From wielding a welding torch to fronting a rock band, Evan Crowther’s path to full-time freelance writing has been anything but linear. With a degree in music, a blue-collar work ethic, and a knack for explaining complex concepts in everyday language, Evan brings a refreshing, real-world perspective to every piece he writes.

In this episode of Behind the Byline, we sat down with Evan to chat about his shift from the trades to the keyboard, how he treats freelancing like the legit career it is, and the guilty-pleasure app he can’t stay away from (looking at you, Facebook Marketplace ).

Evan Crowther: From the Workshop to the Writer’s Room

Evan made the leap into full-time freelancing during the COVID-19 pandemic — a bold move that ended up being the perfect fit. With a background in welding and a deep knowledge of manufacturing and home improvement, Evan doesn’t just write about these topics; he lives them. That firsthand experience makes his content both technically accurate and incredibly accessible.

“I’ve been in those factories and under those sinks,” Evan shared. “So when I write about tools, processes, or repairs, I know what matters to the person on the other end.”

Whether he’s breaking down the specs of power tools or explaining the ins and outs of HVAC systems, Evan’s writing stands out for its clarity, confidence, and practical value. He’s the kind of writer who makes even the most complicated jargon feel like a casual chat.

Evan’s ClearVoice Questionnaire

When he’s not writing, you might find Evan scrolling through Facebook Marketplace hunting for hidden gems — or behind a mic performing live music. A trained musician with a love for rock and acoustic sets, Evan still finds time to sing and play, channeling that same creative energy into his content work.

He’s a black coffee kind of guy working on becoming a morning person (the struggle is real). But once he’s locked in, he treats freelancing with the professionalism of a 9-to-5, minus the commute. “I show up every day like it’s my job… because it is,” he said.

Bringing Content to Life — Without the Fluff

In a content world crowded with buzzwords, Evan stands out for his grounded, straightforward style. He writes with the reader in mind, not just the search engine, and brings a genuine curiosity to each assignment.

“I love learning how things work, then figuring out how to explain it in a way that actually clicks for someone,” Evan said. “That’s the goal: help people understand something better than they did before.”

And that’s exactly what he does.

Get the Content You Need at the Quality Level You Expect

At ClearVoice, we’re proud to connect you with talented freelancers like Evan who bring clarity, craftsmanship, and industry know-how to every project. Whether you need product tutorials, thought leadership, or SEO-driven blogs, our platform makes it easy to access top-tier talent tailored to your needs.

Ready to bring your content vision to life? Talk to a content strategist today!

More Behind the Byline Features

Meet more pros behind the stories.

Start with these:

• Jason Harper
• Melanie Clarke
• Luke Daugherty
• Chad Jensen
• Michael Jung
• Caitlin Lamb Jefferson
• Grace Trumpfeller
• Jacqueline Zote

You can also watch more of our Behind the Byline interviews with amazing freelancers on our YouTube channel.

The post Behind the Byline: Evan Crowther appeared first on ClearVoice.

The post Behind the Byline: Rosie Greaves appeared first on ClearVoice.

Adding value, humor, and personal touches to your holiday content strategy can boost revenue during the peak holiday season and strengthen your relationship with your customers.

The end of the year is stressful enough. Start your holiday content marketing strategy for this year right now and have one less thing to worry about when the holidays roll around.

We’re giving you a compilation of 12 of the latest in content marketing trends, exercises to brainstorm your holiday content, and actionable tasks to get you well on your way to a successful holiday content marketing season. Bookmark this page so you can refer back to it later!

Let’s get started!

1. It’s the Most Wonderful Time of Year… for Content

So, when does the holiday season for businesses actually start? Well, it’s a bit of a moving target. That’s why it’s in your best interest to plan your holiday content in advance so you can be ready to publish once the timing is right.

The good news is, you’re here! You’re already thinking about the holidays, which is a great place to start.

You wouldn’t wait until the day before a sale to send an email about it, and you can’t expect to rank in SEO with your content overnight. By starting today, you’ll have a wealth of holiday content ideas “in the bank” once it’s time to go live.

Not sure where to begin? Don’t reinvent the wheel! Instead, take a look back at your holiday content from last year. What can you learn?

If you had content that performed well, maybe it only needs to be tweaked a bit to be updated. Use a holiday content calendar to get up to date on the trending keywords for the year. Of course, maybe there are some pieces from last season that you’d rather forget. You can learn from those, too!

Here’s what you can do:

Audit your existing holiday content for what can be recycled. If this is your first year creating holiday content, look through some of your competitors’ content from previous years to see where you can draw inspiration.

2. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Don’t Get Lost in the Noise

There’s no escaping the behemoth of the holiday season: Black Friday. Love it or hate it, it’s become a necessary component of your content marketing strategy. But with all the competition for your target audience’s attention, how do you ensure you get a piece of the proverbial pie?

1. Have a compelling offer. If you’re B2C, chances are you’ve already got at least one offer you’re building your Black Friday/Cyber Monday content around. But if you’re B2B, the picture might be a little less clear. Rather than a discount, consider whether there is something you can add that comes at little or no cost to you and your team. Can you bundle a product or service? Offer a free consultation? Get creative here.
2. Email early and often. According to Gartner, the typical B2B buying group consists of about six to 10 decision-makers. Factor this into your content strategy—you may want to start planting seeds for Black Friday a few months prior. But starting a few weeks in advance works well for B2B and B2C, as it offers more opportunities to resend. There’s no hard and fast rule for the best time to send a Black Friday email. Just know that there’s a lot of content coming at your customers.
3. Drive urgency. Black Friday/Cyber Monday offers are only available for a limited time. Take advantage of it! Decide whether you’ll offer your deal all weekend or just on Friday (or Monday), and plan your content accordingly. Use countdown timers and reminder emails. Pull out all the stops to drive that FOMO!

Here’s what you can do:

Brainstorm your compelling offer. Using the guidelines above, what can you offer your potential customers?

If you already have your compelling offer, start planning when you’ll send emails to your list. Begin with Cyber Monday and work backward. How far in advance will you start teasing your offer?

3. Creating Inclusive Content During the Holidays

It’s Marketing 101. “Know your audience.” You’ve done your homework, created buyer personas, and know exactly where they hang out and how to talk to them.

Year after year, businesses throw all that hard work out the window in the name of “tradition.”

Okay, that might be a bit extreme, but the fact is that now more than ever, your potential customers are looking at your holiday messaging with an eye towards inclusivity. So what does that mean?

Just because something’s worked for years doesn’t mean it’s reflective of the sentiment today. Go through your previous years’ campaigns with a fine-tooth comb. Have you been a bit myopic in your approach?

What feelings are you trying to evoke? What imagery are you using? Are these representative of all the people who would invest in your product?

Here’s what you can do:

Read this in-depth article on inclusivity during the holidays. Following the steps outlined there, begin thinking about your holiday messaging and how it will resonate with your specific audience(s).

What changes can you make to be more inclusive with your holiday content? And how will these guidelines impact the holiday content you create from here on out?

4. Holiday Content Gifts: It’s the Value that Counts

With all the sales, special offers, and general year-end craziness, it’s easy to become singularly focused on content promotion during the holiday season. But think about this — you wouldn’t promote like crazy any other time of the year, so what makes the holidays any different?

The content you share during the holidays can help deepen your relationship with your existing and potential customers. Maintaining a consistent, even balance between promotional and value-driven content will build on the trust you’ve established with your audience throughout the year.

Think about how you already add value to your content and ask yourself how you can expand upon that with holiday messaging.

Here’s what you can do:

Come up with at least three value-driven pieces of content for your holiday content campaign.

5. The Personal Touch that Makes All the Difference

The holiday season is a terrific time to peel back the curtain and show your audience who you are!

Roll up your sleeves and get creative. Ask your employees to write letters to Santa or share what they’re grateful for this season. Share pictures of your team decorating the offices or behind-the-scenes videos from your holiday celebrations.

And a heartfelt message from the CEO can go a long way to building that deep personal connection a customer feels to your company.

Here’s what you can do:

Come up with at least three pieces of personal holiday content showcasing your team, company holiday traditions, and favorite recipes. You name it! Really have fun here. These personal messages don’t have to be super-polished, so let your imagination run wild!

6. Joy to the World: Keep it Light During the Holidays

The holidays evoke a lot of emotions, most of them warm and fuzzy. There’s a lot of temptation to lean into that with your holiday content.

And while there’s nothing wrong with heartwarming content, it’s important to remember that the holiday season can be difficult for many people. Adding fun and humor into the mix is a great way to endear yourself to your audience (with the added bonus of being infinitely shareable).

Want a holiday humor double-whammy? Capitalize on nostalgia.

Google did this to great effect with its “Home Alone Again” campaign.  This well-known Christmas classic is modernized to reflect modern technology, which showcases the company’s product while creating a memorable (and shareable!) piece of content.

You don’t have to create a big-budget short film to impact your holiday content. Work in tandem with the personal content we discussed above. These fun and funny pieces of content can work best when they’re raw and unpolished.

So what holiday classics or traditions do you think could use some lampooning? What will resonate strongly with your audience? And what is feasible with your resources at hand?

Here’s what you can do:

Brainstorm at least three pieces of humorous holiday content (bonus points if they incorporate nostalgia!). Song parodies, awkward family photos, silly video sketches …the sky’s the limit!

7. Gratitude is Always On-Trend

The end of the year is a sentimental time. And the theme of gratitude extends well beyond Thanksgiving itself, weaving its way through all the season’s holidays. So while it may seem cliché to give thanks for your potential and existing customers, that’s no reason not to!

Holiday content trends may come and go, but showing gratitude for your customers and community will never go out of style. People always love to hear they’re appreciated or have made an impact. How will you show your gratitude and appreciation through your content?

Taking it a step further, you may wish to do an entire gratitude campaign. At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, you really can’t be TOO thankful. The only word of caution here is that your displays of appreciation must be authentic.

So get personal! Some examples include:

• Creating hand-written notes or letters
• Filming heartfelt video messages from your team
• Providing a special offer or discount code for your loyal customers
• Shouting out your customers or members of your audience on social
• Hosting a giveaway

Here’s what you can do:

Come up with at least three pieces of content showing gratitude for your customers, or outline what a gratitude campaign might look like for your business.

8. Don’t Just Give Thanks. Give Back

Despite the obvious commercialism of the holidays, it is also the time of year when people focus on others. It’s the season of giving, not the season of keeping.

If you’re not very vocal about your charitable outreach throughout the rest of the year, now is a perfect time to incorporate it into your content. Does your business partner with an organization (either local or national) to do good in the community? For example, HVAC company Day and Night, located in Phoenix, AZ, gave back by donating A/C units to the Arizona Humane Society.

How does your company give back? And why is it important to you? If you don’t have an ongoing partnership with a charitable cause or organization, there’s no better time than the holidays to get involved. But, as we mentioned, in regard to gratitude, it must be authentic.

Which causes are aligned with the core values of your business? Are there organizations that are important to the members of your team? In what ways can you make an impact, first during the holidays and then beyond?

Here’s what you can do:

Either ideate three pieces of content around your company’s charitable outreach during the holidays or identify a cause or organization with whom you can authentically align in the short and long term.

9. Spotify Does It. Why Not You? The Year in Review

Sure, lots of brands do a year in review. Maybe you’re already doing one. Or maybe you internally groan every time another one lands in your inbox.

But the year in review is a fantastic opportunity to connect with your customers in a meaningful way. You might want to reconsider if this isn’t part of your holiday content plan.

So how can you make sure yours is resonating with your audience? Here are some pointers:

1. Make it about them. Just like the gratitude content we’ve explored, your year in the review should make your customers and audience feel appreciated. People want to feel like they’re part of something or that they’ve contributed in some way.
2. Get visual. Even if you’ve got a lot to say, break it up with GIFs, photos, or infographics. Blog posts with images get more views, and imagery is more likely to keep your audience engaged when reading a long-form email. And people love to share infographics.
3. Know what story you’re trying to tell. As with all good marketing, you want to make sure you’re telling a compelling story. Take your audience on a journey that they’re excited to be part of. Set up where you’re headed in the next year, and invite folks to come along!

Here’s what you can do:

Brainstorm your year in review. Ask yourself these questions and see what types of content you can create from the answers.

• What are some highlights from the last year that you’d like to share?
• How can you make your content focused on the customer?
• How will you make it interesting and fun?

10. Don’t Make Your Audience Find You — Find Them

Like the rest of the year, a diversified content strategy is the best way to ensure you reach the biggest possible audience. The people you reach with your content will have different interests, so they’ll likely spend time on different platforms.

When you think about your content creation, you should plan to repurpose your pieces of content for maximum impact.

Just because something makes a great blog article doesn’t mean it can’t work on Instagram. A wealth of content across platforms helps you rank higher in SEO (which makes it easier for your ideal customer to find you!). But not just any content. Quality, unique, and brand-consistent content.

This is the content strategy you should employ all year long, and that advice remains true during the holidays.

The good news is that you can easily turn one piece of content into multiple. A video for YouTube can become several for Instagram, an email can become a blog post (or an infographic), and a pillar post can become an ebook. And that’s just for starters!

Identify where you’re likely to capture the attention of your potential customers and plan your content accordingly.

Here’s what you can do:

Revisit the content ideas you’ve created so far and see how they can be repurposed for different content platforms. How can you turn one piece of content into three? (Or more!)

11. Consistency is Key, Even During the Holidays

Other than your product or service, the most important component of your marketing is your brand. Your voice. You use the overall package (or gift wrap, if you prefer) to present your product or service to the world.

And, of course, your brand doesn’t happen by accident. It’s developed over time through testing and thorough research. But once it’s decided, you stick with it, right? Because your brand is critical to ensuring your customers’ trust.

You’ve spent all that time and energy (and probably a couple of dollars) to establish your brand in the eyes of your audience. So even though the holidays present an opportunity to reach your audience in a fun, new way, a consistent brand presence is very important.

But what does that mean?

The content you create during the holidays should feel the same as the content you create throughout the year. A disconnect will feel jarring to your audience and erode that trust you’ve worked so hard to build.

Is there anything more iconic than the red Starbucks cups? As a holiday campaign, it works because it still feels like Starbucks: simple and classic.

Here’s what you can do:

Spend some time thinking about how you want your holiday messaging to look and feel.

• What are some of the key tenets of your brand?
• How can you weave those through your holiday content?
• What are some of the colors and images you can use to spread holiday cheer while maintaining your brand voice?

12. Make Your List, Check it Twice: Putting It All Together

Here it is, the home stretch! If you’ve been following along, you should have a ton of content ideas to safely get you through the holiday season. You know how you want your holiday content to look and feel. It’s time to start plugging these into your content calendar.

Starting with the end of the year and working backward, create a rotation for your heartwarming, personal, humorous, and promotional content. Remember to add more value than you sell.

Here’s what you can do:

Plug your content ideas into your holiday content calendar. Then commit to the date by which this content will be written, created, and delivered. If you’re struggling to ideate content, download our FREE “10 Proven Content Ideation Techniques Expert Marketers Use” and brainstorm some awesome holiday content ideas.

Wrapping It Up

There’s no better time than the holidays to bring the world a little closer together. Here at ClearVoice, we are passionate about helping brands create better content because we believe helping people engage better with one another is a path to creating a better world. We hope you’ll continue to refer to this holiday content creation guide as you build out your marketing strategy for the holiday season.

And with all this new holiday content brewing, you might not be thinking about the other content needs of your business right now. Or maybe the idea of a holiday content haul has you reaching for the eggnog. If that holiday to-do list is looking a little daunting, we hope you’ll talk to us about how we can help.

When you create a custom content plan with ClearVoice, your dedicated team continues to ideate and create content for you so you can focus on whatever else needs your attention. Ready to cross-content creation off your wish list? Talk to a specialist today!

The post 12 Smart Holiday Content Strategies to Implement This Year appeared first on ClearVoice.

The tone? Way too formal. It feels like legal jargon, not a pitch for an exciting, innovative product. It isn’t the fun, approachable brand you’ve worked so hard to build and maintain— it’s a complete disconnect, and the whole presentation just feels awkward. 

Brand guidelines seem like they’re just for writers and editors — the ones crafting blog posts, social media updates, and newsletters. But in reality, anyone creating content, whether marketing, sales, or HR, should know your brand’s voice, tone, and messaging. The above scenario is a true testament. 

When teams don’t have that shared understanding, the results can be overwhelming and mostly negative. One piece of content hits the mark perfectly, while another is completely off-brand, leaving your audience confused. And that inconsistency erodes trust in your brand. That’s why it’s essential for everyone involved in content creation, no matter their role, to be aligned with your brand guidelines.

Why Brand Guidelines Should Be Everyone’s Business

It’s easy to think brand guidelines are just for content-focused roles like writers, editors, or designers. But let’s consider how many other people shape your brand’s image:

• HR teams handle recruitment materials, job posts, and internal communications.
• Sales teams create pitch decks, proposals, and personalized email templates.
• Employees on social media are representing your brand every time they engage, whether they realize it or not.

The touchpoints are everywhere.

Training everyone who interacts with content, even those outside traditional marketing roles, ensures that your brand identity remains consistent across all external and internal communications.

Here’s why it matters:

• Consistency in voice and tone strengthens your brand’s identity and how it’s perceived by the public.
• A unified brand message fosters a cohesive internal culture where everyone understands and represents the brand’s values.
• The more employees are familiar with your brand’s tone and how to communicate it, the more likely your message will be consistent across the board.

When everyone is aligned with the guidelines, your content doesn’t just sound consistent — it feels like a true reflection of your brand. And that’s a win for everyone, from your internal teams to your customers.

A Central Hub: Your Brand’s Lifeline

One way to ensure your team stays aligned is by creating a central, easily accessible resource that houses all the brand guidelines in one place. At ClearVoice, we use a “Brand Profile” to store all brand and editorial guidelines, including voice, tone, logos, colors, and more. It’s the place in our platform that is a one-stop shop for all content creators — regardless of their roles or content type producing — to ensure that every piece of content aligns with the brand.

A resource like this doesn’t just prevent mistakes; it also reduces the time spent on revisions and back-and-forth communications. When your team has easy access to all the information they need, there’s no guessing. The correct tone, style, and editorial nuances are all readily available.

Pro tip: This is especially helpful for new team members who may not be fully immersed in the brand yet. Having everything spelled out reduces the learning curve and helps new hires hit the ground running.

Plus, as your brand evolves, it’s much easier to update one central resource than to rely on sending emails or scattered documents. Whenever your brand’s identity shifts or updates are needed, you can simply adjust the guidelines, ensuring everyone has the latest version at their fingertips.

The Value of Interactive Training

Reading a document alone doesn’t guarantee anyone will fully grasp how to apply those guidelines in real-world situations. That’s where interactive, hands-on training comes in. Workshops, training sessions, and practical exercises help teams move beyond simply understanding the rules and confidently applying them.

For example, if your HR team is working on a new recruitment campaign, they need to draft job descriptions, build recruitment ads, and maybe even craft social media posts. A workshop focused on aligning this content with the brand voice can:

• Ensure job descriptions feel like a natural extension of your brand.
• Help the HR team avoid tone and style errors that might clash with your company’s messaging.
• Build confidence within the HR department to know they’re creating content that accurately reflects the brand.

Here’s how an interactive training session for HR might look:

1. Scenario-based exercises: Teams work through real-life situations where they have to apply brand voice to job descriptions and recruitment materials.
2. Group discussions: Afterward, there’s space to discuss what worked, what didn’t, and any questions that arise.
3. Tailored feedback: Each team receives specific advice on how they can improve and stay on-brand moving forward.

Why Interactive Training Makes a Difference

Interactive training gives your team the chance to:

• See the guidelines in action. They can work through real-life scenarios specific to their department’s needs.
• Ask questions. They get immediate feedback, which helps clear up any confusion.
• Get tailored advice. Different departments face challenges when applying brand guidelines, so customized feedback is essential.

Not Just One and Done

It’s crucial to remember that training shouldn’t be a one-time thing. Brand guidelines aren’t set in stone — they will evolve with new messaging, product launches, or company-wide changes. To keep everyone up to date, consider:

• Quarterly or annual refreshers: New hires, new products, or updated messaging might require retraining or updates.
• On-demand workshops: Make sessions available whenever there’s a big shift, such as a rebrand or a new product launch.
• Regular audits: Check in periodically to ensure teams follow the guidelines and identify areas where further training may be needed.

Data That Backs Up the Need for Consistent Training

A 2021 survey by Lucidpress found that businesses with consistent branding across platforms and departments see a 23 percent boost in revenue. On the flip side, 71 percent of consumers said inconsistent branding leads to lost trust in a company.

Those numbers make a strong case for investing in regular, hands-on training. It doesn’t take much time, but the payoff is huge when it comes to brand consistency, building trust with customers, and even boosting your bottom line.

Beyond Just Writers: Who Needs Brand Guideline Training?

When you think about content, it’s easy to focus on blog posts, social media, and email marketing. But content goes far beyond that — it touches almost every aspect of your business communication. Here are some key areas where brand guideline training is just as important:

• Sales Teams:
  • Create pitch decks, email templates, and proposals.
  • Need to ensure all customer-facing content reflects the brand’s tone and messaging.
• HR Teams:
  • Develop recruitment materials, onboarding documents, and internal newsletters.
  • Responsible for maintaining consistency in how the brand is presented to current and potential employees.
• Customer Support Teams:
  • Handle external communications, like chat responses and helpdesk emails.
  • Must align with the brand voice to maintain a unified experience for customers.

Training these teams helps maintain brand consistency across all types of content, ensuring your message stays clear and cohesive, no matter the format or purpose.

Don’t Forget Employee Advocacy

Your employees are also powerful brand ambassadors, especially on social media. Training them to represent your brand correctly when they post on platforms like LinkedIn can:

• Enhance brand visibility and credibility.
• Ensure their posts align with your company’s values, tone, and style.

For example, if your company is known for being innovative, but an employee posts something overly formal, it creates a disconnect. With proper training, employees will feel confident and more effective in representing the company publicly, reinforcing your brand identity with every interaction.

Long-Term Benefits of Consistent Branding

There’s no denying the power of brand consistency. When your audience sees and hears the same message, tone, and style across every touchpoint, they begin to trust your brand. They know what to expect, and that reliability strengthens your relationship with them. On the flip side, a lack of consistency can quickly erode that trust, making your company seem unprofessional or disorganized.

Training your entire team, not just your content creators is a simple but effective way to ensure that your brand remains consistent across all platforms. It prevents mixed messages and keeps everyone moving in the same direction. When everyone is aligned, from the HR department to the marketing team, your brand will be represented in its best light, no matter who’s creating the content.

Ensuring Brand Success Through Teamwide Alignment

Taking the time to train your entire organization on brand guidelines is a small but impactful investment. Whether through centralized hubs like the ClearVoice Brand Profile, ongoing workshops, or hands-on training, ensuring that everyone understands and follows the guidelines will protect and strengthen your brand in the long run. When your entire company is aligned, your brand becomes a cohesive, trusted presence that shines through in every piece of content, from social media posts to internal communications.

Connect with a ClearVoice content strategist to discuss your branding and content production needs.

The post Comprehensive Brand Guideline Training: Beyond Writers and Editors appeared first on ClearVoice.

That’s why it’s so important to hand your ESG content over to experts who really understand the subject beyond just the jargon. We’re here to show you how to build a smart content strategy and connect with skilled financial and sustainability writers to create content tailored to your brand.

ESG — what’s it all about? 

Sustainability, impact, and ESG (environmental, social, and governance) factors are all about making sure investments are handled responsibly and sustainably. They add an extra layer of consideration to the decision-making process so that people’s savings are invested with a positive impact in mind.

Even though regulations vary from place to place, ESG has become a key part of how banks and asset managers in the US, Europe, and other major economies approach their investments and governance practices.

McKinsey says more than 90 percent of  S&P 500 companies publish ESG reports. For investment banks in particular, integrating ESG provides an opportunity to:

• Attract and retain clients who prioritize sustainable investing
• Demonstrate a commitment to responsible investing and risk management
• Differentiate themselves in a crowded marketplace
• Build trust and loyalty through transparency

Why ESG Matters

The push to tackle big issues like climate change and social inequality has made ESG a top priority for investors and companies everywhere, especially when it comes to:

• • Company performance and risk management: According to an Oxford University meta-study, over 88 percent of reviewed studies show that prudent sustainability practices positively influence operational performance.
  • Regulatory compliance and pressure: Regulators globally are enacting more mandates around ESG disclosures and risk management in finance. Regulations like the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) in the EU already require firm ESG reporting.
  • Changing investor preferences: Investor demand for sustainable offerings is surging: according to PwC, global assets under management in ESG-related portfolios will increase to $33.9tn in 2026 from $18.4tn in 2021. 

• Reputational benefits: Companies perceived as leaders in ESG benefit from enhanced public trust and reputation, heightened employee satisfaction, and stronger investor confidence.

• Talent acquisition and retention: ESG is now a key talent draw. A KPMG survey found that 46 percent of professionals want their company to demonstrate a commitment to ESG. 

ESG and Content Marketing — why should you care? 

Content marketing is a great way to share your firm’s ESG commitments with your clients and the public. It helps you:

• Educate stakeholders: Content like whitepapers, videos, and webinars can break down complex ESG concepts for clients and demystify sustainable finance.
• Demonstrate thought leadership: By publishing insights and research around emerging ESG trends, you can establish your businesses’ credentials as a go-to authority on sustainable investment.
• Highlight ESG initiatives: Content gives you a platform to demonstrate your firm’s offerings and operations are evolving to integrate principles like decarbonization, diversity, and inclusion.
• Promote sustainable offerings: Banks can use content to market ESG-aligned products and services like green bonds, impact funds, and sustainability-linked loans.
• Attract ESG-minded investors: Targeted content campaigns can reach customers concerned with carbon footprint and climate risk, driving engagement.

Creating Content That Promotes Responsible Investing

When creating ESG-focused content, it’s important to make sure your message clearly shows your organization’s commitment to responsible investing. Here are a few key elements to include to make your content stand out:

• Defining ESG: Concisely explain what ESG means at your organization. Is the focus on emissions reduction? Community development? Ethics and transparency? Be specific.
• Adopting a Stakeholder Mindset: Recognize clients, employees, and communities may have different ESG interests. Customize content accordingly.
• Focusing on Authenticity: Being transparent about challenges and gaps in your ESG journey builds trust and understanding.
• Maintaining Consistency: Establish a cadence for releasing ESG content updates, whether quarterly or annually. Consistency builds authority.
• Simplifying Complex Concepts: Break down wonky ESG terminology and data using simple language, helpful analogies, and clear visuals.
• Aligning with Company Values: Demonstrate how ESG ties directly to your bank’s purpose, mission, and ethos. The fit should be seamless, not forced.

Using Content to Educate and Engage ESG-Conscious Clients

You can use content across multiple formats and platforms to increase ESG awareness and engagement by developing content across a range of verticals: 

Long-form educational content: Create guides, eBooks, and white papers that dive deep into ESG topics, perfect for clients who want to learn on their own. You could cover things like:

• The business case for ESG integration
• Climate risk modeling techniques
• Reporting standards like GRI and SASB
• Sustainable development goals and stakeholder capitalism

Advertorials or testimonials: Share interviews with clients explaining why they chose your firm’s ESG solutions. Peer validation is always powerful.

Webinars: Host live presentations to walk clients through ESG topics and answer their questions. These events help build stronger connections.

Email and newsletters: Send regular emails with ESG insights, data, and updates. You can even offer clients the option to subscribe to dedicated ESG content.

Social media: Use platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter to share ESG news, program highlights, infographics, and videos. Encourage discussions and engagement.

Thought leadership: Share ESG insights in top industry publications and speak at key conferences. Position your executives as thought leaders in the field.

Case studies: Highlight real client success stories that show the measurable ROI from your ESG offerings, like reduced emissions or improved risk management.

Positioning Your Bank as a Leader in Sustainable Finance

Your bank can strengthen its reputation as a leader in sustainable finance by using smart content strategies that showcase real ESG actions and engage your audience. Here’s how:

Showcase ESG Initiatives and Successes

Share measurable results like achievements in renewable energy projects, emission reductions, or sustainable bonds. Highlight partnerships with NGOs, publicize any ESG awards, and share customer and community testimonials. Be transparent about challenges and lessons learned along the way.

Position Your Executives as ESG Thought Leaders

Have your leadership team write articles for sustainability publications, secure speaking spots at major ESG events, and get involved in high-profile climate initiatives. Promote their expertise through media appearances and thought leadership pieces to establish them as trusted voices in ESG.

Transparent Reporting

Publish an annual sustainability report that is easily accessible to all stakeholders. Be open about key metrics like emissions, recycled waste, volunteer hours, and sustainable financing projects.

Responsible Marketing

Make sure your ESG claims are clear, specific, and backed by data. Get independent verification for your sustainability reports to build credibility.

Best Practices for Integrating ESG into Your Content Strategy

Beyond individual ESG content pieces, long-term success depends on weaving sustainability into your entire content approach. Here’s how:

• Define ESG Focus Areas and Metrics: Identify the main ESG topics your content will focus on and determine how you’ll measure success in these areas. Track things like emissions reduced through green bond financing or employee volunteer rates.
• Conduct an ESG Content Audit: Take a look at your past content. Where are the gaps in ESG coverage? Pinpoint areas that could benefit from an ESG refresh and map out an editorial calendar to bring more ESG-focused content to your channels.
• Set Public Goals: Share clear, ambitious ESG targets for the next few years — whether it’s increasing renewable energy financing or improving diversity in your workforce. Public goals keep you accountable and show your commitment.
• Align Messaging Across Channels: Make sure your ESG messaging is consistent across your website, social media, thought leadership, and events. Consistency builds trust and authority in the space.
• Engage Cross-Functional Teams: Involve people from different areas — communications, marketing, product, compliance — to plan your ESG content. A holistic approach ensures better alignment and execution.
• Educate Your Staff on ESG: Provide training on sustainability topics so your employees can confidently talk about your bank’s ESG efforts during customer interactions. Everyone should be well-versed in your ESG goals.
• Leverage Multimedia Formats: Make ESG content engaging by using a variety of formats — videos, infographics, podcasts, or even quizzes. This makes complex topics more accessible to a wider audience.
• Promote Your Content: Don’t just post ESG content on your site and wait for people to find it. Actively promote it through social media, email marketing, and partnerships to boost visibility and engagement.
• Measure Engagement: Track metrics like page views, downloads, email clicks, or quiz completions to see how your audience is interacting with your ESG content. Use these insights to fine-tune your strategy.

By focusing on authenticity, transparency, and consistency in your ESG content strategy, your bank can build credibility and truly position itself as a leader in sustainable finance.

From Commitment to Impact: Kickstart Your ESG Content Journey 

Are you ready to develop a high-impact ESG content strategy tailored to your banking firm’s actions? Our expert financial and sustainability writers at ClearVoice know how to communicate truthfully and accurately. 

Connect with a content strategist to start your bank’s journey toward purpose-driven content leadership.

The post Integrating ESG into Investment Banking Content Marketing Through Communication appeared first on ClearVoice.

What you’re experiencing is a branding and marketing strategy called content personalization. It’s being used everywhere, from streaming services to marketing emails, to improve the customer experience, drive conversions, and build brand loyalty.

By examining your customer’s demographic, socioeconomic, and behavioral data, your marketing team can tailor content to speak to a customer’s specific needs and desires. This, in turn, increases sales and gives you a significant advantage over competitors that rely only on generic messaging.

Let’s take a closer look at the different types of content personalization you can use. We’ll then go into how you can develop a personalized content strategy, leverage data to build dynamic content, and measure the effectiveness of your content for optimal results.

Understanding Content Personalization

With all the content your customers consume every day, the opportunities for creating personalized content are everywhere. Here are some examples:

• Personalized emails use automation to refer to customers by name, remind them of cart abandonment, and reference recent purchases to encourage further buying.
• Personalized web pages can make purchasing recommendations based on a user’s buying history and offer updates on reward points.
• Interactive content helps gather data on a customer’s preferences. For instance, the e-commerce website Care/of invites visitors to take a quiz that collects their name, contact information, and knowledge of vitamins and supplements. Based on this information, Care/of offers personalized recommendations. Even if visitors don’t buy anything, they still provide Care/of with useful information for their personalized content campaigns. 
• GPS-based apps can offer suggestions for shops, restaurants, gas stations, etc., based on the user’s current location.

All this personalized content makes customers feel your brand understands them and creates multiple ways to interact with or buy from your company. This is important since, according to recent statistics provided by Exploding Topics:

• 60 percent of consumers report becoming regular customers after having a personalized shopping experience
• 89 percent of marketers that use personalized campaigns see a positive ROI
• 74 percent of e-commerce companies use a personalization program for their websites

Using personalized content improves your marketing strategy and helps you stay competitive by providing customers with a smoother buyer’s journey. Let’s examine how to use personalized content in your marketing. 

Developing a Personalized Content Strategy

To create an effective personalized content strategy, you need to identify your target audience(s) and understand their preferences. Start by collecting data on your current and prospective customers. This can be done by sending clients post-purchase surveys, asking visitors to fill out lead forms, or using an analytics service like Google Analytics 4 to find information about visitors to your website.

Target audience data to identify includes:

• Age
• Location
• Education level
• Income level
• Gender
• Purchase history
• Browsing history
• Social media preferences

Now, create buyer personas based on this data on your target audiences. This will help determine how to craft your content.

For instance, if you discover many of your ideal customers are based in New York and frequent Instagram, you could create Instagram marketing posts that cater to New York interests and values as they relate to your products and services. 

It’s also important to map your personalized content to whatever stage of the marketing funnel your customer is in.

Let’s say your company offers a personal finance investing app, and you’re targeting potential customers in the consideration stage of the buyer’s journey. You might send personalized emails with content that compares the pros and cons of using an app versus hiring a financial advisor. This personalized approach shows how your app directly addresses their pain points, helping to persuade them to become a customer.

And if you want to elevate your buyer persona game, check out our guide on advanced segmentation.

Implementing Content Personalization Tactics

To create personalized content that resonates with your target audience, you need to offer content that not only considers what they’re looking for but also what they’re not looking for. This is particularly relevant for companies that service large populations but still need to appeal to select segments.

For instance, Nordstrom’s website can access a user’s location and show prices in local currencies, saving non-US customers the trouble of looking up exchange rates when shopping for clothes. By considering the currency their customers are familiar with, Nordstrom makes it easier for European visitors to shop online.

Likewise, you can track a user’s interaction history with your website to offer recommendations. Amazon and many other companies do this with their “More items to consider” and “Customers who bought this item also bought” sections, helping visitors narrow their product selections and even directing them to appealing items they hadn’t considered.

Similar tactics can be used in your personalized emails. For example, email marketing software can remind customers about an abandoned cart to help complete a sale or offer accessory recommendations. Other personalized emails might offer birthday greetings or anniversary reminders, complete with a promo offer to encourage shopping. 

Leveraging Data and Technology

If collecting and analyzing customer data and browsing history sounds complicated, don’t worry. Customer analytics platforms provide you with AI and machine learning tools that automate the process of data collection and organization.

Depending on the tools you use, your analytics software can show what content your users interact with the most, where users drop off in their customer journey, and other customer behaviors. AI can also create data visualizations, making generating actionable insights from the information easier and sharing them with your marketing team.

Some popular customer analytics platforms include:

• Google Analytics
• Userpilot
• Kissmetrics
• Hotjar

AI and machine learning can also help create personalized content. For instance, AI-powered chatbots can now interact with users on your website, collect data on their needs, and offer personalized recommendations on how your products or services can benefit them. Leveraging customer insights for personalized content is one of the most effective content personalization strategies you can use. 

As AI tools become more sophisticated, the ability to craft hyper-personalized content for each customer becomes more possible. Where personalized content was once designed to appeal to key demographics, AI-powered algorithms can now analyze an individual’s browsing and buying history and generate highly specific lists of the programs, products, and accessories that customers are most likely to consume, increasing the likelihood of future sales.  

For example, HubSpot’s dedicated content personalization tool leverages CRM data and purchase behavior to craft blogs, landing pages, and emails tailored to each particular prospect.

Modern marketing strategies may use AI to bring content personalization closer to real-time. For instance, an article in Forbes indicates that content providers may utilize facial recognition software to help read user emotions and make product or content recommendations based on how a customer feels at that moment.  

While some consumers have expressed trepidation about AI’s role in predicting customer behavior, as customers come to expect personalized experiences in their buyer’s journey, business leaders have come to see this fast-paced approach to personalized content as inevitable. According to Ted Levine, Executive Vice President at IT service management company Capgemini Americas:

“Business and technology are now forever linked, and road maps need to reflect that shift and respond accordingly. In today’s rapidly changing [consumer product], retail and hospitality landscape, companies need to react quickly to establish relevancy and inspire loyalty.”

Measuring and Optimizing Personalized Content

How do you know if your personalized content campaigns are working? Some of the most important key performance indicators (KPIs) you need to keep your eye on include the following:

• Conversion rate: How many of your visitors are taking a desired action after interacting with your content (like making a purchase, signing up for a webinar, or subscribing to your newsletter?)
• Revenue per visitor (RPV): How much revenue is each visitor to your website generating for your business? This figure indicates how effective your content’s product recommendations and personalized offers really are.
• Bounce rate: How many visitors leave your website after viewing one page and not taking any action? High bounce rates may indicate that your content is not engaging or relevant to your customers.
• Time on site: How many minutes are your visitors spending on your site? Longer times indicate higher engagement, while short amounts of time could indicate a lack of interest.

To build more effective personalized content, use A/B testing and experimentation. This is when you create two different versions of content (like a webpage, blog post, or email) and compare them against each other based on how users interact with them. Use the KPIs listed above to measure which content version produced the most optimal results, and use what you discovered to shape future content.  

Importance of Content Personalization

Treating customers like people and not numbers has always been the best way to establish mutually beneficial relationships with your clients. Providing them with personalized content offers multiple opportunities to build trust with your brand, which leads to greater revenue and a clearer understanding of customers’ needs.

This is aided by advances in customer analytics software, which allows for creating more accurate buyer personas. AI and machine learning tools can sift through vast amounts of customer data. Then, they can uncover patterns of behavior that suggest the type of personalized content consumers appreciate. As these increasingly convenient customer journeys become more common, consumers will expect such personalized interactions in their everyday lives.

Such advances and content providers’ willingness to use them in marketing indicate a growing intensity in creating more hyper-personalized shopper experiences. Brands that learn how to leverage data and technology and create better content personalization strategies will gain a competitive advantage (including SEO content personalization). 

If you’d like help creating dynamic content personalized for your target audience, partnering with a content marketing agency like ClearVoice can help. Our content strategists and writers can produce the content you need that appeals to your ideal consumers. Connect with a content specialist and see how we can build more personal content for you.

The post Personalized Content Strategies: Gaining the Competitive Edge appeared first on ClearVoice.

It’s the heartbeat of your brand, enhancing every department from human resources to product development. 

A well-crafted content strategy isn’t just about campaigns and conversions. Powerful content helps break down silos and fosters a culture of collaboration and shared purpose. That strategic content collaboration can bridge departmental divides and be a catalyst for organizational transformation. 

Let’s explore how a unified content strategy can transform your business in each department. 

“Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department.” 

                                                                   -David Packard HP Co-Founder

Looking Beyond Marketing: Content’s Role in Your Entire Business

Content is more than just a marketing tool. It’s an asset that can drive alignment across your entire organization. 

Let’s see how content can unlock the potential across your entire company. First up is Internal Communications. 

Transform Workplace Dynamics with Strategic Internal Communication

Content in HR? Absolutely. 

In people management, the right content turns the mundane into the memorable, boosting retention, engagement, and overall morale. 

A recent Glassdoor Study by the Brandon Hall Group showed that effective onboarding processes boost retention and new hires by 82%. 

Strategic Internal Communications content fosters a sense of belonging and purpose among employees. That engagement can help retain top talent and cultivate a culture that empowers employees to thrive and contribute to the company’s overall success. 

Top Content Types for Human Resources and People Management

• Company overviews
• Job descriptions
• Internal newsletters
• Onboarding documentation
• Hands-on training videos
• Recognition and reward announcements

Content Tip: Enhance job descriptions with narratives or testimonials from current employees to create a picture for candidates of what the culture of your organization is like. 

Innovate the Future: The Role of Content in Product Development

Content is a secret weapon for your product teams. 

Compelling content helps build a bridge with customers and transforms complex ideas into accessible, engaging narratives. 85% of products fail when companies don’t talk to consumers. 

Incorporating customer feedback into your product development content can help you align your vision with market needs and mitigate the risk of product failure. 

Top Content Types for Product and R&D

• Product specifications and roadmaps
• User guides and manuals
• Featured release notes
• Technical white papers
• Prototyping and design thinking workshops
• Feedback and survey analysis reports

Content Tip: Develop white papers with detailed case studies to narrate user experiences and the product’s impact, demonstrating value and reinforcing the vision for stakeholders. 

Elevate Customer Interactions Through Content

Strategic content turns customer challenges into opportunities for engagement and loyalty. Effective content not only provides answers but also empowers customers, leading to increased satisfaction and a stronger brand connection. 

72% of leaders believe merging teams and responsibilities around customer experience will increase operational efficiencies. Aligning your content strategies across support, sales, and marketing creates a seamless journey for your customers. 

Top Content Types for Customer Support and Success

• Welcome emails
• FAQs
• How-to guides
• Video tutorials
• Product usage tips and best practices
• Chatbot scripts and automated responses
• Customer case studies

Content Tip: Implement an interactive FAQ page with decision trees to guide customers to quick solutions, boosting self-service efficiency and satisfaction. 

Accelerate Growth with Sales Enablement Content

Content does more than just inform; it persuades, engages, and closes deals. 

Strategically crafted content in this domain can significantly shorten the sales cycle, build trust with prospects, and set the groundwork for lasting business relationships. 

95% of B2B buying decisions are directly influenced by content. Equipping your sales team with high-quality content gives them the tools they need to connect with prospects at every stage of the buyer’s journey. 

Best Content Types for Sales and Business Development

• Product and service one-sheets
• Customer stories
• Competitive analysis reports
• Industry trend insights and white papers
• Sales presentation and pitch decks
• Testimonials and customer reviews

Content Tip: Personalize sales emails and proposals with dynamic content that targets the recipients’ specific challenges, boosting engagement and conversion rates. 

Attract Top Talent with Innovative Employer Branding Strategies

Content is key in attracting, engaging, and retaining top talent. 

Effective content highlights company culture and values, weaving a narrative that showcases the benefits and opportunities of working there, making it attractive to potential candidates. 

96% of companies believe employer brand and reputation can positively or negatively impact revenue. Innovative content and strategy can position your business as an employer of choice and draw in top-tier talent. 

Top Content Types for Talent Acquisition and Employer Branding

• Employee testimonials and spotlights
• Behind-the-scenes company culture videos
• Career progression and learning opportunities stories
• Recruitment event highlights and webinars
• Benefits and perks overviews

Content Tip: Create an immersive virtual tour of your office and team activities to give candidates a tangible feel of your work environment, enhancing your employer’s appeal. 

Craft Compelling Narratives for Your Corporate Communication

Content is the linchpin that shapes public perception and maintains brand integrity. 

Strategically crafted content in this arena communicates the company’s vision, achievement, and responses to market dynamics, reinforcing stakeholder trust and enhancing media relations. 

7 in 10 PR professionals struggle with creating effective content. And more than half also struggle to effectively distribute the content they do create. With the right content and distribution channels, you can build a powerful brand story that resonates with stakeholders and the public alike. 

Top Content Types for Corporate Communications and PR

• Press releases and media advisories
• Executive speeches and thought leadership
• Corporate responsibility reports and updates
• Crisis communication plans and statements
• Newsletter content for stakeholders
• Social media updates and engagement strategies

Content Tip: Host live Q&A sessions with company leaders on social platforms to foster transparency and direct engagement with your audience, strengthening brand trust. 

Best Practices for Content Integration

To integrate content effectively: 

• Define your content goals clearly
• Identify content champions in each department
• Leverage collaborative tools for seamless sharing and communication 

As you follow these steps, you’ll break down silos and maximize the impact of your content. 

Tools and Technologies for Seamless Integration

To empower your content strategy, you need the right tools, The top ones to think about are Content Management Systems for creation, collaboration platforms for teamwork, and analytics tools for insights. 

Some of our favorites include: 

• WordPress
• Hubspot
• Google Analytics
• Semrush
• Slack
• Smartsheets, Monday, etc.

Measuring the Impact of Integrated Content

You’ll also need to track your integrated content strategy with KPIs like engagement rates, conversion improvements, and feedback loops for continuous improvement. 

Your KPIs should be aligned with your overall goals. Here’s a breakdown of three common goals with the respective metrics to track: 

• Driving Brand Awareness
  • Impressions
  • Unique Users
  • Share of Voice
• Lead Generation and Conversions 
  • Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
  • Cost Per Lead (CPL)
  • Marketing and Sales Qualified Leads (MQLs and SQLs)
• Customer Retention
  • Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
  • Net Promoter Score (NPS)
  • Churn Rate

By regularly evaluating these metrics, you can keep refining your integrated content strategy to ensure it delivers maximum value. 

Ready to Integrate Content? Let’s Start the Conversation

Integrating content across your business isn’t just a strategy; it’s a mindset shift toward more collaborative, insightful, and customer-centric operations. 

Ready to transform your business with content? Begin by reimagining how content can bridge gaps, build connections, and drive growth across all departments. 

If you need support in getting started with your content production, connect with ClearVoice today to start the conversation. We’ll help you craft a content strategy that accelerates your growth, drives success, and creates a lasting impact.

The post Integrating Content Across Your Enterprise appeared first on ClearVoice.

Information runs stale as new trends and technology result in industry changes. The instructions you provide on how to use one platform could easily be out of date by the next year as the platform gets updated. So you leave your readers confused, not knowing whether to trust the information you provide.

This makes it crucial to constantly update your content with the latest information to maintain its value and relevance. That way, you can adapt to meet your audience’s changing needs. In fact, updating existing content has helped 42 percent of marketers boost their content marketing value.

In this post, we explore how to identify underperforming content and how to refresh them. We also show you how to measure the impact of your content refresh and how to prevent future content decay. 

The Causes and Signs of Content Decay

Your content can lose its relevance and effectiveness over time because of a number of reasons:

• Evolving information: Industries evolve as new trends and technology emerge, resulting in new information. Content referencing outdated statistics or practices becomes less relevant, losing credibility and user trust. For instance, 76 percent of consumers are concerned with misinformation.
• Search engine algorithm changes: Search engines like Google prioritize fresh and relevant content. Content that hasn’t been updated to align with current ranking factors may see a decline in visibility. According to Kuno Creative, 51 percent of content consumption derives from organic search.
• Audience interest shifts: User needs and expectations evolve. Content that once resonated with your audience might no longer address their current pain points or interests. However, only 66 percent of B2B marketers prioritize audiences’ needs over sales goals when creating content.
• Broken links and outdated resources: Links can become inactive, and resources referenced might no longer exist. This can be a frustrating experience for people reading your content. It also harms your SEO efforts as search engines can no longer index the page. To make it even more clear, 88 percent of users don’t return to sites after these experiences.

As these factors influence your content performance, you’ll start noticing the following signs:

• Declining organic traffic: A drop in organic website visits to a specific piece of content indicates potential decay, provided the drop happened consistently over time.
• High bounce rate: If users leave your page shortly after landing, it suggests your content doesn’t meet their expectations. This could be because it doesn’t contain the latest information they seek.
• Low engagement metrics: A lack of comments, shares, time on site, and social media engagement points toward declining content value. It means that people are no longer engaging with your content.
• Negative user reviews: Direct feedback from your audience could also help you identify outdated or underperforming content. Your audience may comment on the post highlighting outdated information or irrelevant content.
• Backlink decline: Backlinks are like votes of confidence for your content. A decrease in backlinks might indicate a reduced value in the eyes of other websites.

Identifying Underperforming Content

Assumptions alone aren’t enough to identify underperforming content. It’s important to take a data-driven approach and perform a thorough content analysis to pinpoint content that’s losing its shine. Use the following tools to track your content performance and see which ones need updating:

• Analytics platforms: Tools like Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics help you identify trends in organic traffic, bounce rates, and average time spent on page for specific content pieces. A decline in these metrics could indicate content decay.
• Search Console data: Use Google Search Console to track your content’s ranking for relevant keywords. A significant drop in ranking could signify a need for revitalization.
• Content audit tools: Consider dedicated content audit tools like Semrush or Screaming Frog to analyze large datasets of content. These tools are highly effective for identifying broken links and SEO optimization opportunities.

• Social listening tools: Tools like Brandwatch and Sprout Social help you understand audience sentiment and identify content gaps. See the conversations people are having about your brand and content. This will help you adapt your content revival strategy to address their specific content needs.

These tools provide a wealth of data about your website and content performance. You need to filter this information to focus on the right data to understand which pieces are underperforming. The following key metrics can help you measure content performance:

• Organic traffic: Look for signs of decline in the number of visitors who found your content organically through search engines.
• Bounce rate: See if there’s a high percentage of visitors who leave a page after viewing just one page.
• Average time on page: Look for a drop in the average amount of time people spend engaging with your content.
• Engagement metrics: Identify a consistent decline in engagement actions such as social shares and comments.
• Conversions: Track the number of visitors who take a desired action on your website, such as signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase.
• Backlinks: Measure changes in other websites linking to your content, indicating its authority and relevance.

Strategies for Content Refresh and Revival

Your content being outdated doesn’t necessarily mean you no longer have use for it. You could still get some value out of it with some punch-ups and updates. Here are a few strategies to refresh and revive outdated and underperforming content.

Content repurposing and updating

In most cases, you can update your content with new information to refresh it a little. This will enhance its value and strengthen its appeal to your audience.

Update your content according to the latest trends and data from reliable sources. Conduct a content audit and go through the existing information to see if there have been any changes since you first published it. Check the reports and studies you cited to see if there are new findings that you can use.

Sprout Social, for instance, makes annual changes to its platform-specific stats listicles.

Image Source

If possible, consider adding new sections or subsections that address emerging topics within your field. Offer deeper insights to enhance value through new examples, case studies, and expert quotes.

You can even repurpose some of your top-performing pieces into different formats to reach a wider audience. Convert blog posts into infographics or videos or create bite-sized social media content based on existing long-form pieces.

SEO and keyword refresh

The latest Google algorithm updates could influence how your content ranks for relevant keywords. To stay on top of these updates, you need to refresh your content regularly. Moreover, as new competitors emerge targeting the same keywords as you, optimizing your existing content will help you maintain your position.

You can refresh your old blog posts for SEO by updating them with the latest trending keywords that align with the topic and search intent. Update the title tags and meta descriptions with the right keywords.

Additionally, improve your linking strategy by fixing broken links and linking to other relevant content within your website. Link your refreshed content to relevant pages within your website to improve user flow and search engine ranking. Don’t forget to use highly relevant anchor texts when linking to other pieces of content.

It’s also essential to fix any technical SEO issues that could impact your content’s visibility.

Design and visual enhancements

Outdated visuals negatively impact the user experience. Imagine someone reading a blog post containing screenshots from an older version of an app. They’ll have a hard time following the instructions if the app layout from the screenshot no longer matches the latest version.

So it’s important to regularly refresh older images, screenshots, and other visual media according to the latest updates and design trends.

Content readability also plays an important role in the overall user experience. Huge text blocks, run-on sentences, and awkward formatting can make your content difficult to read. So make sure to update your content format with readability in mind. This involves using relevant subheads, bullet points, and white space to break up huge text blocks.

Don’t forget about mobile users. When your content reads well only on desktop, mobile users will have to pinch and squint to read it. This is a recipe for higher bounces and lower engagements. So make sure every element displays flawlessly across all devices.

Measuring the Impact of Content Refresh

Updating your content is only one part of a larger content revival strategy. Once updated, you need to carry out a content analysis to ensure that your efforts have paid off. This involves keeping track of any changes in the key metrics you used to identify underperforming content.

• Traffic changes: Did organic traffic increase after the refresh? Remember that you might not see an immediate uptick. The traffic growth will typically increase gradually over time.
• Improved bounce rate and average time on page: Do you notice a drop in your bounce rate? Are people spending more time on pages with refreshed content?
• Increased engagement: Has there been a rise in user interaction, such as comments or shares? Pay attention to comments, social media engagement, and lead generation rates associated with the refreshed content.
• New backlinks: Track if the refreshed content attracts new backlinks. This is a strong indicator of improved authority and relevance.
• Increased conversion rate: Are visitors taking desired actions, like subscribing to your newsletter or making a purchase? Has your conversion rate increased compared to pre-content refresh?

Preventing Future Content Decay

An extensive content refresh may help you revive outdated and underperforming content. But there’s no guarantee that your refreshed content will eventually decay a couple of years down the line.

It’s vital to carry out ongoing content analysis to monitor performance declines and detect early signs of content decay. This will help you take necessary precautions to refresh your content before its performance drops further.

On that note, you need to schedule regular content updates so that your content doesn’t have time to become outdated in the first place. According to an analysis by Siege Media, the frequency of content refresh depends on the type of content and the target keywords. Generally, content that ranks on page one for popular keywords has been updated in the past 1.31 years on average.

Product-focused content targeting keywords containing “best” tends to see more frequent updates at an average of 235 days. Similarly, keyword variants containing “rates” see frequent updates at an average of 246 days.

On the other hand, keywords containing “what is” and “how to” require less frequent updates. This indicates that the type of information associated with these keywords is more evergreen.

Gearing Up for a Successful Content Revival

From identifying which content pieces need updating and knowing how to update them — content refresh can be a challenging process. Fortunately, you can count on ClearVoice to provide powerful content solutions for your content revival needs.

Identify your content gaps and focus on the keywords that matter with our expert SEO content strategy. Then, implement your content refresh strategy with vetted content creators and a team to manage the entire content production. Connect with a ClearVoice content strategist today to get started. 

The post Content Decay and Revival: Identifying and Updating Underperforming Content appeared first on ClearVoice.

Content personalization is developing and delivering targeted content to specific groups within your wider audience, typically using demographic, behavioral, and socioeconomic data.

In content marketing, a strong content personalization strategy goes beyond just using a customer’s first name or making a simple recommendation. It’s about using an individual’s preferences, behaviors, and interests to craft tailored content that resonates and engages with them. That deeper level of engagement should ultimately lead to increased brand loyalty, trust, and conversions.

Why Content Personalization is Important

Now more than ever, customers want to feel like they have a relationship with the brands they invest in. And relationships are a two-way street! It’s not enough to tell them about you. You want to make your content feel like it’s about them. Anyone who’s been on the receiving end of a “Dear Sir/Madam” email understands how off-putting impersonal content feels. 

According to HubSpot, 58 percent of users are more likely to convert when they receive content based on their previous behavior. Customers are more likely to engage and make purchasing decisions when they feel heard, understood, and valued.

Some of the key benefits of using personalized content in your marketing strategy include:

• Enhanced engagement: Personalized content captivates audiences, resulting in higher readership, social sharing, and better retention
• Improved customer relationships: Personalization fosters deeper customer connections by creating a positive brand experience and cultivating long-lasting relationships
• Increased sales: Businesses can drive targeted website traffic, generate qualified leads, and boost sales through effective lead nurturing and conversion strategies

Simply put, if you’re not personalizing your content, you’re leaving money on the table.

How to Personalize Your Content

An easy place to begin is with segmentation. Rather than focusing on a single individual, segmenting your audience allows you to focus on small groups of individuals. Marketers who focus on segmenting often find success. Studies report that 77 percent of email marketing ROI stems from segmented campaigns.

You may choose to personalize your content to each buyer persona. Yes, these are all members of your target audience, but they likely have different demographics, live in different areas, have different interests, and spend time in different places online. Naturally, the content you create for them will look, feel, and read differently.

Another way is by segmenting your audience according to the current stage of the buyer’s journey. Leads that are close to converting shouldn’t be treated by your sales team the same way as leads that have just entered the pipeline, and the content you create for each stage of the buyer’s journey should differ as well.

And this is important: your decisions about content personalization should always be data-driven. 

For example, you run an email marketing campaign for new leads, and the email contains a link to a product description page. By studying your site analytics, you can see how many go to that page and how long they stay. If the page has a high bounce rate, it’s safe to assume customers aren’t seeing what they want when they arrive. 

On the other hand, for some products or services, your page analytics may reveal that you’re providing too much info. Your analytics may reveal that leads aren’t clicking on anything beneath that first fold — even though there are relevant products farther down. 

The best way to know which avenue to take is to use data to guide your personalization and relevance decisions.

Content Personalization and Account-Based Marketing

Account-based marketing (ABM) strategy is where the sales and marketing teams work together to define, identify, engage, and sell to a highly targeted set of client accounts. The sales team gives input on who they want to sell to, and the marketing team creates personalized assets that speak directly to this audience.

ABM is a high-octane version of content personalization. Everything you create — from ads to nurture emails to website content — speaks directly to your target audience. You want to customize your message to address their specific interests and pain points and demonstrate that you understand them.

One of ABM’s main benefits is leveraging content personalization across departments. Instead of using a sales funnel designed to target a wide range of hundreds, even thousands of companies, ABM starts with a small, targeted list that ensures your content and outreach are highly relevant, personalized, and informed.

Outsourcing Content Personalization

While essential, personalization at scale is quite the challenge. A content marketing agency like ClearVoice can help you achieve personalization at scale by providing expertise, tools, and resources. If you’re looking for great content or need help scaling your personalization, we can help. 

Unlock your team’s potential and budget when it comes to content personalization! Talk to a ClearVoice content strategist today.

The post Content Personalization appeared first on ClearVoice.

Marketers often report an impressive average of 14.1 percent for open rates, which is generally considered outstanding by industry standards. That is why most marketing leaders look to email marketing to bolster their content distribution efforts — it has proven effective.

If you’re considering doing the same, this guide is for you. We will explore the ins and outs of integrating email marketing into your content distribution strategy.

Email Marketing in Content Distribution

Email marketing brings two significant benefits to any content distribution strategy:

Directness and personalization

When your content is served directly via email, it doesn’t contend with other marketing elements present on mediums, such as social media sites, search engines, or even blog sites.

When your email messages are opened, your readers don’t see pop-ups or banner ads, among other marketing materials. The experience is much more direct, focused, and personalized.

Measurable outcomes

Most email marketing platforms have robust and advanced analytics functionalities that enable users to track the results of their campaigns.

The users can track their open rates, clicks, unsubscribes, etc.

Campaign optimization then becomes so much easier due to the measurable outcomes.

Crafting Effective Email Content

Your email marketing performance hinges on the quality of your email content.

With carefully crafted email content, you’ll get lots of opens and clicks. With poorly crafted content, however, your audience won’t even open your messages.

Consider the best practices below for creating email content.

• Write click-worthy subject lines. Use power words. These words paint a strong mental image for readers, compelling them to click open your email messages. Some examples of power words include ‘revolting,’ ‘powerful,’ and ‘danger.’
• Talk about your readers’ pain points. When you mention your readers’ pain points, they are reminded of the hassle and inconvenience they experienced. This causes them to be emotional, which then makes it easier for you to elicit a response from them.
• Focus on the benefits, not the features. Instead of saying your content is short and actionable, mention that your email list can save time and effortlessly follow the tips.
• Keep it short. Chances are, your readers are busy. Because of this, you need to keep your email messages short and crisp. That way, when they skim through your email, they won’t think twice about reading it because your email content is short.
• Add visuals. Another tip for creating high-performing email content is adding graphics or images. Graphics work as a breather of sorts. Instead of overwhelming your email list with massive blocks of text, you can sprinkle visuals in your email to break them into bite-size pieces.
• Add a clear call to action. Now that your readers are done reading your email content, give them a clear call to action so they know exactly what to do after reading. You can tell them to share your content, download, comment, etc.

Integrating Email with Other Distribution Channels

Use your email marketing seamlessly with other content distribution channels for more effective marketing campaigns.

Implement the following approaches.

Multi-channel strategies

Email marketing complements your social media pages, blog posts, and other channels by extending your reach, boosting engagement, and reinforcing your messaging via coordinated multi-channel strategies.

For example, you could announce a new product launch through your email newsletter, share the product’s features in-depth in your blog post, and promote it via social media platforms.

Your emails can lead your subscribers to your blog post for more details, while your social media posts can entice followers to sign up for your email newsletters for exclusive updates.

Cross-promotion tactics

Leveraging email can boost your content’s performance across platforms.

Consider the tactics below:

• Provide exclusive perks and content. As an incentive to engage with your content across other platforms, provide special offers or exclusive content to your email subscribers. For instance, email subscribers can get early access to exclusive Instagram content or live events.
• Promote content across platforms. Leverage your email newsletters to promote content such as podcasts and videos from other platforms. Include snippets or teasers to spark your audience’s interest and encourage click-throughs.
• Segment your email list. Sort your email list based on subscriber demographics, behaviors, and interests. It helps you tailor your content promotions to specific audience groups, boosting your content’s relevance and engagement. Marketing platforms like Mailchimp help you build segments easily (or use pre-built segments) and automate emails.

Measuring the Success of Your Email Campaigns

Measuring email marketing campaign success can help determine whether your efforts contribute to your overall goals and content distribution strategy.

Measuring email marketing success includes the following.

Key metrics and KPIs

Determining your email marketing campaign’s success starts with tracking crucial metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), such as:

• Open rate. The metric is the percentage of recipients who opened your email. High open rates indicate engaging content, compelling subject lines, and a strong sender reputation.
• Click-Through Rate (CTR). The CTR measures the percentage of recipients who clicked your email links. The metric indicates the effectiveness of your email content and CTA in driving engagement and expanding your reach by leading contacts to your specific landing pages or other content distribution channels.
• Conversion rate. The conversion rate measures the percentage of recipients who acted on your conversion goals, such as buying your product or downloading a resource. Tracking conversions tells you whether your marketing emails drive your desired outcomes, such as converting subscribers into paying customers.

Analytics tools

The best way to measure your email marketing campaign’s success is to use tools for tracking and analyzing email campaign performance.

Some of the top email analytics tools include the following:

• HubSpot. HubSpot’s email marketing tool includes robust analytics features to measure your campaign’s performance and optimize your strategies. The tool gives insights into clicks, email opens, conversions, and engagement metrics.
• Google Analytics. While Google Analytics isn’t specifically for email marketing, the platform can track user behavior and website traffic from your email campaigns. Setting up campaign tracking parameters on the tool lets you track email-driven visits to your website, goal completions, and conversions.

Trends and Innovations in Email Distribution

Keep up with the latest content distribution trends for email marketing to adapt your approach and keep your efforts relevant and effective.

Emerging technologies

The emerging technologies and tools in email marketing include the following:

• Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI can analyze massive amounts of subscriber behavior and data to help you tailor your email content to individual preferences. AI can facilitate seamless audience targeting and segmentation for more effective content distribution.
• Automation. Automation tools streamline scheduling and sending emails to recipients, ensuring relevant and timely communication based on user actions.
• Personalized content recommendations. Survey data shows that 56 percent of consumers will buy again after a personalized experience. The figure highlights the effectiveness of personalization in driving conversions and sales. Personalized content recommendation systems use AI algorithms to analyze subscriber preferences and data and recommend relevant content based on that information.

Regulatory considerations

Besides trends and innovations, you must adhere to and stay updated on applicable regulations and laws in email marketing and content distribution, including the following.

• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The GDPR provides guidelines on collecting, processing, and protecting personal data within the European Union (EU). GDPR compliance includes getting explicit consent for processing data, transparent data handling practices, and offering opt-out options for email subscribers.
• Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act. Adhering to the CAN-SPAM U.S. law helps you maintain sender deliverability and reputation to ensure your emails reach subscribers. Use honest email subject lines, give accurate sender details, provide subscribers with the opt-out option, and honor opt-out requests promptly to remain compliant.

You may also need to comply with other regulations depending on your and your email contacts’ geographic location and industry, such as Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL).

Complying with email marketing and content distribution laws shows that your business adopts ethical practices.

It also helps you mitigate legal risks and build trust with your subscribers, leading to higher engagement and conversions.

Leverage Email Marketing to Bolster Your Content Distribution

Given the direct connection email marketing establishes with your audience, it’s a toolkit you must include in your content distribution arsenal.

Email marketing can bring you more eyeballs, audience engagement, and sales.  The best part is email marketing is known to yield astronomical ROI.

With the help of seasoned content strategists and marketers, leverage content marketing now to bolster your content distribution initiatives.

The post Maximizing Your Reach: Integrating Email Marketing into Your Distribution Strategy appeared first on ClearVoice.