Nicole Inge - Express Writers

Content Marketing Budgets: Avoid Cutting Quality While Keeping Costs Down During Economic Downturns

January 10, 2023 by Nicole Inge

Studies show content marketing generates three times as many leads as traditional marketing methods and costs 62% less. That means content marketing is consistently one of the most reliable marketing tactics. So, if you’re considering cutting your content marketing budget, you might want to pause first. Making that decision can feel heavy during economic uncertainty. However, Harvard Business Review notes that companies that continued to prioritize marketing bounced back strongest after an economic downturn. These brands take up more space in a less saturated market because their competitors take a break from marketing. That means when you avoid cutting your content marketing budget, you’re able to maintain visibility that others don’t. You probably know that long-term content marketing success comes from continued and sustained effort – not in fits and spurts. It’s not a get-rich-quick gimmick but a powerful tool that improves over time. Still on the fence about your content marketing budget? Read on to learn more about: How content marketing can increase profits. The versatility of content marketing. Ideas for implementing content marketing successfully. We’ll show you how you can maximize ROI, so your content marketing pays for itself while you build customer loyalty and attract new audience members. A Consistent Content Marketing Strategy Means Better Budget Use Under economic pressure, leaders prioritize short-term solutions. But standing your ground by advocating for your department and its budget is essential. When you establish goals for your content from the start, you can justify the paths you take to bring visitors to your site. With over 50% of trackable website traffic coming from organic search, you can’t discount the importance of optimizing content that encourages folks to stay on your site. That means understanding Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is essential so your site has a better chance of bringing in visitors. The more content you have on your website, the more opportunities there are for keyword placement, links, and people-first content through SEO. Though Google continually modifies its ranking factors, we know one of the chief characteristics of high-ranking pages is high-quality content. Google will see right through web pages that lack substance. By having high-quality pages, users spend an increased amount of time on the page, the page has a lower bounce rate, and the content offers the reader solutions to a problem they have. So, if your competitors decide to reduce the intensity of their content marketing budgets, then competition for Search Engine Results Placement (SERP) will diminish. Fewer competing search results make it more likely that your content gets on the top pages in search engines. In order to take advantage of this decrease in competition, you need to have a content marketing strategy. Instead of posting content whenever something strikes your fancy, create a content marketing calendar to establish the topics that you’ll write about and a consistent schedule. This schedule provides structure and stability, whether you’re pushing out content once a week or once a month– it also gives your audiences something they know they can look forward to. Focus on the content marketing methods your brand finds success with. It’s not necessarily the time to go out on a limb with the newest experimental social media platform, but you could find that taking a risk pays off in the long run. By focusing the bulk of your content on the things your business does well, you have that space to try a few new things, which helps you expand your strategy without losing steam. Should Your Content Marketing Strategy Include Paid Search? Overall, content marketing executed correctly results in higher ROI than paid search advertising. But it can be important to know the difference, especially during a recession or down economic year. Advertisers only pay for these ads when they get clicked, so paid search essentially comes with a built-in ROI tracker, while content marketing proves notoriously tricky to attach directly to revenue. However, Kraft did show that its content marketing had 4x better ROI than traditional advertising. The most significant financial advantage of relying on organic search results is that they cost nothing. Once you’ve paid for the content, it exists on the internet and anyone who uses the right search term can access it. As long as the keyword is relevant, you can pull your target audience directly to your site. In contrast, paid ads only show up if you’re willing to pay for them. For example, Google ads uses a bidding system that prioritizes larger ad spend when targeting a keyword. When you’re thinking about this from a budgetary perspective, it might not be the most helpful way to keep costs low. Organic content is also seen as more trustworthy since trust in advertising continues to decline. Content marketing often reaches audiences in the awareness phase of customer lifecycle marketing and builds rapport with audiences. Even if they aren’t ready to purchase, your brand will be top-of-mind when the time comes. Try not to get caught up in reaching whatever metric or measurement you think will impress at next week’s budget meeting. Instead, stick to long-term solutions to bring in continual dividends. This gives you the chance to cultivate better relationships with your target audience since you’re taking the time to develop content that actually helps them. Work Smarter, Not Harder with Your Content Marketing Budget During economic lows, people are more likely to change their spending habits to save money. Some even limit spending to only essential items. One strategy that has worked for years with consumers is to offer them something for free. You can capitalize on this when consumers aren’t spending as much money. The goal of this tactic is to get their attention. Offering up information your clients need as a free downloadable gets attention on your brand and builds trust with your readership. They don’t feel that you’re only trying to sell them something. The attention theory holds true regardless of the world’s financial state, but during less prosperous times, it can be even more beneficial. … Read more

Express Writers Year in Review: 2022 Milestones & What to Expect in 2023

January 3, 2023 by Nicole Inge

In 2022, the Express Writers team got up close and personal with what it means to be agile and adaptable. For most of the year, leadership has worked tirelessly behind the scenes to create and implement processes that will allow us to serve clients and our team members better. For the year ahead, we intend to keep clear and concise lines of communication open between our team and our clients. This will give us the space needed to strive toward excellence in every new product and project you see from us in 2023. We thought it would be great to share some of the things we’ve been working on or found interesting during 2022. The Express Writers year in review will take you through some of our accomplishments and give you a clear picture of where we’re headed. 2022 Trends and Hot Topics Content marketing never slows down, and 2022 was no exception. From algorithm changes to centering your audience, here are some hard hitters from the last year. AI in Content Marketing The conversation about using AI in marketing is not new. But this year, and into 2023, we’ve seen the conversation shift away from just having AI write content for you. One big advancement in recent years is AI’s ability to help you track what interests readers. That’s a big plus for marketers who use predictive analytics to generate content ideas. The reality is that using AI to improve your content marketing efforts can be a great tool to add to your belt. Another recent leap is OpenAI’s ChatGPT. In November, it became a viral sensation and includes a huge back catalog of knowledge. Many praise the achievement, though there are still limits to the technology that make it clear that technology can’t reach the same spaces as humans. While these advancements are important to keep an eye on, Express Writers firmly believes that humans write the best content. We still vet and hire with a hands-on process that prioritizes expertise and experience in niche industries. Google Helpful Content Update In August, Google rolled out a new update to their algorithm intended to categorize useful content that provides solutions for real people. Since then, the helpful content update has been fully rolled out and acts to suppress content that isn’t written with real people in mind. We think this is a step in the right direction for content that prioritizes authority and trustworthiness. If your business hasn’t fully implemented a process for creating helpful content, you’ll want to prioritize that heading into 2023. In the meantime, there are a few things you can do to start strategically updating your content: Seek out the content you’ve produced that doesn’t perform well and start updating it. Check your competition and similar keywords to find what your content is missing or what pieces you haven’t written at all. Do keyword research to find the best ways to optimize for SEO and pair that with human writers who have the industry experience your content needs. Use your knowledge of a subject to answer any questions your audience may have about your content to build trustworthiness. As long as you’re willing to make changes to create high-quality content, there’s no need to panic about these recent updates. Email Marketing in 2022 and Beyond One subject that interested us over the past year has been email marketing. For 2022, 37% of businesses upped their email marketing budgets. We saw that in action as clients started ordering this service more regularly. From blog update emails to regular nurturing campaigns, we helped our clients with a variety of email-centered campaigns. Additionally, we saw growth in email marketing as we switched how we send and automate emails. This included an increase in our open rates this year. The launch of our Write Wrap-Up newsletter and other updates in our email writing and sending process meant we were more adaptable with our email marketing. We’re excited about what that means for connecting with our audience over the next year. We’ve seen that personalizing and segmenting emails is extremely important to engagement rates, so in 2023, we believe it will continue to be important to personalize your email sends. To increase email personalization, you can: Cater your messaging to specific segments of your audience. Show off your products and services based on your client’s industry and needs. Set up automated emails that send when a site user converts a specific way. Send personal follow-up messages to people who request information about your products. Based on recent behavior, we don’t see this trend stopping soon. So keep an eye out for even more email marketing trends to emerge over the coming year. Writing & Order Statistics While the second half of the year faced some uncertainty, we have remained dedicated to our clients’ content. We wrote over 500,000 words in November alone! Client Retention Milestones 2022 was a big year for us in client retention. We remain committed to your content, and that shows. We’re grateful that our clients trust us to create quality content without compromise. That’s why we find and vet writers who bring industry expertise to the table every day. None of what we do would be possible without the support of our rockstar clients, and we’re thrilled that you’re along for the ride as we grow together. How We Made Changes to Our Content Strategy This Year For most of 2022, we’ve been updating our methodology, branding info, and target audiences to reflect the business goals of Express Writers’ next era. We know that businesses need quality content and can’t always ideate and create content themselves. That’s why we’ll continue to provide end-to-end content creation services to brands looking for a long-term partnership. Updating Our Social Media Strategy One of our largest endeavors this year was creating a cohesive social media optimization strategy centered around educational content (and a few content marketing memes for good measure). Our first target was growing our reach on LinkedIn, … Read more

Optimizing Web Copy (with Keywords): Why You Should Never Sacrifice Content Quality

November 29, 2022November 29, 2022 by Nicole Inge

When creating online content, optimizing web copy with keywords is an essential piece of the puzzle. But the question is, should that be your primary focus as a content creator? Although optimizing your content is essential for generating more website traffic, it’s also crucial that you’re getting that traffic to convert. When traffic converts, you know your content is doing the work to get people interested in your business and can make them customers. It can be easy to laser focus on weaving keywords into your copy, but that can distract from giving your readers a useful experience. That’s why it’s time to make creating quality content for your existing human reader your primary mission and use optimization as a secondary asset to attract more traffic. Prioritize Solutions Over Keywords With the Google Helpful Content Update’s launch, the tech giant encourages creators to focus on creating people-first content. This means offering your readers a satisfying experience while creating content that meets their expectations. Do this, and you stand a better chance of ranking high in the SERPs. Don’t do this, and you’ll find your content will generate less organic traffic. Creating and consistently posting content that offers solutions to your audience’s biggest pain points will allow you to achieve the pinnacle of helpful content. Even without Google’s update, you should craft content that positions you as knowledgeable and passionate. But since they encourage creators to write content that leaves the reader feeling like they’ve learned enough about a particular topic to achieve their goals, you might as well utilize this in search engines. Then you can be authoritative on a subject and market yourself in the SERPs. So, where does keyword optimization come into play? Can I still optimize web copy with keywords? Google suggests writing to your human reader first, then directing your attention to SEO best practices for keywords. You avoid the typical lackluster, robotic, and unsatisfying content that comes from focusing only on search engines – which won’t bring in the conversions you need anyway. 7 Ways to Create Quality Content for Your Reader Now that you know your human reader should always be your primary focus, how can you create quality content people enjoy reading and sharing with others? There are several things you can do to get started: 1. Focus on Their Unique Needs Your readers search for content that addresses their unique problems. That’s why you should get to know your target audience because then you can identify the topics that will offer answers for them. And connecting on this deeper level reveals more about their interests and pain points — you humanize your business and build trust with the people you want to reach. Once you know more about your readers, you can start doing research to determine what they search for on Google. A way to do this is by checking Google Analytics to see which search terms land people on your website. After finding those, take the successful topics from your site and reflect them on social media for further optimization. You can also use your content across multiple channels, saving time and effort. Take things to the next level by studying your competitors. See what topics they use for their content to see what’s generating interest from their audience. Use it as inspiration, then dig deeper into the topic and put your own spin on the information. 2. Write Captivating Content That’s Easy to Read All of your site content should be well-written and easy to consume. If it isn’t, your ideal reader could disappear from your pages. An easy way to start incorporating steps that will make your content captivating? Write a catchy, attention-grabbing headline. Headlines should be short and sweet and communicate the point of your article. Make sure this headline is relevant and avoid clickbait-y titles that can turn readers off. From there, write an introduction that will set the overall tone for the article and leave your audience wanting more. In your introduction, highlight the problem you’re addressing so readers know what to expect. Sharing statistics or fun facts is one way to increase interest here. But make sure your stats are well-researched. You may opt to introduce your article with a fascinating story instead. Experiment and see what fits your style and audience’s attention span the best. Make sure the body of your article is easy to read by checking for flow in the editing process. Formatting is another big step. Keep the post simple to follow through subheaders that break the blog post into sections. Additionally, numbered and bulleted lists help with readability because your audience can get the gist of a section without much effort. Basically, avoid big blocks of text that are visually hard to absorb and keep the blog dynamic. 3. Add Visual Interest Visuals are another powerful way to up-level your blog posts. By adding images to your blog posts, you appeal to those readers who are visual learners. By incorporating images, you can help them understand complex topics through customized infographics and other images. Additionally, stock photos are helpful because they help you break up text and include humans to help make connections. Source: NCN Technology Whenever possible, you can also consider adding videos to your blog posts. Videos can expand on the topic at hand and provide additional information for your reader to consume. And by sourcing images and videos to complement your posts, your readers will sew how much time goes into the incredible content you produce. 4. Create an Emotional Connection with Your Reader Content that evokes an emotional response and builds connection is memorable. It’s a great feeling when your content sticks in a reader’s mind. You can create these emotional connections in a number of ways. For one, you can opt to tell engaging and relatable personal stories. Think about the reasons and feelings that would bring someone to your content, then comment on those and offer empathy. Additionally, consider how you write. Your writing … Read more

Optimizing Social Media Content: Which Platforms Are the Best to Optimize and How?

July 21, 2023November 15, 2022 by Nicole Inge

There’s no denying that social media can be a powerful tool for your brand. Showing up consistently with helpful and unique content for social platforms helps you generate awareness for your brand. It also attracts leads and sales. But this can be tricky as you navigate social media algorithms to get your content noticed. That’s where optimizing social media content comes into play. By being strategic with the kind of content you’re creating, you stand a better chance of boosting visibility and engagement. If you’re concerned about catching up on social media optimization, have no fear. We’re covering all of the basics of optimizing content. You’ll learn what it means and how to optimize based on each separate platform. Let’s dive in! Optimizing Social Media Content: What Does This Mean? Since social media generates awareness for your brand through exposure to a wider audience, optimization lets you capitalize on that. You use various social platforms to spread your brand’s message and establish your online presence. You spend time analyzing and auditing your strategy, factoring in social media best practices, and what’s performing well with your audience. Meaning you develop the most effective strategy possible. But what does it mean when you’re optimizing social media content? It comes down to being strategic about the content you publish. When using social media as a brand, you don’t want to post just anything. Your content should still center the interests of your target audience. In addition to considering what your audience is into, you will also want to align your content with what performs best for each separate platform to get better results. Doing social media optimization properly can help you reap a ton of rewards. The benefits speak for themselves about the value of optimizing your content: You’ll Develop an Effective Social Media Strategy: When you know how to create strong content for each social media platform, you can effortlessly craft a strategy that will help you be more consistent with posting. You’ll always know what kind of content to share, where to share, and when. It takes all the guesswork out of managing your social media presence. Your Engagement Will Increase: When your content is optimized properly, there’s a good chance it’ll see a greater reach, therefore, increasing your visibility. This means your brand could get discovered by tons of new people. And you boost engagement (such as comments, shares, and website traffic) to attract new followers. You’ll See a Greater ROI Across Platforms: Odds are, you use social media as a tool to help you achieve some of your larger business goals. Generating sales is a common one, for instance. Another is increasing brand visibility. With successfully optimized content, you increase your chances of reaching those goals and boost your ROI. Plus, seeing those analytics is a great way to see your hard work pay off. At the end of the day, the social media accounts that end up being successful are those that understand trends, the types of people on the platform, and how to take advantage of their existing content library to optimize it across accounts. They become masters at their platforms and create content their audience can’t get enough of. As a result, they’ve built engaged, loyal followings. Which Social Media Platforms Are Best to Optimize? It’s easier than ever to find a social media platform that’s an ideal fit for your brand because there many are available. You want to ensure you invest time and energy into the platforms that showcase your strengths while putting you in front of your target audience. Otherwise, you risk your content going unnoticed or getting seen by the wrong people. Source: Gainchanger If you’re going to be creating content for several platforms, you want to make sure you enhance that content for the different goals of that platform so it stands a better chance of performing well. Once you become a master at social media best practices, this will become second nature to you. To get started, you should make sure that you have defined your business goals for social media. This means choosing strategies that align with those goals. For example, if you want to improve SEO for a B2B business, you might choose LinkedIn because over 50% of companies in the B2B arena find clients on the platform. Alternatively, if you want to increase visibility for your brand, you might go with Facebook. Their ad features make it easy to target the right segments while making sure people still see your content and posts. What are the Best Tactics for Social Media Optimization? Broadly, there are a ton of things you can do to optimize your social channels. By using some of these simple strategies, you can make a big dent in getting your business out there and noticed by the right people. But what are the best ways to optimize your social media? We’ve chosen a few general fixes and high-level improvements you can make to help your business’s pages. Never Stop Thinking About Your Audience Your audience is the most important part of your social media presence. They drive your engagement. This means their interests and pain points should always be top of mind. And the demographics for your audience could be different across your different social channels. That’s why you should regularly take the time to check out the types of followers you have in your analytics. Write Snappy Bios Your bio is one of the earliest things someone will see when they check out your profile. It sets the tone and establishes who you are. So, make sure your bio covers what you do, your industry, and nails your brand tone quickly. Having a great bio can encourage a potential client to reach out to you, so you want to ensure you make a good impression while being aware of their attention span. Consider the Time You Post Tons of hours have gone into studying the best times to post on social media … Read more

The Ultimate Guide to Blog Optimization for SEO and Conversions

June 19, 2024October 18, 2022 by Nicole Inge

Your content ranks on the first page of Google’s search results. You receive tons of organic traffic to your site every month. And your engagement and conversion rates are through the roof! It sounds like a dream, right? Well, it could be your reality with the help of some blog optimization. By optimizing your blog posts, you take an ordinary piece of content and enhance it. Then Google is more inclined to show it folks searching for the content you offer. In turn, you’ll gain more exposure and see a boost in traffic. You do this all while satisfying the readers looking for content in your niche. It doesn’t hurt that Google stays happy as well. This might sound like a lot of time-consuming work, but it’s not as daunting as it seems. And with the ROI you’re likely to see, the undertaking is worth it. You still might be wondering what blog optimization is. In this guide, you’ll learn techniques that are essential to optimizing your blog posts for massive rewards. Table of Contents: The Ultimate Guide to Blog Optimization for SEO and Conversions To simplify the process, we’ve broken it down into four key areas. Here’s an overview: Before Writing the Blog: 4 Steps to Prep for Blog Optimization Although it may be tempting to dive right in and start crafting content, you’d be missing a crucial first step: blog optimization prep. This stage requires you to research, then outline and draft your content. While this takes additional time and effort, you’ll have already made your job easier when it comes time to write. 1. For SEO Rankings: Conduct Keyword Research It’s impossible to optimize your blog without first doing keyword research. Selecting the right focus keyword for your content is imperative if you want to rank higher in Google’s search results and ultimately generate more traffic for your website. But if you’re not sure how to optimize blog posts for SEO, you likely need some tips for conducting proper keyword research. After all, 68% of online experiences begin with the user searching via a search engine. That means they’re typing in a specific phrase or keyword they want more information about. And as the creator, you should ensure your content provides helpful guidance on the topic they’re searching for. No matter what industry or niche you’re in, the tips that follow will assist you in finding high-ROI keyword opportunities. This way, you’ll increase your chances of ranking and getting traffic. Start with broad, general seed keywords, also known as “root keywords,” related to your industry or the products and services you offer. Example: If your business sells car parts, you might want to start your search with a no-brainer root keyword, such as “car parts.” Plug that keyword into your preferred keyword research tool. There are tons of options to assist in keyword research, with free and paid tools available. The strategists Express Writers consider Semrush one of our favorites. You can also check out Mangools or Moz’s Keyword Explorer. Example: If you plug “car parts” into Keyword Tool, a list of long-tail keyword variations that can be researched further will pop up. This search, for instance, shows options such as “euro car parts” and “car parts near me.” Image: Screenshot of Keyword Tool keyword variation suggestions. Search for a long-tail keyword that expands on your root keyword, but hits that sweet spot, meaning it has low competition, high search volume, and a low difficulty score. This will be the ideal focus keyword for your content because you’ll stand a better chance of climbing to the top of the SERPs. 2. For Your Audience: Do Topic Research Once you have some keyword ideas for your content, you’ll want to brainstorm potential topics. Topic research is an essential element of the blog optimization process that ensures you create interesting content for your target audience. If you write content they’re not searching for, they won’t discover or be interested in it. You should always consider what your audience finds important. What is going to grab their attention? What kind of content is going to address their biggest pain points? Your reader is always wondering what’s in it for them, so you need to provide tremendous value every single time. So, how do you find those hot blog topics that people want to read? There are a few tried-and-true methods perfect for getting the creative juices flowing. 1. Scope Out the Competition Odds are, you already know who the biggest competitors are within your industry. And you’ve probably had your eye on them for a while. But what you likely haven’t been doing is using them as a source of inspiration for your content. In reality, your competitors hold a wealth of knowledge. Take some time to browse their content and note the topics they cover. Then, ask yourself a few key questions to determine if it’s worthwhile for you to cover as well: Can I put my spin on the topic in question? You never want to blatantly copy someone because it won’t be a positive reflection on your brand. Instead, you want to draw inspiration from and add your unique perspective to the topic. Then you differentiate it from things already published. Can I write a better blog post on this topic? Whatever your competitors are doing, you want to do it better. Find opportunities to be the best and improve on the content that’s out there. This could look like conducting more thorough research, higher quality writing, or incorporating more visuals into your content. Can I go more in-depth on a broader topic? If your competitors tend to be very broad with their content, that’s your sign to dig deeper. Dig into a topic and provide insights into a particular facet of it. If you provide more specialized content, folks are more likely to engage with it. 2. Use BuzzSumo With the help of BuzzSumo, a simple search will allow you to see what’s popular with … Read more

Understanding People-First Content: What It Is and How to Write It

February 7, 2024September 27, 2022 by Nicole Inge

It’s always been important that you develop content your audience finds useful, but for years, content that focuses on ranking because of SEO has saturated the pages of search engines. Now, the Google Helpful Content Update has finished rolling out, and the phrase people-first content is everywhere. You might have heard of this phrase before, but if you haven’t, you’re likely wondering why it is so important and how it will impact your marketing. Understanding human-first content is essential for utilizing the Helpful Content Update. But you shouldn’t only be concerned about what this means for the algorithms of search engines. Take this as a sign to step up your content strategy through content that prioritizes originality and helpfulness for your readers. By focusing on content this way, you can bring in an audience that organically resonates with your topics and find better-qualified leads. Still worried you don’t understand people-first content? We’re going to help you understand what it is and why it helps you build authority. Then we’ll cover how to create it to put humans first and the best ways to optimize for search engines. What is Human-First Content? Put simply, Google’s mission with the Helpful Content Update is to reward creators who provide high-quality, people-first content to their readers. Content that dives deeply into a topic and shows a mastery of knowledge is more likely to perform well in the SERPs, while low-value content will rank lower. When combined with Google’s other ranking signals, the algorithm can better detect content that is low-quality content or doesn’t answer the questions searchers have. This content will then be de-prioritized. Content aimed at humans will deliver a satisfying experience to those who visit your site. The focus then becomes providing value and keeping people returning to your site because your content answers all their questions. They don’t need to search anywhere else. Take a look at the content on your site. Do you provide solutions to problems that your niche addresses? Do you have pages that people find regularly and link back to as the perfect source for facts? If the answer remains unclear, your content strategy probably needs an upgrade. There’s no need to worry because Google has provided key questions to ask yourself about the focus of your content. Once you’ve clarified where you need improvement, crafting the perfect content to build an enthralled readership is key. Why Human-First Content is Important for Building Authority Establishing yourself and your brand as an authority in your field is no easy feat. However, if you want to bring people to your site and ultimately turn them into customers, it is essential. We know it can be hard to know what authority looks like for your niche. That’s why you’ll want to research your competition, commit to keyword research, and find the topics your target audience is interested in as you get started. From there, you’ll have a clear picture of what you have on your site already and what you need to add to become a trusted voice in your industry. Setting up your content strategy this way centers your readership from the start. You already know what real people are searching for and where the gaps are. Then you commit to consistently creating quality content and steadily bringing in the right audience. They’ll see your thoughtful, in-depth posts to show them you care about what you’ve put on your site, not just SEO or rankings. Understanding why authority is essential to content can be elusive. Here are a few things to keep in mind: It’ll Showcase Your Expertise on a Topic: Odds are, you know a lot about the topics your brand covers, so share that knowledge. You can do this by creating well-thought-out, detailed, and in-depth guides on topics that interest your target audience. Proving that you know what you’re talking about is a great way to easily build trust with your audience. Readers Will See You as a Dependable Resource: When your readers can count on you for high-quality, factual, and valuable content, they keep returning for more. Not only is that great for boosting website traffic, but those people become loyal readers. From there, they share your content with their audience and friends, helping you build a circle of people who are a great fit for your customer base. Because you nurtured them through your content – whether blogs, email, or social media – they know they can count on you. It’ll Differentiate You from Competitors: You can find a high saturation of businesses online. The best thing you can do for yourself is research the gaps that you fill in your industry. You show your audience that you’re different than your competition by creating human-first content that addresses their needs and provides assistance your competitors can’t or don’t. Keeping these factors in mind while you put together your content strategy will make you a stronger player in your industry. Your readers will take note, and searchers will find you faster on Google, so it’s best to go all in for content you’re passionate about that truly helps your audience. How to Write Human-First Content While your content should always focus on humans first, the Google Helpful Content Update adds some urgency to understanding how to write like this. We’ve put together some tips to help you make sure your content is helpful and valuable for your audience so creating people-first content won’t feel so overwhelming. 1. Ensure Your Content Sticks to Your Niche It might seem like covering a wide array of topics will bring more traffic to your site. But Google doesn’t consider that a way to create helpful content. Your readers are less likely to experience confusion when they visit your site because all your content follows a similar direction. Because searchers often have multiple connected questions when they seek out information online, having your content back catalog connected can keep folks on your site longer and provide evidence that you can … Read more

What Does the Google Helpful Content Update Mean for Content Marketing?

September 20, 2022 by Nicole Inge

As an online content creator, it’s essential to pay close attention when Google makes algorithm updates. These changes can directly impact how your content ranks on the search engine results pages (SERPs). This means being prepared to adapt your strategy to the algorithm to secure a spot on the coveted first page of Google. You might think this task is challenging, but it’s all about staying up to date with Google’s best practices. The most recent update, announced in August 2022, is the Google Helpful Content Update. The update seeks to better identify low-value content, meaning high-quality, people-first content will generate more organic traffic and rank higher. And since it finished rolling out on September 9th, we wanted to explore everything you need to know about the Helpful Content Update and dive into what it means for you and your content marketing efforts. What is the Google Helpful Content Update? To better connect people with information that brings them value, Google says that they prioritize ranking “original, helpful content written by people, for people, in search results.” Combined with the rest of Google’s ranking signals, this update will settle into an algorithm that detects low-quality content lacking meaningful engagement. It is a site-wide signal that homes in on sites with a large quantity of unhelpful content before penalizing them by decreasing site traffic. Frustrated users express on social media or blogs that they land on pages that provide no solutions to their search questions but rank on top pages in search engines. So, Google has taken these conversations to heart and wants to use the algorithm to reward creators who provide human-first content to their readers. The Helpful Content Update is just one part of a large effort to make it easier to find helpful content when searching. While this update might not feel widespread yet, it has caused some shakeup in search results as the algorithm works to recategorize sites. What Does the Google Helpful Content Update Mean for Content Marketing? Since websites that engage with their audience to provide helpful content will climb higher in the SERPs and generate more organic traffic, it’s important to know what will affect you as a content marketer. After all, when Google makes changes, you’ll also need to make changes to your content strategy. Here’s what you should know: Focus on People-First Content The term “people-first content” comes directly from Google. But what exactly does this mean? First and foremost, it’s about providing great content and a positive experience for your website readers. If you post content to your site, it’s your job to think about the target audience of your content and write with them in mind. Does this mean you should abandon the SEO best practices you’ve been implementing all this time? Absolutely not. It just means you should focus on creating high-quality content first and then incorporate search engine ranking factors to provide additional value to searchers. To ensure your website and its content have a people-first approach, Google encourages you to ask yourself the following questions. If you can answer yes to them, you’re likely on the right track. Does your intended or existing audience find the content useful because it came directly from your business site? Does your content establish first-hand expertise and in-depth knowledge? Is the purpose or focus of your site clear? When someone reads your content, will they leave feeling they’ve gotten enough knowledge to achieve their goal without needing to search elsewhere? Will reading your content leave someone feeling like their experience was satisfying? Is guidance for core updates and for product reviews kept in mind? Don’t Make Search Engines Your Primary Focus We get it. You want your content to rank, so you implement all the SEO best practices the experts recommend. While there’s nothing wrong with that, it does become an issue when that’s all you’re focused on. If you aren’t prioritizing your human reader, your content (and rankings) will suffer. To determine if you’ve previously been taking a search engine-first approach with your content, Google has shared the following questions to ask yourself. If you answer yes to the majority of these questions, consider reevaluating the content on your site to focus on people first. Does content draw people from search engines over prioritizing content made for humans? Do you produce large quantities of content on different topics in hopes that some could perform well in search results? Do you use automation extensively to create content on many topics? Do you end up summarizing other existing content without adding new insight? Is your content focused on what’s trending instead of topics you’d write about for your existing audience? Do readers finish your content and feel like they need to do another search for better information? Is all of your content a particular word count because you’ve heard or read that Google has a preferred word count? (They don’t.) Are you exploring a niche topic area but lacking real expertise because you thought you’d get search traffic? Does your content promise answers to questions that have no answer, like mentioning a release date for a product, movie, or TV show that hasn’t been confirmed? How to Abide by the Google Helpful Content Update There are a few things you can do to transform your content strategy moving forward. Following these tips will ensure you focus on your readers and keep Google happy by extension. 1. Stick to Your Niche Once you’ve narrowed down your niche, Google’s advice is to stick with it. After all, it would be a little confusing if we started publishing recipes on The Write Blog, wouldn’t it? We know our niche and understand that our audience comes to us to learn everything possible about creating high-quality online content. If you’ve been publishing content outside of your niche, it’s time to make a change. You don’t want Google to think you’re more focused on search engines and rankings than your human reader. From here on out, focus … Read more

How to Create (and Manage) an Email Newsletter Your Audience Loves

June 21, 2023September 13, 2022 by Nicole Inge

Email marketing is a fantastic method for attracting and retaining customers for the long haul. Through email, you can even build a loyal community and create a strong relationship with those in your target audience. It sounds like a dream, but it can feel a little intimidating. If you’re not familiar with email marketing, you might not know where to begin. Luckily, learning how to create an email newsletter is simple when you follow a few easy steps. Before you know it, you’ll be well on your way to sending incredible content to your subscribers. In this post, you’ll learn how to create an email newsletter in a few easy steps. We’ll also discuss additional email marketing tips that will be helpful on your journey to creating a healthy, engaged list. How to Create an Email Newsletter In the list below, you’ll find tips to help you get started on creating an email newsletter to be proud of. Ready to build your very own email newsletter? By implementing our tips from start to finish, you’ll be able to craft email content in the most effortless, stress-free way possible. 1. Determine the Goal of Your Email Marketing Efforts Before diving in, determine the purpose of email marketing as it fits into your overall content strategy. What are you hoping to achieve by starting a list, gaining subscribers, and sending out regular content? Are you simply wanting to generate website traffic? Do you want to have a list so you can promote your products and services? Are your goals multi-purpose? No matter what your goal is, it’s important to keep it in mind as you build your list. Knowing your goal will fuel your content and show you which KPIs (key performance indicators) you need to track to see if your efforts are successful. Then, you’ll know when to tweak your strategy. 2. Choose an Email Newsletter Tool Before you can put together your newsletter, determine the best email marketing tool for your business. There are tons of them available today, ensuring you’ll find one that suits your needs and your budget. To get started, you simply need to consider the features you want a tool to have before beginning your research. For instance, you want something that’s going to be user-friendly, so you don’t have to spend hours trying to figure everything out. A tool that has a drag-and-drop editor might be a must for you, especially if coding isn’t in your wheelhouse. You’ll also want to look for features like sending automated sequences, which would allow you to develop a welcome sequence for new subscribers. Some popular options are MailChimp, ConvertKit, Constant Contact, and Active Campaign. Many offer a free trial, so you can take advantage of that to give them a good test run. 3. Design a Functional Email Template Once you’ve chosen your favorite email newsletter tool, you might as well dive into creating a template. This template will be the design you use in many of your emails. It should be consistent and reflect your branding so it’s immediately identifiable as yours without someone even having to look at your name. You can use pre-made templates. These are perfect if you’re not a designer at heart. However, if you’re feeling crafty and confident, you can design something unique. Additionally, test your templates for desktop and mobile since people will be reading your emails on both. You don’t want the formatting to look fine on a computer but break on mobile or a link to be missing. One way to test your template is to create a test email and send it to yourself to ensure everything looks and functions as expected. That way, you can correct any problems before the email goes live. 4. Decide What Kind of Content You’ll Send and the Frequency of Emails Part of learning how to create an email newsletter is mapping out your content strategy. Ideally, this will relate to the goals you set earlier because you want your content to help you achieve those things. For example, if you want your newsletters to drive traffic to your blog, you’ll want to mention your latest posts and include links within the newsletter. Keep your emails from being only promotional by making it more enticing for people to join your list by promising exclusive, high-quality content they can’t get anywhere else. This might include sending tips and tricks you haven’t otherwise shared before. It all depends on what you feel called to write in your newsletter and what would appeal to your target audience. Next, it’s important to consider how often you’ll send emails so you can aim for consistency. Many marketers opt to send weekly newsletters, but you could also go for biweekly or monthly if you want to keep your content creation schedule light. Once you’ve chosen how often to send your email newsletter, make sure you select the date and time for your email. Keeping this consistent is great because your audience will know when to expect your email in their inbox. From there, consider the best time to send email newsletters to avoid getting buried in the Monday email crush or Friday’s brain turn-off. The most important thing? Whatever schedule you choose, stick to it. 5. Create a Free Offering to Attract Subscribers If you want to get people to join your email list, you need to offer something in exchange for their information. Simply telling people you have a list and asking them to join isn’t enough to convince them to hand over their names and email. They want to know what’s in it for them. To generate new subscribers, it helps to have an opt-in freebie that gets delivered to people upon joining your list. It’s a simple incentive, but it makes a huge difference when people see they’re getting something out of the deal. What you choose as your freebie will depend on your audience. You could offer some sort of PDF download, a … Read more

10 Hot Email Marketing Tips for 2022

January 18, 2024September 6, 2022 by Nicole Inge

It’s predicted that 333.2 billion emails will be sent and received each day in 2022. It’s proof that email marketing is far from dead. So, if you haven’t gotten your brand moving to take advantage of email marketing, now is the perfect time to start building up your email list. With so many emails sent daily, how can you make sure your emails stand out in a crowded inbox? How do you ensure people take notice? What do you need to do to make sure they consume your content? We’ll cover the answers to these questions and more as we share 10 hot email marketing tips you can use in 2022 and beyond. 10 Hot Email Marketing Tips for 2022 It’s safe to say most of us subscribe to a lot of email newsletters, especially if you run a business. And there’s a good chance many of them get sent straight to the trash unopened. If you want to prevent the same fate from happening to the newsletters you send, keep these email marketing tips in mind: 1. Keep Your Target Reader in Mind When Writing To write truly irresistible emails, you need to put yourself in the shoes of your target reader. What would they want to see in an email from you? What kind of content would they enjoy reading? Whatever it is, that’s what you want to send to them. When they look forward to seeing your name in their inbox, they’re more likely to open and eagerly engage with the content you send. To take it a step further, consider segmenting your email list based on interests or where they are in the buyer’s journey. This makes your content more focused and personalized for the groups of subscribers you target with each campaign. Essentially, it ensures they receive the content they’re most interested in seeing versus getting bombarded with other information. Not only does this increase open rates, but people will be less likely to unsubscribe. 2. Write Subject Lines That Grab Attention Of all the email marketing tips in the world, this is the one you should take the most seriously. Your subject line could make or break the success of your email. It might sound like a lot of pressure, but your subject line is crucial. It’s what people see first thing. Those few words help them decide whether they open your email or send it straight to the trash. If you want to increase your open rates and get people to read the content you so painstakingly crafted, your subject line needs to grab attention. It needs to be descriptive while still being short and sweet. And most importantly, it should never mislead your subscribers. Clickbait subject lines can reduce your read rates by 9% or more. 3. Schedule Emails to Send at Optimal Times After you finish crafting a compelling email, it might be tempting to hit send immediately. However, it might not be the most optimal time for an email to land in your subscribers’ inbox. You want to reach them when they’re more inclined to open and read your content. The tricky thing about finding the right time to send emails is that it tends to vary based on the industry. Although, there is some data you can use to help you narrow down a few times to experiment with. Then, you can see what your unique audience responds to. Here’s some advice from WordStream to get you started: Stick With Daytime: It’s better to send emails to your list when your subscribers are awake. Because you can have subscribers based across the globe and in different time zones, consider the location of most of your audience when choosing your ideal time. Avoid Mondays and Weekends: Many people arrive in the office first thing on Monday morning and delete any unnecessary emails, so you don’t want yours to fall into that category. Emails are often ignored on weekends as well, which is when people tend to disconnect. Go With Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday: According to MailChimp, these three days tend to be the favorites when sending email campaigns. Try sending emails on these days to see if one triggers a higher open rate than another. Then, you can choose one day for weekly consistency. At the end of the day, be willing to test and tweak your schedule. Once you’ve figured out the best day and time to send your emails, it’s one less thing you to worry about. Instead, you can just focus on implementing the rest of these email marketing tips. 4. Make Sure Your Emails Are Optimized for Mobile Because you’re sending your emails from a desktop website, it can be easy to forget to check how the result looks on a mobile device. But, most of us are reading our emails on mobile. That’s why you need to take the extra step to ensure your email template and all your content suit a smaller screen. Otherwise, your subscribers will have a hard time reading what you’ve sent, and they could delete your email without engaging. Luckily, many platforms allow you to preview your email on mobile. Often, you can even send a test email to yourself before it goes out to your list. Then, you can make any final tweaks to ensure it’s mobile-friendly and looks great. Take the extra few minutes to do this before sending! As a good rule of thumb, you’ll want to stick to a single-column email template. You’ll also want to choose a font size that’s legible on mobile since subscribers won’t be able to make it bigger. Additionally, you’ll want to double-check the size of any images and buttons that you’ve added. 5. Engage Subscribers Right Off the Bat If you’re not already sending a welcome email (or even an entire welcome sequence) to your new subscribers, you’re missing out. The smartest thing you can do to take your email marketing and your business to the next level is … Read more

How to Build a Foolproof Blog Content Strategy for Your Brand

July 5, 2022 by Nicole Inge

There are more than 600 million blogs living on the web. And if yours is one of them, it’s wise to take extra measures to ensure your content stands out from the crowd. The best way to do that is by creating a blog content strategy that makes your published content more intentional. This way, you’ll see better traffic results, engagement, and conversions on your site. In this post, we’ll cover the benefits of having a blog strategy and share eight steps to create a powerful, effective strategy of your very own. With these tips, you’ll be well on your way to a successful blog. The Benefits of Having a Blog Content Strategy A blog strategy is an important part of your overall marketing plan. It creates a sustainable way to develop high-quality content for your website. But that’s not all it has to offer! Here are a couple of reasons why it’s essential to cultivate a blog content strategy: Content Will be Planned in Advance: No more scrambling to come up with content ideas at the last minute. With a strategy in place, you’ll know what your target audience wants to read, have keyword research, and you’ll have plenty of ideas ready. It’s also great for consistency, ensuring you’re publishing new content regularly. It’ll Increase Your Authority: When you’re showing up and adding value to your audiences’ lives, they’ll keep coming back to your blog for more. And, in time, they’ll begin to see you as an authority in your field because they’ll view you as a trustworthy resource. 8 Steps for Building a Foolproof Blog Content Strategy Starting a blog is a real commitment. It takes time, effort, and even money to create quality content. For that reason, you want to make sure you’re getting the most bang for your buck. You want your investment to pay off. For that reason, you need a blog content strategy in place to ensure intention behind everything you create. Here’s how you can create a strategy for your blog: 1. Get Clear on the Purpose of Your Blog First, you need to know why you’re blogging. When you have a clear purpose for your blog, you’ll know what you’re working toward. Plus, you’ll be able to measure the success of your blog based on your goals. Many brands use their blogs to generate awareness, bring traffic to their website, and drive sales. What are you hoping your blog will help you do? Having the answer to this question will ensure there’s a purpose behind the time and energy you’re investing into blogging. 2. Determine Who Your Target Reader Is Next, you’ll need to take time to figure out who your ideal reader is. If you’ve been in business for a while, then you probably already have a clear picture of your target persona. But if you don’t, you have some work to do before moving forward. Knowing all about your reader is a huge part of your blog content strategy because the content creation is for them. If you don’t know who you’re writing for, it’s will be for your content to resonate. Luckily, there are a few ways to get to know your reader more deeply. For instance, you could create surveys and ask questions to develop more personalized content. But if you want to take it a step further, hop on a few market research calls where you can talk to people one-on-one and get their feedback in real-time. 3. Assign Someone to Write for and Manage Your Blog If you’re a solopreneur, then it’s likely every blogging task will fall onto your to-do list. But if you’re lucky enough to have a team working alongside you, you can assign various blogging tasks to the team members that are best suited for the job. For instance, you probably have someone with spectacular writing skills and someone else who is great at editing and fine-tuning content. Bring them on board to help create a thriving blog your readers and Google will love. Alternatively, you might consider outsourcing your content creation to an agency with a team of skilled writers, like Express Writers. Not only do we create expert content for a wide array of industries, but we can develop a blog strategy based on SEO research to ensure you’re publishing content that attracts readers and traffic. Just visit our Content Shop for more. 4. Decide How Frequently You’ll Post An important element of your blog content strategy is the frequency at which you post content. Consistency is key because you want to give people a reason to keep coming back to your site well into the future. And you do that by providing high-quality, valuable content for visitors to consume. But should you aim to publish a certain number of posts each month? According to data from HubSpot, sites that publish 16 blog posts or more a month receive 3.5 times more traffic than those publishing less than four posts. That’s likely because many people will come back to check out every new post. Plus, the more content you publish, the more opportunities you have to rank in search engine results. However, it’s understandable that you might not have the resources to publish 16 posts per month. It takes time and effort to create incredible content. You don’t want the quality to suffer because you’re stretching yourself too thin. It’s better to ask yourself how many high-quality posts you can commit to each month and make that your goal. 5. Conduct Keyword Research to Plan Topics Coming up with content ideas that are fresh and exciting is arguably one of the most difficult parts of content creation. After all, how are you supposed to know what a reader wants to see from you? At this stage, you already know quite a bit of information about them. You know their interests and their pain points, which is a fantastic starting point. Put yourself in their shoes and think about the … Read more