Adam Oakley - Express Writers - Page 11

7 Content Marketing Examples from Brands Killing It Online to Motivate & Inspire You

7 Content Marketing Examples from Brands Killing It Online to Motivate & Inspire You

Content marketing is continually reaching new heights. The content marketing examples out there right now prove it. Storytelling, imagination, deep research, creativity, innovation… All of these elements and more are evident in today’s best content marketing. ? To see what I mean, just look at these seven stunning examples of content marketing prowess. It’s impossible to NOT get inspired by these top content publishers raising the bar to atmospheric heights. Ready to climb the mountain and check out the view from the top? ? 7 Inspirational B2C & B2B Content Marketing Examples Some of the best of the best in content marketing examples are right here. In fact, many of them were Content Marketing Awards finalists, and others won various industry accolades. If you ever need to answer the question “what is content marketing?”, point to one of these outstanding specimens. [bctt tweet=”We’ve been always exposed to brilliant content marketing ideas that leave us feeling we’ve seen it all — not really. Here are 7 stunning content marketing examples that should inspire you to level up your strategy skills! ?️ ?” username=”ExpWriters”] 1. San Diego Tourism Authority – Bliss Break This content marketing example from 2018 shows what you can do with a tiny bit of video and a lot of ingenuity. The San Diego Tourism Authority teamed up with MeringCarson to produce six 15-second clips of beautiful, classic, and surprising California scenery. Sometimes, a coffee cup or a wine glass is in the foreground of the shot, but each one is a peaceful, sweet reminder to appreciate what’s right in front of you. Of course, the biggest draw is showcasing San Diego scenery like a beach at sunset, a cheerful theme park, calming ocean surf, or iconic palm trees swaying in the breeze next to an ice skating rink. Some of the videos (like the one featured above, “Good Morning San Diego”) have up to 200,000 views. This campaign was a finalist in the Content Marketing Awards for the “B2C Branded Content Campaign of the Year.” 2. Cleveland Clinic – Health Essentials Blog If you haven’t heard of Cleveland Clinic yet, well… why haven’t you? This health center is killing it with content, mostly thanks to its content marketing team (with Amanda Todorovich, their Senior Director of Health Content, at the helm). Currently, Cleveland Clinic’s Health Essentials blog draws in 6-7 million inbound visitors every month. That’s over 200,000 visitors per day! They rank for millions of health-related long-tail keywords – over 3 million, to be precise. How do they do it? Their content strategy is meticulous. They have it down to a science. ?‍? They publish 3-5 blogs daily with help from over 40 medical experts, who contribute interviews and review each piece. The content marketing team meets up every single morning to “huddle” and ensure everyone’s on the same page. The writers are on-point, too: The content is snappy and grabs your interest – even if you’re not researching a health problem. To learn more about Cleveland Clinic’s strategy and content marketing team, check out our interview with Amanda Todorovich alongside three other industry experts. 3. Synchrony – State of Pay Synchrony recently launched its content marketing platform, State of Pay, in 2018, but it’s already garnering notice in the best way. Dedicated to exploring the ways people shop and pay for purchases, the content offers insights for businesses as well as news about the ecommerce world. Trends, interviews, original research, and thought leadership are all evident here. In fact, the #1 resource cited on State of Pay articles is original studies conducted by Synchrony itself. It’s not all blog articles, though. There are also videos, ebooks, and animated infographics posted on social media. Say bye to billfolds. #StateOfPay delves into the future of mobile wallets. pic.twitter.com/CjRWMIk9m8 — Synchrony (@synchrony) September 4, 2019 It’s all targeted, cohesive, and ultra-relevant for their audience. Marketers, in general, agree – Synchrony’s State of Pay was another 2019 Content Marketing Awards finalist for B2B Branded Content Campaign of the Year. 4. YouTube – #TheYouTubeAd of the Year Next on our list of the best content marketing examples from 2018 and 2019: a bit of crowdsourcing from YouTube. Every year, the media giant holds #TheYouTubeAd of the Year, a campaign that lets anyone vote for their favorite commercials from the past 12 months. Generally, YouTube keeps tabs on ad performance through their YouTube ads Leaderboard, which tracks the most-watched ads viewed on the platform. At the end of the year, YouTube chooses categories based on the trends from that year, then culls the list to dozens of finalists. Viewers vote on their favorites, and the winners are announced after 8 days of voting. This is a great example of giving content on YouTube a second life while also promoting viewership. People are motivated to watch the nominees and vote on their favorites, and more views is equal to more money from advertisers. Here’s the 2018 winner for the category “#TheYouTubeAd That Deserves Best Picture” (it has over 17 million views as of this writing): 5. Semcon – Add Perspectives Semcon, an international technology company, is all about innovation. With their content initiative, Add Perspectives, the company set out to feature women’s voices and minds and how they approach product development. The result was an all-women product development team assembled to come up with a new concept for smart, user-friendly tow bars for hooking up cars to trailers. Semcon documented the process. In other words, this content marketing example is unique and ah-mazing. When using the standard tow bar (which hasn’t been redesigned since the 1930s!), most women admitted to feeling insecure. They couldn’t hook up their cars and trailers themselves easily, which made them self-conscious. Thus, in pictures, text, and video, Semcon told the story of how a team of women tackled this flaw in product design and development. This impactful content piece is engaging as well as demonstrative of Semcon’s values as a company. In short, it’s a fantastic exercise … Read more

Inbound Lead Generation With These 6 Content Types (Video)

Inbound Lead Generation With These 6 Content Types (Video)

Today, I’m super excited about the topic I’m sharing with you — how to get powerful organic lead generation results with six inbound content must-haves. These are the six we’ll go over in today’s video: Web pages Blog Posts Call to Actions (CTAs) Ebooks and Lead Magnets Lead Forms Conversation App (live chat) In today’s video, I’m sharing how all six work together like an ecosystem to bring you massive results and pull in ideal clients. You just need to know what to do with each, and how to set them up properly. Let’s get into it! Power Up Your Inbound Lead Generation With These 6 Content Types (Video) [bctt tweet=”Inbound lead methods, especially through content marketing, are hot for marketers today. But how do you set up content that will bring you results? @JuliaEMcCoy’s video on the six content types to use for lead gen is a must-watch. ” username=”ExpWriters”] If you’re a content marketer — or even a marketer, in general — looking to pivot into inbound, you’re in a good place. Inbound taps into a major traffic potential stemming from Google search (70.6% of ALL web traffic on the entire web originates from Google, according to Backlinko/Sparktoro). Publishing strategic content generates 67% more leads than NOT publishing strategic content, says a HubSpot study. And more than 71% of B2B buyers read blog content during their buying journeys (3-5 blogs is the norm). Meanwhile, the ROA on an ad funnel is as low as .66x. So, inbound marketing as a channel works! But, how do you actually set up content in a way that will bring you results? That’s what we’re here to talk about. I’ve been practicing content marketing for eight years, using my own businesses to test the best content marketing practices. I’ve launched four different brands that are all profitable. What I’ve found, especially with my primary income source — my agency, Express Writers, where we handle on average 200 client projects every month — is that you need these six inbound tools, so to speak, to get real results. Three are content formats, the other three are more or less tools to help that content work. Web pages Blog Posts Call to Actions (CTAs) Ebooks and Lead Magnets Lead Forms Conversation App (live chat) Think of all of these things like an ecosystem. Without all six, you won’t hit massive inbound results. [bctt tweet=”There are six inbound marketing tools that you’ll need to get the results that you’ve always wanted : web pages, blog posts, CTAs, ebooks and lead magnets, lead forms, and a conversation app! ” username=”ExpWriters”] When and How Do You Create These Six Content Types for Inbound Lead Generation? Here are the answers to that question. Two of these should be created every week: blogs and CTAs. One of these should be created once per quarter at a minimum: ebooks or lead magnets. The other three need to be created and then maintained at least once every quarter: your web pages, lead forms, and you should set up an app on your site for live prospect conversations. We use Drift. Here’s how all six work to bring in live prospects. See below for a real pathway example of all six working together to pull in prospects (via my agency, Express Writers). I’ve put a number for our list of six content types next to each to identify how all six work together in this “cycle” of pulling in an ideal lead. #2 Blogs — Example of a 2,000w search-optimized blog post (found through SEO keywords we’ve researched that tie into searches our prospects make on Google, like ‘how to write SEO content’) #3 CTA inside the blog goes to two forms (#5): Form #1 — Client Registration (captures live prospects). Form #2 — Free Ebook #1 and #4 Web Page & Ebook: — Ebook on a Landing Page (hooked up to an email sequence that triggers once they enroll, housed in ConvertKit). #6 Conversation App — Installed and sits on the pages on our site (we use Drift). Remember, a massive trend I’ve been talking about everywhere these days, as we head into 2020 and beyond, is that your content must be AMAZING for it to actually work and earn results. [bctt tweet=”This 2020, one great trend you shouldn’t miss is creating AMAZING content. @JuliaEMcCoy shares the 6 inbound lead generation content types to create, and when and how you should create them — all in this video. ” username=”ExpWriters”] So, when you apply the tips I’ll show you for setting up an inbound lead engine that WORKS, you must create content that doesn’t fall short of amazing. If it does fall short for your readers, unfortunately, you really won’t see the kind of results I’m talking about. Final tips: Conversion paths are key — think about what a prospect needs to contact and/or buy from you Make the buyer’s journey clear and easy Grow an audience that wants what you have to sell with the right keyword terms and content created around those consistently Hope you enjoyed today’s video! Need great content to fuel your inbound presence? That’s our specialty. Sign up as a client for free.

Content Marketing KPIs: Which Ones Do I Track to Identify Real Success? (& How to Track Them)

Content Marketing KPIs: Which Ones Do I Track to Identify Real Success? (& How to Track Them)

How do you track your content marketing successes (or failures, to learn from and improve next time)? It all boils down to tracking the right content marketing KPIs. Note that we didn’t say all the content marketing KPIs – just the right ones. You aren’t alone if you’re wondering why some content marketers succeed and others fail. What makes the difference between the two? ? Is it the volume of website traffic? The number of likes, comments, and shares? Revenue from unequivocal quality content? All those are examples of content marketing KPIs (key performance indicators). Some matter more than others. If you want success, you need to know which content marketing KPIs to track. Here are the top twelve that should be at the top of your list. Let’s dive in! Content Marketing KPIs: Which Ones to Track & How to Track Them Correctly Why Track Content Marketing KPIs? The Top 12 Content Marketing KPIs to Track Content Marketing KPIs for User Behavior 1. Bounce Rate 2. Scroll Depth 3. Time on Page Content Marketing KPIs for User Engagement 4. Shares 5. Comments 6. Conversations Content Marketing KPIs for SEO 7. Backlinks 8. Organic Traffic from Search Engines 9. Keyword Rankings Content Marketing KPIs for Company Revenue 10. Leads 11. Conversion Rates 12. ROI How Do You Track Content Marketing KPIs? Use These 6 Handy Tools Content Marketing KPIs Measure Your Success [bctt tweet=”How do you define real success in the world of content marketing? ?️ @JuliaEMcCoy lists down the top 12 content marketing KPIs that you should keep track of to identify if your efforts are producing great results. ☝️” username=”ExpWriters”] Why Track Content Marketing KPIs? In sports, it’s easy to track success. For example, think of soccer. In soccer, your aim is to get the ball through the goal. One goal equals one point. The team with the most goals wins the match. But content marketing isn’t that simple. It’s like playing soccer with a hundred goals instead of two. What’s more, when you shoot the ball into the goal, you aren’t sure what score you’ll get. Some goals give you a hundred points while others give you two points. The key with this type of soccer is first to find out which goals give you the highest points. Then you start putting energy into shooting the ball into them. This is what tracking content marketing KPIs is all about. You need to find out which content marketing KPIs are important and give you the highest improvements (scores). Then, you set out to outperform yourself on them. When you track the right content marketing KPIs, you’ll start winning in content marketing. [bctt tweet=”Why bother tracking content marketing KPIs? ?️ Getting to know which KPIs perform well gives you an idea of how you can further boost them. It’s also good to know which ones badly need a strategy makeover. ?” username=”ExpWriters”] The Top 12 Content Marketing KPIs to Track These 12 content marketing KPIs are your safety net and formula for success. Let’s dive in! Content Marketing KPIs for User Behavior First of all, let’s look closely at content marketing KPIs that show you how users interact with your content. 1. Bounce Rate Bounce rate refers to the number of visitors who view only one page of your site. It’s one of the top content marketing KPIs because it tells you what visitors feel about your content. Here are 5 reasons visitors click on your site, scan it, and immediately click the back button. Your content is boring. Your paragraphs are too long. Visitors can’t find what they’re looking for. Your site isn’t user-friendly. Your writing style doesn’t fit user needs. For example, if you’re a user and you find this as the opening paragraph of a blog? Source: Grammarly You’ll most likely run for the hills with your go-to back button. The more visitors click the back button without visiting any other pages on your site, the higher your bounce rate will be. So what’s a good bounce rate? According to The Daily Egg, it depends on what industry you’re in. However, a good rule of thumb is to keep your bounce rate below 70%. 2. Scroll Depth Scroll depth is one of the content marketing KPIs that’s closely related to bounce rate. Scroll depth indicates how far down the page your reader goes before leaving. What causes a reader to leave your page halfway through reading it? Mostly, it’s when you don’t follow through with the promises you made in your headline. For example, maybe your headline looks like this. Source: Have The Relationship You Want from Rori Raye This headline makes one promise: After you read the article, you’ll know the secret to winning the man of your dreams. Forever. Now, what if you’ve reached the halfway mark and you’re nowhere near discovering this secret? You guessed it. You’re going to click back. The point where you stopped reading is your scroll depth. Keeping track of your readers’ scroll depth will help you figure out exactly where your content stops working. This is one of the content marketing KPIs you can rely on because it helps you measure the success of your content. 3. Time on Page As the name suggests, time on page refers to how long users spend on your page. Using this valuable content marketing KPI, you can tell what your readers feel about your words. According to Capitalize My Title, it takes an average of 1 minute to read 300 words. Now, if your blog has 1,500 words and your reader spent only 2 minutes on it? That’s right. He didn’t read everything. What you need to track is reader time on page corresponding to how many words your post has. If readers are clicking back after less than a minute but scrolling to the end of the page? They’re scanning your headings but not devouring your content. As a valuable KPI for content marketing, time on page shows you … Read more

The Top-Shared Content of 2019: 22 Pieces That Rose to the Top

The Top-Shared Content of 2019: 22 Pieces That Rose to the Top

To start off 2020 with a bang, we’re taking a deep, researched look at what went right in content in the past year. We’re looking at… Content pieces with huge engagement. Beautiful, successful blogs. ✨ And we’re sharing a massive shoutout to the marketers, writers, and teams behind the effort and sweat put into these pieces.️ ♥ (Because content will never be taken over by the robots. It will always, first and foremost, be humanly driven. Humans are the real content MVPs.) To compile our list, we used BuzzSumo’s powerful content analyzer and compiled the top-shared content in our topic category “content marketing.” And after coming up with a list, we manually weeded out the spam. The result? 22 pieces made of pure gold. We can’t wait to share them with you! Ready to be inspired? Inspiration, Lessons, and Insights from the 22 Most-Shared Content Pieces of 2019 The 22 Most Shared Content Pieces of 2019 1. 2019 Creative Trends Infographic – Shutterstock 2. 15 Content Marketing Tools for Success You Need in 2019 3. Interview with Neil Patel on Content Marketing with Awesome Rapid Fire 4. 18 Types of Content Marketing You Can Use to Grow Your Business 5. How Digital Marketing Will Change in 2019 6. The Death of Google Search Traffic and What It Means for Marketers 7. We Analyzed 912 Million Blog Posts. Here’s What We Learned About Content Marketing 8. The 2019 Ultimate Guide to Facebook Engagement 9. The Ultimate SEO Tool: Ubersuggest 3.0 10. 7 Steps to Create a Successful, Profitable Blog 11. 17 Charts That Show Where Content Marketing Is Heading 12. Why Local Businesses Will Need Websites More Than Ever in 2019 13. The Best Time to Post on Instagram (and the Worst) 14. 3 Ways Content Marketing Boosts Your SEO Rankings 15. Ubersuggest 4.0: The Ultimate Content Marketing Tool 16. Optimizing for Searcher Intent Explained in 7 Visuals 17. 3 Types of Social Video That Work for Any Business 18. Copywriting: The Definitive Guide (2019) 19. 26 Mobile and Desktop Tools for Marketers 20. 5 Freaking Genius Content Ideas You Can Steal from BuzzFeed 21. The Future of Content Marketing and How to Adapt 22. 5 Trends to Know in SEO & Content Marketing [bctt tweet=”Now as the year comes to a close, it’s time to look back on the top-shared content of 2019 that gained the most engagements under ‘content marketing’ (⚡ Spoiler: @JuliaEMcCoy’s SEJ post is in the 22nd spot!) See if your fave is here! ” username=”ExpWriters”] The 22 Top-Shared Content Pieces of 2019 1.  Shutterstock: “2019 Creative Trends Infographic“ Number of engagements: 17,300 Shutterstock’s post pulses with color, music, and art. It features wild photos of duotone gradients, cutouts of stars and fish, and striking images of leopard prints, snakeskin patterns, and gold chains. But reading the article is more than falling into a well of technicolor. Here are the key takeaways readers get from it: The major trends based on increased user search are 80’s opulence, raw zine culture, and early-tech neon styles. Rising trends include environmentally friendly products, childlike pastel Kawaii colors, rococo romance, prisms, and hypnotic patterns. For the first time ever, a typography style takes a seat at the creative trends table. Think 3D text made sweet with sugar dusting, chocolate coating, and sprinkles! Overall, this piece is a colorful adventure to read. Plus, it gives useful insights on styling trends in 2019. [bctt tweet=”See the top 22 content pieces of 2019 in @JuliaEMcCoy’s original study featuring Shutterstock’s ‘2019 Creative Trends Infographic’” username=”ExpWriters”] 2. Dillenium: 15 Content Marketing Tools for Success You Need in 2019 by Hina Naz Number of engagements: 8,000 You won’t be successful in content marketing without an array of fine tools. In this blog, Hina Naz lists everything you need to add to your toolkit in 2019. What I love about this blog is it isn’t limited to tools for keyword research. Hina lists a tool for perfecting grammar (Grammarly) a headline analyzer (Sharethrough Analyzer), an organizer (Evernote), and more! No wonder this post made it to number two of the top-shared content of 2019! [bctt tweet=”See the top 22 content pieces of 2019 in @JuliaEMcCoy’s original study featuring @NazHina’s ’15 Content Marketing Tools for Success You Need in 2019′” username=”ExpWriters”] 3. Sorav Jain: “Interview with Neil Patel on Content Marketing with Awesome Rapid Fire“ Number of engagements: 6,800 Ever wonder what Neil Patel does to stay fit? Or how he built his gigantic digital marketing empire? In this Youtube interview, Sorav Jain successfully mashes entertainment with serious questions about what it is to be an entrepreneur. It’s a mixture of laughter and heart-to-heart that’ll get you thoughtfully nodding your head. Neil answers questions about: His top three favorite marketing tools The secret to how he built his empire The biggest lie he ever told a client His diet and exercise regime His digital marketing predictions for 2019 and 2020 My favorite part? When Neil tries and fails to say “I love digital marketing and I cannot live without it,” in Gujarati. The most inspiring thing he said?  “Entrepreneurship is like a rollercoaster… there’s good moments, bad moments, scary moments, happy moments. You’ve just got to accept it all.” [bctt tweet=”See the top 22 content pieces of 2019 in @JuliaEMcCoy’s original study featuring @SoravJain’s ‘Interview with Neil Patel on Content Marketing with Awesome Rapid Fire’” username=”ExpWriters”] 4. Marketing Solved: “18 Types of Content Marketing You Can Use to Grow Your Business” by Kat Sullivan Number of engagements: 6,100 Most posts will give you a list of the top five or ten types of content that’ll grow your business. Kat goes further and gives you 18. Each section of Kat’s blog is carefully detailed. She doesn’t only tell you which types of content to post but also why it’ll work for you. According to her, the big three of content marketing are blogging, social media, and email marketing. In fact, she used this secret trifecta to grow her business to six figures in … Read more

Where Should I Invest My Marketing Budget? How Inbound Content Beats PPC & Other Avenues

Where Should I Invest My Marketing Budget? How Inbound Content Beats PPC & Other Avenues

Ever asked yourself, “Where should I invest my marketing budget?” What about this followup question? “How much do companies spend on marketing that doesn’t work?” Because, let’s be real – Are you seeing results from your PPC (pay-per-click) ads on Google? How about your Facebook ads? If you’re like most ad buyers, the answer is almost always a shrug, a sigh, and a reluctant, “Well… no.” That’s no coincidence. The ROI of PPC alone is lower than low. (Sadly low. Ridiculously, hopelessly low.) How low is it? That’s what we’ll discuss today: Why PPC ads and similar avenues aren’t worth it, why there are better options, and exactly where you should invest your marketing budget. (Hint: It starts with an “i” and ends with “-nbound.”) ? Where Should You Invest Your Marketing Budget? The Truth About PPC vs. Inbound ROI 1. Marketing Budget Breakdown: What’s the Real Cost of PPC? 2. Marketing Budget Reality: The Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) for PPC Ads vs. the ROI of Inbound Content Marketing 3. The Inbound Marketing Difference 3 MORE Reasons PPC Ads Don’t Pay Off People Distrust Ads in General PPC Has a Steep Learning Curve Many PPC Experts Prioritize Numbers over Human Readers Where Should I Invest My Marketing Budget? Inbound Is the Answer [bctt tweet=”? Been throwing out loads of cash for PPC ads? And was it worth it? ? If the ads in 2018 brought only 0.66x return on ad spend, then it’s a 100% NO ?‍♂️?‍♀️. Where should you invest your marketing budget then? A: Inbound Content ?” username=”ExpWriters”] Where Should You Invest Your Marketing Budget? The Truth About PPC vs. Inbound ROI If you looked at a chart of marketing budgets by industry for 2018 or 2019, you would probably see a fair amount spent a chunk of money on PPC ads. Many probably prioritized PPC above building their organic search rankings. This is a big mistake, and I want to show you exactly why. 1. Marketing Budget Breakdown: What’s the Real Cost of PPC? The cost of PPC is easy to break down in surface terms. You bid for the specific keyword you’re targeting – the maximum amount you’re willing to pay every time someone clicks your ad. If your bid is the highest (and your Ad Rank is equally up to snuff), you’ll appear at the top of search results. Here’s a visual of that from Wordstream: However, for many highly competitive keywords, bidding can get insane. For example, to rank at the top of Google with a paid search ad for a competitive keyword like “content marketing,” you would need to shell out $18 per click. However, before you decide that would be totally worth the cost, look more closely at the click data in Ahrefs. Clicks are currently going to only 4% of paid “content marketing” search results. Meanwhile, almost all the clicks (96%!) are going to organic search. Let’s put that into perspective. “Content marketing” has a search volume of 31K. 48% of searches for this keyword ended in clicks (searchers clicked on one or more of the results). That means about 14,880 people clicked a result in this SERP. Only 4% clicked a paid search ad. That means PPC ads are only getting about 595 clicks per month in this SERP. The lion’s share of the clicks (14,284!!) are going to organic search. Very, very few people are clicking ads in search results like this one. [bctt tweet=”What’s the real cost of PPC? So here’s how it goes: you bid for your target keyword aka the max amount you’ll pay per ad click. The highest bid gets to the top of search results. Easy. ? BUT, its low ROI will shock you. ??” username=”ExpWriters”] To drive the point home, let’s look at another example of the low ROI of PPC ads. A colleague recently sent me a case study from one of their clients with declining sales. Without naming names, my colleague looked at the client’s search data and conversion rates and found: About 26% of their traffic was coming from paid search. Roughly 17% was coming from organic search. Their conversion rate for traffic from paid search was 0.27%. Their conversion rate for organic search traffic was 51% – nearly 6x higher than paid search. Imagine the ROI if this client switched gears and started focusing on improving their organic search rankings! 2. Marketing Budget Reality: The Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) for PPC Ads vs. the ROI of Inbound Content Marketing The return on investment for paid search isn’t looking good. But wait: There’s more. According to The Ad Strategist, the ROAS for Facebook ads (as part of a cold ad funnel, where cold leads are served ads based on their interests, etc.) has drastically dropped within the past 1-2 years. In 2016, ROAS hovered at a decent 11.88x. In 2018, ROAS dipped to a dismal 0.66x. Display ad conversion rates have plummeted. Across industries, the average is 0.72% on mobile. That means, if you spend, say, $450 on ads, you’d only get back 0.0066% of what you put into your campaign. With a 0.72% conversion rate, you would actually lose money. Your small business marketing budget statistics would look horrible. That’s why inbound and content marketing are incredible in comparison. [bctt tweet=”Return on ad spend (ROAS) went from 11.8x in 2016 sliding down to 0.66x in 2018. ? The average ad conversion rate for mobile is 0.72%. ? These are the signs that you should change where you invest your marketing budget RIGHT NOW. ??” username=”ExpWriters”] 3. The Inbound Marketing Difference On average, across industries, organic traffic from search converts at a rate of 16%. Thus, when you target organic traffic with inbound marketing, the ROI speaks for itself. When you create content of amazing quality consistently, the stuff that speaks deeply to your target reader’s pains and problems (and solves them!), you can’t help but win. I came up with a formula for predicting content marketing … Read more

Worried About Google BERT? How to Make Sure You’re Ready in 5 Steps

Worried About Google BERT? How to Make Sure You’re Ready in 5 Steps

Google’s done it again. On October 25, 2019, Google BERT hit the scene. Boy, it has been a rollercoaster. Within the first few days of its release, many people saw sizable fluctuations in their keyword performance, page ranks, and site traffic. Others saw almost no change at all. Still others questioned whether Google BERT was actually that big of a deal. Yet, this rather innocent-sounding update is described by Google as “one of the biggest leaps forward in the history of Search.” It’s expected to affect one in 10 organic searches (yikes!). Google releases almost nine algorithm updates each day. So, what makes BERT so important? And what do marketers (and site owners) need to do to prepare or recover from the effects of this update on their site? Those are great questions! Let’s explore. Google BERT Explained, Plus 5 Ways to Make the Most of Google’s Latest Search Innovations What Is Google BERT and Why Is Everyone Freaking Out? Why You Saw Site Traffic and Keyword Fluctuations How to Make Sure Your Site Is Ready for Google BERT in 5 Steps 1. Optimize for Humans, not BERT 2. Keep Calm and Continue E-A-T-ing! 3. Revisit How Your Site Captures Informational Searches 4. Avoid the Keyword Superstitions That Are Currently Everywhere 5. Get Ready with Those Featured Snippets [bctt tweet=”Saw something weird happened in your current site rankings? Maybe it’s the latest Google BERT doing its job. @JuliaEMcCoy explains what happened and some easy tips to keep your site afloat. ‍♀️” username=”ExpWriters”] What Is Google BERT and Why Was Everyone Freaking Out? There’s been a lot already written on what BERT is and what it is not, but it’s worth revisiting exactly how Google BERT works. BERT stands for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers. This mouthful of neurolinguistic terminology basically means that it’s now easier for the search engine to understand the context of words in a search string. Using Natural Language Processing (NLP), BERT helps the search engine understand the significance of words like “to” or “for” (transformer words) in the context of a search. These would have been previously ignored by the search engine, leading to frustrating goose chases while someone tried to find the right combination of words or phrases. For example, before BERT, Google results for “math practice books for adults” would have included hits that – while technically keyword matches – were irrelevant: Source: Google By emphasizing transformer words, the search engine can now understand that “for” is an important part of the sentence grammatically. Previously, it would have ignored the word, returning results involving math books for any demographic with adult in the term – such as young adults. Google BERT doesn’t change any rules for keywords and the update didn’t change any of the metrics the search engine uses for determining page rank. Nonetheless, it’s still going to have a pretty big impact on site traffic and page ranks. In fact, it already has. [bctt tweet=”What is Google BERT? BERT stands for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers. To simplify: BERT helps the search engine understand the significance of transformer words like ‘to’ and ‘for’ in the keywords used. ” username=”ExpWriters”] So, You Saw Something Spooky With Your Site Traffic? Here’s What Happened. Within 24 hours of Google BERT going live in English, people started reporting chaos in their analytics as the changes took place. Some people reported significant drops in their site traffic and page ranks, while others witnessed surges to the top. Nutrition and supplement review site Examine, for example, saw a return to normal traffic from the July update: Source: Twitter Other sites saw a significant drop in their traffic and page ranking, with some claiming they’d been de-ranked or had pages de-indexed altogether. Given the way BERT affects searches, a few reasons exist as to why this might have happened: You were getting a lot of traffic from keywords, but your information was irrelevant. For example, if you had a site selling young adult math textbooks, you would have previously gotten traffic from “math practice books for adults” because your keywords matched. That’s not happening anymore. You’ve been pushed down by a competitor with a stronger keyword game. This is proving to be especially true for local SEO, where searches rely more heavily on transformer words like “at” or “in.” You don’t have a lot of content that would turn up in informational searches. Informational searches – the type of Google query where a user is seeking specific information about something – are the most common type of Google search out there. They’re also what BERT primarily affected because they’re the types of searches most likely to use transformer words or include conversational wording. Your site is optimized for search engines, not people. Google has been pushing content quality for years now, but some sites have stubbornly clung to SEO oriented to the search engine rather than human readers. If you’re using outdated SEO techniques, you might have seen a plunge in traffic. If anything, BERT reveals just how important it is to stay up to date with Google’s major algorithm updates. Google can – and does – merrily overhaul the way search engines rank pages. (Remember Panda and its 2015 update? I sure do. Sheesh.) With the release of Google BERT, we’re going to see another one of those overhauls, albeit a less traumatic one. Those who have been lagging behind the times with their SEO strategy are the ones feeling the most negative effects. Fortunately, I know a few tricks to help correct any downturn you might have experienced and get the most from the release of BERT. [bctt tweet=”After the Google BERT update, there were significant drops in site traffic and page ranks. But don’t worry. If you have a content strategy in place, you’re more likely to be unaffected. You might even see better results! ” username=”ExpWriters”] How to Make Sure Your Site Is Ready for Google BERT in 5 Steps Wondering how to optimize … Read more

What is Content Marketing? (Video)

What is Content Marketing? (Video)

I’ve been practicing content marketing for nearly nine years now — and I’m not the only one. There are thousands of us content marketers out there. Not to mention, the industry itself is worth over $400 billion! But, time and time again, I still hear the question asked: “So what exactly IS content marketing?” This video was created to answer that question. My goal is that this big, burning question is thoroughly answered in a way that inspires you to get started on your content marketing journey! What is Content Marketing? (Video) [bctt tweet=”What is content marketing? If you’re still confused about what it is and how it could be your business’s winning formula , watch @JuliaEMcCoy’s latest video on Youtube featuring @JoePulizzi and @cmicontent. ✨” username=”ExpWriters”] To get a solid, accurate definition of content marketing, let’s turn to industry leaders that have been an influential part of this industry today. So, let’s start there. Then, we’ll head into a down-to-earth discussion of what this type of marketing really is! Unless you’re living under a content marketing rock, you’ve probably heard of Content Marketing Institute. The founder of CMI, Joe Pulizzi, is known as the “Godfather of Content Marketing.” Back in 2011, Joe started Content Marketing World, a world-leading content marketing event today with over 4,000 content marketers in attendance. When Joe had the idea to start the event, he reserved a room that fit 125 people in the Cleveland Renaissance Hotel. Over 600 people showed up. It grew and grew every year from there. Content Marketing Institute says that content marketing is: A strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action. Instead of pitching your products or services, you are providing truly relevant and useful content to your prospects and customers to help them solve their issues. Let’s look at a few other sources. Wikipedia used over 34 sources for their definition of content marketing: Content marketing is a form of marketing focused on creating, publishing, and distributing content for a targeted audience online. It is often used by businesses in order to: Attract attention and generate leads Expand their customer base Generate or increase online sales Increase brand awareness or credibility Engage an online community of users Marketo says: Content marketing is the process of creating valuable, relevant content to attract, acquire, and engage your audience. Buyers and customers today are inundated by more marketing messages than ever before — more than 2,900 per day, by current estimations. This creates an environment of attention scarcity, challenging marketers with the task of producing engaging content that won’t get lost in the static. A well-crafted content marketing strategy places your business in the position of a thought leader. When content marketing works BEST, it usually has two core elements: When the main purpose of content marketing is to grow and build an engaged, happy audience When the creator/creators (brand, publication, entrepreneur, marketer) are ready for a long-term commitment Some say the first example of content marketing goes way back to Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard Almanack, first published in 1732, which Franklin published in order to get people hooked on his printing service. In the 19th century, John Deere started a magazine called the Furrow with the goal of providing accurate, unbiased information for farmers to improve their operation, according to a Content Marketing Institute documentary. If you study the best examples of brands grown through content today, even the Content Marketing Institute, this was their goal — build an audience before selling anything. Typically, content was created for 12 to 18, 24 months before an offer was ever made to that audience. This is true for my agency, Express Writers. 99% of our leads and revenue come from our blogging. We’ve never once not published a blog per week in eight years of blogging. So, if this is ever backwards — the offer and sale come ahead of the audience — content marketing simply put, doesn’t work. To win at content marketing, the type of content you publish should be the BEST in your industry. Think in terms of mastering what you do. This means being the best in… Best in author voice (expert writer, researcher, creator – outsource this to make life easy) Best in topics and concepts (thought leader – avoid outsourcing this part) Best in optimization and visibility (to be found on Google, research the right keywords and topics before creating) Focusing on mastering on one channel is better than jumping to all the shiny objects. Study the benchmarks you’re up against, and create better content! More comprehensive, more long-form, more unique. [bctt tweet=”Focusing on mastering on one channel is better than jumping to all the shiny objects. Study the benchmarks you’re up against, and create better content to win.  ” username=”ExpWriters”] Any company, big or small, from tech to manufacturing, can produce content marketing. How Does Content Marketing Differ from Traditional Advertising? Content marketing’s goal is to build an audience, and then, turn that audience into buyers. (Without that, there is not a ton of profit and ROI.) Why it’s different than ads: content marketing that works puts the buyer in the driver’s seat. It completely obliterates the annoying, pushy “look-at-me, look-at-me” attitude of traditional advertising. Instead, content is used to build a relationship. The costs of content-marketing can be low, as compared to ads. You can publish on your own site, your own blog — unlike traditional advertising, where companies pay a third party, like Facebook, to include an ad. Brands like Kraft have said that content marketing’s ROI was 4x that of traditional ROI. Some successfully use content marketing in tandem with paid ads. So, that can be done to great success. What Does a Content Marketing Plan Include? Usually, these are the six content types included in a content marketing plan: Web pages (onsite: Home, About, etc.) Blogs (onsite: consistent fresh content) Social … Read more

5 SEO and Content Trends That Will Be Worth Your Time & Focus in 2020

5 SEO and Content Trends That Will Be Worth Your Time & Focus in 2020

2020 is coming at us, whether we like it or not. To stay ahead of the curve as knowledgeable marketers and website owners, what are the most important factors you need to know about content and SEO trends? As it turns out, a LOT.  ? As fast as technology changes, content marketing changes, too. What was relevant, best practice, or trendy last year may not hold water in 2020. Read my blog today on what I consider next year’s major SEO and content trends headed our way. ? Don’t let your content and SEO fall behind. 5 SEO and Content Trends That Will Be Worth Your Time & Focus in 2020 1. Amazing, Niche, Expert Content Which Meets or Exceeds Google’s E-A-T Standards 2. Content Optimized for Voice Search 3. More Long-Tail Keyword Searches and More Content Targeting Them 4. Richer, SEO-Ready Imagery in Content 5. Interactive Content [bctt tweet=”As content marketing continues to evolve, we find ways to keep our content relevant and ranking. ? So for 2020, why not go further and create better, unbeatable content? ? @JuliaEMcCoy reveals 5 upcoming SEO and content trends.” username=”ExpWriters”] [bctt tweet=”5 SEO content trends for 2020: ? 1. Niche Expert Content 2. Content Optimized for Voice Search 3. More Long-Tail Keyword Searches 4. Richer Imagery See all 5 from @JuliaEMcCoy” username=”ExpWriters”] 1. Amazing, Niche, Expert Content Which Meets or Exceeds Google’s E-A-T Standards Content continues to amaze and astound us on the regular. It can do SO much for small and large brands alike. It taps into the major traffic potential stemming from Google search (70.6% of ALL web traffic originates there, according to Backlinko/Sparktoro). Publishing strategic content generates 67% more leads than NOT publishing strategic content, says a HubSpot study. Meanwhile, 71% of B2B buyers read blog content during their buying journeys (3-5 blogs is the norm). If you’re on the receiving end of those stats, ready and waiting with amazing content, the rewards are huge. More people are getting wise to how well it works, and so we’ll see more content from more brands in 2020. The word to focus on, however, is “amazing.” Without that qualifier, you don’t have a chance. In 2020, it’s not just bad content that won’t cut it. Even mediocre pieces will fail to land, including “not bad” and “good enough” content that makes you shrug halfheartedly after reading the first paragraph. To rank with Google and readers, your content has to go far beyond “not bad” and inch into “exceptional,” “amazing,” and “wow” territory. The only caveat? The bar for amazing content keeps rising. Marketers who have been doing content forever know this beyond a doubt, so they’ll up their game in response. The result: Content in 2020 will be better than ever – especially from major players! How can you keep up to rank in 2020? The shortlist: Hit Google’s definition of quality. Over and over, in their Webmaster Guidelines, the search engine references helping the user, being useful, and including the words for which users are searching in your content. From Steps to a Google-friendly site From Webmaster Guidelines Prove you’re an expert in your industry/topic area. Google highlights the importance of expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-A-T) in its Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines. Google itself called these guidelines a good indicator of how they define high-quality (and low-quality) content. That hint is from an article published in August 2019 on the Webmaster Central Blog. Create & publish amazing-quality content consistently. Inconsistency in content is a recipe for catastrophe. Failing to update your content regularly (whether that means tweaking older articles or pages or posting new ones), as well as failing to maintain your quality standards, will ultimately hurt your search visibility. At Express Writers, we consistently rank at the top of Google because of our commitment to consistency and quality in content. Case in point: For 8 years (yes, years), without missing a beat, we published one blog/week. We stuck to this rigorously, and it has paid off. Today we rank for over 23,000 keywords in Google, and 99% of our prospects come to us through organic search. Summing up, content isn’t going out of style. (Never.) Plenty of great content is going to come out of heightened knowledge and a better understanding of what it takes to rank in 2020. Need help learning how to write SEO content that meets the tried-and-true fundamentals of ranking in Google and earning your reader’s attention? Grab my free SEO cheat sheet below. ⬇️   [bctt tweet=”If you’ve been following Google’s E-A-T standards, good work focusing on useful content for online readers. If you’re not sure you’re updated with the latest guidelines, check out @JuliaEMcCoy’s quick 3-item checklist. ?” username=”ExpWriters”] 2. Content Optimized for Voice Search Is anyone surprised this is a 2020 trend? Me neither. Voice search is continuing to grow, both in usage and popularity. According to the Smart Audio Report from NPR and Edison Research, 16% of Americans owned a smart speaker as of January 2018. One year later, that number shot up by 78%. Naturally, with more people owning and using smart speakers, it follows that more will be using voice search to ask their devices to find information. The data backs this up: eMarketer predicts by 2021, over one-third – 36.6% – of the entire U.S. population will use voice assistants. What this means for SEO and content is pretty big. Content optimized for voice search must be (and will be) on the agenda for most content marketers. What does this look like? Short answer: A bigger focus on long-tail, question-and-answer, and phrase keywords with natural language (that means weird, unnatural-sounding keywords are out) Careful formatting of these keywords within the content (bullets, short paragraphs, bolded text, and other signifiers that tell Google, “Hey, this is important”) More marketers optimizing their content for SERP features like Featured Snippets and People Also Ask – because voice search pulls from these spots! (Specifically, SEMrush found that 70% of answers returned from voice search … Read more

Stop Scaring Your Followers Away: 10 Scary, No-Good Content Marketing Tactics to Quit Doing

Stop Scaring Your Followers Away: 10 Scary, No-Good Content Marketing Tactics to Quit Doing

Do you know what’s super spooky? The easily avoidable content mistakes happening all. The. TIME. It’s almost 2020 – a year people used to dream about when they thought of a high-tech future – but here we are. People are still committing basic content marketing mistakes (sometimes unknowingly, but ‍♀️). These scary mistakes aren’t something to laugh about, either. They cost you a lot. Think Google rankings, traffic, leads, conversions, a loyal audience, and general content ROI. If you want your content to perform well (who doesn’t??), if you want to keep your website from becoming an abandoned, haunted house where no one dares step foot… You must know and avoid these mistakes as if they were monsters prowling the dark of night. Don’t get too comfortable, don’t get close, and if you spot one, RUN, and try to fix it. 10 Content Marketing Mistakes That Are Undermining Your ROI 1. Prioritizing the Quick Sale Over Building Long-Term Trust 2. Not Investing in Valuable, Useful Content 3. Buying Fake Followers (Follower Ghosts!) to Grow Your Online Presence 4. Targeting Focus Keywords and Related Keywords Incorrectly 5. Posting Content Whenever the Mood Strikes 6. Publishing Skeletal Content and Expecting It to Rank 7. Putting Out Lots of Scary-Quality Content 8. Letting Duplicate Content Haunt Your Domain 9. Participating in Ghoulish Link-Buying Schemes 10. Forgetting to Champion Your Reader Don’t Let Bad Content Marketing Tactics Haunt Your Brand Presence [bctt tweet=”There’s no need to have a sixth sense for us to see dead content. Low-quality copy and unethical marketing practices should get that straight to the grave. ⚰️ Save your content now by avoiding these 10 bad content marketing tactics!” username=”ExpWriters”] Run the Other Way! 10 Scary Content Marketing Tactics Undermining Your ROI If you commit any of these, call a priest – you need an exorcism to save your content marketing soul. 1. Prioritizing the Quick Sale Over Building Long-Term Trust Repeat after me: Content marketing is not about the quick sale. In fact, it’s not really about the sale at all. Now, hear me out. Yes, the eventual end-goal is to build up enough trust with your readers so they feel confident buying into whatever you’re offering. BUT. More revenue is just one possible end by-product. It’s not the point. The point is trust. When you look at a solid definition of content marketing (like this one I constantly reference from the Content Marketing Institute), note there is no mention of sales, money, or revenue. Instead, the emphasis is placed squarely on your audience/customers. Specifically, content marketing is about: Attracting and retaining your audience Driving profitable actions from customers “Profitable actions” aren’t necessarily sales. Instead, a profitable action could be adding a new subscriber to your email list, or earning another loyal blog follower. These are profitable situations because they signify interest and growing trust in what you offer. These people may eventually become not only customers but also brand advocates. That compounding future interest helps spread your brand name as an authority, builds relationships with people, and, ultimately, leads to more conversions. Trust breeds trust. Once the relationship is there, the sales will come later — but they’re not the point. Don’t settle for pushiness and try to close your leads today. That’s not content marketing. Instead, focus on building that long-term trust that wins real industry positioning tomorrow. [bctt tweet=”Don’t be a real-life undead chasing humans to get them to buy your product or service with your salesy content! ‍♀️ Start building long-term trust instead with attractive, relevant, and useful content. – @JuliaEMcCoy” username=”ExpWriters”] 2. Not Investing in Valuable, Useful Content Content that wins trust and builds loyalty is high-value, useful, and relevant to your particular audience. If your content is none of those things, you won’t reap the rewards of content marketing. It’s that simple. Conductor did the first-ever study investigating the impact of educational content on customers. The results were incredible: After reading a brand’s educational content, people were 131% more likely to purchase from them 78% rated a brand as “helpful” and 64% rated them “trustworthy” immediately after reading the brand’s content One week later, the above numbers increased by 8-9% Useful, valuable content has a direct effect on your readers. Without those traits, however, your content will be useless. If you want the rewards, you have to invest in creating and publishing the best content you can produce. No ifs, ands, or buts. 3. Buying Fake Followers (Follower Ghosts!) to Grow your Online Presence Have you ever been tempted — when you’re green with envy over your competitor’s follower count — to just buy some fake followers and call it a day? (And, just to be clear, I’m talking about non-real followers, i.e., computer-generated follower ghosts that don’t exist in real life. ) Don’t do it. Not only is buying fake followers majorly frowned-upon, but it will also have consequences that will undermine what you’re trying to do (build an engaged audience). HootSuite did an actual case study on buying fake followers on Instagram to see what would happen, and the results were laughable: 1,000 followers, each of them obviously bot-created at random, with zero engagement from any of them. If you have a large follower count but no engagement… well, that’s an oxymoron AND a red flag. Instagram will easily find your fake account and shut it down, according to their Terms of Use. Likewise, other brands won’t want to associate with your account. Getting their content or products in front of a ghost audience will do absolutely nothing for them. And don’t think you can hide it – there are tools for analyzing accounts (like IG Audit and Fake Follower Check) and estimating the percentage of the audience that’s real. Not worth it. [bctt tweet=”Ghost followers surely make your total follower count look good, but buying these non-existent accounts will just drag you to social media hell — flagged and shut down. – @JuliaEMcCoy” username=”ExpWriters”] 4. Targeting Focus Keywords and Related Keywords Incorrectly … Read more

How to Grow Your Inbound Traffic by Writing Evergreen Blog Posts

How to Grow Your Inbound Traffic by Writing Evergreen Blog Posts

This post was updated October 2019.  Picture this – summer is here, and your calendar is full of pool parties, barbecues, picnics, and whatnots. You’ve been waiting for this moment for what seems like ages. ☀ There’s only one small problem. You want to look great in your bikini, but it’s been cold out there for the past few months, so maybe you’ve stayed in and eaten one, two, or twenty more pizzas than you should’ve (no judgment, we’ve all been there!). At this point in the game, you don’t have a lot of options. You can go on an aggressive diet, use a body wrap or two, or skip a few meals. There are a lot of ways to get fast results, but the thing is, you shouldn’t be focusing on quick fixes. What you want is a sustainable approach that can get you the best results possible, and the same goes for blogging. For a long time, my approach to blogging was all about putting out as much content as possible. That’s not necessarily a bad idea since there’s a correlation between high publishing rates and increases in traffic. The problem is, quick-fire content isn’t a sustainable strategy, much like any diet that promises dramatic results in a matter of days. If you want to grow your traffic and maintain it, you need powerful, evergreen content that’s going to keep your website in the best shape of its life for years and years to come. 4 Types of Evergreen Blog Content 1. List-based articles 2. How-tos and tutorials 3. Frequently asked questions (FAQs) 4. History-based posts That’s a quick cheat sheet if you need help coming up with evergreen blog post ideas. If you stick to those types of content, you’re on the right path. However, you may need a little help coming up with ideas, so keep reading! [bctt tweet=”If you just fire out short trending posts that will be irrelevant tomorrow, you’ll have a hard time getting results. Better grow your traffic with evergreen blog posts. @JuliaEMcCoy shares what you should start posting now. ” username=”ExpWriters”] 2 Types of Blog Content: Evergreen Posts vs. Trending Topics We can break down most of the content you’ll run across in blogs into two categories: Posts that have to do with current trends Evergreen content Both types of blog posts have the potential to bring a lot of traffic to your website. However, content that focuses on trending topics has an expiration date. The best way to put that into perspective is to take a look at Google’s most popular searches for the past years. Here are some of the shiny things that caught our collective attention in 2017: Source: Google Now compare that to 2018 and you’ll see there’s little overlap: Source: Google The trends themselves change, but certain topics never go out of style. For example, those two breakdowns tell us that as a society, we care a little bit too much about sports and celebrities. Spotting those types of big-picture trends is important because it enables you to come up with blog post ideas that tap into more lasting concerns. I’m talking about the type of content that your readers care about now, and they’ll still care about in five years. Chances are if you’ve been blogging for a while, you’ve already written some evergreen posts without even noticing it. The best way to spot them is to take a look at your website’s analytics. Usually, there’s a spike of interest around new content. It brings in some traffic, and then that flow of traffic turns into a trickle. Evergreen blog posts, on the other hand, tend to bring in a steady amount of traffic over time. Source: Google Analytics Blogging about current trends may give you a great ROI in the short term. However, evergreen content is the equivalent of that healthy lifestyle that will see you get to the pool party with the same six-pack you’ve been sporting all year. Keep in mind, though – just because you follow a healthy diet, doesn’t mean there isn’t room for burgers and pizza somewhere in there and the same goes for blogging. It’s very difficult to build an entire blog around evergreen content only because it tends to require a ton of work. Ideally, you’ll have a healthy mix of blog posts that target current trends and evergreen articles. That way, you’ll maximize your traffic growth, and you’ll be able to maintain it ✔️ 4 Types of Content That Make for Great Evergreen Blog Posts As a rule of thumb, evergreen content is in-depth, and it has built-in longevity. Let’s break down the five types of blog content that fit those criteria. 1. List-Based Articles The web is obsessed with list-based articles. If you do a random Google search right now, I’m willing to bet that most of the articles that come up are based on lists. The logic here is simple. List-based articles enable you to judge an article’s worth at a glance. Know what’s better than learning 5 ways to tie your shoelaces? Learning a cool 15. Can’t argue with that logic. When it comes to evergreen content, you want lists that aren’t tied to specific products or events since those can change over time. Instead, go back to the basics and focus on everlasting advice. Articles like “6 Super Simple Tips for Writing Clear Sentences” will never go out of style. 2. How-Tos and Tutorials The internet is amazing for a lot of reasons. Not only is it the best source for cat-based humor, but you can find guides on how to do anything. Let’s say, for example, you want to learn how to change a tire. It doesn’t matter if no one ever taught you – you can look it up online, read a quick tutorial, and you’re in business. Notice how lists are also incredibly popular when it comes to tutorials. If you can find a topic that you can … Read more