The Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing for Agencies

In the era of Panda and Penguin, content marketing has become one of the most promising roads forward. A successful internet marketing strategy rests on the quality of your content. We have arrived at the point where content marketing is the best way of reaching your consumers.

Of course, content marketing was important even before Panda and Penguin made their appearance on the scene. Astute agencies were already harnessing the power of this strategy to expand their client’s reach. Still, most agencies saw content marketing as a top-tier marketing technique. It wasn’t something that they considered a prerequisite, and many of them just ignored it completely.

Why adopt a content driven promotional strategy, after all, when there were easier, cut and dried, and replicable methodologies already in place? The problem with this sort of thinking was that when ‘content marketing’ actually took its rightful place in the world of internet marketing, many agencies had no clue how to make it work successfully.

The “how” and “why” of content marketing still escapes many of these companies, and we have encountered several that are still murky about the whole process.

If we claimed that our content marketing campaigns always went smoothly for our clients, we would be lying. There have been some wrong turns, but over time we have accumulated a great deal of experience making it work for our clients. We believe we’ve learned enough to piece together an actionable content marketing guide to help other agencies get their act in gear.

So, from one agency to another, here’s a detailed look at the content marketing process.

What is Content Marketing?

To put it simply, content marketing is all about creating ‘great’ content, and promoting it through the appropriate channels.

Obviously, the difficulty agencies face is determining what ‘great’ content is. Yes, it should be well-written. Yes it should have no grammatical errors. Yes it should target a specific audience. Yes it should be original, and yes, it should be factual and well researched.

That’s a lot of “yeses,” but it’s only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to ‘great’ content. What it really needs to be able to do is add value. It must not only attract prospects, but also convert them into customers; and not just single time customers, but repeat buyers. It must also beshareable content: the kind of content that can go viral.

Here’s our process for building valuable content. First we understand what the client wants, as any good agency does. But then we go deep into the needs and wants of the client’s target audience, which is often ignored. We create content that is related to the product or message in question, but our core focus is on creating the kind of content that the audience wants.

If there is a solution that they want, we give it to them. If they are looking for facts, that’s what we offer. If they are looking for stats, then stats it is. Great content is always audience defined; this is what helps build trust between our clients and their target audience.

The rule of thumb that we follow is: “Give the audience what they want, not what you think they want.”

This is what great content is all about, and what allows it go viral…which brings us to our next topic.

How to develop great content that goes viral

Now that we’re clear on what great content actually is, let’s take things to the next level and make it go viral. There is no doubt that creating viral content is the single most important step of content marketing. Let’s take a look at how to make it happen.

• What are the types of content that can go viral?

Speaking from experience, it’s real time content that has the most potential to go viral. Our focus is always on news stories, case studies, experiences (both good and bad), controversies, strategies, solutions to common problems, actionable industry insights, facts and figures, contests, free tools and widgets, giveaways, open products reviews (which are in high demand), and anything and everything that your client’s customers are currently most interested in reading about.

Nobody likes feeling out of the loop, especially when it comes to subjects that they care about. The biggest influencers in your industry are going to care far more about brand new information than old news, even if it is trusted and established information.

Let’s take SEO as an example. In this niche, the most viral content will be about recent updates to the algorithm, fresh strategies that people haven’t seen before, and so on. This is what SEO enthusiasts want to read and share. Remember, if something is new, interesting, and surprising, it gets shared.

This brings us to our next question:

• How do you develop such content?

Two words: “Your Client.” Get your client involved in the content development process.  Nobody knows more about the niche than they do. True, there will be circumstances where you understand the online market better than your client, but they are still the ultimate authority on the subject matter and what people in that industry care about.

Sit with your client, have long strategizing sessions, and make your client a part of the process. Remember: they have the most stake in the campaign. Help them understand that novel information, which is often proprietary, is by far the most likely to go viral. It’s often difficult for SEOs to gain access to this information, so make sure they understand why it’s so important.

Here are some of the questions that you can ask your clients, which will help them open up about their business:

• What are the problems their customers face while using their products/services?

• What’s their USP (Unique Selling Proposition)? This is crucial.

• What is their customer feedback while using their products/services?

• What are the latest updates in their industry?

• Where are the top blogs in their industry?

Content that provides solutions almost always works best. To solve problems for the target audience and influencers in the niche, you’ll need to understand your client’s business strategies. How to accomplish this will be different from client to client, and it is a skill that can only come from experience.

We recently used this kind of strategy when we put together our Post-Panda/Penguin Era Link Acquisition Strategies for SearchEngineJournal. We recognized that there are many SEOs  looking for strategies with sustainable results in this new era of optimization. We offered the post as a solution to that problem. In the process, we shared some of our own personal strategies openly with SEJ readers. It’s the kind of content that is perfectly suited to going viral, and, according to our standards, it did.

Identifying the Right Content Distribution Channel

Creating the right content is a must, but you also need to zero in on a distribution channel for the content. You want to reach your audience through a channel that they already access habitually.

Here, again, the client enters the picture. Where does the client go to find solutions to their problems? Where do their customers go? Where do people who would care about their products and services go to solve their problems?

Once you have a list of viable content distribution channels, share it with your clients and talk to them about it. Then consider a format for the content, such as:

• Whitepapers
• Presentations
• Ebooks
• Blog posts
• Videos
• Email newsletters
• Pdf
• Doc
• Webinars
• Tutorials
• Guides
• Mobile/tablet apps
• micro sites
• landing pages
• Offline – magazines, newspapers etc.

Choosing the Right Distribution Channel, and Developing Content for It

Once you identify the most promising channels, you need to choose which one to actually use. Consider the following:

• Is the choice of channel sustainable, can you keep at it for the long term?

• Will a majority of your target audience be able to access the channel?

• Is it an “all-purpose” distribution channel, that you can keep using despite changing audience expectations, aspirations, and the emergence of new distribution channels?

• Are you thinking long term or short term?

• Are you looking at a single channel or multi-channel distribution?

What we usually like to do is diversify our distribution channels, rather than stick to just one or two. The choice of the channel depends on the market, the competition, and the client’s personal preferences. Think accordingly.

Suppose that you have chosen video as your medium of choice. In that case, you need to understand what kinds of videos are most successful, and what will be most helpful to the target audience. Successful videos generally showcase something remarkable, amazing, or funny. For it to be helpful to your client, it also needs to be related to their products and services.

As an example, if your client was an idea-generation firm, a video of a real-life brainstorming session would be a good choice. Such a video would be helpful for viewers, since it would enlighten them about the creative process. It would also build trust and reputation for your client by demonstrating how they do their work and their willingness to share it openly.

The video should endorse the company’s commitment to offering clients the best services, and this should be showcased in a manner that is really interesting, not “salesy.” In the case of videos, it’s about establishing an immediate personal connection with the audience.

Every distribution channel has its own specific content development requirements. Your content must live up to them in order to succeed.

Developing a Big Audience Outreach Plan

Once you have great content and the perfect distribution channel, it’s time to reach out to your audience with it. Audience outreach is an integral part of content marketing.

Here’s how you can develop a plan to accomplish this:

• Know your customers

• Know where they go to find solutions to problems like those solved by your client

• Try to reach out to the target customer through their preferred channel. Only then will they be able to find your content and consider it valuable

• Plan for the present, but future proof your plan as well

• Track your results; this is important since it allows you to fine tune your outreach plan

Use of Content Marketing Tools

Things get a whole lot easier if you use the plethora of content marketing tools available. There is something for everybody. The choice of tools depends on the kind of content you have chosen and the distribution channel, among other things.

Let’s take a look at some of these tools. We have divided these tools into three categories, namely content strategy, content production, and content promotion:

Content Strategy Tools:

Tools like the Content Strategy Generator from SEOGadget can help you do things like:

• Pull data from Google Insights for information about trends in your industry

• Use data from FollowerWonk and Topsy to locate promising content placement opportunities

• Find outreach opportunities

Content Production Tools:

Content production tools help you put together content more quickly so that you can expand your reach more effectively. This slide show does a good job of introducing some of these tools. They can help you:

• Set up easy to follow workflows

• Do outreach, content production, and social sharing in one place

• Get in touch with journalists

• Gain insight into what your target audience is reading

• Simplify blogging if you work with several writers, and more

Here are few of these tools. Feel free to mention more in the comments:

Contently: This tool allows you to choose your team of writers from the Contently network with respect to their specialization, what they have worked on and who they have worked for; you can manage your team and your content work flow in the cloud.

Go!Animate: Some ideas translate well into animated videos, and this is where this tool can help you out. You can create interesting animated videos, without sweating it.

YouTube Video Editor: Polish your raw footage; trim clips, add music, insert transitions, rotate clips and do a whole lot more.

Skyword: This is a complete content product platform which allows you to recruit writers, create content, promote your content socially, and lastly, measure its performance. All of this can be accomplished with minimal effort.

Follower Wonk: More than a content production platform, this allows you to do some solid keyword research, search for topics that are making waves in your niche, and find influencers. Produce top notch strategic content that you know will cater to your niche.

Content Promotion Tools:

These tools help you get the word out so you can reach as broad an audience as possible. Check out this Mashable post to learn more about them if you like:

Smashwords: A good pick if you have chosen to distribute content using eBooks. It can help you launch your eBook for free.

One Load: This is a great platform if you are choosing video distribution. This platform doesn’t just allow you deploy your videos across different video sharing sites and social networking sites etc, but it also help you keep an eye on them.

StumbleUpon: If you are looking for an inexpensive, pay-per impression form of content distribution, this will be a good choice.

Blogdash: If guest blogging is a part of your content marketing strategy, then this is a great platform to find bloggers, engage with them, or pitch your campaign to them.

Zemanta:  This one is a link distribution platform and what it does is very simple. While you are writing your blog posts, it will analyze them and make suggestions for the addition of links and relevant photos. It also acts as a content promotion platform for relevant link building.

There are many others out there. A bit of research into the tools, their use, benefits, and efficiency will give you a good idea of what to use, when to use them, and how to make the most of the various content marketing tools.

And Finally……Go Viral!

Now that you have a content marketing strategy in place, all that remains to be done is getting it to go viral. Take advantage of social media, email marketing, outreach and so. If your content hits the mark, it should start propagating on its own.

Let’s take a look at what you can do to take your content to the viral stage:

• Use Social Media: but don’t just use social media, use it strategically. First, search for the social influencers in your niche: those authority figures that are looked upon with respect, and whose suggestions and opinions count in your target niche.

Make the rounds in your web space and social networks, and find those figures that are going to influence your target audience on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest. You need to engage with them and encourage them to share your content on their blogs.

What you are essentially doing is trying to leverage their respectability in their niche to promote your content; something that will help it go viral.

• Let your target audience know that you are publishing new content. Your social network is the perfect place to connect with your audience on a one-on-one level, so tell them about your newly published content here.

• Press Releases can work very well. A press release is, in itself, a content distribution channel. However, you can also use a press release to promote a piece of content. For example, you can really take your video to the next level if you supplement it with a press release. Think about it.

• Cite your previous content. Be smart and think ahead. Develop content that relates to your previous work, and then cite those posts in the new work.

• Email marketing is one of the more traditional ways of reaching out to customers and letting people know about the content that you have published. Start an outreach plan to get in touch with your target audience through emails.

These are just some of the approaches to help take your content viral.

Conclusion

The goal of content marketing is to improve your client’s reputation using content that gets shared and propagates on its own. This means you need to meet the needs of your client as well as those of their potential customers. Excessively commercial content rarely goes viral, while the type of content that is most viral rarely has commercial appeal. One of the most important things you will do for your clients is find the intersection between these two cultures.

Do you have anything else to share about content marketing strategies? If you liked this, we’d appreciate it if you passed it along. Thanks for reading!

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Updating Your Anchor Text Strategy Post-Penguin

Ever since the release of the Penguin update, anchor text has seen a bit of a demotion in relevance. Anchor text, the actual text people see when they see a link, was (and still is) used as part of Google’s strategy for identifying what pages on the web were about.

Anchor text was heavily abused by spammers who flooded the web with automated links as an indication of relevance and authority, and the search engine responded by identifying excessively optimized anchor text as spam.

Today’s search marketers shouldn’t be chasing after such heavily optimized links. Instead, they should be using varied keywords to link to their site. This is more natural and doesn’t send the wrong signals. This is actually fairly logical even as a marketer. You should want your pages to rank for a wide variety of keywords, not just one single phrase.

Now it’s time for some advice about how to approach anchor text and keywords as a modern SEO.

1. Doing keyword research

Keyword research still starts off roughly the same way it used to. You will want to use tools such as:

• Google AdWords Keyword Tool 
• Ubersuggest

to identify which keywords are worth using. However, the way that you use the tools will be somewhat different.

2. Prepare a list of targeted, relevant keywords

Use your keyword tool to find words that are related the the topic of your page. In the past, SEOs were typically advised to look for keywords with:

• A decent amount of traffic

• Relatively low competition in the search results

• Relatively high profitability

This is still decent advice when you are choosing a keyword to fit into your page’s title tag, That said, the reality is that Google is getting very good at interpreting queries, and you aren’t likely to rank well for something just because of a small semantic difference.

More importantly, when it comes to anchor text for your links, this advice should be thrown out the window.

Instead, you should use the keyword tool to identify a mixture of keywords that are worth using in your links. Use short, medium, and long phrases. Pay very little attention to the traffic and profitability of the keywords, if at all. Instead, focus on choosing keywords that make sense for your page.

3. Prepare anchor text possibilities

The last thing you should do is export the keywords straight out of the keyword tool and use them as is. This may have worked in the past, and it will still work in some cases today, but you should be focusing more on conversions (“clicks”) than on the keywords, so get creative. Make the link fit the context, not the other way around. For example:

• If you are incorporating a city or location into the keyword, mix it up. Don’t use the city at the beginning or end of every link.

• Use connecting words and, above all else, make the link fit the sentence. If you sacrifice grammar in favor of an exact keyword you are way off track.

• Include your brand in the anchor text, or replace the keyword with your brand altogether, or use the title of the post as the anchor text. Always ask yourself, “would it make sense to do this if I weren’t an SEO?”

• Use partial match anchor text. This means use some of the words from your keyword phrases, but not all of them.

• Use very long phrases. For example, try linking an entire sentence, or half a sentence, instead of just the keyword itself.

• Use “naked” URLs from time to time, rather than using any anchor text at all.

4. Avoid excessive use of exact match

I’m sure you’ve picked up on this central point by now. Yes, you’ll still want to use the exact phrase that is most promising for you here or there, but this is far from top priority. Too many exact match keywords will just end up throwing your site out of the search results altogether.
Focus on the quality of the sites and pages that link to you, the amount of referral traffic, and other traditional marketing metrics.

Don’t waste your time thinking about how to fit an exact match anchor text into your copy.

Furthermore, try to avoid even getting links from sites with an excessive amount of exact match anchor text already on them. These sites are also likely to see penalties and demotions down the road, which will ruin the quality of your link even if it isn’t over-optimized itself.

5. Change your anchor text with every link you create

Really, this should be a much higher priority goal. Granted, you shouldn’t go so far out of your way on this that you painstakingly check every single link to assure it doesn’t have the same anchor text. A better approach would be to simply:

• Think about where in the copy it will make the most sense to mention your page

• Think of the best call to action to fit into the copy (as long as it doesn’t go overboard and irritate the reader or the site owner)

• Think of where it would make the most sense to place a link in that call to action

• Try to incorporate some of your keywords into that call to action where they make sense

If the reader has a pretty good idea of what the link is going to take them to before they click it, you are probably sending the right messages to the search engines as well.

Optimization should come second. If you adopt this frame of mind, you will discover that it’s very easy to mix up your keyword anchor text and still make it clear to the search engines what the page is about.

Marketers First, SEOs Second

Search engine optimization is a form of marketing. Approach SEO as a tool to market websites and you will start to see that “optimization” is just one part of the job.

Staying ahead of the search engine updates is all about staying in this frame of mind and putting sales, reputation, and branding first.

Do you have any advice to share about the future of anchor text? Don’t forget to share this if you liked it.

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Why Google Disavowing Links? Be Cautious While Using This Tool

Back on 16th October, Google introduced a new tool to disavow links. This was and continues to be good news for all those webmasters whose sites have unnatural links pointing to them, but which they cannot control; meaning all they can do is identify them, but not take them down. This tool gives them an option to do just that, all they need to do is put down all the URLs on a plain text file and upload it. Google does the rest. We have also talked about all you need to know about disavow links tool in our previous blog post.

Sounds simple right! Not Quite! Things are never as cut and dried as they seem. For starters, more than two months since this tool made its appearance on the scene, there is still some confusion going around whether it should or shouldn’t be used.

There are plenty of clients who come to us to help them disavow their links. Our recommendation is to not go this route, unless absolutely sure, and look for some alternative instead.  This might come as a surprise to some, but the fact is that Google doesn’t want everybody suffering from a ‘bad link’ problem to choose ‘links disavow’.

Here’s why we think that disavowing links is not a good idea all the time; we have also mentioned a few alternatives to using the disavow links tool.

A Case Made for Not Disavowing Links

Recall what Google said on its blog, while announcing the release of the Disavow Links Tool,

In Google’s words,

 “If you’ve been notified of a manual spam action based on “unnatural links” pointing to your site, this tool can help you address the issue. If you haven’t gotten this notification, this tool generally isn’t something you need to worry about.”

One word begs a closer look and that is ‘Notification’. So, if you haven’t been notified, then you don’t really have to use this tool.

Here’s what a notification looks like:

Here’s something else that Google says in the same blog,

 “If you’ve done as much as you can to remove the problematic links, and there are still some links you just can’t seem to get down, that’s a good time to visit our new Disavow links page.”

The question is, have you really done enough to remove all those unnatural links gunning for your site? You must contact webmasters manually and ask them to remove the problematic links that are pointing to your site from theirs. Using the disavow links tools should be your final throw of the dice and not your first.

Another line from Google, “We would reiterate that we built this tool for advanced webmasters only. We don’t recommend using this tool unless you are sure that you need to disavow some links to your site and you know exactly what you’re doing.”

There should be zero ambiguity as to which links you want to remove. If you have doubts about the links that you need to disavow, then this tool isn’t for you. It’s for webmasters that are very sure that they have done more than enough to get rid of unnatural links and in spite of their best efforts, they still can’t get rid of all the harmful links.

Google is very clear about when you should and shouldn’t use this tool.

Be Cautious While Using This Tool:

Webmasters need to be very cautious while using this tool as sources says that this tool could be Google’s Best Spam Reporting Tool yet.

Having said that, here are two possibilities that you can encounter while disavowing links:

• In case of unnatural/unwanted links pointing to your website unknowingly (that is you being completely unaware of it), Google might reconsider your website

• In case of manually created links being submitted for disavow, Google might not reconsider, as you are reporting SPAM that you created.

This is why it is such a good tool, it picks and chooses. It doesn’t tar all requests with the same brush.

The Alternates to Google Disavow Links Tool

So all things said and done, you will need to find alternates to using the Disavow Links Tool.

• Analyze your link profile thoroughly and check whether your website has linked to unrelated websites unknowingly. If this is the case, then you need to get in touch with those webmasters immediately and get them to remove these links manually.

• Use the tried and tested methods to get in touch with them, through mail, calling them up, or through Twitter and Facebook.

• Use link removal tools and services such as RMOOV and REMOVEEM

• Don’t be stingy when it comes to getting your links removed, at times you might even have to pay the webmaster for their removal, but it’s all in a good cause. So, if it’s feasible, do it. (However, Google isn’t in favor of this.)

What If You Have Built Large Chunk of Un-Natural Links Manually Those Are Unable to Control

While you are identifying the links for removal, there is a ‘straight out of hell’ scenario that you might encounter and that is you will be left with a huge chunk of unnatural links that you were unable to remove.

What do you do then? No, the correct answer is not using the Disavow Links Tool. Why? That’s because you will be indirectly reporting a large chunk of SPAM to Google, and there is nobody else responsible for this SPAM but YOU. Google will identify you as somebody who manipulated rankings to improve your SERPs rankings. In such cases, Google will never reconsider your website, not in a million years.

Well, there is just one alternate that will work. Get yourself a new website and start afresh. Don’t make the mistakes you made in the past and focus on creating quality backlinks.

Sometimes, it’s the simplest answers that work best. Google has been telling this to us, all along.

To Conclude:

Google disavow links tool is not for everyone, so before using it think multiple times whether you’re eligible (yes, eligible) to use this tool. It has more negative sides than positive as Google holds the full control. Using this tool you can either win the battle or lose everything, therefore, if you are unsure about your link profile and use of this tool then it is better to take help from experts as well as focus on the ways mentioned in the above explanation.

Let us know if you face any difficulty or if you encounter any questions
.

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Top Creative Ways for Startups to Get Natural Citations

A startup with a great product idea and a talented team is only missing one ingredient for success: exposure. Marketing is tough for a business that doesn’t have the audience to make a profit, which is why so many startups find themselves in a Catch-22 with no easy solution in sight. 

Often, the answer lies in creativity. Yes, creativity is hard. The good news? The ROI is often much higher.

Here are a few ideas to attract natural citations and links that will get your business listed in the search results.

1. Contacting universities and hiring talented graduates

I’d be surprised if I found out there was a university somewhere that didn’t have a website that gave many of its grad students their own websites. I’d also be surprised if there were an SEO anywhere who didn’t appreciate links from .edu domains. There is some doubt in the industry about whether .edu domains really pass more authority, but there’s no doubt that as trends come and go, universities will always be considered an authority in the broadest sense of the word.

Certainly, you wouldn’t want to hire a graduate simply because they would be able to give you a citation in return. That said, it’s worth factoring this into your decision making process. Graduates with a strong track record and a lot of impressive work on their own “pet” website should be considered hot commodities.

2. Get featured in local startup directories

“Directory” has become a dirty word in the SEO community, but there is a tremendous difference between legitimate directories and “link” directories. A legitimate startup directory is used by actual people (other than SEOs) who are looking for information about startups in their area. Get listed in these, as well as directories like the BBB, your local Chamber of Commerce, and so on. The higher the standards, the better.

3. Share your startup idea by attending local startup meetups

Getting involved in real-world events is one of the best ways to get online exposure. We live in a world that is tightly integrated with the net, after all. Meetup.com is a great way to get in touch with people who are succeeding at the startup game, make some connections, build a network, and get natural links and citations as a result. Cross promotion is very powerful when it’s done legitimately.

You might even consider hosting a meetup yourself. There’s something about standing on a stage and talking that has tremendous psychological impact and is great for building respect and authority.

4. Help NGOs in your niche

Many businesses see tons of request letters from NGOs for sponsorships and so on. Most throw them out, completely forgetting that this can be a great opportunity to build exposure and do something good at the same time. As a startup, you may not see such requests as often, but the opportunities are there and it’s well worth reaching out to these organizations.

5. Find the best blogs in your niche and let them know about your new startup

Merely sending out a press release or embarking on a mass mailing campaign isn’t going to get you the kind of exposure that transforms into search engine visibility or conversions. One of the best ways to get “out there” is through targeted communications with bloggers who already have exposure. Build relationships with these types of influencers by reaching out directly to them with context and a friendly attitude.

6. Register your spot in local seminars and events and getting featured on their websites

Events are possibly the best way for the modern business to build exposure. It is virtually the central focus of most social media communications. People who attend a live event are more likely to remember the experience and feel the impact of it than if they read something online. Getting listed on an events website will result in links right off the bat, and the exposure and chances for citations only improve from there.

7. Give testimonials, get listed as a client, and build partnerships

Any time you use a tool or work with a supplier or business client, you should also be asking yourself if there’s an opportunity to build links and citations. Anybody you work with, by definition, already has a working relationship with you. Most businesses have a website, or an online presence of some kind. The same is true for many freelancers you may work with. Don’t hesitate to use these partnerships as opportunities for links, citations, and exposure.

Your Turn

Hopefully these seven ideas will help you get the creative juices flowing. Creativity is key when time and resources are low. What are some other creative ways to put yourself out there? Be sure to pass this guide along if you liked what you saw.

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