Tag Archives: best practices

Announcing the “Content Marketing: Recycling & Reuse” miniguide

Author Derek Slater has just released a quick read for content marketers — the Content Marketing Recycling & Reuse miniguide. Based on two of the most well-received chapters in Online Content Marketing In 30 Minutes, the miniguide expands the topic into a strategic approach to content reuse, and a solid package of practical tips for leveraging recycled and repurposed content.

Content Marketing: Recycling & Reuse is also filled with examples that will inspire you. One of my favorites is the downloadable PDF from the Harvard Business Review that consists of old chapters from the journal, one of which was originally published on paper in the mid-1970s!

HBR essentials - content marketing example

As Slater points out in the miniguide, these old articles are still evergreen and are not only delivering value for readers, but also for the Harvard Business Review, which charges $24 for the collection.

Here is the table of contents to the Content Marketing: Recycling & Reuse miniguide:

  • Introduction: Why Recycling & Reuse Is So Important
  • Context: The Secret to Reusable Marketing Content
  • Context And Content Shelf-Life
  • Content Recycling Vs. Google Penalties
  • 8 Ways To Recycle Content
  • Bonus: 9 Killer Headlines
  • Conclusion

Content Marketing: Recycling & Reuse is aimed at anyone who is responsible for website content, e-commerce, social engagement, or lead-generation — that is, bloggers, journalists, editors, e-commerce managers, inbound marketers, social media managers, and SEO specialists.

Available formats include a Kindle version, the iBooks version for the iPad and iPad mini, a Google Play version that can be read on the Samsung Galaxy Tab, Nexus 7, and other Android tablets, and a PDF that can be printed out or read on practically any computer screen. For more information and to see a full list of purchasing options, please visit the Content Marketing: Recycling & Reuse download page.

How to use StatCounter for daily content marketing audits

StatCounter lets site owners monitor their Web traffic. It offers several benefits over Google Analytics, including ease of use, live visitor data, and automatic tracking of exit links. The following 6-minute video shows how to perform daily content marketing audits using StatCounter. It includes sections about monitoring basic traffic indicators, such as:

  • Recent visitor traffic by country and company/IP address
  • Source of traffic (i.e., search, visitors from external sites, etc.)
  • Pages visited
  • Popular pages
  • Exit links

This data allows site owners to understand what types of content is attracting audiences and converting them to sales or some other desired action. In the video, the narrator explains how exit links to Amazon.com and other e-commerce sites can be used to determine sales conversion rates.

Using Web traffic software to measure the effectiveness of site content is a central part of the content marketing audit strategy outlined in “Online Content Marketing In 30 Minutes”, by author Derek Slater. The contents of the guide are described here, and purchase options are shown here.

To see the video in its full-screen glory, please click the icon in the lower right corner of the YouTube video player:

StatCounter offers a free service with limited features; to register go to this page. StatCounter and i30 Media (the publisher of “Online Content Marketing In 30 Minutes”) are not related.

Google Analytics: How to evaluate content metrics

Are you getting started with Google Analytics, and want to learn how to evaluate content metrics? This 5-minute overview video will give you an overview of how to use Google Analytics “Content” area, to determine which site content is engaging visitors … and which content is not working.

The video goes over basics such as visits, bounce rates, and exit rates. These data points are very useful for content audits, which author Derek Slater covered in chapter 2 of Online Content Marketing In 30 Minutes:

You will be creating content that links to product or business pages on your site, offering customers the opportunity to engage with you in ways big (ordering something) or small (signing up for a newsletter). Or you will find yourself attaching a postscript to an article, alerting readers to an ebook or an upcoming event.

If these traditional calls to action or landing pages or other existing content forms are not working, that will dilute the effectiveness of your new content as well. Conversely, if your audit identifies that your current web page listing your ten best-selling products is the page where most people click on the “Order Now!” button, that may be a page you will want to spotlight in, or around, your content marketing articles or blog posts (see the bonus chapter at the end of this book for some examples of calls to action in action).

Which leads to the second compelling reason to do an audit: The measurement work during the audit to answer the “how is it performing” question will come in handy throughout the entire content marketing lifecycle. You will use many of the same measurements and tools to determine how your new content is working, and how to improve it.

To see the video in its full-screen glory, press the icon at the bottom of the player window. To order a copy of Online Content Marketing In 30 Minutes, please visit this page.

Content Marketing Tip: Recycling and reuse

The following post is an excerpt from Chapter 6 of Online Content Marketing In 30 Minutes by Derek Slater.

A great idea should never die.

One of the big criticisms of blog-based sites is that today’s post, however good it is, sinks lower and lower on the page under the gravitational force of each subsequent post. Once it’s off the front page, it’s hard for readers to discover it again.

For some types of content, that’s appropriate. Nobody wants to re-read old news, for example.

But if you do a good job of capturing context, as mentioned in the preceding section, there’s a good chance that your content will deserve a longer shelf life.

Articles about products age quickly, because products change. However, there are aspects of your audience’s life and/or work that don’t change very quickly at all. Businesspeople have to go to a lot of meetings. They have to cost-justify purchases in order to purchase them. They have to persuade co-workers to do things they don’t like to do. They have to deal with bosses and subordinates. Articles that address these contextual issues are of high value and tend to be relatively evergreen, meaning they remain current and useful for a long time.

So the ideas in those articles will continue to provide your audience with value, if you can find ways to resurface, reuse and recycle the ideas.

To read more from this and other chapters in Online Content Marketing In 30 Minutes, please purchase the paperback or download the ebook on the Kindle, iPad, and Nook. PDF and other formats can be purchased here.