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Content marketing extends reach as ad execs tune into benefits

5/29/2013

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Content marketing is growing all the time as interruption advertising falls by the wayside in favour of brands creating a conversation with followers.

Indeed, an April 2013 survey of US marketing and advertising executives by MailOnline reveals 70% of brands and 77% of agencies used content marketing for advertising purposes during the previous year.

According to eMarketer, executives are sourcing the content for their marketing from a variety of angles.


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By Ingridarcher Ingrid Archer (Own work made by spotonvision)
Over half (58%) of agencies obtained branded content from the publishers from whom they purchased media.

Clients were the second most popular origin for content, at 49%, followed by third-party content creators (37%) – that's us!

And agencies are branching out, finally realising that content writing services don't just need to pigeon holed for web copy.

Seven in ten distributed content in digital media other than email or the brand's own website – content marketing is more than just a few words on a company's site.


Why are businesses turning to content marketing providers?

Clearly there is a major change going on as we move away from brands aggressively filling users' space without their consent to a more democratic approach.

Content marketing by its very nature simply helps brands and organisations reach the people they want, while allowing those same people to find them easily.

Put simply, content marketing is a way of putting people with needs in contact with the organisations or individuals who can fulfil those needs.

A recent blog post explained some of the key ideas.

As well as rolling out the old word-of-mouth exposure angle (social media shares) and the (still vital) search engine ranking boost benefits, the author, 
Phil Lauterjung, highlighted this growing trend away from interruption-based ads.

"The focus of your web content must be to educate people so they will get to know you and trust you enough to buy from you. E-mail and direct mail campaigns should be focused on providing a steady stream of information to convince prospects that your products or services offer the best solution for their situation
," he says . 


"Drip e-mail campaigns can even be put on autopilot with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. Just remember, an overzealous sales pitch will turn visitors off and direct them toward your competition.

"The type of content you share is closely related to what you sell. You must develop useful content that will help your target audience solve a problem or answer an important question. Your informative content should achieve what advertising is supposed to achieve. If you could watch TV at night and fast-forward through the hemorrhoid cream commercials, would you? Your website visitors feel the same way."


Billy Connolly would approve!

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Google rolls out Penguin 2.0

5/23/2013

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Google has confirmed that its next generation webspam algorithm – Penguin 2.0 – has been rolled out.


It's Google's fourth Penguin update, but it's much more hard-hitting than previous refreshes carried out by the search giant.

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In a blog post, Google's search chief Matt Cutts explained that about 2.3 per cent of English-US queries are affected to the degree that a regular user might notice. 

He said: "The change has also finished rolling out for other languages worldwide. The scope of Penguin varies by language, e.g. languages with more webspam will see more impact."

Google seems to be pressing forward with it has described as its desire for "white hat search engine optimisation, or even no search engine optimisation at all".

No search engine optimisation? Sounds mad, doesn't it? Well, perhaps not, as Google makes the case for awesome content to be the objective by "creating amazing, compelling websites".

Spamming, keyword stuffing and link-building practices are being penalised heavily – what is generally described as black hat SEO. White hat, on the other hand, is all about finding ways to make your site rank well because it genuinely deserves to.

"Sites affected by this change might not be easily recognisable as spamming without deep analysis or expertise, but the common thread is that these sites are doing much more than white hat SEO; we believe they are engaging in webspam tactics to manipulate search engine rankings," the Webmaster Central Blog explained in April.

White hat versus black hat

"White hat search engine optimisers often improve the usability of a site, help create great content, or make sites faster, which is good for both users and search engines," the blog explained.

"Good search engine optimisation can also mean good marketing: thinking about creative ways to make a site more compelling, which can help with search engines as well as social media. 

"The net result of making a great site is often greater awareness of that site on the web, which can translate into more people linking to or visiting a site."

The opposite of white hat SEO is black hat webspam.

"In the pursuit of higher rankings or traffic, a few sites use techniques that don’t benefit users, where the intent is to look for shortcuts or loopholes that would rank pages higher than they deserve to be ranked. We see all sorts of webspam techniques every day, from keyword stuffing to link schemes that attempt to propel sites higher in rankings," explains Google.

Check your site ranking now to see whether you've been affected. If you have, it might mean you need to think about producing great content and a genuinely engaging experience for users, rather than simply trying by hook or by crook to get on page one.
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Reaching out with content: one million more Brits online

5/21/2013

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For brands there is a clear case for reaching out to consumers online with content marketing – millions of Brits use the internet every day and the number not hooked up is falling rapidly.

New figures from the Office of National Statistics reveal 43.5 million adults are now online, one million more than this time last year.

Businesses and brands are responding, increasing their digital marketing budgets consistently while cash for other media stays flat.

But there is still work to be done; there over seven million British adults who are not online.

Most importantly, however, young people are by and large 100 per cent internet-savvy. Indeed the ONS data shows 99 per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds have used the web.

The figures remain almost as good all the way up to people in the mid-50s, encompassing the vast majority of the UK's consumers.

A spokesperson for the ONS said: "Internet use is linked to various socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, such as age, sex, disability, geographical location and weekly earnings.

"For example, those who are less likely to have used the internet include elderly and disabled adults."

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    Snappy Content Writing news on content marketing and web content

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    Alex McLean

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