Ten Must Skills You Should Look For In Your Virtual Marketing Officer
Nov 24, 2020
10 min read
In recent times, the world has made a paradigm shift to digital platforms, and it has notably impacted the way businesses market their products or services. The proliferation of smartphones, the rise of the internet, and the influx of online shopping have played a huge role in changing the way we eat, talk, buy, research, and gather information.
There are 5.112 billion unique mobile users and 3.484 billion unique social media users around the globe presently. With the advent of advanced tech, the only way for businesses to reach the top is through the course of these digital platforms and the charter of this course will be your marketing officer. However, developing an in-house team can strain your finances.
Now, in such a scenario, Virtual Marketing Officers (VMO) are your best bet. A VMO works beyond the fundamental duties and envisions strategies that get you a competitive edge without draining your resources. Various types of technical and analytical skills continue to proliferate for VMOs in today’s day and age. Use of AI, incorporation of Machine learning, leveraging big data, all these new skills are gaining importance in the world of digital marketing and for the VMOs as well.
With a VMO you get not only your Marketing Head but also a full-fledged team.Now, how do you make sure the VMO services offered by a firm are competent and scalable enough for you?
To make things easier, we have compiled a list of the top ten skills that you will need to look for -
Understanding of Paid Social Media
With paid social media ads-spend reaching $43 billion by the end of 2020, it becomes crucial for your VMO to have a good hold on different types of social media advertising strategies. An ideal VMO will be well versed in paid social media advertising on popular platforms like Facebook and Instagram, especially when there are more than 3 billion companies that advertise on Facebook.
A VMO should have an in-depth knowledge of both analytics and insights for all social media platforms and should be able to build a unique and engaging experience for your custom audience base, all the while, experimenting with his creative strategies. There is a myriad of cost-saving opportunities on social media platforms, and your VMO should be able to make the most out of them.
Technical Competency
No one can make it into the world of marketing without solid technical competency. A modern-day VMO is required to have a thorough knowledge of modern-day technologies as they are an essential part of today’s digital world. Any marketing team works along with professionals from various domains ranging from business intelligence and content creation to web development and data analysis. A VMO must understand the correlation of work between all these people to make the marketing efforts successful. You will be surprised to know that almost half of the modern-day marketing professions require technical skills along with field experience and the same should be expected from your VMO as well.
Data Analysis
If you keep tabs on the digital world, you might be familiar with the word big data, a hot topic of debate for marketers. However, it is not just big data that is being paraded down marketing alleys but also the usage of available data within an organisation. The efficiency of analysis of the said data can significantly increase the chances of success for your marketing campaign. An ideal VMO knows exactly how to leverage data and draw out strategic campaigns. Indeed, a VMO can never become a data scientist, but he is required to have a basic understanding of different types of data and how to utilise the insights and patterns drawn from it.
Knowledge of AI and Machine Learning
With the AI market growing to become a $190 billion industry by the end of 2025, there is no surprise that it has made its way to marketing as well. Go by Gartner’s Hype cycle for digital marketing and advertising and you will realise that all the expectations related to the incorporation of AI in digital marketing have reached new heights in the last year.
By taking advantage of modern-day technologies like machine learning, a VMO should be able to easily achieve marketing-specific goals like tracking real-time customer experience or keeping tabs on spending across various channels. In addition to this, AI can be used by the VMOs to streamline automated content tagging and personalisation on a real-time basis.
Source: Unsplash
Email Marketing
A VMO should be a remarkable email marketer as for every $1 you spend on email marketing, you get $42 in return, and this is one of the highest ROI generated from any digital marketing campaign. The VMO should have comprehensive knowledge of creating an enticing email marketing campaign, and they should be well versed in building a quality email list as well. The attention span of emails is concise, and that’s why the VMO will need to be good at making people succumb to opening the email and clicking on the CTA.
Video-Based Marketing
Videos are the new king of content. Videos on the digital platforms generate 12 times more share than any other type of content, and therefore, your VMO needs to be exceptionally good at social video marketing. A VMO will need to don scriptwriting and advanced video production as well. Your potential VMO should be well versed in creating videos that don’t only engage the audience but also create leads. In addition to this, a VMO also needs to have a basic understanding of how videos work on different types of social media platforms.
Mobile Marketing
With the introduction of the Mobile-First Index by Google, you must already be aware of the importance of strengthening your digital presence on mobile devices. Therefore, a VMO needs to master the art of mobile marketing to stay relevant in the industry. An impeccable VMO will have the know-how of strengthening your presence on mobile platforms and optimising the website so that users on different mobile devices can easily view it.
Knowledge of Drip Marketing Campaign
When it comes to lead generation, inbound marketing can do wonders. Numerous marketers can easily come up with a unique CPC campaign. But, what you need to look for is a marketer that can examine the incoming data and build a robust drip marketing campaign. Building a drip marketing campaign is all about personalisation and well-written communications. So, make sure that your VMO is not only good at creating the CPC campaign but is also able to use drip marketing in the best possible way.
Account-Based Marketing Approach
The world of marketing is being led by account-based marketers where the right message is sent to the right person at the right time, and this is why ABM is proving to be successful. A VMO needs to be thorough with his ABM approach and be able to channel the given resources to make the best out of it. With the use of ABM, VMOs can push the marketing campaign to not only a single person but to several decision-makers in the buying process.
Customer Data Security, Privacy, and Data Governance
The involvement of some of the biggest names in data breaches has made people lose trust in companies for protecting their information; This is the main reason why only 25 percent of the people believe that a company can handle its data with ethical responsibility.
If you don’t want to lose your precious data, go for a firm that has the right knowledge to act as the most vital guardian of the private information of its customers. In addition to this, a comprehensive understanding of cybersecurity hygiene and usage of critical customer data is also a crucial aspect to look for in your VMO.
An ideal VMO can act as a magic wand for your business and this is why you need to analyse potential VMOs on the parameters as mentioned above properly. The skills of VMOs have evolved a lot in the past couple of years and the need to move beyond the fundamental skills has risen. Saffron Edge offers the best VMO services with qualified marketing professionals backed by a team of exceptional content writers, market analysts, and much more. Connect now to know more.
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The Ultimate Guide to SaaS Account Management: Boosting Revenue and Customer Satisfaction
SaaS account management is critical to the success of software-as-a-service (SaaS) organizations, which differ from traditional techniques by stressing not just client relationship management but also long-term retention, revenue development, and consistent value delivery. This tutorial delves into the fundamentals of SaaS account management, including its advantages, day-to-day tasks, and best practices, all within an ABM framework. The focus is on increasing income and customer pleasure through strategic approaches such as SaaS email marketing. Navigating this comprehensive resource will enable SaaS workers to learn the art of account management, assuring long-term success in a dynamic and competitive marketplace. What is SaaS Account Management? SaaS account management is the strategic practice of cultivating and maintaining long-term client relationships in the software sector. The major purpose is to boost income by instilling confidence, increasing client retention, and boosting the usage of the SaaS platform. Key responsibilities include advertising new software, directing clients through trials, maintaining custom solutions, collecting use statistics, diagnosing problems, and providing customer assistance. 4 Benefits of SaaS Account Management: Reduce Customer Churn Reducing client turnover is critical in the highly competitive SaaS market. A strong account-based marketing approach helps in this quest by providing clients with specialized assistance, bespoke solutions, and ongoing advice. The objective is to increase customer pleasure and loyalty, reducing the danger of consumers switching to other platforms. Effective account management addresses current demands as well as predicts and meets evolving requirements through proactive involvement and specialized help. This strategy not only protects existing income streams but also helps to the long-term profitability and stability of SaaS enterprises in a volatile market landscape. Maximize Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) Account managers play a critical role in increasing customer lifetime value (CLV) by focusing on subscription renewals and discovering upsell possibilities. Account managers leverage their expertise in identifying high-value customers and implementing account-based marketing best practices to drive growth. Their proactive efforts increase cross-sells and upsells, resulting in increased recurring income. This strategic strategy results in a mutually advantageous scenario that benefits both the SaaS provider and the client. Account managers maintain current income streams while also unlocking the full potential of client relationships, leading to sustainable growth and profitability in the competitive SaaS market. Streamline Business Processes Account management plays a pivotal role in business efficiency by identifying high-value customers. This strategic insight allows companies to streamline processes and allocate resources more effectively. With a clear understanding of customer priorities, account managers can tailor their efforts to meet specific needs, ensuring client satisfaction and retention. This division of labor enables the sales team to concentrate on acquiring new customers, leveraging the expertise of account managers to nurture and enhance relationships with existing ones. In essence, this collaborative approach optimizes resource utilization and enhances overall organizational performance in the dynamic landscape of customer-centric businesses. Integrating B2B content syndication into account management strategies can further enhance customer engagement and retention. Get More Referrals Effective account management not only keeps customers happy but also converts them into zealous brand evangelists. Nurtured connections with delighted customers frequently result in lucrative recommendations, which attract new and more loyal customers, have a higher lifetime value, and spend more than non-referred peers. The ripple effect of favorable word-of-mouth advertising supported by account managers broadens a SaaS company's reach and influence, capitalizing on the credibility and trust established with current clients. Harnessing the power of referrals via effective account management becomes a powerful motivator for long-term success, cultivating a network of loyal customers and extending the customer base with high-value, engaged clients. The Day-to-Day Roles of a SaaS Account Manager: Providing a Point of Contact: Account managers play a pivotal role as the "face of the company," handling customer inquiries, troubleshooting issues, and harmonizing customer needs with organizational objectives. The daily interactions require effective communication and negotiation skills, establishing a reliable and responsive connection with customers. Account Planning and Project Management: Strategic account planning involves comprehensive mapping of crucial customer details, understanding decision-making processes, and setting transparent sales goals. Account managers collaborate seamlessly with project teams to craft tailored solutions, ensuring the successful execution of projects and meeting key customer expectations. Shaping Customer Workflows: Account managers concentrate on refining customer workflows, and creating a personalized experience. Valuable insights obtained from customer interactions contribute to product improvement, enhanced user experience, and informed decision-making in sales and marketing strategies. Reducing Friction and Building Confidence: Account managers aim to deliver a seamless end-to-end customer experience, actively seeking and implementing feedback. Through adept management of sales quotas, they build confidence, transforming satisfied customers into vocal brand advocates who contribute positively to the company's reputation. Managing Sales Quota: Achieving and surpassing sales objectives is a primary focus for account managers. This involves setting and attaining volume and revenue quotas, with performance-based bonuses adding an extra layer of motivation and recognition for their efforts in driving sales success. Preparing Sales Reports: Account managers are responsible for generating periodic reports, including routine sales reports and forecasts. These reports, coupled with quarterly business reviews, serve as valuable tools to showcase customer performance metrics, obtain stakeholder feedback, and contribute to data-driven decision-making within the organization. 6 Best Practices for SaaS Account Management: Understand Your Clients Inside Out: Creating detailed buyer personas is crucial for developing profound insights into your customers. Dive deep into their needs, budget constraints, communication preferences, and demographic information. This comprehensive understanding enables the effective tailoring of your value proposition to precisely meet their expectations and preferences, fostering stronger connections. Focus on Strategic Account Management: Prioritize key accounts that significantly impact revenue or offer avenues for new growth. Devote extra time and effort to cultivate enduring relationships with these accounts, ensuring a personalized approach that addresses their unique needs. Strategic account management becomes instrumental in fostering loyalty and maximizing the potential of high-value partnerships. Develop an Effective Onboarding Process: Craft a robust onboarding process that creates a positive first impression and guides users through your software's features. Personalize onboarding experiences based on customer data, ensuring swift value realization. A well-structured onboarding process not only enhances user satisfaction but also lays the foundation for long-term customer engagement and success. Be Authentic, Helpful, and Indispensable: Serve as a trusted advisor by blending authenticity, friendliness, and a helpful approach. Striking the right balance between professionalism and a personal touch establishes a robust customer-manager relationship. This authenticity builds trust and positions the account manager as an indispensable partner, increasing the likelihood of customer success and satisfaction. Track the Right Data for Actionable Insights: Leverage sales data analytics tools to monitor crucial key performance indicators (KPIs) like Customer Effort Score (CES), Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), and Net Promoter Score (NPS). Analyzing this data provides actionable insights into customer behavior, allowing for informed decision-making and continuous improvement to meet evolving customer expectations. Use the Right Tools: Implement powerful tools, with a specific focus on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. A robust CRM system serves as a centralized hub for contact and account data, facilitating efficient organization, analysis, and automation of tasks. This technology empowers account managers to streamline processes, enhance collaboration, and ultimately deliver a more seamless customer experience. Conclusion SaaS account management is a dynamic and important factor driving the growth of SaaS businesses. Its influence is felt via key actions including minimizing churn, increasing Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), optimizing procedures, and encouraging customer referrals. These activities are critical to increasing revenue growth and guaranteeing increased customer satisfaction. Effective account management, based on best practices, requires a thorough understanding of customers, which may be aided by developing rich buyer personas and using powerful analytical tools. Additionally, it is crucial to understand what is PPL, as they can be integrated into account management approaches to drive targeted leads and maximize conversion rates. The proper usage of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions enables account managers to properly traverse the ever-changing SaaS market. Embracing these tactics places account managers as major drivers of success in the competitive and dynamic world of Software as a Service, rather than simply custodians of relationships. Hire the best of the experts from Saffron Edge for your SaaS businesses and enable them to grow with an exponential ROI. ...
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How to Make Your Amazon Listing Stand Out?
Discover new marketing techniques to improve your Amazon Listing to increase traffic, sales, and profits! Source: freepik There is much discussion in the Amazon sales communities about the market being saturated, Amazon becoming overrun with sellers, and opportunities dwindling. Is it real? If you merely list a generic product on Amazon's sales engine, there is much competition for the same or related products. But you needn't stop there! Amazon is a worldwide brand; there's no getting around it. A marketing strategy that fully lets you capitalize on this online eCommerce behemoth is necessary to get things known and purchased — this applies to small businesses and large corporations. Consumers now go to Amazon as their first stop for nearly any kind of product information. 63% of online customers begin their purchase searches on Amazon.com. However, with so many products from numerous merchants with various shipping choices and discounts, it's simple for customers to overlook your brand. You must consider your market as a whole, not simply one product. You must always remember that when you sell things on Amazon, you aren't merely selling a product; you are also entering a market, and you want to dominate that market by selling products that fit the market's demands in distinctive and genuinely beneficial ways. It implies that you should focus on making your products distinctive rather than simply stocking your seller account with them to attract more customers and increase sales. Ensuring that your products are personalized in ways that matter to the consumer, the end user, can help your product become the best-selling and most well-liked product. This blog is loaded with helpful suggestions and ideas to help you differentiate your items and make them appealing even in a crowded market. Why is it Crucial to have a Well-optimized Product Listing on Amazon? Customers can find all the information they require regarding a specific product on an Amazon product listing or the product page. It gives descriptions of the products, photographs, videos, and feedback from customers who have bought them. Optimizing your Amazon listings to boost traffic and conversion is known as Amazon product listing optimization. This is one of the most important strategies to keep your product at the top. You must be successful in this area if you want to be successful in other areas. Check that everything is considered, including the product title, description, reviews, advertising strategy, and visibility through keywords and other techniques. Furthermore, Amazon sells approximately 353 million items each year, which might fuel fierce competition in the Amazon Marketplace. Therefore, even if you have a top-notch product to sell, you won't be able to generate sales if customers can't distinguish your goods from a sea of competitors. You may make sure clients find those products quickly by optimizing these listings! In addition to ensuring consistency in branding, messaging, reviews, and ratings, optimizing your Amazon product listing also improves exposure on Amazon's search engine results page. Top 7 Tips to Drive More Traffic to Your Amazon Product Listings Your sales can increase, and your bottom line can improve if you appear higher in Amazon search results. But how do we achieve a high ranking? A successful product listing results from various variables, including keyword optimization, appropriate photograph lighting, crafting an optimized title and description, and more. Let's delve deeper into other crucial elements to provide the tools you need to flourish on this platform. Conduct a Competitive Analysis Promotion of Amazon products begins with identifying your rivals. By looking at competitor pages, you may learn a lot about what customers want and don't want in most cases. Additionally, keeping a watch on connected products may enable you to detect market changes and advertising opportunities. Specifically: On the competitor's pages, look for customer testimonials and FAQs. Customers can often inspire you to product improvements or new ideas because they are very clear about what they relish. In addition, also check how frequently opponents update their photos, product details, or other content. Are they passing around images that depict the changing of the seasons? Do they offer more precise descriptions of the advantages of products and how to use them than you do? How often do they change their prices, and what effect do these changes have on their Best Sellers Rank? To better understand your competitor, you must comprehend all these questions: What complementary items do those brands excel at producing? Is there a way you can promote each other's products? Do reviews from satisfied buyers provide any light on the factors that influenced their buying decision or suggest how those factors could influence future searches for your product? Additionally, should those particular category keywords be the emphasis of your sponsored product advertisements? Lastly, act fast. If you discover a competitor is out of supply, it can be the perfect opportunity to lower prices and ramp up advertising. Try to determine the cause if you observe that the reviews of your opponents are expanding more quickly than your own. Look for fresh and original concepts, such as images or product details with a wider scope, and put them into practice before your competitors. Establish Accurate Pricing It can be challenging to choose the best price for your products because of the complexity of Amazon and the existence of other Amazon sellers in the open market. However, if you keep in mind a few details, you might be able to avoid any further significant challenges. Maintain a stable pricing structure. The conditions of your selling agreement include your duty to price match with Amazon. No other eCommerce sales channel may offer your item or overall prices at a lower rate. You must maintain the same low prices on Amazon as on all your other channels to avoid having your account suspended. Since Amazon is a marketplace, you may find yourself competing with other third-party sellers for the top position for your products on the results page. One of the numerous repricing techniques offered in Amazon's newest addition to Seller Central, the "Automate Pricing" option, may allow you to automate set prices for your products. Continually winning the buy box, or being alerted when you aren't, is essential to growing your business on Amazon. It's crucial to remember that professional sellers and vendors employ various pricing strategies. Advertising is a great way to attract attention and obtain compliments. You can offer and advertise a temporary value on your products by using promotional events like lightning deals, price reductions, best deals, coupons, and buy one get one discounts. Make the Most of Your Amazon Product Pages eCommerce users, particularly those on Amazon, make split-second decisions about whether to stay on a product detail page or return to the search results. How can you break through this first barrier and entice readers to read further and consider purchasing your product? You must initially assist them in their work. Titles are Significant: Make sure your product's title clearly states what it does and whether it fulfills customers' needs. It must list the names of its brands and outline the key benefits or intended uses. In addition, make sure it also gives all the facts in a way that is understandable and simple to read. A Bulleted List is an Elevator Pitch: Before asking users to scroll below the fold on desktop or to further mobile parts, ensure you have covered the most crucial information they need. Include important details such as whether a warranty is offered or customer support is available to assist in problem-solving. Because most readers will skim this section, avoid using bullets that span more than one or two lines. Images are Essential: The primary image must adequately convey the essence of the product before zooming or panning in. Additional photographs should show the object from several perspectives and, if appropriate, depict scenes from daily life. Additionally, it might be beneficial to include a photo of the container's backside, which has the ingredients and instructions. Product details are Important: It's important to remember that customers are reading; therefore, a lengthy paragraph with ten lines probably won't be sufficient. Use your brand's voice instead, reiterate the main selling points, and include any additional information to help clients understand why they should make a purchase immediately. Encourage Reviews Positive customer reviews are well known to be crucial to any online store's success. We have all probably made an Amazon purchase, and our choice was frequently influenced by the product with the highest user ratings. Additionally, because shoppers are more inclined to study Amazon first, reviews on Amazon can affect sales on other channels. What can you do to inspire more people to post reviews on Amazon? Make sure to email your customers and stay in touch with them. Automated solutions may aid you as an Amazon seller in achieving this. Even after making a sale, you can follow up with your consumers by emailing them. Emails sent from a seller's account to a buyer's inbox may not contain any advertising, including links to external websites or incentives for positive reviews. After purchase, you can email the buyer to confirm receipt and request feedback. There are many rules to follow, but we advise sending two emails: the first to confirm order receipt and shipment, and the second a few weeks after the customer receives their Amazon product. Encourage unhappy clients to contact you rather than leave you a bad online review by avoiding being confrontational or demanding in your correspondence. Automating the post-sale email sending process will make it much simpler for you to connect with your customers. Take Advantage of Promotions Promotions with lightning deals are a great method to move things rapidly and get more feedback. To collect more reviews and increase your relevancy so that people can locate your company, you should try to do this at the beginning of your product's lifecycle on Amazon. The objective isn't to constantly promote or offer steep discounts; nonetheless, if you can do so, it will aid in getting more customers to your establishment.Amazon store policies prohibit sending out freebies or discounts for favorable reviews. However, as part of the program's Early Review Program, items purchased on Amazon have the choice of being evaluated. Amazon periodically offers a small incentive (typically a $1–$3 Amazon Gift Card) to a few select reviewers as a thank you for their positive input. Although there may not be any guarantee of a positive review, this could be a great opportunity to introduce people to your recent offers. Promote Your Amazon Store via Social Media Many businesses either fail to consider this factor or use every available external route to send customers to their website. However, there is no denying the significance of directing visitors to your website from outside sources such as blogs, Facebook or Google AdWords ads, and influencers. The same techniques can aid in promoting your Amazon listings' exposure.When creating social media campaigns to advertise your Amazon products, start by concentrating on your most active channels. Your top priority should be your most popular channels. The most effective social media marketing channels are the ones you regularly use, so keep that in mind while choosing between social media networks for advertising purposes. Concentrating on the social media platforms where you already have the most fans and followers is advised to get the most out of your social media efforts. Make advantage of interesting and compelling content. To improve sales, create engaging social media advertisements and blog pieces that persuade people to visit your Amazon product page. You may enhance social media traffic to your Amazon listings by using tried-and-true techniques like short films, carousel advertisements, discount coupons, and contests or giveaways. Select the channels that will drive traffic to Amazon most effectively. Make contact with affiliate marketers and influential people. Partnering with powerful affiliate marketers will increase your exposure if you don't already have a sizable following. For instance, bloggers, vloggers, and other influencers are typically intrigued with driving traffic to Amazon since they can profit from any sales made by consumers who use their unique link. Start Driving More Traffic to Your Amazon Products! Despite the intimidating nature of the Amazon platform, the right marketing plan can help your brand achieve long-term sales success. There's a clear reason why Amazon dominates the online retail business. It is three times more popular than Google for online searches. Our marketing must have flawless techniques to ensure that the best outcomes are always returned. As a result, optimizing your product listing is essential if you want to stand out from the platform's millions of other vendors.We hope this article has given you further insight into how to drive both internal and external traffic to your Amazon product listing. Following the advice mentioned above will help you increase conversions, which your competitors won't be able to match. It will also help you learn crucial information about your Amazon customers that will help you better understand them.Therefore, Saffron Edge will be the best alternative if you outsource your Amazon listing optimization task. We serve as your one-stop shop for all issues relating to Amazon listing optimization and can quickly deliver the best outcomes. ...
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What is a ‘Pillar Page’ and why Google loves it?
The way people search for content on the web has evolved than how they did decades ago. Today, the queries they search for on search engines usually consists of more than 4 words to get an exact answer and is based more on its context than the traditional keywords.And search engines like Google, to provide the best user experience, have also evolved to cater exactly to these long-form search queries. It’s really not about keywords anymore.Then what’s it about?It’s about topics. And Google too gives more weight to the topics you address in your blogs and web pages than the keywords you target.All of this has given to rise to the concept of ‘Pillar Pages’ and how they serve both the purposes of Google and searchers. They fulfill the purpose of searchers searching for that content as it provides all the information there is about a query on a single page. And that’s what search engines want, to fulfill the queries of their users in the most seamless way possible to deliver a good user experience. But what exactly is a ‘Pillar Page’? Pillar page is a type of long-form content that provides all the information there is about a topic broadly. And if a reader wants to consume more information about a particular sub-topic present in the pillar page, he would be redirected to a different page where all the in-depth information about that particular sub-topic will be presented to him. That part is taken care of by ‘topic clusters’. The main characteristic of a Pillar Page is that it’s closely linked to the topic clusters with the help of hyperlinks. For example - if a searcher wants to learn about ‘content marketing’, then the pillar page based on a broad topic like ‘content marketing’ would mention every major element that forms content marketing in general i.e. blogging, content outreach, influencer marketing etc. and would link each and every sub-topic with further reading materials that explains in detail each sub-topic to satisfy the searchers, creating a well-devised structure for your pillar page. How do I create a ‘Pillar Page’? Creating a Pillar Page is not hard. You just have to choose a topic broad enough so that you can write more in-depth articles about its sub-topics (topic clusters) which will link back to the pillar page to increase its overall authority.Here’s how to do it - Choose a broad topic Based on audience research, you’ll have to choose a broad enough topic which includes various keyword related sub-topics to so that you can create your topic clusters around it later. Like mentioned above, we’ll take content marketing as an example. Writing the sub-topics So, you’ve selected a broad topic for your pillar page (content marketing, in this case), the next part is filling your pillar page with keyword focused sub-topics. The sub-topics of a pillar page just briefly explain what the sub-topic is about. Your blogs or topic clusters that you’ll write later will fulfill the purpose of providing in-depth information about the chosen sub-topics.In this case, the sub-topics for the content marketing pillar page would be blogging, influencer marketing, infographics, and the likes. Writing the topic clusters Then you would write a bunch of blogs containing specific, in-depth information about the sub-topics of your pillar page and all the blogs would be interlinked to those sub-topics and the sub-topics would link to those various blogs forming your topic clusters. Say, you want to target the sub-topic ‘blogging’, to do that, you’d create blogs having in-depth information about the best blogging practices, how to find the right topics for your blogs, where to market your blogs and everything else related to blogging and all those blogs would link-back to the sub-topic creating a well-thought-out interlinking structure. Best practices of creating a ‘Pillar Page’ Now that you know what a pillar page is and how to make one, here are some things that you need to take care of to create a pillar page that would really make a difference to your overall website authority - Creating a structure Source The sole purpose of creating pillar pages is to structure all your content about a topic in a well-organized way so that users can make sense of the information easily. So, don’t forget to carefully interlink all your topic clusters to the pillar page and vise-versa. Keep it ungated Source Pillar pages are one-stop destinations for your audience to gain deep insights about a topic, don’t treat it as a lead generator and ask for email addresses to gain full access to it. You’ll be limiting its potential that way. Instead, you can simply provide a downloadable option of your pillar page along with the full content so that users can keep it handy if they wish to read it later when they have time. Provide a table of contents Source This one is important, as pillar pages usually consist of a lot of words and sub-topics, providing an option to your readers to quickly jump onto the sub-topic they are most interested in can work wonders for the user experience your pillar page provides. And when it comes to creating pillar pages, its all about providing a great user experience. Why Google absolutely loves them? Google absolutely adores pillar pages for a lot of reasons. One main reason is that they are super easy for their crawlers to make sense of and crawl because of their semantically related closely interlinked content structure. The other main reason is that pillar pages provide great user experiences to users because of their ease of navigation and closely related content which can provide all the desired relevant information to a user about a particular topic and Google cares about the user experience every webpage provides to their searchers. So, they automatically rank higher than normal pages of content found on the web. ‘Pillar Pages’ and ‘Topic clusters’ have become buzzwords for all things SEO lately and you shouldn’t wait much before jumping on the wagon. As an example, Hubspot has created a great pillar page on ‘Youtube Marketing’ which currently ranks first for the keyword on Google’s SERPs among nearly 2.5 billion results! Have a look at that pillar page and you’ll understand in an instant what we are talking about. Do let us know if you were able to find their cleverly inserted internal links that redirect readers to more relevant information about the sub-topic through their topic clusters. ...
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