by Marianna Muscat | Aug 12, 2019 | Content Marketing
We rely on Google for everything from remembering who the artist of the latest pop song is to finding a pizza parlour in our neighbourhoods. It’s easy to think of Google as a website that we use to find information. But, small business owners often forget to consider how others are using a search engine to find their products and services.
There are a few tools that you can use to get your website found in Google’s search results. Simply follow these four easy steps:
- Submit Your Site to Google
Google isn’t the omnipresent being you think it is. While Google will inevitably pick up your website’s pages at some point, you can speed up the process by submitting your site on the Google Search Console. This is the digital equivalent of tapping Google on the shoulder to say that you are alive and ready for them to index your site.
Another nudge to Google’s crawlers is to leave a link trail online. When blue hyperlinks start appearing online, Google sees it as a command to process and index your new pages. A great way to achieve this is to share your website links on social media, do a guest blog on a popular industry website linking back to your site or ask friends in high (blogging) places to give your brand a shoutout and a link online.
If you don’t have the budget to hire an SEO expert, use the Google Keyword Planner to review search rankings for keywords, phrases, plurals, singulars, misspellings and long-tail keywords related to the products and services you offer. Visit competitors’ websites to see what keywords they are using. These keywords should be included in your content, metadata and image alt tags.
Google penalises websites that are not optimised for mobile users. If your website doesn’t dynamically change to accommodate different devices, then you will have a hard time ranking well for your chosen keywords.
Need help with your content marketing, link building strategy or website design? Then contact WSI OMS today.
by Marelise da Silva | Jul 3, 2019 | Content Marketing
Content marketing is hard work. After crafting your post, you should already be aware of the fact that it takes time, creativity and skill. You don’t want all the hard work to go to waste, do you? Instead, you want your content to “work for you” even when you’re not physically at your computer. How can you get your post to do well after posting it? Keep on reading to find out.
Here Are 5 Simple Ways to Make Sure that Your Content Marketing Efforts Are Working:
- Use Keywords to Optimise It
You require consistency when it comes to producing great content. This includes creating optimised content for your websites and blogs. Use adaptive SEO to your advantage so that viewers can find your ads in search engines.
- Engage with Others
To increase engagement and traffic to your post, it helps if you talk with others. Engagement not only means to like another person’s post, but instead, it also means to comment on their posts or offer advice.
- Share Your Posts with Customers
If you’re already aware of some people who are watching and following your blog then why not send them a link to the post you’ve just published?
- Use Your Blog Posts in Newsletters
Newsletters are a good way to influence your audience. Why not assign your post as a newsletter and provide your readers with something extra? Newsletters are an effective way to reward your subscribers with a bit of advanced news and information.
- Lend a Helping Hand to Others
People usually search for help online. Share your post to help your viewers who are seeking for guidance. If your post can lend a helping hand, then why not.
Need help with content marketing? Contact us today!
by Francois Muscat | Jun 24, 2019 | Content Marketing
Want to use interactive content to increase the conversion rates of your digital marketing campaign? Then follow this advice:
The Welcome Page
The welcome page is the first page that people see when they click on your interactive content. You want to have a clear call to action to increase your conversions. Also, make sure that you have a really good background image and sufficient text to highlight the value that they are going to get from using your solution. You need to communicate exactly how the visitor will benefit from clicking past the welcome page.
Lead Magnet
You may have certain restrictions that your sales team applies to determine what constitutes a sales qualified lead. The problem with trying to get a user to complete seven fields of personal information is that they will likely click away because it could seem like too much effort. The key is to get just as much information as possible. More often than not, you will need them to complete four fields: name, location, phone number and email address.
A good tip is to ask for a name and an email address upfront after trust is established or after you have shown some type of value. Later on, you can ask the user for their phone number and location. You want to make sure that your lead questions are intelligently designed instead of asking a bunch of questions upfront.
Length of Content
There is a balance between how many questions to ask and how much a person will be willing to give you. Sometimes, a business owner or your market research department will get involved in interactive content that the marketing team is generating. They might want to know the user’s role, the size of the department they are working in and other information. To maintain a high completion rate, make sure you ask between three and ten questions.
Personalised Results Page
Use conditional messages. If you are doing an assessment, for example, and a person gets a good score, then you want to personalise the results page for their good score.
Need help with your content marketing or digital marketing strategy? Then content WSI OMS today.
by Marianna Muscat | Jun 4, 2019 | Content Marketing
What separates good content on social media from great content? Any creative agency can create content that is beautiful, that resonates, that’s interesting, quirky and different. Great content, however, is fuelled by content that is derived from listening right across the social web.
When you listen before you create content, you have a much better understanding of how your content will perform simply by looking at what your desired audience is already responding to. At WSI OMS, before we create any post, we curate across the internet to see what a brand’s fans are saying and what they really want to talk about. This helps us determine exactly what type of content we create and it helps our content to perform better.
Brands who use content calendars have the benefit of knowing what type of content they are going to post where and at which date. These brands, however, will be better positioned if they use their content calendar as a guideline on what to post but remain flexible with their topics. Here are a few reasons why:
Social Media Changes Fast
What was interesting on Facebook last month is no longer interesting now. Things like live Facebook videos and 3D pictures happen seemingly overnight, so if you are too rigid about the content you are posting, you won’t be able to stay on the pulse. When you plan out your content too far in advance, you are limiting your ability to innovate.
Real-Time Relevance
When you update in real-time, you can do things that are relevant to you and your audience on the fly. This doesn’t mean that you need to post content about the Super Bowl just because everyone else is posting about it. You can focus on things that are happening in much smaller, niche segments, and innovate quickly and effectively.
Need help with your social media or content marketing campaign? Then content WSI OMS today.
by Francois Muscat | Jun 3, 2019 | Content Marketing
As a digital marketing agency, we work with many clients who need to produce different types of content to reach their target audience. All too often, we get calls from clients who say that they don’t really believe in creating content or advertising content because they want users to generate content for them.
Many businesses mistakenly believe that their user-generated content will magically appear and that it will reach viral status because their audience will be compelled to share this content widely. As most people who have been running a digital campaign will know, this is easier said than done.
If you want to embark on a user-generated content campaign, there are a few things that you should keep in mind:
Don’t Expect High Quality
When you think of user-generated content, don’t think of it as being gorgeous, artful, informative or high-tech content. You can’t expect users to produce works of art or give them too many parameters with which to work with. The reality is that most people on social media don’t have a sense of what to post or how to post. If you want users to generate content, that is great, but don’t expect the high level of quality that you would get from content that is more produced.
Make It Easy to Participate
Don’t make your users jump through hoops to enter your competition or take part in your campaign. Remember that a video is infinitely harder to capture than a photo. Even a photo takes time. Make it simple, easy to enter, and available on the networks that they are already participating in.
Have a Back-Up Plan
Let’s say you’re not getting the photos you need or that you did jump into a video campaign and it is a total disaster, ask people for comments in the feed and create some content from that. You can have content that is inspired by users without having them actually generate it.
Need help with your social media or content marketing campaign? Then content WSI OMS today.
by Francois Muscat | May 27, 2019 | Content Marketing
Clickbait is a pejorative term that is used to describe content that is aimed at generating online advertising revenue at the expense of quality. Clickbait content usually relies on sensationalist headlines to encourage click-throughs and the forwarding of material on online networks.
Clickbait headlines typically aim to exploit the curiosity of readers by providing just enough information to make them curious, but not enough information to satisfy their curiosity without clicking through to the site to the link content.
One of the cons of clickbait is that it annoys people. When a website visitor sees an interesting headline on your website and clicks through to the link only to be left disappointed, they may lose trust in your site. You can expect a lot of dislikes and negative comments because people feel tricked.
Clickbait is a one-sided deal with your audience because you waste their time without delivering on your part of the agreement: to provide quality, useful content.
Clickbait isn’t the same as fake news and it isn’t always bad. It is a proven way to get people to click on content because the curiosity gap is a powerful thing. To make your content seem like clickbait, focus on including grandiose statements and many superlatives. Just make sure that the content that the readers click through to delivers on your promises!
“When done correctly, it is one of the best ways to get people to take notice and give you their most precious asset: attention,” says Neil Patel.
According to Neil Patel, clickbait tickles our curiosity while it dumbs down concepts to a common language, such as fear, greed, jealousy, envy and lust, that everyone understands. There’s nothing wrong with making your headlines more appealing but be sure that whatever content you are offering is not a time waste to your audience. At the end of the day, all of your content needs to be well-written and serve a purpose.
Need help with your content marketing or social media marketing? Then contact WSI OMS today.
