll be able to speak to a representative quickly.

The footer on Amazon’s website tells that story. Just look at that last column. It says to me, “Renae, we’re here for you.”

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Content in @Amazon’s site footer tells me, “we’re here for you,” & that makes me trust, says @WriterRen.
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Example 2: Tervis Tumblers

Tervis is another company that’s earned my trust because I know I can count on the company to replace a broken tumbler for as long as I live (or they exist). A lifetime guarantee goes far to instill a sense of trust, but that trust is solidified after you test the company on its promise a few times.

It also helps that the return process sounds (and is) easy.

I’ve tested my trust by sending back broken tumblers and Tervis has responded in kind by sending replacement tumblers without hassle.

Trust? Strengthened.

Example 3: Carbonite

Carbonite is an online backup solution for your computers. If you’re unfamiliar with Carbonite, then your first visit to the website may inspire trust. The site looks professional and promises to do exactly what customers want: keep the data on your computers safe.

A quick tour around the site lets me know that Carbonite has won awards and that many businesses are using the service and are pleased with it.

Carbonite won my trust with its website. And that trust solidified after I put the service to the test following a few crashes. I had trouble restoring my data, but was quickly set straight by a helpful phone representative who walked me through the process step by step.

Trust? Magnified.

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How to lead people to ‘trust’ through your content

Now, how do you instill trust on your website and in your content?

How do you give prospects a sense of trust if they haven’t done business with you? How can you build enough trust so prospects feel good about saying yes?

Here are a few ideas.

• Provide social proof. Share testimonials from people who have consumed your products or services.
• Share stories of how you successfully helped others achieve results.
• Be transparent. Let people see who and what you are — and who and what you’re not.
• Offer a money-back guarantee. This tactic doesn’t work for every business, but a guarantee goes a long way toward building trust.
• Be accessible. Place your contact details on every page of your site in a sidebar or a footer. From the prospect’s perspective, it’s nice to be on someone’s site and see you can reach them easily.

Know, like, and trust are the real things that affect how people perceive your brand. And now, with a better understanding of what that means – and what it can look like – you can begin to weave each element into your content to lead more people to know, like, and trust you.

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Cover image by Ryan McGuire-Bells Design via Gratisography

The post How to Infuse ‘Know,’ ‘Like,’ and ‘Trust’ Into Your Content appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

How Topic Modeling Can Strengthen Your SEO and Content Marketing Strategy

Content marketing lies at the intersection of art and technology, so it’s only logical that artificial intelligence comes into play. AI plays a big role in search and it can be useful in creating content, too.

While it’s not known exactly how the Google algorithm works, researchers and marketers have conducted experiments that make a strong argument for topic modeling as a key component of the Hummingbird algorithm. Also, Wired reported last year about how Google’s search engine now uses artificial intelligence to rank content.

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Google’s search engine now uses #artificialintelligence to rank #content via @wired.
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A basic understanding of how search engines interpret text and its quality can help you develop a strategy that produces consistently high-ranking content because topic modeling – done manually or with software – allows you to create blueprints for the best possible content.

In this post, I explore the concept of topic modeling and how it relates to search algorithms. Then, I’ll go over some key strategies on how to develop your content to include all relevant topics, and how you can take advantage of topic model predictions to outperform the competition.

First, let’s dive into what exactly topic modeling is and how search algorithms can use it to rank the billions of pages on the web.

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What is topic modeling?

Words and phrases are interrelated, and the idea behind topic modeling is to discover those relationships. When crawling your content, search engines aren’t just crawling for specific words, they’re seeking words with related meaning. This makes keywords, keyword variants, and related topics an integral part of creating contextually rich content. The placement and frequency of each keyword should correlate with how important that term is to your piece.

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Search engines don’t just crawl for specific words. They seek words w/ related meaning. @rakkenbakken #SEO
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• Focus topic – Your main topic (i.e., your target keyword) as well as its variants should be mentioned in the headline, first paragraph, and as frequently as possible while sounding natural.
• Related topics – Each subject most commonly associated with your main topic should have its own subheading within your content to ensure that it’s discussed appropriately.
• Secondary related topics – Somewhat tangential to your focus topic, if your competitors are discussing these related topics, you should too, to improve your chances of ranking. (If you find a secondary related topic is more important than the competition deems it, take that opportunity to differentiate your content and cover it more deeply than the top-ranking pages.)

When thinking about which topics to cover in your content, it helps to think in terms of searcher intent. What questions could your reader possibly have about this topic, and how can you answer them comprehensively? When you achieve this, your content signals to Google’s AI that you’re the authority on that subject – a major factor in ranking.

A note on keyword tools versus topic modeling: It’s true many tools can generate lists of “related keywords,” but there’s a difference in the technology behind keyword tools and topic-modeling software. Keyword tools primarily look at topics that appear together in high-ranking pages and group them together. They don’t look at the number of co-occurrences between terms, semantic relevance, and other signals, so they’re not necessarily informing on the degree to which topics are related. Conversely, AI software can perform this calculation and rank related topics by importance, while taking other on-page factors into account as well.

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How to manually create a topic model

Let’s walk through the steps you would follow to manually implement topic modelling for your website.

1. Inventory each page on your site.

To stay organized, keep a spreadsheet. Every URL should have a row, and columns should indicate these points:

• Focus topic
• Quality and comprehensiveness
• User intent bucket (e.g., evaluate, compare, purchase)
• Need for improvement (yes/no)

(Sorting in spreadsheets requires uniform inputs. Identify your target focus topics, a scale for quality, and user intents ahead of time.)

2. Identify gaps in topic coverage.

Once you’ve done this for each page, look at your focus topic column and see which topics are covered in depth, and which have gaps. For the topics with gaps, plan to create new content to cover them.

3. Prioritize pages to update.

For pages you’ve identified that need improvement, identify the subjects related to your focus topic that need to be added. URLs with the most shallow topic coverage should take priority, particularly if their focus topic is important to your business.

The rest is a matter of execution for your content team. You can help them by creating blueprints that detail the ideal word count (based on pages ranking for your focus topic), related topics, and user intent profile for each post. For any piece of content you create, follow this basic framework:

On-page factors

Each page on your site should have a framework that signals to search engines what topics your site covers. These on-page signals are important for SEO, and can provide guidance to make your content creation process more efficient:

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Framework for every site page should signal to search engines what topics are addressed. @rakkenbakken #SEO
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1. Page title or headline – What is your page about? Be clear, succinct, and specific when choosing your titles (but also remember to keep it lively and attention-grabbing).
2. Lead or introductory paragraph – Your readers are impatient, and search engines give weight to your first paragraph. Get to the point in your first sentences, and be sure to include your focus topic for that page.
3. Headings and subheadings – Those H1 and H2 tags in your content are more than formatting codes. Search engines crawl your headings and subheadings to derive meaning from your content.
4. Linking – Internal and external links, as well as their anchor text, are strong signals that tell Google what you’re writing about and the associated content that you value.

A less visible factor to consider is whether your content answers your users’ questions. This is key as search engines favor content that directly responds to queries. Think about the questions your visitors might be asking and provide a thorough answer.

Writing content that speaks to searcher intent thoroughly will get you far, but it really helps to have some tools at your disposal.

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Automate the process

Advanced artificial intelligence platforms such as MarketMuse (disclosure: a client and a platform that I use successfully) are available to find topical gaps in your content, identify related topics, and generate outlines and keyword lists to guide you to topical authority. Creating and updating content is much easier when you give your team clear-cut, data-based recommendations in an outline. Alternatively, you could pull organic keyword data from SEMrush and use Excel to filter and analyze it to give you a list of terms for which top content is ranking (i.e., topics you should cover with your own content).

AI solutions can remove a lot of the guesswork when deciding which topics to cover, and because they use technology similarly to the way search engines do, they provide data that produces predictably positive results.

Many content marketers will be satisfied with the information already covered. But if you’re one of those next-level, data-obsessed marketers, read on.

Going more in depth for data geeks

There are several different types of topic models, and, for most marketers, it’s not terribly important to know the minutiae of each one. In general, a topic model is a text-mining method that determines the relevance within a body of text. Topic modeling allows algorithms to analyze vast amounts of web content, assigning topical relevancy to each page and ranking it efficiently and accurately with each query.

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A topic model is a text-mining method that determines the relevance within a body of text, says @rakkenbakken.
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Additionally, it allows for advanced content analysis and search engine optimization software to identify topical gaps in content. When you understand how topic modeling works, you’re better able to plan your content and effectively use the tools at your disposal.

One of the more common topic models for identifying topical probability is latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA), a statistical model in natural language processing. An LDA model views individual documents within a corpus – or, in search terms, pages within a site – and determines the relevancy of each page to a topic, assigning a percentage for topics mentioned. Here’s a simplified example:

Page 1: There are many delicious vegetarian dishes.

Page 2: A vegetarian diet contributes to a healthy lifestyle.

Page 3: Julia Child was one of the first TV chefs.

Page 4: Julia Child cooked many types of vegetarian dishes.

 

Pages 1 and 2: 100% topic A

Pages 3: 100% topic B

Page 4: 50% topic A and 50% topic B

Using an LDA model, a software platform would be able to infer that the site as a whole is about vegetarian cooking, which also discusses some famous chefs who cook vegetarian recipes. One characteristic of LDA modeling is that a topic isn’t defined as a single thing, but rather a group of related terms.

For instance, topic A in this example would include vegetarian dishes, vegetarian cooking, vegetables, and so on. Topic B would include Julia Child, famous chefs, TV chefs, etc. Having groups of terms within each topic means that search engines can more intuitively pull pages related to a query, even if the person did not search for that exact term, giving the searcher the greatest number of relevant results.

LDA isn’t the only type of topic modeling, however. If you’re interested in taking a deep dive, here are some other topic models to consider:

• Explicit semantic analysis
• Latent semantic analysis
• Hierarchical Dirichlet process
• Non-negative matrix factorization

Additionally, databases such as Google’s Knowledge Graph and techniques such as TF-IDF (term frequency and inverse document frequency; a much more simple method than LDA), co-occurrences, and co-citations all use topic modeling to determine semantic meaning of a body of text.

It’s not necessary to have an intimate knowledge of topic modeling to create a successful content marketing strategy. But knowing how search algorithms categorize pages is useful when deciding which topics to cover, the pages on which they should be mentioned, and how frequently you should write about your core and secondary topics.

Conclusion

Topic modeling plays a significant role in planning and search, in both obvious and subtle ways. Now that you have a basic understanding of how topic models work and how they’re applied to content, it should help you plan and organize your content in a way that puts topics – not keywords – at the forefront of your content marketing strategy. 

Please note: All tools included in our blog posts are suggested by authors, not the CMI editorial team. No one post can provide all relevant tools in the space. Feel free to include additional tools in the comments (from your company or ones that you have used).

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Cover image by Wilfred Ivan, StockSnap

The post How Topic Modeling Can Strengthen Your SEO and Content Marketing Strategy appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

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User-Generated Content: Where Does It Fit in Your Content Marketing Strategy?

4 Strategies to Earn Natural, High-Quality Links for Your Content

The process of “building links” has long been touted as the key to ranking in search engines. After all, studies about the relationship between external links and rankings have shown it’s nearly impossible to rank without them.

In fact, a Moz study of over 15,000 keywords found that 99.2% of all websites at the top of the rankings had at least one external link.

But, while obtaining links is still crucial to SEO, the way in which those links are obtained has shifted.

Link-building tactics through spammy emails, article submissions, and trading links are strategies of the past. Today, if you want to generate links, you’ve got to put in the work to earn them.

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If you want to generate backlinks, you have to earn them, says @JuliaEMcCoy. #SEO
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How? Let’s dive in and find out.

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What constitutes a quality backlink?

First, we need to identify exactly what a quality backlink is and is not. Because, as Neil Patel mentions about quality backlinks:

While the right inbound website link can grow your Google rankings, revenue, and brand, the wrong ones can get your site penalized.

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The right inbound link can grow rankings & ROI. The wrong ones can get your site penalized. @neilpatel
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Since we’re trying to avoid penalties at all costs, we want to focus on earning the RIGHT inbound links.

What makes a backlink high-quality?

SEO consultant Mark Walters lays it out in the easiest way possible. He says high-quality backlinks:

• Are from a relevant source
• Are from a trusted source
• Send traffic
• Are in the main content
• Are on a page with Google’s PageRank
• Are next to backlinks to authority websites

Mark also shares that high-quality backlinks are NOT:

• Earned through link exchange
• Included with dozens of other links within the content
• Acquired easily
• Paid to be included

Now that we know what constitutes a quality backlink, let’s check out a few strategies for earning them.

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Why ‘earned’ links

If I haven’t made it clear, these strategies are all about earning links rather than building them.

By committing to earning instead of building, you no longer have to worry about Google’s constant algorithm updates affecting your ranking. Because, at the end of the day, attempting to outsmart Google’s engineers is a game you will lose.

Commit to earning links rather than building them. And do it using these four strategies.

1. Create the best content available on your topic

While this strategy is easier said than done, it’s by far the best way to earn a large number of links.

To do it, look at the content already ranking high for the topic you’re targeting.

For example, let’s say you want to create content on the topic of defining conversion copywriting. The first thing you would do is perform a Google search for “what is conversion copywriting?”

As you browse the results, you see that the opportunity is good to create more valuable content – a highly linkable piece of content – on the topic. And since most of the results don’t directly answer the question, you may even be able to create content that appears in Google’s answer box for this phrase.

Here’s how the process looks after conducting a Google search on your topic:

• Take notes on the content ranking highest – Open and skim each result on the first page of the rankings to detail what each piece of content does and doesn’t do well.
• Identify where and how your brand can do better content – With these notes, identify opportunities for besting them. Ask yourself questions like, “Can my content be more actionable?” or “Could I include more engaging visuals?” or “Could I include original research or a case study?”
• Create an outline – Now that you know what you’re up against, create a thorough outline that lays out the research, visuals, actionable advice, etc., that you’ll use.
• Develop content that’s better – With the outline, you can now create a post that provides a better result for searchers of your chosen topic.

And, since you’re attempting to cover the topic as thoroughly as possible, know that you likely need to create long-form content. Not only does it help ensure that your post is highly informative, but it also puts you in a better position to rank at the top of search engine results.

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Don’t forget to develop content in long form for a greater chance of earning links, advises @JuliaEMcCoy. #SEO
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Image source

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2. Perform exclusive interviews with industry experts and/or influencers

This influencer or expert content strategy is becoming more common. My team used it for an episode of our Write Podcast by interviewing conversion copywriting expert Joanna Wiebe. One of the quotes from the transcribed interview was featured as a backlink in Crazy Egg’s Guide to Conversion Copywriting.

The best part? The phrase for the backlink was “describe conversion copywriting.” As a result, when searchers use the phrase “describe conversion copywriting,” our podcast interview ranks third and the content that incorporates its backlink ranks first.

In addition to that high-authority link, the interview generated 12 other links. That’s the power of an industry expert interview.

3. Create custom infographics

Visuals have long been an important component of creating engaging content. But you may not know their power in earning links. For example, look at this infographic from Search Engine Land outlining SEO success factors:

This visual, which has its own page on the Search Engine Land site, has earned over 4,000 links and generated over 30,000 social shares.

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Infographics can be a great way to earn backlinks, says @JuliaEMcCoy. #SEO
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What do you think is at the top of search engines for the high-value keyword “SEO success factors”?

That’s an easy answer. Search Land Engine’s periodic table appears in the Google Answer Box.

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4. Participate in collaborative content marketing

Collaborative content is a way to combine the expertise of other influencers in your field to create an amazing piece of content. Not only does collaborating save time and resources, it has significantly more potential for earning links and social shares because your collaborators have their own audiences and platforms.

Let’s look at Robbie Richards’ post in which he asks 143 experts to list their top three SEO tools.

The post has generated over 10,000 social shares and earned 250 links. It ranks on the first page of search results for the phrase “best SEO tools.”

Start earning links

With the four strategies outlined, you now have what you need to start generating links the right way.

Use these tactics to start earning links and move your way up the SERPs without having to worry about being affected by Google’s algorithm updates.

It’ll be worth it. I promise.

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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post 4 Strategies to Earn Natural, High-Quality Links for Your Content appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

13 Experts Share Their Best Tips on How to Build a Well-Run Content Team

Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing yet produces almost three times as many leads. It’s easy to see why 89% of B2B marketers use content marketing as part of their strategies.

However, executing an effective content marketing program is no simple task. It requires a skilled team and a well-run process. To help you build and operate an elite team of editors, strategists, writers, videographers, and designers, follow these tips curated from 13 marketing experts.

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Your #contentmarketing strategy is the genetic code to build the best team, says @IamAaronAgius.
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1. Create a content marketing strategy

“Before you start looking for writers, you need to create an effective content strategy that will help you decide on the type and number of writers you need to hire. The strategy will also help you stay focused on your long-term goals and not just on producing content.” – Jill Phillips, Buildfire

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Before you start looking for writers, you need an effective #content strategy, says @jillphlps.
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Creating a content marketing strategy isn’t a superfluous exercise to kill time. Your strategy is the DNA for how your brand communicates with the outside world. It’s also the genetic code necessary to build the best team to execute the strategy.

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2. Structure your team effectively

“The way you structure your team sends a strong message about what your team is currently prioritizing and deprioritizing.” – Kipp Bodnar, HubSpot

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The way you structure your team sends a strong message about what your team is prioritizing, says @kippbodnar.
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To function efficiently, it’s important to have clearly defined job roles and a formal structure for your team. Without this, responsibilities get blurred and chaos usually ensues.
With a team of editors, designers, and writers, you need a leader. This is typically your managing editor or content strategist, who is responsible for keeping the team in alignment with the growth goals of the organization.

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3. Choose your managing editor wisely

“The managing editor is the actual day-to-day storyteller for the organization. The managing editor makes the content compelling.” – Joe Pulizzi, Content Marketing Institute

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The managing editor is the actual day-to-day storyteller for the organization, says @joepulizzi.
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Your editor is the linchpin of your content marketing operation – you want to choose him or her carefully.

Find someone who pays meticulous attention to detail, is highly organized, can work to a deadline, and is a good copywriter – so the editor can improve upon (rather than destroy) the work of your other writers. Large egos and editing don’t go together well. Ensure that your editor can look at things objectively and provide criticism without tearing down the work of other writers.

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Large egos and editing don’t go together well, says @IAmAaronAgius.
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4. Hire a content marketing strategist

“Content strategists need strong communication skills to handle the frequently conflicting demands of editorial and marketing leaders.” – Erin Nelson, Contently

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#Content strategists need strong communication skills to handle conflicting demands, says @erincnelson.
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Content creation can become an insular process. When you spend all of your time researching topics, writing informative articles, and promoting content, it’s easy to lose track of the bigger picture of how content marketing is moving the company forward.

When hiring a strategist, look for someone who understands good content and pays attention to detail but who has a strong vision for the future and is prepared to go the extra mile to ensure that your goals become a reality.

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Hire a strategist who understands how good content can move the company forward, says @IamAaronAgius.
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5. Hire a skilled designer

“Strong visual communicators are invaluable for content marketing. Sure, you can create graphics using a variety of free tools. However, they are not a replacement for a skilled graphic designer.” – Kristi Hines, CoSchedule

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Strong visual communicators are invaluable for #contentmarketing, says @kikolani.
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While writers may be the most fundamental members of your content team, remember 65% of people are visual learners. Don’t neglect the importance of visual content creators. Facebook posts with images generate 2.3 times more engagement than those without, while tweets with images generate 150% more retweets than those without. It’s crucial that your team is able to create high quality images that resonate with two-thirds of your audience.

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6. Seek writers with journalistic backgrounds

“Journalists know how to get the point across with fewer words. They’re not prone to marketing jargon, and they’re natural storytellers.” – Kyle Lacy, Lessonly

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Journalists are not prone to marketing jargon, and they’re natural storytellers, says @kyleplacy.
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When hiring a writer, the quality of the person’s work should be more important than their background or qualifications. That said, journalists usually have an innate ability to investigate an issue from all perspectives and write in a way that communicates rather than simply expresses. For this reason, a journalistic background is a great asset for a writer on your content marketing team.

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7. Search proactively for writers

“The simplest way to find a great blogger is to scour marketing blogs. Although your business may not be about marketing, it doesn’t matter in this particular case. A great blogger can write on any topic due to the fact that anything can be researched on the web.” – Neil Patel, Quicksprout

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The simplest way to find a great blogger is to scour marketing blogs, says @neilpatel.
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Often, a skilled writer is more valuable than one who is knowledgeable about a particular subject. That’s why you can actively look for writer candidates from all types of content places. Unless you’re producing content which is extremely technical or requires deep domain knowledge, judge potential hires on the quality of their portfolio rather than what topics they’ve written about.

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8. Leverage the power of video

“Don’t be afraid to start small. If video is a talent you or your team has, it’s incredibly powerful for connecting with people in a way that raw text and images simply cannot.” – Rand Fishkin, Moz

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Video is incredibly powerful for connecting w/ people in a way that raw text & images cannot. @randish
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Cisco estimates video will make up 80% of all internet traffic by 2019. If you can regularly produce high quality video content without breaking your marketing budget, you’ll benefit greatly.

You don’t need to hire a full-time videographer or animator. You can start with the help of freelance animators, script writers, designers, voice actors, and spokespersons thanks to resources like Fiverr and Upwork.

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You don’t need to hire a full-time videographer thanks to resources like @fiverr & @upwork. @IamAaronAgius
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9. Search for diverse talents

“The advantages of building out a team of freelancers are that you get a wide range of voices, types of content, and that this model is infinitely scalable.” – Benji Hyam, Grow and Convert

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Build out a team of freelancers so you get a wide range of voices & types of content, says @benjihyam.
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Writers are not equal in their strengths and weaknesses. Some writers are great at turning out highly technical blog posts, but struggle at scripting humorous animated explainer videos.

Likewise, reaching out to influencers and arranging expert influencers comes naturally for some content marketing team members, while others prefer to stick to content.

The key is to have a diverse set of skills on your team so you can handle the full spectrum of content marketing activities. In my experience, it can be helpful to hire freelancers for individual projects rather than hire full-time staff — that makes it easier to match the right skill set to the right project.

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10. Convey a path to promotion

“Top talent knows their worth and are motivated to continually develop their skills – if they see your agency as a dead end, you’ll miss out on the best people for your content marketing team.” – Jessica Kandler, Map&Compass

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Top talent knows their worth & are motivated to continually develop their skills, says @JessicaKandler.
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No one wants to work for a company where their skills aren’t valued. In your job description, be sure to emphasize that you’re looking for someone who can grow with the organization. Promoting internally is less expensive and creates excellent organizational loyalty. If you’re prepared to invest in team members’ growth, they are more likely to want to stay with you for the long term.

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11. Promote those who document processes

“More often than not, if you create a culture of documentation, your promotions will be internal. As a process is created and the company grows, an employee will replace themselves and ascend the ladder to a higher position.” – Ryan Deiss, Digital Marketer

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If you create a culture of documentation, your employee promotions will be internal, says @ryandeiss.
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Without solid documentation, attempts to scale your content marketing will result in mayhem.

Experienced content team members are the best people to document working processes. As they ascend to senior positions, they’ll be available to clarify the documents and answer questions when new members join the team.

12. Create a style guide

“The purpose of a comprehensive style guide is to create consistency across all content, and it also gives writers something to refer to if they have questions.” – Kyra Kuik, Planday

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The purpose of a comprehensive style guide is to create consistency across all content, says @KyraKuik.
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Nothing is worse than a disjointed tone of voice that varies from one platform to the next. When you’re scaling a content team and bringing on new writers, it’s essential to have a style guide.

A documented tone of voice, vocabulary list, and communication style enables every content creator on your team to represent the brand with integrity.

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13. Teach using osmosis

“Surround yourself with your team as often as you can, talk to people one on one, make sure they know your values. You won’t be sorry.” – Gary Vaynerchuk, Vaynermedia

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Talk to people on your team one on one, & make sure they know your values, says @garyvee.
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It’s useful to document your style guide and work processes, but it’s also important for new hires to learn through real-time communication.

Gary isn’t a fan of remote working arrangements and likes to inculcate employees into his culture via face-to-face interactions. However, even if your content team is composed of freelancers scattered around the world (like mine is), videoconferencing can allow for regular face-to-face communication. You get to know someone far better when you can hear their voice and see their face.

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Can you think of any other tips for building a content team? Please let me know in the comments.

Help your content marketing team improve their skills and stay on top of the latest opportunities. Encourage them to subscribe to CMI’s free daily or weekly digest newsletter.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

Please note:  All tools included in our blog posts are suggested by authors, not the CMI editorial team.  No one post can provide all relevant tools in the space. Feel free to include additional tools in the comments (from your company or ones that you have used).

The post 13 Experts Share Their Best Tips on How to Build a Well-Run Content Team appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.