Content Marketing Today, Yesterday, and the Future – An Interview with Andy Crestodina Co-Founder of Orbit Media
- Updated on: 2017-09-25
- Read original article here
Andy Crestodina is a co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer ofOrbit Media, an award-winning 38-person web design company in Chicago.Over the last 17 years, Andy has given web strategy and marketing advice to 1000+ businesses. He speaks at big marketing conferences, writes for big marketing blogs and he hosts a little marketing podcast, Content Matters.
He’s written hundreds of articles on content marketing, search engine optimization, social media and Analytics.
He is also the author ofContent Chemistry: The Illustrated Handbook for Content Marketing.
Andy gives between 50 and 70 presentations and webinars per year.
You’ve been doing content marketing for 10+ years now. How has it changed since you began?
It’s changed a LOT. It’s become more formalized and more structured. Ten years ago, people used to write shorter posts based on new ideas with clever headlines. There was a lot more experimentation and wacky ideas.
Today, content marketing is more likely to be rooted in strategy. The research and data has shown us what works, so marketers tend to stick to best practices. Modern content marketing tends to have less experimentation. Content today is more likely to be…
This is generally a good thing, but sometimes I wonder if we haven’t lost something.
I used to write zombie-themed blog posts and semi-random roundups. I once wrote a poem about SEO. But now, I tend to write longer, detailed, how-to articles with step-by-step instructions and an image at every scroll depth. I do this because I know it works and my audience responds well.
How do you determine the proper balance between content strategy, search engine optimization, social media, and Analytics?
For me, these all fit together. Content strategy is done upfront and involves planning the content and promotion. Search optimization, social media and email marketing are all channels for promoting content. Finally, Analytics is the measurement of the effectiveness of all content and promotion and also the behavior of our audience.
Here’s how the pieces work together and support each other and the needs of the visitor:
So everything has a place!
Speaking of balance, how do you decide which social networks to focus on?
Most people will tell you that Facebook and Instagram are good for B2C. LinkedIn is good for B2B. Twitter works for either. But there’s more to it than that.
There are two main benefits to social media:
We’re a web design company so our marketing goals are about lead generation. That means we needs a smaller quality of high quality visitors. And visitors from social media almost never become leads.
So for me, social is more about networking, making connections and building relationships. You can do that in any social network, but LinkedIn seems to be the best. It’s how we met, right Jess?
So I’m active in LinkedIn and Twitter. I almost never use Facebook or Instagram.
What 4 action steps would you take today to accelerate growth for content creators.
Let’s assume you’ve done the basics for content strategy: you know your audience and you’ve documented your goals. That’s not the main problem for most professional marketers.
But getting the work done, getting the content written and promoting the content once it’s live …that’s hard.
Here are my top four tips for speeding up growth
1. Use data to choose your topics.
There are lots of tools that will tell you what to blog about. They’ll show you what your audience is searching for, what gets shared the most, and what’s working for your competitors.
Inviting others to contribute makes content creation easier and more fun. You don’t have to go it alone. Get contributor quotes, invite others to guest post, use email interviews (like this one!) and curate roundups.
Visual content is more engaging. Include multiple images in each article. Visuals increase sharing and improve memory and retention.
If you don’t check your Analytics to see which of your email subject lines get clicked, which of your articles is ranking and which
And here’s a bonus tip, make sure your email signup form is polished up. You can optimize it to maximize the conversion rate by adding the three P’s: prominence, promise, and proof. Here’s an example:
source: How to Start a Blog: The Beginners Guide to Content Marketing
What are some of the common SEO mistakes that people make?
A lot of mistakes start from the very top. And I mean the top of every page. A lot of sites have vague website navigation labels that don’t indicate the relevance of the page.
Descriptive navigation labels tell search engines (and visitors) the topic of the page. It’s a chance to communicate quickly and clearly. unfortunately, millions of websites miss the opportunity and use labels that are totally generic.
Look at these examples. The first says nothing and doesn’t help SEO at all. The second is descriptive, giving the search engine an idea for what the page is about.
Where do you see content marketing in 10-20 years from now?
Tough question! It’s possible that the digital giants (Facebook and Google) will launch tools that make publishing content easier and more effective. They might take on WordPress somehow.
If they do and if it works, the separate, privately owned website may become less important and we’ll all rent land from Google and Facebook.
That’s a wild guess. But 20 years is a long way off. Who knows!
