Newsletters need more than news to get read. Include useful information your audience can act on. Speak with the voice of an insider, add relevant resources, offer something special for your readership, and measure to learn what your audience is most interested in.
SEO: Its Not Just for Websites
B2B public relations professionals who are strictly focused on maximizing opportunities with traditional journalists are missing an opportunity to drive traffic to their websites with press releases.
Online press releases can be optimized for search, just like your website. Carefully craft your release utilizing those keywords you want to rank for. Include keywords in anchor text and you will drive traffic to your site. Consider linking back to relevant content rather than simply your home page. Place the link as close as you can to the beginning of the release. Remember to include your keyword in your headline.
Distributing press releases online allows you to expand your influence beyond B2B trade journalists, to a growing audience of industry bloggers, investors, and potential employees through search engines and other online news sources. Make your press releases shareable by including social network sharing buttons and posting press releases on blogs and other B2B online communities.
Many PR distribution services have a limit on keywords, so avoid keyword stuffing. Remember to include at least one complete hyperlink back to your website because some news sites do strip out active links. Hubspot offers a useful Press Release Grader to help you optimize the release for search. The Grader will test the readability of the press release, identify overused words, provide an analysis of links and more.
We’ve found success generating inbound links using press releases both for ourselves and our clients. A press release Content for Biz distributed earlier this year increased website traffic by 220 percent over the prior week.
If you are in a larger organization, work with your marketing team to be sure you have the right keyword terms for your business. Share your success with us.
Should Content Keywords Change With the Seasons?
Some keywords are more effective than others at a particular time. Identifying Internet search patterns via keyword terms can reveal what word choices are better to use and when. Changing or adding keywords in response to these seasons can drive more traffic to your online sites.
Blog Posts Cited As Most Valuable Content Type
A new study from Focus Research ranked types of content for their value to supporting marketing objectives. Thirty-nine percent of B2B marketers responding cited blog posts, giving it the top ranking. Webinars were not far behind – gaining 37 percent of the “vote.”
Industry whitepapers had a strong showing among B2B marketers as well. Thirty-one percent of B2B marketers named them “most valuable.”
*Content Types that are Most Valuable for Supporting Marketing Objectives According to B2B Marketers Source: Focus Research, May 2011
Online content that is valuable to prospective prospects generates sales leads. Blogging is one of the best ways to get that content found. Are you leveraging the power of blogs and webinars to generate B2B sales leads?
What are the biggest obstacles to blogging at your business? Lack of writing expertise? Lack of time? Lack of management support for blogging?
How to Get Top Management Support for Content Marketing Needs
As a B2B communications professional, one thing you need to understand about top management is that they are very competitive. While they may not understand B2B content marketing or SEO, they know they want to be No. 1 in searches on Google. One way to persuade top management that they need to invest in content is to compare your website vs. your competition. A free tool from HubSpot call the Website Grader makes the job easy.
HubSpot’s Website Grader measures effectiveness based on factors such as traffic, SEO, blogging and social popularity
The Website Grader can be used to evaluate your site, as well as your competition, to see how you rank on important criteria such as website traffic, SEO, social popularity and other technical factors. It takes just a few minutes and all you need to do is type in your domain name and that of your competition.
I recently used this tool to help explain to a client why they were no longer listed on page one of Google and what they needed to do about it. The client was just about ready to spend money to hire an SEO expert, perhaps using up her limited budget for content.
While my client’s overall website score was as good or better than the competition (86 out of a possible 100), the competitive analysis was revealing. One competitor had more than 60 inbound links, while my client’s site had 30. Because inbound links are Google’s way of recognizing a site’s authority; this is probably a big reason why the search engine rankings have fallen.
Another area that was lacking was blogging. I had already planted the seed that the current blog was underutilized, and was an area of opportunity. I proposed developing a content strategy based on the needs of the company’s target market; increasing the frequency of blog posts; and adding WordPress Plug-ins to optimize content and help users share it via social media channels. I am confident seeing a blog score of 41 next to the competition’s 86 will help the client to recognize the importance of blogging better and more frequently than the competition.
Top management responds to quantitative data that fuels their competitive spirit
In my experience, top management and business owners prefer quantitative analysis to theory. If you can demonstrate how your website performs relative to the competition and have a strategy to outperform the competition, I think they will be more receptive to your request for content support. Thanks to HubSpot for this great tool.
What other tools have you found to be effective in evaluating website performance? We’d love to hear about them.