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The Guide to Targeted-Impact Link Building

September 17, 2021 No Comments

This piece was co-written with James Wirth.

Links drive rankings — that’s one thing that technical SEOs, content marketers, digital PR folks, and even some of #SEOTwitter can agree on. But which rankings, and for which pages on your website?

If you’ve ever wanted to build links that impact rankings for specific pages on your website, we’ve got the guide for you.

Selecting pages for a targeted-impact link building campaign

Preparing a link building campaign often involves helping the client refine their goals in order to be able to effectively measure the campaign. The first step is typically level-setting based on what we can learn from available data.

Comparing link metrics against top competitors will help us size up the competition. Layered against estimated traffic, Page Authority, and SEO “difficulty”, and we’re able to better understand the opportunity. While this isn’t particularly complex or inaccessible, it’s likely deeper than the client has gone, and very often they’re happy to move forward with data-informed recommendations.

If we were preparing a link building campaign for Moz, for example, we might pre-select some sections of the site to focus on in the analysis.

Suppose we start with /products/, /tools/ the beginners guide pages (love those), and a few others that jump out. Here are a few pages from that list:

From here, we would compile a list of competitors based on top keywords for each of the pages. That will let us compare average metrics across the top competitors to the metrics for Moz’s pages.

This dataset represents the top 10 competitors from the top 10 keywords for each of Moz’s pages. Once compiled, we’ll have 90-100 rows of competitor data, give or take, depending on where Moz ranks for each page in the list. We can average the competitor data to make it easy to compare, and spot-check from there to look for outliers, or filter out branded or stray keywords we don’t want to compete for anyway:

Now it’s time to look for opportunities. We can eye-ball the metrics in a shortlist like this, but if we’re looking at hundreds or thousands of pages (even after filtering it down), this gets a little cumbersome. Prioritizing the pages will help us look more quickly through the list and find the best opportunities.

In a scenario where it’s a short pilot program, some of these competitors have scary-high linking root domains, and we’re going to have an idea of a monthly budget to set our pilot up for success by not biting off more than we can chew.

So, we’ll add a couple columns to help some of these stand out. To help find the low-hanging fruit, we might look at the relationship to the gap in linking root domains of the competition and our potential campaign page, and the search volume from those top 10 keywords:

By dividing the link gap into the search volume, we can look at higher priority pages for the campaign based on the probability of reducing the linking root domain gap, in order to improve the client’s share of voice on high-converting pages.

Adding rank-order to the rows will help us look at the best potential opportunities:

From this group of pages, the Moz Pro product page seems to be a pretty tasty candidate. We might stay away from the free SEO tools page since, well, “free” doesn’t necessarily scream REVENUE, but it’s worth a conversation to verify. The same can be said for a couple of those beginner guide pages as well.

Even if none end up in the campaign, we’ll still be able to assess the link gap for pages that ARE the targets, and help steer Moz towards effective linking choices

After a few refinements, we’ll have a very solid set of potential campaign pages to recommend!

Finding your most-impactful audience

We build out our model of audience based on the specific client URL that we’re building links to. So, for sales pages, we’re thinking about where, how, when, and why that product or service fits into the customer’s life. What are its various contexts of use? What circumstances or conditions benefit from the use of this offering?

The offering’s contexts of use are intrinsically relevant to the target URL, whether or not the same keyword is used to describe them. For example, if we target the Moz Pro page identified above, we’d start asking ourselves: “when is it that agencies and in-house SEOs start thinking about SEO tools?”

Perhaps we explore that point where someone has to pick up the SEO projects left behind by someone whose career has taken them elsewhere. What’s the checklist like for following behind another SEO? Additionally, what about an SEO crash course for folks who suddenly find themselves in charge of an SEO department (we’ve spoken with people in this situation before). Both of these scenarios could give ample reason and circumstance to mention SEO tools. For either of these examples, an expert survey, expert interviews, and off-site informational placements could enable contextual linking opportunities.

Let’s step outside of the SEO space though and think about insurance sales pages. We could begin mapping out the circumstances and events in life as one decides to seek insurance: Events like having your first child, becoming an independent contractor, buying a home, having a cardiac-related scare, etc.

From these “use-case brainstorms”, we work up into problem areas — and related queries — that the target audience might be having. These give us a basis for discovering publishers that align the audience of the target page with its contexts of usage. For Moz, we’d likely focus on marketing trade pubs — SEO or not. For the insurance pages, we’d likely start with parenting blogs, health/fitness publishers, websites relating to starting a business, and potentially realtor sites.

For good measure, we frequently examine high ranking pages in the target keyword space to learn more about what we call the “linking context” for a given set of keywords. We’re especially focused on the titles of linking pages. This gives instant insight into topics that make sense for prospect discovery. We usually find things like long form guides, tons of coupon pages, review sites, forums, etc. — all of this gives us a better sense of the linking context.

Combined, use-case brainstorms and linking context analysis help us build out a full picture of the audiences and key problems that will lead us to suitable publishers.

Link outreach

Outreach is simple. Well, sort of.

If you understand what the publisher wants, which is ultimately related to how they make a living, then you figure out how to pitch and deliver just that.

If you’re in the digital PR space pitching journalists, you’re pitching your ability to drive “audience engagement” (as we’ve picked up from Neomam CEO, Gisele Navarro). So your subject line and offer need to clearly drip with page views, click-throughs, and social shares. And your content has to deliver. After all, with the high content costs involved you’ll need to reuse your contacts!

If you’re in broken link building (and to a lesser extent, a tactic like unlinked mentions), you’re offering “visitor experience improvements” to a webmaster or page curator who’s dedicated to a particular audience. With this in mind, your subject line and offer (a fix) must demonstrate value to the target audience, as well as mention the impact the broken link could have on an expectant visitor in need.

We find that when pitching guest content, especially to sales-supported publishers, we see higher conversions when we pitch topics that will help drive the publisher’s traffic or conversions. You can learn more about our guest content approach in this Whiteboard Friday, but again, we lean into pitching “publishing benefits” to the site owner.

So your key question: what is this person’s purpose for publishing to their particular audience? Knowing this helps you determine an offer that will resonate, and earn you a link.

One last bit of advice on outreach: avoid directly implementing subject lines, templates, etc. from other experts. Be inspired by the experts, but remember that their advice involves very specific offers, audiences, and publishers, and they are unlikely to align with your actual circumstances. Study them, for sure, but only for understanding general guidelines.

A quick word on link building tactics

Every functional link building tactic earns its links by meeting the target publisher’s unstated “price” for reaching their audience.

The publisher’s cost can certainly be money, but in the earned link space, we’re usually talking about supplying publishers with value such as exclusive news and information, previously unstated but highly useful advice, articles that could help them sell more products or services, and useful corrections that shore up authority.

We’re reminded, as we discuss value exchange, of a campaign by the link builder Debra Mastaler, in which she offered a cement client’s t-shirt to the members of several dues-supported professional organizations. She not only earned links from the organization websites (who got to provide a “special perk” to their members), but earned business and, of course, brand visibility within their precise target audience. Wow!

So, while a free t-shirt may not work in all verticals, Mastaler reminds us of the most overlooked aspect of link building campaigns: finding publishers who reach your target audience and asking “okay, what can we offer that they will actually want?”. Creative, entrepreneurial thinking — perhaps you could call it marketing instinct? — remains the link builder’s most important tactic.

That said, reviewing the existing array of link building tactics can be very useful, especially as you’re starting out, just as a budding chef spends time reading cookbooks to understand key ingredients and guiding principles. And as it is for the budding chef, your greatest lessons will come from the hours spent in the kitchen, working on your craft.

Check out this graphic for a quick overview of some of the more common tactics and their relationships between the publishers and your desired SEO outcomes:

Measurable link building wins

This is one of the most challenging aspects of a campaign for myriad reasons.

It’s also one of the most effective ways to retain clients, or budget, if you’re on the in-house side.

There are a number of ways to track the performance of a link building campaign, but which methods are chosen largely depends on the tactics deployed. In our case, we’re focused on the content side, and specialize in earning placements to hard-to-link sales landing pages. We approach our measurements of success from the perspective of SEO-related metrics that will show both leading indicators of improvements, and the right performance indicators once we have had impact.

Early on in a campaign, we often see a worsening of average position. The cause of this is typically new keywords ranking on the campaign page. Because the page initially begins to rank on SERP #7 or #8, this will initially pull down the average rank of the page, even if the rank for established keywords is improving.

This graph underscores one of the risks of focusing too heavily on rank as the primary success metric. While average position (the purple line) shows a decline in average position, we can see in the stacked columns that not only is the total number of ranking keywords growing, it’s also growing nicely in positions 1-3 (the blue segment at the top), as well as positions 4-10 (the orange segment 2nd from top). Just not enough to keep up with newly ranking keywords further down in the SERPs.

Correlating ranking changes to ranking keyword count was paramount to continuing this campaign.

While we track and report on average position over time, we certainly don’t lead with it. Instead, we focus on metrics that more directly correlate to traffic and conversions, which positions us for demonstrating positive ROI of the campaign.

The metrics that matter for us are share of voice (a search volume-weighted CTR model) and Moz Page Authority.

Share of voice

The benefit for us of prioritizing share of voice over ranking is that it normalizes dramatic shifts in time series reports based on ranking fluctuations from low-volume queries. Ranking reports, as we all know, can be a serious roller coaster.

Share of voice, on the other hand, aligns with an estimated traffic model, expressed as a percentage of total traffic for the keyword set.

As seen in the graph above, we also include a control group: a second set of pages on the site that are not part of the campaign (and preferably not part of any concerted SEO effort). This second set of pages is chosen from similar sections of the site and from similarly ranking and visited pages when possible, to measure the success of our link building campaign against.

While the graph above does indicate positive growth just with the bars, when we determine the percentage difference between our campaign pages and the control group, the results are even more dramatic.

Page Authority

Another critical metric is Moz Page Authority, which is often another early indicator of imminent success. We sometimes see Page Authority increase even before we see improvement to rankings and share of voice.

And again, tracking against a control group helps to underscore the value of our work.

Another benefit of Page Authority: Third party validation of the direct impact of our work.

While many factors outside of the scope of our link building campaign may affect rank, such as core algorithm updates, gaps in page content, topic misalignment or technical issues inhibiting Google’s full valuation of the page), a metric that is best influenced by “improving a page’s link profile by… getting external links”, aligns very well with our offering.

And hey, we think using a third party metric to validate the hard work we’re doing for our clients is pretty okay in our book (now in its second edition!).

By Garrett French

Garrett has been in the marketing, writing & link building business since 2001. He brainstorms strategy for all Citation Labs Agency clients and turns the team’s internal processes into Citation Labs Tools.

This piece was co-written with James Wirth.

Sourced from MOZ

In News

36 Blogging Statistics, Trends & Facts You Need To Know

August 17, 2021 No Comments

By Matt Moran

“Blogging is dead”. They said that back in 2007. And again in 2008… and 2009… and 2010.

Yet here we are, a decade later, and blogging is still a powerful inbound marketing medium and source of revenue for many.

Maybe the truth is this: blogging isn’t going anywhere – it’s just evolving.

To shed some light on the current state of blogging, we’ve compiled a list of the most important blogging statistics, trends, and facts.

These blogging stats will show you exactly what blogging looks like this year and provide useful insights you can use to inform your blogging strategy.

Key blogging statistics

Let’s start by taking a look at some of the most important blogging statistics.

1. There are at least half a billion blogs on the internet

500 million is a conservative ballpark estimate, given that there were 496 million blogs on Tumblr alone as of April last year. And that’s not even counting all the Wix, WordPress, and Blogger blogs on the internet.

The takeaway: Yes, the blogging space is definitely saturated at this point, but there’s always room for more. It’s still possible to carve out your own space in the market if you find the right niche and consistently create high-quality content.

2. 77% of all internet users still read blogs

“Who even reads blogs anymore, am I right?” Nope. As it turns out, you’re very wrong.

77% of all internet users regularly read blogs – and some of them probably don’t even know it. A huge chunk of the informational content we consume while looking for information are blog posts, even if they don’t look like it. How-to posts, listicles, and buying guides are just some of the many different formats that blog posts can take.

3. The top blogs make over $1m+ per year

If you were wondering if you can still make money blogging, here’s your answer. The top 0.6% of blogs generate 7 figures a year in revenue.

Don’t worry, I know what you’re thinking: what about the other 99.4%? Well, it’s not just the elite that makes money. The top 10% of bloggers also make over $10,000 per year. That might not be quite a full-time income, but it sure is a nice side-hustle. (Source: Hosting Tribunal)

4. 86% of content marketers use blog posts as part of their strategy

This makes blog posts the most popular content format amongst marketers. Perhaps surprisingly, email comes in at a distant second place at just 67%. (Source: SEMrush)

5. Blogs are the #2 form of media used in content strategy

Blogs lost out on the top spot this year to video, but they’re still a very popular form of media amongst content marketers – and it’s no surprise why. Blog content is a powerful, cost-effective way to generate traffic and leads. (Source: HubSpot, 2020)

Blogging marketing statistics

Wondering how blogging fits into your marketing strategy? Take a look at the marketing-related blogging stats below.

6. Businesses that blog generate twice the email traffic…

According to a HubSpot study of over 6,000 companies, those that blog get x2 the email traffic compared to those that don’t. Why? Simple: because blog emails contain content that customers want to read, and traditional emails don’t. (Source: HubSpot)

7 … And 67% more monthly leads

Yup, companies with blogs produce 67% more leads each month than those without them. I think that statistic speaks for itself and proves if more proof be needed just how effective blogging is for lead generation. (Source: Demand Metric)

8. 97% of bloggers promote their blog posts on social media

Distribution is an important part of blog content success – and social media is the go-to distribution channel for bloggers. (Source: Statista)

9. 61% of US consumers spend 3x as long consuming blog content than email content

Consumers still spend a lot more time reading blog content than they do emails – but that doesn’t mean you should neglect email marketing either. There’s room for both in your strategy. (Source: Social Media Today)

10. Businesses with blogs get 97% more inbound links

And as we know, more inbound links means more ranking power. That’s why so many marketers create blog posts as part of their outreach strategy. (Source: HubSpot)

11. 1-2% is the average blog visit-to-lead conversion rate

In a survey by Databox, almost 25% of marketers said they had a lead-to-visit conversion rate somewhere between 1-2%. This is a good benchmark to compare your own blog conversion rates against.

General blogging statistics

Here are some general blogging statistics that shed light on important questions about blogging monetization, growth, frequency, and more.

12. Only 1 in 3 bloggers monetize their blogs

That means the vast majority (2/3rds) of all blogs out there don’t generate any revenue. These not-for-profit blogs are likely mostly personal blogs run by hobbyists, rather than business blogs. (Source: Hosting Tribunal)

13. Affiliate marketing is the top blog monetization strategy

Amongst bloggers that do monetize, affiliate marketing is the most popular way of making money. The Amazon affiliate program is particularly popular and allows bloggers to earn affiliate revenue when readers click through their links before purchasing items on Amazon. (Source: First Site Guide)

14. WordPress is the fastest growing blogging platform

Tumblr technically is the most popular blogging platform, given that there are over 470 million blog accounts registered on their platform, but as Tumblr is technically a microblogging platform and more akin to a social media platform than a website builder, it’s better suited to hobbyists than serious bloggers. Amongst business blogs, WordPress remains the gold-standard. (Source: W3techs)

15. There are roughly 70 million new WordPress blog posts published each month

…and 77 million new comments. And that’s just on WordPress. The total number of blogs across platforms is anyone’s guess, but Worldometers provides a running live estimate based on a formula that factors in WordPress market share and historical trends. As of the time of writing, there have already been 6.4 million blog posts published today.

16. Content quality is the most important blog success-factor

Making sure you’re writing top-notch content is the number one most important thing you can do to make sure your blog is a success. (Source: GrowthBadger)

17. 22% of bloggers post 2-3 times per week

If you’re wondering how often you should be publishing new blog posts, 2-3 times a week might be a good place to start. More bloggers post 2-3 times per week than any other frequency. (Source: First Site Guide)

Blogging ranking & SEO statistics

For many bloggers, the goal of each post is to rank at the top of the search results pages for their target keywords. But to do that, you need to nail your on-page SEO. Here are some blogging ranking/SEO stats that’ll help you to do that.

18. 95% of all blog traffic goes to page-1 results

If your post isn’t landing on page 1 for your target keyword, it might as well not exist as far as organic search traffic is concerned. The vast majority of searchers won’t go past the first page to find the content they’re looking for. (Source: Brafton)

19. The ideal blog post length (for SEO) is 2,100 – 2,400 words

According to data gathered by HubSpot. In other words, blog posts that are in this word count range stand the best chance of ranking well on the SERPs. Earlier data from Backlinko found that the average length of a page-1 blog post was 1890 words.

20. 83% of bloggers still do keyword research

If you thought keywords were no longer relevant, think again. While optimizing your blog posts around a specific keyword might be less important as Google’s algorithm has got better at assessing search intent, it’s still important. And that’s why the vast majority of bloggers still do keyword research to come up with topic ideas for their posts. (Source: Orbitmedia.com)

21. Most experts think marketers should target 2-5 keywords in each blog post

Don’t just optimize your posts around one keyword. Think about variations of your keyword that your readers are likely to search for and include a handful of them throughout your content. The more keywords you rank for, the more opportunities for traffic your post will get. (Source: Databox)

22. Most blogs ranking on page-1 of Google include the target keyword in their title tag

The title tag has long been considered one of the most important on-page SEO elements, and that still holds true today, as proven by this stat from Backlinko.

If you want to learn more, be sure to check out our dedicated article on SEO statistics.

Blog content statistics

The blog content statistics below provide useful insight that’ll help you to create high-quality posts that get more clicks, shares, and engagement.

23. The average blog post length is 1269 words

2,100+ words might be best for SEO purposes, but the majority of blog posts out there are still shorter than that. The average length was 1269 words as of 2020, which is still more than 50% higher than it was 6 years ago.

Why the increase? Well, one clear trend over the last few years has been a shift towards long-form content. Google seems to like content that covers a given topic in-depth over thin content. (Source: Orbit Media)

24. It takes 2-3 hours, on average, to write a blog post

This is how long most respondents in a survey by Databox said they spent creating blog posts. The same respondents said it takes over 8 hours to produce video content. This makes blogging significantly less time consuming than other inbound marketing content creation.

25. Blog posts that include an image every 75-100 words generate twice the shares

Nobody likes boring walls of text. Visual elements like images and videos enrich your blog posts, help to keep your audience’s attention and make your content much more shareable. Make sure you’re using them in your posts. (Source: HubSpot)

26. Blog post headlines that are 6-13 words long drive the most traffic

Aim to keep the word count of your headlines somewhere in this range to maximize your traffic potential. (Source: OptinMonster)

27. Consumers spend 88% more time on pages that include video content

Dwell time is one of the most important metrics you can use to measure the success of a blog. The longer your readers hang around on your post, the greater chance you have of ranking in the search engine results pages for your target keywords.

And one way you can boost your blog post dwell time is to add in video or audio content. 88% of consumers will spend more time on your page if it includes video content, and 45% of bloggers who include audio in their posts achieve better results.

28. “How-to” posts are the most popular blog content format

77% of respondents in an Orbit Media survey said they’d published how-to articles in the last 12 months. This makes it by far the most popular type of content amongst bloggers. (Source: Orbit Media)

Blogging traffic statistics

Wondering how to drive more traffic to your blog? Check out these blogging traffic statistics.

29. Businesses that publish 16+ posts/month generate 3.5x more traffic

The upshot of this is clear: more posts means more traffic. Aim to publish at least 3 posts per week if your content calendar allows and watch as your traffic goes through the roof. (Source: HubSpot)

30. Compounding blog posts generate 38% of all blog traffic

This is despite the fact that only 10% of all blog posts are compounding blog posts. What are compounding posts, you ask?

Well, in a nutshell, they’re posts that generate traffic that grows over time. They’re the opposite of ‘decaying posts’, which are posts that generate traffic that peaks when first published but then declines over time (like news stories and posts about passing trends).

Aim to create content around ‘evergreen topics’ that are likely to appeal to your audience and for years to come and you should see more traffic over the long term. (Source: HubSpot)

31. The use of promotional techniques to drive blog traffic is up 93% over the past year

It’s getting harder and harder to generate organic traffic, and bloggers/marketers are increasingly reliant on paid ads to drive traffic to their content. (Source: OptinMonster)

Blogging challenges statistics

While blogging might not be dead yet, the industry is nonetheless facing challenges. Here are some statistics that show the main hurdles brands, marketers, and independent bloggers face in getting their posts off the ground this year.

32. The average reader spends just 37 seconds reading a blog post

What does this mean? It means you need to work harder at grabbing your reader’s attention right off the bat. The average blog reader has a short attention span. Make sure you’re hooking them in in your introduction and keep them engaged with great content so that they stick around. (Source: NewsCred)

33. Around 27% of US internet users use ad blocking software

That number’s been growing steadily year on year. What does it mean for bloggers? Well, if you generate an income from traditional ad networks, you might want to start looking for new revenue streams. More future-proof monetization strategies include affiliate revenue and sponsored content. (Source: Statista)

34. 92.42% of keywords get less than ten monthly searches

Finding low-competition, high search-volume keywords is getting harder and harder as the blogging space becomes increasingly saturated. (Source: Ahrefs)

35. The average top-ranking blog post is 2+ years old

Blogging (and content marketing more generally) has always been a long-term game. It takes a while for your posts to gain traction and start ranking, as this stat proves. The average blog post ranking in the top 10 results is 2+ years old. If you’re looking for fast results and want to drive website traffic quickly, blogging might not be the right way to go. (Source: Ahrefs)

36. Around 74% of marketers think videos are better than blog posts for lead generation

One trend we’ve seen over the last few years is a ‘pivot to video’. Marketers are increasingly prioritizing video content to generate leads over blog posts – but that doesn’t mean blogs don’t have a place in your strategy.

While video content is great, it typically costs more and takes longer to make than blog content. Plus, it’s not ideal longer in every situation. Some readers (think busy commuters or people in the workplace) are more likely to want to skim a blog post than watch a video.

Final thoughts

There you have it – 36 enlightening blogging statistics, facts, and trends. We hope you were able to draw some useful insights from them!

If you take away just one thing from this article, let it be this: blogging is still a viable marketing method and way to make money as long as you put in the effort.

Focus on creating high-quality content that your readers will love and the traffic will take care of itself.

By Matt Moran

Sourced from STARTUP BONSAI

In News

How to Make the Google Algorithm Work for You

December 21, 2020 No Comments

By Jodi Harris

Over the years, Google hasn’t always been forthcoming about tweaks to its algorithm. But when it is, it usually causes a ripple of panic across the marketing world.

Google detailed two changes this year:

A new set of ranking signals – Core Web Vitals – to more accurately measure how users perceive the experience of interacting with web pages as part of its page experience update
The block of third-party cookies on the Chrome browser as part of its Privacy Sandbox initiatives

Will these decisions be destabilizing forces that send your search traffic spiralling out of your brand’s control?

Paxton Gray, CEO of marketing agency 97th Floor and 2020 Content Marketing World speaker, says no. In his view, these shifts are just a call to take a fresh look at the power of data.

Content marketers may think they need to appease Google’s algorithm to achieve success. But Paxton contends that there’s a more powerful way to view the search equation: Make Google work for you.

“The more personally resonant and deeply satisfying your content experiences are, the more motivated Google will be to serve them up for users to find and engage with,” he says.

The more personally resonant your #content experiences are, the more motivated @Google will be to serve them up for users, says @PaxtonMGray via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet

In a recent conversation with CCO magazine, Paxton explains Google’s latest moves and outlines an approach to help you deliver the kinds of content experiences searchers want to click.

Google’s page experience update is a non-issue

Google will measure a set of three additional ranking signals (i.e., its Core Web Vitals) as part of its latest page experience update:

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – how long it takes the biggest element or piece of content on your page to load. Google sets the standard at 2.5 seconds or less. If your website doesn’t load quickly, you could see a decrease in rankings.
Input delay – how long a site takes to respond to a visitor’s tap or click on an element. It needs to be less than 100 milliseconds.
Cumulative layout shift – the distance that buttons and links move as the website loads. Ideally, you want no movement, so users don’t click on a button but mistakenly get taken to a different destination because the button moved as other page features finished loading.

“If you’re already managing these elements of the website experience (and you should be), these updates won’t affect you too much,” says Paxton.

But some marketers think they need to respond to every single detail of Google’s updates, when they should be focusing on how to use Google to understand their customers better, overall.

You don’t need to respond to every Google update. Use @Google to understand your customers better, says @PaxtonMGray via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet

“As marketers, all of our decisions should revolve around the experience our users have when engaging with our assets – from the first ad they see to the landing page, the call to action, the thank-you email, and to whatever else happens after they purchase and beyond. That should be the centre of our universe, not necessarily just optimizing content for leads and conversions, which is often where we end up focusing all of our attention,” he says.

“If you focus on the bigger picture of what your consumers want to experience when engaging with content found on search, the small things will usually take care of themselves.”

Focus, not tracking, is the problem

Audience research conducted through search won’t be affected much by the loss of cookies, Paxton says. But tracking your audience’s behaviours and personality characteristics at touchpoints of your content experience will get more challenging. Tools that use other methods to track those critical customer insights can be used to create correlations among those insights that deepen your understanding of who your customers really are.

Content marketers can realize a big competitive advantage in this area. But, Paxton says, a cognitive shift needs to happen:

Marketers commonly view consumers as markets – entities that match a particular persona or profile description – so that’s how they speak to them. But these are people with personal lives and life experiences that run far deeper than what their buying habits or consumption behaviours may reveal.

Your audience may be similar in ways that have nothing to do with their profession or the persona they most closely resemble. Paxton contends that if you use data to reveal what those similarities might be – like the kinds of bands they love or their favourite vacation destinations, for example – you can engage them in more personally resonant ways. “That’s how we cut through all of the noise and deliver the complete, desirable content experiences Google plans to favour,” he says.

3 ways to mine for more powerful insights

To reach this level of personal detail, Paxton recommends focusing on three research techniques: keyword research, social media monitoring, and semantic analysis. His approach focuses on the context of your audience’s inquiries – learning about how, not just what, they search.

Focus on three research techniques to mine insights: keyword research, social media monitoring, and semantic analysis, says @PaxtonMGray via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet

Keyword research should already be a core component of your content strategy. The real trick is to go beyond targeting the most popular keywords and examine the larger behaviour patterns happening behind those searches (more on that in a minute).

Monitoring and analysing social media conversations is another rich source of useful audience insights. Don’t look only for brand-related conversations but also for opportunities to deliver on your audiences’ needs and distinguish your content from that of your competitors, Paxton says.

Consider what fintech company Acorns has done. The company specializes in micro-investing, though it competes with companies like Betterment geared to bigger investments.

“If you break down the social media activities of their community members, you can find some key differences between the two groups,” says Paxton. “Betterment’s users are likely to follow Wall Street, big traders, and high-profile advisors like Jim Cramer … but the people on Acorns, they’re following Etsy. They follow WordPress, they follow YouTube creators – people with side hustles or those who are just starting their own small businesses and are looking for a different kind of financial advice.

“Acorns’ content isn’t going to be competitive against the high-finance topics Betterment can dominate, like estate tax laws or economic trend forecasts. But it can win with content geared toward side hustlers, small businesses, and micro-investors – such as how to hire your first employee or set up a shop on Etsy,” he says.

To get to this level of audience insight, look at your social and search data through a different lens – one that considers how they talk about those topics.

This leads us to the third technique: semantic analysis.

A big reason for Google’s page experience updates is to provide the most complete content possible so someone can search, click, and be done. Semantic analysis can bring you closer to this ideal by uncovering areas where your existing body of content may be incomplete – topics and considerations, related concepts, or core knowledge or areas of expertise.

Google’s algorithms know what subjects are associated with the keywords you already found. Paxton says you can take your keyword research to the next logical step by performing a TF-IDF analysis.

TF-IDF analysis is a process for identifying, analysing, and reverse-engineering the conditions that may cause Google to rank competing content higher than your content for your chosen keywords. It surfaces semantically related terms that your audience expects to see when researching a topic of interest. “Including those terms in the content you create around that subject will bring more weight and authority to your conversations – in the eyes of both Google and your audience,” Paxton says.

Paxton shares a personal example of the impact of this technique: “I’m about to go backpacking, and I’m looking for a jacket that provides the durability I need for my trip. As I sort through the top articles listed on my keyword search for ‘jackets for backpacking,’ I see the first one talks about the warmth of the jacket, but not its durability. So, I have to go back and sort through multiple results until I find one that talks about durability.

“If the first article had covered everything about the jacket that I care about, such as its materials, the climates and terrains it’s best suited for, etc., I would immediately have been more satisfied with my search experience – and more interested in engaging with the brand that made that possible.”

Quick-start guide to semantic analysis

While software tools can be used to expedite the semantic analysis process, Paxton asserts that it can also be done manually – though you’ll still need to use a word counter (here’s one for free) and some spreadsheet software.

Here’s how to do it:

Pull up the top 10 results on Google for a keyword you want to rank for.
Copy/paste all the words in the first result into a text editor or Word document. Count how often each word appears (you can exclude words like “the,” “and,” “but,” etc.) and how many words appear in total on that page.
Repeat the second step for the remaining pages.

See which terms are used in the highest concentrations – not just how often they’re used, but their percentage of the entire body of content. These are topics semantically related to your keyword term. Explore them for your content experience to be considered complete in the eyes of Google.

Now, run the same analysis on your brand’s body of content that would likely rank for that keyword and compare your results, looking for any terms that may be missing from your brand’s content conversations. Create content on those topics and your rankings should start to go up like clockwork.

Give Google no choice

Google wants to provide a good experience for users and needs great content to do that. Instead of planning your content around Google’s algorithmic expectations, use the power of search to find hidden opportunities to write for your audience in more personally resonant ways. Create content that’s so great Google has no choice but to rank it as a complete, unique, and highly desirable experience.

Feature Image Credit: Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

By Jodi Harris

Jodi Harris is the director of editorial content and strategy at Content Marketing Institute and serves as editor-in-chief of its digital magazine, Chief Content Officer. Follow her on Twitter at @Joderama.

Sourced from Content Marketing Institute

In News

12 Must-Have Skills for B2B Content Marketers

August 12, 2019 No Comments

By Joshua Nite

Scene from a dinner party:

“So, Josh, what do you do?”

“I’m in marketing.”

“Oh, like Mad Men? Ad campaigns and stuff?”

“No, it’s content marketing.”

“Oh, like the Wendy’s Twitter account?”

“…Sure… like that.”

I’ve had variations on the above conversation more times than I can count. I’ll usually leave it at “Wendy’s Twitter account” in the interest of changing the subject. No one has the patience for, “I write business-to-business content designed to help people do their jobs better, which also builds affinity for a client brand, with the end goal of influencing purchase decisions.”

So most people think I just write fun stuff all day, that it’s a purely creative job. But my fellow B2B marketers know better. Content marketing requires an incredibly diverse set of skills, and “innate writing ability” isn’t even the most important one.

Most people think I just write fun stuff all day, that it’s a purely creative job. But as my fellow #B2B marketers know, #contentmarketing requires a diverse set of skills. @NiteWrites Click To Tweet

Here’s my list of must-have B2B content marketing skills. If you’re looking to get into the career, fill out your team, or, say, hire a marketing agency, keep these in mind.

12 Must-Have B2B Content Marketing Skills

This list is divided into two categories: The “hard skills” that you learn through instruction, and the soft skills that rely more on personal development and human interaction.

Four Hard Skills

#1 – Search Engine Optimization
You don’t have to be a SemRushin’, Google Analytics wizard to be a content creator and strategist. But creating great content does require a solid understanding of modern SEO practices. You should know how to understand search intent, dig into ambiguous keywords, and create best-answer content that meets search demand.

#2 – Social Media Marketing
You may have a dedicated social media person or team, but content marketers should still know how to create compelling B2B social posts that attract attention without breaking the brand voice. You should be up to date on what type of content performs best on each platform.

#3 – Influencer Marketing
Content marketers should know how to co-create content with influencers. That means writing a framework that allows for collaboration, asking the right questions to guide influencer responses, and even conducting intelligent interviews. Content marketers’ expertise makes all the difference in the resulting content feeling cohesive and compelling.

#4 – Measurement
Measurement is what turns content into content marketing. Content marketers should be able to strategize, create goals and metrics that match them, track progress, and ultimately optimize over time.

Eight Soft Skills

#1 – Empathy
The heart and soul of any content marketing is empathy. You have to be able to take the customer’s perspective and make a human connection. Empathy is even more important in B2B content, because it keeps the content focused on people.

It’s easy to lose the human connection when you’re writing about container-based software-as-a-service platforms. That empathy for the people, the buyer, the end user, should be what drives the content.

That empathy for the people, the buyer, the end user, should be what drives the content. @NiteWrites Click To Tweet

#2 – Creativity
I would argue B2B content requires even more creativity than B2C. The difference is having to work within strict limitations. Big B2B brands have whole departments concerned with brand reputation, brand voice, standards and practices, approved image libraries and fonts… Content creators have to produce something eye-catching and meaningful without breaking any of these limitations. And they have to know when it makes sense to push the boundaries.

#3 – Communication
The success of B2B content depends on explaining complex concepts in simple terms. You may know all the ins and outs of your solution, but odds are your audience won’t. Clear, jargon-free, conversational writing that offers value is the only way to succeed.

#4 – Organization
This skill is important for any B2B marketer, but especially if you work at an agency. We’re working on a dozen different clients at any one time, each with multiple assets in various stages of development. Without organizational skills, it would be impossible to get everything done on time (even with a dedicated project manager on staff).

#5 – Motivation
I read recently about a man who had been on the payroll of a major corporation for over a year without ever doing any work. Seriously. Somewhere between restructuring and management turnover, he simply got separated from responsibility without losing his salary.

via GIPHY

That won’t ever happen for a B2B content marketer. There’s nowhere to hide: We’re responsible for concrete, quantifiable, and quality deliverables. There’s no such thing as slacking off, and there’s no such thing as writer’s block. The ability to push past obstacles, buckle down and get the work done is vital.

#6 – Confidence
Part of the job description is defending and explaining your work to stakeholders. For an agency, that includes account managers and clients. For a marketing department, that might include the executive suite, too. B2B content marketers need the (justified) confidence to advocate for content and approach they know will be effective.

#7 – Humility
The flip-side of confidence is the ability to put the content ahead of one’s individual ego. B2B content is bound to go through layers of review, with each stakeholder adding their own critique and suggestions. Humility means that you can take in constructive criticism and apply it with an eye toward producing the best content possible. While confidence is key, knowing your way doesn’t have to be the only way is equally important.

#8 – Collaboration
Finally, B2B content marketing is a team sport. It’s not about making a name for yourself — you have blog posts for that. It’s about partnering across areas of specialty to create something stunning. I found that my content got even better when I involved the design team from the start, for example. Working closely with design, SEO, influencer and social specialists only makes the work better. Here’s a shot of the gang I get to work with every day:

B2B Content Marketing Is a Game of Skill

I’ll admit it: Before I got into the field, I thought content marketing was just getting paid to write all day. Now I know there’s a lot more to the job than just filling buckets with prose. Content marketers are writers, strategizers, empathizers, collaborators, and so much more.

By Joshua Nite

Sourced from TopRank Marketing

In News

5 Simple Ways To Shape Your Content Through Your Culture

July 24, 2017 No Comments

By Josh Ritchie.

Many content marketers think they’re doing content right. They brainstorm. They monitor upcoming events. They plan their editorial calendar based on things like:

New product releases and updates
Holidays
Company news
Current events
Trends
Conferences

They stick to their calendar and publish regularly. Yet their content fails.

It’s not surprising. When you’re too focused on just filling the content pipeline, becoming a slave to your editorial calendar, it’s easy to lose sight of what you should be creating.

What Is Good Content?

Good, effective content connects. It speaks directly to your audience and provides something that they want or need. Yet so much content meets readers at a superficial level; most of it lacks heart and emotional connection. It’s the equivalent of talking about the weather.

If you want to form relationships with your audience and convince them to invest in your brand, which you do, you need to connect through truly meaningful content that tells a worthwhile story.

How do you know what’s worthwhile? The strongest stories include two key traits:

They’re interesting: Most industries are becoming commoditized and more competitive, which makes it harder for brands to stand out. To break through, you need a strong, distinct voice. Telling unusual, unique, or intriguing stories helps you do this. That means diving past the surface, identifying interesting topics, teasing out unique angles, and turning them into compelling stories to capture your audience’s attention.
They’re useful: The quickest way to make your audience fall in love with your brand is to provide content that applies to their lives. (This type of content is also innately interesting to them.) To do this, you can focus on content that helps them solve a problem, learn something new, or do something better. Think education (blog posts, webinars, ebooks, etc.) or inspiration (customer or employee stories, etc.).

So you know what makes a compelling story, but where do you find those stories in your own operation? This is where things can get murky for marketers, but don’t get overwhelmed. You have the single greatest source of inspiration right in front of you, all around you, even in your instant messages.

It’s your company culture.

Why Culture Makes for Good Content

Content marketing is a long-term process to turn strangers into supporters of your brand. The first step of this process is introducing yourself—showing your audience who you are, how you see the world, and why anyone should care about any of this. Conveniently, these are the very same elements that comprise your company culture.

When you approach content from this angle, your stories inherently capture your unique and authentic perspective. This hits both marks for generating great stories:

They’re interesting because they’re unique; no other company has your mission, vision, values, people, origin story, failures, and successes.
They’re useful because they stem from your personal experiences. If you’ve experienced something or solved a problem firsthand, your audience is more likely to trust your advice.

When you peel back the curtain, you’re more vulnerable—and that’s the key to developing a deep, emotional connection with your audience.

But what does that look like in action? Here are 5 ways to turn your culture into incredible content:

1. Share Your Vision, Mission, and Values

If you don’t have these principles articulated for your company, you absolutely should. Sharing your company’s purpose through your vision, mission, and values helps your internal team understand why they’re working, what they’re doing, and how they’re supposed to be doing it. (This also helps create a cohesive culture.)

Additionally, showcasing your principles externally shows your audience who you are and what you stand for. Audiences crave connections with brands that share their same values. For some prospects, your principles could be the key factor in their decision-making.

Creating content around your principles doesn’t mean you publish your mission statement. It means you mine those values for inspiration. What do you care about? What inspires you? What’s been on your mind? How might you create content to move the needle on those issues?

This type of thinking has helped my company come up with many content ideas. For example, one of our values is “be good to each other.” This value also inspired us to create our People for Periods project, an interactive microsite to educate and help destigmatize menstruation in honor of Women’s Health Week.

On another occasion, after we read the story of how Ben Franklin once refused a loan repayment and directed the debtor to “pay it forward,” we became so inspired by the “pay it forward” philosophy that we turned the entire tale into a high-quality print, which ultimately became our holiday gift to our partners. (It was a much more meaningful gift than a branded coffee mug.)

This type of content is a simple way to put your beliefs out into the world and into your audience’s hands.

2. Highlight Your People

Your company is (or should be) full of great people. Celebrate them—and give them a platform. Your audience wants to put a face to your brand, and this is a great way to do it.

This can be as easy as creating a page that spotlights them or showcasing their work. It can be more involved, too. You might encourage your employees to write blog posts (even if they aren’t on the content team) about their experience or create content around a volunteer event that your company sponsors.

For instance, our Director of Strategy recently wrote a well-received article about battling—and beating—creative struggles called “The 15 Most Important Lessons I’ve Learned in Creative Work.” When one of our designers began to take calligraphy classes after work, we tapped her to hand-letter inspirational quotes for our Instagram account. And when our New York team helped YMCA kids create a chalk mural, we created a video recap.

If employees aren’t comfortable writing or producing content themselves, they can still brainstorm ideas, offer their perspectives, and help you identify angles your audience would find valuable.

Here are some other ways to highlight your employees:

Showcase their innovations, awards, etc.
Interview them (perhaps film them in their work environment)
Give them shout-outs on social media

3. Tell Your Origin Story

Find creative ways to showcase how your company started and how it’s evolved over time.

I find myself telling my company’s origin story most frequently during sales meetings, and I’m still pleasantly surprised by how interested people are in knowing this stuff. Why do people care? Because this is the stuff that is specific to each company, and stories of humble beginnings are always interesting, inspiring, and endearing.

Recently, my team has even started to help our partners tell their stories, too. We publish interviews with clients about how they built their companies, what they learned, and what advice they’d give to those facing similar issues.

Any time you share your experience—including your struggles, failures, and growth—you cultivate stronger relationships.

4. Publish Your Failures

Everyone fumbles and fails their way through at least the early days of launching a brand. Even if you’re a 10-year business veteran, you will face challenges.

Sharing stories about how you’ve failed and what you learned humanizes your brand, makes you more relatable, and demonstrates that you are invested in learning and trying to improve—for yourself and your customers.

Most importantly, it provides your readers with something of value—the opportunity to learn from your mistakes.

At our agency, I’ve written about the toughest lessons I’ve learned about building a content strategy. And we had our entire team share the best content marketing lessons they’ve learned.

You may feel shy or strange at first talking about how you’ve absolutely botched something, but as long as you frame it in terms of what you’ve learned, you have nothing to lose.

5. Publish Your Successes

Hopefully, you don’t just have failures in your brand’s story. Just as you share your losses, you should share your wins—not in an arrogant way, but in a confident way. (Your audience appreciates your advice from failures, but they definitely want to know how to win.)

To ensure you stay humble, when you share your wins, think of ways to frame it in terms of why you won or succeeded. Doing so enables people to “stand on your shoulders.”

For example, when our agency created a viral video for Microsoft, we let our audience know about the success. But we presented it as a behind-the-scenes blog where we shared the strategic thinking that went into the project, how we vetted the idea, and why we think it worked.

If you help others around you succeed, you succeed.

Remember: Go Deeper

When you use your content as a conduit to express your culture, you can market your company as a unique entity versus a transactional, lowest-cost provider, which is the best advantage available. This alone should inspire you to grab your team and a pizza to start hashing out your ideas.

Using this tactic doesn’t mean you have to abandon your entire content strategy. You can build your editorial mix around high-value, high-interest ideas first, then plug in company news, new product updates and releases, etc. to maintain your publishing schedule.

No matter what you create, always focus on leading with value for your audience first.

This article originally appeared on Marketo.

By Josh Ritchie

Sourced from VISUAL NEWS

In News

The 11 Best Social Media Automation Tools For Smart Content Marketers

January 6, 2017 No Comments

By Pankaj Narang.

Social media takes time, and finding the head space to consistently do it well over and over again is challenging.

That’s why social media automation is so important.

The thing to remember with any type of social media automation is that you will still have to spend some time on social media.

Whether you are replying to a customer or commenting on another person’s post, the human factor still has to be there.

With the social media world going mobile, interaction is always important.

But for those things you can automate, let’s have a look at some of the best social media automation tools available. These tools will help save you time and can do a few other things to make your life easier too.

1. Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a dream for all of us social media lovers. There are so many actions that Hootsuite can help with that if you have not learned the full scope of this social media automation tool, then I recommend you start looking it over. If you are serious about social media… then Hootsuite it is.

Hootsuite gives you the ability to keep track of many social media channels at once. This is perfect for those who work in the social media world, because it truly does make life a lot easier. Not only does it allow you to have multiple channels, it also lets you know if your brand has been mentioned.

Knowing when your brand is mentioned allows you to know what consumers are saying in real time. If it is great news that is being mentioned, the information can be used to let your company know what is working for the consumer. If the news is not so great, the problem can be addressed swiftly.

Hootsuite works across many different platforms and allows scheduled posts. It will also help to determine the best times to be posting in order to garner the most attention.

Using Hootsuite Advanced Search

Another wonderful thing about Hootsuite is the fact that it allows you to search for many different things.

One of the little used tools in the advanced tools is searching by sentiment. People can find out what is being said about a company and brand, by clicking the Advanced Search and ticking the box that will show both positive and negative mentions.

Sure, we all like to read the good stuff, but the negative can also be a good thing. If there is a negative Tweet it gives the company time to address it quickly. Knowing what your customers are looking for and dislike can be a great advantage.

2. Buffer

Buffer makes posting to social media a whizz. All you have to do is add your post to the queue and it will be posted for you. No need to even schedule a time that the post will be posted because Buffer will take care of that too.

Buffer is also known for providing great analytics. If you want to know what is working and not working, these analytics will let you know. Buffer is always adding more to the analytics so keep an eye on this application.

Want to keep track of acampaign link? Buffer now makes this available by making sure that each and every link is unique to each update or post. Be sure to use the web app and click on the settings, then go to “Campaign Tracking”. Yes, this makes all of us social media mavens happy because we are able to see the analytics and study them.

3. Crowdfire

Crowdfire works with both Twitter and Instagram. Want to know who unfollowed you? Crowdfire is the source to go to have your questions answered.

In both business and personal life, we want to know about those who are following us and those who have decided they do not like the posts we are putting put up. Crowdfire also allows you to find those Twitter users who are inactive and delete them if you want to.

This platform helps the user find others that are relevant with the “Copy Followers” feature. Checking the relationship between any two Instagram or Twitter accounts is possible with the Crowdfire platform.

With Instagram, Crowdfire has the ability to schedule posts, use viral hashtags and even suggest images. The clean, engage and grow technique cuts out a lot of the time that would be used to get the tasks completed without this application. A great way to keep Twitter and Instagram accounts under control and up-to-date.

4. CoSchedule

CoSchedule is a writer’s dream. This management tool allows for articles to be scheduled, blog post management, scheduling for marketing projects and social media management.

CoSchedule allows for the organization that many writers and social media marketers yearn for. If you have given up on complex spreadsheets like some of us have, CoSchedule is a gift of organization.

CoSchedule allows for the scheduling of posts and will suggest the best time to send out your posts. Over 60 messages can be scheduled at a time. This number of post allowance frees up time in order to answer customers or to interact with others. You can also collaborate with your team.

5. SociAlert

Socialert automates your hashtag search and allows a user to analyze what is happening on Twitter for your twitter campaigns in realtime.

From digital marketers to established brands and media agencies, everyone can make the most out of their twitter campaigns with this hashtag tracking tool.

You can also use socialert to track event hashtags and monitor your brand as well.

If you are really interested in how your twitter marketing works for you than this is the application to be using.

6. BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo allows for many different tasks to be accomplished.

Here is a short list of just a few of the things that BuzzSumo helps with:

BuzzSumo has an influencers search that cannot be beaten. It allows for searches being conducted by location, topic and area.
You can also analyse influencers with the filter you can go by authority, reach, engagement and influence.
It also has the ability to build lists and communicate with key influencers.
Follow those influencers you choose to and add them to your Twitter lists.

Finding great quality content along with all of the statistics will allow you to be able to know what is working with the consumer and what is not.

Searching for viral content and the analytics to go with it has never been easier. Reaching out to a list of authors and establishing relationships with them is also worthwhile while using BuzzSumo.

Remember, influencers already have a following built up, so if you are able to gather information and share it with their audience it will amplify its reach. Building relationships with influencers always pays off in the end.

7. Scoop.it

Scoop.it allows for content publishing in less time than any other social media automation application.

With Scoop.it content can be curated from other sources and shared with your opinion or angle. It also allows posts to be shared across social media platforms with the push of a button. Searching for content is easy with the use of the search bar for a particular topic.

Scoop.it is great for when you want to share something on a certain niche or topic. It also allows for freedom from writing all of your own content.

Looking for ideas on topics and what is getting traffic? Head over to Scoop.it and I bet you will be mildly surprised.

8. Post Planner

Post Planner is a helper when it comes to finding, planning and posting content that helps to increase followers and visibility on Twitter and Facebook. Finding content that works and will draw customers to your website is what post planner does best.

With Post Planner the user can actively choose photos, articles and even statuses to share.

Having issues with content creation? Post Planner will certainly fill the void when needed. Hit that writing block or just need something intelligent to share? Try Post Planner!

9. SocialPilot

SocialPilot is a marketing tool with social media scheduling for marketers and social media management teams. SocialPilot allows you to collaborate with your team by sharing their social media calendar.

Over 500 posts can be shared to 200 social media accounts. Bulk scheduling of posts and updates is easy with SocialPilot. To use bulk scheduling all the user has to do is upload a file in CSV format or text. The bulk text will then go out as scheduled.

Looking for article topics to write about? SocialPilot takes care of that too so that you do not have to wrack your brain trying to think of something when in a pinch. Separate account groups and calendars for each of your clients keeps things organized and helps with team communication.

10. Sprout Social

Sprout Social has some great analytic tools for those interested in growing their following on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and more. That being stated, here are a few other things that Sprout Social will help with.

Engagement – Sprout Social gives the user insights on monitoring and user engagement. With the ability to monitor these things, your engagement can rise, thus allowing for more followers and interaction with influencers.
Article and blog publishing can be accomplished using Sprout Social. From planning to scheduling and posting, Sprout Social cuts the time down on having to get these tasks accomplished.
Social listening tools allow for tracking of hashtags, mentions, and keyword usage. This is also a great way to keep track of competitors. It is a super handy tool if your competitors are sneaking up on you for certain keywords in search engine rankings.

Sprout Social has many valuable tools that can both increase business revenue and help social media managers remain organized and save time.

11. Zapier

Zapier allows you to link your web apps together to streamline your information and make things a whole lot easier.

Once the apps are connected it is then possible to pass the information between them creating workflows which are named zaps. Zapier will automatically finish routine tasks so that you are able to complete other tasks that need your attention. Having the ability to plan and build workflows results in more work being completed and staying organized.

Zapier is great for those who want to integrate process and automation into a business. The next wonderful gift is that building process and automation does not include having to know how to code because this application will handle it for you. Can’t put out a bit of code? Do not get discouraged because Zapier will keep things stress free.

Data entry getting to be too much? This is another task that Zapier handles like a pro. Data entry can be so time consuming and who wants to spend a few hours with data entry? Most users would agree that cutting down on the time it takes to do data entry is something to be happy about.

Wrap

The above social media automation tools are designed to be helpful and save you time.

Whether you are a small business owner or a social media manager in a large corporation, these tools will prove to be more than helpful.

Learning what each automation tool can accomplish will surprise even the most social media savvy folks around.

ByPankaj Narang

Guest Author: Along with social media marketing Pankaj Narang is determined to shape his ideas into perfect products. CoFounder of Socialert, he believes in coming up with engaging tools to redefine the face of social media marketing. You can check his blog here.

Sourced from jeffbullas.com