TopRank Internet Marketing News

Ask TopRank® Online Marketing your questions about SEO, social media, blog marketing and online PR.  We’ll feature one question and answer each month.

This month, we answer a question we hear often: How do I create great content for boring products?

Great question, content creation is a struggle for many businesses. If you aren’t convinced your business is interesting to write about, you’re not alone! For this very reason, the first key element in the planning and creation of interesting, relevant content is a change in your mindset.

We often think about our key selling points and unique product features as the things we want consumers to know about our product. Are you listening to your audience to discover what it is they want to know?

Catch Lee Odden’s Creative Content Marketing webinar Friday April 12, 2013.

This Friday, TopRank CEO and Optimize author Lee Odden leads a SmartInsights webinar, Get Better Results with Creative Content Marketing.

Companies understand that content is important. Yet although they’re spending more time and budget on content development, many businesses are unclear on the “why” and “how” critical to an effective content strategy.

Longtime blogger and digital marketing influencer Lee Odden will share best practices for creating high quality content over a long period of time, in order to teach participants a sustainable content marketing model. His presentation will share a practical framework for creative and efficient content creation that leverages a mix of evergreen, repurposed, curated and co-created content that attracts, engages and converts new business.

The organizers of this year’s SES New York couldn’t have chosen a better place to hold this 3-day event than the Marriott Marquis because this is sure to be a marquee event! From March 25-28, 2013, the annual #SESNY conference will be THE place to learn how to succeed in online marketing.

From SEO to Content Marketing and Email Marketing to Analytics, this industry bellwether delivers the best in digital marketing year after year. Attendees will hear big brands discuss everything from enterprise level strategy to mobile marketing on a large scale. Outstanding marketing agencies will provide key tactics and takeaways you can implement on your own online marketing plan after you leave.

TopRank Online Marketing CEO, Lee Odden (@leeodden), will deliver a solo presentation entitled “Creative Content Marketing – Winning Hearts, Minds and Wallets” which will give attendees a framework for producing a creative content strategy in the most efficient way possible.

In February Incisive Media will host the 14th annual SES London conference.  This 3 day event is sure to deliver the best in digital marketing content on topics such as SEO, PPC, Analytics, Social Media, SoLoMo, and Content Marketing.

Attendees will hear applicable tips, tricks, and tactics from some of the region’s top digital marketers as well as several from abroad, that can be applied to their individual marketing strategies.

TopRank Online Marketing CEO Lee Odden (@leeodden) will be giving a solo presentation titled “Creative Content Marketing – Winning Hearts, Minds and Wallets” which will provide attendees a framework for producing content efficiently and creatively.

Lee’s presentation will feature recent research into content marketing in the UK as well as several creative content examples from favourite UK brands.  Case studies of clever content sourcing tactics that generated substantial results will also be presented.

An important first step in launching an online marketing campaign is identifying objectives.  Your objectives will help lead your strategy, implementation, measurement, and refinement.  For example, an ecommerce site may be looking to drive more traffic to their website.  Increased traffic will push more visitors into the top of the funnel, likely increasing the number of visits which convert to a sale.  However, as one company learned, marketing effects for an ecommerce site can impact your bottom line in more than one way.

Company Background:
Leather Bound is an online and in store retailer of leather motorcycle apparel and accessories. Leather Bound Online has been engaged with TopRank since 2010, with the objective of increasing traffic and online sales via their website, leatherboundonline.com.

Current Situation:
Leather Bound Online retained TopRank Online Marketing to strategize and implement a Search Engine Optimization and Content Marketing program which tactics include:

It’s hard to believe it’s already been a year since the last SES Chicago.  The conference is quickly approaching and you can’t afford to miss out on the 3 days of education and practical application that SES Chicago has in store.

TopRank Online Marketing is happy to announce that we have not one, but three team members participating as speakers and/or moderators for this exciting upcoming event. TopRank CEO Lee Odden, as well as Thom Craver and Miranda Miller will all be sharing their first hand online marketing knowledge with attendees.

Additionally, Jolina Pettice, Alexis Hall, and Evan Prokop will be providing live coverage of SES Chicago on TopRankBlog.

If you’d like a sneak peak into the exciting topics that the team at TopRank will be covering, take a glance below.

See TopRank at SES Chicago

Lee Odden

The greatest content isn’t so great until people read and share it. That’s why social communities and networks are so critical for an effective content marketing program.

According to Eric Schmidt of Google, every two days we create more data and information than since the dawn of time to 2003.

Where is that data coming from? Think about this: Every 60 seconds over 1,500 blog posts are published, 72 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube, 100,000 Tweets are posted and over 700,000 status updates are made on Facebook. Google+ is gaining steam and Pinterest has had explosive adoption and growth.

Besides creating content that’s relevant to your target audience to guide them along your sales pipeline, it’s also important to consider how to spread that content. How can you help your content “pop” and stand out amongst the millions of new documents published, shared and included in search results every day?

An optimized approach to online marketing and PR can have a very significant impact on your overall marketing success.  As consumers and media partners begin using different tactics and means of consuming, creating, and sharing information the way that you target them must also evolve.

On April 2nd, 2012 at PRSA’s Annual Digital Impact conference in New York TopRank CEO Lee Odden will be presenting a session on “Content Marketing & Public Relations: Optimize & Socialize to Persuade Your Audience to Act.” This session will teach you how to use marketing best practices to create a strategy that inspires your audience to share, purchase from, and recommend your brand online.  Other key tactics that will be discussed include:

• Developing personas for your target audience
• Instruction on researching social topics and keywords
• Discover tips for leverage your social networks to create strong relationships and promote your content

TopRank is pleased to announce that CEO Lee Odden will be presenting and moderating multiple sessions at SES London this coming week.  As our online marketing agency continues to expand and provide subject matter expertise to clients both nationally and internationally, we view this as a great opportunity to share our advanced knowledge and experience with marketers at all levels.

As always Odden’s presentation will be flush with high level consultative advice as well as practical and tactical tips to point you in the right direction.  If you’re interested in learning about how to avoid losing all the SEO value in your website during a redesign or change of content management system (and much more) you can’t afford to miss this premiere industry event.

When should you start with Content Marketing?  Today’s online marketing is a race where the stakes are high, competition is tough and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to create a sustainable, competitive advantage. Consider these questions to help you answer, “When Content Marketing is right?” for you:

• What’s the right time to understand who your best customers are? Who are your “worst” customers?
• When is it a good time to know what your prospects and customers care about and why they buy?
• What triggers your prospects to discover, consume and engage with content that inspires sales, social shares and referrals?
• Does having no content plan really mean you’re planning to fail?
• If you don’t tie your SEO, Social Media and Online Public Relations efforts together in a way that’s “manageable” and efficient now, will you wait until your competition does?