Within the content team, we need to manage multiple projects, track various KPIs, and support multiple teams, all while staying within budget.

Fortunately, there are several tools available that you can rely on to manage everything and ensure team performance. That’s what I’ll explore in this blog post: four tools that you can use in your content marketing management.

Spreadsheets 

Yes, the first tool is one of the best friends of any marketing professional.

It’s the tool where we back up and control our KPIs, create our content calendar, and perform every single export, content audit, and data analysis.

Spreadsheets, after all, are a highly flexible tool that can solve multiple problems.

Of course, they don’t solve everything, and as your business matures, you can replace the use of spreadsheets with more sophisticated software.

Still, spreadsheets will prove valuable on many occasions.

WriterAccess 

It’s no secret that WriterAccess is the most essential tool for Rock Content’s content marketing strategy.

This is the platform where we find the best talents to help us scale our content production.

In addition to content production, the dashboard the tool offers really makes a manager’s life easier:

In a single screen, I have access to valuable information about the team’s productivity and budget control.

Read also: Rocking Content Scaling: Our Step-by-Step Process

Google Analytics

If you are a marketing manager truly concerned about the performance of your strategy, opening Google Analytics and checking the results of your blog and website should be second nature to you.

No matter how beautiful the content produced by my team is, at the end of the day, what matters is how many results we can generate with our content marketing strategy.

Read also: Unveiling Insights: Our First Experiences With Google Analytics 4

CRM and Marketing Automation tools

Well, if in the above item I talked about the concern for the performance of your content strategy, here is where you go further.

The level of importance and impact of your content team will take a step forward when you start looking beyond traffic and begin to analyze the business results influenced by your content strategy.

How many conversions is your blog generating? How many MQLs? How many deals? How much of the sales pipeline did the blog impact?

Working closely with the demand generation team will propel you and your team to the next level.

Bonus: Why You Should Declare Independence from the IT Team and Developers

Okay, that title may have been a bit exaggerated, but I do have a point.

As a content manager, it is essential that you and your team have the autonomy and agility to create and launch new and innovative content.

Something quite common in companies is the marketing team becoming dependent on developers who are not part of the marketing team. Don’t get me wrong; I like developers. However, if you don’t have a developer on your marketing team (which is normal since these professionals can be expensive), marketing needs may never be a priority.

That’s why, if you want to create content experiences in your marketing strategy, the bonus tip is Ion, our interactive content creation tool.

Before working at Rock Content, I saw countless content ideas like calculators and quizzes end up in the graveyard due to a lack of prioritization by the development team.

With Ion, you can empower your team to create and innovate in rich content creation without having to write a single line of code.

Read also: How to create interactive content even if you don’t know what HTML is

Furthermore, by creating interactive content, you can seamlessly blend creativity with demand generation.

The bonus tip is not essentially a management tool but can make a difference if you are a leader looking to innovate in your content strategy.

Speak with one of our consultants to discover how to use Ion in your marketing strategy.

The post 4 Essential Features for Content Marketing Managers appeared first on Rock Content.

It might not have been the ideal scenario, but let me take you on a captivating journey through our experience and reveal how it all unfolded.

The Dynamic Duo of Branding and Activation

We’ve been working on a branding campaign for quite some time. 

You might know that marketing works in two different ways.

→ Branding is when you create memories that influence behavior over the long term.

→ Activation, on the other hand, seeks an immediate response from marketing efforts, without necessarily forming long-term memories. 

This latter approach is often referred to as classic leadgen in the world of B2B marketing. It encompasses paid search or display advertising. Think about Amazon’s daily deals or our own WriterAccess’ 14-day free trial, it’s those limited-time promotions. It’s performance marketing. 

As is often the case in B2B (too often), we have always given priority to activation/leadgen – and this in a way makes sense for a start-up like Rock Content in its first years of operations. 

Activation delivers immediate results, supporting our monthly pipeline. You can measure the return on investment of it, in (nearly) real-time. On the other hand, branding takes time, its results are long-term and not so easy to measure. 

But it’s through branding that you will generate demand. Both are important disciplines and should go hand in hand. The first supports the second, and the second complements and completes the first. 

It’s like having a marketing model operating at two different speeds; you must balance the two speeds and adapt them to your specific situation. Too much activation results in insufficient demand and strong conversion, but limited growth; excessive brand-building risks create a robust demand but weak conversions. 

To achieve sustainable long-term growth, you need to have a good level of demand and a good level of conversions.

In fact, the campaign’s goal is to increase mental availability. The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute defines mental availability as “the propensity of the brand to be thought of, or noticed, in buying situations.”

In simpler terms, in relevant buying situations, customers easily recall brands with high mental availability.

Embracing Customer-Centricity

While this seems simple, this school of thought requires a radical shift in the way B2B marketers approach marketing. To be precise, mental availability requires marketers to become less brand-centric, and more customer-centric.

Putting ourselves in the minds of our customers isn’t easy. Here are some primary questions we should be addressing:

• On what occasions / at what moments in our consumers’ lives can our brand come to mind?
• What opportunities are we currently overlooking? 
• Where are our competitors beating us in the battle for mental availability? 
• Are there competitors in those moments, from products in other market categories that we haven’t recognized as our direct competition?

The following step should be to immerse ourselves in those moments by identifying the memory structures linked to them. 

We call these moments category entry points (CEPs), and the more of them our brand can engage with, the greater our “mental availability” becomes, and the more products we are likely to sell.

So we started identifying these moments, and we came up with several variations of our new branding campaign.

Here is a non-comprehensive list of CEPs that came out after a diagnosis phase, which included interviews with both customers and internal stakeholders. The campaign addresses the following “moments” in the lives of marketers, our potential buyers. 

• Marketers want to easily scale content creation, without hiring, with no fixed costs
• They seek a comprehensive solution, not single tools. They need marketing solutions and services to cover all phases across the entire customer lifecycle
• Marketers want to increase customer engagement 
• They love to feel pride, a sense of achievement, success, becoming a rock star
• Marketers want to be efficient and have an easeful work experience 
• Marketers desire recognition for their excellent work

The Importance of The Campaign at This War-Mode Moment

This is why we decided to work on a branding campaign and the core concepts within it. 

Our journey was supposed to begin with a creative agency, maybe a branding consultant, and we had high hopes for our branding campaign. However, budget setbacks – our branding budget was canceled, multiple times – forced us to pivot in-house, and it turned out to be a unique adventure filled with enthusiasm. 

Before you get the wrong idea, I am not suggesting this path for everyone. However, halfway through, armed with nothing but ideas and enthusiasm due to our zero budget, we boldly decided to move forward on our own.

Back to the category entry points, we kept them in mind as we crafted the campaign. We began with the diagnosis, identified our CEPs, and ultimately developed a creative design and copy to address each of them. 

The full process took a few months, and since we didn’t have any external help, we had to focus on it internally. We created a cross-functional squad, met on a weekly basis, conducted interviews, and identified the CEPs. We also did our homework on the copy and the creative side.

Where rock music and content meet

It is not a typical B2B campaign. We are infusing humor into it, and the campaign plays with rock music and our company name (Rock Content) as a main theme while addressing all CEPs. 

This approach was not new for our seasoned employees (our rock music-inspired t-shirts were a huge hit at Inbound last year); now, we’re taking that creative energy and channeling it into a structured campaign. 

Moreover, the campaign introduces our products and solutions; it can be easily adapted for both US and South American markets. The primary goals of our campaign are twofold: to set us apart from the competition and capitalize on buyers’ situations, fostering brand recognition and trust through memorable experiences.

Launching The Campaign

Our initial strategy was a carefully crafted combination of paid advertising and organic outreach. The goal was to maximize our reach and impact. However, as I previously mentioned, we encountered a budgetary shortfall that forced us to pivot entirely to an organic launch. 

This meant relying on our in-house resources, such as our dedicated team of content creators and social media experts. We invested our energy to generate buzz and engagement through compelling content, strategic SEO efforts, and grassroots promotion within our target audience.

The heart of our organic launch was a comprehensive social media distribution strategy. We enlisted our dedicated social media team to craft and share content across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. 

Through these channels, we fostered authentic interactions with our audience, sparking discussions, hosting live events, and encouraging user-generated content to create a dynamic online community around our brand and product.

But what truly set our organic launch apart was the unwavering commitment of our passionate employees. Recognizing the significance of internal advocacy, we established an employee engagement program. 

This initiative empowered our team members to become brand advocates by sharing our content, participating in discussions, and championing our cause on their personal social networks.

Their authentic enthusiasm not only expanded our reach but also enhanced our brand’s credibility, as our employees were seen as genuine ambassadors of our brand.

“It’s Times Like These You Learn to Live Again”

This line from the Foo Fighters’ song came to mind as we step into this new chapter for our brand.

Our journey is not just a story about launching a B2B brand campaign; it’s a tale of audacity, adaptability, and team spirit. We embarked on this daring adventure of a zero-budget branding campaign, navigating through challenges and making bold decisions along the way. 

We stand at the threshold of possibility, armed with creativity, dedication, and a rock-solid team. Our commitment to this approach has already allowed us to establish a powerful, organic presence in the digital landscape, sowing the seeds of engagement, awareness, and brand loyalty.

Though it wasn’t the ideal route, our shift from initially planning a mix of paid and organic initiatives to ultimately launching with a completely organic strategy showcases our team’s adaptability and unwavering dedication.

As we move forward, we eagerly anticipate the unfolding chapters of our campaign, with its twists, turns, and results that will shape our future. Stay tuned, for the best is yet to come! 

The post Unveiling Our Zero-Budget B2B Brand Campaign: A Remarkable Journey appeared first on Rock Content.

Well, since Artificial Intelligence has become the buzzword of the moment, in this article I’m going to show you how to use AI to make your personas more precise using the AI Persona Builder.

This is a tool that leverages artificial intelligence to create personas in minutes. You can find it within WriterAccess, our freelancers’ content marketplace.

Now, don’t expect me to be overly promotional here. The aim of this article is to share, as a marketing and SEO professional, my personal experience with the tool, the benefits it brings to my daily routine, and to explore various scenarios for its use in digital marketing.

Join me on this journey.

What is the AI Persona Builder?

The main function of the AI Persona Builder, as the name suggests, is to create or enhance buyer personas using artificial intelligence.

And it does so comprehensively within minutes, customized for your content, based on real data.

With the tool, you can:

• Analyze Data: Collect and analyze data provided by clients to identify patterns and behavior trends.
  
• Create Customized Personas: Utilize AI algorithms to craft more precise and detailed buyer personas, taking into account various variables such as the company’s website, business model, company size, etc.
  
• Advanced Segmentation: Aid in segmenting your target audience into smaller, more specific groups based on the created personas, enabling more targeted marketing campaigns.
  
• Content Personalization: By combining the AI Persona Builder with the AI Content Wizard, you can generate personalized content that resonates with the identified personas, thereby increasing the relevance of your marketing messages.
  
• Campaign Optimization: Assist in optimizing marketing campaigns by offering insights into motivations, goals, challenges, and social networks, allowing you to fine-tune your digital marketing strategies.
  
• Continuous Feedback: Enable ongoing persona improvement as new data is collected and analyzed.
  
• Organize and Categorize Personas: The AI Persona Builder can centralize all your personas in one place, enhancing holistic visualization, categorization, and data storage.

As mentioned earlier, to access it, you need to log in to WriterAccess. Fortunately, you can try the platform for free for 14 days here.

What doesn’t the AI Persona Builder do? Unfortunately, the tool doesn’t gather the data needed to enrich your inputs, particularly regarding the persona’s pain points.

Remember that artificial intelligence offers several advantages and can be even more effective if you enhance the data foundation provided to the persona generator AI.

Finally, after exploring all the tool’s features, I’m sure you’ve already recognized its benefits.

However, I’d like to highlight some advantages that the AI Persona Builder has brought to my personal routine as a marketing professional. Follow me.

7 Advantages of Generating Personas with Artificial Intelligence

Generating personas using artificial intelligence offers several advantages for companies and marketing professionals.

According to the HubSpot State of AI report, 84% of SEO professionals report that AI and automation have impacted their strategy for 2023.

Let’s explore how it can impact your strategy:

1. Enhanced Accuracy

AI can analyze vast amounts of data and identify complex patterns that may go unnoticed by humans. This results in more precise and detailed personas.

With more accurate personas, you can target your audience more effectively, creating more focused marketing campaigns.

2. Time Savings

HubSpot reports that 37% of marketers use artificial intelligence to automate time-consuming SEO tasks.

The automation provided by AI speeds up the persona creation process, saving time that would typically be spent on manual research.

You no longer need to complete a massive questionnaire with numerous open-ended questions, as you did with the Ultimate Buyer Persona Generator, for example. 

Now, there are just a few open-ended responses and a few more objective inputs.

Moreover, you don’t need to struggle when you’ve run out of creativity because the tool provides the name, age, job title, and the rest of the description.

This advantage leads us to the third point…

3. Scalability

Saving time translates to greater efficiency, a fundamental characteristic in scalability processes. This becomes even more significant when we consider advertising agencies or consulting firms that engage in persona creation daily while managing extensive client portfolios.

The automation provided by AI makes it possible to create and maintain personas for extensive datasets or diverse audiences.

Read also: How InfoStream Agency Produces High-Quality Content for Clients in Various Fields

4. Increased Personalization

A noteworthy statistic is that, according to the same report, 84% of marketing professionals claim that AI is highly effective in aligning web content with search intent. 

In other words, artificial intelligence can provide insights for crafting more personalized marketing messages and tailoring products and services to the specific characteristics and preferences of personas.

Do you see the importance of this feature in campaign optimization?

5. Continuous Learning

AI can learn from historical and real-time data, constantly improving the accuracy of personas and marketing strategies.

6. Data-Driven Decision Making

With more precise data and advanced analytics, marketing decisions are based on solid information rather than assumptions.

7. Competitiveness

Companies that use AI to create personas can gain a competitive advantage, as they are better positioned to meet the ever-evolving needs of their customers.

In conclusion, remember that AI is a powerful tool, but it’s still essential to combine its use with human insights and market knowledge. AI can help inform decisions, but human understanding and creativity continue to play crucial roles in effective marketing.

How to Use Rock Content’s AI Persona Builder?

The tool is quite intuitive, but in case you encounter any difficulties, this step-by-step guide can help you navigate Rock Content’s AI Persona Builder:

Step #1: Log in to WriterAccess, the content platform from Rock Content (if you don’t have an account yet, you can click here to activate your 14-day free trial).

Read also: How to Start Your Content Journey with the 14-Day Free Trial on WriterAccess

Step #2: On the tool’s Dashboard, look for “AI” (currently labeled as “beta”) in the left-hand side menu and click on the “AI Persona Builder” option.

You’ll enter the view of all your personas. On this screen, you’ll see a list displaying the name and a brief description of each persona, giving you a holistic view of your audience.

Use this board to easily identify the persona you want to work on, whether you need to update any profiles, or to determine if you need to add or remove personas.

Step #3: Click on the blue “New persona” button.

Step #4: Fill out the form with as many details as possible. Remember that the better the inputs you provide to artificial intelligence, the better the output (result) will be.

Step #5: Submit your inputs by clicking the blue “Build my persona” button.

Step #6: Wait a moment while artificial intelligence works its magic.

Step #7: Add the title of your persona. Typically, you include the persona’s name and identifying tags that relate to specific characteristics, such as the industry or content cluster, for example.

Step #8: Evaluate the result and make necessary edits before saving your persona’s profile. This step is where the use of data and prior research becomes important, as artificial intelligence cannot do this for you.

For example, in the demographic information, it’s essential to evaluate the demographic data from your digital tools, such as social media and Google Analytics.

Alternatively, when listing challenges and motivations, you may have identified additional information through interviews and research with your target audience that can enrich the buyer persona’s profile.

The AI Persona Builder greatly simplifies the process of persona creation (and if you don’t have previous data, it can be an excellent starting point since it pulls real data from your business). However, you can always supplement it with other data to make your persona even more effective.

And there you have it! Your new persona has joined the others on the overall board of your audience.

You can view the full description of each persona by clicking on the pencil icon in the “EDIT” column of this AI Persona Builder board. You can also edit or discard using the same pencil icon.

Explore the Opportunities of Artificial Intelligence

Rock Content’s AI Persona Builder is a powerful tool that offers several advantages for marketing professionals in the creation and enhancement of their buyer personas.

And, with our content platform, it’s also possible to integrate its use with our other artificial intelligence tools. Below, I’ve listed some of them:

• AI Content Wizard: This tool takes into account your competitors, the keywords you target, and your audience to bring new content opportunities that you haven’t explored yet (along with a brief for each article suggestion, ready to be used).

• AI Content Idea Generator: This tool will generate exceptional ideas for your next content based on your domain or previous orders if you’re a WriterAccess customer.

• AI Sentiment Score: Enter a sample text with the tone and style you need, and our algorithm will analyze the text, predict the sociodemographic profile of your author, and match you with writers who write similar content on our platform.

• [BETA] AI Backlink Matcher: Your right hand in Link Building strategies. Obtain links from reliable sources related to your industry with this tool.

Artificial Intelligence for Persona Generation

Finally, in this article, we’ve highlighted some of the key advantages of the AI Content Wizard:

• Enhanced Accuracy
• Time Savings
• Scalability
• Increased Personalization
• Continuous Learning
• Informed Decision Making
• Competitiveness

However, it’s important to emphasize that AI is a powerful tool, but it still requires a combination of human insights and market knowledge.

That’s why you can rely on our marketplace of over 20,000 freelancers and let creativity and human understanding continue to play crucial roles in effective marketing.

Take a free 14-day trial to see if it makes sense to incorporate it into your marketing team’s routine.

To use Rock Content’s AI Persona Builder, you can follow the step-by-step provided in the article, ensuring you provide high-quality inputs for more accurate results.

In summary, artificial intelligence is revolutionizing digital marketing, making it more efficient, personalized, and data-driven.

The AI Persona Builder is a tool that exemplifies how AI can be used to create more precise personas and drive the success of marketing strategies.

By leveraging these opportunities in artificial intelligence, companies can stay competitive and aligned with the ever-evolving market demands.

The post Tested and Approved: AI Persona Builder for creating buyer personas in minutes appeared first on Rock Content.

At the time, I didn’t fully grasp the extent of digital marketing and the amount of work it involves. Just to give you an idea, I used to believe that every marketing team had a developer on board. Otherwise, how could a company like Apple create interactive experiences for each new product launch?

Now, having managed more than 50 interactive content creation projects, I laugh (and kind of cringe) when I think back to that time. You see, I don’t code. I don’t know HTML, and I’m still unsure about what CSS stands for.

The journey from knowing nothing about marketing or code to where I am today was long, but it all started with one question:

Why use interactive content instead of static materials?

When I first started working with content creation, I was quite intimidated by interactive content, and I didn’t really see its purpose. Why invest all this additional effort when static materials can convey the same information?

I have very limited knowledge about design, and everything I do know, I learned here while working as a project manager for Rock Content. So, naturally, it seemed much more straightforward to me not to worry about designing and coding a whole page just to use the same copy we could have used in an ebook.

However, as I learned more and consumed more content, I began to grasp the strategic aspect of interactive content: it’s more like a conversation than a lecture.

When you use static content, you’re merely providing the user with information and hoping they provide some feedback.

In contrast, when you use interactive content, you’re inviting them to a conversation. You’ll be able to observe how they interact with each part of your content, understand what interests them the most, and identify which subjects perform better—even if the user never writes you a single word.

If you’re solely focused on metrics, interactive content typically results in better engagement, higher conversion rates, and increased time spent on the page.

Read also: How I Increased an E-Book’s Conversion Rate by 20.7% Through Interactivity

Moreover, if you’re considering the user experience, it’s quite intuitive: interactivity holds your interest much more than reading a block of text.

At this point, I still had one question: Even with all that considered, is it still worthwhile to code an entire interactive page?

What are no-code solutions, anyway?

We live in an era where nearly everyone has heard at least one of these terms: CSS, JavaScript, HTML, Python, etc.

Learning how to program has never been more important (no wonder I used to think every marketing department had a developer on their team).

It was genuinely surprising to learn that not only do most marketing departments lack a developer, but they also tend to be severely understaffed.

Considering this, and the fact that most people neither know how to code nor want to learn it, some amazing platforms provide no-code solutions for designing websites, blogs, and yes, interactive experiences.

The idea is that you’re able to create without having to code everything from scratch – or anything, really. Instead, you can simply click and drag different elements to where you’d like them to be, and that’s it.

No-code solutions for interactive content 

No-code solutions are already quite popular for website and blog creation. If you watch YouTube as much as I do, you’ve probably heard about Wix or Squarespace. 

But what if you don’t want to build a whole new site? What if you’re just looking to create interactive content to differentiate your campaign?

My favorite tool for this is Ion. Yes, I know, I’m biased, but I’ve also witnessed the power of this platform time and time again.

As a project manager, one of the most important aspects for me is to build rapport with my customers so I can truly understand their needs. I can tell you there’s no better way to connect with someone than to share experiences with something you don’t know much about, and for me, that’s coding. Most of my customers hate it.

Considering this scenario, here are some of the main advantages I see in Ion:

Easily apply your branding to the content

You’ll need to include your brand materials on the platform before using it for the first time. No coding involved here.

After that, everything you need is easily available whenever you create a new experience, ensuring your team stays within your brand guidelines.

Easily change your branding 

Did your team just revamp your marketing materials, and now you’re wondering how to update every single creative piece you have? It’s quite simple: after you update only the necessary assets, your interactive content will update automatically.

Even if you decide to change everything and create a whole new guide, a single click of a button will guarantee your creatives are updated as well.

Content-led design 

When you’re creating your experience in Ion, you can use one of its many functionalities to better highlight the information, ensuring that you’ll have the best showcase for your carefully crafted content every single time, just by dragging and dropping the elements on the page. 

Tags everywhere 

If you’re a project manager or someone who works with data, this is where Ion thrives. 

You can tag different elements of your experience with just a couple of clicks of the mouse, and know exactly how much time your user spent on each page, which elements and sections were the most engaging, and where they are accessing the experience from. 

Not to mention a full view of the funnel: how many unique users you got, how many engaged and converted. 

Quick and easy 

For short-staffed teams, Ion can be your work bestie: it’s possible to create simple experiences in about two hours, from start to launch.

The platform offers pre-set templates that you can use. Again, with just a few clicks, you can add your brand’s materials, copy, and images, and you’ll be ready to go.

Different types of experiences

Most people think no-code solutions are only available for ebooks or landing pages. However, you can go much further than that. 

With ten different types of experiences, Ion helps you to make the most out of your content in every stage of your funnel. 

Read also: How do we use interactive content in Rock Content’s marketing strategy?

Going further than the interactive landing page

Each stage of the customer’s journey calls for different types of content, and this holds true for interactive experiences as well.

If you’re engaging with someone who has just discovered your brand, discussing the merits of your product may not be the most effective approach. Therefore, it doesn’t really make sense to provide them with a microsite that solely highlights your solutions for their challenges.

Conversely, when your customer is already interested in doing business with you, a simple infographic may not be the deciding factor.

Consider viewing your content from your persona’s perspective: What pain points do they have? What challenges do they face? And how can you provide assistance?

As a good rule of thumb, landing pages and interactive infographics tend to work well when you’re aiming for brand awareness, as they can quickly showcase different percentages and scenarios.

Ebooks, assessments, quizzes, and whitepapers are best suited for the middle of the funnel when the customer understands the options available to solve their problems.

Last but not least, calculators are excellent for the end of the funnel. Typically, most calculators require a significant amount of information or sensitive data to function. Your customers are more likely to provide this data if they already trust your brand.

A common request I receive from my customers is to revamp a page on their website to make it more interactive. This could involve creating a more engaging “About Us” page for both customers and employees or embedding a “Solution Finder” to assist customers in finding the best solutions.

In these cases, there’s a small amount of coding involved. Your team will need to embed the interactive page using an iframe. That’s it—no more code to worry about.

My favorite use cases for middle and end-of-the-funnel experiences are related to VSP Vision Care. Their customers didn’t know which plans would satisfy their needs best or offer the best cost-benefit.

Ion not only solved this problem with a savings calculator, allowing users to assess plan value based on their specific needs and financial scenarios, but it also assisted VSP’s team in developing a sophisticated product wizard. This wizard generates personalized recommendations for each customer, with 98% of them mentioning it as highly useful.

Increased performance (no matter the format)

I mentioned earlier how the performance of your content can be enhanced by transitioning from a static format to an interactive experience. Let me illustrate this with a real example: Hootsuite’s Social Media Trends 2022 report.

Through Ion, they managed to make the most out of their content and data, transforming a report, typically content-heavy and not particularly engaging to read, into a beautiful, informative, and digestible experience. 

This made the entire content much easier to read and retain and expressed the brand’s essence much better than a PDF file.

That year, unique traffic visiting the Report pages increased by 34%, while time spent on the page went up by 119%, while the number of downloads grew by more than 30%.

Pretty good, huh?

Read also: How Hootsuite Transformed Its Largest Annual Campaign

Here’s a fun fact: did you know that 75% of marketers use interactivity to enhance educational content? By engaging with different elements on the screen and even answering quiz questions, the user’s retention of your content increases exponentially.

Final Thoughts

Interactive content isn’t just the future of content creation; it’s already the present.

You can use it to make your strategy more versatile. It can help educate your customers, raise awareness of your products and solutions, or even assist your own team in effectively communicating your brand’s value.

Don’t let your concerns about coding deter you from adding this tool to your arsenal.

If you do have some coding knowledge, you can further customize it using CSS. If you don’t code, you can simply forget that programming exists and focus on what you do best: creating content and thinking about your clients.

No HTML required.

Want to see how to add interactivity to your marketing? Click here to get a free demo with one of our specialists.

The post How to create interactive content even if you don’t know what HTML is appeared first on Rock Content.

Succeeding in this endeavor also requires the ability to attract the right audience.

As we embark on this journey, let’s dive into the world of product launches to make sure your venture starts off on the right foot with impact and finesse.

Explore the Go-to-Market strategy concept.

What Is a Go-to-Market (GTM) Strategy?

A Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy is a strategic plan developed to position your new service or product for launch.

Within this plan, you’ll identify your target audience and coordinate messaging to reach them effectively. Additionally, the GTM strategy is used to determine the distribution channels and generate demand for your product or service.

In summary, your GTM strategy should encompass:

• Target audience profiles
• A comprehensive marketing plan
• A well-crafted distribution and sales strategy.

It offers a detailed guide to help you establish your position and outperform your competition.

Is It Important to Have a GTM Strategy?

The short answer is: most definitely. Without it, you might target the wrong audience, enter the market at the wrong time, or struggle to stand out in a crowded market.

The benefits of a GTM strategy are numerous. When done correctly, it can:

• Reduce launch costs
• Speed up time-to-market by prioritizing tasks
• Increase revenue potential
• Enhance brand identity and recognition
• Provide a competitive edge

Furthermore, achieving alignment across the organization and delivering value to customers is essential.

Alignment is crucial, ensuring everyone in your organization is well-informed and moving in the same direction. Review your established business goals to ensure your launch strategy aligns with and even exceeds them.

As for customer value, a well-developed GTM plan builds trust with customers, boosting brand image and customer loyalty.

When to Create a Go-to-Market Strategy

With any launch, you need a go-to-market strategy, regardless of whether you are a new entrepreneur, a start-up, or an already established company.

Examples of when you need a GTM strategy include:

• Launching a completely new product or service.
• Entering a new market with an existing product.
• Relaunching your brand.
• Introducing a new feature or component for an existing product.
• Launching a new business or new company branch.

Go-to-Market Strategy Essentials

As we said before, a GTM strategy serves as a roadmap to align various aspects of the business toward common goals. The core elements of a GTM strategy include market research, product positioning, and customer engagement.

Market research involves identifying your ideal customer and market. You want a comprehensive knowledge of the marketplace, your target audience, and how your product or service fits.

Product positioning guides how to address your target customer’s pain points with your product. Understand these pain points to tailor your content, engage potential customers, and drive purchases.

Customer engagement strategies must increase engagement with your new product or service. Identify where your audience seeks information, the best ways to engage in each channel, and create relevant content to entice interaction.

Why Internal Alignment Matters

Launch success depends on how well the organization understands, embraces, and collaborates to execute the strategy. So, internal alignment is crucial.

Every team member should comprehend business goals, know the plan, and understand how to execute it. Effective internal communication is paramount to prevent miscommunication that can lead to mistakes and missed deadlines.

To be effective and avoid wasted effort, establish clear channels for internal communication, monitor them regularly, and adjust when issues arise. Internal alignment ensures a smooth launch and helps your organization stay on track.

How to Create a Go-to-Market Strategy in 7 Steps

Your GTM strategy is the roadmap, showing you where to start and the end destination you have in mind. On the internet, you can usually find templates to help you with the planning process.

In general, the answer to how to build a go-to-market strategy includes the following steps:

• Identify your target audience
• Conduct Competitive Research
• Discern Your Messaging Strategy
• Create a Roadmap for the Buyer’s Journey
• Devise a Tailored GTM Content Marketing Plan
• Collaborate with Sales and Customer Service Teams
• Outline Marketing Objectives and Track KPIs

1. Identify and Understand Your Target Audience

Identifying and understanding who your target audience is will drive your marketing strategy and the approaches you take before, during, and after the launch.

A target audience is a specific group of consumers or businesses who share certain characteristics or features and can be identified through customer segmentation.

Start by asking who will benefit from your product or service. In other words, who experiences the problem or pain point that it will solve?

Once identified, get to know them. What are their pain points, problems, needs, wants, and interests? What are they willing to pay out for solutions?

To drill down even further, create buyer personas or ideal customer profiles.

In addition, if you are a B2B, you will want to identify the buying center or decision-makers for your target audience.

2. Conduct Competitive Research

You need to determine a way to stand out from all the noise and capture the interest of your target audience.

Competitive research, then, is your friend. Identify who the top competitors are and analyze each one. 

Sources for this include:

• Product portfolios or service offerings.
• Capability statements.
• Presentations to the marketplace.
• Accomplishments.
• Competitor websites, newsletters, and social media postings.
• Annual reports.
• Pricing structure.
• Content strategies.
• Social media strategies.
• Content engagement (likes, shares, comments).
• Customer reviews.

Determine what your competitors lack in the way of offerings and marketing strategies. 

Use this information to carve your own strategy and even add additional features to what you offer so you can differentiate yourself.

3. Discern Your Messaging Strategy

Messaging strategies allow you to:

• Communicate what your company stands for.
• Convey the value of your product or service.
• Show how your offering is different from your competitors or other businesses.
• Identify the problems you solve.
• Build emotional connections with customers.
• Position a product or service as the best solution.

To start, ask yourself:

• What objectives do you wish to achieve with your messaging?
• Which keywords are associated best with your product, service, or company?

Once defined and crafted, incorporate your messaging into everything you do, from slogans to press releases to marketing materials.

For example, your message might be something like “Delicious snacks with none of the guilt.”

Position your product or service as THE solution to your audience’s specific problem or pain point, a solution not currently offered by anyone else in the marketplace.

4. Create a Roadmap for the Buyer’s Journey

With inbound marketing, you first understand your target audience and then create your strategy to meet customer needs along the buyer’s journey.

For your GTM Strategy, you must create a roadmap to address each stage of that buyer’s journey for maximum impact.

The three stages are:

• Awareness
• Consideration
• Decision

By understanding the buyer’s journey and each stage along the way, you are better able to predict the actions and behavior of your customer.

With this knowledge, you can create a roadmap, anticipating questions and preferences for each stage.

Strategize various ways to tap into your already existing customer base. This approach can save you time and money, build more trust, boost customer loyalty, and improve customer relationships and retention.

5. Devise a Tailored GTM Content Marketing Plan

Creating a content marketing plan for your GTM strategy comes next. Determine the best ways to promote your launch, then generate the content to get you there.

A few hints include:

• Incorporate your unique messaging.
• Personalize your approach.
• Use storytelling techniques to connect with your target audience.

Examples of content types to consider using include:

• Blog posts
• Videos
• Social media postings
• Interactive content
• eBooks
• Webinars
• Demos
• Free trials

6. Collaborate with Sales and Customer Service Teams

Marketing doesn’t work in a vacuum, and with a launch, you want everyone to be on the same page.

Collaborate with your sales team, identifying distribution and sales channels. Devise pricing and sales strategies to go along with the launch.

A GTM strategy also involves collaboration with your customer support team to ensure an overall good experience for customers.

7. Outline Marketing Objectives and Track KPIs

Establish key performance indicators (KPIs). Monitor these KPIs and adjust your strategy when warranted. Never remain rigid in your approach if your audience is telling you something different.

The most common metrics to track include:

• Customer acquisition costs.
• ROI of your sales strategy (cost per dollar of sales expense).
• Conversion rates.
• Length of sales cycle.
• Customer lifetime value.

The Role of Content in a Go-to-Market Strategy

Now that you’ve identified your target audience and chosen your approach, it’s time to focus on creating content that attracts, enchants, engages, and drives traffic to your brand.

In the realm of content marketing, the first step is to identify the right keywords. However, the content surrounding those keywords truly captures your audience and converts them into customers.

Content creation serves at least two critical purposes: building brand awareness and engaging with your target audience. By consistently delivering relevant and helpful content tailored to a specific audience, you raise brand awareness and encourage repeat visits.

Further, your content can provide ways to better engage with your ideal customer, whether it be through relevant website content, blog posts, or social media.

To optimize your content strategy, diversify your content types. Understand your target market and audience preferences to determine the most effective content formats. These options range from traditional blogs to engaging videos, informative eBooks, and more.

Specific ways to increase customer engagement with your content include:

• Blog posts on desired topics
• Social media posts that provoke likes, comments, or shares
• Interactive content that provides them with relevant information and provides you with data to better refine your approaches. Interactive content includes polls, questionnaires, calculators, and more.

Your content marketing strategy, then, will be an essential part of your overall GTM plan. If you lack the team, time, or confidence to create this all-important content, reach out to the professionals on WriterAccess. 

Find experienced writers on this user-friendly platform to create what you need to attract, engage, and win customers over during your launch and beyond.

Go-to-Market Strategy Examples

To help you in your quest to craft an effective Go-to-Market strategy for sustainable growth, consider the approach of the following three B2B companies.

Oatly

When Oatly, a Swedish company, decided to expand its products into the US market, competition wasn’t a factor because oat milk wasn’t yet on the must-have list of American consumers.

For the GTM strategy, they chose to forego the ad route and instead go directly to the retail coffee shops frequented by their targeted audience.

The goal was to introduce the product at the precise moment customers were ready to buy a coffee or other hot beverage, letting them try it for themselves.

Within a year, between 2017 and 2018, revenue increased ten-fold, fueling an oat milk craze across the country.

Cognism

Cognism, a SaaS company, is all about verifying contact data for customers, so they can be more efficient in their business development efforts. To launch its new addition to the marketplace, Diamond Data®, the company focused on showing how it adds value to customers.

In addition, they sweetened the offering by including an option for customers to ask for verification of contacts on-demand, responding within a 48-hour timeframe.

In other words, they identified particular pain points of the target market, focused on them, and created a GTM strategy that spoke directly to customer value.

Baggu

Baggu decided to enter an already crowded market, introducing its reusable bags to a wide audience. 

The launch required a unique GTM strategy with its messaging revolving around sustainability.

In addition, the company collaborated with influencers, such as Jamaican artist Joonbug, to turn the otherwise boring product into a functional yet stylish fashion statement, using Instagram as the main marketing channel.

Upscope

Upscope offers technically-oriented customers an interactive screen-sharing resource unmet by competitors and identified IT specialists, support, and onboarding teams as their target audience.

The shared pain point of this audience was the difficulty of attempting to share screens as they walk customers, employees, or even prospects through discussions involving technical matters.

Focusing on that issue, Upscope showed how their solution solves this, making the process much easier and more efficient.

At the heart of their GTM strategy was their content, both on their website and blog.

Fitbit Smart Coach

Activity tracker manufacturer Fitbit already had a following when it launched its personal training app designed to integrate with the Fitbit devices.

Messaging revolved around the slogan “Get More with Fitbit.”

One of the first steps of its GTM strategy, however, was to establish objectives. These objectives included building brand awareness, increasing subscription revenue, and boosting subscription attach rate.

Acorio (now NTT Data)

Prior to becoming part of NTT Data, Acorio was determined to strengthen its positioning with a go-to-market strategy that utilized research and data to help boost its credentials.

The company divided the insights gleaned from this research and data, separating them according to how they related to key decision-makers, and then created targeted content.

Create an Effective GTM Strategy for Your Next Launch With WriterAccess’ Help

Creating a successful Go-to-Market strategy offers numerous benefits. Not only does it provide the essential roadmap for your organization, but it also plays a pivotal role in shaping the content that draws, engages, and converts more customers.

That’s where the WriterAccess team comes in. With our expertise, you can unlock these advantages and more.

Sign up for a free 14-day trial today to explore how our writers or teams can contribute to the seamless launch and long-term success of your new product, service, or brand. Discover the difference we can make in your go-to-market strategy.

The post Crafting an Effective Go-to-Market Strategy for Sustainable Growth appeared first on Rock Content.

Seasonal campaigns give us a bigger incentive to go creative and explore different narratives in many different engaging ways. Rock Content’s marketing team explores this as well, but with extra features to go beyond cool images and fun copies: we count on Interactive Content Experiences.

In this article, I will bring 3 examples of how we used interactivity in seasonal campaigns. 

Before we dive into Seasonal Campaigns, an important thing about interactive content

Before we dive into the examples, let’s go quickly through the interactive content aspects.

To create interactive pages we need to count on a developer or an interactive content platform. 

At Rock Content, we use our own product to do so: Ion Interactive. 

The best part about it is that it does not require any coding to create content and comes with a good variety of ready-to-use templates. The work gets a lot easier with our team of marketers and designers. 

Another interesting point is that by doing these pages inside Ion, they can be optimized for SEO and designed in a way that engages and collects first-party data from visitors. With that in mind, while the user interacts with an ebook, calculator, or infographic, we provide a personalized experience capturing the data we need.

Now that you know more about interactive content, we are ready to check out the examples:

Black Friday 

This is a global campaign that we ran in 2022 that basically consists of a hub where we added 3 sessions with rich materials. 

After filling out a form on the landing page, the visitor gets free access to help marketers lead tactics toward a stronger Black Friday season.

One of the assets inside the Hub is a Black Friday Strategy Guide, which looks like a simple quiz. 

After filling out some basic information about the business, the visitor is able to get personalized suggestions to drive a successful Black Friday campaign.

In both experiences, visitors are exposed to some offers that connect to our products and services. 

In case they want to move forward with a product demo, for example, they are halfway through the form submission process, since they have provided their information through the experience they just had.

An interesting point about it is that we created the pages with our brand identity. So it will not only look beautiful because it has animated elements, but also connected to your brand identity. You can also add seasonal elements to make the experience more attractive. 

In the end, we are able to see how the page performed in the creative dashboard, which gives us insights on the results and if needed, we can dive deeper into the page to discover where people interacted the most or the least, so we can adapt the next wave accordingly. 

Click here to see the updated version of the Hub!

Marketing Planning Bundle – Summer

The Marketing Planning Bundle is one of our most successful materials with over eight thousand downloads from our English Speaking base alone since we first launched it in 2020. 

We update it and launch it every year and it aims to help marketers plan, organize, and act on their tactics in the year or quarter that is about to start. 

It is full of spreadsheets, guides, templates, and other resources that provide professionals with free tools that they can use to make their jobs easier. 

In 2022 we launched it in the interactive format, so the person fills out a form and gets access to a hub, similar to the one for Black Friday, where they can find all the assets they need. 

To help professionals move forward with H2 2023 tasks, especially during the summertime, when people go on vacation and things may get a little bit complicated, we relaunched the Planning Bundle with a Summer narrative. 

As mentioned in the Black Friday example, working with interactive experiences allows us to collect relevant feedback from the audience. 

In the Marketing Planning Bundle, we were able to notice that people engaged much more in the first stage of the experience, especially with the interactive ebook How to Create a Marketing Plan, which was the most clicked resource of the hub.

It is worth noting that an interactive ebook, just like other interactive pieces created in Ion, provides a richer reading experience, driving the reader through the content in a captivating way while collecting relevant information about their preferences. 

For the How to Create a Marketing Plan one, we divided the chapters into blocks with other interactive elements inside. 

It also allows marketers to gate the content where they need the reader’s information to provide value at the right time.

The information collected helps us make more data-driven decisions when it comes to repurposing and relaunching the experience. 

At the same time, it gives us insights into what the audience really needs and shows us some new possibilities.

A good example of this is that for the next phase of the campaign, we can optimize the most wanted assets from the Marketing Planning Bundle Hub and create new pieces to generate even more results. 

At the same time, it gives us a glimpse of potential improvements, like the materials that did not catch so much attention throughout the experience.

Read also: How I Increased Conversions on Ion by 431% In Only Two Months

World Cup 2022

This was another global campaign where we took advantage of the World Cup wave. 

It is a worldwide event that catches the attention of marketers and consumers all over the world, so we decided to attract visibility to our solutions using this narrative. 

Our team of designers nailed it by creating illustrations that are really aligned with the soccer theme, working with colors that would remind people of the latest World Cup palette and all the interactive elements that were added to the experience. 

Click here to check out the full experience.

At this stage, just like all the stages inside the interactive, the copies, symbols, background, and all the narrative elements are not only aligned with our branding but also with the soccer side of the communication, which makes it more attractive and engaging. 

We created an Idea Generator to help marketing professionals get inspired when launching new content pieces and other offers according to their current strategy. 

The user just needs to select from the 11 “players” the ones that are applicable to their strategy.

After selecting the main channels they work in, similarly to soccer coaches, the visitor gets personalized advice and suggestions to create successful campaigns, based on the inputs provided by the previous page. 

This is a great chance to provide valuable recommendations and resources to the visitor while collecting first-party data. At the same time, we get people exposed to our brand, products, and services. 

An example of that, is the 14-day trial to WriterAccess, our freelance marketplace to help professionals scale their content marketing production. By the way, you should try it now to see how AI features combined with human creativity can take your content strategy to the next level!

These are just a few examples of how interactive content can help marketers develop creative campaigns that catch the attention of the audience with infinite narrative possibilities. 

We count on interactive content to create webinars, calculators, infographics, quizzes, and many other resources that get people really interested in consuming our content. 

Want to see how to add interactivity to your marketing? Click here to get a free demo with one of our specialists!

The post 3 Examples of Interactive Content to Support Creative Seasonal Campaigns appeared first on Rock Content.

In this article, we’ll delve into domain authority in detail. I want to explain what it is, why it matters, and how to optimize your domain with an eye on search engine rankings.

Whether you’re a novice or an SEO expert, this content will help you make the most of this metric and improve your search engine results. Keep reading and learn how to effectively utilize domain authority.

What Is Domain Authority?

Domain Authority (DA) is a metric developed by Moz, primarily designed to assess a website’s credibility and relevance in the eyes of search engines like Google. This metric is represented by a score ranging from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating greater domain authority.

This metric is not directly used in search engine algorithms. In other words, domain authority isn’t a ranking factor. However, it serves as an indicator that helps predict how a site may be ranked on search engine results pages (SERPs).

In summary, the higher a site’s score, the greater the likelihood of achieving higher positions in search results. Stick with me, and the following lines will break down this metric further.

Factors Influencing Domain Authority

Several variables come into play when determining a site’s Domain Authority. Here are some of the most influential factors:

• Quality and Quantity of Backlinks: One of the most critical factors is the number and quality of backlinks pointing to your site. Backlinks from reputable sites related to your niche tend to boost your online credibility.
• Content Quality: Having high-quality, relevant, and up-to-date content is essential. Sites with useful and informative content typically attract more links and, consequently, have a higher Domain Authority.
• User Experience: Your site’s usability, loading speed, responsive design, and ease of navigation also play a significant role in this ranking. Sites that offer an excellent user experience are more likely to attract visitors and links.
• Domain Age: Older sites tend to have higher Domain Authority than newly created ones. This is because search engines consider the domain’s history.
• Social Media: Presence and engagement on social media can also impact Domain Authority. Social shares and mentions can indicate the relevance and popularity of your content.

There you have it! A more detailed understanding of this metric.

Can you envision your site’s strength now that we know what this gauge is all about? Take a mental leap and try to estimate a grade for your site’s quality.

Afterward, check your domain authority and compare it to your expectations. And don’t forget to compare it with your competitors’ domain authority! Next, I’ll provide a step-by-step guide on how to find this number using the most popular SEO tools.

Step-by-Step Guide to Checking Domain Authority

Moz

1. Visit Moz’s website and log in to your account or create one if you haven’t already.
2. In the navigation bar, go to the “Research Tools” section and click on “Link Explorer.”
3. On the Link Explorer page, you’ll find a field to enter your site’s URL. Enter the URL and click “Analyze.”
4. Wait while Moz collects data about your site. Then, you’ll see the Domain Authority score displayed on the page, along with other relevant information.

Semrush

1. Access Semrush’s website and log in to your account or sign up for a free trial if needed.
2. In the navigation bar, go to the “SEO” section and click on “Domain Overview.”
3. Enter your site’s URL in the appropriate field and click “Search.”
4. Semrush will provide an overview of your domain, including the Domain Authority score, along with other important SEO data.

Ahrefs

1. Visit Ahrefs’ website and log in to your account or start a free trial.
2. In the dashboard, you’ll see a search field. Enter your site’s URL and press “Enter.”
3. Ahrefs will display a domain overview page, including the Domain Authority score, along with various other SEO metrics.

These are the basic steps to check your site’s domain authority using Moz, Semrush, and Ahrefs. Remember that some of these tools may have limitations in their free versions, and you may need a paid subscription to access all the information.

How to Improve Domain Authority?

Now that you understand what influences this measurement, it’s time to learn how to enhance it.

Build Quality Backlinks: Focus on creating a link-building strategy by seeking links from reputable sites related to your niche. Avoid fraudulent link-building practices, as they can harm your Domain Authority.

1. Produce High-Quality Content: Invest in creating relevant, informative, and valuable content for your target audience. This will encourage other sites to link to your content.
2. Optimize User Experience: Ensure that your site is fast, secure, and responsive on mobile devices. A pleasant user experience attracts visitors and improves your Domain Authority.
3. Engage on Social Media: Be active on social media and share your content. Social engagement can increase your site’s visibility and attract traffic.
4. Stay Updated: Keep up with SEO best practices and adapt your strategy as search engine algorithms evolve.

CTA Alert: Speaking of staying updated, subscribe to Rock Content’s newsletter, The Beat, to receive hot information about SEO and the world of content marketing.

Maximize Your Site’s Potential!

In conclusion, Domain Authority plays a vital role in SEO and your site’s ranking on search engines. Understanding how it works and how to positively influence it is essential for improving your online visibility.

Whether you’re a business or a marketing professional, investing in strategies that focus on your online reputation is a smart decision. This not only helps improve your position in SERPs but also attracts more qualified traffic and, ultimately, increases conversions.

Therefore, don’t underestimate the importance of Domain Authority in your SEO strategy. Implement the tips mentioned above and maximize your site’s potential for success in the competitive online world. Remember that SEO is an ongoing journey, and every effort to strengthen your site can yield significant returns in the long run.

The post Should You Worry About Domain Authority? Learn to Read and Use This SEO Metric Effectively appeared first on Rock Content.

If so, freelance content writing might be a perfect fit for you. Freelance writing allows you to work remotely, set your own hours, and choose how much you want to work.

For businesses, employing freelance content writers enables you to acquire high-quality content for your website, blog, and social media platforms without the cost of a full-time staff member.

By working with a freelancer, you can efficiently scale up your content production while aligning your budget with your content requirements.

How Do I Write Content As a Freelancer?

Freelance content writing begins with finding one or more clients, which can be accomplished in various ways. You can approach small businesses in your local area or online and offer your services.

Another option is to apply as a writer with content writing companies like WriterAccess. These companies simplify the process of finding freelance work and take care of invoicing and collections with clients. However, most of these services may charge you a percentage of your earnings on the platform.

Online content differs from traditional newspaper or magazine articles. Website content needs to be easily scannable to accommodate the notoriously short attention span of internet users. This entails writing concise paragraphs, using clear subheadings, and incorporating bullet points or lists to highlight key information in the article.

To learn more about becoming a freelance content writer:

How Much Do Content Writers Get Paid?

Like most work, the more a freelance content writer works, the more he or she gets paid. 

Content writers also get paid more based on the experience they have in addition to how challenging and demanding the projects are. 

Having said all that, GlassDoor reports that content writers make between $39,000 and $63,000 annually. Salary.com reports a range of between $52,000 and $78,000.

Keep in mind that freelance work (by definition) is independent work, so although you’ll still have a tax liability, you won’t have any taxes deducted from the amounts you collect for your freelance work. 

Suffice to say, it’s wise to set aside money from every paycheck to cover your taxes, so you aren’t caught unaware with a bill you can’t afford when tax season comes around.

The good news for freelancers is that you can deduct costs associated with your work from your freelance income. These include things like mileage to visit clients, supplies like pens and paper, your health insurance premiums, reference materials, and training courses. Check with your tax accountant for more information on this.

Which Content Writing Type Pays the Most?

There are a variety of types of content writing, including blogs, articles, press releases, white papers, ebooks, and case studies. 

Generally, content writers are paid by the word, so the longer the piece, the more it pays. However, specific projects, particularly those of substantial length such as ebooks, are remunerated on a project basis.

Skill level, expertise in an industry, and experience also affect the amount a client is willing to pay a content writer.

Is Freelance Writing Legal? 

Yes, freelance writing is a legitimate way to make a living. Some clients will only work with US or North American writers. Others are set up to pay writers working from any part of the world.

Be aware that there are a lot of scams on the internet that target freelance writers. Some involve selling worthless training materials to new freelancers, while others appear to be legitimate but fail to pay once you send an invoice, and others encourage you to write for free, promising “exposure” to a large audience.

One great way to avoid most of these hazards is to work with a reputable content company like WriterAccess. These companies handle the invoicing and money end of things, so you have more time to concentrate on writing while being assured that you’ll be paid on time.

What Skills Does a Content Writer Need?

To be a successful content writer, you need to have a good grasp of proper grammar and spelling, as well as, be able to write succinctly and on topic. 

Unlike creative writing, you don’t need to be able to craft flowery descriptions or dynamic plot lines. You just need to be able to create simple sentences that are easy to read and that communicate effectively.

The best freelance content writers are also self-starters and are able to meet deadlines without a supervisor watching over their shoulders. 

Good content writers are also able to work with a variety of client personalities and carefully follow written instructions. 

Lastly, it’s helpful for content writers to be able to use constructive criticism to better their work without taking the comments from editors and clients personally.

Jump-Starting Your Freelance Writing Career With WriterAccess

Working with a content platform like WriterAccess can make it easy to earn a living as a freelance content writer. Apply to join more than 15,000 writers who make up the WriterAccess community. 

For marketers and business owners, having access to a pool of talented and pre-screened writers eliminates the risk of hiring freelancers directly. We invite you to take advantage of our free two-week trial.

Our platform combines the efficiency of AI-powered tools with the creativity of human writers to help you streamline your content production. Why wait? Try it now!

The post The Advantages of Freelance Content Writing appeared first on Rock Content.

For a long time, the main methods of attracting the attention of potential customers were paid for. But with the constant development of the internet, this scenario has certainly evolved towards a better one.

Nowadays, you can generate visits to a website without spending any money on ads or buying email lists — that’s what we call organic traffic.

Organic traffic is, with good reason, the main goal of many companies that include digital strategies in their effort to acquire customers.

Do you want to know why so many people care about it and how your business can also benefit from organic traffic? 

In this post, we will present:

Keep reading!

What Is Organic Traffic?

All the visits that a digital channel (like a company’s website or blog) receives are called traffic.

Organic traffic is essentially the visits you get without using ads.

Typically, this kind of traffic comes from search engines like Google and Bing.

However, it’s important to note that organic traffic isn’t entirely free because the strategies to attract these visits require both money and time.

The key distinction between organic traffic and paid traffic is that with organic traffic, you invest money and effort upfront for results that can continue to pay off over time.

For instance, a blog article may require time and resources to create, but it can yield ongoing results, while an ad only runs for as long as you continue to pay for it.

What Other Types of Traffic Can You Generate?

If you’ve ever accessed the Google Analytics panel, you’ve probably come across various types of traffic sources. But what do they actually mean?

In essence, website traffic is categorized into two main types: paid and organic, as mentioned earlier. However, the specific terms used help us understand how each visitor arrived at a particular page.

Aside from organic traffic, let’s delve into the meanings behind the other traffic sources:

• Paid: This refers to attracting visitors by placing ads on Google or on websites your target audience frequents.
• Direct: When someone accesses your site directly, without coming from another website. It’s still a form of organic traffic, since it doesn’t originate from paid sources.
• Social: This pertains to traffic originating from social media, often occurring when links are shared on these platforms, directing traffic to a website.
• Referral: When someone visits a page from any site that is not a search engine. For example, this happens with backlinks to an article on your blog.

What Are The Benefits of Investing in Organic Traffic?

Earlier in the article, we mentioned that organic traffic has become a primary focus for many companies investing in Digital Marketing.

Now, let’s explore the reasons behind this trend. Discover the benefits this strategy can bring to your business!

Cost-effectiveness

First and foremost, organic traffic contributes to reducing the costs of your marketing strategy compared to using advertisements.

As a result, the profit margin on sales is higher. Therefore, it’s safe to say that the cost-effectiveness of organic traffic is unmatched.

Scalability

Ads are not easily scalable. When you stop investing in them, your traffic dwindles.

Additionally, the cost of attracting a large number of qualified visitors may become prohibitive. With organic traffic, the opposite is true: the more visits you get, the lower your costs become.

How To Scale Your Content Production In 10 Steps

Relevance

Google clearly labels paid advertising, so users know when a result is an ad. As a consequence, users often perceive these pages as sales-focused, which can erode trust.

Organic results, on the other hand, are considered genuine and gain credibility right from the start.

Longevity

An organic strategy has no expiration date.

A single blog post can generate millions in sales over an extended period, a feat nearly impossible to achieve with the continuous costs of running paid traffic campaigns.

Relationship building

Paid traffic has its value, but it’s more suitable for those seeking immediate sales. If you want to build strong relationships and guide customers through the buying journey, organic traffic is the superior choice.

Consider the factors of cost, user trust, and scalability we’ve discussed.

What Are the Best Strategies Focused on Organic Traffic?

If you are already convinced that organic traffic is a good strategy to invest in, the only question on your mind at this time should be: “how to get visits organically?”.

And the answer is: with appropriate strategies, like the ones we show below!

Content Marketing

Content Marketing is one of the pillars of Digital Marketing. Today, the generation of organic traffic hardly happens without some type of content that interests the persona.

So, if you want to attract qualified visitors without resorting to paid sources, learn how Content Marketing works and what you need to do to apply it consistently.

SEO

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the practice of enhancing your website’s visibility and ranking on search engines like Google.

It involves a set of strategies and techniques designed to make your website more accessible, relevant, and attractive to search engines, thereby increasing the likelihood of your website appearing in prominent positions on search engine results pages (SERPs).

Effective SEO not only makes your website easier to find by search engines but also improves its overall user experience, ensuring that it meets both search engine algorithms’ requirements and users’ needs.

But there’s no doubt that the effort is worth it: a site well-regarded by Google is a strong candidate to generate organic traffic.

Email marketing

Building a relationship with the people who access your content is the only way to turn simple visitors into leads and, later on, into customers.

Email marketing is one of the best channels to nurture the interest of your loyal audience with updated and relevant content.

And, with an email list, it’s easier to direct visits to your content.

7 Hacks to Boost Your Organic Traffic Generation

In addition to the strategies focused on acquiring organic traffic for your website or blog, there are other smaller yet essential approaches for achieving success.

Below, you’ll find five basic hacks that you need to follow to boost your company’s qualified organic traffic generation.

1. Prioritize your buyer persona

It’s not enough to create content solely based on what Google deems relevant while disregarding your buyer persona. After all, it’s essential to remember that those who will consume your content are real people.

Consider what your ideal customers want and need. Learn how they search for answers and tailor your content to align with their preferences and planning.

2. Develop a keyword strategy

Keywords are still crucial for achieving high rankings in search engines because they help these platforms understand what users are looking for and which content best fulfills those needs.

Regardless of the size of your blog, make keyword strategy a top priority from the beginning.

A keyword strategy involves identifying the specific words and phrases that your target audience is likely to use when searching for information related to your industry or offerings.

Once you’ve identified these keywords, you strategically incorporate them into your website’s content, including blog posts, product descriptions, and meta tags. Search engines, such as Google, use sophisticated algorithms to crawl and index web pages.

When a user enters a search query, the search engine matches that query with the keywords present on various web pages. Websites with well-optimized content that aligns with the user’s search query are more likely to appear prominently in search results.

Therefore, a strong keyword strategy not only improves your search engine ranking but also ensures that your content is precisely what potential customers are looking for when they initiate a search.

3. Craft evergreen content

Evergreen content refers to material that remains valuable and relevant to your audience over an extended period, often years.

To create evergreen content, focus on timeless topics, fundamental concepts, and subjects that don’t become quickly outdated. Examples include “how-to” guides, comprehensive tutorials, and in-depth explanations of core industry principles.

As a matter of fact, the very article you’re currently reading serves as an illustration of evergreen content.

When crafting evergreen content, avoid referencing specific dates or events that might become obsolete. Instead, emphasize fundamental knowledge and principles that withstand the test of time.

By consistently producing evergreen content, you can attract organic traffic continuously, as readers will find value in your content long after its initial publication.

WriterAccess is a content creation platform that can aid you with that. You can give it a try for free for 14 days and discover top-notch content creators who will elevate your content to the next level.

4. Craft compelling content descriptions for Google

Google provides the option to present content differently on search result pages to capture users’ attention.

You can customize the title of an article or page, as well as the meta description that appears on the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Optimize your content with copywriting techniques to persuade users and enhance the click-through rate.

5. Repurpose content into various formats

Your content should be highly relevant to your audience, but this doesn’t mean it has to be limited to a single format.

In fact, it’s recommended to adapt your content into different formats. The same material can be transformed into:

• blog posts;
• infographics;
• slide shows;
• videos;
• ebooks.

Each of these formats can be shared on channels that generate organic traffic.

6. Regularly update and refresh content

Organic traffic thrives on fresh and relevant content. Regularly revisit and update your existing content to keep it current and valuable. Search engines favor content that is up-to-date and informative.

When you consistently refresh and maintain your content, it can continue to attract organic traffic long after its initial publication, making it a valuable asset for your website or blog.

To regularly update and refresh your content, start by identifying articles or pages that are outdated or could benefit from new information.

Review the content for accuracy, relevance, and any changes in industry trends or data. Update statistics, examples, and any outdated information to ensure its current validity. Additionally, consider adding new sections, insights, or case studies to provide more value to your audience.

After making these updates, don’t forget to adjust the publication date to reflect the latest changes, signaling to search engines that your content is fresh. Finally, promote the refreshed content across your marketing channels to reach both new and existing audiences.

7. Dedicate time to promotion

This tip ties directly into the importance of dedicating significant effort to promoting your content across various traffic sources.

For every piece of content you create, consider promoting it widely. For instance, if you create a video, why limit its publication to just one platform? If it suits the platform’s identity, consider sharing it on YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, TikTok, and of course, on your website.

Invest time in promoting your content. The more effort you put into this, the more people will discover your message and engage with your brand—without the need for paid advertisements.

Generating organic traffic demands time, research, and consistency in creating valuable content for your target audience. However, all the hard work is worthwhile because it yields consistent, scalable, and long-lasting results.

If your web pages rank well on Google, your chances of attracting organic traffic increase substantially. That’s why it’s crucial to understand and implement the primary SEO techniques. By clicking below, you can read and download our free guide on the subject now!

The post What Is Organic Traffic and Why It’s Crucial for Your Online Strategy appeared first on Rock Content.