There exist multiple online content writing platforms with a global presence, who are helping businesses grow through their dedicated content marketing efforts. According to Statista’s Forecast for 2019, global content marketing revenue is projected to increase to more than 313.4 billion US dollars. With such enormous amounts of investments in content marketing, stakes are high.
Today, brands focus a lot on generating relevant content for multiple reasons. Some of these include:
Building original content to drive sales.
Generating leads through content marketing.
Brand Awareness.
Information/Knowledge exchange
According to a B2B Content Marketing Survey by LinkedIn Technologies, lead generation is the top goal of content marketing, followed closely by thought leadership and market education. In fact, a majority of prominent organizations use content marketing as a business tactic.
Some have proved themselves as pioneers in this regard. Take Amul for example. Amul has time and again proved to be the “Taste of India”. As a brand, it has become synonymous with creating witty content around the Indian political and entertainment developments. Consider the picture below for one such reference.
What started as White Revolution back in 1948 has evolved into one of the finest brands, which understands its audience well and continue to create great content. It is clear that big brands are winning customers through content marketing.
Content Writing Platforms Power your Content Distribution Strategy
Continuing with the Indian Market, the primary objective of content marketing is thought leadership, with 59% of companies emphasizing on its relevance. It is foremost to understand what type of content marketing works for your business. If your content marketing strategy does not generate leads and bring desired results, all your efforts become negligible.
Recent data shows that for 61% of B2B marketers, lack of resources such as staff, time, and funding remain some of the biggest obstacles to successful lead generation. According to the LinkedIn Technology Marketing Community, 51% of the brands find the lack of bandwidth to create content as the biggest challenge with their content marketing. Moreover, when it comes to 60% of B2B content marketing most find it extremely challenging to produce engaging content, According to the Content Marketing Institute.
Why Outsourcing Content Makes Sense?
Fredrick Nael says, “It takes two sides to build a bridge”
In this sense, let’s say you, being the business, constitute one side and your content marketing platform forms the other. Both of you together build the brand.
It is this brand that generates leads, gets revenue, and makes your business grow further. In real-time, businesses need to understand the credibility of their resources. It is not always feasible to afford in-house writers. As a result, some brands may not possess the bandwidth to create original content.
According to Curata, only forty-two percent of companies have an executive in their organization directly responsible for an overall content marketing strategy. Moreover, some businesses prefer handling their content marketing strategy with a need-based approach. 62% of companies outsource their content marketing with an aim to generate quality content. Content writing platform services can reduce such gaps and supply high-quality content which meets your business targets and ideology.
Online Content Platform: They Create, You Curate
Brands using content platforms can focus on marketing strategies and distribution while content creation can be outsourced. Having a dedicated team of professional writers/editors and copywriters can fuel your content marketing strategy. Online platforms provide brands with the skills, resources, and most importantly, the roadmap to power their marketing efforts.
Associating with an online content platform will also dissolve your doubts of how to find freelance content writers for outsourcing. Online content writing platforms have a plethora of professional writers and industry experts to match your content needs. From social media posts, blogs, thought leadership articles to E-Books and Whitepapers, online content writing platforms have writers under every industry domain and vertical.
By outsourcing your content to experts, you can:
Get professionally written content which is optimized for search engines instead of micro-managing.
Sustain proper time management with your resources. Outsourcing to online content platforms leaves you more time to invest in other business verticals.
Track your content marketing efforts by measuring ROIs on the outsourced content.
Furthermore, content outsourcing also helps your blogs rank higher on search engines:
Online content writing platforms optimize content for search engines by:
Frequently creating content to continue building brand awareness and generate traffic.
Focusing on meta-description and URL optimization.
Using other technology tools to power content.
Convinced to Try Content Writing Services?
Such online platforms possess the expertise and resources to drive results. They possess sophisticated technology systems and applications to effectively generate content and strategize your marketing efforts. Moreover, the pricing and cost of writing services depend solely on your requirements and needs. This makes a lot of sense for brands, especially the ones who wish to see better ROI on their content marketing efforts.
So, remember, whatever you do, an online content writing platform can help you do it better. That too with better infrastructure, tools, and a great team of dedicated writers and experts.
“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” -Stephen King
Simple, isn’t it?
Well, not really.
No doubt, a great content writer must read a lot.He or she must have content writing skills.
But, what really separates effective content writing from the mediocre ones? Let’s take a look at how the best content writers differ from the rest.
A Great Content Writer Is a Thorough Researcher
The difference between great, effective content writing and mediocre writing lies in the power of information, making the researching abilities of the writers the biggest differentiator.
A great content writer must be a thorough researcher. The best content writers are well informed about what works.
The best examples of good content writers are also expected to stay up to date with market trends and targeted content strategies that work for a specific business.
Another important aspect of being a great content writer includes how well you understand and can connect with your target audience through your writing.
Ask yourself this
Whois reading the content?
Whyis the content being written? Or Why should they read the content?
Whatis the goal of the content?
These 3 W’s can transform mediocre writing into effective content writing. More than researching, a great writer must be a great reader.
Follow User-Friendly Writing Style
The best examples of good content writers appreciate the reading preferences of their audience and the best content writing practices demand that the writing style is as per audience preferences. Ensure that the language, tone, and information used in the post are in line with the audiences’ understanding.
Understand:
Whatdo they like?
Whatdon’t they like?
Willthey understand what I’m trying to write?
Whether casual, conversational, or informative, always ensure to follow a similar algorithm for your writing style to maintain the connection.
Structure their Content Well
Any blog post or content piece must follow a definite structure. SEO storytelling is like art, which also makes it an insightful and actionable read. A great content writer follows the best content writing practices.
If your writing is not pleasing to the reader, your content becomes irrelevant. If not always, try following the inverted pyramid approach to writing by providing a proper introduction, body, and conclusion to your content whenever possible.
To make sure that the readers are not skimming through the content, make it interesting by adding visuals and graphics.
Also, including examples of good content writers to make the topic more relatable and easy for the reader is advisable. A well-structured post with visual references makes the content more engaging and impactful.
Easy to Understand and Relevant Information is Key
For a lot of educational or informative blogs, the language should be simple. Using great vocabulary does not always show great writing skills.
It is not always advisable to throw fancy words at your readers or use Shashi-Tharoorian English in an attempt to sound smart.
Moreover, effective content writing is always backed up with facts. Add examples to make the topic more relatable and easy for the reader. Provide relevant and recent statistics to validate your writing.
Also, make sure the sources of your reference are credible. Adding non-credible sources or facts should be avoided at all costs.
Great Writers Generate Marketable Content
Identifying the brand’s history and persona is critical in SEO storytelling. There is no doubt that a great content writer will be well informed about their target audience. Not only that, understanding the buyer’s persona is just as important.
It is imperative that you Identify the business’ needs and generate original and targeted content. Research about the best content marketing resources. Generating Marketable content also means optimizing it for search engines.
These were tips on how to become best content writers.
A few more quick tips great writers follow to stay ahead of mediocre ones:
And, most importantly, when ghostwriting for thought leaders, take accountability and talk directly to the audience. Conversational language is the key here. Make sure you write directly for the user with zero passive voice.
When writing from an authoritative or thought leadership position, make sure the writing sounds confident and well informed.
If you have a business or a service that you want to advertise online, then it is essential to have your product /service locally listed. Promoting your business locally helps in the brand development and in creating awareness. Through this, your product/service will be exposed to a larger audience and more people will eventually utilise your services or buy your product.
A recent survey by Bright Local reveals that local searches generate around 21-23% traffic for small business websites. That is more than the combined searches made through paid AdWords and social media. Hence, local listing should never be ignored.
A great way to start with listing in Google my Business Optimization. Adding the right information, visual content(pictures, videos etc), and making your profile look professional will improve your ranking on Google searches. This will also expand your visibility and increase customer engagement with your brand.
To know how to optimize Google Local Business Listings, check out our infographic here. To get a more detailed overview, you can visit the original article here
Please include attribution to wittypen.com with this graphic.
This was all about Google my business optimization. Here is some information about off page SEO Use it well!
“This post is a part of our Content Salad series, where we invite industry experts to share their knowledge. The content marketing case study of Canva, a leading graphic-design tool website, is offered to give you a glimpse of the thought process of leaders in the industry and a chance to learn from the best“
Kavita Yadav is the India Growth Lead for Canva, one of the most popular free graphic-design tool websites. An IIT Alumna, she is passionate about using analytics in different areas which cover Business Strategy, Marketing, and SEO.
“Content is king!” How many times have you heard this?
And how many times have you come across a beautiful blog with awesome content but sadly, no traffic? If you run such a blog or are planning to invest into content marketing, but afraid of failing, then see this graph.
Canva’s blog traffic in six months. Relieved? 🙂
Well, it is obviously not easy to replicate the same success but at the same time it is not impossible if you formulate the right strategy and follow it dedicatedly. Canva did the same. Andrianes (Canva growth head) made a strategy that was executed by Anna (Canva’s blog lead). They explain how Canva’s blog grew to 1 million monthly visits by making some changes and using the power of content marketing. The blog section at Canva was launched in 2014, and since then, the blog got 2,457,779 sessions. On an average it was around 409,000 a month. Earlier, traffic from social media used to be the major contributor of the overall traffic. Once the strategy was moved to content marketing, Canva saw a huge boost in organic traffic and in august 2015, organic traffic surpassed social media traffic. During the month of January 2016, there were 1 million visits on the blog!
How did Canva do it? Or more importantly, how can you do it?It makes for an extremely interesting content marketing case study. Canva realized the power of research in making a successful content strategy. What do you do when you start a blog? Start looking for an awesome WordPress theme or installing GA, Mailchimp, looking for some good writers & designers.
Most people do the same but jump right in without proper research. Well this case study is more valuable to those who get some traffic and want to take their blog to the next level. Paying Attention to SEO, Back to basic SEO is dead, right? This is as true as “Elon musk is Batman” and “Trump is an alien”.
Every time a CEO rejects to get their site follow SEO strategies, a little panda dies. You cannot deny how important SEO is, and if you do, there is a big chance you’ll lose.
The traffic on search engines stays for long. It doesn’t pop up like soda and get down. Once you start ranking for a specific keyword, it is there to stay.
This is not applicable to any other strategy you follow. Whether it is Paid Adverts or social media, the moment you pause the campaigns, the traffic vanishes. But that is not the case for SEO.
This does not mean that you don’t write viral content, as they are a nice way of giving your blog a push, but they will give you spikes instead of constant sustainable traffic for the long run.
Social media spike
Organic traffic Yes, SEO takes time. Good things take time, right? Stick to SEO for better search engine rankings and long term and stable traffic.
Here is how you do it (Step by Step):
1. Search for articles published by your competitors:
See what they are writing. Understand who is your target audience. Canva was lucky here as anyone from an about to marry couple (who wants a wedding card design) to a tech blogger (who wants a banner for a blog post) were their audience. If your audience is specific, see what they will like to read. For example, if you have made a tool for developers, see what kind of content developers are searching for. Selling a b2b tool? Target CEOs, CTOs, and decision makers. You have to understand your target audience.
2. Search for the relevant phrases and keywords:
You don’t want to write an article which no one is looking for! So: Make sure the article has a target keyword which is well searched. Use keyword tools like Google keyword planner and keywordtool.io to find out searches your keyword has. Once your finalize the keyword and topic, make sure to target similar 3-5 keywords around the main keyword. This will help you gain additional traffic. Also, I have seen the main keyword not getting ranked but these smaller and easy keywords start gaining traffic easily.
3. Write SEO Optimized Article:
Ensure that your content is detailed and worth reading. If you think any article is not worth it, delete and redirect, improve it. Do not write it for search engines but make sure it has at least some mention of the keyword you are targeting. Canva blog already had a good number of articles published. So they went on to clean it up as a part of their content audit. Here is how they did it: Made a list of all their published articles. If there were multiple articles on same or similar topic, they were combined into one long and detailed article. Improved existing article by adding more content, deleting poor quality content, and making it SEO optimized. Changed the slug to keyword optimized one. Made sure to redirect old URLs (Do remember 301ing).Here is an impact of the above exercise on one of their articles:
Amazing! Isn’t it? There were many such examples that lead to an increase in overall traffic. Keeping A Check On Publishing Frequency The team at Canva ensured that at least one article was published every working day. Getting articles published daily is a tough task which the team was able to do perfectly.
Here is how they did it all: All articles publications were scheduled at least 6 weeks in advance. Earlier, they were doing it max 3 weeks in advance, which used to end up in hassles. During that time, if an article did not go the way they wanted, there used to be no backup available.
Now with 6 weeks advance schedule, they have plenty of time for managing tasks. A checklist was created to sort out the editorial process. This helped in maintaining consistency across all articles published on site.
Below are a few points of the checklist:
Keep the number of words between the headline and the first image to 150 words (Images are important!).
Ensure that the paragraphs are not too long.
Make sure you use hashtags and number subheading correctly.
Make sure images are displayed properly & have right alt text.
Ensure that the article has relevant internal links.
Make sure all links are working properly.
They set a process of hiring new writers on board. Canva has a very good team of writers. The process not only included hiring, but also reviewing of existing writers. They kept adding new writers and kept reviewing the ones already on board.
You can consider hiring freelance writers or an agency. If a blog is able to get articles published at fixed intervals, it really helps in creating a set loyal audience around it. It can bring good traffic from social media and newsletters. Also, a regularly updated blog is considered a good sign by search engines and you might end up ranking right after the article is published (yes, without even building a single backlink! Google loves fresh content 😉 )
Canva’s content calendar Feel free to use project management tools to manage your work. It not only improves your efficiency but also gives you visibility. If you don’t want to go for some paid project tool, then you can use Google’s free tools.
Using Awesome Graphics! The writers at Canva ensured that they used top notch graphics. They curated the best graphics and added them to the articles. This resulted in endless pins from Pinterest. The traffic from Pinterest was so huge that, at some point, it surpassed Twitter! If you don’t believe words then see for yourself:
Images are the key ingredient for the traffic they are getting from Pinterest. Eye catching banners help a lot in getting attention from users, especially from social media. Graphics like below are bound to increase your user engagement. And the best part is, you don’t need a designer for this. You can create these graphics easily at Canva.
Source: Sharpe & Associate Inc.
All these efforts mentioned above look very common and there is no rocket science behind it. But let’s accept it, we forget the basics and keep finding that new shiny object, that one new thing which can boost up the traffic of the site. And it never happens because we miss the basics. What you can do? Don’t forget the importance of content marketing and have a content marketing plan. Many of you might get overwhelmed by the number of things you need to do to increase traffic to you blog. Yes, this is quite a task, but you don’t need to do it all at once. Take it step by step, one thing at a time. I hope you got enough motivation by reading this content marketing case study of Canva and are all pumped to invest into content marketing.
Millennials are the most educated, open minded and dynamic demographic that exists. They are independent and have started making their own purchasing decisions. For a marketer,if they know how to market to millennials they are the most lucrative set of audiences for marketing any product or service. However, the set of characteristics and traits they possess make them the unique people to market or sell. One can’t use the same marketing strategies to lure them into a brand or acquire, convert and retain them for long.
Since they form a huge part of the population, the opportunity is magnanimous. A marketer can never ignore millennials and become successful in marketing a brand. Initially, you need to create an awesome brand worth reverence and then market to millennials by implementing marketing strategies which they respond to. Let’s see how you can do them right.
Create an Awesome Brand & Market to Millennials
Although millennials aren’t as loyal as the older generation is, but they stick to the brand they love. If they like a brand, they’ll be vocal about it and spread the word. And if they don’t, they’ll be equally expressive about it in any medium they get. Thus, branding for millennials is a tricky path to tread but by keeping a few important things in mind, you’ll be able to create a brand they find awesome.
Be authentic to the core
Tweet “Authenticity breeds trust and trust breeds business. Authenticity matters.” The truthful words said by top LinkedIn influencer and best-selling author, Dave Kerpen. This stands even truer for millennials who possess an innate ability to sense brands that are fooling around. They look up to brands which are highly authentic in all what they do. It is very important to create a pure bond with each of your customers as it helps to evoke a feeling of trust. Instead of trying to fabricate your brand image, focus on being your own self and gain respect for it.
As per a recent research by Cohne & Wolfe, who are known to conduct studies to measure the authenticity of brands, these are the top 100 authentic brands. If you notice, they truly have worked hard over the years to create an image which people, majorly millennials think as authentic.
Position yourself to please them
Creation of a great brand depends on its positioning in the market. There are several examples of companies failing miserably just because their position wasn’t right. To reach your target audience and ensure that they are attracted towards your brand, you need to create a desirable position for it. Millennials are highly diverse and most of them have unique choices. While building a brand, you must consider their needs and position accordingly. Good positioning also helps in highlighting the characteristics and core attributes of the brand.
The Tesla Motors is a great example of positioning a brand to appeal a particular section of people. Electric cars were quite uncool before Tesla came in and took the market by storm. Right from the beginning, Tesla positioned itself as a high-end electric car maker with exemplary aesthetics, all of which the other brands lacked. Rest of all, as they say, is history.
Exude uniqueness
Millennials believe themselves to be unique and they want their brands to resonate their personalities. No matter what products or services your brand offers, the branding needs to be unique in order to appeal the millennials. Uniqueness depends on perception but it takes a lot of efforts to stand as a purple cow in a herd full of mediocre brands. Staying relevant in an age where people have the lowest attention span needs your brand to exude uniqueness and as a marketer, it is your job to make it happen. Uber has been a fine testimony of unique branding; their service is as simple as it gets. Millennials are always on the move and Uber has become their go-to app for whenever they are out of the house. Their product as well as the brand they have created widely captures the instinctive nature of millennials.
This TVC by Uber brilliantly empowers every common man to make their dreams come true through Uber and shows a message to #EmpowerAMillion Entrepreneurs by 2018. This is something millennials immediately connect with.
Be admirably interesting
Being interesting as a brand is a different ball game altogether. The Gen-Y simply can’t stand something boring because they live in a world where the most interesting thing gets all the attention and that is all that they crave. To seek positive attention – which is one of the core aims of marketing – is to become admirably interesting. [Tweet “A brand seems alive only if it is interesting enough and keeps making efforts to be so.”] Google is one of the most interesting brands in the world and it’s difficult to imagine the internet without it. Although the product seems like the simplest tool for consumers, it takes a lot of efforts to make this simple brand admirably interesting. Be it the extremely creative Google Doodles, the quirky hidden tricks or the infamous April fool pranks, they have constantly been the most interesting brand on the planet.
Stand up for what you believe
Millennials have strong opinions and they like to stand up for what they believe. When a brand does the same, the instantly start liking it. The reason is the resonance of personalities, when your brand believes in something and advocates it through various campaigns, people who believe in the same thing will definitely form an inclination towards your brand. Standing up for your brand’s beliefs is a sign of strength which has become necessary in the current times.
Global brands which are loved by millennials have made it a point to strongly voice for the causes they believe in. AppleInc. has openly supported the LGBT community by various means and it won the hearts of many for standing by what it believes in. Although it wasn’t related to the brand or their products but the cause affected their consumers and they showed their unwavering support for it. This is all you need to build a brand for millennials, these unpredictable personalities can be the biggest source of revenue for your company. Put all your efforts and build a brand which your customers will be proud of.
Top 6 Strategies for Marketing to the Millennials –Acquire, Convert, Retain!
Once you have created a stellar brand, you need to implement marketing strategies specially designed for millennials. They have a blind eye towards cliched campaigns that are uncreative and don’t ring a bell naturally. Trying to impress millennials through marketing is no easy job but with the right tactics, you will be able to acquire, convert and retain them in the long haul. Let’s see some of the most useful ones.
a) Be where the millennials are
Marketers must have a keen eye on all the places where their customers are. This includes venturing into all the exciting platforms millennials share their daily lives on.Here some social media marketing myths of 2018. If you want to market your brand to millennials and don’t have a presence on social platforms like Instagram and Snapchat Inc., you are doing it all wrong. These platforms provide enough marketing avenues already and they will keep upgrading their platforms to offer marketers the ultimate value of their efforts. Social media marketing to millennials is key. Thus, they are huge customer acquisition mediums as far as millennials are concerned. Taco Bell is widely known for their creative and expressive social media campaigns. Recently, they came up with some unique strategies to reach out to their target audiences, the millennials. This detailed case study shows how they leveraged the power of social media to tap into the lives of millennials. Also, their Twitter handle has been very popular lately owing to a superb interactive presence on the platform.
b) Build a relationship
Relationship_marketing is an old technique but works like a charm for millennials. They are always up for a deep bond which needs nurturing and brands can use the exact same humane qualities for building a relationship with their customers like they would do for a person. Although it takes a ton of efforts to maintain a good relationship, it is well worth in the long haul. The core aim of relationship marketing is to allow more customer retention and satisfy them with your product or service instead of focusing on sales transactions. Building a genuine relationship with your customers or users is the best way to retain them for years. Though Coca-Cola just sells flavored sugary water, they know how to build a long-lasting relationship with their customers better than anyone else. Over the years, they have consistently tried to build a unique rapport with the customers and succeeded in it.
The TVC shows one of the historical brand campaigns ever done. It was majorly targeted towards millennials since they had started losing market share of that age group in Australia. After the campaign, their sales saw a huge rise and it proved the prowess of a nicely executed relationship marketing campaign.
c) Content (marketing) is still the king
Many marketers believe that the era of content has passed and they need new techniques to reach customers. This is far from the truth and content or content marketing for that matter is still one of the most effective ways to reach, educate and convert users. Although mediums of content have evolved over the years but it is still as relevant as it was in the initial days, even more. The rise of social media along with the increased viewership of videos has led to a shift in the way content marketing happens.So invest in a content marketing plan.
Nike is probably the best brand that gets content marketing right for millennials. It owned the top two spots of the most watched videos on YouTube in the year 2014. They have diversified their content marketing strategies into videos, manuals, fitness tips and much more. In fact, it began with content marketing right in the 1960s when it came up with a manual titled “A Jogger’s Manual” which is widely termed as the reason for the growing jogger’s culture in the US, ultimately leading to more sales for Nike.
d) Build an awesome product/service
The best marketing one can do for a brand is to create a superior product or service which speaks for itself, majorly through word of mouth. Although different techniques of marketing are required to ensure a widespread reach for a good product, nothing beats the authentic praise of a customer. Millennials believe their friends and family more than what any brand’s marketing campaign conveys. Thus, if you want to impress them, better build an awesome product/service and then let them spread the word. WhatsApp and Truecaller are two outstanding examples of how a good product successfully acquires, converts and retains users without much marketing efforts. Both these brands had barely marketed their apps but they both turned out to be revolutionary services which we use on a daily basis. Tweet “Word of mouth is a huge advantage any brand can have and it is only possible by creating a product which is superior to others.”
e) Provide an amazing customer service
Providing great customer service is a necessity in a time when customers have become knowledgeable and won’t tolerate someone treating them in a frivolous manner. Your customer service is put into test when a customer faces a bad experience and the way you handle it shows how good you are. Such responses decide how loyal the customers will be in the future. Nailing such situations is one of the core things a brand can do to retain customers. Amazon is a champion in providing an exceptional customer service. You will seldom see a customer switching from Amazon because of a delayed or bad experience, they always make sure you have a good time while shopping at their site. Non-surprisingly, their mission statement reads that they want to “become the most customer-centric company in the world”.
This amazing TVC by Amazon depicts exactly how they are trying to position themselves when it comes to customer service. They are equating themselves with the people of India, who love helping and it strike a chord with many.
f) Offer something in return
Probably every brand these days uses the strategy of providing discounts, cashback or offers to acquire and convert users. Although this is not a good long-term strategy to retain users, it can work wonders to acquire new users and give them an opportunity to try your product or service. Millennials are lured by such deals and would probably give your brand a try which can then convert them into regular customers.
Consider all the big e-commerce sites, payment wallets, ride-hailing apps or probably any popular internet service in the recent years and you will find that this is the major strategy they have leveraged to acquire users because it actually works. In fact, there are companies specially built to show the most valuable discounts and offers through many verticals of services.
Conclusion
Branding and marketing are two of the most challenging aspects that every business faces and now you have mastered them both. When it comes to millennials, creating a successful brand and marketing your products to them in a unique way is essential and non-negotiable. All the above mentioned popular brands which millennials love have rightly adapted to these branding and marketing strategies over the years to be successful. However, with ever-evolving consumers, you need to evolve as a brand and advance your marketing strategies consistently to stay relevant. Now that you know how to market to millennials in 2018, simply create an awesome brand and successfully market to millennials.
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