Blog, Business, Finance, Marketing, Mortgage Broker Partners, Search Engine Optimisation, WordPress, WordPress Plugins, Yabber

Your Own Article Distribution System For Partners

A short time ago we introduced the revised partner website plugin for mortgage brokers that allows them to send and globally update content on partner websites (replacing a partner landing page system we've used for well over 10 years). While that plugin and program has proved a massive success, what we're about to introduce is the self-managed partner article module within Yabber that has returned extraordinary results.

To summarise, the article module within Yabber's partner module permits you to send articles (either your own or those that we assign to the system) to partner websites. While designed for broker-level partner relationships the system can be used to deliver articles to any website with our plugin installed, making it suitable for general article distribution of any kind, such as the functionality often required by franchise or aggregation businesses. In fact, the plugin essentially replaces the feature in our old aggregation toolkit and provides the same enterprise-level functionality to even the youngest brokerages.

Our partner systems have always returned more volume and delivered more meaningful connections that competing solutions due in part to the fact we provide custom built technology to support your efforts, and we continue to built the tools necessary to improve upon your results. This article introduces the partner article system in brief.

We've involved ourselves heavily in the testing of this module over a full six months and the results certainly exceeded our expectations. One broker attracted triple-digit and formalised partnerships during in just a few months that returned more volume in a month than she'd written the previous year (and she had spent her 20-year career attracting just 17 fuzzy partnerships that returned very little). Another broker reported that he'd received calls from businesses asking to participate in his program... something that is virtually unheard of in the broking trade. Results are proportional to effort so the test group obviously saw exceptional results on the basis of our daily involvement.

General Marketing: We pride ourselves on providing the highest-yield Facebook and other marketing in the industry but this doesn't mean we ignore the general marketing programs necessary to actually grow your business. No source of lead generation should be ignored! We don't bore you with PowerPoints and 'notes' - we provide the training and tools that are necessary to tactically engage and profit from various opportunities.

Broker Article Program: We provide an article distribution and social media program by default to all brokers as we see the service as a funnel necessity. The article programs on your website is a standalone system and disconnected from the partner article system, although many of the articles that make their way onto your website are available for you to repurpose into partner content (you won't be required to write your own content).

The system is designed to improve upon the value of your partnership proposition, establish your partner program as that of choice, garnish additional traffic from multiple related sources, and improve upon your own SEO. Used correctly it'll have a transformative impact on your organic and partner-driven growth.

Attracting Partners

The early introduction to a potential partner or introducer is easy. The harder part is developing that in-person introduction into something that is more meaningful and profitable, and it's a formalised partner program that delivers real tangible 'everyday' value that'll set your presence apart from the sea of mediocrity.

The partner plugin was designed to provide your partners with value that translates to direct value for their clients, while at the same time assigning expertise, authoritativeness, and trust back to your services.

How the Partner Plugin Works

Designed and built fully in-house to support the needs of brokers specifically, the plugin is optionally installed on a partner website and connected to Yabber . If your partner is a willing program participant by way of assigning a single page for your services, or allowing you to place blocks of content anywhere on their website for your assets, you can then take control over those blocks of content which might include videos, rate blocks, text blocks, subscription forms, and fact find reports. The changes to content on partner websites is made globally (a single click, for example, will alter videos on all websites).

Installation of the plugin also permits you to create and send your own or system assigned articles direct to partner websites. The author bio, categories, tags, images, featured image, and other content is all created in Yabber and assigned by you.

Yabber Article Creation

Creation your own articles or copying Yabber-supplied articles is very quick and effortless. In fact, you might reasonably expect to create an article on an RBA Tuesday in no more than a few minutes and then send it at the click of a button (in many cases we'll have assigned an article for you) - it's very easy. Pictured below are just a few of the numerous module options that apply.

Pictured: General article creation in Yabber. We provide a library of Yabber content; clicking on the edit link will immediately create your own copy for distribution. Categories, tags, the author, and other page elements are automatically assigned. Images are included with shortcode so the image scales correctly on the destination website. A large number of features apply.

Pictured: Pictures is a few of the logs created by Yabber. We record logs and statistics for images, articles, sent schedules, and other information. Stats are recorded for your articles that are read or viewed on a partner website.

Pictured: There is no limit to the number of websites you may sent articles. Distribution is determined by individual websites (only one pictured but all your registered partner websites will show in a list), by partner lists that you have created, or by partner registration types (this will send to all websites under a partner with a defined occupation type). No duplicate articles are ever sent.

The system was designed to provide more finance-related features than the generic systems that might be made available, and since we built the plugin that resides on the partner website we've made it extremely easy to include comprehensive borrowing graphs, RBA data, banking data, and related material within your post content.

SEO and Article Attribution

Duplicate content on any website is never good. Articles that originate from Yabber are provided for your audience - not search engines. For that reason we assign a canonical URL to a hidden archive on our website, and we also provide the markup necessary to represent your page as an object in social media and search engines. Despite the value provided by an article service, if duplicate content is all your provide it will degrade your quality score in Google and other search engines, and your website will be affected. No article program is a substitute for your own original content (ignore the boneheads that say content isn't necessary; this is flawed and professionally negligent messaging used by the Facebook crowd to assign value to their poor programs).

Canonical URL: A canonical URL is the URL of the best representative page from a group of duplicate pages. An article submitted to any website without reference to a representative page will have a negative impact on SEO.

The author assigned to each article is defined by you, and the website link in the bio or description field is the primary means of linking an audience back to you.

Article Statistics

An understanding of data and the performance of your marketing efforts is vital in resolving how your broader marketing efforts are performing. We track each of the articles you have created and return the data with as many data-points as we're able to extract. Statistics and graphing is returned for general 'sent' data and broad readership across all participating websites.

Pictured: Article statistics are vital... and it is one of the features of similar systems that is seriously lacking. We must be able to resolve the impact of our efforts in order to assign necessary resources into program objectives.

Unlike our own broker website we don't record an 'interest type' for each sent article but instead return the assigned categories and tags in your statistics. The category itself tends to paint a map of resolved interest for the type of content you're creating - this enables you to focus on the content creation that attracts more engagement.

When entering links on partner websites we use a link shortcode that manufactures a trackable and SEO-friendly link. If you're providing links back to your own website (the exception rather than the norm) all UTM Tracking Data is automatically applied in a rationalised format, and this data is also returned in various graphs.

Downloads and other interactions are tracked, albeit with fewer data points than those we resolve from your own website.

A Note for Clients

The system that you use for your own network differs a little to the system we use to send material to your assets. Some of these differences are listed below.

When we send articles to your website we include known page links within the text in order to support your internal website link architecture (an essential feature of any article system that is largely ignored). When our articles are assigned to your partner account these links are removed. If you choose to include any links within a partner website this should be made when the post is edited.
All links and images should be created with shortcode. This enables flexibility in the way in which articles are rendered on each destination website, and it permits us to handle how links are handled in the future (for example, we might include tooltips in the future and this will be enabled with a plugin update). The shortcode also permits essential features such as the automated UTM Tracking parameters into a URL.
If you're participating in Vista and you have set up a 'Social Media' scheduling calendar, we'll send an article notification to your calendar whenever a post is sent to your website (this replaces email and task notifications).
Whenever an article is sent to your website we record those details in a managed 'Send Log' (alongside Social Content, Video Content, and posts). When sending to partner websites these statistics are maintained independently.
A list of article shortcodes are supported that enables you to send all of the features of our 'Premium RBA' plugin, 'BeliefMedia Core' plugin, in addition to a number of other shortcodes (all features are in single updating plugin). This allows you to create dynamic and engaging content on partner websites.
A white-label version of the plugin can be made in your company name (such as 'ZYX Finance Partners', instead of 'BeliefMedia Partners). The plugin will present updates and work in the same way as our plugin with the exception that it's managed independently. This may attract a fee.

You may recall back in October we sent an email asking for volunteers to test the revised partner product. It wasn't until we starter to engage with the partners introduced to our test group of brokers that we determined a need to completely rethink our approach, and the article system was introduced to satisfy a real need for partners to see more value in their relationships.

Partner Content: Don't forget to review the partner content component of the Partner Plugin. You will find that around 70% of the partners you introduce to your business will be willing participants in the article program (this increases over time), while a smaller number will see value in the content components. Ensure you talk to us about your immediate strategy.

While the program is unconventional and somewhat confronting, it works tremendously well. In working towards a lower and more reliable cost for each converted opportunity - something that is becoming more difficult to achieve on Facebook and other platforms due to the saturation of the market and the proliferation of dodgy and unlicensed lead generation crowds - the partner program introduces an untapped and extremely high quality opportunity.

It's worth talking to us about how you might include partner social media accounts into your own (and managed) social media schedule. In a trusting relationship your partner might permit you to send important information directly to their social accounts (and Yabber facilitates this functionality by default).

The system is new so you'll likely encounter some bugs and room for more features. Please report back to us with details and suggestions.

Conclusion

It's often hard to assign value to the array of programs we provide clients, but in this case we hope the value and potential results are self-evident. Used correctly as part of a structured partner program it'll have a truly transformative impact on your business operation and partner presence, improve upon your SEO, and drive more organic traffic. In fact, the article system we use to send articles to your website is arguably less effective than the system you will use to post to array of participating partner websites; your objective with all digital programs is relevance and reach, and the partner article system supports this objective.

At the time of writing the module is a core and default part of any subscription - including basic website packages - although this ~~may~~ will change in the future. The system is more powerful than standalone subscription-based systems but it's just another feature we've introduced. We did consider applying specific criteria to its use but with the success we've seen from its usage we've determined that it is an essential tool, and our own best-interest obligations compelled us (at this stage) to release it to all clients.

Featured Image: Commonwealth Bank workers wearing masks during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1919. At the time of the flu around 50% of Australians were employed in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors - today that number is less than 10 per cent... so data comparison with the current experience is challenging. When the Spanish flu arrived in 1919, Australia was a country and an economy in transition. The federal and state governments had pumped hundreds of millions of Australian pounds into the war effort through public expenditure stimulus that was only just beginning to be withdrawn at WW1’s end. Private sector investment had yet to pick up the slack when the pandemic hit. The workforce started to accommodate hundreds of thousands of servicemen as they returned from the Western Front and other theatres of the war from 1919, and this was accompanied by a house-building boom, primarily financed by the Commonwealth Bank, to provide "homes fit for heroes". The return of military was supported by infrastructure development that included new suburbs, roads, railways, and airports, giving way to a decade labelled the Roaring 20s. Details sourced from Commonwealth Bank. [ View Image ]

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