This means you need to be intentional and attract the right traffic to your website—and to do that, you have to create content that actually shows up on search engine results pages (SERPs). But this is becoming more challenging today, with the rise of AI-powered search and zero-click results. The SEO landscape is undergoing a seismic shift, and it’s an adapt-or-die moment for many content creators.

To stay ahead of the curve, it helps to know a bit about the technology underpinning these latest developments, such as NLP SEO. Below, we explore the nuances of natural language processing (NLP)—one of the core technologies driving the evolution of search engines and content discovery—and how NLP and SEO work together.

What is Natural Language Processing? Let’s Review the Basics

NLP is a branch of artificial intelligence that converts written and spoken words (“unstructured data”) into structured material a machine can interpret. NLP platforms analyze massive volumes of words and phrases to find meaning, patterns, and context. NLP is more prevalent than you might realize—Alexa, Siri, and Google voice assistants all leverage it.

NLP is also one of the core technologies used in large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT—though it’s just one part of the sophisticated algorithms that make up these multimodal foundation models. (“Multimodal” meaning they process more than just text; the latest iterations of today’s popular LLMs also understand and generate video, voice, and images.)

As NLP evolves and becomes more sophisticated, experts predict the market will reach $453.3 billion by 2032.

What Is NLP in SEO, and How Does It Drive Google Search Algorithms?

NLP is also a component of Gemini, the umbrella name for Google’s family of AI models. Gemini leverages NLP to enhance its understanding and generation of human language. By integrating NLP, Google aims to provide more accurate and contextually relevant search results, support complex conversational interactions, and improve user experiences across its various suite of services.

More generally, a few ways NLP impacts search include:

• Semantic understanding: NLP helps search engines comprehend the meaning behind words—not just match keywords.
• Voice search integration: As voice-activated search becomes more popular, NLP is crucial for interpreting spoken queries, which are typically more conversational and less formulaic than written language.
• Sentiment detection: NLP can help assess the sentiment of online content, allowing search engines to better evaluate the tone and relevance of a page.
• Zero-click searches: Advancements in NLP SEO have led to a rise in zero-click searches, where users get their answers directly on the search results page without clicking through to a website—a phenomenon we’re seeing in Google’s (admittedly imperfect) AI Overviews.

Building an NLP SEO Strategy

The roll-out of AI Overviews means that Google now provides direct answers, featured snippets, or knowledge panels in response to user queries. This trend challenges content creators to optimize not just for clicks, but also for visibility in these prominent search features. Some strategies include structuring content to directly answer common questions, using schema markup to help search engines understand your content, and creating comprehensive, authoritative pieces that search engines are likely to pull information from.

To build an effective SEO strategy that takes NLP into account, consider these seven techniques.

1. Focus on search intent, not just keywords.

Google’s latest algorithm updates mean SEO-optimized content isn’t just about keywords anymore. It’s also about search intent—the “why” behind a user’s query.

Using NLP, Google categorizes search queries into four categories—navigational, transactional, promotional, and commercial. This information helps Google provide results that meet user expectations.

To get a better sense of search intent for a given query, you can conduct a Google search for a keyword and see what ranks on Page 1 or appears in the Featured Snippets/AI Overviews.

2. Align your SEO strategy with audience research.

Conduct thorough SEO research before publishing content, and handpick a small set of keyword clusters to focus on. Remember: the goal is to develop comprehensive, focused content that offers value to readers—not simply to cover a trending topic.

You can leverage a range of audience research strategies: hosting surveys, scouring customer reviews, using AI sentiment-analysis tools, and conducting customer interviews are all good starting points. Internal subject matter experts at your organization can also be strong sources of insight into your audience and what they want to know.

3. Display expertise.

Today, Google can (supposedly) recognize if content simply summarizes what other sites have already published without adding original value. Doing this can negatively impact your rankings.

Google advises content creators to prioritize content demonstrating a “depth of knowledge” and firsthand expertise.

4. Prioritize quality over quantity with SEO content.

If a website is creating a ton of low-quality content on different topics, Google may categorize it as “unhelpful,” leading to lower rankings.

To prevent negative rankings, publish content that offers expertise on a targeted, audience-driven list of topics. These days, when it comes to SEO, a do-it-all strategy can actually hurt, rather than help, your organic search rankings.

5. Don’t rely on AI alone.

According to Google, using “extensive automation” to produce content on various topics can damage your rankings. On X, Danny Sullivan, Google’s public search liaison, wrote, “It’s unlikely some AI content is going to feel written by people without some degree of human review.”

Use AI as a tool to supplement your efforts. But don’t depend on it for solo content creation.

6. Integrate tools into your MarTech stack that influence NLP.

To build a MarTech stack that effectively leverages NLP and improves your content, use tools and technologies that can feed data to an NLP—like Semrush, Hubspot, and Salesforce, to name a few.

These tools can integrate with NLP tools like Amazon Comprehend, Google Cloud NLP API, and IBM Watson. Other AI-powered tools that integrate GPT-3, like Jasper.ai, can help you create content, but there are certain ethical guidelines you should keep in mind, including the need for thorough fact-checking.

7. Conduct an SEO audit.

According to Google, any content (regardless of value or quality) that originates from a website with a lot of “unhelpful” content overall is less likely to perform well in organic search rankings. Removing unhelpful content from your site can improve the rankings of other content.

Getting Started with NLP in Content Marketing

Ask the Content Strategist: FAQs about NLP and SEO

How does NLP affect local SEO and geographically targeted content?

NLP can be a game-changer for local SEO. It helps search engines better understand location-specific language and context, making it easier to serve relevant local results. This means businesses need to focus on natural, conversational content that includes local landmarks, colloquialisms, and regionally specific information to really nail local SEO.

What are the potential privacy concerns or ethical considerations related to the use of advanced NLP in search engines?

The big concern with advanced NLP in search is the potential for increased data collection and analysis of user queries. While the technology can lead to better search results, it also raises questions about user privacy and data protection. There’s also the ethical consideration of potential bias in NLP algorithms, which could unfairly influence search results and the information people see.

How can small businesses or websites with limited resources effectively compete in an NLP SEO landscape?

Small businesses can still compete in an NLP-driven landscape by focusing on quality over quantity. Create content that genuinely answers your audience’s questions and showcases your expertise—NLP algorithms love that stuff. Don’t be afraid to get specific and local; sometimes, a well-optimized niche can outperform bigger competitors with generic content.

Sign up for The Content Strategist newsletter to stay up-to-date on the latest trends in content marketing like NLP optimization in SEO.

The post NLP SEO: What Is Natural Language Processing and Why It Matters for SEO appeared first on Contently.

As content marketers, we’ve all experienced that frustration when your audience simply isn’t finding that meaty eBook or blog that you know they’ll love. But disheartenment is just the tip of the iceberg—when expensive and time-consuming content campaigns don’t generate the traffic and engagement you expected, it can jeopardize your future content budgets. (Not to mention put you in a tricky spot with higher-ups).

Here’s the good news—your distribution strategy can change all that, starting with strategic digital content marketing with email.

Content Campaigns + Email Marketing = Perfect Match

“Wait, don’t we all hate email?” you may ask. Contrary to how you may feel about your overflowing inbox, research has shown that email marketing remains one of the most effective tactics in marketers’ arsenals—in fact, you can expect an impressive $36 ROI for every $1 spent.

When you amplify your digital content marketing efforts with email, you benefit from the following:

• Greater engagement from your existing audience. Email lets you nurture a personal connection with an audience who has willingly opted to have your content delivered straight to their inboxes. Your content has an opportunity to unlock higher engagement rates and increased brand visibility, as well as maximize the likelihood of conversions.
• New valuable insights. Thanks to email tracking and analytics capabilities, you can gain valuable insights into your audience’s behavior and preferences, ultimately empowering you to refine your content strategy.
• An extended content lifespan. By amplifying your content with email, you’re essentially making your content work harder for longer. In other words, you may have spent the same amount of time and resources on content creation, but now you’re getting more traffic and engagement.

Amplify Digital Content Marketing With Email: 5 Tactics for Beginners

Pat yourself on the back—creating the content is half the battle. But now comes the real challenge: Turning your big rock digital content marketing into bite-sized, email-friendly teasers.

These five tactics are designed to not only keep your subscribers interested in your content but also help build a stronger relationship with them.

1. Send newsletters teasing new content.

Email newsletters are one of the best ways to share snippets of your latest content and encourage subscribers to visit your site for more. But with so many email newsletters bombarding our inboxes, it can be tricky to stand out from the crowd. Make sure to:

• Use a catchy subject line that balances urgency with value to entice subscribers to open the email.
• Add eye-catching visuals, especially if you’re highlighting data. Graphics, charts, and images make your newsletter more visually appealing and help convey the value of the content.
• Don’t neglect your call to action. Whether it’s “Read More,” “Get Exclusive Access,” or “Download Now,” your CTA should be clear and prominent.
• Create a sense of exclusivity by offering exclusive sneak peeks or early access to new content.

Here’s an example of how you may pique your audience’s interest with teaser content:

2. Create roundups of top performers.

Another way to revive your oldies but goodies is by curating email roundups. Simply choose a theme (e.g., “digital content marketing guides for beginners” or “our top blogs in 2023 you may have missed”), then select a handful of relevant content links to include in the list.

3. Send webinar follow-ups.

After wrapping up a webinar, take the opportunity to connect with your leads post-event. Follow up with attendees and no-shows by sending an email with bonus content (e.g., a downloadable resource) that complements what they’ve just learned.

This is a great way to amplify your digital content marketing campaigns while making webinar attendees feel appreciated for their time.

4. Create an email series.

If you have a hefty eBook or blog post, consider dividing the high-level takeaways into different components of an email series.

By breaking down the content into more digestible pieces, you keep your audience engaged over time and allow them to consume the content at their own pace. Each email should offer valuable insights, encourage subscribers to check out more on your site, and remind them to tune in the next day for more.

5. Nurture leads with content.

Encouraging leads to move down the sales funnel doesn’t have to be a snooze-fest or a neverending sales pitch—in fact, nobody wants to read an email nurture that reads like a corporate drone’s memo.

Instead, try to infuse these emails with content so that they genuinely educate and entertain. By providing value-driven content, you can build a relationship of trust and credibility with your leads, making them more likely to become loyal customers in the long run.

Even better, segment your leads so you can deliver content tailored to their needs, wants, and interests.

From Inbox Zero to Content Hero

Despite the high ROI that email offers, average email open rates hover at around 21.5%—which means your biggest challenge revolves around ensuring that your unopened emails don’t end up in the junk or trash folder.

So, take the time to A/B test your subject lines. They should be engaging, creative, and concise enough to inspire a click. Also, explore different email types to determine which successfully grabs your audience’s attention and encourages them to explore more of your content.

Subscribe to The Content Strategist newsletter for more tips on how to take your content to the next level.

The post Digital Content Marketing: Why Email Is Your Secret Weapon for Content Amplification appeared first on Contently.

Natural language processing (NLP) allows us to quickly scour all this data to identify patterns, context, and deeper meaning. It uses artificial intelligence, machine learning, computer science, and linguistics to process and analyze written or spoken language and convert it into data.

Google, Siri, and Alexa are all examples of NLP in action. And now there’s also GPT-3, the widely discussed “large language model” that recently made waves across industries, including marketing, for its ability to craft copy rapidly based on user-set parameters.

NLP technology has improved to the point where it can more accurately give users results despite the many ambiguities of human language—idioms, sarcasm, metaphors, and so on.

Integrating NLP Into Your Content Marketing Efforts

As a content marketer, you may think of NLP as a term you would hear from your engineering friends. But its application can truly help content marketers in a variety of areas.

1. NLP for Market Research and Competitor Analysis

We know how valuable customer research can be in driving your content strategy. The information you collect often determines the channels you publish on, the topics you write about, and your overarching narrative.

NLP tools can help you easily scour content to help you understand your audience’s needs. In practice, this may look like:

• Topic extraction: Extract common themes or topics from a data set using NLP. The market intelligence software Klue, for instance, automatically collects millions of data points from across the internet to understand what your audience discusses in the press, social media, product reviews, and elsewhere. Klue also specializes in giving clients insight into where their competitors are ranking in these channels.
• Audience identification: Identify characteristics of different audience groups by analyzing consistent keywords and themes with NLP. In other words, you can analyze the jargon used by those contacting or communicating with you and target your efforts toward those audiences.
• Market research: Discover content ideas to fill gaps with NLP tools that can conduct analyses of your website and your competitors’ sites. Like Klue, Crayon allows you to understand competitors’ social media campaigns, content strategies, and changes to their messaging.

2. NLP for Sentiment Analysis

In a nutshell, sentiment analysis is an NLP technique that determines the emotional value of communications and tracks changes in attitudes, often by using a positive-negative scale.

As a content marketer, sentiment analysis tools like Monkeylearn, Lexalytics, or Brandwatch can track attitudes toward your company, products, or services based on written or spoken content. Then, you can create content that addresses the key issues at hand. In practice, this may mean publishing a social post or press release to address a common audience concern or hesitation about your brand.

According to Indeed, you can use sentiment analysis in marketing to:

• Define your market niche by understanding what your brand means to your audience
• Improve customer success content
• Manage public relations and detect emerging crises
• Adjust your messaging and approaches to product development
• Monitor attitudes toward your competitors
• Identify influencers in your industry

3. NLP for Chatbots and Customer Support

According to a Userlike survey, 80 percent of customers have interacted with a chatbot before. While fast to respond, chatbots have their limits and may be better suited for simple requests—though these services can (and will) improve in the future as AI rapidly advances.

If you use chatbots and similar technologies for customer support, NLP tools like ManyChat or Chatfuel can help you filter out lower-priority inquiries and determine whether a user is a quality prospect.

By integrating chatbots into your marketing strategy, you can also interpret human language to personalize the user experience on your website, automate processes (like scheduling meetings), and auto-qualify leads.

4. NLP for Writing and Editing

In addition to helping with audience research, some of the latest advances in NLP allow you to automatically edit and even write content using the power of AI.

• Editing: You might be familiar with tools like Grammarly, which can proofread copy for grammar, voice, tone, readability, punctuation, and more — and provide suggestions for improvement in real time. Even as I write this blog post, Contently uses NLP to track my use of passive voice, misused words, hidden verbs, and possible instances of plagiarism.
• SEO optimization: Tools like Yoast, a WordPress CMS plugin, analyze landing pages or blog posts to determine their SEO “score” and readability. Essentially, these tools can help you determine whether a given web page will likely rank high on Google or if changes are otherwise needed.
• Writing: Today, GPT-3 tools — like the widely discussed ChatGPT platform — also enable you to automatically (and quickly) produce a high volume of content. Submit a content brief or specific parameters for your content asset, and ChatGPT starts writing. GPT-3 is now the underlying language for dozens of technology tools, including Jasper.ai.

While GPT-3 and other tools can help create content, humans still need to review (and fact-check) everything they publish. On GPT-3, for instance, “hallucinations,” factual-sounding statements that aren’t connected to real research, are common — and not always so easy to spot. Ultimately, you (not a machine) are the one who really understands your content strategy best.

5. NLP for Content Personalization

Sometimes, members of your target audience have different wants or needs in the content they consume. In identifying personalized interest by tracking their experience on your website, you can then generate personalized content for specific members of your target audience — and NLP can help.

Personalized content may look different based on your audience’s previous interactions with your content, geographic location, demographics, or other parameters. (In practice, this may mean using a different email subject line for recipients based on their current funnel stage or geographic location, as one example.)

Getting Started With NLP in Content Marketing

When it comes to NLP in content marketing, it may be difficult to know exactly where you should start. First, determine your (and your team’s) top priorities and challenges, from content ideation through distribution. Then, identify the role NLP-driven MarTech tools can play in meeting those needs before you discuss adding them to your tech stack with leadership.

Prioritize the NLP tools that align best with your content strategy, are most likely to drive results, and will allow you to learn about your audience. Remember that how you decide to integrate NLP into your marketing efforts will depend largely on your budget and the internal resources you already have available across your team or larger organization. If you manage direct reports or freelancers, ask them for input and how language-based, AI-driven tools can help them better do their jobs.

Humans are still the primary drivers of content. And the right combination of AI and human input will ultimately drive the best results.

Schedule a Contently demo today to learn more about how our solution can drive your content strategy using the power of NLP.

The post 5 Use Cases for Natural Language Processing (NLP) in Content Marketing Beyond SEO appeared first on Contently.

Right now, everyone’s talking about generative AI and how it’s transforming content and design. But there’s more on the tech horizon than AI. If you’re not already thinking about how augmented reality (AR) can play a role in your content marketing, you should be.

What is Augmented Reality?

Any time you use software or a device to add new sights, sounds, or sensory stimuli to something you see, that’s AR. This is different from virtual reality (VR), which creates an entirely new and immersive world to interact in, like the metaverse or other VR games. Think of AR as sprinkles on a cupcake. It doesn’t alter the entire cupcake; it just makes it more… festive.

One of the first wildly popular and well-known uses of AR is the game Pokemon Go. It’s basically a scavenger hunt IRL (in real life) that uses your smartphone’s camera and geolocation to hunt down different Pokemon hiding around your town. Ever used a filter on TikTok or Instagram? You’ve experienced augmented reality firsthand.

The Case for Augmented Reality

AR has a life outside of entertainment. In a 2019 Nielsen IQ global survey, consumers listed augmented and virtual reality as the top tech they expect to help them in their daily lives. Half of those surveyed were willing to use it to help them choose products.

This is good news for businesses and their marketing teams. Not only are consumers willing to consider using augmented reality in their decision-making process, but AR increases the opportunity for personalization by combining it with consumer data, AI, product recommendations, offers, content, and more.

AR made strides into brick-and-mortar businesses during the pandemic lockdown. Since people couldn’t come into the stores, the stores had to find a way to go to them, and augmented reality was an ideal avenue.

And like remote work, Zoom meetings, and flexible hours, AR isn’t going anywhere in our post-pandemic society. It’s a disruptive technology primed to change how buyers shop and interact with brands. In 2017, the Harvard Business Review said every business would need an AR strategy. AR allows brands to extend their reach to consumers outside the traditional digital space and become part of their daily lives.

3 Ways to Use Augmented Reality in Marketing and Business

Augmented reality is having a field day in the marketplace, and smart marketers are looking to jump on the bandwagon to take advantage of this emerging tech tool. It can drive more sales, help customers make decisions, and generate buzz around your product or service.

As you consider if AR is a good fit for your business, keep its three main uses in mind: entertainment, education, and evaluation.

1. Trying before buying.

Augmented reality allows consumers to “try” a product before buying it—all without leaving the comfort of their homes. As more consumers move to purchase online (or at least, online research), companies that utilize AR can give customers a chance to see how a product would work in their homes or even on them, lowering the risk to purchase.

Giving prospects this level of virtual access also lowers the risk for businesses by reducing items abandoned in shopping carts, fewer returns, and sealing the deal for those customers who may have been on the fence to purchase without this option.

Amazon, Wayfair, and Ikea use AR to see how a couch or a lamp looks in your room before you add it to your shopping cart. Beauty brands like Sephora, Ulta, and L’Oreal have created AR opportunities (in-store and online) where consumers can try makeup before purchasing.

Gucci, one of the first companies to allow people to try on sneaks virtually, now lets you purchase “digital-only” versions. They only show up in pictures or videos (as a filter) you take so that you can share them on social media. You can also unlock your sneaks to use on your Roblox character. (What a collab!)

Let’s look at bigger purchases consumers are starting to make online. Acura created an AR game to take their sports sedan for a spin in a virtual race against other test drivers. And in the ultimate “try it before you buy it,” SmartTek created an augmented reality experience for potential homebuyers to walk through full-scale houses without leaving the comfort of their current home.

2. Teaching how to use.

Augmented reality is having a moment in the medical and educational fields as it helps add an entirely new dimension to learning. It helps make complex ideas more concrete and can bring topics to life for students in and out of the classroom. Museums are even using AR to bring extinct animals back to “life.”

Brands can use AR to augment training and education for their customers as well as their team members. Create AR opportunities that show your customers how to use your products or even give them more information on the products they’re considering buying.

Hyundai was the first automaker to implement an AR owner’s manual in 2015. This gives owners how-to information for maintenance, repairs, and features. With a smartphone or tablet, 3D images or videos will pop up when users scan various areas of their vehicle (both under the hood and inside the cabin).

AR is transforming customer support centers by combining live videostreams with computer-generated images. This allows agents to show rather than (try to) tell customers how to fix their devices.

3. Keeping entertainment alive.

The most widely known use for augmented reality is in entertainment. Brands can leverage AR to generate excitement around a new product launch or service. As mentioned earlier, gaming is where AR really got its start in common usage. But entertainment goes well beyond a scavenger hunt. Adding entertaining AR can be as simple as creating a fun filter to be used on social that promotes your new product launch. Or, it can be a complex and immersive experience.

Netflix has used AR filters and ads to promote earlier seasons of Stranger Things. But for season 4, the media company created an in-person AR experience to get people talking. While the overall experience was wonky, buzz about the experiences (held in NYC, London, and San Fransisco) was exactly what the company needed—almost 287 million hours of the season were viewed in the opening weekend.

Pepsi, no stranger to innovative marketing campaigns, installed AR at a London bus stop to liven up a normally boring wait for the next bus. You know people were lining up to use this bus stop once the word got out.

Don’t Be Afraid to Play with Augmented Reality in Marketing

Augmented reality in marketing is still in the early stages of adoption—there’s a lot to iron out as it continues to take shape, especially around the conversations of consumer privacy and data collection. But that shouldn’t stop you from exploring what it might look like to integrate AR into your content marketing strategy.

While it still needs to be intentional and drive results, augmented reality in marketing has the ability to make mundane things a little more lively and improve personalization and interactions with your customers.

Get marketing tips and emerging MarTech insights delivered straight to your inbox every week. Subscribe to The Content Strategist newsletter today.

The post How Innovative Marketers Are Using Augmented Reality to Engage Customers appeared first on Contently.

When voice recognition technology first became popular, consumers used it to have funny conversations with AI or ask their Bluetooth speakers to play their favorite songs. People still do that, even as they increasingly turn to voice search technology for answers to their questions. Voice search enables instant gratification, providing an answer in seconds for about 94 percent of all search queries.

What does voice search mean for content marketers in 2023? We have four takeaways. But first, let’s connect the dots between voice search and digital marketing.

Voice Search & Digital Marketing: What’s the Connection?

The mainstreaming of voice search means that digital marketers need to adapt their digital content to make it voice-search friendly so they can rank in voice search results.

Don’t panic—that doesn’t mean you need to abandon your current practices and re-write everything on your site. Basic search engine optimization (SEO) principles still apply to voice searches. SEO is all about writing for the customer and creating content that answers burning questions. That core concept remains the same, though voice search does affect SEO in one way—length.

When consumers use voice search (compared to regular text search), they typically ask longer, more precise, and more conversational questions. Voice search queries average 29 words, and those questions are often situational and specific. As a consequence, you need to optimize your content to ensure rank in voice search results.

4 Ways to Make Your Content Marketing Voice Search Friendly

Use these strategies to rank higher in voice search results.

1. Partner with your organization’s digital marketing team.

For anything SEO-related, the content and digital marketing functions must be in lockstep. Voice search is no exception.

Aligning your marketing team around the same goals is one way to promote collaboration. If you include voice search rank results as a quarterly goal for your team, then each sub-function will come up with relevant actions toward that goal. There may be some overlap between content and digital marketing. Working together will yield maximum results.

While digital marketing and content marketing’s responsibilities vary widely across organizations, it’s essential for both functions to understand SEO best practices. In that way, multiple people on the marketing team can collaborate throughout the content development process to drive the best results.

Be sure to partner with digital marketing experts to create paid and other forms of digital content optimized for web search.

2. Optimize for featured snippets.

Featured snippets, or highlighted pieces of text that appear at the top of a Google results page, are your golden ticket toward getting more organic traffic to your site. Often referred to as “Position 0,” featured snippets deliver such a perfect answer to a query that the user doesn’t scroll any further down the page.

When it comes to voice search, featured snippets are even more important. Most of the time, Siri pulls the answer to a question directly from Google’s featured snippet.

Note, however, that Google’s algorithm is constantly changing, which means that the most effective strategies will also change. As of now, however, consider these strategies for getting your content in the coveted featured snippet spot:

• Explicitly answer the question users search for.

• Use SEO tools like Semrush to identify target keywords with a featured snippet and create content specifically to rank for that snippet, answering burning questions and satisfying search engines alike.
• Write valuable, readable, and targeted SEO-optimized content to out-rank your competitors.
• Organize your content so that human readers and search engines can easily scan it. Use headings that include your target keyword, listicles, etc.
• Follow SEO best practices, like including the target keyword in your meta description, using internal and external links and optimal URL structure, etc.

Tip: To stay on top of trends, read SEO-specific publications like Search Engine Journal as a part of your routine.

3. Write content that answers questions.

This might seem obvious, but the more you tailor your content to answer a user pain point or question, the more likely it is to end up in the top rank of the voice search results page.

Writing question-based content forces you to step back and ask yourself, “Does the content I’m writing serve a customer’s need or is it purely serving a marketing objective?” It’s a great litmus test during content brainstorming.

Answering questions, rather than only providing information, is also a key way to show up in voice search. When people use it, they often ask questions such as, “What’s the weather like today?” or “Can my dog eat celery?”

Let’s dive deeper and examine the “People also ask” section in Google SERP results. When you type a question into Google, a box often pops up with four similar questions. This appears either directly after the featured snippet or after one or two organic results.

By following best SEO practices for a particular keyword and writing targeted, question-focused content, you can build your credibility and eventually show up in the “People also ask” section. For this section, it’s important to check out related searches and see what questions show up. Ask yourself, “How can I tailor content to answer the audience’s original question and any follow-ups they might have?”

4. Create mobile-friendly content.

Most voice searches come from mobile devices. In fact, 27 percent of the global online population uses voice search on their mobile phone. If you want to rank for voice search, you need to make sure your website and content are as mobile-friendly as possible.

This is another instance where collaboration with the digital marketing function is essential. Together, content and digital marketers need to optimize the website for mobile and create content that’s easy for users to engage with on their devices.

A few tips to help you optimize your content for mobile include:

• Create short, catchy, and concise content pieces
• Use statistics and design elements to set your content apart from competitors
• Create visuals that adhere to responsive web design
• Make your CTAs obvious
• Chunk content into short paragraphs
• Use snappy headings for readability

Looking Ahead: The Future of Voice Search

If the past few years are any indication, voice search isn’t going anywhere. In 2023, expect more consumers to gravitate toward the convenience and value of using devices on the go to get answers in seconds.

Don’t want to miss an update? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get content marketing trends, tips, and tricks delivered straight to your inbox!

The post How to Adapt Content to Rank in Voice Search Results appeared first on Contently.

Few content teams have someone with such a keen eye for facts. And honestly, the kinds of content businesses publish rarely require the rigor expected by publishers of long-form investigative journalism.

All content teams do, however, need everyone to buy into and use the following practices.

Inventory the facts and fact-ish details in your content.

Just as you copyedit every piece of content before publication, each piece should go through a fact review.

Someone (not the writer) reads the piece and highlights all the facts and fact-like sentences. These include the sentences or phrases that depend on interpretation or source selection. Group the inventory of facts into three categories:

• Category One includes the core facts central to the piece’s argument.
• Category Two includes important core facts that are part of the central argument but without which the piece could still stand.
• Category Three includes facts that add color but are peripheral to the asset’s central thesis.

Use a multi-level process for fact-checking the piece.

Content teams should fact-check all category one facts of every piece of content that runs through their process—this is a level one fact check. If all the facts check out in that first set, the foundations of that content asset are sound. For everyday content like blog posts, social messages, and so on, organizations that want to do the bare minimum can stop there.

If you find inconsistencies right out of the gate, however, that piece of content should move to the second level, which involves more intensive checking of all category one and category two facts. If more problems arise, it should either move to level three (see next paragraph) or the content quality police should send it to the content lockup, depending on your internal decision criteria.

Level three involves checking everything—all facts in all three categories. I recommend doing a level three fact-check on every pillar piece of content your team produces and making it optional for others. How intensive your process is depends on your industry and internal practices. Highly regulated industries or those with high levels of market risk, for example, should probably level-three fact-check everything.

Each organization will set standards for how much to check and what happens to articles with core or incidental fact issues.

Define what you view as “reliable sources” and inventory them.

Fact-checkers rely on sources to validate information, facts, statements, etc. Content teams define which sources are trustworthy, reliable, reputable in your industry, or for the subjects they validate.

Common sense rules apply here. If you define a common business term, for instance, a published dictionary is a better source than your cousin, the English teacher. If you need data on consumer spending, the U.S. Federal Reserve is a better source than Amazon.

Content teams should create and maintain a list of fact sources they deem reputable for their market.

Your list of reliable sources might include media publications, databases, industry associations, journals, published books, etc. It should not include sources that will have AI-generated content in the immediate future. Wikipedia, for example, should never be a source of validation for a fact.

Find the original source.

Interesting anecdotes, research findings, truisms, quotes… they have a way of making the rounds of the content world. We’ve all done it—that is, heard a story that piqued our interest and repeated it, only to find out the person we heard it from got the details wrong. Exhibit A: Malcolm Gladwell and that “10,000 hours” theory.

The best and most reliable way to avoid recycling inaccuracies is to go to the original source. For example, say you are looking for a statistic and find one that fits the bill in an article published in The Economist—but it’s from a research study conducted by a third party. Don’t just assume The Economist got it right. Go find the study itself and read it.

In a similar vein, if you want to use a quote from an actual person, go find it. This might be in original footage when they said it (again, from a reliable source), the page from their book, a post on their blog, an article under their byline, etc.

When in doubt, double-check

If a fact sounds off, too perfect for what you are trying to say, or from a borderline source, double-check it—especially if it is a core fact for an important piece of content. As humans, we can be fooled, but some of us also have good instincts. Trust yours. If a fact sounds wrong, it might be, and you don’t want it eroding your brand trust.

Generative AI is here to stay, but that doesn’t give us the green light to shut our brains off and let it take the lead on the content we create with it. AI is helpful, but it still needs humans to guide and direct what’s produced.

Stay informed! Subscribe to The Content Strategist for more insight on the latest news in digital transformation, content marketing strategy, and rising tech trends.

The post Best Practices for Fact-Checking AI-Generated Content appeared first on Contently.

“We’re speaking to a more diverse audience now,” said Mike Ayers, executive director at Money, “but we still want readers to feel that they’re getting sound financial advice. That’s been at the core of our brand for over forty years. The difference is that it’s now approachable. I don’t think friendly is the right word, but I’ll say conversational. It’s like being in conversation with a trusted authority.”

Part of that conversation includes email newsletters. Money Magazine expanded its email program under Ayers’ leadership, now offering three newsletters: a daily content update, biweekly retirement advice, and a weekly personal finance project called Dollar Scholar.

This last newsletter is the brain child of Ayers and reporter Julia Glum, and it lives exclusively in the inboxes of subscribers. Each issue begins with a few paragraphs of Glum explaining her newest financial lesson—one she’s teaching herself at the same time. The emails end with a goofy celebrity purchase from the news. There’s also a line asking readers to tell Glum what they think.

“I really do get responses from people all the time,” Glum said. “They’ll request that I explore certain topics, or they’ll gently give me context I was missing.” Glum’s Dollar Scholar is an educational tool, but Glum herself is a student alongside her readers. “We’re owned by Meredith, of course, and Meredith does so well focusing on younger women. When I started Dollar Scholar, I thought, well, I’m a woman and I know what I like to read and don’t like to read. I just write honestly from that place in Dollar Scholar.”

It turns out Glum isn’t alone. The newsletter isn’t just cut and dry money advice—she has covered Spencer Pratt from The Hills, WeRateDogs on Twitter, and Amazon. As long as it touches on financial a topic young people should learn more about, Glum will consider any topic.

Ayers is pleased with the newsletter’s open and engagement rates. Unlike the other two Money newsletters, he doesn’t require a click through for Dollar Scholar. “Dollar Scholar is its own product,” he said. “As far as success metrics, we’re just looking at subscriber numbers and response rate. In the future, we’ll try out a forwarding campaign and have [Julia] ask her readers to send an issue along to folks who might need it.”

The question of needing Money’s content is what seems to keep the magazine’s digital strategy alive. Unlike other mainstream publications, Money is an educational tool. Though reporters may cover entertainment or pop culture from a financial lens, most of what they’re writing about applies directly to the audience.

Money Magazine has become a little more empathetic in recent years, covering Black Friday deals with as much gusto as it covers Wall Street. This shift was intentional.

“I want us to cover both the aspirational and anxiety-inducing parts of money,” Ayers said. “Aspirational content is great when it’s done well, but anxiety-focused stuff is more relatable. We tap into both mindsets, and a lot of what we’re doing is calming the anxious readers and validating the aspirational ones. And we’re going to stay relevant that way. There’s a recession coming, right? What should you do, stay the course, change up your saving strategy? We’ve got calm, level-headed advice on all of that.”

The post How an Email Newsletter Helped Money Magazine Reinvent Itself appeared first on Contently.

Since then, the George Foreman almost set the cutout on fire, and while I still own the top SERP ranking, I’ve lost positions two through four. So let’s bring it back. Remember when I thought “sticky content” was the worst thing ever? Just wait until you hear about zillennials.

1. Digital Transformation

Digital transformation is the low-rise jeans of business buzzwords—a dead ’90s fad that’s now coming back with a vengeance. Everyone dreads it but also spends way too much money on it. And it always seems to come with some weirdly misogynistic undertones.

This year, I’ve heard countless company execs plug their “digital transformation initiative,” which basically translates to: Holy crap, everything inside our company is super messed up and half our departments barely know how to properly use the internet even though it’s 2019. Also, our legal department is convinced that if we post an Instagram story, the building will explode.

Secret sauce.
Scaling.
Digital transformation.
Empower.
Innovation.

BINGO! pic.twitter.com/uS1emrF66a

— Ryan Wallman (@Dr_Draper) September 20, 2018

In turn, big consulting firms are using “digital transformation” as the center square in their 2019 buzzword bingo boards, setting off a dangerous feedback loop. The more marketers hear consultants say digital transformation, the more they’ll repeat it, which will inspire every consulting firm to simultaneously release white papers with a banal title like “The Digital Transformation Imperative.” The world, in small yet undeniable ways, will become a worse place.

2. Nano Influencer

According to The Guardian, nano influencers are “digital citizens” (gag) with 1,000-5,000 followers. Or as you might know them: PEOPLE WITH INTERNET ACCESS.

According to Forbes—a list factory staffed by the worst people from your LinkedIn feed—nano influencers are “telling their small community about the products they love” and “trusted by their friends while creating valuable content for brands.”

Oh yes, that classic “small community” of people from high school you haven’t talked to for 15 years. You can’t wait to tell those people about the products you love. Because you can’t just give up that sweet, sweet hit you get when you create valuable content for brands.

Like an infectious contagion “nano influencer’ is spreading through agency’s BS factories so fast that there’s no hope for inoculation.

3. Zillennial

This year, most of your interns were probably born in 1997 or 1998. 1998! These kids will be insufferably young. Their birth year alone will make you feel like you’re going to die any moment. And because they were born right on the cusp of millennials and Gen Z, they will introduce you to a new buzzword: zillennials.

Basically, these kids don’t want to be lumped in with us old-AF millennials because we’re now in our 30s and just want Stranger Things to come back so we don’t have to leave our apartments all weekend. In an act of true rebellion, they made up a marketing buzzword to define themselves. (Read this amazingly insufferable post for a peek inside their minds, which seem to have fundamentally misunderstood both the last 10 years of economic history and the great avocado debate of 2018.)

Of course, agencies and consultants are going to eat this nonsense up, and by late February, you’ll be tasked with putting together a last-second “zillennial activation” at SXSW. It’ll crush your soul, but on the bright side, it’s SXSW. There’s tons of free booze.

4. Customer-Centric/Audience-Centric

These two buzzwords have reached critical mass, and I’m part of the problem here. If you gave me an electric shock every time I used some variation of them, I’d have superpowers, fighting crime by shooting lightning bolts out of my hands but tragically never knowing the touch of true love.

Unfortunately, no one ever electrocutes me. So I go around saying “audience-centric” as a crutch. It’s a simple way to avoid screaming “YOU HAVE TO MAKE STUFF YOUR AUDIENCE ACTUALLY FINDS INTERESTING” at clients and getting fired. But that’s a cop out. There’s no excuse for sounding like I was incubated in a test tube at Deloitte.

Many marketers are fixated on brand messaging and wearing down prospects like a deranged stalker. The numbers tell them that these tactics kind of work, so they convince themselves they’re “customer-centric”—totally forgetting that customers are real people who could not care less about your rebrand or newly minted brand values. It’s ruining marketing.

This year, let’s cut the buzzwords and scream the truth. Sure, we might get fired. But after the digital transformation comes, nano-influencer zillennials are going to take our jobs anyway.

The post 4 Awful Content Marketing Buzzwords That Will Terrorize You in 2019 appeared first on Contently.

That’s David Court, writing for McKinsey Quarterly, in an article published over 10 years ago. Sound familiar? That same sentence could belong to the latest trend piece published in Forbes, Inc., Ad Age, Fast Company. The idea of digital transformation isn’t new, but as marketing needs have evolved, so, too, have the people in charge of them.

In March 2018, the consulting firm Spencer Stuart revealed some good news for CMOs: The average tenure for the position had increased from 42 months to 44 months. The stat marks a reversal over years past, when CMO turnover had led to shorter stints. The number hasn’t been this high since 2015.

What’s caused the gradual upturn? It’s tough to pin it all on one variable, but as brands have prioritized the customer experience, digital transformation, and data-driven marketing, CMOs have had to become five-tool players to survive and eventually thrive. That means developing fluency with everything from writing and design to analytics and customer success. According to Gartner, 62 percent of brands report that all digital commerce now rolls up to the CMO.

However, this evolution is still far from complete. CMOs still have the shortest average tenure among C-suite employees, per Korn Ferry, an advisory firm. CEOs and founders often bring in CMOs to take care of pressing business problems, which gives them little incentive to the play the long game. For these marketing leaders to stick around long enough and implement their full visions, they have to push back against that pressure and develop strategies that set the business up for success instead of just fixing a current issue.

Contently collaborated with illustrator Beci Orpin an original infographic about the traits and skills many of today’s marketing leader’s possess. Check out the full graphic below to learn more about the modern CMO.

The post Infographic: The DNA of a Modern CMO appeared first on Contently.

Like most jokes, there’s truth behind this one.

When people find out I’m an editor, they usually assume I work in journalism. It’s well defined, like public relations or copywriting. But by definition, content marketing is a broad umbrella spanning multiple fields. And as more companies invest in content, that umbrella is starting to impact the way we think about building marketing teams.

Last month, The Creative Group, a staffing firm that focuses on marketing and advertising, released a report on the 2018 job market. According to 400 U.S. executives, almost 80 percent plan to maintain their current hiring plans, suggesting a stable job market for creatives. Five percent of executives plan to add new positions over the next six months.

While that information may not shock anyone, how those hires are distributed can tell us a lot about the future of marketing and advertising. The report named content marketing as the top hiring area for this year, with 25 percent of executives planning to build out that team. Digital marketing and brand/product management rounded out the top three.

The results suggest that the era of the specialist may be fading. While the top three hiring areas are broader disciplines, the more specific jobs all fell lower on the list.

This isn’t an anomaly. Today’s content marketers are increasingly asked to wear more hats. It’s not unusual for one person to be responsible for blogging, copywriting, social media, and public relations. Five years ago, there’d be four people handling that. The landscape looks the same for designers, who might be running everything from art direction to infographics to print collateral.

Expect the multitasking to continue. In Salesforce’s 2017 “State of Marketing” study, 59 percent of marketing leaders revealed that traditional marketing roles limit their ability to engage customers. Marketers now need to become five-tool players capable of working across departments and teams. Soon, the only thing they won’t be able to do is explain their industry to their parents.

The post What the Creative Job Market Can Tell Us About Content Marketers appeared first on Contently.

Let’s create an infographic to show off our recent study, says the ambitious manager.

Sounds good, says the eager junior marketer.

Even though the project begins with the best intentions, challenges start to get in the way. Deadlines are pushed, messaging changes, another stakeholder doesn’t like the project. Things go wrong, and the once promising infographic dies in development. In large organizations, it’s even possible for completed content to sit unused because of bad communication.

At some point, your company will create content that never gets used; that’s a fact of business. That wasted content may even be out of your control.

But teams shouldn’t be complacent about content projects gone wrong. Every hour spent on a wasted piece of content adds up. When you account for the time of all the employees involved, the cost of software used to create the content, and the opportunity cost of not doing something else more productive, wasted content can be a massive weight on a team’s budget.

According to B2B analyst firm SiriusDecisions, 65 percent of content never goes public because it is either unusable (37 percent) or unfindable (28 percent). If you dissect these numbers to try to understand what’s causing these issues, the pie chart looks something like this:

Source: SiriusDecisions

There’s one buzzword at the root of most of these problems: alignment. Somewhere along the way, the creative process breaks down because of organizational silos. Perhaps the content team doesn’t understand customer pain points, so they create sales enablement content that doesn’t fit with what salespeople need. Or the content team produces an article for customer success, but customer success doesn’t have an easy way to access it.

This lack of organizational alignment is endemic. Seventy percent of senior marketers describe their content process as “middling” or worse, according to a recent Contently survey. SiriusDecisions reports that enterprise B2B organizations spend roughly twice what they think they do on content. When you consider that roughly 30 percent of a brand’s marketing budget goes toward content—and that these brands are producing more content than ever to meet digital demands—it’s clear that marketing teams are making a very costly mistake.

In its study “Establishing and Enriching the Content Supply Chain,” CMO Council summed up the issue well: “While content is the backbone of nearly every aspect of the customer journey, organizations are still failing to give it the attention it deserves.” Seventy-five percent of marketing teams don’t have a formalized approach to the content ecosystem. And while 98 percent of marketers believe “having and following” a content strategy is “important for content marketing success,” only 37 percent have a documented strategy.

Teams shouldn’t be complacent about content projects gone wrong.

So what’s the solution to avoiding wasted content?

For one, enterprise companies need to consider changing the way they create content as part of their organization’s larger digital transformation. Producing work ad hoc on Microsoft Word or Google Documents won’t cut it.

Teams also need to develop a framework for creating and distributing content to the right audience, both internally and externally. That means setting data-driven goals, consistently reviewing what works and what doesn’t, and using an agile approach to strategy. If you’re producing sales enablement content, for instance, you’ll want to track what content leads to converted opportunities. You could also refresh evergreen content so it’s readily available for quick and easy updating should your strategy change. Most of all, teams need a centralized location to manage every facet of their content process.

Some companies may struggle to adapt to this new reality. But for savvy businesses to get ahead, now’s the time to stop wasting time and money on unused content.

The post The Problem That’s Quietly Sabotaging Your Marketing Budget appeared first on Contently.