Tag Archives: Content Marketing

What is viral content and how to use it to get more traffic to your website

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Content going viral

You must have come across the phrase “this has gone viral” especially when it comes to some amusing video or an image or even a meme (remember Kim Kardashian’s break the Internet?”). When your content goes viral, it means it is being shared on the Internet in general and social media and social networking websites in particular like crazy. Millions of people may share it on their blogs, on Facebook, on Twitter and personal websites.

There are two ways you can use viral content for content marketing and consequently, get more traffic to your website:

  1. Create viral content yourself
  2. Create content that is somehow associated with the content currently going viral

There is no exact science that explains what sort of content goes viral although there are some fundamental ingredients that may go something like this:

  1. Your content is outrageously funny or outrageously, well, something
  2. Your content is some breaking news that can change people’s perception or can give them a totally different point of view
  3. Your content is something that gives a new twist to an existing piece of information
  4. It captures attention immediately
  5. It encourages people to create their own content based on what you have created
  6. It should have global relevance

How can you make your content go viral in order to generate traffic to your website?

Remember there used to be Digg? The website is still there, it is not as popular as used to be to make content viral. Every start-up would dream of appearing on the first page of Digg. Once you had reached there, you could rest assured that your content would go viral and even if it didn’t go viral, the massive traffic would stall your servers.

There were many ways you could get Diggs for your link, but the best way was to be friends the so-called Digg power users. They were a part of an inner circle that could push any piece of content to the front page. In fact, this also proved to be the undoing of the website. All sort of shitty content was being pushed (because a small group controlled which content would reach there) and eventually they had to back up. Anyway, this is how content used to go viral back in those days.

Listed below are a few ways you can make your content go viral:

  • Keep creating content: Since there is no exact science to know exactly which piece of your content can go viral (even if you apply the above-mentioned fundamentals) keep producing as much interesting content as you can. If you don’t have much content, there is no chance of your content going viral although in rarest of the rare cases, the first-most blog post or an article written and published can go viral but then again, it’s a once in a million chance. Most of the websites and blogs whose content goes viral have been publishing for many years on an ongoing basis.
  • Properly know your target audience: I’m not sure when Kim Kardashian posted her epic butt-thrusting photograph she knew it would go viral or not – maybe she knew because if you know that millions of people are following you, even if a very small percentage reacts, it can set off a chain reaction. But one thing is clear, she knew that her fans would love the photograph and they would share it. What turn it took (according to the Mashable link given above), maybe even she hadn’t expected that. What matters though is, it went viral and as many claim, it actually broke some servers. So knowing your audience helps.
  • Be spontaneous and don’t invariably worry about your content going viral: Again, since there is no exact science to predict whether a particular piece of content will go viral or not, you cannot specifically create content for this purpose. Just keep following the fundamentals because they should anyway be followed for writing, creating and publishing valuable content, use the appropriate channels to promote your content and then move on to your next piece of content. Something triggers the viral effect. It is unknown exactly what triggers it.
  • Keep in mind that visual content has more chance of going viral compared to textual content: This is not some rule that is written in stone, but visual content always has a greater chance of going viral.
  • Network with influencers: Influencers, merely because they are influencers, wield more influence compared to people who are even more talented than them. This is a hard reality of the world. Even if you are a PhD in philosophy, if Kim Kardashian, even with her Internet-breaking butt thrust forward in full glory, says something philosophical, it will get more attention and more responses compared to you. So it would make sense if you somehow convince Kim to promote your content rather than you promoting it yourself.

Creating content that is associated with the content that has gone viral

This may seem like piggybacking, but sometimes, some content that is associated with a viral content also can generate massive traffic. I remember once I wrote a blog post about a herd of buffaloes rescuing a calf from crocodiles as well as a group of lions. A few years ago that video had gone viral. I just blogged about it, wrote a couple of paragraphs and then embedded the video from YouTube. I still don’t know how it happened, but in a couple of days, I received 25,000 visitors to that particular blog post. It was my literary blog and aside from making me some AdSense money (around $15 every day for almost a week) it didn’t give me any business benefit but the blog post still remains one of the most popular posts on that blog.

How viral content can generate more traffic for your business

Remember that if your content goes viral and nobody knows who originally the content came from, it is going to go waste. There has to be some association. If it is one of your images that is going viral, somehow people should be able to know that you are the originator of that image. Maybe there is a prominent photograph of yours or your business product or service. Maybe there is some branding message that makes it easier for people to know that it is from you. Maybe it is your company name that appears with a photograph. If it is a blog post, then it should have links back to your website or blog, If it is a video, there must be some information or some tag that lets people know that you are the one who has created it.

How to draw maximum benefit out of social media content marketing

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Social media content marketing maximum benefit

A content marketing strategy without taking social media into consideration cannot hope to achieve much these days because pretty much everybody uses social media and social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and LinkedIn. If you are into consumer goods or something like fashion accessories, your best bet would be Facebook. If you want to immediately provide support to your customer and client base, Twitter can work wonders to your content marketing strategy. If you want to reach out to the B2B market then there is nothing like LinkedIn. So what I’m trying to say is, for every sort of content marketing need, there is a platform available to you.

This Social Media Examiner blog post lists some ways you can increase your influence by strategically posting content on social media websites according to their core users. There are some basic traits that are common to all social networking and social media websites because basically, as the name suggests, they are “social”.

Here are a few things to keep in mind while posting content on social media websites:

  1. Post content for readers, not buyers: When you try to target buyers, your entire tone changes. People on social media and social networking websites don’t want to be bothered by marketers and businesses. They are there to interact with the existing friends and make new friends. They are there to share all the cool things they are doing. If they want to buy a mobile phone, they would like to buy it on their own and then be cool about it, also, on their own.

    Let us use my example. I provide content writing and content marketing services. If I want to target people on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, I won’t constantly badger them with my marketing messages. They will be put off and soon they will start unfollowing me. My best bet would be to raise awareness about publishing high quality content on websites and blogs and what is the benefit of marketing such content. Obviously if they are interested in this topic they will follow me and they won’t mind hearing about this topic again and again. This way, whenever they need a content writer, they will know whom to approach.

  2. Stick to your niche to stand out: If I’m continuously publishing helpful content about content writing and content marketing than people obviously know what I do and what is my expertise. If I go on posting everything under the sun, they won’t be able to make out exactly what I do. This goes for any profession. If you are marriage photographer and if you want people to know that you are available for the same service, you should post lots of content on such photography rather than simply posting cute marriage photographs or cuddly animals playing with each other.
  3. Keywords also matter on social media and social networking websites: I think as long as people use textual cues to carry out searches, keywords are never going to go out of fashion. If someone searches for “business content writer” on LinkedIn or Facebook, they should be able to find someone like me rather than a morning breakfast supplier. Unless these specific expressions exist in the content that I post, how are people going to find me?

    Keywords also make an unconscious impact. When you come across my content and repeatedly read about content writing and content marketing, unconsciously these keywords are continuously stored in your brain and this will ultimately have an impact on your decision when you are looking for a content writer for your website or blog.

  4. On social media and social networking websites it’s important to know what your audience wants: And then post content accordingly. It doesn’t mean if my audience is more interested in morning breakfast suppliers or marriage photographers then I should start posting content on these topics – it means I’m attracting wrong sort of audience and which further means, I’m doing something wrong with the sort of content I’m already posting. This should be changed immediately. I should post content for an audience that is interested in knowing more about content writing and content marketing and more importantly, an audience among which someday I hope to come across my clients.
  5. Use data to add value:
    People love to know facts. They will love to know that 62% B2B marketers prefer to use content marketing rather than knowing that “more and more people are using content marketing”.
  6. Regularly engage with your audience: Content on social media and social networking websites should never be one way because then it defeats the entire purpose. Encourage people to respond. You cannot always do that, but occasionally, ask interesting questions from your audience. This will also tell you whether they are actually paying attention to what you are posting or not. Engaging your audience will make it easier for them to remember you for what you do.

There is a parallel between Rahul Gandhi and an unsuccessful content marketing effort

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content-marketing-rahul-gandhi

If you don’t know Rahul Gandhi, he is the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family who is the cynosure of the English media lady journalists here in India and also, seemingly, the only beacon of hope for the Congress party. He is the son of Rajiv Gandhi who was assassinated by the LTTE terrorists, and Sonia Gandhi, who is presently the Congress president.

Why is there a parallel between Rahul Gandhi and an unsuccessful content marketing effort?

In order to succeed in content marketing you need to be regular. And not just any regular, you need to be regular with creation, publication, marketing and most importantly, quality and relevance. These shouldn’t be activities and traits that you orchestrate just when you feel like it. They need to be ongoing otherwise they never take off.

In fact, another good parallel comes to my mind. It’s like riding a bicycle. Unless your bicycle attains a certain speed, you cannot balance. You will fall if you pedal too slow. I remember once Rahul Gandhi also talked about the escape velocity – he had said something to the tune of that India needed Jupiter’s escape velocity in order to experience some progress. Or something like that. The concept of escape velocity can also be applied to content marketing – unless you put in a certain amount of work, it is never effective.

Rahul Gandhi is not a career politician. He is in this field because of his family history and maybe because he has never been able to build another career. He comes and goes according to his own whims and this is why he always fails to make an impact. Had someone else had the sort of opportunities that he has got, he or she would have worked wonders.

Politics is not a part time job, it is a full-time job, just like content marketing. When you’re doing content marketing for your business, you have to take it seriously, you have to give it all it takes. It cannot be a half-hearted effort. To ensure the success of your content marketing effort you need to

  1. Create and publish quality content regularly (if possible, daily).
  2. You need to use the channels available to you to disseminate that content and advocate it.
  3. You need to respond to other people’s content with your own input.
  4. You need to engage your audience so that it begins to recognize you for your strengths and other characteristics.
  5. You constantly need to provide people something of great value.
  6. You need to be there, be one with them.
  7. You need to be present on the same channels being used by your audience.
  8. You need to talk to people in their own language rather than using your own gobbledygook.
  9. You need to take care of the core issues, the issues that really matter to people rather than simply beating around the bush.
  10. You need to be able to inspire loyalty and turn people into your evangelists.

Just as all these qualities are missing in a badly executed content marketing strategy, they are also missing in Rahul Gandhi and this is why he comes out to be a quintessentially failed politician who, instead of inspiring confidence, inspires disenchantment, and sometimes ridicule (because he tries to portray himself as someone he is not).

12 most important KPIs of content marketing

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12-most-important-KPIs-content-marketing

A few days ago I wrote about the importance of knowing your content marketing KPIs. In that blog post I briefly wrote about the main KPIs that you should be aware of while creating and publishing content for your website and blog, but a dedicated blog post was needed, and hence this one.

In order to know and analyse your KPIs and make improvements accordingly you should know a mix of web analytics (something like Google Analytics) and some natural instinct about what’s good and what’s bad for your business. For example, you should know that your website needs to convert well and in order to convert well, it has to offer something highly valuable to your visitors. You know that, right?

The basic idea behind gauging the success of your content marketing effort in terms of knowing the KPIs is to keep yourself and your team thoroughly focused. After all, when you are making so much effort, when you are spending so much money, you should know whether your content marketing is succeeding or not, and the best way to know this is, to be aware of what factors indicate to you whether you are experiencing success or failure.

12 important KPIs of content marketing

  1. Increase in the number of unique visitors: An increase in the number of unique visitors means more people are able to find your content. A big reason why more people are finding your content is that there is more content to be found. Whereas, the possibility of people becoming your customers and clients is greater among your repeat visitors, the number of your repeat visitors will increase only when you have more unique visitors – after all, every existing visitor was once a unique visitor. The content marketing KPI for unique visitors may differ from action to action. For example, unique visitors subscribing to your newsletter or downloading your e-book are far more important in terms of KPIs than those who simply come to your website and then leave without doing anything.
  2. Increase in the social media and social networking shares: Vibrant activities on social media and social networking websites are a great part of your overall content marketing effort. Only exciting, useful content is shared and promoted voluntarily on these channels. Nobody would like to put boring content on his or her timeline. If people are sharing your content with their friends, family and colleagues, it means they find your content useful.
  3. Improvement in search engine rankings for important keywords: Content marketing also involves writing and publishing high quality content on your website and if you are persistent with quality and relevance, your search engine rankings for your important keywords begin to improve. It is an important KPI because the improvement in your search engine rankings doesn’t just reflect the quality of content on your own website, it also reflects the popularity of your content on social media and social networking websites, blogs and other websites.
  4. Increase in the number of newsletter subscriptions:
    Are more and more people subscribing to your newsletter and regular updates? This is a very good indicator of your key performance. When people subscribe to your newsletter it means that they are convinced that you are going to deliver quality. It also means that your content marketing is bringing targeted and focused visitors on your website, visitors who are actually interested in hearing from you on an ongoing basis rather than just stumbling upon your website mistakenly.
  5. Increase in the number of people downloading your e-book or case study: For some businesses, an increase in the number of people downloading a particular e-book or a case study is one of the most important content marketing KPIs, because this is what they are targeting for. Content is created, published and disseminated in such a manner that it convinces people into downloading the e-book or the case study. Do you need to create special content for that? Certainly yes.
  6. Increase in the number of people clicking your ads: If your website or blog revenue depends on more and more people clicking the ads that you have published on your blog or website, then more people clicking your ads is your most important KPI. It means getting highly targeted people to your blog or website – people who find the ads interesting and useful.
  7. Increase in the number of incoming links to your website or blog: This is an obvious KPI. If more people are linking to your website or blog, it means that they find your content useful and relevant. How is it an important content marketing KPI? More incoming links means more direct traffic to your website without having to depend on the whims of search engines. Although many SEO experts deny this, incoming links still contribute towards improving your overall search engine rankings.
  8. Increase in the number of people requesting guest blog posting on your blog: Nobody wants to waste time guest blogging for a blog not visited by many people. If your content marketing efforts are increasing the popularity of your blog this is an important key performance indicator. A popular blog means more people want to make use of it by writing content for it and then getting attributed for it.
  9. Increase in the number of people submitting your contact form: This is quite obvious. Why do people submit your contact form? They want to reach out to you, whether it is for business queries, for lead generation, or simply to send their suggestions and greetings. Whatever, it means your content marketing effort is getting the right people to your website or blog.
  10. Better response to your email campaigns: I have often written on my blog and website that email marketing is an important component of content marketing and its success and failure can give you a deep perspective of your KPIs. Content marketing doesn’t just mean publishing content on your website or blog and then distributing that content using various channels, it also means broadcasting your email newsletter at regular intervals and distributing your content via email marketing. When people begin to respond to your email marketing campaigns it means they appreciate your content and have faith in what you have to say.
  11. A greater number of people spending more time on your website or blog: When do people spend more time on your website? One, they find what they are looking for, and two, they find more of what they are looking for. Having valuable content means people are not distracted away easily and there is enough compelling content to keep them on your website. The more they stay on your website, the more inclined they are to do business with you. One of the best KPIs of content marketing is reducing your bounce rate.
  12. Decrease in the overall customer acquisition cost: Running a business also means accruing costs. Whether you are able to calculate or not, for every new customer in one way or another you are paying money. You are paying for your content. You are paying for your search engine rankings. If you are investing in a PPC campaign, you are also paying per click. When, by spending same amount of money, you are getting more customers and clients, you are reducing your customer acquisition cost and this is the ultimate KPI if you are able to achieve this by the strength of your content marketing.

I have listed above 12 most important KPIs of content marketing according to my own perception and your business may have totally different KPIs. It doesn’t really matter. What matters is, you know what you want your content marketing to achieve for you, and you know how to streamline your content marketing accordingly. This is the most important thing.

Is content marketing replacing conventional advertising

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What exactly do you understand by “conventional advertising” and how do you think it is different from content marketing? Contrary to popular belief content marketing doesn’t just happen on the Internet. Ever since the first corporate magazine or journal was published to raise awareness about a particular field of work and through that, awareness about the product or service itself, content marketing has been in action. You must have already heard the story multiple times, but do you know why soap operas are called soap operas? It’s because it was a series of TV dramas sponsored by a soap company. What was that? That was content marketing.

Content marketing means creating emotional stories rather than simply telling people to buy your products or services just because you’re selling them. Stories create a context. You show actual people being impacted by the presence or absence of the said products or services.

This EContent article explains with some examples how conventional advertising is rapidly turning into content marketing.