The Friday Fix: July 21, 2017
It’s finally Friday and time to check in for the Friday Fix, our hot list of the week’s best content marketing insight, advice, and pro tips.
An original angle on a classic topic gives your content staying power.
Create content that never expires. Look at consistently relevant topics in your industry to determine if there are any coverage gaps. Look at what was popular but is now outdated and refresh it with new, quality information. Finally, check out the competition and figure out your niche if there are similarities. --Jessica Lulka (Content Standard)
Literally get inside your audience’s head with stories.
Specific cognitive functions boosted by stories are linguistics, movement, and stimulation, so tell stories that have innately human qualities and that are the right story for your brand. She recommends a clear hero (MRI studies show readers’ brains put them in the protagonist’s role); address your audience’s problems, have clear conflict, and have a mentor (you) help the hero resolve the conflict. --Nicki Howell (Act On)
Treat your digital marketing strategy like a marriage.
There’s a disconnect between what clients expect from digital marketing and the reality. Clients want instant gratification; however, like a marriage, digital marketing takes time –as many as 1-5 years—before you see a payoff. Most quit right around the time readership goes from 100 to 1,000 (and ever higher). The moral of the story is that digital marketing takes patience, commitment, and trust…it will pay off. -- Ashwin Satyanarayana (B2C)
Think & train like a blogger for quality SEO & link building.
When it comes to successful SEO & link building, you need to be a subject expert with useful, quality stories is integral to hitting Google’s front pages; long, thorough content (2250-2500 words) gets the most average organic traffic; and finally, if you can’t write, hire a writer who can act as your brand. --Will Robins (Search Engine Journal)
Teach your Twitter account to sing for your supper.
Put Twitter to work for you by changing your approach. Follow an 80/20 rule of four entertaining tweets for every promotional one. Use photos. Work the hashtags. Link to your blog. Retweet content your audience would be into. Like tweets and like other users (especially your target audience). Use analytics. -- Em Howes’ (Crimson Design)
Planning and pinning boost the effectiveness of Instagram Live Replay.
Instagram Live Replay gives your content 24 extra hours for audiences to tune in. Maximize your replay by planning videos with the replay in mind. As soon as your broadcast begins, start talking. Have a solid video intro ready to go. After, pin a comment at the beginning of the broadcast with information on what you’ll be talking about. –Jenn Herman (Social Media Examiner)
Learn everything you need to know about your social media audience (like how they search and what keywords they use) from SEO data.
Use SEO data to learn the keywords your social media audience uses. Try an URL shortener (goo.gl) for stats on clicks and which shared posts yield the best engagement. Use SE Ranking’s competitor research tool to find where your competitor’s best content is shared, and don’t neglect Google Trends. --Jordan Kasteler (Marketing Land)
Mind your own business (blog).
When it’s not a snub, being told to mind your own business is great advice. When it comes to your business blog, mind every aspect of it. With very word of fluff you write, every shortcut you take, and every grammar mistake you make, your audience will be watching you. So, really…mind your business blog. (The Storyteller Agency)
Don’t let your brand get left behind in the content marketing rat race. Let The Storyteller Agency’s experts handle the minutia of your story, so you can focus on the big picture.
