I did not write anything below the subhead in this blog post about content marketing agency outsourcing.

The author is Jason Joseph, who writes for a service you can outsource writing to called Verblio, a service that ecommerce and B2B content marketing agencies outsource to. If you're wondering whether or not Verblio is legit, this podcast and the post below are a live test of their service.

Verblio VP Product Marketing Laura Smous

If you're looking for ways to scale your editorial marketing practice to meet your clients' needs, outsourcing to quality freelance writers is probably an ongoing pain point for you.

I like writing. But there's only one of me. So I can't realistically deliver the editorial packages my clients need without help. I use most of the online writer marketplaces fairly regularly. I've written about WriterAccess and ContentGrow in other posts. But Verblio was a new one I hadn't tried.

So after several months of testing the service, I invited Verblio's VP of Product Marketing Laura Smous, to be a guest on the Earned Media Podcast. I pulled a transcript of our interview and outsourced this blog post through their service with one caveat. Laura connected me with one of their customer success reps to ensure one of their best writers got this job.

Unlike the other online writer marketplaces, you can't select the writer you want to use on Verblio. Instead, you post the job with a brief, and someone writes the article on spec. And you don't have to buy it if you don't like it. So if you want to get a sense of their top level of service, listen to my interview with Laura and come back and read this post by Jason Joseph.

Depending on your sector and objectives, Verblio may or may not be suitable for you. But the entirely unedited post – with uncorrected mistakes – from Verblio started here and was delivered with the headline...

A Complete Guide to Using Verblio for Content Marketing

A content marketing strategy uses content creation to provide the audience with value. Organizations use emails, blogs, and videos to share content with customers and establish credibility. According to the Content Marketing Institute, the content marketing market will have a year-to-year growth rate of 15.73% between 2021 and 2025.

However, creating content is one of the challenges most businesses face. As such, companies rely on third-party companies for content creation. One of the marketplaces that clients can use is Verblio. Here is everything you need to know about Verblio from the VP, Laura Smous.

What is Verblio?

 Verblio is a content creation marketplace that connects clients with experienced freelance writers. Content marketing is a cost-effective way to get leads and grow your business. On Verblio, you can connect to the right type of content and get what you need. The platform helps agencies to create high-performing content. Customers can order product descriptions, website content, and press releases. Even though the content marketing space is competitive, Verblio remains among the leading. But what differentiates Verblio from the other marketplace sites?

Why Choose Verblio?

Wide Variety of Writers

You may think there are numerous options, but choosing the right platform will help your organization's success. Verblio is always looking for ways to improve. The writers play a vital part in the Verblio marketplace. It seeks to create a suitable platform for writers and customers. Even though AI is fast gaining popularity in content creation, it will not replace human writers. Verblio strives to balance AI and human writers to offer customers a better experience. Verblio has a team of writers who are qualified in different industries. So no matter what industry, you'll get a professional writer to work on your content.

Quality Content

Quality has always been part and parcel of the content creation marketplace. Verblio has its foundation in journalism, and providing quality content is not a problem. It focuses on providing customers with content that ranks highly on search engines and generates leads. Most people use the platform as a customer acquisition tool. Paid advertising is costly compared to using content marketing to get new customers.

Verblio Strategy

 On Verblio, customers get a variety of submissions and only choose the one they like. So a customer has a wide variety of choices and only purchases content that fits their organization. Once the system learns what you like, it will match you to a suitable writer, which is faster. Since writers don't get paid unless a customer purchases their work, writers are motivated to choose a piece they know and will love writing. 

The system has been working in that way since its creation. Customers sometimes love the writers they have worked with and don't want to return to the open marketplace. It's for this reason that Verblio has a preferred writers option. There is also a writers pool for larger enterprise customers. The writer's pool is excellent for clients who need high-volume content with tight deadlines. 

Statistics show that organizations that publish 4 blog posts per week generate 3.5x more traffic. Therefore, customers are looking for consistent content that is still of high quality. Clients can use the preferred writers or still get discovered by new writers. However, Verblio is looking for ways to ensure writers get prompt feedback on their content. The Verblio system works because it allows both writers and customers to go after what they love doing.

In Verblio, the product and engineering teams have a lot of input into product marketing and product strategy. Not many things were available when Verblio was first developed. However, the content marketplace still seeks ways to integrate with other technologies. Verblio has a lot of control over the document being written.

The platform ensures high-security standards and that customers retain the rights to the content they pay for. So you won't stumble upon your content on another website. Verblio has a white-label platform for agencies that offers tracking, functionality, and robust editing. It also integrates with Google Docs. Some customers only want to work with Google Docs, where they want their content delivered. Verblio is moving towards actual integration with Google Docs. Google has a lot of capabilities, including commenting and version control as a word processing tool. Therefore, Verblio is moving towards google docs as a standard that the customers will have. Even though there may be gaps, Verblio seeks to determine the best way to close them by preserving the platform's integrity.

Conclusion

Content marketing is a great tool to grow your business and reach your target audience. The platform ensures an excellent refresh strategy without affecting your new content creation. So, Verblio not only creates new content but also ensures that your content is always up to date. It is looking for things around E-A-T and how it will impact the perception of quality. Google E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. It determines whether your content is valuable to your audience or if it will rank well. Since customers' expectations are constantly changing, one sure thing is that customers need to produce content regularly to rank on search engines and establish credibility.

Verblio is looking for ways to do things differently and make customers understand what they need to invest in their content that will work for them. Numerous content marketing blogs use AI for content creation, but AI can be used in a niche without much competition. However, that can only happen when there is only one admin. One of the reasons to choose Verblio for your content marketing platform is that you'll save time and have high-quality content written.

You don't have to spend thousands of dollars on content marketing services. It is easy to start with — you will see your business grow with Verblio as your content marketing partner. You can meet your content needs without maintaining a big payroll.

How do you create content that your prspective buyers and Google will find useful and rank accordingly in SERPs? As the expert in your field, one way is to draft creative content marketing that entertains, engages and educates your readers.

But what if you're too busy building your company, and you don;t have the budget to fire a digital content marketing agency?

The second-best option is to find other experts in your field, who are not competitors, to write the content for you. Freelance writers offer the expertise and skill to create editorial content that engages readers to stay on your website.

Challenge of finding freelance writers

The idea of finding people with proven writing ability with expertise in your business sounds appealing. The question looms: How do you find these people? Of course, you always can find people who write, bring them aboard your staff, and teach them the expertise. But that takes time and resources as you add staff with salaries and benefits.

Freelance writers serve as another option as they often specialize by field or region, and you only pay for what they produce. Many also carry the benefit of having established a following among those interested in your business.

You also must convince freelance writers that you are looking for reputable editorial content, not the SEO-generating content marketing that many companies offer. Freelance writers work off their reputations. They won't want to damage that by producing sales content.

How do you find these writers? Do you scour trade publications? Search reputable media sites? Throw an ad out on a job board such as Upwork? All are possibilities, but likely to be hit and miss. And who can afford to miss?

Novel approach of ContentGrow

Recently, I had the good fortune to discover a startup that connects companies with freelance writers all over the globe. I invited ContentGrow CEO Enricko Lukman to share some insights on a podcast.

ContentGrow features some 2,500 freelance journalists and writers, many based in East Asia and the United States, and has about 100 clients. Enricko and co-founder Leighton Cosseboom founded ContentGrow in 2015 after recognizing the difficulty companies had in connecting with qualified freelancers.

As freelance writers themselves, Enricko and Leighton initially worked within their network of freelance writers to create connections with their clients. As the company began to scale, they found the company's manual operation needed to automate to offer clients the best matches. They also find the need to continually grow their writer database as new clients demand new expertise. As an example, Enricko noted they recently had to search for freelance journalists working in South Africa.

Enricko was able to confirm my suspicion that companies that hired writers without expertise in their field ended up getting regurgitated material that only echoed the top writers in the field, rather than generating new content that adds to the conversation in the field. This type of content does not fool Google, nor does it engage interested customers.

It's no longer enough to publish good content. If you want to rank in slots 1 through 4 in a competitive market, you have to publish outstanding content to execute an effective growth marketing strategy.

Power of owned media marketing

If Enricko and I have piqued your interest in learning how owned media can generate more leads and sales for your business, consider enrolling in my Owned Media Pivot Program. In 12 weeks, we'll analyze and optimize your website, create content to establish your place as a thought leader, and speed the buyer's journey from interest to purchase.

If you're in the content marketing agency business and you've never heard of the Writer Access content marketing marketplace, this episode will help you generate more revenue for yourself and your clients.

This is an exclusive interview with Writer Access CEO Byron White, who built an online marketplace that connects content marketers with freelance writers. It has star ratings, recommendations, writer portfolios and an escrow service for holding and releasing funds. Plus, they vet all their writers.

In this episode, we talk about overcoming the two biggest challengers DTC and B2B content marketing agencies face. If you're a content marketing specialist, this conversation will be familiar and useful. If you're looking for a content marketing agency near me, this will make you a smarter buyer of content marketing services.

Content Marketing Agency Challenges

The Primary Challenge of Content Marketing: The initial hurdle in content marketing often revolves around the quest for proficient writers who can facilitate the expansion of a top-tier content marketing strategy. This strategy aims not just to compete but to dominate rivals by churning out substantial volumes of original content that embodies the essence of thought leadership.Entity & LSI Keywords: Content marketing, elite-level, content operation, thought leadership, original content, outranking competitors.

The Significance of Subject Matter Expertise in Content Creation: My second most prominent challenge in the realm of content marketing is sourcing writers who possess, or are willing to cultivate, the subject matter expertise necessary to craft informed, valuable content. This content serves the purpose of advancing the existing repository of online knowledge rather than merely reiterating common knowledge.Entity & LSI Keywords: Subject matter expertise, content creation, valuable content, online knowledge, thought leadership.

Retaining Visitors on Web Pages: Attracting visitors to a web page is a complex endeavor. However, once they land on our platform, we face the daunting task of retaining their attention within mere seconds. In scenarios where users, especially those employing browsers like Chrome, exit our webpage within the initial 10 seconds, it sends a signal to Google that our content did not fulfill their search intent.Entity & LSI Keywords: Web page, visitor retention, Chrome browser, Google search results, search intent, user engagement.

The Crucial Link Between Ranking and Search Intent: Mere ranking on search engine results is insufficient. The pivotal factor is our ability to align with and cater to the search intent of users. If we fail in this endeavor, maintaining our ranking becomes increasingly challenging as Google continuously assesses the relevance and satisfaction of user queries.Entity & LSI Keywords: Ranking, search intent, user queries, relevance, satisfaction, search results.

There’s nothing worse than going to a webpage and finding a bunch of useless B2B keyword stuffed content that’s been cribbed together from top ranking pages. So we can’t use articles about Stuff We All Know (S.W.A.K.). We’re looking to bring readers a unique point of view, not more of the same. Bring readers a unique point of view. It’s okay to be funny. But don’t be cliche. Be original, be informed and be gone.

In this podcast, you'll hear how content marketing consultants and agencies are scaling their written deliverables with Writer Access. And I also shared a case study that resulted in 225 percent revenue growth through an innovative ecommerce marketing program I led for a lifestyle brand.

This a briefing for PR agencies looking to score coverage in Business Insider with Deputy Editor Jake Swearingen, who has also written for Consumer Reports, New York Magazine, The Atlantic, Wired, Slate and LA Weekly. 

In this exclusive interview we talk about Business Insider's meteoric rise to name brand status, public relations opportunities for media coverage and challenges covering small business news.

Tips for Getting Media Coverage at Business Insider

If you want to pitch a story to Business Insider likely to get considered, it's important to understand what their success metrics look like.

Measuring Success at Business Insider: Business Insider assesses the success of a story by considering engagement metrics, reader feedback, social media shares, and the resonance it creates within their target audience. They analyze how well the story aligns with their editorial goals and if it sparks meaningful conversations among readers.

Success Criteria for Business Insider Articles: A successful article in Business Insider is characterized by the number of page views. It's a quantitative measure reflecting the article's reach and impact within their vast readership.

Daily Publication Rate at Business Insider: Business Insider maintains a dynamic content strategy. They publishing a lot of stories every day. This high publication rate keeps their readers abreast of the latest news.

Business Insider's Interest in Short Stories: Business Insider shows interest in covering shorter, concise stories that are focused on trending topics, niche subjects, or emerging developments. These stories offer quick and relevant information to their readers. Plus, they're easier stories to cover.

Successful Pitching to Business Insider by PR Agencies: When PR agencies successfully pitch to Business Insider, they provide compelling, newsworthy angles and well-researched content. Establishing a strong rapport with the editorial team is also key to getting considered quicker.

Guest Columns on Business Insider: Business Insider does occasionally run guest columns. To be considered, potential contributors should submit well-crafted, insightful pieces that align with the publication's editorial guidelines and audience interests.

Content Monetization Strategy at Business Insider: Business Insider decides whether an article should be offered as free or premium content based on its perceived value, depth, and exclusivity. Premium content often includes in-depth analysis or exclusive insights.

Lessons from the Pandemic for Small Businesses: The pandemic highlighted the importance of resilience, adaptability, and digital transformation for small businesses. Learning from this experience, small businesses should focus on agility and leveraging technology to thrive in a landscape increasingly dominated by big tech brands.

If you're a small business trying to get Business Insider's attention, or a public relations consultant looking for insights on how to pitch Business Insider, this exclusive interview with Jake Swearingen, which is being release on the Earned Media Podcast, is well worth a listen.

New York Times technology correspondent Cade Metz talks about his new book Genius Makers: The Mavericks Who Brought AI to Google, Facebook, and the World, a nonfiction narrative about the tiny clan of artificial intelligence (AI) visionaries rapidly changing our world.

Cade is a technology correspondent covering artificial intelligence, driverless cars, robotics, virtual reality, and other emerging tech. Before that, he was a writer at Wired magazine. He also defines emerging AI, discusses its capabilities, the ethical challenges and dangers it poses, the risk of replacement.

Public relations agencies play a pivotal role in securing research and development funding for burgeoning AI startups through meticulously crafted grant proposals. Leveraging their expertise in strategic communication and relationship building, these agencies effectively convey the innovative potential of AI ventures to prospective investors and grant providers.

By highlighting key entities such as the startup's visionary leadership, groundbreaking technologies, and societal benefits, PR agencies optimize their grant proposals with LSI keywords that resonate with funders' priorities. This collaborative effort fosters financial support, fostering AI innovation and propelling startups toward transformative breakthroughs.

https://youtu.be/8eGZrm7rPk4

AI Interview Highlights From the Cade Metz Interview:

02:52 - What might surprise readers about Genius Makers is the remarkable journey through the intricate world of AI, where pioneering minds and groundbreaking discoveries are unveiled, shedding light on the relentless pursuit of artificial intelligence's potential.

03:47 - Cade Metz embarked on the creation of "Genius Makers" at this juncture in response to the ever-accelerating advancements in AI, recognizing the critical need to capture the unfolding narrative of innovation, ethics, and the profound societal implications.

04:52 - Artificial intelligence, often abbreviated as AI, is a multifaceted field encompassing the development of intelligent machines and computer systems capable of performing tasks that typically require human intelligence, including problem-solving, learning, and decision-making.

09:16 - In the realm of AI, the distinction between neural networks and machine learning is a pivotal one. Neural networks serve as the architecture underpinning machine learning, acting as the interconnected nodes that enable systems to process data, recognize patterns, and enhance their capabilities through training.

10:12 - Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) represents the apex of AI development, signifying machines with the capacity to understand, learn, and apply knowledge across diverse domains, essentially mirroring human cognitive abilities.

13:06 - The discourse surrounding artificial general intelligence is often likened to a religious debate due to the fervent beliefs and ideologies it evokes, raising questions about the future of humanity and the potential consequences of creating sentient machines.

15:25 - Moore's Law, a foundational principle in the realm of AGI, plays a pivotal role in shaping the trajectory of AI development, with its exponential growth in computational power exerting a profound impact on the journey toward AGI.

17:47 - The pervasive concern of AI displacing knowledge workers prompts contemplation about the evolving landscape of employment, as AI's capabilities continue to advance.

21:30 - Amid the AI revolution, certain job roles are deemed more resilient to automation, providing insights into the professions that may remain less susceptible to AI-driven disruption.

23:39 - The public's perception of AI fluctuates between genuine concern and exaggerated fear, sparking debates about the actual risks and rewards associated with artificial intelligence.

26:07 - Deep within the confines of Google's covert Project Maven, intricate discussions on the integration of AI into defense strategies unfold, casting light on the intersection of technology and national security.

27:45 - Delving into the realm of AI ethics, the concept of "killer robots" raises pertinent questions about the moral and ethical considerations surrounding autonomous weaponry.

29:54 - Balancing the need for AI regulation with the imperative to foster innovation is a complex challenge, necessitating careful navigation to harness AI's potential while safeguarding against misuse.

32:00 - The realm of top-of-the-funnel data collection in AI stands as a pivotal domain warranting scrutiny, prompting discussions on the necessity of regulation to protect privacy and data security.

34:01 - Organizations strategically positioned to harness the advantages of AI stand to reap substantial benefits, underscoring the pivotal role of AI in shaping the future of various industries.

34:51 - The ongoing AI arms race between the United States and China amplifies discussions on technological prowess, global competitiveness, and the implications for the broader AI landscape.

40:10 - AI's potential in combating the challenge of fake news generates discussions on its role in information verification and dissemination, offering solutions to a pressing societal issue.

43:36 - Cade Metz offers insights into the influential voices and media outlets that have informed his perspective and earned his admiration, shaping his approach to AI reporting.

44:43 - The impact of machine-learned social media engagement on public relations strategies within organizations engaged in AI development is explored, highlighting the intersection of technology and communication.

48:22 - Elon Musk's apprehensions regarding AGI's potential consequences, as articulated in the book, prompt reflection on the responsibilities and ethical considerations surrounding AI.

50:03 - The journey of crafting "Genius Makers" by Cade Metz unfolds, providing a glimpse into the process of documenting the captivating narrative of AI's evolution, challenges, and triumphs.

The world of AI and its multifaceted facets, as explored in "Genius Makers" by Cade Metz, encapsulates a realm of innovation, ethics, and transformation. From the intricate interplay of neural networks and machine learning to the profound implications of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), this narrative delves deep into the heart of AI's evolution.

Moore's Law and the AI arms race further underscore the urgency of understanding AI's trajectory. Amidst concerns and optimism, the public's perception of AI continues to evolve, while regulatory considerations and the quest for ethical AI development challenge our technological frontiers.

Cade Metz's journey in crafting this narrative sheds light on the captivating world of AI, inviting readers to embark on a quest to comprehend the AI landscape's intricate tapestry.

Email marketing best practices have changed more in the last 6 months than in the last 6 years.

Pre-pandemic best practices aren’t best practices anymore.

With everyone either out of work or working from home and kids distance learning, we spend more time checking email.

The result is an email marketing renaissance, says Direct Marketing Association Board Member and Worldata CEO Jay Schwedelson.

I attended Jay's breakout at INBOUND and it was one of the most talked about sessions. He's an email marketing master.

We spoke at length about how the coronavirus has changed B2C and B2B email marketing best practices. He’s been in email marketing for 20 years and has a wealth of practical knowledge.

And let’s face it. Even before the pandemic, when you consider all the media channels content agencies used for digital marketing-- organic search, paid search, social media, referral links and email marketing -- email remains the least understood owned media channel.

The irony is it’s also one of the most effective conversion channels in the B2C and B2B customer journey, so it’s worth taking the time to get it right.

That under-utilization stems from email marketing being more labor-intensive than social media marketing. It takes longer, so it’s under-utilized, particularly by small and medium-sized B2B marketing agencies, despite small business owners being among the most accessible.

In fact, since small business owners are forced to wear so many hats, they are among the most avid downloaders of lead magnet content like white papers, checklists, and cheat sheets.

I connected with Jay for a special episode of the Earned Media Podcast to drill down on specifically how the pandemic is changing email marketing best practices.

Our conversation was so riveting I was inspired to share the highlights of this blog post.

If you want to listen to it, use the player at the top of this post to play the audio recording. Or you can watch the video clips embedded in this post and subscribe to the podcast for more digital marketing tips from newsmakers, journalists, and subject matter experts.

So now, without further ado, I am pleased to present my Email Marketing Guide, with answers inspired by my interview with Jay.

How has the pandemic impacted email marketing best practices?

https://youtu.be/ximA9oaIq_s

Inbox activity is up about 20% since January, which means people are spending more time in their inbox. 

The other reason email activity is up is that social networks have become more confrontational because of the election. So social media is more contentious, and not really the most significant opportunity for marketing at this moment. 

Your inbox is a safer place where people don't go to argue. It’s the place we go to look for offers, opportunities, and information. Which is why email is flourishing.

What is the top email performance driver these days?

https://youtu.be/N46Fs1FfjQY

What's working right now, more than anything is creating a sense of urgency, especially in that subject line. 

Create offers that expire. If you offer free shipping, it should end in 24 or 48 hours. 

Whatever your offer is, B2C or B2B, there needs to be offer expiration date

This is the number one email marketing performance driver right now.

How to write effective email subject lines

https://youtu.be/LxP0ddmNY84

The subject line is the outer envelope, just like a direct mail piece. If the outer envelope of a direct mail piece isn't compelling, nobody opens it. 

Jay’s company Worldata built a free tool for testing email subject lines called SubjectLine.com.

SubjectLine.com, which has been used to check over 8 million email marketing campaign, scores the potential of subject lines based on dozens of parameters and variables.

It also dispels the many myths about triggering spam filters with the word “free,” all caps, exclamation points and emojis, all of which are fair game and can improve open and click rates.

How do you write good subject lines for newsletters?

https://youtu.be/p3JAfWjIexg

If you sending out newsletters, steer away from the wallpaper effect, which is a standardized subject line format like the name of the newsletter and the date, or the word newsletter in brackets in front of every subject line.

Mix it up. Don’t use the exact same subject line with new a date. It’s common practice and it doesn't work.

Get away from the static subject line and say what your content is about. Take the time to put that front and center in your subject line. 

Beyond that, what’s really working best over the last 60 days are suspense-related subject lines. 

Whether that’s taking your content and turning it into a question, like “Who are going to be the leaders in your industry?” or you can even use just one word to get the recipient guessing.

But make sure that word relates to the content. Don’t trick them, or they’ll opne it, see that you wasted their time and unsubscribe.

So avoid any sort of standardized subject lines and work to tease your content with suspense and you’ll see a massive boost in your open rates.

How has the pandemic affected email marketing open rates?

https://youtu.be/urMPN3bNQFc

Newsletter open rates are up across the board by more than 15%. Offer email open rates are up even higher.

But it’s not just because of the pandemic. Historically, web traffic goes up 15 to 20% in a presidential election year.

So you have the pandemic traffic and the election traffic, which is sending open rates higher. 

But to stand out, digital marketers are sending more, not less email right now. 

What are the best ways to boost your open rates right now?

https://youtu.be/7p4b_ngvRJM

Nobody wants to hear stuff we all know. 

They want to know what the impact of COVID is on their life or their industry. They want to know what the outlook is for 2021.

Right now, there’s a massive appetite for anything related to 2021.  People want to people want to move on. 

We're all sick and tired of the pandemic. Subject lines about what 2021 is going to be like or trends prediction for next year boost open rates, because we're all ready to move.

Is email marketing effectiveness in decline?

https://youtu.be/Hp1pgYrUhmQ

Experts have been predicting the death of email since it was invented.

They predicted Twitter’s would replace email because it’s permission-based. Or that Slack is would replace email because it’s easier and takes less time.

There’s always some new communication channel that’s going to replace email. But email hasn’t gone away and is unlikely too anytime soon.

And here’s why.

When you forget your Slack password, they send it you via email .

Email is a legacy channel that’s become the digital marketer’s forgotten stepchild. But at the end of the day, email marketing brings a level of predictability that’s tough to achieve through digital PR, search engine optimization, and social media marketing. 

If you add more people to your list, you can forecast the impact of that growth on sales with a high degree of certainty, making it one of the most effective owned media channels.

So if you want to know how to generate leads, email marketing remains an arrow in the quiver.

How do you email market effectively in a recession?

https://youtu.be/PoMuHBhkNH4

In a hard economy, build relationships by offering freebies.  

The best tip for B2B marketing agencies right now is that anything free does really well in a recession. Free content, free webinars, free checklists, free offers, free anything does extremely well on the consumer side. 

The freemium is a very effective SaaS marketing strategy as well, so consider using a scaled down version of your product to drive deal flow.

Leverage the word free and in everything you possibly can.

Will voter mail-in fraud rumors weaken confidence in direct mail marketing?

https://youtu.be/hExDTnBkVKY

The United States Postal Service will take an undeserved knock in credibility because they lack the PR horsepower to defend their reputation. 

Add to that, especially for B2Bs, most people work from home, so there’s no way to send them anything via mail to their office because we don't know where they are.

So expect the USPS and direct mail marketing as a whole to take a hit for the next six months, but it should resume after that.

What’s the best email marketing platform?

https://youtu.be/n2rbc1Byif4

You don't need the best email marketing platform. They're all good. Some of the leaders are Marketo, HubSpot, Eloqua, and MailChimp. 

But most marketers don't need all the bells and whistles to send out email campaigns, so don’t spend much money on features you won’t use. 

Look for an email marketing platform that supports email templates for a fair price, but that will not nickel and dime you if you send an extra 10,000 to 20,000 names. It shouldn’t cost you exponentially more. 

You also want a platform that maintains a good sender reputation, which is labor-intensive and tricky. MailChimp and Campaign Monitor both deliver high-volume sends dependably. 

The last thing you ever want to do is send email campaigns out yourself. You never want to spin up your server and try to be your own email deployment shop because delivery is complicated and tricky.

What are the biggest email marketing mistakes people make?

https://youtu.be/uN5TK9guxPg

The biggest email marketing mistake you can make is putting social sharing buttons in a promotional email.  Never link your logo to your homepage in a promotional email.

Never link to anything other than the conversation you’re attempting to drive.

What’s the best way to A/B an email marketing campaign?

https://youtu.be/C4jtjOy6wMU

Before testing,

In this episode of the B2B Lead Gen Podcast, search optimization expert Juliette van Rooyen talks about how to get internal linking right, how to deal with keyword cannibalization, the easiest way to crawl one’s own site, some pointers in hiring the best developers for your website, and more.

Juliette is the founder and head of SEO services at VR Squared, and has worked within client-side and agency environments in London and Cape Town for the past 15 years.

As part of her SEO consulting in extremely competitive industries, she creates global SEO strategies that involve local SEO strategies for over 50 regions and more than ten languages and also solves technical SEO issues that affect key page performance.

Contextual Linking

While Juliette didn’t initially plan to get into SEO consulting, she naturally gravitated toward that path. Originally a developer, she felt that trying something different would be a breath of fresh air. “Given that I was used to working with code, over time, I've kind of naturally transitioned towards the more technical side of SEO, where utilizing code and understanding how it all works is a massive asset,” she shares.

SEO for Site Architecture

https://youtu.be/9LCaHx1hOw4

Full Video Interview

On the topic of internal or contextual linking, Juliette mentions that it begins with your main navigation section. According to her, it can go both ways. Some businesses only link to their top-level pages, which doesn’t help people who want to navigate to more valuable content assets on the site. On the other hand, it’s also possible to overwhelm your audience with too many links. 

“One of the big things that help to ensure that you're getting it (SEO) right on an ongoing basis,” says Juliette, “is to crawl your sites.” The easiest way to do this is using a site crawler like Screaming Frog, which Juliette has used for over a decade. A deep crawl would be particularly useful for enterprise-level sites.

In terms of finding and hiring the right developer for SEO projects, Juliette had this piece of advice: “Honestly, the best way to find someone good is to reach out to other people who are your connections in the industry; everybody knows someone else who's doing what they do.” 

She added that word-of-mouth recommendations have been efficient when looking for a developer. And while the really high-end developers may be out of reach for small businesses with limited budgets, plenty of excellent developers work specifically with WordPress. ”Having professionals to do what they do best frees you up to do what you do best — and to actually sell your products.”

SEO to Minimize Keyword Cannibalization

https://youtu.be/58XFsFF85Z4

Keyword Cannibalization and Web Page Quality

Juliette also talks about how to deal with keyword cannibalization on your website. Keyword cannibalization is what happens when there are multiple pages on your website trying to rank for the same keyword.

With resources such as SEO Tools for Excel, Juliette and her team can discover and manage keyword cannibalization with ease. “It doesn't matter how big or small your site is; there are often ways for you to consolidate that you've not considered,” she says. “Keyword cannibalization is a great signpost to say, ‘Guys, you've got a lot here.”

Naturally, improving webpage quality is another significant concern for SEO consultants. Juliette follows a simple process for dealing with subpar-quality websites with keyword-rich blog posts of little to no substance.

She starts by cataloging the existing blog posts and keywords and then pulling them together thematically. In doing this, she doesn’t go through every single blog (nor does she need to), instead pulling out core elements to assess and consolidate where each post belongs. “I would rather have 20 great pieces that are factual, rich, and decent-size than 500 pieces of fluff.”

Despite the long-perpetuated notion that “Content is king,” Juliette strongly advises against doing digital marketing just for the content's sake. Rather, content creators must be mindful of how each piece of content helps them get closer to whatever goals they set for their sites and small businesses. Some important questions to ask: “How does this particular piece of content lead someone who lands on the site towards buying a piece of our products? What is the aim of the piece, and how does it fit into our plan?”

SEO Internal Site Linking Strategy

https://youtu.be/8BrRiDDGtsc

As for following versus not following, Juliette mentioned that Google updated its algorithm specifically to handle link-building and prevent people from paying for links. “I think that for a lot of people, especially large sites with a lot of user-generated content and the ability for people to influence what links might be on there, nofollow tends to be utilized quite widely.”

To hear more of Juliette’s insights, including the best way to track progress in attracting inbound links to your blog, know if your keyword strategy is correct and working, and the proper implementation of schema, make sure to listen to the full episode.

To support this podcast, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts here.

Dean Takahashi, lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat, covers games, hardware, R&D, and other tech. I’ve known him for over a decade, have represented PR clients that he's written about, and have contributed guest posts under my byline over the years, although that had nothing to do with him. 

Dean came to Silicon Valley in 1994, the year that Netscape went public. He says two of the most exciting game tech developments he’s seen over his career were the birth of modern 3D graphics, with titles such as Tomb Raider, and the rise of graphics cards from Nvidia, which Dean remembers being announced as a “Windows accelerator” and now they have more than  10,000 employees.

Influencers and Editorial Decision Making

https://youtu.be/xnqyNz4oQvA

On the journalism side, of the things that have changed from when Dean was a reporter filing stories at the San Jose Mercury News is headcount. He was part of a 300+ person journalism team at the SJ Merc. He still remembers when editor Jerry Ceppos asked everyone to stop chasing every little story and focus more on context and perspective. 

“If you’re covering sales of paint during the middle of the Italian Renaissance, you’re missing the cultural change and you miss the big picture,” says Dean, inspired by Jerry’s new mandate. The SJ Merc was located at the eye of the tech storm and this new focus lifted the caliber of the newspaper’s editortial coverage. They soon became one of the top daily technology business and financial news media outlets. 

I met Dean working on a tech news embargo story for a client where he was among a handful of trustworthy, authoritative sources, such as John Markoff at the New York Times and Nick Wingfield at the Wall Street Journal (now an editor at The Information), to give you a sense of the level of authority the Dean had at the SJ Merc.

Of course, the Internet has dramatically changed the journalism landscape. There are fewer reporters to pitch, but tons of influencers are out there with their own sites. They play to be a different set of rules, but they command significant audiences.

Influencer Marketing for Video Games

https://youtu.be/BjOdG_vT8Do

Nowadays, everybody is your competition. “It’s hard to get out of that daily news cycle, and say ‘Hey, what am I doing different, what’s my unique content?” says Dean. But at VentureBeat, that’s what they strive to do, with an acute focus on AI and gaming industry stories.

“I like to get a little deeper into it than general interest reporters,” which he does through a mix product demos, playing the games and talking to their creators. “You get to know not only the product, but also the people,” says Dean who has been writing about industry leaders for decades and knows many of them quite well.

While many reporters bemoan having to compete against influencers who make their own rules with respect to editorial coverage. But Dean actually admires these online influencers who he considers part of the “leisure economy,” which he defines as being paid for playing games. “If I decide to focus my time and attention on a game, the people who made it extract some value out of that, and they should reward me,” says Dean. 

Here are some excerpts from the podcast.

Influencer Marketing in Gaming Industry

“Some video influencers don’t have relationships with companies, and they go on rants about games or technologies and the companies that make them, and they don’t even ask the company to clarify anything, or ask for information. They don’t do the kind of objective information other people would have to do. And yet the companies see that they have a massive audience, so they will think about working with them. I can go to a game preview with a company like Electronic Arts, with influencers and journalists who respect embargos. But other people not in contact with EA may get leaks from them, because the company knows info eventually gets leaked anyway. So when it’s finally announced, there’s a huge audience already waiting for it,” says Dean Takahashi.

Integrating online influencers into the product release program has become standard operating procedure.

How to Get Published in VentureBeat

“It’s interesting to get a pitch when you see something in the economy through that company,” citing the case of Zappos founder Tony Hsieh, who turned Las Vegas into a startup hub. He also sees VentureBeat as an ally for underrepresented people, like a female game developer he met at a conference whose mother was also a game developer. “What are the odds of that?”, he says. “It makes you the unicorn of unicorns,” says Dean Takahashi.

Remember the old adage I learned when I worked at a public relations agency. If a dog bites a man, that’s not news. But if a man bites a dog, that’s news.

Marketing the Metaverse

Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, wants the Metaverse to happen. Image Credit: Michael O'Donnell/VentureBeat

“We have an event coming on January 27 that’s all about the Metaverse. You know, the notion of virtual worlds that are all interconnected. An online place where people basically live. It came from the Neal Stevenson novel from the 1990s called Snow Crash. And it was science fiction, a nerdy idea, and it was a hobby for a lot of people in Silicon Valley. And I remember a quote from Will Wright, the SimCity creator. It went like, “a copy of Snow Crash was the business plan for every startup in Silicon Valley. And a lot of that was true.

But now it’s no longer a hobby, and it’s no longer science-fiction, and it’s real. And we have enough people to speak about it at a four-day conference. Because these people have made it their day-job to make the Metaverse happen. It’s part of their business plan, their strategic plan.

They’re venture capitalists who realize they can accelerate it now because of the pandemic. And that if we can go meet people in the Metaverse, it’s better than the Zoomverse we’re living in,” says Dean, who’s booking speakers for the event so hit him up you’ve got someone good. Subscribe to The Earned Media Podcast for about the people, processes and tools used to secure media coverage, hosted by boutique public relations agency leader Eric Schwartzman.

Featured image by Andy Holmes on Unsplash

Social Networks rose to dominance on the promise of dethroning the mainstream media. No longer would broadcasters and print publishers have a chokehold on what stories got told.

Who needs journalism or public relations to protect your reputation if you can bypass the gatekeepers and tell your story yourself?

Direct-to-audience storytelling and personal branding were the harbingers of direct-to-consumer e-commerce. Together, they’re called content marketing agencies, and for direct-to-consumer e-commerce companies, they are a huge revenue opportunity.

But the unintended consequences of unfiltered, unfact-checked information as well as entertainment from social media, we are now learning, are depression, isolation, addiction, eating disorders, and in the case of conspiracy theorists, vaccine resistance and election fraud conspiracies.

What so many of us thought would be the democratization of information has become an infodemic. But it’s all reversible. Social networks move sensational posts to the top of the screen because they are financially rewarded and shielded from any legal liability. They profit from the spread of false news and downright crazy content because unlike broadcast media programmers, you can’t sue social media programmers for what they amplify. You can only sue the author of the post.

That’s because of a law called the Communications Decency Act, which in Section 230 gives social networks broad immunity from any legal liability stemming from content created by others. They’re even allowed to edit other people’s posts – whether for accuracy or civility – so long as their edits don't change the meaning.

Misinformation on Social Media

When Section 230 was enacted, engagement-based amplification hadn’t been invented. The thinking was that if telephone companies weren’t liable for what people said on phone calls, and Xerox wasn’t responsible for what people made copies of, social networks shouldn’t be able to be sued out of existence for what people shared on their platforms.

At the time, social media feeds were displayed in reverse chronological order. The newest message appeared at the top of the stack, and people went back to see the latest post. Social networks played no editorial role in what posts were displayed at the top of the screen. That was determined only by the passage of time.

But in 2006, Facebook introduced their Edge Rank algorithm, displaying by default those posts that got the most likes, comments and shares at the top of the screen instead of the most current ones. Reach became a factor of engagement. 

As William Randolph Hearst – the original fake news purveyor – once said, “if it bleeds, it leads” and Facebook’s algorithm automated that concept by seeking out and putting the most emotionally engaging content at the top of what Mark Zuckerberg’s company opportunistically dubbed the “newsfeed.”

Whistleblower Frances Haugen made it easy to understand that engagement-based amplification is intentional and not arbitrary, because Facebook decides who sees what. And if they make decisions about who sees what, they’re no longer an innocent bystander. 

Facebook – and all the other digital media services that use engagement-based amplification – is much more like a news media outlet than a telephone company. For that reason, holding them harmless for what people say on their platforms doesn’t make sense. In fact, it gives them an unfair advantage over mainstream media, which are legally accountable for the information they amplify. 

Facebook invented engagement-based ranking, but they aren’t the only social network using it to increase user session time. Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, Apple, Amazon and nearly every other popular digital media platform uses engagement to decide what posts, products and apps appear top screen. 

How to Stop the Spread of Fake News

Outlawing algorithms won’t solve the problem. As long as the social media misinformation is profitable and companies can get rich by amplifying lies, they have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders to do so. Removing the legal liability protections the social networks enjoy is a practical way to arrest the spread of misinformation that threatens democracy. The burden of proof should also be shifted to the accused – as is the case in UK libel cases – so defendants with deep pockets can’t put legal challenges out of reach for individuals.

Reforming Section 230 and recognizing the social networks as active participants in the spread of misinformation is the answer to putting truth before lies, intellect before influence, and talent before popularity. Now’s the time to make the social media circus into the sideshow it should be.

In this episode, Peter Kafka senior correspondent at Recode – the business and technology network from Vox Media – talks about his career as a journalist, what stories he likes to cover, podcasting, the dangers of just following trending news stories in this exclusive interview about reporting beyond the bubble filter.

Peter Kafka is also the host of Recode Media, the weekly podcast dedicated to the future of media and technology, as well as the producer of the Code Media Conference, a live event that hosts hard-hitting interviews with the financial, media and tech industry leaders. 

Peter Kafka's Backstory

From an early age, Peter always wanted to be journalist. From writing for his school’s newspaper to working in the newspaper business in his hometown of Minneapolis, he describes his professional career arc as “relatively straightforward.” Early in his career, he worked with Walt Mossberg at allthingsd.

Trending Media Coverage at Recode

https://youtu.be/E8tCHTyh-To

Public Relations Pitching Tips

In terms of which stories he likes to cover most, Peter enjoys providing clarity to confusing topics and thick issues. He likes to cut through the BS. “I think that where I do best is when I'm able to explain things that are relatively complicated or maybe intentionally obtuse - and say, ‘Here's what's really going on,” he says. Keep that in mind if you're trying to figure out how to get press for your startup.

As a public relations agency leader who has lived through our transition from print to digital editorial media coverage, a lot of where we are today was predictable, he says. But the ride has been full of surprises nonetheless. Especially when it comes to the unforeseen consequences of progress.

“The internet is bringing us 500 channels of TV or more, and access to the world's information, and that all panned out,” he explained, “and what we didn't think about is who might use the internet to sow mistrust, and create disinformation and do terrible things to people.”

Unforeseen Consequences of Information Democratization

https://youtu.be/Jn_aSuNzrsI

A Day in the Life at Recode Media

When it comes to day-to-day operations at Recode, Peter wears a number of hats. He describes his approach as hands-on, while still working with a producer, an engineer, and other members of the team. Their staff is small (“It's probably about half a dozen of us reporting day to day”), and we're all working on different stories at a given time, sans any quota.

Because of the pandemic, the Recode team has had to pivot and take advantage of technology to record podcast interviews remotely. “Prior to the pandemic, I was always insistent that people come into the studio to do the podcast, to the point where I would, like, pass on guests because they either wouldn't come to the studio or we couldn't find a way to do something in person,” he said, citing the difficulty of conducting an interview via teleconference. “It'll be interesting when we start going back to the office: How much of those we're going to do remotely? And how much we'll do in person again?”

According to Peter, Recode’s general editorial approach used to be quite personality-driven, though the emphasis on that has decreased over time. And in working with Vox, Peter found that the work has become more about explaining things and concepts. “As we've been transferring over to Vox, there's been a different sort of conversation about technology that we're having. It's a sort of reaction to a lot of glowing press that tech got for years – but also just an acknowledgement that tech is complicated.”

Beyond the News Media Echo Chamber

When deciding what stories to cover, Peter asks some pretty straightforward questions: “Am I animated by the story? Do I think it's interesting? Do I think it's news?”

The team’s discussions about stories worth covering is equally simple: “Is there something in the news that we want to help explain to people? Is there something that we're working on that no one's heard of that we want that we want to spend time on? Do I do a short story versus a long story?”

With Peter’s background as a fact-checker for Forbes magazine comes a certain level of confidence in terms of making sure that what they’re publishing is factual. “People generally expect me to know what I'm talking about, and that if I said [I had] multiple sources, they assume that's the case.” There are also editors that serve as the final checkpoint to ensure the veracity of their stories.

https://youtu.be/mOx3HLtQ7kA

To listen to my full interview with Peter, use the player at the top of the post. And subscribe to the Earned Media Podcast for more on the latest developments in public relations and SEO.

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