Content Marketing Data That Moves the Needle

Ross Hudgens, Founder, Siege Media

@RossHudgens http://siegemedia.com

Get the Deck:

bit.ly/siege-dal

My biggest

frustration as a

marketer is this.

Not exactly this,

I get that part.

It’s that someone felt

309,000,000 articles

on the topic needed

to happen.

@ROSSHUDGENS

It’s that someone within two

hours of creating this deck

had perpetuated the cycle.

It almost always leads to nothing – or in

marketing terms, less than 8 shares per post.

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

@ROSSHUDGENS

I much prefer content

like this.

@ROSSHUDGENS

And this.

The goal of this presentation is to

make the gap between these two

concepts a little bit smaller.

PART 1:

CONTENT

STRUCTURE.

According to Outbrain, odd number headlines have a 20%

better CTR than even number headlines.

http://backlinko.com/viral-content

HubSpot found that adding [brackets] in their titles

bumped up CTR by 38%.

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

Specifically, HubSpot found [templates] got the highest

CTR average of all bracketed terms.

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

A study found writing with half that of conventional copy

enjoyed a 58% improvement in readability.

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

The same study found concise, scannable, and objective

content to have a 124% increase in readability.

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

Adding colorful images – especially above the fold,

make it 80% more likely someone will read your content.

http://backlinko.com/viral-content

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

Posts with hand-

drawn images

generate 343% more

shares than those

with stock photos.

Study shows linking externally has a positive correlation

with ranking. Position 1 averages 50% more than 10.

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

Which content types perform best for business?

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

1. Lists

2. How to’s

3. What Posts

4. Why Posts

5. Misc

6. Infographics

The top 50 business blogs are getting less than 7%

of their total traffic from social media.

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

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

Short URLs are 250% more likely to be clicked than

long URLs according to one study.

http://backlinko.com/viral-content

Short URLs also create sharing friction on social media.

Instagram engagement per post is 2.81% of total

audience, compared to only .25% for Facebook.

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

How to capitalize with SEO-focused content? Include a

CTA to check out content link in profile.

@ROSSHUDGENS

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

This is the perfect

Pinterest photo,

according to

data science.

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

• No human faces

• Multiple colors

• Lots of red

• Moderate color

• Vertical orientation

• Little background

Visitors who read an article for three minutes returned

twice as often as those who read for one minute.

http://bit.ly/engagement-time

If your content won’t capture attention for more than a

minute, even if good, don’t try.

http://bit.ly/engagement-time

Conversion rate is highest with

1 to 3 and 8 to 10 form fields – not 4 to 7.

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

Welcome emails have 320% more revenue per email

than other promotional emails.

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

PART 2: THE PERFECT

INFOGRAPHIC.

@ROSSHUDGENS

Using Buzzsumo, we analyzed the 1000

most shared infographics in the past year

to find out what common characteristics

the most popular visuals have.

The most shared infographics have 396 words

shown on average – a short blog post.

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

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

The infographics

most popular on

Facebook had 402

words on average.

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

The infographics

most popular on

Pinterest had 387

words on average.

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

The infographics

most popular on

Twitter had 442

words on average.

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

The infographics

most popular on

LinkedIn had 502

words on average.

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

The most popular

infographics had

dimensions of 3683

tall by 804 pixels wide

on average.

The most used colors amongst

the most popular infographics:

@ROSSHUDGENS

Industries Where Infographics

Are Most Popular

@ROSSHUDGENS

Industries Where Infographics

Are Least Popular

@ROSSHUDGENS

How many popular infographics

use a color wheel scheme?

@ROSSHUDGENS

The most used color wheel schemes

amongst popular infographics:

@ROSSHUDGENS

What’s a Triadic Color Scheme?

A triadic color scheme

uses colors that are

evenly spaced around

the color wheel. Triadic

color harmonies tend to

be quite vibrant.

@ROSSHUDGENS

What’s a Monochromatic Color Scheme?

Monochromatic color

schemes are derived

from a single base hue

and extended using its

shades, tones and tints.

@ROSSHUDGENS

What Industries’ InfographicsDo Best on Twitter?

Anatomy of a “Perfect” Infographic

• <400 Words

• 800x3500+

• Features Blue

• Color Wheel Scheme

• On Health/Entertainment

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

PART 3:

CONTENT

PROMOTION.

@ROSSHUDGENS

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

0% 2% 4% 6% 8%

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

@ROSSHUDGENS

Monday Converts 80% Better Than Thursday.

0% 2% 4% 6% 8%

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

Not sharing the link in our first email

increased our outreach conversions by 63%.

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

In analyzing thousands of

outreach emails, we found the

average converting subject line

to be 64 characters long.

Interactive for Search Engine

Journal: SEO content analysis tool

@ROSSHUDGENS

This differs from bulk

email marketing research,

which found 41-50 to be

the optimal length.

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

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

In analyzing thousands of

converting emails, we also found

the average converting email to

be 83 words long.*

@ROSSHUDGENS

Our hypothesis? Long enough to

be truly customized, short

enough to be easily readable.

We surveyed lifestyle bloggers and found that

pitching 55 days in front of the holidays is optimal

in order to guarantee a post slot. Pitch now!

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

http://bit.ly/siege-dal

Ross Hudgens, Founder, Siege Media

@RossHudgens http://siegemedia.com