content strategies - Express Writers

How Do I Promote My Blog? The Essential Guide to Content Promotion

March 24, 2022November 14, 2017 by Adam Oakley

Recently, I shared one of my latest blog posts on LinkedIn and received this comment: “Love this article and longer, high quality content is definitely the way to go. I’d love to see a side bar or other complementary content about the best strategies for promoting content once it’s written.” This is a great topic suggestion — and one I definitely need to address. Why? Because the reality is writing great content alone won’t get you far. Composing a high-quality piece and hitting “publish” just isn’t enough. You have to help it along on its internet journey. Hold its hand for a little bit. You have to guide it into the limelight, or, in some cases, shove it out there. It’s the only way to ensure success – as opposed to publishing it on your site, crossing your fingers, and hoping against hope somebody will stumble across it and read it. With solid promotion, you can help your blog reach great heights. The only question left, of course, is this: “How do I promote my blog?” Well, friends, I’m here with tons of actionable tips to help you do just that. Settle in with your cozy beverage of choice. Ready? Let’s get knee-deep in great content promotion tactics. “How Do I Promote My Blog the Smart Way?” 15 Tactics, Tips, Tricks, and Strategies to Try There are tons of ways to promote your content. Not kidding. Tons. Because the amount of information is so broad, we’re going to break this down further into categories. Based on your resources, choose your weapon(s) wisely. The Lowdown: How to Create Great Email Marketing for Better Content Promotion You know the power of email marketing — or you should. It has a mind-exploding ROI of $44 for every $1 spent. Naturally, it can also do great things for promoting your content. Here are top tactics to try. [clickToTweet tweet=”Need some ideas for promoting your next blog post? @ExpWriters has some great tactics to try!” quote=”Need some ideas for promoting your next blog post? @ExpWriters has some great tactics to try!”] 1. Build Up Your Email List The number one thing you can do for content promotion is build up your email list. Once you have a direct line to a loyal, built-in audience, it becomes a platform for anything you publish. Your email list will not only click-through to read your blogs. They’ll also share them with their social networks, which dramatically increases your exposure. In fact, your list is 3.9x more likely to share your content than people who visit from other places (like search results). Email is widely used across demographics. According to Pew Research, 92% of adults online use it, and an average of at least 61% use it daily. The reach potential of email is really, really big. So, how do you grow your list so you can tap into that? We address this topic thoroughly in a previous post – it’s definitely recommended reading. Here are some key takeaways: Use compelling CTAs in your content that urge readers to subscribe. Create and offer free lead magnets (original guides, how-tos, videos, white papers, case studies, etc.). Collect visitor emails in exchange for your freebies. Create evergreen content that continues to provide useful information long past its publication date. Include powerful CTAs in each one that ask for subscriptions, or point visitors to your email-gathering lead magnet. There are also plenty of tools out there that can help you grow your list. Jeff Bullas and Kissmetrics offer great suggestions for tools to use, including both free and paid options. 2. Send Content to Your Email List at the Right Time After you’ve built an email list, you can send them an update about when you publish a new blog post. Jon Morrow of Smartblogger calls this combination of blogging + email “the ultimate publishing platform.” He also uses some other choice words: He’s totally right, of course. Here’s an example of an email I sent out to my list notifying them about a fresh blog: However, this strategy gets better if you send the email at the right time. There has been a standard stat floating around for a while about optimal send times – send in the morning, and send on Tuesday or Thursday. Those times were the right times up until recently. Now, the advent of mobile is shaking things up. More and more people are checking their phones for email versus sitting down at their computers. Vertical Response analyzed recent data and found that the ability to check email anytime, anywhere, has changed what your optimal email send time should be. Now, the ideal sweet spot is either morning or late evening on a weekday. Here’s an infographic that shows the send-time as compared to the transaction rate (email opens and clicks). In particular, late-night email readers show a lot of potential for engagement. Sending a short, sweet email to your list when you publish an awesome new blog = key. That goes double for sending that email at the right time. For you, that ideal time might look a little different from the average. Play around with when you send your blog update emails, and track what works. These two powerhouses combined could make all the difference. 3. Segment Your Email List There’s another way to truly super-power your content promotion with email: Send out blog updates to the exact people who’ll love reading about whatever topic you’ve covered. This means you need to segment your email list, according to a HubSpot infographic. Divide it up into categories based on information like your audience’s interests, where they opted-in for email in the first place, their purchase record, and more. These people may show more enthusiasm for certain posts than other list subscribers. Send targeted post updates and you’ll start encouraging loyal followers who are more likely to share your content. 4. Promote Your Blog in Your Email Newsletter CoSchedule has a great tip to boost your … Read more

Three Foolproof Strategies to Creating Engaging Content

December 31, 2020September 6, 2016 by Adam Oakley

Let’s talk about creating engaging content. Have you ever torn a page out of a book in sheer, desperate anger? I definitely haven’t. I don’t think I know anyone who has. As a writer, if I saw someone tear a page out of a book I published, it would feel like they were tearing a page out of my soul. What a silver lining it’d be to know my writing could compel someone to interact with my book by ripping apart the page and sharing their anger. My writing mattered to them. My content was enough for them to act on it. That, despite the undesirable reaction, would make all the difference. Having words powerful enough to engage the reader is a goal every content writer works toward. Crossroads of Memory Lane and Opportunity Drive Back in the day, before dial-up and “You’ve Got Mail!”, a world existed without the Internet. Farther beyond, a realm without television or movies existed for the majority of recorded human history. Books were very valuable. Compiling information onto paper for leisure, education, and communication was the cornerstone for sharing our thoughts across the distant lands we couldn’t travel to ourselves. Now, we live in a world where people can search galactic amounts of information, share their opinions with millions of people, and express their disapproval at the click of a button. More importantly, we live in a world where more content is created than is consumed. This pivotal moment in history is crucial. It’s the fundamental underpinning all strategic content writing. With more and more people creating content, the industry is becoming overstuffed and armies of content writers are springing up everyday. Grabbing a large slice of your own readership may appear to be a fool’s paradise. Or is it? When my closet is overstuffed, it’s an opportunity to throw out what I don’t need. It’s an intriguing moment, because it forces me to sit down and actually think about what I want to see in my closet every time I open it. I have to be aware of my daily priorities. And that’s what counts, isn’t it? We live in a world with billions of readers, but it’s what matters most that we’ll want in our lives everyday. Sorry, Not Sorry: It’s Not About You Anymore I was never impressed with TIME magazine’s May 2013 cover. The “ME ME ME Generation” concept is a theory that could be applied to every generation at some point. Still, there is a level of entitlement to young adults today. We are keenly aware of the options offered to us. We get to choose our celebrities and news sources, a freedom not readily available to those born before the ’80s. We don’t have to settle for a handful of cable networks and newspapers to spoon feed us the information we seek. Industry Standards Are Steadily Rising Everywhere Having so many options available, consumers are much more selective. Standards are being raised across all industries, and the dependence on monopolized profits is a tune business owners don’t get to sing very often. A higher standard doesn’t necessarily mean working harder; being smart about your approach and listening to other experts in the field is a tried and true way of propelling your own career. In fact, listening to anyone other than yourself is a fantastic idea if you want to improve. Playful sarcasm aside, this shift in the business world has been a positive one, and what’s becoming more important is our responsibility to quality. It’s our duty to improve our skills every day and learn from others; there are no shortcuts in the world of content. The Ethos of the Internet Community This shift is apparent in the world of marketing. No one gets to walk in, dressed as Don Draper, and tell you an advertisement is going to work because they say so. Today, internet marketers are expected to use statistics and structured plans of action to sell you on an idea. A prevalent theme across successful social media marketers is the rule that you should interact with your followers ten times for every post you make. People want to be acknowledged, and everyone values this connection with other people. These interactions are reciprocal in nature. Engaging with your follower is often met with an engagement in return. It’s cringeworthy to some, sure, but people often place depthless value in the number of likes a post receives or the number of followers who read their tweets. And aren’t most of us guilty of feeling the same? When you speak out, isn’t it great to be heard? This isn’t specific to the millennial generation, but it’s particular to the new world of social media networking. Now, more than ever, understanding one another is increasingly advantageous. Everyone Online is a Content Creator People may not view themselves as writers or content creators, but they love to write Facebook posts. In 2012 alone, Facebook users were publishing over 293,000 status updates every 60 seconds. That’s a lot of writing. Human beings love to share. They’ll share what’s important to them. If it makes them laugh, they may share it with you. If it solves a problem they’re researching, they may share that as well. And if it means a lot to them, they’ll definitely share it with the world. Sharing is caring, so what do people care about most? That lies at the heart of the single, most effective strategy for creating highly engaging content. Repeat After Me: Create Content That Matters I’m not asking to abandon what matters to you. I personally have a blog with content that is of the utmost importance to me, but I’ll be the first to tell you it has less traffic than a back road in the rural parts of North Dakota. However, when you want to build a loyal readership and maximize your traffic, knowing what matters to your demographic should be at the core of your content strategy. And … Read more

9 Content Strategies to Get Unstuck from a Content Rut

June 19, 2024April 17, 2014 by Adam Oakley

Are you a new business, a mid-size to large business, or any other size business with a stagnant online marketing campaign? Do you feel your online presence is not really going places yet? Let’s talk about how to get you on the road to success! Here are a few ways to stop stagnating and come up with new, fresh material that will make readers love you: 1. Don’t Stop Your Yapping We’ve all heard someone, somewhere say “stop your yapping” but when it comes to content marketing strategies, if you aren’t yapping you’ll start drowning. Talk about your content with other marketers within your company and start sharing ideas. Someone will have at least one idea, but are too scared to share. Opening up a sharing ground will be a great way to begin getting out of the stagnant content marshland and beginning to create new content strategies that will be the bee’s-knees, the cat’s pajamas, and the best darn content out on the Internet. 2. Spot Those Problem Areas Get your magnifying glass out and get ready to find those problem areas in your content. We know you really love what you have published and you just cannot understand why no one is reacting to your wonderfully crafted content. While it may be amazing and well written, if it is not bringing people in, there is a problem and you have to find it to move on. When you begin to correct the problem area and find a new, impactful way to create content, Moz suggests that you create a small list of goals you would like to accomplish. They urge writers and marketers not to spread themselves too thin when creating these goals. If you are trying to juggle twenty semi-important goals instead of, say, five important ones, you will find yourself burning out quickly and the content will continue to be stagnant and not have any sort of impact whatsoever. Once you have found the problem, it is time to make a strategy. 3. Ender Didn’t Beat the Buggers With Luck He beat them with strategy. If you do not know the story of Ender Wiggin, check out Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. In this story, Ender is chosen to be the leader of humanity in a war against an alien race referred to as “buggers.” Ender had to do a lot of strategizing and learning from his mistakes before he finally beat them at their game. This goes for your content. You can’t just whip something up and expect it to go viral in an instant. If you constantly just write or create stuff and throw it out there without a strategy, you will see your content marketing campaign going stagnant and you will watch as your viewers back away with looks of consternation. Do not let that happen! Start working on that strategy and learn from your mistakes. Your mistakes are your best teaching tool. You will learn what needs to change if you are willing to open up your mind to take those mistakes as learning aids and not failures. 4. Everyone’s a Critic The Internet is a lovely place of opportunity, but can turn into a stinking quagmire of criticism quickly. Many people say, “Avoid the comments!” because this is where most of the horrible criticism is but you should not let that bring you down and stop you from producing great content. Just because someone says it is awful does not mean it really is. Take a lesson from some famous, classic authors. One critic of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn said the book was, “No better in tone than the dime novels which flood the Blood-and-Thunder reading population.” Did that stop him from continuing to write his amazing novels? No! So, do not let those comments stop you from promoting your company and producing your content. However, by avoiding the comments section your content will become stale. Within those horrible comments are some real gems of information. You will be able to learn what people like or dislike and can implement that into your new content strategy. Many authors have used negative reviews as a way to grow their writing, hence becoming national bestsellers. 5. You Do Not Have a T.A.R.D.I.S. So stop acting as if you do. If you spend all day in meetings, chat with coworkers over lunch, and work through your mountain of emails every day, you will find your content is beginning to stink like a disgusting swampy pond. Swat those mosquitoes away and start managing your time. No time machine will be here to take you back and, according to the Doctor, you can’t cross your time stream anyway. Business2Community points out that humans tend to be more alert in the morning. Sure, we all may be groggy without our morning cup of coffee but we also do not have a whole days’ worth of worries and to-dos floating around in our brains. We can think much clearer in the morning and, in fact, many people come up with some of their best ideas in the morning. The first thing to do when you get to work is to carve out about 30 to 45 minutes to sit and think. Start brainstorming and you will see that you come up with some pretty epic ideas! 6. Become a Lurker Lurking is creepy when done in real life but it can be very beneficial on the Internet. We aren’t talking about Facebook stalking, rather going to the different social media sites and looking at what is trending or what articles Buzzfeed and Upworthy are currently posting. Apart from Buzzfeed and Upworthy, HubSpot also suggests listening to new TED talks. TED talks are really interesting and provide amazing inspiration on a variety of topics. Gaining web inspiration is an excellent way to learn new information and to begin to spruce up your content marketing. While you’re at it, how about looking for inspiration from your competitors? We know … Read more

How to Improve Your Content Strategy by Learning from Your Competitors

January 1, 2021March 4, 2014 by Adam Oakley

Let’s say you are a small business on the road to formulating a great content strategy. There are numerous ways you can come up with great foundational points for a content strategy. Check out our video on content strategies and our blog on how to create a content strategy. But today, we’re here to talk about a niche topic – getting inspiration from your competitors. That’s right – the guys you might evil-eye the rest of the week as you pass their super-successful, vibrant and busy offices. This time, it’s time to put your feelings aside and see just what you can learn from others who are successful in your industry. 3 Ways to Determine Who Your Competitors Are How do you find your competitors? This is a very simple question, but an excellent starting point. 1. Internet Searches. Searching the Internet is a very good way to find out who your competitors are. It seems overly simple, but by using the keywords you would use for your own business, you will be able to find businesses that do similar things or sell similar products. This will be helpful as you create your 2014 content plan. By doing this search, you can see new ways your competitors are trying to sell a product or service. This can give you ideas on how to implement a similar strategy. Notice, we say similar, not exact! Do not steal their ideas out from under them. That is highly unprofessional and will give your company a rather negative reputation. Instead, brainstorm with your team members and decide new and unique ways to implement the ideas you found interesting in your own content strategy. Use What the Internet Gave You. Finding tools to help you keep up with your competitors will be useful as trends change rapidly. According to INC.com, GoogleAlerts is a great way to be notified about new updates on products or services relating to your company and can be used when tracking what your competitors are up to. INC.com also suggests GoogleTrends, which maps the current trends within your area all the way to incorporating trends worldwide. 2. Social Media is More Useful than You Realize. Social media is not only important when attempting to engage with clients or to reach out in order to bring in new clients; it can also be used to spy on your competitors. We all know how to do it. In fact, we have all done this in some fashion with different friends and relatives. Why not implement this when researching your competitors? You can keep track of what your competitors are up to by following their Twitter, Facebook, and various other social media sites. Seeing how they interact on a social media site can give your company ideas on how to interact with clients. Many businesses have yet to become socially savvy online, so do not follow blindly exactly what your competitor does on social media. The Internet is a whole different game from face-to-face interaction. If your competitor happens to have a successful social media presence, then start gleaning from the field of social media information they have provided when developing your content strategy. 3. We the People. Info Entrepreneurs states that distributing questionnaires and talking to customers will help you learn more about your competitors and will help you understand how they are able to keep customers or even how they chase customers away. When you learn of any negative transactions with customers, do your best to stay away from repeating the same action. A typical example of a negative transaction with customers would be customer service. Many places have customer service policies that they are meant to follow, but not all companies follow the policies. You know that customers are what keep your business going and growing, so by listening to their wants and needs you can build a successful 2014 content strategy that beats your competitors. 5 Ways to Learn Content Strategy Tips from Your Competitors Competitors can offer sage advice on how to formulate a 2014 content strategy. While they may not realize that they are helping you improve your company, they are, in fact, doing just that! Following a few of these tips can help you as you seek ways to learn from your competitors and implement your new ideas. 1. Their SEO Strategy. What keywords are they ranking for? We are not talking about copying and pasting their list of keywords (which they likely won’t take kindly to) – but what can you learn from their keywords and implement into your own? For example, do they use location keywords? If you are location specific, consider using your location in your website page meta tags and keywords. According to CopyPress, MOZ is a leading website that helps companies such as yours learn about your keywords and pulls in information that will help you create a better SEO strategy for your company. Using this tool for your company will end up being very beneficial and help you as you fight the good fight with your competitors. 2. Their Blogging and Content Strategy. Blogging is a major aspect of the Internet. Everyone loves to read updates on their friends, family members, and what their favorite business are doing. Blogs offer a great form of interaction with customers and potential clients, keeping them “in-the-know” and feeling included. When it comes to your competitors, look at their blog presence and see how they work with it. You will be able to learn and implement many helpful tips just by reading their blog! How do they blog? Look at the content they use in publications and see if there is anything you can gain from it. You never know, but by simply reading your competitors blog you may learn something new to you and be able to implement it in your 2014 content strategy. Do not be afraid to learn from your competitors. It helps your business grow, and they may even be learning … Read more

6 Online Content Marketing Predictions for 2014

January 1, 2021January 20, 2014 by Adam Oakley

2014 is here! We’ve all ushered in the New Year, some at small, intimate gatherings and others at large, happening parties. Now that the celebration is over and the hangovers are subsiding, it’s time to dig back into the hardy topics at hand. Content marketing predictions are one of the meatier online conversation topics. Social Media Today hit this topic square on the head by presenting a beautiful infographic depicting the digital marketing trends of the New Year. They boldly stated that “2014 will again transform the digital marketing landscape in the form of: content marketing, advertising, big data and mobile marketing.” The Rise of a New Kind of Content Marketing In truth, during the last two quarters of 2013, we saw an unprecedented transformation in the what, where, why, who and how of content marketing. To a large degree, the very definition of “content” underwent transformation from a keyword caterpillar to a content-rich butterfly. Reputable online sources have published hundreds of articles with 5, 10, 15, even upwards to 50 online content marketing predictions for 2014. While most of these prediction hold a certain amount of merit, which ones should you zero in on as we plunge into an exciting year of content-focused marketing? That’s what we’re here to discuss: Prediction #1: Content Will Be Its Own Full Fledged Department According to a Mashable post on content marketing in 2014, CMOs and agency heads are already “looking to hire new roles with content in the title.” In the past, we’ve seen journalists enlisted to run editorials, but in 2014, we can expect to see Content Marketing Managers, Directors of Content, and Chief Content Officers. Their talents will be in high demand as content becomes its own significant department. The Moz Blog, a strong source of dependable predictions, says, “Resumes listing ‘content marketing’ will grow faster than either SEO or ‘social media marketing’ [resumes].” This is because the new motto of 2014 will be “less isn’t more.” Content in 2014 is the killer strategy for rankings, engagement, credibility, and authority. Here at Express Writers, we predicted in December that 2014 would be “the year of the Informer.” In essence, if your content isn’t informing, you won’t be ranking. Content needs to be your new priority, and here’s how you accomplish this: Plan content ahead of time. Don’t fall prey to the pitfall of “winging content.” Instead, take time to plan. Brainstorm topics and research their appeal to your target audience. Review the analytics of your website and see which pages are getting the most visits. Use the content of these pages to stimulate further content ideas. With a little planning, you can even repurpose old material—such as presentations and speeches—for articles, blog posts, press releases and social media. If you find your creative well running dry, join communities and subscribe to feeds in your niche to generate new ideas. Try to plan a daily—or at least weekly—release of new, engaging content. Keep content interesting. The average person spends about one minute on any given webpage. Your goal should be to make content impressionable and easily digestible in this timeframe. Keep paragraphs short and insert attention catching subheadings and lists. Include client reviews and success stories. Stay hip by referencing pop culture or current events; this can keep your content fresh and timely. Keep content relevant and fresh. You’ll miss the point of quality content completely if you don’t keep copy relevant and fresh. Relevant copy informs the reader how your product or service relates to their immediate needs and why they should choose you over the competition. If your content lacks relevancy, don’t expect potential customers to spend more than a minute skimming your page. They will quickly move on, giving their business to the competitor who provides relevant copy. Likewise, fresh copy is all about keeping the material fresh. You can do this by referencing current trends, new information or approaching the topic from a unique or new perspective. The last thing a potential customer wants is to read stale content. Search engine optimization still matters. Although we are trending away from keyword stuffing, optimizing your content by including keywords and keyword phrases is still important. Therefore, properly done keyword research should still be a priority for the content department. Create backlinks. Your content should be created with backlink opportunities in mind. Season the content with links back to your website, social media profiles, blog, or previous posts. This practice will help boost your search engine ranking. You can even comment on blogs, articles, and forums around the web with links back to a relevant post on your website. But, be sure your comment adds value; otherwise, you will risk being branded a spammer. Remember: linking is about adding value. Do not randomly link to credible sources just for the sake of linking, as this will detract from ranking. Links should add value by furthering the discussion. Use social channels. In 2014, social channels are going to work hand-in-hand with content. Your content department should be nurturing this relationship. Use social platforms to promote blogs, articles, videos, podcasts, press releases, whitepages, and any other content you release. You can even submit this type of promotion to discussion pages, groups, and communities that encourage it. Content marketing is going to tie in with every other avenue of online (and even offline) marketing in 2014. The Content Marketing Institute is an unrivaled source of content marketing predictions. In fact, they’ve been around longer than any other content marketing predictor on the planet, and they make it very clear in their “50 Predictions for 2014” that quality content is at the heart and soul of success in 2014. It will affect everything, from Google SERPs to sales conversions. If your content is weak, your entire marketing plan will likewise be weak. Moving forward, hiring a content professional or content agency will be in your best interests—even if they are only on-staff for consulting purposes. Prediction #2: Mobile … Read more