As the world becomes less “brick and mortar” and more online, content marketing is more vital than ever. Learning the best practices and implementing them with the correct strategy can make all the difference in your bottom line.

Content marketing is where you showcase your brand identity and generate qualified leads like never before. Below, you can read about some of the best practices to be a rockstar at content marketing, and–when you’re ready for expert advice and someone to jump in and work with you in your brand development–contact the experts at CyberOptik.

The ever-changing world of SEO

Search engine optimization is vital and shouldn’t be shrouded in mystery. When you’re determining which keywords you’re choosing to rank for, consider how many people are searching for that term, relevance (will this keyword draw in qualified leads, in other words), and competition (is it possible to rank highly for this keyword, or are you overshadowed by big players who will make that ranking difficult?).

Once you’ve determined which keywords will optimize your content, include them everywhere, including titles, body content, meta descriptions, URLs, and alt attributes (which is the alternate text for an area where an image cannot be displayed). But don’t cram them in awkwardly — make sure they flow well with the text and don’t create a word jumble amidst your content.

Headlines

Take your headlines seriously! Readers are often scanners, and you have mere seconds to attract their attention. A great headline can be the difference between a conversion and a bounce. A long, detail-rich post with a boring headline may wind up in the dustbin of internet history and any sale you could have made from your great (if not particularly grabby) content.

While working a keyword into your headline is a good idea, you must be it for a human and not a web crawler. There are several quality headline generators and analyzers available online to help you with this process.

Did we mention not to underestimate the power of a good headline? Direct-response copywriter Ted Nicholas has said he credits powerful headlines with nearly three-quarters of his content marketing conversions. That’s a great deal of work in a few important words! Try writing up to two dozen headlines for a single post. Consider what would entice you to click on one of them. Numbers (“8 Easy Ways to…”) or headlines that spark curiosity are always great formats.

Blog to entertain

When you write to evoke emotions, whether those emotions are anger, fear, envy, humor, or any emotion that carries power, you’re practically guaranteed increased shares. Search engine algorithms have improved to the point where you can now safely write for the reader, NOT the web crawler, and still increase your search ranking.

Is your idea controversial or provocative? Great! Readers are far more likely to share content that arouses an emotional response than simply informative content; harkening back to step two, remember to incorporate emotion into those headlines as well.

Blog to cover a topic deeply

Long articles perform better in search algorithms, and that’s because readers love informative pieces. The best news is that when you write long articles, you’re not only endearing yourself to the search engine algorithms, but you’ll also find that more people are sharing what you write.

In one report by SerpIQ, content length was directly proportional to shares and search engine rankings, up to 2,000 words. Perhaps more importantly, long-form content converted at a higher rate—30% higher. This likely pertains to the correlation between longer-form content and the number of backlinks within, to some degree.

So, what are the best practices for incorporating long content?

First of all, pick a topic that’s based on a well-converting offer. Secondly, target a long-tail keyword in your headline. Long-tail keywords (phrases) are searched for less frequently but rank highly more quickly due to lack of competition.

Thirdly, include links to relevant websites that you’ve cited. If you’ve quoted or cited any blog authors, contact them and consider asking them to share your post.

Finally, solicit email leads in the body of your article and include a call-to-action near the end, whether that call-to-action is to make a purchase, subscribe to an email list, or download a free resource you’ve created.

Blog regularly

You may find you need the services of a copywriter to make this work for you because studies have shown that digital marketers who published four posts per week had more than three times the traffic of those who posted once a week or less. It can be overwhelming, but our team at CyberOptik can ensure your content stays fresh, relevant, and frequent enough to make Google swoon.

Remember that when you’re blogging, you’re writing for a short attention span. This doesn’t mean to keep your content brief, far from it (as we discussed above). It means that you can (mostly) ignore your high school English teacher. Get your spelling and word usage right, but play with punctuation, short paragraphs, and sentence fragments to make your content approachable and conversational.

What’s another amazing benefit to all those blogs? You’re able to cross-link. When you’re linking your blog posts to your other relevant blog posts, you are encouraging readers to click through and giving search engines more relevant data as they index your pages.

Reuse & recycle

No, don’t post the same content in different places — that’s definitely bad.

But DO repurpose your written content into videos or infographics. Your viewers watch videos four times more often than they’ll read what you’ve written. Turning your blog into a script is a low-cost and easy way to create “new” content that will boost your SEO and traffic at a minimum of time and trouble on your part.

Empower your call-to-action buttons

There is an emotional difference between a button that simply says “DOWNLOAD” and one that says “Get Your Free Report.” Wouldn’t you feel safer clicking “Add to cart and save 20%” rather than “BUY NOW”?

Your call to action is the reason you’re writing whatever it is you’re writing. Put the time into making it powerful. Study the psychology of color in consumer behavior. Should you make your button red just because it looks pron with your site? Use your CTA buttons to make your customer feel safe and objection-free, and you’ll see it reflected in conversions.

‘Borrow’ an audience

These days, consumers trust brands less and “influencers” more.

What do we mean by influencers? Social media influencers are powerful personalities, often on YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram, deemed more trustworthy than brands. Why?

People know that a brand’s end goal is to make a sale, while influencers are in it for the views. Getting an influencer to recommend your product is a fantastic way of “borrowing” their audience to get eyes on your product. Furthermore, a promotion from an influencer can be an indispensable tool for reputation management.

Use social media campaigns to drive engagement

A small sweepstakes or giveaway can be an inexpensive way to garner a lot of attention from your social media followers and drive shares through the roof. Rafflecopter is a great tool to help with this and ensure you’re abiding by the relevant rules of whatever social media platform you’re using for your sweepstakes.

Email marketing is your ace-in-the-hole

Did you know that most people love reading emails from their favorite content creators?

It’s true.

We’re so accustomed to hearing about spam and unsubscribes that it can be easy to assume emails don’t get read, but it simply isn’t the case. The most recent research shows that email marketing STILL garners a 4300% return on investment, and for that reason alone should never leave your content marketing arsenal.

Keep your emails short — your readers should be able to consume them in under half a minute, and include links to your recent blogs, and always include a call-to-action.

Ready to dive deeper?

You’ve got a great knowledge base to work with to jumpstart your content marketing. When you’re ready to rise to the top and work with a power team, contact the experts at CyberOptik.

Whether you need a website redesign (we provide web design packages!), search engine optimization, copywriting, or branding and graphic design services, we’re ready to make your brand stand out and work for you, even when you’re off the clock.