Marija Hladni, Author at contentcontrol.io

Crafting Engaging Blog Posts to Drive a Traffic Jam on Your Site – An AI Test

September 21, 2023

by Marija Hladni Uncategorized

Disclaimer: With the world so quickly changing, we wanted to talk about the importance of not relying solely on AI for your content. The text below was entirely generated by ChatGPT. And if you read closely, you will see a very simple SEO-ish text with no valuable data or insights that can be helpful to you. However, there is no doubt that there will be significant ranking improvements based on it. So the question stands- what kind of content do we want to provide?

Let’s face it – the internet is literally crammed with content. Every day, bloggers around the globe churn out articles faster than you can say “I’ve got writer’s block”. And yet, among this digital deluge, only a select few manage to break through the clutter and lure a sizeable audience. So, what’s their secret potion? Engaging content, my friend!

This isn’t about concocting some elusive magic formula, but rather understanding the art and science of creating gripping content. Ready to be the magnet in a world full of metal shavings? Buckle up.

Know Thy Audience (Like You Know Your Favorite Pizza Toppings)

Before even placing fingers to keys, ask: Who am I writing for? The answer isn’t “everyone with internet access.” (Sadly, your pet cat Fluffy, despite her evident web-surfing skills, probably isn’t your target audience.)

Dive deep. Picture your reader. What’s their age? What problems keep them up at 3 a.m.? And most importantly – thin crust or deep dish?

Headlines: Your First Date Impression

If your headline doesn’t hook readers, your content doesn’t stand a chance. No pressure! Think of your headline as the entrance to a party. It should be so alluring that readers simply can’t resist taking a peek inside.

Got a snappy fact? Use it. A shocking revelation? Even better. For instance, “How I Gained 10,000 Readers in a Month” is bound to be more clickable than “My Blogging Journey.”

A Picture is Worth a Thousand… Clicks?

Ever heard the saying, “People eat with their eyes”? The same logic applies here. Blog posts with appealing visuals are not only more shareable but are also easier on the eyes. And hey, if you can weave in a GIF from “The Office” that’s perfectly on point, you’re bound to win a few more hearts (or at least a chuckle or two).

Make It Relatable: Your Blog Isn’t a Robot

No one wants to read a dissertation (unless you’re targeting academia). Blogging thrives on personal touches. Share stories, add humor, and most importantly, show that there’s a real, living, pizza-loving human behind the words.

Educate, But Make It Fun

Remember that monotone teacher who droned on and on? Don’t be the digital version of them. Yes, your content should be informative, but add dashes of wit, examples, and perhaps even a sprinkle of sarcasm (where appropriate) to keep it lively.

Keep It Snappy and Interactive

Humans nowadays have the attention span of a goldfish wearing tiny sunglasses. Make your content scannable. Utilize bullet points, subheadings, and interactive elements like polls or quizzes. Readers should be able to glean your main points even in a quick scroll-through.

SEO is Your Secret Sauce

Ah, SEO – the mysterious art of appeasing the Google gods. But in all seriousness, if you’re writing the most epic content but failing to optimize it for search engines, you’re essentially throwing a party and forgetting to send out the invites. Research keywords, optimize your meta descriptions, and sprinkle internal links like they’re parmesan on your spaghetti.

End With a Bang, Not a Whimper

Your conclusion should be more than just a polite nod signaling the end. Ask questions, challenge your readers, or add a call-to-action. Make them think, reflect, or even better – click on another one of your tantalizing posts.

Share Like There’s No Tomorrow

Okay, you’ve got your stellar content. But in the vast ocean of the web, even the juiciest worms can go unnoticed. Share your work across your social platforms, email newsletters, and even consider guest posting to widen your net.

Engage, Engage, Engage!

Remember, a blog isn’t a monologue, it’s a conversation. Reply to comments, engage in discussions on social platforms, and consider collaborating with fellow bloggers. The more you’re out there, mingling with your audience, the more they’ll want to visit your digital abode.

In a Nutshell…
Writing engaging blog posts isn’t just about showcasing your expertise, but about connecting, entertaining, and offering value. It’s an art that demands authenticity, strategy, and yes, a pinch of wit. So, go forth and let your blog shine brighter than a disco ball in a dark room. And always, always keep it cheesy – whether it’s with your pizza or your puns!

Sample Content – 2020 Marketing Strategy Essentials

January 11, 2020

by Marija Hladni Blog stories

2020 is here, and you might be wondering what changes it will bring to the world of marketing. Well, so far, not many, as far as major players in the industry are concerned, most of the marketing strategies that worked well in 2019 are just as reliable in 2020. Naturally, there will be some tweaks here and there, but all in all, if you adhered to the advice given last year, you shouldn’t have to change your marketing strategy course dramatically this year.

Of course, there is always an off chance that something was missing in your 2019 marketing strategy, and that is why we are going to go over all the essentials that an effective 2020 marketing strategy needs to have to generate sufficient leads and promote substantial business growth. Let’s get started, shall we?

Content is your biggest asset

No surprise here, especially if you take into consideration what Robin Barendsen, head of digital marketing at office space rental company WehaveAnyspace, noted, and that is that 77% of B2B marketers use content marketing. With that number in mind, it is a no-brainer that you need to up your content game in 2020. So how does one go about improving their content marketing strategy?

Well, the answer is quite simple, seek professional help. Partner up with a company that can provide you with quality content that you can push out without worrying about backlash. In a nutshell, brands should create content that is relevant, authoritative and, it goes without saying, one that educates its audience.

We also shouldn’t forget about personalized content. You can combine this with marketing automation. According to research, mapping the customer experience and the use of personalized content are deemed the most effective tactics for optimizing marketing automation. So there is something to be said about customizing your content to the needs of your customer base. Just make sure that this is done by a company familiar with your target audience and the message you want your brand to promote.

Ensure that you have a goal-driven marketing strategy

Ah, quite a shocker isn’t it? Who would have thought that this little piece of advice would still be as relevant as ever? Well, except every well-informed marketer out there, that is. It is quite simple really, if you don’t set pre-determined goals, how will you know whether or not your strategy is effective. And even more importantly, which aspects to improve on for better results later on.

Now, depending on your company as well as your role in it, there are a lot of different possible goals you could have. You might be focused on driving clicks, conversions, leads, sales or revenue. For most, revenue is the key driver and for good reason. Just consider this, you can have all the clicks and conversions in the world and still operate at a loss if you aren’t driving revenue. Simple, right? So, the best course of action is to set a revenue goal, and then work backwards to see what means will get you there and how much money will you need to invest. That way you will have a clear marketing strategy for 2020.

It’s all about the data

Another quite obvious strategy that if you haven’t implemented in 2019 you should definitely be implementing this year. The benefits of data-driven marketing and especially data-driven advertising are significant. For example, 66% of marketers personalize their emails based on age data. So, you combine personalized content with the data collected on your customer base in order for your marketing campaign to have the best possible impact.

Another piece of information that you might find interesting when talking about data-driven marketing is the fact that data quality management metrics will be a major driver for marketing professionals in 2020. But let’s talk about what benefits your marketing strategy can have if you decide to focus on the data.

More efficient media buying. The fact of the matter is that by leveraging algorithms and machine learning, marketers are removing a lot of the guesswork from their media planning and buying.
Having insight into who the right consumers are. This will lead to ad spends and marketing messages being optimized to be shown only to the appropriate targets for the marketing campaign.
Targeting the right people with your messages. Let’s face it, the age of generic, one-size-fits-all marketing messages is over. Marketing messages must get more granular in order to be relevant enough to resonate with consumers.

In the end, by keeping a close eye on the data and ensuring that you use all the numbers you acquire the right way you can expect to see a significant ROI. Careful targeting is what will prevent you from wasting precious marketing resources.

Don’t overlook the importance of consumer privacy

Sadly, repeated privacy scandals by Facebook, Google, along with security breaches experienced by numerous other brands that have led to the release of consumer details have heightened awareness of data privacy risks. Consumers are now aware that their data isn’t as safe with online brands as they have once thought. This is a relevant issue that is shaking the entire marketing industry. Especially if you take into consideration that record fines that came to be in 2019. Starting from the maximum penalty for contraventions increasing under GDPR to up to €20m (£17.5m) or four percent of global turnover – whichever is greater. A very clear example is British Airways being fined £183m for a breach of customer data. So it is clear that companies need to watch their back and do whatever it takes to guarantee customer data protection.

Now, you might think that this particular issue is not a marketing issue and that it is irrelevant for your 2020 marketing strategy. Well, you would be wrong about that. Marketers need to work closely with other departments in order to mitigate the potential impact of security breaches and reassure customers. Not to mention the fact that we are seeing a decreasing effectiveness of traditional identification methods such as cookies for tracking, which makes media ROI determination far more difficult. And as you know media ROI determination is one of the key benefits of digital channels. But don’t fret, there are a lot of modern tools that can be deployed to prevent this. But you do need to have them in place within your marketing strategy in order to ensure maximal success.

There you have it, and these are just the essentials that simply need to find your way into your 2020 marketing strategy. So go over what worked in 2019, polish up some parts and include some new items so that you are able to surpass your set goals by the end of this year. Good luck!

Understanding the Importance of Quality Content

January 11, 2020

by Marija Hladni Blog stories

By now, you must have heard the famous phrase ‘content is king‘ – it has been thrown around more often than anyone in the marketing business would like to admit. Despite its ubiquity, there are still people who don’t take it to heart as much as they should, thinking it’s just another cheap marketing phrase. Others don’t really know how to identify good content or why it matters. But the truth of the matter is, you can’t afford to ignore it.

Whether you’re a business owner or a marketing agency you want to know why you should spend money on obtaining the best possible quality content. You might have noticed that the market for this type of service is far from uninformed. This means that you do need to really set aside time to determine who you want to partner up with when content is concerned.

Just a few basic clarifications

If, by any chance, you’re not an experienced marketer who has a full grasp on the importance of quality content, this section, in particular, might clarify a few things as well as help you navigate the treacherous waters of content and the companies that produce it.

Let’s start with a very simple rule of thumb. Not everyone can write quality content. Yes, you know your product or service inside out, but transferring that knowledge to ‘paper’ and ensuring that your customers find it both engaging and clear, well, that is a whole other story. With the bounce rates being one of the major worries, you should, at least, ensure that your content isn’t to blame.

So now that you know that you need to find the right people for your content, here are some essential questions you need to answer before doing so:

Can I do it myself? ( you can, but you shouldn’t, we covered this already)
Do you need a professional company or will hiring a content writer suffice? (companies tend to honor the deadlines more, and can take on a bigger workload)
What is your designated budget fora project or a long term collaboration? ( This is why it is important to collaborate with a transparent content company)
What keywords are required for the content to be optimized? (A quality content producing company will do the research for you)
Who is in control? ( If you hire experienced content creators all you need to do is go over the finished product)

Now you are ready to hire the right people for the job. But there is always the burning question – Why do I need to invest in quality content?

Here are some of the benefits of having quality content…

Well, I could go on and on about the numerous benefits of content -remember, I am a writer, so those numerous benefits can be written and rewritten so as to have hundreds of different versions. But given the fact that I am here to show you what quality content is, and not bore you with unnecessary information. I’ll just let some well-researched numbers speak for themselves.

65% of people find it hard to produce engaging content, thus missing out on a lot of marketing opportunities
Content marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing even though it generates more than 3 times as many leads
72% of marketers say content marketing increases engagement. In addition, 72% say it has increased the number of leads
Content is worth optimizing since 95% of people only look at the first page of search results
Small businesses with blogs get 126% more lead growth than small businesses without
Websites with blog content have 434% more search engine-indexed pages than those that don’t publish

Not bad numbers, are they? The bottom line is, having quality content that you generate on a regular basis can have a great impact on your entire business marketing efforts. But even more importantly you can now opt for a company like Content Control that will take on the task of creating it for you.

Some final words to help sway you…

Now that you have a general idea about why investing in quality content makes so much sense, you might be thinking, as most business owners do, that this seems like something you can do yourself. Well, even if you are a talented writer with a knack for marketing, ensuring consistent top-quality content generation takes up a lot of time. And if you lack proper SEO training all your attempts might be futile as badly optimized content will not attract new leads.

You might be thinking that I am trying to sell you on the idea of hiring a company like mine. Well, yes I am, but I am also trying to give you a heads up as to what can happen if you go at it alone while lacking experience. The sheer time investment is not profitable. You do want to see an ROI on the time and money you put into content creation, and that is only possible if the final product is good enough.

So, run the numbers one more time, check our offers and prices and make an educated decision whether or not getting quality content is worth your investment.