content-marketing_adaptive_eddie-prentice_ijl-2011
DESCRIPTION
A presentation examining how important your written content is to being found online. It examines every aspect of the written word including your source code, url's, web page copy, social media, blogs and search marketing.TRANSCRIPT
Content Marketing The value of the written word in online marketing
IJL Seminar – Wednesday 7th September 2011 Presented by Eddie Prentice, Adaptive Consultancy
Agenda
• The importance of keywords
• Writing for search engines
• Writing for shoppers
• Social media
• Conclusions
Step 1: Keyword research
• Check your own website analytics
• Check out your competitors:
– Source code
– Anchor linked text.
• Use a keyword research tool
– Google keyword tool (free)
– Wordtracker (subscription)
Google Keyword Tool
Copywriting – Google Adwords
Google Adwords and landing pages
Copywriting – Meta Tags
Enter what you wish searchers to see on a Google search results page in your meta title and meta description
Copywriting – Meta Tags
Writing meta titles and descriptions is like writing ad copy. Should be persuasive not merely descriptive.
Keyword in title line Keyword in
description
Company/brand name
in description
Features &
benefits
Call to
action
Copywriting – product descriptions
• Incentive to purchase NOW
• Lots of reassurance
• Payment options
• Clear, visible path to next step
Copywriting – product descriptions
Don’t limit yourself to manufacturer descriptions. – Google doesn’t like duplicate copy
– Present benefits consumers show they like
• Check out customer reviews for copy ideas. Amazon is a good source of material.
Product pages - shoppers like detail
Why do people use search engines?
• Learn more about a product/service 46%
• To compare products/services 25%
• To read reviews about product/service 10%
• To purchase a product/service 9%
• To find to a particular site 7%
84% of searchers seek some form of online content. Only 9% are ready to buy.
How does Google find you?
• On-site factors – Coding
– Navigational structure
– Web page copy
• Off-site factors – Backlinks
– Blogs
– Social media
– Articles/PR
Why online content is so important
• It’s the main reason your potential customers are online (content for research and to compare)
• It’s the main way Google uses to rate the popularity / importance of your website in your market
Google measures your popularity by the number of backlinks to your site from other sites.
Content marketing goals
1. Get found online by creating and promoting interesting content
2. Convert followers and traffic into leads and sales
3. Measure your results to grow your business
Product reviews Price comparison sites
Social networking sites
Social media: Buyers no longer act independently
We live in a connected world
Best marketing is word of mouth BUT hot air is still hot air
We remain resistant to spammers
Connectivity doesn’t come with guarantees
What are the rules of Social Media?
• - Listen before you speak
• - Engage people with what they’re
• interested in.
• - It’s not about you, it’s about them
• (and they know it)
• - Don’t be fake
• - Have fun!
So take the “Marketing” out of Social Media Marketing
• Social media sites weren’t initially set up as marketing sites
• Success driven by the engagement between users/members
• Think “Social Media” not “Social Media Marketing” • Focus on getting people to talk about your products
and services not your marketing? • Walk the talk. No good having Facebook, Twitter etc.
if your service isn’t up to scratch. • What matters more are experiences that inspire
people to engage with and your brand in social ways.
The secret to winning new customers in the connected world
Keep the existing ones happy
Build brand advocacy
Social Media Landscape
• Blogs
• Microblogs
• Forums
• Social networking sites
Blogs
What is a Blog? • A highly personalised, publicly accessible, web
presence
• Used to express opinions, feelings and passions
• Bloggers share links and integrate media (videos, photos, podcasts) into their content
• They are updated frequently (daily or weekly)
• Intrinsically conversational and often solicit comments or call out to their readers for input
Why Blog?
Blogs are attractive to search engines & consumers:
• Frequent updates. Search engines are known to give preference to sites which have frequently updated content.
• Quality content. Good content attracts readers, incoming links and provides text for search engines to index.
• Link building. Due to the highly interlinked nature of the blogging community, blogs can quickly attract quality incoming links, another important search engine ranking factor.
How to blog for eCommerce
Set up your blog on your own domain
Ensure that your blog is located at…
http://blog.yourshop.com or http://www.yourshop.com/blog
Not …
http://yourshop.wordpress.com or http://yourshop.blogspot.com
Hosting your blog on your own domain will improve your site’s ability to get found by search engines.
How to blog for eCommerce
• Look at your customer enquiry inbox. What are the common questions/themes? Create a blog post on these.
• Keep it punchy and conversational. It’s a blog not “War and Peace”
• Use pictures, videos or graphics. Don’t set boundaries on what you can do.
• Have a purpose – calls to action, links to promotions or for more information
What to write about
• Don’t focus only on your products
• Address your industry customers’ needs / interests
• Write about general trends in jewellery
• Write about who’s wearing your jewellery
• Find ways to make your jewellery newsworthy
• Don’t just blindly promote your products
Ask the question: “will people find this interesting and want to share with their friends and colleagues?”
Most popular retailers on Twitter
Source: eDigital Research
Why people follow brands on Twitter
Source: eMarketer/ExactTarget
Why people follow brands on Twitter 1. To get updates on future products - Twitter is a useful PR tool for
creating buzz around a new product launch.
2. To engage with the company or brand – Twitter has value as a customer feedback tool.
3. To save money - To encourage brand loyalty and drive sales you can use Twitter to feed out discount codes and coupons
4. For entertainment - Brands can engage through Twitter with more interactive content, videos and pictures (rather than just a news and updates) in their Twitter stream.
5. To display loyalty - Engage them in the right way and they will help spread positive word-of-mouth about your products or services Source: ExactTarget
UK tweets about brands are 3 times more likely to be
negative as they are positive
It’s how you respond that matters
The most popular retailers on Facebook
Source: eDigital Research
The most popular retailers
give people a reason
- to follow them
- to keep coming back
That means regularly
updated content:
- wall posts
- photos
- videos
- competitions
- prize draws
Competitions help you
build your following
Discounts and offers help you
build your following
How Facebook response creates links back to your
website
Forums
Forums
• Online members communities which serve to facilitate discussion threads around common interests (mums, techies, fashion etc.)
• Can be branded or independent
• Hierarchical in structure and highly protective (moderators, administrators etc.)
Social Media is hot, yet ….
• 28% of marketers say they are not spending anything on social media marketing.
• 33% are spending less than £5,000 a year.
Source: Econsultancy/bigmouthmedia
What holds back investment in Social Media?
• No social media budget
– Expectation that’s a “free” marketing activity
• Lack of knowledge and skills
• Lack of human resource time
• Unable to measure ROI
Convert your social media followers in to leads
• Most of your social media audience is not yet ready to purchase.
• Offer them non-transactional ways to engage with you.
• Create landing pages on your site designed to collect their email address in exchange for a benefit e.g. 20% Off for all email subscribers
Your Website and SEO
SEO and content on product pages
• Develop a uniform and clean website structure
• A clear and easy-to-read URL structure makes understanding and categorizing your pages easier for search engines and humans.
• Organize product pages in this way:
http://www.yourshop.com/productcategory/product
Create unique product titles
• Search engines discount the value of duplicate content.
• If you are using the same product title as many other sites selling your same products, you will be out-ranked by bigger competitors using the same content on their product pages.
Clean url’s and category pages
Google likes clean url’s
Conclusions • Write for search engines - a keyword
strategy is critical
• Write for people – be persuasive not just descriptive
• Social media is about engagement not sales
• Make sure your website facilitates your efforts rather than hinders them – urls, source, code, navigational structure
