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Audience Development Strategy

7 Great Ideas for Writing Free Reports

Create a giant archive of robust free reports for optimal SEO Campaign Management

Sometimes publishers know that they should be giving away free content in order to build their email list, but have no idea what to use for content. Should they create new content? Repurpose old content?

If you’re repurposing old content (and we suggest that

Create a giant archive of robust free reports for optimal SEO Campaign Management

Sometimes publishers know that they should be giving away free content in order to build their email list, but have no idea what to use for content. Should they create new content? Repurpose old content?

If you’re repurposing old content (and we suggest that you do), it’s a whole separate battle to try and come up with themes for your free reports.

Well, anything that you can do to help determine what your customers are interested in—although not necessarily willing to pay for—will suggest a free report topic.

Let’s make a list:

  • Research audience interest and keywords using the Google Keyword Tool. What are people looking for in your specific niche?
  • Review the most frequently asked questions posted to your online forum, on Facebook, on Twitter and elsewhere in your online communities.
  • Determine which of your paid products are the best sellers. Can you create a mini lead-gen product from your larger product?
  • Examine your magazine cover stories to determine which have the best sell-through.
  • Review your direct mail results to determine which teaser lines create the most sales.
  • Review the subject lines of your most successful email marketing campaigns to determine which create the highest open rates.
  • Determine which sessions at your live events are the most popular.

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When it comes to giving things away for free, SEO should be your top priority. After all, word of mouth is great, but the long-tail effect of having a highly ranked landing page for your free product is even more valuable.

Here’s a tip that every online editor and copywriter should know:

Many people start their search by typing the words “how to” and a verb in the query box. Adding “how to” and verbs to your primary keyword phrases can result in optimal rankings.

For more tips on creating free reports and launching optimized SEO campaigns, download our free report, SEO Campaign Management Basics.

By Amanda MacArthur

Research Director & Managing Editor

Amanda is responsible for all the articles you read on the Mequoda Daily portal and every email newsletter delivered to your inbox from us. She is also our in-house social media expert and would love to chat with you over on @Mequoda. She has worked with Mequoda for almost a decade, helping to evolve the Mequoda Method through research, testing and developing new best practices in digital publishing, editorial strategy, email marketing and audience development. Amanda is a co-author of our four digital publishing handbooks.

Co-authored handbooks:

Contact Amanda:

Contact Amanda via email at amanda (at) mequoda (dot) com, @amaaanda, LinkedIn, and Google+.

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