Will your content get the Panda’s vote?

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How many of you have felt the impact from the launch of Google Panda back in February? By now, the analytics should reveal just how this exciting change to Google’s search results ranking algorithm is affecting traffic to your site.

Panda update: the results

Reportedly, some 12% of all searches are feeling the change. Following the launch of Panda, news sites reported a surge in the rankings while sites with large amounts of advertising, fell. Thing is, the machine-learning algorithm, made possible by and named after engineer Navneet Panda, is trying to do the right thing for web users and rank pages according to the quality of their content and user experience.

Changing the best practice of SEO

Panda aims to reduce the position on results pages (SERPs) of websites that have thin and duplicate content when Google responds to a search. It also downplays sites that come up short on other site-quality metrics such as high advert-to-content ratios. Conversely, Panda up rates sites with lots of high-quality, unique content and from trusted brands. And puts on the podium sites that go further still: pages that offer anecdotes, humour, great photos, history or insight; pages that tell a story and make the visitor love and want to share that page.

It’s hard to imagine the complexity of the maths that models the behaviour of the thousands of human testers that Google worked with to create Panda, but not so hard to imagine what you need to do about it.

Want to know more?

There is some great insight from SEOMOZ available. This article talks about a few of the specific things that we can be doing as SEOs to help with this new sort of SEO, this broader web content/web strategy portion of SEO.

The seven levers of online content strategy

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In the online world as much as in the ‘old’ world, marketing best practice tells us that we need to define our target audience and how we want to change what they think, feel and do in order to move them along a buying cycle. So if a company that sells anti-virus software is setting up (or refreshing) its website, it needs to be clear about the fact that the objective for the site is (for example) to persuade small business owners or managers to order its product directly from the site.

What are the ‘4Ps’ of online content strategy?

At this point we’d switch from our customer focus to look at what we can directly control in order to influence our defined audience in the way we want.

The traditional marketing strategy framework for doing this is the good old 4Ps: ‘product’, ‘price’, ‘place’, ‘promotion’. So we asked ourselves: if we’re developing an online strategy aimed at getting our audience to arrive (at our site or other online presence), engage (with us or our content) and then act, what’s the equivalent of the 4Ps? What are the relevant ‘levers’ we can control in the online world that create a complete high-level content strategy?

The seven online content levers

We think there are seven content levers we can pull to ensure that we meet our objectives for online marketing. Not as snappy as ‘the 4Ps’, we admit; do tell us if you’ve got any ideas for turning these into a memorable acronym—or if you think there are different levers to consider:

AccessibilityHow do we help our targets to discover, find, arrive at our site/ online content? Includes: traffic generation; SEO; on-page strategy; site optimisation for mobile devices.
Messaging and toneHow do we address our targets (content and style) to make them feel and act in the appropriate way?
NavigationHow do we give our targets a clear path to where they want (and we want them) to go? Bearing in mind that they may arrive at different places.
Content refreshHow often does this content (and this and this…) need to be updated to keep the experience fresh and relevant for our targets?
Look and feelWhat design principles will attract our targets and how do we ensure that design and navigation/usability work together?
ShareabilityHow do we encourage and facilitate visitors to share our content (or share their own or other content with other visitors, as appropriate)?
Interactivity How do we encourage and facilitate targets to interact with our content, other visitors and us?

Context is king

As with the 4Ps, clearly these need to be considered together and applied to meet a well-articulated objective. Not ‘what should our site’s navigation do?’ as an isolated question but—if we go back to our software company example—’how can we organise the navigation so that it presents small business managers with a clear, relevant path through their buying cycle to the placement of an order for our product?’

Of course determining the right answers—or answers that work (there’s no one right answer)—might be very challenging. And complicated by the fact that in practice you’re likely to have multiple target audiences and multiple objectives. But that’s always the challenge for marketing—in this respect online is no different from offline.

Content repurposing best practice

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Sometimes clients come to us and say, “We’ve got this great piece of work. We want to make more use of it somehow.”

Their instinct is absolutely spot on. We’ve written before about the value of repurposing or extending the reach of good content. It’s just common sense to make the most of the time and effort you’ve invested in creating it. Right?

Repurposing takes time and money

Right. Except that reusing content is not usually just a matter of waving a wand and, hey presto, you’ve got a new result. Occasionally it’s not far off — if you’ve done a really good job creating a presentation script that stands on its own, it can be pretty straightforward to turn it into a paper. But most of the time it’s not as simple as that.

Typically it takes some effort and expense to turn your video into a paper or your sales guide into a customer presentation. Even writing a short blog using existing content takes some time and thought.

What return will you get from reusing content?

So while the instinct to reuse content is a good one, it’s not enough on its own to justify doing so. As with any activity, you need to be clear about the return on your investment to get it done. Against the time and money it takes to complete an activity you need to consider how far it will shift the attitudes or actions of your identified target audience to achieve your stated aim for the activity (eg, to raise understanding, close a deal, increase loyalty, encourage advocacy, create a partnership).

Of course you also need to consider the activity in the context of other activities and their goals. The impact of any single blog may be low, but the cumulative effect of your blogging activity might not; or you might have other good reasons to blog.

Finally, one thing that is definitely true about reusing content is this: if you already have good, independent reasons for creating some content, always consider whether you already have content that the new activity could tie into, repurpose, adapt or use as inspiration. Doing so will usually make the new activity, which you’ll be doing anyway, more efficient or effective.

The ABCD of making more of your content assets

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Let’s face it, you don’t create great content cheaply. I don’t say this because I think writers are anything but good value, but because good content takes time: it takes quality thinking and input from more than one brain. And that can add up.

So once you have that lovely content assembled, you want to wring every last drop of value from it. Here’s a quick mnemonic to get you thinking about how to repurpose or extend the reach of your content.

  • Alternative formats. This is about presenting the same story or messaging in a different way, such as moving from video to text or splitting a paper into a series of blogs. Typically this is to exploit different media, content vehicles or channels — print and digital; words and pictures; in person and online — or to provide for different languages. When thinking about formats, consider different devices (iphone, BlackBerry, ipad, etc) and the user experience (eg, how to achieve more interactivity).
  • Building on content. We can expand on a topic to give further explanation and detail for those who need it; for example a primer for a sales team on the subject matter of a thought-leadership piece. Or we might want to cut up or add to a piece to create materials for customers at different stages of the sales cycle.
  • Complementing. We can create material or tools that provide further substantiation or support for our messaging, such as customer testimony or an ROI calculator.
  • Distributing wider. We can extend the reach of the assets we have; for example through tweets, blogs or emails that point to them or with comments on forums that link back to the main piece.

Which approaches do you use? We’d love to hear how you extract more value from your content.

Social marketing doesn’t work?

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‘Why social marketing doesn’t work’ said the tweet, offering a link to follow. Of course I had to see what that was all about.

It’s an interesting piece in FT Magazine by Tim Harford, but I think the headline is a bit of an exaggeration. Fair enough—it did what the headline is supposed to do: got my interest and made me have a look. But the article is specifically about the chances of social marketing going viral, and while I have no reason to doubt its claims about how hard that may be, I don’t think it follows that “social marketing doesn’t work”.

Is social marketing only about going viral?

It would follow, if you think that social marketing is all and only about going viral. Clearly if marketing is about reaching as wide an audience as possible and having the desired effect on them, then a campaign that goes viral will do that (as long as it does have the desired effect, and not the opposite effect to that intended). But you can reach new people without going viral. Not as many, not as quickly, not as publicly, maybe; but does that mean there’s no point?

Refusing to engage in social marketing without a guarantee of going viral seems to me like refusing to advertise unless you know that the ad is going to be the award-winning one that everybody talks about for years. Surely we all agree that advertising can deliver a good return on investment even if it doesn’t win awards?

Why repetition in your marketing is important

Let’s also not forget that good marketing uses different methods and media to reinforce your message. Looking at any piece of the mix on its own may underestimate its influence. Don’t ignore the possibility that somebody reached in another way may look for your social networking presence before making a decision about you. If you’re not where people expect you to be, doing the things they expect you to be doing, you may lose out.

Use social marketing to strengthen existing relationships

Finally, even if you never win a new customer through social marketing, what about maintaining relationships with the ones you already have? Or with other targets for marketing activity: partners, for example, or the press? Marketing isn’t just about creating new relationships; it’s as much about strengthening the ones you already have. That’s surely where social networking comes into its own. Especially if that’s how those you’re trying to communicate with want to engage with you.

Endings

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If it’s not stating the obvious, endings are often the last thing you think about in any piece of storytelling, be that using video or the written word. And yet your ending is the last chance you have to impress your audience and should be given the attention it deserves. It’s your final opportunity to make sure you’ve delivered on your premise: what do you want them to think, feel or do differently as a consequence of engaging with your communication?

Here are a few different types of ending to get you thinking about what might work best for you:

  • The crescendo: that ‘ta-dah’ moment when all is revealed
  • The elliptical: when you open the door to new possibilities in the mind of your reader and leave them wanting more
  • The circular: when you bring them back to the beginning and your opening hypothesis
  • The emphatic: the logical inevitable take away message stated succinctly

Of course never forget that in sales communication, after all that effort to persuade and deliver a compelling argument, you still need to ask the audience to take the next step with you – be that a conversation, a trial or download. The end of your ending is always a call to act.

The buyers are taking over

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There’s a lot of talk, or maybe it’s just the stuff I’m reading, that says it’s a buyer’s market; that buyers are in control; and that the role of the sales person is no longer tenable. Is that true? It would certainly be good to hear your views via a comment below.

Over here in marketing land, we have seen a shift to buyers being better informed and sceptical of hype. But that isn’t inconsistent with tough economic times and the need to spend frugally. And that certainly doesn’t undermine the need for canny salesmanship. I do think it’s true that technology has made information very accessible and the ease with which you can seek out the opinion of your peers a breeze. So buyers typically do more research online before they engage with sales and that gives us two challenges to address.

Online content needs to work harder

There really is very little point investing in an outbound direct marketing campaign to drive traffic to a landing page, only to lose visitor with trite arguments and overly complex navigation; or to work hard to build a following on Twitter and LinkedIn only to announce Edna’s brought doughnuts into the office. Online content should be aimed at providing a compelling and persuasive point of view that convinces prospects to take the next step as well as a winning experience that builds strong relationships and reinforces all the good reasons to remain a loyal customer. This is as much about engaging with the visitor on an emotional level as it is about providing the facts and figures that appeal to logic. A robust content and publishing strategy will make sure you hit all the right buttons.

Sales people need information too

And not some weighty tome to wade through, but succinct and easily accessible nuggets that get them up to speed swiftly. They need to be one step (or as many as they can manage) ahead of the customer, understanding the vertical context and the business drivers that are shaping decisions and how to map the solution sets to address these needs. They also need presentation materials to support their conversation with the customer, access to demonstration facilities and references to prove the success of this approach. Making sure your intranet has the right news feeds and is refreshingly easy to navigate, is integrated with salesforce.com and can push information to BlackBerry, Android and iphone apps is key. Oh and, a robust content and publishing strategy will make sure you hit all the right buttons.

Mobilising content

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While we are crafting the beautiful content that will keep your customers enthralled, we never lose sight of the mechanisms that will carry that content to their eyes and ears.

Of course we have Marshall McLuhan’s theory to illustrate that the medium has a significant impact on how the message is perceived. And, in the age of smartphones, where there is a growing need to mobilise content, this connection should be kept front of mind. To sum up this aim more succinctly: mobilise, don’t miniaturise.

The inherent power of context

The growth in smartphone usage, and let’s not forget the ipad and similar in this category, indicates a sizable audience that deserves a high-quality experience that’s tailored to their needs. This means considering the device and the environment in which it will be used, and presenting content accordingly.

And let’s not forget to consider how the persona of your target audience may have changed. When crafting persuasive communication it is a huge help to hold a picture of these new mobile workers in your mind.

Persona by any other name

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This little piece of vocabulary is taking on a whole new significance as many of our clients are exploring the idea of content marketing and building out their strategy. It’s not a new idea of course, especially in publishing where the readership of a magazine or newspaper is well understood. Pick up the Guardian or the Daily Mail, for example, and you instantly recognise the stereotypical reader that they’re talking to. My first encounter with a system that used something similar to personas was Experian’s Mosaic system. How many of you remember that, I wonder?

Short cuts to understanding your audience

There was also a competing system called ACORN. Whichever you used at the time to make sense of buyer behaviour, it was the fact that the people were named: Darren and Joanne with their middle England happy family; pensioners Percy and Ada living in twilight subsistence; and symbols of success Rupert and Felicity (how 80s is that!), that piqued my interest. These weren’t just made up labels but the output of statistical analysis as to what the most popular names were for people in these geodemographic groupings. When crafting persuasive communication, it was a huge help to hold a picture of enterprising Dean, holding the keys to his white van, front of mind.

Personas are stereotypes by any other name. They are a useful short cut to understanding an audience. Wikipedia sums it up nicely.

A user persona is a representation of the goals and behaviour of a real group of users. In most cases, personas are synthesized from data collected from interviews with users. They are captured in 1–2 page descriptions that include behaviour patterns, goals, skills, attitudes, and environment, with a few fictional personal details to make the persona a realistic character. For each product, more than one persona is usually created, but one persona should always be the primary focus for the design.

Using buyer personas in B2B content marketing

When it comes to content they are an exceedingly useful tool. They go beyond the crude segmentation that’s often all that’s available in the B2B space: company size, vertical, geography, job title and weave in more personal elements so the character takes shape. These 1-2-page descriptions cover aspirations and goals, patterns of behaviour, skills, attitude and the constraints and opportunities of their environment. This way, when we communicate, it’s not a stranger we are talking to; it’s someone whose interest and motivations are more familiar to us. How much easier it is therefore, to tell a story that will capture their interest, using language and analogies that are meaningful to them.

The persuaders

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Have you noticed how you find certain people convincing without feeling sold to? How you find yourself nodding and weighing their view and finding yourself in agreement with hardly any effort at all? The art of persuasion isn’t such a mystery with even the ancient Greeks proffering a theory or two.

Here are a few points to hold in mind:

  • Speak like one of us. If you look like one of us and sound like one of us we’re very likely to treat you like one of us. It’s how you get a pass into the community you want to influence.
  • Believe in what you say. If you’re not convinced your words will give you away. Make sure you’ve convinced yourself first before trying to brief a writer.
  • Tell a story. A story helps bring an idea to life and put it into context for your reader, making the abstract tangible.

And, although this one is not quite as strong…

  • Remember reading is listening. Even when it’s in print tone matters. Whose voice can you hear in your head while you are reading? Does it speak with the brand’s personality?