Do you know what you’re going to be creating, posting and sharing for your business this Tuesday?

How about two Tuesdays from now? Tuesday next month? The first Tuesday of next year?

We don’t go that deep here at User Growth, but we do plan some time ahead.

And with around 88 percent of business-to-business companies seeing the value of including content marketing into their overall marketing strategy, it might be time to start putting down a process on how you’re going to execute on your content marketing strategy.

Why?

Well, because you could be 60 percent more effective compared to those marketers who did not develop a content marketing plan.

Next to the fact that having a content marketing calendar proves to be an effective marketing tool, what other reasons could be there to have a content calendar?

What is a content calendar?

What programs or tools are out there to produce an easy-to-use content calendar for your organization?

In this post, we’re going to learn you all about the importance of having a content calendar, and why you wish you haven’t started using one earlier already.

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Twitter, it is every marketer’s favourite social network, but at the same time, it has become harder and harder as a small business to make it work for you.

With over 330 million monthly active users it could be a traffic goldmine for your organisation. However, there are also 500 million tweets send out every day, so how can you get your tweets seen? Should you still invest in it?

Just like LinkedIn and Facebook Groups, there are lots of different ways you can use it for your business, but at the same time, there are lots of companies struggling to make Twitter work as effectively as it used to be in the past.

So what is Twitter marketing?

The beautiful thing about Twitter is that it is whatever you want it to be.

Want to learn more about your customers? Bring a human touch to your brand? Build buzz about your new product? Provide super-fast customer support? Start cleaning up after a PR disaster? Hold a group chat, and educating your customers?

It doesn’t matter what your marketing goals are; there is a pretty significant change Twitter has got you covered.

There is no question that Twitter can be a very potent tool to help you achieve your marketing objectives.

The problem though is that it might sound a bit overwhelming, you’ve got no idea where to start, or maybe you’ve already started, but you’re having trouble getting your business objectives.

No matter at which stage you are, this guide will help you either get started from scratch or guide you to the next level of using Twitter to grow your business, traffic and sales.

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Over the last decade, the world of (online) marketing has changed. There used to be a time when you could just advertise at random places, and you could expect a steady stream of click through to your website.

The very first banner ever even had a Click Through Rate (CTR) of 44%, nowadays companies are jumping through the roof when they 0.44%, with an average CTR at the moment of 0.17% according to benchmarks by DoubleClick.

Today’s consumers have changed. They are either “banner blind” and blocking out the advertisements on the website mentally or have ad-blockers installed. They look beyond logos, overlook your promotions and won’t sign up for your newsletter. Today’s consumers only need the information when they want it, delivered to them in a format they want it.

And with as many as 81% of consumers conducting research before making a purchase, it’s fair to say that people today have a lot more to say about who they buy from than ever before.

If you’re broadcasting your products or services to your target audience, good luck trying to sell to them. Consumers want to start a dialogue with you, and they don’t like being told what to choose and what to buy. So how do you make your potential customers notice you?

You do this by being helpful, hence the birth of Content Marketing.

But with everybody diving into Content marketing nowadays, it becomes more and more difficult to cut through the noise and get your content delivered to your potential customers.

You need to deliver content that’s relevant to them, based on the behaviour they have at each stage of the buyer’s journey.

And what happens next?

While different Content Marketing Strategies might have a different purpose (lead generation, brand awareness, website traffic, etc.) the end goal should always be the same – to increase revenue and drive more business.

In the old days, it was the sales team that used to shoulder the sales funnel or buyer’s journey, but nowadays the buyer’s journey has transformed into more touchpoints across different channels. Quality content provides more than just a great way for marketers to connect with new audiences; it also helps your sales department better. With the right content, your sales staff can:

• Be better prepared for their sales conversations;
• Get better-qualified leads
• Gain access to selling tools to engage more effectively
• Learn more about their audience through analytics

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It doesn’t matter which industry your business is operating in; every business nowadays is an online business.

People, your potential customers are using the internet for everything.

From shopping online and making product or price comparisons, looking at online reviews about a company or trying to find a place close by where you could have dinner with your friends.

It doesn’t matter what type of business interaction someone is looking for; we all turn to the internet to find the information we need.

When someone turns to the internet for information, they start typing in search queries in their favourite search engine. These search terms are called keywords, and they are the foundation of getting found online.

A big part of Google’s search algorithm is even based around keywords.

So what is a keyword exactly? How are keywords used online? And how do you select the right keywords for your company to include in your content to help you rank higher in search engines?

In this guide, we’re going to show you how you can use keywords for SEO the RIGHT way, so you get the traffic, leads and sales you need.

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Are you tired of thinking that whenever you just write enough content, people will start putting tons of links back to you?

Of course, in the long run, people will start linking back to your content, but not everyone wants to wait that long.

We all know that quality backlinks can do wonders to improve your search engine rankings and your performance. There is tons of great content available online to show you different tactics.

So what if you don’t want to wait months, or maybe even years? How do you proactively get backlinks without spending long hours? In this post, we would like to share some tactics, that can help you, so you can start seeing an increase in organic traffic coming towards your website.

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As content marketers ourselves we know how much time and effort can sometimes go into creating that right piece of content.

And of course, finding the right medium to publish it to get the results that are needed to help grow our business.

The only way to be able to get those results though is by promoting your content after you hit that publish button.

Nobody will find your content otherwise.

This is even truer if you’re just starting your business, so you need to actively find ways to drive traffic to those pieces of content.

Otherwise, your time spend creating them has been all for nothing.

So what if we would tell you there is an incredible way to drive thousands of visitors, a way that contributes more than other social media platforms combined, and best of all, it is free.

This application is named one of the most important apps of all time by CNET and only takes five to ten minutes of management per day to get the results you want.

Did we get your attention?

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One of the first things on everybody’s mind when they start a new website is to produce as much content as possible. After all, we want to get those backlinks, and we want to get a consistent stream of visitors to your website, right?

Months go by, and you start to see more and more traffic coming it, this is a good indicator that you’re on the right track solving the same problems that your product is solving through the media you’re creating and promoting.

But did you know that the average lifespan of a webpage is around 100 days? According to Brewster Kahle, digital librarian at the Internet Archive in San Francisc o, links tend to go bad over time due to moved or deleted content or changes in permalink structure.

So this means, that the beautiful, interesting experience your visitor is expecting can turn sideways when they are greeted with the dreaded 404, or “page not found” message.

One error page can kill all your hard work.

And what will the visitor do? They will hit that back button in their browser and go straight back to the search result page, trying to find a website that CAN help them with their problems.

Your first opportunity to impress a new lead and you just blew it, outdated and permanently moved web pages will leave your leads hanging without you giving them the opportunity to start a loving relationship.

No wonder that according to a 2010 study by Firefox, the back button was the most used navigational feature in their browser.

Although there is no formal estimate of the number of lost sales and opportunities caused by people landing on a « page not found” page, we’re pretty sure every lost sale opportunity is one to money.

It isn’t all bad news though because 404 pages also represent opportunities if done well. If someone lands on your 404 page, you have their attention. How you use that attention is directly related to how successful your site will be in converting visitors.

This article will focus on turning those 404 error pages, into revenue, leads and sales.

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