Tag: content development

Why It’s Important to Add an Estimated Reading Time

Posted on by Michael Marchese

Blogging is an important content marketing tool for companies of all shapes and sizes. One important key to achieving business blogging success is to identify ways to appeal to internet readers. Adding an estimated reading time to the top of your blog posts is an easy way to help make this happen.

Zippia published some interesting statistics in April 2022. For instance, 77% of internet users read blogs and, on average, read about 10 blogs a day. About 43% of readers skim content, and the median time they spend reading is a mere 37 seconds.

If these statistics are accurate, you need to use every tool in your toolbox to motivate your readers to engage with your content longer. Publishing content is not just about writing words, it also involves strategy. Adding an estimated reading time to each of your blog posts is one strategy that can have a profound and positive effect on your reader engagement levels.

Reasons to add estimated reading time

Most people are time-pressed and don’t want to start reading an article to find it’s going to take them 20 minutes that they don’t have. As a result, they’ll likely close out the link and completely forget about the content.

Letting readers know from the beginning what their estimated reading time is will go a long way toward helping them decide if they can read now or bookmark the page until later. Time is precious to most people, but if the content grabs their attention, they will make time to read it later.

How to estimate reading time

Reading time is relatively easy to calculate. A person reads, on average, 200-250 words per minute. If you calculate the total number of words in your article and divide it by either 200 or 250, you’ll find the number of minutes it takes to read it.

When calculating estimated reading time, it’s best to round up to the nearest minute. For example, if you have an article that takes 1.6 minutes to read, round it up to two minutes. To make calculations easier, use one of the many online tools available.

estimated reading time significantly impacts engagement metrics

What happens when an estimated reading time is added to a blog post?

Adding the estimated reading time at the beginning of an article significantly improves the reader’s engagement with your content. Further, adding an estimated reading time significantly impacts engagement metrics with engagement rates improving up to 40% when the estimated reading time was added; statistics back this claim up. Specifically:

  • The bounce rate dropped.
  • Time spent on site increased.
  • The number of page views increased.

These metrics are the type of results you want to achieve. Sometimes all you need are little tweaks to help boost your analytics. Adding an estimated reading time is easy to do, and it pays big dividends.

What are the additional advantages of adding an estimated reading time?

There are additional benefits to adding the estimated reading time to your blog. Beyond improving your engagement metrics, adding this key piece of information for readers improves your SEO as well.

Impact on search engine optimization (SEO)

Search engines use algorithms to determine where content should rank for a given focus keyword or phrase. Some of the factors incorporated into those algorithms are:

  • Bounce rate.
  • Estimated reading time.
  • Pageviews.

The goal of your content is to be ‘findable. If an individual arrives at your article from one of the search engines, visits your site, reads the article, and goes on to view other pages, the search engines will view your content as relevant and valuable to other searchers using the same search query. In short, it will become even more findable.

This positive feedback will tell the search algorithms to prioritize your content, moving it up on the SERPs (search engine results pages). The more searchers who have a positive experience with your content and website, the higher your article will appear in the SERPs.

If SEO is important to you, you’ll see reading time’s impact on your program. You’ll also more closely coordinate and integrate your SEO and content marketing programs for better overall effectiveness.

Impact on the sales funnel

The benefits of adding an estimated reading time to your blog post go beyond increased engagement and better ranking and have a positive impact on your sales funnel.

The more you’re able to draw your readers to the content on your website, the better educated they’ll become. Your audience will be more likely to read other pieces of content on your site, too. Whether the reader realizes it or not, their actions slowly move them from the awareness stage to the interest stage of your purchase funnel.

A higher ROI can provide you with the financial momentum you need to reinvest more aggressively in your content marketing program.

The bottom line is this: adding estimated reading time requires very little effort on your part. And displaying it can increase reader engagement, improve SEO, and sales metrics. In an indirect way, it can nudge your audience towards the ultimate goal – conversion.

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Ready to boost your marketing efforts?

A digital marketing assessment, coupled with a marketing-managed service provider, can help you take your company to new heights. Every company strives hard to achieve an edge with its content marketing program. If you are looking to amplify your online presence, grow your audience, and expand your business,

Tempesta’s Prova digital marketing assessment identifies gaps in your digital marketing program. Prova evaluates:

  • Brand positioning and targeting.
  • Competition.
  • Any direct response gaps.
  • Content marketing performance.
  • Social media presence.
  • SEO performance.
  • Prospect nurturing.

After analyzing about 90 different aspects of your current marketing program, Prova will then identify areas to help you close any gaps. This assessment can be completed within two weeks and will position you to take the next steps to bolster your marketing efforts and achieve your goals.

Finalizing your assessment is your first step. Tempesta Media’s managed solution Bullseye Effect™, can then help you take your business to the next level. Peformica is the perfect solution to grow service businesses as you can eliminate expenses associated with hiring content, influencer, and social media marketing specialists/agencies.

With Bullseye Effect, you can obtain a stronger ROI. Even better, our compensation aligns with your success, meaning, we share both the risk and the reward. To learn more, contact Tempesta Media today.

Want additional information?

If you have a content marketing program or are planning one, download our e-book, 100 Mistakes Businesses Make When Starting, Optimizing, and Scaling Content Marketing Programs.

Our e-book will walk you through the mistakes of hundreds of other companies and the challenges they faced in implementing their content marketing programs.

6 Key B2B Content Marketing Trends to Follow in 2022

Posted on by Anastasiia Lavrinenko

If you want to succeed in B2B content marketing, you’ll need to adapt to today’s competitive realities by considering six key trends for outsized performance for B2B marketers.

Field sales are quickly becoming a thing of the past. Since Covid-19 came on very quickly, companies have been trying to adapt due to being unable to meet their prospects and customers in person. So, they quickly started using Zoom and other remote-based communications.

This blog will describe how the B2B world has changed and how content marketing strategies have adapted, providing six different trends to follow and succeed in your business.

Key factors that changed the B2B world

There are three crucial factors that have contributed to a significant change in the B2B world. You have to quickly find ways to adapt to these changes and keep succeeding in your businesses.

Web presence is key to your marketing success

This phenomenon is not limited to small B2B purchases. The website was always the focal point of communications before Covid.

Before the pandemic, the website may have been a supporting entity part of an overall communication mix. Now, it is the focal point, and other forms of communication support it.

Big-ticket for B2B purchases are happening remotely and through digital self-service

These purchases are generally defined as 50,000 dollars or more.

While the vast majority of big-ticket items are still happening in person, a growing percentage of those, especially between 50,000 and a half million, is happening remotely.

As a B2B marketer, you’ve got to tell your story, provide your value proposition and critical differentiators on your site, and do so concisely. You have to stand over the crowd, which will get the point across to your website’s target audience.

The content of your website is crucial for your brand presence and domain authority

If you have a poorly constructed website and are not focused on taking that customer through the buying journey, you will rapidly see its deceleration and an increase in your competition’s sales and higher domain authority.

6 key trends for content marketing success

1. Crafting longer content: Blog posts are getting longer   

Only very long-form content is driving results for marketers. So, if you are writing blog posts that are <600 words, don’t waste your time. You have to show up in the search engines and have a chance at achieving a top-10 listing.

In one SEMrush study, articles with at least 3,000 words generated 3x more traffic, 4x more shares, and 3.5x more backlinks than short-form articles. You’ve got to have content and write 1,500 words at a minimum (or, better yet, between 2,500 and 3,000 words).

Another important factor for crafting longer content is updating older blog posts, making them longer and more valuable to their target audience by refreshing them with new thinking and adding more images.

2. Increasing content publication frequency

Long blog posts need to be published weekly to generate results. In a competitive industry, you need to post more frequently. Expect to post 2–3 times weekly to gain market share. Depending on where you’re in the industry and how competitive it is, you may post anywhere from 2 to 5 times a week.

3. Adding more images

Something very important to consider is that people read and comprehend content differently. For example, some people are visual, others are auditory, and others simply want to read.

Many companies thought it would be sufficient to include an image at the top of the blog post or article, and they felt that their work was done. However, the reality is that adding one image for every 250–300 words of content is optimal for generating better results in the SERPs.

When you create your content, it is crucial not to build it in a model style but to instead incorporate different elements that appeal to further learning or concept absorption for the readers. For example, integrating more images into your content gives you a better ranking performance, better user engagement, and more sales for your company.

4. Incorporating structured data

Incorporating structured data is crucial since it improves your content and gives it better visibility. Incorporating structured data can be known as Google taking elements of your content and adding code around it.

Featured snippets create a new distribution channel for your content. They always appear on the first page of specific search results and are often above the fold so that the search engines know that this is a structured snippet that can appear in other parts of the SERPs.

5. Increasing content promotion

To increase content promotion, you should attempt to look inward first; you should look to start controlling and owning your media versus trying to focus on paid media by considering the following recommendations:

  • Try guest posting: Public relations, speaking events, and guest posting have become the three most important ways to increase promotion. The most successful content marketers use these tactics more frequently than most other companies.
  • Expand your LinkedIn presence: LinkedIn outperforms all other social media for B2B. As your budget becomes increasingly constrained due to competition and inflation, you will need to focus your social media programs on LinkedIn at the expense of other venues.

6. Owning distribution

Our “employee advocacy program” is a capability within our managed service. This program allows you to build your corporation and community.

Starting an Employee Advocacy Program (EAP) provides two significant opportunities.

  • Your employees can become your distribution channel, leveraging their brand to promote your company, driving thought leadership, introducing your company to new prospects, and reducing overall marketing costs.
  • You can build a corporate-owned community. Companies that establish online communities for their customers and prospects set themselves apart from the competition.

Another thing you need to do is take advantage of the social network and group capability. For example, you can create groups focusing on the business and discuss the issues their prospective audience faces.

In summary

In 2022, focus on the basic blocking and tackling tasks that you need to follow, increasing the word length of your content, incorporating images, and publishing more frequently.

Also, make sure you have content that targets your audience in a segmented fashion, resonating with that audience in search engines.

Do those things consistently, and you will have results this year. Be ready for a very strong 2023. Tempesta Media can help you out with the process. To know all about our content marketing solution managed service, don’t hesitate to contact us today.

3 Reasons Your Business Should Invest in Digital Marketing

Posted on by Anastasiia Lavrinenko

Using digital marketing to grow your business.

Investment in marketing is important

There are two ways to look at marketing: paid and owned media. Paid media is when you pay a third party, such as an advertising property like Google or Facebook, to drive traffic back to your site.

Owned media is created by you and doesn’t involve a third party. It could be a blog, social media page, or website.

Two important factors to consider when measuring the effectiveness of any marketing campaign are durability and sustainability. However, if you’re looking for more short-term results, you must be prepared to continue investing in that campaign month after month.

The key is finding a balance between the two extremes. It can be tough to justify investing in marketing and advertising because their return on investment (ROI) is very low. Costs have gone up while profits have decreased, making it hard for businesses to see a positive outcome from any marketing campaign.

However, there are two exceptions to this rule:

  • Ownable media. With ownable media, you’re investing dollars but getting very few leads in return.
  • Honorable media. With honorable media, you’re making an initial investment and then receiving a consistent flow of leads over time as long as you continue the campaign.
business growth

Where businesses should invest

Investments are an important part of any company, and just like in any other investment, there is a certain expectation of what you should get back. For example, if your company has an internal ROI threshold of 15%, that means for every dollar you invest, you should get $1.50 back within six months. But, of course, this also starts generating a return on your investment.

As a result, you need to find a project that will give you the best ROI in the shortest amount of time. There are many different opportunities right now in marketing, but one area where CMOs are seriously investing in research is social media.

CMOs quickly realize they can’t do everything in-house, and it’s not cost-effective to try. In addition, they struggle to find staff who are trained and capable in all aspects of marketing, from content writing to social media management. As a result, you should consider the following solutions:

  • Outsourcing. You can examine each component of the marketing team separately to determine what can be outsourced effectively.

  • Automation. A lot of companies are looking into automation because digital marketing has become increasingly reliant on technology over the last five years. The amount of money you need to spend to keep up with the competition has increased exponentially. So it’s important to be mindful of this when deciding on your marketing strategy.

Trying to build an in-house tech stack can be expensive and time-consuming; instead, it’s often easier to look for external solutions, cobble them together using tools like Zapier, and use that as your tech stack. That way, you can focus on your core business instead of trying to do everything internally. Again, this is an example of making an investment.

digital marketing discussion

Three reasons to invest in digital marketing

With everything digital, from social media to blogging and email marketing, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed. But it’s important to remember that finding the right balance is key.

So don’t let yourself get bogged down — focus on integrating one or two new digital marketing efforts at a time and see how they go. If you’re still not sure whether digital marketing is the right step for your business, here are three key reasons to invest in digital marketing.

Brand recognition

It’s common knowledge that to increase brand awareness, you need to do some amount of brand advertising. The more visible your company is, the easier it becomes for your sales team to sell and close new business. This also means you’ll get more inbound leads because, based on the strength of your brand, people will be interested in what you offer.

Word of mouth

Word-of-mouth marketing is a powerful tool. Referred customers are often more loyal and profitable than other customers, so it’s important to have a system that encourages referrals.

Unfortunately, many companies don’t take advantage of this strategy because they don’t know how to track referrals. But with the right tools, you can easily measure the success of your referral program.

Competitor analysis

Many companies aspire to be the top player in their field but focus only on their direct competitors. While this is a good start, it’s important to remember that you’re also competing with indirect compe

titors. These businesses may not offer the same product or service as you, but they still threaten your success.

It’s crucial to understand who these companies are and what makes them different from yours. This should include evaluating your performance against theirs and identifying their strengths and weaknesses so you can capitalize on any opportunities.

In summary

To succeed in digital marketing, start considering investments in automation and outsourcing. Such measures can help you achieve your objectives quickly. At the same time, building your brand is an example of an investment that will pay off in the long run.

If your company prioritizes programs that generate fast internal returns on investment, you’ll be setting yourself up for long-term success. You can track and measure your success in the short term and make necessary adjustments along the way. 

With Tempesta Media, your investments in digital marketing are safe. Contact us today if you would like to accelerate your success with managed content marketing

 

What Megatrends Could Transform The Digital Marketing World in 2023?

Posted on by Kristan Manley

In the digital marketing world, nothing stays still for long.

What changed in 2022

The balance between offline and online digital marketing has shifted in recent years. As a result, many advertisers have switched from offline marketing to digital, which has caused the prices of digital advertising to skyrocket. This is particularly evident in the areas of websites, emails, digital ads, and SEO.

The market’s challenge now is that many people have invested in digital programs because they have become too expensive. Consequently, the return on investment for these programs has decreased significantly. To solve this problem, companies are looking for alternatives.

Incremental dollars can make a big difference for businesses and individuals, so it’s important to be strategic about where you invest them. By the end of 2022, we’ll see even more changes.

Overview of the digital marketing industry in 2022

The digital marketing industry is an oligopoly in which a few major players dominate the market. One example is Google. Companies are becoming increasingly frustrated with advertising on major platforms like Google because they do not see the desired ROI.

People in the 18-34 age range, who used to be the main target for advertising, are no longer attentive. A lot of their time is now being spent on Facebook and Google. This shift means there is a dispersion of usage, with different platforms gaining favor at different times.

To capitalize on the trend, other companies need to start looking into strategies to set them apart from the pack. The pendulum is swinging back toward decentralization. This is good news for media buying companies, as they will see a resurgence in their power and influence.

The current economic situation is challenging for businesses. Stagflation, high inflation, and deceleration are leading many companies to scale back hiring and ad spending. So, during this time, you should work harder to optimize the following areas:

  • Content marketing. You need to keep creating killer content that is relevant and engaging. Keep writing longer content, and make sure you publish it frequently.
  • SEO. You need a good SEO strategy that attracts your audience, creating leads to buy products or services.
  • Email marketing. You can continue communicating with your subscribers or customers through relationship-building or sales.
  • Ad retargeting. You need to work on retargeting to drive higher visibility and brand recognition. Use this tool and be ready to see more conversions from repeat visitors.

Social media optimization

Main key performance indicators (KPIs) in 2023

To make decisions about whether to invest in outside sales and marketing, you need to take a long-term view of your customers. These are four important KPIs that you should monitor closely:

  • Customer lifetime value. It is the total value of a customer’s business with you throughout their relationship with your company. Considering this metric, think about how much it costs to acquire a new customer. If customer lifetime value has decreased, it’s likely because the cost of customer acquisition has risen.
  • Unique visits. By using data from unique visits, which are an industry-standard metric, you can find out how many people view your content within a given time frame. That way, you can quickly see trends, as this KPI offers a baseline that allows you to compare one type of content to another.
  • Consumption. You need to understand how your visitors are consuming content. Views, downloads, opens, click rates, time spent, and bounce rates are crucial measurements that help you hold on to your customers. Make sure that when they click on your link, they find what they expect. If you have a low bounce rate, you’re doing things right.
  • Engagement. Measure likes, shares, mentions, comments, pins, etc. These tell you whether your audience engages with your content. The more they like it, comment, or share, the more engaged they are.

Where companies are spending money

Companies are removing their less effective marketing programs, such as radio, TV, and paid media. Instead, they’re focusing on content marketing, SEO, email marketing, and ad retargeting.

This shift shows businesses know that great content is essential for a successful online presence. As a result, they will spend money in the next 12-18 months in areas where they are most likely to see success.

How marketing managed services can cut down on costs

Differences between the B2B and B2C markets in 2023

The B2B and B2C markets started down different marketing paths in 2019. B2C started gravitating toward influencer-based marketing, while B2B focused on webinars, events, SEO, and content marketing. 

The B2C side is showing a significant pullback that’s happening specifically in influencer-based marketing and social media marketing because these businesses are struggling to achieve an ROI that corresponds to the expenses they’re incurring. So B2C businesses are becoming very aggressive and renegotiating ad rates, influencer deals, and other paid media contracts. 

The B2B side is better protected and less exposed. Advertisers are B2B companies and are staying true to what works. They’ve done a much better job of quantifying the results that go with that. They will have a drawdown and paid media as well as paid social, but it will be less traumatic than what you see on the B2C side.

What B2B and B2C companies should consider

Many companies have had difficulties attributing their performance to specific marketing channels. So, to begin with, your B2B or B2C company needs to look at a potential partner that can go in and efficiently drive results. Then, with an analytics layer, you can cover all your bases, from content marketing to mobile, social media, and influencer marketing. 

The second step is to rationalize your costs and shift your marketing spending to match market demands.

In summary

Since you are responsible for both the B2B and B2C sides, you need to explore outsourcing some or all of those responsibilities. These could include mobile marketing, which is becoming increasingly important. In addition, whether yours is a B2B or B2C company, it’s important to invest in analytics. 
As a managed content marketing service, Tempesta Media offers a platform with an analytics layer that covers all your bases: content marketing, mobile, social media, and influencer marketing. If you would like your business to keep growing in hard times, contact us today.

Make Your Content Profitable With These 6 Power Hacks

Posted on by Kristan Manley

Content marketing is at the core of any successful digital strategy. However, developing quality, impactful, and memorable content takes time and resources as well as smart content marketing tips.

The following marketing tips will help you get more out of your content and turn these marketing efforts into a profitable activity for generating leads and sales. We’ll also discuss managed content marketing services and why they’re the golden ticket to a successful content marketing strategy.

Stand out as an SME

The term SME can mean two things. It can refer to small and medium enterprises, but marketing experts use this abbreviation to talk about subject-matter experts.

A subject-matter expert is a person or organization uniquely qualified to discuss a topic. Interestingly enough, many small and medium businesses also often happen to be experts in their niche.

With 81% of organizations considering content marketing as a core strategy, cutting through the noise and getting your content noticed can be a challenge. Step one is to tell your audience why they should listen to you:

  • As a subject-matter expert in your niche, you can bring a unique viewpoint to the table, such as an innovative solution to a common pain point.
  • Turn your professional experience into thought leadership by introducing new topics and discussions before your competitors.
  • No one knows your industry better than you. Inspire trust and confidence by adopting an authoritative tone.
  • While large organizations can have a broader focus for their content marketing efforts, the strength of small and medium businesses is often in their specialization. Establish yourself as one of the top content creators in your niche by adopting a narrow but insightful approach.
  • Build trust by delivering on your promises. Your content will be memorable and valuable if you discuss concrete solutions.

content marketing strategy

Create pivotal moments with strong CTAs

What comes next after establishing yourself as a subject-matter expert? Read on to learn how you can turn this initial connection into something more.

The previous sentence, and many others you’ll typically find at the bottom of blog posts or just above the fold in marketing emails, is a call to action (CTA).

The purpose of a CTA is to catch the eye and introduce the possibility of continuing the interaction, whether it’s signing up for a newsletter or scheduling a sales call. Once you establish this connection, you can keep nurturing the lead by delivering more content.

You’ll get better results if you use a few simple content marketing tips when creating CTAs:

  • Keep your CTAs short.
  • Use strong action verbs.
  • Suggest an action that makes sense for the current stage of the buyer’s journey.
  • Tell users how they can unlock more value by acting.
  • Use design practices that will make your CTAs stand out.

Capture organic traffic with SEO

Organic search is often the first channel prospects turn to when they need a solution to a pain point. It’s crucial to make sure your content will show up in relevant searches.

The best way to facilitate content discovery via organic searches is to invest in SEO. While some keywords will occur naturally in your copy and headers, you can go further by identifying two or three strong keywords for each page and using them in the URL, meta tags, link anchors, image alt tags, and more.

A successful optimization strategy starts with keyword research. You can use Google’s Keyword Planner to identify the top search queries and keywords your target audience is likely to use and keep up with the latest search trends for your industry.

Facilitate content discovery and consumption with internal links

We’ve already addressed how CTAs can become pivotal moments between content consumption and the first contact with a prospect.

However, facilitating pivots from one piece of content to another is just as important. The buyer’s journey is becoming increasingly complex.

A strong internal linking structure can help visitors find more content that is valuable to them. Plus, internal links will support your SEO efforts.

You can integrate internal links in your copy to help readers explore related topics. Marketers also use pillar pages to discuss a topic in depth and share hyperlinks to pages that focus on different subtopics.

SEO efforts

Stay on track with a content calendar

Content freshness is a key component of a successful content marketing strategy. Content can lose some of its authority as it becomes stale, and ongoing content marketing efforts from competitors can cause your pages to lose their top spots in search results.

Developing new content will also help you keep up with new topics and adapt to the latest search trends, including voice search, which is becoming more popular with over 135 million voice assistant users.

A content calendar is a simple tool you can adopt to streamline content creation. Besides helping you post regularly, it will support your strategic planning efforts.

Gain a competitive edge with content intelligence

Analytics can shed light on how prospects interact with your content and help you understand your content’s role in the buyer’s journey.

These are examples of the different metrics you can track:

  • Use a visitor counter to see which content pieces and topics are the most popular. Use your findings to plan more content around these topics.
  • Track your conversion rate for different channels and pieces of content. It will help you identify the top-performing channels and pages so you can focus your efforts on what is most profitable.
  • Go further by tracking metrics by audience segment, something that only 41% of B2B marketers do. This approach will give you a better understanding of your different buyer personas’ unique needs.

If you don’t have a content intelligence strategy in place, Google Analytics can be a great tool to get started.

Streamline your efforts with a managed content marketing service

If you find yourself short on time or resources to implement the strategies discussed above, outsourcing content marketing to a managed service can be a viable solution.

Managed content marketing services can streamline this process and act as an extension of your marketing team. From identifying content creation opportunities to creating and publishing content on your behalf, a managed content marketing service will help you turn content marketing into a profitable endeavor.

Tempesta Media is a managed content marketing service with capabilities ranging from content development and publication to social media marketing, SEO, analytics, and more. Schedule a content marketing assessment to learn how Tempesta Media can make your efforts more profitable, or take a look at our 100 digital marketing mistakes e-book for more tips.

Use Custom Content to Grow Your Business’s Important Relationships

Posted on by Anastasiia Lavrinenko

Routinely publishing custom content helps you to connect with your audience and grow meaningful relationships as you solidify your brand’s expert knowledge.

Content marketing is about much more than sprinkling a handful of blog posts every so often on your website. It involves creating consistent custom content your audience will find useful, interesting, and valuable.

Understanding the importance of custom content and why it matters to your business

It’s impossible to overstate the importance of using integrated content. Today’s consumers are not interested in generic content; they prefer unique information. Since custom content is branded and specifically tailored for delivery to your established customer base, it’s a powerful strategy for maintaining and growing those valued connections.

  • Consumers crave good content.

Statistics suggest 70% of people prefer to learn about a company through content rather than advertising and 82% “feel more positive” about a company after they read custom content tailored to them. Sixty percent of those readers are inspired to seek out products or services from their custom content experience.

  • Content heightens trust levels.

You’ve probably earned a level of trust with your existing customers, but custom content deepens those feelings of trust. Happy customers tend to give 5-star reviews, share content on social media, and generally express appreciation for their favorite brands. If you can earn this level of trust, your reach increases substantially. In a nutshell, with custom content, you can tap into and connect with a wider audience.

  • Offering something for free builds goodwill.

Offering free information builds goodwill with your existing customers. Focus on what they need. Share your knowledge to offer them solutions. A little free advice can go a long way!

A customer’s journey doesn’t end after a purchase. You want them to return, and custom content is a good mechanism to help keep these relationships blossoming.

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Ways custom content drives audience engagement

Custom content offers more benefits than appealing to your audience. It also significantly boosts your website’s SEO, provides links to your pages, and builds a following. All of this helps you improve audience engagement because people know how to find you.

  • Custom content betters your site’s SEO.

The more high-quality content you publish, the stronger your search engine optimization (SEO) will be. Google and other search engines use algorithms to identify content that is useful to readers. Custom content improves your SEO, giving you a much better chance of landing on that coveted first page of Google SERPs which significantly helps drive web traffic to your site.

  • Provides link backs to your website.

Custom-designed blog posts, white papers, and other types of content allow you to integrate links back to your website where you can help customers find your product/service pages and “contact us” page. Rank these pieces of content high enough on search engines and your visibility increases significantly.

  • Increases the number of your social media followers.

Content marketing expands your digital footprint to build brand visibility. When people share your content, you increase your social media outreach. A growing social media following expands your influence, but you have to stay on top of your content game to remain successful. This means consistently delivering engaging and shareable content. If you can do this routinely, you’ll increase your chances for success exponentially.

Ultimately, creating and publishing content that offers consistent value helps set you apart from your competition.

Content Marketing Budgets

How to see your return on investment with custom content

Generally, it’s five to 10 times more expensive to acquire new customers than to retain existing customers. Those existing customers also tend to spend on average 67% more than new customers. Based on the math alone, it simply makes sense to keep the attention of your existing audience and grow your relationships with them.
Focusing on existing customers helps keep your marketing budget down. Not only do you stretch your budget further, but also, if you partner with an experienced content marketing services provider, you can bring your costs down even more. Content marketing costs roughly 60% less than traditional marketing approaches, but generates triple the leads, delivering you a high ROI.

Start your custom content marketing journey today

Paid advertising campaigns are useful, but once your campaign is over, you lose your reach. On the other hand, the benefits associated with content marketing strategies are long-lasting. However, to succeed, you need to provide your audiences with fresh, up-to-date content.
Tempesta Media is a content marketing agency that offers a full range of managed services. If you’d like to know more about our content creation services, contact us today.

Pros of Content Development Outsourcing

Posted on by Kristan Manley

From increasing your marketing ROI to adopting a more strategic approach to content marketing, content development outsourcing can help you take your online presence to the next level.

Deciding to outsource content writing can transform the way you manage your online presence and shape how customers find you. The following pros should be considered when determining if content development outsourcing makes sense for your needs.

Pro #1: Save money

As many industries face shrinking profit margins, staying in control of costs is more important than ever. One of the areas you should focus on is your workforce.

In June 2021, a private industry employee cost an average of $36.64 an hour, with a little over 70% going towards wage and salary and benefits making up the rest.

In-house content production can be a costly process. A team member has to put several hours of work into writing a piece of content. Another person has to edit it, and a third must optimize it. The rest of the marketing team will then approve the content or send it back for revisions.

With content development outsourcing, you can pay only for what you need. You’ll get transparent pricing and pay per piece of content rather than per hour.

Plus, you’ll have access to a content production process with strategies in place to reduce the need for revisions and prevent costly issues like plagiarism.

Tech is another area where you can save money. Your managed service provider (MSP) will already have a content creation system, digital marketing tools, publishing tools, and more while you might have to purchase some of these things to support in-house content production.

Pro #2: Free up your marketing team

Content creation doesn’t stop at writing. You need to do research, edit content, optimize it, publish it, share it on social media, and more.

It’s a time-consuming process that can put a strain on your internal marketing team. A heavy workload can result in issues with content quality and output. But negative consequences won’t be limited to your content marketing strategy. If your marketing team is under stress for producing content, something major like a product launch or an event that requires their attention might be rushed.

If you outsource content writing, you can have your internal team focus on tasks where their experience, expertise and product knowledge will create the most value.

Pro #3: Work with a strategic partner

Getting a steady stream of content on time and on budget is only one of the advantages of content development outsourcing.

Your MSP marketing vendor will also become a valuable partner who helps you take a strategic approach to content marketing. This vendor will leverage their existing knowledge, experience, and tech stack to put together campaigns that deliver the kind of results you’re looking for.

A content development partner can help you with:

  • Market research. You can have your new partner draw on their existing knowledge of your niche to help you identify and understand your target audience.
  • Industry knowledge. Experienced marketers will be able to identify and implement specific tactics that align with your goals.
  • Latest trends. Whether it’s social media, influencer marketing, or employee advocacy, an MSP can help you keep up with the latest marketing trends and implement the ones that make sense for your goals.

Pro #4: Simplify vendor management

Outsourcing content marketing can result in a complex vendor management process with multiple partners in charge of writing, editing, SEO, and more.

There is a huge pool of talent available, but vetting partners, communicating your expectations, and making sure a piece of content moves smoothly through your process can be complicated.

An MSP can take the stress out of content development outsourcing. You’ll work with a single vendor who understands the ins and outs of what you do. You’ll be able to communicate your requirements and won’t have to worry about one of your partners slowing down your content development process by missing a deadline or not meeting your expectations.

Besides helping you save time and money, working with a single vendor allows you to put content creation on autopilot, a crucial component for scaling production.

marketing team

Pro# 5: Build a scalable and flexible content development process

Content marketing allows you to establish your business as an industry expert and contribute to important topics that are shaping your niche.

To achieve this, you need a flexible content development strategy. It’s important to have the possibility of scaling up as your business grows and the demand for content increases.

You should also be flexible enough to produce more content to cover an important news topic in your industry, to be the first to write about a new trend, or to publish a response to a popular piece of content.

COVID-19 illustrated the need for flexibility with 82% of marketers making quick changes to their strategy. While an in-house team can be an obstacle to scalability due to size, workload, or the high upfront costs of a new hire, an MSP will allow you to order more content as needed, expand your offerings with new content formats, or cover a trending topic on short notice.

Pro #6: Achieve consistency

The voice and tone of your content matter. These things shape how people perceive your brand.

You need consistency for a successful branding strategy, especially as users consume content across a growing range of channels. Your brand should be immediately identifiable, and your tone should call back to prior experiences to strengthen brand recognition.

Achieving consistency isn’t easy when you work with several vendors or freelancers. It often results in more work for your internal marketing team who has to review everything, ensure it adheres to your specifications, and sometimes do extensive rewrites to achieve the desired tone.

If you outsource content development to an MSP, you’ll work together to define your voice and create clear expectations for the tone of the content. The MSP will use its internal editing process to ensure that content always matches your branding requirements.

Get started with content development outsourcing

Outsourcing content marketing is a popular practice for managing costs, reducing the workload of an internal team, and improving scalability. Plus, you can get help with taking a strategic approach to content marketing and achieving more consistent branding. And with an MSP, you’ll get to work with a single partner for a simple vendor management process.

Tempesta Media makes outsourcing easy with an onboarding process that allows us to get to know you better and understand your expectations. Our results-driven approach will help you position your brand as an industry expert while delivering quality content that engages and converts prospects. Are you ready to learn more about content development outsourcing? Contact us today!

What Are the Benefits of Content Development Outsourcing?

Posted on by Anastasiia Lavrinenko

Why do so many companies choose to invest in content development outsourcing? There are many benefits to take advantage of.

Today’s online landscape is incredibly competitive. To keep up, companies need to consistently strive to outshine others in their industry. Most companies, small and large, find they need to invest in content development if they want to compete. However, the key to success isn’t just to do your content marketing well. You need to do it better than your competitors, which may mean seeking the help of content development outsourcing services.

How do outsourced marketing services provide a solution for SMBs?

Small- and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) typically have limited budgets. Not to mention, they have little to no access to a robust marketing team. In response, it’s not unusual for SMBs to find content marketing cumbersome.

Their small teams are often too stretched. Or worse, employees perform double duty with other responsibilities and can never devote enough time or energy to any of their tasks to create quality work. As a result, desired results may not materialize. (In fact, undesirable results may surface.)

If you’re already doing content marketing, you know how challenging it can be to consistently create and publish new material. Outsourcing content marketing offers SMBs the solution by taking some of the time, money, and resource considerations off their plate.

How does content development outsourcing benefit large companies?

Outsourcing content development isn’t just a smart investment for SMBs. Large companies can benefit too. They don’t have to onboard full-time experts to handle content creation, which saves money on onboarding, training, and providing resources for more people.

A content marketing partner also offers a fresh perspective and new messaging ideas, both of which can effectively reach deeper into a targeted audience base. Furthermore, an expert partner can offer you a competitive advantage. For instance, they already know what works – and what doesn’t – for your competitors.

Content experts also tend to keep up with marketing trends. This doesn’t always happen in-house when there are a thousand other tasks to complete. Thus, with a dedicated partner, you’ll gain access to cutting-edge strategies as they emerge.

The Value of a Lede Oriented to Your Target Audience

Why does outsourcing content marketing work?

Regardless of a company’s size, outsourcing content marketing offers a multitude of benefits. So, it’s not surprising that 78% of companies have a content team of 1-3 people. However, this small size puts huge pressure on those select individuals.

Aside from removing internal pressures, consider these other tangible benefits that come with outsourcing your content marketing strategy:

  • Quick and easy start. Getting started is key. Simply share your goals with your partner, detail your target audience, and outline your style guide. Your partner will handle the rest and you can see ROI increase.
  • Gain expertise. Gaining access to a team of qualified, experienced, and knowledgeable writers can easily breathe new life into your strategy. Let your partner create industry-centric content.
  • Eliminate internal bias. With an external team to identify areas of improvement, you can make your content even more effective and boost your publishing abilities.
  • Create customer-friendly content. People actively working in an industry tend to speak jargon. This doesn’t always translate well to a customer base. Your partner will ensure that content is written for your target audience and that it solves their pain points in words they can easily understand.
  • Cost savings. With content development outsourcing, you empower your staff and bolster your budget. Freeing up these two assets allows you to focus on core competencies and growth, without pouring money down the drain on stagnant marketing strategies or costly employee resources.

Get help from an expert

Outsourcing content writing to an expert third party is a smart move for many businesses, large and small. If you need help with your content strategy, Tempesta Media’s managed solution offers you 360-degree service. Contact us today for a no-obligation consultation. We’re happy to answer any questions.

What Does a B2B Marketing Agency Do and How Can It ​​Help You Grow Your Business?

Posted on by Kristan Manley

A B2B marketing agency is the most advanced marketing solution for business-to-business marketing. It can help boost your company’s revenue with effective content marketing, social media management, and lead generation.

B2B marketing is a complex process involving many departments and individuals in a company. According to a Content Marketing Institute survey, half of all B2B marketing teams outsource at least one of their content marketing activities because business owners feel that their in-house marketing teams are not delivering the results they should. 

In this article, we want to outline the three most popular services among B2B marketing agencies.

Content development

A marketing agency provides businesses with expertise in terms of content marketing development. B2B content marketing involves using relevant and valuable information to attract, acquire and retain a company’s target audiences. 

Content marketing offers numerous benefits, like improving website traffic, increasing your search engine ranking, and improving your brand recognition among the target audience. A B2B marketing agency also creates various types of content for B2B companies, like blog posts, e-books, white papers, and case studies. A good B2B marketing agency has a team of writers who are experts in various industries, plus editors and SEO specialists who will polish each piece of content to achieve the best results for you.

Social media marketing

If you’re looking to grow your business-to-business company online, a B2B marketing agency can help you. When it comes to improving your company’s social media presence, a professional agency can formulate a  social media strategy and social media campaigns specifically for your company to give you the best return on your investment.

The numerous benefits of successful social marketing programs include enhanced traffic generation, more enthusiastic brand engagement, and superior customer service. A B2B marketing agency will create a specific strategy that allows you to capitalize on these benefits.

Lead generation

​​A B2B marketing agency can help your business bring in new clientele. Such an agency typically works by partnering with your business to develop a marketing plan that engages potential clients, raises awareness of your business, and ultimately acquires new clients. 

This is an effective way for companies to promote their brand without the high cost of advertising, especially for smaller businesses trying to make their name in the world. A B2B marketing agency can provide valuable insight and recommendations about the latest trends in digital marketing along with actionable steps, such as methods to effectively reach out to your target audience. Moreover, a B2B marketing agency can implement those steps for you.

Final thoughts

A B2B marketing agency’s main role is to create various marketing strategies for their clients. They make sure their clients enjoy maximum visibility on different marketing platforms. 

Tempesta Media understands that each B2B company has unique needs, and we develop a custom plan for your company using proven marketing practices that increase your ROI. We have the expertise to make it happen. Contact us today to learn more.

Benefit Your Business With a Social Media Management Company

Posted on by Anastasiia Lavrinenko

Social media has become a major part of marketing and networking for businesses. With millions of different corporate pages and profiles across all social media platforms, you need to make sure your company has a strong social media presence to capture potential customers. A social media management company that offers custom services can help you save time while successfully managing your social media networks.

Many entrepreneurs are overwhelmed by social media because it is time-consuming to maintain an active presence for their business across channels. Fortunately, there’s a solution that can help you stay on top of all the competition on social media. 

Social media management companies or social media managed service providers can handle all the processes connected with social media activity for you. It’s difficult to assess the numerous advantages that these kinds of services can bring to your company. Social media management companies can provide support starting in the early stages, such as account creation, and stick with you all the way through to setting up paid campaigns for lead generation.

Creating accounts on social media

A good social media management company can help you create and manage your social media accounts and ensure they stay up to date and relevant. But first, it’s necessary to identify the appropriate social media management channel. Professionals who help craft  your social media marketing strategy from scratch know the latest trends and data, which helps them make an appropriate decision.

Based on the latest statistics, Facebook is the most popular social media for B2C as well as B2B. When creating an account, you should consider a lot of factors. But the first questions a social media management company will ask you are:

Just starting with these two questions, an expert group of social media managers will be able to create accounts on the appropriate social media channels for your business and design an original, custom social media marketing strategy, by using the best social media practices.

social media platforms: where do consumers prefer to follow brands

Depending on the package option you choose with your social media managed service provider, a good social media management company may also train your internal employees on some social media services. The best part is that they’re always available to take care of any updates or changes needed in your account when necessary. 

Social media is an important part of your content marketing strategy. For that reason, you need to ensure your company maintains a strong presence on as many social channels as possible. Understanding how to develop an online presence and advertise on multiple social platforms has become a vital component of every business’s success, with billions of individuals on social media internationally.

Some benefits of having a social media presence

As a brand, you can reach out to millions of people in a matter of seconds through the power of social media. You don’t have to worry about the overhead costs because social media is your best friend when you’re trying to reach a large audience for a low cost. By using social media for even a small part of your marketing strategy, you can gain a lot of visibility for your brand. 

The beauty of social media is that it’s constantly evolving and offering new features and ways to interact with consumers. With a social media management company as your business partner, you will be able to see the latest social media best practices in action in the most effective way. 

Social media branding

Branding is crucial since it creates a lasting impression on customers and informs them about what to expect from your business. It’s a technique that helps you stand out from the crowd and state exactly what makes you the better option.

Social media is important to your branding efforts. As you design your social media pages, focus on information and images that strengthen your brand. By answering these kinds of questions, a social media company can create a powerful branding strategy to promote your company on social media: 

  • Who are you? 
  • What do you do? 
  • What’s special about you? 
  • Why should I care about you?

To build a strong brand, you need to have a solid social media presence. If you want people to use your products or services, they have to connect with your brand. 

However, building a brand on social media is not as easy as just creating a Facebook page (though you can learn to do it well). You need to understand the type of content people are interested in seeing. If you are just starting out on social media, It can be challenging for you to figure out and take into account all the small pieces, like the type of content you should be posting to pique your audience’s interest.

Branding is necessary to establish an identity and recognition for your products and services. Your followers and consumers are more likely to buy from a brand that they know and trust, and more likely to stay loyal to a brand they have already developed a relationship with. 

Social media SEO 

Social media optimization, or SMO, is about attracting visitors to your social media pages. It is very different from search engine optimization, but has the same goal of increasing traffic to your pages. 

SMO is considered one of the most important components of marketing today. One key difference between SMO and traditional SEO is the fact that unlike search engine results, social media crawling cannot be automated by software. It is updated almost in real time, making it very difficult for robots to determine when they have updated data.

Content creation for social media

Social media content creation is a more complex procedure than it looks. Your team may not be finding success on their own, as it can be time-consuming and difficult to manage. It also requires creativity and constant attention to social media trends.

Many companies struggle with this aspect of marketing for a few reasons. The most common stumbling blocks in social media content creation are:

  1. Not knowing your audience and their problems and interests.
  2. Not knowing the types of content that work best for social media.
  3. Not understanding the focus of a particular social network and how to identify the right type of content for each social media channel.
  4. Not having a social media editorial calendar in place.
  5. Lack of automation of the content planning and posting processes.
  6. Not using hashtags and other tricks to increase the visibility of published social media content.

Best types of social media content

It is important to know what works and what doesn’t when it comes to using the most popular social media platforms. And, since social media use has increased dramatically over the last few years, it’s crucial that your company’s social media content is top-notch. 

If you want your social media content to work for you, then you should create content that will generate interest and boost traffic to your business. Here are some of the best-performing content types for social media:

  • Written posts, articles and e-guides. These kinds of posts can help you gain credibility and improve your reputation by showing your knowledge within the industry.
  • Curated content. By presenting relevant articles and resources from other sources that you trust, you can share the latest industry updates and provide your audience with a piece of valuable information that you haven’t outlined yet in your own blog.
  • Reviews and testimonials. People value other people’s opinions and experiences over what a company claims, so testimonials and reviews are vital.
  • Announcements. Spreading the word about new goods, events, live streams and other significant events can help generate buzz and keep people informed about what’s going on with your company. Audiences adore getting behind-the-scenes information about their favorite stores and companies!
  • Images. Long-form blogs are far less digestible and compelling than visual content. Smartphone cameras can produce breathtaking images, and various applications make it easy to edit them.
  • Infographics. These are used to accompany explanations, data and other written concepts. Infographics are tops at communicating complex ideas.
  • Videos. It’s convenient to record videos, and they’re highly entertaining. How-to tutorials, video tours, and product updates and demos are all examples of fantastic video content that may improve website traffic and revenue.

The importance of hashtags for social media

Hashtags are words or phrases preceded by the pound sign. When you click on a hashtag, you can see all of the posts on that particular subject. Hashtags help connect content to the person seeking it without requiring them to search for it in a specific app. 

Hashtags can be used in a variety of ways. They can categorize a post to make it easier for others to search and find. They can be used to add a source or location to a post. For example, when posting from an event, you might add the name of the event to provide context. The above scenario wouldn’t necessarily be classified as a chat tool, but could be if the users add that functionality themselves.

An abundance of companies offer social media management services, but there are two main types. One service makes the most of the platforms by creating content and engaging with customers appropriately. The second service helps with your overall social media strategy, whether its focus is on selling or building a community.

Tempesta Media is the second type of company, with full service. As a part of Tempesta Media’s managed service, a team of professionals can create a comprehensive social media content marketing strategy for you, starting with analyzing your competitors’ environment by providing actionable insights and recommendations for their implementation. Our social media professionals can manage your social media production from the moment of account creation, through every step of production and improvement.

Publishing social media content

The internet is a fast-paced world where content is king. If you always want to be known as an industry leader, you will need to make sure you are publishing useful and evergreen content on your social media accounts. But who has the time to go through all of the information you find, make it interesting for your audience and also make sure it is shared in the right way?

Keeping up with content publishing on social media can be a full-time job. With so many posts to schedule and so much engagement to monitor, it can be completely overwhelming. A social media management company will essentially do all of this for you.

Maintain the right posting frequency

Posting frequency is only one part of the equation when you’re trying to get people to click on your posts, and it’s something you should look into when creating your publishing schedule. 

One of the most important steps a social media management company takes is to develop a posting strategy for social media. In other words, what social media channels will your company post to, and how frequently? It sounds easy enough, but it can actually be a bit tricky if it’s overlooked. 

To help you figure out your social media posting frequency, we’ve put together a list of the most popular social media platforms, along with the best recommendations for publishing frequency: 

  • Facebook: 1-2 posts per day.
  • Twitter: 1-2 times per day, but no more than 3-5 times per day. Be careful.
  • LinkedIn: 1 post per business day, which is 20 posts per month. Companies that post weekly on LinkedIn see a 2x higher engagement rate.

Don’t forget about the time

We all know there can never be just one formula for what works and what doesn’t when it comes to the best time to post on social media. It’s unique to each business and its specific audience. 

So, let’s take a look at some general rules of the best time to post on social media to get the greatest reach for your company’s social media accounts:

  • Facebook: Try to keep your post timing between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.
  • Twitter: Mornings and late evenings are the best times to post on Twitter. Try publishing between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. or between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.
  • LinkedIn: Monday and Tuesday from 8 a.m.–2 p.m. Post on Wednesday from 8–10 a.m. and at noon, on Thursday at 9 a.m. and 1–2 p.m., and on Friday at 9 a.m.

When posting times are used correctly, your social media can help you reach new customers and increase sales. Tempesta Media’s platform, along with its social media solutions, specifically its Simple Social Share™ feature, allow you to use one centralized dashboard to create, schedule, publish and optimize social media posts while getting higher ROI and ROT.

Analyzing your social media program performance

It is important to analyze your social media data to see if there are any ways you can improve your use of social media. If you don’t take the time to analyze the data, you will fail to optimize and scale your social media marketing program. 

The analysis should include data about your target audience, the type of content, the timeline and other factors that are important for your business. The social media management company will focus on finding out what works and what doesn’t, where improvement can be made and new ideas for social media marketing campaigns.

It will take time to analyze your social media program’s performance from all angles. This includes using analytics not only from your own websites, but also from the social media platforms where you are promoting your business. You can learn a lot about your customers by paying close attention to these statistics. For instance, through analytics, you may find that a certain social media platform is not providing you with nearly as much traffic as you think it should be.

Here are some social media program performance metrics that a social media management company will definitely pay attention to while performing the analysis:

  • Engagement (clicks, likes, shares and comments). The engagement rate is frequently used to determine how active your audience is with your social media content and how effective your brand efforts are. Consumers who are engaged interact with brands through behaviors like “likes,” comments and social sharing.
  • Awareness (impressions and reach). Impressions and reach are both critical metrics to evaluate, especially if your social goals are focused on brand awareness and perception.
  • Share of voice (volume and sentiment). Volume and sentiment are two factors that influence how much of a person’s voice is heard. A measure known as share of voice is frequently employed in public relations as well as in competitive research and paid advertising campaigns. It shows how much of the online world your company is involved in. If you’re a Chicago-based surgery clinic, for example, you can see how many people are talking about your business online in comparison to your competitors.
  • ROI (referrals and conversions). Both sales and marketing goals, as well as major business goals, are linked to social referral traffic and conversions.

Final thoughts

You can benefit your business now by hiring a social media management company. A social media management company can help you promote your business, increase your follower count and enhance your target customer base.​

A social media management company can cover everything from social media strategy and implementation to the daily operations needed to keep a profile running effectively. Most social media management operations take a considerable amount of time. This is time you can better spend focusing on increasing revenue and other important aspects of your business while still developing and maintaining your company’s online presence on various social media sites and reaching out to new and potential customers.

Enlisting the help of a social media management company is one of the best decisions you can make for your business. 

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