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

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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

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

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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

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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

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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

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

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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

SEO Marketing: Your Essential Guide to Putting Together Powerful, Google-Friendly Marketing

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SEO Marketing: Your Essential Guide to Putting Together Powerful, Google-Friendly Marketing

SEO marketing is incredible — and more powerful than ever (despite the groans of ​”SEO is dead!” ​that you hear, literally everywhere). Here’s why. Today, 60% of ALL traffic on the internet comes from Google. (Add in traffic from other search engines, and you’ll find about 70% of all traffic, ever, starts with a simple search.) Whoa. Combine that with a simple fact: with the right keywords, topics, quality content, and some elbow grease, you can draw in search traffic from all over the world. All the people that might never have found you otherwise. By creating content around keywords they’re searching, including phrases and topics that matter deeply to them, you essentially become a magnet for buyers (with Google’s help). You pull leads into your orbit without advertising, without selling – without much effort at all beyond the initial strategizing, planning, and creating. That, my friends, is a good, basic definition for today’s term. SEO marketing definition: noun. A series of actions, strategies, and best practices that help your website content rank higher in search results. And, before you ask: Yes, it matters big-time. When you rank higher in search, more people will find your content, read your content, and act on that content. With numbers like “70% of all traffic originates from a search,” needless to say, capturing search traffic is a HUGE deal. If you have an online presence, this type of marketing is essential to master for better visibility and more leads coming in. Need more reasons to invest in SEO marketing? We’ll explore some convincing ones coming up, plus a checklist with marketing tools and techniques to help you ensure success from start to finish. Your SEO Marketing Guide: What’s Ahead in Our Guide to Powerful, Google-Friendly Marketing 5-Step Checklist for Successful SEO Marketing 1. Create Quality Content (With a Case Study: How the Write Blog Nets Over 24K Keyword Rankings) 2. Get Your Website Design & Site Tech Fundamentals Right 3. Follow Google’s SEO Standards for Quality (E.A.T.) 4. Be Smart About Keyword Usage 5. Use SEO Plugins and Tools to Help You Get It Done (Yoast SEO Plugin for WordPress, Keyword Research Tools: SEMrush and KWFinder) 3 Things SEO Marketing Should NOT Look Like 1. Cheating for Rankings 2. Keyword Stuffing 3. Thin, Shallow, Low-Quality Content [bctt tweet=”Have you already invested in SEO marketing and creating site content optimized to rank in Google? In this Write Blog, @JuliaEMcCoy shares killer reasons why Google reigns supreme for traffic sourcing, PLUS a bonus checklist on the best SEO techniques @ExpWriters” username=”ExpWriters”] 3 More Reasons Why SEO Marketing Is Such a Big Deal SEO marketing tools and techniques are good for your bottom line. How good? Ridiculously good. For starters: 1. Rank #1 in Google Organically, Perform 30% Better Besides the fact that Google holds 76.03% of the total search engine market share as of June 2019, there are other reasons to aim for #1 in Google search results. Mainly, ranking #1 in Google is a surefire way to outperform results #2-10 and earn the best ROI. It’s how you ace SEO marketing. According to data from Advanced Web Ranking, the organic click-through rate for position #1 is 30.97% on desktops. Compare that to the CTR for position #2: it gets slashed in half to just 15.29%. The lower you go, the more steeply CTR drops. Position #5 gets a 4.11% CTR. Positions #9 and 10 get just over 1%. That said, even the lowest positions on search engine results pages (SERPs) get a higher average CTR than display AND search ads, including pay per click marketing. This chart with Wordstream data shows what I mean: The average Google Ads CTR is 3.17% on the search network and 0.46% on the display network. Compare those numbers to the average CTR for position #7 and higher in organic Google search results, which is over 2%. In fact, as long as you rank in the top 5 positions, you’ll score an average CTR of at least 4%. PPC marketing seems pretty lame by comparison, especially when you can double or triple your CTR by focusing on organic search results, instead. 2. Leads from SEO Marketing Are More Powerful Let’s add more fuel to our SEO marketing fire with this little statistic: Leads coming in from SEO are far more likely to convert. According to a Marketing Sherpa study on conversion rates for organic traffic, the average traffic-to-leads conversion rate across all industries is 16%. That number is really, really impressive, considering the average conversion rate for Google Ads across all industries is 3.75% for search ads and 0.77% for display ads, via the Wordstream data mentioned above.   3. Search Traffic >>> Traffic from Social Media Another good reason to dive into SEO marketing: Search drives more traffic to websites than social media (via a Shareaholic study). Meanwhile, according to ConversionXL, clicks from social aren’t very high, either. Facebook has an average CTR of 0.72%. LinkedIn draws a dismal 0.06%. Twitter gives you the best shot at clicks with a 2% average CTR. When it comes down to numbers, search is the better bet for pulling in traffic. [bctt tweet=”Why is #seomarketing a big deal? 3 awesome reasons: ranking #1 in Google makes your site perform 30% better, ‍ ‍ powerful leads, and more traffic from search than social media.” username=”ExpWriters”] Your Go-To Checklist for Successful SEO Marketing You get it: SEO marketing is powerful, effective, and SO worth it. It’s time to implement. Here’s a checklist to start with, including 5 basic steps to achieve successful SEO search marketing: 1. Create Quality Content Quality content is everything to SEO marketing results. In fact, I would say it’s THE #1 factor. How do I know? It’s what I’ve seen with our content at Express Writers. Case study time. Case Study: How Our Content Quality Nets Over 24K Keyword Rankings I never pay a cent for ads, I never do outreach, and I never pursue backlinks. Despite that, our content at EW has … Read more

Your Mega-Awesome Content Marketing Statistics List

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Your Mega-Awesome Content Marketing Statistics List

There’s no question content works. That’s right – no question. That means investing in content marketing isn’t a gamble. Not if you do it the right way. Need proof? Look at the state of the industry: Its projected worth will reach nearly half a trillion dollars by 2021, according to forecasts from Technavio. Why is investment reaching this all-time high? Because the evidence that content works is right there for anyone to see. Ready to see for yourself? Check out this mega list of content marketing statistics for 2019. These are the most powerful stats we could find that will prove content marketing to anyone. (For even more proof, add our post on proving the ROI of content marketing to your reading list, too.) 17 Content Marketing Statistics That Matter: Table of Contents Top Digital Marketing Statistics for 2018-2019: Why SEO is Super-Powered Content Strategy Stats: Compelling Reasons to Start Planning Content Creation Statistics: Why Invest in Content? Stats on B2B Content Marketing Effectiveness Let B2B Content Marketing Statistics from 2019 Inform Your Future [bctt tweet=”Read our list of 17 powerful content marketing statistics that prove content worth (free ebook included!) ” username=”ExpWriters”] Top Digital Marketing Statistics for 2018-2019: Why SEO is Super-Powered Search engine optimization powers much of content marketing in 2019, and it will continue to do so. Let’s examine why. 1. The #1 driver of all traffic on the web? Google. Google is not only where most web searches start – but also where most web browsing begins. It’s not surprising. They own 76% of the total search engine market share, according to Net Market Share data. Using SEO to rank in Google for keywords your audience is searching is, therefore, an incredible strategy. If you don’t want to grab some of that traffic for your site or your brand, well, why are you here? 2. Search drives more traffic than social media – 34.8% compared to 25.6%. (Shareaholic) Search is even more powerful than social media for driving traffic. Search Engine Land reported that search beats social networks by nearly 10 percentage points in this arena. Shareaholic conducted the study and found that the algorithm changes to the News Feed on Facebook had a big impact on the numbers. Along with that, more and more, search engines like Google are indexing and displaying results from social media channels. For instance, search for any entity on Google (person, company, organization), and you’ll see results displayed from their Twitter feed: Generally, posting on social media shouldn’t be your marketing end-all, be-all. Instead, social media marketing should complement your SEO and digital marketing efforts for best results. 3. The average conversion rate for organic traffic-to-leads across industries is 16%. (Marketing Sherpa) Since a conversion generally refers to the instance when a buyer converts to a new role in your marketing lifecycle, conversion rates are a big deal. After all, most marketing aims to encourage buyers to convert in some shape or form. When we talk about a traffic-to-leads conversion, we’re talking about the point when the traffic coming into your site from a Google search becomes intrigued, interested, and invested in your content. As a result, they’ll demonstrate that interest through action. In their study, Marketing Sherpa asked marketers how they define a conversion. The results reveal how multiple actions show a buyer’s mindset and willingness to commit to a brand: Submitting a form with multiple fields (like a survey) Submitting a form with one field (like signing up for a newsletter with an email address) Making an online purchase Reading the content through to the end The 16% conversion rate the study found is therefore super-important. This is for organic (non-paid) traffic clicking your content in search, liking what they see, and converting on it in one of the above ways. 4. Google’s #1 organic position brings in 33% of the search traffic for any given SERP. (Search Engine Watch) When you’re #1 in Google, you’re pretty much Queen (or King) of the Mountain. On average, 33% of search traffic will go to you, while only 17.6% will go to whoever graces position #2. (That’s a 15.4% drop.) Even if you rank at #5 (which many brands would kill for!), you’re only getting 6.1% of all search traffic from that page. Bottom line: The higher you rank organically, in SERPs, the more traffic you can expect to see! (And, as you know, more traffic = more lead potential.) By the way, one of the keys to ranking higher is knowing which tools to use for SEO and keyword research. I put together a guide on Content Hacker on this exact topic to help. 5. The click-through rate (CTR) for organic position #1 is 30.97%. (Advanced Web Ranking) Let’s keep going with the bonuses of ranking in organic position #1. If you sit in that top spot, you’ll also enjoy an average CTR of 30.97%, according to data from Advanced Web Ranking. Why is that number such a big deal? Well, as far as CTRs go, it’s incredible. To see what I mean, move on to the #6 statistic for marketing. 6. Meanwhile, for Google Ads on the search network, the average CTR is 3.17% across industries. (Wordstream) Comparing Wordstream data about average CTRs on Google Ads across industries to the CTR for position #1 is a good way to see the whole picture. The average CTR on search network ads is 3.17%. Meanwhile, organic position #1 enjoys a CTR over 10 times higher than that. Plus, you won’t have to pay for that visibility. Content creation isn’t free, but it’s definitely cheaper than paying for search ads. [bctt tweet=”Why SEO matters in 2019? Google is still #1, search > social media, the avg. conversion rate for organic traffic-to-leads is 16%, and ranking first in Google gets 33% traffic + 30.97% CTR, 10x higher than search ads CTR.” username=”ExpWriters”] Content Strategy Stats: Compelling Reasons to Start Planning Content strategy is necessary to pull together all the pieces of your … Read more

The Secrets of Grabbing Attention Online: Insights from YouTube’s “Skip” Button

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The Secrets of Grabbing Attention Online: Insights from YouTube’s “Skip” Button

Creating ads is a tricky business. It’s a case of a phenomenon I’ve mentioned before: the marketer’s equivalent of the Hawthorne Effect, which was a study done in the 1920s that discovered changes to people’s experimental conditions (amount of light, time to work, etc.) led directly to increases in productivity. Well, interruptions lead to negativity — decreases in productivity, decreases in happiness. And most ads are, in fact, very interruptive. They were built to be. Today’s modern, savvy consumer doesn’t react well when they know they’re being promoted to, especially when ads are interrupting a current consumption or focus. Take, for example, clicking a YouTube video. An ad pops up — the viewer may already have their mouse in the lower-right corner, just waiting on “Skip” to appear. This could be said for all ads. I mean, just look at the ROA (return on advertising). Yikes. Source: Ad Strategist (see our summary on Express Writers) Just a few years ago, you could expect to generate nearly a dozen times your investment on Facebook Ads, whereas that number has plummeted in the present day. It isn’t just because of the woes of any particular platform. It’s because people are cautious about being promoted to. So, what’s the secret for getting them to stick around and hear what you have to say? Well, what about looking at the ads on YouTube that people simply have to stop and watch, and can’t skip? Yes, we can learn a thing or two from those captivating pieces of art. That’s what I’m here today on the Write Blog to explore. [bctt tweet=”What’s the secret in getting people to stick around and hear what you have to say, in an online world full of millions of other marketers? @YouTube’s skip button has some pretty cool insights.  More from @JuliaEMcCoy” username=”ExpWriters”] The Appeal of Storytelling: What Makes Us Gravitate to it? There’s something enthralling about a good story. Most people’s first exposure to stories comes when they’re small, hearing about fairytales before bed. Stories stick with us throughout life, both on the personal level of banter and campfire stories all the way to tales woven into books, TV, and movies. In a way, our lives are stories. Maybe that’s why we relate to the stories of others so well. Stories and the narratives that come with them are proven to help us construct memories, playing a greater role in our psyche than many realize. A group of neuroscientists at Princeton University did a study on brain patterns during storytelling. They found the response patterns in the brain were the same for the listeners as they were for the storytellers. Both figuratively and scientifically, stories connect us. [bctt tweet=”Learn what makes @YouTube audience members forget to hit ‘skip’ on ads. Stories connect us – both figuratively and scientifically! More from @JuliaEMcCoy” username=”ExpWriters”] It should come as no surprise that storytelling has emerged as a powerful strategy within marketing. Great content connects the creators with the audience and the brand with the customers. Check out this snippet of a great infographic from OneSpot. Source: OneSpot The connection between story-like ads and the tendency of people to avoid the skip button has been explored and reveals insights on what makes an ad good in the mind of a viewer. 3 Lessons on What Makes Ads Watchable and Inviting [bctt tweet=”3 secrets to grabbing attention, from @YouTube’s Skip button: 1. Personalized content 2. Genuine storytelling 3. Content that feels real ” username=”ExpWriters”] Telling your viewer a story rather than giving them a pitch is much more likely to make them stick around. Here are three examples of how it’s worked in the past, and how you can do it in your own ads. 1. Personalized Ads Help Bridge Taboo Topics Abreva had a tough task ahead of them when they marketed a solution to cold sores. While this is a problem many people suffer from, it isn’t one a lot of people like to talk about. Turning to YouTube and building over 100 personal ads, Abreva sent simple, six-second pre-rolls to users based on relevancy. Search interest boomed over 300%. Users who were searching celebrity gossip would get ads about how they couldn’t control the latest breakup but could stop cold sores. Users who searched up beauty tutorials would get ads on how they could keep pouty lips but lose cold sores. Personalized ads blend in – making them feel less promotional and more relatable. They also effectively bypass any defensive tendencies the viewer may have as a result. 2. Genuine Storytelling Grabs a Viewer’s Attention The volume of ads, and content, in general, is growing rapidly. With so many options to choose from, users are extremely selective. They’ll move on fast from video or an ad if it isn’t connecting with them from the beginning. Nearly two-thirds of people skip ads when given the chance, with nearly three-quarters of people admitting they do it out of habit. In a 15-second ad, you have a little over five seconds before the skip option pops up. In a 30-second ad, you have a little over seven seconds. Why do they do it? More often than not, it’s because they just want to get to the video. Source: MarketingSherpa So how do you stop them from skipping? Give them something just as interesting to watch. Your content becomes less like a barrier blocking them and more like a content appetizer before the main course. If you hear a good opening line in a book, a movie trailer, or a TV pitch, you may stick around. What’s this story about? The same thing can be done with an ad. To stop viewers from impulse skipping, you should start your story off from the beginning and build on it. 3. Content That Feels Real Gets Watched Going back to how people will automatically put up their guard if they feel a promotion coming on, real content is the way to go. What qualifies as real? If something is real, … Read more

How to Create Craveable Content: Use the Topic Circle Concept 

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How to Create Craveable Content: Use the Topic Circle Concept 

What’s one of the biggest mistakes marketers make when creating content? It’s when they plunge ahead, and immediately spring into creation mode. Wait… really? Yes, you heard right. While it’s great to have ideas and inspiration for the creation phase of content, one vital, monumental piece is missing for success in the above scenario. What is it? What your audience wants. Sure, you might think your content idea is great. But if your audience doesn’t agree, content will go nowhere. You’ll get zero traffic. Zero shares. Zero comments. Zero engagement. Zero conversions. *shudder* On the other hand, if you create craveable content your audience is dying to read, your content will go the distance. Check this example of the lifecycle of one impactful piece of content. Done well, it can nurture your visitors into becoming loyal customers. (Read more about how our readers have become buyers.) Impactful, audience-satiating content is a big deal. So, the real question here is, how do you find out what your audience wants? How do you know which content topics are gold, and which are destined for the grave? I’ve come up with a concept that will help. It’s called the Topic Circle. Let’s explore how to use it to create craveable content your audience wants and needs. [bctt tweet=”Don’t go straight into creation without knowing what your audience wants. But how do you find out? @JuliaEMcCoy has a concept called the Topic Circle ⭕️ that can help you flesh out truly craveable content. ” username=”ExpWriters”] How to Create Craveable Content Your Audience Hungers For Using the Topic Circle Concept The Topic Circle is a good way to visualize the intersection of your expertise + what your audience wants. If you only rely on your expertise to come up with content topics, you’re climbing a slippery slope. Sure, you can write about those topics with confidence and authority, but at the same time, who knows if your audience will care? That’s why you need to visualize how your expertise meshes with what your audience wants to read. This is what it looks like: And put into practice, this is what a Topic Circle mapped to topics your reader actually wants to read looks like. For example, if your expertise is selling running shoes, your audience doesn’t necessarily want to read about types and styles of shoes. Instead, they might want to see content dealing with health and running apps, training, hydration, etc. To arrive at your own topic circle, let’s look at how to build it. 1. Know Your Expertise First up, knowing your expertise is fundamental for building your own Topic Circle. That’s because your expertise serves as your topic core – the area of knowledge you’ll focus on in your content. There are a few ways to define your expertise (one or all of these may apply to you): Your passion What you do for a living What you’re an expert in Here are a few topic circle examples. If you’re a pastry chef, your expertise might be baking desserts. Here’s how to map that to topics your audience wants to read about. If you’re a nature photographer, your expertise might be identifying and photographing nature scenes, birds or landscapes. There are so many ways to map this to topics your audience wants to hear about. And the list goes on. [bctt tweet=”How do you know what topics your readers will love? You need a Topic Circle. Define what your expertise is, to start. What’s your passion? Your work? Your best skill? For more tips, check out @JuliaEMcCoy’s guide craveable content ” username=”ExpWriters”] 2. Know Your Target Audience Inside-Out So, you’ve defined your expertise and your core topic area. Now you need to know what someone buying or learning about products in your topic area wants to read about. To help you discover those sub-topics, you need to do some digging. 2.1 Research Your Targets Don’t guess what your target audience looks like. Research. That means: Looking at your customer data in Google Analytics Performing one-on-one interviews Taking surveys Using Facebook Audience Insights Image: Facebook All of these actions help paint a picture of who you should be targeting with content, and what they want to read about. 2.2 Know Where Your Audience Lives Online One of your research goals should be to learn where your audience lives online, including: Social media sites where they hang out Hashtags they use Forums they participate in Influencers they follow and trust Blogs they read and comment on Once you discover these places and resources, you can internet-stalk them to find the questions and pain points people are talking about. Then, you can cover those in your content! 2.3 Create an Audience Persona Once you have thoroughly researched your audience, it’s time to distill that information into a resource you can reference over and over: the audience persona. This is an imaginary profile of your ideal audience member – the person who loves your brand, follows your content, and buys your products. The profile should contain key information that helps you target them in your content, such as: Demographics (age, gender, location, marital status, education, etc.) Occupation, job roles and income Work and life goals Challenges blocking them from meeting those goals Personal habits, preferences, likes/dislikes, etc. Here’s a sample audience persona built for Express Writers: This is an ultra-valuable tool that will help you figure out what your audience wants from your content. MAJOR tip: When thinking about a possible content topic, ask yourself if your persona would benefit from reading it. If the answer is iffy, find another topic. [bctt tweet=”For successful content, you need to know your audience inside-out with deep research, discovering where they ‘live’ online, and by creating an audience persona. Read more on @JuliaEMcCoy’s guide to creating your Topic Circle.” username=”ExpWriters”] 3. Ask Your Audience Directly About Their Biggest Challenges Another good way to flesh out your Topic Circle and understand what your audience wants: Just ask. Seriously. Send out an email … Read more

40+ Digital Marketing Experts to Follow on Twitter: Keep Your Marketing Skills Up to Date

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40+ Digital Marketing Experts to Follow on Twitter: Keep Your Marketing Skills Up to Date

Digital marketing is constantly evolving. SEO trends and content marketing strategies that worked six months ago might not produce the same results today. So, what can you do as a marketer, entrepreneur, or website owner? How can you keep up with the latest marketing strategies, the algorithms, and analytics? The answer? Follow the right people on Twitter. There’s no better way to stay up-to-date than to follow the right people on Twitter and scroll through their feeds filled with great advice. Twitter is ​one of our favorite social media platforms, but we all know there are over 500 million tweets sent out each day. No one has the time to check each account and verify the real pros from the self-proclaimed “experts.” So, to help you sift through the non-relevant stuff and get straight to the information that really matters, we’ve compiled this list of the leading digital marketing experts and publications to follow on Twitter. Each of these experts seems to have cracked the code with not only understanding the complexities of digital marketing but also putting them into practice. They are moving the industry forward with their innovative strategies. The best part? They’re constantly sharing their knowledge — all for free. What are you waiting for? Scroll down to see the list, add the experts you’d love to follow, add value to your Twitter feed, and keep your content marketing skills in top shape. Read, learn, share, and enjoy! Did we miss anyone? Let us know in the comments!   [bctt tweet=”NEW: Our top 40+ recommended #marketing experts to follow on Twitter, a list curated by @daninofuente and @JuliaEMcCoy ✨ Is your digital marketing hero on the list?” username=”ExpWriters”] How We Hand-Curated Our List of 40+ Digital Marketing Experts There were a number of factors that helped us decide on which experts to recommend for following. Our CEO, Julia McCoy, was heavily involved in the creation of this roundup. She reviewed and approved each of the people we recommend below. Secondly, two of us writers were included in the formulation: one of our copywriters, and me, Danielle, Express Writer’s Content Specialist (and everything else behind the scenes). We think that humanly created lists are some of the best lists! Next, here’s what we looked at when determining who to recommend to our Write Blog readers. First, we looked at experts in content marketing, social media, and SEO. Then, we considered digital marketing experts who are regularly invited to share their knowledge by speaking at leading conferences all around the world, and writing for consistent columns or their own blog. Instead of tenure (years in the field), we looked at recent accomplishments and studied to find people that are the most current in the marketing space. We believe that matters more than tenure. If you’ve been a marketer for 30 years and you haven’t written a single blog on marketing trends for the past six or even three months, are you even current? We also researched the pioneers and thought-leaders. What did they share on Twitter that was noteworthy, original, and outstanding? Finally, experts who’ve mastered current industry trends and are influencing future trends were also considered. [bctt tweet=”See our top 40+ recommended #marketing experts to follow on Twitter! Is your digital marketing hero on the list?   ” username=”ExpWriters”] 40+ Digital Marketing Experts to Follow on Twitter After taking into consideration the above points, we decided on the following names that every digital marketer needs to follow. These are the people who are moving the industry forward with their innovation and following them will allow you to stay on top of your digital marketing. 1. Ai Addyson-Zhang, Ph.D Ai Addyson-Zhang, Ph.D. is a long-time college professor who is now an entrepreneur changing the space, taking the stage and teaching authentic, real practices for social media. Her passion for social media pedagogy only started in 2015 after the surprise that one of her students didn’t know what Pinterest is! She realized that not all her students were familiar with all social media platforms, and as an educator, she needed to level up and practice what she preached. These realizations inspired her to create Classroom Without Walls, a weekly Facebook Live show where she interviews experts in modern marketing to provide real, authentic insights on the industry. Julia has been a guest 3x! Catch a recap of Ai and Julia on Ai’s Medium page. Ai also built the Social Media Pedagogy Online Training course and helps her fellow educators and professors transform traditional learning by applying social media practices. This fearless and industry-changing woman has grown into a consultant and speaker, keynoting on stages and training academic and industry leaders how to apply storytelling in digital marketing. Follow @aiaddysonzhang on Twitter. 2. Chris Strub When you check out Chris Strub’s YouTube channel, you’ll notice his impressive accomplishment: He’s the first (and only) man to live stream and Snapchat in all 50 US States. This accomplishment is documented in one of his books, 50 States, 100 Days. His roadtrip-slash-social media success is only a part of his bigger achievement: helping nonprofit organizations around the US. Besides being an author and famous mobile storyteller, he’s going around the world as a millennial keynote speaker in social media conferences, and an educator offering online courses on using social media to build relationships — whether you’re a nonprofit or not. Follow @ChrisStrub on Twitter 3. Madalyn Sklar If you’re wondering how to use the most out of your social media platforms — especially Twitter — in your marketing strategy, Madalyn Sklar is your go-to person. She’s had already figured out how to live tweet in 2008 before everyone else, and now, she offers her own #TwitterSmarter Masterclass online. Madalyn also offers coaching, consulting, and speaking services for those who want “rockstar results” with their social media. She’s pretty much very active on Twitter as she’s hosting two Twitter chats #TwitterSmarter and #SocialROI every Tuesday and Thursday. Follow @MadalynSklar on Twitter 4. Brian Fanzo Brian Fanzo describes himself as a “pager-wearing millennial keynote speaker.” What is a digital marketing expert doing with a pager? What is a pager? (I … Read more

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