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Keep up to date with the latest content marketing tips and news.

18/Mar/2019
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Matcha released its first annual Content Marketing Benchmark Report last week with the aim of helping smaller enterprises navigate the complexities of creating and publishing content. The report analysed data from hundreds of SMEs and the plethora of articles and ads they posted in 2018.

Several recent studies have espoused the benefits of using long-form content as a central pillar in marketing campaigns, and Matcha’s research found they were again among the most effective for driving positive actions. Editorial output, which is typically longer than 750 words, helped to deliver the best reader engagement, with an average of more than four subheadings and almost six images for consumers.

The use of visual aids and subheadlines to break up large blocks of text is believed to be crucial in guiding the reader’s eye and keeping them interested as they scroll down the page. Mixing high-quality prose and fact-based written content with high-resolution images, infographics and catchy headlines is recommended for small businesses aiming to optimise their marking materials this year.

The study also found that “listicles” are particularly effective at keeping reader’ engaged while ensuring output is efficient and meets the needs of users. In-depth analysis of content presented wholly or partly as a list resulted in an uptick in several key metrics, including scroll depth, rates of engagement, click-through rate (CTR) and cost-per-click (CPC). They also perform extremely well on social platforms.

While Facebook has endured a difficult 12 months due to fake news and data privacy scandals, it still leads the way content promotion. The study showed when content is placed alongside ads on the platform, CPC plummets to just $0.19. In contrast, when ads are used on their own, CPC rises to $1.72. Click-through-rates on content ads also see similar remarkable rises.

Matcha also found that licensed content has now caught up with original content in terms of engagement. Licensed content is defined as materials from third parties that brands syndicate from publishers to release across their own channels. It can be distributed by social, email or elsewhere. The study noted that this process is perfect for SMEs, as it enables smaller teams to publish articles with consistent, high quality in a more cost-effective way while taking less time and resources to support.

“This report is invaluable for small businesses, particularly in e-commerce. For the first time, they have a research-backed roadmap to grow their businesses using content marketing,” Matcha CEO, Fynn Glover said. “Great content is a critical ingredient for acquiring and keeping customers. Now, SMBs know exactly what to expect in terms of performance.” Matcha’s full report promises to help small businesses to avoid making the “wrong turns and wasting times” while urging them to use the insights to come with a documented strategy on a robust roadmap for their content marketing efforts. It also outlines why SMEs and e-commerce shops need to embrace content marketing and defines what separates good content from great content.


25/May/2018
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Tailoring content for search terms is vital for driving clicks and engagement, so it is no surprise that brands went to great lengths to tap into the excitement of the royal wedding to amplify the power of their articles, videos and messages across the web in the run-up to the big day last weekend.

Analytics expert Adthena has analysed a raft of organic and paid searches conducted before Prince Harry and Meghan Markle got married on 19 May with the aim of determining the winners and losers for the week. Total spending on search ads is set to soar to $95bn (£71bn) this year and represents 42% of digital investment, so this feedback should help brands ahead of other trending events this summer, such as the World Cup.

The big winners were those that referenced the potential designers of Markle’s wedding dress. Bergdorf Goodman, a luxury department store in New York City, and Matches Fashion both used the keyword “Erdem” to boost their click share significantly. Erdem is a fashion brand and one of Markle’s favourite designers.

Stella McCartney eventually got the honour of making the dress, and several fashion sites battled it out over the use of a “Stella McCartney Wedding Dress” keyword. This increased click-share for fashion site MyTheresa from 45% to 85%. However, Farfetch had the lion’s share of ad clicks on the actual wedding day, with a 72% share.

Adthena’s analysis shows how brands can optimise content campaigns around popular events with the view to driving engagement through click share. The royal wedding was a particularly attractive event for brands, as it was popular across the globe and especially in the US. In contrast to fashion sites, news outlets focused on the drama surrounding Markle’s father to improve their ranking in SERPs.

In other news, a new study from the CMO Council has highlighted the importance of brand storytelling and putting the consumer at the centre of marketing campaigns. New customer acquisition is a prime growth driver for 68% of marketing leaders, and they will need to improve end-user experience and serve up compelling and engaging content to achieve their aims.

“What we hear from our CMO clients is that they are attempting to tackle some of their organizations’ toughest challenges, sometimes losing sight of keeping the customer at the center of it all,” said Sheryl Jackson, a principal with Deloitte Consulting LLP and CMO Customer Transformation Leader. “For the CMO to be effective, they have to keep the customer at the center of every conversation and figure out solutions that will drive growth. But then translate the strategy into the languages of their c-suite peers.”

A separate study by the CMO Council has also found that engaging visual content is central to any marketers’ aim to differentiate their brands in increasingly competitive e-commerce marketplaces. Brands are turning to content to offer something different to the likes of Amazon and eBay, which are yet to realise the power of engaging creative content.


05/Mar/2018
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Content marketers need to work harder to gain traction on social networks as the number of articles is increasing, but brands can cut through the noise by creating “evergreen” content that continues to pay dividends months after its publication date.

That is one of the primary takeaways from the Content Trends Report 2018 published by BuzzSumo earlier this week. The 36-page study found that the number of shares per post on social platforms has seen a marked decline since 2015 due to more competition for engagement, a decline in organic reach on Facebook, and a rise in “dark social” sharing away from bigger, public platforms.

BuzzSumo Director Steve Rayson believes brands can still achieve success with their campaigns by adopting a different mindset. Rather than jumping on trends when they blow up and creating viral content with clickbait titles, they should move towards a more organic, evergreen strategy which can really pay off in the long term.

Evergreen content can continue to perform years down the line, as it will always remain relevant in search and social media. Rayson says evergreen content usually features one of four characteristics that are well suited to gaining shares and clicks over time:

  • It focuses on long-life topics that don’t go out of style
  • It is research-based
  • It is composed with a reference style that acts as a benchmark for a subject
  • It is regularly updated

It appears that content saturation is more common when a brand attempts to focus on a hot trend as the number of articles for this trend often explodes. The recent craze about bitcoin is an example of this. It is impossible for readers to wade through every piece of content published, so they veer towards pages and sites that have an authority on the subject prior to the boom.

Rayson says marketers must, therefore, build authority before a trend hits and look at “sub-trends” proactively to create a hub of high-quality content that may later become more popular if the trend goes mainstream. Working on direct distribution networks, including email subscribers and customer lists, can help to increase private audiences where social algorithms cannot impact reach.

Econtent also recently published its State of Content Marketing report for 2018, where it looked back on how the landscape changed last year and outlined several key trends for the coming months. MGID content strategist Megan James believes infographics and other high-end media formats will be popular this year.

Furthermore, the Pedowtiz Group’s Revenue Marketing Coach Pamela Muldoon claimed content supports a more flexible and scalable consumer experience. She said: “As content marketers become more savvy around the strategy of content, we will see smarter content ideation happening in all stages of the buying journey or customer experience. Instead of deciding that certain types of content are good for certain stages of the marketing and sales funnel, a more holistic approach to how an audience intakes information will be considered as content development takes place.”


08/Jan/2018
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Brands need to have a “real desire” for “value exchange” when planning their content marketing campaigns in 2018, according to creative expert and acclaimed movie director, Otto Bell, who claims the biggest companies in the world are now focused on delivering excellent branded experiences regularly.

Bell, who is Chief Creative Officer at CNN, has produced content for many clients, including Nike and Volvo, and has offered his views on the importance of videos, infographics, ads and other formats as marketers attempt to cut through the noise to connect and engage with audiences across a variety of platforms during the next 12 months.

In terms of storytelling — a contemporary content trend — Bell believes the inclusion of a brand must elevate and enhance the story rather than detract from it in some way. He asks: “Is it harder to tell that story when you remove the brand?” If the answer is yes to that question, he claims that he then knows that he is “onto something” and that the content will be more likely to resonate with end users.

While everything points to content being a major activity for driving a host of positive business outcomes in 2018, he warned that good branded content cannot be considered a “silver bullet” and that brands must work hard to deliver something that can really impact customers and improve their wellbeing in some form.

He asks: “Are you going to deepen my understanding of something? Are you going to provide me with some kind of utility? Are you going to make me laugh?”

He also believes there is a growing desire among audiences for brands to take moral stands and show what they believe in. Bell says: “Look no further than the Super Bowl last year [and Budweiser’s tribute to its German immigrant founder]. Consumers want to know what brands stand for, where their profits are going, and how they are participating in the world.”

Creatives may be a little overwhelmed by the sheer scale of content formats, mediums and platforms available now, but Bell insists that this breadth of variety is beneficial for brands and that they must mix and match these options for each campaign to reach the right audiences, at the right time.

He adds: “I can be a little bit channel agnostic in terms of coming up with the right answer, so what a brand needs to meet its objectives might be a short film of an event or a social media takeover — or all of those things working in concert.”

Bell concludes by stating that agencies and brands must work together to get the very best from creative as a “back seat” outlook from either party can be disadvantageous to a campaign. “Open briefs” with a broad list of objectives can often be the best as it allows both parties to move forward and talk through ideas together. “These brands spend years and years and millions of dollars, shaping and honing their brand image. If you are going to ask them to loosen the reins, you’ve got to talk through that,” he says.


27/Dec/2017
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Small business owners are still unsure whether their digital marketing strategies are working and claim that finding the resources and time to support creative content campaigns will be one their biggest challenges in 2018.

Content and digital marketing have been cited as crucial strategies for driving a variety of positive business outcomes, including engagement, awareness, reach and sales in 2018. But, a new report by marketing and sales platform Infusionsoft suggest micro-businesses and other small enterprises are still somewhat short of maximising the potential of video, mobile and other key trends.

The research polled the opinions of 1,000 small-business owners in North America in October. While digital marketing success remains out of reach for most respondents, almost three-quarters said they plan on publishing content across social media platforms next year to acquire new customers. Facebook will be the most popular outlet for these small-business owners.

While the report noted a certain caution in major digital marketing spend, more than a third will invest in social media management in 2018, and 30% will spend more on SEO and digital ads due to the growing importance of featuring on the first page of Google SERPs.

USA TODAY senior columnist, Steve Strauss said: “The vast majority of small business owners are indicating that they plan to invest their money in social media in 2018. I strongly recommend they invest in tools that enable them to…monitor traffic and conversion to see what’s working and what isn’t.”

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the report is the fact that most small-business owners are effectively in a blind spot when attempting to determine the success of digital marketing. A staggering 63% said they either “don’t know if their marketing strategies work” or “know their strategies aren’t working,” which indicates SMEs must do more to leverage tools, metrics and analytics to improve content decision making.

An outside influence could also help. A fifth of enterprises said a major challenge for 2018 would be finding the time and money to market their business properly. A third party, such as a digital content agency, could transform a brand’s marketing efforts, providing them with not only expertise but also regular, high-quality, targeted and relevant blogs, news, and videos that can benefit every aspect of a modern business.

Demand Gen Report & Marketing ID News Editor, Brian Anderson, added. “Finding time and resources for marketing, being able to convert leads into customers, being able to have the types of conversations that lead to sales: it’s ultimately not a technology solution as much as it’s a process solution. If you have don’t have a process to understand your marketing efforts and your sales efforts, your technology isn’t going to benefit.”

Digital marketing can drive the visibility, awareness and revenue small businesses need to grow, so marketers simply must do more to implement effective campaigns, as they risk losing out to larger enterprises that usually have more mature strategies and resources.