Quality Over Quantity: Content & Social Media Marketing Lessons from 2015

If one lesson emerged regarding content in 2015, it was that a digital marketer’s strategy should revolve around quality over quantity. Quality necessitates editorial planning, audience understanding and persona research, as well as the social media marketing and PR outreach. Throughout the year, experts in our field (including Gary Illyes, Marty Weintraub, Wil Reynolds, Lisa Buyer and Mindy Weinstein) shared their tried-and-true tactics for creating what Rand Fishkin lovingly refers to as 10X better content.

In today’s content-focused track of the 2015 Virtual Conference, read up on these tactics and find out how you can apply them to your own content marketing.

Connecting with Your Audience #CRITICAL

Who is your audience? Whatever your vertical, you’ve got millennials in your audience — and they represent $200 billion dollars in annual buying power. If you want to tap into that segment, Google Trends Analyst Gary Illyes (a millennial himself) has some advice for marketing to millennials. During Reaching Gen Y & Z with Google’s Gary Illyes we learn:

• Fast facts about Gen Y and Gen Z millennials
• How Google is tailoring its products and service for millennials
• How to make millennials (and users at large) feel special and like life is easier with your digital marketing

Social Promotion and Press Outreach #NECESSARY

Creating content is only one part of content marketing — you’ve got to get those amazing articles, ads, infographics, videos, images, listicles, etc. into the world to entice users and interest influencers. Get actionable tactics to take your content marketing to the next level with Search and Social Content Strategy at SMX East.

• Know your audience. Inside and out. This SMX session featured Mindy Weinstein, Bruce Clay, Inc.’s Director of Training, who made it clear that personas are key. She shared actionable tactics, like using SurveyMonkey.com and talking to customer service representatives who interact with clients every day, to develop those personas.
• Google’s goals haven’t changed. Bill Hartzer, senior SEO strategist at Globe Runner, has been doing digital marketing since 1996. Google emerged onto the search scene in 1998, and, bottom line, their mission is the same: to provide the freshest and most relevant content in search results.
• Push your content to the next level. Jordan Kasteler, digital strategist at MWI, issued a challenge to content marketers: you should spend as much time promoting a piece of content as you do creating. Read the liveblog to find out how and why.

The SMX East Social and Mobile PR Secrets session is all about garnering press coverage. Get tips from three PR veterans who are experts at creating buzz. Lisa Buyer, Murray Newlands and Marty Weintraub share:

• How to kick off press outreach. What media outlets and journalists should you be targeting?
• Tips for enticing journalists. Once you’ve identified who you want covering your brand, these tips will get them to go from deleting your press release to reading it and turning it into a story.
• The role social media plays in creating relationships with reporters. Are you sharing the reporters’ content? Are you interacting with them in meaningful ways? Learn how to cultivate relationships with reporters.

Content Marketing Strategy #ESSENTIAL

In The High Cost of Free Traffic, SEER Interactive founder Wil Reynolds highlighted the importance of content-focused strategy rather than keyword focused strategy. As an example, he talked about Airbnb’s disruption of the expected vacation rental SEO. Airbnb has created such exceptional content around vacations and travel, all while building buzz about their brand — so much so that it no longer matters if you rank for “vacation rental in X city” because users are now searching for “Airbnb + city” or “Airbnb travel guide.” Find out more about Airbnb’s mega-success and other brands doing content marketing right in Reynolds’ Pubcon keynote.

There’s more on the content and audience track. Check out these other liveblogs of important 2015 conference sessions on content, social media marketing and audience:

• Guy Kawasaki’s 10 Tips: How to Perfect Your Marketing
• SEO Copywriting Style Guide
• SEO, Paid Search and Social Media Strategy Integration
• Fresh Tips on Designing Ad Images, for Non-Designers

Kristi Kellogg is a journalist, news hound, professional copywriter, and social (media) butterfly. Currently, she is a senior SEO content writer for Conde Nast. Her articles appear in newspapers, magazines, across the Internet and in books such as "Content Marketing Strategies for Professionals" and "The Media Relations Guidebook." Formerly, she was the social media editor at Bruce Clay Inc.

See Kristi's author page for links to connect on social media.