What is Retail Marketing?

What is retail marketing?

Retail marketing is the promotion of retail products to a specific audience in hopes of gaining traffic to a website or retail store to increase awareness and generate sales. Retail is currently going through a cosmic shift in retail marketing strategies, focused heavily on digital business transformation. However, as an industry, retail companies are inexplicably lagging behind all other industries.

According to a recent Gartner Digital Business Survey, as few as 3% of retailers are delivering clear results from their digital marketing initiatives. The survey further finds that there is a lack of clarity by retail marketers concerning their objectives. Specifically, they tend to struggle to define goals for the retail channel that are separate from e-commerce initiatives. This leaves us with the question, "how can the remaining 97% of retailers gain clarity and results towards their retail marketing initiatives?" The answer is to listen to the voice of the customer and align retail marketing initiatives with the new digital customer journey. 

In order to understand the retail buying experience it is important to evaluate the following trends that are affecting the retail customer journey.

What are retail marketing examples?

1. The Rise of Omnishoppers

We now live in a new world of "omnishoppers" where 81% of shoppers first learn about a product online before they buy in-store. It is vital to support this new hybrid (online and in-store) shopper with easy access to all the information they need at the moment they need it. While the customer journey clearly begins online it has been reported that up to 88% of online shoppers will continue to make the purchase in-store after making the buying decision online. In order to drive results, marketers in the retail industry should focus on omnichannel marketing strategies.

2. Voice Search

Voice search is on the rise and is expected to reach 50% of the search queries by 2020 according to Comscore, so it could be as large of a growth factor in search as mobile was between 2012 and 2017. This is good news for the retail industry if companies build valuable content that reaches the shopper at this crucial moment. While some shoppers may buy certain consumables through voice search it is unlikely that they will make an entire buying decision for common retail items such as electronics, fashion, and home goods. However, retailers can influence their decision at this moment.

3. Artifical Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is on the rise in retail marketing. In a recent survey to over 500 marketers, we found that 26% of marketers believe AI is the next big thing in marketing yet only 4% of them have actually implementing AI into their marketing strategies.  This represents a great opportunity for savvy retail marketers to implement AI in their initiatives. AI can help increase your online visibility through clear insights that accelerate the time to results and ROI. Imagine reviewing a prioritized optimization plan put together by an AI-powered virtual data analyst in the morning, and getting your team to work on the most important tasks before lunch.

4. Local Search

Retail Marketers must win the local search results. With digital experiences varying according to location, you can get a skewed view of how your customers experience search locally if you confine your analysis of organic demand (search volume) and content performance (organic ranking) to a single location. You may fail to see the variances in search volume between a metropolitan area and a small nearby town. And using a single-location view of organic performance can hide the fluctuations in ranking across multiple geographies. Learn more about how BrightEdge can help your local optimization efforts here.

5. Customer Reviews

Shoppers have instant access to reviews. For example, Yelp allows customers to leave their impressions and experiences with various businesses, and with over 70 million unique monthly visitors on mobile and 74 million unique monthly visitors on a desktop, the potential impact of this site on consumer behavior is significant. By and large, these reviews have a positive impact on buying decisions and displaying these ads next to a product can increase conversions by 270%.

6. Personalization

Personalization that drives customer loyalty and rewards shopping behaviors is increasingly expected by today's consumer. Retailers have understood the importance of customer loyalty for many years, in fact, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools have been used by stores for over 30 years to better understand their customer's buying habits. While this strategy has been executed for a long time new technologies such as marketing automation have allowed personalization between the store and the buyer to be automated and highly personalized. From emails to the website experience all the way to the in-store customer experience there is a high expectation of personalization that should be incorporated into the overall retail marketing plan. It is now necessary to activate content across every channel at every opportunity. Personalizing the sales experience can increase customer loyalty and engage the shopper at a whole new level. Retailers may be able to stay one step ahead of the competition by engaging customers at every touch point and making use of smart content and smart assets, such as associate-facing applications used in stores or interactive booths or screens for customers to “check in” to their store to earn a reward. Personalize email messages with the shopper’s name in the subject line and body; send personalized greeting cards via regular mail; and provide rewards or thank-you messages for visiting a brick-and-mortar store based on the shopper’s latest purchases or social media checkins. To learn more about this topic, click here.

7. Social Media

Social Media sharing drives quality inbound links as well as traffic, leads, and revenue, making it an important trend for retail marketing. Search engines are increasingly using social media activity such as Likes, Tweets, Shares, and +1s to determine which pages are most relevant for keyword searches, and to provide a personalized search experience. This offers an enormous opportunity for marketers to leverage social media to directly impact content performance, improve search rankings, and increase revenue generated through organic search.

8. Mobile Devices

Retail shoppers turn to mobile devices more frequently than desktop to research. Successful retail marketing includes strategies to deliver an exceptional mobile experience. In order to optimize the shoppers experience on mobile the retail website needs to load quickly. Crawl your mobile domain or main domain (if responsive) with ContentIQ to uncover site errors, such as slow response time or noindex tags. In addition, recent BrightEdge research confirms the first page that ranks for a search query is different on mobile vs. desktop SERPs 35% of the time. Learn more about how BrightEdge can help your mobile retail marketing strategy here.

9. Ongoing SERP Changes

Google has implemented ongoing SERP type changes that can add a lot of value to your retail marketing. From Local 3-packs to Quick Answers there are a variety optimization initiatives that can help capture more of your retail shoppers. 

10. Bounce Rates and Overall Site Performance

Over half of retailers have a bounce rate greater than 40%. This is not good. It is imperative to trim your bounce rate. A one-second increase in page load time can have a 50% impact on mobile bounce rate! Two seconds can more than double mobile bounce rates! Check your page load speed here.

Brands are now standardizing on the BrightEdge platform across key industry verticals, including the retail industry. Customer include Nike, 3M, Microsoft, and Four Seasons Hotels. BrightEdge now works with eight (8/10) out of the top ten largest retailers. To learn more about how BrightEdge can help your retail marketing initiatives contact us today.

Begin your journey toward optimizing your retail site with the industry leader in SEO, BrightEdge!

How Much Does a Blog Post Cost?

Budgeting the cost of a blog

The most common blog post cost discussed by most freelancers is around $100 for a basic post, although more technical posts can cost significantly more. When charging per word, writers will often quote from $.10 and up to $2 per word.

There are three main payment systems for the creation of content: pay by the word, pay by the project, and pay by the hour. For most brands, the blog posts they order are pay by the word or the project. Blog post costs can vary widely depending upon factors such as:

• The level of expertise required
• The amount of research needed
• The expected length of the piece

Do you have to pay for a blog?

No, you don't have to pay for a blog. There is always the solution to write the piece of content yourself if you or someone on your team has the time and the experience. Though, writing a well-developed blog can have a positive impact on a website’s success and your cost doesn't go to waste. In fact, one study found that B2B marketers who create a blog will be able to generate 67 percent more leads than those who do not.

However, many professionals struggle to find the time to create effective content. Many businesses find it preferable to outsource at least part of their content production to ensure that they are able to maintain a consistent schedule and high standard of quality. A blog post cost can easily be factored into your budget.

Can I request changes to my paid blog posts?

Edits and revision expectations should be negotiated with writers before placing orders. Most writers should understand that some adjustments may be needed on occasion - particularly at the beginning of the professional relationship. It is a good idea to lay out, upfront, exactly what you want to see in the post to reduce the need for changes and to avoid frustration on both sides. If you do need adjustments made to a post, be sure to ask promptly. Some bloggers will offer a specific number of edits, revisions, or time spent after submission included in their initial quote. Going beyond those revisions would cost you more. You can communicate how many edits and the type of edits the writer is willing to make without additional charges to your cost. Typically, if edits take longer than a few minutes, they won't be included and you'll need to pay the additional fees, whether hourly or per word.

Outsourcing content creation can be very helpful for businesses interested in keeping up with the demands of modern digital marketing. Cultivating a relationship with a writer will allow them to understand your brand voice and goals, creating an excellent opportunity to help your brand grow over time.

What is A/B Testing?

An A/B test, also known as a split test, is an experiment for determining which of different variations of an online experience performs better by presenting each version to users at random and analyzing the results. So, what is A/B testing? A/B testing demonstrates the efficacy of potential changes, enabling data-driven decisions and ensuring positive impacts.

Kyle Rush, VP of Engineering at Casper and former Head of Optimization at Optimizely, used A/B testing to increase donation conversions by 49% when he worked for the 2012 Obama for America campaign, helping the Digital team raise $250 million in 6 months. “If you aren’t testing, you don’t know how effective your changes are,” Rush says. “You might have correlation but no causation.”

A/B testing can do a lot more than prove how changes can impact your conversions in the short-term. “It helps you prioritize what to do in the future,” Rush says. “If you have 20 items on your product roadmap and you want a definitive answer as to what will move the needle, you need data. If there’s a feature that is very similar to a feature that did not work in testing, don’t go forward with it.”

“With A/B testing, you have so much more knowledge for what to roll out 3-to-4 years out.”

Used continuously and consistently, testing can improve your user’s overall experience, increasing your conversion rates in the short-term and over time.

Benefits of A/B Testing

1. Improved user engagement

Elements of a page, app, ad, or emails that can be A/B tested include the headline or subject line, imagery, call-to-action (CTA) forms and language, layout, fonts, and colors, among others. Testing one change at a time will show which affected users’ behavior and which did not. Updating the experience with the “winning” changes will improve the user experience in aggregate, ultimately optimizing it for success.

2. Improved content

Testing ad copy, for instance, requires a list of potential improvements to show users. The very process of creating, considering, and evaluating these lists winnows out ineffective language and makes the final versions better for users.

3. Reduced bounce rates

A/B testing points to the combination of elements that helps keep visitors on site or app longer. The more time visitors spend on site, the likelier they’ll discover the value of the content, ultimately leading to a conversion.

4. Increased conversion rates

A/B testing is the simplest and most effective means to determine the best content to convert visits into sign-ups and purchases. Knowing what works and what doesn’t helps convert more leads.

5. Higher conversion values

The learnings from A/B testing successfully applied to one experience can be applied to additional experiences, including pages for higher-priced products and services. Better engagement on these pages will demonstrate similar lifts in conversions.

“We use A/B testing before making any major changes at Casper,” Rush says. “We A/B tested components of a new e-commerce experience before we launched it with our new, premium mattress. The premium mattress is a huge change to our business model so it was testing was important to make sure the launch went well.”

6. Ease of analysis

Determining a winner and a loser of an A/B test is straight-forward: which page’s or app’s metrics come closer to its goals (time spent, conversions, etc.,).

“In the past A/B testing metrics were just raw numbers and you’d have to interpret them to make a decision,” Rush says. “Now services like Optimizely make the decisions for you with stats engines following best practices.”

And while testing services have evolved to include statistical analysis for users of all levels of spreadsheet expertise, the numbers for a comparison of two experiences are underwhelming in their complexity. The clarity of these stats also undermines the highest-paid person’s opinion (HIPPO) that may otherwise be overvalued.

7. Quick results

Even a relatively small sample size in an A/B test can provide significant, actionable results as to which changes are most engaging for users. This allows for short-order optimization of new sites, new apps, and low-converting pages.

8. Everything is testable

Forms, images, and text are typical items for A/B testing and updating, but any element of a page or app can be tweaked and tested. Headline styling, CTA button colors, form length, etc., can all affect user engagement and conversion rates in ways that may never be known if they’re not tested. No idea need be rejected on a conference call; testing and metrics, not emotions, prove what works and what doesn’t.

9. Reduced risks

By A/B testing, commitments to costly, time-intensive changes that are proven ineffective can be avoided. Major decisions can be well-informed, avoiding mistakes that could otherwise tie up resources for minimum or negative gain.

“The most obvious way to use A/B testing is to use it to rule something out,” Rush says. “If you see that making a change could decrease conversions, don’t move forward with it.”

10. Reduced cart abandonment

For e-commerce, getting a user to follow through with checkout after clicking “buy” on an item is a significant challenge, as most potential customers abandon their carts before paying. A/B testing can help find the optimal combination of tweaks to the order pages that will get users to the finish.

“The user experience between checkout and entering a shipping address is the best place to focus on with A/B testing,” Rush says.

11. Increased sales

Any and all of the above-mentioned A/B testing benefits serve to increase sales volume. Beyond the initial sales boost optimized changes produce, testing provides better user experiences which, in turn, breeds trust in the brand, creating loyal, repeat customers and, therefore, increased sales.

How do you perform an A/B test?

1. Go for big easy

Inculcate a culture of experimentation by A/B testing user experience elements that are easy to change but still have big potential impacts. Test changes to optimize your landing page headline and CTAs, adjusting the language to determine the best messaging. A headline change could net a 100% or better increase in conversions. With this quick win, you’ll be enabled and emboldened to do additional testing.

“Get your feet wet and see how it goes,” Rush says. “Keep doing it until you pick it up. The more you do it, the better you get at it. It’s not magic.”

2. Find your sore spots

When considering what to test, look at your sales funnel to determine where you’re losing potential conversions.

“Figure out what the conversion rate is at each stage of the funnel,” Rush says. “Focus on where the biggest drop-off occurs. Optimizing that will make for the biggest impact.”

3. Test changes only where changes are needed

If it ain’t broke, don’t test changing it.

“If a page has a conversion rate of 99%, you don’t have a problem,” Rush says. “But if you open it up to testing, people will find things to nitpick based on their preferences, such as the color. But testing for that is a waste of time.” 

4. Make A and B significantly different

A/B testing can validate a decision to make a change or to keep things as they are, but only if the proposed update is noticeably different from the original (though still within site style guidelines).

“Adding a comma isn’t going to make a difference,” Rush says. “Pick something that is completely different, not just another way to say the same thing. It should be high-contrast but still within brand. If it’s too much contrast, you can always dial it down.”

5. Get ideas from everyone

The hardest part of A/B testing is coming up with what to change and how to change it. With regards to user experience, it’s important to think—and look—outside the box for ideas.

“High-level ideas for changes can come from anywhere,” Rush says. “Not from brainstorming sessions, which may be a waste of time. Ideas have come from my mom based on my asking her, ‘What do you think about this?’ She has a unique perspective, which can be helpful.”

6. Control for time

To prove causality, an A/B test needs control variables, the elements that are kept the same throughout the experiment. One variable to control for is time, i.e., the period during which the test is run. Don’t run tests sequentially: the period for an A/B test must be the same for both “A” and “B” variables so that the user base seeing each version is the same.

7. Run tests in week-long increments

Unless you’re planning to post different versions of your page or app on the weekends, your A/B test should run long enough to ensure a full week of traffic. This ensures you’ll get accurate overall results that account for dips and spikes due to the day of week and time of day. 

8. Always be innovating

A/B testing can optimize your site or app via incremental improvements that yield quick, positive results. But don’t allow short-term successes to supersede real innovation which requires risk-taking and possible failures—but also has the greatest potential for even richer rewards.

Is an HTML Meta Tag Important?

Meta tags are important because they impact how your site appears in the SERPs and how many people will be inclined to click through to your website. They will therefore impact your traffic and engagement rates, which can impact your SEO and rankings. Meta tags are an important part of a solid SEO strategy. Although some tags might not have a direct impact on rankings, they do impact how your site appears within the digital ecosystem. Additionally, they could be a factor in many non-traditional search results, like Knowledge Graph, Google image search, voice, and more. No brand should neglect them when developing content.

What are HTML meta tags?

Meta tags are pieces of information you use to tell the search engines and those viewing your site more about your page and the information it contains. Meta tags include:

• Title tags: the title of your page, which should be unique for every page you publish
• Meta description: a description of the content on the page
• Viewport tag: impacts how your content appears on mobile devices
• Robots: can be used to indicate content that you want a “noindex” or a “nofollow”
• Hreflang tags: allows the search engine to identify the language and country you want content displayed for when you have an international audience
• Canonical tags: used to specify the primary or principle version of the page
• Open graph tags: used to specify which assets show up in title and image by default when sharing links on social sites
• Content type: impacts how your page is rendered in the browser

Meta tags have varying levels of importance for brands based upon the type of content being produced and how you want the material indexed. Given that meta tags are pieces of code, it is generally recommended that you do not include tags that you do not need but that any tags that are important for your goals should not be neglected.

How do I use meta tags?

Many of these meta tags, such as the title tags and the meta description length, will impact how relevant your site appears in the SERP.  When users receive their list of results, they will see your site title and a short description of your content -- the meta description. Users scan this information to see if they should click on a particular result. Including your main keyword naturally in these sections can boost your apparent relevance on the SERP, increasing your click-through rate. Since your SEO title tag also appears in the tab for your web page, when users have multiple pages open, this title can help entice the user to click back over to your content and further engage with your page.

With the other tags, including the content type and viewport tags, you will help Google better understand your type of content. Viewport tags will ensure that your content provides mobile users with a smooth, positive experience. Since Google’s mobile update and the recent discussion about the shift towards a mobile-first algorithm, brands want to ensure that their content has been prepared for mobile users in every way possible.

Other tags, including the Robots and hreflang tags, are useful when you have particular restrictions for your content, such as content you do not want indexed or if your content was written specifically for people in certain countries. Filling out these tags will help ensure that your content is indexed appropriately and displayed to the right audience. Since content showing up for the wrong language or country or duplicate content penalties materializing in response to content you did not want indexed will hurt your rankings and reputation, these tags are essential.

 

Get started winning with SEO using the industry's leading SEO platform - BrightEdge!

5 Tips for SEO in Australia

The complex, constantly changing world of search engine optimization can feel a lot like standing on the golden beaches of Australia: the sands of SEO never stop shifting under your feet. Google’s algorithm updates continually change the game, requiring content marketers and SEOs in Australia to remain light on their feet and adapt their strategies to remain competitive. In fact, 82% of Australian marketers surveyed by Content Marketing Institute say that they are investing in content marketing. Yet, only 28% report that their usage of content marketing is effective.

In this dynamic landscape, it’s crucial to have an integrated content and SEO technology that can peek behind the curtain to reveal the true search intent of your target audience. It’s also important that your keyword research solution allows you to go beyond the domain and analyze your site - and your competitors' - at the page URL level, so you can effectively target specific topic and content strategies for your full spectrum of products, services and business objectives.

Here are five tips to help you maintain your sanity and success in the Australian SEO game.

1. Know where your SEO stands

Creating a successful SEO strategy begins with a clear understanding of where you stand today. Search marketers in Australia now have unfettered access to real-time and historical research for topic and content trends via BrightEdge’s Data Cube. As one of the best SEO companies in Australia, BrightEdge arms marketers with the essential means to research and report on key SEO insights. The BrightEdge Data Cube now gives you insight into how your site is trending – and that of your competitors – at both domain and page URL level.

2. Identify your biggest opportunities

Now that you know where your SEO in Australia stands, you’ll want to identify what are the low-hanging-fruit topics that can provide you with easy wins. These are the keywords for which your site is currently ranking on page two. BrightEdge Data Cube can help you research into that. Even better, you can identify exactly what types of content will help you target these keywords to deliver the greatest SEO benefits, including images, videos, carousels, places, local 3-pack, and Google Quick Answers.

Furthermore, Data Cube has advanced filtering capabilities that allow you to narrow your research with a number of parameters. For instance, you can focus your research to only look at keywords with 1000 more searches per month. To make it even more specific: you can search with several conditions all at once, such as “show me only keywords that contain certain 'sydney attraction', with more than 1000 searches per month, and currently rank on page two."

3. Win with data trending

Immediate information, right down to the hyper-local or micro-moments, are indispensable to adjust content strategy and meet the needs of consumers in a specific place or time. However, changing the course of your campaign by making quick assumptions can also take you off-track from a winning strategy.

For example, maybe you’ve noticed that your overall page two listings are growing. Your alarm will be set off immediately...but do these changes indicate content decay or new opportunities? Trended data allows you to step back and examine the bigger picture. Then you’re able to take informed actions to adjust your Australian SEO tactics for sustainable wins.

4. Analyze competition

Good search engine optimization always includes a focused competitive strategy. Data Cube can shine a light on keywords that are delivering big wins for your competitors, but for which you may not even be ranking. Trending data also gives you insight into how and where your competition is winning or losing, not just in the moment, but over time.

Additionally, Data Cube can show you how your competitors are approaching content strategy overall. Are they learning and improving over time? Are there distinct patterns in their strategy that you can exploit? Do they lack a methodical approach altogether, indicated by the trended data that they’re all over the map, and trying to find something that sticks? Site Comparison within Data Cube gives you all of this powerful competitive knowledge to enable you stay agile and informed.

5. Protect your SEO equity during site migrations

Imagine you've successfully implemented a winning SEO and content marketing program, and are ready to hit the surf: the last thing you want, is any damage to your SEO equity. Even led with "first no harm" rule, any redesign, or migration to your website might deliver a hit to your SEO rankings. BrightEdge ContentIQ is a powerful product that will give you detailed information about the key site metrics before and after a site migration. For a quick spot check, you can use Trended data in Data Cube to see if your overall Data Cube score is increasing or reducing after the site migration.

Get started with BrightEdge, our SEO company in Austrialia, today!

What is a Conversion Rate?

What is a conversion rate?

A conversion rate describes how often people who land on your page complete a desired action. This conversion most often refers to people who make a purchase and become a paying customer, but it can also be used to describe people who complete mid-funnel conversions, such as signing up for an email list or downloading a gated piece of content.

Since online marketing revolves around understanding what customers want to see and then fulfilling their needs so that they continue to move through the buyer’s journey, the conversion rate is a good way to measure how well you meet the needs of these customers. A good conversion rate means that the people who land on your page are interested enough in what you have to offer to be converted into leads or customers. They feel the material you have produced fulfills their needs, and thus they are willing to pay for the content you offer. This payment might come in the form of actual money, or it might be in the form of their personal contact information.

Tracking conversions offers brands a solid understanding of how people respond to the content they create and how enticing they make their offerings. Conversion rates can also help brands track their ability to entice people to move through the different stages of the buyer’s journey toward conversion.

You want to track conversions throughout the buyer’s journey. For example, if you track the number of people who register for top-of-the-funnel conversion opportunities and then compare that to the number of people who register for mid-funnel-conversion opportunities, you will gain a better understanding of the health of your mid-funnel strategy and how well your early leads correspond with the customers that are most likely to make a purchase in the end.

Similarly, tracking the rate of mid-funnel conversions and then moving on to track purchases can help you better understand the effectiveness of your bottom-of-the-funnel processes and how well customers respond to what you offer. As you gain a better understanding of the health of these two areas, you will be able to start improving your ability to convert buyers, making it more efficient and reflecting a better understanding of what customers want to see.

It is important to remember, however, that not everyone who visits your site will end up converting. Some people do not fit into your target personas and will not likely become customers, therefore they will not likely be enticed by your material. Other people may need more time or convincing before they come back to make a purchase.

Given that you cannot expect everyone to convert on a particular landing page, brands need to understand what expectations will be reasonable for their particular landing page so that they can set effective goals. This will also allow you to gain a more complete picture when you compare your conversion rate to what would be considered a strong rate in your industry and for your type of page.

For example, someone who sells toys will see a higher rate than a site that sells real estate. Those in real estate cannot expect people to click on a particular house and immediately request an appointment or to even buy. People interested in real estate will likely do a lot of research about the particular houses, neighborhoods, mortgages, and the process of buying a house before they feel ready to convert. Someone on a toy store page, however, will be more inclined to click ‘buy’ right away if the toy fits their needs.

Understanding the conversion rates specific to your industry and your type of page will help you start to create target rates and drive your traffic.

Take those first steps toward success using the BrightEdge platform with a free, personalized demo.

What are the 12 Critical Elements of Successful Landing Pages?

In digital marketing, a landing page is a web page that a user arrives at after clicking a search result link or online ad. Also known as a destination page or lead capture page, a landing page is used to generate leads or sales by getting visitors to respond to a call-to-action (CTA). A successful landing page is optimized to drive conversions—getting more users to take the desired action. A CTA linked to gated content is critical for SEO success.

Marianne Sweeny, Search Information Architect and Principal Consultant with Professional Services at BrightEdge, helps our clients achieve their digital marketing goals and revenue targets with customized SEO recommendations. Here are her suggestions for optimizing and creating successful landing pages.

1. Scannable content focusing on the user
2. Quick loading pages
3. Big CTA
4. Address users fears and hopes
5. Deliver on its promise
6. Video and images
7. Simple design
8. Earn user trust
9. Multiple points for interaction
10. Thank you messaging
11. Tracking and testing
12. Match referring source

Improve Your On-Page SEO

1. Scannable content focusing on the user

Quality content is readable, useful content. And though quality is internal to an organization, a successful landing page’s content should support both the buyer’s journey (awareness, consideration, decision) and the conversion funnel (awareness, interest, desire, and action). As with wit, brevity is the soul of effective communication. Content focus should be narrow and the user path clear.

Landing pages with straightforward and simple headlines convert better than those with creative titles. A headline should follow the newspaper model, describing the entire article with focused keywords found in the body content.

Information presented in sections accompanied by keyword-rich headings enables users to better comprehend what is on the page. A user should be engaged with the page, following along with the content and arriving at a decision to act.

Long descriptions work best for expensive, complex, and conventional products, while short copy works best for simple, inexpensive, or free products, or when the CTA costs nothing. A bulleted list of features and benefits clearly imparts what the product can do for the user. 

2. Quick loading pages

Page load speed plays a critical role in user retention and conversions. Quicker loading leads to higher conversion rates; slower page response time results in an increase in bounce rates and a reduction in conversions—a decrease by as much as 7% for every second of load delay. Page speed is also important for search ranking as it impacts user experience.

More than half of all search queries come from mobile devices. Google's Accelerated Mobile Protocol (AMP) framework is designed to improve the speed of content displayed on mobile devices. Responsive design sites adapt page layouts for individual screen sizes, ensuring a better user experience. Users may not convert from a mobile device because it can be hard to do, but many initial and successive page visits are made via mobile.

3. Big CTA

The most essential element of a landing page is the CTA. A successful landing page should have one value proposition, one clear message, and one dominant CTA. While there may be pages with a combination of CTAs displayed, design and layout should promote one “macro conversion” as the most important for user attention.

The most successful landing page CTAs are unmissable. The color palette of a landing page can affect user interaction based on emotional and gender factors. But a likelier influence on user behavior than color scheme is “pop.” CTAs need to be isolated on the page with either white space or color. Readability is also crucial. “A CTA is ideally white text on a dark background—it converts more than dark text on a light background,” Sweeny says. “Anything is better than dark-on-dark—no one wants to go there.”

Positioned close to the CTA, a guarantee improves the chances of a conversion. Reassuring a user at the moment of decision provides a level of comfort that can aid action.

4. Address user fears and hopes

Psychology plays a part in landing page optimization. Specifically, people are loss avoidant. As such, users facing uncertainty will overweight low probability outcomes and underweight high probability outcomes around scenarios that could result in loss. Emphasizing the low probability outcomes, any form of guarantee or other plans to mitigate user loss will have a positive impact on user engagement. Successful landing page messaging assures relief.

The desire for happiness can also move users to action. Artful storytelling inspires users to associate a product with joy, fulfillment, acceptance, love, etc. With the right cues, a successful landing page can lead a user to act to satisfy an emotional craving. However, overpromising can undermine credibility.

The value proposition of the product or service should be obvious, clearly distinguishing it from similar products on the market. Users respond favorably to easily scanned comparison charts that show the difference between versions and articulate the value of each. For these comparisons, competitors need not be named.

5. Deliver on its promise

A gated white paper download, unlocked video, a contest entry, or a prize can be a powerful incentive to users and will boost SEO. Users will part with something of value if what they’re getting in return is perceived as being of higher value.

When requesting user information via a form, less is more, so ask for only what is absolutely needed. “A birth date shouldn’t be necessary for a white paper download,” Sweeny says. If longer forms are required to collect additional information, there should be tracking to indicate progress with percentage of process completed or “page 2/5,” for instance.

6. Video and images

Video can communicate complex concepts, entertain, and provide value. Embedding video in a landing page prompts prospects to action in a way text-only content cannot. Just make sure the length is tight, that the video is hosted on the page or on YouTube—not on a stack-o’-video page—and that it is optimized for search with an associated title and description and closed captioning.

Visual content captures users’ attention, helps deliver information, and lowers bounce rates but should not slow down the page’s loading time. Successful use of images rests on contextual relevance to the article topic or fit with the page’s message. Lifestyle images are effective as long as they represent use of the product in an authentic way, are effectively incorporated into the design, and are not overly familiar, which is a hazard with stock photography. Random images can also distract visitors from converting.

7. Simple design

The simpler a page’s design, the better. Simple sites are easier to load, process, and use. “The reason we can use practically any microwave is because they all follow basic constructs,” Sweeny says. “It’s the same with websites.” Global navigation is expected at the top of the page with the search box in the upper-right corner. If it’s placed somewhere else, the user will be at a loss and will likely leave the site unsatisfied.

8. Earn user trust

Product-specific testimonials from people relevant to the target audience earns users’ trust. These testimonials can be case studies or reviews culled from social networks, media, or customers directly. Reviews are the dominant form of endorsement as people rely on other people’s experiences. Awards, membership in professional organizations, and business partnerships should also be prominently displayed.

Links to relevant and trustworthy third-party sites are useful to visitors and help establish the trustworthiness of the referring site. External links to contextually relevant and supportive resources are effective in reinforcing the authority of the landing page. However, overreliance on this technique with too many external links can cause users to leave the page and even dilute the landing page authority. “True authorities don't need a lot of support,” Sweeny says.

9. Multiple points for interaction

Online chat, social links, email, a contact form, a phone number, and a physical address (with map) are all ways users can engage with an organization via a landing page. Multiple options allow users to choose what’s most convenient for them right then, whether they’re at work on laptops, commuting with their phones, or at home with their tablets. When prioritizing, onsite messaging via a “contact us” form or page is preferable to a mail-to email link.

Social buttons should initiate sharing of the landing page or associated product from the user’s accounts, as opposed to adding the user as a follower to the organization’s accounts. “As a user, I want to share a piece of content, not communicate with the brand,” Sweeny says. A product endorsement shared to a user’s following is an unsolicited evaluation and recommendation.

10. Thank you messaging

Confirmation of a successful purchase or form submission is a reassurance that the transaction was completed. Users should receive a Thank You message on-page or in a confirmation email.

11. Tracking and testing

Data can boost the value of a landing page. Continuous experimenting with subtle or not-so-subtle changes to a landing page helps gauge what works and what doesn’t. Variations on content, CTAs, headlines, or any other elements of the landing page may improve user engagement, lower bounce rates, and increase conversion rates.

A/B testing of a landing page works best when making changes to one thing at a time: if you try to test the placement of the CTA and the color and the messaging, you won’t know which one contributes to the increase or decrease in conversions. There should also be enough time for testing to provide a proper comparison.

Overall performance data helps inform decisions regarding the landing page and marketing campaigns in general. Understanding ROI—return on ad spend, cost per conversion, and conversion rate—drives optimization of marketing budgets.

12. Match referring source

Users arrive at landing pages via referrals from other pages or sites—most often search engine result pages. Ideally, a landing page is customized for different audiences based on where users arrive from: a user arriving at a landing page from a social post is different from a user who clicked on a PPC ad. Regardless, the user journey should be consistent across the referring source and the landing page to best match the user’s need. Contextual relevance between a search query or ad text and landing page copy is a key ranking factor for Google AdWords. The contextual match should be tight.

Turn your landing pages into effective sources of ROI with BrightEdge.

How to Start and Write a Blog?

Blogs have been a popular vehicle for marketers since their evolution as personal web pages in 1994 and their initial labeling as weblogs in 1997. The word's creation is attributed to Jorn Barger of the early blog Robot Wisdom, according to websdesignerdepot.com.

Many companies maintain a blog on their site. Blogs are a helpful channel for marketing departments because they use simplified publishing systems and the approval process is usually much faster and more flexible than for site pages. That flexibility content producers to capture breaking trends. In addition, a blog is a way to keep the publishing cadence high for SEO purposes.

How do you select a CMS for your blog?

Choose a publishing system or content management system (CMS) in collaboration with your Engineering team. This CMS will need to be fully integrated into your site. You will need to work with designers and UX colleagues to define the basic template you will use when you publish. Make sure to test the page load speed of the CMS in a staging instance before you fully commit to a CMS.

How long should a blog post be?

The correct answer is that they should be the right length for your users' needs, but we can simplify by saying 800 to 2000 words per post is about right.

How many internal links should a blog have?

There is no hard and fast rule for internal links out from a page, but again the links should support the user experience and intended site experience. 4 links per 1000 words of body copy is typical.

How do you find topics to write about for the blog?

There are a number of sources:

1. SEO keyword discovery. You should try to write about topics people are interested in and looking for. BrightEdge customers do this usually monthly in the Data Cube.
2. Product roadmap. The product release cycle will often indicate topics to develop and cover.
3. Company strategy. The corporate communicationsw strategy usually has themes that they want covered throughout the year.
4. Competitor sites. It may make sense for you to monitor and get ideas from what your competitors are publishing.

Should you use rich media in your blog?

Yes, definitely. Add images to your post to increase the appeal for the reader. Original images and graphics are more beneficial. Add video if you have or can create a relevant video. Videos increase visitor engagement and tend to improve conversion. 

How do you track the blog?

Most CMSes have rudimentary tracking which you can augment by adding plugins or modules. It will be best to use the same analytics resource as the main site, which for many sites is Google Analytics. The key metrics you will want to track are: Visitors, New Visitors, Time on Site, Pages Per Visit, and bounce rate. 

Should you allow people to comment on your blog?

Allowing people to participate in your blog posts is a good way to generate engagement, but it also requires constant monitoring to make sure nothing inappropriate is being published. Only use this tactic if you or someone on your team will be able to dedicate time to monitoring and replying as appropriate.

Should you update blog posts or rewrite them?

This depends on how much has changed since you first published on that topic and whether has earned SEO position. If it has earned SEO position, then it makes sense to update and enhance the original post to defend and extend the SEO equity it has earned. Updating old blogs appeals to the search engine in two ways: 1) Google respects older content that has been around, 2) Google likes fresh content and can read the last updated date from the server.

How much traffic can you expect from the blog?

"Great oaks from little acorns grow." You will be starting small and building through your direct relationships, social, and opt-in email lists, but your largest source of will be SEO and gaining good visibility in the search engines. Blog posts have the potential to draw thousands or even millions of visitors to your site.

 

What is Smart Content?

Welcome to the new era of smart content

What fuels successful modern marketing? It’s a simple question and the answer is Content. Smart Content. Every email campaign, every paid search campaign, each blog, and obviously each website page require content. Content - and content marketing - is the fuel for modern marketing - and the last mile for delivering performance and a great customer experience.

Yet, content marketing is falling behind. Put differently, content marketing is under-achieving. According to Gartner’s 2016 Hype Cycle for Digital Marketing and Advertising, Content Marketing entered the dreaded Trough of Disillusionment. Supporting Gartner’s claim, BrightEdge research found that less than 50% of all of B2B brands produce content that engages their target audiences. It’s worse for B2C. On average only 20% of B2C content brands produce engages their target audiences.

In an industry where it is estimated that $145 billion is spent on content each year, that means that marketers are wasting at least $75 billion creating content that is never consumed, never viewed, and drifts away never to be found. The net result is wasted resources, having competitors capture traffic and mindshare, loss of website traffic, conversions, and revenue.

Consumer behavior has changed, but the content marketers speed of creation has not kept pace. Yesterday’s content is written for a world where the customer journey was linear and desktops accounted for the majority of website traffic. We are entering a new era where customer is first and content performance outweighs content production.

The answer is not to give up but to adapt to the consumer. Bypass the content congestion with a new type of content that ranks fast, engages the reader, and drives conversions. Now is the time for marketers to step up and take control of their marketing performance by becoming more intelligent with their investments. Welcome to the new era of Smart Content.

Check Out Our Concise eBook on Smart Content

What is smart content?

Smart Content blends the best of search marketing, artificial intelligence, and content marketing to power the development, activation, and optimization of high-performing content. It is the heart of modern marketing and will fuel modern marketing. Without it, digital marketers will fall behind their competition, lose connectivity with their customers, and ultimately fail in the post-mobile world.

The secret to this high-performing content is that it discovers consumers needs - through organic search - and addresses that need with specific content that targets market and customer demand. It’s a customer-centric process for developing smart content. That means marketers select the right, high-demand topic and optimize it to make it as visible as possible to the target market - especially in the search engine results pages, or SERPs. The content is self-aware and self-adjusting, improving content discovery and engagement.

1. TARGETED to exactly what customers want and need when they need it
2. OPTIMIZED to make the content more visible and discoverable
3. ALWAYS ON and technically up-to-date
4. INTEGRATED, activated across devices and the entire marketing stack for maximum impact
5. PROFITABLE for marketers because the content delights and engages readers on topics they have intent for and primes them for conversion

The convergence of organic search and content marketing produce smart content

This is where the role of Organic Search comes into focus. Organic Search is the market-wide voice of the customer. Trillions of searches are performed every year and in those searches are unique insights about customer intent.

Meanwhile, SEO solves many of the problems facing marketers today, especially around content that is never found. While SEO and Content Marketing teams have co-existed for years – working towards the same goal of driving marketing performance – the two functions have not really come together in most organizations.

So marketers are playing catch-up with content better suited for a mobile-first world, but consumers are lapping marketers once again. Those consumers blitzed through the mobile-first world and are now jumping in the post-mobile world. Bringing together SEO and Content Marketing has never been more important. In a recent BrightEdge survey of 242 marketers, 97% said that SEO and Content Marketing are more integrated than last year and are converging into a single function. This makes sense because:

• Organic and SEO offer unique insights about customer intent and word choice
• Organic offers unique insights about customer preferences
• SEO with content marketing drive high-performing content called Smart Content
• SEO with content marketing deliver a better customer experience and better ROI

How do you make smart content?

1. Targeting demand/discovery

Identify high-value topics through content briefs that target different content strategies, such as stopping competitive threats or capitalizing on local demand. Content briefs assess the ROI of new content items and prioritize their development by unveiling insights, such as consumer intent, topic opportunity sizing, characteristics of top competing content, and recommendations for improving content performance.

First of all, to create content that delights customers and drives performance, you must first understand customer intent. Customer intent is the driving force behind customer action. Moreso than any other channel, Search divulges that intent in the form of the search query and the specific relevant content that appears most prominently in the search results. Use topic strategies, based on artificial intelligence, for your existing content and to interpret the competitive landscape to uncover, characterize, and prioritize opportunities for new content that will drive business impact.

2. Always optimized and always-on

To ensure that your content adapts to changes in customer and market demand over time, you need dynamic content recommendations for every piece of content created as well as any existing web page. The recommendations are relevant to the page content, keeping website visitors engaged and converting. Additionally, because the search landscape changes so frequently, Smart Content automatically adjusts to changes in content and organic search standards. Make sure that it:

• Remains automatically optimized for new search and mobile best practices, such as Google AMP and Google Image Search
• Enables batch updating of markup tags and content recommendations

3. Integrated and efficient content workflow for content and conversion

Marketers need a complete end-to-end workflow that takes marketers from ideation through content publishing as well as amplification and performance reporting. In this workflow, Smart Content ranks faster, acquires new customers, and stays optimized for search and mobile.

Smart Content can be used by marketers to create articles, campaign landing pages, blog posts, knowledge center documents, product pages and more. It provides customized templates and organized, easy-to-use CTA assets.

Additionally, Smart Content continues to be automatically optimized over time when search engines introduce changes to their algorithms, standards, and formats that would otherwise require retroactive and sometimes work-intensive optimization.

With a click of a button marketers can activate new content at any time. Each piece of content should be optimized for organic performance and customer experience – such as schema for structure, AMP for better speed and mobile experiences, and Open Graph for Facebook and Social. Marketers can then more easily amplify their content on social networks for greater visibility.

4. Profitable

Increase content ROI: Make intelligent content investments by identifying high-value topics that customers search for, are favorable to you from a competitive perspective, and have the most commercial value. Prioritize content that will increase organic visibility and engage customers.

Increase organic share of voice: Outsmart the competition by uncovering important topics where they outperform you in search and by understanding the tactics they employ so that you can develop more targeted content with integrated intelligence and automation.

Pursue well-defined content strategies. Identify topics with strong market demand and low competitive authority with clear path to conversion points and effective CTA deployment.

Optimized, smart content outranks the competition 5-to-1 for the largest brands

BrightEdge investigated what differentiates content ranking on page one versus content ranking on page two or worse. It’s a simple answer. Page one content is engaging to audiences and optimized for search engines.

BrightEdge research shows that on average brands with more than one million pieces of optimized smart content ranked on the first page of Google 390% more than comparably sized brands that didn’t optimize content.

In other words, for every piece of content from the non-optimizing brand which ranked on page one of Google for a given topic, the brand with optimized smart content had 4.9 pieces of content that rank on page one of Google for as many topics. Brands that invested in content optimization outperform their competition almost five-to-one.

On the smaller end of the spectrum, brands with fewer than 1,000 pieces of content outperformed their competition by 110% on average. Even for the smallest brands, optimizing content results in very meaningful lift.

How does smart content help marketers?

The benefits of smart content marketing are to make less content, generate better engagement, and deliver higher ROI. It’s easy to empathize with the thought process of companies that wish to scale down their content investments. After all, there’s already a ton of content out there, and much of it is never found by its intended target audience. Simply creating more of the same old dumb content is unlikely to help. It will just lead to more content workflow congestion and content vying for customers’ attention.

• Stop Competitive Threats - Identifies topics where your direct competitors’ content outperforms your content. Creating meaningful content for these topics can help you defend against your competitors and take back market share.
• Opportunities with Weak Competition - Lists topics where the top competitors have domain authority weaker than your current domain authority. This represents opportunities where you will more likely perform well sooner with strong, relevant content.
• Appear in Quick Answers - Identifies topics where there is potential to rank in Quick Answers. Quick Answers is one of the most valuable positions to appear in because the click through rates are higher and competitors are pushed below the fold. BrightEdge Content can help identify opportunities where there is Quick Answers potential then help create content to appear in that section of the SERP.
• Capitalize on Local Demand - Identifies topics where there is location sensitivity. As search becomes more localized, it’s important to know which topics have a local component so content can be targeted to locations that are most meaningful for a business.
• Win on topics with excellent value - BrightEdge Content scores each topic according to different characteristics of the opportunity, including: search volume, relative competition level, and commercial value. Topics with excellent value are the best opportunities.

Marketers need ways to make it easy to produce the right content at the right time for the right audience. Writers need to pair content ideation and strategy with content briefs that will balance content production and performance. Context-sensitive guides ensure that a writer’s content adheres to the latest SEO and mobile best practices and outperforms on SERPs, too. With easy review, approval and publication processes, writers can activate and amplify new content faster.

BrightEdge customer quotes on smart content

“BrightEdge is truly innovative. We love the revenue opportunities it uncovers for us through its recommended topics. We look forward to increasing our brand visibility on search engine results pages and engaging new customers with Smart Content that addresses their key questions and needs.” Pauline Montgomery, Digital Marketing Specialist, Duncan

“BrightEdge Smart Content increased organic search traffic to silverjeans.com by 26% quarter-over-quarter. Much of the net-new traffic came through the AMP pages that BrightEdge Content automatically created for our Smart Content. We love the automated topic research and discovery capabilities as well as the contextual SEO suggestions that help us activate new content quickly for untapped market demand.” Mike Girardin, Director of E-Commerce, Silver Jeans Co.

“BrightEdge Content has helped us quickly and easily optimize and publish knowledge-based Smart Content that showcases our deep orthopedic expertise.” Timothy Wall, Marketing Director, Jacksonville Orthopaedic Institute

In summary, knowledge-based content is more efficient to produce and performs better. It generates more visits, moves people along the funnel, and generates more profit. BrightEdge helps you make it with the introduction of the BrightEdge Content product.

BrightEdge Content is an AI-powered content marketing solution for increasing website traffic, conversions, and revenue. Powered by BrightEdge DataMind and natively integrated in the BrightEdge platform, BrightEdge Content blends the best of search marketing and content marketing best practices, and powers the development, activation, and automated optimization of your knowledge-based content.

How Do I Gain Content Visibility?

Why is content important?

Content has to make sense to be a valuable asset - for your company and your audience. Get attention and keep attention from conceptualization to conversion. Optimize your content starting with the basic of SEO to provide insight into what people are looking for. Write unique and educational content that answers their questions and needs. Lead them to your calls to action. Make copy appeal to their eyes, ears, minds, and emotions - and finally action. Hack audience attention with the right keywords, the best semantic and visual readability, and intelligent content design. SEO content visibility gets you rolling.

How do I create content visibility?

Audience Appeal: 5 Senses That Move Customers Through the Content Funnel

1. Be seen
2. Be heard
3. Be listened to
4. Be felt
5. Be acted on

1. Be seen

How do you get noticed? Optimize your optics with SEO and investing in quality content. Know your audience and what they’re looking for.  Use SEO tactics to predetermine the right keyword focus (whether torso or long-tail). You only have 3-5 seconds to keep their attention.

Must-haves for SEO content visibility:

• SEO - Map your content keyword focus to search demand and then fully optimize.
• Heading (H1) – Have a catchy heading containing the keyword(s)
• Sub-headings (H2s) –  Have key or closely-related words in H2s
• Metadata – Use an inverted-down pyramid. Include main points and key words. Your keyword should be in your first or second paragraph and metadata.
• Images – Use interesting images and alt tags (hero and 1 - 2 additional images, min.). Learn to optimize for Google Image Search.
• Links to related content

What to watch:

• Organic traffic – Are organic search, revenue, and visits up?
• Paid traffic – Are your campaigns working?
• Impressions, clicks, CTRs – Are you getting SEO notice? Are web audiences noticing?
• New traffic – Unique page views/visitors and impressions.
• Page rank – BrightEdge platform suggests opportunities for higher ranked pages.
• Reach on social media
• Search volume of keywords
• Conversions (where applicable)

2. Be Heard

Is your site falling victim to high bounce rates? Make sure your content is not only discoverable, but visually easy to process. This will keep your bounce rates low and secure your content visibility. Remember the importance of first impressions. High bounce rates could be as simple as bad UX, overly dense material, boring presentation, or being out-of-date.

• Make them listen with captivating content layout:
• Consistency – Obey your style guide. Stay true to tone, voice, text fonts, and a pleasing color palette
• Simplicity – Simplify navigation with headings, subheadings, bulleted lists, and uncluttered UX/UI
• Break it up – Chunk out long papers and share material in smaller, more concise forms.
• Reading ease – Avoid complex syntax, alienating jargon, and wordiness. The digital audience wants easy reads, not Hawthorne.
• Pictures –  Videos, photos, infographics, animation, and graphics are powerfully popular.
• Mobile friendly – Mobile is everything. Make sure that your content looks stellar on mobile devices. (Don't forget Google Amp!) 
• Load time – Slow or cluttered pages with embedded ads lead to a high attrition rate.
• Expand universal listing opportunities with multimedia formats

What to watch:

• Bounce rates – Reveal if people feel inspired to stay after clicking.
• Customer behavior – Links clicked, UX, pages per session
• Average time – Time on pages, average session duration
• Landing pages – Sessions, new users
• Exit pages – Know why people are leaving your site.
• Analytics by device
• Behavior flow report – Does user experience make it easy to move between pages or take action?

3. Be Listened To

Are your visitors existing the pages you want to keep them on? Are your customers uninspired by your CTAs? You have brought in traffic. You made the destination appealing. So, why aren't you receiving the content visibility you deserve? Probably your content focus.  

• Be your customer’s journey:
• Customer centered – The reader is the hero of the content story. The story is not about you—even in leadership pieces.
• 1st/2nd person voice to keep material relatable
• Avoid hard sells. There are 15-18 touch points before readers are open to sales.
• Target your audience – Use demographics, product knowledge, competitive research, and social media to understand your audience. Build customer personas.
• Who is your customer?
• Where are they? What does that tell you?
• What do they want? (Why bother with your site?)
• Why do they want it? This is their overall mission and values. You should share your mission and value with your customer.
• How can you help them?
• Avoid keyword soup – SEO tells you what they’re looking for. It’s not a substitute for quality content.
• Story structure – a complete structure (beginning, middle, end). Make the customer the content hero.

What to watch for:

• Demographic consistency – Are you hitting your targets?
• Feedback – Actively listen to customers, QA, and CSMs
• CTAs and revenue – Does the product speak to them?
• Average time on page/site and behavior
• Digital marketing goals should play out here.
• Customer journey – Behavior flow reports together with time on page

4. Be Felt

Is your brand working for you? Are you building a strong customer base full of return visits, shares, and engagement? Return customers come back because they relate to and trust your brand. (And you have quality content.) Repeat visits are the reward for consistency, reliability, and value.

• Build your customer base with a strong, relatable brand and quality content:
• Context – Does your material reach your target audience in their daily lives?
• Platform – Adjust content to each platform and its nuances.
• Brand Identity – Tone, voice, and values should be consistent and real.
• Emotion – People make decisions emotionally. Don’t be afraid to relate or be evocative.
• Interest – Offer a unique perspective that inspires conversation.
• Editing – No matter how good you are, self-editing, peer review, and editing tools (like Hemingway.com) are essential to creating quality content
• Respond – Connect with user desires, feedback and comments.
• Think of this as aligning the customer voice with the internal company voice. The insight you get from their search behavior should help focus on what they are thinking.
• What to watch for:
• Time on pages/ read time – Increased time on pages show content quality. Watch read-time rates in proportion to average page time.
• Engagement – Increased engagement shows readers approval and investment. Give ample opportunity. Make it easy to share and respond to content.
• Return users – Unique views show good SEO traffic. Return visitors show long-term growth and strategy success.
• Enrollment – Mailing lists, newsletters, subscriptions, social media following
• Social Media – Improved social media shows brand identity is becoming trusted, interesting, relatable, and/or an authority.

5. Be Acted On

So now what? They really like your brand, but you aren’t hitting content visibility goals. They like you. You get all the traffic. They read your content. But, they do not seem to want to keep your business afloat. The simple answer is that your strategy is off. Revisit what your brand is and who your customer is. Do they match?

The more complex answer is that strategy cannot compensate for bad UX design, products, or snags in the customer journey. Or, you aren’t creating shareable or participatory products. What’s the first thing you look at when shopping online? Reviews. First place you search opinions? Social media. Prioritize building a fan-base for your product and brand.

Ready. Set. Action. Content and demand generation:

• Clear paths to action with simple, low-scroll, easy to navigate:
• UX/UI
• Links
• CTAs
• Menus (Redundancy is okay.)
• Shareable content - Be active and open to social media. Give people a reason to share. (And ask them to.) Create hashtags and campaigns that encourage participation.
• Email lists with sales, news, and offers. Repurpose newsletter content to save time and resources across platforms. (Optimize for SEO content visibility.)
• Easy eCommerce – Provide ease of use, speed, and security to keep people moving through the funnel. Offer a guarantees and outstanding customer service.
• Avoid oversell – Too many popup ads are a quick way to turn customers away.
• Incentivize – Sales, competitions, rewards, limited time offers, free product sample, and other ways of investing the customer are always profitable in traffic and, ultimately, revenue
• User Generated Content (UGC) –Amazon, G2Crowd and other review sites show the power of UGC.  People trust other people. Let reviews and submissions help grow your content bucket. Build your brand by including customers wherever you can.

What to watch for:

• Enhanced eCommerce metrics can help you get better insight
• Conversions and revenue increases
• Shares, Likes, Reposting
• Engagement (Social media)
• Enrollment rates
• Active users – One day or long term?
• Cohort behavior

Start your path to better content that's both attention grabbing and high ranking