Top Tips to Skyrocket Your Content Marketing

One of the issues biggest we notice with other B2B content marketing campaigns is that writers often do not get the balance right between creating effective digital content and crafting a piece of work which is genuinely engaging for readers. Keep reading to discover how we craft content marketing campaigns which are “SEO friendly” and also optimise user engagement.

Writer’s Block for Content Marketing

As we’re sure you’ll know, writer’s block is not just a term reserved for novelists and singers, but for marketers too.

The biggest headache when it comes to creating content for a digital marketing campaign is making sure you are writing something that a B2B audience is really interested in. However, as we all know, it is a necessary evil to create content as part of your digital strategy.

Ultimately, we believe that the most important thing is creating relevant content to your target audience. It’s all well and good creating content which is “SEO friendly”, but is it truly user friendly? This is the first question you should ask yourself when trying to find inspiration for your B2B content. 

Thankfully, there is a wide array of tools in the arsenal of our content experts at Digital Ethos when experiencing the dreaded writer’s block. Here are 3 of the best online sources for B2B content marketing:

• AnswerThePublic: This “free visual keyword research and content ideas tool” provides a large amount of real questions which people have searched for answers to that are related to your chosen keyword. This is a great way of injecting a sense of urgency within your content. If you can provide a final answer to an inconclusive question, then expect your user engagement to go through the roof.
• Ahrefs: This service is a great content creation tool for those digital marketers who prefer to work backwards. It will give you a list of the most popular content that has ever been written on the subject previously. Using this, you will get a great idea for the sorts of things that users are interested in within a particular market, giving you a firm insight into the types of content (e.g. lists, guides, etc.) which are going to guarantee you results. 
• BuzzSumo: This tool is particularly useful for those content writers who are prioritising user engagement and social media shareability above all else. You will gain invaluable access to the number of shares, likes and interactions article on a particular subject have received on social media sites in the past. Not only this, but BuzzSumo also has a “Only B2B Publishers” filter to avoid comparisons with irrelevant blog types.

The Importance of Finding Your Voice

We’ve heard it a thousand times; “It’s not what you said, it’s how you said it.”

This rings just as true when it comes to digital content creation. Ultimately, too many writers place all their energies on the facts, figures and information inside the words themselves whilst neglecting how they are coming across. Tone of voice is just as important when it comes to the written word as it is spoken.

Whilst many content writers may feel the need to fill out a content calendar, simply to keep things “fresh” on a digital marketing campaign, this is the worst thing that you can possibly do. Our expert team at Digital Ethos wholly believe that putting out dull, lifeless content is worse than putting out no content at all. It can harm your user engagement and conversion – it’s all about quality, not quantity.

It is absolutely vital to do thorough research regarding the subject you are writing about so that the company’s voice and personality comes through. Digital content creation is not dissimilar to classical writing in that your main aim is to communicate your idea in a natural, entertaining and impressive way. This is why we employ content writers who display a passion for digital marketing alongside a natural gift for engaging the reader through writing. 

It’s one thing to provide excellent information through your content, however, if it is delivered in an unnatural, uninteresting way, then readers will always see this, even if it manages to fly under Google’s radar.

Keyword Research: “Confidence Is Preparation in Action”

Who knew that Ron Howard’s words would apply so well to digital content marketing? Well, anyone serious about keyword research should have these words stuck to the walls of wherever it is that they create content. 

It may seem somewhat contradictory coming after the point above, however, thorough keyword research is absolutely vital to any digital content creator worth their salt. Keyword research lays the foundations to allow you to get creative with the content itself. 

The most successful B2B digital marketing campaigns will have content creators who understand that this work is both an art and a science. A great way to think about keyword research is like the gateway to allowing your users to notice the fantastic content you’re putting out there. It doesn’t matter if you are the Shakespeare of your generation, if the search engines don’t deem your content to be valuable, then no one is going to see it. 

Within today’s bustling marketing landscape, it is vital that content is made appealing to search engines, including Google, Bing and Yahoo. Becoming thoroughly accustomed with SEO strategies and including relevant keywords is a critical element of any content strategy.

Measuring Traffic: The Key to Improvement

This one sounds simple, but it can be easy to forget to monitor the performance of your content once it’s been published. It’s not a case of ‘that’s it, we’ve researched, written, proofed and submitted the content – job done!’. Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop there.

It is absolutely vital to measure the traffic from your B2B digital content after it is written, so that you know how to improve results in the future. There are a number of tools in any digital marketers arsenal that help us estimate, measure and quantify the success of our content.

The biggest, most popular and cheapest way to monitor an article’s impact online is through Google Analytics. Using the ‘Behaviour’ view, you can visualise the number of page views, sessions or users that have visited the page over a period of time, indicating how much traction your marketing activities has gained.

Another tool we often use to measure social shares and traction across other channels is Ahrefs. The Ahrefs tool, as mentioned earlier, allows you to enter a URL and measure the number of retweets, Facebook links and pinterest pins of any given article. While this is often taken with a pinch of salt due to common inaccuracy, they’re a reasonable baseline for comparison against similar content out there. This can also help us highlight necessary improvements to our content marketing strategy.

How Digital Ethos Can Help

Our content writing specialists at Digital Ethos hope you’ve found something valuable in amongst these top tips for skyrocketing your digital content creation.

For further expert insights, be sure to keep an eye out for our next installment of digital marketing insights, in which we will discuss the latest and greatest means of implementing an effective digital PR strategy.

If you’re interested in how your business could benefit from expert content marketing, or have any further enquiries, please do get in touch.