“There is ONE hero in all your marketing content. And I’m sorry, but it sure isn’t you.
It’s your customer. Your listener. Your reader.”
– Amanda Natividad
Hey👋, Rafiqul here. Welcome to Content Marketing VIP that delivers actionable insights, the latest updates, & free resources every Monday, for free.
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Table of Contents
Actionable insights
💡 1. Bucket brigades
“The sole purpose of the first sentence in an ad is to get you to read the second sentence” – Joe Sugarman.
That means your headline should be so compelling that the reader must read the first sentence, and your first sentence should be so compelling that the reader goes to the second sentence, and so on…
And, using bucket brigades is one way of adding a slippery slide effect.
Sharing some of the examples of bucket brigades →
- Here’s how/why
- The truth is:
- The question is
- That said:
- Let me cite an example
- Let’s break it down
- But I’m recommending this:
- First things first.
- The tricky thing is:
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💡 2. Turn Generic CTAs Into Value-Oriented CTA
If there’s one thing, you can do today to make your site better.
Here’s what I recommend:
“Turn generic CTAs into Value-oriented CTAs.”
💡 3. A step-by-step guide to creating a pillar page
Not sure about the benefits of creating pillar pages?
Here are some of them →
- Positioning yourself as an expert on certain topics
- SEO benefits- ranking on high competitive keywords
- Organized content leads to a better user experience
Follow this step-by-step guide to create one from scratch →
Step 1. Identify the core topic
Find topics where you (/your brand) want to be known as an expert.
For example, ‘clear skin diet’ could be a core topic for a brand that offers personalized diet services for clear skin.
Step 2. Find sub-topics
Now, it’s time to find relevant questions or topics that will support the core topic.
For example, ‘foods for healthy skin’ is a possible sub-topics.
Step 3. Write the content
Before starting writing, make sure you perform keyword research for each topic and sub-topics. Also, it is a good practice to audit existing content to reuse for your pillar page content.
While creating the pillar page, make sure it is 10x better than what’s already ranking on the SERP.
Tip: Add custom visuals, graphs, quotes, stats, etc to make it unique and better.
Step 4. Plan internal and external linking strategy
Ensure that your subtopics and the pillar page are interlinked strategically. Pro Tip: To make your pillar page powerful, write guest posts and get a link back to your pillar page URL (if possible).
Step 5. Promote & Measure periodically
Don’t make the mistake of not promoting your pillar page multiple times.
Either on the newsletter or social media, promote it as much as possible.
Likewise, track the progress of rankings for both pillar pages and sub-topics.
If getting leads is one of your goals, then track the conversion too.
Take your learning further: Create topic cluster and pillar page
Free resources
💡 1. Use the blog editorial calendar template to manage your team and content inventory
One way to stay consistent with your content marketing strategy is by tracking and managing the progress.
Use a blog editorial template to align your content pieces along with its promotion strategy.
With this free template, you can:
- Plan your blog content
- Assign writers for their work
- Track the status, deadline, and content promotion planning
From: Airtable
Format: Template
💡 2. Using Buyer Personas to Build Customer-Centric & SEO Driven Content
Are you using buyer persona to strengthen your marketing and content strategy?
If not, register for this live webinar to learn about:
- How to build a buyer persona to improve your overall marketing strategy.
- Using buyer persona in content marketing that leads to traffic & positions you as an expert in the industry.
- Planning and executing personalized content for the audience.
From: Semrush
Date of the webinar: July 8, 2021
💡 3. The Most Reliable Win for SEO Your 5 Step Process for Content Upgrades
What’s faster than creating new content to boost SEO traffic?
It’s upgrading your old articles.
But how do you optimize your existing content for better results?
This webinar will give you a data-driven process of upgrading old content.
Here, you’ll learn:
- How to find the right article that needs upgrades
- Steps to making the content fresh and updates
- Optimizing old articles for SEO
From: Andy Crestodina & MarketMuse
Type: On-demand webinar
Watch the video and learn about content upgrades
Latest happenings
💡 1. John Muller on speeding up the crawling and indexing of new pages
In a recent video by Google search central, John Muller explains what influences the indexing and crawling of new web pages.
“When a new page is published, it can take anywhere from several hours to several weeks for it to be indexed.”– John Muller.
Here are some of the things you can do to speed up the process →
Internal links: Add internal links to your new pages. Also, adding internal links from important pages (e.g., the home page) will help Google prioritize crawling and indexing.
Remove unnecessary URLs: Sometimes, having lots of URLs can slow down the crawling and indexing process. So, clean up unnecessary URLs from the site.
Aim for the overall high quality of the site: Apart from technical areas, consider site architecture, content quality, site reputation, and others.
Also, ensure issues like duplicate content, thin content,
💡 2. The July 2021 Core Update, previously announced, is now rolling out
Google is rolling out its July core update. As per Google, this update will take around 1-2 weeks to finish.
So, if you see any significant change in your rankings, it’s better to give it some time and not make major changes on the site.
Learn what site owners should know about Google’s core updates
💡 3. How-to Post and Lists Have a High Likelihood of Becoming Evergreen
Backlinko has partnered with BuzzSumo and studied 3.6 billion articles on the web to understand the state of evergreen content.
One interesting fact was that ‘List posts’ and ‘How-to guides’ have a high likelihood of becoming evergreen content.
Not sure whether you should publish evergreen content or not?
Here are the key benefits of publishing evergreen content (by Ahrefs).
Along with an evergreen content topic, refer to this study to choose the best angle for your content.
Expert Quotes
💡 1. Create acquisition content strategically
“The best way to create acquisition content is to first write for your users.
Don’t guess your product’s use cases.
Listen to your users’ problems and create product-related content to solve their needs.
Once validated, turn it into acquisition content to attract similar users.”
💡 2. Best tool for SEO keyword research?
“The best keyword research tool for SEO is Google Search Console.
Unlike most other keyword research tools (like Ahrefs), where data is statistically modeled, the data you see in GSC is actual data, especially volume.
Look into the queries on GSC and find tons of content ideas.”