Ever had writer’s block? If you’re the one churning out content for your website, chances are you have. The worst is when you’ve exhausted all of the usual places you look for inspiration and come up empty-handed. Well, here’s another source to add to your arsenal of awesome content ideas: your web analytics. That’s right, those pages and pages of keywords showing how people find your site are full of great content ideas, says Dianna Huff of the Content Marketing Institute.
Dianna says every time she looks at her Google Analytics report, she comes away with at least half a dozen content ideas. (Hey, that could be two weeks worth of content!)
She shares her tips for finding content ideas in keyword reports:
Check out the post for more insight on each of these.
Creating content simply because you (or your boss) think you should will keep your site or blog or Twitter feed full but may not satisfy your readers. Frank Reed, owner of FT Internet Marketing, argues that it’s more important to create content your readers actually look forward to receiving.
Statistically speaking, the number of people who really look forward to your next installment likely represents only a fraction of your total traffic. But Rich notes, that fraction comprises the true believers, the true fans – think the 80/20 rule.
But they tend to be overlooked in the drumbeat to peg SEO goals – which is a sure way to squelch their interest. “They are your most valuable customers yet they are sacrificed in most marketers’ attempts to get bigger numbers rather than a better (albeit smaller in many cases) audience of true fans,” Rich writes.
So, Rich says, hone your content creation to cultivate that loyal fan base. “The old axiom of ‘Quality beats quantity every time’ holds true in the content world as well,” Rich concludes.
What in the world could a band known for its live shows, drug culture and merchandise have to do with successful content marketing today? Surprisingly, a lot, says Brian Clark of Copyblogger.com, as he shows how the Grateful Dead successfully mastered the use of content marketing to create their army of intensely loyal “Deadheads” in only four steps.
Even if you’re not a member of a psychedelic jam band, you too can use these steps to think about your business’ content marketing approach and how to best “give away something valuable in order to sell something related.” According to Clark and “the Dead,” there are four key steps to truly successful content marketing:
Traditionally known for their ability to do much with little and to improvise, the United States Marine Corps is nevertheless going on a diet. During it time as a “second land army” In Iraq, the Corps “got heavy” as its leaders express it, relying on massively mine-resistant vehicles to protect its warriors, who also strapped on personal armor and other gear often weighing 90 pounds or more.
All this extra mass required correspondingly greater amounts of fuel and electricity to run. Now, eying a return to its seafaring roots, the Corps is slimming down. From battlefield to base barracks, the Corps is particularly interested in curbing its appetite for fuel and power. The July-August issue of Semper Fi, the magazine of the Marine Corps League, examines how the Marines plan to get back into fighting trim.
Some of that new equipment was on display at the recent Marine South Military Expo aboard Camp Lejeune, NC. Sponsored by the Marine Corps League the Expos showcase the finest gear available to the military in the world.
Elsewhere in this issue, we meet a Marine veteran who did a tour in Korea during that “Forgotten War,” leading a squad of airplane mechanics who kept Marine aviators in the air around the clock. Flight mechanics had to go up with pilots to check out repairs, leading to some hair-raising moments – and a very personal commitment to do it right – first time, every time.
Semper Fi also remembers the Navajo Code Talkers of World War II, who used their native language to transmit unbreakable messages during the bloody battles with the Japanese on remote Pacific Islands. With only a few left, they are pursuing a new goal: To build a museum and veterans center honoring their legacy.
The new issue also coincides with the League’s 87th National Convention in August in Greensboro, NC, and the magazines salutes retiring National Commandant Jim Laskey.
The issue also reports on progress toward a cherished League objective — redesignating the Department of the Navy as the Department of the Navy and Marine Corps. Though approved by the House and with most of the Senate signed on as cosponsors, the effort still faces potentially stiff opposition when debate starts sometime this summer.
The great thing about Twitter is there is no wrong way to use it. Sure, you’ll see missteps in etiquette and plenty of spammers, but for the most part it’s like Thunderdome: There are no rules.
There are guidelines, however, and Proactive Report offers a handy tip sheet from Ogilvy 360 for advice on various strategies—and suggestions on who to follow, what kind of content to create and how to engage for each situation.
If you’re a Twitter pro you will probably recognize the various suggestions, and perhaps have some of your own to add, but if you’re going to be covering an event or handling crisis management for the first time with Twitter this is a great starting point.
Although every business or brand can benefit from productive content marketing, there are some times when you shouldn’t even bother, explains Joe Pulizzi over on the Junta42 blog. He shares seven problems for brands that often result in ineffective or even useless content marketing.
Instead of producing custom content just for the sake of having it, knowing these common pitfalls could be key in refining your content marketing strategy. He shares seven, but here are the three we found most useful:
It’s news to no one—who doesn’t know that Google is the No. 1 search engine? But a new report from Experian Hitwise gives content marketers an important reminder about keywords and search engine optimization.
Sure, there are other search engines out there, namely Yahoo and Bing, but those stand in the shadows of Google, which accounted for 72 percent of all U.S. searches conducted in May, according to the report. Yahoo’s share was 14 percent, while Bing had 9 percent of all U.S. searches in May. Ask.com accounted for 2 percent of all U.S. searches.
If your content marketing strategy includes keywords for search engine optimization, give preference to content that will influence where you want your business to land for that keyword in Google. In most cases, the content marketing strategy for getting Google hits will be the same for the other search engines, but don’t get too excited if your business pops up on page 1 in Bing but buried in Google. That keyword should still be marked “needs improvement.” Or rather, “needs content.”
Every once in a while, it’s a good idea to step back and take a thorough look at how effective your blogging efforts are. Sociatic calls this auditing your blog, and breaks down the 20-question process into six areas to look at: Design, subscriptions, content, monetization, marketing and measurement. Some of the questions they suggest you ask yourself include:
As a nod to all of the professional journalists who are turning to content marketing for job security, Clare McDermott of Junta42’s Content Marketing Institute gives us six things we can learn from these former newsroom junkies about content marketing. They all are great and make perfect sense, but here are my favorites:
Call us nerdy, but last night at dinner my husband and I were amusing ourselves talking about the abundance of abandoned corporate blogs and Twitter accounts that are littering the Internet. You know the ones: They have introductory posts making grandiose promises about the purpose of the blog or social media account and then…nothing. It’s particularly a shame when you find a blog with lots of activity, but then realize the top post you’re reading is from October 2008.
I would love to see a statistic on how many of these accounts have been abandoned. Many more than are active corporate accounts, I’m sure.
The reasons for giving up on social media are many: