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woman screaming at her laptop wondering if content marketing vs PPc is better for ROI

There are so many directions in which you can take your marketing strategy these days, it can make you dizzy.

SEO, PPC, email, social… the list goes on! Of course, most brands will choose a combination of several of these methods.

But what if you only have a limited to spend like most startups? I’m going to show you how I know that content marketing is better than PPC at delivering ROI and why you should focus your limited budget on your content marketing strategy.

Now listen, we’re going to use data to back this up. But I also need to make one thing clear: while I truly believe most digital display / banner ad spend is a waste of money, the most effective use of your budget is through a combination of content marketing and paid outbound.

Quick Takeaways:

  • When implemented properly, content marketing offers a higher ROI than PPC in the long-term.
  • PPC marketing can burn through a lot of cash before you figure out how to achieve ROI.
  • Paid search and other types of advertising have their place but it’s essential to have a solid content marketing strategy to balance them out.

What Is PPC Marketing?

But first, let’s recap what exactly I’m talking about when I say “PPC”. PPC stands for “pay per click,” is also known as “paid search” and is technically a form of advertising. PPC ads show up on top of “organic search” results on your search engine.

When you launch a PPC marketing campaign, you’ll place ads on a search platform like Google or Bing (this is also known as paid search marketing), on a social network such as Facebook or Twitter, or on other ad platforms.

Rather than paying upfront to place your ad for a set amount of time, you’ll pay the ad platform when your ad is clicked.

In most cases, there are many more advertisers than there are ad spots. The platform decides which ads to show by using a bidding procedure. The advertiser that has bid the highest amount for a particular search query or audience will get the best ad placement. However, they’ll also pay more when someone clicks through to their site.

What Is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is a strategy that revolves around using content (blog posts, videos, podcasts, etc.) to attract relevant visitors to your website, raise awareness of your brand, and boost sales and conversions.

Rather than being sales-focused like an ad, in most cases, this content doesn’t directly pitch your products and services. Instead, you provide useful, entertaining, or inspiring content that improves the lives of your audience in some way.

Publishing a blog is one of the most common types of content marketing and one that’s easy for anyone to start, whether they’re an individual on a shoestring budget or a large enterprise.

1. Content Marketing Is Significantly Cheaper in the Long Term

When comparing different digital marketing strategies, PPC is right up there with some of the most expensive.

PPC can get you to the top of Google if you’re willing to pay for it. But you’ll have to keep paying to stay there.

These costs can add up quickly, especially in competitive industries where keywords can go for several dollars a click.

On the other hand, content marketing needs only a modest initial investment to get you started. If you’re really running on a tight budget, you can create content yourself with the only cost being your time.

With time and effort, high-quality content can reach the top of search engine results naturally. This means you can be getting those clicks for free instead of paying for each one. And you won’t lose your rankings until someone creates better or more relevant content than you.

And the most recent indusrty research finds that content marketing gets three times the leads per dollar spent compared to paid search.

The ROI of content marketing and PPC has too many variables to suggest an “average” for each method, even on a per industry basis. But whatever industry you’re in, while PPC may seem to offer a more attractive ROI initially, content marketing almost always offers a better ROI in the long-term.

2. Content Marketing Attracts Better Quality Leads

Content marketing not only attracts more leads for your money, but it generates better quality leads too.

Lead quality is critical for optimizing ROI and increasing revenue. There’s no point in paying for leads (via any method) if they’re not converting.

One of the biggest complaints coming from sales teams is that the leads they get from marketing are low-quality ones. This situation can easily happen when sales and marketing aren’t in alignment and only care about their immediate targets. 55% of sales reps surveyed by Demand Gen said that what they want most from marketing is “better leads”.

Producing high-quality content is one of the most effective ways of attracting high-quality sales leads.

Just because you’re paying for leads, it doesn’t mean they’re great quality. A lot of the time leads from PPC are poor because they don’t know your brand or understand your product when they click your ad.

On the other hand, leads generated by content have already been introduced to your brand and educated on some level. And the longer they stick around and keep consuming your content, the better these leads become.

3. Content Marketing Generates Long-term Results

Content marketing programs must be planned on a much longer timescale than other marketing techniques (we plan for a whole year!)

While we allow for flexibility throughout the year, the trends and queries in your industry are likely not going to change that much. And your competitive gap is more likely to be closed or overtaken with a consistent approach.

Content marketing builds traffic and rankings that you own. This may happen very gradually, but once you start seeing the results you want, you’re not going to lose them overnight.

The time and money you invest in content marketing now will continue paying dividends well into the future. A single piece of content that might have cost you a couple of hundred dollars to produce could end up generating the magic of compounding results: business and leads worth tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for years to come.

Source: https://www.growthramp.io/articles/content-marketing-roi

PPC, on the other hand, is most definitely a short-term strategy. You’ll see the results immediately but if you want to keep having success, you’ll need to keep going.

Anyone can buy clicks, but the value drops to zero once you stop.

4. Content Marketing Is a Simple Model That’s Hard to Mess Up

There’s a real art and science to successful PPC marketing. Not only do you have to know what keywords to bid on, but you also need to bid the right amount, optimize your ads for a high click-through rate, and craft your landing pages carefully to get the results you want.

PPC can be very effective when done well, but in most cases, you’ll have to invest a significant amount of cash before you can see results. If managed properly, PPC can be a good investment but you need a decent budget to get started.

For this reason, it’s sheer madness to attempt a PPC campaign unless you know what you’re doing. If you get lucky then you might see results, but more often than not, you’ll burn through a significant amount of money and have no results to show for it.

As PPC is so complicated, with many moving pieces, most brands using PPC marketing will either employ an in-house expert or outsource to a marketing agency specializing in PPC. Of course, this adds more expense to an already pricey marketing model.

Content marketing, on the other hand, is about as simple as you can get. While there’s certainly a lot to think about when you’re putting together a content marketing campaign, you can’t really get anything “wrong”.

In the worst-case scenario, you’ll publish some content that doesn’t really do anything for you. But all you’ll have lost is the time it took you to create that content or what you paid for it (and content marketing is very affordable compared to other types of marketing, remember).

I’ve seen organizations achieve impressive success with content marketing without following any real plan or tracking results, which just goes to show how simple it is. Those who regularly publish high-quality content and consistently deliver value will be rewarded for their efforts eventually, even if they don’t get all the fine details perfect.

5. People Trust Content More Than Ads

Google is constantly changing the way in which paid ads are displayed in the search results to try and make them blend in more seamlessly with the organic results. The reason for this is that most of the time, searchers don’t want to click on ads.

Most web users these days know that companies have paid to appear in the ads at the top of the search results, whereas web pages that are listed at the top of the organic results are there because they’ve earned it with a great reputation and high-quality information.

Research by Nielsen has found that 53% of consumers don’t trust ads listed in search engine results and 52% don’t trust ads on social media.

Trust in advertising, in general, has been gradually declining in recent years, with customers preferring to do their own research and more likely to follow recommendations from their peers than brand ads.

Source: https://digitalwellbeing.org/word-of-mouth-still-most-trusted-resource-says-nielsen-implications-for-social-commerce/

Content marketing isn’t advertising. It’s a great way to build trust rather than erode it.

5. You Can’t Succeed in PPC without Also Investing in Content Marketing

So let’s say you do have the budget to inject into running a PPC campaign and you’re working with an agency that really knows what they’re doing.

You still won’t get the best results unless you also concentrate on creating really great content.

Just think about it – even if you’ve got a really well-written ad and your targeting is spot on, you still have to win over the users that click on the ad.

So that comes down to sales copy, right? Well, yes and no. It’s certainly important to have really well-crafted and optimized landing pages. But your success will be limited unless you’ve also thought about your content marketing strategy.

You might get some sales from users who’ve never heard of your company before and end up on your landing page. But you can greatly increase your chances if you’ve got a library of great content to back you up.

Great content gets shared and comes up frequently in search results. So, if you’ve been doing your job with content marketing well, there’s a good chance that the user who sees your ad and clicks through to your landing page might have seen one of your articles or videos while researching or on their social feeds. When they keep seeing great content from your brand, they’ll remember it and you’ve got a much better chance of making that sale.

While PPC might be great for attracting people to your funnel, you still have to get them through the funnel. And websites that have adopted content marketing convert at a rate that’s six times higher than those that haven’t.

PPC ads can convert well for users who are ready to buy. But for the rest? A report by Gleanster Research revealed that only 25% of your leads are ready to buy at any given time. So what do the other 75% want?

They want to find out more about your company and products or services. They maybe don’t even know yet that they have a need for your products and services. By publishing high-value informational content that addresses their challenges, you can ensure that they stick around for longer. You have a much better chance of making that sale when they’re finally ready to buy.

Ready to Start Focusing on Content Marketing?

PPC can still be an effective part of your overall marketing strategy when planned carefully. But it must be used in combination with content marketing if you want to achieve the best results.

Content marketing is a low-cost marketing technique that offers an impressive ROI if you’re willing to stick with it for the long-term.

If you are ready to get more traffic to your site with quality content published consistently, check out our Content Builder Service. Get started today–and generate more traffic and leads for your business.

The post Content Marketing Vs. PPC: What Delivers Better ROI? appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.

chart plotting costs for content marketing

There’s a lot of confusion surrounding the cost of content marketing today. That’s because there are so many variables that go into pricing and overall spend. Each business’s content marketing costs will depend on how developed their existing content strategy is, what the content should achieve and whether an in-house team or outsourcing is a better fit.

We also have to get granular and look at factors such as content quality, content type, and frequency.

Brands spend between $2,500 and $75,000 per month on content marketing depending on their goals, the volume of content produces, the types of content, and whether the content is promoted on social media or paid channels.

The truth is, there isn’t a single answer to the question of how much content marketing should cost. But if you need to put together a budget to determine how much you should business spend on content marketing, we’re here to help!

Quick Takeaways:

  • Content marketing costs are going to vary based on what a business needs.
  • Understand how you are doing vs the competition and what they are paying can help inform your content marketing budget.
  • Ultimately, your content marketing goals and budget will dictate the cost.

Aligning Content Costs with Business Goals

Know what you’re willing to spend based on the business goals content marketing helps you achieve. For example, how much are 20 new leads a month and a 10% month-over-month increase in sales worth to your business? How much value would a 50% increase in web traffic bring to your company?

We know that content marketing is worth the cost when it brings in more leads at a cheaper cost, thus increasing Content Marketing ROI:

Market Got You Down? Why Content Marketing Is Even More Important Now - Marketing Insider Group

Then, leverage content to reach those objectives, using your budget to inform your content plan. Implement it, track your return on investment, and keep making it better to yield optimum results.

Let’s take a look at the factors involved and the actual numbers. Use this information to decide what content to use to reach business goals while staying within a content marketing budget that works for your business.

1. Do You Already Have a Content Marketing Strategy?

Paying an agency for a comprehensive strategy can cost several thousand dollars for a small to medium-sized business in any vertical. For an enterprise company, the cost can reach $50,000 or more.

Why do you need a content marketing strategy? Can’t I just start publishing weekly blog posts and sharing on LinkedIn or Instagram?

Without a strategy, you’re probably not going to see results. And if you do, they’ll be fleeting. A strategy involves developing buyer personas, audience and competitor analysis, goal-setting, and forming an actionable content plan.

It covers all the information gathering and groundwork necessary to leverage content for business goals – and to generate long-term, sustainable, and even exponential results for your business, not just a blip in traffic or a short-term sales boost.

If you want to find out why so many content marketers are strategy-obsessed, watch this phenomenal talk on strategy by the founder of the Content Marketing Institute, Joe Pulizzi.

2. What Are Your Content Goals?

The purpose of content marketing is to use content to reach business benchmarks. Clarify your goals to decide what type of content to use, how comprehensive you want your strategy to be, and how you want it to evolve over time.

Your business will likely want to achieve all of these goals with your content marketing:

  • Bring more traffic to your website – You’ll need a budget for blog posts and other content to generate inbound traffic. Blog post prices range from about $50 to $1,000 or more for content written by an expert content writer.
  • Generate more leads – By offering ebooks, white papers, email newsletters, and other valuable content, a business can entice website visitors to share their contact information and become a lead. The cost of an ebook ranges from $500 at the low end of the spectrum to several thousand, and can include costs for writing, editing, and graphic design. Expect similar pricing for white papers.
  • Build brand awareness – Social media is used in content marketing to reach new customers and increase engagement. Include room in your budget for creating social media posts, including visual content, and managing your publishing schedule. A marketing video to post on social media can cost anywhere from $1000 for a basic video to $50,000 for a high-end one.

Keep in mind, while different types of content are helpful in reaching certain goals, with a good content marketing strategy, all of these elements and more are working together to create results.

Your Top Content Marketing KPIs to Monitor in 2021

3. In-House or Outsourcing Content – Which Costs More?

Another factor that will dictate what a business spends is whether there are enough resources to keep content marketing in-house.

You can outsource some or all of your content marketing. Usually, outsourcing content creation makes the most sense for SMBs. That stills leaves content management tasks to in-house staff unless you choose to work with a content marketing agency like ours.

In addition to content creation, someone needs to:

  • Create SEO-focused content plans
  • Create and manage the editorial calendar
  • Set brand tone standards and ensure they’re followed
  • Publish content on the right channels
  • Measure and report content marketing ROI
  • Continually reevaluate the existing content strategy and refine as needed

Having an in-house team may be more practical for some companies and for some content because the amount and quality of content they need can justify paying full-time salaries. Here are some updated figures from Glassdoor:

  • The average salary for a copywriter is $68K
  • For a copy editor in the US, the average salary is $54K
  • An in-house social media strategist will cost about $60K per year
  • The average salary for a graphic designer is $55k

For most organizations, outsourcing your content marketing strategy, weekly blog publishing, and SEO reporting frees your team and budget to work on more business-intensive tasks and product content.

benefits of ourtsourcing social media visualized

4. What Content Marketing Tools Will Your Business Use?

The tools your business utilizes will influence how much you spend every month on content marketing. It’s worth exploring what types of technology are available.

Determine where you can use content marketing tools to automate tasks, improve outcomes, and save money. Then, invest in the platforms and apps that are worthwhile. Some will involve an upfront investment, but many useful tools for project management, email automation, SEO, and more are available under a Software as a Service (SaaS) business model, which means you’ll pay a fixed monthly subscription fee.

5. How Much, How Good, How Often?

After you create a strategy with clear goals and benchmarks, you’ll know what content to use to reach those goals and what tools can help you along the way. With this information, you can estimate how much you’ll spend on content marketing, whether you’re outsourcing or creating content in-house. This is your cost baseline.

The next step: the details. Now, decide how much content you need, how high you want the quality to be, and how often to post. Then, you can tweak your content marketing costs to fit into your budget.

The specific costs are really up to what your business wants right now. For example, you can pay a video production company to create a premium marketing video for $20k, a more basic video for $1,500, or you can invest $5k to $10k in video equipment and create videos in-house.

The Costs of Content Marketing Are Flexible – Use That to Your Advantage

The beauty of content marketing is, if you do it well and stick with it, it will drive business results. I’ve watched it happen with all our clients. I know it works.

It will lead to an increase in revenue. And, you will have more resources to keep investing in content marketing to get even greater results.

Start where you are right now. Use a strategy. Execute it, measure the results. Then evolve and scale your content marketing as your business grows.

If you are ready to get more traffic to your site with quality content published consistently, check out our Content Builder Service.

Set up a quick consultation, and I’ll send you a free PDF version of my books. Get started today – and generate more traffic and leads for your business.

The post How Much Should Content Marketing Cost? appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.

Did you miss our previous article…
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woman cheating a test to represent digital marketing cheat sheets

It’s not easy being a digital marketer today. There are so many trends to stay on top of. You need to know and do everything from content strategy to writing and editing, SEO, social media marketing, Paid, analytics and so much more. Just as you think you’ve finally mastered a channel, all the rules change.

So how do you stay on top of it all?

You’ve come to the right place. Here’s an updated list of nifty digital marketing cheat sheets that will help you execute various activities to perfection. Every one of them is borrowed from expert sources who’re experienced or have built the best tools for the topic that we talk about.

(I’ve developed my own cheat sheet for content marketing ROI — because that’s the biggest challenge I hear from marketers today. And also created a MASTER cheat sheet for you with no registration required – linked at the bottom of this article.)

So, without further ado, let’s dive into this list — I’m sure it will make your life easier and help you get the results you want from your digital marketing efforts!

The Periodic Table of Content Marketing

Content marketing is arguably the most important component of digital marketing. This periodic table of Content Marketing from Econsultancy highlights the eight areas that are key to your content marketing success. You’ll find everything from content marketing goals to content formats, types, topics, and metrics, organized in a visually appealing way, so you can deliver great content your customers will love.

periodic table digital marketing cheat sheetCopywriting Awesomeness 101

Creating compelling content is no easy job. This list from Copyhackers covers 101 writing Dos and Don’ts to help you write great content that engages and converts.

20-Step Checklist for How To Write The Perfect Blog Post

How do you create perfect blog posts that will get your audience’s attention and stand out from the sea of content out there on the web? This infographic gives you the blueprint for writing a great blog post, everything from the headline to intro, main copy, visual elements and social sharing.

perfect blog post digital marketing cheat sheet

The same article also includes an infographic on the anatomy of a perfect blog post.

The Ultimate List Of Blog Post Ideas

Blogging is the heart of your content marketing strategy. Blogs drive traffic to your website and allow you to make a connection with visitors. Being able to continually come up with ideas for your blogs, however, can sometimes be a challenge.

This comprehensive infographic shares over 50 content topics and types that will surely fire up your inspiration today and help you create quality, valuable content to keep your audience coming back for more.

Content Distribution Strategies for Blogs of All Sizes

Creating valuable content is only half the battle. If you can’t get your content in front of your target audience, you’re not going to get the traffic and conversions you’d like to see from your blogging efforts. This checklist from Buffer shares 11 effective strategies they’ve learned from content promotion experts to help you get your content out there and make sure it is seen by as many of your target customers as possible.

The Ideal Length of Content

Wondering what the optimal length is for your social media, web content, headlines, and meta data? Sum All and Buffer pulled together this amazing infographic that summarizes the ideal length for your tweets, Facebook posts, and more.

Blogger Outreach Checklist

Want to connect with blog editors and thought leaders to pitch a guest post or ask for help in promoting your content? Explore this blogger outreach checklist to help you research, target, and reach out to individuals with whom you want to work.

blogger outreach digital marketing template

Everything You Need to Be a Social Media Rock Star

Are you using social media but not really seeing the ROI you expected? Maybe you aren’t sure what platform is best for your brand or are inconsistent in posting.

This handy post shows you everything you need to know about image sizing for your social media profiles, keyboard shortcuts, best days and time of day to post on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram, to help you get the most out of your social media marketing efforts.

social media posting optimization template

Visuals are central to social media posts, so images warrant a special mention here. It’s hard to keep up with all the sizes and specs for each channel. Plus, they often change! Check out this handy infographic that provides all the information you need on sizes for each platform.

Instagram image size cheat sheet

Step-By-Step Guide to Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is now a key aspect of digital marketing, especially for brands. Influencers are replacing brand ambassadors as the face, voice, and advocates of the brand. This post will help you define your influencers, reach out to them, and work with them to connect better with your customers.

The Ultimate Inbound Marketing Checklist

This eBook-like cheat sheet walks through all the key components of a successful inbound marketing campaign and how you can go about accomplishing each, everything from blogging to social media, lead generation, email marketing, marketing automation and analytics.

While you’re at it, there is also this infographic from HubSpot that provides a quick refresher on the inbound process, from traffic to conversions.

SEO Site Audit Checklist

Taking on a site audit is a huge task; Annie Cushing has made it manageable with her comprehensive site audit checklist. The Google sheet covers every imaginable category of SEO and every little task within.

site audit checklist

The Ultimate SEO Checklist Infographic

This infographic from SEO & Digital Marketing agency LeapFroggr is a must-have for any digital marketer’s toolbox. It includes practical SEO tips and best practices you can implement, everything from market and competitor research to on-page and off-page SEO, to ensure your great content and websites are getting searched and seen by your target audience.

SEO Cheat Sheet for Web Developers

While targeted at web developers, this cheat sheet from Moz is great for SEO newbies and experts alike, because it includes all the SEO best practices you need to keep your sites search-friendly, including HTML elements, social metadata, URL and hyperlinking tips.

moz seo cheat sheet

SEO Best Practices for Blog Posts

Totally new to SEO but want to optimize your blogs for SEO and search ranking right away? This infographic offers six important SEO best practices you can implement today, with a checklist you can hang to your wall as a quick reference for future blog posts you’re creating.

An infographic displaying an on-page SEO blog checklist.

The Complete List of SEO Ranking Factors

Well, if you had the full list of ranking signals Google uses, you wouldn’t be reading this post. There is a lot of debate among SEO experts on various ranking factors that Google may or may not reward or penalize, the characteristics of these factors, and the weight that Google assigns them. Here’s one compilation from Backlinko — but take it with a pinch of salt and do your own research.

Google Algorithm Update History

With Google constantly updating their algorithms — they make over 3,000 changes a year — it’s hard to stay up-to-date with it all. It’s critical for SEOs to know when major changes are happening to the Google algorithm so that they can examine changes in rankings, traffic, and search visibility.

Luckily, Moz has chronicled all notable Google updates since 2000 for easy reference.

Local SEO Checklist

Local SEO is the new yellow pages – the best way to reach customers in your city or neighborhood, right when they need you. This local SEO checklist outlines the best practices for you to get more local customers via search engines.

Creating the Ultimate Landing Page

Landing pages are critical to your digital marketing strategy. They are built to attract and convert leads, so making sure they are optimized to do just this is vital.

Here’s an infographic that outlines the best practices of landing pages, and explains constituent elements like headlines, introductions, USPs, credentials, FAQs, and CTAs in detail.

Don’t think your landing pages are delivering the results you want to see? Here’s a checklist from Klientboost and a list of questions from Unbounce you can use to make sure you’re not missing any of the key elements that will help you build a remarkable landing page that converts.

The Complete Conversion Rate Optimization Checklist

How do you make sure your web pages are attracting and converting your target audience?

Take a look at this conversion rate optimization checklist with details on how to choose KPIs and A/B testing.

The Complete List of Google Ad Extensions

When you use paid search marketing, then you need to make sure your money is working to give customers more visible ways to connect with you. You can boost your Google Ads performance by adding ad extensions that simply help you grab more SERP space without increasing your spend.

Retargeting 101

Retargeting/remarketing is one of the most effective ways to bring back customers and increase sales by chasing them (subtly) across the web. However, you need a checklist for re-marketing to make sure you’re not leaving money on the table.

Anatomy of an Effective Marketing Email

Email marketing is the best way to generate and nurture your leads. In fact, it has frequently proved to be the marketing channel with the highest ROI. Email gives you an opportunity to connect directly with your customers at a time of your choosing, with carefully selected, personalized messaging.

If your email marketing isn’t generating the results you want, it’s time to dissect what you’re doing. Optimize your marketing emails with these conversion-focused elements.

Google Analytics Metrics and Dimensions

If you’re new to Google Analytics or need a refresher, here’s a great cheat sheet that provides a comprehensive overview of all the Google Analytics metrics and dimensions you’ll want to be tracking to measure and improve the ways customers engage and interact with your website.

Universal Analytics Cheat Sheet

Simplify the world of Universal Analytics with this nifty cheat sheet that covers generalities, method and field reference, and limits and quotas in the new improved Google Analytics.

Website Usability Checklist

The usability of your site matters just as much as your message. Google too places extra importance on UX for search visibility. Be sure that you are using best practices and discover how to overcome challenges with this usability checklist infographic.

Website Launch Checklist

Launching a website is both exciting and stressful. You need to take care of everything from proofreading your copy to performance testing after the launch (or relaunch). Make sure you don’t forget any details with this website launch checklist.

When it comes to a website launch, even the best experts miss out on little things, so here’s another checklist. And here’s yet another, just in case, you know!

A Master Sheet to Sum It All Up

If you’ve made it this far, here’s a special treat for you… A MASTER CHEAT SHEET with a most of the checklists above, ready to use — just make a copy for yourself and get on with your campaigns!

What other cheat sheets and resources do you use to improve your digital marketing efforts? Please share your ideas in the comments!

Are you interested in reaching and converting new customers for your business? Contact me here and let’s talk about how we can help.

The post 26 Cheat Sheets Every Successful Digital Marketer Needs appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.

Did you miss our previous article…
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