Keeping Up with the Content


We all know how important content writing is for digital marketing, but a well-structured content campaign is more than just a blog article here and there. Content marketing campaigns are coordinated marketing efforts deployed over weeks and months, and there’s a lot of content to produce for even the most basic of blogging campaigns. As your business scales and your digital marketing presence expands, your campaign sophistication will evolve accordingly:

These four categories are the most common, but they’re only the tip of the inbound marketing iceberg. Add in social media (of which there are literally dozens of options), guides, evolving webpages, guest pieces, thought leadership essays, industry publications, and more, and it’s no wonder larger organization hire entire departments just to maintain their digital and inbound marketing campaigns.

Production Strategies

There are several ways it can still address the never-ending need for content.
Create an in-house writing team
When content needs are regular, many businesses start small with a dedicated, core, in-house writing team to handle production (sometimes comprising as little as one writer and an editor). These teams provide unilateral control over the material produced, but require significant investments in hiring, payroll, and administrative costs (on top of your content production expenses).

But what if your business doesn’t have the budget for all those hires?

Outsource to freelancers
There are many freelance marketplaces out there these days that connects business owners to huge pools of talent. You can find plenty of people willing to work for cheap, but these sites offer no guarantee of quality, and it can be difficult to establish consistency.

Outsource to creative teams
The third door involves outsourcing your writing to teams of creative professionals, many of whom offer additional marketing and consulting services to improve your business growth. These teams take a professional approach to writing, usually offering money-back guarantees, structured workflows for content creation, and professional expertise that’s hard to find elsewhere.

While businesses of all sizes are leveraging these strategies to achieve their content writing goals, the best results will come from writers who have the experience and skill to bring your marketing goals to life.

How Blogging Makes It 13x More Likely You’ll Achieve a Positive ROI


According to the marketing gurus at Hubspot, marketers who included a robust blogging campaign in their digital strategies were 13 times more likely to enjoy a positive ROI on their efforts.

Why is it so powerful? The reasons all boil down to several key concepts that are inherent to content marketing:

  • Blogging demonstrates authority – Particularly important for business-to-business enterprise, regular blogging shows thought leadership and originality in your field.
  • Blogging supports the marketing funnel – The digital marketing funnel relies on a steady flow of incoming leads and specific content that addresses the needs of consumers during each stage of the buying cycle. Blogging supports both of these goals and helps brands achieve higher conversion rates than they could on their own.
  • Blogging boosts SEO – And, of course, blogging improves your SEO ranking by giving online web crawlers more pages to index. The better your SEO, the more likely it is your brand will get noticed in organic search.
  • Your Blogging Strategy

    However, these benefits can’t be found by just any business that tosses up a couple blogs and calls it a day. Content marketing must be approached with a strategy. Blogging has to be consistent. And the material has to be of value to your target markets. It isn’t as easy as it sounds—there are many steps in the typical content marketing framework that must be addressed before headline-worthy results can be achieved.
    If you’re interested in learning more about content marketing but are feeling overwhelmed about where to begin, outsourced content production might be up your alley. Creative professionals with years of expertise in content creation can be your ticket to power-packed articles that increase your authority, boost your conversion rates, and improve the overall value of your brand.

Why Your Business Needs a Social Media Marketing Plan


So you’ve already set up a Twitter account, a Facebook page, and an Instagram profile for your business; great! Now all you need is an effective social media marketing plan to draw your audience in.
Data by Statista shows that there were over 2.3 billion social media users in 2016, with that number expecting to break 2.5 billion in 2017. These high adoption rates are due to the numerous benefits that social media brings us; aside from socialization proper, social media is offering new methods for users to connect with their favorite brands and for those brands to better serve their customers.

Social Media Marketing

Given that even niche social media pages have millions of users these days, there’s no question that social media is one of the hottest new digital marketing frontiers. Audiences on social sites like Facebook and Twitter have vast networks of friends and followers—meaning that savvy social media brands can reach hundreds of users by leveraging even a single piece of content at the right time.
Unfortunately, this high-tech gold rush won’t last forever. Social media sites are becoming saturated with brands hoping to get their share, increasing the level of competition and making it harder for individual brands to stand out.

Outsourced Creativity

Increased competition means that brands have to work twice as hard to get noticed in the crowded social media marketing arena. If content is unclear, unfocused, or underperforming, there’s no way it will make a dent in a packed news feed.
This is why so many brands are outsourcing content production to creative professionals. Content production teams can ensure that all writing done on your behalf is of the highest quality and tailored for consumption by the specific audiences your brand needs to target. Outsourced content production makes social media marketing a breeze—and guarantees your brand receives its piece of the digital marketing pie.

The Secret to Building an Effective Website


We get it. It’s not easy to build an effective website. The process is long and full of testing, retesting, and nitpicking your past decisions over and over. And while many of the decisions you make about your site are minutia that won’t really matter one way or the other, don’t be fooled into thinking your site copy is one of them. The biggest mistake you can make (or already have made) is trying to write your own website copy.

Why You Need Professional Writers

Most site owners have a budget and try to cut corners where they can. Naturally, anyone can pick at a keyboard—so why not write up the pages on your own? This is a mistake for several reasons:

  • Writing is a skill: Everybody can write, but not everybody can write well. The goal of your website is to give a good impression to potential customers, and nothing will make them lose faith in you faster than shoddy grammar and incomplete thoughts.
  • Copy must inspire action: Those with collegiate writing experience or those who blog routinely may believe they have the chops to write effective site copy, but this isn’t always true. Site copy isn’t just words on a page; it’s a dance of informative persuasion. Copywriters spend years mastering their craft—don’t expect untrained writers to do the job.
  • Competition is fierce: Succeeding in business means being better than your competition. And in our world of hyper-focused web design and continual optimization, sloppy site copy won’t cut it. If your competitors employ high-quality writers to build their site, you can bet their page will have a level of professionalism and will drive more sales than a slapdash job ever could.
  • Outsourced Creative Services

    Fortunately, there’s no shortage of creative talent out there. If you’ve made the mistake of writing your own site copy, don’t be afraid to reach out to a third-party creative team who can assess your needs and provide copy that converts.

How to Build an Effective Content Marketing Strategy


Do you have what it takes to build an effective content marketing strategy?
Has your team developed a content calendar with specific content styles?
Does your team have any idea what building a content strategy even means?
If you answered “No” to any of these questions, worry not—Pixie Digital has your back.

Elements of Effective Content Marketing Strategy

While content marketing strategies can be as unique as the businesses running them, the concept usually follows a basic framework:

  • Establish a plan – What is your budget? How long will your campaign last? Which channels will you target? We won’t dig into the details too deeply, but writing out your goals and establishing campaign guidelines is an essential first step.
  • Create a schedule – Content campaigns come in all shapes and sizes, from daily blogs to weekly social media posts to monthly press releases. Your schedule will be dependent on your budget, your goals, and how many employees you have ready to work.
  • Develop specific content – Content must be customized to each stage of the customer buying cycle. Buyers just beginning product research will have different goals than customers who are nearly ready to purchase.
  • Monitor performance – Whether by using Google Analytics or built-in monitoring tools on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, the performance of each piece of content must be assessed. Without a way to review these metrics, you’ll have no idea how to proceed as your campaign develops.

Partners in Content Creation

With the above in mind, it’s understandable that many businesses haven’t deployed their own content marketing campaigns. It’s a process that requires dedicated planning to achieve a marketing ROI. This is why outsourced content providers, such as Pixie Digital, are so helpful. Our team can work with your company throughout each step of the process, from strategy creation to final publishing. With an outsourced team behind you, you can reap the benefits of a content campaign with little effort on your end.

What is the Buyer’s Journey?


The buyer’s journey is a central paradigm of digital marketing. Different markets go through the stages of the process at different rates, but it always boils down to the big three. Because of the difference in a buyer’s motives throughout the process, content needs to be tailored to their stage in the cycle. The buyer’s journey is divided into three phases: awareness, consideration, and decision.

Awareness

At the outset, your buyer may not even realize that they had a need for a service or product, much less that you can provide it. In the early phase of the buyer’s journey, you need to foster awareness of your product, service or company. Content at this stage needs to focus on addressing buyer pain points. Your brand doesn’t mean anything to them until they’ve identified their need.
Once a buyer has realized that they have a pain point, they start researching. The majority will turn to Google, so you want to make sure that your keywords match the general search terms of the early research phase. This is also a good time to start tracking downloads, hits and user info.

Consideration

After the buyer has recognized a need for a product or service, it’s time to start narrowing down their options from a provider. At this point, the buyer has clearly defined their problem or opportunity. During the consideration phase, they’re research revolves around the different companies that address their pain points. This is where buyers will start reaching out to sales, where your team should address their needs in direct and tangible terms. Content like white papers and expert guides are great resources for buyers in the consideration phase.

Decision

Finally, the buyer is motivated to make a purchase. He’s defined the solution, methodology or approach, and the only thing left to decide is where to make the purchase. He already understand his need and has some idea of what your competitors have to offer. This is where you sell your brand. Case studies and customer reviews are go-to content for the decision phase.
Well-targeted content for the buyer’s journey demands that your marketing team be flexible and focused in their output. Outsourcers can be a major relief for the demands of a diverse campaign. One way or another, keep in mind that your content needs to change with the processes of the buyer.

Your Twitter Marketing How-To


The power of the Tweet has taken the world by storm. While it seemed like nothing more than a novelty back in 2006, Twitter has proven itself over the past decade as an excellent platform for both communication and brand marketing.
But with 328 million active users as of 2017, there’s plenty of debate on the “best” way to market yourself on Twitter. Keep these tips in mind as you develop your content strategy:

  • Keep it brief: Twitter only allows 140 characters per tweet for good reason—it forces users to keep their comments short, sweet, and to the point. Posts that span multiple tweets are cumbersome to read.
    Repeat the Tweet: Twitter moves fast—many of your followers will miss Tweets you post. Don’t be afraid to repost content—with some re-wording to avoid the site’s duplicate content filter—to increase engagement without having to generate completely new material.
  • Use chats: But Twitter isn’t just about tweets. Twitter chats offer the perfect way to engage with niche audiences with minimal effort on your part. Join the discussion on relevant topics, but be careful about being too “sales-y.” The idea here is to provide value to the discussion and generate leads, not close the deal.
  • Hashtagging: Despite how prolific hashtagging has become in the internet zeitgeist, plenty of folks still do it wrong. It’s not just about dropping keyword mentions; it’s about bolstering your other marketing goals. Create brand-specific hashtags and hashtags that are specifically tailored to draw interest to your content or calls-to-action.

Twitter Strategies

These are just a primer on some of our favorite ways to market on Twitter, but the options are nearly limitless. Outsourced content providers can take ownership of this process on your behalf and guarantee that each Tweet posted on your account is powerful, engaging, and optimized for each of your viewers.

The Big Short: Writing for Readers Who Scan


Nobody reads these days.
Actually, let us rephrase that—nobody reads word-for-word these days, especially not on the internet.
Check out the data by research group Nielsen Norman: According to their research, only 16 percent of readers read a web page word-for-word. So, with nearly one-in-six readers scanning your content, it’s in your best interest to make it as simple and easy to digest as possible.

Scannable Strategies

The point of your content/website copy/marketing materials is to engage readers and drive action. But few readers will be willing to dive into a piece of content that looks like it was ripped from an encyclopedia. Smart publishers use simple tools to keep their content accessible:

  • Use formatting tricks, such as bulleted lists or bold type to draw attention to key points.
  • Headlines: Headings and subheadings provide readers a quick overview of the content’s material. They aid in comprehension of the subject matter both for readers who scan and readers who read word-for-word.
  • Use mixed media, such as images and video where appropriate. These help break up intimidating blocks of text and adds stylistic variety to your page. They also provide new opportunities for SEO.
  • Keep it simple. Dense subject matter has its place in niche markets, but general audiences will respond better to simple ideas put forth in clear ways.

Consider Outsourcing

Above all, those trying their hand at content marketing need to take a journalistic approach to the process. They must get in front of their readers, state their case, and provide only as much detail is needed. But knowing what to include and what to cut can be difficult, even for short-form content. Don’t be shy about reaching out to a third-party publisher if your writing skills aren’t up to par. Outsourced content marketing is a simple way to gain all the benefits of content production without any of the work—no matter what type of content you’re publishing.

Lost In Translation: The Pitfalls of Translator Error


Have you ever tried to watch a foreign film with poorly translated subtitles? Depending on how egregiously bad they were, you probably sat through a few minutes of the babble before eventually giving up and throwing on Netflix.
Now take that frustration, multiply it by a thousand, and add a dose of public embarrassment—this is the fate of businesses without a quality translation team at their backs.

The Challenges of Translation

Bad translations of movie scripts is one thing, but the problem becomes significantly worse when translations of professional documents and business materials are needed. There are two primary challenges of business document translation:

  • Achieving 100 percent accuracy
  • Maintaining cultural nuances (known as localization)

Both of these goals are difficult to reach. Accuracy is always a challenge for translators, but when those translators are working on sensitive documentation that describes business goals, partnership responsibilities, or terms of service, word-by-word translations aren’t enough.
There are many subtle aspects to each language that must be preserved when translated. Cultural phrasing and distinctions unique to each language can be just as important as the words on the page, and must be accounted for in all professional interactions. Otherwise, businesses risk—at best—misrepresenting their own brands, and—at worst—offending their business partners.

Translation and Writing

Because of these challenges (and the consequences therein), businesses can’t afford to cut corners when sourcing their translation services. Only the top translators will be able to accurately translate materials while maintaining the cultural nuances of each language. The best results here come from teams that include both writers and translators. With translators protecting the subtleties of each language and writers guaranteeing that each piece of content is well-written and readable, businesses can achieve complete accuracy for each document.

Weaving Content Into Your Other Marketing Tools


You may not have noticed it, but in the world of marketing, content is everything. It’s what engages with your readers and turns casual visitors into customers.
However, content isn’t actually everything. Without a good marketing campaign, your content is doing little more than providing information. And if that’s your goal, you may want to switch over to a more appropriate platform, like Medium.
If your goal is to drive up your conversion rates and sales, your content should be accompanied by a solid marketing campaign that is as persuasive as it is informative. In other words, you need to make it clear that your company is the best at what you do.

Turning Content into Marketing

The best way to turn your content into a successful marketing strategy is to engage with your audience. This is where social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter really allow you to shine. Instead of using social media to share your content, actually communicate with your audience. Share stories, ask questions, and more importantly, respond to answers. You’d be surprised how many customers actually expect companies to respond to them on social media.
Another essential component to a successful marketing strategy is the call to action. None of that top-notch content that you have on your landing page and in your blog will help you if you don’t have a good call to action. People need to know what services you’re providing to help them, and if you don’t spell it out for them, they’ll look elsewhere.
This leads us to the final essential marketing tool: mailing lists. Use your content to attract readers to your website. If you keep them informed with meaningful information, they’ll turn from visitors to subscribers. That’s when you offer to sign them up to a mailing list filled with premium content. That way, you have direct access to your customers, allowing you to send individuals various deals, specials, and information about new and existing products.
Overall, creating a solid market strategy shouldn’t be difficult. If you’ve got the content down, you’re done with the hard part. Now you just need to work on engaging with your visitors.