Author: Click Raven

  • Understanding Video SEO and How It Differs from Traditional SEO

    Understanding Video SEO and How It Differs from Traditional SEO

    We live in the digital era where having an online presence as a business is a must for the success of a business. Experts suggest that video search engine optimization, or SEO, is an excellent way to boost your online visibility and increase traffic to your website.

    Over the past few years, there has been yet another trend in SEO: video SEO. In this piece, we shall know what video SEO is. We will also see how it differs from traditional SEO and how both can be implemented to ensure you get the highest ranking and visitors to high-quality content on your website. The differences and the benefits of each SEO practice will assist you in choosing one that brings more traffic to your business.

    How Search Engine Works

    Before we delve into the differences between video SEO and traditional SEO, let’s understand what SEO is and how it works. A search engine performs up to 3 fundamental tasks. The search engine identifies and examines various websites and web pages and categorizes the content of individual pages. The search engine then stores those pages with others bearing the same content. Third, it indexes those pages so a user’s search intent can easily find them.

    When you type a question into the search engine, it goes back to search and retrieves the most relatable content to your question. While there are many, the search engine picks the ones that make the most sense and displays them on the first page of YouTube search results, the landing or video result page, or the Search Engine Result Page (SERP). The results are shown in order of relevance.

    The content is indexed and prioritized depending on the main concepts of each webpage, keywords, backlinks, and many other contributing factors. Hence, you need to consider these factors in your SEO efforts.

    What Is Video SEO?

    Since SEO boosts the quantity and quality of traffic to your website by optimizing pages for organic search engine results, many factors determine first-page ranking. Ranking factors include video quality and page load speed for video content.

    While blog posts and web page content differ significantly from the top video ranking of content, both aim for high-quality videos to increase video searchability. Unlike videos, search engine bots crawl and index your blog post and website content by reading the text. So you might wonder how SEO bot ranks videos if they cannot watch them.

    What Video SEO Techniques are Used for Best Results?

    1. Video Title Optimization

    Video title optimization is an essential aspect of video SEO. Ensure your video title is informative and also keyword-rich. This makes it easy for the search engine to understand where the content is on the video. Ensure the video file’s title is appealing and engaging in video search results. This will attract viewers to click on it and watch.

    2. Video Description Optimization

    Your video should have a description that provides an in-depth description of the video platform and its content. The description of suggested videos should also have relevant terms and keywords, links to relevant content videos, and a call-to-action so that viewers can interact more with the video.

    3. Video Transcription Optimization

    Video transcription optimization means adding captions and subtitles to the video to make it accessible to a broader range of viewers, including viewers with hearing problems. Like search engines scan and crawl content, it does the same to video transcripts, which helps YouTube search comprehend and evaluate the contents of the video engagement and other videos in the same video together.

    4. Video Thumbnail Optimization

    Video thumbnails are images that display the video files on the search result page. Ensure your video below the thumbnail image is high-quality and accurately depicts the video content. It should also be attractive and appealing to entice YouTube users to click on custom thumbnails in the sitemap and watch the entire video. AI image tools can help you generate consistent, eye-catching thumbnails at scale

    5. Video Embedding and Backlinks

    Embedding videos on websites and creating backlinks to them can significantly enhance the SEO of YouTube Studio or your video hosting platform. It improves the visibility and readability of the videos and increases the chances your YouTube channel will get better search rankings.

    Are Videos Important for SEO?

    Now that you know video SEO, you might want to know its importance to your digital success. Yes, video optimization and SEO are crucial for your online strategies, and you need to start implementing them to know what you are missing out on.

    While you optimize your video, sales may not begin shooting overnight, or your SEO may suffer because you do not implement it. Optimizing videos is essential because probably one or a lot of your competitors are already doing it. Video marketing is advantageous because

    • Video helps online buyers make more informed and confident purchasing decisions.
    • Users watching online videos stay on a page longer and can purchase easily.
    • Besides Google, YouTube is the second-largest and leading video search engine.

    What Is Traditional SEO?

    When we talk of SEO, we often refer to traditional SEO. As said earlier, this is optimizing a website to increase its visibility and rank high on search engines.

    You can use traditional SEO to improve your website’s performance in search engines. Employing different strategies aims to make your webpage more attractive to search engines and improve its ranking on SERPs. Traditional SEO has three main areas: search engine optimization, on-page optimization, and link development.

    1. Keyword Research

    Keyword research is finding keywords and phrases that users will use to search for relevant information about a business or industry. When you find the keywords and phrases that users will use to find your business and use them in your content, your website will likely rank high on the search engine results page.

    You can use many SEO audit tools today to find relevant keywords and phrases. Some are paid, while others are free. Use SEO keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Moz.

    2. On-Page Optimization

    On-page optimization can improve the structure and content of your webpage/site. You must optimize the meta tag, meta description, title tag, headers, URLs, and text images for inbound links.

    You must optimize your page to ensure the website structure is easily accessible by search engines and your users. On-page optimization also helps search engines comprehend your website’s contents and improves the ranking of your site’s position on other search engines’ results.

    3. Link Building

    Link building is another SEO strategy involving getting backlinks from other websites to link to your website. These links are relevant to your videos’ website as they inform search engines that other websites view your video to change its title and web content as relevant and valuable. Doing so enhances your site’s trust and credibility, increasing your page rankings. You can build links using broken link building, guest blogging, and skyscraper-sized content.

    Differences Between Traditional SEO and Video SEO

    1. Ranking

    Both SEO strategies seek to boost your website’s rankings on search engines, though they use different methods to achieve this goal. Traditional SEO, for instance, uses keyword phrases, keyword density, on-page optimization, video page name, link building, and more.

    On the other hand, video SEO focuses on aspects of ranking videos like video description optimization, video title optimization, video transcript optimization, and more. When you do these the right way or hire an expert company to do this for you, your page rankings will go high.

    2. Target Audience

    The viewer’s aspect is yet another differentiation factor between these two types of SEO. Traditional SEO, for instance, targets users searching for written information online. On the other hand, video SEO targets users who are searching for online video content on sites such as YouTube videos.

    Suppose you are a company targeting a younger market. In that case, you should invest more in video SEO because younger people are often more interested in online videos than older people, who may be inclined to watch time by reading content.

    3. Content Creation

    Both traditional SEO and video SEO strategies share some similarities regarding content creation. For example, both SEO strategies require top-notch content. Content that is informative, engaging, and pertinent to your audience boosts your page rankings on SERPs.

    On the other hand, video SEO also requires top-quality videos. In this case, video quality suggests that both the content inside and video quality are high and that videos rank for long. The difference in video hosting platforms is that creating video content is more expensive than written content.

    What Is Good for You?

    As an avid SEO expert, you understand that there is no size fits all regarding SEO strategy for your business. To be at par or far ahead, you need to combine a variety of tactics. Many tactics will succeed, while others may not like as you had wished and even threaten to send you back to the drawing board.

    Therefore, use the best SEO strategies to catapult your business, constantly monitor the strategy, and make adjustments where possible. However, combine both approaches and emphasize what works best for your business.

    Conclusion

    You should utilize video SEO and traditional SEO, as they significantly improve your website’s ranking. But again, the type of strategy you implement depends on your target audience and marketing objectives.

    For instance, if your target audience responds better to written content than visual content, then traditional SEO is what you should consider over video SEO. Always consider your goals and resources to enable you to employ the strategy and your target audience.

    Featured Image Credits: Pexels.com

  • What Is Enterprise SEO: Strategies for Optimizing Large-Scale Websites

    What Is Enterprise SEO: Strategies for Optimizing Large-Scale Websites

    In today’s ever-changing digital world, businesses must stay ahead of the competition to thrive. A practical approach to boost online visibility, attract targeted traffic, and foster sustainable growth is through enterprise SEO.

    Enterprise SEO goes beyond regular SEO by optimizing your extensive websites and online platforms. This strategy empowers businesses to unlock the complete potential of search engine optimization. In our article, we’ll delve into enterprise SEO, how it sets itself apart from traditional SEO, and the factors that establish it as a vital element in an organization.

    Understanding Enterprise SEO

    Enterprise SEO is a digital marketing strategy designed to optimize large websites, typically with hundreds or thousands of pages, to improve their search engine visibility and attract more organic traffic.

    The goal of enterprise SEO is to ensure that the website’s content is easily accessible to search engine bots and can be ranked higher in the search results for relevant queries. Managing and optimizing large websites with numerous web pages is often challenging, and enterprise SEO helps address these challenges.

    Enterprise SEO focuses on three primary areas: technical SEO, content optimization, and outsourcing link building. Technical SEO involves optimizing the website’s structure and code to ensure it is easily accessible to search engine bots. This includes optimizing the website’s speed, improving its crawl ability, and ensuring it is mobile-friendly.

    Content optimization involves creating high-quality, relevant, and engaging content that targets specific keywords and user intent. Finally, link building involves acquiring high-quality backlinks from other websites with proper canonical tags to improve the website’s authority and credibility.

    Differences Between Enterprise SEO and Traditional SEO

    search engine optimization
    Image credit: marxcommunications.com

    Enterprise SEO differs from traditional SEO in several ways. The most evident distinction is the scale of the project. Enterprise SEO projects involve large websites with hundreds or thousands of web pages, while traditional SEO projects focus on optimizing individual web pages. Additionally, enterprise SEO requires more time, resources, and expertise than its counterpart.

    Another significant difference between enterprise SEO and traditional SEO is the level of coordination and collaboration required. The former’s projects often involve multiple teams optimizing the website’s technical structure, content, and link profile. This includes IT teams, content creators, marketing teams, and SEO specialists. Traditional SEO projects are managed by a single person or SEO team, making coordination and collaboration less critical.

    Enterprise SEO Strategies

    You can employ several strategies to boost your enterprise SEO efforts. These include:

    1. Keyword Research and Targeting

    Keyword research is necessary for any enterprise SEO strategy. With thousands of web pages to optimize, keyword research helps identify the most relevant and high-traffic keywords the website should target. This ensures that the website’s content applies to the user’s search intent and increases the website’s visibility in the search results.

    2. Site Architecture and Navigation

    A website’s structure and navigation are essential to its SEO performance. In enterprise SEO, ensuring that the website’s design is effortless to navigate for both users and search engine bots is critical. This includes optimizing the website’s URLs, creating a logical and intuitive navigation menu, and ensuring that the website’s content is organized clearly and concisely.

    3. Mobile Optimization

    Mobile optimization is required in enterprise SEO, with users accessing the internet from mobile devices more than ever. This involves optimizing the website’s design and functionality to ensure it is easily accessible and navigable on mobile devices.

    4. Content Creation and Optimization

    In enterprise SEO, you must create high-quality, relevant, engaging content targeting specific keywords and user intent. This includes creating content optimized for long-tail keywords, creating topic clusters, and ensuring the website’s content is regularly updated.

    5. Link Building

    Building high-quality backlinks from other authoritative sites helps to improve the website’s authority and credibility in the eyes of search engines. This includes creating shareable and link-worthy content, outreach to other websites in the industry, and regularly monitoring the website’s backlink profile.

    6. Technical SEO

    Technical SEO involves optimizing the website’s structure and code to ensure it is easily accessible to search engine bots. Ensuring that the website’s technical structure is optimized for SEO is essential in enterprise SEO. This includes optimizing the website’s speed, improving its crawl ability, and ensuring it is mobile-friendly.

    7. Analytics and Reporting

    Tracking and monitoring the website’s SEO performance regularly, including ranking positions, traffic, conversions, and other key metrics, is paramount. This helps to pinpoint areas for improvement and adjust the SEO strategy accordingly.

    Benefits of Enterprise SEO

    Enterprise SEO offers several benefits for websites that invest in it. These include:

    1. Increased Visibility: Enterprise SEO helps to improve the website’s visibility in the search results, making it more effortless for users to find and access the website. This leads to increased organic traffic and higher brand visibility.
    2. Improved User Experience: SEO involves optimizing various aspects of your website, such as site speed, navigation, mobile responsiveness, and content quality. These optimizations help search engines understand and rank your site better and enhance the user experience. A user-friendly website is more likely to engage visitors, reduce bounce rates, and encourage them to explore further.
    3. Competitive Advantage: In the digital landscape, competition is fierce across industries. Implementing enterprise SEO helps you stay ahead of your competitors by outranking them in search results. By optimizing your website and targeting relevant keywords, you can increase your market share, attract more customers, and outperform competitors who haven’t invested in search engine optimization.
    4. Cost-Effective: SEO offers a cost-effective marketing approach compared to traditional advertising channels like television or print media. While it requires time and resources upfront, the long-term benefits of organic traffic and visibility outweigh the initial investment. Once you achieve higher rankings, the ongoing maintenance and optimization efforts are relatively more affordable.
    5. Long-Term Benefits: SEO is a long-term plan that can deliver sustainable long-term results. Unlike paid advertising campaigns that cease when the budget runs out, a well-optimized website can maintain its rankings and organic traffic even with reduced ongoing efforts. Continual optimization and staying up-to-date with search engine algorithms ensure your website remains competitive in the long run.

    Challenges of Enterprise SEO

    While enterprise SEO presents significant benefits, it also offers several challenges. These include:

    1. Complexity: Enterprise SEO is a complex and multifaceted strategy that requires a high level of expertise and knowledge. It involves coordinating multiple enterprise SEO teams and optimizing hundreds or thousands of web pages, making it challenging to manage and execute.
    2. Coordination and Collaboration: In enterprises, multiple teams, departments, or business units may be responsible for different aspects of the website, such as content creation, development, design, and marketing. Coordinating and aligning these teams to follow SEO best practices can be challenging. Establishing clear communication channels, collaboration tools, and cross-functional training ensures everyone understands and implements SEO guidelines effectively.
    3. Content Governance: Enterprises generate significant content across departments, regions, and product lines. Ensuring consistent quality, relevance, and adherence to SEO guidelines across all content can be challenging. Implementing content governance policies, establishing content creation standards, and conducting regular audits are necessary to maintain SEO best practices throughout the organization’s website.
    4. Competition: Enterprises often operate in highly competitive industries with numerous established players. Outranking competitors in search engine results becomes more challenging due to their established online presence, brand recognition, and resources. Developing a comprehensive competitive analysis strategy, identifying unique value propositions, and leveraging data-driven insights are essential to gaining a competitive edge in organic search rankings.
    5. Data and Reporting: Enterprises generate vast amounts of data related to website traffic, conversions, and SEO performance. Consolidating, analyzing, and reporting this data meaningfully can be challenging. Implementing robust analytics tools, setting up customized dashboards, and establishing regular reporting processes are necessary to derive actionable insights and measure the effectiveness of SEO efforts.

    Tips When Implementing Enterprise SEO Strategies

    How can businesses keep up with many factors driving enterprise SEO innovation and development cycles? Here are a few tips:

    1. Stay Informed

    Read blogs, attend conferences, and follow enterprise leaders on social media to stay current with the latest trends and evolutions in the SEO industry. This will help you stay ahead of the curve and anticipate changes in search engine algorithms and user behavior.

    2. Experiment and Test

    Feel free to experiment and test new SEO strategies and techniques. This will help you recognize what works and doesn’t and allow you to adapt your plan accordingly. Testing different approaches also enables you to identify new opportunities and stay ahead of competitors.

    3. Invest in the Right Tools and Technologies

    Invest in the right SEO tools and technologies to help you automate repetitive tasks and gain deeper insights into your target audience. Numerous SEO tools are available, ranging from keyword research and content optimization tools to AI-powered analytics platforms. Choose the tools that are most relevant to your business goals and objectives.

    4. Collaborate Across Departments

    Enterprise SEO requires collaboration across departments, from marketing and IT to sales and customer service. Ensure everyone in your organization understands the importance of SEO and how it impacts your marketing business. Encourage cross-functional collaboration and communication to ensure everyone works together towards the same goals.

    5. Stay Agile

    Finally, be prepared to adapt your SEO strategy as the industry evolves. Don’t get stuck in old ways of thinking or rely on outdated techniques. Stay agile and be willing to pivot your strategy if necessary. This means keeping an open mind and being willing to experiment with new approaches.

    Top Enterprise SEO Tools

    There are several top enterprise SEO platforms available in the market that can help businesses improve their enterprise search engine optimization efforts. Here are some of the popular ones:

    1. SEMrush

    SEMrush is a comprehensive SEO tool that delivers many features, including keyword research, competitor analysis, site audits, backlink analysis, rank tracking, and more. It provides valuable insights and data to optimize search engine optimization strategies effectively.

    2. Moz Pro

    Moz Pro is a powerful SEO software suite that offers features such as keyword research, link building, site audits, rank tracking, and on-page optimization. It provides actionable recommendations and helps businesses track their performance over time.

    3. Google Search Console

    This free web service provided by Google allows website owners, webmasters, and SEO professionals to monitor and manage their website’s presence in Google’s search results. It offers valuable insights, tools, and reports to optimize the visibility and performance of a website in Google Search.

    4. BrightEdge

    BrightEdge is an enterprise SEO platform with qualities like rank tracking, content optimization, site audits, keyword research, and competitive analysis. It provides data-driven insights to help businesses improve their search engine optimization performance.

    5. Conductor Searchlight

    Conductor Searchlight is an enterprise-level SEO platform with various tools and features, including content optimization, competitive analysis, keyword research, and reporting. It provides actionable insights and helps businesses streamline their SEO efforts.

    6. Screaming Frog

    Screaming Frog is a website crawler tool that allows you to crawl other websites and gather data for technical search engine optimization analysis. It helps identify broken links, duplicate content, missing meta tags, and more.

    Conclusion

    Enterprise SEO is a specialized approach to search engine optimization that caters to the unique challenges large organizations with extensive web properties face. By implementing web strategies such as technical audits, keyword research, on-page optimization, and content governance, enterprises can maximize their online visibility, drive targeted traffic, and enhance the user experience. Embracing enterprise SEO practices enables organizations to unlock the full potential of their digital presence, ensuring long-term success in the ever-evolving world of search engines.

    Featured image credit: hocalwire.com

  • Top 7 SEO Tools To Boost Your Efforts in 2026

    Top 7 SEO Tools To Boost Your Efforts in 2026

    It’s always amazing how a good tool can make your life much easier. The same applies to SEO tools. On that same note, there’s nothing like a Google update to leave you gasping and struggling when you think you’ve mastered everything. We have all been there.

    And that is when a good SEO tool comes in handy, with many of the entries below being free to use while some are paid for but have free plans.

    We have selected our best 7 SEO tools below, which you can use in various cases to help your site rank better. Of course, combine them with our list of SEO tips to achieve massive success. Nevertheless, the tools are easy to use and will eventually lead to more organic search clicks and better conversions if you properly use them.

    Additionally, they have plenty of overlapping functionalities. You do not have to use them all. Read on!

    1) Google Analytics

    Setting up your Google Analytics account will help you better understand your website visitors, the content they want to see from your site, and how they behave when browsing it. It also allows you to monitor your online business traffic. Additionally, with this free SEO tool, you can prove your content marketing return on investment thanks to the well-detailed reports it provides on various SEO KPIs.

    Google Analytics
    Image Source: guestraction.com

    This is one of the best free SEO tools that give you access to data like:

    • Whether your traffic came from a mobile device or desktop.
    • The number of leads converted.
    • Information about visitors, e.g., where they live.
    • The overall amount of traffic your site gets.
    • The websites your traffic comes from.

    This tool updates and compiles all the SEO data centrally, making access easier. Agencies such as Paramark can then leverage these insights to design precise SEO strategies that maximize website performance and drive measurable results.

    Therefore, you can use queries to narrow down which areas require improvement. You can also use suggested keywords in your keyword optimization to rank your desired content.

    Utilize this tool to understand and improve your SEO by:

    a) Determining Engagement Metrics

    Using site content reports, you can easily view engagement metrics on your web pages. You can also view factors like page exit metrics, engagement for the directories and pages on your website, acquisition, behavior, and conversion of landing pages.

    b) Filtering Referral Traffic

    Google Analytics data helps you to filter out the traffic that can ruin your SEO reports. Fake traffic, bots, and unusual bounce traffic are some of the culprits in this case.

    c) Reviewing the Multi-Channel Report’s Assistant Conversion Feature

    This free tool explains how your channels work together to create conversions and subsequent sales and the value they bring to your business. For example, after searching for your brand on Google, people might order from your website, leading to conversions that Google Analytics can track.

    d) Comparing Organic and Non-organic Website Traffic

    Organic traffic gives long-lasting results, while non-organic traffic is suitable for driving immediate traffic to specific landing pages through paid sources like pay-per-click ads. Organic traffic is a term used to describe the visitors who visit your page due to unpaid search results.

    2) Google Search Console

    Google Search Console is a helpful tool that helps you conduct a preliminary SEO analysis from square one. Additionally, it is one of the best free SEO tools for conducting SEO analysis. Updating your existing SEO strategy will be easier since it has free keyword research tools. After all, all the Google search console tools ensure you can rank for search engines in terms of the long tail keywords your audience is looking for.

    Image Credit: www.linkedin.com

    Google Search Console can be linked to Google Analytics for a better experience, especially if you are a marketer and require a complete guide to small business SEO. You can also easily monitor, debug, and optimize your website.

    Google Search Console data can help you to optimize the following website elements:

    a) Google Index

    You can use this tool to see how many of your pages are on Google’s Index search results. If your pages aren’t on this index, you can use a URL inspection tool to submit the pages you want indexed on your website.

    b) Keywords

    The tool is perfect for learning about the current ranking keywords. In addition, the Google Keyword Planner will help you search and determine the topics customers are searching for. Using this data, you can tailor your content according to keyword suggestions on Google Trends.

    c) Mobile-Friendliness

    The best SEO tools allow mobile responsiveness since most people now search for products and information from their phones. Using the data Google Search Console provides you with, you can improve the mobile experience for your users.

    d) Crawl Errors

    Of course, there’s no perfect software, so debugging is recommended. For example, has a server error ever popped up when searching for something? This means that the server is taking too long to respond.

    The search engine bots trying to crawl your site will only wait for the duration of the request and then give up trying to load your site. The Google Search Console will boost your SEO performance by identifying the crawl errors and validating them to be fixed.

    3) Bing Webmaster Tools

    Microsoft’s Bing search engine allows SEO content creators to see how their web pages perform. Bing has unique SEO tools, such as a backlink analysis tool that helps you analyze referring domains, pages, and anchor texts. You can also use the keyword research tool to find the relevant keywords and their corresponding search volume.

    Bing Webmaster Tools
    Image Source: seahawkmedia.com

    A Site Scan feature is an audit tool that crawls your site and checks for common and technical SEO issues. The issues and errors across your website are compiled in an SEO report. Additionally, the Bing URL submission for the WordPress SEO plugin enables automated submissions from your WordPress site to the Bing index.

    With Webmaster tools and guidelines, you can easily cover various topics. Additionally, you can easily get your website indexed and discovered on Bing using on-page SEO.

    4) Screaming Frog SEO Spider

    Screaming Frog tool for SEO
    Image Source: doncrowther.com

    Whether you employ this SEO tool for personal use or you have a small business, it is perfect for rank tracking and auditing. Additionally, this crawler gathers critical insight data to help your content rank well on Google’s search results. Screaming Frog is an excellent SERP analysis tool that contains all the details to give you a successful organic SEO experience.

    It can also do the following:

    a) Analyze Page Titles and Meta Tags

    If you have page titles and meta-tag errors, this tool will help you analyze them during a crawl. It can identify too short, too long, duplicated, low-content pages, and missing instances on your site.

    Moreover, you can see where broken links and 404 server errors are, which helps your link-building efforts. You can then correct the errors when you export the errors and source URLs to yourself or a web developer.

    b) Generate XML Sitemaps

    You can quickly generate an XML sitemap by uploading URLs using this DIY SEO software. It should be easy since it has advanced configurations over URLs that can include last, priority, modified, and change frequency.

    c) Audit Redirects

    You can learn to identify redirect chains and loops with audit redirects or upload a list of your site’s URLs to audit in a site migration. It’s perfect if you migrate sites due to a hosting change or website redesign.

    d) Crawl JavaScript Websites

    You can render webpages to crawl dynamic JavaScript-rich frameworks and websites using Chromium WRS.

    5) SEMrush

    Image Source: semrush.com

    SEMrush is the best SEO tool and one of the best paid SEO tools. It offers numerous features, and the best one is the SEO toolkit.

    Additionally, it provides you with a rank tracker tool, and you can track your web page visibility and improvement with time. Through keyword research, you can also help your content rank for a particular keyword and other related keywords for local SEO.

    With SEMrush, you also get the following:

    a) Keyword Magic Tool

    The magic keyword tool helps with keyword research, SEO metrics, and identifying all the keywords you need to build a solid SEO strategy.

    b) Link Building

    As you already know, link building is crucial for search engine optimization. SEMrush helps to build internal and external links – niche edits, blogger outreach links, and other types of backlinks – for a higher SEO score. Using this tool, you can also analyze backlinks from multiple other websites to your site.

    c) See Competitor’s Strategies

    This tool identifies the ad copy or paid keywords used in your competition’s PPC ads. It will guide you in choosing the right SEO tool and strategy.

    6) Ahrefs

    Ahrefs is an excellent SEO tool with advanced features. Since it’s a search engine optimization analysis tool, it examines your website and provides links, keywords, and a ranking profile. This strategy helps you with your SEO efforts, including rank tracking and ensuring minor details like page speed are done.

    Ahrefs
    Image Source: backlinko.com

    Ahref is one of the paid SEO tools. You can try a 7-day trial period for $7 to get a feel of the features you will have access to. After that, depending on your preferred plan, regular users, small businesses, and bloggers can pay between $99 and $999 monthly.

    Other Ahref tools include:

    a) Content Explorer

    The content explorer searches for well-performing pages and sites, depending on the keywords and topics that are most searched.

    b) Site Audit

    A site audit involves crawling your sites with specific aspects within your domain. This is significant because it reveals all the technical issues your pages might be experiencing.

    c) Site Explorer

    The site explorer lets you easily monitor each page’s performance. It also helps you monitor performance to rank organically on Google search results. The better you rank, the sooner your site can become a domain authority and the sooner you can decide whether to focus on organic SEO for your business.

    7) SEObility

    Seobility
    Image Source: growhackscale.com

    SEObility is a free SEO tool with many features. It allows you to check your website’s SEO conformity to the most recent SEO updates. Using it is easy; you only have to enter your website’s URL to get a complete report with tips on improving your website.

    Additionally, after this tool audits your site, you can access other unique features like keyword monitoring, 1000 subpage audits, and email alerts.

    Other essential features include:

    a) Server Error Fixing

    This tool identifies and fixes any errors related to HTTP headers, JavaScript, and CSS files. You won’t have to correct any errors in the link. Additionally, no server errors will be triggered after fixing them.

    b) Accurate SEO Scoring

    SEO scoring in marketing accounts for how well your content incorporates various SEO strategies, such as link structure, meta information, and page quality. You will receive an accurate SEO score to see which areas you can improve.

    c) Optimization

    With this software, you will quickly identify areas you can improve, such as your website’s page speed, removing duplicate content, creating a responsive design, and the overall quality of your content.

    d) Link Building and Structure Suggestions

    As you build backlinks for your website, you will have to perfect how you link to your anchor text, internal links, and headers. If either is wrong, you will receive suggestions for improvement.

    e) Solving Technical Errors

    You can also solve technical errors, like on-page SEO errors. Delving into this as quickly and efficiently as possible enables you to prevent future traffic sinks and recover any lost traffic.

    f) Meta Information and Analysis

    You can get valuable information regarding your meta descriptions, tags, and titles. You must fix them if they are too long, short, or repetitive. You will also uncover specific SEO issues with your meta information. This list also includes invalid and incorrect domain names.

    The Bottom Line

    All the highlighted tools will give you the best insights into your SEO content strategy. Some free tools provide the best analysis if you are on a budget. Follow the suggestions of whichever tool you select for your business. After all, SEO tools make it easier for web admins to find what they need to stay on top.

    Featured Image Source: reliablesoft.com

  • 23 SEO Tips to Help You Rank Higher in 2026

    23 SEO Tips to Help You Rank Higher in 2026

    1. Keyword Optimize your content.

    2. High quality content.

    3. Structure your content well.

    4. Seek the featured snippets.

    5. Optimize your Page Titles.

    6. Optimize Your Meta descriptions.

    7. Keep your URLs short, tidy, and readable (memorable?).

    8. Get backlinks and Niche Edits from high-authority sites.

    9. Optimize your page speed.

    10. Add internal links to your content.

    11. Add high-quality – high authority external links to your content.

    12. Use high-quality and well-optimized visuals.

    13. Do a technical site audit often.

    14. Audit your content often.

    15. Study the competition to find content gaps.

    16. Study the competition to find link gaps.

    17. Reduce your bounce rate.

    18. Remove dead non-trafficked pages.

    19. Use related keywords in your content.

    20. Update old content.

    21. Leverage SEO tools for unseen wins or optimizations and to track SEO KPIs.

    22. Leverage blogger outreach to find guest post opportunities.

    23. Improve organic CTR (Found on Google Search Console).

  • What is Google EAT? The ultimate SEO E-A-T Guide

    What is Google EAT? The ultimate SEO E-A-T Guide

    Whenever I hear the term E-A-T in SEO circles, I always think of food first. Then, after a reality check, it dawns on me that we are talking about Google E-A-T.

    Over the years, this has been a common term for SEO professionals. However, the bigger question to the SEO pro reading this right now is why this Google E-A-T matters and what it is.

    E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.

    It has been part of the Google algorithm over the years. It is also part of the Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines, which determine how a site rates on the E-A-T scale (although Google denies any existence of an E-A-T scale or score).

    However, we assume this is very important to Google because of the number of pages Google spends explaining every aspect of E-A-T in the Search Guidelines (57 pages out of 175).

    Therefore, in this article, we want to discuss the following:

    1. What is E-A-T?

    This term first appeared in Google’s Search Quality Guidelines in 2014. Over the years, there has been a lot of iteration of that section of the guidelines to improve it. However, from the beginning, E-A-T has always meant:

    • The Expertise person creating the content.
    • The Authoritativeness of the person creating the content, the content itself, and the website where the content is published.
    • The Trustworthiness of the content creator, the content itself, and the website on which it is published.

    In summary, consider this question.

    Who would you trust to feed you with actionable content on a particular topic?

    A simple answer would be:

    Someone with professional credibility who writes content for a website that displays continuous authority and consistency in the topic.

    So here are quick examples:

    • A professional violinist who started a website that talks about Violins inside out.
    • A professional psychologist who creates content about mental illness on a website that consistently covers mental illness across the board.
    • A renowned cyclist who creates content about cycling for other cyclists and cycling enthusiasts who continuously engage with the content.

    I hope that the concept of E-A-T now makes sense to you. We now delve deeper into the Google E-A-T and how it affects your SEO strategy.

    2. Summary of Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines of E-A-T

    Google’s Search Quality rater guidelines provide a framework for evaluating and ranking web pages. This framework helps webmasters understand Google’s expectations of their sites and how that affects their ranking in the search engine rankings.

    We have discussed the Quality Rater Guidelines in greater detail in this post: How the Google Algorithm Perceives Quality.

    However, for the sake of our article, we will summarise below the guidelines with an emphasis on the E-A-T requirements.

    The whole Quality Rater Guidelines PDF can be summarised into the following two areas:

    • Page Quality – this is the quality of a website divided into the following areas:
    1. The goal or purpose of a website.
    2. The content quality.
    3. The E-A-T of the source where information on the website is coming from.
    • Satisfying the users’ needs – Does your website content meet the needs of its visitors?

    Therefore, Google rates a website as high quality if it scores very highly in the guidelines mentioned above – one of which is E-A-T.

    3. Is E-a-T a Ranking Factor or Not?

    Google has a set of ranking factors that are well-known to most SEO professionals. However, E-A-T is not a direct ranking factor.

    Sometimes, it is essential to read between the lines of what Google says regarding Google’s guidelines.

    Gary Illyes from Google has said people talk about E-A-T more than it is talked about at Google:

    However, in the Google Quality Rater Guidelines, Google mentions E-A-T more than 100 times in over 50 pages.

    This document shows how Google fights misinformation on the Internet. E-A-T is an essential part of how Google determines search rankings.

    In this set of tweets by Danny Sullivan, Google’s Public Liaison of Search, he said that there are some signals that Google uses to determine E-A-T where some of the signals could be ranking factors;

    In summary, there is no Google E-A-T score. However, E-A-T is an essential concept for Google. It uses other measurable factors to determine whether a website achieves the level of quality that showcases Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (EAT).

    4. Importance of E-A-T

    If E-A-T is not a ranking factor, then what is its importance? I know this is the very question going into your head.

    It’s simple. Google has human reviewers. This Google E-A-T guideline tells those reviewers that Google wants content with the following attributes considered high quality:

    • An expert writes content.
    • Content is written on an authoritative blog.
    • Content is trustworthy.

    This is all about the importance of Google E-A-T. If your content doesn’t meet the attributes above, you are not creating high-quality content.

    Therefore, how do you bake Google’s E-A-T into your content to achieve that credibility with Google? Here is a 5-step checklist.

    5. How to Integrate Google E-A-T Into Your Content: A 5-Step Checklist

    a) Create an Author or About Page

    The first requirement of the E-A-T acronym is Expertise.

    Google wants to know who is creating the content on your website. So tell them that it is you or your team.

    Tell Google why you have the required expertise in this content.

    For example, be open about your team’s credentials on your About page. This could also be part of your team page.

    Highlight your team’s qualifications and why they should be trusted to inform others regarding your niche or topic.

    Create author pages, too. Each author can have a brief bio where Google gets to learn about why they are experts on what they are writing about.

    A hobbyist DIYer could start a blog about designing and crafting various types of furniture. This is a hobby, but Google loves that it’s your hobby – you are obsessed with it and have built up some experience, too.

    You don’t have to be a professor of carpentry to write a blog about DIY furniture. The bottom line is that you have the expertise.

    b) Collaborate With Experts in Your Industry

    Collaborating with experts further adds to the Expertise-Authoritativeness-Trustworthiness of your content.

    Instead of working with writers who are not experts in your topic, find experts in your niche and work with them to publish various high-quality issues and research.

    c) Update Old Content Regularly

    Google wants your website content refreshed with something new and valuable every chance.

    Old content that is just so out of touch with the current trends sucks. And Google knows that its users (literally everyone) want to see ever-current and helpful content.

    If you have old pages that have not been looked at for ages, you should update them with new visuals and data, fix broken links, and improve their information.

    Read Also: How to Remove Outdated Content From Your Website

    That way, it shows Google that your site can continuously provide relevant, accurate information for users.

    d) Link to High-Authority Sources

    How do you stamp your understanding and Authoritativeness of a specific topic? How can you show Google you are a trustworthy source?

    Link to other authority sources to back up what you publish in your content.

    Use accurate raw data, links to research papers, and even social posts from people in your industry who are known experts.

    This way, Google sees that you rely on high-quality sources for the content you share with your users.

    e) Generate Backlinks from High Authority Sources

    What is more E-A-T than getting high-authority backlinks from other high-authority websites? This is one of the best wins you can continuously push for by generating high-quality, linkable content.

    When people in their high E-A-T industries link back to your site through various types of backlinks like niche edits, press releases, infographic links, etc, you can quickly stamp your credibility in your industry.

    Bottomline

    Google has clarified that E-A-T is not some internet destroyer. However, it will matter if Google wants to determine whether the content is high quality.

    Therefore, you now need to serve E-A-T in your content marketing strategy.

    The Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T) of your content can no longer be ignored. Or you won’t eat? At least not from the internet money.

  • 10 SEO KPIs To Track For Better Search Performance

    10 SEO KPIs To Track For Better Search Performance

    Many companies heavily rely on data to make decisions. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are essential for businesses to track growth. Without KPIs, it’s tough to measure the success of campaigns. We’ve listed the top 10 SEO KPIs to help you monitor your website’s traffic growth.

    What are SEO KPIs?

    SEO Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) allow online marketers to measure a site’s SEO performance in search engines. They show you the success of your optimization strategy. In addition, KPIs provide a learning environment where you can continuously measure and optimize your growth.

    Why are KPIs important for SEO?

    Image credit: bscdesigner.com

    Like other initiatives where you invest time, money, and resources, measuring your SEO KPIs can help improve your digital marketing efforts.

    Apart from growth and providing a means to measure your progress, tracking SEO KPIs can:

    • Alert you in case of any problems on your site and show the working strategies so you can apply them throughout the site. This way, you can track and measure your progress against set goals.
    • Provide accountability by clearly pointing to the metrics, dimensions, and reports behind your business’s growth.
    • It can help you track your return on investment (ROI) for better profits. With a better understanding of ROI, you can also estimate the payback period for your SEO business.
    • Help you meet your audience’s needs efficiently.
    • Make intelligent decisions that bring more profit.

    Top 10 Important SEO KPIs to Track

    1. Return on Investment (ROI)

    Image credit: businessinsider.com

    Regardless of your current business challenges or the business model, you want your business to bring in returns.

    Return on investment is the ratio between the profits you have made and the money you have spent. A high ROI means higher profits and a low ROI means lower profits in terms of the amount paid.

    Measuring and tracking ROI from your SEO activities is critical because it is the best measure of success. Know your ROI target and measure your performance against it, understanding and reporting on how it is improving.

    The fantastic thing is that several SEO tools, such as the Google Analytics account, simplify ROI calculation as you track your goals.

    That said, it is necessary to remember that it can take time to see your ROI. It often takes 6 to 12 months, so try to set a reasonable ROI goal for your business.

    2. Organic Visibility

    Image credit: ahrefs.com

    Seeing that it takes time to see financial returns from SEO, another primary KPI you can measure and track to see your consistency in terms of growth is organic visibility.

    Organic visibility is a metric that helps you quickly summarise your organic ranking performance. Typically, it provides the impressions of your content’s growth as the Google Search Console rates it. Based on this, you can identify the searches that increase organic traffic over time.

    The good bit is that you can measure and report the visibility in two ways. First, you can showcase growth in impressions from Google Search Console. This is the ideal method to show continued growth, seeing that impressions show your website’s searches even if they were not indicated in clicks.

    Another way to measure and report visibility is to look at keyword trends. Using organic research tools like Semrush and Ahrefs, you can track how your visibility changes for essential keywords.

    3. Site Speed

    Image credit: disruptiveadvertising.com

    Site speed is another important KPI you should track and measure for several reasons. First, the site’s speed affects its usability, as potential clients will likely abandon slow-loading sites.

    The site’s page also affects its conversion rate. For instance, if clients want to purchase through the site and it takes long to load, they will likely leave.

    Finally, page speed impacts SEO rankings. Slow-loading sites are likely to have low rankings in search engine results, which leads to fewer visits and views and fewer returns.

    4. Organic click-through rate

    Image credit: cxl.com

    Another crucial metric is the organic search click-through rate (CTR). The CTR is an SEO KPI that shows the percentage of people clicking on your link when searching for a specific term. It will also show how often the number of searchers converts into website visitors.

    A high CTR shows that your site is relevant to the searcher’s query and that your search snippets are compelling. It also shows how well your SEO title and metadata attract searchers for a search term. The click-through rate highly depends on the rankings of your content on a search engine. 

    So, if your CTR is rising, it’s a great sign that clients enjoy and want to engage with content. It is also a sign that your SEO rankings are improving.

    In addition, you can track your CTR using Google Analytics at the search engine query and page levels to have a more accurate scope of effectiveness on money spent.

    5. Domain Authority

    Image credit: semupdates.com

    Domain authority is an important SEO KPI that you can use to gauge the strength of your site’s backlink profile. The backlink profile is the number and quality of the links pointing to your site from other websites.

    This metric is one of the many KPIs that can be tracked to measure the health of a site’s SEO. The higher the number and quality of the backlinks, the higher your site’s domain authority.

    However, it is essential to know that your domain authority is not just affiliated with the backlinks you buy but can also be based on your website’s age, traffic, and trustworthiness.

    6. Bounce Rate

    Image credit: datapine.com

    Bounce rate is the number of visitors or clients who leave your website after viewing one page or leave without interacting with it. For example, if a potential client clicks on your site and only views 1 page, it will boost your bounce rate and decrease your visibility. However, if they view more than the first page, it will reduce the bounce rate – a low bounce rate means customers are engaging with your content for longer, boosting your visibility.

    Depending on your page’s topic, the average bounce rate can range between 20% and 80%. Any percentage above 80% shows that you need to optimize landing pages, create high-quality content, and improve your site’s page speeds to retain users for a longer time and reduce the bounce rate.

    7. Conversion Rates For Sales and Leads

    Image credit:vwo.com

    Conversion rates refer to the number of new leads you have obtained on your site compared to the number of visitors. This metric helps by showing the number of visitors converted to customers or leads on your site. The higher the number of visitors who complete a goal (e.g., buy something, fill in a form, contact you), the more profit you are likely to make in the long term.

    Nevertheless, not every visitor will convert, so you can not expect to have a 100% conversion rate. Knowing your site’s average conversion rate will help you measure how your site’s landing pages and content are performing.

    You can easily calculate your site’s conversion rate percentage by dividing the number of conversions by the number of visitors. The best way to measure and track your site’s conversion rate is by using Google Analytics.

    Suppose you notice that your site has a lower conversion rate; try to increase it by optimizing your site for conversions, using effective marketing strategies to drive more traffic, and A/B testing different elements on your site to see what works best.

    8. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

    Image credit: klipfolio.com

    Customer lifetime value (CLV) is a metric that measures and tracks how much your business can plan to earn from an average customer throughout the relationship. In addition, it gauges the financial value each customer brings to your site over an extended period.

     By measuring your client’s feedback at all key touchpoints and understanding the customer experience, you will know the key drivers of CLV.

    This KPI helps you identify the SEO activities with the most significant positive financial impact. It also redirects SEO efforts toward customer-centered strategies that maximize the value your customer gets from different types of content on your site. It usually focuses on extending beyond current clients to incorporate potential clients for future growth. 

    9. Keyword Rankings

    Image credit: Klipfolio

    Keyword ranking is another valuable SEO KPI that can help you track your growth. Keywords are the words or phrases potential clients use when searching for something online

    Using the right keywords in your content will help increase your site’s traffic and improve your SEO efforts. Keyword optimization is fundamental for any good SEO strategy for ranking content, as it guarantees increased profits. 

    You can track your organic keyword rankings by using the best SEO tools. One such tool is the Google Search Console. This tool is fantastic because it allows marketers to monitor their website performance on Google without asking for money.

    Depending on your site’s niche, you can focus on tracking high-volume, product, branded, and your most important keywords (popularly known as money keywords in SEO circles). 

    The high-volume keywords usually have a higher potential since they drive more traffic to your site. However, these phrases tend to be more competitive and, as a result, are difficult to rank for.

    Product keywords will help you see how well your products or services rank in search engines. Branded keywords will help you see whether your brand is famous in the search engine result pages (SERPs).

    Your “money keywords” will show you where you rank in the SERPs on the most essential phrases that make you money. These might not be product or service keywords; sometimes, they are just directly related to your product keywords.

    10. Branded and non-branded traffic

    Image credit: insights.project-a.com

    Branded traffic is driven by users who have previously visited your site and are specifically searching for your brand using their keywords. For instance, they might search for your company name, product name, service name, or anything else from your brand.

    On the other hand, non-branded traffic is driven by unfamiliar visitors who have never heard about your brand before. These users search with keywords that do not directly relate to your company or brand, but they may end up on your site.

    Typically, the non-branded traffic you want to keep growing is the organic search traffic, which will eventually increase your branded traffic. You can evaluate which drives more traffic to your site by having branded and non-branded traffic.

     Tips on choosing SEO metrics and KPIs to track

    Image credit: seranking.com

    Several SEO KPIs can help you keep your SEO efforts focused and continually measure your marketing campaign performance. You only need to identify and pick the most critical metrics that align with your site.

    However, it is tricky to know what to measure and what not. So here are a few tips to help you stay on the right track:

    1. Choose quantifiable KPIs that will align with your brand’s goals. These will mostly be sales or leads. 
    2. Use leading indicators and industry statistics to show the direction the economy is headed. This will help you focus on the KPI metrics that move the needle.
    3. Avoid tracking things that can’t impact your business. If you can not change it, it is unnecessary to measure or track it.
    4. Create KPI time frames to see if you reach your set goals against set time.
    5. Find a direct connection between the SEO KPIs and your business goal since different niches or businesses require different KPIs.
    6. Choose an easily achievable SEO KPI while still finding the right balance between measuring and tracking everything.

    Image credit: smartinsights.com

  • 7 Crucial Metrics for Measuring Your  Content Marketing ROI

    7 Crucial Metrics for Measuring Your Content Marketing ROI

    Content marketing return on investment (ROI) accurately indicates whether your content marketing efforts are helping you meet your goals. For this reason, understanding how to measure content marketing ROI is crucial to your strategy. To evaluate your content marketing strategy, you need to understand what metrics go into the ROI.

    What Is Content Marketing Return on Investment (ROI)?

    Content marketing ROI is a percentage that shows the revenue you gain from marketing your content compared to what you spend. You’re doing something right if you earn more income than you spend. However, you must identify and fix the problem if you pay more than you earn.

    Why Do You Need to Measure Content Marketing ROI?

    Content marketing ROI helps you decide and improve your content marketing strategy. Once you learn how to measure your ROI, it can help you in the following ways:

    1) Justify Your Budget

    When setting a budget for your brand, you must understand where every cent goes. So do the executives. For your content marketing budget to be approved, you might need to prove its worth. You can do that easily if you’ve calculated your ROI. If your ROI exceeds your expenditure, you’ll have an easier time convincing executives to sign off on your budget.

    2) Inform Your Content Marketing Strategy

    Your content marketing ROI helps you gauge the effectiveness of your content marketing strategy. Measuring your ROI gives you a good idea of what you need to do to increase your leads, retention, SEO, and authority in the future. You can also compare your content marketing ROI from one duration to the content marketing ROI from another. This gives you a good idea of whether one content marketing strategy is more effective than another one.

    How to Measure Content Marketing ROI

    Content marketing aims to help you connect better with your audience. However, you cannot simply measure the outcome of your content marketing qualitatively. You also need to do quantitative measurements.

    You can measure your content marketing return on investment in many ways. However, a standard formula can help you quickly calculate your content marketing ROI.

    To arrive at a figure for your return on investment, do the following:

    • Calculate how much you spent on creating one piece of content.
    • Calculate how much you spent on distributing the same piece of content.
    • Calculate the total sales that particular piece of content generated.

    Once you have the above information, all you need to do is plug the figures into this equation:

    ((Return – Investment)/ Investment) x 100 = Content marketing ROI

    You know you’re doing something right if your spending is less than your earnings. However, if you’re losing money, you must return to the drawing board and fix your strategy.

    7 Metrics for Measuring Content Marketing ROI

    If you want a quantitative measure of your content marketing return on investment, focus on 7 key metrics. We’ve divided these metrics into categories depending on what aspect of your content marketing outcomes you want to analyze. We’ve also provided instructions on how to do some of these calculations in Google Analytics.

    Does Your Content Marketing Have High Earnings Potential?

    Measuring the earnings potential of your content can help you determine whether your content is good enough to bring in money from your leads. Is your content appealing enough to convince a lead to become a paying customer? To gauge the earnings potential of your content marketing, here’s what you need to measure:

    1) Lead Quality

    Are you getting a high enough number of leads to your website? More importantly, are they visiting the critical pages?

    It’s essential to go beyond ensuring you have leads—you’re getting high-quality leads. A high-quality lead has a high potential for converting into a paying customer.

    A Promising lead will find themselves on your landing page from wherever your content has brought them. Once they land, they will check your prices or consult a customer care representative for more information about your product.

    You can set up a goal in Google Analytics to measure the quality of your leads.

    How to find this in Google Analytics:

    Conversions >>> Goals >>> Funnel visualization

    2) Sales Figures

    How many of your initial leads turn into actual sales? Comparing your sales with your leads will give you a good idea of how effective your sales funnel is.

    How to find this in Google Analytics:

    If you’ve enabled the eCommerce feature on Google Analytics, here’s how to find your sales:

    Behavior >>> Site content >>> All pages

    Many of your leads won’t convert into paying customers immediately. On the contrary, they will probably look around and wander off, only to return to buy your product another day. Sometimes, you remain at the top of your mind even after someone leaves, and they find they can’t resist your offer.

    Alternatively, they might see another piece of content from your brand that reminds them of the products they left behind on your website. Either way, paying attention to how these leads eventually convert to sales is essential.

    You can find this information efficiently if you’ve set up Google Analytics.

    How to find this in Google Analytics:

    Conversions >>> Multi-channel funnels >>> Assisted conversions

    You can also compare this data between different periods. This comparison will help you gauge your most compelling content pieces.

    Is Your Content Marketing Generating Engagement?

    Producing quality content is not enough. You need to know that your content matters to people. If people interact with your content and navigate from one piece to another, you know they find it useful.

    measure your content marketing ROI

    On the other hand, if people leave as soon as they view one piece of content, you can conclude they’re bored. If so, you must revamp your content to address your audience’s needs.

    3) Web Traffic

    Measuring web traffic is an essential part of evaluating the success of your content marketing strategy. However, some brands celebrate high web traffic without realizing that web traffic can tell you very little about their content marketing.

    Since web traffic can become a distracting vanity metric, combining it with other metrics is essential. For example, you could combine web traffic with lead quality and sales. After all, just because someone visits your website doesn’t guarantee they will become customers.

    When measuring web traffic, looking at how it grows over time is essential. It’s equally important to focus on referral traffic. This will give you a good idea of which channels most of your leads come from. This information lets you see what part of your content marketing strategy drives the most traffic. You will also know what areas of your plan waste your time.

    You can measure your web traffic easily with a Google Analytics profile.

    How to find this in Google Analytics:

    Behavior >>> Site content >>> Landing pages

    This will show you where your web visitors land when visiting your website. Google Analytics lists these pages, ranging from the ones with the highest traffic to the ones with the lowest.

    If you want to study your referral traffic, you can also do this in Google Analytics.

    How to find this in Google Analytics:

    Secondary dimension >>> Acquisition >>> Source/Medium

    4) Website Engagement

    You should pair web traffic with onsite engagement to see how people engage with your content once they land on your website. After all, if people immediately bounce away, then you can’t count that as meaningful web traffic.

    Google Analytics tracks specific engagement metrics, such as the number of pages viewed per session, average session duration, and bounce rate.

    How to find this in Google Analytics:

    Audience >>> Overview

    You can also study the engagement on each page of your website. This can give you an idea of which pages are more valuable to your web visitors.

    How to find this in Google Analytics:

    Behavior >>> Site content >>> All pages

    5) Social Media Leads

    Paying attention to your social media leads will give you a good idea of which channels attract more people. This can help you refine your social media outreach strategy to appeal to more people across all your channels.

    How to find this in Google Analytics:

    Acquisition >>> Social >>> Network Referrals

    Beyond studying your social media leads, you can get an overview of how much revenue is coming from your social media.

    How to find this in Google Analytics:

    Acquisition >>> Social >>> Overview

    In addition, you should monitor engagement metrics directly on your social media channels. For example, track shares, retweets, and likes. More importantly, pay attention to the comments you receive on your posts. Engage with commenters to build positive relationships with your audience.

    If you get disappointing engagement metrics, you and your team must figure out what part of your content marketing strategy isn’t working.

    Does Your Content Rank High in SERPS?

    If your content ranks high in search engine results pages (SERPs), you’ve optimized it well. A high ranking also means that search engines and people find your content valuable. After all, Google ranks the results with high SEO, and those people often click on higher after a while.

    6) SEO Ranking

    You can do several things to measure your SEO ranking.

    7) Online and Offline Authority

    Most of the metrics we’ve already covered are directly related to the performance of your website. However, people’s perception of you as a thought leader can also give you an idea of how well your content is doing.

    Ultimately, you can’t assign a figure to your authority online and offline. Authority is more about the sentiment surrounding your brand. You have high authority if people rely on you for advice and quality products and services.

    To measure online authority, you need to engage in social listening. That way, you can answer the following questions.

    • Are you earning quality backlinks from other thought leaders in your industry?
    • Do you get positive media coverage from respected online media outlets?
    • Are people sharing your products and services with their online networks?
    • Are you getting positive reviews online?
    • Is your brand being mentioned in positive contexts?

    Similarly, to understand your offline authority, pay attention to how people interact with you offline.

    • Are thought leaders inviting you to industry events?
    • Do journalists, bloggers, and influencers contact you for quotes and insights?
    • Have you received invitations to collaborate with other brands?
    • Do you get positive media coverage from respected offline media outlets such as newspapers, magazines, and radio?

    Over to you:

    While all these metrics are essential, you don’t have to use them simultaneously. To get meaningful results, you shouldn’t use them all simultaneously.

    Instead, you should set a content marketing goal and pick the metric that will help you assess that goal. For example, for a particular month, you might aim to increase the engagement your content generates.

    In this case, evaluating your website engagement and social media leads for that month would make sense. Once you have these figures, you can compare them with the previous month’s results and see what needs to be changed.

    Measuring your content marketing ROI is essential to your content marketing strategy. After all, once you’ve implemented any plan, you must measure the results. With these 7 metrics, you will be well on your way to identifying which elements of your strategy are working and which need tweaking.

  • Developing a Time-Saving Blog Editorial Calendar

    Developing a Time-Saving Blog Editorial Calendar

    Whether you’re a solo blogger or part of a team, staying organized and focused is crucial to success as a content creator. A clear plan can make multiple tasks, deadlines, and creative ideas manageable. That’s where a blog editorial calendar comes in handy. It’s not just a tool; it’s your trusty sidekick in the ever-evolving world of content creation. Let’s dive into why a blog editorial calendar is essential and how you can tailor it to suit your needs.

    Why Is a Blog Editorial Calendar Important?

    Picture this: You wake up on a Monday morning, ready to tackle the week ahead. But as you sit at your desk, you realize you have no idea what to write about for your next blog post. Panic sets in, and before you know it, you’re spiraling down the rabbit hole of writer’s block.

    Does this scenario sound familiar? If so, you’re not alone. Many content creators need help with consistency and staying on track with their content schedules. That’s where a blog editorial calendar swoops in to save the day. How?

    1. Consistency Breeds Success

    Consistency is the backbone of any successful content strategy. Whether you aim to attract new readers, engage with your existing audience, or boost your SEO efforts, publishing regular, high-quality content is vital. A blog editorial calendar keeps you accountable and ensures you’re consistently delivering valuable content to your audience.

    2. The SEO Advantage

    Ah, SEO – the holy grail of digital marketing. It’s no secret that ranking high on search engine results pages (SERPs) can improve your website traffic. But here’s the catch: Google loves fresh, relevant, dated content. By planning your blog posts, you can strategically incorporate keywords, optimize your content, and increase your chances of ranking higher in search results.

    Read Also: How to Use SERP Analysis for Keyword Research and Content Creation

    3. Team Collaboration Made Easy

    If you’re part of a content team, you know how challenging it can be to keep everyone on the same page. With multiple projects in the works, communication can quickly become chaotic. A blog editorial calendar provides a centralized hub where team members can cooperate, share ideas, and track improvement, fostering a sense of unity and purpose.

    Read Also: What is a Creative Brief in Content Marketing?

    So, What Should I Include in My Editorial Calendar?

    It’s easy to think of your editorial calendar as a regular calendar. However, if you do this, you will be disappointed with the results.

    Certain non-negotiable elements exist for this calendar to work well for you and your team. Here are the sections you absolutely must include in your calendar for it to work:

    1) Blog Title

    Your blog title should be laid out to help focus your writing. In addition to highlighting the title for each post, it helps to have a brainstorming section where you and your team can add title ideas as they come to you.

    To develop the perfect blog title, start with a popular keyword. Each keyword you use can generate several blog titles.

    For example, let’s assume you own a flower shop and run a blog that teaches people how to care for their plants. The keyword “gardening tools” can branch out into many blog titles.

    As shown in the Google Trends search below, other related keywords also famous for this search include “gardening tools for kids” and “gardening tools names.”

    google trends

    So, if you start with “gardening tools” as a keyword, you can generate at least two other blog titles. However, your creativity should continue where Google Trends suggestions continue. You can also write a blog post about “gardening tools for the winter,” for instance. Or “easy-to-use gardening tools.”

    If the original keyword “gardening tools” is included in your blog title, your posts about gardening tools will likely be recommended by Google to people searching for “gardening tools.”

    As you can see, once you start with a focused and popular keyword, the possibilities for blog titles are endless. This is just one way having an editorial blog calendar should streamline your teamwork.

    With this brainstorming process, you can wave goodbye to the days when you used to wrack your brain for something to write about. As long as you have a permanent section of your calendar dedicated to brainstorming blog titles, you won’t run out of things to write about anymore.

    2) Keywords

    Speaking of keywords, each blog post in progress should have a corresponding keyword assigned to it. This helps the author refine their writing according to expectations.

    As with the blog titles, it’s also a good idea to have a running list of keywords to add to as you go. Seeing all the keywords you can use in one place helps you avoid writing one article after another with the same keyword, which can get very tiring—both for you and your audience.

    Read Also: Best Keyword Research Tools for SEO

    If you can see all your keywords in one place, you can offer your audience some variety by switching from one keyword to another as you write subsequent blog posts. You can also increase your domain authority over time by writing about various topics.

    3) Blog Post Status

    Your editorial calendar should also have a section for each blog title that indicates the status of that content piece. Is it pending approval, or has it already been approved? Is it under editing? Has it already been published?

    Read Also: The Best Time to Publish a Blog Post for Your Brand

    Highlighting this information will save time and help everyone on your team to be on the same page. If you can see the status of each piece of content, you no longer have to keep pinging your content creators to find out how far along they are in the process.

    4) Deadlines

    To optimize teamwork, you must include multiple deadlines for each piece of assigned work in your editorial calendar.

    You should have approval, editing, and publishing deadlines. Highlight the stages of your blog post before it’s live on your site.

    stages of a blog post

    While assigning these deadlines, you should remember that some tasks—like editing—require 2-3 days’ lead time. It would be unfair to write the first draft of your blog article and then expect your editor to have it done within an hour, especially if they’re multitasking.

    Be fair with your deadlines so that everyone on your team can do their best work.

    5) Links to Assets

    Once you’ve written and submitted the first draft of a blog article, it’s helpful to the rest of the team to share any links to media you used within the article. Dedicating a section of your calendar to this will help save time when the final article is being pulled together or repurposed later.

    6) Repurposing Opportunities

    Summarizing your blog post in a different format, such as an image or video, can help drive traffic to the original post.

    After you’ve published each blog post, it can be helpful for the other content creators on your team to brainstorm creative ways to reuse this content for your social media channels.

    Deciding how to repurpose each original piece of content can help you add some variety to your social media content calendar template later.

    7) Publishing Platforms

    So, your blog post has passed through the approval, writing, and editing stages and is ready for publishing.

    Where do you plan to publish it?

    Once you decide where each content will be published, indicating this on your calendar is essential.

    Getting the placement of your content right is crucial to ensuring your target audience sees it after you’ve worked so hard. For this reason, you don’t want any confusion about where to publish your blog post when it’s done and where it will be shared.

    Highlighting the platforms in your calendar will help the person in charge of publishing and sharing each piece of content put it in the right place at the right time.

    What Types of Blog Editorial Calendars Can I Use?

    A few options are available, from DIY content calendars to comprehensive project management solutions. Let’s review the types of calendars you can use with your team.

    a) Excel or Google Sheets

    Excel or Google Sheets are an excellent option for people who would like to be involved in creating and developing their calendars. Both allow you to get hands-on and create your calendar from scratch or download a pre-designed calendar and adapt it to fit your team’s needs.

    blog editorial calendar

    Image source: Vertex 42

    b) Kanban Board

    A Kanban board is a style of editorial calendar that offers users interactive cards that can be dragged to different sections as required. This is an ideal solution for a team of highly visual people. Trello and Asana are good examples of this.

    Kanban board for blog editorial calendar

    Image source: Book Bumblings

    c) Project Management Tools

    Sometimes, you should skip designing your calendar and use a comprehensive project management tool to manage your team’s workflow. Editorial calendars help everyone see what stage each content piece is at, the assigned teams, and a priority list of upcoming content.

    Once you’ve updated the calendar, it is easy to transition to the writing process using the powerful content editor built in. A project management solution can help you manage all the content for your blogs under one roof.

    Putting It All Together

    A blog editorial calendar is more than just a tool – it’s a roadmap to success. By incorporating the human element into your content planning process, you can stay organized, inspired, and focused on creating content that resonates with your audience. So grab your calendar, gather your team, and start crafting your next masterpiece. Your readers are waiting.

    Remember, it’s not about quantity; it’s about quality. So take your time, unleash your creativity, and let your voice shine in every blog post you create. Happy blogging!

  • Keyword Optimization Guide For SEO Beginners

    Keyword Optimization Guide For SEO Beginners

    The main element of your search engine optimization / SEO strategy is to drive more qualified leads to your site by using keywords in your Content. Excellent keyword research reveals the most common terms, phrases, and questions your users and customers search for.

    Read on to learn about keyword optimization, its benefits, and how to use it for long-term website rankings and traffic.

    What Is Keyword Optimization?

    Keyword optimization effectively uses the best keywords to improve visibility in search engines, drive traffic to your site, and increase its organic ranking.

    Good keyword optimization involves researching, analyzing, and selecting the keywords you will use for each page on your Site.

    In simpler terms, keyword optimization helps search engines better understand your Site, making your pages more accessible for people searching for those key phrases.

    Benefits of Keyword Optimization

    Image credit:shoutmeloud.com

    Keyword optimization is significant in digital marketing, from content strategy to how your site content is organized. It is among the most critical aspects of search engine optimization and pay-per-click/ PPC.

    Here are the specific benefits of keyword optimization:

    1. Increases Organic Discovery: Keyword optimization will help deliver your site pages to a relevant audience through pertinent search queries.
    2. Measure and drive potential traffic flow to your Site: Optimization helps you measure and understand your potential online market size.
    3. Write captivating Content. Optimized keywords in your website’s Content let you instantly connect with potential customers and address their needs.
    4. Understand client behavior: By analyzing the best keywords, you get an idea of what your clients need and how to service those needs.
    5.  Credibility and Trust: As a result of ranking first for a specific keyword, your credibility is endorsed, helping clients trust you more 

    How Do You Optimize Keywords?

    Image credit:.business2community.com

    1. Find the Right Keywords for Optimization

    Keyword optimization begins with finding keywords and phrases associated with your Site, product, or service. 

    However, figuring out which words to use is a daunting task. 

    Therefore, using the best keyword optimization tools will help you analyze the popularity of the keywords and improve your SEO.

    And if you want a faster path without doing everything manually, local business SEO services can help you build a keyword plan, map it to pages, and optimize content properly.

    Several practical keyword optimization and SEO analytics tools will help you choose the right keywords.

    Some that offer free trials include Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, Keyword Hero, Jaaxy, and Soovle. 

    Ideally, it would be best if you aimed to find keywords with high search volumes but lower competition. This way, your Content will easily rank high on Google’s search result pages.

    2. Map The Keywords to Each Page on your Site

    Image credit: raventools.com

    Now that you have the relevant keywords you will be working with, the next step is mapping them to your website. This is assigning keywords to specific pages on your Site based on keyword research to avoid duplicating keywords on multiple pages.

    It would be best to focus on one primary keyword per page while including at least two or three SEO keyword variations. Each page should focus on a single topic and include the most essential SEO keywords. 

    3. Check Your Current On-Page SEO and Do Keyword Optimization

    You will audit your current on-page SEO strategy to see if your Site has existing Content.

    However, if you are creating new Content, ensure it is optimized.

    Here are things to look for during content optimization:

    a. Title Tags

     The title tags will show what your page is about. You need to ensure they contain the right length of 56 to 60 characters and are unique.

    Image credit: modernworldconsulting.com

    b. Header Tags

     Your page should have appropriately formatted headings and subheadings in HTML instead of bold headers.

    Image credit: powrsurg.com

    c. Meta Descriptions

    This short description is usually below your web page in search results. It should be 100 to 155 characters and clearly describe your page.

    Image credit: delante.co

    d. URL Structure

     The URL should be short and simple and include your primary keyword.

    e. Images

    You should have more than one image on the page. Ensure the image has the image file names for each keyword and alt text.

    f. Content

    Ensure that your content is optimized by using the main and a few secondary keywords within the first 100 words on your page. Content should be at least 300 words.

    Image credit: neilpatel.com

    g. Internal Links

    If you have links to other Content, ensure those links still work. 

    Image credit: wearekemb.com

    4. Submit your Content to Google Search Console

    Image credit: ahrefs.com

     Submitting your Content to Google Search Console will help index your pages on the search engine results page (SERPs). It will also potentially speed up the discovery process.

    5. Track Your Keyword Rankings

    Image credit: x.dpstatic.com

    After your Content is indexed and ranked in Google, you need to track and see how those keywords rank. 

    You should give it at least 2 months for new Content before making any keyword search optimization changes.

    You can track rankings daily for 14 days before changing existing Content.

    Featured Image credit: page.one

  • 50 Content Marketing Statistics to Drive Your Brand (2026)

    50 Content Marketing Statistics to Drive Your Brand (2026)

    Exploring content marketing stats can give you insights into trends that could boost your brand. It’s like peeking into the playbook of successful brands to shape your winning content strategy.

    Now, it’s crucial to remember that what worked wonders for others might not be a guaranteed success for you. Think of these stats as friendly advice for your brand. You’ll need to tweak and test them to see what clicks for you.

    Imagine the scene: your competitors are riding the wave of influential content marketing trends, and you don’t want to be left in their dust. Keeping an eye on what brands in your circle are up to can give you a fighting chance in the race for attention.

    But here’s the exciting part – by smartly embracing these content marketing trends, you won’t just keep up; you might even carve out your spotlight in the crowd. It’s about finding the right groove for your brand and making it shine.

    Benefits of Understanding Content Marketing Statistics:

    Aside from growing your brand and keeping up with the competition, content marketing statistics can help in the following ways:

    1. Establishing Your Brand as a Thought Leader

    You retain your place in the market by keeping up with content marketing statistics. Beyond that, keeping up with these trends helps you establish a reputation for your brand as a trusted authority. Moreover, once potential customers think of your brand as a trusted authority, they are more likely to become paying customers.

    2. Helping You Perfect Your Craft

    If you can analyze content marketing statistics successfully, you will become a better marketer. Improving your skills will make you a more marketable asset to brands needing content marketing help.

    3. Winning More Customers

    Content marketing aims to share valuable information with your target audience to build genuine, long-term connections with them. In other words, if you keep doing your right, you’ll win more customers for your brand.

    Now that you know how keeping up with content marketing statistics can help your brand, let’s get into the actual statistics for 2026.

    2026 Content Marketing Statistics to Drive Your Brand

    Rather than present all the content marketing statistics in one place, we’ve decided to categorize them for you as follows:

    Content Marketing Strategies

    These content marketing statistics indicate what content creators believe and are doing in 2026.

    1) Content marketing costs 62% less than other outbound marketing tactics but generates 3x as many leads.

    What you can do: Traditional advertisements are great but intrusive. If you want to build a genuine connection with your target audience, give them valuable information in a format they’ll enjoy. You can do this by investing in different forms of content marketing.

    In summary, content marketing will help you reduce your marketing budget and win more clients for your brand.

    2) 78% of CMOs say that custom content is the future of successful content marketing.

    What you can do: While content marketing is designed to speak to both potential and existing customers, custom content is designed to retain your existing customers. This content can include blog posts, social media posts, email newsletters, white papers, industry reports, videos, webinars, and more.

    In summary, Use custom content to share valuable, informative content with existing customers. This will keep them engaged with your brand and boost brand loyalty.

    3) Brands are using Instagram stories more than ever before.

    You can use Instagram stories to share valuable information and stay competitive. For example, you could use this platform to share tips and tricks related to your products. Alternatively, you could give your followers a sneak peek into what goes on behind the scenes. Showing your team in action could humanize your brand and generate a connection with your target audience.

    In summary: Use Instagram stories to share informational content or show the faces behind your brand.

    4) Content is shared on weekdays and most often on Tuesdays.

    What you can do: Content is shared chiefly on weekdays because this is when people spend the most time online. If you want your content to perform well online, you must share it when people look. According to Hootsuite, here are the best times to share your content on social media platforms.

    Best times to post content on social media

    In summary: Post your social media content when it matters most.

    5) 72% of marketers believe content marketing increases engagement (CMI).

    What you can do: To boost engagement with your target audience, you must amp up your content marketing efforts. However, it’s not enough to keep churning content out nonstop. For your content marketing efforts to bear any fruit, you need to keep checking in with your audience to see what kind of content they enjoy from you.

    In summary, Ask your audience for feedback on the kind of content they enjoy so that you can produce more of this content.

    6) Social media content is the #1 type of content used by B2C and B2B marketers.

    What you can do: If you want to go beyond keeping up with your competitors to stay ahead of the pack, social media content is something you should focus on. Even so, when developing a social media outreach strategy, you should determine what content works for each platform.

    In summary, determine which platforms your audience spends the most time on and what content works best for them.

    7) 60% of marketers produce at least one piece of content daily.

    What you can do: To stay competitive, you should keep up with these marketers by producing daily content. There is an endless variety—from blog posts to infographics, eBooks, white papers, social media posts, and more—so this shouldn’t be too difficult.

    In summary: Produce at least one piece of content daily to break through the noise and stay on the mind.

    8) 77% of brands have a content marketing strategy (SEMrush).

    What you can do: To stay competitive, you should also have a content marketing strategy that works for your brand. Track your performance to determine what works and what needs tweaking.

    In summary, Develop a content marketing strategy and revise it as often as necessary to be effective.

    9) 96% of the best content marketers say content marketing has helped them build trust and credibility with their audience (Content Marketing Institute).

    What you can do: As a content marketer, you always want to build trust and credibility with your audience. For this reason, you should always aspire to produce valuable content that your audience will appreciate.

    In summary: Establish a track record of producing valuable content people appreciate.

    10) 90% of these content marketers have succeeded by focusing on the audience’s need for information (Content Marketing Institute).

    What you can do: To determine what information your audience needs, you can run a survey or ask them to share feedback. Once you know what they need, you should produce more.

    In summary: Ask your audience what they need and produce more.

    11) 94% of content marketers changed their strategy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

    What you can do: These content marketers changed their strategy in response to evolving needs. To stay relevant during this uncertain time, you should connect with your target audience and learn how their needs have changed. Only then will you be able to satisfy these needs?

    In summary: Connect with your target audience, find out how their needs have changed, and produce content that satisfies these needs.

    12) 73% of top content marketers nurture their audiences.

    What you can do: You need to not only take time to understand the sales cycle but also develop the right kind of content for each stage of the cycle. By doing this, you’ll connect with each member of their audience where they are and guide them through the buyer journey.

    In summary: Guide your leads through the sales cycle with the right content to convert them into paying customers.

    13) 81% of content marketers are committed to building trust in 2026.

    What you can do: Be open and honest in your content. Failure to do so will violate your audience’s trust. Don’t give your audience any reason to distrust you unless you want your audience to run to your competition.

    In summary, Always be honest with your content.

    14) 68% of content marketers are determined to boost loyalty among current customers in 2026.

    What you can do: As other brands seek to boost client loyalty, so should you. After all, the last thing you want is to lose clients who are unsure about your brand to the competition. Find out what your clients value and give it to them.

    In summary: Take steps to boost brand loyalty so you don’t lose clients to your competition.

    15) Web traffic and total sales are the top two most common measures of content marketing success.

    What you can do: Use your web traffic and sales figures to determine how well your content marketing is going. While measuring sales is straightforward, a few tools are designed to help content creators measure web traffic. In addition to web traffic, you can also keep track of other metrics such as page load time, conversion rate, bounce rate, and more.

    In summary, track your sales and web traffic to see how well your content marketing is going.

    16) Marketers create content for multiple audience segments at once – usually 3 segments.

    You can Segment your audience according to stages in the buyer journey or interests. Create content designed to fulfill the needs of each segment and share this content consistently to create a connection with your target audience.

    In summary: Segment your audience and design content to fulfill the needs of each segment.

    17) 47% of people surveyed in 2026 spent more than $10k on annual content marketing.

    What you can do: This is an increase of 9% from 2019. To remain competitive, consider boosting your annual content marketing budget. While your budget doesn’t necessarily have to match the $10k, it should align with your content marketing goals.

    In summary: Establish a budget to meet your content marketing goals.

    Online Behavior

    These content marketing statistics highlight how your target audience spends their time online and what they believe about brands that use content marketing. This information will help you better understand how to reach these people.

    18) The use of mobile devices rose dramatically in 2020.

    What you can do: Since the start of the pandemic, your target audience has been spending more time on their mobile devices. For this reason, it’s crucial to ensure your content is compatible across different devices. Moreover, you need to optimize your content for various social media apps.

    AppAnnie - the use of mobile devices 2020

    According to App Annie, here are the most popular apps from 2020.

    1. TikTok
    2. Facebook
    3. WhatsApp Messenger
    4. Instagram
    5. Facebook Messenger

    Ensure your content works across devices and other apps to reach your target audience.

    19) 81% of American adults go online daily. (Pew Research)

    What you can do: Do you want to put your brand in front of your target audience? For this reason, take time to find out which specific platforms your target audience hangs out on. Once you know that, you have a higher chance of connecting with them.

    In summary: Adapt your content to the different platforms where your target audience hangs out so that you can initiate a conversation with them.

    20) Businesses are the most trusted source of information.

    What you can do: This is undoubtedly good news for your brand. However, the last thing you want to do is take it for granted. Always be open and honest in the brand story you craft with your content. Remember that while people trust businesses as valuable sources of information, it’s easy to lose this trust. All it takes is one mistake or lie; you could lose the confidence you’ve worked so hard to build.

    In summary: Be open and honest with your target audience to retain their trust.

    21) 90% of customers feel they benefit from content marketing.

    What you can do: We know your customers feel they benefit from your content marketing, but do we know why? To answer that question, you can create a survey to determine what content your target audience enjoys. With this information, you can produce more high-performing content.

    In summary, Customers are more likely to buy from brands with content. Find out the kind of content your audience enjoys most so that you can produce more of it. This way, you can win more customers.

    Blogging

    These content marketing statistics refer to what bloggers do and how their target audiences relate to their content. This information will help your blog stand out if you run a blog.

    22) Articles with images get shared more.

    What you can do: Add one or more images to your blog posts to create content that your readers will enjoy. Once you’ve provided them with informational and engaging content, they’ll happily share it with family and friends.

    In summary: Use appealing and engaging images to appeal to your readers and encourage them to share.

    23) Approximately 80% of internet users are loyal readers of some blog.

    What you can do: Given that so many people are reading blogs faithfully, you should invest in quality, informative content for your blog. Learn the best practices for running a successful blog, including when is the best time to post a new blog article.

    In summary, if you can set up and maintain a quality blog, you can attract some of these loyal readers.

    24) Blog titles with 6-13 words get the most clicks.

    What you can do: If you run a blog, keep your titles within this word count. You can also review old articles and adjust the titles accordingly.

    In summary: Maintain a word count of 6-13 words for your blog titles.

    25) Longer content gets shared more (SEMrush).

    What you can do: If you write blog posts, keep your content longer to be more shareable. What is the recommended length for your blog posts?

    In summary: Find out the recommended length for your blog posts to be shareable.

    26) The recommended blog post length is at least 1269 words.

    What you can do: Since this is the recommended length for a blog post, keep your posts to this minimum length.

    In summary: Stick to 1269 words at least.

    27) Longform content of 3,000+ words gets 3x more traffic, 4x more shares, and 3.5x more backlinks than other blog content.

    What you can do: If you want your content to generate a lot of engagement and a high number of backlinks, then you should aim for at least 3,000 words per article. Given that this is much easier said than done, you can choose a few cornerstone articles and make them longer than the average.

    In summary, 1 out of every 3 articles should be at least 3,000 words long.

    28) Listicles are shared 2x more than other blog article formats.

    What you can do: To develop shareable content, include some listicles in your blog. For example, a title such as “50 ways to create engaging content” is much more attractive than “How to create engaging content.”

    In summary: Develop some educational listicles as part of your blog content.

    29) 51% of companies update old blog articles to boost traffic (SEMrush).

    What you can do: Do you want to produce new content without the energy or time to write a new blog post from scratch? You can revisit old blog posts that have performed well in the past, update them, and share them again.

    In summary, Updating well-performing blog posts will help you reach a wider audience and renew interest in your blog.

    30) 71% of B2B consumers visit an organization’s blog at some point in the buyer’s journey.

    What you can do: While you’re not supposed to market your product directly through your blog, inserting a few mentions about your product can be helpful. Keep your blog articles informative and engaging, but dedicate 1-3 paragraphs to discussing your product.

    In summary, Run an informative blog, but use 1-3 paragraphs of each article to discuss your product briefly.

    31) 86% of companies produce more blog content than other content (SEMrush).

    What you can do: To stay competitive, you might want to invest time and energy in growing your blog. Moreover, you should find out what to do to make it competitive.

    In summary: Invest in your blog and make it competitive.

    SEO

    These content marketing statistics highlight what content creators like you are doing to boost their content’s online visibility.

    32) 95% of people only pay attention to the first page of search results.

    What you can do: Optimize your content to stand out in Google search results pages (SERPs). Pay attention to SEO-boosting factors, such as using high-ranking keywords and linking to sites with high domain authority scores. If you write marketing blog posts, using an editor that gives you both a readability and SEO score as you write is essential.

    In summary: Optimize your content for a high SEO score, and your brand ranks high on search engines.

    33) Search is the number one source of blog traffic across industries (SEMrush).

    What you can do: Optimize your blog posts for SEO when you write them. Create your content in an editor that rates readability and SEO; you can use a blog editorial calendar. If you can do that, your blog will rank relatively high in relevant search results across different search engines.

    In summary, Consider your SEO score as you write your blog content.

    34) Half SERP clicks to reach the top 3 results (Ignite Visibility).

    What you can do: When optimizing your content for SEO, you should target these top 3 results. Adopting some proven blog SEO strategies can give your blog a much-needed boost.

    In summary: Focus on SEO when you’re writing blog articles.

    Visual Content Marketing

    If you want to use visual content to get an edge over your competitors, then this is what you need to know.

    35) Infographics are the #1 type of content to get shared.

    What you can do: Summarizing your blog posts is an easy way to generate infographics. Once you’ve developed a summary, you can turn it into an infographic by adding images to your written summary. Repurposing your blog content in this way will ensure you always have information to build another infographic.

    In summary: Repurpose your blog content by turning it into infographics, and then share these on social media.

    Video Marketing

    Are you curious about how to use video to promote your brand? With these content marketing statistics, you’ll be well on your way to producing outstanding videos.

    36) 86% of video marketers say video has increased website traffic.

    What you can do: To boost your web traffic, you can design engaging and educational videos and post these on your social media. Include calls to action for people to visit your website for more advice, tips and tricks, or insight.

    In summary, You can turn your blog posts into short videos. However, remember the recommended length of time for your social media videos.

    37) 54% of consumers would like to see more video content.

    What you can do: This is easy—you can produce more videos related to your brand and products! However, learning how to create engaging videos that your audience will remember would be best.

    In summary, create more memorable videos related to your brand and the products you sell to remain at the top of your target audience’s mind.

    38) 94% of video marketers say video has helped boost user understanding of their product.

    What to do: You can help your clients by developing instructional videos that show them how to use your product. To create a compelling video, review the most common questions you receive from your current clients. Create videos that address a client’s needs when contemplating buying your product and then share the rest when they pay.

    In summary: Create instructional videos and share them with clients during the buyer journey. 

    39) 17% of marketers plan to add videos to their marketing strategy.

    What to do: Once you’ve started producing videos for your brand, perfect them to stay ahead of your competition. You can improve your video content by asking your audience for feedback.

    In summary: Ask your audience for feedback and use this feedback to improve your videos.

    40) Video has become the most common form of content, overtaking infographics and blogs.

    What you can do: Since more and more brands are producing videos, you need to pay attention to what your competitors are doing. It’s essential to note what they do well and what they’re struggling with. With this information, you can create videos that stand out from the competition.

    In summary: Look at what your competitors are doing and aim to do it better.

    41) 96% of people will watch an explainer video to learn more about your product.

    You can create a few product explainer videos to explain how your product works. Sharing this content with your leads will help convert them into paying clients more efficiently. Moreover, if clients know they can rely on you to teach them how to use a complex product, they’re less likely to check out your competition.

    In summary: Produce explainer videos so potential clients feel more confident about using your product.

    42) By 2022, videos will occupy 82% of all internet content.

    What you can do: To stand out from the crowd, you need to figure out how to go beyond creating good videos to create exceptional videos. Ask your audience for feedback on the kind of videos they enjoy and track their engagement with videos you’ve produced in the past.

    In summary: Create exceptional videos to stand out from the crowd.

    43) Promotional videos and brand storytelling videos are the most common types of video.

    What you can do: Design promotional videos, invest in brand storytelling, and find out how to give your content that extra kick. Once you discover what kind of unique content you can create, you’ll be easier to stand out from your competition.

    In summary: Invest in promotional videos and brand storytelling, but find elements to make your content stand out.

    Podcasts

    Podcasts are a great way to promote your brand while educating your audience. If you’re considering launching a podcast, these content marketing statistics will help.

    44) 90 million Americans listen to podcasts at least once a month.

    What you can do: Repurposing some of your blog content as podcast episodes could help you grow your audience. Once you’ve set up your podcast, you should promote it widely on the platforms where your audience spends most of their time.

    In summary: Repurpose your content as quality and informative podcast episodes, and promote these episodes where your audience hangs out.

    45) 45% of worldwide internet users aged 25-34 listen to podcasts regularly.

    What you can do: If your target audience is in the 25-34 age range, a podcast is an excellent way to reach them. Since podcasts promote your brand while educating your audience, they can be an effective marketing tool.

    Studying successful learning Podcasts can provide valuable insights into content formats, episode structures, and engagement strategies that resonate with audiences seeking educational value alongside entertainment.

    Even so, you might want to survey the content people enjoy in their podcasts. This information will guide you as you develop a content calendar.

    In summary: Launch an engaging podcast to connect with people in this age range.

    46) In the US, 39% of men and 36% of women listen to podcasts monthly (Edison Research, 2020).

    What you can do: If you want to reach these demographics, one way to do it is to launch a podcast. Find out the popular podcasts among these segments and offer them similar content.

    In summary, Find out what kind of podcast content is popular among this demographic and offer them something similar.

    Email Marketing

    A great email marketing campaign can help you stay connected to your target audience throughout the buyer journey. These content marketing statistics can help you create an effective email marketing strategy.

    47) Email marketing is the top content marketing strategy for nurturing audiences.

    What you can do: Use a good email marketing strategy to connect with your leads and guide them through the sales funnel. If you keep in touch with potential customers throughout the buyer journey, they might eventually become paying customers.

    In summary: Use email marketing to keep in touch with potential customers and maintain contact even after they become paying customers.

    48) Marketers who use segmented email campaigns receive as much as a 760% increase in revenue.

    What you can do: Segment your audience so that you send everyone on your mailing list content that is relevant to them. With a segmented email campaign, you can meet each of these people where they are and connect with them memorably and effectively.

    In summary: Segment your audience and send different content to each segment according to their needs.

    Webinars

    Webinars can help you establish your brand as a thought leader while promoting your products. Here are some helpful content marketing statistics to help with your webinars.

    49) Email drives 57% of webinar registrations.

    What you can do: Emailing potential attendees might boost your registrations if you run a webinar. To do this effectively, you can list previous webinar attendees and update it regularly. Alternatively, you can collect these email addresses via a landing page on your website.

    In summary: Email previous webinar attendees and website visitors to promote your current webinar.

    50) 59% of webinar attendees register the week before the webinar, and 17% register on the webinar day.

    What you can do: Given that potential webinar attendees will pay more attention the week before your webinar, you can boost your advertising efforts for this week’s webinar. Additionally, it would be best to keep advertising until the actual day of the webinar to get some last-minute registrations.

    In summary: Boost advertising for your webinar in the week before your webinar.

    Over to You Now:

    Content marketing statistics are usually an accurate indication of what your competitors are doing. Therefore, by studying these statistics, you can get a good idea of what works, what doesn’t, and what’ll give you an edge over your competitors.

  • 50 Content Marketing Books for 2025

    50 Content Marketing Books for 2025

    As you keep your skills sharp and stay competitive with the right content marketing books, sometimes, picking the right book from hundreds of books can be challenging. Which books will give you the right skills to boost your brand? Which books will cater to your industry?

    content marketing books

    Given the number of books, we’ve curated a list of the top 50 content marketing books for you to read in 2025. We know you’re always busy creating content, so you might not have time to read all 50. To simplify your life, we’ve separated these into 10 books and 40 that you can read to supplement the first 10.

    Choosing the best books for your specific role will be challenging even with this list. For this reason, we’ve included a summary of each book, so you know what each has to offer.

    Once you’ve brushed up on your skills with these content marketing books, give your content creation process a boost as well by signing up for Kontely. With Kontely, you and your team can create content faster and publish it to several channels simultaneously – all from one place. Join Kontely today and streamline your content workflow to collaborate while producing and publishing content faster for your clients.

    10 Content Marketing Books That You Absolutely Must Read

    The following 10 content marketing books have been chosen specifically because they are the most highly acclaimed books of the lot. The best content marketers write them and include revolutionary advice to boost your content marketing efforts.

    1) Epic Content Marketing: How to Tell a Different Story, Break Through the Clutter, and Win More Customers by Marketing Less

    Author: Joe Pulizzi

    Epic Content Marketing - Joe PulizziIn this book, Joe Pulizzi discusses creating content that will stand out in a digital space ruled by information overload and clutter. As one of the world’s leading content marketers, Pulizzi has developed a collection of tricks for capturing the attention of your target audience and inspiring action.

    Why You Should Read It:

    Why is this book #1 on our list of content marketing books? Today, people are wary of advertisements that promise the sun and the moon. They also don’t like being told what to do.

    Because of this, it’s essential to connect with your target audience meaningfully. You need to be able to drive these people to a particular action in a way that inspires them rather than manipulates them into taking it.

    If you want to build genuine connections with your customers, Epic Content Marketing is your book. In this book, Pulizzi guides you through what it takes to create content that entertains your audiences. Moreover, he includes case studies of how John Deere, LEGO, Coca-Cola, and other well-known brands have built outstanding content marketing campaigns.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of Epic Content Marketing here.

    2) They Ask, You Answer: A Revolutionary Approach to Inbound Sales, Content Marketing, and Today’s Digital Customer

    Author: Marcus Sheridan

    They Ask You Answer - Marcus Sheridan

    In They Ask You Answer, Marcus Sheridan offers an ingenious approach to content marketing. Rather than focusing on selling to people, Sheridan believes we should answer their questions. As someone who transformed himself from a struggling entrepreneur to an inbound marketing guru, he knows about building client trust.

    Why You Should Read It:

    This book features in our top 10 content marketing books for good reason. Gone are the days when traditional ads, keyword stuffing, and link building were all you needed to reach your target audience. If these are the only tactics you rely on, your strategy will likely fall flat. Since so many people distrust traditional marketing these days, Sheridan’s book focuses on showing you how to create quality content that your target audience wants so that you can build trust with potential clients.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of They Ask, You Answer here.

    3) Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content

    Author: Ann Handley

    Everybody Writes Ann Handley

    Ann Handley uses Everybody Writes with wit and insight to teach her readers how to create quality content that people will want to read. According to Handley, your words matter whether you build your brand website, interact with clients on social media, or draft marketing copy.

    Why You Should Read It:

    Out of all our content marketing books, this is the best one to help you write better. Since we’re all writers, there’s a lot we can learn from Handley. Words have immense power – they can differentiate between retaining customers and sending them running in the opposite direction.

    Handley’s book is an enjoyable six-part course on creating content that will leave your readers wanting more. It’s divided into 1) How to Write Better, 2) Writing Rules, 3) Story Rules, 4) Publishing Rules, and 5) Things Marketers Write, and includes a list of content tools to help you produce outstanding content.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of Everybody Writes here.

    4) What to Post: How to Create Engaging Social Media Content that Builds Your Brand and Gets Results

    Author: Chelsea Peitz

    What to Post - Chelsea Peitz

    If you’re used to abandoning marketing guides halfway through, Chelsea Peitz’s book will surprise you with advice you can refer to repeatedly. Peitz covers everything you need to market your real estate business, from building a memorable brand to creating relatable content and boosting your reach.

    Why You Should Read It:

    What to Post is on our list of content marketing books because it will help you boost your social media presence. This book is for you if you don’t know what to post on social media to increase engagement and make genuine connections with your audience.

    Filled with many relatable examples and actionable tips, What to Post will transform you from a social media novice to a social media guru. Peitz even includes some blank pages where she guides you through brainstorming sessions. While it’s written for real estate marketers, the tips in this book can be applied to any industry.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of What to Post here.

    5) The Practice: Shipping Creative Work

    Author: Seth Godin

    The Practice Seth Godin

    The Practice is the key to discovering the most creative version of yourself. In this book, Seth Godin busts several myths about creativity and productivity and consistently shows how to create quality content.

    Why You Should Read It:

    Seth Godin’s books will appear a few times on this list of content marketing books, and with good reason. As a content creator himself, Godin can teach us a lot about producing content that turns heads and leaves a lasting impression. If you often battle writer’s block or perfectionism, then this is just what you need to help you push through those moments when you feel uninspired.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of The Practice here.

    6) Become a Content Brand: Build a Team, Own your Audience, and Create Video your Customers will Love

    Author: Chris Carter

    Become a Content Brand

    Chris Carter has spent years helping 180 brands with content creation and building a network of over 150,000 creators, filmmakers, editors, and marketers worldwide. This experience has made him realize the growing demand for video and that no single brand can keep up with it. He wrote this book to help brands produce quality videos that can make a splash.

    Why You Should Read It:

    Out of all our content marketing books, this is the only one focusing specifically on videos. These days, we’re drowning in new content from brands every day. Instead of struggling with this constant flood of content, Carter shows you how to create quality content that will stand out from your competition. Do you want to learn how to create genuinely memorable videos? Then this is the book for you.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of Become a Content Brand here.

    7) Content that Converts: How to Create a Profitable and Predictable B2B Content Marketing Strategy

    Author: Laura Hanly

    Content that Converts Laura Hanly

    Laura Hanly taps into her experience to show people how to use content marketing to generate a predictable stream of qualified leads. Her methods have yielded positive results and are easily replicable by any brand.

    Why You Should Read It:

    Do you need help attracting more leads to your brand and converting these leads into paying customers? Then it’s good that Content that Converts is on our list of content marketing books because this is the book for you.

    Hanly covers everything from establishing the right target audience to creating quality content to establish you as a thought leader in your industry. Rather than recycling tips from other content marketing gurus, Hanly fills her book with strategies that have worked for her campaigns.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of the Content that Converts here.

    8) Content: The Atomic Particle of Marketing

    Author: Rebecca Lieb

    Content: The Atomic Particle of Marketing - Rebecca Lieb

    Inspired by years of qualitative research and interviews with leading brands, Rebecca Lieb’s book is written to help you produce engaging social media content. Written by an industry thought leader, the content covered in this book should help anyone build a comprehensive content marketing strategy.

    Why You Should Read It:

    Lieb’s book is just what you need to create an integrated marketing strategy. This comprehensive book is why it’s in our top 10 content marketing books. By backing her ideas up with examples, graphs, and case studies, Lieb has created a foolproof guide to building a content-centric brand. To create a memorable brand that thrives on quality content, you must get a copy of this book ASAP.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of Content: The Atomic Particle of Marketing here.

    9) The Lead Machine: The Small Business Guide to Digital Marketing

    Author: Rich Brooks

    The Lead Machine Rich Brooks

    In this book, Rich Brooks shares his digital marketing secrets. Brooks has tips for digital marketers of every level, from teaching brands how to rank higher on Google to showing content creators how to generate higher engagement on social media.

    Why You Should Read It:

    If you own a small to medium-sized business and are keen on it and generating leads, this book will help you meet those challenges head-on. With a combination of humor and insightful advice, Brooks enables you to build a website, attract the right people, and convert these leads into sales.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of The Lead Machine here.

    10) Superfans: The Easy Way to Stand Out, Grow Your Tribe, and Build a Successful Business

    Author: Pat Flynn

    superfans

    In a world where people constantly chase likes and followers, Pat Flynn uses this book to remind us that a small, engaged audience is better than a sizeable, apathetic audience. His book is a series of tips and tricks to help you engage with your audience and turn them into superfans.

    Why You Should Read It:

    This book scored a place in our top 10 content marketing books because it will help you dramatically transform your social media strategy. Your regular audience members will like your social media pages and maybe even buy a product or two here and there.

    Even so, the audience members who feel seen and heard will genuinely become your brand ambassadors. These people will tell their friends and family about you and share positive reviews online. They will also send you encouraging messages during a low-peak season and share your social media posts with their online network. We know you want to turn your target audience into superfans (who wouldn’t?), so this one is definitely for you.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of Superfans here.

    As we’ve already said, our 10 most highly recommended content marketing books are above. If you don’t have time to read all 50 books on our list, you should at least read these 10.

    More Content Marketing Books for Your Bookshelf:

    In addition to the 10 content marketing books you must read, here are more to supplement your reading.

    11) Clout: The Art and Science of Influential Web Content

    Author: Coleen Jones

    Clout - Coleen Jones

    In this book, Coleen Jones demonstrates how to create content that converts using 8 principles of influence. According to Jones, using fancy technology and designing pretty content is insufficient to convert your leads into sales.

    Why You Should Read It:

    As a content creator, it is easy to focus on producing aesthetically pleasing content and using the newest technology to wow your audience.

    However, Jones forces us to pause and understand why content is crucial to consumers and how to create content that meets their needs. This book will help you make the content your audience craves, thus creating a genuine connection with them.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of Clout here.

    12) F*ck Content Marketing: Focus on Content Experience to Drive Demand, Revenue & Relationships

    Author: Randy Frisch

    F#ck Content Marketing - Randy Frisch

    Randy Frisch believes the most successful brands worldwide don’t simply do content marketing. Instead, they focus on creating content experiences—imagine the immersive scrolling experience created by Netflix, Spotify, and Instagram.

    Why You Should Read It:

    Do you want your consumers to feel like you’re speaking directly to them in all your content marketing? Do you want them to forget where reality ends and your marketing begins?

    If so, this is the book for you. Frisch designed it to teach content marketers how to use the Content Experience Framework to create personalized content that drives product demand and builds client relationships.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of F#ck Content Marketing here.

    13) Master Content Strategy: How to Maximize your Reach & Boost your Bottom Line Every Time you Hit Publish

    Author: Pamela Wilson

    Master Content Strategy - Pamela Wilson

    Instead of producing endless low-quality content, Pamela Wilson teaches us how to create the best content for each growth stage. As a business owner, marketing consultant, and thought leader, Wilson has practical tips that can be applied in both a B2B and a B2C setting.

    Why You Should Read It:

    This book, by Pamela Wilson, will guide you through the different stages of creating precious content for your audience. What makes this book stand out from the rest is that it will teach you how the needs of your newly launched blog will change as it ages. Instead of offering cookie-cutter advice, this book will grow with you and your business.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of Master Content Strategy here.

    14) Brand Identity Breakthrough: How to Craft Your Company’s Unique Story to Make Your Products Irresistible

    Author: Gregory V. Diehl

    Brand Identity Breakthrough - Gregory V. Diehl

    Gregory V. Diehl believes that every brand has a unique story to tell. Moreover, you carve out a more specialized niche in your industry with every new product. Diehl is passionate about helping content marketers combine these elements to build a standout brand identity.

    Why You Should Read It:

    The lessons in this book will help you build a brand that your clients can trust and tell your brand story to the world in a memorable way.

    Diehl will show you how to be personable enough on your website, social media, and content to create a genuine relationship with your leads. Your brand could benefit from this book since sales follow only once this relationship happens.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of Brand Identity Breakthrough here.

    15) Faster, Smarter, Louder: Master Attention in a Noisy Digital Market

    Authors: Aaron Agius & Gián Clancey

    Content Marketing Books

    In this book, Aaron Agius and Gián Clancey share secrets that helped them transform their two-person agency into a global leader in digital marketing. It is filled with tips to help you cut through the noise and information overload and build a more visible, long-lasting, and louder brand.

    Why You Should Read It:

    This book doesn’t simply present a list of successful marketing strategies. Agius and Clancey go beyond that to explain why these strategies were successful.

    This approach makes it easy for content marketers to adapt the recommended methods to their brand. With actionable how-tos and step-by-step instructions, this book is an excellent blueprint for anyone committed to excelling with their digital marketing.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of Faster, Smarter, Louder here.

    16) Storytelling: Manipulation of the Audience

    Author: Daniel Anderson

    Content Marketing Books

    Daniel Anderson believes well-crafted stories build trust among your target audience and inspire action. His book contains tips and tricks for telling stories that will excite them about your brand.

    Why You Should Read It:

    Telling good stories can help you connect emotionally with your audience. If you want emotionally invested customers in your brand, you must pick up a copy of this book. Once you start using your content to tell powerful stories, your content marketing strategy will be more effective.

    Read More: Why is Content Marketing Important for Your Brand?

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of storytelling here.

    17) The Context Marketing Revolution: How to Motivate Buyers in the Age of Infinite Media

    Author: Mathew Sweezey

    The Context Marketing Revolution - Mathew Sweezey

    In this book, Mathew Sweezey describes our unique digital landscape where – for the first time – our customers have the power to create content themselves. He goes one step further to talk about going beyond traditional marketing strategies to break through the noise and reach these customers.

    Why You Should Read It:

    Traditional marketing won’t cut it in a world where everyone with a smartphone is a content creator. Your traditional ads are more likely to be a bore or an annoyance to the people you’re trying to reach.

    This book will arm you with strategies to break through information overload and reach your target audience. Context is important—helping your customers meet a need in the moment. Once you realize that, you’ll produce the content your audience has always wanted.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of Context Marketing Revolution here.

    18) Effective SEO and Content Marketing: The Ultimate Guide for Maximizing Free Web Traffic

    Author: Nicholas Papagiannis

    Content Marketing Books

    Since people assume content marketing is simply about producing quality content, SEO is an underrated part of content marketing. Papagiannis shows how optimizing your content can increase brand awareness and drive more people to your website.

    Why You Should Read It:

    This will be a good read if you need help understanding SEO—from the basics to how to implement an effective SEO strategy. Many people assume that SEO only applies to their website or blog.

    On the contrary, SEO is just as important on your social media channels, and Nicholas Papagiannis can show you exactly how to optimize these platforms.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of Effective SEO and Content Marketing here.

    19) The One-Page Content Marketing Blueprint: Launch a Content Marketing Strategy in 90 Days and Double your Inbound Traffic, Leads and Sales

    Author: Prafull Sharma

    Content Marketing Books

    This book will offer an eagle-eye view of how content marketing works, including what to expect at each step of the journey. This is a comprehensive guide on how all the elements of content marketing come together to build a strategy that works.

    Why You Should Read It:

    A Google search on “content marketing” will leave you overwhelmed and drowning in tips, strategies, and advice from different people. These results are often conflicting, and very rarely will one result give you an idea of how all the various parts of content marketing fit together. If you know the feeling, you will appreciate Prafull Sharma’s guide on building a content marketing strategy, piece by piece.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of The One-Page Content Marketing Blueprint here.

    20) Marketing Rebellion: The Most Human Company Wins

    Author: Mark Schaefer

    content marketing books

    Today, technology makes it easy for our customers to share recommendations with friends and family. As a result, most marketing happens without brands even getting involved.

    The consumer is the new marketer. Schaefer uses this book to show us how to be part of these conversations by appealing to the people initiating them.

    Why You Should Read It:

    This book will challenge your understanding of being an marketer and show you how to build genuine connections with your consumers.

    Today, the most prominent brands succeed because they can create human impressions that help customers believe, belong, and find meaning.

    Don’t be left behind. With the right strategy, you can join your consumers’ conversations and arm them with the information and passion they need to be your brand ambassadors. If you’d like to do this for your brand, you must get your hands on this book and join the marketing rebellion.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of Marketing Rebellion here.

    21) The Content Fuel Framework: How to Generate Unlimited Story Ideas

    Author: Melanie Deziel

    content marketing books

    In this book, professional journalist and award-winning marketer Melanie Deziel shows you how to consistently produce engaging content. Her framework will give your brainstorming sessions the boost they need, helping you generate new ideas effortlessly.

    Why You Should Read It:

    Even the best content creators suffer from writer’s block or brain fog occasionally. With this book, you can forget about wondering what to post on your social media or waiting for that “big idea” to boost your content.

    The Content Fuel Framework is designed to help storytellers in any industry develop fresh, unique ideas anytime and anywhere.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of The Content Fuel Framework here.

    22) Pre-suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade

    Author: Robert Cialdini

    content marketing books

    According to this New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, your message does not influence people and change their minds. Instead, the moment before you deliver your message has the most power to drive action.

    Why You Should Read It:

    Cialdini believes that optimal persuasion can only happen after sufficient pre-suasion. For this reason, his book focuses on preparing your audience to be receptive to your message before you even deliver it. If you want to understand how to use diversion to prepare your audience to say “yes” to your brand, this book will be your new best friend.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of Pre-suasion here.

    23) Content Inc: How Entrepreneurs Use Content to Build Massive Audiences and Create Radically Successful Businesses

    Author: Joe Pulizzi

    content marketing books

    Our list of recommended content marketing books features a second book by Joe Pulizzi. As founder of the Content Marketing Institute, Joe Pulizzi has the credentials to teach us how to be better content marketers.

    In this book, Pulizzi recommends reversing the traditional model where brands create a product first and then look for an audience. Instead, he suggests that brands create content, build an audience around that content, and then develop a product for that audience.

    Why You Should Read It:

    Building a product and trusting that you will find an audience for it is much easier said than done. Brands that do this gamble with their money and investors’ funds. You can never guarantee that there will be an audience for your product once you’ve developed it.

    However, if you build an audience first and create content that encourages them to engage with you, you are more likely to make the product they want. Pulizzi shows you how to create content that excites your audience and sparks meaningful conversations.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of Content Inc. here

    24) The Content Code: Six Essential Strategies for Igniting Your Content, Your Marketing, and Your Business

    Author: Mark W. Schaefer

    content marketing books

    Mark Schaefer shares six digital secrets in The Content Code to help marketers master content promotion and distribution. He also teaches readers how to optimize their content for the web.

    Why You Should Read It:

    In a world where too many brands fight over a limited attention span, Mark Schaefer teaches these brands how to create content that encourages engagement.

    Beyond simply generating engagement, Schaefer’s formula helps brands create content that will turn their audiences into fans who take over, driving their content to new places. This is a must-read if you want to make content your audience will be excited about.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of The Content Code here.

    25) Talk Triggers: The Complete Guide to Creating Customers with Word of Mouth

    Authors: Jae Baer & Daniel Lemin

    content marketing books

    According to marketing experts Baer and Lemin, word-of-mouth advertising is directly or indirectly responsible for 90% of all purchases. Their book is designed to teach brands how to reach people who love to talk and turn them into brand ambassadors – at no extra cost to the brand.

    Why You Should Read It:

    We all rely on word of mouth from friends and family to make buying decisions. Ironically enough, fewer than 1% of companies have built a strategy for inspiring customers to do word-of-mouth advertising for them.

    Talk Triggers provides that strategy in a compelling, relevant, and timely book. This relatable strategy can be implemented immediately by any business.

    Where You Can Find It:

    26) Storynomics: Story-Driven Marketing in a Post-Advertising World

    Buy your copy of Talk Triggers here.

    Authors: Robert McKee & Thomas Gerace

    content marketing books

    In this book, Robert McKee partners with Skyword CEO Tom Gerace to create a formula for story-driven marketing. This solution is the perfect alternative to interruptive advertising, which our customers are fed up with.

    Why You Should Read It:

    People rarely click on pop-up ads anymore, so it’s time we found an alternative that works. Are you tired of annoying your target audience by jumping out at them and interrupting their browsing?

    If so, this is the perfect read for you. Pick up a copy of this book and learn how to craft a brand story your target audience will naturally be drawn to.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of Storynomics here.

    27) Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life

    Author: Rory Sutherland

    content marketing books

    In this book, Ogilvy advertising legend Rory Sutherland decodes human behavior and tells us how to create that magical formula to draw customers to our products. It is a treasure chest of the secrets to human decision-making.

    Why You Should Read It:

    Most human interactions involve marketing, even if it’s not apparent. Sutherland analyses human interactions – from the everyday to the weird – to explain why humans behave the way they do.

    By examining human behavior on such a fundamental level, brands everywhere can learn to create content that appeals to the human mind.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of Alchemy here.

    28) Stories that Stick: How storytelling can Captivate Customers, Influence Audiences, and Transform your Business

    Author: Kindra Hall

    content marketing books

    You already know storytelling’s power to help you connect with your audience and convert leads. But do you know the correct stories to tell? In Stories that Stick, Kindra Hall helps us decide which stories are worth telling and to whom.

    Why You Should Read It:

    Storytelling seems simple in theory, but crafting a story that your audience will genuinely connect with can be challenging. If you struggle to communicate with customers, build trust with investors, and inspire your audiences, then this is the solution you never knew you needed.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of Stories that Stick here.

    29) The Copyeditors Handbook: A Guide for Book Publishing and Corporate Communications

    Authors: Amy Einsohn & Marilyn Schwartz

    content marketing books

    Schwartz and Einsohn have developed this guide for new and seasoned copyeditors looking to sharpen their skills. This workbook includes the latest advice from language authorities and recognizes shifts in 21st-century copyediting.

    Why You Should Read It:

    If you write for a living, then you need this book. Schwartz and Einsohn have thought of everything you could need, from help writing for a global audience to working with authors who write in English as a second language.

    The writers have added a dash of humor and interesting anecdotes for language lovers, including a history of punctuation marks that weren’t cut.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of The Copyeditor’s Handbook here.

    30) The End of Marketing: Humanizing Your Brand in the Age of Social Media and AI

    Author: Carlos Gil

    content marketing books

    This book helps brands navigate the murky waters of social media marketing, where a single influencer can quickly get more views a day than Apple. Carlos Gil explains how brands can stay relevant in a world where traditional marketing is dead.

    Why You Should Read It:

    Today’s consumers don’t want to be sold to. Instead, they want to be engaged by the brands clamoring for their attention. Building engagement should be a priority for every brand in this digital landscape. By buying this book, you’re putting the formula for generating positive engagement with your audience in your own hands.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of The End of Marketing here.

    31) Words that Change Minds: The 14 Patterns for Mastering the Language of Influence

    Author: Shelle Rose Charvet

    content marketing books

    This book digs into the science of influence to teach readers how to use their words to persuade people without manipulating them. It’s perfect for sales, marketing, recruiting, negotiation, teaching, training, communication at work, and conflict resolution.

    Why You Should Read It:

    As a content marketer, everyone you talk to has a “communication wall” built around them. This wall is designed to keep out the big lousy marketer notorious for promising the sun and the moon but delivering a rock instead. If you want to get through to even the most stubborn of people, then you need to buy this book.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of Words that Change Minds here.

    32) Building a Story Brand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen

    Author: Donald Miller

    content marketing books

    Building a Story Brand is an excellent solution for entrepreneurs who struggle to talk about their brand to audiences. Donald Miller shares lessons on crafting the perfect message for your website, brochures, and social media.

    Why You Should Read It:

    Building a brand story that excites your audience is crucial to content marketing. Donald Miller’s book teaches you how to do this. By sharing the seven universal story points humans respond to and the real reason customers make purchases, Miller will transform how you talk about your brand.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of Building a Story Brand here.

    33) Content Strategy for the web

    Author: Kristina Halvorson

    content marketing books

    In this book, Halvorson explains why content is integral to your marketing strategy and how to make it work for your brand. This book offers a refreshing break from content marketing books, which focus on design by putting the focus on quality content.

    Why You Should Read It:

    A beautiful website is great but means nothing without creative and engaging content. This book will teach you how to combine the aesthetics of your content with valuable information in a beautiful harmony that will appeal to your audience.

    Don’t get stuck on beautiful designs while neglecting your content. Offer your target audience the best of both worlds, and they will stick with you.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of “Content Strategy for the Web” here.

    34) Binge Marketing: The Best Scenario for Building Your Brand

    Author: Carljin Postma

    Content marketing books

    In this book, Carljin Postma takes us to the people who have turned capturing and retaining an audience’s attention into an art: Hollywood. Since Hollywood has been getting people hooked on engaging content for decades, this is an excellent place for content marketing advice.

    Why You Should Read It:

    As content marketers, we often make the mistake of looking at each piece of content as a separate piece. In Binge Marketing Postma, we are encouraged to think of each new piece of content as a new episode in a TV show.

    Creating this kind of serial content fosters trust and builds genuine long-term relationships with your audience.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of Binge Marketing here.

    35) Killing Marketing: How Innovative Businesses are Turning Marketing Cost into Profit

    Authors: Joe Pulizzi & Robert Rose

    content marketing books

    Pulizzi and Rose take us behind the scenes to innovative marketing departments worldwide, showing us how they are ending marketing as we know it. Their new marketing model is so successful because it focuses on consumer needs.

    Why You Should Read It:

    If you can create value for your consumers through your owned media and savvy content marketing, you will boost brand loyalty and reach wider audiences. This book will show you how to do that, helping you transform your from a cost center to a profit machine.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of Killing Marketing here.

    36) Integrated Marketing Communications: Putting it Together & Making It Work

    Authors: Don E. Schultz, Stanley Tannenbaum & Robert E. Lauterborn

    content marketing books

    According to this book, your business formula can be replicated—except for your content marketing. Don E. Schultz and his colleagues are committed to helping brands produce outstanding content that meets the needs of their consumers.

    Why You Should Read It:

    You might have a fantastic product, but your content helps you build a unique brand image and stay top of mind among your target audience. If you want to create content that stands out, this book is just what you need.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of Integrated Marketing Communications here.

    37) The Social Organism: A Radical Understanding of Social Media to Transform Your Business and Life

    Authors: Oliver Luckett & Michael Casey

    content marketing books

    In this book, Luckett and Casey make a fascinating comparison between social media and the biology of an organism. They explain how we can use our social media content to take part in the evolution of information on these platforms.

    Why You Should Read It:

    Do you know how to create shareable content that can go viral? It might seem easy to see other brands doing it, but developing viral content takes time and understanding your audience.

    This book shows you how to tap into your consumers’ social DNA and create content they will replicate and share with you repeatedly.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of The Social Organism here.

    38) The Best Damn Web Marketing Checklist, Period!

    Author: Stoney deGeyter

    content marketing books

    The title of this book speaks for itself—it’s the ultimate guide to boosting your digital marketing. Packed with website strategies, it will help you increase your web traffic and improve your web presence.

    Why You Should Read It:

    Designing an effective website isn’t simply about slapping pretty colors and leaving it at that. It’s essential to focus on elements that search engines and your target audience will love.

    Stoney deGeyter’s checklist covers web marketing strategies for design considerations, site architecture, conversion optimization, website optimization (SEO), website advertising (pay-per-click or PPC), content writing, and social media strategy.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of The Best Damn Marketing Checklist, Period! Here.

    39) Top of Mind: Use Content to Unleash Your Influence and Engage Those Who Matter to You

    Author: John Hall

    content marketing books

    John Hall uses his experience to teach readers how to build content-driven relationships that keep your brand in mind among consumers. With the tips in this book, you can make a lasting influence on your target audience.

    Why You Should Read It:

    The most loyal customers see you as a trusted friend, and Hall teaches you how to build this relationship with your consumers.

    Successful businesses do so well because they are the first brands that come to mind when customers think of a particular product. If you want to rise in the ranks and join these brands, then give Top of Mind a read.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of Top of Mind here.

    40) Giftology: The Art and Science of Using Gifts to Cut Through the Noise, Increase Referrals, and Strengthen Retention

    Author: John Ruhlin

    content marketing books

    If you’ve never considered using gift-giving to boost your brand and connect with potential clients and influencers, then the concepts in this book will surprise you. Ruhlin believes something as simple as a handwritten note could brighten someone’s day and seal a deal.

    Why You Should Read It:

    You might not have realized this before, but branded gifts can boost your content marketing efforts. The trick is to give your prospect a gift they need precisely when needed.

    John Ruhlin teaches his readers how to master the art of gift-giving. You can boost brand awareness and build brand loyalty by learning to give thoughtful gifts.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of Giftology here.

    41) Powering Content: Building a Nonstop Content Marketing Machine

    Author: Laura Busche

    Laura Busche

    When your new product is ready to launch, you want to shout about it from the treetops. But how do you create content that will shout loud enough to be heard above the noise and clutter? Well, you can start by reading this book.

    Why You Should Read It:

    You might have developed the best product in the world, but your marketing efforts will fail if your audience isn’t excited about your brand.

    With Busche’s guide, you can learn to create content your audience can relate to, speaking directly to your customers and inspiring them to take action.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of Powering Content here.

    42) Brand Now: How to Stand Out in a Crowded, Distracted World

    Author: Nick Westergaard

    content marketing books

    With the rise of technology, sharing the good news about your product will be more accessible than ever. On the contrary, since smartphones have transformed everyone into a content creator, you must find creative ways to break through the clutter. You can start by creating a memorable brand.

    Why You Should Read It:

    In this book, Westergaard explains how to build a brand that resonates online and offline. Written with wit and insight, brand Now will teach you how to give your brand an unforgettable personality with which your target audience can connect.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of the brand Now here.

    43) Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends, and Friends into Customers

    Author: Seth Godin

    content marketing books

    Seth Godin states, “Permission marketing is the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal, and relevant messages to people who want to get them.” His book teaches brands how to create content that people will miss.

    Why You Should Read It:

    Imagine how good it would feel to be missed by a customer who picks up the phone or emails you are complaining that they didn’t get their newsletter this week.

    Any brand would dream of creating content that is missed by its audience. Don’t let this opportunity pass you by. Pick up a copy of Permission Marketing and learn how to create content your clients cherish.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of Permission Marketing here.

    44) The Age of Influence: The Power of Influencers to Elevate Your Brand

    Author: Neal Schaffer

    content marketing books

    In The Age of Influence, Neal Schaffer explains the elements needed to create an effective influencer marketing strategy for your brand. Schaffer, a social media expert, offers many tips and tricks to help you navigate today’s constantly evolving digital landscape.

    Why You Should Read It:

    Influencer marketing is an essential part of content marketing. Partnering with influencers helps you create content that your audience can relate to.

    A good influencer marketing strategy will help you turn your audience into fans, subsequently turning these fans into influencers. If this sounds good, you must buy a copy of this book.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of The Age of Influence here.

    45) Brand New Name: An Unforgettable Brand Name

    Author: Jeremy Miller

    content marketing books

    Jeremy Miller believes your brand name forms the foundation of your branding and content marketing efforts. With this book, you can create an unforgettable brand name that travels far and wide.

    Why You Should Read It:

    Your brand name is everything. It gives your brand a personality and helps your audience remember your core product or service.

    Although many content marketing books focus on branding, this book will help you build a truly exceptional brand that people enjoy connecting with.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of Brand New Name here.

    46) The Definitive Guide to Strategic Content Marketing: Perspectives, Issues, Challenges and Solutions

    Authors: Justin Kirby & Lazar Džamić

    content marketing books

    This book collects advice from content marketing experts worldwide. A treasure chest of theories, tips, and tricks, The Definitive Guide to Strategic Content Marketing is designed to educate content marketers of all levels and abilities.

    Why You Should Read It:

    Are you curious about the theories that have made content marketing work so well for brands today? This book is just that, with examples from brands worldwide. Understanding how content marketing theories have shaped today’s marketing world will help you adapt these theories to your brand.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of The Definitive Guide to Strategic Content Marketing here.

    47) One Million Followers: How I Built a Massive Social Following in 30 Days

    Author: Brendan Kane

    content marketing books

    In One Million Followers, digital strategist and growth hacker Brendan Kane teaches readers how to go beyond building an engaged social media following to gain dedicated fans.

    Why You Should Read It:

    Do you want to create content that inspires your followers to do more than mindlessly click the ‘like’ button and scroll to the next thing? Would you like to publish content that stops people in their tracks and drives them to check your website and purchase your products?

    If this is you, you should let Kane show you how in this book. Having built online platforms for A-listers, including Taylor Swift and Rihanna, he has what it takes to transform your social media presence.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of One Million Followers here.

    48) Content Marketing for PR: How to Build Brand Visibility, Influence, and Trust in Today’s Social Age

    Author: Trevor Young

    content marketing books

    Standing out from the competition and producing content that matters has become almost impossible today. Even so, with this guide, you can boost brand visibility and gain your audience’s trust.

    Why You Should Read It:

    As content marketers, we yearn to produce content that helps us break through the sea of voices crying out for attention. This is the only one of our 50 books that examines content marketing from a PR perspective.

    This book combines influential content marketing and public relations theories to help you do just that. The right content marketing strategy is a series of good decisions you make for your brand. The first good decision you can make is to read this book.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of Content Marketing for PR here.

    49) Ultimate Guide to Link Building

    Authors: Eric Ward & Garrett French

    content marketing books

    Content marketing isn’t simply about producing brilliant content for your brand. You must also make sure this content is easy to find. Ward and French’s book shows us how to optimize our content for the web.

    Why You Should Read It:

    Your job as a content marketer doesn’t end when you’ve created unique content. To truly outshine your competitors, you must also ensure this content is visible on search engines. In The Ultimate Guide to Link Building, Eric Ward and Garrett French will show you how to make your audience happy while making Google happy.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of The Ultimate Guide to Link Building here.

    50) This is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until you Learn to See

    Author: Seth Godin

    content marketing books

    No, you’re not imagining things. Out of our list of 50 content marketing books, this is the third Seth Godin book we’ve recommended because he’s just that good. In another insightful book, Godin explains the importance of your audience in your content marketing efforts.

    Why You Should Read It:

    Many marketers make the mistake of using consumers to fulfill the brand’s needs instead of vice versa, which is how it should be. Seth Godin tells us, “You can’t be seen until you learn to see,” effectively saying that you must see your audience to produce valuable content.

    Understanding your audience’s pain points is vital to this. With Godin’s content marketing tips, you can finally learn what it takes to produce content your audience values.

    Where You Can Find It:

    Buy your copy of This is Marketing here.

    Conclusion

    As you can see, there are many good content marketing books. If you want to brush up on your content marketing skills, the 50 books above are an excellent place to start. Alternatively, a good content marketing course could be just what you need.

  • How to Do a Case Study: 3 Simple Steps

    How to Do a Case Study: 3 Simple Steps

    Knowing how to do a case study can help convince potential clients to buy your core product or service. When well done, case studies help you build trust with your audience. However, a case study is more than just good storytelling. To do it well, you need to understand which elements make it such an effective type of content marketing.

    Before we understand how to do a case study effectively, let’s talk about what it is.

    What Is a Case Study?

    A case study is a relatable story about a client who solved a problem using your core product or service.

    Imagine you’re shopping online for a new pair of shoes. You find a beautiful pair but are unsure if it’s worth the money. What do you do before you decide? You read reviews.

    If you have friends who shop online, maybe you’ll ask them if they’ve ever shopped at this particular store. If the answer is yes, you will want to know their experience.

    The point is that when buying shoes at a store you’ve never shopped, you will need evidence from other customers that these shoes are a good deal.

    Imagine you’re a business looking for a solution to a specific business problem. As before, once you find a solution, you’ll need proof that it’s the best solution on the market.

    This is where case studies come in. They’re essential pieces of content, especially in the B2B market. When a potential client is experiencing a problem, they usually spend a lot of time comparing different solutions before deciding. Ultimately, your case study could distinguish between a client signing up with you or joining your competition.

    Why Do I Need to Use Case Studies?

    At this point, you might ask, “Do I need to invest time and energy into developing case studies when I can just share reviews on my website?” The answer is yes. If you want to convert more leads into clients, case studies should be a priority in your content marketing strategy.

    As a content creator, case studies can be a powerful piece of B2B content marketing. Case studies can help you in the following ways:

    1. Creating a Relatable Narrative

    Since a case study is a narrative, it follows the standard arc of a story. And, as we know, every story has a beginning, protagonist, conflict, climax, and resolution.

    Following this narrative arc, a case study triggers emotions and creates a connection with your reader. Everyone loves a good underdog story, and this is essentially what your case study is. It is the story of a protagonist who triumphed over incredible obstacles thanks to your core product or service.

    How to do a case study

    When done well, a case study helps your audience imagine themselves in your client’s shoes. They can imagine your clients’ problems because they face similar issues.

    Similarly, like your clients, your readers seek solutions to these problems. A compelling case study drives empathy and helps your audience become emotionally invested in the outcome. Therefore, they will be more open to hearing about your solution.

    2. Creating a Sense of Hope

    A good case study will go beyond just helping your readers to identify with your client and the problem they are facing. A compelling case study will convince readers that your solution worked for your client and can also work for them.

    In other words, a well-done case study should inspire hope and promote your brand. When potential clients read your case study, they will be convinced of the benefits of signing up with you.

    3. Helping You to Stand Out

    There are many good blogs but not as many good-quality case studies. Although case studies do an excellent job of showcasing a brand’s expertise, not everyone builds them.

    For this reason, if you start building case studies for your brand, you will stand out from the competition. A proper case study can make a strong case for your brand and improve your brand image.

    How to Do a Case Study in 3 Steps

    Developing a good case study isn’t hard. To make the process less daunting, we’ve broken it down into 3 straightforward steps:

    1) Select Your Case

    You may have many clients to choose from, but not all of them will qualify for a case study. You must seek unique and memorable clients to build a practical case study. These are clients who:

    • Are facing a unique problem.
    • Are uniquely using your business solutions.
    • They have switched from a competitor.
    • They have experienced dramatic results with your solution.

    Choose an unusual case first if you want your case study to stand out. Provided that a client meets one of the above conditions, they are a good candidate for your case study.

    how to choose a memorable case for your case study

    2) Do Your Research

    Once you’ve chosen the perfect case, you can start gathering evidence. To be effective, your evidence needs proof that what you’re saying happened.

    Most people assume that complex numbers are needed to prove their point. Even so, you can go beyond data when doing your research. Quality evidence can be as simple as a before-and-after description.

    While the type of evidence you use isn’t carved in stone, there are two essential steps in the research process.

    a) Developing an Introductory Questionnaire

    An introductory questionnaire explains the purpose of your case study to your client. More importantly, it is a place where you ask a few preliminary questions to help you begin your research.

    b) Interviewing Your Case Study

    The interview is the most essential part of the case study since this is when your research starts. An interview allows you to not only ask more questions but also get clarification on any vague answers in your questionnaire.

    Preparing for the interview in advance is always a good idea, instead of just winging it. Thinking through the necessary information and writing questions will help you get more relevant information.

    3) Write Your Story

    Once you have all the relevant information, it’s time to sit down and write your story. As we stated before, every good story has 5 different parts:

    • Beginning: This is where you give background information on the case study.
    • Protagonist: Your chosen client. Introduce them and explain what they do.
    • Conflict: The problem they are facing
    • Climax: How the problem is affecting the client and what makes it unbearable
    • Resolution: How your solution helped the client to overcome their problem
    how to write a case study

    Your case study must follow this structure closely so readers can follow along easily. However, you can break the standard narrative arc into 6 different parts so that you can add important details to your case study:

    Headline: Create a compelling headline for your story to attract attention.

    Summary: Develop an overview of your case study. 100-200 words is sufficient.

    Subject: Introduce your client and explain what they do.

    Problem: Explain the situation. Why does it exist? How does it affect your client?

    Solution: Describe the solution. Offer supporting evidence for why it was the best solution.

    Results: Explain how your solution helped your client to overcome the problem.

    Case Study Format

    Once you’ve written your case study, you can tell your story in various ways.

    • Downloadable PDF.
    • Webpage.
    • Slideshow.
    • Video.

    How to Do a Case Study: Best Practices

    A case study that follows the above structure can be a powerful piece of content marketing. Even so, we want to go beyond simply helping you to do a case study and show you how to write a case study that will stand out.

    Here’s how to write a case study that people will remember:

    i. Use Evidence to Back up Your Claims

    People will get emotionally invested in a good story, but you still need evidence to back what you’re saying up. One way to do this is by using complex numbers from your client. Alternatively, you could create and compare a “before” picture with an “after” picture.

    ii. Make It Visual

    Visual elements always add value to a good story. Think about it. What do you look for if you’re reading a book but don’t want to focus on masses of text? Pictures! Visuals can help retain a reader’s attention and break down complex information.

    Using the “before vs. after” model, you can effectively present this information using an infographic or an image. If you’re presenting figures, you can simplify the data using graphs.

    iii. Choose a Fascinating Angle

    Since you want people to remember your story, you must make it memorable. You can choose a client who does something differently or has a unique problem.

    However, you must relate the problem to most readers even when writing a unique story.

    iv. Follow the Standard Narrative Arc

    Using the standard narrative arc will help you write an emotionally engaging story. If your story engages, your audience will follow along until the end. Moreover, an engaging case study equals a higher conversion rate.

    v. Use Quotes From Your Client

    Using quotes from your client will help in three ways. Firstly, it’ll make the story more unique and relatable. Secondly, it will highlight the protagonist of your story. Finally, it will help you back up the claims you are making in your case study.

    vi. Repurpose Your Case Study

    A good case study doesn’t start and end as a formal one. Once you have developed one, you and your team should feel free to mention it whenever you talk to a prospective client.

    Quote your case study to a client who has called to inquire about the effectiveness of your product or service. This will help you convince the client that your solution works since it has worked for a different client.

    A good case study can convince a potential client that your business solution is worth investing in. Now that you know how to do a good case study, you can showcase your brand to potential clients.

  • How to Write a Headline That Captures Attention

    How to Write a Headline That Captures Attention

    Understanding crafting a captivating headline is crucial for creating compelling content that resonates with your audience. Your headline serves as the initial engagement point for readers, drawing them into your writing. It’s pivotal to grasp the essence of composing a headline that grabs attention and piques curiosity, compelling readers to delve deeper into your article.

    Whether you’re penning a blog post, an eBook, or a white paper, a well-crafted headline can increase your content’s traffic. Conversely, a lackluster headline may prompt visitors to swiftly navigate away from your page in search of more enticing material.

    As evident, the headline stands as a cornerstone of any written piece you produce. The encouraging news is that, with practice, you can master crafting engaging headlines that enhance clicks and draw in more interested readers.

    how to write a headline

    Examples of Winning Headlines

    In our quest for the perfect headline, we came across 5 categories of headlines that tend to perform well:

    • Making a promise

    For example: “Do your Business Accounts Faster with this Simple Formula.”

    • Drawing a picture

    For example: “Design Visuals that Will Turn Heads

    • Stating a fact

    For example: “This is the Best Diet for your Dog, According to Veterinarians.”

    • Asking a question

    For example: “Have you Heard what Carrots can Do for your Skin?”

    • Disputing common knowledge

    For example: “Here’s why Drinking Milk is Bad for You.”

    Before we move on, all the above headlines are purely hypothetical. We don’t believe milk is terrible for you, so don’t quote us.

    How to Write a Headline That Will Capture Attention

    1) Do Your Research

    You must first know what you’re writing about to write an engaging headline. Your topic should appeal to readers, so knowing what they want is essential.

    Before crafting your headline, consider doing some preliminary research to understand your target audience’s pain points. Understanding their needs better will guide you in writing a headline that resonates with them.

    Kick off your research by exploring what prompts people to turn to Google. What specific queries do they type when seeking assistance in your niche? By analyzing prevalent keywords, you can uncover the topics your audience is eager to explore.

    Feeling lost? Start typing your chosen keyword into Google’s search bar and observe the suggestions before hitting “search.”

    Alternatively, leverage tools like Google Trends to gauge the popularity of various keywords. This resource offers insights into trending terms and related search queries, shedding light on what topics currently capture audience interest.

    Google Trends

    For example, here’s what appears when I use “DIY Decor” as a search term. As you can see, this search term is not as popular as in November. You can also see that Google Trends has suggested some related search terms, which I can compare with my original search term.

    Google Trends

    “DIY Ghost Decor” is an even less popular search term than “DIY Decor” right now. This is valid since this search term would’ve been popular around Halloween, not in the middle of March. Let’s try one more.

    Google Trends

    As expected, “Easter Decor” far outperforms “DIY Decor” as a search term at this point in the year. So, writing about Easter decor would be a great idea if you were a company that sells home decor accessories and runs a blog. As before, Google Trends has listed related search queries and their popularity. These queries can help you refine your headline to make it more focused.

    2) Know the Ideal Length of a Headline

    Once you have an idea of your headline, you must know how long the most impactful headlines are. According to Kissmetrics research, people only process the first three words and the last three words of a headline.

    For this reason, keeping your headline to 6 words long makes it easy to digest. If you need to write more than 6 words, you shouldn’t exceed 10 words. If you write those 10 words, you must make the first and last 3 words good because they will have the most impact.

    Likewise, your headline should be 50-60 characters long. Packing too many characters into your headline will make it chopped in SERPs. Few people will click on your search result if your headline is incomplete.

    3) Brainstorm a Selection of Headlines

    Crafting the perfect headline isn’t an instant task; it requires patience and time. Rather than hastily settling on the first headline that comes to mind, it’s crucial to give yourself room to explore. Take a moment to brainstorm at least three different headlines, allowing yourself to uncover the one that truly captivates.

    Some well-known blogs, such as Upworthy, go even further by generating a whopping 25 headlines. While it might seem excessive, this method increases the chances of discovering a gem. Once you’ve compiled your list, begin the process of elimination, discarding those that don’t quite hit the mark. With this approach, selecting the winning headline becomes straightforward, setting the stage for success.

    4) Get to the Point

    A good headline gets straight to the point rather than beating about the bush. Many brands make the mistake of crafting vague headlines because they believe the mystery will draw readers in. On the contrary, readers who can’t make heads or tails of what your article is about are unlikely to stick around and find out.

    Be direct so that people can see the value in your article immediately. Including keywords in your headline is one way to immediately communicate value to your reader.

    5) Size Your Headline to Stand Out

    When you want your headline to grab attention, make sure it’s in a larger font than the rest of your text. It sounds like a no-brainer, but it’s easy to overlook details like font size when rushing to meet a deadline.

    Luckily, many content editors come with pre-set heading sizes that you can apply. If yours doesn’t have this feature, adjust the size manually to ensure your headline gets the attention it deserves.

    6) Use Visually Impactful Alignment

    The way you align your headline also determines how prominent it is to the reader’s eye. Centering your headline will have the most impact, while a left-aligned headline seems more formal. Whatever you do, don’t justify your headline, as this leads to imbalanced spacing.

    7) Write for SEO

    When writing your headline, it would be best to appeal to human readers and search engines. Search engines also “read” your article to categorize it properly. For this reason, you need to optimize your headline to help the search engines understand your content.

    As you’re writing for SEO, including the keyword in the title is essential. Moreover, you should include it as close to the beginning as possible. Ensure your headline makes logical sense, as you’re also trying to attract human readers.

    Including your keyword in the headline will help search engines understand and include your article in the correct SERPs.

    8) Use “You”

    how to write a headline

    Addressing your reader directly is a good strategy if you want your headline to grab their attention. Instead of speaking abstractly, say “you.” For example, in the titles we listed previously, we said “Do your Business Accounts Faster,” when we could just as quickly have said “Do Business Accounts Faster.”

    Adding the extra word – “you” – is worth it because it helps you develop a more personal headline that will stand out in SERPs.

    9) Highlight the Value

    Regardless of the headline style you choose, it’s essential to highlight the value you’re offering the reader. This is an excellent way to convince them that your article is worth reading.

    You can do this by discussing a problem that your article solves. For example, you could mention “The Best Way to ABCD.” You can also present your headline as advice or mention interesting research data within your article. Finally, you can promise to teach the reader something useful.

    10) Use Statistics

    Including statistics in your headline will pique your reader’s curiosity, especially if it’s a surprising statistic. Include the figures as close to the beginning of your headline as possible so that it grabs a reader’s attention right away.

    11) Use Numbers

    Our brains are attracted to numbers, so adding numbers to the beginning of your headline is a surefire way to stop someone in their tracks. Numbers are especially effective if you are writing a “how-to” article. Remember to use digits instead of words to help your numbers stand out more.

    12) Avoid Clickbait

    As a content creator, the last thing you want is to earn a reputation for being pretentious or making exaggerated claims. This is precisely what clickbait will do to you, so steer clear.

    All a reader needs to do is click on your grandiose headline, only to discover that you’ve misled them with clickbait. This kind of dishonesty will cost you a reader’s trust. This person is unlikely to click on any of your headlines in the future, no matter how interesting they seem.

    13) Use Interesting Words

    Headlines containing “X Tips for ABCD” are a dime a dozen. Instead of promising your reader some tips, use a less common word. For example, you can offer “X Secrets for ABCD” or “X Reasons to ABCD.”

    Less commonly used words will help you stand out from the crowd.

    14) Check Your Competitors Out

    You shouldn’t settle on a headline before you’ve checked your competitors out and seen what kind of headlines they’re using for your chosen topic. Having an idea of what your competitors are doing will give you a good idea of how to write a headline that stands out.

    15) Do A/B Testing

    There is no single magical solution to writing headlines that stand out. Ultimately, it would be best to experiment with several strategies until you find one that works for your audience.

    You can test your headlines in two ways:

    a) Twitter

    Once you’ve published your article, you can choose your two most potent headlines. Use them separately to promote your article and see which headline gets more clicks.

    b) Email Marketing

    Again, once your article is published, please send it to your mailing list using both headlines. Divide the people on your mailing list by half, and send the article to those people using one headline. Send the other half of your mailing list the other headline. Whichever headline gets more engagement should give you an idea of how to craft your headlines in the future. That’s email marketing made easy.

    As you can see, learning how to write a headline that will stop people in their tracks is an essential part of content marketing for your brand. Follow the tips above and quickly write outstanding headlines.

  • User-Generated Content Marketing: A Complete Guide

    User-Generated Content Marketing: A Complete Guide

    User-generated content marketing is like having your customers become enthusiastic ambassadors for your brand. It not only enhances brand loyalty but also significantly boosts brand awareness. When you share content created by your customers, it’s akin to receiving a free advertisement for your brand. It’s a powerful strategy that seamlessly complements your traditional content marketing efforts.

    What Is User-Generated Content?

    User-generated content is essentially from individuals who have engaged with your brand. These folks typically become familiar with your brand by purchasing your main product or service, or they might belong to your target audience.

    Regarding user-generated content marketing, the idea is to share this content across your platforms. By doing so, you’re aiming to create a buzz around your brand and garner positive attention.

    Why Do You Need User-Generated Content Marketing?

    Why do content marketers need to add user-generated content marketing to our overflowing to-do lists? People don’t like or trust traditional advertisements. 7 in 10 people use advertising avoidance strategies such as ad blockers.

    It’s true. Humanity has become very suspicious of advertisements that seem to promise heaven on earth. The Fyre Festival is only one of many reasons for this distrust.

    In April 2017, Fyre Media co-founder Billy McFarland started selling people tickets to a once-in-a-lifetime experience – a luxury music festival set against the backdrop of a tropical island in the Bahamas.

    An average of 5,000 people spent thousands of dollars on these tickets, which should include luxury accommodation for the festival’s duration.

    These people arrived on the island excited to mingle and party with celebrities like Ja Rule and Kendall Jenner. They were astounded to find that all the A-list musical acts had dropped out of the festival. To make things worse, their five-star accommodation had transformed into dilapidated tents soaking wet from the rain.

    Advertisements for the Fyre Festival had promised “a place where the tropical sun shines all day, and our celebrations ignite the night.”

    Unfortunately, the reality was like something out of a nightmare. In addition to scamming 5,000 festival-goers out of their money, McFarland scammed investors out of $26 million.

    Fyre Festival Expectation vs. Reality

    Image source: METRO

    User-Generated Content Marketing vs. Traditional Advertising

    Marketers have been breaking hearts worldwide since the beginning of time. Yes, the Fyre Festival scam is a dramatic example of this, but it always happens. Advertisements promise us the sun and the moon but deliver an anticlimactic experience.

    Our burgers always look juicier on a billboard than on our plates. Our resorts look better in the photos on the website than in person. Red Bull promises to give us wings.

    McDonalds Burger Advertisement vs. Reality

    Image source: Business Insider

    Maldives Advertisement vs. Reality
    Maldives Advertisement vs. Reality

    Image source: Architecture and Design

    Unsurprisingly, people will trust what one of your customers says about your brand more than an advertisement from your brand. User-generated content marketing is seen as more authentic than traditional marketing. This is why your brand needs it.

    User-generated content is a form of social proof for your brand. It helps you strengthen your relationship with current customers and reach a wider audience.

    Here’s how sharing user-generated content can boost your brand:

    1. It Is Authentic

    User-generated content is created by people who don’t work for your brand. This content presents an authentic perspective on your for a potential customer because it is produced by someone just like them who has had first-hand experience with the brand. For this reason, people will trust your user-generated content marketing more than they will trust your traditional advertisements.

    2. It Creates a Content Community

    When you share content from one client, you encourage others to create similar content. This results in a community of people , i.e. UGC creators who love and enjoy advocating for your brand. A content community is a source of valuable publicity for your brand.

    3. It Generates Brand Loyalty

    Speaking of content communities, user-generated content marketing also inspires brand loyalty. If you encourage people to share what they love about your brand, you will remain at the top of these clients’ minds. This increases the chances that they will return to you the next time they look for a similar product or service.

    4. It Drives Sales

    Sharing content created by people loyal to your brand boosts brand awareness. Ultimately, more brand awareness generates more sales.

    Read Also: Why is Content Marketing Important for Your Brand?

    5. It Is a Source of Valuable Feedback

    User-generated content is an excellent place to find out what people love about your brand and what they don’t particularly enjoy. The feedback won’t always be positive, and that’s not bad. Instead, negative feedback is an opportunity to tweak what isn’t working for your clients, allowing you to build a product that they truly love.

    Taking this feedback seriously will help your clients feel seen and heard. If your customers believe you value what they say, they will stay with you long.

    Examples of User-Generated Content Marketing

    1) Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” Campaign

    In 2011, Coca-Cola launched its “Share a Coke” campaign in Australia by printing people’s names on the sides of their bottles. Coca-Cola encouraged people to buy a friend a bottle with their name on it and share the Coke.

    User Generated Content Coca Cola

    Image source: StoryBox

    While the original campaign was launched in Australia, it became a multi-national campaign. Images of the Coke bottles were widely shared on social media, and the company tailored the campaign to each new culture. This approach allowed them to create a personalized campaign in each new country.

    For example, in Israel, the company greeted people personally by name on giant billboards. Similarly, in China, nicknames were included among the original names.

    With this campaign, Coca-Cola built a personal connection with consumers and spread some joy.

    2) Aerie’s #Aeriereal Campaign

    In 2014, American Eagle’s loungewear and lingerie line – Aerie – launched the #AerieREAL campaign to encourage women to appreciate their natural beauty. Since our adverts are filled with retouched photos of flawless women imposing unrealistic expectations on real women, this campaign is still relevant today.

    With #AerieREAL, Aerie hopes to promote body positivity and confidence in women. This is a noble goal, especially in an industry with ridiculous beauty standards.

    When Aerie launched this campaign, it also committed to stopping the editing of photos of its models. In addition, it encouraged its customers to post unedited images on social media with the accompanying hashtag “#AerieREAL.” Aerie donates 1 to the National Eating Disorders Association for each photo shared on social media.

    User-generated content marketing #AerieREAL campaign

    Image source: Forbes

    In 2020, Aerie launched #AerieREAL Changemakers, a program that recognizes women who are helping their communities and changing the world. #AerieREAL Changemakers awards these fierce and inspiring entrepreneurs, advocates, and humanitarians $20,000 each to support their selfless projects. These women are now brand advocates for Aerie. Moreover, Aerie has gained publicity as a brand that cares about humanity.

    3) Starbucks White Cup Contest

    2014, Starbucks launched its white cup contest to build a deeper connection with its customers. They wanted to develop a new design for their cups and invited their customers to submit designs using the hashtag #whitecupcontest. These customers, who enjoyed drawing on their cups, were eager to participate.

    The #whitecupcontest united Starbucks customers and encouraged them to achieve a common goal. This contest resulted in thousands of cup designs being shared on social media. In addition, Starbucks enjoyed more publicity and brand loyalty.

    With the pandemic confining many people to their homes more than usual, brands are reaching out to reassure their clients. By keeping clients’ companies online, brands can create a sense of community during a trying time. Here are two brands that are doing this well:

    4) Recreate a Piece of Art at the j.paul Getty Museum

    When COVID hit back, the fact that the J.Paul Getty Museum had to close its doors didn’t stop them from engaging with the public. The museum called for people to recreate works of art while quarantined at home.

    “We challenge you to recreate a work of art with objects (and people) in your home,” the museum tweeted. Contestants had to:

    • Choose their favorite work of art
    • Find objects and people in their homes
    • Recreate the piece of art
    • Share their creation on social media

    Twitter users joined the fun and encouraged their families and friends to participate. The result was a series of exciting and amusing submissions and increased publicity for the museum.

    User-generated content marketing J.Paul Getty Museum

    Image source: CNN

    5) the Perfect #Stepowknd

    To celebrate National Travel & Tourism Week 2020, Stevens Point Area invited the public to vote for the perfect way to spend a #StePoWknd. The campaign was designed to engage locals and former guests.

    User-generated content marketing #StePoWknd

    Image source: Stevens Point Area Blog

    People submitted different must-haves for the perfect weekend. Stevens Point Area then used these submissions to curate the ideal weekend. The final perfect #StePoWknd was divided into drinks, food, and adventures.

    With this campaign, Stevens Point excited their community about having a new adventure over the weekend. The public appreciated this excitement, especially given how isolated many people were at home.

    User-Generated Content Marketing: Best Practices

    Now that you understand user-generated content marketing let’s discuss how to do it for your brand.

    1. List Clear Requirements

    If you ask your audience to submit user-generated content, you must be clear about what content you’d like them to offer. For example, the Starbucks white cup contest had a list of rules.

    Even so, sometimes, your audience will post unexpected and unscripted content. This is good because the content someone posts spontaneously reflects your brand more authentically. So when this happens, enjoy the moment and share this content with the rest of your network.

    2. Ask for Permission

    Before you share user-generated content, it’s essential to ask the content creator for permission. By asking for permission, you show this person you respect them. Ultimately, clients who feel appreciated will speak highly about your brand.

    3. Offer Something in Return

    It’s not enough to ask for permission to use someone’s content. If you share someone’s content, offering them something in return is only fair. This person will appreciate feeling valued as a brand advocate. You can provide your content creators with branded gifts, event invitations, or discount vouchers for your core product or service.

    User-generated content marketing can sound very technical and unfathomable at first. However, as you have seen, it’s pretty easy in practice. With the above tips, you can boost engagement with your current clients and increase brand awareness among potential clients.

    Do you need help brainstorming the perfect content marketing strategy?

  • How Visual Content Can Help You Stand Out

    How Visual Content Can Help You Stand Out

    Visual content marketing helps you create fresh, unique content and increases engagement with your audience. It is also an excellent way for a content marketer to add personality to their content.

    Ultimately, customers find brands with personalities relatable, memorable, and easy to engage with. Investing in visual content marketing builds trust in your brand over time. And clients who trust you can become lifelong clients.

    What Is Visual Content Marketing?

    Visual content marketing strategically uses image-focused content to promote your company’s core product or service. For example, you can use infographics, videos, photos, and memes to educate or entertain your audience. In time, this creative use of content helps you build engagement and trust among your audience members, who eventually become paying customers.

    Why Is Visual Content Marketing Such a Huge Deal?

    Let’s be honest for a second. Would you be excited to read a blog post that contained only paragraphs and paragraphs of information? Or a white paper composed of only pages and pages of text? No, you wouldn’t. So, why would you expect your target audience to hang onto every word of that 3,000-word blog post?

    Since we are drowning in more and more information these days, our attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. The average person’s attention span was 8 seconds the last time they checked.

    As a digital marketer, these findings present a unique challenge because you need to find ways of communicating to make the most of those 8 seconds. While sharing information about your brand is essential, you need to talk to your audience in a way that will not only capture their attention but also retain it.

    Visual content can help you capture the attention of your target audience. People stop to look at visual content 94% more than they stop to look at text-only content. Specifically, Tweets with images lead to 150% more shares than those without. Similarly, Facebook posts with images get 2.3 times more engagement than those without.

    In summary, visual content marketing is good news. You need to develop high-quality visual content to capture attention and increase engagement.

    How to Use Visual Content to Grow Your Brand

    There are many articles about the different types of visual content you can use as a content marketer. We’ve even talked about some of these types of content marketing before. We don’t want to keep singing the same song.

    Instead, let’s talk about how you can creatively use your visual content to develop your brand’s personality and connect with potential clients.

    1) Repurpose Your Content

    If you need inspiration for your visual content, look no further than the text-based content you’ve produced. Blog posts are usually an excellent place to start. Once you’ve written a blog post, converting the information into visual content is easy.

    For example, you can take the points you’ve covered in a blog post and put them in a video or infographic. Your editorial calendar is an excellent place to list how to repurpose an original blog post.

    Similarly, you can transform long-form content like a white paper or eBook into a series of video tutorials.

    How to repurpose your content

    The point is that you don’t have to create all your visual content from scratch. Giving your evergreen content a makeover will help you to keep producing fresh, exciting content even when you’re running low on inspiration.

    2) Use Non-traditional Types of Content

    Infographics and videos are a lot of fun, but they’re also ubiquitous pieces of content. To stand out from your competition, you should also try to use non-traditional forms of visual content.

    It might seem scary to do something unconventional. Be that as it may, if you’re a bit adventurous, you can create viral content simply due to its uniqueness.

    What non-traditional types of content can you experiment with?

    a) Memes / GIFs

    Many content creators shy away from using memes or GIFs because they worry their content will look unprofessional. On the contrary, memes and GIFs can help you seem more down-to-earth and relatable when used well. Over time, this fosters trust among your audience.

    Memes

    Think about this for a moment. Your target audience uses memes and GIFs to communicate on social media. Since this content is relatable, using memes and GIFs will help you build a connection with both potential and current clients.

    b) Interactive Content

    As we’ve already said, we’re bombarded with content from brands clamoring for our attention daily. For this reason, another good way to stand out is to create interactive content. Interactive content creates a unique and memorable experience for your target audience.

    Interactive content encourages your audience to actively engage with it instead of passively consuming it. For example, you could build interactive quizzes, landing pages, websites, and videos. This content invites people to click along and be part of the story from beginning to end.

    Interactive Content

    Interactive content generates higher levels of engagement than static content. Therefore, it is one of your brand’s most potent storytelling tools.

    Read Also: Why is Content Marketing Important for Your Brand?

    c) Visual CTAs

    A good call to action invites your audience members to engage with you further. While most calls to action are text-based, making them more visual can capture someone’s eye.

    CTA

    For example, you could use an infographic or a button as your call to action. Or you could go one step further and design a video or GIF call to action.

    d) Visual Emails

    If you want to boost your email marketing, you can use eye-catching visual content. An excellent place to start is by designing a professional header that reflects your brand. Additionally, you could include other elements like photos, videos, and infographics. Of course it wouldn’t hurt to use some of the best email warm up tools can also help improve deliverability so your beautifully designed emails actually reach your audience’s inbox.

    Email Header

    Most people sign up for your email marketing to hear from you. However, they will only consistently open these emails if you make it worth their while. Take time to design fun and engaging emails, and you will have an excellent open rate and high engagement with your emails.

    e) Quotes / Questions

    Quotes that reflect your brand values are a good source of inspiration for visual content. Similarly, questions—whether for or from your audience—can help you create beautiful visuals.

    Both quotes and questions can generate conversations addressing the topic you’ve raised. In other words, they are an excellent way to get your audience talking. Next time you want to spark a conversation on Twitter or Facebook, try sharing an image with a quote or a question.

    3) Apply Consistent Branding Across Platforms

    Whether creating content for your company or a client, building a solid and consistent brand identity is essential.

    You can achieve this brand identity using the same voice across different platforms. Whether you write a blog post or publish a social media post, your content should sound like you.

    If you’re funny in your blog posts, you should carry the same humor to your social media platforms. If you’re suddenly serious and no-nonsense on your social media, your audience will get confused about who you are and what you stand for. Use a consistent brand voice so that your audience can confidently say they know who your brand is and why you matter to them.

    Secondly, you should consistently use branded visual elements to create visual recognition. These elements include text placement, font use, brand colors, and logo.

    Don’t forget offline touchpoints. Branded stationery and mailers extend your visual identity beyond screens and can spark delight on first contact. For tactile touchpoints, translate your brand’s fonts, colors, and imagery to print collateral like letterheads, packaging inserts, and outer envelopes. Teams can create envelopes online to match your visual system and design unique envelope styles through Canva, turning every mailer into a mini billboard that boosts recall.

    If you’re still refining your visual identity, an AI logo generator can help you quickly experiment with logo concepts that align with your brand’s colors and typography before finalizing print materials.

    Include your logo, consistent typography, and a clear visual CTA (QR code or short URL) to seamlessly bridge print and digital experiences.

    If you can use your visual content the same way every time, you will build a strong brand identity that your target audience can easily recognize. This is a big deal because if your brand stands out, you will remain at the top of your mind among potential and current clients.

    4) Align All Your Visual Elements

    When designing visual content, aligning images and text is essential because this helps you look professional. Polished and professional visuals contribute to your social proof and make it look like you know what you’re talking about.

    Producing professional visual content will attract an audience that trusts you to solve their problems.

    5) Be Authentic

    Indeed, you can always recycle and share visual content from other brands. Nevertheless, designing authentic content will help you connect better with your audience.

    Instead of using stock photos, consider taking pictures of your products and your work family.

    Showcasing original photos of your products will help your audience trust you more.

    Likewise, giving people a sneak peek of your team at work will humanize your brand. This ultimately creates a genuine connection with your audience, who will feel like they know the faces behind your brand name.

    6) Use Alt Tags

    If you use images in your content, you should include alt tags to optimize them for SEO.

    By using alt tags, you’re boosting your content in two ways. Firstly, you’re helping Google to understand what your images contain. Secondly, you’re helping low-vision or blind people understand your images’ context.

    As you can see, visual content marketing is worthwhile for boosting engagement with your brand and eventually boosting sales of your products or services. When in doubt, remember that 60% of consumers reach out to a brand when a visual shows up in local search results.

  • The Best Time to Publish a Blog Post for Your Brand

    The Best Time to Publish a Blog Post for Your Brand

    Knowing the best time to publish a blog post can help you reach more people and boost your engagement whenever you publish a new post.

    What is the best time for your new blog post?

    Many bloggers prefer to publish their posts at a time when everyone is online. Similarly, some bloggers publish affiliate marketing content when their audience has time to engage with their content and share it with friends. How do you determine what these times are?

    The good news is that many brands have already researched this. The bad news is that the results are very conflicting.

    For example, consider the recommended time to publish a new blog post to earn social shares.

    1. The Best Time to Publish for Social Shares

    When they researched the best day to publish posts to enjoy high social shares, TrackMaven found that Sunday works best. In contrast, Backlinko and BuzzSumo found no difference in the number of social shares across the week’s days.

    If you’re already confused, prepare to get even more confused. The answer to the best time to publish a blog post for social shares is even more complex.

    TrackMaven recommends publishing at 3 p.m., but Shareaholic recommends 9–10 a.m. Furthermore, Shareaholic outlines 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. as the peak time for social shares.

    Researchers have also recommended publishing your blog post at other times, depending on your end goal. Consider these times when determining the best time to publish a blog post.

    In particular, Shareaholic, BuzzSumo, and Kissmetrics have recommended the best time to publish if you want to attract high traffic, a high volume of comments, and high authority backlinks.

    2. The Best Time to Publish for Traffic

    According to Kissmetrics and Neil Patel, the best time to publish if you want many page views is Monday at 11 a.m. Similarly, Shareaholic has recommended Monday at 9 a.m.

    3. The Best Time to Publish for Comments

    According to research by Kissmetrics, the best time to publish your blog post is Saturday at 9 a.m. EST if you want high engagement.

    4. The Best Time to Publish for Backlinks

    Kissmetrics also recommends publishing your blog post early on Monday or Thursday morning if you want to attract backlinks. According to their study, you can earn these backlinks as early as 7 a.m. EST.

    What Is Truly the Best Time to Publish a Blog Post?

    As you can see, if you pay attention to all the research, your head will spin before determining the best time to publish a blog post.

    Here at Kontely, we like to present confusing data in infographics or graphs to make it easier to understand. However, these recommendations are too contradictory for us to simplify, even with the magic of an infographic.

    We aren’t going to put all this contradictory information in one place. However, the least we can do is find some common elements in these research results. From what we can see, it seems that:

    • Monday morning between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. is an excellent time to publish if you want to attract traffic
    •  9 a.m. to 5 p.m. is the peak time for generating social shares
    •  Off-peak times like weekends are the best time to publish if you wish to high engagement

    In addition, according to “The Science of Timing” webinar hosted by Dan Zarrella:

    • 80% of blog readers read blog posts in the morning
    •  Conversely, 60% of men will read a blog post in the evening compared to 50% of women

    In other words, Zarrella believes that if your target audience is men, you will have more page views in the evening.

    This might seem like a simple solution to our problem. However, you can’t just slot these times into your blog editorial calendar without trial and error to determine if they work for your brand.

    The Best Time to Publish a Blog Post for Your Brand

    Let’s be honest for a moment here. We could have done the research and then given you one magical time to publish all your blog posts from now on. Even if we do that, many factors come into play when finding the best time to post your content.

    The optimal time prescribed by one researcher may not work for your brand, industry, or target audience.

    So, instead of trying to arrive at one magical answer to this question, we’d like to help you figure out the best time to publish a blog post specifically for your brand. To do this, we’d like to shift your focus.

    We won’t consider the answer to this question as a single optimal time. Instead, let’s admit that there are many ways to optimize the timing of your blog posts. How do you optimize this timing?

    1. Publish Consistently

    Nailing the timing might be a big deal to you. Even so, publishing blog posts consistently is far more critical than publishing them at the right time. If you publish consistently, then you can also:

    2. Build Trust

    Blogging consistently builds trust with your target audience, who slowly rely on you as a source of valuable information.

    Once your readers know that you publish on specific days or several times a week, they will start coming to you to check out your new pieces. This will happen even when you haven’t told them there is a new blog post. Reading your blog will become a natural part of their daily or weekly routine.

    People who rely on you to educate and entertain them are more likely to become long-term customers over time.

    3. Boost Your Organic Traffic

    Blogging consistently is also good for your SEO ranking on Google. If you’re committed to posting consistently, then Google will recognize you as a source of consistent information. As a result, you will rank higher in the search results when someone searches for a topic you’ve written about.

    4. Build Brand Awareness

    By improving your SEO ranking on Google, you also improve the chances of people stumbling upon your blog. If more people stumble upon your blog, then more people will know who your brand is.

    So, what does it mean to post consistently?

    According to a study by HubSpot, brands that publish 16 (or more) times each month get 3.5 times more traffic than those that publish 0 to 4 times monthly. That translates to 4 posts each week.

    However, it’s essential to consider your team size before you commit to this blogging schedule. It might be unrealistic for one person to write four blog posts each week if they also have other responsibilities.

    If you have several content creators, it’s easy to divide those 16 blog posts among them. However, most brands only have one blogger. In this case, 2-3 blog posts a week might be a more bearable workload for them.

    Remember, quality is always better than quantity. Writing two or three excellent blog posts is better than writing four sloppy ones.

    If you want to publish 16 blog posts a week but have a small team, then guest posting is a good option.

    5. Post Time-sensitive Articles Immediately

    Sometimes, you have a time-sensitive article to publish. For example, you could have written a review of the newest iPhone or a blog post related to recent news.

    You can’t wait for a prescribed time to arrive before publishing your blog post. If you do that, you risk losing readers to competitors who’ve published their content before you. By the time you publish your blog post, your target audience will have gotten their information elsewhere.

    If your blog article contains breaking news, you should publish it immediately. This will help you engage your audience while they’re still interested.

    6. Profile Your Target Audience

    Do you work in the B2B industry? If so, publish as many weekly blog posts as possible.

    A B2B target audience will engage more with your content during the week. This is when they’re looking for solutions to their business problems, so you should capitalize on this time.

    You should take time to develop a B2B content marketing strategy to effectively convert this B2B crowd into paying clients.

    7. Pay Attention to Changing Seasons

    Changing seasons affect the type of content your target audience wants to read. For example, people devour blog posts about vacations and travel during the summer. Similarly, people will look for more educational material if there’s a massive conference in your industry.

    In the same way, people will be more open to informative content during the week. On the other hand, they will want more entertaining content when trying to relax at the end of the week.

    8. Find Out What Works for You

    Above all, you need to find out what timing works best for you to optimize the timing of your blog posts.

    Relying on the peak times recommended by Kissmetrics and BuzzSumo is a good idea. On the one hand, adopting these times will help you reach large audiences. On the other hand, you’ll be competing with hundreds of different brands who are publishing at the same time.

    In other words, if you publish during peak times, your content might be drowned out by all your competitors. Ultimately, your target audience might never see your blog posts if this happens.

    For this reason, it’s essential to figure out what works for your brand. You can do this in one of two ways:

    9. Trial and Error

    You can publish content at different times and then analyze the metrics to determine the best times. You can use tools like Google Analytics or Ahrefs to measure your website traffic and engagement with your content.

    10. Analyze Your Data First

    Alternatively, you can measure your website traffic first, then determine what times will work best in the future.

    11. Prioritize The Time You Share

    The time when you share your blog post on social media is more critical than when you publish. Different social media platforms have different recommended times for posting. However, finding out what works for your social media audience is still essential.

    What Is the Best Time to Publish a Blog Post for My Brand?

    As you can see, there is no one answer to this question. Many factors, including the content of your blog post, your target audience, and your industry, will influence the best time to publish your blog post.

    Instead of trying to find one magical time, it’s better to find out how to optimize the timing of your blog posts. With the tips above, you’ll find many optimal times for publishing posts in the future.

  • 10 Types of Content Marketing and How to Use Them

    10 Types of Content Marketing and How to Use Them

    Using suitable types of content marketing is a crucial element of your success as a marketer. Sometimes, figuring out what content works for your brand takes a few tries. With our handy guide, content marketing should be more enjoyable and less stressful.

    What Is Content Marketing?

    Before discussing the different types of content marketing you can use, let’s define content marketing.

    Content marketing strategically uses creative and informative material to promote your company’s core product or service. For example, you can produce podcasts or blog posts to increase awareness of your brand. In time, brand awareness creates leads. It also results in a higher conversion rate from potential client to actual client.

    How Do I Get My Content Marketing Right?

    To nail your content marketing, there are a few things you should always keep in mind:

    4 tips for successful content marketing

    1. Figure Out Who Your Target Audience Is

    Drawing up a profile of your target audience is a crucial first step in content marketing. If you don’t know who your audience is, how will you know where to find them?

    Understanding your target audience will help you determine what they care about and what content they seek. Additionally, a profile of your target audience will help guide you on where to find them.

    2. Produce Content That Your Audience Values in a Format They Enjoy

    If you want to win your audience’s trust in the long term, finding out what kind of content they value and how they prefer to consume it is essential. Do they choose blog posts or infographics? Should you look into developing a white paper or a DIY video tutorial?

    You have a few tools at your disposal to understand the kind of content your target audience values. You can use surveys or social media analytics tools on your platforms to determine which previous content has performed well. Alternatively, you can look at Reddit threads or other social media threads to perform social listening. Evaluating the conversations on social media will help you figure out what kind of content your target audience is talking about.

    Alternatively, you can use tools like Buzzsumo and Google AdWords to figure out the kind of content people are searching for and the most popular search results that pop up.

    Finally, you can try the trial-and-error route, where you test specific types of content and see how your audience responds.

    3. Focus Less on Attaining Attention and More on Retaining It

    When working as a marketer, it’s easy to assume that achieving a certain number of views or clicks on your content is the ultimate goal.

    As lovely as getting views and clicks is, attracting an audience that will stay with you long-term is more important. How do you do this? By promising a worthwhile experience and delivering it.

    4. Stop Trying to Promote Yourself and Start Trying to Help Your Audience

    People are very wary of blatant advertising, so don’t use your content as a tool for advertising. Focusing more on the value you can offer your audience is a more effective way of earning their trust in the long term. Remember, trust is a valuable currency in any industry. Over time, people who trust you will likely purchase your core product or service.

    What Types of Content Marketing Can I Choose From?

    Given the buffet of options, developing a content marketing strategy that works for your brand is not too complicated. Let’s look at the options at your disposal:

    1) Blogging

    Blogging is an excellent way to share informative content and build a reputation for your brand. Provided you can offer valuable information, your blog can help you establish positive relationships with your readers, who will soon rely on your wisdom.

    To run a successful blog, you must optimize your content by writing for SEO, using the cluster model, and writing consistently. Writing for SEO and using the cluster model will help your blog rank higher on Google’s results for keywords and topics you’ve written about. Similarly, writing consistently will help you rank higher on Google and build a reputation as a reliable source of information.

    Your blog will be more effective if your published articles focus on topics related to your industry instead of your core products or services. At the same time, dropping a few calls to action in each post by mentioning your core product or service is a good idea.

    2) Infographics

    Infographics are a fun, simple way to simplify statistics and other complex data into a more understandable form. Since they are visually appealing, your audience is bound to enjoy them.

    You could go one step further to give your infographic more weight by quoting data from other thought leaders.

    3) Video

    Like infographics, videos are an enjoyable and engaging way to teach your target audience how to do something complex. If the content you’re sharing is a tutorial, DIY guide, or guide for using your product, video is a great format—especially when you add subtitles to video to improve accessibility, engagement, and watch time across social media platforms.

    4) Case Studies

    No matter how many impressive figures you quote, real-life stories about how your product has changed people’s lives will always have a more significant impact. With time, your case studies might just be the social proof you need to build trust with potential clients considering your products or services.

    Real stories about clients you’ve worked with before are more relatable than impersonal facts and figures. Potential clients can put themselves in your client’s shoes and picture how using your product will add value to them.

    You can make your case studies even more effective by talking to clients who will allow you to use their “before” and after “metrics” of success. While it’s true that numbers aren’t everything, they will still help you build a solid case for your ability to help clients achieve their goals.

    5) eBooks

    eBooks are a more informative, long-form version of blogs that educate your target audience or help them solve a problem. They can be independent content or a combination of blog posts you’ve already written and published.

    If your eBook is very long, it’s best to have a table of contents to guide your readers. You can display this table of contents on a landing page to entice curious website visitors to read the rest of your book.

    You can offer someone an eBook in a gated format in return for their email address or other contact information. This helps you build a target audience to which you can market your core products or services in the future.

    6) White Papers

    Similar to eBooks, white papers help your audience solve a complex problem. However, they are more focused on data. White papers are the ideal type of content to use if you operate in a B2B environment.

    As with eBooks, you can also use white papers to build an audience of contacts to pitch your core business.

    Ebooks and white papers help you build a reputation as a trusted authority in the industry. Use them correctly; people will rely on you for information and guidance.

    7) User-generated Content

    User-generated content can be just what you need to generate long-term engagement with your brand. For example, retweeting a client’s tweet can create a conversation about issues surrounding your industry. Engaging in this kind of conversation further solidifies your status as a thought leader in the industry.

    8) Podcasts

    Podcasts are a great way to reach people on the move with educational or entertaining content. With the right equipment and content marketing strategy, they can humanize your brand and make your founding team more relatable to your target audience.

    9) Webinars, Training, or Demos

    Webinars, trainings, or demos are a creative way to teach your audience something complex related to your industry. Alternatively, you can use these types of content marketing to familiarize people with your product or service.

    If potential clients know you can help them understand how to use your products or services, they are likelier to try what you’re selling. Overall, people who know you offer industry support through webinars and training are more likely to trust you.

    10) Interviews or Q&As

    When done right, interviews and Q&As are an excellent way to share your expertise and engage your audience.

    You can encourage engagement by allowing them to ask questions beforehand and answering them in a video or audio interview. Alternatively, you can invite your audience to ask questions in real-time and answer them on a live stream.

    Now that we’ve discussed the different types of content marketing available to you let’s discuss how to make your content marketing stand out.

    Content Marketing – Best Practices

    To give your content the boost it needs, consider using some of these strategies:

    how to boost your content marketing

    1. Repurpose Your Content

    Did you know you can boost traffic to an old blog post by summarizing it in the form of an infographic or video and sharing this on social media? Repurposing this content will make people curious about the original content, boosting traffic to your website over time.

    2. Find Gaps in the Market

    Doing things differently from your competitors will help you stand out as a content marketer. For example, the crypto industry is saturated with long-form textual content such as blog posts or white papers. If the client you’re producing content for operates in this industry, videos and infographics will help them stand out.

    3. Adapt to Your Platforms

    While deciding which types of content marketing work well for your brand, it’s essential to consider the platforms you’ll be using to distribute this content. For example, on Instagram, visual content like photos, infographics, and videos would work well. However, textual content would work better if you’re using LinkedIn to reach your target audience.

    4. Ask for Feedback

    An excellent way to boost engagement among your audience is to ask for feedback. Take time to find out how they feel about your content. Find out what isn’t working as well as you thought it would and what they want to see more of. You’re helping your target audience feel involved in your content creation process by asking for feedback. Clients who think they’ve been heard start to trust you over time.

    Ultimately, when done right, content marketing should give your or your client’s brand the boost it needs and build trust among your target audience. Once you’ve developed a content marketing strategy, you can use a creative brief to work on your project as a team.

  • 15 Best Affiliate Marketing Software for 2026

    15 Best Affiliate Marketing Software for 2026

    Spending on affiliate marketing is increasing, proving that it’s still one of the most effective marketing strategies out there. A key element of any effective affiliate marketing program’s strategy is the use of affiliate marketing software.

    There are a lot of factors to consider , and your plan of action could become costly and ineffectual if you don’t have the right affiliate software. To help you with affiliate marketing campaign launch, monitoring, and management, we’ve compiled a list of the top affiliate marketing tools.

    How Affiliate Marketing Software Works

    Affiliate software is a technology made to assist companies in effectively managing their affiliate marketing campaigns. There must be a method for measuring all parties’ efforts to evaluate whether strategies are cost-effective.

    Affiliate software tracks referrals, endorsements, and recommendations made by people or businesses to purchase goods and/or services from third parties. It gauges success by analyzing the middleman’s actions. Effective affiliate marketing software platforms come with a variety of tools to assist you in managing your campaigns and increasing revenue.

    Top 15 Affiliate Marketing Software

    1. Tracknow

    Tracknow is an advanced affiliate program made to enhance your marketing strategy. It provides innovative ideas for influencer performance, affiliate marketing, tracking software, IB, and iGaming modules.

    The software’s key advantages include ease of use and real-time team tracking, which enable firms to make data-driven decisions. Additionally, Tracknow’s simple interface with well-known eCommerce platforms lets you optimize your workflow. Tracknow also provides a free SSL setup for your domain and customization possibilities like adding your brand logo and modifying theme colors.

    Furthermore, it has modern anti-fraud capabilities to safeguard your earnings and stop affiliate fraud.

    2. Refersion

    Refersion is a well-known name in the affiliate marketing industry, assisting affiliates, influencers, and ambassadors to increase eCommerce revenue. Refersion’s Professional Plan, which includes Shopify and WooCommerce integration, costs $119.

    Refersion has processed more than $366 million in affiliate commissions and over $2 billion in affiliate income so far. Customers can save time with automated commissions by creating periodic performance reports and creating an infinite number of commission structures. Users can examine commissions and payments on the analytics dashboard of the personalized affiliate site.

    3. Everflow

    Everflow is an affiliate marketing platform that provides features including tracking campaigns, building links, managing payouts, and expanding a partner network. Everflow launched in 2016, and as of 2021, the company has monitored over $1.9 billion in sales and $1.1 billion in payouts. Any of Everflow’s tier-based programs, which are based on the number of clicks, require a minimum 6-month term commitment. The starter plan is $750 for up to 500,000 clicks. They provide help with program onboarding and migration. Payouts to partners aren’t entirely automated, though. Everflow often provides its clients with learning and development tools, such as white papers, webinars, and Fireside Chats.

    4. Tapfiliate

    Tapfiliate is an affiliate, referral, and influencer tracking platform that is ideal for both small businesses and enterprise clients. It’s a fantastic choice because of its simple customization options and user interface. This platform is trusted by over 2,000 users because it puts the needs of its customers first. It allows you to make customized links, signup pages, and manage marketing materials all within the Tapfiliate platform, giving you total brand control. Moreover, Tapfiliate is a member of the Amitad network, which links affiliates with advertisers.  Features like these have aided Enpal, a solar firm that has won awards, in onboarding 200 affiliates.

    5. Trackdesk

    Trackdesk is an affiliate program management solution that provides features like advanced automation, smart workflow, and dedicated support to generate insightful data that promotes growth.

    Entrepreneurs may get started for free, earning up to $1,000 per month in affiliate revenue, with unlimited affiliates, clicks, conversions, integrations, and bulk auto payments. You can upgrade to a paid monthly plan as your business expands to access more features.

    Additionally, Trackdesk has a Partnership Managers Marketplace where you may meet carefully chosen partnership managers who can assist you in establishing, running, and growing your affiliate program.

    Since Trackdesk supports numerous locations, it also assists you in launching a global presence.

    6. Levanta

    Levanta is a platform that brings together content creators and Amazon sellers. It assists companies in growing by collaborating with influencers, publishers, and affiliates to drive traffic to their online stores.

    The main distinctive feature of Levanta is its advanced tracking system, which guarantees precise tracking of sales linked to affiliates. This is a crucial option for sellers who wish to maximize their affiliate relationships with content creators to increase their Amazon profits. Levanta also simplifies affiliate payments. You simply have to pay the affiliate program once a month as a seller; after that, the software handles everything.

    7. Post Affiliate Pro

    Having been around for more than 17 years, Post Affiliate Pro is among the longest-seasoned affiliate tracking software. Since then, the platform has seen significant development, giving users access to an abundance of features that are frequently on par with those of other platforms. Post Affiliate Pro features over 200 integrations with over 100 eCommerce providers and 70 payment gateways. You may develop different types of promotional banners and offer lifetime upgrades using the platform branding features. They do not, however, have Salesforce or HubSpot integrations. The interface can sometimes appear buggy and outdated.

    8.  Impact.com

    Impact.com emerges as a leader in the field of affiliate marketing platforms, providing a comprehensive suite of solutions for automating and optimizing the whole partnership lifetime. You can easily establish high-value partnerships with any type of partner on the impact.com platform, which enables you to effectively and widely reach new audiences at every point of the buyer’s journey. However, It could be difficult to set up and maintain. Furthermore, Impact.com offers protection and monitoring services to ensure brand safety and compliance.

    9.  PartnerStack

    PartnerStack is a powerful affiliate marketing platform that aims to assist businesses in accelerating their growth through effective partner management. With the help of this software, affiliate, referral, and reseller programs may be effectively managed and scaled.

    The user-friendly interface with comprehensive monitoring data and analytics, the convenience of use, and the capability to monitor performance and manage payouts are all commonly mentioned by users.

    However, it is not ideal for all types of affiliate marketing.

    10.  Uppromote

    UpPromote Affiliate & Referral is the Shopify app store’s top-rated affiliate marketing/referral solution. They have simplified the complexities of affiliate marketing for its 35,000+ brands.

    UpPromote’s various pricing options range from FREE to $199.99/month, making it appropriate for businesses of all sizes. Additionally, UpPromote offers Enterprise clients customization upon request. With its built-in triggers, UpPromote streamlines communication and automates tasks like creating signup forms. It is an easy-to-use method of affiliate marketing that lets you concentrate on the outcomes rather than the difficult process.

    11. CJ Affiliate

    Formerly known as Commission Junction, CJ Affiliate is one of the biggest and most well-known affiliate networks. It allows individuals to connect with and influence a global audience both offline and online. The platform, which is intended for publishers, affiliates, and brands, makes use of modern optimization technology to provide countless chances to engage with new clients. Every month, CJ reaches more than 1 billion digital customers in more than 240 countries and territories.

    12. Rakuten Marketing

    Rakuten Marketing is part of the Rakuten Group, a global leader in online services. Rakuten Advertising helps brands and agencies engage with a variety of consumers on their digital media platforms. The site is famous for its partnerships with leading companies and provides advanced monitoring and analytics solutions. Their global affiliate network is highly ranked, and brands benefit from experienced support, innovative products, and the potential for great collaborations. It is excellent for affiliates who wish to reach a global audience.

    13. Affise

    Affise is a platform made to facilitate the growth of partnerships between agencies, marketers, and brands. Since its launch in 2017, Affise has assisted over 1000 customers in increasing their revenue. It provides all the tools and functionality you need to manage your partner marketing from a single platform with its three flexible solutions.

    Affise charges $500 for every 40,000 conversions and 15 million impressions. This includes real-time data, automation features, extensive tracking and targeting, and one custom domain. However, commission tiers, short links, revenue prediction, and white-label features are only available to higher-tiered plans.

    14. Rewardful

    Rewardful is designed to assist SaaS companies in setting up and tracking affiliate and referral programs using Stripe or Paddle. After the account is linked, you can give Rewardful permission to monitor commissions, discounts, and referrals.

    Rewardful is a subscription-based platform that automatically modifies commissions for downgrades, upgrades, free trials, cancellations, and refunds. Rewardful has a range of subscription choices to suit various needs and budget ranges. While users find it simple to use the platform, they do, however, wish there were more supported payment options.

    15.  ShareASale

    ShareASale’s network connects online retailers with more than 225,000 affiliate partners globally. The program, which is intended to serve agencies, merchants, and affiliates, provides advanced technology along with instant insights into performance metrics, affiliate partner activities, and customized diagnostics.

    ShareASale is a great option for both novice and experienced marketers because of its user-friendly interface and wide selection of merchants and products.

    Unfortunately, it has a restricted Global Reach as it is mostly concentrated in the US market.

    Conclusion

     Investing in any of these tools will make managing your affiliate program and affiliates much easier. This will free up more time for you to concentrate on locating the ideal affiliates and producing engaging content.

    Spend some time evaluating the benefits and drawbacks of each choice before selecting the one that most closely fits your affiliate marketing plan.

    Make sure you choose your vendor wisely if you’re new to the affiliate marketing industry and learning how to become one. Choose a company that offers a free trial so you can test it out and see whether it works before subscribing. Don’t forget to consider the online reputation mostly by reading reviews.

  • Top 10 High Ticket Affiliate Programs To Watch Out For

    Affiliate marketing programs are many, but it can be challenging to locate a high-paying program that will allow you to make some serious money. Due to the vast products and commission plans to pick from, marketers sometimes end up in unprofitable agreements.

    You cannot rely solely on affiliate marketing as your primary source of revenue by selling low-cost products for low commissions. So, you have to choose the products and services that you promote wisely. This is where high-ticket affiliate marketing comes into play.

    To help you increase your revenue potential, we’ve compiled a list of the best 10 high-ticket affiliate marketing platforms.

    What Is High-Ticket Affiliate Marketing?

    High-ticket affiliate marketing is a type of affiliate marketing where a marketer advertises to a specific audience high-ticket products or services, usually those with a higher price tag. The goal of these programs is to draw in high-quality leads and clients who are prepared to make bigger orders of the products or services that are being provided.

    Unlike regular affiliate marketing programs, which often rely on drawing in a sizable amount of general traffic, these marketing campaigns target influencers with substantial influence over their respective industries.

    They do, however, also carry some concerns, such as competition and the requirement for an effective marketing plan.

    Therefore, choose a program that is suited to your target demographic and marketing abilities.

    How Much Do High Ticket Affiliate Marketers Make?

    High-ticket affiliate marketing earnings depend on the platforms you are promoting. For every new user, some platforms can pay between $50 and $500. Some might promise large rewards for only one sale.

    ZipRecruiter data shows that the average monthly salary for high-ticket affiliate marketers is $6,523. That works up to $78,282 annually.

    Renowned marketers like Neil Patel and Pat Flynn make seven figures a year.

    Please keep in mind that, while some marketers might make a lot of money with high-ticket promotions, the data presented above is just for full-time marketers. This implies that the reward could be substantially less if you treat it like a side hustle or with disinterest.

    Top 10 High Ticket Affiliate Marketing Programs

    1. Kinsta

    Kinsta’s affiliate marketing program is rewarding and one of the greatest ways to promote a quality-managed WordPress hosting service. Every year, the program provides at least $1 million in commissions to affiliates who bring individuals to Kinsta’s hosting services.

    Affiliates receive up to $500 for successful referrals and an additional 10% of the monthly plan charge for the duration that the referral stays a Kinsta customer.

    Kinsta provides last-touch attribution and a 60-day cookie duration. The program offers real-time traffic tracking, affiliate managers to support the affiliates, and tools and information to help them in their promotional efforts.

    2. Shopify

    Shopify is the most popular platform for building stores for e-commerce. They make it simple to open a store quickly, no matter the niche. Because of the nature of the Shopify platform, this affiliate program is excellent for beginners because it isn’t niche-specific. You can participate in the program if Shopify’s third-party affiliate software supports your country of residence. But you need to have an audience that you have built, owned, and managed a website, and know about Shopify or other e-commerce systems.

    Working with the Charle Shopify agency can also help you build a conversion-focused store and content strategy that makes affiliate promotions easier to execute.

    Full-priced plan referrals earn a commission of $25 to $150, while POS Pro referrals earn up to $500.

    The affiliate team at Shopify provides you with a comprehensive collection of instructional resources, creative assets, and lead magnets to help you develop compelling marketing content. You can also access performance data through your affiliate dashboard.

    3. WP Engine

    WP Engine is an e-commerce hosting provider that offers website themes and WordPress hosting for individuals, companies, and blogs. WP Engine is more costly than the majority of other hosting providers, but it is still worthwhile.

    Commission rates begin at $200 for a WP engine referral or 35% on StudioPress theme sales. In addition, affiliates who promote other marketers to the program will receive $50 each time one of your referred affiliates closes a deal. Lastly, you have plenty of time to profit from your traffic because the WP Engine program offers one of the longest cookie durations—180 days for hosting referrals and 60 days for theme-based earnings. Payments are made monthly via ACH or PayPal.

    4. Semrush

    Semrush is an online marketer’s tool for search engine optimization. There are almost ten million Semrush users, including Fortune 500 businesses. Affiliates earn between $200 and $350 for every new customer and  $10 for a 30-day trial, even if the referral does not pay. As you advance to higher tiers, your commissions will increase. It uses a last-click marketing attribution method, in which the last affiliate link that converts a lead receives credit for the transaction. You will have access to pre-made promotional materials as a Semrush affiliate, and a group of committed professionals will help and advise you with your marketing initiatives. You have a better chance of receiving the commission thanks to its 120-day cookie duration. Payments are made via PayPal 21 days after the lock period.

    5. Liquid Web

    Liquid Web offers a wide variety of high-performance hosting options to suit the needs of companies big and small. Liquid Web’s hosting service is marketed with features such as dedicated servers, cloud and VPS hosting, and round-the-clock customer assistance.

    Of all the hosting companies, Liquid Web offers one of the highest-paying commission programs. For all hosting plans, their one-time commission rates are 150% per sale. Your earnings will vary according to the product, from $150 to $7,000.

    With the help of the comprehensive marketing resources, individualized support, and easy dashboard offered by Liquid Web’s affiliate support team, marketers can effortlessly monitor their performance and refine their strategies as necessary.

    6. Fiverr

    The Fiverr affiliate program enables a variety of marketers to earn commissions by promoting Fiverr’s freelance services.

    The platform offers a variety of products, including Fiverr Business, Fiverr Pro, and Fiverr Learn.

    The program has different commission arrangements, such as revenue share, fixed rate, or hybrid. Within the first 12 months, you will also get a steady 10% revenue share of any additional orders placed by those clients. To ensure the success of its affiliates, the Fiverr program offers them tools, resources, and expert support. Additionally, the cookie duration is infinite.

    7. ClickFunnels

    ClickFunnels is an entrepreneur’s landing page builder. It was established in 2014 and currently has over 100,000 users. Consumers can benefit from the expanding collection of booklet guides or subscribe to the suite of tools for creating websites.

    Affiliates who sell products that range in price from $97 to $297 per month will receive a 40% recurring monthly commission. On the other hand, web publishers can make $100 for each lead on two of their other affiliate items, which are often offered as an upsell later in the customer journey. Cookie duration is  45 days.

    Payments are made every two months via wire transfer, PayPal, direct deposit, or ACH.    In addition to their committed affiliate managers, they have hundreds of other affiliates who share their interests in a Facebook group they call the Affiliate Avengers.

    8. HubSpot

    HubSpot develops software for companies in the marketing, sales, and customer support domains. Its tools are used by more than 113,000 customers in more than 120 countries to generate leads, manage them via email lists, drive them through the user journey, and compel them into making a purchase.

    Although it’s a pricey tool, it’s amazing. Affiliates get a 30% commission on every successful sale.

    The program’s 180-day cookie lifespan increases the conversion rates.  When affiliates perform better, they are eligible for special offers like guest blogging opportunities, comprehensive performance reports, and devoted affiliate assistance.

    9. Villiers Jets

    Villiers operates a chartered jet network with over 10,000 private planes going to 40,000 destinations. Users can book flights and compare prices on the platform.

    Villiers provides affiliates with a recurring commission of up to 30%   which, considering the expensive cost of private jet reservations, can add up to substantial profits. Cookie duration is 365 days.

    Additionally, Villiers provides personalized assistance and committed support from a committed affiliate manager. Payments are made 14 days following a flight’s completion by PayPal or wire transfer.

    10. GetResponse

    The GetResponse Affiliate Program enables people and marketing companies to get commissions By referring clients to their email marketing and automation platform. They offer two referral programs: the Bounty Program, which offers $100 for each sale, and the Recurring Program, which offers a monthly reward of 33%.

    They give real-time insights, statistics reporting, and affiliate discounts on GetResponse plans, making the program especially attractive to marketing managers looking to scale their email and automation efforts.

    To assist affiliates in maximizing commissions, They also provide resources including banner ads, content materials, and marketing tips.

    Payment options include Euro transfer, ACH, PayPal, and checks.

    For both programs, you get a 120-day cookie, which gives you ample opportunity to convert sales.

    Conclusion

    To sum up, high-ticket affiliate marketing presents a substantial opportunity for revenue generation and business expansion. The secret is to select the appropriate programs and design an effective affiliate marketing strategy. It is possible to generate profitable profit margins and establish a successful affiliate marketing business by choosing a program that is suitable for the intended audience and your marketing skills.

    Look through our extensive list to identify the program or programs that best fit your needs, then pick the ones that have benefits that match your objectives.

  • Affiliate Marketing: A Beginner’s Guide to Earning Passive Income

    Affiliate marketing is becoming an increasingly popular way to generate passive money online. It’s become a popular approach for e-commerce brands to promote their products and services, with 79% of online companies using affiliates. As more people shop online, affiliate marketing has become even stronger. It is the simplest way to make money online as you do not need to manufacture your products, nor do you need to sell anything. All you need to know is how to recommend a product or service for you to earn.

    In this guide, you will learn the basic strategies and tactics needed for starting a successful affiliate marketing business and generating passive income streams. Later, we’ll look at five profitable affiliate programs to join and start earning.

    What is affiliate marketing?

    Affiliate marketing is the process of receiving a commission for advertising another person’s or company’s products or services. You choose a product or service that you like, market it to your target audience, and receive a percentage of the profit for each sale you make. In short, you help the company generate sales and you get a share from the sale. The best thing is that you don’t have to spend time and money creating your products. Furthermore, you don’t have to deal with the hassles of shipping and customer support.

    Affiliates include people like content creators, bloggers, YouTubers as well as social media and email marketers. Affiliate marketing was estimated to be around $12 billion in 2020 and is expected to skyrocket in years to come making it a strong tool to earn passive income. Your main responsibility as an affiliate is to link prospective clients with the items or services they require.

    How does affiliate marketing work?

    When you sign up for an affiliate program, you will receive a unique affiliate link. This link has a unique URL that records the sales you make. To generate leads, promote your affiliate program’s products or services on social media platforms or personal websites. When someone clicks on your affiliate link and makes a purchase, you will receive a commission. The commission rate varies for every affiliate program, but it is usually a percentage of the sales price.

    Types of Affiliate Marketing

    Unattached Affiliate Marketing:

    Unattached affiliate marketing entails promoting products that are unrelated to your business, website, or blog. Despite your status as an affiliate, you lack the appropriate knowledge and skills to recommend or advise on the items. You promote the product using advertising channels such as Google Ads or social media ads, earning commissions via the pay-per-click model. This sort of marketing might be time-consuming because you must conduct research and understand what your target audience needs. It will also take a long time to gain the trust of your target audience for them to purchase your products.

    However, if done effectively, this type of affiliate marketing can result in substantial payments.

    Example: You can promote a fitness supplement or fitness-related material, or you can promote a hosting company and its web hosting services. You are not required to use their services or products to be their affiliate. All you need to do is post banners or links on your website.

    Pros of Unattached Affiliate Marketing

    • Can lead to a high payout after building trust
    • You don’t promote the products actively
    • You don’t have to be present or have authority to promote a good or service.

    Cons of Unattached Affiliate Marketing

    • You must build trust with your audience
    • You cannot recommend or advise on the product
    • Generating sales is a major bet!

    Involved Affiliate Marketing

    In this sort of affiliate marketing, the affiliate has a stronger relationship with the products they represent. As an affiliate, you may have previously used the product or are presently using it and can safely recommend it to your target audience. You endorse the product in your content as part of your life, not in a banner advertisement. As a result, you are an expert who serves as a reliable source for your audience. Involved affiliates participate in activities such as webinars, seminars, and speaking engagements to increase product awareness. This type of affiliate marketing needs more effort and time to establish trust, but it is likely to yield higher returns in the long run.

    Example: A fitness influencer recommends the sportswear brand he wears every day. The influencer will give all the positive reasons to choose the brand from his point of view.

    Pros Of Involved Affiliate Marketing

    ·         You can build a relationship with your customers.

    ·         You promote what has been tested and approved

    ·         Trust results in higher payouts

    Cons Of Involved Affiliate Marketing

    ·         You must be very conversant with the recommended product

    ·         A slight mistake can tarnish the reputation of the affiliate

    It is more tedious compared to others

    Related Affiliate Marketing

    In this type of Affiliate program, you promote products related to your specialization but you might or might not use the products yourself.  Related affiliate marketing makes your job easier because you already have an established audience that is aware of your business. They trust your recommendations and can easily buy products through your affiliate links.

    Example: If you blog about gardening, you might recommend a gardening supply store to your audience. Although you don’t use their products, it will make sense for your readers to purchase from the store because it is related to your content.

    Pros Related Affiliate Marketing

    ·         If you have already built trust it’s easy to sell

    ·         You collaborate more with the merchant

    Cons Of Related Affiliate Marketing

    ·         Requires a lot of work to build trust

    ·         If you promote a wrong product you will lose your audience’s trust.

    5 tips for Affiliate Marketing Success

    1. Select your programs wisely.

    Before joining any affiliate network, you should conduct your research because it will affect your earnings potential. You should conduct a study on topics such as;

    Variety of products: Make sure the vendor you choose offers a diverse choice of products in your chosen specialty.

    Reputation: You should confirm that the company providing the product or service has a good reputation and is dependable.

    Payment policy: You should also evaluate the payment procedures used by your chosen program. Recurring payments stand out because they allow you to keep earning as long as someone purchases through your link.

    2. Understand and Prioritize Your Audience

    Always consider the demands of your target audience when selecting items or services for affiliate marketing, and choose things that provide actual value and in which you believe.

    Promoting products without delivering value to your audience might result in disinterest and loss of trust. Give preference to developing relationships with your target audience and providing them with useful material and recommendations.  

    3. Offer Incentives And Discounts

    The majority of the time, you will be advertising a good or service that people can readily obtain from any other retailer. As a result, discounts entice buyers by making the offer more appealing.

    But keep in mind that in affiliate marketing, your conversion rate matters significantly more than your commission level. Your audience of satisfied customers who believe in and even support your recommendations will grow as you increase the number of conversions.

    4. Track and analyze your progress.

    You need to keep on checking your progress to know which areas you need to polish up or maintain.   Use analytics tools like Google Analytics, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to monitor critical metrics like traffic, conversion rates, and income. Analyze your statistics regularly and make changes to your content, promotional techniques, and targeting to improve your outcomes.

    5. Stay Updated on Industry Trends

    A newbie in affiliate marketing must keep up with the most recent strategies, trends, and industry best practices. To remain on top of things, follow well-known affiliate marketers, sign up for company newsletters, and take part in online forums. This will enable you to modify your tactics and hold onto a competitive advantage.

    Furthermore, you’ll probably be able to take advantage of at least some of the fresh marketing strategies that are developed regularly.

    Examples of affiliate marketing programs

    Chic Me Affiliate Program

    Chic Me affiliate program is a fashion affiliate program that allows you to earn by promoting women’s clothing to your audience. The company supplies stylish and affordable women’s clothes. They have a wide range of products and new arrivals every day making sure your audience is spoilt for choice. Their clothes are sold at prices 50-80% lower than local stores. They offer a commission of 12% within a cookie duration of 30 days. They have a strong social media presence which increases the company’s trust hence more conversions.

    Expedia Affiliate Program

     Expedia affiliate program is a travel affiliate program where you can earn by promoting flight tickets, hotel stays, transfers, and other travel services to their audiences.  You have higher chances of earning as Expedia partners with over 2.9 million properties, 500 airlines, dozens of cruise lines, and thousands of car rental companies, which you can recommend your audience to earn. Affiliates earn 3.5% commission for vacation packages, 6% for hotel bookings, 5% for car rentals, 7% for activities and ground transfers, and £0.90 for flights. The cookie duration varies depending on the destination.

    Filmora Affiliate Program

     Filmora affiliate program is a software affiliate program that rewards affiliates for promoting their multimedia and creative software products. Filmora is a video editing program created by Wondershare The program is managed by ShareASale, CJ Affiliate, Rakuten, LinkConnector, and MyCommerce. They offer a commission of up to 30% with a cookie duration of 30 days.

    Coursera Affiliate Program

    The Coursera affiliate program is an online education affiliate program where you can earn by promoting over 4000 of their courses. Coursera is a popular online learning platform that offers courses from some of the world’s most prestigious universities and organizations. They offer a wide range of courses so you can target a wide audience. They offer a commission of 20% to 45% per sale, and the cookie period is 30 days. Affiliates get dedicated assistance and also get a monthly affiliate newsletter. 

    Hostgator Affiliate Program

    Hostgator affiliate program is a web hosting affiliate program that allows affiliates to earn by promoting their hosting services and other tool including a terrific website builder for bloggers and small businesses. Their commission is performance based with affiliates earning $65 – $125 per signup. HostGator is a well-known brand so you will not have a hard time promoting them. Hostgator hosts around 2 million websites. They offer a 60-day cookie duration.

    Conclusion

    Affiliate marketing is a great way to earn passive income as you have everything to gain and nothing to lose. Before signing up for any affiliate program, consider the level of commitment you are ready to make and determine what will benefit your audience the most. Also remember to create valuable content, promote quality products, and plan your marketing strategically. Be consistent, track and analyze your progress, and stay updated on the industry trends. So, no more procrastination, go ahead and start affiliate marketing, best of luck!