Content Marketing - Express Writers

How to Conduct a Content Marketing Interview: An Essential Guide to Prepping & Interviewing Your Subjects

December 31, 2020March 1, 2017 by Express Writers

This post was co-written by our staff members, Tara Clapper and Hannah Darling. In content marketing, interviewing is a crucial component. Giving a successful interview is not only an efficient way to generate content, but it also provides fresh material that people will genuinely want to read. As project managers with backgrounds in feature interview creation and publication, we’ve streamlined our processes for the workflow here at Express Writers. Here’s our co-created guide to save and refer to when it’s time to conduct an effective interview for your content marketing subject. Enjoy! How to Conduct a Content Marketing Interview: An Essential Guide to Prepping & Interviewing Your Subjects Here are our top tips for preparing your interview subjects for the interview. 1. Schedule and Confirm When you’re juggling multiple interviews, organization is essential. Sometimes, you may need to work through a third party to schedule calls – a press contact, content manager, or someone who wants you to interview a client or employee. Tools to Use Tara: I use Calendly to schedule all my business calls. I block out time (marked as busy) when I don’t want to take calls, such as on weekends or when I need time to answer clients’ emails or create content. Calendly also sends you and the interview subject an email confirmation. If you need to schedule with multiple interviewees frequently, Doodle may suit your needs better. 2. Prep Your Interview Subject Before you get on the phone with your interview subject, it will help them to know exactly what the interview will be about. That’s best done in the introductory email, which should be professional and enticing. Once they accept, follow up with some more detailed information: Email 1 – Initial Interview Pitch Subject: Interview Invitation – [Brand Name] Blog Hello, Name of Potential Interview Subject: My name is Tara, Content Development Specialist at Express Writers. I’m writing on behalf of our client, Brand Name. Brand Name knows you’re an industry leader in Industry, and they’re very interested in featuring you on their blog, located here: ExpressWritersClientBlog.com/blog. To get an idea of how it would look, please check out this blog post with Other Industry Superstar: ExpressWritersClientBlog.com/blog/superstarpost.html If you’re interested, please let me know what days work best. You can book a time most convenient for you here: www.calendly.com/this-is-an-example. I’d love to discuss [unique thing they’ve done in their industry], and I’d also like to provide you with the opportunity to promote your book. We could even include a discount code or link to a sample. Thank you for your time and consideration. Tara Email 2 – Follow up email Subject: Thank You For Scheduling an Interview Name of Interview Subject: Thank you so much for accepting the interview invitation. I look forward to speaking with you on Monday, February 17th at 4 p.m. ET. I’ll call you at 555-555-5555. I hope to focus on your impressive career in Your Industry: how you got started, what drives you to innovate, and where you think you’ll be in five years. I’m also curious about what prompted you to write and publish a book. Thank you, Tara Unless you’re dealing with a veteran interviewee, it can really benefit you both to prep them a second time in person (or over the phone) right before you start. If you need long, direct quotes, you can encourage them to expand as much as possible when a question is asked and to try and avoid one word answers. 3. Set Parameters for Promotion If the interview subject has a new book or a product they’d like to promote, you should let them know whether it’s okay for them to push their product. I usually handle this preemptively (see above emails), stating that I’m going to include a link to their product, and confirm which link I want to use. Since they know it’ll be included, they usually feel less inclined to insert too much self-promotional speech. I also try to put one question in there about their product or book, even if that’s not the center of the conversation. 4. Ask the Softball Question, Then Play Hardball Interview subjects vary – some get on the phone ready to talk about their unique place in their industry or field of expertise. Others are reticent and don’t know exactly what to say. Either way, you want to use the interview to develop a piece which highlights and distinguishes your interview subject from every other expert in their field. In your research, try to discover: What makes them interesting? What are they best known for? What personal facts and experiences help shape the human element of this person’s story? Once you begin the interview, ask some ‘easy’ questions, like “How did you get your start in this field?” Once you’re a few questions in, ask something a bit more hard hitting. (In a business interview, you don’t need to ask a Barbara-Walters-make-them-cry question, but try for something thought-provoking.) If your interview subject says they need to think or that they’ve never been asked that question before, you’re on the right track! Make sure not to ask ‘yes or no’ questions unless absolutely necessary, especially if the purpose of the interview is to serve as the foundation for a blog or article. If you do, there will be very little material to work with when all’s said and done, and you won’t have anything quotable. More is more. The more information that you have to pull from, the better. Ask every question that comes to mind, whether or not you think it will be interesting. Pause. As unnatural as it feels, when your interviewee is answering a question and they come to the end of a thought, pause before you say anything. Sometimes in that moment, they’ll keep talking if you let the silence hang there for a moment longer than feels comfortable. Don’t fill in the blanks or utter too many affirming phrases. In normal conversation, encouraging words to show that … Read more

How to Spend $37,000 for 2 Years of Content Marketing & Outperform a $5 Million Super Bowl Ad (Or, Why Content Marketing Is the Best Marketing)

June 19, 2024February 21, 2017 by Adam Oakley

Super Bowl ads cost a lot. The average cost of an ad is around $5 million. Marketing for one commercial spot can cost as much as $1.25 million. That comes out to about $41,600 dollars / second. $5 million for one short spot? Could it be wasted money? The truth, according to a Stanford study, is that commercials by soda and beer companies have an insignificant effect on revenue. And 80% of commercials do nothing to boost sales or purchase intent, according to Bloomberg experts. Here’s my next question. Could content marketing outperform a Super Bowl ad? I think so. In today’s post, I’m making the argument that it can, by comparing a two-year investment in content marketing ($37k) vs. a 1-second Super Bowl ad investment ($41k). Read on. The High Cost of Being in the Super Bowl Ad Game Companies justify the cost of advertising in order to keep pace with the competition, to give their brand greater visibility, and to keep consumers talking long after the winning touchdown is made. To add to the mix, the rise of social media and advanced technology means we can share, YouTube, and tweet these commercials over and over again after companies have rushed to take the first place in line when commercial previews are unveiled in January. Fun fact: the steep $5 million price tag is double what a Super Bowl ad cost ten years ago. Graphic from NY Times Can you afford to spend that much on content marketing? The best of content creators could come up with a variety of efficient ways to spend $41,000 dollars in their efforts aside from a 30-second television spot. Content marketing doesn’t have to be crazy expensive. And there are many ways a brand can spread a message that are both cost-effective and impactful. Check out these incredible content marketing statistics: 61% of U.S. online consumers have made a purchase based on recommendations from a blog. (BlogHer) 70% of consumers say they prefer getting to know a company via articles rather than ads. (SlideShare) Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing. (Demand Metric) See the pattern? Content marketing costs are less expensive and the preferred method for consumers to get to know a brand. This frees us up to explore other avenues in our quest to deliver authoritative and authentic copy. Thankfully, those methods are cost-effective, allowing us to market a brand without a hefty price tag; we’ve gathered three effective tools and some powerful stats to show you how. Ready to jump in? The Math: Content Marketing Costs vs. Super Bowl Ad Costs (Content costs based on our agency services at Express Writers. Keep reading for the breakdown.) Why High-Quality Content Marketing Plays a Vital Role in a Brand’s Life (& 3 Winners) Content marketers have proven time and again that they don’t need to spend thousands of dollars per second on flashy advertising in order to be successful. Reasonably-priced content marketing has the potential to make a difference to a brand’s online life. High-quality tools like e-books, blogging packages, and social media can do wonders for a marketer’s efforts and bring a new vitality to a brand’s online presence for a non-millionaire price. Here are three cost-effective, lead-generating content tactics you can use when you don’t have millions to invest in a Super Bowl ad. 1. Ebooks With the right promotion and the support of a collaborative team, an e-book can not only generate leads, but also be the tool that converts. An e-book can set you apart as an authority in your field and can serve as a powerful source of information for your audience for years to come. Another benefit of ebooks is the opportunity to deconstruct the content into smaller pieces, which could include: a series of newsletters blog posts podcast series a list of do’s and don’ts Barry Feldman over at Convince and Convert calls this the “e-book equation.” He notes that while planning for your ebook, it should be formed in such a way to “cast a wide net over a fertile area that traces to one of your strengths,” then outlined, researched, and written with the knowledge that it will “foster offspring.” 2. Blogging In the 2017 Content Marketing Institute Benchmarks report, 75% of B2C marketers noted that blogging was one of an average of seven marketing tactics used in their efforts; this fell just under the top answer of social media content Graphic from SlideShare Just over half of those surveyed said blogging will be most critical to their content marketing success. In their most basic form, blogs are easy to use and can cost almost nothing to maintain. As a converting tool, blogs can be the fuel that moves readers to your social media channels and sales pages. Blogs are the place where SEO is maximized. Successful blogging in today’s world of content development is easier than ever. The accessibility of quality tools for content marketers leaves us with little excuse for delivering subpar content on an inconsistent basis. Quora is a question-and-answer site that will help content creators with new ideas for topics. (link) BuzzSumo allows you to enter a topic or website into the search box and find the key influencers to help promote your content. (link) Canva lets users express creativity through custom-made images, and many of the elements are free. (link) If used consistently and creatively, blogs can be a powerful tool in your arsenal. Why does consistent blogging win? Read more here. 3. Social Media The rise of social media over the past several years has had both a direct and indirect impact on content marketing and search engine optimization. Having a social media presence is not only one way to build brand awareness, it also connects us more closely with our audience with opportunity for engagement. In the CMI research mentioned above, social media channels followed email as the top for distribution of content, which means marketers are becoming more aware of how important it is to be linked to sites like … Read more

Love is In the Air: 7 Unique Methods to Inspire Customer Love for Your Brand

June 19, 2024February 14, 2017 by Adam Oakley

It’s Valentine’s Day! Time to enjoy the sweet, sweet flavor of chocolate-covered strawberries, write a perfume-scented note to the person you love (if you’re the type that handwrites, like me), and/or receive an abundance of chocolates, roses, and maybe a special date. If you’re single, you might be basking in a bowl of Ben & Jerry’s, a chocolate bar, and a tad of Netflix binge-ing. Whatever the scenario, love is the name of the game today—if that’s loving on yourself, or your special someone. We’re taking this opportunity to talk about a topic that’s crucial to your brand this Valentine’s Day (and far beyond): Building real, authentic customer love for your brand. Here’s the problem, and why many customers still feel “un-dated” or, worse yet, “broken up with” after they engage with a brand. The hard truth? Those lackluster exchanges eventually find their rock bottom, and your readers will eventually move on to more vibrant and exciting brand experiences. To avoid this now is the time to use all the tools in your tool belt to create a brand that your customers can’t help but love for years to come. Fortunately, it’s easier than you might thing. Heck – you don’t even need a pair of wings! 7 Cupid-Worthy Methods for Making People Fall in Love With Your Brand Whether you’re a new brand or an established company looking to deepen your relationship with your customers, these seven tips are your Valentine’s Day holiday go-tos. 1. Go Beyond Posting to Social Media, and Engage with Your Fans It’s not enough to just be present on social media. After all, anyone can have a profile. Instead, you have to engage. What are you giving your customers to fall in love with if you’re not engaging with them? How do you engage? Why should you matter to them? What are you giving them in return? Now is the time to think outside of the box. Instead of just tweeting once or twice a week, use Twitter to start a Twitter Chat that answers questions around a hot topic in your industry! I did this exact thing when I set out to create a Twitter Chat in January 2016, and #ContentWritingChat was born. It’s been an incredible journey of user engagement, brand awareness, and community growth since then. Our Twitter Chat has worked wonders for us, especially when it comes to creating brand loyalty. In December of 2016, we asked our participants how long they’d been joining us – the average was “eight months!” That’s some serious longevity—the relationships your brand can build through Twitter with real engagement can last forever. 2. Blog to Win Customer Love Blogging is a critical component of creating a lovable brand. By developing relevant, in-depth blog content, you can show your clients that you care about them and that the feeling is mutual. Blogging to win a customer’s eternal love, though, requires that you take it a step further. Instead of just writing or creating average content (we call that the floating-by blogger syndrome), this type of blogging demands that you focus on answering the biggest questions in your industry with seriously in-depth, long-form content (check out our recent long-form content guide for more information on this topic). Here’s what you need to do to go a step further with your blogging this Valentine’s Day holiday. – Find The Top Questions In Your Industry. There are a few great tools for this. Quora is one of them: The amazing answerthepublic.com is another great tool for this: Both platforms are designed to allow you to access customer questions according to industry, keyword, or category, and they can be fantastic resources for finding the top inquires in your industry. – Look at the Top Posts And Recreate Material Based On The Inspiration You Gain From Them. The best way to be a blogger your readers fall in love with is to give them what they need. When it comes to their questions, this means being the one who provides insightful, long-form answers that go deeper than the average writer. Take a look at what’s performing well on these top question sites and adjust your content accordingly. 3. Find Content That’s Ranking #1, Create Yours to Rise Above Using KWFinder, it’s easy to locate the content that’s ranking #1 for a phrase when you do a keyword search. Here’s an example of what a search looks like in the dashboard: On the right, you can see a list of results. For this search, “content marketing,” the top result is Content Marketing Institute’s “What is Content Marketing?” Using KWFinder or a tool like BuzzSumo, you can find the content that’s ranking #1, and then find a way to create content that is better than the competition. Look for gaps or weak areas in the material. What did the first author miss? How did he or she fail to meet the needs of customers? Did the readers walk away wanting something? If the answer to any of these questions is “yes,” you’ve got an avenue to blow that post out of the water. 4. Create a Podcast! For years, Buffer ran a blog. Eventually, however, they turned it into a podcast called The Science of Social Media. Since they made that decision, they’ve enjoyed massive engagement. I started my own podcast mid-2016, called The Write Podcast. Designed to echo industry questions and create more in-depth information for our audiences, The Write Podcast has been a fantastic tool for us, and we’ve heard from many listeners how much it’s helped their efforts grow. Podcasts are working very well today for a few reasons. In addition to the fact that they’re the ultimate on-the-go form of content (you can listen to a podcast at work, at the gym, in the car, etc.), they’re also a very conversational and approachable form of content, which makes it easier for listeners to develop an attachment to your brand. Worried about how your podcast will do since you’ve never created one? Know the tools you need, and set a goal of doing at least five episodes and then … Read more

An Argument for Long-Form Content: Why it Works, What Lengths to Create, & 5 Long-Form Creators That Win

June 19, 2024January 31, 2017 by Adam Oakley

There’s no way around it, if you want to publish content that truly works for your online presence. Long-form content is more valuable, more exciting, and more relevant to readers than shorter-form content. It’s also less common. While it might sound insane to start creating long-form content while we’re living in a world of increasingly short attention spans, swimming upstream is sometimes the only way to the goal. Here’s some real inspiration for you on the subject. Joe Pulizzi, founder of Content Marketing Institute, and a leader in content marketing, wrote this in an exclusive CMI subscriber email this month (read the actual email here via PDF): “…Nearly every marketer we talk to has run to shorter posts, shorter social media updates, shorter videos, shorter podcasts … thinking that audiences don’t have the desire to invest themselves in content for a longer period of time. But they absolutely do … if the content is worthwhile. Those marketers who take a longer form approach can immediately position themselves and their stories as differentiated simply because of the length. When all your competition is going small, maybe it’s your time to go big.” In the same email, Pulizzi points out that: Huffington Post has recently doubled down on its efforts to create long-form content. All-star Youtubers are creating videos that are 10 or 12 minutes long. Tim Ferriss’s recent bestselling book, Tools of Titans, is a whopping 671 pages. Today, long-form content is the best way to stand out online. But why, truly, long-form content–why does it work?–and how can you create it for your brand? Let’s discuss this timely topic. [bctt tweet=”Why, truly, are we pro long-form content for a strong online presence? Why does it work? And how can you create it for your brand? Read @JuliaEMcCoy’s guide ? ” username=”ExpWriters”] Long-Form Content, by the Numbers Long-form content isn’t just important because it’s different – it’s important because it works. By providing more space to include relevant information, and giving audiences a chance to settle in and get comfortable with your brand, voice, and content, long-form material manages to convert at higher rates, provide a higher ROI, and earn more engagement. Here are a few fast stats to prove it: The average length of posts in the top 10 spots of Google is 2,000 words. While it’s possible for short-form content to rank well, long-form content is the winner when it comes to front-page results. Long-form content gets people to stay on pages 40% longer. Kissmetrics reports that, in addition to staying on their long-form pages longer, people exposed to long-form content also viewed 25% more pages than other visitors. Long-form content earns more social shares. When it comes to social media, long-form content earns more shares and engagement than standard blog posts. Longer content helps position you as a leader in your industry. It’s tough to bluff your way through 10,000 words, and readers know that. When you create quality, long-form content, you position yourself as a leader in your industry, standing out even further from your lazy counterparts who would rather get by with 300-word blurbs. The Long-Form Guide Revolution One great place to see the power of long-form content is in guides. Today, long-form guides are doing incredibly well. While it’s tough to earn great results if you’re not writing specific, targeted, honed guides, ultimate guides are another thing. Instead of rambling and losing readers, these guides target in on one topic and dominate all facets of it. Covering things like InDesign and landing page lead generation, these guides are killing it in the online world right now. Because they’re extensive and in-depth, these long-form guides have longer lifespans than other forms of content. This is because they can be reused again and again. After they’re researched and published online, it’s easy to make a large book from them, for example, or break them down into a long-form SlideShare presentation. Need a real-life example? Consider Joanna Wiebe, who wrote a guide to copywriting formulas. It’s called “The Ultimate Guide to No-Pain Copywriting (or, Every Copywriting Formula Ever).” The piece sits at 5,000 words and takes more than an hour to read! It also includes a table of contents to follow: Useful, extensive, and helpful to readers, this piece has earned more than 6,000 shares and 151 comments. It also ranks well at the top for “copywriting formulas” in Google. 5 Examples of Bloggers Rising Above with Long-Form Content Now that you know why long-form content is so critical, let’s take a close look at a few prominent bloggers who are putting out excellent long-form content today. 1. Tor Refsland Tor Refsland, the face behind TimeManagementChef.com, has been featured on top sites like Lifehack, JeffBullas.com, Ahrefs, Post Planner, and Blogging Wizard. On his own blog, he’s famous for consistently publishing 10,000-30,000-word monster blogs. Thanks to the time, energy, and effort these blogs take, he’s been recognized as an award-winning, top blogger who was first invited to speak at key events just 18 months into blogging. For an example of what Tor Refsland is capable of with a blog, check out this piece, titled “Business Coaching, 20x My Revenue and Being Slapped by Frank Kern.” It clocks in right around 13,000 words and features so many segments and sections you’d think you were reading a novel! While the piece is long, though, it manages not to be overwhelming. This is because Refsland does a few things beautifully. For one, the entire article is broken into highly digestible segments and short paragraphs, so you’re never faced with a brick wall of text. Example: He’s also funny, and his humor feels like a trail of bread crumbs, leading you through the story step by step. He’s a pro at using punctuation, formatting, and headlines to help usher people through these monster blogs, so you never get bored or discouraged. Try this post: How To Attract the Right Clients By Doing Business Nude. It’s seriously funny. Tor’s incredible copy is a large reason he was on my podcast last year! 2. Adam … Read more

A Guide on How to Develop a Target Persona and Reach Your Audience (Hint: Stop Over-Creating)

January 24, 2024January 24, 2017 by Adam Oakley

Did you know there are over 200 million pieces of online content created every minute? 205 million emails, 3.5 million Facebook and Twitter posts, 400 hours of YouTube videos, and 1,200 WordPress blog posts later, the evidence is there. Internet users create a ton of content. Even with so much time and energy spent on writing and sharing content, the more shocking statistic may be the amount that is not shared, clicked, or retweeted. After Moz pulled 757,000 posts for analysis, they found that half had less than 12 Twitter shares and zero external links. That’s a scary low amount of engagement. The audience was not even there, and their disinterest showed. So, how do we avoid making the same mistake? It happens when we stop creating too much ineffective content, and start focusing on engaging our audience based on a target persona. In this guide, I’m going to give you an actual guide to creating a nitty-gritty target persona, four keys to talking to your target persona and reaching them with your content, then go into a guide on how to stop over-creating, and dive deep into reader-persona-tailored creation. Ready? How to Develop a Target Persona: Your Granular Guide to Creating a Target Persona There are so many guides out there that tell you why it’s important to build a marketing persona, without also telling you how to do it. Generalities are all well and good, but they don’t get you very far! So, with that in mind, let’s break down how to build a customized, specific persona that helps you understand who your brand should be talking to. I teach how to build this in-depth persona, and get to know your audience like a friend, in Module 2 in my Content Strategy & Marketing Course. 1. Draw the outline of your perfect customer To build the foundation for your persona, answer these questions right now: Does the person tend to be male or female? How old is he or she? Does this person have a family? A spouse? Where does this person live? What does this person do? What type of company and industry do they work within? For example: Meet Leader Larry. Leader Larry tends to be male, he’s generally between 40-55 years old, he’s married, with two teenage children. He works as a senior manager for a major “Fintech” company. 2. Get granular with your details of the persona You’ve got the outline, now it’s time to dive deeper with your details. Answer specific questions, like the following: What is his biggest pain point? What are the biggest challenges or difficulties this person faces within their job? Is your target persona the one making the decisions or does he need to talk to upper management? For example: Leader Larry’s biggest pain point is developing customized training and educational materials to help bring his staff up to speed on new technologies. While he’s a senior manager, he’s not the ultimate decision maker in his company, and, thanks to corporate red tape, he’s finding it difficult to create training materials and have them approved by upper management in a time-effective manner. 3. Figure out how your persona accesses and consumes content Does your target persona engage on a mobile device or a desktop computer? Does this person consume content during the working hours or after-hours, while he or she is at home? How much content does this person consume? Do they want more? Does your target persona use social networks? If so, which ones? HINT: If you have a person in mind who represents your target audience very closely, head to his or her Twitter feed to see what they’re sharing, reading, and interacting with. This will help you hone your content down the road. Who does this person see as an influencer? What do they care about enough to trigger a purchase? For example: Leader Larry uses a desktop computer to consume content during the working hours. He maintains a profile on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. He’s an active reader of industry news and updates. He participates in several relevant LinkedIn groups, where he meets influencers and consumes related content. 4. Put it all together Now that you’ve developed an accurate picture of your target persona, it’s time to put it all together. From here, you’ll be able to identify the content types this person is likely to enjoy, the channels you should publish them in, and the pain points you’ll need to solve to earn (and keep) this person as a client. Bear in mind that target personas may change or shift over time, so it’s essential to keep revisiting the information you’ve developed here to ensure it’s still relevant, and update it if need be. 4 Keys of Developing Content that Speaks to Your Target Persona Next, let’s take an overview look at four keys that help you know how to create, and who to create your content for. How to Create for Your Target Persona Key #1: Readers Are Like Celebrities, Give Them the Red Carpet Treatment The Golden Globes recently took place in LA, and if you know anything about Hollywood awards shows, you know that the events are a big deal. From who wore what (and who wore it best) to the viral speeches, there is almost always a surprise or two that no one saw coming. This year, the Globes averaged 20 million viewers; while that huge number could have been credited to the host or the Trump jabs (or both), it was an 8% increase in viewers over 2016. There are some key points we can take away for our content marketing efforts and target persona development that come straight out of a Hollywood awards show. Ready to dive in? Let’s go! How to Create Content for Your Target Persona Key #2: Your Audience Wants Something Rich In a fast-paced, technology-driven world, your audience doesn’t have time to sit and read long paragraphs of boring content before finally getting to the point. (Neil Patel) Rich … Read more

Why You Should Choose Content Marketing in 2017 & The Best Forms of Content to Invest In Today

December 31, 2020January 19, 2017 by Adam Oakley

Today, content marketing is one of the lowest-cost, highest return marketing efforts. But don’t take my word for it – for example, listen to Kraft, who publicly revealed at Content Marketing World last year that their content marketing ROI was four times higher than that of their most targeted advertising! Or, check out our own case study that reveals how content marketing is responsible for 95% of our business revenue. Right now, marketers are creating more content than ever to see return, and inbound marketers are spending more time than ever before creating content. In fact, 93% of inbound marketers are now creating content on a weekly basis. What’s more, more than half of the surveyed marketers say they spend more than six hours a week doing so. That’s a lot of time and commitment! It’s clear that content is the way of the future for 2017 and beyond and that if you want to succeed in the coming year, you need to invest in it. Read on to learn more about the upward trajectory of content marketing, and how it can boost your business this year. Will Investing in Content Make Your Brand More Successful this Year? The simple answer is, YES! Today, most marketers understand that there’s no way around content. After all, it’s the only reliable way to get around the influence of ad blockers, the best way to connect with audiences, and the longest-lasting way to build relationships that last with customers. Just because most marketers understand they should be creating content, however, doesn’t mean most marketers have invested adequately in doing it. In fact, many marketers halfway it, pumping out cheap, poorly written content that does little but clog up the search engines, and fails at meeting readers’ needs entirely. Contently calls this: “the zombification of content marketing.” Sound terrifying? It is, and it’s a growing epidemic. Fortunately, there’s a whole host of things you can do to combat it. When you pour your best into your content marketing – in creating engaging, valuable, authentic content, that you’re tremendously proud of – you break the growing zombie mold of typical content, and your brand will stand out online. 5 Content Marketing Pillars to Focus on Right Now Before we talk about which types of content you should be investing in, let’s talk about which content traits you’ll need to focus on to be successful in 2017. Here are the top five. 1. Storytelling We’ve touted the importance of storytelling before, and we’re not planning on stopping anytime soon. There are a few great things about storytelling in content marketing. Namely, storytelling works with all types of content – ranging from video to written material, which makes it the ideal foundation strategy for your various content pursuits. What’s more, it appeals to readers on a universal level. Think about it for a moment: Didn’t you love hearing stories as a kid? Don’t you still love commercials that make you laugh, riveting travel tales that make you gasp, or a great novel that sucks you in and won’t let you go? Of course, you do, and it’s all because these things are stories! The appeal of storytelling is broad and universal. Include it in your content marketing and you’ll immediately see your audience transform from “ho-hum,” to engaged, compelled, and genuinely interested. 2. User-Focused Content Nobody likes a narcissistic company that just tells everyone how awesome they are all the time. In fact, this is a recipe for failure! Instead, a critical foundation of modern content is that it be user-focused. The more you can involve your customers in your online content, tailor it toward their experiences, and ensure it reflects their voices, concerns, and passions, the more successful they’ll be. In fact, if you look around at modern content, you’ll find that many of the most successful companies out there barely enter their digital content. Sure, they’re in there as supporting cast members, but the target audience is the star – always the star. This is as it should be, and it’s a wise thing to consider as you think about how to invest in content for a more profitable 2017. 3. Mobile-Friendly Content No matter what you choose to invest in, make it mobile friendly. On the same level of importance as story-dense, user-focused material, mobile-friendly content is everything right now, and you can’t expect your brand to make much progress online if you’re not catering to your share of the more than 50% of Google search queries that come from mobile platforms. 4. Strategic Content All the content you create should be strategic and intentional. While it’s one thing to put out short-form content or funny, original videos, everything you do should be supporting a larger content or marketing goal. If it’s not, you’re wasting your marketing budget and your team’s time. 5. Helpful, Relevant Content Regardless of whether it’s a video, blog post, meme, or infographic, your top priority in all of your content creation efforts should be to make everything you create relevant, helpful, and quality. Without these three pillars, your content will fall short, and you won’t enjoy the massive ROI content is so capable of producing. Successful Growth in Content Marketing: What Kind of Hot Content Should You Invest in? If you want to succeed in content marketing, you need to invest in the RIGHT content. Otherwise, you could risk adding to the fluff that’s already clogging up the content sea. Here are the top 5 types of content to focus on in 2017 and beyond: 1. Expert Content Expert content is no secret. Google demanded it in its 2015 Search Quality Evaluator guidelines, and influencers in virtually all industries have touted its importance since then. In addition to helping you rank better (Google may punish sites that feature poorly written content, or content that doesn’t possess the level of expertise the subject requires), expert content is the only real way to build your business. By positioning you as an authority in your industry, giving you a platform to showcase your knowledge, and helping you gain more qualified leads, expert content can go … Read more

An Essential Guide: How Content Writing Works

December 31, 2020January 5, 2017 by Adam Oakley

Content writing is currently one of the most essential digital actions. The need for it, industry regardless, has virtually no limit. Talk of how content writing works, what result it produces, and how to effectively strategize around it, pops up in virtually every niche. Hospitals have site copy needs, mechanics start their own informative blogs, Mexican restaurants publish social media updates, and agencies of all types create a ton of content, from blogs, to landing pages and white papers (not to mention creating all of that x 10 for their own client base). With all this content flying around, it’s easy to wonder where it comes from and how content writing works as a whole. If you’re new to the world of content writing, the entire thing could easily seem like an impenetrable mystery, populated by highly trained professionals that you cannot access nor understand. Fortunately, learning how the world of online content writing works is a simple as understanding the mechanisms that make the process move. While it’s true that the world of content writing is complex, it is far from inaccessible. We’re here today to talk about how content writing works, and which types of content you should get familiar with to build out your online presence. Grab a coffee, and read on! How Content Writing Works: Understanding the Big Picture & How Content Types Support Each Other The first step in understanding how content writing works is understanding how seriously interrelated content creation, and its elements, really is. Today, it’s not enough to just have a blog or to just have a website. Instead, the world of content writing relies on various types of content, ranging from a PR writing to social media, to come together and create one cohesive content strategy. Without any of these different pieces, the entire strategy falls apart, and content writing doesn’t work. Here’s some of the major types of content, from our infographic last year: While it may seem like a lot of work to focus on creating 7 to 10 different types of content, the reason that each type of content is so essential is simple: each type of content, from white papers to blog posts, appeals to a slightly different segment of a company’s audience. Plus, you need content that appeals to your audience at all levels – not just at a buyer level. Not all consumers who arrive on your website are ready to buy something, and if you don’t have content to appeal to each of these groups and the dozens of smaller groups in between, you’re going to lose many of your leads, which will have an adverse impact on your company’s bottom line. This is exactly why it is so critical to use various types of content in your content strategy and to understand how content writing works, and how each specific type of content relies on many other types of content to function properly. And, not limit yourself to creating only one or two types of content. The 10 Pillars of Good Content Writing If you were an excellent blogger, but you didn’t understand how to create any other type of content, you might succeed online for a while. The fact of the matter is that there is a high demand for blogs, people love to read them, and you’d likely see some return on investment. Over time, however, your content strategy would begin to wear thin because it would be too one-dimensional. To thrive and continue from months and years, a content strategy needs enough pillars to equally disburse its weight. Know how content writing works when you understand the “big picture.” Here are the 10 top components of great modern copywriting: 1. Web Content Think of content writing like building a house. In this analogy, web content is the foundation. Web content, which includes the text on individual website pages, landing pages, about us pages, contact pages, and more is the foundational content that every company needs to build an online presence. Without this, readers cannot find the information they’re seeking about your company, and the rest of your content strategy has nothing to build on. As such, web content is the single most critical and essential type of online content writing in the modern world. 2. Blogs If web content is the foundation, blogging is the framework for the house. Blogging is a primary category of filler content that provides structure and formatting for virtually everything else you do online. Did you also know that B2C companies that blog 11+ times per month gain more than 4X as many leads than those that blog only four-five times a month? (Source: Hubspot) Aside from your company’s web page, your blog is the place where consumers can learn the most about you. Not only does it showcase your brand personality, but it also helps readers get a sense of who you are, what you care about, which topics to cover, and how much value you can provide for them, or not. As such, blogging is a highly essential type of online content writing, and when it’s done correctly, it can dramatically increase your views, your return on investment, and your overall success in the world of digital content creation. Blogs today are as diverse as they are critical. There is no one-size-fits-all format for a blog. Instead, there are multiple styles of blogs including list blogs, “how to” blogs, “what to avoid” blogs, and more. By mixing and matching these various blog formats, you can create a diverse and highly functional online content strategy. 3. Social Media Social media is the house’s furnishings and critical tools. You wouldn’t want to cook in the kitchen without a stove or spatula, and you wouldn’t want to develop an online content strategy without social media. Think of social media as a supporting player: it’s not enough for a company to only have a social media presence, but companies without any social media presence whatsoever typically do not make it very far in today’s social dominated culture. For example, we’ve been able to do very well … Read more

8 Ways to Win at Your Content Marketing in 2017

December 31, 2020January 3, 2017 by Adam Oakley

As 2017 looms just around the bend, it’s easy to predict that content marketing will seriously be on the rise. In 2016, we saw big moves in favor of content marketing: growth of the industry as a whole, and national brands opting for content marketing over traditional ads and media. Content marketing is already more impactful than traditional advertising – it costs 62% less, and generates 3x the amount of leads that traditional ads do. Influencer marketing was realized when, in 2016, CNN made the move to buy a YouTuber’s entire presence, channel and mobile app (Casey Neistat, who had amassed 6 million organic followers), for a cool $25 million. Buying influencers and exclusivity to their engaged audiences will be happening more in the New Year, as predicted by top expert Sam Hurley in our expert predictions roundup. If you’re a serious content marketer, you can bet that your skills, audience, and presence will grow in value in 2017 – you might even be approached for a major buyout! So, with content marketing growing as a mainstream form of brand marketing more than ever, how can you go into 2017 putting your best content foot forward? Fortunately, we’ve got your complete road map right here. Read on to learn best content marketing tactics for the New Year (and beyond)! 8 Proven Ways to Win at Content Marketing in 2017 & Beyond Whether you’re looking to enhance your content, earn more visibility and serious ROI in the New Year, or focus on attempting to rectify a less-than-perfect user experience, these eight tips can make your content more successful in the coming year. 1. Combine your written content with compelling visuals Sure, adding a photo to your blog post makes it pretty, but it also does so much more if you take that visual and go the extra mile. Recently, at Express Writers, we’ve started asking our lead designer to come up with handmade Adobe Illustrator designs for all our featured blogs (like this one). The difference? More social shares, mentions of, and traction on all of our blogs. Here are a few quick stats about the benefits of adding visual content to your written pieces: Adding colored visuals to a post makes people 80% more willing to read it People remember 65% of what they see and only 10% of what they hear For 34% of marketers, visual content is their most critical asset When content has a relevant image, it earns 94% more views Remember that today, “content” doesn’t just mean written content. Instead, it’s a broad term that also takes into account visual, audio, and video material that can enhance and improve the written content you publish. With this in mind, find creative ways to start adding visual content to your written content. For example, publish an information-dense infographic in place of your standard weekly blog post or add a tutorial video to your next how-to post. Use video content to review products, provide customer service, or showcase new offerings, or include a series of in-depth screenshots in your next piece to educate and uplift readers. You can even grab a GIF or two to emphasis a point with a movie scene that everyone relates to. In addition to enhancing your conversion rates, this creative, engaging, visual approach will also make your content more exciting and valuable to your readers. 2. Target your content more appropriately to specific audiences Many people mistakenly believe that broader content will perform better online when, in fact, the opposite is true. The more targeted you can get with your content, the better. You’ll be able to use long-tail keywords, which are easier to rank for. And, as a whole, more targeted content appeals to a smaller segment of the audience. While this may seem like a negative thing, it’s a fantastic way to bring in more qualified leads and make more sales. When your content is directed at a particular set of people, rather than anyone who passes your way, your conversion rates will naturally be higher, and your content will naturally be more successful. What’s more, you won’t face such stiff competition from the “content sea” – the millions of pieces of content available to the public on a daily and weekly basis. With all of this in mind, develop target personas to specify who you’re writing for, and keep them current enough that they reflect the outlook and problems of your actual audience segments. Update them as needed for maximum accuracy. 3. Make your content powerful enough to retain readers for life Great, you have readers. Now what? You have to work hard to retain them, with better and better content in their niche interests. This is a 10x goal of content you should be striving for. Sure, it is a big one – but if this is your goal, you won’t be publishing sub-par content. Even if you’re publishing compelling and relevant content, it’s not worth much unless it’s inspiring your readers to stay with your brand for life. In 2017, the single best way to win at content marketing is to focus your efforts on user retention. Here’s a fun fact to inspire you further. In addition to the fact that it’s easier to sell to an existing customer than it is to sell to a new one, loyal customers are worth ten times as much as their first purchase, which means it’s absolutely in your best interest to keep them around! With this in mind, do the following things to boost your customer retention rates: Post quality content on a regular basis Engage with your readers by responding when they post, share, comment on, or like your content Develop an easy way for your readers to subscribe to your content Showcase old posts and favorite posts in a convenient manner so that readers can access them quickly Offer incentives for your readers, including free content, giveaways, and prizes Use a targeted and specific email marketing campaign to help your readers develop a relationship with your content 4. Encourage your readers to submit content (user-generated content) What better way to focus … Read more

Why Content Marketing is an Entrepreneur’s Best Friend

December 31, 2020December 28, 2016 by Adam Oakley

Today, we’re living in a time when entrepreneurs are everywhere, and it’s exciting. As we head into 2017, the rise of entrepreneurs is seriously growing. While starting a business used to be something reserved for those with extensive training or excess family money, just laying around and waiting to be spent, entrepreneurship has become something that everyone can access. As a result, companies like Facebook, Snapchat, Dollar Shave Club, StitchFix and – hey – Express Writers! – has popped up as a result. Today, however, people who are trying to get startups off the ground are struggling to figure out where to best invest their efforts, and which type of work will pay off most seriously down the road. Fortunately, the answer is straightforward: content marketing. Those doing the “side hustle” will SERIOUSLY benefit from a blog and a web presence (and social media), aka, content marketing. Think about it for a moment: content marketing is low-cost compared to traditional advertising, it’s meant for the social media age, it performs well with customers who want to develop honest and long-lasting relationships with the companies they frequent, and some of it can even be done yourself, within reason. Today, we’re here to talk about why content marketing is an entrepreneur’s best bet in terms of marketing, and how it can help new businesses grow from the ground up. Read on! Content: The Entrepreneur’s Lifeboat Content is the one thing that will work when virtually nothing else does for the entrepreneur. Think about it: most forms of traditional marketing are expensive and time-consuming. While large enterprises might have the budget and the in-house staff to accommodate that, entrepreneurs seldom do, and content marketing can be much more accessible. Although content marketing costs 62% less than traditional advertising, it generates triple the leads, which makes it an astoundingly perfect option for marketers who want to spread the word about their startups online. What’s more, since breaking into content marketing doesn’t require a huge staff, it’s easy to DIY some of it on your own, saving yourself money and learning something new in the process. By developing an online presence, entrepreneurs can build their brand story, connect with their customers, and set themselves apart from their competitors. A social media presence can also serve to expand your reach and make it easier for you to connect with your followers – both online and in person. 7 Ways Content Marketing is Perfect Marketing for the Entrepreneur Regardless of whether your startup sells tangible goods or services, here are seven incredibly strong benefits content marketing has to offer for entrepreneurs. 1. Content Marketing is Amazingly Cost Effective Entrepreneurs rarely have a ton of money to start out with–unless they walked into inheritances like the Rich Kids of Beverly Hills did. 😛 But truly: self-startups don’t usually have an unlimited reservoir of funds. It’s usually the opposite. Funds are low, time is tight, resources slim. I began Express Writers with $75–trust me! I know what it’s like to start with nothing. Enter content marketing as an effective way at building a brand and starting out when you’re doing the side hustle, trying to build your dream biz while you work on leaving your 9-5 that pays the bills. Check this out. From one blog post (roughly a $50 investment, between resources and my time), I gained $5000 back – a 100x return on investment. A warm lead walked in from my blog, and converted on our content services at that amount. Proof that content marketing can be a strong endeavor for startups and those trying to brand themselves with limited finances. To repeat the cycle that I created, you want to focus on these three things: Building your presence online (your website, starting a blog). Getting off the ground is key here! Consistency. Build up that presence, don’t just start it. Blogging at least 2x/week, minimum, and pairing up social media to your content presence, is a good consistency to start with. (We blog up to 5x/week for maximum outreach and SEO results.) Guest blog. Outreach and start putting together a list of key sites you’d like to blog on. Presence there is a tremendous key to the ROI of your content marketing. (My 100x ROI featured in the graphic above came from my column on SiteProNews.) 2. Content marketing helps you develop your unique brand voice Today, the startups that make it big are the ones who know how to talk to their audiences like nobody else does – in their content, bleeding all the way through social media posts, pulsing through video marketing, shining through blog posts. The voice you establish in your content marketing is key to helping you stand out online. Take, for example, Dollar Shave Club. Witty, a little edgy, and funny through and through, this is a startup that’s achieved billion-dollar valuation because of its content marketing. Without content marketing, it’s tough to spread your voice the way Dollar Shave Club has done. In fact, it’s tough to be heard at all. Content is the one central factor that allows marketers to be heard in various places across the web, and it’s the one guaranteed way for small business owners and founders to showcase their unique brand voice to all the critical customers out there who want to listen. To succeed with content marketing, founders must first have an idea of their overarching brand message and how best to leverage it. This will help people connect with the message and will make it easier for readers and customers to connect with online information. It will also help produce continuity in brand messaging, which will make it easier for a startup to grow in the coming years. 3. Content marketing can welcome people into your world As a founder, you live a life that people are interested in being a part of. Even if you’ve never met many of your customers personally, they want to know who you are, how you come up with your products, … Read more

A Year of Content Marketing in Review (2016): The Hottest Types of Content & 5 Key Takeaways

June 19, 2024December 20, 2016 by Adam Oakley

2016 has been quite a year, and we aren’t just talking about the world of politics or sports. When the new year began, it would have been hard to believe that the Chicago Cubs would (finally!) win the World Series, “challenges” would be so popular (how many flips will it take to upright that water bottle? And can you do it while posing like a mannequin?), and adults would be THAT wrapped up in Pokémon Go. Over here at my agency, we started the year with some tips on how to run a successful blog, and through the last twelve months we have continued to deliver on a ton of content for our audience. From publishing my book, to launching my podcast, publishing our intense #howtowriteseries, and launching our weekly #ContentWritingChat back in January, all the way to email marketing and event attendance, infographics, and much more, content marketing continues to prove our #1 form of marketing here at Express Writers. 2016 proved to be our biggest year for that. But what we did this year in content marketing is for our Content Creation Report, coming up on Thursday. For today, we’re taking a retrospective look back at the industry of content marketing as a whole and what 2016 looked like. Content marketing has had its own interesting turns in 2016, and we’re here to break it down. Grab a cup of something warm and join me, will you? [bctt tweet=”We’re taking a retrospective look back at the industry of content marketing as a whole and what 2016 looked like. Check out our takeaways and #contentcreation report ” username=”ExpWriters”] Best in Content Marketing Circa 2016: 7 Key Factors of Good Content this Year There was much to talk about this year by way of good content, viral content, shared content, and engaging content. Whether it was liked, retweeted, pinned, or snapped, quality material was not in short supply. What became clear is that readers have a desire to interact with what they’re taking in, that influential content marketing leaders still know where it’s at, and fake news is not going to rule the landscape. Here are some highlights of what went down: 1. The rise of interactive content (Forbes): As companies have moved away from “plain vanilla content”, they have moved toward content that is appealing to the audience by way of interactive material. This may take the form of quizzes, polls, and a variety of two-way content. 2. Influential leaders (Marketing Profs): From Sujan Patel to Jeff Bullas, influential content marketers showed us what worked and what didn’t. 3. Viral content (Buzz Sumo): Anytime a video, blog, or social media post goes crazy, we call it viral. From open letters directed at Trump supporters to sexy bald men, viral content was a highlight of the year. No surprise here, since we live in a time of instant shares, Facebook trolling, and retweets that number in the millions. 4. Long and complex blogs (Track Maven): When companies blog for business, they are producing more content but with less impact. Per brand, the number of posts have increased while the social shares have gone down. The length of blog posts grew from an average of 639 words per post in 2015 to just over 700 in 2016. 3. Consistent delivery (Content Marketing Institute): Of the top content marketing performers, 85% deliver content consistently. This does not always translate to daily or even weekly content, but rather impactful and relevant content on a consistent basis, including repurposed material. 4. Fake news and Facebook (The Guardian): Mark Zuckerberg may have started the year with a message of hope, but no one could have predicted what the next 12 months would hold for the social media giant. Photo censorship and fake news seemed to loom even as the site’s users inched toward a total of 2 billion worldwide. 5. Infographics (Buzz Sumo): Not everyone is a fan, but infographics are widely shared, even if they fail to gain very many links. Back in 2012, Jeff Bullas gave us 9 awesome reasons to use them, and by the end of 2016, 58% of marketers are still on board with the picture-and-data mashups. Infographics actually made up one of our top-shared content types for the year (3/10 of our top-shared content pieces for the year were infographics)! Did Content Marketing in 2016 Surprise You? If any of these come as a surprise, it might help to go waaay back to the end of 2015, when predictions were being tossed around about the future of content marketing. Can’t remember that long ago? Here are some predictions given in late 2015 from influencers, about 2016, to refresh your memory: (CMI) Native advertising would help big companies find their footing, while others would be decimated and may never fully recover. (Mashable) Static content would start to be replaced by more interactive experiences. (Neil Patel via Forbes) Personal authority will be important to the audience. (Jordan Teicher via Contently) The smartest brands would publish less and put more emphasis on larger editorial projects. (Jeff Deutsch via EW) Content marketers would be challenged to cut through the “noise” of too much content. Some of these predictions were spot-on, while others may have been good guesses but didn’t quite hit the content marketing nail on the head. Our predictions post last year had some pretty accurate statements made. 5 Takeaway Lessons from Content Marketing in 2016 Either way, there are some takeaway lessons we can learn as we move forward to 2017. 1. You Wouldn’t Use a Dial-Up Phone—Don’t Use Boring Content You may or may not remember the days of writing letters, reading the newspaper as a sole source of information, and dialing the phone (at home) when you wanted to call someone. Some might say that those were the days, and they might be right. But just like it would not be conducive to start using a rotary phone, content marketers can’t afford to ignore the right now. Staying stuck in the past, where content creation went steady with keyword stuffing and boring information, … Read more