Thursday, August 4, 2016

3 Initiatives to Improve Website Traffic with Thought Leadership

 

Image courtesy of (hywards) / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
 
E-mail marketing, social media marketing, PPC advertising, the list goes on and on. Ultimately, the objective of all digital marketing tactics is to drive users to a brand’s website and convert them into loyal customers. Companies that implement digital marketing strategies correctly understand how providing a valuable experience to the audience will directly influence how impactful or effective those strategies are.

Recently, the growth of thought leadership as part of a 360-degree marketing approach has grown. More and more leaders at organizations across various industries understand the importance of shaping their experience into valuable insights that translate well with users. When done correctly, thought leadership can play a heavy hand in improving website traffic.

Like all other digital marketing channels, however, thought leadership is only successful when the needs of your audience and your overarching business objectives are kept in mind. Consider the following three tactics to better grasp how your company can use thought leadership as a way to drive traffic to your site.

1. Blog Content

Think about what your audience is likely to search for in Google. Perhaps its ‘how-to’ videos related to your industry, or maybe it’s a consumer question that one of your products could be the solution for. Whatever those subjects may be, the leaders at your organization should be contributing blog posts to your blog regularly as a way to connect with readers and help showcase your brand as one with leading experts in your industry.

When crafting blog content, use tools like Google’s keyword planner to search for terms and grasp how much search volume these phrases attract on a monthly basis. By better understanding the market and how users are phrasing their queries, you can shape your titles and content around their needs. That being said, blog content shouldn’t strictly appeal to search engines—it should address the needs of both search engines and users alike.

The experts at your organization are likely to be your strongest selling point. Showcase the talent and skills that your company has at its disposal as a way to make it easier for users to find your brand organically and capture their interest.

2. PR Initiatives

To have a strong SEO approach, and subsequently secure good search engine rankings that can lead to improved traffic, you need to amass links back to your website. Securing links is all about building relationships with relevant outlets, so by using traditional PR tactics partnered with a digital PR approach, you can begin establishing some credibility.

Whatever your industry may be, the thought leaders at your company can speak to different topics related to it. Whether it’s a current event that your team can interject their opinions into and be quoted by editorial teams working on an article for, or supplying tips related to your product line to a journalist working on a relevant story, the best way to build links is through relevant media
placements. HARO, the free tool that connects journalists with sources, is an excellent starting point. Keep an eye out for any subjects that you or your team members can speak to, and if the reporter finds your insights valuable and decides to include them in their article, they will be very likely to include a link back to your site when they attribute the quote to your experts.

3. Guest Contributions

The same way in which you would share your expertise on your own blog, creating unique content for blogs relevant to your industry can be beneficial in reaching users and encouraging them to visit your website. Identify outlets within your niche that have readers similar to your target demographic, and work with their community managers or editorial team to be considered for opportunities to provide content.

It’s important that content created for these sites never be overly self-promotional and instead focus on the sole purpose of providing value to the respective readers. No outlets want guest posts that are simply promoting a product or service. That being said, these posts can still help to instill brand awareness and recognition. If a visitor receives value from the post, they’re likely to find out who authored it, their expertise, and find out more about the company the author works for—all information that most contributor posts contain in a bio. Referral traffic may not be incredibly high when you first begin contributing content to other outlets, however, this type of content marketing can play a significant role in brand recognition and driving long-term conversions with highly-qualified leads.

Improving Traffic by Offering Value

At the end of the day, to improve website traffic there needs to be a clear value for the users that you’re marketing to. Thought leadership that shares high-quality insights about a certain subject can be incredibly valuable to users. On the other hand, if you fail to appeal to the needs of your target demographic, your efforts are likely to fall short.

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Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Facebook Launches Birthday Videos — Yet Another Feature to Keep You on its Site

 

facebook-birthday-video
Facebook is all about birthdays.

Now you will not only receive scads of best wishes on your big day, the day after you will receive a recap video that compiles what the social network’s algorithms deem to be the best of those wishes.
Dubbed Birthday Recap Videos, the 45-second video features a festive three-tier birthday cake with secret doors that open to reveal some of the birthday messages you received the previous day. You will need to have received at least three messages for the feature to work.

You can share the recap video on your timeline or just keep it for your own enjoyment. You also have the option of editing the video before sharing it. That way, if Facebook missed a great post, or included one you did not like, you can add or remove them from the clip.

The social media giant is rolling out the feature to users worldwide this week — and the recap videos certainly do beat Twitter’s birthday offering: balloons appearing on the profiles of those who input their birth date.

The new feature, it seems, is all part of Facebook’s strategy to focus its News Feeds on users’ friends and family to keep its members as engaged as possible.

As product management vice-president Adam Mosseri explained last month: “Facebook was built on the idea of connecting people with their friends and family. That is still the driving principle of News Feed today. Our top priority is keeping you connected to the people, places and things you want to be connected to — starting with the people you are friends with on Facebook. That’s why if it’s from your friends, it’s in your feed, period — you just have to scroll down. To help make sure you don’t miss the friends and family posts you are likely to care about, we put those posts toward the top of your News Feed.”

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