The 4 Mistakes Content Marketers Make

Transcription

1 The 4 Mistakes Content Marketers Make 1

2 Content marketing is on the rise. TABLE OF CONTENTS I. The content marketing landscape The distracted consumer The growth of content marketing Content marketing s high failure rate The content marketing skills gap II. The 4 mistakes content marketers make 1. Selecting the wrong topic 2. Not giving Google what it wants 3. Not planning for failure 4. Publishing then forgetting 2

3 The content marketing landscape Over 30 million pieces of online content are shared daily. Web pages that rank in the top 10 results on Google for any keyword have an average content length of at least 2,000 words. Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional outbound marketing, but generates 3 times as many leads. Source: Content Marketing Institute, 2015 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends 3

4 Consumers are distracted, and marketers must increase relevance to reach them. Users are in control more than ever before. Marketing must be tailored to be user-centric, elective or permission based, and offer a real value proposition to the consumer. Consumers are on average spending 30 seconds or less reading or listening to online marketing. 44% of consumers engage in dual screening at least once per week. Source: 3S Analysis; Damian Ryan & Calvin Jones, Understanding Digital Marketing: Marketing strategies for engaging the digital generation 4

5 In response, the $135 billion content marketing industry is growing rapidly. Content is prevalent: 86% of companies are leveraging content marketing. Content is in short supply: 32% of marketers say finding trained content marketers is a challenge, compared with just 10% last year. Content is growing: 70% of marketers are creating more content than they did last year, with 43% creating more and 27% creating significantly more. Source: Content Marketing Institute, 2015 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends 5

6 But content marketing is challenged by a massively high failure rate. Return on Investment Across 303 Content Pieces Source: 3S Analysis; Content Marketing Institute, 2015 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends 6

7 It s no surprise marketers feel unprepared to thrive in this environment. Only 8% of large companies feel that their employees are strong across all areas of digital marketing. Going into 2015, 90% of marketers consider themselves under-skilled at digital marketing. Source: Grovo, The Future-Proof Marketer in

8 Our research reveals 4 common mistakes content marketers make: Selecting the wrong topic Not giving Google what it wants Not planning for failure Publishing then forgetting 8

9 1. Selecting the wrong topic Most companies and agencies still generate content ideas from a whiteboard. Actual user search queries differ widely from whiteboard sessions. This highly inefficient process creates a major disconnect between the company and its customers demand for information. new product features summer topics fashion trends 9

10 2. Not giving Google what it wants Our analysis shows that similarity between title, mega tag, and opening sentence matters greatly. IN PRACTICE 68% of the Top 50 search results include MDM include this common term! Your chances for a top SERP dramatically increase with proper content structure 64% of the titles in top search results include the phrase mobile device management include this in the title! 10

11 3. Not planning for failure Each piece of content should be optimized for search engines and user engagement. Include organic search fundamentals, such as keyword, LS to redesign content meta tag, and title tag. Former About.com Chief Innovation Officer Byron Reese recommends using structured content, allowing editors to automatically improve articles. If a piece doesn t gain traction in search (or social), trial different titles or versions of the article text. OPTIMIZATION TEMPLATE FOR TESTABLE CONTENT 11

12 4. Publishing then forgetting Each website has a crawl budget from Google. Generally, websites have link depth and crawl frequency issues. Content marketers must ensure that all pages are crawled and indexed. If not, they must change the content or change its position on the website. A regular review of the crawl logs allows the identification of pages that are not being discovered and ranked. OPTIMAL WEBSITE RELEVANCE GRAPH 12

13 In a chaotic digital world, don t go it alone. Free Competitive Benchmark Monitor peers Assess your external environment Half-Day Strategy Workshop Customized digital strategy plan Six elements of search excellence The #1 data-driven digital partner for companies that value leads. Learn More: ed.cheely@three-ships.com