{"id":2105,"date":"2021-01-06T07:00:47","date_gmt":"2021-01-06T07:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/?p=1333084"},"modified":"2021-01-06T07:00:47","modified_gmt":"2021-01-06T07:00:47","slug":"tangential-content-is-the-link-building-tactic-your-brand-is-missing-out-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=2105","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Tangential\u2019 content is the link building tactic your brand is missing out on"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Branded content is crucial for many reasons: communicating the value of your product\/service, helping people make buying decisions, providing pertinent information to your primary audience, and more.<\/span><\/p>\n

But if your marketing goals include earning high-quality backlinks, building your brand awareness, and increasing your organic traffic, tangential content needs to be in your content strategy.<\/span><\/p>\n

So what exactly is it, and how can you incorporate it into your own content calendar?<\/span><\/p>\n

Defining tangential content<\/span><\/h2>\n

Tangential content is content that is related to a brand\u2019s industry but is <\/span>not<\/span><\/i> related to its core branding. It doesn\u2019t refer to a product or service offering, nor is it a bottom-of-the-funnel effort to convert.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the spirit of showing and not telling, here is the difference between content that\u2019s more tangential vs. content that is more topical.<\/span><\/p>\n

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On the top, you see a <\/span>tangential piece of content<\/span><\/a> by Hershey that provides tips to families on how to be safe when trick-or-treating in 2020. Does this have to do specifically with buying candy? No. But does it provide value to their target audience, candy fans? Yes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Below that, you\u2019ll see something a little more topical: <\/span>a recipe that includes a Hershey\u2019s product<\/span><\/a>. Even this piece has a touch of tangential in that it isn\u2019t directly about purchasing the candy, but the candy is necessary for the activity, putting it more on the tangential, product-related side.<\/span><\/p>\n

Who\u2019s using tangential content<\/span><\/h2>\n

My team and I were wondering the same thing, as we\u2019re huge advocates of the strategy and have been using it for our clients for years. <\/span><\/p>\n

So we decided to look into it. We examined the content of all the brands nominated for the 2020 Content Marketing Awards and found <\/span>a majority of those companies use tangential content<\/span><\/a> on their blog.<\/span><\/p>\n

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That\u2019s a large number of quality content marketing programs using tangential content on their blogs! <\/span><\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not just blog content. 31.3% of the brands we analyzed also had tangential off-site content, meaning content they used to acquire earned media. This is what we do at Fractl, and I\u2019ll be showing an example later in the post.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is why I\u2019m so surprised tangential content isn\u2019t talked about more, and frankly, I think nearly all brands should be giving it a shot because of the advantages it brings.<\/span><\/p>\n

How you can benefit<\/span><\/h2>\n

Tangential content is powerful for a few reasons.<\/span><\/p>\n

First, it unlocks a new, broader audience, who becomes aware of your brand and enters the top of your funnel.<\/span><\/p>\n

Second, since it\u2019s not as salesy, it can help you build backlinks to your site, which builds the authority of your brand and improves the standing of your site in Google\u2019s eyes.<\/span><\/p>\n

And third, though a bit more nebulously, having to come up with tangential content ideas prompts you to zoom out a bit and explore other issues and interests your audience has, leading to more robust audience personas.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at some real examples of how these benefits come into play.<\/span><\/p>\n

A great example of on-site content is <\/span>Canva\u2019s Color wheel<\/span><\/a>, which helps you determine which colors go well together.<\/span><\/p>\n

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I\u2019m assuming Canva wanted to broadly target people interested in design elements, as they offer a design tool. <\/span><\/p>\n

This makes this strategy really smart, because they created a useful calculator people probably bookmark, share, and link to. (In fact, this page earned more than 4,000 engagements on Facebook, according to <\/span>BuzzSumo<\/span><\/a>.) And even though it doesn\u2019t relate directly to signing up for Canva, it still appeals to the broader audience they\u2019re interested in connecting with.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another example is a project we did for Hire A Helper, a company that assists users in finding movers. We didn\u2019t do a project about moving; instead, <\/span>we surveyed 1,000 people<\/span><\/a> on how they interact with their housemates to unearth new insights about quality time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s one of the graphics we created based on our analysis of the results.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Because this content is not only relevant to people moving but anyone who\u2019s lived with someone else, it\u2019s much more widely appealing, which is something publishers look for, too. Oftentimes they want what they write about to be significant for a majority of their readers.<\/span><\/p>\n

We pitched this content to writers and earned coverage on <\/span>Better Homes & Gardens<\/span><\/a>, which syndicated to <\/span>Allrecipes<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Yahoo!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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Without this new, tangential data, it would have been much more difficult for Hire A Helper to reach these large publication audiences and get the SEO benefit of earning high-authority backlinks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Creating\/improving your own tangential content<\/span><\/h2>\n

For tangential content to be worth the effort, it needs to appeal to a larger audience than you normally target, or at least a new audience that\u2019s still somewhat related to your industry. <\/span><\/p>\n

This requires a new perspective throughout your entire content process.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how I recommend tackling tangential content:<\/span><\/p>\n