www.verticalmeasures.com

CONTENT MARKETING WORKSHOP

Arnie Kuenn, President, Vertical Measures - @ArnieK

#ContentWorkshop #DEast13

ABOUT YOUR PRESENTER…

• President of Vertical Measures –

A Search, Social & Content Marketing Agency

• Instructor for the Content Marketing Institute &

Online Marketing Institute

• Been an Internet marketer longer than Google

has existed.

ABOUT YOU…

• How many of you are

webmasters or SEOs?

• How many are primarily

marketing people?

• More than 1 location?

“CONTENT MARKETING”

CONTENT MARKETING HAS BECOME

THE TOP PRIORITY

WHAT IS CONTENT MARKETING?

• Content marketing is the art of providing relevant,

useful content to your guests without selling or

interrupting them.

• Instead of pitching your products or services, you are

delivering information that makes your customers

more informed before they buy.

• If you deliver consistent, ongoing valuable

information to your customers, they ultimately reward

you with their business and loyalty.

THIS IS NOT A 30 DAY R.O.I.

BUT THE LONG-TERM PAYOFFS

CAN BE HUGE

PAY PER CLICK ADVERTISING

Only 5 to 10%

of people click

here – but can

still pay off.

HOW IMPORTANT IS SEO AND SEARCH?

More than 90%

of people click

here!

HOW IMPORTANT IS SEARCH?

of all consumers use search

prior to making a purchase

Source: GroupM

of searchers conduct non-

branded queries

of buyers click on organic

links vs the sponsored ads

ACHIEVING SUCCESS IS A CONTINUOUS,

PLANNED OUT PROCESS

THINK LIKE A PUBLISHER!

WHY ARE YOU CREATING YOUR CONTENT?

• Have you taken an inventory of your current

content?

• What will your new content accomplish?

– Client Retention?

– Increased Revenue?

– Lead Generation?

– Thought Leadership?

– Open New Markets?

– More Links (SEO)?

WHO IS YOUR AUDIENCE?

Your audience can be a number of different groups – depending on your hotel and location

– Current/potential guests? People spending booking

your hotel now or in the future?

– Location? Do most of your guests come from a

specific area?

– Seasonal? Does your hotel have any seasonality

to it?

WHO WILL CREATE YOUR CONTENT?

• What expertise will you need?

− Creative writing?

− Sales copy?

− Local topics?

− Graphics?

− Video?

• Leverage your staff

• Business partners or suppliers may contribute

WHERE WILL THE CONTENT BE PUBLISHED?

• Your Blog?

• RSS feeds?

• Social accounts?

• News Feeds?

• Sites for Videos, Images, Slides, PR, etc?

• Your web pages?

• Will you have content to download?

DEVELOP YOUR STRATEGY - SUMMARY

• Strategy will evolve through the whole

process

• Why are you creating the content you are

creating?

• Who is your audience?

• What types of content will you create?

• Who will create your content?

• When will you develop your content?

• What does success look like?

SHARING TIME!

• Who is your audience?

• What will you measure?

• What does success look like?

WHAT ARE WE SEARCHING FOR?

LONG TAIL IS THE KEY!

START YOUR RESEARCH HERE!

http://www.verticalmeasures.com/content/content-brainstorming-tools-for-2013/

KNOW YOUR KEYWORDS

MORE KEYWORD RESEARCH TOOLS

Google Keyword Suggest

Relate Searches

MORE KEYWORD RESEARCH TOOLS

YouTube Related Searches

More than 410

questions about “visit

the grand canyon”

(exact match).

More than 3,400

using broad match!

Long tail searches

are the key to

success!

LIST ALL CONTENT IDEAS IN A SPREADSHEET

PUT TOGETHER AN EDITORIAL CALENDAR

SHARING TIME!

What 3 questions do you get asked by customers or

potential customers all the time?

BENEFITS OF A BLOG

• Gives you a vehicle to post new content

• Allows for internal linking

• Keeps the search engines coming back – have 434% more indexed pages*

• Have 2X as many backlinks*

• Your site gets 55% more traffic*

• You have 79% more Twitter followers*

Source: *Hubspot

ADDRESS PRICING / COST

COMPARISONS

Showcase your product or service then compare and contrast to others.

INTERVIEWS – HELP MAKE YOU THE EXPERT

LISTS – PEOPLE STILL LOVE THEM

RESOURCE PAGES

38 links to this page

111 links to this page

CURATION OR AGGREGATION

INFOGRAPHICS ARE HOT RIGHT NOW

VIDEOS! – THEY ARE NOT THAT HARD

Product Demos

Fun Interviews

Behind the Scenes

FREE GUIDES & WHITE PAPERS

- Lead generator

- Link attractor

- Long life span

SHARING TIME!

• What free guides can you

develop in the next 90 days?

HOW SEARCH WORKS

SEARCH OPTIMIZATION ELEMENTS

SEARCH RESULTS – WEB PAGE CONNECTION

Webpage File Name Webpage Title Tag

Meta Description

CREATE GREAT TITLES, META DESCRIPTIONS & URLS

UNIVERSAL SEARCH RESULTS

70+% of all search results

ALL DIFFERENT – BUT CORE ELEMENTS

Web pages, News, Local, Images & Videos

1. Links pointing to your content

2. Titles & title tags (viewed in results)

3. Description meta tag (viewed in results)

4. Image alt text tags

5. H1 Tag (headline tag – only one!)

6. Page load times

7. Freshness of content

8. AuthorRank

HOW TO OPTIMIZE IMAGES

• Image files should be compressed as much as

reasonably possible to reduce file size. Smaller files

mean faster site load speeds. JPGs generally offer

the best balance of file size & quality.

• Use relevant keywords in image filenames,

separated by dashes (not underscores). Instead of

"DL000031.jpg", use something like "red-sports-

car.jpg"

• Make sure <img> tags have their "alt" and "title"

attributes defined with descriptive, concise, keyword-

related text. Do not stuff <img> attributes.

• Context matters. Google looks at content placed

around the image, like titles and captions, for context

about your image.

• Be sure to include images in your sitemap. The

XML tags provide additional opportunities to define

an image's title, caption, and even geographic

location.

HOW TO OPTIMIZE VIDEOS

• Specific, Compelling Title –Would you click on “Our

Company” or “V00023.mov?” neither will your audience.

• Tags –This is where you can help your video appear in

the “Suggested” or “Similar” videos section. Don’t be

dishonest, but if there are pop culture or social media

references in the video, tag them accordingly.

• Description - Say as much as you can in the first

sentence or two, because many video sites will hide the

bulk of your description. Include at least one link placed

at the start of the description – with http://.

• Video Quality / Resolution – Shoot, edit and export the

video in the highest quality available on the devices and

software you use. The online video audience is very

forgiving of skill level, but a low resolution video can

make it difficult to see what is going on.

• Thumbnail Image – If it’s an organically made video

(not planned), pick the most visually compelling of the

options they give you.

HOW TO APPEAR IN GOOGLE NEWS

• Need to submit your URL to Google first

• Article URLs must be:

–Unique

–Permanent

–Display a three-digit number

• To see if a site is already included in

Google News, type [ site:url.com ], into the

search box and click "Search News."

• http://support.google.com/news/publisher/

DO YOU HAVE A GOOGLE+ BUSINESS PAGE?

+1 BUTTON: OPPORTUNITY FOR BUSINESSES

THE TOP 5 LOCAL RANKING FACTORS 2013

1. A physical address in the city

2. Associate your business with proper categories.

3. Have an address close to the centroid

4. Complete and accurate NAP (Name, Address,

Phone) accuracy across the local ecosystem

5. High number of customer reviews on the new

Google +Local

CLAIM YOUR LOCAL PROFILES

Image: athgo.org

TODAY’S PUBLIC RELATIONS

• Build Your Network

• Relationship-building approach vs. blanket pitch

• Engagement – two way conversation

• Conduct PR & Blogger Pitches

ACTIVELY ENGAGE WITH YOUR ONLINE COMMUNITY

• Keep a list of the names and faces you most often see stepping up in the community.

• Look for folks that actively share content.

• Create specialized content and market towards social influencers

• Strengthen their relationship with your brand

• The more connected they feel, the more likely they are to share with their network.

PRESS RELEASES?

SHARING NEW CONTENT CAN BE VERY SIMPLE

HOW OFTEN SHOULD YOU POST?

• The most common complaint from Facebook users is Newsfeed spam

• Posting just a few times per week produces 71% higher user

engagement

• Focus on quality, not quantity on Facebook.

• Only 50% of your posts should be about your content. Organizations

that share other content have a higher engagement rate.

FACEBOOK – THE MOTOR LODGE

• Beat the crowds with a sneak peek of the Courthouse Christmas lights tonight from 5:30-6:30pm (the official Lighting Ceremony is Saturday).

• Time to get shopping so, for our Facebook buddies we will add 15% to any gift certificate that you purchase for holiday giving. Think of it, you provide a fun place to stay for your favorite people while appearing to be 15% more generous than you really are...It's a win, win!

• We thought you should know that waterboarding at The Motor Lodge has stopped! In case you never had the chance to experience the torture that was our showers, imagine standing in a phone booth while a 55 gallon drum of water was dumped on you from 8' up (a classic case of form over function...sorry). New and improved, ...adjustable and reachable showerheads make cleansing your beautiful body an absolute pleasure. Enjoy!

• Time to name the cat that adopted us 3 months ago! Whoever comes up with the winning name wins a free night in our swankiest room, #6. The cat is a neutered male, very friendly, green eyes and has a hole in his left ear. Voting ends Sunday at 5pm. (The post included a video of the cat.)

By far the #1 reason users

decide to “like” or “follow” a

brand is?....

Coupons, Discounts and

Sales Announcements!

*ROI Research & Performics

DON’T GET HUNG UP ON SOCIAL

DISTRIBUTE OR REPURPOSE YOUR CONTENT

Source: CMI & MarketingProfs

VIDEO DISTRIBUTION

PINTEREST!

PRESENTATION DISTRIBUTION (PPT)

E-MAIL CAMPAIGNS

• Essential Elements

– Visually appealing and branded

– Incorporate into editorial calendar: plan frequency

– Segmenting: targeted messaging

– Great subject line

– Stay brief: Read More, Get More Details

• Distribution Services:

– Exact Target

– Constant Contact

– Vertical Response

– Mail Chimp

47% OF EMAILS ARE

OPENED ON A MOBILE

DEVICE

SOURCE: LITMUS - September 2013

80% DELETE EMAILS THAT

DO NOT “LOOK GOOD”

ON MOBILE

http://openmarketing.com/blog/the-importance-of-all-4-screens/

BUILD LINKS TO YOUR CONTENT

• Identify low hanging fruit

– Internal links

– Fix 404 and 302 errors

– Guest blog posts or articles

– Blog & forum participation

– Where you have relationships

– Local partners & listings

• The best links:

– Are from trusted sites

– Have varied anchor text

– Are from many different, relevant websites

– Determined editorially

INTERNAL LINKS

• Internal links are what make up your website’s

navigation.

− Important for usability and visibility

− Internal links tell search engines what your site is about.

− Proper internal linking structure allows search engines to

spider and index more pages within your site.

• Make sure keywords in URL structure match

content on page.

• Keep footers clean and include a link to sitemap

• Use, but don’t abuse, internal text links within

content

MEASURE!

• Measure for successes…

and failures

• Check your rankings,

traffic, conversions and

other key metrics

• Focus on the strategies

that are providing the best

ROI and keep rolling out

the content

TOOLS TO USE

• Google Analytics (Traffic, Time Spent, Conversions)

• Social Mention or Trackur (Share of Voice or

Positive Vs. Negative Mentions)

• Open Site Explorer ( # links)

http://socialbarrel.com/10-free-social-media-

monitoring-tools-you-should-use/46275/

Buyers need information that helps

them make an informed decision.

Businesses that provide the

content those people are

searching for - will win.

IN SUMMARY…

ALL 8 STEPS ARE IMPORTANT!

Contact: 888-476-1881 www.VerticalMeasures.com

More Traffic. More Leads. More Business.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!