Content Marketing - Express Writers

The Great Content Roundup: Week 4, Topic SuperBowl Content

December 31, 2020February 10, 2015 by Adam Oakley

Howdy, folks! This week, I’m taking a look at the Super Bowl XLIX ads, specifically looking at the buzz surrounding all the ad spots during the game. Some had high activity levels, others were shared for not-so-good reasons. There were a couple ads I personally loved, as a writer and content marketer. Keep reading. I’d also love to hear in the comments which ones you especially liked! Highest Activity Ad, and my second favorite: Budweiser Lost Dog Superbowl Commercial View the MarketingLand article on how this adspot came to be the top online performer. The “Loser” of the Superbowl Ads: Make Safe Happen by Nationwide View the MarketingLand article on how this ad came to be the loser That said about the apparent loser, I have a personal differing opinion. As a mom of an almost-one-year-old, I sympathize and respect their message. There are so many ways a little child can die (yes, die) that it’s inhumane not to raise awareness and try to help prevent some of these easily avoidable unfortunate circumstances from happening. On the other hand, I thought ads like the Carls Jr. Naked Woman Going Through A Farmers Market (not the title, but that’s what it really is) was a lot more controversial, especially if you’re showing these to an audience of all ages. My Top Favorite: Weight Watchers “All You Can Eat.” This was their first advertisement on a Superbowl. Dubbed a “succulent smack-down of fast food”, this killer ad nailed a big problem facing America: bad food choices on all sides of us. From the script to every scene cut, this ad was brilliant and bold, raw, direct and hitting. Just what I like. (Oh, and did you know Jesse from Breaking Bad voiced the script?) And finally, some excellent resource articles relatable to every business owner about the Super Bowl ads: How Marketers Can Turn Super Bowl Mania Into Sales With Retargeting by Ginny Marvin on Marketing Land. Great piece on how you can actually jump into the Superbowl ad frenzy by connecting with the audience portions that crossover into your audience. Super Bowl Commercials With Hashtags Slipped To 50% In 2015 by Martin Beck on Marketing Land. An informative piece that reviews how not everyone jumped on the social publicity that all the ads tried to push. Surprisingly, Facebook was the most mentioned social network (with all the hashtags, I instantly suspected Twitter would have been).

How To Curate Killer Content Ideas

December 31, 2020February 5, 2015 by Adam Oakley

Content curation is a HOT topic and over the last year or so, as Internet content has grown, its popularity has trended drastically. For a lot of companies, understanding content curation lies at the heart of the future success of their online entrepreneurial enterprises. For others it provides a handy way to keep content coming in and keep the things that show up one’s blog fresh. Content curation is the art of gathering relevant ideas and content about a topic or niche and housing them in a simply navigated repository that gives users, at a glance, the usefulness and viability of the content as well as where the content can be located on the Internet. To many bloggers, content curation represents the next logical step in the evolution of content production. There’s a saying that goes, “There is nothing that is new under the sun,” and as far as content creators have realized it’s a sad reality. Coming up with fresh new ideas for content gets to be tedious and tiring as time goes by. Content curation provides an injection of fresh content while at the same time allowing for the establishment of backlinks to well-respected sites thereby increasing the authoritative value of your site (as well as your search ranking for certain keywords). Content curation is the direction that a business-minded site would move towards since it provides a lot of benefits with a minimum amount of drawbacks. Important! Do Not Confuse Curation with Copying Content curators collect information from sites and catalog them, then go through the catalog and pick out the ones that provide the best information then review their findings for the readers. It is an ongoing process and curators usually spend hours trawling the Internet looking for viable links that they can use in their work. Although curators may extract certain parts of a bit of content to underscore the value of the entire work to their audience, they should NEVER copy content completely from another site. Curators are ethically minded people that aim to promote the useful information in sites that are not their own while giving value to their readers by condensing a tedious Internet search into a single page containing the most useful links for a particular niche. Confusing curation with copying can lead to some serious fallout such as losing your page rank in Google for hosting duplicate content. As a curator you should be wary of finding yourself in such a position. 4 Ways To Plan Your Content Curation Just like anything that has to do with a long-term business solution, you need a roadmap for your content curation. Developing a step-wise plan as to how to achieve the end result of a content curation site that content managers would be proud to operate is relatively simple. It can be broken down into three major sub-steps, each logically placed so as to enhance the step that comes after it. When planning your content curation you should be looking at doing these things in order: Collect Content: Looking through the Internet to discover sites that best fit your audience interest and cataloging them with the appropriate utilities. This is the most important first step in order to create a database of valid links. These should be high-impact sites that cater to the basic needs of your audience. Arranging them by tags in an understandable format is where your journey into content curation begins. Share the Best: Although your original pile of article links may number into the thousands, you’re going to have to do some reading and sifting. Content curation is a time-intensive job and the wider the niche you’re covering the more work is involved in getting your content curation to a point where it’s usable. In order to be considered seriously in your niche the quality of your shares should be very high based on their value to your readers. Audit your Content: The feedback mechanism that separates good content curators from run-of-the-mill ones is auditing of your content. Your shared content may fall short in reaching your target audience and the only way you can figure that out is by doing regular audits and replacing the non-performing shares with those that are more likely to generate better leads. Audits also allow you to fix the technical aspects of your content (such as SEO details and keyword placement) so as to make the share more search engine friendly. Schedule your Shares: Just like blogging, the aim with content curation is to ensure that you have fresh content regularly and on demand. To do so consistently, you should queue up your content shares so that they go live at regular intervals. These don’t need to be within any set time period, but consistent posting keeps your content curation site fresh and ensures that you don’t lose your search rank position through abandonment. There are quite a number of online content production companies that offer content auditing and curation as separate packages or as a combination of both of these important aspects of running a site that is aiming to be an authority in the topic area. Because of the intensive nature of content curation, if you intend to go this route, hiring an external company to do your curation for you is definitely a good idea. 5 Ways Content Curation Can Generate Ideas Curating usually inspires you to build on the content you have or to create brand new content. Just like a muse tends to awaken the creative spirit in an artist, so too does content curation give you a chance to explore different points of view for the same topic. You need to keep an open mind when putting together content via curation since it’s likely that sites that may not align with your point of view have some points that are just as valid as your own. Being objective is very important. Coming up with and curating new content ideas can be a relatively pain-free process, … Read more

9 Of The Worst Phrases In Content Marketing

December 31, 2020February 5, 2015 by Adam Oakley

In the world of business and sales, words are powerful. Copywriting not only involves captivating and educating your audience, but also choosing the right words to say. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that your choice of words could cost (or earn) your company a sale. When it comes to copywriting, every detail counts. The idea isn’t to walk on eggshells with your copywriting, but you do want to be aware of word choice and the message you are signaling to your clients. Almost every word has its place and purpose, but there are several that you want to avoid when you are copywriting for sales or your website. These are what I like to call “the worst phrases in content marketing.” Content Marketing Tips: What to Avoid Content marketing may seem like it’s for everyone (see “You Don’t Need to Be a Brand Publisher To Win At Content Marketing” on Moz), but remember, there are some words in general you should be avoiding to stay on the right road. If you have these words and phrases on your own website, consider it a red flag: it might be hurting your conversion ratio. Our Product is The Cheapest on The Market. If you are in a hurry to downgrade the value of your product, the word cheap will get you there in a heartbeat. Cheap is not to be confused with affordable; affordable is a gentler and more positive way to emphasize a cost effective price point.However, cheap may bring the connotation of flimsy and invaluable. If you must include a low price point in your copywriting, stick to affordable. We Are Offering One of The Best Things Available in Our Industry. Maybe this is a personal pet peeve, but the word thing really makes my skin crawl. It is extremely vague, generic, and does nothing in terms of describing value. The word thing should be used to describe an object when you don’t know what it is, or how to even go about describing it. Merriam Webster describes the word thing as an object whose name is not known or stated.Does that really describe the product or service that you have to offer?If you are writing about a product with the goal of generating a sale, describe what is in in detail. Then focus on its best qualities — also in detail. Generic terms don’t encourage conversions. Allow Us to Serve Your Needs. Yet another vague phrase, allow us might be one of the most unconvincing terms to use when trying to make a sale. Furthermore, you are putting the cart before the horse. In order for your client to want to allow you to help, you need to describe in detail why you are their solution.Again, details matter to your clients. Don’t assume that you automatically have the sale just because you believe in your product or service. We Will Try to Resolve The Problem as Soon as Possible. If you are looking to instill confidence and encouragement in your client, refrain from using the word try. Try sounds like you will make an attempt, but there are no guarantees to the outcome.Even though there are never any guarantees in life, it is much more ensuring to your client to say that you will find a solution vs. you will make a mere attempt. You don’t want to make false promises, but you do want your client to feel confident in your capabilities. Industry Jargon Overload. While this may not be a specific word, overwhelming your potential client with too much industry jargon can easily cost you a sale. When was the last time that you were motivated to buy something because you were overly confused? I’m willing to bet never.When it comes to describing your products and services, stick to the basics. One of the rules of copywriting is to make sure that your 80-year-old grandmother can understand what you are trying to say. Of course, this does not apply for those who have a highly specific target audience that already understands industry jargon.Otherwise, make your copywriting simple and easy to understand. Free (When It’s Really Not). Free might sound harmless enough, but unfortunately it can come with negative connotation. Your clients are smart and know that almost nothing is truly free. Not to mention, the word free is often used as a bait-and-switch to lure in clients for a sale. Think about those phony smartphone commercials that promise a free service, only to find out that you must sign a contract to get the benefits.No one likes to be strung along. Unless your offer is truly free, don’t advertise as such. I Don’t Want to Generate More Business. Yet another phrase more than a word, negative and sarcastic phrases will never put your message in a positive light. This trick has become popular around the Internet, especially when you navigate away from a page and are stopped by a pop-up. If you have to insult your client into buying, you might want to re-evaluate the value of your product. Don’t Try to ‘Boil an Ocean’. If at all possible, avoid using clichés. Chances are that your clients have read those clichés time and time again, and they aren’t doing you any favors. With all of the wonderful copywriting books, tools, and online resources available, surely you can write a few words that will capture the attention of your audience. There are tried-and-true methods that were established decades ago that still apply today. Give it a try.If you can’t seem to get it just right, hire a pro. Your message will be well received, easy to understand, and help you attract business instead of unintentionally turning it away. Too Much We, I, And Us. If you take anything away from this advice, too much of you in your copywriting will never win over clients. People care about their needs and how they can use your products to solve problems. … Read more

The Great Content Roundup: Week 3, Topic Content and SEO

January 1, 2021February 3, 2015 by Adam Oakley

Greetings, folks! On week three of the great content roundup, I wanted to specifically pull out links that talk about content and SEO in 2015. I’ve been seeing some great stuff on the Internet circulating around this hot topic and wanted to share my favorites from this week. As you know from my past posts, I strongly believe that content IS SEO. Therefore, this will revolve around content marketing and everything SEO related. There are some great articles here, so enjoy, and feel free to share or leave a comment! Best Content Marketing Tools in 2015 by Sujan Patel on SEJ. Great info shared. He says that 78% of CMOs believe custom content is the future of marketing. Wow! How UX (User Experience) Is the Future of SEO by Dario Zadro on SEJ. Good points; the better you make the user experience, the better your SEO results. 18 Areas of Knowledge Every SEO Must Possess, by Neil Patel on SEJ. Guest blogging and content marketing should have been #1 and #2, not #13 and #14. The Technical Future of SEO by Scott Stouffer. A unique search engine engineers perspective on SEO. He mentioned that PPC is over-saturated and no longer profitable; and how organic search can be looked at. The Many Deaths of SEO Before 2015 by Razvan Gavrilas. An insightful look into how many times SEO was said to “die” last year. 5 Explosive Content Marketing Strategies for 2015, from yours truly. I take a look at starting, creating and continuing great content marketing strategies for this year. To end the discussion, here’s a great infographic from WebProfits on content strategy:

Why the Future of Content Marketing is Bright

December 31, 2020January 29, 2015 by Adam Oakley

As a small business owner, the concept of content marketing makes you raise an eyebrow and ask yourself lots of questions that might include: Do I really need a content strategy to speak my mind and bond with my clients? Couldn’t I just let the words flow freely? Don’t let your upcoming experiences provide the answers to these questions. Trying to convey your messages without a well-researched, documented content marketing strategy would be like trying to steer a ship without a helm. In this case you would probably drown in a sea of disparate content pieces that do not actually add value to your audience and don’t do a great job at representing your business. 6 Reasons Why Content Marketing Is Here to Stay The good news is that it’s never too late to see what successful content marketing is all about. According to a Forbes article, the content marketing industry was worth no less than $44 billion dollars in 2013. Aren’t you curious to find out what’s behind the strategies that have filled the pockets of so many individuals and corporations? Some see content marketing as an elaborated soft-sell advertising tactic, while others interpret it as a method of telling a company’s story in a unique manner. Regardless of your take on this matter, we give you six reasons why content marketing won’t be going anywhere in the near future. Give The Man Premium Content, and He Will Come Back for More. Addictive content enables you and your readers to become close. Original, palatable and relevant writing with a substance always triggers feedback from one’s audience. Naturally, in this case the key to success is consistency. Those who like to consume your stellar food for thought on a regular basis will always be hungry for your fresh topics. They will land on your page repeatedly and advise their friends, colleagues, parents and grandparents to do the same. On top of that, a constant flow of content allows you to build and maintain a solid community around your brand, product or service. According to an article published by Search Engine Journal, exceptional content facilitates a stimulating conversation between you and your public, while a strong community amplifies the message that you are trying to send through your writing. Having a Solid Content Strategy Is Like Having Money in the Bank. Some inexperienced business owners who are not familiar with the mechanism of online markets may tend to think that crafting and implementing a content strategy is a tiresome process that doesn’t actually deliver major benefits. The numbers reflected by recent stats debunk this misconception, proving that content marketing is one of the most powerful moneymaking tools that all companies can and should rely on, regardless of their size and goals, in order to increase their revenues. The fact that 90% of B2C brands rely on content marketing to inform and educate their consumers definitely proves a point in this context. Content Marketers Sharpen Their Pens and Broaden Their Horizons. According to a white paper entitled 2015 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends- North America, published by Content Marketing Institute, this year 35% of all B2B marketers affirm that they count on a documented content marketing strategy, while 48% say that they have a content marketing strategy set in place, but in this case we are talking about an undocumented version. The same source reveals other interesting aspects, including the following ones: Content marketers now use separate content marketing strategies to target 4 audiences, on average 42% of all surveyed marketers publish fresh content daily or “multiple times per week” to fuel their content marketing program In 2015, marketers are currently working on 13 content marketing initiatives, on average The new trends identified by this source indicate that content marketing has evolved a great deal throughout time, expanding its influence and its inherent series of benefit. At this point, skilled marketers can develop, test, revise and monitor not one but four (or more) distinctive content marketing strategies designed according to the particularities of their segments of public. Another important aspect underlined by this white paper is that 70% of the B2B marketers employed by companies of all sizes are creating more content than they did one year ago. They use on average six channels to distribute their pieces of content and are always keeping an eye open for new opportunities that may take their content marketing program to a whole new level. The increased enthusiasm and determination manifested by marketers show that content is a mighty king that will never be dethroned and also suggests that a little bit of strategic thinking and in-depth research can take you a long way. All the Big Players Are Investing Big Bucks in Content Marketing. If you want to keep up with the Joneses in any field of activity, you have to identify your own role models and follow in the footsteps of the most successful giants. This doesn’t mean that you have to turn yourself into a copycat; chances are that you don’t have the resources that a major corporation relies on anyway. In this case, the key is to borrow, steal and reinterpret in a clever manner, while adapting every single idea that inspires you to your own strategy, developed according to your budget, audience and goals. Brands that we all know and love show us that content marketing is the key to reaching audiences, creating communities and achieving bigger goals on a daily basis. Let’s take a quick look at some awesome examples: Colgate has made a name for itself as an expert in its field not necessarily by talking like one, but by keeping its prospects close through its Oral and Dental Health Resource This online resource provides useful, punctual tips on a great variety of topics, all related to the mission, vision and purpose in business of this giant company that has established itself as a promoter of a correct oral hygiene. Here one could stumble across more than 400 instructional … Read more

The Great Content Roundup: Week 2 – Topic Content Curation Tools

December 31, 2020January 27, 2015 by Adam Oakley

Hi everyone! Today, I’m choosing to talk all about great content curation tools. I think there are awesome ways you can find and curate great content for your business, website, blog, and readers. Tools make life so much easier—right? Lets Curate It #1. Scoop.It. If you’re not on this awesome platform already, you should be. To start curating, just sign up, create your topic of interest, and scoop to your topic from what’s already out there on Scoop.it or what you’ve created yourself. Check out the FAQ for some initial guidance. #2. Quora. Your questions, from your audience, are waiting for you to discover on this awesome platform. I look up copywriting, and I see people asking for the top resources on copywriting, or a specific way of how to write headlines. So I go create blogs that answer their questions, using my expertise. More: 26 Free (or Free to Try) Content Curation Tools by Search Engine Watch The Ultimate List of Curation Tools from Curata And, to step beyond and to talk a little about creating awesome content. Creating Great Headlines: 2 Awesome Resources With some of our content orders, many times our writers will create the blog / article piece and the headline. Some clients will provide their own, but most of the time, we create an original headline. For inspiration, we utilize two awesome tools out there that are great for helping writers come up with headlines that stand out, using all the right adjectives, grabbing your attention, etc.: Portent’s Title Maker: http://www.portent.com/tools/title-maker & Hubspot’s Blog Topic Generator: http://www.hubspot.com/blog-topic-generator Basically, if you plugin a keyword or a couple words, the generators give you full topic ideas. (Disclaimer: Remember, they’re machines not humans. So, a couple times their results may be way off. Use with judgment!) Lastly, if you haven’t seen our Content Strategy services (that include content curation), it’s time to look into them!

A Case Study In Two Pillars of Content Marketing Success

December 31, 2020January 26, 2015 by Adam Oakley

You! Yes, you over there, searching Google for inspiration to create an epic content marketing plan. I know it’s easy to get stumped with all of the information available or you might simply need a few examples of different successful endeavors from some epic companies. Heck, as a content marketer, even I get stumped (once every few million minutes). In this blog, I am going to do an in-depth case study of the most epic of the epic to inspire your content marketing. More specifically, I’ll take a look two content marketing pillars who have created the foundations of what a great content marketing strategy is all about! This should give you some basic inspiration that you will be able to take with you to your next content marketing meeting. Let’s take a look at the company that gives you wings, and the company you use to film when you get those wings. Red Bull’s Stellar Content Marketing: 7 Key Features If you aren’t a big fan of energy drinks, chances are you still know about Red Bull and can recite their slogan from memory, “Red Bull gives you wings!” Regardless of lawsuits stating the drink does not, in fact, give one wings, Red Bull’s slogan is a great example of just how this company wins at content marketing. Let’s look at a few other ways they’re a content marketing juggernaut. 1. World Records Were Broken. Can We Ever Forget the Parachute from Space? I was one of the millions that tuned in for Red Bull’s Stratos jump from the edge of space in October 2012. It was an incredible thing to watch and what a feeling of realizing you’re watching history in the making! If you weren’t one who watched or happen to know nothing about it, Felix Baumgartner did a free fall from the very edge of space and represented Red Bull. While it happened over two years ago, Red Bull is still using this highly successful campaign over at their Stratos Team website. It was a great way to not only advance the energy drink, but to also promote science and space travel. Just how effective was this jump, in sales and marketing results? An Econsultancy report said they had 900,000 Facebook interactions on jump day, and sales of Red Bull rose an entire 7% to a figure in the billions within six months. Now, I understand that not everyone can break a world record in their content marketing, but this company went to the extreme and did that—and it got them somewhere! If you have a crazy, record-breaking idea for your marketing: well, who’s stopping you from doing it? 2. Red Bull Uses Excellent Sports Action YouTube Videos. While most of Red Bull’s customers are not those who participate in extreme sports or high action events, they do know that it is a great marketing scheme. The company utilizes YouTube to provide videos to their over 3 million subscribers using different extreme sports in a video series. They have a series about racing in Seattle, as well as featuring individual sports such as mountain biking, parachute jumps, and extreme truck racing (in snowy conditions!). You can catch all of their videos by heading to their YouTube account. Prepare for some major action-packed adventures! In addition to Red Bull’s extreme sports videos, Red Bull also live-streamed events such as Lollapalooza. Those who couldn’t get to the music festival were able to watch it live on Red Bull TV, which was another great marketing scheme from this awesome company. 3. They Put Their Customers First. One of the major ways Red Bull wins in content marketing is that they always put their customers first. This is a great way to interact with their client base and make people feel welcome. While their customers might not necessarily participate in extreme sports or the other events Red Bull sponsors, their client base still enjoys watching them. The company states that the product is completely secondary. What comes first is what the customer wants and how the company can deliver and meet those wants and needs. 4. Red Bull Uses Multiple Formats for Content. Red Bull understands the need for multiple content formats because they understand people consume it differently. Because of this, the company not only uses their awesome digital marketing skills, but they also utilize a magazine, social media, images, and blogs (depending on the campaign). This is a great way to reach out to their audience in enough ways to keep reaching a significantly wider audience. You can find more about their overarching content at their awesome website, Red Bull Media House. 5. They Make Marketing More Than Just a Department. Their media house states they are not the only ones responsible for coming up with these stellar content ideas. Red Bull believes that they can get some of the best, most effective campaigns by involving their entire company. This is a great way to make sure they are not only engaging their customers, but their employees as well. Happy, engaged employees can mean major success for any business! Consider asking your employees to help come up with some awesome marketing campaign ideas or things they’d like to see from your company. Your employees are housing a wealth of information and if you neglect it, you can miss out on some pretty epic inspiration! 6. Red Bull Has a Strong Slogan. As I mentioned earlier, the incredibly memorable slogan did bring about a lawsuit (people sure can get lawsuit happy, can’t they?). Regardless, you cannot deny that Red Bull has created one of the best slogans. Why is it one of the best? Because whether you consume Red Bull or not, you know the slogan already. How many of us have it memorized? Let’s see; recite the slogan with me now! “Red Bull gives you wings!” This is a great example of creating a memorable slogan that helps people remember your company quickly and easily! 7. Let’s … Read more

How Much Do Your Content Headlines Matter?

December 31, 2020January 22, 2015 by Adam Oakley

We have always been taught not to judge a book by its cover. But if looks are deceiving, what are the actual factors worth considering when it comes to selecting the next written masterpiece that you enjoy so much you’ll take it to bed with you? You are looking for real substance, an interesting topic that incites and a fresh perspective on all the things that have been done, said and written before. You can determine whether or not a book, or any other content piece for that matter, has what it takes to make it on your shortest “to read” list by simply examining the title. A great headline is the promise that a content piece won’t make you yawn repeatedly hours before your bedtime. Yes, first impressions matter a great deal, and the best titles reflect the ideal balance between form and (structure, ideal length) and function. Can Your Content Headlines Really Influence Your Readers’ Mindset? A good headline gives you a clue to what the author has in store for you. Moreover, according to an article published by The New Yorker, headlines frame the overall reading experience, enabling you, as a reader, to understand what kind of content piece of content you are getting ready to analyze. At the same time, they set the tone and general approach for the topics that are being brought to your attention. You can say or write the same thing in countless different ways. One approach might make your readers bounce off your page thinking that you’re truly boring and unremarkable, while another one may convince them to subscribe to your newsletter and read your content religiously, before taking the first sip of their morning coffee. Exceptional headline enables you to shift away from the first method and make all the right steps towards the latter one. Should you strive for perfection when it comes to writing headlines? You’d better, especially if you want to stay relevant in your niche. According to an interesting statistic cited by Copyblogger, 8 out of 10 people only read the headline copy. How can you put a spell on the other 2 out of 10 individuals who are actually willing to scan, skim and/or digest the rest of your information, in order to make them respond to your calls to action? You can start by writing better headlines. Headlines Point towards the Shortest Path to Your Reader’s Heart and Mind What does a great headline actually do, aside from consolidating your position as a successful copywriter? It gives you the power to seduce your readers. For instance-“A Beauty Ritual That Can Prevent Premature Aging?” and “5 Ways to Look 10 Years Younger in 10 Weeks” basically offer the same kind of food for thought: some insight into the beauty sector, allowing you to maintain your youthful appearance for a longer period of time. If you were to stumble across these two headline versions, you would probably ignore article the represented by the first title and read the second one, while taking notes and learning certain fragments by heart. In this case, readers automatically correlate these numbers with certainties. After reading the second title, you would probably say to yourself: “Sure, I can do that for ten weeks to look ten years younger!” This is the type of reaction that you should expect from your readers after deciphering the code of writing killer headlines. What Kind of Alchemy Could Help You Turn Your Headlines into Solid Gold? Now that you have found out everything you need to know about the function of a good headline, what should you remember about its form? According to Copyblogger, there are certain foolproof patterns that you can apply to mould your ideas into fine pieces of gold, which basically work in any context. Direct headlines (These headlines introduce the selling proposition without any attempts at unnecessary cleverness) Indirect headlines (These headlines often rely on double meanings and other aces up the copywriter’s sleeve to create an aura of mystery and raise the readers’ curiosity and interest) News headlines. (If they’re fresh and catchy, they’ll want to hear the whole story from you first) “How to” headlines. (Nothing channels your proud do-it-yourselfer quite like a succinct “how to” headline) Question headlines (Curiosity may have killed the cat, but in this case a catchy, on-point question headline may just convince your readers to ignore this potentially dangerous precedent and read your body copy, searching for answers) Command headlines (Yes, your readers appreciate precise instructions and love being told what to do!) “Reasons Why” headlines (We all need a few extra reasons to give a new product or service a try, don’t we?) Testimonial headlines (We’ll say this much: nobody wants to be the first to pay a fee to try a new product or a service) How Do You Get People to Care about Your Headlines? There’s one thing that you should never forget about your readers: they have the power to label your content at a first glance. They can take your masterpiece from “fabulous and on-point” to “redundant, annoying or plain boring” in 1.5 seconds, before you’ll know what hit you. So how can you convince your audience that your headlines are awesome and your body copy is even better? According to Moz, the recipe for success is simple: you just have to make your headline (and implicitly, the ideas and emotions that it brings to life) resonate with your readers on a higher level. To Optimize or Not to Optimize Your Headlines? Here’s one more headline-related question that may be on your mind: should you write for people or for machines? Could you do it for both categories? In a world driven by emerging SEO trends, should you leave your headlines unpolished or should you actually optimize them for search engines? According to Search Engine Land, headlines should be descriptive and succinct, reflecting the core … Read more

The Great Content Roundup: Week 1, Topic Content Curation

December 31, 2020January 20, 2015 by Adam Oakley

We’re starting a series of curated posts, called The Great Content Roundup. Welcome to Week 1! What to Expect? In these “roundup” posts, we will summarize and link to anywhere from 5-15 posts in one blog post. These articles and pieces we link to will be the ones that we found held value and use for direct businesses in the areas of content marketing, SEO, and social media. These are posts you won’t want to miss! For Week 1, I want to share some awesome resources with you on curation, since that’s exactly what we’re starting to do with this first post. Welcome to Week 1 of the Great Content Roundup! Our Topic: Content Curation Content curation is becoming more and more a big topic online. As you may or may not know, we launched full content strategy services that include content curation in late 2014. Here are a few great guides that explain content curation in general, and a few more specific posts that offer intelligent insight, including a few of our own guest blogs. “Your In-Depth Guide to Content Curation” on SEJ SiteProNews Guest Blog Guide to Content Curation SEJ Guest Blog, Why You Must Curate Content In 2015 Insightful SEJ piece, guide to content curation Lastly, view our Google Hangout event that happened January 13, 2015 with Julia McCoy (our CEO) and the Scoop.It CEO, on content curation (we use their tool in our curating). And, a bonus link… BONUS: Five Social Media Predictions for 2015 via HuffingtonPost, authored by Tania Yuki. In this brief but thorough piece, Tania explores how social media will change in 2015, including a focus on more personalization and building real relationships. People won’t be in “static buckets” anymore. Since content is all about real people, we totally agree with Tania! She also predicts that Snapchat will become more popular than ever.

6 Ways To Not Suck At Blogging

June 19, 2024January 12, 2015 by Adam Oakley

Blogging is like a full-time profession for many of us, and because of that we have a dedicated interest in our audiences. We are the place that they come for content and we have a responsibility to provide current, accurate reporting as far as content is concerned. Our opinions usually shape the final decisions of a number of our readers and because of that a lot of power rests in our hands. Creating captivating blog entries is always a challenging task, especially when you have a lot on your plate and little time to get it all done. In order to be a successful blogger, you have to understand what success means to a blogger. For some it equates to a lot of clicks, but to others it means providing a source of information to our readers. We are tasked with presenting an unbiased view that is free from fear or favor when it comes to a particular topic and we should take our responsibilities as bloggers very seriously. Success Tips To Help You Make Your Blogging ROI Increase If you truly want to succeed and produce a blog that you can be proud of, here are a few things that are almost guaranteed to net you success. Success Tip #1: Put Your Audience First How many bloggers out there truly know their audience? How many of them are simply assuming what their audience wants and instead miss the attractive points that would draw the crowds? Understanding your audience is one of the most important things any blogger can do. By understanding what drives your audience, you locate the motivation behind their need for content and this allows you to better home in what they love to read. Putting your audience first means taking their likes and dislikes into account. Usually in niche blogs this is a simple matter because only an individual that follows the particular area of interest would be a reader on such a blog. When it comes to more open, wide-ranging blogs there is a lot more scope for you to be good (or bad) at presenting your ideas. Knowing your audience helps you to streamline your ideas to present it in a more palatable fashion to your readers, according to Copyblogger. Know what they read and what interests them and you’re well on your way to creating riveting content that will ensure that people take notice of what you say. Success Tip #2: Be Unbiased In Your Representation Of Facts Anonymity has made it easy for anyone to be a blogger and hide their real identity. It doesn’t do much to promote trustworthiness, however. When you produce a blog, what you write on it is a direct reflection of your own opinions and ideas. However, if you’re blogging about a factual piece of information then you should be careful to separate your ideas from what makes up the body of truth. Representing fact is important and the more accurate you are in presenting the fact uncolored by bias, the more your audience tends to trust you. Creating trust in an audience means that it is more likely that they will come back to you for news since in their opinion, you are a reliable location to get the truth. Opinion pieces are welcome since the aim of most blogging is to represent a blogger’s opinions on a particular issue. You must be careful to draw the line between opinion and fact since blurring those lines will lose you credibility in the eyes of your audience. Showing your audience two sides of the story before chiming in with your own take on the issue is a very good way to present an issue in a simple, unbiased way. Success Tip #3: Don’t Get Complicated One of the things that turns a lot of readers off from a blog is content that is simply padding. Overcomplicating an issue is a very common way to pad a word count, but it does your audience no favors. The more complex a piece of content is, the less likely that you’re going to get readers willing to sit through your filler text. Get right down the point and do it effectively and efficiently. It might be a lot easier to simple research a point in depth rather than trying to create meaningless phrases and words to make up a word count. Keeping it simple helps connect with your audience without alienating them. In some industry blogs, using jargon that is common within the industry does not count as being complicated. This exception is because such blogs are usually aimed at industry professionals that are already familiar with these terms. General Blogs should try to maintain a conversational tone without inserting obscure words and phrases. Doing so usually interrupts the flow of your conversation with the reader and could lead to them dismissing your entry as not worthy of their time. Success Tip #4: A Picture Paints a Thousand Words We’re no longer in the dark ages of the Internet where a single jpeg file could take as much as ten minutes to load on a dial up connection. Thanks to the wonders of easily available high speed internet, using eye-catching images is not only an option, it is recommended. Quite a lot of human beings have the ability to process graphic information far more readily than textual information. It’s the reason why memes are such a popular thing in internet culture today. Utilizing images capitalizes on this ability by giving your readers content in a breathtaking flurry of color and shape. Selecting the right image for your post is as important as writing the post itself and due care should be taken to choose an image that best represents what you want the reader to take away from this entry. Images are probably the best way to communicate simple ideas and you should utilize them in blog posts as often as you can in order to give your content … Read more