Mike Alton is a ‘Brand Evangelist’ for Agorapulse, and he recently spoke to BuzzSumo about something that is starting to hit the radar of Digital Marketers around the globe: original research drives traffic and shares, and this has a major impact on a sites SEO score.
“Those links and citations raise brand awareness, strengthen authority, and improve search engine ranking,”
says Mike.
“And yet, such activity doesn’t have to be as rare and impossible to obtain as many think; nor does it have to be a particularly large out-of-pocket expense – though it does require a great deal of time and effort.”
Finding funds for digital content marketing
Unfortunately, too many companies are still stuck in the idea that marketing – and in particular, digital marketing – is something that is sort of needed but that justified little budget when end of financial year decisions roll round.
What’s becoming more apparent is that that is just not the case. With adequate resources, truly original content marketing can take your website – and therefore your business – to a whole new level.
In that same article, BuzzSumo shared the results of a huge survey they undertook of hundreds of digital marketing gurus around the world, and from across multiple industries. The results speak for themselves.
What impact does original research in content marketing have, according to the professionals?
Of respondents, around 3 in 4 people said that their website traffic saw a big boost from the publishing of original research. The next biggest 3 movers on the back of it were Social Shares (63%), Mentions from media (56%), and direct leads for the business (50%). Those numbers are pretty staggering when you think about it.
Going from run of the mill, poorly planned and poorly resourced content to well-resourced and coordinated content marketing campaigns, half of the businesses that did it got direct leads out of it. That’s something that digital marketers, and content producers specifically, should be taking to their bosses for the next meeting.
How does this affect my business?
This opens the passage for all businesses with an online presence to push harder into the content field. Find your niche, find what your clients want, and if you’re not sure where to start, engage professionals in the field. At Wolf, we pride ourselves on dedicated content research and production, and precision digital marketing is our forte. If you want to see how we can help, get in touch!
