Our Top Articles

We know content. Over the years we’ve written tens of millions of words for clients and our own blog – and over that time we’ve learned a thing or two about developing useful, relevant content that drives traffic and conversions. We’ve got a bit of system.

The key aspects of creating great content are: user research > content strategy > content creation > content distribution > conversion optimization > SEO.

Here you’ll find our best content on each of those topics.

 

User Research

Before you can create content that going to drive meaningful results, you need to understand your customer. This mean’s going beyond demographic data like age and gender. What are their pain points? What motivates them? What questions do that ask before converting?

Our best articles on user research:

How to Find and Define Your Content Marketing Target Audience

Successful content is created for a specific audience with a specific need or pain point. The problem many companies have with their content marketing is that they don’t fully understand who they are creating content for or what topics resonate with that audience. This post aims to solve that problem.

6 Customer Research Tips for Agencies to Get Inside Your Client’s Head

This article is all about how marketers can better understand their customers. While it’s focused on agencies, the concepts can be applied more widely. In essence, the goal is to go beyond demographics and tap into what’s making your customers tick.

 

Content Strategy

Once you know what matters to your audience, you can start to develop a content strategy. This includes the types of content you’ll produce, the topics you’ll cover, and how often you’ll publish content.

Our best articles on content strategy:

How to Build a Content Strategy

This is our complete guide on how to build a content strategy. The steps involved in building a content strategy are: plan with purpose, know your audience, create great content, promote content, and measuring the results.

The Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Content Calendar

A content calendar helps you maintain a consistent publishing schedule and keep your entire content team on track. This post guides you through building an effective content calendar.

32 Types of Content and How to Use Them (With Examples)

The types of content you create matter. Depending on your content strategy and target audience, some types of content may work better than others.

Done right, repurposing content can drive more web traffic, increase conversions, improve search engine rankings and build audience engagement across a range of online channels. It can also save you time and resources, improving your ROI.

 

Content Creation

Once you have an idea of the types, topics, and amount of content you need – it’s time to get writing. While some companies have in-house writers, many choose to outsource instead. Regardless of what you choose, your content creation process is going to play a big role in the quality of the final product. For example, having an onboarding and management plan can help writers better understand the project and your brand voice.

Our best articles on content creation:

Hiring In-House Writers vs. Outsourcing to an Agency vs. Hiring Freelance Writers: What’s Right for You

You’ve committed to content marketing and developed a great strategy. Now, who is going to write all that content? Depending on your company’s situation, it may make more sense to hire in-house writers, to hiring an agency or to outsourcing to freelance writers. This post helps you answer that question.

The Complete Guide to Outsourcing Content Creation

If you decide to outsource your content freelance writers, you want to make sure you’re getting the most out of the writers. This guide covers everything from hiring writers and onboarding new writers, to managing and improving a team of freelancers.

How to Build an Effective Content Team

Most companies don’t have just one-person planning, writing, and promoting their content – they have a content team.

Finding and hiring talented writers used to be a pain, but it doesn’t have to be anymore. This post breaks down the best places to start looking for freelance writers and how to writer a job description that appeal to skilled writers.

 

Content Distribution

Content distribution is just as important as creating content in the first place. But simply publishing and articles and blasting it on social a few times isn’t enough. Effective content distribution and promotion involves getting your content in front of a relevant audience and driving traffic back to your site. Whether you use paid distribution strategies or not is up to you.

Our best articles on content distribution:

What is Content Distribution and How to Do It Well

This is a comprehensive look at how to get more mileage out of your content marketing by effectively distributing, promoting, and repurposing content. Some topics covered include social media, outreach, and communities.

30+ Places You Should Be Sharing Your Content

Every marketer knows that if you have a Facebook page, you should be sharing your content there. But where else should you be sharing your content? This article breaks down over 30 places where you should be sharing your content. While not every website on the list is going to be relevant for your audience, many of them will be.

On social media, it’s less about selling products and more about providing entertainment and inspiration. Even if you’re selling “boring” products, by using humor and generating positive emotions, you can extend the reach of your brand online.

 

Conversion Optimization

At the end of the day, your content marketing should be driving a return on investment. A big part of getting that return is effectively converting the traffic that lands on a piece of your content – aka conversion optimization.

Our best articles on conversion optimization:

11 CTA Tips That Will Turn Your Blog into a Lead Machine

Some blogs seem to do a much better job of converting readers that other. While how the content is written is a big factor in this – having effective calls to action is a similarly important piece of the equation. This post breaks down some awesome examples of how to use CTAs on your blog.

A Guide to Gating Content

Gated content can be a great way to generate leads from your content marketing. With gated content, readers are providing you with their name and email in exchange for (usually free) content. This post helps you decide if gating content is right for you and how to do it.

 

SEO

One of the biggest values of content marketing is its ability to deliver relevant organic traffic. Once you begin to rank for relevant keywords, your website will generate organic conversions and leads directly from Google and other search engines. This section includes our best blog posts on how to use content to fuel your SEO strategy.

Our best articles on SEO:

Content Optimization: How to Optimize Content for SEO

Content and SEO go hand-in-hand. This guide explores the relationship between content and SEO and provides actionable suggestions for how you can use content to support your SEO efforts.

Local SEO: How to Increase Your Local Search Rank

For businesses where location matters, local SEO is a big deal. But beyond listing your address on your website and having a few business listings, what can you really do to influence local SEO? Truth is, a lot.

How to Measure SEO Performance in Google Analytics & Search Console

The only way to consistently improve your content marketing is to always measure the results and adjust. While not every company has the budget to afford complex content attribution tools, every business can measure their SEO performance with Google Analytics and Google Search Console.

There are still some tried-and-true on-page SEO techniques that will boost your search rankings, but with regular Google algorithm updates, it’s crucial to update your optimization strategies to maximize your online visibility in 2019 and beyond.

 

Other Popular Articles

The goal of a copywriter is to persuade people to take action. The content writer’s purpose is to engage the reader. And the job of the content strategist is to develop a content strategy, manage the process, and maximize the results over time. Put simply, content writers builds trust, copywriters drive sales, and content strategists steer the content marketing ship.

There are various ingredients that make content successful, from keywords, CTAs, and writing style, to formatting, design, and image optimization.

In this article we’ll look at the benefits of long-form content, examine some key research on content length, and uncover ways to add depth to your content without sacrificing content quality.

Shoppable content is any type of content that offers consumers a direct opportunity to buy a product within just a few clicks. With clear product recommendations or purchase points, the strategy helps to increase engagement and bridge the gap between browsing and buying.

 

Content Strategy by Industry

The need to build relationships with consumers and demonstrate a brand’s value is more important than ever. For real estate companies, content marketing is the key.

If you’re a fitness brand, content marketing is now essential for building brand awareness, inspiring your audience, and generating leads. Here, we’ll look at trends in the fitness sector and explore various content strategies to strengthen your business.

As consumers become more nutrition-conscious, brands in this sector need to be on top of the latest content marketing trends in order to build brand awareness and gain customers.

Here, we’ll look at various content marketing strategies and industry trends to help you reach your target audience and grow your nutrition brand.

Home Improvement Content Marketing Tips

According to the Home Improvement Research Institute, home improvement product sales are expected to grow at an average of 3.9% per year until 2020. To compete effectively in this market, your business needs to stand out, and that means building your online visibility and credibility through content marketing.

If you’re selling home products or design services, you may be struggling to attract leads in order to grow your business. You’re not alone. Many businesses in the interior design sector are falling behind when it comes to online marketing. The problem is that traditional marketing strategies are no longer effective.