On-demand webinar: Content marketing in transition: tops and flops from 5 years of online practice

Angela Meyer: Welcome to our diva-e webinar Content Marketing in Transition: Tops and Flops from Five Years of Online Practice. In this webinar, Katja Jungwirth and Oliver Ibelshäuser will show you which editorial and SEO rules apply to content production. And why a few slides on content marketing can make all the difference in any sales presentation. My name is Angela Meyer and I'm your presenter today. Katja and Oliver, I now hand over the floor to you and also hand over the broadcasting rights to Oliver.

Oliver Ibelshäuser: Thank you very much. So, I hope it worked.

Angela Meyer: It works. It looks great.

Oliver Ibelshäuser: It works, very nice. Then welcome from us speakers from Munich. Guaranteed with a minimum distance between Katja and me of around ten to twelve kilometers. Even with dark circles under my eyes after a long US election night. I can imagine that some of you are very tired. We are too. Nevertheless, we hope that we can not only keep you awake for the next 60 minutes, but also get you excited about the topic of content marketing. We've brought a few things with us. Let's start by clarifying the term content marketing. Why is it such a buzzword? We will then look at the core objectives of content marketing. Awareness and trust are part of it, but of course also the topic of conversion and customer loyalty. We will present a bit of theory, but also garnish the whole thing with lots of best practice and examples from online marketing. Finally, there will be the typical fails, myths and mistakes that we definitely don't want to make again. And then there should be enough time for your questions at the end. Let's start with a short round of introductions. Katja.

Katja Jungwirth: Right, so first of all, hello from my side too. I'm Katja Jungwirth, Team Leader Content Marketing and Editorial at diva-e. I've been responsible for content consulting, copywriting and strategy development at diva-e for around two years. Yes, brand development, content optimization. And I originally come from the print sector. I worked for women's magazines for a very, very long time. Most recently at Cosmopolitan. So I really learned journalism from the ground up and then switched over to the online business and immediately caught fire and am now responsible for the whole area of content marketing at diva-e together with Oliver. I'm handing over to Oliver.

Oliver Ibelshäuser: Thank you very much Katja. Yes, my name is Oliver Ibelshäuser. The official title is Head of Content Marketing and Editorial. That's quite unwieldy, quite long. In the past, you would probably have said editor-in-chief. I've been with the company for five years. I've been in charge for three years and am responsible for everything to do with content. Strategy, conception, content development, production, maintenance, image worlds, a bit about quality management and trekking. Like Katja, I originally come from the print sector. I wrote a lot for computer magazines for many years. And then I got into online marketing by chance. But it was also love at first sight. So, completely in love with the range of topics, the dynamics. I also love the diva-e team and hope that today we can convey as much of the enthusiasm that Katja and I have for content marketing as possible. Let's start right away with a steep thesis.

How do we come up with this? The background to this is the multitude of vague explanations, helpless attempts to sell bad content as content marketing, and the disguising of this bad content with unspeakable buzzwords. Buzzwords is a good keyword. We probably all know bullshit bingo. We've put together just under 20 terms that are almost always used when it comes to content marketing. And if you're hoping that we can do without them altogether, I have to dash your hopes right now. Unfortunately, we can't. We will use a few of them. But we can at least say that we put these terms into meaningful content and explain them plausibly where it makes sense. Well, let's get to it.

Why are there so many half-truths, myths and problems with understanding content marketing? Because we believe that there are far too many competing explanations and definitions. And therefore no general understanding of what content marketing actually is. And what it can do. And even Wikipedia. You can see that here in this short screenshot. Normally the last refuge of wisdom, content marketing doesn't manage to get the point across in short, snappy sentences. That's why we in the diva-e content team have redefined content marketing for ourselves in a new and compact way. Content marketing encompasses all measures to communicate the added value of brands, products and services to the relevant target groups via digital channels. We get by with a four-liner, and it actually contains everything that makes a good story. A mysterious mission, namely to strengthen brands, a beautiful unknown, that would be the target group that needs to be reached at that moment. And a hero who has to fight his way through the internet jungle and fulfill the mission. And that is the content marketing expert. Okay, that was a bit metaphorical. I think I'm still too caught up in bullshit bingo. Let's get back to the facts.

Basically, there are three. The first is brand awareness, the second is to strengthen brand trust, and the third is to strengthen brand loyalty. And the order is very important here. Because the order of the ideal types corresponds to the classic customer journey. At the very beginning, it is always about making a brand visible in its competitive environment. Once this has been achieved, the next step is to identify the brand as the strongest, best and most trustworthy partner. And then to trigger the conversion, i.e. to lead the user to interact and ultimately build a lasting relationship with the customer. Visibility. If you want to be noticed, you first have to be visible. Sounds like a truism. We SEOs and content marketers always think of Google first and foremost. This means that we want to be placed at the top of Google for a specific search in order to be visible. And this is always related to the fact that we have to serve keywords. Keywords, search terms that users actually enter in everyday life to find relevant content. And the best place for keywords is good content. So we have to build content to become visible and achieve rankings. That sounds relatively succinct, but in practice it's not that easy. In principle, I always have to measure content against four criteria. The first is the Google perspective. In other words, the content and structural guidelines that Google uses to evaluate content. It's about metadata, it's about mark-ups, it's about headlines. It's about the source code, it's about loading times, it's about usability, it's about responsive design. It's about a wild mix of technical and editorial factors.

Then comes the topic of target groups. Appropriate approach. What does the target group need in order to use my content? Simply, with what expectations does the target group come to my site and how can I give the target group real added value in order to ideally inspire them with the content. The third criterion is the topic of the brand itself, the brand essence and brand strength. Does the brand already stand for the topic we want to cover or does this trust first have to be built up through sustainable content development? And the fourth criterion is the competition. Is there already a strong player on the market that fully occupies the topic and only offers us the opportunity to occupy a niche, or do we really have to build up content for a very, very long time in order to generate a certain level of visibility and thus a background noise for our topic in the long term? And the competition is a really difficult issue, because the competition is sometimes very, very big and very, very strong. Let's illustrate this with a few figures. There are around 140 million search queries on Google every day. That's a big number, a very abstract number. Let's break that down to a specific keyword. We have just under 10,000 search queries per month for content marketing. And the results that Google spits out are grossly disproportionate to this. That's just 3,240,000,000 results for content marketing and I don't think you need much imagination to imagine that 99.999 percent of these search results are never clicked and never seen. They just disappear.

Why is that? I think you can illustrate this quite nicely with this iceberg model. At the bottom you can see the multitude of guides, tutorials, infographics, videos, encyclopaedia articles, blog posts, reviews, tests, news, experience reports, whatever, that are never clicked on because they are simply on search result two, three, 25 and 625. Like the tip of an iceberg, the organic hits on the first search results page are actually noticed. Ideally, the first to fifth places. And we are talking about high performance content in this context. High performance content is content that is perceived by Google and the user as particularly valuable, particularly relevant for a topic. And what characterizes high performance content? High performance content always strikes the perfect balance between the brand, the brand essence and the brand promise on the one hand. On the other hand, the target group's expectations. What does the user need? And thirdly, Google's expectations. This means that if you want to create high performance content, you have to ask and answer three elementary questions before the first line of text. The first is: “What does Google need to rate my page as valuable?” These are the technical factors. SEO experts can certainly help here. Secondly: “What does the user need to use the content on my site?” This is about addressing target groups appropriately, target group relevance. This will certainly also be a key topic today. And the third is: “Which touchpoints does my brand need to use to build trust?” And my colleague Katja will now briefly explain how these theoretical approaches can be implemented conceptually.

Katja Jungwirth: Exactly. And the best way to explain this is with the help of this content marketing ladder, which simply sets out once again the sequence that should be followed and observed in content production.

USP

So at the very, very, very beginning there is always the USP of a brand. So what does my brand stand for? And it's really, really, really important to think about this for a moment longer in order to formulate a catchy, pithy guiding principle. Where you say: “What makes me special? What makes me stand out from the competition?” It's also always good if I were to sit over a beer in the evening and explain to a friend about this brand, what sentence would I really use to describe this brand? And say: “That's that and that-” For example, Coca-Cola. That's the soft drink that I get everywhere in the world, that's available everywhere in the world. Just a really catchy sentence where I say: “This sets me apart from all the other brands in this segment.” Then, the next important thing is the target group. So just look at which target group my brand serves.

Target group

Know your target group. So it's really important to narrow it down as much as possible. There's always this saying: if you're open to everyone, you can't be completely tight. So it's simple - really limit yourself to your target group. You also need to know the different segments of this target group, but stay clearly within this target group. Then next, what information does the user need and expect. So the user needs are also very, very important here. What does my user want, what are the pain points. It is also important to consider the level of knowledge of my users. Do they need highly complex texts or should it not be so complex, but rather written in basic terms? What exactly are they looking for? What do they expect? So it's also very, very important to always take this into consideration. Then, what competition does my brand have? It's always very important to look at more than just your direct competitors, for example: I would now like to create a page for real estate financing and importantly - so I would say okay, the direct competitor is perhaps a savings bank or perhaps a postal bank, but it is also important to always include here what are the competitors that I now also have in the keyword space. So I create content with different keywords and simply check what my competitors are. So maybe it's not just the banks. Perhaps Check24 is also a competitor that plays a role in the ranks. And that's always very, very important to take a look. And yes, of course it's always good to simply look at the competitors, not to copy anything, but of course you can always look at what they're doing right. Right now on a Google search results page. The competitors who are right at the top. Why are they up there? What are they doing - well, they're doing something right, because otherwise they wouldn't be up there. Also take a look at what elements they are using on their pages. Yes, competition observation is very, very important.

Online channels

And then as a further point, which online channels does the user use? So ask yourself: “Where are my users actually on the move? Does it also make sense to perhaps spread content on social media?” Even on which social media channels, if I'm a brand that appeals more to an older target group, it probably doesn't make sense to reappear on TikTok. And also to look, yes, in certain forums or, yes, in the area of influencer marketing. To simply look at where my users and my target group hang out in order to see this content. Exactly. Then a big point is how you can simply make content more visible, or simply boost your content a little. Simply boosting this awareness.

To say I am becoming more visible is to build a content hub. What is a content hub A content hub is basically a collection point for all my content that is thematically relevant. In other words, content that is thematically bundled around a topic. In other words, you can simply say that it is - it can be a category, product pages, advice pages. It can also include blog posts. So really everything that completely rounds off a whole, entire topic and of course provides a first-class user experience. So I also garnish my site with great, important elements. Also with video, with infographics. Maybe even a calculator. Some gamification elements, catchy images, I also offer downloads or maybe a podcast to listen to. Everything that the user really loves and then clicks on. It is simply important that all these pages - there are distribution pages, there are subpages. That they are all linked to each other in a meaningful way. So, I always stay within this hub to get more information. It's basically this all-round carefree package for the user. No questions, no wishes remain unanswered when it comes to this one topic. I find everything here exactly in this area.

Benefits

And yes, what exactly are the benefits? Traffic and increased visibility, of course. So through my content, which I naturally create in an SE-optimized way, I simply make sure that I cover this entire keyword space with my content, with my various types of content. I simply have a strategically structured, yes, content area here, information architecture that is logically structured. As I said, all pages are meaningfully linked to each other. It's also a simple question: “If I'm now on a magazine page, what would be the logical next step?” I then jump over to a product page. So just really keeping the user on the pages. And, yes, Google just loves that and so does the user. A content hub also allows me to present myself perfectly as an authority. So I can also show the user that I am an expert in this field, that I have a wealth of knowledge. All relevant related topics are covered here. No questions remain unanswered.

The user doesn't have to leave the site to find additional information somewhere else, but can find everything here with me. And this naturally increases the length of stay and also engagement. In other words, users stay longer on my domain. And thanks to the great elements that I have on the site, great features, maybe a comment function, videos, yes, users stay on the site longer, but engagement also increases. So the users simply interact with the pages. They click here, maybe play around a bit on a computer, click on a video here. And yes, high interaction and engagement are also important ranking factors for Google. And then, last but not least, something that should not be neglected. It may not be so important for Google directly, but for me as a brand. A content hub also gives me great insights into my target group. I can easily see which content is clicked on, for how long and when. What route a user takes before they come to the page. This is simple and important data that really serves me perfectly as a basis for perhaps developing a further strategy, a content strategy. Exactly, then next up is evergreen and seasonal content. Also a great way to become more visible on Google.

Evergreen content

To explain briefly, what is evergreen content? Evergreen content is simply the basis, the foundation for my site. It's content that is timeless, always available and relevant to the brand. It really is the foundation. It's designed for the long term. So it can't be created overnight. You really have to build up one page at a time. It's not really for quick success, you have to keep at it continuously. Always republish content. It takes time and that's absolutely what this EAT is all about. So I don't know if you've heard of it. These are quality guidelines from Google. Meaning expertise, authority and trustworthiness, so simply this: “I am - I am considered an expert in this field. My content really covers everything, answers all questions. I present myself as an authority and I am also a trustworthy source for this topic.”

Seasonal content

Exactly, and then there's seasonal content, which is also very, very, very important. On one side, what is seasonal content? At the moment, the Christmas tree, of course. Current trends and events. Topics related to Christmas. That you really say: “So, these are content pieces that are really this Right Now, so that's what's on my users' minds right now, that's what they're dealing with right now. It's really their topic right now and it's always topical, it always has to be up to date.” Of course, it's also work, because it also has to be constantly updated. But it's great because it also shows Google that something is happening on the site. It's being updated, something fresh is always being added. And, of course, it's also a great change. And, what's also very important, is that you really meet the mindset of the users and pick up on the mood they're in at the moment. Of course, it also has a high potential for the user to share it on social media because they simply say: “Hey, that's what's on my mind right now, great, I'll pick it up and spread it further.” Exactly, as two types of content.

Mobile first

Then mobile first. I don't know if you've heard of the Mobile First Index, which has been in place since mid-2018 and simply means that only the mobile version of a website is evaluated by Google and is also taken into account for a ranking. So that means, very, very importantly, always optimize all the content you produce for mobile. In other words, all important information must be available on mobile sites. Yes, more and more searches are being started on mobile devices and how can I optimize my content so that users can find everything they need and want on their smartphones on the way to work, on the subway, so that they can be picked up. We think it would be very important to show a brief summary of the most important things right at the beginning of a page like this. So here's an example from Allianz. They have a module here called “Briefly explained in 30 seconds”, which really summarizes at a glance what it's all about. Then you know right away, okay, I'll scroll down.

Snackable content

And when scrolling down, this snackable content is of course very important. So here it's also very important, the users have these small screens, they might just scroll down the page very quickly. And that's why it's important that the content is well structured. It has to be well organized. The headlines must never be such a huge wasteland of text. So the user must never have the feeling: “Wow, this text is a real piece of work. So, it's really fun, you can scroll through it, I can pick out the elements that interest me. I can see at a glance: “Here's this headline, there's a table underneath. I'm interested.” And I can really go straight to what interests me. Very, very important snackable content as a form of content.

CTAs

Also important here are the CTAs, i.e. the call-to-actions. The calls to action that you always repeat on the page. In other words, that you don't just place them in one place, either at the top of the page or at the bottom of the page, but that you also place them again across the page as a reminder. Perhaps also a CTA that runs along the page when scrolling down. That you simply give users the opportunity to click on it at any point on the page. And, of course, it's important at the end of a page like this, which could also be of interest to them, that you emphasize this again visually, as an exit. That you then simply keep the user on the domain and offer them alternative offers on the domain. Exactly, then also an exciting topic of voice search.

Voice search and voice-ready content

This is also a topic that has been present for several years and where you can now also see that 50 percent of all search queries are already made by voice input. So the question is, how do I have to structure my content so that I can offer this voice-ready content? Which is also a very important factor. It's important to know that voice search entries are currently still very much local queries. For example: “Where is the nearest petrol station or what time is it in New York?” So local queries are three times as common. And most of the keywords that are used in voice search are how, what or best or something like that. So just this really clear query. The questions are of course different. So in a voice search input, I naturally have: “How warm is it in Mallorca?” But I would type “Mallorca climate table” into the Google search slot. But the algorithm that evaluates the whole thing on Google is completely identical. So, exactly. The content that is then displayed would be the same. So that's why you also have to look at voice-ready content, yes, how does it have to be structured so that I can perhaps even respond with a feature snippet. So I don't know, feature snippet, that's kind of this search result zero on Google, where you simply get the information right at the top, directly above the organic search results. So present at a glance. It's important to know that voice-ready content should be short. Ideally, it should answer the question directly. Because voice search content is of course also Won or None. So I get the first search result or nothing at all. That's why it's important that the content is optimized for this. It is also important to know that the content must not be too complicated. So the language level of a ninth grader applies. So not too complicated. Really answer the questions simply and directly. On average, these answers should be around 29 words or less, and it is also important that the content really provides helpful answers. So no blind keyword stuffing, which you should never do anyway, but again, really provide a helpful answer and not just squeeze key words into the content. Then please also play it out. Exactly, and now last but not least, the topic of seeding.

Content seeding

Also an important factor when it comes to increasing visibility. Also perfect for optimally rounding off a content strategy. Seeding means sowing content on the web. In other words, simply placing content exactly where my target group is already located. In other words, a strategic distribution of content at the relevant touchpoints of the target group. Of course, this allows me to achieve a higher reach. I can place or seed my content on social media channels that are relevant to my target group. I can use influencers who are naturally also a good fit for the brand. Online PR, native advertising, I can place my content in forums, specialist portals and expert networks. In other words, I can simply distribute my content on the right channels that are also a platform for my target group. And I can build up a great network of different sites that all lead back to my website and my content. And that's always perfect. Especially when you're a relatively new brand, it's difficult to get organic rankings at the beginning. Content seeding is the perfect way to bridge this delay a little until you actually achieve organic rankings. And it's also perfect for achieving a basic buzz at the beginning. Exactly, now to the topic of awareness. Which is of course simple - awareness, so you first have to become visible and then you can build trust and Oliver will now tell you the best way to do this.

Oliver Ibelshäuser: Thank you very much Katja. I hope I am now visible again - yes, I am now visible again. Exactly, the topic is brand trust. Katja, you've talked a lot about building visibility. You've already given very specific tips on how content needs to be designed to perform well for Google and users. I will now move on to the next topic of building brand trust. Brand trust is the basis for interaction. We have now written in here that brand trust is the currency in online marketing. Google pays with rankings, the user pays with clicks and we as online marketers are the ones who have to put this currency into circulation. Let's illustrate this with an example. The little house on the left symbolizes a brand. We have a brand with a correspondingly strong USP. A certain uniqueness that it plays out. We simply offer this or that product. This brand has a whole range of convincing, more or less convincing offers. Plus extensive content, topics, advice topics, for example, around the offers. There is also a service promise and perhaps a few fun factors that they play up. And a large social media presence. Normally, that should be enough to convince a target group and encourage them to interact. And now let's take the user's perspective. The user first invests their time, their time for the search and their time to understand the site and the brand. In addition, they pay with their data. It's not just about cookies, but on the news pages I also get a message asking whether I want to allow notifications, etc. This can also be a pain point. That can also be a pain point. In addition, there are very specific needs that they associate with their request, and they have a certain amount of prior knowledge. A certain prior knowledge, always in brackets: “Please dear site, don't overtax me or undertax me, but pick me up exactly where I am with my level of knowledge.” And then there are also his pains. Negative previous experiences. Other brand contacts, perhaps also previous brand contacts on the same site. Things that bother him, that really annoy him. And now we can see that these are really two opposing perspectives that clash and our job would then be to practically bring them together.

But how can I convince the target group of my brand and build trust?

First of all, the most important thing is to stop talking about the target group. A wise man, unfortunately it wasn't me, once said: “If you want to reach everyone, you'll reach no one.” And that's absolutely true. You have to think of a target group like a jigsaw puzzle. From a distance it looks like a homogeneous picture, but when you get closer you can see that it has been put together from individual pieces. And that's how it is in principle in almost all areas, for almost all brands, with the target groups. It makes sense to segment this target group image and to think about which target group segment I need to address. We are talking about the primary target group. This primary target group is business-relevant. I have to serve them in order to maintain my business model. Then comes the secondary target group. It is sales-relevant; if I address it successfully, I will probably have a good financial year. If I'm not so successful in targeting them, I won't have such a good financial year, but I can maintain the business model. And then there is the tertiary target group. It is relevant to competition. If I succeed in addressing the tertiary target group in addition to the primary target group and the secondary target group, I can take market share from my competitors. So it makes sense to focus on these three target group segments first. And in this context, the image of the overall target group is void for the time being. What is very, very important in this context is to collect as much data as possible for the primary target group, but also for the other two segments, and to qualify this data. By data, we mean first of all, quite succinctly, demographic data. Age, living status, housing situation, gender, etc. That I know who I am addressing and in which age segment. That I have information about the native environment of the target group. In which digital, native environment does the target group normally search for information and offers? Then I need to have as much information as possible about the needs and triggers of the target group. Needs are requirements. How much need for advice does the target group have in a certain subject area? And what services does my target group usually respond to. Ideally, I would need information on consumer behavior. How much money is invested annually on average for a certain service, for example for a vacation. And I could then tailor my offer accordingly. And I simply need information on classic pays. What obstacles and barriers are there that could block a conversion. I need to collect this data, evaluate it and answer the four key questions in target group profiling. The first is, why is my target group searching the web? Why are they doing it at all? Secondly, what exactly is my target group looking for on the web? Thirdly, what added value can I offer them and thus set myself apart from the competition and fourthly, what conversion blockers are there to fear? In other words, what inhibitions and obstacles usually cause the target group to leave the site? With these four questions and answers to these four questions, and with the data, I would generally be well equipped to address my target group accordingly.

Convincing on a rational level

However, brand trust can only be achieved if I can really convince the user on all relevant entry pages that they are in the right place with their request. Convincing is initially achieved through rational elements, rational arguments and factors in the left-hand area. For example, the comparability of my offers, product, service and performance in relation to the competition. Reviews that play in my favor. User reviews of my products, user reviews of my brand image. A value proposition that is communicated clearly, concisely and comprehensibly and a healthy price-performance ratio. These are all arguments that are weighed up rationally.

Convincing at the emotional level

On the other hand, it is also about convincing on an emotional level. It's very much about brand sympathy. So the first thing that plays a role in brand contact is sympathy. As soon as I arrive at a site, I have the feeling: “Do I feel understood, do I feel picked up? Are the images such that I can identify with them?” The corporate design. “Is the site structured in such a way that I understand it, that I feel comfortable in the truest sense of the word?” It's about how you address people, including the wording. Am I on a first-name basis, am I on a first-name basis, how deeply am I introduced to this topic? Is it rather superficial, is it friendly, is it very superlative? It's also about the user's previous experience through other brand contacts. It's also about pressure to make a decision. Am I forced to deal with the topic immediately? Then I might overlook other obstacles that I see in brand trust. I need the information, so I can overlook it now. And do I expect a direct, personal advantage or a gain in prestige if I have certain information or purchase a certain product.

So it's important to know both sides, to take both sides into account and to be able to separate the rational side from the emotional side, but they both have to be played on. Systematically building a level of trust is ideally done using this affirmation principle, which we have briefly outlined in the right-hand section. This means that we place trust-building content elements on all the right entry pages that show the user: “I've come to the right place, I don't need to look any further because I can find everything I need on this page and this is probably the best partner I could wish for.” How can we fuel this? By placing trust elements, as shown here on the right, such as tests or seals of approval. You can also increase trust through many years of experience in an area: “We have been a strong partner in area XY for 40 years”. Via reviews and recommendations from third parties, existing customers for example, via a strongly displayed price and benefit promise. When it comes to consulting services, the focus is always on individual service, proximity and availability. So a call service from eight to twelve is perhaps a bit low. Offering a call-back service. Offering a longer telephone availability in terms of time is certainly an advantage here. What always builds trust is the issue of comprehensibility of the content. Do they pick me up at exactly the level of knowledge I have at the time? The credibility of the offers and the information.

Katja has already mentioned topicality with the seasonal content section. And the breadth of topics. Is the brand positioned so broadly that it can advise me holistically? B2B is another special case. It's a bit more difficult there. How can you build trust in the B2B sector? By presenting reference projects. We have successfully implemented certain services for reference customers. We can present this in pictures and words and perhaps also let customers have their say who say: “Hey, that was a great collaboration and solved exactly XY problem with the effect that we now work, I don't know, much more productively, efficiently or cost-effectively. Be sure to emphasize the core competence, for example in the form of videos or infographics. Text is always read by Google. Read from the source text and utilized. Not by the user. So, the more complex the topic is, the easier we should make it for the user to access the topic. Infographics and videos are an effective way of doing this. Here's a best practice example for the keyword car loan. We have now taken the Check24 page. I think it ranks first or second for this generic keyword and I think they are doing a lot of things right when it comes to trust. They have this guarantee promise in the top left-hand corner. So here it says Germany's cheap car loan. So I don't know about you, but I first read Germany's cheapest car loan. That's probably the intention. At the top right we immediately have a contact option. Of course by phone, also by e-mail, also by callback. At the bottom we have this promise of benefits. With this reduced interest rate per year and then this egg motif, this fancy audio popped in there and stuff like that. It makes it even more tangible what it's all about. The topic of credit is rather bureaucratic, but here you have a very concrete goal in mind. And what they do really well in the lower area is customer sentiment, ratings and seals of approval. What they do perfectly is present the whole thing in an airy design. I understand the site immediately. I can find my way around, I know where the interaction offer is and I never have the feeling that I have to keep searching. Instead, Check24 is probably the best provider I can find at the moment. Well, let's move on to the last point. Actually, the most important one of all.

Conversion

The topic of conversion and also brand loyalty, customer loyalty, customer loyalty. Firstly, and believe me, the most important thing is interaction and conversion is always the goal. Always the goal of every new website that launches and wants to be noticed by Google. Conversion is classically a purchase or order process, but it is also about downloads and registrations. For example, downloads of white papers from an e-book. Subscriptions to a newsletter, for example, or a login area. It's about contact forms that are filled out or email offers to the brand that are noticed by the customer, but what about all the guide articles, all the glossary articles, all the thematic articles that don't lead directly to interaction or conversion. Of course, they also have an interaction goal. And if it's just about inspiring the user with the content and offering them topic-relevant, related articles that tell them: “Please stay on the domain. We have a lot more offers for you.” And then there may not be a first-step conversion, but perhaps one on the second, or third or fourth click. Or the user remembers that the brand has provided particularly good, detailed or comprehensible information on a topic. Conversion readiness is always a matter of persuasion and to better understand this, it makes sense to look at the phases that a typical user goes through when making and securing a decision. And there are seven steps in total. The first is the topic of relevance.

Relevance

The user asks himself: “Is the page relevant to me? Does it cover exactly the topic I was looking for? For example, I want to book a vacation in Greece. Now I come to a travel provider. Is it relevant? Is this a travel provider and does it have exactly the hotel and this offer, I don't know, with a flight and all the trimmings, a package deal that simply meets my requirements. The second is the issue of trust.

Trust

Can I trust the brand? We've already talked about seals of approval, but aesthetics, imagery and design play a very, very, very important role. A site that I understand how to use is much more trustworthy than a site where I have to laboriously search for the content.

Usability

The third is orientation, usability. Do I get straight to the point I want to get to or do I have to scroll endlessly? This is a classic bounce factor. I can't find my way around and I immediately go back to the search with the back button and take the next hit. The topic of stimulation. Stimulation means, on the one hand, that I stimulate the user to interact. Via the appropriate placement, including the wording of the call-to-action elements. But stimulation is much more than that. Stimulus is the illustration of the success case. If I want to book a vacation in Greece, I have certain images in mind. So it's probably a picture of a sunset somewhere on the beach or windmills that are white and stand above the blue sea. Maybe of a quaint taverna where I can sit outside and enjoy a nice Greek meal et cetera. If these images are simply played on in the offer, I am much closer to it, purely psychologically speaking, because I have the feeling that the brand covers exactly what I was actually looking for. The next topic is safety.

Safety

With every purchase, there are always doubts: “Is the brand the right one, should I keep looking, etc.?” And you can cushion this in advance, firstly by responding to positive reviews and customer sentiment, and secondly by always having a service representative available. Please. The next topic is convenience, which is unfortunately still being neglected.

Convenience

Convenience means that I should lead users who are willing to convert to conversion immediately. With one click. And not having to go through seven or eight or ten pages of forms. Instead, the user who wants to convert should be able to do so with as few clicks as possible. And the last topic is the topic of evaluation. I don't know if you know the topic of buyer's remorse. I know it. I often buy things on Amazon that I don't need. It's that feeling of, what have you just done? Do you really need this, do you need this product? Was that the right supplier? You don't actually need it. And I actually have the impulse to cancel it immediately. And counteracting this is the supreme discipline. So every now and then you get an email after placing an order saying: “Thank you for your order, congratulations, a great selection. And then the benefits are outlined again very briefly and you can also use this to mitigate this buyer's remorse mode a little. So, knowing these factors and taking them into account on the content side when setting them up is certainly a great advantage. I would like to present two areas that can boost conversion in detail. One is the area of gamification. In the area on the left, you can see a construction financing law.

Gamification

This is about real estate financing. It seems very, very dull. And the topic is also relatively bureaucratic and very dull for most people. This means that the inhibition threshold to deal with it is usually very, very high. But what the provider has done fantastically here is to fill it out completely in advance. That means I don't have to gather any data. I don't have to deal with land charges, installment lengths and installment payments, but I can literally play around by correcting the default values here and there by simply moving the sliders he offers me back and forth. And I immediately see an instant result in the very lower range. What does that mean for me?

It means that I can play around with the topic without revealing too much information about myself. Whenever a topic is very complex, this is a good story. On the right-hand side you can see a kind of quiz-like approach to the topic. This is also about buying and building a house. And what they've done really well is to pick up users who haven't yet specified their desire or need. They should take a playful approach, what does your dream house actually look like, it's all about the exterior and where is the whole house, how is it furnished? Then the interior design et cetera. You can lead the user there so that they can playfully get to grips with the topic and have a much more concrete idea at the next brand contact. So whenever the topic is very complex, or users have very, very little previous experience, it makes sense to play with gamification modules like this.

Campaign concept

Another example, a brand that we have supported, is a large travel provider. They approached us with the desire to raise their profile, to make them stand out more from this massive cut-throat competition among travel providers. They asked us for a branding concept and we developed and implemented a campaign concept for them. It works according to the Advent calendar principle. A new door is opened every day. Here, a door is always synonymous with a trip that can only be booked for a limited time. 24 hours. According to the principle of first come, first serve. But the special thing is that the communicated price advantage is massive. We developed a claim to accompany this Advent calendar campaign. Pay half. And it is so catchy and so aggressive that it is completely understood. The price advantage is so massive that the user doesn't just have the feeling that they have to look for the same trip again and compare it with other competitors, because this guarantee promise was made across the board. And this campaign was crowned with great success. One last sentence about this campaign concept. If you implement something like this, very aggressive, very catchy, then you should do it with a great deal of sensitivity. Never use it permanently, rather temporarily, play out a special campaign period. Otherwise it becomes watered down, the effect diminishes and the brand tends to suffer.

Best practice conversion

A very good example of building trust, ensuring willingness to buy, leading to conversion, I don't think it's any secret that Amazon does this pretty damn well. And that's because it displays everything I need in the visible area to secure my purchase decision. I have the image gallery. I have the short description with the most important arguments. I have the reviews, I always have a strike price or almost always on Amazon. And I have this massive service promise. So everything, if we remember the psychological phases again, all the conversion blockers that I have in the back of my mind are practically taken away from me here in the visible area. And I have the good feeling that I can buy here and, if necessary, send it back if it doesn't suit me.

Customer loyalty

Customer loyalty simply means that once we have won over a customer, we naturally want to keep them loyal to the brand and keep them enthusiastic. Every existing customer is a potential brand ambassador. There are numerous ways to do this. Bonus programs and loyalty programs have been proven to increase the willingness to interact. Service benefits could be used specifically for existing customers. For example, if you have been a customer for one or five years, you get some kind of bonus in the form of return campaigns. Depending on the brand's service and value proposition, there should also be an option for those who cancel their subscription. In other words, to simply bring customers back and reestablish brand contact. Customers recruiting customers is always a very, very good idea to reward them. Because the customers are sure to start drawing attention to the brand among their acquaintances. It is important to respond quickly and individually to complaints, whether on social media or directly by email, and not with standard letters. One last point, which is not a good idea, is the issue of rewards for reviews. Amazon does this from time to time. This is very controversial from a legal point of view and even more so if a reward is linked to a positive review. You can find numerous pages about this on the web from lawyers who absolutely warn against it. And if you have a competitor who is keen to sue, you run the risk of receiving a very, very expensive warning very quickly. Well, that's it in a nutshell. We are now just over the time limit. I would still like to make the five failures very briefly.

And I hope that all 68 participants who are still on board will give us five more minutes to answer any unanswered questions. Let's get started, we've already said that we want to present five typical mistakes, myths and fails that may have happened to us in the past. We don't really want to talk about them now, but we are very, very happy to warn others about them. The first is the issue of keyword density.

Keyword density is a dirty word for us. So every SEO goes into shock when they hear the whole thing. And it's also demonstrably pretty rubbish. On the right, we see a really bad website. I'm allowed to say that because it's my own. It's about Beatles records and at some point I was amazed to realize that the site is totally unkempt, I have no metadata, no headlines, that's a completely different story, but in any case it gets these rankings without me ever having dealt with the topic of keywords. And I get rankings for keywords that don't appear on the page at all. In other words, Google understands more and more how people themselves make the texts work and how relevant the topics actually are. Katja, do you want to say or should I continue

Katja Jungwirth: Right then here, field two hybrid content matches generic content for keywords. So practically, I have a keyword that is very generic. So I can't say what the search intent behind it is. So here, for example, the topic of politics. Google doesn't know a definition of the word, I want an explanation, I want the latest news about politics. So, this is a very generic keyword. Then you might think, well, I'll just put everything on the page. I'll cover all possible interests. Unfortunately, it doesn't work. Exactly, that's why we always use generic keywords, the page with the strongest domain always ranks. So here we are, the world is in first place. Strong domain, high trust, lots of traffic on the page or just the right offer. So as I said.

Oliver Ibelshäuser: I think it also depends on the search intent. At the moment, if you enter Wisconsin today or Michigan or Pennsylvania, you're guaranteed to get some news about the US election. That was certainly very, very different four weeks ago. And that was more about the state. In other words, whatever fits the season. But I think the second-best idea is to use content to push as much as possible. The topic of advice topics was also once a myth for us. If you want to place advice topics prominently, you need ten thousand characters just to accommodate all the semantic keywords and stuff like that. So of course that's not true. So, even if you enter typical guidebook keywords, such as travel guide Mallorca, you will find that we have content with three to four thousand characters of text in the top positions. But they still do a lot right, and they have the corresponding domain strength, and they have very, very good usability. Users can find what they are looking for immediately. That is fundamentally important. And much more important than writing texts that are as long as possible. Good.

Katja Jungwirth: You have to entertain your readers. Write in a funny way. That's always an issue. As I said, if I want to find out about root canal treatment, I don't want to read jokes. And once again, humor is always very, very, very subjective. So it can also backfire on you. And yes, I want information about a keyword query. I want my search intent to be served. Unless I enter jokes as a search term. And therefore simply, the user wants to be taken seriously. And yes, the best text is the one that you don't even notice when you read it.

Oliver Ibelshäuser: That's very important, because the user doesn't want the text at all, never. They want the information. They have a certain interest, but they don't want to read the text. Then he sits down in the evening and reads a philosopher like Schopenhauer or he reads Goethe. Then he can read the text, but usually on the web, on the sites that we serve, all they really want is information or to initiate a purchase or order process. But they rarely enjoy the text itself. And I think that's also an important rule for an editor. Well, our last suffering, with a fat one-pager we already get a top ranking for the new topic XYZ. If it were that easy, everyone would do it. So, I think Katja has explained in great detail what the hub topic is all about. Why it makes sense to cover a topic holistically via a hub. And why it makes sense to link the posts with each other. To set completely different interaction offers as accents and that can be found here again. So if you want to rank for a very difficult keyword, for a competitive keyword, you would do well to systematically build up the content in a long-lasting, sustainable way. Take your time to do this and then follow the rules for evergreen content and seasonal content. That in a nutshell, now we've almost got a precision landing. The only thing we haven't managed to do is the discussion. I would ask everyone to give us another five minutes so that we - or ten - can answer a few more questions.

Angela Meyer: Right, thank you both very much for your insights into content marketing. And I would now also take the first questions. We are now starting with interaction. Feel free to ask your questions. We have five to ten minutes left. And I would now like to put the first question to Oliver.

Oliver Ibelshäuser: Gladly.

Oliver Ibelshäuser: Yes, good question. I think it's good writing. The desire to write should definitely be there. So it always has to do with texts in some form or another. To be enthusiastic about new topics. Even for customer projects. Even if they are far away. So, we have very good content consultants in the team, and the topics are not always easy, but what they manage to do is spark enthusiasm for them. Even if it's about pipe clamps or completely different topics that are very, very far removed from the reality of life. To generate enthusiasm for it individually and then go full steam ahead and take the successes with you. And the last thing is perhaps the topic of passion. Passion and curiosity. Just staying curious.

Angela Meyer: Very good. And more questions come in. Here's a question from a participant:

Oliver Ibelshäuser: Good HubSpots for content creators? I would like to ask now. What exactly is meant by that? Is it primarily about tools? So I would like to ask questions or enter into a dialog.

Angela Meyer: Let's see if - I'd be happy to ask specific questions again. Then I'll take the question on board. Otherwise, I would include the next question here in the meantime and someone here asks how much the GDPR guidelines are now affecting trekking. Whether there is less trekking since the introduction of the new cookies.

Oliver Ibelshäuser: Well, I can say what it means from a content marketing perspective. Now less related to trekking. That's a completely different matter. I would like to have a technical colleague with me now. He could give me a really, really detailed answer. GDPR has shaken up a lot of things. For us too. Especially when it comes to imagery et cetera. And there's a lot to consider with image rights and the like. We've done internal training and things like that. Otherwise you run the risk of being warned by competitors very quickly. So when it comes to personal rights, data collection, image selection, motif selection and that kind of thing, you should deal with it in detail.

Angela Meyer: Right, now another question came in directly to Katja. You said you come from the print sector. You worked for women's magazines.

Katja Jungwirth: Well, I think there are serious differences - I would say that editorial quality always scores points. Regardless of whether it's in print or online. I don't think that's such a big difference. So, if you write well, if you write good texts, target group-oriented texts and texts that contain information, they are always well received. They always do everything right. Of course, there are still a few rules to follow in the online sector. So, I have to place the right keywords in the right place and, of course, that's a bit more in the online sector, but all in all. Editorial quality is always good, whether in print or online.

Angela Meyer: So, now there were some more specific tips regarding the HubSpots.

Oliver Ibelshäuser: So, once again acoustically. Which media?

Angela Meyer: Which websites or bloggers do you follow to keep up to date with online marketing

Oliver Ibelshäuser: Well, I'm very, very happy to answer that question. Can I do that? Well, I would also advertise for direct competitors. I wouldn't like to do that. I believe that we really do gather a lot of knowledge and are happy to share it. Others do that too. You can put together a list like that. It is simply important to have sources that you can rely on and all the important tools, such as SISTRIX et cetera or SEMrush, for example, ensure that interesting articles on Google updates and content marketing updates appear regularly. And these are certainly also good sources. So I don't want to avoid the question again. I'm happy to answer it, but I would really like to compile a consolidated list.

Angela Meyer: Okay, here's another participant asking specifically

Oliver Ibelshäuser: It depends on the topic. Quite honestly. Well, we also have customers who ask exactly that. And then they say: “Write me an article and how many characters - or can you manage with 1000 characters?” Then I always ask: “On what topic? And dear customer, what do you want to achieve with it? And is a single page even enough?” Of course we can do that. So a blog post in particular, should it inform, should it initiate the conversion? There are certain limits that should be adhered to. We always calculate in 2000 character units. 2000 characters is a sensible minimum for a category page, for example. But there are also 1000 exceptions to this rule. So I would first ask: “What is the keyword, what is the goal, what should the post achieve? And then we talk about character counts.”

Angela Meyer: Okay, and here I would add another question. And that is:

Oliver Ibelshäuser: I think it's a great question. I think it's a really, really great question. And customers ask us that too. And some also say: “Can you do it in a month or two?” And then we sometimes react with a huff. So SEO and content marketing are inextricably linked. That will never change. I hope that has come across today. And SEO without patience makes no sense at all. So, the moment I send a piece of content, a new page into the race, I need a certain amount of patience. And Katja explained that I can help a little with seeding. So I can help a little bit to get more traffic to the pages right from the start, yes.

Katja Jungwirth: It also depends on whether I'm a brand that people already know or whether I'm a completely new brand that's just starting out. Of course, it takes much, much longer to really make myself visible. To position myself here too. I'm a brand that already has a high level of visibility and now I want to cover another area. So there are really quite a lot of differences that really play into it, which you definitely have to take into account.

Angela Meyer: Okay, like that. I would now like to close the question and answer session due to time constraints. But you are welcome to approach Oliver and Katja afterwards. Here are the contact details for Oliver directly. He will be happy to discuss the topics with you in more detail.

Oliver Ibelshäuser: And I promise that I will look into this HubSpot question again. Yes, and I will compile a list. High and mighty.

Angela Meyer: Very good. Exactly. And afterwards, we will of course make the recording and the presentation available. You can watch and listen to it all again at your leisure. Take a look at our newsroom and register for further webinars that we organize every week. We look forward to your continued participation. And now thank you two. Thank you Oliver and thank you Katja for your insights into content marketing and have a great afternoon. Take care.

Oliver Ibelshäuser: Thank you, bye.

Katja Jungwirth: Thank you, bye.