“When it comes to content, the best marketers know that self-promotion is good!” — Kieran Flanagan (VP Marketing @HubSpot)
Hey👋, Rafiqul here. Welcome to Content Marketing VIP that delivers actionable insights, the latest updates, & free resources every Monday, for free.
First time here? Read past episodes.
LET’S GET STARTED →
Table of Contents
Actionable insights
💡 1. Create content that matters to your audience
Are you creating content that helps your audience to make the purchasing decision?
Here are 5 types of content that your brand needs to create to influence the buying decision of your audience.
1. Pricing and cons
Make a list of products/services that have the most opportunity for your company.
Now, create at least one article/video explaining:
- Key factors that affect the pricing
- Why are you charging more than your competitors? (if your offerings are competitively expensive)
- Pricing questions that your team get asked most frequently
Example: Shopify’s article on eCommerce site cost is a great example.
2. Problems
Almost every company or product has some cons or problems.
Answer the following questions with honesty and transparently:
- What does the competition say is negative about the thing we sell?
- What do buyers see as the negatives of our product and services?
Example: An article on ‘why you shouldn’t do content marketing’ written by a content marketing firm.
3. Versus & Comparisons
There will be some competitors to your brand, products, or services. Chances are people are already searching for queries like:
- Your product vs [competitor’s products]
- Your brand vs [competitor brand]
These are the queries that most brands are afraid to talk about, but your audience wants to know.
Example: HubSpot made an article comparing their tool and salesforce CRM.
4. Reviews
Make a list of your competitors and write either a list of the best companies in your niche or make reviews of any individual companies.
The important point here is to make your content based on facts, not on opinions.
For example:
- What makes [your product] better than [competitor]
- Best companies in [your industry]
Example:
Example: Ahrefs showcases the unique features that their competitors don’t have.
5. Best in class
Almost in every industry, you’ll find ‘best of class’ content.
For example:
- Best SEO tools in 2021
- Best marketing agencies in India
The key here is to make a list transparently and make the content as data-driven as possible.
Example: Here’s an article from HubSpot where they list the best email marketing services.
💡 2. Turn your podcast transcription and press mentions into an SEO powerhouse
One of the challenges that marketers face is repurposing podcast transcriptions into blog posts or even videos.
The reason is podcasts transcriptions are usually unstructured if done without any strategy.
And, turning that into valuable content for SEO isn’t easy.
The solution?
Here’s what Kris Ruby suggests on this:
“When hosting a webinar or guesting on a podcast interview, know what SEO terms you want to rank for.
And, before the interview, work those keywords into the conversation.”
Look for what people are searching for related to your core topic. Once you get a list of relevant questions and sub-topics, put that into the conversation.
The benefits?
- Optimizing your article for the target keyword is going to be easy.
- If repurposed, video content may also rank on YouTube on similar keywords.
Insights from Kristen Ruby (Founder of Ruby Media Group)
💡 3. Quick tip for finding citation opportunities for local business
Citations in local SEO helps in:
- Google maps,
- Local keyword rankings
- Overall domain authority
Here’s how you can find many opportunities to get citations for your local business.
Type the following search terms in Google.
This will show you a list of sites that have linked to your competitors but not yours.
Next, pitch these sites or try to get listed there (if it’s genuine).
Free resources
💡 1. International Content Optimization with Aleyda Solis
If you’re working on an international SEO project or want to scale your SEO content, this webinar is for you.
In this event, you’ll learn about →
- What and why of international SEO content optimization
- Scaling content strategy for international SEO success
From: Frase io with Aleyda Solis (international SEO consultant)
Date of the webinar: July 29, 2021
💡 2. Content Operation to track, progress, and improve results
Want to level up your content marketing understanding?
Looking to systemize your content creation and distribution process?
If so, then this is for you.
In this 1-hour webinar, you’ll learn:
- Difference between content as a product and content as an acquisition strategy
- Best practices to operationalize content for success
From: Growth Hackers
Date of the webinar: July 27, 2021
💡 3. Why Marketers Should Think More Like Investors to Drive Content Results
Ever thought of creating content as an expense?
First, you shouldn’t.
Second, this week Ross Simmonds will show you why content is an investment, not an expense.
In this webinar, you’ll learn about:
- How brands are creating SEO Moats
- Content asset allocation model
- Content-driven acquisitions, and more.
From: Foundation Inc
Date of the webinar: July 28, 2021
Latest happenings
💡 1. Google is now showing information about some of the important ranking factors
It’s interesting to see that Google will now start showing reasons behind the ranking of web pages.
Let’s have a look at it first →
(Click on the three-dot menu next to the organic search result to see the update)
This update will start showing some of the key ranking factors used by Google to show the search results.
As of now, it will show information about:
- Matching keywords related to your search query
- Related terms used in the webpage
- Links: when other pages are linking to the result with similar anchor text
- Local relevance of the webpage
Read the official update from here
💡 2. Conductor launched a free SEO chrome extension
With this new chrome extension by Conductor, you can audit the on-page content easily.
This free Chrome extension will let you quickly check:
- Heading structure
- Content readability
- Title & meta description
- Sitemap
- Media
- Page links
- SEO issues
- Ranking keywords, and more…
Download this SEO chrome extension
💡 3. Follow these best practices to create deals pages
Here are 7 recommendations shared by Google for creating deal pages:
- “Create dedicated pages for Black Friday and Cyber Monday
- Reuse the same URL each year
- Create your pages early so that Google can index them
- Follow standard SEO best practices
- Link to the sale page from your homepage
- Include a high-quality image.”
Note: ‘Deal carousels’ feature is currently limited to the US.
Learn more about the guidelines
Expert Quotes
💡 1. Content marketing is not a campaign
“A content marketing campaign is not a thing. A campaign always stops.
A content marketing initiative, theoretically, should never stop.
Evolve, yes. Stop, never.”
💡 2. Invest in creating evergreen content
“It’s time to start creating evergreen content and stop wasting time, money, and energy on disposable, single-use content.
Creating evergreen content can be compared to creating a great television series that you don’t have to watch as soon as it debuts.
Your audience should have the opportunity to consume it whenever it’s relevant to him or her, not just in campaign time.”