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How To Write Headlines that Earn More Clicks & Reads (Video)

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How To Write Headlines that Earn More Clicks & Reads (Video)

Headlines are a critical step to the overall success of the content you publish, especially blogs. Here’s something else, though. The experience of the reader after the headline — what’s in the content itself — is also every bit as important. Similar to a tasty cake with even better icing, or a great store with a clear, accurate sign. If a store is awesome, and has tons of of fantastic products inside, but the sign is nonexistent, or, worse — confusing or off-putting, how is the owner going to attract anyone inside? A headline is like that. If you’re crafting a headline to get people to read your blog, article, or email, it needs to be clear, well-written, and engaging to earn your audience’s interest and attention. I’ve got some nitty-gritty tips for you on how to write headlines for your content, hot and fresh for you in today’s video. Let’s get into it! [bctt tweet=”Learn 3 practical tips for writing #headlines that work from @JuliaEMcCoy on @YouTube ?” username=”ExpWriters”] How To Write Headlines that Earn More Clicks & Reads (Video) Okay, so here are my top three tips for you on writing great headlines. Ready? The first one is four tips in one, so buckle in! Headline Writing Tip #1: Draft your headline in three stages. Let’s look at one of the blogs I’ve written: How to Promote a New Blog Post: 15+ Trusty Techniques to Try After 8 years of content creation, and writing thousands of blogs, I’ve learned that multiple process and draft stages are everything to staying ahead of content, producing great quality, and never risking burnout. (I’m 3 or 4 weeks ahead now on more than 20 individual long-form content pieces per month.) [bctt tweet=”After 8 years of content creation, and writing thousands of blogs, I’ve learned that multiple process and draft stages are everything to staying ahead of content. @JuliaEMcCoy” username=”ExpWriters”] When it comes to stages in content creation, this is the secret to success. And this includes stages for your headlines! Here’s the three stages I use. Headline Writing Stage 1: Draft a headline that reflects the idea or keyword you’re writing about. My draft for the blog example would look like: How to promote a new blog post: # techniques (because that’s the keyword and the idea). It should not be perfect at this point. Don’t worry about that yet! Headline Writing Stage 2: After you write the blog, come back to the headline. How many steps or techniques do you have? You’ll know after writing the article. This is super important: Let the content guide your headline. This will mean accuracy to the topic for the reader, if you match the headline to what you’ve written, after you write it. You want to refine and craft a headline you like. Headline Writing Stage 3: Run the headline through a scoring tool. I like the Advanced Marketing Institute’s Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer. It’s a fantastic tool that gives you a rating for how much emotion your headline will impact, and what emotions you’ll bring up in your reader. Intellectual, Empathetic, Spiritual are the three emotions the AMI tool scores for. 40-80 is a high score. Another good tool is CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer, which rates your headline from 1-100, dependent on word choices used in the headline, length, etc. Now that you know the stages of how to write a good headline, which I’d say is the most important part of this video, let’s talk about a few other headline rules of thumb. Headline Writing Tip #2. Never, ever, ever, clickbait. Don’t sacrifice accuracy for sensation. The best wait to avoid this is with accuracy from headline to topic. Never disguise your topic or be unclear about it. Be upfront and 100% accurate. Accuracy of your headline to the content also impacts Google rankings. Google looks for headlines that sum up the topic of the content. The topic of your content is what ranks well in Google, if the whole piece is topically accurate. This is because of how semantic search algorithm works. We can get all nerdy here — that’s just a summary. For more, I have a guide on semantic and topical search optimization. Headline Writing Tip #3. Your starter words matter. BuzzSumo did a study of over 50,000 articles in B2B content. They found that these starter words performed better than other headline starter phrases: “The Future of” “How to use” “Need to” (without “Know”) “How to Create” “Here’s How” “You Need to Know” Brainstorm topic ideas with these phrases in mind. For example, “what does my audience need to know?” or “what is the future of my industry and how does it affect my audience?” You can even go back and optimize content that’s not performing well on your blog and add in these header phrases. I go back and optimize my old icky headlines all the time and see more results from doing so! Go Forth and Write Headlines that Work Hope these tips helped you. Here’s to writing catchy headlines that work and earn our readers’ attention — and don’t add to the noise and clickbait crap out there! I’d LOVE to have you subscribe and come back for more videos. Click the banner below and let’s stay in touch! 

Why Your Content Marketing Isn’t Working (Video)

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Why Your Content Marketing Isn’t Working (Video)

Content marketing works. I’ve talked about this and written about it for years in my blogs, guest blogs, emails, case studies. The reality of blogging and content marketing ROI is growing greater year by year, as consumers get smarter and ad money goes down the toilet. Just look at these three top statistics: Hubspot studied over 13,500 bloggers and found that the more blog posts published, the more inbound traffic publishers got to their website. In the same Hubspot study, it was found that an accumulation of more content brings more leads: companies that have published 401+ blog posts get 2x as much traffic as those that have less than 400. The current ROA (return of advertising) is .6x, down from 11.8x in 2016. You’re losing money, most of the time, on ads. The ROI (return of investment) of organic content is anywhere from 14-16% of traffic (conversion into sales). (Ad Strategist) But here’s the thing. The average time span to see content marketing results can be 12-18 months. After building up a repertoire of content, we’re seeing results – like ranking in the top 3 of Google results for “digital content strategy” in as little as 30 days. So, faster results can happen, only if you build up the right foundations. And here’s the secret about content marketing. It doesn’t work if you don’t set it up to work. Watch today’s video for three ways to set up your content marketing foundations to start earning (and seeing) real results online. ⬇️ [bctt tweet=”Going crazy because your content marketing isn’t giving you the ROI you’re expecting? Watch as @JuliaEMcCoy shares her 3 simple yet effective ways to set up your content marketing foundations.” username=”ExpWriters”] Why Your Content Marketing Isn’t Working (Video)  Video Summary: How to Build a Strong Content Strategy for Your Content Marketing Hi, I’m Julia McCoy. You can call me the content hacker. That’s the name of my new personal brand launching in June. I’m a growth-focused content marketer, the CEO of Express Writers, blogger, and author. Thanks so much for joining me on today’s video! Content Works – But It Doesn’t Work If You Don’t Set It Up to Work I’ve been sharing those statistics that I shared with you at the beginning of this video for years now. I’m here today, creating a video just for those still in the rut of zero action in their content marketing. I’m calling you out because I care about you. Your success can happen — you might just a few feet away from content marketing greatness. But here’s the thing. If you’re not getting the fundamentals of great copy right, and you’re not stepping into consistency and greatness in content production. All the while, complaining about the things you don’t have. Not enough leads. Not enough sales. Not enough people on my website. I can tell you, if you just sat down and fixed the content marketing problems staring you in the face — Those leads… Those sales… Those people… Would come. The problem with most content marketers is that marketers think of content as a quick fix, instead of thinking of it as a fundamental, like building a house. And they complain about all the things they wish they could have, while they’re ignoring this big, glaring situation of ignoring the fundamentals. Which they could have — if they fixed their content. If they stopped being absent on the company blog. If they got the broken areas of their website rebuilt. If they took another look at and fixed all that icky content written more than two years ago. It’s time for content marketers to stop complaining about the leads, traffic, and sales they don’t have. And it’s time to start doing something about it. Content marketing action-takers are the content marketing winners. [bctt tweet=”It’s time for content marketers to stop complaining about the leads, traffic, and sales they don’t have. Content marketing action-takers are the content marketing winners. @JuliaEMcCoy” username=”ExpWriters”] My story is proof this can happen — and I’m a college dropout that learned all this by a ton of trial and error! For 8 years, I haven’t missed a week in blogging. Guess what our results are? Over 90,000 monthly visitors and an income built 99% through our on-site traffic. Our traffic converts at 14-16%. We’re not the only story of success after content done right — we’re just one of many brands, completely built through content marketing! (See a case study of four marketers and teams that have built huge presences with content marketing.) 3 Ways to Start Turning Things Around and Seeing Real Success From Your Content Marketing If you’re not seeing success from your content, here are three ways to immediately step it up and start seeing results. All of these three things require some time and effort, but they’re going to be worth it. 1. If your site isn’t fast, user-friendly, stable, well-built, or built at all — this is your first step. Site speed and quality is everything. Google has said that conversions drop by 12% per second of load time. The more time it takes to load your site, the less your lead, your human, will even stick around. Website time is money! A study done in 2017 showed that one full second can decrease conversion rates by 70%. Use a tool like Pingdom to test your website speed. Hire a good WordPress designer from platforms like Upwork to fix, clean or build your site, make it lightning-fast, Google-friendly, reader-friendly and beautiful. You don’t need to spend more than $30-50/hour to get a great WordPress developer, and you can by the hour and work done. If you need a brand new site, expect to spend a minimum of $500 or $1000 for a solid, well-built 3-page website. More if you want them to build more content. Get a great website. (Build one if you don’t have one. Rebuild one if yours is crap. Seriously. You’ll thank me … Read more

How to Create a Content Strategy for Your Content Marketing (Video)

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How to Create a Content Strategy for Your Content Marketing (Video)

With over 78 million people in the US alone blocking ads, garnering the term “adlergic,” creating smart content that reaches our target consumers has gotten more critical than ever. Content marketing is smart marketing in an age where our consumers are looking for what they want, when they want it. Content marketing WORKS tremendously well. But, it doesn’t hit those HUGE return numbers without a smart content strategy. The best content marketers use a strong content strategy. It’s true – Content Marketing Institute’s benchmark study says the most successful content marketers are far more likely than their less successful peers to have a documented content marketing strategy (65% vs. 14%)! So, you have to know your content strategy to achieve real content marketing success. Not sure how to do that? You’re in luck! Learn how to put together an effective content strategy for powerful marketing, in my new video. [bctt tweet=”Watch as @JuliaEMcCoy discusses the 6 cores involved in a high-performing content strategy for your #contentmarketing ” username=”ExpWriters”] How to Create a Content Strategy for Your Content Marketing (Video)  Video Transcription: How to Build a Strong Content Strategy for Your Content Marketing If you know me, you already know how much I LOVE content marketing. I’ve been preaching it, writing books about content strategy and marketing, and practicing it since 2011. Heck, I’ve got ‘serial content marketer’ and ‘content hacker’ in all my social media bios. I believe in content marketing and a smart content strategy because, simply put, it WORKS to build a real audience today. Content is one of the LOWEST-COST, highest-ROI marketing efforts you could be doing, especially if you focus on your onsite presence. SEO content leads have a 14.6% close rate, as opposed to outbound leads (1.7% close rate!) Through a smart content strategy and content marketing, inside eight years, I’ve built a seven-figure digital agency. I haven’t had to show up to any office – at all – in those seven years. I haven’t had to cold call. I fired my commission sales rep over three years ago because content marketing works so well! Our story of growth through content has gone around town. Neil Patel has featured it on his site (this study is fairly old – we’re at 2,500 visitors/day organically now), and we were even interviewed and featured on Forbes. BUT – before I got smart on my content marketing strategy, let me tell you, my content was a HOT MESS! I was publishing with no results, just hitting publish, publish, and in a hamster wheel of content efforts. After figuring out our content strategy, I almost TRIPLED our agency’s monthly income! Keep watching for the full story, and the lowdown on the six content strategy cores I still use today for powerful results. Before we go any further, hit that subscribe button! I want you back here! Click on the banner below to visit my YouTube channel and subscribe. The Backstory: Before I Put a Content Strategy In Place, Here’s What My Content Marketing Results Looked Like Okay, so quick backstory before I go into the six content strategy cores you should be putting into practice for real content marketing results. From my beginning year of 2011 all the way up until about 2015, I was a stressed-out, struggling marketer. I was producing content in a whirlwind of deadlines, just to keep my “online presence” afloat. My agency made money, and we got leads… but not enough. It always seemed we’d ride by with nothing to show for it each month. Why can’t my marketing WORK? I’m creating content daily! I was thinking to myself. Fast-forward to 2016. After working for five years in my agency, I decided a “spray-and-pray” approach just wasn’t good enough. I settled in, stood back, and taught myself how to be strategic. I tested, analyzed, and surveyed. Then, I applied a series of strategic moves to my content marketing, started publishing less, and focused on the right things. And it paid off… In less than 18 months, I reached 150% MONTHLY revenue growth. Our team and client base grew by 25%, we now have almost 90 team members, and we have new clients coming in every week after finding us through our content. Getting strategic with our content has truly paid off. We don’t have to sell ourselves anymore — our content does the selling. These six content strategy cores are the reason our marketing is so successful. Let’s get into them. The 6 Cores of a Successful Content Strategy At a birds-eye, here are all six: Your Content Marketing Fundamentals Your Audience and The Sales Cycle Know Your SEO Build Online Authority Consistently Create Content that Actually Works to Build Your Audience, Presence, and Revenue Budget, Promote, and Maintain for Consistent Success Did I mention that these aren’t quick overnight hacks? They truly aren’t. Let’s get into a bit more detail. First, fundamentals. Everything you create in content marketing is stronger with a good foundation. You should spend a minimum of one week just planning before you create. Here are a few fundamentals to know. First, know your topic area to build content inside of. Or, if this is for a client, this is their topic area. Center this around your expertise, and then branch out to what your audience wants to hear from you about. So if you sell shoes, don’t talk about shoes. Talk about health and fitness apps, knee health maintenance, and warmup exercises for runners. Also, know your Content Differentiation Factor. What makes you different from the rest of the crowd? How can your content stand out? I talk more about this here: How to Find Your Brand’s Unique Content Differentiation Factor and Use It to Your Advantage Secondly, get to know your audience and be able to connect them to the sales cycle. Build a real audience persona by conducting market research surveys. Get to know your audience like you would a friend. Then, find out what interests them at the three stages in the … Read more

Is the Playbook to “Good Content” Dead? The Reality of Content Marketing Today (Video)

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Is the Playbook to “Good Content” Dead? The Reality of Content Marketing Today (Video)

I had the honor of teaching a half-day content writing workshop for NextGen Healthcare in Irvine, California in March, 2019. I walked in armed with principles, ‘how-tos,’ recommended tools, writing standards, custom techniques for their B2B marketing, and more… And as I walked out to enjoy the sun and California beach for an extra day, I had a HUGE realization. The playbook to ‘good content’ is dead. In a world where 3.8 billion emails are sent daily, 5 million blogs are published daily, and 1.5 BILLION websites exist… We’ve hit a content peak. ⛰The mountain of content we’ve created online (much of it, bad) is unbelievable. And now is the time to stop creating the same old, same old. We have no excuses anymore. We’ve got to stop fitting in ‘best practices’ boxes, and allow room for innovation. In today’s video, I’m covering some of the most important takeaways after walking out of my workshop and conversations with the amazing team of content creators at NextGen. Watch, and then let me know in the comments on YouTube what your #1 action will be today to stop creating same old, same old. Let’s inspire each other! [bctt tweet=”Is the playbook to ‘good content’ dead? More on this in @JuliaEMcCoy’s YouTube video: ” username=”ExpWriters”]  Is the Playbook to “Good Content” Dead? The Reality of Content Marketing Today: Video Recap It’s time to stop doing same old, same old — and that’s one of the biggest points of my video. My three most important takeaways for you would be these: 1. THEM vs. US. We’ve got to stop making our marketing about us, and make it about our PEOPLE. 2. Never Guess with Content Creation: Level 10 is Now Level 1 What used to be Level 10 (content strategy knowledge) just a few years ago is now Level 1. Seriously! I believe that level 10 has become our new Level 1. It is now the Basics. So, know your basics. Get strategic, and never guess when creating topics – ever! Use data-backed insights on REAL searches they’re doing in Google and questions they’re already asking online, using tools like BuzzSumo (content discovery) and SEMrush (SEO analysis). Need help? I teach all the answers to ‘what is content marketing’ step-by-step in the Content Strategy & Marketing Course. 3. Allow Room for Innovation Once you have the basics down, and you know content strategy – throw OUT ‘best practices’ and your content playbook. Seriously. Allow room for innovation! Take a trip outside the office to spark brand new thoughts and inspired action. This is how we’re going to win today. Not just by covering the basics and ‘knowing’ the ‘what’. Room for inspiration and innovation is what will help us hit next level. Conclusion In a world where 3.8 billion emails are sent daily, 5 million blogs are published daily, and 1.5 BILLION websites exist, we’ve hit a content peak. And we’ve got to stop creating the same old, same old. We’ve got to stop fitting in ‘best practices’ boxes and allow ROOM for INNOVATION. Seriously, people, it’s time. If not, we might be lost by the wayside, in the bucket of 5+ million blogs going out every day.  

How to Write a Great Video Script for Killer YouTube and Marketing Videos

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How to Write a Great Video Script for Killer YouTube and Marketing Videos

Here’s a crazy statistic about the state of video: More video content is uploaded in 30 days than the major U.S. television networks have created in 30 years. (Insivia) And: 147 million Americans watch video on the internet, according to Nielsen. Well, you might ask… But does this mean video content is being consumed by our audience? Glad you asked. Yes, yes it does. 46% of users take some sort of action after viewing a video ad (Online Publishers Association) After watching a video, 64% of users are more likely to buy a product online (ComScore). 96% of B2B organizations use video in their marketing campaigns, and 73% of those organizations report positive results to their ROI (ReelSEO). Real estate listings that include a video receive 403% more inquiries than those without. 1/3 of all online activity is spent watching video. 59% of executives would rather watch video than read text (Forbes). Let’s be honest –  if you’re ignoring video, you’re missing out. Words are great and all, but in written form they can be a little overwhelming at times. Even if text is broken up by spaces and cool pictures, our consumers want a different way to digest information. Source: BestAnimations This is not (at all) to say written content is falling out of favor. In fact, written content is needed more than ever, with 85% of Facebook videos watched on mute and the captions read. Don’t forget that 47% of buyers read 3-5 blogs before interacting with a sales rep. So when it comes to the inbound marketing process, the written word is #1. [bctt tweet=”Did you know… 1/3 of all online activity is spent watching video. And 59% of executives would rather watch video than read text. Learn how to plan and script your best video via @JuliaEMcCoy” username=”ExpWriters”] For us, that primary format will never change (you’re reading a blog right now!). 99% of our customers come through our inbound content, and have for eight years now, so we know that it works. Videos are a trending content type because of a fundamentally human element that makes them much more relatable. Plus, it’s easy to consume them. Click play, sit back, enjoy. It’s as easy as that – no wonder people enjoy video content. It’s why people flock to sites like YouTube, whether they want to be entertained, informed, or both. About 1.9 billion logged-in users visit YouTube each month. Last September, I started focusing on growing my YouTube channel, and have remained committed to a minimum of publishing two new videos/monthly. (We publish 1-2 blogs per week, so those continue to take precedence.) I’ve seen incredibly great organic reach from it, solid traffic and even leads come our way – and even better returns after getting more strategic with my script and strategy. I’ll cover some of the strategies I use on a regular basis in today’s guide. If you’re a writer, you’ve probably looked to master most of the popular content types out there. Blogs, news articles, and web pages are all important. However, knowing how to write a great video script is also valuable. Think of it this way – a video isn’t an alternative to a written content piece. Instead, it’s a creation based off a well-written video script. Today we’ll go over how to write a great video script. Planning, creation, promotion – we’ll cover everything from beginning to end. [bctt tweet=”Learn how to write a great video script for better marketing videos, from planning to creation and promotion, in @JuliaEMcCoy’s new guide. ” username=”ExpWriters”] Creating a Great Video Script: The Complete Guide 1.    Defining Marketing Explainer Videos (and Their Benefits) 2.    How to Ideate Your Video – Matching Ideas to Goals 3.    How to Create Your Script – Drafting an Outline and Beyond 4.    Producing and Publishing Your Video 5.    Final Thoughts to Make Your Video a Success What is a Marketing Explainer Video? Why Should You Make One? “You want me to buy this? Well, why should I?” “Uh, well, let me explain that…” We’ve all been on one side of this dialogue at some point – maybe both. If you’re the person who is trying to explain how your good or service could benefit a potential buyer, hopefully your explanation is organized well enough so you don’t start the answer with “uh.” Sometimes we’re told the answer to this question should be organic – and in a way, that’s right. Yet, when we’re making a video, we want to sound like we’re reading from a script. The script is the key to a good video, especially one detailing a product or service. Image from IdeaRocket A good explainer video uses time efficiently – saying exactly what the listener is looking to hear by tackling the important points in direct succession. Consider these tips when you want to make an explainer video: Be Concise: You can be descriptive, but try to start with a simple 1-2 sentence pitch that summarizes your product and what it does. Know Your Audience: Focus on who you are writing to – but more importantly, focus on what problem you can solve. People watch explainer videos to find out how you can help them. Be specific, and cut to the chase quick. Consider Consulting Outsiders: Sometimes it helps to have a fresh perspective when writing your script. When in doubt, ask previous customers for feedback. When you’re looking to create a great script, you have a few options. You can look for a sample video script to fill in, or use it as inspiration for your own template. But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Before we start writing the script, let’s talk about the research portion. Step One: Ideate Your Video – Matching Ideas to Goals The great thing about writing a video script is that you start the same way you would if you were writing a blog, product description, social media post, or any other type of copy. [bctt tweet=”Strategy should precede a … Read more

How to Write Awesome Emails that Get Opened and Nurture Trust (Video)

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How to Write Awesome Emails that Get Opened and Nurture Trust (Video)

In today’s video, I’m covering a critical content type — the email! In this guide, complete with a demo of how I craft emails in ConvertKit, I’ll cover how you can construct emails that will nurture and build real trust with your audience, as well as elicit action and encourage them to take next steps. As I was preparing the topic and material for today’s video, I thought what better way to actually show you emails that work than to go into my email campaigns and talk about the ones that have really done well. So, that’s what we’re going to do! Ready? Let’s get into it. [bctt tweet=”Watch as @JuliaEMcCoy demonstrates high-converting #emailmarketing campaigns using @ConvertKit ” username=”ExpWriters”] How to Write Awesome Emails that Get Opened and Nurture Trust (Video)  Video Transcription: How to Write Awesome Emails that Get Opened and Nurture Trust In today’s video, I’m really excited to cover a critical content type – the email! I use ConvertKit. It starts around $29 a month for 1,000 subscribers and I highly recommend it if you’re considering email marketing, and you want a software that’s super easy to use. Now there are other alternatives like Active Campaign, Campaign Monitor, MailChimp. Full disclosure: this is an affiliate link to ConvertKit. But, if you use that link you’re helping support me so I can continue to create free information like this. This is a tool I personally use, so I can tell you it works! There are two main types of emails I like to send: The blog and video share (Useful Email) The promotion share (Sales Email) 80% of the time I’m sending useful content to my list, and 20% or less of the time I’m sending promotional sales emails that have an offer attached. Now I find that promotional emails work best when they’re sent to a segmented audience and in sequential order. That means a one-off offer that you send to your list while that can drive results, doesn’t work as well as if you segment your list and target the right offer to them at the right time. Much of this is just learning as I go. So what you’re looking at here are all the emails I sent, you can see that I send them on a regular basis. They’re spread apart by a few days. My rule is at least one useful email a week and I usually send more than that, so whenever I send videos this is what an informational or useful email looks like, I keep it really short and I’ll include an image to the video and then a link. Now for my blog content I don’t include images, it seems to work better whenever I keep my content super light and that just means not a ton of links, not a ton of images. Over time emails have grown to masses. There are so many emails that are sent out by marketers on a regular basis, so you really don’t have a lot of time to get and hold the attention of your audience. Experts like Brian Dean, Joanna Wiebe, I see them sending shorter and shorter emails. It seems like our shorter emails are doing well as well, so this is what a useful email looks like and what I do to keep these super simple, I’ll give you a little secret, I actually pull the intro of my blog, the first six or seven sentences. Seriously, that’s my email. So it takes no time at all to plug it in, add a link, add a little footer and then this little P.S. which I like to add to relevant blogs, I keep it out if it’s really not relevant, but I’ll add a P.S. to our services or one of the courses I teach as long as it relates to the topic right here in my useful piece of content. So something like this out of 5,400 subscribers it got 75 clicks and the open rate was almost 14%, that’s pretty good for an email to get 75 people clicking on our link for us. All lists are different, if you’re building yours organically from the start you’re probably going to see better results. Over time you want to clean up your email, you want to just delete people that aren’t even reading it. We did that a few months ago and our open rate skyrocketed, it was as bad as 5%, now it’s as high as like 14% and here 21%. What you’re seeing here, I’ll just walk you through some more techniques that we use, this is resending something to people that do not click and you can actually do that in ConvertKit by resending to the people that haven’t opened it, so here’s what you can do. You click on the broadcast, resend to un-opens, you can edit the content and then just hit schedule and it’ll actually send your email to everyone that didn’t open it the first time. When it comes to a sales email I’ve noticed that Saturday and Sunday nights do really well for open rates on offers. We try to be really straightforward with our offers. So a link to it, here’s another link and here’s a third link, and we add this little thing if you don’t want to hear from us anymore you can actually click here and what this does is as soon as they click, this is just a really simple page we set up on our site, as soon as they click on that there is a little trigger in the automation section that unenrolled or that adds everyone that clicks on this to a tag. [bctt tweet=”When it comes to a sales email, I’ve noticed that Saturday and Sunday nights do really well for open rates on offers. We try to be straightforward with our offers. @JuliaEMcCoy on #emailmarketing” username=”ExpWriters”] Remember, short and sweet for informative videos, keep it super light, if … Read more

What is Content Writing? How to Write 7 Timeless Types of Online Content (Video)

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What is Content Writing? How to Write 7 Timeless Types of Online Content (Video)

In today’s video, I’m covering a popular how-to topic in the world of online content. Specifically: what is content writing, and how to write the seven types of timeless online content that apply directly to the online growth of a business. Let’s get into it!  Video Notes: What is Content Writing? How to Write 7 Timeless Types of Online Content (Video) In my first book, published back in 2016 called So You Think You Can Write, The Definitive Guide to Successful Online Content, I cover the seven types of content. These are: Web content Blogging Social media Ad and sales copy Expert, or industry writing Journalistic/news writing Creative writing These still apply today, and in the next few minutes, I’m going to explain what these content types are and how they apply specifically to an online business presence today, as well as writers looking to grow their experience and offerings by learning these content formats. 1. Web content Think of content writing like building a house. In this analogy, web content is the foundation. Web content, which includes the content on your home page, landing page, about us page, contact page, and more is the foundational content that every company needs to build an online presence. Without this, readers can’t find the information they’re seeking about your company, and the rest of your content strategy has nothing to build on. These pages are critical to develop. The skills a writer needs to write solid web page copy are SEO writing knowledge, to use those important keywords well in the copy, as well as engaging and conversion-friendly writing skills. Good web page copy should be about the customer, never just about the brand or product. 2. Blogs If web content is the foundation, blogging is the structure and rooms of the house. Blogging is a primary category of content that provides context for an audience, helps build SEO presence, and gives businesses a way to nurture their leads with a source of fresh, consistent content. Did you know… Companies that blog 11 or more times per month gain more than 4X as many leads than those that blog only four-five times a month (Source: Hubspot) Not only do blogs 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. Blogging is an 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. 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 your blog goals and formats, you can build brand awareness as well as achieve SEO ranking goals. Read more about content goals here. 3. Social Media Think of social media as a supporting content 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. A lot of people finding brands online for the first time are going to go click on their Twitter icon, their Facebook page, to see what that company is ‘really’ like on social media. And that can really play into their purchasing decisions. We do well on Twitter and have expanded our profile reach to millions of users by starting a Twitter Chat called #ContentWritingChat. My Twitter presence, my personal brand profile at @JuliaEMcCoy, brings in leads that have bought my courses and books. Need to learn real #SEO writing skills? My short one-week course, The Expert SEO Content Writer, might be perfect for you. Learn more & see what 100+ students are saying: https://t.co/6bDtiKHurz — Julia McCoy | CEO, Author, #WomeninBusiness (@JuliaEMcCoy) February 22, 2019 Our brand’s Twitter profile at @ExpWriters has brought in agency leads. Mark your calendars and join us for the next #ContentWritingChat on Tuesday, March 5th at 10 AM Central!@CarlaJohnson will be joining us to share #storytelling tips for brands in 2019! pic.twitter.com/EpnX17GXOB — Express Writers (@ExpWriters) February 5, 2019 Social media works! A good social media writer will blend fun, engaging copy, emojis, and short sentences to promote a brand’s blog posts, events, or message. Some social media managers can even be paid to write captions. There is software that exists to discover trending hashtags. The world of content in social media alone is so much! Finding the right platform and staying on a consistent schedule with copy and visuals is key. 4. Advertising & Sales Copy Ad and sales copy bring the curb appeal to your products and services. This kind of copy is created to showcase the unique attributes of your brand “home” to people on the outside. Advertising and sales copy applies to companies in all industries, and takes many forms, from a long-form Facebook ad to a promoted tweet on Twitter or a paid campaign on LinkedIn. One of my sales pages that has brought in thousands of dollars in sales is this one. However, when it comes to sales copy, remember that building an audience and trust comes first. Today’s advertising and sales copy that brings in real revenue is also written in less of a ‘pushy’ sales tone. Instead, it should read like an approachable message for a friend. Good ads are segmented to the right audience at the right time; they are not manipulative, and they’re not misleading. A writer learning to write good sales copy should study the best. Joanna Wiebe and Copyhackers.com is a great resource for learning more about sales copywriting. 5. Expert Copy Think of expert copy like the fine art collection inside the home. At some point or another, all companies need expert writing. This is the higher level writing you encounter on the web. Specific industries, for example, may need a … Read more

The Content Marketer’s Café with Julia McCoy, Episode 5: Surprise Announcement! New Book, Practical Content Strategy & Marketing is Coming Out

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The Content Marketer’s Café with Julia McCoy, Episode 5: Surprise Announcement! New Book, Practical Content Strategy & Marketing is Coming Out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ_OuHaMb_4 [clickToTweet tweet=”Catch the fifth episode of The Content Marketer’s Café with @JuliaEMcCoy, a SURPRISE announcement about her new book!” quote=”Catch the fifth episode of The Content Marketer’s Café with @JuliaEMcCoy, a SURPRISE announcement!”] The Content Marketer’s Café with Julia McCoy, Episode 5: Surprise Announcement! New Book, Practical Content Strategy & Marketing Coming Out SURPRISE, SURPRISE! I have a new book coming out!! Get on the list to know when Julia McCoy’s latest book, Practical Content Strategy & Marketing, is coming out! (Expected publish date November 30, available on Amazon, B&N, and iBooks.) What is Practical Content Strategy & Marketing All About? Practical Content Strategy & Marketing is a 350+ page accompaniment to my online course. That’s why the subtitle for the book is The Content Strategy Certification Course Student Guidebook. I took the written video scripts of each of my course lessons, the original illustrations, concepts, guest expert video notes, and all the exercises, and compiled them into a giant, massive, industry-leading book! My editors and I have been refining the contents for the last two weeks across October. The book is a side effect of the massive industry education I created in the Practical Content Strategy Certification Course, which took me 7 months and about 500 hours to date to create. In the book, you’ll find easy-to-understand illustrations, concepts, and examples. I’m also really excited because Mark Schaefer, one of the top five business bloggers in the world, has said yes to writing my foreword!  When does it come out?? Tentative date, provided our formatting timeline goes smoothly, is November 30 on Amazon (paperback and Kindle) and within the next weeks it’ll be available on B&N and iBooks.  What do I know about writing a book? I published my first book, So You Think You Can Write, in April of 2016, after working full-time in content marketing running my own agency, serving over 5,000 clients, for five years. With zero paid marketing, it sold thousands of copies around the world in the last year–and it made category bestseller within 24 hours of going live. My new book is almost double the size, and it’ll be a slightly larger physical size, 7×10 – my last book was 6×9. It will sell for between $18-$20 (paperback). Special Offer: FREE signed copy for each and every All-Access course student! All students that enroll in my course BEFORE November 30 will get a signed, mailed copy of the book for free! Just email me with the email you used to sign up for and buy the course. It must be the all-access pass, and before November 30! Go to the all-access certification course enrollment page.  Where can I go to get first dibs on launch day + bonuses? Go here: contentstrategycourses.com/book! The Content Marketer’s Café with Julia McCoy is on pause till the book publishes! Thanks for watching! Unfortunately, due to book deadlines, The Content Marketer’s Café with Julia McCoy is on pause till after the book comes out. But, catch me in my Facebook group, or right here on the Write Blog, till then!

The Content Marketer’s Café with Julia McCoy, Episode 4: How to Set Up a Content Creation Workflow & Process You Actually Enjoy

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The Content Marketer’s Café with Julia McCoy, Episode 4: How to Set Up a Content Creation Workflow & Process You Actually Enjoy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p8a7QILXZA [clickToTweet tweet=”Catch the fourth episode of The Content Marketer’s Café with @JuliaEMcCoy, all about #content creation workflow hacks!” quote=”Catch the fourth episode of The Content Marketer’s Café with @JuliaEMcCoy, all about #content creation workflow hacks!”] The Content Marketer’s Café with Julia McCoy, Episode 4: How to Set Up a Content Creation Workflow & Process You Actually Enjoy This is for the content creator that has sometimes felt stumped at the creation phase. Here’s a few questions that might have ran through your head: Where do I begin? Do I just jot down an idea and start writing? I have a keyword. Now what? I’m here today to give you a few quick hacks on how to approach the content creation process in a few key workflow steps that will make it easier, less challenging, and natural, every time you sit down to write. Ready? Even if you’re an experienced content creator, it’s normal to feel like you’re right at Square 1 again when it comes to creating content. How do you get past that and get into a comfortable swing with content creation? 3 Phases in Content Creation Approach it in three phases: Ideation, Creation, Preparation FYI: These stages will differ if you’re writing for a client: example, clients usually have topics and keywords prepared, so you might be able to skip stage 1. Why Stages? My Wake-up Call to Stop Rushing But here’s why you need to think of creating content in stages. When I started out in my agency, I was the sole staff member at my agency, and I was scared of growth and investing in what I needed to have, to grow. So, I did all my content, and rushed when it came to getting it out. I barely double checked what I published. A year later, my husband who is our CTO actually asked me why I was rushing through my content creation process, when I did it so carefully for clients. That was a turning point. Now, I invest hours if not weeks into one piece of content and following a process. Here’s how rushing harmed my content: When the content I’d thrown together started ranking 2-3 years later, in super high organic places on Google – example, #2 for the long tail phrase hire an SEO content writer – I got zero conversions. Only when I rewrote that crappy but high ranking content did I start to get conversions from it. (I ended up investing and paying double to fix the crappy content.) The perils of “rushing content creation” happens for many business owners. But if you start right and devote time and care to this process, and in the long run, your maintenance and “fixing” costs will be much less. So let’s discuss these three stages. 1. First, IDEATION. This is where you come up with a topic that is worthwhile. Think of content ideation like a crosspaths. You need to choose one road for every content idea you (or your client / team member) have, to make sure that idea is worth investing the time of creation into. Once you have an idea: Map it to a goal early in the idea phase. That way you stop low ROI from even happening. Then, research and finalize your topic idea. Write it down. It’s easy to know what you should be creating, when you know how your content idea aligns to your goals. EXAMPLE: If you have a new site, skew towards looking for keywords that are relevant to your searchers so you can get some rankable content ideas going. Use a keyword tool to find that data. OR If you have an existing site, map your ideas in a sales/brand awareness direction and think of trending topics that you can add your authoritative voice to, in your industry. Use Quora to research trending questions being asked in your topic area. #WordFromTheSponsor: I go really deep into each areas of this process and much more, in my new industry course. Get off the fence and invest in yourself, if you’re looking to grow your skillsets! Go here: www.contentstrategycourse.com 2. CREATION. This is where you write down the topic, put it in your editorial calendar, and get started on writing. This stage includes drafting, writing, and optimizing the content, or having writer/writers creating it for you. Time here should really depend on the piece, AND your creative flow. Finding your flow in the creation step is KEY. For example, I write best at morning and late in the day. I know that, so those are the only times I write. You MUST block off times around your creative flow. Don’t create when you’re tired. Eat lunch if you haven’t. Simple stuff. If you schedule your content around your creative flow and when you’re most charged up and refilled, you’ll create GREAT content. This doesn’t mean you have to spend weeks writing – once I know and have researched my topic, I can write a 2000w blog from start to finish in one day if I match the writing to my creative flow. 3. PREPARATION: This is where you fine tune your piece and if it’s for your site, decide when to publish. ALWAYS get a second pair of eyes on your content. That could be an editor, a creator you work with if you run a company and have a team, or an editor if you’re an agency writer. I don’t ever publish my content without a second pair of eyes on it. When it comes to publishing, think of dates you can publish that will especially appeal to the topic – if it’s seasonal and applies to a holiday, publish and tie to that holiday week or date. Even Google’s birthday can mean you write an SEO topic and tie it to that day. Final Tips: If you’re doing the writing, there are also easy ways to “hack” and simplify that process. Examples: You can invest in a transcription service and … Read more

The Content Marketer’s Café with Julia McCoy, Episode 3: How to Use Long-Tail Keywords Naturally In Your Content for SEO Success

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The Content Marketer’s Café with Julia McCoy, Episode 3: How to Use Long-Tail Keywords Naturally In Your Content for SEO Success

Keywords = key phrases, focus keywords and secondary keywords, broad keywords, long-tail keywords… These can often pose quite a challenge to writers. It’s not the keywords themselves. Those tend to be pretty straightforward. It’s the often odd combinations of words in ways that are anything but grammatically correct. Add to that a general lack of punctuation, throw in the name of a city and state, and you have what seems like a recipe for the most awkward sentences ever written! So, how do we creatively insert a keyword in our content for best results? Let’s explore. The Content Marketer’s Café with Julia McCoy, Episode 3: How to Use Long-Tail Keywords Naturally In Your Content for SEO Success Competition Comparison: Long-Tail Keywords vs. Broad Keywords I’ve been able to rank content just on my site, expresswriters.com, for over 11,000 phrases. Do you know what the majority of those keyword phrases are? Long-tail phrases. So when you’re looking for keywords to optimize your content with, you can either look up broad or long tail keywords. Broad Keywords 1-2 words long Also known as: “short tail”, “head terms” Long Tail Keywords 3-5 words Long tail keywords are primarily better because of two factors: Lower competition: Easier to rank for. Great opportunities for new, emerging or growing sites. Higher buying intent (ROI): Searchers are usually looking a specific answer to their question and are much more likely to be in the buying stage. Example: “where to buy basketball shoes online” vs. “shoes” – the searcher knows exactly what he wants by searching the long tail keyword, and he/she is much more ready to buy! Broad keywords are tempting because of the amount of traffic searching for them. But remember, you need the right traffic, not a ton of traffic, when it comes to looking at the value of keywords that will bring in real results. Which type of customer would sell today if they walked in your dress shop? Someone who wants a “dress” Someone who wants a black dress, size M, for an evening party next week One of my favorite tools to research keywords with is SEMrush and Mangools KWFinder. In KWfinder, here’s what it looks like to find a low competition long-tail keyword. For example, we looked up a keyword, blogging statistics. We wrote a blog around this as a keyword since it had a “possible rating at 50/100” – that’s since gone up to 52 – and we were able to get our blog in the top 4 results for that keyword. The left side of KWFinder is where you’ll find your gold mines – long tail keyword opportunities that you can write content pieces around. I recommend going long-form and writing one piece of content around one keyword for best results. Don’t dilute and cram too many keywords in one piece. Natural Language in SEO The days of keyword-stuffing your way to the first page of Google are looooong gone, but today with how smart Google is, there’s no reason you can’t do this: [bctt tweet=”Write for search engines without sounding like you’re writing for search engines, says @JuliaEMcCoy. ?” username=”ExpWriters”] When it comes to writing with SEO in mind, this means using natural language – and natural variations of the words that appear in the focus and secondary keywords – instead of inserting the same exact keywords and key phrases into your text over and over again. Let’s Talk About… Focus Keywords + Natural Usage We always ask our clients for one focus keyword per piece. But when it comes to penning the actual copy, if the exact keyword phrase doesn’t flow well, we fall back on just writing naturally. Here’s an example. For instance, this client-supplied keyword phrase: “best ux designer Austin” Clearly won’t work in either the title tag, meta description, or in the content (page, article, blog post, etc.). It may be an important, valuable keyword phrase for the client, but it’s a bit too clunky to use as is. Even if you think you can squeeze that kind of phrase into a sentence – such as “When it comes to finding the best UX designer, Austin has a lot of choices to offer.” Sure, once in a while you’ll be able to get away with that. But far too often, the inclination seems to be to get hung up on that exact keyword phrase. In a title tag or headline, the best approach would be to use the keyword naturally, like so: “How to Find the Best Web and UX Designer in Austin” You would then use variations on this keyword phrase throughout your content. Bottom line: Don’t try to force the keyword into the copy, and don’t then use the exact same keyword or key phrase over and over. Use synonymous keywords. Location-Based Keywords Let’s talk briefly about location-based keywords. Just when you think you’ve got a handle on things, along comes a location-based keyword: “eyedoctor in Burlington Vermont” Remember: To Google, there is absolutely no difference between: “eyedoctor in Burlington VT” and “eye doctor in Burlington, VT” Since we’re humans writing for humans – we should always defer to using proper punctuation, grammar, and style, even in SEO writing. So, use the space between eye and doctor. When you take into account that these keyword lists being supplied to (or, in some cases, created by) us are almost always generated by such tools as Google’s keyword tool and other tools – not actual humans – it’s not surprising the keywords provided to us don’t include punctuation, proper grammar, etc.: because they were generated by algorithms/tools. It’s absolutely essential for websites to use location keywords in the page titles and Meta description tags of their pages.  When it comes to using those same location keywords in the content itself – in the copy, in headings, and in image Alt tags – remember to avoid overuse. Ways to Get Creative with Location-Based Keywords  Let’s say your keyword is “gluten free pasta Phoenix.” You … Read more

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