Content Marketing Data That Moves the Needle

• Content Marketing Data • That Moves the Needle

Ross Hudgens, Founder, Siege Media@RossHudgens http://siegemedia.com

Get the Deck:bit.ly/siege-dal

My biggest frustration as a marketer is this.

Not exactly this, I get that part.

It’s that someone felt 309,000,000 articles on the topic needed

to happen.

@ROSSHUDGENS

It’s that someone within two hours of creating this deck had perpetuated the cycle.

It almost always leads to nothing – or in marketing terms, less than 8 shares per post.

Read More: http://bit.ly/8-shares

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I much prefer contentlike this.

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And this.

The goal of this presentation is to make the gap between these two

concepts a little bit smaller.

PART 1: CONTENT STRUCTURE.

According to Outbrain, odd number headlines have a 20% better CTR than even number headlines.

http://backlinko.com/viral-content

HubSpot found that adding [brackets] in their titles bumped up CTR by 38%.

http://bit.ly/hubspot-title-research

Specifically, HubSpot found [templates] got the highest CTR average of all bracketed terms.

http://bit.ly/hubspot-title-research

A study found writing with half that of conventional copy enjoyed a 58% improvement in readability.

http://nngroup.com/articles/how-users-read-on-the-web/

The same study found concise, scannable, and objective content to have a 124% increase in readability.

http://nngroup.com/articles/how-users-read-on-the-web/

Adding colorful images – especially above the fold, make it 80% more likely someone will read your content.

http://backlinko.com/viral-content

http://socialfresh.com/blog-post-image-types/

Posts with hand-drawn images

generate 343% more shares than those with stock photos.

Study shows linking externally has a positive correlation with ranking. Position 1 averages 50% more than 10.

Read More: http://bit.ly/external-outlinks

Which content types perform best for business?

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/top-10-business-blog

1. Lists2. How to’s3. What Posts4. Why Posts5. Misc6. Infographics

The top 50 business blogs are getting less than 7% of their total traffic from social media.

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/top-10-business-blog

http://www.marketingsherpa.com/exs/Search08Excerpt.pdf

Short URLs are 250% more likely to be clicked than long URLs according to one study.

http://backlinko.com/viral-content

Short URLs also create sharing friction on social media.

Instagram engagement per post is 2.81% of total audience, compared to only .25% for Facebook.

https://blog.bufferapp.com/new-social-media-research

How to capitalize with SEO-focused content? Include a CTA to check out content link in profile.

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Read More: http://bit.ly/perfect-pinterest

This is the perfect Pinterest photo,

according to data science.

Read More: http://bit.ly/perfect-pinterest

• No human faces• Multiple colors• Lots of red• Moderate color• Vertical orientation• Little background

Visitors who read an article for three minutes returned twice as often as those who read for one minute.

http://bit.ly/engagement-time

If your content won’t capture attention for more than a minute, even if good, don’t try.

http://bit.ly/engagement-time

Conversion rate is highest with 1 to 3 and 8 to 10 form fields – not 4 to 7.

http://conversionxl.com/reduce-form-fields/

Welcome emails have 320% more revenue per email than other promotional emails.

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/optimize-welcome-emails

PART 2: THE PERFECT INFOGRAPHIC.

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Using Buzzsumo, we analyzed the 1000 most shared infographics in the past year to find out what common characteristics

the most popular visuals have.

The most shared infographics have 396 words shown on average – a short blog post.

Example: http://bit.ly/396-word-infographic

Example: http://bit.ly/402-word-infographic

The infographics most popular on

Facebook had 402 words on average.

Example: http://bit.ly/387-word-infographic

The infographics most popular on

Pinterest had 387 words on average.

Twitter’s Most Popular: http://bit.ly/twitter-pop

The infographics most popular on Twitter had 442

words on average.

LinkedIn’s Most Popular: http://bit.ly/linkedin-pop

The infographics most popular on LinkedIn had 502 words on average.

The Ideal Infographic Size: http://siegemedia.com/size

The most popular infographics had

dimensions of 3683 tall by 804 pixels wide

on average.

The most used colors amongst the most popular infographics:

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Industries Where InfographicsAre Most Popular

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Industries Where InfographicsAre Least Popular

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How many popular infographics use a color wheel scheme?

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The most used color wheel schemes amongst popular infographics:

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What’s a Triadic Color Scheme?

A triadic color scheme uses colors that are

evenly spaced around the color wheel. Triadic color harmonies tend to

be quite vibrant.

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What’s a Monochromatic Color Scheme?

Monochromatic color schemes are derived

from a single base hue and extended using its

shades, tones and tints.

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What Industries’ InfographicsDo Best on Twitter?

Anatomy of a “Perfect” Infographic

• <400 Words• 800x3500+• Features Blue • Color Wheel Scheme• On Health/Entertainment

Read More: http://siegemedia.com/infographics

PART 3: CONTENT PROMOTION.

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What Days Covert Best for Outreach?Our Outreach Conversion Rates by Day

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

0% 2% 4% 6% 8%

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Monday Converts 80% Better Than Thursday.

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

0% 2% 4% 6% 8%

Not sharing the link in our first email increased our outreach conversions by 63%.

http://www.siegemedia.com/blogger-outreach

In analyzing thousands of outreach emails, we found the average converting subject line

to be 64 characters long.

Interactive for Search Engine Journal: SEO content analysis tool

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This differs from bulk email marketing research, which found 41-50 to be

the optimal length.

http://marketingsherpa.com/article/chart/subject-line-length-success

*Our sample did not include a test batch of “longer” emails.

In analyzing thousands of converting emails, we also found the average converting email to

be 83 words long.*

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Our hypothesis? Long enough to be truly customized, short

enough to be easily readable.

We surveyed lifestyle bloggers and found that pitching 55 days in front of the holidays is optimal

in order to guarantee a post slot. Pitch now!

http://www.siegemedia.com/pitching-bloggers

• http://bit.ly/siege-dal

Ross Hudgens, Founder, Siege Media@RossHudgens http://siegemedia.com