One of 2018’s fastest growing marketing trends is influencer marketing. Companies will increase their influencer marketing budget to keep up with the competition.
You’ve probably heard the buzzword by now: Influencer marketing seems to be on the tip of every marketer’s tongue these days. Linqia’s latest report, The State of Influencer Marketing 2018, shows that B2C companies are already taking full advantage of this marketing trend. Their report shows that 86% of B2C marketers used influencer marketing in 2017, and 92% of marketers that tried it found it to be effective.
To understand why influencer marketing is becoming so popular and why B2B companies need to jump on the trend, let’s start with the basics.
What is influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing is a form of marketing in which focus is placed on influential people, rather than the target market as a whole. Marketers identify individuals that have influence over potential buyers and create marketing campaigns and activities around these influencers.
For example, Microsoft teamed up with National Geographic last year to launch an influencer marketing campaign, called “Make What’s Next.” The technology giant leveraged some of the most famous adventure photographer influencers on Nat Geo’s Instagram for the campaign. The objective was to bring awareness to young women with interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). By utilizing Nat Geo’s most heavily followed female photographers, Microsoft was able to access a built-in following.
Why influencer marketing works.
Influencer marketing is extremely effective because of three key components:
Social reach: Influencers can reach millions of followers (and consumers) through their social media channels, websites, and blogs.
Original content: Influencers work with marketers to produce original content for your brand.
Consumer trust: Through their existing, strong relationships with their audiences, influencers have a built-in level of trust and can influence consumer opinions.
Content marketers are working overtime to update their content marketing strategies to include influencer marketing campaigns. Consumers no longer want to hear from brands about their products; they want someone they trust to recommend products and services. This is where influencer marketing comes in to play.
Marketers across industries found influencer marketing to be so effective in 2017, that 52% of are planning programs that leverage multiple types of influencers (celebrities, top-tier bloggers, micro-influencers) in 2018.
Where do you begin?
Instagram should be your starting point. According to new research, influencer marketing on Instagram will have generated over $1 billion by the end of 2017, with significant annual growth going forward. With more than 700 million users, Instagram’s platform allows influencers to easily share photos and videos with their followers. Product promotion has never been easier.
Boxed Water turned to Instagram influencer marketing to market its philanthropic campaign, The ReTree Project. The company paired with social influencers, like actors Aidan Alexander and Jaime King, and YouTube star Megan De Angelis, to spread the word about their new campaign. These popular Instagram users asked consumers to post a photo with the hashtag #ReTree and, in turn, Boxed Water would plant two trees for every photo posted. Just one month after launching the campaign, Boxed Water generated more than 2,600 posts with the hashtag.
With 39% of marketers planning to increase influencer marketing budget this year, B2B companies are quickly seeing the leverage that influencers can have over their target audiences. By pairing your products or services with the right influencer, marketers can easily tap into thousands of potential consumers, increasing website traffic and leads.
Have you tried influencer marketing? How was your experience?
Search engines are evolving, and these changes will have big impacts on how searchers find your content. Here are 7 changes that will affect your SEO.
Internet users are changing how they search, and in response, search engines are changing how they rank content. Newer, more sophisticated algorithms have had big impacts on SEO rankings and the changes haven’t stopped there. Search engines are working around the clock to improve how content ranks for their users. Google and Bing want to ensure its readers are getting the quality content they deserve.
What does this mean for your SEO? It can be very challenging to understand all of the factors that go into a search engine’s algorithm for rankings. Google has over 205 factors that play a part in determining where you content lands in a search and they’re always changing. Instead of worrying about all of those components, here are 7 changes that have big impacts and are easy to integrate into your content.
7 search engine changes you need to know: infographic
Changes to the way search engines work do present a challenge for content creators writing for SEO. But keeping pace with the ever-changing technology is key to keeping your content relevant. Keeping these 7 key changes in mind, content writers can work to integrate these changes into their new content, as well as update older content.
Ultimately, the best way to improve your SEO is through your content. Quality content that is valuable to your target audience should be your biggest priority. With good content and keeping these 7 changes at the forefront, you will be able to optimize your posts and increase the likelihood internet searchers will find them.
This video will teach you how to increase your open rate by discussing email subject line mistakes you should avoid.
Email marketers, this video is for you! On average, office workers receive 121 emails a day. That is a huge amount of emails to scroll through every day. So how do you make your emails stand out from the crowd? Are you making critical email subject line mistakes?
The subject line is the best chance you’ll have to entice readers to open your email. As matter of fact, 47% of email recipients decide whether or not to open an email based on subject line alone. And 69% of email recipients report email as spam based solely on the subject line.
Get to the point.
Let’s not forget that users read 66% of all emails on a smart phone or tablet. That means that your subject lines shouldn’t be more than 35-39 characters (because mobile platforms show fewer subject-line characters than desktops). Sticking to such a short subject can be challenging, so marketers need to make sure they get to the point — and quickly.
What does this mean for all the email marketers out there? Clever and informative subject lines can make an email really stand out in a crowded inbox. But the opposite also holds true; mundane or lack-luster subject lines can send your email straight to the trash file.
Your email subject line can make or break your open rate, so don’t commit these email subject line mistakes.
Video: 5 email subject line mistakes you should avoid
It doesn’t matter what your email says if no one opens it. If your subject line doesn’t persuade recipients to open and engage, the message is lost and so is your opportunity to make a sale. Make sure you are avoiding these common email subject line mistakes and focus on keeping your subject lines short and to the point. Remember, your subject lines are your first impression. Make it a good one.
What other email subject line mistakes have you encountered? What tips do you have for subject lines that work with your readers?
Here are three tips for writing pillar content that will help structure your posts, attract leads and gain better page rankings.
In case you missed our series on writing for SEO, pillar content is a highly effective way to define your brand, drive traffic, and convert website visitors to leads. But in order to be effective, these pages should be strategically designed to do their proper job in telling search engines what your site is all about.
Before we go further, let’s take a step back and talk about exactly what pillar content is. As search engines adjust their algorithms to favor topic-based content, savvy marketers are turning to topic clusters to structure their content.
“This method uses a single pillar page as the main hub of content for a given topic. All of your content assets related to that topic link back to the pillar page,” explains HubSpot blogger Amanda Zantal-Wiener.
Need some ideas for writing and structuring effective pillar content? Here are three tips to get you started.
3 tips for writing pillar content
1) Start thinking about your site differently.
Not so long ago, SEO optimization was all about keywords. But search engines are changing. As their algorithms get more sophisticated, they look for websites that can provide depth and breadth on a particular topic. That means topic-based content wins you better page rank. It’s time to start thinking about your site as a collection of topics rather than a collection of keywords.
2) Consider your core audience.
“Think about the top interests and challenges of your core audience personas to give you ideas for pillar page content,” says HubSpot blogger Sophia Bernazzani.
Good content marketing is all about cultivating your reputation as a trusted resource for your audience, and pillar pages are no exception. Chose topics that answer the needs of your target audience. Topics should be broad enough to be able to generate multiple related blog posts, but narrow enough that you can cover all related content on a single pillar page.
3) Your content is about answering questions.
“Pillar pages should answer any question or query a searcher might have about a topic — which will make them want to click on your pillar page when they enter a Google search term that your page ranks for,” writes Bernazzani. The goal is to draw site visitors with savvy pillar content, and let them explore all content in your topic cluster.
These social media statistics are important to keep in mind when planning out your content marketing strategy.
A strong social media presence is key to successful marketing in 2018. Social media is simply unavoidable these days.
So, you jumped on board and you’re posting and tweeting. You’re creating content. You’re learning about search engine optimization and how to improve your rankings. But you’re still not reaching the audiences you were hoping to attract. What’s going wrong?
When you are posting on social media could be as important as what you’re posting.
Timing is everything, and that statement especially holds true when it comes to posting content to social media. If you are sending out your message and nobody is there to see it, you are that proverbial tree falling in the forest; you did not make a sound. Your post had little to no impact.
So, even if you are putting in the time and effort to craft informative blog posts, tweets with just the right message, or Facebook posts that inspire more than just page likes, you still are not getting the most exposure you can out of social media.
We have done our homework when it comes to the best times to post on social media. And the truth is there is no “one size fits all” answer to when you should post. There are general guidelines that differ for each site. But in general, it’s important to keep your target audience in mind when deciding where and when to post.
Here are some social media statistics that you need to consider when deciding when to post your content.
Social media statistics your business needs to consider when publishing content
To be effective, your content marketing strategy should align with your sales goals. Here are three simple questions to ask yourself to make sure your documented strategy is on target.
I recently read an article on the Harvard Business Review that discussed pairing your sales goals with your marketing goals. This strikes at the heart of what we do at Fronetics: build a client’s content marketing strategy that will help advance their short- and long-term business goals. It sounds simple, but you have no idea how many organizations’ marketing goals are misaligned with what the larger organization is trying to accomplish
We need to make sure that — while we’re continuing to increase content production — we have a fundamental understanding of what we’re trying to create.
According to the Content Marketing Institute, 88% of marketers use content marketing. But a mere 30% of B2B marketers say their organization is effective at it. What that says to me is that a lot of companies are dumping their resources into content marketing, but, without a strategy that advances their business goals, they’re throwing away their time and money.
A content marketing strategy outlines the methods by which you will target, reach, and engage your audience. Research and execution of these tasks can be quite complex. Writing out a plan and assigning appropriate resources can offer clarity and guidance to your organization throughout the course of your program.
Here are three questions to ask yourself to make sure that your content marketing strategy is complementing your sales goals.
3 questions to align your sales goals and content marketing strategy
1. Why: Why am I doing this?
This question should be fairly easy to answer. The reason you’re documenting a content marketing strategy is for your business. You’re looking to align your marketing efforts with your business objectives. For a lot of companies, this ultimately means increased revenue from sales growth.
When done correctly, content marketing can support sales goals, making it easier to generate leads and helping the sales team close business. But you need to continually ask yourself, why?
The constant demand for more and more content can have a great impact on quality. More isn’t always better. Make sure you’re checking in with your strategy to make sure the content you’re producing is in alignment with your business goals.
2. Who: Who am I trying to attract?
In order to get the ball rolling in content marketing, you have to understand who you are trying to reach. Your company’s sales goals will help guide this target audience. It’s important to think holistically when considering who you are trying to reach at a potential prospect’s company. Typically, your target audience falls into two categories: Primary (decision-makers) and Secondary (influencers of the decision-maker).
Going one step further, you need to identify your target audience’s needs and pain points so that you can direct your content marketing strategy at creating awareness around those needs.
Once you have a thorough understanding of who your target audience is, you can begin to identify the different social media platforms they use. Using analytics tools within social networks can help you identify trends in social media use.
3. What: What content is going to work the best?
You’ve discovered your why and who, but now you need to finalize what kinds of content you’re going to create. Create the kinds of content your target audience seeks, and distribute it through the platforms on which they seek it. How-to videos on YouTube? Thought leadership on LinkedIn? Optimize the material you distribute for each channel. Use the social channels that best suit your brand message, type of content, and target audience.
Valuable and relevant content is not a sales pitch, but can help the sales process. Create content that communicates valuable information to customers and prospects so that they have the knowledge to make more informed decisions. Moreover, concentrate on content that establishes your business as a reliable source of knowledge — as a thought leader within the industry. Be thoughtful when you create content.
Even though 39% of marketers expect their content marketing budgets to increase this year, that doesn’t mean you should continue throwing money at your content marketing efforts until you have a clear plan that will advance your business. To be effective, marketers should document a content marketing strategy that aligns with their business and sales goals. It doesn’t have to be complicated. But it should reflect the “why, who, and what” of your sales strategy.
