But you’ve done it. You’ve achieved something that the majority of business owners don’t – you have finished your book. 

Firstly, congratulations! Secondly, it’s completely understandable that by the time you hit publish, you are ready to relax and enjoy the spoils of your hard work. 

Yes, you’ve planned a spectacular launch that involves a flurry of PR and media interviews, but after that, there’s not that much to do, right? 

Right?

Ah, sadly, it doesn’t stop there…or at least it shouldn’t. 

Publishing a business book is an excellent core of work that you can repurpose into additional content that can extend your reach, increase your authority and get you more sales. 

So, we’re sharing the ultimate guide to repurposing your business book, including why and, more importantly, how you should do it. 

Why you should repurpose your book into further content

You’ve likely spent months or even years creating your masterpiece, formulating your ideas, structuring them and communicating them in the best way possible.

So, why would you now spend your time repurposing that book into further content?

Well, there are a good few reasons that we’d suggest using the content in your book to create more content (yup, we just love content here at Jammy). 

When you repurpose your business book, you help your potential readers learn about your unique methodology and ideas. You’ve already spent months or years putting your experiences, knowledge and learnings into something easy to understand, and you want to maximise that time. 

Helps you sell your other products and services

Remember, a business book is not like a fiction book – if you reveal the story in a fiction book, you’ve ruined the surprise! A business book is different because (typically) your book isn’t the only thing you sell – unless you’re perhaps Jay Baer or Seth Godin. So the more people that engage with your content, whether that be through your book, blog, social media or video, the more of your other core products and services you will sell. 

Ultimately, a business book is an amazing way to raise your profile and build brand awareness. And while it can be an income stream of its own, it can also be an amazing lead magnet to help you land higher-profile clients. 

So, you want to ensure that you’re making the most of the content and creating as many high-quality opportunities for people to come across it as possible. 

But what if people don’t buy the book because they’ve read the content?

It’s always the same argument!

Why would someone pay for something that you are giving away for free?

We don’t only hear this about books, people have been asking us the same thing about blogs for years. 

So let’s get that out the way first…

Content repurposing is about recycling and reusing the elements of your existing content to further its reach, and it’s the same when you are repurposing a business book. 

It’s not a case of sticking your entire book up on the internet for everyone to read for free. It’s about chopping it up, reworking it for a specific platform and presenting little pieces at the right time to potential readers. 

In fact, more than that, repurposing your book and showcasing how valuable your content is will expand its reach and entice people to buy the book. People will also pay for the ease of having everything in one place, especially if you’ve proven the value in additional content. 

There are tonnes of examples below from authors who have repurposed their content and still see fantastic sales. In fact, we can’t think of a single successful business book owner who hasn’t repurposed the content in some shape or form.

Think of someone like Steven Bartlett, he regularly shares learning and snippets from his book Happy Sexy Millionaire on his podcast. 

Does that mean no one who listens to his podcast buys his book?

No! Quite the opposite. And you don’t have to have a huge, worldwide platform to take advantage of this same strategy. 

But the question is, how can you repurpose your business book? (you know we like to give you practical advice).

1. Repurpose your business book into blog posts

The first thing that you can do is to turn the key points from your book into individual blog posts. 

It makes sense if you think about it! 

Blogging is all about answering your customer’s questions and showcasing your expertise. Not only can you use written content to break down some of the key components or methodologies in your book, but you can also answer some of the questions about why people should buy your book and integrate it directly into your sales process (as we did in this blog). 

An example of repurposing your book into a blog post

When it comes to examples, the OG of content marketing, Marcus Sheridan, is the master at this. He takes the key methodology from his book, They Ask, You Answer and integrates it into multiple blog posts. This article actually breaks down how to get started with They Ask, You Answer, and breaks down what the first six months look like. 

That might seem mad to some people, as arguably you could read a selection of these articles, and some others on the website, and successfully implement TAYA without ever having to read the book. But the chances are that these articles will pique your interest encouraging you to buy the book and get stuck into the learnings in a more in-depth format ie. the book. 

Get more rankings and traffic when you repurpose to blog posts

A well-written article (or articles) will be teaming with keywords, and as part of a larger SEO strategy, it can help you gain additional organic traffic to your website – expanding your audience and potential customers. This is especially important if you don’t have a huge existing audience and are relying on people finding you organically. 

In addition, you can promote your book within the blog post, in a space where you know people will be interested in the concepts and methodology you are exploring in the book. And it’s a space where you can promote the book and remind people to purchase without being too sales-y. 

2. Repurpose your book into video

If you fancy yourself the next Steven Spielberg, then you can turn the camera on yourself and turn key aspects of your book into videos. 

Okay! It definitely doesn’t have to be the next Jurassic Park. Simple informative videos can be extremely successful in boosting your authority and making you more relatable and trustworthy to the reader. 

Remember, you have already done so much hard work by making sense of everything you know and presenting it in an easy-to-understand way – so get more for your time and create a video to spread your message. 

An example of repurposing your book into a video

Looking for some examples of people who use video really well to promote the concepts and methodologies in their books?

Simon Sinek has one of the most popular business books of all time, yet he still breaks down the concepts into YouTube shorts (and has an entire TED on the same topic). If he can create videos and do prolific talks on the topic of his book while still making sales, then so can you. 

Another example is entrepreneur Alex Hormozi, who breaks down his favourite chapter from his book – one that he thinks is the most fundamental to success. Again, yes, people could take their learnings from this short video and utilise them in their own marketing. But the chances are if it piques their interest, they are going to watch more videos or consume more content and hopefully go on to buy the book. 

Again, creating videos alongside a strong SEO strategy can help you increase the organic traffic to your website and introduce your new business book to new audiences. 

Short-form content (under sixty seconds) for YouTube shorts, Instagram reels or TikTok work incredibly well for this. Remember, YouTube and TikTok are search engines! In fact, for the first time ever, TikTok has overtaken Google’s 15-year streak as the world’s biggest search engine. 

3. Repurpose into a quiz

Who doesn’t love a quiz?

We’re not talking about finding out what Harry Potter house you would be in (Ravenclaw, FYI)—but using quizzes in a fun and interactive way to learn more about potential customers and understand their pain points. 

It allows you to test someone’s knowledge and consolidate the learning about whatever you teach in your business book. 

Plus, using software like ScoreApp allows you to present an action plan based on the answers (and email it to them in a practical and actionable PDF format). This also has the added bonus of giving you access to their email, which means you no longer have to rely on making that sale directly from your content. You can nurture the relationship and educate them via email before encouraging them to buy the book (or other products or services).

An example of repurposing your book into a quiz

A brilliant example of this is Phil Calvert, who has a quiz, based on their best-selling book on embracing AI as financial advisers. The quiz helps users understand if their Financial Planning business is ready to embrace and implement AI in their practice – giving them a personalised AI IQ score along with tips on how to improve it. It’s the perfect way to educate professionals on their readiness for AI and offer them ways to improve (one of which is buying the book). 

We love this video from Phil Calvert on why he uses a quiz to help repurpose the content from his book. 

4. Repurpose into podcast scripts

Podcasts continue to grow in popularity, with 464.7 million podcast listeners globally in 2023. It’s a great way to take the key principles of your book and tailor them in a way that makes them accessible to your niche (or not-so-niche) audience. 

Listening to podcasts can be integrated into users’ lives, no matter what they are doing – whether they are cleaning, working or driving. 

Breaking down your business book into a podcast can allow you to build even stronger relationships with your book readers, and consistently remind people about your book without being sales-y. It also offers you the opportunity to get your book in front of a new audience, especially if you have guests that could increase your reach. 

Plus, modern podcasts are often recorded and then syndicated across all the normal podcast platforms so they can be viewed as well as listened to. This offers an opportunity to visually promote your book (as well as via audio).

An example of repurposing your book into a podcast

Someone who does this amazingly is Steven Bartlett on his podcast Diary of a CEO, to promote his book of the same name. Not only does he use his entire podcast as a platform to promote his ethos and interview specialists which are referenced in his latest book. But he also has some podcasts where he talks specifically about some of the key points that come up in his book.

Although a lot of what is covered in the book will have been mentioned on the podcasts, he’s confident that if people like the podcast, they’ll love the book. 

5. Repurpose into a webinar or masterclass

Does your business book have a methodology that would benefit from on-demand, practical training?

If so, then a webinar or masterclass could be the perfect way to repurpose the content from your business book.

A webinar will usually take place over about an hour, so there’s no way you can cover the entire book. But it does allow you to cover the key points or go into depth on a specific methodology and then sell the book at the end as a deeper dive into everything you’ve talked about. 

Plus, a webinar is a great way to get feedback and allow people to ask questions, which helps to build stronger relationships. 

And one thing that we love is that you can capture leads, so you can send follow-ups to sell your business book or additional services. 

An example of repurposing your book into a podcast

One person who does this is Daniel Priestley, who runs a KPI web class based on his book Key Person of Influence book. 

6. Repurpose into checklists or worksheets

We love a content add-on that provides additional practical value, and a checklist or a worksheet does just that. 

It’s a great way to make your book more actionable, especially if it can be used as people are reading your book. And it leads people by the hand, motivating them to implement your teachings and not just read about them. 

And this is ultimately what you want. You want people to action your book and put your teachings into practice. Not only will it help you with positive reviews, but it will help to potentially sell further products and services. 

An example of repurposing your book into a checklist or workbook

This is something that Bryony Thoms does with her companion workbooks that have been designed to be used alongside her book Watertight Thinking. And as a little bit of a throwback, she also has a quiz, and other resources on her website that help you figure out if you have the marketing foundations to support a healthy sales flow. 

7. Repurpose into a course or certification

Everyone loves a certification to test and showcase their skills, and repurposing your business book into a course or certification is a great way to ensure that your methodologies are being practically applied. 

You can repurpose your book into an in-depth course that helps people really dig into and apply what you teach in their own circumstances.

This would usually be sold as an upsell, which increases profit and offers cross-selling opportunities (some people might find you through the book, others the course). 

Plus, it makes sense, especially if you have a unique methodology that people can apply in their business. And it’s a low-cost introduction to buying future products and services. 

An example of repurposing your book into a course 

Building a Story Brand is one of the masters when it comes to this, with an online accreditation to become ‘certified’. They also have some checklists and worksheets as additional add-ons to add value to the course and book. 

Another is a self-help guide for copywriters by Dan Nelken which started as a book and was turned into an online course. The course touches on the same concepts but adds a lot more depth to the topics. 

Ready to repurpose your business book?

Writing a book can be a relentless, tiring, yet thoroughly rewarding experience. And while many people quit promoting once they’ve hit publish, now is the time to make the most of the hard work you’ve already put in and repurpose. 

There are multiple ways to repurpose your content, and while we’d recommend you do them all if you can – doing any is a good start. 

Generally speaking, it gives you the opportunity to reach more people, introduce them to your expertise and even has the potential for upsells. 

If you’d like to know more about how we can repurpose your business book into further content (such as blog posts or videos) get in touch with us just here. 

The post The Ultimate Guide to Repurposing Your Business Book appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

1. SaaS content isn’t good enough
It’s thin, generic content created solely for ranking on Google. It’s not creative or different, and although it may get rankings and traffic, users bounce off the page pretty quick!

2. There’s only one goal: to get rankings and traffic
Of course, content should increase a SaaS company’s rankings and traffic, but content should also help you hit other business goals, such as increasing sign-ups, improving retention, or attracting enterprise clients. This needs an entirely different content marketing approach – but if it’s done well, it can increase your MRR! 

Ultimately, investing in content should increase your monthly recurring revenue and give you a good return on investment – and that takes more than just creating content that ranks for any old keywords. 

Because if you’re increasing your website traffic but not your sales, then what’s the point? 

How did we help increase paying customers by 187% for a SaaS Client? 

Through our content marketing strategy, we helped increase ScoreApp’s paying customers by 187%. 

This was because we created a content strategy based on their goals. So yes, part of that was increasing rankings and website traffic, and other parts are focused on increasing conversions and customer retention. 

What business goal are you focused on? 

This blog post breaks down the EXACT content you can create to help you achieve a specific business goal. 

Content can actually help you do the following: 

Focus on the most pressing goals first!

Increasing traffic and rankings is only part of what good content can do for your SaaS business. 

So, start with your most pressing goals from the list above, and work your way backwards to identify the right types of SaaS content to get there. 

Luckily, we’ve already done the hard work for you! We’ve outlined how to achieve each goal below and precisely the kind of content you need to create, too! 

Goal 1: Blog content to help SaaS businesses get found on search engines

Your target audience is already out there googling questions about their pain points.

So, they’ll find you when you answer them (and optimise your blog posts for those keywords). If you don’t? They’ll find your competitors instead! 

1. How-to articles and tutorials

Pretty self-explanatory, right? These blog posts teach your audience how to accomplish a specific task. 

In most cases, your target prospects are googling them because they’ve encountered some kind of problem – and are now stuck. 

These SaaS blog posts are especially relevant for top-of-the-funnel prospects: those who are still trying to figure out what’s causing their pain point and how to take the first steps to fix it.

But if you make them more specific (e.g. “How to run a webinar on Zoom“ rather than just “How to run a webinar”), you can target prospects with more awareness, too. Once again, it all depends on your goals!

It’s worth noting that top-of-the-funnel articles like this are typically the most difficult to rank (as they have a LOT of competition), so we’d recommend doing some in-depth keyword research to figure out the content gaps out there and what you could realistically rank for. 

It’s certainly possible – but only with the right amount of prep! 

Examples of SaaS Content:

• Writing SEO Articles with Semrush: The 4-Step Guide – notice how this is about their own product? The people reading this will much more likely convert to customers
• How to Use a CRM: The Ultimate Guide
• How to make a website with Canva

2. X vs. Y articles 

Once they get closer to the bottom of the sales funnel, your prospects know what type of SaaS product they need. Now, they’re comparing different options to find the perfect one for them. 

So, make their life easier with comparison articles (i.e. “you vs. one of your competitors”).

Don’t be biased, though! I know it’s tempting to always say that your SaaS product is better, but this would backfire. You’d either:

• lose your audience’s trust
• end up selling to customers who aren’t the right fit (have fun dealing with complaints and refunds!)

Instead, create objective overviews that showcase who each software is – and isn’t – for.

Examples of SaaS content: 

• Asana vs. monday.com: which is best for your team?
• LeadQuizzes vs ScoreApp Quizzes – which is the best quiz software for you?
• Make vs Zapier: How Are We Different?

3. Review articles

Just like comparisons, these SaaS blog posts are for prospects who aaaaaaaaaaaalmost know what they want. The superpower of review articles, though? They can either confirm your audience’s hunch or…. flip their world upside down!

So, create (*holds up a megaphone*) OBJECTIVE reviews of both your own SaaS tool and your top competitors.

To avoid coming across as biased, you can also back up your claims with screenshots and user-generated content, like reviews and testimonials.

But still, whenever you identify a competitor’s weakness that you solve with your own software… well, it’d be silly not to clarify that!

Oh, and by the way, you can also review tools that aren’t direct competitors but, on the contrary, would complement your own! Just make sure that’s clear in the article.

Examples of SaaS content:

• Grammarly Review: A Writer’s Best Friend?
• Zoho CRM Review 2023: Features, Pros & Cons
• Dropbox Review 2023 [Features, Pricing, Security & More] 

4. ‘Alternatives to’ articles

Some of your target customers have already tried (or at the very least, ‘looked into’) one of your competitor’s SaaS tools. But they’re now realising it doesn’t match their preferences, budget or goals. 

Basically, they’re back at the drawing board (=Google). Except they’re now using keywords like ‘best [competitor name] alternatives.’

So, plan some strategic blog posts around them! You can list a few different names (including your own, duh), detail their pros and cons, and clarify who they are/aren’t for.

Examples of SaaS Content:

• 9 Interact Quiz Alternatives: Pros, Cons & How to Choose
• 8 of the best Mailchimp alternatives in 2023 (free and paid options) 
• 19 Free Photoshop Alternatives W/ Similar Features

Goal 2: Getting customers signed up for a free trial or ‘Freemium’ version of your SaaS product 

Many SaaS purchases start with a free trial or a ‘freemium’ version (i.e. the basic level of the product you can use for free. 

Your blog can convert traffic into free trial sign-ups or freemium members, with the aim that they later turn into paid subscribers. 

You might think that a free trial is easy to convert – after all, it’s free! What is there to lose? But you’re still asking people to dedicate time to figure out a new tool. So there’s still some resistance there. 

In fact, research shows that only 8.5% of organic traffic converts into free trials (although it’s higher for organic traffic than it is with paid ads). 

So your trick is to increase this as much as possible. 

You do that by creating content where that trial would be a logical next step. Here are the best SaaS blog posts to do that…

1. ‘How to find the right [type of SaaS product]’

Some of your prospects have already figured out what type of product they need. But as for identifying the right one for them? They’re still not sure. 

So, to get them out of their ‘overwhelm mode’ (and onto your website), write blog posts that guide them through this consideration.

But once again, be objective! You probably created your SaaS product with a very specific audience, problem and/or goal in mind. That means it won’t be for eVeRyOnE. 

So, make sure your blog posts reflect this – and direct the right prospects to your trial.

Example of SaaS content:

• How to choose email marketing software
• How to Choose the Right CRM Software for Your Business
• How to Choose the Right Accounting Software for Your Business

2. Buyer’s guides

Much like the previous example, this type of SaaS blog post aims to help your audience find the right product for them.

Buying guides tend to be more in-depth and have a stronger focus on, you know… TAKING ACTION!

Psst: if you want to get more trials for your Enterprise plan, consider gating your buyer’s guides. That way, those large companies will still gain access to your juicy insights. And you? To the email address or phone number of their key players. A win-win!

Examples of SaaS buyer’s guides:

• Buying Guide: Operations Management Software
• The eDiscovery Processing Software Buying Guide
• The Ultimate CRM Buyer’s Guide

3. Industry reports

Sure, they’ll take a bit (*cough cough* A LOT) longer to put together, and you’ll need to conduct your own research. For instance, at Jammy Digital, we used a quiz to gather exclusive insights and compiled them into a report on Entrepreneur Mental Health.

But trust us, it’ll be worth it. Industry reports are the kinds of SaaS blog posts that get you more trial sign-ups and position you as a thought leader too.

So, that’s why you don’t want to give them away to every Tom, Dick and Harry. Instead, tease some stats in the actual blog post – but ask for an email address to get the full report.

Examples of SaaS industry reports 

• The Entrepreneur Mental Health Report 2023 (okay so this is ours, but you get the picture )
• Accounting & bookkeeping industry performance report
• e-Learning Industry Report

4. ‘Why’ content 

Even when they’re pretty serious about (potentially) choosing your product, most prospects still have plenty of questions and objections.

THESE are the types of SaaS blog posts that will answer them for you!

Think of articles like “Why we’re more expensive than [competitor].”

We can feel your reluctance from here: “Lyndsay and Martin, are you okay? I can’t do that! I’d put people off.”

But we create this kind of content regularly (even when we start hyperventilating before pressing ‘post’):

• You do need to put some people off – Hint hint: those who wouldn’t be the right fit for your SaaS product
• These articles can actually get you more sign-ups from the right audience – After all, 85% of consumers are more likely to support brands they see as honest. 

So, answer those uncomfortable WHYs, too.

Example of ‘why’ content for SaaS:

• Why Are We Raising Our Prices For Our SEO and Content Management Service?
• Freemium model for SaaS: why we don’t have it! 
• 10 Reasons Why You Don’t Need a CRM

Goal 3: Get someone onto a paid plan after their free trial 

So, you got more trial sign-ups (*virtual high five*). That doesn’t mean you should stop creating SaaS blog posts for these customers.

Don’t get us wrong: some people will switch to a paid plan at the end of the free trial. Smoothly and spontaneously.

Some others might consider it – but they still have doubts or reservations.

So, answer their questions, show them exactly what the next step should be, and remind them of WHY they should go for it.

Essentially, create ‘onboarding content’ that helps your customer understand your SaaS as much as possible and see the benefits of using it. 

1. ‘How to set up [your product name]’

Let’s face it: not everyone is good with tech!

And even though you think your SaaS product is easy-peasy, it might not be that lemon-squeezy for some customers. 

So, offer them an additional helping hand: write simple tutorials on how to get started, step-by-step.

Examples:

• How to Set Up HubSpot CRM in 5 Days
• Getting started with Xero
• Setting Up Your Chart of Accounts

2. FAQs about your SaaS product

Do your sales and customer service teams get the same questions ALL. THE. TIME?

You can easily make their stress levels lower and your conversions higher: just answer those questions in one place. Keep a working web page of FAQ that even your customer service team could update (they’re the ones who know the answers to these questions the best!)

You can also create separate SaaS blog posts to expand on some of them individually. FYI, this is FAB for search engine rankings, too! 

But have a clear FAQ that answers questions, and if you have an article or video that goes into more depth on the answer, then link to that, too.  It’ll be a HUGE help for your audience.

Examples:

• Teaching on Udemy: Frequently Asked Questions
• Asana Frequently Asked Questions
• SEMRush – Popular Articles and FAQs

3. Case studies

Case studies are excellent for:

• bottom-of-the-funnel prospects (those who’re SO close to saying “I choose you,” Pokémon-style)
• anyone who’s already gone through the free trial and now needs a final nudge 

So, instead of just telling them how much of a difference your SaaS tool will make… SHOW IT to them!

Share case studies of how another company generated X results with your product. 

And to really trigger their FOMO, be specific. Use both clear examples and client input (like testimonials).

Examples:

• How Apollo Used Chili Piper to Increase Revenue by 300%
• How ClearPivot Saves 40 Hours On Client Reporting Every Month (& How That Improves Performance)
• Drift Uses Gong’s to Increase Sales Productivity “GOLDMINE OF DATA” to Increase Sales Productivity
• How we helped increase customers by 187% for ScoreApp – okay, this is ours, but it would be rude not to share it, right?!

4. ‘How to get the most out of [your SaaS product]’

People are so busy, with a lot on their minds. So they may have signed up to your SaaS with great intentions of getting stuck in, but then they lose interest and get distracted. 

So, some of them will sign up for your free trial BUT:

• Forget to use it
• Only look at it briefly (and end up missing out on the juiciest bits)

That’s why you need a magic wand from Ollivander’s to turn more free trials into paid customers. 

Only joking. What you actually need is to create content on how to get the very best out of your SaaS software.

Basically, highlight its features and benefits and show your customers what difference they’ll make for them.

Examples: 

• How to get the most out of Zapier workflows for your team
• Save more time with these Office tips: sharing
• Get the Most Out of HubSpot: Our Top 20 Tips & Tricks!

Goal 4: Helping new customers transfer from your competitor to your software

Some people choose to go with your competitor over you (a bit annoying, but okay.) 

But some of those people might find that your competitor’s product just isn’t working for them. 

Or perhaps you know that your product is better suited to what they need – maybe you can save them more time and money or offer better features. 

You can use content to get them to move over from your competitor to you – but this does take some education.

We’re not just talking about a monetary cost here; there’s a huge pain in the arse cost! Because your customer has to spend their time transferring to you – and even if they know your product is better suited, getting someone to do that is tricky. 

It’s why companies like ActiveCampaign offer a free migration service for new customers (a fantastic idea!)

So, yes, it’s tough. But with the right educational, honest content, you can get people to transfer from your competitor to you. 

Here are some ideas to help you…

1. ‘How to/how long does it take to switch from [competitor name] to [your name]’

The biggest concerns when switching SaaS tools? Time and difficulty. 

If they don’t know what to expect from you, some prospects will assume the worst (=that the transition would be too time-consuming and difficult). And, you know… give up without even trying.

Instead, write SaaS blog posts or create video content that walks them through this switchover and tell them exactly how long it’ll take.

Examples:

• How to switch from Mailchimp to MailerLite
• How Fast Is To Switch CRM’s?
• Moving from WordPress to Squarespace

2. ‘Is it really worth moving from [competitor name] to [your name]?’

It’s becoming the mantra of this article, but once again: be objective!

Switching SaaS products:

• will be worth it for some users and in some specific instances (if so, then talk about that)
• but also talk about who it is NOT right for (so, be honest. After all, you don’t want to mislead wrong-fit customers… and then deal with refund requests, do you?)

Examples: 

• Trello vs. Jira: Which to choose (and how to use them together)
• Apple Mail vs. Gmail: Is It Worth Switching to Mail After Its iOS 16 Update?
• Why should you switch to Websand from Mailchimp?

3. ‘How do we support your moving from [competitor name] to [your name]?’

It doesn’t matter if it’s to the other side of a stream, a rickety escalator or… a different SaaS tool: any jump feels less scary if you know there’s a helping hand on the other side (“You jump, I jump,” as Rose and Jack would say).

So, show your prospects that, when they switch to your software, you’ll be there to catch them.

Examples:

• Moving from Weebly or Wix to Squarespace
• From One IT Buyer to Another: Tips for Companies Switching CRMs
• Ready to switch from Salesforce?

Goal 5: Make your customers successful by using your SaaS

You might have been led to believe that getting new sign-ups is the end goal. But to reduce churn, you should create content that assists your current users too. 

So, here’s how blogging for your SaaS tool can turn existing customers into faithful FANS.

1. ‘So, you’ve successfully set up [your name], now what?’

Your customers have signed up for your tool, and now they’re met with a new interface they know next-to-nothing about. Some of them will start to feel a little (=very) overwhelmed.

After all, nobody wants to waste HOURS trying to figure it all out on their own, jumping from one help forum to the next.

So, bring all the next steps in one place!

Examples:

• Getting Started with Freshdesk
• The Zapier quick-start guide
• Getting started with Zendesk Suite – Introduction

2. Learning more tricks

Ever thought that a popular film was over-hyped because you just didn’t get it? But then someone mentioned, “Oh, it all clicked together with the post-credit scene,” and you were like, “Wait, there was a post-credit scene?!”

You DON’T want that to happen to your SaaS customers!

So, create blog posts that help them unlock all the best features or save even more time. For instance, you could share these tricks in a round-up article or go more in-depth through separate ones.

Examples:

• Learn Trello’s top tips and tricks
• Guides – Sharpen your skills and explore new ways to use Notion
• 4 HubSpot Workaround Hacks to Speed Up Your Process

3. How-to articles to teach customers how to be successful

Can your software be used by different audience segments? Perhaps in different ways, too?

Then, create more personalised tutorial-style articles for each of them. Show them what they can actually achieve when they use your tool strategically!

One of ScoreApp’s most shared articles in their customer support Facebook group is 29 Ways to Launch Your Quiz – a simple yet hugely effective article that helps users once they’ve set up their quiz!

Examples:

• How Event Organisers Can Use Quizzes to Deliver the Most Amazing Events
• How Marketing Teams Can Use Savio to Optimize Content and Drive Growth 
• How accounting firms can use CRM software to drive business growth

4. Templates to make your customers’ lives easier 

We bet your software is already saving them time and headaches. But maybe some templates can make even MORE of a difference?

Then, when blogging for your SaaS company, draw attention to them. For instance, you could round them up by highlighting the best templates for each segment or goal.

Examples:

• 5 Notion templates to help you achieve your fitness goals
• How to write an email sequence for your quiz (with templates) 
• 28 Best ClickUp Templates To Help Your Team Work Smarter 

Goal 6: Attract Enterprise customers (i.e. the big players!)

Even though they require longer sales cycles, these clients bring you the most moolah.

So understandably you want more of them. But, as you probably already know, they tend to be different from your average user. 

Attracting Enterprise clients needs a different approach to content marketing. They’re unlikely to sign up to a free trial straight away. You may need gated content, a solid email nurture sequence, webinar and individual sales calls with larger clients to walk them through your content. 

Ultimately, for Enterprise clients, you’re looking at creating sales enablement content – content that helps your potential clients make a buying decision and supports your sales teams in selling your SaaS. 

Here are some ideas to help you…

1. Industry reports as lead magnets 

We talked about these reports before because they also help you ‘sell’ more free trials. 

Think about it, though. Who’s more likely to download and read a long report: a freelancer or someone behind a big company?

Yep, the latter.

So, write a blog post that teases your report’s key points and stats but treats the actual document as a proper lead magnet.

That way, your sales team will get to contact the decision-makers who downloaded it! 

The results of these reports supports your sales copy and messaging – it backs up your argument. 

Examples:

• Hubspot – The State of Marketing Report 
• Adobe – Digital Trends 2023 Report 
• Grammarly – The State of Business Communication

2. Original research that supports investment in your SaaS

These types of SaaS blog posts are fabulous for grabbing the attention of the big players. Why?

• They prove you KNOW what you’re talking about – unlike those competitors who are regurgitating the same info as everyone else
• They show them the difference your software will make, with concrete examples

So, share relevant and original research – and tie it back to your product. 

Examples:

• Email Marketing Statistics and Benchmarks by Industry
• The Top Marketing Trends of 2023 & How They’ve Changed Since 2022
• 2023 Translation Industry Trends and Stats

3. ‘What is our Enterprise plan, and is it right for you?’ 

Sometimes, the simplest solutions really are the most effective.

You want to get more people onto your Enterprise plan? Talk about it more!

And most importantly, show these big companies exactly how it’ll benefit them. 

Examples:

• Govalo Pricing Plans: What’s included with Premium and Enterprise?
• What is an Enterprise plan?
• Cloudflare Enterprise Plan Overview

4. Use cases

No, they’re not exactly the same as ‘case studies.’ 

Instead, these additional SaaS blog posts will cover how your software can be used:

• By one of your audience segments (e.g. marketing agencies, multinational companies, etc.) 
• To overcome a specific problem or reach a goal (e.g. “How [segment] can use [type of SaaS product] to increase their sales by 50%”)

You want to attract more Enterprise customers, right? Then focus on ‘use cases’ that’d make their key decision-makers think, “OMG, was this written about me?!” 

(Just… not in a creepy way).

Examples of SaaS Use Cases:

• How Marketing Agencies Can Use Webinars to Generate Leads
• How startups can use data to grow smarter
• How growing businesses can leverage loyalty for growth

Goal 7: Getting affiliates

There’s a difference between ‘regular customers’ and ‘faithful fans’. 

A benefit of attracting the latter is… they can even do the selling for you! As long as you promote your affiliate scheme and make their life easier, at least.

So, blogging for your SaaS company will also turn some customers into your best salespeople.

1. ‘How does our affiliate scheme work?’

Once again, the simplest ideas are often the smartest. 

To help more people find out about your affiliate scheme (and sign up for it), blog about it more.

Walk your customers through it, and show them how it’ll benefit them.

Examples of affiliate promotion for SaaS:

• About the Shopify Affiliate Program
• How can I become a Pipedrive affiliate or partner?
• Moosend affiliate program FAQ

2. Content that makes it easier to be an affiliate

Some customers might be intrigued by your affiliate programme. But if promoting your brand sounds like ‘effort’? They might go, “Thank you, but no, thank you.”

Instead, make the whole process as smooth as that first coffee of the day. 

Create resources they can use (like email swipe files, promotional images and social media post templates) and… yep, blog about them, too.

Examples:

• 7+ Best Affiliate Outreach Email Templates & Examples
• Teachery – Affiliate Hub Template Kit
• Pipeline – Promotional Materials

We can create all that stand-out content for your SaaS company blog

Oof, that was a LONG list! But by now, you should be crystal-clear on what to blog about to reach those different goals.

Does it sound like a lot of work? We’re not going to lie: it is. 

But it’s the kind of work we LOVE doing (and happen to be pretty well known for).

So, as long as you’re happy to share your expertise during our onboarding process, we can keep blogging for your SaaS business. Get in touch, and let’s turn your blog into a lead-generating machine.

The post Content Marketing for SaaS: 25 Types of Blog Content to Increase MRR (with examples!)  appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

It’s hard to attract the right people to your business – and not getting the right employees can have a detrimental effect on your business growth, which is something you want to avoid at all costs.

So, how can great content help to get the best employees to apply to your upcoming vacancies? 

Get noticed by the best candidates in a challenging job market 

According to a recent survey by Monster, in 2023 51% of UK recruiters claim finding candidates with the necessary skills is the most significant challenge they face. 

So when finding great people is difficult, you need to do everything in your power to stand out and make applying to work with you attractive. 

If you can get your brand values and company culture across in your content marketing, you’re one step closer to attracting the right employees. It won’t reduce the HR side of hiring new employees but it will make your candidate pool stronger. 

Why? Because people remember good content. And bad content (or a lack of it altogether) can have a negative impact… As it’s harder to get behind a company you don’t know anything about or dislike their approach. 

Get into the head of the modern job seeker

Consider this… Lots of people in today’s world care about social, economic, environmental, and political issues when looking for an employer. And they can take their pick with the current candidate shortage. Research by Gartner shows that 65% of employees want to work for organisations with a strong social and environmental conscience.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, people are looking for good company culture, flexible working, and well-rounded HR policies. Work well-being is considered more than ever before… So people want to know what you’re doing to support employees. 

88% of employees believe it’s no longer acceptable for companies to make money at the expense of society at large. And nearly 70% of employees say they wouldn’t work for a company without a strong purpose. 

All this means you have an opportunity to appeal to the best candidates by telling people you care about these things. Shouting about it not only attracts new employees but also helps current employees to be aware of what you’re doing for the greater good. 

So as long as it’s not all talk, there’s no downside to sharing your values or purpose through online content! 

Attract top talent to your company with content marketing

Earlier this year at Jammy Digital, we put a job advert out for a Content Manager. The response was overwhelming with applicants and the person who got the job (who’s also the very person writing this blog post) applied because they’d seen our content. 

POV: How did content attract me to the role of Content Manager? 

When I saw a LinkedIn notification saying Jammy Digital was hiring, even though I wasn’t specifically on the job hunt, I couldn’t help but look… and after only a few moments, I decided to put an application in.

So, why was applying for the role of content manager a no-brainer?

Jammy Digital was already on my radar. I’d attended webinars hosted by Martin and Lyndsay, I’d been on their mailing list, and I’d even filled out their recent survey about mental health in entrepreneurs. 

I liked everything I saw. From reading their content and being involved in their other events, I knew they ran their business in a way I truly valued… with kindness and honesty. And they seemed like great people (which, by the way, they are!).

Many marketing companies out there are cut-throat and don’t care about people’s well-being. I’ve experienced it myself as a freelancer and heard 101 horror stories. But not Jammy Digital – Martin explains in the Content Fortress book introduction the reason they started this version of their business was to protect their mental health, not be overloaded, and to have their business support a happy lifestyle. This makes them stand out in a crowded industry. 

So when I saw the job advert before meeting them ‘officially’, I felt like I already understood what they were about… and the rest is history!

Receive more tailored cover letters and relevant applications

Last month, we’ve also advertised for a Content Writer position. Many of the applicants specifically mentioned that they enjoyed and related to Jammy Digital’s content, which spurred them to apply…

We had messages that said this like, ‘Your values resonate with mine, and I know you’d be fantastic to work with‘ or ‘I’ve been a fan of yours for ages and LOVE how you do business!‘

This really does go to show your content can work wonders for hiring amazing people, as the candidate pool for this position was top-notch. And – sorry recruiters – but we’ve not had to outsource any of the hiring process! 

So, how can you attract the right people to your team with your content?

You’ve already found out why we think sharing great content is important for hiring the right people… 

Now you’re here to attract the right team members to you, right? Ok, well let’s run through 7 ways you can apply this to your business so it’s easy to hire people who ‘fit’ with your company values.

1. Communicate your purpose 

What’s the big picture of your business? That’s your purpose… And as we’ve already discovered, purpose matters to employees. People want to feel a part of something. So start telling people. 

Share your purpose on your website – a great place for this is your ‘About’ page. Regularly talk about your company’s goals and purpose on social media, link it to case studies for customer success stories, and mention it anywhere else you can! 

2. Share your opinions about the industry 

Here at Jammy Digital, we’re vocal about what we like – and don’t like – about the marketing industry. By voicing your opinions, you attract people with similar views… and put people off who disagree. 

There are always going to be people who think about things differently, especially when your industry can be subjective, so publicly sharing opinions shows your beliefs. 

3. Build trust using multiple forms of content marketing 

Sure, we love blog content… but having videos, live webinars, and emails creates a well-rounded online presence for our audience. Meghan had multiple touchpoints with Jammy Digital, and experiencing our content through different channels helps to build trust. 

So we encourage you to take a look at your full digital footprint: 

• Are you creating video content, so people can hear you talk and see your expressions? 
• Do you host live events where your audience can ask you questions? 
• Are you talking to your audience on different social media platforms? 
• Do you reply to their comments and engage in conversations?

All these things add to your credibility and authority in the industry, which helps for all elements of your business growth but can be especially useful when looking to hire great candidates. 

4. Tell people your brand values 

Are you actively saying what you care about online? Every business has its own values and reasons for doing things in certain ways. When you start expressing that, people can find out what’s important to you and your company, and if they agree you’ll stay in their minds.

If you have a particular focus on the environment, for example, are you writing or talking about it online? These things matter to people and can be the reason they apply – or don’t – to your job vacancy. 

There are many candidates out there who may not be looking for a new role yet but if they like what they see and agree with your values, it may make them reconsider. We had people actively say they weren’t looking for a job but applied for this very reason. As with all content marketing, being consistent pays off. 

5. Demonstrate company culture 

Like with your purpose and values, it’s important to show your real company culture. What’s a day in your office like? How do employees really feel about working with you? How do you demonstrate your values into that culture? 

You may have to get creative if you have a remote team. It’s possibly harder to show ‘behind the scenes’ images if your team works remotely, but it’s not impossible. Share online, from the employer’s perspective, success stories or awesome things your employees are doing both at work and during their free time. 

6. Don’t just get employees – get brand advocates

If your employees are talking about how great it is to work within your company, it will help to build brand advocates. Think about how quickly word can spread to their friends, online connections, and other people they chat with. Before you know it, you’ve got your employee’s brother-in-law looking out for vacancies. 

How do you do this through content? Ask employees to write guest posts, share video testimonials, and populate their own LinkedIn profiles. But it can’t be forced on them (as that will look inauthentic)… They have to want to do it to spread the word about your company. 

The same goes with your customers and business contacts – if you’re doing a great job, they will help to spread the word. This builds your own reputation and credibility, especially if it comes from a well-respected person. 

For example, people applied to us having seen we were recommended by Daniel Priestley or the foreword to our book was from Marcus Sheridan. 

Everyone loves a referral, and any time another person mentions your brand or company online you’re getting in front of way more people. 

7. Show your personality (both as a brand and humans)

Now, the last point is that not everything has to highlight your values and the good you do to connect with the right people. Sometimes it’s as simple as sharing the things you love or mentioning an element of your past that adds to your personality. 

Lyndsay mentions her obsession with Harry Potter and cats on our About and Meet The Team pages. Yes, it’s a simple little addition, but it draws people in and makes you more memorable (Plus, would we really want to work with someone who doesn’t love HP?).

And a few brilliant candidates mentioned Harry Potter when they applied to us!

People crave connection – so don’t hold back on what makes you, you! Add personality to your content. 

I’m hiring right now – is it too late to share content that attracts great employees? 

The beauty of content marketing is that you can publish things instantly across multiple channels. If you’re reading this today and you’re hoping to attract more people to your current vacancy, don’t panic – it’s not too late. 

Here’s a few ideas about what to focus on:

• What the day-to-day life in your company is like and how you work as a team – told from the perspective of a current employee 
• What your company’s big vision is and how a new employee plays a part in that 
• Highlight the key perks of the role, such as extensive training, flexible working, etc.
• Does your company get involved in any charitable acts or have strong environmental policies? Explain this through online content. 
• Is your About or Meet the Team page updated? 

So, what could that look like? 

3 example content ideas to illustrate these points

1. Can you ask an employee to share their experience in a video interview? Perhaps they have asked for specific training to support their role, have learned a lot from other team members, or feel a deep sense of pride in their work. Ask them a few questions and post this online. 
2. Can you showcase your daily company culture? Take photos of your team meetings or office spaces on ‘real’ days (i.e. not staged for cameras).
3. Have you helped a local charity recently or supported another business in need? Write a blog post about community projects explaining why that’s important to not just them, but also your values. 

Not ready to hire? Attract the best freelancers instead! 

You might not be ready to employ someone permanently, which is perfectly okay. Maybe you’re here to be nosey about what we did in our own business!

Well, the good news is the same concept goes for if you’re looking to partner with expert freelancers to build your team… You still want to work with the best people to do your business justice (even if it’s on a short-term basis).

The content you put out there will show freelancers what your company is like to work with, so consider this if you reach out to them or put a call-out for an expert. What you say online in your content marketing will impact their decisions to work with you or not. 

Felicity of The Brand Language Lab regularly partners with agencies to deliver work, and she said a defining factor of working together is:

“Case studies that show work with wow factor and go in-depth about the strategy and steps to make it happen. It shows there’s method behind what they do and that they genuinely care about doing their best for the end client, too. It helps me judge if our values, beliefs, and approach to work align, which is a big deal for me…”

So if you want to partner with that coveted expert, make sure you’re communicating what’s important to you to attract the right people to you and not giving off any red flags. 

Get help producing consistent stand-out content for your business and fill your vacancy with awesome candidates

Are you feeling inspired to be a bit more creative in your approach to content marketing – considering it from the point of view of potential employees instead of just potential clients? 

There really aren’t any downsides to producing stand-out content! 

But planning, writing, and publishing content is time-consuming… And that’s without the added pressure of coming up with new ideas every month. Don’t worry – we love it and can take it off your to-do list.  

At Jammy Digital, we believe there’s nothing more satisfying than seeing our clients grow their businesses through awesome, stand-out content. That’s why we offer fully managed content marketing services, where the work you put in is minimal. Think of us as your partner to start growing your business on autopilot. 

What do we offer? Our two main regular services are SEO blog content and short-form video content packages. So, no matter your audience, you can share content in a way that feels right for you. 

The post How to attract the best talent to your company through content appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

Okay, so maybe it’s not that hard to imagine: it’s what you’re already doing, right?!

That’s ok: it’s a common mistake. But it means you’ve been missing out on juicy website traffic, new leads and sales. 

The best thing is that updating old blog posts can be way easier and faster than creating a new one (depending on how good the blog post was in the first place). 

So, in this article, we’ll show you how you can breathe ‘dormant’ articles back to life and boost your SEO rankings! 

Why refresh old blog post content? 

At Jammy, we believe that stand-out content is what sets you apart from everyone else – and by that we mean creating “content that’s not already out there or includes a unique perspective.”

One thing we do for our clients is check out their older content, and refresh it if there’s a good chance it’ll increase in rankings. It’s the simplest way to get to page one of Google!

For example, this is what happened to the rankings of a blog post we re-wrote in June 23.

So yes, creating a blog post is obviously the most important part.

But if you never update it? You’ll miss out big time. Here’s why…

The benefits of refreshing your old blog posts

1. Boost your SEO rankings – That new section or some additional keywords could be all you needed to go from Google’s 2nd page to the 1st, or from the 3rd spot to the coveted top result
2. Get more (and more relevant) traffic – Makes sense when you rank higher and for the right keywords, doesn’t it?
3. Link to more recent articles and boost their SEO too! – We bet you have so many recent blog posts that expand on topics mentioned in older ones. But because you hadn’t written them yet, they’re not linked
4. Provide better user experience – Did you link to websites that no longer exist? Or mention a service you don’t offer anymore? These might seem like small problems but can undermine your credibility and annoy your readers
5. Stand out even more – Now that some time has passed, you probably have new original content that you can add to your older blog posts (like videos, case studies and data)
6. Harness strong calls-to-action – Imagine having a blog post that keeps bringing you traffic… but without telling your readers what to do next! Maybe, when you wrote those old articles, you didn’t have a newsletter (and now you do – so, you can encourage your readers to subscribe). Or perhaps you can direct them to a new service 
7. Generate more leads and sales – That’s what all the previous points boil down to (hurray!)

How to update old blog posts to boost your SEO rankings—without getting overwhelmed 

“You’re telling me I need to read all my blog posts individually and update EVERYTHING?”

Not quite. We’re all about using our time effectively, so yes, in theory, you’d regularly review every article you’ve ever published and re-optimise/edit it. But if you’ve published hundreds or thousands of articles that’s not realistic (unless you have team to do this for you). 

So, remind yourself of what you aim to achieve with your SEO content strategy (growing your newsletter or selling a specific service?). Then, focus your blog optimisation efforts on that. 

Step one: Check your current content topics and performance 

As they say, “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” So, identify what exactly needs your attention first.

Get a good overview of your current content

Have you been keeping track of the blog posts you’ve published? If not, start ASAP (your future self will thank you).

Create a master document – like a spreadsheet – to log your blog posts, their topics and the keywords you’ve targeted in each of them.

Check what’s ranking (and what isn’t)

To boost your SEO rankings, you need to know what they are right now.

There are plenty of professional and paid tools to check your rankings, like SEMRush and Ahrefs. But you can start with a simpler and free option: Google Search Console.

The first thing you can do is check the search results section (under ‘Performance’). 

What keywords are you already ranking for? What blog posts could be better? And which ones never gained traction? 

You can also look at the difference between clicks and impressions. For example, if something gets loads of impressions but not many clicks, it means it is optimised well from an SEO point of view… but your title and meta description aren’t compelling your readers to click on it (so, fix that!)

Get Strategic 

On your original document, where you’ve listed all your blog posts, start writing action points against the blog posts you want to prioritise. 

We’re looking at targeting the ‘low hanging fruit,’ so this could be…

• Identifying blog posts that are already ranking on pages 2, 3, 4, 5 etc. of Google that you can re-optimise to bump up your rankings 
• Identifying blog posts that are ranking well and making sure the CTA’s and links to your services or products are all correct – you DON’T want to waste that traffic! 
• Identifying blog posts that are ranking well and inserting internal links (where it makes sense) to newer blog posts to boost their rankings 

And Ignore the rest for now! As we said before, keep it realistic. If some blog posts aren’t relevant to your current goals, don’t waste your limited time on them. Instead, focus on evergreen content that feeds into your top-priority offers and objectives

Step two: Update your blog posts using the ‘Stand-Out Content’ principle

If you’re updating blog posts that are currently ranking on pages 2, 3, 4 etc. of Google, you can’t just reword what the other top-ranking articles are saying. 

You MUST bring something fresh to the table. 

A lot of people ask (genuinely, we’re not just making that up), whether they need to re-write old content, and that really does depend. If you’re looking at a 300-word that contains more fluff than candy floss, then yes, re-write. 

But if you’ve got a decent, in-depth article here, it could mean adding things like…  

• Original research or unique content like interviews, case studies, surveys and your own data. For example, we often link to our entrepreneur mental health statistics
• Harnessing your perspective and personality through storytelling, real-life and business examples or your take on that topic

So, if you haven’t already done so, take your blog posts from ‘generic’ to ‘stand-out’ when you update them.

You also want to consider:

• Has any of the information changed? – If so, look for new stats and sources. Or maybe it’s your personal view that’s evolved? Be honest, and edit the article accordingly (for example, from a different angle)
• Can you delve deeper into that topic? – Over 90% of blog posts get no traffic from Google. So, to do better, don’t just scratch the surface: go more in-depth!

Adding other types of content to improve SEO 

Your blog posts don’t need to be just about written content. In fact, it’s better not to do that! 

The right visual elements will complement your text and make your blog posts more varied (perfect to keep your readers engaged and stand out even more).

So, consider adding:

• Photos
• Custom graphics
• Infographics
• Videos

For example, if your blog post is a tutorial, it might benefit from a video on how to put it into practice.

Finally, make your visual elements accessible to everyone, including clients with disabilities:

• Use descriptive names – Don’t upload your files as ‘image007.jpg’ but rather ‘infographic on social media stats’
• Add captions to your videos

For more help on how to do this, check out our article on how to optimise a blog post. 

Step three: Review keywords, meta titles and links 

Time to boost your SEO rankings by tackling the more technical aspects of your blog posts (don’t panic! We’ve got you).

Keywords

• Are you still using the BEST keyword for that article? Maybe it was when you picked it, but now it’s too competitive or no longer matches its new focus 

Once again, you can invest in paid and more accurate SEO tools, but if you’re a beginner, Google Keyword Planner (free) is a good place to start. The sweet spot? A long keyword that’s searched a lot, isn’t too competitive and perfectly describes your blog post (e.g. ‘how to build a WordPress website’ rather than just ‘WordPress website’). 

Things to think about are…

• Are there similar and additional keywords that can reinforce your main one? (like ‘how to make a WordPress website’ and ‘WordPress website tutorial’)
• Weave them all into your blog post – Don’t stress over specific percentages: keyword density is a really outdated practice. Just repeat them strategically (in your first 100 words, headings, last paragraphs, title, image alt text and the body of your blog post) but only whenever you can do so naturally
• Optimise your title and meta description – They must stand out against all the other ones in the SERP (search engine results page). So, showcase your unique perspective or make your readers curious
• Include external links – You might be worried about people clicking away from your website, but trust us: linking to external ones will benefit both your SEO and user experience (for example, you’ll build trust by backing up your data with sources). So, include a few links to relevant websites with a high domain authority – and Google will also start treating you like one of those cool kids!
  We use a (somewhat) controversial rule, and that’s to have external links open in a new window. Normally, that’s fine as there aren’t too many external links in an article so you won’t end up with loads of tabs!
• Add internal links, too – Are there blog posts that expand on something you’ve mentioned? Services and products that would solve the problem you just covered? Internal links help Google understand your website better and they direct your human audience to the right next step. Bonus tip: instead of just saying ‘click here’, use keywords and descriptive words as your anchor text 

Step four: republish and reshare the post 

Don’t repeat that initial mistake of posting and ghosting! When you repurpose and share your content, you can significantly boost your SEO rankings. 

Yep, you read that right! Even though sharing your content happens off your website, it still dramatically helps increase your rankings. This is because…

It helps drive traffic to your website

By promoting your blog posts on social media and email marketing, you can increase the number of visitors to your site. A higher traffic volume can be a positive indicator for search engines that your content is valuable – potentially improving your ranking.

It Builds Backlinks

Promotion leads to more visibility, more visibility can lead to more backlinks! 

Backlinks are a crucial factor that search engines consider when determining the authority and relevance of your website. The more high-quality backlinks you have, the better your chances of ranking higher in search results.

Engagement Metrics

Promotion can also lead to higher engagement on your blog posts, such as more comments, likes, and shares. Search engines can use these engagement metrics as signals that your content is valuable and trustworthy!

Increases Crawling

When you promote a new blog post and it gains attention quickly, search engines are likely to crawl and index that content faster. The quicker your content gets indexed, the sooner it can start ranking in search engine results.

So don’t forget, after updating your blog post, you should:

• Share your blog post on your social media
• Promote it in your newsletter
• Log it in your (new?) spreadsheet overview
• Make a note to promote it regularly
• Repurpose it into other types of content – After all, you’ve just put a lot of work into updating it, and it’s all still fresh in your mind! So, identify relevant sub-topics and nuggets of information to turn into social media posts, newsletters, short-form videos and more

Step five: Track your SEO rankings

Finally, monitor your results. To do this realistically without getting overwhelmed, allow your blog posts around 3 months to gain traction again. Then, go back to Google Search Console (or your chosen tool):

• Are your updated blog posts ranking higher now?
• Are some of them doing better than others? If so, look at what you did differently and consider implementing it elsewhere, too 

For example, you might realise that your audience prefers blog posts with short videos: film more. Did your infographic earn you several backlinks? Add them to your other blog posts, too.

Then, keep checking your analytics regularly.

Ready to update your old SEO blog content?

The most important thing to keep in mind is that this is an ongoing process. 

Content marketing works when you’re consistent, but that doesn’t always have to mean creating something new. As you now know, updating old blog posts will also make a MASSIVE difference.

Too time-consuming? Can you already tell you’re gonna stop doing all that after a couple of months?

We can take your entire content creation and optimisation off your hands. Let us craft, manage and update your SEO optimised Content – and use your limited time and energy for your zone of genius instead.  

We regularly re-write content for our clients, with brilliant results! 

The post Boost SEO Rankings: How to Refresh Old Blog Posts in 5 Easy Steps appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

For me, without question, it would be Ted Lasso – someone to remind me of what’s really important in life and also make me laugh.  

Of course, the person you would choose might not be Ted (get out).

I’m joking of course, because we respond differently to different personalities, styles and approaches. You might need someone to give you a good kick up the arse or a more gentle approach. Or something in between. 

We need to consider this when we think of our personality, especially if you’re someone like a coach or consultant. 

Of course, you have your personality and approach to coaching, but how does that come across in your content? On your website? On social media? 

Does your audience have a real sense of who you are, and can they automatically qualify (or disqualify) themselves from your service based on your personality? 

What is the role of the guide in your business? 

As a coach and the leader within your business, you have one main job – to be the guide for your customers. 

If you’ve ever read Storybrand by Donald Miller, you will know that you are not the hero of the story. Your customer is the hero. But you have an equally important role. You are the hero’s guide, helping them solve their problem and achieve their goal. 

Many books and movies have guides that help the protagonist on their journey. They don’t tell the protagonist the direct answers as such – could you imagine Dumbledore saying to Harry, ‘Oh yes, Voldemort has hidden parts of his soul in inanimate objects.’ It would be a pretty short movie! – but they do help the protagonist reach their goal. 

You can probably identify with the guides in movies (especially when the protagonist goes in the entirely wrong direction ) 

What is your ‘guide’ personality (or ‘personal brand’)?

Yep, you’ve understood that you’re the guide – here to help your mighty protagonist (or client) reach their ultimate goal. You should ensure your marketing is aimed at those potential protagonists – talking about how you can help them achieve their goals. 

All good, right? 

Apart from you’re missing one thing.

Guides aren’t bland, boring oracles (okay, some are oracles, but that’s not the point). They have their own personality, style, approach, and quirks. A good guide will draw their protagonist to them – often, they’ll beg the guide for help!  

That’s what you want, you want to be a magnet for potential clients who are eager to work with you and learn from you. 

And you don’t do that by being ‘blah’; you do that by having a personality. 

But, but, but…I deliver tons of value! 

That’s great! Unfortunately, value just doesn’t cut it anymore. There’s TONS of value out there. You can pretty much find out how to do anything you want to do using the internet. 

And I’m not saying your value isn’t er…valuable. I know it is. I know you have so much to offer, and your clients are so happy with your methods and what you help them achieve. 

But without a little something extra, it will be a lot tougher to stand out. Your personality and style are what will make people fall in love with you and want to work with you. The value you deliver is the thing that will help them justify investing in you. 

Both need to work together.  

So, what type of guide are you? 

I once took the plunge and invested in a coach I wasn’t sure about. She had experience in achieving what I had wanted to achieve. 

Only when I started working with her did I discover she was hilarious, empathetic, and kind. She came into her own on that first coaching call. 

But that should not have happened on the first coaching call; that should’ve happened way before then. If I had a sense of who she was before I invested, I’d have done it sooner (without hesitation). 

This got me thinking about the iconic guides we know and love from popular culture and how they each embody a unique coaching style. 

If you’re a coach, understanding your own guide personality will help you communicate your approach to potential clients. 

So, let’s dive into a few ‘guide’ archetypes to see which one resonates with you.

Yoda: The Wise Sage

About Yoda:

Master Yoda, the iconic character from Star Wars, is all about drawing out the strength within, encouraging self-discovery, and providing sage advice. His teachings often present profound wisdom in a simplified yet impactful way, allowing his students to connect and discover their inner power. 

Famous Phrase: ‘Do or do not. There is no try.’

Examples of famous ‘Yoda’ Entrepreneurs:

1. Oprah Winfrey: Like Yoda, Oprah is a beacon of wisdom and self-discovery. She has an innate ability to guide others on a journey of personal growth and transformation.
2. Warren Buffet: Known as the “Oracle of Omaha,” Buffet’s prudent financial advice and insights have guided countless individuals and businesses in their financial journeys. His wisdom is highly sought after, much like Yoda’s!
3. Mel Robbins: Mel’s emphasis on overcoming internal challenges and using the power within oneself aligns perfectly with Yoda’s approach to mentoring.

Haymitch: The Gritty Realist

About Haymitch:

Haymitch from the Hunger Games is Katniss Everdeen’s mentor. Haymitch teaches through tough love and brutal honesty. He might seem rough around the edges, but his primary focus is to prepare Katniss for the harsh reality of the games. 

Famous Phrase: ‘Embrace the probability of your imminent death, and know, in your heart, that there’s nothing I can do to save you.’

Example of famous ‘Haymitch’ Entrepreneurs 

1. Gary Vaynerchuk: His direct, no-nonsense approach is similar to Haymitch’s blunt truth-telling. GaryVee doesn’t sugarcoat his advice, ensuring his followers are fully aware of the harsh realities of entrepreneurship!
2. Alex and Leila Hormozi: Founders of Gym Launch, a business known for helping struggling gym owners. The Hormozis’ pragmatic and honest approach to business coaching is what makes them successful and similar to Haymitch’s style.
3. Cody Sanchez: An entrepreneur venture capitalist, Cody Sanchez is known for her bold and realistic guidance. Her approach to investment and entrepreneurship mirrors Haymitch’s realist perspective.

Mary Poppins: The Nurturing Motivator

About Mary Poppins: 

Mary Poppins, the magical, musical nanny, embodies warmth, kindness, and patience but also discipline, structure and rules. She motivates through nurturing, balancing gentleness with firmness. 

Famous Phrase: ‘In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun.’

Fun fact: you may think that Mary Poppins is the protagonist, but that’s actually George Banks!

Examples of famous Mary Poppins Entrepreneurs

1. Deborah Meaden: As an investor on the TV show “Dragons’ Den,” Deborah Meaden is known for her straightforward yet constructive feedback. She shares her business acumen generously while also emphasising the importance of a good strategy, much like Mary!
   
2. Arianna Huffington: As the co-founder of The Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington balances a nurturing approach with the discipline required for entrepreneurial success
3. Brené Brown: As a research professor, author, and successful speaker, Brené Brown’s approach values vulnerability and courage, with a firmly realistic perspective, much like Mary Poppins!

Genie: The Enthusiastic Encourager

The Genie is always ready to offer guidance and support while making the process fun and engaging. Through jokes, laughter, and a radiant positive attitude, he uplifts spirits and keeps motivation high. 

Famous Phrase: ‘Aw Al, I’m getting kinda fond of you, kid. Not that I want to pick out curtains or anything.’

Examples of ‘Genie’ Entrepreneurs:

1. Richard Branson: As the founder of Virgin Group, Richard Branson is well known for his fun-loving, adventurous personality and pranks. Much like Genie, Branson injects excitement, fun and cheekiness into everything he does.
2. Ryan Reynolds: The actor turned entrepreneur has a knack for using humor and wit in his marketing strategies, especially with his companies like Aviation Gin and Mint Mobile. His lighthearted and engaging approach is similar to Genie’s character.
3. Elon Musk: From sending a car to space to naming his rockets with references from sci-fi novels, Musk’s approach to entrepreneurship is filled with elements of humor and enthusiasm, making him another good fit for the ‘Genie’ archetype (whatever you may think of him!) 

Ted Lasso: The Humble Inspirer 

Okay, okay, Ted Lasso is not a ‘guide’; he’s the main character, BUT he is a coach, and this is where I think I’m on more solid ground. It has nothing to do with me being in love with him. 

If you haven’t seen it, Ted Lasso, is a football coach whose infectious optimism, empathy, and down-to-earth personality make him an incredibly effective and lovable leader. Ted remains unflinchingly positive, showing us that kindness, humility, and understanding can be powerful tools in leadership.

Famous phrase: ‘I do love a locker room. It smells like potential.’

Examples of ‘Ted Lasso’ Entrepreneurs:

1. Ann Handley: Ann Handley and Ted Lasso are two peas in a pod.  Ann encourages businesses to communicate in a way that resonates with people on a personal level. She’s funny, poignant and a great storyteller, just like Ted.
2. Pat Flynn: Pat Flynn, the founder of Smart Passive Income, is known for his humility and eagerness to help others succeed in their online businesses, regularly sharing his own experiences, both the triumphs and the failures, to inspire and guide his audience.
3. Simon Sinek: Simon Sinek’s concept of “Start with Why” encourages leaders to focus on their purpose, (or their ‘why’) similar to how Ted Lasso places value on personal growth and motivation rather than just winning games. Sinek’s approach is empathetic, inspiring, and all about understanding others.
   

Which ‘guide’ resonates with you? 

So, what type of guide are you? Remember, the goal isn’t to mimic these characters or personalities but to draw inspiration from them. They have to be authentic. There’s no point trying to act like GaryVee, when really you’re a right softy like Ted Lasso! 

So embrace your inner Yoda, Haymitch, Mary Poppins, Genie, or Ted and let it shine through in your content. 

If you do this right, you will attract clients who resonate with your style and personality.

The post From Yoda to Mary Poppins: How coaches can find their ‘guide’ personality appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

Nope, it’s not a quote from a famous author or scriptwriter; it’s a quote from Steve Jobs. 

Steve Jobs understood that stories are a shortcut to building the know, like and trust factor. They get your audience to instantly connect with you, remember you and (if you do it right) buy from you. 

But how exactly can you use story in your business? Well, here are six lessons from six famous authors that all business owners can learn from about storytelling. 

Let’s get stuck in…

1. “Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” — Anton Chekhov

This quote from Chekhov is probably more well known as: ‘Show, Don’t Tell’. 

It’s very easy for businesses to claim they are certain things. 

But let’s, for a second, imagine two companies:

• Company A tells you they pay their staff well.
  
• Company B publishes how much they pay their staff, just like Buffer, for example. 

Which one do you believe more? The company that tells you who they are or the company that shows you who they are? It’s the latter, right? 

But why must businesses show (or prove) who they are? 

You might think, why do I have to prove who I am? 

Have you ever heard of the phrase ‘belief-driven buying’? This is when consumers buy a product because the brand aligns with their values and beliefs. 

According to a study by the Edelman Trust in 2019, 64% of people classed themselves as ‘belief-driven buyers’, an increase from 51% in 2017. 

The problem is brands have never had to prove that they care about something until recently; they could just tell us they cared. 

But brand trust is on the decline. People don’t believe brands when they tell us something because now we can find the proof and find out when they’re lying. 

All you have to do is take a look at the news every once in a while, and you can see the stories of brand hypocrisy; for example, stories of ‘greenwashing’, where brands claim that they care about the environment but actually do things that harm the planet.

Examples of businesses that show us who they are: Everlane

Everlane is a clothing retailer that doesn’t just tell you they care about the planet, paying fair wages or being honest with their customers; they show it in everything they do. 

They show you the factories where their clothing is made, and on every product page they include ‘transparent pricing’ – breaking down exactly how much each item costs to make and deliver. 

2. “The most important thing for aspiring writers is for them to give themselves permission to be brave on the page, to write in the presence of fear, to go to those places that you think you can’t write – really that’s exactly what you need to write.” — Cheryl Strayed

Without a doubt, the more nervous we are to hit that publish button, the more successful our content is. 

Of course, bravery in fiction writing and business writing is different, but the principle is still the same – bravery can be more impactful than writing ‘well’. 

Martin (co-owner of Jammy Digital) freely admits that he isn’t the best writer. English was his least favourite subject in school, and he never would’ve predicted that writing content would build him a successful business! 

What made Martin successful at content marketing and able to generate leads and sales for was not good writing. It was brave writing.  

Writing articles like how much we charge for a website or the problems with WordPress (our chosen platform) made him nervous, but people appreciated that honesty. 

Do you really have to be brave? 

Creating content that your competitors don’t dare to touch is one of the few ‘shortcuts’ to building huge amounts of trust with your audience. 

Sharing your opinions, stories and experiences–especially when they go against the grain–is one of the best ways you can build trust and a loyal following of fans. 

Sometimes, you will need to put your head above the parapet 

Example of businesses that show they’re brave!

A good example of bravery in content is from South London based estate agents, Bartlett and Partners, with this article: Why we are more ‘expensive’ than other estate agents in Richmond, Twickenham & Teddington. 

In this article, they explain that, yes, their estate agency fees are higher than other estate agency fees, and they go on to explain why that is. 

It takes a brave business to admit that they are more expensive openly! But what they’ve also done is explain how they’re different and how using their services will help sell your property much faster without dropping the price. 

3. “Never use a long word where a short one will do.” —  George Orwell

More broadly, we interpret this to mean take out the waffle. Stop trying to make yourself look clever by using grandiloquence (see what we did there?)

Now, this is not to say that you shouldn’t use big words IF your audience understands them. A doctor presenting to other doctors would quite rightly use scientific terminology for body parts or diseases. And would probably gain a few funny looks if they didn’t! 

So we’re not saying avoid all technical terms or longer words, but make sure that the words you use are ones that your audience fully understands.

Plus, it never hurts to explain things, even if your audience is well-versed in what you are talking about. The less someone has to think about your words, the easier it is for you to communicate your point. 

That’s why visuals like metaphors, similies, anecdotes, and stories work incredibly well. It cuts through the time it takes for your audience to gain understanding. 

Example of businesses using simple language to connect with their audience

We’re going to the OG of storytelling for business, Steve Jobs and the launch of the iPhone. This example is used by copywriters everywhere, and with good reason. 

While every other MP3 Player manufacturer in the world advertised their products by listing a complex list of features (that made no sense to anyone but them), Apple led with this…

The phrase ‘1000 songs in my pocket’ cuts through the noise. The audience (even a super technical one) doesn’t have to figure out how much space X amount of GigaBytes actually is. 

The phrase ‘1000 songs in your pocket’ tells you two amazing benefits you gain from an iPod – 1000 songs (plenty of choice without limits) and it fits in your pocket (for any oldies like us reading, fitting a walkman in your pocket was impossible in those days!) 

Even the techiest of people can appreciate this simplicity in language and cutting through the jargon to get to the product’s real benefits. 

4. “Every sentence must do one of two things — reveal character or advance the action.” — Kurt Vonnegut

Have you ever read a blog post and thought… ‘how long is this going to take to get to the damn point!’

We love this quote from Kurt because it rings true for brands, too; writing should either…

1. Reveal character – or, in a business sense, showcase your tone of voice and brand personality. 
2. Advance action – or, in a business sense, deliver value that helps your audience or gets them to take that next step with you. 

Everything else is quite simply fluff. 

This means cutting out the crap. For example, let’s say you have a blog post about website design tips and open it with the line ‘Having a website is important because…’ The audience already knows this (that’s why they’re looking for tips on improving their website!)

If it doesn’t add value and it does add personality, put it in the bin! 

Do you really have to add personality as well as deliver value?

We always say this to our content writing clients – value no longer cuts it! Of course, you want to make your content valuable, BUT there is TONS of value out there. 

If you want to learn about anything, you can pretty much guarantee that the internet has the answer. What makes you different is how you package your value. Use unique angles, stories, anecdotes, etc., because this will make you memorable. 

Think of it this way: We could’ve titled this blog post ‘7 writing tips for businesses’, but that’s been done to death! This is a unique take that’s ours alone.

Example of a business that delivers value and personality 

Andrew and Pete deliver TONS of value in their content, freely giving away their secrets to business success. But their content also packs a punch with personality too. Reading their content gives you a real sense of who they are. 

Take this excerpt (above) from a blog post about how to handle sales objections, where they say everyone (and their nan) has had a bad experience with someone in SEO! 

They often use humour, funny phrases, stories and GIFs to make their content stand out. 

5. “The very act of asking a question makes people want to stick around and find out the answer. The power of asking a question is enormous.” – Lee Child 

What’s the one thing that is 100% guaranteed to make someone stop scrolling? 

It’s that. ⬆️

Ask a question that people want an answer to. 

If you’ve ever read a Jack Reacher book (by Lee Child), then you’ll know the agony of wanting to know the answer to the question posed at the start of the book – usually, who is responsible for the grisly murder that’s just happened. 

Well, it’s no different for us business owners. If we want someone to pay attention to our content, ask a question your audience is dying to know the answer to. 

If you can make it a question that relates directly to the pain they are experiencing, you are guaranteed to get their attention. 

Do you have to answer the question? 

Yup. If you ask a question, make sure you answer it. Deliver on your promise and satisfy your audience with your answer. 

Imagine reading a whodunnit, and you never actually get to find out…well, who did it! That’s what it’s like when you pose a question and fail to answer it. Or answer it in some vague, fluffy way that invites more questions and confusion. 

Examples of business owners who ask great questions

Daniel Priestly, author of Key Person of Influence, often poses questions on his social media platforms that his audience is eager to know the answers to. 

It’s a simple technique, but it works well because…

1. 1. Daniel answers the question in depth, and people have become accustomed to his answers. They know he’ll answer the question and give them something new and exciting to think about or implement in their business. 
   2. He asks questions other people aren’t answering – he comes up with questions his audience are interested in but hasn’t been covered before. This is what makes it so exciting.

6. “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”– Maya Angelou

This is one of our favourite lessons because the more you create, the more creative you become. We love it because it’s true. This is why, over time, we’ve gone from tutorial-type content to using: 

• Stories 
• Anecdotes 
• Humour 
• Personality 
• Similies/metaphors 
• Unique examples 

The more you create, the more addictive it is! 

Example of a business owner who never stops being creative…

Without a doubt, it’s our favourite business writer, Ann Handley. We don’t get excited about email newsletters, but Ann’s is perfect. 

Every two weeks, she sends out a masterpiece in an email – always funny, often poignant and leaves you learning something new every time. 

Ann is so brilliant at storytelling that you forget she’s telling a story; you just become immersed in what she has to say! 

The newsletter is called Total Annarchy (she’s also good with puns!) 

Remember these six rules…

So remember, just follow these six writing rules inspired by the famous authors above!

• Show, don’t tell
• Be brave
• Cut unnecessary words and jargon
• Show your personality
• Ask good questions
• Keep writing!

If you’d like to test how good your content is – where you’re shining bright and where you could improve, then don’t forget to take our scorecard and get your score!

The post 6 Writing lessons from fiction authors that make you a better content marketer appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

Well, at Jammy Digital, we beg to differ. 

It’s true that 95% of blog posts don’t reach Google’s first page in the first year. But that’s typically because of factors that are INSIDE your control. 

Yes, you can’t control Google, but you can make it as easy as possible for them to understand what your content is all about.  You can prove to them that your content is the BEST content on the topic and worthy of showing to their users. 

All of that stuff IS inside your control. You just have to know how, right? Well, that’s precisely what we will help you with in this blog post! 

An example? We ranked on the first page of Google in just two days

Don’t get us wrong: NOBODY can guarantee a first-page ranking in just days. But it is possible.

For instance, a client approached our content marketing agency because they wanted to rank for a super competitive keyword – you know, the kind that gets searched thousands of times every month.

When we reviewed the websites already ranking for their chosen keywords, we could see they were extremely popular and with high domain authority. Eek! So we prepared our client for it to take potentially months to get there. 

But it didn’t. It literally took us two days to reach Google’s first page for our client.

Plus, they then shared that content with their small email list AND got a sale!

How? By creating stand-out content and avoiding the mistakes we’re about to show you…

Things you need to know about SEO blogging  

Before you get started, you MUST understand what works and what doesn’t work for SEO. And if you’re still relying on old advice and ‘best practices’, it’s probably not what you think. 

Seriously: what used to be a ticket to Google’s first page ten years ago (like churning out a generic article and repeating the same keyword more often than Draco Malfoy says “Potter!”) doesn’t work anymore.

What are your chances of ranking on Google: the factors you must consider…

For your content marketing to work fast, you can’t just write an SEO blog post and hope for the best (we wish!). There are a few things you first need to consider and, potentially, put in place.

Going through the list below will indicate how difficult or easy it will be for you to rank on Google for your chosen search terms…

1. Competitiveness 

When it comes to content, you may have ‘different’ competitors, and there may be more of them!

Competition in content doesn’t just mean the companies that offer similar products and services to you. It’s anyone that talks about the same topics as you. 

Here are some things to look out for when figuring out how competitive your keywords are…

• • How competitive is your industry? Some sectors are a lot more active than others when it comes to SEO content (think of marketing versus construction, for example). So, you might have more or less competition 
  • How competitive is your chosen keyword? Some keywords are only searched a few hundred times per month. Some others? Hundreds of thousands. The latter are obviously more difficult to rank for. . 
  • Who currently ranks for your chosen keywords? Put it this way, if we want to rank for something and HubSpot or Forbes are currently at the top spot, we know it will be more tricky. But if there are websites at ‘our level’, we know it’s easily doable.

2 Existing content: how well are you ranking already?

What blog posts of yours are already ranking on the coveted first page of Google? Analyse them! They may already rank for the keywords you want to go after!

It’s (usually) far easier to re-write an old piece of content and get that to rank higher than ranking a brand-new piece of content. Consider rewriting and re-optimising old posts ranking on pages 2, 3, 4 etc of Google! 

3. Backlinks

Backlinks can make a big difference in SEO. When an external website links to yours, it sends Google the signal that you’re posting interesting and trustworthy content. So, it’s likely that the blog posts ranking for your chosen keywords already have a few backlinks.

The best way to attract good backlinks naturally is by creating stand-out content – people will WANT to link to it if it’s different from everything else! For example, if it includes original research that can be used as a source, such as our research on entrepreneur mental health. 

It’s not just individual blog posts you should gain backlinks for; it’s your entire website (including the homepage). Think of good quality backlinks to your website as the ‘tide that lifts all boats’ – the more you get, the higher your domain authority, and the more likely your blog posts will rank individually. 

Remember, don’t fall for dodgy black-hat tactics, like buying thousands of low-quality backlinks! Play the SEO content marketing game fairly, and it will pay off. 

4. Technical SEO

When creating new content, it’s natural to focus on on-page SEO, like using your chosen keyword strategically. 

If you haven’t first sorted out some core problems on your website, though? It’ll be extremely hard for your article to rank – no matter how ground-breaking it is! 

Some issues to fix ASAP are:

• Low website loading speed – If your blog post takes longer than 3 seconds to open, you’ll lose over half of your potential readers
• No mobile optimisation – 51.52% of all internet traffic comes from phones. Not to be dramatic, but if your website doesn’t work well on a small screen? You’re doomed
• No sitemap – That’s a fancy term for “making it more difficult for search engines to crawl your website”
• No SSL certificate – Do your URLs start with ‘https’ or ‘http’? Hopefully, the former – because Google doesn’t really trust the latter
• Lots of broken links – These make it harder for Google to crawl and understand your website (and they’re annoying for your human readers)
• Indexing problems – If your pages don’t get indexed, it means Google doesn’t know they exist. So,your audience won’t be able to find them when they look for your chosen keyword. Try googling “site:yourwebsitename.com”: you should see all your website pages and blog posts. If you only get a handful of results, this should be your TOP priority

Now, before showing you how to create SEO content that works and ranks fast (exciting!), let’s make sure you’re clear on what you should always avoid. 

How not to do SEO content

• Writing ‘thin’ articles that only scratch the surface instead of delving deeper into your chosen topic
• Not linking to any resources or research to back up your claims, expecting both people and Google to “just trust you”
• Churning out lazy content that doesn’t bring anything new and interesting to the table: it just regurgitates what the other top-ranking articles are already saying
• Posting and ghosting without helping your SEO content gain traction 

How to produce stand-out content to boost SEO rankings

Think about it: if you want to become the ‘go-to’ company in your industry and see some content marketing results fast, it only makes sense to create stand-out content.

And by that, we mean blog posts different from EVERYTHING already on Google’s first page.

“But how can I do that in practice?” Like this!

1. Have something unique to say

You can’t expect Google and your audience to see you as a thought leader if you’re saying what everyone else is saying. So, while you don’t need to reinvent the wheel, you should:

Go the extra mile – don’t regurgitate what’s already out there. Deliver so much value to your reader. Do things like including examples, templates or your unique methodology. 

• Draw from your own experience – Everyone can write a blog post on the same topic, but nobody is you (cliche but true). Use your background and personality to your advantage: tell stories, share examples and include relevant anecdotes to get your point across. 
• Use original research and content – Did you run a survey? Turn those results into a report and reference it in your blog posts. Have you got a case study that proves what you’re saying? Link to it. Using original content will make you stand out and attract more backlinks (a win-win!)
• Go niche – Just because plenty of people have already covered it, it doesn’t mean you can’t do so from a fresh angle. For example, you could write an article all about website design best practices, or you could write an article on website design best practices for accountants. Sure, the latter will have fewer searches, but you can guarantee that those people will be your exact audience. 
• Don’t be afraid to stand up for what you truly believe in – Take this blog post, for example. Everyone is always going on about how SEO and blogging is a long-term strategy, but we believe it can also bring faster results. Not only that: we’ve proven it by actually doing that for our own clients. So, we wrote this blog post about it, and… look at that: you’re still reading it! Now, we’re not saying you should be controversial just for the sake of it. But if you have a genuine opinion that goes against the grain (and can back it up), go for it.

2. Go in-depth

We don’t believe in making blog posts longer just to hit a specific word count. The right length is… however many words you need to cover that topic in-depth (without waffling).

Statistically, though? Shorter ones – like 600 words – only scratch the surface. Many studies have shown that longer posts (2000 words+) rank higher than shorter ones. 

Remember that blog post that reached Google’s first page in two weeks for your client? We did that by analysing the top-ranking articles (all 500-1500 words) and creating stand-out content that went more in-depth. This turned out to be over 2000 words.

3. Make it easy to read

No matter how good your blog post is, nobody will read it if it’s just a massive block of wordy text (sorry!). This is why the way your blog post is designed so important. 

So, make it skimmable and user-friendly by using:

• Headings
• Short paragraphs
• Bullet points
• Bold text
• White space

4. Get smart with your keywords

Don’t put all your SEO eggs in one basket:

• Plan your blog post about a main keyword – This should be a long-tail phrase (at least three words) that describes your chosen topic clearly, like “how to bake a chocolate cake.”
• Target multiple ones, too – Include variations, keywords that complement your main one and some that clarify your angle and industry. For example, since your main keyword is “how to make a chocolate cake”, you should also add “chocolate cake recipe,” “how to make a chocolate cake from scratch”, and “how to bake a chocolate cake step by step”

5. Help your SEO content gain traction

To try and reach Google’s first page (and faster than we get to our coffee machine on Monday mornings), give your blog post a boost by:

• Sharing it on your social media
• Including it in your newsletter with a strong call to action
• Repurposing it into social media content – and linking to the blog post
• Sending it to the businesses and people you mentioned in your article, or tagging them when you share it on socials (some of them will repost it)

Yes, it’s a long-term strategy, but you can get short-term results!

Now you know why “blogging and SEO is just a long-term game” doesn’t sit well with us – yes, it works best when you commit to it long term (as results compound over time), BUT that does not mean you can’t get short-term results too. 

Our clients have seen fast rankings, tons of leads and direct sales when publishing content. 

Would you like to enjoy those results without doing any of the hard work?

Get in touch! As long as you’re happy to share your unique perspective during a kick-off call, we can create the right stand-out content for your business – and help it rank fast.

The post Myth: SEO and blogging are a long-term strategy appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

Nowadays, to grab your audience’s attention and stand out online, you must step up your content marketing game – and short-form video is key.

But we bet you’re already thinking: “I just haven’t got the time.”

So, after sharing all the ingredients for a successful video marketing strategy, we’ll also show you how you can embrace it without working harder.

Why is short-form video marketing essential in 2023?

Did you know that 84% of consumers are “sold” thanks to the videos posted by brands?

You see, social media has changed, and so have your audience’s priorities and… their brains, too. For real! 

• People are looking to connect with personal brands and stories (NOT soulless corporations and generic facts)
• Our attention span is getting lower: it’s gone down by a whopping 25% in 15 years and is now only 8.25 seconds

When you combine the two, it only makes sense that short-form video has been rising in popularity – and will keep on doing that.  

Some social media platforms have played an active role in this, and some others had to adapt (and quickly!) to keep up. Now, most of the biggest ones prioritise short-form videos:

• TikTok – The undisputed star of this format! This fast-growing platform has over 1 billion active users. Although it does let you upload videos up to 10 minutes long, they can be between 15 seconds and 3 minutes when recorded through the app – which is what performs best
• Instagram Reels – With 1.35 billion active users, Instagram keeps growing – but gone are the days of it being a photo platform to post your breakfast! Reels (which is what Instagram calls its short videos, up to 90 seconds long) are now what gets you the highest reach and engagement. And you can automatically share them on Facebook, too
• YouTube Shorts – 1.5 billion active users and counting. YouTube is still full of longer-form videos too, of course, but it’s now pushing a vertical TikTok-style format lasting up to 60 seconds. 

For example, this is how YouTube shorts are compared against other videos for our client!

And guess what? Short-form video is also gaining popularity on social media that haven’t found their own term for it (yet). So, it makes it easier for you to stand out on platforms like LinkedIn, too.

For example, our lovely client here saw massive results from sharing his short-form videos on LinkedIn – even though it’s not a ‘dedicated’ video platform!

Let’s get real. Even if your initial gut reaction was “Ugh, now I have to do short-form videos?!”,  we bet we’re on the same page now: it’d be crazy not to, don’t you think? 

(Plus, as we teased, it doesn’t have to be as difficult and time-consuming as you fear.)

What makes an effective video marketing strategy?

Yes, short-form video is ridiculously popular, and some platforms are actively pushing it. But that doesn’t mean you can just hit record, start waffling and post it. 

If you want to see an actual ROI and results, you need a strategy first – and with our Video VIP package, we’re here to help along every step of the way.

Here’s the difference between recording-and-hoping-for-the-best and developing an effective short-video marketing strategy.

1. Knowing your audience 

You’re not here to create videos for yourself or ‘everyone’. To cut through the noise, you must make them for your specific target clients. 

• What are they interested in when it comes to your industry?
• What questions are they asking? 
• What do they need to know to work with you?
• What’s stopping them from taking action right now?
• Where do they actually hang out? (For example, no point wasting your energy on growing a TikTok channel if most of your target clients use Instagram and LinkedIn)

2. Setting goals for your short-form video content 

Not clear on your actual aims? Then you won’t be able to measure the success of your short-from video strategy – or know when it’s time to open that bottle of champagne to celebrate it.

So, define what exactly you’re trying to achieve (psst: this will also influence the types of videos you’ll create).

For example, your goal could be increasing your brand awareness – like reaching 10k Instagram followers whilst keeping a 4% engagement rate – or getting 30% more sales every month.

3. Topic-planning and script-writing

Try and picture yourself pressing ‘record’ and improvising your videos. Eek, I can hear your heartbeat increase from here! And that’s why I’d never recommend doing that.

• Start from your existing content – Repurpose the core topics you’ve already covered in your text-based social media posts and blogs (easier, isn’t it?)
• Break those topics down into smaller chunks – It’s called short-form video for a reason! If you try and say too much or jump from one idea to the next in 60 seconds, you’ll confuse your audience
• Place storytelling and your personality at the core of your scripts – Not only are our brains wired to connect with them: stories are what sets you apart from everyone else. After all, your competitors could easily spit out the same facts (which is why “giving value” is no longer enough). But what can’t they do? Share your anecdotes, funny episodes, poignant moments and perspective on a topic. As cheesy as it might sound, there’s only one you. So, use this to your advantage in your short-form videos
• Focus on the hook – Forget about the 5-second rules: your audience will only take 3 to decide whether or not to keep watching (fussy, we know). That’s why you need a powerful intro to stop their scrolling 

4. Keyword research and captions 

You’ll be investing time – and probably money – in your short-form videos: it only makes sense to reach as many people as possible and get the very most out of them.

Why you need keywords

Social media algorithms will show your videos to a portion of your existing followers. But when you also add keywords and hashtags?

• You’ll reach people who are actively looking for those topics – For example, one of Martin’s very first TikToks reached over 800 people… even when he only had 50 followers!
• The algorithm will recommend your videos to users who’ve already engaged with that type of content

The importance of captions

Your videos will stop your dream clients’ scrolling and make them fall in love with your brand. Your captions? They’ll spark a conversation!

• Once again, focus on the hook – Most platforms only show the first lines of your caption. So, get your audience to click “see more” by making them intrigued and curious
• Write compelling captions, and speak directly to your target clients
• Incorporate your keywords and hashtags
• Always include a call to action – Depending on your videos and goals, it could range from answering a question to booking a call with you (and anything in between). You just don’t want people to watch it and keep scrolling

5. Recording and editing your short-form video content 

Time for the fun part (yes, we know you want to replace that with ‘scary’, but hear me out).

Filming short-form videos using the right foundations and equipment

Recording your videos is actually A BREEZE once that initial planning is out of the way. Instead of improvising them and running the risk of losing your train of thought (and waffling), you’ll have a clear script. Easy peasy.

As for your equipment… Well, technically, you only need your phone to get started. But you’re not just here to “make videos”. You want to create the kind of short-form videos that’ll position you as an expert, don’t you?

The good thing is that, when you book our Video VIP package, we’ll send you a recording kit with a microphone, ring light and props (all super profesh).

Editing your short-form video content to make it engaging 

Unless you’re trying to recreate that The Shining scene of Danny riding around the hotel, DON’T upload a long single shot. 

• Edit your video and make it easier to digest through cuts and transitions. Don’t be afraid to try new things (oh, and don’t be boring)
• Reduce silence and, if relevant, some background music, too
• Add captions to make your short-form videos accessible to everyone (plus, 3 out of 4 people watch them on mute. So, without captions, you’d be missing out BIG TIME!)
• Make use of things like sounds, emojis, and zoom in and out – these are things that will keep your audience highly engaged 

6. Staying consistent

Short-form videos will be part of your content marketing strategy, and content marketing only works when you create excellent pieces consistently.

So, don’t put one video out and, if it doesn’t bring you a lead within minutes, complain that “video doesn’t work”. 

To put things into perspective, short-form video has the highest ROI of any social media marketing strategy. For it to work, though, you must stay consistent (and that’s why batch-creating your videos is the best hack).

Add short-form video to your content marketing strategy – without working harder

Let’s face it: creating short-form videos in 2023 is a no-brainer. And you can get a headstart by repurposing your best stand-out content (like thought-leadership blog posts) into dozens of TikTok videos, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and more.

But we get it:

• You haven’t got that much premium content to begin with
• You haven’t got the time to follow all those steps regularly 
• Looking for the right content marketing strategist for your video ideas AND an SEO expert for keyword research AND a copywriter for scripts and captions AND a video editor? AND managing all of them? That sounds even more overwhelming and time-consuming than doing it yourself (let alone ‘expensive’)

Well, that’s exactly why we created our all-in one Video VIP package: so that you can finally make the most of short-form video content without wasting ridiculous amounts of time and money.

It takes an average of 68 hours to plan, create and edit 25 short-form videos. We’ll save you 65 of those.

Our team will take care of all the content strategy, scripting and editing. All you have to do? 

• Complete our story capture questionnaire and have an in-depth call with us
• Record the actual videos (‘being you’ is the only thing we can’t do), which you’ll get to do in only 3 hours thanks to our help

And if you want to see some pretty cool results, here’s a screenshot from a client of ours once we started publishing their short form video – pretty cool, right? 😉

Deal? Then let’s get started with your video content marketing strategy!

The post How to Add Short-Form Video to Your Content Marketing Strategy appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

Okay, it’s not quite a Lord of the Rings adventure, but still, it’s one you and your customers embark on almost every time you purchase something.

And when you read this article, you’ll start to recognise your buying behaviours. 

But more importantly, you’ll know EXACTLY how to use this process to reach your customers at every stage of their buyer’s journey. 

You’re the guide; your customer is the hero

If you’ve ever read Storybrand by Donald Miller, you’ll recognise this metaphor well. 

Your client is Luke Skywalker, and you are Yoda.

You’re the guide, and your content should aid your mighty protagonist (i.e. your customer) in navigating their journey, avoiding stupid mistakes, slaying the bad guys and reaching their goal, i.e. making a buying decision. 

Ready to learn how to do this? 

What is the buyer’s journey? 

The buyer’s journey is the process someone goes through before buying a product or service.

Let’s have a look at this journey in action…

1. Unaware – your prospective customer or client doesn’t even know they have a problem yet! They’re blissfully unaware, but they still have a problem!
2. Problem aware – someone in this phase knows they have a problem, but they’re not quite sure what they need to do to fix it. For example, many of our clients realise they have a problem when they want to spend less on ads. They think, ‘Oh, if we spend less on ads, we’ll have fewer leads. We really need a way to get new leads without relying on ads! They are aware of their problem (spending too much on ads) but unaware of the solution.
3. Solution aware – someone at this stage has looked at some solutions that could solve their problem. In our example above, it could be that the person has considered a few things – SEO, content writing, social media management, email marketing, etc. They’ve gone through the different options and have picked a solution by now. But at this stage, they don’t necessarily have a provider in mind. And they certainly don’t know of a specific product or service just yet.
4. Product aware. When they reach this stage, someone knows about you and your specific product or service. They’re also aware of your competitor’s products or services too. They’ve probably started to list pros and cons for each and are comparing features and prices.
5. Most aware. At this stage, your prospective customer fully understands your product or service. In fact, they’re so confident by now that they’re just about ready to buy.

Guide your prospective clients through the various stages – WITH CONTENT!

Pretty cool, right?

The thing is…

…Your prospective customer isn’t going through this journey and moving from one stage to the next just because. 

They won’t wake up one day and magically land on your product or service and feel absolutely sure that you’re the answer to all their prayers! If you’re really lucky, this might happen for some people. But you can’t just rely on luck, can you?

So your job is to guide prospective customers through the various stages of the buyer’s journey. And the way to do that is to produce awesome content for each of the 5 phases.

How exactly will you do that?

1. Content for someone who is problem aware 

Why haven’t we started with the unaware stage? 

When someone is unaware of their problem, they won’t search for it. So creating content for people when they’re unaware is difficult. If you’re selling a product or service to people unaware of their problem, you may need ads or an awareness campaign to make people realise they have an actual problem. 

So we will kick off with the ‘problem aware’ stage because it’s where your customers will look into their problem and how to fix it. 

Someone who is ‘problem aware’ is likely to Google their problem. They don’t know yet what the solution might be, but they know something isn’t quite working, and they want to change it.

Your job is to create content that people can find on Google that helps with their problems. And while you do that, you can also present them with the potential solutions to fix it.

For example, imagine you’ve just realised your website isn’t ranking in Google. You don’t know what or what’s causing it, but you’ve just realised it’s a major problem – you’re now, problem aware! 

This happens to be a real problem that some of our prospective clients have, so we wrote a blog post called 11 Reasons You’re NOT Ranking in Google & How To Fix It.

Examples of content for the ‘problem aware’ stage

So what content should you create for people in the problem-aware phase?

• • How To content – this teaches people how to do the thing they have a problem with, for example, this article from Andrew and Pete about How you can get on big-name podcasts as a guest
  • Problem + How to fix it – just like the one we mentioned above – 11 Reasons You’re NOT Ranking in Google & How To Fix It.
  • Guides –  the clue is in the name! This teaches people how to do something comprehensively. Such as this article from Dogwood Adventure Play: Taking your dog on holiday: everything you need to know to have a stress-free break!
  • Example-led content – exactly like this article. There’s a reason I’ve added (with examples) in the title. It’s because that’s what people search for. They want to know how to solve their problems and see other people, in action, solving the same problem as them!
  • Templates – how often do you think you’ve Googled ‘XYZ templates’ to help solve your problem? I know I have loads! A good example of this is this article published ScoreApp about How to write an email sequence for your quiz [+ 13 email templates]
  • What is a? To introduce your industry and what you do, you could write a ‘what is a’ article – this article simply tells people, well, what it is you are! For example, What is an SEO Content Writer?

These types of content give your prospective customers and clients plenty of valuable information and options on how they might want to solve their specific problems.

2. Content to help someone become solution aware

For many of us, our industry isn’t the only thing that can solve our customer’s problem. 

Let’s look at someone who wants to lose weight and all the avenues available to them. There’s…

• Personal trainers 
• Nutritionists
• Gym memberships 
• Calorie counting apps 
• Hypnotherapy 
• About a gazillion books 
• Memberships like Slimming World 

The opportunities are endless! 

So your job, as the guide, is to help them find the right pathway for this person. Now, at this stage, you don’t have to talk about you specifically (although you can). Your job here is to guide someone down the right path. 

And you need to explore the options in an unbiased, helpful way. 

It’s the exact approach we took for these blog posts:

SEO Content Writer vs SEO Agency: Which One is Best for Your Business? 

We’re not a freelance SEO content writer or an SEO agency (we kind of sit between the two), and yet, we published this article because it’s helpful for our audience. It helps them find the right solution. 

Or SEO Content Writing vs Facebook Ads: Which One is Best for Your Business?

Examples of content for the ‘solution aware’ stage

Or you might want to create some use cases or case studies showing how your solution worked for someone else. 

Other ideas for content you could create here include:

• This vs that. Content that directly compares two different solutions so someone can see the pros and cons of each. We have an example here: SEO Content vs Thought Leadership Content: which should you create for your business?
• ‘Stealthy’ case studies, where you show how you got results for another client. This obviously shows prospective clients that your solution works and is a worthwhile investment.
  For example, Facebook Ad Strategist Jo Francis here created a blog post on how she increased someone’s email list by 1000 subscribers for just £110.00. If you’re having a problem with increasing your email list and aren’t sure which solution is best, you’ll see that Jo does a great job of selling Facebook ads here! And her Facebook ads service specifically.
• Exploring the common myths about a particular solution, that your audience may have dismissed or heard (incorrectly) about a particular industry, such as this article from Eden School Fees Planning, The top 9 myths about private school
• Outlining the ‘best’ solutions for your audience to help them make the right decision for them. For example, this brilliant article from Andrew and Pete: The Best Business and Marketing Conferences in the UK 2023
• Content around when it’s time for you to invest in a particular solution (or when it’s not time to invest in one), such as this article from Eden School Fees Planning: Signs you need to see a financial planner BEFORE you send your child to private school
• ‘How much does it cost’ type content. How much do you Google ‘how much does it cost for X?’ – A LOT, right? Well you should answer that in your content! 

By the time your website visitor has read these kind of posts, they’ll be much clearer on what they need! 

3. Content to get someone product aware

Someone in the ‘product aware’ stage has decided on your solution. Whoop! Now, they’re going through each product and service to determine what’s right for them. 

We see many business owners and content marketers make the mistake of not producing enough of this type of content. 

And that’s a real missed opportunity because, as we just pointed out, your competitors aren’t producing this content either. And that means you can stand out from the crowd for all the good reasons!

But also, at this stage, your prospective customers or clients are primed to buy. They know they want to buy the thing you offer – they just need to know whether they should go with you or your competitor. 

And some people will be brave enough to pick up the phone and call you to ask any questions. 

But others would rather see all this information in black and white in front of them so they don’t have to go out of their way to ask. And your job is to serve all this on a silver platter.

We find that product-aware content is the easiest type of content to produce because you’re the absolute expert in how your products and services work. All you have to do is to give them everything they need to know to make an informed buying decision.

And that includes all the nitty-gritty stuff about your product or service. No question is too small here – if someone has ever asked you a question on a discovery call or an email enquiry, answer it in a piece of content. And make sure to also address (this is very important!) any objections people might have for not wanting to work with you.

So let’s talk about that a bit more…

Why ‘repelling’ content makes for brilliant problem-aware content! 

Contrary to what many believe, ‘repelling’ content is brilliant for people in the problem-aware stage. 

Repelling content is designed to push away anyone who isn’t right for your business. Someone may have decided to work with you at this stage, but if they’re not suitable for you, it won’t end well – for you or them.

So you’re better off helping them ‘disqualify’ themselves from your services. It may all sound scary and counterintuitive. Who in their right mind would push business away, right?

But if you’ve ever worked with someone who wasn’t the right fit, you’ll know how time-consuming, stressful and costly that was. In fact, according to our own research of over 500 small business owners, 81% of entrepreneurs have worked with a difficult client in the last year – week! 

To help prevent this, state clearly who is not a right fit for your business. And don’t be scared about this! After all, you’re doing them a favour by allowing them to move on to the next provider and solution (one that will be right for them, potentially). And you’re doing yourself a favour by ensuring you’re only talking to the right people.

This is brilliant because it builds trust with your ideal clients, and it makes them feel like you understand them on a deeper level and that you’re talking directly to them.

Here are a few examples of product-aware content we created:

• 10 Reasons We’re Not Right For You.
• Or Why is our SEO content writing & blog management service so expensive?

Examples of content for the product-aware stage

Here are some more ideas for product-aware content you could create:

• Directly comparing two different products (product A vs product B), such as this whopper of an article from ScoreApp: “Typeform quiz vs Scoreapp quiz” which one should you choose?
• ‘What do you need in place before you invest in [your product]’, such as the article: what do and don’t you need in place before you hire an SEO content writer?
  
• ‘Who isn’t the right fit for [your product]’ such as Kylie Lang’s article: Who isn’t the right fit for my quiz funnel service?’
• Objection-led content, such as this brilliant article from Andrew and Pete at Atomic about the most common myths about attending ATOMICON. This examines every potential objection (or myth) someone might have about attending the UK’s biggest marketing conference. And busts it!

4. Content for someone who is ‘most aware’ 

At this point, you just need to give your prospects a little nudge, and they’ll take the plunge and buy from you. Hurray!

This is where having an email list comes very, very handy, which is why we always recommend you have a way through your website and social media channels for people to subscribe.

If you do have a list, you might find that a lot of people have been there for a while but haven’t bought yet. In fact, we know that 9 out of 10 of our clients are on our list for at least 3 months before they decide to buy. 

So how are you going to get them off the fence and help them go from ‘prospective clients’ to actual paying customers?

With content, of course!

Examples of content for the ‘most aware’ stage

‘Why we’re raising our prices’ type content

Here’s an example from our website: Why Are We Raising Our Prices For Our SEO and Content Management Service?

Whenever we raise our prices, we always let people know in advance by publishing a blog post on our website to explain why we’re doing what we’re doing. That’s not only great practice (and shows your prospective customers that you’re honest, upfront, and transparent), but it also helps people who are still undecided to go ahead and buy. No one wants to pay more for something they were going to buy anyway, right?

So by letting people know you’re raising your prices in advance, you give them a chance to buy at the old price. You get the sale and your customers save some money. It’s a win-win!

If you want to know more about this, have a read of the blog post Publish This Easy Piece of Content Before You Raise Your Prices (And See Amazing Results!)

‘Everything you need to know’ type blog posts

An example on our website is Everything You Need to Know About our Content Fortress Course.

These types of articles are exactly what they say on the tin – they include everything that a prospective client needs to know about your product or service. 

Think of it as a super in-depth blog post that includes all the answers to any questions someone may have during a discovery call. It’s a bit like the FAQ section you’d find on a website service page, but all put together in one coherent piece.

After reading this, someone should literally know your product or service like the back of their hands. They should have no further questions and feel 100% ready to buy.

More examples of content for the ‘most aware’ stage

• Case studies. We’ve mentioned case studies before in previous stages, but they are super powerful! When done well and in detail, the story and example of how you worked with someone else and got them results can answer any remaining questions and dispel any doubts someone might have before they’re ready to go ahead and work with you.
• Demos and video explainers also work well for prospective customers in the most-aware stage because they give tangible evidence, proof, and reassurance that your product or service is real. You can show how things work, answer questions, and shred those last objections to pieces.
• Added bonuses. As we mentioned earlier, these work really well if you have an email list. But you can advertise bonuses in other ways too – through social media or via your website, for example. A bonus (especially one that disappears on a certain date) is a great incentive for someone to make the decision to buy right now rather than at some point in the future.
• Discounts. We’re not so keen on discounts because if your product or service is great and gives people results, you shouldn’t need to devalue it. Just like added bonuses, discounts work though. And it’s a strategy we see a lot of marketers use in their businesses.

Create your content calendar based on the awareness stages 

So how do you put all of this together? How can you make sure you have content that covers all the various stages of the buyer’s journey?

Here’s what you need to do in a few easy steps.

• Write down each service or product you offer. This is a super quick step, and it’s as easy as making a list. In fact, it might be a great opportunity to also review your offering, see if everything you sell is still profitable and relevant to your market, and adjust as necessary.
• Imagine what questions someone will have at each stage. Again, unless you’re launching a brand new business, product, or service, this should be super easy. You may already have a list of questions people ask you all the time (during discovery calls, on social media, or via email enquiries). So gather them all up and split them by the various stages of the buyer’s journey.
• Write it all down and build a picture of the content you’ll need. Once you’ve written down all the questions, you can start looking at what type of content you already have against the various stages and what’s still missing. 
• Do some keyword research. Now that you’ve decided what type of content you need to create, it’s time to do some keyword research. Why? Because you want your content to be SEO-friendly or optimised for search (i.e. so people can find it on Google!) If you want to find out more about this, here’s a helpful blog post: WordPress SEO For Blogging – How to Optimise Your WordPress Blog Posts.
• Create your content plan. And last but not least, create your content plan and get writing! You can see a quick sneaky example of our content plan below taken from our Stand Out Content Course. 

Want some help? Check out our Blog Management Service

And there you have it. This is everything you need to know to be able to create content for every stage of the buyer’s journey. And if it all feels like something you’d rather not do yourself but hand over to an agency to take care of for you, we can help!

If you want to create standout content that people easily find on Google and want to get more website traffic and sales without having to write a single word yourself, just give us a shout.

The post How To Create Content for Every Stage Of The Buyer’s Journey (With Examples) appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

If you’re our existing or prospective client, you’ve probably asked this question as the world seems to have gone wild talking about ChatGPT and all the other popular AI tools. 

In fact, you’re far from alone in asking this question. Orbit Media and QuestionPro asked over 1000 consumers if they would like their service providers to get help from AI.

Interestingly, 40% said they would choose a marketing agency that gets AI to check their work, and 25.5% prefer to work with a company with AI-generated graphics and copy (which is then checked by humans).

Every agency should tackle the question – how much do they use AI

We think every marketing, SEO or content agency that uses AI should be completely transparent about how they incorporate these tools into their work, which is why we’re addressing this topic right now.

If you’re considering working with us, here’s how we use AI in our content marketing process.

Why and how we’re NOT using AI

First, let’s talk about how we’re not using AI.

Yes, you read that right. We don’t use AI software to create your written content.

Instead, we have a team of experts (including myself) who do this. And what you can expect consistently from our team is creative and original writing that isn’t taken from anywhere else on the Internet.

The only place we’ll use AI in the writing process to help us out when we need it. We like to think of it as our personal assistant. So sometimes, when you just can’t think of the right word or want a stellar metaphor, AI can be helpful!

So why did we go down this route and decide not to use AI tools such as Chat GPT to create your content?

Well, glad you asked…

1. Humans feed AI the data. AI can’t create content that’s never been produced before!

When working with clients, we aim to produce content that’s never been written before. Phew, right? The last thing you want is a collection of paragraphs copied and pasted from the Internet and a copyright infringement lawsuit on your hands!

Now in fairness, AI tools don’t copy and paste content, as such. But the ideas, concepts, and information AI puts together come from data that already exists. 

And it’s been fed data by humans. Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s A LOT of data. 570 GB to be exact. And in non-geeky terms, that’s 300 billion words from various places such as books, websites, original research etc. So it has a lot to go off. But any content or ideas it creates will originate, in some form, from somewhere else.

What we do is completely different. We create content that only you can produce. 

The topic isn’t necessarily unique, but how you present the topic is. For example, let’s say you want to create “How To” content that shows your audience how to do something (step-by-step). You could do this why using an example of your client, and how you achieved this very thing for them. That type of content teaches your readers something new and showcases your unique knowledge and expertise.

And guess what? No AI tool can do that! Because AI can’t:

• Use personal experiences or lessons learnt.
• Use specific examples of your previous work or client success stories.
• Sprinkle storytelling into your content.
• Talk about how your specific products and services work.
• Use original research.
• Interview others on your behalf for expert input into your content.

A human writer can only do this.

2. AI can’t replicate your exact tone of voice

Another thing that AI tools don’t do very well is replicating your exact tone of voice. They do okay at switching from formal to informal, for example. And the way AI does that is by adding a few exclamation marks here and there and taking out phrases like “yours sincerely”. But that’s not really what we’re after when we talk about content in your tone of voice! There’s a lot more to it than just being formal or informal.

A piece of content that’s written in your tone of voice is simply something that your Mum, Nan, or best friend (or any client who knows you well) could pick up, read, and think: “Wow! This sounds exactly like you! I read it and I can hear your voice in my head“.

So what we aim for when we create content for our clients is to produce something that sounds like them.

To do that, your writing needs to include your typical go-to phrases, expressions, colloquialisms, emotion and sense of humour (if applicable to their brand).

You know those words that you find yourself saying to your customers over and over again? Those things need to appear in your content. And AI tools simply can’t do that. Because they’re not in your brain, and they don’t know you like your Mum, Nan, or your best friend do!

Related article: How to Nail Your Brand Tone of Voice for Your Business [With Examples]

3. Lack of creativity 

The first reason we chose not to use AI tools to create content for our clients (or our own business, for that matter!) is that ChatGPT and other AI tools are trained to create content based on the text it’s provided. There’s no originality there. And that’s simply because software cannot and does not think!

Sure, AI can search for and pull out existing information, text, and data and put it together in a nice and coherent way in a fraction of the time it would take a human. 

And sure, the text won’t be copied – it’ll be unique. But it can’t be creative, and that’s a big difference! It means it can’t make original connections between thoughts like you and I would.

What makes engaging writing is the human ‘thinking’ behind it. This is why we only rely on human writers for content creation for all our clients.

4. Better quality content with human writers!

All in all (and for the reasons above), while AI-generated content can be really good, it just can’t beat the quality of writing and depth of thinking you get from a human writer.

And ultimately, that’s why we made the decision not to use AI software when it comes to content creation in our agency – for ourselves and our clients.

And maybe things will change in the future; who knows? But right now, we’re on team Human when it comes to your content writing, but with a little AI to help us when we need it.

Does it mean we’re ignoring AI and not using these tools?

Not quite.

So let’s get into that.

How we are using AI in our content marketing agency

With that all said (and in the interest of full transparency), we are using AI tools to support the content marketing activities we offer our clients. But we’re using AI tools for very specific tasks, which are mainly around repurposing content. 

So, for example, we use ChatGPT to repurpose your written content (i.e. the blog posts we’ve created for you) into:

• Promotional emails. 
• Social media posts to share on platforms such as LinkedIn or Facebook. 
• Scripts for podcast episodes.
• Short-form videos for TikTok or reels. 
• Full video scripts.

Curious as to how this all works?

In a nutshell, we feed the content we’ve created into ChatGPT and ask the tool to repurpose it into different types of content that can be shared on other platforms.

The key difference here is that you’re using your own original content. The tool is just reworking it, so you can do many different things with it. But the piece of software didn’t create the content for you in the first place.

What do we mean by repurposing? 

When we talk about repurposing, we mean that you’ll need to tweak your original piece of content to turn it into other formats.

So when we say that you can repurpose a blog post into one or more social media posts, it’s not just about posting something on Facebook or LinkedIn to say: “Hey! I wrote this blog post. Here’s the link. Go check it out!”.

That’s not what you want to do.

Instead, you want to take that original piece of content (and we always recommend that’s a blog post), break the points down, and reformat the content so it works for the specific platform you want to share it. And yes, you can add a link to your original piece if you like (at least some of the time), but you don’t always have to.

Related content: How to Repurpose a Blog Post (and Save Yourself So Much Time!)

Is repurposing with AI as simple as copying and pasting? 

So when we talk about using AI tools to repurpose your original piece of content into something else (social media posts, a script for a podcast or a video, etc), we’re not simply talking about having the tool copying and pasting your words from the blog post so you (or your VA or Social Media Manager) can then copy and paste them onto your social media channels.

It’s not quite as straightforward as that.

This is why we’ve just hired an awesome Content Marketing Expert who is experienced in ChatGPT to repurpose the content we create for our clients into various different formats.

The tool is good, but it does need some help from a human to do a couple of things…

1. ChatGPT needs to be given a lot of direction!

For the tool to do precisely what you want it to do (and do an excellent job of it), you need to give it a lot of direction.

Writing prompts that give you the output you want isn’t as easy as it may sound, so you have to constantly tweak what you ask the tool to do for it to deliver exactly what you’re asking for.

For example, if you want the tool to repurpose a blog post into a promotional email, you have to tell it to first summarise the blog post into key bullet points and then add a good hook at the start and a compelling call-to-action at the end.

Unfortunately, if you want a good-quality email to send to your list, it’s not as simple as saying, “Turn this blog post into an email”.

There’s more work required than that, which is precisely why we’ve hired someone who knows how to write. Because they know the hooks, persuasive language, and writing formulas to follow to get the best out of the tool and your content.

As we’ve said, the tool can only do so much. But combining the tool with a professional, experienced writer is a winner! 

2. Output content needs editing

Once ChatGPT gives you a piece of content, you can’t just copy and paste it. You’ll need to review it and edit it to make sure it all makes sense, and the quality is good enough to share.

It’s not just a matter of asking the tool to do something for you and being able to use it without double-checking it and potentially having to make some changes to position the ideas in a way that makes sense to your audience on social media, for example.

So what does this mean to our clients?

Using ChatGPT to repurpose content rather than creating original pieces means that when hiring us, our clients receive original content written and edited by humans and humans!

But…

We also get the help of AI tools to do the things they do best (when given the right input), and right now, that’s repurposing the original content we’ve created for you into different pieces of content that you can share elsewhere (social media, email, etc.).

Sounds like you’re getting the best of both worlds, right?

Probably!

And that’s because you are!

Want some help creating epic SEO content? 

If all this sounds interesting and you want some help to create content that helps you stand out in a crowd filled with AI-generated content, we’ve got your back! We’ll write content for you that turns you into the go-to company in your industry, drives more traffic to your website, and generates more sales for your business.

Sounds good? Check out our Blog Management Service here.

The post How We’re Using AI in Our Content Marketing Agency appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

You know it’ll save you oodles of time and/or get you more leads and sales, but you think to yourself, ‘It’s okay. I’ll buy it later.’

But what happens the next time you check it out? Yup, the price has gone up.

So, to avoid that happening to you, consider this your pre-warning!

On Friday, 27 Jan 2023, we’re increasing the price of our 1-2-1 SEO and blog management service.

So what’s going on, Jammy? How much are you increasing the price by?

Currently, we have 3 packages, aptly named our Bronze, Gold & Platinum packages.

Each package comes with

• Extensive keyword research
• Your own content strategy based on your goals and the keyword research
• Done for you blog posts (the number changes depending on which package you choose)
• Uploading your content to your CMS
• Image design, such as your blog post featured image and your call-to-action image (if you’re wondering what a call-to-action image is, see just below 😉)
• Optimisation of your content
• A repurposing plan for your content – so you know exactly how to maximise this content

The Silver package currently costs £1297+VAT per month (includes 2 blog posts at approx. 1500 words)
The Gold package currently costs £1797+VAT per month (includes 3 blog posts at approx. 1500 words)
The Platinum package currently costs £2297+VAT per month (includes 4 blog posts at approx. 1500 words)

And no, there is no ‘bronze package’ or ‘copper package’, unfortunately. 😂

From Friday 27 January, the price will increase for each package:

Making the Silver package – £1497+VAT
Gold package – £1997+VAT
Platinum package – £2497+VAT

But why are you increasing your prices Jammy?

We’re not increasing our prices because we feel like it. Because it’s the start of the year, and that’s just the ‘done thing’.

We’re increasing our prices for a few specific reasons, and we want to share these reasons with you.

Ultimately, we’re big believers in ‘charging what you’re worth’ but NOT raising your prices ‘just because’.

When we work on projects, we measure everything—the time we put into each project, the outside learning we do to make projects even more successful, the tools we buy, etc.

We LOVE to give our clients everything that will make them successful. But with that, we have to evaluate our service and whether we need to increase the price to reflect everything we do.

So, with that in mind, here’s why we’re increasing our prices…

1. The content strategy and keyword research are worth thousands on their own

When we initially launched this service, we knew we would include content strategy and keyword research.

After all, there’s no point in publishing content if it doesn’t help you achieve your goals, right? So we need to make sure we have the right content plan in place before we even think about writing.

But what we couldn’t predict was how intensive this could be (which is why we charge £2000+VAT for our content strategy & SEO audit service separately!)

What does our content strategy include?

• A content strategy call with you

This is where we figure out your goals, what your typical year looks like, what problems you’re facing right now, who your audience is, how you’re positioned etc.

This helps us formulate a plan and understand what content we can create that will help you reach your goals.

• In-depth keyword research & competitor analysis

Once we’ve had our call together, we’ll do the nitty-gritty technical research to find out exactly what you’re audience is searching for on Google.

This is a time-consuming process that’s part art, part science. But we can find a little goldmine of content ideas that can rank on search engines this way!

We also take a look at your competitors and what content they’re producing that is performing well. And also where there are gaps that you could fill!

• Creation of your content strategy

Finally, after all that research, we put together a content strategy based on the initial call and our keyword research.

This will include the findings from our keyword research and three-six months of content ideas. We’ll give you the titles for these content ideas and a brief overview of them.

Because of all this intense work, it makes sense to increase our prices so we can continue to deliver content strategies that deliver results.

2. We’re spotting (and often fixing) technical issues

You may not know this about us, but we’re website designers (have been for over a decade). So we often spot technical issues with your website that need to be fixed. These issues are sometimes things that could prevent or limit your rankings and impact user experience.

This includes things like:

• Pages/posts missing important metadata
• Google analytics set up
• Website indexing issues
• Page speed issues
• Broken links

3. We act as advisors for your whole business

We aim to help you get more organic traffic and sales, but we don’t just focus on content writing.

We’ve supported our clients with their wider marketing activities, looking at how these can boost results for SEO and get sales (without any extra work from them!)

This includes things like:

• How to get the right backlinks when appearing as a podcast guest
• How to build backlinks through PR
• How to repurpose your content to LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and Facebook
• How to promote your content to your email list
• What lead magnet you should use, and how to create it (we’ve also created lead magnets for our clients too)

And that’s why we’re increasing our prices! So what’s next for you?

When you put it down like that, it’s easy to see why we’re raising our prices by 10% (and this is why we recommend everyone create a piece of content like this when they’re raising their prices!)

Remember, you have until Friday, 27 January, to grab your spot on our SEO and content management service before the doors close and the price goes up!

The post Why Are We Raising Our Prices For Our SEO and Content Management Service? appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

We like to do research, and this research can be a little messy.

The time between researching a product or service and buying said product or service could take a few minutes or years!

That’s because we all go to the Internet with different intent. We might be looking for information, wanting clarification, or we may be ready to buy something. 

So if you want to get in front of your potential customers, you need to make sure you create different content that answers the different types of search queries your potential customer will type into Google.

AND you need to optimise that content, ensuring you maximise your chances of ranking.

But how the heck do you do all of that?

Let’s break it down and simplify it all before this whole idea makes you break out in hives. 

(Honestly, this isn’t as scary as it sounds!)

First things first, what is a search query?

A search query is simply the words or phrases you put into Google to find something you’re looking for.

When you’re trying to figure out where you’ve seen that actor before on TV, what do you do? You Google it! That’s a search query.

All you need to know is there are three different types of search queries, and your customers will use these to find you and potentially buy from you.

Don’t believe us? According to a study, 81% of people research online before buying.

We all do it. We can’t even buy a toaster without a bit of research!

So yes, you will need to create content if you want to get in front of people researching. Because if you don’t, your competition will!

What are the 3 types of search queries?

When you search for anything on Google, it normally falls into three categories:

• Informational.
• Transactional.
• Navigational.

Different search queries lead to different results, i.e. different types of content.

So let’s look at each type individually and understand why you should produce (and optimise) content that falls under each category to help more of your prospective clients find you and to make more sales.

1. Informational queries and the content you can create

What is an informational query?

An Informational query is what it says on the tin. It’s the kind of stuff people look for when they need information on how to do something or find out what something is.

For example, you might type into Google: “How to make pumpkin pie”, “How to fix a broken zipper“, or “What does stoozing mean?“

How can you create content for informational queries?

A lot of this is by answering ‘how’ or ‘what’ based questions; you can easily use this in your business too.

To get in front of our audience who are using informational queries, we use content like:

• How to use humour in your marketing so people fall in love with your business (+11 prompts to help you!)
• What is an SEO content writing service? And how does it all work?
• Or How to Make Content Part of Your Sales Process (so you get more sales, faster!)

Why is informational content good for you?

The benefit of publishing content for informational search queries on your website is that it helps you attract website traffic and rankings.

What does this mean?

When prospective customers are looking for “How to” content, they can find your informational content.

Many of us use informational search queries. So if you can help your audience by answering their questions about the information they’re looking for, you could rank in search engines and get those people on your email list. Or even buy!

Of course, it takes time and effort to get website traffic and rankings from content that answers informational search queries. You need to think about keyword research, content writing and optimising the content, etc., but you get the gist. And if you need help with that, our SEO checklist for blog posts should help!

All sounds perfect so far, right?

But let’s play devil’s advocate.

Are there any drawbacks to publishing informational content?

We 100% recommend that you publish content that answers informational search queries (we certainly do!), but if you only focus on this type of content, you may be shooting yourself in the foot. Because while you’re attracting lots of people (yay!) they might not be looking to buy from you (oh dear!)

Remember that at this stage, people are looking for information. They want to find out how to get something done. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re considering buying anything at this particular moment.

The idea is to get a lot of traffic using that content, and SOME of that traffic will eventually buy. But most won’t.

The good news is that you can (and should) publish other types of content, too – types of content that get people to buy…

2. Commerical/Transactional queries and the content you can create 

What is a commercial/transactional query?

A commercial/transactional query is what someone types into Google when they know what they want to buy, but they don’t know what company or person they want to buy it from.

Commerical/transactional queries are specifically about products/services/companies. For example, let’s say you’re looking for project management software. You can imagine typing into Google, ‘monday.com reviews‘. Or even ‘monday.com discount code‘. These queries show buying intent.

Commercial/transactional content is what pops up when someone is searching for your products or services specifically.

How can you create content for commercial/transactional queries?

If you look on our website, you’ll find blog posts like:

• 11 Reasons our SEO content writing service is not right for you
• Why is our SEO content writing & blog management service so expensive?
• Or What’s Our Black Friday Offer 2022 All About Then? 

We have many more examples as we create A TON of transactional content.

And as you probably know, if you’ve come across our content before, we are big fans of the teachings from They Ask, You Answer by Marcus Sheridan. The key here is to focus on what your ideal customers ask you (face-to-face during meetings or sales calls, over the phone, or by email) and take the time to answer those questions in detail through your content.

Ideas for transactional/commercial content YOU can create

If you think you have nothing to write transactional content about, think again because the minute you start looking at your customers’ questions, the idea floodgates will open. But if you’re sitting there scratching your head and wondering how this might work in your world, here are some more examples.

• Content that answers cost-related questions. For example, “How much does a Dyson cost?”
• Case studies and success stories from previous clients.
• “The best” type of content. Examples of this could be “The best website builders for beginners” or “Manchester’s best co-working and freelancing spots.”
• Myth-busing content, that tells people (nicely!) what they get wrong about your products or services 
• Jargon-busting content, like “What depreciation means to you and how our accountants can help.”
• Original research you made in a specific area of your industry.
• Or objection-led content. This is content that you create specifically in answer to the objections (explicit or implicit) you hear from your customers repeatedly. Things like, “I don’t have time to…” or “This won’t work for me because…”, or “I can’t afford this right now because…” This is where you tip the argument and explain why these objections aren’t valid. Acknowledge that you see and understand your prospective clients’ worries, but take the time to break them down and show them how they will get results from working with you.

Why is transactional/commercial content good for you?

You’ll want to publish transactional content on your website because it helps you attract more of your ideal customers and convert leads into sales.

Because ultimately, you want to sell, right?

The people who are likely to come across this type of content are already thinking about buying your products or services. 

They might not have decided to buy from you just yet, but this type of content is designed to sway them in the right direction! 

Why?

First of all, you’d be surprised, but many business owners don’t create transactional content (all the more reasons why you shouldn’t stop at informational content!) So this makes you stand out from your competitors.

But also, transactional content helps you showcase your services and explain how you work and what you offer. By creating content of this type, you’re pre-empting many of the questions, objections, worries, and doubts your prospective clients have around making that final decision to buy (or buy from you).

Think about producing transactional content as providing a service – helping prospective customers make a more informed decision. You’re making it easier for them to buy. And as a consumer, yourself, don’t you just love it when that happens?

Are there any drawbacks to publishing transactional content?

There aren’t that many drawbacks to publishing transactional content. The only thing that slightly plays against it is the fact that it’s sometimes not the best type of traffic-generating content.

This means it won’t necessarily attract tons of traffic to your website from search engines (it depends on what type of content you create). But the traffic it does attract is more primed to buy. 

3. Navigational content

And finally, navigational content is the type of content people land on when they’re looking to find a specific website or page. So when someone is typing in the name of your company or brand into a search engine, they’re performing a navigational search.

Of course, this means they already know you. They know your brand name and the products or services you sell, they’re probably interested in buying, and they want to find the correct website or physical location (like a specific product or service page) to get what they’re after.

Like transactional content, navigational content comes in handy when people are already in your world – they know your brand or business name. But it’s still important to optimise the correct pages on your website to ensure your customers find what they’re looking for.

For example, on our website, you’ll find the page Blog Writing & SEO for time-poor businesses, and that’s optimised for “content writing packages” “SEO content writer” or ‘SEO content writing”. So if someone were to type that in, they’d be directed to this page and find all the information they need.

We also link back to our service pages from other pages on our website or from our blog posts (just like we did above), and that helps our prospective customers find what they’re after.

Why is navigational content good for you?

In a nutshell, it helps you sell!

Take our service page for Blog Writing & SEO as an example again. It has all the information that someone needs to make a decision:

• We open with a short video where you can see us (and see we are real people in the flesh and not robots!) and where we introduce the service.
• It talks about the problems that our ideal customers are experiencing and want to solve.
• It shows them what life could be like – what they would get if they invested in our service.
• Then it explains the service – step by step.
• It spells out how much time (and therefore money) our clients could save with our help.
• And finally, it outlines the simple steps someone needs to take to get the ball rolling with us.

It breaks it all down for our ideal clients, so the only thing left to do for them is get in touch with us! That’s how brilliantly navigational content can work for you.

Are there any drawbacks to publishing navigational content?

Navigational content is an essential component of your website. Just like you need a Home page, you need product or service pages. Otherwise, how will your prospective customers know what they can buy from you and how?

But navigational content alone isn’t enough.

Plus, it tends to be static, meaning that (unless your services change every other month) this type of content isn’t likely to change very often. And if you don’t publish anything new regularly, Google and the other search engines can’t see that you have anything relevant or useful to share and are less likely to rank you high in the search results.

If you only have navigational content on your website with no other content whatsoever, it will be really hard for new prospects (i.e. people who don’t already know you and your business) to find you.

So if you want new customers to find you and your fantastic business, you need to publish fresh and helpful content (both informational and transactional).

Would you like our SEO blog agency to help you?

Your website needs a clean structure with the right type of content (i.e. an active blog with useful, in-depth, optimised articles) and optimised pages for your products and services so that more of your ideal customers can find you via the search engine results and buy from you. That means you need to plan for different types of content, set time aside for keyword research, and then create all that content.

And yes, we know this takes time! That’s exactly why we can create that content for you so you don’t need to worry about a thing.

We create:

• Content that helps you rank on Google and delivers you traffic.
• High-ranking content that helps your potential customers.
• Content that pre-qualifies your customers and helps you attract those who are right for you.
• And content that helps you make more sales.

And, of course, we do all the keyword research for you. Want to find out more? Get in touch and let’s have a chat!

The post What are the three different types of search query? And what content can you create for each type? appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

Content can support you with a variety of goals. The key is knowing what type of content can help with which goals, so you can be more intentional and strategic about what you create and share.

Sounds good?

Then let’s take a look at your business goals for 2023 and at the type of content you want to create to achieve those goals.

1. Growing your audience/email list

The more you become ‘known’ in your industry, the more customers you’ll attract. It’s that simple.

But even though social media is great and everything, nothing quite beats growing your email list. Having your potential customers’ emails means you can speak to them directly, whenever you want, with little distraction. It’s a powerful tool.

We know this ourselves because we’ve personally managed to grow our business on a tiny marketing budget. All we did was publish the right kinda blogs, convert readers into email subscribers, and, when we’ve built enough trust, sold them our content writing services.

Unfortunately, a lot of small businesses struggle to build a sizeable email list. In a study of over 1000 small business owners by Andrew and Pete at ATOMIC, they found that over half of respondents have an email list of 0-51 people 😬

When you don’t have your own audience, i.e. a list of people you can communicate directly with, you’re reliant on ads (which are pricey), referrals (which are inconsistent) or social media (which can be unreliable).

So how can the content you publish on your website help you grow your audience and your email list?

You can grow your audience by producing more SEO content.

What is SEO content?

SEO content is what you create in direct response to your customers’ internet search queries. It’s in-depth, well-written, engaging content that’s both informative and educational.

And it’s also optimised content, meaning that is written in a way that helps your content pop up in the search results.

The benefits of SEO content

The main focus of SEO content is to help you rank on the first page of Google so that more of your prospective customers can find you.

Being in the search results on the first page is the ultimate aim here because, unfortunately (and you know this as a user yourself), people hardly ever click on the second page or beyond. In fact, according to research, only 0.63% of all Google searchers do!

So for your website to show up higher in the ranking, you need to create SEO content regularly and consistently and always optimise it for search.

This means you need to:

• Research keywords on topics that are relevant to your industry and that are sought-after by your ideal customers (i.e. what are people searching for?)
• Make sure that those keywords are organically (i.e. naturally) included in your content in strategic places (for example, the title, the sub-headings, the description of the images, etc.) You want your content to read well – not sound like it was created by a robot!
• Make sure your content includes both internal and external links to other helpful and related content (just like we’re doing in the next line).

Related content: WordPress SEO For Blogging – How to Optimise Your WordPress Blog Posts.

Examples of SEO content

A simple way of understanding SEO content is by thinking about some of your own web searches. What do you typically search on the internet? Often, we’re after information or tutorials (‘How To’ type of content), such as “How to complete your tax return” or “Best pet-friendly cafes in Liverpool.”

Here are some examples of SEO content on our website:

7 Ways To Write An Irresistible Blog Post Headline.
What is an SEO content writing service? And how does it all work?

What makes for ‘bad’ SEO content?

Having SEO content on your website is a must. But we see a lot of business owners not quite hitting the mark with this.

Yes, your aim is to rank on the first page of the search engine results, which means the SEO content you produce must be driven by the type of searches your ideal customers type into Google. And you can use the internet and other more specialised SEO tools to decide what topics you should create content around.

But that doesn’t mean your content needs to be boring. Or that it needs to be the same as everyone else.

Quite the opposite, in fact!

You want to make sure your voice, personality, and your individual experience and expertise shine in your content. You’re creating educational and informative content, but you need to be doing this as you.

Because that also gives you a chance to highlight how you’re different and to start creating the brand awareness people need to decide to go ahead and buy from you.

Related content: How to use humour in your marketing, so people fall in love with your business (+11 prompts to help you!)

2. Increasing brand awareness

If your goal is to increase brand awareness with your content, you need to create thought-leadership content.

This is no longer a ‘nice to have’ but is an essential part of content marketing. With so much content out there, the only way to stand out is to create that positions you as the leader in your industry.

You can increase brand awareness by creating thought leadership content

What is thought-leadership content?

Thought-leadership content uses your expertise, insight, and experience to help you become the go-to source of information in your industry.

Rather than a specific type of content, we like to think of thought-leadership content as an approach to content creation. It can be about expressing controversial or outspoken opinions if you want it to be. But it doesn’t have to be.

It’s definitely not about picking fights with people! It’s more about not sitting on the sidelines and letting your audience know what you think about certain topics. We’d like you to see it as content that’s authentically and recognisably you, with a strong brand voice.

So thought-leadership content will typically include:

• Stong and/or controversial opinions
• Evidence of new findings within your industry based on your experience
• A desire to share your knowledge without any limitations – i.e. showing us the why and the how!
• Original research conducted by you and your business and your findings
• A strong voice or different approach to whatever it is you do.

The benefits of thought-leadership content

The main benefit of sharing thought-leadership content is to help you build credibility as a business and be seen as an expert. That’s a sure way to strengthen brand awareness with your prospective customers and clients.

Examples of thought-leadership content

Thought-leadership content can cover the following topics:

• Original research
• Business decisions you’ve made and why you’ve made them
• Expert interviews with others in your industry
• Customer client stories and case studies – ones that show the exact steps you took to overcome a problem with lots of evidence and value. Not just saying nice things about yourself
• Insider looks into your business that is actually helpful for your target audience e.g. publishing your income and expenditure every month and breaking down how you made sales that month (we always love these articles when we see them!)

Here’s an example you might recognise from our website:

How to market your business during a recession: 20 industry experts give us their views

What makes for ‘bad’ thought-leadership content?

Thought-leadership content is almost always a good idea unless you’re trying to be controversial for the sake of being controversial. Remember you’re not trying to pick an argument here!

There’s a difference between saying what you think and firmly drawing lines in the sand and explaining why you believe what you believe and trying to pick a fight with your prospective clients or competitors.

Be mindful of the difference!

Thought-leadership content will typically attract the people who are right for you and your business and ‘repel’ the ones who aren’t. But it doesn’t mean that you have to offend people or burn bridges in the process. There’s no need to criticise a competitor or expose a client, for example. You can express your opinions with objectivity and balance while also being kind to others!

Related content: SEO Content vs Thought Leadership Content: which should you create for your business?

3. Converting more leads

Another goal you might have in 2023 (and you should have this goal all year round every single year!) is to convert more leads. This goal is just (if not more important) than the first goal of growing your audience or email list. Because yes, it’s great doing that, but a large email list doesn’t pay the bills, you’ve still got to convert those subscribers into paying customers.

And that’s something businesses often neglect!

So what type of content can help you convert more?

You can increase conversions by creating sales-enablement content.

What is sales-enablement content?

As it says on the tin, sales-enablement content is what you produce throughout the selling process to engage with your prospects and directly address their concerns.

It shouldn’t just talk up your products or services, but it should also tackle the ‘objections’ your prospective customers have towards working with you. Whether they vocalise them or not, it’s your job to identify them, break them down, and explain (step-by-step) either why they’re not applicable or how are you planning to address them through your work.

For example, if you offer online fitness coaching, someone might think the service isn’t for them because they think they won’t be able to keep themselves accountable unless they have their coach physically in the gym with them. So how do you address that? How can you show them, through your content, that your service can actually help them and solve the problem they’re experiencing right now?

The benefits of sales-enablement content

Sales-enablement content help you gently guide your prospective customers towards making the informed decision to buying from you.

It’s not about being pushy or ‘salesy’ here. You’re not trying to convince just anyone to buy. You’re explaining to the people who are right for you what you can do for them and how, so they can feel reassured and confident in thinking you’re the right choice for them.

Examples of sales-enablement content

Sales-enablement content can include:

• Case studies from clients
• Objection-led content – problems with your industry, products or services, why you’re priced differently, why you don’t do something that others in your industry do etc
• “How to find the right…” type of content, such as “How to find the right Virtual Assistant for your accountancy business.”
• Buyer’s guides
• Use cases
• Content that breaks down the process of working with you
• FAQ style content

Some examples you can find on our website are:

What is our Black Friday offer all about then?
Why is our SEO content writing & blog management service so expensive?
Biggest Problems with SEO Companies (and how you can avoid them!)
SEO Content Writer vs SEO Agency: Which One is Best for Your Business?

What makes for ‘bad’ sales-enablement content?

When creating sales-enablement content, you don’t want to be overly promotional. But there’s an easy way around this – think about your customers and what they need. Put yourself in their shoes:

What are they worried about?
What’s holding them back from going ahead and working with you? Is it money? Lack of time? Lack of self-confidence? Something else?
And what fears or doubts might they be experiencing right now?

Spend some time thinking about these questions (or even better, ask your prospective customers directly, if you can) and address them in your content. This will allow you to create sales-enablement content that does its job of helping you convert leads into sales while also being helpful and not pushy.

Related content: How to increase your sales using objection-led content and How to Make Content Part of Your Sales Process (so you get more sales, faster!)

4. Retaining more customers

The last goal you might have (and one that completes the sales cycle quite nicely) is retaining customers.

You’ve done all the work to attract people into your world, wow them into becoming your customers, and now you want them to be loyal and stay. You want them to be so happy with the results they get from working with you that they buy from you again and again.

You can retain customers by producing customer service content

What is customer service content?

This is content that helps your audience achieve their goals by using your product or being part of your service.

Remember you’re addressing your customers now – not just leads and prospects. These people have already bought your product or service – they already know you’re brilliant!

But they still have questions about how to use your product or what to do next. So think about what type of content you can create that helps you serve your existing customers.

Ultimately, your aim with this content is to make your current customers reach their goals faster and more efficiently – which is good for both you and your customer!

The benefits of customer service content

The good thing about sharing customer service content is that it helps both you and your customers. How?

For one, it saves you time in answering questions. If one customer has a question about how to use your product or service, chances are that others will too. So answer these questions at scale and through your content – you do it once, and you don’t have to keep repeating yourself.

And when it comes to your current customers, it keeps them super happy. Have you ever been in a position yourself where you’re not sure about asking a question about a product or service you bought? You may feel embarrassed or think it’s a silly question. But if the business owner has already pre-emptied and answered that question, you don’t even have to put your hand up and ask!

One of our SEO content writing clients recently told us that their customer service team shares our content with customers every single day, and it has saved them hours every week in admin time! 

Isn’t that brilliant when you can just find all the information you need? That’s exactly what customer service content can do for you.

Examples of customer service content

An example of customer service content we wrote back when we were web designers is How To Write Your Website About Page.

We used to create the design and graphics for our website design clients, but they’d need to write their own copy. So we served them with content that helped them make the most of the service they were buying from us.

Another example we think is brilliant is this blog post from ScoreApp – 29 Simple Ways to Launch Your Quiz Lead Magnet.

Once you’ve set up your quiz, ScoreApp also produces content that helps you launch it, so you can take the next step. That’s customer service for you!

What makes for ‘bad’ customer service content?

The only thing that makes customer service content ‘bad’ is the lack of it! We don’t see many businesses regularly producing this type of content. And ‘product updates’ don’t quite count, especially if they sound technical and boring. This isn’t customer service.

Customer service content still needs to be helpful, engaging, informative, educational, and in your own voice. The only difference from the other types of content we talked about is that it’s aimed at your existing customers rather than your prospects.

You’ll often find that customer service content is all helpful for non-customers too. They’ll find it, learn more about you and your business and become a lead. So there are no excuses!

Would you like our help to achieve your business goals for 2023?

In this blog post, we discussed four different types of goals. You may have decided to focus on one or two as priorities for 2023 or you may want to work towards all four. There’s no right or wrong answer here.

But whatever your goals, content marketing can play a big part in helping you achieve your objectives, as long as you produce content that aligns with your goals. If that sounds overwhelming and like too much work for the time you have available, we can help!

Our Blog Writing and SEO Agency is the ultimate time-saving solution for ambitious and time-poor businesses. So if you’d like us to help you research and write your content for you, get in touch!

The post What content do you need to create to hit your business goals in 2023? appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

It was up there with Valentine’s Day for my most hated days – yes, I am that miserable person who goes on and on about it being commercialised nonsense.

And Black Friday was no different. But then I just couldn’t stop myself from opening some emails from my favourite companies. And lo-and-behold a few days later parcels would arrive containing chocolate and stationary – obviously for gifts and absolutely not for me.

I don’t want you to buy a dud.

But…I’ve also bought a few duds too – especially for our business. You know the ones, where you think this is an AMAZING deal, and then you never ever use it? Yeah those. So this blog post will tell you all about our Black Friday offer, and you can decide in advance of Black Friday if it’s right for you.

Zero buyer’s remorse!

What is our Black Friday offer?

We’ve created the Ultimate Blogging Bundle! 

What does our Black Friday offer include?

Our Black Friday Offer includes:

1. The Blog Post Template Pack

These are Blog Post Templates for business owners who want more traffic, rankings and sales from their content in way less time.

This includes…

• 17 fill-in-the-blanks blog post templates
  We have seventeen blog post templates that will get you either rankings and traffic or leads and sales. This will give you a huge headstart on your blog content in 2022.
  
  Blog post examples include:
  The Nudger – a blog post that explains why you’re raising your prices and how people can buy at your current rate
  The Fixer – a blog post that teaches people how to fix a problem they are having that you can help with
  The Repeller – a blog post that helps you repel those who aren’t the right fit (and attract your dream clients)
  
  
• 4 blog posts featured image graphics
  You can select one of four beautifully designed blog post featured images to edit with your colours/fonts/logo. These are designed in Canva – you only need a free license to access them.
  
  
• Two call-to-action graphics
  Throughout your blog post, you’ll want to advertise a product/free lead magnet/book a call. You can use our call to action graphics to do this. Free to edit as you wish in Canva.
  
  
• (NEW) Two bonus Christmas blog post templates
  We’ll also give you two Christmas themed blog post templates you can use in December to promote your products or services.
  
  
• An SEO cheat sheet
  This will help you optimise each blog post you create, making sure you dont miss anything important!
  

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2. A Personalised Blog Post Video Critique!

This is where we’re getting a little bit excited because once you’ve created your first blog post (of many!) using our templates, you can then send it us to review.

What we’ll do is review the blog post, telling you EXACTLY how to improve it for SEO. You can then use our personalised advice across all future blog posts you create.

We will send our personalised review to you via video format (we’ll record our screen at the same time to show you exactly where you can improve).

Your video will be 10-15 minutes in length.

3. Our New 90 Day Content Marketing Workbook (physical copy sent to you in the post)

Finally, you’ll also receive a physical copy of our 90 Day Content Marketing Workbook!

The workbook includes…

• An overview of the 8 types of content topics you should produce
• 30+ blog post ideas you can use straight away
• Sections for evaluating where you are currently, such as your current website traffic and search rankings
• One page per piece of content you need to produce with prompts to help you with SEO
  Blogging, podcast and video checklists
• A section to evaluate how far you’ve come in 90 days
• Notes sections
• The perfect accompaniment to the blog post templates

The workbook will be posted to you and you’ll also receive a PDF version. The delivery times vary depending on where you are in the world (we’re posting from the UK).

How much does it cost? And why is it such a big deal?

Ever seen a Black Friday ‘offer’ that was a bit..well how do I put this? Shit?

Where they haven’t really discounted anything? Just ramped up the price before and then discounted it to what it was originally? Yeah, I hate that.

So I’m going to break down the cost of this and why it’s such a steal.

The total cost of this product is $97.00 (plus VAT if applicable). 

To break down the costs, to buy these products separately it would cost you…

• The blog post template pack is currently $47.00
• The workbook is $30 
• And the SEO review of your blog post is $124

So that’s $201. A total saving of $104. 

How long will I be able to get the offer for?

The offer is available from 12.00am on Thursday 24th November to 11.59pm on Monday 28th November 2022.

Where can I buy it?

The page where you can buy it is almost complete! You just can’t access it yet. We’ll make it available on Thursday evening to go live on Friday.

Are there similar offers out there for the same product?

We have actually looked and there isn’t anything out there like the blog post templates (that we’ve seen). This isn’t our way of selling it, by the way! We just can’t find a similar product!

Who is this for?

This is for anyone who wants to get better results from blogging i.e. more traffic, rankings and sales.

The post What’s Our Black Friday Offer 2022 All About Then? appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

Is this what you should focus on in your business right now?

Will it actually work?

Should you redesign your website first? 

Should you have brand guidelines? 

Should you wait until you’ve introduced another product or service you’re planning on introducing?

It’s all a bit confusing right? Well in this article, we’re going to tell you exactly what you do and don’t need in place before you invest in an SEO content writer. 

What is an SEO Content Writer anyway?

First thing first, what even is one of those, right?

An SEO content writer is someone who produces compelling content in your tone of voice and style that is so engaging that it gets your readers to take action.

That’s the ‘Content Writer’ bit of the title.

So what’s the ‘SEO’ bit all about, then?

The ‘SEO’ bit means that a content writer typically has a deep understanding of SEO. They won’t just write any old content, but they’ll also optimise it for the keywords you want to rank for. And they’ll do it in a way that sounds natural and not robotic – a way your readers will love. 

Makes sense?

This last bit is important. Because if you’re thinking about this service right now, it’s because you want your content to attract more traffic to your website and perform better in the search engine rankings.

But your readers still need to be at the heart of it all. And if you end up with blog posts that read like they’ve been written by a robot, you need to fire that SEO Content Writer – pronto! But a good one will make sure all your content is informative, engaging, and useful to your audience.

Related content: What is an SEO content writing service? And how does it all work?

So now that we got that out of the way, why are we writing a whole article about what you need to have in place before you can hire your very own SEO Content Writer? After all, we offer an SEO content writing service, don’t we just want to work with anyone and everyone?

Short answer, no. 

Long answer! We want to make sure we offer the right service for your needs right now so you can make a decent ROI out of hiring us. Otherwise, you’d be unhappy and feel like you’re wasting your precious time and hard-earned money. And that would make us sad too. Which is not a good outcome for anyone, right?

So let’s look at what you don’t need first.

A quick overview of what you do and don’t need before you hire an SEO Content Writer 

Things you DON’T need before you hire an SEO Content Writer

1. A fancy-pants, expensive website

You might think it’s a bit odd that expert web designers are sitting here (with a straight face) telling you that you don’t need a fancy-pants website to make your content work.

But it’s true.

This might sound like news to you, but websites are never forever. As your business evolves – and your products and services change with it – your website needs to change too. That means that during the lifespan of your business, you may go through a lot of different websites or re-designs. Does that mean that you can’t have any content on your website right now because you might be changing your services one or two years down the line?

Absolutely not!

If you have content on your website and decide to update it or start again with a different one, you can always transfer any blog posts you’ve already published onto your new site.

So let’s not use the fact that your business (and website) is still evolving as an excuse not to create any content. You’d be missing out on business and leaving A LOT of money on the table.

Related content: Why You Shouldn’t Redesign Your Website (And When You Should).

A caveat: what if you have an old-fashioned website (that looks BAD)

So you don’t need a fancy-pants website, but once you decide to invest in epic content for your website (i.e. the type of content we write for you), your content will start to bring more traffic to your website (yay!) and also increase your rankings in the search engines (get in!). 

So surely, when your prospective leads and customers land on your website, you want them to see something that looks good, right? But more on that in a minute…

What you definitely DON’T want is something that looks like it was designed 30 years ago when people still used MS-DOS and computer listing paper (if that’s before your time, look it up – it’ll be a laugh).

Now, that kind of outdated stuff would put your readers right off. They’d be clicking the back button faster than you can say “Hey!” and never actually get to consume the amazing content you’ve paid us to create for you.

We don’t want that either.

2. Brand guidelines

We hear this a lot from prospective clients: “We don’t have brand guidelines, so we can’t work with you yet.”

Technically, that’s not true. You definitely CAN work with us. Sure, brand guidelines are nice for you (and for us) to have. It means you’ve already done the groundwork to figure out how you can use imagery, text, and design elements together to represent your unique brand and show up consistently on different platforms and mediums. 

It also means you’ll have done the work on your ‘tone of voice’ and how you want to ‘sound’ to your customers. And yes, having that understanding would help us create content that fits with the rest of your brand.

But it’s not essential.

Why?

Because we can figure all that out together. During our kick-off call, we can tease out your tone of voice and fine-tune it as we go. You’ll give us feedback, we’ll take it onboard, and ensure that any content we write for you sounds exactly like you would.

It’s not Black Magic, promise. It’s what we do, and it’s based on cooperation and collaboration with you.

Related content: How to Nail Your Brand Tone of Voice for Your Business [With Examples].

3. Everything to ‘be perfect’ 

We see this all the time. And it makes us oh-so-sad.

A lot of website owners put off content creation (sometimes even indefinitely!) because they want everything to ‘be perfect’.

So they wait.

And wait.

And wait some more.

But the right time never comes because, as we pointed out earlier, your business is always evolving and changing. So things are never going to ‘be perfect’. There’s no such thing. Sure, they might be perfect for RIGHT NOW. But 12-18 months down the line, they might not.

So don’t wait.

Because you’ll forever want to make changes and tweaks – to your business, your products and services, your packages, your website, and even your content. And that’s fine.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t capitalise on what you have right now. So create content around your existing products and services (the ones that your prospective customers can buy today), and you’ll attract more traffic to your website, show up higher in the search engine rankings, and get more leads and sales in your business. And that’s more dinero in your bank account, thank you very much.

Right. So that was all the stuff you DON’T need. But what is it that you DO need if you’re getting ready to hire an SEO Content Writer to write for you?

Things you need before you hire an SEO Content Writer 

1. A professional-looking website

It may sound like we’re contradicting ourselves here.

But we’re not.

We told you that you don’t need to spend thousands on a professionally-designed website or hire a super fancy web agency to create your business website. And it’s true. But you do need a professional-looking website.

Note: That does NOT mean expensive!

This may sound a bit vague and subjective, but you’ll know what the opposite of that is – boring, dull, full of stock photos of people in suits and offices, and something that looks like it was designed in the wrong decade.

You don’t want that.

You want something fresh with colours, fonts, and photographs that reflect you, your business, and your personality. Your copy has to explain exactly what it is you do, it has to be easy for your user to find where they need to go, and your images should be good quality. 

Nope, it does not need to be a 50K website designed by some high-end agency, but equally, it shouldn’t have had its last redesign in 2007! There’s a fine balance between the two, but we find the majority of people who get in touch do hit the mark with their websites.

2. A website that ‘technically’ works well

You don’t want any major technical issues with your website, as this can hinder your search engine rankings and annoy your website visitor.

Before we start working with you, we run an audit to check that your website is in good condition for Google. If it isn’t, don’t worry, we can work with you to fix it!

Some things to make sure you tick off are:

• Your website is mobile-friendly

You know how it works – most people check websites on the move on their smartphones, so you need a website that looks good on mobile as well as on desktop.

• Your website loads relatively fast

Again, you know that Internet users have little time and patience. We want things, and we want them now. If a website takes ages to load, we probably think it’s spam, or that it’s down, and it’s just not worth our time. So we’ll move on to the next thing and forget about going back again. That’s a lost lead or customer. And you definitely don’t want that.

• Your website is user-friendly

Our websites are about our businesses, yes, but they need to work for our audience as much as they do for us as business owners. Is the information easy to find? Is your website easy to navigate? Or are people getting lost? Are their burning questions being answered? Are your blog posts designed and structured in a way that makes it easy for your readers to skim-read them and get the information they want as quickly as possible?

This is what it means to have a professional-looking website. But it doesn’t mean you have to hire an agency to create it for you.

Related content: The Ultimate Guide to the Perfect Website and How much does it cost to build your WordPress website?

3. Knowing exactly what you’re selling and to who 

Your content should always point to what you’re selling, so we need you to be crystal clear about the products and services you offer and how you package them.

Do you offer monthly packages? Recurring fees? Do you sell a bespoke service, or is it a one-size-fits-all offering? Do you sell different packages at a range of prices? Who’s your ideal customer? Do you have a niche?

We create content with the aim of getting you more leads and sales, so it’s important we know what you want us to promote and talk about because, obviously, depending on what you offer, the content will vary.

Also, depending on who you’re talking to, the way we approach your blog posts and the language and tone we use will be different. Do you know what problems your customers are experiencing? Do you know how to talk about those problems and how your products or services are the perfect solutions for those struggles?

If you’re not yet super clear on this then you’re not ready to invest in content. But don’t worry, this is usually something you can work through quickly!

Related content: 11 Reasons our SEO content writing service is not right for you.

4. A lead magnet

And finally, this isn’t a must, but having a lead magnet is definitely helpful if you want to increase your audience. A lead magnet is usually something you give away for free in exchange for your web visitors’ email addresses.

A lot of lead magnets are handy ‘How to’ guides that help your audience solve a particular problem you’re an expert in. But they don’t have to be. You could also use content upgrades (these tend to be pieces of additional content that people can sign up for from within a blog post) or even a quiz. We have one, and it’s called The SEO Quiz.

There are several types of lead magnets you can offer on your website. But if you don’t have one just yet, don’t worry! We can definitely help you create something amazing that works for you and your business.

Related content: The Ultimate Guide to Generating More Leads From Your Website.

So this is it. That’s exactly what you need to have (or not have) in place if you’re thinking of hiring us as your SEO Content Writers.

The post What you do (and don’t) need to have in place before you hire an SEO Content Writer appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

We can’t get away from the topic of the oncoming recession that is expected to hit at the end of 2022. For businesses, that means there’s a lot of talk about cutting marketing budgets, ‘tightening your belts’ and hunkering down.

But this advice doesn’t sit well with us because, surely, most businesses can’t afford to hibernate during a recession? Isn’t it a time when you need to be there for your customers, to showcase what you do, how you help and who you are?

Why we’re talking about running a business during a recession

We started a business during the last recession. We were bright-eyed twenty-year-olds determined to beat the odds, and in a way, that unquestioning naivety kinda worked for us.

But we’ve never run an established business throughout a recession. This is new to us, and it might be for you, too. Even though we know we want to ramp up our marketing, we also know that marketing during a recession is a bit different.

So we’ve turned to business and marketing experts to give us their personal views on marketing during a recession.

We asked them all how they would market themselves during a recession and in this article we’ll talk about what they said.

Honestly, this stuff is absolute gold. And if your plan is to ‘hunker down’ during the impending (probable) recession, you absolutely need to read on…

How to Market Yourself During A Recession: 20 Business and Marketing Experts Give Us Their Views

Andrew and Pete, Authors, Keynote Speakers, Co-founders of ATOMIC
Website
Book – Content Mavericks 

“Double down on what’s working.

Though you may feel the desire to slash your own marketing budget, numerous studies have shown that actually maintaining marketing budgets is best. However, wasting marketing budgets is never a good idea, especially during a recession. Take a look at the ROI of all your marketing initiatives – what’s working and what’s not? Now is the time to double down on what is, and ditch anything that’s not bringing a return for your business.”

Ann Handley, Author, Marketer & Head of Content at Marketing Profs
Website
Book – Everybody Writes 

“Remember that your best and most loyal customers are your primary source of life and growth. That’s true always – but especially true during a recession. Marketing to and nurturing those relationships isn’t optional; instead, it’s a good investment. And it’s essential.

What does that look like?

1) Pay attention to not just what you say — but how you say it. Are you communicating with empathy in a way that feels real, true, relatable… and with zero “marketing speak”? Now it a good time to drop any whiff of a corporate facade in your communications.

2) Your email newsletter is important. Are you offering real value to readers? Are you writing to one person at one time in a way that feels connective and builds trust?

3) Stay relevant. Stabilize your spend but don’t choke it off. It’s tempting to cut all marketing costs. But that’s a mistake. History has shown us that companies that consistently market during downturns in accessible, relatable, relevant ways out-perform the rest.”

Daniel Priestley, Author, Keynote Speaker, Co-Founder of Dent Global 
Website
Book – Key Person of Influence 

“There are two types of marketing strategies that work particularly well in a recession.

The first is to renegade with your existing database of people who already know who you are. As things change, their needs and wants change and your message can reflect this.

The second is to reach out to complimentary businesses around you and look for ways to promote each other. It’s particularly effective to have a lunch for 10 companies and to look for potential marketing joint-ventures.

Both of these strategies leverage money that has already been spent and relationships that are already in place.”

Christine Gritmon, Senior Editor of Social Media Pulse, Host of #ChatAboutBrand, Content Creator 
Website

“One huge thing companies need to recognize—especially nowadays—is that you won’t make it through if consumers aren’t rooting for you on some level, if they don’t feel like not having you there on the other side of the recession would be a loss they would truly feel.

You can create this feeling of attachment by humanizing your branding a bit more: showcasing the actual people who run the business, sharing more about the community of consumers themselves, and really building a sense that by supporting your brand, they are truly part of something that connects with them and reflects themselves on some level. When people have less disposable income to spend, brand means everything.”

Jack Appleby, Writer of Future Social – Morning Brew’s Newsletter
Twitter 

“Honestly? If you’re marketing your product in a way you believe is right for your company and brand, you shouldn’t overreact to a recession. Sure, make sure you understand the market and are really honest about your product’s role in your customers’ lives, double check your measurements, but don’t hard reset unless things stop working.”

Kylie Lang, Quiz Funnel Strategist & Consultant, Speaker
Website

“Embrace personalised marketing.

One size fits all marketing is no longer a thing and you’ll find that within your audience you have people all at different points in their journey so meet them where they’re at in that journey. Generic emails that speak to everyone don’t work anymore. Nobody wants to feel like one of a number they want to feel like they’re the one and only in your world. How do you do this? By using personalised marketing funnels like quiz funnels that allow you to talk specifically to someone about their issue or challenge based on the knowledge you’ve gained from their quiz answers. Give value, be helpful, inspire, educate and motivate. This is the key to marketing success as move into 2023.”

Joe Glover, Co-founder of The Marketing Meetup
Website 

“My point would probably not be about getting ‘more’ from your customers, but instead being aware that some of your customers are going to be in a very different headspace than normal because of what will be going on in their personal lives, and, it’s impossible to know who will be feeling what.

Therefore, have patience with your customers and with your messaging. Err on the side of being kind and helpful. In times of struggle, it’s also the time we should come together, and our marketing comms is no exclusion.”

Yinka Ewuola, Multi-Award Winning Business Owner, Coach. Ted-X Speaker
LinkedIn Page

“Create Marketing Assets for your business, that create cashflow for you, and value for your clients.

Cashflow is the only thing that can involuntarily stop your business, and so the state of play in that area becomes even more important in a recession.

And so when things get tough, you want to ensure that you can keep marketing – which means it’s not longer sufficient for it to be something you have to pay for.
And more than ever, your marketing has to create VALUE, for your business and for your clients, so by creating marketing assets, that truly solve problems, and pays you cash, your marketing PAYS its way, and is not an expense to your business – but a means of continuing to support you and your market with value.”

Joe Pulizzi, Founder of The Tilt and Co-founder of Creator Economy Expo, Author, best-selling author of 7 books and speaker
Website
Book 

“Focus on doing a few things really well. Create amazingly differentiated value and consistently publish it to your core subscribers.”

Madalyn Sklar, Serial Entrepreneur, Community Builder, Speaker and Leading Twitter Marketing Expert
Website

“My best advice on marketing during a recession is to focus on engaging with your audience more than you already do. One thing that never goes out of style is to help others and make it about them.”

Marcus Sheridan, International Keynote Speaker on Digital Sales/Marketing,  Author of They Ask, You Answer
Website
Book 

“The greatest marketing innovations happen during a recession. Why? Because, like myself in 2009, businesses have nothing to lose. And it’s during this type of pain, frustration, and stress that we often times do that which we’d been feeling for some time, but now finally have the motivation to do it.

So although I don’t look forward to the hardship a recession will bring to many individuals, I do know the marketing innovation we’ll see will, once again, be profound.”

Katelyn Bourgoin, Founder of Customer Camp, Keynote Speaker, ‘Customer Whisperer’ 
Website

“The cold, hard truth is that the vast majority of people aren’t ready to buy. That said, there are common events that trigger prospects to move from being disinterested in a solution like yours to suddenly realizing they have a problem to solve. Marketers who leverage these buying triggers can spend 80% less on upfront marketing costs. If marketers want to reach more of the right people at the right time, they should focus on learning the common buying triggers related to their product.”

Omar Zenhom, Founder of WebinarNinja & The $100 MBA Show podcast
Website

“Don’t stop marketing. Marketing is what’s going to help you during a recession. Marketing is cheapest and easiest when everyone is pulling out their marketing dollars. Get resourceful and collaborate with others. Now is the time to put your foot on the marketing accelerator.”

Rob and Kennedy, Founders of Email Marketing Heroes and ResponseSuite
and Hosts of the Email Marketing Show
Website

“We are really going to focus on two things:

1. Maximising customer value. That’s doing as much as possible to increase how much each customer spends. There’s a huge variety of ways of doing this from offering an annual plan at a discount, offering upgrades and more support for an extra price.

2. Focus on acquisition of new customers. If customers are going to leave or spend potentially less, we need more customers so a keen focus on dialling in your ability to turn new, cold people into paying customers.

This involves list building and dialling in your email marketing to convert subscribers into paying customers.”

Jake Mason, Founder of performance agency Incaloop,
Director of fashion rental platform For The Creators
Website

“In recessions, good marketing really stands out. Even more so than normal, in recessions clients and customers shop around and choose carefully where they spend their money. This means you have to be crystal clear on the outcomes that your product or service delivers to your customer.

Let’s be clear, outcomes are NOT product benefits, or USPs, or features. Outcomes are the end result that the customer gets.

If you’re not communicating outcomes and you’re stuck on benefits and features, your marketing will blend in and you’ll get left behind by competition.”

Louis Grenier, Founder of Everybody Hates Marketers and Host (and founder) of the Popular Contrarian Marketing Podcast ‘Everyone Hates Marketers’
Website

“An entire century of data points to the same thing: don’t stop marketing. Or you’d come out worse off. Instead, tighten up your positioning and obsess over reaching as many category buyers as you can.

Steven Oddy, CEO of ScoreApp
Website

“Continue to build and develop an outstanding product or service. Listen to your customers and the people you want to help. During downturns, people tend to panic and product developments stall. Now’s the time to double down and build something you can be proud of.”

Kevin Indig, Strategic Growth Advisor, Creator of the Growth Memo Newsletter
and Host of the Tech Bound Podcast
Website 

“My #1 advice: Consumer behavior changes during a recession, and so does conversation rate, exploration time, and evaluation time. So, you have to reset your conversion funnel and understanding of how users find and evaluate your products.”

Simon Yu, Co-Founder & CEO of StormX, Inc. and Angel Investor
Website

“It might take years for things to improve. It’s important to double down on efficiency. Keep costs low while maintaining profitability. In previous years where funding is prevalent, you can place bets on projects that won’t immediately make any revenues.”

Nathan Barry, Founder & CEO at ConvertKit
Website

“Be profitable.”

The post How to market your business during a recession: 20 industry experts give us their views appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

But did you know that you can become a thought leader yourself?

You can then integrate this into your content strategy, to help attract customers and grow your business.

In this blog, we’re looking at the difference between SEO content and thought-leadership content to help you decide which is best for your business.

What is SEO content?

At Jammy Digital, we spent years designing functional and beautiful websites. And everyone always thinks that’s enough for the business to come flooding in.

But the truth is, it’s difficult for your website to rank without a stream of in-depth, informative, and educational content. Google isn’t too bothered about how ‘pretty’ your website is (just that it works!)

It’s estimated that the number one listing on Google accounts for 27.6% of all click-throughs. And only 0.63% of all Google searchers continue through to the second page of results.

So it’s not only crucial that you create content, but that you create content that ranks on search engines. Otherwise, your potential customers will struggle to find you online.

SEO content is well-written, engaging, and informative content, with a primary focus on getting your website to rank on search engine results pages (SERPs). It’s all about creating content your customers are searching for, so you show up higher in rankings.

SEO content harnesses the knowledge of SEO and keywords, optimising content for search engines, so the right people find it.

Related content: SEO content writer vs SEO agency: which one is best for your business?

What is thought leadership content?

First things first, let’s define thought leadership by itself, before going onto the content.

Thought leadership is the delivery of content that uses expertise, insight, and experience to help you become the go-to source of information in your industry.

Thought leadership isn’t so much a type of content, but rather an approach to content creation, created by tapping into the expertise, insight, and experience within your business and the wider community.

People often think that thought leadership content has to include controversial or outspoken opinions, and it can, but it doesn’t have to.

What it does need to be is authentically and recognisably you, with a strong brand voice. No sitting on the sidelines; it’s about letting people know what you think.

Thought leader content can include:

• Stong and/or controversial opinions
• Expertise
• Experience
• Authenticity
• A desire to share their knowledge

This type of content helps businesses and individuals build credibility and be seen as an expert.

The different types of thought-leadership content marketing

I like to split thought-leadership content into different categories including:

• Original research content…
• Business decisions content…
• Expert interview content…
• Customer client stories content…

Examples of thought-leadership content

1. Original research content

This could be via surveys or analysis, for example, reviewing websites and reporting your findings.

If you do this right, you can become the ‘original source’ for a particular topic, meaning lots of others will link back to your article, which can skyrocket your rankings.

An example is from Backlinko, which analysed 3.6 billion pieces of content to better understand evergreen content.

2. Business decisions & strategies content

Want to stand out as an expert?

Give a little insight into your business and the decisions and strategies that you have implemented.

You can detail why you made those decisions and whether or not they worked. If not, you can let people know what went wrong – and what you learned from it.

In this example, Orbit Media shares its 15-year-old content strategy, detailing what worked and what didn’t. It’s a great way to showcase their expertise in SEO and content strategy – the service that they offer.

3. Expert interview content

As much as you would like to be, you probably aren’t an expert in everything.

So, why not capitalise on the expertise of others and bring that knowledge to your audience?

This can be done via guest blogs, but a great medium for this type of content is podcasts.

A great example is Steven Bartlett, Diary of a CEO podcast – where Steven interviews different leaders and CEO, bringing you their top tips, learnings, and insights from their careers.

4. Client stories content

You can tell your potential clients how great you are, but it’s much more believable if it comes from someone else.

So, why not let your clients do the talking?

This blog from Buffer puts one of their clients at the forefront and lets her write her own case study on how she used the scheduling tool.

It’s common for people to write blogs on product and service features, but this type of blog talks about them in a way that actually teaches potential clients something. It’s a powerful way to show the impact that your product or service could have on a business.

SEO content vs Thought leadership content: what results do they get your business?

Results! Let’s face it, most of us aren’t creating content (thought-leadership, SEO, or otherwise) just for fun. As exciting as creating content can be, I’d personally rather be eating chips on the beach or reading a good book (or both).

Content is all part of a wider marketing effort to increase traffic, leads, and ultimately sales. If your content is not getting you results, then it’s a waste of time and energy – two things you don’t have to spare running a business.

So, in order to compare the two, we need to understand the results that you can get from each.

What does SEO content help you achieve?

When creating SEO content, it’s all about getting your website to rank on search engine result pages (SERPs). The goal is to discover exactly what your potential customers are searching for and create content to answer those questions.

As the stats show, if you don’t rank your website within the first couple of search results, then it’s unlikely people will click on your website.

So, great SEO content should help you to:

• Increase your search engine rankings for a variety of keywords
• Increase your website traffic
• Increase your backlinks from high-authority websites

Plus, there are the intangible benefits of SEO content, that enable you to attract the right customers and have better quality conversations.

But ultimately, the primary goal of SEO content is creating content that helps you rank highly and get found online.

Related content: How to 10x your website traffic

The results of thought leadership content

Unlike SEO content, thought-leadership content is not about what people search for. It’s about building authority and positioning yourself as a subject matter expert.

However, while the content is not focussed on ranking, it does still have some pretty incredible results when it comes to traffic and conversions. According to SEM rush, 81.4% of thought leadership content results in organic traffic. And if that’s not enough, 47.6% generates the all-important leads and sales.

Why?

It’s partly down to the fact that by the very nature of thought-leadership content. It’s WAY more likely to get you backlinks from other content creators.

For example, let’s relook at “original research” content – one of the types of thought-leadership content previously mentioned. This is a style of content that Brian Dean at Backlino has absolutely nailed. He carries out in-depth research on relevant topics and creates content with details and specificity that no one else has covered.

Thought leadership is not necessarily an SEO strategy. However, it increases the likelihood of backlinks (we’ve even used some in this article), establishes expertise, and optimises the website for rankings. Therefore it does benefit SEO, although it’s not targeting that.

The mechanisms that enable thought-leadership content to drive your business include

• Brand credibility and authority
• Generates backlinks, shares, and mentions
• Attract potential customers

SEO content vs thought-leadership content: when should you use it?

Content is sold as the be-all-and-end-all when it comes to growing your business. But the truth is, there is no one size fits all, and not everyone will need to implement the same content strategy.

But which one is right for you?

When should you use SEO content?

Relying on referrals to grow your business?

Struggling to bring in leads?

SEO content is all about utilisng and capturing the existing search traffic within your market in order to drive revenue and grow your business. And it’s extremely valuable at helping you rank and convert when correctly implemented.

This is why we recommend that all businesses implement an SEO content strategy, assuming you have the following in place:

1️⃣ An up-to-date website (that wasn’t designed in the 90s)

2️⃣ A website that’s easy-peasy to navigate (no use getting loads of traffic to your website if all those people end up getting lost and then leaving.)

3️⃣ Decent and clear website copy

4️⃣ Products or services that sell right now (great content will not make up for a bad product/service)

5️⃣ Access to your actual website and blog (ie. your web design company isn’t holding it hostage)

Assuming you have these things, you can get started on creating a successful SEO content strategy that helps you will all the benefits we’ve already discussed. Start by thinking about what your potential customers are searching for and create content around that (or hire us to do it for you).

Related content: Why referrals are bad for business (and what to do instead)

When should you use thought leadership content?

As we now know, the point of thought-leadership content is not to rank, but to influence and gain authority.

The challenge is, that without an existing audience it’s hard to gain traction with thought-leadership content.

This is why thought-leadership can be seen as a more advanced form of content, that builds upon an existing content base. Think of SEO content as your BA honors, and the thought-leadership as your Master’s course. You need the foundations of the SEO content and the audience that comes along with it in order to really make an impact with thought-leadership content.

There are also undoubtedly industries that lend themselves to thought-leadership content more easily (such as business and marketing), as there is no one right way to do things. Although this creates huge potential in more traditional industries, as no one else is creating this type of content.

So, if you are already creating content, and driving organic traffic via search, then I’d recommend starting on a thought-leadership content plant too.

Thought leadership content vs SEO content: can you outsource it?

As a business owner, you wear a hundred different hats every day, and content is just one more thing to think about.

But can you successfully outsource content that sounds authentically you?

Or, is it something that you have to keep in-house?

Can you outsource SEO content?

A good SEO content marketing strategy requires a near constant supply of high-quality, search-engine optimised content – and that takes time to create ⏰.

In fact, we estimate that it takes around 10-16 hours in total per blog to create high-quality content, which includes:

6-8 hours: to write, edit & proofread your content
3-4 hours: of content design & formatting
1-2 hours: optimising each of your blog posts

Yes, you can pump content out at a much faster rate, but if you want to create in-depth and engaging content that ranks, then you’ll need to spend a little longer on it. This is why a large part of the reason why over half of businesses outsource their content marketing.

In addition, most owners know their business inside out, but that doesn’t mean they can write about it in a way that’s going to rank. SEO content writers are experts in writing engaging content that speaks to potential customers AND the Google algorithm.

While some argue that you can’t outsource SEO content writing, we definitely think that you can.

In fact, not only do we believe that you CAN, we think that it’s a positive step for your business. That’s why we’ve built our SEO & blog management service around outsourcing your content.

Yes, the content still needs to be informed by a subject matter expert in your business, but partnering with a talented SEO writer to outsource content can be a brilliant business decision.

Outsourcing to SEO content writers helps fill a skills gap in your team while saving you time and making you money.

Related content: Why is our SEO and blog management service so expensive?

Can you outsource thought leadership content?

You might think that thought-leadership content is harder to outsource. After all, it’s so dependent on your voice and expertise that surely it’s impossible to replicate via an outsourced writer.

And we agree, it is harder…but not impossible.

In fact, you might be surprised to find out that 48.7% of businesses outsource thought-leadership content.

However, it’s not something that an ad-hoc freelance writer will be able to achieve.

To successfully outsource thought-leadership content, you will need to develop an ongoing relationship with a writer or content marketing agency. But once you have a writer that you trust and that understands you, it’s possible to create high-performing thought-leadership content.

Again, it’s important to work with an experienced writer or agency that is able to translate your expert knowledge into influential content. But assuming you have a way to communicate that knowledge, there is no reason that you cannot successfully outsource thought-leadership content.

This is part of the reason that we don’t offer ad-hoc writing but, instead, a full SEO and blog management service. It allows us to form a relationship with our clients, understand their business, and convert their expertise into clear, informative thought-leadership content.

Can you have thought leadership content that also ranks?

Ranking on search engines is not the primary aim when it comes to thought leadership content, but it’s certainly not impossible.

As mentioned previously, the nature of thought-leadership content means that you are more likely to get backlinks from other relevant content creators. These backlinks are essentially votes from other websites, alerting Google to the fact that you have created helpful and relevant content.

The latest update from Google “the helpful content update” is an effort to ensure that searchers are seeing more “original, helpful content, written by people for people”.

So, while ranking is not the priority for thought-leadership content, it’s certainly possible. Originality leads to backlinks, which in turn build domain authority and ultimately boost SEO.

Plus, it’s certainly still possible to ensure that any content created is optimised for search engines (whether it’s the main aim or not) to make sure it’s positively viewed via algorithms.

Are there agencies that do both SEO and thought-leadership content?

While SEO content and thought leadership are separate, they are not two entirely distinct strategies. And while the results and means differ slightly, ultimately, both are aiming to increase revenue.

In our opinion, thought leadership content should be a part of a wider content strategy. You can’t become a thought leader without creating consistent content, it does not exist in isolation. However, it’s a brilliant way to set yourself apart from the increasingly noisy marketplace – and all the millions of blogs being published daily.

SEO content serves customers who are currently searching for what you offer and driving consistent organic traffic, while thought leadership content allows you to position yourself as an industry expert.

The post SEO Content vs Thought Leadership Content: which should you create for your business? appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

Burger King followed up this tweet with more tweets highlighting the discrepancy between male and female chefs in restaurants.

Some people thought it was a great way to attract attention and highlight a problem.

But unfortunately, most of Twitter did not agree, and Burger King was heavily criticised. 

Watching a brand get kicked through virtual mud on social media is enough to scare anyone off being funny. 

But if you’ve ever felt fear at the thought of incorporating humour into your marketing, all you need to do is ask yourself some questions…

Am I being funny to deliver value to my audience in an entertaining way? Do I genuinely want to make them laugh? 

Or is this about me? Is it about exposure? Is it about getting attention for myself? Is it about being controversial for controversial sake? 

Like Burger King, you can’t control how someone interprets your message. But you can control your approach to comedy, to begin with. If it’s the former (i.e. delivering value to your audience in an entertaining way) you know you’re on solid ground and that your intent is good. If it’s the latter, maybe rethink your approach! 

So you think you’re funny, do ya? 

So you’ve asked yourself the question, do I want to be funny to entertain and give value to my audience? 

Yes, Lyndsay. I do! 

So the next question is: How do you use humour in your business? 

The problem is, you might be funny to your friends and family. But sometimes, that humour doesn’t transfer to your business. 

My four-year-old finds me hilarious. But I don’t think my clients would find my walrus impression using breadstick teeth particularly funny. (Although, hit me up if that’s something that tickles your funny bone). 

So that’s why in this blog post, I’ll walk you through the actionable ways you can be funny. And I’ll also give you 11 prompts too, which will help amuse even the most serious of audiences. 

This isn’t about being contrived or unauthentic. It still has to come from you. This blog post will get your funny juices flowing, but you’re the one who will need to think of the content. 

Ready? Let’s go. 

The psychology behind using humour in your marketing 

You know ‘Terry the tight-arse’ who never buys a round on a night out but makes you spit your drink in laughter?

There’s a reason ‘Terry’ can get away with it: because he is funny. 

Making people laugh is a superpower. Humour is, without a doubt, one of the most powerful ways to communicate. It can help your audience relieve tension, boost self-esteem and establish a connection to you. 

Ultimately, it makes your audience feel good. And making people feel good helps you sell stuff. Wild, right? 

Humour is subjective: but this isn’t a big problem 

Some people find Mrs Brown’s Boys funny. I’ve never met such a person, but I’m sure they exist somewhere. They must do; it was voted the best sitcom in the UK. 

Yet, I would rather have a root canal while simultaneously doing my taxes than watch it. 

And this is the biggest problem people have with using humour in their marketing. It’s subjective. What appeals to one person will turn off another. 

But this isn’t a bad thing for your brand. 

The creators of Mrs Brown’s Boys won’t give two hoots I don’t like the show, and, in the same way, you shouldn’t worry that some people might not like your humour. 

The only people who you should think about are your target audience. Not your mum, or your mates, or your competitors or business buddies…your audience (and we’ll come on to this a bit later). 

It’s better to have 100 raving fans who find you hilarious and 100 people who find your humour a load of rubbish than simply 200 people who can’t even remember your name. 

Some people might find me a bit dry or sarcastic. Some won’t find me funny at all. And that’s okay. Because they’re not my audience. 

What are the ways you can be funny in your marketing? 

So here’s the nitty-gritty bit. 

And I’ll be honest, whenever I write a blog post, I always snoop around to see what other people have published on the topic. 

A lot of people talk about why you should use humour. And there are lots of good examples out there, mainly from bigger brands like Dollar Shave Club. 

But I have yet to come across someone who tackles the different ways you can be funny, and this is what I’m going to do in this blog post. 

I’ve looked at the different ways businesses (and I’m mainly talking about small to mid-sized businesses here) use humour in their marketing. 

I’ve broken these up into different categories, which you can find below. You don’t have to use all of these. But they should give you some really good ideas. 

1. Making fun of your audience/customers

WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU, LYNDSAY?! 

I know, I know. I am fully aware that pointing and laughing at our potential customers is not a good sales tactic (duh). So when I say ‘making fun of your audience,’ I mean in the right way. 

But I notice A LOT of people get this wrong. But I understand 100%, why they get it wrong. 

I once worked in a chocolate shop and had a customer berate me because her Easter egg melted after she’d left it in her car for 4 hours in 35+ degree heat. 

And yes, when I’d replaced the egg, and the customer had stormed off with a new one, my colleague and I did go into the back room and laugh about it. 

Because we’re human. And sometimes, we will run into customers who do or say things that seem utterly bizarre (and probably hilarious) to us. 

Laughter is our way of dealing with the situation. It’s a way of relieving stress and tension. It’s a way of getting through the damn day when things are rubbish, and perhaps customers are being utterly weird and unreasonable. 

Now the problem is, many people don’t have staff rooms or colleagues or an outlet for them to find someone to laugh with about these happenings. 

So they turn to their trusty friend, the internet! 

I’ve seen countless posts that make fun of customers. Some are more justifiable than others. Some about late payments or rude behaviour. Others blame customers for their lack of technical skills or knowledge or ‘perceived’’ stupidity. 

Typically, people do this because they seek laughter and perhaps comfort from their business friends and others in their industry. 

Now, I’m not here to wag my finger at you and tell you what you should or shouldn’t post on the internet. 

But, when you post something like this, you could potentially discourage customers from working with you. 

So you need to make sure you do it in the right way, and by that, I mean to provide value. 

There’s a way of poking fun at your audience while getting them to learn something new or come to a realisation, and THAT’S where you can connect with them. 

An example of how poking fun at your customers’ works 

I’ll use our example here. On April 1st 2019, we published an article about how to create the perfect website. The date was, of course, April Fool’s Day. 

In the blog post, we poked fun at the most common website mistakes business owners make. 

This was everything from wanting a logo so ginormous it gave the website user ‘a virtual punch in the face’ to harassing your website visitors with pop-ups until they’re forced to give you their information. 

This article gained us two new clients. 

Mostly, people took it in good grace. Some people admitted that they were guilty of doing some of the things we’d described. 

But the point is, they gained value from it. We had some people laugh and say they’d changed things on their website because of our post. 

It wasn’t a personal attack on someone’s character, it simply made fun of common website mistakes. 

If you do this the right way, you can attract better customers 

Yes, many of our website designer and copywriter friends found this funny, but, more importantly, it allowed us to attract better clients. 

People who read this understood that we were experts at website design. We don’t exactly come across as pushovers, right? So we attracted the kind of clients who wanted an expert and not someone to boss around! 

An overview of comedy that pokes fun at your audience 

Pros: can position you as an authority and can make customers understand what they’re doing wrong

Cons: there’s a fine line between getting your audience to laugh at themselves and downright insulting them–so try not to cross it. 

Poking fun at your audience prompts: 

1. What does your audience get wrong (around what you sell)? For example, if you’re an email marketer, your audience could be guilty of only emailing their list every three months when they have something to sell. 
2. What classic things does your audience say that you disagree with? For us, it’s ‘my audience doesn’t expect to see a price on a website. They prefer to talk to us.’ (Said no one ever). 
3. What expectations does your audience have around your product or service that are incorrect? For example, for us, it’s that SEO is long-term, and it takes forever to see results

How can you turn the answers to these questions into funny anecdotes? Give it a try!

2. Personal Brand Comedy

Personal brand comedy is exactly that, it’s comedy related to you. It’s to enhance your personal brand. And it doesn’t (necessarily) have anything to do with what you sell. It can be more to do with your personality. 

Now, I will hold my hands up and say that I used to struggle with this. 

Not because I’m especially introverted–even though I am–but because I’m obsessed with giving value. 

But not everything has to be value driven, particularly if you’re raising your profile. Simply making your audience laugh is value in itself. 

Personal brand comedy will make you memorable. So when someone thinks who should I hire for this, they’re like, ‘oh yeah! Julie. They’re so funny, I love them!’

An example of personal brand comedy 

Janine Coombes is a marketing coach and all-around business whizz. She’s also bloody hilarious. 

Her LinkedIn is full of valuable, actionable business advice. But she also posts funny videos that have absolutely nothing to do with what she sells. 

Like this video, all about Janine’s love of water butts (yes, water butt fans are a thing). 

https://www.tiktok.com/@janinecoombes/video/7104621343974444293?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7077921590222292485

And you might think, well, what the heck does this have to do with anything? 

Well, number one, when someone says the phrase ‘marketing coach’, I without question think of Janine. Her smiley face pops into my head immediately, and of course, I recommend her. 

But also, imagine you’re looking for a marketing coach–someone you have to talk to regularly over a long period. You’ll want to find someone who you like, right? And if you’re comparing two marketing coaches who offer a similar service and have similar knowledge, are you going to go with the bland one or the one that makes you laugh? I bet it’s the latter! 

When you let your personality shine through using humour, you will attract like-minded people who love who you are and how you work. 

An overview of personal brand comedy 

Pros: it can make you stand out, and people could choose you over your competition

Cons: too much of it can make people forget exactly what it is you do. You have to balance it with more relatable, actionable content 

Personal brand comedy prompts: 

1. What weird shit are you into? Okay, try not to go too weird. But don’t be afraid to show your quirky side. For example, I happen to know that health coach Hayley has a love for Louis Theroux. It makes me laugh every time I see her talk about him.
   
2. What’s something funny that happened to you today? Take me, for example, having an utterly disastrous conversation with a woman in a cafe and using it for content…

3. Making fun of your industry 

Do you know what I find utterly bizarre? When I see more people making fun of their customers than their competition. 

Newsflash – your competition does not pay the bills! 

Now I’m not saying you should slag off individual companies, that’s a recipe for disaster (and a lawsuit), but there are often things about our industry our customers find bewildering, frustrating or downright dodgy. 

And you’re well within your right to call that shit out and make fun of it (if you like). 

Because when you point all of this stuff out, you’re saying to your prospective customers, I’m not like this. You may think that everyone in our industry does this, and many do, but I don’t. You immediately position yourself as more trustworthy. 

We’re in the SEO industry, and I’m not sure if you’ve come across the industry, dear reader, but if you have, you probably know there’s A LOT of stuff I could make fun of. 

A lot of shady shit goes down, from companies that make SEO sound like some sort of dark art to those who make their customers hand over their firstborn child before they give an actual price. 

You might be in a similar industry. You may see your competitors do stuff that makes you wince or winds you up. Or even stuff you find quirky or odd. Whatever it is, it makes for great, funny content. 

And hey, you might just find you give people in your industry a laugh too. 

An example of making fun of your industry

Mike is a funnel-building expert and author of Five Figure Funnels. And I love what Mike has done here. Here’s made fun of a subset of the marketing industry, ‘bro marketers’. 

You may have come across bro marketers before, they tend to sell you a rags-to-riches story after they discovered some super secret success sales formula (they like to alliterate with the letter S) which they will sell to you for just five grand. 

So I enjoyed Mike thoroughly taking the piss out of them. Will he offend ‘bro-marketers’ who identify with what he posts in the video? Probably. Should he care? Absolutely not. Because ultimately, he’s putting his customers first. He’s showing them the kind of people they should avoid and positioning himself as someone with a completely different ethos and approach to ‘bro-marketers’. 

An overview of comedy that makes fun of your industry

Pros: positions you as someone who isn’t like the ‘competition’ and attracts new people

Cons: you could face disagreements from others in your industry, but that’s okay! 

Making fun of your industry comedy prompts: 

1. 1. What do others do in your industry that annoys you? For example, if you’re a SaaS company, this could be others in your industry not giving essential product features on their lower plans–forcing customers to move up. Or getting charged so much more for extra features.
   2. What’s something that’s the ‘norm’ for your industry that you don’t do? For example, for us, that’s the whole ‘have a call with a client, send a proposal, and only THEN give a price’ thing. We’re upfront with our SEO content writing prices. 

4. Relatable business comedy 

This is probably the most common form of comedy you’ll come across. Relatable business comedy takes everyday shenanigans that we experience and turns them into…well, comedy. 

This can be related to what you sell or completely unrelated. For example, Innocent crack me up yearly for their social media commentary on Eurovision. Eurovision has absolutely nothing to do with smoothies (but it helps brand loyalty and awareness). 

So it’s entirely up to you how you do this. But one thing that is difficult about this is thinking of it on the spot. Some people can do it, but most cannot (I personally find it difficult). I prefer to note something funny that happened in my day. They make great stories.  

Example of relatable business comedy 

Dead Happy, a life insurance company (yes, that is their name), will have you in literal stitches with their relatable comedy all about the topic of…death. 

Their content is aimed at the 8 million people in the UK who wouldn’t use a financial adviser but do need life insurance. 

It’s not stuffy or formal –as co-founder Phil Zeidler puts it, it’s ‘like talking to a mate at the pub about death, which for many us has an edge of humour’. Dead Happy is trying to get people to be more open about death in a humorous, informal way. Or, in their words, ‘Talking about sex won’t make you pregnant. Talking about funerals won’t make you dead.’

Here are some of their recent social media posts so you can see what I mean. 

FYI, top middle for me. 

All of the above for Martin. As he explained, ‘I’m not fussy,’ which made me feel extra special. 

And here are a few more examples…

An overview of relatable business comedy 

Pros: mass appeal and usually makes people laugh! It also doesn’t have to be controversial or attention-seeking.

Cons: too much of it and people can easily forget what you do! 

Using relatable business comedy prompts: 

1. What are some funny things you laugh at all the time in your business  For example, for me, it’s the number of people who find learning about SEO truly painful or boring (which is why I wrote this…)
2. What happened to you today that was funny?
   Our good friends Rob and Kennedy gave us a great piece of advice–there are stories in your day that can easily be turned into entertaining and valuable content. You just have to look for them. What happened today to you that was funny? Can you use this? 

5. Political humour

Have you ever heard of the phrase, ‘belief-driven buying’? 

Simply put, it’s when a customer buys a product because the brand aligns with their values and beliefs. According to a study by the Edelman Trust in 2019, 64% of people classed themselves as ‘belief-driven buyers’, an increase from 51% in 2017. 

This ain’t just a millennial or Generation Z ‘thing’ either:  ‘Almost as many consumers aged 35 to 54 buy on belief as 18- to 34-year-olds. And 60% of people overall said brands should make it easier to see their values and position on important issues at the point of sale.

So if you’ve steered clear of politics for fear of putting people off, you may find that talking about your views isn’t such a bad thing. It tells people who you are and what you stand for, which will attract customers with similar beliefs and ethics. 

Don’t manufacture something to care about 

The problem is, brands have never had to prove that they care about something until recently; they could just tell us they cared. 

But now we can find the proof, and we can also find out when they’re lying. All you have to do is take a look at the news every once in a while, and you can see the stories of brand hypocrisy; for example, stories of ‘greenwashing’, where brands claim that they care about the environment but actually do things that harm the planet.

Or the companies giving lipservice on International Women’s Day, only for a Twitter Bot to highlight the differences in pay between their male and female employees. 

Ultimately, it’s better to decide not to discuss anything political in your business rather than manufacture something to care about.

If you’re going to talk politics, make sure you walk the walk. Because no one likes a hypocrite. 

But if you do want to talk politics, bringing in a little humour to get your point across is one of the best ways to do this. 

An example of political humour

There are very few rules I’ve stuck to that I had at the start of my business ten years ago, except this one: AVOID POLITICS. 

That was until July 2022, when I decided to call out the UK government. What I decided to call them out on was important to me–but more importantly–to my audience. 

In all its wisdom, the UK government decided to advise businesses to cut their marketing spend prior to the upcoming recession (I know, they’re just so good at filling businesses with confidence and a positive outlook). 

So I decided to highlight just how bizarre this advice was, and  I posted about it. It’s one of my most successful LinkedIn posts to date. 

Sometimes, a political issue doesn’t have to be part of your brand, it can just be something that annoys you! 

An overview of political humour 

Pros: can attract people with similar values and ethics as you

Cons: your views could potentially turn people off 

Using political humour prompts: 

1. What don’t you agree with that’s happening right now? For example, like me with the government’s decision to advise businesses to cut their marketing spend. 
2. What do you and your audience care about?
   For example, if that’s the environment, can you incorporate that into your marketing and brand? This won’t always have a ‘humourous’ slant, particularly if it’s a serious topic, but sometimes it can. 

What’s your next step? 

The first thing to do is just test it out. Be a little funny in your blog or post something humorous on social media. 

But what if I don’t get anything back from my audience? 

I’ll hold my hands up and say I’ve tried to be funny only to see tumbleweed in return. Sometimes you won’t always hit the mark. You learn from it and move on! 

Or if you’d like us to write you hilarious content that ranks on search engines, check out our content writing packages.

The post How to use humour in your marketing so people fall in love with your business (+11 prompts to help you!) appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

What you really want to know is whether you should hire us.

Are we the right fit?

Or could hiring us turn out to be an even bigger mistake than the eighth Fast and the Furious movie? I mean seriously, how many do we need?

Doing business with someone, especially long-term, is a commitment. It’s a bit like any relationship–there has to be respect, honesty and good communication. We have to be on the same page. Otherwise, it ends up stressful, time-consuming, and could potentially end up in a divorce. Not a happy ending for anyone.

So in this blog post, I’m going to go through the reasons why you shouldn’t hire us, so you can establish whether we’re the right fit for you and your business.

And don’t worry, it’s not full of bullshit reverse-psychology reasons like, ‘you shouldn’t work with us if you DON’T want your business to succeed.’ 🙄

So who shouldn’t hire us for our content writing services?

Let’s take a look. 👀

1. There are lots of people involved in approving everything

We happily work with marketing teams, but we only communicate with one person within that team, particularly when it comes to feedback.

We’ve been in situations before where feedback has come from different team members.

Sometimes it’s been contradictory, where one person has loved something we’ve done and another has been unsure, meaning we have to clarify which person’s feedback we prioritise. And as you can imagine it all gets a bit…messy. 😬

The best thing to do is for our contact to collate any feedback and give us everything in one go (and they’ll be able to spot if there are any opposing views). If this isn’t possible, we’re not right for you.

2. You don’t have any time to give feedback on the writing

The aim of our SEO content writing service is to save you time. In fact, we save you up to 10+ hours per week by offering a full blog management service, i.e. doing everything from keyword research to hitting the publish button–and all the tasks in between.

But we still need a teensy-weensy bit of your time. And that’s to either:

• Approve each blog post
• Give any feedback

On average, our clients spend 15-30 minutes giving feedback and approving each blog post.

So if you picked our Gold package (which comes with 3 blog posts a month), you’d have to dedicate 45-90 minutes per month to giving us feedback and approval.

Often this time gets less and less as the project goes on, e.g. there’s more feedback on the first blog post than the fourth!

I don’t think it’s an excessive amount of time, but if you can’t do that, we’re not right for you.

3. You want a yes man/woman

At the start of each project, we create a content plan. We create this plan based on our in-depth kick-off call with you (where we find out all about your business), and our keyword research and competitor research.

In this content plan, we’ll suggest three months of blog content–which includes draft titles and a bit about what we should include within each blog post.

Not one single client has asked to change any blog content ideas we’ve come up with–which they’re more than welcome to do, by the way!

But we get why.

We put so much upfront work into the content plan, and because of this, our clients understand how our proposed content ideas will help them achieve their business goals. We even record a video to go through the content plan and explain why we’ve proposed each idea.

As you can see, we don’t just ‘write the content’, we’ll tell you what we need to write too. We do this, not because we’re ego-maniacs, but because doing tons of research tells us the best content ideas to go after.

So if you’re the kind of business who wants a yes-man/woman to tell us what to write and when to write it, we’re simply not the right fit for you.

4. You’re not exactly sure what you’re selling right now

You might be clear on your products or services, but maybe you’re not clear on exactly how you’re selling them or in what way.

For example, if you’re a website design agency, you know you’re selling website design (at least, we hope so 😂). But maybe you’re not sure whether to offer a ‘website in a week’ service or do a truly bespoke service for every client?

If these are decisions you’re still thinking about, then we might not be the right fit, right now.

We create content with the ultimate aim of getting you more sales, so we need to position you correctly through your content.

For example, the way we’d talk about a ‘website in a week’ service is completely different to how we’d talk about a bespoke service for each client.

But once you’ve figured all that out, come back to us. 😉

And if you need help with that, check out Janine Coombes who specialises in helping business owners package up their services!

5. You’re not sure who your audience is

If you’re thinking to yourself: should I pick a niche or not? Or even ‘What are you talking about? I sell to anyone and everyone!’ then we might not be the right fit for you.

If you don’t understand your audience and their problems, it’s difficult to create content for them.

Because everything starts with your customers–their goals, problems, values, the language they use etc. This will help inform our keyword research and come up with your content strategy.

It also helps inform our tone of voice. We would write differently for an audience of plucky microbusinesses and freelancers than corporate HR professionals.

If you’re still struggling to find your niche, definitely check out niching expert Amy Caiger! Amy can help you understand how to hone in on who your audience is!

6. You want us to pitch for work

We sound a little egotistical here and we really don’t mean to. But we don’t pitch for work. The reason we don’t pitch is simple: pitching isn’t the best way to find the right content writing agency.

Why? Well, there are three main reasons:

• It relies on you having already diagnosed your problem

You don’t go to the doctor having done your own diagnosis. Well, I’m sure some people do! Doctors need to do their own investigation to diagnose a problem and prescribe medication or further help.

It’s the same with your business.

You need an expert to diagnose any problems and tell you what you can do to fix them.

• Pitching is all about turning on the charm (and quite frankly, we’re not all that charming. But we are good at what we do 😉)

We’re just not ‘charm the pants off you’ kinda people. And we certainly don’t want to peacock our way to your money by being all ‘look at how good we are’.

It’s not us. And it’s not right for you either. You need a company that asks YOU a lot of questions. That listens to you. That gets to understand you and what you need. Not the other way around.

That’s the only way for us to create good content that will deliver rankings and sales.

• Just because it’s free, doesn’t mean it’s good

Pitching can sometimes feel like a race to the bottom, where everyone competes by giving all their ideas and strategies away for free.

But ideas are cheap.

We can only create a good content strategy by delving deep into your business, understanding who you are and conducting our own research like keyword research and competitor analysis.

To do that takes a huge amount of time. And it’s not something we can cobble together quickly for a pitch. If we did, we’d be doing you a huge disservice.

So those are our three main reasons why we don’t pitch! And, if you like, you can learn more about why we don’t pitch for projects.

7. Your website needs A LOT of work

Our service gets you higher search engine rankings and website traffic (nice), but if your website looks like a dog’s dinner, it’s pretty pointless bringing more people around to see it. They won’t be impressed, we’ll tell you that much.

Now, don’t get us wrong, even when we were website designers we’d always say: don’t spend thousands on a website until it makes business and financial sense!

You do not have to have a fancy-pants website to make content work, but it does need to be:

• Professional looking i.e. doesn’t look like it was designed in 1992
• Mobile friendly – because 50% of searches take place over mobile now
• Relatively fast – because people won’t wait around for it to load
• Be clear about what you offer – and have a good user experience where people can find what they are looking for.

And that’s it. But if it doesn’t do those things, you may want to look at improving your website first (or getting it redesigned).

Side note, it’s helpful if you have access to your full website. Some website design agencies like to control access or gate certain areas so clients ‘don’t break anything’ (newsflash, that’s why you have backups).

If you don’t have access, you may have to send content to your website design agency to upload for you, which adds time and money to the process! Our advice: get access! No company should be prevented from accessing something as important as their website! 

8. You want a cheap service

Honestly? There are writers that charge $20 for a blog article out there (if you look at places like Fiverr). And we’re a teensy bit more than that (our content writing packages start from £1397 per month).

When we work with clients, the actual writing takes up around 40% of the actual time it takes to press publish on a blog post. The rest of that time is taken up with:

• Keyword research
• Coming up with a content strategy
• Uploading the content–formatting it and optimising it for search engines
• Creating imagery (such as the featured image or images within the blog post)
• Adding and optimising images and GIFs
• Fixing small technical issues
• Tracking rankings

It’s a full blog management service, where you can ‘outsource your entire blog’ to us. We can do this because we’re experts in content writing, but also SEO, website design and content design too.

Unfortunately, all that ain’t cheap. If you want to learn more about it, check out our blog post: why are we so expensive?

9. You want free samples

We won’t work for you for free. Ever. No, not even if you’re Hopper from Stranger Things (he’s my favourite). But not even then will we work for free.

Of course, you’ll want to see samples of our writing. That’s fair. And if you contact us directly we can send some samples to you. But we don’t do any kind of free sample.

10. You just need one blog post

It baffles us when we get this request, because, in all honesty, you’re unlikely to see a massive difference to your bottom line thanks to one blog post.

Of course, we’ve had single blog posts that have performed AMAZINGLY well for us and our clients. BUT that was because we had a content strategy in place based on our research.

You can see results from just one blog post such as an increase in traffic, rankings and even leads. But to see results that impact your sales in the long-term, that only comes from consistent blogging.

11. You want to write about your awards

If you can honestly say that you’ve had a genuine customer or client contact you and say, ‘what awards have you won?’ then we will happily write about your awards. Until then, no. 😂

Think we’re a match made in heaven?

So, you’ve read through this and you’re thinking, ‘do you know what, Jammy? You’re my kinda people!’

Firstly, yay. We may be a bit fussy about who we work with, but that’s because we love the relationships we build with our clients. It’s better for everyone if we’re the right fit.

Secondly, visit here if you’d like to know more about our SEO content writing service. Or book a 15-minute chat with us to ask us any questions.

The post 11 Reasons our SEO content writing service is not right for you appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

BUT, even though Facebook ads seem expensive right now, it’s still an important decision. Because whether you pick Facebook ads or content writing, it’s still going to take you time and/or money to get these things right.

Some businesses will be more suited to Facebook ads.

Others will be more suited to content writing.

Let’s find out what’s right for you, shall we?

But how do Facebook ads compare to something like SEO content writing?

It might seem odd to compare the two. It’s actually a question that three people have asked us before investing in our content writing packages.  And, essentially, what we’re exploring is the differences between inbound and outbound marketing.

Content writing is an example of inbound marketing: pulls potential customers in by creating valuable content that nurtures relationships.

Whereas Facebook ads are an example of outbound marketing: a traditional method of marketing that pushes messages out to potential customers.

I know what you are thinking! Lyndsay, you are a content writer, so of course, you are going to say it’s better than Facebook ads. Come on, you know me better than that by now! In fact, we know that there is a time and place for both, and we utilise both in our business.

However, it’s likely that depending on where you are in your business one might be more suitable than the other.

So, in this blog, we’ll explore the differences between content writing and Facebook ads, to help you decide which one is right for your business?

SEO Content writing vs Facebook Ads: how much do they cost?

Of course, as always, the cost comes into play, and will likely have an impact on which one is right for your business. But in this case, the cost is a little more complex as you need to consider:

• Upfront cost
• Cost per lead

The upfront cost is what most people usually consider. However, you also need to think about how much it costs to obtain each lead, and whether this is feasible for your business.

For example, if you pay £500 for a service, but get zero leads, that would be a very bad deal. However, if you paid £5000 and get leads and sales worth £50,000, well then that would be worth it. Right?

More upfront, but better ROI in the long term.

So, let’s look into these a little more…

How much does SEO content writing cost?

The beauty of content creation is that there are multiple ways and budgets available to tackle it.

If you have the time, skills and inclination then you can DIY your blog content. This will cost you time, but it is free to publish a blog on your website. In the early days if you have very little, or no, budget then this might be the best course.

If you need a little guidance then we run regular content challenges and provide blog templates within our ‘Make your Mark Online’ membership. This helps keep you accountable and speeds up the content writing process.

If you’ve got some budget then you can outsource to a content writer. Although this will cost you money, it will free up time to spend on other revenue-driving activities.

Plus an SEO content writer will usually have more knowledge and expertise than you. It’s not just about saving you time, but knowing how to write content that ranks on search engines and converts readers into leads.

The cost of hiring an SEO content writer varies, but on average it’s between £200-£700/blog post. The exact cost will depend on the individual writer’s skills and experience. And the more blogs you want to publish every month, the more you will pay.

Related content: Why is our SEO content and blog management service so expensive?

What is the cost per lead for content marketing?

With blogs, it’s hard to attribute an exact cost per lead, as you are not paying for every single click or visit to your page.

And unless you are using software such as Hubspot, or using a customised lead magnet on each blog then you might not be able to track exactly what leads come from each blog.

If you take the DIY route then you should calculate your £ value per blog. And if you are paying a content writer, then you can divide the £ by the number of leads for an average cost per lead.

A lead magnet on one of our blog posts generated 574 leads in 18 months. Which is a pretty amazing number.

Of course, we wrote this blog ourselves, which took time but didn’t have any financial output for us.

But, let’s pretend that we paid ourselves to research, write, publish and promote this blog (which would cost £648.50 based on one blog from our Silver package). We can then calculate a cost per lead of around £1.12.

The success of every blog will differ, and not every single blog will generate that many leads. But it’s possible to get a lot of leads, for a very low cost with blogging.

And the beauty of the content is that once it’s published it works forever even without spending any more (more on that later).

In fact, we’ve got more leads since we started writing this blog post.

How much do Facebook Ads cost?

Despite changes to Apple iOS over the last year, Facebook is still the cheapest social media advertising channel in 2022.

However, unlike content writing, Facebook Ads will always come with a financial cost, even if you do them yourself💰. That’s because you are paying money directly to Facebook for them to place relevant adverts on their user’s feeds.

But, the beauty of Facebook ads is that you can spend as much or as little as you like. You can set your daily budget (from as little as £1), and either run them continuously or set an end date if you want to stick to a set budget.

Facebook ads use a bidding system. So exactly how many potential customers you reach, and how much it costs you will depend on the competitiveness of your industry.

It’s hard to benchmark costs as there are so many variables. However, Facebook bills are based on two metrics: cost per click (CPC) and cost per mille (CPM) ie. cost per 1000 impressions. Wordstream suggests that you can expect to pay:

• $0.44 per click
• $14.40 per 1,000 impressions

However, it can be very easy to squander money using Facebook ads if you don’t know what you are doing. Facebook make it easy to boost a post here and there, and before you know it you’ve spent hundreds of pounds with very little return.

If you are going to invest in Facebook ads, then we advise hiring someone who knows what they are doing. Hiring a professional Facebook Ads consultant will range between £250 and £10,000 a month. You’ll pay them a management fee, plus a budget for Facebook for advertising.

If you’re looking for a person or company to help, we highly recommend Facebook ads specialist, Jo Francis or, if you’re looking for an agency, Gavin Bell at Yatter.

What is the cost per lead for Facebook ads?

With Facebook ads, each lead will have an associated cost attached to it. However, you need to remember that not every person that sees or clicks on your ad will become a lead.

According to Wordstream, the average cost per lead (across all industries) is $19.68. This differs from industry to industry and can be higher or lower depending on what you are selling.

So you have to ensure that your customer’s lifetime value is higher than this. Otherwise, you risk driving revenue with Facebook ads, but not making any profit💰.

If you look at our blog post that got 574 leads, we would likely have paid around $11,296.32 (approx. £9,207.07) in ads for the same number of leads over the same 18-month period. This is much more expensive than the cost to write one blog post.

What’s the cost comparison: Facebook ads vs SEO Content Writing

SEO Content writing vs Facebook Ads: how much time does it take?

In business, time is money, and it’s something everyone is always running low on. So understanding the time you’ll spend on each will help you decide which one is right for your business.

How much time does SEO content writing take?

As we said, SEO content writing will either cost you money or time⏰.

And it’s not just the time that it takes to write the actual blog. A good blog isn’t just about writing, there are quite a lot of different elements that go into creating a successful, ranking blog that drives traffic and leads.

You’ve got to:

• Research keywords
• Write (rewrite) and edit the content
• Proofread your content
• Upload to your website
• Design the featured image
• Create in-text images
• Design and format the blog post
• Optimise the blog post (so it’s found on Google)

As you can see, writing the content is just one part. And all of that can take around 10-16 hours per blog post. Honestly, we’re tired just thinking about it​​😴.

That’s why a lot of people invest in our blog writing and management service, as we do ALL of this.

Of course, there is a cost for this, but if you think it’s the right option for you then you can take your Facebook ads budget and pay us (or someone else) to take care of it for you. Not only will this utilise the skills of a professional, but it will allow you to get on with the things in your business you actually enjoy. Win, win!

How much time do Facebook ads take?

It can take as little as a couple of minutes to set up a boosted post, which Facebook actively encourages (and it’s so damn tempting to push that button). But, you’ll find that most experts don’t suggest you take a shotgun approach to boost posts. Instead, they recommend you, formulate an ad strategy that is tailored to your goals.

So, while the setting up of adverts can be pretty quick, it’s worth taking some time to figure out what you actually want. And take time to design creatives and copy that help you achieve these goals.

That’s why the set-up (if done correctly) will be the most time-consuming part of running Facebook ads.

And the setup always surprises people, because if you do it the right way, it’ll likely involve writing the copy for the ads, designing graphics/creating videos to promote them, designing a landing page and writing a follow-up email sequence once someone becomes a lead.

For us—and as website designers, graphic designers and writers, we’re at an advantage here—it takes the following amount of time:

• Writing the copy for the ads (we usually write three different types of copy to experiment with how they perform): 2 hours
• Creating the landing page: 1-2 hours
• Creating graphics or videos for the ads (again, we usually create 3 different types of graphics or videos to see how each performs): 2-3 hours
• Writing and setting up the follow-up email sequence (once someone is a lead): 3-4 hours

As we’re proficient in this (and have done it over and over again), we’re going to estimate that it would take someone who has never done this before at least double this amount of time. So let’s realistically say up to 22 hours to set up Facebook ads the right way. 

However, once they are set up, they are incredibly low-maintenance and require very little of your time.

Especially if you cleverly set up funnels, landing pages and email sequences which nurture potential clients through the entire process. Which certainly makes them an appealing way to drive leads and sales.

Time comparison: Facebook ads vs SEO content writer

SEO Content writing vs Facebook Ads: which one gets you leads and sales faster?

Both content writing and Facebook ads are ultimately a way of driving more revenue and profit for your building. So it’s important to understand how quickly you’ll get results from each.

How long does it take content marketing to work?

You press publish and then the leads just flood in right?

Well, not quite! Content marketing isn’t a silver bullet, it takes time to work.

However, there is a bit of a myth that it takes 3-6 months before you see any results from content marketing. The 3-6 months marker is definitely a turning point, and if you are writing quality content then you should start to see consistent leads and sales as a direct result of your content marketing at this point.

But it is possible to see markers of success much quicker than this.

We recently wrote and published a client blog that ranked on page one of Google for their BIG target keywords after just a couple of days. Ranking for key search terms can instantly drive traffic, build trust and increase leads. Proof that if you are writing about the right things and optimising for SEO then you can see results almost instantly.

This, of course, depends on your website. So if you’ve had an active website for a number of years, naturally got some backlinks to it over time and have created content on it already, it’s much more likely to rank quicker through content.

Brand new websites take longer. If you think about it, that makes sense. Because Google needs to trust you first before it presents your website in the search results.

Here’s an example of how a keyword ranking shot up for our client within 24 hours of us publishing a blog post.

Over time though, the more content that you create the more keywords and phrases you’ll rank for. So even if it takes a while for you to see the fruits of your labour, those results will amplify over time.

Even if it does take some time for leads to find you organically from content, you can instantly integrate it into your sales process. If you have an existing audience, you can send them content that answers their pre-purchase questions. Publishing content is a brilliant way to build trust with potential customers and drive sales from day one.

Related content: How to make content part of your sales process (so you get more sales faster)

How long does it take Facebook Ads to work?

Once your Facebook ads have been approved (which usually takes 24 hours), they are instantly placed on the feeds of relevant people and can start showing results quickly.

Research from Hootsuite shows that Facebook ads reach up to 60.5% of users in the United Kingdom (and more in countries such as the USA and Mexico). So there is a huge potential to quickly get in front of the right audience.

However, the challenge is that if you are starting from scratch you are often targeting a cold audience. This is especially true if you are raising awareness for “new” customers, who have never encountered your brand before.

According to the marketing rule of seven potential customers need seven “touchpoints” with your company before buying. And although social media makes it easier to create these touchpoints the rule still holds true. This is why the cost per lead isn’t as simple as getting charged for one click.

So, while Facebook ads might get your business clicks and impressions almost instantly, this might not translate into immediate sales. You can take advantage of things like lookalike audiences, and retargeting, but these are usually a little more advanced and might require you to employ the skills of a professional.

For this reason, Facebook ads, like content, will likely become more successful over time. As you learn more about your potential audience, optimise the ads, and touch base with customers regularly they will learn to know, like and trust you.

So although Facebook ads are often touted as a quick win, the reality is that you will get the most success from them if you invest over the long term.

Which one gets you leads and sales faster: Facebook ads vs SEO content writer

SEO Content writing vs Facebook Ads: which one works best long-term?

We know from above that both content writing and Facebook ads are ultimately long-term strategies to help grow your business.

But what would happen if you invested in one over the other and then decided to stop after a couple of months? Obviously, it’s not something we recommend, but it’s good to know the long-term impact that these two strategies would have on your business.

How long will content marketing work for?

Yes, content marketing can take a little longer to kick in, and it’s certainly not a silver bullet for your marketing needs.

However, the payoff is that most blogs are evergreen🌲.

Once they are published they are available on your website 24/7, 365 days a year.

You might need to update or optimise them to keep them relevant if things change or if there are any major Google updates. But your budget will never run out, and they have the potential to continuously drive traffic and lead generation for as long as they are live on your website.

In fact, the accumulation of great content means that the whole is greater than the sum of all parts. Over time, the more and more content that you create can make the content work even better. …

Plus, blogs live on YOUR website💻.

Remember MySpace? Yeah, me neither!

Although it feels like Facebook might be around forever, we’ve seen the rise and fall of social media sites before. If your Facebook is hacked, blocked or if Facebook is down then you are losing potential leads.

When you publish a blog you are in control of it, and it will be live for as long as you choose on your website.

We don’t plan on it, but we know if we stopped publishing content tomorrow the accumulative effect of the content we had already published would continue to drive leads and sales for a long time. And this is what happened when we stopped publishing content for 6 months ⬇️🙌

How long do Facebook Ads work for?

In our opinion, this is one of the biggest downfalls of Facebook ads, especially in comparison to content writing.

As soon as you stop spending, your ads stop being shown💰.

It’s a paid-for media, so their placement relies on your continual spending. You’ll always have to allocate some budget to Facebook if you want to keep seeing results.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that there will be no residual effects from the adverts. The chances are you’ll get some new followers, email subscribers and customers as a result of your adverts.

These people are now part of your audience, and you have the opportunity to communicate with them without the use of paid adverts.

But, you lose the ability to get in touch with anyone who hasn’t interacted with your business. And if your cost per lead vs profitability is too high for Facebook ads, then you can get into a vicious cycle of needing the income to continually boost revenue. It’s not a good place to be.

The return should be high enough if you are doing ads right, that the continued investment is well worth it. 

This is why you really need to know what you are doing with ads, as you need to make sure you are making enough from the ads to justify the continual spending – otherwise, you’ll end up prioritising revenue over profit.

Evergreen comparison: Facebook ads vs SEO Content Writing

Combining Facebook ads and content writing: how does this work?

We actually combine Facebook ads with content. How? Well, we don’t just promote each and every blog post by setting up an ad–that probably would waste money.

What we do is take our service pages, like for our content writing service, and retarget people who visit that page with objection-led content.

It’s likely that if someone has visited that page, they might have additional questions about it. So we’re doing something a bit brave! We’re re-targetting people, sending them back to articles like why is our content writing service so expensive?

We’ll also create more articles to retarget people with too. We’ll keep you updated on here how it goes!

Content Writing vs Facebook Ads: Which one is best for you?

So, which one is best for you?

We’ve found that the key to both content writing and FB ads is winning strategy.

Writing random topics or boosting Adhoc posts probably isn’t going to have a long-term impact on your business. This sort of approach leaves businesses feeling disenfranchised, and it’s often the people you hear saying they don’t work.

You need to understand what your goals are and optimise the content or ads to achieve these goals.

But the truth is, that both content marketing and Facebook ads have the ability to drive revenue for your business if used correctly. And for many businesses, both content writing and Facebook ads will have value.

However, if you only have time or money for one which should you pick?

We think that step one is creating a really solid content foundation. Create an asset that is going to live on your website, and help you rank 24/7, 365 days a year without having to spend any more money on it.

If, and only if, you do this, you can then start using Facebook ads to amplify the impact of your organic content and drive traffic back towards your website.

This will help you avoid getting stuck in a spending cycle with Facebook, and allows you to increase your reach via search traffic and social media. Ultimately leading to more leads and sales over a long period of time.

Want someone to take control of the Content writing?

If you’d like to invest your energy into content writing without it taking up lots of time, then our SEO content writing and blog management service might help. We take control of the entire blogging process including planning, writing, optimising for SEO, designing imagery, uploading and formatting.

To find out where you should begin with your business blog, take our SEO quiz, and find out exactly how you can improve.

The post SEO Content Writing vs Facebook Ads: Which One is Best for Your Business? appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

If you want your business blog posts to rank on search engines, deliver website traffic, WOW your readers (and I mean really wow them) and deliver leads and sales, you’re going to have to approach blogging a bit differently.

Because there are actually six elements that make a successful business blog.

SIX!

I know, I know. It sounds like a lot and you’re probably thinking, ‘I don’t have time for this, Lyndsay.’

But here’s the thing:

• Most businesses don’t do all six things (or are even aware of them) so if you do, you’ll be miles ahead of your competition
• I’m going to break down all six things below, so you know exactly what to do in each of these areas. Which makes everything much simpler for you.

Ready to learn the 6 key steps to a successful blog?

Let’s get stuck in…

1. Conduct keyword research for your business blog post

Hold your horses! Before you get to the writing, you’re going to need to do a sprinkling of keyword research first.

Why?

Because surely one of the reasons you’re publishing blog content on your website in the first place is because you want to be found on Google.

You want your blog to consistently send you website traffic, rank well in the search engines, and generate more leads and sales for your business.

It’s no surprise that bloggers who do keyword research before writing content see much stronger results.

And if you want that to happen, you need to be strategic about it. That means you need to do your research in advance to make sure you’re writing content about topics that your ideal customers and clients are searching for.

So far so good?

Great.

So how do you know what your customers and clients are searching for?

Customer’s questions give you an idea of what people are searching for

Well, first thing first, you ask them. And before you say you don’t have the chance to do that, we know for a fact that you do.

Every email conversation, every discovery call, or sales call you have with a prospective client is an opportunity to find out what problems they have and what they want to know.

They will ask you questions (lots of them!) and your job is to write them down and save them so you can create amazing blog content about those topics.

But if you want further ideas or find out exactly what search terms people are using when looking for information about your industry, niche, or business, then there are tools you can use to do your keyword research.

Some of our favourite keyword research tools for business blogging

When searching for keywords online, you’re aiming for phrases that are both competitive and profitable.

What does that mean?

In a nutshell, you want keywords that lots of people search for but that aren’t too competitive. So make sure you spend some time doing keyword research for every blog post you write and try to pick keywords that aren’t overused.

Some of the tools we recommend are:

Answer the Public. An amazing free tool (with the option to upgrade to the paid-for version) that helps you visualise real questions that your potential customers have asked via visual and intuitive search clouds.

Quora. This website is free to use and is completely user-generated. This means users ask the questions and others will reply to them.

Keywords Everywhere is a free Chrome extension. Once installed it will pop up on the side whenever you do a search. It’s free to use but a paid-for version is also available.

KW Finder. This is a paid-for tool that allows you to find the best longtail keywords to include in your content. It offers affordable plans depending on the number of keyword searches per month you need and also has a FREE 10-day trial.

Semrush. This is another paid-for, full-service research tool and allows you to figure out what people are searching for in relation to a specific keyword using their content marketing topic research.

You can find more information about each of these tools (including some cool screenshots that show you what they look like) in our blog post 23 of the Best Business Blogging Tools that Increase Traffic and Conversions.

Or, you can read a bit more about SEO and keyword research in our super comprehensive blog post SEO for Beginners.

Check competing blog posts for your keyword/phrase

Don’t forget this final important step: check your competition.

Don’t rely too heavily on your SEO tool to tell you how competitive a keyword or phrase is, instead Google the keyword or phrase and see for yourself.

These are some indicators you’re targeting an ultra-competitive keyword.

Go to Google (in incognito window) and type in your target keyword or phrase. If there is…

• A lot of ads
• Some well-known trusted companies writing about the topic
• Lengthy blog posts and guides dedicated to the topic

This could be a sign it’s super competitive. It may be worth digging a little deeper around that keyword. Is there a longer keyword or phrase you can use? Something more niche? But still with good search volume?

2. Plan your business blogging strategy

Different types of content will help you achieve different goals with different types of people who consume content on your website.

Most people think of content, especially business blog content, as something that will generate website traffic and rankings. That’s true. But actually, content can also sell too.

To do this, you must create content for every stage of the buyer’s journey…

Blog content at the awareness stage

People in the awareness stage of their buyer’s journey might not know about you yet. Actually, they probably don’t even know they need you just yet!

Let’s bring this to life with an example. Let’s say you’re a career coach who specialises in corporate, leadership roles. Some people might land on your website because they’re looking for a career coach that meets those criteria. And those people are further down the buyer’s journey already – they know they want a career coach.

But people who are still in the awareness stage might be looking for information such as “How to be a more assertive manager” or “How to become a better leader”. They don’t know about you or your services, so your job is to create content that answers those questions. And through that, they’ll want to find out more about you. Clever, right?

Examples of awareness stage blog content

So make sure you create blog content that tells people who you are, what you do, how you do it, and why they need to work with you.

This is educational and informative content that targets your customers’ pain points.

For example, a popular piece of awareness content we’ve published on our website is Why Am I Not Ranking in Google, and How to Fix It and How to Make Your Blog Posts Look Good.

These two blog posts came directly from questions we had from our customers. The keywords actually didn’t show up on keyword research tools! But we were confident people were searching for this. A few months later, these were ranking for lots of juicy search terms. Years later, they still are!

Blog content at the consideration stage

Consideration-type content is what helps your customers see that your business is a valid and viable option for them.

They’re certainly ‘shopping around’ and looking to solve a specific problem, so they’re checking what’s out there.

At this stage, they aren’t sure what solution to find for their problem, so they are looking for help. For example, someone who wants more leads and sales could invest inbound marketing (like blogging and SEO) or outbound marketing (like Facebook ads). They haven’t decided yet, so your job is to help them make that decision.

Essentially, your job here is to help people find the right solution for them. This does not mean pushing your solution as the only viable option! In fact, you may recommend a different solution to what you offer in some cases.

For example, if someone wanted to get 100 leads in less than 24 hours, we’d recommend ads over blogging – even though we sell a blog management service!

Be honest in this content and speak to your audience as if they are a friend. Discuss the different options available to them without bias and explain who is the right fit for each solution.

Examples of consideration stage blog content

If you want to check out a few examples of this, we’ve created consideration content like, ‘What is an SEO Content Writer?’ and ‘SEO Content Writer vs SEO Agency, which one should you choose?’ You can see how both these articles would introduce this service as a potential solution to a problem.

Content at the purchase stage

Things are getting serious now. These are people who have decided to buy. They just need to be sure they’re making the best possible decision when going ahead and buying from you.

This is the point where you need to reassure them you’re the right and best option for them. It’s the last checkpoint before they press the BUY button, so you want to give them the last bits of information to help them take the plunge and buy from you.

They may be looking at your competitors too, trying to understand the differences between you and them.

This is where ‘sales content’ can come in helpful. This is content that talks directly about your products or service, not just your industry.

You can learn all about it and get some amazing sales content ideas here.

Examples of purchase stage content

Here are a couple of examples of purchase content we created on our website: Why You Shouldn’t Join Our 90 Day Content Marketing Challenge or Everything You Need to Know About our Content Fortress Course.

You’ll notice that these talk only about our products and services!

3. Create compelling business blog posts

The next thing you want to check to make sure your business blog is as successful as it can be is your copy. It needs to be engaging and compelling. And when we say that, we don’t mean you need to sound like Shakespeare.

Quite the opposite, in fact!

Your copy should sound like you. When your prospective customers read your content, they’re forming an opinion on who you are, the types of things you say, and how you work.

You want to make sure that the way you sound in your blog content is similar to how you sound when you talk to your customers face-to-face.

Make sure your tone of voice and your personality come across – don’t be boring and hold yourself back too much. But also, don’t try to be someone you’re not.

Your copy also needs to be direct, clear, and jargon-free. In your blog post, tell the reader exactly what the piece of content is going to be about and then deliver on your promise. This needs to start from the headline, so make sure you pick a great title for your blog posts. And if you want more information on how to do this, head over to 7 Ways To Write An Irresistible Blog Post Headline.

And all the way through you need to make sure your blog is well structured and makes keeps people engaged. You can read all about this in our article, how to write a blog post – which covers everything from start to finish!

Break the text down

To make your blog posts user-friendly, make sure you include plenty of sub-headings and paragraphs to structure your information so it’s easy to read and digest. As much as we all like to think that people who consume our content will read it all (word by word) that’s really not the case.

We know it.

And you know it.

And according to Nielson Norman Group, website users read on average 20% of the text on the page.

People who consume content online want to be able to get to the information they need as quickly as possible, so make your text ‘scannable’ by adding sub-sections (all with their own sub-headings) and bulleted lists that help you guide the readers’ eyes to the key bits of information.

Make sure you also include lots of white space and images (more on that in a minute) to let the page ‘breathe’ and ensure you break up the text. No one wants to read a big wall of text, do they? That’s the opposite of compelling!

Website design actually has a huge impact on your content, so make sure you do all of the things above. That way you maximise your chances of blogging success!

4. Include standout imagery in your blog posts

Photos and images are essential for your blog. In fact, articles with images get 94% more views than articles that don’t.

An eye-catching featured image (which is the first thing people see when they land on your blog) can help them decide whether to click on the link and read through or not.

This means more people clicking through your content rather than hitting the back button and heading off to another website! So make sure your featured images are striking, on-brand, and clearly include the title of your blog post.

The rest of the images you sprinkle throughout your article should also play a huge role in how successful your content is going to be.

Much like white space, paragraphs, and sub-headings, images help you break up the text and encourage your readers to stay on the page. When you choose the right images, they immediately elevate the quality of your content. Especially if you create bespoke imagery in your branding (i.e. your colours, graphics, fonts, etc.)

The right images help you stand out

We’re not trying to brag here, but people often tell us that the featured images on our blog posts are so unique that when we share them on social media, they’ll immediately recognise the post as being one of ours.

That shows that using the right type of imagery can make you stand out. People know it’s you before they’ve even clicked on the content and read a single word you wrote. And that’s a great place to be!

Plus, there are other benefits to using great images in your blog posts. Pictures can make you more visible and relatable. Rather than sharing generic stock images from the Internet, we always recommend you use pictures of yourself and your team. That helps you build trust and rapport with your readers.

And you’ve all heard the saying that “a picture is worth a thousand words”. It’s true. Choose your images wisely, and they’ll enhance your content.

You can optimise your images

There’s also a slightly more technical reason why it’s important to have images – you can optimise them! That’s right – it’s not just text that you can optimise for search. So if you’re trying to be found for a particular keyword, you can include that keyword in the title and description of any images you use in your blog post and increase your chances of ranking for that keyword.

5. Optimise each blog post for your keywords

Another important factor to help you decide whether you’re doing a great job with your business blog is optimisation. We know this is something a lot of people don’t even want to hear about, but it really doesn’t need to be complicated!

Optimisation is actually really simple when you know the key steps you need to take. All you need to do is to allocate 15-20 minutes at the end of writing a blog post to make sure you’ve included your keywords in a few strategic places.

How to optimise your blog posts

Remember that keyword research process we talked about at the beginning? Let’s say you went for the keyword “piano teacher in Liverpool”. You’ll want to mention that exact combination of words in the text of your blog post.

On top of that, you’ll also want to include it in:

• Your URL. That’s the web address for your blog post.
• The title tags. The headline and some of the sub-headings, if possible.
• The meta description. That’s the short description that appears on Google under the title of the blogpost that tells people what the content is all about. It’s what helps them decide whether they want to go ahead and read or not.
• Your images. If you’ve included any images in your blog post (and we really recommend you do), you should add your selected keyword in the Alt Description.
• Throughout your article. Include it naturally within your blog post. And if you can, within the first paragraph of your entire article too.

And finally, remember to add links to relevant and related content. These should be both internal links (i.e. links to other pages or blog posts on your own website) and external links (i.e. links to resources from reputable websites that aren’t your competitors).

And that’s all you need to do to make sure your blog posts are optimised! When you break it down, it’s still not the most exciting of tasks (yes, we can see that). But it’s easy enough to do, and it’ll definitely give a huge boost to your business blogging efforts.

You can learn everything you need to know about optimising your blog posts in this handy guide: The Ultimate Guide to Optimising Your Blog Posts.

6. Lead Generation

Last but not least, a successful blog post will help you generate leads. In other words, you want your business blog to attract your dream customers.

Driving traffic to your website is great. You definitely want more people to find you through search engines and consume your content.

But what you want even more is for people to give you their email addresses, sign up for a free trial, or hit that buy now button.

Tips to improve your blog lead generation

Here are a few things we recommend you do to encourage people to give you their email addresses…

Mention your products and services. Don’t be shy!

This is your business blog after all. It’s published on your business website! And while you can absolutely help people with the content you share, you can help them even more through your products and services. That’s why they’re here – looking for help. So let them know how you can serve them. (For example, did you know we offer an SEO Content Writing and Blog Management service? 😉)

Include a lead magnet on your blog posts

In this blog post, you may have noticed a Business Blogging Quiz. We include this in our blog posts about blogging (shocker!)

We also have an SEO quiz, and we mainly include this in blog posts about SEO. Either way, we are able to capture email addresses via our blog.

Use imagery throughout your blog post to promote your lead magnet

Rather than just signposting people to your lead magnets through a link (which isn’t all that visible) we recommend you use branded images with big and bright call-to-action buttons.

Images are more eye-catching and encourage the reader to spend more time on the page. Plus, these images will have a big button that people can press if they want to download your lead magnet. And give you their email address. Win-win, right

Make your lead magnet irresistible

So lead magnets are often a bit…meh. They are often a checklist or an email series, and that’s fine but it’s not exactly compelling. That’s why our quiz seems to work so well. It’s interactive, and fun and you also get a personalised report too. So that appeals to people. Try to think about how you can make your own irresistible lead magnet too!

And finally, the free blog post template!

Below, we’ve included a free blog post template you can refer to, to help you improve your blog posts! And if you want something more substantial, you can check out our blog post template pack which includes 12 fill-in-the-blank blog post templates.

What area of your business blog should you focus on first?

So there you have it. The 6 key steps you need to take to create epic, lead-generating business blog content. As a reminder, these are:

1. Keyword research
2. Blogging strategy
3. Compelling copy
4. Standout imagery
5. Optimisation
6. Lead generation

To know which area you should focus on first, take our blogging quiz which will score you in each individual category and tell you EXACTLY how to improve.

The post 6 Simple Steps that Make a Successful Business Blog [+ Free Blog Post Template] appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

What is a MASSIVE investment for one business, might be a drop in the ocean for another.

Some of you might already know what we charge and think that we are really cheap. Given all the different elements that are included in our service (including planning, writing, publishing and optimising the content). After all, if you were to hire multiple different freelancers or agencies to do all of the jobs that our service encompasses then you could easily be paying double or more every month.

But recently, we’ve also had people who are interested in working with us ask: “why are you so expensive?”

And it’s a totally fair question!

Especially if you’re ready to hire someone to help drive organic traffic to your website, and you’re wondering why our SEO content writing & blog management service is more expensive than hiring a freelance SEO writer.

But regardless of which camp you fall into, we want to make sure you make the right buying decision. 

While we think that there is loads of value bundled up into our SEO content writing & blog management service, you need to know what you are getting for the cost before you sign up.

So, in this blog, we’ll explore why we are so expensive, what our service includes, and how we differ from other services available.

Before we get into it, if you’re not quite sure what SEO content writing is, you can check out our article on what is an SEO content writing service?

How much do we charge for our SEO Content Writing and Blog Management service?

Don’t you hate when you can’t find the prices online when you want to buy something?

That’s why we’re pretty upfront about what we charge. No need to book an hour-long call with us just to find out the price!

So let’s just dive straight into our pricing. Then you’ll know exactly how much we charge (and whether that’s expensive for you).

The prices for our SEO content writing & blog management service start at £1297 per month and go up to £2297 per month. The smallest package (£1297) gets you up to 3000 words a month, which is usually split between two blog posts. And the largest package gets you 6000 words a month, which is often split between four blog posts.

The total cost that you pay depends on how many blogs you want us to publish every month. Everything else in the package remains the same. So regardless of whether you go for our silver or platinum package, you’ll get the same level of support from us (just a different number of blogs).

If at this point you are thinking: “Ah, that’s incredibly expensive”, then please do us a favour and keep on reading🙏.

By the end of the blog, you might decide that it’s still too expensive for your business. And that’s totally fine, we might still be able to work with you in a different way. But you also might realise that it’s such a valuable service, with loads packed in. It’s more than just writing content, hence why we charge what we do.

If you are thinking: “Lyndsay, that sounds like an amazing price, how can I sign up right away.” Then you can find out more here. But also we still recommend reading, as we promise it will get you even more excited about working with us.

Content writer vs SEO content writing & blog management service: which is more expensive?

We write content! So it’s totally understandable that we get compared to content writers when it comes to cost.

And in all honesty, we are usually more expensive than a freelance content writer.

So, let’s dig into why that is…

There are a couple of different pricing structures commonly used by freelance writers.

The first one is per word, with writers charging between $0.02 and $2.00 per word on average. If an average blog is 1000 words, this would work out at around £20 to £2000 per blog (a HUGE difference). However, this type of pricing often promotes word stuffing – more words written = a higher cost. But a blog should be as long as it needs to be, so we think it’s better to get a set price per blog. And luckily, this is the most common way for freelance content writers to price

The average cost per blog is between £200 and £700. The exact cost will depend on the individual writer’s skills and experience. The more blogs you want to be written every month, the more you will pay.

Let’s say a content writer is charging £300/per blog, for two blogs you will be paying £600 per month.

If you compare this to our Silver package (two blogs per month) you pay £1297 per month or £648.50/blog. So over double what you would pay the £300 per blog content writer.

But when you see what you else you are getting for your money you’ll understand why we price this way.

Why are we more expensive than content writers?

So, if we’re both writing content, then why do we charge more than most content writers for our content services?

I mean, obviously, it’s because we want to fund our lavish lifestyle and make all our neighbours jealous with multiple Lamborghinis in the driveway, right? Just kidding 😉

It really comes down to two things: services and skills.

What does an SEO content writer service include?

Traditionally a content writer primarily sticks to writing content (I know it’s in the name). They focus on creating blog content that educates and informs your potential clients while ranking highly on search engine results pages (SERPs).

In order to do this successfully, content writers will be skilled in SEO and optimising content. However, they usually work off a supplied content plan and are not involved in the planning or strategy aspect. They’ll also provide the blog via Google Docs, Microsoft Word, or something similar and won’t usually upload the content to your website or promote it in any way across your platforms.

Of course, the skills of each content writer will differ massively, but a freelancer by definition is one person. So you are very much restricted by the skills that they personally have.

What does our SEO Content Writing and Blog Management service include?

In comparison, our SEO content writing & content management service covers a whole range of content services within the one package.

That’s because we know that good content is just one part of driving organic traffic to your website. In addition to content, it includes:

• A discovery call (to get to know your business)
• In-depth keyword research (this takes us a LONG time, and we charge £997+VAT to do this as a stand-alone service)
• Competitor analysis
• Content strategy (i.e. telling you the exact articles you should create to rank on search and convert)
• A website audit, where we look at what could prevent or limit you from ranking
• A professional proofreader to look over the content (who we hire separately)
• Adding the content to your website and formating it
• Creation of the blog post featured image
• Extra ‘in-the body’ images that are optimised for search engines
• Optimise the content
• Publish the content

All of this is in addition to the writing. So yes, you could hire an SEO content writer, but that would mean you’d have to do all of the above yourself. Which is not a bad thing, by the way. It just requires more of your time.

Plus, we can also create social and email marketing copy for an extra cost to amplify the impact of your content.

Taking all of the above into account, suddenly £648.50/per month per blog doesn’t seem all that expensive right? Hiring individual freelancers for all of these roles would cost you A LOT more. You’d need to hire an SEO agency, graphic designer and web specialist or tech VA for those roles. That’s a lot!

SEO and Web Specialist Meets Expert Writer

Plus with Jammy Digital there are two of us, so you get to take advantage of our individual skills (plus we use a professional proofreading service to make sure there are no mistakes).

Although we both love creating content we have two different skill sets that enable us to offer a wider range of services than your average freelance content writer.

I (Lyndsay) am the content & SEO strategist and writer. I create blog posts in your style and tone of voice and optimise them for ranking on search engines.

Martin is a website and SEO strategist and graphic designer. He develops content strategies around topics that will rank, as well as uploading, optimising the content, and making it look beautiful. He was also a website designer for over a decade and can spot issues with your website that will prevent or limit your rankings. Your website has a huge impact on the success of your content, so it’s handy having Martin in your corner!

So, not only do we offer a lot more in terms of service, but we also have a wider range of skills that your blogs can benefit from.

SEO agency vs SEO & blog management service: which is more expensive?

In addition to content writers, we’re also often compared to SEO agencies. It makes sense, as we both aim to get you ranking on search engines via organic traffic.

But, whilst our goal is the same, the strategy we use to get you there differs quite dramatically. And as a result, so does the cost.

SEO agencies can charge anywhere between £2000 – £6000 per month, depending on what services you require.

However, as we talked about in our blog on SEO agency problems, this price doesn’t always include content creation (especially if you opt for a cheaper SEO package). In fact, our research showed that 13 out of 20 UK SEO agencies offered content marketing as a separate service to their SEO services.

Out of the 20 agencies we looked at, only one provided a price, which was £2899 per month. This included a blogging strategy and content calendar but there was no mention of creating content. So it’s likely that you will need to DIY your content or pay the SEO agency more to write the blogs.

In comparison, our content services range from £1297 per month (two blogs) to £2297 per month (four blogs). Even our top-end platinum package is at the lower end of SEO agency pricing.

Of course, the service that we offer in comparison to an SEO agency is very different.

Related content: SEO content writer vs SEO agency: which one is best for your business?

Generally speaking, we are LESS expensive than SEO agencies.

Why are we less expensive than hiring an SEO agency?

So, why are we less expensive than hiring an SEO agency?

Suddenly even our Platinum package at £2297/month seems like a bit of a bargain in comparison to the £6000/month you could be paying an SEO agency.

Does that mean an SEO agency gets better results?

A good SEO agency will be highly skilled at driving organic traffic to your website. They’ll dive into the technical aspects of SEO that will affect website performance and rankings.

However, some of them won’t flag problems with the user experience or design of your website (that’s not in their ‘remit’).

They will potentially create content that helps you rank (although sometimes they outsource this). But often won’t create content designed for conversions. This could result in more eyeballs on your website, but not an increase in sales.

While there are many great SEO agencies out there, we’ve found that some rely on the fact that no one really knows what they do. SEO is a bit of a dark art, and many SEO agencies have a magical wizardry surcharge.

In comparison, we know that technical SEO wizardry alone is not enough. And we used to run an SEO agency, so you could say that we are pretty clued up on all things SEO.

Rich content is a crucial part of driving traffic to your site, so we focus on creating content around a keyword strategy that helps you rank on search engines. Of course, we’ll let you know if there are any major issues with your website that is blocking traffic.

Whether an SEO agency or a content service is right for you will depend on the specific problems you are having. But, for most businesses looking to drive organic traffic, and more leads, focussing on SEO optimised content is hugely beneficial and more affordable than hiring an SEO agency.

Related content: The biggest problems with SEO companies (and how to avoid them).

Need help with your SEO content writing & blog management?

If by this point you are thinking that our price isn’t really that expensive for all that we offer, then our blog management service might be perfect for you.

We’re generally more expensive than content writers, but less expensive than SEO agencies. This is because our combined skills and subsequent service offer a little more than is usually offered by a content writer. And while we do a lot of SEO tasks, we don’t dive into the technical stuff quite as much as an SEO agency.

You could say it’s a mid-point between SEO content writers and SEO agencies, and our prices reflect that.

If your business wants to drive more traffic, leads and sales by creating epic content, then the SEO & blog management service will help you do just that. Plus, the whole process will be managed by us so you can put your time to better use.

Want to see where you’re at with SEO?

Struggling with SEO? Or just want to see where you’re performing right now? Then take our 2 minute SEO quiz and get a personalised report, telling you exactly how to improve.

The post Why is our SEO content writing & blog management service so expensive? appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

That’s how website design impacts content marketing in a nutshell.

But hold your horses because that’s not all you need to know.

What you really need to know is how you can design your website to make your content irresistible to your web visitor.

And that’s exactly what I’m going to show you how to do.

Because there’s no use in creating content if something about your website turns people away, right!?

Just a head’s up! When I say content, I mean things like your blog articles, podcasts (with transcripts and notes) or video pages on your website.

There’s a problem with how content is presented on websites

Through our membership, we’ve reviewed over 500 pieces of content on websites, usually in the form of blog posts and podcasts. And one of the most significant pieces of feedback we give is not about the content itself but about the way it is presented.

If you think that the way you design your content is not a big deal, it really is.

According to Nielson Norman Group, website users read on average 20% of the text on the page.

Users don’t have the time to read everything word-by-word. You’ve probably even skipped some parts of this article already!

*I’m waving if you’re still here.*

How does web design impact content marketing?

You can’t expect your user to read every single word you write.

But when your website and content are visually appealing, you’ll start to see significant engagement with your content, i.e. people consuming it, sharing it and buying from you.

So how do you make the content on your website more visually appealing and engaging? And what aspects of website design impact your content negatively?

Let’s find out how website design impacts your content marketing!

1. User experience impacts how people find your content

User experience means your web visitor can easily navigate your website and find what they need. Everything works seamlessly as your visitor makes their way through your various website pages.

But your visitors may find it difficult to find your content if your website has bad user experience. And if no one is finding your content, you won’t see any results!

Ways to improve your website’s user experience and increase traffic to your content

At the very least, you should feature your blog, podcast or video page:

• In the main menu on your website
• On your homepage (often people use their last three or four articles or podcast episodes)
• In your footer
• On your about page (people always forget that an about page must lead to further pages on your website)

An example of good user experience and easily found content!

Nicole Osborne, a marketing coach for agencies based in the UK, features her content prominently on her website’s homepage. It’s super easy to access and grabs your attention right away. Well done, Nicole!

2. Searchability impacts how people search your content

Your website must make it easy for your visitor to search and find the content they are looking for.

If you publish a regular blog or podcast episode, you will end up with pages and pages of content. If you don’t make this content easily searchable, users have to trawl through all those pages to find something they like.

This gets even more difficult when you also have content like free guides, checklists and other downloads.

So how do people find all of this fantastic stuff? And how can you encourage more engagement and email sign-ups?

Ways to improve your content’s searchability

Categorise and tag each piece of content

Your content management system (i.e. the backend of your website) should allow you to categorise and tag each piece of content.

Pick one category and four or five tags for each piece of content. For example, this article is categorised under ‘content marketing’ and tagged under ‘content design’, ‘user-experience’, ‘accessibility’ and ‘website tips.’

You can then feature things like a search bar at the top of your blog or podcast pages. When your website visitor types something like ‘content marketing,’ only those articles categorised and tagged as ‘content marketing’ would appear.

Add a learning centre

A learning centre is a page on your website where ALL of your content is easily accessible to your website users in just a few seconds.

It can allow people to search through your content, access any free guides or giveaways, and access content on different platforms (such as videos, podcasts or articles). You can look at our learning centre to show you one in action!

This works if you have a lot of content and want to give your users an easy way of searching for it.

Example of good ‘searchability’ of content on your website

Okay, so I’m pretty proud of our learning centre, alright? So I’m showing it off to you. There are different elements of the learning centre that allow people to find what they’re looking for easily. Theres’ the:

• Search bar – for people who know exactly what they want
• The categories of content (such as content marketing or SEO) for people that want to search by topic
• Our quizzes and extra freebies to encourage sign-ups to our emails
• Most popular questions, with direct links to articles

We wanted a page that helped people find all of our content, and it’s one of our most popular website pages!

3. Readability impacts how people consume your content

It isn’t 1882. A giant wall of text ain’t going to cut it, my friend. This is the internet, and people want scannable content that’s easy to read.

The way you design your website will impact the readability of your content. Everything from fonts, text size, headings and subheadings and colours will affect how your user reads your content.

If it looks difficult to read, people won’t read it. It’s that simple.

Ways to improve the readability of your content

Add headings and subheadings

It would help if you used headings and subheadings throughout your content (otherwise known as H1, H2, H3, H4, H5 and H6 tags).

Your main heading and subheadings should differ in how they look to reflect each section and where everything sits within each section. I.e. don’t just use all your headings randomly.

A H1 tag should be used once for the main title of your piece of content.

You should use H2 tags as your main subheadings. You should use H3 tags for the subheadings in H2 sections and so on.

I get that this is not easy to visualise, so here’s an image to help! (From an old design of our website, ahhh how times have changed!)

Make sure the hierarchy of your headings is correct

Think about the hierarchy of your headings and subheadings. Your main title should be the largest and most prominent. H2 should be bigger than H3, H3 should be bigger than H4, etc.

Finally, use subheadings often in your content to break up the text and make it easy to read.

In fact, people should get the general gist of your blog post just from the subheadings. Try it with this one. Just read the subheadings and see if you can gather a lot of information from just those!

Increase the white space…then increase it some more!

White space is the space in between all the elements on the page and the elements themselves. Even the space in-between each word and each line of the text is ‘white-space’. It also doesn’t have to be white (just to add to the confusion).

My husband is a graphic designer, and whenever I have tried to design anything, his mantra has always been, ‘more white space’. (I still can’t design, but I got that bit).

White space makes your content easier to read. It’s not all mushed up and close together. People need regular breaks (e.g. space between the paragraphs).

Make sure your font is large enough

Again, this is all about making your content easy to read, so it’s not rocket science. But we give ‘increase the size of your font’ feedback on people’s content ALL. THE. TIME.

We use 16px (12pts) for the size of the text you’re reading right now. This is the minimum you should use.

Anything below size 16px (12pts) is too small (as you can see. Or not see, as is probably the case).

An example of good ‘readability’ on a website’s blog

I picked Orbit Media’s website here (below) as an example because even though it’s a simple web page and could be described as basic–it’s easy to see why less is more.

You want your website visitors focused only on your content. That’s why on this website, there is plenty of white space at the sides of the content.

The text is also quite large, and regular subheadings break up the text.

Finally, notice how each line is short, so your eye doesn’t have to go from left to right so much. The text sits centrally on the page, and there are approximately 7-9 words on each line. This makes it incredibly easy to read.

If you want to learn more about this, check out our blog post on how to make your blog posts look good.

4. Accessibility impacts how much everyone can access your content

The way you design your website has a huge impact on how accessible your content is.

Website accessibility means everyone can use, navigate and understand your content–including people with disabilities.

If our business were a shop or building, we’d want to make sure that everyone could come in and find what they are looking for. We’d like everyone to feel welcome. And we wouldn’t want the layout of the shop or building to prevent anyone with a disability from accessing it.

It’s the same with websites. But unfortunately, in a study from 2021, 96.8% of home pages had accessibility issues.

However, things are changing. As website designers originally, we’ve noticed that the website design/development industry has started to take accessibility more seriously.

But what are some basic things you can do within your website design to make the content on your site more accessible?

All the things we’ve talked about above (searchability, readability and user experience) help make your content more accessible to everyone.

But here is what else you can do.

Ways to improve your content’s accessibility

Make your links clear

Throughout your content, you’ll link out to other internal pages on your website and external websites. Therefore, you need to make sure your links are clearly links.

You can do this by changing the colour of the links, and you could also add an underline.

Use clear wording that says what the user is going to click on. Don’t just put ‘read more’, ‘click here’, or ‘learn more’. You need to explain what you’re linking to.

Contrast the text with the background colour

We prefer a lighter background and dark text. But whatever way round you do it, make sure there is a sharp contrast between the text and background colour.

Contrasting background and text colours make it much easier to read. Unfortunately, many websites–particularly those in the fashion industry–use a light grey text against a white background. This makes it so difficult to read. My dyslexic brain really struggles with this!

Make sure to add ALT text to all your images

ALT text is like a label for your image–it explains exactly what it is. Many people can’t ‘see’ images, so they rely on ALT text to understand what the image is.

Make sure you give each image ALT text when you upload it to your website. It’s super easy to do and makes a massive difference for those who can’t see images. Plus, it has added SEO benefits too.

Use sentence form in your ALT text too. Imagine someone points to your image and says, ‘what’s that?’ That’s how you should describe your image. For example, the ALT text for the image below is, ‘Black cat climbing white shelf’. Simple.

Example of website content with good accessibility

It’s safe to say we have a lot of work to do to improve the accessibility of our websites (us included). But as I said, the website design/development industry is changing in this area. There is definitely a thirst for more education and training around accessibility issues.

In terms of websites that do this well, HubSpot is a great example (below).

The text is clear and in contrast to the background. The links are clear, and all the images have ALT text (on the blog post I checked at least!)

But also, it’s incredibly simple. There’s no flashy stuff, no automatic videos playing, no stuff cluttering the page. Simple is a word you’ll notice a lot when it comes to the design of your website and content. Often the simpler, the better!

5. Conversions impact how you well your content delivers leads or sales

The way you design your website can have a huge impact (both good and bad) on conversions, i.e. the number of leads and sales you get through your website.

Ultimately, that’s what your content is all about, right? Increasing conversions! There’s no point continuously creating content and getting nothing back from it.

Our content brings us a steady flow of leads because we’ve designed our website to encourage email sign-ups. So how can you do the same?

Ways to improve your content’s conversions

Add a sidebar to your blog or podcast

We’ve added a sidebar to the right that follows you as you scroll on our blog.

Adding a sidebar is controversial, as some people prefer a clean page with nothing around the text. However, we’ve found this works incredibly well for getting email sign-ups, and it’s not too cluttered or distracting.

Try not to feature too much here; include things like one call to action and some links to your other content.

Add a call to action in the footer

You can also add a footer to each blog or podcast page, which encourages your user to take action.

This could be encouraging someone to sign-up to your newsletter or download a freebie.

Encourage people to consume more content

When you categorise your content correctly, you can showcase similar content that might be of interest to your reader at the bottom of the post or page.

This is pulled through automatically to every single page. So at the bottom of this one, I’m hoping you can see other articles related to content marketing!

This works because it hooks your website visitor into more content from you, building trust and credibility in the meantime.

Example of website content that encourages leads

Mike and Callie, AKA, The Membership Geeks have a fantastic blog that not only is an amazing resource for those who run membership sites, it’s well designed too!

In the sidebar of their blog, they have a few call-to-actions such as buttons to their free Facebook group or downloading their blueprint. They also include a box that encourages you to join their academy, which follows you as you read their blog.

These elements aren’t intrusive and don’t steal the attention from the fantastic content. But I imagine they work well for encouraging email sign-ups and sales.

6. Technical issues impact how long people stay on your content

This last one is a biggie! If your website experiences technical issues then this will impact the success of your content. Your website visitors may leave if there are issues, and Google may limit your appearance in their search results. After all, Google doesn’t want to show their users websites that don’t work, right?

You may need a website developer to fix any specific issues, but here are a few things to watch out for.

Ways to solve any technical issues that impact the success of your content marketing

Check it works on mobile

First thing’s first, check your website works on mobile. And not just works but looks and works just as good as it does on a desktop computer.

We tend to view our own business websites from a laptop or desktop, but don’t forget about mobile! In the last quarter of 2021, mobile devices accounted for over 54% of all internet traffic.

The simplest ways to check your website works on mobile is:

• Get your friends to check on their various phones!
• Use Google’s mobile-friendly checking tool

Keep checking it regularly too, you never know what will crop up.

Make sure your site loads quickly

We’re an impatient bunch, aren’t we! Unfortunately, people will not wait while your content loads on their screen. If it takes too long then they’ll hit the backspace button and go to another website that answers their question.

Ideally, your page should load in less than two seconds. Any more than that, and your website visitor will start to get antsy.

To check your page load time, you can use a tool like GT Metrix to help. Just pop in your URL and it’ll give you all the info you need.

Make sure your website is secure

Finally, make sure your website is secure by installing an SSL certificate. This isn’t the only thing you should do to secure your website, but it is something your users (and Google!) will notice.

If you don’t install an SSL certificate this could impact your search engine rankings AND users may notice that it’s not there. An SSL certificate makes sure there’s a secure connection from your webserver to your browser.

The best way to check is to look at your URL, if there’s a little lock symbol then your website has an SSL certificate.

If you don’t have one, speak to your web developer or host about getting one installed on your website.

What’s next for you?

That’s pretty much all the ways that website design impacts content marketing.

If you’re creating website content yourself and want to know how to improve the look and feel of the content, then check out our blog post on how to make blog posts look good!

Alternatively, if you’re looking to hire an SEO content writer, you might want to check out our blog management service. As well as writing content we also optimise it for search engines, do all the keyword research and strategy and format it and make it look good.

The post How does web design impact the success of content marketing? [With examples] appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

But it really is a question you should consider. Because a lot of people go straight into hiring an SEO agency when potentially, a good SEO content writer could get them great results at a more affordable price💰.

So, do you need a full SEO package with a fancy SEO agency?

Or, is an SEO content writer going to help you build authority, trust and rankings?

Traditionally SEO has meant tinkering with backlinks, on-page SEO and all the techy bits like site speed. But, with the modern-day Google algorithm, content is equally (if not more) important when it comes to winning the ranking war.

That’s why, in this blog, we’re going to explore the differences between SEO content writers and SEO agencies, to figure out which one is best for your business.

Related content: What is an SEO content writing service? And how does it all work?

SEO Content Writer vs SEO Agency: What is the difference between the two?

In order to figure out whether a content writer or agency is going to suit your business best, you need to understand the differences between them.

1. What’s the difference in cost?
2. What does their service include?
3. What results do they get you?
4. What’s the difference in skillset?
5. How do they work?

So, let’s look further into these to help you decide which one is right for your business

1. SEO Content Writer vs SEO Agency: What is the difference in cost?

One of the most important decisions for a business (especially in the current climate) is COST💰.

How much money are you going to need to budget every month?

And the cost between an SEO content writer and an SEO agency can vary quite substantially.

How much does an SEO content writer charge?

The 2021 ProCopywriters survey showed that the average daily rate for a copywriter is £387. Yes, content writers and copywriters are arguably different professions. However there is a lot of crossover between skillset and writers, so it’s worth using it as a benchmark for costs.

An SEO content writer usually charges anywhere between £200 and £700+ per blog article (yes, it’s a pretty wide range). But the exact cost will usually depend on the individual writer’s skills, experience, and exactly what services they offer.*

This might sound expensive, but content writing and SEO are highly skilled and time-consuming work. Once you factor in keyword research, competitor research, writing, proofreading, and optimising you are looking at around 6-10 hours per blog.

Plus you are paying for the experience and expertise of an SEO content writer that will enable your website to rank highly on search engines.

Most SEO content writers charge per blog, so exactly how much it will cost you will depend on how many blogs you want to publish per month.

Some SEO content writers may also charge per word (although this is less common). This could be anywhere from $0.02 per word, to $2.00 per word.

How much does an SEO agency charge?

In comparison, SEO agencies charge monthly and this usually starts at around £1000 per month all the way up to £10,000+ per month. And it’s worth noting that they are usually a little less flexible as they usually have six-month minimum contracts.

According to this research by AHREFS, SEO agencies charge an average of $2,819.87 per month for SEO. It’s unclear if this charge includes content writing and how much content writing that would be. From our own research looking at SEO agencies in the UK, 13 out of 20 SEO agencies we looked at offered content marketing as a separate service to their other SEO services.

As we talked about in our blog on SEO agency problems, the monthly cost doesn’t always include content creation (especially if you opt for a cheaper SEO package).

So you’ll either have to do that yourself or pay more to the SEO company to do this for you. If you want this included then it’s likely that you will be looking at the higher end of this monthly budget.

Out of twenty SEO agencies we looked at, only one provided a price. They had three packages. Their middle package is £2899 per month and includes a blogging strategy and content calendar but nowhere did it say they would create content on your behalf in this package.

Obviously, an SEO Content writer and an SEO agency offer different services. An SEO agency will dive deeper into the more technical aspects of SEO that can affect website performance and rankings (in a way that an SEO content writer generally won’t do!) We’ll come onto that a bit more later.

Related content: The biggest problems with SEO companies

Who is the winner?

For cost? An SEO content writer!

An SEO content writer is usually cheaper than hiring a full-service SEO agency. Seeing as content has the biggest impact on your search engine rankings (particularly if you have a healthy website) then this might be the best option for you.

Either way, you’re going to need content if you want to increase search engine rankings and get more traffic to your website. And we think hiring a specialist content writer who understands SEO, rather than a specialist SEO who may or may not ‘get’ good writing, is best.

2. SEO Content Writer vs SEO Agency: What does their service include?

We’ve talked about cost, however, there is another side that relates to the value of the service.

What are you actually getting for your money?

Is the service the same, or are you paying for two different things?

What does an SEO content writer do?

A traditional content writer does just that – writes content! And while an SEO content writer does everything that a traditional one does, they also focus on (you guessed it) Search Engine Optimisation.

Their main task revolves around creating blogs that help your website rank on search engine results pages (SERPs).

They should have a comprehensive understanding of SEO, and how to optimise written content for keywords without stuffing them in and making it totally nonsensical. However, they will usually work off a content plan created by a business, rather than planning or directing the content themselves.

Will SEO content writers write guest posts on other websites?

In addition, some SEO content writers will create guest posts for other websites to help increase the backlinks to your website. This increases your Google authority and business awareness and overall improves your SEO. But they won’t do the ‘outreach’ for you i.e. approach website owners asking them if they will accept a guest blog post.

If you’re planning on hiring a content writer to do guest posting for you, you’ll probably need to do the outreach yourself. But if you have a strong network of people you can approach, hiring an SEO content writer can be a much more affordable option.

Most SEO content writers:

DOs:
✅ Write professional, well-written and engaging content
✅ Understand tone of voice and style
✅ Have knowledge of SEO and how to rank on search engines
✅ Be able to optimise your content for keywords and phrases
✅ Might offer keyword research

DON’Ts
❌ Upload the content to your website
❌ Create or source imagery
❌ Run an SEO audit
❌ Run a technical audit on your website to understand if there’s anything preventing you or limiting your search engine rankings (such as slow site speed)

Of course, each individual will vary, but this is the most common service for SEO content writers to offer.

What does an SEO agency do?

In comparison, SEO agencies focus on all aspects of SEO (not just the content).

They may offer writing (although in some cases they outsource this as they’re not specialist writers). Plus they look at building backlinks, technical SEO (such as website speed, fixing issues, mobile-friendliness etc), and optimising website pages.

Plus, they take a much bigger role in keyword and competitor research in order to find out what you should be ranking for with your content.

Most SEO agencies will:

DOs
✅ Competitor and keyword research
✅ Help direct blog topics
✅ They may outsource content writing or have in-house writers or give you some direction on the content for you to do yourself
✅ Optimise your content for keywords and phrases
✅ Build back-links
✅ Optimise website pages
✅ Fix any technical SEO aspects

DON’Ts
❌ Create or source imagery
❌ Often don’t focus on writing in your tone of voice/brand
❌ Often don’t focus on how to convert people from the content

Again, the exact package will vary depending on the agency, and cost.

Who is the winner?

SEO Agencies (but with a caveat!)

On the face of it, an SEO agency covers A LOT more ground than an SEO content writer, which you would expect given the difference in cost.

But because content is such a vital part of SEO, it really is important that whoever writes the content is an expert who knows how to write compelling content. You may rank on search engines with content, but that content still has to engage your reader. Otherwise, it’s all pretty pointless if they hit that backspace button!

So absolutely, SEO agencies do more stuff but make sure you choose one that prioritises content. The best place to start to check this is by looking at an SEO agency’s blog to see what kind of content they create for themselves. Is it helpful? Is it engaging? Or is it full of jargon or just about themselves and what award they’ve won that month?

Related Content: DIY SEO vs Hiring and Agency – Which One Should You Choose?

Remember: Content that gets backlinks has to be good

And remember, backlinks are another huge ranking factor. If you have backlinks to your website (i.e. links from other credible websites that link back to your site) then this tells Google you are trustworthy.

One of the best ways to gain backlinks is by producing stand-out content that people will link to. This is another reason why it’s so important you hire specialist writers who will do lots of research into your topic and write compelling content. Mediocre content does not get backlinks!

3. SEO Content Writer vs SEO Agency: what results do they get you?

RESULTS! They are kind of the reason that you are writing content, or worrying about SEO, right?

So, it’s definitely something you need to consider when choosing which one is right for your business.

And honestly, both SEO content writers and SEO agencies have the same ultimate goal:

To get your website ranking organically on search engines.

This should (in theory) lead to increased website traffic, and hopefully revenue for you💰.

The main goals of SEO content writers and SEO agencies are to:

✅  Increase your search engine rankings for a variety of keywords
✅  Increase your website traffic
✅  Increase your backlinks from high-authority websites

Luckily, this is super easy to track. You can do it in Google Analytics, which is completely free. So you can check how well your SEO agency or SEO content writer is doing.

Of course, SEO is great and everything, but it only kinda gets you halfway there. Once you have rankings and traffic you should want to convert that traffic into actual sales.

This is where your SEO content writer should come in. An SEO content writer should also focus on how to convert your readers into leads. They’ll do this by encouraging your reader to join your email list or find out more about your services.

Who is the winner?

A tie!

Both an SEO agency and an SEO content writer should increase your search engine rankings and website traffic.

But, SEO agencies can be more focused on the rankings and traffic, whereas an SEO content writer should also focus on converting readers into leads. However, an SEO agency is much more likely to give you a comprehensive report on how they are doing (such as the increase in rankings, traffic, backlinks, domain authority etc).

Whoever you choose, make sure they value leads and sales just as much (if not more!) than rankings and traffic. If you choose a content writer, you will probably need to keep an eye on how well things are going through your Google Analytics (it’s recommended you do this anyway). If you hire an SEO agency, you should receive a more comprehensive report from them.

4. SEO Content Writer vs SEO Agency: what’s the difference in skillset?

Although both SEO content writers and SEO agencies have the same ultimate goal their skillset, and emphasis on how they get there is a little different.

What skillset does an SEO content writer have?

As you would expect, SEO content writers are expert writers. Their aim is to capture the essence of your business and translate that into an engaging, entertaining and informative blog that your potential customers love and gain value from.

Yes, they’ll scatter in the necessary keywords, and optimise the entire blog so that Google likes the look of it. But that’s just because they understand you have to appease the Google Gods in order to rank in search engines.

SEO content writers are writing for humans.

And because of that, they are really good at emulating the tone of voice, building trust, nurturing relationships and ultimately converting website visitors into paying customers.

What skillset does an SEO agency have?

In comparison, SEO agencies’ skillset lies in SEO (unsurprisingly). And they are much more concerned with and knowledgeable about development and technical SEO.

SEO agencies understand all aspects of technical SEO and what makes a website appealing to search engines. They typically:

• Offer a website audit and fix any issues such as site speed
• Come up with an SEO strategy
• On-site SEO such as optimising your pages and imagery
• Off-site SEO such as creating a backlink strategy
• Content marketing – either in-house or outsourced

Yes, they can write content, however, many aren’t usually expert writers. And unless you pay larger fees for SEO agencies with expert in-house writers, you may find that they outsource content writing work to a freelancer. Because of this, you may find that they place less emphasis on things like brand voice and style. The articles may sound a little cold, overly factual and not particularly engaging.

Ultimately they are focussed on getting traffic to your website, and while content is a means to an end for this, it’s not the main focus.

Who is the winner?

A tie!

It’s difficult to pick a winner here as they both have different skillsets, and that’s okay. If you’re looking for a specialist writer who knows SEO, then an SEO content writer may be better. If you’re looking for more technical help and expertise, then an SEO agency may suit you better.

What if you need a specialist writer with technical knowledge?

It’s worth pointing out here that this is exactly why we set up our SEO and Blog Management Service. We are expert writers (Lyndsay has a master’s in creative writing and writes professionally for all sorts of businesses and industries), but we’re also web experts.

We ran a web agency for over a decade so understand all the technical issues that could prevent you from ranking. And we know how to write content and also how to upload it to your website, format it, design imagery etc.

If you’re looking for a company that sits nicely between an SEO content writer and an SEO agency, we might just be the right fit.

5. SEO Content Writer vs SEO Agency: how do they work?

Due to their overall goal, and associated skills, the actual process that an SEO content writer takes is quite different to an SEO agency.

How does an SEO content writer work?

An SEO content writer will dive straight into keyword research and writing. Their aim is to get content live on your website as soon as possible.

They will usually expect you to have a content plan ready (or they will charge more to create this) and from there they will write your content.

They typically check in with you every month to see what content you’d like to publish for that month. They’ll often write 2, 3 or 4 blog posts per month and they usually recommend you commit to 3 months working with them (although often, they have no minimum commitment).

They might need to get some of the expert knowledge from your brain to theirs and can do this via email, video, voice notes or whatever suits you.

But then they are off! 🐎

Tapping away on their laptop getting content ready for your business.

Once they’re finished it’s usually up to you to upload this content, format it, design imagery and optimise it for search engines. Some SEO content writers may upload it for you, others avoid this as they’re not web experts and every content management system is different.

How do SEO agencies work?

SEO agencies take a more reserved, strategic approach.

You’ve got to know where you are in order to know what work needs to be done.  SEO agencies will usually kick things off with an SEO audit to see how your website performs and if there are any technical issues to fix. They’ll also examine your current traffic, rankings, backlinks etc to see where you are right now. They’ll probably have a gander at your competitors’ websites too.

This allows them to create a plan that will get you from where you are, to where you want to be. This plan will vary depending on exactly what’s going on with your current setup.

After this, they’ll likely get on keyword research and focus on fixing any technical issues that are stopping your website from ranking.

They’ll then focus on on-page SEO, i.e. optimising your current website pages for search engines.

It’s not usually until after this is all done that they start to turn their attention to content creation (if that’s included within their package). So, it may be a few months before you actually see any content being produced or published. Of course, this depends on the company and budget, but they tend to get to content later on in the process.

SEO Content Writer vs SEO agency: which one should you pick?

So, content writer or SEO agency: which one is right for you?

Ultimately, which one is best for your business will depend on what support you are looking for, and what your business budget is.

Hiring an SEO content writer will usually deliver results faster and cheaper but only if your website is healthy. That means there’s nothing preventing or limiting it from getting ranked on search engines. In other cases, you may want a full SEO agency to manage all the technical aspects of your website, especially if you have a large website with a lot of pages and lots going on!

However, there is a third option, which is a blog management service.

It’s kind of a mid-point between SEO content writers and SEO agencies. We do an SEO audit and deep dive of your website, identifying any problems. Plus, we do ALL the work around your blog including planning, writing, optimising for SEO, designing imagery, uploading and formatting. Basically, we manage the entire blog!

We take care of any SEO issues, while also creating content that ranks and drives traffic to your website. Which is really the best of both worlds! Win/Win!

The post SEO Content Writer vs SEO Agency: Which One is Best for Your Business? appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

You might have even heard of content writing.

But how have those two things been mushed together, and what the heck is it?

In this article, I’ll explain exactly what an SEO content writing service is. And more importantly, how SEO content writing can be an absolute gamechanger for your business.

Firstly, what is an SEO content writing service?

An SEO content writing service is the process of creating content for your website that helps you rank on search engine results pages (SERPs).

The company or freelancer who offers this service will usually create content in the form of blog articles (just like this one).

Some companies can also create guest posts that are added to other websites (not just the client’s website). The aim of this is to increase the number of backlinks to your website, increasing your authority in the eyes of Google.

What does an SEO content writing service include?

At the heart of it, an SEO content writer should be able to produce compelling content written in your tone of voice and style.

The content should be highly engaging and get your reader to take action. This is the same for all content writers, whether they specialise in SEO writing or not.

So what’s the difference between an SEO content writer and a content writer?

The main difference is in the extra ‘stuff’ included within the SEO content writing service and the overall aim of the content.

An SEO content writer should have a deep understanding of SEO. They should know how to optimise your content for your chosen keywords and phrases (without it sounding like a repetitive mess!)

They should know how to get you ranked on Google and advise you on the best ways to do it.

What is the goal of SEO Content Writing?

Just like content writers, SEO content writers should create compelling, engaging content that users love to read.

If you use an SEO content writing service you should expect the overall goal of the content to focus on website traffic and search engine rankings.

Any good SEO content writing service should:

• • Increase your search engine rankings for a variety of keywords
  • Increase your website traffic
  • Increase your backlinks from high-authority websites

As stated in Search Engine Journal, the main issue with SEO content writing services is often they focus too much on rankings but don’t know how to convert that traffic into customers.

Are you thinking of hiring a company or freelancer to help you with SEO content writing? It’s a good idea you look for a company that can create compelling copy that converts AND help you rank on search engines.

What are some key elements an SEO Content Writing Service could include?

Writing is just a part of what makes a successful, high-ranking blog. There’s actually a lot more that goes on behind the scenes.

Some SEO content writing services will include:

Keyword research

SEO content writing services may also include keyword research.

Keyword research is the process of finding out what topics and specific keywords and phrases people are searching for around your products and services.

If someone is doing this on your behalf, they will identify the topics you can realistically rank for that get a healthy number of searches each month. If they offer this as part of the SEO content writing service, then they’ll go ahead and write the content based on this research. Simple.

Content strategy

SEO content writing services are primarily focused on getting more traffic to your content via search engine rankings.

But good SEO content writing services should also focus on the entire buyer’s journey. It shouldn’t just be about getting people through the door (or finding you from Google), you also want to convert people too.

That’s why some SEO content writing services also offer content strategy as part of the service. They’ll help you form a strategy that guides people through the entire customer journey–from finding you to buying from you. This means they may create some content that isn’t designed to get website traffic, it’s designed to convert people into paying customers.

On-Page Optimisation

Some SEO content writing services will include on-page optimisation as part of the service. This means they’ll upload the content for you and ensure it’s optimised and formatted correctly for SEO. For example, they’ll optimise your URL, title tag, imagery, meta description and select your categories and tags.

This will increase your chances of ranking in search results. Optimising your content for your keywords is only part of what will help it rank, a lot of work also has to happen on your website itself too!

If you want to learn how to do this yourself, check out our article on how to optimise your blog post.

Measuring success

Some companies will track your search engine rankings as they continue to create content for you. They’ll also track things like the number of backlinks to your website, website traffic and leads coming through the site.

This is helpful as you can see what is working and what isn’t working so well and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Creating imagery

Some SEO writers or companies will even create bespoke imagery and optimise it for search engines. Some will also use stock image websites and ensure these are optimised for search engines too.

Who offers SEO content writing as a service?

There are a few types of freelancers or companies that offer SEO content writing as a service. And they all differ slightly in price, process and approach.

1. SEO Content Writers

These are typically freelance writers who have knowledge and experience in SEO. They are able to write blog articles and optimise them for search engines.

Some of them will offer keyword research as part of their service, which means they will research the topics, keywords and phrases that your audience is searching for.

Others won’t offer keyword research. They will ask you what keywords or phrases you’d like to rank for or what you think people are searching for. They’ll then optimise your blog post for these keywords and phrases.

Many don’t upload your content to your website and optimise your SEO settings. They will leave that part to you. But some will write things like the meta description for you, leaving you to add that to your website.

Some may upload the content to your website if it’s a platform (or content management system) they are already familiar with. There are a lot of different website platforms, and writers tend not to have knowledge of them all (nor should they need to!)

A quick overview of SEO Content Writers and what they do

Generally, this is what SEO content writers do and/or specialise in

• They are professional writers, often with experience in writing for business
• They have knowledge of SEO
• They are able to optimise your content for keywords and phrases
• Some will offer keyword research as part of the service
• Often they don’t upload your content to your website
• Often they don’t create imagery

How much does it cost to hire an SEO Content Writer?

SEO Content Writers can typically charge anywhere between £250 – £1000+ per blog article. I know that’s wildly different amounts!

I also understand that this can sound expensive. But remember, both writing and SEO are highly-skilled work, and it’s likely that the SEO content writer has a lot of experience and expertise. Plus, it will take them time to research and write each article. Hence the price tag!

2. SEO Agencies

Many SEO agencies offer content writing as part of the service. This is often part of a broader service where they’ll also offer things like keyword research, an SEO audit, technical SEO, improving your website’s performance, and increasing backlinks to your website.

Some agencies will outsource the content writing they do for clients, as writing isn’t their specialism. Some will have in-house writers.

SEO agencies are highly focused on getting traffic to your website, and as many are not expert ‘writers’, you may find they place less emphasis on your brand voice and style. The content is merely a means to an end, and that end is website traffic.

They will usually upload your content to your website and optimise it for search engines, but may not have the skills required to create fancy graphics.

A quick overview of SEO Agencies and what they do

• They are experts in SEO and focus on all aspects of SEO (such as technical SEO or increasing backlinks)
• They may outsource content writing or have writers in-house
• They are able to optimise your content for keywords and phrases
• They will offer keyword research
• They will upload and optimise your content
• Often they don’t create imagery

How much does it cost to hire an SEO Agency for this service?

They are usually more expensive than SEO content writers. A lot of SEO agencies have 6-month contracts and prices will vary from £1000 – £10,000+ per month (if they’re a pretty decent agency). And the more content they create generally the more expensive it is.

Remember that’s not just for creating content, that’s for an entire SEO service.

We know of a lot of great SEO agencies, but we also know that there are a lot of problems in the industry too. If you’re thinking of hiring an SEO agency, you might want to check out our article on the problems with SEO agencies.

3. Blog Management Agencies

This is where we sit.

Blog management agencies are less well known than content writers or SEO agencies, but they do similar things.

A blog management agency does exactly what it says, they manage every aspect of your blog. That means everything from keyword research and strategy, to content writing and creating imagery.

If they have a focus on SEO (like we do), they should hit the balance between creating compelling content and ranking on search engines.

Some of them will also be able to advise if there’s anything technically on your website that will hinder your rankings (like us!)

They may also write guest blog posts in order for you to build your backlinks to your website, building your authority with Google.

A quick overview of Blog Management Agencies and what they do

• They are expert writers and can write in your tone of voice and style
• They understand content strategy and should create content that helps people go through the entire buyer’s journey – from finding you to buying from you
• They should do keyword research for you
• They will upload your content to your website and optimise it for you
• They are knowledgeable in SEO
• Some (like us) should be able to create custom graphics for your blog posts
• Many don’t understand technical SEO (such as website speed, mobile-friendliness, broken links etc) so they can’t advise on that

How much does it cost to hire a Blog Management Agency?

There aren’t that many blog management agencies out there, and the ones that do offer this service don’t give a price unless you get on a call with them (annoying).

But a blog management agency would usually sit between an SEO content writer and an SEO agency.

We charge a minimum of £1397 per month for our blog management service.

Is an SEO Content Writing Service right for you?

Whether you choose an SEO content writer, SEO agency or blog management agency, SEO content writing can have HUGE benefits for your business.

Not only can you use that content to rank on search engines and deliver traffic to your website, but you can also repurpose it across your social media channels too. In fact, I can get 4-8 LinkedIn posts just from one blog post! You can learn more about how to repurpose a blog post here.

So yes, it’s an investment, but for many businesses, you’ll certainly see a good ROI from it.

And don’t forget to check out our SEO blog writing service for more information.

The post What is an SEO content writing service? And how does it all work?  appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

But for years now we’ve offered SEO services, previously alongside our web design, and now as part of our SEO blog writing & management service. We’re experts, and so we know that not all SEO companies are created equal.

And, while we know that SEO is hugely beneficial for your business it’s also a BIG investment (both in time and money). And that’s why you need to choose the right company to get you to the top of those all-important search results.

Are we saying that SEO companies are full of problems?

Of course NOT. There are some GREAT ones out there that can help you get your website ranking highly on Google.

However, SEO is not well-known as being a trustworthy or reputable industry. And unfortunately, there are some common problems we see with some SEO agencies we think you should be wary of.

So in this blog, we’re exploring some of the most common problems with hiring an SEO agency and giving you a solution to fix them.

But First: Why do you need to think about SEO?

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is the process of making changes or additions to your website in order to help you rank highly in search engine results.

When was the last time you clicked on page two of Google’s search results?

Not very often, right?

So, ideally, you’ll want to rank on the first page of Google results, and with the first few spots if possible. The top five organic search results account for 67.60% of all website clicks from search engines. If you aren’t appearing within these first five spots, then you’re probably not getting much traffic from search engines.

A good SEO strategy gives you a higher chance of ranking for keywords, which in turn increases organic traffic to your website. And the best part is that organic traffic is free. So, it’s definitely worthwhile!

So, what is an SEO agency or company?

An SEO agency will partner with you to optimise your website, improve search visibility and ultimately drive more traffic to your website.

However, as with all marketing efforts, it should help to drive leads, sales and ultimately revenue for your business. And if it’s not, then it’s not doing its job properly.

But, there are some problems with SEO agencies that mean it won’t have an impact on your bottom line in the way that it should.

Related content: 11 Reasons You’re NOT Ranking in Google & How To Fix It

What are the main problems with SEO companies?

When it comes to SEO we’ve been there done that and got a lot of happy customers to prove it. We’ve provided SEO services in the past alongside our web design business, and now include it as part of our SEO blog writing & management service now.

So it’s safe to say that we know how to ensure that your website and content rank highly on search engines.

However, we’ve also seen the ugly side of SEO, so know what to look out for when finding a company. And we think that it’s something that you need to be aware of too before hiring a company.

1. They are expensive
2. They don’t advise on messaging and copy
3. They may not produce content
4. Reports can seem overwhelming
5. Difficult to find a reliable company
6. Can take a while to see results
7. May not be honest about search volume
8. They don’t practice what they preach
9. They guarantee search engine results

So, let’s get into it…

1. SEO agencies can be expensive

Did you know that Jammy Digital wasn’t our first foray into the world of business?

Years ago we started a business selling cushions and soft furnishings on the internet. We invested every last penny that we had into building a website. And then, once the website was live…tumbleweed. Absolutely nothing!

Why?🤔

Because we weren’t getting any traffic to our website, and so weren’t making any sales.

When we asked our web designer about it he told us that we’d have to spend up to £5000 a month on something called SEO 😱

You can imagine our shock, after spending all our money on our website, that now we were going to going to have to spend more money.

SEO can cost between £100- £10,000+ per month, depending on who you hire, what you need, how competitive the search terms are and the amount of work that needs to happen to get you ranking on search engines.

So, why is SEO so expensive?

A well thought out and executed SEO strategy requires expertise, time and work. Those three things cost money.

But however much you spend you absolutely should see a healthy return on investment. So yes, it may seem expensive, but if you’re getting a good ROI, that makes it all worth it, right?

Unfortunately, as we’ll explore further here, some of the issues around SEO companies mean that you might not get results even if you are paying a professional to do it every month. And this is why it’s perceived as expensive. Because of course, it’s expensive if you don’t get that money back!

Are you paying for SEO confusion?

Finally, SEO may be pricy because it can seem like a bit of a mystery. For example, SEO is (typically) more expensive than hiring a content writer, even though both will help you get better search results. The SEO industry can charge more simply because it’s more difficult to understand. Whereas with writing, people have a full understanding of how it works and may perceive it as less valuable.

Related content: 5 FREE ways to check keyword rankings in Google

2. They don’t advise on messaging and copy

Woohoo!

The SEO is working! Your website is drowning in traffic, with loads of hits every single day. But, it isn’t resulting in any more leads or sales. 😔

What’s going on?

The truth is that there are loads of different issues that can result in failed conversions.

Maybe you’ve got a bad user experience?

Or, maybe the copy isn’t compelling enough?

Or perhaps your website looks like it was last designed in 1992 and it’s putting people off?

Traffic is great! It’s often the precursor to more sales. But it takes more than traffic to convert those potential customers into paying customers.

SEO companies often won’t mention or even think to look for any issues with the user experience or copy. Because it’s not really their problem. They want to get lots of eyeballs on your website and once they’ve done that their job is done.

However, getting people to your website and not making sales is a massive waste of money. And it’s something that a good SEO specialist should be able to point out to you.

We’ve personally turned clients away if they don’t have what’s needed to make their content and SEO work – i.e. an easy to use website that clearly shows what you do and appeals to your target audience.

3. They might not produce content for you

If you want to grab one of those coveted top spots on Google then you’ve got to create amazing content that is going to be relevant to those searches. That means you’ve got to have blogs, videos, landing pages and sales pages – filled with keyword optimised content.

The average content length of the article in the top position on Google is 2,416 words. So if you want to rank highly on search engines then you need to be producing long-form content.

SEO companies (should) know this, however, they’ll often ask you to create your own content. Alternatively content will be an added cost, on top of the £100 – £10,000/month that you are already paying. Suddenly it’s all adding up and becoming very pricey indeed.

Or worse still, they might just not mention it and they’ll focus on link building or technical SEO. As long as they are getting you more traffic they are doing their job. 🤷.

But as you know to really utilise the impact of SEO you need content. So you either need to do it yourself or pay SEO specialists more to do it for you.

This is part of the reason that we’ve bundled content and SEO all together in one package (along with a few other things). So that you are getting quality, consistent content that drives traffic and is SEO optimised.

Related content: The Biggest SEO mistakes you’re making (and what to do instead)

4. Reports can seem overwhelming

The reports that SEO companies send you every month can seem overwhelming and full of jargon 🙄

Of course, you want to know what has been done, and what impact that has had on your business, especially when you are spending money. However, it’s important that the right metrics are being reported to you – rather than ALL of them.

SEO reports can include overall organic traffic, backlinks, website speed, technical website health and keyword rankings among other things. But this might not mean a lot to you.

Speak to your SEO specialist to understand what KPIs you might need to measure, and have reported on. These might include:

• What keywords are ranking and where?
• Are we getting traffic to our website?
• Is that turning into leads and sales?
  How is that affecting our revenue and profit?

5. It’s difficult to find a reliable company

Pretty much anyone could open up an SEO agency tomorrow and start selling themselves as an expert.

There is a really low barrier to entry ⛔, which is great in some respects, as it means that anyone can become an expert – even you!

However, it also means that there are a lot of dodgy SEO companies out there who aren’t qualified or experienced to deliver results to your business. This is exacerbated by the fact that SEO can seem like a total dark art to many business owners. The lack of knowledge and understanding on the business side, coupled with a dodgy SEO company means that a LOT of money can be spent with not a lot of results.

Looking for SEO agencies with good testimonials, who implement a good content and SEO strategy themselves is a good place to start.

If they can’t show that they have a successful SEO strategy themselves how are they going to do it for you?

6. It can take a while to see results

How long does it take to see results from your SEO efforts?

The magic number you’ll hear bandied about in the SEO world is 3-6 months. And that can be the case, it can take a while for SEO agencies to deliver results. Especially if they are focussing on the technical SEO aspects of your website rather than creating content.

However, one of the biggest SEO myths is that it takes 6 months to see results. When the truth is if done well it can take less than a day to rank for your chosen keywords and phrases.

We recently wrote and published a blog for a client that ranked on the first page of Google for their BIG target keyword within a couple of days. But of course, it doesn’t end there, you keep writing and publishing relevant content. The more content you create the more keywords and phrases you’ll rank for. (As long as you follow the right strategy and optimise it correctly).

There’s not a 1-month limit. Or a 3-month limit. Or a 6-month limit. If you want to be successful at SEO and content, then it needs to be part of your business forever. And you need to work with someone that is open and honest about this commitment. It doesn’t always have to be via an agency, you might eventually hire in-house, but it will always need to be a part of your business.

Related content: WordPress SEO For Blogging – How to Optimise Your WordPress Blog Post

7. They may not be honest about search volumes

We could write a blog today about “moon exercises” and rank number one on Google pretty quickly.

We’re not just blowing my own trumpet🎺 (although we’re pretty good at creating content). It’s because the term moon exercises barely have any keyword volume – meaning no one is searching for it. This makes total sense as no one is casually joining an exercise class on the moon.

It would also make it pretty easy to write a blog that would rank highly on search engines.

But why would we bother when no one is searching for that keyword?

You might think that there are certain keywords and search terms that you want your website and blog to rank for. But they won’t always be the best terms, and sometimes SEO companies won’t be upfront about the search volumes of those keywords.

Recently we did some keyword research on behalf of a client. They were optimising their website and content for the name of their service followed by the word ‘partner’.

But actually, their audience didn’t use the word ‘partner’ they used the word ‘consultant’. And there was a vast difference in search volume (less than 10 searches a month for ‘partner’ and over 600 searches a month for ‘consultant’).

That’s why keyword research is essential and finding an SEO & content specialist who will be honest about what you need to be ranking for in order to grow your business is crucial.

8. They don’t practice what they preach

Found an SEO agency that doesn’t rank for any of the keywords in their industry?

It’s an ongoing joke (especially in marketing circles) that your own business comes last. SEO companies aren’t paying themselves, and so sometimes their own SEO comes after client work.

Which is totally understandable to an extent. However, if they aren’t doing any of the things they are suggesting that you do then you’ve got a problem. Not only does it make you question the effectiveness of their SEO strategies, but it calls into question their expertise and qualifications.

Your SEO company should be creating content that is optimised for search engines, and that is ranking for the relevant keywords.

If they can’t do it for themselves, how are they going to do it for you?

9. They guarantee search engine rankings

Unless an SEO company owns Google, they can’t guarantee rankings!

Of course, they can show you examples of client work and how their SEO strategy was implemented, and the results that it had. They can show you testimonials from existing clients. But they cannot guarantee that you will achieve the same.

Google can be a fickle little beast, that changes on a whim. And in addition, you’re competing against competitors in your industry and have no control over what they post.

So no one can absolutely guarantee that you’ll be ranking in the number one spot for every single keyword. And if they are – run the other way.

Should you hire an SEO agency? (and how to find a good one)

So, after telling you all the problems with SEO you might think they are the devil 😈

Are we saying that SEO is useless and shouldn’t be invested in?

Absolutely not!

As SEO specialists we know just how crucial a good SEO strategy is to the success of any business. However, it’s just part of the success puzzle, not the entire picture, and there are many other things that you need to think about.

But, the truth is, if you are spending thousands on a fancy SEO strategy every month and you’re NOT creating quality, consistent content, that is speaking to what your customers are searching for then you might be wasting money🤷.

Rather than spending thousands a month a better place to start might be with a good, SEO optimised, content strategy. This will help you rank on search engines as well as build trust with potential customers and convert them into paying customers.

So, what should you look for when looking for a company to help improve your website SEO?

1. Companies that create content for their clients and themselves
2. Ones that don’t guarantee rankings
3. Are honest with you about what to expect, and the best way to get there
4. Companies that don’t use stupid jargon

As part of our SEO Blog Writing & Management package, we do ALL the work for you including planning, writing and optimising for SEO. And we do all this for a very reasonable price if you are looking for a complete package that will take everything you need into consideration.

If you want to see how your current blog is ranking on the six key components, then take our blog quiz now – and see where you need to improve and more importantly how.

The post The Biggest Problems with SEO Companies (and how you can avoid them!) appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

We know better than most just how time-intensive writing consistent and high-quality business blogs can be. We’ve been doing it pretty much every week (or more) since 2017. 

Back when we kicked off our blog we were primarily web design and SEO specialists. And we’ll admit there were times when blog production dropped to the bottom of our to-do list due to lack of time. ⏰

But, we also know just how crucial a strong content strategy is for growing your business.

So over the years we’ve tried and tested a bunch of business blogging tools to help with SEO, improve the quality of writing and shave some precious hours off the process. 

In this blog, we’ll share our best blogging tools to help you create blogs faster than ever before. 

IMPORTANT! There are zero affiliate links in this blog post. We don’t earn any money out of recommending these companies, we’re here to just give you the best tools for your business.

And don’t worry, these tools aren’t going to set you back hundreds or thousands of pounds. They are all either completely FREE to use or pretty cheap – so they won’t break the bank.💰

There are some key areas that these blogging tools can help in, so we’ve split the blog post into these sections:

Table of Contents

Evaluating Where You Are Right Now

First thing’s first, you’ll want to evaluate where you are now with your blog and how you can improve. That way, you’ll know exactly what you need to focus on moving forward (and what blogging tools you can use to help you do that).

Luckily, we created just the tool for you…

1. Business Blogging Quiz (FREE)

If you have ever wondered how “Good” your blog is, then check out the Business Blogging Quiz. We created this FREE tool that will automatically assess how well your blog is performing.

It will also tell you exactly how to improve your business blog so you can increase your website traffic, rankings and sales.

Click the link below and get your Business Blogging Score instantly.

The Best Blogging Tools for Generating Blog Post Ideas…

“I’ll run out of things to write about.” 

Have you ever found yourself saying this? ⬆️

We know that coming up with amazing, traffic-generating ideas is one of the biggest barriers to getting started on your blogging journey. 

But if you’re tearing your hair out trying to come up with blog ideas then stop. 🛑

We’ve been consistently blogging since 2017, and trust us when we say we’ve still got loads more to write about. 

That’s because we employ a few different blogging tools that help us generate ideas. They hack into what our potential customers are actually searching for online. 

Not only do these tools help create blog ideas, but they will allow you to see what terms and phrases people search for on Google. These are known as longtail keywords. 

For example, if you bake cupcakes, it’s unlikely that people are just typing “cupcakes” into Google. They are probably searching for things like:

• Where to buy cupcakes in Blackpool?

• How much do cupcakes cost?

• How to make my own cupcakes?

This is a crucial step for SEO, as you can sprinkle these phrases into your content. And this will allow you to be found by search engines.

Using these tools allows you to integrate topics your potential customers are actually searching for rather than guessing. So when they type their query into Google guess who’s blog will pop up first – that’s right, yours. 

• Related content: 5 FREE ways to check keyword rankings in Google

2. Answer The Public (Free)

Answer the Public is an amazing tool that helps you clearly visualise real questions that your potential customers have asked via an image known as a “search cloud”. 

Simply enter your topic into the search bar, and Answer the Public will produce a “mind-map” of questions that have been searched for.

Remember people ask Google questions they would never ask someone else (or you). So it’s a great way to gain insight into the inner workings of potential customers’ minds. 

It’s a useful tool to come up with blog titles, but also individual sub-headings and sub-sections. 

The free version gives you up to three searches per day, which will be enough for most small businesses. But if you think you’ll be running multiple searches a day, then you can upgrade to the PRO version. Below, we’ve shown an example of when we put in the phrase, ‘book editor’. 

3. Quora (Free) 

People ask a lot of random questions on the internet…

How long would it take me to walk to the moon?

Which country in the world has the strangest shape?

If you’ve ever searched for something online then you’ve probably come across Quora. 

It’s a free-to-use, search and answer website, that is completely user-generated. This means users generate the questions asked and the answers given.

It’s a really great insight into what people are searching for, and what the common answers (or potential misconceptions) around your industry are. All really juicy information when you are trying to come up with blog ideas. 

Plus, you can follow specific topics and keep tabs on any new questions that are popping up. Below, I typed in the phrase ‘book editor’ and look at all the juicy questions that could easily make great content!

4. Keywords Everywhere (Free and Paid Version) 

Keywords Everywhere is a free Chrome extension that helps you with keyword research, and SEO. 

It allows you to do keyword research on the go, as you type queries into Google. Once installed it will pop up on the side whenever you do a search and will give you access to:

• Trend data and search volumes for that keyword
• Related keywords to the search term you selected
• ‘People also search for’ suggestions.

It’s free to use but a paid-for version is also available if you want more information on monthly searches and competitor analysis. However, most people will find the free version more than adequate for their needs. 

Below, we’ve shown you an example of how this works by searching for the keyphrase ‘business book editor’. We do pay for this tool, but it’s incredibly cheap at just $10 for 100,000 credits (which is a lot!)

5. Semrush (Paid) 

Semrush is the creme de la creme of keyword research tools, but with a price tag to match. 

It’s is a full-service research tool and allows you to figure out what people are searching for in relation to a specific keyword using their content marketing topic research. 

It is a paid tool with prices starting at around $119/month, however, you can sign up for a free trial to see if it would be worth it. This tool is something that we use to get really deep insights into keyword research, rankings, backlink data and more. Below is a screenshot of SEMRush, with us searching for the keyword ‘book editor’ – and this is just surface level stuff (yes, we do geek out over this!) 

The Best Blogging Tools for Planning Blog Posts…

“Aghhh, I’ll just wing it, and see what happens.”

Does this sound like you?

We can almost guarantee that this is the easiest way to fall off the content bandwagon. We’ve seen it time and time again in the 90-day content challenge we run within our membership.

The people that fail to plan are always the ones that struggle to complete the challenge. Every👏 Single👏 Time👏.

Putting a little time aside upfront to plan out your content, and organise it into a schedule will give you a fighting chance. 

Not only will you not have to worry about what you are writing about every week (especially if you use the brainstorming blogging tools above). But it will also help you plan and prioritise blogging as a task on your to-do list. If it’s written down in black and white it’s not as easy to push it to the bottom of the list.

Everyone plans in a different way, so we’ve got a couple of different blogging tools that will suit depending on your brain works. 

• Related content: How to plan 50 pieces of content in 30 minutes

6. Trello (Free and Paid Version) 

Trello is an amazing visual planning tool if you have a logical and linear brain. It is a very simple visual planner that allows you to layout all your blog posts via boards and cards. 

The cards allow you to add more detail in an unstructured way. This makes it easier to create content plans than something like Google Sheets/Spreadsheets. 

You can create columns for each of your products and services so that you can manage what blogs are coming up, and what ones have been done. 

Trello is a free tool, however, if you need more than ten boards or want a calendar view then you can upgrade to a paid plan (starting from $5/person/month). But we’ve found that for most small businesses, the free tool is more than powerful enough. 

7. MindMeister (Free and Paid Version) 

Did you know that mind maps are 30% more effective than linear documents when it comes to generating ideas? 

MindMeister is a mind-mapping tool, and it’s a brilliant way to plan out content for people who love to inject some creativity into their planning process. 

The free plan allows you to create up to three mind-maps, which should be enough for most businesses. However, if you have a team, or if you really want to get into creating mind maps, then you can upgrade to a paid plan. Below is an example of how we use MindMeister.

The Best Blogging Tools for Creating Blog Post Images…

Have you ever seen a blog post image and immediately known who wrote the blog at a glance?

This is definitely something we’ve managed to achieve throughout pop-art blog images (or so we’ve been told). And while we create a new blog post image for every single blog, there is a definite and distinct theme running through them all. 

With over 4 million blogs published every day, and shared all over social media, you need a way to stand out from the crowd. 

Creating an eye-catching image for every blog post is a great way to do this and to convey your unique brand personality in the process. 

This might seem like a daunting process if you aren’t a graphic designer, but we use one great tool that is simple and effective. 

8. Canva (Free and Paid Version)

You’ve probably heard of Canva, it’s got a bit of a love-hate relationship, especially among the graphic design community. We are definitely on the LOVE side for Canva, and it’s a tool we happily recommend to all our clients and MYMO members. 

It’s much easier to use (and cheaper) than Photoshop. And it’s brilliant for creating consistent and beautiful images for your blog post. 

The free version has tonnes of functionality and allows you to overlay text onto existing photos, or add graphics to your website. 

There is also a paid-for version that offers a little more functionality and access to more images and graphics. 

The Best Blogging Tools for Editing Your Blog Posts…

Ever hit publish and then realised there is a glaringly obvious, totally embarrassing error?

Oh no, you’ll never be able to show your face in public again😳

Not really, we’ve all been there. But it is a good idea to eliminate as many errors from your blogs as possible. 

And we know the fear of errors is one thing that can hold people back from writing and publishing blog content -especially if they aren’t confident writers.

There are a couple of blogging tools that will help you write like you’ve got a team of editors and proofreaders on your team (well almost, they aren’t quite as good as trained humans).

9. Grammarly (Free and Paid Version)

Grammarly is an AI-powered tool that helps you write mistake-free content across loads of apps including Google Docs, Gmail, Facebook and Twiter. 

Contrary to what the name would have you believe it’s about more than just grammar (although it certainly does help with that). It will also check spelling and punctuation, as well as ensure the content is clear and easy to read. 

Basically, it’s an absolute life-saver if you are writing lots of content. It’s one of our favourite blogging tools!

And the best part is that it’s free, although you can upgrade to a premium version. 

Yes, you‘ll still need to read over your work, as some slip-ups will bypass the super-smart AI. But it’s a quick and effective way to check your work for mistakes and make your writing better in seconds. Below, we’ve shown you an example of how it works using this blog post!

10. Power Thesaurus (Free) 

If you’ve ever seen Friends then you might remember when Baby Kangaroo (a.k.a Joey) turned to a thesaurus to help him sound smarter. 

And while running every single word through a thesaurus is not a good idea – it can certainly help. 

Power Thesaurus is a free, community drive app that allows you to find synonyms or antonyms for over 80 million English language words. 

Perfect for when your brain stops working after lunch and you just can’t think of a smart-sounding way to say nice.

Ps. amiable, charming and good-natured could all work. 

The Best Blogging Tools for Optimising Your Blog Posts…

Despite what the latest marketing doomsday opinion piece will have you believe, Google is very much alive. 

And paying homage to the Google Gods can really make or break the success of your blog.

You could craft the most informative, beautifully written blog post, and still have it flop if you don’t adhere to some of Google’s rules.

The algorithm is ever-changing, so appeasing the search engines is an ever-evolving task. We call this optimising content, and we’re taking what we’ve created and tweaked it to give it a better chance of being found online. 

However, there are some blogging tools that remove the guesswork and help us adhere to the rules. 

• Related content: WordPress SEO For Blogging – How to Optimise Your WordPress Blog Posts

11. Yoast (Free and Paid Version – WordPress Blogging Tool Only)

Once you’ve written your blog it’s time to get it uploaded and hit publish. 

Well, yes but there are some steps to take before hitting publish to make sure that everything SEO related is in ship-shape for Google (and other search engines).

Yoast is a WordPress specific plug-in that double-checks the soundness of your blog content, and give you practical suggestions for improvement, including:

• Readability improvement (ie. sentences are too long)
• Keyword distribution and density
• Text length
• As well as loads of other features…

It’s one of our favourite blogging tools. It’s great for issuing practical prompts and presenting them in a traffic light system. Perfect if you’re like us and like competing against the machines. 

Ps. don’t worry if you can’t get all greens. It’s not always possible but it’s a good goal to have. 

The basic version of Yoast is free, but you can also upgrade which gives you access to even more SEO based tools to improve your writing. It is a tool that every self-respecting blog writer should include in their repertoire. We’ve included an example below of how Yoast looks evaluating this blog post for the keyword ‘blogging tools’. 

12. Tiny PNG (Free and Paid Version)

Have you ever tried to get on a website or a blog and it just takes forever to load?

Not only is it super frustrating (who has time to wait for a page to load). 

But if people get tired of waiting and bounce off the page then this can negatively affect your Google stats. Which can cause them to rank you lower than they would if your website was super speedy. 

One of the ways that you can stop this from happening is by compressing your images so that they take less time to load. You can use a free web-based app called Tiny PNG helps to compress the image size. 

It’s a really simple thing that you can do to help improve your site speed and overall Google ranking. 

This is us, showing you Tiny PNG by compressing this image of Tiny PNG (how meta!)

13. Pic Resize (Free) 

Got the ideal image but it’s HUGE, or needing to be cropped down?

Having images that look good, and are appropriately sized for your blog is essential in making it look good. 

And luckily Pic Resize helps you with just that. Allowing you to resize image dimensions, and crop out sections that are necessary quickly and easily.

Once you’ve done this you should still pop it through TinyPNG to compress the image size and make sure it loads.

The Best Blogging Tools to Make Your Blog Look Good…

While we’ve all been led to believe that looks don’t matter, that just isn’t the case for your blog posts (or websites in general).

Have you ever been on a website and left straight away because it’s a wall of text?

Of course, the content and what you are saying really matters, and there is no point in creating a beautiful blog with no substance. 

However, creating a visually appealing blog post is arguably just as important as writing amazing content. And the last thing you want is for people to not read your super amazing blog because it doesn’t look good. 

Getting people to click on your post and stay there requires a balance of content, SEO and visuals. 

Especially when there are some really simple solutions…

15. Depositphotos (Paid) 

We always recommend that you have professional images that you dot around your website and blog posts. This helps add personality and ensures people know what the person behind the site looks like. 

However, we know that sometimes stock images are needed, and when that is the case we recommend Depositphotos. It’s a bank of royalty-free images, videos, vectors, illustrations, and music, that you can use on your website. 

It is a paid tool (either on-demand or subscription-based), but we find that it’s much better quality than many of the free tools out there. And you can be confident that they are licensed to use for business. 

Just be careful of those super cheesy stock photos. You know the ones, where everyone has a psychotic smile and are way too happy!

16. Death to Stock Photo (Paid) 

Sick of cheesy stock images? Enter Death to Stock Photo. The clue is in the name really but this website provides the most amazing images that look, well, non-stock-photo-like!

There are no cheesy smiles or fake-happy looking people. Here’s an example of one of the images that came up when we typed in ‘office’.

17. Pixabay (Free)

If you’re on a budget, using a free stock image website like Pixabay can come to your rescue! They have literally millions of stock images you can choose from. And the best thing is, they are free. Although, it’s nice to ‘tip’ a cup of coffee sometimes to the photographers!

If you want to do even more than just create images, check out this blog post on how to make your blogs look good.

The Best Blogging Tools for Collecting Leads on Blog Posts…

Ultimately the aim of creating a blog post is to make sales. However, while we’d love for someone to pop on a blog page and buy straight away it’s not always realistic.