If you’ve been paying attention to the world of marketing lately, you’ve probably noticed a rise in influencer-assisted content. You know what we’re talking about…a blog post/eBook/whitepaper created by a company that features quotes and insights from different influencers.

The idea here is that by quote influencers, those influencers will share your content with their audiences.

If you’re interested in trying this tactic, Cathy McPhillips from the Content Marketing Institute has some advice on how you can make it work…

Ask yourself a few preliminary questions

You need to figure out a few basic questions before going any further down this path:

• What are our goals for this influencer content?
• What metrics will we evaluate, and at what frequency?
• Is the investment reasonable?

Build a timeline

These things can take a loooong time to complete. CMI started months in advance of their publication date. They created a Gantt chart that detailed what needed to be done each week, who was responsible, and what would be delayed if tasks weren’t complete.

Select & invite influencers

There are plenty of ways you can go to compile lists of influencers. And you should do that at first. Research Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, wherever to find all the influencers you can find. But before you reach out to any of them, you have to narrow down your list. Ask these questions to help with that:

• Are they known in the industry?
• Do they have a network outside of ours?
• Will they share our excitement?
• Does the group represent our audience?

Get what you need from influencers

If they agree to help out, make it stupid simple for them by explaining exactly what you need, and when you need it. Give them a reasonable amount of time to respond.

More to learn here, including what you can provide to the influencers that will make them more likely to share your content.

SEMRush interviewed brilliant marketers through their #SEMchat via Twitter and received some really great info that we just had to share with our fam.

They focused on EAT. And no, we don’t mean the action you take when you’re hangry. EAT in the marketing world means Expertise, Authority, and Trust.

Google’s page crawlers have zeroed in on EAT and SEMRush set out to find the best ways to optimize for it. Here are some of those questions and answers.

Question #1: In your opinion, what is the fastest way to build authority by using SEO?

• First and foremost, create amazing content! Make it shareable, keyword-focused, and influencer-assisted (whoa, we just wrote about this).
• Search for unlinked mentions, and reach out to those who aren’t linking to you.
• For local SEO, you can’t go wrong with Google My Business listings. Maintain it like you’ve kept your Tamagotchi alive since the 90s.

Question #2: What are the top three on-site areas where a site can build trust and authority?

• Use your “About Us” page to show off major media publications where you have been featured.
• Have a separate page that lists customer reviews and testimonials.

Question #3: Google hasn’t really shared how they determine E-A-T, but we can all speculate! In your opinion, what are some of their determining factors?

• Good reviews around the web
• What people do once they reach your site

Question #4: If you’re a local business or are an agency that is helping a local business (like a plumber or realtor), what are some ways you can help them build their authority?

• Again, Google My Business!
• Get reviews on all platforms: Google, FB, Yelp, Yellow Pages.
• Dive into offline work like getting involved with the local community, plan events, or sponsor nonprofit events (links will naturally come from these efforts).

Question #5: What are the main metrics you would use when identifying good brand authority?

• Will your website or landing page answer a viewers question?
• Strong user experience and website quality
• Amount of engagement and traffic a site gets

SEMRush covered a ton more with detail and examples galore. So hop on over if you wanna read the full article.

Have ya checked out our Instagram page lately? Every other week we feature tools that make our lives, as a full-service digital agency, easier. This week we snagged a tool from our Developer’s Den.

It’s called Prettier! Our dev team uses it to help them code better Javascript. Head over to our Insta-feed for a mini tutorial!

Can you imagine working 53 years without a day off? We’ll repeat that to drive the point home…53 years, no days off. Your probs thinking, “No one does that.”

But apparently one guy, a truck driver named Ron, has worked the past 53 years without a day off. (We’re hoping he has weekends off. You do have weekends off, right Ron? Right!? Are you being forced to work 8 days a week!? Blink twice if you’re under duress, Ron!)

As it turns out, these insanely long stretches of work are more common than you’d think. Plenty of workers don’t get paid time-off and can’t afford to take a day off. Labor Day is a prime example of that. 1 in 4 Americans will be working on Labor Day.

That’s why everyone’s favorite grocery store coffee, Maxwell House, is giving money to workers who need a day off, like Ron.

Hear more about Ron’s story in today’s Watch. It’s a feel-good story to start your Wednesday off right.