Marketing vs Sales: Why They Work Better Together
Why pit marketing and sales against each other? Instead, check out 4 ways marketing can support sales to make their jobs easier.
Why pit marketing and sales against each other? Instead, check out 4 ways marketing can support sales to make their jobs easier.
Content can do a lot to help you grow your business, but it’s not enough on its own. Here are the 6 things your content needs to be successful.
I have always said business owners need to own their content and the recent Facebook shutdown proves why that’s so important.
The 8 things you need to write the perfect about page for your website.
This book has some great marketing tips, but I wish it had just one chapter about researching and using keywords.
Why does your content needs to be copyedited? Here are 5 tips for editing it yourself if you can’t afford a professional.
Greater mindshare can lead to greater market share if you know how to leverage it.
This book is full of great writing and marketing tips, but I wish Handley had talked more about SEO.
There seems to be some confusion about the differences between marketing strategies and tactics, so let’s take this opportunity to get clear on them now.
Of course there can be drawbacks to including politics in marketing, but there are also some benefits.
This is the last time I’m going to be reading an SEO book recommended by the internet.
Using social media for SEO has its benefits, but knowing how to use social media to boost your SEO is another matter entirely, so let’s get into it.
If your content doesn’t pass the “so what?” test, your audience will take their precious time and attention and move on to the next thing.
As an attorney, you solve some of people’s biggest problems, so there’s no excuse for your blog to be boring. Use these blogging tips for lawyers to take your blog from blah to ah ha!
Using keywords in your content isn’t enough. You need to use the right keywords in the right places to get in front of the right people.
A Google My Business Page can do wonders for your online visibility, but it’s not something you can just set and forget.
Everything you need to know about AI writing software — from how it works, to how you can get the most out of it.
Use these tips to make sure your website is accessible so everyone can easily find and navigate it.
If you’re working hard on all your email campaigns, but not seeing the results you need, here are 13 mistakes you might be making.
If you’re considering writing a white paper for your business, here are a few reasons why you should. plus tips to help you write your white paper.
From setting up your Google Analytics account to running reports, this article has everything you need to know about GA4.
What do you do with the leads who are not yet ready to buy? Using these 3 lead nurturing tips will help you grow your business.
Resolve to do these 6 things in 2023 to take your content strategy to the next level in the new year.
17 things you need to write a sales page that converts high quality online leads into customers. You worked too hard to let them just click away.
Let’s look at what happened to SEO in 2022 for clues as to what will happen to SEO in 2023.
SEO and web design aren’t just part of your marketing strategy, they are both integral to your SEO strategy.
Everything from the best types of content to distribute to the best channels to distribute content to the strategy you need to make your efforts successful.
There are a lot of numbers involved in marketing. Knowing what all the numbers mean and which ones are worth tracking is key.
People have a lot of questions about content strategy and we have answers.
You can’t have a marketing strategy without data, and you can’t have effective content without strategy. Here’s how to use the two together.
5 ways a content gap analysis can help your website show up in online searches.
Want to know my favorite parts of the Seattle Interactive Conference? It’s all right here in this blot post.
Are you just writing about whatever comes to mind, or are you covering topics your audience cares about?
The pros and cons of LinkedIn articles vs the pros and cons of blog posts. There’s also a quick mention of LinkedIn newsletters.
If you haven’t considered writing an ebook to help build your business, here are 9 reasons why you should.
If you do it right, you can get results from your blog, and over time, those results can grow exponentially. So let’s talk about how to do it right.
A newsletter can be a great way to get people to engage with your brand after they found you on social media, read one of your blog posts, or saw you speak at an event. You worked so hard to get in front of those people, create a compelling email and send it out on…
Regardless of your industry or your audience, at least one of these types of blog posts is bound to help you increase your online visibility.
Google just finished rolling out its latest core algorithm update, so let’s talk about what happened and what that means for your SEO strategy.
Use these 4 tips to conduct market research, plus some advice on how to use that information to make sure your marketing efforts drive results.
I’ll start with my process for onboarding new clients, then talk about how you can make sure you get the most out of your experience with a digital marketing agency.
3 ways to use content marketing to stay top of mind with your target audience.
Getting the most out of your content involves a delicate balance between writing for SEO and writing for humans.
The internet completely changed the way the marketing funnel looks and works, so let’s talk about the modern marketing funnel.
Is your online marketing strategy attracting, engaging, and converting high-quality leads, or does it feel more like you’re shooting in the dark?
How can you control your search rankings when they rely, at least in part, on what other people say about you?
The terms SEO and SEM tend to get used interchangeably, and while there is a lot of crossover, there are also some differences, so let’s talk about SEO vs SEM.
On-page SEO are the things on your website that affect your search rankings. Off-page SEO is what other people are saying about you that affect your rankings.
If you have trouble coming up with blog post ideas, this blog post will give your inspiration a boost.
4 things you need to know about Google’s latest core algorithm update, plus what this means for SEO strategies going forward.
I was curious to see if AI writing software is all it’s cracked up to be, so I tried a couple options to see what they had to offer.
Joining my blogging coaching program gives you exclusive access to my knowledge and expertise, but the community is where the real value is.
4 tips to help you create and distribute an awesome lead magnet, plus 3 tips to help you remain compliant with the GDPR.
Examples of linkable assets you can use to improve your search rankings, as well as how to get links to your linkable assets.
Know how to turn data into insights, and what makes a valuable insight and which insights you can dump.
Writing is time consuming, and since you don’t have time to waste, you can use these tips to write more in less time.
Let’s talk about what A/B testing in marketing is, why it’s so important, and how you can implement it to improve your content marketing strategy.
Want a sneak peek at my new book? I just published my very first book, Content Marketing Made Easy. I wrote it because I kept hearing people talk about content marketing and SEO as though they were insurmountable hurdles to getting found online, when the fact is you just need to know how to play…
5 things you need to know about keyword mapping and how to use it to improve your SEO strategy.
There will always be people (and robots) scraping your content and pasting it on their own websites, but there are a lot of other things that can create duplicate content.
Is domain authority the measure of your site’s pulse that some marketers claim it is?
3 reasons you should use niche marketing, and 8 actionable tips you can use to start growing your business.
5 tips for choosing the best time to send your newsletter, as well as what to put in it to engage and keep your audience’s attention.
4 things you need to know about Google’s personalized search and how to make it work for your SEO strategy.
What is an email drip campaign and how can you create one that helps you grow your business while you sleep?
8 tips for writing more inclusive content that makes everyone feel welcome to your website.
A bounce rate of 0 is unrealistic, but how can you tell what is a good bounce rate and what’s too high? How can you improve your bounce rate?
5 Things you need to know about what Google’s ban on third-party cookies means for your PPC campaigns.
There are 4 stages of the marketing funnel that are similar to the stages of a romantic relationship.
After the headline, the introduction is the most important part of your content. Use these 8 tips to make sure your introduction engages readers so the CTA can convert them.
5 things you need to know about Google’s latest product reviews update.
Using the right keywords is key to showing up in front of your target audience when they’re looking for you. Here’s everything you need to know.
Introducing the launch of my brand-new blogging group coaching program! Want to get more out of your blogging efforts? I can show you how.
SEO is an ongoing process, so use these 7 tips to optimize your website for search engines and make 2022 your best year yet.
Google’s latest core algorithm update was so mild, you might not have even noticed it happened.
Google is constantly updating its algorithm, so if you missed the biggest updates of 2021, this article has everything you need to know.
The pros and cons of two of the most popular SEO plugins for WordPress websites.
The buyer journey for those in B2B industries and professional services looks different from the buyer journey of those in B2C industries, where a single social media ad can lead to a sale, especially if the product is low cost and/or a necessity. There are a few reasons B2B industries tend to have a longer…
How and why to conduct a website content audit, including a list of metrics to track so you can take your content marketing strategy to the next level.
9 tips to help you identify your customers’ pain points so you generate and convert more leads for your business.
Gated content can be a great way to lead prospects through the buyer journey, but only if used strategically.
Part of Google’s latest core algorithm update included some changes to how headlines show up in search results.
Some elements of your speaker one sheet are optional, but there are 6 things it needs.
SEO is never easy, but it’s especially difficult for anyone working in financial services or the health and wellness space, including everyone from nutritionists to personal trainers to doctors. Google is constantly trying to improve their algorithm so they can reliably help their users find answers to the questions they’re asking.
As we all know, there’s a lot of misinformation out there, and it’s not hard to find it, even with search engines like Google doing their best to prevent them from rising to the top of searches (yes, social media is a major factor, but that’s a discussion for a different blog post). This is why Google created their EAT standards and incorporated them into just about every aspect of their algorithm: to help their users find information they can trust.
But you can Google “best coffee near me” and if you end up going with one of Google’s top results and it turns out to not, in fact, be the best coffee near you, the worst thing that can happen is your coffee is doesn’t live up to your expectations – or maybe it does live up to your expectations, but it could have been even better had you known about the cafe that actually serves the best coffee in town. The point is, the stakes are pretty low.
Contrast that with looking for advice about the best diet for someone with diabetes. If Google directs you to the right information, you could successfully get your blood pressure under control, and maybe even scale back on your insulin. If Google directs you to the wrong information, the results could be disastrous or even fatal, and Google really does not want to be responsible for that.
The same could be said of looking for advice about whether to invest in the stock market and/or which companies to invest in. If Google directs you to valuable information, you could get rich. If Google directs you to misinformation, you could lose your life savings, and again, Google does not want to be responsible for that.
…There are a lot of ways to position yourself as a thought leader, but if you don’t show up on the first page of Google, you might as well not exist.
While there is a significant amount of overlap between content marketing strategy and content strategy, there are also some key differences
Content marketing is like anything else: you need to know what you want your content to achieve, and you need to be SMART about setting and achieving those goals.
There is a lot of content out there about the definition of a SMART goal, so I won’t spend too much time on it here. I’ll just briefly remind you that the acronym stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time sensitive.
If you’ve been blogging for a while now, but not seeing results from it, the problem could be that you haven’t taken the time to develop SMART content marketing goals before creating your content. Let’s turn that around with these tips.
…It’s hard enough to get people to sign up for your newsletter without having to worry about getting caught in the spam filter.
When I was in college, there was a bead store just off campus that I would walk past almost every day. I resisted as long as I could, but finally the day came when I walked in and it was all over. I became fascinated with the idea of making my own jewelry because I could make whatever I wanted!
But I needed much more than just beads. I needed wires to put the beads on. I needed pliers to manipulate those wires, wire cutters for trimming those wires to the right length, and clamps for compressing the small tubes of metal that would hold the wire in place. Essentially, I needed the right tools. Without them, my beautiful jewelry was just a handful of beads.
The same goes for my content marketing strategy.
When I started out, I was basically a freelance writer who provided blog posts (as well as other forms of written content) to my clients. But as I learned more about SEO and the need for a comprehensive content strategy, the more I realized I needed to invest in the right tools.
Without the right tools, you’re just shooting in the dark with your content creation process, which is a great way to waste a lot of time and effort. It might seem tedious to do your keyword research and analyze your headline before you start writing anything, but that effort is going to pay off more than creating content without a strategy ever could.
With that in mind, I thought I would go over the content marketing tools I use in my own content creation process and how each one helps elevate my content from just another blog to a comprehensive content strategy.
…You can create a ton of content without spending all your time (or all your money) creating content.
What does Cinderella have in common with your marketing content? Probably more than you think.
When properly implemented into your content strategy, topic clusters can be a great way to improve your SEO, drive more traffic to your website, and convert more leads into clients.
Let’s talk about evergreen content: what it is, why you need it, and how to incorporate it into your content strategy.
People will always take what you say on your own website with a grain of salt. But write the same content on an influencer’s website and suddenly you’re an expert.
I talk a lot about the ability of a good content marketing strategy to attract, engage, and convert online leads, and yet I have somehow missed talking about one of the most crucial pieces of content when it comes to closing the deal: your bio. Your bio is a must-see for anyone who is considering…
Google is rolling out another major update to their algorithm, and although they say it shouldn’t have a major impact on web traffic, we’ve heard that before.
If your content isn’t attracting the right leads to your website, it might be lacking in content relevance.
For Christmas one year my mom bought my four-year-old cousin whatever the hottest toy for four year olds was that year and my cousin was ecstatic. My aunt (not the kid’s mom, but another aunt) was utterly baffled because she had never heard of the toy and my cousin’s enthusiasm took my aunt completely by surprise. My aunt asked my cousin what shows she watched where they advertise such toys and the poor kid didn’t even know what the word “advertise” meant. She just gave my aunt a confused look and went back to playing with her new favorite toy.
Not only does my aunt hardly ever watch TV, but even if she were to watch, it wouldn’t be children’s cartoons, and toymakers tend to advertise almost exclusively during children’s programming. They know parents (and in-the-know aunts, like my mom) would be making the purchasing decision, and despite the fact that parents and cool aunts are more likely to watch news and other adult programming than cartoons, the toymakers also know that lots of adults who don’t have kids and don’t care about the latest toys are also watching the news and other TV programming for adults, so it’s a waste of time for them to spend their advertising dollars there. While the younger kids might not have the independence to buy the toys themselves, toymakers know they can rely on kids begging their parents for the toys they see advertised.
The advertisers had narrowed down their target audience to kids within a certain age range and they knew what programs those kids were watching and what programs they were not watching, so they spent their advertising dollars accordingly.
Can you imagine how much money they would have lost if they had paid for their commercials to be played on all the networks during all kinds of different programming, day and night? They never would have been able to sell enough toys to pay for all that air time, not only because of the expense, but because so much of that expense would have been wasted by showing the ad to people who aren’t interested.
…If you’ve spent any time at all reading this blog or watching the videos on my YouTube channel, you know I’m all about giving people the tips and resources they need to write their own blog posts that successfully attract, engage, and convert online leads. But even with all this free knowledge, researching, writing, and editing content is still a fairly time-intensive process, and it’s not always the best use of your time. Consider this story of two marketers:
…Wondering what all these SEO people are talking about when they say “SERP”? Here’s everything you need to know about the acronym and what it means for your SEO.
6 tips to help you write more blog posts, even after your muse has stopped talking to you.
With spring and a vaccine on the way, you might be cleaning your home and/or your office, but what about your website?
6 ways to improve your blogging skills, regardless of the writing skills you’ve already worked so hard to build.
7 tips to create a content marketing plan that gets the results you need for your business instead of wasting your time and energy.
Think about your favorite TV show. If you saw a line of dialogue from an episode that had not yet aired, would you be able to tell right away which character was going to say that line? Or your favorite book. Do you ever come across a line of dialogue in your book without a…
Here’s my process for creating content, both for my own online marketing purposes, and for my clients.
Everything you need to know about how keyword cannibalization works and how you can avoid it to make sure the right page always ranks.
I was recently at a networking event where a business coach was talking about her newsletter, and one of her subscribers (we’ll call her Margaret), who happened to be attending this networking event, piped up to say, “Why don’t you just start your newsletters, ‘Dear Margaret’?” The coach had done such a good job of…
5 tips for determining the ideal length for your blog posts.
Voice search isn’t going anywhere, so use these 7 tips to make sure your content shows up when your target audience uses voice search to look for you.
From concept to promotion, these are the 7 steps you need to follow to create an ebook to attract, engage, and convert leads for your business.
7 big takeaways from Google’s latest core algorithm update. What to do if your website traffic was affected.
How B2B content marketing differs from B2C content marketing and what you need to create an effective B2B content marketing strategy.
7 things to expect from the future of blogging and SEO in 2021.
There are a lot of elements to crafting the perfect call to action, but it all boils down to understanding your customers and their journey to buying.
Does anyone even read blogs anymore? I get this a lot from small business owners who should be blogging, but don’t want to blog. Mostly they’re solopreneurs who are just starting out and think that either a) they don’t read blogs and therefore no one else does, or b) the market is too saturated with…
The current antitrust lawsuit against Google might have a big impact on the future of SEO.
How I brought in $75,000 in six months for my client just through the blog posts I wrote for them.
5 things you need to do before you start writing (much less publishing) your blog posts for your small business.
9 ways to overcome your fear of blogging so your business can attract, engage, and convert more leads online.
The idea of a newsletter can be kind of intimidating for small business owners. What’s considered “newsworthy”? Do my clients really want to hear about this, or am I just shoving more junk in their inbox that will get deleted without having been opened? Add to that the idea that a newsletter is just more…
How I took one business coach’s blog from scattered to strategic while keeping the content consistent with her tone and voice.
The pros and cons of both outbound marketing and inbound marketing to help you determine which strategy is right for your business.
You might know which search terms your target audience is using, but do you know the intention behind each search term?
Google’s EAT standards are too important to be ignored, so if you’re not sure you understand what the big deal is, this article lays it out for you.
Content marketing can’t get you the results you need if you don’t have a strategy in place first. This blog post will teach you everything you need to know about using them to get the most out of your business’ online presence.
Your blog can’t do any good if no one reads it, so here are 10 things you can do to make sure your headlines get clicks.
5 reasons you should absolutely NOT do your own content marketing.
The 3 most important aspects of planning and implementing a successful content strategy.
8 ways content marketing can improve your B2B marketing.
Know when, why, and how you should write a press release to increase your brand’s visibility and credibility.
It’s been a rough Google algorithm update, but the results are in, so let’s take a look at how it’s affected everyone’s rankings.
12 content strategies you can use to make sure your blog drives the results you need for your business.
5 tips to help you develop and maintain a content marketing strategy that will help drive sales.
If you’re new to working from home, use these tips to improve your productivity and make the most of your video conferences.
5 ways you can market your business, even while we’re all going through a global crisis.
Everything you need to know about content marketing strategies – from what they are, to why you need them, to how to make the most of them.
You can still market your business during a pandemic (even if you’re shut down), but there’s a right way and a wrong way to do so.
If it’s been a year or longer since you last audited your website, it’s time to take advantage of this time when you’re stuck at home.
If you’re stuck at home during this pandemic, you might as well take the opportunity to get ahead on your content marketing.
5 things you can do to keep your business going during a pandemic.
If you aren’t blogging for your business, you’re missing out on opportunities to engage with and convert leads.
Is it true that no one reads blogs anymore? If so, how can we get in front of our target audiences?
Google just finished rolling out another core algorithm update. Here’s what that means for your website’s ability to show up in searches.
Everything you need to be an effective SEO content strategist, plus what you need to know if you’re looking to hire one.
8 ways you can create a killer blogging strategy in 2020.
What is SEO, why do you need it, and how can you take advantage of it to attract new clients and grow your business?
Are you better off trying to organically rank on the first page of Google or paying for it?
From keywords to images, these are the SEO and content trends you need to focus on to get the highest ROI in 2020.
Table of Contents What Does this Google Algorithm Update Mean for Search Engine Marketers? How Long Tail and Short-Tail Keywords Affect Online Visibility After the Google Algorithm Update How Can I Optimize for the Latest Google Algorithm Update? Keep Up to Date with Evolutions in Language Create Value Google has made another major update to…
Google recently released another core update to its algorithm and caused a lot of panic. Was all that panic for nothing?
With Google constantly changing its algorithm, are content strategists doomed to always be one step behind?