Over my entire career, I have learned so much from authority bloggers within my niche. They have the experience and have dedicated several years to this industry. Whenever I’m looking for the right tools to implement into my marketing strategy, I would research the market, but first, always see what the big players within the industry have to say. This way, I know I’m getting a credible opinion on the tool and if it can satisfy the best, then I know it’ll do the right job for me. Over the last several months, I’ve been writing extensively on content marketing and how it’s important to increase conversions and engagement. Even though I have covered a lot, I haven’t talked about tools available in the market to help you out.
I decided to do research online and find out what tools or services authority bloggers are recommending. Let’s get started with discussing the first four.
Buzzumo.com
I’ve personally used this tool and it’s awesome to find the best content available being broken down by total social shares. Start by typing in a keyword then selecting a few options like what format and date range. Once the results generate, it will show you the total shares calculated by looking at the following networks: Facebook, Twitter, Google +, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
Once you determine the highest shared content, it’s time to create something better and make it visible on social media. If you click on the number next to the social platform, you can find a list of people who shared your content and connect with them directly.
Trello.com
Great content marketing starts with a solid idea so it’s important you have the right tools to help you stay organized while being focused. Trello.com is a desktop and mobile application built to do just that, which is streamlined your creation process. You can jot down ideas and schedule content to be written by you or a team member. Many of the influencers I spoke to have large teams to manage so this application definitely helps them stay focused and delegate tasks.
Google Analytics
If you haven’t been using Google Analytics, then you are NOT serious about building your online business. This is a FREE tool by Google and very simple to install to your blog through both simple HTML and WordPress plug-in. It gives you all the information you need to track your progress, showing you where MOST of the engagement is occurring and from where. Here is some of the information provided by GA:
- Geo-location of audience
- Search queries (if you connect GWT to GA)
- Top landing pages
- Average time on website
Use this information to find out where most of your audience comes from and where they spend their time. By having a good idea about the type of content they like, you can focus on the same going forward to increase engagement.
Facebook Advertising
Many authority bloggers love Facebook Ads because of the targeting options. They have so much information on their users, they can then use it to offer additional targeting options in their ad network. For example, when using FB Advertising, you can target location, age group, interests, gender, and timing, and even split test at the same time. It’s a great way to promote your content, making sure it gets to the right type of people. Slowly test until you have reached optimal conversions, sending traffic to either your FB Fan Page or website.
However, keep a few major things in mind:
First, your success on Facebook will depend on the type of content you’re displaying and how. It’s important to focus on headline, image, and text while testing each one of them. Secondly, you want to focus on timing, making sure you get the most engagement possible so this is a factor you will want to test, too. Third, Facebook advertising can be very expensive if you don’t control your budget so it’s important to start off small until you find something that works, then you can invest more to keep the conversions coming.