Need content that converts?

Need prospects who engage with your written, video and/or audio media to take an action like responding to a CTA?

In other words, smash a button on your landing page, reply back to that sales email or hit subscribe on your podcast?

Outside of the dry (and boring) parameters of marketingspeak, what you really need when discussing content that converts is that you need …

HOT CONTENT

You need fetching and amorous content that gets hot and steamy with a prospect’s twitchy finger.

Is Pepé Le Pew Content That Converts?

Let’s change the arc here to non-problematic subject matter. Let’s discuss engineering. Let’s discuss digital tools you should be using to get content marketing that converts!

You are starting out or pivoting in your career in the drive to create content. You have heard or tried using fancy digital tools like Google Analytics or Semrush and, well, uh …

… things are way too complicated! You want to create content and improve your conversion rate, not nerd out as a pinch-hitting software engineer. You need effective and easy-to-use. Even better if it’s free or doesn’t cost a fortune.

Before we discuss three digital tools that an idiot or Dostoevsky could use, we would like to present the clickbait …

Content Marketing Case Study: How We Improved 40 Ranking Positions in 1 Week

Realtor John Garuti III wanted to target a new community called Verandah in Southwest Florida. He hired Content for Teeth for content marketing work in order to rank organically for keywords related to the community.

The Content with Teeth team improved a blog post titled Learn All About the Verandah Community in Fort Myers by 40 ranking positions for JG3 Homes in just ONE week.

Follow this step-by-step case study with us to find out how we hit that goal. Copy and paste the content strategy to ultimately boost conversions, increase engagement and, overall, boost your content marketing efforts.

Stupidly Easy Tool Content That Converts #1: Ubersuggest

How do you find things? You use certain words or phrases to indicate what you are looking for. In onlandia, these are called keywords. Finding the right keywords can help people find your content. Ubersuggest is a keyword research tool that isn’t overly complicated and overpriced. Here’s how to use it.

Step #1

Neophyte content marketers, head to Ubersuggest and find the Keyword tab from the panel on your left. Insert the keyword into the “Get a detailed keyword overview” box and hit SEARCH.

Step #2

Check the search volume, SEO difficulty, and CPC (cost per click of your keyword).

Step #3

Scroll down to examine other keyword ideas.

Step #4

We chose “the verandah fort Myers”. At first, we’ll look at the “SUGGESTIONS” tab.

Next, valient content marketers should click on the orange arrow next to your chosen keyword.

Click on “Search Results”.

Scroll down to see the websites that rank top for your keyword. You can see how many backlinks they have, the paid difficulty and the SEO difficulty.

In this case, examine the blog content of your competitors that you want to rank against.

If you move to the “RELATED” tab, you can see similar results for keywords that are related to the one you chose.

Under the “QUESTIONS” tab you can notice the questions that are being asked around that keyword.

Investigate different keywords and choose the keyword that matches the level of difficulty you can handle when creating content.

Regarding cost, Ubersuggest is great because it is useful and not overpriced. You can find a subscription level to match your budget or pay a one-time lifetime access cost to jettison annoying monthly charges.

Stupidly Easy Tool for Content That Converts #2: Surfer SEO

When creating content, Surfer SEO is a tool where you can optimize your content and get it to rank faster. Let’s take a look at how it works.

Step #1

Head to Surfer SEO and log into your account. Under tools, click on “Create” next to Content Editor.

Step #2

Whether it’s a blog post, landing pages or a web page, write down your title and keyword that you got from Ubersuggest. Next, examine the tools that you have.

On the panel to your right, you will see 3 different tabs:

• GUIDELINES: Shows content score (and details), content structure (number of words, headings, paragraphs, images), and terms you need to be using.
• OUTLINE: Contains the Outline Builder (Surfer AI-generated Titles (H1), Headings (H2), and Subheadings (H3-H6)) and Topics & Questions section.
• BRIEF: Contains Notes and links to Competitors.

Step #3

Hit the gear icon on the top left of the right panel to start customizing.

Now, you need to examine the top 10 competitor links and turn on the link that has a high content score and domain authority with a reasonable number of words that you are willing to write.

Little hint 1: Make sure the form of content you are creating and ranking against are compatible. In other words, if you are writing a blog post, you want to turn on blog posts too instead of web pages. Similarly, if you are creating a sales page, you need to avoid trying to rank against a blog post and choose web pages instead.

Little hint 2: You want to avoid ranking against industry behemoths such as Zillow and Airbnb, in our case. Remember to always make your goals attainable, this is not to say that you cannot surpass their ranking one day!

In our case study, we have chosen to proceed with ranks 1, 7, and 10 and clicked “Let’s go”.

 

Step #4

According to your selection of competitor sites, Surfer SEO will reveal the content guidelines or the ideal range of words, headings, paragraphs and images you need to target in order to compete against and even surpass the rank of competitor sites.

 

Step #5

You initially did keyword rsearch in Ubersuggest. Now check out the keywords (and their corresponding frequency) in the right panel under “Terms”. Make sure to include them when writing content and to respect the suggested range.

Surfer SEO also presents some headline suggestions in “Topic & Questions” in that “HEADINGS” tab that can improve your content score.

Step #6

Make use of  the”OUTLINE” tab to generate ideas and to make sure you talk about topics that will significantly improve your content score. This tab makes writing content less of a burden. Remember to not copy-paste content, but to recreate it by adding your own unique touch.

Step #7

Check out what your competitors are all about in the “BRIEF” tab under “Competitors”.

That’s it! You now have a “blueprint” to seduce Google.

Actionable Tricks

• Aim for a minimum content score of 65.
• Always start by writing content as a draft. Afterward, start adding/replacing with the keywords.
• Try to hit the target number of the top half of the keywords in the NLP section. You can also include the lower half of the keywords, but that won’t increase your score as much. Steer clear of keyword stuffing as Google seriously penalizes websites that do so.
• Keep your goals S.M.A.R.T: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

Stupidly Easy Tool for Content That Converts#3: Tweak Your Headline With Biz Title Generator

A great deal of effort spent creating content should be dedicated to crafting your headline. According to research cited by Neil Patel, 80% of the people who come across your post will never read beyond the headline. Only 20% will read the thing.

Why Should You Care?

Your headlines are responsible for your traffic. If your headlines suck, so will your traffic. If it summarizes everything the user is wishing to see right away, you won the battle. No one wants to waste their most valuable asset: their time. If your headline is worth it, they’ll go for it. Remember, it doesn’t end at the headline. Attractive headlines bring guests to your door. You have to make sure the welcome is warm afterward for them to stay and spend time in your digital home.

Step #1

Head to Tweak Your Biz.

Step #2

Type your topic in the box and pick whether it is a noun or a verb. Click SUBMIT

Step #3

Go over the results. They are categorized into Lists, Best, How To, Questions etc…

 

Pick one that is most relevant to your content and tweak it. Make sure to not lose your authenticity by copy-pasting the title as is. Now you can proceed to create content that ties back to your attention-grabbing headline.

Headlining 101: The 3C’s

• Clarity: Make sure the reader can understand all that your content is about by just reading the few words in the headline.
• Conciseness: Remember that there is a character length for headlines for different forms of copies (an email, a blog post, a landing page, etc…). Make sure you don’t exceed that length as you risk cutting off your headline.
• Credibility: You can sugarcoat your headline to make it as clickable as possible, but it is never okay to swindle people into clicking your headline. Avoid clickbaity titles like: “How to Gain 90000 Followers in 1 Hour” or the even more cringey “3 Stupidly Easy Tools to Create Content that Converts“.

BONUS: Tool #4: Yoast SEO Plugin

We’re not done! We have another low-cost and totally useful digital tool.

What is the Yoast SEO Plugin All About? How Is That Relevant to My Content Marketing?

We have previously mentioned how the headline can make or break your work.

The Yoast SEO plugin ensures your headline is optimal and that the character count is well in the required range.

You can start with a basic version of Yoast SEO for free! Now that you are done creating content, it’s time to optimize. Scroll down your draft where your plugin resides.

Just insert the keyphrase you formulated in Ubersuggest into the focus keyphrase box as shown below.

If you are creating content, this plugin offers you a range of different suggestions to make your page rank better. However, in this blog post we’ll focus on the headline improvement function. Yoast tells you whether:

• You have the exact match of the focus keyphrase that appears in the SEO title.
• Your focus keyphrase is at the beginning of your SEO title.
• SEO title width is optimal.

Ok… But Umm …?

You’ve read this far and I sense a disturbance in the force …

If you want attention-grabbing headlines and a shot at higher conversions and generating leads with your target audience, BUT you don’t want to cook AND do the dishes …

Find Someone Else to Do It

We at Content with Teeth create content and have oodles of experience as an agency specializing in copywriting and video production. Let us get your content marketing strategy over the goal line.

Call us at +1(888) 552-9235 or schedule a free consultation to get content that converts and gets down and dirty with Google.

Is content marketing dead in 2022?

Every week, you can search for an article declaring that content is over …

Why?

It’s too hard to reach an audience. Creators in all formats are abstaining. Social Media sites are narrowing intake. Ranking higher is getting increasingly difficult. And Search Engine Optimization (SEO) professionals can’t move the needle organically.

Big content marketers are reading the last rites and sounding the alarm about the field.

We’ll take a look at some of the content marketing trends over the next few years and explore whether or not it’s still a viable strategy. Spoiler alert: It is! Read on to find out why.

Too Many Channels With Nothing On

Content creation has never been easier.  An eight-year-old with a phone can record, edit and post something on the internet that will be competing with other low-cost, easy-to-produce content.

Gone are the days of major motion picture studios, TV networks and print Goliaths that monopolized distribution. Their content was force-fed to the audience. Today, everyone has a motion picture studio in the palm of their hand.

This present content glut was a given. You’d be an idiot not to see this trend. Content may be king, but it is overexposed.

What Is Content Marketing?

Marketers are like IT people and speak their own hard-to-understand language. Uh, like, what is content marketing?

Let’s explain the buzzword.

It is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive a profitable customer action.

When done right, content marketing has been proven to provide ROI far greater than many other traditional marketing channels.

Content Marketing Strategy Explained

Better content can increase traffic by 2,000%. Creating killer content marketing efforts requires more than just writing well-crafted words and publishing them online. To be truly effective, content needs to resonate with the target audience and stand out from the crowd.

A key prerequisite to a winning content marketing strategy is thorough research. You need to thoroughly understand your audience so that you can create engaging, relevant content tailored specifically to their needs and wants. In order to take your content strategy to the next level and create compelling, high-quality content that performs well across multiple platforms, start researching, refining, and optimizing the copy. The payoff will be worth it – in terms of both engagement and ROI. The content marketing industry is expected to grow by USD 417.85 billion from 2020 to 2025.

CONTENT MARKETING ISN’T DEAD, IT’S JUST HARDER!

Some digital marketing gods have declared that there is a glut of content and the big platforms (Google, Facebook, etc) are discouraging inbound content by reducing outbound links (social media) or making sure the plants in their own garden get all the water (Google prioritizing their own content).

Full podcast is here https://t.co/AaxVbP9UL8 where we cover a load of topics related to SEO's waning ability to drive competitive marketing advantage pic.twitter.com/glACvUIkTz

— Rand Fishkin (@randfish) October 28, 2021

SEO Veteran Rand Fishkin claims that the ‘’Golden age of SEO is gone.’’

He reminisced about the good old days when he used to work at Moz.

At that time, SEO was relatively low-competition. You could rank easily, and when you did rank, Google made sure to send people to your website, not keep them on Google.

But today, the situation is a whole lot different. You cannot rank number one by pointing to three anchor text phrases. Every keyword today has 10,000 competitors and SEO is much more complicated.

It’s not just marketers sounding the alarm, but governmental officials as well.

Last year, the Ohio Attorney General filed a lawsuit against Google, declaring the internet Goliath should be a public utility when it comes to search.

Google uses its dominance of internet search to steer Ohioans to Google’s own products–that’s discriminatory and anti-competitive,” Yost said. “When you own the railroad or the electric company or the cellphone tower, you have to treat everyone the same and give everybody access.

“Content is … the biggest challenge in 2022”

To steer back to digital marketing legends, Neil Patel echoes the same sentiment saying that ‘Content is going to be the biggest challenge in 2022.’

There are over 1 billion blogs on the internet and almost 1.7 billion websites. And when you think about it from a content perspective, roughly 7.5 million articles get published every day. Which comes out to 2.7 billion articles being published per year. So, the market is more saturated than it was ever before.

Nevertheless, this does not mean that the era of content marketing is over by any means. It just stresses that what’s going to give you an edge over your competitors is creating distinctive content.

Mind-Boggling Stats

According to a global survey conducted in 2020, 37% of marketers said their organization spent up to $10,000 on content marketing efforts that year and according to 2% of industry professionals, their content marketing budgets for 2020 range from $500k to 5 million dollars.

43% of marketers had an increase in their content marketing budget, and 66% believe it will climb even more in 2022. The following are the primary content priorities for 2022, 45% of businesses want their brand to be more famous, 37% aim to increase website traffic, 36%  want to generate leads with content marketing, and 23% strive to improve customer loyalty with their content marketing.

Top Content Marketing Trends

What are some of the content marketing trends that are flying under the radar in this rapidly changing landscape? Some experts believe that 2022 and on may bring about a resurgence of long-form blogs and white papers, as consumers seek more in-depth information online. Others believe that new formats such as augmented reality (AR) will gain even greater traction over the next few years, offering brands exciting new ways to connect with their customers. Some still swear by the effectiveness of interactive videos and video marketing in general.

Whatever the future holds, one thing is clear: creative content marketing is here to stay, no matter what changes come our way. And while some trends may slip through the cracks now and again, those who can stay ahead of the curve will continue to reap rich rewards in the years to come.

Native Content > External Content

Native content now has greater importance for awareness infiltration. Social media platforms are working to reduce the reach of any form of content that is not native.

Why?

By directly posting native content on social media instead of a link, users are glued in immediately, free of surfing to other sites. Therefore, Facebook and others don’t want to facilitate user jaunts to other sites. Such platforms also want users to spend as much time on them as possible.

Deservingly so, they want material for their platform. It’s not about links only. Any proprietary sign is also included.

For instance, your Instagram Reels won’t be effectively reached out to your audience if they have the TikTok watermark on them.

So, posting native content elicits more views and keeps Goliath happy. Moreover, native content messages cut through just as well as directing messages elsewhere. It might take more time to deploy this tactic but heightened ingenuity – and elbow grease – are in demand today.

Empathy is the New Search Engine Optimization

In strategic content marketing, algorithms dictate the engagement game. Are creators the game changers? Rather than scurrying to adopt new SEO schemes to conform to – or beat – the system, maybe the game-changers are the content creators.

The arcane system that fed SEO suits is crumbling. But not content. Consumption of content has never raged stronger. Instead of wallowing in this quagmire of overpopulation, there needs to be audience empathy, something that has been lost on the current, “woe is me” SEO pushers.

The Content Strategy Revolution

Content that solves problems of the audience, that is aware of the pain points of the prospects and strikes the bullseye with a solution will win the day. You can do on-page SEO and optimize a piece to the gills with SEO tactics, but if you don’t do 1990’s Bill Clinton and feel your audience’s pain, then you won’t do as well.

Ultimately, you can add value by being a problem solver, not a technocratic keyword stuffer who produces content with a “good score” but is nearly impossible to read because it is so convoluted with SEO tactics.

2022: The Year of Creative Content

In fact, recent research shows that robust content marketing programs are likely to take precedence over SEO by 2022, as businesses recognize its true value in driving revenue and engagement.

So smart marketers focus on creating engaging and interactive content that speaks directly to your ideal customers – and let the power of SEO help amplify the message!

Yet Still, Myopia Persists …

Medically defined as nearsightedness, we think myopia also exists in content marketing. It’s when content marketers fail to focus on the long-term content marketing goal and hop on the latest content marketing trends.

This leads to the ignoring valuable data and insight into the decision-making process. Marketers will end up overlooking consumer intent, user-friendliness and the greatest king –customer-centricity.

 

It’s just a ‘Bad Workman Quarrels With His Tools’ Strategy

Some people have noticed that usually these arguments are hauled out by practitioners of said dead art/strategy.

When someone in marketing says:

SEO is dead.
Content is dead.
LinkedIn is dead.
YouTube is dead.
Or some variation…

They’re usually just saying: “I tried and couldn’t make it work so let me impose my limitations on you as well.”

— Ross Simmonds (@TheCoolestCool) August 17, 2021

What Ross is saying if you can’t get players on base that doesn’t mean other teams can’t hit either.

SOLUTION: INSERT EUPHEMISM  FOR UNBORING CONTENT HERE

Per Neil Patel, you need to create content that “stands out” and eschew tried and true formulas.

We argued in an earlier blog post, that “creative content” is the difference-maker:

The problem is that “creative” is entirely subjective. You might find projectile vomit to be creative or appalling. We find it creative but we’re all different, right?

Create and Execute the Perfect Marketing Strategy

Whether you are creating a new product, building a business or establishing yourself as an influencer in your industry, originality and creativity are essential for standing out from the crowd.

At the same time, competition is fierce in content marketing and any real content strategy. With so many people trying to capture the attention of potential customers, it can be difficult to break through all the noise and reach your target audience. This is where creative marketing agency like Content with Teeth comes in with done-for-you marketing.

Stand Tall

So if you want to get ahead in content marketing in 2022, remember: when it comes to content marketing trends, the key is that you need to create something that is truly #outside the box – something different and non-normal – in order to stand out from the rest.

The only way to succeed online these days is by being authentic and unique; by tapping into your true passions and interests. Run away from cliques and the status quo.

In other words: cultivate your voice, set yourself apart from the competition and take your creative vision all the way to 11.

Bolder, Braver Content in a Sea of Mediocrity

Insert your fav business euphemism for content that stands out. Our term of choice is UnBoring Content. Far beyond the “different” cliche of “creative content” is an underlying tactic called contrast, absolving content of normalcy and striking it with a complexion completely foreign to its adversary.

Google anything and you will instantly be bombarded with the same message over and over. Expect companies that differentiate themselves with a non-routine branding strategy and unorthodox content marketing strategy to widen reach, appeal to customer needs, increase revenue and elevate brand recognition.

Content strategy is like a business strategy. Aim to follow a blue ocean strategy instead of a bloody, red ocean strategy. In other words, stop following what everyone else is doing. Become a pioneer.

Contrast: The New Marketing Mantra

Contrast” is not the same as “different”. When a word becomes a cliche, it loses its spike, swagger, sincerity and prestige. Contrast has impetus and won’t be a cliche for years. It is a new rally cry that can be adopted to effect change in marketing department messages.

Good content marketing strategy dictates that in order to succeed, something must have its own category. Contrast has that and it can be advice advocated as a fresh approach. And it will be the umbrella for tactical, creative change.  For instance, companies creating unique podcasts will enjoy growth.

CASE STUDY: EMAIL AUTOMATION FOR MACHINE TOOL SUPPLIER

We have a long-standing client who is a manufacturing supplier. They had an accessory that they were discounting and we suggested email automation in Mailchimp to generate interest among their target customer audience.

We created a blog post and promoted it with a mass email blast that used analogies in a colorful way to promote a machine tool accessory:

The email blast had 12k opens and only 20 unsubscribes.

We created automation in Mailchimp to reach out to contacts who opened the initial email blast.

Further automation was triggered by contacts who opened the previous email.

The automated emails had solid open rates. The click rate is down but only 1 of the 3 emails had buttons to click. The goal for these emails was for the prospect to reply back and we stripped out the buttons.

 

For all three automated emails, we didn’t “spam” people because we only had 11 total unsubscribes.

The campaign largely worked because the client reported they had several prospects express interest in retrofitting their legacy machines with the accessory that was on sale.

Looking at the numbers, the automation generated significant activity. For this client, quotes on accessories jumped in July 2021 (the month we ran the automation) compared to the previous July (2020) by 63.6%.

In short, by using email automation where the copy and design was useful and “UnBoring,” we were able to generate results for the client.

Let the Wizard of Words Be Your Differentiator

Have you seen or read everything that is recommended to you?

No. It’s impossible with the glut of binge-worthy books, movies, television shows, podcasts, video games …

In an age where the barriers to create are low, there’s a LOT out there. Content marketers can skirt the “Death of Content” dirge by“stand outing” and being exceptional problem solvers. Create useful content that is not a retread and boring.

Are you a business owner or CMO with questions about attracting customers with the help of experienced hand pressing the hot buttons on effective content marketing trends and sound content marketing strategies? We at Content with Teeth have decades of experience in copywriting, video production and other media. To learn more, call us at +1(888) 552-9235 or schedule a free consultation.