Are You Content Marketing? Maybe You Should

[JohnWalker]

If you start a small blog with a post a week or even a few facebook posts a month relevant to what you're doing that folks would find interesting, it's only a matter of time until that starts to generate sales for you.

See my problem with the internet marketing industry as a whole is that they use buzzwords like content marketing to build hype around services that probably wont work for the average person unless they invest tens of thousands of dollars or spend years learning the entire game through trail and error. The worst part is they try to convince you that anyone can do it for free or that if you start doing x,y, and z you'll see results. Then when you follow everything the "experts" tell you do and fail, you reach out to them for help and the cycle is complete .

The reality is while Joe blogger is out there creating content and doing all the heavy lifting the smart marketers are investing in distribution channels and leveraging social influence. Then when Joe's all burnt out creating content and gaining little to no traction the smart marketers swoop in to save the day by offering to help promote their content for a fee or even worse to help Joe build some reputation by contributing content to their distribution channels (example: guest blogging).

Now I have a feeling someone is gonna mention something about long tail keywords and blah blah blah but you think a website with no real authority is going to rank for any insurance related keywords ? Even super long tail keywords in the insurance sector will either have millions or results or be so broad that they couldn't possibly generate lead traffic. For example:

how to find cheap car insurance in long beach california - 16,600,000 results
what type of insurance should i get for my 1956 mustang - 33,600,000 results
how much insurance should i get for my house in kansas city nebraska - 166,000,000 results
are there any advantages to choosing a higher deductible for my health insurance - only 1,230,000 results but top 3 results are forbes, fairhealthconsumer.org, and health.usnews.com

Creating great content is only half the battle. Insurance is wayyyyy to competitive to just try blogging or throw up articles with the mentality that something is better than nothing or that if I build it they will come. It just doesn't work that way...

My point is take everything you hear about internet marketing with a grain of salt.... Including this post.

Regardless of what I think here's something of value for the thread: https://moz.com/blog/why-good-unique-content-needs-to-die-whiteboard-friday

 

[Josh]

You're missing most of the point here and it would appear you're being argumentative for the sake of being argumentative (which is what makes for some interesting threads!)

Content marketing is not the same thing as SEO. Content marketing has more to do with creating actual content that PEOPLE find useful vs creating content for the sake of SEO. Yes you can use the same content for both, but if you create good content and promote it on your own it can go a lot further than creating content and hoping google rewards you with visitors which could very well never happen.

My point is take everything you hear about internet marketing with a grain of salt.... Including this post.

Which I think underscores that you were missing the point. The point isn't to create content for your website to get SEO traffic, it's to create content that's worth reading and sharing when you promote it on your own.

 

[Glen Shelton]

You're missing most of the point here and it would appear you're being argumentative for the sake of being argumentative (which is what makes for some interesting threads!) Content marketing is not the same thing as SEO. Content marketing has more to do with creating actual content that PEOPLE find useful vs creating content for the sake of SEO. Yes you can use the same content for both, but if you create good content and promote it on your own it can go a lot further than creating content and hoping google rewards you with visitors which could very well never happen. Which I think underscores that you were missing the point. The point isn't to create content for your website to get SEO traffic, it's to create content that's worth reading and sharing when you promote it on your own.

I just read an article about this, SEO is over emphasized. If you get 1,000 visitors and you only convert 2 of those vs getting 50 visitors and converting 4, who wins?

 

[stuy119]

Before you start talking about conversions, you should define that - there are going to be different metrics out there for different people. A conversion isn't always a purchase.

 

[Glen Shelton]

Before you start talking about conversions, you should define that - there are going to be different metrics out there for different people. A conversion isn't always a purchase.

I'm talking about lead captures, not sales. And I was making those numbers up to prove a point. Your conversion rate is more important than traffic in my opinion.

 

[JohnWalker]

You're missing most of the point here and it would appear you're being argumentative for the sake of being argumentative (which is what makes for some interesting threads!)

In all honesty, I do specifically target your threads because you're a good sport

Content marketing is not the same thing as SEO. Content marketing has more to do with creating actual content that PEOPLE find useful vs creating content for the sake of SEO. Yes you can use the same content for both, but if you create good content and promote it on your own it can go a lot further than creating content and hoping google rewards you with visitors which could very well never happen.

We both know SEO is the onsite optimization of your website like meta data, title tags, url structure, ect. Content marketing is creating content that brings awareness to your brand. SEO doesn't use content it is the act of optimizing the content you create for search engines. Even if you created good content and promoted it successfully you would still want to optimize it for search engines.

Which I think underscores that you were missing the point. The point isn't to create content for your website to get SEO traffic, it's to create content that's worth reading and sharing when you promote it on your own.

I agree that you need to have content that is worth reading and sharing; however, I run a business. My main objective is to generate leads and convert them into customers. One way to do that is by creating pieces of content that generate search engine traffic. I ultimately want my content to to generate revenue and it does not necessarily have to be shared to accomplish this goal. I mean think about it, the only people who share useful information about insurance are insurance agents. There is a lack of consumer sharing.

I feel the real problem for agents and brokers hopping on the content marketing band wagon is that they limit themselves to the way SEO's do it and follow their advice because it works for their industry. The difference is SEO's practice shareable content in a niche that requires creative and cutting edge information in a community of people willing to share content. The insurance industry does not have the luxury of sex appeal.

This is when most people say well I've been blogging and writing content just like the pros says but it's not producing any meaningful results. The fact is that even if you have a great product but it never reaches the right people, it might never become successful. In contrast a mediocre product in the right hands can outperform something of superior quality (obviously you want a good product in the right hands). I just wanted people on here to realize that creating shareable content is only one aspect and that marketing it to the right audience and getting them to take action is the real challenge.

 

[Josh]

Again, you're completely missing the main point. Creating content that has value to the reader helps convert traffic to SALES. Just about anyone can get some of their friends to like a business page on facebook. How do you actually convert that traffic? Make something interesting there for them to read. Yes it would be awesome if folks where just gravitating to a site because you wrote some cool article, but anyone that goes to JohnWalkerInsurance.com is more likely to actually do business with the site if there was something useful vs just "get a quote here".

I'll give you an example, I sell lists for a living, so does it help to have content about mailing and telemarketing lists on my site? Sure, but the content from webinars/ebooks/etc that I've done has helped increase my conversion rate on traffic more than anything else I could have been writing about.

My main objective is to generate leads and convert them into customers.

Forget about the SEO you've been ranting about. Forget about it; that's not really the point. The point is if you put useful/interesting content on your site/facebook/etc then when you do get people to go to it (hey everyone, check out my insurance business at facebook.com/reallycoolinsuranceompany) then there is actually something more interesting than "get a quote today". I think Jack @ Long Term Care Insurance Reviews, Ratings, Quotes & Expert Advice - LTC Partner does a great job of this. If you go to his site it's not just content written for search engines, it's content that customers read and connect with. Regardless of how you're promoting your site, having content that's genuine and relatable really helps the conversion rate in terms of people actually opening up the checkbook vs just shopping around.

I have a client that actually does a terrible job with SEO, but they promote their site to customers through other means and have a fairly steady readership based on that vs praying to Matt Cutts at Google - good content gets read and shared.

 

[ltcadviser]

Forget about the SEO you've been ranting about. Forget about it; that's not really the point. The point is if you put useful/interesting content on your site/facebook/etc then when you do get people to go to it (hey everyone, check out my insurance business at facebook.com/reallycoolinsuranceompany) then there is actually something more interesting than "get a quote today". I think Jack @ Long Term Care Insurance Reviews, Ratings, Quotes & Expert Advice - LTC Partner does a great job of this. If you go to his site it's not just content written for search engines, it's content that customers read and connect with. Regardless of how you're promoting your site, having content that's genuine and relatable really helps the conversion rate in terms of people actually opening up the checkbook vs just shopping around.
QUOTE]


Hey thanks Josh, I was just about to comment and as I scrolled down to the end I see you mentioned me.

All of you guys are making really great points.

I will tell you what I struggle with.

It is very hard as a professional insurance agent to continually write new and fresh content...especially when I am constantly speaking with clients, underwriters, etc. I just don't have the time. My last blog post was January.

Now, when I write something I also must admit I do not share it with anyone. I do not know how to do this. Maybe someone can advise me on how to effectively share content.

I simply write a blog post and hope/pray that Google works and people see it.

I guess the hope and pray method is harder to succeed with Google today than it was 3-4 years ago before all of the algorithms changed.

Like everyone else, I know I need to blog more, but it is challenging to find the time. And I sure don't have all day trying to figure out how to share content with social media outlets.

So these are the challenges.

 

[Josh]

Now, when I write something I also must admit I do not share it with anyone. I do not know how to do this. Maybe someone can advise me on how to effectively share content.

This might be counter-intuitive to your sales model, but as a matter of following up with folks during your pitch you might want to say something along the lines of "every now and again I write content about LTC, would you like to get an advance copy of that before I post it on my site?" I'm sure that's not exactly the way you would put it, but the idea is to get permission to send them more content and stay in front of them. Do you know how many people misplaced your information, but remembered they wanted to buy from you? Of course not, that's an impossible number to know for sure, but by using content you generated as a way of staying in front of folks in an automated fashion you can stay on top of that.

To take that a step further, when their friends are looking for LTC or have questions, wouldn't it be nice if they had emails from their agent about things they could forward to a friend? People love to share interesting content and if that interesting content includes something that helps create a selling opportunity, all the better.

On a more involved level which I suspect would be less your cup of tea, you could also submit it to senior blogs/publications/etc, sort of along the lines of ezinearticles.com.

 

[JohnWalker]

To take that a step further, when their friends are looking for LTC or have questions, wouldn't it be nice if they had emails from their agent about things they could forward to a friend? People love to share interesting content and if that interesting content includes something that helps create a selling opportunity, all the better.

See now you get my point. It's not just about creating content you have to invest in distribution. Email marketing and re-targeting are two distribution channels that can be very effective.

On a more involved level which I suspect would be less your cup of tea, you could also submit it to senior blogs/publications/etc, sort of along the lines of ezinearticles.com.

Ezinearticles is pretty worthless and I have a feeling my posts are too long for you to read. See my prior comment on this:

The reality is while Joe blogger is out there creating content and doing all the heavy lifting the smart marketers are investing in distribution channels and leveraging social influence. Then when Joe's all burnt out creating content and gaining little to no traction the smart marketers swoop in to save the day by offering to help promote their content for a fee or even worse to help Joe build some reputation by contributing content to their distribution channels (example: guest blogging).

I'll for sure as hell let you post your top notch editorial content on my site if all you want is a link. I have a MOZ DA of 39-42 with about 150 edu links pointing to my domain and 11,000+ unique visitors / month. I would quickly trade you 4-5 hours of your hard work for a link from my website. Link building services charge anywhere from $500-$600 for an editorial link from this kind of site.

Hopefully you're starting to understand my point josh. You can't just create content and market it. You have to build an infrastructure for distribution or have the holy grail formula for viral content