Video Customer Testimonials As A Tool For B2B Growth
Have you tried creating video testimonials? In this episode of Marketing Smarts, Alexander Ferguson makes a case for video customer stories.
Why?
“Even the average ones perform better than most other types of videos because it has the customer in it and it’s using the words that your other customers want to hear. It’s the journey. It’s the pain points. It’s the problem. And it just resonates better than most other videos and being able to convert and actually move the needle in your marketing efforts.”
Alexander explains what makes for a good one—they need a full story arc—and why they don’t need to be exceptionally high quality to be effective.
Psst! Audience Ops has been creating video testimonials (plus captioned ads for social) for our clients and we’re sharing what we’ve learned in the Audience Ops Insights section (below).
Building a podcast (or any content series, really) with the goal of generating/directly impacting revenue can be tough, and the reality is it’s easy to get “stuck.”
Refine Labs Stacking Growth Podcast recently featured Lindsay Tjepkema, found of Casted, to talk about what she calls the Amplified Marketing Maturity Curve.
Lindsay identifies 5 stages of growth and explains how to get “unstuck” at each stage.
Survey Says: Outsourcing Content Pretty Much A Necessity
Interesting insight from Verblio’s 2022 Digital Content Survey:
71% of in-house marketers and 68% of agencies outsource their content needs to freelancers
Antoinette Siu covers the trend in this Digiday article, quoting Andy Crestodina of Orbit Media Studies:
“Content is the reason people visit websites... Clients eventually figure this out and moments later, discover the limits of an all in-house team. This research shows that all but the biggest companies need help.”
Other key stats in the story:
Psst: If you’re looking for a content creation partner, I can vouch for this amazing company.
SEO Insights Roundup
SEO can be a beast. These insights from pros knee-deep in the process might help:
Search Intent
Jonas Sickler argues that not only is intent crucial for SEO, but it is also tied to the user journey. In this Tweet (and linked article), he breaks down how user intent should drive your efforts.
A Proven Content Formula
Brian Bourque makes a bold claim in his LinkedIn post and attached 14-page slide deck: following his content formula can help you to “dominate SEO.” It involves avoiding amateur mistakes, establishing content hierarchy, capturing the full search journey, and more.
Effective But Ignored Strategies
Andrew Holland suggests 15 overlooked SEO strategies, starting with Goliath content and content promotion and ending with mapping and researching.
What Content Marketers Need In 2023
This year’s CMI survey offers insights into challenges, operations, and markers of content marketing success. Stephanie Stahl breaks down these 7 things marketers say they need:
Details here.
How Brands Can Leverage The Content Creator Movement
In this TikTok video, Todd Clouser encourages marketing teams to be forward-thinking as they hire content creators “to evangelize product users into die-hard fans and turn non-users into aspiring users.”
This feels almost contradictory to the Mary’s advice above, but it’s a realistic roadmap for brands who don’t currently have the hours and people available to build and execute an organic strategy.
His advice:
An Organic Social Strategy Isn’t An Afterthought
Mary Keough breaks down the time (and therefore cost) of the successful organic marketing strategy the team at Gorilla 76 is running in this LinkedIn post.
How it breaks down:
Check out her advice on why you can’t just “hire somebody to do it.”
Want To Become A Thought Leader?
Deciding to become a thought leader and becoming a thought leader are two different things. Thought leadership is quite buzzy in content marketing right now, and for good reason: demonstrating authority and fresh ideas in an industry can earn brands attention and revenue.
Here are some interesting insights on how to inject thought leadership into your marketing:
All About Creating A Content Marketing Strategy
Building your content strategy? This fresh pillar page on the topic by Sushant Shekhar delivers more than you might expect from a company I’ve never heard of. She gets in the weeds about
Is Keyword Cannibalization Misunderstood?
Do you really know what keyword cannibalization is? According to Jeff Coyle, it’s not just focusing on the same keyword for more than one page. Learn how much more complex it is here.
