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Article's Content
E-Books, webinars, and virtual events… what do they all have in common?
They’re all online assets that answer questions and educate people.
As our confidence in online-only transactions increases, it is important to have all information and selling features of your product or service prominently displayed online.
Before we get into that, here’s a peek at what’s to come:
- Key Insights On Content Marketing For Demand Generation
- Now Available: First 24 Hour YouTube Analytics
- Five Tips For Personal SEO Growth
- 21 Trends For SEO In 2021
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Demand Generation Tips for the Decade
Certain trends emerged from 2020—many out of necessity.
People worked from home, conferences moved to Zoom instead of public spaces, and we all got used to strictly digital interactions; both with friends and businesses.
The Content Marketing Institute has released its annual Content Marketing for Demand Generation Survey. In it, they reflect on the past year’s content trends while sharing predictions for the year ahead. Here’s some of the findings:
E-Books are Excelling
Over the past three years of the CMI Report, the “necessary and effective content” within the buying journey has been consistent but this year we are seeing the importance of e-books.
In the graphic below, effective is defined as succeeding at moving leads/potential customers to the next stage of the buyer’s journey.
Back in 2019, when times were simpler, buyers were reading and enjoying e-books in the early stages of the buying process.
- 56% of respondents said e-books were effective in the early stage
- 35% found e-books effective in moving leads to purchase in the middle stage.
However, this new data out of 2020 shows that e-books are proving to be more effective down the line.
- Down 16%, 40% still find ebooks effective at the start of a buyer’s journey
- Up 15%, 50% found e-books effective in closing a lead from the middle stage
There is only one other piece of content that ranks higher than e-books in converting middle stage leads through to conversions, and that is webinars.
Virtual Events
And although virtual events don’t stand out for demand generation, 53% voted them to be much more important than their real-life counterparts pre-pandemic.
This has to do with the show and tell trend; both webinars and virtual events are great ways to develop leadership in the industry, display your product’s prowess, and create a closer connection with your audience.
Since we have been separated from one another, all purchases have turned into online-only transactions, and we have become comfortable searching online for all necessary content to support purchasing decisions.
If you are realizing that you don’t have conversion-based content and e-books on your site or you haven’t been engaging in virtual events, this is your call to action!
Key Takeaways
- E-books, webinars, and events are necessary for conversion
- 2021 will be the year of providing information before it is asked for
- Events of 2020 have created a consumer base that relies on online-only information searches
YouTube Opens First 24 Hours Metrics
Tired of having to wait to see the analytics of your latest YouTube video? Not sure if your notifications are working to their fullest potential? Interested in your stats post-release?
Well, now you can stop refreshing the page after your video goes live to watch the view count increase. YouTube analytics has made it possible to access the first 24 hour data post-release for artist and brand accounts.
Here’s how it works…
Upon opening the analytics section of your YouTube account you are going to be greeted with a summary containing:
- Total number of views, with a comparison to previous videos performance
- Watch time accumulated in the first 24 hours
- Amount of subscribers gained or lost
- If monetized, the amount of revenue
Scrolling further down you will be able to access top traffic sources that brought in viewers.
- Notifications – received from subscribes with their notifications on
- Channel pages – coming from users on your channel’s page
- Browse features – coming from YouTube recommendations
- External – clicking through links off YouTube
- Direct – viewers using the exact URL
Generally, it is good to know which channel brings your traffic. We preach that distribution is king, and it pays to know your top channels—but!
Notifications are key when it comes to YouTube success.
If you are finding that notification traffic is dropping off or performing poorly on a video, that indicates your audience is either uninterested in the content released or you haven’t provided a title that grabs them. Either way, those are two crucial pieces of information to take note of.
With this update, you are also given the option to see data in a comparison mode, side by side with another video’s data from the same time period. This is highly beneficial when judging performance and planning benchmark performance stats.
Quick note on YouTube’s algorithm: it factors in freshness when queuing up recommended videos – so if you can optimize first-day data, you have a better chance at being featured. Over time you will see fluctuations from ‘browse features’ traffic and takeaway insights to optimize for it.
Key Takeaways:
- First-day video data is ideal for notification judgement
- Browse feature indicates your success in YouTube’s algorithm
- Comparison mode makes it easier to assess a video’s success
Personal Branding ‘How-To’ Using SEO
While I was in university, we had to Google ourselves every year and report on what we found. It showed me that the internet never forgets, and to this day I am fighting with Twitter to delete two accounts that I have been locked out of and can’t get taken down – I digress.
The point is you should conduct a quick Google search of yourself to see what shows ups and if that aligns with your personal brand.
On social media, you are completely able to control how you come off, what your communication style is, and display who you are. This is where our heads first go when we think of personal branding online, but these are all aspects of your personal brand that may not be reflected in your personal branding SEO audit.
Andy Crestodina recognized this to be a gap when trying to promote a certain image and so he created a five-step process to improve personal SEO.
Step One: Optimize your website’s team page bio
- This page should rank number one; if it doesn’t, update the detail until it does.
- Including links to your social media pages can help boost it in rank
Step Two: Add schema markup to that bio
- This helps Google display rich snippets of data (if applicable)
- This is a best practice that could one day pay off
Step Three: Leverage your LinkedIn profile
- Don’t have a company team page? This is the page you want to rank number one
- Improving this page for personal SEO purposes will benefit your LinkedIn SEO as well
- Upload a high-quality professional picture, fill in the profile, include your middle initials or title if you have a common name, update often, and include a strong bio
Step Four: Claim all social media profiles
- Even if you never plan to use them, you should own them
- This is a good hack to decrease rankings of unfavourable pages
- If you don’t plan on being active, simply create a post linking to a preferred page
Step Five: Advanced SEO
- If you’re an author, create and complete an Amazon Author Central profile
- Include your name in the title of a few of your YouTube videos
- Set up a Google Scholar account, if applicable
Hopefully, your personal searches are more favourable than my own, but it is always best to optimize!
Key Takeaways:
- Optimize favourable and priority pages for higher SERP ranks
- Benefit your personal brand-building efforts through personal SEO
- Keywords, link building, and on-page optimization all work for personal pages
OTHER NEWS OF THE WEEK:
Swimlane raises $40 million for its secure and automated operations management software.
In an all-cash deal, Citrix is acquiring project management software company Wrike for $2.25 billion.
Closing $132 million in Series E funding, K-Health has now raised close to $271 million for their AI-powered telemedical pediatric service.
BRAIN FOOD OF THE WEEK:
21 for 2021! Moz has released this year’s top SEO trends to embrace this year.
I’m sure you can guess a few, but some might surprise you. Here are the top three that stood out to me:
- Favicon Optimization
- Remove Unnecessary Links
- Passive Link Acquisition
Tweet us @FoundationIncCo with your favourite SEO trend listed above (or missing from the list) that’s predicted for 2021!
TWITTER THREAD OF THE WEEK:
9 Things to Include in Your Marketing Portfolio by Christine Johnson
WHAT WE’RE WIRED INTO THIS WEEK :
Foreign Affair by Tina Turner (Best Track: The Best)
Originally Sent Out Thursday, January 21, 2021. Stay up to date with all of our latest findings by subscribing to our newsletter today. Signing up also gives you early access to Ross’ Tuesday essay full of exclusive industry insights.
