Both these companies create content for businesses of all sizes and industries. But who’s better for your brand?

We’ve provided a detailed breakdown of each company. In this guide, you’ll learn what you can expect from each service and which is best for you. Let’s see how they compare.

What is Writer.com?

Writer.com is a suite of artificial intelligence (AI) tools that automate tasks for brands and agencies. This site takes a lot of the guesswork out of writing everything from blog posts to customer service emails. And like other AI tools, Writer.com integrates with popular document platforms for seamless integration.

With their service, you can plug in your brand guidelines to ensure writers align with style and tone. For example, if the company prefers the word “premium” for their highest-tiered service plan, writers will see the highlighted suggestion.

This AI tool empowers content creators to align with brand communications.

Writer.com offers the following tools:

• Styleguide: The official brand guidelines for your company
• Terms: A dictionary of frequently-used and approved words
• Snippets of approved language for company communications
• CoWrite: A planning and writing tool using AI suggestions

They also have reporting and analytics to see the mistakes writers often make. They’re often paired with suggestions to reduce errors and clarify writing expectations for your teams.

What is ClearVoice?

ClearVoice is an online content marketplace and platform that connects brands with thousands of vetted content creators. When you partner with us, we use our Talent Network of 4,000+ freelancers across 200+ industries to match you with expert writers, designers, and editors who fit your needs and budget.

Our talent managers personally vet every freelancer who applies to our network, verifying their identity, credentials, and experience.

Whether you want an infographic, blog post, or white paper, ClearVoice takes a personalized approach and offers a complete lifecycle experience for content. We assist with strategy, creation, and distribution. Our support doesn’t just stop at writing and design. Our services also include:

• SEO technical and content audits
• Competitive and gap analysis
• Marketing personas and brand strategy
• Webpage optimization

If you’re choosing between hiring an agency or connecting with freelancers on your own, ClearVoice offers the best of both worlds. We provide the content creators, but you have final approval. You can check in on the progress of your project at any time and offer input. We prefer to partner with proactive brands that want close collaboration.

ClearVoice vs. Writer.com

ClearVoice

ClearVoice is a content agency that manages your content creation. It helps you craft a content strategy that harnesses the power of skilled content creators and top-tier AI tools. We believe AI can be essential to optimizing and scaling your content production. But, we always include human review and oversight to ensure you’re content has the personal touch.  When you partner with ClearVoice, you get our content creation services with ongoing support options like SEO audits and distribution services.

Pros

• Comprehensive content creation and strategy
• Extensive talent network
• Personalized content creation
• Robust additional services
• Great for scaling content
• Wide range of content types
• Human touch with AI

Cons

• Pricing varies

Writer.com

Writer.com is an AI tool. You use it with your writing teams to create more consistent writing across your writers, working with your existing content plan and guidelines. It offers suggestions to writers when they go outside the brand guidelines and, in some cases, may provide content ideas based on AI capabilities.

Pros

• Efficient AI tool
• Maintains consistency through feedback
• Ideal for companies that have established writers
• Especially beneficial for customer service teams

Cons

• Solely an AI tool
• Doesn’t replace the need for human oversight
• Limited uses

Who is Writer.com best for?

Writer.com is one of many AI tools being used today to give existing writers real-time suggestions as they write. It’s for companies with a team of writers who simply want to firm up their messaging to be uniform across all channels. Writer.com is also ideal for customer service teams who need shortcuts to get approved messaging out quickly.

As more writers use AI, Writer.com may be a good choice for keeping teams accountable to the brand guidelines, but it won’t replace real humans. This tool will likely free up editors from checking every piece of content against brand guidelines and help new in-house writers get up to speed on the company’s approved language.

Who is ClearVoice best for?

ClearVoice is best suited for brands that need additional support to create content at scale. Its vetted talent pool has experience in over two hundred industries. With us, you can spend less time scouting out or onboarding freelancers.

ClearVoice also provides additional managed services such as SEO optimization, content promotion, and distribution. It uses proven, experienced creators and works with your input in the entire process.

We also produce a wide range of content types. Whether you’re creating one piece of content or one hundred, we’re happy to ensure it is high-quality and high-performing.

FAQS

Q: What exactly is ClearVoice?

A: ClearVoice is an online content agency and platform that connects brands to a vast network of vetted content creation. We assist brands in content strategy, creation, and distribution and offer additional services like content audits and SEO optimization.

Q: How does Writer.com help my existing writing team?

A: Writer.com is an AI tool that offers real-time writing suggestions. It ensures consistency across your writers, aligning content with your brand’s guidelines. It can also provide content ideas based on its AI capabilities.

Q: How does ClearVoice ensure the quality of its freelancers?

A: ClearVoice has a rigorous vetting process where talent managers personally verify the identity, credentials, and past experiences of every freelancer who applies to be part of the network.

Q: Is Writer.com a replacement for human writers?

A: No, Writer.com is designed to complement and guide writers. It aids in ensuring messaging consistency across content but isn’t a substitute for the creativity and nuances of human writing.

Q: Can ClearVoice help with my content strategy?

A: Yes, ClearVoice isn’t just about content creation. We’re happy to work with you to ideate and execute a content strategy that drives your brand’s growth and success.

Q: I need varied content like infographics, blog posts, and white papers. Can ClearVoice do all of that?

A: Absolutely! ClearVoice is versatile, catering to a wide range of content needs. Whether it’s infographics, blog posts, white papers, or other unique content pieces, ClearVoice has you covered.

Q: How does pricing work for ClearVoice?

A: ClearVoice determines pricing on a project-by-project basis. They don’t have a one-size-fits-all price or subscription plan, ensuring flexibility and tailored solutions for brands.

Want to Connect With Us?

Alright, that’s the detailed breakdown. Writer.com might be a good tool for what you need. But if you’re looking for a partner to help you produce high-quality content that drives results, we’ve got you covered. Discover our solutions or talk to a specialist today to see how we can take your brand to the next level.

The post Thinking About Writer.com? Try ClearVoice Instead appeared first on ClearVoice.

Whatever your goals are, getting help from a content platform may be your best bet.

There are more content solution services to choose from than ever before. Two recognized names in the industry include ClearVoice and Constant Content. While these content providers offer similar services at first glance, they’re distinct in their approach to scaling content.

Here’s what you should know about these solutions and their offerings.

Constant Content

Founded in 2004, Constant Content is a content service that features pre-written content from thousands of writers. They claim to have over 300,000 pieces of content ready to sell in various categories. Constant Content also checks for plagiarism in each piece and gives the work a light polish with its editing team.

How does Constant Content work?

You can find the right content for their needs through searching by keyword or category. If you purchase a piece, you can download and use it immediately. And if they’re a particular writer you like, you can follow them and be alerted of new content pieces they’ve uploaded.

You can also call for custom content that writers then bid on. After selecting a writer, you can get your content as quickly as 24 hours.

The writers on the platform sell their content as either PLR (Private Label Rights) or Full Rights. Full Rights articles are written and sold one time and guaranteed to be unique and not indexed by Google on any other site.

Additional features

Constant Content also has a team to source large batches of content and works best for large orders of content. Constant Content’s team managers also help you find the right writer, communicate the project, and follow up on deadlines.

Constant Content is pay-as-you-go, without subscription costs. You can end your service anytime. You just have to register for the site with a $25 credit that you can put toward your purchases.

The only services offered are written content, editing, and plagiarism checks. The customer has to do all the strategy work. And while some writers may be proficient in SEO, standalone SEO services aren’t offered.

ClearVoice

ClearVoice is a content agency that provides top-tier content creation and strategy solutions. We build a custom team of experts for your content and manage everything from strategy and SEO to writing and editing.

How does ClearVoice work?

When you partner with us, we use our vast Talent Network to match you with expert writers, designers, and editors who fit your needs and budget. Our talent managers personally vet every freelancer who applies to our network, verifying their identity, credentials, and experience.

ClearVoice also has a team that oversees all content creation, ensuring that each piece of content is crafted with your voice and goals in mind. We educate all hired freelancers on your brand strategy, buyer personas, and guidelines.

You can also monitor and track each piece of content through the ClearVoice platform. You’re welcome to be as hands-on or hands-off as you want.

Additional features

We also offer the following additional resources:

• SEO strategy
• Technical audits
• Content audits
• Gap analysis
• Competitive analysis
• Keyword planning
• Marketing personas
• Webpage optimization
• Content roadmaps and recommendations
• Earned media placements

Bottom line, ClearVoice combines hiring freelancers yourself and working with an agency. Our wide range of vetted, proven creators and services makes us stand out among other content agencies in the industry.

To get started, you can easily speak with one of our specialists. We give you a quote based on your specific needs. We’re also happy to help you decide if our services are right for you.

ClearVoice vs. Constant Content

ClearVoice

Pros

• Complete content services
• Vast network of thousands of creators
• Offers a wide range of content types
• Transparent pricing model
• Robust additional services
• Hybrid model
• Facilitates close collaboration

Cons

• Requires an initial consultation
• Businesses may prefer a subscription model

Constant Content

Pros

• They’ve been around for a while
• Vast bank of pre-written content available for immediate purchase
• Features daily uploads of 5,000 pieces
• Light editing and plagiarism checks
• Offers both PLR and Full Rights articles
• Pay-as-you-go model without subscription commitments

Cons

• Written content services are limited
• No editing services
• No standalone SEO services
• No strategy services

Who is ClearVoice best for?

Clearvoice is for those seeking complete, personalized support in their content creation.

You get custom content tailored to your specific brand goals and strategy. You also have input in the editing process. That ensures you get just what you want from the content.

We’re also right for you if you need to craft highly technical content. Our writers are some of the best in the industry, and many subject matter and SEO expertise. ClearVoice will identify the right creators for your needs and budget. Then, we’ll handle the back-and-forth between teams and communicate as needed.

In addition to writing, you’ll get access to design, SEO, and promotional expertise, if needed.

Bottom line, ClearVoice is best for companies who are:

• Serious about the content strategy and creation process
• Looking for access to the best creators and consultants
• Ready to achieve long-term growth goals with support

Who is Constant Content best for?

Constant Content is for those who need content quickly (within 24 hours). It’s ideal when you need the bare minimum of lightly edited content that has passed a plagiarism checker.

If you aren’t concerned about the writer’s expertise in an area, you can order pre-written content that should achieve your goals. The ordering system can get you content within a day if you’d rather specify what’s written.

Constant Content is best for companies that want “instant” content needs and aren’t worried about needing strategy or distribution services.

FAQS

Q: What is the primary distinction between ClearVoice and Constant Content?

A: While both offer content solutions, ClearVoice provides a comprehensive ideation to distribution approach. Constant Content is more of a marketplace for pre-written and custom content with fast turnarounds.

Q: How does Constant Content ensure content uniqueness?

A: Constant Content offers articles as either PLR (Private Label Rights) or Full Rights, with the latter guaranteeing content uniqueness and not being indexed on any other site by Google.

Q: What additional services does ClearVoice offer apart from content creation?

A: ClearVoice provides a range of additional services services, including SEO strategy, technical audits, content audits, keyword planning, webpage optimization, and more.

Q: How do I initiate a collaboration with ClearVoice?

A: To begin working with ClearVoice, you can set up a free content strategy session to discuss your project and see if our services suit you.

Q: Can I get really content within a day from Constant Content?

A: Yes, Constant Content offers a system where customers can request custom content and potentially receive it in as little as 24 hours.

Q: Who should opt for ClearVoice?

A: ClearVoice is ideal for companies serious about creating content and seeking high-quality creators, specialists, and strategy support.

Which Content Agency is Right For You?

With this detailed breakdown, each company’s pros and cons should be clear. Be honest about what you want to achieve with your content strategy, and you’ll see which one is right for you.

If you still need help deciding, we’ve got your back. Feel free to check out our solutions or talk to a specialist today to discover if ClearVoice is right for you.

The post Thinking About Constant Content? Try ClearVoice Instead appeared first on ClearVoice.

So, what can you do if the New Year has you excited to make new content? Your success ultimately relies on a solid content marketing plan, including content operations. It should be carefully structured and ready to scale. And did we mention you need access to the latest in data tools?

This may seem like a big ask.

After all, you just got done with the rush of the holiday season.

7 tips to improve content operations in 2024

However, examining your content strategy now to ensure it’s fully funded and staffed can save you precious time in 2024. Consider these essential content marketing operations tips if you’re looking to hit the ground running in 2024.

1. Know what makes a good content marketing operations process

According to the American Marketing Association (AMA), marketer confidence has been at an all-time high since the pandemic. Content professionals seem ready to tackle bold new content goals, but success depends on a solid content operations process.

But what makes a good process?

Unfortunately, there’s no one cookie-cutter process that works for every type of organization. You can rely on some universal truths, however.

First, content marketing operations isn’t a “nice to have,” especially for companies looking to be the authority in their industry. Your process should be recently designed, not something dug up from the old marketing brochure days from a decade ago. It should include every aspect of the content production cycle, from social platforms to the flyers you hand out at conferences.

Finally, it needs to recognize the differences between content marketing and operations — namely, the approach toward creating and distributing content and the system that supports that approach.

You can’t do good work without both.

2. Get financial buy-in

People get excited about new campaigns in the New Year, but securing funds can be difficult. Work on getting executive buy-in well before Q1, so you’re ready to go right after the holiday break.

You know the importance of content, but will the decision-makers in your company see things the same way?

Remind stakeholders of the role content serves, including:

• Brand recognition
• Customer engagement
• Establishment of authority
• Education
• Onboarding
• Revenue generation
• A way to stay on top of the competition.

Pick the use cases that make the best argument for more content and investment in content marketing operations.

3. Don’t duplicate efforts

If you create a lot of content, you’re already familiar with how repetitive certain tasks can be.

Looking at your content marketing operations process is an excellent opportunity to create playbooks of your most-used content types. Team members can jump in at any step in the process and lend a hand.

Playbooks reduce time and let you batch similar tasks. How? A day spent creating infographics for one blog post could be turned into a day creating two (or more).

4. Get everyone on the same page

As a company grows and the content marketing operations system expands, the risk of having silos of information increases.

How many content calendars does your company have? Do sales have access to them –  or just marketing? If someone needed to see stats from a recent campaign, how many people would they have to contact to get that info?

Unified content calendars, tools that easily sync, and shared permission documents can save essential team members much time and effort. If you don’t have a system in place for unified tools, prioritize this now. Asking for permission to see that all-important planning doc on Google Drive should be a thing of the past.

5. Identify high-growth areas

While trial and error exist in content marketing operations, you should learn to recognize better opportunities over time.

Is there a blog post that consistently gets traffic during the holidays? Do you get asked the same question over and over by new clients?

By prioritizing content that fills a gap or can gain traction quickly – and doing these first – you can maximize your resources and get ROI immediately.

You won’t always know which blog posts to refresh, but time and experience can help you have some ideas. Since you likely can’t execute every great content idea you have, determine which to focus on. Start with the ones that have the most promise in helping you meet traffic, conversion, or revenue goals.

6. Separate content creation from content maintenance

With the best opportunities for content identified, you can now split tasks into creation and maintenance. Blog refreshes are maintenance, whereas new landing pages for your latest ebook would be creation.

Why is it important to split these up in your content marketing operations strategy?

They typically use different talent teams. So, it’s easier to have your marketers chunk up similar tasks when they aren’t tasked with refreshing and writing on the same day.

For example, having one marketing team member go through 20 posts to update statistics and internal links is more efficient than having that individual do this for five posts, write two new ones, and schedule some social media posts.

7. Put the right people in the right jobs

This one may feel overwhelming, especially if creating a content marketing operations process is new for you.

Your team may have obvious and hidden skills and the capacity to take on new skills with the proper training. Figuring this all out takes time, and you may overlook the best way to put the right people in the right jobs, especially at scale. Consider outsourcing the “people” part of your content strategy to freelancers and industry experts. The right partner can help elevate your content marketing operations and scale your content online.

Scale content marketing operations in 2024

ClearVoice offers the talents of hundreds of writers, designers, and subject matter experts in your field, along with the SEO support needed to make your message go even further. We know what makes a good content operations process, and we have the systems in place to ramp up your Q1 goals very quickly!

Contact us about how we can supplement or even replace your existing content marketing systems.

The post Top 7 Tips to Enhance Your Content Marketing Operations in the New Year appeared first on ClearVoice.

The way businesses reach out to new customers changes over time as more B2B companies focus on demand generation than ever before. Leading companies use a collaborative approach between sales and marketing that takes advantage of B2B demand generation content.

They also focus on bringing more qualified leads through the marketing funnel.

While we know that B2B demand generation works, one challenge is coming up with fresh content ideas. Here are 10 ways to create interest and awareness and increase your revenue.

10 top ideas for B2B demand generation content

Demand generation is a multi-channel strategy that works for organizations of all sizes. It usually starts with identifying the target customer, anticipating their needs, then making content that places you as an authority for that need.

Here are effective content types that you should use for demand generation today.

1. Webinars

Webinars are an ideal B2B demand gen content choice when you have a lot of detailed information to share with a potential buyer. They also give attendees the feeling of being involved in a more active relationship with your brand.

You can broadcast them live and then offer them as a download to be watched later. You can also repurpose each webinar into a series of blog posts, Medium posts, podcast episodes, YouTube videos, or shorter video snippets for social media.

Pro tip: Require attendees to register for your webinar in advance. This gets you their contact information, along with permission to send out updates. It also allows you to send reminders, which helps boost attendance on the day of the event.

2. Pillar pages

Pillar pages on a single topic not only help your page rank higher on search, but they also give the visitor access to dozens of internal links on your site. This helps them learn all they can about a topic without ever leaving your site.

As potential buyers visit more pages, they develop trust, see you as an authority, and get comfortable interacting with your company. Make pillar pages a high priority if your company is looking to grow its organic search traffic.

3. Infographics

People love stats but aren’t always excited about skimming large portions of text to find them. Maybe that’s why, according to Hubspot, infographics are taking over as the fourth most popular type of content marketing.

Infographics have two advantages working for them when it comes to B2B demand generation content tactics — they make reading stats easy, and they are enjoyable to share with others. They are also fun to share and can often get you quality backlinks, especially if you include lots of stats.

Pro tip: Keep your infographics to one page, and create a size appropriate for sharing on social. Ensure your company name and URL are easy to see on each image.

4. Podcasts

Podcasts are another great strategy to generate leads. According to the PodCast Index, there are over 4 million registered podcasts covering a variety of industries.

Brands can either create their own podcasts or get interviewed by top influencers, industry experts, and journalists and create audio experiences for their target audience.

While this B2B demand generation content strategy does require additional effort to write, record, and edit each podcast, it’s well worth it.

5. White papers

White papers are a staple of B2B demand generation content marketing strategy. They combine research, narrative text, and new insights into an easy-to-read digital paper that positions your company as a leader in your field.

White papers can be a couple of pages or up to 50 (or more), but since they are typically read in digital form, it pays to keep them brief. White papers create demand by showing B2B leaders that you know your stuff and can communicate it professionally.

6. Case studies

While white papers promise success in your own words, case studies use your customers’ stories to help create sales. If you have unique applications for your product or have changed a company for the better, let your customers speak for you.

Case studies can be a quick read, but be sure to offer tangible, measurable outcomes. If your customer saved $10,000, say so. Communicate if you helped them avoid closure or keep more employees on staff.

Pro tip: The point of a case study is to create a fear of missing out (FOMO) from prospects not yet using your services. Aim for case studies examples that are relatable and that other companies can imagine seeing themselves as experiencing, too.

7. Quizzes

Industry leaders and decision-makers know a lot about their field but may not know about their business needs. Help point that out by asking them questions via a simple, interactive quiz as a B2B demand generation content tactic.

Whether you choose a “what’s your personality?” theme or aim to give them a solution path on the spot, make your quiz quick, aesthetically pleasing, and relevant to what you offer. At the end of each quiz, you should include the next steps your users should take with a clear CTA.

8. Calculators

Another great B2B demand generation content strategy for lead generation is to create a tool in the form of a calculator. Customized, business-centric calculators provide value for marketers hoping to generate website traffic.

For example, you can publish an ROI calculator showing how much a new customer can save by using your product or a particular marketing strategy. You can also offer a calculation of how many supplies a customer will need for their operation. Whatever your goal, a calculator can highlight your unique offering.

Pro tip: Be sure to label your calculator with a more generic, SEO-friendly term to help customers find you in search. They may find your tool useful even if they aren’t aware of your product. Your calculator landing page should be optimized for search and contain all the relevant keywords a user would use to search for.

9. Email newsletters

Emails are an excellent way to retain customers. Whether you share industry trends or boost your top sales offers, give customers a way to share your email with others, so they can also sign up.

10. Polls

People increasingly want to be heard, and polls offer a quick way for leads to share their opinions anonymously. Whether you host your poll on social media or through a special landing page, make sure your poll doesn’t tackle more than one or two big questions at once.

Pro tip: Tie the results back to your sales funnel and have respondents provide their email as an optional next step to get more information with this B2B demand generation content tactic.

Takeaways

While demand generation can be incredibly effective at placing new leads into your sales funnel, each piece of content takes time to research, plan, create, edit, and publish.

If you don’t have the capacity to handle it yourself, consider enlisting the help of ClearVoice and our B2B content marketing writer talent pool. Our writers are well-versed in creating the top types of content to get customers asking more about you! Talk to a content specialist today to learn more.

The post 10 Content Ideas for Your B2B Demand Generation appeared first on ClearVoice.

It’s no longer enough to tackle a checklist of SEO tactics without considering your overall content strategy. Google wants more, and so does your audience.

So, how do these concepts intersect? And how can you ensure you’re not missing out on opportunities to expand search reach and earn trust with your content?

Start with these SEO building blocks to becoming an authority in your business. You may end up serving customers much more meaningfully than ever before.

How SEO and Content Marketing Work Together

SEO and content marketing are two approaches to gaining reach within your industry. They work together by embracing compatible methods, many of which overlap. More than that, content marketing can’t work without SEO, and vice versa. The two go hand-in-hand, and attempts to separate them will cause either to fail.

Here’s to understanding SEO Basics…

On-page SEO fundamentals

• Meta Titles: Your title tag. It’s the clickable headline in search engine results when users are searching. Makes sure it’s concise, engages, and uses relevant keywords.
• Meta Descriptions: A brief summary of your webpage. It doesn’t directly impact search rankings, but it’s essential for enticing users to click.
• Content formatting: Structuring your content with heading tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) not only enhances readability but also signals the hierarchy of information to search engines. Plus, they’ll make your content more digestible and easy to navigate.
• Image Optimization: Ensure that your images are optimized for the web by compressing them for faster loading times. Use descriptive file names and alt text to provide context to search engines and visually impaired users.

Internal linking

While you may not be able to control the number of inbound links you get easily, you are absolutely in control of how you link between your own pages. Fortunately, Google still sees these internal links as a signal for search ranking, and it’s something you can do today to start climbing the ranks.

Don’t just link to pages randomly. For best results, use a solid linking strategy and quality content together to create pillar pages. This can be a massive project and usually requires a good amount of new content to be written.

When executed well, it not only helps you get those SEO and content marketing gains you want, but it can also help users engage with your content better. You actually become helpful in getting them from one related idea to another in a natural and user-friendly way.

• Do: Start with one pillar page and executive it thoroughly and thoughtfully.
• Don’t: Haphazardly link random pages or pages that have little to do with one another.

External linking

Also known as outbound linking, strategically linking to external websites or online resources can boost your SEO. Using external links helps:

• Give value to readers by offering authoritative references
• Build relationships with other sites that can lead to backlinks and increased exposure
• Show Google’s algorithm how your content relates to other websites

Keywords

You can’t get very far into an SEO conversation without hearing about keywords. These are the lynchpin of any good SEO plan since these are the search terms your ideal customer will use to find you. With over 3.5 billion Google searches performed each day, keywords can be the difference maker in achieving traffic and conversion goals.

It’s not enough to identify the keywords you want to rank for. You have to evaluate a variety of factors such as — search volume, keyword difficulty, and search intent — to see if it’s the right keyword for your business. (Over 92 percent of keywords get 10 or fewer monthly searches.)

Any keyword approach should be created with the end in mind. Ask questions like:

• Who is our ideal customer, and what terms would they be searching for?
• How can we establish ourselves as the authority in our field by answering our customers’ most-asked questions?
• How is the industry changing, and what terms can we rank for early, so we have an advantage?

Once you identify your keywords, use them throughout your entire SEO and content marketing strategy. While brands should never prioritize using keywords above creating natural-sounding, helpful content, they should use keywords to help match the search intent of their target customers.

• Do: Incorporate keywords organically into content, including the title, headings, and alt text for images.
• Don’t: Keyword “stuff” or use the same words repeatedly in a way humans would never speak. Avoid misspellings of words and other unprofessional uses of language to meet keyword lists. 

Driving Traffic With SEO

While entire companies exist upon the promise of getting “quality backlinks,” this is never an effective standalone strategy. Creating quality content will, over time, naturally get you the kind of links that Google recognizes as valuable. Over 79 percent of SEO professionals agree that link building should be combined with other strategies to be effective.

The added perk of backlinks is more traffic. Visitors find you from other sites they enjoy, which passes some of the trust to you. If you can provide these visitors with something valuable, such as an answer to their question, they will stay on your site longer and possibly even click around to see what else you offer. Longer visit duration and increased page views signal to Google that you have done well with your content efforts, and this also helps to boost your SEO over time.

• Do: Create content that other sites are likely to use as a resource and reach out to these sites naturally over time.
• Don’t: Send spammy emails to site owners asking for a free link or offering to pay for backlinks. (Google frowns on paid backlinks.) 

User experience (UX)

Finally, predicting what users will love or hate about your content can be challenging. By following best practices for user experience (UX), you can increase the likelihood that they will stick around and even seek you out the next time they want to engage with a site.

Make sure that your content is mobile-friendly. Create a scannable path from the top of your page to the bottom so that readers can quickly go from content section to content section and find info fast.

While data shows that longer articles perform better, they still need to make sense to the reader. Break up large sections of text, and use high-quality images that don’t take a long time to load.

Give users multiple ways to access new content pages, such as a menu bar at the time and additional content suggestions on the sidebar or bottom that help them discover new ways to engage with your page.

Avoid distracting colors, fonts, or animations, and consider how accessibility guidelines can be incorporated into the page design.

• Do: Use your content pages as a visitor, and look for points of frustration that can hinder users from getting the most from your content.
• Don’t: Frequently make drastic changes to your site design or navigation, as this can disorient and frustrate the same loyal visitors you worked hard to get to your site in the first place. 

When You Should Outsource

Today’s enterprise encounters more challenges than ever before, from navigating supply chain challenges to keeping brand voice relevant.

Outsourcing your content creation to a company with both SEO and content creation expertise can be a lifesaver.

If you choose to outsource, avoid any SEO agencies that don’t prioritize quality content to boost search ranking, and reconsider any content marketing companies that can’t explain how SEO is used in their strategy.

At ClearVoice, our team of world-class talent is not only well-versed in creating content in a variety of industries, but SEO is also always top of mind. We can create content that is not only engaging but ranks highly in search engines too. Talk to a content specialist about your needs today.

The post Defining SEO and How It Powers Content Marketing appeared first on ClearVoice.

Getting executive buy-in for content can be tricky, but the real work starts when it’s time to bring in the internal stakeholders to create your plan.

Who needs to be involved? What information should they share?

Whether your marketing budget is $5,000 or $500,000, here’s what you need to ask to get off on the right foot.

Who are the internal stakeholders?

Before we get into the content strategy questions for stakeholders, let’s discuss who you need to talk to.

First, you don’t want to assume that only top leadership can assist. In fact, your operational management and data professionals can also lend some expertise. Even if you have a single point person that asks all the questions and collects the data, identifying all the interested parties in advance can save time. You’ll also avoid hurt feelings or accusations of dismissing important players who may not be at the higher levels of the company.

Stakeholders may go by different role names, but essentially, you’ll need to bring in:

• Marketing team
• Digital team
• Sales team
• Website admins
• Upper management / C-level professionals
• Customer care team
• Customers
• Partners

Knowing how to identify internal stakeholders can take time, as managers may not have all the details someone answering the phone may have, for example. They should, however, be able to point you in the direction of the person with the most knowledge about the topics at hand. It’s still best to start with the highest levels of each department, so you don’t step on toes.

50+ questions to ask stakeholders

In 2022, 32% of marketers felt that their biggest challenge was to align marketing and sales efforts, showing it’s essential to have more than marketing department stakeholders involved in big campaigns. 18% of these same marketers were frustrated by siloed or incomplete data that could have made their content efforts better. Ideally, all departments should have their input and share past data, which is why asking probing questions is so important.

These inquiries aren’t written in a particular order but are grouped by department and type of question. Use your judgment to determine which content strategy questions to ask stakeholders in each department. You may find some don’t apply; others may lead to more personalized questions as you go.

Digital team: content strategists, designers, developers, and product managers

• What digital channels are you using? What digital channels should you be using?
• What are your competitors doing on these channels? Are they effective? Can you do it better?
• How do you currently track metrics? Is this method effective?
• What metrics are you not tracking that you think may be important?
• What single message do you want to focus on?

Marketing team: PR, advertising, and marketing managers

• What existing ad campaigns and product launches are scheduled for the quarter or year?
• Can this campaign align with these existing projects and support them in any way?
• What shared digital assets are already created or scheduled to be created?
• How is multi-channel marketing being used across the company? What channels would be a good fit for cross-promotion of this new campaign?

Sales team: Reps, account managers, and executives

• What advertising or marketing materials do you find useful as part of the sales cycle?
• What marketing channels have prospects found to be beneficial or authoritative?
• Which products or services do you naturally emphasize in your sales outreach? Is there enough content or marketing materials to help with this?
• Is any current content or marketing material confusing or discouraging to prospects? What would you change about it?

Website admins: webmasters, editors, and those using content management system (CMS)

• What existing content management tools do we have that can help boost messaging?
• Are there any updates to our technology that we could use but aren’t yet?
• How does site functionality limit our messaging? What can be done to correct that?
• How long does it take to make changes to the website once approved and publish-ready?

C-level professionals: CEOs, CFOs, CTOs, CMOs, Presidents, VPs, and board of directors

• How has the industry landscape changed the most over the past 1-5 years?
• What one change in the direction of the company do you see as most important? Most beneficial? Most urgent?
• How can content marketing support that shift?
• What do you think the competition is doing that we haven’t done to our full potential?
• What one advantage are we not explaining with marketing materials that we should be?

Customer care team: case managers, call center teams, and social media support

• How can updated content make your job easier? Is there information we aren’t sharing that we should be?
• How do customers prefer to reach out for questions or concerns? Is there a way to redirect some of that with better marketing assets?
• Do you have examples of marketing campaigns or messages that conflict with what you’re telling customers? How can the digital strategy teams prevent this in the future?
• What marketing assets do you want at your fingertips to reference as needed?

Customers

You can’t always ask your customers questions in the same way you query internal stakeholders.

To get answers to the following questions, use a blend of customer surveys, social media posts, and the data you collect from search queries and time spent on the site. It may take some piecing together to get a good view of what they really want, but you’ll receive excellent data and may boost your reputation with your customers in the process.

Here are some content strategy questions for external stakeholders:

• What would you like to see us talk about or share on our blog, social channels, or website?
• What is your favorite way to learn about us?
• Which social channels do you use that we aren’t on yet?
• What frustrations do you have about our content currently? How can we change this?

Questions to ask yourself about content

After reaching out with content strategy questions for stakeholders, it’s time to look at what you can do to meet the expectations and maybe even fix some of the issues your past marketing content has created. One area of improvement for marketing teams may be to better identify goals.

Recent data shows that 88% of marketers want to increase brand awareness, while others could be focused on expanding the reach of a particular product or even changing the perception of their brand entirely.

These next content strategy questions for stakeholders should be guided by input you’ve received from other departments and focus on establishing your metrics, strategies, and goals.

Goals

• How will we set goals? What metrics will they be measured by?
• Based on our stakeholder’s feedback, how close are our current goals to what they should be? Do we need to create new plans or simply adjust them to meet their needs?
• How many of the new goals can be achieved now? In 6 months? A year?
• What significant changes to our workflow or processes need to happen before goals can be actively pursued?
• How will our goals be tied back into ROI so that we have the buy-in to pursue future projects?
• How will we communicate the goals and progress made to stakeholders? How often should this be done?

Audits

• How often will we audit our campaign and site to be sure we are making progress?
• What tools will we use to measure progress?
• If we don’t see significant changes, how long will we give the current campaign before making changes?

UX

• What questions can we ask our customers during the campaign to ensure we meet their needs through content? How often will we check in?

Processes

• Who will document any content or marketing process changes as they occur?
• What places should these changes be documented?

Workflows

• How will we manage new projects, tasks, and larger campaigns?
• Do we already have the tools to do so? What tools will we need to invest in?
• How will new tools be implemented?
• Who is in charge of training users on these new workflow tools?

Metrics

• What metrics should we establish as important early on? Which are nice-to-haves? Which are non-negotiable to see an improvement?
• Will we use any new metrics retroactively for other in-progress campaigns? How will these metrics be used moving forward for future campaigns?

Examples of content-specific questions

As you can see, these are more generalized content strategy questions for stakeholders that will lead you to more specific, brand-focused, and goal-driven questions. If you are focusing on creating a new group of pillar pages for your site, for example, you will have even more specific questions targeting your goals for this one kind of content.

We know that 9% of marketers are still not tracking metrics, which can completely derail efforts. (How will you know what’s working if you’re not measuring it?) Establishing “what” you will track and “how” to track it is key to figuring out successes, like in this set of sample questions for pillar pages below:

• What keywords will we be targeting with pillar pages?
• How are our competitors using pillar pages?
• What pages do we already have that can be optimized and linked?
• What pages do we need to create to support our pillar page?
• What mapping and measurement tools do we have to track the implementation and success of these pillar pages?
• How can we use our internal teams to support these pages? What outsourcing can be done to take some of the workloads?
• In what ways will we promote and boost these pillar pages? Can we utilize existing campaigns to extend the reach?
• How will we determine whether the pillar page was a success?
• What is our process for updating and expanding pillar pages and clusters? How often will we reexamine their performance and make updates?

Looking for additional tips and in-depth insight on what to ask? Check out these 25 questions for content strategy, available as a free workbook.

Create an effective content marketing strategy

If you still aren’t sure exactly where to start with content strategy questions for stakeholders, it may be time to enlist the help of an agency like ClearVoice and our seasoned pool of freelance content creators and SMEs.

We help companies of all sizes move the needle on content by creating an effective content marketing strategy that involves all stakeholders. Talk to a content specialist today about your needs.

The post 50+ Questions to Ask Your Internal Stakeholders to Gain Executive Buy-In for Content appeared first on ClearVoice.

While celebrity endorsements and big budgets can help boost the signal, it would all be for nothing without clever ad copy.

While the best ad copy creates some kind of reaction through humor or even serious facts, it is all designed to grow revenue through sales or donations (for non-profits.)

Here are some examples of how ad copy works, what makes it resonate, and which brands are using it in incredible ways.

What is ad copy?

Before we get into the ad copy examples, let’s cover the basics. Ad copy is a specific type of writing that marketers use to get readers to engage with and eventually buy from a brand. It’s made to stand out and comes with a clear call to action in most cases.

Ad copy is used traditionally in print advertising but has moved into the online space as the text used in search ads, social media ads, and website ad copy.

3 excellent ad copy examples

From print magazines to Twitter threads, these brands made waves with their excellent use of words. Anyone wondering how to write ad copy that sells should pay attention.

Check out these inspiring ad copy examples:

1. Heinz #mayochup

A simple Twitter poll received crazy press and over 900,000 votes when it asked if people would go for the idea of mayo and ketchup mixed into one product.

While the “yes” votes didn’t come out to be much more than the “nos,” the stage was set for a viral buzz that helped the product when it finally launched later that year. The ad copy worked well because it capitalized on user engagement and kept the words to a minimum.

2. Karmarama’s “That’ll do”

When this UK-based ad agency placed a message on a billboard, it wasn’t the copy that was all that original. Rather, they wrote the copy backward so that it showed up correctly only when looking at it in the rearview mirror.

This clever copy tactic seems very appropriate, given it was a message bidding the crazy year of 2020 farewell.

3. Super Coffee’s open-source code

It’s rare that a brand openly calls out a competitor, but that’s just what Super Coffee did when it took out ads in major newspapers addressing Starbucks specifically and directly readers to a special site listing all of Super Coffee’s ingredients.

What was missing from those ingredients? Sugar. The ad sought to address the industries increasing caloric trends while also using clever copy written to look like source code from a website. Both the form and message certainly catch the eye.

How to write ad copy that sells

Now that you’re feeling inspired by the ad copy examples above, let’s talk about what makes ad copywriting so compelling.

There’s no one-size-fits-all secret, but the following strategies can help you make your mark.

Know your audience

It shouldn’t have to be said, but marketers don’t always know who is truly buying their product, and this can lead to a messaging mismatch.

Before the first word is ever put down on the screen, get an idea of who is likely to see your ad, how they came to know about your product, and what solution they hope to find with your brand.

There have been endless stories of brands missing the mark by assuming their audience is one type of shopper while not realizing a completely different shopper was seeking them out. Skip this faux pas by doing your due diligence.

Know your platform

When creating ad copy for social media, you’ll need to be even more punchy and concise than creating a long-form ad in a newspaper or magazine.

Even within social, nuance exists; Facebook ad copy will look much different than Twitter ad copy, for example.

This rule will require you to stay on trend as much as possible, since social media advertising rules and best practices change by the week.

Create demand

You may have the best product in your niche, but it’s not always enough to drive sales. To make your brand copy snappy and effective, use one of these tricks for compelling action:

• Scarcity. There’s a reason limited-edition merchandise sells out so quickly; people are scared they will miss out. Can you replicate this behavior with your brand’s offerings?
• Limited-time. In addition to creating fewer of an item, you might try shortening the window to buy or to get access to a discount or add-ons. Whether you opt to sell at 50% off for the next three days or give your buyers a free gift with purchase, make it clear what they miss by not acting quickly.
• Exclusivity. Being part of the in-crowd is a desire many people have. Can your offering give them access to a special group of buyers? Designer brands are good examples of how this is being done today, and they use ad copy to get it done.
• Personalization. Can you give your customers a unique buying experience that fits them perfectly? Whether you offer their choice of color or let them customize the inside of a car or computer, you give them more control over the experience, which is something most everyone loves. Ad copy that reflects the power of choice can do big things.
• Engagement. People love to share their ideas. For social media ads, engaging potential customers may take nothing more than excellent ad copy. From poll questions to quizzes, phrasing questions in the right way takes talent, but the payoffs can be a lifetime connection to your brand.
  

Avoid shortcuts

Do you ever wish for an ad copy generator? While this used to be a thing of imagination, AI promises to take some of the work out of creating copy with computer-generated words based on what algorithms have identified as effective.

Unfortunately, most AI-based writing tools leave much to be desired, including a lack of understanding of how people truly speak in different situations. Since your ad copy will need to be clean, error-free, and (most of all) emotionally engaging, it’s not a job best-suited for robots. People need to feel to engage with humans.

Your ad copy team

If you don’t have the capacity to handle your ad copy, consider outsourcing the work to an experienced agency like ClearVoice, letting our team of freelancers take the burden from you so you can focus on other things. From enticing ad copy to influential web copy, our expert writers and editors can provide you with ready-to-publish content for all of your needs. Talk to a content specialist today to get started.

The post 3 Awesome and Effective Ad Copy Examples appeared first on ClearVoice.

SEO is crucial in content creation. Still, it’s also made up of many moving parts that make it difficult to know where your efforts stand at any given moment.

To top all the complexity, Google continues to change its algorithm and content standards, and it may tempt you to chase after every new trend to try to beat your competition.

Rather than being reactive with your optimization efforts, why not prioritize SEO benchmarking in your content marketing strategy? It not only gives you tangible data you can work with over time, but it also helps you to see what’s effective – even with a limited budget.

What is SEO benchmarking?

A benchmark is a standard used to measure performance, typically in business. Benchmarking can be defined in a number of ways, but for the purposes of SEO, it’s the practice of measuring and comparing SEO metrics so that you can improve upon them over time.

It also involves looking at the processes behind each metric to know what’s working and what’s not. It’s part of a roadmap to increasing your SEO authority.

What benchmarking is not

Since SEO benchmarking requires some knowledge of SEO, it may be easy to mistake metrics for fads. We know that Google can change how it values content at the drop of a hat, which could temporarily throw your short-term SEO plans into a tailspin.

Benchmarking is not chasing every algorithm change. This is not possible since Google keeps much of what goes into its algorithms under wraps.

It’s also impractical because you can spend a lot of time chasing small details and lose sight of the larger, more universally important SEO strategies that benchmarks are designed to measure and compare.

If your benchmarks change drastically with each Google update, it’s not true benchmarking at all.

Why competition in SEO benchmarking matters

Let’s face it. Google ranking is a battle of sorts. Every time you go up a ranking, you’re knocking someone else out of the running. When you lose ground and go from page one to page two, one of your competitors has just taken your place.

This is one area of marketing where it can hurt to stay in your own lane and not keep your eyes on what competitors are going.

Fortunately, keyword benchmarking isn’t as complicated as you think, but it does require some planning, measurement, and tracking.

Metrics used to benchmark keywords

You should never give up on your quest to create quality content that readers find useful because this is truly the best way to use content marketing to turn your visitors into clients. You want to be seen as an authority, and creating anything less than the best won’t get you there.

The following metrics should be used to ensure you are moving the needle in the right direction on ranking for keywords relevant to your industry and most likely to be used by your future clients.

1. Number of keywords in the top 20

How many keywords do you currently rank for? Has that number increased in the last 30, 60, or 90 days? Track the total number of keywords you already have a handle on, since it’s a good metric of your overall influence. If you increase your keywords, you are doing something right.

2. Number of keywords driving traffic

You should already be tracking traffic. As your keywords in the top 20 go up, so should your traffic. If it’s not, it may be a sign that something is wrong with your keyword strategy or content quality. It’s simply not enough to rank.

You also need to get people over to your site from Google results. It’s also important to look at the keywords on the first page and monitor those pages.

3. Number of indexed pages

You may not rank for all terms on Google, but all of your pages should be seen by Google’s search robots. You can find out how many are seen by the search engine by typing “site:” and the URL of your website in the search box. The top number (results) will show how many pages turn up.

If the number is much lower than your actual pages on your site, some aren’t getting indexed. Also, if you create more content pages over time, but this number doesn’t change to reflect that, you aren’t capturing Google’s attention and may need to index them manually.

These SEO benchmarks aren’t just useful for content creation. As businesses look more to artificial intelligence (AI) technology for customer service and sales, tools like keyword spotting can identify keywords used in chat and customer calls to determine automated actions that resolve their issues.

A keyword spotting benchmark is one example of new benchmarks specific to this newer technology that may soon become a standard for companies of all types.

Two types of keywords are used in benchmarking

Finally, not all keywords serve the same purpose. There are two categories of keywords: short-tail and long-tail, and each will propel you forward in unique ways.

Short tail keywords

Short-tail keywords are one or two-word search terms that are very hard to rank for. Examples include “cruises” or “baby food.” If you’re able to rank for these terms, you’ll enjoy some of the highest search volumes.

Optimizing your content to compete for short-tail keywords will capture a wide variety of visitors from a wide range of demographics.

The downside of ranking for these terms is that it is very competitive and hard to get there without PPC (pay-per-click) ad campaigns or very long, authoritative pillar pages that outshine the competition in almost every way. It takes work to stay on top.

Also, because so much traffic can come from short-tail terms, it is often less targeted. You’ll have much lower conversion rates than with more specific search terms.

Long-tail keywords

Long-tail keywords are phrases of four or more words that more closely match what humans type into their search engine. Phrases like “how to boil eggs” or “what to take for a fever” are good examples.

The benefit of ranking for long tail terms is that the traffic, while lower, will be more targeted to what you are writing about.

It is a bit easier to compete for even the most popular terms, but there are some unique and obscure terms you can rank for more easily.

How to evaluate keywords

In any SEO benchmarking strategy, you should not only regularly review your metrics but carefully assess your keywords, as well. Words change meaning regularly, and the terms that matched your intent or purpose a few years ago may now be sending you irrelevant traffic.

Look at all of the search terms you’re actively pursuing and ask if they still bring you the visitors you want, in good enough numbers to make it worthwhile.

If you see that keywords no longer serve your purpose, you no longer have to try to rank for them. Likewise, if there is a more specific search term you could rank for, you may decide to turn a short-tail into a long-tail keyword strategy.

Changing benchmark keywords in Semrush or your choice of keyword tool is relatively easy.

Not sure where to start with SEO benchmarking?

ClearVoice’s expert writers and researchers bolster SEO efforts by supporting your content production needs. Our team ideates and produces content designed to help support and organize search efforts. Talk to a content specialist to get started today.

The post Why You Need Keyword Benchmarking in Your SEO Strategy appeared first on ClearVoice.

Content marketing is a massive business, with brands spending a considerable amount of their time and budgets making sure they use it wisely.

Unfortunately, creating a lot of content (even great content) and having no idea where it will most impact your customers’ buying journey can lead to lackluster results.

A clear understanding of the marketing funnel and how various types of buyer’s journey content easily fit in can help you avoid costly mistakes and possible alienation of your ideal customer.

What is a Marketing Funnel?

We can define a marketing funnel as a business strategy that marketers use to guide prospects from initial brand awareness to the final purchasing stage.

It uses different applications at various points based on the prospect’s familiarity, needs, and readiness to buy.

The concept assumes that someone less familiar with your brand will start at the top of the funnel with more generalized information and softer selling while working down to the more targeted sales strategies implemented at the bottom of the funnel over time.

While brands use the terms interchangeably, the content marketing funnel differs from a flywheel. The two can be used together, however.

What Are the Marketing Funnel Stages?

One of the major differentiators of the marketing funnel from other strategies is that it seeks to identify where the customer is in their journey and market to them directly at that stage. Each stage aligns to a place in the marketing funnel: top, middle, and bottom.

While these are the three main stages, each stage can have an additional level of segmentation to further customize content and ensure customers within each stage are getting the right type of information.

A company that wants to explore full-funnel marketing will have a stake in creating buyer’s journey content for each stage.

Top-of-funnel marketing

At the very beginning of the customer journey is awareness, or coming to know about a brand’s existence. This is considered the top of the funnel (ToFu), and it’s where you lay the groundwork for telling the customer who you are, what values you hold, and the possibilities you offer through your buyer’s journey content.

Top-of-funnel marketing requires the least knowledge about a brand or offering, making it an ideal marketing content task for agencies and freelancers who don’t live and breathe your brand every day but who can quickly get up to speed and use their skills to make a compelling introduction.

Top-of-funnel marketing assumes that not everyone will be the ideal buyer. It is willing to reach out to almost everyone, making the top of the funnel very wide, very welcoming, and very well-suited for SEO strategies.

Anyone who can perform a search may be placed at the top of the funnel to see what your brand is about, even if they aren’t exactly who you hope to sell to later.

Middle-of-funnel marketing

Further into the buyer journey is where the middle-of-funnel marketing (MoFu) happens. This assumes the buyer is at least somewhat interested in pursuing a professional or consumer relationship with your brand, and this is where they spend the most time in pursuit of facts or benefits that can help them make a buying decision.

Because the buyer’s journey content types here will be more detailed, brand-specific, and with solutions to customers’ needs in mind, the guidance of a subject matter expert (SME) can come in handy.

If you choose to outsource this content, freelancers with established writing clips in your industry or who are themselves SMEs can ensure the quality of work you need to engage and inform your prospects.

Bottom-of-funnel marketing

Finally, at the point where a buyer is likely to make their purchasing decision, you have bottom-of-funnel marketing (BoFu.) This is where the “rubber meets the road,” so to speak, and you’ll see your work to this point result in some type of action.

Bottom-of-funnel buyer’s journey content isn’t limited to asking for the sale and closing the deal. It’s where you can continue to nurture your leads, who are now buyers, by:

• Confirmation: “You’ve made a great decision. Welcome to the family!”
• Onboarding: “Here’s how to get the most out of your product.”
• Support: “We’re sure you have questions. Get answers here.”
• Reconfirmation: “Here’s why you made the right choice in choosing this over our competitors.”
• Solution-based cross-selling: “You might also like this to make your experience better.”

Because bottom-of-funnel content brings the customer into the sphere of being “in the know,” this content is best written by someone who works for the company or brand since it requires the most intimate knowledge of the product and what it offers.

Do you absolutely have to do bottom-of-funnel content on your own? Not necessarily. Freelancers who previously worked for your company may also fill this role. Other possible arrangements include having an agency help with concept and final development, such as editing, creating graphics, or content syndication.

Boost conversions at each stage of the sales funnel with our in-depth guide!

What Types of Buyer’s Journey Content Do I Use at Each Stage?

As you can imagine, a complete marketing sales funnel can contain dozens or even hundreds of pieces of content. Every written word supporting a marketing campaign will fit into that funnel somewhere, with some pieces straddling two parts of the funnel or even being repurposed to meet two places in the customer journey.

That said, some buyer’s journey content pieces are going to work best in specific parts of the funnel. Keep in mind that there is some wiggle room here and that certain content formats are close enough to other formats that you may simply be using semantics to distinguish one from the other.

(Case studies and white papers are good examples of two types of content that can meet the same goal, look a lot alike, and can be used interchangeably. The goal of each is what matters most here.)

Top-of-funnel content types

This buyer’s journey content may be the first a prospective client has ever heard of you. It may also be where you first let them know of a problem you help to solve. Prior to the top of the funnel, the prospect may not only be unaware you exist, but they may not even be aware that they need your service or product.

Blog posts

Your company may already be creating blog posts, as they are among the easiest types of content to start producing right away. At this stage in the digital marketing funnel, your blog posts should be educational and evergreen.

What do we mean by this? Start by asking the following questions to narrow down possible blog post topics:

• What would we want people to know about us first, especially if they have never heard of us before?
• What solution do we offer that may be new to the reader or visitor? How can we best explain it in a way that’s accessible to everyone?
• What are our more established competitors known for? How might someone searching for them (but who ends up on our site) see us as different and relevant?
• What notable trends in our industry are interesting or applicable to the common person? How can we turn that into a list or topical guide to make them feel informed after reading it?
• What search terms are we already seeing traffic for? How can we create content around those questions that position our brand as an authority on the matter?
• What search terms do we want to see traffic for? What terms are supposed to lead people to us, but we have yet to create optimized content that attracts and informs?

Your blog posts at the top of the funnel should educate, build interest, and place you as an expert on the topic at hand. This is not the place to create a hard sell. At a minimum, the readers should come away from your blog post thinking, “That was valuable, and I’ll remember that brand for having shared it with me.”

eBooks

EBooks are another “catch-all” buyer’s journey content bucket that can have very different goals based on your company’s unique needs. They range in word count from a few pages to hundreds of pages (the size of a traditional eBook), but most organizations aim for shorter, more concise formatting with infographics, stats, and call-outs to keep the content lively and to help pull the reader through the pages easily.

What top-of-funnel uses do you have for an eBook? The possibilities are endless, so ask these questions to get you started:

• What industry tips or tricks do we have to share with our readers?
• How can we empower them to continue researching a topic through our eBook content?
• What eBooks have our competitors created? What enhancements can we include to make ours the best, most updated, or most authoritative on that topic?
• Is there a common “how to” answer that isn’t easily covered in a single blog post? Would this topic make a good guide or manual that we can market in eBook form?
• Do we have an existing series of related blog posts that we can stitch together and update for an insightful, content-packed eBook?

These are just a starting place for your eBook topics. Once you have identified a few options for topic and content, consider how to best get that info out there. Unlike blog posts, which get massive traffic from searches, your eBook will need to live on your site as a download or be delivered through an opt-in lead magnet.

Use the ultimate goal of your eBook to drive your decisions here. (A goal to boost your email list, for example, benefits more from having your eBook as an opt-in welcome gift. Share your eBook strategically.)

Email marketing

Do people still read emails? According to the Content Marketing Institute, 81 percent of B2B marketers say their most used form of content marketing is email newsletters.

When used with high-quality buyer’s journey content (like that eBook we mentioned), you can easily build your list of interested subscribers. Just remember to keep these “top of funnel” subscribers in their own list through segmentation.

You won’t be sending out the same emails to those who are merely interested as those who have been loyal to your brand for some time.

Questions to ask about email marketing include:

• What would we want people to know about our brand right now? How can that be condensed into a quick email with a link to more information?
• What new offers or news updates apply to those just learning about our brand?
• How can we use the email experience to set proper expectations for our brand tone, style, offerings, and customer service experience?
• What can we say in the first few emails to remind people of how they found us (why they are receiving these emails), why they want to stick around, and what they would be missing if they unsubscribed?

It’s common for top-of-funnel email subscribers to opt out soon after receiving their lead magnet freebie. By keeping this segment separate, you’ll preserve your email open and click-through rates and have a dedicated channel of communication for those who need additional guidance to know you better.

Middle-of-funnel content types

It’s sometimes assumed that the middle of the funnel is where a prospect goes after they’ve been through the top of the funnel, and this is sometimes the case.

Often, prospects start in the middle of the funnel, as they may already be familiar with the brand or offering and are ready to take their research and understanding to the next level.

The following buyer’s journey content types work well for middle-of-funnel marketing.

White papers

Similar in length to eBooks but created with more data, professional tone, and subject matter expertise, the white paper is a go-to for B2B marketing funnels. They are more likely to be used for enterprise offerings and not items marketed to individual consumers.

You may be an ideal fit for white papers if you can answer “yes” to the following questions:

• Do we have a new product or service that’s difficult to explain in a short-form piece of content?
• Have we commissioned studies, reports, or other data-backed articles that would help support a future white paper?
• Do we have a recent history of upward successes that are easily documented through numbers or stats?
• Is our ideal client someone in the sciences, trades, technology, or an industry where outside expertise is valued?
• Do we have a direct line to decision-makers who are interested in learning more about their industry?

White papers also make great lead magnets for your B2B marketing funnel. Just make sure to use gated methods for delivering the buyer’s journey content. You want the content to feel exclusive and targeted and not available to just anyone.

Social media

Social media may not be considered a middle-of-funnel strategy since it’s easy for anyone (even unqualified leads) to see your social feed. When executed well, however, it’s the perfect place to help prospects learn what makes you special.

Use these questions to determine which social channel is best suited for your marketing funnel:

• What social channels are we already using well? Do we have an established voice that we can build upon?
• What are other companies in our industry using? For example, if a brand markets to Millennials and is on Snapchat, do we need to be there, too?
• Do we have existing relationships with any influencers using channels?
• How does our target market use social today? Where are they primarily located?

While social media strategy is an entire subject in itself, knowing where to begin can save you time and frustration. Spend these moments to figure out how your funnel best works on social.

Drip campaign emails

How do drip campaigns differ from your average email campaign? For one, they are perfectly timed to hit customers at certain places in the buying journey according to that customer’s actions or interests and not necessarily the overall content calendar.

These questions can help you determine if you’re missing out by not using drip campaigns as buyer’s journey content:

• Do prospects generally perform a particular action before becoming a customer, such as requesting specific information or learning about a new offering?
• Do we have a library of content that would be useful at various points in the customer journey? If not, could we create one?
• Do we have data on our customers we can use to trigger email actions? If not, what can we do to collect that data?
• Is our ideal customer base using email over other communication methods, such as social media or online chat?

Drip campaigns take a bit of strategy to pull off because you need to understand your customer behavior, what motivates them, and how your content can align with those actions. When implemented properly, however, there’s no substitute for an email that seems to appear in an inbox at exactly the right time.

FAQs

It may be hard to think that people will still have questions after making it this far into your sales funnel, but those reluctant to buy will always find something to ask.

Beat them to the punch with pre-written answers to common questions that decision-makers at this place in the journey are likely to have. Be creative or even clever with your questions and answers, but be sure their questions get addressed.

Questions to ask with any of these buyer’s journey content types will vary by type, but keep the following in mind:

• How can we differentiate this content from the top or middle of funnel content? What specific calls to action can we include to help make this content stand out as a decision point?
• In what ways can we cross-purpose this content to become more than one content type? For example, can we take the transcript from the webinar and create a white paper or blog post series for it?
• What are the next steps if a prospect doesn’t engage with this content in the way we hope? Do they back into the funnel at a higher point?

Bottom-of-funnel content types

Bottom-of-funnel buyer’s journey content can effectively pull those final levers that turn a looker into a buyer. Because content at this stage is often very detailed, technical, or brand-aligned, it may work best to have internal stakeholders at least be part of the planning process, even if you do outsource much of the written word.

Questions to ask when creating content for bottom-of-funnel will vary by your offering and content type, but they include:

Here are the most common ways to connect with customers in this final part of the funnel:

Product Demos

For some products or services, you have to see them to believe them. Demonstrations take much of the mystery of how things work, giving customers confidence in what they buy.

Demonstrations are moving away from in-person and becoming increasingly virtual, including “walk-through videos” and live, online videos through social media.

Case studies

Do you have a history of delighted customers who would sing your praises? Are you often getting leads by referral? You may have found your next middle-of-funnel marketing piece in case studies. While these take a while to put together, their ROI is hard to ignore.

Ask yourself these questions to determine your case study’s next steps:

• What clients can we ask to interview for a case study? What incentives can we provide to motivate them?
• How have other companies in our industry used case studies?
• What one objection do we hear from those who decline our offerings? Is this something we can overcome through client testimonies?

Case studies are an incredible asset in dealing with clients who don’t want to be the first to try new offerings. If someone else has “gone first,” it takes away some of the perceived risks. Consider case studies when rolling out updates and to help promote product launches to the general public.

Webinars

While a webinar is always a great avenue for gaining interest, webinars at this level of the funnel should be presented as if the attendees are all serious buyers.

Webinars work well for B2B buyer’s journey content like high-end luxury goods that can’t be seen in person and solution-based sales. Be sure to include time for Q&A, a highlight of webinars for many attendees.

Nurture sequence emails

Yes, there’s that email again. As you’ve guessed, email is appropriate at every stage of the funnel, although bottom-of-funnel messages should be precise, targeted, and include links and embeds to other items on this list.

Offer to schedule a demo, personalized assessment, or call over coffee. This is an effective method to ask for that final meeting where the sale will likely be made.

Free trials

Free trials are tempting because they offer customers to see under the hood without a long-term financial commitment.

Even if your trial is a scaled-back or “lite” version instead of a shortened full-feature preview, you’ll give your customers the experience needed to give you a final yes or no with this buyer’s journey content type.

Reviews

Reviews are absolutely necessary to stand out among your competition.

For local businesses, Google explains that reviews in Google My Business can help your visibility (ranking) in the local pack area of search results: “High-quality, positive reviews from your customers can improve your business visibility and increase the likelihood that a shopper will visit your location.”

ROI calculator

Just how much can your customers save? Calculators are an easy win to get customers more interest in a bottom line than anything else.

If you don’t offer the lowest price on the market, be sure your calculator figures in things of added or intrinsic value to make up for the difference.

Implementation guide

A common obstacle to sales is the old question, “How will I use this thing?” Whether people have technical confusion or are just having a hard time imagining your solution in their lives, an implementation guide gives them assurance in this area.

Pricing sheet

If you’ve held your prices pretty close to the vest up until now, the bottom of the funnel is an appropriate time to take the veil off your pricing schemes.

In fact, you don’t have to give them exact prices; a general guide will do. Make them feel that they are at least getting further in their fact-finding mission.

Boost conversions at each stage of the sales funnel with our in-depth guide!

How SEO Fits Into Buyer’s Journey Content

Do you know how valuable Google can be for your inbound marketing funnel? It’s actually quite amazing. SEO plays an important role in each part of the funnel and your buyer’s journey content — but not necessarily in the same way in each place.

Using targeted search terms in all your content ensures that you reach the right audience no matter how your leads find you.

Pay attention to how language changes as a prospect moves through the funnel, and adapt your message (including search terms) to match.

A top-of-funnel search may include the phrase “What is metal roofing?” while a middle-of-funnel lead may ask, “How long does it take to install metal roofing?”

A deep understanding of the customer journey is key here. Knowing the different needs at various marketing funnel stages can help you both win the search engine game with more spots on the leaderboard and get leads into the right place in the funnel.

Placement in Your Buyer’s Journey Content Matters

While there are dozens of buyer’s journey content options you can use to reach your ideal customer, knowing where they work best inside the marketing funnel can help you maximize every word.

ClearVoice and its team of 4,000+ experienced freelancers who specialize in 200+ industries are ready to help you create a content plan for success. Talk to a content specialist today to get started.

Boost conversions at each stage of the sales funnel with our in-depth guide!

The post Content You Should Create at Each Stage of the Funnel appeared first on ClearVoice.

As social media algorithms change and privacy updates threaten marketing attribution, more and more businesses are flocking to organic content. Perhaps you’re one of them.

As you quickly discover, content marketing takes a lot of effort and involves a lot of different skill sets. To scale your content, you need to strategically plan your content calendar and execute on proven best practices.

It’s not an easy task, but it can be done.

In this article, we break down some of the top tips for scaling content marketing efforts.

Most businesses have a marketing budget that allows for advertising, including content creation. Perhaps you have considered how to make new content more engaging or even how to make existing content better than your competitors.

You are at a pivotal stage of marketing where scaling content creation could be a benefit to you, especially when executed with careful planning and proven best practices.

Here are some reasons to prioritize scaling content in your next promotional boost.

What is content scaling?

Content scaling is the act of creating new content, refining current content, and repurposing old content to increase its organic reach. It’s not just about creating a large volume of content. Rather, it focuses on creating intentional content for a variety of purposes that can stand as the authority in your niche.

What are the benefits of scaling content?

1. Keeps you competitive

Scaling content of the highest quality makes you the authority on any subject you write about. If you are in a highly-competitive industry, one of the things that can help you stand out is quality content that’s more engaging and informative than other brands in your niche.

2. Drives brand awareness

Eighty percent of marketers say they use content to create brand awareness. If you can make content that engages visitors, they will be more likely to remember you (even from their first visit to your site!) This makes content a natural fit for new companies, startups, or legacy brands with innovative product launches that have yet to be widely received.

3. Boosts your SEO

Well-written content that’s optimized for SEO can help bring a lot of organic traffic to your site. Does your content contain all the keywords you would want customers to use when looking for solutions to their problems? Great content considers the exact words people use when they’re looking for educational or informative content.

Make sure to also add reviews, and definitions, optimize your content for Google snippets and use other SEO best practices to improve your search rankings over time.

4. Creates additional opportunities

Content at scale earns more leads and, eventually, sales. Consider how a series of blog posts can be stitched together to make an ebook that can then be used as a lead magnet. Another example is the white paper you outsourced that can now be broken up into actionable chunks of advice for an ongoing email newsletter. Your best-written content provides inspiration for other lead-generation content, making it an incredible investment with almost immeasurable ROI.

How to scale content

A successful content marketing campaign requires an ongoing, active strategy that you refine over time based on new data and the results of your efforts. The plan should include:

• Checking analytics to see that your content is reaching enough people
• Regular content updates with new information, links, and calls-to-action

Scaling content is never a one-and-done event, and there are a lot of elements that go into it. So be sure you have the resources to commit to the process for the long term.

The basic steps of scaling content include:

1. Create a content plan

First, you need to create a content plan. You may already be experienced in creating a content strategy, but developing a content plan is a bit different. You’ll need to plan out all the pieces of content for your campaign, including items you want to refresh and repurpose.

This should happen before you ever start writing content. Your plan should include goals you hope to achieve, the types of content to outsource, and who will be responsible for each type of content.

2. Use a content calendar

When will each piece of content be due? How long will you wait for revisions? What social media posts will happen at the time of publishing? All of these questions can be answered and documented on a content calendar, an essential tool in content management. Even if you will be having freelancers write your blog posts, put their duties on the calendar so you can keep track and ensure everyone is staying on deadline.

3. Promote and repurpose

Every piece of content you create should be shared to as many channels as possible. Create separate content for every place you post and use best practices for that channel. Tweets, for example, will follow different rules than LinkedIn or Medium posts.

Time your promotions so that your shares are spread out to get the maximum coverage for every piece you publish and encourage resharing and engagement among your teams and stakeholders. Don’t forget to make it easy for visitors and customers to share, too!

4. Regularly update

Old content material should never be left to get stale and die. It can almost always be updated with new stats, product information, or customer testimonials. If you need a quick way to freshen up an old blog post, consider adding quotes from subject matter experts (SMEs). If you choose freelancers who are well-versed in a topic, hire them to give new life to old pieces. You may be surprised at what they come up with!

5. Measure and adjust

You should already be tracking your content’s success in several ways, from page views to shares to time spent on the page. Surprisingly, 9% of marketers do not track data, meaning they miss out on potential opportunities.

If you have a lot of data and aren’t sure what to do with it, you may find marketing tools with analytics reporting to be a big help. Don’t forget to measure your performance against Google’s rankings. Is there a piece of old content doing well in search? Can you update it, repurpose it, and share it across social for added traction?

This is the beauty of a solid content scaling plan, as it continually refines your content to get the best ROI for the time and effort you’ve already put into it.

How to tackle the content overwhelm

If it seems like scaling content is a big job, it’s because it is. Not only is there the initial investment in content creation, but the continual tweaking, measuring, and refining can be a full-time job.

The good news is that your efforts will most certainly pay off in terms of creating an authority voice in your industry. With the help of an agency like ClearVoice, you can save time and resources, plus get access to a team of freelancers well-versed in content ideation and creation. Get started with ClearVoice today!

The post 5 Tips for Scaling Content Creation appeared first on ClearVoice.