In an extremely competitive market, there is an increased need for brands and businesses to stand out, connect with their audiences and build customer loyalty. Branded content marketing is a great tool to help do this. It’s the best vehicle for marketers to bridge the gap between awareness and affinity, says the Content Marketing Institute. … Read More
Are you hesitating to invest energy and money into content marketing? Well, consider this: no one ever won a game of Monopoly by cautiously navigating around the board without buying Pall Mall, Park Lane, or a station or two. As a business owner, you may be playing a delicate financial balancing game. But, if you … Read More
Whatever sector you’re in and whatever role you play in your company, accurate, effective and compelling written communications are a crucial factor in success. It might be a press release, a new product launch presentation, training materials for sales staff, product descriptions or any customer-facing copy – whatever you’re writing, good copy has the power … Read More
“Great content is the best sales tool in the world.” – Marcus Sheridan Industry gurus are constantly waxing lyrical about the importance of content. It’s the king (Bill Gates). It’s the kingdom (Lee Odden). It’s the lifeblood of your marketing strategy (Neil Patel). If you own a website, you already know all this. But are … Read More
“Content Marketing is all the Marketing that’s left.” Seth Godin If you want your online business to succeed, you have to invest in content marketing. But, with uncertain times ahead and online competition becoming ever steeper, you need to squeeze every last drop out of your content investment. We’ll show you how. Repost your content … Read More
You’ve carefully mapped out your content for the year and then there’s a global pandemic. What the hell do you talk to your customers about now? Way back when you were creating your 2020 content calendar (you do have one, right?), you no doubt planned timely pieces relevant to the year’s key events. Depending on … Read More
Here at Big Star HQ we like to answer a direct question with a direct answer. And the answer to this is yes. It’s a yes because blogging can be your most effective content marketing tactic. The fact that 57% of marketers say they plan to increase their blogging efforts tells us that it’s still … Read More
Let’s start with what is pretty much a given. People are talking about your brand online whether you are monitoring (and listening) to these mentions or not. If your company has a social media presence (and you’d have to dig pretty deep to find a brand without one) you will need to be actively monitoring … Read More
What’s the return on your content marketing efforts? Is your strategy delivering the results you’re looking for? Is your content relevant and valuable? If you’re a B2C brand and stumped for answers, you’re not alone. 41% of B2C marketers cited the inability to measure content performance as a significant challenge, according to Content Marketing Institute. … Read More
We hope you haven’t got Google update fatigue because this is important. Google has made a giant leap in the way it understands the nuance and context of longer search queries with the release of its BERT update in its ranking system. The update means that Google will better understand one in 10 search queries. … Read More
Ok, so ‘content is king’ has become a huge cliché. But we need good clichés, especially when they’re true. “The reason that clichés become clichés is that they are the hammers and screwdrivers in the toolbox of communication.” ― Terry Pratchett Thanks, Terry. We miss you. Content is king. It’s also the kingdom and the … Read More
Producing unique content that is optimised for SEO is part of a good copywriter’s DNA. Building a high quality website and sharing this valuable content is critical to the success of a brand’s marketing strategy. Showing the most relevant results to users is part of a search engine’s reason for being. When these three elements … Read More
In a recent post we discussed three ways that content can help an ecommerce business compete with Amazon. We talked about how unique, valuable content can help you standout by offering customers a differentiated experience. We thought it would be helpful to explore this further and take a look at the types of content that … Read More
This is a question that can freeze search teams and copywriters in the SEO headlights. In truth, the answer is there are no hard and fast rules about content length. There is common ground when it comes to opinion and experience. The consensus is that longer content works the hardest in helping businesses rank higher … Read More
Are you thinking about throwing in the Twitter towel? Changing algorithms, fake news, rogue bots, trolls and reports of users closing accounts means there’s a perception the platform is losing its relevance and shine. Dig a little deeper though and user statistics show that there are still 326 million people using the network each month. … Read More
It’s not news that earned media outflanks paid media as an effective marketing tactic. It’s what 81% of marketers think too. While CMOs still rate owned media as a priority investment, brands are also quickly figuring out how earned media fits into their integrated marketing strategy. Businesses know how to run marketing campaigns on the … Read More
As an ecommerce business, how do you vie with Amazon, the world’s most valuable brand? Before we get onto this, let’s take a quick at how Amazon got to put its flag at the top of the summit. It wasn’t because of its products or its technology even. It got there, and is staying there, … Read More
Creating the right content for the right people at the right time is the holy grail of content marketing. Understanding this bit is easy. But, when it comes to social media, how well do you understand what your target audience wants, so the content you produce earns its keep? How do you cut through the … Read More
Just because insurance is essential, it doesn’t mean that anyone wants to spend more time thinking about it than they absolutely have to. And although ignorance can be bliss, this isn’t the case with insurance. How can insurance companies use content marketing to engage with policyholders and prospective customers? Well, if truth be told it … Read More
Across the globe, more than 3 billion people are using social networks. No business can afford to miss out on that scale of opportunity. But how do you get people to engage with your business on social media? There are lots of tips out there to help your business grow a social media following. To … Read More
Around the globe, 3 billion people use social media. A whopping 17% of the world’s population log onto Facebook every day. For businesses large and small, it’s a relatively cheap and quick way to develop your brand with existing customers and reach out to new ones. If you’re not using social media, your business is … Read More
Content is everywhere. Stats scream out from across our feeds, telling us variously that the Gen Z engage with 10 hours of online content a day and that having a content marketing strategy can increase traffic by 142%. As a marketer, you know that sharing content on social media is an essential part of your … Read More
In the world of the printed word, copyright is well established and quite clearly defined – copyright is automatically assigned to the creator of a piece of work, unless they have signed that copyright over to another party. Any unlicensed and unauthorised use of that work is considered an infringement of copyright and the original … Read More
If your content marketing strategy isn’t going exactly to plan, you may be looking at ways to improve your content’s performance. Here, we take a look at what steps you can take to ensure that your strategy has the desired impact. Make sure you’re measuring the right things An effective content marketing strategy will make … Read More
When content marketing is done well, it can have wondrous effects on both your sales figures and brand reach. However, it’s not the easiest of marketing techniques to get right. If you’re struggling to improve your content marketing results, here are our top 9 tips to help you do so. Ensure it is goal orientated … Read More
Writing product descriptions that accurately represent your products, generate consumer interest, and help raise conversion rates is a difficult task. It involves juggling a number of ideas and honing your writing and editing abilities until you’re comfortable repeatedly writing to a targeted audience and in a specific tone of voice. Here, we take a look … Read More
Everyone knows that backlinks are the key to better ranking. (You didn’t know that? Read our article on domain authority and backlink building). And because everyone knows their value, quality backlinks (the only ones that matter) are also damnably hard to achieve. Internal linking, on the other hand, is easy to implement and completely flexible. … Read More
When considering what makes a quality domain, search engines takes multiple ‘trust indicators’ into account. The result is a ‘TrustRank’ score which helps Google et al decide, amongst other factors, how to rank your site. If you’ve received one of Big Star’s free content marketing audits, you’ll have received a score based on the ‘MozTrust’ … Read More
Read all the guides about on-page SEO but not seen any changes? Invested time and money in web content that no-one’s reading? Still being beaten in search results by your competitors? Here’s newsflash no.1 about modern SEO: it’s hard. And no.2? Gone are the days when a well-researched, correctly placed keyword could give you the edge … Read More
Writing case studies can prove to be an absolutely invaluable resource for your business. Case studies are a great form of inbound marketing, and a well written case study can prove it’s worth several times over. Case studies go beyond a simple client testimonial, and show real-life examples of how you helped improve your clients’ … Read More
Before we get to the content marketing fails, let’s look at the big picture. Typically, inbound marketing costs around 61% less per acquisition than traditional outbound marketing and advertising methods such as cold calling and direct mail advertising. That’s a big difference. Weirdly, although content marketing can work out cheaper than more traditional methods only around 9% of … Read More
When most of us are looking for a particular product we’ll most likely end up with one of a few “favourite” options. If we know what we want, Google gives us a few clues and we go with a balance of what we think is the best product, at the best price, from the most … Read More
