content marketing tools - Express Writers

How to Use BuzzSumo: The Ultimate Guide on Uncovering Hot Topics to Create Content Your Audience Will Love

December 31, 2020May 5, 2020 by Adam Oakley

This was originally published in 2017 and updated in May, 2020. What if I told you about a hot content marketing tool that allows you to dig deep into your audience’s brain? ? This tool can tell you what your audience is feeling right now. Their current thoughts. What they’re looking for when they go online. The #1 topic they want to read about. Would you use it? Of course! Because the truth is, keyword research tools aren’t enough to help you generate steaming content your readers will devour, reread, and share. I’m not saying they aren’t necessary. They are. In fact, it’s almost impossible to do SEO right without these tools. But SEO by itself isn’t enough to build a brand. The ultimate recipe for success is SEO plus hot topics your audience cares about. So, how can you discover these hot topics? In this guide, I’ll show you how to do it using BuzzSumo. Let’s dive in! How to Use BuzzSumo: 5 Ways You Can Use BuzzSumo to Discover Hot Topics Your Audience Adores So, what is BuzzSumo used for? BuzzSumo is the ultimate content discovery tool. It constantly gets updated with brand new features, so you always know what kind of content your audience wants and exactly what they’re engaging with online. Here’s a list of awesome things you can do with BuzzSumo: Instantly generate tons of hot topic ideas Index over 3.5 billion articles and posts Get an updated list of the most powerful influencers in your industry Spy on your competitors Monitor everything that’s going on online [bctt tweet=”5 ways to use @buzzsumo to discover hot topics: 1️⃣ Analyze top-shared content 2️⃣ Find top niche influencers 3️⃣ Find trending topics 4️⃣ Use Topic Discovery to generate ideas 5️⃣ Analyze top YouTube content ?” username=”ExpWriters”] We at Express Writers absolutely love BuzzSumo. In fact, we use it extensively for our content strategy services. It allows us to: Put our clients ahead of their competitors by knowing what their audience really wants to learn Discover steaming hot topics in any niche Save tons of time in the brainstorming process Let’s go into detail and dive into five ways you can use BuzzSumo to discover topics your audience will love. BuzzSumo pricing guide: Pro: $99/month billed monthly or $79/month billed annually Plus: $179/month billed monthly or $139/month billed annually Large: $299/month billed monthly or $239/month billed annually Enterprise: $499/month #1: Get Ideas from the Web Content Analyzer BuzzSumo is your forensic tool for digging into your audience’s brain and finding out what they’re interested in. With the Web Content Analyzer feature, you get a list of the top content people engaged with based on a certain keyword. [bctt tweet=”.@buzzsumo is your forensic tool for digging into your audience’s brain and finding out what they’re interested in ?️‍♀️. Learn how to use it like an expert:” username=”ExpWriters”] [bctt tweet=”What if I told you about a hot content marketing tool that allows you to dig deep into your audience’s brain? ?✨ No, it’s not magic – it’s @buzzsumo! Learn how to use this mighty tool via @JuliaEMcCoy:” username=”ExpWriters”] To get started, click on Content and select Web Content Analyzer. Source: BuzzSumo Type your chosen keyword in the search bar. Click on Search. What you’ll get is a list of content pieces with the highest number of engagement from your audience. As you can see, a piece about Bill Gates and the coronavirus tops the list with 34.6K total engagements. This gives you a hint on what your audience is thinking about and the kind of content they want to read and share. Want to filter your results by time? Simply click the filter button and select an option to see results from the last 24 hours, the past week, the past month, and as much as five years ago. For example, here’s the result you’ll get when you choose the 24-hour filter. The next step is to click on the top content pieces and find out why your audience loved them. What made them special? More importantly, how can you improve on them in your own content? Here’s an example. Source: www.garyvaynerchuk.com Because this piece comes in the number two spot within the six-month filter, you now know that your audience is interested in being more productive in their content creation. Now, it’s your turn to create content with your own tips and tricks on how to be productive! Bonus: Experiment with the filters! They’re amazing. You can search for content based on type of article, word count, and even a specific domain. #2: Find Top Influencers in Your Niche Finding the top influencers in your niche will help you in three ways: You can gain inspiration from their content You can spy on them and improve on what’s missing in their content You can get networking opportunities To get started in your search for BuzzSumo influencers, hover over Influencers on the top bar and click Authors. You can also search for influencers on Twitter, YouTube, or Facebook. In the Authors search bar, you can find top authors by looking up a topic or domain. For example, here’s the results for a search on Forbes.com. On the left side, you can see the author’s name and Twitter handle. On the right, you can see how many articles each author published, plus their average and total engagement. Select View Top Content to see each author’s top pieces. For example, here are the top results for Zack Friedman. Looking for top influencers in your niche? Simply type in your desired keyword instead of a domain name in the search bar. Here are the results for “content marketing.” (I come in at #2, yay! ?) #3: Find Trending Topics with BuzzSumo’s Discover Feature Want to find content that’s creating a large amount of buzz online? Searching for trending topics within the last 24 hours (or less!) is the way to do it. To begin, go to the Discover option and click Trending. … Read more

55 Content Marketing Tools To Boost Your Productivity

June 19, 2024January 21, 2016 by Adam Oakley

For all of its effectiveness and value, content marketing is hard. Fortunately, there are a variety of tools to help make your content marketing efforts easier, more effective, and more productive. 55 Great Content Marketing Tools To Help You Get More Done Here are 55 of our absolute favorite content marketing tools. (Note: they are in no particular order.) 1. Buffer: Buffer is a fantastic tool for scheduling social media content across platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn and for optimizing posts for the best time possible. I love this tool and use it nearly every day to schedule all my social media content across nearly 15 social media profiles, including Pinterest and LinkedIn. The business plan at $50/month is totally worth it. Their community also hosts the popular, friendly Twitter chat #bufferchat on Wednesdays at noon EST. 2. Canva: The brain processes visual information at a rate 60,000 times faster than it does textual information, so why not give your readers something pretty to look at? If you’re like most marketers, it’s because you don’t know how to create visual images. Fortunately, Canva is here to fix that. The platform allows you to create attractive headers, flyers, featured images, and Facebook profile images, even if you’re not a design whiz. They have an awesome Design School where you can get great resources on creating visuals, too. 3. IFTTT: IFTTT (which stands for “If This, Then That”) is an automation tool that allows you to quickly schedule events, set reminders, organize email, sync files across the cloud and track the hours you spend working. It can also help you connect apps like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Dropbox for a more streamlined marketing experience. This is one of my favorite automated content marketing tools. Just be careful: if you automate too much in one day, your followers might think of you as… uh-oh… “spammy.” 4. Sprout Social: Sprout Social is intuitive social media management software for busy content marketers. Perfect for streamlining your life. They host #SproutChat on Twitter as well and have a good community there. 5. Bitly: Bitly is a convenient URL shortener that allows you to include URLs in character-restricted social media sites like Twitter, or to use them as a citation in your infographics. 6. Google Web Designer: Google Web Designer is an easy DIY banner-creation service that allows you to easily create banners for any device you want. 7. Instagram Ads: Even if you don’t have an Instagram account, you can still use Instagram ads to your advantage. Ideal for attracting new leads and pointing traffic directly to your site, these ads can go a long way toward helping you generate new traffic. Not on Instagram? Make that one of your tools this year! It’s been huge for our social growth. 8. Google AdWords: AdWords the pinnacle of keyword research innovations and content marketers have been using it for years to help them determine which keywords to target in their marketing campaigns. Use it to gauge local bids, use keywords dynamically, track converted clicks and target devices separately. 9. SEMrush: SEMrush allows markets to track which keywords their competition is using. It also allows you to do things like locate trending content, find industry influencers, and research topics. SEMrush also has an awesome community: they host the popular #SEMrushchat Wednesdays at 10 am CST. 10. Salesforce: Salesforce offers CRM solutions that allow companies to automate their business processes like lead management and conversion. It also allows companies to manage projects and synchronize systems with mailboxes and calendars. 11. Skitch: Perfect for content marketers who want to insert text or arrows into images to be shared in posts or social media statuses, Skitch integrates with Evernote and allows you to pixelate sensitive information (such as addresses and phone numbers) when sharing data. 12. Sidekick: Sidekick is a HubSpot tool for marketers who want to see who opens emails and when. This platform allows content marketers to track emails. 13. AngelList: AngelList is a Silicone Valley investment platform that allows marketers to invest or raise money for a variety of projects. Great for finding funding for a project or linking up with other online companies, AngelList offers the largest pool of funds dedicated to early-stage startups in the world. 14. Time Doctor: Time Doctor allows content marketers to track the productivity of a team, including tracking time spent working and managing hours. 15. Trello: The organized marketer’s dream come true. Trello allows you to organize all of your spreadsheets, sticky notes, emails, and paperwork visually according to project. 16. Google PageSpeed Insights: Perfect for optimizing pages and ensuring that you’re staying competitive in your field, this tool allows marketers to track how quickly a page is loading on mobile and desktop while also showing you where you can improve. 17. Google Mobile-Friendly Test: The Google Mobile-Friendly Test allows you to earn a “Mobile friendly” label below your organic search results when you pass the comprehensive mobile efficiency test. It’s easy, free, and can help you land more organic search results. 18. Uberflip: Uberflip is an innovative software designed for content marketers, and is a great content marketing tool. This platform displays different content on your site depending upon who is viewing it, which makes it perfect for targeting unique audiences and providing valuable material. 19. Yoast SEO: Yoast SEO is a free WordPress plugin that allows marketers to evaluate blogs for keywords and to preview a post’s performance in organic SERPs. 20. Publicize for WordPress: This convenient feature can save you time when it comes to your social media sharing. Publicize for WordPress allows you to automatically share blogs to Google+ profiles and other platforms you may use. 21. Instapage: For anyone who has ever struggled with landing page creation, this tool is for you. Quick template-based creation, this software makes creating landing pages a snap. 22. Crazy Egg: Crazy Egg is a fantastic platform that allows marketers to see where users are clicking and what they’re interacting with while they’re on your website. It can also help you understand why people leave your site and how they’re interacting with your calls … Read more

18 Ways to Grow Your Traffic Through Blogging

December 31, 2020June 11, 2015 by Adam Oakley

Blogging is such an incredible tool within content marketing—one of the most powerful ones, too. It gives you a unique ability to reach out to a wider audience and gives you the chance to write on a variety of things from why people need your product to what colors a dress might be. Most importantly, it also gives you the ability to grow your traffic and bring in new visitors, giving you the possibility of increasing revenue. Let’s look at just how you can do this with a few excellent blogging practices. 18 Incredible Ways to Increase Traffic With Great Blogging Practices Just how can you grow your traffic through your blog? Let me walk you through some great points that can help you improve your overall content marketing campaign! Be sure to let me know which of these practices reach out to you in the comments. Blogging Can Increase Rankings and Bring in More Organic Search Traffic. A great reason why blogging can be great to grow your traffic is because it helps you rank higher on the search engines. Organic traffic is great, and the more you blog, the more likely you are to increase that. Remember that each blog you write is just one more landing page that gives readers and visitors a chance to see your web page and products. The more you write, the more landing pages you create, which helps you create more opportunities for your site to rank and be found. Write Different Content Types to Drive Traffic. A good idea to help create blog posts that help drive traffic is to follow some of the findings from Newscred’s social media study. Researchers found that things such as “how-to” posts and lists brought in more social media traffic, as did blogs with evergreen topics. One thing the study also noted is that content types tended to be shared differently at different times throughout the year. This is a good reason as to why you should always research your audience and pay attention to your analytics. You can figure out which blog topics will do best at which times, giving you the chance to create great blog posts that increase traffic. Share Your Blogs on Social Media to Increase Traffic Even More. Increasing traffic to your blog isn’t going to happen as soon as you write and publish. In fact, you are going to need to do a little more work to drive traffic through blogging. A great place to start with is social media. Social media is an incredible way to help boost blog traffic to your site, and you can do so in many different ways. Just work with your social channels and research your analytics to see what things you need to tweak and which things are working well for you. Never Ever Forget About Email Newsletters. Another way to bring in more traffic with and to your blog is to send out information about your blogs in your email newsletters. You can promote a wide variety of things in your newsletters, and your blogs should be one of those items. Encourage readers to click and read your blog postings, and encourage new visitors to your site to sign up for a newsletter to know when you’ve posted a new blog. Write On the Latest, Trendiest Things to Bring in Viewers. Something that can really help drive traffic with your blogs is when you blog about the latest, trendiest items out there. You can blog about new films and how they can inspire people in your industry, use memes that have gone viral, or any other currently trending item to help bring in visitors. Remember, you shouldn’t only focus on viral, trendy content. But it is a great idea to boost traffic. Always Make Sure Your Blogs Have Epic, Impactful Headlines. According to Lindsay Kolowich over at HubSpot, headlines are a vital part of every single content marketing strategy. A headline is what convinces someone to click on your link, which then helps to improve traffic. If you want to boost your traffic through blogging, then always make sure you are creating powerful headlines that encourage people to click. This could be your only chance to bring in new viewers. Utilize Different Keywords, Especially Long-Tail, In Your Blogs. Neil Patel points out that keywords, especially long-tail keywords, are vital to your blogging campaign. You need to make sure you are using excellent keywords that can drive traffic, and you should also make sure you use a variety to bring in a wider audience. Patel shows that you can increase your traffic and clicks by 78 percent when you use long-tail keywords, which is truly remarkable! Use your keywords, and bring in more traffic. Make Sure Your Posts are Perfect for Your Audience. In the article I shared above, Neil Patel also points out how important it is to know your audience and have posts that are specifically for them. Research your demographic and the clients you already have to gather information on what your audience will like and want to see. You can also send out questionnaires and ask your social media followers what type of posts they’d like to see. The more you write posts that are perfect for your audience, the better your chances are of increasing your overall site traffic. Have a Stunning, Professional Blog Layout and Design. Written content isn’t the only thing you should consider when trying to use your blog to drive traffic. You should also consider making sure you have a great and professional blog design with an easy-to-follow layout. This can help encourage your readers to come back and read future blog posts, and can even encourage them to read your past pieces. If your blog looks like it is thrown together, your readers aren’t likely to stick around for very long. Utilize Images, Videos, and Infographics in Your Blog Posts. Along with a great design, you should also focus on visual … Read more

3 Foolproof Techniques to Prepare Your Content For 2015

August 25, 2022January 2, 2015 by Adam Oakley

The New Year has been rung in: 2015. Can you believe it? I can’t either. I’m sure I will be saying the same thing when 2016 is on the horizon, but I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself. If anything was learned in 2014, it is that high quality content is not going away. It seems like content is continuing to dominate both the search engines and digital marketing strategies, with its value only continuing to increase. It’s safe to say that content is not a trend or ploy to pull traffic in your direction; it is an online marketing staple with nearly limitless potential. When it comes to preparing your content for 2015, you might be asking yourself exactly which direction you should take. Content marketing has several layers, and they nearly all need to be tapped into in order to yield the best results. To help you prepare your content for the New Year, we are breaking down the essential steps to getting your content on track in 2015. Furthermore, we will provide you with a guide to finding the best content to share with your readers, and we’ll throw in a few helpful how-to’s on getting inspiration and producing the very best content in your industry. It’s another big year for content in 2015, and here are the best 3 prep techniques for reaching your audience and converting that content into cash. Foolproof Technique #1: Starting 2015 With a Bang . . . And an Audit So, audits are not exactly fun, but they are a very logical starting point for preparing your content for 2015. There are several strategies for performing content audits, and the best approach really depends on how what tools you have access to and the platform that you use. The Manual Audit: Overview of Keywords and Word Count If your website contains a high volume of content, start with an Excel spreadsheet that lists the URL of every individual page. Take note of the keywords used within the content, the date it was published, and the word count. This is an opportunity to discover what content on your website needs improvement, whether it is from a word count standpoint, or your content is simply outdated and no longer relevant. Broken Links Bring Down Page Value Another essential step in your content audit is to identify broken links within your text. Google considers websites with broken links and bad information as low quality, which can ultimately hurt your website search rankings. Whether the link is internal within your own website or outbound, clicking on all existing anchor text can save you a lot of hassle in the long run. Identify Content Gaps: What’s Missing? Although you are analyzing all of the existing content on your website, there is another audit approach that’s just as important: content gaps. Identifying content gaps will help you understand where your website falls short in terms of content. For example, you built out your website several months ago, but forgot all about adding an About Us page. Believe it or not, Google looks for signs of a legit business through your content. If you are missing pages such as About Us or Mission Statement, it could potentially hurt your rankings. Identifying content gaps is also important from a competition standpoint. In fact, this is yet another way to help determine what’s missing from your own website. When you are visiting your competitor’s website, take note of the content that they have available. What do they have that you don’t? Whether it is a blog or a staple subpage, competitors can leave clues to what you are missing. In order to stay in the content game, you need to know where your content gaps lie. Extensive Guide For Manual Content Audits Manual content audits can be grueling, but luckily there are extensive and helpful guides that can help you through the process. In particular, Moz has a pretty in-depth guide that explains the process and purpose of a content audit. Following this guide can give you a clear understanding of the content audit. If you are looking for reading that is a little bit lighter, here is a shorter version of a content audit breakdown with some informative instructions. Performing Content Audits: WordPress Edition WordPress is a large-scale content management system that is used by amateurs and professionals alike. It’s the perfect solution for publishing content, as well as implementing SEO techniques with built-in plugins like Yoast for WordPress. Yoast is a highly effective plugin that helps content marketers properly optimize their websites using the best SEO practices. If you happen to be using WordPress as your content management system, you can easily perform your very own content audit with the help of this tool. Using Yoast as a Guide to Audit Content for 2015 Yoast is perfect for filling in the missing pieces of those little meta tags. Meta tags might be small in terms of content, but they are essential pieces to solving the content auditing puzzle. Your meta tags in Yoast can give clues as to how your audience views your website in the search engine pages, and they even impact your click-through rate that influences your web traffic. When you’re looking at the Yoast plugin, take note of your keyword and meta description. The first step to finding the best keywords for your website comes down to thorough research; this can be achieved with industry-leading keyword research tools such as SEMRush. Once you have your targeted keyword in place, be sure that it is used sparingly within the body of your content. The Yoast plugin also tracks keyword density, which is another vital factor to successfully ranking your content on Google. A high keyword density in your content can lead to trouble when Google’s Panda update rolls around. Your focus keyword should be primarily present in your meta description. Since the meta description is so short, you only need to use … Read more

15 Awesome Tools To Assist Your Content Marketing

June 19, 2024August 15, 2014 by Adam Oakley

Content pieces are the indispensable aids that highlight the cool factor of your company, products and services, increase brand awareness and customer loyalty and help you get (and stay) on the same page with your prospects. But unless you are commercializing your product—whether it’s the fairy dust that can prevent aging or sleek cars that run on tap water—chances are that you have a lot of competition in your sector. Why Should You Invest in Content Marketing Tools? A customized, cohesive content marketing strategy can help you separate yourself from other players in your field, reflect the best features/most notable benefits of your products and interact with your target audience in an ideal manner. In this context, great storytelling skills could guarantee your success. You may ask: what makes a good story? While your merchandise may be truly mundane, the story of your company and the message that you’re trying to send to your potential buyers should be anything but tedious and unoriginal. A Plethora of Handy Tools for Every Conceivable Marketing-Related Problem Maybe you’ve got a mean case of writer’s block. Perhaps you don’t speak SEO or don’t know how to adapt your content flow to the real necessities and expectations of your audience. Maybe in the absence of awesome content distribution strategies, your web writing looks like a crowned king who is yet to find his influent queen. Last but not least, maybe you’re the real ninja of words, but can’t or don’t know how to measure the success of your current content marketing strategy. Regardless of the real root of your problem, a great variety of content marketing tools can enable you to overcome any challenge and step up your marketing efforts the easy way. What Are the Main Categories of Content Marketing Tools That You Should Focus on? According to an awesome infographic introduced by ClickZ, content marketing enhancement tools can be broken down into 5 main categories, based on the specific purposes that they have been designed to serve: Content research Content organization Content creation Content organization Content marketing analysis It is advisable to use at least 1 or 2 tools listed in each category, to make sure that all your everyday tasks, ranging from extensive research that represents a major first step to content marketing analysis, are absolutely flawless. 15 Excellent Content Marketing Tools That Will Help You Steer in the Right Direction Most content marketing tools are free or almost free. If you need another great reason to put them to good use, think about the fact that everybody else is already doing it. Without any further ado, here are 15 excellent aids that every online marketer needs in his life. Quora. One of the most popular sources of knowledge, Quora is one of the basic tools that you should use while doing your homework. By simply selecting the topics that actually interest you (technology, luxury fashion, economics, history, psychology and so on) and following them you can stay in the loop and expand your knowledge database. Moreover, Quora defines itself as an accessible place to create new content and share existing pieces that float around the Internet. Content Forest. Do you feel lost in the middle of a thick, dark forest of unwritten thoughts? If so, you should know that you can actually exit this labyrinth by using Content Forest, a handy end-to-end, complete marketing solution that ensures the hassle-free automation of all your daily operations, ranging from content creation to marketing and analytics. Flexible, modulated and powerful, this tool could become a valid substitute for your marketing consultants who are costing you a small fortune. Pinterest. A great image is more valuable than 1,000 carefully chosen words. This is not a cliché; it represents the mechanism that made Pinterest so popular in the first place. People like to collect and organize images that reflect their style and aesthetic demands. Why wouldn’t you turn this hobby into an activity that could boost your content research efforts? Analyze different boards and create your own to become a cool trend scout and find out how you could put your products and services in a different light, to increase their power of seduction. Curata. Content curation is one of the hottest trends that you cannot afford to ignore. If you are an avid collector of rare written gems that are only a few clicks away, give this useful tool a try to achieve business success in 3 easy steps. With Curata, you just have to find, curate and share first-class web content that can truly make a difference in the lives of your readers. Contently. In case you are interested in finding the ultimate storytelling platform, remember to check out Contently. This handy tool ensures a win-win situation for brands looking forward to perfecting their marketing strategy and also for freelancers who are eager to get new assignments. Driven by the desire to create a “better media world” governed by great content and not by mercantile goals expressed via more or less compelling ads, Contently arms brands with all the tools and the talent that they could ever require to compete with the most gifted and influent publishers. Storify. Your images are breathtaking and your calls-to-action are compelling. Your body copy is 100% unique and your headlines make your visitors ignore the fact that curiosity killed the cat. But what is all these essential elements don’t add up? Use Storify to glue all the pieces together and create an awesome whole. You just have to collect media online, publish the best pieces on Storify, share your content with the whole world and go viral. In addition, a Storify VIP subscription would enable you to unlock real-time updates and additional customization options that could come in handy, when it comes to telling a convincing story about your brand. Percolate. Percolate defines itself as the complete content marketing software that is good enough to provide great answers to all your daily web writing-related problems and concerns. … Read more