Are you searching for some great content marketing tips? You’ve come to the right place! We’re recapping our latest #ContentWritingChat, which was packed with tips you’ll want to start using today. Keep reading to see what our chat participants had to say!
#ContentWritingChat Recap: Content Marketing Strategies for Bloggers with Lilach Bullock
Our guest host for this week’s chat was Lilach Bullock. Lilach is a speaker, as well as a social media consultant and trainer. She joined our chat to share some of her top content marketing tips for bloggers.
Q1: Discuss how important blogging is to content marketing.
Of course we know that there’s more to content marketing than just blogging. However, blogging does play a huge part in our content marketing strategies. Here’s what some of Tuesday’s chat participants had to say about it:
A1 Very, very important. Blogging offers one of the easiest ways to provide valuable content to audiences #ContentWritingChat
As Lilach said, blogging is very important to content marketing. She said it provides a way for you to give your audience valuable content. It becomes your place to consistently provide your audience with the information they need.
She also said a good blog offers value to customers and increases traffic to your website. After all, people will want to head over to your website to see what you’re sharing!
A1 Blogging is the cornerstone of content marketing! It’s your consistent content platform, voice, open book for readers #ContentWritingChat
Sarah knows just how powerful a blog post can be. She said you can send your audience to your blog so they can learn more. Then, you can encouraged them to take action from your posts. Of course, it’s also great if they share your posts because it sends more traffic your way!
Debi knows just how important blogging can be. As she said, it’s important to share great information that your target audience would be interested in. It keeps them engaged and keeps the information fresh for search engines.
Q2: How can bloggers get started with putting together a content marketing strategy?
Now that you know just how integral blogging is to your content marketing plan, it’s time to create a strategy. How do you do it, you ask? Here are some tips to keep in mind:
A2 There are 5 important aspects to remember: short form content for blogging, premium content for subscribers #ContentWritingChat
Lilach believes there are five important aspects to remember here. She knows how great short-form content can be for your blog, however we also know long-form content is great as well. It’s important to experiment and see what your audience enjoys the most.
She also recommends creating premium content for your subscribers. Next, she mentions SEO, designing visual content, and creating audio content.
As Sarah said, you need to know your audience. That’s where it all starts. You cannot expect to create content without first knowing who your audience is. Then, figure out the goals you want to achieve and start planning to make them a reality.
A2) Define your objectives, your niche and work out who your audience is. Plan before you do anything else #ContentWritingChat
Olivia also knows the importance of setting objectives. Once you have them in mind, you can determine the strategies that will help you get your desired results.
A2 Get to know your audience like they’re a friend. Speak their verbage. Map out a consistent editorial calendar #ContentWritingChat
We can’t stress this point enough: get to know your audience. Speak their language so you appeal to them. And don’t forget to make an editorial calendar. When you plan in advance, content creation is much less stressful.
A2 Begin with the end in mind: What action(s) do you want your audience to take as a result of your efforts? #contentwritingchat
Bill recommends beginning with the end in mind. What actions do you want your audience to take? It’s important to remember this when creating content for your blog.
A2: have a solid marketing plan for all the platforms you use and make sure they integrate together smoothly #contentwritingchat
Stephanie knows that you need to think beyond your blog, too. You should create a content marketing plan for all of the platforms you use and make sure they work together to support each other.
Important things to keep in mind: who you’ll reach, how often you’ll write content, and which topics you’ll cover.
Q3: What tools can help you be successful when it comes to content marketing?
There are plenty of great tools available that can help you with your content marketing strategy. If you want to check some out, take a look at these suggestions:
Lilach uses CoSchedule to plan out her editorial calendar. It certainly comes in handy to have everything planned in advance! She also uses BuzzSumo to find out what types of content works within her niche.
Much like so many of our other participants, Brittany also likes Yoast, Canva, and BuzzSumo. It’s no wonder so many people like them because they’re all amazing tools.
One thing you can’t forget is an email service provider! You need a way to capture the email addresses of visitors to your website so you can reach them after they’ve left.
Q4: How do you integrate content marketing with other marketing strategies?
It’s important that your content marketing strategies work hand-in-hand with other marketing strategies you implement. Here’s how to do that:
A4 Make sure your content stays true to your values and overall tone #ContentWritingChat
As Lilach said, it’s important your content stays true to your values and your tone. Everything you create should be representative of you and your brand.
Lilach knows it’s important to provide valuable content consistently. She also said never to forget what your brand is all about. It’s important to stay true to your vision.
It’s important that your campaign leads people to the end destination. What do you want people to do? Your campaign needs to move them in that direction.
Q6: What is the biggest misconception about content marketing?
There are quite a few misconceptions about content marketing that people still believe. Check these out:
A6 One of the biggest ones: that all you have to do is create some great content & it will do the work for you #ContentWritingChat
As Lilach said, some believe all you have to do is create great content and it’ll do all the work for you. This simply isn’t true! It takes a lot more than just content creation.
A6 Quantity over quality. You don’t need more content, you need BETTER content. #ContentWritingChat
Creating a lot of content won’t guarantee leads, ROI, and exposure will start coming your way. It takes time to get results. You have to consistently create and promote your content to spread the word.
A6: Not keeping in mind that your content needs to have actual value to your audience – steps, info, or goal-oriented. #ContentWritingChat
Create an editorial calendar to plan your content. When everything is planned in advance, content creation is less stressful. There’s no more scrambling to come up with content at the last minute.
A7: Don’t post for the sake of posting. Everything you publish should provide value to your audience. #ContentWritingChat
Don’t post on your blog just for the sake of posting. The content you publish needs to provide value to your audience and should always be high quality.
A7 Find your niche. Be authentic. Know that success doesn’t happen overnight. #ContentWritingChat
You should always cater your content to your audience. Sarah also knows that creating evergreen content is a great idea because it’s always fresh. Writing in a conversational tone also helps people connect with you.
A7: If you want to blog, create a solid plan. Have a calendar, target market, topic list, and, most importantly, goals. #contentwritingchat
Julia knows planning is essential! She recommends planning your best keywords and topics.
Q8: Which brands consistently do an amazing job with their content marketing campaigns?
There are so many brands who do an amazing job with their content marketing campaigns. It’s a great place to look for inspiration! Check out these brands who are creating fantastic content:
You’re making us blush! Thanks for the compliment, Tim!
We look forward to seeing you at the next #ContentWritingChat! Mark your calendars weekly for Tuesday at 10 AM Central Time for great chats centered around content writing and marketing. Follow @ExpWriters to stay updated on our new topics and guests!
Are you ready to catch up on this week’s #ContentWritingChat? We’ve prepared an awesome recap with some of the tweets from Tuesday’s chat, so get ready to dive in!
#ContentWritingChat Recap: Practical SEO Advice for the Online Creator with Caleb McElveen
Our guest host this week was Caleb McElveen. Caleb is and SEO and content marketing specialist. He’s also a co-host on the digital marketing podcast, Search Talk Live.
Q1: What are the basics of SEO every content creator should know?
SEO doesn’t have to be hard to figure out! In fact, if you’re just getting started with optimizing your content, these basic tips are great to know:
A1) Learn to correctly optimize title tags, meta descriptions, headers, & more. Understand how they impact performance. #ContentWritingChat
Caleb said it’s important to know how to correctly optimize title tags, meta descriptions, headers, and more. All of these things impact the performance of your content, so it’s helpful to know the best ways to optimize them in order to maximize your results.
He also recommends understanding user intent when creating content because it can also impact your SEO strategy.
Sarah knows keywords are essential to SEO! She recommends figuring out how your audience is using and searching for keywords, which will help you choose the right ones for your content. You’ll also want to sprinkle those keywords throughout your content in heading tags, meta description, and more.
A1) Proper keywording. Find those popular, relevant keywords about your content that will help people find it easier #ContentWritingChat
Jason also agrees understanding keywords is very important! He recommends finding the popular and relevant keywords that will help your audience find your content.
A1. SEO and readability should work together, not against each other, to make your content easily searchable + scannable #contentwritingchat
Kristen is right on with her answer! She said that SEO and readability should work together. You should never sacrifice readability for the sake of trying to rank higher. Providing great content for your audience should always be priority number one.
A1: Never overstuff with keywords! Write naturally and then use some SEO dust before publishing. #contentwritingchat
One big SEO don’t? Keyword stuffing! It’s not cool to overdo it on the keywords because Google doesn’t like it and neither do your readers. We’ll have some more SEO mistakes coming up in the next question!
Q2: What are the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to SEO?
There are some common SEO mistakes people make when creating their online content. It’s important to know what they are so you can avoid them! Here are a few mistakes you don’t want to make:
A2) Not having or using keyword/phrase correctly. Often it’s not used in titles & more, or there’s keyword stuffing. #ContentWritingChat
Caleb knows many people make mistakes when it comes to keywords. In some cases, people fail to use the keyword correctly or don’t even have one. Make sure you’re using your focus keyword in titles and throughout your content without going overboard. Keyword stuffing is a big no-no!
He also said not to forget about optimizing the images you share. They’re searchable as well and you want to make sure you take that extra step to optimize them.
A2) Using keywords that aren’t used as often. Don’t waste space on useless words that won’t help you get noticed. #ContentWritingChat
As Jason said, using keywords that aren’t used as often won’t help you see results. You need to do your research to find the right keywords for your content.
A2: Ignoring SEO by thinking body copy isn’t necessary for success. They think it’s just page titles and meta. #contentwritingchat
Ignoring SEO is a huge mistake! If you want your content to be seen, you need to learn about the best SEO practices and start putting them to use with your own online content.
Remember that SEO is important, but there’s so much more to you content than just the optimization process. You have to start with a piece of quality content that shows personality and tells a story in order to really attract people.
A2 thinking they understand it by reading about it and not implementing it. I’m still learning everyday about SEO #ContentWritingChat
Never stop learning. SEO changes and it’s important to stay updated on all the latest information. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you know everything about SEO. Make sure you’re actively learning about the best practices and implementing them.
Q3: What steps can you take to get your content on the first page of search results?
As an online content creator, one of your dreams is probably to rank on the first page of Google’s search results. It sounds like a dream, right? The good news is, it’s totally possible to make this happen! Here’s what you need to know:
A3) First, research what’s ranking on the first page. Outline what they did right/wrong. Create a plan to do it better. #ContentWritingChat
Caleb’s advice is to research what’s already ranking on the first page. Study what they did right and what they did wrong so you can create your own plan to do it better. There’s nothing wrong with getting a little inspiration from your competitors!
He then suggests creating content that provides value to your audience. Answer their questions and provide them with the amazing content they’re looking for. It’s a sure-fire way to keep them coming back for more, too.
A3: It’s not just about KWs in content/copy, but tags, headlines, images, all of it! Also be relevant to those KWs! #ContentWritingChat
Kristi knows everything needs to work together if you want to see major results. She said to make sure relevant keywords are included in your content, tags, headlines, and images.
A3: 1) Do research for the best keywords 2) Optimize body copy carefully 3) Get VALUABLE links (quality over quantity) #contentwritingchat
Research the best keywords. Optimize the body of your content. Get valuable links. All three of these tips will help you rank higher in search results.
Don’t forget to provide a great experience overall for the visitors to your website. It should be user-friendly and you need to make sure you’re writing good content.
A3 LOTS! Optimize your site for speed, UX and Google… then add relevant long-form, useful posts around long tail kws #ContentWritingChat
Our CEO, Julia, recommends optimizing your website for speed, user experience, and Google. The next step is to add relevant, long-form content that’s useful to your audience. Utilize long-tail keywords in your content to increase discoverability!
Q4: How does social media factor into SEO?
Social media certainly plays a role in SEO. If you’re wondering how, here’s what some of the participants in Tuesday’s chat had to say:
A4) Social media amplifies your content to increase the opportunity to earn important SEO factors such as links. #ContentWritingChat
Lex knows social media is great for pushing out content to get more visitors to your site. It’s also helpful for learning what your audience needs from you. Take the time to listen to them and create more of what they want.
Caleb recommends researching your competition. He tries to determine why their content performs well and how he can create content that outperforms it. Caleb also knows it’s important to understand user intent. You want to know how they’re searching because that impacts your content.
Get the whole team involved with SEO! Keep everyone informed on what you’re working on and allow them to voice their thoughts and opinions. Working together as a team will yield the best results.
A5: Research, research and talking to people. Setting up GA and then checking to adjust which keywords aren’t working #ContentWritingChat
Brandie suggests conducting research and talking to people. She also said it’s important to set up Google Analytics and regularly check to see which keywords are working and which ones aren’t.
Do your research and think like a reader! Get into the mind of your reader to figure out what they’re searching, which keywords they’re using, and more. This will help you reach them.
A5)
1. Set up clear content goals
2. Optimise for the reader & search engines
3. Keep your content fresh+relevant #contentwritingchat
Liliana said to set clear content goals, optimize your content, and make sure you keep everything fresh and relevant.
Q6: What would you say to someone who argues SEO isn’t important? How would you convince them otherwise?
Believe it or not, there are still plenty of naysayers out there when it comes to SEO. Many content creators still don’t understand the value it can provide and therefore don’t take it seriously. If someone says SEO isn’t important, remember this:
A6) SEO communicates to search engines & users what your page, business or content is all about. #ContentWritingChat
Caleb said SEO communicates to search engines and users what your page, business, or content is all about. Taking the time to optimize your posts will help search engines recognize you in their results.
A6. If you create great content and no one can find it, what’s the point? #contentwritingchat
If you want to prove the value of SEO to someone who doesn’t understand, come prepared with facts! Brandie recommends backing up your argument with facts and data that prove SEO is a must.
a6: Show them your metrics. You can’t make someone do something, but numbers also don’t lie. #contentwritingchat
It’s safe to say that without SEO, it’s hard to put yourself on the digital map. Zala knows getting your content to rank is a must.
Q7: What tools do you use to help with SEO?
There are a ton of great tools out there that can help you become an SEO master. If you’re looking for some new ones to test out, check out these suggestions:
Caleb has three go-to tools he uses for optimizing content. Have you tried any of them?
He also said it’s important to familiarize yourself with Google Analytics and Search Console. It’s important to be able to interpret the data these give you.
Debbie often turns to her network to learn more about SEO. Seeking advice from your peers is a great way to get SEO help. Which brings us to our final question…
Q8: Which influencers do you turn to for the latest in SEO news?
There are plenty of influencers who share great content regarding the latest in SEO. Check out these sources for the best information:
This is certainly an awesome line-up from Caleb! He also shared a great tip about reading something on SEO every day. It’s important to stay updated on the latest news. You can never been too educated on a topic.
We look forward to seeing you at the next #ContentWritingChat! Mark your calendars weekly for Tuesday at 10 AM Central Time for great chats centered around content writing and marketing. Follow @ExpWriters to stay updated on our new topics and guests!
Are you ready to catch up on this week’s #ContentWritingChat? We’ve prepared an awesome recap with some of the tweets from Tuesday’s chat, so get ready to dive in!
#ContentWritingChat Recap: How to Grow Online & in Business by Improving Your Mindset with Michele Walsh
Our guest host this week was Michele Walsh. Michele is a business confidence coach and the author of The Big Shift. She joined us to talk all about the importance of mindset within your business. It’s a different topic for us, but she provided a lot of helpful advice you can implement in your own business.
Q1: What role does mindset play within your business?
We kicked off the chat by asking our Twitter friends what role they felt mindset played within their businesses. We received some great answers in return! Check it out:
#ContentWritingChat Did you know mindset is responsible for more than 80% of the results you achieve?
Michele shared a pretty important statistic with us. She said that our mindset is responsible for more than 80% of the results we achieve. So, it only makes sense that if we want to achieve big things in our lives, we need to be in the right frame of mind to make that happen. You need the right mindset in order to see major, consistent results.
To put it simply, a positive attitude will yield more positive results within your business. How can you expect to see positive results if you’re thinking negatively?
A1 I think as with any part of life, positivity, determination, focus all help improve it. Forward motion is key! #ContentWritingChat
Amanda is right on with her answer. Positivity, determination, and focus are all key aspects of your mindset and important to achieving success in business.
Your attitude is imprinted in every piece of work you do. That’s pretty crazy to think about, right? When you have a positive mindset and you’re passionate about your work, people will take notice.
A1. Everything. You can choose how to think and subsequently, how to live! I have a mindset of working hard every day. #ContentWritingChat
For our CEO, Julia, she knows that having the right mindset can impact her life on a daily basis. She chooses to have a mindset that empowers her to work hard every day, which is exactly how she’s built Express Writers.
@writingchat A1: A positive mind impacts the health, growth, & productivity of not only your business, but yourself! #ContentWritingChat
Remember that having a positive mindset doesn’t just impact your business. It impacts you and your life in general.
Q2: How can your mindset impact your content marketing efforts?
Now that we know how important the right mindset is for business growth and success, let’s talk about content marketing. How could mindset possible impact our content? Here’s what some participants in Tuesday’s chat had to say:
#ContentWritingChat Less marketing more aligning your mindset with your intentions, having trust and belief and the results will manifest
Michele said it’s important to align your mindset with your intentions. You need to have trust and believe in order to see your desired results manifest into your life.
A1. I think that your mindset – particularly how you handle challenges – determines your success or failure. #contentwritingchat
Zala recommends keeping an open mind. This will allow you to be more welcoming of new ideas. It’s also important to understand the needs of your audience.
A2. I have found that when I have a negative or uninspired mindset, my content suffers. #ContentWritingChat
Brittany knows that the wrong mindset often means her content will suffer. If she’s thinking negatively or feeling uninspired, content isn’t likely to be its best.
A2: If I’m not in the right mindset, it’s incredibly difficult to think creatively – let alone optimistic, helpful, etc. #ContentWritingChat
Sherri also finds it difficult when she isn’t in the right frame of mind. She says it becomes difficult to think creatively and is hard to be optimistic or helpful.
A2b: So If you’re head & heart aren’t in it, it’s time for a break or other project for a while. #ContentWritingChat
So, before you start creating, make sure you’re prepared mentally!
Q3: What are your key tips for keeping the content ideas flowing within your business?
Sometimes it can be hard to keep the ideas flowing! How can you make sure you’re amazing at coming up with great ideas each and every time? Keep these tips in mind:
#ContentWritingChat Tips for for keeping content ideas flowing.Time and space to switch everything off and allow creation to begin is a must
Michele’s advice is to set aside time and space to switch everything off and allow for content creation. You can’t always wait for inspiration to strike. Sometimes you have to sit down and seek those ideas. Close your inbox. Silence your phone. Log off social media. Let the brainstorming begin!
A3 Analyze the types of content that resonate most with your audience, create new content aimed at their interests. #ContentWritingChat
It always helps to analyze what resonates with your audience the most. After all, you’re creating for them and it’s important to give them what they want.
A3) Look at the feedback you get from your audience & demographic. You’d be surprised the kind of content ideas you get #ContentWritingChat
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. You should get involved and listen to what your audience is talking about. That’s the perfect way to figure out what your audience wants and needs.
Sarah is all about getting others involved in the content creation process. If you have a team working alongside you, don’t be afraid to ask them for ideas. Schedule team meetings or calls specifically for brainstorming.
A3: Collaborate with your team! Two heads are better than one. And see what your audience is responding best to #ContentWritingChat
It all starts with your audience. In order to create content they’ll love, you need to get to know them. Figure out who they are, what they are interested in, and what their pain points are. Create content accordingly.
Kristen said you need to know what makes your audience tick, what their challenges are, and what their aspirations are. This will help you create the content that resonates with them.
You also need to know what will make your audience convert. If you aren’t sure, you can always test to find out. Try different things to see what your audience responds to and what they don’t.
A4) Understand what connects with your audience emotionally. If your content doesn’t “touch” them, they won’t care #ContentWritingChat
Jason said to understand what your audience connects with emotionally. Your content should touch them. That’s the best way to make those aforementioned conversions happen!
Q5: How can you incorporate your team in the content creation process?
Getting your team involved is a great way to get fresh ideas flowing and to produce some amazing content. Here are some tips on how to incorporate them into the process:
A5 Communication is ?. Exclude no one. I’ve seen amazing things happen from asking for content ideas from my team #ContentWritingChat
As Josh said, it’s important to also know the strengths of your team. If something isn’t your strength, ask a team member or consider hiring an expert for help.
Q6: How can having the wrong mindset hold you back in your business?
You already know having a positive mindset can encourage growth in your business, but do you know just how troubling the wrong mindset can be? Here’s what some participant’s in Tuesday’s chat had to say about having the wrong mindset in business:
#contentwritingchat As your mind grows (stretches) so do the results in your business. Think of what was once impossible, now possible!
A mindset where you’re so focused on perfection can be harmful as well. Things will never be perfect, friends! It’s more important to focus on doing your best.
Q7: How can you use your mindset to impact and maintain your business growth?
Here’s what you need to know straight from this week’s chat:
#ContentWritingChat Remember this…you get more of what you focus on. So ONLY focus on what you WANT. Simple but so true
Michele reminds us that you get more of what you focus on. So, it’s important to only focus on the things you want. If you focus on what you don’t want, that’s exactly what you’ll see manifest into your life. It’s all about the Law of Attraction!
Ken’s advice is to make your content the opening line in a conversation. You want content that will add value to your audience and get them to take the next step with you.
Q8: What inspirational public figures in business rock at mindset and business?
Check out these awesome people for some major mindset and business inspiration:
#ContentWritingChat What inspirational public figures in business rock at mindset & business? Oprah Winfrey,Richard Branson, Bob Proctor
Because Danielle LaPorte focuses on helping you figure out how you want to feel in your daily life, she does a great job at combining mindset and business.
Julia is a fan of Gary Vaynerchuk, Tony Robbins, and Marcus Lemons. We look forward to seeing you at the next #ContentWritingChat! Mark your calendars weekly for Tuesday at 10 AM Central Time for great chats centered around content writing and marketing. Follow @ExpWriters to stay updated on our new topics and guests!
Let’s face it.
Getting traffic, maintaining traffic, and creating content they come back for—and keeping that cycle thriving for years—is hard work.
Yet this is something we’ve been able to achieve successfully, day in and day out, at Express Writers.
We’re a content writing agency that does what we do best for ourselves, before we sell it to others—creating winning online content that brings revenue, markets a business, and informs and helps an audience.
Since I launched my website with a $75 investment in May 2011, Express Writers has relied on creating content for ourselves and publishing it online, organically, as the #1 source of all our leads, marketing, and revenue. We’ve focused on creating content without a thought to a sales funnel: and we’ve never paid a penny to advertise our services on Google. (You heard that right. We’ve never, once, invested in PPC. And the publications I write content for, guest blogs, don’t pay me a direct paycheck.)
Instead, we’ve just focused on writing and publishing useful, outstanding content, on our site, consistently. Consistent guest blogging. Creating a Twitter presence that rocks out organically.
Call me crazy, untypical, you-name-it… but it’s worked for us—extraordinarily well.
I’m about to reveal it all to you, in a case study I sat down to create across a five-week span.
We Are Our Own Success Story: How We at Express Writers Dominate Online & Outrank Competition Through Our Content
Our major form of marketing is the actual service we sell: well-written, engaging, optimized online content.
And for the first time, I’m pulling back the curtain in a major case study where we’ll reveal exactly where we stand with content, how we fare against our biggest competitors, and much more. (I’m using a pro account at SEMrush to pull every analytic.)
Here’s a quick table of contents, so you know what’s coming:
Ready for this? Sit back—you’re in for a ride!
What does our organic online presence look like vs. competition?
A five-year-old company (launched May 2011), we outrank our major competitors on average by 5% on Google. Check out this graph:
We’ve climbed to over 4,100 total keyword rankings in Google. Our estimated worth of traffic and rankings is at $13,200 (what we’ve have to spend to achieve these rankings through sponsored ads).
(Don’t worry about that dip in traffic. I have an upcoming post, How I Lost 30% of My Organic Rankings & Traffic (On Purpose) & Added 25% Additional Monthly Revenue By Going After the Traffic I Wanted, coming out soon to explain.)
Over 300 keywords are indexed in the top 10 of Google (example in point, this is from the bottom of page 3, 100 results per page, in SEMrush):
Back to our competitors. Here’s what a real-life look at our keywords vs. theirs look like—on Google, two out of four of our competitors don’t even have a presence for the keywords we rank #1 for:
Overall, at first glance it looks like there is an extremely oversaturated market if you Google “writing agencies,” but only a few are worth really comparing ourselves to. Their funding: One of our two major competitors gained $700,000 and another $4.5 million for funding since launching in 2011; and the second competitor has been around for over 16 years, raising a private amount of seed funding in 2011. Our funding: We have zero investors. We don’t have a penny in outside funding. Yet we’re doing big things. I started Express Writers in May 2011 with a pocket investment of $75. It was a five-minute business idea born from a huge load of personal freelance writing I didn’t want to turn away. I learned how to code my first website; today, Josh McCoy leads our branding, building, and all our new upcoming development has been personally funded by ourselves. And without any outside funding, we’re launching a custom-built, 200% more efficient Content Shop that we’ve developed from scratch—coming out end of 2016/early 2017. Hand-in-hand with this will be the launch of custom writer team room systems we’ve built as well. (Get on the notification list for the upcoming launch!) And Josh is knee-deep in launching a boon to all content creators, Copyfind, which will offer the deepest content checking search for originality that’s on the web. (Get on that notification list here!) Yes, we have a lot about to launch. 😛
Today, we serve more than 1,000 clients worldwide, and we easily handle 300 pages in a given week. And we outshine most of our competitors’ quality because of a very personal, one-on-one mentoring environment we’ve given our writers—and because of incredibly dedicated, uniquely qualified experts I’ve been able to hire for our management staff.
I won’t lie: to stay personally funded, I’ve put in many an 80-hour work week on my part, and invested 65% to 100% sometimes of our net profits from the company back in. It’s been hard to find good people, but thankfully, today I have just those people. It’s all been worth the intensive hard work to see growth happen this way. Organically, from hard work, without a huge million-dollar bank account solely responsible for and behind the growth—as is the reality with many, many other VC companies.
How does our content perform?
We have over 785 published blogs on our site, with the first one published live on our WordPress site in September 2012. The average word count of each is 1,500 (with the highest blogs at 3,700 words, and the lowest around 500—we’ve actually been working on adding more content to the shorter ones now). Our two most-shared posts are a blog published in December 2015, on how to do a website audit—coming in at 1k shares. An episode on my podcast with Sujan Patel, published in March 2016, coming in at 800+ shares. (But I don’t think shares mean everything! Here’s why.)
The traffic, lead, and conversions that subsequently happen from our organic rankings bring in 90% of our company revenue. That’s right. That’s a six-figure gross yearly amount. The other revenue is brought in through cold lead outreach, a unique strategy I’ll be unveiling soon in another guest blog. We’ve seen five-figure clients (including big brands) walk in through our door of organic rankings in Google; we’ve created client relationships through organic connections on social media, and have seen four-figure client conversions come in without sales pressure from those that have read my guest blog content.
We’ve never bought a single PPC ad, we’ve never relied on sponsored content, and I’ve never created a single sales funnel—instead, our organic content presence brings in thousands of clients to Express Writers every year.
You might call me crazy for not making sure a sales funnel exists, but here’s the thing: I’m so busy creating relationships and the content that is behind those relationships, that I don’t have time or even need to worry about making sure a marketing or sales funnel process is there. My blog CTAs are as simple as a unique, well-written text link back to our Content Shop on the end of a blog post.
Curious as to how we do it? Here’s the organic content marketing process I’ve followed, fully unveiled for the first time!
Our #1 Source of Marketing & Traffic Is In Consistently Creating a Ton of In-Depth, Long Form Content
Full disclosure here. We create a lot of content to win in content marketing. The majority is on our site, but our publishing schedule includes guest platforms that I blog on, too. Let’s look at how and where we’re publishing content, and where it’s gotten us.
A Split-Focus and Total of 32 Long-Form Pieces/Month Across the Web: A Huge, Consistent Amount of Quality Content (Quality over Quantity)
For the creation part, I write over 30 blogs monthly (average of each post is 2,000 words) with the help of some of my best team members, who guest author on our site. Primarily, 20 of these blogs go to our site. (You want your best content to be on your own real estate!) The other 10-12 get spread across various high-quality, large audience guest blog networks.
In-depth, specific research is key to a great topic and a great piece, and the actual writing requires time and team effort.
For the research part, I’m always on BuzzSumo, and looking up keywords in SEMrush and KWFinder to see what’s being talked about and asked the most (questions on Quora) in our industry, consistently. I’m also in Twitter chats to see what people talk about and ask each other questions on. I use all this community/research activity to find the best questions, create blog topics and then focus on highly in-depth blogs that fully answer the question in the topic.
Here’s what our EXACT content amounts and publishing times look like:
1. 20 Blogs/Month: How We Publish Content on Our Own Site (A Blog A Day, Except for Weekends)
We publish a content piece every day on our site except for weekends (5 blogs/week). Every post goes live at midnight (00:00 on WordPress scheduling) the day of. Here’s the kinds of content that involves:
I post 2-3 times a week on our own blog, with posts that range from 1,500 words minimum to 4,000 (with custom created visuals, screenshots, and even GIFs included in each). Each post I write takes about a week. I backdate my content and stay a week ahead by devoting onefull dayjust to writing, planning, and creating content. I start a whole line of new posts instead of just writing one, and flip back between documents to pen down a flow of ideas that should go in various channels. I type fast, so I can finish up to five half pieces in a day, then wrap them all up the next full day of content creation. (Sound scary? This is a unique process that I’ve found that works for me—after five years of blogging every week. My typing speed is 150 wpm.)
We just opened our blog to internal team member guest authors only (no outside bloggers). We feature 1-2 intensive guest blogs weekly from our full-time copywriters, social media managers, and strategists.
Once/week, Rachel creates and posts our Twitter chat recap. It’s always near 1,000 words. Keep in mind it’s full of tweets, which are already indexed in Twitter.
You’re already heard about our organic presence with our site, but here’s a recap: we’re at 2,600+ organic visitors monthly from 4,100 keywords, more than 300 of which are in the top 10 of Google.
I audit and review our content in the rankings weekly. Once a week, I pop in to SEMrush and check out what ranks, for what keyword. If the content is at all crappy, it gets an update! (Case study coming out soon on how I’ve been successful at auditing old posts.)
2. 12 Content Pieces/Month: How We Rock Out Guest Blogging (The ROI Is Greater Than A Paycheck)
If you would have told me “blogging for free” was worth a TON of money, in the beginning I would have laughed at you. Because I needed the paycheck then, not the exposure.
But today, the exposure is worth far more than a paycheck.
And that’s why I guest blog for free. A lot.
Personally, I limit myself to about 12-13 pieces per month. I may take on one or two more channels next year, but not many more. I’ve learned that a guest blog on an amazing platform like Search Engine Journal (with nearly a million high-value, relevant readers) is worth more in potential leads that will buy our services, than if I dilute and post five blogs that week among other channels like Social Media Today, Business 2 Community, etc. And if I tackle more, I easily get overwhelmed and lose sight of devoting quality on each one.
Here’s where I currently guest blog—I recently got accepted to the HuffingtonPost, and go live on Copyhackers in October!
Social Media Examiner: 1 piece every other quarter (I’m working on improving that, a new piece here is coming out in October)
Grammarly: I guest blogged here twice. Didn’t see results from the audience at all, despite high shares (not a marketing audience), so I stopped last year.
Copyhackers: My first blog will be live in October!
The Life Cycle of One Impactful Piece of Content
To emphasize just how impactful online content really can be, I’d like to walk you through a real lifecycle of one organic piece of guest blog content I published. This piece of content returned 100x on the content investment.
Before I show you this, keep in mind one thing: my guest blogging isn’t just a one-time post, but most of the time, it’s an ongoing column. That’s preferential for me, because of the opportunity an ongoing presence affords: a much more sustainable, long-term way to build reputation, traffic, and leads, as you’ll see from this very example.
Let’s take a look at a $5,000 sale that happened five days after someone read my column at SiteProNews.
January 1, 2015: my article How to Create Shareable, Likeable and Organic Content goes live on SiteProNews.
2:25 PM: We received this contact form. (Names blurred out. We’ll call our lead Dave.)
By January 26, after several email conversations and custom project bids from our staff, Dave purchased expert copy, our content planning, and enough content for several sites at a worth of $5,000!
A Success Story or Two: How We Implement Our Own Success Strategies for Our Clients’ Content
The content success strategy I use for our own content marketing is something I take to the bank, teach my writers, and implement for use in writing our own clients’ content.
We write everything, from bulk SEO content for agencies to resell to their clientele, to expert copy for niche firms. And in every piece we create, we implement these strategies: I teach every single writer in my team with internal, exclusive guides at Express Writers built by my staff and I the essence of great online content. From writing a meta description that reads as well as an online ad (because hey—it’s the organic PPC of Google!), to writing a blog that is oriented to the audience and uses the keywords naturally. We don’t fail: we have a 99% success rate because of the exclusive, personally mentored quality of our writers and their content. I can bet you anything that no other agency treats their writer base like we do ours.
And it’s not just a nice theory. We hear time and time again from our own clients that the content we write for them returns on investment.
Here’s a success story from one of our clients, Tom Dean, IT at www.andersonhemmat.com. For this Colorado based attorney website, we wrote brand new site pages to refresh their site; blogs; and press releases. Their results after we rewrote their content? They went up ten pages in the SERPs! With the blog posts we wrote, they also saw steady and increasing rankings in the SERPs. Our content made a tremendous difference!
Tom said:
“We’ve seen a huge jump in web traffic because of the great content you’ve done for us. We’ve gone from page 12 organic to page 2 organic since the site update. The main reason I find the content a successful investment is ROI. It costs very little to have you guys write something but in the long run if it’s on the web and written with SEO in mind it will help our rankings and possibly go viral.”
SnapInspect was another client of ours. By starting their brand new blog out with a consistency of two blogs per week minimum across six months, we were able to help them grow from a zero presence on Google to a subscriber list, active readers, social media followers, and a presence in the top five pages of Google.
There you have it! Our own clients are succeeding online with the content we write that is specifically targeted to perform well. Not just in the SERPs, but with readers.
Now, how have we been able to be successful with our content? I’m going to delve into a few strategies before revealing the last part of how we dominate online—on social media, specifically Twitter.
How to Be Consistent with Great Content
I’ve heard an echoing statement among bloggers that consistency is hard.
But the key in all of this is staying fresh, being relatable to the audience in your industry, and being consistent.
The balance? Never publish rushed, but publish as much as you can while staying within quality.
Time is what you need. If you don’t have time, a resource you can trust.
Spend the extra day to proofread, if it’s late at night and you just aren’t proofing it as thoroughly as you’d like. I’d describe my consistency of publishing as a careful balance between two constant thoughts:
The Thursday I don’t publish content is a missed content opportunity. (Thursday is one of our best posting days: early in the morning, a lot of people seem to be reading blogs.)
The Thursday I publish rushed, non-proofread content, is the Thursday I should not have published content.
What has significantly helped me in creating amazing content is to set aside one day called my “content” day. Seriously. If you are a blogger or online content marketer, you need to do that. There’s no other way.
Till the day you can hand the process off to a trusted resource, you need to allot one day to content creation. Plan your topics then. Finalize drafts. Create new drafts. Never create and publish one piece in one day. You can take breaks and create new pieces of content to break it up, but never, ever write and publish one whole piece in one single day. I never knew how much a fresh eye really mattered till I spent four weeks on one piece of content! (This piece you’re reading—six weeks. Probably my longest to-date.)
How Do We Successfully Guest Blog? 4 Simple Strategies
How do I pitch to the right platforms, and perfect the right customized content for each one?
My “secrets” to guest blogging are fairly simple. It’s a novel in and of itself, but to sum up, top strategies: 1. Less is more: I’ve noticed that if I focus on less channels, I can present better quality on each. Plus, a few top channels are worth their weight in gold, and sometimes that’s all you need to bring in serious ROI from the blogging you do. 2. Find platforms that align with who your ideal online customer is: It’s all about the right platforms—find ones with a huge audience, and readers that align with your ideal lead demographic. 3. Make a relationship with the right person: This is key in actually getting through and being published on your ideal guest blog. Think of the blog as a person you need to connect with, not an entity. This is how I made all of my guest blog spots happen (all!), from my CTO Josh personally finding Kelsey Jones, myself being invited on the #MarketingNerds podcast, and getting invited to write for Search Engine Journal, to connecting with Joanna Wiebe by offering her a podcast spot, and then getting a “yes” on the guest blog draft I sent her. Never put time and effort in a contact forms—always find a person to contact! Sometimes starting the relationship can be as simple as finding the right “managing blog editor” to contact, following them on Twitter, and tweeting or DM’ing. 4. Always give your best, most in-depth, most useful content, oriented to the guest blog audience: If you’re writing for Business Insider, for example, you don’t want to be as conversational and story-like as if you were pitching to the Huffington Post. A technical voice might do better there. Find the guidelines for each platform, and follow them to a T. Go beyond by using the right tone that fits their audience! When making points, use screenshots. Don’t short any point you make. Be as in-depth as you can!
#2 Major Way We’ve Built Up Our Online Reputation: Domination on Twitter With #ContentWritingChat, Joining Other Chats, & My Best-Selling Book
Besides content creation, which is truly our fundamental source of valuable rankings and organic traffic, we maintain a strong presence on social media, specifically on one of my favorite social platforms of all time—Twitter.
Back in January this year, on the very first Tuesday in January, I made a resolution to launch a Twitter chat. I researched a hashtag for my chat, settled on #ContentWritingChat, and registered the hashtag to @ExpWriters Twitter handle on Twubs. I created a Twitter chat account specifically for the chat, @writingchat, as well, and started following everyone I knew, as well as major influencers, from that account. My key strategy was to a) hire help! I have had a social media manager run the chat since I started it, from @ExpWriters account. Our current one is Rachel. She’s been with me since the first month of the chat! b) remind everyone who is interested, via Twitter. Rachel takes care of that as well. Reminders are a huge way to get people to hop in your chat!
The serious evolution of our graphics, which you might notice—check out the first chat graphic, and then our last one in October with Joe Pulizzi—is because I was doing them in Canva at the beginning. Now, we have an amazing in-house graphic designer who creates our weekly featured Twitter chat graphics and the blog recap graphics. Our Social Media Specialist, Rachel, creates the Tuesday questions (eight total) on writing-related imagery backgrounds in Canva.
Our last Twitter chat was with Joe Pulizzi himself!
Here’s a short timeline of the fast-track success we’ve seen happen from it:
#ContentWritingChat day 1, month 1: we climbed to #42 trending on Twitter!
Month 6: we were trending at #9 and #11!
Month 7: we were #4 on Twitter! Major influencer Brian Fanzo said yes to guest hosting one session this month.
Month 9: Major influencer Joe Pulizzi from Content Marketing Institute joined our chat to guest host!
Month 9: We pulled in a sponsor! I traded a live sponsored spot during our Twitter chat for extensive discounts on tickets to a Search Engine Journal event.
We’re at 1,000+ tweets from people around the globe during our live hour now! Want to learn more about my Twitter chat strategy? Listen in to the podcast I recorded about it with our Social Media Specialist, Rachel.
A Presence in Other High-Ranking Twitter Chats Brings in the Leads
Another way we’ve significantly grown our presence is through joining other Twitter chats. Check out the guide from Rachel with 8 chats that we love. One chat that has a huge presence is Madalyn Sklar’s #TwitterSmarter. We’ve received offline chat messages from interested people clicking through to our site, like this one, from our participation in her chat:
Get in Twitter chats, if you’re a marketer! Or pay your social media person to join for that live hour. You might just find a potential client relationship. It’ll be worth your time.
How Do We Fare on the Other Platforms?
I won’t lie. Our Facebook is a bit dead: I’ve often considered following in Copyblogger’s steps of killing their Facebook page. I still might do it unless we can hand it over to someone who revives our Facebook. We occasionally get the interested writer and client who messages here, so I don’t want to entirely kill it yet. However, I do have a Facebook group, Learn Online Writing, which I’ve grown to just under 140 members. It’s a tight-knit community that mostly comes from my book readers, staff and writers.
Our Instagram, @expwriters, has grown significantly since I created it in August of 2015. We have over 1,800 followers, and we get about 50 likes and 3-5 comments per post. A lot of the traffic on Instagram comes from our Twitter chat followers! Rachel does a great job at summarizing our blogs with unique <100 word summaries and posting that in a new Instagram post, with a themed blog visual specifically made for Instagram, created by our lead designer.
How Publishing My Book Brought Us Organic Leads
I spent literally a year of my life (all of 2015) writing a book that’s out on Amazon, So You Think You Can Write? A Definitive Guide to Successful Online Writing. It’s maintained #3 bestseller in it’s category since it launched mid-April, 2016—a feat because I haven’t been able to advertise it outside of emailing my list, sponsoring one tweet, and telling my social platforms about it!
Here’s what I’ve seen come through the forms… “I want Julia to write my content. Can I get her? She wrote her book really well and that’s why I’m here at Express Writers. I want her to write my book.” After a good chuckle, I told the lead he was in the best hands possibly with our mentored, trained writing staff! He was very pleased with the content results. We’ve had other leads that turned into clients because they read my book and were impressed, as well as writers come in to apply after reading and learning from my book. I’ve also used it as education among our own team writers.
I also have a podcast out, but it’s been hard to quantify results. I’ve had 4,000 downloads since launching it as well in April. I’ve had several appearance and interview opportunities occur because of it, and have gotten on the radar of some of my favorite influencers (an episode with Mark Traphagen will go live this October, and I’ve had the chance to interview Joanna Wiebe, Sujan Patel, and Steve Rayson)! If anything, podcasting has been a major tool in connecting with influencers for me.
Have We Spent a Penny on PPC Ads?
Not one. Ever.
Social ads?
We just started delving into Facebook and Twitter ads for the first time ever and have barely spent $75. (We’ll spend more when I launch our first-ever webinar, coming up soon.)
I belly laugh every time I think of the $75 we just started spending on ads, versus the huge organic results we’ve had so far.
Here’s what I’m going to tell you that’s solid advice to achieve a solid, strong customer base out of your online presence: it really isn’t about advertising anymore. It isn’t about creating a funnel and a sales process on rinse and repeat.
It’s about relationships. Creating meaningful content. Building a community, over time. Answering questions. Helping people.
And that’s what we’ve managed to focus on, and grown to be successful in, here at Express Writers.
Time, effort, and people (amazingly creative people) to help you out—these are the major tools you’ll need to replicate my process.
If you missed this week’s #ContentWritingChat, you’re in luck! We have rounded-up some of the best tweets from our chat on Tuesday, February 9th at 10 AM CST. Ready to dive in and learn more about SEO? Keep reading!
#ContentWritingChat February 9 2016 Recap: SEO in 2016 and Beyond with Jeff Deutsch
Jeff is super knowledgeable in SEO. He joined our chat to share his expertise on the best SEO practices you should be using. We were so excited to have him joining us!
As Jeff and our CEO, Julia, pointed out, SEO is about optimizing your content for search engines. You want Google to view your content as relevant and authoritative in order to rank higher in search results.
Jeff also gives us a very important reminder about making sure you’re writing for humans. Google’s algorithms keep getting better and better and you want to keep up – and this is a key way.
Kavita mentioned the importance of keywords in her answer. Make sure you’re selecting the right keywords for your content. Use keywords that people are actually searching for so you can reach them. Include keywords in your post title, throughout your content, and in the alt tags for your images.
Don’t forget to think beyond keywords, too. Netvantage brings up a great point about making sure your website is optimized. Google favors websites that are mobile-friendly and have quick loading times.
If it wasn’t already obvious by the answers from Jeff, Kavita, and Netvantage Marketing, picking the right keywords is essential! You want to target the keywords your audience is actually searching, otherwise you cannot expect them to find your content. Kavita added a great tip which is to make sure you’re including your focus keyword in your post title, throughout the post itself, and in the alt tags for your images. Very important!
However, don’t forget to think beyond keywords. Netvantage Marketing reminds us the importance of having an optimized website. Google favors websites that are mobile-friendly and ranks them higher in search results. You also want to have faster page-loading times because that’s a good thing to Google!
Follow the advice from Jeff and Ryan and make sure all of your content is relevant and authoritative. High-quality content is key first and foremost!
Try asking yourself Jeff’s question the next time you’re writing, “Would an expert on this subject link to this?” If not, you might want to step it up!
Jeff and Julia provided great answers for this question! Storytelling is important for building a connection between you and your reader. That kind of connection is memorable to your readers and is going to make them want to share your work.
Focus on building a stronger relationship with your readers to grow your brand.
To naturally earn links for SEO, focus on providing quality content for your audience. When you create valuable content for your audience, they’ll want to share it. As Jeff pointed out, be known as “that guy” or “that woman” within your niche. Position yourself as an authority figure for whatever it is you do. Become to go-to person everyone knows and trusts.
Andrew also reminds us that while great content can earn links on its own, promotion is important. Don’t forget to spread the word about what you’ve created.
Jeff offers a great tip here! If you have a piece that you want major influencers in your niche to see, contact them! It may seem scary, but it’s worthwhile to just put yourself out there. You never know who might be willing to share your work so it’s worth a shot!
Michael mentioned the importance of connecting with your audience. Building that relationship with them is key because they’ll be more likely to share your content when you do.
Don’t forget the hashtags, too! Use the hashtags you known your target market is using so they will be more likely to discover your work. It’s a simple way to reach new people.
Don’t fall for any of those bad or outdated SEO practices! Take Michael’s advice and ditch the robotic copy. Focus on writing great content and working your keywords in naturally. No keyword stuffing either because you don’t want Google to think you’re spam.
Julia offers a great point when she said you should think about your reader. Your reader comes first so make sure you’re providing them with valuable content they’ll love. When you do, they’ll keep coming back for more.
