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Evergreen Content Formats for Long-Term Success

JULY 15, 2019

If you’re involved with content marketing, SEO or any type of web-based marketing, you’ve likely heard the phrase “evergreen content.”

Evergreen content defined:

‘Evergreen content is search-optimized content that is continually relevant and stays “fresh” for readers over a long period of time.’

Technically, anything you post on the interwebs will be discoverable. The goal is to have your posts be searchable, valuable and timely. Here are some evergreen content formats that’ll get you on the right track.

Reference ‘books’ for tools: If your audience uses any type of online tools, create a go-to reference guide for them. Break down the tools into one or several articles. Keep it updated and don’t use a date in your URL. Brian Dean does a killer job on his site with his top SEO tools.
Glossaries: Create an industry-specific glossary. Why it works? The terms rarely change and they’re easy to update. Here’s one from ‘The Balance’ for you all you marketers out there.
Infographics: Yep, they’re still a thing. The beauty of infographics lies in the fact that they break down a system or process in a digestible, appealing way. Pick a timeless theme and include all of the stats.
Q&A interviews: Interviews are a great (and relatively simple) form of evergreen content. Find an in-house or industry expert and grill them with questions. If you wanna get fancy, create a video of the interview and include a transcript in the post.

See a few more forms of evergreen content below.

5 Social Media Metrics You Should Care About

JULY 11, 2019

Did you hear about the social media influencer who couldn’t sell 36 t-shirts to her following of 2.6m people? Yikes. Whether it’s a sign of the influencer bubble bursting or just a lousy t-shirt, there’s something (us) marketers can take away…

Stop focusing on vanity metrics.

What are vanity metrics?

Things like ‘registered users, downloads, and raw page views.’ The problem with vanity metrics is they’re easily manipulated and do not necessarily correlate to numbers that really matter.

Instead, focus on the following 5 metrics:

Social reach: This measures how many users your posts are reaching. Don’t let social reach be your sole metric of success, but use it to learn which posts are resonating with your audience. Social reach data can usually be found inside of whatever platform you’re using.
Referrals: Tracking referrals will show you what social channels lead people to your website. Head over to Google Analytics > Acquisition > Social. From there you can see where people are coming from and how they’re converting.
Bounce rate: Bounce rate is defined as “the percentage of visitors to a particular website who navigate away from the site after viewing only one page.” A high bounce rate is usually a sign that your content is not what the user expected or that you don’t have enough CTA’s.
Follower growth rate: This metric will show you if your content is resonating. If your follower growth is slowing down or flat-lined, consider different post times, content topics, formats, etc.
Social media audience demographics: Facebook and Instagram audience insights break down your followers by age, gender, location, income, etc. It’s important to regularly check these to ensure that your target audience is aligning with your buyer persona.

How to Promote Your Business on LinkedIn

JULY 10, 2019

B2B and LinkedIn go together like peanut butter and jelly.

Here are some LinkedIn stats in case you don’t believe us.

LinkedIn currently has over 610 million members.
The network has 303 million active monthly users, 40% of which visit the site daily.
90 million senior-level influencers and 63 million decision makers use LinkedIn.

If you’re in the B2B space, it’s time to make LinkedIn a priority for your marketing and networking efforts.

Here are a few ways to promote your business on LinkedIn.

Link & Optimize Employee Profiles: Unlike Facebook Pages where employees can hide behind the brand, LinkedIn gets a little more personal. Users can see personal profiles that are connected to yours. Make sure your employees are connected to your company page in the experience section of their profile. Also, consider having employees include something in their bio that connects them to the company.
Create a Strong Company Page: Duh, right? You’d think, but when it comes to your company page description, strong keywords are often overlooked. Try to incorporate keywords describing what you offer and how you’re different. It’s all about being found.
Strike An 80/20 Balance of Self Promotion: You might think your business is cool, but people don’t want to be bombarded with non-stop information about it. Offer some value and then focus on ‘story-oriented, customer-oriented, or employee-oriented content that helps you distinguish what your brand is doing.’
Engage Intentionally: Transparency is winning these days. Who doesn’t want to work with real and authentic brands? Focus on creating content that will drum up conversation and engagement. Don’t force it.
Rack Up the Recommendations: People trust people. Recommendations serve as great social proof. Encourage your client-facing employees to reach out to peers, and past and current clients for some killer reviews. This not only makes your employees look good but you as well.

5 Ways Your Brand Can Use the Instagram Chat Sticker

JULY 9, 2019

Instagram did a thing a few days ago.

We see you Chat Sticker. 😱

Tell me more.

The Chat Sticker is a feature within your Instagram stories that allows you to initiate a private group chat (like a group DM) with up to 31 of your followers. You decide who joins the chat and how long the chat stays open.

Why should you use the Chat Sticker?

It’s all about human connection. The new chat feature gives you the ability to have real conversations with your followers beyond images and videos.

How should you use the Chat Sticker?

Invite customers to a local event. Let’s say you’re hosting an event or meet-up. You can use the chat feature to build a mini-community around the event. Introduce yourself to the group and answer any questions they might have.
Get customer feedback: Looking for honest feedback? Invite a select number of followers to chat with you on what they like and/or dislike about your product/service.
Offer an exclusive deal or info: Use the chat feature to convert your followers into buyers by offering a limited time promo code or new product.
Target a niche-group: Example; you want to work with a few influencers that follow you. Use the close friends feature along with the chat sticker to get them in the same space. From there, send them a link to a survey or form to capture more information.
Create mini-communities with your clients: If you’re regularly communicating with clients, use the chat feature to bring specific people together. For example; you’re a personal trainer and a few of your clients are training for a marathon. Fire up the chat sticker to get all of your runners in the same place.

To learn more about stickers, click that button below.

PR-Focused Link Building

JULY 7, 2019

It’s SEO Monday folks.

Today, we’re talking about link building. If you aren’t familiar, allow us to explain.

Link building is the practice of promoting your website to other websites with the primary goal of securing a link on their site to your page.

Link building can feel like an uphill grind at times.

Below are 4 tips on how to simplify link building for PR from the legend, Rand Fishkin (founder of Moz).

Identify some of your site’s unique attributes: These are things like the type of company you are, the background of your founders, what your customer focus is, etc. Take some time and create a list of different attribute combinations.
Find 5-10 others that share your attributes: Once you’ve defined your company attributes, it’s time to dig in with some research. For example…you’re a startup in Pittsburgh, PA. Head to Google and type in ‘Startups in Pittsburgh.’
Find publications that have covered/amplified others like you: We’re continuing with our ‘Startups in Pittsburgh’ Google search example. Once you’ve found a few startups in Pittsburgh, you’ll want to search again for said startups. For example, we noticed NanoGrip Tech as a Pittsburgh startup. They had coverage in Forbes, Pittsburgh Business Times, and more. These are your link opportunities. Easy, right?
Rinse and Repeat: The best part about this process is that it only requires your brain and Google search. It’s 100% free.

Alright, get your link on.

Create a Killer Instagram Bio

JULY 3, 2019

What’s in a bio?

A lot people. A lot.

Your Instagram bio is the first thing folks see when they land on your IG. You have 150 characters to get your point across and quickly.

Don’t fall victim to the countless cut-and-paste templates on the interwebs. Instead, follow these best practices to ensure you’re scoring clicks and staying on brand.

Include a Call-to-Action (CTA): What do you want your IG followers to do? Buy a product? Visit your site? Share your hashtag? It’s not safe to assume that people know what action to take when they visit your gram. Tell them what to do. Example: Yeti encourages visitors to share their own photos with the hashtag, #BuiltForTheWild.
Feature your branded hashtag: While a hashtag in your bio won’t make your profile discoverable in search, it’s still important to include. Why? It encourages user-generated content and acts as its own CTA. Your clickable hashtag creates a sense of trust between you and the user.
Think about your link: Your IG profile link should be based on your business goals. Use a tool like Bitly to create a shortened, trackable link. If you’re looking to drive visitors to multiple links, check out LinkTree.
A bullet style list: List-style profiles are easy to read and allow you to get your main point(s) across quickly. Consider the following cadence for your bullet points; Slogan or mission, hashtag, location, CTA, and bio link.
Have fun with it: There are no hard and fast rules on the optimal IG profile. Do what you need to do to get your brand personality across. Whether it’s super minimalistic or includes emojis, remember to have fun with it.

Smash the button below to get inspired by 18 killer bios.

Tips From Best-Selling Authors That Will Polish Your Content

JULY 2, 2019

Good writers know how to grab your attention and wait for it…

Keep it.

We can all take a page from some of the best selling authors and apply it to our own content strategy.

Here are some tips to keep you on the right track.

Remove everything that’s not part of the story: Think about what the text is actually adding to your story. If it doesn’t add anything, get rid of it. “Ruthlessly cut everything that isn’t necessary from your content,” says Stephen King.
Read. Read everything you can lay hands on: Find someone whose content is consistently shared and pay close attention to their writing style. It’s important to be well-versed, so don’t limit yourself to your own industry. Read as many writing styles as possible.
Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very’: This tip comes from Mark Twain. Don’t use the word ‘very’ as an intensifier. Replace it with something more active or cut it. Here are 128 words to use instead of ‘very’.
Keep it simple: “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough,” said Albert Einstein. Keep your content simple and relatable by staying away from jargon and corporate speak.
Cut out exclamation points: F. Scott Fitzgerald thinks exclamation points are like laughing at your own joke. Don’t ‘articulate attitude with punctuation.’ Let your readers choose their own emotions.

Check out a few more below.

Do These 5 Things to Rank Higher

JUNE 30, 2019

Happy Monday y’all. It kinda felt like a holiday weekend, right? Soon enough.

If you’re new here, we talk about SEO on Mondays. Let’s go!

What’s one thing we all want to do when it comes to SEO?

A. Outrank the competition

How do we do it? That’s a loaded question, but we feel like the 5 following steps will help.

Code: SEJ says it best…Having good underlying code won’t get you rankings. But not having good underlying code will keep you from ranking. Your forward facing code is very important to search engines. Considering we keep these emails short and sweet, we suggest you head over to YouTube and watch some of the endless, free videos on SEO code.
Content: The times have changed folks. Keyword stuffing is futile. If you want to win with SEO, your content needs to match what people are actually searching for. And yes, you need to use your keywords in your content. Focus on your user first, then make your content effective for search engines.
Connections: Links still matter. The “right” links matter even more. Spend time reaching out to people and sites that’ll pay off in the long run. If you’re wondering how to evaluate the quality of a link, click here.
Communications: While social media won’t provide you with direct SEO benefits, it’s crucial for the success of any SEO program. Why? Brand recognition will drive clicks. If you want to stand apart from the crowd, focus on building relationships through social media.
Capture: You’ve heard it before, and we’ll say it again…it’s all about the data. You need to understand the intent of the person landing on your site. Without data, SEO is just a guessing game. Dive into your site analytics to understand where your SEO is and needs to go.

From Micro to Nano-Influencers. And Why You Should Care.

JUNE 27, 2019

You might still be wrapping your head around how to use micro-influencers for your product or service.

Well, we’re about to throw you a curveball. The new buzzword is nano-influencers.

We’re gonna give you the lowdown on what they are why you should care.

Let’s go.

Nano-influencers are Instagram users who have between 1k to 5k followers.

Think about their profile as the “girl or guy next door.” They aren’t overly glamorous or posed.

Remington, Always, and Gillette Venus are among some of the leading brands already incorporating nano-influencers into their campaigns.

So, why should you work with nano-influencers?

They’re close to their followers: Like actually close! Think about it. With a smaller following, nano-influencers are more likely to answer comments in a meaningful way because they understand their audience.
Higher engagement rate: The average engagement rate of nano-influencers is twice as high as that of other groups of influencers according to HypeAuditor. Not only are they reaching more people, but they’re driving the CPM down for you.
Trust: Think of a nano-influencer as a friend. Like most good friends, you trust them. The same logic applies here. You’re much more likely to purchase something from a trusted source.
More cost-effective: According to SocialPubli, only 44% of nano influencers prefer monetary compensations. What’s that mean for you? Most nano-influencers are happy to work with you in exchange for your product or service.
Easy to scale: Here’s a stat for ya: There are only 0.3% of influencers who have more than 1 million followers and 6% of creators who have between 100,000 and 1 million followers. Nano-influencers give you the ability to personalize your campaigns better and scale up on content.