by Francois Muscat | May 30, 2018 | Content Marketing
If you want to get better at writing, then you’re supposed to be writing every day. There are many other tricks but ultimately practice is what makes perfect. The same is true for content marketing.
Forbes estimates that only about 10% of any website’s content generates 90% of the traffic and less than 1% of the content is responsible for half of all the website’s visitors. So what’s the point of producing all the excess content on your website?
- First, you’re not going to know which news articles or blog posts produce the most traffic until enough time has passed. After about a month, you will probably be able to say which content was the most interesting to your readers.
- Second, you need to figure out what your criteria for ‘good content’ are. If all you care about is traffic, then you may only have to track page visitors on your Google Analytics. You may also want to check which pieces of content get the most social shares. You may not be writing the next extraordinary viral story, but it’s possible that some of your posts get a lot of views and shares on Facebook. Social shares should give you plenty of information about what you’re doing right.
- Finally, consider adding some kind of conversion metric to your content. You should know which type of content you produce is the most engaging, however, ultimately you should be producing more of the content that leads to your actual business goals.
Need help with your content marketing and blogging strategies? Then contact WSI OMS today.
by Marianna Muscat | May 29, 2018 | Content Marketing
According to a World Wide Worx 2017 study, South Africa has 21-million internet users, of which the vast majority are using mobile phones to access the internet. Statistics by eMarketer shows that most companies dedicated only about a quarter of their marketing budgets to mobile marketing in 2013, however, this figure has tripled in 2018.
If you are a B2B company that mainly sells online, you may think that your clients are not doing mobile searches to find you. It is easy to assume that brick and mortar retail services are the brands that benefit from mobile searches. But, this is far from the reality.
No matter which industry you are in, your customers are interacting with your business on mobile platforms. Here are some tips that you can use to start optimising your content for mobile searches:
- Think About Mobile Search Intent
If people are coming to your site to buy specific items from an e-commerce store, make it easy for them to find what they need. Don’t set up your site in such a way that they are expected to fill out a bunch of forms before they get to the shopping cart.
- Create Videos For On-Demand Viewing
According to a Nielson study, 28% of people watch videos on mobile devices at least once a day, making video the most popular format for mobile users. There are, however, few things more frustrating than trying to play a video on your mobile phone and having to wait minutes for it to load. Make sure the format you are promoting is optimised for mobile.
- Make Conversions Painless
If you want people to buy something from your site, make the checkout process simple and fast. If you have other conversion goals such as signing up for a newsletter or contacting your business, make sure the calls-to-action are visible on mobile screens.
Need help with your mobile marketing and digital marketing efforts? Then contact WSI OMS today.
by Francois Muscat | May 28, 2018 | Content Marketing
When you think of conversions, you’re often drawn to thinking about pay-per-click ads, banners and bright red calls to action. Your target audience, however, is tired of being ‘sold to’, which is why you have to look at different ways to create content that will lead to sales. Here are a few types of content that are great for boosting conversions:
How many questions could a potential customer have for your product? What type of advice would they be looking for online before they find your product? This is the type of information that you should be turning into blog posts. Instead of focusing on hard selling from the intro paragraph, you can provide helpful information and include links to your product pages within the post.
Did you know that YouTube is the second largest search engine? People don’t only search for music videos and Ted Talks on YouTube – they use it to find product reviews and information that they want to consume in video format.
If you are giving a presentation, elevator pitch or showing someone how to use your product on a regular basis, then consider filming this and uploading it to YouTube. This gives people the freedom and flexibility to watch your video when they want and to learn more about what you have to offer.
Quizzes need to be entertaining to be successful. Quizzes have become an intriguing way to engage with your target audience. Not only can you use this to gather more information about your potential customers, but you can also encourage them to follow you on social media, sign up for your newsletter or click through to relevant pages on your site at the end of the quiz.
Need help with your content marketing strategy? Then contact WSI OMS today.
by Marianna Muscat | May 22, 2018 | Content Marketing
If you’re one of the many marketers who struggles to come up with unique, daily blog content, it’s time to turn to social media for content ideas. When you tune into chatter all across the web, you can source ideas that you know will resonate with your audience.
Sometimes, all it takes to craft your next month’s content calendar is to know where to ask the right questions. Here are a few tips to perfect social sourcing for your brand:
- Seed A Network For Your Question
Enter a network like LinkedIn and go to a group related to your industry. Take a few minutes to look at the current discussions in the community, the number of comments received, and who moderates the group. By evaluating the group, you can understand what like-minded professionals are talking about at this exact moment and you can ask local peers about a topic that you would like to share.
- Learn From Top Social Influencers
After you have read through a recent discussion in a selected group, pay attention to what certain influencers are saying about specific topics and what they are commenting on threads. You can pose questions at the users directly and their answers and insights can give you a better understanding of the pain points that exist within these networks. These insights can serve as great content inspiration for your brand.
- Co-Opt The Conversation
Once you’ve already engaged with contributors in social communities, take what you have learned and translate those insights into branded discussions. Share this content back into the communities where you sourced ideas and you will likely find that it engages new audiences as well. When you frequently interact with social users within groups, you realise new trends in your industry. A single, productive conversation with an influencer online can give you enough ideas to propel your entire content strategy forward.
Need help with your content marketing or LinkedIn marketing strategy? Then contact WSI OMS today.
by Marelise da Silva | Apr 19, 2018 | Content Marketing
In order to determine whether your content marketing campaigns are successful, you need to work out what you are trying to achieve. Set a goal such as links to content, social shares, revenue, traffic or transactions, for example. Once you’ve set this out, it’s easier to work out how well your content is performing.
Google Analytics is a free tool that you can use to determine the success of your content marketing campaigns. It’s easy to use and it gives you access to a range of data such as which content pieces are performing very well and which pieces aren’t performing very well. Once you’ve analysed your content that isn’t performing well, you may be able to come up with ways to improve your content to bring them in line with the higher performing pieces on your site.
You could also look at bounce rates. If you have a blog and your bounce rate is quite high (around 80% – 90%), you could look at ways to bring this down. Sometimes, simple website design changes will help decrease the bounce rate on your site.
Another tool that you can use to measure the success of your content marketing campaigns is Buzz Sumo. There are free, paid for and premium versions of this tool – obviously the more you spend, the more functionality you will get. This tool gives you access to engagement rates. You can put your domain name into the tool and it will show you which the strongest performing pieces of content are. This is based on social shares as opposed to links. You can also set up media monitoring in Buzz Sumo so that you will be notified when any website mentions your brand name.
These are only two ways to measure your content campaigns. If you need help with SEO, content marketing or other aspects of your digital strategy, then contact WSI OMS today.
by Francois Muscat | Apr 18, 2018 | Content Marketing
One of the best ways to get people to your website and get them excited about your business is to create great, quality content that you distribute on your channels. Whether you’re creating a podcast, a written piece, an infographic or a video, there are tools and techniques that you can use to help you structure and enhance your message.
- Remember that nobody cares about you or your business until you have grabbed their attention. So, what you need to do right at the start is to make sure you are grabbing someone’s attention. The best way to do this is to tell them what’s in it for them. What are they going to get out of listening to you? Our number one tip for creating content is to ‘Start With The Why’ for exactly this reason.
- Another powerful structure to use when creating your content is called a ‘triad’. In writing terms, a triad is a group of three things that are memorable. After you’ve written an attention-grabbing opening, list the three things that you are going to discuss in your podcast or article, for example. Giving your audience a clear idea of what you want to say and letting them know that you have specific key takeaways is a great way to get people engaged in your content.
- The last thing you say in your content is also very important. This is where you can wrap up your ideas and compel someone to take further action. You should have a clear goal in mind before you start crafting your content.
Do you need help with your content marketing or digital marketing strategy? Then contact WSI OMS today.
