How a Professional Area Promotion Blog Uses SEO Driven Content Marketing to Generate 40 Times More Traffic Than Any Google Ads Campaign at a Lower Cost.
What is Content Marketing?
The dictionary defines Content Marketing as follows:
Content Marketing is a type of marketing that involves the creation and sharing of online material (such as videos, blogs, and social media posts) that does not explicitly promote a brand but is intended to stimulate interest in its products or services.
My favorite explanation is the example of one of the earliest campaigns of its kind which still has lasting effects today:
The Guide Michelin
In 1920 the brothers Michelin, Founders of the Michelin tire company, were looking for ways to sell more tires. At the time, automobile owners all had chauffeurs who needed to ingratiate themselves with their employers. The brothers figured, if they could provide the chauffeurs with a list of restaurants, especially locales situated more on the outskirts of Paris and in the nearby countryside, they would achieve their goal. The chauffeurs could provide their employers with valuable dining recommendations and the cars would drive longer distances and thus use more tires.
The concept worked beautifully and still today everybody knows the brand Michelin. Most might not be aware of the actual connection between the tire company and the famous Michelin Guide. Despite not being distributed to chauffeurs anymore the Michelin Guide has been produced for over 80 years. Being awarded a Star in the Michelin Guide is the highest award any restaurant can achieve today. This simple fact has made Michelin one of the most recognized brands in the world.
Content Marketing is the art of creating long lasting content which elevates a brands awareness and reach.
Case Study: 365 Days of Content
365 Days of Content is our Area Promotion Strategy for Tourism and Relocation. It combines the best aspects of Content Marketing, Influencer Marketing (Recommendation Marketing) as well as Social Media Marketing.
We create Destination Websites with connected Social Media Accounts and post authentic new content on a daily basis. We do this for Tourism Boards and Area Promoters, Sometimes even Real Estate Developers.
In October 2021 we created Mexico Insider. We generate a monthly User Stream of over 30´000 since the first year of operations. All users reach us by Organic Search. We appear relevant in Search because of 4 Main Factors:
Main Success Factors
- Authentic Media Creation and Aggregation Strategy
- Dedicated Media Curation and Syndication Strategy
- Professional SEO practices in content and technology
- Well written and SEO optimized daily blog posts
A few months ago we started Peru Insider and it already attracts 4500 Unique Visitors per month.
Value Comparison SEO vs. SEA
For the US target audience average Cost Per Click prices (PPC Campaign) across all industries is USD 4.22 in the first quarter of 2024. The Travel & Hospitality sector is the cheapest with an average of USD 1.53.
Long Term Perspective
SEO is always a long term perspective. A typical SEA Campaign will have a learning cycle of a few weeks and will start to deliver results after that. SEO measures take longer to show full effect. At the beginning the effort is high due to the creation of much local and authentic content as well as the creation of the website and the Social Accounts. To start with the traffic is slow. It takes 6 months to one year to grow the initial User Stream to our desired size. We consider this the Creation Phase and the Growth Phase of the project. We remain attractive and continuously grow our Domain Authority in Google Search due to the following additional 4 Success Factors:
Additional Success Factors
- Consistency in publishing
- Continuous SEO Optimization
- Annual updates of existing content
- Community Management
It’s like The Hare & The Turtle, where the hare has a quick start but loses to the turtle over time. Since any tourism or relocation promotion isn’t limited to a specific time period but a continuous approach, we highly recommend SEO driven Content Marketing over SEA campaigns.
Financial Perspective
Concepts & Consulting International LLC offers “365 Days of Content” as an Area Promotion Strategy for USD 1500 per month. Our Promotion Strategy is designed for 10 years of publication. If we compare the performance of SEO driven Content Marketing with a Google AdWords Campaign using the following factors:
Measurement Criteria
- We only consider 50% of the actual growth rate of Mexicoinsider.mx with no absolute growth after the 5th year. (to mitigate for possibly less sought areas)
- We assume only a 10% price increase on PPC over the next 10 years (avg. Inflation alone the last 3 years was 5.6%)
- We neglected ALL Ad Creation and Agency costs for the SEA Campaign – only direct PPC cost
- We neglected the fact that SEO converts on average at 2.4% and PPC Campaigns only at 1.4%. (This fact makes the Organic Traffic almost twice as valuable.)
Comparison Result
In our comparison the “365 Days of Content“, SEO driven Content Marketing Strategy outperforms the PPC Campaign by a factor of 41.6!
We achieve this despite the fact that we downplayed our growth rates and PPC cost increases. Average Cost Per Lead increased 91% YoY (Wordstream.com 2024)
Solid Foundation of Knowledge & Best Practices
We do SEO as well as SEA campaigns for many clients. For our websites we use top of the line solutions for hosting, security, caching, content delivery networks and asset optimization. Following are a few benchmark examples we regularly achieve for our clients:
SEA Optimization Scores
SEO Optimization Scores
Site Load Speed
Summary of Benefits of SEO Driven Content Marketing
- 40 times more visitors at less cost
- Long term growth of domain authority
- Best practices delivering measurable lasting effects
- Independence of climbing SEA costs
- Social Media used as reach extension and lead generation
- Up to 3 times higher conversion rates
- Freedom of format and content ownership
- Promote events and unique opportunities throughout a 10 year timeline without any need to adapt SEA Campaigns
If you would like to benefit from our services please contact us at your convenience.
