Shankar Pandiath

CONFIDENTIAL SAMPLE CONTENT WRITING ASSIGMENTS Assigned Date: April/ May 2016. Title: Guide To A Killer Content Marketing Strategy. SEO Title: Content Marketing Strategy. SEO Description: Have you ever felt that your content sucks? Or worked on some content marketing strategy, only to have it under-perform or not get the required online reach. Focus Keyword: content marketing strategy. Keywords: blog posts, content marketing, content marketing strategies, content marketing strategy, killer content marketing strategy, marketing strategy, social media. Maximum number of words: 1,900 Article Written For: [Ghost Writing Assignment] Target Source: [Ghost Writing Assignment] Article Category: Blog Post – [ Content Marketing/ SEO ] Are you looking for a Killer Content Marketing Strategy for Your Blog? Have you ever felt that your content sucks? Or worked hard on some content only to have it under-perform or not get the online reach and impact that you wanted? Well, don’t worry, this post is for you! We will show you how to plan a killer content marketing strategy! Stop the guesswork and chart out a finely tuned and content marketing strategy that is tailor made your audience. If you plan to develop or even give a makeover to you existing content strategy, then this guide is for you. What is Content Marketing?       Content marketing is the new market formula for online advertising. It gives businesses a whole lot of new opportunities in addition to the wide online reach that it provides. It allows to businesses to penetrate their market objective faster and easier. Unlike conventional advertising, it gives businesses a faster and more personal connection to its consumers. It is faster, cheaper and lot less cumbersome compared to conventional advertising. To sum it up, content marketing is knowing what your consumers want and translating that need through content. Source – Smart Insights The key to understanding content marketing is to know what tickles your markets’ fancy. You have to put yourself into the customer’s shoes and start thinking like a consumer and make your content relate to your customer’s needs. Make it feel that each word is addressed directly to the consumer. Once you have learned to achieve that personal connection with your consumer, you can easily achieve your market objective. What is the difference between content marketing and native advertising? Content marketing can ‘convert’ the customers who look you up. In content marketing, you have a hold on the media. In addition, and in all likelihood, your content could also get the extra mileage through the Social Media. Native advertising makes customers look you up. Here are FIVE ultra-important content marketing strategies. Your First Content Marketing Strategy Would Be To Define Your Customer Persona.    A good content marketer always makes a detailed report about his customer persona. He has to identify that key additional element about his customer that his competitors or other companies have ignored. Track your back links, keywords, brand mentions, and know what your competitors are doing. Apart from customer demography and geography, you should also have a clear knowledge about their customer behavioral patterns Your Second Content Marketing Strategy Is To Define Your Content Type. Adding Images and Lists are easy to do and could result in a post that is more link worthy. The chance of other bloggers linking to your post is high, if you add a few images to your article or blog post. This is further emphasized by the guys from Moz in their recent study. Of course, this is not images sourced or copied from the net, but from unique infographics that you have created. SOURCE – Moz.Com SOURCE – Buffer.Com        You can create content in the form of text, image, text and image, video, or audio. This can be either through blog posts, images, slideshows, info-graphics, videos, podcasts, animations, or jingles. Every form of content is powerful, but it is impossible to do everything at once. A startup also has very limited resources. Hence, the only way to chart out a killer content marketing strategy is to find that one thing that works best for you. Then, put all your energies into that best channel. The next step would be to select one or two content types and experiment with it. Content marketing takes time, but once it starts working you will be surprised by the results. You can start by doing something simple.    Figure out which of your blog posts are working and why. ALSO, RE-USE THE CONTENT OF YOUR BEST POSTS/ ARTICLES. Make slideshows, videos, and info-graphics of your proven content. While some people are comfortable in reading blog posts, some like the images. Of course, everyone loves watching videos. Your Third Content Marketing Strategy Is To Find The Right Distribution Channels. You wrote an awesome article and published it on your blog, but no one reads your article other than your team members. Even your friends and family will not read unless they are your target audience. If you are a content marketer, you need to put in only 20% (percent) for content creation, while the balance 80% should go into content promotion. That does not mean you should reduce your efforts in content creation. Don’t ever compromise with the quality of your content. Great content can provide a unique experience to your readers. Your Fourth Content Marketing Strategy Is To Choose Your Social Media Distribution Channels Carefully. One of the best ways to make your reader tweet your article is by offering them something tweetworthy! A sample is given below.     You can distribute your content on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Medium, or whichever social media channel that you feel is best for your business. But, focus on the social media channel that has the majority of your target audience. Besides, there is no benefit of tweeting if your target customer is not on Twitter. Likewise, there is no point in ignoring Pinterest or Instagram, if your target audience spends most of their time-sharing pictures. Your Fifth Content Marketing Strategy Should Focus on SEO.     Remember that a good content marketing strategy is essential for good SEO. Search engines will not optimize your content unless you work hard on understanding the mechanisms of SEO. Every other company is competing on the keywords that your customer is searching on Google. If you want to come on top of Google search results, then you have to invest your time and money to do a better job than your competitors do. Finally, Blogging Should Be Your Central Content Marketing Strategy. Blogging is unquestionably the cheapest form of content marketing. It has been around for the last two decades, and the reason it is still popular is that it still works. Besides, it is much better than just posting updates on their social media channels. One of the best functions of blogging lies is its dynamism. In other words, its ability to let you publish content frequently. However, publishing a blog post every day is not recommended. Do it, unless you are starting out. PLEASE NOTE there is also NO HARM in doing so on a daily basis. Blogging Frequency. Just go through this Moz STUDY – Self-explanatory! The study shows that while doubling publishing rates on their blog led to an increase in traffic compared to their benchmark rate of 10 weekly blog posts (1 per weekday), the marginal increase in sessions was just 2.9 percent. Moreover, Moz’s content engagement (likes and comments) dropped only by small a percentage when the normal publishing rate was reduced to ONE blog post every other day. In fact, audience engagement dropped when post frequency increased, showing that users can only take so much content before they lose interest. Simply put, the additional resources required to churn out more content might not be worth the small gains in traffic. The pain is not worth the gain. While consistent blogging is important for both SEO purposes and audience engagement, the better approach is to focus on quality instead of quantity. Longer Content On Blogs Works Better. A Buffer.com study on the optimal length of online text content shows that LONGER BLOG POSTS often tend to show better results in terms of traffic and SEO performance. The report claims that the IDEAL length for blog posts is about 1,600 words, with 74 percent of users read blog posts under 3 minutes long, and 94 percent of users read blog posts under 6 minutes long. The below chart from Moz.Com, shows that posts with 1,800 odd words have a much higher average of linking domains. SOURCE – Moz.Com Meatier content takes time, research, and knowledge to build, which is what increases its value to readers and helps establish your brand as knowledgeable and reliable. It also increases lead generation and conversion rates. The point is to focus on creating high-quality in-depth content that doesn’t just answer the what, where, and when, but also the why and how questions of your readers. Another Cool Tip For Bloggers. All you have to do is find a piece of content that performed really well in your niche and build your own piece on top of it. Try this FREE handy tool called Content Explorer to search for contagious articles. Content Explorer can track your back links, keywords, brand mentions, and know what your competitors are doing. Just put your keywords into it, and the tool will give you a list of articles sorted by the amount of shares they have. In short, it can help you build a winning content marketing strategy. Final Summary. Considering the time today’s, online market spends in front of their cellphones, laptops, and other gizmos; content marketing helps keep your marketing campaign. It is always better to market your message through online content than compared to traditional forms of advertising or marketing. Content is the most effective medium for connecting with your audience. It does not matter whether it is on social media, your blog, or case studies, press releases, or white papers. Ultimately, content is what pushes an ordinary reader to go to your site. Content is what converts a reader to a customer or lead, so it only makes sense to invest in content marketing strategies. It is also important to know that content marketing strategies are an important aspect in your online marketing reach. Social Media Marketing – Only good content will generate good social media following. In other words, if there is nothing interesting, it is a waste to post it on social media channels. Public Relations – Content is the best way to create a personal connection between the target market and you. Generating Traffic – Content is the best form to generate traffic to your site than anything else. SEO – Combined with good original and unique content, SEO almost guarantees that search find their websites during online searches. Alternately, if you are not able to position your content effectively, it would mean getting covered by competitor brands who have invested more and better on their content. In other words, you should have a clear objective of what your content is aiming for. To put it simply, start with a customer persona, create quality content, and don’t try more than two types of content at one time. Remember to reproduce your best content. Also, figure out the best social media distribution channel. All said and done, there is no SPECIFIC formula to follow…. nor there is ONE MAGIC content marketing strategy, that works all the time for any NICHE. Nevertheless, content marketing is booming right now, but it is not a one-size-fits-all kind of thing. Quite the contrary, content marketing is all about tailoring your activities to your product or service, specific needs, audience, etc. So, don’t be afraid to shake things up and implement new strategies. As a closing word, just remember that blogging helps a lot… and constantly analyze your content and keep experimenting! If you have any questions, or, if you wish to discuss any content marketing strategy, please feel free to leave a message in the comment section below. CONFIDENTIAL Assigned Date: February 2017. Title: How to Write Sensational Marketing Blogs That Clients Will Actually Read SEO Title: How to Write Sensational Marketing Blogs. SEO Description: Tips and tricks on how to write sensational marketing blogs that clients will actually read. Also included are a list of marketing trends, and blog topics that have had success in 2016. Focus Keyword: How to write sensational marketing blogs. Keywords: How to write sensational marketing blogs, sensational marketing blogs, power words, traditional media, social media, Maximum number of words: 1,000 Article Written For: [Ghost Writing Assignment] Target Source: [Ghost Writing Assignment] Article Category: Blog Post – [ Content Marketing/ SEO ] You may be a regular blogger, but do you have have any idea on how to write sensational marketing blogs, that clients will actually read? The answer may lie in the content itself. Are you sure, you are writing blog posts that are interesting and are not boring! your customers want to read? Let me take you through some strategies on how to write sensational marketing blogs….and believe me you will not regret reading it. Firstly, let’s find out why do people want to read blogs? In her article published in the Atlantic Journal of Communication, Professor Barbara Kaye described nine reasons why people spend both time and attention on blog posts. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Convenient and great source of info., that is faster than traditional media channels. More real and grass root version of information, i.e., anti-traditional media sentiment. Makes readers as if they are part of a community where they can express their views. Provides readers with personal opinion that identify with the readers, unlike traditional media. Blogs provide a feeling of ambience that gives the reader a sense of place and belonging. Provides a personal sense of entertaining and enjoyment of the reader. Ability to debate on political issues, which is exactly what the readers want. Freedom to express a variety of views, as they are not connected to the mainstream media. Lastly, blogs provide that specific information what readers are searching for. Your marketing blog may not be a political platform and will also take time to generate an ambience… but ultimately, it has to be combined with the right content to get your intended audience reading, and sharing your content… and keep them coming back for more. Here are a few tips on how to write sensational marketing blogs that clients will actually read. Create mind-blowing titles. According to Brian Clark, an article with a weak headline is as good as rendering that article invisible... because nearly eight out of 10 people scan the title first, before pursuing further. Another interesting fact is that nearly 73% of the buying decisions are reached, when an ideal customer reads and is satisfied by the title. Incorporate power words in the titles and subtitles of your blog. Certain words have an effect on people. They tend to inspire and make people take actio. Remember that, words do have power and you should incorporate these words often. You don’t have to be a professional copywriter to use power words effectively. Image Source: How Power Words Can Define Your Business Mentioned here are some power words [courtesy: Jon Morrow] – Include them in your next article post. An info-graphic is given below to further validate a power word title. It’s perfect to add power words in the title and subtitle of your blog post... as they inspire, and prompt, the reader into action. However, it is important to remember that users don’t specifically search for power words. Do headline preferences make any difference? A Conductor study that was taken done sometime in 2013, found out that more explicit a headline is in comparison to the reader takeaway, the more the headline resonates... Source : Moz.com Increase your blogs’ appeal with visuals. People love visuals and this is a surefire way to increase traffic to your blog. Visuals are great for telling your brand stories. Attracting readers to your blog is just the first step... but you have to ensure that they stay until the end. Use of Listicles. Listicles are rather popular with the content marketing fraternity. It is basically a jargon for a combination of a list and an article. It is not very popular in journalism circles as its objective is to invite clicks. However, Listicles can either be used well or used poorly. Listicles are here to stay… and it has been proven scientifically. Hence, if you are doing any kind of content marketing, you should be interested in them because, when done correctly, they can be very powerful. Image Source: Websetnet.com Interestingly, funny Listicles do very well in the social media. Does formatted content make a difference? If you want people to read your content, then you must learn to format your content effectively. This includes font typeface and font size. Formatting isn’t optional. It is a necessity. This post by Adam Thomson, further justifies this. The WordPress platform is also an useful tool to create stunning content. Skimming and skimmers make a huge difference. Skimmers rapidly skim the title, headings, topic sentence, visuals, and content to get a basic idea of the post. If they are convinced, they return to read more comprehensively. And, most of them end up buying the product. So, make it a point to put your subheadings and the prominent words in bold, as well as sentences. Also, use visuals/ Listicles to break down large pieces of text. Lastly, you should try and use long-form content as it will get you more online visibility. Make it a point to respond to comments. It is obvious that if you have a blog, you need to make sure it stands out from the competition… We also know that by writing good, compelling, and relevant content, your customers will actually seek out, read, and share. But, how does one go about it? Start with listening. Start replying to response to your current article posts, and new article posts to individual queries. Social media can hold another wealth of subjects. Make a list of the most popular posts related to your niche. The core of content marketing is about creating useful and relevant content. Creating content that your audience wants to read… it means creating content that is enjoyable, interesting and meets the needs of the readers. This means you have to be aware of what your audience is saying about your competitors as well, both positive and negative. Just visit Buzzsumo.com, and input the title, key phrases, long-tail keyword or topics related to your niche… and you get a list of the most popular posts [related to your niche] that are currently trending. BuzzSumo helps you provide more information about your products and service, with value and authority through meaningful posts. Conclusion. Content marketing has changed the entire concept of content writing. By using the right copy, mixed with proper SEO, the chances of getting a loyal set of readers has become a lot easier. Naturally, converting this reader base into long-term customers is the key. Long-term customers, who remain loyal to the brand! Once you have achieved that, whatever SEO tactics you may decide to implement… to improve traffic and blog’s search rankings is irrelevant… at the end of the day, what matters is brand loyalty and the “word of mouth.” By understanding all this, it will be much easier to create an effective blog marketing strategy… and deliver the content that the readers really want and expect… this will make them come back for more, because of the value you blog offers. I hope the above tips will help you write sensational marketing blogs that clients will actually read, CONFIDENTIAL Assigned Date: January 2017. Title: SEO Predictions For 2017 SEO Title / Focus Keyword: SEO Predictions for 2017 SEO Description: These SEO Predictions For 2017 may not increase your site’s rankings in search engines, but will surely help make you a better online marketer in 2017. Keywords: SEO Predictions for 2017, content delivery networks, accelerated mobile pages, mobile search, seo predictions, mobile. Maximum number of words: 1,500 Article Written For: [Ghost Writing Assignment] Target Source: [Ghost Writing Assignment] Article Category: Blog Post – [ SEO ] SEO Predictions for 2017 will not be something that is going to change the world of SEO…, as it will continue to evolve just as it has in the previous years. Most experts tend to take the safe route when making SEO predictions, particularly at the beginning of each year. Therefore, it is advised that any SEO prediction be taken with a pinch of salt… as no matter how experienced and authoritative the writer is… we will know what happened only at the end of that year. Now that being said, the main purpose of this article post is to have a constructive view of what COULD happen over the next 12 months… taking in to account, the SEO trends of 2016 and the previous years. Of course, there would be some key changes, but apart from that, little remains to be said. Obviously, new technologies and new trends will emerge, and gain popularity, and a few of the existing popular practices with disappear. So, let’s take a look for what is ahead in 2017. SEO Predictions for 2017… Mobile, Mobile, Mobile…. The shift from desktop to mobile. Source: WordStream Focus on Mobiles. Sometime during early November, Google indicated that their index would begin to slowly shift to a Mobile-first focus. Obviously, this further justified the reality that the era of the mobile search has begun… It now was about 60% of the total search volume. That’s about close to a 2:1 ratio between mobile and desktop. It does not stop there... as it is projected to increase further as we move into 2017. Hence, it is clear to say that Google is fast moving to a mobile world. In fact, mobile-first indexing seems like the inevitable consequence of a year (or if not more) of almost exclusively dedicated to forcing a change of mindset from desktop to mobile. With this announcement, it is clear that we now we now have to prioritize mobile over desktops. Obviously, in such a scenario, i.e., in a mobile-only world, the relevance of local search is even higher. Share of online searches initiated on a mobile device, by industry. Source: Hitwise Mobile Marketing Statistics Compilation [2007-2015] Source: Comscore More than 88 percent use online MOBILE search to seek out more information about a company Accelerated Mobile Pages or AMPs. SEOs have long considered that mobile search as one of the many key specializations of search engine optimization... That mentality did not change much back during end of 2015, when Google announced AMP. It is no secret that we live in the age of mobile and smartphones… You see people just about anywhere fiddling with their mobile devices… As a result, this has had a significant outcome on overall search trends. If you require some info on any query, it is quite natural that you would take out your smart phone and run a search about it… Besides, you would also want a site that loads fast and comes up with the required info that you need. If it doesn’t load quickly, chances are that you would exit and go elsewhere. Through 2016, Google has pushed several AMP-related actions for adoption… and it is fast becoming accepted… AMP uses data, which is 8 TIMES less than the usual pages, and which is also 4 TIMES faster than regular pages… thereby loading pages faster. . In fact, Google is also giving priority to AMPs… By providing increased prominence and even the insertion of a lightning symbol, indicating the presence of AMP. Sometime back in February, 2016, Google started to send people to AMP pages in their TOP STORIES section of the SERPs on mobile phones… Other key industry players have been collaborating for over a year to make this become a reality. One of the much talked about factors was the AMP validator… That they built into the Google Search Console… This helps webmasters to QA their own AMP-optimized content. Alternately, you can also self-validate with the AMP validation post on the Accelerated Mobile Pages Project website itself. The bottom line is that people want prompt answers to their queries on mobile devices… this has led to Google pushing this hard during 2016… So, it is high time you catch up, as this will greatly decide your SEO strategy for 2017... In short, it is obvious that the AMP function will be popular in 2017. Importance of CDN or Content Delivery Networks. Over six years ago, Google first announced that page loading speed would be a prime factor for website rankings. Content Delivery Networks has gradually been growing over the last couple of years. News and media sites along with e-commerce merchants use it to improve overall conversions, and User Engagement as it helps content load faster. Similar to AMP, the objective of a CDN is to ensure that web pages load faster, and to also improve SEO. It is obvious that 2017 will see more sites utilizing the benefits of these content delivery networks. SERPs will begin to show more of Long Form Content, instead of Category and Product Pages. Another interesting fact is that the mobile search keywords will be longer, or long tail keywords, rather than their smaller cousins at desktop. It is obvious that users are getting sick of the short form content that most retailers currently offer… and which show the same headlines and post titles with little value… invariably their keyword searches end up in category or product pages... The best way you can prevent this is by providing lower quantities of richer, more detailed, and long-form content…, which will make you stand out from the competition... Google favors informational content over ecommerce sites... which means that longer precise keywords with the right mix of content marketing will play an important part for SEOs in 2017. Personalized Search and Branding. Personalized search is one of the current main characteristics of Google... enhanced by entity search and context. In other words, Google will present results or content linked from sites that already exist in our search history. This would mean that your short term content marketing strategy would be to target long-tail queries... and your short-term strategy would be to make your brand synonymous with our products and services. This can be got by promoting the precise content in the right format, promoted to the right people at the right time… Make a note SEOs and remember this while promoting long tail keywords. Artificial Intelligence or AI Could See Wider Adoption. Artificial Intelligence or AI has been an important component in Google’s suite of technologies for some time now… this is only going to increase in 2017 with other tech companies following suit. Backlinks Could Lose Out To Content. It has been reported that backlinks could continue to lose out as a ranking signal in 2017… as Google will give more emphasis to relevant content. Schema Will Grow in Popularity. Schem.org is very crucial for online companies as quick answers and rich snippets are now showing 22% of the time in Google search results. These rich snippets are extremely beneficial for people looking for the quick answer to something… they usually feature at the top of the results page… and generally contain most of the information that we are searching for… with little or no requirement to view the link. So, make it a point to include schema.org markup to your website… more importantly, make it a New Year’s resolution for 2017 as well. Voice Searches or Assistants. More people would be using voice searches in the New Year… About, 20% of searches are now done using voice recognition software. It is predicted that by 2020, 50% of all online searches will be done through voice software…. This will also lead to more accuracy in search. (Source: Comscore - a global media and analytics company) Although the difference for SEO is small, it is something to make note of. There is a lot of difference to typing a search query than how we say it… Hence, SEOs must think in terms of conversational tones while implementing their voice searches for 2017. Make Frequent Audits. And, as a final say, it is advised that you do a SEO Audit very regularly… Although search engines are now well developed, it is no excuse to periodically evaluating your SEO strategies, and checking your data…Stagnancy will only lead to a decay of any SEO campaign. With a regular audit strategy, you can constantly identify any glitches and correct them before they become too problematic. Bottom-line. A closing word… SEO is all about patience… I cannot guarantee that these SEO Predictions For 2017 alone will be enough to increase your site’s rankings, but will definitely make you a better online marketer in 2017.