Marketing

Your Digital Marketing Strategy Won’t Survive Without These Two Things

Start a blog, they said. It’ll bring more traffic to your website, they said. So you did, but your analytics are in the tank. 

Content marketing can be frustrating and confusing. Does any of this sound familiar? 

• You pour your heart and soul into crafting a blog post that gets very little traffic
• Your content is optimized for search engines but you still can’t break onto page one 

If you’re tired of writing epic blog posts that do not produce a measurable ROI, stick around. We will show you two straightforward and relatively easy ways to level up your content marketing strategy.

Your Blog Won’t Succeed Without Images and Videos 

When was the last time you gave a blog post without any graphics or videos your undivided attention? We are an easily distracted society and masters at multitasking. When it comes to blogging as a marketing tactic, words alone are not enough to bring—or keep— meaningful website traffic. 

Images and videos dispersed throughout your website and blog content will engage your users, lower your bounce rate, increase your dwell time, and boost your SEO. 

There are specific metrics that search engine algorithms use to determine which results to prioritize and dwell time is one of them. Dwell time is the length of time a user spends on your website before returning to the search engine results page (SERP). Here is a common scenario: 

1. A user performs a search
2. Clicks a result on the SERP 
3. Quickly returns to the SERP

There are two major reasons this could be happening to your website: either your content doesn’t answer your ideal customer’s questions or your content is presented in a way that makes it difficult to quickly read and understand. 

If your web content answers your customers’ questions and is optimized correctly but you still can’t keep visitors on the page, you need to reevaluate how you’re presenting the information. If the content is not broken up by photos, graphics, block quotes, videos, or other interactive elements, that is likely a major culprit to your problem. 

The bad news in this scenario is that the search engine will determine that your site isn’t a good fit for the query and push your page down in the results. This is especially problematic when the term being searched is one of the keywords you’re targeting in your SEO strategy. 

The good news is that these problems are relatively easy to fix. 

Break Up Walls of Content With Videos

Video matters now more than ever. If you’re not using video you are missing out on a huge opportunity to connect with your customers. Companies that already embrace video as a major content source are dominating the market. 

Consumers have made it crystal clear that they prefer video content to written content. People turn to YouTube for answers and how-to videos to help them find answers to their questions. A great best practice to incorporate into your content strategy is to create a video to go with every blog post. Then you can have the same great content living in multiple places. 

There are many types of video content you can use in blog posts. Even one video can be repurposed in a variety of powerful ways. Some of our favorite videos are brand videos that tell a story. Testimonial videos are also highly effective within written blog content. 

(Read More: 5 Pro-Tips For Creating Great Testimonial Videos)

Adding a video into your written blog content also increases the chances of the reader staying on your site longer, which will improve your SEO. 

Today it’s easier than ever to create videos yourself. Pretty much every cell phone has a great video camera built into it and video editing mobile apps make the entire process very accessible. Or you can hire a video production team to help you out. Either way, creating videos for your blog content isn’t too difficult and will likely yield a measurable result in overall traffic. 

Every Blog Post Needs High-Quality Imagery

We’re not saying that you have to hire a professional photographer but if you can, you should. Small businesses that offer a tangible product or service, such as a restaurant, painting company, or landscaping company should prioritize professional photography to complement written blog content. If the message you’re communicating can be reinforced with high-quality imagery, your content will keep the reader engaged longer. 

Most people agree that seeing is believing, but visuals also help to make a memory stick. Seeing pictures of products or services helps your customers visualize how they’ll use what you’re offering and be more likely to remember what they see over words alone.  

If you can’t involve a professional photographer, there are many stock photography sites that offer high-quality imagery you can use to make your written content more readable for your customer. Some sites like Depositphotos offer paid subscriptions, while others like Pexels.com offer royalty-free images. We can help you choose the right stock photography site for your business so please let us know if you need help with that. 

Don’t Forget About Graphic Design

If your products or services are difficult to represent with photography, graphic design should be your focus for adding images to written blog content. There are myriad ways to incorporate the services of a graphic designer in your content strategy. 

A graphic designer can create infographics, product illustrations, process workflows, and iconography that can be placed throughout written content to increase skim-ability. Explainer videos and other motion graphics are also very useful in breaking down complex ideas into visuals that are easier to digest.  

Additionally, depending on how your website is designed, a graphic designer may be able to help with the actual page layout to make the layout more dynamic. 

High-Traffic Blogs Double Down on Layout and Variety 

In addition to images and videos, you need additional creative visuals to reinforce what your words are communicating. This is important because people don’t read blogs, they skim headlines and other elements that stand out. 

Even if you can’t afford professionally produced videos or a full-time graphic designer, there are many tools you can use to easily create visual content to break up the text on your website and blog. There may be a slight learning curve but it’s worth it to learn the tools and use them to make your content more appealing. 

If you are ready to get serious and start creating better content for your website, here are the areas we suggest focusing on to help improve the presentation of your content: 

1. Break Up Text Using Headers – save the H1 tag for the blog title, but use H2 and H3 tags to bold headings and facilitate the readability of your content. 
2. Use Block Quotes For Important Points – when you want to call attention to the most important sentences in your content don’t just bold the text. Use the block quote feature to make the text stand out from the paragraph. 
3. Evaluate Your Branding – some color schemes don’t translate well on computer screens and mobile devices. Certain color combinations are difficult to read and could be giving your reader a negative experience. 

We Can Help Your Written Content Stand Out From the Crowd

If you start incorporating these digital marketing best practices into your content marketing strategy, we know you’ll see measurable results. But if you need more help, please let us know. We offer a variety of video production, graphic design, and photography services that can bring your written words to life.