They’re also effective at driving conversions, boosting search engine optimization (SEO), and creating a readily engaged audience that eagerly keeps coming back for more. But concepts like mastering YouTube SEO are important parts of getting your videos noticed.

Getting the results you’re after also means developing a working understanding of YouTube’s recommendation algorithm, as it dictates roughly 70 percent of what people ultimately decide to watch while exploring the platform. But how exactly does it work, and what can today’s digital marketers do to give their content a fighting chance?

Understanding YouTube Algorithm Basics

Like Google, YouTube is in the business of understanding what its users are looking for (sometimes better than they do) and serving up content that’s most likely to meet their needs. The more effective it is at this, the more time users spend on the platform, and the more successful YouTube ultimately becomes.

No one knows for certain how the YouTube algorithm works. However, we do know the general history of how it evolved, as well as some of the factors it takes into account when making recommendations.

From the 2000s through the early 2010s, YouTube has come up with its recommendations in multiple ways, including optimizing according to views and clicks, watch time, and results gleaned from customer satisfaction surveys. Eventually, the platform implemented additional safeguards to control potentially dangerous content and misuse.

These days, the algorithm functions fairly intuitively, with personalization being a major force behind its ongoing recommendations.

Key Factors That Influence the YouTube Algorithm in 2024

Today’s content consumers on YouTube and elsewhere don’t just prefer personalization or consider it nice to have. They’ve come to expect it, and modern social media algorithms aim to deliver. No two sets of recommendations are ever alike, as they’re tailored to suit each user’s unique preferences.

The quality and previous performance of a given piece of content will also affect how often content is recommended moving forward. Let’s dive into some of the key factors that influence YouTube’s algorithm in 2024.

User preferences

One of the most powerful factors influencing YouTube content recommendations is how a particular user typically interacts with the platform. Examples include:

• Your typical go-to content: If you tend to seek out cooking tutorials and watch them from beginning to end, the algorithm will naturally infer that you’re interested in cooking content and recommend more of it. The same goes for content you typically like, comment on, or share on your social media feeds.

• Complementary content: If a lot of other viewers typically watch specific videos together, especially one after the other, the algorithm is more likely to recommend that content as something for you to follow up with, as well.

• Your history with a channel: If you typically favor specific channels or creators, you’re significantly more likely to see their content showing up in your recommendations.

• How well it fits search queries: YouTube’s built-in search engine functions a lot like Google’s in that it does its best to identify user intent and deliver content that fits a particular query.

Content quality

Naturally, nobody likes clicking on a recommendation only to find out the content isn’t any good. But how exactly does an algorithm assess something as potentially subjective as quality? How can it tell a good video from a bad one?

The fact of the matter is, that YouTube’s algorithm doesn’t assess the content at all. Instead, it assesses how users react to the content and draws likely conclusions based on patterns it sees. Among other things, it looks at:

• Whether people watch it: Do users actually click on the video in the first place when it shows up as recommended? And if they do click on it, do they watch it, and for how long? Videos people click away from after watching only a short percentage of them generally aren’t considered high-quality.

• Whether people like it: Watching a video is one thing, but liking it and being willing to watch others that are similar is another. YouTube looks at factors like engagement rates, likes versus dislikes, and similar signals to assess whether viewers actually enjoyed something.

• Where you’re located: The algorithm also takes circumstantial factors like location, time of day, seasonality, whether you speak certain languages, etc. into consideration when choosing content to recommend.

Effective Strategies to Optimize Your Channel for the YouTube Algorithm

Now that you understand a bit about how the YouTube algorithm works, it’s time to dive into some expert strategies for helping your content attract the attention it deserves. Here are some must-know tips to keep in mind.

Focus on serving your target audience

“If your channel becomes the go-to for viewers, starting and ending their YouTube session with your content, you win. This isn’t just about being liked; it’s about becoming indispensable to your audience, making your channel a destination.“

— Roberto Blake, LinkedIn influencer

Algorithms on video platforms like YouTube or TikTok are getting more advanced all the time, meaning they’re becoming increasingly proficient at serving users what they really want. For that reason, the most effective way to please the YouTube algorithm is to focus on pleasing your human audience.

Know your target audience, and cater to what they like most. Look to content that’s performed well for you in the past for guidance. Focus on delivering helpful, high-quality videos that will not only keep people watching but also inspire them to check out more of your content.

Check out your competitors

What are other brands or solo creators in your niche doing to connect with audiences on YouTube? Take a minute to check out some of their top-performing content. What is that content doing that yours isn’t? How do they handle factors like keywords, posting frequency, and engagement?

You should also keep your eye out for content gaps you can fill, as well as ways you can improve on what’s already out there. Consider what audiences like yours might be looking for but not finding when they turn to YouTube for suggestions.

Optimize your content for YouTube SEO

Optimizing content for YouTube’s search function has a lot in common with doing the same thing for Google and other major search engines. Start with a round of thorough keyword research, and compile a list of viable options.

Try rounding out your list by typing various terms into YouTube’s search bar and checking out the additional suggestions it serves up. You should also focus on the following YouTube SEO basics:

• Naturally add your keyword to your video’s title and file name. Tag your video using your chosen keywords, as well as use appropriate hashtags.

• Craft concise but descriptive video descriptions that set audience expectations while also enticing them to give your content a watch. Include natural keyword usage and relevant hashtags.

• Help people who like your content find more options they might enjoy by using playlists to organize related options.

• Try creating videos of different lengths, including YouTube shorts. Take note of which options fit your content best, engage the most viewers, etc.

• Add cards and end screens to your videos to help keep your viewership growing.

• Use a custom thumbnail to help your video stand out and encourage viewers to check it out.

Don’t forget to optimize for Google SEO at the same time. YouTube videos frequently turn up on SERPs, so this is a terrific opportunity to cover both bases.

Leverage clear calls-to-action

Don’t simply assume that viewers will like, share, comment on, or follow your content on their own. Include clear calls to action in your content process, so people know exactly what you’d like them to do.

Directly ask them to follow you, share your content on social media, or leave a comment telling you what they think about the topic you covered. You can also consider incentivizing them to do so with a giveaway, contest, or other event.

Hire professionals to help elevate your content

Incredible content that really turns heads doesn’t just happen. Creating video scripts that flow smoothly, visuals that delight audiences, and optimization strategies that ensure maximum visibility is an art – an art that seasoned professionals understand only too well.

Whether you’re brand new to video content production or simply could use some help streamlining certain aspects of your production process, consider building a team of seasoned professionals who can help. The right expertise can really take the guesswork out of making your YouTube channel sparkle.

Adapting to Algorithm Changes: What Every Creator Needs to Know

Algorithms change and evolve constantly, and this is no less the case on YouTube. Being able to adapt and evolve is crucial if you’re serious about staying ahead of the game. Here are some key tips for staying prepared and going with the flow after each algorithm shift.

Stay consistent

Consistent, high-value content that continually draws in new viewers never goes out of style, so set a production schedule and stick to it. Keep your audience engaged, and actively encourage them to support your content. Maintain impeccable quality standards to ensure YouTube’s algorithm continues to favor your content.

Pay close attention to your metrics

Using on-platform tools and analytics to keep track of what’s resonating with your audience helps you make better content moving forward, pleasing the algorithm in the process. Pay special attention to metrics like view count, click-through rate, view duration, etc., and make decisions accordingly.

Stay on top of the latest happenings

Stay ahead of the game by keeping track of events like algorithm shifts, new feature launches, and other changes that might affect your YouTube reach. Pay attention to how these events affect peers, as well, and retool your own strategies accordingly. Algorithm changes can be challenging, but they’re not impossible to overcome with the right approach.

Ready to take your brand’s YouTube game to the next level and beyond? Experience the difference the right content creators, writers, designers, and SEO experts can make when you sign up for your free 14-day WriterAccess trial today. You’ll love what a little expertise brings to the table for your channel!

The post How to Succeed with the YouTube Algorithm in 2024 appeared first on Rock Content.

Keeping an eye on how others use videos and tracking video content through reverse video search forms an important component of an effective video marketing strategy.

Let’s explore what you can do with a reverse video search and how to use this technique as part of your marketing plan.

What is Reverse Video Search and How Does It Work?

A reverse video search uses a single frame from a video to find that video elsewhere on the web. When you enter a particular shot from a video into a reverse video search tool, the algorithm analyzes components of the image, such as the pixels. It then looks for content that matches these criteria.

This method can help you track down the original source of a video, but it doesn’t work 100 percent of the time. If someone has changed something about the video, it is harder for the algorithm to match the snapshot with the original video.

Why Do a Reverse Video Search?

A video search can provide you with a wealth of information, but you may wonder why you need this data in the first place. Let’s look at some of the most common benefits of running a reverse video search.

Reverse video search matters in marketing

Monitoring brand mentions and user-generated content will keep you abreast of what your audience says about your brand. Keeping your customers happy is the key to success, and knowing what they have to say will help you achieve this goal.

Track videos that mention your brand name and videos created by end-users in your industry. Trace them to their original creators so you can address brand mentions and listen to the voices of your customers. This will help you get in front of potential negative feedback and improve customer service.

Find video source for copyright protection and content ownership

People view and share videos across numerous platforms. They watch videos on one channel, take clips, and repost them in new places.

However, you need to make sure you correctly attribute any videos you use or share with your audience. If you want to share a helpful recording you found online, tracking down the original creator will save you from any embarrassment or even penalties for misattributing a video.

Similarly, you can also monitor your own videos. Performing occasional reverse video searches may help you detect any misuse of your content. Someone who uses your videos maliciously could harm your brand’s reputation. Tracking down these instances and working to remove your videos from sites that misuse them can help protect your brand.

Competitive analysis and strategy development

Sometimes, the best way to get inspiration for your videos is to look at what others have done to promote similar businesses.

When you uncover a video that you think would appeal to your target audience, you want to know who created it so that you can get ideas about creating future videos. Performing a reverse video search will make it easy to track down the content creator and look at their other recordings.

Once you land on the competitor’s website, you can see more of their videos, benchmark your own content creation against theirs, and get ideas for future content. You can also watch how your videos perform compared to theirs and build a video content strategy that outpaces competitors.

How to Conduct a Reverse Video Search? Best Tools and Platforms

When you’re ready to search video by image online, you will find a few different tools available to help you. Let’s take a closer look at how to use some of the most popular options.

Google Images

1. Take a screenshot from your video.
2. Go to the “search by image” option.
3. Upload your screenshot and click “find image source.”

TinEye

TinEye offers an extensive image library to search with your video snapshot.

You can search this library in two different ways:

1. Uploading a snapshot from your video.
2. You can paste in a URL from the video.

Next, click the search button to get results from their library.

Bing Visual Search

1. Take a screenshot of your video.
2. Upload the image or drag and drop it into the search bar.

With all of these search options, you’ll want to keep a few important points in mind:

1. Take clear screenshots. By making sure your frames are clear, you give the algorithm the best possible chance to find matches.
2. Consider trying a few different frames. You might want to try this if your first attempt doesn’t yield the right results. Remember that a few slight adjustments to the video can make it harder for search engines to find a match.
3. When you create screenshots, view the video at its largest possible size. Taking screenshots while the video is in thumbnail form can make it harder to match details.

Applications of Reverse Video Search in Marketing

Reverse video searches have a variety of applications that help you create a more mature and complete content strategy. Here are some key ways you can employ them.

Brand monitoring and reputation management

With reverse video searches, you can regularly check for brand mentions and track your online reputation. As Jeff Bezos says, “Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.” By tracking video content, you get to be in that proverbial room and do something about it.

If you find someone negatively mentioning your brand, you can track the video to the original creator and try to rectify the situation.

Publicly looking for ways to make amends or address misconceptions can help you win back customers, show your consumer base that you care about their experiences, and learn more about what customers expect when interacting with you.

As you monitor brand mentions, you will also have opportunities to amplify positive content. If someone raves about your products in a video, promoting that video can broaden your network and nurture relationships with those who love your brand.

Content creation and optimization

Using reverse video search also makes it easy to track down valuable videos for your brand. When you find a video you love, chances are that the creator has made other videos that offer value to you. Performing reverse video searches will bring you directly to their site.

Once you find a creator of quality content, you can use their videos for inspiration. If they produce content that your audience would value, without directly competing with your brand, you might also share their content yourself.

As you view their videos, you might learn about creating engaging content, the types of videos people like to watch, and the key topics that people create videos to cover. All of these strategies can help you amplify your brand.

Reverse Video Search Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Can I reverse-search a video?

Yes, you can reverse-search a video using a single frame from the recording. Various search algorithms exist for this purpose. You can use Google Images, Bing Visual Search, or Yandex Image Search.

These tools can quickly uncover other videos that have similar properties to your video, helping you find the original recording. Once you have the original content, you can find inspiration for your videos, share and properly attribute videos, and improve your brand management strategies.

How to video search on Google?

To perform a video search on Google, you need to take a screenshot of the video you want to find. You will then upload this image to Google Image Search.

Next, the algorithm will search for recordings that contain your screenshot. These video sources can then inform your video creation strategy.

How do I find a video by image?

To find a video by image, you will first need to take a screenshot from the video you want to find. This image should capture the unique properties of the video so that the search algorithm can match those properties with similar images it finds online. You will then upload it to the visual search engine of your choice.

Why do a reverse video search?

Marketers should run reverse image searches because they help you find the source of different videos you come across online. Knowing the video source can help you fully understand the context of videos, properly attribute them when sharing, or find inspiration for your video marketing strategy.

Conclusion

Performing reverse video searches to locate video sources as part of your marketing strategy will give you excellent opportunities to magnify your brand.

Using reverse video search tools will not only help you with your brand management efforts, but it can also inspire the content development process and help you capture all that video content creation can offer.

To explore the above-mentioned tools and develop a sophisticated content creation process, consider using WriterAccess to streamline your marketing practices. Discover how you can amplify your brand when you have professional writers with a 14-day free trial.

The post Reverse Video Search: Why and How to Do It? A Guide for Digital-World Professionals appeared first on Rock Content.

However, with increasingly demanding readers, the traditional PDF is no longer as attractive as it once was. By using only static PDFs, without interaction or personalization, you are at risk of losing your readers’ interest and having your content’s performance fall short of what you were expecting.

So, how do you transform static content into something that engages your audience? We present to you interactive e-books.

In this article, I will show you how to use interactive e-books in your content strategy and all the possibilities they offer. Let’s go!

What Is Interactive Content?

Before we specifically address interactive e-books, I believe it is important to take a step back and understand the concept of interactive content. Scott Brinker, head of MarTech Blog and founder of Ion, Rock Content’s interactive content platform, offers a really straightforward definition:

“Interactive content is the one in which the audience actively participates, rather than just passively reading, watching or listening. Examples of interactive content include quizzes, assessment tools, and calculators.”

Some market data highlight the power of interactive content:

• Interactive pages receive three times more likes and shares. (Source: Hubspot)
• Interactive experiences convert two times more likes and shares. (Source: Demand Metric)
• Eighty-four percent of customers expect brands to produce content that entertains, provides solutions and produces experiences. (Source: Meaningful Brands Report)

Using Interactive Content in Practice

Based on that definition by Scott Brinker and what I learned here at Rock Content, I realize that interactive content is content that allows a conversation with the audience while collecting data through this interaction without necessarily being stuck to the traditional forms.

It’s an opportunity to go beyond the traditional format to obtain data that helps with marketing strategies and sales connections.

You’re probably asking yourself: “Okay, but what do you mean by having a conversation?”. Imagine a dialogue in which I, with my strategy laid out, seek to discover information such as:

• Who are you?
• What are you trying to solve?
• Why do you need to meet this demand?
• Where are you on your buying journey?
• How can Rock Content help you?

To discover these answers, I can, for example, create a quiz that helps me determine the maturity of your content strategy. The data generated in this quiz will be important not only for the result itself but also for my marketing strategy, as it allows me to identify what other content I can recommend to help you on your inbound journey.

On the other hand, Sales will be able to get to know this lead better before approaching them since all relevant data will be made available in the CRM.

Interactive E-Books

Interactive e-books transform the static content of a PDF into something more engaging and fun. They not only deliver the content but also encourage interaction with the material, which makes people better absorb the information you want to convey.

A very effective strategy for increasing conversion with interactive e-books is to make some chapters available with no strings attached, then lock the others behind a form. This way, people can realize the value of your content by reading what’s unblocked and become curious about the blocked content, becoming more likely to give you information about themselves.

Different Types of Interactive Elements for E-Books

Click to Expand

Often used to show user profiles or resources on a topic. These elements are usually in lightboxes.

Sliders or Flows

They are used to showcase testimonials or to condense heavy text into something more digestible.

Tabbed or Collapsible (Accordion) Content

A great tool for splitting dense content and helping identify which information catches the user’s attention the most.

Engagement Questions

Used to collect information about your audience or to help them find the right product or service to solve their needs.

The Benefits of Interactive E-Books

Now that you understand the infinite possibilities of an interactive e-book, I want to explain some benefits of this type of experience that a static PDF simply can’t deliver with the same efficiency.

Brand Awareness

An interactive version of an e-book is an excellent opportunity to create a “wow moment” and remind readers of your brand. An ideal feeling to encourage sharing the content.

In the e-book “The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Content Marketing,” we took the opportunity to discuss a trending topic, educate our audience, and encourage the sharing of the material.

Education

E-books are an effective tool for generating qualified leads and providing valuable information to the target audience. It can be used to increase brand authority by demonstrating your knowledge and expertise on a given subject. In the “Complete Guide to Interactive Content Across the Buying Journey,” readers learn about the importance of a well-structured buying journey and are introduced to the types of interactive content that they can use.

Engagement

Interactive e-books encourage readers to interact with elements on the page. More time on the page equals more exposure to the content presented to them.

In the “Complete Guide to Interactive Content,” we use various animation and interactivity resources to capture readers’ attention.

Customized content

Customization is becoming increasingly important for marketers.

“It can reduce acquisition costs by up to 50%, increase revenue by 5–15%, and increase marketing spend efficiency by 10–30%.” — McKinsey

Telerik, a global software development company, leveraged Ion’s logic capabilities to deliver content to its different personas. The e-book is customized to the user’s position and goals, with a qualifying question asked at the beginning.

Lead generation

Gated e-books are an excellent way to capture information about your readers, initially sparking their interest in your content. In a co-marketing partnership with Magalu, we created the “Guide: How to Use Social Networks to Boost Sales.” This interactive e-book was developed from an existing PDF, and of the five chapters, we chose to leave only the first unlocked, aiming to encourage content conversion.

Hand raised

After finishing reading an e-book, the lead may be ready to take the next step in the purchasing process. Therefore, adding some kind of form at the end can be a great opportunity to make them raise a hand and ask for more of what you have to offer.

Analysis

Interactive e-books can collect valuable data from their readers to help you with company goals and future insights. Regardless of the goal, attribution model, and KPIs (key performance indicators), the interactive e-book provides enough information to understand its impact on the customers’ journey.

Here at Rock Content, after the launch of interactive pieces, we analyze the engagement and understand how our audience is behaving in order to think about constant improvements.

Best practices for your interactive E-Book

Finally, if you’re considering testing interactive e-books in your strategy, we have some tips to ensure you tap their full potential.

Leverage Static Content

To build an interactive e-book, you don’t need to start from scratch. Start by transforming existing static e-books into interactive formats, incorporating elements such as quizzes, videos, and links. This not only revitalizes old content but also gives you a new way to engage your audience.

If you have a tool like Ion, which offers a variety of templates, this process will be much easier and faster.

Test and Test

Unfortunately, there is no foolproof formula for success. What works in Rock Content’s interactive e-book strategy may not work with your audience. What we focus on is to guide and offer tips on how we do it, but it is essential that you always carry out tests to understand what works best with your persona.

With Ion, you can duplicate an entire experience with just one click, make adjustments to your e-book’s layout, colors, or navigation to meet your test needs, and the platform will take care of running it for you.

Set a Goal for Your Content

When building an interactive e-book, define a clear objective for this material – to engage the sales team, to encourage the download of static material, or to promote sharing on social networks – and include CTAs (call-to-action) throughout the interactive content. Don’t just wait for the concluding chapter of the e-book to mention your product or solution.

If you’re using a tool like Ion, you can easily add custom tags to each CTA to find out which CTA from which chapter performs the best.

Interactive e-books are an innovative way of presenting content and a great ally for your strategy. They not only enrich the user experience but also offer new opportunities to collect data, personalize content, and, of course, drive conversions.

By including interactive e-books in your content marketing strategy, you are not only following a trend but also positioning your company as an innovative brand that is engaged with the needs and preferences of your audience.Are you ready to take the next step? Discover Ion, Rock Content’s interactive platform, and create e-books that will help you achieve your marketing goals.

The post How to Use Interactive E-Books in Your Content Strategy appeared first on Rock Content.

ChatGPT is one of the more ubiquitous tools to hit the scene, and for a good reason. It’s free to use and capable of generating incredibly human-like text in seconds, as well as handling numerous other tasks. But what is ChatGPT, and how can you best start using it as part of your ongoing marketing strategy?

Understanding ChatGPT: What It Is and How It Works

The brainchild of OpenAI, ChatGPT is a functional chatbot designed to mimic and simulate natural human conversation accurately. Users can leverage the familiar chat interface to request that the AI behind it execute nearly any task, including completing entire content pieces. This process is called prompting.

ChatGPT accomplishes this via extensive pre-training on massive existing datasets. The AI then leverages what it knows about patterns and context to generate natural, appropriate responses to diverse user prompts.

Key Marketing Applications of ChatGPT

Although many different individuals and companies have adopted ChatGPT for content marketing strategies since it first hit the scene in November 2022, it’s been especially popular among marketers. The following are just a few key examples of how marketers and content creators are using it:

• As a supplementary research tool
• To take the guesswork out of keyword research and SEO analysis
• To analyze the voice and tone of existing written content
• As a fast, inexpensive alternative to traditional content writing
• For identifying patterns in vast amounts of existing data
• To improve audience targeting efforts
• As a tool for creating outlines and content briefs
• To take the tedium out of accomplishing repetitive tasks

Best Practices for Using ChatGPT in Your Marketing Strategy

Although ChatGPT can be an amazing productivity tool for businesses and brands of all types and sizes, it’s important to understand it’s not a magic bullet. Knowing how to use it wisely is crucial, so follow best practices like the following examples.

Understanding the limitations of ChatGPT

While ChatGPT does produce incredibly human-sounding content, it doesn’t take much analysis to realize that its ability has limits. As with most fully AI-generated text, ChatGPT output can be shallow, error-prone, and guilty of a lot of circle talk.

Therefore, it’s best used as a productivity aid for human creators rather than as a replacement for them. It can help with brainstorming, outlining, tone analysis, language choices, and more. But any ChatGPT-generated content you decide to use should always pass through human hands before publication.

Consider training ChatGPT on custom data

ChatGPT’s Plus tier has a custom instructions feature that can be highly useful for marketers looking to eliminate guesswork in branding. You can use it to feed the AI brand-specific information about your business, your customer base, etc., and leverage it to create template instructions for each individual use case.

When ChatGPT knows your brand on this level, it’s much easier to use it for multiple purposes. These include basic content creation, customer behavior analysis, brand voice analysis, and more.

Master new features as they come out

Like many of today’s top AI tools, ChatGPT is continually developing and introducing new features that can further streamline your digital marketing strategy. Previous versions include an image feature to help develop graphics and a voice feature that adds a new dimension to prompt crafting.

Explore new options as they’re introduced to get the most out of your ChatGPT experience. Experiment with different ways to integrate them into your strategy to determine what works best.

Use it to take customer care to the next level

As any digital marketer knows, winning engagement and five-star customer service are key to managing any successful brand. ChatGPT also happens to be an amazing tool for automating numerous routine interactions, providing faster responses to questions, and keeping your customers satisfied overall.

Use the custom instructions feature to train the chatbot’s live settings. Provide background information and configure potential response patterns to build a great supplementary customer service tool.

Avoiding Pitfalls: Using ChatGPT Safely and Ethically

Of course, learning to identify and sidestep potential pitfalls is also essential when integrating any type of AI tool into your ongoing approach to digital marketing, ChatGPT included. Here are a few important factors to be aware of.

Adhere to best SEO practices

“Unless it is amazing and people link to it and share it, you just won’t rank well.”

– Neil Patel, entrepreneur and digital marketing authority

Remember, although ChatGPT can take a lot of drudgery out of routine content creation, you don’t want to over-rely on it. Content that contains a lot of unedited, un-humanized AI content can scan as low-quality and unhelpful, hurting your SEO rankings.

Keep quality levels high by combining AI efficiency with irreplaceable human ingenuity and creativity.

Always validate output

AI chatbots like ChatGPT aren’t perfect by any means. They’re especially prone to informational errors, contradictions, and bias, so it’s important to watch out for these factors when using AI to help with content creation.

Ensure ethical use

It’s important to use AI technology, such as the kind that powers ChatGPT, ethically, especially since it’s still developing and many people want to misuse it as a get-rich scheme.

In addition to evaluating output for accuracy, be transparent about using it when it makes sense to do so. Consider citing it as a source or as part of a resource list when using it to generate ideas or help with content creation.

Why kick your digital marketing strategy up just one notch when you can elevate it by several?

In addition to integrating ChatGPT into your marketing strategy, consider signing up for a free 14-day WriterAccess trial and connecting with professional content creators who can humanize your output to perfection! You’ll love the difference the right talent makes in your final product.

The post How to Use ChatGPT to Improve Your Marketing Strategy appeared first on Rock Content.

We live in an era where online competition is fiercer than ever. Slipshod, low-quality content isn’t going to do you any favors.

That’s why we’re (re)introducing a game-changing concept: the content-driven inbound marketing funnel.

The inbound marketing funnel turns ‘push marketing’ tactics into highly successful ‘pull marketing’ solutions. From the customer’s first interaction to the customer’s final purchase, it creates a roadmap for your content so you can attract, engage, and delight your prospects.

But in order to create an effective marketing funnel, you must first understand the purpose and potential of each stage.

How can you use marketing funnels to your advantage?

We’re going to cover all this and more in our guide below.

But first: let’s explain what makes great content so hard to write.

Content Creation is ‘Simple,’ But Not ‘Easy’

In today’s digital landscape, content is king. However, producing high-quality content at scale is a daunting task for many businesses.

There are several unique obstacles standing in their way:

• The lack of a unified content strategy. This is where the inbound marketing funnel comes in (more on that later).
• A dearth of skilled content creators. There are many content writing generalists on the market today, but only a few content experts serving specific fields or industries.
• The inability to publish and manage content effectively. Maybe you don’t have a content calendar in place, or maybe your team is lacking a VA.
• Creating content that attracts, converts, and delights the audience. Only the most experienced copywriters know how to craft exciting, interesting, and engaging content. And since poor writing costs businesses billions, it’s in your best interests to craft well-written copy.
• The need for interactive content. Creating dynamic content often requires coding expertise, which is a skill not readily available in many content teams.

Businesses need a solution that not only helps them create high-quality content, but also streamlines their content management process so they can do more with less.

They also need guidance on how to strategically use this content to get more customers and delight their existing audiences.

Enter The Inbound Marketing Funnel

In an era marked by information overload, understanding the inbound marketing funnel matters more than ever.

The inbound marketing funnel is a customer-centric marketing strategy that aims at attracting customers through valuable content rather than traditional ‘push’ advertising techniques. It’s a strategic framework that visualizes the journey of a prospect turning into a lead, then a customer, and eventually a promoter.

This funnel is typically divided into three stages: top (TOFU), middle (MOFU), and bottom (BOFU). They sometimes go by three other names: awareness, consideration, and decision (respectively).

• In the awareness stage, potential customers are experiencing a problem or opportunity but aren’t sure what it is yet. They are searching for educational content to help them understand and define their problem.
• In the consideration stage, they fully understand their problem or opportunity and are now committed to researching and understanding all possible solutions.
• In the decision stage, they have determined their solution strategy or approach and are now compiling a list of possible vendors or products. This is around 1% to 10% of all inbound website visitors.

A well-utilized inbound marketing funnel assists businesses in understanding and meeting their potential customers’ needs at each stage of their buying journey. By providing valuable, relevant content tailored to each stage, businesses can transform website visitors into loyal customers.

Keep reading to learn more about the basic stages of the inbound marketing funnel.

Writing Content For Your Inbound Marketing Funnel

There are four things you can do with your inbound marketing funnel:

• Attract prospects
• Convert visitors into leads
• Close leads into customers
• Delight customers into promoters

Each step (or ‘stage’) creates an opportunity for customers to grow closer to your brand. With the right topic and call to action (CTA), you can build genuine connections between readers and your brand.

Let’s break it down into the three primary chunks:

Top-of-funnel Content

At the top (TOFU), you’re casting a wide net, aiming to attract as many individuals as possible. This is where your audience first interacts with your content.

Strategic creation and promotion of high-quality, engaging content can attract potential customers and establish your brand as a credible and reliable information source. This stage is your chance to make a strong first impression and set the tone for the subsequent stages in the funnel.

Middle-of-funnel Content

Moving into the middle (MOFU), the funnel narrows, and your focus shifts to nurturing the leads you’ve attracted.

At this stage, content must be tailored to answer more specific questions and address particular pain points.

Your goal is to build a relationship with potential customers, creating trust and establishing your brand as the go-to source for their needs.

Bottom-of-funnel Content

At the bottom of the funnel (or BOFU content), your leads are ready for conversion. This is your opportunity to make a strong, compelling case for your product or service.

Case studies, testimonials, and product demonstrations can be powerful tools here. This is also the stage where you close the loop by turning customers into advocates and promoters of your brand.

So now that you’re familiar with the types of content for each stage, what’s the best way to create quality content for your funnel?

Let’s look at some strategies below.

How to Write Quality Content in the Inbound Marketing Funnel

The heart of the inbound marketing funnel lies in the ability to write high-quality content. It also plays a pivotal role in attracting prospects by providing them with solutions to their problems (and demonstrating expertise in your field, of course).

“Partnering art and science in content marketing is the way to go to create strategies that have maximum impact,” says
Barbara von der Osten, a WriterAccess talent. “Be open to surprises and to making unexpected changes along the way.“

With that in mind, here are some ways to write quality content at every stage of your inbound marketing funnel:

• Offer valuable, relevant content in exchange for contact information. This allows your business to convert casual visitors into qualified leads.
• Write content that addresses specific needs and pain points of your audience. This could be ‘how to’ guides or comparison pieces.
• Convince leads that your products or services are the best solution for them. Try writing text-based product demos, publishing customer testimonials, creating case studies, and more.
• Write content that goes beyond the boilerplate. Consider writing ‘thank you’ emails, customer success stories, or educational content so existing customers know how to best use your products or services.

By continuously engaging your customers with valuable content, you’ll eventually turn them into loyal brand advocates. The more advocates you get, the more content you’ll need.

Thankfully, Rock Content can help you manage this at scale.

The Rock Content Method of Mastering the Inbound Marketing Funnel

Effectively utilizing the inbound marketing funnel is a significant challenge for many businesses. That’s why the team at Rock Content is here to help — we’re an industry leader in effective content generation.

Here’s how we make the inbound marketing funnel easy for thousands of businesses just like yours.

1. We curate incredible talent. By hiring professional freelancers through Rock Content, you gain access to a wealth of talent capable of producing high-quality content tailored to each stage of your funnel.
2. We put idea generation on autopilot. No more struggling with finding the right words or creating the perfect piece — you’ll have experts in your corner, ready to help you craft compelling blog posts, engaging social media updates, and powerful website copy that drives conversions.
3. We help you track freelancer performance. With our handy AI detector, you can track performance with ease. Then, you can make adjustments as necessary to optimize the results of each funnel stage.
4. We offer a code-free interactive content creation feature. Whether you want to create an interactive quiz or a dynamic infographic to educate your audience, Rock Content’s platform has got you covered.

Rock Content is the writing partner you need to boost content conversions and skyrocket your sales. You can say goodbye to the content calendar of yesteryear — with us, you’re one step closer to mastering the inbound marketing funnel.

Humanizing Your Inbound Funnel With Rock Content

Content and conversions are two sides of the same coin — and both are necessary for a successful business. An optimized inbound marketing funnel can help maximize your approach and lay the foundation for scalable content creation.

Of course, the funnel on its own won’t build genuine relationships with your customers. You first need to customize the funnel to fit your audience, then humanize your content’s tone and voice to create a connection where it counts.

So what about the AI vs human writer debate? At Rock Content, we believe this is a false dichotomy. We’ve helped hundreds of brands merge the two to create happier, healthier, more authentic brand relationships.

“That’s precisely why platforms like WriterAccess continue to thrive among marketers and brand owners,” says Diego Gomes, CEO and co-founder of Rock Content. “We recognize the value of human creativity and critical thinking, complemented by the power of AI tools.”

One of these tools is the WriterAccess Humanizer, designed to help your business scale and write meaningful content at the speed of AI.

Learn more about the benefits of WriterAccess Humanizer and start your free trial today.

The post How Rock Content Helps You Master the Inbound Marketing Funnel appeared first on Rock Content.

There are some questions you need to consider:

• What’s the healthy and effective balance between AI and human content creation?
• What should we be aware of to make the best use of the available resources?
• How can I prevent my brand from being exposed to any issues when generating content assisted by AI?

This article will explore those questions and recommend a portfolio of tools to enhance your content creation assisted with AI. By equipping you with the knowledge to make the most of these innovative resources, we ensure that you remain true to your creative vision!

Before We Start

It’s crucial to remember that AI is not just a single field of study. From a summarized perspective, it began in the 60s, and since then, numerous subfields have emerged for exploration.

These include:

• Privacy: Questioning the boundaries of data usage,
• Security: How these boundaries impact our safety and
• Philosophy: Pondering the ethical considerations and implications of AI.

One of these subfields is Generative AI, which has been under research for several years. It’s natural to wonder: If it’s not exactly new, what was the pivotal change that brought AI into the spotlight? The answer is undoubtedly ChatGPT.

Making AI accessible and user-friendly has revolutionized how we interact with technology, democratizing its use across a broad audience. This approachability is a significant factor behind its explosive growth, notably achieving one million users in just under four days. Its simplicity and speed in content generation have set a new standard for digital tools.

While it appears remarkably “easy” to prompt an AI to generate content, the critical question arises: Will the output meet the standards of your audience?

This convenience carries with it significant responsibility, leading us to confront a pivotal concern in the realm of generative AI: The phenomenon of hallucination.

Do Not Let AI Hallucinate!

AI hallucination occurs when an AI system produces incorrect or imaginary information, as explained by Russell and Norvig in Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach. It might seem complex, but let’s follow some examples to understand it better:

• Google Bard incorrectly claimed that the James Webb Space Telescope had taken the first image of a planet outside the solar system.
• A lawyer created a legal brief for a case in the Federal District Court that was filled with fake judicial opinions and legal citations, all generated by AI.
• AI Chatbot goes rogue, confesses love for a user, and asks him to end his marriage.

It is definitely not true that all AI is filled with fake information; however, understanding the associated risks is crucial, particularly for the brands we represent.

We might have some risks when AI hallucinates, and even though researchers are putting a lot of effort into it, marketers still need to ensure everything is true, especially the facts.

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Uma publicação compartilhada por Rock Content (@rockcontent)

Incorporating human expertise into the content creation process is crucial for ensuring accuracy and authenticity. Human intervention plays a vital role not only in addressing AI hallucinations but also in enriching the content with perspectives and real-life experiences that AI alone cannot provide.

Such human contributions forge a deeper connection between the reader and the content, ensuring it resonates more personally.

Furthermore, human reviewers are instrumental in tailoring content to the audience’s needs and aligning it with strategic goals, leveraging their intuition and understanding to guide the content strategy effectively.

Some tools, however, will help in some of those tasks to enhance the content creation, and this is exactly what we are going to show next!

Tools to Level Your Content Up

The written content itself represents merely the tip of the iceberg. Before the actual writing begins, numerous preparatory steps are essential, including the ideation phase, which determines what to write and for whom.

Additionally, when AI assistance is involved, it’s crucial to identify the human talent needed to refine and polish the content. Let’s explore several solutions that assist in navigating this journey.

AI Persona Builder

Find out more here

The foundational step in crafting your content strategy is to understand your audience thoroughly. This knowledge is pivotal as it shapes the various strategies you’ll employ to connect with them, making it an essential aspect of charting your content’s journey towards engaging users.

However, achieving this understanding is not straightforward and involves a series of steps.

Fortunately, Rock Content offers a tool designed to simplify this crucial process. By providing some fundamental details about your domain and company, you can leverage this tool to gain valuable insights into your audience, facilitating a more targeted and effective content strategy.

Regardless of whether you’re an agency, utilizing an AI Persona Builder allows you to store multiple persona profiles. This capability is crucial for content creation, both AI-assisted and otherwise.

Moreover, ensuring alignment with your content guidelines will not only enhance the impact of AI-generated results but also equip human talent with the necessary insights about your audience, securing the competitive advantage your content deserves.

Read also: Tested and Approved: AI Persona Builder for creating buyer personas in minutes

AI Content Wizard

Find out more here

Now that you’ve defined your persona, the next step is to decide what content to produce. Imagine having the ability to identify and exploit the gaps in your competitors’ strategies to your advantage. This is precisely the function of the AI Content Wizard.

By inputting your domain and identifying your competitors, the AI Content Wizard conducts a thorough analysis to pinpoint keywords that represent significant opportunities for ranking. This strategy aims to direct organic traffic to your domain.

After running this diagnosis, the AI Content Wizard will be able to offer you some topics to write about together with content briefs so you can produce content that will deliver results.

Furthermore, should you seek content recommendations through alternative methodologies, rest assured that we offer a comprehensive portfolio of solutions. These can be conveniently accessed via our menu, ensuring you have a broad range of options to meet your specific needs.

AI Content Idea Generator

Find out more here (free version)

The AI Content Idea Generator alone offers three content idea generation methods:

• Generate with Domain Only: Uses the user’s website URL to create relevant ideas quickly.
• Add Company Details to Generate Ideas: This method requires more information, such as the company website, keywords, target audience, and product/service description, for more tailored ideas.
• Add Recent Orders to Generate Ideas: It suggests new content based on the user’s previous orders, which is ideal for exploring previous topics further.

Smart Match Me Up

In recognizing the critical role human expertise plays in the success of content creation, this tool is designed to streamline the talent acquisition process to meet your brand’s unique requirements. Utilizing a sophisticated diagnostic framework, we assess potential candidates based on five fundamental psychological dimensions: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.

This comprehensive analysis enables us to curate a list of talent whose profiles are optimally aligned with your project needs.

You will then have the opportunity to peruse through the selected talent pool, gaining insights into their individual skills and expertise. The selection facilitates a well-informed decision-making process, allowing you to choose the ideal candidates for your projects with confidence.

AI Copilot

AI Copilot is Rock Content’s new tool for creating content using artificial intelligence. AI Copilot helps you create everything from blog articles to social media posts, emails, ads, and more.

When creating blog articles, you receive humanization recommendations and have the option to request editing of your content by a specialized professional to ensure that the final version is revised with a human touch.

Our skilled human writers make corrections related to brand adherence, fact-checking, and whatever else is necessary so your content can reach its full potential and be safer regarding SEO risks and brand reputation associated with publishing AI-generated content without human supervision.

BONUS: WriterAccess Humanizer

Find out more here

While this is not exactly an AI tool, it is highly related. Recognizing the demand for a combination of human effort plus AI and the importance of human editors to serve it best, Rock Content has created WriterAccess Humanizer.

Through this tool, you can hire professional editors who analyze content generated by AI, verify data accuracy, the relevance of information, the significance of citations, and adjust the material to be in harmony with the brand’s voice and strategy.

This process ensures that AI-generated content not only engages the target audience but is also aligned with the best SEO practices.

Take Away Those Final Thoughts

• Navigating AI’s Established Terrain: AI is far from a nascent field, bringing with it rich discussions around privacy, ethics, and other considerations critical to responsible use. Awareness of these aspects is essential as we integrate AI into our processes.

• Guard Against Hallucination Risks: The phenomenon of AI “hallucinations” — generating false or irrelevant information — poses significant risks to brand integrity. It’s crucial not to mistake AI’s ease of content generation for guaranteed relevance or accuracy.
• Enhancing Ideation with AI: AI excels in the ideation phase, providing a unique opportunity for human-AI collaboration. This intersection is where creativity is sparked, and innovation flourishes, leading to truly impactful content creation.
• Ensuring Content Relevance through Human Insight: The involvement of humans in the content creation process is pivotal for ensuring relevance and resonance with the target audience.

WriterAccess offers sophisticated tools designed to connect you with the finest talent, ensuring your content not only reaches but also engages and convinces your audience.

Hopefully, this post helped you to understand some opportunities and how to leverage your content creation with some AI tools provided by Rock Content. Enjoy your ride and make sure you try WriterAccess to deliver to your audience the best they deserve.

The post AI Hack and Tools to Enhance Human Content Creation appeared first on Rock Content.

Keeping all your website, blog, and social media channels appropriately active without cutting corners when it comes to quality is a tall order. However, content repurposing can take some of the hassle out of the equation on several levels.

According to research by SEMRush, 42 percent of today’s marketers say adding repurposing to their ongoing content development strategy yielded amazing results. Among other things, it helped them successfully reach more segments of their intended audience, and it can do the same for you.

Here’s a closer look at what you need to know to make content repurposing work for you in 2024 and beyond.

What Is Content Repurposing: Understanding the Basics

“Why reinvent the wheel when you can simply add more wheels to the machine?”

– Neil Patel, digital marketing expert, on the topic of content repurposing

Also, sometimes referred to as content recycling, content repurposing is the act of taking existing content – especially any that’s more successful than average – and adapting it to work in other contexts. Some examples of how this can work include:

• Using a successful blog post as the basis for a YouTube video, infographic, Twitter thread, Instagram carousel, etc.
• Revisiting successful content from a different angle to create a unique new piece
• Using other people’s content as inspiration for your own unique posts
• Adapting a hit webinar or conference presentation into downloadable freemium content (or vice versa)

There are quite a few benefits attached to doing this. The following are some key examples.

Getting more out of your best ideas

When you come up with a great idea that really resonates with your audience, it simply makes sense to get as much mileage out of it as possible. Adapting one idea to create multiple pieces requires less energy, money, labor, and time than starting over from scratch with each new post.

Boosting engagement numbers

If you’re like most digital marketers, you juggle multiple outlets and platforms when it comes to publishing your content. Repurposing helps you optimize your best pieces for multiple platforms, maximizing engagement and satisfying finicky algorithms in the process.

Connect with new audiences

Every segment of your audience will be a bit different. Users who like readable content may prefer blog posts and ebooks, while others may prefer videos, infographics, and other visuals. Visuals are also more shareable and social media-friendly than standard written content, so covering as many bases as possible helps your content get around.

In other words, learning how to repurpose your content like a boss is a simple but highly effective way to extend its lifespan, maximize its success, and ensure you’re getting the absolute most out of all your best stuff.

Creative Strategies for Repurposing Your Content

Before we dive into some of the most effective, creative ways to repurpose your best content, it’s important to emphasize how not to do it. Repurposed content isn’t simply old content that’s been reposted or cross-posted across multiple platforms.

It’s not plagiarized content copied or otherwise taken from other creators (either partially or entirely), either. Using another creator’s successful content as inspiration, linking back to it within your content, or quoting it to help back up your own points is fine. But plagiarism isn’t and could land you in hot water with Google.

That said, here are some great content repurposing ideas to incorporate into your ongoing strategy. Don’t be afraid to adapt them as needed or come up with additional approaches of your own.

Expand long-form content into ebooks

“It’s only quality content that will succeed in drawing users in and keeping them listening or on the page. Unimaginative or unoriginal content might induce a click but no tangible and lasting interest.”

– Sergii Denysenko, Forbes Council member

These days, Google strongly favors content that’s helpful, informative, and that digs deeply into the topic at hand. For that reason, long-form content is a staple feature when it comes to today’s content strategies, and you likely have a lot of it in your catalog by now.

Revisiting your best-performing long-form content, fleshing it out a bit, and repurposing it as an ebook is a great way to take it further and get more out of it. Add a few graphics and statistics, and you could have a real hit on your hands.

Make awesome video content

With video content becoming more popular all the time, especially on social media, you’ll want to include plenty of it in your ongoing content strategy. Repurposing suitable or exceptionally popular content as video content is a terrific way to do this.

How-to guides and tutorials make great fits for YouTube videos, especially any that already have readymade visuals to include. Individual sections of informative articles or listicles make great fits for Instagram reels or TikTok posts.

Design shareable infographics

Infographics are another key content format every digital marketer should be looking at in 2024. Today’s consumers and social media users already instinctively respond to snappy, sleek visuals. Visuals are also easier to share across social media.

Leverage the power of visual images by repurposing written content and other informative posts into beautiful infographics that convey lots of information at a glance. Share them on social media, add value to future posts by including them, or add them to email blasts.

Break up longer videos into pieces

Does your brand already have a robust YouTube presence or a couple of viral video hits under its belt? Get more value out of classic offerings by breaking long videos up into shorter chunks and re-editing them for social media.

This makes it easier to meet length requirements on various social media platforms, as well as gives you a way to direct followers toward your YouTube channel. Just be sure to tailor-edit your content with each individual platform in mind.

Share user-generated content

User-generated content (UGC) from your loyal followers is an absolute treasure trove when it comes to future repurposed content, so don’t sleep on making it part of your larger strategy. Resharing UGC directly from your following is one way to do this that will help your audience feel seen and valued.

However, you can also include other types of user-generated content in different ways. For example, you can take screen grabs of customer reviews or tweets where your brand is mentioned and include them in future video content or blogs.

Embed video or audio in blog posts

Adding any type of additional supporting content to your blog posts can help that post succeed on several levels. Options like videos or podcasts add value and increase dwell time when readers stop to check them out. And any type of bonus content can increase the likelihood of someone deciding to share it on social media.

So, ask yourself whether you have existing content that could complement what you’re creating when formatting new blog posts. Embed it directly for maximum impact and benefit.

Keep successful content up to date

Nothing stays the same for long on the internet. Algorithms evolve, industry standards change, and new information comes to light. If your best-performing content isn’t changing with it, you’re missing out on valuable traffic and reach.

So, come up with an ongoing strategy for keeping high-performing evergreen content up to date. Update statistics, add relevant new insights, and make some valuable new additions. The great thing about a content update is it doesn’t need to be a top-to-bottom rewrite. A solid update is enough to do the trick.

Maximizing Impact: Best Practices for Content Repurposing

Copy-pasting or cross-posting your content from one platform to another is better than nothing when it comes to repurposing content, but it’s not enough to maximize your results. Keep these must-know tips and best practices in mind to get the results you’re really after.

Know how to spot good opportunities

Not all content is going to be equal when it comes to its repurposing value, so it’s important to know how to spot a good option when you see one. Long-form, evergreen content is naturally going to be your best bet, but you also want to look at performance.

Use an accessible tool like Google Analytics to identify your top performers. The higher the ongoing performance, the better the option. You can use this method to identify repurpose-worthy seasonal pieces, as well.

Know who you’re marketing to

You don’t necessarily need to target the same audience when repurposing a specific piece of content for a new platform or format option. It’s OK (and even advisable) to shift things a bit to better fit your current content marketing goals.

For example, you can repurpose your thought leadership pieces to increase engagement on social media (or vice versa). You can turn to your highest-performing social media posts to use in guest blogs or ebooks to build a following. The possibilities are truly endless, so don’t be afraid to think outside the box.

Tailor your content to your target platform

The more you understand about the platform where you’ll be posting your repurposed content, the better you can expect it to perform. It’s well worth taking the time to optimize your work in this regard.

Reworking a video transcript or an in-person presentation as a blog post? Do a round of fresh keyword research, so you can optimize the new content accordingly. Repurposing a viral Facebook post for Instagram or Twitter? Find a few relevant hashtags to include in your post for maximum reach. Be sure to tweak your language and general vibe with your target platform in mind, as well.

Streamline your production process

Bring your entire content production team in on your content repurposing strategy in an organized way to keep everything running like a well-oiled machine. One way to do this is with an ongoing content calendar. Plan and schedule repurposing tasks as far in advance as you can to ensure new content is ready to go on time.

Composable content strategies are another way to keep your content machine chugging along nicely. Implement team management software and popular tools like Google Docs to take the guesswork out of working together as a team and ensuring everyone has access to the latest versions of key documents and target content.

Measuring the Success of Your Repurposed Content

Successfully scaling content production via a good repurposing strategy is really only part of the picture when it comes to maximizing your efforts. You also need a reliable way to track, measure, and analyze the results of your efforts, so you know what’s working and what isn’t.

Decide upfront what your key performance indicators (KPIs) are going to be by considering factors like content type, target platform, and current marketing goals. Some examples to consider include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Pageviews can help you determine which of your repurposed pieces are doing a better job of engaging your audience.
• Social media shares help you measure audience engagement and track overall interest in your content.
• Website traffic can offer insight into how well repurposed or updated content is doing to attract new visitors.
• Bounce rate can let you know which content is meeting audience expectations and which might be missing the mark.
• Conversion rates tell you how effective your repurposed pieces are at guiding and influencing your audience to take the desired next step.

Ready to take the next step and implement a content repurposing strategy that’s sure to turn heads? Consider adding some fresh talent to the mix to help the process along and ensure helpful, winning content your audience will love.

Assemble a dream team of seasoned content experts, copywriters, and content creators to help you when you sign up for a free 14-day WriterAccess trial today. You’ll love what the right talent can do for your content strategy and overall brand performance.

The post Content Repurposing: Transforming Old Content into New Opportunities appeared first on Rock Content.

Each year, businesses consider what they can afford to spend on content marketing and what they get from it. Return on investment (ROI) is the metric people use to decide if the money they spent has paid off. For example, is the money you put into social media marketing driving traffic to your website while increasing brand recognition and, ultimately, revenue?

The benefits of content marketing can be subtle, though. That can lead many companies to question whether ROI for content marketing is real.

It is wise to routinely reassess your content marketing strategy and ROI for many reasons. First, technology is constantly changing, and your digital marketing must evolve to meet new challenges. It is also vital for your content marketing to remain cost-effective and sustainable.

One thing is clear, though. Content marketing is the best way to build trust with your audience and nurture their loyalty. Loyalty translates into sales and customer retention. This article will examine the myths around content marketing ROI and the proper ways to measure its benefits.

Common Misconceptions: Debunking Content Marketing ROI Myths

The biggest myth around content marketing ROI is that you can’t prove it. It’s true you may not see an instant jump in revenue or sales arise from a few content marketing efforts. But ROI is about more than just making more money than you spend. Increasing monetary gain is the end game of marketing, but that doesn’t happen in a vacuum.

Revenue is based on many factors, such as:

• Market acquisition and size
• Pricing
• Customer base
• Product line
• Trends

Of course, marketing efforts are on that list. Again, the benefits of content marketing are subtle but measurable. That is one reason why developing a content marketing strategy is so critical.

When you create a content marketing strategy, one of the first steps involves defining your goals. What is the purpose of having a blog, for instance? It’s not to increase your sales immediately. Blog posts improve your SEO rankings. They help establish authority in your industry, and they engage potential leads.

You don’t measure the benefits of that blog in dollars and cents. You look at your page rankings, website traffic, and social media engagement to see the effects. That is measurable ROI.

Social media marketing has no impact on the bottom line

A large part of content marketing is social media, and calculating the value of that channel is challenging. The goal of social media is not a monetary one. It is more about market growth and branding, which affect revenue. Consider some facts about social media that show its value:

• Social media has 5.17 billion users globally.
• One person typically uses 6.7 different social media networks each month. That includes spending an average of 31 minutes per day on Facebook.
• 56.1 percent of people who use the internet also buy products online at least once per week.

Now, factor in how many people research a product or brand online and through social media before making offline purchases, and it’s clear that this form of marketing does impact the bottom line.

You’ll see immediate benefits from content marketing

No, content marketing is playing the long game. It rarely provides instant gratification. Its job is to plant seeds that will grow your market and brand over time. When you plant seeds in a garden, you don’t get watermelon within minutes. It takes time and effort to see that return.

Measuring Success: Key Metrics for Content Marketing ROI

So, if you can’t count on an immediate jump in sales, what metric should you be monitoring to evaluate the success of your content marketing? Let’s start with a basic formula that measures content marketing ROI in dollars.

Calculating ROI for your content marketing

If you can’t shake the idea that ROI is strictly about monetary expenditure and gain, there is a formula for content marketing that you can use:

• (Sales – Content marketing costs)/ content marketing costs x 100

For example, if you spent $500 on content marketing and had sales equaling $4,000, your ROI would be 700 percent.

• ($4000 – $500)/$500×100 = 700%

This is an excellent formula to use at the end of a year or quarter. It does not necessarily represent the full return on your investment, because the content will remain valuable over time. However, it will help you develop and manage your marketing budget. These metrics also provide accurate indicators of value for content marketing:

Organic traffic

Organic traffic represents how well the content performs in searches. You can use the Google Search Console to find this metric. Look at the performance section to see the number of clicks from organic searches.

Keyword rankings

Keyword rankings help you determine the power of your content’s keywords and their performance in search results. To measure this, you will need an SEO tool like SEMrush.

Page views

How many times do people visit pages on your website? This data has several practical applications. It tells you which blog posts perform the best, for instance. You can also see which product pages get the most hits and look at sales numbers for the associated products. If page views go up and sales don’t, you need to reassess the page or the product.

You can use Google Analytics to measure webpage performance.

Bounce rates

It’s not enough for someone to visit a page. If they don’t stay long enough to have meaningful interaction, you need to make changes. The bounce rate measures the number of visitors who exit a page right away and don’t explore your website.

Along those same lines, you can measure the average time spent on each webpage to see which ones make a difference and what pages are just taking up space.

Social media

Social media offers several helpful metrics. The basics include:

• Followers
• Engagements, such as shares or comments
• Brand mentions

Social media platforms also have other metrics that you can use to monitor engagement, such as the number of “likes” or upvotes.

Click-through rates (CTR)

Click-through rates are necessary metrics for email messages, ads, and search engine listings. The associated platform will show what percentage of people click a link to see your website. For email, use tools such as MailChimp to measure CTR and open rates so that you can assess the effectiveness of your content.

Strategies for Maximizing ROI: Tips from Content Marketing Pros

Consider following some advice on maximizing your investment from those who do content marketing for a living.

Have a strategy

The best approach to maximizing ROI for content marketing is to start with a strategy. Once you accept that content marketing is playing the long game, the importance of having a strategy becomes clear.

A content marketing strategy enables you to set goals and identify the best path to achieve them. If you blindly create a blog without understanding its purpose, you will never maximize its potential.

A strategy also establishes your key performance indicators (KPIs). Knowing your KPIs will tell you which metrics are most critical for your business.

Keep the content fresh

Topics such as “Your Industry Trends for 2024” will attract traffic for about six to eight months, but they become redundant at that point. This doesn’t mean you can’t use that concept, but keep it fresh. Around mid-year, you should consider replacing that topic with new trends for 2025.

A practical way to keep content worth reading is to make it evergreen. That means a large percentage of your topics should always remain relevant to your audience. For example, “How to Make Over Your Bathroom” is a topic that will stand the test of time.

If you stockpile a core base of evergreen material, you’ll have some leeway to create content on topics that last only six to eight months. Evergreen topics are also reusable. If you are behind in creating content, regenerate a previous topic with some spit and polish to make it new again.

Know your audience – always

It is the golden rule of marketing. Create content with your audience in mind. This is crucial regardless of whether you are developing blog entries or social media posts. A company that sells diapers will not see much headway if it targets CEOs. The target audience is clearly new parents, and the content should reflect their interests.

Optimize, optimize, optimize

We really can’t say it enough: Optimize your material for search engines. Use keywords throughout the content, and make sure they fit naturally into the text. Assign SEO-friendly URLs to your pages and ensure that what you produce is of high quality. Grammar errors and poor writing will quickly cause your rankings to fall.

Don’t just optimize new pages. Go back and make sure the old ones satisfy current SEO standards and trends. Search engines love to throw a wrench into your content marketing by constantly moving the goalpost. It is up to you to keep your SEO as fresh as your content.

Finally, hire professionals to produce quality content. It will be worth the investment. WriterAccess offers some of the top writing talent in the world, making it easy to perfect your content marketing. We can help you scale content production as well. Get a 14-day WriterAccess trial and see how your ROI can grow.

The post Rethinking the Narrative: Is Content Marketing ROI Just a Myth? appeared first on Rock Content.

Options like drag-and-drop design tools and foolproof interfaces have made it possible for nearly anyone to try basic graphic design. But a truly effective design is about more than simply having the logistics down pat.

It takes experience, know-how, and a trained eye for visuals to produce professional-level designs that efficiently support brands and convey powerful messages. That makes hiring a professional graphic designer a must when it truly counts.

But how much does it cost to hire a graphic designer, and how can you be sure you’re hiring someone whose work you’ll be happy with? Let’s break down what you need to know about finding the right person and hiring someone perfect for your brand.

What Is Graphic Design: Unraveling the Artistic Mystery

The term “graphic design” refers to the process of combining various visual and textual elements to convey pointed messages and ideas. Great designers understand the ins and outs of key artistic elements like balance, contrast, proportion, and emphasis. They also understand how to use what they know to create specific impressions and spark interest.

Print and traditional graphic design are declining these days but are still relevant. However, digital graphic design is increasingly important as brands and consumers alike take to the web to pursue the things they need. Today’s best graphic designers leverage a combination of traditional and digital skills to create various assets, such as:

• Compelling web design
• Dynamic designs for product packaging
• Illustration
• Typographic design
• Layouts for magazines, brochures, posters, etc.
• Marketing and advertising designs
• Animations and other types of moving graphics

The Power of Design: Why It Matters More Than You Think

Although a well-orchestrated graphic design is easy on the eyes, quality is about a lot more than simple aesthetics. Graphic design elements like logos, color schemes, font choices, and more all contribute to your brand’s overall visual identity.

Plus, consumers often make shopping decisions with their eyes first, so your brand’s approach to graphic design can help set you apart from the competition in a powerful way, boosting your bottom line in the process. Here are some other key reasons why graphic design matters.

Amazing first impressions

Modern consumers have a lot vying for their time and attention these days, so making an unforgettable first impression is crucial. Sophisticated, unique graphic design elements can help ensure your target audience remembers you via a powerful first impression.

Clear messaging

A picture is worth a thousand words, especially in a day and age when the average person is exposed to between 4,000 and 10,000 ads every day. Well-executed graphic elements like infographics and charts help summarize important information at a glance, making it several times more engaging than simple text alone.

Consistent branding

Graphic design and winning written content truly do go hand in hand when it comes to results. Strong visual elements help reinforce important ideas and add value to content, helping your brand establish industry authority. Developing a distinctive approach to graphic design helps boost brand recognition, as well.

Effective storytelling

Graphic design elements like font styles and color palettes are important parts of your brand identity, as well as helpful when it comes to storytelling. Choices like these convey emotion, reinforce brand values, and support the storytelling present in all your best content.

Creative edge

At this point, there’s no such thing as an entirely new idea. Everything’s been done before, so you need to differentiate your content by leveraging your unique creativity and point of view. Amazing graphics are a simple but effective way to give yourself a creative edge in an increasingly competitive marketing landscape.

Design 101: The Basic Rules Every Graphic Designer Swears By

The smooth, effective graphic design involves plenty of creativity. However, there are certain inviolable rules that every great design adheres to, whether you’re talking about standout packaging for a new product or an interactive weekly company newsletter design. Here’s a look at a few of the most important.

Be consistent

When designing brand-related visuals, consistency is vital when it comes to colors, typography, layout, etc. Ideally, people should be able to recognize your brand presence just by these elements alone.

Embrace alignment

Although placing graphic elements within a design in unusual, off-kilter ways may sound like a creative way to differentiate your visuals, this can easily backfire. Branded and professional designs work better and are easier to process visually when they’re properly aligned, organized, and neat.

Pay attention to the visual hierarchy

Establishing a proper visual hierarchy within your designs helps guide the viewer’s eye in an organized manner, making it easier for them to understand your visuals at a glance. Use color and size wisely to help emphasize some elements over others.

White space is your friend

Sometimes less is more when it comes to graphic design, especially when designing for brands and businesses. Using white space wisely and taking care to leave enough of it helps designs look more professional, as well as gives the visual elements you use more impact.

Keep images crisp

Raster-based images rely on pixels, so they depend on resolution to look their best. Enlarging or shrinking them can result in unsightly pixelation that ruins an otherwise great design. Always go for high-resolution images to avoid this, and be sure to maintain proportions when scaling up or down.

Watch your textual elements

Don’t focus on the visual elements of your design so intently that you lose sight of the text. Spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors can tank a design and potentially lose the respect of onlookers, so don’t sleep on proofreading.

Keep it legible

Resist the urge to go crazy with too many elaborate fonts when putting together a good design. It won’t ultimately matter how visually stunning a design is if people have to struggle to read the text, so always err on the side of simplicity.

Finding the Perfect Graphic Design: How and Where to Search

Knowing what differentiates a fantastic graphic design from the rest of the pack is step one of taking your brand assets and marketing content to the next level. The next step is finding the right people to add to your team.

Here are some expert tips on how to hire a graphic designer who’ll change the game for your brand.

Decide between in-house vs. freelance

While larger enterprise companies that require constant access to professional designers may want to consider hiring a full-time graphic designer or two, that’s not your only option these days.

Many top designers choose to work on a freelance basis instead, with good reason. Going with freelancers over full-time employees allows you to order and pay for designs as needed – a great option for small businesses, start-ups, and sole proprietors.

Know what you need

The world of graphic design is vast and varied, so think long and hard about what you need your designer to be able to do.

Are you merely looking for someone to create standard still graphics, or does the person need to be familiar with motion graphics and animation, as well? Will the person you choose need to help build your brand identity from the ground up, or will they simply be added to one that already exists?

Craft job descriptions and casting calls with enough detail that potential applicants will fully understand what’s expected of them. Include a short list of requirements and “nice to have” extras. But avoid making too many demands, as you might scare away some of your best applicants.

Understanding what skills you’re looking for

Although work experience and areas of expertise may vary from designer to designer, some skills should be considered essential in 2024 and beyond. For example, every professional designer should be proficient in essential programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign.

However, soft skills are important, as well. For instance, does the applicant work well as part of a team? Can they think outside the box, handle constructive criticism, and communicate well? Look for evidence of traits that will make someone a better-than-average addition to your team.

Look carefully at each applicant’s portfolio, as well. It’s not enough for the person to do great work, in general. Look for (or request) examples that are similar to the types of projects you’ll be asking the person to take on for you.

Offer fair compensation

How much is it to hire a graphic designer? Taking on the right person shouldn’t necessarily destroy your budget, but it’s important to keep in mind that talent, in-demand skills, and experience call for competitive rates.

So, be prepared to offer fair compensation in exchange for someone’s time and labor. Treat your designers well, and they’ll continue giving you their very best for a long time to come in return.

Last but not least, it’s important to know where to look for the best graphic designers. Top platforms tend to attract top talent, so choose yours carefully. LinkedIn is a great place to post job listings, as numerous top professionals populate there and keep track of the job boards.

Also, look closely at dedicated platforms like Upwork or WriterAccess. Upwork is a good place to look if you want access to lots of different talents. However, WriterAccess uses a rigorous vetting process to pre-screen talent for you, so you can rest easy in the knowledge that everyone on the platform is experienced, skilled, and highly professional.

Spotlight on WriterAccess: Your Go-To for Graphic Design Talent

Don’t let the name “WriterAccess” fool you into thinking you can only use this trusted premium platform to connect with writers. Yes, WriterAccess is a terrific place to meet copywriters, bloggers, and professional writers of all kinds. However, it’s also a great place to meet, vet, and hire other content creation experts, like graphic designers and editors.

Benefits WriterAccess, in particular, brings to the table include the following:

• A thorough vetting process that ensures only top talent makes it onto the platform
• Handy star-rating system that lets you browse, hire, and pay designers according to their skill level and experience
• Highly accurate matching system that makes finding and connecting with the right talent simple
• User-friendly interface that takes the guesswork out of drafting, posting, managing, and paying for projects.

Plus, WriterAccess offers new members a free two-week trial period that allows them to try the platform out risk-free.

Sealing the Deal: Tips for Working Successfully with Your Graphic Designer

Once you’ve found the perfect graphic designer for you, it’s essential to ensure a smooth, successful working process for both of you. Here are some tips for doing exactly that.

Create efficient design briefs

The ability to create a workable project brief is crucial when it comes to getting what you want out of your talent. Strike a good balance between detailed and concise to ensure your designer has what they need to do a good job without becoming overwhelmed.

Use visuals for direction

It can be tough to accurately convey what you want when ordering professional graphic design visuals, as you can never be sure someone’s imagining the same thing you are. Providing visual references that are similar to what you’re looking for can be super helpful here.

Implement a reasonable schedule

Next-level graphic designs take time, so it’s important to ensure designers have enough of it to deliver their very best for you. Be reasonable when it comes to putting together delivery timeframes and project milestones. Be sure to be available and responsive to questions or concerns your designer may have, as well, to ensure projects stay on schedule.

Ready to meet the graphic designer of your dreams? Sign up for your free 14-day WriterAccess trial today to connect with some of the best and brightest professionals in the industry. You’ll be glad you did.

The post How to Hire a Graphic Designer: The Complete Guide appeared first on Rock Content.